which reads, Thou wilt keep him
or her in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because
he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Wonderful. Yes, perfect peace. Go back to
Job chapter 1 with me. Chapter 1, there was a man in
the land of Uz whose name was Job. This book is called the Book
of Job. The Lord God wrote this book,
the story of Job's life and death for us. for us to read the book
of Job. Did you know the psalm says all
our days are passed away in God's wrath and we spend our years
as a tale that is told. The tale, the story of our lives
has already been recorded. That's what this book says. There's
great peace there. I hope someone will get some
this morning over in the book of Daniel and also the Revelation,
old and new. It says this, the dead, small
and great, stood before God and the books were opened. Books. We quote this verse all the time,
Acts 15, 18. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. Well, that is, our God is ordained,
God predetermined, ordained before the beginning of the world. All
things, everything. He said, even the very hairs
of your head are numbered. said your days are determined
with the Lord appointed on the man wants to die. The Lord appointed
the means the time the day the hour of the very moment appointed. That's what this book said. That's what God's Word says in
Deuteronomy 32 39. I don't want to misquote it but
it says this in Deuteronomy 32. God says see now. that I even I am he there is
no God with me there is no one in control of anything anything
but makes it. I kill and I make a lot that's what
he said I wound make sick I heal He says in Isaiah forty
five and I want to I want to misquote it but he says I am
the Lord there is none else. Sovereign ruler controller. There
is no God beside me. He said I girded thee. Clothed you did all of these
things though you haven't known me though you don't believe me
then you didn't believe me. I girded you but that they might
know from the rising of the sun from the east to the west. There's none beside me. I am
the Lord. There is none else. I form the
light. I create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning of the world. all these things, everything.
That's what this book says. That's what God says. Now, this truth, and it is the
truth, and all the world will know someday, as they have been
known, this truth that makes the world mad. The world does
not like this. Man is a proud creature. thinks he's worth something or
knows something and is something. Thinks he's independent. Wants
charge of his own destiny and so forth. Man doesn't like this,
being controlled, having a God who is God. But those who've got almighty and
sovereign mercy and sovereign grace, reveals himself to through
this work. They love it. They love all their
hope, all their help, all their peace, all their comfort, all
that they need is right here. In this God who is too wise to
do it, to err, who's too good to do evil, who is too kind to
do more than we're able to do is merciful gracious ready to
part. This God. Who does not change whatever
he says it won't change. Those who know it. That perfect peace doesn't mean.
He never goes without it. It means a real peace, a complete
peace, not a false peace. Being human that we are, we're
subject to ups and downs, but we have that peace when we look
to Him who's the same yesterday, today, and forever. It says that Job was a perfect
and upright man, one that feared God and eschewed evil. Perfect. The word does not mean sinless
here. The word means complete. The word means whole, mature. We'll see why in a little bit,
but perfect, complete. He was not a child in other words.
A little child has, you know, a lot of growing to do. and it's
understanding and it's everything. Job was not a child anymore.
He's a whole man, a perfect man. He's mine. He's not ignorant,
not an ignorant child. He's now a wise man. He knew
whom he believed. And what? He was not a child
in heart. That is, his affection was not
set on toys and things. His affection was set on things
above. He had many things, didn't What a miracle that was of God's
grace that his heart wasn't set on these things. But he knew
who gave them to him, and his heart wasn't set on those. He
was a mature, perfect man in life, in his walk. He walked
by faith, not by sight. He looked at things. People in
the world look at things. They're impressed with it. Not
Job. Not Job. his God, what his God said. He
walked by faith, not by sight. It says he was an upright man.
Upright means he's straight up. We say that old saying every
now and then, don't we? You telling me straight up? He was straight
up. Honest. He was upright. Man was created upright, wasn't
he? We looked this morning at how the The world is like a beast
now in all fours, grumbling at the very things, food, drink,
sex. That's what animals do. That's
all animals do. That's what they live for. And
that's what the world that has become like a beast, man, is
after. But God, when God makes a man
like Job, he makes him upright. Like the first Adam, only better.
Upright. Not a beast on all four says
he feared God verse one he feared God. How many times is this book
said. That fear of the Lord. Job said
it first you know that this is one of the oldest books in God's
Word if not the oldest recorded book he lived during the time
of Abraham. And Job said it over I didn't
write it down but over and one of the chapters when he was speaking
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. David said it, Solomon
said it. The fear of the Lord. Job feared
God. He was a God fearing man. Fear of the Lord. We just sang
that song in the hollow of his hand. Hidden in the hollow of
his precious hand. The God scripture says in whose
hands Our breath is, and all our way. Thou hast not
glorified, he said, the Nebuchadnezzar. But Job did. He knew in whose
hands his breath was, and he feared him. The God of... You ever think about breathing?
Why do you breathe? Why are you breathing? Why is
your heart beating? There's no battery in here to keep it going.
No, no, no, no, no, no. The God in whose hand you...
Didn't he say, John? I kill. Four million, five hundred
thousand, six hundred and seventy-two breaths. That's it. He knew and he feared him. He
feared not knowing him. He feared sinning against him.
He feared missing him. He feared him. He feared the
Lord. What does one do? The apostle wrote, ye that fear
the Lord hate evil. Job eschewed evil, it says. Any
and all manner of evil. He hated it. It doesn't mean
he was without it completely. All of sin. But he hated it. Hated it in
himself. He hated it when he saw it. It
says he shunned it. Shunned it. He avoided it. Evil. Anything. What's evil? Anything contrary to what God
said. Doesn't matter what the world
said. Doesn't matter. If it's contrary to what God's
Word said, God said, it's evil. And so Job hated it. Moral evil,
religious evil. Religious evil. There's a lot
of that in it. So Job was a perfect and upright, God-fearing, sin-hating
man, wasn't he? Why? How? Because Job knew and
believed the living and true God. That's how he knew all that
he knew. God revealed himself to him. He worshiped Now, in verse 20,
did you read that? Oh, wasn't that precious? After
all of this, it says he ripped his clothes, his nice, beautiful
robe that he had on, naked before God, shaved his head, his glory,
and fell down on the ground on his face and worshiped. Worshiped. In spite of all things,
he worshipped God. Worshipped God. Fell on his face
and worshipped God. He didn't understand. He didn't
understand. Job did not understand why all
of this happened. God, throughout this book... See, Job and his friends spent
the next several chapters trying to figure out why all this happened. And they never did. Nobody ever
knew. One of them rightly said that
God doesn't give an account of his matters. He doesn't have
to. He doesn't do that. He doesn't
give an account of all of his matters. Sometimes we know, sometimes
we don't. Most of the time we don't. We
don't see as God sees. Job did not understand why all
this happened to him, but this much he understood. And this
is where he got this peace, and this is where he found some hope
in the midst of the most difficult... Boy, words fall short to try
to describe what Job went through. He didn't understand why, but
here was his hope. Who? Who did it? Who did it? He didn't know why. And they
started asking. Job started asking. There's nothing wrong with asking
as long as it doesn't get blasphemous, you know. And Job said, here's what Job,
in the beginning, Job was, after all these things, all Job could
say was this, verse twenty-one, naked I came. I came into this
world naked, with nothing, a naked baby. God brought me into this
world. Conceived me in my mother's womb
at an appointed time. and brought me forth into this
world, and everything about me was ordered. And I came into
this world with nothing, naked, no covering. And naked, my flesh
is going out of this world naked, or laid in the ground, and those
clothes we put on will rot. And then you have flesh, like
it, well, corrupt flesh. That's how it all. But now we're
going to see in a minute. Job wasn't naked before God. But he said, I'm naked, I came,
verse 21, he said, naked, I shall return, he said, the Lord gave.
Job was a rich man, wasn't he? Riches and honor cometh of the
Lord, no one just earns it. The Lord gives all things that
make this, that happen this, that happen this, that happen
this, earn this, earn that do this. The Lord did it all. Try
men, test men. I'm a self-made man. No, you're
not. For most of it doesn't come from
the East or the West, Scripture says, but from me, the Lord says.
I raise up, I cast down, I make rich, I make poor. Job was a
rich man. a rich man. He said, The Lord
gave everything I have by the grace of God, the gift of God,
every good and perfect gift I received from above, Job said. Everything
I have, God gave it to me. Everything I know, God gave it
to me. Everything I am today, God did it for me. Everything
about me, by the grace of God, I am what I am. The Lord gave,
and now He took it away. It never was mine. It was His. It was His free,
sovereign will and prerogative to give it to me. And it's His
free, sovereign will and prerogative to take it back. The Lord hath
taken away. Blessed. Thank God for giving it to me. Thank God for taking it away. That's what he did. That's what
he did. Can you believe that? Yeah. Yeah, you can. Some of you can. Because you're just like Job. It's said in verse 22, in all
this, Well, if a man is going to curse
God, oh, Satan said he would, didn't he? Oh, the Lord will perfect
that which concerns thee. In all this, he didn't charge
God, that it was foolishness. Charge God foolishness, or sin
not. Abraham said this. Abraham wanted
his nephew Lot to be spared. And I'm sure he knew some people
there and saw. And lots of daughters and sons-in-law,
Abraham knew them all, Lot's wife, and he pleaded with the
Lord to spare them, to spare all 50. Lord, spare 50. If you
find 50 righteous in the city, will you spare it? I'll spare
it for 50. Lord, 40, 30, 20, 10. I pleaded with the Lord, and
the last thing he said, the last thing Abraham said to the Lord
in prayer was, shall not the judge of the earth do right?
I know you'll do what's right. This is what Job said. He didn't
charge God foolishly, but he said, I know this. Whatever he
does, whatever is done, he did it. And if he did it, it's right. It's right. Oh my. Old Eli, you know the story of
Eli. Samuel told him that both of
his sons would be killed. His only sons. What did he say? He said, it's the Lord. It's His will. Our brother John keeps telling
me this. I've heard him say it long before this happened. It's
the Lord's will. Eli said, It's the Lord. It's
all the Lord. Because He is the Lord. It's
the Lord. And Eli said, Let him do what
seemeth good to him. David said, Our God is in the
heaven. and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleaded."
God said, I will work, and who will prevent it? Who will stop
it? But God's people, like Job, they rest there. This is where
they I don't know why Job, I don't know why God did all that. I
don't know, but I know God did it, and this is all my hope,
and maybe He'll tell me. Maybe He'll tell me. And all this. Look at chapter
2. You know, chapter 2 is where the Lord had allowed Satan to
smite Job with a physical illness. boils all over his body. Open, infected boils. Not a square inch of his body
that wasn't. He couldn't even sit down. And it says in verse 10, well,
yeah, chapter 2, verse 10, his wife said to him, won't you curse
God? Verse 9, his wife said, won't
you You still believe this God? How could your God? I've heard
you talk about, Job, your God being merciful and gracious and
loving. How could a God like that do this to you? You still
believe God did all this? Why don't you just curse God
and die, huh? What have you got to live for
now, Job? Look at verse 10, and he said,
you're speaking as a foolish woman. Shall we receive good
at the hand of God? All undeserved. Shall we not
receive evil? Or that is what we think is evil. Might be the best thing ever.
God did say, didn't he, that all things work together for
good. God, he's working them together
for good. to them that are the called.
It's all good to the called, the chosen, them that are called
according to his purpose, like Job. Well, it says in verse 10, And
all this did not Job sin with his lips. That's what God wrote about Job
in the book of Job. And your book has been written. Don't you hope, don't you want,
don't you pray that this is said of you. He's a perfect man. Have you
considered my servant, Ed Berry? A perfect man. Upright. One that feareth God
and is true of evil. In all of this, Ed said not. No charge to God. Don't you want that written in
your book, Brother Ed? Well, it is. It is. If you're one of these,
let me ask you now, Job knew God. Go to Job 19. You know I'm
going to Job 19, don't you? Huh? Everyone in here, you know
we're going to Job 19. The root of the matter is in
chapter 19. See, Job and his friends got
together, and they were asking this and that and the other.
And finally, Job came to his senses. They started asking why. They started accusing him of
all sorts of things, and he said, no. And then he started being
self-righteous then. Oh, man. Job, don't do that. You're better off not saying
anything. And in the end, he did. He quit
talking, didn't he? But he did say this under inspiration
of the Spirit of God. Job 19, verse 21, he said, Have
pity upon me. Have pity upon me. My friends,
the hand of God hath touched me. Why do you persecute me as
God? I'm not satisfied with my faith.
Oh, that my words were written now and are now written. They
are, Job. Oh, that they were printed in a book. They are,
Job. That they were graven with an iron pen, led in the rock
forever. They are, Job, and I'm so thankful. Here it is, Job said, I know. I don't know why this or why
that, but this I know, that my Redeemer liveth. See, Job knew he was a sinner. Job knew that all these things
were really less than they deserve. He knew that. The Lord gave,
the Lord has taken it away. The Lord, anything, Barnard used
to say, anything this side of hell is mercy. Job, the Lord
spared Job's life. We're going to see the end. He
got away to the end, he said. He got away to the end. Let's
be wise. We're going to consider the end.
You see, the end is good. The end is great. The end is
even better than its beginning. It's so good they forgot about
the past. Why? Job said, I have a Redeemer. I know that my Redeemer liveth."
Who's that? Jesus Christ. He shall stand
at the latter day upon this earth. Job knew God. We said he knew
the living and true God. He feared Him. He worshiped Him.
Job knew that this was God. He doesn't have some poor pitiful
God that loved everybody and all these things are happening
out of His control. That's not God at all. He knew
the living and true God. And he feared Him, the God in
whose hands His breath was, the God who gave Him everything and
took it all away. He feared losing those things,
and he lost them. But he feared God more. He knew
the living and true God. This is eternal life, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. Why? To redeem some of this fallen,
worthless race of worms. Job knew. I'm one of these worms
in the hands of this God. But God, who's rich in mercy,
for His great love, wherewith He loved me, even while I was
dead and trespassed sin, has quickened me by His Word and
shown me, quickened me, given me life to know I have a Redeemer,
that God Himself, God's going to be manifest. He's going to
walk this earth someday, a perfect man, the God-man, the second
Adam from above, the covenant head. the mediator, the substitute,
the representative of all His people, the Redeemer, my near
kinsman after the flesh, going to buy it all back that I lost,
something better, an eternal inheritance that I'll never lose.
The Redeemer is going to walk this earth. He's my hope. He's
my help. He's my salvation. And the wrath that I deserve
from God, He's going to bear it. God's going to pour out on
Him this wrath and judgment I deserve. And there is no judgment for
me. The point of that to me wants
to die. And after that, no condemnation. Because I know that my Redeemer
liveth. Liveth? Yes. It's a lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. And He's going to walk
this earth someday. And we're all in darkness. Job
didn't have a Bible. He said, God, the Word is going
to be made flesh and dwell among us. And He's going to tell us.
Yeah, when He comes, He'll tell us all things. That woman at
the well said that. Christ said, I'm here. And He did. Told us all things. What did he tell us? All things. He said, I am the way. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. I am the way. You want to get to God? Christ
said, I'm the way. But no. I'm the truth. Oh, but I believe this. This
man's a wise man. He's a liar. And I will make
all men out to be what they are eventually. You'll see. You'll
see it. He may have many things, but
he that hath not the Son hath not life. That's what Jesus Christ
said, I am the life. Job said, I know it. I know whom
I am. And I'm persuaded that he's my
Redeemer. And he says, after my skin, verse
twenty-six, Worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I
see God. I'll see him for myself, not
another. And why, verse twenty-eight, he said, persecute we him. The
root of the matter is found in him. How about you? Do you believe, is that your
hope? Everything was just said concerning
the Redeemer, concerning this God. Do you believe this God How about, you know you need
a redeemer? Very few people know that. Most
people believe they need a little Jesus, you know, to help them
out of the financial burden. Boy, Job needed something more
than that. Do you believe you need a redeemer? Well, let me ask you, who is
he? And the root of the matter is
in you. You must be a perfect and upright one that fears God, because you're
perfect, complete in Him. The root of the matter is in
you. He's in you. You're in Him. He's in you. Explain
that, preacher. You don't have to. That's just the way it is. That's
the way it is. Seated with him right now in
the heavenly. Explain that. No man can. I'll know someday. As he is, so are we. Job was
born of God, by the grace of God, chosen, called, justified, sanctified,
given to Christ, put in Christ, the perfect, complete man, upright,
holy, unblamable, unapprovable in God's sight. That's that good way to be. That's
why. See, we're not trying to glorify
Job at all, but glorify the grace of God that made Job what he
was. All right. But Job is still a
man, isn't he? And as we said, Job, like these
buddies of his whom the Lord, they had their theology down. They were right down. You couldn't
disagree with anything they had to say. I've studied it carefully. Nothing. It was straight as an
arrow. Their doctrine was straight as an arrow. But God said, they
haven't spoken that which was right in that man, like Job did. Didn't he? But Job was just a man. And Job,
look at chapter 2, go back to chapter 2, verse Verse 13, Job lost everything. He lost everybody he loved. He
really did. He was so grief-stricken that he literally collapsed on
the floor. You ever been there? He collapsed. It says in verse thirteen that
they saw the last line of his grief was very, very great. Chapter six, verse thirteen,
Job said this. He said, I'm sorry, chapter six,
verses one through three, he said, Oh, that my grief were
weighed, he said, as heavier than the sands of the sea. I've
never, he said, I've never experienced anything like this. And chapter 3, Job said this. Job said, I wish I'd never been
born. Didn't he? Didn't he? He cursed his daddy. Didn't curse God. But he says,
I wish I'd never been born. This is heavier. I can't. And
he collapsed with grief. He's just a man. The root of
the matter is in it. You see, what God Almighty hath
begun, he will finish. He'll perfect it. See, Job wasn't
perfect in himself. He was full of questions, and
began to ask. And they talked, and they tried
to figure it all out, and they said some things that were good,
but nobody could fully understand. Now go to the last chapter, okay?
Chapter 42 of Job. Last chapter. You see, we have
the last chapter. in the book of Job. If you don't like what you're
reading in the first few chapters, you can run over to the last
chapter, John, and read it. So it's going to be all right,
isn't it? People? Believer? We have the last chapter. We
do, sister. We've got the last chapter. Christ said, I'm the first. I'm
the last. Author, he said, I'm the finisher.
I wrote the book of your life. And I wrote the Lamb's book of
life. And everybody's found in it. Who? Like Job. Fear God. Know the Redeemer. You're in
it. The last chapter is good. It's real good. Oh, that they
were wise, Moses said, would consider their latter end, the
last chapter. Chapter 42, Job said, verse 3,
I've uttered things that I understood not. I've been talking when I
should have been listening. Things that were too wonderful
for me. He said, oh, verse 5, I heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eyes see of thee. Daniel one time
said, I'm going to put my hand over my mouth. I'm going to quit
talking. No, you won't, Daniel, but it's
a good thought anyway. But he said, I've got to I'm
just going to listen. But Job said, I've seen God and
I've heard God speak and I hate myself. I repent in dust and
ashes. And he fell down again before
God, convicted of his own foolishness and unbelief and all of that. And I look down at verse 10.
It says, The Lord turned the captivity of Job. You see, Job was a captive for
a long time here throughout all this. A captive to his own unbelief,
his own thoughts that haunted him, his own ignorance. When you start trying to reason
things, well, why this? Why that? You'll get in a mess. You'll get in a mess. Just fall down. It's the Lord,
but he was captive, and read on. Now in verse twelve it says,
So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.
He had twice as much. He lived a hundred and forty
years. He had an inheritance. Gave an inheritance among their
brethren, verse fifteen. Lived a long life and died an
old full of days. to be with the Lord, to be absent
from the body, to be present with the Lord. For people, Scripture
says this, you mark the perfect man. The Lord has written this
book of Job, the life of Job, for us to read. The root of the
matter was in him, so the end, his latter end, was blessed of
God. Oh, he had trouble Bless God,
he had Job go through more trouble than any of us will go through. We'll go through the same kind,
you understand, same kind, loss and deprivation and sickness
and all that, same kind, but not to the same degree. Barbara,
nobody could suffer like Job except his Redeemer. But the
Lord did that to show us that 1 Corinthians 10, 13 is true,
that God is faithful, that He will not put on you more than
you're able to bear, but will with the trial make a way to
escape, that you may be able to bear it. And the latter end,
the Lord is faithful. His Word is true. He said the
end is good. He said it's so good in Isaiah
65, He said, Behold, rejoice ye in that which I create. He
said, Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and I will dwell
with you there, he said, and the former things will not be
remembered, nor come to mind. And God will wipe away all tears,
no more death, no more pain, no more sorrow, no more tears.
The latter end, he said, will be blessed beyond being able
to reckon. Your book has been written. Yes,
it has. And those who have the root of
the matter in them, by God's grace, the end is just the beginning. It's just the beginning. When God turned the captivity
of Job, and that's when we hear the gospel in him, when we see
him, man's in captivity. What a message that is. And he
turns our ignorance, turns us from darkness to light, death
to light, turns our captivity. Lead captivity kept. And to him,
and the latter end, that's when it begins. It's just the beginning.
The beginning of trials and trouble, but the beginning of this eternal
life, life more abundant. Peace that passes understanding
and it'll never pass away. Just wait, just wait. The book's
written. The book's written. Book of Job, Book of Gabe, Book
of Henry, Book of John, Book of Earlene, Book of Steve, Book
of Stan, Book yesterday, Book of Deborah, Book of Irene, a
book that's been written. It's all been written. I'm going
to open the books, and right in Chapter 19, everyone, in Chapter
19, of every one of the root of the matter is going to be
found. Christ in them. I hope it will. Okay, let's sing
in closing. Great him I say I'm not skilled
to understand. Chapter chapter. Number two twenty six. I'm not
skilled to understand what God has. We are what God has planned
but I have this I know I only know at his right hand. OK two twenty six. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know that
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His
word, indeed Christ died for sinners, this I read For in my
heart I find a need of Him to be my Savior That he should leave
his place on high And come for sin's old man to die You count
it strange, so once did I Before I knew my Savior Yea, living,
dying, let me bring my strength My soul is from this spring That
he who lives to be my King Once died to be my Savior