and the very first verse of that
psalm. And we do flee as a bird unto
the mountain of God's grace in the Lord Jesus, our Savior. I want to begin this evening
in the book of Job, and I'm going to start at the first chapter. And so if you'll go to Job chapter
one, Job chapter one, God in his purpose
designed to teach Job a very important lesson, and that is
the lesson of patience. And to that end, God made him to be a man who
suffered greatly. Those things that God brings
into the lives of his people, he does so out of love and out
of compassion for each of us. The lessons that he has to teach
us, usually those lessons are best learned through tribulation
and through difficulties. And such was the case with Job. God is going to bring him to
the very end of himself. And at the very end of the book,
Job will bless the name of God. And I'll show you a few things
there from the 42nd chapter in just a little bit. But let me
speak to you. just briefly about Job to introduce
him to you, though I'm sure you have heard multitudes of messages
upon Job and the situations that God put him through. But here's
what the word of God says in Job 1 and verse 1. And you know
that this is the oldest book in the Bible. There are those
who think that Job lived about the same time, perhaps as Abraham,
and not far from Ur of the Chaldees, though there are some difference
of opinion on that, but be that as it may, it is the oldest book
of the Bible, written, of course, by Moses. Verse one says, there
was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was perfect. Does that mean that he did not
make any mistakes in life, that he was a man who was without
any sin, a man without any blemishes on his record as he lived before
men and before God? It doesn't mean that at all.
It means that he's a justified man. He's a man who is perfect
in Christ Jesus. He has everything he needs. He
is indeed complete. in the Savior, and so are you
and I. If we've been brought by the
omnipotence of the Spirit of God to rest our poor souls in
Christ Jesus, to do as we sang there in the first song, to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, to deposit our souls with all of
its great value into the hands of the Lord Jesus, and we say,
I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded he's able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day, then
we are indeed in the Lord Jesus, we are totally complete, we have
everything we need in him. You must understand this, God
can demand no more than which the Lord Jesus has provided for
all of his people. and he is made unto us by God
to be our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Job was a perfect man and so
are you if you're in Christ Jesus. God sees no blemish in you. God sees you without fault. He sees you in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Job was a perfect man and upright. Upright means absolutely straight. There was no crookedness about
him, no frowardness about Job. He's an upright man. He's upright in all of his dealings
with God. He deals with God rightly. He
has a right understanding of God. And he has a right understanding
of himself as far as his own understanding was concerned.
He was a man who was upright before God. The scripture says,
and he was one that feared God. That's the beginning of wisdom.
This is a reverence for God. He's in all of God. He has beheld
to some degree the majesty of God, and the greatness of God,
and the holiness of God, and all of the other attributes of
God, and he stands in awe of God. And he fears him. This is a reverential fear. It's
not a fear that God would cast him into hell, but this is a
great respect that Job has for God, and he's one who eschewed
evil. That is, he turned away from
evil. He sought to avoid evil and he
hated evil. Job was indeed a believer. There
have been those who, in their preaching and in their teaching
and in their writing, have said that Job was not a believer at
the beginning of the book. I strongly disagree with that.
because of what God says about him. Listen, if God's, by his
spirit, says a man is perfect, and a man is upright, and a man
fears God, and a man eschews evil, that's God's stamp of approval
on that man. God is saying, that man, I approve
of him in Christ Jesus. I approve of him in my son. Well, as you know, and I'm not
going to take a lot of time to go through this, Job lost everything
he had through a series of events. God uses the evil one to afflict
Job. But ultimately, it was God who
did it because God is the first cause of all things. And to begin
with, in the first chapter, he loses everything that he's got,
all of his possessions, but the greatest loss was the loss of
his children, the loss of his sons and his daughters. These
were people that he made sacrifice for here in the first chapter.
Job understood what very few people seem to understand, that
you cannot draw nigh to God without a blood sacrifice. There must
be redemption. There must be the sacrifice of
the innocent for the guilty. if you're to stand accepted before
God. And he offered these sacrifices
to God on behalf of his sons and on behalf of his daughters.
And though he loved them greatly, just like you love your children
and I love my children, though they were dear to his heart,
God took them all away from him. And at the end of chapter 1,
He said he rent his mantle. He is in grief. Grief is not
a bad thing. Jesus wept. He saw the grief
of Mary and Martha when Lazarus had died. Grief is not a bad
thing. Job, Job, rent his mantle, he
shaved his head, he fell down upon the ground, verse 20, and
he worshiped. And he said, naked came I out
of my mother's womb, naked shall I return thither, the Lord gave. He didn't say that the Lord gave
and the devil took away, he said, Jehovah who saves gave, and Jehovah
who saves, he's taken away. I say again, God is the first
cause of all things. And he uses everybody and everything
to fulfill his will, but you need to remember this, in all
things, God exercises his sovereign will. He does his will among
the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? We believe because the word of
God does indeed teach this, that our God reigns over all things. There are no exceptions. And the God who reigns over all
things has ordained all things and he ordained all things from
the beginning, from before the beginning of time. So that we
correctly read in the word of God and we believe this and we
draw great comfort from this, all things are of God. Now, did God use the devil? Yes. Does God use other agencies
and people and demons and angels? Without a question. The greatest
illustration of this, of course, is the death of our Lord Jesus.
You think God, think of this, God used a multitude to bring
to pass that which he had ordained, that is the redemption of his
people by the blood sacrifice of Christ. God ordained what
the devil would do. God ordained what Judas would
do. God ordained what the Sanhedrin
would do. God ordained what Pontius Pilate
would do. God ordained what Herod would
do. God ordained what all the Roman
soldiers would do. Though all of those exercised
their wills, doing that which they were pleased to do, in all
things God was exercising His sovereign will and purpose. The
death of the Lord Jesus was predestinated and ordained. He's the lamb foreordained
from before the foundation of the world. And as he ordained
everything else, he ordained the death of his darling son.
And he ordained all things that led up to that. That's the greatest
event of all of the history of mankind. The death, the burial,
and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if God ordained
the greatest thing, then he surely has ordained all the lesser things
too, that will bring to pass his sovereign will. The Lord did this to Job. And
Job recognized that. We get into the second chapter,
and as you know, Then Satan was granted permission by God to
afflict his flesh. And he was a diseased man. He
was a miserable man in his sickness. And finally he got so bad, scraping
his balls in utter misery physically, his wife, looked at him and said,
why don't you just curse God and die? She wasn't much of a
helpmate, was she? She wasn't much of an encouragement
to him. Just curse God and die. He said, you talk as a foolish
woman. What? Shall we receive good things
from the hand of God? And not, Job called them, evil
things, that is, things that are not pleasing to the flesh? And in all of this, Job sinned
not with his lips. And then Job had three of his
friends who made arrangements to come and visit with him. And indeed they did that, traveling
apparently some distance because they lived a ways from him. And they all gathered, there
were the four of them, Job and his three friends. And they sat
on the ground for seven nights and didn't say anything. Now these men They professed
to be Job's friends, but they were not the friends of God.
They did not know God. In fact, if you'll go over to
the last chapter, Job chapter 42. Job chapter 42. Here, we know that Job, Job says this. as we read here
in Job 42. And the Lord has answered Job. And then Job answered the Lord.
Look at chapter 42. He says, I know that thou canst
do everything. Job 42 one. And that no thought
can be withholding from thee. Who is it that hideth counsel
without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered, I've
spoken about things that I didn't understand. Things too wonderful for me. Things too magnificent for me. Things that were way over my
head. Things that I didn't know. He says to the Lord here, I beg
of you, I beseech you, and I'll speak. And I'll demand of thee,
and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee, I've heard
of you, Lord, by the hearing of the ear. But now, my eye, I see it thee. I see more of you now than I've
ever seen of you before. by faith. Well, what happens
when a man sees the Lord, sees the Lord in his holiness, sees
the Lord in his righteous character? What happens to a man? What is
the response of a man who gets a glimpse of the greatness and
the glory of God Almighty? He says in verse 46, wherefore,
I hate myself and I repent in dust and ashes. That's what happens
when you see God. He just empties you of your self-sufficiency and
your arrogance and your pride. Verse seven, and it was so, that
after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord's got
something for Job's three friends. He's got some words for them
too. The Lord said to Eliphas, the Temanite, my wrath is kindled
against thee. Oh, that'd make you tremble. This is the voice of God. My
wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends.
because you have not spoken of me the thing that is right. You
hadn't spoke right concerning me. Oh, they said some right
things, but they didn't say the right thing. In this, these men
are very much like false preachers. They can say some good things,
but they don't say the good thing. They don't preach the gospel.
They don't declare the glad tidings of the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Thou has not spoken to me the
thing that is right as my servant Job has. There's a big difference
between you fellas and Job. Verse eight, therefore, take
unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and you go to my
servant Job. He'll be your priest. And offer up for yourselves a
burnt offering. And I take that, and all the
commentators who are rectable take it as this. Job will offer
them up for you. Now watch it. My servant Job
shall pray for you, for I accept him. I accept him, lest I deal
with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken to me
that which is right, like my servant Job has. In this, you
see, Job is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here's
what God is saying to Job's three friends. I'll only deal in mercy
and in grace with you according to the faithfulness of my servant
Job. I accept him. He's going to offer
up sacrifices for you and he's going to pray for you. I will
only accept you and receive you through his ministry on your
behalf. And that Job's a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ, because God accepts us. God receives us. God welcomes us through his son,
Christ Jesus. God accepts his son. This is
my beloved son, God said, in whom I'm well pleased. And it's the Lord Jesus who prayed
for us in John chapter 17. And it's the Lord Jesus who has
offered to God the sacrifice that fully and finally put away
all the sins of all of his people, of all of the ages. Now, concerning these three friends
of Job, go to chapter 25. You know, when they sat down
with Job back at the end of the second chapter, and they were
silent, and then Job began to speak, and then one of the friends,
and then Job would speak, and then another friend would respond,
and this went back and forth pretty much through most of the
chapters of the book of Job. But that which is set forth in
chapter 25 is most interesting, because here we have the question
of the ages. And it's interesting that it
is raised by Bildad, Bildad the Shoehite. He says this, Look
at chapter 25. And those of you who have read
the book of Job and you've studied the book of Job, you know that
of all the responses of these three friends to Job, this is
the briefest. But it is also the best. This is the best one. Job 25. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite. He said, dominion and fear are
with God. And that's right. He said some
right things about God there. Dominion and fear. He's saying
absolute authority and power with God. As we said this morning,
the Lord rule it. The Lord reigneth over all. The
Lord reigns forever. His kingdom has no boundary. God doesn't need to put a fence
up around his property because it's all his. He owns the cattle
on a thousand hills and he owns the hill to boot. The earth is
the Lord, Psalm 24. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. It's all God's dominion, dominion. Bill Dad said, dominion belongs
to him, dominion and fear. What does it mean by fear? God
is deserving to be feared. He deserves to be feared. This
God who has absolute dominion. This God who gives grace and
mercy to whom He will. God is at all times working all
things according to the good pleasure of His own will. Dominion
and fear. He has dominion, therefore fear
Him. Stand in awe of Him, stand in
reverence of God. He gives blessings and mercies
to whom he will and he hides them from whom he will. It's
time for us to stand up and say to this generation, you know,
to me, the watchword for this generation that we're living
in seems to be entitlement. Entitlement. We think everybody
owes us. The country owes us. The world
owes us. And now it's God owes us. God
owes us blessings. God owes us good things. He doesn't
owe you anything but death and judgment and hell. Somebody needs
to say that. We have a lot of mercies in this
nation. We don't have entitlements. We're
not entitled to anything as far as the Bible's concerned. What
do you have that you didn't receive? 1 Corinthians 4 says that. Whatever you got, God gave it
to you and he gave it to you out of his mercy. We're not entitled
to anything from God. God has every right to hide himself
from us and not reveal himself to us and leave us to our own
ways and we just go to hell. God's got every right to do that,
doesn't he? Well, sure he does. And he has
a right to show mercy to whom he will show mercy, to be gracious
to whom he will be gracious. God is under no obligation to
do anything except the obligation he has put himself under in his
oath and in his covenant. That's all he's bound to do. And as far as what he owes us,
well, let's put it this way. I don't want him to reward us
according to our folly. not according to our father.
Dominion is here and therefore fear. Where is the fear of God? Romans chapter three, there is
no fear of God before their eyes. And you look at this nation,
and we can say things about our nation. I'm not so acquainted
with the rest of the world, although the rest of the world's in the
same kind of rotten shape we're in, but you look at our own nation,
there is no fear of God. There was a time when there seemed
to be some fear of God, some respect for God. Though men didn't
know God, though men didn't worship God, they had on some level a
fear of God. There isn't that now. There's
no respect for God. There's no respect for God's
name. God's name is used as a byword, as a curse word. Where is the fear that is due
God? This is indeed the beginning
of wisdom and the beginning of knowledge, the fear of God. And Bildad is correct here. Dominion
and fear are with him. He maketh peace in his high places. From on high, he brings about
peace. He was on the Sea of Galilee
and he spoke to that angry sea. That was a storm that he brought
about. And a storm that only he could
calm down. He said, peace be still. And
you see in the Garden of Eden, war broke out between man and
God. And man doesn't know how peace
can be achieved. It can't be achieved by anything
he does. And it's so foolish to say, well,
to somebody, make your peace with God. You can't. How would
you start? Who are you to deal with God?
If peace is gonna come, it's gotta come from high places.
It's gotta come from God himself. God has to find the way whereby
he can show grace and mercy, not at the expense of his justice,
though. He can't do that, and he won't
do that. He maketh peace in his high places. Verse three, is there any number
of his armies? Why, he has hosts of angels,
multitudes of them, and on whom doth not his light arise. Aren't
we all in need of his light? Why, if he just blotted out the
sunshine, that'd be it for us. Anybody who's studied a little
bit of science knows that. We gotta have the sun. We gotta
have its warmth. We gotta have the rays. Well,
what if God just put his hand over the sunshine like he did
at Calvary? Just blotted out the light. There'd
be no hope for mankind. We've got to have the light. And he's got to cause the light
of his grace to arise on us, to shine on us. Oh Lord, shine
the light of your grace and mercy. Shine the light of the gospel
on us. Otherwise we'll stay in heathen
darkness. You see, we're in darkness and
we love it because our deeds are evil. We don't even realize
and recognize the kind of darkness we're in. We're in such bad shape. And then he gets to verse four.
And here is the question of the ages. He says, how then can man
be justified with God? He has set forth Bildad has in
his limited capacity, and yet by the inspiration of the Spirit,
remember, he has set forth something of the magnificence of God. Then
he says, now how can man be justified with God, be declared righteous
with God? Or to put it another way, How
can he be queen that is born of a woman? Behold, verse five, look at the
moon. It doesn't shine. Not when compared
to the glory of God. There's no shining of the moon.
In fact, even the stars aren't pure in his sight. He sees the
spots on the stars, the spots on our sun. A much less man that is a worm. I tell you, Bill Dad said some
good things here. He's magnified God, and now he
puts man where he rightfully deserves to be. He's like a worm. And you've got it. The correct
word here is maggot. Maggot. How much less man that
is a maggot, and the son of man which is a maggot. You know why
your son is a maggot? Because you are. You know why
your daughter's a maggot? Because you are. We all are. That's our nature, that's our
being, that's our defilement. And here's God way up here. And here we are down here, worms
of the dust. And so Job asks, or Bildad asks,
and it's recorded here in the book of Job chapter 24 and verse
four, he asks the question of the ages, how then can man be
justified with God? How in the world is that gonna
happen? Well, I can tell you this, it's
not by the law. Because the scripture says in
Romans chapter three, by the deeds of the law, there shall
no flesh be justified in God's sight. Now there are men who
try to justify themselves before the eyes of men. Our Lord Jesus
even identified some of them. He said, you are they that justify
yourselves before men. He said, God despises you. You
can't be justified by God by law. Law keeping. I think I'll just keep the law.
Well, you go ahead. Go ahead and keep both tables
of the law. Love God with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
That's two tables of the law. Do it outwardly, do it inwardly,
and you got to start it at birth. No, you can't be justified by
law. And secondly, you can't be justified
by works. By works. Not of works, lest
any man should boast. Read again, Titus chapter three. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. It's not that way. Listen, if you think there is
something you can do to merit God justifying you, then the
question is raised in Galatians chapter two and verse 21. In
essence, it says this, why did God send his son to die? And the apostle Paul says, I
do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness comes
by the works, the deeds of the law, Christ is dead and vain. If you can be justified, if God
Almighty can pronounce you to be righteous through the deeds
that you do, there wasn't any reason for him to send his darling
son into this world and suffer, bleed, and die for the sins of
sinners. In fact, that was brutal of God
to do that, if men can justify themselves. But it wasn't brutal
of God. He was gracious of God. Because that's the only way we
can be justified. God has got to pronounce us righteous
in a way consistent with his own holy character and his strict
law and justice. So let me give you one reference
here and we'll quit. Romans chapter three. Look at
Romans chapter three. Okay, we can't be justified by
law, and we can't be justified by words. Well, then we gonna
have to be justified by grace. By grace. And you see, this is,
here's the good news. This involves no works on our
behalf. This involves no obedience from
us. This justification, this declaration
of righteousness, and only God can declare us to be righteous.
This is all of God and all due to His grace given to us in Christ
Jesus. This is the good news. It isn't that we contribute with
God or contribute to God, or we do something in association
with God, or even that we respond to what God compels us to do. It's not about a response. It's
not about faith. Faith doesn't justify you. Repentance
doesn't justify you. We're justified only by the blood
and the righteousness and the grace of God. That's the only
way anybody's justified. And that's what he says here
in Romans chapter three. Look at verse 19. Now we know
that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped. But preacher, I've been faithful.
Shut your mouth. But preacher, I've been a member
of this church for, just shut your mouth. But I have my devotion,
just shut your mouth. But I've been coming to Sunday
school, just shut your mouth. Just shut your, I don't wanna
hear about your prayers, don't wanna hear about your Bible reading,
don't wanna hear about your contributions, don't wanna hear about anything
you've done because all that you've ever done is filthy rags. That's what the Bible says. Shut
your mouth. May God shut our mouths and open
up our ears and give us a new heart to receive his word, so.
Now we know that what things whoever the law saith, it's said
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped. Silenced, silenced. God is in his holy temple. Silenced. and all the world become guilty
before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. But now, here's the good news. But now the righteousness of
God without the law, without our obedience to the law is manifested,
being witnessed, it's witnessed by the law and the prophets in
the Old Testament. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ, it's by his faith because he
believed God perfectly and he obeyed God perfectly and he was
faithful. He was faithful to do everything
God told him to do. which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all that believe. For there's no difference for
all who've sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified
freely. No works, no obedience to divine laws,
though the law is good and the law is reasonable. But you can't
keep it. And don't try to keep it. To be accepted by God. Because
you put yourself in competition with the bloody sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. God's not gonna stand for that.
He won't allow a competitor. He never has and never will. being justified freely, without
a cause, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You
see, God, he declares a people righteous and justified through
that redemption that is in Christ Jesus, that our Lord Jesus wrought
upon the cross of Calvary. And he goes on to say, whom God
has set forth to be a propitiation, a mercy seat, a mercy seat through
faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare,
I say, at this time, God's righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth on Jesus. Now, if you have been brought
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're justified. What does this mean? Does this
mean that our faith puts sin away? Does this mean that our
faith, our faith, puts us in good standing with God? No, doesn't
mean that, because faith doesn't have any ability to put sin away. Faith receives. That's what faith
does. Now what does faith do? It receives. Now, after God has given us faith,
we work. And therefore, James talks about
being, we're justified by works. That is, we justify our profession
of faith. Our works justify the fact that
we are the people of God. And works do that. But works
have no part in our justification. We're justified by God's grace.
And he says this, and I'll give you one other verse, chapter
five. In chapter five, he says this, verse eight. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood. We shall be saved from wrath. through him, we're justified. How can man be just with God? How can he be clean, who's born
of a woman? By the grace of God, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Oh, glorious gospel, designed
for poor, unworthy sinners, just like us. Well, let me close. Let's close this.