Alright, let's open our Bibles
to Job chapter 37. Job chapter 37. Now, this is the second part
of a message that I began this past Wednesday, beginning in
Job 36. The last words of Elihu, that
young man who is speaking as an ambassador for Christ, speaking
the word of God to Job and Job's three friends. And the title
of this message is The Chastening Hand of God. The Chastening Hand
of God. And I want to finish up Elihu's
discourse here tonight. A lot of this we'll be reading
kind of just goes right together. and makes the same point in just
different ways but just with different language but Elihu
is making the point here to Job that for the children of God
sinners saved by the grace of God sinners who've been washed
in the blood of Christ and clothed in his righteousness those who
are described like God described Job in chapter one who are upright
That is justified and perfect. That is complete in Christ. Those
who eschew evil. And that eschewing evil has to
do with avoiding evil, but it's in the realm of repentance. Repenting
from sin. not only from the sins of immorality
that the world by nature knows and by natural conscience, but
the sins of self-righteousness. I can't remember which one of
the old preachers that's always quoted who made this statement
that he said that there are three things basically that we have
to repent of. And he said it was sin, S-I-N,
talking about the realm of sin, the nature of sin. and our fallen
Adam and spiritual deadness, and then sins, S-I-N-S, that's
our transgressions, the sins that we commit, and then thirdly,
our self-righteousness, thinking that our works and our efforts
could ever save us or make us righteous or recommend us unto
God. We have to repent of that. Of
course, the only way a sinner is going to repent of that is
to be born again by the Spirit, to be given life, ears to hear
and eyes to see, to be given knowledge that we don't have
by nature, being taught of God. I'm going to talk about that
in just a moment. But this is what Elihu's doing. He's showing
here for Job that for a child of God, one who's been brought
into the kingdom, faith in Christ these sufferings that we go through
here in life are ordained of God for our good they're the
chastisement and that means correction it's not punishment for sin in
the sense that we pay for our sins sometimes we may suffer
for our sins for some specific sin as far as a consequence goes
but I believe that if God chastises us in that realm he'll make it
clear to us what the problem is but the issue goes back go
back to chapter 36 look at look at verse 22 listen to what he
says here and I want to spend just a little time here and then
we'll read through the rest that rest of it basically he says
behold God exalteth by his power now he's talking about exalting
his people Now we know that exaltation has to do with salvation. It
has to do with growth in grace. It has to do with a lifting up.
That's what that means. We're not exalted unto any way
of whereby we deserve worship. Christ is the exalted one. But God lifts us up. Hannah prayed,
he lifts the beggar off the dung heap. And that's what salvation
is, it's being lifted up from the earth in a spiritual way. It's being, it's God taking a
sinner and declaring that sinner righteous in Christ. That's exaltation. We stand before God. I mean,
think about this now. Don't let this just pass by you.
Think about who you are. You know your frame. If you're
a believer, I know me, I know my friend, and I can stand and
boldly proclaim that I'm righteous in God's sight. Now that's being
exalted to a place that I could not get to by my work. And that
exaltation is in Christ. We have something to brag about.
It's Christ and him crucified and risen again. God forbid that
I should glory, save in the cross. So he says, behold, God exalteth
by his power. Now it's by his power, not ours. And then he says, who teacheth
like him? Who teaches like God? Verse 23,
who hath enjoined him his way? And he says, he says, or who
can say thou hast wrought iniquity? We can't even say to God, you've
done wrong here. We can't say to God at any time,
that's not right. Because you see, if God does
it, it is right. That's the standard. And then
he's going to go back to the foundation here in a minute.
Verse 24, Remember that thou magnify his work which men behold. So when God exalts a sinner in
salvation by his grace, or when he exalts his people in any growth
in grace and knowledge of Christ or any blessing that we might
have in this life by his power, it's always to magnify his work,
not ours. It's always to point sinners
to him, bring attention to Christ, not us, which men behold. We want men to look to Christ. That's what he's saying. Now,
this teaching of God is a marvelous thing. Look over it with me at
John chapter 6. And this is the thing. Now, you
know, I mentioned this last time how I used to be a teacher, and
we have several people here who were teachers and still are.
And I know you have times, you maybe have a lot of times, where
you just don't feel like you're getting through to them. Are
they really learning what you're trying to teach them? Sometimes
you know they're not. But that's never the case with
Christ, the master teacher. Nobody can teach like him. That's
what Elihu is saying. God's teaching you a lesson,
Job, and nobody can teach like God. And here's the thing about
it. The mainstay of that is this. Whatever God's teaching you,
it's going to get through. You're going to come out learning
on the other end of this thing. And I'll show you what you're
going to learn here basically. We may learn some specific things
going through specific chastisement, but it all follows under an umbrella
that I'll show you in just a minute. We read about it last week. But
look here in John 6 and verse 37. Now this is the Lord speaking.
He says, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Every sinner whom God chose before
the foundation of the world Every sinner whom Christ redeemed on
the cross, they are going to, without fail, come to Him. That means they're going to come
to Him in faith, in repentance, in love. How are they going to
do that? Man by nature won't. The scripture
teaches us that. Man by nature is dead and trespasses. Well, they're going to come by
the power of God. It's of His power that He exalts, Elihu says. and they're going to come by
teaching but hold on he says in him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out Christ has never and will never turn away
any sinner who comes to him now that's right and you don't know
why because it's by the power of God that the sinner comes
to him it's by God drawing him look at verse 38 for I came down
from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that
sent me here Christ is expressing his submission as the servant
of the covenant That's what he did. He's not denying his equality
in the Godhead. When he says things like this,
his way on the father's will are the same, but for the, for
the purposes of the salvation and exaltation of his people,
he became, he was submissive. You say as God, man to the father's
will the father representing the sovereignty of the Godhead. They're co-equal in every attribute
of their nature, but the son submitted to the father as the
servant of the covenant. And why did he do that? To save
his people from their sins. Remember in Philippians 2, he
became obedient even unto death, the death of the cross. Who did
he become obedient to? You? Me? Man? No, unto his father. And that's what he means by that.
Well, look at verse 39. He says, and this is the father's
will, which has sent me that of all which he has given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. Now, how much clearer can you get from the scripture? He's going to save his people.
He has saved his people from their sins. And so he says in
verse 40, and this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone
which seeth the sun. Now the only way you're going
to see the sun is with the eyes of faith, which is a gift from
God. Blessed are your eyes for they
see. And believeth on him, that's the gift of faith, may have everlasting
life. That's the gift that God gives
of righteousness through Christ. And I'll raise him up against
the last day. Well, it says here the Jews murmured at him because
he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven. And they
said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and
mother we know? He said, how is it that he saith,
I came down from heaven? Anytime I read that verse, I
think about when they were trying to trap our Lord by their useless
questions. and at the end, I think it's
recorded in Matthew 22, I think, I'm not sure, but at the end
of it, he says, well, I've got a question for you. He said,
who is Jesus Christ? What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? And they said, well, he's David's
son. Well, how could David call him Lord then? How could he be
David's son and David still call him God? Well, they didn't know. Well, he's both. He's David's
son according to the flesh, but he's David's God in the nature
of his deity. But verse 43, Jesus therefore
answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves,
no man can come to me except the father which hath sent me
draw him. There's man's spiritual inability,
spiritual death, ruined by the fall. This is how far down we
went to the fact that no man can come to Christ except the
father that sent him draw him. That word draw is the same as
the dragnet in the parable. Drag him in. It doesn't mean
that he drags us in kicking and screaming. I think Brother Scott
Richardson used to say he draws us in or brings us to him against
our will with full consent. That's how he said it. But he
makes us willing in the day of his power. Now, how does he do
that? Well, look here. He says, and I'll raise him up at the
last day. Here's how he does it. Look at verse 45. Here's
God's method of grace. It is written in the prophets
he's going back to Isaiah here Isaiah 54 and he's talking about
a prophecy there of Christ and Christ bringing his church unto
himself and keeping them safe from all harm and he says it's
written in the prophets and they shall be all what taught of God
no preacher no witness should ever overestimate his own teaching
because no matter what we say And let me tell you something,
I'm not saying by that it doesn't matter what we say. It does matter
what we say. All right? But no matter what
we say, unless God spiritually and powerfully does the teaching,
it's not going to get through. Isn't that right? It's not going
to get through. You see, because we can't reach
the heart, only God can do that. Now we, and this is something
that every preacher needs to learn. We can reach the emotions. I'm gonna tell you something,
now think about that. I can tell you stories that'll make you
cry. I can sing songs that'll make you cry. Maybe because of
my bad singing, I don't know. But we can reach the emotions,
but only God can reach the heart. That's right. That's what it
means He gives us a new heart, or He cleanses the heart, or
He circumcises the heart. Only God. We can tell you about
Christ, but I can't make you believe in Christ, or love Him,
or follow Him, or serve Him. Only God can do that. And when
God does the teaching, that's always the result. He never fails. There's no student too smart,
or too dumb, or in between. They always get the message when
God does the teaching. That's what Elihu was saying.
And he's saying, Job, now it may take a little while. And
I'll tell you what, God gets it through in his time. That's
what he's doing to Job. Job hadn't really gotten the
message yet, but he's going to. And that's what Elihu was saying.
He says, now how does God teach? Well, look at verse 45. He says,
every man therefore that hath heard, got to hear. What do you
hear? Well, faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. You've got to hear of Christ.
You've got to hear who God is and who we are as sinners. You've
got to hear of His grace and His goodness and His power, who
Christ is, what He did, why He did it. And then have learned
of the Father, learned of the Father, learned by means of the
Father teaching, and learned who the Father is, how God can
be just and justify the ungodly. That's the Father. That's God
who's both a just and righteous judge and a loving, merciful
father based on the blood and the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then if you hear that and
you learn that, what's going to happen? You'll come unto Christ.
You won't have any other choice. That's right. You won't have
any other choice but to come to Him. You'll see He's your
only hope. Look back over here in Job 36
and 7. You'll see He's your only hope.
You'll see you've got no other place to go for the forgiveness
of sins. You've got no one else to go
to for righteousness and eternal life and glory. You'll see that
without Christ, you're nothing less than nothing and doomed
forever. And you'll run to Him willingly
and cling to Him. Why? Because you heard and you
learned and you come unto Him. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Now back here, that's what Elihu's
saying. Who can teach like God? Nobody. He's the great teacher. now beginning
at verse twenty six and and going and and uh... will uh... verse
twenty five twenty six and going on for a he puts this thing in
the context of the greatness and goodness of god now this
is this is the time whenever you know when what what we we
don't we have a tendency you know especially when we're going
through a hard trial cannot look past our own We kind of, you
know, I've seen people do this. They withdraw into themselves.
And they become like an island in themselves. But what Elihu
is telling Job here is you've got to look beyond yourself.
This is not all about me. It's not all about you. We've
got to look at it in the context, the greater context of the glory
and the greatness and the goodness of God. And that's what he's
talking about. Look at verse 25, he says, Remember
that thou magnify his work which men behold. Verse 25, Every man
may see it, man may behold it afar off. In other words, what
he's saying there is like God has not taken you or me into
the secret council chambers of his providence. In other words,
if you're going through a trial, he didn't get with you first
and have a means saying, now, look, here's the details, and
what do you think? Give me your opinion. No. You
see it afar off. Verse 26, behold, God is great,
and we know him not. Now, we're going, neither can
the number of his years be searched out. Now, we do know some things
about God. Listen to what he says here.
Behold, God is great, and we know Him not. What's he saying
here? He's speaking comparatively. In fact, God says, God Himself
says that His people shall know Him. He said in the New Covenant,
they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.
But what's Elihu talking about? He's saying this, God's great,
and we don't really know how great He is. That's what he's
saying. We know something of His greatness.
We have a personal knowledge of God in salvation because He's
revealed Himself to us. He's taught us. This is life
eternal that they may know Thee and Thee only and Jesus Christ
whom Thou hast sent. We know the God who justifies
the ungodly. We know the God who reveals himself
in Christ in our salvation. But when it comes to the fullness
and the depths of his greatness and his goodness, I'm going to
tell you something. It is totally beyond our understanding. Like those old farmers standing
on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. One said, man, I didn't
realize how big it was. And the other said, yeah, and
that's just the top of it. We've only just seen the top
of it. the depths of it. And he says, for verse 27, for
he maketh small the drops of water, and they pour down rain
according to the vapor thereof. Think about rain, he says. God's
greatness is beyond our understanding, shown even in the rain. Goes
up in a vapor, comes down. Why didn't it all just fall down
like in a big river, just drop on our head? Well, God's determinedness,
it comes down in drops. Sometimes bigger drops, sometimes
more than others. He says in verse 28, which the
clouds do drop and distill upon man abundantly. Who put all that
in motion? Was it an act of evolution? Is
that how this all come about? No. God did it. God purposed it, planned it,
worked it, created it, operates it, controls it. He causes it
to rain on the just and the unjust. He goes on with all these that
drop, verse 29, look here, God's greatness is even shown, is beyond
our understanding, is even shown in the clouds, in the storm,
in the thunder, in the rain, in the lightning, look at this.
He says, also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds
or the noise of his tabernacle, that's the thunder? Behold he,
I mean, you know, scientists can explain these things physically,
they can, but how they got in place, the determination of them,
the order of them. He says in verse three, behold,
he spreadeth his light upon it and covereth the bottom of the
sea. For by them judgeth the people, he giveth meat or meal
in abundance, that is, by the rain. He fills the sea, he distills
the sea, he gives rain that gives the crops that we eat. Verse
32, with clouds he covereth the light and commandeth it not to
shine by the cloud that comes betwixt. Think about today. I mean, if you were up this morning
today, we had a real sunny day and all of a sudden, boom, here
it is. Well, somebody said, well, we need the rain. You reckon
God do that? He goes on, verse 33, the noise
thereof showeth concerning it, the cattle concerning the vapor,
it even waters the cattle. Then go on, it continues on right
in chapter 37 here. At this also my heart trembleth
and is moved out of his place. It's almost like he's saying
it takes my breath away when I think about the greatness of
these things. Hear it tentatively, verse two, the noise of his voice
and the sound that goeth out of his mouth. He directeth it
under the whole heaven and his lightning unto the ends of the
earth. God causes that. And after it a voice roareth,
there's lightning, then comes the thunder. He thundereth with
the voice of his excellency and he will not stay them with when
his voice is heard. Though the clouds and rain God
uses these, He brings these. Through the clouds and rain,
you know what happens? God both judges people through
the clouds and the rain. Remember the flood of Noah? He
brought that flood to do what? To judge the world. And He destroyed
this earth. That was His wrath. It was a
manifestation there of His wrath. But He also brings the rain to
provide for His people. The crops, the water that we
drink, Beginning in verse 5, he even goes on to the snow.
I'll be the first one to tell you that I, anymore, I hate snow. But you know what? I got to reading
this and I've been thinking about it, that ought not be, I ought
not hate snow. God's greatness is beyond our understanding even
in the snow and the frost. Look at verse 5. He says, God
thundereth marvelously with his voice, great things doeth he
which we cannot comprehend. For he saith to the snow, be
thou on the earth, likewise to the small rain and to the great
rain of his strength. He sealeth up the hand of every
man that all men may know his work. You know what he's saying
there? With the snow and with that weather, he'll stop the
work of men. You kids like that, don't you?
Have a snow day. Can't go to work. Can't get out.
Well, God does that for a purpose. And it's for His purpose. Look
on. He says, verse 8, Then the beasts
go into the dens and remain in their places. The bears hibernate. I guess a lot of the others do
too. That's God's work. Isn't that
amazing? He says, Out of the south cometh
the whirlwind, and cold out of the north. By the breath of God
frost is given, and the breadth of the waters is straightened.
Talking about rivers freezing up and become narrower than what
they are when the floods come. Verse 11, Also by watering he
wearieth the thick cloud, and he scattereth his bright cloud,
and it turned round about by his counsels. That counsel there,
you know, we talk about God working all things by the counsel of
His own will. You thought that was New Testament.
No, it's Old Testament too. That's what He's saying here.
He says that they may do whatsoever He hath commanded them upon the
face of the world in the earth. And then look at verse 13. He
says, He causeth it to come whether for correction All right, for
correction, and that word correction is the rod. Same word in Psalm
23, I think it's verse 4, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. So he causeth it to come whether
for correction, for his land, or for mercy. And what he's saying
here is that for a believer, These things come along, and
it's for one of these three reasons. He's using these things to correct
his people, or he's using them to feed the land, or it's an
act of mercy in some way or other. That's God's purposes for his
people, that he gives these things. And all men are bound by these
natural things. And that correction is something,
isn't it? Now, that's what Elihu's point is for Job. What you're
going through is for your correction. It's the chastening hand of God. Well, look at verse 14. Now,
from here to the end of the chapter, here's what Elihu tells Job. He says, Job, here's what you've
got to do. You've got to see the greatness
of God and your smallness in comparison. We're born with such a self-righteous
and self-exalting nature that somehow we just, even if we fight
it, it's still there. We just think the universe revolves
around us. Everybody ought to be here for
us. And Elihu's saying, Job, God's everything, we're nothing.
Look at it. Harken, verse 14, unto this,
O Job, stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. Dost
thou not know when God disposed them and caused the light of
his cloud to shine? Dost thou know the balancings
of the clouds, the wondrous works of him, which is perfect in knowledge?
Now, later on, when we see God answering Job out of the whirlwind,
you're going to see similar language. It's almost like, where were
you when God set these things in place? Where were you? Were you there? Were you giving
him advice? Were you his counselor? He says in verse 17, how thy
garments are warm when he quieteth the earth by the south wind.
In other words, when it's hot, you have to take garments. When
it's cold, you have to put them on. Just everyday life things
here. He says in verse 18, hast thou
with him spread out the sky, which is strong and as a molten
looking glass. In other words, uh, made the
looking glass. That was a mirror back then made
out of metal. Teach us what we shall say unto
him, for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.
Tell us what to say to him, how to counsel him, Job. What are you going to do? If
you can, he says, he says, if you can tell us how to reason
with God on these things, then tell us. But the problem is we're
so profoundly ignorant in these areas. We can't reason with God
on these things. It's an amazing. It's an amazing
thing of grace that God commands us to reason with him in any
matters, but he does Isaiah one 18. Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they'll be as well. Though they be red, like crimson,
there'll be white as snow. That's the gospel reasoning.
And isn't it amazing that God even commands us to reason with
him on his terms of grace in Christ. Salvation by how are
my sins, which are red, like crimson, how are they going to
be white as snow? Well, through the blood of Christ.
through the righteousness of Christ. I stand clothed in his
white robe." And that's God's reasoning. He submits me to it. But now when it comes to these
things of providence, God has not seen fit to let us in on
a lot of these things. We walk in ignorance. Job complained
about that. I do too sometimes. Don't you? Look at verse 20. Shall it be
told him that I speak? If a man speaks, surely he shall
be swallowed up. If you try to reason with God
on this, you're just going to be swallowed up. Verse 21, And
now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds, but the
wind passeth and cleanseth them. Here's the change of weather. Verse 22, Fair weather cometh
out of the north with God his terrible majesty. In other words,
the reason for this is to show the majesty of God, the power
of God. He's showing here, Job, God doesn't
need us, but we need Him. Verse 23, touching the Almighty,
we cannot find Him out. He is excellent in power and
in judgment and in plenty of justice, and He will not afflict. What He's saying here is He will
not put you away. Verse 24, men do therefore fear
Him. He respecteth not any that are
wise of heart, those who are self-righteous and wise. God
has absolute power, but he uses it with infinite wisdom and precision. That's what he's talking about.
Very precise. He's not like man. You know what
they say about men and power? Absolute power corrupts absolute. Not with God. Absolute power
is his perfection. It's not so with him. And think
about these things in terms of our salvation. how God saves
his people. Look over at Psalm 38 that Brother
Stan read. Let me draw this to a conclusion.
This Psalm 38 is much, it reminded me of Job so much. Here's David
in his affliction. And here's what he's saying here.
Verse 1, O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten
me in thy hot displeasure. Now David is not saying, do not
chasten me, Lord. And I'm not going to lie to you
or try to be self-righteous before you and say, well, we, we ought
to like chastisement. I can't, I wouldn't begin to
even intimate to you that I would like to go through what Job went
through. And I hope you wouldn't think that way either. But what
David is praying for here is this Lord, don't let your chastening
be a manifestation of your wrath. And then he goes on, he says,
for thy arrows stick fast to me, and thy hand presseth me
sore. There's no soundness in my flesh. Now, David's saying
here, now, I'm not talking about what I deserve. I know myself,
I'm a sinner. If God were to chasten me, here's
what he said, if God were to chasten me according to my sins,
I wouldn't be able to lift my head up. That's what I'm telling
you. Neither would you. Neither would
you. That's what David's saying here.
And so he says, my hope is in thee. So turn to Hebrews chapter
12. Now we looked at this one quite a bit last week, but I
want to show you something here. Let me give you these things.
Elihu's saying, Job, the same outward affliction can be for
the correction of the godly or it can be for the forewarning
of coming judgment to the wicked. Christ spoke of that. When he
said, except you lie, except you repent, you shall likewise
perish. And then affliction is for correction
and growth of God's people. Even if they're not connected
to any specific sin in our lives, Job was upright, but he still
had a lot to learn. We do too. Our whole life as
disciples of Christ is a learning process. And sometimes these
chastisements come just to dissuade us or keep us from being too
full of ourselves. Another thing you need to need
to learn job, what he's saying is affliction is better than
damnation. You know, the wise man in Ecclesiastes said that
he said, it's better to go to the house of mourning than the
house of feasting, for that is the end of all men and the living
will lay it to his heart. It's better to mourn here on
earth and go to be with Christ forever and ever than it is to
feast all day here on earth and die in damnation. But then here's
another thing. Affliction, chastisements, affliction,
suffering, we'll put it that way. It either teaches us and
brings us closer to Christ or it will embitter us and prove
us to be false professors. And that's shown here in Hebrews
12, we dealt with it last week. Remember verse 11 there, look
at verse 11. What does affliction do for me?
Well, he says, now no chastening, for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous. There's a grief there, there's
a burden there, there's a sorrow there. Job's experiencing it.
Nevertheless, Afterward and I love that word afterward. I'm glad
it doesn't say during Aren't you? Because if it said during
I'd have a lot of problem. I don't even know if I'd be able
to sleep But it says afterward it yieldeth now that yields like
a crop you say The peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised therein And that peaceable fruit of righteousness
is coming out on the other side by the grace and power of God,
looking more and more to Christ, valuing Christ more and more,
thanking God more and more for Christ. Oh, my soul. Because if it depended on me,
there's no nothing good going to come out of that. It's all
in him. All right, now there's the peaceable
fruit of righteousness. Now what's the opposite of that?
Well, he talks about verse 15. Look indeligently, lest any man
fail of the grace of God. Now that's a false professor.
Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many
be defiled. Now that affliction is either
going to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness, a center
coming out, looking to Christ more, clinging to him more, resting
in his blood and righteousness more, or it's going to expose
him as a false professor like Esau in that root of bitterness.
That's what it's for. Now, what are we, what are we
concerned with now? Well, do my chastisements, are
they the chastisements of the Lord? Are my afflictions, does
it drive me more and more to Christ for peace and for comfort,
for assurance? Does it drive me to His Word,
to His people for fellowship? Or does it drive me away? Root
of bitterness. Like Esau, who sold his birthright
for a mess of pottage. What a trial that was. Look at
Job's trial. Compare that to East. Look at
old Joseph. Look at his trial. Sold into
slavery by his brethren. Put into jail. Accused falsely.
And he came out what? Looking to Christ even more.
And that's how? By the grace of God. Isn't it? In old Esau. Well, we have to
continually seek God's greatness in his workings in this world.
We have to continually seek God's wisdom and goodness to exalt
us even through these chastisements and that in Christ. We always
need to acknowledge that we only know in part. Sometimes we look
back and understand why something happened, but only God declares
the end from the beginning. But the part we do know, thank
God for it, we know Christ. We know our crucified Savior.
We know that he died for our sins that were charged to him
and he put them away. And on the basis of His righteousness
charged to us, God shall not lay anything to our charge, whether
we're going through affliction or whether we're going through
a time of prosperity. We're in Christ. He's our only
hope of salvation. And I'll tell you what, one last
thing on this, and we'll see this more when God speaks to
Job out of the whirlwind. Afflictions teach us that we
can never be fully attached to and satisfied with this life
here on earth. I think it's a, I know it's a
weaning process. God's going to wean us away from
this world and we're going to be like old David and say, as
for me, I will behold your face in righteousness. I shall be
satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. This world is not our
home. All right. The cleansing wave,
hymn number 227 for our closing hymn.