Alright, let's turn in our Bibles
to Job chapter 27. Job 27. Now, I want to go through this
chapter, but the main part of the message that I want us to
look at, and this is the verse that I took my title from this
evening, is verse 6. Job speaking. He'd been speaking
prior to this of the infinite greatness and majesty of God.
And he says here in verse 6, he says, My righteousness I hold
fast and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me
so long as I live. My righteousness I hold fast.
The title of the message is Holding fast my righteousness and as
you look at that you know you might you might say well how
could any any man who knows himself make a statement like that well
let's let's look into this in the first six verses of this
part of job's response remember this is part of his final response
to his three friends who had brought brought him into, or
tried to bring him into bondage. That's what they were trying
to do. Trying to bring him into a legalistic, self-righteous
form of thinking and religion. And here's the second part of
his response. As he goes into this, He had
been using comparisons to show the majesty of God, the greatness
of God. Look at verse 1 of chapter 27.
It says, moreover, Job continued his parable. Now, Job, if you
read what Job had said, it's not like a parable like we normally
think of parables. We think of parables as a story. Job hasn't been telling a story.
In essence, you know, with a plot. That kind of a story. But a parable,
the word parable means to set alongside of. And it's like this,
if I have a truth that I want to illustrate to you, then I
would set alongside of it an object, some kind of an object
lesson so that you could see the comparisons or even the contrast
to make that clear to you. And that's what Job has been
doing in chapter 26 when he went through talking about the greatness
and the majesty of God. He'd been setting things of the
earth and the universe, things of eternity alongside of these
truths to show the reality. And he's going to continue that.
And listen to what he says. He says, first of all, in verse
2, He says, as God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment,
and the Almighty, who hath vexed, or troubled, or made bitter my
soul. He says in verse 3, all the while
my breath is in me, and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils. He's
talking about living, physical living. That's just a way that
Job was describing his physical life. I take that breath, And
that's what that word spirit there is, the spirit of God.
It's the breath that God gave me. Physical life. He says in
verse four, my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue
utter deceit. And what he's talking about there
is how he had answered his three friends. He said, I've not told
you a lie. I've not, I've not spoken wickedly
as you have. I've not misrepresented God as
you have. Job has spoken some things out
of his ignorance and out of his sorrow and out of his pain. But
he told the truth. He hadn't used his tongue for
deceit. He had maintained his cause.
He had maintained his faith in God. He had maintained his faith
in the coming Redeemer, and that was his hope. I mean, he let
them know that his hope was not in, even when Job was on the
mountaintop, his hope was still not in himself, but in Christ.
And that was, the testimony of that was in his, not only in
what God said about him, but in his way of worship. And then
he says in verse five, God forbid that I should justify you. I'm
not going to agree with you, he said. I'm not going to vindicate
your words. I'm not going to follow. In other
words, what Job is saying here is I'm not going to agree with
you just to keep peace. You know, that's common in religion
today, isn't it? I'm not going to keep quiet about
it. I'm not going to justify you. Till I die, I will not remove
mine integrity from me. Job's integrity. Now, what's
happening here? Well, Job, in these first six
verses, he's maintaining his integrity. What is integrity? Well, it's truthfulness. It's
honesty. It's genuineness. It's the opposite of hypocrisy. Look down there at verse 8. He says, For what is the hope
of the hypocrite? Now, that's what they had accused
Job of. They said, Job, you're a hypocrite.
It has to be, Job. We see this, you see. We see
what's going on. You're suffering. Everything's
been taken away from you. God doesn't do that to righteous
people. That's their philosophy now. God wouldn't treat a righteous
person that way. God wouldn't treat a just person
that way. And that's the way they see it. That's the natural man. All right.
So Job says, I will maintain mine integrity. And then he explains
it this way. Verse six, my righteousness.
I hold fast. I'm going to hold on to it and
I will not let it go. To just give you a short summation
of that, when I read that verse, I thought about Jacob, wrestling
with the angel, who was a pre-incarnate manifestation, visitation of
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And Jacob held on to Christ,
and he said, I won't let you go until you bless me. And I
believe that's the essence, and the basis, and the meat of what
Job is saying here. I'm going to hold on to Christ
and I'm not going to let go. That's my hope. That's my integrity.
And then he says, my heart shall not reproach me so long as I
live. Now, first of all, go back up to verse two, this phrase
taken away my judgment. What does that mean? As you read
that, you might think it means that Job says, well, I've lost
my sense of judgment or my sense of knowledge. That's not what
he's saying here. Listen to it. He says, as God liveth, who have
taken away my judgment. Well, here's what he's talking
about there. While Job enjoyed wealth and comfort and pleasure
and plenty, he at that time was judged of men to be righteous
and good. That's the way they looked at
Job. When he was wealthy, he was the
greatest man of the East, the richest man of the East. the
most well-known, and when he was on that mountaintop, as I
said before, men judged him to be righteous. But now where is
he? Well, we've seen Job come from
the mountaintop to the lowest dregs of the valley. He's on
the ash heap, the dung heap of us. He's in his bitterness. He's
in his complaining. He's hurting. He's unhealthy.
He lost everything he had. Now how is he judged of men?
God's taken away that judgment. Now men by nature judge Job to
be wicked. That's what Eliphaz and Zophar
and Bildad are doing. They're judging him wicked. It
sort of reminds us of the Lord himself. Look over in Isaiah
chapter 53. And I want you to think about
this in these terms. How do men by nature assess judge
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you remember what he says
here in Isaiah 53 in prophecy about when the Lord of glory,
the God man, God in human flesh come and walk this earth, love
incarnate, holiness incarnate, truth incarnate, that's Christ.
And what do we see by nature? Christ and he says here in verse
2 of Isaiah 53 he shall grow up before him as a tender plant
as a root out of a dry ground In other words, he didn't have
a noble birth as in the eyes of men He certainly had a noble
birth but not in the eyes of men. He was conceived in the
womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit he was of the household
and lineage of David according to the flesh and He hath no form
nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there's no beauty that
we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. That's the way Job
is being assessed now, isn't he? And we hid, as it were, our
faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Look down at verse 8 of Isaiah
53. He said he was taken from prison
and from judgment. He was arrested. He was convicted. and arrested, and who shall declare
his generation? And it says, for he was cut off
out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people
was he stricken. So in other words, how do men
by nature judge the Lord Jesus Christ? A malefactor. That's
the word that the New Testament uses. What is a malefactor? It's
a criminal. judged him to be no better than
the two thieves that were on each side of the middle cross.
And then look over at Acts chapter 8. Listen to this one here. And that's what Job is talking
about when he says God has taken my judgment away. Acts chapter 8 and verse 33 is
talking about Christ and it goes back in, he quotes a part of
Isaiah 53, but look at verse 32 of Isaiah 8, I mean Acts chapter
8, I'm sorry, Acts chapter 8. This is where Philip comes upon
the Ethiopian eunuch, and you remember the eunuch was reading
out of Isaiah 53 and he said who's he talking about Philip
who's this what's this scripture speaking is the prophet talking
about himself Who's he talking about? It says, The place of
the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to
the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened
he not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment
was taken away. That's the same phrase in the
Greek that's used over in the book of Job in the Hebrew. His
judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth. So in other words, that
proper judgment That proper view of things, a spiritual view,
that can only be given to men by the Spirit of God, it's taken
out of the way. It's not there because men by
nature judge by sight, walk by sight and not by faith. And that
reminds me, you know, when Paul said there in 2 Corinthians 5,
in verse 16, we judge no man after the flesh. You look at
anybody, any individual, and just by looking at their particular
situation, what they're going through, and try to make an assessment
over whether they're blessed of God or cursed of God, you
cannot do it. Judgment is taken away. That's
the natural man. John said it this way in 1 John
3, he said, the world will not know us. Look at the parable
of the rich man and Lazarus. The world would judge the rich
man. Zophar and Eliphaz and Bildad, they would judge the rich man
as saved, as righteous, as blessed of God. They'd judge poor old
Lazarus as cursed of God. And that's what he means. The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them. Neither can he judge them. That's
a proper way of translating that. Neither can he discern them.
He just doesn't know. And I'm going to show you a good
example of that in just a moment. We'll go back to Job 27. We cannot
see and judge by outward appearance. Christ told his disciples, John
7 and verse 24, he says, judge not by outward appearance but
judge righteous judgment how's that judgment come about by the
word of god and the word of god alone and therefore we who know
christ we walk by faith what is it to walk by faith it means
to walk according to what god's word says that's right not by
sight not what these physical eyes see And so look at verse
3, he says, All the while my breath is in me, the Spirit of
God is in my nostrils. He said, My lips shall not speak
wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. Now basically what he's
referring to there is their judgment of him. If Job agreed with their
judgment of him, he would be speaking wickedness. Now I want
you to think about this, especially you who know Christ, you believers. If Job were to agree with their
judgment of him, he's saying, I would be speaking wickedness. Is Christ your Savior? Now somebody might say, well,
I don't know if He is. Well, do you have any other Savior?
Who is it? Who is He? What is it? What is
your hope of salvation? Think about this. Assess this
in yourself. Examine yourself to see whether
you'd be in the faith. What is my hope of passing the
test of a holy God who sees my heart and my thoughts? What is
my hope and assurance of passing the test of His judgment? What
is my hope? And I want to tell you something.
I can tell you right now. It's nothing but Christ and Him
crucified. And that's it. He's it. What
can wash away my sins? I mean this, nothing but the
blood of Jesus. Now, is there anything else you're
looking to? You say, well, well, I walked an aisle when I was
12. That will not help you. That's deceit. I'm tell, let
me tell, and let me say this about that, listen, if you walked
in the aisle, and if you were under the preaching of the gospel,
and you really believed in Christ, that's okay, that's fine, nothing
wrong with that, but see, Christ, it was your hope then, and He's
your hope now, not your walk in the aisle. You see what I'm
saying? All these great things that the
Holy Spirit enables us to do, they're so great, and we talk
about them, we talk about the obedience, the power, But my
friend, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Christ is all. Now, is He all
or is He not all? We say that. I mean, that's not
just something you put on a bumper sticker to just seem religious
to people. He's my all and in all. I tell
you, when we stand before God at judgment, we have nothing
to plead but Christ and His blood and righteousness alone. Now
if he agreed, now God promises, now listen to me, God promises
and God has engaged His honor and glory to keep this promise
that every sinner who can honestly say that from the heart, that
Christ is my all, my only hope, that His blood is my only hope
of forgiveness, His righteousness imputed is my only hope of being
justified. God has promised and engaged
his honor and glory behind this promise that to every sinner
who can say that from the heart, you're justified. And I don't
care what Zophar or Bildad or Eliphaz says to you, you're justified
before God. That's God's judgment. Job said
it, my record in heaven is clear. How did it get clear, Job? Huh? It was washed in the blood of
the Lamb of God. That's how it's clear. Now, is the blood of the Lamb,
is it powerful enough to wash it away? You bet it is. Don't you ever doubt His ability.
You say, well, I doubt my ability. Well, you ought to. Because I
want to tell you right now, not only... Listen, I'll tell you
right now, don't doubt your ability. Just cast it out the window because
you're not able. I'm not able either. Somebody
said, well, I don't doubt him. I doubt myself. I told him, I
said, well, when did the gospel ever tell you that salvation
was conditioned on yourself? It says it's conditioned on Christ.
Yes, you ought to doubt yourself. We ought to doubt ourselves because
we can't get the job done. We cannot make ourselves righteous.
So that's what Job is saying here now. I'm not going to agree
with you fellas. I'm not going to speak wickedness.
They were preaching false religion, works religion. My time's not
going to utter that deceit, he says. God forbid that I should
justify you. God forbid that I should agree
with you. Christ is my hope. Christ is
the Lord my righteousness. I have no other. I need no other. I want no other. He's it. And I will not remove mine integrity. I'm just giving you an honest
assessment of what God has done for me. That's what he's saying
here. And my righteousness, I will hold fast. And I'm not going
to let it go. My standing before God. Now,
Job, when he says that, there's two things here I want you to
see. First of all, he's not meaning his own personal righteousness
or the righteousness of his own works. Job has already spoken
enough ignorance to sink a world into hell. Do you know that?
He's already done that. Oh, Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, who would stand? You say, well, I'm glad I didn't
do that like Job. Oh, we've been worse than Job.
We haven't been through near what Job's been through, and
look how much I've complained and murmured and doubted God. all of that. So
I look at myself as doing worse than Job, because I haven't been
near what he's gone through. I've had some pretty tough times,
but nothing like what this fellow has had. How about you? And I
complain. Now, he's not talking about his
own works as if they could justify him or make up his justifying
righteousness before God or his acceptance with him. How is,
how is a sinner accepted before God? What does Ephesians 1, 6
say? We're accepted where? In the beloved. No man that is convinced of sin
by the Holy Spirit, as Job was, would hold fast and not let go
of his own righteousness. You see, he'd renounce it. Just
like Paul in Philippians 3. It's why I had Brother Doug read
that. What things were gained to me, those I counted lost,
even dumb, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. He renounces it. He repents of
it. That's what repentance, that's what Christ was telling the Pharisees
this morning. The righteous, they don't need
a physician, it's the sick. Sinners need a savior. The Apostle Paul desired to be
found in righteousness, not his own, but Christ's. But it is
his own as God imputed it, charged it to him. And he liked David. He can say it this way, without
shame, just like Job. My righteousness I hold fast,
and I won't let it go. Christ is my righteousness, you
see. The righteousness of my living
Redeemer. Look over there, Philippians
chapter 3. And this is His integrity. You know, really, if you think
about that integrity business and the honesty of the heart
that shows us not to be hypocrites i've really about the only way
that that you can you contest that in yourself is by speaking
out of your own needs show show what what it what is that i really
need what is that i really desire in this thing of salvation Think
about that. You know, a person who is continually
looking for other things to bring them assurance other than what
Christ accomplished on Calvary. You know, Paul said it this way.
He said, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. In other words, he wasn't looking for anything else. You
see, you know, I have a desire to worship God, to be with the
people of God, to fellowship with you in the faith, in the
truth, you see. And God the Holy Spirit has put
that desire in me. But listen, however many times
I come here and preach a message, that doesn't give me the assurance
that I need to stand before a holy God at judgment. And I know that
so because I think maybe that's why I refer to that Matthew 7
passage so much because it's talking about preachers there. If I was looking for assurance
in the number of messages or even the truthfulness of the
messages I preach, I'd be in trouble. You see, my hope is
the same as yours. And whatever it is, whatever
the Holy Spirit enables us to do, And they're marvelous things,
miraculous things, that we could not do apart from God's grace.
But you see, that's not what makes us righteous before God.
It's what Christ did on Calvary that makes a sinner righteous.
And that's what Paul's talking about. Look at it again, Philippians
chapter 3. Now here's Paul's integrity.
Look at verse 3. For we are the circumcision. In other words,
that's an honest, contrite, convicted, regenerate heart. That's the
new birth. We worship God in spirit. What
does it take for you to worship God? Programs? Visual aids? What does it take? Activities?
I'll tell you what it takes a child of God. It takes the Word of
God preached. Christ lifted up. That's right. We want to hear
Christ preached. We can go in and have a hoop-dee-doo
time and go out smiling and jumping and all that, but if we haven't
heard Christ preach, we haven't even begun to get started to
commence to worship. Worship from the heart. And he
says we rejoice in Christ. You know I've told you that word
rejoice is the same word that Paul used in Galatians 6, 14
when he said glory, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross. We glory in Christ. We have confidence
in Christ Jesus. That's what he means there. My
confidence is in Christ, and no confidence in the flesh. But
then go down to verse 9. He says, I want to win Christ.
I want to gain Christ. I want to be found in Him. Not
having mine own righteousness, which is of the law. You see,
man's righteousness, works righteousness, will not do. If that's your righteousness,
then you're in trouble. If that's my righteousness, I'm
in trouble. But that which is through the faithfulness of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith. And that I may
know Him and the power of His resurrection. You know what the
power of His resurrection is? It's the born-again, living sinner
saved by grace. That's the power of His resurrection.
And the fellowship of His sufferings, a union with Him in the love
of the truth, that brings opposition from the world, and be made conformable
unto his death, dying unto self daily, and if by any means I
might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." Whatever means
God has set in motion to do that. And he says in verse 12, now
listen to this, now here's proof that he's not talking about the
righteousness of his own works, or some kind of an inward righteousness
that he claims to have. Look at verse 12. Not as though
I had already attained. I haven't already made it. That's
an interesting thing to say, isn't it? I haven't already attained. Either we're already perfect.
Now, what's he talking about? Now, that word perfect there
means complete. Did you not, Paul, by inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, make this statement in Colossians chapter 2 to the Colossian
church? That in Christ dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily and ye are complete, same word,
in Him? Yes. But Paul says, I'm not talking
about in Him now, I'm talking about in myself, as you see me. As you see me in my daily life,
as I mess up, fall short, make you mad, all those things, when
you see me, I haven't already attained. The perfection that
I right now possess in completion in Christ, I have not yet attained
in myself. That's what he means by that.
Now Job is saying the same thing. I'm gonna maintain mine integrity
he says I'm gonna hold on to my righteousness and I'm not
gonna let it go where I'm gonna hold on to Christ but now in
myself and Job has said that you know he said he said how
could any man be justified based upon what you're saying and Paul
saying but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for
which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus now Christ has got
a hold of me He's apprehended me, and he's not going to let
go. He said nobody's going to pluck him out of my hand. And
he's made me perfect in him. I'm washed clean in the blood
of Christ. I'm righteous as I'll ever be in him. As he is, so
am I in this world. And what does that do in 1 John
4, 7? It gives us boldness at the judgment. There's my confidence
at the judgment. I enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus. There's my confidence to enter
into the presence of God. He's laid hold of me. He's got
hold of me. He's washed me clean. My record's
clear. I'm a blessed man. The Lord does
not impute iniquity to me. He imputes righteousness to me.
All right? Now, now I want to apprehend
that for which I also am apprehended. Verse 13, look at it. Brethren,
I count not myself to have apprehended. I am not yet perfect in myself. I still have the contamination
of sin in me. I still have the flesh in me. I have all those things that
keep opposing my desires, God-given desires to be like Christ. But
this one thing I do, now here's the integrity, this one thing
I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the
mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I go back to Job 27, that's his
integrity. Paul's saying the same thing
in a different way. I'm just not going to let it go. The lady told me one time, she
said, all you do is preach Christ and His righteousness. I said,
well, get somebody to preach that at my funeral. Job, he says here, my righteousness,
verse 6, I hold fast, I will not let it go, my heart shall
not reproach me so long as I live. When he says my heart shall not
reproach me, he's not claiming sinless perfection in himself.
so that his heart or his conscience could never convict him and bring
him into godly sorrow over sin, but simply that he's expressing
a genuine state of his heart before God. He's simply saying,
I am not a hypocrite. I'm like that old publican, God
be merciful to me, a sinner. He'd never deny the grace of
God in his life. And that's only by the grace
of God that he won't deny it. You know that? the righteousness
he possessed in and by and because of the Lord Jesus Christ and
just just as we can have boldness in the holiest by the blood of
Christ we can have boldness before men in that boldness if that
boldness is grounded upon the merits of Christ and what he's
accomplished now look look down at verse 7 now next Job distinguishes
himself from hypocrites He says in verse 7, Let mine enemy be
as the wicked, and he that raiseth up against me as the unrighteous.
He says in verse 8, For what is the hope of the hypocrite,
though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Here's
a hypocrite who's in the lap of luxury. He's gained, you see. And he can gain in many ways.
It might be material goods. It might be religious prosperity
in the eyes of men. It might be a good reputation.
But what is his hope? No matter how the hypocrite appears
on this earth, no matter how he fares in this life, what has
he gained when God taketh away his soul? Do you remember the
Lord spoke a parable on that? A man who kept gaining possessions,
more possessions, building bigger barns. What shall I do? I don't have enough barns to
put my stuff in. So he builds bigger barns. He
said, Thou fool, tonight your soul is required of you. What
has the hypocrite got? Well, first of all, what is the
hope of the hypocrite? Well, it's any hope, any confidence,
any assurance of salvation except that which is in Christ and in
Him alone. I don't care what it is. It may
be a noble cause. Listen, you may be like the religionist
who says, I'm going to do my best to keep the Ten Commandments
and go through your life working hard to do it. And you say, God,
that's got to count for something. That's what Saul of Tarsus said.
That's the hope of the hypocrite. What have you gained when God
takes away your soul? What would you give in exchange
for your soul? You see, there's no hope there.
You know, Job knew that God sometimes in this life punishes the wicked,
but what his friends didn't understand is that the wicked may prosper
for a season, but what have they gained? Paul said, what was gained
to me that I counted loss for Christ. You haven't gained a
thing without Him. And here's Job's friends, they've
tried to correct him based upon their faulty application of God's
justice when they should have been showing their suffering
friends some compassion. some hell and so he what he does
here he repeats back there their reasoning to him he distinguishes
himself from the hypocrite look at look at verse verse 80 or
verse 9 he says will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon
him God's not going to hear the cry of the hypocrite it's a broken
and a contrite heart that God hears the heart broken over sin
The heart pleading Christ and him crucified. Verse 10, will
he delight himself in the almighty? Will he always call upon God?
You see, the hypocrite won't. And then from here to the end
of the chapter, here's what Job does. He expresses the ultimate
end of the wicked. And I'm just going to read through
most of this, but look at this. And one thing I want to say to
you about this. Now, when you read this, he talks
about the wicked. And I mentioned to the Sunday
school class this morning, we were talking about that in Revelation
21, where it talks about how the murderers and the adulterers
and the whoremongers will go to the eternal damnation. and
i think that the mistake that most people make when they read
passages like this is they relegate this to some class of sinners
who are just really bad people in the eyes of the world but
what's being described in revelation what's being described here from
verse eleven on describes any person any sinner without christ
every sinner without christ listen to what he says He said, verse
11, I will teach you by the hand of God that which is with the
Almighty will I not conceal. I'm going to tell you the truth
that God has taught me. Behold, all you yourselves have
seen it. Why then are you thus altogether vain? You've seen
this and yet you deny what you see. And you become lifted up
in your vanity. Job, you're a sinner, you're
wicked, you're suffering, but we're righteous. That's the vanity
he's talking about. Verse 13, this is the portion
of a wicked man with God and the heritage of oppressors, which
they receive of the almighty. If his children be multiplied,
it's for the sword. In other words, if, and the children
there doesn't mean just his offspring, it means those who follow his
lead. Those who follow, Cain's children
would be in the sense, the followers of the way of Cain. And then
Christ has his generation, the followers of Christ. And he says,
and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. They're
going to starve. In other words, they're seeking
salvation through means and objects that will not feed that hunger.
And he says in verse 15, those that remain of him shall be buried
in death and his widow shall not weep. In other words, there's
not going to be any tears shed over him. Though he heap up silver
as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay." He's trying to
build his castles, his protection, trying to line his coffers. Verse 17, "...he may prepare
it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide
the silver." Like David said in Psalm 111, all that they have
gained will be the heritage, we will have the heritage of
the heathen. The riches that the heathen wanted, who will
go to? It will go to the people of God. Verse 18, he buildeth
his house as a moth. Moth, you know, he chews into
the cloth and then he dies. And the garments broken or the
garments corrupt. Well, their righteousness is
filthy rags. And as a booth, a tent, that
the keeper maketh, the rich man shall lie down, but he shall
not be gathered. He openeth his eyes, and he is
not. Here today, gone tomorrow. He's
gathering together all of his wealth, but then he's gone. Verse
20, tares take hold on him as waters. A tempest stealeth him
away in the night. Verse 21, the east wind carryeth
him away. That's a storm. Incidentally,
the people of God are always symbolizing scripture as looking
for their salvation from the east. That's the son of righteousness,
S-U-N, that's Christ. But that same wind that comes
from the east that is our hope will be their destruction. And
it says, The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth, and
as a storm hurleth him out of his place. For God shall cast
upon him, and not spare, he would fain flee out of his hand. He's
going to run from God, but there's no hiding place. And then it
says in verse 23, men shall clap their hands at him and shall
hiss him out of his place, casting him down. You notice there in
that verse 22, it says, for God shall cast upon him and not spare. Most commentators agree on this,
and I think they're right. That's just a way of saying God's
going to charge them with their sins. cast it upon them. He's going to lay it to their
charge. Why? Because they have no mediator.
They have no savior. They have no redeemer. They have
no righteousness. They have no blood. They have
no lamb. And God's going to charge them with sin. In Christ, God
will not cast our sins upon us because they were cast upon Him.
as he was made sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. All right. Let's sing Take My
Life and Let It Be, hymn number 393.