Alright, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Job chapter 22. Job 22. Now the title of the
message tonight comes from verse 21 of this chapter. This is Eliphaz
the Temanite. He is debating with job in fact
uh... uh... if if the book of job were
a boxing match this would be round three right here this is
the third cycle of debates between job in these three individuals
these three miserable comforters and actually in this last uh... this last bit debate the third
round here actually only two of them life as a bill that speak
And after Job speaks, the last one so far doesn't speak, so
I guess the Lord finally just shut one of them up, shut one's
mouth. But here's Eliphaz makes this
statement in verse 21, acquaint now thyself with him, speaking
of God, and be at peace, and thereby good shall come unto
thee. So I've entitled this message, Acquaint Yourselves with the
Lord. acquaint yourselves with the
Lord and we'll we'll get to that but let's look at this chapter
22 not only you know not only do Job's friends openly accuse
him of wrongdoing and sin and actually the worst I guess the
worst accusation they bring against him is that he's a hypocrite
and he is a not a genuine man at all especially in in the ways
of the Lord, but he's a hypocrite, that's what they accuse him of.
Job is not a hypocrite, but they accuse him. And they regard Job's
denial of this, of their accusations, and his rejection of their understanding
of God's justice, as evidence that Job is not the righteous
man that he claims to be. And of course we know that Job's
righteousness is not just a self-proclaimed righteousness. Job is like any
sinner saved by the grace of God. And what we truly say, we
don't proclaim ourselves righteous. It's not our judgment of ourselves. But we say with the Apostle Paul,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, it is
God that justifies. Now God says that any sinner
who truly trusts Christ for all salvation, and that truly is
a big work it's not big enough burdens for number left but i
mean truly trust christ for all salvation that person is a righteous
person that's what god says you say but i'm a sinner who play
you are and if you work you would need christ for righteousness
you know if you're not a center what are your righteous in yourself
i've heard people say well uh... uh... that people who need salvation. The only ones who need salvation
are sinners. Those who are not sinners do
not need salvation. What do we save from? We're saved
from sin. So they're claiming Job is not
the righteous man he claims to be. Now Job's defense of his
good name, and he defends his good name, and his rejection
of their position that God always punishes the wicked and rewards
the righteous in this life to them it's a denial of God to
them it's a denial of God's way to them it shows ignorance of
God's nature what they think they know of God and that's why
Eliphaz here says in verse 21 Job acquaint yourself with God
you need to know you need to get to know God now The irony
of that whole situation is that the man who says that doesn't
know God. The man he accuses of not knowing
God is the only one in this bunch who knows God. We also know that
that knowledge of God is not based on the intellectual efforts
of man to get to know God. Who can find him out? His ways
are higher than us. It's by revelation that we know
God. And one thing about it, I've noticed this as I've re-read
through the book of Job and studying it, that Job is really beginning
to learn that God may, he just may have a purpose in this suffering
of the righteous that's not connected to punishment at all. Something
Job's friends wouldn't even consider. You know, legalists, they won't
even consider that. and so here's the the third and
final reply of your life as the job and he i want to i want to
use it as we break the law use it in the form of questions the
first issue that he raises the is this number one in the form
of a question is god ever under any obligation to us is god ever
under any obligation to us now think about that listen to what
in life as says Verse 1, then Eliphaz the temanite answered.
And he said, can a man be profitable unto God? Now that word profitable,
you know in the original Hebrew it's the exact same word as acquaint
in verse 22, or in verse 21 rather. Can a man be profitable unto
God? Can we add anything to God? as he that is wise may be profitable
unto himself you know wise man is profitable in this life unto
himself well does that can we be profitable unto god he says
in verse three is it any pleasure to the almighty that thou art
righteous is it any pleasure to god that you're righteous
joe now you keep in mind that he's saying these things in the
realm of his accusation That Job's claim is a self-righteous
claim of a man who doesn't know God. He says, or is it gain to
him, is it gain to God that thou makest thy ways perfect? Completes
what it's talking about. Verse 4, will he reprove thee
for fear of thee? In other words, is God in a position
where he's subject to you? You know, fear of God means we
worship God. Fear of God means we believe
God, we serve God in fear. That is, not legalistic fear,
but the fear of assurance. Knowing who God is and with reverence
and respect, he says, will he enter in with judgment, enter
with thee into judgment. Will God condescend to debate
you or enter into judgment with you on your terms? Now that's
not what Job's been asking. When he, when Job asked to be
judged of God, he's not saying God come down on my level and
judge me on my terms. No, he's talking about God knows
my heart. That's what Job is saying. Let
God be the judge. In verse 5 he says, is not thy
wickedness great? Elijah says, isn't your wickedness
great? And thine iniquities infinite,
meaning that they're endless, they go on and on. So Eliphaz
charges Job with having too high of an opinion of himself, of
his righteousness, as if God owed him something for it. And
the thing about it is, that's the false gospel that Eliphaz
and Bildad and Zophar are preaching. That if you do your part, then
God is obligated to bless you. And yet he's using this kind
of language with Job. And that's just another glaring
testimony that the natural man is so ignorant of spiritual matters
that he really doesn't even know what he's saying. He says, and
the thing about it is Job didn't think that way, but he still
didn't understand why he was suffering. Job's trying to figure
out why I'm going through what I'm going through. He knew it
was not for the reasons that Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar
had said. Well now, is God ever under any
obligation to us? And the answer is no. Now that's
a glaring no. But now I want you to consider
some things on that issue. First of all, we know that God
is glorified in the salvation of sinners by His grace through
Jesus Christ. God is glorified. In fact, the
Bible tells us That is the highest glory of God. The highest glory
of God is in the salvation of a sinner by His grace through
Christ. Now how is the salvation of a
sinner more glorious, let's say, than parting the Red Sea? Delivering
what some people say a million, some people say two million Hebrews
out of Egypt through ten plagues. And think about this, how is
the salvation of a sinner more glorious than the creation of
this universe? Read in Genesis chapter one and
chapter two. How is the salvation of a sinner
more glorious than all the miracles that were performed in the recorded
history of mankind in the Bible? Well, because in the salvation
of a sinner, through the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know every
attribute of God's nature is honored, magnified, and revealed? That's not in creation. Now,
there's some things about God you can learn about creation.
Psalm 19 tells you that. The heavens declare the glory
of God, His wisdom, His goodness, His power. But the creation of
the world doesn't declare the mercy of God. doesn't declare
the justice of God, doesn't declare the grace of God or the love
of God. The miracles declare the power of God. But in the
salvation of a sinner, by God's grace through Christ, we see
how every attribute is honored. Everything about God's nature.
One of the first books that I got a hold of when I started coming
here was Arthur Pink's The Attributes of God. And he wrote about things
I never even heard of. Things about God never even considered.
But everything that he said in that book about each individual
actor, and you probably couldn't name them all, I can't name them
all right now. But I can tell you how every one of them are
honored, magnified, revealed, working consistently together
for one purpose. And that's the salvation of a
sinner. And that's in Jesus Christ. There we see God's holiness as
well as God's mercy. We see God's justice as well
as God's grace. We see God's truth honored as
well as God's love. How God can be just and justify
the ungodly. That statement, that phrase is
the summation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The same God who glorified himself
in the creation of the world has glorified himself ultimately
in the salvation of a sinner by his grace through Jesus Christ
and that's the key there but now God listen to me now God
is obligated hear me out God is obligated to save his people
But here's the point. God's not obligated to them.
God's not obligated to me. God's not obligated to you. But
God is obligated. Who's He obligated to? To Himself. That's right. God made a promise before the
foundation of the world. And God swore an oath. Now that
means He swore by something. And you know, Christ made this
point in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, when men swear, they
swear by something greater than themselves, not something lesser. Well, there's nothing greater
than God. So who did God swear by? He swore by Himself. He engaged
Himself. He obligated Himself. His Word,
His faithfulness, His nature, His glory is on the line so that
if one sinner whom he chose and redeemed would fail to make it
to glory, God would lose more, infinitely more than what we
would. So is God obligated to us? Not in the way that Eliphaz
is talking about. God never obligates himself to
anyone based upon anything in and from them. Look over at Romans
chapter 4. Paul uses Abraham as an example
of this. Verse 1, talking about Abraham's
justification before a holy God. And in Romans 4 and verse 1,
he says, What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining
to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified
by works, In other words, if God were obligated to Abraham
based on Abraham's works, he hath whereof the glory. Abraham
hath something to boast in of himself. But not before God. Oh no. For what saith the scripture? Now what's the word of God say?
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Now what did Abraham believe? He believed what God promised
him. What did God promise him? Salvation by grace through the
promised Messiah. And the righteousness of that
Messiah was accounted to Abraham. Verse 4, Now to him that worketh
is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. In other
words, if you work for it, it's not grace. If it's of works,
it's not grace. It's debt. It's what God owes
you. He says, But to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Now what was Abraham's faith? It was in Christ. Christ was
his righteousness. And he says that later on. But
you see, God was under no obligation to Abraham based upon anything
in or of or coming from Abraham. God justifies the ungodly. That's people who don't deserve
it and cannot earn it. That's what salvation is all
about. So when Eliphaz makes his statement over here in chapter
22, he's really condemning himself again. This is another episode
of self-condemnation. Because he's saying now, Job,
if you'll do certain things, then God will do His thing. God
will bless you. He'll be under obligation. And
yet, in arguing against the grace of God that Job is promoting
and preaching and living, Eliphaz says, well, you act like you're
something. You act like God owes you all this. He didn't owe you
that. Well, he's right in one sense.
But in his false gospel, he's not right. Here's the second
question. Look back at Job 22. Would God afflict men for nothing? Would God afflict Job for nothing? See, Eliphaz accuses Job unjustly. without evidence or foundation.
You know what he's like? He's going to accuse Job. When
we read through these scriptures, he's accusing Job, who was a
wealthy man, of exploiting his, taking his wealth and abusing
it and exploiting the poor. So that, and that's the reason
God took your wealth away from you, Job. And this well-intended
comforter now, he's become the accuser. You know what an accuser
is in this sense? An accuser is the mouthpiece
of Satan. Who is Satan? He's the accuser
of the brethren. So that when you accuse anybody
of anything without foundation, you are the mouthpiece of Satan
when you do that. You didn't know that, did you?
But you are. If I accuse you with a, you know,
whenever we deal with sin in ourselves or in each other as
in recovery of a brother or sister in Christ, there's got to be
foundation, there's got to be evidence. And there's got to
be recovery. But when it's nothing but accusation,
without foundation, without evidence, that's the mouthpiece of Satan.
So understand, now Job is a sinner, and he's admitted that he's a
sinner, and he knew that if God were to punish him for his sins,
God would be just, but what Eliphaz accuses him of has no foundation. Look at it, verse 6. He says,
For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for naught or
for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing. Thou
hast not given water to the weary to drink. Thou hast withholden
bread from the hungry. But as for the mighty man, he
had the earth and the honorable man dwelt in it. Here you were
in all of your power and all your honor. Thou hast sent widows
away empty." Now, where did he get that? They just come out
of the air. He says, "...and the arms of
the fatherless have been broken. Verse 10, Therefore snares are
round about thee, and sudden fear trouble of thee. This is
why you're suffering, Job. It's got to be something. You
see, he can't think any other way. Eliphaz can't. The natural
man in his darkness cannot think. There's got to be something wrong
in your life. You see, or God wouldn't be doing
this to you. Verse 11, Or darkness that thou canst not see, and
abundance of waters cover thee, the flood of God's punishment.
Verse 12, is not God in the height of heaven, and behold the height
of the stars, how high they are? In other words, you can't get
away with this, Job. God sees everything. Verse 13,
he says, and thou sayest, how doth God know? Can he judge through
the dark cloud? In other words, he's accusing
Job of trying to hide these things from God. And he says in verse
14, thick clouds are a covering to him, and that he seeth not,
and he walketh in the circuit of heaven. Would God afflict
Job for nothing? Well, God would not afflict Job
for nothing. There's a purpose in it, but
it's certainly not anything that Eliphaz understands. Here's the
third question. Would God withhold punishment
from us? Look at verse 15. And what he's
saying here is consider the history of the wicked. Look at verse
15. He says, Hast thou marked the
old way which wicked men have trodden? And you know your history?
He says, which were cut down out of time, whose foundation
was overflown with a flood, which said unto God, depart from us,
and what can the Almighty do for them? You remember that was
mentioned over, Job mentioned that over in chapter 21. Those
who say to God, depart from me. The only thing, what profit is
it to me to serve God? Verse 18, yet he filled their
houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is
far from me. He says in verse 19, listen this, the righteous
see it and are glad and the innocent left them to scorn. Now Eliphaz
sees himself as righteous and he sees Job as wicked. The truth
is, according to God's testimony, it's just the opposite. Job is
the righteous one. He's the sinner saved by grace.
Eliphaz is the wicked. And then look at verse 20. He
says, whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant
of them, the fire consumeth. So consider the wicked. Well, here's the fourth question.
And this is where I want you to understand how the opposite
of what Eliphaz says is true. Everything he says here is in
the negative when he applies it and accuses Joe. But I want
us to take these things from here to the end of the chapter,
and I want us to see the positive in them as they apply to the
grace of God and the salvation of sinners through Christ. Now,
here, life has a saying. He's saying, now, you need to
get to know God. And here, he's saying, Job, you need to repent.
And if you'll do that, if you'll do that, Job, then God will just
flood you with blessings. You'll be back. You'll be the
greatest man of the East again. You'll have all your cattle,
all your family. If you'll just do this part, if you'll just
meet this condition, Job, it'll all happen. Now, you know, we've
talked about that all the way through the book of Job. What
is it? That's the false gospel of health, wealth, and prosperity,
all conditioned on the works of men. But what mainly he's
aiming at is this. Job, you need to repent. You
need to repent of this sin. Get yourself right with God.
And so here's the question. Would God bless us without repentance? Now, how would you answer that
question? I was listening to a preacher on TV years ago. And
he was talking about the forgiveness of sins. God is one who forgives
sins. Oh, isn't that true? God forgives
sins. He's a great forgiver. But here's
what the man said, and this was the theme of his whole message.
He's preaching to thousands of people. He said, the forgiveness of sin
is conditioned on your repentance. The forgiveness of sin is conditioned
on your repentance. And it just shot through my mind
at that time. Well, what is the conditions that must be met for
God to forgive sins? And my friend, it's not your
repentance. It's not my repentance. I tell you the one condition,
there's only one condition that must be met in order for God
to forgive sins. And you know what that condition
is? The death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches us
that it is upon the basis, the condition, of the blood of Christ
that God forgives sins. So, the answer to the question
is simply this. Would God bless us without repentance? You bet
He would and does. I want to tell you something,
child of God, and I'm not going to ask you or even promote anybody trying to climb
into the history of their life and figure out the day they were
born again. I think that's one of Satan's
deceptions. I really do. And you may have
an idea of that. It may have been such a drastic
change in your lifestyle That you can point to it. I know this.
I mean, I'm not going to discount it because I can tell you this
much. Paul the Apostle knew the day he was born again, didn't
he? I believe Isaiah knew the year, and the year the king Uzziah
died. I don't know the day or the year.
Well, I have some idea, but that's not important. But I want to
tell you something, what I found out when I heard the gospel and
God brought me to a saving knowledge of Christ that God had been blessing
me all along in my life. Before I knew Him, I didn't realize
it, I didn't acknowledge it. I was like Gomer. I had one who
loved me and I attributed it to my idols. That's what I did. I served idols all the time while
God was blessing me. And you know what the ground
and the condition and the basis for that blessing was? Same thing,
the blood of the crucified one. But will God bless us without
repentance? You bet he will. But everyone,
now listen, everyone whom God blesses with salvation will repent
sometime, eventually, because one of the blessings is repentance
itself. And I want you to look at that
in that sense. Everything in life, as it says
here, from here to the end of the chapter, He's saying it's
spoken by him from the viewpoint of self-righteous legalism. But
when we look at it from the viewpoint of the grace of God in Christ,
oh, I'll tell you, it has new meaning. And you know, Job's
been defending himself, but he's not defending himself except
on one basis. He's not defending himself on
the basis of his works. He's defending himself on the
basis of his standing in Christ. I know my Redeemer liveth. And
he'll stand in the latter day. Look at verse 22, or 21. He says, Acquaint now thyself
with Him, with God, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come
unto thee. Now, life has what he means by
that is Job, straighten up, get right, and God will give you
what you've earned. My friend, if that's what you
believe, you are not acquainted with the Lord of glory. You don't
know Him. And that word acquaint, you know what the word acquaint
there means? It means to agree with. Agree with God. Agree with God about who He is.
The holy, just, righteous God. and agree with God about who
we are. Sinners who deserve nothing but death and hell. If God ever
gave me what I've earned or what I deserve, what would it be?
Death and hell. Even at my best. It means to
come to terms with. It means to yield. That word
acquainted. It means to yield. See, it's
not just a notional knowledge. It means to submit. It's the
same word as he used as profitable up in verse 2. Can a man be profitable
unto God? But acquaint yourselves with
the Lord, and then what? Be at peace. Well, here's the
question then. If you ever become acquainted
with the Lord of glory, the true and living God, like Isaiah became
acquainted with Him, high and lifted up, trained, filled the
temple, holy, holy, holy, If you ever become acquainted, the
next question you'd have to ask is how in the world can a sinner
like me have peace with one who's so holy? Who's righteous? Who's just and always judges
according to truth? Who knows my thoughts and my
motives and my heart? How in the world could I be at
peace with Him? Well, what does the Scripture
say? Look at Colossians chapter 1. Book of Colossians chapter 1.
He's talking about the preeminence of Christ. How Christ is before all things. And by Him all things consist.
And He's the head of the body, the church. Verse 18. He's the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead. That's His resurrection.
That in all things He might have the preeminence. Verse 19, Colossians
chapter 1. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. That's the fullness of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You're going to become acquainted
with the Lord, you're going to have to know Christ. The revelation
of God is in Christ. In verse 20, and having made
peace through your repentance. Not what it says, does it? Having
made peace through the blood of His cross. By Him to reconcile
all things unto Himself. How? By the blood of His cross. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in heaven or things there, and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled. Who did He reconcile unto Himself
by the blood of the cross? Those who in their own mind were
alienated, that's separated, and enemies of God. Did He come down like Eliaphaz
and say, now you better straighten up and then God may, He'll be
obligated to show you some mercy. No, no, no, no, no. Peace with
God through the blood of His cross. For God made Him sin. Christ too knew no sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing, not charging their
sins unto them. you ever get to know the Lord
it'll be through the revelation of God in Christ and it'll be
based on the blood of his cross look at verse 22 of Job 22 he
says receive I pray thee the law from his mouth and lay up
his words in thine heart the only way to get acquainted with
the Lord is to receive his word His Word in the Gospel, His Word
in the Bible. What does that Word do? Christ
told the Pharisees, you do search the Scriptures, for in them you
think you have eternal life, for they are they which testify,
they lead you to Christ. That's what the Holy Spirit uses
the Word of God to lead us to Christ. And that's how we become
acquainted with the Lord. That's how we come to agree with
Him. That's how we come to terms and
yield to Him in His way of salvation. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. And that word's got to be applied
to our hearts. Lay up His words in thine heart.
It's not just memorization. It's not just notional knowledge.
It's a heart work of the Holy Spirit who writes that word indelibly
upon our hearts, our mind. our affection, our will. It becomes
so much a part of us that we can't get away from it. It'll
never be taken away from us. Look at verse 23. He says, If
thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou
shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. Now that's Eliphaz's
false gospel. And what he's saying is you do
your part and God will do His. But now let me show you something
here. Sin And self-righteousness will not build us up. He says
you'll be built up. Sin and self-righteousness doesn't
build you up. Doesn't build me up. Tears us
down. But the grace of God in Christ
builds us up. For in Christ we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto, not because of, unto good works
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
And here's what he said, but now there's a truth here now.
If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be... That's true,
but the only ones who's going to return to the Almighty are
sinners saved by the grace of God, whom God reveals Himself
to and brings them to repentance. The gift of faith. The gift of
repentance. And you know what we see in repentance?
We see that we've worshipped all our lives a false God until
God revealed Himself to us. Till we come to a saving knowledge
of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, what were we? We
were idolaters. That's what the Scripture says.
We were bringing forth dead works. That's what the Scripture says.
And when He brings us to repentance, He brings us to repent of dead
works and idolatry. And He builds us up. And he says,
Thou shalt put away iniquity far from thine tabernacles. That's
when we'll engage in the warfare of the flesh and the spirit.
We won't be sinlessly perfect in ourselves. We are in Christ,
but not in ourselves. Look at verse 24. He says, Then shalt thou lay
up gold as dust, as the gold of Ophir, and the stones of the
brooks. Eliphaz is saying what these false preachers today are
saying. If you do your part, God will make you rich. He'll
give you plenty of money. But I'll tell you how I see it,
how God's people see it. We'll lay up gold as dust, the
gold of Ophir, that's the best gold, and stones of the brook,
that's the riches we have in Christ. Oh, the unsearchable
riches of Christ. That's the inheritance that we
have that's incorruptible. The spiritual riches. Oh, it's
gold. It'll never perish. It'll never
be stolen from us. Thieves can't break in and steal
that from you. Verse 25, Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defense,
and thou shalt have plenty of silver. God will save and protect
and preserve his people from all that would harm us. I don't
know why he mentions silver without kind of coupling it with the
gold, but I know this, silver in the Old Testament is an emblem
of redemption. And that's the way I look at
it there. In other words, He'll give us plenteous redemption.
He redeemed us by the blood of His cross. And He'll keep us,
He'll defend us. Verse 26 says, For then shalt
thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy
face unto God. Now again, what Eliphaz is saying
is a lie. Because any sinner who's seeking
salvation and its blessings by their works, they delight not
in the Almighty, they delight in an idol. And the way I look
at it, the way I tell people that is this, when you come to
God, a God, pleading the merits of your works, and you think
you're being blessed for that, the God who's giving you that
is not the true and living God of the Bible. He's an idol. The
God of the Bible, He justifies the ungodly. He blesses His people
in Christ. So this is not, when he speaks
this way, Eliphaz is not talking about fear and trust and worship
of God in Christ, he's talking about legalism. But when we see
it with the eyes of grace, with enlightened eyes, we see it all
fulfilled completely in Christ. Look at verse 27. Thou shalt
make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou
shalt pay thy vows. Eliphaz saying, Job, until you
get right with God and do your part, He won't hear your prayers.
But we know better. We know that the only way to
get right with God is to trust Christ and to plead His blood
and righteousness alone, and then we pray. Not just when we
feel holy. Not just when we had a good day
or a good week. We can pray at all times through
our great high priest, and we'll be heard. We'll be heard. Verse 28, thou shalt also decree
a thing, and when he says pay thy vows, he's talking about
obedience to God, he's talking about worship of God. Verse 28,
thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto
thee, and the light shall shine upon thy ways. Now what do you
think false preachers do with that one? They call it the word
of faith movement, or the word of power movement. Just speak
a word! It'll be done. I've heard him
say it on TV, MG. False preacher. Just speak a
word and get, and especially if you can get four or five,
six, 15, 20 people to speak it with you. Word of grace, word
of faith, right? Word of, just speak it. You just
got to say it and it'll be done. Now, I don't know what a life
has had in mind there, to be honest with you. When he says,
Job, you shall decree a thing. What are we decreeing anyway?
We don't decree anything. You know, God's the one who's
the... He decrees. But I don't know. I think He...
Certainly He's lifting Himself up and trying to lift Job up
in self-righteousness, but I'll tell you this much. And this... And this... This is not some
word of power movement here. It's speaking... When we look
at it this way, it's speaking of when we speak the Word of
God. What God has decreed. What God has said. I know this,
what God promises will be accomplished. His word will not go forth and
be void. When God speaks a word, it's
a done deal, friend. And that light, you see, he says,
the light shall shine upon thee. That light is the light of his
word and his glory in Christ. Look at verse 29. He says, When
men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up,
and he shall save the humble person. Now in Eliphaz's way
of thinking, that's legalism again. You can tell them how
to get right with God when they're cast down, Job. You can preach
the same gospel I'm preaching to you. But I'll tell you what,
we who know Christ, When men are cast down, we can truly and
honestly, and from our experience, tell them there is lifting up.
And how do we do it? Through the preaching of the
gospel, the good news of salvation by the grace of... Listen, God
will lift the beggar off the dung heap. Are you... Come unto me, all ye that are
laboring or heavy laden, Christ said, and I'll give you rest.
I know where there's rest for your soul. Are you tired of this
false works religion that this burden that people and preachers
are trying to put you under? I know where there's rest. I
know where there's peace. I know where there's forgiveness.
I know where there's righteousness. You've been working for it all
your life and you haven't made it. Sometimes you think you have,
but then reality sets in some little glitch and it comes along
and You realize what you really are. I know where there's a righteousness
that's everlasting, eternal, immutable, and can never be taken
away. I know where one is. Where is
it, Preet? It's in Christ. There it is. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. That's evangelism, you see. And
He'll save the humble person. You know how I know that? Because
if there's any humble people, God made them so. I know without
a doubt that God will save every humble person. But my friend,
people who believe salvation by works are not humble. Those
who know, like that old publican, God be merciful to me the sinner. That's the work of God. That
broken contrite heart. And then look at verse 30. He
says, He shall deliver the island of the innocent, And it is delivered
by the pureness of thine hands. Now I want you to turn to Psalm
24 and I'm going to conclude with this. Look at Psalm 24 that
Brother Joe read. He will deliver. Now some translations
change that. When he says here, He shall deliver
the island of the innocent. And there's several translations
from the original that say it should read, He will deliver
one who is not innocent. And I really kind of believe
that's more closely to the original, but it doesn't matter what he's
talking about. When, when God delivers, he justifies
the ungodly. He takes a sinner and he cleans
that sinner up, washing him in the blood of Christ. He said,
he said, come, let us reason together. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they'll be white as snow. Though they be red like
crimson, they'll be like wool. But he says there, he'll deliver
the island of the innocent, and it is delivered by the pureness
of my hands. Now Eliphaz, when he speaks that,
he means all this in the realm of salvation by words. Job, get
your act together. Clean yourself up. Reform. Get religion. Join the church. Get baptized. Whatever. Whatever
form it comes in. But how can we apply that to
salvation by God's grace in Christ? Well, God delivers one who's
not innocent when he saves us by his grace in Christ. He saves
sinners. This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came to the world
to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. And God delivers us not
by the purity of our hands, but the purity of His own. the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, remember that Psalm 24 that
Joe read? You know this is a trilogy of
Psalms. There's three Psalms here that go together. You've
heard this. You've been taught this. It goes
back to Psalm 22. Now, Psalm 22 is the Psalm of
the cross. It's prophetic and describing
the experience of Christ, our great high priest. our substitute,
our sin-bearer on the cross. And you know how it starts out.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now you understand,
you understand that that's Christ speaking. He fulfilled that.
It's recorded in Matthew, what, 27. He made that statement on
the cross. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? How could He make that statement?
He's the Son of God. The second person of the Trinity.
And even His humanity, the God-man. is pure and perfect and holy.
How could he? Well, we know that it was for
our sins that he died. Isn't that right? It wasn't for
his own. Somebody said, well, they became
his. They did. But as they were imputed, charged, accounted to
him. So when he makes that statement, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Think about it this way. It was
for my forsakenness that he was forsaken. And that's what we
are by nature, forsaken, sinners. None of us can say we have pure,
clean hands. And let me tell you something,
even as a justified sinner, can you speak of yourself, in yourself,
as having pure and clean hands? I hope you'll say no. I have
pureness, but it's in Christ. All right? And then he goes on
down in Psalm, in the last two verses of Psalm 22, listen, a
seed shall serve him, that's a generation, that's his children,
his offspring. It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare,
whose righteousness there? His righteousness. You see, his
righteousness is my righteousness. It's imputed, charged, accounted
to me. And he said unto a people that shall be born that he hath
done this. Alright, now there's the psalm of the cross. And then
you come to Psalm 23, that's the psalm of the shepherd. And
it speaks of, as the psalm of the cross, Psalm 22 speaks of
Christ fulfilling His high priestly office. Psalm 23 speaks of Christ
fulfilling His prophetic office. He is that prophet. And as a
shepherd, gathers his sheep by calling them by name remember
John 10 he said I know my sheep gathers them in and as he protects
them and he feeds them and he guides them thy rod and thy staff
come from me here's the psalm of the prophet Christ our prophet
well then we come to psalm 24 and that speaks of Christ our
king you put them all together that's the mediator prophet priest
and king Now his prophetic office and his kingly office is all
founded upon his priestly office. He had to do the work. He had
to die for our sins. He had to make an end of sin.
He had to bring in everlasting righteousness. And he ascended
unto the throne, his mediatorial throne, as God-man. And that's
what Psalm 24 is about. And look at it in verse 3 of
Psalm 24. It says, Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord?
Or who shall stand in his holy place? Who's going to do that? Well, he that hath clean hands.
and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,
nor sworn deceitfully." Now, who's that describing? That's
describing our Savior. It's describing our high priest. It's describing our prophet.
It's describing our king. And it said, he shall receive
the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of
his salvation. Now, it's talking about the righteousness
that he worked out on the cross. Because you see, He is righteous
in Himself, in His nature as God. But He had to work out one
on that cross. That's why He said, I've got
a work to do. I've got to do this work. I've
got a purpose here. And when He finished that work,
He said what? It's finished. so that Christ is the end of
the law so he says he says this in verse six this is the generation
of them that seek him that seek thy face O Jacob lift up your
heads O ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the
king of glory shall come in and he asked this several times who
is this king of glory well he's the Lord strong and mighty the
Lord mighty in battle Christ went to war against sin against
Satan against the world And He overcame. Lift up your heads,
He says, O ye gates. Even lift them up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King
of glory? The Lord of hosts. That's the
invincible God. Cannot be defeated. He is the
King of glory. And my friend, that's how we
become acquainted with the Lord. That's how we know Him, isn't
it? By that revelation of Himself. to us through Jesus Christ, our
prophet, our priest, and our king. All right, let's sing as
our closing hymn, hymn number five.