Alright, let's open our Bibles
to Job chapter 19. Job chapter 19. I've entitled the message this
evening, Job and the Kinsman Redeemer. Job and the Kinsman
Redeemer. Normally when you think of the
Kinsman Redeemer, what do you think of? You think of the book
of Ruth, don't you? Because that whole book is a
grand illustration of the beautiful, beautiful grace of God shown
through Christ who is our kinsman redeemer. Well, that's shown
right here in Job 19. In fact, Job 19 is one of the
most remarkable chapters in the whole of the Bible, in all the
Bible. It's Job's answers to a man named
Bildad. We talked about Bildad in chapter
18. He's one of Job's three friends,
remember? Elihu and Bildad and Zophar. And this is Job's answer to Bildad.
And Bildad, like the other two, and probably more vocally than
the other two, up to this point, the other two join in loudly
from here on. But up to this point, he probably
more vocally than the other two, had accused Job of just flat
being a hypocrite. Job, you're a hypocrite. That's
what he tells him. That's what he said back in 18,
chapter 18. He said, Job, you're like a tree
without roots. And that's hypocrisy. He'd spoken
a lot of truth, Bildad had, as the other two did in their advisements
to Job. They've spoken a lot of truth.
Bildad spoke a lot of truth concerning this fact. He says God will punish
the wicked. And that's true. There is punishment
for the wicked. But Bildad's words did not fit
the reality of Job. They didn't fit Job's... It didn't
answer Job's problem. And it did not answer the question
of the righteous when they suffer. Bildad says the wicked, they
suffer. And whatever pleasure they have and whatever joy they
have, it's short-lived. And that's true. But he didn't
deal with this issue. What about the righteous? When
they suffer, what about that? How do you deal with that issue?
That's what really one of the main issues in the book of Job
is that problem there. And here's Job, he's still trying
to find answers from the Lord. He stopped trying to find any
answers from these three miserable comforters, he called them. And
he's seeking answers from the Lord, which is always ultimately
where we ought to go. Go to God's Word for our answers.
Sometimes the Lord answers us loudly, clearly, quickly, and
plainly, and sometimes the answer doesn't come that way. is a human being he's not a superman
he's a believer he's a sinner saved by the grace of God but
he has his problems he has his struggles here he is groping
in the dark and he feels like right now at his point in life
now he feels like that God has totally turned his back on him
where are you God? but he knows he has no hope except
in turning to the Lord and casting himself totally upon God's mercy
in the Redeemer. The first 20 verses of chapter
19, it's real interesting because the bulk of this chapter is taken
up with what I call Job's complaint. Somebody says, well, we should
never complain. You're right, we should never
complain. Now go on through life and never complain. You just
go right on. And maybe a year from now, maybe
a month from now, we can ask each other, how are you doing
with that not complaining thing? You know. We probably have to lie to each
other to say we're doing well with it. Somebody said complaining
is unbelief. Well, even believers, now believers,
I remember Brother Mahan taught us this very well throughout
his years of ministry and going through the scriptures. that
a sinner saved by the grace of God is not a person who is in
unbelief. In other words, he's not in a
state of unbelief. But he still has unbelief in
him. And he has to fight it every day, don't we? That's one reason
why we come to these services. It's not just going to church.
You know, I think that's like an American expression. I wish
had never been, nobody had ever said it. So are you going to
go to church? I say it too now. Don't get me
wrong. I'm not just getting down. But you know what we're doing
tonight? We're studying God's word. We're
feeding on God's word because we need it. We need to be here. We need to hear and listen and
feed upon and learn God's Word. And then we're here to worship.
You're going to worship God. Well, we worship Him every day,
but the Bible commands us to worship in the assembling of
saints. We're assembled together to worship
Him in spirit and in truth. It's not just going to church
because, you know, like you're going to get a pen or something,
you know, at the end of the day. You say, well, I didn't miss
a service. But Job struggles. And we struggle. So let me just
read through this. Here's Job's complaint. Look
at verse 1. It says, verse 1, Then Job answered, and he said,
How long will you vex my soul? You trouble me to the core. That's
what he means. It's almost like he's saying,
I dread you throw rocks at me. But you vex my soul and break
me in pieces with words. They say sticks and stones can
break our bones, but words can never hurt. That's not true.
That's not true. Job says, your words are hurting
me. You're preaching legalism. That's what they're doing to
him. They're, they're condemning him without any evidence or without
any ground. And he says in verse three, these
10 times, have you reproached me? Now the 10 times, there is
not a literal number. It's a, it's a way of saying
back then, time after time, after time, you've troubled me. You've
reproached me. You're not ashamed that you make
yourself strange to me." What does that mean? That means there's
no fellowship between me and you. We're like strangers. There's no family relationship. There's no unity here. You're
preaching one gospel, a false gospel of salvation by works,
false gospel of salvation by health wealth and prosperity
based upon your works and I'm talking about the grace of God
in fact Job says it here look at verse 4 he says and be and
be it indeed that I have erred mine error remaineth with myself
in other words if I have messed up and we all do it's between
me and God he didn't appoint you to come here and be judges
over each other to watch each other, to form a discipline committee
or some kind of a spy network to go out and look at each other's
lives and be judges over each other. If I mess up, it's between
me and God. He'll deal with me if I'm His
child. He chastises His children. We don't know enough to chastise
anybody. We don't have that kind of wisdom
or insight. And I'll tell you what, we don't
have that kind of love. I guarantee if we did it, we'd
mess it up. So Job says it's between me and
God and he says in verse 5, if indeed you will magnify yourselves
against me and plead against me my reproach. Now what he's
saying here is you've lifted up yourselves in your religion,
in your pride, in your works. You think you're doing fine and
therefore God's blessing you and you call me a sinner and
I'm being punished for my sins and you plead against me, against
my reproach. You know what they're calling
his reproach? His gospel. Because the gospel of God's grace
is a reproach to sinners who trust in themselves for salvation. John chapter 3 the light men
love darkness and hate the light because their deeds are you see
if you're trusting right now if you're trusting in yourself
for salvation for forgiveness for righteousness for eternal
life and glory the gospel I preach tonight is going to be a reproach
to you now you may not react in some kind of an emotional
anger or hatred against it, but it's a reproach to you if you
don't, listen, if you're not trusting Christ and Him crucified
and risen again alone, I mean alone, for all salvation, grace
upon grace upon grace, this gospel's a reproach to you. It's a reproach
to those who are trusting in themselves. Verse six, he says,
know now that God hath overthrown me and hath compassed me with
his net. This is amazing here because
Job, he knows that God's in control of all this. He says, God's the
one who's doing this. I've got to deal with God. He
doesn't understand why God is doing it. He doesn't even have
the insight that you and I have because we've read Job chapter
one. It wasn't written when Job was going through this. We know
what God has said. but he knows that god is the
one who's done this look at verse seven behold i cry out of wrong
that is out of my violence out of my trouble but i'm not heard
those he thinks god's not hearing what we know god is but have
you ever felt that way child of god god's just not hearing
you i felt that way i know better i know it's not so but in my
in my trouble I'll complain, too. He said, I cry aloud, but
there's no judgment or no justice. And then he says in verse 8,
He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass. He hath set darkness
in my path. I've got no place to go but down.
It's always down. It's always in darkness. Verse
9. Listen to this. He said, He hath stripped me
of my glory and taken the crown from my head. Now, Job is talking
about the things of this world that men admired him for. that
men looked at and saw, his reputation, his holdings, his family, all
of that. But I thought about that verse,
I've got that marked in my Bible from years ago, because that
verse 9, it's really sort of, it expresses what we really need
for salvation, doesn't it? In order for God to save us,
what does He do? He strips us of our glory, our
natural glory. He strips us, he shows us our
sinfulness. He takes the crown off of our
heads and he drives us to Christ, who is the only glory that we
can boast of. Paul wrote, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember
before God stripped him of his glory, you remember what his
glory was? The Saul of Tarsus. Remember what he said in Philippians
3? I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised the eighth day of
the tribe of Benjamin. See, that was his glory. That
was his heritage. That was his pedigree. His works. A Pharisee. That was his glory.
But there's no glory in those things. There's no glory in the
things of this earth. So thank God that one day spiritually
he sent his spirit and brought us under the preaching of the
gospel and stripped us of our glory. Stripped us of our own
self-worth and self-righteousness and brought us to Christ to plead
his blood and righteousness alone for all of salvation. And now
who is our glory? Christ is. We rejoice in Christ
Jesus, Philippians 3. That means we glory in Christ
Jesus. We boast in Him. Our messages
and our lives should be totally consumed with bragging on Christ. Drawing attention to Him and
His grace and His goodness and not to ourselves. Verse 10, he
says, he hath destroyed me on every side and I'm gone. He's
talking about his physical condition here now. He said, mine hope
hath he removed like a tree. That's any hope in this life.
He says in verse 11, he hath also kindled his wrath against
me. He hath counted me unto him as one of his enemies. That's
the way Job is thinking now. He's wrong. And later on, he
says he knows better that God is not his enemy. But that's
how he feels. He's speaking out of his emotion. He's speaking out of his suffering. And he's speaking out of his
ignorance because he really, as of yet, he does not know why
God is afflicting him or allowing him to be afflicted. Verse 12,
His troops come together and raise up their way against me
in a camp around about my tabernacle. That could be talking about his
physical body, could be talking about his home, his tabernacle.
In other words, there's no place of safety and shelter for him
from these physical inflictions. Verse 13, he hath put my brethren
far from me, and mine acquaintance are barely estranged from me.
There's no help even with my friends and my family. He says
in verse 14, my kin's folk have failed, and my familiar friends,
my closest friends, have forgotten me. My confidence. And it's interesting there that
he uses the word kinfolks because what he's going to express later
on is his hope in one of his, as it were, kinsfolks. The kinsmen
redeemer, we'll see that. Verse 15, they shall dwell in
mine house and my maids count me for a stranger. I'm an alien
in their sight, even the ones who worked for him count him
as a stranger now. I don't even know who he is.
Verse 16, I called my servant and he gave me no answer. I entreated
him with my mouth. I get no respect even from his
servant. Verse 7, my breath is strange
to my wife. My wife can't even stand to be
around me is what he's saying there. He says, though I entreated
for the children's sake of mine own body. The one whom he was
married to. Verse 18. Yea, young children
despise me. He was a joke in the community
now. I rose and they spoke against me. Even the young children made
fun of him. Verse 19. All my inward friends abhorred
me. In other words, that's the one
whom he shared his secrets with. That's what he's talking about
there. And they whom I loved are turned against me. My bone
cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with
the skin of my teeth." You ever wonder where that phrase comes
from? There it is. The skin of your teeth. And what
he's saying there is, I'm just barely alive out of all this. Just barely. Well, beginning
at verse 21, he has an appeal. Here's Job's appeal. Now, there's
Job's complaint. Now, here's Job's appeal. And
he appeals unto God. And what does he appeal for?
Have pity upon me. I'm a pitiful creature. That's
what he's saying. Have pity upon me. Twice he says
it. O ye my friends, for the hand
of God hath touched me. O my soul. I was listening to
a message by Brother Mahan on this passage and he said, you
know, when things go well and things are prospering, you know,
it's not hard for us to say, boy, the hand of God has touched
me. But when, when you're in dire straits, when you go through
sickness or when you go through disaster, do you want to say
the hand of God touched you then? Well, Job is saying the hand
of God touched me. And he's talking to his friends
here in verse 22, he says, why do you persecute me as God and
are not satisfied with my flesh? What he's actually saying to
them there is why are you setting yourself up as God? As if you
know the score here. You think you know what's going
on. You think you know why God's doing this. You think you know
the thoughts and intents of my heart. Only God can know that
stuff. Only God's wisdom and knowledge.
Verse 23. And then he says, here's this appeal. Oh, that my words
were now written. Oh, that they were printed in
a book. This is book-worthy, he said. This whole thing. Somebody's
got to write this down. Well, somebody did. Some people
say that later on, when god returned a blessing to job at the end
of the book that job is the one and the holy spirit used to write
this but we don't know that for sure that but somebody did not
to go ahead it's part of god's inspired record it he said that
verse twenty four that they were graven with ink and i'm paying
and lead in the rock for ever these works these words now there's
jobs appeal well here's the last thing here jobs Now let me read
this to the end of the chapter and then I'll come back and give
you a few thoughts on it. Now listen to what he said. This
is remarkable to me. And when you study it in this
context, it just, I mean, it shines out like that diamond
against the black background. And he says, For I know that
my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth. Now you know who he's talking
about here. He's talking about Messiah. He's talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ. There are a lot of things that
Job did not know about the Messiah. But I'm going to tell you something.
He knew what every sinner must know as taught by God concerning
the issue of salvation. He says in verse 26, And though
after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh Shall I
see God? Why does he say, in my flesh
shall I see God? You know what he's talking about?
He's talking about a bodily resurrection. Even though this body is going
to be destroyed, there's a change. Remember he said that back earlier?
If a man dies, shall he live again? He said, I'm waiting for
my change. He says in verse 27, whom I shall
see for myself. And mine eyes shall behold, and
not another, not a stranger, though my reins shall be consumed
within me. But look at verse 28 and 29 now.
He says, But you should say... Now he's talking to Bildad and
Elihu and Zophar. You should say, Why persecute
we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? Now you
notice the change of pronoun there? he says he says why why
persecute we him you should say but look at verse twenty nine
he says be afraid of the sword for wrath bringeth the punishments
of the sword what's he talking about he's talking about God's
wrath against sin that you may know there is a judgment now
what's he saying here well he's talking about judgment isn't
he What does judgment reveal? Now, we could probably get a
lot of different answers on that from a lot of different people.
There are people who think, well, judgment is going to reveal how
much you've done for the Lord. Well, that's not so concerning
the Scripture. I'll tell you what the judgment
will reveal in light of that more than anything else. It's
going to reveal how much the Lord has done for you. That's
what judgment is going to reveal. if you're one of his. But you
know what judgment really reveals? If you go look at all the scriptures
where the issue of the final judgment is taught, I'll tell
you exactly what it reveals. It reveals what a person's hope
is. What is my hope? What is my assurance? What is my glory? When I stand
before judgment, whatever is brought forth there before the
whole universe, I'll tell you exactly what it's going to reveal
about this person up here. It's going to reveal before the
whole universe what or who my hope is. That's right. Even the judgment of our works
will reveal who our hope is, whether my hope is in myself
My own supposed goodness, my own righteousness, or my hope
is in Christ and Him alone. That's what judgment reveals.
Well, what is Job's point here? Well, he says here, he mentions
up here verse 28, he says, the root of the matter, underscore
that phrase in your Bible. The root of the matter. Now,
remember what Bildad had accused him of. Bildad had said, Job,
you're a hypocrite. You're like a tree without a
root, whose branch would be cut off. He'd said that several times.
Job, you're not going to be recovered or healed until you stop being
a hypocrite. That's what Bildad said. And
what's Job's answer? He says, I am no hypocrite. I
am not a hypocrite. And here's what he's saying in
verse 28. He's telling Bildad and his friends, he says, what
you should say is, why do we persecute him? Why do we accuse
and lay burdens upon him without cause or evidence, seeing, as
Job is speaking, seeing that the root of the matter is found
in me. Job is saying, there is the root
of the matter found in me. There's something rooted in my
heart. I'm not a hypocrite. I'm not one who just has an outward
profession with no inward foundation, inward life. And what is the
root of the matter? Well, it's the power of God in
the salvation of a sinner. It's faith born of the Holy Spirit,
faith in the total person and finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. And that's what Job expresses
up here in verses 25 through 27. Here's my hope now. I'm not being
a hypocrite. I have one hope. I have one assurance
like Paul. 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. That's that unction of which
John wrote in 1 John 2, 20. You have an unction from the
Holy One. Here it is, and Job expresses the root of the matter
right here. He expresses the issues of his
heart. He says, I know my Redeemer liveth,
and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. This
He is my hope. He is my hope. This is the grace
and truth of God, firmly rooted within Job's heart. He's no hypocrite. He's a sinner, but one who is
saved by the grace of God. He's one whose sins have been
washed clean, white as snow, in the blood of the Messiah who
is promised to come and die for his sins. He's one who stands
before God in the righteousness of God in Christ, imputed to
him and received by God-given faith. And that's what the word
of the heart states when the Holy Spirit does His great work.
It says, The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy
heart. That is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart, rooted in your heart, that God hath raised Him
from the dead. What's Job say? I know He lives
and He'll stand in the latter day upon the earth. And he says,
Thou shalt be safer with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. What is that? Looking to Christ.
Resting in Christ for all righteousness. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. This is Job's confession of faith. This is Job's confession of Christ.
What is Job's hope? What is Job's confession? Well,
look at it. First of all, it's a firm faith,
a well-rooted faith, the gift of faith that God gives his people,
for faith is the gift of God, in the person of the Redeemer
whom God made known to him, whom God revealed to him. Job knew
Christ as the coming Redeemer. I know, he said, that my Redeemer
liveth. How do you suppose Job learned
that? Well, I know this, Adam was taught it in the garden,
and he taught it to Abel and Cain. Cain rejected it. Abel
received it by the grace of God, proven by bringing the lamb for
worship, the blood of the lamb. And I know that truth was handed
down. How did it get to Job? The Bible
doesn't tell us, but I'll guarantee you this, the Holy Spirit revealed
it to him. God the Holy Spirit revealed
Christ to Job just as He's revealed Christ to us who know Him. For I know, He said, I'm assured
of it. It's rooted in my heart. I'm
not a hypocrite. There's a lot of things I don't
know. There's a lot of ways I mess up. I'm a sinner saved by grace.
But one thing I know, I know my Redeemer liveth. Job's faith
was not a blind or ignorant faith. There were many things, as I
said, that Job didn't know about the Messiah. He didn't know,
for example, that the Messiah would be Abraham's seed. Abraham
hadn't even been born yet. He didn't know that the Messiah
would be of the tribe of Judah. and come through that nation.
He didn't know the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, Ephratah,
as Malachi or Micah spoke of. But he knew this. He knew that
his Messiah was the Redeemer and that he lives. And listen,
Job, he had spoken of the plight of men all through this. What is the plight of sinful
men? Death. The wages of sin is death. but his faith, his hope that
was well-rooted in his heart was in a living Redeemer he knew
the Redeemer secondly, a firm, well-rooted interest in the Redeemer
as his Redeemer, he said, listen he said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth not just a Redeemer it's not just that Jesus Christ died
and that he died for sinners but he's my redeemer job say
he's gonna redeem me from my an equity that's why a man needs
a redeem that's why any person a senator needs a redeemer why
because in ourselves were hopeless and helpless and do and have
no hope if god were to give us what we deserve it be death and
hell you know that or what we've earned Job knew his salvation
was not conditioned upon himself but upon his Redeemer he's like
Isaiah when he saw the Lord high and lifted up he said woe is
me for I'm undone I'm cut off I'm a man of unclean lint I need
a Redeemer he'd said that before he said my Redeemer and then
thirdly a firm well-rooted faith in the work of the Redeemer Now,
the word for redeemer here in Job 19.25 is the same word that's
used in the book of Ruth for the kinsman. Goel, that's what
it is. The kinsman redeemer. And this
has reference to the kinsman here. And it has reference to
his redemptive work to pay the debt and redeem the sinner from
his sins. That's what the kinsman is all
about. You know the law of the kinsman was established later
in the Law of Moses, but Job knew something about it already,
because he knew the work that God would send the Redeemer to
do. And he knew Messiah would be
his next of kin. That speaks of his humanity.
Now, Joe probably knew something about the seed of woman. That
message had been passed down in the preaching of the gospel,
that the Messiah would be not the seed of man, but the seed
of woman, that he would be God with us, God in human flesh.
His Redeemer had to be both God and man in one person. And he
knew the Messiah as this way. That's why Christ had to be made
like unto his brethren. He's our kinsman redeemer. Who
are his brethren? It's his chosen people. It's
his sheep. It's his church for whom he died.
And this statement concerning the Redeemer speaks of the seed
of woman, the coming incarnation of the Messiah. Listen to what
He says. He says, He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
Now, the latter day there is the age of the gospel. That speaks
not of the second coming of Christ, but of His first coming to do
the work of a Redeemer. There are a lot of people who
say, well, that's talking about His second coming. Oh no, in His second
coming, He's not going to do the work of a Redeemer. In His
second coming, He's going to do the work of a judge, a conqueror. In His first coming, He came
not to condemn, but to redeem, you see. He said that in John
chapter 3 and in other places. Job's talking about a redeemer
who will stand at the latter day in the gospel age. He's talking
about whenever the Messiah comes to this earth, whenever God comes
in human flesh. whenever the word is made flesh
and dwelt among us. Now this kinsman, you remember
the rules of the kinsman redeemer in the book of Ruth and in the
law of Moses. The kinsman had to be free himself
of all indebtedness. In other words, if the kinsman
was in debt himself, he could not redeem his kinfolk out of
their debt. If a kinsman was to redeem, he
couldn't have any debt against himself. Well, Christ, the God-man,
the Redeemer, has no debt against himself. He's the perfect God-man. He knew no sin. The only way
that he incurred any debt at all was by imputation. He was
made sin. He bore the burden of our sins.
Our sins were imputed to him, charged to him. He's not a sinner,
he's not sinful, he's not guilty, not corrupt, according to his
own indebtedness. He's the perfect God-man. And
only one who is sinless could stand under the debt of other
sinners. And then he had to be able to redeem. How did he do
that? He had to work out a sufficient,
perfect, everlasting righteousness that could answer the demands
of the law to its fullest extent and establish its righteousness
and remove its curse. Now how did he do that? By his
death on the cross. He died for his kinsmen. He died for sinners like Job. He died for all who come to faith
in him. And then he must be willing to
redeem. The kinsmen had to be willing to do it. Well, he came
by promise, and it was the covenant promise in which he engaged himself
to come and perform the work of a kinsman-redeemer. Job said
it, I know that my redeemer liveth. And then fourthly, a firm, well-rooted
faith in the accomplishment of his redemptive work. Now, that's
important. Listen, that's the gospel. It's
not did he come down and tried to do the work of a kinsman-redeemer. Or that he came and did his work
to make it possible for us to do our part or redeem ourselves.
No, sir, that's not the work of a kinsman-redeemer. Did He
save His people from their sins? The Bible says in Matthew 1 and
verse 21, His name shall be called Jesus, God our Savior, for He
shall save His people from their sins. He didn't try... Listen,
the kinsman redeemer, if he's able and willing to redeem, you
know what he does? He redeems. He doesn't try to
redeem anybody. How do you know Job knew that?
Well, listen to what he says again. Verse 25. For I know that
my Redeemer liveth... And let me tell you this now.
In order for him to do the work of a Redeemer, he had to die. The Redeemer had to die. You
think Job knew something about that? I'll guarantee you that
he did. Go back to Job chapter 1. How did Job worship God? Through what? Sacrifice. Blood. He knew without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sin. There's no payment for
sin. He knew that in the day that Adam ate thereof, he dying
should surely die. He knew death was the result.
He knew death is the only payment. He knows, and here he says that
I know that my Redeemer liveth. And that he shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth, and look at verse 26, here's the
accomplishment of it. And though after my skin worms
destroy this dead, this body is dead because of sin, yet in
my flesh shall I see God, the Spirit is life because of righteousness,
whom I shall see for myself. What's Job talking about? Talking
about resurrection life there. Mine eyes shall behold, and not
another, though my reins be consumed within me." I'm going to live.
Listen, even though worms consume this old physical body which
is dead because of sin, I'm going to be risen. I'm going to be
resurrected. What does that mean? Job knew
that the Redeemer would die and pay the redemption price of his
blood, his sacrifice. He knew His Redeemer would pay
that price and live the resurrection of Christ. Job knew that this
would be his salvation. His resurrection, He said, in
my flesh, in a glorified body, I shall see God. In other words,
Job is saying the Redeemer's death is my life. The Redeemer's
death is my resurrection, my glory. Just as sin demands death,
righteousness in my Redeemer demands life. And I shall see
Him. What does all this teach us?
That Jesus Christ is the root of the matter. He's our kinsman
redeemer. What is that root to us? Well,
that root is that which is essential to life. Christ is the root,
just like He said, I'm the vine, you're the branches. Life comes
from the root, from the vine. We're the branches. You know,
a man can have religion, but if his life is not rooted in
Christ, he's lost. There's no salvation, no life.
It's that from which proceeds to the branches. In other words,
life proceeds from the vine, the root, to the branches. And
that which comprehends all the rest. You know, everything that's
in the root comes up through the branches. Every blessing,
everything of life and glory. Everything we have by way of
salvation is in and from Jesus Christ, our Kinsman, Redeemer.
And we can say with Job, However many thousand years he said it,
we can say, I know my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I
shall see for myself. And mine eyes shall behold and
not another, though my reins are consumed within me. Now that's
the root of the matter. my kinsman redeemer. All right.
Let's sing, come thou fount of every blessing.