Let's turn in our Bibles to Job
chapter 9. And this evening I am going to finish
Job chapter 9. I promise you I'm going to finish
Job chapter 9. But you know there's a lot here.
The title of this message is the same as the last message,
Man's Need of Christ as Mediator. Man's Need of Christ as Mediator. And I purposely entitled it that
way instead of saying man's need of a mediator. Yes, we need a
mediator. But we don't really just need
a mediator. We need Christ as a mediator. For He is the only mediator.
And here in Job chapter 9, we'll pick up around verse 20 and 21,
around that area, if you want to turn in your Bibles and follow
along. Job, in his despair, in his agony. Oh, what agony. Indescribable. And his pain and sorrow. And
not only that, you have Job's soul suffering, his heart suffering,
you have his bodily suffering, and then you have three well-intentioned
religious friends who are in essence, and not intending this,
but shooting arrows at Job, making him the target of their self-righteous
thoughts and their legalistic ways. Here he's answering one
named Bildad. Bildad had presented the case,
Job, we know God is just. God doesn't do things that are
unrighteous and unjust, and here you are suffering. And only the
evil suffer. So therefore, you must be evil.
What you have to do, Job, is get right with God. You have
to straighten up. You have to figure out why you're
suffering. What sin in your life is bringing
this on? And then make it right with God.
And of course, Job begins this whole answer in chapter 9 by
showing Bildad that on the terms that you present, No man living,
no man born of Adam, sinner, can be just with God. How shall
a man be just with God? That way, it's impossible. God has made it clear from the
very beginning, and Job knew this, and he understood it, that
the only way a sinner can stand before God and be justified,
not guilty, Really not guilty. And when we say declared not
guilty, we mean really not guilty because it's God. God is the
one who's doing the declaring there. The only way is through
a substitute. The substitute. The sin bearer. The Lord Jesus Christ. The one
mediator between God and men. And so Job tells him, look at
verse 20. And here he's continuing to present man's hopelessness
in himself. Now that's what we are without
Christ. We're hopeless. Without help. We read this morning
in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 there where the Apostle Paul in describing
the Christian life and he said this, he said, we're troubled
on every side yet not distressed. And then we're perplexed, but
not in despair, meaning we're not without help. Because God
is working all things after the counsel of his own will in our
lives, and he helps us. He is our helper. He's our Savior. He's our Redeemer. But what Job
is describing back here is man without Christ. Without Christ,
we are without help. Without hope. That's despair. And so he says in verse 20, he
says, man cannot contend with God on his own. Now listen folks,
there's nothing more astonishingly frightening, I guess is the best
way to say it. Nothing worse than a sinner coming
before a holy God on his own. And that's what Job is presenting
here. And he says in verse 20, if I justify myself, mine own
mouth shall condemn me. Remember back up in verse 2,
he said, for every one argument or every one point of defense
that I present before God, he can come back with a thousand
reasons to condemn me. A thousand! He says, if I say I'm perfect,
it shall also prove me perverse. For a man to even say he's perfect
is a perversion. You realize that? That's a perversion. It's a perversion of truth. Now,
Job is not speaking of our perfection in Christ there. He's answering
Bildad on the terms of that false gospel which says man can make
himself complete by his own efforts, by his own works. Well, for a
man to say that he's perfect in that way, that's a perversion.
God holds that as perverse. That's a strong word. That's
not just a little error. That's a damning perversion.
And then he says in verse 21, Though I were perfect, yet would
I not know my soul? I would despise my life, if I
were perfect. Now Job, in Christ, he was and
is perfect. That's complete. For in Christ
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are
complete in him. But what about my own soul? What
about my life? Does it measure up in the way
of perfection? The answer is no. I can't remember what old writer
that said it, that said, you know, we're not what we used
to, when God saved us, we're not what we used to be. But we're
also not what we're going to be. We got a long way to go,
don't we? We have the assurance of final
glory, read about that this morning. We have the assurance of perfection
in ourselves when that change takes place, when God brings
about that change, when this corruptible puts on in corruption. And then we will be like Christ
perfectly in ourselves. But what about our life now?
Well, look at verse 22. He says, This one thing, therefore
I said it, he destroyed the perfect and the wicked. Now, how God
deals with men on this earth is not the determination as far
as the temporal things of this world. For example, Job going
through trials. Bildad in the lap of luxury,
let's say. Let's go to the parable of the
rich man and Lazarus. The rich man in the lap of luxury. Lazarus, poor, sick. How God deals with men on this
earth in that way is not the determining factor of their state
and standing before God in Christ, spiritually. That's what Paul
means in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 when he talks about we know
no man after the flesh. You look at a person, and that
person is sick with some dreaded disease. You can't say, well,
I know that he's not in God's favor. or she's not in God's
favor. To do that would be taking sides
with Bildad and Eliphaz, and we'll see with Zophar, those
miserable comforters. You see, that's not the way it
is. All die, the wicked and the perfect, the just and the unjust. It rains on the just and the
unjust. You see, whenever we see those
trials of life that men go through, We don't know their state and
standing before God except we see their testimony or hear their
testimony of their hope and their assurance, their salvation. Are
they looking to Christ for all salvation? So that's the conclusion
Job comes to. What he's saying is, Bill, Dad,
you're making a wrong judgment based on a wrong standard here.
You're looking at me. And you're making this judgment,
and that's natural to man. You remember the disciples did
that. Do you remember in John chapter 9 when they came upon
the man who was born blind? And they asked the Lord that
question, what sin did he or his parents commit that caused
him to be born that way? And the Lord told them, said,
you're judging this all wrong, Phelps. This man was made this
way by God Almighty so that God could be glorified in healing
him. That's the reason he was that way. Now, you could say
the same thing about Job. Job is going through all of these
trials and tribulations so that God will be glorified in blessing
him. Look at verse 23. He says, if
the scourge, that's the whip, like the cat of nine tails that
you hear of so often that they used on our Lord. If the whip
of God's chastisement If it slays suddenly, if it takes away suddenly,
or even kills suddenly, he, that is God, will laugh at the trial
of the innocent. Now what does that mean? Isn't
that a strange thing to say? The writer of the book of Job,
if it be Job himself, is saying it by inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. Well, he's not saying here that God is some sadistic
monster who takes delight and pleasure in our pain, that he
whips us just so he can have a good laugh. That's not what
he's saying at all. But this is a word that indicates
a mockery of the trial itself, proving this. that if we're God's
children, like Job, whatever trial, whatever scourge he sends
on us, God can mock at it in this sense. He knows that it
cannot totally and utterly destroy us. Now, we can't laugh and mock
at it. Job's not laughing here. He's
not my... But see, God knows the end from
the beginning. He declares the end from the
beginning. This trial that Job's going through,
this severe trial, will never, never destroy him utterly. God's in complete control of
it. God is working it after the counsel
of his own will. And nothing, nothing, nothing
will separate his children from his love in Christ. And God knows
that. And that's why God, in a sense,
can mock the trial. Not making fun of it, but just
simply seeing it for what it is. We see it as the end of all
things. You know, we get a little wrinkle
in our universe and we think it's the end of the whole thing,
don't we? And that's the way we act. Oh, it's all over now. Well, God doesn't do it that
way. He mocks at it. He mocks at it. And every now
and then he gives his children some grace to even look at it
a little bit that way. You know, that's what Paul in
2 Corinthians 4 called our light affliction. We just don't see
them as very light, but that's what they are. They're in light
of eternity. compared to the blessings of
God's grace in Christ, the forgiveness of our sins, the justification
of our persons. And that's what he's saying.
God knows the end from the beginning because he declares the end from
the beginning. Look at verse 24. He says, now
think about what he's saying here. He surveyed this earth,
surveyed this world. Look at this world. And he says,
the earth is given into the hand of the wicked. Ain't that true? Satan is sometimes referred to
as the God of this world. And he says, "...he covereth
the faces of the judges thereof." This world has been plagued in
all of its history since the fall of man with evil rulers,
evil judges, and even judges who may have the best intentions,
but they just can't tell right from wrong. That's what it means,
covers their faces. They just don't know the reality
of things. Just like Satan blinds the minds
of unbelievers. Remember that? 2 Corinthians
4 and verse 3, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that
are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them that believe not. He's actually saying here that
God is the one who blinds the minds of these judges for his
purposes. Look at it again. The earth is
given into the hand of the wicked, Did you notice the language there?
Don't let it pass by you now. Watch it say. It doesn't say
here that the wicked have stormed the earth and overtaken it by
power. Does it? It says the earth is
given into the hand of the wicked. Now who do you suppose gave it?
God did. And that's a judgment upon this
wicked world for sin. He covereth the faces of the
judges thereof? And if not, where and who is
He? Now, if this isn't God overruling
all things, controlling all things, then where and who is He? He's
nothing. That's what Job's point is. If
God is not the sovereign of this universe, even in these matters
that upset us so much, And that we complain about so much. If
God's not in control of them, then who is he and where is he?
He's nowhere and nobody. But we know better, don't we? Think about it. Doesn't it give
you some comfort to know that we don't live in a world of chaos? Now, it looks like chaos sometimes,
and it seems like chaos, but it's not. And I tell you, I do. I take comfort in the sovereignty
of God. That's what Job is saying here.
It's not that he's going to enjoy everything he's going through.
We don't. Job is not enjoying this at all. But he says this,
look at verse 25. He said, Now my days are swifter
than a post. That's like a postal carrier.
He says, They flee away, they see no good. My days are short. He said, I'm not enjoying any
good. in these days of trial. He says, my days are passed away
as the swift ship, like the fastest ship on the ocean. That's how
fast my days are going. As the eagle that hasteth to
the prey, like an eagle swooping down on the prey. What's his
point here? He's saying the brevity of life
shows our longing for salvation, our longing for eternity. The
brevity of life itself shows our need of a mediator. Christ
who is our life. We spoke of this morning how
mortality, death, is swallowed up in life. And how Paul wrote
in 2 Timothy chapter 1 there about the gospel. which presents
a salvation that was given to God's elect in Christ before
the foundation of the world and has been made manifest, has been
manifested to us by the coming of Christ into this world. To
intervene in time, God in human flesh, God tabernacling among
us, the Word made flesh, walking this earth and going to the cross
and suffering as our substitute for our sins charged to Him,
and dying. He died. And you think about
it. His life was short. His life
here on earth, 33 and a half years. And yet in that life,
In that life, mortality is swallowed up. Our lives are going fast. So we long for eternal life. Where are we going to find eternal
life? Death is coming to all of us. Death is the result of
sin. Eternal life can only come through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's why I read that John 17. This is our Lord's high priestly
prayer for his people. You see, man cannot plead his
case before God and justify himself and gain life. He can't do it. That's why we need this mediator. And that's why he said, he said,
"...as thou hast given him power over all flesh." Power over all
flesh. For what purpose? That he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Now, what is eternal life? What
is it? This is eternal, that they might know Thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent, Christ our Mediator.
No life without Christ. He is life. Over in the book
of 1 John chapter 5, I love this passage because it speaks of
the... I love... You all know me and my preaching.
I love these passages that talk about the assurance of salvation. the assurance of eternal life
and glory. And God has left us a written
record. He says back down in verse 11. He says, well, read verse 10.
He says in verse 10 of 1 John 5, listen to this. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. If you believe, you
have the witness in yourself, in your heart. That's the new
heart. What is that? That's Christ in
you. That's the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. And he's the
witness. And it says, He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record, the written record, that God gave of his Son. And this
is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
life is in his Son. The one who died. and swallowed
up mortality. The one who was buried, and yet
the one who rose again the third day. Oh, our days are short. Go back to Job 9. He knows it. You see, Job is not immersed
in some false health and wealth prosperity gospel like these
other three fellows are. And then look here in verse 27.
He's not... Job, he says here, He said, that's
not my hope. Christ is my hope. Now, another
thing he's saying here, look at verse 27, the power of positive
thinking is not my hope either. Christian psychology is not my
hope. He says, if I say I will forget
my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness and comfort myself.
You know, it's like somebody come along and say, well, just
get out of it. You ever had somebody say that to you? Just get out
of it, you know. Just straighten up and quit acting
like that way and have positive thoughts. Verse 28, look here,
he says, I'm afraid of all my sorrows. I know that thou wilt
not hold me innocent. Job knows he's a sinner. He knows
God has his reasons for doing what he's doing. He says, I cannot will away my
sorrow. I can't just will it away. Man
thinks he can will his salvation. He thinks he can will away everything.
He thinks he can will his blessing. Pray hard enough. Believe hard
enough. They act like God is some kind of a genie in a bottle.
You rub that bottle hard enough and sincere enough, you'll get
what you want. And if you don't get what you want, it's because
you didn't believe it hard enough. But Job says, no, that's not
the way it is. I can't will away my sorrow. I can't ignore it
away. I can't act like it's not there.
I'm not going to be a hypocrite. He says here, he says, here's
the reality. If I try to put on a front with
you, I would be afraid that my sorrows would return and God
would not hold me innocent. Well, what's he talking about?
Well, he's talking about his present suffering here. You see,
if things are true as Bildad preaches, that God is chastising
Job for sin, then Job has no hope of relief except one way,
eternity in Christ. If all of us think about this,
do you realize that if all of us suffered in this life in direct
proportion to our sin, then none of us, no exceptions, would be
able to lift up our heads? Do you believe that? The best of us and the worst
of us. If we suffered in direct proportion to our sin, we wouldn't
be able to lift up our heads. We'd be in sorrow and despair
all the time. But look at verse 29. He says,
If I be wicked, why then labor I in vain? Now, if Job was suffering
because of his wickedness, like Eliphaz and Bildad said, had
accused him, Then it's futile for him to do what they say to
do. It's something that won't work.
What they're saying won't work. If that's the reason, that's
what he's saying. Now again, Job knew he was a sinner. But
what he's saying to these fellows, if I'm suffering in direct proportion
to my sin, then there's nothing I can do. In other words, it's
like he's saying this, what can wash away my sins? Nothing. In their theology. Nothing in
their false gospel. My works won't wash away my sins.
My efforts won't wash them away. Not even my confession. If I
found some particular sin and confessed it, that wouldn't wash
my sin away. Tears of remorse will not wash
away my sins. Promises to do better. Reformations
of life. Joining a church, getting baptized,
none of that stuff will wash away my sin. What will? And this is where Job comes to.
I need a mediator. But before he gets there, look
at verse 30. He says, if I wash myself with snow water. Now,
he's speaking metaphorically here. He's saying I can wash
myself with religious efforts, whatever. If I make my hands
never so clean, literally that says if I use the strongest soap
you can find. That's what the literal statement
would be in the old Hebrew. If I wash myself clean with snow
water, if I could find the strongest soap that a man could use here
on this earth, What would be the result? He says, Yet shalt
thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes should abhor
me. My own clothes wouldn't even
want to be on me because of the stink of sin. Again, what can wash away my
sins? You remember what Isaiah wrote
over in Isaiah chapter 1? When I read this verse, this
is the exact verse I thought about. You know what Isaiah is
talking about in chapter 1? He's talking about people who
are trying to wash away their sins, as it were, by religious
efforts. That's what Israel was in Isaiah's
day. They were a religious people.
They went through the motions. They went through the ceremonies.
They prayed, and they tried to worship, and they sang, and they
tried to serve, and they sacrificed. They didn't know the meaning
of these things. They'd lost sight of the grace of God and
how these things pictured salvation by God's grace in Christ. They
were using their efforts trying to wash away their sin. But it
won't do. That's what Job is saying. It
won't do. And remember what he says in
verse 16. Look at Isaiah 1 and verse 16. Listen to what he says
here. And this is right after he told
them, God said, I'm tired of your prayers. I'm tired of your
feast days. Verse 16, wash you. That's a
command. You wash. Make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings
before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do
well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed
they were used and what he's saying there He says with judge
the fatherless plead for the widow what he's saying there
is they were using their religion To forsake their responsibilities
to take care of the most destitute in their society That's what
that's common, but look at verse 18 Come now and let us reason
together say it the Lord though your sins be a scarlet They shall
be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool." Now, what's he talking about? He's
talking about being washed clean from all our sins in the blood
of the Lamb of God. That's the only thing that can
wash away our sins. We'll go back to Job 9. Now,
Job concludes this section by showing forth or setting forth
man's hope in Christ. And there's a lot of debate about
this. Let me show you what I'm talking about. First of all,
look at verse 32. Job 9 and verse 32. He says,
For he is not a man as I am, that I should answer him. God
is not on equal terms with a sinner, or even with any man. And he
says that we should come together in judgment. You cannot put God
on trial. That's what he said. We're sinners
who deserve damnation. We cannot negotiate a settlement
with God. Job had said that before. As
I've told you, I heard one preacher say, you cannot sweet-talk God
into lowering his standard. We cannot negotiate with God.
God's not going to bargain with us. You see, God's salvation
is not a he will if you will. You see, that's negotiation.
God says, I'll do this if you'll do that. That's the false gospel
of modern day religion. Actually, it's the false gospel
of false religion of all time. But you see, you can't do that.
And here's what he's saying. There is absolutely nothing that
a sinner can do to cleanse himself from sin. Well, where is there any hope?
Well, the hope is throwing ourselves on the mercy of God. God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. I've got no claim. I've got no
deservedness. I've got no merit. God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. And with that in mind, here's
what Job says, verse 33. Now, I want you to notice this. He says, neither is there any
betwixt, or between us, that might lay his hand upon us both."
Now Job recognizes his need of a mediator. That word, daysman,
it can be translated in different ways. You might have the word
umpire in your concordance there. That's a good word for it. And
as I've said before, you know what an umpire does. He's the
one who makes the right call, supposedly. It can also be an
arbitrator. It's a go-between. But mediator is a good word for
it. What is a mediator? A mediator
is one who... there are two parties at odds.
And a mediator is one who has some vital connection to each
side and he steps in between and he brings the two parties
who are at odds together in peace. That's what he does. That's a
mediator. Now when Job poses this, there
are some commentators, and you might read them, and some preachers
who believe that Job was ignorant. That in saying this, neither
is there any daisman or mediator between us that he might lay
his hand upon both of us. Some say that Job, at this time
in his life, he was totally ignorant of the fact that God had already
provided the one mediator in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the promise of his coming. And that Job didn't find out
about Christ until later. Now, I disagree with that totally,
and I want you to go back to chapter 1, because as I told
you, this is the key. You have to keep this in mind. I believe Job was a believer. I believe his hope and his rest,
his security, was in the Lord Jesus Christ as Job saw him in
the power of the Holy Spirit as the promised coming Redeemer. And he says that in Job 19, I
know my Redeemer liveth. I believe that Job was a justified
man because God said he was, verse 1 of chapter 1, there was
a man in the land of us whose name was Job and that man, Job,
was perfect, complete, and upright, and one that feared God. That's
a believer now. A person who fears God is a regenerate,
born-again person. The Bible tells us that by nature
there's no fear of God before our eyes. So who puts that fear in us?
God does, by the Spirit, when He shows us our sin. when he
shows us our condemnation in Adam and brings us to see his
holiness like Isaiah of old. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. I'm undone. I'm cut off. I'm
a man of unclean lips. And then shows him his grace
and mercy in Christ as the one mediator between God and man.
And then secondly, in verse 5, we read there that Job offered
burnt offerings. Now, the reason you offer a burnt
offering, if you know what that means. Now, I know they offered
burnt offerings and many of them were lost. But not Job, he feared
God. He eschewed or avoided, ran away
from evil. He wasn't an unbeliever. And
he offered burnt offerings. Now, you know what a person is
saying, a believer back then before the coming of Christ,
In the days of the patriarchs like Abraham and Noah, Jacob
and Isaac, you know what they were saying when they offered
burnout? When they slew an animal, that's what they did, shed blood,
and burnt that offering on an altar. You know what they were
saying? If they were believers, they were saying, this pictures
Christ, the Lamb of God, the one mediator. They certainly
knew their need of a mediator. They certainly were testifying
there of God's provision of a mediator to come in the future. The coming
of Christ. So I believe that settles that
issue about whether or not Job knew. But what's he saying here?
Well, Job, I believe, is simply speaking in terms of the accusations
that were brought against him by Eliphaz and Bildad, saying
simply this, I can't answer your charges. But that he needed someone
to step in, in providence, in this issue, and make the right
call for him. Some say that Job lost sight
of Christ here, just like David lost the joy of his salvation.
If that were true, then certainly Job didn't need a bill dad to
come in and preach a legal false gospel to him. He needed a Nathan
the prophet to come in and say, Job, your sins are forgiven by
the blood of Christ. I believe old Dr. John Gill had
it right here. He's one of the commentators
that we read. And understand, I don't base my beliefs on a
commentator. I take them just like I would
any other preacher. You know, we have to gauge these
preachers and commentators. They're men. And we have to gauge
them with the Scripture. But listen to what Gill said
here. It's worth hearing. Gill says, Job is here not speaking
of his eternal salvation, about which he had no doubt. He knew
his state was safe. He knew he had an interest in
the living Redeemer, the one blessed mediator, Christ. But he's talking about his present
situation in Providence. And of the clearing of that up
to the satisfaction of his friends. How can I answer somebody like
Bildad? That's what Job was saying. I
need somebody to step in between here and make the right call. was speaking in those terms.
And since God did not think fit to change the scene, and God
at this point hadn't, Job's still suffering. He's still out there
on the ash heap, on the dung heap of the city. There was none
to interpose on his behalf with these men who were accusing him,
and it was vain for him to contend with God. So what's he do? Well, he just says, I need somebody
to speak for me. I can't defend myself to you
or to God. I need someone to come in right
now. And then, here we have a glorious admission, not only of the reality
of Christ as the one mediator between God and men in salvation,
but even in providence. I don't have the answers, Job
would say. But you don't either. I know one who does. He's one
who can lay his hand upon us both. That's a symbolic way of
speaking of how Christ, the one mediator between God and men,
has a connection with God in that he is God, and a connection
with man in that he is man. He's the right mediator. He's
one who is both God and man. He's without sin, and he always
makes the right call. He's the one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. In our justification before God,
He's our only hope as the one mediator. He's made peace between
God and His people by the blood of His cross. Now, He hadn't
done it in time in Job's day, but He was going to. And Job
testified of that when he shed the blood of an animal. There's
a picture of that. But as we look back on it, we look at our
mediator as our one righteousness in which we stand eternally accepted
before a holy God no matter what we go through here on this earth.
Isn't that right? Whether I'm healthy today or
sick tomorrow, Christ is still the Lord my righteousness. He's
my one mediator. He'll never stop being my mediator.
He's the mediator of a better covenant, Hebrews chapter 8. We can't really see the whys
and the wherefores of everything that goes on in this earth, but
we know that all things work together because God is working
all things together. We know nothing can separate
us from the love of God in Christ. Why? Because there's one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And he's our hope. When you go through a trial,
when I go through a trial, it may be that he'll step in in
some miraculous way or in some ordinary way to make the right
call so that we and our enemies can see it. But then he may not. He may let it go until the end
and ring it all out at the judgment when he makes manifest and declares
his glory. in the salvation of his people,
and in the vindication of his providence. Well, look at Job
9, look at verse 34. He says, Let him take his rod
away from me, and let not his fear terrify me. Job is praying
here, he might say. Then would I speak and not fear
him, but it is not so with me. If only there were someone to
arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon both of someone
to remove God's rod from me so that his terror would frighten
me no more." And Job says, then, I would speak up without fear
of him. But as it is now, as it stands
with me, I cannot. I cannot. Job is suffering. Job is suffering. And he's going
to continue to suffer some more. And we'll see how he reasons
it out as we go through the book.