All right, let's turn back to
Job chapter 9. Job chapter 9. As I said, the
title of tonight's message is Man's Need of Christ as Mediator. Now, if you were here last Wednesday
evening, when I last preached from this passage, you know that
my intention was to get down around, beginning in verse 1,
get down around verses 13 to 15. And as you also know, if
you were here, I didn't make it. I didn't make it past verse
2. But, it lays the foundation of
everything that's going to be dealt with here in this whole
chapter, and actually through chapter 10. Chapters 9 and 10.
As you know, it was Job's response to Bildad the Shuhite. Bildad,
one of Job's friends, who came with the two others to counsel
Job. Their intention was to comfort
Job. They didn't comfort him. He calls
them miserable comforters, and that's what they were. You know,
when you're going through a trial of any intensity, the last thing
you need is a self-righteous Pharisee trying to comfort you.
I can't remember which preacher said it, but he said we're all
recovering Pharisees. That's why we need salvation
by the grace of God, isn't it? But Job is answering Bildad's
self-righteous charges against him, legalistic charges, his
false gospel. Job is answering them in chapters
9 and 10. And he made it clear, he makes
it clear, that he makes no claim of perfection in himself. You
remember Bildad's message to him. If you were righteous before
a holy God, God is just. Now, if you were righteous before
God, you wouldn't be suffering like this. You see, God only
afflicts the wicked. Job is being afflicted, therefore
Job is wicked. Now, that's man's reasoning.
That's walking by sight. That's judging by circumstances,
not walking by faith. So that's what Bildad tells Job.
You know, you're wicked, Job. There's something wrong. There's
some great sin or multitude of sins that you haven't confessed
before God, and you need to confess those sins, and you need to straighten
up and fly right so that God will bless you instead of afflicting
you. It's that health and wealth,
prosperity, false gospel that we hear so much of today. Well,
Job makes it clear to Bildad that he's making no claim of
perfection in himself. Job's telling him, I know I'm
not a perfect man in myself. And based upon that, based upon
Bildad's advice, and based upon that situation, when you're talking
about man in himself, even saved men and women, saved by the grace
of God, When it comes to the issue of sin within ourselves,
we really cannot defend ourselves against God's charges in that
sense. The only hope that we have is
what Paul stated in Romans chapter 8, and that is to look to Christ
and be found in him and say, who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God does not charge his people
with sin. That's an amazing thing to me.
I hope I never get over it. How can he do that? Well, he
charged them to Christ. And so that brings forth, in
the first two verses there, what I call man's dilemma. And it's
like Job is saying, now Bill, dad, if what you're saying is
true, and it's true that God is just, God is a just God, God
judges according to truth, he never makes a mistake, he never
perverts judgment, He says in verse 2, look at it, I know it
is so of a truth, but how should a man be just with God? Now,
on the basis of which Bildad is advising, which is basically
salvation by works, blessing by works, well, how could any
man be just with God? We're all sinners. There's none
righteous, no not one. And you'll remember in that message
I brought forth three absolute truths that you have to consider
in considering that question. That first absolute truth is
just what I said. How could any man born of Adam,
born ruined by the fall, sinful fallen people that we are by
nature, how could any of us be just with a holy God on that
ground? It's impossible. And then the second absolute
truth you might remember is this, given that's the case, we are
all in need of a righteousness that we cannot produce. Christ
taught that so plainly, even in the Sermon on the Mount. Remember
he said in Matthew 5 and verse 20, he said, "...except your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. And then
he began to preach the law. And he began to compare the reality
of the law that reaches the heart and condemns men in sin with
the traditions of men which kind of compromise things. You know,
he says, you've heard it said by them of old, you shall not
kill. He said, but I say unto you,
That to be angry with a person to the point of desiring their
death, that's murder too. That's murder in the heart. He
said, you've heard it said by them of old that it's a sin. Thou shalt not commit adultery,
but I say unto you that it's a sin even to look upon a woman
and lust after her. That's adultery from the heart.
You see, the law reaches the heart. Job's going to deal with
that in chapter 9. So what does that teach us? What
does the law tell us? We're sinners and we deserve
death. That's right. We're guilty and
deserve death. We need a righteousness we cannot produce and the only
righteousness that God will accept. Here's the third absolute truth.
The only righteousness that God will accept. There's only one
that he will accept and it's called in the Bible the righteousness
of God. It's the righteousness of God.
And that's what Paul said is revealed by the Holy Spirit in
the gospel. Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed, Romans 117. What is it? That's the grace
of God through Christ by his obedience unto death as the substitute
and the surety and the sin-bearer and the sin-offering. the righteousness,
the Lord our righteousness, the righteousness of his people.
That's the only way a sinner can be righteous with God. That
is, in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
it. And that leads to the conclusions
that Job is going to bring us to in the rest of this chapter. And really, in the rest of chapter
10 also. But look over, it leads us right
here. It leads down to, look at verse
32. Job chapter 9 here's where it's
going to lead to and what I'm going to do after I want to show
you this and then I'm going to start back in verse 3 and we'll
just get as far as time will allow us but he says for he that
is God is not a man we're not on equal terms with God we're
not on an equal ground with God God's not a man as I am that
I should answer him contend with him and we should come together
in judgment God's not going to meet us on an equal plane here. So what's the only answer? Verse
33. Neither is there any daisman. That daisman is a mediator. That
daisman is an advocate. That daisman is an umpire. You might see that word in your
concordance there. And you know what an umpire does.
He's one who makes the right call for both parties. And so
he says, neither is there any daysman betwixt us that might
lay his hand upon us both. Now, what does Job mean? Neither
is there any daysman between us. Didn't he know Christ? Well,
yes, he did. But let's move forward into this. You see, you see the Bible's
playing. What Job is doing, he's crying
out for a mediator in his own situation concerning what he's
going through here on this earth, in his suffering. And the Bible teaches us. And
we, you know, we have a tendency, we have a tendency to think,
well, that in spiritual matters. Well, there's only one mediator
between, there's only one God and one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. But then we have a tendency to
think, now on this plane, it's different. But it's not. It's
the same. There's only one, there's one
God. And one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And I'll show you what I mean
by that in a minute. But true justification before God. Huh? There's only one mediator. The
Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one ground upon
which God will meet with sinners in eternal salvation. And you
know what that ground is? It's the righteousness of God
in Christ. It's the blood of Christ. That's the only ground. Justice satisfied. God honored. But it's also true in Providence
as he deals with us daily. So it's important to understand
as we read through this that, number one, Job is a justified
man. He's a man of God. God said that
in chapter 1. Job is a sinner saved by grace. He's a man of, he's a regenerate
man. He's been born again by the Spirit.
He's a man of faith. He doesn't always express his
faith. Sometimes he loses sight of his faith. Don't get down
on Job too much. You do too. And so do I. In times. It's by the grace of
God that any of us are saved and kept saved. Isn't that right?
Isn't that right? Think about that. Secondly, Job
argues here against Bildad's self-righteous point of view.
Now, some of the things Job is saying are things that he's using to
expose Bildad's lie. For example, when Job makes this
statement in verse 2, he says, how should man be just with God?
Well, didn't Job already know how a man is justified before
a holy God? He did. But he's saying Bildad,
if what you're saying is true, then how can any of us be just
with God? And then thirdly, we have to understand many times
that Job is speaking out of his suffering. And sometimes he just
says it wrong. You know, when you suffer an
intense suffering, you don't have a tendency to be real theological,
do you? I don't. How about you? We speak
out of our emotions, sometimes out of our ignorance. Job speaks
out of ignorance. So keep these things in mind.
Well, there's May's dilemma. How should any man be just with
God? Well, we know. That the only way any sinner
can be just before God is by his grace through the Lord Jesus
Christ. No other way. No other way. All right, look
at verse 3. Now, here we come to a section
I call man's foolishness. And here's what he's saying.
Listen to what he says in verse 3. He says, if he will contend
with him, if a man will contend with God, he cannot answer him
one of a thousand. And then he goes on. Now, this
is man's foolishness in trying to contend with God on his own
terms. And the lesson that is taught
here is this, and it's simply like this. I heard a preacher
say this last week in reading a message on this. He said, man
cannot sweet-talk God into saving him or blessing him on man's
own terms. You can't do it. Now, false religion
will tell you it can't. If you're sweet enough and you're
sincere enough, you can bring God down on your level in some
way. But you can't do it. Man cannot reason with God on
man's terms. God is just not going to compromise
himself in that way. So here's what he says in verse
3. If you want to argue, and if you want to debate, or even
present your case before a holy God, a holy and just God, you
cannot answer him one of a thousand. Whatever one reason you present
to God to justify yourself and say, God, I don't deserve this,
or God, I do deserve something else, God can come back and retaliate
with a thousand reasons why you don't deserve anything but eternal
damnation. That's the way it is. Now, he's
not doing math here, he's just stating a point. You know, the
word thousand in the Hebrew language was a way of stating an infinite
number that cannot be calculated. And this is what he's saying.
Whatever reason I can come up with to say, God, I don't deserve
this suffering, or God, I deserve prosperity, or God, I deserve
wealth and health, God can come back with an infinite number
of reasons why I don't deserve any of those things. I'm a sinner. Even our arguments are tainted
with sin, so they fall short of the righteousness of God.
It's instant failure. Now you think about this. It's
like those fellows in Matthew 7 that I refer to so often. You know, who stood before God
at the judgment and said, Lord, haven't we prophesied in your
name? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? There's three things. God could bring back 3,000 why
they should be condemned. That does not make it so. That
does not equal the righteousness that God requires. It just doesn't
measure up. That's what he's saying. We cannot
persuade God that we're good enough because we're not good
enough at any stage of our life. You see, the only thing that
we can plead before a holy God is what Paul pled, as he stated
it in Philippians chapter 3, that everything that I naturally
think should recommend me unto God is loss. And in light of the glory of
God revealed in Christ, it's nothing, it's less than nothing,
it's even done, O that I may know Him, and be found in Him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Jesus Christ, the righteousness
of God, which is by faith. You see there? You say, well,
I've done a lot for the Lord. You've done nothing for the Lord. You think that's too extreme?
Let me tell you something. If we do anything that God accepts
and blesses, it's not us. It's Christ in us. It's God working
through us. And really, it's a testimony,
not that we've done so much for God, but that he's done everything
for us. You realize that? The evidence
against us is overwhelming. And remember, God looks on the
heart now. He doesn't just look on the outward
appearance. He doesn't see as man sees. What's that mean? That
means we can't fool God. That's what he's saying there.
Look at verse 4. He says, God is wise in heart. Now, God is
infinitely wise. What is he saying there to build
that? He's saying, now look, Job doesn't
have all the answers now. Don't get him wrong as he's going
through here. He's not being a know-it-all.
He's not being a pious, religious sage here. He's just simply saying
God knows what he's doing now. You believe that? God knows what
he's doing. He's wise in heart and he's mighty
in strength. God is all-powerful. We acknowledge
that. He says, who hath hardened himself
against God and hath prospered? Has any man hardened himself
against God and prospered? Well, now think about that. What's
he talking about? Well, he's talking about man's
relationship with God. David asked the question, why
do the heathen prosper? Haven't they hardened themselves
against God? Yes, but even in their prospering, they are not
prospering. Does that make sense? You see,
their prospering is really no prosperity at all. It's just
for a moment. And when the moment's over, what
happens? To be found before a holy God without Christ. Do you think
they'll be thinking about all their prosperity then, their
riches, their wealth, their health? No, sir. They'll have one thing
on their minds. And that'll be God's mercy. But
they won't get it. Because it'll be too late. He
says in verse 5, God removeth the mountains, and they know
not. The mountains, when God levels a mountain. This past
weekend I saw a bunch of trees blown over. Not one of them,
not one of those trees argued with God about it. What's he
saying? Even creation. He's using a symbol
of comparison here. Even creation knows better than
to try to contend with God. He says, "...which overturneth
them in his anger." Verse 6, "...which shaketh the earth out
of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble." The earthquakes.
Verse 7, "...which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not, and
sealeth up the stars." That's God. He goes on. He says, "...which alone spreadeth
out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea." God's
in control. Verse 9, "...which maketh Arcturus,
and Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south." That's
the constellations in the sky. Even the southern constellations.
God sets them in their place. And He's all-knowing and all-wise.
Watch Job. Watch his point here. How can
a puny, wretched, sinful creature like me, how can I contend with
God? How can I plead my case with a holy God? And then his
next point is that God is infinitely sovereign and incomprehensible. We really can't understand him.
That's what he's saying. Now, there are certain things
that God has led us in on by revelation so that we know what
God teaches us and what God reveals to us. But when you're talking
about man, all right, are you going to come to God? See what
Bildad is preaching. You know, this is the same thing.
Work salvation. Think about it. It really is
placing man on an equal plane with God. I've worked my way
into God's favor and God's going to give me what I've earned.
That's man making himself equal with God, actually. And Job's
saying, you can't do that. Look, look here, look at verse
10. He says, God doeth great things past finding out. Yea,
and wonders without number. So many things that you can't
figure out. Lo, he goeth by me, and I see
him not." You know, God is omnipresent. That means He's everywhere in
spirit. But Job is saying, the hand of God can be on me right
now, and I not even know it. He can remove His hand from me,
and I not even know it. God moves in mysterious ways.
We sing that song. And He passeth on also, but I
perceive Him not, things that God's doing. He says in verse
12, look at it. He says, Behold, he taketh away
who can hinder him, who can stop him. Who will say unto him, What
doest thou? You know what he's saying there?
Who is God accountable to? No one but God. God's not accountable
to you or to me. We're accountable to Him. He's
the Creator. We're the creature. But He's
not accountable to us. And I thought about this, you
know when God, when God, when He, before the foundation of
the world, when He determined to save a people, chose them
and gave them to Christ, you know what He did? The scripture
says He swore an oath. Who did He swear by? Anybody
know? Swore by who? Himself. He didn't swear by you. He didn't
swear by any moon or the sun or anything like that. Those
things weren't even created yet. He swore by himself because he's
only accountable to himself. And when he establishes his covenant
with Christ to save his people from their sins, he is still
not accountable to you or to me, not even to his elect. He's
accountable to himself. That's why we say, if any sinner
for whom Christ died on the cross would ever perish in hell, God
swearing an oath by himself and being accountable only to himself,
he would lose more than we would. He would lose his honor. You
know, actually, he would cease to be God. And that cannot happen. Look back at Job 9. Look at verse
13. He says, If God will not withdraw
his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him. What is he
saying? He says, God will bring down
all the allies of the proud. He'll either bring them... Listen.
God's going to bring the proud down. And it's going to be in
one of two ways. He's either going to bring us
down all the way by conviction of the Holy Spirit, showing us
our sin and our need of salvation by grace. That's a good way to
be brought down. That's what we need to be brought
down. Knowing our sin and knowing that our only hope is Christ
and Him crucified and risen again. Either that, or he's going to
bring sinners down into damnation. But he's going to bring them
down. And he won't meet anybody halfway. He will not allow us
to negotiate a settlement with him, like other ways of peace,
other ways of salvation. Now, that doesn't suggest compromised
positions. by which we can be agreeable
to each other. God's not going to do it. He reveals His way
of salvation by His grace in Christ, and in Christ alone,
by the blood of Christ, by the righteousness of Christ, and
He sets before us that way of life and that way of death, and
He says, You come to me. You walk in the way of life.
Christ said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.
I'll give you rest. No rest anywhere else. I thought
about that, Ronnie, when you were reading Isaiah 28, you know,
where it talks about the man whose bed is too short for him.
There's no rest in that refuge of lies. There's only rest in
Christ and His finished Word. See, God's not going to meet
you halfway. He's not going to compromise His honor and His
glory and His position. He comes all the way by grace. through Christ, who came all
the way to this world and became man, and walked this earth as
God-man, and went all the way to the cross of Calvary, and
died all the way to death, even to saying, My God, My God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Do you think God would compromise
his position with you when he would not compromise it with
his only begotten Son? No, sir. No, sir. And so he doesn't compromise,
he just brings his people to deny themselves and their own
words and make them cling to Christ. Look at verse 14. Now here's man's hopelessness
in himself. In fact, the rest of the chapter
up to verse 32 is about that. Now remember, Job is speaking
here from the viewpoint of his suffering. He's hurting. Job's
hurting now. He's not trying to figure out
the gospel issue of how God can be just to justify the ungodly. He already knew that. How do
you know that, preacher? Because he sacrificed. He worshipped
God by sacrificing. That's a picture of how God can
be just to justify the ungodly through the Lamb. But what he's
doing here, he's trying to figure out why God is putting him through
this suffering. If you were suffering half as
much as Job was suffering, when you try to figure out why, that's
just a human thing, isn't it? I'd want to know why. And he's
trying to figure it out. He's defending himself against
the hard accusations of these miserable comforters. And listen
to what he says. Look at verse Verse 14, he said
God's not going to compromise. He's not going to meet us halfway.
But he says this, how much less shall I answer him and choose
out my words to reason with him? What could I say to God? What reasons could I give? Verse
15, whom though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I
would make supplication to my judge. Now what's he saying?
Well, Job was a justified man. He was righteous, not in himself,
but in Christ. He's one who has been made the
righteousness of God in him, in Christ. But he knew he was
not perfect in himself. And so he says, though I were
righteous, yet would I not answer? I still... Listen. Listen. Even as a justified sinner, I
cannot contend with God on the basis of my own inner perfection. It just won't work, folks. You
say, well, I love the Lord. Well, I do too. But how are you
going to contend with God on that basis when we still love
Him with an imperfect love? A love that is contaminated.
That's what Job is saying. He said, if I were innocent,
I couldn't prove it, all I can do is throw myself on the mercy
of the court. That's what he's saying there
in verse 15. Make supplication to the judge.
The only thing I can do is throw myself at God's mercy. We do
that in salvation as we're moved by the Holy Spirit in the invincible
call. Well, just keep doing it every
day, folks. Every day. Because every hour
of every day. We sing that chorus, don't we?
Every hour of every day. Every moment and in every way.
I'm leaning on Jesus. He's the rock of my soul. You
see? That's what Job's saying. Even
as a justified sinner, I still cannot contend with God or plead
my case before God based upon my own personal righteousness. I can only, only come to God
and throw myself at His mercy in Christ. That's it. The mercy of God is our only
hope in salvation. The mercy of God is our only
hope in everyday life, in death, and at judgment. Look at verse
16. He says, "...if I had called
and he had answered me, yet would I not believe that he had hearkened
unto my voice." Now, he's talking out of his despair and what he's
doing here. He's wondering, God, are you
listening? Are you even listening to me? Have you ever felt that
way? Have you ever been so down you think, God's just not listening
to me today? He says in verse 17, "'For he
breaketh me with the tempest.'" That's trouble. There's a storm
in Job's life. He says, "'And multiplieth my
wounds without cause.'" Now, Job's not saying that God doesn't
have a cause here. It may sound like the way it's
translated. God has a cause for everything he does. But what
he's saying is, I don't know the cause. I don't know the reason.
That's why he's expressing his own ignorance. Verse 18, he says,
he will not suffer or allow me to take my breath, but filleth
me with bitterness. He's saying God hasn't even,
in this suffering, in these trials, God hasn't even allowed me to
take a breath, catch my breath. It's like several years ago,
somebody asked me about a particular trial we're going through as
a church, and they said, when's this trial going to be over?
And I said, as soon as the next one begins. And that's what Job
is saying. You haven't even allowed me to
take a breath here. Stop and catch my breath. Just one moment.
Look at verse 19. He says, if I speak of strength
low, he is strong. Job's saying, I cannot contend
with God on the basis of strength because God is stronger than
me. I'm weak. God's omnipotent. And if of judgment,
who shall set me a time to plead? I cannot contend with God on
the basis of justice because he's just in all his ways. I
know this. Now listen to me. I know this. I may not feel it,
and I may not see how it all works out, but I know this. God is just in all His ways.
Isn't He? Job is saying here, I have no
claim of righteousness and holiness from myself that can stand up
before a holy God. Now, my claim of righteousness
and holiness in Christ will stand up before God, won't it? That's
why salvation and everything we need in the righteousness
of God is in Christ. You know, I was, in reading this
and studying this, it's just really, I guess the Lord has
just really impressed upon me that when we make certain statements,
even right statements, It's from the scripture. It really means
something. Like, for example, I've often
said, and you may have said, too, Christ is my all and in
all. Well, folks, that's not just
poetry. And for Job, it's a reality. Well, you know, for us, too,
it's a reality. It's not just a saying. I've gotten to the
point I hate religious sayings anymore. You know, just little
blurbs and what one man called bumper sticker religious. Because
it really doesn't mean anything. But you get down in the dumps
here. Get down in the quagmire of suffering like Job has got. To where you're stripped of everything. I know in salvation, in conversion,
the Holy Spirit strips us of everything that would recommend
us unto God and leaves us naked before God with only one thing,
our need of Christ. and His blood to wash away my
sins and His righteousness to cover me and to justify me. But what if God now takes away
everything in this world that you had even a little pleasure
in? That's where Job is, isn't it? And he's realizing some things
about himself. I think things that he knew,
but now he's living them. And there's a difference sometimes,
isn't there? Look at verse 20. He says, if I justify myself,
mine own mouth shall condemn me. You know, if Job were to
agree with Bildad and Eliphaz and justify himself before God
by his own righteousness and his own perfection, you know
what would happen? His own mouth would condemn him. There's enough
sin. You know, the issues of the heart. come out of the mouth. And if
he would seek to justify himself on the basis of his own personal
righteousness, or his own works, what is that? That's self-righteousness.
God hates self-righteousness. His own mouth would condemn him.
He says in verse 20, if I say I am perfect, it shall also prove
me perverse. You see, Job is not claiming
any perfection for himself. He was justified before God in
the righteousness of Christ imputed, charged to him. But he could
not honestly make the claim of innocence and perfection within
himself. He couldn't agree with Bildad
in that sense. You know, Bildad's arguments
reflect man's view of himself. You know, when Christ taught
that in the parable of the Pharisee and the public, and he started
out, he spoke this parable to those who thought highly of themselves,
judged themselves to be righteous, and despised others. You know,
if we really understand the total holiness and righteousness of
God, and totally understand our own sinfulness, we won't despise
others in that sense. Look down upon them as if Thank
God they're getting what they deserve, as if I'm earning what
I've gotten. Oh, no. You know, man can convince
himself that he's righteous enough. He can convince himself that
he's met certain standards, met certain conditions, done what
is required. But Job says, I can't do that. Look at verse 22. He said, This
is one thing, therefore I said it, he destroyeth the perfect
and the wicked. Now, what does he mean by perfect
here? You know, by nature, there's no man perfect. There's no man
complete. Perfect here has to be defined
by what God said of Job back in verse 1 of chapter 1. Job
was a perfect and upright man that feared God and eschewed
evil. He's talking about a truly good man, one that has received
the grace of God in truth, the goodness of God, and is perfectly
justified and pardoned through the blood and righteousness of
Christ. It rains on the just and the unjust, Job is saying.
God's dealings with man on earth has nothing to do with what we
deserve or don't deserve. That's what he's saying. You
know, the wise man Solomon said the same thing in Ecclesiastes.
He was talking about death. He said, here's a justified man,
he dies. Here's a wicked man, he dies.
It comes to all of us alike. It's all according to God's will.
It's all according to God's wisdom, bringing glory to himself and
in the preservation of his people unto final glory in Christ. Death
to the wicked is eternal death. Eternal separation from God.
Death for the justified is what? To be with our Lord. Isn't that
right? To be absent from the bodies,
to be present with the Lord. Well, how can it be that the
righteous sometimes suffer the fate that the wicked deserve?
And the wicked get what only the righteous deserve. Well,
that's God's wisdom and God's good pleasure and that's God's
business. God's people sometimes suffer greatly. We see that in
Job. We see that in other examples. God's people sometimes have colossal
failures in this lifetime. Look at David, King David. His
failure as a husband, as a father. You want to make that assessment
based upon observation? Well, you have no ground based
on observation to conclude that God loves anybody, that God loves
the righteous and hates the wicked. You see, the only thing we've
got to go by is what God says in this book. When we believe what God says
in this book, you know what that's called? It's walking by faith
and not by sight. So here come these two fellas.
Three fellas, actually. One hasn't spoken yet. Eliphaz
and Bildad. Look at Job. Man, you're in a
mess, Job. You must have done something
wrong. God must really hate you. He must really be down on you.
So the question comes from Job. Well, is God for me or is God
against me? Well, how can you know which
way it is? Well, look at Romans chapter
8. Turn over there with me. How do you know if God's for
you or against you? Now, keep this verse in mind
as I read this. Remember what we're talking about,
what Job's coming up to here. He's coming up to say, I need
a mediator. And the Bible says, for there's
one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Well, here it is. Look at verse 31 of Romans 8. What shall we then say to these
things?" Now, Paul is talking about everything that he'd written
up to Romans 8 here. But I contend that you can take
this right back to Job. Here he is, sitting there on
the ash heap, on the dung heap of the city of Uz, being accused
by his comforters. And he says, what shall we then
say to these things? Well, if God be for us, who can
be against us? And then he says this. Here's
how God is for us. Here's how we know. Verse 32.
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely, unconditionally, undeservedly
give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. The death
of Christ. Yea, rather, that is risen again.
satisfaction to law and justice, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us." Think about it. And therefore, nothing can separate
us from the love of God in Christ. You mean to tell me that the
very moment Job is sitting out there on that ash heap, suffering
and crying, We're going to see as we get
on into Job, even sometimes making a fool of himself, Christ is
even then interceding for him. You bet He is. And my friend,
if He's not, then Job is doomed forever, but
so are we. Without a mediator, without an
umpire, without one to make the right call. You see, Bildad's
making the wrong call. Eliphaz made the wrong call.
Sometimes Job makes the wrong call, but Christ never makes
the wrong call. We'll deal with that more in
detail next message, but he never makes the wrong call. He loves
his own until the end, and he is the one mediator between God
and men.