Good evening, let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 40. Hymn number 40. Great is thy faithfulness, O
God my Father. There is no shadow of turning
with thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions
they fail not, As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be. Great is thy faithfulness, great
is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. All I have needed thy hand hath
provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me. Summer and winter and springtime
and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above. Join with all nature in manifold
witness. To thy great faithfulness, mercy,
and love. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies
I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath
provided, Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Pardon for sin and the peace
that endureth, Thine own dear prayer. and to God. Strength for today and bright
hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousand
beside. Great is thy faithfulness Great
is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies
I see. All I have needed, Thy hand hath
provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me. Be seated. Hymn number 290. 290. Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to order and
provide in every change. full will remain. Be still my soul, thy best, thy
heavenly friend. Through thorny ways, leads to
a joyful end. Be still, my soul, thy God doth
undertake. to guide the future as he has
the past. I hope thy confidence let not All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Be still, my soul, the waves
and winds still know. His voice who ruled them while
he dwelt below. Be still, my soul, the hour is
hastening on. when we shall be forever with
the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and
fear are gone, sorrow forgot, Love's purest joys restored. Be still, my soul, when change
and tears are past. All safe and blessed. Good evening. We turn to 2 Peter
chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3. The second epistle,
beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your
pure minds by way of remembrance, that you may be mindful of the
words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the
commandment of us the apostles and of the Lord and Savior, knowing
this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers
walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise
of his coming? For since the Father fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the
heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and
in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed
with water perished. But the heavens and the earth
which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day
is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years is
one day. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promises, some men count slackness, but is long-suffering
to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent
heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall
be burned up. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in
all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto
the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat. Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be found of him in
peace without spot and blameless, and account that the long-suffering
of our Lord is salvation. Even as our beloved brother Paul,
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto
you, also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things,
in which are some things hard to be understood, which they
that are unlearned and unstable rest, as also they do also the
other scriptures unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved,
seeing ye know these things before, beware, lest ye also, being led
away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and
forever. Amen. Almighty God, we come to you
this evening and we thank you for this day, Lord. We thank
you for a place to come and hear the truth about you and about
your son, Lord. We thank you, Lord, for. Our pastor and we thank you for
him. Telling the truth, Lord. Lord,
we ask that you'd be merciful to the people sick of this congregation
for Barb and Miss Fran and Helen. And for their families, Lord,
give them comfort. Lord, help them. Lord, help our families
that don't know you, Lord. Give them a need for you. Lord,
we ask that you'd be pleased to do with us as you will, Lord,
and that we would submit to your
will and be happy to submit to your will, Lord. And all these
things we ask in Christ's name, amen. M number 44. Number 44. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in you? Savior's blood. Died he for me, who caused his
pain. For me, who into death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be That
Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it
be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me. We'll take it up just a little.
He left his father's throne above, So free, so infinite His grace
Emptied Himself of all but love And bled for Adam's helpless
race Amazing love, how can it be That thou, my God, shouldst
die for me. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? No condemnation now I dread,
I am my Lord's and He is mine. Alive in Him, my living Head,
Enclothed in righteousness divine. Amazing love, how can it be that
Thou, my God, shouldst die? for me. Amazing love, how can
it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Job chapter 40. Job chapter 40. I want to thank you all again
for that very, very generous, exceptional gift that you gave
to us. Very, very, very thankful for
it. Very grateful for it. I want to read the first 14 verses
of this chapter and deal with them. You know, we dealt with
Elihu and what he thought about Job's three friends and Job himself. Then he went on for a couple
of chapters and there's not much to say other than what he had
to say about them. And he tried to tell them some
things about God. But moreover the Lord answered
Job. God's gonna speak to Job now. We'll talk to him. Moreover the Lord answered Job,
after everything's been said, all the accusations, all the
conversations, and says, shall he that contendeth with the Almighty
instruct him? He that reproveth God, let him
answer him. Then Job answered the LORD, and
said, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will
not answer, yea, twice, but I will proceed no further. Then answered
the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Gird up
thy loins now like a man. I will demand of thee and declare
thou unto me. Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? Wilt thou condemn me that thou
mayest be righteous? Hast thou an arm like God? Or
canst thou thunder like him with a voice like him? Deck thy thyself
with majesty and excellency. Array thyself with glory and
beauty. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath. And behold everyone that is proud
and abase him. Look on everyone that is proud
and bring him low. Spread down the wicked in their
place. Hide them in the dust together
and bind their faces in secrets. Then will I also confess unto
thee that thine own right hand can save thee. How would you like God to confront
you? Well, he does every time we open
his word. What we have here is God reproving
Job, reproving Job, reproving the whole human race as far as
that goes. But I'm telling you, God, when
He speaks, He has a lot to say. And you know, when God begins
to speak, and when He says here, The Lord spoke unto Job, We have
to understand, I think, that when the Lord speaks, He's always
spoke by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the Lord Jesus
that walked in the cool of the garden in the day, in the garden. Because the Scriptures tells
us plainly that everything God, everything that was created was
created by Him and for Him and through Him. And He's before
all things, and by Him all things consist. So if God speaks to
anybody, He speaks through the Lord Jesus Christ. But I do know
that if God speaks, He's gonna speak. And when He spoke to him,
and that's why God asked this question, He answers, He shuts
man's mouth. He shuts man's mouth. And that's
one thing man don't want to be, he wants to always have an idea,
he always wants to have an opinion. I heard a fellow say the other
day, he said, I'll take anything but the Bible. Don't want the
Bible. Another fellow says, you know,
let's talk about Darwin, Charles Darwin, what a gigantic
genius he was, you know, and how he explained the origins
of life. And what kind of a genius does
it take to tell man that he started out as an amoeba and crawled
out of the murk and mire and sprouted a leg and then he learned
how to walk on one leg and then he sprouted another leg and then
he just kept growing and growing and growing. So listen, let me
ask you something. Has anybody seen any evidence
of any evolution in your lifetime? They keep searching for the missing
link. I think the missing link is up
here with those folks who believe that. That's where the missing
link is, but that's what God, and people want to instruct God. That's what He says to Job. He
said, Job, you contend with the Almighty and instruct Him? You think that you can reprove
God? Oh my, first thing God shows
man here is his ignorance, his ignorance. Shall he that contendeth
with the Almighty instruct God? God asked the question over there,
and Isaiah said, who hath ever been his counselor? Who did God
ever have to answer to? And oh, who can instruct God,
huh? He's omniscient. He's all-wise. He's omnipotent. He's all-powerful. He's omnipresent. There's no
place where He's not. So to instruct the most, to instruct,
to think that you can instruct God for one moment, you get all
the created intelligence, get the angels, get all the demons,
get all the geniuses in the world, get the brightest people there
are, get them all together. Get them all together. Say, go
up there and tell God how to do things. Go up there and tell
him how to do things. Oh, my. Do you reckon they would
increase God one iota? You reckon that'd make him wiser,
make him smarter, make him more intelligent, make him any better,
make him any glorious? Oh, my. That's like a fellow
striking a match and say, listen, I can make the sun shine brighter
lighting this match. That's what man is, trying to
tell God and instruct God Almighty. Light a match. I read somewhere
the other day, it says like a man in a saint asylum writing darkness
and saying that the sun don't shine because he wrote darkness.
This writing darkness don't mean that the light's going out. And
oh my. And that's why he asked in one
place, he said, who being his counselor has ever taught him?
Who's ever taught God anything? And oh, and if it was possible,
if it was possible, that God could be taught and God could
be instructed, where would our comfort be? Where would our assurance
be? How could we trust him if he
could be taught anything, if he could learn anything? If he
could do anything that somebody else could do better than him,
oh my. But what a blessing, what a blessing
it is in this universe and to everything in this world and
in this universe, everything, that God's the eternal and he
carries out his will, he carries out his purpose, and he does
everything according to his own will. And no wonder God said,
be still. You know that I'm God, huh? Oh my. And then Paul asked this
question when he started talking about the election of God, the
children not yet being born, talking about Jacob and Esau,
said the children not yet being born. They hadn't done any good
or evil at all, but that the purpose, purpose of God's election
might stand. And, oh, somebody said, oh, that's
not fair. Paul said, who art thou, old
man, that replies against God? And you read it tonight. Paul,
Peter said in the last day, scoffers is going to come. They go, I
don't need a Bible. I don't need God. I don't need
nothing. I don't need anything in this
world. I can stand on my own two feet. Well, I'll tell you what. Gonna
find out one of these days. Oh my, it's absolutely, you're
talking about one of the foolishest, most absurd things that a human
being can do in this world is to think that they are changing
God by their thoughts. And they say, well, I'll tell
you what I think about it. I tell you, you don't think about
God. You know, when you consider God,
tell me one thing, can you get to the end of God in any way
in your imagination? You can't do it. I mean, when you think that,
listen, God, listen, I know enough to tell God what to do. Could
you imagine anybody crazier than that? But people does it every
day. People do it every day. In fact,
men, they write Bibles. They write Bibles, and they say
they don't like the one that's this one, so they write another
one. And eventually they get it down where it says God's not
a he or a she, he's just an it. They can call him a he, or they
can call him a she, or they can call him an it. That's telling God I don't like
the way you do things, don't like the way you present things,
and I don't like the way you say things. So I just instruct
you. And oh my, I tell you what, that
would be like an ant. You know, when we get ready to
step on that, an ant jump up and say, now wait a minute, who
in the world do you think you are? Who do you think you are? You think you're somebody? That's what it amounts to, a
bunch of ants. Oh, and then look what else.
Not only has he talked about the ignorance of men, but look what
he talks about the weakness of man. He said to Job down there
in verse seven, God answered him out of a whirlwind. He said,
listen to this, shows you the omnipotence, the weakness of
man, the impotence of men. Gird up your loins now like a
man. Huh? Oh, listen. Gird up your loins
like a man. And he says down there in verse
nine, have you got an arm like God? Have you got an arm like
me? And then he asked him this, can
you thunder like I do? Can you make it thunder like
my voice can? Can your voice shake the earth? He said, ah, he said, I'll demand
of thee. I'll demand of thee. Answer thou
me, that's what he says. And he says down there, have
you got an arm like God? Can you have the voice of God?
You got a voice like mine that you can thunder like my voice?
And verse nine, he says, he said, is your wrath like mine? Is your
wrath like mine? Look what he said down in verse
11, showing how man, how foolish he is, how weak he is. He said,
oh, listen, cast abroad the rage of your wrath. If you got a wrath
like mine, take your wrath, take your rage, take your wrath, and
just throw it over, you do it. And then look what he says. And
you look at everyone that's proud. You find where the proud man
is, and you make him a base. Are you like me? He's showing
how weak man is. You see that wicked man? Do you
know how to deal with him? You see that proud man? You know
how to roll out and bring him down? You know how to hide him
in the dust? Oh, my. What are you in my presence? What are you in my presence?
Look down in verse 11. Oh, I'm in verse 12 and 11. He
said there, look everyone that is on proud and bring him low.
Tread down the wicked in their place. Oh, what is that? What's your wrath according to
mine? Ah, my. Oh, God's showing here how infinitely
distanced between God and man. God and man. What a distance, what a distance. It's just incredible, the distance. We can't imagine the distance
between God and man. And oh my, then he showed, he
said, look, and he said, you know, there's things that I've
created that's superior to you, Job, and superior to any man. Look what he says down here in
verse 15. He said, Behold, now Behemoth,
which I made with thee, and he eateth grass like an ox. Lo,
his strength is in his loin, his force is in his belly. He
moves his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his stone are wrapped
together. And you know what? This is talking about a great
big elephant. That's what he's talking about.
That's what it says in the margin of Behemoth. Big ole elephant,
he said, you think you're something, you got some strength, you got
some power. He said, now listen, I made an elephant and said,
you know that elephant can do things you can't even begin to
do. He said, he's a giant and I have him eating grass. I've
got him eating grass. And he does what I tell him to
do. And he said, oh listen, if you can do any of these things
like, you know, he's showing man his utterly weakness. And
he said, in verse 14, he said, if you, when you're weak, you're
so weak, that if you can do, if you got an arm like mine,
got a wrath like mine, He got a voice like mine, got
an arm like mine. And if you got them, you're so
weak. He said, if you can do all these
things and you got this ability, I said, I'll tell you what. I
say, you can save yourself. That's what he said in verse
14. You can save yourself. You can save yourself. And you
know what? You look around and there's so
many things that we just couldn't possibly do. And then for men
to contend with God, contend with God when He says all nations,
all nations as a drop in the bucket before Him. They're like
a dust on a balance. He measures the waters in all
of His hands. And I've told you, He says over
in Psalms, He said, I put all the stars in the heavens and
I call every single one of them by name. and astrologists in
there, and you know, look with their big telescopes, and they
send things out in space, and they take all these big pictures
and all that. And you know, they say, well, we discovered this,
we discovered that. It's always been there. They just happen
to be, they're just finding out that there's so much out there
that they don't know. And they come back and say, well, we learned
a little something. Oh, my. Well, what happens when God speaks
to a man, and God confronts a man, and God shows him how ignorant
he is, and God shows him how weak he is, and how impotent
he is. What happens when that happens,
huh? Well, then Job answered in verse three.
Then Job answered the Lord. Job answered the Lord. He said, behold, I'm vile. Why
shall I answer thee? I'll lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will
not answer. Yea, twice, but I will proceed
no further. Oh my. When God confronts a man,
deals with a man, makes himself to see man as God, a God that
you cannot deal with. A God that you're no way like
him at all. And he makes you know how weak,
how ignorant, how helpless, how impotent you really are. And
that you thought, that you thought that you could amount to something
and do something and question things. When God does that and
makes his self known to a person, the first thing happens. He said,
Lord, first thing he said, I'm vile. I'm vile. God in your presence, I'm vile. My words are vile. My actions
are vile. And he said, behold, I'm vile. I am vile, me, myself. Oh, my. What shall I answer you? And old Job said, listen, I'm
going to lay my hand on my mouth. I've already said too much. I've already said too much. What
shall I answer you? What can I possibly say? What
can I say to justify myself? What can I say to clear myself?
What can I say to put away and make myself better? Job said,
behold, I'm vile. I'm going to lay my hand on,
I spoke once, but now I tell you what I'm going to do, I'm
not going to say another thing. Oh, oh, and God convinces a man
of sin. Oh, my thoughts are vile, my
actions, and I'm by myself. Job, you remember I dealt with
one of the blessings out of here and Job said, oh, if I could
just get in his presence, if I could get in his presence and
I could contend with him, I could talk to him. Well, he's in his
presence now, what's he gonna say? He said, well, I'm not gonna
say anything now. I've already said too much. Oh,
it's like Abraham. It's like Abraham, when the Lord
came to speak to him, and the Lord appeared to him. And he said, who am I? Who am
I but dust and ashes that thou would speak unto me? Dust and
ashes, who are you? Who am I that you'd even come
into my presence? Who am I that you would speak
to me? Who am I that you would choose me? Who am I that you
would elect me? I'm dust. I'm ashes. I wrote a little article. I put
it in a bulletin. We'll get back. The Lord pities them, pities,
pities them that fear Him. I've heard I don't know how many
people say, oh, I don't want your pity, I don't want your
pity. I want God's pity, I'll tell you that. You know why? Because we're pitiful. We are
pitiful. What can we do? That's why he
said, said, Job, you got an arm like mine? Can you shake the
earth like I can? Can you bring the proud down
and destroy the wicked and bring the low up? No wonder Isaiah said, woe
is me. So when I saw the Lord, he said,
woe is me. Ah, woe is me. In chapter five, he said, woe is
five different times to five different things. His woe to
everybody but him. And then the Lord appeared to
him. And he saw him in his glory, and saw him in his throne, and
saw him in his glory. And then he said, well, I don't
know about all them people over there now. I know about me. Woe is me. Woe is me. And Simon Peter, This is one
of the most unusual characters in the Bible. Simon Peter, just
because he questioned the Lord one time. They was out fishing,
he said, oh Lord, he said, we fished all night, we fished all
night. Now Lord said, cast out out there and drop down your
net and you'll have a bunch of fish. So he did and then all
them fish start coming up and he said, oh Lord, he said, depart
from me. I'm such a sinful man. I'm such
a sinful man to doubt you, to question you, to ever think that
I would not do what you told me to do, to question what you
told me to do, to tell you I know something about something in
and out in this world. He said, oh, depart from me.
And old Job said, oh, listen. First thing he said when Job
answered the Lord, He said, I'm the house. What can I answer
you? What could we answer God? What could we answer God? If
God puts us flat on our back, if God does it like he did Job,
takes everything we possess, takes all our money, takes our
houses, takes our children, Everything we got goes to nothing
and we're left nothing, nothing, with nothing but God. Would we
be able to say like Job, as the Lord hath given, the Lord hath
taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord, could we bow down
before him in worship? Worship? Oh my. I tell you what, if we can't
do it now, we couldn't do it then. If we can't worship Him
knowing that everything we got, everything you can touch, taste,
and handle, it's not gonna last, it's gonna perish. But oh, our
relationship with God never perish. Never perish. Everything we got
in this world, we're gonna leave it all behind. But I tell you
what, what a blessed thing. Job said, oh, listen, I'll tell
you what. He said, once I spoke, he said, I was talking one time.
Then he said, I'm not going to answer you, Lord. I'm not going
to answer. I ain't got no answer. I ain't got no answer. Oh, he
said in verse five, yea, twice, but I'll proceed no further.
I'll lay my hand upon my mouth. Oh, my, that's what happens to
a man when God makes himself known to him. What else is going
to say? He said, Job said, I'm not going
to say, I'm not going to say anything else. I'm not going
to proceed any further. And oh my. And then God begins
to show him how great he is. And Job, Job, you've been talking
about me and everybody else been talking about me. But he said,
I'm going to tell you who I am. I'm going to describe myself
to you. I'm going to describe what I've made in this world.
I'm gonna describe everything about myself and my power and
what I do in this world. And you know, Romans 8 says this. Oh, excuse me, Romans 3. He says, you know that when God
comes to a man, brings that law to bear on him, brings God's
law to bear on him, bring God's holiness and righteousness and
justice to bear on his heart and on his mind, on his soul.
You know what it says? that every mouth may be stopped. Every mouth may be stopped. Stopped. And that's all we do now. We
bless him, and we praise him, and we thank him, and we glorify
him, and we want our words, we want our minds, we want our actions
to bring honor and glory to him, And the best we do is nothing
without Him blessing it, without Him honoring it. That's just
the way it is, ain't it? And I love it like that, don't
you? Huh? I ain't gonna take them scriptures
and warp them to my destruction if I can help it. You know, some
people take the Bible and hang themselves with it. But I certainly
don't want to do that. Our Father, God bless your holy
name. Blessed be the name of your son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. You've allowed us another day,
another day, another few moments to gather into your presence,
to learn something about you. Learn something about ourselves.
Learn about our ignorance. Oh, our ignorance. About the
time we think we know something, learn something, we just have
to start all over again. And Lord, we do put our hands on
our mouths. Lord, we understand that without
you we're vile, helpless, hopeless. But Lord, because of you, you
told us that now you'd present us faultless. without blemish,
without spot, blameless before you. So what a contrast from
what we read and heard tonight and what you've actually done
for us. God bless these dear saints. I thank you for their
love. Thank you for the generosity.
Thank you for their faithfulness. And I know that we're faithful
because you're faithful. I know we persevere because you
preserve us. I know we keep on keeping on
because you will refuse to let us go. So Lord, we cast ourselves
on you one more time. Give ourselves up to you. Give our heart, give our soul,
give everything about us. And Lord, what we're not giving
up, take away, take it away for something hidden in our heart.
something in our life that would hinder our relationship with
you, oh God, take it away, take it away for Christ's sake. Bless
and preserve these dear saints, we ask it in our Lord Jesus'
name, amen, amen.