I'm going to preach out of chapter
9 tonight, but I'm going to start here in chapter 8. Job answered Eliaphaz all the
way through chapter 7. And then Bildad answered Job. And in verse 8 it said, How long
will thou speak these things? How long shall thy words or thy
mouth be like a strong wind? He said, oh, when you talk, it's
just like a strong wind. He said, doeth God pervert judgment,
or doeth the Almighty pervert justice? If thy children have
sinned against him, have cast them away for their transgressions.
Now his kids are all dead. Can you imagine a man saying,
you know, God done it because of your sin. And that's what
they're saying. If thou wouldest seek God, be
times, in time, and make thy supplication to the Almighty.
If thou were pure and upright, surely now he would awake for
thee, and make the habit of thy righteousness prosper." He said,
if you'd really seek the Lord and you was pure, and you was
justified and sinless, God would hear you. God would hear you. And look what he says down in
verse 20. So he's chiding Job, you know,
oh my. God, you think God perverts judgment
or justice because of you? You know, you just look at yourself
and we know what you are. And he says down here, behold,
God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the
evildoers. Neither will he help the evildoers.
Then Job answered and said, I know it is so of a truth, but how
should a man be just with God? How can a man be perfect before
God? How can a man be pure before
God? If he will contend with Him,
if a man starts to contend with God, he cannot answer Him a thousand. He is wise in heart, mighty in
strength, who hath hardened himself against thee, and hath prospered,
which remove the mountains that they know not, which overturneth
them in his anger, which shaketh the earth out of her place, and
the pillars of there tremble. I want to talk tonight about
Job's view of God. Job's view of God. I know what
God's view of Job is. God told us what his view of
Job was. Said, if you consider my servant Job a perfect and
an upright man, who eschews all evil, and Job and all the things
that God sent his way, and all the afflictions, and all the
burdens, and all the loss that he suffered, with his mouth he never sinned
against God. He said, the Lord gave and the
Lord take away. Now these fellas got to telling
him what an awful sin he must have committed, some very, very
gross sin, horrible sin, that God is punishing him for it.
Ain't that what he said? He said in verse 20 again of
chapter 8, Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither
will he help evildoers. So they're making God to be something
that he's not. And Eliaphas said over here in
chapter 4 and verse 17, look at that with me just for a moment. And oh, they think God has done,
you know, God's killed all your children because of your sin.
If you'd just go and seek the Lord, pour out your heart before
Him, admit what you've done, admit your sin, you'd be all
right. Job, you'd be all right. But
look what he said here in verse 17 of chapter 4. Shall mortal
man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than
his maker? And he's saying, Job, that's
what you think you are. You just will not own up to who
you are and what you've done. So he said, you know, God won't
cast away a perfect man. If you is pure, if you is upright,
you seek God and God will You pour out your heart for him,
admit everything that you've done, and you'll be all right.
Like I said, we know what God thinks of Job. Now we're going
to find out what Job thinks of God. We already know what he
thinks about God. He said, God gives and the Lord
takes away. And he said, he won't cast away
a perfect man. Job said, I know that. I really,
really know that. That's the truth. That is the
truth. But how in the world is a man
gonna be perfect before God? And you tell me, well, how should
a man be just before God or with God? And I'll tell you, this
is the first thing that Job knew about God. I think this is one
of the first things that we as believers learn about God, that
he's just, that he's an absolute just God. He does not pervert
justice, as one of them said. And that's why Job said, I know
it's so of a truth. God is just, just in every way
possible. And I say God is so just that
it requires men to be just in his sight. And God is essentially
and absolutely just. He will by no means clear the
guilty. And God, listen, now God has
no reason or no motive to commit an injustice. Could God ever
do anything unjustly? Could God do anything except
what's right? Huh? You know, God, he says,
he tempteth, you know, he tempteth no man to evil, and he cannot
be tempted to evil. And if God wasn't just, and God
hadn't taught us that he was just, you know, our consciences
would not believe that, if God, our consciences did not believe
that God was just, we would never have any remorse over our sins.
Because we would have no one to answer to. We'd have no one
to require anything from us. So our consciences wouldn't even
bother us over our sin, if God wasn't just. If we thought a
God that was a God, like most people say, there's a God. A
God that was to and can't, that he's, you know, they can't get
God low enough, and they can't get man high enough. You know,
they got a pygmy God, and they got a giant man, And like we've
seen last week, that Jesus is a big toe. How low can you get
the Lord Jesus Christ? How low can you get him? And this is the situation. If
salvation's by the will of man, by the power of man, by the merit
of man, by the works of man, if salvation's by that then,
God's unjust. And our sins would not never
bother us. That's why people's sins don't
bother them. Because they've lived right. They've done the best they can.
They've joined the church. They've accepted Jesus. They've
made a decision. And if we felt that God is unjust
in any way in himself, we would never be sorry for our sins because
we'd have no one to answer to. That's why most people are not
sorry for their sins. God in his word declares that
he's just. He said he's a just God and a
savior. Shall not the judge, Abraham
asked this question, shall not the judge of all the earth do
right? Oh my. But that's why Job asked
the question. God won't cast away a perfect
man. You find a perfect man, God won't cast him away. God
said Job was a perfect and an upright man. He won't cast him
away. Well, how did Job get perfect
and how did Job get upright? The same way I did. The only
way in the world a man can be perfect. And that's why I asked,
how should a man be just with God? Ecclesiastes 7.20 says this,
there's not a just man on the face of the earth that doeth
good and sinneth not. Who can say I've got clean hands
and got a pure heart? And that's what Job's asking
here. How can a man be perfect before God that God will not
cast him away? That's a question. What a question
that is. How many people even ask it?
How many preachers ask it? How many preachers have ever
dealt with it? And I tell you, I don't want
God to cast me away, do you? Oh, I wanna know what it is to
be just before God. He's a just God, I know that.
I mean, he ain't nobody getting by with nothing. He does not
do an injustice. He does everything, everything
he does is right. And what makes it right? That
he does it. And then he says there in verse
two, if he will contend with him. If a man starts contending with
God, you say, why would anybody contend with God? People do it
all the time. My God wouldn't do this, my God wouldn't do that,
my God's this way, my God's that way. And that's why you know Paul,
when he was preaching in Romans 9, and he says, Jacob have I
loved, Nesau have I hated. And he goes down through there
and says, you know that God, in his electing grace, that he
raised up Moses. He'll have mercy on whom he'll
have mercy. He'll have compassion on whom he'll have compassion.
He raised up Pharaoh just to manifest his power in him. And
a man says to him, well, why doeth he find fault? And then
Paul says, who art thou, old man, that reprides against God? Who do you think you are? to
talk about God. Who do you think you are to put
yourself in judgment over God Almighty? You don't think it's
right for God to love one and hate another? You don't think
it's right for God to have mercy on whom he'll have mercy? You
don't think it's right for him to have compassion on whom he'll
have compassion? You don't find fault with the
God who made you? You don't find fault with the
God who gives you the breath to breathe? Gives you a soul? Gives you your life? Oh, that's
what he says. Oh my. And that's why I said
if a man contends with God, man can contend with God. I'll
tell you what Uncle Scott said one time. He said, you're in
a losing battle. You're in a war you can't win.
But oh, contend with him. How are you going to contend
with him? Well, you're going to tell him, say, well, I've
been a pretty good person. I ain't been perfect, but I've
been pretty good. That's one of a thousand. Are you going to deny your fact
of sinfulness before God? Are we going to prove our sins?
Can He prove our sins from the necessity of our nature? Can
He say, although I've sinned, sin has an exception in my life? And I tell you, you answer him
of one of a thousand. And this is what he's saying
is, if a man has one sin in a thousand good works, that one sin would
require God to be just and deal with him over that one sin. So
that one sin, how am I gonna be just with God? I was talking to a man. He's
kin to some folks in his congregation. He'd been real sick and I was
talking to him, he's telling me how sick he'd been, what all
had happened. I said, boy, God had mercy on you. He said, no,
no, no, it was me, I was determined. It wasn't God having mercy on
me, it was me, I was determined. He's answering God, one of a
thousand, contending with God. Oh my. God, what you say is mercies
are new every morning. Every morning. I'm thankful I
get up in the morning. There's brand new mercies for
me. Brand new mercies for me. Wake up in the morning, open
my eyes. God's got new mercies for me
that day and for you that day. New mercies. Tell me, oh tell
me, how merciful He is. Go on, talk about your good deeds.
Go on and argue with God. Go on, debate with God. Go on,
tell him about how powerful your will is. Go on, tell him how
about mighty you are. Go on, tell him that he has to
give you a chance. Go on and argue over what he's
going to do about the Chinese, and what he's going to do about
the Indians, and what he's going to do about the heathen, what
he's going to do about all these millions of people in the world.
Go on, argue with him about it. But I'll tell you what, you can't
win that argument. You can't do it. You can't do
it. You think it's going to change
God? What you think about Him? That's what He said. If what
you do and what you think, what's it going to do to God? Is it
going to change Him from being just? Is it going to change Him
from being right? Is it going to change Him from
having all power? Oh no. This is another thing
about us as God's people. We love God just the way He is. We love Him just the way He is.
We can't get Him high enough. We can't worship Him pure enough.
We can't honor Him enough with our lips and with our heart.
We can't do it. But I, we love him with the way
he is, and if my whole family perishes because he is God and
because he's just, and they won't come to him on that ground, if
he may have to perish, I'm sorry for him, but I ain't gonna bring
God down to their level. We're not gonna bring God down
to man, and God's not gonna bring himself down to accommodate man
and his ideas of him. Oh my. So how in the world, if
a man has one sin, how can he be just before God? Oh my, how can he do it? When
he ain't got but one among a thousand sins. Just that one will do it. And I'll tell you something.
I know this from my own heart, my own experience. A man can't
contend with his own heart without it condemning him. Huh? How much
less, God? How much less God? Job says this,
God is just not only when he punishes the wicked and the guilty,
but he is just even when he afflicts the righteous. That's what Job
is saying. What God's done to me, how God's
dealt with me, how God's treated me, how God's took everything
I've got, he's just. And how am I going to be just
with him and just before him? Everything he's done, he's just.
Everybody talks about he's just. And I've told you this before,
you know, you take a bar and a big ol' honky-tonk where everybody
just gets drunk and has a good time and just rips and roars
and just thinking, then all of a sudden, it burns down. Everybody, oh, the church gets
up and rejoices and says, oh, listen, God put the devil out
of business last night. And then he comes along and then
the next Saturday, he burns the church to the ground. Then they say, will the devil
burn our church down? It's God who does both. God not
only deals with the unjust and the guilty, he's never lowered
his standard. But he also is righteous and
just when he afflicts any of his elect people. And there's
been some folks afflicted in this congregation, really afflicted. And I tell you, God is just.
They said he's righteous when he... Job is saying God is right
and he deals with us only as they deserve. But God says, oh,
how he deals with men, he's righteous. If he gave us what we deserve,
what would we have? but he deals with man out of
whatever he does is right. I don't care how he deals with
us, he's righteous in doing it. And there's no sin in God whatsoever,
there's no goodness in us. There's no sin in God and no
goodness in us. And we will, I want you to turn
with me now to Romans chapter three, and let's look at how
God can be just. I wanna look at this, how God
can be just. There's three things that really,
really, truly make up the gospel, no matter how you deal with it. Man starts out, we first have
to deal with the sovereign God. But there's sin, sin. Man's born with it, man's gonna
live with it, man'll die with it if God don't intervene. And
so man, since he's a sinner and he's sinned badly, then the second
thing of the gospel is substitution. If a man's a sinner and he wants
to be just with God, he's got to have a substitute. He's got
to have somebody take his place, somebody to bear his sin. And
the third thing is, is satisfaction. Did that substitute satisfy God
on your behalf? Did that substitute make you
just before God? Did that substitute take care
of your sins, so that when you stand before God, somebody else
has already declared you just, and cleared you of all your guilt,
and you can stand before God just? Because the substitute
satisfied God, And he put your sin away. And now you deal with
those three things and you'll come, you deal with them as you
go to the end of all three of them. And you'll find out how
God can be just and justify. But look what he said here in
Romans 3.19. Paul says, now we know, this
is some things we absolutely know, we know these things, that
whatsoever the law saith. Now when he says the law here,
he's talking about not only the moral law, but all the word of
God, all the word of God. The moral law hadn't been given
when Adam sinned in the garden. So that's the law of the Lord
too. And then, so whatsoever the law
saith, it saith them that are under the law. under God's word,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
built or subject to the judgment of God Almighty. And I tell you,
when's this gonna happen? It's gonna happen at the judgment,
but it happens with God's people now. And that's why it says,
therefore, by the deeds of the law, Anything that you try to
do out of God's Word that's under any precepts, statute, law that
God gave, he said, if there's by the deeds of the law, there
shall no flesh, no fallen man be justified in his sight. By the law, by the Word of God,
is by God's precious Word. Law is the knowledge of sin.
But now, listen to this, now the righteousness of God, without
the law, without any law, without any moral law, without any statute
or precepts, without the law, it was witnessed by the law.
It says here, back in the law, it says, the man that doeth them
shall live by them. And oh my. being witnessed by
the law and the prophets. The prophets talked about how
righteous God was. God said, I'm righteous and every
knee's gonna bow before me and every tongue's gonna confess
that I'm righteous. That's what he said. All right,
and he said, listen, to even the righteousness of God, which
is by faith of Jesus Christ. Now listen to this. This is our
righteousness and our justification. You see, it's the righteousness
of God and it's by one man. By the faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe. There's no difference
in men. Why ain't there no difference
in men? For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
How do we know that? But he says, now, we all sinned,
we all sinned, and all that believe, and all that believe Christ,
and all that believe the rights of God which is in Christ, we've
all come short of the glory of God. Then he says, since you
sinned, you come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely. Here you are, you sinned, you
missed the mark. God says this, being justified
freely. Huh? Listen to this. by His grace,
through the payment price, through the blood that's in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now listen to this now, God sending
forth, that means predestinate Him, foreordain Him, to be a
perpetuation, to be a sacrifice, to be an atoning victim, atoning
one through faith in His blood. And you know what God did through
setting Christ forth on the cross? To declare, there's my righteousness
right there. And I'm putting away all the
sins of the past. That's what he said. And here's
verse 26, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness,
God's righteousness, Christ's righteousness, that God might
be just. And the justifier of him that
believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my. Freely? Freely? Well, you sin. Freely? Freely? And then go back over here to
Job. Oh, I tell you, that's... Thank God that God sent forth
Christ, predestinated Christ, to be our mercy seat. And God,
there, He declared how righteous He was, putting our sins away.
And oh my, now back over here, not only did he know that a man
must be just before God, he said, I don't know, how is that gonna
be? And then he says here in verse four, he said, not only you can't,
if you contend with him, you can't answer him more than a
thousand. That he's God almighty, he says here, he's wise in heart,
mighty in strength, who had hardened himself against him and hath
prospered. Not only did he know God was just, but he knew God
was infinitely wise, infinitely, eternally wise. He said he's
wise in heart. You know how wise God is? He
takes all the wisdom of this world, all the wisdom of this
world, and you know what he counts it? Nothing. You know, everybody wants to
be called doctor. You know, they give them a PhD and you call
them by name. Well, I prefer you call me doctor. And there,
you know, you got all these people and you know, they got all the
wisdom in the world. You know, all these great leaders
and all these great, they call them think tanks. You ever heard
of anybody calling a thing a think tank? They got a think tank here
and a think tank there? What is a think tank? You get it to think and you think.
I got that statue of the thinker, you know, he's looking like that.
But they do have, they have these, all these people get together
and they pay a great big money to sit around and deal with issues
of certain areas and certain things and certain places and
certain things and they deal with those things and think about
them and everybody's waiting with bated breath to see what
they're going to say about that situation. How are we going to
deal with that? How are we going to deal with
this? You know, all these people that tell about the climate,
that we're going to be, the climate's going to change. In 300 years,
the ocean's not going to have any fish in them. You're going
to be in 300 years to care. You know, all these fellas got
all this wisdom and got all this knowledge and got all these scientists.
And God absolutely laughs at them. He says, boy, that's a
bunch of fools. And then God takes a bunch of
people like us, who are nobodies, that people don't even know we
exist, except in our own little bitty world. We then don't know
we exist, and yet God takes these people like us, foolish, weak,
And he does it for one reason. Turn around and say, now see
all you fellows got all your wisdom and all your knowledge
and all your might and all your power? These are the people that
I'm interested. These are the people that I chose.
These are the people that I'm going to save. And they scratch
their head and say, hi, boy. I didn't even know God existed. And there they are. Oh, my. He's wise. Oh, God's so wise. Oh, my. And you know where he
showed his wisdom at more than any place else? in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He showed his wisdom in Christ.
God is all-wise, omniscient, known unto God are all his works
from the creation. Job 26 says this, the hell is
open before him and hell is naked before him. Just naked before
him. And not only does he do right,
he knows nothing but what's right. And I know one thing, you can't
deceive him because he already knows all. That's why David said,
if I make my bed in hell, there you are. If I get in the dark,
it's just like light to you. I go hide someplace and there's
no place I can go get away from you. And then, you know, here's
the thing about it. What he was saying was, Lord,
I don't want to get away from you. Wherever I am, that's where
you are. And I tell you, not only is he wise, but look what
else it says about him. He's mighty in strength. What do you reckon that means?
Huh? I think that means that he has
all power in heaven and earth. Huh? He is not only wise but
he has the might and the strength and the power to do anything
he wills to do. He doesn't need to pervert justice
because he's afraid of man. Now that happens all the time
in this world. People through fear of man will
do all kinds of things and they'll pervert justice and pervert judgment. But God's not afraid of any man.
Is there any man that God's afraid of? Any man God looks at and
says, boy, he's a fine boy. He's got so much power and he's
got so much authority. I might not ought to fool with
him. You reckon God'd ever do that? Some people think that way. He
is wise and he's mighty in strength. He's the force behind all forces. He's the power behind all power. Oh, God's strength is absolute. God's strength is independent.
God's truth has no, God's power has no limit to it. God's power
will never ever run out in any way. When our Lord Jesus stood
before Pilate, and our Lord wouldn't answer him, he said, answer me,
answer me, answer me, are you a king or are you a king? He
said, you say it. He said, answer me, don't you know I've got the
power to crucify you and I've got the power to let you go?
Our Lord said, oh, you poor, pitiful fool. You poor, poor,
pitiful fool. You have no power, none whatsoever,
Pilate, except it was given you from heaven itself. Huh? Pilate got up and he said, I
know how I get out of this situation. I know how I get out of this
situation. I'll go over here and wash my hands and get the
blood of him off of me. And I'll say, you take him. No, no, crucify him, crucify
him. You reckon he got the blood of Christ off his hands washing
him? No, no. I want you to look with me in
1 Samuel 2, 3. Look over here in 1 Samuel, chapter 2. Look
in verse 3. Oh my. Oh he's wise and he's
mighty in strength. He's omniscient. God, I've said this so many times,
he's too wise to do wrong, too good to be unkind. But look what
he says there in verse 3. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of
your mouth. For the Lord God, Lord is a God
of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. Oh my. He knows what we do before we
do it. Oh my. Now let's go back over
here. Let's finish this thing up here.
Oh, how can you gonna be just with Him? Gotta be perfect. How are you gonna contend with
Him? He's wise in heart and mighty in strength. And listen to this
and ask another question. Who hath hardened himself against
him and hath prospered? Whoever hardened himself against
God and has prospered. You say, well, who has hardened
him? Well, I'll tell you several people in the Bible that's hardened
herself against him. Pharaoh hardened himself against
him. Pharaoh hardened himself against him time and time and
time again. What did it profit him? Demas
hardened himself against him, having loved this present evil
world. Judas hardened himself against the Lord Jesus. Saul,
the king of Israel, hardened himself against God. Korah stood
and said, I'm as holy as anybody. Pride and arrogancy come out
of his mouth. You know what God did? He opened
up the earth. And those old barners said, send
him to hell without a living chance to pack his suitcase.
And on, listen, I tell you, Helen hardened himself against the
Lord. Pilate hardened himself against the Lord. And how many
other peoples hardened themselves against God? I tell you some
people that argue against him and gonna harden him and contend
with him, is when they get to the end of the way, they're gonna
say, Lord, Lord, have we not? We preached in your name. Cast
out devils in your name. We've done all these wonderful
works in your name. You know what Christ's gonna
say? Four awful words. Depart from me. Depart from me. Everything you've done was a
work of iniquity. You're so hard, you're so full
of self, and so powerful in your own right, and so self-righteous,
you thought that you was going to face me on the basis of everything
you did? They noticed that they never
did say, Lord, you gave us the grace. Lord, you taught us. Lord,
you upheld us. Lord, you gave us the ability
to do these things. They never said anything about
the Lord. All they said, we did, we did, we did. And that's why
God said, depart from me. Oh, if Christ died for me, I'll
never hear that word. God is so just. Here's the thing,
God cannot punish sin twice, and sin can't be in two places
at the same time. If sin was put on Christ, your
sin and my sin is put on Christ, then they can't be on us. So
God can't come and get us for our sin, because He's already
got His Son for our sin. And sin can't be in two places. And so God cannot punish sin
twice. God cannot unjustly demand twice
payment for the same sin. Can't do it. Bless his holy name. I mean bless
his holy name. I mean I'm so thankful. If Christ bore my sin, I ain't
got any. So when God comes looking for my sin, He only sees the
righteous man. Why? Because I believe on His
blessed Son. How? Why do you believe on Him?
Because God sent Him forth and said, He that believeth on my
Son. He said, I'll justify that man. And I'll do it freely. You
know why I'll do it? Because Christ's blood paid for
their debt. And God said, I'm righteous to
do that. You believe on him, I'm righteous to make you righteous.
Why can you be righteous to make me righteous? Somebody else already
paid for your sin. This gospel, I never get weary
of it. Never, never, never. And oh,
it's a certain ruin to contend with God Almighty. God Almighty. God is infinitely wise and infinitely
powerful. The power of God is as great
as the will of God. You can't have one without the
other. You know what does our God do? Our God is in the heavens
and He does whatever He pleases. He does as He pleases in the
heavens, in the earth, in the sea, in all these places. And
He does according to His will in the armies of heaven. And
who can, when He stretches forth His hand, who can say unto Him,
what in the world are you doing? And I'll tell you this, if the
power of man was as equal to their wills, what work would
they quickly make of this world? They'd destroy it so fast. Oh
my, if their will was as powerful as they thought it was, they'd
destroy this place quickly. But ain't you glad that God's
got all the power, God's got all the wisdom, God's got all
the will, huh? I'm so thankful. Oh, our Master, our Master, our
Master, our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I'm so full of gratitude,
thankfulness to you. Your gospel does something for
me that nothing in this world can do. It comforts a sinner's
heart, it comforts me. The sinfullest person, weakest
one, frail as dust, But oh Lord, I don't want to contend with
you. I'll never contend with you.
Oh Lord Jesus, you contend with the Father for me. You already
did it. And I'm thankful. I'm thankful. And oh Lord bless
your holy name. God bless these dear saints as
they go home, go to their jobs tomorrow. Go to their homes tonight. Give them sweet rest. Bless their
homes. Bless their children. Have mercy
on our loved ones. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen. I think it's 267. 267. I think, or no, 67. How can it be? How can it be?
67. I believe that's right. Let's see if that's right. How can it be that they'll Sixty-seven,
yes. Alright, let's stand together
and we'll sing this. You'll be at liberty to go. Oh, Savior, as my eyes be The
wonders of thy might unfold, the heavens in glorious light
array, the vast creation thou hast made, and yet to think thou
lovest me, my heart cries out, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? that God should love a soul like
thee? Oh, how can it be? As at the cross I humbly bow
and gaze upon thy thorn-crowned brow, the precious bleeding form by
cruel nails so bruised and torn. Knowing thy suffering was for
me, in grief I cry, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should
love a soul like me? Oh, how can it be? Oh, I love it. How can it be,
how can it be, was ever grace so full and free? From heights of bliss to depths
of woe, in loving kindness Thou didst go from sin and shame to
rescue me. O love divine, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should
love a soul like me? Oh, how can it be? I'm gonna tell you how. It pleased
him to do it.