Over my soul, sweet spirit, sweep
over my soul, my joy is complete. At his feet sweet spirit sweep
o'er my soul. We've been going through the
book of Job and you know the language in the
book of Job is different than any other language in the Bible.
It is so figurative, it's so flowery, it's so profound and
sometimes it's very hard to be understood. But Eliaphaz is the still one
talking. You know, they sat and Job spoke
and then Eliaphaz, he's still talking. He started talking in
chapter 4 and here we are. He's still talking, Eliaphaz
is. And let's start in verse 17 and
go down through verse 27. And hopefully God will enable
me to say some things about this. And this is my subject, this
is the title of my message. Behold, happy is the man. Behold,
happy is the man, whom God correcteth. Therefore despise not thou the
chastening of the Almighty. For he maketh sore and bindeth
up. He woundeth in his hands. Make
whole, he shall deliver thee in six troubles, yea, in seven
there shall no evil touch thee. In famine he shall redeem thee
from death, and in war from the power of the sword. Thou shalt
be hid from the scourge of the tongue, neither shalt thou be
afraid of destruction when it cometh. At destruction and famine
shalt thou laugh, thou shalt not be afraid of the beast of
the earth. For thou shalt be in league with the stones of
the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with
thee. And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace,
and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and thou shalt not sin. Thou
shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thy offspring
as the grass of the earth. Thou shalt come to thy grave
in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season. Lo, this we have searched it,
so it is, hear and know, thou it for thy good. Happy is the
man. Eliphaz is still talking, he's
expressing his view. And you remember, he's talking
to Job. He's talking to Job and those
other men. And he feel like God's chastening Job and that if Job
was like he ought to be, all these things would not bother
him. But here is view of man's suffering
and affliction in God's hand. Like I said, that language of
Job is no place else found anywhere else like it in the Bible, it's
so expressive. But I want you to look there in verse 17. He says, behold, happy is the
man whom God correcteth. Suffering and affliction and
correction, however it may come to God's people, it's a blessing. He said, a man that God corrects,
a man that God chastens, he said, that's a blessing. That man will
be happy. He'll be a happy man. He'll be a happy man. Behold,
a man whom the Lord correcteth. There may come lots and lots
of different causes, different sources. There's all kinds of
second causes. He says there in verse 19, here
he talks about, he shall deliver thee in six troubles, six troubles. And when the seventh cometh,
he said, no evil's gonna touch you. So he's talking automatically
right off the bat that there's at least seven troubles. Seven
troubles. And that's what he's talking
about, the seven troubles. Six and seven troubles. You know
the correction and the chastisement and the suffering may come from
a lot of second causes. And you know one of them, he
said, I'll even save you in famine. Famine is a trouble. He says
there in verse 20, famine he shall redeem thee. And war, he's
talking about war. War is trouble. War is trouble,
especially when you have trouble within your own heart. And all
have trouble, trouble, trouble. And then he says about the wild
beast, down there in verse 23, he says, the wild beast and the
stones, he said, they won't even hurt you. They're the field,
they won't hurt you. Human suffering comes from lots
and lots and lots of different sources. They come from things
within us, come from things within us, and they come from things
without us. But he said, happy is the man. And this is strange. He said, afflicted man, a chastened
man, a corrected man. This is strange and afflicted,
yet he says he's a happy man. He's a happy man. Now, the natural
mind can't get this. And whom God corrects. And whom
God corrects. And the scriptures given by inspiration
of God is proper doctrine, reproof, for correction and instruction
in righteousness. God uses his word, he uses so
many things to correct us. And if anybody don't think they
need correcting, I feel sorry for them. You know, you think
about being corrected. How much did we need to be corrected
from the doctrine we once believed? From the life we led? From our
rebellion and our enmity? Oh, God corrects us. And every
afflicted man isn't happy. Many a people, when they're afflicted,
they're miserable. Miserable. And I tell you, they
don't like correction. But if our corrections, if they
come from God, they're a great, great blessing.
But if they don't come from God, they'll just be poison instead
of a blessing. I can tell you, Tom, I can vividly,
vividly remember several times that God himself has corrected
me. I've been in services where somebody
just get up and read the Bible. And God correct me in the reading
of the Word. Because of my attitude in my
mind, my attitude toward myself, my attitude toward my preaching,
God has taken His Word and just stood up and somebody read it
and put me in my place. God just exposed me. I hope nobody
sees what's going on right now with me, in my mind, in my heart,
just because God sent His Word to straighten me out. Correct
me is to straighten out. Straighten out. And I tell you,
troubles in themselves, they're grievous. They're so grievous.
But all to have the presence and blessing of God in it and
through it, that's what gives the happiness. That's what gives
the blessing. Now you keep Job and look over with me in Hebrews
chapter 12. Look at Hebrews chapter 12. Oh, I tell you, beloved, God corrects us, and if I'm wrong,
I want to be corrected. Oh, my soul, correct me, don't
let me. Please. And he said, happy is that man
that God created. What a blessing for God to pay enough, you know,
you correct your children. You don't want your children
to grow up to be mean and ugly and be disrespectful. You want them to grow up to be
respectful, you want them to grow up to know how to work, how to
make a living, how to do things, to be respectful, to be a good
provider. You correct your children when
they're growing up. Well, if we do that to our earthly
children, imagine what God does for His heavenly children. And I'll tell you, look what
it says here in Hebrews 12 and verse 11. Now chastening for the present
seemeth that now no chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous. Grievous. You know, when God
sends trouble, and he sends correction, and he chastens us, and puts
the rod on our back, puts the rod in our soul, it's grievous
while it's going on. It is terribly, terribly grievous. But look what he says, nevertheless,
after it's over and done with, You know what it'll do? It'll
yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that
God does it to. You know, if you ever got on
your children, and they go off and sit and take a while, and
then after you've corrected them real good, and then they'll come
and crawl right back in your lap, and just walk all up in
your lap and say, look up there and say, I'm sorry. You know, we've all had that
with our children. And that's what the Lord said, when he's
doing it, and I'll tell you, and I've said this before, the
easiest way for God to chastise his children is withdraw his
presence. Just withdraw his presence when
you're in a service, and let you go about 5 or 6 services,
or 10 or 12 days, and not fill his presence. Not be able to
read the word, it's a shut book to you. The heavens are barren.
You can't think, you can't feel, you can't enjoy. He just shuts
the door on you. Now that's one of the grievousest
things you'll ever go through. But that's all God's got to do
to us. Say, I'm going to let you go. I'm going to let you
go six services and not have my presence. And you know what
you'll do after every service? After every service you come
to, you'll sit there and say, oh Lord, please, please do something
for me. Please don't let me be like this.
Please let me hear. Please let me feel. Please touch
me. Because I'm telling you, it's
grievous. But after it's over and done with, peace comes down
here. Rest comes down. And God blesses us. And then
look what he said here in Hebrews 12 in verse five and six. You
know, we're still over at Hebrews. Let me show you this in Hebrews
12. Look what he says in verse five and six here. He says, as you have forgotten
the exhortation, which speaketh unto you as children. You know,
you forgot that God's talking to you and exhorting you as children.
My son, he's talking to us as children now. My son, despise
not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of him. Oh, God rebuke us, yeah. For
whom, listen, and I'll tell you what, he uses men sometimes. I've had some men rebuke me pretty
good. I've had some preachers rebuke me pretty good. I've had
God to rebuke me, I've had the scriptures to rebuke me, and
it'll do it, it'll do it. But look what he goes on to say.
For whom the Lord loveth. That's the key right there. Whom the Lord loves, he chasteneth
and scourges every son whom he receiveth. If you're one of his
children, and he receives you, he's gonna correct you. He's
gonna teach you, he's gonna instruct you. And look what he says. And
if you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons. For what
son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Huh? Oh my. So I tell you, that's what he's
talking about. Happy is the man whom the Lord correcteth. And
I tell you, when it's going on, it's not, it don't feel very
good. But chastening's for children. He said, you know, if you don't
endure chastening, that means you're a bastard, not a son.
That's what he's talking about. That's what he said. And then
look what he said, he'll redeem back over in Job. Look what he
said here in verse 18 through 20 now. This is what we're talking
about. You know, for he make a sore,
But oh, when he makes you sore, he'll turn around and bind it
up. Yeah, he'll redeem us from affliction. He said, he shall deliver thee
in six troubles. Oh my, six troubles? And he said,
yeah, when seven comes, he said, I'll be right there to save you
again. I'll make you whole. He said, I'll make you sore and
then I'll wound you. He said, I'll wound you there
in verse 18. I'll wound you. And then you know what I'll do?
I'll take my hand and I'll make you whole again. I'll make your
heart bleed and then I'll heal it. I'll make you so hurt and
then I'll heal it. And then look what he goes on
to say. He said, yeah, he'll deliver thee in six troubles.
in all possible troubles. You know, when he's talking about
six and seven, six is man's number. Man was created on the sixth
day. And seven is perfection. So whether
we're six as man, we're in trouble and we have six troubles, but
when it's a, God said in the Sabbath, in that perfect, when
it's made perfect, he said, I'll save you in those troubles. I'll
save you in those troubles. And I want you to look with me
over here in Psalm 34. Look at a few verses of Scripture
with me in Psalm 34. Look with me in verse 6, Psalm
34, 6. This poor man cried. And the Lord heard him, and listen
to this, and saved him out of all his troubles. Saved him out of his troubles.
Look down at verse 15. The eyes of the Lord are upon
the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. Look down
at verse 17. The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Down
in verse 19, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord
delivereth him out of all them. So I tell you, whatever's going
on, the Lord's doing it, and I'm thankful for it. But I'll
tell you something else, these troubles, these trials, these
afflictions that God corrects us should that be as the man,
they're just temporary. They're just temporary. There'll
always be an end to them. In his time, in his time, he'll
save us from our troubles. He'll save us from our troubles.
He'd make us sore, he binds up, he wounds and he heals. And then
look what he said here in verse 21. He said, you know, he'll
guard his people. He guards his people, even their
affliction and their troubles. He said, thou shalt be hid from
the scourge of the time. Thou shalt, neither shalt thou
be afraid of destruction when it cometh. Now I'll tell you
what, he guards his people. He says, you know, he said, I'm
gonna, you're gonna, I'm gonna hide you. I'm gonna hide you.
And you know he's talking about the scourge of the tongue. And
when you look over in the margin, it says, when the torn tongue scourges.
Now, you know, the tongue is the worst member we got in our
body. It's the worst thing in our body. We use it, we can use it to praise
God, but we use it for so many things beside that. Now, when
it says scourge, and that means, we old-fashioned way of saying
it, it's tongue-lashing. A tongue-lashing. Get a good
tongue-lashing. Now, I've gave a few good tongue-lashings
in my time as a preacher. I read an article just Where,
you know, when a young preacher, he's got a little sense, but
he's got more vinegar than he does grace. Then as he gets older,
he has a little more honey in it. But I've scorched, there's
been times, there's been men and women that I've scorched
with my tongue. And it's very, very hard for people to get over
that. You know, somebody gives you
a good tongue lashing, and I mean just rakes you over the coals
with their tongue. It's hard to get over it. But
I've had lots of tongue lashings. I've had lots. I've been scourged
a lot over the years with people with their tongues. I've been
scourged. I've been scourged by young men. I've been scourged by old men.
I've been scourged by women, I've been scourged by men, I've
been scourged by unconverted people, I've been scourged by
old preachers and young preachers. And you know what, God said,
I'll hide you from that. And let me tell you something
about that. Whenever we let this tongue get away from us and we
say things and lash people with it and hurt people with it, here's
the thing we ought to do about it. Now, we ought to do it. I'm talking about myself especially.
We ought to, first and foremost, when we do it, go to them and
say, I'm sorry. I am truly, truly sorry. Please forgive me. And secondly, never, never act
like you, always treat them exactly the
same. Love them, charity covers a multitude of sin. And I would
love that people would treat me that way as I would treat
them. As you know, charity, love, covers a multitude of sin. If
somebody rakes you over the coals and gives you a tongue lashing,
charity covers a multitude of sin. I remember so well, I've
told you this before. I was at Brother Henry Mahan's
house and they'd been up there in a meeting. And we were sitting
around in his living room, we were sitting talking, us and
several preachers. And Henry got to talking to me
about preaching, about preaching. And he said some things to hopefully
help me in my preaching. And there was a couple other
preachers there, and they thought because Henry was talking to
me about preaching, they thought, well, I'll just pile on. And
they start telling me, well, you need to do this, and you
need to do it that way, and you need to do it this other way,
and you need to do this, and not do that, and not do it. And
I mean, they really piled on. And I got home. I cried just
about all the way to the house, driving from Ashland. I got home,
and I was in the shower. And I was standing in the shower
crying over that. I mean, it just broke my heart.
It just broke my heart. I didn't know preachers felt
that way about me and would try to straighten me out that much,
you know. And it just broke my heart. And I got home. Three days later,
I got a letter from Henry. Henry said, Brother Donnie, he
said, I'm afraid I hurt your feelings. And I am so sorry. I wouldn't do it for nothing.
I love you. I love you. I love you. But them other preachers
didn't do that. But Henry did. And that's what
blood does. It covers a multitude of sin.
And God helped us to do that. That's what, you know, when God
chastises us, He'll, when people say, well, that little girl was
trying to teach me. No, no, if God's going to correct you and
teach you, you're going to get your correction. You're going
to get taught. You're gonna get taught. And God guards you. He
hides them from the time. And then he said, look here,
he said, and down in verse, and he said, in verse 21, and neither
shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it comes. Destruction. You won't be afraid of it. I
mean, there's destruction all around us now. You know, I said, you know, when
destruction comes, And things start falling apart. That's what
he's talking about. When things start falling apart, destruction
comes. He said, you won't be afraid. You won't be afraid. Huh? Just temporary, just temporary. Oh my, he said, and when famine
comes, you'll laugh at that. You'll just laugh at it. Not
be afraid at it. In verse 22, he said, and destruction
and famine, thou shalt laugh. Now I think he's trying to correct
Job here and talk to Job, but these are good things for us
to pay attention to. And he says, you'll not be afraid
of the beast of the earth. You notice when
Daniel was in the lion's den, he never, you know, you don't
find him sitting up, oh king, don't put me in there. Don't
put me in there with them lions. Them lions will eat me up. Them
lions are mean, they're ferocious, they're fierce. They'll destroy
me. Daniel said, well, my God will
deliver me. And he said, the angel of the
Lord come and shut the mouth. And when Paul talked about fighting
with beasts in Ephesus, fighting with lions and fighting with
beasts in Ephesus, he wasn't talking about full-footed beast. He's talking about man-beast,
people who act beastly, people who act beastly toward the gospel,
act beastly toward the Word of God. And I'll tell you that said,
you'll not be afraid of the beast, and God shut the mouths of the
lions. And then look what he said in verse 23. God blesses
his people in afflictions and in troubles. He said, verse 23,
for thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field. Oh my,
and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. They're
gonna be at peace with you. Oh my, you know what he's saying
here? God won't even let the stones
hurt you. God won't let the stones hurt you. Stones of the field,
you'll be in league with me. You know, you'll walk through
them, walk on them, and they won't hurt you. And the beasts
of the field, you'll be at peace with them. You know, stones won't,
what he's talking about, stones won't keep you from prospering.
God can do us good by anything, and nothing can do good for us
without him. Now let me show you an illustration
about stoning. And stones won't hurt you. They
stoned Stephen to death. They picked up stones. And when
we're talking about stones, we're not talking about picking up
rocks that you shoot and slingshots. We're talking about picking up
big stones like this. That's what they beat men with.
The biggest stones they could find, that's what they would
throw. And they just keep throwing them until they're on the ground
and just keep throwing them on top of them and throwing them
on top of them until they're crushed and their heads and everything
just beat in. And Stephen was stoned to death
and those stones, you know what they did for him? Took him into
the presence of Christ. They didn't hurt him at all. And then they took Paul and they
took him out and stoned him one time and left him for dead. And
he just got up and shook himself and went on his way. And on his
way. And I tell you what, He was in
league with them. God can take stones and turn
them into bread for his children. And I know this, for the traveler,
for the pilgrim going through this world, nothing's gonna obstruct
their journey. Stones, beasts, nothing's gonna
stop their progress. Whether it's stones in the way
or beasts, it ain't gonna stop them. makes straight paths for
his peoples, what God does. And then he said, we'll have
peace and security. Then verse 24, he says, thou
shalt know thy tabernacle shall be in peace. Oh, your home shall
be in peace. You'll know peace. There'll be
peace in your home. And we know God, and there isn't,
and there's peace in our home. Blessed peace in our homes, in
our tabernacles. There'll be peace there. And
then you'll visit your habitation. And one of these days, there'll
be no sin there. Well, there's no sin there now
because of Christ. Because of Christ. And then he
said, look what he says in verse 25. And this probably hurt Job
very much. He said, thou shalt know also
that thy seed shall be great. Job just lost all his children.
That probably cut him plumb to the heart. And thine offspring
as the grass of the earth. And I'll tell you what, Job lost
his children, but he said, Job, if you'll return to righteousness,
you all will be restored. And then he says in verse 26,
thou shalt come to thy grave in a full ripe age, come to thy
grave in a full age, like a shock of corn cometh in his season.
And you know that's what's gonna happen, it's just like a shock
of corn. Look in Mark chapter 4 with me. Look with me in Mark
chapter 4. Let's look at this together. Look in verse 26. You know, God
perfects His people. He matures His people. And he does it through troubles
and trials and afflictions. And when a man gets ripe, he's
gonna leave this world. Look what it said here in verse
26, Mark 4, 26. And he said, so is the kingdom
of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground. And he'll
go to sleep and he'll get up night and day. And he'll go out
and look and said, after a while that seed springs up and it starts
growing. He don't know how it does it,
but it does it. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself.
Now listen to this, first the blade. You put the seed in the
ground and a little old bitty tiny blade comes up. And then
watch what it says. And then the ear. When it grows
up, then there's a big ear comes in it. It's weed or corn or whatever. And then the full corn in the
air, had full, ripe corn, then watch what he says, and when
the fruit is brought forth, when it's ripe, he said, immediately
put it in the sickle, because the harvest has come. And that's
what he says, when you come, you'll come to your grave as
a shot full of corn, as a shot full of corn. Now it takes sun,
rain, frost, takes a lot of things to ripen fruit, So it takes frost,
sunrise, winter, summer, spring, fall, all the seasons that goes
through this world. We gotta go through them spiritually.
And so is the character of God's children. You know, I tell you,
God's people should prize the chastening of God. God corrects
us. That's what he says back there in verse 17. Therefore
despise not the chastening of the Almighty. Don't despise it. Don't despise it. And to despise
something is to reject it. With loathing as useless and
unprofitable, sliding is as it's unworthy of notice. And he says,
don't despise chastening. God deals with us as sons, deals
with us in love. And it's absolutely necessary
to discipline our character and make our character, hopefully,
much, much better. And all it does is wean us from
this earthly, temporal life. Earthly, temporal life. God's
gonna wean us. Ruby used to say all the time,
God's weaning me. She got way up in the mid-80s. Oh, God's weaning me off this. God's weaning me just every few
days. The Lord's weaning me. It's hard to thank somebody being
way up in the 80s. The Lord's weaning me. But you know that's
weaning us off of this world. You know who we need wean from
more than anything else? Love of self. Self-righteousness and pride.
Self-righteousness and pride. And oh my, God's correction and
chastening should be pondered. Look what he said in verse 27. Lo, this we have searched it,
so it is. Hear it, and know thou it for
thy good. He said, we searched this out.
And I want you to listen to what he said. Now you hear what I'm
telling you. And listen, I want you to know that everything I
said, what he's saying here is everything I've talked about
is for your good. Your good. May we as God's children,
God's children, upon the origin of all of our trials, and while
the design for them, and the necessity and tendency of how
we react to it. You know, I've said this before
and I'll keep on saying it, because I believe it. This virus, you
know, this virus is going around and But when it serves God's purpose,
it come from God, God sent it, God took a lot of people out
of this world with it, and He'll probably take a few more with
it, and a lot of people get over it, but I tell you this, when
it serves God's purpose, it'll go just like it come. They say,
where'd that thing go? You remember back years ago when
there was this virus going around? That's the way it'll happen.
That's the way it'll happen. There was a flu in 1918 that
killed, I think, 18 or 19 million people all over the world. Philadelphia lost half of its
population. So I mean, when God's purpose
is done and And what I'm saying is, is that
when God's purpose is done in our lives, when He's through
with us, we're gonna be like a shot of corn. We're gonna go.
And whether it's a virus, whether it's a heart attack, whether
it's old age, whether it's cancer, what difference does it make?
It's the Lord. It's the Lord. And I tell you
what, My son, my daughter, whenever I'd whip her, she'd just go round
and round and round and round and round. She'd talk about chasing
me. I'd get on her and she'd just run, just run, run, run,
all the way around the room. I'd just have to chase her, you
know. But when I'd get doogie, he'd even bring me the belt and
just stand there and say, okay, Dad. I could, I just, I'd kill
me, you know. He'd say, okay, Dad, I know I
got it coming. And wouldn't you like to be that
way when the Lord puts it on you? Lord, I got it coming. Go
ahead. I got it coming. Don't run around in circles.
Just stand and take it. Stand and take it.