It was about our great adversary,
and I want to continue that. You know, Satan came, the sons
of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And while they
were there worshiping, calling on the Lord, Satan came too. And I'm sure the people that
was there in the presence of God didn't know the conversation
is going on between Satan and God. I know Job didn't. Job did
not know what was going on. And the Lord asked him to consider
his servant Job, perfect man, upright man, just man. God's
grace made him that way. And here we have this old serpent
He accuses Job, and he's a slanderer, you know, he's an accuser of
the brethren. And he accuses God, he says, now listen, Job,
he only serves you because you blessed him. You've blessed Him. He don't serve you just for nothing.
He don't serve you because you're God, just because you're holy
and because you're righteous. He serves you because you gave
Him lots and lots and lots and lots of things. You take the
things that He belongs to Him away from Him, and He'll cuss
you to your face. Well, that's what He said. He
said, you know, that's why I, you can talk about how good He
is all you want to, but when I get done with Him, if you'll
let me at Him, and God said, well, go ahead, Go ahead. And Paul said, we're not ignorant
of his devices. And now while you're looking
at Job, I want you to look at 1 Peter 5. I want you to see
something over here before I get into this message. 1 Peter 5. And you keep Job and look over
here in verse 8. Chapter 5 and verse 8. Here's
that old serpent. He really exists. He's not an
ideal, no more than the Lord Jesus Christ is an ideal. They're
both persons. And he told the saints of God
here, be sober. That means, you know, pay attention
to what you're doing. Don't be a fool. Be vigilant,
because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world. So I'll tell you, he tells us
here that we have one, and that's what happens here. He's going
to, God said, what are you doing? He said, I'm going to and fro,
walking back and forth, seeking whom I may devour. That's what
he wants to do. And what Satan does, he intrudes
into holy things. He intrudes into spiritual things.
You never see him no place else but in religion. He tempted Christ. He tempted his disciples. He
appeared in the Garden of Eden, so every place you find Him,
you find Him in a spiritual setting. And His purpose is to destroy
everything that's good, everything that's holy, everything that's
righteous, and try His dead level best to turn a person against
God Almighty. That's what He wants to do. If
He can turn a man against God, and make a person go against
God, then he's got him just exactly where he wants him. But I'll
tell you something else about him. He's accountable to God
himself. God, he had to ask God. And God
gave him permission, said, you can go this far and no further.
And he told him that twice. He said, you can touch everything
he has, but don't touch him. And then you can touch him and
his body, but you ain't getting his soul, ain't getting his soul.
And so he told him twice that Job will cuss you to his maker. And now I tell you something
about Satan. He's a vagrant in God's universe. He goes to and
fro. He ain't got no dwelling place.
He's like that unclean spirit that went out of a man. And when
he left, he was swept and garnished. I mean, boy, he was cleaned up. That unclean spirit left him.
That man got him a cross and put on his lapel and got him
some pictures of Jesus and hung on the wall and got him a Bible.
He was really cleaned up. That unclean spirit went out
into the world. He went here and yonder and he
found no rest. He found no rest. He said, well,
I ain't got nothing to do but return to where I come from.
And when he went back in, he took seven other devils worse
than himself. So I tell you, Satan's purpose
is to take people away from God. And he is accuser of the brethren.
He said, I tell you, he told God, he said, God, he said, you
let me at him and take away everything that he's got, and he's gonna
cuss you to your face. And then he turns around and
he accuses God and makes God to be something that he's not. He said, God don't really mean
what he says he does. Eve, you know this, and Adam,
you know this, that God, the only reason that he got you under
subjection and tells you not to do certain things because
he wants all the glory. He don't want you to have a free
will. He don't want you to be independent. He don't want you
to have any rights. He wants to control everything.
And they believe that lie. And then they said, well, and
God said, when you die, I said, oh, no, no, no, no. He won't
kill you. He's not a just God. He's a loving
God. He's a merciful God. So he does
one thing, he makes people have a bad view of God, and he makes
Satan has a bad view of man, and God turns him loose. And I'll tell you what, but he's
slave to a sovereign, eternal, and infinite God. And look what
it says there in verse 12 of chapter one. And the Lord said
unto Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only
up himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from
the presence of the Lord. Now I don't want to give the
impression that Satan's got all this power. Like I just said,
God has to give him, he can't do a thing until God says you
can do it. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. And he received permission from
God Almighty to deal with Job. And he's such an evil being.
He's such an evil being. And he deals, first of all, with
Job's property, his circumstances. And then in chapter two, he deals
with Job personally, and his personality. And let me tell
you what, he's so quick, he's so enthusiastic in his maliciousness. As soon as he receives permission
from God Almighty, you know what he does? First thing he does
is he strikes Job's cattle. Huh? Strikes Job's cattle. He causes a fire to fall. Lightning
destroyed the sheep and the servants. And I mean, while Warren's speaking,
all this took place in probably in the space of an hour or two.
I mean, it just won. I mean, it didn't take a half
a day for whatever happened. to happen. I mean, it just, this
happened, fella come tell it, while he's talking, here comes
another one. And while he's talking, here comes another one. All of
these people are there, and Job's getting this news. That's how
malicious, how mean, how cruel this man is, this Satan is. And then he brought a marauding
band, and he comes along and steals his camels and slays his
servants. And then the worst of all that
he does, The last thing he does, he said, I'll get him where his
heart is. I'll get his sons and I'll get
his daughters. And a great wind, a hurricane
or tornado come and destroy them. They was enjoying themselves,
enjoying one another. And he chooses a time when his
stroke at Job would be the very, very worst, very worst. He went
as far as he possibly could And he didn't spare, he did not spare. He knows nothing of mercy, nothing
of mercy. The more unexpected the troubles,
now you know this, the more unexpected the troubles, the more unexpected
the calamity, the harder it falls, the worse it feels. He could do no more. He destroyed
in a short space of an hour, a couple hours, this great man
of the East. He was the greatest man of the
East. And you know what he done in just two or three hours? Reduced him to a fatherless,
childless, childless pauper. He's the wealthiest man was.
Most powerful man in the East. Beautiful children. They all
had successful lives. And when Satan got through with
him, he's a childless, childless pauper. Brought down till he
had absolutely nothing left. Huh? And oh my. He was a happy father, now he's
desolate of his children. But I tell you, he had no more
authority to go after Job. And I tell you something else,
he enjoyed what he did to Job. He delighted in his maliciousness.
His maliciousness. Delighted in it. You know, well, I'll talk about it here
in a minute. But what he used, what he used
to destroy Job, the means that he used, he used wicked men. He used the Sabaeans, he used
the Chaldeans. And the scriptures tells us he
works in the children of disobedience. You know we were children by
nature, children of disobedience, in whom the prince of the power
of the air was our master. And I tell you, he was allowed
to use the natural elements that's in this world. He used lightning,
he used tornadoes, he used wicked men. And you know how swift he
was to do this? Four times, four times, The first
fellow come along and told him what happened. And while he was
speaking, another one come. While he was speaking, another
come. While he was speaking, another come. Four times he said,
while he was yet speaking. Oh, they just lined up, one right
after another, right after another. And I tell you, they were bearers
of misery, of awful, awful news. How would you like to... You
know, it's awful, awful to have to call somebody up and say,
we just found your son or your daughter. Knock on somebody's
door and say, is your husband's name such and such, yes? I hate
to tell you this, but we found him and he's dead. I hate to
tell you this, but your two children Do they drive such and such a
car? Yes. We found that car wrapped around
a tree and both your kids are gone. And that's the way it was with
Job. I mean, they just come and brought one bad news after another,
one bad news after another, one bad news after another. He wanted
to shock Job to reduce him to what he claimed he would do.
He said, I know when I get done with him, he's gonna turn around
and curse you to your face. He gonna stand up and look at
you and say, God, I don't have this coming to me. It's not right
for you to treat me this way. And I'll tell you, trials seldom,
seldom come along. When they come, they come one
right after another. But I'll tell you what, you know
he's a fool. Satan's a fool. Satan's an absolute
fool. You know why I know he's a fool?
Because he never, never, never, never, never gets the ones that he goes
after if they belong to God, never. He told God that if Job
lost all he had, he'd cuss him to his face. Well, look what
happened. Look down here in verse 20. Oh,
look what happened now. Instead of Job getting angry
and Job cussing him to his face, look what he said. Then Job arose
after all this bad news. He's sitting down. They come
in, told him he arose. And he had on his robe, and one
thing they'd do, they'd rip their robe to show him of the agony
they was in, like ripping their heart, rending their heart. Let them know how grief-stricken
they are. And he shaved his head, and listen to this, and he fell
down on the ground, and he worshiped. He worshiped. And listen to what
he said. You know, when I came into this
world, I come into this world with absolutely nothing but nakedness.
I didn't even have clothes to wear. Naked came out of my mother's
womb, and I'm gonna leave the world just like I come. Listen
to this now. Oh my. Oh my. You know, he said, the Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. And
oh my, he blesses his maker, he worshiped. He didn't curse
God. Now you know he felt these trials
deeply. You couldn't lose your family.
You couldn't lose everything you had. and be stoic about it. You know he was hurt deeply.
You know he wept deeply. You know he fell on his face
and no telling how long he was on his face. I do know the next
chapter says that he never spoke a word for seven days. sat in the ash pile for seven
days and never uttered a word. That's how low he was. I can't say anything. I'm so
low, my heart is so broken, I'm so down that I can't even express
my feelings. And oh my, his grief was great. Grief for great, but I tell you
what, instead of saying the Chaldeans done it, you know what he said?
He said, the Lord gave. And the Lord took it away. He said, Satan didn't do this. He didn't, he never, you know,
I tell you how, he said, I'm gonna go back with nothing when
I leave this world. All in between came from God.
He said the Lord gave. He gave my sheep. He gave my
oxen. He gave my camels. He gave my
children. And the Lord has taken them away.
He didn't say bad luck. I had bad luck today. He didn't
say all chance got me. He didn't say I had misfortune.
He didn't say mother nature dealt me an awful, awful hand. He didn't
say Lady Luck really messed over me today. He didn't say I was
dealt a bad hand. He doesn't say the Sabians did
it. He doesn't say the Chaldeans did it. He didn't say the Storms
did it. Or anything else that took it
away. He said the Lord hath taken. The Lord hath taken. The Lord hath taken. The Lord
had taken. He knew that wicked men, wind
and lighting, and the plottings of wicked men and wicked spirits
are all under His control. He said the Lord took it away.
Took it away. Bruce and I was talking the other
day, and you all know where he's at. And I said, Bruce, I said, when
God takes the most precious thing to you, out of your life, the
most precious thing, you spit your life, when he takes the
most precious thing out of your home, and out of your life, when
he takes that, what else matters but God? When God's everything,
then this place here is sure enough vanity. And that's what
Job knew. In his worship, his heart was
large toward God. You know what he said? Blessed,
blessed, blessed be the name of the Lord. Job, you just lost
everything you had. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Oh, you know what a wicked man
would have said? He said, listen, I'm going to get me an army together
and I'm going after them. I'm going to get them Sabians,
I'm going to get them Chaldeans. Oh, that's what Satan expected
Job to do. But instead he said, blessed
be the name of the Lord. Bless his holy name. Oh, I praise
Him, I adore Him in all. And I tell you, this is more
than just submission to God's will in suffering. It's more
than that. Paul says what he meant when
he talked about glory and in tribulation. He hurt, you know
he hurt. And oh my, that's what our Lord
said, of all that He has given me, I've lost nothing. I've lost
nothing. Job may have lost everything,
But he never lost God, and God never lost him. Oh my. And I tell you, Job, look what
it says there in verse 22. In all this, in all this news,
in all of this loss, in all of this suffering, in all of this
grief, in all of this sorrow, in this Job sinned not. nor charged
God foolishly. He never said, God, you gave
everything I've got. You can take it away. It belongs
to you. Now, you remember I read to you here in chapter 2. And
another day, he took everything that Job had, touched his substance.
Now he's going to go after Job himself. Job himself. And there's a day when the sons
of God came, presented themselves, Satan presented himself too.
Walking to and fro, going up and down the earth, looking for
something. God asked him again, said, you
moved me against him to destroy him without cause. He's still a perfect and upright
man. And listen to what Satan said unto him, said to the Lord,
skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath he'll give for his
life. He said, when it comes right down to it, when it comes
right down to it, between life and death, a man will do everything
he can to save his life. And that's what he's saying.
So Satan said, now, Put forth your hand now and touch his bone
and his flesh and he'll curse you to your face. Told him again.
Touch his body. Get down to his bones. Get into his flesh. Make his
body weak. Make his body hurt. Make his
mind hurt. Make his soul hurt. Make everything
about him hurt. Make his heart hurt. Make his
soul hurt. Make his mind hurt. Make everything
about him to hurt. I want him to suffer! And the Lord said to Satan, Behold,
he is in your hand, but save your life. Satan went forth from
the presence of the Lord, smote Job with sore balls from the
sole of his foot under the crown of his head. And oh my! It's human nature, human nature
so weak, so weak, he says that even the best of men That love's righteousness in
God isn't invisible. There's nothing so dear to a
man than his life. He said, skin for skin. He'll
give all that he has for his life. And they will. They will. Men are doing everything
in their power. Scientists are studying, trying
to get men to live longer and longer and longer and longer. And when it comes right down
to it, if the doctor says, listen, you only got so much time and
we got this new treatment, it's gonna cost millions and millions
and millions of dollars. I don't care what it costs, just
give me a few more days. Just give me a few more days. Oh, my. Oh, self-preservation,
strong. But it's not the strongest feeling
a person has in his heart. That's not the strongest feeling
a person has in his heart, self-preservation. Now, you listen to what I'm gonna
tell you, and I'm gonna give you a Bible for this. Some hold
truth and love for truth as the highest and the best thing that
they've ever held possession in this world. Now what do I
mean by that? Daniel, there's your man. They
said, Daniel, I tell you what, if we catch you praying to any
God but the one that we set up here, you're gonna die. We're gonna put you in the lion's
den. Old Daniel said, I love my God. I love the truth. I love the worship of my God.
And he turned, and three times a day, got up in the morning,
he called on his God. Stopped in the middle of the
day, and he called on his God. Stopped in the afternoon, and
he called on his God. You know what they did? They
got him and threw him in the lion's den. He loved truth more
than he did his own life. And the three Hebrew children
told him the same thing. I'm telling you, I'm telling
you, if you all don't bow down and worship here, he said, oh
listen, we'll throw you in that fire furnace. He said, go ahead,
because we're fixing, not fixing the bow. And they threw him in
that fire furnace. And I tell you what, Paul said,
I count my life dear to myself. My life is not dear to myself.
You know what's dear to me? Christ is dear to me. I depart,
desire to depart, to be with Christ. You know, it don't take
much to give a person to give up truth. It don't take much
to get people to give up the public worship of God. It don't
take much. It takes some effort to come
worship God. You've got to get ready. You've
got to put some clothes on. You've got to brush your teeth.
You've got to comb your hair. You've got to get out of the
house. You've got to buy gas. You've got to get in a car. But
folks will give up the truth so easily and give up the worship
so easily. And these men here, they said,
I don't even care about my own life. My life don't mean nothing
to me. Christ means everything to me.
Oh, my. I'll tell you, you know, like
Stephen. Stephen went to preaching. They
got rocks and started throwing at him. And he got down on his
knees and they kept beating on him until he died. And the last
thing he's looked up and said, Lord Jesus, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. And he went and said, I see the Lord Jesus stand at
the right hand of God. Oh my. And look at our forefathers. Nathan Hale said this, I regret
that I have one life to give for my country. Patrick Henry
said, give me liberty or give me death. And men and women, you listen
to me, men and women went to the stake, they was put on the
rack, and they was burned, and they would go into glory rejoicing,
rejoicing. Oh, he believed God. He believed
that great personal suffering Satan did would turn a believer
against God Almighty. He said, put forth your hand
and touch Him. And it's true. It is true. Every
one of us know this is true. That there's a connection between
our spirit and our body, and our soul and our body, that when
our body gets sick, then we get sick all over. It affects our
spiritual, it affects our heart. We're so intertwined that when
one part of us is hurting, the whole part hurts. But I do know this. When that great bodily servant
tends to cause faithless murmurings, rebellious spirit, you know what
the scripture says about the Lord's people? He said, we not only glory in
tribulation because tribulation works patience. Every trial God
sends to us works patience. And then patience makes us have
experiences. How many trials have we been
through? And we patiently waited on God, and that gave us an experience. We experienced God's hand on
us, experienced God trying us. And then that experience gave
us hope. And hope made us not ashamed.
You know why? Because the love of God shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And Paul said, I'm persuaded,
I'm convinced that neither life nor death, principalities or
power, things present, things past, angels, principalities,
powers, life, death, nothing. No height, no depth, no width
to be able to separate us from the love of God that's in Christ. God sends trials not for our
benefit. I mean, listen, He sends trials
our way so He knows exactly how we're going to react. But it's
for us and for other people. When we see believers go through
something like we see what Job go through, when all those people
see what Job go through, and he continued to worship God.
They said that, that's like Abraham. He was strong in faith, giving
glory to God. Abraham believed God, that's
what they said. Watch out for that old man. I'll tell you one
thing about him. He believes God. How do you know? Because he worships Him. He walks
with Him. Oh my. And I tell you, he had
great, great power over human nature, Satan did. But his power
can only move within fixed limits. And God said, he's in your hand,
you just save his life. Satan has no power to thank or
move without God. He said, okay, you do this and
that's all you can do. And his power is used to torture
the body and corrupt the soul. Look what it said. And oh my,
he stinked them sore balls in verse 7 from the sole of his
foot to the crown of his head. And look what poor old Job did.
He sat down in ashes. You know why he sat down in ashes?
Those ashes would give him some relief. He got him a pot, and
he broke it, broke a pot. And they had these pieces of
pot. And he took that piece of pot
and he'd scrape himself. Can you imagine the pus and the
corruption and the pain that he had as he scraped himself
down his legs, up his arms, and his belly on his side, up and
down his legs, and oh, Scrape! Scrape! Scrape! Sittin' in them ashes. Get some
ashes and put over him. Try to get some relief. Oh my. Oh my. He is merciless. Job's in agony from the foot
to his head. And then look what he does to
his wife. He makes his own wife to turn against him. Look what
it said. In verse 9, oh my, you're talking
about when your wife, if your wife turns against you, if your
wife is not sympathetic, if your wife is not with you, and your
wife is not weeping with you, not suffering with you, and she
turns around, look what she said. Verse 9, Then said his wife unto
him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? You still think you're
something, Job? You still gonna retain your integrity? You're not gonna give up? And
listen, she said, just go ahead and curse God and lay down here
and die and get this over with. Just lay down and die and get
it over with. Oh my. Caused her to be heartless. And I'm telling you something,
She was always that way. He was just manifested when this
trouble came. And what you are is what you'll
be when trouble comes. People say, boy, he's a mean
old man. He was always a mean old man. He just got old enough
to start manifesting it and didn't care what anybody thought about
it. If you're mean, you're just mean. That's all he said. But anyway,
look what he said. He had worked on Job's body,
worked on his wife's soul just to get him to blaspheme his maker. Satan's grand purpose with man
is, his master plan, is to turn Job, any of God's people, and
to prove that religion, their religion, is just really nothing
but selfishness. You're only doing it for what
you can get. But he failed, he gloriously failed. Look what
Job says to his wife in verse 10. He said unto her, you speak as
one of the most foolish women I've ever heard. You speak like
a fool. Oh, you speak like a fool. If
we ever told our wives that, you know what would happen? It'd be awful. But she was, she
was a fool. He said, woman, And that's what
he called her, woman. He didn't say wife. He said,
woman, you're a fool. And then he said, what? What
is your problem? Shall we not receive good at
the hand of God? Oh yes, we'd love to get the
good out of the hand of God. But shall we not also receive
evil? Shall we not receive trouble?
And all this did not Job sin with his mouth. And all this,
with everything that happened, over and over and over. God proved
that Satan is a liar. I'll get him. It's like when
Peter said, Lord, I'll go with you to prison, I'll go to death
with you. And he said, Simon Peter, Satan has sought to sift
you as wheat. But he said, you know why? You're
not going to be Fade away and your faith ain't gonna... I prayed
for you, and listen to this, that your faith fail not. And
you know what Job said later? In chapter 17 and verse 9, he
said, the Lord knows the way that I take. And when he hath
tried me, and when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. He said, God's doing this, and
when he's done, I'm gonna shine like gold. I'm gonna shine like
gold. And Houston said this the other
night when I done this last time I preached here on Sunday night.
He didn't curse God in any worship, but you know, Houston said this,
he said, it's greater than our adversary. I said, man, why don't you haul
that out to me? I said, I could have really used
that right that time. But our advocate, our Lord Jesus
Christ, is greater. than our adversary. And he said,
all which you have given me, he told his father, I've not
lost none of them. And he ain't fixin' to lose one
of them. Oh my, the only way to withstand the wiles of the
devil is ask Job a tribute all to God. You know that verse that
says, we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, though them that are called according to his purpose.
That means from the time he was born into this world to the time
we leave. And I tell you, worship God. Everything in this life
is a gift, is a gift. And if God takes, and God's fixing
to take Bruce's wife, he knows it, she knows it. And you know
what he says? Every time you talk to him, how
you doing? I'm doing all right. How's Jo? She's doing okay. She's doing, you know, and he'll
tell me how things are. But I do know this, that he's
worshiping God. He's giving God all the glory.
He's not found one fault in what God's done. She ain't found one
fault in what God's done. And we ain't gonna find fault
in anything God does to anybody on this earth. We're not gonna
do it. God helpin' me, I ain't. God
take my voice away from me if I ever find myself sayin' somethin'
against God. Strike me dumb. Don't never let
me say nothin' against how He deals with anybody in this world.
Amen? He is God. You know I'm livin'
right now. and moving and have my being
because he's God. And I don't have nothing that
he didn't give me, not absolutely. The money I got in my pocket,
he gave it to me. The house I live in, he gave
it to me. The farm that I had down there and worked on so hard,
he gave it to me. And everything He gives us, I'm
going to try my best to take care of it because He gave it.
I'm going to be a steward over what God gave me. Be a steward
over my house, be a steward over my body, be a steward over my
wife, be a steward over my friends, be a steward over everything
God gave me. I don't want to waste anything
God's got. Don't want to misuse it. Do you?
We're going to do like Job. Blessed be the name of the Lord. and we worship. Our Father, O our God, O Lord, who is like unto Thee,
O the abundance of grace You gave Job, the strength You gave
Job, the comfort and assurance You gave Job, when everything
was against him, the world was against him, his wife was against
him, his servants was against him, And yet, Lord, he worshiped
you, he blessed you, he praised you. And Lord, we've seen men
down through the ages, we've seen men that we know personally
that had great loss in their life, great, great loss in their
life. And yet they blessed the Lord,
and they praised the Lord, and they worshiped the Lord. And
oh God, help us to honor and bless and praise your holy name.
And Lord, don't let our religion be just a religion of selfishness. Not worship you just because
of what you give us, but worship you because of who you are. Worship
you because of the truth. Worship you because of the holiness
and righteousness and glory that only you possess. and the truth
that you taught us and gave us, oh God, give it to us. Help us
to honor and bless your holy name. We ask in Christ's name,
amen and amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strange. I'll see you Wednesday, God willing.