Read the first five verses. There
was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was
perfect and upright, and one that feareth God, and eschewed
evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was 7,000
sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she-ashes, and a
very great household, so that this man was the greatest of
all the men of the East. And his sons went and feasted
in their houses every one his day, and sent and called for
their three sisters to eat and drink with them. I want to talk about a God-fearing
man. A God-fearing man. It says Job was a man that feared
God. God-fearing man. In the description
that God's Word gives of Job here, we have the picture of
an ideal man. An ideal man. What a man ought
to be in this world. God-fearing man. A God-honoring
man. And you know, The steps of a
good man are ordered by the Lord, and God has some men that He
calls good. But Job was one of those men.
He was one of those men. He was a good husband, good neighbor,
good worker, intelligent, and God's estimate of him was there
in verse 8. This is what God said about him.
This is God's estimate of him. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered, or set thine heart on my servant Job,
that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright
man, that feareth God, and escheweth evil? There are other men in the Scriptures
like Job. That's God's estimation. As far
as Christ is concerned, that's the way God sees us. And everything
that Job had happened to him was only upheld by God's grace,
only saved by the grace of God. Everything that he was, God made
him. This is not natural to him. It's not natural to him, no more
than it is to any of the rest of us. But there's other men
in the scriptures that are like Job. The scriptures tells us
that Enoch walked with God. Enoch walked with God and was
not. for God took him, God took him. Abraham was called a friend
of God. He said, Abraham is my friend. God said, Abraham was my friend.
How about you like a friend of God? And Caleb, the scriptures
tells us, he came out of Egypt with all of Israel, and him and
Joshua was the only two that entered into the promised land.
They followed the Lord fully. And David, was a man after God's
own heart. So there's people in the scriptures
that's like Jehovah. And you take Paul the apostle,
or what God did for him. Mary Magdalene, here's people
that found at Christ's feet, found worshiping the Lord Jesus,
attributing everything that they had in this world to what God
did for them. And Job was not only a God-fearing
man, but he was a very, very wealthy man. His prosperity was
great, really great. I mean, he was an extremely wealthy
man. But let's look at this picture,
this picture of what God calls a perfect man. God called him
a perfect man. That's what he says there in
verse 1. He says, there was a man in the land of Uz. perfect and
upright he is a perfect man but still yet it said he was a man
he was a man there was a man there was a man he was not sinless
and perfectly holy but he was a man and he was a man who was
single-hearted single-eyed you know over Psalm 12, it says,
Lord, don't let me be a double-hearted man. But Job wasn't a double-hearted
man, he was a single-hearted man. He was a single-eyed man. If your eye be single, your whole
body should be full of light. Job was a whole man, a complete
man. And he was this way, he was this
way, not by nature. He was this way because of the
grace of God. And because Christ redeemed him,
God redeemed him, Christ bought him and paid for him. He's, well,
you know, I read to you last week where he said, I know that
my Redeemer liveth. I know that my Redeemer liveth.
And you look at him and his character. And look at his conduct, he said
he was an upright man. Very important, that man was
a perfect and an upright man. You know what upright means?
That means his way was straight. That means his way was straight.
He didn't turn to the left and he didn't turn to the right. He always stayed straight. One thing about Job, you know,
you've heard people say, boy, he's a straight arrow. Well,
that's the way Job was. His way was upright, his way
was straight. When he had an opportunity to
turn right, he didn't do it. Had an opportunity to turn left,
he didn't do it. When his own wife said, curse God and die,
Job held fast to his integrity. Look with me here in chapter
23, in verse 10. I love this verse of scripture
right here. Look what it says here in verse
10. Talking about as a perfect in
an upright band. He's upright, straight. In verse
10 of chapter 23, but he knoweth the way that I take. He knows,
God knows the way that I take. And when he hath tried me, I'm
gonna come forth as gold. He knows exactly the way I take.
So God, he's watching, he's kept everything about him. So his
way was upright, he was straight, he didn't turn. And look at the
relation to God. It says, you know, that he was
a devout man, perfect and upright, one that feared God. That's one
of the most blessed things that can be said about him, that he
was a God-fearing man. A God-fearing man. What in the
world does that mean? That means that he revered God. He held God in the highest esteem. He held God as God ought to be
considered. He understood that God controlled
everything, that God had all the power, all the ability. And
he feared God. He had a loving reference for
God. He worshipped God. He believed
God. He loved God and he bowed his
heart before God. And let me show you something
over here in 1 John chapter 4. First John chapter 4, you know,
is like Simeon. Simeon was an old man. He was
an old man. And he was kind of like Job. He was kind of like Job. He was devout. He feared God.
He feared God. He had a reverence for God. And
Simon, Simeon was an old man. He said, oh Lord. He said, God
told him, he said, you're not gonna depart until you see the
Lord's salvation. And he feared God. And he feared
God. He said, Lord, I don't wanna
die until I see thy salvation. And then he took up the Lord
Jesus in his arms and he saw, he said, I've seen now thy salvation. Let now thy servant depart in
peace. But look here, he's talking about
God and our relationship with God. Here in 1 John 4, 17. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness, or liberty, or confidence in the
day of judgment. Because, and here's the reason
why. This is why, because as He is, as Christ is, as He is
right now, So are we in this world. Whatever Christ is right
this minute, that's what we are in this world. Is He holy? We're holy. Is He unbroken? We're seated with Him. Is He
sinless? We're sinless. Is He accepted
of God? We're accepted of God. Is He
not in the flesh? We're not in the flesh. He's
perfect? We're perfect. Whatever Christ
is right now, that's what we are. That's why our love is made perfect in God.
And listen to this, there's no fear in love. There's no fear
in love. You love your wife, love your
husband, there's no fear in that. There's no fear in loving God.
I don't fear the judgment. I don't fear God trying to get
even with me. I don't fear God mistreating
me in any way. Perfect love casteth out fear,
because fear hath torment. Oh my, to have a torment in fear. And he that feareth is not made
perfect in love. He don't understand what God
does for him. And he goes on saying this, if
we love him, because he first loved us, he first loved us,
and that's why we love him and his perfect love casts out fear.
And that's why, beloved, we fear God and we worship God, had a
worshipful attitude. And look what he thought about
sin. Now go back over here in Job 1. Look what he thought about
sin. James was talking about this back in the study. We get
accused all the time because we believe salvation is all together
a grace. We ain't going to go under the
law. We're not going to have any rules. We're not going to
have any regulations. We're not going to have dress
codes. We're not going to have places we can go and not go.
We're not going to put up with any of that things. We're not
going to tell anybody how to live in anywhere in the world.
If you're going to live, you're going to live by Christ, in Christ,
and because of Christ. We're not going to do that. And
I tell you what, in his relationship to, and James said this, people
accuse us all the time because we believe in election, God's
sovereignty, and that we're not under the law, that we're not
gonna set any rules or regulations or standards up for anybody.
They say, well, you all can sin all you want to and still get
to go to heaven. James told them, said, listen,
if we had our way, we'd never sin again. If we had our way,
we're looking forward to the day when this body here quits
being a burden to us. When these minds quit being such
a heaviness to us. When this whole rotten world,
when we turn on the news and they're just, oh, you're just
so down. No good news from the world. The only good news you'll
hear is when you hear about God, hear about Christ, and hear the
gospel. And the best news you'll ever
hear is the day that God calls you home. But anyway, I said,
all right, say this. Look at his relationship to sin.
You know what it was? He said, sin is wrong. Sin is
wrong. Look what he said there again
in verse one. He was a perfect, not bright man, one that feared
God, and eschewed evil. Hated evil, looked at evil, shoot
it, stay away from me. Don't want nothing to do with
you. Oh my. He departed from sin. He heard
from it as if it was a monster. Oh, I read a little article,
I forget where, I said sin will take you places you don't want
to go, make you stay longer than you want to stay, and make it
harder to get back from where you went. That's what sin will
do for you. It'll take you places you wouldn't
go, keep you there longer than you'd stay, and it makes it awful
hard to get back. That's what sin will do for you.
And I tell you what, it made no difference to him. He said,
sin is an awful thing. Sin's a terrible thing. And the
scriptures tells us that, Paul, you know what Paul said about
sin? Sin is exceeding sinful. It's not just sinful, exceeding
sinful. Exceeding sinful. You can't say
sin without the hiss of the serpent in it. Sin. And I'll tell you
what, he heard from it. It's a monster, it's like a snake
gonna bite him all the time, and he didn't want that snake
to bite him. And it made no difference to him how fashionable sin was,
how socially accepted sin was. He loathed it, he loathed it,
he loathed it. That's why Peter said, fear God
and love the brotherhood. You know, Sin is so socially
accepted today. They call sin a disease now.
You know, sin's a disease. If you're a drunk, you got a
disease. If you're a drug addict, you got a disease. Live with
your wife, live with a woman, just live with that for a while,
live with this for a while, do that for a while, do this for
a while, and just do whatever you wanna do. And it's acceptable. And you know why they cut John
the Baptist's head off? Because he looked the king square
in the eye. Because he took his brother.
His brother had a wife. His brother Philip had a wife. And he said, listen, I want her. And he took Philip, his brother's
wife. And John said, it's not lawful
for you to do that. That's the simplest thing you
could put. You're living in adultery and she's living in adultery.
And oh boy, that made that woman mad. Oh my, I may be a lot of
things, but I'm not a sinner. I'm not an adulterer. Daughter danced for him one time.
Her daughter. What do you want me to give you?
Up to half my kingdom. His mother whispered in her ear,
bring me John the Baptist's head. And I want it brought to me in
a great old big charger, a big old plate. And I want it brought
right in here in my presence. You know why? Because he preached
against sin. And sin was something that's
in the nature, it's in the heart, and if God don't take it out,
it ain't even coming out. And here's what people make a
bad mistake about. They keep trying to deal with
sin like pruning trees. You know, pruning trees. Well,
if we'll prune this thing off, we'll get rid of that sin. We'll
preach against this sin and that sin and all that. But sin has
a root. And God's the only one. We're not trimming trees. We're
not trimming bushes. God goes to the root of the matter. And that's what happened. That's
why Job said, oh, I fear God and I don't want nothing to do
with sin. Oh Lord, keep me from it. Keep
me from it. Keep it from them thoughts. Keep
it from my mind. Keep it from my lips. Keep it
from my heart. Keep it from my hands. Keep it
from my feet. Keep it from my eyes. Keep me
from sin. And oh my, didn't this, look
at his relationship to his family. Look down verse five. Down verse
five, he had a wonderful relationship with his family. And it was so
when the days of their feasting were going about that Job sent
and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered
burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that
my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did
Job continually. Oh, you know, he was a priest
towards his family. He offered burnt offerings according
to the number of every one of them. He had ten kids. He offered a sacrifice for every
single one of them, a burnt offering. Why did he do that? He said,
you know, said their hearts may have said something about God.
I know what they're out publicly. I know what they are when they're
around me. But I don't know what's going
on in their hearts. They might have cursed God in
their hearts. So here he is, he's worshiping God. And here
he is, his thankfulness, his reverence for God. He loved his
children. I mean, this is a man who loved
his children. He loved his children. He desired
that they'd be reconciled to God. That they'd know God. That they'd have a relationship
with God. And so he'd get up and he would
offer these sacrifices for his children. He recognized his religious
responsibilities as a father. As a father, I need to do something
for my kids. I need to offer sacrifice for
my kids. I need to come before God on
behalf of my sons and daughters. And his offer was according to
the number of them all. He started at the oldest and
offered sacrifice. Second, He went down ten of them
and offered ten burnt offerings. Built that fire. And that fire
was what it was. It consumed the sacrifice. With
that fire represented the wrath of God consuming that sacrifice. And He cared for each and every
one of them. He didn't leave off one. He didn't
have any favorites among them. He offered sacrifices for all
of them. In Ephesians 6 verse 4 says this, Fathers, don't provoke your children to
wrath, but rather bring them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. Bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. And he was constant, he was earnest
in his religious responsibility toward his children. Look what
it said. There in the first, in that verse, he said, Joe sent
and sanctified them, and listen to this, and he rose up early
in the morning. Oh, he was dead serious about it. He understood
his responsibility to it, rose up early in the morning. Oh, I want to start my day. I
want to start my day in offering sacrifice for my children. Is
there any greater responsibility or greater thing so urgent as
your children? No wonder he rose up early. I've
got 10 children. Oh, I tell you, it's just a... The Lord done something for this
man, really done something for this man. He loved his children,
offered sacrifice, got up early to did it. And then it says this,
down the last verse, the last line in that verse, chapter five,
thus did Job continually. Job done it continually. What
in the world does that mean? That means that he didn't say,
well, I'll do it this week. I ain't got time next week. And
well, he's not like us. He don't do things in fit and
starts. He done it continually. He done
it continually. Oh my. This was his prevailing
spirit. It wasn't just an occasional
performance. Oh, it was his life. There was a man whose name was
Job. That man was perfect and upright.
And then not only that, but beloved, he was a very, very prosperous
man. As a father, he had a large,
large family. Look what it says there in verse
two. There were born unto him seven
sons and three daughters. He had 10 kids. I know folks
that had a lot more than that over the years. As an old man
in Mexico, had 21 children. 21 children. A little old bitty man, I mean
he looked like he'd raised 21 kids to it. Oh my, could you
imagine his wife? 21 kids. 21 kids. Job had 10. And the larger family, the greater
blessing it was according to the scriptures. It was a curse
not to have children. Do you know that? Sarah, she
wanted a son so bad. She wanted a child so bad. She
said, Abraham, since I can't have any children, you go to
Hagar and we'll have a son by him, by her. That was a bad mistake. But God gave her Isaac. She wanted
a child so bad, God gave her Isaac. Rachel, Jacob's great
love. He labored for her for 14 years.
Oh, how he loved Rachel. But Rachel couldn't conceive. All the other wives had conceived,
had all kinds of children. But Rachel was the one that bore
Isaac, the promised seed. the promised seed. And I tell
you, look over here in Psalm 127, look in Psalm 127, look
what it says over here about children. You know, and he had ten, ten
loving hearts, ten loving hearts that called him father. You imagine
that, having ten children, that loved their father, called him
their father, called him father. Look what it said here in verse
three, Psalm 127. Low children are the heritage
of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As ours
are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his
quiver full of them, They shall not be ashamed, and they shall
speak with the enemies in the gate." Oh, it's a very, very
blessed thing to have a lot of children. And let me tell you
something else about his children when we go back over here. His
children got along exceptionally well. They lived in harmony. That's a strange thing for a
whole family to live in harmony, but we got several of them in
this congregation that do. I mean, they live in harmony. I told a fellow today, he said
his family's kind of like Velcro, you know, when they get together,
they all stick together. It's hard to pull them apart. I said,
yeah, if one of them gets a headache, all of them has to take an aspirin. You know, that's close, ain't
it? That's close. You know, and I say that jokingly,
but I mean, that's really the truth. People are so close. Families
are so close. They enjoy one another's company.
They enjoy one another's fellowship. They enjoy meals together. They're
all the time checking on one another, see how they are, what's
going on in their lives today and all that. I mean, it's just
a wonderful thing. Well, here's a, Job had 10 children, 10 children. And they lived in harmony. Look
what it says there in verse four. And his sons and daughters, and
his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day,
and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and drink
with them. They feasted in their houses, and you notice it said
every one his day? That was probably every one of
them on their birthday, they'd have a feast and invite the whole
family. because everyone on their day had a feast. It was probably
a birthday, and listen, they wasn't having a great big party,
a drunken party, and having a big time like that, no, no. No, they
enjoyed getting together, eating together, feasting together,
having whatever they drank, they done it together. A family gathering. Oh, listen, it's my birthday,
y'all come on over to the house. We'll have a great big meal,
have anything you want to drink. We'll have iced tea. You know,
I mean, they was really, they lived in harmony. They enjoyed
one another's fellowship, enjoyed being together. And then he was
a prosperous man as a farmer. Look what it says there in verse
three. He is a prosperous man as a farmer. His substance, oh
my goodness, his substance, the things that he possessed, 7,000
sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 she-ashes, a very great household, that
means he had all kinds of servants, so that this man was the greatest
of all the men of the East. And you know back in them days,
people count their wealth today by how much property they own.
how big their house is and things like that. We count our wealth
that way. But back in those days, they didn't count their wealth
but by their cattle. Whoever had the most cattle was
the ones that's the wealthiest. And there's nobody that had any
more than Job did. And you know Job was not a wasteful
man. Believers are not lazy. They're
not wasteful. They're temperate, they're industrious,
and I'll tell you this about them. Every single one of them,
God's people, They understand, seek ye first the kingdom of
God. Everything else will come in
its place. And he was prosperous as a citizen. He was a citizen
in the country he lived in. He was a good citizen. He was
a well-respected man. This man was the greatest man
of the East. And I want you to look with me
over here in chapter 29. You know, he was the greatest
man of all. He was generous. He was considerate. He was industrious. He was intelligent. Job 29. And look what it says in verse
7. Talking about how, what a wonderful citizen he was. What a fine fellow
he was. When I went out to the gate through
the city, when I prepared my seat in the street, the young
men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged arose and stood
up when I walked by. The princes refrained talking
and laid their hand on their mouths. The nobles held their
peace and their tongue clued to the roof of their mouth. When
the ear heard me, then it blessed me. And when the eye saw me,
it gave me witness. Because, listen to this, I delivered
the poor that cried, and the fatherless, orphans, and had
nobody to help them, I helped them. The blessing of him that
was ready to perish come upon me. When a man getting ready
to die said, I'm going to take him out and I'll take care of
his funeral, I'll take care of his family. And I caused the
widow's heart to sing for joy. I mean, here's a man who took
care of everybody around him. Very, very, I mean, he didn't
use his wealth just for himself. He used it for everybody else.
And let me say this. This would be, a man like this,
a man like this, we'd all be like this, it would be a common
thing in the world, except for one thing. It'd be wonderful if everybody
was like this. It'd be wonderful like this, it'd be common without
the fall, but that's not the way it is. God being righteous,
he's a righteous God. And you would expect the best
men would be the most prosperous men. But you go through the scriptures
and you find people that was God's people and they were poor.
Very poor. Very poor. Lazarus laid at the
rich man's gate. And those that are poor who was
rich in faith. But that's not the way it is. You know, if it was If it hadn't
been for the fall, and what we have and what we are, and all
of us, I could say this about every one of us, we're all like
Job as far as God's concerned. We're perfect, we're upright,
and we eschew evil. We may not be as prosperous as
Job, but when Job was tried and tried severely, it was the grace
of God that sustained him all the way through it. Everybody,
they think that this was natural to Job. But Job, it says he feared
God. That's the key. He feared God.
That's the key. But in this world, it's generally
the very opposite. Oh, the worst men have the world's
wealth and the power in this world today. If in this world
all a man ever wanted was wealth and power, recognition, you can
get it. You can have it. But this world
is upside down. Right now it's upside down. It
is really upside down. When we look at it, it just don't
look right. It don't look right. It don't
look good. One of these days, God's gonna
take it and do like this here. Turn it up, right back up. And
you know when that'll be? When there's a new heaven and
a new earth. And only righteousness dwells in it. So let the world
have what it has. And you know I said all those
things about Job, but God himself said this about you. You are
complete in Christ. Perfect in Christ. seated with
Him in heavenly places, chosen in Him, loved in Him, blessed
in Him. And I tell you, they say, well,
Job was like this. Well, God Himself says that's
the way we are. You know, if Christ is perfect,
are we perfect? If Christ is holy, are we holy?
Is Christ sinless, are we sinless? Whatever Christ is, that's what
we are. That's the way God views us. And if we ever, ever amount
to anything in this world, in a spiritual sense, now listen
to me, in a spiritual sense, God will have to be the one to
make it. And if we have sense enough to take care of what He
blesses us with, not what we got by the labor of old hands.
Job got what he got because God gave it to him. And if everything
we have, we understand, listen, we'll do like Job, we'll take
care of it. We'll take care of it. We ain't
gonna squander it, we ain't gonna waste it, we ain't gonna throw
it to the wind. Ain't gonna throw it to the wind,
no, no, we're gonna take care. Shirley's gonna take care of
what I got, and I'm gonna take care of Shirley. Ain't that the way it is, huh? But whatever I said about Job,
that's us. And why? Because of the grace
of God, the blood of Christ. Our Father, oh, our blessed Father
in heaven, how wonderfully, wonderfully gracious you are. Lord, that
you would come down and consider us. And we read about your servant
Job. You said he is a perfect and
an upright man. One that feared you and hated
evil, hated sin. The Lord, that's every one of
us here. We fear you. We worship you. We reverence
you. And Lord, we eschew sin. We eschew
evil. We don't want to be evil in any
way. We don't want to have evil thoughts, evil motives, evil
desires. We don't want nothing to do with
sin and evilness. So Lord, please keep us, preserve
us, and Lord, keep us coming to you, trusting you, fearing
you, reverencing you, worshiping you, desiring you above everything
in this world. Put it in our hearts to do that,
as we bless you and praise you, in our Lord Jesus' name, amen,
amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for to me thy great salvation so
rich and free good night God bless you Lord will know