Chapter 42, verse 6 verses. Then Job answered the Lord and
said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought
can be withholding from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel
without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered, that
I understood not. Thanks too wonderful for me which
I knew not. Here I beseech thee and I will
speak. I will demand of thee and declare
there unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself
and repent in dust and ashes. Now to see how this started you
need to go back to chapter 38 Look what happens. God speaks
through chapter 38 to chapter 42 to Job. Then the Lord answered Job out
of the whirlwind. And said, Who is this that darkeneth
counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now your loins like a
man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast
thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare it, if
thou hast understanding. And then that's when Job answered.
God spoke to him from chapter 38 to here. And then Job answered
him. So let's bow our hearts together
and pray. Our Father, in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is like unto thee in power, God,
you asked Job, where was he when you laid the foundation of the
earth? Where were we, any of us, when the sons of God shouted
for joy and the angels gathered around your throne? Where was
they Oh Lord, when you called the sea, called all that's in
the sea, that you put Pleiades and Orion in the heavens, established
them where they are. You breathe and the frost is
on the ground. You hold up the clouds. And only time to tell every poor
waters when you fill them full. So Lord, we are like Job. We'll just lay our hands on our
mouth and be very careful of what we say before you and very
careful about what we say to you. Lord, we'd never want to
misrepresent you. Never want to dishonor you. Never
wants to bring shame on your holy name. So enable us to speak
tonight. Enable the dear saints to hear.
We pray for Jim and Debbie. I know they'd love to be here. But Lord, they're not able, so
God bless them. Lord, need them. And Lord, all
the people that family members is traveling. to be with family. We ask you to give them traveling
mercies. Go before them, go behind them, and go on side of them.
And Lord, put your blessed presence around them. See them safely
here to the families. And Lord, we praise you and bless
you and thank you for all you've done for us in Christ our Lord.
Amen. Job makes a statement there in
verse 5 of chapter 42, makes a statement here. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now, but now mine eye seeth thee. Now we know some things about
Job that we've learned as many times as we dealt with him over
the years. He was a man of integrity. A
man of uprightness. God said he was. One who feared
the Lord. That's what God said about him. Job was a man of great patience.
James called him a man of great patience. He was a man of great
patience and reverence and dedication to God Almighty. When the Lord
took everything he had, he shaved his head, bowed down before the
Lord and said, The Lord gave and the Lord take it away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. And so, I mean, he had reverence
and dedication. And then he was a man of faith.
He was a man of perseverance. I mean, he persevered and a man
of faith. He said this in Job chapter 13,
he says, Though he slay me. Though he slay me. Yet will I
trust Him. Not trust in Him, I will trust
Him. That's what he said. And Job
was a man of sound theology. Remember what we dealt with last
week? He said, oh that my words were written in a lead, in a
rock, in a book. He said for after skin worms
to fire this flesh and this body that I know my Redeemer liveth
and I shall see him with my eyes, not another. And I shall see
him stand on the earth in the latter days. So I mean he knew
he had a Redeemer, he knew that he was going to die, and he knew
he was going to be resurrected, and he knew he was going to stand
and see God in the last days. He knew he was going to see the
Lord Jesus Christ. Already saw him. already saw
him. But God in his infinite wisdom,
glorious wisdom, and God in his blessed, blessed providence permitted
all these trials to come upon Job. And I mean he had trials.
The loss of property, the loss of his wealth, the loss of his
children, The loss of his influence, the loss of his standing there
in the city and town where he was supposed to be the most prominent
person there. Now he had no influence, had
no standing with anybody. And Job's three friends, they
came from far off. When they first saw him, they
said it didn't even look like him. Said, this can't be Job. And they sat there in silent
eloquence for seven days. Nobody made a peep. And then
all three of those fellas began on Job and began to accuse him
and said that there's no way in the world that you could be
going through what you're going through unless you had sinned.
God will not put a righteous man through things like this.
In fact, and I'll show it to you later, that he even said,
you know, if God killed your children for some sin that you
committed, That's why he says, you know, your position is of
no value. Wisdom is going to die with you. And oh, I tell
you, they started condemning him, found evil because of his
tribulation. They told him that. And then
Job defended himself. And he defended himself rather
strongly to his friends. They insisted that this is religion. This is religion at its best.
They insisted that everything that was happening to Job would
not have occurred if we were not guilty of some great sin. They just said you, and I don't
know how many preachers I've heard tell people that. That
if you don't give God your money, He'll take it out somewhere.
He'll blow up your car, He'll make one of your children sick,
He'll put you in the hospital, but He's going to get what's
coming to Him. God don't deal with men that
way. No, no, I'll tell you what they said this job you could
not be in this condition You're in had you not committed some
great sin and God's punishing you now. You're for your sin
No, let me show you look over at Job 31 Look at Job 31 down
in verse 6 These these fellows that's why
I chose it you you're you're Job, he defended himself rather
strongly. And here he says here, he said,
let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know my
integrity. And I tell you what, he defended
himself very strongly and look what he said over here in chapter
32. Oh my, these three men ceased to answer Job because he was
righteous in his own eyes. Job strongly, strongly, he claimed
to be righteous but they said, oh no, there is no way you can
be righteous and be what you are going through. Then this
young man named Eliu, He stood up there in chapter 32. Then
was kindled the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barakel, the Busait,
of the kindred of Ram, against Job was his wrath kindled, because,
listen, he justified himself rather than God. And his wrath
also against his three friends was kindled because they found
no answer and yet they condemned Job. They could not come up with
a reason why he was in the situation he was. And here's why you lie
you rebuked him for because he said Job justified himself but
he didn't justify God. And that's the difference. You
can justify yourself for what you're going through. But if
you don't say God sent this and God dealt with me over this.
But when you get in an argument with somebody and these fellas
dealt with him for so long, Joe got angry and started defending
himself instead of saying God done this to me. And so he started
saying he was righteous. And he was righteous. But he
didn't say God made me righteous. And I tell you, they condemned
Job without a cause. And after all these things, God
spoke to Job. God spoke to Job. God had been
silent. All everything had been going
on and God had been silent up to chapter 38. God hadn't said
a word. And boy, when those fellas were
sitting there discussing and arguing between Job and his friends
and having these arguments, and Eli, you corrected them all.
But now God says, Job, Job, remember where I read it to you? There
out of 38, Job, gird up yourself like a man, like a real man. And who is this that darkens
his counsel by words without knowledge? He said, I've got
something to say to you. I've got something to show to
you. And I'm going to ask you some questions. I'm going to
ask you some questions. And if you go through Job 38,
when God started asking Job to gird himself up like a man, then
God began to talk to him until Job answered here in chapter
42. You'll never see God reveal himself the way He revealed Himself
in those four chapters. It's incredible how God revealed
Himself. And this is the way He revealed
Himself to Job. He said, My ear heard about you,
but now I see you. How did he see him? God revealed
himself to him. And I tell you what. Dirt up
your loins like a real man, he said. I've got some things to
show you. And if you read these chapters, you'll see God revealing
himself. Revealing himself to Job. And
one thing he starts out talking about is absolute sovereignty.
Where was you Job? When I laid the foundation of
the earth, where was he Job? When I put from the stars up
there in heaven plenty and Orion, where was you? Where was you
when I made the whale and put him in the ocean? And he asked him all kinds of
questions. Where was you when I laid the pillars of the earth?
Where was you Job? You've been talking about me
and everybody else has been talking about me. So I'm going to talk
about myself a while. I'm going to tell you what I'm
like. I'm sovereign. I reign. I've got all power and
authority in this earth. And He revealed Himself to him
in His infinite glorious wisdom. Oh God showed His wisdom in all
the things that He deals with in this world. And He showed
His infinite holiness. Oh, Job thought he knew something
about God until God came and revealed himself to him. And
he revealed his unchanging purpose to Job. And he made Job to understand
that he totally ruled and reigned over everything from the greatest
planets, the stars that's in the heavens, everything that's
in the sea, to the atom that can't be seen with the eye. Can't
be seen with the eye. Mr. Spurgeon says, you know when,
everybody's seen it, when sunlight comes through in a room and you
can see the dust hanging in the air, you can see the dust hanging
when the sunlight comes through and that dust hanging in the
air. Mr. Spurgeon said, God's controlling
every bit of that dust. Said, when you see it, did you
see it? What God, did God put them all there? And you say, Wes, if he don't
control the minutest, what makes us think he don't control the
greatest? He told us he numbers the hairs
of our head. Show us how he cares for us. But then when God came to Job
and revealed himself to Job, then this Job makes this awful,
awful confession. And look what he said here in
verse 42. Chapter 42. Job makes a tremendous confession
from his lips. Then Job answered the Lord. This
is the first thing he said about him. I know that you can do everything. He said, I know that you can
do everything. Now listen, I'm going to tell
you something here. I know that Job had always believed in the
power of God to do all things. But now it was not just the sovereignty
of God that Job saw, but the God who is sovereign. You know,
people go on and on about sovereignty of God, but what about the God
who is sovereign? And I tell you what, you experience
the power of God, you experience His sovereignty, and then it
becomes the God who is sovereign. And I tell you what, the power
of God to him was now an experience, not just a doctrine, not just
a doctrine. And then look what else he said
about him. He said, that no thought can be withholden from thee. Oh my. He said, Lord, I've been
sitting here talking, me and these three men, me and Eli,
you talked. And he said, here we was, and
I was thinking, I'd done a lot of thinking, and he said, I know
now that you can do everything and that no thought can be withholding
from you. Let's close our eyes and say,
God, you can't see it. How many times did he know what
the Pharisees and the people were going to say and what they
were going to do? And he'd tell them before they even opened
their mouth what was in their heart and what was in their mind
and tell them what they was going to do. Huh? Oh my. When will men, and I tell you
what, when will men cease to call God the Lord from their
lips and with their hearts and they're far from Him? I'll tell
you when that will happen. Only, only, when we see the Lord
only when men see the Lord that's the only time they'll quit saying
that he's the Lord with their lips and their hearts are far
from him and when you see the Lord they'll be like Job and
learns that he knows everything that goes on in the heart knows
everything goes on in the mind knows every motive before you
even think about doing anything he knows what you're going to
do And I tell you, that's a blessing
to me. Galatians says this, one of the
men read it the other day. He says, when you know God or
rather are known of God. Now I'd rather be known of God
and know more about what goes about me than I know about Him.
He knows more about me than I know about Him. Ain't you grateful
that's the way it is? That's why we come the way we
come. Oh my. And I tell you, you know Job,
he looks on the heart, you know God looks on the heart and the
thoughts of everybody. And God, Job had admitted and
understood that God was omniscient. That he's seen everything, he
was everywhere and he's all wise and he's seen everything. But
in this revelation right here, now he experienced. He experienced
God. He said, Lord I know that you
see what I thought. You see what I thought. He's
experienced it. And if you all tell me if I'm
wrong, and wait until after service to tell me, but I want to tell
you this, if I'm wrong, you please tell me. I don't believe, and
it's very doubtful, that a person really believes anything until
he experiences it. You've got to experience something,
and when you experience it, you know what I'm saying, people
say that all the time, well I believe this until. When you experience something,
when you have to learn it by experience, you won't soon forget
it. And that's what, you know, people
can get their heads filled with all kinds of things. Me and Steve
Ditchman, we've known, everybody's known people that are Calvinist.
That fellow the other day at the house, he said, boy, you're
a strong Calvinist. He said, you're a strong Calvinist.
Because of what I told him I believed and what I told him I preached.
But I'll tell you what, beloved, here's the thing about it. I
didn't know, I know that sin was a bad thing. But when I experienced
being a sinner, that's a different story. I knew that God existed,
but when He broke into my soul, it was a different story. And
that's the way it is we're talking about. You experience something. A dear, dear lady, her husband
died. Don Fortner's wife, bless her
heart, Shelby. And she said, oh my, we went
to a lot of funerals and we grieved with a lot of people. But she
said, I thought I know what grief was, but I didn't have a clue
what grief was until I lost my husband. She said, I thought I was grieving
with all these other people. But I did not know a thing in
the world about grief. You don't know anything about
it until you experience it for yourself. You don't know loss
until you've lost something. You don't know pain until you've
experienced pain. And that's what Job is saying
here. That's what God said. Job said, Lord, you do everything. I see that. And Lord, you're
looking at me and I ain't got no excuses. Got no excuses. And God revealed himself to Job. And Job truly, truly saw the
Lord. And now was able to understand
that God's not worshipped with the hands. He's not worshipped
with special days, not worshipped with outward forms, and righteousness
which a man brings, but from the heart, from the spirit, and
in truth. For the living God knows the
thoughts and motives of men. And that's why God said, My son,
give me your heart. It's with the heart that man
believes. It's with the heart that man
confesses. It's with the heart man becomes
righteous in the sight of God. And I tell you that heart, everything
about God deals with, everything about God goes past this flesh.
We have these bodies to contend with when we come in these services.
We have these old depraved minds to deal with when we come into
these services. We have these wandering minds
and we have all this stuff to deal with while we're in the
service. But I tell you one thing, God doesn't deal with the flesh.
He goes past this flesh, sees past who we are in this body,
and goes to the heart of the matter in our very souls. He's
dealing with our hearts. And then look what he says over
here. I want to go back over here to chapter 38, just for
a moment. The Lord's speaking to Job now.
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who
is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Who is this? Huh? Who is this
that hides his counsel? Darkens the understanding. Confuses
everyone. But talking about these great
mysteries of God and human ignorance. Oh my. Talk about these great
mysteries of God and human ignorance. I ran. Job said I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I've been talking about God and
the mysteries of God. And I'm a man and I'm ignorant. Job says I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I've been talking all these times
about things that I didn't understand. He said, I've been speaking dogmatically
and yet I've been speaking foolishly. And Job said, the things is too
wonderful for me. Oh my. I thought I knew but I
didn't. Paul asked this question. Oh
the depths of both the riches of the knowledge and wisdom of
God. Who can find it out? You know, that's the way a lot
of people are in religion today. They got this, everybody's talking
about religion, and talking about God, and talking about Jesus,
and talking about all the things, especially at this time of year.
But look what Job does over here in chapter 9. Oh, that men would
put their hands over their mouth. There in Job. Yeah, 39. Let me
show you in 39. In chapter 40, Job put his hand
on his mouth. Job said, Behold, I am thou. What shall I answer thee? I'm
going to lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but
I will not answer. Yea, twice, but I will proceed
no further. He said, Lord, I'm going to put
my hand on my mouth. Oh my. Wouldn't you love to see
a lot of men put their hands over their mouth and just stop
until they've seen the Lord? Isaiah saw something worthwhile
when he saw the Lord in His glory. And you know what he said about
it? He said, God gave them a spirit of slumber that seeing they should
not see and hear they should not hear. and that they should
not, could not believe. Now he said that's what I saw
about God when I saw his glory. That if God don't do something
for a man, he can't see, he can't hear, he can't do anything unless
God does it. You know I remember years ago,
I was in a meeting up in Michigan and I was with another preacher
and we were standing in this, I forget where we were standing,
but there were some people come in there And there's a couple
of them said they didn't even believe in God. They didn't even
believe in the existence of God. Well, this one preacher, he decided,
he said, I'm going to convince them that God exists. I went
on to bed. He said, I've done away in the
night trying to convince them of the existence of God. But
I told him before I went to bed, I said, you're just wasting your
breath. He said, you can't convince anybody that God exists. You
can't do that. You either believe He is or He
isn't. And if you believe He is, you
know why you believe He is? Because He made Himself known
to you. What an idiot to think that
God doesn't exist. We live by faith, not by sight. What if it had made Him to convince
them that God existed? What good is the existence of
God going to do them apart from Jesus Christ? What's the existence
of God going to do for a man if God don't bring him to faith
in Christ? You can get a telescope and look
all over the stars and look at the sky and look at the craters
on the moon and all that. That ain't going to do you nothing
if you don't see God and don't know God. God just said in the
beginning, God. That's all He said. And you can't
find a theology book that they won't tell you that God does
not prove anything. You've got to believe Him. He's
not going to prove Himself to you. He's not going to prove
Himself to anybody. We believe. He said, I insist. God said, I insist that you believe. Abraham did what? Believed God. Noah did what? He believed God. And that's the, listen, you can,
that, you talk about, you know that's a sad thing ain't it?
You know, but it's sad. It's pitiful. It's pitiful. And
that's why God said, who is he that hides counsel, darkens the
understanding, and confuses everyone, talking about these great mysteries
of God in human ignorance. And Job said, I'm guilty. I'm
guilty. I'm guilty. I really am. You know, I'll tell you, I'm
going to tell you another little story, and I'm going to get on with
this. I said folks it came here for quite a while and I preached
a message and I mentioned in that message 2 Corinthians 5
21 I said there's so much mystery in that verse and every one of
you know what it is that God made him to be sinned who knew
no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him
Now that verse of scripture makes me stand in awe and wonder. How do you plumb the depths of
God, taking Christ, who had no sin whatsoever, holy and righteous,
perfectly God himself? How could God take a sinless
man, a holy man, and make him to be sin? and then turn around and take
men who ain't nothing but sin and make them righteous and I
said there's so much mystery in that that we can't I just
I stand in awe before it and I've preached from it lots of
times over the years but I'm telling you this another man said this there's
no mystery in that at all There's no mystery in that at
all. It's just plain as a nose on
your face. God imputed sin to Christ and
then He imputed righteousness to us. That's how simple it is.
Is that all you see when you see 2 Corinthians 5.21? God made
Him to be sin? What is sin? How could God make
Christ to be sin? How can that be? He had none. He knew none. And then God said it made him
to be what that is. And how can you explain that
Christ said, I'm a worm and no man. And then to talk about that, there's
nothing to that. That's so simple. That's bargaining
counsel. If that's all there is to it.
They say, well he was a sin offering. It don't say that he was a sin
offering. It says he was made to be sin. And it don't say anything
about there being imputed to anybody. It says that what God
did, something God did. But anyway, I said all that to
say this about that darkening counsel without words. Then look
what he said back over here in Job 42. Let me hurry up. Look what he says. He says down there in verse 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear. You know there is very few in
America or in our land or in the world that can say I have
heard of you by the hearing of the ear. Very few people can
say that. God has three ways, four ways
of speaking. He speaks first of all through
His creation. The heavens declare the glory
of God. The firmament shows His handiwork. Then He speaks in
His law. He speaks in His law. He demands
perfection in His law. Then He takes that law and He
writes it on our conscience and writes it on our hearts. And
then God speaks through His prophets. And then He especially spoke
by His prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son. And then God
speaks in His written word. And I tell you what, that leaves
all men without excuse. And all of us, like Job, can
certainly say, we've heard of you, we've certainly heard of
God. We've heard of God. We've heard of God. But now look
what He says now. But now my eye sees you." Now I know this is not a vision,
it's not a dream, not an emotional spell. I told Shirley, we went
by a big Pentecostal church on the way up to Lexington yesterday,
big old Pentecostal church. And I said, boy, I bet if you
go there, they'll be cutting all kinds of shines. She never
had heard the word cutting a shine before. She didn't know what
that meant. So I explained it to her. And
I explained it to her. And we come back through there
last night and that parking lot was full. And I said, we ought
to sneak in there and you'll see what a shine them people
cut. Because they'll cut some shines. But she knows now what
a shine these guys cut. She said, I'll tell you. She
said, you come up with something different all the time. I've seen some folks cut some
real shines, I've cut a few myself. But Joe's not having a vision
here or a dream or an emotional spell. What he's doing, he's
seeing by faith the living God. And he's seeing him revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to understand when you see
Him with your eyes, the eye of faith. It's to understand something
of the majesty, something of the sovereignty, something of
the glory of God. And understand something about
His righteousness and His holiness. You know what His chief glory
is? I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. And I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. That means,
beloved, that he sits up there and he does what he will with
whom he will when he will. And if he chooses, if he wills
not to do it, it's not going to be done. And that's what he
told Joseph. I see you now. I see you now. Oh my, I see you now. When did Joseph see the Lord?
Same time you and I did, when the Lord was pleased to reveal
Himself to Job. You know, our Lord says that
no man can come unto the Father. No man can come unto Me except
the Father which sent Me drawing. And as it is written in the prophets,
they shall all be taught of God. And I do know this, flesh and
blood didn't reveal this to Him, but His Father. And what was
Job's reaction when he saw the Lord? Well, he was filled with
awe and reverence in the presence of the Lord. He put his hand
over his mouth and stood in silence. He saw his evil nature in the
only light in which he can be truly seen. That's why he said
there in verse 6, Wherefore I abhor myself. A man will never know
anything about abhorring himself and repentance and anything about
it until God reveals himself to him. And when you see God's
holiness and glory, you'll say, oh Lord, I'm just dust and ashes. And he repented before God. And
the awfulest sin that I've ever committed, and I told Shirley
this last night, the awfulest sin I ever committed was the
sins that I did in my religion. and the things that I said about
God before I knew God. And I've done just like Job.
Oh God, I abhor myself. How could you have anything to
do with me after all the lies I've told on you? But that's
Him. He's a God of mercy and grace. Our Father, in the precious name
of Christ our Lord, Thank you for meeting with here tonight.
Thank you for your great blessings. Thank you for your precious word.
God bless these dear saints and keep them all safe and cause
their holidays to be enjoyable and as they're with family and
Lord bless them and meet their needs and thank you for their
love and generosity to Shirley and I. Oh Lord, we're so thankful
for them. Thankful for the love and generosity
and kindness and great patience that they have for me. Lord,
I thank you and bless you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. There is a name I love to hear,
I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ear,
the sweetest name on earth. How I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me.