Turn with me in your Bibles please
to Job 42. Job 42. It'll be so good to have
the pastor back with us this coming Sunday. Job 42. Let's read the entire chapter. Then Job answered the LORD, and
said, I know that thou canst do everything, that no thought
can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel
without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that
I understood not things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Here
I beseech thee, and I will speak, I will demand of thee, and declare
thou 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. And it was so that after
the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz
the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy
two friends. For you have not spoken of me,
the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take
unto you now seven bullocks, seven rams, and go to my servant
Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, and my servant
Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept, lest I deal with
you after your folly, in that you have not spoken of me the
thing which is right, like my servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite,
and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, went and did
according as the Lord commanded them. The Lord also accepted
Job. And the Lord turned the captivity
of Job when he had prayed for his friends. Also the Lord gave
Job twice as much as he had before. Then came there unto him all
his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of
his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his
house. And they bemoaned him, and comforted
him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. Every
man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring
of gold. So the Lord blessed the latter
end of Job more than his beginning. For he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000
camels, and 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 she-asses. He had also
seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the
first, Jemima, and the name of the second, Keziah, and the name
of the third, Karen-hubbuck. And in all the land were no women
found so fair as the daughters of Job. And their father gave
them inheritance among their brethren. After this Job lived
140 years and saw his sons and his sons' sons even four generations. So Job died being old and full
of days. Our Heavenly Father, we come
to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that he is the only ground
upon which we can come. It is he that has bought us,
who shed his precious blood for us, who died in our place, who
satisfied your justice, And it's he that tells us that
there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. What
a blessing privilege we have of gathering here to worship
the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May we be able
to worship you tonight in spirit and in truth. and it's a blessed privilege
to be able to gather together with your people and enjoy the
fellowship of one another especially around the gospel around your
word. Tonight we seek your help. What we're about to do we're
not sufficient for but you are sufficient and our sufficiency
is of God. So tonight, we trust in you to
be with us, to guide us, to help us, to give us hearing ears, to give us a believing heart. Lord, we need you. There are
folk of our congregation who have sicknesses, illnesses, problems,
And Lord, we pray that you would be with them, be a comfort to
them, strengthen them, that be your will, raise them up. And
Lord, we're looking forward to that day, that one day when you
call us home, either in death, in sleep, or by resurrection,
or by calling us up in the air to meet others. in the air we
Lord we're looking forward to that day and we say with John
as he said in Revelation even so come quickly Lord Jesus oh
how we need you in Jesus name we pray Amen this evening I'd like for us
to look at this chapter chapter 42 of Job and My message, the title of my message
tonight is Accepted in the Beloved. Accepted in the Beloved. There's a passage of scripture
that we all know, hold your place there, there's a passage of scripture
we all know, we've heard many many times but I'd like to read
it one more time because There's such a blessing in this passage
that helps us to understand what's happening here in Job 42. Go to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, beginning
in verse 3. Paul says, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy, without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
according to the good pleasure which he has purposed in himself,
that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who
first trusted in Christ, and whom he also trusted, after that
ye heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,
and whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of
his glory." When you think of Job, you think of all the problems. You think of the patience of
Job. When you think of Job, not always, but I think we do sometimes,
but not always do we think of him as God thought of him. In
chapter 1, the Lord God said that he was a righteous man who
hated evil. How did Job become righteous?
Just like anyone else. It's not of us. We are eternally
elected of God to be His children. We've been made eternally righteous
by Jesus Christ, who has made sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He was made... He was eternally righteous in
Christ, the Lamb of God. Think about it. Even before I
was saved, I was one of His sheep. I didn't realize it. I didn't
know it. But he's the Lamb of God before
the foundation of the world. And I was in Him even then. If there is a time that you can
put on that. It's an eternal thing. He affectionately
made Job righteous by what He did for him, accomplished for
him on the cross. Although Job was long before
the cross, Job could see it. Job could see the Lord. Job could
see. My Redeemer liveth, he said. He could see it. Nothing in Job
gave him favor or merit with God to say that I've got that
righteousness on my own and nothing in us in the same way. It's all
of God's good pleasure, all of God's purpose that we've been
made righteous in Jesus Christ. It was the Lord, God, that pointed
out Job. Have you considered my servant
Job? That's when Satan was going to
and fro, said he'd been going to and fro on the earth, and
the Lord asked him, have you considered my servant Job? Why,
yeah. Can't touch him. You got him
hedged in. Can't do anything. So God gave
Satan permission to destroy all that Job had. He took away his
possessions. He took away his family. He took
away his friends and acquaintances. He even took away his health.
And twice Twice the scripture says in Job 1 and Job 2, twice
it says in all this, Job sinned not. I don't know about you, but I can see myself complaining. And don't we? Don't we complain
about the things of life? Things that happen to us? Somebody,
a truck driver on the way over here just about run me off the
road. I ain't gonna tell you what I thought. But we complain. But Job, in
all this, Job sinned not, and he blessed the name of the Lord. The Lord giveth the Lord, taketh,
blessed be the name of the Lord. That should be our attitude. But here in Job 42 and verse
7, Job's three counselors were spoken
to by God. And it was so that after the
Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz
the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy
two friends. For ye have not spoken of me,
the thing that is right, as my servant Job. Most from chapter 3 all the way
through chapter 36 something like that, all these
guys were trying to tell Job what had happened, why it happened
and what he needed to do. Many of the things they said
were true. But they said it in the wrong light. They were not
right in the thing with God. They said, and their attitude
was, Job must have committed some heinous sin. Job, you must
have done something awful for you to lose all your possessions,
your family, your health. You must have done something
awful. But if you will do what's right,
God will bless you again. You know what they were trying
to do? Put him under works. Put him
under law. Isn't that what the law said? If you do this, I'll bless you.
If you don't do this, I'll curse you. Isn't that the law? And
they wanted to put Job under the law. And Job kept saying
time and time again, I don't know what I've done wrong. Are
you that righteous? Well, God said he was. I don't know what I've done wrong.
They wanted Job to go under law, which is the complete opposite
of grace. Grace and law cannot mix. It's
either grace or it's worse. It's either grace or it's law.
They cannot mix together. It's the opposite of God's sovereign,
providential rule in your life and my life. Things happen in our lives that
don't sit well with us. As a matter of fact, what happened
in Job's life in verse 11 was considered his comforters or
his people, his family and acquaintances, they bemoaned him, comforted
him over all the evil that had happened to him. But they didn't realize that
this was by God's permission. And if it's God's permission,
it's God's purpose. He doesn't allow anything that
he has not already purposed. And he showed that about his
son. Peter preached that on the day of Pentecost when he said
that these men had crucified Jesus Christ but it was the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God why it happened. God permitted them to crucify but it was his purpose that they
would. It's the opposite of works and
law, the opposite of grace and God's sovereign providential
rule. Everything is done for the good of God's elect and for
His glory. Do we believe that? Do we really
believe that? Everything is done for the good
of God's elect and for His glory. Needless to say, according to
verse 7, his wrath was kindled against these three counselors,
so-called counselors. But I want you to notice something.
Though his wrath was kindled against them, the Lord God chose
to accept them. Though they did not speak in
the right light, though they had the wrong answers for Job,
yet God chose to accept them. Did you see it as we read it? Verse 7 again, verse 7, 8, and
9. And it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto
Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled
against thee, and against thy two friends, for they have not
spoken to me that thing which is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven
bullocks, seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer
up for yourselves a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray
for you, for him will I accept, lest I deal with you after your
folly, in that ye have spoken of me the thing which is not
spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Joe. So Eliphaz, the Temanite, Bildad,
the Shuhite, and Zophar, the Naamathite, went and did according
as the Lord had commanded them. And the Lord also accepted Joe."
Also. God accepted them. What was the
basis of God's acceptance for them? If we are accepted of God,
we must come to someone else. We'll not be accepted on our
own. We must come to someone else. Eliphaz, you'll have to
go to Job. People, we have to go to the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have to go outside ourselves
to find the only hope that we can have. Christ in you, the
hope of glory. You see, and Job was accepted
of God. He says, twice he talks about
it here in those verses. Job was accepted of God. You
see what he did? He agreed, look at verse 2. I
know that thou canst do everything. He believed that God was in sovereign
rule over everything. Now God had just told him in
chapters 38 through 40, God had just told him point blank, were
you there when I did all these things? Do you have enough knowledge
and enough power to do these things that I did? So he says, I know that thou
canst do everything. He agreed with God that God could
do anything, everything. Whatever he wanted to do, his
good pleasure, his will. He agreed that he had no part
in God's works. What part did you have in God's
works? Where were you when the worlds were made? What part did
you have in the new creation? Nothing. Nothing. And if you're going to be accepted
of God, you must agree with God. That it's nothing of you. And
it's all of Him. He agreed that God knew everything.
Look. And that no thought can be withholden
from thee. He knows even every thought.
Who is he that hath counseled without knowledge? Therefore
have I uttered that I understood not things to wonderful me, which
I knew not." He agreed that God knew everything and he didn't know anything. When you come to God When you
come to God, you'll have to come God's way. He knows the way that
I take. I don't. He knows which way to
direct me. I don't. And if I'm going to have mercy
and I'm going to have His love and His grace, it's He that's
going to have to give it. I can't. He agreed that God must show
him the way. Look at verse 4. Here I beseech
thee, and I will speak, I will demand of thee, and declare thou
unto me. And the word demand means beg.
I beg you. Show me the way. Show me mercy. God be merciful to me a sinner.
Show me that kind of mercy, the mercy that I need. I need mercy. I don't need justice. I need
your mercy. And verse 6, he agreed with God
that he was a sinner. Wherefore I abhor myself and
repent in dust and ashes. I abhor myself. I hate myself. This old flesh. We talked about
it the other night. This old flesh. We war. A constant
warring with this old flesh. The new nature. The divine nature
that God has birthed within us. We have that constant battle. If I come to the Lord, and we
mentioned this in one of the messages last Sunday, if I come
to the Lord, I come to my advocate, and the first thing the advocate
requires of me is that I admit I'm guilty. Lawyers don't do that, but this
one does. And if you can admit you're guilty,
you can agree with God that you're guilty before a holy God. because
you are a sinner by nature then you're well on your road
to being accepted by the beloved. What made the Lord Jesus accepted
by the Father? Well, He was God's perfect man. He was man's perfect God. He
was the God-man. He did all the will of His Father. Everything His Father wanted
Him to do, He did. And He accomplished it. He finished
it. He finished the work that the Father had given to Him.
He revealed to His own who the Father was. If you've seen me,
you've seen the Father, the Lord said. He became sin for his people. He died and put away their sin. He bore the wrath of God on sin. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. And the Lord showed everyone, the Lord God the Father, showed
everyone that Jesus Christ was accepted. Twice while he was on earth,
God spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son, in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye him. He raised him from the dead.
Raised for our justification. The father showed his acceptance
of him by giving him all power. by seating him at his right hand
and having all men to bow before him before that name, the name
of Jesus Christ. If these three sinful men, these
three counselors are to be accepted of God, there's only going to
be one way. One way. If any man today is
going to be accepted of God, there's only going to be one
way. And Jesus Christ, our Lord, is
the only way. I am the way, the truth, and
the life, he said. They must come to the one who
is accepted. You see that? In verse 8, you
have to go to my servant Job. You have to go to my servant
Job. And when you come, you need to bring a sacrifice. We need
to go to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've already got the sacrifice.
It's He. He's the one who sacrificed Himself
for us. And so we come to Him with that
great sacrifice that He made for us. He even said, Come unto
Me, all ye that labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Take
My yoke upon you, learn of Me. My yoke is easy, My burden is
light, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Come unto Me,
He says. That's the only way. Go to Job. He told Eliphaz and these others,
go to Job and he'll pray for you. Wow. There's another picture,
isn't it? Our Lord intercedes for us. Our
Lord intercedes for us. He prays for us. He prayed for
Peter that his faith fell not. He prays not for the world, but
he prays for his own, those that the Father has given him. He
intercedes, He continually intercedes, makes intercession for us. He's praying for us. Oh, I'm
so glad. If any prayer is ever heard,
it's His. It's His. Because He satisfied
the Father. And He prays for me. And he prays continually for
me. You know why? Because I need continual prayer. I'm without hope unless he's
praying for me. I'm hopeless. And you must come by the sacrifice.
Did you notice the sacrifice was seven bullocks seven rams
the word number seven is perfect yet to come by the perfect sacrifice
and And there is only one perfect sacrifice Hold your place there
turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10 Hebrews chapter 10 We read it quite often, but it's
good to read it again Hebrews chapter 10 Let's begin with verse 4. For
it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take
away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice,
and offering, and burnt offering, and offering for sin thou wouldst
not, neither has pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. You must come to the one that
is accepted. You must come with your sacrifice,
the perfect sacrifice, and you must depend upon his prayers
for you. Job prayed for them. After Job
prayed for them, the Lord blessed Job. And he makes intercession for
us. Where is it? 1 John chapter 2
verses 1 and 2. My little children, I write these
things unto you, that you sin not. But if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who
is the propitiation, the atonement, the mercy seed. Who's the propitiation
for us? Not for us only, but all the
world of God's elect. When we come that way, we're
accepted in the beloved. When you trust in Jesus Christ
and He alone, you're accepted in the beloved. And it's God's
will God's good pleasure, God's purpose that his people be accepted
in the beloved in Jesus Christ. What do we have in Christ? All
the riches of His grace. All the riches of His mercy.
All the riches of His love. In Christ we have redemption.
In Christ we have no condemnation. In Christ we have the love of
God. In Christ we have sanctification set apart by Him. In Christ we
are made alive. In Christ we triumph. In Christ
we are made a new creation. In Christ we have reconciliation. In Christ we have liberty. In
Christ we are designated the children of God. In Christ we
have all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. In Christ
we are His workmanship. In Christ we are made nigh by
the blood of Christ. In Christ we are partakers of
that great promise that God gave to Abraham. In Christ we have
the calling of God. In Christ we are presented perfect
before Him. And in Christ we have salvation. No wonder we turned the words
around a little bit and Paul said, Christ in me, the hope
of glory. The Lord showed everyone that
Job was accepted of God. Verses 10 and on. Look, it says,
and the Lord turned the captivity, well, in verse 9, the Lord also
accepted Job, and the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he
prayed for his sins. Also the Lord gave Job twice
as much as he had before. The Lord turned the captivity
of Job. What captivates us? What are we in captivity to? Sin. Sin. Our own self-righteousness. Well, the Lord says here that
he turned the captivity. That's what he did. When he accepted
you, when he accepted me, that's what he did. He turned that captivity. He came to preach to those who
were in prison. Set the captives free, didn't he? And that's what
he did. The Lord showed everyone that
Job was accepted of God now. In Christ he is now a free man. We have freedom. We're not under
law. We have freedom. A gentleman came to the shop
the other day and he was talking about, well you got to keep the
law. You got to keep the law. And I said, well let me tell
you something. I know what you're talking about is on earth, the
laws and everything that's here. I said, but I'm not under law. I'm under grace. Well you got
to keep the law. You got to do what's right. I
said, I do what's right because I love my Lord. I don't always
do what's right. But I do what's right because
I love my Lord. And He loves me. And He's shown
that love to me. That's why I want to do right.
Not because I have to. Not because I've got to do this,
this, this, and this, and don't do that, that, that, and that.
That's a system of works. That's a system of law. We're
under grace. The Lord showed us that his son
was accepted when he sent him back to glory. Welcomed him back. Put him on his throne in his
right hand. Gave him all power. Gave him
a name which is above every name. He showed that he was accepted.
Job was accepted. He was accepted. His captivity
was turned. And then the Lord gave him twice
as much as he had had before. Got his family and claims his
back. Twice as much possessions. Even his sons and daughters.
Well, he started out with ten. And here he has ten more. Well,
ten of them were probably already in heaven, weren't they? They're still your sons and daughters.
Already there with the Lord. And then look at verse 14. And he called, verse 13, and
he had his seven sons and three daughters, and he called the
name of the first, the daughters, Jemima. Jemima means pure. And the name of the second, Keziah. That's a sweet smelling savor,
the cassia plant. And the name of the third, Karen
Hoppock. Strong, strength. Strong, strength. It's the hill. It's the horn
of the altar. the strength of the Lord. You
see, and these, look in verse 15, and in all the land were
no women so fair as the daughters of Job. The daughters of our Lord Jesus
Christ is His bride, His church. They're pure. They're a sweet smelling savor
to him. They're strength by him. And then he says in verse 15,
and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. They have
an inheritance. We do too. We do too. Look at it in 1 Peter chapter
1. 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter 1 verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. What an inheritance
we have. What an inheritance we have in
the Lord. Jemima, Kezia, Karen Havoc. What a blessing they are to the
Lord. Fairest of all. Wasn't anybody fairer than these
girls? Beautiful young ladies. The church
to the living God is a beautiful thing. As a matter of fact, as the bride
of Christ, He's going to marry us. There's going to be a marriage
supper that we'll be going to. And He's going to marry us. We're
going to be one with Him forever. Don't the two in marriage, are
they supposed to become one? We're going to be one with him
forever. And you know what he thinks of
us and what he thinks of us now? Let me just quickly tell you. Paul said, Husbands love your
wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
the water of the word Listen to this that he might present
it to himself a glorious church Not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing But that it should be holy and without blemish That's
how he sees us. That's how he'll see us then.
And then Jude, the end of his little book, he says essentially
the same thing in Jude 24.