All right, Job chapter 33. If you read the whole book of
Job, you'll see that up through chapter 32, at the end of chapter
31, Job and his three friends have
been going back and forth. And you know his three friends,
they took the position that Job was suffering because of some
specific or set of sins that he had committed. And they'd
say, Job, we've got to find out what's going on here. And you've
got to find out what you've done to bring this upon yourself. And of course, that was totally
out of their own self-righteous hearts and minds. And that's
why Job called them miserable comforters. And Job was correct
in debating with them, but he got into justifying himself and
blaming God, saying, God, I don't deserve what you've brought on
me. Not justifying God. And up to this chapter 32, there
was a young man sitting there listening to him. His name was
Elihu. And he kept silent out of respect for their age. Job
and his three friends were older than Elihu, and he kept silent.
But it finally came down where Job and his three friends, they
stopped. And then the Lord moved this
young man. whom the Lord had blessed with
knowledge and some wisdom. And of course, this is the word
of God that Elihu's going to speak. And beginning at verse
32, Elihu began to speak. And the first thing he did is
he admonished Job's three friends for their self-righteousness,
as the way they were speaking to Job, you know, in a self-righteous
way. God doesn't treat good people
that way. That's what they said. Well,
God only treats bad people that way. Well, the Bible teaches
us plainly that if God ever gave any of us what we deserve and
what we've earned, it would be nothing but trouble and wrath
and condemnation. Because as I've said so many
times, only two types of people, sinners lost in their sins and
sinners saved by grace, that's it. But here in chapter 33, Elihu
begins to speak to Job. And he admonishes Job for justifying
himself and accusing God of being unjust and punishing him. Now,
God allowed Satan to punish Job. Torture Job, you might say, in
a great way. As we said last week, he took
away everything that people hold dear here on earth. His family,
his riches, his holdings, his health. But what happens here
is that the question comes up, why do the righteous suffer?
And Job was a righteous man. Now his righteousness was not
in himself. His righteousness was in Christ,
and he knew that. He looked forward to the coming
of a Messiah. He said, I know my Redeemer liveth. And he'll stand in that great
day. He's going to live, that Redeemer.
And that's Christ, he's the only Redeemer. And so Job was a sinner
saved by grace. His sins were washed away by
the blood of Christ. Now that blood had not yet been
shed on earth. But it was sure and certain to
happen, and that's the nature of the covenant of grace, of
which Christ is the surety. God saved the Old Testament saints
on the same ground that he saves us in the New Testament. And
that's the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
only righteousness that Job could claim The only righteousness
that Abel and Noah and all of them, Abraham, was the imputed
righteousness of Christ. And I got to thinking about this.
Whenever you hear these terms used in the book of Job to identify
Christ, he calls him the Redeemer. And you know what a Redeemer
is. That's one who pays a redemption
price. in order to set free those who
are in debt. And then he calls him a ransom
here, over here in verse 24 of chapter 33. Then he is gracious
unto him and say, deliver him from going down to the pit that
is the grave. I have found a ransom. Some translations say an atonement,
but it's a ransom price. You know what happens when people
are kidnapped and they're held for ransom? And this indicates
that by nature we're held captive. We're held captive to sin, to
Satan, to the law. And a ransom price has to be
paid. But now Elihu is talking about
in all of his discourse all the way to the end of the book of
Job up to the last chapter, why do the righteous suffer? And
he's clearly telling Job and all of us that the suffering
of the righteous is not a token of God's hatred. God loves us
with an everlasting love. His love is in Christ. There
never is a time, there never has been a time when God did
not love his elect people. An everlasting love. He told
Jeremiah, he said, from the womb. But it was even back before then.
Because when God chose a people in the everlasting covenant of
grace and gave us to Christ, he set his love upon us. Now
we still sin, we fell in Adam. We're still born dead in trespasses
and sins. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies. We walk according to the prince
of the power of the air. We're enemies of God, the book
of Colossians says, in our minds by wicked works. but God has
been reconciled to us in Christ, but at some point in time, he's
gonna send the spirit to give us life in the new birth under
the gospel, and then we're gonna be reconciled to him in our minds
and our hearts. We're gonna come to him pleading
Christ, looking to Christ, resting in Christ. So these sufferings
are not a token of God's hatred or even God's wrath towards God's
children, In this case, and in Job's case, they can be classified
under what is called the chastisements of the Lord. Now, I was talking
to some people last Wednesday night on this. Everything that
we go through here on this earth that we suffer, or we might say
pay a penalty, is not chastisement. Sometimes it's just flat, the
consequences of our own bad behavior. All right? And hopefully we do
learn a lesson from that. Hopefully we do. And we know
that that sin cannot be charged to our account. We know that
our sins are forgiven. And obviously that should never
give us any kind of thinking or put us into any kind of thinking
and say, well, we can just rush headlong into sin willy nilly
because our sins are forgiven. We should never use grace as
an excuse. But sometimes we suffer because
of our bad behavior, bad choices. And we know that that's well
within the sovereign providence of God, the sovereign will of
God. But I'm not gonna get into all that this morning. But in
Job's case, and in a lot of our cases, the sufferings that we
go through are called the loving chastisements of our Heavenly
Father. And that's what Job was experiencing
here. Because at the end, he's gonna come to learn a great lesson. And the lesson is what we have
to learn. We have to kinda learn it all the time. And that is
it all works out for his glory and our good. God's in control. If I'm in Christ, I'm free from
sin, I'm washed in his blood, I'm clothed in his righteousness.
So, and these things, these things that we go through in life, our
suffering we'll say, Ultimately, they're meant to drive us more
and more away from love of the world and more and more to Christ. And that's a beautiful thing.
You come out, I love how Hebrews 12 puts it when it talks about
how no suffering is pleasant or easy. No suffering feels good
at this time, at the time you're going through it. But afterward,
it says, it brings us to that peaceable fruit of righteousness. Now what is that peaceable fruit
of righteousness? I can tell you right now, not
only from God's word, but from experience, it doesn't mean we
come out from those experiences of suffering feeling good about
ourselves. But we come out on the other
side looking to Christ even more. Valuing him even more. I have
never felt good about myself. Since God has revealed the reality
of sin to me, I've never gone through a trial, come out feeling
good about myself. Oh boy, I did the best I could
do or something like that. It's always looking to Christ,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Well,
that's the point. And I thought about this, you
know, whenever you hear these terms, ransom and redeemer, It sets
in the forefront the glory and the beauty and the necessity
of the gospel doctrine of imputation. In other words, think about it.
Christ redeemed us. How did he do it? By paying the
redemption price. Well, how could he owe a redemption
price? How could he do that for somebody?
He didn't sin. He was not a sinner. But he did
it as a substitute for people that God gave to him, and it
was just because God charged him with the debt of our sins. And the same thing with a ransom,
a ransom prize. Christ had a debt placed upon
him. Hebrews 2.17 says that's the
reason he had to be made like unto his brethren. It uses the
word behooved. And I said, I think I brought
this out last week, how behooved is the Greek word there for debt. Christ had a debt to pay. It
wasn't a debt that he incurred and worked up by his works. It was our debt imputed to him. And that's why this doctrine
of imputation is so glorious and so necessary. And so many
people have it confused, and it's under attack. But if it's
not for the doctrine of imputation, our sins imputed to Christ and
his righteousness imputed to him, if that's not the case,
then we have no ransom. We have no redeemer. Well look
here, let's start out. Verse 16, that's where we're
gonna begin. Now this is Elihu speaking to
Job and he's talking about how God speaks to us. He speaks to
us through his word, he speaks to us in chastisement. That's God speaking to his people.
And the reason he does it, it says, look at verse 17. Or verse
16. Then he openeth the ears of men
and sealeth their instruction. That's a revelation from God.
That's God teaching us. He opens our ears. By nature,
we're deaf, aren't we, spiritually? By nature, we can't see spiritual
things. Dead and trespasses us in. That's
the consequences of our falling Adam. We fell into a state of
sin and death and depravity, born into this world spiritually
dead, and in order to have our ears open and to have our eyes
open and the instruction, the teaching of God sealed upon our
hearts, what has to happen? We must be born again. And that new birth is the fruit,
the product, the result of Christ's righteousness imputed to us.
It's not the cause of salvation. It's not the ground, and I'll
show you that in just a moment. But he openeth the ears of men
and sealeth their instruction. And what does he teach us? Verse
17, that he may withdraw man from his purpose. Now you may
have in your concordance the word work there. Withdraw man
from his work and hide pride from man. Now what kind of purpose
and work is man by nature proud of? His religious works. Man's purpose, naturally, is I've got to do something to make
myself good enough that God will save me. And even in those who
claim salvation by grace but deny it by their doctrine, they
belittle the redemptive work of Christ and the ransom work
of Christ. They say, well, he's done that
for everybody, but it's no good unless we do our part. That's man's purpose, and when
God opens our ears and seals the instruction in our minds
and our hearts, he withdraws us from that. You know what that's
called in the Bible? Repentance. Repentance of dead
works. He does that in the new birth
and he continually does that in chastisement. I mean, what
do you learn in chastisement? You learn that your whole existence,
your whole salvation is conditioned totally, dependent totally upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the main lesson for every
chastisement. I cannot depend on myself. The
moment I start thinking that I've got something to offer to
God for which to gain or maintain His blessings and benefits, what
happens if I'm a child of God? God shows me the reality. Let
me show you who you are. That's what God said. Let me
show you who's in control. Let me show you the reality of
what salvation is. And there's nothing you do that
would get God to say, well, you've earned it now. You've done it
now. You've made it now. It's all
in Christ. What did Paul say? I know whom
I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able. I'm not able. You're not able. I'm telling
you, you know that. He is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. In verse 18, he says,
he keepeth back his soul from the pit. Now that's the grave. Now we're all gonna die, now
these bodies of death will go into the grave, but the grave
has no victory if we're in Christ. Now what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
15, O death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is removed. Christ arose again. He conquered
the grave, and if he arose, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, we're
gonna arise with him. We already have legally arisen
with him, but we're gonna arise again. And he says, and he keepeth
back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the
sword, from passing. So God turns us away, and that's
what chastisement is all about now. It's continually weaning
us away from this earth and setting our sights toward glory with
God in eternity. That's what we do. I look at
verses 19 through 22 now. He says, he is chastened also
with pain upon his bed, the multitude of his bones with strong pain. You ever been there? Oh boy,
I'll tell you why. This is certainly the opposite
of the health and wealth gospel that people are preaching today,
isn't it? You know, if you speak the word,
or you know what, a lot of those churches, they're just like Job's
three friends, you know? There's some sin in your life
that God's punishing you for, you see? He says in verse 20,
so that his life abhoreth bread and his soul dainty meat. What is that talking about? He's
weaning us away from the physical bread of this world. and causing
us to do what Christ said in John 627. I've got it listed
in your lesson. Labor not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him hath God
the Father sealed. Now we have to work or do whatever
it is to take to feed ourselves on this earth with physical bread.
But here's what we know. That's going to perish. One day when we draw our last
breath, we'll have no more need of this physical bread, won't
we? These physical things that involve so much of our time and
our effort. And we realize that the more
and more the Lord chastens us, the more we grow older. All of
that. Look at verse 21. His flesh is
consumed away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were
not seen stick out. When I read those verses, I have
something in my mind that I think of that just breaks my heart.
But the thing about it is, what's God doing here? God's showing
us joy everlasting. And he says in verse 22, yea,
his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyer.
So that's where we're headed now. It is appointed unto men
once to die, but after that, what? The judgment. How are we
gonna pass judgment? Well, look at verse 23. He says, if there be a messenger,
now messenger there is the word used normally for angel. If there
be an angel. And he says this, if there be
a messenger with him, that is this one who's going to the grave,
and then it says an interpreter. And that tells us who the messenger
is that he's talking about. Because this word interpreter
means one who intercedes on behalf of others. This is an angel who
intercedes. This is a message. This is Christ,
the angel of the covenant. This is Christ, the interpreter. This is Christ, the mediator,
the intercessor. And if I've got Christ all through
this life and all this suffering that we go through now, and like
I said, I mean, I know there's some people that they don't seem
to suffer much at all, and they even go under the grave, but
it's coming now, death is coming. But as I go through this life
and all this suffering and go to the grave, if I have Christ
with me, That's what he's saying here. If I have Christ, one among
a thousand, you see that? That's who Christ is, there's
nobody like him. The glory of his person, who
is Jesus Christ? God, manifest in the flesh. The term thousand, I want you
to think about this because I'm gonna be dealing with this when
we come in some messages I'm preparing. maybe, hopefully beginning
next week, Lord will. The word thousand, the number
thousand is what we call a Hebrew idiom. And what that means is
it's a term used to describe an unspecific span of time that
only God knows. It's kind of like one of mine
and Debbie's favorite song, what is that, A Thousand Years? Yeah. You know, if he was, if it's
a, you know, I'll love you a thousand years, that's what the girl says.
Now, if she meant just a literal 1,000 years, I'd say her lover
would get mad. Well, why not 1,001? Why not
2,000? Well, we use that term, so when
you hear that term 1,000 years used in the Hebrew, and also
later on in the Greek, he's not talking about a literal 1,000
years, 999 years plus one. He's talking about a span of
time that we don't know exactly, but God does. God knows it. The reason I say that, when you
get into the book of Revelation, it talks about a thousand year
reign and things like that. That's not talking about the
calendar. That's talking about God's purpose. God's presupposed, predetermined,
predestinated time. And when that time comes, that
only God knows, it'll be all over. and it'll be a new beginning
for us. But this is what he says. He says, if there be a messenger,
an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness. Now, whose uprightness? What is this uprightness? Well,
it's being justified, it's being righteous. Is this saying that
this interpreter This messenger, this one among a thousand is
coming to show man how righteous he already is? Well, if that's
the case, or is it showing that he's looking for good people
so that he can pat him on the back and take him to heaven?
If that's the case, this one verse denies Genesis to Revelation. Now you know that's not what
it's talking about. What is he gonna do? He's gonna
show man, it's either showing man his own, the interpreter's
righteousness, which is God, the righteous judge, which is
the righteousness of God in Christ, or it could be he's going to
show him to man the way of righteousness. Either way, that would be fine.
Who is our interpreter? Who is our messenger? Who is
our mediator? Who is our advocate, 1 John 2,
1? Jesus Christ, the righteousness. That's it. Man doesn't know the
way of righteousness by nature. He's got a purpose, but it makes
him proud, and it's a big lie, isn't it? But God comes, and what does
he do when he opens our ears? opens our eyes, he shows us Christ,
who is righteous, and he shows us that Christ is the only way
of righteousness. It's only by him as our surety,
our substitute, our redeemer, who pays our ransom, and that's
what he goes to. Look at verse 24. Then he is
gracious unto him. What does that tell you? He's
not giving man what he deserves here. He's not giving to man
what he's earned here. It's all grace. It is a free
gift. And it reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And he says, deliver
him from going down to the pit. That means he's going to the
grave, but the grave's not the end of this thing. He's going
to be risen again. He said, I have found a ransom. And that's Christ. The ransom
price. Isn't that beautiful? I mean,
doesn't that just rejoice your heart? We found a ransom. Huh? Isn't that something? This
ransom. Why did he have to ransom me?
Because I was held captive in sin. Satan had a hold on me. in my human nature, fallen human
nature. The law would condemn me if not
for this ransom. And what did this ransom do?
He paid the full and just ransom price. Elihu states that I have found
one who has met the price of my redemption. Jesus paid it
all. And it says, you know, Christ
has said this in Mark 10, 45. He says, for even the Son of
Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give his life a ransom for many. Who are the many there? That's
his elect, that's his sheep. And it's the nature of a ransom,
just like a redemption, those who he paid the ransom for and
paid the redemption price, they must go free. They cannot perish. Now turn over to 1 Timothy chapter
two. Now I wanna show you a verse
of scripture that people misinterpret and take out of context to try
to prove otherwise here, but it's 1 Timothy chapter two and
verse six. Well, read verse five and six.
It says, for there's one God and one mediator, you could say
one interpreter, between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Does that say all? Does that
mean everybody without exception? Well, let me tell you something
now. If you read the Bible and you believe the Bible, if that
means all without exception, then all without exception are
gonna go free. But it doesn't mean all without exception. What
he's talking about is all without distinction. Go back up to verse
one of chapter two there in 1 Timothy. He said, I exhort therefore that
first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks be made for all men. And what he's talking about is
all sorts of men. How do you know? Verse two, for
kings, for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and
peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. Pray for these people,
that's what he's saying. And don't make a distinction,
say well I'm gonna pray for this one because he meets some standard
that I've set or some prejudice that I have, but I'm not gonna
pray for this one over here. No, he says don't do that. You
pray for them all. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God and our Savior, verse four, who will have all
men to be saved, all without exception. Is it God's will to
save all without exception? Well, if you read portions of
scripture like Romans nine, you'd have to say no. He said, I chose to save Jacob,
but Esau I hated. But here's the key, and to come
unto the knowledge of the truth. He's not talking about all without
exception, he's talking about all kinds, all sorts of people. God's elect, listen, God's elect
are made up of all kinds of people. All kinds of people. Not just
one class of people, not just Jews, but there's some Gentiles
too. Not just one race or this race,
not just women, not just men, but all kinds of people. And
the key is who will have all, let's see, here it is. Yeah, who will have all them
come to the knowledge of the truth. Now listen to him. What's
it take for sinners to come to the knowledge of the truth according
to the Bible? It takes the power of God by
the Holy Spirit to give them life in the new birth. Else,
they won't come into the knowledge of the truth. They will not believe,
they will not repent. It's the power of God that brings
a sinner from spiritual death to spiritual life. So God has
to do a work. Well, does he do that work in
all men without exception? No. The Bible says by nature
we won't receive Christ. We won't believe Christ. But
go back to Job, okay, I hope that's clear. You read your lesson
on that, I've got some more there. But let me just read these last
few verses. Here's the product, the fruit
of that ransom that Christ pays. And it's a new beginning, it's
a new life. He says in verse 25, his flesh
shall be fresher than a child's. He shall return to the days of
his youth. That's talking about spiritual
life. He shall pray unto God and he'll be favorable unto him.
How can God be favorable unto me, a sinner, if I pray to him? Because I have a great high priest,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall see his face with joy,
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, for he will
render unto man his righteousness. Well, what is my righteousness?
It's Christ. and he's rendered it unto me,
he imputed it to me. And then verse 27, he looketh
upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which
was right and it profited me not, he will deliver his soul
from going down to the pit and his life shall see the light.
Now that's not saying that God's gonna look down and see who's
believed and repented and then save them as a result. The Bible
says in Psalm 14, I think in Psalm 53, that God looked down
from heaven to see if there were any that did seek him and there
were none. So if it's talking about God looking down from heaven
to see those who've repented and believed, he's talking about
the work that God has done to glorify himself. This is, we
are created in Christ Jesus. We are his workmanship. And it's all his power and his
goodness and his testimony. Okay.