All right, we're gonna be looking
at Job 25. The title of the message is Christ and the Ground of Salvation. But before we get there, I'm
not gonna go through all the story of Job. You know the story
of Job. He was a man who suffered. But
I wanna settle one thing before we get started in Job 25, and
that is this. Job was a sinner saved by the
grace of God. And the reason I emphasize that
is, you know, there are a lot of commentators that say, well,
Job, he wasn't really saved until he got to the end of the book.
And he said, you know, I've heard of you by the hearing of the
ear. Now mine eye seeth you, and I repent in sackcloth and
ashes. Well, that is a major hurdle in Job's life. He jumped over by the grace of
God. And that is a major event. But he was already a child of
God. And look at chapter 1 and verse
1. It says, there was a man in the
land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and
upright. Now, when it says that man was
perfect, what do you suppose that means in the context of
Scripture? That's right. It means he's justified.
We know that no human being born of Adam is perfect in their character,
their conduct, thoughts. Job was a sinner and this is
proven out throughout the book because he messes up too in trying
to justify himself. But Job, he was a justified person. He was a man whose sins were
forgiven by the grace of God. And he was a man who rested in
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Job knew to
be the coming Redeemer. And he states that in Job 19.
He says, I know my Redeemer liveth, and I shall see him. He will
stand in the latter day. He's talking about Christ there.
And so, whatever Job didn't know, he knew that God was going to
send a redeemer who would be God manifest in the flesh, who
would work out righteousness. And that's why it says he's perfect.
The word perfect means complete, is what it really means. And
that's what we are. You know, the Bible says, in
Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in him. I'm not complete in myself. Job
wasn't, you're not, but in Christ we are complete. One day we will
be complete in ourselves when we leave the body of this death
and go to be with Christ. And then he says he's upright
and one that feared God. What does that mean? He was a
believer. Look at Job 1.8. Do you remember how Satan came
to the Lord? and accused God of blessing Job. The only reason that Job serves
you is because you bless him, you've given him all kinds of
land and money and family and health and all of that. And it
says in verse eight, and the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou
considered my servant Job, and there is none like him in the
earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and
escheweth or hateth evil. And what that is describing is
Job as a sinner, not a perfect man among men, but one who is
justified by the grace of God based upon the imputed righteousness
of Christ, one who had the spirit of the Lord, who gave him spiritual
life to look unto Christ. So I want that settled, but you
know the story of Job, how Job suffered greatly. God allowed
Satan to test Job severely, And you know what happened, and it
was physically, Satan could not touch his soul, could not bring
him into condemnation. You know, Satan does that by
deception in those who never come to faith in Christ. He deceives
the whole world. But he couldn't touch Job's soul,
but he could do anything physically. And what did he do? He took away
from Job everything that human beings hold dear on this earth. He took away his land, took away
his family, took away his wealth and his health, everything, and
left him with nothing. Well, look at Genesis. Look at
Job 25. Now, we're jumping over here,
and I know there's a lot of good stuff in Job. I preached through
the book of Job years ago, and there's a lot of good stuff there
that we could cover, but I'm trying to go through the Old
Testament, Christ in the Old Testament, and so I'm just picking
out some Plum passages, you know, that we can see without a doubt
that this is speaking of Christ. And here, in Genesis 25.1, it
talks about a man named Bildad. He was a Shuhite, that's where
he was from. It says, then answered Bildad
the Shuhite, and said, now, you remember Job had three friends
who came from far away, and they came to, they heard about Job's
troubles, and they came to comfort Job. One was named Bildad, the
other was Eliphaz, and then another one named Zophar. And Eliphaz
was the one who spoke first. What they did is, you remember
they came and I think for seven days they sat with him and said
nothing, just silent for seven days. And just, you know, just
being with their friend. And I believe they had good intentions.
But then they begin to speak. Eliphaz first, and then Bildab. And Eliphaz would speak, Job
would answer, and then Bildab would speak, and Job would answer,
then Zophar. And then later on in the book,
at the end, a young man named Elihu came along, sent by God,
to put things in perspective for them. We may talk about that
later on. But here was their assessment. And it's the assessment about
Job's situation, it's the assessment that the natural man takes. And
it's trying to answer the question, Job, why is God treating you
this way? Why are you suffering like this? Have you ever been in a situation
where you ask that question? Now I know everybody talks about
the sufferings of Job, And we know none of us have gone through
what Job has gone through. I mean, that's the ultimate suffering. The ultimate chastisement's what
it is. It's a chastisement of Job, all
right? But they're trying to figure
this thing out. And what we see here is the foolishness of man
trying to figure out things that are just so high above his mind.
We might as well just throw ourselves on the mercy of God and say,
thy will be done. And that's it. But all the suffering,
now here's what I want you to understand. All the suffering
that Job went through, it did not change his standing before
God one degree in Christ. He was still a perfect man who
was upright, who feared the Lord and escheweth evil. Now he didn't
always make the right, say the right things in trying to defend
himself against these guys. And God chides him for that,
admonishes him for that. Don't we need to be admonished
by the Lord often? We do, don't we? But here's their
assessment. Their conclusion was, Joe, God
would not afflict, quote, good, unquote, people, but always blesses
them with good things. Their conclusion is this. Joe,
you must have committed some awful sin And therefore, you
brought this misery upon yourself and you need to confess that
sin and repent to get God to bless you. Now, doesn't that
sound like modern religion? Sounds like ancient religion
too, man's religion. If you look at chapter eight
of Job, Job chapter eight. Let me get back here. This gives
you an idea of what they're saying. In verse five, talking about
God, and Job, he's talking, he says, talking about God who removeth,
moveth the mountains, and they know not, which overturneth them
in his anger, which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the
pillars thereof tremble, which commandeth the sun, and it riseth
not, and sealeth up the stars. See, all of that. What he's talking
about is that God is in control. And Job well knew that, but he
didn't understand why he was suffering. And these guys, they
came along, they wanted to comfort him, but they ended up being
what Job called miserable comforters. Job, listen, God doesn't afflict
good people like this. You must've done something to
get him mad at you. You know, years ago, there was
a book written by a Jewish rabbi, and the title of the book was,
Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? You all remember that?
Why do bad things happen to good people? Well, what the problem
was, the man didn't realize there's no such thing as good people
in this world. There's none good, no, not one.
I think I read the wrong, I get confused sometimes, you
know, and I don't know what sin I've committed to get that brought
on me, but when I read Job 8, verse 5 is what I want, Job 8
5, it says in verse 5, this is Bildad, if thou wouldest seek
unto God betimes and make thy supplication to the Almighty,
if thou were pure and upright, surely now he would awake for
thee and make thy habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
You see that's that's their assessment. That's what they were saying,
that if you just, you know, if you just straighten up, Job,
and confess that sin and get right with God. Well, how many
times have we heard preachers say that today? And that's the
idea, you know, and that's the way people think naturally. Well,
the Bible teaches us that God chastises his children and we
don't have the knowledge and wisdom to always point to some
specific sin that somebody's suffering for. We know there
are consequences to certain sins more than others. And so, I mean,
for example, if you go out and break the law, I always use this
example, but if you go out in speed and the policeman pulls
you over, the consequence is you gotta pay the fine. And we
know why you're having to do that. Now, that is a chastisement
from God. But I can point you to the specific
sin that brought that on to you. But now, generally speaking,
we can't do that. And we shouldn't do that. Or
we end up being miserable comforters. Well, that's what Bildad and
his friends were trying to say, Job, you're a sinner, which is
true. And Job, in his answer to them,
he maintained his innocence. And he was saying, really, there's
no reason that I can point to that God would be doing this
to me. Now, and that was true, but the thing about it is, what
we need to understand about our relationship with God in Christ,
is that whatever goes on in our lives is ordained and guided
by God, and we don't deserve anything good. There's no blessing
or no benefit of God's grace that we deserve or have earned.
That's one thing we need to understand. So look at verse, this is chapter
25, look at verse two. Bildad says, Dominion and fear
are with God. He maketh peace in his high places
or in the heavens. Is there any number of his armies
and upon whom doth not his light arise? Well, that's true. God
is great. God is an awesome God. He's to
be feared. He's the God who makes peace
and establishes order in the heavens. God is. We're testifying
here, or he's testifying here of the greatness of God, but
he's got it wrong with Job, and Job begins to defend himself,
and then Bildad asks the question, what I call the question of all
questions, that gets us to the heart of the very gospel itself.
And here's what he says in verse four. How then, since God is
so great, God is so holy and good, never makes a mistake,
how then can man be justified with God? That's the question. You know, a lot of scholars say
that Job is the oldest book in the Bible. That may be true. I don't know that it's true,
but it could be. But here's the thing. Somebody said, well, if
that's the oldest book of the Bible, here's the oldest question.
Well, I would agree with that. And the reason I agree with it
is because after the fall, that's the issue, after the fall of
man and Adam in Genesis three, that was the very issue that
was raised. Adam fell, brought the whole
human race into a state of sin and death. So the question comes,
how do we get out of this mess that we're in, this sinful state,
this sinful way? Well, God, he first reveals that
he's going to send a Savior whom he identifies as the seed of
woman. And that's talking about the
humanity of the Savior. He's going to be God manifest
in the flesh. And you know how Adam and Eve,
they put on their fig leaf aprons and tried to hide from God, that
was a symbol of them covering their nakedness. Nakedness in
the scripture is symbolic of a lack of righteousness. And
God, what did he do? Remember in Genesis 3.21, he
took, he slew an animal, shed blood, and made coats of skin,
and took off those fig leaf aprons and gave him coats of skin. And
in symbolic picture, we have the answer to this question of
all questions. And let's look at it. He says,
how can a man be justified with God? That has to do with the
legal standing. How can I be right with God?
And then he says, or how can he be clean that is born of a
woman? That has to do with our state,
spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. He says, behold, verse
five, look at this, he says, behold, even to the moon and
it shineth not, and yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. He uses symbolic language of
creation to establish how holy and just and right God is. God
is so holy. How can a man, a sinful man,
And so what does God's word tell us? God's word tells us that
all of us by nature are legally deserving of condemnation and
death. If God ever gave us what we deserve
or what we've earned, what would it be? Condemnation and death. We're all spiritually defiled
within. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. So how can such people who are
so sinful, be right with God, be justified with God. How can
they be clean? Born of woman, born in sin, coming
forth from the womb, speaking lies, David said. And so it's
a matter of God's justice, which has to be satisfied fully, and
God's power to give life and cleanse us within by the Spirit,
not make us perfect within. We're not perfect within. but
he cleanses us by driving us to Christ. Well, God is a just
God. That's established in Job. He
must punish, here's the way we need to put it. Somebody says
he must punish all sin. Well, that's true. He punished
all the sins of God's elect in the person and work of Christ.
But let me tell you how I believe it's more biblical to put that.
God is a just God and he must punish all sinners to whom sin
is imputed, to whom sin is charged. Now, what that means is this,
if when we stand before God, we have any sins charged to our
account, we'll be damned forever. And that's why it's such a glorious
truth when we read, who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? It's God that justifies. Well,
this issue of God's justice will not go away. And that's established
well throughout the book of Job. We can talk about God's love,
and that's a great subject. God is love, the scripture says. We can talk about God's mercy.
His mercy endureth forever. How many times is that repeated
in the Psalms? God's mercy endures forever. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. Don't you love to talk about
God's mercy? We're mercy-begged. God be merciful
to me, the sinner. We can talk about God's grace.
Oh, the grace of God. Amazing grace, the hymn writer
said. How sweet the sound. But here's
the point. The Bible says in Psalm 916 that
God makes Himself known in judgment. That's how God makes Himself
known. So to talk about love apart from God's justice is foolish. It's not love at all. That's
why the Bible says herein is love. Not that we love God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to do what? be a propitiation,
and what is that? Justice satisfied. So love without
justice is a false love. Mercy, remember the mercy seat? What was poured over the mercy
seat on the day of atonement? The blood. How are we justified? By the blood. Mercy without justice
is foolishness. That's why in Psalm, what is
it, 89 or 85, I can't remember which one, it talks about mercy
and justice have kissed each other. To talk about grace without
righteousness, justice satisfied, is foolish. Grace reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So
God cannot and will not pervert justice in order to save sinners
in love, mercy, and grace. They must all come together.
And how is that happening? How can that be? No human being
can answer that question. No human religion or philosophy
can even come close to giving you the answer to that question.
When he says, how then can man be justified? What man is he
talking about? He's talking about sinful, fallen,
spiritually dead and depraved man, mankind. That's who he's
talking about. If he was talking about a perfect
man, perfect in nature, he wouldn't have to be justified with God,
he's already there. But here he's talking about sinners.
There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that doeth
good, no, not one. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. How can such a man or a woman
be justified? What is it to be justified? Well,
to be justified has to do with being righteous in God's sight. What is it to be clean? How can
he that is born of a woman be clean? It's to be pure without
any defilement of sin so as to condemn us under God's justice.
And all who are born of woman are born into this world spiritually
unclean, spiritually dead, depraved. By nature we have no understanding
of or desire for the things of God. We have no righteousness
within ourselves. We cannot make ourselves righteous
by our works. If God were to judge us by any
of our works, we'd all be condemned. Look over at Job chapter nine.
I'll try to get to the right verse on this one. Job chapter nine. You know, this
question, this is not the first time in Job 25, it's not the
first time that this question was raised in the book of Job.
It was raised back here by Job himself in chapter nine. Look at verse one. Then Job answered
and said, I know it is so of a truth, but how should man be
just with or before God? And listen to Job's answer. If
he will contend with him. Now what that means is if we
appear before God and plead our own case, that's what that means. You gonna stand before God and
plead your case? Just like we were talking about
last week, you know, those people who were singing that when I
stand before God, let my works speak for me. Is that what you
want? Well, here's the answer to that.
Verse three, if he will contend with him, he cannot answer him
one of a thousand. And here's what that literally
means. Standing before God, contending with God, pleading your own case
for every one, one thing that you bring up on your behalf,
God can answer you with a thousand charges that why you should be
condemned. One of a thousand. Think about
that. We can't plead our own case,
you see. And Job stated that if any of
us would try to do that, God's got, he's got the goods on us. He knows the heart. So go back
to Job 25. Well, what is the answer? Well, look at verse six, Job
25, six. He says, how much less man that
is a worm and the son of man, which is a worm. Now, I'm going
to give you some facts about this verse that comes from an
interpretation that is supported by other scripture. We're gonna
interpret scripture with scripture. Does this mean that this man
Bildad had all this in mind? I don't know, I don't think so.
But you know, what he's speaking here is recorded in the Word
of God. And so it's recorded by the Spirit of God for our
good. But here's what I want you to know. He uses the word
worm twice here in our King James Version. How much less man that
is a worm. The word worm there is the word
worm that would indicate a maggot that feeds on the dead. And that's
what God compares us to by nature. Feeding on the dead, bringing
forth dead works. And then he says, and the son
of man, which is a worm. That's a different word there.
It's the word tolis, we would transliterate it. And it indicates
a worm that was red and the blood of that worm, the color, they
used it to make the red dyes that they used in clothing. For
example, in the priestly robes, the priest, the high priest,
there were some red in his robe. That was the tola worm that was
used to make that robe, make it red. And it was used to make
the red curtains of the tabernacle. Now the Son of Man, now again,
I'm not saying that Bildad had this in mind when he said this.
I don't know what he had in mind other than later on I think the
Lord calls on them to repent. But the Son of Man. Now sometimes
in the Bible, in the Old Testament, the Son of Man just speaks of
a human being. For example, in the book of Ezekiel,
when he stood there before the valley of dry bones, he says,
son of man, prophesy to these bones. And he's just talking
about Ezekiel, a man. But other times, and I've got
listed in your reference here in your lesson, the son of man
is a messianic term, often referring to the sinless humanity of Christ. And I don't believe it's a stretch
to interpret it this way because of this word worm that is different
from the first word. In fact, Christ referred to himself
more often than not as the son of man, referring to his sinless
humanity. So looking back on this verse
from our New Testament perspective, our New Covenant perspective,
I remember Brother Mahan, his book on these Old Testament types
is called Through New Testament Eyes, and that's what we're doing.
Looking back on it from our perspective, we can see the connection here
with Christ as God manifests in the flesh for the purpose
of his death, as the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer
of his people. And to support that, turn over
to Psalm 22. Now, we know that Psalm 22 is
a messianic psalm. That's the one that starts out
in verse one, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And
we know that's Christ. Now David's saying that because
he's in dire straits here, but David is a type of Christ and
Christ said that because he wanted them to know that this was in
fulfillment of prophecy. Well look down at verse six.
This is Christ speaking. Put it that way. But I am a worm
and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. And
the word worm there is the same word tola. The second worm that
Bildad used. In other words, he wasn't a dead
maggot feeding on dead things. He was the tola, the red crimson
worm. Well, what's significant about
that? Well, turn over to the book of Isaiah, chapter 1. Now,
somebody might say, well, you're stretching this point, you know.
Well, okay. This is what I see in it. This
is the significance of it. And this gives us the answer
to the question, how can a man be just with God? Look at verse
18 of chapter one of Isaiah. Come now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. You see that? He says, and though
they be red like crimson, that word crimson there is the same
word translated worm, the tola. They shall be as wool. Well,
how in the world can I, whose sins are scarlet red, how can
I be white as snow? The same question here. How can
a man be just with God? How can he that is born of woman
be pure? And so what we have here is the
greatest of mysteries solved in a most glorious way. How can
a sinful man be justified and how can people who are born spiritually
dead and depraved be given life and cleansed within? And it's
by the grace of God, grounded upon the merits of the glorious
person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. His work of
redemption accomplished by him for God's chosen people. That's
what happened. Before the foundation of the
world, Christ, the Son of God, was made to be the surety of
all whom God chose to save. Our sins were laid upon His account. He became indebted because of
our sins imputed to Him. The reason that He had to become
incarnate. the son of man, the perfect sinless
humanity of Christ. The reason he had to do that,
it behooved him, Hebrews 2.17 says. That means he, that's the
Greek word for debt. He had a debt laid upon him and
he had to become a sinlessly perfect man in order to die. And in his death, he brought
forth a perfect righteousness that enabled God to be just and
still justify sinful man? That's the answer to it. That's
the heart of the gospel. Jesus Christ and the ground of
salvation. God is both a just God and a
savior through the Lord Jesus Christ based upon His righteousness
imputed to us and God is just to do that. God's not gonna pervert
justice and judgment in order to save me or save you. He does
it in a way that satisfies his justice and enables him to honor
every attribute of his nature and character in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So how can God, how can a man
be just with God? Through the righteousness of
merits of our Savior. That's how. Through all that
he accomplished. How can he be clean that is born
of woman? Well, what are we by nature?
We're spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. We have an old heart
that's deceptive and ignorant and dark. What does He do? He
gives us a new heart and He cleanses us with the word of truth. Cleansed
within. Not made perfect within. We're
not perfect. We still have the flesh. And
sin contaminates everything we do. But we look to Christ. We
plead His blood. We plead His merits. We plead
His righteousness as our only ground of salvation by faith. looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. And that's the answer to the
question. And you notice, the thing about it is what's sad,
is not only do people today not know the answer to the question,
they don't even know the question. Don't even know the right question
to ask. I think one of our brethren years ago, talking to his daughter
who was very religious, and posed that question, how can God be
just and justify, how can a man, and she said, well, what does
that matter at all? Well, that's everything. That's
everything concerning eternal life and our standing before
God in Christ. Okay.