Good morning, everyone. Good
to see you here. Let me begin by wishing all our mothers a
happy Mother's Day. I know my own mother will be
watching this probably by DVD, so happy birthday or happy Mother's
Day to you, Mom. Not birthday. It's not her birthday
today. Today we're going to be considering the first six verses
of the very last chapter of the book of Job, chapter 42, verses
1 through 6. I want to introduce the message,
though, first by directing your attention to Matthew chapter
13. In Matthew 13, we read how Christ
stood before a multitude by the seashore and he began to speak
to them in parables. As you know, parables are stories
that utilize very simple, common, earthly elements to teach a spiritual
truth. And immediately after Christ
had finished with the first parable, the disciples came to him and
they asked him why he spoke to them in parables. And in Matthew
13, 11 we read, he answered and said unto them, because it is
given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but
to them it is not given. And then down in verse 13 he
continues saying, therefore speak I to them in parables, because
they seeing, that is, with the physical eye, they see not, that
is, they see not with the spiritual eye of God-given faith. And he
says, and hearing physically, they hear not spiritually, neither
do they understand. And then down in verse 16, he
adds, but blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears,
for they hear. So we can know from this with
a certainty that a sinner must be miraculously blessed by God
if they're to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And
there I believe it's speaking of actually the very mystery
of the gospel. If they're to gain the understanding
that comes from God to each and every one of those he saves.
You see this revelation of faith, it must be given unto them. Now in today's text Job chapter
42, in verses 5 and 6 we read of Job answering God, saying
to Him, 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. So here at the end of the book
of Job, Job is telling us that he heard some things of God,
but that now he sees God in a different light. That is, he's seeing God
as he is, different from how he had seen Him before this time,
before this now, when my eye seeth. And in verse 6 he says
that because of that, wherefore he now repents. A few years back
I had read through this book the entire book of Job and I
had made a note when I got to these two verses because it struck
me, what struck me about it was this definite linkage that exists
and is set forth between these two things. Job's seeing and
Job's consequential repentance. He saw and so repented. And that's where I'm going to
direct our attention this morning in this message that I've titled,
Seeing Eyes Repent. Now, to set the stage, I'm going
to give you a brief overview of the book of Job and the events
that led up to his repentance here in the last chapter. First
of all, know this, in the very first verse of the book, Job
is described there as a man that was perfect and upright and also
one that feared God. Well, by that we know that Job
was both a justified sinner. That means he was declared not
guilty. He was perfect and upright before
God. How can a sinner be perfect and
upright before God? We know that is only through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. It's his perfection that
God has imputed or accounted unto them. And we know, he says,
he was a man that feared God. He was so a regenerated sinner. That means a born-again believer
who had been blessed with spiritual eyes to see God by virtue of,
listen, the God-given blood-bought gift of faith. In other words,
Job, he had experienced the fruit and effect of the redemption
that his promised Messiah would most certainly accomplish in
time. Now, I point all of this out because I'm going to be speaking
of Job's repentance at the end of this book. That's the repentancy
of one who has already manifested the evidence of having spiritual
life. In other words, he's already come to God by God-given faith
and in initial repentance. That repentance you see that
cannot be separated from true, genuine faith. It always accompanies
it. You know, if you really see something
with spiritual life, having been spiritually dead before, you
see something, you turn to something, by definition you're turning
away from that which you had not seen, or from what you had
imagined, I should say. We know from Scripture, you see,
that due to remaining sin, and the sinful fallen nature that
inflicts us all until we leave what Paul called this body of
death, that even born-again believers were plagued with periods of
unbelief and thoughts that dishonor our God and Savior. And that's
the case with Job here in the last chapter as he repents from
that. As this book then progresses,
Job, he's endured a series of tragic calamities. And as a result,
he ultimately ends up here harboring some idolatrous thoughts of God. In other words, thoughts that
are contrary to the character and the nature of the true and
living God that Job had come to know by God-given faith in
the past. But you know, isn't it good that
none of us would be preserved into eternal life if God didn't
keep us. And Job, like all believers,
he was a child of God. And as the scripture points out,
God chastens His children and He continually brings them to
repentance. And so while born-again believers
may have been taught aright and understood better, as we walk
on this earth and endure various trials, we can fall into thinking
some pretty awful things. Listen, including some things
pertaining to our God and Savior. So, I set the stage and say all
of this because I believe that this same linkage exists between
being brought to see God as he is and then the subsequent and
sure repentance that results from that divine revelation.
I believe it is manifested the same dynamics whenever God reveals
himself as he is. Whether that's the revelation
of faith and repentance, which takes place initially in the
regeneration of a sinner, or when one is brought back to their
spiritual senses, so to speak. In other words, continually,
God continually bring us into remembrance of the God in whom
we placed our trust. And I think that describes the
repentance we'll be considering today as it pertains to Job.
Now, as the book progresses, we're told how God granted Satan
permission to try or test Job. Job was a very rich man whom
God had blessed greatly, and Satan approached God and said,
basically, if you'll let me take those things away from Job, he
will curse you. So God basically said to Satan,
well, have at it. Take away all he has, if you'd
like, but don't you lay your hand upon him." And so, in accordance
with God's sovereign purpose, as all things that take place
are according to God's purpose, he allowed Satan to bring tragedy
Job's way. It's recorded how the various
types of Job's livestock, they were either stolen or killed
or they were consumed by fire. And then the servants, all of
his servants that were tending to all that livestock, they were
also killed. And then to top it all off, all
of Job's children were killed. And yet Job, exhibiting great
faith and grace from God, he continued to worship God after
this, what we'll call his first round of combat with Satan. And
that's evidenced by what Job said at the end of chapter one
when he said, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked
shall I return thither. I didn't bring anything into
this world and I'm not going to take anything out. He says,
the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. In verse 22 he says, in all this
Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly. Now as Job's trials
continue, we'll see he actually did come to a point where he
charged God foolishly, but I find it amazing here when I consider
what Job went through. I can't imagine losing everything
and in particular losing all of my children and not falling
into the kind of why me Lord type of questioning. the harboring
of thoughts toward God that really stand opposed rather than in
submission to the sovereign God as I know Him to be, and in submission
to His holy justness in all that He does. But at this stage, Job
had endured Satan's trials quite well. Satan had been allowed
to touch and take away everything he had, and yet Job did not curse
God as Satan had predicted. Then in the second chapter, Satan,
in essence, he goes back to God and he says, okay, let me at
him again. And this time, let me hurt him physically. And so
God, in his infinite wisdom, he turns Satan loose again on
Job, but he, with this restriction, he said, you can't take his life. You can't kill him. And so, Job
is struck with a painful disease. We read how he had bowls all
over his body from his head to his toe that he scraped off.
You know, as I thought about that, I don't know if you've
ever tried to talk with someone who's in pain, especially if
they're painfully near death. But you know, it's difficult
for a person undergoing that kind of thing to even reason
with you above all of that misery. And then here he is suffering
to that degree. and to add insult to Job's injury,
his wife then tempts him to curse God based on all that they have
endured, and yet Job resists doing so. Well then, Job's three
friends, his so-called comforters, they come to console Job and
to advise him, and miserable comforters they turned out to
be. A lot of the book is taken up with the dispensing of their
thoughts to Job about why such calamity had fell upon him. And to summarize it, they all
approach Job from a religious standpoint, but it's a religious
standpoint that is consistent with our natural fallen nature. They basically approached him
from a works-reward philosophy. A lot of what they had to say
fell into the category of essentially saying, Job, if you had not done
this or if you had done that, none of this would have come
upon you. And Job responds to this, so a lot of the book is
taken up with this dialogue. And then following this discourse
with his three friends, Job receives valuable correction and instruction
from a man named Elihu, who attempts to get Job to refocus. And we
read about that in chapters 32 through 37. And then God himself
begins to speak to Job starting in chapter 38 all the way up
to chapter 42. He spoke to him out of the whirlwind,
as I'm sure many of you are familiar with that story. And so when
we get to chapter 42, where I hope to focus the rest of our time,
Job comes to repentance of his previous sinful thoughts. So
let's read that beginning in verse 1. It says, Then Job answered
the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and
that no thought can be withholden from thee. And Job, I believe,
here in verse 3, speaking of himself, he says, 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." Now right here at the
beginning of chapter 42, notice that Job acknowledges two of
God's character attributes. First, his omnipotence. He says,
thou canst do everything. And secondly, God's omniscience. No thought can be withholden
from thee. We learn a lot about what Job
was thinking prior to this expression of his repentance by observing
the corrections that both Elihu had given to him and also from
the Lord when he spoke to Job out of the whirlwind beginning
in chapter 38. There in chapter 38 verse 4 God said this to Job. He said, Where was thou when
I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. He's basically saying, Job, who
do you think you are compared to me, to God? And from the beginning
of chapter 38, then all the way up to chapter 42, we have God,
the almighty, all-knowing creator and sovereign ruler of all things,
describing himself just that way. And that in sharp contrast
to Job, the creature. Time won't allow us to go into
all that in detail, but in summary, God is reminding Job how he sustains
all things. He talks in there about how he
can and does manage and control all creatures. He cites those
that are beyond the power of man to control, the leviathan,
the behemoth, speaking of the whale and the elephant, many
things. But he cites many instances of
things that he could do that Job could not do, including humbling
the proud. And so God, knowing Job's thoughts
being omniscient, as Job has acknowledged here, he brought
Job to repent of those thoughts, to bow in submission, bringing
Job to resign himself to the perfect will and purpose of God. So here Job is acknowledging
that while that he's simply acknowledging what God had brought him into
repentance in those chapters leading up to this passage. He's
acknowledging that God can do all things, that he, God, has
a right to do what he pleases, and that whatever God does, he
is acting in perfect wisdom, you see, because he's God. He's
acting righteously and justly, for God is righteous and just.
And when Job says, there are no thought can be withholding
from thee, I believe he's acknowledging the omniscience of God, that
God who knows all, and it's real to Job because Job knows, he's
certainly known my thoughts, and you can tell that by the
corrections that the Lord gives him. See, God knows the thoughts. He knows the good thoughts and
the bad thoughts that Job had entertained as it pertained to
God himself. Thoughts concerning God's wisdom
in allowing all these tragic events to fall upon Job, Thoughts
concerning God's righteousness, concerning His goodness or lack
thereof, in all that God had providentially brought about.
And listen, God allowed Satan to bring those things. But as
the Scripture makes clear, it's God's purpose. It's His counsel
that shall stand. He's in control. Well, God also
knew what thoughts Job had of these things now. You see, because
it was God that graciously revealed himself afresh again to Job. It may be also understood here,
and I'll just give you this because it was interesting to me as kind
of an alternative explanation of that phrase when he says that
no thought can be withholden from thee, that he may be speaking
of the thoughts of God's own heart as if to say whatever secret
purpose God thought. in accordance with His infinite
wisdom, that that cannot be withheld from becoming reality. And whether
that's intended here or not, we know that's a truth. That's
in keeping with what God says through the prophet Isaiah in
Isaiah 46 10 when he says, my counsel shall stand and I will
do all my pleasure. So regardless of how you interpret
that particular phrase there at the end of verse 2, it's clear
here that Job is voicing his submission to God as God had
described himself in the chapters leading up to this. Job now saw
that all that takes place is according to God's counsel, His
purpose, and His will. That's what His counsel is. It's
His purpose and His will that's accompanied by and a product
of His infinite wisdom. And so, that's above question
by man. We're prone, as sinful fallen
creatures, we're certainly prone to question the events and circumstances
of our life, but it really should be beyond our questioning. Job,
see, had come to know that not only could God do everything,
but that also he could and he does do whatever God is pleased
to do, listen, within himself. Now, Job's remark here in verse
3, I think If you had read this, the passages or chapters prior
to this, you would see this is almost a repeat of something
God had said back in chapter 38 verse 2. When God began to
speak to Job out of the whirlwind, his first words to him were this.
He said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? And then here in In chapter 42,
verse 2, Job essentially repeats that. He says, who is he that,
he used the word hideth here, counsel without knowledge. Some
think it would perhaps be better understood if you read it like
this. It's like Job is saying, as you have said to me, God,
who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? And Job's
saying, that's me, it's I. And I think that's probably the
correct understanding. You see, if you take that and
you read it with verse 2, it reads like this. It's like Job
saying, I know that I can't do everything and that no thought
can be withholding from thee. I, who is he, he the one that
hideth counsel without knowledge. In other words, Job is saying
in response to God's accusation back in chapter 38, you're right
God, I darkened or hid counsel without knowledge. What that
means, I believe, is that Job is confessing he had, in fact,
misrepresented the things that God had providentially brought
to pass. He had misrepresented them as
being unwise, not good, not just, not equitable. We see a little
of that when we consider what Elihu said of Job back in chapter
34. Beginning in verse 5, we read,
For Job hath said, I am righteous, and God hath taken away my judgment. Should I lie against my right?
My wound is incurable without transgression." I think in there
he's saying, in other words, I'm struck with these tragic
circumstances and I didn't do anything to deserve it. He says,
what man is like Job who drinketh up scorning like water? And look
what he says in verse 8, Job, the upright man, right, the righteous,
justified sinner, which goeth in company with the workers of
iniquity. and walketh with wicked men."
Now, how is Job keeping company with the wicked here? Well, we
see that in the very next verse. It says, For he, Job, hath said,
It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with
God. Job is saying, Look, trusting in God has done me no good. You
see how Job has fell into that natural works-reward mentality
of false religion here. He's saying, well, I've trusted
God and God owes me for it, you see. Today men say it this way. They say, they buy into the lie
that says if you'll do your part, God will save you. And so they
say, I've done my part. I received Christ. got baptized,
I did this, I did that. Now God, they imagine, is obligated
to save them, not based on what Christ did for them, but based
on what decision or work of their own hand they completed. Well listen, that's certainly
not salvation by grace. But here's Job, that justified
sinner, who God always takes care of Here in chapter 42, he's
agreeing with God. Here in verse 3, he's saying,
I am that foolish man that hideth or darkeneth counsel without
knowledge. He's owning up to having misrepresented in his
thoughts and in his words the truth that God is in sovereign
control of all things and that God's counsel, his purpose. And
all that he does is right and is righteous and just whether
we can understand how that is so or not. So Job had hid that
in this sense. You see, his perspective had
become similar to that of his miserable friends. He was looking
to himself to explain as he complained about his circumstances, almost
as if he had lost sight, kind of set aside the truth that he
knew. that God remains in control of
all things and that everything God does is right. And you know,
and listen, that's whether we understand it or not. And we
often do not understand why God does what God does, particularly
as He deals with us in the workings of this life here on earth providentially. So Job is saying, I was reasoning
from man's natural perspective of things. And he adds there
in verse 3, so therefore have I uttered that I understood not
things too wonderful for me which I knew not. He's saying he spoke
things beyond his understanding concerning how God deals with
us in Providence, how he brings bad things to the righteous,
this justified sinner such as Job had experienced while allowing
wicked men to prosper. And so Job in his natural, fallen,
sinful condition, had maligned the wisdom, the justice, and
the goodness of God because of that remaining sin principle.
As if to say, you know, if I'd been God, I'd have done it differently. It should have been different
than Almighty God had ordained things to be in His sovereign
purpose. I remember hearing one old preacher
that was often quoted as saying that if We're talking about the
infinitely wise God. He said, if you knew what God
knew, you wouldn't change a thing. But now, God has graciously opened
up Job's eyes, and that resulted in his repentance, whereby he
owns up to his folly. Now, with things back in the
perspective, not as Job had fell into, but God's reality, Job
says, these things are just too wonderful for me. They're beyond
my capacity to understand. I think he's acknowledging that,
you know, what we should do is simply marvel at God's doing
with wonder and admiration and with a humble resignation and
stopped there. And that's just not in our nature,
you know. But that's what we should do.
As Romans 11.33 reads, O the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways past finding out." As we get to verse 4, Job says
there, here I beseech thee and I will speak, I will demand of
thee and declare thou unto me. He's responding to God's commands
given in chapters 38 and following. Because he had commanded Job,
Job, you declare unto me, you answer You see, God's not going
to leave his people alone. And when Job says here, I will
demand of thee, that's to be understood this way. Job is saying,
I will petition you, God, as one who has access to boldly
go before the throne of grace. To go and enter into the presence
of God in prayer, having been made acceptable, see, in Christ. His promised Messiah. And so
Job says, declare thou unto me, I think to emphasize, you teach
me God, not the other way around, and let my understanding be what
you say is so. And so then we get to verse 5,
and there we see Job having heard of God by the hearing of the
ear. He then adds, but now mine eyes seeth thee. And that now,
as I've already mentioned in that statement, it tells us Job
is speaking of something he did not see or did not perceive in
the same way previous to this time. Some believe that Job is
referring to the fact that he actually may have seen a pre-incarnate
appearance in human form of the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son,
who spoke to him out of the whirlwind. And that could be the case. You
know, we have other instances in the Old Testament where Christ
appeared before his time, before his actual incarnation, his birth
and walk on this earth. But regardless of that, I think
we can see from the context there can be no doubt whatsoever that
Job is certainly speaking here of now his eye seeing, that referring
to the eye of his understanding, his seeing something clearer
than he had before because it's wherefore he repented. I think
the sense is this, Job's saying as if he's saying, I've heard
of you God. You see, Job had been taught
well that God could do all things and he knew all things as he's
stated here. And we know given the testimony
I mentioned at the very beginning of the book concerning Job, we
know he had seen God in Christ with the eyes of faith and belief
of God's gospel. He was a man that feared God.
And yet I think, again, we can see how his temporary lapse into
these sinful thoughts of unbelief is akin to or similar to the
same ignorance and unbelief of all unregenerate or lost sinners
who have yet to be delivered from their spiritual blindness.
And so Job says now, seeing, verse 6, wherefore I abhor myself
and repent in dust and ashes. Now, wherefore is an important
word that links those two verses. He's saying, seeing things are
right, he's brought to abhor himself and repent. Now, that
repenting in dust and ashes, just for your information, that
was an external ceremony that was used by folks who were in
sorrow or mourning or repentant. And it was used to express the
truth of it or the sincerity of it. And you believers, you
know, you know there's no greater ashamedness and repentance or
more genuine confession of sin than that which springs from
the eyes of God-given faith. You see, because there, a sinner
is brought to behold God as He's uniquely revealed in Christ,
as a just God and a Savior. And so what we see is not only
God a sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing, just God, But we
also see how He is both a just God and a merciful Savior in
Christ. So what that means is the shameness
comes because we see what it really took. It took the blood,
you see, of their substitute for God to forgive sins. I like
the description I've heard others use before that what takes place
when God first reveals Himself to a sinner in regeneration and
conversion under the gospel. It's been described this way,
that God causes us to take sides with Him against ourselves. And I think there's something,
some truth there that helps us understand what it means when
it speaks of a truly repentant sinner coming to abhor or hate
him or herself. Those of you who were here last
week, you heard Gary Shepard speaking, he referred to Luke
chapter 14 verse 26. Christ told the multitude gathered
there, he said, if any man come to me and hate not his father
and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea,
and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Well I had already
started my study for this week and so that phrase there struck
a chord with me. and his own life also. And I think that's exactly what
all who come to Christ initially for salvation experience. And
it's also what happens when a believer like Job comes in a spirit of
repentance, again with the eye of faith, faith when he continually
looks to Christ. When we see God as he's uniquely
revealed in Christ, you see, we're reminded we got to have
his righteousness. that nothing else is going to
do for us. And so in seeing that, we forsake self. We forsake the
universally hell and natural notion that salvation, that my
being saved, my eternal well-being is at least in part a result
of something done by me or in me or through me, some condition
or requirement that I am the center, presume I am able to
meet. But when God opens our eyes to the truth of His gospel
of grace, you see, that notion is put in the dust. And so in
that sense, we abhor ourselves. See, we flee to Christ alone
for all of our salvation, pleading His righteousness alone and forsaking
any self-righteousness. That is, any idea that some condition
or requirement I could meet would somehow get me saved or keep
me saved. You'll recall at the beginning
of that great passage on repentance in Philippians 3, Paul said there
in verse 3, he says, for we are the circumcision. The circumcision
is what marked the Jewish nation there, physical circumcision.
But here he's speaking of spiritual circumcision. He's speaking of
a chosen people, but unto eternal salvation from all nations. And
here's what he says marks them. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and what?
Have no confidence in the flesh. And that's what it is to abhor
yourself in godly repentance. You repent of imagining that
God could save you based on some work of your hand. That's no
confidence in the flesh. Well, today you've heard me mention
over and again how Job's repentance sprung from seeing God aright,
seeing God as He is. He began this last chapter citing
two of God's character attributes, and that's no small matter. Remember
what Christ prayed in John 17, verse 3? He said, this is life
eternal, that they might what? Not just a God as you imagine
Him to be, the only true God. And Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent, if it's the Christ that He sent, it's the one that accomplished
what God purposed to be accomplished. You know, true believers in every
age, I think, can relate to Job in saying something like this,
I've heard of you, God. That hearing might be like, almost
like hearsay, as in I've heard tell. or it may go beyond that,
as in my case, I was taught and I thought that I truly believed
many true things about God. I was taught He was omnipotent,
or all-powerful. I was taught He was omniscient,
all-knowing. I was taught that God did right,
that He was just, that God was all-wise, that God was in control,
that He was sovereign. Now, all of that time, and I
thought I believed those things to be true of God. In all of
that time, though, I'm speaking of a time when I was still blind
to the truth of the gospel and of the Christ revealed therein.
And yet I would have sincerely and adamantly asserted that I
truly believed all of these attributes of God to be so. I even thought
that what I believed was the gospel of God's grace. Now, some
may say, well, wait a minute, either you believed He was omnipotent
and omniscient and just and Or you didn't? Stay with me here
and let me show you how I could be deceived. You see, when God
opened my eyes under the sound of His gospel, now that's the
one Paul said is the power of God unto salvation for because
therein is His righteousness revealed, His perfect satisfaction
to justice. Well, when that was revealed
to me, I discovered that I only knew those attributes in word
only. I had not seen with the eye of
faith that God, He really was all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise,
just, and the sovereign of all things. And that was exposed,
see, by the true gospel that sets forth how God saves sinners
in and by Christ alone, based upon His finished work of righteousness
alone. You see, for true godly repentance
to take place, and listen now, as it does for each and everyone
who comes to Christ for salvation. For that to take place, one must
be confronted with the reality of their idolatry. No one knowingly
worships an idol. When you realize it, you repent.
If you've never then comprehended your own idolatry, then it's
impossible for you to have repented or turned from it. Idolatry consists
of wrong thoughts about God, who he is and what he's like.
As we just read, life eternal is to know the only true God
and Jesus Christ as sent by the Father. So in salvation, we repent
of idolatry. And I'll use myself as an example. I want you to consider my own
thoughts at that time about God because they mirror the most
popular thoughts of so-called Christianity today. The inconsistencies
that God confronted me with to expose my own former idolatry. I knew a lot about God. I knew
a lot about what Christ did and I believed it, what I knew. But
I didn't know anything about what he actually accomplished
in establishing the righteousness on the cross whereby God justifies
a sinner. You see, I considered his death
on the cross. I thought it was the ultimate supreme example
of God's love But I mistakenly believe that multitudes perished
in hell from among those He loved, from among those for whom Christ
died. So I even would say it this way,
I thought that Christ died for their sins. So I believe that
many, even most, because the Bible is clear, most perish.
I believe that many of these presumed objects of Almighty
God's everlasting love perished in hell. So while I heard that
God was just, my view of how God saves sinners at that time
denied His justice. You see, my view of God required
that He forego His holiness and justice. He set them aside in
order to express His love to me. And listen, here's how I
know. If I thought, if I had really
understood that my sins were truly punished in Christ on the
cross, then you know I would have been forced to have seen
that my view of God would be one of an unjust, ruthless, monster
God, a tyrant. who would send folks to hell
whose sin debt had already been paid by Christ's blood, the blood
of his precious, beloved, only begotten son. And I didn't recognize,
though, that slanderous assault on God's character. You know,
if I had, no one who recognized it would do that, not their God. Yet in the blindness of my lost
condition, That's exactly what my erroneous thoughts of God
and His way of salvation amounted to. See, if your own view of
God and how God saves sinners, your gospel, is such that He
has to act contrary to even one of his character attributes as
revealed in the Bible, then it's a fatally flawed concept. It's not the true and living
God at all since God, being God, cannot act contrary to who he
is. So consider how I and multitudes
today believe. I thought God loves everyone.
I thought that he tries to save everyone. I thought that he sent
Christ to die for everyone without exception. I hope you've seen,
I've shown here how that denies His justice, but what does it
say about His other attributes? What does it say about God's
love, His grace, His faithfulness, His wisdom, His power? You see,
my doctrine, my gospel at that time, that flawed understanding
of how I thought God saved sinners was equivalent to saying that
even though God loved them, He must have lacked the desire or
the power or the wisdom to ensure their salvation. You see, that
false gospel, it accuses God of, has to be one or more of
the following, whether we recognize it as such or not. You know,
dead men, they can't reason spiritually. But that gospel does, that gospel
accuses God of this. It says he must love those that
perish, who go on to hell if he loves everyone. but he must
not be wise enough to foresee the obstacles to their salvation.
I'd heard he was wise, but my gospel, my doctrinacy denied
it. Or you say, no, I knew he was, I knew, I know God's wise,
and so you make this accusation. Well, he loves those that he
go on to hail, but he must not be powerful enough to overcome
the obstacles and the difficulties to save them. Say, I've heard
he was omnipotent, but my doctrine, my gospel denied it. And thirdly,
I guess you could say, wait, no, I know he's omnipotent. I
know he's omniscient. I know he's all wise. You'd have
to say then his love is certainly not infinite. In fact, you'd
have to conclude what a worthless love. For although he's wise
enough and powerful enough, he just chooses ops not to intervene
and engage himself to ensure the well-being of the objects
of his so-called infinite everlasting love. He's going to allow them
to go on to hell anyway like a little kid who's running out
in the street and the mother just lets him run in front of
the car because she says, well, I didn't want to step on his
free will. I didn't want to intervene. What kind of love is that? You
see, I had heard God was love, but my gospel, my doctrine denied
it. And finally as typified by Job,
Think of how many avoid and refuse to accept the clear scriptural
truth that God is indeed sovereign and in control, listen, in all
things. That means in salvation as well. I'd heard God was sovereign,
but my gospel, my doctrine denied it. In Romans 9 and verse 15,
we read of how God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So, then it is not of him that willeth. It's not of your free
will decision. It's nor of him that runneth.
It's no work of your hand, but it's of God that showeth mercy. You know, as Jonah put it, salvation
is of the Lord. The whole kit and kaboodle. And
in salvation, God blesses His children with eyes to see that
it truly is of the Lord. That every requirement and condition
was met by their substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Based
on the righteousness He established in their room. Instead, as He
bore the penalty due unto their sins. And He accomplished that
for all those whom God, according to His sovereign will, was pleased
to show mercy to. So what God in essence says to
Job to bring him back to his senses, you know, he says that
to all those he saves. When he gives us the spiritual
faculties of life that we might see him as we in, we agree with
him as if he's awakened us to the answer to the questions that
he seemed to pose to Job here in his correction. God basically,
think about it, if you read that, you'll see you could summarize
it this way. He said to Job, who do you think I am and who
do you think you are? See, God, the Holy Spirit in
salvation, convinces us of sin. He humbles us and He causes us
to say with Job, Oh, I uttered that which I understood not.
It's beyond my understanding to know why, God, you providentially
act as you do. I don't know why you chose me
in Christ and not someone else, but I know I'm one of them because
you've drawn me by faith to Christ for all of my salvation. and
caused me to repent of my former idolatry. You've humbled me to
bow to your sovereign right, to choose whom you will, and
I'll rest there, and not go beyond that which you're pleased to
reveal." So, by God's grace, those he saves, you see, can
say with Joe, now that my eye seeth, I abhor myself and repent. And you know, when we realize
that is when God shows us what it really took, the precious
blood of the Savior. Not one drop of that blood was
shed in vain. He redeemed every one of those
for whom he died. Well, have your eyes seen God
as he is? If so, you've experienced this radical change called repentance. You see, those blessed with spiritual
eyes, they change gods. For, as I hope you've seen today,
seeing eyes repent.