The Lord Gave and The Lord Hath Taken Away

Q: What does the Bible say about God's sovereignty over suffering?

The Bible teaches that God is sovereign over all circumstances, including suffering, as seen in Job's trials. The sovereignty of God is a central theme in Scripture, particularly evident in the Book of Job. In Job 1:21, Job acknowledges that the Lord gives and takes away, recognizing God's ultimate control over both blessings and afflictions. This reflects a profound trust in God's goodness despite suffering, as Job does not charge God foolishly even in great loss. God's purposes in our trials often transcend our understanding, and through suffering, He may be refining our faith and drawing us closer to Himself.

Q: Why is Christ's sacrifice important for Christians?

Christ's sacrifice is central to the Gospel, providing atonement for our sins and reconciling us to God. The significance of Christ's sacrifice lies in its role as the ultimate atonement for sin. As outlined in Galatians 1:3-5, Jesus gave Himself for our sins so that we might be delivered from this present evil world. His sacrifice appeased God's wrath, which was directed towards sin, fulfilling the necessary payment for our transgressions. Isaiah 53 describes how the Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of us all, ensuring that our judgment is taken away. This act grants believers peace with God and the promise of eternal life, foundational elements of the Christian faith.

Q: How does God give grace to His people?

God gives grace freely to His people through Christ, which encompasses all aspects of salvation. God's grace is a fundamental aspect of His relationship with His people. As illustrated in 1 Corinthians 1:4, grace is given to us through Christ Jesus. This grace is not only for salvation but also sustains us in our daily lives, providing hope, peace, and assurance. Moreover, grace enables us to grow in faith and holiness, reminding us that all we have is a gift from God. It is important for Christians to recognize that this grace is unmerited and flows from God's love and mercy, allowing us to live in obedience and gratitude.

Q: What does it mean that the Lord takes away our judgment?

The Lord takes away our judgment through Christ, who bears our sins and their consequences. The concept of the Lord taking away our judgment is profound in Reformed theology, particularly emphasized in Isaiah 53. Our sins are not simply overlooked but are transferred to Christ, who bore the punishment we deserved. This means that believers are no longer liable to God's wrath, as He has cast away judgment due to Christ's atoning work. As Zephaniah 3:15 states, God has taken away our judgments, allowing us to experience peace and forgiveness. This teaching assures Christians of their security in Christ and the assurance that their sins are dealt with completely.

I'd like to begin tonight with a chapter of the Book of Job. A familiar text, the first chapter of the Book of Job. I've titled this message after some words we find in this text. The title of the message is, The Lord Gave and the Lord Hath Taken Away. Job chapter 1. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was upright. That's said about very few people in Scripture. And one that feared God and eschewed evil.

And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, that's 1,000 oxen, 500 she-asses, and a very great household so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East. And his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and drink with him. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them.

And the Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, doth Job fear God for naught?

Has not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power. Only upon him put not forth thy hand. So Satan went forth in the presence of the Lord.

And there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And there came a messenger unto Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside him. And the Sabians fell upon him and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword.

And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the fire of God is fallen from heaven and have burned up the sheep and the shepherd and the servants and consume them. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, the Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away. Yay.

And slain the servants. with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young man, and they were all dead, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.

The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. Now this chapter begins to introduce us to this man, Job, at the height of his glory and his blessings from the sovereign God. Verse one tells us that he was perfect and upright, and he was given 10 children along with enormous wealth. And that was unique in itself in that it didn't fit the narrative that our Lord Jesus gave his disciples concerning how seldom a rich man shall enter heaven. And Job was extremely rich, yet this chapter tells us that he never failed to make burnt offerings for his sons continually before God. His riches did not pull him away from his God. Yet, in spite of all that, it pleased the Lord to completely erase everything that this man had in a single day.

I cannot imagine getting that kind of news. one after another after another coming to Him, and none of them with good news. All bearing horrible, horrible news. His children were gone. The Lord took His sheep, His camels, His oxen, His she-asses. And He took His servants. And later we'll read that He even took His health.

And Job had nothing else left except his wife and his very life. And his wife was not much encouragement. She encouraged him, why don't you just curse God and die? But verse 22 of chapter 1 says this, In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

And when we finally get to the end of Job's story in chapter 42, we read in verse 10, And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends, And the Lord also gave Job twice as much as he had before. And the Lord replaced his family and gave him the same amount of children that he had before disaster struck, seven sons and three daughters.

But I want to look at the words that we find in this first chapter, verse 21. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. But I want to look at those words in a different light than what applies to Job. I want to apply those words to how God Almighty deals with his chosen elect people. So first, I want to look at the words the Lord gave. All that we have in this life or shall have in that life to come. We have received, we have been given by the hand of the Lord God omnipotent.

Paul asked the Corinthians in first Corinthians one or one or first Corinthians four, seven. He asked them this, for who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou did not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? In order to receive something, it has to be given. So everything we have in this life and in the next that is to come is given to us by our God. Now, there are many things that God gave and gives to His chosen people.

First and foremost, He gave His Son. Isaiah 9, I quoted this, I think, Sunday. For unto us a child is born, and to us a Son is given. God the Father gave us the most magnificent, the most extraordinary, the most unspeakable gift that has ever been received. He gave us His Son.

First John 4, 9 tells us this, and this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Similarly, that verse that the religious world loves to quote, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And also, God has gifted us with His amazing grace. 1 Corinthians 1-4, I thank God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given unto you by Christ Jesus. And along with His grace, He gives us peace, joy, assurance, hope, mercy, and overflowing goodness. The Scripture tells us that our God has given us all things in Christ. Our blessed Savior is a storehouse. in which is found all the good things which the Father has to give to His saints. And next, I want to look at what the Lord Jesus gave to redeem us.

Isaiah 50, verse 6, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Galatians 1, verses 3 through 5, Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins. In order or that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our father to him, be glory forever and ever. Amen.

First, Timothy two verses six and seven, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. The Lord Jesus also gave us the words which were given him by his father. We read in that prayer that he has to his father in John 17, verse eight, the Lord says, for I have given unto them the words that which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." And he says again in verse 14 of that 17th chapter, John, I have given them thy word.

The gracious God of this universe could very well have left this entire human race in darkness. He was under no obligation to do anything for us. But he purposed instead to make His will known, to make His mind known. These words are the mind of our God, and they're revealed to us by His Spirit. All the knowledge that we have of heaven and hell, we would know of no such places were it not for this Word that God has given us. We would know nothing about Christ or salvation were it not for the fact that our gracious God had given us His Word.

Now next, there are things that God the Father gave to God the Son. Remember, the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. John 17, 1 and 2. These words speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son may also glorify thee as thou has given him all power over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. This verse makes it clear that God the Father has put all things into the hand of His Son, including all power. Our Lord told His disciples that in Matthew 28, 18, that verse that we love so much, all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth, all power over all circumstances, all flesh, all things.

In John 3, 35, it says the father loveth his son and hath given all things into his hand. This is how Daniel could proclaim that all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?

But our Lord also includes something else in His having all power that He should give eternal life to who? Everybody in the religious world would like you to believe everybody has a chance to be saved. No, we're told He gives eternal life to as many as the Father has given unto Him. Those chosen ones that were given to Him before the foundation of the world. Also, in John 17, 24, our Savior mentioned something else which the Father gave him. He says this, Father, I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou has given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.

When we are at last privileged. To see our Lord face to face. will be overcome with His glory. We have these ideas of heaven, and I am pretty sure that none of them are accurate. Because the human mind cannot begin to grasp what our Lord has prepared for us. Our grandest thoughts, People make movies about it and they're entertaining, maybe, but we can't begin to understand what our God has given to us and what He shall yet give to us. That magnificent glory which He laid aside when He came to this earth as a real flesh and blood man, we will see Him finally as He is in all His glory.

And another thing which the Father had given to His Son is the right and the power to judge this world and all the inhabitants thereof. John five, two for the father judges, no man Christ said, but have committed all judgment under the son. Then a few verses later in verses 26 and 27 of John five for the father as the father has life in himself. So have he given to the son to have life in himself and have given him the authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. So we have looked at all the things that God gave to His people and to His Son. We have looked at the things that Christ gave to His people.

Now I want to look at some things that God has taken away from His people. And we can rejoice in this fact, the things that God has taken away from His people are very much different than the things he took away from Job. God gave Job ten children, and he took them away. God gave him thousands of sheep, oxen, camels, she-asses, and took them away. God gave him his servants, and he took them away. God gave him his health, and he took it away. God gave Job more than could be imagined, but in his good providence, he took every bit of it. And it appeared that Job had lost everything and was certainly beyond any recovery. And we must remember that our God does not just do away with our sin. He doesn't make it disappear.

When we read that something is taken away, it is moved from one place to another. The garbage truck comes by every Monday morning by our house, bright and early. And it takes away the stinking, rotting garbage. And it takes it to a landfill up north of Lawrenceburg. That garbage doesn't just disappear when it goes in that truck. It's taken away to another place. That is what our God did for us. He took our filthy, filthy righteousness, our filthy rags, and He took them away. He took our sin. and he took it away, but it didn't disappear. He placed that sin on another, which we'll look at here in a minute.

So God's chosen people are infinitely better off than Job. Our God has given us more than any mortal can begin to imagine, as I just said. We're aware of many things that our God gives us, but one day we will be given something that no mind can imagine. When in the bliss of glory we see our Lord Jesus Christ in all His magnificence and splendor, and at last, finally, be able to worship Him as He deserves to be worshipped.

So then what has God taken away from His people? What things are there? Two verses tell us that the Lord has taken something from us. And it's not something to lament as a loss, but rather, What he has taken away is cause for unlimited rejoicing. Job 34 five says this, for Job has said, I am righteous and God hath taken away my judgment. Think about that for a minute. We will never know the horrors of the pit of the damned. because God has taken that away from us.

Zephaniah 3.15 says, The Lord hath taken away thy judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil anymore.

In those two verses, if that doesn't make your heart leap with joy and rejoicing, it tells me that you know nothing of the guilt of sin. that crushing weight that convinces you that you're as sure of hell as if you were already there. It's also evident that you've never lost sleep worrying that the next day God might snuff out your life and plunge you into eternal torments.

But how is it that we can read here in God's Word that He has taken away my judgment Don't we also read in God's Word that He's angry with the wicked every day? That He will by no means clear the guilty? Does His Word not warn us that the soul that sinneth it shall die?

So how can it be that He has taken away our judgments? Those of us who know the Lord and saving faith know the answer to that because we've read it many times, many times, In Isaiah 53, our judgment is taken away by our blessed scapegoat, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 6 tells us that the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Our judgment had been taken away because it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, to put Him to grief, to make His soul an offering for sin, to make Him bear our iniquities and to pour out His soul unto death. Our judgment had been taken away because he had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, because he was wounded for our transgressions, because he was bruised for our iniquity, because the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and our sin is taken away because by his stripes we are healed. God hath indeed taken away our judgment, but it did not go away, he did not do away with that judgment.

That judgment was taken away from us and poured out upon another, upon the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In Psalm 85, verses one through three, we read this, Lord, thou has been favorable unto thy land. Thou has brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou has forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Thou has covered all their sins. Thou has taken away all thy wrath. Thou has turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger." This reminded me of a story that I read. I like reading history.

And that story concerned the second atomic bomb that the U.S. dropped on Japan to end World War II. And people that don't know history think that we've never faced an enemy like radical Islam. But the Japanese were, at that time, just as crazy, more than willing to die for their emperor. And it always amazes me that it took two atomic bombs for them to surrender. And what's more amazing, I remember reading that the vote to surrender was tied among all the emperor's cabinet members. And the emperor himself cast the deciding vote to surrender.

Now that second bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, as you know. But Nagasaki was not the original target. A city called Kokura was. But because there was cloud cover over Kokura that prevented accurate targeting of the drop, the decision was made to instead drop that bomb on Nagasaki.

It was still the same amount of destruction, the same amount of death, the same amount of suffering, the same amount of judgment and justice. It just fell on another target, another group of people. And so it was concerning the judgment of our God on His chosen people.

Those people that were going to be the recipients of the judgment and justice of a holy God, but that wrath, It was to have fallen on the elect of our God, was redirected to a new target. That verse that I read from Psalm 85, it says, thou has taken away all thy wrath and now has turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. God did in fact turn his anger from his chosen people But He turned that anger, that malice towards sin, that fierce wrath upon another, upon His darling Son who had come to earth for that one purpose, to die for His people, to be the recipient of that wrath that was due to be poured out upon His chosen people. The same amount of suffering, the same fierceness of wrath that was inflicted on our Lord Jesus Christ, that would have been inflicted upon us in an eternity in hell. But that suffering was taken away. Taken away from his elect and put upon the Lord Jesus Christ on Golgotha's tree. And there's one more thing that the Lord has taken away and will close.

When Jacob's wife Rachel was barren, she suffered great disappointment and shame because she could not conceive. But God heard her prayers and gave her a son, who she named Joseph. And in Genesis 30, 23, we read this, speaking of Rachel. And she conceived and bare a son and said, God hath taken away my reproach. Reproach is an expression of disapproval or disappointment, criticism that often involves shame and disgrace.

And we, as the sons of Adam, were certainly objects of reproach before the eyes of a thrice holy God. But because the Lord Jesus Christ was willing to take that reproach away from us and take it upon himself, we no longer bear that reproach. It was taken away. and placed upon our great scapegoat.

Psalm 22 is a prophetic psalm concerning our Savior. And in verse 6 we read this, But I am a worm, this is speaking of Christ, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. Psalm 69 also is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ when it says this, Thou hast known my reproach and my shame, And my dishonor, my adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of happiness. And I looked, our Lord says, and I looked for some to take pity, and there were none, and for comforters, but I found none. Paul quoted Psalm 69 9 when he wrote of the Lord in Romans 15 3.

For even Christ, please, not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell upon me. Christ took upon himself our reproach, our shame, our disgrace, our humiliation, our vile trespasses, and bore them away into the wilderness of God's forgetfulness, never to be brought up against us again.

They were forever taken away. And as I read earlier, after God took away everything from Job, He restored unto him twice as much as he possessed before. And in that same sense, our God has taken away the judgment from His people. But He will reward us ten trillion times more and what we lost in our father Adam. He took away our shame and disgrace and made us His adopted children. Heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. Heirs to an unimaginable inheritance that shall never be taken away. May we never cease to praise our God for His goodness toward us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's look to the Lord

The Lord Gave and The Lord Hath Taken Away

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's sovereignty over suffering?

Why is Christ's sacrifice important for Christians?

How does God give grace to His people?

What does it mean that the Lord takes away our judgment?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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The Lord Gave and The Lord Hath Taken Away

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's sovereignty over suffering?

Why is Christ's sacrifice important for Christians?

How does God give grace to His people?

What does it mean that the Lord takes away our judgment?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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