If you would, turn with me again
to Job chapter 4. We're going through the Scriptures,
looking at some questions that are asked in Scripture. And the
one I want to look at this morning is where were the righteous cut
off? After Job lost everything that
he had except his wife, his body is now covered in boils from
head to toe. Job had three friends who came,
and they were shocked when they saw him. He was in such a miserable
physical condition, they didn't even recognize him at first.
And they were stunned. They sat with Job for seven days
in complete silence. And after those seven days, Job
spent all of chapter three saying he wished he'd never been born.
After seven days of silence, after listening to Job tell his
friends he's so miserable, he wished he'd never been born,
the first words that these friends spoke to him, here in verse seven,
remember, I pray thee, whoever perished being innocent. For
where were the righteous cut off? Even as I have seen, they
that plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same. Now that's a true
statement. That's a true statement. God
will never cause the innocent to perish. And he never will
cut off the righteous. That's a true statement. But
the way Eliaphaz says it is untrue. What Eliaphaz is saying is, now
Job, you have done many good things. You're right, you've
helped people. You've been such a help to the weak and the struggling,
those in trial. You've been a help to people.
But he said, now Job, you've got to be guilty of some horrible
sin, some horrible secret sin, or else God wouldn't have done
this to you. Now see, this is a true statement he makes, that
the righteous are never cut off, the innocent never perish. That's
a true statement, but the way Eliaphaz is using it does not
apply to Job's situation. Now we know this from reading
the whole book and from hearing this conversation that took place
for all this started between God and Satan. God didn't send
this trial to punish Job. No, he didn't send this trial
so Job would be cut off. God sent this trial. For the
same reason he sends trial to all of his children. It's for
our learning. So that we'll learn to trust
him more. So we'll learn our God is faithful. We can trust
him. Job is not being cut off. His
faith is being tried. And we find out at the end of
the book, oh, Job was not cut off at all, was he? No, not at
all. And that's something good for
us to keep in front of our mind. to be careful what we say to
our friends when they're in times of trial. This is a real indictment
against Job's friends. They were better friends when
they just sat there in silence. They were worse friends when
they opened their mouth. I don't want to be that kind
of friend, do you? Telling somebody, God must be
punishing you because of some sin that you committed, that's
just flat wrong. Just flat wrong. God does correct
his children, but he never punishes them. He never punishes his children
for their sin. He's already punished our substitute
for our sin. Now, God corrects his children.
No misunderstanding, God corrects his children. But thinking, just
thinking, ooh, you know, we have a friend who's going through
a serious trial with him. What did they do? They've done
something. That's why God's doing this to
them. My friends, that's nothing but
self-righteousness. That's all it is. If I think God's punishing
somebody because they did something wrong, the flip side of that
coin is I have to think God's not punishing me because I've
done something right. It's just self-righteousness, isn't it? We need to remember this about
trials and all of our different earthly circumstances. Earthly
circumstances and earthly possessions They are not an indication of
God's favor or disfavor. Poverty, you know, we know people
that just live their whole lives in poverty. Poverty does not
mean God's angry with you. And he's withholding these things
from you because he's angry with you. Poor Lazarus, who's lying
at the rich man's gate, he loved God, wasn't he? And riches, they
don't mean God's favor necessarily. God sent that rich man to hell.
Didn't he? Now look back at Ecclesiastes
chapter seven, or over Ecclesiastes chapter seven. As I began looking
at this passage, I read a lot of people, a lot of different
writers that say Eliaphas is just wrong, completely wrong
in this statement that he makes. He says, well, or these writers
say, we know innocent people who perish all the time. We know
righteous people are cut off all of the time. And one of the
places that they kind of take that from is what Solomon says
in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 15. All things have I seen in the
days of my vanity. There's a just man that perisheth
in his righteousness. And there's a wicked man that
prolongeth his life in his wickedness. Now, humanly speaking, there
are a lot of poor people. They're honest, they're upright,
I mean, I don't care what they do. They never get ahead financially.
They're just, they always live in poverty and difficulty. And
there are men who are absolute crooks. I mean, they're just
absolute crooks. Everything they do in business
and all their dealings is dishonest. They lie and cheat and they make
millions. Solomon says, that's a thing
of vanity that I've seen in this earth. It just makes you so mad
you could spit, doesn't it? That's what my grandma said.
She said, it just makes me so mad I could spit. We know lots of
people who are innocent of a crime that's been decades in jail.
And later on, we find out through DNA evidence and something, they
were saying they were innocent all along. They were right. They
were right. They were innocent all along.
And then people who are guilty of serious crimes, they get away
with it. They seem to prosper. And it's
frustrating. And it's so frustrating. Now
we know there are miscarriages of man's justice. And we see
the dishonest prosper all of the time. But that's not the
subject here. Now that was the subject of what
Solomon was talking about, but that's not the subject that we're
talking about this morning. That's not the subject that Eliphaz
was talking about. The subject here is God's justice. God's justice. Does God, ever
cause the innocent to perish? Does it? Does God ever cause
the righteous to be cut off? Well, the answer is no. No, he
does not. Never, never. I'm gonna give
you four examples that I thought of. Number one is this. Well, what about Abel? What about
all the martyrs who died and had their head cut off or burned
at the stake or some horrible thing? What about those people
and specifically Abel, who died believing on Christ. They died
because they believed Christ. The physical life was taken away
from them because they believed Christ. What about that? Well,
Abel and all the other martyrs that we know of, they didn't
do anything wrong, did they? I mean, I know it was against
man's law for the martyrs to preach Christ and worship, you
know, but that's not wrong. They didn't do anything wrong.
Abel didn't do anything to deserve being put to death, did he? Humanly
speaking. As far as man is concerned, Abel
was innocent. He was doing the right thing. Abel was murdered. He was murdered
by his brother. But now listen, Abel wasn't sinless.
No, if he wasn't sinless, he couldn't have died. The only
reason for death is sin. The only reason Abel could die
is he is a sinner. His brother Cain was wrong and
murdering, but Abel could die because he was a sinner. He was
guilty of original sin, and his father Adam, he was original,
or he was guilty of sin that he committed, just like you and
me. Unless the Lord turns first, one day each of us will die,
because that's what sin's gonna do to these bodies. Look over
at Hebrews chapter 11. Abel, not long at least, not maybe,
probably when he was offering it, but not long after, before
he died, Abel was offering a blood sacrifice to God. You know why
Abel was offering a blood sacrifice? It's because he's a sinner that
needed atonement. That's why he was offering the blood sacrifice.
And Abel died trusting the blood of Christ atoned for his sin.
That's what the writer to Hebrews tells us in verse four. By faith,
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. We're
talking about the righteous cut off? Abel was righteous. God
testifying of his gifts, and by it, he being dead yet speaketh. Abel was righteous, but it wasn't
because of anything he did. Abel was righteous through faith
in Christ. That's how he was righteous.
That's what Hebrews 11's all about, isn't it? Now, Abel was
murdered. But Abel didn't perish. Abel
died, but he didn't perish. Abel died and went to be with
the Lord. Now that's not perishing, is
it? No, that's living. And this is what this teaches
us. Salvation, righteousness comes to sinners through the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Period. We don't add to it by
our works. Salvation and righteousness comes
to sinners by the blood of Christ, by the blood of his sacrifice.
So you can do everything right. I mean, earthly speaking, you
can do everything right. And you'll still suffer loss
and pain and heartache is because we live in a world of sin. We
live in a body of sin. You can trust Christ. I mean,
you can be committed to him. You could be committed to his
cause. You can be committed to the gospel. and still not have
very many material blessings in this life. You still live
a pretty hard life trusting Christ, but that doesn't mean you did
anything wrong. That doesn't mean you did anything wrong.
That's just God's will for you. What that means is this, salvation
is by grace, not by works. God's blessings to his people
are by grace, not by works. And if you trust Christ, that
thrills your soul. that thrills your soul, even
though you're guilty of sin against God. Salvation is not by your
words. Salvation is by grace. You could
be a wonderful spouse. You could be a great parent.
You can be a fantastic neighbor. You can be a fine, upstanding
citizen, and every last one of us should be. There's no reason
in this world any of us should be a bad spouse or a bad neighbor
or, you know, difficult to live with. Every one of us should
be fine, upstanding citizens, but this is what we know. We're
still sinners. Now we're still sinners, you
know it. So our comfort, our hope of eternal life is it's
not our works that makes us innocent. It's not our works that makes
us righteous because we know that's not so. Here's our comfort
and hope of eternal life. Salvation is by grace. It's by
grace through the blood of Christ. The believer's hope of eternal
life is God doesn't give me what I deserve. He gives me what Christ
deserves. That's our hope of eternal life.
That's where it's found at. And if I'm righteous in Christ,
my body will die, but God will never cut me off. Never. The
righteous will not be cut off. All right, number two. This is
a very sad thing to talk about, but it happens. What about babies
who die? I can't think of anything more
heart-wrenching in you than a baby dying. Family is so looking forward
to that joy to bring a baby home and the baby dies. Now you and
I tend to think that babies are innocent. but they're not. Here's why babies die, is because
they're guilty of sin and Adam, the same way you and me are,
for the very same reason. Now that is very difficult for
us to think about our little babies, isn't it? But it's true,
it's true. You all know I have a new baby
in my life right now, six month old grandson. Intellectually,
I know, He's got a sin nature, I know that. But Chris, that's
tough for Papa to see. You know, that's tough for Papa
to see. But you know what? It's there. I show you that,
Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five. Verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. And what that literally translates
is all sin, all sin in Adam. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless,
even though there was no law given, death reigned from Adam
to Moses. even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure
of him that was to come. I tell you what Paul is saying
here. From Adam to Moses, there was no law given, was there?
God gave the law to Moses, and before God gave the law to Moses,
there was no law given from God on earth. But before God gave
the law, people still died. They still died. Even though
there was no law for them to break, they still died. They
didn't break one of the Ten Commandments, did they? Because they weren't
given yet. Well, then why did they die?
If there was no law for them to break, if there was no law
for them to sin against, why did they die? Because all of
Adam's race became guilty in Adam. When Adam, our representative,
sinned, so did we. Brother Henry said so many times,
we don't become sinners the first time we steal a watermelon. We
steal a watermelon because we are sinners. We became sinners
way back there in Adam. That's why babies die. That's
why we suffer this heartache. It's because that baby is guilty
in Adam. Now, Paul says here, a baby hasn't
openly defied God. by his actions, like Adam did
yet. But that baby's still a sinner. He became a sinner in Adam, our
representative. Now that's true, that's true.
But let me give you some comfort. Let me give you some comfort
here. We believe, based on the scripture, based upon the word
of God, we believe that when babies die, they go be with the
Lord. And John, I don't think that
because baby's so cute. No, we have scripture for that.
But David's son was Bathsheba. Remember, he committed adultery
with Bathsheba. She became pregnant. And that baby was born and was
dying. David sat and begged and begged and begged and begged
God for that baby's life. And the baby died. And David
said, now he's dead. Now he's dead. I shall go to him. I shall go
to him. But he shall not return to me.
David said, I'm going to see him again. I'm gonna see him
one day in glory. Look back to the book of Jonah. Jonah, chapter four, between
Obadiah and Micah. Jonah, chapter four. Now remember, the Lord sent Jonah
to Nineveh. to declare unto them because
of their iniquity that God's gonna destroy the city. Jonah
didn't wanna go, because he knew this. If he went and declared
unto them, God's gonna destroy this city because of your wickedness.
If they beg God for mercy, God'll be merciful. God won't destroy,
you know, the city. And Jonah said, I don't look
bad. Aren't we a mess? I mean, what
a thing, Jonah is upset thinking he's gonna look bad, because
God is merciful and wouldn't destroy the city. Well, look
what God said to him, Jonah 4, verse 11. And should not I spare none of
that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons
that cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and
also much cattle? Jonah was so upset that the Lord
didn't destroy the city, but the Lord said, Jonah, It's only
right that I don't destroy the city. He said there's 120,000
people in that city that can't tell the difference in the right
hand and left hand. Well, now, who's he talking about there?
Talking about babies. Can't tell their right hand from
their left hand. Now, like I said a minute ago, we don't believe
that babies who die go be with the Lord because they're innocent.
No, not at all. No, that baby is a sinner. father
chosen. The son suffered and bled and
died for him. He died to redeem him. When that
baby dies, the Lord brings him home to be with him. So out of that great darkness
and sadness when one of our babies die, there's a bright ray of
God's glory. God took that baby home because
God's merciful. God took that baby home because
he's gracious. It has to be, doesn't it? It
has to be. Salvation has to be by grace.
That baby never did one work for God. That baby never tithed
a dime, never walked an aisle, never made a confession, never
got baptized, never said one prayer, never did one good work.
That baby was saved by God's grace and God's grace alone.
That baby is saved by the blood of Christ alone. That gives this sinner good hope.
I'll be, if I'm saved, I'm gonna be saved the same way, by God's
grace, by the blood of Christ, without any of my works being
added to it. And I have any idea how sinful my works are, that
thrills my heart. That thrills my heart. All right,
number three. What about the Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior? So many people say that The innocent
was put to death that day on that center cross. Well, the
scriptures do say this about the Lord Jesus. He did no sin. Neither was any guile found in
his mouth. Isaiah called him the king who shall reign in righteousness. This is a righteous king. Isaiah
also said the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He's
righteous. His righteousness pleased the
father. Jeremiah called the Lord Jesus the righteous branch. The angel who came told Mary
she was with child. He didn't know what to call the
Lord in the womb. He just called him that holy
thing. He's holy, even in the womb, he's holy. We talked about
this last weekend. The demons knew who he was. Now
they didn't bow to him. They didn't beg him for mercy,
but the demons knew who he was. You know who they called him?
The Holy One of God. Peter called the Lord Jesus the
Lamb. Remember when Peter was there, he heard John the Baptist
say, behold, the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the
world. Peter called him the Lamb without blemish and without spot. He was sinless. The Lord Jesus
is the only righteous, innocent man who has ever walked the face
of this earth. The scriptures make that plain,
he's righteous, he's innocent. Then why did he die? If he's righteous, why did he
die? If he's innocent, how could he die? If the righteous are
never cut off, why did Isaiah say of him, he was cut off out
of the land of the living? Why did he say that if he's righteous? Here's one of the wonders of
the gospel of God's grace. It's one of the truths that makes
the gospel supernatural. It's something only God can do.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the holy one of Israel, the holy one of
God, he died because he was made guilty. He was made guilty of
the sin of his people. And every time I say that, I
feel compelled to say this. Christ was not made a sinner.
Nobody's saying that. Nobody's saying this. Get down
here. Nobody's saying that. The scripture says this. He was made
sin. He was made sin itself. All of the sin of God's elect
was transferred off of them and made to be Christ's. Placed on
him so that sin became his sin. The Lord Jesus Christ He suffered
everything that sin is. With the exception of committing.
He suffered the shame of seeing when he said I can't look up,
I can't look my father in the face. Suffering the shame of
seeing the shame of guilt. He suffered the guilt of seeing.
When the scribes and Pharisees found all those false witnesses
that came and lied against him. Scripture says he did not open
his mouth. He never one time defended himself. He never one
time said that's not true. You know why I didn't say that's
not true? Because it was. He could not say that's not true
because I'm guilty of that sin. And my sin became his. He'd been
made sin, he'd been made guilty. And then after suffering the
shame and the guilt of sin, he suffered the penalty of sin.
He suffered, oh how he suffered, body and soul, he suffered for
sin. And then he died under the wrath
of his holy father. The father who he loved and loved
him. He was one with the father. Before
any creation, he was daily the delight of his father. Now his
father turned his wrath on him. and slaughtered his son. He shoved
the heart, the sword of justice into the heart of his fellow
because sin demands death. The father put him to death. Now I know this. If I know anything
about God, I know this. He's holy. God is holy. Father is holy. Everything he
does is holy and it's right. Well. It would be unholy and
unjust to put an innocent man to death. That wouldn't be right. God wouldn't do that. And he
didn't do that. So he made his son sin for his
people. And then the father put a guilty
man to death to satisfy his justice. And when Christ suffered and
he died for the sin of his people, those people are sinners by birth,
sinners by choice, and sinners by practice. When Christ died
for us, You know what he did? He made them innocent. He made
them righteous. He made them the righteousness
of God in him so that the Father will never cut them off. I wish I could get the ear and
the heart of all the religious particularly Calvinistic people
that love to argue over this thing. My friends, this is not
a doctrine to be argued over. If somebody wants to argue with
you over this, turn your back and walk away. Just walk away. This is not a doctrine to be
argued about. This is a truth to rejoice in. Christ made sin so that his people
would be made the righteousness of God in him. Is the assurance
of our salvation? It's the wonder of God's love
that he would do that for the likes of you and me. They make
his holy son sin and then slaughtering. For the likes of you and me.
Oh, that's a doctrine to be loved. That's a doctrine to thrill our
hearts that God would love his people so much that he would
go to that extreme to save them. that Christ willingly suffering
and dying for the sin of his people so that they be brought
to be with him where he is, that they might behold his glory.
That's his great love for his people that draws them to him. And it's because of his sacrifice
so that they made righteous and never cut off. And that brings me to the fourth
point. What about us? What about us sinners? If the
righteous are never cut off, that must mean the unrighteous
are cut off, right? If the innocent can never perish,
that must mean the guilty always perish. Well, what about us? I want you to take this home
with you now. Oh, I pray God apply this to your heart. It'll
give you such peace for your soul. Now, if the Lord has opened
our eyes about anything at all, in any spiritual truth whatsoever.
We know this about ourselves. We're sinners. We're sinners. Everything we are is sin. Everything we know, everything
we do, everything we think is sin. And our best religious deeds,
our best religious deeds are enough to send worlds to hell,
worlds to hell. We have to repent of our repentance,
don't we? We've got to ask God to forgive
us for our prayers. We've got to ask God to forgive
us for our praise and worship of him. I mean, really, I mean. We're so thankful for this time
we can gather together and hear of Christ, have God's Word open
to us and worship him. But when you really think about
it. We're just ashamed of our worship. I mean it so. pales in comparison to what God
deserves, doesn't it? I mean, even our best, we're
just, we're so ashamed of it. Nothing we do is innocent. Well,
how can we not perish? Huh? How come? Nothing we do
is righteous. Nothing. But how can we not be
cut off? Well, that's because of why I
just told you my third point. It's because of the sacrifice of Christ. Oh, if we'll learn this, we'll
be a whole lot happier. It's all for Christ's sake. Salvation,
righteousness, peace with God, it's all for Christ's sake. God's
blessings to us, whatever it is he's pleased to give us, it's
all for Christ's sake. If the Lord Jesus Christ died
for you, brother, you're innocent. You're innocent. And you can
never die. The Lord Jesus Christ has already,
here's the reason you can't die. Your substitute's already died.
He's already died for your sin. Your sin's gone. There's nothing
that can make you die. If the Lord Jesus Christ died
for you, he made you righteous. He made you righteous. Well,
there's no reason for God to cut you off. The father cut off
his son. When his son was made sin, as
he hung there on the tree, what was one of the things he cried?
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The father cut him
off. He cut him off for the sin of
his people. So that he'll never cut you off.
Never, never, never. I don't care how dark the night.
I don't care how painful the trial. I don't care how strong
the doubts. If the father cut off his son
for your sin, he'll never cut you off. Never. Christ paid the
debt. Now you're accepted in the blood. But where does that leave you
and me? Huh? Where does that leave us? Well,
it leaves us dependent on Christ, doesn't it? It depends us thanking
him, being a thankful people, It leaves us resting in Christ.
It leaves us worshiping Christ. As imperfect as it might be,
it leaves us worshiping Christ. It leaves us looking for his
return. And it leaves the believer saying
this, there's no fear in death. Now our bodies will still die,
but you won't die. Your soul won't die. Your soul
won't be cut off. Not if you believe Christ at
home. It leaves the believer having no fear in death. And you know why there's no fear
in death? So point out a man wants to die and after this the
judgment. If there's no fear in judgment, because Christ has
already been judged for you, if there's no fear in judgment,
there's no fear in death. There's no fear in death. People
who are innocent and who are righteous, they don't fear the
judgment. They don't fear standing before the judgment seat of Christ
because they'll never be cut off and they'll never perish. I'd venture to say, oh, Eliphaz
didn't know how true he was, did he? That's not what he meant,
but he didn't know how true he was in that statement. The righteous
will never be cut off. Now that lets us rest in Christ.
That's why I pray for you and me. Let's bow together in prayer. Our father, Oh, how we thank
you for the good news of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we look at ourselves, everything
is black and dark and dead and hopeless. When we look at the
world around us, everything is black and dead and dark and hopeless. But Father, if you would be pleased
to be merciful, and give us life and open our eyes and let us
see the glory of Christ. Let us see the light and the
glory and the hope that sinners have in him. Father, I pray that
you would exalt the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Take everything
that's been said and done here today and glorify your son in
the hearts of each one of us here this morning. And Father,
by your grace and by your power, enable each one of us here to
leave trusting in Christ and Christ alone. How we thank you
that salvation's in you. Father, it's in his blessed name,
for his glory and his sake we pray, amen. And like Wednesday
night, I don't know if I've got a cold or allergies, but one
of my favorite times of the week is greeting you out the door,
but I'm not gonna do that. In the event that it's a cold,
I don't want to give it to you, so God bless you. Chris, come lead us in closing
him, if you would.