That was just beautiful, wasn't
it? The words and the voice. If you would, open your Bibles
with me again at Job chapter 1. I want to preach this morning
right where we live. Right where the rubber meets
the road. I've titled the message, If You
Considered, my servant Job. My text is verse eight, and the
Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job? That
there's none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright
man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil. Now the Lord asked Satan, have
you considered my servant Job? And this morning I want us to
consider God's servant Job. And as we consider Job, I want
us not just to consider Job, but to consider ourselves. Now
I know this from the word of God, Job is a believer. I know
that because God says so. And if I'm a believer too, I'm
gonna be saved the same way Job was saved, for the same reasons
that Job was saved, and I'll have many of the same experiences
that Job experienced, the same thoughts and things that Job
had. Now, when I gave you my title,
if you considered my servant, Job, something went through everybody's
mind, what we think of Job, doesn't it? Well, what is it that we
think about? You and I think of it, that's
where I want to start. What do we think about when we consider our brother,
Job? Well, I thought of four things
worth mentioning. The first one is this, Job was
a believer. He trusted the Lord and he worshiped
the Lord. At the beginning of the chapter,
we read how he was offering sacrifices for his sons in case they had
sinned in their hearts against God. After the Lord took away
everything that he had physically, won't you look what Job said
in verse 20 of chapter one. Then Job arose and rent his mantle,
shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshiped. He worshiped. When everything
was taken away from him, he worshiped. 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,
the only way Job could worship the Lord and say these things
from the heart after everything that had happened to him is if
he truly trusted the Lord. If Job just had a religious veneer,
that would have got stripped away that day, wouldn't it? But it didn't. There's just no
doubt. Almighty God had given Job faith
in Christ. But now any time God gives faith,
he's always gonna try that faith. Always. So that it's proven to
be genuine faith. Job's faith was tried, wasn't
it? Harder than anybody that we know,
his faith was tried. and his faith was proven to be
genuine faith. He wouldn't give it up even when
somebody tried to talk him out of it. Look over chapter two. Verse nine. Then said his wife unto him,
does thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. But he said unto her, thou speakest
as one of the foolish women speaketh. What, shall we receive good at
the hand of God and shall not receive evil? and shall we not
receive evil? And all this did not Job sin
with his lips. That is a man who truly trusts
the Lord and bows to his will. After he was stricken with all
these boils and all this awful pain, for him to be able to say
that and mean it, that's a man who trusts God. That's a man
who bows to God. And throughout this trial, we
see Job demonstrate he had genuine faith in the Lord. He said he
also is become my salvation. He said the same thing David
would say years later, the Lord has become my salvation. Job
said this, though God slay me, yet will I trust him. I'm gonna
trust him even if he kills me. And Job said this, I know my
redeemer lives. By the time he got down there,
chapter 19, Job was starting to realize maybe he didn't know
all that much, but he said, this I know. I know my Redeemer liveth. And he's gonna stand at the latter
days on this earth and with these eyes, I'm gonna see him. And
he won't be another. He won't be a stranger. I'm gonna
know him. And he'll know me. Job said,
I know, I know my Redeemer liveth. I'm looking for him. I'm waiting
for him. I can't wait till the day that
I see him. Believers of every generation. Things have happened that we
do not understand. I don't understand why the Lord's
doing what he's doing. I don't understand how he's going to
bring good out of this. I don't understand what God's purpose
is in this. But I can say this with Job. I trust him. I do know that. And one day I'm
going to see. One day I'm going to see. That's
what genuine faith says. Job had genuine faith. But here's
the second thing. Job truly trusted the Lord. There
can't be any question about that. But he still found time to complain,
didn't he? You know, I'm not excusing it,
but this is just so. I told you I wanted to preach
right where we live. True faith and true complaining
can be found in the same person. And I'll tell you why that's
true. Because there's two natures in every belief. We have a nature
that trusts God, and we have a nature that can never trust
Him. Job had such confidence in the Lord. That was genuine.
He had, oh, he trusted the Lord. He said, I know my Redeemer liveth. I ain't doubt about it, I know
He liveth. He's becoming all, He has become all my salvation.
And Job also said this, I feel so hopeless, I don't know what
I'm gonna do. What happened to trusting, what happened to trusting
the Lord, Job? I don't know what I'm gonna do.
Job was so confident, he said, one day, I'm gonna see the Lord
face to face. The same man said, I wish I'd
never been born. He said, I trust the Lord, I
trust him. But I'm telling you, the Lord
is using his archers, he's using me for target practice. He just
shoot an arrow after arrow after arrow at me and not one of them's
missing. He used me for target practice. He said, I just wish
Lord just kill me now. Job said this, the Lord's become
my salvation. He also said, I wish I could
go to the Lord and plead my case before him. He said, I wish I
could, but he won't hear my prayer. I can't find him. I look to the
left, the right, before me, behind me, I can't find him. The Lord's
hiding from me. He promised to never leave me,
forsake me, but the Lord's hiding from me. Job talked about how a man's
days are few and full of trouble. Boy, he was right, wasn't he?
They're few and full of trouble. He summed up our life on earth,
saying, life is hard and then you die. That's pretty much the
sum of it, Job said. And he wasn't wrong, physically
speaking. Have you ever felt that way?
We have. We have. who has been given true
faith, still has an old, sinful, complaining nature. Now that
doesn't make our complaining right. We'll have to try to curb
it as much as possible, but it's just so, isn't it? That's where we live. That's
the truth of our situation. Here's the third thing. Job was
a believer, I know that. I know he was a believer. But
he still struggled with self-righteousness. Job knew that the Lord is all
his salvation, he said so. But he also told his friends,
now, I'm not wicked. He told his friends, I'm not
inferior to you, I'm just as good as you, I'm just as good
as anybody. And Job wanted to make this clear to them. He said,
this trial didn't happen to me because of any injustice on my
hands. Job said, I was good to people.
I was good to the poor. I was a good father, a good husband,
I helped the blind. I helped Elaine. I was a father
to the fatherless. He said I was good to people.
And all this still happened to me. It's like he's saying, no
good deed goes unpunished. I did the right thing, but God
still punished me. It must have been wrong for me
to do the right thing. Job said, I was kind and good
neighbor and good citizen and good to people that needed help,
but boy, they're not returning my kindness now. He said, I'm
just a byword to them. He said, I see me, they see me,
they're just mean to me. They say, oh, what Job has done.
God must be Job. What did Job do to bring this
on himself? He's just a byword to them. And
Job said, that's not fair. It's not fair. Why does this
happen to me, not somebody else? This is not fair. This is what he told
his friends. You weigh me in the balance and
see. This isn't fair. God knows my integrity. I'd just like to hug him around
the neck, wouldn't you? Now you know those things that
Job said about himself? They're true. And we should be
able to honestly say those things about ourselves. I hope every
person here can honestly say those things about yourself.
I do help the less fortunate. I try to be kind to people and
helpful to people. There should be integrity in
everything we do. We should not be dishonest people. There should
be integrity in everything we do. we should be known as men
and women of integrity, that we'll do the right thing, even
if it costs us. That should be true of every
believer. That should be true of our conduct. But here's where
the problem comes. When that conduct, it turns into
self-righteousness, when we start thinking, I've done all this,
now the Lord should bless me. I've done all this, and that
should insulate me from trouble, that should insulate me from
loss and trial, because I've done everything right. would
we expect to be blessed because we've done the right thing? That's
when it becomes self-righteousness. If I expect to be blessed because
of what I've done, the way I've done it, well, that's words,
not grace, isn't it? That's dependent on my words, not God's grace.
That's self-righteousness. Now, every believer knows this.
We are saved by grace alone. We wouldn't even begin to think
our works have contributed to our salvation. We're saved by
grace alone. You know that. I know you know
that. But because we've got that old dead nature, we still struggle
with self-righteousness, don't we? It's something that just
rears its ugly head all the time. And it will, as long as we're
in this flesh, because that's what this flesh is. All this
flesh wants to trust in is itself. That's self-righteousness. Job
was a believer. He struggled with self-righteousness.
And we can't look down our noses at him, can we? No, because we're
the same way. Here's the fourth thing we think
about Job. Now, Job did these things. Said
things he shouldn't have said. But the Lord didn't leave Job
there. Job ended up hating himself for it. And he ended up begging
God for forgiveness. Look at chapter 42. We read the
beginning of the story. Let's skip over to the end of
the story. At the end of this trial, the Lord sent those friends
of Job's to talk to him. Then the Lord spoke to Job. And
when the Lord spoke, Job quit making excuses for himself, and
he just started begging for forgiveness. Chapter 42, verse one. This is
after the Lord spent a couple chapters talking to Job, and
Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do everything,
and that no thought can be withholding from thee. Who is he that hideth
counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that
I understood not. I was talking about things I
didn't understand, things too wonderful for me, which I knew
not. These things were above my pay grade, and I took it upon
me to talk about them. Here I beseech thee, and I'll
speak, and I'll demand of thee and declare thou unto me. I've
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now might I see
of thee. Wherefore, I behold myself, and
I repent in dust and ashes. Job admitted God's the one who's
in control of everything, and He should be. Everything He does
is right. Even this trial that hurt Job's flesh, even though
he didn't understand, he said it's right. It's right because
God did it. He said, I just was talking about
things I've not been talking about because I didn't understand
them. Job said, oh, I wish I'd kept my mouth shut. I wish I'd
kept my mouth shut. I'm just ashamed of myself. Boy,
haven't we all been there. Mm-mm-mm. I know in times that I felt tried,
I always remind myself, keep your mouth shut, keep your mouth
shut, keep your mouth shut, keep your mouth shut. But if you're
a believer, you know exactly where Job's at. And if you don't,
you will write soon. You will. Now, let me say this. In times of trial, you know,
I said I tried to tell myself, keep your mouth shut. It's okay. to say I hurt. It's okay to say
I hurt. Our sister Dean, it's okay for
her family today to say I hurt. It's okay, it's okay. It's okay
to say I need a little help. I need a little help, I need
you to pray for me, I need some help. What we want to avoid is
questioning God or saying it's unfair, what God's done to me.
That's what we want, that's what we want to avoid. Well, when
you and I consider, Joe, That's what we consider. Those things
came to our mind, didn't they? I'm sure they did. And that's what we think of Job,
because that's all we can see. All we can see is the flesh.
All we can see is what people do, what people say. You know,
we can't see what's in their heart. We can't see what they
really mean. Here's the important thing. How did God see Job? Now before
God told Satan to consider Job, God had considered Job. How did
God consider Job? See, that's what's important
because how God sees Job, that's how Job really is. Because God
looks on the heart and he sees things how they really are. Well,
our text tells us how God sees Job. I can sum it up by saying
this. Here's how God sees Job. He sees
him in Christ. That's how he sees him. When Job sinned not with his
lips, and when Job did sin with his lips, God saw Job in Christ. When Job didn't question what
God was doing, and when Job did question what God was doing,
God saw Job in Christ, always and only. Here's the first thing. God sees Job in Christ, so he
sees Job as perfect. He tells Satan, if you consider
my servant Job, there's nothing like him in the earth. He's a
perfect man. He's a perfect man. That word
perfect, means complete, means lacking nothing, and it means
innocent. Now God said Job's perfect, so
he is, didn't he? God says Job is complete. He
doesn't lack one thing I require of him. He has everything that
I require of him. Now we saw the different things
that Job said. Job could not be complete in
himself. He could not be. Now Job has
faith. but it's incomplete. Job trusts
the Lord, but that trust is incomplete. Sometimes Job trusts the Lord
more than he trusts him at other times. Look over Colossians chapter
two, and I'll tell you why God said Job is complete. Job is complete because he's
complete in Christ. Colossians two, verse nine. For in him, in Christ, dwell
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All the fullness of the
Godhead is in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, and you're complete
in him, which is the head of all principality and power. A believer is complete. We're complete in Christ, because
Christ is everything that we need. He's all the fullness of
God. The Lord Jesus Christ has made his people completely righteous,
not half righteous, completely righteous. He has made them completely
sinless so that they have not sinned. They're completely holy. They're completely redeemed.
The price is paid. They're complete. I told you
one of the meanings of this word perfect is innocent. God's elect
are completely innocent, completely. Now, the innocent man is someone
who has not broke the law. They've obeyed the law, right?
Well, in Adam, we're disobedient. In Adam, we disobeyed God, didn't
we? But the believer is completely innocent because the second Adam,
the Lord Jesus Christ, obeyed the law for his people. And when
he obeyed the law, so did they, because they were in him. If
you believe Christ, you are completely innocent. You haven't broken
God's law one time. Now, Job's perfect. He's innocent. That's what God said. Well, Job
can't be innocent in himself. I mean, we already looked at
so many things that he said and did. Job did many things that weren't
perfect. But Job's perfection is not in anything Job did. And
God saved you and me. We're perfect, just like Job.
Perfect in Christ. And we need to remember this,
our perfection is not in anything we've done. All of our integrity
and all of our helping the poor and all of our doing these things
does not add to our innocence or our perfection or our completeness
in any way. Our perfection is not in anything
we've done. It's all in Christ. It's all
in him. That's how God saw Job. And that's
how he sees all of his people. All right, number two, since
God sees Job in Christ, He sees Job as upright. That's what he
tells Satan, he's an upright man. Now that word upright means
righteous. It's without sin. Now like I
said earlier, I know Job, he tried to be a good father, I'm
sure he was. He tried to be a good husband, I'm sure he was. He
said he was a good friend, a good neighbor, I'm sure he was. But
Job was far from perfect. Job's works could never make
him perfect. And remember now, when we're
considering Job, we're considering ourselves. Our works can't make
us perfect either, can they? Well, if all of our works are
sinful, if everything I say, do, and think is sinful, how
could God ever see me as perfect? Only by seeing us like he saw
Job in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ made Job
righteous by his obedience to the law for him, as his representative.
Christ made Job righteous by his sacrifice for Job's sin.
God made Job righteous. He took his sin away from him,
put it on Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ put
that sin away by the sacrifice of himself. Sin's gone. All that's left for God's people
is righteousness. For he hath made him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made what? the very righteousness
of God in him. It's all in him. See, Job said,
my Redeemer liveth. My Redeemer liveth. This is how
Job was righteous. His Redeemer took his sin and
died. He rose again because that sin that had been laid on Christ
was put away by his sacrifice. That's why his Redeemer liveth. The resurrection of Christ is
proof positive. He made his people righteous.
Now what's true of Job is true of every believer. We are the
righteousness of God in Christ. Righteous by the doing and dying
of Christ our Savior. And just like Job, we ought to
be good husbands and good wives. We ought to be good children,
good friends, good neighbors. We should be known as kind, honest
people of integrity. We ought to be known as people
who reach out and help those who are in need. We should be
known as that kind of person. But that's not our righteousness.
That doesn't contribute to our righteousness. Christ is our
righteous. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our
righteousness. That's the only way God could
see us as righteous, is in Christ. And the father doesn't look at
his people and see them as righteous. He sees they are righteous. They
are righteous, because that's what he made them. Isn't that
a miracle? All right, here's the third thing. God sees Job
in Christ, so he sees him as a man who fears God. He says
he's one that feareth God. And that word feareth there,
it means two things. It means reverence, and it also
means afraid. Now the believer doesn't have
to be afraid of God. You don't have to be afraid of
God punishing you for your sin because he's already poured out
his wrath for your sin on our substitute. There's no wrath
left in him. There's no fury left in him.
All of God's hatred, all of God's justice for the sin of his people
has already been poured out. There's none left. It's all been
poured out on Christ, our substitute. So a believer does not have to
be afraid of our heavenly father. Perish the thought a child of
God would be afraid of our father. But a believer does reference
God. They do reference God. There's a reference and a humility
in worship. I've got to come and sit in here. I've got to come, and even before
we can sit in here, we've got to have somebody, Dan, had to
get up and pray that the Lord enables us to hear, that he'd
be here, that he'd enable us to hear. There's a reverence
and there's a humility in worship, isn't there? Job offered those
sacrifices in reference toward God. At the end of the chapter,
when God spoke, old Job was reverent, he was reverent. And boy, that
should be true of us. Always should be reverent and
humble people before God. We've come into this house and
gathered in his name to worship him, to worship. Well, I'm telling
you, where there's no reverence, there's no worship. It's got
to start with reverence. There's got to be reverence when
the creature comes before the throne of the Almighty, there's
got to be reference in the place where God speaks to us. You know, the messages that we
hear preached here, now they're preached by men, sinful men,
faulty men, but they're preached by men. God's given us this treasure
in earthen vessels, but those messages, Regardless of what
you think of the preacher, those messages are messages from Almighty
God. And they're not just a random
message. They're the message that Almighty
God would have you and me hear in this very hour, in this very
moment. Now, if you have any idea what
that means, this is God's message for me today. I'm telling you,
we'll approach this time reverently. reverently, prayerfully. The
word means reverence, but it does also mean afraid. Now I
said we don't have to be afraid of our heavenly father, not at
all. But a believer's still afraid.
We reverence God and we're still afraid. Here's what the believer's
afraid of. Trusting anything other than
Christ alone. I'm so afraid of that. I tell you why I'm afraid
of it, because that's what my old nature is trying to constantly
get me to do. Trust in something other than Christ alone. And
when I look at my works, when I look at myself, who I am, what
I am, I'm afraid to trust in myself. Aren't you? If God's
given us any view of ourselves at all, we're afraid to trust
ourselves. The believer fears trusting self. And in that way,
fear is a good thing. Because if I'm afraid of trusting
myself, what's that gonna constantly make me do? Go to Christ. to
look away from myself and look to Christ, to quit trusting in
myself and look to Him and trust Him. Every believer is a man
or a woman who fears God, who fears Him. And then number four,
God sees Job in Christ, so He sees him as a man, He says here,
who eschews evil. Now that word eschews, it's not
a word we typically use, but it means to turn away from, to
turn away from evil. Now Job is no different than
you and me, is he? He's born of the flesh just like
you and me. He's got a nature that's drawn
to sin and drawn to evil the same way we are. You and I drink iniquity like
water. That's what scripture says about
us. Drink iniquity like water. Iniquity comes naturally to my
nature. that this water does to my flesh.
We're drawn to evil like a moth to a flame. Well, how can God, now he sees
things as they are. How can God see us as people
who eschew evil? It's only in Christ our representative,
isn't it? You think of our Lord Jesus Christ. He never did evil. He never even thought about evil.
He was never drawn to sin. And his people, he's our representative.
His people did everything that he did since we were in him when
he did them. You know, Adam made us a sinner,
didn't he? We were in Adam, Adam made us
sinners. Christ made his people righteous.
He made them people that eschew evil because they were in him
when he was eschewing evil. Now in our experience, actual
actions and thoughts. We find we don't eschew evil
very well, do we? Now, I hope that we've learned
to kind of control that outwardly. I mean, I hope we haven't committed
as much outward evil as we think of, you know, as we would like
to. I hope we try not to be evil outwardly, even though it's in
our hearts. I mean, I hope we try not to act on that too much.
But if we are turned from evil, If we're turned from doing evil,
if we're turned away from being around wickedness and evil, why
have we turned away from it? The only reason we're restrained
from that is God has turned us. Wasn't it David who prayed, oh
Lord, turn me. If you turn me, I'll be turned.
The Lord has turned us. If I'm gonna eschew evil and
turn away from evil, God's got to be the one turning me away
from it. So in everything, everything, I'm completely dependent on the
Lord. That's the only way Job could
eschew evil. Now you and I, we're in the same
boat Job was in. And you understand, I'm not making excuses for our
sin. I'm not making excuses for our bad attitude. I wish I could not have a bad
attitude ever again. My word. I wish I wouldn't sin again,
and you do too. I mean, you're not sitting there
thinking, I can't wait to get out of here. What sin am I gonna commit?
I mean, you know, we wish we wouldn't sin again. But when
we do, and when we do have a bad attitude, we don't look at things
right, this is the believer's assurance. We're completely forgiven
in Christ. The Father sees us as forgiven. as righteous, completely righteous,
completely holy, completely accepted in the beloved. Now, that's the
good news of the gospel. See, in order for the gospel
to be good news, we've got to tell the ugly truth of who, what
we are, don't we? And we can't gloss over that.
We can't gloss over the wretchedness of our sin. Yes, we're sinners.
Yes, all we do is sin. It's embarrassing, it's humiliating,
Oh, what we are by nature. I mean, we can't gloss over that. We can't put on this religious
veneer and pretend like we're better than somebody else. No,
we're not. No, we're not. But we're redeemed in Christ.
We're forgiven in Christ, our salvation, our redemption, our
acceptance with the father that he would see us. As men and women who are perfect,
and upright, fearing God and eschewing evil. Our hope and
our confidence of that is God sees me in Christ. Not in what
I do. Not in what I do. And I tell
you, that's good news. I'd a whole lot rather be saved
for Christ's sake than anything I do or don't do with Jews. I
hope so. I hope so. I hope God will make
it so. Let's bow together. Our Father, this sight that you've given to us
of our nature is so humbling. What we are, the sin that we
are, the rebellion that's in our heart, the corruption that's
in our heart is so embarrassing and humiliating, even for people
who've been taught better, who know better, had the gospel of
Christ preached to us for many, many years. So Father, how can we even begin
to thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ? Human language is completely
insufficient to express our thanksgiving, the glory and the wonder of redemption
for sinners as found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray
you take your word as it's been preached this morning. Reveal
to each one of us here who and what we are. And Father, by your
mercy, your grace, and your love, draw us to Christ. Cause us to
run to Christ, that we might be complete in him. Give him
all the glory, all the praise, and all the thanksgiving. For
it's in his precious name, for his sake we pray, amen. All right,
John come lead us in a closing hymn.