Job chapter 8. I titled this Gleanings from
Job chapter 8. Now, as I've said before, the three
friends of Job said many things that were true, but they misapplied
them to Job. They were cruel in their assessment
of Job. You know, I was thinking, sitting
here, you know, two and a half years ago, you know the troubles
that happened in our family. I had two different preachers
call me, and both of them, two different times, they said, don't
you and Vicki beat up on yourselves. I thought, boy, Joe would like
to have had such friends. They said, don't you all beat
up on yourselves. And Job, boy, would he have liked to have had
those three friends to say that. Job, don't beat up on yourself. God has taken your children. Don't beat up on yourself over
that. Bieldad makes it an issue. You notice that? If thy children
have sinned against him, against God, he's cast them away for
their transgressions. He said, Job, God's taken your
children for their transgressions. Isn't that cruel? Even if he had, you don't need
to say it. Not to someone like Job. It doesn't even need to be said.
We need to learn to not judge a man's relationship
with God by his his or her circumstance because I assure you we would
misjudge it every time. How many things do we misjudge
anyway as we go through life? How many times have I, I can
say this to myself looking back, how many times have I misjudged
a situation? Too many times. Too many times. Lazarus laying at the rich man's gate.
David said, I have been young, now I am old. I've never seen
the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. And then
we have Lazarus laying at the rich man's gate. By that, we would say, well,
Lazarus, you must not be one of God's because God said, you
know, that wouldn't happen. How many poor people, how many
poor people down there that Walter preaches to, poor as can be,
but they're God's children. They believe the gospel, sit
there under Walter and Cody's ministry, but they're poor, poor. Well, surely it wouldn't be God's
child. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. You have to be careful
judging a man's relationship with God by his or her outward
condition. Listen to what he says here,
and then I'm going to give you, we're going to deal with three
points here. He says in verse five, if thou were to seek unto
God beatimes, Joe, God has spared you. So if you seek him early,
he would forgive you. If you make your supplication
to the Almighty, He would forgive you. You would find forgiveness. If thou were pure and upright,
surely now He would awake for thee. Job, if you were pure and
righteous before God, God would awake and deliver you. See how
he's misjudged this? This is the one God said is a
perfect man. Perfect and upright. And he'd make the habitation
of thy righteousness prosperous, though thy beginnings are small,
yet thy latter end should greatly increase." See, he's judging
it by what he sees, what he sees. Our latter end, and I'm confident
of this, I can say this to every believer here, our latter end
is going to greatly increase. Because our latter end is in
heaven. It's going to be a new heaven,
it's going to be a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. And that's
our latter end. That's where we're going. That's
where we are going to end up in that place with the Lord. Now, there's three points that
I want to deal with here briefly. First of all, God will not pervert
judgment. Job never suggested that he did,
but I want to look at this point. God will not pervert judgment.
The hope of the hypocrite shall be cut off, and God will not,
He will not cast away a perfect man. Let's look at this. First of all, God will not pervert
judgment. You know, I want the judges of
our courts to be just. I want them to be just. I want
them to deal justly. To deal justly and to show mercy. Because God said He's a just
God and a Savior. Look over in Isaiah 45. In Isaiah
45, look in verse 21. and bring them near, yea, let
them take counsel together, who hath declared this from ancient
times, who hath told it from that time, have not I the Lord,
and there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Saviour,
there is none beside me." He is a just God. Adam is a good
example of God's justice. He was kicked out of the garden.
When Adam sinned against God, when he rebelled against God,
did what he was not supposed to do, by one act of disobedience,
God kicked him out of the garden. But when he went out of the garden,
he went out with what? A promise. I'm with just God
and the Savior. He sent him out with a promise,
the promise of the seed of the woman would bruise Satan's head.
The flood is a good example. Another good example of God's
justice, that God isn't just God. God will punish sin. Don't
ever think that God will wink at sin. Don't ever think that
God will just let it go. Not without satisfaction, he
won't. Not at all. Noah saw God's justice, didn't
he? He saw the act of God's justice.
And this is hard to wrap your mind around. On this earth that
we live on, walk on, the air we breathe was flooded at one
time. Above the highest hill, it was
flooded. And everything on this earth
died. But there's a little old ark
floating on top of that flood. And inside that ark is life.
Inside that ark is hope. Inside that ark is peace and
rest. Inside that ark is God's favor. At the very place we see the
justice of God, we also see the mercy of God. But the clearest
place to see this is at Calvary. There hanging on the cross between two thieves is the Son
of God. God Almighty clothed in flesh,
and the justice of God is being taken out on him. He's suffering
under the wrath of Almighty God for sin. Yet, at the same time,
we see the love and mercy of God to sinners in Christ. The place where we see the sword
of justice fall, we also see the love and mercy of God. God will not pervert judgment. God is a just God and God is
holy. It says in Isaiah 63, they cry
day and night, holy, holy, holy. We don't know much about that,
do we? We don't know much about it. I feel like all we know about
it is how to spell it. It's so strange to us. We know something about sin. Let them make a movie. Let Hollywood
make a movie of holiness and see how many people come see
it. Let it be G-rated. Great. And see how many come see it.
But you let them make R-rated, or you let them make some horror
film, or vampire. And these guys that turn into
werewolves, these young guys. And they're packed. It's packed. We're not interested in holiness.
Not by nature. We are not interested in holiness.
By nature, it does not attract us. Sin is what attracts us. That's why we are not attracted
to God. That's why when Christ came into
the world, the world wanted nothing to do with Him. Light and darkness cannot dwell
together. God is light and men by nature
are darkness. God's holy. It says in Psalm
99.9, the Lord our God is holy. And I'm glad He's a just God. I'm glad He's holy. You can trust
Him. You can't trust somebody that's
not just. They may tell you something true
today and turn around and lie about tomorrow. But not God. Not God. He'll always be true.
Always be truth. In Psalm 22, look at Psalm 22. He says, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the
daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and
am not silent, but thou art holy. He's not accusing him of doing
anything wrong. I don't know why things happen
as they do, but I do know this. Our God is
holy. He can do no wrong. He can do
no wrong. I may not understand it. You
know, Job, I want you to look at something here back in Job.
Let me see. Let me find it. In Job chapter... Ten. I want you to look at this. In verse 15, if I be wicked,
woe unto me, and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head,
I am full of confusion. Ever been there? I read that
the other night and I thought, wow. But you know what, when I'm full
of confusion, God is still holy. God is still good. When my day's
going bad, God's still good. Because on God's end of it, it's
never a bad day. I may think it's a bad day, but
it's the day he's given me. And by his wisdom, he's bringing,
whether it be affliction or happiness, whatever it is. Whatever it is. Second point, the hope of the
hypocrite shall be cut off. Look in verse 13 there in Job
chapter 8. He says, so are the paths of
all that forget God and the hypocrite's hope shall perish. A hypocrite,
what is a hypocrite? I looked this up, this is interesting.
A hypocrite, an actor, Under an assumed character. Pharisees. Pretending to be holy. Pretending
to know God. A stage player. That's what it
is. A hypocrite's a stage player.
Here's another one. A disassembler. A dissembler. That's what it is. A dissembler.
Divider. Divider. The Pharisees pretended
to be righteous, but were totally the opposite, weren't they? Look
over in Matthew 23. Matthew chapter 23. Look in verse 13. But woe unto
you, scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites! For you shut up the
kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves,
neither suffer you them that are entering to go in. Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses,
and for a pretense, you're actors, you're just actors, for a pretense
you make long prayer, therefore you shall receive the greater
damnation. Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you
encompass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he's
made, he's made him twofold the child of hell. Look in verse
25. Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, if you make clean
the outside of the cup. Outwardly, outwardly, you appear
to be moral. They appear to be the most moral
people in town, but they're not. Inwardly, they are full of lust. And I say they have more trouble
with it than just a common man. Don't go in that room. Now, you're
going to have trouble not going in that room, aren't you? See,
they studied the law. They read the law. The law said
thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not covet
thy neighbor's wife, thou shalt not commit adultery. They studied
this law regularly. And it just makes that rise up
in you, which it says not to do. Our Lord thought about it. You
say it's wrong to commit adultery, but yet you commit adultery? He said, you clean the outside
of the cup and of the platter, but within you're full of extortion
and excess. You go into these widows' houses
and you extort them. People come to the temple, you
extort them. Give and God will bless you.
Sow the seed and you'll have a big crop. That's nothing short
of extortion. Just a disguised way of doing
it. Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees,
hypocrites, says verse 27. You are likened to whited sepulchers. You know, they've got a nice
headstone, tombstone out there. It just looks so... just look
so pretty, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but within
you're full of dead men's bones. He says, look here, take that
word men's out of there. You're full of dead bones. Inwardly you are dead and of all uncleanness. could see what was going on in
their hearts. He could see that excess. He
saw that covetousness. Whoa, would you use verse 29,
scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of
the prophets, you garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,
and you say, if we'd have been in the days of our fathers, we would
not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Oh, yes, you would have. You'd have been right there.
You'd have been right there. Was it Rex Humbard said, if I'd
have been there, I wouldn't have let him kill the Lord. I believe
he's the one that said that. He'd have been right there. Oh, yes, you were hypocrites.
That's a hypocrite. He's a pretender. He's an actor. An actor pretends to know God,
but he doesn't. Pretends to be righteous, but
he's not. Pretends to love, but he hates. God said the hope of the hypocrite
shall perish because it has no substance. It has no substance. There's nothing to it. It's the
house built upon sand, not upon the rock. It's built
upon sand. I keep seeing these images. of
where this hurricane went through New Jersey. And right there on
the beach, right, they show these images on the beach of these
houses that were there before the storm. And then after the
storm goes through, they're wiped out, completely wiped out. And my first thought is this,
why did you build it on the beach? Why did you build it where the
storm's going to knock it? You know it's going to knock
it. What's the odds of that happening? They're high. What's the odds
of New Orleans getting flooded? It's below sea level. You don't
have to be overly intelligent to comprehend that kind of stuff. It's below sea level. The hope of the hypocrites shall
perish. There's no substance. It's built on sand. And when
the storm passes through, when the wrath of God comes, it's
going to be gone. When the trial comes and the
trial is severe, the sand is going to go out from under the
house. I know that many of you have gone to the beach, probably
all of you. Have you ever stood there and when the water comes
in, it goes back out and sucks the sand out from under your
feet? You can just feel it pulling the sand right out from under
your feet. That's the hope of the hypocrite. The believer's
hope has substance. Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
His person, His work. Paul says in 1 Timothy, Christ
our hope. And then it has a foundation,
a sure foundation, an abiding foundation. It's the
Word of God. I hope the foundation of it is
found where? In the Word of God. Look over
at Psalm 119. Psalm 119 and 114. Well, let's go to 49 first. Let's go
to there. Go to 49 first. Remember the word unto thy servant
upon which thou hast caused me to hope." Where did you find hope in God's
Word, in the promises of God? Look in Psalm 119, 114. Thou art my hiding place and
my shield. I hope in thy word. Thy word. You see, the hypocrite's
hope shall perish. It has no foundation. It has
no substance. But the believer's hope has substance, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and it has a foundation, the word of God. And last of all, God will not
cast away a perfect man. He will not cast away a perfect
man. A perfect man is a man who has no sin. The Word of God says there's
not a just man upon earth that does good and sins not. That's among the sons of Adam. But there is one man who knew
no sin. The man Christ Jesus. A perfect
man. His birth was sinless. Perfect. His life, sinless. His message that he preached,
sinless. Don't lie in it. He said, I go
to my father's house. Go to prepare a place for you.
Many matches there in John 14. If it were not so, I would have
what? Told you. There's no lie in it. Whatever
the truth is, he tells us. His love was sinless. It was sinless. In him there
is no sin. Now, how does his sinlessness
help me? Who's full of sin? I'm full of
it. You full of it? We both know
we're full of it, don't we? I'll tell you how it helps me.
It helps me by His representation, His substitution, and as an advocate. I have a sinless advocate, I
have a sinless substitute, and I have a sinless representative. He will not cast away a perfect
man. And all who are in Him are perfect. Perfect. Now, we rejoice in that. But
I tell you when it will mean something. I tell you when it
will really, really mean something. When you are drawing that last
breath. I have learned that the promises of God the good news
of the gospel. There are different times in
your life and different things you go through when you really
draw from it. You believe it, you love it, you rejoice in it,
but there's times it really comes home. And one day we'll be on that,
if we don't die quickly in an accident, we'll be on that deathbed,
ready to leave this world, I'm telling you, we will rejoice
in this. God will not cast off a perfect
man. And in Christ, I'm perfect. In
Christ, my sins are gone. They're gone. Look over in 1
John chapter 3. And you know that He was manifested
to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin. And I tell you this, everyone
in Him has no sin. It's gone. He put it away. Look
in chapter 4 of this book, verse 17. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as He is, so are we in this world. Is he perfect? So are we. So are we. Right now. Do I feel it? No. No. I'm not saved by what I feel.
Saved by believing God. Abraham believed God. It doesn't
mean Abraham felt like he was saved and then left her and the
Catholics. No, he believed God. He believed God. In Christ, every child of God
is perfect. Look over in Colossians 1.22,
and I'll close. Colossians chapter 1. And look at verse 21. and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight." God is a just God. He will not
pervert judgment. The hypocrite's hope will not
stand before this just God. And God will not. He absolutely
will not cast away a perfect man. Now, that's right. Bill Dadd, he should have been shot for
the way he was talking to Job, but he said some things we can
learn from that we can't learn from. You can learn stuff from somebody
who's full of stupid. You can still learn.