I'm back to Job chapter 2. Chapter 2. Now at the end of the message,
I want to deal with or say a few things about He give us and He
take us away. But I want you to go through
chapter 2 and look at it and then go back to verse 20 or 21
in chapter 1. The title of the message is,
He giveth and He taketh away. And I think God that the one
Job is talking about is God. He's talking about the Creator. He's talking about the Redeemer. He giveth and He taketh away. No one else has that power. No
one else has that right. No one has the right to touch
me or you. Any of God's children. They don't
have the right, not even a, just like when the children of Israel,
he said not even a dog moved his tongue against them. A dog
couldn't even bark against them. Without him, without our Lord
allowing it. Allowing it. Now, Satan, as we
will see here in Chapter 2, he never rests. Never rests. No rest for the
wicked. No rest for the wicked. And Solomon
said this. I thought about this as I was
sitting up here. Solomon said to the wicked, mischief is as
sport. It's just like you enjoying a
basketball game. or some game that's your favorite
game that you really enjoy playing. He said, to the mischief, that's
sport to them. I mean, to the wicked, mischief
is a sport to them. And this is like sport to Satan.
This is what he enjoys, trying to bring down a child of God,
trying to destroy the glory of God. That's his aim. That's his aim. And he never rests. He goes to
and fro. He goes up and down. You remember
the first chapter, the Lord said, what are you doing? And he said,
I'm going to and fro in the earth, up and down. Second time, what
are you doing? Same thing. To and fro and up
and down. He's seeking to destroy those
whom the Lord loves. Those are the ones whom he seeks
to destroy, the ones the Lord loves. And when he fails in one
attempt, he tries another, if allowed
to. He tries another. And this is
the life we live on this earth. One day the sun shines, another
day it rains. One day where everything is calm,
another day it's just like it falls apart. Always under the attack from
the evil one. We know that. Always under the
attack of Satan. Just the Lord keeps him in check. We can thank God and take comfort
in this, that all this that goes on and all that comes our way,
whether it be a joyful day or a day of tears, is under the
direction of our Heavenly Father. It's under His direction. It's
under His orchestration. It's His. Last night in looking at this
and putting these notes together, or yesterday, I thought about
what it takes to make a garden grow. What does it take to make
a garden grow? It takes sunshine and it takes
rain. You can't have all sunshine and
have a good garden, can you? You cannot have all rain and
have a nice garden. It takes sunshine and it takes
rain in order for a garden to grow. And so it is in spiritual
matters. Job is a perfect man, God said. He's an upright man. But Job's
not perfect in knowledge, is he? He's like you and me. You
and I need to grow in grace and in knowledge of Christ, and Job
needs to do the same thing. And in order for that to happen,
in order for us to have spiritual, real spiritual growth, These
things have to happen. The Lord gives and the Lord takes
away. He gives and He takes away. We
cannot grow spiritually without the Lord giving and without the
Lord taking. Do you want to grow spiritually?
Think about it. You might want to think about
it. Do you want to grow spiritually? Here's the experience of it.
The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. That's the experience
of spiritual growth. You know the end of this book
when Job finally said, By the hearing of the ear I heard of
thee, but now mine eye seeth thee, and I abhor myself. I abhor myself, and sackcloth
and ashes. what spiritual growth He made.
That's spiritual growth. That's spiritual growth. I'm not an electrician, but it
takes a negative and a positive to make light, doesn't it? That's
what it takes. And for you and I to have light,
there's going to be some negatives and there's going to be some
positives. That's how we're going to grow, spiritually. Now, verses
one through three, Satan comes again to get permission. Now, I think partly, I think
he comes to give an account for what he's doing. It's not that
the Lord does not know, but this is for our learning. Everything,
everyone gets an account. And he shows up here and the
Lord says, where you been? What are you doing? And he says,
going to his pro, up and down in the air. The Lord knows what
he's doing. He's making Satan give an account
for what he's doing. And he's allowing you and I to
see what's going on behind the scenes. You watch the movies and nowadays
you get these DVDs, you get these behind the scenes specials. You
can see what went on in making the movie. But we get to see
what went on that made this man in this whole situation. Job
didn't see this at the time. His friends didn't see this at
the time. This is why they thought this is God's, this is God angry
with Job. You know, fire came down out
of heaven. The wind, these elements, you know, they attribute all
this, this is of God. The wind is God's wind, but he
allowed the prince of the air to use it. He allowed him to
bring the fire down. He allowed him to do these things.
He allowed him to make Job sick with all these boils. Because
Job said, you touch him. And God said, no, you're going
to touch him. No, you're going to touch him. You're going to
learn a lesson here. Well, he never learns a lesson.
The wicked never learn a lesson. Anyway, let's get back to this.
Satan comes again to get permission to attack Job. His first attempt
failed. Failed. He thought, boy, I've
got him. He took all that he had, all
of his possessions. It failed. Job kept his integrity. Job kept his faith. Job believed
God. Job gave God the honor and the
glory. Why did he keep his faith? The same reason Peter did. The
Lord said this to Peter. Peter, this same conversation
went on now between the Lord and Peter. It just went on here
with Job. Because the Lord said this to
Peter. Peter, Satan has desired thee. Have you considered my
servant Peter? Satan hath desired thee to what? Sift thee as wheat. That's how
easy it is for Satan to handle us. But what did our Lord say? I pray for you. I pray for you
that your faith fail not. Why did Job's faith not fail?
The same reason Peter's didn't. And the same reason your faith
and my faith does not fail under trials and heartaches. The Lord
said, I pray for you. I intercede for you. I intercede
for you. That's why Job's faith did not
fail. But this time, Satan's going
to go after his health. He failed the first time. He
went after all of his possessions. And he realized, well, his faith's
not in his possessions. His hope's not in his possessions.
You know, Scripture says your life does not consist of the
things which you possess. And it proves it in Job's situation. So he goes after his health.
A man will give anything for his life, Satan says. Skin for skin. A man will give
anything for his life, even his integrity. He'll sell out, guarantee
it. Just let me touch his skin. Just
touch him, his body. Make him sick. Make him have
such pain and anguish in his body. And he'll curse you to
your face. Satan knows human nature. He knows that's what man will
do. He says, just touch his body.
And he believed that if he could get that done, that Job would
break and curse God to his face. Here's something Satan does not
know and never will know by experience. The power of God's grace. My
grace is sufficient. And I'm going to tell you something.
God's grace is sufficient for the severest trial that could
ever come our way. His grace is sufficient. Satan knows that man loves himself
above all else. He knows that. But Job kept his integrity. He
kept his integrity. I want you to look in verse 3. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered, have you set your heart on my servant
Job? This is the second round. You
have to realize this is the second round. This is all not just right
in a row. The first trial happened. Job
lost all his possessions. And then some time went by. I
don't know how much time went by. But some time went by and
then this one came. This one came. And if you set
your heart on my servant Job, there's none like him in the
earth, a perfect and upright man, one that fears God and excuses
evil. And still he holds fast his integrity. What does that word mean, integrity?
I looked it up today, it means firm principles. Firm principles,
high morals. This is God speaking to Job,
speaking about Job's integrity. He said he holds fast, he holds
fast his integrity. Firm principles, high morals,
completeness. Completeness. It means wholeness. It means sound. Scripture talks
about being sound in the faith. Job was sound in the faith. Job believed God. He believed
God and he looked for the Redeemer. He said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth. And later on, we'll see in this
book, Job said, though He slay me, Yet I will trust Him." He held
firm to it. He held firm. And then Satan, in verse 5, Satan says to him, But put forth
thine hand now, Satan speaking here to God, and touch his bone
and his flesh, and he'll curse you to your face. And the Lord
said unto Satan, Behold, he's in thy hand. He's in thy hand. You touch him. You have God given him the power
to touch Job and give him all this physical and mental anguish. That's just unbelievable. But you can't touch his life. You can't touch his life. The
scripture says our life is hid with Christ in God. That cannot
be touched. God can allow Satan to touch
our homes. He can allow him to touch our
possessions. He can allow him to touch our bodies. He absolutely
cannot touch our life. He can't do it. To touch our life, he'd have
to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ. It has to destroy Him who is
our life. It has to do that. And he says here in verse 7,
so Satan went, and I bet you he just went in a hurry too.
I guarantee you this was immediate. He went forth from the presence
of the Lord and he smoked Job with sore boils from the sole
of his foot. He didn't just give him some
discomfort. He didn't just have some discomfort.
He didn't have a boil on his arm and then one over here on
his shoulder and then one on his leg. From the reading I have done
on this, a couple of the men said that the boils were joined
together all over his body. There were so many. It was just
like one boil. He couldn't sit down, couldn't
lay down. There was no way, and you think
about this, there was no way for that man to find relief.
Standing, it was on the bottom of his feet, to the top of his
head. There was absolutely no position
that he could get into and find any relief whatsoever. And all
he could do was take a broken piece of pottery like himself. I thought he scraped himself
or something like himself. A broken vessel. And he took
it and he would scrape those boils. He was in such agony,
agony. But there was one man There's
one man who was in greater agony than Job. And I believe it's the one man
whom Job represents, the Lord Jesus Christ. All ye that pass by, is there any sorrow like my sorrow? When he was made to be sin for
us, He was covered from the top of
His head to the bottom of His feet. He was completely made
to be sin for us. He bore our sorrows and He carried
our griefs. He bore our sins in His body
on the tree. Now listen, Job's undergoing
the wrath and hatred of Satan. that Lord Jesus Christ underwent
the wrath and hatred of God against sin. I look at Job and I think there
cannot be any more agony than what he's in. But yes, there
is one. There is one who was in more
agony than Job. That's our Lord, our Redeemer,
when He bore our sins in His body on the tree. When he was
under the wrath of Almighty God, we, you can't even, you know,
that can't put that into words. I can't put that into words.
It's not even possible. He took our sins and our sorrows and he put them away. He put
them away. It says in verse 8, And Job took
him at Potsherd to scrape himself with awe, and he sat down among
the ashes. That's what his life had become.
A man who was so wealthy, so wealthy, had become absolutely
poor, and he sat down among the ashes. And he scraped his sword. He just scraped his sword right
there in that spot. He was just a putrefying sword. Then said his wife, here comes
one of the worst parts of the whole trial. Here comes one of
the worst of it. Then said his wife unto him,
dost thou still retain thine integrity? Can you imagine that? Here you are. Sitting in such
pain? Here you are in such agony? Our Lord, if thou be the Son
of God, come down off that tree. He saved others. He can't save
Himself. Oh, the meanness of human nature,
the meanness, the evilness that is in human nature. I tell you
what, if God would, if he would withdraw his hand a little bit
and let this world, we see it here and there, you know, here
and there we see it, but this same wicked nature is in every
human being. And here God draws his hand back
a little bit and he allows Job's wife, and I believe she's a good
woman. I believe she is. I've had moments
like this. You ever had moments like this?
You ever spoke like Job's wife? You ever spoke like one of the
silly women or one of the silly men? Foolish? One of the foolish men or foolish
women? You ever spoken like that? Then said his wife unto him,
I'll still retain that integrity. Why don't you curse God and commit
suicide? Why don't you just curse God? Here's what she's saying. Here's
what she's saying. Yes, and think about this. Peter
said to our Lord, no, you're not going to die. You're not
going to the cross. And the Lord turned and said to Peter, Get
behind me, Satan. Satan's still at work here on
Job. He's still at work. She's saying, why don't you denounce
God and die? At this point, the pain had just
become too unbearable. She lost all that he lost. And
now here's her husband scraping himself with boils. Just a putrefying
looking thing. His friends didn't even recognize
him. That's how bad he looked. That's why I said we're not talking
about a boil here and there. We're talking about from the
top of his head to the sole of his feet. And that's a good picture
of us anyway. That's what we are. That's what
God said about Israel and I believe it's in Isaiah. You're like a
running sword. From the top of your head to
the bottom of your feet, you're like a running sword. Oh, this had to cut Job. This had to cut him hard. Why don't you just, do you still
hold your integrity? Do you still believe God? You still believe God? Lost everything. You know they pray. How often
have you gone through a trial or someone you know goes through
a trial and you pray for them? You pray for them, it gets worse.
You pray for them, it gets worse. You ever pray for anything and
it gets worse? And you still hold your integrity? You still
hold your faith? You still believe God? But he said unto her, I tell you what, Joe may have
lost his health, but he didn't lose his head. He didn't lose his
mind. He said, thou speakest as one
of the foolish women speakest. He said, you sound like one of
them, but you're not. She's not one of them. I don't
believe she is. You know, they had ten more children
together later on. But you sound like one of the
lost women out there. You sound like the heathen out
there. What? Here's a good question. What? Shall we receive good at the
hand of God? And shall we not receive evil,
trouble, trials, heartaches? Shall we always be receiving
handy? Oh, wouldn't you like that? Kids
like that. That's the way kids are. They
like to receive candy all the time. Shall we not receive good?
And shall we not also receive heartaches and troubles and trials? But I want you to notice what
he says here. What? Shall we receive good at the
hand of God? And shall we not receive evil
also at His hand? That's what he's saying. Job
doesn't blame Satan. He's not blaming the Sabeans
or the Chaldeans. He said, this is the hand of
God, honey. It's the hand of God. Let's submit to it. Submit
to it. And all this Job did not sin
with his lips. That same thing be said of our
Lord. In all this, He said not. In
all the agony in the garden, all the beating that He took
there in the judgment hall, all that happened to Him on the cross,
all that. In all that, He said not. And that is our righteousness. Therein is our righteousness.
Now, when Job's three friends, they heard of all this evil that
was come upon him, they came, everyone from his own place,
Eliphas, the Timonite, Bildad, Shuite, Zophar, the Naamathite,
and they made an appointment together to come to mourn with
him and to comfort him, which is, and that's what we ought
to do. We ought to put forth the effort
to comfort one another. to help one another and carry
burdens and heartaches. But when they lifted up their
eyes afar off, and they knew him not, they couldn't even recognize
him. They lifted up their voices and
wept, and they rent every one his mantle and sprinkled dust
upon their heads toward heaven. And they sat down with him upon
the ground for seven days and seven nights and did not say
a word. Sometimes there are no words. Sometimes there's not any. I can say this, if you don't
know what to say, don't say it. The silence, just being, you
know I think most of the time just our presence says more than
what we can say. There have been a few times in
my life, a few, I've been around someone who, where the pain was
so great, I just didn't know what to say. I just don't know
what to say. And the best thing is, just don't
say anything. Just be with them. They sat there
for seven days. This is how much grief Job was
going through. When they saw his bodily affliction,
when they saw him, they didn't even recognize him. He didn't
even look like Job at all. They were so astonished at him
and his grief. There were no words. There were
no words. Turn over to Isaiah 52. Isaiah
52. In verse 13, Behold, my servant
shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled and be
very high. As many were astonished at thee,
his visage, his appearance was so marred more than any man,
more than Job's, and his form were so marred more than the
sons of men." That's our Lord. That's our Lord. They didn't recognize Job over
the boils that was on his body. You take that on another higher
level of our Lord and what He bore. It says His visions, His
appearance was so marred. It's not like these pictures
they draw, these stupid idolatry. These pictures that they draw
of him, they make him look like a pretty good looking guy, don't
they? Why don't they make him like
the scripture says? Because I'll tell you why, nobody
would be attracted to that. You wouldn't hang that on your
wall. You would not hang a picture of what he looked like on your
wall. His visage was so marred. He
was so beaten. He was so bruised. He was so
mutilated. He didn't even look human. That's our Lord. That's our Lord. And that's at
the hand of God. God told Satan, no, you touch
Job. But now God Himself touched Christ
with the sword of His justice. And they sat down with Him on
the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word
to Him, for they saw that His pain was so terrible, His grief
was so very great. Now why did the Lord do that? Why does He give and why does
He take? Why does He put us through these things? First of all, that we might know
Him. That we might know Him. There
is no other way of knowing Him except this path. This path. And I know that Job, when he
says the Lord gave and the Lord takes away, he's talking about
the possessions that he had and all that he lost. He recognized. Joe recognized now that God gave
that to him. He didn't take credit for it.
He said, God gave it to us. And we're happy about that, aren't
we? We like that part of it. We like that. But it's the taking
it away part that we don't like so much. The giving part, we like. The taking part, I don't know
about that. Well, let me close with this
and see how you like it. Let me close with this. What has the Lord given us? And
I'm going to have to be quick. I've spent too much time on that.
What has he given? The Lord gave. What has he given?
What has given us our existence? No monkey created you. You didn't
come from a monkey. We might act like it sometimes,
but we didn't come from one. He gave us our existence. The righteousness we have to
stand in his presence, who gave it to you? Where'd you come up
with that? He gave it. He's made unto us, Christ is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
He gave it to us. I'm righteous because He made
me righteous. I have His righteousness because
He gave it to me. I have His wisdom because He
gave it to me. Faith. The faith that Job had. The integrity that Job had. And no man has integrity that's
lost. Only those who are born of God
have true integrity, sound, complete. Where did Job get that kind of
faith? God gave it to him. Faith is a gift of God. What
about repentance? True godly repentance is a gift
of God. If you have it, He gave it to
you. He gave it to you. Hope. Do you have any hope? Do you
have a hope? If you die tonight, if you die,
you go home and you die. Do you have a hope? If you do,
God gave it to you in Christ. If it's a real hope, a true hope,
God gave it to you. What about love? Love to God. Love to one another. Do you have
that? Peter, do you love me? Lord,
you know I love you. You know all things. You know
I love you. Oh, where did he get that? God
gave it to him. His Son. His Son. For God so loved the world that
He what? Gave His only begotten Son. God gave us the Redeemer. God gave us the Messiah. God
gave us His only begotten Son. And someday, someday, when this life's over, we are
going to have a new body, a new heaven and a new earth. And God's going to give that
to us. He's going to give that to us.
It's not going to be between mom and dad. No, God. God will give us a new body.
We're going to walk in a new body on a new earth. A new heaven. And God's the giver of it. The
Lord gave. Now listen. He taketh away. He
taketh away. He says, I don't like that part
of it. Yeah, you will. He takes away sin. You like that? How's that feel? He taketh away all our sins. He takes away unbelief. You believe
God, He took away your unbelief. He takes away rebellion. Speak,
Lord, thy servant heareth. He takes away ignorance. In the
time you and I didn't know anything about God, it was worth talking
about. He takes away, now listen, he
takes away death. He takes away the sting of death. Takes it away. He takes away
the curse of the law. We are not under a curse. Now,
if you're in Christ, that's been taken away. He takes away fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Fear, He takes that away. He takes away hell. We'll never have to experience
that. Never have to experience that. And last of all, He takes away
that old man. He takes him away. The Lord is
going to annihilate that old nature. He's going to take it
away. He's going to bury it. And it's
going to be gone forever. Never have to deal with that
old nature again. He taketh it away. I can go on
and on with what He takes away, what He gives us, and what He
takes away. My soul. The Lord giveth, and
He taketh away. Now can you say blessed? Blessed
be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job said to his wife, what? Shall we receive good at the
hand of God and not troubles and trials also? There's a purpose
in them. There's a purpose in them. And
even as I speak this, I speak this trembling, I do. I do. Because I know that they're coming. It's like a train. It's like
a train. It's lined up. All my afflictions
are appointed of God. But they all have a purpose in
them. They have a time and a duration. They have a lesson, and I pray that as they come
and as they go, that we too can hold fast our integrity and say,
blessed. The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord.