Turn back to Job 19, Job's Confidence. That's what
I titled it, Job's Confidence. Job was a man greatly blessed of God. He's
called a perfect man, upright man. But he was also a man greatly
tried. I think everyone is familiar
with Job, his trials. He was a man greatly tried. I
want you to turn back over to chapter 1 of Job. Listen to this. This would knock
any man down. And there was a day in verse
13, and there was a day when his sons and his daughters were
eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And there
came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing,
and the asses feeding beside them, and the Sabaeans fell upon
them, and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants
at the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell
thee. While he was yet speaking, there
came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen and
hath burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them,
and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking,
there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out
three bands, and fell upon the camels, and hath carried them
away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and
I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking,
There came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters
were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house.
And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and
smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young
men, and they are dead, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head,
and fell down upon the ground, and worshiped." He didn't fall down and curse
God. His wife did. His wife said, why don't you
just curse God and die? But he fell down on the ground
and worshipped. And here's what he said, naked
came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return hither. Everything I have is borrowed.
I came with nothing and I'm going to leave with nothing. That's
the way I'm going to return. The Lord gave everything I have. He gave it to me. What do you
have that you did not receive? God gave you and me everything
we have. And He's taken away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. That's worship. In all this,
Job sinned not. Your charged God attributed folly
to God. One after another came. One after
another. And then he fell down and he
worshiped. He lost most of all that he possessed, even his children.
But he never lost this. He never lost this. And a believer
cannot lose this, his hope in his Redeemer. He never lost his
hope. It may sometimes just barely
have a glimmer to it. But he never lost his hope in
his Redeemer. Job said, I know. I know. sitting in front of those men
who were supposed to be his friends. They were just adding to the
trouble. They were adding to his anguish.
He said, miserable comforters are you all. He said, you're
physicians of no value. You're not helping me at all
in this situation. They were just adding to the
problem. He says this, In all this trouble and all this
heartache, I know, I know, Job was a man taught of God. Before
God brought all these troubles, allowed all this trouble to come
upon him, God taught him. God taught him the Gospel. God
taught him about the Redeemer. God gave him faith and hope in
the Redeemer, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. The same one we
have, faith and hope in. God taught him that. And Job
knew that a man that was born of a woman was a few days full
of troubles. He knew that. We shouldn't be
surprised when trouble comes. That's what we're born to. And
he knew that his life was but a vapor. Just a vapor. Just like a puff of smoke. That's
about what we're like, isn't it? Just a puff of smoke. But he also knew that his Redeemer
lived. And he would come and redeem
his soul and body from all his trouble. Job knew somewhere along
the way this trouble has an end. Every trial, every trouble has
an end to it once it has accomplished its purpose. And he knew that. He knew that God would not abandon
the work of his hand. Every believer is a workmanship
of God. And God will not abandon the
work of His hand. He will not leave His children,
His redeemed ones, alone. Never. Never alone. You sing
a song, Never Alone. Never alone. He will never abandon
the work of His hand. Job knew that God would faithfully
do just as He promised He would. He knew that. And Job knew that
His Redeemer would save him and raise him up again. at the latter
day, and he would stand in a healthy body and fellowship with God
face to face. He knew that. There he sits,
scraping his boils. If you go and read there, he
had boils and sores. It was just a putrefied flesh. And as he scrapes, I can just
see as he scrapes those sores that they ooze and run down his
arms and his legs and his body. He said, I know. I know my Redeemer
lives. I know He lives and one day I'm
going to stand up on this earth with Him in the flesh. And I'm
going to see God and I'm going to rejoice. And this is going
to be over. That's what kept Him going. His
hope and faith in the Redeemer. He knew. Job knew that He lives. Job knew that his only hope was
in his Redeemer. Everything else was gone. Everything
else, Job sat there as broke as broke could be. But he knew
that the only hope he had was in his Redeemer. Would that God
bring all of us to that place. Every one of us needs to be brought
to that place where the only hope we have is our Redeemer.
And these other things that are added are just great blessings.
We don't deserve them. We sure don't deserve them. And
he knew that one day, Job knew this. He knew that one day he
would be vindicated. He would be vindicated from all
the slander and all the false accusations being cast on him
by friends and foes. He knew that. He'd be vindicated. He knew this. He knew that his
vindicator lived. He knew that he was alive. And
he would set the matter right. Job says, I know that my Redeemer
liveth. Oh my. He knew that he had a
near kinsman. That's what he's talking about.
That's what that means. The Redeemer here means near
kinsman. He knew that he had a near kinsman who had the right
and the power to redeem him from all his troubles, spiritual and
his physical. He knew that. And he knew this,
that his Redeemer was alive. I know that my Redeemer liveth. Job doesn't say, I know that
my Redeemer shall live in the last days. I know He will. No. Just as we do not say, we
know that our Redeemer lived. No. Our Redeemer lives. Job said, I know that right now,
as I sit here, In all this trouble and these trials and these sores
and boils, I know my Redeemer is alive right now. He's not
going to live. He lives. He lives and He has the power
and the right to redeem me. And He's going to stand upon
this earth in the latter days. He's going to be victorious.
And I'm going to be victorious in Him. We are victorious in
our Redeemer. We are going to overcome this
flesh, and this corruption, and these troubles, and these trials,
and this sin, and all that we go through, we are going to be
victorious over it. In Him we are. Job had to know, he had to know,
that his Redeemer was none other than the incarnate God. How else are you going to explain
his longevity? This was written thousands of
years ago. He said, I know he lives. And he's going to stand
upon the earth in the latter days. So Job had to know that
his Redeemer was none other than the incarnate God. That's the
only way you can explain his longevity. God's my Redeemer. Job looked to God as his Redeemer.
That's why he sat in hope. That's why he could go through
this great trial Trouble after trouble, bad news after bad news,
and worship God. That's the only way you can do
it. If God has given you a real hope in Christ, who is God incarnate,
that's the only way you can sit in trouble and have real hope
when everything else is falling down around you. The only way. Job knew that his Redeemer would
come and redeem him from all his sins. and set all his affairs
right at the bar of justice, and that he would be cleared
of all charges." All charges. Blessed is the man, as you read
this morning, to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity. That's
because there's none to impute. They're gone. You can't impute
what's not there. And it's not there. And Job knew
his Redeemer would come and just clear up all things. Everything
would be made clear in that day. Before the bar of God's justice
and before all His accusers, Job would be cleared. Just as
every child of God was being justified. Cleared of all charges. He knew that he had a true kinsman
that was his friend and that he would never leave him nor
forsake him no matter how bad it got. Look at these other friends. It's hard to find a true friend,
isn't it? It's tough to find a true friend
when you lose everything and he still stays beside you. The rich, the Scripture says,
have many friends. But let him become poor. The
poor is despised even of his neighbor. That's what Solomon
said. Yeah, but I tell you what, a
true friend is one who stays right there no matter how bad
it is, no matter how poor you become. And Job knew he had that
in his Redeemer. He knew he had it. Job's friends
and his wife despised him and blamed him for all this calamity.
They said, it's your fault. You've done something bad that
all this calamity has come. She blamed him for the loss of
those children and for the loss of the income. She blamed Job
for it all. It's like her friends did. But through all this, Job never
lost his hope or took his eye off that Redeemer. That's my
hope. That's what keeps me going. That's
what keeps us from sinking into despair because our Redeemer
lives. Job knew it wasn't anything in
particular that he did. This trial came upon him like
Peter said, like a fiery trial that comes upon you. What happened? That's what happened to Job. It just came up one after another,
one after another. Satan had a meeting with God
over Job. He said, let me at Him. He said,
you've hedged Him about, but let me at Him and I'll show you
what kind of man He is. Well, did He ever? Did He ever? I'll tell you what we find out.
We find out what kind of man God makes out of men when He
takes hold of them, when He gives them faith, when He does the
work in them. You know, God said there toward
the end of the book of Job, He said, Joe, stand up like a man.
And I like to think of it like this. Stand up like a man that
I've made you. Stand up like a man. Joe believed,
he believed his Redeemer was mighty to save him. He believed
he was able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him.
He believed that. In Christ, In the Lord Jesus
Christ, we find our kinsman Redeemer. He's all our hope. He's all of
our life. He's all we need. Christ is all
I need. And those who have tasted Him
know it. Even if the mountains depart,
and the hills carried into the midst of the sea, and there's
no cattle in the stall, no fruit on the vine, we still find all
our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope's not in our possessions.
Your life consists not in the things which you possess. Not the believer. His life is
in Christ. It's in Christ. who's risen and
ascended on high, who's seated at God's right hand making intersections
for us, who rules and reigns right now over everything that
exists. That's our Redeemer. Our Lord
said, because I live, you shall live also. You're going to live
also. Our faith and hope in Christ
will be vindicated. Let people make fun of it. I
had a man one time make fun of me at a place that I worked.
I was talking to him about salvation, and he made fun of it. He made
fun of the gospel I was telling him. He made fun of the word
salvation. He was making fun of it. One day I'll be vindicated. We'll not be ashamed of Jesus
Christ. We'll not be ashamed of the hope. We'll not be ashamed
of the salvation that we stand week after week after week in
preaching His name. Will not be ashamed. No. Now Job says, I know that my
Redeemer liveth. That's continual, isn't it? That means continual. Liveth.
Continual. He's eternal. That's what he's
saying. He's the eternal God. He's the eternal God. Has no
beginning of days, no end of life. Even though He did have
a beginning in His humanity. But this is the eternal God.
My Redeemer is eternal God. My Redeemer is life and He gives
life. No man or sickness can take my life. It's hid with
my Redeemer in God. As it says in Colossians 3.3,
it's hid with Christ in God. Christ is our Redeemer. You know
any safer place for it to be? I don't. I don't think God's
life is not in my hands. I'm glad it's all in His hands.
It's all in Him. My Redeemer is my righteousness. It says Job over here in verse
1, it says, There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was
Job, and that man was perfect and upright. Well, how did such
a man become that way? I tell you what, that perfect
and upright is standing in Christ. That's us in Christ. Perfect
and upright. He's my righteousness. I may
sit in sackcloth and ashes for a while, but I'm always righteous in Him.
I'm always righteous. It may not look like it. It may not look like it. It may
not smell like it. But I'm always righteous in Him.
There will always be accusations cast at me. Some of them will
be true. Some false. Some false. But in my Redeemer,
I'm always righteous and I'm always justified. Always. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who can lay anything to His elect
and make it stick? It's God that justifies. If He
justifies me, who can charge me? He's it. There's none above
Him. There's none above Him. And if He justifies me, no one
can condemn me. No one can charge me with anything
and make it stick. Oh, Job says, I know my Redeemer
liveth. He's putting the attention here
on his Redeemer. He's telling his friends, I know
He lives. I know He lives. Without Him,
I'm nothing and can do nothing. But I know He lives and He's
everything to me. Everything. My Redeemer is my
wisdom. Without Him, I wouldn't know
God. I read it to you over there in 1 Peter. Who by Him do believe
in God. You wouldn't know God apart from
Christ. To know Him is to know God. To know God Almighty is
to know Jesus Christ. He's my wisdom, taught of God.
He's the one who teaches us. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. All jokes that I know he lives. This is the one that is all my
hope. All my life, all my righteousness,
all my wisdom. He's all my sanctification. He's
all my redemption. He's everything to me. Everything. I know that my Redeemer liveth. And notice here Job says, now
listen, he says, my Redeemer. He doesn't say I know a Redeemer
lives. A Redeemer is not going to help
me. It's my Redeemer. It's really
personal. It's my Redeemer. He's my near
kinsman. He's my near kinsman. I tell
you, it's possessing Him and Him possessing me. It's mine.
He's my Redeemer. Gold in California wouldn't do
me any good, would it? But gold in my pocket does. That's
right. Christ in me, the hope of glory. He's mine. My Redeemer. Through all His trials and losses,
He never lost hope of my Redeemer. He's my Redeemer. And this kind
of assurance only comes from knowing Him. It only comes from
knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing the Redeemer. And I thought
of this. If one man can know Him and have
this kind of assurance, another one can. If He can have it, I can have
it. We're all men of like passion.
Put it that way. All men of like passion. If one
can have it, another can. The Redeemer has not changed,
has He? The Redeemer has not changed. He's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He's the same in Job's day, and
He's the same in this day. For however long, He never changes.
He never changes. Lack of faith. I thought about
this as I lay in bed thinking about this message. Lack of faith
is always and lack of assurance is always my fault. It is. It's my fault. I have been given
everything to have all the faith and all the assurance I need
at any given time. I haven't. It's the lack of using
the means. It's unbelief. I don't believe. It's but, but,
no, it's believe, believe. It's not but, but, it's believe,
believe. The problem is we do not avail ourselves of the means. His Word, I wouldn't dare ask
you how much you study the Word during the week, but you know,
and I know, I know how much, you know, I study it more because
I preach. But if you take that out of it, how much would I study
it? How much do I read the Word as the Word, looking to be taught
of God? Preaching. Preaching. Sit down to the gospel. Prayer.
And fellowship among the brethren. Avail ourselves of the means
that God's given us. As I said, this kind of assurance
comes from knowing Him. The more you know Him, the more
you come to really know Him and fellowship with Him, the more
you believe Him. The more you're just assured
of your, I know my Redeemer. I know He lives and I know Him.
I know Him. I know, Paul said this, Paul
said, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. This
is the same faith that Job is expressing here in this verse.
The same thing Paul said, the same thing Job is saying, I know,
I know. This is that excellent knowledge
that Paul speaks of in Philippians 3.8. Yea, doubtless, and I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord." What would you give for that saving knowledge of
Christ? Paul said, I'd give everything. Paul says, everything is nothing
but loss to me. And Christ is everything but
gain. You know the whole reason for
the existence of everything that is. is Jesus Christ Himself. All things were made by Him and
for Him. This wasn't made for me. This
is mine. He started early, doesn't He?
That's mine. That's mine. No, none of it's
yours. And Job learned this lesson,
didn't he? The Lord gave him. What else
did he do? He took away. He gave Job what Job needed,
and then He took away what Job needed taken away. All things, and this is something
I want to learn, and I want us to learn, all things are by Him
and for Him. Everything is for Him, not me,
Him. It's all for Him. The earth is the Lord's, And
the fullness thereof, and what? They who dwell therein. They
all belong to Him. You know, we want to, and people
shoot me for saying this, but you know, we want to hoard up
all that we have. You know, we don't want to share with the
Mexicans and the Chinamen. You know, we'd rather keep everything
like this. But you know, they belong to
God just as much as we do. They're His just as much as we
are. He created them as much as He created us. And He's going
to feed them just like He feeds us. It's all His. We draw our boundaries. We draw
so you could cross this line. But He has no lines. God has
no boundaries. It all belongs to Him. The earth
is the Lord's, the fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein. It's His by creation, and it's
His by purpose. This kind of knowledge comes
from God. It comes from God the Holy Spirit.
When He gives a man a new life, a new birth, He gives him this
understanding, and this will carry us home to glory. I may
lose all that I have, but I can never lose the redemption of
my God nor the kinship of my Savior. I'll never lose that. And Job knew this, he knew that
his Redeemer liveth, he lived, and that he would stand upon
the earth in the latter day. And though after my skin worms,
he gets graphic here, Job gets graphic. After my skin worms,
there's worms crawling around that skin. We try to put vaults
and try everything in the world. When we put it in the grave to
preserve it, let it go. Let it go back to the dust. From dust thou art, dust thou
shalt return. After my skin worms destroy this
body, and it goes back to dust, and it looks like that there's
nothing left now but dust, and even the plant life sucks it
up, and the animals eat it, and you're scattered everywhere.
Every particle of you is scattered. There's not a part left in my
flesh. This same flesh right here. Except
without sin. You know, when we talk about
flesh, when we talk about corrupt nature, the corrupt flesh, we're
not talking about skin. We're talking about a nature.
A nature that's corrupt. And it's called flesh. But this
skin and this body here, this bones and skin and muscle, you
take sin out of it and there's nothing wrong with it. Perfect
body. And Job says, in my flesh, flesh
and bone. The Lord said, touch me. A spirit
hath not flesh and bone. He said, in this flesh, in this
body, I'm coming out of that grave. I'm coming out of that
grave. I'm not going to stay in that
grave. I'm coming out of it. In my flesh, I'll see God whom
I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold." And not another, not a stranger. Someone else is not going to
behold Him and then tell me about Him. I'm going to have conversation
face to face with God in the flesh. In the flesh I'm going
to do that. Oh, we have no idea what we're
headed for, do we? If we did, we would be in a hurry to get
out of here. I tell you, we wouldn't hang on to this stuff so long.
We wouldn't grovel and struggle and do everything we could to
keep and grab and stab and everything else to get it, if only we knew
what was beyond the veil. Whom I shall see for myself.
And my eyes, these eyes, without sin, glorified body, but it's
going to be this body. And my eyes shall behold and
not another, though my reins, my heart, every strong part about
me, everything about me that's strong is going to be consumed. It's going to be consumed. You
take everything about me that you would think is strong, it's
going to be consumed. The worms are going to eat it
up. The skin worms that are just waiting for you to die. The skin
worms are going to take your reign, your strength, and it's
going to bring it to the ground. Death is going to break it down.
But it's not going to stay down. Job knew that his Redeemer was
victorious and He would redeem him body, soul, and spirit and
he would come out of that grave. Just as we know. Is it not our
hope? Is it not our hope that one day the skin worms are going
to eat this body? Death is going to take us? We're
going to be laid in the grave? But we are coming out of it.
Body, soul, and spirit. It's all going to be united.
And we're going to see God Almighty. No man in this class has ever
seen God. But in the flesh, we're going to see God. And we're going
to speak to Him. We're going to speak to Him face
to face. We can't do that now. Not in
this state. Not in this corrupt flesh. Not with this old nature still
with us. But there's coming a time when
in the flesh, we're going to speak to God just like we're
speaking to each other. God Almighty. Job said, I know He lives. He's
going to stand upon the earth in the last day, and though my
skin worms eat me up, oh, they're going to have their day, but
I'm going to have mine too. I'm going to have my day after
they have their day. He believed that his redeemer
was so victorious, and we do too, that we are going to come
back out of the grave No matter how long we lay in it, we'll
come out of it. Because of Him. Because of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Our redemption will be so complete
that God will raise our body up from the grave incorruptible.
And we will stand in the same body, yet without sin, and we'll
see God with our own eyes and have an eternal fellowship
with Him. Eternal fellowship with the Almighty
God. That's what's going to happen.
Job knew this, and he knew he'd see God. He knew this. We're going to
behold God in all His glorious perfection. We're going to know what true
holiness is, and we'll rejoice in it. We will know what love is. I
mean, really love. We know it now. As Paul said, we know a part,
we preach a part. I tell you, we love in part too,
don't we? We don't love like we ought to. We don't do the
things we ought to. We know that. But one day, we're
going to love like we ought to. And we're going to know what
true kindness is. It's not going to be a hypocritical show. I
mean, we're going to know what true kindness is, and true joy
is, and true grace is, and true mercy. We're going to know it
in its perfection. We're going to know that. This is what Job knew as he sat
there listening to the abuse of his friends as he scraped
those sores He says, I know my Redeemer lives. He said, let
this be written on my tombstone. Take an iron pen and engrave
it in a rock and then fill it with lead. Make it easy to read. I know my Redeemer lives. And
he's going to stand upon this earth in the last days. God taught
him something, didn't he? He's going to stand upon this
earth in the last days. Devour this body, in this flesh,
in my flesh, I'm going to see and I'm going to enjoy God Almighty. And that's all because of my
Redeemer. All because of Him. Our Redeemer has stood upon this
earth, hasn't He? Job said, I know He'll stand
upon this earth in the last days. Well, He has stood upon it. He
has stood upon this earth. And now we await His return.
We await the return of our Redeemer to get us body, soul, and spirit
and take us home. Are you looking for that? I know my Redeemer liveth, He
said. Do you know that? That's what
I ask myself. I ask myself that question. down
for myself was instant. Do you know that? I know my Redeemer lives. And
He's the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's coming again. And in
my flesh, in my flesh, I'm going to see God. I'm going to enjoy
God. I'm going to enjoy Him. I'm going to see
Him with my eyes. It's not going to be by proxy.
It's not going to be someone else doing it for me. I'm going
to see myself. I know my Redeemer lives.