Turn with me to Job chapter 1.
Job chapter 1. We're going to see the Gospel according
to Job this morning. Job chapter 1. Start reading in verse 13 to
the end of chapter 1, verse 13 forward. It says, And there was a day
when Job's 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 Sabeans fell upon them,
and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants
with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell
thee. And while he was yet speaking,
there came another messenger, and said unto him, The fire of
God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and
the servants, and consumed them, and I only am escaped to tell
thee. And while he was yet speaking,
there came another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three
bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea,
and slain the servants with the edge of the sword, And I am only
escaped to tell thee. And while he was yet speaking, fourth time, there came 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 smoked the four corners of the
house. And it fell upon the young men and they all are dead. And
I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose and rent
his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground
and worshipped. And he said this, naked came
I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return thither. The Lord
gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. And in all this Job sinned not,
nor charged God foolishly." Now, this first section, the four
points, we see Job's reaction to the news that he got. one
family, two families, three families, four families, first messenger,
second messenger, third messenger, fourth messenger. We see his reaction to this in
the last, in verses 20, 21, and 22. The first thing I noticed
is the first thing that I suppose all who call upon the name of
the Lord too grieved, too shell-shocked, too ate up with grief to even
speak, the first thing he does, rinses his mantle, shaves his
head, falls down upon the ground, and worships God. He worshiped
God, first of all, He worshiped God, and to worship
God is to magnify His holy name regardless of the situation.
That's what it is to worship God. Also, to worship God is
to acknowledge His sovereign will and His supreme right to
do as He wills. He says that in Isaiah 46. I
command the armies in heaven and the habits of the earth,
and I do all my pleasure. I do all my pleasure. And he
says in Romans that it is everything comes from Him. Everything has
come from Him, by Him, it's for Him, it's to Him. So worshiping
is acknowledging. Job falls down to the ground
and worships God. And thirdly, the worship of God
is to bow in heart and in mind to Him and know that His will
is for our good in our best interest. Turn with me to Zechariah chapter
13. This is what Job is doing as
he's worshiping. He's acknowledging that God is
magnifying His name regardless of what situation. And we'll
see this in what he says in the next verse. It's to acknowledge
that God's sovereign will, whatever it may be, it's His supreme right
to do as He wills. And also, it's to bow in heart
and mind to Him and know that what He does is is always right. He acts in righteousness and
specifically for his people. Zechariah chapter 13 verses 8
and 9, And it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the
Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third
shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part
through the fire. He's going to bring the remnant.
He didn't say the life of the believer was easy. It's just
certain, and the end result is everlasting life. Everlasting
life. I will bring the third part through
the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will
try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name, and
I will hear them. I will say, it is my people. And they shall say, the Lord
is my God. He's God. He's the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth right.
And we know, for we have eyes that are so limited, and our
experience is so limited, and the things that have happened
to us are limited, yet trial and tribulation is part of the
believer's life, regardless of what happens. Regardless of what's
happened here, Job fell down, and worship God. Secondly, Job's reaction is that
he acknowledges his own nothingness or his own insignificance. Look
at what he says, verse 21, naked came I out of my mother's womb
and naked I shall return. He's acknowledging I own nothing,
I possess nothing, I can carry nothing with me. And all that
the Lord has blessed me, whether it's children or things, cattle
and sheep and all these different things back in this day, in our
day, would be houses and vehicles and this is and that's, all that
we have, it is from the gift of God. Who makes us to differ? The grace of God. the grace of
God. We see this very explicitly in
Luke 15. You don't need to turn to the
story of the prodigal. The prodigal, he's got everything and he decides,
I want this stuff, I want my inheritance. So he gets it, goes,
joins himself to the citizenry of another country and they treat
him horribly. and he's left, he spends everything,
he's got nothing, he's eating, he said he would feign, he would,
just whatever the swine, whatever I'm feeding these swine, that
looks awful good. And then, by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit
conviction, the Lord brings back to his mind what it would be
like to be a servant in his father's house. So he goes back to his
father, And the first thing he says is, I've sinned against
you, God, Heaven, and you. He acknowledges, like Job here,
I've got nothing. I've got nothing. And literally,
naked came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return. He
acknowledges his insignificance. This is what Job's acknowledging.
The third thing that Job, his reaction to what's going on,
is he knew that he had been increased as well as decreased by God. Turn to Mark chapter 8. Mark
8 verses 34 through 38. And when Christ had called the people
unto Him, with his disciples also, he said
unto them, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his
life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save it. For what
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his
own soul. Job's like, you've given me all
this stuff, but it doesn't mean anything. My main desire, my main love,
my main concern as a created being of the Lord Jesus Christ
is to render under Him my lips, my heart, my mind, my body service
in worshiping Him. What does it profit a man to
give his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his own soul? Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation,
of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when he comes
in the glory of his father with the holy angels." Job acknowledged
in this verse 21, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
He's acknowledged that what we have, we have from the very hand
of God. It's a gift. We have a tendency
in this country, but we have a tendency in this town, we have
a tendency, you and I, to praise God for material blessings, as
we should. But we are too often silent when
He removes these material blessings, and this should not be. This
should not be. He only takes or He only withholds
what is for our eternal good and for our growth and grace. We are far too materialistic
oriented. We should be, as the Scripture
says in 1 Timothy 6 and Hebrews 13, to be content with such things
as we have. Our mind is always looking for
farther ahead what we can have, what we can get, this, this,
and the other. Job says, the Lord has given,
and the Lord has taken away. It's all His. Now, is this a
tough lesson? Job, four different messengers,
four different families, all taken. All of his material possessions
taken. It's that widow's mite. The Lord
Jesus Christ sat over against it and he's sitting by the treasury
or sitting over in the temple and these people are coming and
they're putting in a bunch of stuff because they have a bunch of
stuff, a bunch of material things to give. So they give in and
this widow came in, this widow who has a mite, she comes in
and she's got, that's all, and he says she put in her whole
substance. And Christ, then he said, this
is a teaching opportunity Who gave more? Those out of their
abundance, we just skim off the top. But her, she gave everything. Saying, blessed be the name of the Lord,
I'm going to trust Him for tomorrow's bread. I'm going to trust Him
for tomorrow's bread. Well, the last thought of Job's
reactions in this section, Job said, whatever my lot, look at
verse 21, the last part of verse 21. Blessed be the name of the
Lord. He rose, devastated by the news
which he had received from the messengers, He bowed His face
down and worshipped in verse 20. He acknowledged His own insignificance
and nothingness and that He is what He is by the grace of God.
Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return.
He acknowledged that what He had and what had been taken was
God's right and God's sovereign will to do so. He gave, He's
taken away. And He emphasizes this last point,
His reaction. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Turn to Isaiah chapter 3. Isaiah chapter 3 and verse 10. Say to the righteous,
that it shall be well with him. Say to the righteous that it
shall be well with him, that it shall be well with her, if
we have trusted our souls to Him that lives evermore, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, now the second thing I've
got in here, as I've told you, the title was The Gospel According
to Job. So we're going to look at that.
And I don't know, can you see in verse 21 the gospel in these
few words here in Job? Job said, naked came I out of
my mother's womb and naked shall I return. Here it is, the Lord
gave and the Lord has taken away. Christ is the great provider
of His chosen elect people. Christ, in Christ, we have both
things given and things taken away. Turn with me to Romans
8 verse 32. The Lord has gave, Romans 8 and
32, He, God that spared not His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with
Him also freely give us all things?" In Christ, and only in Christ,
we have everything we need. Everything that God requires.
Everything that we require. And therefore, we are safe. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 12, Now
we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. We have a need for righteousness,
The Lord gave through Christ. We have a need to be holy, perfect,
and pure as His Son. In His Son, we've been given
those things. But not only that, the Lord,
blessed be His name, the Lord's given, but He's taken away. He's taken away. Hebrews chapter
9. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 26. Hebrews 9, verse 26. For then must Christ often have
suffered since the foundation of the world, but now, once in
the end of the world, hath He appeared to take away, to put
away sin. How? By the sacrifice of Himself. So, the Lord Jesus and everything
is... God is completely satisfied with
this one person. As I've said many times, God's
got His eggs in one basket. And in Christ, if you're in Christ,
He has given, by His grace, that which we need. How can a man be just and justified
inside of God? Justified in Christ? It's made us like Christ, but
He's also taken away every handwriting, every ordinance against us. John
said, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away, taketh away
the sin of the world. We must also, as I've said time
and time again, we must have the presence of the positive,
but we also have to have the lack of the negative. Everything
against us, we've got to have taken away, taken out. Now, Augustus'
top lady in... I can't think of the name of
the song. Anyway, he knew his rite well.
He talked about a double cure. The double cure, saved from wrath
and pure. That's it. How come the wrath
of God does not abide on us? Because God sees the blood. God
sees the stamp of approval based on the voluntary sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ for all His elect sheep. And therefore,
there is no more wrath, and we have His pureness. As Job has said in our text,
the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. I just noticed this,
I didn't even realize this was past tense. It's past ten. Gave and taken away. This is
done as the old writer said, in old
eternity. The debt was satisfied. Not in our eyes, not as far as
we were concerned, but the way God looks at us, He sees us through
the eyes of everlasting love and grace. which cannot die because
Christ cannot die. He ever lives to make intercession
for everyone, for His people. Now, let's look at what I mean
here. He's given and He's taken away. Ezekiel 36. And you know this,
but I just love this passage. It's very clear. Ezekiel 36.
And verse 26. God says through the accomplishments
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree, a new heart also will I
give you. A new spirit will I put within
you, will I give you. And I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh and will give you a heart of flesh. And
I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues
and you shall keep my judgments and do them." Blessed be the
Lord. He gave us a new heart and took
out the old heart. So basically, we, every child
of God, are gainers by Christ's glorious work. I made a comment
months ago. God adds by subtraction. And He certainly does. He certainly
does. Now to close, let's look at Philippians
chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. Verses 7 and 8. Philippians 3, verses 7 and 8. Paul understood this. He was
a preacher of the Gospel of the grace of God. But he says, But
what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss He didn't suffer like Job suffered.
But spiritually, he did. He knew. He knew what it was.
I've suffered the loss of all things. But you know what? I
count them but done that I may win Christ. And we can tell our
children, the things of this world are
just glitter. They're fools' gold. They're not the real deal. And
we desire that our children turn to Christ early. Because we know
that the longer that they're in this world, and the longer
that they're mingled with friends, and school, and this and that,
everything, it's all anti-gospel. There's nothing about that that
promotes God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ. And we must realize that there's
only one thing one thing only that will keep our hearts and
our minds as we were created, and that is to bow to the Lord
Christ. And so we see it as this, the
believer sees it as this, whether we gain or whether we lose, salvation to God in the highest. We sing His praises always and
only. We acknowledge basically back what Job says,
come what may, gain or loss, we say, blessed be the name of
the Lord. That doesn't make any sense.
You mean to tell me we're going to lose our car? You mean to
tell me we're going to lose our house? You mean to tell me I'm going
to lose all my closet with all my shoes and all my clothes and
all my stuff? Maybe. But to the believer, in and through
all that, we can say, blessed be the name
of the Lord. And this is a hard lesson. I
can't teach it. I can't even live it, except
the grace of God abides in me and abides in you. May we see Our Lord, as truly blessed, or
that could be in the New Testament, graced, graced, and He's graced
us. He's gifted us to be able to
praise Him, to be able to see that we're nothing, came into
the world naked, we're leaving with nothing. I often think about
that quote I'd heard when I was in college, the guy with the
most toys, The guy that dies with the most
toys wins. And he wins nothing. He wins nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, I want it better for my...
Kids are going to have to be on their own. You can't save your children.
Let us not be a hindrance, but let us continually point one
another. Iron sharpeneth iron. Let's continually
sharpen our countenance in the things and the ways of God. Because this world has just got nothing. And I don't mean to discourage
the children. I don't mean to discourage the young adults.
But you know, if you know Christ, there's nothing here. There's
nothing here. We're just passing through. Let's
not drive our tent stakes down too tight, because He may come
tomorrow. And you know, I haven't heard
very much from anybody, preachers or other, Lord Jesus come quickly. But shouldn't that be our desire?
That should be our desire indeed. Lord bless. Bruce, would you
close us?