In the 13th chapter of the book
of Job, Job suffering greatly and in the midst of his suffering
having to hear out the reprovals and the accusations, the insinuations
of his so-called friends and comforters who would counsel
him and find fault in him, answers them and continues to answer
here In chapter 13 and verse 1. Lo, mine eye hath seen all
this, mine ear hath heard and understood it. What ye know,
the same do I know also. I am not inferior unto you. Surely I would speak to the Almighty,
and I desire to reason with God. But ye are forgers of lies. Ye
are all physicians of no value. O that ye would altogether hold
your peace, and it should be your wisdom. Hear now my reasoning,
and hearken to the pleadings of my lips. Will ye speak wickedly
for God, and talk deceitfully for him? Will ye accept his person? Will ye contend for God? Is it
good that he should search you out? Or as one man mocketh another,
do ye so mock him? He will surely reprove you if
ye do secretly accept persons. Shall not his excellency make
you afraid, and his dread fall upon you? Your remembrances are
like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay. Hold your
peace, let me alone that I may speak, and let come on me what
will. Wherefore do I take my flesh
in my teeth and put my life in mine hand? Though he slay me,
yet will I trust in him. but I will maintain mine own
ways before him. He also shall be my salvation,
for an hypocrite shall not come before him. Hear diligently my
speech and my declaration with your ears. Behold now, I have
ordered my cause. I know that I shall be justified. Though he slay me, yet will I
trust in him. What words for Job to be able
to say in the depths of his suffering, cast down in every way, bereaved
of family, ridden with disease, having lost all things, and on
the brink of death, and surrounded by those who accuse him and insinuate
that all this has come upon him because of his own sin. Job in
the midst of these depths can say, though God slay me, though
he slay me, yet will I trust him. There can be a Stoical trust
as it were, born out of the strength of man. If you think that you've
lost many things but better days will come and you continue to
trust and hope for better things. But Job shows that his trust
and his faith in God was not merely based upon a hope that
his situation would be temporary. But his trust went beyond that. He trusted God even if God took
everything away. Even if God slew him, he'd still
trust in his Saviour. He'd lost so much, these men
told him he was a sinner. But he says unto them, I know
what you know. You're not bringing any wisdom
to me that I don't know. And I'm no different from you.
Yes, I am a great sinner. So are we all. So are we all. Yes, this is deserved. But it would be deserved by you
too. but I will trust in my God I
will rest in my God no matter what comes upon me and what words
these are how few can come to this point how few do how few
in the midst of suffering or trial could say though God slay
me yet will I trust in him How swift we are by nature to grumble
and to complain at the slightest of trouble. We see this in the
travails of Israel as they followed Moses in the wilderness. Everything
that came upon them, the people grumbled. They complained. They found someone to blame.
They brought their blame upon Moses. Why have you brought us
out here into this wilderness to die? And through Moses they
accused their God. Why have we brought here? We
were better off in Egypt. We've come out from Egypt seeking
salvation and here we're brought into a desert to die. And they bring their complaint
upon Moses. They don't look to themselves.
They don't say, well we deserve it. Despite their continual rebellion
and unbelief. Despite their heart's evil reaction. They don't say, well God deserves
to bring us. God is just to bring us into
this place. We deserve to die. No, they complain. And they find fault. And they
say, if this comes upon us, it's your fault. And as with their reaction, so
with us. Every trouble that comes our way, it's someone else's
fault. It's not fair. And ultimately, we may blame
this man and that man, or this thing or that circumstance. But
through it all, we're blaming God. Through it all our complaint
is unto God, why has thou made me thus? Why has thou brought
me to this place? Why haven't you made my life
better? Why haven't I been given this
and given that? Why am I in this state? And whatever
the trouble, whatever the circumstance, when our heart speaks like that,
it's a shaking of our fist unto Almighty God and saying, why
has thou made me thus? And so swiftly does our heart
respond in this way. The slightest of troubles and
our heart grumbles and the grumble and the complaint and the anger
is at God. Yet here is a man who speaks
with a wisdom and a heart which is not natural. Because all men
in their fallen state go the same way. They shake their fist
at God. But here's another voice. Another
heart. Another reaction. The cry of
faith. Though God slay me, yet will
I trust in Him. No matter what happens in this
world, no matter what happens to me no matter how dark the
way may get no matter what calamity may come upon me or upon the
people around me or the nations around me or the world around
me no matter how dark the day gets or how hot the fire is no
matter how desperate the circumstance I will trust in the Lord. Though he slay me, yet will I
trust in him. Now Job couldn't say such things
except God had wrought a miracle of grace in his heart. The reason
that Job could be put in the fires, the furnace of affliction,
in the way he was and come out like shining gold and come forth
with words like this is because God had taken him and God had
set his grace upon him and God had changed Job's heart and put
a heart, a new heart, a righteous heart. a heart of faith within
that could cry out in whatever circumstance, I will trust in
the Lord. He is my rock. He is my salvation. He also shall be my salvation. I know that I shall be justified,
though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Have you been brought
to such a place that no matter how dark the circumstance, how
lonely, how painful, how desperate, that you can say, God is right.
God is just. And though he slay me, yet will
I trust in him. This is the cry of those who
are truly saved and none else. All else will find fault. All
else will complain. All else will cry out, why has
thou made me thus? And find fault with God rather
than themselves. But the chosen sinner The elect
vessel of grace. Those whom God saves. Those for whom Christ died. Know that they are wicked through
and through. And know that God, a righteous
God, a just God, a good and a loving God, is right to condemn them. Is right to slay them. Job could say I will trust in
him though he slay me because he knew that even if he was slain,
even if God condemned him, even if God put him to death and cast
him out, God was still just. God was right. God did right. Because all the wrong was in
Job and not in God. It's Job that deserved condemnation,
not God. It's Job who had sinned, not
God. It's Job who had turned from
God in his rebellion. It's Job who deserved to die.
And even acknowledging that, Job can still look through it
and say, but God is just. God is righteous. God is good
and glorious. And if it be His will to destroy
me, then God will still be praised. God should still be praised for
God is right. I do not worship God for what
I gain from Him, but because He is God and worthy to be praised. Now that's quite a thing to say
and quite a discriminating remark because that heart, that attitude,
those words are foreign to the heart and the attitude of naturally
religious men and women. The naturally religious man and
woman believes in a God, who offers salvation to all, and
if I accept that salvation, if I follow him, then he should
bless me. Then he should bless me. If I
believe in God, if I trust in God, then he should bless me. Because I've chosen to follow.
God is in my debt. I made the right decision, I
accepted Him, my reward is salvation, my reward is blessing. And ultimately
such a soul, such a person, cannot truly say, though God slay me,
yet will I trust in Him. Because for God to slay them,
or cast them out, When they've decided to follow him, in their
eyes, makes God unjust. They find fault with God. The
righteousness is in man and his decision to follow. And the evil
is in a God that won't respond to that. But Job knows that it's
otherwise. Job knows that all men are deserving
of hell. No matter what they do, no matter
what decision they may make, they're condemned already. Their
iniquities have gone over their heads. They are fallen in sin. They are evil from head to toe.
And God owes them nothing. Though God slays them. they will trust in him. In Romans 9, when Paul speaks
of God's love for Jacob and his hatred of Esau, his choice of
Jacob and not Esau, his grace shown upon him whom he pleases
to bless, he says, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. God is not unrighteous to bless Job. or to bless Jacob
and not Esau. God is not indebted to those
who will or those who run, those who make a decision or those
who work at religion in order to receive something from God
in return. Salvation is not earned. There is nothing we can do. There
are no works we can do. There is no decision we can make
which deserves God's blessing. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Because
by nature we are fallen and our will is never to truly follow
God. Those who say they make a decision
for Christ and they serve Christ and they do this and they do
that are amongst those under whom God says, I will say unto
them when they come unto me with their Lord, Lord I have done
this in thy name and I have done that in thy name, depart from
me ye workers of iniquity. because though they took his
name upon their lips and though they said they made a decision
and accepted Jesus into their heart and though they did this
in his name and that in their name and though they served in
their churches and though they led their meetings and though
they did this thing and that thing it was all done for their
self-glory it was all done because of what they might gain They
made the decision and they did the works because they wanted
to go to heaven. And they wanted God to give them
riches. And they wanted God to be in
their debt. So they come before him saying,
Lord, Lord, we've done this. Open up the gates of heaven unto
us. And he says unto them, Depart
from me ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you. I am not in
your debt. What you did in my name was still
sin. What you did in my name was still
for selfish gain. You coveted the riches of this
world and you coveted the riches of the world to come but you
did not love me for who I am. You do not know me and I do not
know you. I never set my grace upon you.
It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. For the Scriptures sayeth unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore have he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt
say, then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who have
resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Have not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with
much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,
and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory? even us, whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, as he saith
also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my
people, and her beloved, which was not beloved. It's the natural
man, religious or irreligious, saith in his heart, with regard
to the sovereignty of God, with regard to the events of life,
with regard to what God does, with regard to the troubles that
come his way, with regard to the state he's in by nature,
a fallen corrupt sinner, and with regard to the knowledge
he has that God's wrath is kindled from heaven above against all
the unrighteousness of man. He says with regard to this,
why hast thou made me thus? As Paul says earlier in Romans,
he's not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them. For God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Now Job's friends professed themselves
to be wise, but they became fools. They knew there was a God. The
creation told them there was a God. And the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men. And yet despite this, They contend
against this God. They don't trust in him through
all things. They don't say with Job, though
he slay me, yet will I trust in him. And so they show the
difference between those who are justified by faith, as Paul
tells us, and those upon whom the wrath of God is revealed. Job can say, though he slay me,
yet will I trust in him. He also shall be my salvation. I know that I shall be justified. Because Job is one who has heard
the gospel from faith to faith. and having faith walks by faith
and is justified by faith and can look through all the events
of time all the circumstances that come upon him through the
darkness into the light and say of his God though he slay me
yet will I trust in him whereas man in his natural state under
condemnation, justly condemned, says, why has God made me thus? The natural man finds fault with
God. The natural man says, God shouldn't
condemn me. Why should God have made me like
this? Why am I lost in my sins and
sent to hell? Why did God make me then? And
he finds fault with God rather than saying, well I deserve it.
From the day I was born I've sinned. I deserve all of this. How does your heart speak? How
does your heart speak? How does your heart respond to
the troubles that come upon you? Do you shake your fist at God
and say not so? Do you blame other people or
blame God for the troubles that come upon you? Or in faith do
you look through, through them, through the troubles, through
the fires, through the travail, through the darkness, unto God,
and say, I will praise Him, I will trust Him, no matter what. I deserve nothing from His hands.
I deserve nothing. and he would be right and just
to slay me. And my only plea is upon his
mercy. My only hope is that I know that
he's a God who delights in showing mercy. If he shows it unto me,
then that's wonderful. But if he doesn't, he's righteous
and just in all he does. I have no claim upon him. I do
not deserve it. I deserve his condemnation. I
deserve hell. I deserve death. I deserve to
be slain. But I know that he is a God who
saves. freely by His grace. He's a God
who loves to show mercy. He's a God who has freely given
His Son in the place of sinners. A God who has chosen a people
in Christ and offered up His Son as a sacrifice for them.
A God who's taken the sins of His people and laid them upon
Christ that they through Him might live. I know that God justifies
the unjust by nature because he's taken their iniquity and
laid them upon his own son. I know that God delights to show
his love under fallen sinners. I don't deserve it. I don't deserve
His salvation. I don't deserve His mercy. But
I know that He's a God who's good, a God who's loving, and
a God who has given His own Son to save a people. And if I'm
one of them, then I know that He is my salvation. If I'm one
of them, then I know that I shall be justified. And no matter what
he does with me, I will praise him and trust him throughout. Though he slay me, yet will I
trust in him. Ultimately having been brought
to hear the gospel, having an understanding of the gospel,
having an understanding of grace, having true faith in the heart,
Job knows that if God slew him, God is able to raise him again
from the dead. And no matter how dark and desperate
things may get in this world, the believer knows that God can
pick him up again. and bring him into God's presence
again. Though he slay me, yet will I
trust him. Oh, what words these are. What words were uttered
from Job's lips. What words for any man to say. But they're not just Job's words.
And if you can say them like him, because there's faith in
your hearts, then they're not just your words. There's a reason
Job could say these words. And there's a reason we might
say these words. And that is faith. Faith in the
Son of God. The faith of the Son of God. That's because Job had the faith
of Jesus Christ within him that he could speak as Christ speaks. That he knew what Christ knows. that he could trust as Christ
trusts and that he suffered something of what Christ suffered. In these
words we see not just the cry of Job in his desperate suffering
but we see the cry of Jesus Christ when he was in this world rejected
by all men and forsaken by his own father as he was nailed to
a tree and hung between heaven and earth in the darkness bearing
the sins of his people at that hour in that moment we see the
faith of Jesus Christ as he can say with Job Though he slay me,
yet will I trust in him. Christ was slain, yet he trusted. Christ did die, yet he praised
God. Christ was in the darkness, yet
he knew he would be justified. He also shall be my salvation.
I know that I shall be justified. Though he slay me, yet will I
trust in him. These are the words of faith. They are Job's words, they are
Christ's words. And they are the utterance of
faith of Christ as he suffered in the darkness upon the cross. He could only go through the
darkness. He could only go through the
grave. He could only drink the cup of
God's wrath. He could only endure the fires
of judgment because of this faith that led him through. because
he could trust that God would be his salvation, that God would
justify him and that in him all his people would be saved and
justified also. In the darkest hour, in the worst
of moments, in the most dreadful of deaths,
Christ by faith, with Job, cries out. though he slay me, yet will
I trust in him. Now is the hour of judgment. This is the hour, Christ said.
The hour has come upon him. The hour in which God would plunge
him into the darkness, bear in the sins of his people, made
sin, held up as the scapegoat of Israel, the sacrifice, the
one who would be slain, the one judged, the one who would feel
the full fury of the outpouring of the father's wrath against
all his people's sin. This was the darkest hour. and
yet it was also the greatest hour that this world has ever
seen. The darkest hour that any man
has ever endured was also the greatest hour, for it brought
in the salvation of all God's elect. Though he slay me, yet
will I trust in him. We may be brought in our journey
through this world to some very difficult straits. We may know what it is to be
brought to poverty. We may know what it is to be
brought to ruin. We may know what it is to have
many enemies. We may know what it is to have
even our own friends and family turn against us. We may know
what it is to be cast out by all men. We may know bitter loneliness. We may know the affliction of
sin. We may know what shame is and
guilt is and sorrow and conviction for sin. we may know bodily affliction,
disease, torment we may know the affliction in the body and
the affliction of the mind we may know some very dark hours
as we pass through this world and some cannot stand in them
many are broken by them And most, in their hearts, complain at
God throughout them. But if you have the faith of
Job, if you have the faith of Jesus Christ, then no matter
how dark the hour, no matter how heavy the trial, no matter
how hot the furnace, of the fires you're brought to pass through.
You will say with Job, though he slay me, yet will I trust
in him. Because it doesn't matter how
dark the hour is, it won't be darker than the hour when Christ
hung upon the cross and the light of the sun was taken away. No
matter how lonely you may be, you won't be more lonely than
he was. No matter how much you suffer, you won't suffer what
he did. And yet all that he suffered,
all that he passed through, in the darkest of hours, brought
in the greatest of light. the greatest of hope, the greatest
of mercy, the greatest of riches into this world. That was the
point in time which brought in the salvation of God's people,
which separated God's people from the wicked, the sheep from
the goats, the elect from the reprobate. This was the defining
hour. This was the greatest hour. And
in this is the greatest of hopes. No matter where you are in time,
no matter where you are in this world, no matter what your circumstances,
if you have the faith to turn and to look at the cross, to
turn unto Jesus Christ and see Him as He suffered in the darkness,
to see Him as He walked through that valley by faith, to hear
His words in the darkness of that hour, to hear the words
of Christ's faith crying out, though He slay me yet will I
trust in Him. If you have that faith given
to you to look and to behold and to hear Christ's words in
that dark hour, then you will stand in any hour. You will stand in any circumstance
and you will know that there is nothing that comes to pass
in this world, in history, in any event that comes your way. which can bring you down. Oh,
you may suffer. Oh, you may be bruised. Oh, you
may be forsaken. Oh, you may feel alone. But you will know that God is
on his throne. That God is ruling over all things. That God has this world in his
hands. That God is bringing His purposes
to pass. That God is doing justly, righteously. That God is doing all things
well. And that God will save His people
with an outstretched arm. He will gather in His elect from
the four corners of the earth. He will be their salvation. He will justify every fallen
sinner for whom Christ died through His blood, by faith. He will gather them all in, He
will preach His gospel, He will bring them unto life. And though
you may feel like you're dying, though you may feel like you
have no more strength to stand though you may feel like the
trials that have come upon you are greater than you can bear
you will look through them and say of the God that sits upon
his throne though he slay me yet will I trust in him you may
look into the darkness both without and within you may see the suffering
that comes upon you you may see the darkness outside you may
look inside your own heart and say of your heart how many are
mine iniquities and sins how many are mine iniquities and
sins make me to know my transgression and my sin but you will look
out by faith unto Jesus Christ and know that if he bore your
sins, no matter how many, no matter how great, no matter how
guilty you may feel, that he will blot them all out and that
through his death and through his blood you are washed clean
and you stand before God clean, righteous, innocent, justified
you will say by faith I know that I shall be justified not
because of any wisdom in you not because of any righteousness
in you not because you are better than anyone else not because
you made a right decision or walked the right way no, you
were in desperate straits and you knew your iniquities were
all around you and you were full of them you knew you'd done nothing
good but you knew that God had come unto you in mercy. You know that God has come unto
you in mercy and opened your ears and opened your understanding
and put faith in your heart to look out from yourself. to look
out from what you are and what you have done to look out from
the circumstances of life and the darkness in which you find
yourself and to look up by faith under Him and see the Saviour
see the Saviour risen from the dead see your Saviour having
died for you and washed you clean and justified you. You can look
up by faith unto Him and see Him victorious. And you know
that whatever comes upon you, He has done all things well.
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. I will maintain mine own
ways before Him. He also shall be my salvation. He also shall be my salvation. O sinner in the darkness, can
you look up by faith and see the light of God shining forth
from the throne of Jesus Christ? And can you say of him, though
he slay me, Yet will I trust in Him.