If you have your Bibles, open
them please to Psalm 34. I wanted to read beginning with
verse 17 and read through verse 19. Verse 17 through 19. The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth. That's an amazing statement.
Now the righteous here are those who are righteous in a substitute. No man by nature is righteous.
We are all unrighteous. The Bible says all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. The Bible teaches that we
are all fallen. Every man, woman, boy and girl
come into this world with a nature that's contrary to God. But the
righteous cry, those that have been made to trust in the Redeemer,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord heareth. Well, the
Bible says that the ear of the Lord is open and a tent unto
the prayer of the righteous. And it says the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man Availeth how much? Much. Availeth much. So, we believe
in calling upon the Lord. Scripture says, Call unto Me
and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things
which thou knowest not. I want to encourage you to call
on the Lord. Pray, seek the face of the Lord.
May the Lord stir us all up, that we'll lay hold of Him, that
we will cry unto the Lord. It's awful easy to fall into
a rut, isn't it? Where you just say, well, what
will be, will be. And I don't have much confidence
in my prayer anyway, so I just won't send it forth to the throne. Well, you see, beloved, we are
not to have any confidence in our prayers and individual, but
our Lord Jesus Christ, we talked last week about his intercessory
work and how that our Lord Jesus Christ perfumes our prayers. Oh, many times when they come
out of our mouths, they may not smell good, but by the time they
reach the Father, they smell real good. Oh, they're well-scented
when they get there. So, beloved, listen. Call on
the Lord. Call on the Lord. And you know,
I've often said that when I pray, I said, Lord, if there's anything
in this prayer that ought not to be there, reckon it not to
be there. You feel free to sort out Make it like it ought to be.
And Lord, if there's something that's not in this prayer that
ought to be, you reckon that to be there too. And that kind
of covers it all, doesn't it? But to righteous crime the Lord
heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. That's
very interesting. Now can we take this seriously?
And delivereth them out of all of their troubles. You mean the
righteous have troubles? My soul, we will find out that
the righteous have many problems, many troubles, many afflictions.
So the Lord does deliver them out of all their troubles. I like that. The Lord is nigh
unto them that have a broken heart. You mean that God's people
have broken hearts? Oh, they do, the Lord's people
many times. Their hearts are broken because
of their troubles and their afflictions and their failings, and because
of all of the various and sundry happenings in and around them,
in their families, their homes, very much in their country. So
they're very much of a broken heart. And he says, the Lord
is nigh these people. The Lord is near them. Now, which
would you rather have? A broken heart and have the Lord
near? Or would you rather be high and
mighty and proud and arrogant and the Lord be far from you?
Which would you rather have? Well, I tell you what, I believe
the desirable position is to have a broken heart, that the
Lord might be nigh. One of the greatest privileges
that any mortal man can experience in this world is for some time
between the cradle and the grave to sense the presence of God
with him. That's one of the greatest privileges
that any man... Now, when we're talking about
the Lord being nigh, We're talking about the thrice holy God. We're
talking about the God, the sovereign God of the universe. We're talking
about the God that created all things. We're talking about the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And to have Him brought
nigh. Oh, it's alright if we have a
broken heart, if we can sense and feel that the Lord is nigh. That is a blessed, blessed verse. And he saveth. That word saveth
there is delivers. He delivers such as be of a contrite
spirit. If a man comes to the Lord and
he's got a broken heart and his spirit is humble, and he feels
poor in spirit, he comes before God with that frame of mind and
heart, then the Lord's going to what? He's going to deliver
him. He's going to deliver him. That's
what it says, doesn't it? He saveth such as be of a broken
spirit. And then verse 19, Many are the
afflictions of the righteous. Oh yes, many are the afflictions
of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.
The Lord brings out His people, the righteous ones,
and all His people are righteous in Christ. He brings them out,
He delivers them, delivers them out of all their afflictions.
In the spring, of 1970, I was preparing, my family and I was
preparing to leave Brownsburg, Indiana to move to Montana. And one of the deacons, we had resigned
the church there. I had pastored there 17 years. And one of the deacons came to
me and said, Brother John, I wondered what might be your favorite verse
in the Bible. And I thought just a little bit,
didn't have to think very long. And I told him it was Psalm 34,
19. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. And so they
bought me a silver platter, and had engraved in that platter,
in the middle of that platter, this verse of scripture. And this verse of scripture had
become precious, precious to me in the years between 1952
and 1970, very precious because of all of the trials and the afflictions that
came into my life upon taking the Word of God into my mouth
and beginning to preach the Word. In those days when a man mentioned,
mentioned, dared to mention sovereign grace, when he dared to mention
distinguishing grace, when he dared to say anything about election,
sovereign election, dared to talk about these things, and
oh my soul, if he said a word about particular redemption,
my, my, my, what filth and offscouring of the earth that fellow is in
our eyes. My soul, there was nobody that
ever heard that language hardly before. There was a lot of afflictions
and a lot of trouble that came. I had the treasurer of the church,
the First Baptist Church at Brownsburg, Indiana. And I preached a message
on election in early 1953. And after the meeting, the meeting
wasn't even hardly over until he come running up front. And
he stood in my face and told me, He said, if that is in the
Bible and if that's true, he said, you and this church don't
need me anymore. And so he ran out and never saw
him again. Because he was greatly offended
at the fact that God chooses His own. That God is a sovereign
God and He chooses according to His own will. those whom you'll
save." Well, many afflictions belong to the righteous. And
then I had to be delivered from many, many things to be able
to pull away and to get away from the state of Indiana to
move my wife and five children to Montana. I was in business
as well as pastoring a church. And there was, I believe that
God killed a man, deliberately took him out of the world, a
man in his forties who was in a position to hinder me from
coming. And I believe the Lord took his
life and took him right out of the world. The Lord delivered
me, delivered my soul and freed me up, put another man in his
position that said, that's fine, you just go right on. Now, beloved,
God's people have many, many trials. Many trials. The Word of God teaches that
as a fact, that the Lord's people are a poor and afflicted people
in the midst of the earth. And you can tell them by their
being poor in spirit, having a contrite heart, a broken heart
before God. You can tell them. They're leaning
on the Lord. They're depending upon the Lord.
But now they must go through these afflictions. They must
have these trials. They must have these troubles.
You cannot, as a child of God, live this life and be exempt
from these things. You're going to have affliction
and trouble in the world. If you have your Bible, turn
with me to John 16 if you want. And look at verse 33. I want
you to look at what the Master said about this. In verse 33
of John 16, the Master said, These things I have spoken unto
you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall
have tribulation. In the world ye shall have trouble.
That word tribulation is trouble. You'll have trouble in the world.
Trouble in the world if you live right. Trouble in the world if
you attempt to be any sort of a witness for the Lord. Trouble
in the world if you try to walk contrary to the world and to
the wickedness of the world. If you reprove the wicked, you'll
have trouble in the world. just trouble from being in the
world. This world is no friend of grace
to help a man on to God. This world is against the Lord's
people and against the Lord's Christ. They're against Christ. They hated Him without a cause.
And it's no marvel if they hate you. But be of good cheer, he
says, I have overcome the world. So our Master taught it as a
fact that in the world he shall have tribulation. And then did
the apostles teach the same? Turn over to the book of Acts
chapter 14 and look here at beginning with verse 20. Maybe I should back
up to verse 19. Acts 14 verse 19, And there came
thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the
people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing
he had been dead. Howbeit, as the disciples stood
round about him, he rose up and came into the city, and the next
day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. And when they had preached
the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned
again to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch, confirming, in
verse 22, the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue
in the faith, and that we must, through much tribulation, enter
into the kingdom of God. that we must, through much trouble,
enter into the Kingdom of God. So the apostles taught the early
churches had to go through it. You are going to have tribulation.
You are going to have trouble. There is going to be difficulty.
Now then, this morning, if you would, since we established the
fact of it, you turn back with me to the book of Job, chapter
1, And we want to try to talk just a little bit this morning
on how these trials and these afflictions, when we're going
through them, because going through them we must, no way to get exempt
ourselves from them. No way we're going to get through
this world and get into another one above without going through
affliction and trouble and trial. No way. And so here in the book
of Job chapter 1, I think we see how Job handled his afflictions,
how he handled his trials. Let me read verse 20 and 21 and
22. Then Job arose, and ran his mantle,
and shaved his head. and fell down upon the ground,
and worshipped, and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb,
and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor
charged God foolishly." Now if you listen carefully to our brother's
reading of this chapter, you know something about the story.
You know something about the losses that Job experienced,
the trials and the afflictions that fell upon him in one day,
how these things came upon Job. And Job handled these trials
in a beautiful way, and he handled them as all believers ought to
handle them. Job did not try to hide his sorrow. He did not try to hide the outward
signs of it, I mean. Because in verse 20, he said
he arose and he ran his mantle and shaved his head. He ran his
clothes. And before the Mosaic law was
given, it was okay to shave your head, for a man to shave his
head. But in the law, it was not acceptable for a man to shave
his head. So Job, living before the law
was ever given, he shaved his head. He is showing here that
he is definitely experiencing grief, affliction, and sorrow. Might I say a man of God is not
expected to be like a stone. He's not expected to be like
a fence post that have no feelings. He's not expected not to show
emotion. A man of God who is suffering
and who is afflicted and greatly tried, this man, it is acceptable
that he be tenderhearted and that he show that he's being
afflicted outwardly. The grace of God in salvation
takes away the heart of stone and gives flesh so that he can
feel, so he can have something to feel with. God help us that
the icicles of our hearts will be melted and that we will show
tenderness and kindness not only to those around us, but to others
that we meet that are being afflicted and tested and tried. The Lord's
people are the subjects of tender, tender feelings. Even our Master,
you remember, wept at the grave of Lazarus in John 11, 35. Mary
was weeping, the Scripture says, and the Jews also were weeping.
and said, where have you laid him? Speaking of Lazarus. And
they said, Lord, come and see. And the Scripture says that our
Master, the Lord Jesus, that He wept. And the Jews said, behold,
how they loved Him. But our Lord Jesus wept at the
tomb of Lazarus. Job indeed felt the blows that
fell on him. No question about it. lost all
of his family in one day, all of his animals, and property. Les lost it all in one day. And
he felt these blows upon him. Do not blame yourself, beloved,
if you're conscious of pain and grief. And if you sometimes look
back on things that's happened in your life, situations that
came into your life, and you feel a great deal of remorse
and pain then do not blame yourself. Do not ask to be made hard. I
know some people, they want to be like the stoke, and they want
to be as hard as a rock. But don't ask to be made hard,
my friend. Stay tender-hearted toward your
situation and toward life. Grace, the grace of God works,
I think, in this way. In our weakness it makes us strong
to bear the trials of life. And as we said before, let it
never be forgotten, we must bear them. We must bear them. What
are you going to do? When great grief comes upon you,
great trials come upon you, when loved ones are taken away, what
are you going to do? My friend, there's no escape.
You've got to know how to handle these things as a believer. And
you've got to know that it's alright to grieve. Now, we're
not to sorrow. in a way that is extreme like
the world does, but it is acceptable for us to sorrow. And I believe
that it gives us patience and submission to experience affliction
and trial as old Job did. The Bible says that we're overcomers. And that means that we're overcomers. We're more than conquerors. God's people are going to overcome.
Jesus said, I've overcome the world, and you in Me. And that's the glorious position
that all God's people find themselves in, is in the Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He said in 2 Corinthians
12.9, My grace is sufficient for you. There was a man who
lost his only daughter. and she was suddenly taken away
and he had her picture in his office and he would come in every
day and he would see that picture and he would grieve and grieve
and grieve and so finally one day The Lord spoke to him and
said, My grace is sufficient for thee. And so he took the
picture down and took a plaque and hung it up in its place that
said, My grace is sufficient for thee. So every time he came
into the office, instead of seeing his daughter's picture, he would
see that plaque. And so his heart was stabilized
and he was made strong to bear. the loss. Now, we benefit by
the feelings we have, and there's no sin, as we said, in the feeling.
Job was among, I believe, the very chief mourners of the Scripture. And in all this, the Bible says,
Job, what? He sinned, what? He sinned not. In all of this, he was the chief
mourner in Scripture. But in all this, he sinned not. Now as we look a little further
here, in this verse of Scripture, we see that not only did Job
submit himself to his grief, his trials, and acted like he
had been bereaved, and that he had suffered loss, but we see
him also with devotion in his heart toward the Lord. And brethren, you cannot I don't think you can separate
these two. The two must be there. You must, when you're grieving,
and when you're in pain, and when you're being afflicted,
there must also be devotion in your heart. Now Job fell down
upon the ground, fell prostrate on the ground, and the Scripture
says, he worshipped. Now, this word worship here is
a very interesting word. It certainly means that he did
not whine, but he worshipped. He didn't grumble, but he worshipped
before God. He looked to God, looked to God
for comfort, looked to God for grace. And we'll explain in a
few moments his convictions about God in all this matter. But we
must be always ready to worship. We'll never get to first base
in our service toward God unless we're always of a worshipful
attitude and always have it upon our hearts to call upon the Lord
and to acknowledge Him. The Scripture says if we acknowledge
Him in all of our ways, then He'll direct our steps. Now,
our mourning should always be sanctified with devotion. He worshipped God. We see in
this Job's resignation, his full surrender to the will of God. So when our grief presses us
to the very best, then worship there. Worship there. I read
in the Scriptures where one leaned on a post and worshipped, or
leaned on his staff and worshipped. So whatever be your position,
you worshipped God there. Now there's some things, very
briefly, that should be considered here out of verse 21. Now if you're going to be comforted
when you're in a state of affliction or in a state of grief, if you're
going to be comforted, you've got to learn to catechize yourself
You've got to learn to take Bible truths and talk to yourself about
them. Now, you'll never be able to
comfort anyone else until you're able to comfort yourself. And
there's only one way for a child of God living in this world,
this waste-howling wilderness that we're living in, that things
are changing every day and not for the better. My friend, there's
only one way to comfort ourselves, and that's take the Word of God
and make application of it to our hearts. We've got to believe
God. This is a day in which if we
do not believe God, we will never be established. We will be the
most worrisome, the most unbelieving people that God Almighty ever
had in this world, with things coming upon this earth as they
will come. We're not used to being in a
position where we have to face uncertainty, and we're going
to be very, very disturbed if we don't learn to preach to ourselves
and to encourage ourselves in the Word of the Living God. So there were some things that
Job recalled that really, I think, strengthened him in this time. Number one, he spoke of the brevity
of life. He said here in verse 21, He said, naked came I out of
my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In other words, he's saying,
I come forth, and I go back. I shall return to the earth.
Job is saying that we're all mortal, and that we're going
to die very soon. And that life is like a procession. coming up on one side of the
stage, people coming all the time up, going across, and going
out. Life is very brief. It's very
brief. One time there was a believer
that, a young believer, went up to an old believer, and said
he explained this brevity of life business, that the Bible
says that that our life is as a vapor that appears for a little
time and then it just vanishes away. So this young believer
says to this older believer, he said, explain to me what all
that means. And so the old believer stood
there for a moment and they just turned around and walked off
and never said anything. And so the The young believer
didn't know what to make of it. So the next day he saw him again,
and so he asked the old believer, he said, why did you just walk
away? Why didn't you answer my question? The old believer said,
I did answer it. Because I explained to you by
my action what that means. You're here, and then you're
gone. And beloved, life is brief. And
one of the things that you need to understand as a believer living
in this world, that your life is as a vapor that appears for
a little time and then it's gone. That we're all, all of us are
living in the vestibule of death. And so we need to understand
that, that man's days are few and they're full of trouble.
I came forth and I shall return to the earth. And in Job 16.22,
it says, when a few years are come, then I shall go the way
whence I shall not return. And so you say it any way you
want to. Our stay here in this world, it's going to be short. It's going to be short. And somebody
said that man's life is just either a short or long disease. Man is plagued with disease. Mr. Spurgeon said it in a very
eloquent way. He said that diseases linger
around to hurry mortals home. Mortals, my friend, we're going
home. And it won't be long. And so
whenever you're greatly afflicted, encourage yourself by the fact
that the days are few. This is a day of trouble, you
might say. It's a day of grief. It's a day
that we need to remember. It's just like any other day,
and it'll soon be over. It will soon be over. Our time
will be over. The length of time we have on
earth, it will flee away. Now he now feels himself, Job
does, to be very poor. Everything is gone and he's stripped. He says here, naked came I out
of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. So we
feel our poverty sometimes when we've suffered loss. Sometimes
I've known in the past, I've known good brethren who were
in business to end up bankrupt and they had to file bankruptcy
and they feel very poor and sometimes business goes bad, and their
business is ruined, and they feel very badly about it. Very,
very badly about it. Well, Job, he says, I'm not poorer
now than I was when I was born. I come into this world naked,
he said. I come in naked. I'm not poorer
now than I was when I was born. We come into this world with
a mother's love, hopefully, And if we have that, that's by the
grace of God. You know, sometimes we look too
much at second causes. Do you think a mother's love
is a second cause? Well, it is. Do you know that your mother
would not have loved you as tenderly and graciously and kindly providing
for your needs in infancy If it hadn't been for the love of
God and grace of God that was put into her heart to do that.
Do you know there's a lot of women? Can a woman, the Bible
says, forget her suckling child? Absolutely. Absolutely. A woman can turn her back on
her child. You've heard of it, haven't you?
You've heard of them being thrown in garbage cans, left in restrooms
in some part of the country. My friend, if you had a mother's
love, that's the goodness of God toward you. And that's a
rebuke toward us when we get older and don't feel like we're
going to be able to take care of ourselves. It's a rebuke to
our faith. Because when we was an infant
and didn't know a thing on earth about it, the Lord put love in
the heart of a mortal for us. And she tenderly and lovingly
cared for us. down the road when we can't care
for ourselves, the Lord will graciously provide. Graciously
provide for us. And we need to remember that,
don't we? The Lord will provide. The Lord will provide. Look to
Him first, because it's the Lord that did it. You say, oh, I had
a good mother. Well, I did too by the grace
of God. By the grace of God, I had a
good mother. And so if you did have one, praise
the Lord for it. Praise the Lord for it. But a
mother's love comes second-handed. That's the Lord's goodness and
the Lord's grace. Does that bother any of you,
disturb any of you? I hope it doesn't. I think that's
a very true statement. A very true statement. Well,
Paul said, He brought nothing into this world and is certain
he can take nothing out. Our possessions will leave us
or we'll soon leave them, somebody well said. If I have but little
now, soon shall have still less. The richest of us will be as
the poorest of us. You may have it today, but the
day is going to come when you're going to be as poor as everybody
else. All you'll have is Unless you
opt to be cremated, well, it would be six feet of ground.
That's all you'll have. The two ends of our life are
nakedness, and if we do not fare so sumptuously in the middle,
then so what, Job would seem to say. So what? In other words,
if we don't wear fine linen and fare sumptuously every day, is
that a problem? No, it's no problem. And Job
said that's what it's coming to. We're coming down to the
end. Coming down to the end. Jesus
said a man's life does not consist of the abundance of the things
that he possesses. That's not his life. So it's
a blessed thing with God when He enables us to live above what
we have and above what we don't have. Just to live to Him and
to His glory. And then the next thing is precious. He said, and the Lord hath taken
away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Now this is Job talking
to himself. And this is Job catechizing himself. And so he said, it's the hand
of God that gives and takes away. Now this may be elementary to
some of you. Some of you here, you might have
heard it many times, but maybe you never really heard it. Never
really heard it. In giving, Job does not say that
he had earned all these things that he's lost. They're gifts from Him who has
a right to take them back. They're gifts of God. That's
a very important thing to see. They're a gift from Him who has
the right to take them back. All we have here is on loan from
the Lord. And somebody said a loan, something
that's loaned should go laughing home sooner or later. And so, beloved, the Lord gives
and the Lord takes away. Lock, stock, and barrel, these
things are gifts to us. Our possessions, I mean. Our
family, I mean. Our friends, I mean. And all
we have in this world that makes our life worth living, they're
all gifts of God to us. God has given them to us. We
would be beggars if it were not for His grace, His love, and
provision. I think we all, you know, we
read at the outset about these poor of spirit and poor broken
hearted people, afflicted people. And I think everybody here ought
to be willing to admit that they'd be a beggar if it wasn't for
the grace and provision of the Lord. Because brother and sister,
that's exactly. You know, you just hear it all
the time. You just hear it all the time of people that cannot
stand to be reduced. Can't stand it. They shoot themselves,
or they do some terrible thing, run off, and never show up again,
leave their families, leave their debts, and leave everything.
They can't stand to be reduced down to nothing. Well, is it
going to be a terrible, tragic thing if we come down to where
that we admit that we're beggars apart from the love and grace
of God? Well, I don't think it'd be too bad for a bunch of Calvins
to get there. I think that might be a real
good thing for us to get there. All on loan from the Lord. And the master has a right to
take them back when he wants to. There was a fellow one time,
worked for a rich man, killed his garden, had beautiful flowers,
and he had this one rose in his garden that he was so proud of,
this gardener was. And one day he came out, and
that rose was gone. And he asked the other servants,
he said, what happened to my rose? What happened to my rose? And he said, one of the other
servants said, the master picked it. And so he could say nothing
more. Because the master owned the
garden. So you see, beloved, these things are... And Job's
talking to himself about this. He said, now these things were
all on loan from the Lord. And he had a right to take them
back. They were his. They were gifts from God. And
he had a right to take them. My friend, as we approach these
things and as we deal with our problems in life, we must concentrate
on the fact that God gives and He takes away. He gives the power,
the Scripture says, to get wealth. What hast thou that thou hast
not received? And if thou hast received it,
why do you glore as if you had not received it? It came from
Him. He equally saw God's hand in
taking them away. Job has nothing to say about
the Sabians or the Chaldeans or the wind or the lightning.
You know, I always thought that was quite interesting. Because
we would immediately blame the Republicans or the Democrats. We would blame the Saudi Arabians
for the high price of fuel. If we're going to blame somebody,
we're going to do something because things are not like they used
to and we can't handle that. Things are bad and we just, you
know, it's got to the place now where that, I mean, we're about
ready to see a meltdown and folks don't, they can't understand. Somebody's got to be blamed.
Well, wouldn't it be better if we just said what Job did, the
Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. Blessed be His name. I'll tell you, if I thought I
could do something about the high price of fuel, I would.
And I think if you could do anything about it, you ought to do it
too. I really do. Fact is, if somebody here wants
to tell us that they can do something about it, we'll pay your way
to wherever you've got to go to do it. Even if you've got
to drive a gas guzzler, we'll pay your way. Well, he didn't
have anything to say about secondary causes, did he? Brother and sister,
there's a great lesson here. I've seen people, and not too
far from home either, you know, they have trouble sleeping at
night. Because somebody, somebody, something, this individual or
that individual. And I'll tell you, you can get
mighty restless unless you say the Lord gives and the Lord takes
away. Now there's a grace of this.
We can have that knowledge in our head, but there's a grace
of it that gets down in here. And you can say, well, the Lord
gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
We'll just accept that and believe that. And that's what old Job
did. That's what he had to do. He had to come to that. Well, to know that it's God's
hand will take away the sting of the stroke. Never mind the secondary causes.
Eli said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good.
When he killed his sons. Killed both his boys. He said,
it is the Lord. Let him do what seems good. And
then, it's getting late, I think that just to kind of
fill you in here, when Job says that the Lord gives and the Lord
takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord, He shows that he
firmly believes that God is the first cause of everything. Firmly
believes that. Now brother, sister, if you can
generate any comfort in your soul believing otherwise, then
you're a very, very, very strange person. And you certainly, I
mean from the standpoint of professing being a Christian, the only comfort
is from saying that God is the first cause of all things. And that He made all things for
His glory and His honor, unto Him be glory forever and ever.
Now we know that that's true from salvation to providence. True, God is the first cause
of all things. Now you all know and believe
that He's the first cause of salvation. And you know that
He's the author and the finisher of our faith. And you know that
apart from God, we'd all be destitute. We've already told you that.
So it is God who is the first cause of all things. So Job did
right by staying himself on this great truth that God gives away
and takes away at His purpose. Beloved, might I say that it
helps to know that things don't just happen. That things don't
just happen. Now, some people may get tired
of hearing about God being the first cause of all things. But
I'm comforted to know that I'm not in a world where things are
going to just happen. God runs this world. Even the
devil, as we heard from Our brother's reading this morning is under
his control. He's under his control. The devil is. And this chapter proves that.
On the worst day of your life and the best day of your life,
nothing just happens. Nothing just happens. Well, let that soak in a little
bit. Daniel 4 and 34 and 35 says, And I blessed the Most High,
and praised and honored Him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation
to generation. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing, and He doeth according to His
will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest
thou? And God has done it. Is that
enough for us? God has done it. So in conclusion,
Job's comfort lay in this truth, that God is worthy to be blessed
in all things. Blessed be the name of the Lord,
he said. Blessed be the name of the Lord. The ways of the
Lord are right, always right. Mark 7.35 says, Jesus says that
He does all things well. All things well. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, the psalmist said, and all that is in me, bless
His holy name. Let us never rob God of His praise,
however dark the day is. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Let us remember to praise the Lord. You say, oh, it's late.
Well, it's not too late to praise the Lord, is it? No, it isn't. You say, well, you know, if I
just understood why, then I'd praise the Lord maybe. No, it
can't be that way. How long do you know in the Lord?
Do you mean tell me if something don't go your way and it's not
according to your mind that you're not going to praise the Lord?
Is there some line that if God crosses in His providence with
you, that that shuts off the valve of your praise? If the
Lord trespasses on a certain area of your life, that no more
praise is going to be given to God. He's worthy of praise. He's worthy to be praised. Job
said, Blessed be the name of the Lord. You say, Preacher,
I don't understand. I don't understand how it is
that I should praise God as much at a funeral as I do at a wedding
day. I don't understand that. Well,
my friend, you know, someone said there
were 300 questions asked in the book of Job alone that no answer
is ever given to. Well, I think that's probably
true. I haven't counted them myself,
but I believe that's true. We're tempted a thousand times
to say why, when heartaches come, bereavements come. Why? Why, Lord? Why did this happen? Well, it
happened, so blessed be the name of the Lord. I've got to praise
God. For the last year and a half,
maybe, been under a very dark cloud. Very dark cloud. And you can't help but, beings who are in a body of flesh, use that biggest little word
in the dictionary. Why? Why would things be Why
would things happen like they do? I certainly feel that very shortly
the Lord will give deliverance and once again stir our hearts
and enable us to rise above awful afflictions. We feel so deeply, keenly, at
what happened with our son Mark. We feel it so deeply. But we've got to be content to
let God know some things we don't know. It's either blessed be the name
of the Lord, or it's to curse God and die. And the Scripture says it's the
glory of God to conceal a matter. And on our best day His ways
are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts, as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than ours. And still true, if we cannot
trace His steps, we must trust His heart. We've got to trust
God's heart. If we can't figure out why, you've
got to trust God's heart. And you've got to give Him praise.
Praise. Honor. And the more you honor
God and fulfill your duty... One time there was an old preacher
family's home, and it was after midnight. And they said, well,
we won't have any prayer before we retire tonight because it's
so late. It's too late. And the old preacher
spoke up and said, you mean it's too late? It never gets too late
to honor God. to praise God, to glorify God. Call upon the Lord. Never gets
too late for that. You mean we'll go to bed without
God being praised? Well, I think we better wake
up, brother, sister, because if we praise Him in the sunshine,
I think it'll be a little easier for you to praise in the dark.
In the darkness. So make sure that you are giving
God praise every day. Whenever you come to affliction
and trouble and great trial and bereavement, you'll still be
able to give Him praise. God is worthy of praise. Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Job said. So I hope you see that Job catechized himself, preached
to himself, and by this he was able to handle his affliction.
Vance Havner said, you need never ask why, because Calvary covers
it all. In other words, just take a look
at Calvary. See what he did for you. All our whys are going to be
answered in heaven. Until then, we live by promises,
not by explanations. But one day our question marks
will be straightened into explanation marks, and our alas' will turn
into hallelujahs one day. And the old song says we'll ask
the reason, He'll tell us why, when we talk it over in the by
and by. When we talk it over in the by
and by. So beloved, so many, many things that we can't explain
that happen, that afflict our souls and trouble us. But we
must go on and bless God. Bless God. He gave. He has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And I hope that will be your demeanor, your attitude, whenever
the Lord calls me home, is that you'll say, The Lord gave. The Lord's taken away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. Give Him praise and glory. Don't
let anything that ever happens to this preacher keep you to
hold your tongue in praise and glory to God. Praise and glorify
God. Make it a rule in your life.
Whatever happens in your family, God will be praised. God will
be glorified. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be His name. Brother Mitch, do you want...