Turn with me back to Romans chapter
8. Our text will come from the book
of Job, but let's look at this verse one more time. Romans 8,
28. And we know That all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. We know. We know. This isn't a matter
of opinion. It's not a matter of uncertainty. It's a fact. We know. We know this as surely as we
know that we're redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That all things, that's a mighty
broad statement, isn't it? All things. God the Father. God the Son. God the Holy Spirit. All things. All angels. All rulers. All ministers. All evil things. Satan himself. All those things that we consider
to be Good things. Peace. Don't we love the idea
of peace, of prosperity, of health, of happiness? All things. All, even what we would call
bad things, bad events, war. I was thinking of this thing
of war. Dear friend of ours, he was over
in Iraq in the Navy. And a fellow seen just a look
on his face and he said, I'm going to go up on the rooftop
here. I've got some duty. Would you want to? He said, I'm
going to sit and listen. I'm going to sit and listen to
a gospel message. Would you want to come up and
join me for that? And he did. And in time, the
Lord saved him. He said, I'm thankful. He said,
I know that sounds like a crazy thing. I'm thankful for that
war. All things, war, famine, sorrow,
sickness, even death. They work together. All of these
things in us, toward us, all according
to God's will and purpose. His direction, His control. fulfilling his purpose for us. They work for our good, not necessarily our present comfort,
not necessarily our ease, our joy, but for our eternal good. Isn't that our desire? To be with Christ, to be like
Christ. And that's what all these things
are working together to accomplish. That verse doesn't stop there.
A lot of people quote it and that's where they end it. Who's
he talking to? To them that love God. To them that are called according
to His purpose. This promise of eternal good,
this promise of well-being, it's not a blanket promise to every
son of Adam. But to those who have received
Christ, those who believe Christ, those who love the Lord Jesus
Christ, those who have been effectually called by his spirit to saving grace and faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And in light of this scripture,
I want us to turn back to the book of Job. You know, Job chapter 1. Job was a man who was greatly,
greatly troubled. I doubt, I can't imagine, I can't
imagine any man who's been tested and tried like Job. In just a short amount of time,
he lost everything. Everything in this world. He was a man of strength and
good health. And in just a short amount of
time, he would be covered with boils to the point that even
his closest of friends couldn't even recognize him. Look at Job
1 verse 1. It says, there was a man in the
land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was perfect and
upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. Job was a man of, he was a man
of great influence. And again, in a short amount
of time, he would become the laughing stock of those around
him. Verse two, they were born unto
him seven sons and three daughters. He was a family man. Job had
a large family, a family that he loved in a short
amount of time. All of that, all of his children
were taken from him. Verse three, his substance was
7,000 sheep. and 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of
oxen, 500 she-asses, a very great household so that this man, he
was the greatest of all the men of the East. He was a man of
wealth. Naturally speaking, we'd look
at Job and say this man had it, he had it all. And yet everything he owns is
going to be swept away. Verse 4, his sons went and feasted
in their houses every one in his day. And they sent and called
for their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And it was
so when the days of their feasting were gone about. that Job sent
and sanctified them. And he rose up early in the morning
and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For
Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in
their hearts. And thus did Job continually. He loved his children, didn't
he? Verse six, there was a day when
the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And
Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan,
whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord and
said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up
and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan,
have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like
him in the earth. He's perfect and an upright man,
one that feareth God and escheweth evil. And Satan answered the
Lord, and he said, Doth Job fear God? For not. Hast thou not made
a hedge about him and about his house? and about all that he
hath on every side. You've blessed the work of his
hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thy
hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he'll curse you
to your face. And the Lord said to Satan, behold,
all that he has is in thy power. Only upon himself put not forth
thy hand, so Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. All things, all things work together. Let's read on here. 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 Sabians fell upon them
and took them away. Yea, they've slain the servants
with the edge of the sword. And I only am escaped to tell
thee. and while he was yet speaking,
before that last servant could finish his sentence, there came
another servant and said, the fire of God has
fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep and the servants
and consumed them and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. See how quickly how quickly this
happens. Aren't there times when that's
just how trials come? Before one's finished, there
comes another. Years ago, we were at the beach. We were out about knee deep in
the water. And some pretty big waves were
coming in. And there was a man and a woman
out there in the water. And they weren't really paying
attention to anything. And this wave come up and just,
it knocked them down. It was kind of, honestly, it
was kind of funny when it first happened. It just knocked them
off their feet. And as they were trying to get
up and almost up on their feet again, Another wave just come
and just hit him and knocked him down. And that went on. That
went on to the point people around were starting to get concerned. Just as soon as you barely get
on your feet, here comes another wave. Isn't that this life? And that's what's happening to
Job here. I mean, before he can even catch
his breath. Here comes another, verse 17. And while he was yet
speaking, there came also 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 only am escaped to tell thee. And then this was no doubt the
big one. While he was yet speaking, could
it get any worse? Could it get any worse? 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. And Job arose, and he ran his
mantle, and he shaved his head, and he fell down upon the ground,
and he worshiped. You know, Job didn't try to hide his sorrow. He wept. He wept before God. And I often fear that we feel
like expressing sorrow somehow portrays us as having weak faith. You know, God's people are the
people of tender feelings. And when called to bear the rod,
we feel that. The children of Israel, we read
in scripture that when Moses died, they wept for Moses in
the plains of Moab for 30 days. We read in scripture that the
Lord, the Lord himself wept. He was a man of sorrows. He was
acquainted with grief. The Lord Jesus Christ wept. The Lord told his disciples in
John 16, 20, he said, verily I say unto you, Shortly before
his death, he said, you shall weep and lament. Now this world's going to rejoice, but you're going to be sorrowful.
But that sorrow, it's not going to stay sorrow. It's going to
be turned to joy. We sorrow. We sorrow, but not
like those that have no hope. Scripture says this, weeping
endures for the night, but joy, joy comes in the morning. You know when David and Bathsheba,
when their son died, he wept and he fasted, but after he died, he told his
servant, his servant asked him, he said, Why have you done this? Why has this stopped now? And
he said this. He said, he's not going to return
to me, but I shall go to him. And in the midst of Job's sorrow
here, we read this. He worshipped. He worshipped. You know, sorrow and trouble
should always lead us to worship should always lead us to praise. In times of trial and difficulty,
listen, men, we try to comfort. But you know the words of a man
rarely make a trial any easier. Our words can't dry another man's
tears. We can't take away loneliness
and sorrow. We're often, as Job described
his friends, as miserable comforters, physicians of no value. But aren't we thankful that there's
comfort to be found in God's word? Turn to 2 Corinthians 1. We'll turn back here to Job,
hold your place, but in 2 Corinthians 1. Look at verse three. 2 Corinthians 1, verse three. Blessed
be God. Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God
of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation, that
we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the
comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. He is the
God of all comfort. And listen, there is no comfort,
there is no rest apart from Him. Whatever comfort the believer
enjoys, it's from the Father, it's from Almighty God. Go back to our text here in Job
1. Job fell down and he worshiped. Listen to these, just quickly
here this evening, listen to these words of comfort. Job gives
us four lessons, four lessons to be learned in trial, four
reasons to be comforted in times of trouble. Look at verse 21.
He says this, he says, 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. And in all this, Job sinned not,
nor charged God foolishly. Now I said four things, let's
look at the first one here. What's something we learn in
trouble? One, the brevity of life, the shortness of this life. He says, naked I came, and naked
I shall return. In James chapter four, verse
14, it says, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? A vapor, a vapor that appears
for just a little time, and then it vanishes away. A vapor, a
puff of smoke, a mist that's just visible for just a short
amount of time, and then it disappears. It's a breath of air. A breath of air. How important
is that breath? And you know that breath, according
to scriptures, it's in His hand. In whose hand is the soul of
every living thing in the breath of all mankind? It's His. And it's his to give,
and it's his to withhold. Second, we see the frailty of
earthly possessions. Naked. You know, when we're born
into this world, what do we possess? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We come into this world naked.
And when a man dies, No matter how much he's gained in this
world, when we leave this world, we'll leave with nothing. In Luke 12, our Lord told a parable
and he said this, he said, the ground of a certain rich man
brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself,
saying, what shall I do? I have no room to bestow all
of my fruits. And he said, this is what I'll
do. I'll tear down my old barns, and I'll build bigger barns,
greater barns, where I can bestow all of my fruits and all of my
goods. And I'll say to my soul, thou
hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy ease. Eat, drink, be merry. That's what he thought. But God
said to him. thou fool, this night, this very
night, shall thy soul be required of thee. And then, then whose
things shall all these things be? All these things you've provided,
whose will they be then? I ask you, what does man take
with him? He leaves this world naked. We brought nothing into this
world, and it's certain we're going to carry nothing out. I
remember John Chapman saying this one time. He said, when
a hearse goes by, look and see if it has a Reese hitch on it. He said, you'll never see one
pulling a U-Haul trailer behind it. The frailty of these earthly
possessions Third, the hand of God in all things. The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away. Look there at the end of verse
21 in Job 1. The Lord gave. Everything that we have, physically,
mentally, materially, spiritually, huh? They're all the gifts of
God. Paul writing to the Ephesians,
he said this, for by grace are you saved through faith and that
not of yourselves, it is what? It's the gift of God. We read that God so loved, what
did he do? He gave. God so loved the world,
he gave. He gave his only begotten son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave his life as a ransom. What did Job say? The Lord gave. And then he says this, and the
Lord hath taken away. I suppose it's our nature. I'm
certain of this. We want to know a reason for
everything. I don't know if that arises out
of our need to cast blame on someone or what the reason is.
We always kind of want to point the finger, right? I do. I do. Look at Job 1 again. I just want
to look at a few of these verses one more time. Job 1 verse 12,
and I'll read them quickly. The Lord said unto Satan, behold,
all he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth
thy hand. So Satan went forth from the
presence of the Lord. I ask you this, did Job blame
the devil? We hear that, don't we? The devil
did this, the devil did that. Look at verse 14 and 15. 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've slain the servants
with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell
thee." Did Job blame the Sabeans? Look at verse 16. While he was
yet speaking, there came also another and said, the fire of
God has fallen from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants
and consumed them. And I only am escaped till the fire fell from heaven. Consume
those things. You know, I was thinking, In
our day, we have a reason for everything, right? That's global
warming, right? There's always an answer. Is
that what Job said? Look at verse 17. While he was
yet speaking, there came also another and said, the Chaldeans
made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried
them away, yea, and they've slain the servant with the edge of
the sword, and I only am escaped to tell thee. Maybe that's where
the blame goes. Those Chaldeans. Look at one more verse. Look
at verse 18 and 19. 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're dead. And I only am escaped. Tell thee,
a great wind came, hurricane. In our day, that would be attributed
to mother nature. Is that what Job said? No, no,
no, no, no. A thousand times, no. He said
this, the Lord gave, And then what did he say? The
Lord took away. Not the devil, not the Sabaeans,
not the Chaldeans, not anything. The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away. David wrote this in Psalm 115
verse 3. He said, our God is in the heavens
and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." What did Job learn in trouble? He learned the brevity of life,
life short. He learned the frailty of earthly
possessions. God enabled him to see his hand
in all things, and then last, He learned this, in all things,
God is to be praised. Job said these words, in all
this, blessed, blessed be the name
of the Lord. You reckon Job could, I know
that was a long time before, but you reckon he could enter
into those words in Romans 8, 28. We know. We may not understand, but we
know. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. What a promise. What a sweet
consolation to them that love God, to them who are the called
according to His purpose. I pray the Lord be pleased to
bless His word.