The root of the matter

Q: What does the Bible say about the root of the matter in Job?

In Job 19:25-29, Job expresses his confidence in his Redeemer and asserts that the root of his situation lies within him. Job 19:25-29 reveals Job's profound faith in his Redeemer, declaring, 'For I know that my Redeemer liveth.' Job's assertion emphasizes that despite his intense suffering and losses, the fundamental truth—'the root of the matter'—is found within himself and his relationship with God. Job contrasts his situation with the accusations of his friends, asserting that genuine faith does not waver in the face of persecution or affliction, indicating that he possesses unshakeable hope anchored in the knowledge of his Redeemer. This highlights the Reformed understanding of the necessity of inward transformation through Christ, aligning with core doctrines of the faith.

Q: How do we know that Jesus Christ is essential to our faith?

Jesus Christ is the root of our faith, as affirmed in Job 19; His identity as Redeemer is fundamental to salvation and Christian belief. Jesus Christ is presented as the central figure in the faith of Job, who confidently asserts, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth.' This foundational belief is echoed in the New Testament, particularly in passages like Colossians 2:6-9, which emphasizes being rooted in Christ, who embodies the fullness of God. For believers, Christ is not merely a historical figure but the essence of their faith, providing nourishment and stability. The Reformed tradition underscores that without a correct understanding of Jesus' deity, humanity, and redemptive work, one cannot grasp the depths of Christian doctrine, as He is the vital source of spiritual life and growth for every believer.

Q: What is the significance of the new birth in Christian faith?

The new birth is vital, as it confirms one's relationship with Christ and enables true faith and repentance. The new birth, or spiritual regeneration, is a fundamental aspect of Sovereign Grace theology, signifying the transformative work of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life. This experience not only initiates one into the faith but also reveals the true nature of one's relationship with Christ. As Job expresses knowledge of his Redeemer, the new birth grants believers a personal and experiential understanding of Christ that fosters trust and reliance on Him amidst life's challenges. Reformed theology maintains that this regenerative act produces genuine faith that results in a life visibly transformed by the love and grace of God, evidenced through one’s thoughts, actions, and overall conduct.

Q: Why is understanding Jesus Christ important for Christians?

Understanding Jesus Christ is essential as He is central to our doctrine, identity, and practice as believers. In Reformed theology, the understanding of who Jesus Christ is directly correlates to the health of one's faith and practice. Job exemplifies this truth by declaring, 'I know my Redeemer liveth,' which speaks to the importance of recognizing Christ's roles as Redeemer, King, and Priest. If believers think rightly about Christ, it shapes not only their beliefs but also their behaviors and relationships. The core of Christian practice springs from this understanding, influencing how believers live out their faith in everyday situations—demonstrating love, compassion, and integrity, reflective of Christ. Thus, understanding Christ is paramount for genuine growth in holiness and service within the Christian community.

Job chapter 19, and I want to
begin reading in verse 25. Job chapter 19, verse 25. This is Job speaking. For I know
that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth, And though after my skin has decayed, died,
put back in the grave, worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh, my glorified, resurrected flesh, I shall see God, whom
I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. Though my reins be consumed within
me, But you should say, why persecute we him, seeing the root of the
matter is found in me? That's the title of my message
this morning, The Root of the Matter. Job had suffered tremendous
loss. His seven sons and three daughters,
most of his servants had been killed or taken hostage. He had
lost all of his cattle. Now he had lost his health. He
was covered with sores, with boils. He sat down in the midst
of an old ash heap and took a broken posture and began to burst and
scratch his wounds. What a sick, afflicted man he
was. His three friends, his four friends, three of them that did
most of the talking, came and When they saw him, they were
utterly amazed. They sat for seven days and said
nothing to this man. And finally they began to think
within themselves, surely this is not a righteous man. If this
man was a righteous man, all of these things wouldn't have
come upon him. He said here in the 19th chapter in verse 3,
these ten times have you reproached me. And you read the first 18
chapters of this, and they accused him of being a wicked man. They
accused him of being an unbeliever, a hypocrite, a God-hater. The
Lord has taken your children, they said, and surely if you
were clean, if you were a righteous man, you'd pray to Him and He'd
hurt you and He'd restore your health. But you're not a righteous
man. We've come to the conclusion
that you are a wicked man. A righteous man would not suffer
the loss and the torment that you're suffering. And they kept
on and on. Job said these ten times. And
finally he said, you forger of lies, you physicians of no value,
you miserable comforters. And he pleads with them here
in verse 21 of my chapter, have pity upon me, my friends. Have
pity upon me. The hand of God has touched me. God has done this to me. He's
trying my faith. He's trying me. Have pity upon
me. I need some comfort there. But
you know something? It starts right back again in
chapter 20, and they begin right where they left off. and call
him a wicked man, a hypocrite. And finally, Job says in verse
21, "...suffer me, that I may speak, and after that I have
spoken." You can mock on. And boy, when all of this was
over with, that's why the Lord told Job to go pray for his friends
and offer a sacrifice for them, because they had sinned against
Job. The things they were saying was
right. But they were misapplying it.
The wicked, his hope will perish. The hope of the hypocrite will
perish. But Job wasn't a wicked man. God's testimony was he's
a perfect man, upright in his generation. But Job comes here
and he says to them, and here's my text, he said, this is what
you should have said of me. You should hear what I'm saying.
And here's what you should determine about me in verse 27. Verse 28. But why? But you should say this. This is what you should say.
Why are we persecuting him? Sin, the root of the matter,
is found in me. The root of the matter is in
me. I'm having some awful afflictions, but the root of the matter is
in me. If you saw that, you'd realize
that you shouldn't persecute. I'm not a wicked man. I'm not
a lost man. Whatever I've lost and whatever
you can't see in me, you should know this, the root of the matter
is in me. Now, what is the root? What is
the root of anything? Well, when we think of the root
of the tree, that's the essential part, isn't it? I mean, without
a root, you don't have any stability to the tree. When the roots go
bad, the tree's going to fall over, isn't it? The life of the
tree is in the root. The fruit of the tree comes from
the root. You let the root dry up, and
what happens? Your fruit dries up. I tell you,
there's trees, there's been Huge trees that have went through
an awful storm. They've had their limbs blown
off. But you know something? They never fell. Why? Root. The root held them up. There's been times when the tree
has been cut down. I have an old tree in the bottom
of my field that I cut down. And I cut it right down to the
bottom of the ground. But you know something? I just
keep having to cut it down and cut it down and cut it down.
And it's because the root is alive. That's the essential part
of the tree. The root. Because that's where
the life comes from. That's what stabilizes the tree.
The root. And Job says here, the root of
the matter is in me. And you know something? If you
don't have a root, You won't have any fruit. I had a peach
tree down in my field, and it bloomed out, and I thought, man,
that thing's going to be loaded with peaches, all kinds of leaves
on it. It looked so pretty, but it began
to wilt away. And I went down one day and got
ahold of it and started to shake it, and I just plucked it right
up out of the ground. The roots had dried up. Without
a root. The tree is useless. Without
the root, the tree falls. Without the root, the tree is
barrenness. Why did Job say the root of the
matter? Because he said that essential part, that's in me. The root of the matter. My life
is in me. My stability is in me. I'll never
lose myself. I'll never lose my soul, though
I've lost everything I've had. I've lost my children. I've lost
my health. But I'll never lose my life. My eternal life, my
salvation. Why? Because the root, that root,
where I draw life from, I've been cut down, but I've still
got life because the root of the matter is in me. Boy, he had been blasted, hadn't
he? Boy, the cold winds of affliction had blasted, blew the limbs from
his tree, barked his tree, dried and withered up his fruit, but
he said the root is still there. The root is still there. Now
what was this essential part found in Job? And hopefully this
will help us this morning recognize it in us. That we can say when
we leave here this morning, though I see many, many failings and
many errors in my life, and though things in my life aren't like
I wish they were, And sometimes I wonder about myself, but I
know this, the root of the matter is in me. And maybe you meet
somebody else, somebody else from another congregation and
you begin to talk to him and you don't see eye to eye on everything,
but when you talk to him and you've watched him, you realize
one thing, the root is in him. The root is in this person. There's three things that I want
to look at quickly, three essential things. First of all, essential
doctrine, essential truth. Secondly, essential experience. There's some things that we must
experience if the root of the matter is in us. Then thirdly
is essential practice. Now, these three things I want
to look at quickly. First of all, then, essential
doctrine. And I won't bore you with this.
I'm not going to go through a lot of doctrines that you and I have
to believe, but I'm going to confine it to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Here is the doctrine. Here is
our doctrine. Here is the root of the matter.
What is that essential doctrine that must be in us? It's the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Christ is the root. From Him comes our life. From
Him comes our nourishment. From Him comes our stability. From Him comes our fruit. If
we are rooted and grounded in Christ, we shall never be plucked
up. Now, why did Job say, you ought
to have said the root of the matter is in him? Because he
just told them the root of the matter. Look what he says back
in our text. Look in verse 25. I know that
my Redeemer liveth. Now, who is that? That's Christ,
isn't it? He's always been the Redeemer. The saints in the Old Testament
knew that He was coming. They knew that He was the Son
of God, the Redeemer. They believed Him. They waited
for Him. And Job said, I know Him. He's
my Redeemer. And look what He's going to do.
He shall stand at the latter day. In the last days, He's going
to stand right where I'm standing. He's going to stand upon this
earth. He's going to walk upon this earth. He's going to dwell
among the people. He's going to be born of a virgin.
He's going to dwell among us. He that made the world is going
to be in the world. He believed in the incarnation
of the Son of God, didn't he? And look what he said in verse
26. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet
in my flesh I shall see God. Who is his redeemer? It's God. God that is going to stand upon
this earth, Job said, and dwell among the people and shed His
blood to redeem me is my God. My Redeemer is my God. Well, what did he believe about
Jesus Christ, the Son of God? He believed in His deity, didn't
he? He believed that He was God,
that He was man and God. I want you to hold that and I
want you to look in Colossians. Look over in the book of Colossians,
because the New Testament is the best interpreter that we
have of the Old Testament. And when Job said his Redeemer
is God, he's not saying anything but what the Bible teaches everyone. Look at what he says in Colossians
chapter 2. Look first in Colossians chapter
2 and look in verse 6. Look what's said of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Redeemer. 2.6. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted in Him, built
up and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men,
after the rudiments of this world, and not after Christ. Now look
at this. dwells all the fullness of the
deity of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him."
No wonder the Lord Jesus Christ said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. But you've seen all that God
is. When you've seen Christ, you've
seen God in His body, and this is absolutely astounding, None
of us can get a hold of this, that in the body of Jesus Christ,
the fullness of all God is dwells. Look what he says over in chapter
1. Look in Colossians chapter 1 in verse 12. We give thanks
unto the Father who has made us fit, meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom
of God's dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sin." Now, that's who Job saw, isn't it? His Redeemer. And who is this
Redeemer? Look in verse 15. Who is the
image of the invisible God? He's the express, the exact image
of God. The one dear brother says he's
not like God. He is God. The exact image of God. And Job believed that. This is why I stopped with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why I don't go into all of these
other doctrines. Because if you believe rightly
about Jesus Christ, then you're going to believe rightly about
all these other essential truths concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Job went one step further. He
said this, the root of the matter is found in me. Now, ain't that amazing? This
root is Christ. It's concerning the person of
Jesus Christ by whom he had his life, his Redeemer. But then
he said, he abides in me. The root is in me. He said no
more than it says through the New Testament always, Christ
in us. The hope of glory. You say, Bruce,
I didn't know that Christ was abiding in the saints. Oh, yes. Yes. We know that at Pentecost
something wonderful happened. But it had already happened in
the Old Testament. The Lord already dwelt in His
people in the Old Testament. At Pentecost, it was just exaggerated. At Pentecost, it all opened up. The revelation was more abundant,
and the power and the presence of the Son of God within us was
more abundant. He was more in His people secretly
in the Old Testament. But how does the Son of God,
how does God abide in a person? by Spirit. I'll pray the Father,
and He'll give you another Spirit, and He's going to be in you.
He's going to be in you. And that's what Job was saying.
Job believed in the holy, sacred Trinity. He believed in God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. His Redeemer,
the Son of God who is very God, and he believed in the Holy Spirit
which abode within him. He says, He's in me. That's a
trinity. And you know what? This is the
root of the matter. This is the essential thing that
you and I must believe in this Holy Trinity, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And Larry was talking to some
Jehovah's Witnesses there in his living room one day, and
I mentioned the trinity. I just mentioned the trinity.
And I saw the one lady, it looked like an old turtle, this druid.
You've seen an old turtle, you know you peck them, they draw
their head back in their shell. I've seen her draw their head
back in her shell. And she wouldn't say anything. And I finally asked
her, why did you clam up? She said, you mentioned the Trinity.
You mentioned the Trinity. What's the matter with the Trinity?
We don't believe in such a thing. I'll tell you what they believe
about Jesus Christ. Oh, they cry Him out. They cry
Him up and say, Yeah, we believe that He created the world. But
then they cry Him down and say, He's a mere creature. They cry
Him up and say, Yes, He died upon Calvary Street for our sins. And then they cry Him down and
say, Yes, but He was just a holy man. Do you think the root of
the matter is in them? It's not this root that was in
Job, is it? See why I'm saying, brothers
and sisters, we can stop here when we talk about the root of
the matter, that essential truth that must be believed. All the
errors that men involved in, they error first concerning Jesus
Christ the Lord. But when we know Him, When we
know Him as the second Person of this glorious Trinity, that
puts everything else in perspective. You won't deny creation. You
won't deny a six-day creation when you know that Jesus Christ
created all of it. Will you? This is the root of
the matter. The root is in me, Joseph. You know those chief priests
and scribes? They never believed the deity
of Christ. Remember when He was born and the wise men came from
the East and they said, we've come to worship Him, this born
King of the Jews, and Herod said, I'm going to call these scribes
and find out where he used to be born. And he called the scribes
and here's what they told him. They quoted Micah chapter 5 and
verse 2. They said, In Bethlehem of Judea,
for out of these shall come him that is to be governor and that
is to rule my people Israel. And they stopped there. They
put a period there and they stopped. He's going to be governor. But
you know, that sentence didn't stop there. Who is this king
that's coming? Where's he coming from? He's
coming out of Bethlehem of Judea. Who is he? He's going to be a
governor. What else can we know about him? Micah said this, whose
going forth has been from of old, from everlasting. Why did they stop there? Why
didn't they read the rest of that sentence? They didn't believe
it. Could you have stopped there?
That toll of the eternality of the Redeemer, they stopped there
because they didn't believe it. That's why when the Lord Jesus
Christ said, I and my Father one, they took up stones to stone
him. He said, why are you going to
stone me? For what good work? They said, for no good work,
but you being a man, you make yourself God. He didn't make
himself God, did he? He's already God. He made himself
a man. But He was God already. He's
God. And Job says here, I believe
Him. He's my Redeemer and He's my
God. The man Christ Jesus is the second
person of the sacred trinity, the God-man. And everyone who
holds this blessed truth in his heart of hearts, I'm not talking
about believing the mere doctrine in the mind, but I'm talking
about everyone who holds this truth of Jesus Christ in his
heart of hearts, he has the root of the matter in him. What think ye of Christ? That'll
tell everything, won't it? That'll tell the tale. Old Newton
said it this way, what think ye of Christ is the test. to
try both your state and your scheme. You cannot be right in
the rest unless you think rightly of Him." Job said, My Redeemer. He's going
to come to this earth. He's going to walk upon it. He's
going to stand upon it. He's going to dwell on it. He's
going to die. He's going to redeem me. He's going to raise from
the dead and ascend up to heaven. One day He's going to raise me
from the dead. I'm going to be changed and in
this glorified flesh I shall see Him. And here's what I'm
going to say to Him. You're my Lord and You're my
God. Now listen, is the root of the
matter in you? What do you think of Jesus Christ
this morning? Is He your Lord? Is He your God? Is He the God-man to you? Is
He your Redeemer? What do you think of Jesus Christ? We think rightly of Christ when
we think rightly of Him in His offices. He is indeed the Prophet,
the Priest and the King, the Prophet to teach us. What do
you think of him in his office? Do you love to sit at his feet?
Oh, when he speaks to you in his word. Is that not the joy
and the strength of your heart? Don't you say, speak, Lord, for
thy servant here? Do you love him as your priest? Is it him through whom you have
access to the Father? Through His blood? What do you
think of His blood? Is your faith in His blood? This
is your Redeemer. What do you think of Him as your
King? Do you long for Him to reign over you? Do you want Him
to subdue you? Lord, don't let me have my way.
Subdue my iniquities. Reign in me. Reign over me. Reign
around me. Be my King. Don't you love Him
in His offices? Don't you love His person? Is
He not truly your Redeemer and your God? Oh, Job said, the root
of the matter. The root. And He is the root,
isn't He? He's the root. Paul said, I know nothing. I
know absolutely nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He's
the sum and substance of everything you and I believe. And if you
think rightly of Him, Then I'm not too concerned about you erring
in some other doctrine, some essential doctrine. I just don't
believe you will. Not essential truth. So that's
the first thing, essential doctrine. Number two is this, essential
experience. Essential experience. There are
some things that you and I must experience. before we can say
the root of the matter is in me, and the new birth is one
of them. You must be born again. That's an experience. Somebody
said, well, I just don't believe in experiences. You better believe
in experiences, because this is one you're going to have to
experience is a new birth. You must be born again. Now,
I'll be honest with you, I don't know very much more about my
second birth, my new birth, than I did my first one. To be honest
with you, I used to think I knew a lot about the new birth. But
when I began to look into it, I don't know near as much as
I thought I did. But you was born into this world
the first time, and you didn't have very much to do with that,
did you? As a matter of fact, you weren't even conscious of
it. The doctor was, your mother was, probably your dad and some
nurses, they saw that he's breathing. Daddy's born. He's alive. He's breathing. He's looking.
He's feeling. He's sucking his mother's breast. What did that indicate? He's
born. What indicates the second birth?
What indicates the new birth? You're breathing, aren't you? It's not enough just to say,
well, I know I've been born again. How do you know you've been born
again? I've experienced it. How do you know it? I'm breathing
air that I never breathed before. I'm breathing heavenly air. I'm breathing Emmanuel's land
air. It's a pure air. And I'm seeing
things that I never saw before. I'm knowing things that I never
knew before. I'm understanding things that
I never understood before. Job said it like this, didn't
he? I know my Redeemer liveth. Boy, the new birth comes right
in here. See, we continue in most of our life, didn't we,
being told of Jesus Christ being the Son of God. My dad told me
that. Other people told me that. Jesus
Christ was the Son of God. But you know, that had a little
effect upon me. Mainly, it was, okay, okay. But, boy, it changed in the new
birth, didn't it? You had a knowledge of Him that
you never had before. Before, you could say, yes, Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. But, boy, in the new birth, this
is where your understanding is opened, and you know Him. And you can say with Job, I know
my Redeemer. He's my Redeemer. He's the Redeemer
and now He's mine and I know Him. And He's precious to you
now. Before it was just the knowledge
that you had in your mind. But now it's an excellent knowledge. This is something we have to
experience, brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ must be revealed
to us. And this takes place in the new
birth. I'm not saying you put a time.
I'm not saying you put a date. I'm not saying I know exactly
where I was, but I know this much. There's something that
takes place in the new birth that you and I must experience. And this is one of them. Christ
is revealed to us. We can say with Peter, I know
who you are. You're the Son of the living
God. And I'll tell you something else about this. This is where
faith is barred, is it not? Right around in this time of
the new birth is where faith is barred. And I imagine faith
is barred in your soul at the same time that you're barred
again. We get all confused, thinking which goes first, the new birth
or faith, or faith or the new birth. But I doubt seriously
if you can separate them. Do you believe in Christ? I mean,
have you been brought to trust Him? Not that you come up front
and say, I now trust Jesus as my personal Savior. It's not
like that. I mean, when you've got no other
choice, when you've been brought to the end of yourself, then
you give yourself up to Him. You trust Him. Job said it like
this, though He slay me. Yet will I trust Him. Come hell
or high water, I'm trusting Him. I put all the trust of all my
salvation in the Son of God. I mean, faith is something we
experience. Faith is something that's borne,
something that's given. Somebody said, well, I've believed
all my life. Too long? Believe too long? If somebody come up and told
you, well, I've believed all my life. I've believed in Jesus
Christ all my life. Then you can tell them this.
I doubt seriously if the root of the matter is in you. Because this is something you
experience. This is not something you're
born with the first time. This is something you're born
with the second time. I know my Redeemer. Is He precious to you? Is Jesus Christ precious to you?
See, these are things you'll have to answer for yourself.
But if you can answer as Job did, though he's slavey, I'll
trust him. I've found in him someone who
is worthy to trust. You answer that question for
yourself. And boy, if that answer is yes, yes, He's mine, yes,
I do believe in Him, then the root of the matter is in you.
And I'll tell you something else is barred. Here's where something
else is barred. Here's where that groaning is
barred that you never had before. A groaning over the corruption
of your sins and not just over the guilt of it. Oh, there's a time when we cry
out because of the guilt of our sin. Lord, save me from my sin. Save me from the guilt of it.
But you know, when we're barred again, we don't quit crying.
We don't quit crying over our sin. It dischanges from the guilt
to the corruption of it. Oh, Lord, be merciful to me,
the sinner. This corruption that stirs in
me. Be merciful to me. Well, I'm
not a sinner anymore. Then the root of the matter is
not in you. It's not in you. Because the root of the matter
is in you. You've experienced your sinfulness. You are experiencing
your sinfulness. And in the light of all of that,
you say, My Redeemer, I know Him. I'm trusting My Redeemer. I'm trusting Him. You and I used
to think for a while. I don't think we really did,
but we probably indicated somewhat that we did. We thought Calvinism
was the root of the matter. Well, if you're a Calvinist,
surely the root of the matter is in you. And we found out differently.
Because we started running into all these Calvinists. They had
all their ducks in a row. And they could articulate Calvinism. But boy, they were not people
of experience. When it comes to them knowing
something about being a sinner, and about being brought to the
Savior, the Redeemer, and trusting Him. They knew nothing about
that. Well, I'm a Calvinist. I believe
the doctrines of grace. You may. And the root of the
matter not be in you. Lastly is this. Essential practice. Essential practice. Essential doctrine, Christ. He's
everything. He's God. He's man. All that
He is and all that He's done, that's essential. To know Him
experimentally, to be born again, to be given the graces of the
Spirit in your heart, to repent, to believe, that's essential
experience and essential practice. If you think rightly of Jesus
Christ, truly, and you've experienced this new birth, I tell you, your
practice is going to show it. You can't have Job's hope and
not have Job's practice. If you believe rightly about
Jesus Christ and you've experienced the new birth, I tell you, you'll
walk. Your practice is going to show
that. And if it doesn't, then the root of the matter is not
in you. Job told these guys, he said, you fellas know me.
You have known me for years. You know how I live. You call
me a hypocrite. You know better. You say I'm
a wicked man. You know better. You've seen
my life. It's been an open book. We don't
have anything to hide, do we? Paul said, You have known my
doctrine. You have known my manner of living.
I am not one thing at home and another thing in public. My practice
is before God, and I am not afraid to expose myself before man. Our practice. Look over here in Job chapter
31 quite quickly, and we will close with these verses. Look
in Job 31. I'll tell you one of the things that thrills
me about some of you as much as sitting and talking to you
about the Lord and about the truths of His Word. There's one
thing that thrills me just as much when somebody comes to me
and says, boy, that person there, in your congregation. They're
an honest person. They had an opportunity to help
me, and they did it. They never took advantage of
me. They treated me right. They treated me good. Boy, that
blesses my heart. Because it makes people to know
that you believe what you practice, and you practice what you believe. And I'm telling you, as you begin
to grow in grace and knowledge, your practice shows it. Everything that you have now
is the Lord's, is it not? What you used to try to hang
on to and put it first before everything else, even the Lord,
now you've learned. I'm going to trust the Lord in
everything He's brought you there. If I lose my family, if I lose
my health, if I lose my house, if I lose my finances, what am
I going to do then? I'm going to trust the Lord. I'm not going to put these other
things before Him. This is my practice. My Father
in Heaven who clothes the lilies will clothe me. And I'm going
to show that in my practice. My Father in Heaven who feeds
the ravens is going to feed me. That's my practice. I'm going
to trust Him. And boy, as you grow in grace
and knowledge of that, it will show itself on your job. It will show itself when you're
on vacation. It will show itself in your family. It will show
itself every place that you go in this world. Look here in Job
chapter 31. Let me just read you a portion
of these verses. Look in verse 1. I made a covenant
with my eyes, why then should I think upon a maid? Infecting
his thoughts about women. What portion of God is there
from above? And what inheritance of the Almighty
from on high? Is not destruction to the wicked,
and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? Doth not
he see thou my ways, and tell all my steps? If I have walked
in vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit, let it be weighed
in that even balance that God may know my integrity. If my
steps have turned out of the way, my heart walked after my
eyes, and if my blot hath cleaved to my hands, then let me sow,
and let another eat. Yea, let my offspring be rooted
out. If my heart hath been deceived
by woman, or if I have laid wait by my neighbor's door, then let
my wife grind unto another." See what he's saying? If this
is the way I've lived, as you fellows have accused me, Then
let God go ahead and punish me. Then he goes on in verse 13.
If I did despise the cause of my manservant, or my maidservant,
when they contended with me, when they complained and pleaded,
you're not treating me right, what then shall I do when God
rises up? How do you treat those under
you? That's what he said. How do you treat those that work
for you? How do you treat those who serve you down at the restaurant?
Do you abuse people? Are you gracious? Are you kind?
Are you tender? Are you honest? Are you generous? What's your practice? If the
root of the matter is in you, Job said, here's my practice. Look what he said in verse 24.
If I have made gold my hope, If I had said to find gold thou
art my confidence, if I rejoiced because my wealth was great,
because my hand hath gotten me much, if I beheld the sun when
it shined, or the moon walking in its brightness, and my heart
hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand,
and on and on he goes. And she's been in need and I've
turned my face from her and not helped her. If there's been orphans
and they've been in need and I've shut my eyes of compassion
against them, what's he talking about? He's just talking about
his everyday life and how what he's experienced and how whom
he's believed affects his life. These three things, brothers
and sisters, what they give Christ. What have you experienced in
the new birth? And what's your practice? You ain't what you want to be,
but you're not what you used to be. The Lord's made you to
differ, hasn't He? He's put His grace in your heart.
He's put the knowledge of His Son in your heart. He's put love
in His heart. And you're a new creature in
Christ, and you walk different. You treat men different. You
think different than you used to. Your practice is different,
isn't it? You don't go bragging about it.
You don't go telling others about it. You think you're the worst
fellow in the world. But let's face the fact. What's
your practice? And if you see this in yourself,
and if you see it in another man, you see it in another man,
he may not have all these limbs on his tree that you have on
yours. He may know little or nothing
about the election of God. Teach him. He may know nothing
about particular redemption. Teach him. He may not even know
about the perseverance of the saints. But these are limbs on
the tree, aren't they? We're talking about the root,
that vital part. And when it comes right down
to it, that's really all that matters anyway. Is it not? You and I won't give
up the doctrines of election and perseverance and particular
redemption. We'll shut these doors, for we'll
give these things up. But I tell you, there's essential
things to be known and to be believed. There's essential practice. And when you find that in a man
or a woman, then be good to them. You're going to heaven with them. The root of the matter is in
them. Let's pray.

The root of the matter

What does the Bible say about the root of the matter in Job?

How do we know that Jesus Christ is essential to our faith?

What is the significance of the new birth in Christian faith?

Why is understanding Jesus Christ important for Christians?

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The root of the matter

What does the Bible say about the root of the matter in Job?

How do we know that Jesus Christ is essential to our faith?

What is the significance of the new birth in Christian faith?

Why is understanding Jesus Christ important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Bruce Crabtree

Comments

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