Today I would like you to turn
in your Bible to the book of Job, to the book of Job, and
I'll be speaking to you from Job chapter 33. I want to consider
two verses in Job chapter 33, verse 23 and verse 24. Let's read these two verses together.
If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among
a thousand, to show unto man God's righteousness. Then he
is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to
the pit. I have found a ransom." Now we
find here in Job chapter 33 a young man named Elihu who is preaching
the gospel to an older man that you're all familiar with, that
you've all heard of, a man named Job. I want to focus, Elihu has
a lot to say about the glory of God and the majesty of God
and the sovereignty of God, but I want to camp this morning and
focus on two verses. He tells us in these two verses
much about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Elihu
tells us about men who have been sick being delivered by a ransom,
a ransom, a payment. There is always a reason for
every act of grace which God performs. Every act of grace
that God performs, he has a reason. Of him, and through him, and
to him are all things to whom be glory. There is always a reason. He acts sovereignly, our God
does. He's sovereign in all things,
but he also acts wisely, and therefore he has a reason for
his action. We read in Ephesians 1 that God
worketh all things after the counsel of his own will and purpose. God has a reason for delivering
sinners from their sin and pardoning and justifying sinners. God always
has a reason for delivering and saving his people, but the reason
is not found in them. The reason for salvation is not
found in the sinner. is found in God himself who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will and his own purpose. He said, I've spoken it, I'll
bring it to pass, I've purposed it, I will do it. Now let's look
at several things from this text. When God is prepared to deliver
his chosen people and to justify and to save his people, save
his elect, his sheep, he always sends a messenger. Notice verse
23 of Job 33, if there be a messenger with him. Now, I'm sure this
has reference to God's minister, God's preacher, whom he gifts
and whom he gives the message and revelation of himself to
preach the gospel to others. For God uses means to call out. It pleased God by the foolishness,
what some would call foolishness, to save His people from their
sin. But primarily this refers to
the great messenger, if there be a messenger. Primarily this
refers to the great messenger of the covenant of grace, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the great interpreter. He's
one among a thousand. You see, there's just one God.
and one mediator between God and men, that is the man, Christ
Jesus. Now let's consider several things
about the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 23. He is the messenger. He's the messenger of the covenant.
He's the messenger of the mind and will and purpose of God concerning
salvation. There's one mediator between
God and men. Who is it? It's the man, Christ
Jesus. Now, God said long ago, way back
in Deuteronomy 18, God said, I'll raise them up a prophet
from among their brethren, like unto thee, I will put my words
in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I command
him." God sent us a messenger named Jesus of Nazareth, the
Son of God, God himself. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. You see, our Lord is no amateur
Savior. He's sent of God. He's no self-made
Savior. He's anointed and sent of God.
God has ordained and sent Him to be the Savior of His people,
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. He was sent of God, and He's
the messenger, the messenger of the covenant, the eternal
covenant of grace and mercy revealed only in Himself. Not only is
he the messenger of salvation, the messenger of the covenant,
but he also was called here the interpreter, the interpreter. And he is, he is an interpreter.
Now an interpreter must understand two languages in order to interpret. Our Lord understands the language
of God, because he's one with God, because he is God himself,
yet he also understands our language, for he became flesh. and dwelt among us. Such a high
priest became us who was tried and tempted and tested in all
points like we are yet without sin. As the great interpreter,
he interpreted not only to the ear but to the heart of the sinner. God who hath begun a good work
in you. You see, salvation is a heart
work. He understands the language of God. And he interprets the
language of God, not only to our ear, but to our heart. Our
heart. He knows our language. He knows
our frame. He knows our makeup. He is the
messenger. He is the interpreter. And then
notice this thirdly, he is one among a thousand. One among a
thousand. Who can be compared? Who can
be compared unto the Lord Jesus Christ? Where is the equal to
him? Where's the one that's a Savior
like Him? Where's the one who can justify
sinners? Well, there's none but Christ.
There is none like Him. He's the only just God and Savior. He's the only wise God, our Savior. There is none like Him. He said,
I am God, and there is no other. Now listen to me carefully. If
there were 10,000 other Saviors, and there's not, but I'm saying
if there were 10,000 other Saviors, I would have none but the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's sent of God. He's God's
interpreter, and He's the only Savior of sinners, and He's altogether
lovely. God said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased. Now, secondly, notice this. When
the messenger comes, he reveals the righteousness of God. When
God is pleased to do a work of grace in the sinner's heart,
He reveals, first of all, He reveals Himself as the righteous
God. He makes us to understand that
we're not deserving of His favor, but rather deserving of His righteous
indignation, justice, and wrath. Now, you read through Scripture,
and this is the conversion story of all those whom God saves,
He reveals unto the sinner himself as the righteous, just God. You listen to David as he prayed
in Psalm 51, he said, David knew that he was a sinner, and David
knew he deserved the wrath of God, and that's the place where
God brings us to when he does a work of grace in our heart.
We willingly plead guilty and take God's righteous side against
ourselves and stand in amazement that God has not yet sent us
to eternal condemnation. That's what repentance is all
about, is taking God's side against myself. When God says you're
guilty, We agree, we're guilty, we've sinned and come short of
the glory of God. Now let me show you something
else in verse 24. Notice verse 24, when God is pleased to show
unto a sinner his righteousness, then he is gracious unto him. Notice when God is gracious to
the sinner. When the sinner is humble, then
God reveals himself not only as righteous, not only as just,
but he reveals himself as merciful. and as a loving father. No debts
are forgiven until they are owned by the sinner before God. that
we're guilty, that we've all sinned and come short of the
glory of God. Mercy is for the miserable. Grace
is for the guilty. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
died for such as we are. He died for the ungodly. That's
when God is gracious to us, when he shows us something of his
righteous character, and then he reveals unto us his grace
and mercy revealed in Christ. Now notice how God is gracious.
It is through the messenger, Christ Jesus, that God is gracious.
All salvation comes by the way of grace. We're justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now this word grace in its Latin form can also be rendered gratis. A gratis. What is gratis? A thing
free from cost. All of God's mercy to a sinner
is gratis. It's free. He never sells his
grace. He never sells his mercy. He
always gives it away. He never asks for payment. God
supplies his own motive to be gracious, and his motive is found
in himself. What but grace could put away
our sin? What but grace can make us whole
again? What but grace can make us children
of God? Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation
for us. His grace toward His children
will never change. When is He gracious? When He
reveals Himself unto us. And how is He gracious? Only
in Christ. Let me give you something else.
Here's God's deliverance. Then He is gracious, and saith,
Deliver him from going down to the pit. Here's God's almighty
deliverance. Now, the pit is often used in
Scripture as an emblem of distress and misery, an emblem of bondage. My friend, our soul is in the
pit of sin and corruption. With no means of escaping, we
have no way of delivering ourselves from the pit of ruin, the pit
of death, the pit of corruption. God is the only one who can speak
in power to command our deliverance. Again, I refer to what David
said in Psalm 40. David said, I waited patiently
for the Lord. He inclined unto me and heard
my cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of my reclay. He set my feet upon the rock,
set them on the rock, and established my going. He put a new song in
my mouth, even praise unto her God. Many shall see it and fear
and shall trust. This is the work of God. He delivered
us from the pit of ruin and corruption. Jonah had the same testimony.
You remember Jonah swallowed by the whale? He said, Thou hast
brought my life from the pit, O Lord God. He said, Salvation
is of the Lord. This is the Lord's doing, God's
deliverance. that when He brings us out of
the pit and saves us in the Lord Jesus Christ, this deliverance
that He has for us lasts eternally. He doesn't pardon today and then
condemn tomorrow. Those whom He saves, they shall
never be condemned because there's no condemnation to those who
are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, lastly, let me give you
this. He gives the reason for our deliverance, the reason for
His grace unto us. He said, I have found a ransom. I have found a ransom. And my
friend, there's no other way of salvation but by and through
a ransom. And my friend, that ransom is
Christ Himself. He provided the ransom price
through His blood. He said in Matthew 28, the Son
of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give
His life a ransom. That's payment for sin, a ransom
for many. There's no other way of salvation
but by this designated, appointed ransom in the Lord Jesus Christ. All who God saves, he saves by
this ransom provided in Christ. He is set forth in scripture
and he is set forth in time as God's propitiation, God's covering. He sent the Lord Jesus Christ
as this propitiation, as this payment for our sins to declare
God's righteousness and God's justice in Christ, that God might
be just and the justifier of the guilty. This ransom is a
price paid. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things, but with incorruptible things by the precious blood
of Christ. He bought us. God bought us with
his own blood. This ransom is a price paid.
This ransom is a covering provided. A covering provided for our sin.
David said, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered. How are they covered? By my works,
by my efforts, no. By and only through this ransom
provided in Christ. This ransom is a price paid.
This ransom is a covering provided. This ransom is reconciliation
with God in Christ. Our sin have separated us from
God and the only way back to fellowship and unity and union
and harmony with God is in Christ. And this is what he did at Calvary.
He reconciled his own unto himself. All things are of God who has
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. My friend, when the ransom
is paid, and that's what Christ did at Calvary, he paid the ransom
for his sheep, for his people, for his elect, and when the ransom
is paid, the sinner is set free. Deliverance through a ransom. God is gracious to sinners because
of the ransom price that the Lord Jesus Christ gave on behalf
of his people.