Open your Bibles again to Job
19. Today we have spent quite a bit
of time studying the life and trials of Job. There is one verse
in this entire book, one statement made by Job which explains the
book The man is past, present, and future. It sums it all up. And that's verse 21 of chapter
19. He says, Have pity upon me, have
pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God, the hand
of God Almighty has touched me. Now, if you can say that, if
I can say that, the hand of God Almighty has touched me, it makes
everything in my life pale into insignificance. Is that not true? If the hand of God Almighty has
touched you, that's what he said. That explains all of this. The hand of God touched him. He was wealthy, almost beyond,
beyond describing. One of the greatest men in the
East. Now he sits here broke, doesn't
have a thing. He was a man with a large family,
great household, large family, ten children, who knows how many Here he sits alone. All of his
children are dead. And his households laughing at
him. Even the little children are making fun of him. He was
a person of great influence. Great influence. Popularity known
far and wide. Now he's deserted. These three friends are sitting
there looking at him. For seven days they didn't even
speak to him, just looked at him. What have you done? What awful, awful thing have
you done to bring this upon yourself and your family? He was a man
of excellent health, good looks, and strength. And now he doesn't even look
like himself. These people didn't even know
him when they came to see him. His health is gone. He's got
boils from the crown of his head to the bottom of his feet. Suffering, scraping himself with
a putcher. Broken. And he says, have pity
on me. The hand of God Almighty the
Creator of heaven and earth, who made all things in the universe, who dwells in a light to which
no man can approach, who has to lower himself to consider
the inhabitants of this earth. But that God, Almighty God, has
taken notice of me, and His hand has touched me. God has touched me. Now that's
a mystery that the natural man cannot understand. Only those whom God has touched
can enter even a little bit into the experience of this man. Only
those whom God has touched can even comprehend what this book's
all about. The world certainly does not.
Now if he had said, Satan, if he had said, Satan has come against
me, everybody said, Amen, that's right brother, he's come against
you, the old devil is working you over, that's what they believe.
If he had said, Satan has turned his wrath upon me and his hand
has fallen heavy upon me, the natural man would agree. But I call Satan himself in here
to tell us whose hand did touch Job. Let's turn to Job chapter
1. Job chapter 1. Satan knew he
didn't have any authority whatsoever over Job. He couldn't touch Job,
not with his hand or his breath or anything else, lest God gave
him permission. And that's the reason Satan said
in Job 1.9, then Satan answered the Lord and says, and said,
Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge about
him? And there's a hedge about every believer, that nobody can
jump. And about his house, and about
all that he hath on every side, and you bless the work of his
hands, his substance is increased in the land. Now, God, put forth
your hand, now. and touch him, all that he had,
and he'll curse you to your face. God touched him. But my friends,
this is the way of grace. This is the way of grace. This
is God, as John Flavel says, this is God's method of grace, to visit his elect and to touch
them. It's God's way. It's God's method
of grace. It's the way of grace. Now, when
we first met Job, he was God's servant. Can anybody doubt that?
The Lord said, have you considered my servant Job? He's my servant. He's a moral man. He's a perfect
man. He's a man that fears God and
a man that hates evil. And there's none like him on
the earth. That's right. Job speaks right
things. Theologically, Job was intelligent. He's one of God's
elect. You can't doubt that. But this
Job, whom God had chosen, whom God called his servant, was a self-righteous
man. And he was a self-confident man.
He was an outspoken man. He was a proud man. I tell you, my friend, salvation
is instantaneous. Conversion takes longer. Takes
a lifetime sometimes. Been working on me a long time.
Takes a long time. The new birth, instantaneous. Abraham believed God. Like that. accounted to him for righteousness.
But God worked on Abraham. Oh, how God worked on Abraham.
How God touched him, touched him, touched him. I'll tell you
more about that in a minute. But Abraham was what God intended
him to be. That's right. And we meet Job here. I want
you to listen to what, turn to Job 30, chapter 32. God raised
up a young man named Elihu And he sent him into this Bible conference, Job and his three friends, discussing
things as they're said to be. And none of them discussed them quite like they
were. And Elihu sat there and listened to these old fellows,
and finally he spoke. In chapter 32, so these three
men ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes.
They sensed it. They sensed him, defending himself. And then was kindled the wrath
of Elijah, the son of Baraka, the Buzite of the kindred of
Ram, against Job was his wrath kindled. He mad at Job. Why? Because he justified himself
rather than God. Now, he's God's child. People
waste their time sitting around arguing about when Job was saved.
Job was saved when God called him. That's when Job was saved.
That's when you're saved. More than any of us are saved.
When God elected me, I was saved in one sense of the word. When
Christ died on the cross, I was saved in another sense of the
word. When God called me by His Spirit and born again, I was
saved in another sense of the word. And my salvation is a whole
lot nearer now than it was when all that happened. That's right. Job's his child. But God's going to touch him. And over here in chapter 33,
let's look at this. Elihu's speaking some more. He
says in verse 8 of Job 33, Surely you've spoken in my hearing,
and I heard the voice of your words, saying, I'm clean without
transgression, I'm innocent, neither is there iniquity in
me. Behold, he findeth occasion against me, God counts me for
an enemy. He putteth my feet in the stocks, he marketh all
my paths. Now, Job, behold, in this you
are not just. You're not right, you're not
talking right. I'll answer you, God's greater
than man. Job knew that, Job knew that. But he certainly wasn't
acting like it. So when we first meet Job in
these messages, Job is a, he's God's servant. God said so. But
he's got a lot of self-righteousness that has to be purged. He's got
a lot of pride that's got to be purged. He's got a lot of
self-confidence. And he's got a lot of words.
A lot of words. A lot of times I think the more
a man talks, the less he knows. It always scares me when a man
gets converted and then he talks so too much. He just keeps on,
keeps on, keeps on. He needs to shut up and learn
something for the first ten years. Let's turn to Job chapter 42
and listen to what, listen to the Job now. Here's the Job after,
at the end of this book. At the end of this book. Here's
the Job after all, after God's hand touched him. In Job 40,
Job chapter 40, verse 1 through 5, listen, "...moreover the Lord
answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty
instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him
answer it. And Job answered the Lord, and
said, Behold, I am thou. What shall I answer thee? I lay
my hand upon my mouth." Oh, if he had done that, Thirty-nine
chapters ago, he began the last one. Put my head on my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will
not answer twice, but I'll proceed no farther. And God answered,
then answered the Lord, Job out of the whirlwinds. And he said,
Gird up your loins now like a man's, and I'll demand of thee and you
to declare unto me. Let's go to chapter 42. Here's
another look at Job. after the hand of God touched
him through this experience. In Job 42, then Job answered
the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and
that no thought can be withholden from thee. The Lord said to me,
Who is he that hieth at counsel without knowledge? Therefore
have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for
me, which I knew Here I beseech thee, I will speak, I will demand
of thee, and declare thine unto me. I have heard of thee by the
hearing of the ear, now my eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor
myself, I repent in dust and ashes." There is a converted
soul. There is a man upon whom the
Spirit of God has performed a miracle. as a man whom the hand of the
Lord hath touched, broken him, crushed him. To be exalted with
Christ, we've got to be abased. Now, there are no shortcuts.
There's no way around it. To be exalted, he that humbles
himself, God will exalt. To live eternally, we've got
to die. I'm crucified with Christ, Paul said. I'm crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ lives in me. Our Lord said if a man saves
his life, he'll lose it. But if he loses his life for
my sake, he'll gain it. To be strong,
we've got to become weak. When I'm weak, Paul said, that's
when I'm strong. The language of the world is opposite. To
be strong, to be wise, we've got to become a fool, for Christ's
sake. To be full and complete, we just
have to be emptied of self. And that's the process going
on here, the emptying of self, the destruction of self and pride. This is what our Lord declared
over there in Matthew 16. Let's look at that, Matthew 16.
I tried to quote it. Matthew 16 verse 24. I'm telling
the truth here now In Matthew 16 24 we've then said Jesus unto
his disciples If a man will come after me let him deny himself
take up his cross and follow me Whosoever shall save his life
or lose it But whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall
find him What shall a man profit? What is a man profited if he
gained the whole world and loses his own soul? What shall a man
give in exchange for his soul? And this is the experience of
those whom God touches and whom he calls. Abraham inherited a
heavenly country, but first he had to leave, by faith, his own
country. 75 years old and well fixed in
a lot of ways. But he had to leave and go out
into the wilderness and wander with Isaac and Jacob and live
in tents. While God's hand touched him,
brought him to that place. He would believe God. He was
justified. He was righteous. But oh, he
still had a lot of There's a lot of work that needs to be done
on Abraham. Abraham received his son Isaac
forever, but by faith first he had to take him up on that mount.
I think about that experience in Abraham's life so often. Hagar
was gone and Ishmael was gone and everything was going so well. Isaac was a pretty good-sized
young man, I would say in his early, late teens, early 20s. Wow, Abraham was proud of him.
God hadn't spoken to him audibly in a long time. It's not recorded. And one day he said, Abraham,
here am I. Oh, I'm happy. I'm on top of
the world. Take your son. your only son,
whom you love. Now we're going to distinguish
who this is. He's talking about take your son, your only son,
whom you love to a mountain, I'll show you, and sacrifice
him there as a burnt offering. Put him on the altar and quarter
him and burn him up. That's tough. But when he did that, And the
Lord said, now it's evident, you love me. The scripture, the
King James said, now I know that you love me, but what's he saying
there? God knew he loved him. Abraham knew he loved God, but
the hand of God touched him. You know Moses, he, Moses uptime,
he was 40 years of age. He was God's elect, one of God's,
God raised him up from his birth. God supernaturally protected
him in the basket, raised him in Pharaoh's home to be the deliverer. He's going to be the deliverer,
but he's a cocky, smart aleck. He's going to do it by himself.
He said, you fellas follow me, I'll get you out of this mess. He's saved, but he's not converted,
Jim. And God put him out in the desert
for 40 years. That's where he went to school.
And when God got through with him, I want you to read in Numbers
19. Numbers chapter 19. I believe that's where it is.
No, Numbers 12. Numbers chapter 12. Verse 3. This is not the same fellow that
left Egypt, running for his life. Verse 3, chapter 12. Now the
man Moses was very meek. above all the men upon the face
of the earth, but not without the hand of God."
Not without the hand of God. Brought him down, didn't he?
Made him, I guess, the greatest single leader the world's ever
seen. But 40 years in conversion. Forty years. Apostle Paul, he
was God's elect. Forty years old, he was the most
educated man. One ruler said to him, you've
just studied so much, you've lost your mind. They'd never
accuse many of us of that, would they? God's hand touched him on the
road to Damascus, put him in the dust, blinded him. dealt
with him to the point where, listen to this, in Philippians
3, Philippians chapter 3, verse 4. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, If any other man thinketh he
hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcise
the eighth day the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew
of Hebrews, touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in
the law blameless. But what things were gained to
me, I counted loss." Now watch how many times he used the word
loss, loss. All these things that were important
and gained To me, I counted loss. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
loss, for the excellence and the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And I count all things dumb,
that I may win Christ." That man had been converted. Peter. When was Peter saved? Experimentally, experientially,
the Lord said, whom do you say that I am? And Peter said, you're
the Christ. You're the Son of the living
God. And Christ said, blessed are
you. He saved then, wasn't he? God, Christ blessed him. He said,
flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you. My Father revealed
that to you. But all the struggles that man had, for years, He tried
to convince the Lord not to go to the cross. He sat by a fire
and denied he even knew him. He saved, didn't he? Of course
he saved. He's the child of God. Of course
he is. He's not converted. He told Peter,
he said, when you're converted, you speak to your brethren. When
the hand of the Lord touches you and brings you down, you'll
be a mighty warrior. You'll be a rock. trouble down
in Galatia, you know, he was eaten with the Gentiles and the
leaders of the church came down from Jerusalem and he got up
and moved, didn't he? Took a bunch of paper with him.
Barnabas was carried away with the dissimilation. Paul and Barnabas had a knockdown
drag out and he walked off and left Paul. That's why he got
Silas, wasn't it? So I'll tell you, I say salvation
is instantaneous, new birth years. Conversion takes longer. And
one way you know it's of God, if it continues. If the hand of God ever touches
you, he'll never let you go until you cry, Uncle. That's what Job did. I'm bound.
I'm going to put my hand over my mouth. And then he'll work
on us some more. That's one way you know conversion,
salvation, is of the Lord if it continues, continuing the
faith and God continues. Let's see here in Job 19, what
Brother Rodney read a moment ago, and see the experience of
Job when the hand of God touched him. And these are things that
all of us experience. as God deals with us through
our lives and brings us to grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 6, in Job 19,
God has overthrown me. He's dethroned me and enthroned
Christ. That's exactly right. That has
to be done. God has overthrown me. Oh, proud Job. He's compassed me with his net.
He draws me to himself like a fish, like a fisherman. The thing swings
out of his net and he pulls him in, pulls him in. No man can
come to me except my Father which sent me drawing. He'll be taught of God. Not like
that, taught of God. He then has heard and learned
of the Father. He comes to me. He'll draw you
like a fisherman draws fish in a net. He never quits. You don't
quit learning either. Behold, I cry out of awe. I've
been mistreated by the Chaldeans and the Sabeans and all these
people, but he doesn't pay attention to me. He doesn't hear me. I cry aloud, but there's no judgment.
David complained about that in Psalm 73. He said, how come I'm
so persecuted and these fellows that hate God are so well off? The whole chapter, the whole
73rd Psalm, David complains about his lot as opposed to the people
who don't know God. And then David wept over that. He said, I've spoken like a heathen.
And he said, I've offended God's people talking like that. But
God recorded it because he knew we'd be guilty. And he'd give
us a little comfort. Behold, I cry out of wrong. Verse
8, he's fenced me in. He's fenced up my way. He won't
let me go my way. My ways aren't your ways. As
the heaven is higher than the earth, my way is higher than
yours. God's way is not your way. His way of touching us and
teaching us and chastising us and revealing himself to us is
not the way we would take. He's fenced up my way. I can't
pass. I can't go that way. Barnard placed the seven one
time on the the point of rebellion. He says God will meet a person
at his point of rebellion. He said the waters of the Jordan
had no power to heal leprosy, but Naaman had to go in that
water or never be healed. All the lepers in the world could
have gone in that water, never than he. But Naaman had to. He said, I'll go and bathe in
the banner and farther. No, you go to the Jordan. Nicodemus
and the Pharisees would not submit to the baptism of John. In not
submitting to the baptism of John, they resisted the counsel
of God against them. So to be saved, they're going
to have to be baptized with John. That's just simple. God will
meet a man at his point of rebellion. Your way is not God's way. And
he said here, he's fenced up my way. I can't go that way.
He set darkness in that way. Watch verse 9. He stripped me
of my glory. He's literally stripped me of my glory. All, one of the
old writers said, all that Job had. Listen to this. All that Job had and was to distinguish
him among men and to make him appear to be something special,
God destroyed. Everything that man had that
made him somebody, God destroyed it. God stripped him to reveal
to him that all these personal distinctions in which we take
so much pride. Education, wealth, strength,
beauty, just name them. All of these personal distinctions
of which we're so proud only clothe and cover a frail mass
of fallen putrid flesh which depends on God for its next breath. So God says, Joe, take it all
off. And leave you sitting there on
the dunghill, scraping your balls. And everybody passes by. He does
that. He stripped me of my glory. Had
no flesh of glory in his presence. What I'm preaching is truth.
It's God's method of grace. So he gets all the glory. He
shared his glory with no man. Listen to this. He took the crown
from off my head. He took it off. Self-promotion
is a pit. Self-righteousness is a pit.
Self-confidence is destructive. And so, verse 10, he destroys
me on every side. But now listen to me. Listen
to this. God, all of God's troops are
engaged to conquer and occupy that city. It's not a skirmish,
it's an all-out war. If God sets out to redeem and to convert and
to save one of his own, it's an all-out war. They're going
to be converted all the way. That's what he says here. He's
destroyed me on every side. I'm gone. My hope hath he removed
like a tree. He hath also kindled his wrath
against me. He's counted me unto him as one
of his enemies. His troops, all of them, come
together and raise up their way against me and encamp round about
my little tent. Oh, there he sits in his little
tabernacle, his little tent. And my, my, oh, the power of
heaven. brought the barrier on him. He belongs to God. And God's
going to raise the flag, the banner of Jehovah God over that
tent. That's right. Well, how did everybody
react to that? To this hand of God, this to
this man in such a way? But I don't think Job understood
all of it. And I know his friends and acquaintances
didn't. They didn't know what God was
doing. They didn't even believe it was God. And here's what happened. Verse 13. My brethren turned
against me. My acquaintance was strained
from me. My kinfolks. Do any of y'all
know anything about this? When God deals in grace with
somebody? My kinfolks. Fail me. My familiar friends.
They don't call me anymore. They don't like my gospel. They
that dwell in my house and my maids count me for a stranger.
I'm an alien in their sight. You know anything about that
down at work? I called my servant, he gave me no answer. I entreated
him with my mouth. My breath is strange to my wife,
though I entreated for the children's sake of my own body. Young children
despise me. I rose and they spake against
me. All my inward friends abhorred me, and they whom I loved had
turned against me. Our Lord said, Marvel not, my
brethren, if the world hates you. It hated me before it hated
you. They despised Christ, not because
of what he did, but because of what he preached. Nailed him
to a cross. He was despised and rejected
of men. Man's sorrow was acquainted with
grief. Walked the winepress of God's wrath alone. Crucified
between two thieves. Even his disciples forsook him
in flesh. And the servant's not above his
master, you know. He said, if they hate me, they'll
hate you. If they hear me, they'll hear you. My bone cleaveth to
my skin, to my flesh, and I'm escaped with the skin of my teeth.
That's when he said, my friends have pity upon me. Joe tries to explain to them,
this is the hand of God, my friends. This is the hand of God. This is the hand of God. When
God is pleased to visit in power and grace and to reveal His power
and wisdom and grace to a person, it's an awesome experience. which
calls for understanding and pity and compassion. Believers submit
to it. Believers know what's going on.
Believers know a man like Jacob's wrestling with God and with his
flesh and with all these things that have meant so much to him
so long. It's a conflict. You and the Lord's gonna win.
It's just, you know, he wrestled with Jacob to the break of day.
I think that's an illustration of what I'm talking about here.
He said, let me go. And Jacob said, I won't let you
go, you blessed man. But he said, what's your name?
He said, Jacob. He said, it won't be Jacob anymore.
Jacob means chief, supplanter. It'll be Israel. What's Israel? Prince. That's the first time
Israel is used in Israel, the prince, the prince of God. And
then he smote him on the thigh, and that's old Jacob crippled.
Old Jacob walked with a limp the rest of his life, and that's
what you'll walk with, too, if he touches you. You're not the same. Jacob was a pretty old man, that
happened, too, wasn't he, Cecil? How long was he saved? Long time. Long time. But the hand of God
touched him. Never the same. Job, the hand
of God touched him. He said, verse 22, Why do you
persecute me as God? Are you not satisfied with the
way I look? What's happened to me? What's
happened to my flesh? Aren't you satisfied? This is what he's
saying. He's saying to these fellows, and I think a lot about
this judging who's saved and who's not saved. That scares
me. These fellows are trying to judge
who's saved and who's not saved. That's what they're doing here. That's right. And Job deals with
them. He says this, now here's what
he says paraphrased. Why do you judge me and persecute
me as if you were God and not just a mere man? Why do you judge
me as if you have the same infinite knowledge that God Almighty has. Why are you doing this? God can
do what he will with me, but it belongs not to those who are
but men to judge the heart of another person. Get off that
and stay off of it. He said, you're not satisfied
with my pain, you're not satisfied with my distress, you're not
satisfied with my troubles, but you'll wound my spirit. He said
down in the last verse, he said, you be afraid of the sword. If
you don't change your ways, you be afraid of the sword. But then he utters this great
confession, this assurance. Verse 23, I want you to see this,
I'll move quickly through this, listen. Here's what he's saying,
let me go on record, whatever you think, whatever your conclusions,
whatever your judgment, you're just a man now, you're not God.
But let me go on record, amid all that I've experienced, and
you write this in a book, oh that my words were written in
a book. And you engrave it when I die." Job didn't think he was
going to get well. He thought he was going to die.
But he said, you engrave this on my tombstone. Engrave it with
an iron pen and lay it in the rock forever. I know that my
Redeemer, look. Who's Job talking about? The
Lord Jesus Christ. I know my Redeemer. Who he's
talking about here is the kinsman Redeemer. The whole book of Ruth
is about the kinsman redeemer. And there's no name given the
Messiah that's more significant than kinsman redeemer. That is
more comprehensive than kinsman redeemer. That is more endearing
to a broke, hungry, bankrupt, homesick soul than kinsman redeemer. Because he has the right to redeem. He's kinfolks. He's my brother. He has the price to redeem. It's
in blood. And he has the will to redeem.
I'm come that they might have life. I know my Redeemer. Adam knew that. The seed of woman. Adam knew. Abraham knew this. He saw my day, Christ said. Moses
knew this. He wrote of him. And Jacob knew
this, he said, the scepter will not depart from Judah, the shallow
comes, the redeemer. And my redeemer liveth. Life
is in him and from him. He died for sin, but he lives.
He said, I am he that liveth and was dead, am alive forevermore. I have the keys of hell and death.
He lives. He lives. God is life. A fellow said to me one time,
he said, now, in order to learn to speak a foreign language,
you're going to have to learn to think in that language. That
makes sense, doesn't it? In order to speak a foreign language
with any fluency at all, you've got to learn to think in that
language. You can't think English and pick words. You've got to
think in that language. In order to talk spiritual language,
you've got to think in that language. I hear people say, God's a God
of love. That's not the language. God is love. There is no love
except in God. Jesus is alive and well today.
That's blasphemy. Preacher, Jesus is alive. No,
he isn't. Jesus is life. It's a different language. He is life. Christ lives. Life comes from
Christ. There's no life apart from Him.
God's a God of holiness. No, He isn't. God is holy, and
He's the only one that is. That's what Job is saying here.
My Redeemer is living. Everybody else is consumed by
death. And he'll stand on this earth
in the latter days. That man knew some things, didn't
he? This is called the root, he said. This is the roots, isn't
it? Sometimes there's not much blooms
out there, but there's that root. That's what's important. That's
what's important. You can fix the fruit up later,
but the root's got to be there. Sin and evil. Now listen to me.
Sin and evil and death came by man, came by man on this earth.
By man came death. Sin, death, and evil came by
a man on this earth. In Adam we all die. By the disobedience
of one were many made sinners. So, righteousness and redemption
has got to come by a man on this earth. This man knew more than a lot
of preachers today. I try way back, John, they say
this is the oldest book in the Bible, I don't know. He's going
to stand on this earth. He's going to stand. Adam fell. My Redeemer's going to stand.
He's going to stand before the law. He's going to stand before
the judgment of God. He's going to stand before the
courts of men. He's going to stand. Who shall stand in His
presence? He's got clean hands and a pure
heart. My Redeemer. In verse 26, he didn't expect
to get well. He said, though after my skin,
worms gonna destroy this body, I'm going back to the dust from
whence I came. Yet in my flesh, in flesh, shall
I say God. Our Lord said, a spirit does
not have flesh and bones as you see me have after you roast in
the grave. And Paul dealt with this in 1 Corinthians 15. They
said, how are the dead raised? With what body do they come?
And Paul said there's different kinds of flesh. There's the flesh
of fish, and the flesh of animals, and the flesh of birds, and the
flesh of men, and there's glorified flesh. And this is what Job's
talking about. I'm going to die, and I'm going
to decay, and worms are going to destroy my body, going back
to dust. He's going to raise me, and he's
going to raise me in the flesh. glorified flesh and bones, whom I shall see for myself,
me, old Job, my eyes, these eyes you're looking at right now,
are going to see the Lord. I'm going to behold him, not
another, not another, not another Redeemer, not another Job. It's
going to be the same one. Though my reins be consumed within
me." What he's saying here is in your margin there. My reins
within me are consumed with this earnest desire. I want to see
my Redeemer. I want to see my Redeemer. Now
he's saying that to these friends that have given him such a hard
time all this time. And he said, verse 28, what you
fellows ought to say, you ought to say, why do we persecute him?
It's evident the root of the matter is in him. That's evident. How's it evident?
By that confession, like that. By that confidence and assurance.
How about you and me? I'll just adopt that. That's
my confession. You, Ronnie, that's your confession.
Rob, isn't that it? Then the root's in you too. That's
the root. I know my redeemer. And on this
earth he has stood, and though worms destroy this body and it
will, yet in my flesh I'm going to see the Lord with my own eyes
and not another. And my reins, my reins, that's
my spirit, my soul within me is consumed with this desire
to see the Lord. I don't say you have to have
that consuming desire to see him tonight or tomorrow. You've
got young children to raise. I understand that. You'd like
to. I've got mine raised, but I'd be glad to go. But I know
I understand this. I know you, but your reins are
consumed with this glorious thought. We're going to see the Lord.
That's what he says. That's what you. When God's time comes, I'm
going to be really happy. to enter into the joys of my
Lord. All right, I hope that's a blessing
to you. Mike, let's sing a closing song.