Now let's read our text one more
time. I would like for it to be fresh
on your minds. Verse 21 of Job 19. The hand
of God hath touched me. The hand of God hath touched
me. The hand of God touched me. Suppose I took you out into the
suburbs of this city and took you to one of the beautiful,
split-level, two-car garage, rolling lawns and flowering shrub
homes out in this There's a lovely home, bought and paid for, rolling
lawns, beautiful trees, an orchard in the backyard, children, healthy,
strong, chubby children out in the yard playing. Go around to
the back and there's a happy young mother in the kitchen.
She's preparing a fine meal for the family. He's got a beef roast
and potatoes and carrots and beans and hot rolls in the oven
and tossed salad ready. And every once in a while she
looks out the window and sees Jay the children out there in
the yard. It's almost time for Dad to get home. She looks at
her watch and it's five minutes to five. He's doing the drive.
We always drives in right at five o'clock. She looks up and
here comes a brand new station wagon into the driveway, puts
it beside her Lincoln Continental. He steps out of the new station
wagon, runs, hugs the children. They love their daddy, and he
loves them. Nice-looking young man, dressed in a three-piece,
$400 shiny suit. And he hugs the children and
kisses them, and they go on about their play, and he runs into
the house and opens the door and greets his wife. He throws
his briefcase over in the corner and he says, boss called me in
this morning and told me what a fine job I've been doing. And
honey, he gave me a 25% raise. And he promoted me to district
manager over all of Smith Enterprises in the tri-state area. You wouldn't be a bit surprised
if when they sat around the table that evening before the meal
and the father bowed his head and said, the hand of God has
touched me. Huh? That would surprise you a bit.
You'd say, it sure has. I wish he'd touch me. The hand of God has touched me. But my friend, here's a man called
Joe. He once was wealthy. He had everything
a man could want. Wealthy. One of the wealthiest men in
the East. And now he's flat broke. Doesn't have not a head of cattle,
not one little buying lamb. Here was a man who was once healthy. The glow was in his cheeks, and
the sparkle in his eye, and his hair was dark and curly, and
he had strength and power, and he stood head and shoulders above
the other men in the community. And now he's sitting on a scrapheap. You can see his ribs. His arms
aren't as big around as your thumb hardly, scraping the scales
of balls all over his body. This man once had ten children.
He had ten of the finest children, the most popular children in
the community. He loved them, they loved him.
He prayed for them when they weren't there. He prayed and
sacrificed before God for them. They were his pride and joy.
Ten fine children. And now he didn't have a one. Not a one. Once an influential
man. Once when he walked down the
street, the little children said, there goes Job. That's Job. He
lives next door to me. That's Job. And now when he goes
down the street, they laugh. Look at the old man. Wonder what
happened to the old man. I'm glad he doesn't live next
door to us anymore. There's a cloud over his house.
There's gloom over his house. There's destruction and despair. Listen to what he says in this
19th chapter. He says in verse 13, My brethren,
evidently his brothers and sisters, don't speak to me. My kinfolks,
all of my aunts and uncles, they're ashamed of me. My familiar friends,
verse 14, have forgotten me. The folks that used to dwell
in my house, they count me a stranger. I called them a servant, and
he laughed at me. I used to stamp my finger, and
he'd go get the paper. I used to say, do this or do
that, and he was always at my foot, ready to do anything I
asked him to do, and now he laughs at me. My breath is strange to my wife.
She's turned against me. She told me the other day, why
don't you just curse God and die, you old fool? Young children despise me. They
spake it behind my back against me. My inward friends, secret
friends, my folks that used to be awful close to me, they hate
me now. And those whom I love are turned
against me, and my health's gone. My bone cleaveth to my skin,
my skin right against the bone now. There's not much flesh left.
And I'd escape with the skin of my teeth. That's pretty narrow.
He turns to those sitting around him laughing at him and accusing
him. He says, have pity on me. The
hand of God has touched me. Now that's a mystery that the
natural man cannot understand. That's the kind of preaching
they can't understand. That's the story of this book,
The Hand of God's Touched Me. You see, in the world, in the
kingdom of natural men, the way up is up. Men understand that. The way up is up. Success is to be successful.
There's no other measurement, there's no other criteria. Success
is to be successful. Failure is failure. If you're sick, you're out of
it. If you're without, Means of support, you just cast aside. Life is to live. Death is to
die. Blessings are measured in terms
of positions. Health and wealth, that's modern
day religion too. We've fallen into that very natural
man's trap. Carnality, we measure. Even the
success of a church is measured by the number of attenders. The
amount of money, I read about these great campaigns and I read,
it was a successful campaign, we took up a million dollars,
that made it successful. We had 300 professions, we had
10,000 attending, we had this movie star, that movie star,
everything was happy, everybody was laughing, everything was
joyous, everything was prosperous, everything was successful, every
seat was taken, the hand of God surely was upon us, God was with
us. That's natural man's understanding.
Job says, I've lost everything. I'm afflicted. I'm broke. I'm deserted. I'm forsaken. God has touched me. I know that
very few in this world that have entered into the entered into
the real depth of this and the real meaning of this. God's touched
me. The hand of God, the personal, omnipotent hand of God in His
grace and mercy has seen fit to single me out and touch me. God's dealt with me. God's dealt
with me. And maybe all of this success
is not God at all. Good possibility. I'm not discounting
health as success. It's great. It's not necessarily
the hand of God touching us. In the kingdom of God, in the
spiritual kingdom, I do know this, the way up, John, is down. I do know that. I know the word
of God teaches that. He that exalted himself, the
scripture says, shall be abased. He that humbleth himself shall
be exalted. That's what God's word says.
The way up in the kingdom of God is down. The sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise. Now, I know that. The way up
in the kingdom of God is not up, it's not the lofty pride
and arrogance and hogginess and conceit and egotism of my own
success. It's down. He that exalted himself
shall be abased. He that humbleth himself shall
be exalted. I know the way to strength is
weakness. Paul said, when I'm weak, then
I'm strong. The way to strength in the world
is to be stronger than anybody else, to push people around.
The way to strength in this world is buy your way, bluff your way,
shove folks around. Lift your voice. Let them know
who's boss. That's the way to success in
this world. But that's not strength in the Kingdom of God. Strength
in the Kingdom of God is weakness. It's my weakness and His strength. It's my sinfulness and His holiness. It's my inability and His ability. When I'm weak, then I'm strong.
And I know the way to live in the Kingdom of God is to die.
Our Lord said, if any man saves his life, preserves his life,
goes to any extreme to save his life, he's going to lose it.
He's going to lose it. But he that loses his life for
my sake shall find it. In other words, here's an example.
Suppose a man works at a particular place and God deals with him
and he comes to know Christ, comes to love Christ, believe
on Christ. He goes out there. Now, he knows if he stands for
the principles of grace, the principles of God's Word, that
he's going to have some problems. He may even get fired, because
his boss hates grace. His boss is an ultra-free-will
Armenian. His boss is a Pentecostal foot-stomping,
hat-throwing, book-slinging free-willer. And if he stands for the grace
of God, he's going to get demoted, maybe even fired. So he goes
out there and says, well, I'll just keep my mouth shut. He's
saving his life, he's saving his job, he's saving his existence,
he's saving trouble, he's staying out of trouble, but he's losing
it. You see what I'm saying? He saved
his life, he saved his job, he saved his situation, and lost
his soul. He that would save his life will
lose it. either lose his life for my sake
or find it. That's what I'm talking about.
The way in this world is to keep your mouth shut and have peace.
All right? The way to live is to die. To
be full is to be empty. To be full, we've got to become
empty. Empty of self, empty of pride,
empty of our own sufficiency and self-righteousness. That's
the only way to be full. To be wise is to become a fool.
To be clothed is to be stripped. To receive, what is the world,
how do you receive in the world? Well, you get all you can get.
You make profitable investments. That's the way to receive. In
other words, if you've got an extra $200 or $300, go down and
buy yourself a new outfit. That's what the world says. That's
when you receive, you give yourself a gift. We joke sometimes, say,
buying yourself a birthday present. Yeah, I'm buying myself a birthday
present. And the Kingdom of God is to take that money and find
a friend who doesn't have good clothes like you do and go down
and buy her an outfit, or buy him an outfit. You say, how do
you receive that way? You give it away, you've got
nothing coming. Oh, you've got something coming. You've got
something coming. The other fellow's got something
coming too. To receive is to give. It's more blessed to give
than to receive. But in giving you receive. I
know this is what's called paradox. But it's still the Kingdom of
God. This is why I say we take a fellow by the arm and say,
I want to show you a fellow the hand of God is on. And we take and
show him all this. But that's not the Scripture.
The Scripture takes you over here and shows you that poor
fellow sitting there all scraping those scabs off those balls and
everything gone. Say, that fellow, God's touched
him. God's touched him. I have a party right here, Joseph,
that the hand of God touched him. Not a messenger, the hand
of God touched him. Of all the people on this earth,
God touched this man. God dealt with this man. God
visited this man. You've had a visitation from
some prosperous situation or so forth, but God touched this
man. God touched this man. To reign is to serve. That's
what our Lord said. He said, He that is greatest
among you, let him be your servant. Listen to these verses. Blessed
are you when men revile you. and curse you, and persecute
you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Blessed are you. I don't call
that blessed. Well, that's what he called blessed.
Great is your reward in heaven. Blessed are you. The world doesn't
call it blessed of the poor, but whoever heard of such talk.
Blessed are the poor, blessed are the poor, blessed are the
rich, blessed are the healthy, blessed are the happy, blessed
are the famous, blessed are the honored, blessed are the victorious,
blessed are the poor. Theirs is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are they that mourn. No, I don't want to hear that. Blessed are the happy. Blessed
are they that sing. Get us all a microphone and an
amplifier and we'll grin like a bunch of donkeys eating briars
and sing about Jesus, you know. I don't know why these people
are all grinning while they're singing. There's nothing to grin about
most of the time. Blessed are they that mourn,
mourn, mourn over sin and mourn over the direction this thing's
going. Mourn before God. Blessed are
they that mourn. They're going to be comforted.
Blessed. The word blessed is happy, happy. They've got a benediction, the
hand of God's on them. Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly. Blessed is the man planted by
the rivers of water. Blessed, happy to be envied. Oh, I don't envy Job. If you
had good spiritual sense, you would. That's what I'm saying,
Jay. I don't envy him either from
the natural standpoint. I don't want to hurt. I don't
like to hurt any more than anybody else. I don't like to cry. I
don't want to do without any more than anybody else. But if
I had good spiritual sense and understanding, I'd envy old Joe. I'd envy him. I'd envy John the
Baptist. When they put his head on that
block, I'd envy Paul sitting down there with chains on his
arms, chained to a soldier. I'd envy him if I had good spiritual
sense. I wouldn't envy Herod, Pontius
Pilate. I wouldn't envy Salome. I wouldn't
envy those foes. Blessed are the meek. They shall
inherit the earth. Blessed are the dead. who die
in the Lord. Blessed. The hand of God has touched me. He has weaned me from the world. He has conquered my ambitions. He has conquered my soul. He has conquered my affections. He's touched me. Job says, God's
touched me. Don't judge me by outward appearance.
God's touched me. Turn to Colossians chapter 3.
And I say this to myself as well as to everybody here. Colossians
the third chapter. If God doesn't, look at verse
1, Colossians 3. If God doesn't by His Spirit
turn my affections from this world to Him, And that's singular,
it's affection. If he doesn't, by his Spirit,
do something about my interest. Now, I know where my body is,
but God knows where my heart is. There's some bodies here this
morning that the hearts aren't here. There's some eyes looking
on the Word that the thoughts are not on the Word. God knows
where my thoughts are, where my interest is, where my affections
are. God knows where my love is. You
call me Lord with your lips, he said, but I know where your
hearts are. Your hearts are in this world. You go after covetousness. I know. You call me Lord with
your lips. I know that. You're a good grace man, and
you're a good solid doctrinal believer, and you're orthodox,
and you're precise, and this, that, and I know where your heart
is. I know where your heart is, God says, it's far from me. If
he doesn't conquer my affection, if he doesn't conquer my interest
and my love and my concern, and doesn't wean it and turn it from
this world and set it on Christ, I'm going to perish with this
world that I love. I'm going to perish with this
world in which my interest is so strong in my zeal. That's
why I'm going to perish with this world that I love. Colossians
1 says, if, Colossians 3, verse 1, if you be risen with Christ. And brother, to be risen with
you, you have to be crucified with him first. Seek those things
which are above. Seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection,
your mind, on things above, not on things of the earth. You're
dead. Your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who
is our life, shall appear then, shall ye also appear with him
in glory. Set your affection. That fellow came to our Lord
in Luke 9. Turn over there. I want to show
you this in Luke chapter 9. Now this is a reasonable request. Luke 9, verse 59, and we've got
all these, this is reasonable to us, Luke 9, 59, he says, Lord,
he said to another follower of mine, he said, Lord, suffer me
first to go and bury my father. What's the key word there? Bury
my father? No, that's a legitimate request. The word is F-R-R-S-T, first. That is the problem. Suffer me
first. Well, I'm for religion, and I'm
for going to heaven, and I'm for the gospel, and I'm for the
missionaries, and I'm for Bible study, I'm for all these things.
But now first I've got to do this. Jesus said unto him, Let
the dead bury their dead. Another said to him, Lord, I'll
follow you, but let me first. Let me first. Go bid them farewell
with you at home at my house." Our Lord said over in Matthew
6, I was reading this just a while ago, He said, take no thought,
no anxious thought. A man's got to care whether his
family comes to the table some evening. He's got to care whether
there's anything on the table. He's got to care whether or not
the rent's paid, whether the taxes are paid, whether the kids
have He's got to care. Our Lord says, take no anxious
thought for these things. They're not first. Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and these things will be added
to you. You seek them first. Now, what God had done in the
matter of Job, Almighty God had removed everything. You're going
to see that in a few minutes. God had removed everything. Everything
in which Job gloried, everything in which Job took delight, everything
in which Job had a great interest, he had removed it all, to bring
to light one thing, Job's complete love and affection and interest
in God. That's what he had done. And
I'll show you some examples of that. Abel gained God's respect. But he lost his brother's respect. He gained God's respect, and
in gaining God's respect, he incurred his brother's, earned
his brother's wrath, and lost his life. Abraham. Abraham inherited a heavenly
country when he, by faith, left his own country. This is where
his interest was. Now, on the way God blessed him,
God honored him, God prospered him. And he says if Abraham had
been mindful of that country, he could have gone back. But
he was mindful of another country. And he gained that heavenly country
when he, by faith, left that earthly country. Abraham received
his son Isaac when? Charlie, when he gave him up.
when he gave him up. And brother, let me tell you
something, he consciously, intelligently, willingly gave him up. He literally
laid him on the altar. Abraham could say the hand of
God's touched me. Here he is climbing up the mountain,
holding his 14-year-old boy by the hand, fixing to plunge a
knife in his chest and sacrifice him as a sin offering. But Abraham,
let me tell you something, son, God's touched you. God's honored
you like no other man. Oh, Moses left the riches. Moses
could have been king of Egypt, son of Pharaoh's daughter. Turned
his back on the riches of Egypt and walked out under the reproach
of Christ, wandering in the desert for 40 years as a shepherd. See
him sitting there by himself, watching a bunch of sheep, holding
a shepherd's staff, watching the sun come up and watching
it go down for 40 years. Moses, the hand of God has touched
you. Turn to Genesis 13. Genesis chapter
13. The hand of God has touched you. Boy, I tell you, this is strange,
isn't it? The hand of God's touched you. Here's a man whom the hand of
God had touched. In Genesis chapter 13, let me
tell you the story first. See, Abraham left his home and
country, and he was going to this land God had showed him,
or would show him. And his nephew Lot went with
him. Now Lot was a religious person, called in the Scripture
a righteous man. And he was going with Abraham,
and they were both intelligent men, shrewd men, clever men. And brother, even out journeying
across the wilderness, they prospered. They grew sheep, and oxen, and
cattle, and camel, and all these things. And they were both so
prosperous that their men began to argue. They didn't have enough
grazing land for both herds. So Lot came and told Abraham
about it. He said, Abraham, we're going to have to do something.
He said, there's not enough land out there for my cattle and your
cattle, and our herdsmen are having trouble. We're brethren. We're brethren. Now here's the
difference. Now watch this. Abraham could
have said, I'm your uncle. I'm 20 years older than you.
You're with me. I brought you out here. So I tell you what I'm going
to do. I'm going to take this bottom
400 acres where the stream is and where the grass is green
and Tell you what you do, son, and you keep your nose to the
wheel now, and your elbow to the grindstone, and you'll be
something someday. You go on over there on that
upper 250 acres and come down and water your cattle. I'd be
glad to have you. Come on down and have some water on me sometime,
you know. But you know, listen to Abraham. Here's a man whom
God had conquered, whose hand, the hand of the Lord was upon
him. He said, Lot, verse 13. Verse 9, Genesis 13, is not the
whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. Now,
if you take the left hand, I'll go to the right. If you go to
the right hand, I'll go to the left. Well, here's Lot now. He lifted up his eyes and saw
the well-watered pains of Sodom everywhere. This is before God
destroyed Sodom. Even as the Garden of the Lord,
it was like the land of Egypt as you come into Zohar, and Lot
chose that plain. And Abraham went the other way.
But let me tell you something, friend. Lot lost everything he
had. Everything he had. And Abraham
gained everything. God blessed him on Abraham. But
here is a man whom God had touched. Do you see the difference? It's not that Abraham didn't
have any interest in his cattle. He didn't have any interest in
accomplishing or gaining. But his interest was with the
Lord, his affection. And when Lot came to him with
this problem, he said, Lot, go where you want to. The whole
land's out there. I don't care. You want that part? Take it. I'll go this way. It's
neat and it doesn't matter to me. Say, I'm looking for a city,
Lord. I'm walking with God. If God
prospers me, fine. If He doesn't, that's all right,
too. That's all right, too. Son, I don't care. You take what
you want. And greedy Lord, He did. He took the best. And God
shot Him out of the saddle. And that's all there is to it.
You see, the illustration I'm using here is that we, this world,
we die to it. Our interest. And in so doing,
God will bless you. God will bless you. Let's look
back at Job 19. Let me show you some things here. In Job chapter
19. Let's begin. And here's how this happens.
The hand of God touches a man. The hand of God touches him.
God deals with him. You see, the Lord moves in mysterious
ways his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps on the
sea. He rides on the storm. God, the Lord God, as I understand
it from the Scripture, He deals strongly and powerfully. It's not just some little silly
commitment or decision, or it's not just some alliance or profession. But God uproots, and God reverses,
and God converts, and God overthrows, and God changes. The hand of
God touches a man. Nothing's the same. If anybody's
in Christ, he's a new creature. I know a lot of preachers say,
well, they close their services and say, if you're here and you're
saved and on your way to heaven and you're just as sure of heaven
as you already are, just slip up your hand, everybody throws
up their hand, I put them down, anybody here want to pray for them, put
them up, and I come down and make a decision. When God touches
a man, When God, I'm not talking about some evangelist or some
hotshot Hollywood preacher or some pastor or some little silly
youth counselor, crusade for Christ or camp or something else.
I'm talking about when the God of glory, when the God of glory
who touched the sun and it stood still, who touched the Red Sea
and it split open, who touched the grave of Christ and he came
out, who touched the veil in the temple and it was rent in
twain, who touched Jew And things never were the same. Who touched
Abraham, who touched Moses, who touched Noah, who touched James
and John and Saul of Tarsus, touched him and blinded him and
broke him and smote him. God touched him. Now this is the difference. And
I know you can go anywhere you want this morning and get religion.
You can get saved. Some people can save you in five
minutes and some save you in less than that. But I'm telling
you this is what I want. I want the hand of God to touch
me. And I want the hand of God to
touch somebody else. I'd give my life if the hand
of God had touched somebody. In crippling, breaking, converting,
convicting, uprooting, life-changing. I tell you, God comes down and
makes a decision for Jesus, and we shake hands and go out wondering
how long he'll last. I sure hope so-and-so comes to
work and says, I got saved last night down at church. Everybody
says, well, I'm glad, you know. And he turns to him, well, I
wonder how long he'll last. I tell you, for the hand of God touched
him, he'll last. The hand of God touched him.
The hand of God. Job said, God touched me. I'll
never be the same. And when he did, look at verse
6, he overthrew me. See that? Know now that God hath
overthrown me. He brought me down from my high
horse. Pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit before the fall. God will bring you down,
sinner. He'll bring you down from your
lofty estate and he'll put you down into dust. That's what he
did to Saul of Tarsus. I know you strut before men,
but when God Almighty touches you with his hand, you'll be
saying, I'm less than the least of all the saints. I'm not worthy
to be called an apostle. I'm the chief of sinners. He's
overthrown me. He's encompassed me with his
net. I like that. I see a fisherman out there,
and he sees a school of fish, and he's going after them. They're
going to be his. And he throws his net out there
and surrounds them. And then he starts bringing them
in. And boy, they buck here, and they buck there, and they
run their nose here. You ain't getting away. He's
after you. He's after you. He's encircled
you with his net to draw you to himself like a fish in the
sea. And if you had any sense, you'd
say, praise the Lord, hurry up and draw me in, Lord, hurry up
and draw me in. No man can come to me except my Father draw him.
Draw him. But he's got to capture you.
He's got to encircle you. He's got to throw his net around
you, then he might pull you to himself. You're not going to
come, you're not going to come willingly altogether. He's got
to make you willing. He's thrown his net around me.
Look at verse 7. I cry out of wrong. I cry out
against the wrong that was done to me, Job said, by the Sabaeans.
They didn't do me right. The Chaldeans, they didn't do
me right, and I cry out. And Satan, he hasn't done me
right, but I'm not heard. But I'm not heard. I know a lot
of preachers will turn to a sinner and say, call on the Lord, he'll
hear you. He might not. He didn't hear Job, did he? Job
said, Lord, it's not right the way they did me. The Sabaeans
came down and killed my servants and stole my cow. He said, God
didn't even hear me. Lord, it's not right what the
Chaldeans did. It's not right! It's not right
that I should suffer and be poor and be broken. It's not right.
And I cry for vengeance against those who wronged me, but there's
no judgment coming. No judgment. The judgment's on
me. Who's done wrong here? The Sabeans or me? Who's done
wrong here? The Chaldeans or me? No judgment. There's no justice. Turn to Psalm
73 and listen to David. He talks that way. In Psalm 73. Brother, don't tell me these
things don't go through your mind. You know better than David.
They went through his mind. Psalm 73, verse 2. Look at it. As for me, my feet
were almost gone. Psalm 73, verse 2. My step said well and I slipped.
I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of
the wicked. I looked over there and they were so prosperous.
And I wasn't prosperous. They were wicked, and I was one
of God's own. There are no bands in their death. They're not suffering.
Their strength is firm. They're not in trouble as other
men. They're not plagued like other men, not even like me.
Verse 7, their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more
than their hearts could wish. Verse 9, they set their mouths
against the heavens. They take God's name in vain.
Their tongue walking through the earth. Verse 12, these are
the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches.
Verse 13, have I cleansed my heart in vain? Have I washed
my hands in innocency? All day long I've been plagued.
I've been chastened every morning. What's going on here? That's
what Job said. What in the world is going on?
Verse 16, when I thought to know the answer to this, it was too
painful for me. until I went to the sanctuary
of God. And then I understood something.
I saw their end. I quit looking at their prosperity
and saw their damnation. I quit looking at my troubles
and saw my glory. God has set them in slippery
places and he has cast them down into destruction. And it won't
be long until they'll be tender for the fire. Oh, he said, now
things appear in another light. Abraham struggling through the
desert, wanting a son, and didn't have one. All around him, people
were living in their prosperous mansions and their oasis and
their kingdoms, and they weren't struggling and suffering. Lord,
what's going on here? Abraham, you're headed for glory. They're headed for hell. You
better consider this a little bit. So look at Job 19 again. Verse 8. Verse 8 says, he's fenced
up my way, I can't pass. That's what he'll do. That's
a picture of a man going down the road on a trip, and he comes
to fence the road off. He can't go anywhere. He'll just
shut up to Christ. Shut up to Christ. God will do
that to the one he's going to save. He'll shut him up to Christ.
He'll run him right to a dead end. A dead end in his religion,
a dead end in his works, a dead end in everything he does. And
look at the next line. And he'll set darkness in your
path like a man looking for a road and it's pitch dark. And he's
just standing there not knowing where to go. Can't say a thing. Can't say a thing. In my travels
and on my journey I met with a dead end. I'm at my wits end.
The fence is across my way like a traveler in complete darkness.
I know not where to go or where to turn." And then watch this,
"...he stripped me of my glory." This is Job talking, "...he stripped
me of my glory." Now men glory in different things. They glory
in their appearance, glory in their appearance, pride of appearance. They glory in their wisdom, pride
of intellect. They glory in their families,
their children. They glory in their jobs, their
titles. They glory in their degrees and
education. They glory in a lot of things.
And it may be old Job had a little problem with that. And Almighty
God put his hand on him and robbed him of his glory. That's what
it says. He has stripped me of my glory. You see, the Lord does
this when he saves a man in order that he might glory in nothing
but Christ, in order that he might glory in nothing but the
grace of God. He's got to bring me to the end
of myself. I'm not going to be a fit minister
or a fit child of God or a fit believer or a fit witness until
God's brought me to see that I'm less than the man to whom
I'm talking by nature. It took as much grace or more
to save me than it'll take to save him. That I'm nothing, that
God's everything, that it's by his grace and glory that I live.
In Christ there's neither rich nor poor, there's neither male
nor female, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither black
nor white, not in Christ. This old pride and haughty spirit
and arrogance, we've got to be stripped. And let me tell you
something, God ever saves a man, he'll strip him of his glory.
If he ever touches him, if the hand of God ever touches him,
he'll bring him down. And if he's never brought down,
it's indication of one thing, God's never touched him. And
he's taken the crown off my head. He's taken the crown off. Where
does the crown belong? I'm not talking about in theory
or doctrine, I'm talking about where does the crown belong?
on the head of Christ. He's destroyed me on every side. I'm gone. I'm gone. There's no
hope. My hope is pulled up like a tree
that's taken up by the roots. Not a tree that's cut down in
the hope that the stump will bloom again. The tree that's
plucked up by the roots. I'm gone. I'm gone. Except by His grace. He can do
something for me. And he did something for Paul.
Let's turn to Philippians 3, and I'll try to find a place
to close here. Philippians chapter 3. Now here's the apostle Paul,
the proud, influential, wealthy, famous, educated somebody. And he's got papers in his pocket
from the high priest. Now, everybody didn't know the
high priest. Paul did. Saul of Tarsus did. Everybody
couldn't get personal papers as an ambassador or an envoy
from the religious ecclesiastical powers of his day to represent
them in the persecution of a church or churches. And he's riding
on a white stallion. And he's got an army of men behind
him who look up to him. and who think he's somebody.
They know he is. He's at the top of the ladder.
And God touched him. God touched him. And Almighty
God, when he touched him, he didn't say, Paul, you ought to
make your decision this morning before it's everlastingly too
late. When the hand of God touched him, he didn't say, now Saul
of Tarsus, you need to change from freewillism to Calvinism,
because that's orthodox. No, Sir Joe, when he touched
him, he crippled him. He crippled him. He blinded him. He humiliated him. He put him
to watering down there in the dust. He unhorsed him. He knocked
him right out of the saddle and put that proud, arrogant son
of Satan on the ground, struggling, trying to get up. And when he
left that spot where God touched him, somebody else led him by
the hand. He didn't leave on his own power.
He didn't leave on his own power. Somebody else had to give him.
Can't you see him? Here he was. He was the leader.
Boy, if somebody offered to take, to have taken that old proud
rebel's arm before that, who are you to touch me? Boy, he
said, somebody help me. Anybody. Just somebody show me.
I'm blind. Now God touched him and he says
here in chapter 3 of Philippians verse 7, what things to me were
gain, those I counted lost for Christ. Oh, I count all things,
all things. Now come on now, all things. Yeah, but that That means your
influence in this tri-state area, all things. That means your religious
connection, all things. That means your education, you're
somebody now, you got a little more smart than everybody, all
things. Yeah, but you're just not the
run-of-the-mill guy, all things, but loss.