I Have Heard of Thee - Now I See

Job said, I have heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. There are very few men who cannot
say, I've heard of God. I've heard of God. For God speaks
in creation. The heavens declare the glory
of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork. There's no speech
or language where their voice is not heard. If you look with
me at Romans chapter 1, verse 19 and 20, God says that the
revelation of God in nature is sufficient to leave men without
excuse. That's right. The revelation
of God in nature is sufficient to leave men without excuse.
In Romans 1.19, listen, verse 18 says, "...the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness." Verse 19, "...because
that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God
has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made." Even His eternal power and Godhead,
so they are without excuse. I've heard of God. I've heard
of God. Because creation tells me about
God. And then God speaks in His law.
Turn to Romans 2. You're right there. Just turn
over another page. Verse 14 and 15. Now God wrote the law with
His own hand on Sinai's mountain. But more than that, God has written
his law in every heart. There isn't a person born to
a heathen in Russia or Africa or the United States that does
not have a conscience. There's a light that lighteth
every person that comes into this world. I don't care where
you find a son of Adam, he knows it's wrong to steal, to kill,
to lie. He knows those things. And no
amount of custom or tradition can ease over those things. He
does it in the dead of night. He does it in the darkness. He
does it in secrecy. Why? Because he knows it's wrong.
How does he know it's wrong? He's never seen a law. He knows
it in his heart. God wrote the law in his heart.
Look at Romans 2.14, For when the Gentiles, which have not
the law, that is, the tables of stone, do by nature, the things
contained in the law, these having not the law are law unto themselves,
which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, their thoughts the meanwhile
accusing or else excusing one another." I've heard of God. Creation tells me about God. When I consider the heavens,
the work of thy hands, the things that thou hast made. My conscience
tells me there's a God. There is no real atheist. He may be an atheist very loud
in his proclamations of his unbelief, but if you could see his heart,
there are plenty of doubts there. God put him there. There's a
conscience there. And then I've heard of God. God
speaks with prophets. He says in Hebrews 1 verse 1,
God, who at sundry times And in divers manners spake to our
fathers by the prophets." Turn to Acts chapter 10, verse 43. Acts 10.43 tells us the grand
and glorious object of the prophet's ministry was to make God known. To make God known. In Acts 10.43
it says, "...to him give all the prophets witness, that through
his name Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission
of sins." The prophets came to declare Christ, to make Christ
known, his love, his mercy, his grace, his forgiveness, his righteousness. Moses, Christ said, wrote of
me. Moses didn't just come to promote a religion, to build
a great temple or denomination. He came to preach the gospel
of Christ. Moses wrote of me. Had you believed
Moses, you'd have believed me. Moses wrote of me. Abraham saw
my day and was glad. Isaiah proclaimed the gospel. Isaiah 53, he was wounded by
transgression. Men do not hear prophets. Men
will not listen to prophets, but God sends prophets. Turn
to the book of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel, he tells us here
something that's very interesting. Ezekiel chapter 33 verse 33.
Now here, Joe, let me tell you something. This is true. I don't
care what generation it is. They brag on dead prophets and
kill living prophets. It's always been that way. It's
always been that way. When Moses was here, did they
follow Moses and love Moses and hear Moses? No sense. They griped
and complained and criticized and cursed Moses from the time
he brought them out of Egypt to the time he went up on the
mountain and died or wherever he went. They hated Moses. But when Moses was dead and Christ
came, they bragged on Moses. We have Moses, they said. We
believe Moses. We follow Moses and hated Christ,
our Lord. And then when Christ was crucified
and went back to glory, they bragged on Christ and hated the
apostles. And then when the apostles died
and went back to glory, they bragged on the apostles and hated
the Reformers. Luther wasn't loved in his day,
he was despised. Calvin, Zwingli, Owen, none of
these men were loved in their day, they were despised. But
nowadays they are building monuments to these fellows, these fellows
Luther and They even have Reformation Day, and just brag on these fellas,
you know, and praise these fellas, and talk about what wonderful
messages were preached, and what wonderful... But the people who
are preaching what those men preach, they're hated today.
And that bunch said to our Lord over there, they said, well,
if we lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have persecuted
the prophets. Why, Christ said, you're guilty
of the blood of every prophet from the first one to the last
one, because you're killing living prophets. They build monuments
to dead prophets because their voices no longer speak. And then
they hate living prophets. But he says in Ezekiel 33, verse
32, Thou art unto them a very lovely song, that hath a pleasant
voice, and can play well on an instrument. And they hear your
words, but they will not do them. They do them not. And when this
cometh to pass, and lo, it will come. Then shall they know that
a prophet has been among them." Yes, God speaks through his prophets. God speaks through his prophets.
I've heard of God, and whether a man hears a prophet or not,
someday he'll know that God has spoken to him. Someday he'll
know. He said someday they'll know
that a prophet has been among them. I've heard of God. I've heard of him by the things
that are made. I may pay no attention to them,
I may indifferently walk through this world, I may carelessly
abuse all that God's made, but He's spoken. I have a conscience,
I may pay no attention to it, I may sin against it, I may dent
in it, I may be indifferent to it, but God's spoken. God Almighty
lets my path cross the path of a prophet. Somebody's saying
something. Not somebody's selling something, but somebody's saying
something. I turn on my television all the time and hear somebody
selling something, but once in a while I encounter somebody
who's saying something. God hath spoken through his prophets. God's not for sale, and God's
not bargaining with sinners, and God's not trying to get anybody
to do anything. But he's saying something. Saying something. And then God's spoken through
his son, hath in these last days spoken to us through his son.
When our Lord went up on the mountain with Peter, James, and
John, the voice of the Father said, ìThis is my beloved Son. Hear ye Him.î Are we hearing
Him? Have we heard Him? No man has
seen God. The only begotten of the Father
hath revealed Him. He hath revealed Him. And then
God speaks through His Word. God is spoken through creation.
I've heard of God. God is spoken by conscience,
through the law, spoken through his prophets, and even through
his Son. And then God speaks through his Word. This is God's
Word, miraculously preserved, providentially preserved. This
book, it was started 3,500 years ago. God used 40 minutes. The men of God, holy men of God,
spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Forty men of God
wrote these 66 books over a period of 1500 years. Started 3500 years
ago and was completed almost 2000 years ago. This is a remarkable
book. Even if you don't believe it,
it's a remarkable book. This book has crossed the barriers
of time. Where are the books written by
men that are even five or six hundred years old. Where are
they? They're gone, aren't they? Where are the books written by
men? We have a few statements by men way back there, Augustine
and Polycarp and Ignatius and some of these fellows and Barnabas,
but they're words handed down, they're not books. Where are
the books? This book has crossed the barrier of time. This book
is, some of it's thirty-five hundred years old. And then it's
crossed the barrier of nationality. Well, you don't read books by
Chinese authors or Hindu authors or Egyptian authors. You don't even read books, some
of you, by people of your own country who are a different class
or custom than you. But this book means the same
thing. You can read this book down in the Yucatan to a first-grade
educated Mayan Indian. It meets his need. You can read
it to the to a senator in Congress or Washington, or to the richest,
most intelligent college professor, and if he has a need, if God's
touched his heart, this book is precious to him. It's precious
to that heathen, hot-and-totten Africa who's come to a knowledge
of Christ. It's precious to that Philadelphia
lawyer whose heart God has broken. You can't find a book that appeals
to both those extremes except this book. This book on the streets
of New York or in the Pueblos of Mexico means it's crossed
the barrier of time, of nationality, of custom. It's a remarkable
book. Let me tell you something else. Suppose that 40 men, most
of whom didn't even know each other, Moses never met Paul,
Abraham never met Malachi, Malachi never met John, Most of these
men never knew each other, never met. Suppose you have 40 men
over a period of 1500 years, for many generations. Here are
40 generations. And here are these 40 men, all
of them on his own, out of his own wisdom or desire, sits down
and starts carving a stone. He gets a big stone and he starts
carving that stone, and he makes it for his dimensions, width,
height, and so forth. just like he wants to make it.
You reckon when you brought those 66 stones together that these
40 men had made, and you put them together, you reckon they'd
fit? Do you suppose by any stretch of the imagination that they'd
make a perfect wall? And when you walked around and
looked at the wall, that it would have a perfect picture of a man? Why, you say that would be too
extreme to even imagine. There wouldn't be one shot at
that in 10 multiplied billion, billion, billion, billion, billions,
that that would make a wall, much less make a picture. That's
what this book did. All these 40 men, these books
were brought together by the providence and purpose of God.
Abraham saw my day. Moses wrote of me all the way
through. In Genesis, he's the woman seed.
In Exodus, he's the Passover lamb. In Leviticus, he's the
great atonement. In Psalms, he is my shepherd. In Malachi, he is the desire
of all nations. In Isaiah, he's my substitute
all the way through. Son of God, Son of Man, Redeemer. Remarkable. God's Word. God has spoken. God has spoken. That's what Job said. I know
men today have twisted this Word and perverted it and ignored
it, but they're responsible. I'm responsible for what I could
hear as well as for what I won't hear, as well as for what I do
hear. It's here for me. The responsibility
is mine. I can ignore it, I can lay it
on a shelf and let dust gather on it until as Spurgeon said,
you can write damnation right there on the cover. But it'll
do one of two. It'll speak to my regeneration or to my condemnation. But now watch our text again,
Job 42. Job said, I've heard of you.
I've heard of you. But then he said, Lord, now mine
eye seeth thee. Now mine eye seeth thee. This
is a sight that few men see. Blessed are your eyes, Christ
said to the disciples, for you see. He talked about the world. He said they have eyes, but they
don't see. They have ears, but they don't hear. They have hearts,
but they don't understand. Blessed are your eyes, they see. Preacher, you talking about a
vision? No, sir. You talking about a
dream? No, sir. If somebody came to
me tonight or after this sermon and said, I know what you're
talking about. Last night I had a dream and the Lord came right
in the room. And I saw him standing there
with a halo around his head and brilliant white clothes. I said,
you didn't see the Lord. You saw a demon spirit. Oh, no,
preacher, I saw the Lord. What did he look like? Well,
he looked just like the pictures. What pictures? Now, just because
you've got an idol hanging on a wall down at your house, that's
not the Lord Jesus Christ. That's just some idol that some
artist has conjured up in his vain, wicked heart and put it
on paper and fooled you enough to bow down to it, that's not
the Lord. God's a spirit, and they that
worship Him worship Him in spirit and truth. They don't have pictures
hanging around to bow to and talk about that's Jesus. You
can't put my Lord on a canvas. The heavens won't contain Him.
The earth is His footstool. I'm not talking about dreams
and vision. Never trust a voice. Never trust a dream. I'm talking
about seeing the Lord with an eye of faith. God spoke to Job and Job said,
I've heard of you now, I see you. I see, I see. Actually, Simeon saw the Lord,
but he saw a baby, Charlie. They brought a little baby into
the temple and this man of God picked him up in his arms and
lifted his eyes to heaven and said, Lord, now let me die. I've
seen thy salvation. Isaiah didn't see a baby. He saw a mighty king on a mighty
throne. He said, the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord, high and lifted up, His train filled the
temple, and nobody looked at Him. He was so holy and so brilliant,
and the cherubims even, and the seraphim covered their eyes and
cried, holy, holy, holy. What is it to see the Lord? Let
me give you four things. To see the Lord, first of all,
is to see Him in his deity, in his deity. Thomas, after our
Lord was crucified and appeared back to the disciples and risen
from the tomb, Thomas came. He was absent when the Lord appeared. He told them he wouldn't believe
unless he touched the nail prints in his hand and the spear mark
in his side. Then our Lord appeared to them.
He said, Thomas, reach hither thy hand. and touch my hands
and thrust thy hand into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.
And Thomas fell at his feet, and he cried, My Lord and my
God." To see the Lord is to see him in his deity. Jesus Christ
is not a prophet like Mohammed. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus of
Nazareth is not a reformer. Like Confucius, he is God. Jesus Christ is not a healer,
or just a prophet, or just a preacher, or a teacher, or a founder of
a religious sect. Jesus Christ is God manifest
in the flesh. They talk about Christianity
began in Jerusalem. It's not true. Christianity began
in the eternal covenant of grace before the foundation of the
world. Christianity is redemption by Christ. It is faith in Christ. It is love for Christ. It is
belief in Christ. It is life in Christ. And that's
as old as the covenant of mercy. Abraham was a Christian. Moses was a Christian, a Christ
follower, a Christ believer. You see what I'm saying? Our
Lord Jesus Christ is God. He didn't come down here as a
prophet, as a preacher, and establish or organize a new religious sect. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
surety of an everlasting covenant. His blood is the blood of an
eternal covenant. Isaiah preached the same thing
I'm preaching, that God will be merciful to sinners in Christ.
Moses preached the same thing I'm preaching. Even Jonah preached
the same thing that I'm preaching. That God will be merciful through
a substitute, a redeemer. And in the fullness of time,
God sent his Son into the world. God with us. The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten, full of grace and truth. It's to see Christ in his deity. It's to see not a reformer from
Jerusalem or a babe from Bethlehem or a healer on the streets of
Galilee, it's to see him in his deity, in his eternality. Christ, our Lord and our God. That's what I see now. You see,
I understand that. I see more than this God in various
dispensations found in new religions. God in different dispensations
has revealed Christ in different ways. It's always been the substitute. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, because
the serpent in the wilderness was the Son of Man. As the blood
was put on the door of Egypt, so must the blood be put on the
heart. So must Christ die, because the blood on the door is Christ.
As the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, put the blood
on the mercy seat called Christ, Went into the holy place, not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens, and put his blood before
the Father, because the priest in the Holy of Holies was Christ,
and that atonement was Christ, the Lord. To see him in his deity, secondly,
is to see him in his sovereignty. Preachers, it seems like they're
trying to get folks to feel sorry for Jesus Christ. Poor little
Jesus. He wants to and he can't. He'd
like to and you won't let him. There was a man who came to our
Lord one time. He was a centurion. And he had
a sick servant. And he said to him, he said,
Lord, my servant is graveously ill. I wish you'd heal him. And the Lord Jesus, now listen,
he said, alright, I'll go home with you. And the man said, Lord,
He said, I'm not worthy for you to go into my home. I'm not worthy. But he said, I'm a man having
authority. I have servants. And I say to
this servant, you go. And that servant, I say, you
come. I say, you do this. And they do it. I know what authority
is. Now he said, Lord, you don't have to come to my home to heal
my servant. You're God. All you got to do is say the
word, and he'll be healed. Our Lord said, I haven't found faith
like that anywhere. Go your way, your servant liveth.
That man saw the Lord in his sovereignty. Have you? Have you? And that leper who met him when
he came down from the mountain, he said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me whole. If you will, you can do it, because
you're sovereign. It's up to you. It depends on
your will. Now, if you ever see the Lord,
you won't see some pitiful little person appearing in the doorway
with a crown of thorns on his head and his hands reaching out
in a beckoning way, trying to get you to do something, won't
you? You'll see a king, a sovereign Lord, who is able to do what
he will, when he will, with whom he will, who is not in your hands,
but in whose hands you are. And you'll beseech him for his
mercy and his grace. Sovereign Lord. And then it's
to see Him in His redemptive character. Have you seen the
Lord in His redemptive character? He who knew no sin was made sin
for us. Why did He come down here and
lie in a manger? Why such pitiful poverty? Because that's where He found
me. You see that? He identified himself with the
lowest. He made himself of no reputation. Why despised and rejected of
men? Because I'm despised and rejected. Why did Jesus Christ take on
himself sinful flesh? Because he's my representative.
He's my federal head. He's my redeemer. And that's
the condition in which I am, in which I was born, in which
I live. And Christ, to take my place,
had to literally take my place under the law. Because I was
born under the law, therefore he was born under the law. In
poverty because I'm in poverty, thirsting because I thirst, weary
because I know something of weariness, pain. Jesus Christ bore our sins
in his body. He died the just for the unjust.
He came down here and suffered in order that God might be just
and holy and righteous and forgive and justify those who believe
in Christ. Christ obeyed every law. I see
him in his redemptive character. What he did is pictured in the
Old Testament. You see, when Paul said in 1
Corinthians 15, I preach the gospel, you believe the gospel,
you savor the gospel, which is Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. His death fulfilled every type,
every prophecy, every promise. Every picture in the Old Testament
died according to the Scripture, just like that lamb was slain,
and just like that bullock was slain, and just like this scapegoat
was sent out to the wilderness outside the gates of the city.
Christ died according to the Scripture. If he had died when
he fell off, like Satan told him, jump off that mountain,
he wouldn't have saved anybody. That's not according to the Scripture.
The lamb and the ram and the goat didn't fall off a mountain. If he had died of some sickness,
a heart attack, he couldn't have saved anybody. He had to die
according to the scriptures as a substitute, as a sin offering,
Charlie, to fulfill. He was buried according to the
scriptures. He rose again according to the scriptures. All got to
fulfill God's Word. The Old Testament is not another
Bible. There's one Bible made up of
old and new covenants. And the Old Testament is the
New Testament concealed. It's all right there. And the
New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. And without the Old
Testament, your New Testament doesn't mean a thing. Because
Christ died according to the Scriptures. And the New Testament
wasn't even written when he died. He died according to the Scriptures.
He was buried according to the Scriptures. He rose again according
to the Scriptures. Have you seen him in his redemptive
character? And then it's to see him as mediator
and intercessor. My friends, turn to Hebrews 10
in just a moment. Now, I know we reject the priesthood
of Catholicism, and we're supposed to. That fellow down there running
around in that long black gown and the fellow with the funny-looking
hat, you know, and all the gold and silver and jewels and precious
stones, and we don't want anything to do with that. We're not going
to go to a confessional booth somewhere and sit behind a black
screen and whisper our evil thoughts in the ears of some character
that calls himself a priest. We reject that with passion. But we do have a priest. We do
have a high priest. And men don't come to God without
a priest, without a mediator, without an intercessor. Just
like Israel of old Aaron came to God for the people, went to
the people for God, because God is holy and the people are unholy,
and needs to be a mediator with a sacrifice, with an atonement,
with a suitable offering. So here in Hebrews 10, it says
that, verse 19, "...having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into
the holiest myself, this sinful creature by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near with full assurance,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies
washed with pure water." Who is that priest? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's our priest. He's our interceptor.
There's one God and one mediator between God and men. In our ancient
hymn of the day, we talked about the Lord Jesus presenting at
the throne of God our songs and our complaints. I tell you, the
best prayer I ever prayed, a holy God in heaven couldn't hear it
without Christ. Got too much sin in it, too much
flesh in it, too much self in it. But the blood of Christ cleanses
my prayers cleanses my sacrifices of praise and love and adoration
and worship and cleanses my thoughts and cleanses me and washes me
with the pure sanctifying water of his Word and his presence
and his wounds and his blood and lets me come to God. Have
you seen him? I've heard of God. All my life, preacher, I've heard
of God. But I've never, I can't say with
Job, I've seen the Lord. Show us the Father." And Christ
said, "...he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Have you
seen him in his deity, in his sovereignty, in his redemptive
character, in his mediatorial intercessory work as your priest? When did Job see the Lord? Let
me give you this briefly. When did Job see the Lord? Now
listen to me. I'm not saying that every person
will have the same experience that Job had. God may not cover
you with ball hills. God may not put you on an ash
heap, scraping the flesh of peeling skin. He may not take away your
oxen and cattle. But I'm saying, listen to me,
spiritually speaking, every man will have Job's experience, spiritually
speaking. Because God never fills till
he empties. God never raises till he slays.
God never closed till he strips. Paul tells us that. He said,
I'm a pattern. He didn't mean by that that everybody had to
be thrown off a horse on a road to Damascus. But I guarantee
you, everybody who meets God will be unhorsed. He'll unsaddle
you. He'll bring you down. That's
right. I'm not saying everybody who
comes to know the Lord, like Paul, will have to be blinded
and led out by the hand, but everybody will realize that he
is blind and he'll want somebody to lead him into the truth. He'll
pray for the Holy Spirit to lead him and guide him into the truth.
So spiritually speaking, Paul is a pattern and Job is a pattern.
When did Job see the Lord? Now stay with me. When did Job
see the Lord? Now, man, I found this out. I
know a lot of preacher friends of mine have argued about Job's
position. Was Job a self-righteous man,
or was he a righteous man? Or was Job a saved man, or wasn't
he a saved man? Or was Job this, that? You can
preach about anything from the book of Job. Glorifying to God. Job made some tremendous statements.
He made some terrible statements. Job was a human being. But God
revealed himself to Job. When? First of all, here are
four things. He saw the Lord in the midst
of affliction. Every oxen was gone. Every sheep
was gone. Every child had been taken away. And Job said, naked I came out
of my mother's womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord giveth,
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now perhaps the reason that you or I have not seen the Lord We've
got too many other things to look on. And someone said, God
has to get our eyes off the things in which our eyes delight that
we might look upon and delight in him only. And sometimes these things have
to be removed. But now, that's when you're going
to see the Lord. When your eyes of interest and
delight cease to look upon the things about you, and you go
looking upon Christ. And if God has to destroy, in
the case of Job, everything was destroyed, everything. He lost
everything. He had nothing. And then he saw
the Lord. All right, secondly, he saw the
Lord in the valley of loneliness. In the valley of loneliness.
I want you to turn to Job 19. He saw the Lord in the midst of affliction. He saw the Lord
in the valley of loneliness. Look at Job 19 verse 13. He hath put my brethren far from
me. Mine acquaintance are verily
estranged from me. My kinfolk have failed. My familiar
friends have forgotten me. They that dwell in my house,
my maids, count me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.
I called my servant, and he gave me no answer, and freed him with
my mouth. My breath is strange to my wife, though I am treated
for the children's sake of mine own body. Young children despise
me. I rode, and they spake against
me. All my inward friends abhorred me, and they whom I love are
turned against me." Somebody said, That's terrible! Well, if it brings you to look upon
the Lord and to see Him in His glory, it would be worth it,
wouldn't it? It would be worth it. It was in the case of Job. You read chapter 42 all the way
through. He saw the Lord in the midst
of affliction. He saw the Lord in the valley
of loneliness. And then he saw the Lord in the
pain of humiliation. Job 19, verse 8. Look at it. He hath fenced up my way that
I cannot pass. He hath set darkness in my path.
He hath stripped me of my glory. He hath taken the crown from
my head." Oh boy, I tell you. And then he saw the Lord. We'll
never see His glory till we're stripped of our glory. Some of
us are too proud, too proud. We've got to be stripped of our
glory. Whatever it is, the glory of our integrity or our righteousness
or our pride or our talent or our beauty or our faithfulness
or our importance, I don't care. God got to strip us of our glory
and take the crown off our heads. Take the crown off our heads.
Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. Here stands a publican
in the temple and would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven,
but smote upon his breath and cried, God, be merciful to me,
a sinner. I don't know what it'll take
to bring me or you to see the Lord in His glory. But spiritually speaking, these
things are going to take place. Now God did it in actuality to
Job. He made a you and me. If we are
one of his own, if his design and purpose is that we should
see him in his glory. And the scripture says, he that
seeth the sun and believeth on him shall be saved. I want to
see him. I don't want to miss getting
a sight of Christ, do you? But Job saw him in the midst
of affliction. when everything else in which
he delighted was gone. And here he sat on the ash heap
in the valley of loneliness. And here he sat in humiliation.
Humiliation. Oh, I tell you, he used to be
a proud, he used to be a leader. He sat by the gate of the city.
He judged men. He was Mr. Joe. And now here
he is sitting there and his three friends come from afar and they
sit cross-legged and fold their arms and sat there, how long
was it, seven days? And never even spoke to him.
Humiliated. Well, whatever it takes. If we're content to play religion,
Job was. He played in church a long time
before he saw the Lord. He played in church. He had it all fixed up. He had
integrity. doctrine and orthodoxy, and he'd
heard of God. Boy, I tell you, God whittled
him down. You know when he saw the Lord?
He saw the Lord fourthly. Now watch this. He saw the Lord
when God was pleased to reveal Himself to him. That's when he
saw Him. It says, and God spoke to Job. You see, all these years, all
this time. Everybody else was doing the
talking. Bill Dadd and Zophar and this other guy, and then
another one came along, and they was all doing the talking. But
then one day, then one day, oh, what a day. Would God we could
have some of those days. God spoke to Joe out of the whirlwind. God spoke And you read chapters
38, 39, and 40 and read what God said. Oh, I tell you, God
told Job who he was. God showed Job his glory. God
demonstrated to Job his power. God showed Job what a weakling
he was. stripped him all over again.
God took the crown off his head. God said, where were you, Job,
when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you when
I taught the birds to build their nests? Where were you when I
put a hook in the jaws of the whale? Where were you when I
made the elephant walk the earth? Where were you when I did these
things, you peanut? And he revealed himself. That's
when Job saw the Lord. Maybe some of us will get a glimpse
of the Lord someday, but I tell you when it will be. It will
be when God is pleased to reveal himself. And when you and I have
been put in the valley of humiliation and stripped of our glory and
the crown laid on the head where it belongs. And you know in closing
when Job saw the Lord, look at this last statement here. He said, Therefore I hate myself,
I repent, I hate myself. When a man sees God, he sees
his sins. The perfect love of God makes
us ashamed of our hate. The perfect humility of God makes
us ashamed of our pride. And the perfect praise of God
makes us ashamed of our murmuring. perfect praise and rest of God
makes us ashamed of our covetousness when we see the Lord. We see
ourselves because sin is understood in the light of God's holiness.
You never see sin as long as you're talking about comparing
people with people and ways with ways and standards and laws.
You see sin in the light of God's holiness. That's when you understand
what sin is. Sin's a nature, it's a principle,
not an act. acts of the results of sin. We'll
talk about that tonight in our message. Our Father in Heaven,
we call Thee, Father, and we pray to Thee, how we long to
see Thee in Thy glory. How we long to have a personal,
living relationship with the living God. How we long, O Lord
God of heaven and earth, to know Thee and the power of Thy resurrected
to know thy word, to walk with thee as Abraham walked with thee,
as Moses walked with thee, as Enoch walked with God. Speak
to our hearts, not just our heads, O Lord, we pray. Use this message
for thy glory, for Christ's sake. Amen.

I Have Heard of Thee - Now I See

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I Have Heard of Thee - Now I See

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