Last Sunday evening, we looked
at the fact that the God of the Bible, the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the believer's God, is both a giving and a taking
God. And God's children are able to
bless Him both when He gives and when He takes. In Job chapter
1 and verse 21, We see the words of Job. Naked came I out of my
mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Actually, we know that every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above. and comes down
from the Father of lights, that is God Almighty, with whom is
no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He's a giving God,
and every good gift and every perfect gift is from Him. The perfect gift, of course,
is Christ. He is God's unspeakable gift. We do not have the words to rightly
tell of that gift that is the gift of his son. It's a gift
of love for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son. I read this past week this definition
of sovereignty by John Newton and it blessed me and I want
to share it with you now. God's sovereignty is just another
name for the unlimited exercise of His wisdom and goodness. Isn't that a blessing? We talk
about His sovereignty, what is it? It's just another name for
the unlimited exercise of His wisdom. He doeth all things well. And His goodness. Now, I want tonight to go into
chapter 2, here in the book of Job, and let's read the first
10 verses. I'm going to speak to us especially
from verses 9 and 10, but let's read these 10 verses. Again,
there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves
before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself
before the Lord. And the Lord said unto Satan,
From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord,
and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like
him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth
God and escheweth evil? And still he holdeth fast his
integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him
without cause. And Satan answered the Lord and
said, skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give
for his life. But put forth thine hand now
and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy
face. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. So when Satan
forth from the presence of the Lord and smoked Job with sore
boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him
a pot shirt, a broken piece of pottery, to scrape himself withal. And he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him,
Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest
as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at
the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this
did not Job sin with his lips. I want to speak to us especially
from verses 9 and 10. I have three points to the message.
First, a lesson from Job and his wife. Then said his wife
unto him, does thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and
die. We know from the book of Genesis,
in the beginning God created Adam. He created Adam and then
he also made him a helpmate, Eve. The scripture says that
God did this after saying, it is not good that man should be
alone. Now before we read that, that's
in chapter two of Genesis. In chapter one, we have the week
of creation. And on the sixth day, God created
man. The scripture says God created
man in his own image. Now, it's not a physical image,
we know that. God doesn't have a body like
we have. Although, in the scripture, sometimes
God condescends to speak of himself as though having bodily parts,
like the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole
earth. Well, we know He doesn't have eyes. That's just speaking
of His omniscience. He knows everything. There's
nothing hidden from Him. But God condescends to use these
features that are true of us to help us to understand Him,
help us to know more about Him. But when it says here that God
created man in His own image, we know that was a moral image. an image of perfection and holiness
and righteousness. But here's the point I wanted
to make. God created man in his own image,
in the image of God created he him, male and female. In other words, when it says
that God created man, that includes man and female. God created man. He created humankind,
homo sapiens, male and female. One of the most important decisions
in life, and I speak to all of us here tonight, but especially
you young folks, one of the most important decisions in life is
the choice, if you are a man, the choice of a wife, and if
you are a woman, the choice of a husband. God made the choice
for Adam. He chose and gave him Eve. I mentioned this morning reading
the biography of John Gill. George Ellis says that John Gill
always spoke of his marriage to his wife Elizabeth as the
capital blessing. The capital blessing. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon, the
wisest man apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, he points out how
that two are better than one. You know that passage there in
chapter four. He begins by saying two are better
than one because they have a good reward for their labor. Two are
better than one, for they have a good reward for their labor.
And I take that to mean the joy, the pleasure of sharing with
each other, sharing the burdens of life and sharing the blessings
of life. Two is better than one. I remember years ago, I went
to a conference in Arizona and the services were in the evening. One day, a family there asked
me if I would ride with them to see the Grand Canyon. I never
had been there, and I took them up on that. And it was beautiful. It's amazing. It's quite a sight.
You know, my thought was, I'm going to bring my wife here.
I want Pat to see this. You know, when you love someone,
you want to share with them. Two is better than one. To have
someone you can share the things of life with, such a blessing. And as I said, burdens, yes,
but joy, too, that you share with. Two is better than one
because they have a good reward for their labor. And then he
said next, two are better than one for if they fall, if one
falls, One will lift up his fellow. If one falls, maybe into discouragement,
into some kind of depression, some kind of a swoon, as they
used to say. Two is better than one to help
that other one up. And then he continues, if two
lie together, then they have heat. There's a love there between
two. And he finishes that by saying
that two will not be overcome by one, that is, if one attacks,
if you've got someone attacking you and you have someone on your
side to help you defend yourself, and two is better than one. This would have been, here's
my point, this would have been a good time for Job's wife to
be a helpmate. It really would. Because here's
this man who's lost everything in this world, all of his children,
he's lost all of his wealth, and now he's lost his health,
and it says from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head,
he was just filled with balls. And he was sitting there on an
ash heap, a garbage heap, if you please, scraping those balls,
trying to find some relief. This would have been a good time
for her to step up and really be a help to her husband. A good time to be an encouragement
to Job. Maybe to remind Job. Maybe just
to remind him, Job, you know our God is a good God. He really is. And he's been good
to us. Over these years, he's been very
good to us. He's given us 10 children. Yes,
he's taken them now, but he's been good to us. And not only
has he been, and is he a good God, he's a great God. He's a
great God. Maybe, maybe she could say, you
know, when we got married, we didn't have anything. Some of
us here tonight could say that. We didn't have anything, and
the Lord's blessed us and given us the things that we've had
need of over the years. Job, don't you remember that?
Maybe she could have reminded him of his Redeemer. Now, we
saw that last week in chapter 19. He said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth. Well, she knew that. She knew
that as well as Job. that Job had a redeemer, maybe
she could have reminded him at this time, Job, don't you know
we have a redeemer? You have a redeemer. You've told
me about him many times that he's going to come and he's going
to redeem us. He's going to ransom us. And maybe She could have brought
a promise to him. One of the many exceeding great
and precious promises which we have in the Word of God. I'm
sure that they had promises also. Though they didn't have the Word
of God, but they knew God. That's obvious. But she seems
to have fallen victim to the temptation like Asa. Look in
Psalm 73. I know you're familiar with this
Psalm. It seems like Job's wife had
fallen victim to this temptation that it doesn't matter, it's
useless to serve God. To be good or to be bad makes
no difference. Good things come to Good people
and bad people and bad things come to good people. You know,
that rabbi several years ago wrote a book and it was very
popular, evidently, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. That was
the title of the book, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People.
Well, the thought is, where do you find any good people? God
said, there's none good, no, not one. That's what the word
of God says. And I know people are good, relatively
speaking. Some are good, some are not so
good, some are bad. I know that. But before God,
we've all sinned and come short of his glory. Truly, Psalm 73, truly God is
good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart, but
as for me, For me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had well
nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the
prosperity of the wicked. Were there no bands in their
death? Sometimes you may have heard
someone say, I saw so-and-so die and he just went out into
eternity. She went out into eternity. They
didn't have any fear. They didn't have any problems
at all. That doesn't mean that they went to be with the Lord.
A lot of lost people go out into eternity assured that they're
going to meet God in peace when they have no grounds for assurance. But they've convinced themselves
that they are. And Asap said, here, these people,
they have no bands in their death, for their strength is firm. They're
not in trouble as other men. You know, and I know you're familiar
with this, but I guess for the last 50 years at least, people
have been told that it's God's will for His children never to
be sick. never to have any sickness or
anything like that in this world. There's not a word in scripture
to support that. People have been told that it's
God's will that every one of his children be rich. There's
not a word in scripture to support that. It's a shame, isn't it, the lies
that have been told in so-called Christian pulpits on God. But
you know better. because you have the word of
God. Therefore, pride compasseth them about as a chain. Violence
covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could
wish. They're corrupt and speak wickedly
concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set
their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walketh through
the earth. Therefore, his people God's people
return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. That certainly was true in Job's
case, wasn't it? Waters of a full cup had been
wrung out to him. And they say, how doth God know?
And is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are
the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches.
Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in
innocency. For all the day long have I been
plagued and chastened every morning. If I say I will speak thus, behold,
I should offend against the generation of thy children. It seems as
though Job's wife was in this condition, but unlike the psalmist
here, he went into the house of the Lord. Notice, when I thought
to know this, it was too painful for me until I went into the
sanctuary of God. Then I understood their end. They look like they are prosperous,
and they are prosperous. They don't have any bans in their
death. They're not afflicted. As we would say, everything is
going their way. But the psalmist said, until
he went into the house of the Lord and considered their end,
their end, that is when they come to die, when they leave
this world. Surely thou did set them in slippery
places, thou castest them down into destruction. How are they
brought into this desolation? As in a moment. they're utterly
consumed with terrors. As a dream, when one awaketh,
so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. How many people go out into eternity
thinking all is well, and yet, if their wellness isn't Christ,
all isn't well. There's a verse in Proverbs which
says, Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day
may bring forth. Man's walking along today healthy,
wealthy, and wise. Tomorrow, even before tomorrow,
may be in eternity. May be standing before God Almighty. This woman seems to have fallen
into that temptation. What does it serve to serve God?
It's useless to serve God. So she says to her husband, curse
God and die. Just go ahead and curse him and
die. Well, secondly, I want us to
see the Lord willing a lesson from Job's answer in verse 10. But he said unto her, Thou speakest
as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at
the hand of God, and shall not we receive evil? Now, I feel
it's important for me to point out what is or should be apparent
to all of us when Job speaks of receiving evil from the hand
of God He's not talking about moral wickedness. Now the same
word evil is used in that sense in the Word of God, but it's
also used in the sense of calamity, difficulties. For example, in
Genesis 6 and verse 5, we read, God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil Evil, same word, same English
word, evil, same Hebrew word, evil continually. Now sometimes
that word, as I said, it means adversity, affliction, calamity. Now all of us should recognize
that when Job says that, he's not talking about moral evil,
he's talking about calamity. He's talking about these things
like affliction and adversity. not moral evil. Let no man say
when he's tempted that he's tempted of God. This is what James tells
us in his letter, and James, God cannot be tempted with evil. He cannot. Neither, now let's,
neither tempteth he any man. When Job here says that we've
received good from the hand of the Lord, shall we not also receive
evil from the hand of the Lord? He's not talking about wickedness
and sin and things like that. He's talking about calamity. Just like in Amos, the Old Testament
prophet Amos in chapter three and verse six, he asks this question,
shall there be evil in a city and the Lord had not done it?
Shall there be calamity in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?
Shall there be Hurricane Harvey in a city, and the Lord hath
not done it? Do we blame it on Mother Nature?
That's what practical atheists do, right? They blame it on everything.
or attributed, I should say, to everything but God. Who's
in control of this world? God is. He sends the sunshine,
He sends the rain. There's no storm that can ever
form that's somehow out of God's control. We walk by faith, not by sight. Men are quick to acknowledge
Mother Nature. You know, I hear it on the weather
channel, the weather man. Mother Nature's sending us a
storm. Mother Nature, no, Mother Nature,
God, God, this is His world. He created this world and He
created it for His glory and all things are working together
for the good of His people and for the glory of His great name.
You say, well, I just can't understand how this could be good. You don't
have to understand it. We believe it. Why do we believe
it? Because the Word of God declares
it. We can't understand it. If we could, I suppose we would
be Infinite like God, omniscient like God, if we could understand
all of his ways. But we don't. We can't. My friend, Brother Shanks, used
to say, we've got a peanut brain. We've got a peanut brain. And
we're somehow going to understand and explain the infinite God. No. Here's my third point. A lesson from a spiritual parallel. A spiritual parallel. Job and
his wife were partners for life. And his partner here proved an
adversary to him. She wasn't a help. She became
an adversary. She urged him to do that which
was sinful. To curse God. And here are two
lessons for every child of God. Every child of God, every believer,
everyone who knows Christ tonight. Every child of God also has a
partner for life that the Apostle Paul calls by several names. One name is our old man. We have a partner for life, our
old man. He's called our old man for several
reasons. One reason is he came to us,
he originated with Adam, the oldest man. He came to us from
Adam. David confessed, I was shapen
in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me so This old
man from the moment of our conception in our mother's womb, he's been
part of us. He's been part of us. He really
has. He's a partner for life. But when a person is saved, when
a person is born again, he is created in Christ a new creature,
new creation. There's a new man. But that partner
is still there. He's a partner for life. The
old man is. He really is. And he remains
a partner for life in opposition to the new man. The new man is
created in a person when the Lord saves him. So the apostle
Paul calls this partner for life. First, our old man. He also calls
his partner for life, and he's writing to believers now. Take
note of that. He's not writing to lost men
and women. He's writing to believers, those
who profess to be saved. Every saved person has a new
man living within. We're made partakers of the divine
nature, and also the old man continues with us. He's not eradicated
when a person is saved. There's always that tension,
isn't there, between the old man and the new man and every
believer. Paul also calls this old man
the flesh. The flesh. In Galatians 5 and
verse 17, he tells us that the flesh, that is that old man,
the flesh lusteth against the spirit, that new man, and the
spirit against the flesh. Now, he's not talking about the
Holy Spirit there. He's talking about that new man
that is created in us by the Spirit of God. Now, in our parallel
here, Job represents the Spirit and his wife represents the flesh. Job blesses God, and every child
of God, the new nature, will always bless God and desire to
live apart from sin, every sin. But his wife represents the flesh,
the old man, and the old man has nothing but desire to sin,
to disobey God. Look with me in Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8, and this chapter begins with
the apostle telling us there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. When we're born again, then we
are to walk after the spirit, not after the flesh. But notice
down in verse 12, therefore brethren, brethren, brethren, he's writing
to save individuals, at least those who profess to be saved,
we are debtors. Not to the flesh, to live after
the flesh. You follow the flesh, we're not
debtors to the flesh. The flesh is our enemy. But notice verse 13, for if we
live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. Again, I point
out these words are directed to believers to encourage us
not to live after the flesh, not to follow the lust of the
flesh, but rather we are to walk in the spirit. It is the word of God. We're
to walk in the spirit. We are to take the word of God,
which is the product of God, the Holy Spirit. to walk in the
Spirit. The Word of God is to be our
guide, to be our rule in life. Walk in the Spirit. It was inspired
by God the Holy Spirit. And pray and ask God the Holy
Spirit to help us and give us the grace that we need. Now Paul
warns these believers if we walk after the flesh we shall die.
Now he's not saying that a man who's saved, a man that he said
there's no condemnation to anyone who is in Christ, he's not saying
that man shall die eternally, that a person can be saved today
and lost tomorrow. But he is speaking about dying
in the sense that when we neglect the word of God and neglect the
things of God and put our attention on the flesh, the things of the
flesh, then our spiritual life will decay. And we will not enjoy
the favor of God like we do when we are walking in the Spirit. John Gill put it like this, such
persons may die with respect to their frames, their frames. What does that mean? They're
frames. It means when God's real to you. I mean, when you're walking with
the Lord and he's more real to you than anyone else, and you
enjoy his presence. You're walking in the sunshine.
His smile is upon thee. But if we walk in the flesh,
Paul says, we will die. As Gil said, we will die in respect
to our frames and to our comforts. We won't have that assurance
and that comfort that is ours if we walk in the spirit and
the lively exercise of grace. If we are ever tempted by the
flesh, To have hard thoughts of God, like Job may have had. There he is, everything gone,
and his flesh covered over with balls. To have hard thoughts
of God. If we're tempted to that, that's
the flesh that is tempting us to that. To murmur against God's
providence. How many times are we guilty
of that? We have our plans. We have them all laid out. And
all of a sudden, God throws something into our plans that just completely
turns them upside down. And so we murmur. Maybe it's
rain. God sends the rain. Maybe we
murmur against the rain, against the cold, against the snow, against
the heat. Murmur. complain, to question
the truth of his word, or question his free grace. We should be
like Job. We should be able to answer,
shall we receive good at the hand of God and not evil? We should be able to do that.
And did you notice back in the text here in Job, Let me point
this out real quick. It says he sinned not with his
lips. He sinned not with his lips.
In other words, murmuring and complaining. Murmuring is a wicked
sin. Every sin is wicked, I know that.
But you look at the children of Israel, how they murmured
against God and against his providence. He was feeding them every day.
manna from heaven. All they had to do is go out
and gather it, and they complained. I don't like this food. I'm tired
of this food. Murmured. And they murmured at
the way. That's the reason those fiery
snakes came in among them. They murmured at the way. Murmuring. Complaining. Job, sin not with
his lips. Let's be careful. Let's put a
guard on our lips. One last thing, hurriedly. Every
child of God's partner for life is mortal. Every child of God's
partner for life is mortal. Job's wife, she was mortal, and
so is our flesh. So is our old man. Our afflictions
were soon, his afflictions rather, were soon at an end. And God
blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. The same will be true of you.
The same will be true of every child of God. Our time is short
in this world. We know that. If you live a long
life, it's still a very short time. It's a moment. in comparison
to eternity. Our light afflictions, the Apostle
Paul said, our light afflictions are but for a moment. When I
think about our afflictions as being light, and I've seen some
of God's children, I know some of God's children tonight who
are in great afflictions, I understand that. but in comparison to what
we deserve, their light. I don't care who it is. And in
comparison to how long these afflictions will last, their
light. They work for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory. That's what the scripture says. I pray that is a blessing to
us. David, come and lead us in a
hymn.