Job 9

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9th chapter of Job and what we'll do is we'll read the whole chapter and and then we'll start to look at some of the more Some of the details on it.
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You remember last week we we looked at build that who was one of the supposed companions that came to comfort job and Really wasn't much of a comfort and then we got into a discussion about different things concerning Truth and and and truth is always true and certainly it is and that the brother the Companions of Job they speak a lot of truth But what they lack? Having spoken truth is the application of it and and that truth Truth is always true.
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It never changes because God never changes and it's God's Word.
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But yet there's a way to Misuse The truth in in applying it and certainly as they apply it to job situation So and we'll probably get back into that because that's a continuing Truth that goes through the book.
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But what I want to do is I want to read chapter 9 and I want you to focus on something just as we read through as job answers build ad and I want you to if you can Remember how many times he says he's speaking about God Remember how many times he says either he? Speaking of God or him because in this in this chapter Joe basically You kind of get to see what makes him tick if you will and how he is Focused in not only in his sufferings in it and the Things that are going on in his life But if you read this with me, and I hope you'll see it just focusing on that You'll see how he considers God in and that it really is one of the ways in which You and I can determine where we are in relationship to God is how we view him What do we really think about him and and all too often? I think it would be true to say that we make too much of ourselves And not enough of God That that our view of ourselves is rather high And yet our view for God is not always where it ought to be in that and that that Really is an indicator of where we are in our lives Spiritually, so read this with me and again focus on he and him so Job answered and said in verse 1 chapter 9 Truly, I know it is so but how can a man be righteous before God? If one wished to contend with him, he could not answer him one time out of a thousand God is wise in heart and mighty in strength and who is hardened himself against him and prospered He removes the mountains and they do not know when he overruns them in his anger He shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble He commands the Sun and it does not rise he seals off the stars He alone spreads out the heavens and threads on the waves of the sea.
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He made the bear Orion and the Pallades and the chambers of the South he does great things past finding out Yes wonders without number if he goes by I don't see him if he moves past I don't perceive him if he takes away who can hinder him Who could say to him? What are you doing? God will will not withdraw his anger and the allies of the proud like prostrate before him How then can I answer him and choose my words to reason with him for though I were righteous I could not answer him I would beg mercy of my judge if I called and he answered me I would not believe that he was listening to my voice for he crushes me with a tempest and Multiplies my wounds without cause and he will not allow me to catch my breath But fills me with bitterness if it is a matter of strength indeed He is strong and if of justice who will appoint my day in court Though I were righteous my own mouth would condemn me condemn me Though I were blameless he would preserve he would prove me perverse.
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I am blameless yet.
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I don't know myself I despise my life.
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It is all one thing.
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Therefore.
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I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked if The scourge slays suddenly he laughs at the plight of the innocent The earth is given to the hand of the wicked and he covers the faces of its judges if it is not he Who else can it be? Now my days are swifter than a runner they flee away they see no good They pass like swift ships like an eagle swooping on its prey If I say I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile I am afraid of all my sufferings.
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I know that you will not home the innocent if I am condemned Why then do I labor in vain? I wash myself with snow With snow water and cleanse my hands with soap yet You will plunge me into the pit and my own clothes will appall me For he is not a man as I am that I may answer him and that we should go to court together Nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on us both Let him take away his rod from me and do not let the dread of him Terrify me therefore Then I would speak and not fear him, but it is not so with me So as you read this, I mean again I I have highlighted every time it says he or him in this chapter and my page is almost completely yellow from my highlight But here's the reality as you think about this and as we begin to consider this this morning I really think this is where we get to see what really makes joke tick That as he looks at his life and again remember he's not Sitting in in air conditioning in his recliner Drinking whatever it is that you drink But he is actually still Just torn up physically and and his friends have come now and they've what have they done Have they have they applied any? If you will any balm to him any aid have they Have they really to your to your understanding to this one? Have they brought any comfort to him? Yeah, I mean even the whole lot is not there's not a whole lot of the whole lot that we're thinking about because Really? All they've been doing is what they've been wailing away at job really kind of I'm Throwing more wood on the fire.
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So now as job comes in chapter 9 after he's memory Ella faz is blasted him build that is blasted him and then as we get a little bit further We're gonna see that so fast the third of the friends he comes and blasts him But I just thought it was interesting to start thinking this morning with how Job Job understands what his friends understand, doesn't he? And I would say he not only understands what his friends understand he understands it in a way to a greater extent Because Job sees himself as one who is and as we get to the end of the chapter, especially in verses 32 through 35 Where he says he's not a man as I am that I may answer him and that we should go to court together Neither is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on his boat? I think what he's saying and again We'll spend some time there because there are some thoughts in there of Christ being the mediator in those things But I'm not so sure that that's exactly what Job was talking about at that point And we'll consider it.
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But nevertheless As The friend has basically told job the same things About God so job now relates how he has the same understanding And if you think about what we've read, let's just start to go through it.
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So he says truly I know it is so But then he says how can a man be righteous before God? Do you think that job really understands the the problem with men and I might just talk about him when he says that when he says How can a man be righteous with God? What do you think he understands the tulip? I Think the tulip was there at that time by the way Yes, no, maybe so could be Somebody say something Exactly that that Barry you're gonna say something That's those two thoughts are really good so he understands He understands sin and he understands the Sinless one a great and and and so let's think about this because when he says When he says that if one could contend with him, he would not answer him.
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So job is saying that there's a gap, right? here and That every single person regardless of who they are and that's going to be one of his arguments by the way not as arguments, but his rebuttal back to the friends is They think and this is just my thought so if you don't agree with me, that's fine You're not gonna change my thought right now, but nevertheless you could disagree with me They think that this only this doesn't apply to them Just just think about what they've been saying They've been going after job.
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They've been telling them you sold you reap your kids in your windbag You're full of baloney You're getting what you deserve even he even talked about it last time We looked in chapter 8 that he's actually getting less than what he deserves Let me ask you a question, what do we deserve? Everyone yes in what measure full anybody disagree with that How can I say harsh When we say that they the friends don't think that it applied to them I would agree with that as well.
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But at the same time even us today as Christians We we know that we're we're saved by grace through faith However, we have this whole theology when it comes to counseling others that no matter We counsel people We think about counseling as almost Correction we don't think about counseling as comfort So like in other words if someone is in sin, then yeah But we forget about the what they call the periclinic counseling that that that we are called to do Like when our brothers mourn we are to mourn with them when they rejoice we rejoice with them We don't know how to enter people's morning even today forget Joe's friends If something tragic happened to you the first thing that goes to our thoughts is Or especially something trying to happen to your kids or your loved ones or your job or your business You must have done something wrong.
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Absolutely And that's that's That's where it becomes such a hard because you had mentioned last week wisdom and and and Really? That's really where the application comes in, right? Because again His friends Understand it, but they're not making this the same application to themselves They're making to job and the reason for that is because they're basing it on what? They're basing it on what they see right it's a certain extent job is the one who's he's seeking to answer them, but he cannot truly give them an answer in a way of Saying what you're saying is not true Unless you understand he's saying it's not true in the situation that I'm in.
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I know I'm a sinner.
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I know I'm lost without the grace of God, but you can't Make that application to me in my present condition and that's the thing he holds on to right is his integrity David you can say something.
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No, no, they're demos.
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I was I absolutely agree With what Tim said I was thinking last week.
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I didn't say anything, but I Think that these friends of Job.
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I don't think that they realize that what Joe's going through is He's God's will He's allowing this to happen to Joe Even up to the point where you can do this, but you can't kill him.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, so and and to think that That that could happen to Job and not us in present day, I think we're mistaken Yeah, there's certain things.
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It's God's will that We we go through we come upon it might not necessarily can be because of Disobedience or chastisement, but I believe it could also be a test of faith No The main thing that We see this from the old okay, and If we are trying to dissect it from their perspective We have to take the old you put it on the shelf and get down in it And if we're not willing to do that, then we cannot receive the proper understanding overall, we know that These Accusations are not coming from God.
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They're not coming from a place of righteousness.
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We know that Okay, so as a result if The enemy wants us to destroy ourselves so that he can stand and say see look at this Look at what you did.
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You didn't do it for me, but you did it for it So, okay.
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Let me ask you a question and just something to think about Would we be incorrect to say that these three friends are the ministers of God I want you to think about that.
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It'd be incorrect.
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Yeah, would it be incorrect to say that these three friends are the ministers of God? And I don't mean ministers in the sense of clergy by the way are these three friends Ultimately.
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Yes what before Joe? By God's purpose.
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Yes Yep And that's that I think that is the big picture that we again Sometimes we don't know how to minister to people who are suffering because we only look at the simpleness of sin We forget the divine sovereignty of God.
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We forget grace and we forget mercy and and so For us I don't put like anything on the show I put we have to deal with what's what's here and we have to see what is God saying to us about himself? He's sovereign.
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What is he saying to us about us that that we're falling? Yeah, and then how do we counsel again? I just think the big picture is is how do we minister to people who are suffering who live in a fallen world as? Christians we have to minister to one another and we need to be careful that we're not like your friends And we need to be careful that when we go through suffering That it's okay It's okay To question God Jesus himself the incarnate God man in the garden There was by God We want to feel forsaken sometimes when we go through suffering So I see how I'm not trying this to myself and Joe and his friends and what what we learned about God So in that sense these three friends are being used by God to not only Confront Joe but at the same time they confront us don't they Again, how do we and I'll use what you're saying brother is how do we this is a reality for all of us? None of us are going to disagree with this, right? we're all going to say we are worthy of absolutely nothing and and that there is a Equity even in that sense of just The truth that Jesus talked about the servant who knew the Lord's will was why he was worthy of many stripes The servant who didn't know the Lord's will was still what? worthy of stripes Right.
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So as long as we understand this and this is what I this is why I started this way Job understands this this truth that there is both a sinless God and if he is a sinner and that he Cannot if you will as he opens this chapter up He cannot really truthfully contend with God because as he says in verse 3 if one wished to contend with him He would not answer him one time out of a thousand and that there is this reality And that's why I said to you we have to increase our view of God and decrease the view of self or get a right view of ourselves and and I've always Thought this way if you really want to understand yourself, you need to understand God And if you really want to understand God, you really got to understand yourself Once you put these two together, what? What's the only thing that comes out of it in a positive way and I mean it this way Then if we really understand that it should lead us here shouldn't Should it up should not the reality of us being simple creatures and Mere creatures and God being infinite and sinless and perfect and righteous in all his ways Should that not lead us to cry out for? Grace Grace mercy Okay, we could spend time on that but I don't want to do that right now because no matter how I will say this Oh, no matter how you cut this.
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This is still whether it's grace or mercy.
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It's favor.
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Okay, so When you think about it, this should lead us all to realize we need God's favor And and it's because of it if that's an alert 42 phones are gonna go off all of a sudden and because Job not only sees it from a redemptive standpoint But Joe sees it from a creature standpoint That makes sense.
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Yes, then when Job says that in the latter part of chapter we're gonna look at it really uses a word that means umpire and It's not so much a mediator as an umpire and there is a difference That we'll consider so he not only understands it from a redemptive standpoint He understands it from a creature standpoint that there is this gap If you will between God and us and that is that gap ever gonna be removed Is it possible to remove that gap from creature? to create Will we will we will that be removed when we're with him? You say yes, but is that the case? Right now No, even then when we're with him.
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Well that would that ever be removed the reality of our preacher hood Versus his Creative hood and the gap in between will that be removed when we see him face to face Yeah, it couldn't be right because he alone is and that's what it says Paul says he alone is what wise? He alone is infinite.
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How could someone who's finite? Ever understand what infinite is Just as sure as I'm asking you to think about this.
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How could we who have a beginning? Ever understand someone who has no beginning It's impossible, isn't it? Because if you if you think back of it try to think of yourself Okay, you could think back to you younger days if you're older and then you can think back To even maybe some recollection of some things when you were really really young But but there's a certain point where it stops doesn't it and you can't go no further with it Well when you think about someone who's everlasting No Beginning No end that is again, that's Incommunicable We'll never be able to understand it So I think what job is trying to drive and as we look through this he says God is wise and hard and mighty and strength verse for who has hardened himself against him and Prospered and now he begins to talk about the greatness of God, right? He removes the mountains and they don't know when he overturns them in anger.
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Isn't that what his friends have said to him sure have Were they wrong when they said it? Nope, they weren't wrong He shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble He God commands the Sun and it does not rise He seals off the stars he alone spreads out the heavens and Treads on the waves of the sea see that's why job is is in the predicament that he's in and ultimately he's gonna get to The end of the chapter.
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He's saying man.
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I got no one to umpire between me and and this great God and Again, we can look at it from a redemptive standpoint and then we would see Christ or we could look at it merely from a creature standpoint and we would see this this Infinite wise God who rules over everything And he made the I'm in verse 90 bears He made the bear and Orion and the Pallades and the chambers of the South and he does great things past finding out Just think about that for a minute Who can who could name the stars? I? Mean God gave Adam the authority to do what with the creatures Name them, right? So that was it in that sense Adam was in the image of God and God gave him dominion over what? Over everything that God created and so Adam certainly named the animals But Adam had in that sense.
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No no ability to name the stars God's the one who names the stars God's the one who? Does these great things without number and then he says in verse 11 if he goes by me, I don't see him I Want you to think about that if he goes by me, I don't see him Was he saying that if he moves past I don't perceive him If he takes away who can hinder him, but in verse 11 if he goes by me, I don't see him Is he saying that that there's no way of understanding God's? outworkings Those can you see God can I see God I see this I see this and I see this I don't know where you're all is it is it possible to see God Or is that just a loaded question Physically no in creation.
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Yes What does thou say to brother Dan is that true can we see God There's not the invisible things of God What does Paul say Romans 1 the invisible things of God are manifest? so in that sense We can't see God.
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Yeah, right.
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We can see God in design We can see God in beauty We can see God in in many different things in the creation and in many different things in relationships But can we see God? Are you questioning? Can we see him physically or just evidence of his existence, man? I just do the question out there We can't see God right God is a spirit right right those that worship him must worship him and what Spirit and truth.
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So so there is a reality that Job understands that God can be seen again in the creation Is that not again what Paul says that the heaven is that what the psalmist says psalm 19 the heavens declare? What the glory of God and the firmament shows forth his? Handiwork and day unto day and utter speech night unto night.
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It shows knowledge and there is no place Where that knowledge is not disfused right agree The Sun comes up the Sun goes down the stars come out the stars go in So in that sense when he says this he's not so much talking about the creation because he just spent The last couple of words talking about how God is the creator of everything So he's not saying it from a physical standpoint what he's saying is in this in this reality of God's greatness and and and his Inability to comprehend or understand in totality that that he really can't see God go by how often would it be? And think about where he is again.
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He's in the ash heap He's suffering Is it not harder? Sometimes to see God in in sorrow than in joy.
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I Mean I'm not saying you can't find God in both because you can and we ought to and that's the whole point is to get to the point where we're Like this, right Like Paul says I've learned to be what? Content I can have everything I can have nothing But at the same time when you think about what he's saying in there, he's just saying he's in his situation He's he's frustrated because he can't find a way out and I'm not so sure that he is Blaming God as he is just spilling his spilling his heart out This is what he's he's dealing with if he takes In verse 12 if he takes away who can hinder him.
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This doesn't sound like an arrogant sinner to me Does it sound like one to you? This sounds like a man Who is truly perplexed and is truly shaken if you will Just what he says in verse at the end of verse 12 who can say to him what are you doing? How many of us have ever questioned and you might not want to say how many of us have ever questioned Lord? What are you doing? Yeah, I think we all have have we not If we believe in God and we believe God rules over everything then who are we gonna ask about everything's going on? That's that's a pretty simple answer, right so when when things are going on in our life and We can't see God's hand it's many times.
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It's because our understanding of God's hand is why? We actually this You have to think about it just we all think about it Our understanding of God's hand many times is when this happens Not not as often when this happens But here's where we need to be we need to understand it Great, and that's that's the trouble and that's where I think his friends are having Their issue is again.
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They're going by what what they see and Yet they're trying to make job Understand what they understand and apply it to themselves a job is is basically in between this and that's why he says Who could say to him? What are you doing? God will not withdraw his anger the allies of the proud like prostrate before him then he says in verse 14, how then could I answer him and Choose my words to reason with him for though.
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I would I was righteous.
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I Could not answer him.
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I would beg mercy of my judge was Joe righteous Was Joe righteous? What does it say in chapter 1 of the book Job was righteous Right.
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Job was a righteous man but that understanding of righteous is not understanding it in the sense of absolute righteousness right Because there is no one who there is what does Paul say? I don't know in Flippin Old Testament it doesn't but the applications are much the same right there is none Righteous.
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No, not one.
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So again Job is he understands his position and Yet he's looking for He's looking for comfort.
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He's looking for understanding though.
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I were righteous.
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I could not answer him.
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I would beg mercy of my judge and then look at verse 16 because this is really interesting look what he then says if I Called and he answered me.
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I wouldn't even believe that he was the one listening to my voice And again We Will we to come before this altogether glorious one and to question anything that he does and yet Does not God call us to? Come to him, right? What are we supposed to do in everything in what prayer and supplications? Let your request be what? Known unto God, right So you got to kind of think through these these words that both job and his friends speaking and then try and I think Tim kind Of pointed to it.
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We've got to try to fit it in in understanding in our life and again, we can make Differences between Old Testament Saints and New Testament Saints and there is definitely some differences to be made but at the same time Job has a really good understanding of who God is at least with a standpoint that Even if even if he called out and thought that he wouldn't even believe it We have our 17 for he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause and he won't allow me To catch my breath Have you ever asked God to slow down I Have Do you have asked God to Let me let me ask you to think this Have you ever asked God to reveal himself more to you With the thought of do I really want this Because many times the way that God reveals itself to us is how Trials tribulations Situations and That leads us.
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What does Paul say that trials and tribulation works? What? patience and patience works what Experience and experience works.
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What hope and hope works.
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What that we have this if you will this bonus to come so Job is in this situation.
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He wants out and I don't know how you could blame him I mean his body is rotting.
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He's his Whole situation is crumbled before him And so he crushes me with a tempest and he multiplies my wounds without cause he won't allow catch my breath He fills me with bitterness Then in verse 19 if it's a matter of strength indeed He is he is strong and if of justice who will appoint my day in court though I were righteous my own mouth would condemn me Again job is not a arrogant Self-righteous Man who thinks that he is able to if you will write the ship Because he knows that again You know If you disagree we could have a conversation When people come to Christ and The Spirit of God gives a new life.
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One of the first things that they realize is that They are not their own God Great that one of the first things that happens to us when the Spirit of God comes upon us we begin to understand our creaturehood and We begin to understand our Sinfulness and we begin to understand our smallness and When when that happens by the Spirit of God, that's when we begin to cry out and and again We should never lose that right? Let me see if I can find this really quick I want to show you something job and Hopefully I could find it real quick Well, I can't find it right this second, but I'll find it it was where Maybe it's 35 Anyway, it's where he talks about God that nobody kid in that sense if we obey God Does God become any bigger? A Question for you if we obey God Does that make God more God? If we sin against God does that make God less God That's exactly what he says and what I'm looking for in Job He says that he says if I was righteous, I wouldn't add a thing to you And he says if I sin against you, I don't take anything away from you.
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And that's again you see There's a term that people use they say God is simple And I don't just mean simple in in a sense that some people use it.
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What do you think about? What could be? The way in which you would understand God to be simple God has God has no parts That's what they mean when they say God is simple Which means God is not made up God's being is not one of components Think about us.
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We have body spirit, right we have Different things that Make us what we are God is absolutely pure.
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God has no parts He is he is absolutely pure and so nothing can can add to him nor take away from him So if someone kills our body part of us are gone, right? We would say on this side of the grave.
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We're totally gone See again, we have parts.
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You can't take away anything from God because God is simple.
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He is Just like he said to Moses I am Who I am So again as you and I think about these things It ought to cause us to do a number of different things one it just ought to cause us to praise him for who he is Amen, and it ought to cause us to Bow before him and it ought to cause us to look to him right, so again the very one of the best ways to learn about God is To study his attributes.
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Yes.
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I know I said this before One of the best ways to understand who God is and who we are is to try to understand better the being of God because what it will do it will raise your mind and your heart to places you've never been before and You'll be so overcome by it That the things of earth like the song says right the things of earth will go strangely dim Where in the light of his glory and grace? The more you see the Sun the less your little flashlight has any meaning Agree, I mean if I if I light a little can't My house looks like at night a runway Do all these little candles all over my house and they're all the little battery one so I can't burn my house down But but all these little lights are lit around my house and and it's great When I get up in the daytime Sometimes those lights are on because they're on batteries and you got to have a clicker to shut up I don't even know how that all that works.
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She does it right Just leave mom, but what happens when the Sun comes through the window what happens when the when the Sun shines bright It overpowers them they become nothingness Until the darkness comes back.
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And so that's what I say as you and I think about our lives If we truly want to know God then we have to ask God to reveal himself to us Not just bail us out of predicaments and situations so I don't know how much further we can get this morning, but Would you agree with that? Would you would you think that that is a true statement that in order to see more of God? You got to see less of yourself.
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I Don't know if you could dispute that.
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I know you can and so when he says that he says Verse 20 though I were righteous my own mouth would condemn me and though I were blameless It would prove me perverse and then he says verse 21.
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I am blameless Yet, I don't know this myself.
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I despise my life.
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It's all one thing Therefore I'd say he destroys the blameless and the wicked if the scourge slays suddenly He laughs at the plight of the innocent the earth is given to the hand of the wicked and he covers the faces of his Judges if it is not he who else can it be? That's true Does not God rule? Over everything.
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Yes, the wrath of man psalm 76 10 the wrath of man shall what praise thee and the remainder of wrath He will restrain That's why it is an interesting conversation that could be had between the what men have called the decreed of will of God and the permissive will of God and what the way it's broken out is God will Command certain things but God permits other things Okay, and and there's a lot of merit in that thinking that helps us to understand but ultimately what? God does it all God does it all even says it in Isaiah.
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He says can there be evil in the city and I the Lord not be there Calamities ultimately and I think it was you or you Job's calamities ultimately came from where? Satan was the agent God and in that sense, that's how you can understand the permissive will of God because God gave him what permission And so so in that sense you could say there is the permissive will of God But ultimately did not God decree this before the very foundation of the world It wasn't as if God said hmm.
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I never thought about this.
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I mean, I mean what? Oh, I got a night.
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Let's try this.