Job 26-28 "Shouts of Sovereignty"

Thank you, Jesus, for giving you to us, and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, we're going to be in Job chapter 26 to 28 today.

Again, we're taking these large bites from the book of Job and hope that it will help us put together this whole picture of what

Job is teaching us as Job is arguing back and forth with his friends.

As you're making your way there, we'll go ahead and offer a prayer for this morning and the reading of God's word.

Let's go ahead and pray. Lord God, I would ask that, Lord, as we consider the words of Job, that we would listen to the professions of a man that is mourning, that we would not forget that this is being said within days of losing what many would look to as their only hope in life.

Lord, this is something that is striking. This is something that should teach us how we ought to act, Lord. And so,

God, I would ask that you would encourage us today in these things, that you would help us see the earnest earnesty that is in Job's life, and Lord, that we would seek to mimic this kind of fear that he possesses of Yahweh, of you.

God, may we come to today's text. May we be rejuvenated today to live a faithful life throughout all of our days, but through this week specifically,

Lord. And God, may you be glorified at the reading of today's text, through the preaching of your word.

And we ask this in your name, Jesus Christ, amen. So today's message

I have titled today, just looking through these words of Job. So we've read the last words of Job's friends.

We don't see additional commentary given from Elias, Zophar, or Bildad after this.

This last week was the last time that we saw those things. I was, in each one of those conversations that we've seen in the past between these three friends, and I say the term friends with quotations around it, because we look at those things and we would say, how could these people consider themselves friends?

They've been gossiping about Job. They've been dirtying his name up. They've been saying wrong things about his life and have been trying to teach to him something that is not true in God's word, which is that if you have sown wickedness, therefore, that is why you fall.

That's why you have these great trials, and only those that are prospering are the ones that have true faith in Yahweh.

That's not a true teaching. That's what these friends have been teaching to Job. And so they've not been encouraging him.

They've not been helping him. They've only been hurting him continually, that twisting of the knife in the back of Job.

And they do this at every chance that they get. I thought about this last night at 6 o 'clock in the morning, or maybe 5 o 'clock in the morning.

That's probably when it was. I was up for a little while. My son had woken up and had come and laid in bed with us, and I'm over on the side of my bed, on our bed, and I'm very close to the edge, and every time

I moved just an inch, guess what my son Owen would do? He'd put his arm underneath me. And I don't know how he did it, because he was asleep, but he kept on trying to inch me off my side of the bed.

He was taking every chance he could get to take the ground from me, my bed from me.

And that's what I think we see here in the life of Job. Every time Job stops talking, guess what the friends are trying to do?

Put their arm out there and try to take that inch of security of Job. They're trying to slowly push him off the bed that he is upon.

Well, what we see here in Job chapter 26 all the way to chapter 32 is going to be

Job angry, Job yelling, and I would picture this as Job yelling.

The reason I say that is this is the longest discourse of Job in this text, is that Job is going to continually defend what?

What is Job defending in this text? God's sovereignty and his righteousness found in him.

His fear in Yahweh is what Job is defending in here. He's had enough. He's fed up with it.

There's no more letting his friends try to get that inch. It would be like me last night saying,

I'm not going to move again, Owen, because you're going to push me off the bed. I'm not going to allow you to take this from me.

And that's what we see here in the life of Job. So again, last week, Bildad has given his final remarks.

Job last week, as we saw, he gave his final response to Laiaphas specifically as his friend goes and in a response to him.

I would ask you again, church, to really think about, and maybe you've been in positions like this to be able to say,

I know what Job is feeling, amen to Job, right? I felt this. I felt how hard it is to suffer like Job has suffered.

And I would ask yourself, think about the band of accusers that are before him. These three individuals, think about them and think about what

Job was calling them eight days prior to the day that he's listening to these words of Laiaphas so far in Bildad.

Eight days prior, Job had seven sons and three daughters. Eight days prior, he had all these prospering blessings, these external things that we would be thankful for, right?

Job called these three men his friends before this day. Do you think

Job likes these individuals right now? Do you think he still calls them his friends right now?

Probably not. Probably not. Do you think they were great to him eight days prior?

They were probably very kind to him. He regarded them as friends. Do you think

Job at this point, eight days after this event has taken place, seven days after this event has taken place, now on this day of continual hardship with his friends, do you think he regrets his choice of friends at this point?

Undoubtedly. Ask yourself this today, what are my friends like that I build up around me?

Are they going to seek my destruction when the shadow of death approaches me? Am I holding on to friendships that are actually not going to help me in the day when

I am utterly destroyed? Are they going to build me up or are they going to seek my demise?

Are they gossiping behind my back or are they defending your character when you are not in the room?

I would ask you today, church, do not associate yourself with those that are like Elias, Zophar, or Bildad.

And I'm not saying don't talk to these individuals. How else are you going to share the gospel if you don't talk to these individuals?

I mean, do not make it your habit that you spend Monday through Saturday or Monday through Sunday with individuals like Bildad, Zophar, or Elias.

Why? They're not followers of Yahweh. They're not ones that are going to build you up.

They're not ones that are a part of the fellowship. They're not ones that you should be associating with. Why?

Why would you not want these individuals in your life? The day when you suffer hardship, are they going to be there for you?

Not in a way to encourage you. They might be there for you, but only in a way to stab you in your back. Today's message, today's words,

I again, I would encourage you to read them as if Job is yelling his defense to his friends.

I would encourage you to have that type of thinking of how Job is responding because this to me seems that it's the hair that breaks the camel's back, and now we hear the crashing of this camel, this father who's heard enough from these friends, this father who's broken in his heart, broken in his being, and you're going to hear the anger of his voice echo in our ears today, and I hope that it creates a somber feeling for our own beliefs, our own theology, our own faith in Yahweh today.

So let's look here at verse 1 to 4 of chapter 26. Again, these are three chapters that we're going over.

We'll be probably reading them somewhat quickly, but it says, Then Job answered and said, so he's responding to Bildad in the prior chapter, these six verses in the previous chapter.

What a help you are to the one without power. How have you saved the arm without strength?

What counsel you have given to the one without wisdom? What sound wisdom you have abundantly made it known?

To whom have you declared words, and whose breath comes out from you?

Again, you can imagine this father just yelling these things. Is he yelling these somewhat sarcastically at the friends?

Oh Bildad, you've made me feel so much better by your words. Oh Bildad, you've offered to me something that actually encourages me and strengthens me.

No, he has not received anything from these friends that have been helpful to him. What has

Bildad offered? It's been nothing but garbage in the eyes of Job. It's nothing that's actually building him up.

It's nothing that's encouraging him in his mourning, in his grief, his hardship in life. Let's look here at verse 5 through 6.

These are interesting verses. The departed spirits tremble under the water and their inhabitants, naked as Sheol before him and abandoned, has no covering.

This is an interesting text in of itself. I think there could be some theological depth that we could see in this.

The point of what Job is getting at though, and I want to be general in speaking of this, but this is very true. Is there a place that we can go and hide from God?

No. God sees it all. God knows it all. There's no hiding place from God. And so in this text,

Job is saying those that die and they go to the grave, God sees them. He knows them. And those that go to the place of torment, abandoned, in this text,

I have a hard time not putting that N in there and saying abandoned, but abandoned. This place that Job is speaking of is a place of the wicked and God sees them.

Of course that he sees them. That's a place where he's pouring out his wrath upon them. Now I would argue, and this is where I think the deeper theological parts could be at,

Sheol in the New Testament, the Greek equivalent that we'd even have in the Greek Septuagint of these translations would be the word

Hades, this Greek word Hades. I would argue, I think that this word

Hades is a state of being where the soul and flesh are separated. Meaning, as we've seen last week and even today, that when we die, our soul is separated from the flesh.

Our flesh remains in the state of decay. Our soul goes to either being with God or goes to a place of where we're suffering punishment of God.

And so I think that that's what Sheol is speaking of is many times in the Old Testament, it would admit that both the righteous and the unrighteous go to Sheol.

They both go to a state of separation of soul and flesh. Soul is still taken away from flesh, whether you are righteous or you're unrighteous.

But specifically abandoned in this text is that place where the wicked would go. The Greek equivalent of this would be

Gehenna, outer darkness, also known in English as hell. The place where God particularly pours out his due judgment upon those individuals, those souls like the rich man and Lazarus in the book of Luke.

This right here in this text, I know this is Old Testament. This is written long, long time ago.

This should terrify us for our neighbors. Is there any peace outside of the body of Christ?

There is none. There's none whatsoever. If only these three friends, if only we, if only the unconverted, if only the converted also could hear the cries that are offered from the place of abandon, the place of Gehenna, the place of outer darkness, the place and the wails and the cries of men like the rich man saying, just give us a little bit of relief.

If you could hear those cries continually, do you think there would be a day that would go by where we were not out on the streets telling our friends and our family to repent and have faith in Yahweh?

It would strike a fear in our hearts beyond belief, beyond imagine, to hear the cries of those departed souls that did not have faith in Yahweh, those that are suffering justly underneath the condemnation of the

Lord. Brothers and sisters, consider that, even in a text like this, a father who's mourning, what would you do today if you could hear those cries?

The place where nobody can hide from God, the unbeliever today, they think,

I'm just going to go to the grave and die and my body will rot and there will be nothing more. Their eyes are shut to the truth that they have a devastating day awaiting them.

Let's continue reading this. He stretches out the north over what is formless and hangs the earth on nothing.

He wraps up the waters in his clouds and the cloud does not break out under them.

Now, I want to pause here and let me be very clear. As we have teachers in this room, we have ex -teachers in this room, we have science teachers in this room.

I do not know anything really about science, to be honest with you. I don't know very much about space.

But this text, to me, tells me what? That God is king over it all.

The things I can't tell you in detail about, the things that Don in their fullness can't tell us in detail about, who is king over them?

Yahweh is. He is the one that has done this. He's the one that's wrapped these things up. He's the one that stretched them out.

He is the one that has created it in what was formless. He has done these things. He is sovereign over them.

Verse 9, he obscures the face of his throne and he spreads his cloud over it. We cannot ascend to heaven, brothers and sisters.

It is only in Christ that we can be seated in the heavenly places. Now, this is interesting because I think that this is alluding to,

I think this is alluding to the Jewish belief in three heavens.

And before you say, well, that sounds awfully Mormon of you to say, Brayden, what I mean by that is Jewish culture in their day, they would refer to the first heaven as what's outside, where the birds fly, the sky, the clouds.

The second heaven would be seen as that starry abode above us, the sun, the moon, the stars.

Abraham would have forced his eyes up to the second heaven and God would have told him, your descendants will be like these.

That's what Jewish culture would see as the second heaven. But the third heaven is that place where God particularly resides and reveals his glory unto those souls that have been departed.

2 Corinthians 12, verse 2 says, I know a man. This is Paul that's talking in this and he's saying this in an obscure way about himself.

He says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body

I do not know or out of the body I do not know, God knows such a man was caught up to the third heaven.

And he's speaking about his revelation, his revealing of Christ to him, that he was caught up to the third heaven in that moment.

That is that particular place. And so I think in this text, what he's saying is that this creation, this first and second heaven that is spread out the clouds, they hide that within them, heaven, this third heaven where man cannot go unless he's in Christ.

He hides himself there. Our mind would even think about the prior chapters of Job saying no man can find

God behind this rock or in this room or in this place. No man can go and find God in these places because he resides in this third heaven.

Verse 10 through 17. Let's keep on reading. And he marked a circle on the surface of waters at the boundary of light and darkness.

The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.

He quieted the sea with his power, and by his understanding, he has crushed Rahab.

By his breath, the heavens are made beautiful. His hands, his hand has pierced the fleeting serpent.

Behold, these are the fringes of his way. And how only with a whisper of a word do we hear him.

But his mighty thunder, who can understand? Job is admitting in this text that God is too incapable to be understood in his fullness.

Incomprehensible to be understood in his fullness. Has he been sufficiently revealed as not the prophets and all the

Bible have given to us that which is sufficient for us to have faith and salvation in God? Absolutely.

Job, before the book of God, the 66 books have been written, Job had faith in Yahweh, fear in Yahweh.

He was saved. He's sufficiently revealed these things to us as man. Look here at verse 12.

I do, again, let me pause here and just say again. Space, science, the world, things and how they operate around me.

Brothers and sisters, God is king over them. That's what this text says. He's sovereign over them.

He draws the circle around them. He draws them out. He puts them in their place. There's nothing that's found underneath heaven that is not our

God's. Look here again with verse 12 and 13.

This is a very interesting text. He quieted the sea with his power.

Again, I think we can easily understand what that's talking about, that God has sovereignty over the seas.

But the interesting part of this is he, by his understanding, he crushed

Rahab. And his breath, the heavens are made beautiful. Again, we can rationalize those things speaking of God's creation.

But then it says his hand has pierced the fleeting serpent. Now, this is an interesting text with a multitude of views.

It is believed that Rahab is a mythical dragon beast.

And many, and this is, I would argue, do not have this interpretation of this text. This creates a lot of open boxes and cans of worms that we should not be holding to.

But some would argue that this text is speaking about Rahab as Egypt, that God crushed

Egypt. That's what many would put this as. But the issue with that is that they would then be putting this record of Job, which existed prior to Egypt, prior to the crushing of Egypt, they would be saying that the prophet who records these things is putting into the mouth of Job that he crushed

Egypt. That could create a lot of issues for us, right? Job didn't really say that. That's immediately what it would be, that this man could add to the words of Job.

That's not anything that we should hold to. But that's an interpretation. I want to let us know about that, but I want to encourage you to avoid this thinking.

Or it could be that this prophet, as we've already seen him say things that are remarkable in prophecy, about him saying, my

Redeemer lives. This may be alluding to how Satan is defeated at the cross.

Luke 10, verse 18, he says that he sees Satan falling out of the sky like lightning.

Or John 12, verse 31, that says, I am raised up, I will cast out the ruler of this world.

And we would see that this is alluding, and speaking of Satan, who in the book of Revelation is referred to as that dragon, that serpent of old.

So could this Rahab, this mythical dragon, be alluding to a prophetic foretelling of the defeat of Satan at the cross of Christ?

It could be those things. However, I want to be very clear in saying this. Every time, and I've been very encouraged by this in my seminary classes, we're going through the

Old Testament, there's a lot of times where people will say, oh, well, we don't have any evidence of this city in the

Old Testament, or we have no evidence of this individual ever living at this time, and so therefore it didn't really happen.

They try to rationalize it in these ways. But then, guess what? Somebody with a shovel out in Israel or somewhere out in the

Middle East, they take their shovel and they dig up something, and guess what they find? Evidence of that city, evidence of that person.

And so whatever this mythical dragon of Rahab is, it's very possible, and I want to be so clear in this, it's very possible that this animal, this beast, really existed.

This Leviathan character that we have in the book of Job, it could have been that it really existed. I would actually encourage us to think that it really existed.

However, whatever it looked like, whatever dinosaur it might have been, whatever it is, it existed.

This book admits it to be existing. Now, we could even look at this in the book of Jonah, that many scientists today would say, there's no fish, there's no whale that could ever swallow a man, and man lived in it.

Yeah, okay, fair enough, but God's Word says so. So am I going to have faith in what

God's Word has declared, or am I going to have faith in the scientists who try to refute over and over and over God's Word?

Brothers and sisters, have faith in God's Word. Whatever this Rahab is, whatever that mouth that swallowed up Jonah was, it existed.

It was real. It did take place. Why? Because God's Word says it did. Now, in what it says it did is this mythical beast, and when

I say mythical, that's how people describe it. I'm saying this is a real beast. This beast, could it have been foretelling and foreshadowing what

Christ did in the future? Could Job be looking forward to what Christ did? Absolutely, it could be that. It could be those things.

I would just put that in the back of your mind, be thinking and pondering how to interpret those things.

This is all great stuff to be considering, even for today. Let's read chapter 27 now.

Then Job continued to lift up his discourse and said, As God lives, who has removed my justice?

And the Almighty, who has embittered my soul? For as long as breath is in me, and the

Spirit from God is in my nostrils, my lips certainly will not speak unrighteousness, nor will my tongue utter deceit.

Far be it from me that I should declare you right. Till I breathe my last,

I will not remove my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness, and I will not let it go.

My heart does not reproach any of my days. This is a man who's saying,

Friends, you're trying to accuse me of things that never happen, and I will die upon that truth.

I've never sowed wickedness in the dust. You cannot say that I'm reaping what I've sown in that way.

This God who has pulled apart the sky and made it the way it is, He has sovereignly brought me here.

Do not try to argue anything different to me, because I will defend it until I die. This is remarkable, and I would even encourage you, what's also theologically important for us, is

Job says in this text, he continues to confess that God is Almighty, that God lives, and he says that His Spirit is in him.

It's in his nostrils. God's Spirit is existing in Job. What would we say if somebody today said,

God, I cannot deny that He lives.

I believe that He's Almighty, and His Spirit resides in me. Would we not look at them and say, we believe and profess you as a brother and sister in Christ?

That's exactly what we see here in Job. Job has the Spirit. Job knows

God. And in fact, him wanting to fight for his justice is actually a testament to him having the law of God somewhere within him.

He wants what's true to be done. He wants true justice to take place, and he's willing to defend his life before these friends.

May my enemy, and we'll keep on reading, may my enemy be as the wicked and the one who rises up against me as the unjust, for what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off?

When God requires his soul, will God hear his cry? When distress comes upon him, will he take delight in the

Almighty? Will he call on God at all times? Let me pause here and ask us this question.

Is there any hope for the unbeliever when they are suffering loss? Brothers and sisters, we think about this.

We think about how we suffer and how we go through hardship, and where does our heart, our knees, our mind, our hands, where do they turn?

They should turn to God. They should turn to where we have faith in. Where does the unbeliever turn to?

They have no hope. They have no true peace that is aligned in front of them whatsoever.

Job is saying in here, where does the wicked go? I today, friends,

Eliaphus, Bildad, Zophar, I today in my suffering, where am I turning to? I fear

Yahweh. That should tell you right there that I have not sown wickedness in the past.

I have not given up in my faith. I've turned to Yahweh in these things. Romans 8, 28, and we're going to read all verse 11 all the way down to 23 here in a moment, and I want to remind us of Job shouting these things to his friends in some of the hopes that we have even in the

New Testament. Romans 8, 28, we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those that believe in him.

So you suffer a loss, so you go through a hardship in life. Yes, you will. You do. Is God causing it to work for your good?

If you believe in him, you can say yes. You don't know how or why or what these things are, but does

God cause these things to work for the good of those that believe in him? Yes, he does. That's a truth in Scripture. Ephesians 1 even would profess some remarkable things for us.

Ephesians 1, it says in verse 5, "...by

predestinating us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will."

Job knows. He's shouting. What did I say that I've titled today's message of?

Shouting of sovereignty. I've listened very much this week to Christians, people that I call brothers and sisters in the faith who deny

God's sovereignty, deny God's providence, deny his decree, deny his predestination, and they cannot rationalize a holy, wise purpose in all things.

Job, guess what he is professing in this? God is sovereign over the sky. He's sovereign even over my situation, and I will fear him for it.

Job doesn't need to know why his sons were taken from him, but he knows that ultimately it was according to God's plan.

Now, let's keep on reading here in 27 verses 11 through 23.

I will instruct you in the power of God. What is with the

Almighty I will not conceal. Behold, all of you have seen it.

Why then do you speak with utter vanity? This is the portion of the wicked man from God and the inheritance which the ruthless receive from the

Almighty. Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword, and his offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

His survivors will be buried because of the plague, and their widows will not be able to weep.

Though he piles up silver like dust and prepares garment as plentiful as clay, he may prepare it, but the righteous will wear it.

I just want to say amen to that. He may prepare it, but the righteous will wear it.

And the innocent will divide the silver, and he has built his house like the moth, or has a hut which the watchman has made.

He lies down rich, but never again. He opens his eyes, and it is no longer.

Terrors overtake him like many waters. A tempest steals him away in the night.

The east wind carries him away, and he goes, and it whirls him away from his place.

For it will hurl at him without sparing. He will surely try to flee from its power.

Men will clap their hands at him and will hiss him from his place. Brothers and sisters, what has

Job just depicted for us about the wicked? They too suffer, and when their suffering comes, will they be planted, or will they be whisked away in the wind?

They'll be whisked away in the wind. Look, we as Christians, we suffer. The world outside of us, they suffer, and sometimes it looks very similar, but the way that we turn, the way that it affects us is so different than how it affects the world.

Where does the world turn for peace? They don't. They're whisked away in it. They're overtaken by it.

And us as Christians, where do we fall on? We fall upon the rock, the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone that was rejected for us.

That's where we turn. That's where we fall. Yes, when you fall on it, will you be shattered to pieces?

Yes. Do you not hear the voice of Job mourning over this? Is Job happy about what he's in?

No, but where is he built that God is sovereign and I fear him? I will not relent from that.

I will die defending that as the words of Job. Chapter 28, verses 1 -11, let's read these things.

Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where they refine... Let me pause here. I did want to make mention.

I apologize. Let's look back here at chapter 27.

I apologize. I wanted to make mention of this. He may prepare it, but the righteous will wear it. There in verse 17.

The wicked who are looking for prosperity and for happiness and joy in this life, what will they receive in the end?

None of it. The Christian who suffers and is persecuted in this life, what will happen to them when

Christ comes again? They will wear it. The very things that people in this life who are trying to build with their own righteousness, with their own works, they will not have it.

Eighty years of the average lifespan, is it a short glimmer in the time of eternity?

Take it all from me, Lord. It's okay. I will wear it in the next life. Be encouraged with that,

Christians, today. Be encouraged that no matter what happens, it's okay. Christ Himself will wipe away our tears one day and Christ Himself will vindicate us one day.

Christ Himself, the wicked who blaspheme God and gossip and slander you,

O Christian, do not worry. Christ Himself will pour out judgment upon them one day. Turn back now with me to chapter 28, verses 1 -11.

Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where they refine gold. Iron is taken from dust and copper is smelted from rock.

Man puts an end to darkness and to the farthest limit he searches out. The rock in thick darkness and shadow of death.

He sinks a shaft far from habitation, forgotten by the foot. They hang and swing to and fro, far from men.

The earth, from it comes food and underneath it is overturned as fire. Its rocks are the source of sapphires and its dust contains gold.

The path no bird of prey knows, nor has the falcon's eye caught sight of it. The proud beasts have not trotted it, nor has the fierce lion passed over it.

He sends his hand forth to the flint. He overturns the mountain at the base. He breaks out the channels through the rocks and his eyes sees anything precious.

And his eyes sees anything precious. He dams up the streams from flowing and what is hidden he brings out to the light.

So this is speaking of all these things that we look at in this life. We look for the gold in the clay.

We seek after these things. But is there any wisdom in it? Is there any wisdom that can be found in the gold?

Is there any wisdom that can be found in the earth? Is there any wisdom, true wisdom? And you might be asking, what is true wisdom?

This is a great question. The next verses will answer this for us. Let's keep on reading here, verse 12 and on.

But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?

Hold on to that phrase right there. It's going to be reiterated for us at the end of this chapter. Where can wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding?

Where can wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth and it is not found in the land of the living.

Again, I look at this life of Job, this man early on in creation. He was not a dummy at all.

He knew some remarkable things in his life. Is true wisdom found in this life?

No, it's not. Not the wisdom that Job is talking about. Let's keep on reading here and we'll make mention of those verses in a moment.

The deep says it's not in me and the sea says it's not within me.

Pure gold cannot be given in its place nor can silver be weighed out as a price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir and the precious onyx or sapphire.

Gold or glass cannot meet its worth nor can it be exchanged for articles of fine gold.

Coal and crystal are not to be mentioned and the acquisition of wisdom is above that of pearls.

The topaz of the Ethiopian cannot meet its worth nor can it be valued in pure gold.

Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? Did we not just read that again?

Verse 20. Where then does wisdom come from and where is the place of understanding? Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the sky.

Abandon, this word that we just looked at earlier, and death. Say, with our ears we have heard a report of it.

God understands its way and He knows its place. The book of Proverbs and the book of Ecclesiastes speaks of this personification of wisdom over and over and over again.

He looks to the ends of the earth and He sees everything under the heavens. When He set a weight to the wind and met it out the waters by measure, when

He set a limit for the rain and a course for the thunderbolts, then He sought and recounted it.

He established it and also searched it out. So He said to man,

Behold, the fear of the Lord is wisdom. And to turn away from evil, that is understanding.

The things that God has hidden from man's eyes, man will search in it in all the places other than the place where it truly resides.

They will not find it unless God says to that man, Behold, the fear of the

Lord, that is wisdom. And to turn away from evil is understanding. Brothers and sisters, you can gain as much knowledge, you can gain as much scientific wealth in this world, but if you don't know

Christ, it is all in vain. Our only hope, the only thing

I desire for you to know today is Christ crucified. That's it. Die with that.

Die with that assurity that Christ died for me and He rose again. 1 Corinthians 2, verses 1 -10

And when I came to you, brothers, this is Paul speaking to the church of Corinth in here. I did not come with superiority of words or of wisdom proclaiming to you the witness of God.

For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my words and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstrating of the

Spirit and of its power. So that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Yet we do not speak wisdom among those who are mature in wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of rulers of this age who are being abolished.

But we speak of God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden.

We're not just reading Job. It's hidden from their eyes. The wisdom which has been hidden, which

God predestined before the ages to our glory, which none of the rulers of this age has understood.

For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But just as it is written, things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard, and which has not entertained the heart of men, all that God has prepared for those who love

Him. But to us, God revealed them through the

Spirit, for the Spirit teaches all things, even the depths of God. You think about the greatest knowledge, the greatest truth in this world, the greatest thing that you sat through a lecture in school and learned, it all pales in comparison to the truth of knowing

Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Cast it all away. Be the biggest fool in the world, but know

Jesus Christ and you'll be a mighty man in the end. There is nothing more than I want us to know as a church, as believers in Christ, than to know

Christ and Him crucified. Job knew it. Job had the fear of the

Lord. And he says, that is my wisdom. Men who seek after this wisdom in this world, this destructive, evil age that we are in, they will not find it.

Because they seek everywhere else other than the Lord, whom they crucified. So today is the day to have faith in Christ.

Today is the day to profess God's sovereignty. Today is the day to know that that is your only encouragement.

That when suffering comes, it's according to a holy and wise, purposeful God who's causing it for my good.

I don't know why, but He's causing it for my good. Have wisdom in Christ today.

Let us pray. Lord, we thank You so much for this text. We thank

You for Job, Lord. We thank You for his utterances and his defense against this wicked accusers that are before him.

Lord, even in his anger, even in his upsetness, even in his tall voice that we can hear from this text,

Lord. God, may we today have that encouragement in ourselves. May we today leave this room ready that You don't need defending,

Lord, but that we would be built upon Your Word and that a defense would be ready to be given for the faith and hope that we have.

The fear of Yahweh. Lord, may we have wisdom today in You. May we look at all other things as inferior to knowing

You. May that truth that we know You, that we possess that faith, be the gem that we hold on to and never let go of,

Lord. We thank You for this revelation in each one of our eyes today, and we ask that that would be carried on even when we participate in communion this morning.

God, I ask this in Your name, Jesus Christ, Amen. Brothers and sisters,

I would ask you to please stand. I'll invite Brother Rick up here. Again, grab the elements today.

Take them back to your seats. If you need a hand getting these things, if you have a difficult time coming up from your seat, please just gesture to us.

We'll bring it back to you. Come up. Grab both elements. Go back to your seat. Pray about these things. Search your heart about these things.

Ask yourself, Do I have the wisdom of Yahweh today? Do I have fear of Him and what

He has even done for me? Do I fear these things? Please come up and participate in no orderly fashion.