FBC Morning Light – April 27, 2022

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A good Wednesday morning to you. I hope your week has gone well thus far. We had the last session of our

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Spring Bible Conference last evening. It's a blessing to have Mark Chansky with us through these few days, and been encouraged by the encouragement of the

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Word. I also need to say today, I'd be remiss if I didn't, that it's my wife's birthday, so I have to send a special happy birthday greeting to my wife.

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She has been such a help and a blessing to me in the many years of our marriage, and God has only made her more beautiful as the years have gone by, and I greatly appreciate her.

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Well, we're again in the book of Job, and before I really focus on the main thing I wanted to emphasize today, in chapter 32.

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The other day when we were in Job, Job asked the question, where is wisdom? He asserted that it's not with man, we're not going to find it on ourselves, and you can't buy it, and so on and so forth.

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One of Job's friends in replying to Job brings out this same idea in chapter 32, verses 8 and 9.

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He says, there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.

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The breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. Where does wisdom come from? It comes from the

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Spirit of the Lord. Then he says this, and don't we see this truth today, great men are not always wise, nor do the aged always understand justice.

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I'll leave that without much comment and let you stew on that. What I really wanted to focus on is

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Job's testimony, his self -testimony in chapter 31, of what's really a righteous life.

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We often ask, what does righteousness look like? There is the imputed righteousness of Christ that is ours, but then there's that righteousness that really needs to be worked out, that we live righteous lives.

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Job goes through a list of things where he says, if this hasn't been true of me, then

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I'm deserving all of this suffering that I'm getting. He goes through a list of things that express practical righteousness in everyday living.

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Back in chapter 31, he lets us run down this list of expressions of practical righteousness.

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The first thing he mentions is, he expresses moral integrity.

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He starts off the chapter saying, I've made a covenant with my eyes, why then should

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I look upon a young woman? He's talking about looking lustfully.

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He's had a life of moral integrity, and nobody's disputing.

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As he goes through this list, nobody disputes any of these things that he says. Nobody can say, no, Job, I know better than that.

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Moral integrity. In verses 13, and that whole discussion about moral integrity goes from chapter 31, verses 1 to 12.

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Then in verses 13 through 23, he talks about how he has expressed compassion to help people who are poor, to help widows and orphans.

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He hasn't just ignored their plight, he's actually gone out of his way to show compassion for them, to help meet their needs.

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In verses 24 through 28, Job was a wealthy man in his day and in his culture.

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The beginning chapters of this book just point out the various ways in which his wealth was totally taken from him.

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But before he lost it all, what he says in verses 24 to 28 is, I didn't worship it.

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I didn't value inappropriately the wealth that I had.

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I didn't worship it. It was not my God. He says in verse 24, if I have made gold my hope, or said to fine gold, you are my confidence, and he goes on to say, if I've rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gained much, then

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I would deserve all this taken away from me and this suffering that I'm enduring.

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No, he says, I did not take great pride in the wealth that I was given.

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He seems to have managed it and stewarded it quite well in his compassion toward the poor and the widows and the fatherless.

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But he also says in verses 31 and 32, that he's just been generous with even strangers.

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He says, if the men of my tent have not said, who is there that has not been satisfied with his meat? But no sojourner had to lodge in the street, for I have opened my doors to the traveler.

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He's been very generous with his wealth. He hasn't taken pride in it and hoarded it greedily for himself.

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He also shows in verses 29 and 30 that his righteousness included a refusal to exact vengeance, revenge, when he could.

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He says, if I've rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me or lifted myself up when evil found him, indeed,

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I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for a curse on his soul. That takes a great deal of grace and a transformed righteous heart to see an enemy, somebody who has been treating you shamefully, suffer, not to be able to, at least inside, smile a little bit, say, yeah, well, finally got what you had coming to you.

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Job says, I didn't do that. I didn't respond that way in a spirit of vengeance. In verses 33 and 34, he says,

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I've been transparent regarding my iniquity. I haven't tried to cover up my sin and pretend that I haven't sinned.

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If I've wronged someone, I've gone to them and I've dealt with it. He's transparent about that, and he even expressed righteousness in caring for the land in verses 38 to 40.

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He says, if my land cries out against me and its furrows weep together, if I've eaten its fruit without money or caused its owners to lose their lives, then let thistles grow instead of wheat and weeds instead of barley.

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He's even expressed that righteousness toward the land that God had given to him.

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Job shows all these different ways in which he expressed righteous behavior, righteous character.

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Here's what I want us to get. He still suffered, and he suffered profoundly.

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We don't want to make the mistake of a formulaic type of Christianity that says, if I do everything just so, if I do everything right, if I am a person of moral integrity, if I'm generous with my stuff, if I don't take pride in whatever wealth

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I have, if I'm hospitable to others, I even take good care of and steward the things that God has given to me, therefore

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I'm not going to suffer. Life will be good for me. I'll have no problems in life if I just follow this formula.

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We don't want to go that route, because that's not a biblical route. God may have other reasons for taking things from us, sending adversity our way, afflictions our way, and it is not appropriate for us to conclude that either direction here.

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I'm suffering adversity, therefore my life must be filled with sin, that's

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Job's problem, Job's friends. I must not fall prey to the thinking that says,

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I'm not going to have any problems because I'm a righteous person. We don't go there.

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God has his ways with us. He blesses us with bounty sometimes, and sometimes he takes it away.

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The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord, and that either way should not change my pursuit of righteous living.

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May God help us to do that. Our Father and our God, we do pray that we would be faithful and consistent to live righteous lives regardless of the difficulties that come our way in life.

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May we live righteous lives not to get ease and comfort, but may we live that way just because it's the right way to live.

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We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a good rest of your Wednesday, and I trust