Job 16-17 "Sovereignty Over Windy Words"

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that's one of the examples that even though Santa Claus, St. Nick is fantasized in this interesting way of the 21st century, it's actually history has revealed that he's more cool, in my opinion, the historical camp than what we have made up in our minds today.
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So it's wonderful to think about that. So moral of the story, instead of decking the halls this year, go deck some heretics, is what that means.
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So is that what it means? Tis the season. We're going to be in Job chapter 16 and 17.
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I do hope that that story, that poem, that idea, that teaching, that historical event, it should show to us the emphasis that we as Christians ought to have at defending what the word of God says.
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God's word doesn't need defending, and it clearly does teach that Jesus is God in flesh of the same substance as the
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Father. That big word that Rick was able to have a little one say today. So anyway, we are going to be in Job chapter 16, verse 17 for this morning.
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So please start making your way there now. As you are turning there, let's go ahead and begin with a word of prayer.
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Lord God, we thank you for all that you do, Lord. We thank you for this book. We thank you for Job and just the example.
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What the scripture has revealed to us that, Lord, you are sovereign, that you are good, Lord. And God, as we open up your word, may we just be covered with that assurance,
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Lord. Covered with even the assurance that Job himself speaks of here in Job chapter 16 and 17.
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Even this difficult text for us this morning, Lord. God, may we approach whatever season that we might be in today,
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Lord, with confidence that you are doing something marvelous in the midst of it, Lord. That there is a purpose that is good,
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Lord. Even though the world would say it is bad, Lord, we know and then take confidence in your promise of Romans chapter 8,
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Lord, that you cause all things to work for the good of those that believe in you, Lord. And so we approach your throne of grace, believing in you and knowing that that scripture is true,
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Lord. And God, we would ask that you would just encourage our hearts and our minds with that truth spoken to us today.
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And we ask this in your name, Jesus Christ. Amen. Again, Job is this contextual book for us that we have to remember what's going on as we read through it.
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Job chapter, chapter about chapter 3, all the way to the end of the book is all happening in one conversation.
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And so we see Job debating back and forth with his friends. His friends are giving not great advice.
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Job is sometimes making error in what he's saying. And so today we're going to be taking that large portion of scripture and we're going to look at all of Job's response back to Eliaphus, his supposed friend.
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And as a reminder, last week, we saw how Eliaphus was being, what's the modern term that we have today?
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Karen, right? He was being loud and obnoxious, just accusing Job of things that are untrue.
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He was wanting to be heard. He was very much like how the Pharisees in Jesus' day were looking at trying to find an accusation to bring against Jesus, right?
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When there was no accusation to be found. He was only performing miracles which attested to him being the
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Messiah. Yet they looked at him and they said, you are a drunkard and a glutton. This is, again, an example of when
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Jesus says, wisdom will be indicated by your deeds. We have to look at somebody's whole life and then make a decision, judge righteously when we look at an individual before we cast judgment on somebody.
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Last week, again, we looked at how Eliaphus appealed to Job about how he is wise because of what?
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He's wise because of his age. That's what he says. He says that I'm older than you, Job. I'm older than your father.
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You should listen to what I have to say. He appeals to this age idea. And again, we see that wisdom, yes, it does accompany with age, but it's not to be assumed that just because somebody is old that we ought to listen to every single word of theirs, especially if that word that they're giving is void of scripture.
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If it's void of God's holy, wise, inspired word, if it's void of those things, is it really wisdom?
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It's just empty, lofty ideas that they're trying to tell us. So again, chapter 16 all the way to 17 is what we're going to be looking at today.
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Job chapter 16 verses all the way to chapter 17. So let's go ahead and read this.
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Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things.
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Troublesome comforters are you all. Is there no end to windy words or what pains you that you answer?
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I too could speak like you. If your soul was in the place of my soul,
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I could compose words against you and shake my head at you.
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I could encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips could lessen your pains.
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If I speak, my pain is not lessened. And if I cease, what will go forth from me?
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What Job is saying in here to his friend, Eliaphus, the supposed friend, is that everything that Eliaphus just said, even though it might sound good in some cases and in some ways, and it might sound like there's parts of it that, man, this is truth.
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Job is saying that anyone can really speak like how Eliaphus is. That if Eliaphus was the friend that was suffering,
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Job could utter the very same thing back to him. It's easy to come up with memorable sayings is what
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Job is trying to say. There's no end to these windy words. It's an example to us today that, brothers and sisters, we ought not to look to the world for encouragement when we are in difficult situations.
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We ought not to think the Facebook and the Twitter quotations that are just made up that have a whole bunch of likes and shares, that that's not where true wisdom exists.
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True wisdom exists in God's revealed word. That's where wisdom exists.
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And so Job's saying that all the things that you've said, Eliaphus, even though they might sound good, I could say them.
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Anyone could say them. And it doesn't make it wise. It doesn't make it true. It doesn't make it something that we ought to place our faith in.
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And it is not something that is to carry us through the difficult seasons that we might be in.
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Brothers and sisters, I would ask you today, if you are in suffering, if you will come to a time where there is a bad thing that takes place in your life,
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I ask you, where do we run to for our encouragement? Do we run to the assurance that God is sovereign in those situations?
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Or do we run to that worldly advice that seems to sound good and that pleases and tickles our ears?
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One of those places that we would run to would be like building on sinking sand.
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Sure, you can build up the house and you might be able to put on a roof before it falls over, but it is not a sure foundation.
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Jesus in Matthew chapter seven, he says, come to me, build upon the rock and you will not fall.
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The winds will come and it will press against the house, but it will not fall because it is built upon the rock.
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But those that build upon the sand, the storm, the wind comes, and it falls over.
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Again, the world can seem to make sense of things in many ways, but it will fall over if you try to build your house upon it.
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Do not run to those places that are sinking sand to build your theology or to build that which you need or that which you want to place your hope in.
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Let's read verses seven all the way to 16 here. Verse seven, but now he has exhausted me.
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You have made desolate all my company. You have shriveled me up. I want to pause here.
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Who is Job speaking about when he's saying he and you? He's speaking about God. Listen to the words of Job and what he's uttering here.
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I want to read again verse seven on on. But now he, God, has exhausted me. God has made me desolate to all my company.
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You have shriveled me up. It has become a witness and my leanness rises up against me.
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It answers to my face. His anger, he's attributing this to God. God's anger has torn me and hunted me down.
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He has gnashed at me with his teeth. My adversary sharpened his eyes to look at me.
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They have opened their mouth wide at me. They have struck me on the cheek and reproach.
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They have masked themselves against me. God's hand, God hands me over to ruffians and tosses me into the hands of the wicked.
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I was at ease, but he shattered me. And he has grasped me by the neck and has shaken me to pieces.
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He has also set me up as his target. His arrows surround me.
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Without mercy, he slits my kidneys open. He pours out my gall on the ground.
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He breaks through me with breach after breach. He runs at me like a warrior.
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I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and thrust my horn into the dust.
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My face is flush from weeping in the shadow of death on my eyelids.
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What has Eliaphus offered to Job is the reason for why he's suffering. He has taught to Job some sort of what we would look at today and say that that appears to be this karma type of why things take place.
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Job, you did this, and because of it, this has happened. Job, obviously, you have iniquity, you've sown it in the ground, and now you are reaping what you deserve is what
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Eliaphus has been saying. What is Job saying? God is the one that actually hunted me down.
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There was no me sowing wickedness, and now I'm retrieving it back to me. No, this is
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God's plan, and I'm a part of it. God's anger, this terrible situation
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I'm in right now, it's only because the Lord has willed it to come to pass, and it is not because I'm being repaid for anything.
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And brothers and sisters, I can look at this text and say, amen, that this is true, and why can I say such?
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Job in the very first chapter says, Yahweh gives, Yahweh takes. Blessed be the name of Yahweh.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. And God declares it that he never sinned on his lips when he said such a thing.
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When Job attributes the situation that he's in to God being the one that has ultimately willed it to come to pass, he does not sin.
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And again, you might ask, okay, well, then why at the end of the book, there's a situation where Job is rebuked?
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I was changing the letters out on the sign this morning with the wonderful Cairo, the
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Xmas. If you don't know Xmas, it's the X that's in the front of that is Cai.
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It's the Greek letter that's the very beginning of Christ. It's the Cai that we have in Cairo.
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It's a Cai -mas. It's Christmas is what it's saying. It's the same exact thing. So don't think we're trying to adopt a worldview when we have
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Xmas outside. It is a Cai. Put Cai back in Christmas. However, I'm changing the sign outside, and I'm looking around and there's fog that's covering the hills that are to our east and to our west, right?
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It's difficult to see the hills beyond the fog. What Job is doing is he's saying, look, everything around me that I can see, this is because God has willed it to be so.
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The friends are looking around and they see the fog and they see the land. And they're saying, everything that you see is because you have done something,
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Job. Job is saying, no, everything that I see, this is God that has brought it to pass. The area where Job falls into error is that he's looking out into the fog and he's saying, this must be
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X, Y, or Z reasons. So Job, back in chapter, I believe it's chapter 7, where Job says,
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Lord, it would have been better if I died. Lord, it would be better if I had not been born.
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Job is recognizing God's sovereignty in something, but he's still saying it would have been better if something else taken place.
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That's where I believe Job oversteps the bounds of what he as a human should be professing.
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However, Job does not commit sin. He does not have iniquity on his lips. When he looks and he sees the things around him and he says, these things are because God has willed it so.
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Why? Why? Because there's clearer texts in the Bible that very much profess that. I'd ask you to please turn with me.
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Start making your way to Daniel chapter 4. But while you're turning there, I'll read Ephesians chapter 1 for us here.
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Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11 says this. Also, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will.
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Having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will.
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Turn with me to Daniel chapter 4 verse 33 through 37. Daniel chapter 4 verse 33 through 37 is
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Nebuchadnezzar, that story of him. Let's read it and consider some of the things that Nebuchadnezzar says.
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Immediately the word, so verse 33 to 37, immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled.
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And he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle.
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And his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws.
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But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me.
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And I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
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Brothers and sisters, listen to verse 35 in here. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
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And no one can ward off his hand or say to him, what have you done? At that time, my reason returned to me and my majesty and splendor was restored to me.
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For the glory of my kingdom and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out. So I was reestablished and my sovereignty and surpassing greatness was added to me.
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Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the king of heaven for all his works are true and his ways are just.
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And he is able to humble those who walk in pride. It is when
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God opens our eyes to see how great he is. Then the grace of God is seen in him giving us our every breath.
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The sovereignty of God does not make God into a monster, but rather reveals his glory and mercy for those who believe in him through all things.
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Brothers and sisters, take note in verse 35 of what Nebuchadnezzar says about who you are.
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You are accounted as nothing. We have churches all across the world today and throughout the ages that have tried to bolster up the idea of who man is.
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Listen to what Nebuchadnezzar says. You are nothing. You are nothing.
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But then listen to what Nebuchadnezzar also professes. Verse 37, for all his works are true and his ways are just and he is able to humble those who walk in pride.
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Brothers and sisters, every breath you breathe is a gift from God recognizing your lowliness, your place in the world, which is what does
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Nebuchadnezzar say? You are counted as nothing actually reveals and magnifies the grace of God that you are able to take another step and another breath today.
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You are sustained by a God who sees you as nothing.
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That makes God graceful, loving, merciful, long -suffering, and patient in all that he does.
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I could imagine that you would object to myself and even to the words of Job in Job chapter 16 here, and it would be due to an unhealthy understanding of what free will is.
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Look no further than to Christ alone on this topic of free will.
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Jesus, who did not wield a sinful nature, would be confessed as the most free human of all time.
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Yet while being the most free human of all time, likewise his life was too the most predetermined.
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God's sovereignty does not destroy man's freedom, but our freedom is established according to God's will.
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You think about the life of Jesus and he did not have a sin nature. He was not bound like you and I to have a proning and a longing and an effect of sin in our life.
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Jesus did not possess that. But yet while Jesus was free, the most free, we have the entire
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Old Testament that's telling us what? The very predetermined life of Jesus Christ.
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Predestination does not take away the freedom that even Jesus had. Therefore, we should not think that in our own lives as well.
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Let's continue to read here in verse 17 and on, because this is so important, because Job asks the question of maybe even what we're asking today.
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Job says, why? Why? Because there's no violence in my hands and my prayer is pure.
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Oh, earth, do not cover my blood and let there be no resting place for my cry.
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Even now, behold, my witnesses in heaven and my advocate is on high. My friends are my scoffers.
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My eye weeps to God. Oh, that a man might argue with God as a man with his neighbor.
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For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.
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Job says, why? He asked the question that we would ask too. Why? Why, Job, do you view that it is
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God who is bringing these things to pass? God is the one that's hunting you down is what he says. God is the one that has surrounded you with arrows from above.
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Why, Job, would you say such? Because Job is adamant about his integrity and that which was even revealed to us who has a more clear picture of the story in the very first chapter.
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Job is an upright, blameless man who fears Yahweh. Karma does not exist in Job's mind because Job does not have anything that ought to be repaid to him.
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He never sowed wickedness like his friends are saying that he did. But likewise, notice in here,
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Job's not saying, look how great I am. He's saying, God is over my life. He's attributing the very same truth that Nebuchadnezzar said.
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I am nothing. God has hunted me down and it's up to him for him to do so. It's his plan.
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It's his world. It's his creation. He is the one who sustains me today. Job does not believe in a karma type sense of scales.
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It is not like Job thinks that God is holding a scale in his hand and he places all the good works on one side and all the bad works on the other and sees which one outweighs the other for him to punish or to reward based off of that kind of a system.
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No, instead, Job recognizes that God is patient and long -suffering and that all that comes to him is because God has willed it to.
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And he recognizes in that that even we too should recognize that we are all unrighteous, that we're all undeserving of any grace or sustaining of life.
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But instead, our wage should be immediate death, fully deserving eternal wrath of God.
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I'm so thankful God does not have a scale in his hands in that sense to pay us or to reward us based off of this karma type of scale.
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Why do I say that? Because none of us would receive anything good in life.
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We would all be struck dead right now. We would all be in the wrath of God forever and ever if God had a scale in his hand like Carmen would like to teach.
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Isaiah 6, why do I say that? Isaiah 64 6, all your righteous deeds are nothing but a filthy rag in the eyes of the
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Lord. The very fact that we can come here and worship God on a Sunday like today is a mercy of God and deserves to be praised over such.
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When we recognize God as being this aseity God that he is, that there's no one else like him, that he is the creator and sustainer of all things, then we should recognize,
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God, you are good for providing for me just another day to live. God, you are good today for letting me breathe your air that I am undeserving of.
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Lord, you are good for me to be able to enjoy my family. Lord, you are good for this. Lord, if you take it away, it's yours to take away.
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It was yours to give to me in the first place. It is yours to take away from me. Blessed be the name of the
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Lord. Let's read all of chapter 17 here.
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We'll pause in verse 6 here for a moment, but verse all the way of chapter 17. My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished.
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The grave is ready for me. This is again where I think Job is starting to err when he's looking out and he sees the fog out there.
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He says, okay, I know that everything I can see is God's will, and it has come to pass because God has willed it to come to pass.
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But that which I'm unable to see, what tomorrow will bring, what tomorrow looks like, that fog out there,
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I'm saying it must be this. The grave is ready for me. I should die. That's where Job is erring in this because he's saying,
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I am the one that can choose what God ought to be doing in this. Surely mockers are with me and my eye gazes on their provocation.
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Establish now a pledge for me with yourself, who is there that will clap my hand and pledge.
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For you have hidden their heart from insight. Therefore you will not exalt them.
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He who informs against friends for a share of the spoiled eyes of his children also will come to an end.
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But he has made me a byword of the people, and I am one at whom men spit.
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Job is saying that the neighboring people are spitting at him. His friends, they're spitting at him by saying,
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Job, this happened to you because you did something in the past. He's saying that Job himself has become an example to all the people.
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Brothers and sisters, we read Job today as what? An example.
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This is true. He's become a byword of the people. He's become to us something that we look at and we say, blessed be the name of the
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Lord in every time of our lives. My eye has also grown dim because of grief, and all my members are as a shadow.
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The upright will be appalled at this, and the innocent will stir up himself against the godless.
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Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to his ways, and he who has clean hands will grow mightier and mightier.
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But come again, all of you now, for I do not find a wise man among you.
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My days are past. My plans are torn apart. Even the wishes of my heart, they make night into day, saying, the light is near in the presence of darkness.
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If I hope for Sheol as my home, I make my bed in the darkness. If I call to the pit, you are my fathers.
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To the worm, my mother and my sister. Where now is my hope?
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And who beholds my hope? Will it go down with me to Sheol? Shall we together go into the dust?
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Brothers and sisters, again, this is the crying heart of a mourning father that we ought to expect in some way or shape or fashion.
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Even though in some of the words that Job says here, he does err again and again, like we should expect a sinful man to do.
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However, ask yourself today this, do you today see the infinite character of God?
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Do you see that today? And do you see in comparison how much less you are in that infinite character of God?
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Do you see how the deeper understanding of God's character only amplifies the work and the grace of our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? We deserve nothing but wrath.
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What are we accounted as? Nothing. But instead, we have been saved through the blood of the one who deserved all praise, yet he suffered the nails for you and I.
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Today is the day to believe in that gospel message.
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Today is the day to recognize that infinite character of God, that infinite character that became the flesh in the womb of Mary, who was born in the manger, who lived for you and I, and who died in our place.
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Believe that he is rose again. And brothers and sisters, I cannot stress to you today, are you going to run to the sure foundation that is to have faith in a
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God who is working all things for your good? Or are we going to run to that fancy, sound good, ear -tickling
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Facebook quotes that actually have no wisdom in it, that are just sinking sand?
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Run to the sovereignty of God over that which is the worldly wisdom that actually is not wisdom at all, because we only see wisdom in God's word.
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Let us go ahead and pray over this text. Lord God, we thank you, Lord, for Job chapter 16 through 17.
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Lord, I would ask that you would help us, Lord, be strong in the faith like Job is, Lord, who could recognize you in all that took place,
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Lord. But in no way was he ever attributing to you sin, Lord.
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We know that we, according to chapter nine of Romans, that no one can come to you,
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Lord, and ask you, why has thou made me like this? Lord, we know that you are doing a marvelous thing, and we know that we can look with assurity at every atrocity that man commits and say that there is purpose in it, that you are bringing about something,
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Lord, that we might not ever see in our life, but you are bringing about something glorious,
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Lord, which is consummated in your return. And so, Lord, I would ask today that we would recognize that, that we would profess it, that we would hold onto that hope that we have in you coming again to receive to yourself, your bride, the church,
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Lord. God, may you reign forever and ever, just as your kingdom is forever and ever.
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And we ask this in your name, Jesus the Christ, amen. Brothers and sisters, please stand as we sing our final song this morning.