FBC Morning Light – May 3, 2022

A good Tuesday morning to you. Hope your week got off to a good start yesterday as we march into the month of May.

Today we come to the end of the book of Job in our Bible reading schedule, Job 40 -42.

This is the end of the story. Job has been encountered by his friends who haven't been very friendly, very helpful to him, and they've had their say, and Job has had his say with them, but now

God has had his say. In chapter 40, we see some insight into one of the problems we have when it comes to our complaining against God, our griping about the way

God has handled things in our lives or treated us about one thing or over one thing or another.

Job says this in chapter 40 verses 4 and 5, he says, Behold, I am vile.

What shall I answer you? Once I have spoken, but I will not answer. Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.

The point is this, Job has had a direct encounter with God. Job has come to understand much better who

God is, what God is like, and that realization, that dawning of awareness as to the character and the nature and the power and the majesty and the authority of God leaves him humbled for his previous complaining and arguing that he would argue with God for the way

God has handled him. Now he comes to the conclusion, having had that encounter with God, I'm going to keep my mouth shut.

I'm not going to say anything else. I'm not going to proceed any further. That's helpful to us when we find ourselves with a complaining spirit, to realize that part of the problem that has led us to this complaining spirit is we don't have a really good view of God.

We don't have an accurate view of God. At the end of this book, in chapter 42,

Job alludes to the same thing, that he has seen God.

Listen to what he says. He says, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear. I heard about you.

I heard some things about you, about what you were like. I've heard stories. Remember, Job didn't have the written revelation like we have.

We've got a much fuller comprehension of what God is like, because he's revealed himself in all the way he's going to reveal himself to us in the

Bible. But Job didn't have any of that. What he knew of God, he knew by word of mouth.

He said, I've heard of you by the hearing of the ears. But now, he says, my eyes see you.

Now I see you. I have a much better picture, clearer picture of what you are like.

What does that leave Job to conclude? He says, therefore, I abhor myself.

I repent in dust and ashes. Getting a more accurate view of God, I don't think so,

I know so. Getting a more accurate view of God will help us to get a more accurate view of ourselves.

When we get a good understanding of what God is like and what we are like, this is the position that we will find ourselves in.

We will find ourselves humbled. We will find ourselves abhorring our inherent sinfulness, and unrighteousness, and unworthiness, even to approach this

God. It will all the more magnify the grace of that God that is found in Christ Jesus.

That he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God that in him, the magnificent, majestic, marvelous, amazing grace of God, that he in his majesty, and his holiness, and his righteousness, before whom

I have no inherent right to stand, and am utterly unworthy to stand before him.

I can stand before him in the righteousness of Christ. If you are

Christ today, yes, abhor our sin, repent of our sin, turn from our sin, but then look up, lift up your eyes, and look upon your heavenly

Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, and you stand before the

Father clothed, robed in the righteousness of Christ. What marvelous grace.

Another thing I want to point out in these closing chapters of Job is what

Job says just before this final statement of abhorring himself. He says in verse 2, chapter 42, he says to the

Lord, he says, I know that you can do everything, and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you.

This is also another important conclusion for us to reach, that God can do anything and everything that in his sovereign purposes he intends to do.

There is nothing that can keep him from doing so. No power greater than he, no will to stymie him, as he goes on to say, no purpose of yours can be withheld from you.

What God purposes to accomplish will be accomplished.

Nothing, no one can thwart his purposes. Keep that in mind when you watch the news.

Don't be discouraged by what you see, by what you hear, even by what occurs in your own personal life.

Bear in mind, there is no purpose of God that can be thwarted. We read in Romans chapter 8, verse 28, that God works all things together for the good of those who love him, for those who are called according to his purpose.

If you're a follower of Christ, if you're a child of God's, God has called you for a purpose unto himself, and he will orchestrate things according to his sovereign plan and design for you to bring about his perfect will for your life.

All those things that are good and bad, as we look at them in the tapestry of life, even as Job would have looked at the tapestry of his life and up until this point seen all kinds of bad, even though prior to that he saw all kinds of good, he now comes to the end of the story and he can conclude that,

I know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose, and that no purpose of God's can be withheld from him.

Take encouragement in that today, my friend. You know Christ is your Savior. God has good purposes for you, and those purposes will be accomplished.

He will bring them to pass. Our Father and our God, we thank you for who you are.

We thank you for your Word revealing yourself to us. I pray that in what we see, what we come to understand, it would leave us with a better awareness of ourselves.

At the same time, Father, may we humble ourselves before you as the sovereign one whose purposes will never be thwarted.

May we take encouragement in that, even as we humble ourselves before you. We pray in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Have a good rest of your Tuesday. I trust that our sovereign God will bless you in it.