Brad Kinneson, Job 42

If you'll go ahead and open up to Job 42 with me. Job chapter 42.

We're really going to use this as an entry point to preach the whole end of the book of Job this morning. We're gonna hone in on verses 1 through 6, but that's just gonna be the the gateway, our doorway, into chapters 38 through 42, and we're gonna look at the whole end of Job and his story.

Let me open us in prayer. Oh great

God of highest heaven, occupy our lowly hearts. We need you to come here and to do something that we cannot do for ourselves.

We need you to open our eyes to give us a sense of the greatness of who you are and your transcendent glory, and so that we ask by the power of your

Holy Spirit that you would just be gracious to condescend and to meet us and to change us with a vision of your glory this morning.

Pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me start off by asking a question.

What makes you wonder? What makes you awestruck?

When was the last time that something actually captivated you? Just think for a moment.

What was something that captivated you, and when was the last time that that happened to you?

Something that always does it for me is mountains and waterfalls. I'm a mountains guy.

Mountains over beach, for sure. I love the outdoors, and just looking up at the mountains or watching a waterfall,

I can be captivated for hours sitting there in front of it. It always just strikes me with absolute awe.

Do you remember when you were a kid how absolutely everything just blew your mind? I mean, sliding down the stairs on your bottom was just the greatest thing ever.

Your dad's ability to throw you up in the air and then to catch you again to keep you entertained for hours, it blew your mind.

Everything was just so amazing as a kid. And then we grew up.

We experienced more of life, and things lost their luster. We weren't so easily awestruck by things.

What happened? What changed throughout that process?

Well, this morning, I want to submit to you that if anything should make us wonder in 2018, it should be the transcendent glory of our

God. And my hope this morning in the sermon is just to paint a picture with broad brushstrokes of the transcendent glory of our

God, the one whom we serve. So let's jump into our text now. I've entitled this sermon,

Reclaiming God's Transcendence in the Life of Job. We're going to peek into the life of a man here who had an encounter with a transcendent glory of God, and it changed him.

Let's jump in at Job 42, verse 1. And again, we're going to preach the whole end of the book. This is just going to be our entry point, and I'll read the entire chapter here.

If you'll forgive me, I'm just getting over bronchitis, so I might hack up a lung throughout the course of this sermon.

Let's read God's Word, Job 42, in verse 1. Then Job answered the

Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Job, quoting God earlier, who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Job says, therefore

I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful me for which I did not know. Quoting God again, hear and I will speak,

I will question you, and you make it known to me. Job again,

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.

Job had a vision of God. He said, now my eye sees you. And what's his response?

Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. And after the

Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, my anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant

Job has. Now, therefore, take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant

Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly, for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant

Job has. And so Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuite and Zophar the

Namathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.

Verse 10, and the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends.

And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before and ate bread with him in his house, and they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the

Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning. And he had 14 ,000 sheep, 6 ,000 camels, 1 ,000 yoke of oxen, 1 ,000 female donkeys.

He had also seven sons and three daughters, and he called the name of the first daughter Jemima, and the name of the second

Keziah, and the name of the third Karenhapuk. And in all the land there were no women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

And after this Job lived a hundred and forty years, and he saw his sons and his sons' sons, four generations.

And Job died an old man and full of days. This Christmas season is all about God's eminence.

What does it mean for God to be eminent? We're going to talk a lot about God's transcendence. We also want to mention his eminence.

His eminence means that he is near to us. We think of Emmanuel in the Christmas season, that God with us.

See, something imminent is not far away, but it's right in front of us. It's something that we can ascertain, something we can experience, have some kind of contact or relationship with.

The Bible teaches us that God in Christ Jesus took on flesh so that he might enter into human history and go to the cross to purchase the redemption for our sins.

I believe that as a general rule, the church today does a pretty good job of talking about the eminence of Christ.

We're quick to speak of Jesus as the friend of sinners, quick to talk about Jesus as our great high priest who was tempted in every respect as we are, and was yet without sin.

But we love to think of him as the second Adam who is our representative before God, the

Son of Man who comes into the presence of God and pleads our case before the Father. The eminence of God is beautiful.

It's at the heart of the gospel, and it's difficult to overemphasize the eminence of God. The question

I want us to think about this morning is, do we talk enough about the transcendence of God?

We talk a lot about his eminence. Do we talk enough about the transcendence of God?

What do you think? Which do we emphasize more? Which do you find yourself more likely, more apt to think about or to talk about with others?

The transcendence of God. How great, how high, how exalted, how entirely other than us our God is.

Or do you talk more about his eminence, Emmanuel, God with us? I want to submit to you that if we do not reclaim a high view of God's transcendence, then we will relegate

Jesus Christ to being nothing more than just another one of our friends who may feel things for us, but has no power and no authority to actually accomplish our salvation before God the

Father sitting enthroned in heaven. See, our God cannot be just eminent.

He has to be transcendent to purchase our redemption. My hope for you is that in 2018, you will be a church here at Covenant, and you will be individuals who will think much and who will reclaim the transcendence of God in your life.

Apologize for kind of a long introduction, but I do believe that this is a very big deal. I think this imbalance is something we need to think about and we need to address.

This morning, I want us to take a step in reclaiming the transcendence of God by looking at the life of Job.

So my first main point is entitled, Encountering the Transcendent. Encountering the

Transcendent. So we're entering into the story of Job at the very end in chapter 42.

I want to take a few minutes to remind us of the background of Job's tragedy and suffering. The background of Job's tragedy and suffering.

Job 1 .1 tells us that Job was blameless and upright, one who feared

God and turned away from evil. What kind of man was

Job? He was a truly righteous man. It's not to say he was a perfect man, but he was a righteous man.

He feared the Lord. And after introducing us to Job as a righteous man, the author of the book then translates us to the courtroom of heaven, and we see

Satan coming before God and asking about Job. God says, have you considered my servant

Job? How he is upright, how he turns away from evil, and Satan says, let me have a shot at him.

You know the reason Job is upright, and you know the reason he loves you, God? It's because you've been good to him. You've blessed him.

Let me afflict him, and he will curse your name.

How does God respond? God says he's yours. He sets some limits on him, but he says, have at, but you must spare his life.

He gives God permission to tempt Job. The tragedy that unfolds is horrific.

Most of us know the story. It's ugly. A servant comes, you can imagine

Job sitting down at lunch, and a servant comes and tells him that all of his cattle, all of his property and possessions have been stolen.

He's been deprived of all of his possessions, and while that servant is still telling, still sharing the bad news, another servant comes in and says,

Job, all of your children are dead. It's just horrific natural disaster struck their house.

The house collapsed on them, and all of your children are dead. Put yourself in their shoes, his shoes.

What would you say if you got that kind of news? If tomorrow you were at work, and a police officer showed up at your house, at your office, and said,

I'm sorry, but I have some bad news. All of your kids were in a car together, and they were in a terrible car accident, and they're all dead.

And before he's even out of the room, your wife calls in hysterics. Your house has caught fire and is burning down.

What would you say to God? What kind of questions would you ask of him at that point?

It is in this moment when Job's world is coming crashing down around him, that he says these famous words,

Job 121, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return.

The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the

Lord. And in all of this, God is silent.

Satan then afflicts Job's health, took away his kids, his family, and all of his possessions.

And now God gives him license to afflict his health, and these painful, excruciating boils pop up all over Job's body.

He's in absolute misery. I work in the emergency department, and sometimes when people just have horrific accidents, car accidents, are in the trauma room, or have some terrible disease, they'll say these things like,

I wish that I were dead, this is so bad, this is so terrible, I wish that I were dead. You can imagine

Job in this moment, I just, I wish that I were dead, I've lost everything, I've lost my family, I've lost all that I own,

God seems to be against me, and now my physical body is just crumbling around me. And Job still will not curse

God. Instead, he responds by saying, shall we receive good from God, and shall we not also receive evil?

And God still remains silent. The rest of the book of Job from chapters 3 through 37 are all about Job and his friends trying to make sense of what has happened to Job.

Job's friends conclude that Job must have sinned, you must have done something wrong to bring all of these bad things on you.

That's what we call retribution theology. Bad things happen to you because you've done something bad.

That's a horrible misconception of the way God works in the world, and it crushes the hearts of saints who are suffering, merely because we live in a fallen, broken world under Adam's sin.

I hope that we would never give that counsel to any of our friends and their suffering. Job's friends had no concept for a

God who would allow suffering and tragedy to afflict his life for the sake of testing his faith and amplifying the glory of God.

Job himself is struggling to make sense of everything that is happening. See, Job was never let in on the conversation between God and Satan.

At the beginning of the book, we're given that, we're translated in the courtroom, we see that exchange between Satan and God.

Job had no idea of that conversation. He was never let in on the fact of the conversation that God was allowing

Satan to do this to test his faith. Job, even not knowing what

God was doing, rejects his friend's advice and contends that he has not sinned in any terrible way.

But Job did question God's justice in allowing this to happen. He said, why

God? Why me? Why are you allowing this to happen? What have I done to deserve this?

He cried out for God to vindicate him in his righteousness. And God is silent, still.

Have you ever been in a moment, have you ever had tragedy strike your life? It's the fallen world.

We all have, or we all will, have tragedy strike our lives. In that moment, did you feel like God is just silent?

Where are you? Are you there? Do you know what's going on? Do you see what

I'm going through? Do you feel anything of what I'm going through, God? Where are you? This is Job's heart crying out right now.

But God is silent. For 37 chapters, God is silent. And then in chapter 38 through 41,

God answers Job. So we've seen Job's background of tragedy and suffering.

Now let's see God's transcendent power and glory on display. It's our first main point here, encountering the transcendent.

Now let's look at God's transcendent power and glory on display. Put yourself in Job's shoes.

All of this has happened. 37 chapters of divine silence. And now

God is speaking. The anticipation is palpable. I mean, can you imagine what

Job is thinking? This is the moment that you've been waiting for. What will God say? What will he do? What answer will he give for everything that has happened to me?

What answer will God give that will make Job say in verse 2, 42 to, I know that you can do all things.

And the no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Verse 3, I have uttered what

I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

Verse 5, I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. I repent in dust and ashes.

So God's response to Job is unexpected. The answer that he gives is not what

Job or you or I would have expected, and it's climactic. He answers Job out of a whirlwind.

He presents himself in absolute majesty and all -striking power. He answers

Job out of the whirlwind, and instead of responding to Job's questions, God speaks about his own transcendent power and glory.

It's probably not what the answer Job was looking for. Lord, you've taken away my kids, everything

I own. My wife is against me right now. She's a thorn in my side at the moment. My flesh is peeling off.

This is not the answer that I was looking for. You can imagine that he might feel that way at first, but listen to what

God has to say to Job. Thinking about preaching on the transcendent glory of God, I feel inadequate, and there are no fumbling human words

I can put together to adequately, adequately portray and paint a picture of the majesty and glory of our

God. And so for the next moments, I'm just gonna read excerpts from the chapters 38 through 41, and let

God's inspired word speak about himself. What does God say to Job? How does he answer

Job? Chapter 38, verse 2 through 4. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge, dressed for action like a man?

I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you, Job, when

I laid the foundation of the earth? Or who shut in the sea with its doors and said, thus far shall you come, and no further.

Here shall your proud waves be stayed. Where is the way to the dwelling of light,

Job, and where is the place of darkness? Can you bind the chains of Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?

Can you lead forth the Mazaroth in their season, or can you guide the bear with his children? Do you know the ordinances of heaven?

Can you establish their rule on earth? Can you send forth lightnings that they may go and say to you, here we are.

Shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.

In chapter 40, then Job answers the Lord and says, behold, I am a man of small account.

What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer twice, but I will proceed no further.

But God says, no, no, no. I'm not done yet. And then the

Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, dressed for action like a man, and I will question you, and you make it known to me.

Will you put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?

Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity, clothe yourself with glory and splendor,

Job. Then will I also acknowledge to you that your right hand can save you. Who has first given to me that I should repay him?

Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine, God says.

What kind of God is the God of Job? What kind of God is your

God? He is a God who is transcendent over all things.

He tells the lightning to strike with its five billion joules of energy, and it says, here

I am. He sets the limits for the oceans and says, thus far shall you come and no further.

If you were standing on the Golden Gate Bridge looking down at the Pacific, crashing up against the cliff line there, that is

God saying, thus far shall you come, ocean, and no further. He's prescribed bars and doors for it.

The immense hydraulic power of the Niagara Falls is nothing to him. 757 ,500 gallons a second flow over the

Niagara Falls, and he knows the trajectory of every single one of those molecules.

The Marianas Trench in the Pacific Rim, you could fit Mount Everest six miles high in that trench.

He has plumbed the depths of that trench. He has been where no man is able to go. At his command, the galaxies appeared and have hung in a perfect balance that makes astrophysicists scratch their head.

With a whispered word, he makes a supernova explode and expand with the energy of more than a million suns.

Our God is not just transcendent in his creative power and beauty.

He's also transcendent in every aspect of his character, every attribute of his personhood.

His majesty is unmatched. His holiness is blazingly pure. He is light and in him is no darkness at all.

In the face of wickedness, he is treasuring up righteous wrath for the day of wrath. His justice will right all wrongs on the last day when he returns.

His sovereign decrees guide history. We must also speak of his love.

Its length and width and its height and breadth cannot be calculated. His mercy triumphs over judgment.

His patience endures for so long with sinners like me and you who tread on his patience constantly.

He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good. His gentleness is astounding. A bruised reed he will not break.

In a smoldering wick, he will not snuff out. So this is the transcendent

God that Job encountered. And this is why in Job 40, verse 4 and 5,

Job said, behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you?

I lay my hands on my mouth. I've spoken once and I will not answer twice, but I will proceed no further.

So Job had an encounter with the transcendent Lord of glory and it ended with his hands on his mouth saying,

I should never have spoken. I ventured into territory that was so far out of my reach and I had no business being there.

But Job is not the only one to have witnessed the transcendence of God. Consider with me some other encounters of God's transcendence.

Moses in Exodus 34, after going up onto the mountain, Mount Sinai, and having the law delivered to him, he speaks with God and then when he comes down from the mountain, his face is shining so brilliantly, he has to put a veil over it to talk with his

Israelites. Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6 has a vision. He's translated into the throne room of heaven.

He sees the Lord of glory's robe fills the temple and Isaiah falls on his face and he immediately cries out, woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the

King, the Lord of hosts. Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration saw

Jesus for a moment unveil his glory and they fell to their face.

Paul on the Domestic Road, Jesus appears to him and he falls to his face and he is blind for three days after that.

John in Revelations 1 has a vision of Jesus, the Son of Man, enthroned in glory and he says,

I fell on my face as though dead. And he witnesses there in that throne room of heaven, the elders and the seraphim casting their crowns at the foot of Jesus and crying, holy, holy holy is the

Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. See, Job and every one of these men were overwhelmed when they came into contact with the transcendent glory of God.

I want for us to quickly identify ways that the transcendence of God expressed itself in the life of Job.

To this point, I've just been trying to paint with broad brushstrokes the transcendence of God, but how specifically was

God transcendent in life, in Job's life? First, God was omnipotent.

He showed that he was all -powerful. Job 40 verse 9, have you an arm like God and can you thunder with a voice like his?

42 too, Job says, I know that you can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

No one can contend with God. His power cannot be matched. And brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ, take comfort that it is the omnipotent transcendent

Lord of glory who, having saved you, will kept you. And if the omnipotent

Lord of glory is for you, who can be against you? Second, God is omnipotent.

God is also omniscient. God knows all things. Job 42 verse 3, who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?

Job says, therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know.

This text assumes that God did know. God knew every intricate detail of Job's situation as well as every facet of the whole cosmos.

Brothers and sisters, take comfort that your God does not have a small intellect. He does not have a small mind.

He has nothing to learn. He has no classes to take, no lessons to be taught, no one can instruct him anything.

Also take comfort that he is not mentally detached from your life. He knows every detail of your life.

There is no one, there's no husband or wife, there's no mother or father, there's no friend that knows you better than the

Lord Jesus does. Our God knows you. He knows all things. He is omnipotent, he is omniscient, he is third, omnipresent, he is everywhere present.

Job 38, 16, have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?

God's saying, I've been there. Where no man could go, I am capable of being there. And we know from the

New Testament, the teaching of Paul, that if we're in Christ, the Spirit is indwelling inside of us.

And so God is everywhere present. He dwells in you through faith, and he, in his infinite wisdom, will work every detail of your life that he is intimately connected to.

He's not this impassible God who has no feelings, and is not moved by the tragedy in your life, not moved by your sin, by your pain, by your suffering.

He feels it, and he will move because he is one who is not only omnipotent and omniscient, but he's omnipresent.

He's with you in that. Fourthly, you see that not only is

God omnipresent, God is absolutely holy. His transcendence manifests itself in the life of Job, and that he is absolutely holy.

Job 40, verse 8, God says, will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me, that you may be in the right?

You see, God had never sinned against Job. God never did any wrong to Job, and God has never sinned against you or me, or done any wrong to us.

We cannot stand against him in a courtroom. Let me encourage you, for those of you who are his adopted children, he is working everything together for his glory, and for your eternal good, and his holiness seals that.

See, God is transcended in his power, in his presence, in his knowledge, and in his holiness.

There is no one who compares to them. There's no man in history, however great, there is no other supposed

God in the world who compares to our Lord. Do you see this gap?

I mean, did you see how high God is, and how low we are in comparison?

How are we supposed to respond to that? What are we supposed to do with it, when we are faced with such transcendent glory?

Well, that brings us to my second main point, is responding to the transcendent.

So, we've seen encountering the transcendent, now responding to the transcendent. See, Job saw

God, and it changed him. He went from questioning God, to worshiping

God, and confessing his sin. In a moment, he was questioning God. He was bringing himself into God's courtroom, and making accusations, and now he's worshiping

God, and he's confessing his sin. So, how should the transcendence of God change us?

First, it should affect the way we view ourselves. How did Job respond to this?

Chapter 40, he said, I am a man of small account.

He thought of himself as being of small account, after confronted with the glory of God. Chapter 42, verse 6,

I despise myself. See, in 21st century

America, being Westerners, we have such a strong sense of self -sufficiency, of individualism, that we don't like this message.

That when we are compared, when we compare ourselves to the transcendent glory of God, that we see how low we are.

We see how small, that we are a speck of the dust. We are ants on the face of the planet. And now, we know the truth of God's remnants, that we're not ants, that he counted against the magnificence of the transcendent

Lord of Glory, who would speak a universe into existence, and we are here on this one little planet, sitting in a gym.

We're so small in comparison. It's not an easy message for us to swallow, but when we come face -to -face with the transcendent glory of God, it should change the way that we view ourselves.

It should give us a healthy, low view of ourselves. Not a toxic, low self -esteem, but a right, low view of ourselves in comparison to the blazing glory and transcendence of our

God. Every believer must acknowledge that there are weak sinners who are holding only to the saving power and love of God, who has chosen in his glorious power and wisdom and compassion to move in unilateral saving favor for us.

So, the transcendence of God should affect the way we view ourselves. Second, transcendence of God should lead us to repentance.

Job immediately repented of his sin of finding fault with God. After seeing something of the blazing glory of God, he knew that something had to change.

He wasn't comfortable with his sin anymore, and something had to be done about it. And that something that had to change was not

God. Something that had to change was Job. Job recognized that I needed to change.

I need to change before my God. And he came to him immediately and repented in dust and ashes.

May the transcendence of God draw us to repentance this year. More and more.

May we not live in our sin and let it linger, but that we would immediately run to him in repentance.

What does it mean to repent? We throw that word around a lot. I'm afraid sometimes we don't give it the proper weight that it deserves.

Repentance involves guilt, sorrow. It involves a feeling, an emotion, a godly sorrow over sin.

But it is not only sorrow or guilt. If repentance stops at guilt, then it's not true repentance at all.

Repentance, true repentance, is a godly sorrow over sin that turns from that sin and turns to God.

My prayer for you is that in 2018 you would turn more from your sin.

You would repent and turn to the living God, and have a greater vision of his glory, and let that change you.

So, the transcendence of God should alter our view of ourselves. It should give us a right view of ourselves.

It should lead us to repentance. Third, the transcendence of God should comfort us.

Who was in control of Job's situation? Was it an aloof

God who really didn't care? Or was it a God who was keenly involved, who was present behind the scenes the whole time, who had dictated the end from the beginning?

What was the outcome of Job's story? Look at verse, chapter 42, verse 10.

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job.

To restore the fortunes is a key Old Testament theme. It's expanding on this idea that God's sovereign choice, of God's sovereign choice, to bless his people.

This idea of God restoring the fortunes of his people crops up all over the place. Psalm 14, 7, 53, 6, 85, 1, 126, 4,

Jeremiah 29, 14, 30, verse 3, and 18, 31, 23, 32, 44, 33, verse 7, 11, and 26, chapter 48, 47, 49, 6, and 39,

Lamentations 2, 14, Ezekiel 16, 53, 29, 14, 39, 25, Hosea 6, 11,

Joel 3, 1, Amos 9, 14, Zephaniah 2, 7, and 3, 20. You see, the outcome of Job's story was never in debate.

It was never in question. Because the eternal Lord of glory, the sovereign king of the universe, had dictated the outcome before it came.

Job's fortunes would be restored. God had determined that before Satan ever accused him, and before Satan was ever allowed to sift him.

Our transcendent, our sovereign God, had dictated the outcome from the beginning. Job's fortunes would be restored, and that's how he deals with his people.

That's how he dealt with Job. From those texts, that's how he clearly deals with his people all throughout the Old Testament.

And New Testament believers, brothers and sisters, that's how he deals with you. He will restore your fortunes.

God's transcendent sovereignty is not one of a malevolent dictator who will use you and abuse you for whatever he wants.

God owes us nothing, but he's not a malevolent dictator. His transcendent sovereignty is that of a gracious king.

So from God's transcendence, we can take comfort in his power, in his sovereignty. I hope that this church, and that each of you individually, will be a people that in 2018, more and more reclaim the transcendence of God.

I hope that the greatness of God will shape the way that you work, the way that you relate to one another as a church body, the way that you love and relate to your family, the way that you share the gospel in your community.

May the transcendence of God, may the fact that he is so high and exalted, that he dwells in the high and the holy place, color everything that you do this year.

As we prepare for the Lord's table, I want to make the final point, third and final point of the sermon.

We've seen encountering the transcendent, responding to the transcendent, and now consider with me maintaining the eminence of Christ.

Maintaining the eminence of Christ. So I've been making the point this morning, feebly, that we must reclaim a sense of God's transcendence, but we dare not lose the reality of his eminence in Christ.

So Job's story leads us with a huge unanswered question. Job's finite sinfulness has been exposed before the glory of the creator of the universe, and he is sitting on the ground now in dust and ashes, and there's an infinite gap between him and the

Lord of glory. And the unanswered question is, what happens now? Who will stand in the gap?

How can fault finders like Job and like you and me be reconciled to God and reunited to him?

How can that infinite gap be bridged? I want us to see here, under maintaining the eminence of Christ, that Job anticipated the need for a mediator.

Look at Job 9, 32 to 33. Job says, for he is not a man as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.

There is no arbiter between us who might lay a hand on us both and arbitrate or mediate between them.

Job saw the need for somebody to come between him and God and have a hand on both of them and reconcile them.

He recognized that he couldn't come to God, that he needed this mediator to stand in the gap. Job also anticipates the physical coming of a

Redeemer. Job 19, 25, for I know that my Redeemer lives and that at the last he will stand upon the earth.

What Job only had a vision of, what he saw in a shadow, we see in history, the Lord Jesus Christ incarnation and coming into history to save us.

I know that my Redeemer lives and that at last he will stand upon the earth. See, Job recognized that he could not redeem himself and he needed to be redeemed by another.

At the end of himself, Job actually becomes a type of Christ and plays the role of a mediator between God and his friends.

See, God's anger burned against his friends. He told them, you have not spoken of me what is true. They had misportrayed

God and because of that they were under judgment. And interestingly enough, God doesn't give them immediate access to forgiveness.

He doesn't just say, repent and I'll forgive you. He says, go to my servant

Job, ask him to pray for you, to intercede for you. And if you do that,

I will forgive you. And his friends go to Job and Job prays for them. He mediates for them and God willingly forgives them.

See, Job's role of standing in the gap for his friends was but a shadow of Christ standing in the gap for us, for sinners like us.

See, what Job anticipated, Christ fulfilled as our mediator, as our great high priest.

Hebrews 4, 14 to 16, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, but one who in every respect as we are was tempted yet without sin.

Let us then with confidence to draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

See, Jesus is that mediator. He's that one who stands in the gap. Romans 8 tells us that Jesus, no one can bring an accusation before us in the courtroom of heaven, no one can condemn us because Jesus lives to daily intercede for us.

He is everything that Job expected and hoped for. That is the

God that we have seen enter into history and that is the God that we look to today into the

Lord's Supper. My friends, the beauty of the gospel is that in Christ Jesus, even though we are separated by an infinite gap from the

Lord of glory, that in Christ we can be united and have a relationship with transcendent

God of creation. It is by Christ's broken body and his shed blood that we can call the

Lord of glory, Father. Pray with me now as we prepare for the

Lord's table. Oh, Father, it is an amazing thing that we can call you

Father. You are so high and exalted and lifted up. You dwell in the high and in the holy place.

Thank you that you also tell us you dwell with him who is of a humble and a contrite heart. Lord, thank you for coming into the world and Jesus Christ for taking on flesh and willingly going to the cross in our place.

Thank you for Christ's eminence, but thank you for his transcendence, that he was exalted over sin, Satan, and death, and that he has ascended to your right hand, and that he will judge the living and the dead, that he is the image of the invisible

God, the firstborn of all creation, that in him all your fullness was pleased to dwell. Lord, we look to him, we trust only in him, that he is the eternal

Son of God who, by mere word of his power, could speak the world into existence. Our Savior is not a weak

Savior. Lord, we worship you this morning, we praise you for your greatness, we exalt you, we lift you up, and I pray that you would help us as a people, as your people, in 2018 to reclaim your transcendence, to think more of your glory, to think more of your majesty.

Lord, to see us rightly for who we are before you, and to understand that we can't come to you and have chips to play at the table.

We have no arguments that can stand in your court, but that we can come only in the grace of Jesus Christ and be justified by faith in him.

Or as we come to the table now, thank you for Jesus' willingness to leave heaven, to humble himself, to become flesh, to come in the form of a servant, and to be obedient to the point of death on a

Roman cross. Thank you for breaking your body for us, for shedding your blood, that in your blood we might have redemption, we might have forgiveness of our sins, would help us to remember you.