Job 24-25 "Struggling Pilgrim"

Isn't that great for you? Alright, let's go. Dear Lord, we thank you for the gift of salvation.

We thank you that as believers, that you don't just, you don't just go out and do things that you can't do.

That you have the care of heaven and the fullness of heaven. A soul who goes to your feet when you die, and a body that rests for a time before you, that rests for a time.

And when you die, that soul's body will have glorified bodies in heaven and earth forever. And we thank you for that,

Father. We thank you that we will always continue to hear that, and pray that we will believe that, that we will know that, that we will go on to do good, that we will do good, that we will do good, that we will do good, that we will do good.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen. Good job, bud.

Good job, bud. Oh, I'm sorry. Good job, kid. Appreciate you.

Thank you. Alright. That guy right there.

Okay. I can't say it enough.

I think I say it every Sunday. I absolutely love the catechism moment, to be able to hear the kids answering those questions, thinking through those questions, all that kind of stuff.

It is truly a blessing. So before we begin, before we look at today's text, which we're going to be in Job chapter 24 through chapter 25, we're taking those large bites of Scripture, as we understand this, as one conversation with Job and these friends, all taking place right there and then.

So let's go ahead and pray, first of all, and then we will look and see what the text has before us today.

So let's go ahead and pray. Lord God, I do thank you, Lord, again, for the little ones, the little feet that are running around in this church.

Lord, we thank you for those that are in the process of learning to crawl and those that are in the process of learning how to run and be more coordinated.

Lord, we thank you for even the aging saints in this room. Lord God, we thank you for everyone that believes in you, everyone that's being discipled, everyone that is being evangelized to here in this room today.

God, I would ask that today, through the means of grace, one of the means that is the reading of your word,

Lord, that we would be strengthened, that we'd be sanctified. Lord, that we would long for the day to be able to see you face to face,

Lord. So God, as we come here before the book of Job, Lord, I ask that you would just help humble our hearts, keep our eyes attentive to your word, help us not be distracted from the things that we ought to be hearing today.

And we say this in your name, Jesus Christ, amen. Job chapter 24 to chapter 25 is where we are at this morning.

Again, it's always important to look at the context before we read any text in the

Bible. We should know who is speaking, what is being said, why it's being said, the years, the dates, all those kind of things are important for us.

And so, again, Job is in the middle of his conversation with his friends. He's in the middle of several lengthy debates,

I would call them, these diatribes where his friends are being insultful to him, reminding him of the loss of his family.

We would even see that as Job is terribly grieved right now in the midst of this conversation because of why.

He's lost his seven sons, his three daughters. He's lost all his possessions, which is meaningless in comparison of losing his family, but still all these things are stacked up against him in his life.

And now Job is now continually being persecuted by these supposed friends that sat there with him for seven days in the midst of these grieving and hardship.

Chapter 24 through chapter 25, what we're going to see in this text is the finishing remarks from Job to his friend

Eliaphus, the last time that Eliaphus is seen talking in this book. And in chapter 25, we're going to read, it's going to be a short chapter for us.

It's the last time that Bildad responds to Job. And so if you would look at it, you would notice that this is chapter 25 where we're at and the book ends in chapter 42.

And so you might be thinking, that's a long time to not hear from these friends again. And it is going to be a little bit of a lengthy response that we see from Job going from chapter 26 all the way to,

I believe, chapter 32. And then all of a sudden we're introduced to this fourth, more mysterious friend in this conversation that then we'll go ahead and speak.

Last week, again, before we look at this, we should remember and hear the words from Eliaphus, his supposed friend, who just happens to have a very similar theological position to so many of today about how it's ultimately up to Job for him to turn his own fate around.

This kind of thinking that everything is boiled down to Job's suffering as evidence of him having unrepentant sin in his life is the argument from Eliaphus.

And so in that kind of thinking, in that kind of folly of a way to rationalize the world around us,

Eliaphus tells Job that he is to elevate God to that position of honor, that he is to take the gold of his household to silver, he is to bury it, and that by doing such, that then therefore

Job can take God and place him in that position. And, again,

I think it's remarkable when we consider the way that Job responds to Eliaphus, especially in considering that situation he's in.

He says, no, I am the one that's being tested right now. I'm the one that will come forth as gold.

Job is very assured about that. And this is a remarkable saying, I think, for any saint of the faith when we consider this, that here is this man in the midst of grief, but he's adamant.

This is a discipline from the Father. This is a testing of my faith.

This is something that as the metal would go into the fire and it would be refined and shaped into the image that the one that's lighting it on fire would desire that he's sure of that, that he will come forth refined as gold.

And so that would come from chapter 23, verse 10. Let me read it again for us. It says, but he knows the way

I take. When he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

Now, when we look here at chapter 24 and chapter 25, I want to remind us again, as it's been a little while since we've talked a little bit about the hermeneutics about this book, but when we read any book of the

Bible, we have to read it knowing that it is inspired of God, knowing the proper interpretation of the word.

I don't typically do this, but I think that this is pertinent for our study of the book of Job.

This week, I want to share an example to us about how when we wrongly interpret a scripture, it can be not great for us, right?

So this week, I got off of work on Wednesday morning. I came home and I found on our refrigerator door a

Bible verse that my wife had written and posted there on the refrigerator. And you might think in the back of your head, well, what's wrong with that,

Brayden? There's nothing wrong with that. It just so happened to be, though, that the text that she had written up on the refrigerator was 1

Timothy 3, verse 2 -3, which is an overseer -must -be -above approach. And so, great

Bible verse, right? Absolutely great. But Brayden coming home on his first day off, and I'm typically a little bit more in a grumpy mood on my first day off after getting no sleep.

I think that my wife is kind of giving me an underhand nudge that I should be nice to her today and not be as grumpy as what

I typically am. And so I say, Emily, what's up with this on the refrigerator? And she says, oh,

I just thought that would be a really good reminder. I was like, oh. So I'm correct in my thinking of why she put this on the refrigerator.

And so I said, oh, so you think it would be a good reminder? And she said, yeah, I think it would really help. And I'm looking at it and I just, okay,

I see how it is. And I mean, this is all happening in a matter of seconds, but it's all in my mind how this is happening.

And it comes to find out that that's Shepard's memory verse for Adventure Club today.

And so she was in reference to Shepard, but you can see how we can look at the word of God that is true and inspired and infallible,

God -breathed, and if we have a wrong understanding of its application, we can wrongly apply that in our lives in every shape, form, and fashion.

When I thought my wife was trying to give me a wonderful reminder of how I should treat her, which is true,

I shouldn't be as grumpy as I do on my first day off. I was convicting in that way. Any text that we come to, we just have to look and seek for the true interpretation.

It's not enough just to say, I'm going to read every single verse of the Bible. If we read every single verse of the

Bible and we misapply it, we misinterpret it, it's still folly to us. It still is not true for us.

So when we look here at chapter 24 to 25, the issue when it comes to the book of Job is that many of us might have study

Bibles or commentaries that we use when studying God's word, and I'm telling you right now, if you open up any of those commentaries and you compare them with each other, especially in the book of Job, there's going to be disagreements on what the book teaches.

Many of the commentaries would argue that Job is a false convert in the early chapters.

Many of them would say that both what Job and the friends are saying is true and that it's just that one side or the other, whether it's

Job or whether it's the friends, would say that they have the wrong intentions. And I think so far as we've looked through this book, we've seen the true interpretation, and the reason

I'm telling us this is that when we look at the words of Job, especially even from last week to today, we need to look and see that Job is correct in many of his statements he's made.

He's been wrong and he's erred in some of them, especially in the chapter, I think it was chapter eight or seven, where he says,

Lord, it would have been better if I had died in my mother's womb. Job is wrong on that.

Why? Because he's elevated himself to the sovereign. He's the one that's saying, I know the better plan.

God, you've brought me to this point in my life. You're testing me, but I know the better plan.

That was wrong of Job to say that kind of thing. He gets rebuked for it. But in the ways that he admits God's sovereignty, he's never rebuked over those things from God.

In fact, again, Job is not a false convert. How can we say that? Because we have a greater picture of the story.

Back in chapter one, verse 22 through 23, we would see that he says, Blessed be the name of Yahweh, the one who gives and the one who takes.

Blessed be his name. And then right after that, we have commentary from the inspired author of the book of Job, who says,

In such things and such words, he never sinned against God. And earlier on in the chapter, we would see that he has confessed and professed as being a believer in Yahweh, someone who is upright and righteous, and that's coming from the words of God.

So when we read this book, what do we see in this? A believer in Yahweh who confesses

God is sovereign, that he has taken, that he has given, and he does not sin when he says this. And so when

Job admits to the sovereignty of God, admits to the provision that he is being tested and that he's going to come forth as gold, is that fitting with another section of the scripture where it says he did not sin?

Yes, it is. So that's a truthful statement. That needs to be the guidelines for us. And even in this, and in fact, we haven't even read any chapter 24 and 25, but just follow me real fast to chapter 42, verse 7, with me real fast.

Job chapter 42, verse 7. Again, we understand that Job is rebuked by God.

We understand this. But what exactly did Job err in?

Verse 7, it says this. So let's pause here and just think, is what

Eliaphus, Bildad, and Zophar said, is it true and accurate to who God is?

It's not. They are rebuked by God about it. But listen then what the verse then says.

So in the ways when Job describes the sovereignty and providence of God, is it correct in the ways that he's confessed it?

Yes, it is. It is true because he's not rebuked over some of those words that he says.

So now let's go back to chapter 24 through 25. So again, that's the guideline. That's how we need to understand this book when we read this.

Why do I bring this up today? Because I think the value in this chapter, the value of understanding this with Job amplifies the application of the life of Job in our own lives, this historical man who suffered these things.

Job then therefore, if we understand that he was a believer in chapter 1, that he's a believer in chapter 42, that he's a believer that's being tested, there's a wonderful book,

I actually brought it with me today, called Pilgrim's Progress. And it's a book written by a man named

John Bunyan. And in this book he talks about how there's this man that's having this dream of a

Christian, a pilgrim, passing through this world. And he describes in analogy and symbols all these ways that Christians suffer in this world and how they struggle with sin and how they're persecuted and how there's trials and tribulations.

John has recently been reading that book and it's wonderful, it makes you really think, does it not? He's shaking his head yes, he's in the back so many of us can't see, but it's this wonderful picture of a

Christian's life that is to remain faithful in God. And so when we think about Job, Job is this picture of a pilgrim passing through the world.

In one of the chapters of that book it talks about how this man named Christian is the main character in there, that he walks through the valley of the shadow of death and that he's armed with a sword called all prayer.

He uses that to fight off these demons, this demonic activity in this book that's painted for us as persecuting him.

And he says that even though he's yielding the sword, the demons seem to get stronger and stronger as he passes through it, but that he's assured that Yahweh is my shepherd and I will not fear.

What do we have here in the book of Job? Persecution upon persecutions, the demonic activity keeps on pressing up against Job, even though he's in the midst of confessing truth, where is

Job's ultimate light at? It's Yahweh is my shepherd, shall not want, shall not fear.

And so that should be very pertinent to us, right? Before we enter into persecution and suffering, are we pilgrims?

Are we having faith in Yahweh as the way that he's described himself to be? And then when the persecution hits, the suffering happens in our lives, maybe we're in the midst of it right now, what can our profession be?

God is testing me and I will come through this as gold because God is the one that's shaping me,

I'm his vessel, he's the sovereign in my life. That's what the book of Job should paint for us when we read this.

And so again, Job is responding to this friend Elias who is very adamant, Job, you are a sinner,

Job, God wouldn't bring us against you unless you had sinned against him. So now we see this and how

Job is responding. Let's look here at verse one, it says, why are times not soared up by the almighty and why do those who know him not behold his days?

Job is saying in here, and it's gonna explain this later on here in this text, Job is saying how

Elias, there's people that are living today that are wicked beyond belief and yet they're living in prosperity and it would appear that in their life,

Yahweh, the almighty is not pouring out judgment upon them actively. It appears like this. And this is so true for us today when we think about that, even in the prosperity gospel movements, all these false gospel movements, people that are wicked beyond belief, they're given a platform.

They have this supposed blessedness in their life of possessions and value and monetary gains.

But in reality, these prosperity gospel individuals that say that you can name it and claim it and that you can send me $100 and therefore you'll get a thousand in return, they're all, what they're really just doing is peddling the doctrines of hell that lead the adherents there.

So let's look here now and see the realities of what was in Job's day that he was able to recognize that is very pertinent and true for us in our day.

Some move the boundaries. They seize and devour flocks. Again, he's speaking of the wicked ones that seem to not have the judgment of God cast upon them in this life.

They drive away the donkeys of the orphans. They take the widow's ox for a pledge.

They push the needy aside from the road. The afflicted of the land are made to hide themselves altogether.

They go forth seeking food earnestly in their work. The desert becomes, the desert, excuse me, the desert becomes for him a place of bread for his young ones.

They have harvest, their fodder in the field and glean the vineyard of the wicked.

They spend the night naked without clothing and have no covering against the cold.

They are wet with the mountain's rain and hug the rock for want of a shelter.

Others snatch the orphan from the breast and against the afflicted they take a pledge.

Those poor ones walk about naked without clothing and hungry ones carry the sheaves.

Within the walls they produce oil. They tread wine presses but thirst from the city men groan and the souls of the wounded cry out.

Yet God does not pay attention to such events. We'll make mention here in the last verse again here in a moment.

But is it not true that we see that in our lives today? That there seems to be these people that have true mighty faith in God and yet they're the ones that suffer.

Our mind should take us, as we may mention, people in Israel today, not in Israel, excuse me, in China today that are suffering underneath tyranny in these grotesque and miserable conditions.

True believers in Yahweh that suffer. We cannot have the type of idea that the way that we tell the believers by their based off their possessions and their blessedness in this life.

That's not the way that we can tell true believers. In fact, often it's quite the opposite. How much do we suffer for the kingdom of God?

How much do these ones that seem to not be vindicated in this life, how much do they hold even firmer to the faith in Christ?

But at the same time, we also see that those that are blessedness, those that have prosperity in this life, is that an indicator of true faith in Yahweh?

No. It says in here that the murderer gets away, the one, he snatches the orphan off the mother's breast and there's nothing that happens to it for it.

It's this seemingly injustice to us that takes place. And then you can almost hear again, this is a pilgrim passing through that we're talking about here.

This is a pilgrim Job that's suffering. In the midst of his suffering, you can almost then imagine why he would say, yet God does not pay attention to such offense.

It doesn't burden Yahweh beyond what He's already sovereignly decreed. This is a man that's trying to rationalize, why did

God take my children? Why did God have them die? This would be a question that we would say that this seems like a reasonable thing for a man who's suffering to ask.

Yet God does not pay attention to such offense. The injustices that He's just made wrenching of.

Let us continue as we think, that's again, this is the mind of Job suffering.

The mind of Job that is in the midst of severe hardship. He's trying to wrestle with these things, but still be faithful in his declarations of who

God is. Let's look at verse 13. Others have been with those who rebel against the light.

They do not want to recognize its ways nor abide in its paths. Let's read that again.

Others have been with those who rebel against the light.

They do not want to recognize its way nor abide in its path. Again, we look at this

Job character and he's one of the oldest historical figures that we have in the Bible for us.

He has a limited revelation that's been given to him. We have all 66 books in the Bible. He had none. He couldn't open up to Genesis and read about it.

He didn't have those things. He has limited revelation about the character of God. Notice in here, he says, these are the individuals, those that are the murderers, those that are the ones that are afflicting the wicked, or the widows, the wicked that are afflicting the widows.

All these individuals, they are the ones that rebel against the light. They do not recognize its ways nor abide in its paths, meaning that they're not walking in true light.

This is very, very similar to some New Testament language that we would have. Look at 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14.

1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, if you'd like to turn there, you can. It says, The natural person does not accept the things of the

Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned or spiritually blinded.

They don't even understand the things of God, these wicked individuals. Those that don't walk in the light, they don't understand it.

They cannot. Immediately, our minds should take us to Ephesians 2. We've been looking at that text over and over and over again in our

Bible studies, that children of wrath, those that are dead in their sins, they cannot appease

God in anything that they do. Why? Because they are continually walking in trespasses.

John 3, verse 19 -20 says this, And this is the judgment, that light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil.

For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed.

Again, what has Job just said for us years before the Gospel of John was ever written? Others have been with those who rebel against the light.

They do not want to recognize it, meaning there's no desire inside of them. It's not there.

It's not present. There's this cessation of ability to be able to come to the light. They do not want to recognize its ways nor abide in its paths.

Let's look back here at chapter 24 and keep on looking through this. Again, I think we're going to see this even more in this chapter.

Job is able to profess in prophetic utterance some truths about God that have yet to be revealed to anybody prior to him.

And it's remarkable. He then says, The murder arises at dawn

He kills the afflicted and the needy And at night he is a thief

The eye of the adulterer Keeps watch for the twilight Saying, No eye will see me

And he keeps his face hidden In the dark they dig into houses They shut themselves up by day

They do not know the light We can pause here for a moment and say, does sin happen in the daylight?

Yes, it does. But the picture of what's being done here is that these grotesque things are being hidden by the night.

These are individuals that don't want to be exposed in life. They want to reject the things of God.

They don't want to come to truth. For the morning is the same to him as the shadow of death

For he recognizes the terrors of the shadow of death. So the things for you and I, when we talk about the shadow of death, again, this is years before the book of Psalms in that chapter 23.

The valley of the shadow of death. These things that are, for believers, terrifying for us, it says that in reality, for the murderer, for those that are the adulterer, for those that are in the dark, coming to the light for them is like the shadow of death for us.

They want to avoid it. They do not seek after it. This person who loves the dark, who lives in the dark, why would they want to come to the light?

They are insignificant on the surface of the water. Their portion is cursed on the earth.

They do not turn toward the vineyards. Again, we think about the wonderfulness, that is these prophetic utterances of Job.

We think about we've been in conversation with wine here recently. Israel in the Old Testament all the time has talked about the vineyard, the vineyard workers, and Isaiah, that's what it would refer to them as.

It's remarkable that here's Job, a person that's not an Israelite because it's before that time and place when those things took place, and he says, they do not turn towards the vineyard.

In John chapter 15, you would have Jesus himself who says, I am the vine.

I am the true vine. My father is the vine dresser. He is the one who cleans the vine.

Those that are cast out, those that are cut off, we're never really a part of the vine, but you to the apostles, he says, you are already true.

You are already clean. You're ready for ministry. Why? Because you're a part of the vineyard. So acknowledging here,

Job has said, these people are not a part of the light. These people do not go to the vineyard.

Jesus says, you hate the light. You're not a part of the vine.

It's remarkable when we consider this is being said by Job. Drought and heat seize the snow waters.

So does Sheol, those who have sinned. We did a call to worship today from Romans chapter 6, verse 23, for the wages of sin is death.

What is the great equalizer between both the wicked and the righteous in this text? Both go to Sheol, both die, both suffer, expect what we talked about even with the children today.

Both suffer death, a separation of soul and flesh.

They both suffer it. So Job is saying in here, Eliaphus, look, the righteous, they die too.

They suffer too, but so do the wicked, the ones that seem to have prosperity and the like. They ultimately will go to the same place as well.

They're going to die and go to the grave. A mother will forget him.

The worm feasts sweetly till he is no longer remembered. And unrighteousness will be broken like a tree.

He feeds on the barren woman who does not give birth and does no good for the widow.

So what happens in this great equalizer? People will forget about who you are.

The wicked that seem to prosper, it's okay, give it a hundred years, no one's going to remember that person. There is no honor in that person.

Listen here to verse 22 to 24. But he, so now listen to those pronouns in your translations, you should notice that the pronoun he is capitalized, this is speaking about Yahweh.

But he drags off the mighty by his power. He rises, but no one believes in his life.

He provides them with security and they are supported and his eyes are on their ways.

They are exalted a little while, then they are gone. Moreover, they are brought low and like everything gathered up, even like the heads of grain, they are cut off.

Remember back in chapter, I believe it was chapter 19. Job says, my redeemer lives.

Okay, this prophetic utterance, Job has never heard the name Jesus. He's never heard of this, but he says, my redeemer lives.

And here he says, this Yahweh, he's going to drag the mighty, those wicked individuals that did their deeds in the night.

He's going to drag them off by his own power. He's going to rise, but even though no one will believe in this life of his, he provides them with security and they are supported and his eyes are on their ways.

Meaning these ones that are wicked, God might be letting them live a day longer just so that he can show his wrath upon them one day.

He's going to have patience with them so that he can display his wrath. Think about that for a moment.

The things that you and I look at as prosperity, the things that we look at and are sometimes envious of and jealous of, this text is saying that God has them in that secure place to demonstrate his wrath against them one day.

The very things that we would look at and sometimes be jealous of are the things that God is demonstrating his glory over.

And he says that their heads of grain, they are cut off. There's going to be punishment given to them.

If you would like to, you can. Revelation chapter 6, 9 through 11, this is in the prophetic word of the book of Revelation with John who is seeing vision after vision after vision.

And in chapter 6, he sees the seven seals of the scroll that no one could open, and it says that the land standing as if slain, the one who has the voice of the

Lion of Judah, he comes conquering. And to conquer, and he opens this scroll. He opens this scroll that has the seven seals that no one else is strong enough to open.

And in opening this fifth seal, he sees something that's quite unique. He says, and he opened the fifth seal, and I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the witness which they had maintained.

And I want to pause here. Did John see his friends, his brothers and sisters in the faith?

Did he see these individuals get beheaded in his life? Did he see and witness the persecution of the church in his very first century life?

Yeah. He says he sees their souls. He sees the souls of those who had been beheaded, those that had been slain because of the word of God.

And it says in verse 10, And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Master, holy and true, will you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on earth?

Lord, we suffered for your sake, and here we are in your presence. How much longer will you let the wicked live on earth?

How much longer, O Lord? And a white robe was given to each of them, and it was told to them that they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were to be killed, even as they had been, would be completed also.

What is the testimony of this fifth seal? What is the testimony of this revelation about who

God is to John the apostle? Until the number of the fellow slaves and their brothers who were to be killed, even as they had been, would be completed also.

Does not God have a sovereign border on everything in this life? The way that these souls of these ones that have been killed for the word of God, God says,

You have a white robe with me. You're in my presence. Wait a little while longer until the rest of those that are meant to be killed are killed.

And then what will happen? That patience that God is demonstrating towards those wicked individuals, it will be vindicated.

There will be a day of judgment. There will be a day, as Job says, he will drag the mighty off with his power.

There will be a day that like the grain, the heads of it are removed. So too God's wrath will come upon those that seem to have greatness in this life.

And now listen to what Job says. Now, if it is not so, who can prove me a liar and make my speech worthless?

Brothers and sisters, is what Job just said true? Can any of us look at any text in the

Bible, any word of God, and say what Job has just said is not true? No, we cannot.

Could Eliaphus, could Bildad, could Zophar say, Job, this is not true. They could, but they would be wrong for doing so.

Listen to the words of Bildad in this text, and we'll finish out here. Then Bildad, the Shuhite, answered and said,

Will and dread belong to him who makes peace in his heights? Is there any number to his troops, and upon whom does his light not rise?

How then can mortal men be right with God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?

Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight.

How much less mortal man than maggot, and the son of man, that worm.

I say amen to that, what he just said. Listen, this question, these questions that Bildad have just asked are the very questions that I would expect a man on the very precipice of being saved or hardened would ask.

Where either the heart is calloused or replaced, a maggot to a man is a grotesque sight, and not anything for us to take mercy on.

We would hire the exterminator, we would cast the maggots in the trash, we would cover our mouth in abhorrent disdain of them when they are found.

Man is worse in the eyes of the Lord than this in our own eyes.

This truth is glorious though, when gripped by us as new covenant members, we rejoice at the love of God, for we have found favor with the

Almighty, not because we are owed, oh no, we are maggots, for we are less than maggots, but because he had mercy on me, on us, his church.

We are not made pure because we can generate an atonement of acceptable means to God, but we are made pure through him taking our filth as maggots and giving us everlasting righteousness.

I think Bill Datt is asking the right question. I think, however, he's asking it with an intention to try to hurt and undermine

Job's previous statements. But this is a question that we can ask ourselves today.

Does God not see the sin in the stars? Does nothing really show righteousness in this life for us?

Is there anything that God can look at and find favor in? There is nothing outside of Christ.

We are the maggots. We deserve God's wrath, yet we receive mercy.

Saint, if you were persecuted today, if you're suffering today, wait a little while longer.

Wait a little while longer. Know that God is testing. Know that God is refining. Know that God has done something for you that you are deserving of, and that is dying in your place.

Wait a little while longer. Be faithful to him. Know him as sovereign. See his providence in everything in this life.

Let us pray. Lord God, I thank you for these two chapters of chapter 24 and 25,

Lord. God, I see these words of Bill Datt, and I see them as the last twist of the knife in the sight of Job that we hear in this text.

Lord, I would ask that as we have different knives and arrows that are flung at us in this world,

Lord, that we would take confidence and assurance in what you've done for us, Lord, that we would see it as a pleasure to suffer for your namesake,

Lord, that we would not look at anything and think of it as meaningless or lacking of purpose, Lord, but that we would know that it is something that is being done in our lives for a purpose, one that we might not know, but one that is holy and wise and true because it's according to your own will,

Lord. God, we thank you for showing us favor, unmerited favor, in the life of Jesus Christ and in his death and his burial and in his resurrection.

Lord, it is not name, the name that's saved, the only name under heaven by where which a man must be saved, and that is

Jesus Christ that we say this, that we utter this, that we think on this. Amen. Brothers and sisters, today we're going to do communion, so I would ask you to please stand with me as we do this.

I invite Rick to come up here. So today is the day that we've switched all the way to wine, so please, with assurance and conscience bound in God's word, partake in the vine that is

Jesus Christ today by showing that and partaking in the vineyard. So please, just in no particular order, come on up, grab both elements for you and your family, take them back to your seats, pray amongst yourself and amongst one another, and if you are unable to come up and get the elements today and need assistance, just please gesture to either

Rick and I and we'll get that to you. So please come up in no particular order. As mentioned before, let's just go ahead and pray with one another before we do this together.

Would you like some communion? Would you like some communion?