Well then, let's turn now to the book of Job again in chapter 19. And reading again at verse 23. Oh, that my words were written, that they were inscribed in a book, that they were engraved on a rock, with an iron pen and lead forever, for I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself. And my eyes shall behold, and not another, how my heart yearns within me. If you should say, how shall we persecute him? since the root of the matter is found in me, be afraid of the sword for yourselves." And so on. Particularly the famous words of verse 25, for I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that my Redeemer lives. Now last Lord's Day evening, we saw Job's situation worsen. Although viewed objectively, it could hardly be worse than it already was. He had lost everything, including his own health. But last Lord's Day evening, we saw that his friends, good men and well-respected men, had given up on him. And in a sense that more or less completed his rejection in this earth. Now, most of us don't know this. In our experience, perhaps most of us never will. I hope we don't. But it must be a shattering thing for a whole community to reject you, for your extended family to reject you. Job in this chapter mentions his relatives, his close friends, his servants, his wife, and his extended offspring. And now, with his three friends rejecting him, the church has effectively rejected him too. And that's really what it means to him, because these three friends who were the closest to him, the most patient and the most understanding, after trying to reason with him, have effectively washed their hands of him and said, Job, the only, I'm sorry, and we're all sorry, but the only explanation for your situation, is that you're not God's child. And God is not chastising you, he is punishing you. He is judging you because you are indeed a terrible hypocrite. And I suppose it's hard to conceive of anything worse than that. But I suppose what is worse than that is that Job is now beginning to wonder if God himself has actually rejected him. Now it's no wonder that you should begin to think like that. If we were in that situation again, we probably would think like that ourselves, too. We would suspect that something was far, far wrong. And there's no doubt, if you've been following the language carefully, that there is a change in the way that Job speaks. I mean, at first, when the catastrophe was unleashed, his faith and his hope seemed so strong. And they were so strong, and it almost takes us aback how strong they were. The Lord gave my family, my resources, and the Lord has taken them away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Shall we receive good all the time from the hand of God? Shall we not receive evil also? In all this Job did not sin with his lips. But as we move through the book, there's an increasing element of self-pity and woe is me. There's even a note of self-justification because Job seems more and more careful to assert his own innocence in this matter, rather than justifying God. Now it's a question of balance and emphasis, but as a question of balance and emphasis, his weight seems to fall on this, that I have not done anything to warrant this. Now by that we shouldn't understand that Job is sinless or is asserting his sinlessness, he's not. All he's saying is simply that I did not bring this upon myself. And he's very concerned to get this across. In fact, this is what Angus Elihu, he's the fourth speaker who comes in towards the end of this book, and we'll look at him next time, God willing. He's very concerned that not only have Job's friends been saying something wrong, but that Job is more concerned to establish his own innocence in the matter than to establish God's righteousness. And as well as that, I think we noticed it last week, there's a note of anger coming into what Job says. For example, when he says to God, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? We can't help but detect a note of anger or at least serious frustration. What's the meaning? What have I done? to bring all this down on my head. And of course part of the problem is that God himself is silent or appears to be silent. God isn't giving him an explanation and neither for that matter does God seem to be comforting him. There is no comfort. Now we all know how important a thing comfort is. even our Savior himself, who had to descend lower than Job. In Psalm 22, and we often sing it at communion time, I looked for one to comfort me, but comforters found I none. That included, of course, God himself. Our Savior could not locate the comfort of God in his own distress. And you'll notice that Job's words are actually teetering on the verge of unbelief in this chapter. In verse 7, If I cry out concerning wrong, I am not heard. If I cry aloud, there is no justice. He, God, has fenced up my way so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness in my paths. He has stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has uprooted like a tree, and he has kindled his wrath against me, and he counts me as one of his enemies." And again, just to revert back to the beginning of the book and to the whole context of the sufferings, you can almost imagine Satan listening in and asking, well, is he at last going to curse God and die? Is he at last going to curse God and die? But then suddenly out of the depths and in the darkest hour there is a change and you couldn't help but notice the change in the reading and I paused deliberately before verse 23 came in because the change is just so marked and it's so evident. Suddenly the language of faith and hope is back. I know that my Redeemer lives." And he's so sure of this, he turns around in verse 28 and he says, instead of asking, how shall we persecute this man? He said, you should be afraid of the sword for yourselves. In other words, you should be afraid of God's justice for yourselves. Why? Because he says, the root of the matter is found in me, in verse 28. Now, that's an interesting expression because one of his friends has compared him to a flourishing tree that has been taken up by roots and has died. And Job is effectively saying, no. He says, what I am really like is a flourishing tree that has been cut down inexplicably in the providence of God. But my roots are not dead. My roots are still down in the ground. And I believe that when my Redeemer is finished with me, that I shall grow up and still be flourishing. It's pretty much like the example that you have of the house of David in Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 11 are interestingly related, although the connection is not often made because the image of the tree pervades in both and links them together. In Isaiah 6, we're told that the house of David has become the house of his father, Jesse. In other words, it's gone back into obscurity. That the tree has been cut down and all that remains is a stump in the ground. Now, normally when you see a stump in the ground like that, it looks pretty dead and can look dead. But then in Isaiah 11, we're told of a little green shoot that comes out at the side of the stump. And that, we're told, is the reawakening of the house of David. It is, in fact, the arrival of the branch, the Messiah. Now, that's exactly the idea here. Job is effectively saying, yes, he says, I've really been brought low, but I'm still alive. I'm still alive. And the reason I'm still alive is because he's alive, verse 25. I know that my Redeemer is alive. And because He's alive, then I'm alive too. And you'll notice that these words are so important to Job that he wants them recorded forever. In verse 23, he wants them recorded in a book. Oh, that my words were written and inscribed in a book. Verse 24, that's not enough for him. A book is not enough. He says, I want it written in rock. Oh, that they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and led forever. Now the idea here is that they be chiseled out. and filled in with lead so that you could read these words in a rock. Now, it's obvious that what he's striving after is permanency here. We understand that. A book, we think, is a permanent thing. But writing in a rock is much more permanent. Job got more than he could have asked or thought. His words were inscribed in the book of God, which is more permanent than a rock. I mean, the day will come, according to 2 Peter, when the earth will return to its original molten constitution, when the chemical bonds are loosened and the rocks themselves will melt. So anything written or inscribed will disappear. The world and all the works that are in it. But this book is different. The word of God that he has established in heaven, this word will stand forever. And into eternity it will be known and read by God's people that our Redeemer lives. It's yet another example of what you find in the Word of God, that the people that God sometimes makes to go down, make to go down so much and so deep, often come up with most precious and beautiful things. It's not the reason or the sole reason why Job was put where he was by God, but there's no doubt that when he goes down where he was, in the middle of this book and in the trough In the slough of despond, out comes this pearl, this gem of a statement, which is pretty much in its own way without comparison in the rest of Scripture. That I know my Redeemer lives, and at the last He shall stand on this earth. And after my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God, and how my heart yearns within me. Supposing it had been for no other reason than to bring up these words for you and for me, we could well understand it. And it's a consolation, that. And I think it's worth remembering, if you are the type of person who is sometimes bound just to go a bit low, there is a reason for that. Sometimes it's our own foolishness. More often than not, it's our own foolishness. Other times, it's just God's way of humbling you. And when he does, he teaches you something. And it will be a means to teach others things, too. That's just the way God does it. So don't despair about feeling despairing sometimes. It will be a blessing to others. It will be. Before I go on to what the words actually mean themselves, I just want to say something about the fact that they appear here at all. This isn't the first time that Job has expressed his faith in the midst of the trials. Just a bit further back in chapter 13, there's another very famous expression of faith. And it's this, he says, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. You find that in chapter 13 and verse 15. Though he slay me, or though he kill me, yet will I trust him. Now in its own way, that's a marvelous statement of faith too. I wouldn't deny that at all. It's a marvelous statement of faith. It's a determined kind of faith. Though God kill me, and the expression is interesting because you would never use it yourself, would you? You probably would never speak of God taking away your life as God killing you. So he's taking it as far as he can possibly go. He's basically saying that, though God take away my life violently and pretty much without cause, he says, pretty much as close to murder as you can get, though he take away my life violently without cause, yet will I trust him. Now, that's noble enough in its own way. And I hope you could say that and that I could say it too. But what I want to say to you is that that expression there is as different from this one in verse 25, I know my Redeemer lives, it's as different from it as night is from day. That expression in chapter 13, though he slay me yet will I trust him, that is spoken in the dark from a soul in the dark. It's stoic, it's resolved, it's determined, but it's a man who has no light, no warmth, no joy, and no comfort. And in fact, in a way, all you have to do is read the whole verse to understand that. Just turn back. It's worth turning back to it in chapter 13. And verse 15, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before him. He also shall be my salvation, for a hypocrite could not come before him. Listen carefully to my speech, to my declaration with your ears. See now I have prepared my case, and I know that I shall be vindicated. Who is he who will contend with me? If now I hold my tongue, I perish. Again, verse 15, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before him. Notice, the emphasis is not on the glory of the one who's going to deliver him. It's not an expression of wonder and gratitude at his Savior and his Lord. It's just an example of what sometimes happens in our own lives when we don't have that comfort and we don't have that joy, but we're determined to keep on going. It's a good thing, but it's not the best. By no means is it the best. And that's why I want to say that it differs from the statement that we're considering as night from day. Because in this one, in the words of our text in verse 25, I know that my Redeemer lives. This is a statement that is spoken in the light. What's happened here is that God has shone into his darkness. Now, he hasn't shone in to give him an explanation of what's happening. We'd like that, and he'd like that, but he hasn't done that. But what he has done is he has shone in and given an assurance of his own love. And he's given Job here, he's giving him a clear sight of his own standing before God, what God is to him and who he is to God, a clear standing of his rights and of his privileges. And you know the strange thing is in a trial that that's really very often all we need. Most of the time when we're in the darkness in our trials and we're in pain and in grief we think we just want a word of explanation. We think if we could see God's plan. And if God just spoke to us and said exactly, well, the reason I'm putting you through this is because I want to accomplish that, that, and that. This for you, and that for her, and that for him. And we think that that would be fine if we could just see the picture. Well, that's not so. And in fact, what we really want is the comfort of God himself. And when you get the comfort of God in the trial, it's amazing how the trial just doesn't seem to really matter too much anymore. The most outstanding example, of course, we have of that is Job's thorn in the flesh, not Job's, Paul's thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. He got this terrible physical discomfort which seemed to affect his eyes and his whole appearance quite badly. And it led to people despising him. And it kept him back, kept him back. And he asked God three times, and three may well stand there as a symbolic number for I asked him often, fervently, to take it away. And God refused to take it away. He said to him, my strength, Paul, is made perfect in your weakness. What I'm accomplishing just has to be done this way. It has to be done through your weakness. Now, you just accept that, but my glory is manifested in your weakness. Now, that wasn't easy for Paul to accept. I'm sure he could ask very simple questions like, why? Why not just accomplish it without my weakness? But he learned that that wasn't an appropriate question. He's just been told by God that what I am doing is done this way and must be done this way. Leave it at that. Now, when Paul left it at that, he actually changed his whole spirit entirely and said, no, he said, I'll rejoice in this. I will glory in this, knowing that your strength is made perfect in my weakness. You see, he discovered that all he needed was to really know in his heart that God was actually with him. That there was a real, living, dynamic relationship and that God was using his situation and that was it. And that's the way it'll be with us too. Very often when we're wanting the bigger answers, we're wanting the bigger answers because we're not cultivating the relationship well enough. We don't have a good enough sense that God's in this, that God's with me in this. And when we don't have that comfort, we want the answers. When we've got the comfort, we don't care about the answers. Because we've got God. We've got God, and we know we've got God. So who cares about the answers? Now, there's a couple of things I think I just want to highlight in connection with that. First of all, I want you to remember that trials in themselves will not take away God's presence from you. Some people speak about Job as though he lost God's presence because of the trials that came on him. That's nonsense. That's nonsense. When Job said, the Lord gave and the Lord take away, blessed be the name of the Lord, that's a man who had God's presence, very much so. Trials can't take that away from you. What can take God's presence from you is how you respond to your trials. Absolutely so. How you respond to them can take away his presence. And I wonder if Job perhaps looked a bit too much to people to alleviate this distress and maybe not enough to God. We're all prone to do that. Sometimes we don't even realize we're doing it. Maybe you look to elders, or to friends, or to ministers, or somebody, or to Christians, or the church, or something. And when they fail, as God sometimes makes them do, you realize that you just haven't been clinging enough to God. And these trials overwhelmed him, perhaps as props were taken away. If he would stay on God, I think his comfort would remain. But instead he began to sink. And I think in that way he reminds us of Peter. It's some time ago since we looked at Peter walking on the water. And I distinctly remember saying at the time that in many respects, in terms of practical Christian living, that it's the most important passage in the Scripture, because it somehow sums up everything to do with practical Christian living. When Peter kept his focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, he walked on water, and he was more than a conqueror. And when we keep our face on the Lord Jesus Christ, very firmly focused on Him, we can say with Paul too that this is my light affliction and it will endure but for a moment. And I've no doubt that if Job too had somehow kept his face firmly focused on God, He could also say, my light affliction, but for a moment. Now, although I'm saying that, I'm going to be tentative saying that. Why? Because I don't want to become another false comforter. I don't want to sit down with these three men and say to Job, well, Job, you know, if you had looked maybe a little more intently at the face of God, you might not be feeling as bad as you do. And I'm conscious of that. So let me just say that generally, as a spiritual rule, if you will keep your face on God, you will not lose your comfort. And in a way it's not Job's comfort that was bothering him, it was his situation and what his situation was telling him. But had he kept focus, I believe he would have kept his comfort. He'd have kept his sickness, and his family wouldn't have come back. But he'd have kept his comfort. And of course, Peter, when he took his eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ, began to sink. Now, it's all in there, isn't it? I mean, in terms of practical Christian living, it's all in there. We need to keep looking to Christ, believing in His promises, and let me emphasize, along with that, in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to shine a light on these promises to you in a way that will console your heart. Let me stop there to emphasize that. George Gillespie, the famous Scottish theologian who was at the Westminster Assembly, who died young, I think at 29, I think at 29, might have been 39. But he said, when he was talking about marks and evidences of being in Christ, he was making the point that unless the Holy Spirit was arguing these marks to you, that they wouldn't convince you. And he famously said that all your marks will leave you in the dark. They leave you in the dark. The best evidences will leave you in the dark. You need the humble, earnest prayer of a child of God to ask the Spirit to shine on these, make the promises speak, give them a power to console. Speak to my heart, not just to my mind, but shine a light and let me see your glory in these promises and in these scriptures. And that is a critical thing. Just the mere knowledge of the truth is not enough to console you. It's not enough. You can repeat this text to you a million times to yourself that I know that my Redeemer lives, but you need to ask God humbly to bless that to you. to make it shine so you can bathe in its comfort. And by the way, that makes the difference between a faith that is seen and admired on the one hand and a faith that is coveted and envied on the other. If I saw someone in Job's situation say, though he slay me, yet will I trust him, I'd say, well, that's pretty amazing. But if I heard him say, I know that my Redeemer lives, and I shall stand one day in my flesh, and I shall see him as my Redeemer, and I shall give him praise and glory as my Redeemer, I would say, well, that's really amazing. To see someone in the crucible someone in the wind and the waves with joy and with expectation and with gladness of heart, now that's something else. Stoic resolution, one thing, but joy and triumph and hope, that's something else. And is that not really what speaks to an unbelieving world? I'm sure you, as a non-Christian, have come across people like that. I know I have. I've come across these two states in myself. I know well what it's like to be clinging on with fingernails. I know, too, what it's like to walk on the water. And it's walking on the water that is most impressive. And when you have seen that as an unbeliever, surely it's communicated itself to you. You've seen Christians like this in situations like this, and they're so triumphant. You see them especially on their deathbed. They're not just clinging on. They are more than conquerors. That is the way that Job is here. And if the Holy Spirit is the comforter after all, He's not just the author of the promise, He's the comforter of your soul. He's not just the one who wrote that your Redeemer lives, but He's the one who will comfort you with that truth. Now, if He is the comforter, then invite Him in as the comforter. Call upon Him as the comforter. and ask Him to bless you. If comfort is that precious to you, don't spend your life grieving the Holy Spirit of God into withdrawing your comfort. And in a way, there's almost a sense in which you'd feel that Job is saying enough to warrant God not comforting his soul. But this is the amazing thing, when all these things are said and done, at the end of the day, God gives us the faith and he gives us the hope. And even when we only deserve darkness, he just bursts in with light. He just bursts in with light. And that's why from the edge of this spiritual wilderness, and you would pretty much say from the edge of reason, from a man who's teetering on the edge of reason, you've got this powerful cry of faith from a man who suddenly bathed in the light. Now, what do these words say, I know that my Redeemer lives? Well, they're bringing before us the precious truth that God is our Redeemer. Now, I want to look at three, when I'm saying three things, not today, or not just now, just one, really, just now, but today and tonight, I want to look at three things with you. First of all, what is our Redeemer? Second, who is the Redeemer? And third, what exactly does this Redeemer do? Now first of all, what is a Redeemer? Now a Redeemer, or redemption, or avenger even, is a very old institution in the world. It's rooted in the days of limited government, When family responsibility was very, very high, we've swung to the opposite extreme. And absolutely so. Family responsibility is diminished completely. People are atomized, individualized, and the state is your guardian. That should never be so in Scripture, according to Scripture. But in these ancient days, even before Job lived and during that time, there was very limited government and family responsibility was very high. In other words, whenever you fell into trouble, it was the duty of your next of kin to help you out. I still remember when families functioned like that. If somebody fell ill, you didn't expect state intervention, you expect family intervention. You had the responsibility to look after your own. So, for example, if you were kidnapped, your next of kin had the responsibility to free you. If your property was stolen, your next of kin had the responsibility to get your property back. If your name was being dishonored, your next of kin had the responsibility to vindicate your name, assuming, of course, that you couldn't somehow do it yourself. If you became unwell, your next of kin had the responsibility to look after your ill health. There's an interesting example of a Redeemer at work in the book of Genesis when Lot is taken captive. You'll remember Lot was living in Sodom And the king of Sodom and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were taken captive by a coalition of kings. Now, Abraham immediately recognized that it was his responsibility as the uncle, as the next of kin, to intervene in that situation. So he gathered his own private army. Abraham had a private army of 300 men. There was an interesting Hebrew word which is only used once in Genesis. I think it's Genesis 14, 14. Yes, they're referred to as servants who are born in his own house. The word used to describe them earlier in the book of Genesis was a word that nobody really knew what it meant, but it's since been discovered that it's actually a reference to soldiers really. So he had his own private army and he gathered them and he went after this coalition of kings and he redeemed Lot. and he redeemed Lot's possessions. He actually also freed the king of Sodom and the king of Sodom's possessions. You remember the king of Sodom said, you know, ask for your reward, he says, and I'll give it to you. And Abraham says, no, he says, I don't want anyone to say that the king of Sodom has made me rich. I'm sure probably Abraham said a lot more to the king of Sodom than that. I'm sure he said a lot more to the king of Sodom than that, but for our benefit, that's all that was necessary to be said. I don't want you to make me rich. And it's at that point that Abraham famously meets Melchizedek, the king of Jerusalem, and he sees in him a type of Christ. Notice the connection. Abraham didn't receive the wealth of this man, but he got a blessing from God instead. Abraham gave him a tithe of all that he possessed. But the key thing is that he liberated Lot. Now, that's our Redeemer at work, and I want you to notice that Job needed all that. First of all, Job, in a sense, has been kidnapped. Inexplicably, he's in the power of Satan. Is that not what was said at the beginning of the book, where God says to Satan, behold, he is in your power? He's in your power. Not only that, but Job's property has effectively been stolen. The Sabaeans and the Chaldeans took away the donkeys and the oxen and the sheep. Of course, he lost his family too. What about his name and his honour? Well, that's being impugned. There's actually no one at all to defend him. He says that, my brothers have been removed from me, my acquaintances are estranged from me, my relatives have failed me and my close friends have forgotten me. Nobody, nobody cares about my integrity, nobody cares about my reputation, nobody wants to speak up for me or to defend me. and his health? Well, we're told tragically that he scrapes his own skin with a piece of pottery. His skin that is peeling off, that is becoming black and is obviously intensely itchy, he's scraping it himself. Is there no one else to do it? He's conscious of worms on his body. Is there no one else? No. No, there isn't. no one to care and no one to comfort. He has no Redeemer, no Redeemer, but he needs one. And so too do we. This picture of Job is really a picture of us too. We too have been kidnapped and we've been kidnapped by the enemy of our souls. The sad thing is that we foolishly walked into that, and we're complicit in it. But nonetheless, it doesn't change the fact that you are in the grip today of someone who is actually your enemy. It's a strange, strange situation, because on the one hand, Jesus would say of you, if you're not serving the Lord, he'd say that you are of your father, the devil. You share his likeness. You share his ambitions and his characteristics. But at the end of the day, you're no friends. You're no friends of his, and he's no friend of yours. A likeness, a family likeness, but no friendship. Sometimes we find that in the world, too. You come across people who are a family, and they've got nothing in common anymore. Natural affection has died. Hostility, enmity, sometimes it's over something like a will or a financial dispute. And they've got nothing to do with each other at all. And you feel it's a tragic, tragic thing. But that in itself is a picture of what we're like by nature. That's why, as I've mentioned to you many times before, that every picture that you have of heaven in the Bible is a corporate one, of a rejoicing family. Every picture of hell is individualized. The rich man in hell has no one to comfort him. There's a complete and utter breakdown of society in the final state amongst the lost. There is a complete and utter breakdown. No one is a helper of anyone else. None at all. No friendship. So the tragedy is that you have enlisted yourself voluntarily. You've been kidnapped, but you're a volunteer too. I'll come to that in a second. in the army of someone who hates you and who does not care for you at all. The Bible tells us that Satan keeps us. As Jesus used the illustration, he says, a strong man armed. keeps his palace and his goods are in peace. And it stays that way until a stronger, that is me, he says, until I come in. A strong man, the devil armed, keeps his palace and his goods are in peace. That's you. He doesn't need to worry about you. You're on his side. fool he would call you fool yes but you're on his side and he's armed his armor really i mean he only needs one bit it's deception yeah deception he's got you to believe a lie some whoppers too some whoppers too It's an insult to your intelligence to be believing what you believe if you believe that we have come from the random movement of gases and particles. If you believe that your reason has no validity simply because it is the random movement of particles and molecules, What validity have you got for believing anything, including that you came from the random movement of atoms and molecules? Strange. Strange that you should believe all that. Strange that you should believe that there is no God. Strange that you should believe that all your ideas of truth and lies and error and falsehood and beauty and ugliness are all mythical. Strange. Strange that you should believe, disbelieve what your heart tells you that you must appear before your creator one day. Amazing. You believe there's no God and the Bible says you're a fool. The fool says in his heart there is no God. Deception. That's the only weapon, really, that he needs. But the fact that you've been kidnapped no means that you're in bondage to two things. You're in bondage to sin and death. Sin and death. That's all the dark side ever gives you. Sin and death. Sin. Jesus said to the Pharisees, you need to be free. And if you believe in me and follow my word, you'll be free indeed. And I said, don't talk to us about freedom. We've always been free. We're Abraham's children. And Jesus said, no, he says, whoever commits sin, and the Greek word there means to practice. So whoever lives habitually in sin, he says, is a servant of sin. And that means that the day will come when you'll be cast out of Abraham's house. You'll be cast out. You will have no entrance into heaven because you don't belong to Abraham's children. You don't belong to him spiritually. Physical descent matters nothing to God. It has its purpose and he uses it in the church. It even comes into the sacraments. But ultimately it doesn't save, does it? Of course it doesn't. Paul teaches the same thing. He tells us that while we were in sin, he says, we were the servants of sin, but now, he says, we have become the servants of righteousness. Servants of sin, that's what you are. Now, you always think that when you sin, you're in control, you're doing the sin, and you like doing it, and you're happy that way. Well, that's fine. But the Bible's explanation is not at all consistent with that. It actually says that you are a slave of that thing that you're doing. It has its hold upon you. Now, there are times in life when that becomes very plain. You see a man enslaved to something like, perhaps, excessive drinking or something like that. And lo and behold, the thing that you've given yourself to suddenly overpowers yourself. And you see a man physically and mentally absolutely serving the thing that he thought he was master of. But that's just an obvious example of what's going on all the time. This fundamental pattern of lawlessness and rebellion, anti-Christianity and anti-Godness is gripping you. It's not your choices as such, as though you are master over them. They have empowered you. You've yielded yourself to it, as Paul says. They talk about the Stockholm Syndrome, don't they? where you sometimes see it with these kidnapped girls who are terribly kidnapped at a young age and they grow up to become dependent on their kidnapper. They actually can't live without their kidnapper. That's it, you see. This is it. You've got the Stockholm Syndrome with sin. But it's boss, not you. It's boss. But you need to recognize that. And because you're servants of sin, you're servants of death, too. The wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, O Lord. Now, of course, you're already dead. The Bible tells you that you are dead in trespasses and sins. But it also tells you that physical death awaits you. It also tells you that there is a second death when we are cast into what the Bible calls the lake of fire, the place of conviction, of grief, and of anguish. In fact, the Bible says that death permeates the whole of our rebellious existence. Death is working in us naturally all the time. We're born dying. We're born dying. That's why we get sick. We're dying. Spiritually, we're dead in trespasses and sins. Physically, we will eventually die, and spiritually, we'll experience the totality of death. That's what the Bible means by saying that when they were cast into the lake of fire, it is the second death. It's a totality of death. Right now, we can feel death, but then we're dead. Job needed a Redeemer, and we need a Redeemer. Now, we'll see tonight who the Redeemer is and what exactly He's done for us, but I just want to say one thing. I mean, normally I would just say that, and I have said that, and that's what we will do. But as I was putting my pen down, I was reminded of something that I've been reminded of more than once, and that was Dwight L. Moody when he preached in Chicago. in the 1870s, 1871, 8th October 1871 to be exact. And he preached on that Sabbath evening about what will you do with Jesus who is called the Christ. And he closed the sermon by saying that, we'll answer this question, he said, next Lord's Day, when I will lead you to Calvary and what the Lord has actually done. Now, the service had not actually finished. The singing had not finished before the sound of the fire engines were heard. And it was on that evening that the great fire of Chicago ripped through the city, destroying thousands of acres and killing hundreds of people. And Moody resolved that night that he would never hold back saying what people needed to do in any service just in case they never heard it again. And the fact of the matter is, and I'm not being dramatic here, you know that I never am that way anyway, I don't like to dramatize things, but the fact of the matter is that you could be dead. The fact of the matter is that you're here in the morning, but not here in the evening. Not because of sloth or carelessness, but because you're dead. That's the fact of the matter. And that's why it's right for me to tell you, even now, who this Redeemer is. That he is the Lord Jesus Christ. who has the power alone to deliver your soul from sin and from death, and to restore you into that relationship into God, with God, which you have lost. That is the One, the only Redeemer between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That's who you've got to lay hold of. And I know that most, if not all of you, have heard enough about Him to warrant you laying hold upon Him right now and not waiting for an evening. Waiting, waiting and procrastination is a terrible sin anyway. You need that redemption now because this death can find you now. But God willing, we'll look at him in a bit more detail tonight. Let's pray. Our gracious God, We praise you that you do indeed enter down to raise us up. And we pray that you would grant us a clear view, particularly this evening, of who this man is and what he has done for us. We thank you, O Lord, for the light that shines into the darkness and that you will not leave your people comfortless. And sometimes when we have a faith that seems to be just a resolution spoken in the dark, we pray not to be content with that. but to know that you will shine and that you will bring comfort to those who seek it. So, Lord, come in to the hearts of your own people who are, for whatever reason, in darkness. Though they are staying upon the Lord, give them the joy of the Holy Spirit in that situation. Lead us to our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, because we ask these things in His name and for His sake. Amen. Our last singing is Psalm 130 on page 421. "'Lord, from the depths to Thee I cried. "'My voice, Lord, do Thou hear, "'and my supplications' voice give an attentive ear. "'Lord, who shall stand? "'If Thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, "'but yet with Thee forgiveness is, "'that feared Thou mayest be.'" And when we watch for God, as verse five tells us to do, and when we wait for Him and hope in His Word, God comes with an assurance of who he is. Verse 7, let Israel hope in the Lord for with him mercies be and plenteous, plenteous redemption is ever found with him. Singing to the tune Martyrdom, we stand to sing the whole psalm. Lord, from the dead to thee I cry, my voice, Lord, do thou hear? Unto thy salvation's voice, give unattended ear. For who shall stand, if God, O Lord, should bargain iniquity? But yet, with thee, forgive messes, God be near, thou mayst be. I wait for thee. ♪ My soul doth wait, my hope is in his word. ♪ ♪ More humbly than for mourning was, my soul waits for the Lord. ♪ I say, Lord Lamb, may I do what the morning light to see, Let Israel open the door, for with him mercies be. Unplenty of redemption is ever found with Him, and from all His divinities The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forevermore. Amen.