Job chapter number 42. It's a great privilege for me to stand here before you today. I knew the men of the school, the faculty and the president were men of faith. I didn't realize just how much they were men of faith until I got a little notice in my box saying that you're scheduled to preach in chapel. Then I knew they were men of faith. But I am indeed grateful for this opportunity. I'm also grateful my pastor's in the back, Pastor Frank Herndon. I've been working in his church since the beginning of the year, and it's a privilege to have him here today. Also my arch nemesis I see hanging on the wall back there at the clock. But I promise I'll let you out before your Wednesday classes. Job chapter number 42, and we'll read verse five. I have heard of thee, Job speaking, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. And I would like to preach to you today a message entitled The Vision of God, for I believe that that is the central theme and the key of our Christian life, the vision of God, so that our testimony too could be like Job's. Formerly I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now, now mine eye seeth thee. Father in heaven, I thank you for this day. I thank you for this time that you have given us to be in your word. Spirit of God, do what I cannot do. Teach the truth that you would have taught today. Lord, I am an imperfect vessel, but I pray that you would fill me with your spirit. Make me a conduit, a channel only, for your power and for your message. Teach us this day what we need to learn. In Jesus' name, amen. Growing up in high school, I used to love the book of Job. I would always read it. I was always excited about it. But I never was satisfied because I'd always go to the book of Job and read it, trying to figure out why do the righteous suffer? I don't know if you've ever really tried to sit down and earnestly study it from that perspective, but it never really satisfied me. It never gave me a satisfactory answer. And then several years ago, being in Brother Sheets' class and reevaluating some things, I realized that I was studying it with the wrong question in mind. Because the book of Job isn't really given to tell us, why do the righteous suffer? It's given to tell us, why did Job suffer? And when I studied the book from that perspective, it made sense. It kind of made sense. That's why God did what He did. That's why what happened, happened. Now we've picked up at the end of the story, the conclusion. So let's go back and just briefly look over the story of Job. The first thing we notice about Job, of course, is his distinction. He's distinct because of his faithfulness on earth. The Bible says that he was a perfect and a bright one that feared God and eschewed evil. He was a distinct man because he was the focus of heaven. Twice, God asked Satan, has thou considered my servant Job? Of course, that led to Job's distress. Satan, being the accuser of the brother and being the adversary of us, accused Job. And we read about his distress in the first two chapters of this book. His friends came to console him. Interestingly, they sat with him seven days and seven nights, I believe it was, or three days, three nights, whichever it was. They said nothing because they saw his grief was so great. They just sat there to be with him. But then Job finally broke the silence, and they decided to get in there, and they said, We can explain why you're distressed. Here's the reason, and listen to what they had to say. Eliphaz, despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. Bildad, if thou were pure enough, right? Surely now He would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. Zophar, know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. And they said, Job, the reason you're suffering is because there's sin in your life. There's something that's not right. Their reasoning was very simple. Their systematic theology taught them, God judges the wicked and blesses the righteous. If you're blessed, you're righteous. If you're judged, you're wicked. Job, you're being judged. Therefore, Job, you're wicked. Zophar said, but the eyes of the wicked shall fail. They shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of a ghost. Bildad decreed, behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evildoers. Eliphaz said, remember I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off? Job is really simple. The righteous are never cut off, but the expectation of the wicked, that'll be cut off. But Job was dissatisfied. He was dissatisfied with their answers. He was dissatisfied with their counsels. And the first reason why he was dissatisfied, he already knew that. He already had that insight. Listen to his sarcasm. No doubt, but ye are the people. and wisdom shall die with you. But I have understanding as well as you. I am not inferior unto you. Yea, who knoweth not such things as these? What ye know the same do I know also. I am not inferior unto you." And Joseph said, look, I already know that. I already know that answer, but guys, it doesn't fit. My insight doesn't satisfy me because my situation, my experience is incompatible with what's going on. He said, I know that God should bless the righteous, judge the wicked, but guys, I'm righteous. And as you go through, you will see Job defends his righteousness over and over. He declares, I have not sinned, I have not turned away from God. And he finally came to this conclusion, this one thing, therefore I said it, he destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. If the scourge slays suddenly, he, God, will laugh at the trial of the innocent. And Joseph, guys, I can't explain it. I don't understand what's going on. But this one thing, I have to conclude that God judges the righteous as well as the wicked. It doesn't fit. That's the only conclusion I can come to. In trials, you see two things. There are three things that we can do in trials. One, we can rebel against God. That's what Job's wife counseled him to do. Curse God and die. Job, let go of your integrity. Just let God kill you. He's obviously out to get you. Just just let go. Just turn aside, let him finish the judgment he started. So we can rebel. Second thing, which we always do, which I've always done, is seek for relief. God, just get me out of this mess. I don't want to be here. Just get me out of this. But Job chose the third and the correct response. And that was to seek a revelation of God. You see, everything was taken away from Job. There was no relief in sight. There was nothing he knew what to do, except this. Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God, he cries out. Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might even come to His seat. I would order my cause before Him and fill my mouth with arguments. Job's desire. God, let me see you. God, let me speak to you. Let me come to you. God, you're all I have left. God's demand. God answered his prayer. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. And God said, all right, Job, you wanted to see me. You wanted to speak to me. Now see me. See my omnipotence. See my power. See what I have made. See what I can do. Job, see me. And God revealed himself to Job, which leads us to Job's declaration. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Why did Job suffer? Very simple. Job didn't know God like God wanted to be known. He didn't have the relationship with God that God intended him to have. And God, as it were, had to shake the heavens and rend the earth to break up everything that Job was satisfied in, everything that Job found his contentment in, his peace and security. And God had to break all of that away so that he could bring Job to the place where Job would realize I don't know God. Everything I've gotten from him is by the hearing of the ear, so it's second hand. I've never had a first hand relationship with God Almighty. Which brings us then to the lesson of Job. God never gives us anything but that it is for our admonishment and for our practical learning. What are the lessons that we can learn from the life of Job? What are the things that the Bible teaches us that we can apply to our heart and to our life today? The first thing I want to notice is the depersonalization of God. Now you say, wait a minute, that's a $15 word. And I know it's a $15 word, and you can usually use a nickel word just as well. But I'm the one who wrote the outline, so you got to put up with my quirks. Depersonalization. What do I mean by that? In systematic theology, you will learn about the personality of God. You will talk and discuss about God's emotions. You will learn about God's intellect. And you'll learn that God has a will or a volition, depending on who you read. But God has all three of those things. That lets me know one thing about God. God is a person. He's not some abstract force off Star Wars. He's not some nirvanistic concept from Eastern mysticism. He is a person. A living person. But as I have studied Christianity, I have seen one trend. It seems just a remarkable ability to depersonalize God. to get away from the aspect that God is a person and I am to have a personal, heart-to-heart, spirit-to-spirit relationship to Him. And I'm not talking about fundamentals, I'm talking about fundamentals and pseudo-fundamentals and New Evangelicals and everything where true Christians are. We have an infinite capacity to get sidetracked, to get mixed up, to put placebos into the place where the relationship with God ought to be. The Bible says that Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. Now that's personal. Enoch walked with God. Abide in me and I in you. I am the vine, you are the branches. John 15, the words of Jesus Christ. Now that's personal. Abide in me and I in you. I can get pretty close to a friend. I mean, I'm pretty tight with my brother, but I'm not going to abide inside my brother. If I do, there's something wrong. But Jesus Christ said, God Almighty said, abide in me and I in you. And to the church of Laodicea, Jesus Christ said this. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and sup with him and he with me. Now, how more personal can you get than that? You know, I would be a Thrill if Dr. Childs came to my dorm, knocked on the door and said, I want to come in and I've got a little sack lunch here and I want to eat lunch with you. I think, boy, I must really rate. I want Dr. Childs' list of people to see. I've got to be important. But think about it. Here's almighty, omniscient, all-powerful God, who condescends to come to our heart's door. Will you open up? Will you hear my voice? I want to fellowship with you. I want to sup with you. How much more personal can you get? One man said this, after the ascension, the disciples realized that their religion consisted in a living relationship to Him as still a living person with them, which their faith was not a recollection of what Jesus had taught. or the mere memory of a lovely human character. Forget it. A living relationship to an abiding supernatural person. That's the heart and that's the essence of Christianity. Knowing God. But we've depersonalized him. You say, well, how do you know? How can you just say, broad-based, we've depersonalized God, we've gotten away from the relationship with God? I'm glad you asked, because that leads me to my second point. I see in Christianity around me today a disconnection from the power of God. I don't know what kind of God you worship, but the God I worship is the God that parted the Red Sea so that a nation could cross. My God is the God that scattered the waters of Jordan so Joshua and the people could go into the land of victory. My God is the God that blew out the walls of Jericho. My God is the God that sent fire down to Mount Carmel to burn up and consume a sacrifice and bring a nation to its knees in recognition that the Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the God. My God is the God of Pentecost where 3,000 souls were saved. My God is the God of Paul who used Paul to turn his world upside down for the cause of Jesus Christ. My God is the God of the revivals and the awakenings that shook America, that shook Europe. My God is the God of Whitefield and Wesley and Jonathan Edwards and Moody. That's my God. But why is it that in order to hear about revival, I have to go into an old library and pull off an old tome and blow off the dust, the cover of a history book and flip through its yellow pages? to read about the works of my God, why is it not now? Because we're disconnected from the power of God. We're not in relationship to Him. We don't have the relationship to Him that He wants us to have. And we've filled our lives with so many other things. We've gotten away from that. And as a result, the power and the blessing aren't on our lives. They're not on our ministries today. We're disconnected from His power. I would do you a disservice if I were to bring you to this point and leave. Because in the vision of God, I must give you a warning. There's a cost. And that cost is a dissatisfaction. Look at Job chapter 42 and verse six. Wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. There's a cost. There's a dissatisfaction. The first thing that Job had to be dissatisfied about was his theology, his systematic theology. He already knew how God worked at the beginning of the book. He already had all the answers. He already had it all figured out. But God took away that satisfaction. And the more I study my Bible, the more I realize that I don't know anything about God. The more I see I'm just a mere child in knowledge. And while we're on the subject, let me address a nefarious rumor about my character that I've heard being spread about. And it's that I'm smart. I'm not. Anybody who takes second year Hebrew or third year Greek is not smart. They're a glutton for punishment. Don't ever do it unless God absolutely calls you to do it. Brother Sheets enjoys giving me and fulfilling my gluttony for punishment, I'm sure. I'm not smart. I don't know God like I ought to know God. How can I call myself wise if I can't say I have that relationship with God? Your systematic theology, you'll be dissatisfied with it. Because we have this nice little tendency like Job and his friends to take God and put him in a box. We got them all figured out. Well, God does this. He acts this way. He doesn't act this way. Nope, nope. That doesn't come in line with my theology. My God's small enough to fit in a box that my finite mind can't comprehend. Hey, it's time we got away from that and realized that we serve an infinite God. We serve a God whose thoughts are not our thoughts, whose ways are higher than our ways. We serve a transcendent God. We can't even figure out how this universe works. How are we going to figure out how the God who made the universe works? There's a dissatisfaction, not only with your systematic theology, but with your sanctification. Job 1.1 describes Job as perfect and upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil. But what did Job say? I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see it thee. Wherefore, because I have seen you, wherefore, I abhor myself. But Job, God even said of you, perfect, upright, no, I abhor myself. But Job, God even said of you, you fear him, you askew, evil, I repent in dust and ashes, I repent. Job looked at his testimony, his sanctification, And in light of the holiness of God, in light of His perfection, Job looked at it and said, I repent, I abhor myself. And I believe that we have filled in the vacuum of our lives where God should be, we filled it with a desire to have a righteous testimony. We filled it with a desire to do all the right things. Say the right things, be the right way, dress the right way. But that's not what it's all about. It's not about fulfilling a list of rules and regulations. It's not about looking good so that people around you can say, oh yeah, he's a righteous person. He's a good guy. That's not what it's all about. Those things should flow out of a relationship with God. Not the other way around. There'll be a dissatisfaction with your sanctification. And how could anyone be satisfied with how holy they are when they see God? It's like the man named Sammy Tippett wrote a book and he said an old preacher came to him and said, Sammy, there's a lamp on my desk. Can you see the blemishes on my hand? Sammy said, no sir, I can't. His old preacher friend put his hand near the lamp and said, Sammy, can you see them now? Sammy said, yes sir, I can see a few. Then he put his hand under the light and said, Sammy, can you see Him now? Yes, sir, I can see all of them very clearly. Jesus Christ is the light. The closer you get to Him, the more you're going to see the blemishes. But there's also going to be a dissatisfaction with service. Isaiah, a prophet, proclaiming the Word, teaching the people, telling them, you're in sin, you've turned from God. He's fighting against their sins, declaring against them, admonishing them to turn from their wicked ways. But then we get to Isaiah chapter 6. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. high and lifted up, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. And his train filled the temple. And there is, Isaiah saw this vision. He heard the seraphims cry out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And in light of that, I can picture Isaiah falling on his knees as it were and crying out, woe is me for I am undone. For I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, the same lips that have been used to preach the word of God, that have been used to condemn sin, that urge men toward righteousness. Now Isaiah says of them, they're unclean. He looked at his service and said, it's unclean. The word undone there, do a little word study on that. You'll find that the word is primarily translated cut off, destroyed, even in some contexts to the extent of annihilation. Isaiah wasn't just a little bit taken aback. Isaiah feared for his life. Isaiah saw the holiness of God and said, that's it, I'm unclean, I'm dead. I don't deserve to live. There'll be a dissatisfaction with your service. So as we bring it to a conclusion, I would ask of you, where are you with God? I don't know about you, but after having studied for this message, I've come to the conclusion that I don't know God anywhere near like I ought to know him. In fact, I'm not even sure if I know what it means to know him. I've seen in my own life a disconnection from the power of God. I see it in my personal life. I see it in my service to God. I see it in every aspect of my life. I'm disconnected. There's something that ought to be there that's not there. And in my heart and in my life, the things that I used to take satisfaction in, the things I used to take a sense of pride in, thinking, oh yeah, I've got this area figured out. I know this troop's deployed, so and so. He doesn't have this area figured out. It doesn't satisfy me anymore. The thing that I called righteous in my life is insipid to me now. It's tasteless. In fact, it's horrible. Where I used to look at my life and think, yeah, this is pretty good. How on earth can I call myself wise anymore? What is wisdom and understanding but knowing God? I'm not satisfied with my knowledge anymore. I'm not satisfied with my testimony anymore. I'm not satisfied with my service because I've seen how weak and powerless and empty it really is." He said it's a pretty depressing place to end the message. Well, not really. It's where God had to bring Joe. Because I'll tell you what's been put in my heart and in my life by God Almighty. I couldn't have done it, but God has. And that's a spark, a flame of desire, kindled in my heart to know God. First and foremost, and before all else, to know God. God is transcendent. God is holy. His thoughts are higher than my thoughts, His ways higher than mine. I don't know what He intends to do with my life, where He intends to put me, or how He intends to show me. Maybe He'll bring me to my knees like He did Job. I don't know. But this one thing I know. that I am resolved, with all my feeble powers and by the grace of God, that one day I will know God. I will search, and I will seek, and I pray God it will be with my whole heart. I pray God one day I will know Him as I ought. One day I too will say as Job, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now might I see thee. And one day, in rejoicing, I will look and see myself, my own sanctification, as truly empty as it really is. I will look at my service and see it as truly it is. And I can turn from those things that I have filled my life with to satisfy me and to alleviate my spiritual conscience and to appease myself. And with joy, I'll turn from that and fix my gaze wholly upon Him and rejoice that He has seen fit to reveal Himself to me. My time is well nigh gone, but I would ask of you, as you evaluate your own heart, your own life, do you know God? Does God intend you to know Him? Or would you say, you know, I've depersonalized God? In my spiritual walk, I've gotten away from knowing God, from believing that there is such a thing as heart-to-heart, spirit-to-spirit communion with Almighty God. Would you look at your life, would you say, I have all the power I need? Or would you look at your life and say, no, there's a disconnection from the power of God. I see an emptiness there. I serve a great and a mighty God, but I don't have a great and a mighty God in my life. Would you look at your life and would you say, you know, I've been satisfied with so many other things. They've come into my life and I've been satisfied with them. But now I can't look at those things anymore and say I'm satisfied. I can't look at my testimony anymore. The Spirit of God is convicting me, saying, it's empty. I'm not there. You're going after something else, but not me. The goal of Christianity is the heart of God, to have His heart beating within our heart, that our mind might reflect His mind. Would you say I've filled it with other things, maybe even good things, but not the things that God has for me? Would you, like me, be willing to say, God, I don't know what the cost will be, I don't know what it will require of me, but whatever it is, let me see you. Bring me to my knees, break me if you must, but let me see you. God, let me know you. Let me walk with you as Enoch did. Let me abide in you as Christ commanded. God, teach me to open the door and let you come in and suck with me. Would that be the desire of your heart today?