If you have a copy of God's Word, let me invite you to turn to Job chapter 23. If you're trying to find it on your own, if you open up your Bible to the halfway mark, generally speaking, you'll end up in Psalms. Job is one book back, one book prior to the book of Psalms. However, if you still can't find it, you'll find it on page 403 in your chair Bible, page 403. Can you believe it? Only 360 more days till 2026. Well, what will 2025 bring for you? Well, good things, perhaps. We don't think much about preparing for those good things that do come our way. They just happen. But so do those things that are not so good for us, that find a way to catch us off guard. In fact, sometimes these not so good things can leave us questioning the goodness of God. Perhaps you experienced that in 2024. Well, this is where we find Job this morning. And just one day, he lost his livestock, servants, and his children. And then he was struck with painful boils from head to toe. His wife urged him to curse God. And his friends, or if you can call them that, said that his sin was to blame for all of his trials and all of his hardships. Well in chapter 23, Job is certain that God would vindicate him from all of the accusations that his troubles are due to sin. And even so, Job still had to learn to live under these dark providences, these trials that he went through. Just like you and me. Job shows us how he did it. Verse one, Job chapter 23, pay close attention to the reading of God's holy and inerrant word. Then Job answered and said, today, also my complaint is bitter. My hand is heavy on account of my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No. He would pay attention to me. There an upright man would argue with him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge. Behold, I go forward, but he's not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him. On the left hand, when he is working, I do not behold him. He turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. My foot is held fast to his steps. I have kept his way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured. the words of his mouth, more than my portion of food. But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind. Therefore, I am terrified at his presence, when I consider I am in dread of him. God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me. Yet I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face. Let us pray together. Our Lord, as we begin 2025, may your word this morning be our refuge in the days that lie ahead. not just in times of goodness, when your goodness is very clear to us, but especially when it's not. In the strong name of Christ, our Redeemer, we pray. Amen. I remember learning the great doctrines of our faith while I was in college. My pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Muncie, Indiana, was Petros Roukas. Doctrines like sovereignty and salvation and providence, they were all so much bigger, as I learned them from him and that church, than what I had grown up learning myself when I was young. So much bigger. In fact, they mysteriously drew me into a greater appreciation of the greatness and majesty of God. They became precious, oh so precious to me, like a breath of fresh air, giving me hope and perspective. But little did I realize that what I learned in the classroom would be tested in my life. On September 22nd, 2004, Pastor Rukus left his home and never returned. A number of suicide notes were found later by his wife. His body was found on September 29th, just off the Red River Gorge Trail in Kentucky. He was then the senior pastor of Tate's Creek Presbyterian Church in Lexington. Many years earlier, he was my pastor and he was my mentor. Just four days before his suicide, his last sermon was on God never leaving us in the darkest of providences. When I got the phone call, I cried out, where is the good God in this? Elizabeth was a young lady full of life and zeal for the Lord. I had recruited her from England for the MA program when I worked in the admissions office at Covenant Seminary. On my last day of class before I was to graduate, I arrived to campus only to find police cars and an ambulance parked outside the chapel. Elizabeth had been found murdered in the basement under our chapel. It felt like a horrible nightmare. How is God good in this? I wondered. On January 2nd, 2022, as I arrived for the evening service at Pilgrim Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Metamora, where I was to preach, Dark clouds passed over a young, beloved couple as they lost their little girl an hour just before the service. Stunned faces and sounds of weeping filled the room just outside the sanctuary. And I wondered, how is God good in this? When all Israel cried out to the Lord after Midian had captured them, the angel of the Lord came to Midian, or to Gideon, while he was beating wheat, and he said, the Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. You know what Gideon's first response was? Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our father recounted to us? Real life, real trials, and real hardships, and real mysteries. Pastor Rukus, he knew his Bible, but where were all these great doctrines moments before taking a bottle of pills? Didn't God know that Elizabeth would do such great things for him? If God loves covenant families so much, how could he let their covenant children die in the womb? If the Lord was strong enough to deliver Israel out of Egypt's captivity, why were God's precious treasured people captured? I wish I had answers for all these questions, but I don't. Maybe you're looking for answers in your life. But Job was looking for answers too. He feared God. He was blameless. He was upright. He turned away from evil. I mean, who hasn't heard about Job? He was this great man of faith, right? And yet we don't find him listed in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11. But neither are you. Maybe this helps us see our story in Job's. We may know our theology and we may know our catechism. We may live an upright and righteous life, but there are some doctrines that can only be learned through the dark providences of life that we go through. Job's story reminds us that God's ways are mysterious, they really truly are. And at times feels contrary to what we know to be true about our God. But the dark providences or trials of life come when it's most inconvenient for us. They never come at a convenient time. We always have plans that night. We always have that trip planned. It never comes at a convenient time. And so, like Job, we must learn how to live in our lives when God does not seem good. And so Job shows us, even at those times when God doesn't seem good, a very basic principle, and that is we must still trust God. We must trust God. Now I know that may sound like a hollow cliche, just trust God. But there's very good reason why we can trust God, especially when God doesn't seem good from our perspective. Look at verse six in our text of Job chapter 23. Job writes these words, follow along if you would. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, he would pay attention to me. At first, Job was a bit fearful of coming before this almighty God. He was afraid that maybe God would oppose and find him guilty of complaining against all of his hardships, and certainly complaining against his so-called friends who blamed his hardships on what they believe was Job's sin. But what does Job say? He says, no, he would pay attention to me. What an amazing statement that Job makes right there at that time. When life is hard for us, I mean really hard, it is not at all surprising and you should not be surprised of struggling with God, wrestling with him, if you will. Does he really love me? Is he really good? Will he contend with me in his court because I'm struggling? Because I'm complaining, will he contend with me? When I look at this story, I find a little nugget of hope in this account. What's very hopeful in Job's story, God didn't turn him away after he was complaining to God. I mean, let that sink in. God didn't turn him away. In God's eyes, Job is still righteous and sinless. And by the grammar that's used in our text that Job uses, it appears that he was a bit stunned that God would still pay attention to him. I mean, just think about it. God who keeps the planets in orbit, who controls millions of galaxies to the far reaches of the universe, feeds birds, And somehow prevents electrons from falling into the nucleus of every single atom. And hears our complaints at the same time, and still pays attention to you. Stunning. I mean, who is a God like that but the Lord our God? Dark providences, the hardships of life, the trials that come our way, can come in many forms and in many ways. It can come to us personally or to the ones that we love. And we need to be reminded when those times come, and they will come, that God feels your pain. He understands your struggle. He does not condemn you, nor does He lay a charge against you. He cares for you as if He had nothing else to care for in this entire world. That is His peculiar love and care for you, His people. It's important to have this embedded in our DNA as part of who we are, our very makeup. When the dark clouds are heavy upon you, you will be tempted to think that either it's because some sin in your life that God's getting back at you, or perhaps you might be led to think that, well, God is distant and uncaring for you. Satan would like for you to think that. He tried that with Job, and he also tries that with you. But you must not, you must never believe Satan's lie. Every time you begin to think that and entertain that in your mind, you're giving in to Satan's lie. That's exactly what Satan wants. Satan cares nothing for you, nothing. But God, he pays attention to your pain. There's no safer place to be when news of cancer or a tragic death or unemployment overshadow you than to be in your Heavenly Father's loving care. He pays attention to you. The Bible even says that He numbers your tears. What a graphic demonstration of the mercy and compassion of your Heavenly Father. The same Father to Job is also the same Father for you. Trusting God's not easy, but it's made easier knowing that He pays attention to you and His grace is right there. Yes, we must live by faith and not by sight, but it's this living by faith that pleases God so much. Why? When God doesn't seem good, and we choose to trust him anyways through those times, it's then that God is refining our faith. As we trust him, God goes to work and refines our faith in him. Look at verse 10, if you will, Job 23. Verse 10 says, Job writes, but he knows the way that I take, When he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. You'll notice that Job is not asking for his gold to be returned, not asking for his money to come back to him. Remember, he was the wealthiest person on earth. Nowhere do you find him asking for his property, his animals, or even his children to be returned. Instead of longing for those things which are so precious to him, he is asking for something far greater. I shall come out as gold, pure, undefiled, and treasured gold. He's sure. That is Job, Job is sure that what has happened to him, God was not taken by surprise at all. He confesses in verses 13 and 14 of our passage what God desires that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me. There you get an understanding that Job sees that God is in complete control of all things. Life just didn't happen by accident to Job. but God was in control. John Piper says that God never wastes our pain. He also says that your sufferings will never be meaningless. You belong to Christ. He never wastes your pains. Every dark providence, every trial is designed by your heavenly Father for a purpose far greater than what you could ever, ever imagine. You're never a victim of fate or chance. Instead, you can have confidence to look through every dark cloud with eyes of faith and hear your Heavenly Father say to you, I am paying attention to you. I am using these to refine your faith as gold. I like what Peter says. Peter says that a tested faith is more precious than gold. Isn't that beautiful? A tested faith is more precious than gold. Honestly, we would like to bypass the testing part, right? It doesn't work that way. Not at all. God wants to purify you as gold. But this can only happen when we trust in Him through the fiery trials that He appoints for us. When all the dross of self-trust is purged, then faith will be to the praise, honor, and glory of His beloved Son, our Savior. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine. Thomas Watson, the great Puritan said, the vessels of mercy are first seasoned with affliction and then the wine of glory is poured in. Matthew Henry says that afflictions will continue until they have done their work in our lives. This is Job's story, and it must be ours as well. And I can almost hear you saying, sort of beneath your breath, perhaps, but is there any other way? Particularly in the time of these dark providences in your life, why these dark providences, and not some other. Perhaps you'll recall that your Savior asked the same thing. Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. In other words, if there is any other way, Father, let me have another cup to drink. Your Savior, right in the garden, wrestled with the same things. and his humanity is reflected in ours. If he wrestled with his cup, it's not surprising that we wrestle with ours. And yet we find, and so thankful we ought to be, we find that Jesus was able to trust his father's plan when he prayed, nevertheless not my will, but your will be done. And even there in that moment, as he trusted his father's providence, he learned obedience to his father's will. Yes, we'll have these thoughts. Why these trials? Why this way? Can't there be another way? There is, however, a danger if we leave these thoughts unchecked. Our theology can become no better than those who say God is doing his best with what he has to work with. or we can lose confidence in God altogether. I remember counseling a woman who had lost her son due to a medical mistake. Imagine that one. You can imagine all the what if scenarios that consumed her. She told me that she used to pray, but that she stopped praying because she didn't see that it really worked anymore. Maybe God doesn't know what he's doing, she told me. And so I asked her this question. What would give you more hope in what happened? To know that what happened was the result of random chance and fate with no grand purpose behind it? Or to know that there was ultimately a design behind this very horrible mistake that you can't see right now that would bring about some greater good that you can't even imagine today? She was silent. She thought about it for a while. And with tears streaming down her face, she said, I suppose I would feel better if God were in control and not fate. When God's dark providence comes over us and over those that we love, more than ever, we must learn, in fact, we must practice to trust God. Why? Because when we are trusting God, he goes to work at refining our faith, making it even more precious than gold. So trusting God, yielding to his work in our lives to perfect our faith, to make it even more precious than gold, where do we look to find comfort during those times? When dark providences turn our minutes into hours, or hours into weeks, or weeks into what feels like eternity? Job answers this, it's in God's promises which are found in His Word. We go to His promises. In the well-known song by Gordon Lightfoot, the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, he asks a very sobering question when the sailors met their demise in Lake Superior. Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes into hours? The searchers all say they had made Whitefish Bay if they put 15 more miles behind her. In a musty old hall in Detroit, they prayed in the Maritime Sailor's Cathedral. The church bell chimed till it rang 29 times for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald. Of the big lake they called Gichigumi, superior they said, never gives up her dead when the gales of November come early. The gales of November with their dark clouds always come early. And it's in those times we're desperate to find any measure of comfort and hope. And our response, our immediate response, we tend to blame second causes. Doctors who may have been negligent, drivers who were texting, or drivers who were drunk, genetic predispositions. We may become so embittered over what might have been that we spend all of our energy and time consumed with trying to figure things out, when all we really need to do is to immerse ourselves in the promises that God makes to us. That is the surest and most effective way of finding comfort during the dark providences of God. Have you ever been in a place in your life where all you literally had to wake up to each morning was an open Bible to the promises of God? Have you ever been in that place? I have. Perhaps you have, too. And the comfort that flows out of the promises revives you and keeps you going because of the promises of God's word that he makes to you. With all that happened to Job, he looks for comfort in the promises of God's word. If you will, look at verses 11 and 12 of Job 23. 11 and 12, Job writes, my foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food." Job has directed his feet to follow the steps that God has laid out for him without any deviation. He has treasured God's word in his heart. The commands and the very promises of God were ingrained deep inside of him. They enabled him to interpret correctly God's providences in his life. How do we know that? We know that because of what Job says. After losing all that he had and suffering immense pain in his body, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. If we look to the different trials or providences God takes us through, we will not immediately recognize God's love for us. We won't see it so clearly. If he sends blessings our way, our immediate response is, wow, God must really love me. But if dark providences, our first impulse is, where's the good in this, right? How is God good? And so to look at our circumstances as determining, well, God's love for us does not give us the comfort that we desire. We can't find our comfort in feelings or circumstances. One day he loves me, the next he doesn't. Instead we go to his promises, which is a bedrock when the gales of November strike. Charles Spurgeon says, when we cannot trace God's hand, we can trust in his heart. I think of Joseph, perhaps your mind went to Joseph as well, who suffered incredible injustices at the hand of his brothers, but at the time he could not trace the hand of God. He had to look to his promises, which for him came in the dreams that God gave to him. He tells his brothers, quote, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring about that many people should be kept alive. And of course, you and I have that great promise in Romans 8, 28, you know, that even the dark providences, whatever happens to us is for our good and making us more like Christ, which is our ultimate good. And so let me ask you this morning, there as you're sitting there and listening and thinking and reflecting, how well are the promises of God embedded in your mind and in your heart? If not today, you'll need them for tomorrow. Are there five promises that you can memorize? What promises would you put on a plaque in the walls of your house? You may need them this week, you may need them next month. The gales of November always come early. Well, little did Job know that he was the focus of an intense battle between God and Satan. God was showing off his trophy of grace right in the eyes of Satan. Job thought his life was useless. that his life was no better than the dust that he found under his feet. But through the trials that God had appointed to him, Job was actually glorifying God. You are God's trophy of grace. You his beloved people. You are his trophy. And even when God does not seem good, and you are wrestling with the dark providences of life, and you're wondering, God, where are you in all of this? You are still and will always remain God's prized trophy of his grace. He's paying attention to you, and he knows you by name. I love what John writes, the Apostle John. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. I have to admit, it's hard to see things clearly with tears in your eyes. And there have been many tears, I'm sure, in your eyes over the years. Many tears. But we look with eyes of faith to the end of all things. Our sorrow now is only an investment in future glory. Without the sorrow today, we would not understand the beauty of God's glory. Robert Browning Hamilton wrote these words. I walked a mile with pleasure, she chatted all the way, but left me none the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow, and ne'er a word said she, but all the things I learned from her when sorrow walked with me. I don't know what life will bring for me, or for you in 2025. But Job's story must be our story. Job's story reminds us that God will always pay attention to you, no matter what you will face today or later today or tomorrow or the weeks to come. And he will never waste your pain, but he will use it to purify your faith as of gold. And you will always have his promises deeply embedded in his word to comfort you, through every dark providence that he appoints. Let's pray.