Once again, we're going to be looking at the book of Job this morning. On Christmas Eve at our worship service at 6 p.m., we'll have a Christmas-themed message, but this morning we're going to continue our journey through this sermon series, God and Suffering, and this morning we're on Job chapter 27, and we're going to look at the chapter in its entirety, so 1 through 23, It's on page 434 of the ESVQ Bibles, Job chapter 27. But first, let's go to the Lord's Prayer in a minute. Heavenly Father, we ask for the illuminating power of your Holy Spirit as we open up your Word, as we hear it authoritatively proclaimed and preached in your church. Father, we ask that you would listen in faith and that you would give us the ability to understand the true meaning of this passage and how to best apply it today. Father, we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. It was a warm, summer in July down in central Kentucky and a man was driving along a very rural road and he saw a lawnmower for sale on the side of the road so he pulled over onto the shoulder and he walked up to the house that was set back a little bit and there was a boy in a chair underneath a shade tree whittling and he said, is the lawnmower for sale? The boy said, yes. And he said, all right, are your parents around? And the boy said, no, they left me here to sell the lawnmower because they're gone right now. And the man said, uh-huh. Well, I'll tell you what. He said, I don't have the money right now, but I'm going to take the mower, and I'll come back later and pay you. And the boy said, no, that's not going to work. They told me not to let anybody take the mower unless they gave me the money first. And the man kind of looked around, and then got a little harder in his tone, and he said, well, I really don't see anybody around who's going to stop me, kid. And he said, well, if you try to take it, you're going to have to take it from me and my brothers. And the man thought he was bluffing, and he said, what brothers? And as soon as that was out of his mouth, Someone who looked like about 18 or 19 walked out of the front porch and he was solidly built and said, what's going on? And the man looked surprised and then just after that one walked out, another one walked out. This one looked like he'd be in his early 20s and even more well built, a little bigger than the first one and said, is there a problem here? And the man slowly started backing up and said, no problem. I'm going to go get the money and then I'm going to come back and get the longhorn. You see, the man realized that if he was going to pull one over on this boy, he was also going to have to try to pull one over on the two brothers, and that wasn't going to work. In Job chapter 27, Job is warning his friends. The three friends that have been talking to him throughout the entire book, he warns them, and he warns them not to continue to stand against him, because as long as they're standing against him, they're standing against God. As long as they oppose him, they're opposing God. So Job issues a warning to them, and he also tells them the consequences of being his enemy and by extension, God's enemy. So this is a passage that contains a strong warning Be wise and be warned, you're headed in the wrong direction, he tells them. By opposing me and my word, you're opposing God, and we all know what happens to those who oppose God. This is the message that Job brings us this morning. Now we're also, in addition to seeing the original meaning of this passage, we're gonna connect the dots between Job and Jesus in order to draw the proper application for us today, as we move from then to now, we wanna see that. So let's look at the passage. We're gonna read it in its entirety. This is Job 27. See if you can hear that connection between the enemies of Job and the enemies of God and the mourning. And Job again took up his discourse and said, as God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty who has made my soul bitter, as long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood and my tongue will not utter deceit. Far be it from me to say that you are in the right. Till I die, I will not put away my integrity from thee. I hold fast my righteousness, and I will not let it go. My heart does not reproach me for any of my days. Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous. For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life? Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him? Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times? I will teach you concerning the hand of God what is with the Almighty. I will not conceal. Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves. Why, then, have you become altogether vain? This is the portion of a wicked man with God and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty. If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, and his descendants have not enough bread. Those who survive him, the pestilence varies, and his widows do not weep. Though he heap up silver like dust and pile up clothing like clay, he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. He builds his house like a mosque, like a booth that a watchman makes. He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more. He opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone. Terrors overtake him like a flood. In the night, a whirlwind carries him off. The east wind lifts him up and he is gone. It sweeps him out of his place. It hurls at him without pity. He flees from its power in headlong flight. It claps its hands at him and hisses at him from its place. This is the last time We've seen the back and forth through the three sets of dialogue between Job and his friends. That's over now. And from this point forward, it's going to be Job, Job, Job until we get to chapter 32. Then we're going to hear from Elijah and then God. So this is it. This is the last time Job. Job speaks again in the final chapter, but it's not a long extended discourse as part of the narrative. We see the connection here with verse one. It says that Job again took up his discourse and said, and we're gonna see that again in chapter 29, so that tells us this all goes together. This is the last time Job is presenting a long speech. These are his final words. And then verse two says, as God lives, that's an oath. That's an oath. As God lives, Job is swearing in the authority of God that what he is about to say is true, everything that follows. And then he acknowledges that God is the one who has taken away his right. What does that mean, taken away his right? That's what the ESV says, could also be translated as taken away my justice, deprived me of justice. The NIV says, who has denied my justice. What is Job talking about? This is related to the big picture of Job that we've been tracking, if you've been following along in the series, we've been tracking it the whole time. And it goes something like this, Job insists that he has not done something to deserve this kind of response from God. Job insists that he is a blameless and upright man who turns from evil and fears God. And the text goes out of its way to show us that. He repeated that several times at the beginning so that we'd understand the proper context of the entire book. It's there to show us that that's true. Job has not done something to deserve the suffering and the calamity that has come upon him. Job is not an unrepentant sinner who's living in rebellion against God. That's just not the case. However, his friends have been saying just that. His friends have been insisting that Job, you must have done something wrong. There must be some secret sin in your life. There must be something that has warranted this response from God because Their belief system says, there is no undeserved suffering. You see something bad happen to someone, well, they must have done something bad. You see something good happen to someone, well, they must have been a good person and God's rewarding them. That's their philosophy. We call it build dad's shoes, if you can remember back that far. So when Job says that God has taken away his right or denied him justice, it means that from Job's perspective, God is not treating him justly. God is not treating him like God should treat someone who's in relationship with God by faith and is living before him blameless, upright, fearing Lord and turning from evil. Instead, God appears to be treating him like an enemy. And if you recall, this is something that Job comes back to in his pleas for his day in court. Remember seeing some of those things Job would say, well, if only I could stand before him then I know that my innocence would be declared, because God has judged that if all the facts were laid out, if I had an arbiter or a mediator to stand before me in my place, then if everything worked out as it should, then I know I would be acquitted. And he has hope and faith that that's true. But for now, it seemed as if God had charged him with a crime that he had not committed, and that's not justice, being charged for a crime that you didn't commit. So that's what Job means with denying him justice. He's talking about how it appears to him that God has been treating him. And then verse three and four, pay attention to this language. We're gonna take a brief sidestep. It says, as long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood and my tongue will not utter deceit. This is a perfect example of something called synonymous parallelism. I know that's a lot of syllables and a big word, but here's what it means. In Hebrew poetic literature, and you know it's Hebrew poetic literature in the Bible because the Bible tells us by setting it off in these stanzas, if you look down at your Bible, it should not look like a paragraph form. It shouldn't set off with a lot of those little indentations after each line. That's poetry. That's the big red flag saying the text you're reading right now is Hebrew poetry. We see it in Job. We see it in Psalms. We see it in Proverbs. We see it in the Psalm of Solomon. Poetry. So in Hebrew poetry, there's something called synonymous parallelism. And here's what it is. Two lines right after each other that are worded a little differently, but say the exact same thing. and it's for emphasis. And you can see that clearly. As long as my breath is in me, and the spirit, which can also be translated as breath, of God is in my nostrils. Same thing. And then look at the next line. My lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit. It's the same thing, just told a little bit differently. So verses three and four, if we scrunch those all together, Job has taken two lines each to say one idea. He basically says, as long as I'm breathing, I'm not going to lie. But he uses that synonymous parallelism to emphasize it. It means that this is something that he feels very strongly about. This is an idea he wants to be sure he gets across, so he uses that synonymous parallelism. Verse five, far be it for me to say that you are the right, Job is not going to cave into the pressure from his friends. They are trying to get him to admit that he's in the wrong and they are right, and Job says, no, I'm not going to do that because that's not true. It says, till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me. Job says, as long as I'm alive, I'm not giving in. I'm not going to say that I'm guilty of something that I'm not guilty of. And that's still true for us today. If someone ever accuses you or says, you need to confess your sin, or you need to repent of this, and it's something that you have not done, then you are under absolutely no obligation to do that. In fact, you should not, because if you're confessing to a sin that you haven't committed, that's falsehood. You would be lying. So Job stands firm. He said, no, that's not true. and I'm not going to give in to that pressure. Verse six is more resolute speech about holding fast to his righteousness, not sinless perfection. Remember, that's not the point of this book, but his right standing before God by faith. He knows that he's walked before God faithfully. He knows that he's in a right relationship with God by faith. He knows he's not in ongoing, unrequited sin. He knows there's not some big secret thing that has been driving a wedge between him and his God. Verses seven through 12 is the next section, more than enemies. He starts off by saying, let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous. What's that another example of? Synonymous parallelism, did you catch that? Let my enemy, let him who rises up against me, that's an enemy, be as the wicked, unrighteous, same thing. He's saying the exact same thing two times in a row to emphasize the point. If you're enemies with me, you're enemies with God. This is the warning that Job is issuing to his friends. By putting them on notice, he's warning them. If you align yourself against me, as long as you're aligning yourself against me, build that so far, I'll lie fast, you're aligning yourselves against God. At verse eight, as part of this morning, he wants them to logically think through what's going to happen if they continue down this road. If they continue to oppose him, for what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life? He's saying, look, if you three continue to go down this road, you're going to end up like the wicked. You're going to end up experiencing the same thing that all the other enemies of God experience. There's going to be no way of escape. In verses 9 and 10, there are three rhetorical questions. The answer to all of them is no. Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him? No, God will not hear them or listen to them. Of course, God hears. God knows all things and he hears all things. But in this context, to hear means to answer, to respond back favorably. No, God will not do that. Will he delight in the Almighty? No, the enemies of God will not delight in God. Will he call upon God at all times? No, the enemies of God cannot seek God in prayer. The enemies of God cannot look to God in his word at all times. And then in verse 11, Job's friends, remember, they claim to be the teachers. We're the ones with knowledge. You just sit back and take it easy, Job. You're in no position to tell us anything. We will tell you. what's really happening with you and what you need to do. So they have claimed to be teachers. Now Job turns it around on them and says, no, I will teach you. I will teach you concerning the hand of God. Hand of God meaning power, strength, actions of God. What is with the Almighty, I will not conceal. The phrase what is with the Almighty is another way of saying what God does with his power. So what is this another example of? Parallelism, I will teach you concerning the hand of God, what God does I will not conceal. Same thing, told a little differently, for emphasis. It's one of those things that once you're aware of it, it just shows up everywhere. Verse 12, behold, all of you have seen it yourselves, why then have you become altogether vain? Well, in order to understand this verse, we need to figure out what the it means. It says, behold, all of you have seen it yourselves. What's the it? Everything he's just been talking about. Everything the judge has been describing. That there is no hope for the godless when God cuts them off. He's been telling them that God cuts off the wicked and they pass away forever. And when he says, behold, all of you have seen it yourselves, he's saying, look, you know all this. You've been saying it to me. Zophar said, the wicked will perish forever like his own dog. The wicked will be dragged off in the day of God's wrath. These were his friend's words to him. So he says, I know you know this. I know you know what happens to the enemies of God. Why would you align yourself against him? Why would you make yourself an enemy of God if you know what happens to them? Why become one? Be wise, be warned. Time for a change. Stop what you're doing. And then in verse 13, we see the portion of the wicked. Verse 13 confirms what Job is saying in verse 12. Verse 12 is saying, you all know what happens to the wicked, so why would you become someone who opposes God? Verse 13 is now Job beginning to describe what happens to the wicked using their own words. This is another way of Job's telling them, I know you know this already because you've said it to me. Look at these next to each other. This is Job 27. This is our verse and our passage. This is the portion of the wicked man with God and the heritage that the oppressor has received from the Almighty. But look back at verse 29 of chapter 20. This is from so far. This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God. You see what Job's doing? Excuse me, he's using their own words to prove to them that he knows, that they know, what happens to the wicked. And by the way, this is also another example of synonymous parallelism. The wicked's man portioned from God, the narrative's decreed for him by God. Same thing. If we move on to 14 through 19, we've covered a lot of these already as we've gone through the Book of Job, so we're not going to camp out on each one and do it line by line, but if you look at verses 14 through 19, you'll see all the things that happen to the wicked man who opposes God. Childlessness, hunger, poverty, sickness and sword, the futility of attempting to gain wealth, the possessions being transferred to the innocent and the righteous, they're all examples. of judgments from God that either happen in this life or on death, one or the other. So Job is warning them by outlining, once again, with this laundry list of things that happen. The noteworthy exception is verse 18. I'm not sure if we've seen that before. It says, he builds his house like a moth, like a booth that a watchman makes. So the wicked man builds his house like a moth, but what is a moth built? walk up to that and destroy it with our fingers. It's not very sturdy. And then the watchman's booth. In the ancient Near East, during harvest time, they would set watchmen over the fields to prevent people, thieves, from coming in and stealing the harvest before it could be gathered in by the rightful owners and their workers. So in order to keep watch over it, they would build these makeshift temporary shelters. Very flimsy, very temporary. but it wouldn't protect the watchman from the elements as they perform their duties. So when Job uses this language here in chapter 27 he's not talking about a literal house, he's using it symbolically. And in this context house means how a person chooses to live their life. It means the decisions that they make, the manner in which someone has lived their life. Have they lived wisely in the fear of God, or have they lived foolishly for themselves? Have they centered on the here and now, and the material things, and temporary profit and pleasure, or have they centered on eternal things, and spiritual things, and the things of God, and serving Him, and pleasing Him, and glorifying Him? Some years ago, not recently, but I used to travel the same road on a very frequent basis and it was a very rural area and every time I would drive by this certain house I would see the house that was set very far away back from the road, like maybe a quarter mile away and then right at the edge of the road was this tiny little hut made out of weathered wood and corrugated fiberglass and it was just thrown together. It wasn't level or square but it had two sides and a back and a slanted roof. It wasn't very deep. It was shallow but it had just enough room for a small child to kind of back into and stay out of the rain. And the parents had built that so that when their child got off the bus and if it was raining or bad weather they could stay there until the parent who looked out the window and saw the bus down at the end of their drive could drive down and get them and bring them back. But whenever I drove by I was always surprised to see that it had survived another day because it looked like if you came up to it and gave it a couple stiff kicks it would fall right over. Job is saying that the wicked man may have a huge luxurious house filled with cedar beams and stonework and paneled interiors and rugs and mosaic tile and all these fine finishing details. He said, however though, if you live foolishly, if you live as an enemy of God, it's as if you're living in a bus stop lane too. Something that's gonna come down in a moment, something that's easily destroyed, something that's not lasting. And this is a warning. The one who lives for themselves for the here and now is like living in a lean-to made out of scraps. Verse 19, the wicked may go to sleep at one night rich, but they'll wake up the next morning with everything gone. Terror is in darkness. in its place, verses 20 through 23. This final section in the chapter is really designed to terrify. This is the crescendo of the morning. If you look over this, just kind of run your eye over this language again, it's designed to be terrifying. Overtaken, carried off, gone forever. The terrors of death hurl themselves at the wicked without pity. The wicked man attempts to flee in a headlong flight. Upon death, the wicked man headlong flight, using everything in their energy and their strength to get away. But instead, death, a demon perhaps, claps its hands on him and hisses at him from its place. In other words, there is no escape from this place of utter torment and terror. Complete and utter dread, realizing that you've made a terrible mistake. Instead of turning to Jesus, you have lived your life for yourself. Instead of following the king, you have instead lived your life recklessly and for yourself. And the utter terror of realizing that that mistake has cost you your eternal life and there's no coming back. There's no second chances. Eternal conscious torment. Horrific, unimaginable terror. This language is designed to be a strong, terrifying warning. Be wise. Be warned. If we had to summarize this chapter, if we had to give a brief description, if someone said, what's Job chapter 27 about? We would probably say something like this. Job swears he will not lie and will instead hold fast to his integrity and his righteousness and his claim that the suffering and the calamity that has come upon him is not deserved, but he also warns his friends by telling them that by aligning themselves against him, they're actually aligning themselves against God. He questions why they would do that, since they know what happens to the wicked, and then he reminds them what happens to the wicked by using their own words to drive home the point. Be wise, be warned. The wicked have no escape from the terrors of darkness when God takes their life. That's the original meaning. That's what the author is intended to communicate in Job. Now let's move from then to now. How are we going to draw proper application from Job 27? There are three, I'm gonna talk about three. There may be more, of course, but there are three applications that we're gonna look at. One is for us, the church, those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and then two are for those who are maybe on the fence or not in Christ or maybe even outright hostile to the gospel and to Jesus. So first of all, for us, we've talked in Job, we've talked about how Job is a type of Christ. Remember hearing that language? The Book of Job was written so that we get God's message that Job is pointing us to Jesus. This is a standalone. It addresses God's suffering, but ultimately it's designed to point us to our Lord and Savior and our King. It is a foreshadowing. It is typology at its finest. Now here's a reminder of what we mean by typology. When you hear the word type or typology, it means Elements of Old Testament history that foreshadow the person and work of Jesus Christ. Elements of Old Testament history that foreshadow, point forward to, you can see the person and work of Jesus Christ. For example, after the fall, when Adam and Eve sinned, God covered them with animal skins. That's foreshadowing, that's a type that's showing us that God has to act and God is the one who covers our sinful selves with the shedding of blood. That's pointing forward to Jesus. The ark is a type. All those who were safely moved into the ark and sought refuge in the ark were saved from God's judgment when it came. No one in his family. In the same way, those who seek and take refuge in Jesus Christ are saved when God's judgment comes. It's a type. It's designed to point us forward to Jesus. It's all over the Passover lamb in the Exodus. Remember, they were called to sacrifice a lamb, an unblemished lamb, put the blood on the doorposts and over the top, and then when God brought destruction, the death of the firstborn, he passed over the households that were covered in the blood of the lamb. That's a tight pointing to Jesus. All those who are covered in the blood of the lamb will be passed over when God's judgment falls. Jesus was the perfect unblemished lamb. So we see this all the time. That's what Job is. And we've talked about this before broadly. Job is a type in the sense that Job was the greatest man in all the East. That's how he's introduced back at the beginning. And then he was brought low and he suffered for a time and then at the end though he was raised up and exalted. In the same way Jesus in the highest of heavens came down, lowered himself, He suffered for a time, he died, but then he was raised up and exalted. So on a broad scale, the whole book of Job is a typology foreshadowing Jesus Christ. However, this chapter shows another way that Job acts as a type of Christ and how he points us to Jesus. Job chapter 27 points us to the inseparable connection between the Father and the Son. the inseparable connection between the Father and the Son. Now to show us exactly how chapter 27 does that, I want us to turn to Psalm 2. It's really easy to find, it's the next book of the Bible. So it goes Job, Psalms, and it's on the first page of the Psalms. So Psalm 2, it says, I'm gonna read the whole Psalm, and then we're gonna key in on verses 10 through 12. So here's Psalm 2. See if you can hear the similarities. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision, and he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a pirate's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with tremble and kiss the sun. lest ye be angry and ye perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." So Psalm 2 in its original context was written to serve as a warning to all Gentile kings and rulers who stand opposed to God, but When we read Psalm 2, we're very quickly brought to the conclusion that this king, this anointed one, has to be something more than just a mere human earthly king, because he's going to rule the world. And so we understand that when the psalm talks about the anointed, the king, the son, those are all references to Jesus, who is the ultimate anointed king and son. And that's why you see those words capitalized in your Bibles, because they recognize we're talking about the divine son of God, Jesus. So now let's zero in on 1012. It says, now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling as a command. Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. So the kings of the earth are warned to serve the Lord. Lord in all caps means the divine name Yahweh in the Old Testament. So serve the Lord, but in order to submit to the Lord, in order to submit to God, they first have to submit to the Son. Kiss the son. This is an ancient way of showing honor. They would often kneel before the ruler and kiss the ring on the ruler's hand. That's a way of showing honor and allegiance and loyalty. So the command is to submit to God, but that is to be done by submitting to his son, Jesus. And the warning is this, if you reject the sun, you're rejecting God. If you are an enemy of God's anointed king, then you're an enemy of God. There is an inseparable connection between your reaction, your response to the Son and your response to God, God the Father. You cannot pull those apart. So now we go back to Job chapter 27. Job is saying, if you're my enemy, remember back in verse seven, if you're my enemy, then you're God's enemy. If you stand opposed to me, you stand opposed to God. What are we seeing? Job acting as a type of Christ. showing us the inseparable connection between the Son and the Father. Once again, it's designed to show us that. Job serves as a type of Christ by showing us that if someone stands against him, they're standing against God. In the same way, if someone stands against Jesus, they're standing against God. And Job presents what will happen to his enemies, because they stand against him, and by extension, stand against God. Jesus, likewise, describes and talks about at several places in the New Testament and in the Gospels. If you stand against me, this is what happens to my enemies, because you're actually enemies of God. I want to read a short parable from Jesus. This is Matthew 21, starting at verse 33. This is a crystal clear example of that inseparable connection. Jesus says, here another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them, saying, they will respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, this is an error. The error come, let us kill him and have his inheritance. And they took him, and they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? They said to him, he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons. The owner of the vineyard is God the Father, and the son is Jesus. And he's saying that because they killed the son, they are marked as enemies of God, and he will come back and destroy them. An inseparable connection. Job teaches it, Jesus teaches it, God has appointed Jesus as the only mediator between God and man. Jesus is the only door, the only passageway, the only road that leads to the kingdom of God. And Jesus taught this. John 14, 6, no one comes to the Father except through me. It doesn't get any clearer than that. No one will be able to stand on the day before God and say, well, I wish he would have just spelled it out. I didn't know that I had to turn to Jesus in faith. He should have just come out and said it. John 3.18, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. See, the Bible teaches an inseparable connection between the Son and the Father. Jesus recognized such a close identification He also recognizes, excuse me, he also recognizes a close identification between himself and his church. Same dynamic going on, same dynamic. Enemies of Jesus' church are enemies of Jesus. This is Acts 9, four through five. This is the conversion of Saul to Paul. Remember, we got called Saul on the road to Damascus, and there was a confrontation, and Jesus confronts Paul, Paul at that time called Saul, And it says, and falling to the ground, he, Saul, heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now, was Paul laying hands on the resurrected Jesus? No, he was laying hands on his church. But Jesus says, you're persecuting me. If you're enemies of my church, you're enemies of me. If you're enemies of me, you're enemies of God. inseparable connection. So the first takeaway for us as the church is to see that being proclaimed in Job. Not only is Job standing as a type of Christ from a broad picture of being up here and suffering and exalted at the end, but he's also showing us that he's a type of Christ in the sense of showing that inseparable connection between the Son and the Father. So that's one takeaway. And then there's two takeaways for those who are Maybe on the fence or outside of Christ or hostile altogether. Obviously, some of the application here in Job 27 is not directed at the church. I mean, this is a warning, after all. And for those who are in Christ, that warning doesn't apply to us. We are safely in Christ. We have sought refuge in the blood of Jesus where sins have been atoned for. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. We have been forgiven, we are at peace with God. God has promised never to leave us. We have nothing to fear when death comes, when our day arrives. However, for those who have not repented and believed, for those who are building their house on sand, for those who have not bent the knee and kissed the sun, be wise and be warned. Because as you stand against Jesus, God stands against you. As you keep your distance from the Son of God, God keeps his distance from you. This is a warning to those who are not in Christ. Upon death, terrors will overtake you. You will try to flee, but the demons of hell will lay hands on you and take you and drag you down into the darkness. There will be no escape, no one will hear you scream, and the finality of eternal judgment will be horrifying. This is a strong warning for those who are opposed to Jesus or even indifferent towards him. And now the other application, be wise. Be wise. There is still time to turn to Jesus. There is still time to run into the ark. The flood has not come yet. There is still time to seek shelter under the blood of the lamb. There is still time to serve God the Father by serving God the Son. The time is now. If we look at Psalm 2, right after the part about the wrath of God being kindled, it says in Psalm 2, 12, blessed are all who take refuge in him. Be warned, but also be wise. Don't put it off. There's still time to take refuge in Jesus. Well, somebody might say, what do you mean take refuge in Jesus? I believe in God. Here's what that means. Turn from your sin, repent from anything that the Bible calls sin, you now call sin, and you have a new relationship with sin. It's called a hate relationship. You no longer love it, you hate it, and you want it out of your life. You turn to Jesus Christ and you have a new relationship with Him. Instead of being indifferent or hostile, now you love Him. So it's a love-hate relationship flipped around. You hate the sin, you love Jesus Christ. You turn to Him in faith. Acknowledge yourself a sinner. Stop trying to sweep it under the rug. No one stands righteous before God. All are sinners. We've all broken all ten commandments. We sin every day. Acknowledge, admit your sin, confess it to the Lord, and trust in him. And Jesus promises that he will provide protection. He promises he will provide salvation and life. And the reason that he can promise that is because he is the one who achieved victory over death. He, unlike us, did not sin in thought, word, deed, or action. He never had an impure thought or an impure heart motivation for anything he did. perfectly obeyed the law of God. He earned a perfect record of righteousness. Jesus says, when you turn to me in faith, that becomes yours. I will give that to you. And you need that because that's the only thing that God has been excelling. Perfect record of righteousness. And, of course, his blood shed on the cross serves as payment for our sin. We cannot pay that debt. We cannot pay that debt ourselves and earn our way into heaven. If it is not covered in the blood of the Lamb, then the payment that God will demand will be everything that was just read at the end of chapter 27. So be wise. There's still time to seek refuge. Heavenly Father, we see these warnings in Scripture. It's not just Job 27, it's throughout Scripture. We see warnings, but we also see the way out. We also see the antidote, the remedy for our sin problem. And that remedy is the Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings and only head of the church. Father, thank you for showing us and pointing us to Jesus in the Old Testament. Thank you for giving us more and more understanding of your word. But Father, we also, as your church, thank you for our salvation, first and foremost, for the forgiveness of sins that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ. Thank you, Father. Amen.