the book of Job, and as you can see from the bulletin outline, I'm going to be considering a couple different passages in a general way this morning. The first passage we'll be looking at is in Job chapter 38. We're going to look at two passages initially God speaking to Job, and then the last passage we'll look at later on in the message is Job responding to the Lord. And as we begin reading chapter 38, the context, I trust you know, in the book of Job, after 37 chapters of Job losing everything and suffering just an immensely amount of trial and physical pain, And he has his miserable friends trying to diagnose his problem. Job basically remaining steadfast and trusting God, abiding under this trial, though, questioning God, asking God why. God is now going to begin to answer Job. And he's not going to give Job the answer to his specific question as to why. we're gonna see that God's answer is more than all sufficient. So follow along, Job chapter 38, and we're gonna read the first seven verses. 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. Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measure thereof if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? And then turn over, if you would, to chapter 40. As God continues on, Job interjects a couple of verses here, but God is speaking in Job chapter 40 and verse one. Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said, shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? He that reproveth God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer, yea, twice, but I will proceed no further. And then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Gird up thy loins now like a man. I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? Will thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? Hast thou an arm like God, or canst thou thunder with a voice like him? Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency, and array thyself with glory and beauty. Title of the message this morning is God Answers Job. God Answers Job, we will look at just part of the response that God gives to Job. Job's question, of course, when you distill his thoughts and his prayers and his questions and his interactions with God and his friends, of course, he needs an answer as to why he is undergoing the severest of trials and the most troubling afflictions. And again, from your outline, we would like to look at God's answer to Job is a revelation of himself. God's answer to Job is a revelation of who Job is. God's answer spiritually changes or spiritually transforms Job. We'll look at four ways where God does that and then we'll close with a needed transformation. Now today's message is somewhat of a follow on or a sequel to a message I preached in October. In October, I preached a message entitled, The Question With No Easy Answer. And what I was trying to do then was fill in some of the gaps. When we go through trials and difficulties, very often a sermon we might hear or a brother or sister might tell us, well, the reason we're going through that is, you know, God works all things together for good. Romans 8.28, true. Or they might respond with, our trials are increasing our faith. That's true. Or Hebrews chapter 12, a chastening, which God is doing something to bring us back. And all of those are true. I was endeavoring to fill in some of the other gaps to that thing. And I said five things very quickly. Number one, we talked about the incomprehensibility and knowability of God. God is incomprehensible. He is infinite and eternal. And so when we try to understand what he is doing, it's a little bit difficult for us. We're heavily biased. We know God, but we're heavily biased towards the incomprehensibility of God. What do you know, actually, about this infinite, eternal God? Secondly, we looked at others who have asked the question. It's not wrong to ask the question, why God? What are you doing? What's going on here? We looked at several in the Old Testament, and I reminded you, amazingly, even the Lord Jesus Christ asked that question. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the amazing thing is, you have the answer to that question. You're gonna have many why God questions throughout your life, but if you have the answer to that, why God question that the Son of Man asked, and you've embraced what that answer really means, then all is well. We looked at the case of Job in other areas. We looked at how this question has morphed into a wrong question today. The wrong question is, if God is a good God, why does he allow suffering? We saw that that was a flawed question because it gives an infinite God only two choices. Either he's good, but he's powerless to stop the suffering, or he has the power to stop the suffering, but he's not a good God. The real question, the biblical question is, since God is a good God, and since there is suffering, has he ever or will he ever do anything to fix that? And the answer was yes. He sent his son, the man of sorrows, to deal with that human worldwide problem. And then we closed with some verses that help us. Commit your soul unto a faithful creator if you're suffering according to the will of God. But we dealt with Job then in a very limited way. Today, we would like to look at some of the nuts and bolts, some of the facts of the Lord's response to Job. Job, it appears, did not know, unless he wrote the book of Job, what everything was happening in his life, what God was doing. When you think about Job, of course, the book of Job was written, I think, for many reasons. Throughout the book of Job, we see these pictures where Job is a type of Christ. The book of Job reveals God's omnipotence, his omniscience, his sovereign power. It speaks about the resurrection and redemption and God's wisdom. But we usually, of course, fast forward to the book of Job as a template for godly suffering. Job lost his family, he lost his wealth, he lost his health, he lost his reputation. He was so hurt, you recall, reduced to such a condition that his friends did not even recognize him. And I was thinking about Job, and I was just thinking, there's nobody else in the Bible, humanly speaking, that's like Job. But then I realized there is somebody. I was thinking about Naomi in the Book of Ruth. Naomi lost everything. And when Naomi came back to the land, her friends didn't recognize her. Is this Naomi? Because she had been reduced to such bitterness. Remember, she said, call me Mara. And in the Book of Job, three times, Job says, I am enveloped in bitterness. My soul is now bitterness personified. Trials and afflictions do this in our life, but not without a product, a spiritual product at the end. Job's friends have answers. Why are you suffering? Well, it's a secret sin, Job, and God is dealing with you because of that. Of course, we know that later. We'll see very briefly that that is not the answer. So anyway, let's begin with number one. So God is now going to answer Job. God is going to speak. He's going to give a response. And God is not going to respond to Elihu, the fourth friend, who just spoke in the previous chapter. And God is not going to talk about Job's specific circumstances. And God is not going to talk about, give an explanation as far as what is going on behind the scenes. And God is not obligated at all to answer any accusations against himself. When God is accused in the Bible, typically God accuses the accusers. Remember Genesis chapter three? where in verse four, the serpent accused God of lying maliciously to Adam and the woman. Adam and the woman fell. God appears. God does not defend himself against that lie. Instead, he judged the accusers. He judged Adam and the woman. He prevailed against them. So God is now gonna give this response to Job. And we should have a sense of where God is going if we look at the preface which we read. God is answering out of the whirlwind. God says, who is this that is darkening counsel with words without knowledge? He demands an answer of Job. He says, Job, you're gonna contend with Shaddai, Almighty? He's going to demand of Job. He's going to ask Job, are you going to disannul my judgment? Will you condemn me so that you can become righteous? That preface to what God is going to say should probably alert Job to realize, I have made a mistake trying to now debate God. So three things about God's revelation of himself. The first one of many. God's revelation of himself begins with the absolute otherness of God. The one that is God who owns majesty and glory and power and has exercised his sovereign wisdom, this God who dwells in light, unapproachable, the high and holy God, the creator, God, infinite, eternal God, And then we have Job, a choice vessel to be sure, a servant of God, upright according to God's estimation of him, prayed for his family, he worshipped God, he was held up as the example of the servant of the Lord, the one who was not following Jehovah God because he had a bunch of stuff and wealth. Remember, that was Satan's lie here. Well, he's just following you because he's got the health and wealth gospel. That wasn't why he was following God. But Job is insignificant compared to God Almighty. In the larger scheme of everything, Job is insignificant. God is going to develop the infinite distance, the eternal distance between the creator and the creature. God had to reprove the Psalmist David in Psalm 50. Thou thoughtest I was altogether one such as thyself, but I will reprove thee. I was thinking about a very simple question the last several weeks. Do you realize who this God is that we deal with? David didn't. This high and lifted up God, this eternally majestic God, the God who always was, glorious in holiness, immortal, eternal. And here we have Job stepping into this arena with God as though he is going to contend with the Almighty, with Shaddai. He comes with words without knowledge. He's going to reprove God, disannul his judgment, As we said, God is not gonna justify himself or defend his action to Job. But I think we can see in ourself, dare I say it, something that we see in Job, and that is we get a little bit of knowledge, a few experiences, we get five points, God has infinite points, by the way, but we get our five points, we become over-familiar with the conception of who God is, and suddenly the eternal, infinite separation between mankind and God becomes smaller and smaller. We can have fellowship and communion with God and get close to him in that way, but he's still God, and we're still the creature. Where in the church today is the acknowledgement that there is this eternal, infinite separation and difference between God and man. The churches today, I'm not pointing fingers at anybody else, but this infinite separation between God, and that's why people, I think, we've heard a lot recently about pursuing personal holiness. I don't need to be holy if I've brought God down to my level. If I think and realize God is eternal and infinite, I realize I have to have some semblance of holiness if I want to come into his presence, lest he bar the door and not let me in. The separation, this infinite, eternal separation does not change just because we're going through trials. This eternal, infinite separation doesn't change just because we're having a good day with the Lord. We might be having a good day with the Lord and fellowship and communion with him. He's still God. We're still man. Yes, Jesus Christ became a man to identify with us, but he never ceased being God. Job is complaining. Job is consumed with trials, and I do not want to in any way seem to minimize Job's trials. But Job is complaining and he's stepping into this arena to talk with God from his vantage point and to make his case. Solomon. understood the concept of what Job was stepping into, almost forgetting the magnificence and the majesty of God, the immenseness of God, and Solomon said this, be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God, for God is in heaven, and thou upon the earth, therefore let thy words be few. God is in heaven. Where's heaven? You can't even tell me the place where God abides. It's called heaven. We have some description of it in the scripture, but where is it? How does it exist outside of time and this world? God is in his holy habitation, and we're upon the earth. Isaiah said, all of the nations are like a drop in a bucket. Does that make you feel puffed up and proud and strong and powerful? A drop of water in a bucket. And all the nations are counted as the small dust of a balance. That old balance that had two plates that were hung in like a fulcrum set up. And you would put weights on one side and you would weigh out grain on the other to get... And if there's a couple of specks of dust on that, it wouldn't change the weight. And God says in Isaiah 40, count it as a small dust of a balance. All the nations before him as are nothing and less than nothing and vanity. That's where we are upon the earth. Therefore let thy words be few. God is starting to talk about this otherness. Job, remember, remember that infinite, eternal distance still exists. Yes, you can pray. Yes, you can understand a little bit, but that eternal, infinite existence, a distance does not change. Job, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted in the earth. I will be exalted among the heathen. Secondly, God's revelation of himself answers Job's desire to debate with him. And what God is going to do now is use creation as the forum to talk to Job. He's going to use creation as the forum to talk to Job. In Job chapter 13 and also chapter 23, Job says, I'm going to debate God. In chapter 23 and verse 3, he said, oh, that I knew where I might find him, and I would come even to his seat, his judgment seat, verse 4, and I would order my cause before him, and I would fill my mouth with arguments. I would prove to God that what he's doing is wrong. It's not fair. I shouldn't have to undergo this, whatever he was going to say. And he wants to debate with God, and it's probably not a wise thing to do. You will lose, but worse than that, you're gonna get this view of who God is and a few we are, which we need that view. And so he's gonna debate God. And we started to read in chapter 38, but from 38 to chapter 42, God, I counted them, God is gonna give him 84 questions. 84 questions that hold forth the majesty of God, the wisdom of God, the power of God, and at the same time, hold forth the infirmity of man, the weakness of man, the fallibility of man, the stupidity of man, his inability. 84 questions. There's probably an infinity amount of questions God could ask. Or God only had to ask him one question, right, to stop his mouth. God asks 84, where was thou when I laid the foundation of the earth? What about the measure, the line, the foundation, the cornerstone? He says, where were you when I shut up the seas, when they broke forth as if it was water issuing out of the womb, and how I have put doors around it where the water cannot go any farther? I live in Tracy, as most of you know, and the ground has been polluted with 100 years of agriculture, so we don't drink the water from the wells. I go to the water store once a week, and I get these five-gallon big water bottles. They weigh 50 pounds. I struggle with a 50-pound bottle of water, and God has the seas of the globe under his power, with all of their teeming waves, with the hydraulic power that this water has. And to quote again from Isaiah 40, The scripture says God measures the oceans in the hollow of his hand. Job, where were you when I exercised control over the waters of the earth? Job, verse 12, hast thou commanded the morning since the days It is turned as clay to the seal, and they stand as a garment. Interesting imagery, where God says, when the light comes up on the earth in the morning, what the light does is, the way it illuminates and gives everything distinction in this 3D image we see of the world, it's like putting a seal to clay. It forms it. God's saying, I designed the light to do that very thing to my creation. Hast thou entered in, verse 16, into the springs of the sea? Job, I can make water, unsalted water, come out of springs of the ocean. Job, tell me how I do that. Verse 17, have the gates of death been opened up unto you? Opened up unto you, Job? How is it that people die? What happens when they die? Who commands those gates to open and close? Job, tell me. Where is the way that the light dwells? As for darkness, where does that come from? Do you know it, verse 21, because you were born then or because of the number of your days is great? Job, have you lived a long time upon this earth and that's why you know these things? Were you born then? The water, the snow, the rain, the hail. Tell me about this, Job. I don't want to know about the dew point or I don't want to know about evaporation. I want to know, God is saying, how all of these things are so systematically entwined around the face of the globe and work with each other to water the earth, which is kept in balance for growth, for food. Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pallades or loose the bands of Orion? Can you control and order the constellations of the skies? Interestingly enough, the four constellations he measures are associated with one of the four seasons. So I think by way of extension, he's asking Job, Job, how is it that the world, as it goes around the sun, it tips and tilts so that we get these four seasons as it's going around? Tell me about that, Job. Don't say, well, gravity. How is it that it goes and then it goes back the other way? Tell Job. Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds to make it rain? Can you command the lightning? Who put wisdom in people's hearts? And on and on and on. God's revelation of himself, he uses the creation as the forum to see, okay, Job, do you want to debate with me? What God shares, which Job cannot answer, is the power, the intricacies, the synthesis of every molecule of creation, how it harmonizes with everything else. And the majesty and the power of God, the creator, over his creation. And did you catch the infirmity and the weakness of man, besides Job not being able to answer? God says, where was thou? Canst thou? Understandest thou? Where was thou? Canst thou? Understandest? Wilt thou? Know how? Job can't answer. No wonder Job has to say, here's Job's answer. I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I'll put my hand upon my mouth. Thirdly, as we think about God's revelation of himself to Job, his revelation displays his true nature. Obviously it displays his true nature, but there's something specifically besides his glory and his majesty and his eternality, there's something he reveals about his nature to Job, I think we might miss it. It's so spiritually elegant. Because what he does, we didn't read the chapter 39 and all the way through, but he talks about his care as creator over the smallest of created beings. He talks about his care and ownership over the animals, over the birds. In chapter 39 and verse 26, does the hawk fly by your wisdom? And does she stretch her wings towards the south? Because of your wisdom. Does the eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest on high? God says, I know about and I care about the birds. Psalmist put it this way, for every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills. He says, I know all the fowls of the mountains. Here's a question. When God says, I know all the fowls of the mountains, is there ever a time when that is not true? For that to be a true statement, that is happening all the time, right? Scientists estimate that there are 50 billion birds around the face of the earth right now. 50 billion. And God says, I know all of them. That's just the birds. Job, are you not of more value than a sparrow? See, if in a very elegant way, God is also at the same time of magnifying himself, I think he's trying to get Job to understand and to realize that he's not been forgotten. God's tender care is over all of his creation. He's caring, he's wise. And not only does creation display his eternal power and Godhead, as Paul said in Romans, but it reflects his true nature. He's not a man that he should lie. He's not a man that he should repent. It's his true nature. I am God and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like me. So God's response or God's answer to Job takes on in the first place, which we have not even scratched the surface, but it's a revelation to Job, a fresh revelation of who he is. Absolute otherness. He uses creation as the forum. And if we would look at creation, not to justify, oh, there must be a creator, but to look at creation just to see his care and his wisdom and his power, this reveals his true nature. Secondly, God's answer or response to Job is a revelation of who Job is. Who Job is. I think Job realizes that God is everything and he's nothing. God's in heaven, he's upon the earth, and he understands who God is and who he is. And remember, Job is the one that God said is my servant. He hates evil, he loves good, he fears God, he's perfect, he's upright. There's nobody on the earth like him. Job is the one, when God took everything away, Job said, blessed be the name of the Lord. In all of that, he did not sin or charge God foolishly. That same thing goes on when his health was taken away. He didn't suffer perfectly. There's only one in history that suffered perfectly, which, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. But Job understands that verily as the psalmist said, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. Remember where Selah is? A musical interlude. So man and his best state is altogether vanity. Now let's have a musical interlude so we can think about that. That's who Job, even though Job was upright in all of these things as we know. But really I want to move into the third point because Job understands who God is now with this and who he is. But I want to talk now about how God's answer transforms Job and what God has been doing in his life has transformed Job. So the third passage, I'd like to read several verses, is in Job 42, the last chapter of the book of Job. God again speaking. In verse 42, beginning at verse one, then Job, excuse me, then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered those things which I understood not, things too wonderful for me which I know not. Here I beseech thee and I will speak. I will demand of thee and declare that one to me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes. And it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said unto Eliaphas the Temanite, my wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends. For you have not spoken of me, the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore I take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you. For him will I accept, lest I deal with you after your folly, in that you have not spoken of me, the thing which is right, like my servant Job. And then the friends did as the Lord commanded. In this passage, we see four things that God is transforming, changing, growing Job. Number one, Job was transformed with the spiritual premium of a heart knowledge built on top of a head knowledge. I had heard of thee by the hearing of my ear. Oh, I heard a lot of sermons. I heard a lot of preaching. I read a lot of books. I've heard a lot. But now, mine eye seeeth thee." He's going from the outer court to the inner court to the Holy of Holies, if I could use a tabernacle illustration. I heard a lot of theology. I knew how to hate evil and love good. I knew how to act in church. I knew how to act around the brethren. I knew what to do when I sat in the gate, as Job did. I was systematic. I was orthodox. I had my five points in my back pocket. But now it's different. Now I see thee. He was transformed. And if we are reformed without being transformed, what are we doing? We have to be changed, we have to behold the glory of the Lord as in a glass, so that we are changed from one degree of glory into another, changed into the image of Christ. Job doesn't cast away his head knowledge. His heart knowledge is built on top of that foundational base, but he has to get to that point where he can, as it were, see God. a revelation of this spiritual premium, I think, that God puts on heart knowledge. I think it has, for Job, gone far beyond with a clarity, with a clearness, with a distinction of that God is able to do all things, as he said here, when he wants, how he wants, and doesn't have to answer to anybody what he is doing. He has not cast away what he knows, what he's building on top of it. I know, he said, thou canst do anything. Your omnipotency is taking on a new dimension. I understand it not just by hearsay, not just by common knowledge, but I understand in my personal life what it means. I think My experience has been when we get a high view of God, we get a right sight of God in some area of theology or truth or just about the nature of God, it seems to shed light on other parts of knowledge that might seem to be irrelevantly connected. But it opens up more than just a one-dimensional thing about some aspect or something about the Lord. It sheds light on a lot of other areas as well. And sometimes it makes what we thought we knew and what we thought we had experienced about the Lord just entirely deficient. Like Job, I'm just not going to say anything because I thought I knew this, and now God is showing me the reality. God's eternal realities are just that, they're eternal and infinite. They would blind us, they would consume us if we knew 1% of them. But when God opens that curtain just a little bit to show us something, and we see, we understand with the head, with the heart, with the being, that's what God wants. God would like to reveal himself to mankind. Are we taking the time to do that very thing? Secondly, Job was transformed with the spiritual beauty of genuine humility. Genuine humility. Here's a transformation. He has this major encounter with God, and he doesn't just start blabbing it around to everybody. Hey, guess what? I had this tremendous meeting with God. Here's a transformation. He has this tremendous meeting encounter with God, and he doesn't use it to say, oh, by the way, God, since we're talking now, what about my trials? I just can't last through them anymore. He doesn't do that either. He repents in dust and ashes. This is like the Apostle Paul, when I think he was the one caught up to the third heaven, but he doesn't want to blab about it. Right? He says, I knew somebody years ago who was caught up, and it's not lawful to talk about the things that he saw. End of discussion. The true spiritual man doesn't go to the marketplace and blab everything around. He repents in dust and ashes. Or like his friend Elihu, who seemed to have a little bit more wisdom than the other three friends, said, Job, you need to say this. That which I see not, teach thou me. And if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more. That which I see, have seen not, teach thou me. Here's repentance, a humbleness, a teachableness, a desire to learn, a desire to own the very single things that he had affronted God with. He says, I talked too much. I uttered things not according to knowledge. I was rash, I was ignorant with this very thing. and I loathe myself. Interestingly enough, the New Covenant, according to Ezekiel 36, has as a hallmark on the believers a self-loathing, a requirement for the New Covenant. We are emptied of self, we want to decrease and we want Christ to increase. Job was transformed with the spiritual beauty of genuine humility. Thirdly, Job was transformed with the spiritual ministry of prayer. with prayer. I would have loved to have been next to Job while he prayed for his friends, his miserable friends, miserable comforters who just kept hammering Job with your, or a secret sinner, and God is judging you. And now Job has been called upon to pray for them. And I believe he prayed heartily, with fervor, with faith as seeing him who was invisible, with this new understanding of who God was, with a new understanding of, that's right, my friends also are at their best state altogether, vanity, weak, infirm, empty. And God, the scripture says, accepts him, accepts him. The very thing that Jesus did, we read Isaiah 53, made intercession for the transgressors. prayed for the enemies. Job was transformed, I believe, with the spiritual ministry of prayer. He did pray for his children. He prayed as he worshiped God. And now he's been called, and his trial is not over. He does not know when his trial is going to be over. At this point, he's still in the midst of the trial. And God says, Job, pray for your friends, and I will accept you. When we pray, do we have any sense that there's this true spiritual ministry of prayer? Sometimes when I pray, I feel like, well, I just checked the box, or I mailed it in. Have you heard that expression? Well, he mailed it in. God wants us to pray with an understanding that it's, in fact, a very real interchange between earth and heaven. That same infinite, eternal distance that we talked about can be transversed with prayer. If that's not a spiritual exercise, I don't know what is. Fourthly, Job was transformed as the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. In verse 10 through verse 17, we have the blessedness that now God, after the sacrifices offered for the friends, after Job prays for the friends, Job still, I believe, doesn't have the answer to what, all of the thing that was going on, unless he wrote the book of Job. Job turns to, God, the Lord turns to the captivity of Job. And verse 12, so the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. And then there's a recounting of a doubling of everything now that is in Job's hands, as opposed to before, even his children. which I think there's this indication that his children are in heaven. He did not lose them. They're living in a different place. This blessedness of Job, where God is entirely righteous to strip Job of every single thing. And Job has a realization, anything that gets our focus back on God is a good thing. Easy to say, hard to undergo. Job understood that God's answer, maybe not to his specific issues, but God's answer was sufficient when he saw who God was. Somebody said, I don't know who said it, but they said through all of the book of Job, every question that Job had could be answered with a one word answer. God. God was sufficient. God was in charge. God was there. God cared. God was gonna bring an end to it, a resolution that would glorify him and eventually be unto the edification and the good of his own. It's shown at the end of the book, Job didn't fear God because he had the stuff. That fear, having God in the highest reverence and fear, was truly what his heart, where his heart was at. Job was blessed the latter, and I think a major part of that was he realized that this whole, he had erroneously thought that God was against him, and he realized it's blessed and God is not, in fact, against me. James picks this up when he says, we count them happy that endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you've seen that the end of the Lord is pitiful. and full of tender mercy." At this point in the book, I think we can ask the question, is Job better off for having gone through these trials? We have to say yes. Here we are in this comfortable room, air conditioned, carpeted floors, cushioned seats, easy to say. But it is a reality. Job is better off. having gone through what he went through than if he had never gone through them. Again, Solomon. All these quotes from Ecclesiastes. Solomon was so wise. He said, better is the end of a thing than the beginning. Job was blessed. God did bless him in the end. Fourthly and lastly, a needed transformation. In this book, in the end, the resolution of Job, we have this sidebar thing that's happening where God wants to deal with Job's friends. Not Elihu, evidently, but the three friends that were miserable comforters. And what God tells Job and what God tells these three is, you need a sacrifice. unless I have to deal with you according to your folly. Sacrifice is needed. And their sin seems to be so small. They did not understand God or his ways, but neither did Job. They spoke wrongly. They did not speak rightly about the Lord. Job did neither really. They did judge unrighteously, that was bad. But it seems like such of a small sin. And if there's not a sacrifice, they're in big trouble. They're in big trouble. And so we see that this is the transformation that man needs. Lost man, the one who is an enemy of God, the wicked, the vile, the one who does not know God, the one who, in their own estimation, commits a few small sins, a sacrifice is needed, or God will deal. God will judge righteously. And I believe this speaks to what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. First, the sacrifice has to be offered, and then Job will intercede for them. And we're just reminded of the fact that Christ became a sacrifice. Then they can be reconciled to God. And then our high priest intercedes for us and will hear our prayers and hone and fix and change and direct those prayers into the spiritual heart of God. But again, back to Job. Job is being transformed. Brethren, I trust we are being transformed, we're being changed with this spiritual premium of heart knowledge, genuine humility, Understanding the spiritual ministry of prayer is something that can change God's people, in addition to praying as we ought to pray, and God blessing our latter end more than our beginning. A day is coming when you are gonna lose your family, and you're gonna lose your wealth, and you're gonna appear before God. And your latter end is not going to be doubled. It's going to be infinitized, if that's a word. There's going to be this infinite multiplication put to your account. You won't be sitting down with three miserable friends. You'll be sitting down with Christ. There'll be no pain, no sorrow, no tears. There'll be no questions. Why God? Just answers. and you're gonna love every single answer, and you're gonna see how perfect that answer is. God is gonna bless our latter end more than the beginning, just like Job. That's been his plan all along. Well, may God be pleased to conform us into the image of his dear son, and might we be blessed with the realization that, in fact, God is doing that very thing, So we're not anxious, frustrated, discouraged, but realize, yeah, God is doing the work in me, by his grace, for his glory, for my good. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Though such of a monumental book of the Bible, 42 chapters about a single man and everything he went through, and yet, Lord, even just gleaning a few of the high points What a tremendous God we have. As you deal with mankind, as you create and sustain the world, exhibiting tender care over even the smallest of your creation, how much more you care for us, we know. Thank you for this day in your house. Bless us, Lord, as we go from this place. Give us a good week in the Lord. Help us to reflect upon your word And please continue to conform us to the image of your son, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.