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I invite you to open your Bibles
with me to the book of Job and to the 19th chapter, Job 19. If you're using the Bibles in
the seats, you should find that on page 429. Many of you are familiar to some degree
with the mysterious book of Job. Spelled like job, pronounced
Job. I don't know how he actually pronounced it, but probably Yobe
or something like that. Job, we believe, lived around
the time of Abraham, though we're not given exact description of
that. He's identified by God himself
as a righteous man. Satan said to God, sort of blaming
God and Job, he's only righteous because you've hedged him in,
you've protected him so much. And so God permitted Satan to
strike everything that Job owned. and then his health that required
him to spare his life. And after the initial narrative
of chapters one and two, the rest of the book is really a
series of conversations, though presented in chapter after chapter
of monologue. Monologue by Job and by his friends,
and then by Job and then his friends, and then Job and then
his friends. And then at the very end, and I believe last
Lord's Day, Morgan McMahon preached about this, A significant monologue
from God himself identifying himself to Job. We're going to consider Job from
this chapter 19 this morning and as we have been in this series
we're looking for Christ in the Old Testament. We're looking
for Christ in the Old Testament because he tells us that it's
all about him. The law and the prophets and
the Psalms are written about him. And I've suggested these
six ways at least that we can look for Christ. Two P's, progress
of redemption and promises that are all yes and amen in Christ.
Two T's, themes that we see repeated all through the scripture and
we see how Christ fits into those themes. And types, that's people,
places or things in the Old Testament that point to Christ in the New
Testament. And then two C's to compare and contrast how God
works with his people in both the Old and the New Testament.
And we'll be doing that as we look at Job 19. But a question
before we start. What do you know? What do you
know? Sometimes we say that just as
a greeting. Hey, what do you know? We're
not really asking a question, but what do you know? Do you
know pi to 100 places? Do you know what AI means and
how it works? Do you know who fought World
War I and the stated reasons for that war? Maybe more in the
context of worship, what do you know about the things of God?
Do you know if heaven exists? Do you know if you will go to
heaven when you die? Do you know if God will accept
you? We're going to consider what
Job knew and we'll read that Job knew what he says here, I
know that my Redeemer lives. And so listen to the word of
God, Job chapter 19. Then Job answered and said, How
long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?
These ten times you have cast reproach upon me. Are you not
ashamed to wrong me? And even if it be true that I
have erred, my error remains with myself. If indeed you magnify
yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against
me, then know that God has put me in the wrong and closed His
net about me. Behold, I cry out violence, but
I am not answered. I call for help, but there is
no justice. He has walled up my way so that
I cannot pass, and He has set darkness upon my paths. He has
stripped me from my glory and taken the crown from my head.
He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone. And my hope has
he pulled up like a tree. He has kindled his wrath against
me and counts me as his adversary. His troops come on together and
have cast up their siege ramp against me. He encamps around
my tent. He has put my brothers far from
me and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me. My
relatives have failed me. My close friends have forgotten
me. The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a
stranger. I have become a foreigner in their eyes. I call to my servant,
but he gives me no answer. I must plead with him with my
mouth for mercy. My breath is strange to my wife,
and I am a stench to the children of my own mother. Even young
children despise me. When I rise, they talk against
me. All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have
turned against me. My bones stick to my skin and
to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. Have
mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you, my friends, for the hand
of God has touched me. Why do you, like God, pursue
me? Why are you not satisfied with
my flesh? Oh, that my words were written.
Oh, that they were inscribed in a book. Oh, that with an iron
pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever. For I know
that my Redeemer lives. And at the last, He will stand
upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus
destroyed, yet in my flesh, I will see God. Whom I shall see for
myself and my eyes shall behold and not another. My heart faints
within me. If you say how we pursue him
and the root of the matter is found in him be afraid of the
sword for wrath brings the punishment of the sword that you may know
that there is a judgment. This is the very word of the
living God and having heard from him and his word let us seek
him in prayer. Father we do ask that you would open our eyes
that we would see wonderful things out of your book. that we might
see Christ in ways that you have put him there, and that we might
learn from you. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. If you find it helpful, there's
a bulletin on the backside, an outline on the backside of the
order of service as we consider this text together. The first
exhortation that I give you from this text is to learn from Job,
learn from Job. All scripture is God-breathed
and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for
training in righteousness. And so we read Job 19 and we
ought to expect to learn. And we can learn from Job and
from his life. And the thing that we learn,
I think, most of all from the whole book of Job is that the
righteous suffer greatly at times. The righteous suffer greatly
at times. And the converse of that is that
the wicked prosper greatly at times. And Job suffered greatly
beyond probably any of our experience or even imagination. It's too
much for me to grasp. You go back to chapter one and
bam, bam, bam, bam. Four blows against Job as his
livestock with his servants are taken or killed. And then as
his 10 children in one event are killed. And then Satan says, yeah, but
touch his flesh and he'll rebel against you. And so God again
permitted a measure of Satan's action against Job. And he was
covered, we're told in chapter two, with loathsome sores from
head to foot. Here in this chapter he speaks
of the violence that he has suffered. No visible justice, rejection,
failing health. Job suffers as a righteous man,
as one whom God declares righteous. It's not that Job says, hey,
everybody, I'm a righteous man and I'm suffering in this way,
though he did sometimes say that as you read his monologues throughout
the book. But Job suffered as one whom God says was a man of
complete integrity who feared God and turned away from evil. Twice, God uses that same exact
language speaking to Satan about his righteous servant, Job. Job is righteous, but not perfectly
righteous. Job is, I think, in this regard,
though the New Testament doesn't call him this, a type of the
perfectly righteous one who would suffer greatly. even far greater
than the anguish of Job would be the anguish of the Son of
God. Many of you have read or studied recently The Shadow of
Christ in the Book of Lamentations. Some of you will know that C.J.
Williams who wrote that book, C.J. is the professor of Hebrew
at the RP Seminary in Pittsburgh, that before that book he wrote,
and it's now been republished by Crown & Covenant, The Shadow
of Christ in the Book of Job. And there he makes a case that
Job is, in fact, a type of Christ. He points to Christ, especially
in this area of his life, that the righteous suffer greatly
at times. And so learn that from Job. But
then secondly, learn in that regard that suffering is not
necessarily caused by personal sin. Suffering is not necessarily
caused by personal sins. Job's friends said he was suffering
because he was a sinner. He mentions it here in verse
3, but you can read it over and over in their monologues or their
dialogues with Job. You're in this place, you're
suffering the way you're suffering because of your sin. And Job
protested vigorously and often legitimately. But Shakespeare
might have said of Job, the gentleman doth protest too much, methinks. Job said, I'm not suffering for
my sin. In fact, God is wrong to make
me suffer this way, as we read in verse six. but he's combating
an idea that suffering must be for personal sin. Jesus' disciples
had the same thought in John chapter 9. They meet this man
who is blind from birth and they ask Jesus the question, who sinned? this man or his parents that
he was born blind? In other words, did this man,
even in the womb, and we know that those in the womb are living
beings, did he sin in the womb in some way that caused him to
be born blind? Or did his parents sin in such a way that this was
the result of his birth? So many people think if you suffer,
it's exactly because of your sin. Now, the difficulty in that
is that personal sin will often cause suffering. And suffering
is often caused or made worse by personal sin. But not always. If you believe that suffering
is always caused by personal sin and that if you just don't
sin you won't suffer, then you have built a works righteousness.
Do good, get good. Do bad, get bad. And what we learn from Job is
that suffering is not necessarily caused by personal sin even though
the righteous suffer greatly at times. But we continue to
learn from Job and we can particularly learn now from Job about God. Learn about God. God alone, I've
mentioned this before, but I don't think we can say this too often,
God alone can declare someone righteous. We have the question asked throughout
the book, how can a man stand in purity before his God? How
can a person be justified before God? It's a question not just
from the book of Job, but from the whole of the scripture. How
can I, because that's what it comes down to for each one of
us, how can I be justified before God? And the answer is not completely
given in the book of Job, though we do have, as I mentioned, in
the first two chapters, God's declaration, this one is righteous. And God alone can declare someone
righteous. You can't declare your own righteousness
except as it's righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ. You
can't stand and say, I'm okay before God. I may be suffering,
I might have some hard times, but it's not because of my sin,
because I'm okay before God. None of us can say that only
God can declare someone righteous. And we live in a world that wants
to declare everyone righteous. Everyone's really more or less
good. I mean, maybe there's really,
really bad people. Hitler, or maybe the president
of whichever party you are not in favor of, they're really bad,
but everyone else is basically good. You've perhaps read of
this, or perhaps heard of it more personally than that. Often,
when someone commits a horrible crime, what do we hear from their
family and friends? He was a good person, I just
don't understand it. The scripture says no one is
good, but God alone can declare someone righteous. And we'll
talk a little bit more about how it is that you can be declared
righteous by God. The second thing that we learn
from Job about God, and this is learning from Job's false
accusation, is that God cannot sin. That God cannot sin. Job says in verse 6, God has
wronged me. And Job was wrong. None of us
can ever say God has wronged me. God has done the wrong thing. God has sinned. Let no one say
when he is tempted, God is tempting me because God is not tempted
by evil and he does not tempt anyone. And so learn from Job's
wrong accusation that we cannot say God has wronged me. Someone
has said it this way, to err is human, to blame it on the
divine is even more human. God, you have made me this way. God, the woman you gave me made
me do this. God, the serpent made me do this. In other words, God, you're really
at fault. And that has been an accusation
against God, not just from the book of Job, but from the beginning.
And you perhaps at some time have blamed God for your lot
in life. And perhaps you've blamed God
in a way of causing, of accusing God of sin. God cannot sin. Now Job not only said, God has
wronged me, but he said, God struck me. God's hand has been
against me. And ultimately, that accusation
is accurate because God controls even our suffering. The righteous
suffer at times, sometimes greatly, and God is in control of that.
And if you're not in a period of suffering, if you can get
that in your heart and in your head, if you can get a hold of
it now, then when the suffering comes you can hold on to that.
God, you're in charge of this. I don't understand it, but you
are in charge of it. God said to Moses, who made man's
mouth? Who makes a person mute or deaf,
seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Jesus said when his disciples
asked about this man born blind, did he sin or did his parents
sin? Jesus said no. This came about so that God's
works might be displayed in him. God controls even our suffering. We see that most clearly in the cry of our Savior. As we're told, about three in
the afternoon, he cried out from the cross, Eli, Eli, Lama Sambachthani,
which means my God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? even
in his deep anguish of becoming sin for us, so that we might
become the righteousness of God in him, he suffered greatly at
the hand of his father, at the hand of his God. God controls
even your suffering. We're told that in the whole
Bible. We're not told it directly in Job except back in chapters
one and two where the curtains peeled back for a moment and
we're given a glimpse into the heavenly account of Job. God's conversation with Satan
that results in the horrible suffering that Job underwent.
God controls even our suffering. So learn from God, learn about
God even from Job. But then thirdly, I exhort you
to know what Job knew. Know what Job knew. But the first thing I'll call
to mind is something Job didn't know. He didn't know why he suffered. Job never learned throughout
this book why he suffered. Again, we're given that glimpse.
We know. We're not told exactly all of why, but we're told that
God was involved in it, and God was in control of it, and God
permitted Satan to afflict Job greatly. And there's a true sense
in which Satan is God's Satan. And what I mean by that is Satan
is not free to create havoc however he wants to create it. He only
acts as far as God's leash on him permits. And Job never knew why he lost
all his livestock, and his servants, and his 10 children. God never told him. But at the end of the book, what
God told Job is, I am God, and you are not. And you might, in
the midst of your suffering, think that's not very comforting,
but it is comforting. Because God is God, and we're
not. And so we can trust Him. We can
trust Him even in our deepest suffering. Now if you suffer, it's not at
all unreasonable to say, God, is this punishment for some particular
sin? Are you getting my attention
through this? The psalmist says, search me,
oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the everlasting
way. I think if you're facing suffering
as a Christian, it's a good thing to pray, God, is this discipline
from your hand? And I don't think that you have
to linger long on that question. You might quite quickly be prompted
by the spirit of God for particular sins that you have committed,
and you still won't know for sure if those particular sins
are the cause of your suffering, but at least repent, lest something
worse happens to you, as Jesus himself tells us. Job didn't
know why he suffered, but what did he know? I know that my Redeemer
lives. I know that my Redeemer lives. Look at the confidence with which
he expresses this in verses 23 to 27, and the confidence with
which he wants this truth to be written in a way that it will
never be worn away. This was no mere graffiti on
the wall. This wasn't just a lightweight
poster to put up and give you encouragement. One person said
it this way, Job is saying come, Bring a sculptor's chisel and
engrave deeply the letters of these wondrous words. And then
take molten lead and fill the letters cut deeply on the rock.
Now there they shine in silvery hue to the eternal ages my Redeemer
lives. But Job got better than he hoped
for. He got better than his words
being carved in rock and filled in with metal. He got his words
inscribed in the eternal living word of God so that we can read
them today and know the same thing that Job knew. His words
are as fresh today to us as they were when he said these words.
I know that my redeemer lives. How do we know? Is it because
of Job's confidence that we know he was right? No. We can be confidently
wrong, but we know Job was right because God tells us that he
was right. As once put it, Job was taught
of God to believe in a living Redeemer and to look for the
resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. I know that my Redeemer lives. It might surprise you, but it
might not, that you'll find the Redeemer or the redemption mentioned disproportionately more times
in the Old Testament than in the New Testament. One of the
places that it's found most of all is in the book of Leviticus. It's full of laws and a sacrificial
system because God is telling us, you need a Redeemer. You
need to be rescued from your sin. And I have made a way. It's also found in the little
book of Ruth, probably proportionately, as much in that as in any book
of the Old Testament, proportionately in terms of the size of the book
and the number of times that you find that. It's found all
throughout the Psalms, and so we sing often of God as our Redeemer. And it's found in the prophet
Isaiah. Those four books most of all, but it's scattered throughout
the whole of the scripture. to teach God's people to say,
I need a Redeemer. I need to be made acceptable
to God. I need for my life and reputation
to be restored. I need my sin to be atoned for. I need to be bought back. All
of those are the essence of the idea of a Redeemer, and God himself
is the Redeemer of his people. But Job not only knew, I know
that my Redeemer lives. What else did he say? I know
that I will see him. I know that after I die, I will
live again and I will see my Redeemer. And that's the constant
hope of the people of God all throughout the scripture. The
psalmist writes and we're going to sing these words in a little
bit. Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices.
My body rests securely for you will not abandon me to the grave. You will not allow your faithful
one to see decay. The psalmist says I will see
your face in righteousness and when I awake I will be satisfied
with your presence. Sleep. is the closest thing we
experience in this life to death. And the Bible tells us that when
we wake from our sleep, God is with us. But the psalmist says,
even when I sleep that sleep of death, I will awake in your
presence. Unless the Lord tarries, it will
be for all of us who are Christ's. that we will one day fall asleep and we will wake up in the very
presence of our God and our Redeemer. And so even though we grieve
when our loved ones die, we don't grieve as those who don't have
hope because we know they are seeing their Savior and we will
one day see Him too. I will see him. Does your heart long to see your
Redeemer? Not just in heaven, but is your
heart long for your Redeemer now? Does your heart have this
panting desire, as the psalmist says, as a deer pants for streams,
so I pant for you, God? Oh God, you are my God, and earnestly
I will seek for you. I thirst for you. My body faints
for you in a land that is dry and desolate and without water.
Do you long for your Redeemer? One of the ways that we long
for our Redeemer is in the assembly of the people of God. And the
psalmist says, I long and I yearn for the courts of God. My heart
and my flesh cry out for the living God. And I can testify
to you, people of God, that I come to worship. I come to worship
morning and evening because I long for God and I desperately need
God. I need to be close to him and
to his people. I need to be reminded that I
have a Redeemer and my Redeemer lives and that I will see him
face to face. Know what Job knew. I know that
my Redeemer lives, and I know that I will see Him. And know
this, which is perhaps more than Job knew, though I think in some
way he understood this. Job's Redeemer is the only Redeemer
who is Jesus the Christ. Job's Redeemer is the only Redeemer
who is Jesus the Christ. Job's Redeemer was not a type
pointing to Jesus. Job's Redeemer is Jesus, and
Jesus is the only Redeemer. And you need a Redeemer, and
I need a Redeemer. And so as the people of God,
you can say, I will see my Redeemer. I will see Him face to face.
I know that He lives and I will live again. I talk to people and they say things
like, I hope I'm going to heaven. I'm trying. And I want them to
understand you can't try enough. You need a Redeemer. You need
a righteousness that is foreign to you, that is in Christ and
given to those who trust Him by faith. That's the work of
redemption of Christ. Westminster Confession of Faith
is a document that many of us have found particularly useful
in understanding the instruction of the Word of God. It says this,
those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus, who love Him in sincerity
and endeavor to walk with Him in good conscience before Him,
may in this life be certainly assured that they are in the
state of grace and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God,
which shall never make them ashamed. You and I can say, I know that
when I die, I will go to heaven because I have a Redeemer, Jesus
Christ, and He has paid the penalty for my sin. The confession goes
on to say it's not just conjecture, it's not just a reasonable conclusion
to draw, and we do at times draw reasonable conclusions from the
scripture, but this truth, that the only Redeemer is Jesus Christ
and that all who are Christ's will see Him face to face, We
can be confident of that because God tells us in his word. For
those of us who are trusting in Christ, we know that we are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. We know that Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse, a curse
for us. We know that in him we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins. And we know that He gave Himself
for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse us
for Himself as a people of His own possession, eager to do good
works. We know that we are redeemed
from our empty way of life, of things inherited from our ancestors.
We are redeemed not with perishable things like silver or gold, but
redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb. Job's Redeemer is
the only Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. And here we see this progress
of redemption because you can be even more confident than Job. You can know with even more certainty
that you need a Redeemer and that your Redeemer lives. If you are in Christ, join me
in rejoicing in prayer. Our Father in heaven, What glorious
good news, that though we are sinners, Christ died for our
sins. May it be, Lord, that if anyone
here is still hoping that they're trying hard enough, is still
counting on their own effort, their own righteousness, their
own works, that they might see in Job's Redeemer, their Redeemer,
and that they might be able to say, even today, I know that
my Redeemer lives, and in my flesh I will see And for those of us who are in
Christ, continue the work that you've done. Continue to assure
us of our position in our great Savior and Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus, in whom we pray, amen.
I know that My Redeemer Lives!
Series Christ in the Old Testament
| Sermon ID | 62251848453229 |
| Duration | 32:19 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Job 19 |
| Language | English |
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