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.