Please now hear the word of the Lord. Then Job answered and said, how long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words? These 10 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, know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me. Behold, I cry violence, but I am not answered. I cry for help, but there is no justice. He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass and set darkness upon my paths. He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side and I am gone. In my hope, he has pulled up like a tree. He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as its adversary. His troops come on together. They have cast up their siege ramp against me and I camp all 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 and my close friends have forgotten me. The guest in my house and my maidservant count me as a stranger and I have become a foreigner in their eyes. I call to my servant, but he gives 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 love 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. Oh, you, my friends, for the hand of God has touched me. Why do you let 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 a iron pen and lead, they were engraved in the rock forever. For I know that my redeemer lives. And alas, he will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall 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 will 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. That sends the reading of God's word. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. My father, we do thank you that we're able to close out this day with worship. Lord, that you've given us one day and seven to rest, to lay down our labors. And Lord, it's our joy to be able to gather this evening as your people to sing your praises, to seek you in prayer to sit under the preach word. And Lord, it is our prayer that this evening you would give us the illuminating power of your Holy Spirit, that we might understand what is written here in the book of Job, and Lord, that our faith would be built up. We ask that you would feed us tonight. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. Well, as many of you know, we've been making our way through the book of Job at our Wednesday night prayer meeting here at Pine Haven. And we've been going chapter by chapter through the book of Job, and as I've made my way through and studied each of these chapters, it has led me to the conclusion that the book of Job is rather deep. And there's many things in this book that simply cannot be covered in one night or in a block of only a few minutes. And chapter 19 is one of the key texts in the book of Job that I felt needed to be covered a little bit more deeply. And so tonight, I want us to look at the 19th chapter of the book of Job, but especially the verses from 23 through 27, which are Job's great confession of faith. But before we turn to an examination of Job 19, 23 through 27, I'll set before you the main point that I'm trying to press this evening. And that would be that as Christians, we are called to walk in the footsteps of Job and display a firm belief in our Redeemer and a full confidence in the resurrection of the dead. And tonight we're going to look at just three points briefly. And that would be, first of all, we're going to set Job chapter 19 within the context of the book. Secondly, we'll look at Job chapter 19 in depth. And then finally, we will make some applications of the passage to our own lives. So the first point would be setting chapter 19 within the context of the book of Job. So as we know, most of us are very well familiar with the first two chapters of the book of Job. We find out that Job is a righteous man, a godly man, one who fears God and turns away from evil. And he's been blessed by God, blessed more than all the men of the ancient Near East. And we also find that Job, he's going to suffer, but he's not going to suffer because he's done anything wrong. We're told that at the very beginning of the book of Job. But rather we know that Satan has come before the Lord and has said that the only reason that Job is serving God is because he's a hypocrite. He's trying to get something from the Lord. But if everything was taken away, Job would turn against the Lord and he would curse God to his face. Again, we're very familiar with these first two chapters and we find out that Job is not a hypocrite and Job does not curse God, but rather he blesses the Lord. He remains steadfast in his integrity. And he is a man who serves God, not for what he can get, but for who God is. That's Job chapter one and two. Next, we come to Job chapter three. Now, Job chapter three is one of the darkest passages in all of scripture. You're probably aware of how often in the psalms, the psalmist will have a complaint. He will bring it before the Lord. He will pour out his issue. He will wrestle with the Lord in prayer. And then at the end of the psalm, the psalmist will very often be delivered and he will sing praises to the Lord. And yet we know that there is a psalm in Psalter where that does not happen, but rather the psalmist ends in despair. Job chapter three is a chapter where it is 26 verses long of Job despairing, where Job is doing nothing but wishing that he had never been born. And as you're reading in the context of the book, you come to the first verse of chapter three, and it's very suspenseful because you know that Satan said, if everything is taken away, Job will surely curse you to your face. And we read in verse 1 of chapter 3, after this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. Job does not curse the Lord, but he does curse the day of his birth. And he says, I wish I had never been born. It's so bad that I wish I had never been born. I'd never experienced any blessing at all. And as I said, it's 26 verses of utter despair. And that kind of sets the tone for the book of Job. Chapters four through about chapter 31, we see that Job is going to enter into dialogue with his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. And the key to understanding this section of the book of Job is that the three friends are convinced in something that is called the retribution principle or retribution theology. And that is that those who are good and godly, they're going to be blessed by the Lord. If you're experiencing suffering, it's obviously because you've done something horrible and that God is pouring out wrath upon you justly. But as we know, Job, he's not suffering because he did something wrong. He's suffering precisely because of his righteousness. And so the three friends will try to convince Job during these chapters. They will go round and round and round. And we find that as the dialogue progresses, the three friends become more and more hostile toward Job. But it's during this dialogue, it's during this time where the three friends are interacting, that Job is going to move from utter despair in chapter three to a position where he has little spurts of faith and hope. I'd like to just look at a couple of the passages so we can get a little bit of the current that's going on in this section. First, we have in chapter 9. In chapter 9, verses 32 through 36, Job says this. For I am not a man, or for he is not a man as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us who might lay his hand on both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not the dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself." This is the first time where Job brings up the concept of an arbiter, one who will go between him and God in order that there might be reconciliation, in order that there might be communication. And in chapter nine, Job says, there is no arbiter. There is no one who might lay his hand both upon God and upon me in order for there to be reconciliation. Next in chapter 13, Job has another great moment where he's going to express his faith. And this is a very well-known verse. He says, though he slay me, yet I will hope in him, yet I will argue my ways to his face in Job 13, 15. And so Job is saying that even though he doesn't understand what's going on, he's going to maintain his trust. He's going to maintain his integrity. He's going to keep pressing on and endure the suffering that he's going through. And he desires to argue his case before the Lord. Next, we come to chapter 16, verse 9, where Job says this, even now, behold, my witnesses in heaven and he who testifies for me is on high. And now Job, he has continued in his pilgrimage of faith. And he says there actually is a witness. There is someone who will speak for me on high. And as we as New Testament Christians, we can't help but understand Job from afar is speaking of Christ. Job, from afar, is seeing Christ who will be the one mediator between God and man, who will place his hand upon each and bring them together. And so that's his pilgrimage of faith. That's the context in which Job is speaking his words in chapter 19. And very often, we'll find Job go back and forth between despair and hope. And that's actually quite common if you're going through a great deal of suffering, that at times there will be a great deal of faith, a great deal of hope, and then you're reminded of the pain, you're reminded of the suffering. And that's where Job is at. So now that we've gotten the context of Job 19, let's look at verses 23 and 24. Now, the three friends have been trying to convince Job that he is a great sinner. They have been arguing that there is no possible way that he would be a righteous man. But Job knows that he has done nothing to deserve this. And he cries out. He cries out for vindication in verses 23 and 24. He says, Oh, that my words were written. Oh, that they were inscribed in a book. Oh, that with a pen, an iron pen and lead, they were engraved in the rock forever. And by the time we've reached Job chapter 19, Job is becoming more and more aware of the fact that there's a good chance he's not gonna recover from this. Job has reached the fact where his skin is falling off, it's turning black, he has these great boils and sores. He's going through immense suffering and he's reaching the point where he's realizing, I might not come back from this. I know of a few people, and perhaps you do too, where they've either it's been some sickness or cancer, but they're in the hospital and they come to the realization, I'm probably not going to recover from this. I remember my own grandmother when she was in the hospital. We reached a point where we realized she's probably not going to recover from this. She's not going to leave this hospital room until she's passed away. And it may be that Job is coming to the realization, this is it. I'm not sure if I'm ever going to come back from this. Sitting upon the ash heap might be the end for me. And so he says, oh, that my words were written. He wants his testimony. He wants his case inscribed so that even if he dies, even if he passes away, there will be those who know that he was a righteous man who feared God. He didn't deserve any of this. And he says that, oh, that they were inscribed in a book. And there's a translation question here. Most, I think all English translations go with the translation, oh, that they were inscribed in a book. But there's another possible translation. This past spring, I took a class at the seminary, ancient language called Akkadian. And Akkadian was a East Semitic cuneiform language that was the language of the Babylonians. And if I've talked with you about it over the past several months, I know that there were several within this church who asked me, now why would you ever take that? And I remember even asking myself throughout the semester, why again am I taking this class? But the two main reasons I gave for taking the class was that studying that ancient language gives you a window into the worldview of the Old Testament. It gives you a window into the worldview of the time of Job, the time of the patriarchs, since it was the language of the Babylonians. But the second reason I gave was that because it's a Semitic language which is related to Hebrew, there's times where study of that ancient Babylonian language gives you insight into the meaning of obscure Hebrew words. And based on that and some good Hebrew scholars, it may be that what Job is saying here is not that, oh, that it were inscribed in a book, but oh, that it were inscribed upon a stela, which is a, it's a stone monument where they would inscribe into the stone words. It's actually interesting. You can go to, you can go to museums in New York and Chicago and in France, and you can see these stone monuments that were set up 4,000, 5,000 years ago. And if you know the language, you can still read them. Very durable. And so it may be that Job was saying, oh, not that they were inscribed in a book, which might perish rather quickly, but oh, that they were inscribed upon this stone monument that thousands of years down the road, people would know I am innocent. Oh, that they were inscribed with a pen and lead. And as we know, the wish, the desire of Job, that his testimony, that his case would be preserved, it was realized beyond his imagination. Because not only are his words here inscribed in the very Word of God, but his entire testimony, his entire suffering and restoration have been preserved for us. And we even know in the book of James how the early church was looking back upon Job and they were considering him an example to be observed by early Christians. That we are to observe the patience or the endurance of Job and see how the Lord worked with him. And so Job's words have been realized. He wanted his case to be preserved. It has been. But then he goes on and he makes the great declaration. He says here, for I know that my redeemer lives and at last he will stand upon the earth. He knows that his redeemer lives now, the. The Redeemer here is someone who in the Old Testament would stand up on behalf of another. Very often it would be a close relative. So if someone was sold into slavery, they could be redeemed or bought back. If land was sold because of financial difficulty, it could be redeemed or bought back. And even in the book of Isaiah, God is the one who is referred to as the Redeemer, who will bring back his people from out of Babylon back to the land. But Job says that he has a Redeemer and that his Redeemer is one who is living. And this is one of those texts where apart from the further revelation of the New Testament, apart from the full canon, it doesn't make complete sense. But as we heard this morning about the doctrine of the Trinity, how there is one God in three persons, that helps us make sense of this passage Because what Job needs is someone who will go before the Lord, who will argue his case, who will ensure that he is vindicated. And so there needs to be someone who will argue before God, but who is also on par as far as status with the Lord. And he says that his redeemer lives. In the first chapter of the book of Revelation, which is just an absolutely wonderful book. The author, John the Apostle, he's talking about how he saw the risen Lord when he was in the spirit on the Lord's day. And he says this, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades." Job here, from afar, with the eyes of faith, is looking upon Christ. Job is seeing Christ from afar, and there's two errors that we need to guard against. One would be to say that Job knew absolutely everything about Christ that we do from the New Testament perspective. But the other error would be to say that Job knew nothing about his Redeemer. Evidently, he knew quite a bit. He knew quite a bit. So we see that Christ is the one who is the living one, that this text makes sense from a New Testament perspective, and especially with the further knowledge of the doctrine of the Trinity. But Job will then go on and he says in verse 27 that his heart will, my heart faints within me. The question is why? Why is Job so excited? Why is Job so joyous at this moment when he has been going on and on for chapter after chapter about the great suffering that he's going through? Well, it's because he knows he has his redeemer and his redeemer will stand upon the earth that Job knows he is going to be resurrected. Now the Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 32 has a little bit on the resurrection. Allow me to briefly read this. It says, of the state of man after death and the resurrection of the dead. says the bodies of men after death return to dust and see corruption. But their souls, which neither die nor sleep, have an immortal substance, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous, being made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heaven, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies. And the souls of the wicked are cast into hell where they remain in torments and under darkness reserved to the judgment of the great day. Besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies, the scriptures acknowledge none. At the last day, such as are found alive shall not die, but shall be changed, and all the dead shall be raised up with the selfsame bodies and none other, although with different qualities, and shall be united again to their souls forever." Now that short summary of the doctrine of the resurrection that we have in our confession, when we compare it with what Job says in chapter 19, it's quite amazing what Job knew about the resurrection. He says, after my skin has thus been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God. And some people have questioned whether or not Job is really speaking of a bodily resurrection. Perhaps it's just some sort of disembodied experience. But that's not correct. How do we know that? He says, after my skin has thus been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God. In Luke 24, 39, Jesus, after he's been resurrected, says, see my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And yet Job says, in my flesh, I am going to see God after my body has been destroyed. Job, again, from afar is seeing the resurrection. I've recently been enjoying reading the theology works of a man named Wilhelmus A. Brackle, who is a Dutch reformed theologian. And his works on theology are wonderful because they're very practical, very practical and applicable to the lay Christian. And the way that he does it is sometimes he will put before the reader questions that are raised by those who want to attack scripture. And when Brackel was discussing the resurrection, he said this, the question being raised was, many bodies have been burned and they have even been eaten by beasts and men. It is therefore impossible that the same bodies would arise again. And the answer that he gave really gives me a chuckle. He started with this, quoting from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus' words, ye err knowing not the scriptures nor the power of God. Now, in the context when Jesus speaks those words, the Pharisees have come before him and they've laid before him the question that they think is really gonna trip him up. And they say, well, there's been a man who's, or there's been a woman who's had seven different husbands. Whose wife will she be in the resurrection? And Jesus responds, you don't know what you're talking about. You don't understand the scriptures. You don't understand the resurrection. I remember hearing one man say that Jesus' response there is the equivalent of telling a carpenter, you don't know what a hammer is. You don't know what a hammer is. And the reason why Bronco responded with that is because The objection raised is just completely ridiculous. It's assuming that the resurrection is something that is just a natural event. No, it's a supernatural event whereby Christ is going to raise up our bodies so that whether they have been burned up or they're in the sea or they've been decomposed, he will raise them. He will raise them. And this is bringing Job such joy because he knows his body's not going to last forever. He knows his boy is not going to last forever, but also I think, and this is a theme that gets developed throughout the book of Job. I think also one of the reasons why Job is absolutely so joyful during this time where he says, my heart is fainting within me. It's because when the redeemer comes, when the arbiter comes, when the advocate comes and he is resurrected and he is restored to his relationship with God, then he will once more be in favor with God. Once more the relationship with God will be restored. And I think he's looking forward to that. He's looking forward not only to having his body resurrected, not only to having the pain taken away, he wants to see his God. He wants to have his relationship with the Lord restored. In fact, just this past Wednesday evening, we were looking at Job 29 at prayer meeting. And in Job 29, Job lists off all the different ways that God had blessed him, all the different things that he wishes he could have back. He talks about how God had given him wealth, how God had given him authority, how God had put him in position where he was able to bring justice to the fatherless. All these different blessings. But do you know what he lists first that he wants back? that he would have the friendship of the Almighty, the friendship of God upon his tent, that he would once more be restored to his relationship with God. Because in that moment, for all Job knows, God is his enemy. God is displeased with him. We, as the readers know, God is not displeased with Job. He's not suffering for anything that he did. But Job's great desire is that he would be restored to his relationship with God. So yes, when we read in the epilogue of the book of Job that Job is given great riches, yes, that's very nice and wonderful, but Job is restored to his relationship with God. Let's turn finally to a point or two of application. First, we discussed how the Christian is to be one who is walking in the footsteps of Job and displaying a firm belief in our Redeemer, a full confidence in the resurrection from the dead. So first, let's apply the firm faith in our Redeemer. Matthew Henry says, our heavenly inheritance was mortgaged by sin, and we ourselves utterly unable to redeem it. Christ is near of kin to us. The next kinsman that's able to redeem us, he has paid our debt, satisfied God's justice, and has so taken off the mortgage and made a new settlement of inheritance. Christ is the one who is our advocate. Christ is the one who is our Redeemer, who is going to act on our behalf, our nearest kinsman. As Hebrew says, our elder brother who has acted on our behalf, who has tasted death for us that we don't need to. And our Redeemer is going to argue our case and take us as our own, so that on the last day, Jesus Christ will say that that believer, he is mine. She is mine. And they are clothed in my righteousness. And Christ will vindicate us and ensure that we are treated as righteous, not because we have in any way earned it, but because he has bestowed it upon us. So take great confidence knowing that you have a redeemer, secondly, a full confidence in the resurrection from the dead. Now, the unbeliever, the unbeliever must fear death. The unbeliever must fear death because as we read in the confession and we know throughout scripture, all will be raised, all will be given a new body. But the question is, is the body prepared for glory or for judgment, for life or for death? And there's no shred of teaching in the Old or New Testament about the doctrine of annihilationism. That is that people after the judgment, rather than going to hell, they'll just be extinguished. That's not taught in the scriptures. And so the unbeliever needs to fear death, to know that there is no redeemer, that the wrath of God will burn against them apart from turning to Christ. But they also need to know that all that Christ requires, they don't need to do anything except believe, to trust that they have their Redeemer, who is Christ, who is the Lord of life. The believer, on the contrary, need not fear death, but rather we can have full confidence that our Redeemer will give us confidence even in our dying hour so that if we find ourselves in that position where we're in the in the hospital bed and we come to the realization, I might never leave this room alive. We need not fear. We need not fear because the Lord will usher us into his kingdom, that our soul will go to be immediately with him and we need not fear death because We belong body and soul to our faithful savior, Jesus Christ, and he will raise us up on the last day. That's that also brings us great joy, because we know because of our redeemer, we will we will have the things that we are we are seeking after a relationship with God unhindered by sin. That's something we look forward to. and eternity with the people of God who have been redeemed. That's something we look forward to. And the reason I know that's why something each of us look forward to is because we're here this evening. We desire to gather in the Lord's presence on the Lord's day, both evening and morning. We desire to gather with the people of God. And we will have more of that to a much greater and perfect degree in all of eternity. So as Christians, we're called to walk in the footsteps of Job. And that means that we're going to suffer. But as we suffer, and for whatever reason, it seems that this particular congregation over the past several years has gone through an unusual amount of suffering. But as we're walking in those footsteps of Job, where we suffer, we find ourselves also walking in the footsteps of Christ, where the pattern is the cross first, the exaltation second, the suffering first, the glorification second. And so we walk in the footsteps of Job and Christ as we continue in our pilgrimage and continue to suffer well for our God, we are to know this, that our Redeemer lives. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you that you have given us this wonderful passage Oh Lord, we thank you that you included Job among your people. Lord, that you revealed so much to him that you gave him faith. And Father, that you have preserved his story, that you have preserved his record for us in the pages of Holy Scripture. Oh Father, I ask that you would allow each of us to go forth from here, having been built up by your word, oh Lord, that we would continue to learn to suffer well for the sake of Christ. And Lord, that we would know that we have a living Redeemer who will raise us up on the last day. Pray all this in Christ's name, amen.