Sermons

Well, good morning, and it's just a wonderful pleasure and an honor. You've been in my prayers for a while. And Andrew I've known forever. I actually knew his father well. His father played a dirty trick on me just days before we emigrated to the United States 30 years ago in 1996. I won't tell you the details of the dirty trick. Andrew was, I think, 10 at the time and we've remained in touch and many of the Lord's people in Columbia pray for you on a regular basis and such a joy to be here.

Now our text is the whole of the book of Job. So, we have an hour or so. I wanted to focus on chapter 38 and verses 1. I want to focus on Job 38, and I want us to ask the question, first of all, as to God's first speech, first words to Job. Now that I've found Job 38, let's pray together.

(Prayer) Our Heavenly Father, we come into Your presence conscious that this is the holy, infallible, inerrant Word of God. That men spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in the way of righteousness, that the man of God might be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. So come, Holy Spirit, You who caused this Word to be written and write this Word now upon our hearts. Grant that Spirit of illumination that we might read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest, and all for Jesus' sake. Amen. (Amen)

Now, Job 38, verses 1 through 3, “then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, ‘who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man, and I will question you, and you make it known to me.”

So far, God's holy and inerrant Word and may He add His blessing to the reading of it. Now, if you have a copy of the Word of God, you can follow along with me, but my plan this morning is to do a bird's eye view from 36,000 feet of the Book of Job.

Joseph Carroll, a Puritan in the 17th century in London, took 23 years to preach through the Book of Job. Imagine, you're there as a young student in your teenage years. And you go off to college, and you get married and have four wonderful children. And then you become an empty nester, and you go back to your home church, and he's still preaching on the Book of Job.

The entire series of sermons have been published, republished in recent years and 12 thick volumes of these sermons on the book of Job. Well, you might feel a little short-changed this morning if I just do one sermon on the book of Job. We're introduced to Job in chapters 1 and 2. And you must remember that what occurs in chapters 1 and 2 is for our ears. Job is unaware of this.

We read that, “there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil”. Three times we read this verse. Once by the author of the book of Job here in chapter 1 and verse 1, and twice on the lips of God Himself, that this is God's verdict of who and what Job is, that he's a godly man. He's a righteous man. More than that, he's the godliest man on the face of the globe. Job is set. I take him as an historical figure. Book of Ezekiel mentions him along with Enoch and Noah as historical. He's probably somewhere just before Abraham.

And he has a wife and 10 children, seven sons and three daughters. And he's extraordinarily wealthy. 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. So, this is a rich man. Abraham was a wealthy man. His life was full. His life was complete. But more especially, he was a godly man.

We're being introduced here to the issue of why do people suffer? And if he were an ungodly man, you wouldn't struggle with the thought that an ungodly man would suffer. You might even suggest that the ungodly deserve to suffer. They reap what they've sown. But here, we have the conundrum that it's not the suffering of the ungodly, it's the suffering of the godly. It's the suffering of the godliest.

And the question arises, why? We read in verse 6 of chapter 1, “there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘from where have you come?’ And Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘from going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.’”

He's a tramp. He's a vagabond. He has nowhere to call home. And then in verse six, “and the Lord said to Satan, ‘have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil?’” Now you've got a problem.

That it is God who is in charge here. Satan appears in some courtroom or other, some place where he must give an account of himself, somewhere in this vast universe, in a way that goes beyond our understanding. But you understand that the author of the book of Job is saying, God is in charge and Satan must give an account. Moreover, it is God who says to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? That's making the problem of pain and evil acute, isn't it? Because on one hand, we are most definitely going to blame Satan. Satan did it.

When the catastrophe that occurs to Job and his family, when in the first instance, Sabeans and others come and he loses his livestock, his oxen, his cattle, his donkeys, his 401K, the markets crash, and he's penniless. But worst of all, he loses all 10 of his children. I can't imagine. I can't imagine losing a child. But losing all 10 of your children on the same day, just wiped out.

And from one perspective, you see, you can say, well, Satan did it, and that's true, Satan did it. We have an implacable enemy who roars about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He hates God, and he hates the people of God. And we must be aware of him. We must resist him, steadfast in the faith. Sometimes in our lives, Satan doesn't come personally. He's limited in time and space. He's not God. He's not everywhere present. He's limited in space and he's a creature, a fallen creature. Powerful creature, but a fallen creature.

But you see, this opening chapter makes things more difficult, because who is it who gave Satan the permission to go after Job and his family? And you see, it was God. It was God who said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? And we might say, perhaps Satan hadn't even ever considered him. He wasn't on his radar screen until God mentioned it. We believe this morning, you and I, in the sovereignty of God. I hope you believe in the sovereignty of God. When I came out of the airport yesterday into the traffic in Dallas, it's terrifying. People were driving way too fast, weaving in and out of lanes.

I'm trying to look at my GPS as to where to get on and get off and all these cars are passing by and I sent up one of those arrow-like prayers, “Lord, have mercy, get me to the hotel in one piece.” Car dealer once asked me. What would my favorite car be? And I said, a Ford F-150. I said, when I go and preach somewhere in some strange city, like Houston, where there are 10, 12 lanes of traffic, I need to be above the fray. I need to see where I'm going. And people don't mess with trucks. I have a Ford F-150.

God is sovereign. And yet, our confessions will say, He is not the author of sin. He upholds everything. He's in charge. Not just here, but out there. And everywhere, He's in charge. He sits upon a throne. He holds the universe in the palms of His hands.

Nothing happens without God willing it to happen and without God willing it to happen in the way that it happens and without God willing it to happen before it happens. You believe that? But God is in control. Why do you pray if you don't believe God is in control? The very reason for your prayers of intercession, prayers of request is because you know that He has the power to do all things. And yet nothing happens without Him willing it to happen. And willing it to happen in a way and in a manner whereby He is not the author of sin. He creates a universe where sin is possible.

But he is not the author of it. He is not himself responsible for it. Do I understand that? No, I don't. It's like a person who writes a book in which there's a murder. But the author isn't the one who commits the murder. It's the person in the book who commits the murder, and yet the author authored the tale. I don't know if that helps. It helps me.

So here you have this first wave of destruction and trial and devastation in the life of Job and his response in verse 21. “Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” I want to be able to say that. If I ever found myself in remotely similar occurrence to Job, I want to be able to say those words, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. There's divine sovereignty again. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And the author adds, “in all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” Wonderful. You're here this morning in a room of this size.

There must be many of you passing through all kinds of trials in your home, in your family, in your health, in your work as a church. Trials and tribulations, your life has been perhaps turned upside down. Your dreams and hopes and aspirations have not been met, they've been dashed. Things happen that you don't want to happen and things don't happen that you want to happen.

And oh, for the grace and power of the Holy Spirit to be able to say the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. But then in chapter 2, there was a day when the sons of God, fallen angels I presume, came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord, and God asks him the same question, where has he come from? And he's been wandering to and fro on the face of the earth.

And, lo and behold, have you considered my servant Job? A little time has gone by. He had set, you see, God had set a boundary in the first trial that he could touch all that Job has, but not Job himself. He was to spare Job. But now in this second trial, God sets a different boundary. He moves the boundary. He moves the goalposts. This time he may touch Job but not kill him. Or he'll be brought to within an inch of his life.

The term skin and bones comes from the book of Job. And God allows Satan, behold he is in your hand, only spare his life. So, Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, and he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

What a tragic, pitiful sight, this great man of God from the East somewhere. He's lost everything, he's lost his money, he's lost his children, and now he's lost his health. And you have a picture of him, he's covered in boils and sores, and they're itchy, and he's scraping himself with bits of shard, bits of potsherd. What a tragic figure. Suddenly, this great man is brought down.

One day, you're the CEO of a major company, and the company crashes, and within months, you are diagnosed with stage four cancer, and you're on a pathway to death, came out of nowhere. And his wife says to him, “do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” Now, Satan had entered a wager with God in chapter 1, that the only reason that Job maintained his integrity was because he was well off. He'd never been tried. He'd never been tested. Well, now he's been tested.

And his wife says, curse God and die. And Calvin calls her Diabolus Matrix. You don't need to know any Latin to know that's not a compliment. She is the organum satani. She is the organ of Satan. Because she's saying what Satan had suggested to God. Curse God and die. Now, don't be too hard on her. This is Job.

She's lost everything too. She's lost her children. And now she's looking at the loss of her husband. And in early Middle Eastern culture, that would be devastating because there would be no provision for her, no food stamps, just oblivion. And maybe, to give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she's just saying, look, I don't want to see you suffer, so curse God and die and get it over with quickly. And what does he say? In chapter 2 verse 10, “you speak as one of the foolish women would speak.” The fool who says in his heart there is no God.

Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil? There's the sovereignty of God again. God is sovereign not just over good things, but evil things. That extraordinary verse in Romans 8, 28, and it may be your favorite verse, and it certainly is mine, that all things work together for the good of those who love Him, or in some translations, God works all things together for good, all things, good things and bad things.

And He is sovereign over all of them, and yet He's not the author of sin. He remains impeccable. He creates a universe where sin is possible. In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. So far, so good. Three friends come, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. And for a week, they say nothing. It was the best thing they ever did. They remain quiet.

They put ashes on their head, which was a symbol, of course, of death and impending death. And the death here was not the death of Job's children. It was the impending death of Job himself. They were there to mourn and to get ready for his funeral. Job chapter 3 is one of those chapters where Job descends into the pit of despair.

Time has passed. A week has passed. I've noticed in pastoral care and 50 years of ministry that sometimes believers, especially strong believers on the death of the spouse, are very strong. On the day of the funeral, they're very strong. They're upheld, but then they go home, and people stop coming. And a week later, two weeks later, three weeks later, they're alone. They wake up alone. They go to bed alone. They don't know what to do about food, because it's no fun just preparing food for one person. There are all kinds of questions now in their heads about the future. Shall I stay? Shall I move? That strong faith suddenly gets tested.

And Job chapter 3 is one of the darkest places in all the Bible. He wishes that the day that he was born be cursed, never to be mentioned. “Let that day be darkness. May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it. Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. That night, let thick darkness seize it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months. Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful cry enter into it."

And on it goes. Do you know who I think memorized this chapter? The prophet Jeremiah. In chapters 19 and 20, after Jeremiah had been put in the stocks, the humiliation of it, and kids would come and throw rotten food and stuff at him to demoralize him and degrade him, and then the next day, I think he goes back to his place and he quotes, almost verbatim, he quotes Job chapter 3. The great mighty prophet Jeremiah experienced Job chapter 3. Now I have to tell you that I've never experienced Job chapter 3. I've never cursed the day that I was born. I've been in low places. I've had an experience or two where I have felt very, very low and I've felt the presence of Satan prowling about in the room. But I've never cursed the day that I was born. I regard Job chapter 3 like the life vest that you have when you fly. The flight attendant says, and sometimes there's a little sign, saying that the life vest which has a whistle and a little light that comes on when it touches water.

And this is 2026, folks. You'd expect GPS. Right, satellite tracker, something? Not just a little bell and a whistle and a little light. And I'm generally polite when they're giving the spiel, which I could repeat for you verbatim. And I've never actually gone underneath the seat to see, is it there?

You're going down at 550 miles an hour into the ocean. It's Jesus time. But it's reassuring that there's a life vest there in case I ever needed it. I wish and hope that I'll never need it. I fly a lot. I've never been in a situation where I would ever need it.

There's an elder in the church in Columbia where I served who went down in a crash in Charlotte back in the mid-1990s. Some of you might remember the crash, and he walked away. He lost his hair, it had all been singed, but apart from that, he was fine. But many people died in that crash.

I regard Job 3 as the life vest, just in case you might ever need it. When providence and life and Satan brings you to the lowest imaginable point, So, these three friends begin to talk, and they talk a lot. At one point, Job calls one of them a windbag. So, what is their point of view? And their point of view is expressed in chapter 4 and verse 6 and 7 and 8. Is not your fear of God your confidence and the integrity of your ways your hope? Remember, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? Wow. He's talking, this is Eliphaz, the oldest of the three. Eliphaz is saying, you know, the reason for the loss of your ten children was because either they or you were not upright.

Because in their understanding of how things work in this universe, good is always rewarded, evil is always punished. So, if there's punishment, if there's death, it must be because somebody has sinned. Either they sinned or you sinned or both of you sinned. It's the theology of instant retribution.

The explanation for the problem of pain in Job's life is that he's not as righteous as he thinks he is. As I have seen those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. Now, that's a little proverb that's true. If you sow trouble, you can expect to reap trouble.

There's a similar statement in Paul's letter to the Galatians to that effect. You tell your children, you know, if you act in this way, this is going to be the consequence. Except that it's not true here in this instance. And why is it not true? Because God says so.

Now, Job hasn't heard God saying that, but you and I who read the book of Job know that Job was the godliest man on the face of the earth, and the reason for his suffering lies outside any consideration of Job's sin. It's not that Job was sinless. No one is sinless except Jesus. But there's some other reason behind the sufferings of Job other than Job's personal sin. On and on they go, they talk a lot. They have a very orthodox view of God, so they talk a lot about God's attributes and how great He is and awesome He is and so on, and much of what they say is true. But on three occasions, Job intervenes.

In chapter 9 and verse 33, he says, there is no arbiter between us who might lay his hand on us both. He's talking here to God. If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, yet you will plunge me into a pit and my own clothes will abhor me.

For he is not a man as I am that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. Now, lawyers, this word arbiter here is a legal term. It's a lawyer, somebody to represent me in court. Somebody to give the best defense possible for my case. And I don't have one. He's trying to speak to God, but God isn't saying anything. He's not talking to Job. There's just been complete and utter silence from God. And I have no arbiter. There's no one to stand and deliver my case before God.

And then if you turn to chapter 16 and verse 19, even now behold my witness is in heaven and he who testifies for me is on high. And it's a little glimpse, it's probably too much to say that Job is thinking here about Jesus. But in another sense, he is, isn't he? that I have someone who has been tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin and he intercedes for me. He died and rose again for me and he's a witness in heaven for me. And then perhaps the best-known text of all in chapter 19. And you'll know it, of course, from Handel's Messiah, verse 25. 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 shall see God whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another, my heart faints within me, I know that my redeemer lives. Now, when you think of the word redeemer, you might think, I have somebody who's redeemed me. He's paid the ransom price for my sin. But that's not what... Job is not confessing his sin here. He wants justice.

And the redeemer, the "go’el" in Old Testament, was the person who would stand in for the legal case of a brother who had been deceased. Think of the book of Ruth, for example, and Boaz as the kinsman redeemer to come and make good the consequences of his brother's loss. I have a redeemer in heaven, and He loves me. And He prays for me. And in the book of Hebrews, sympathizes with me. I know that my Redeemer lives. It's a high point, I think, in the book of Job. There's more and in chapter 32 of the book of Job, we pick up another character by the name of Elihu. I'm not going to say anything at all about Elihu. He speaks until the end of chapter 37. Commentators disagree over Elihu's contribution.

My own personal view is that he begins well and ends badly. He begins well with a new thought that trials can be educative. Trials can teach you something that the lack of trials cannot. They teach you to persevere. They teach you to pray. They teach you to hold on.

But then Elihu, in my opinion, seems to descend into that instant retribution theology of Job's three friends. So, let's come to our text, finally, in chapter 38. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. And you have to understand that this is the first time that God has spoken to Job. He speaks in chapters one and two, but Job isn't aware of any of that. That's just information for us, background information. That there's more to this world than you can ever imagine. That there's a contest between good and evil, between God and Satan. And you're caught up in it, and you and I are caught up in it.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. You'd expect, you see, that when God finally speaks, he would come like he came to Elijah with a still, small voice. Job is dying. He's lost everything that he has, and you'd expect God to sort of saddle up to him and say, there, there, there, everything's going to be alright. But instead, he comes in a whirlwind. And already, the text is telling you that God is greater than you imagine. That when God comes, He comes with the force of a hurricane.

And what does He say? Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? And the who here is Job. Because although Job in the first two chapters was impeccable in the way that he responded in the chapters that have followed, Job has said things and accused God of things that he should never have accused.

Dress for action like a man, the verb dress for action is the verb for a fight. It's not a physical fight. It's a fight about ideas. It's a fight about knowledge. It's a fight about understanding. And here are the rules for the game. I will question you and you make it known to me. And you want to say, no, no, no, no, no, no. Job is the one asking questions. And you, God, are the one who is obligated to give the answers. Isn't that how you feel in your trial? That God owes you an answer? As you cry out to him, in your weariness, sometimes in your anger, sometimes in your despair, that God, you deserve to get an answer from God.

And God turns the tables and says, no, no, I'm asking the questions. And there are 65, 70 questions about places in the earth, tunnels and so on where man has never been, about the stars and the constellations, about which Job knows nothing. He can't answer a single question. Not one.

There was a TV show decades ago, you know, on one of those days where you watch daytime TV and then instantly repent. And it was one of those quiz shows and there was a woman who worked in a post office somewhere in Idaho. And the game was that the first five or six questions were giveaways and you'd walk away with 100 bucks. And then the other questions were more difficult if you were going to make like $1,000.

And she couldn't answer the first question. And try, as the man did, to give her the answer. She was nervous. Cameras, lights, and so on. She's lost the plot. And I imagine people going into the post office in Idaho and saying, you know this woman, she couldn't answer the first question. Job couldn't answer the first question.

Well, turn with me to chapter 40 and verse 2, “shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once and I will not answer twice, but I will proceed no further."

But God needs to bring him down a little more. So, in chapter 40 and verse 15, you have Behemoth, a land creature, And in chapter 41 and verse 1, Leviathan, which is a sea creature. Now, commentators will disagree as to exactly what Behemoth and Leviathan are. And I'm just going to go with the view of what is regarded as the world's expert on the Book of Job, who's written a three-volume commentary intensely scholarly on the Book of Job, conservative. And behemoth is a hippopotamus, and leviathan is a crocodile.

Now, if you have a different interpretation, keep it to yourself. Just go with this for now. So, have you ever thought about the hippopotamus, or since my time is going, have you ever thought about Leviathan, the crocodile? Why did God make crocodiles? You watch those YouTube movies in Africa?

And those little creatures are making their way south, and they look like gazelles. And they come to her. You know, it's hot, and the pool is shrunk, and it's a muddy pool. And they come down, and you can see the throat, because they're drinking water. And then you lock eyes on two eyes. And you know what's coming. And I've watched it way too many times. And I guarantee every one of you is on the side of that little gazelle, or wilderbeast, or whatever it is.

Who's on the side of a crocodile? Why did God make crocodiles? Handbags? Shoes? And what has this got to do with pain and suffering? Because God wants Job to come to the point where he will yield to the fact that God isn't going to give him an answer. It's not important. It's not important that I understand the problem of pain. What's important is that He does and that I trust Him and that I love Him. And that's what happens in the book of Job. God shuts him up. He doesn't give him an answer, just as He won't give you an answer in all likelihood.

You can trace the consequences of certain things that happen as a result of trial and difficulty, good things. You've lost everything. You've lost a loved one. You lost your job. But two years later, three years later, as you look back, you also see the hand of a loving, gracious, providential, sovereign God, and He's saying to you, trust Me. When the lights go out, when everything is dark, trust Me and follow Me and yield to Me. Let's pray together.

(Prayer) Father as we traverse through the book of Job, we thank You that You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. That You work all things together for the good of those that love You in a way and in a manner that we cannot fathom and cannot understand. We might have wished things to have turned out differently, but they have not, and we trust in your sovereignty. We yield to Your providence. For without Your providence, we are lost and we have no hope. We thank You for a Redeemer, whoever lives to intercede for us. We thank You that in the midst of the uncertainties and difficulties and trials of life, there is One who sits at your right hand who has died for us and risen for us and now prays for us and will not let us go before he brings all of His children home to glory. Lord, we thank You for the assurance that we have that we are Yours now and forever. And grant Your blessing on these dear people, we pray. Pour out Your Spirit upon them, for Jesus' sake. Amen. (End)