Good morning. It's good to see everyone here this morning. It's been a great conference so far. This is actually the fifth time that my family and I have been blessed to be able to come to one of the NCFIC conferences. We started off back in 2012 with the White Hunt to Harvest and we've been coming every year since and it's been phenomenal.

We just came from a session with Rob Ventura talking about the fear of God is a powerful motivation for evangelism. Phenomenal. Something that was really food for our souls. So definitely highly recommend that you get the audio from that and all the sessions that have been so great. So I appreciate you coming and spending some time with us.

As Robert said, we're gonna be talking about Job today and the sustaining power of fearing God. And so it's one of the most amazing books. When you think of the book of Job, it's actually the oldest book in the Bible in the sense that it was written even before, you know, the five books of Moses. And so not only is it the oldest book but it's also one of the most unusual and fascinating books it takes it's a story of a man who's taken from one mountain peak to another but in order to get there he's got to go through the most treacherous valley of the shadow of death. And so we're going to be talking about that today.

And most of you, I'm sure, have read through the book. You probably gleaned a lot yourselves personally from it. And just a little bit of background on the book itself, the book of Job. No one quite knows exactly when it was written. A lot of scholars have a lot of different opinions on it, but based on the age of Job, after his calamity struck, it says in the last book, in the last chapter of the book, that Job lived for another 140 years.

So you get the sense that he was probably, who knows, maybe he was 50, maybe he was 60 when everything struck, and then he lived in under 140 years. And if you kind of look in the biblical timeline, he might have been somewhere around the age of Abraham who died around the age of 175. So just a little bit of background there. But what's really interesting about that is we have no lineage about Job at all. It doesn't really break out and give us a sense of Job, the son of so and so.

And even the land of Uz, we don't even know exactly where that was. But what we do know is that the name Job actually means hated or persecuted. Here's a man whose actual name demonstrates what he actually went through loved by God but persecuted by the adversary by Satan from beginning to end And so in our short journey this morning, I think the most, I think the biggest topic, the most amazing thing about this book that we're gonna be talking about is this, is that God is sovereign over everything. That God knows exactly what he's doing from the beginning to the end. In fact, he's already prescribed precisely, exactly what the end will be from the beginning.

And that's the kind of God we are, but we also want to look at the overriding feature of Job's life, and at the end of the day what we're gonna see is this is that the fear of God in Job's life was the overriding characteristic the thing that even the devil acknowledged about Job that was so important and and Charles Spurgeon makes a statement and why it's important and relevant for each one of us to actually have the fear of God brimming in our heart is because sooner or later every bar of gold has to pass through the fire. So why is it even important for someone like you or someone like me to get a grasp of this book is because sooner or later all that will live godly will suffer persecution. There will be some sort of event in your life that is going to warrant something greater than what the world can prescribe. You know the world right now when you look around the biggest prescription drug on the market today is antidepressants. People try to kind of medicate their way through problems, try to get through problems with some sort of medication but God can bring about a situation in your life that no medication can cover and as Christians we ought to be people who are looking primarily to God rather than to the things of this world to get our help and to get our strength.

And so our pastor Scott Brown, he's fond of saying this, he's, he's made the statement a number of times, he says, we have all we are as people, we are either just coming out of a trial, or we're just going into a trial, or we're just right now as we speak in the midst of a trial. It's one of three things. And so it's important for us as individuals to really get a grasp of what we do, what do we actually lean on when those trials come upon us in life. And so when at the end of the day when we've gone through the trial, when we've actually actually come out on the other side, when the mist clears, what we want to be able to say with Abraham is shall not the judge of all the earth do right even as we're going through the trial can we actually say shall not the judge of all the earth do right and lean on him you know one of the most amazing things is when the Lord Jesus, he ends the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7 and he talks about the fact these two foundations, the people who build their house on the rock and the people who build their house on the sand.

And when you think of these two individuals, the Lord actually says, and when, he doesn't say if, but when the storms come and the winds beat and the rain comes down, What you're built on is gonna be the most important thing because those who are built upon the same Are gonna find themselves swept away, but those who are built on the solid rock of God's Word Those are the people who are gonna be able to be sustained through all trials, but it's not a it's not a faith in our faith right and it's not a faith in our fear well I fear God and therefore all is going to be well because I fear God but really it's rather a faith in the fear of Isaac who is God himself it's a faith in the living God that makes the big question. And so I want to start off here by just reading through the first chapter of the book of Job. And we're just going to take this, we're going to focus primarily on just a few verses in the first chapter of Job, but I'm going to read this through just to get us a sense of exactly what this book is about here.

But it starts off and it says this, There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Jove, and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also his possessions were 7, 000 sheep, 3, 000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys in a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the peoples of the East. And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. So it was when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them.

And he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job regularly. Now 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 do you come? So Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.

Then 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, one who fears God and shuns evil? So Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your face." And the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not lay a hand upon his person.

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And a messenger came to Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sibians raided them and took them away. Indeed, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "'The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking another also came and said, the Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking another also came and said, your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house And suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house.

And it fell on the young people. And they are dead. And I alone have escaped to tell you." Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head. And he fell on the ground and worshipped and he said naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return there the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord in all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong." So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you as your people here this morning.

Oh Lord, we do thank you for this book that we are about to dive into. Lord, we pray that you would open up our hearts and our minds, oh Lord. I pray that you would give me strength to deliver your words, Lord, that it would only be your words and that you would be glorified and exalted. Lord, you are so worthy to be feared, so worthy to be worshipped and praised. Lord, as we look at this man's life and how you took him from one place to another, we pray that you would give us strength, that we would glean hope and help and confidence, and that we would be strengthened, oh Lord.

We so desperately need you in this time, at this day, at this hour, oh Lord. So be with us now, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So you know as I was preparing for this and I was looking at this book and you kind of, as you're looking through, you begin to ask yourselves these questions. How would I respond with just one of these waves washing over me?

Here's a man who, one after the other, a painful, super painful experience just washes over his soul. And we can never really know. You can say, well, if this can't happen to me, I would do this or I would do that. But you can remember men like Peter, a man like Peter who says, Lord I'm both ready to die and I'll follow you to whatever end, only to deny him when a servant girl puts pressure on him. On the other side you have people that are weak and feeble.

I was reading something the other day about Thomas Bilney who was a man during the time of the English Reformation who was under attack and he actually was one time threatened and he was going to be burned at the stake only to deny the Lord. Well here was a man who actually got rearrested intentionally because of the fact that he was so overtaken. He feared God so much he says I can't believe I denied my Lord and so he got re-arrested and he gave a good testimony and he was burned again. He was burned the first time. Took three times they tried to burn him with fire.

You know, the flames would come up and then they would go out up and go out again and the third time obviously he was he was burned at the stake. But the idea is God can take the most weak and the feeble but the most desperate who cling to him and love him and carry him through any trial. But we don't know how we're going to respond until the trial comes. But what we do know is that through suffering we learn things that we would never learn otherwise. It shows us the sinfulness of our own hearts.

I know that for myself when I go through trials maybe you know as men we might be a little bit softer than our wives when we get sick you know in terms of us needing to be catered to a little bit more and so we begin to see the sinfulness of our own hearts in that matter. We see our own weakness And it also leads us to appreciate the Lord in new ways when we see our weakness. But one of the most important things that happen is that theory gives way to reality. The things that you thought you knew and the things that you thought you believed all of a sudden now are being actually put into practice. You have nothing on which to cling in terms of a theory.

You've actually got to cling to the reality. And a few years ago actually in 2011 my family and I we were up in Canada, that's where we're from originally, and we were renting a cottage for, it was in the summer, we rented a cottage and it was on a place called Warner Bay up near Toba Maury on Lake Huron and we were there and as a family you know we go out on the water and I actually took one of those you know those sit on top kayaks that you can get around on and the water was just absolutely crystal clear. You could see down to the bottom 30 feet, you know, as you were going along, you could see on the, you're in a base, you could see either side. And so you feel somewhat, you know, comfortable as you're going along, you can go out into the middle. It's about a mile wide.

And feel I'm in control. Everything's fine. The water is clean. It's clear. There's no major waves or anything like that.

But I remember very distinctly as I was out there one time by myself, I was out paddling. And I got to the mouth of the bay and as you get to the mouth of the bay it's amazing the water actually changes in the sense that no longer can you see to the bottom it's like a shelf drops off and the water is black the waves are actually white caps you know they're coming in and and they're stronger the winds are stronger and I remember just asking myself I look out and no longer can I see the shore as I look forward it's like you're just looking out and there's no end as you go toward the horizon And so I was looking out there and I tried to kind of get some courage to kind of go up maybe a little bit further out, but I decided to turn back and just stay within the confines of the bay because that's what's comfortable and that's what I knew? And a lot of times as believers we can kind of be kings of the bay. We can exist, we can be comfortable just within a certain parameter.

As long as I can see the bottom and I can see the shore on either side, all is well. But what happens now when you go out into deeper waters, as Job actually was being just taken out into? How do you respond? And one of the verses that blew me away when I was reading this again is Job's response. He says, then Job arose.

He tore his clothes, his robe, and shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshiped. What do you do when you're taken out beyond your depth when you can no longer touch the bottom? It's an amazing thing to think about. How would we respond? And what we're dealing with now right here is a man who is tapped into something altogether different than any other man and other people that we normally see.

Even Christians are not necessarily always tapped into the same thing that this man was. And what we're gonna find out is that his very backbone was the fear of God. And so by the time we reach the end, not a chapter one only, But the end of chapter two, what we find is he's lost absolutely everything that's been dear to him is his 10 children, his seven sons and three daughters have been taken away in an instant. Can you imagine getting that phone call? And your 10 children have been wiped away at a moment's notice.

Not to mention his entire business. Everything just went down as in a moment. It's a heart piercing pain. I don't think I could, I don't know what I would do if that were to happen to me. I have six children, I can't even imagine what that would have been like.

He wasn't even a passive father, you know, he wasn't like a dad says, oh, well, you know, hey, I didn't spend a lot of time with him anyway, but you saw in chapter one what he was doing. Just in case his children cursed God in their hearts, He would go, it says, rising early in the morning. He was so careful that his children's sanct salvation wouldn't be put at risk because of carelessness. That he would actually go like a mediator. He wasn't the type of dad that said, well hey I turned out okay.

So everything is well, but he was a man who desperately wanted his children to be in right relationship with God And so not only that but but part way through chapter 2 We see his health is totally decimated the devil goes back to God because he lost the first round and he asks, hey can I afflict him with some sort of disease and so God says go ahead and Job is afflicted? Can you imagine he's sitting there and he's scraping with pottery the the source from it says from the top of his head to the soul of his feet. It got so bad that even his own wife said hey curse God and die. She she collapsed and buckled under the pressure and so you see everything that Job held dear you know his children his own wife his health taken in a moment his whole business he's left without anything at all and then to make matters worse as though they weren't bad enough we meet some comforters that come in chapter two as well. And these men come and they're about as comforting as a swarm of mosquitoes.

They come and just basically attack him with words moment after moment. They begin to just say, well Job, you gotta check your life, you know, something's wrong there, you must be sinning, like we read in Proverbs, you know, the cursed causeless doesn't come. There must be something that's in your life And so Eliphaz the oldest one likely because he's the one who spoke first It says surely you've instructed many, but now it comes upon you and you are weary It touches you and you are troubled. Can you imagine sitting there with everything just totally taken away from you and then here's someone buzzing around you with all this stuff. Hey you were strong Joe when things were going well but look at you now.

For 30 odd chapters this man is afflicted with these men who come as his comforters. He was unrecognizable because of the affliction on his body, but here was a man who clung to the living God. There's a reason why I think James talks about the referee, he makes reference to the patience of Job when you think about his friends going on all the way through but you think about yourself like think think about yourself as an individual when it comes to you are you a comforter are you someone just as we're passing through this particular point you know as a friend or as a husband or as a wife maybe a son or brother sister are you when someone else is suffering someone who says I told you so or or check your heart see what's wrong with you or you someone altogether different that may not even say anything, but may comfort just with your presence? It's worth really thinking about. I need to check myself as a husband.

You know, husbands especially want to give advice to fix the problems very quickly and I fall into that trap so many different times. Well, are you a comforter? Are you someone that can be just a shoulder, a head can be rested on your shoulder and you can comfort someone. Are you willing and too eager to give advice? Because here's what Job said, indeed the thing I greatly feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has happened to me.

He was wracked with a fear unknowable to anyone but himself. But here we are, we're looking at a man and we're going to look at verse 1 here. It says in the book of Job here in verse 1, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And we're going to talk about four things. And that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and he shunned evil.

That description is going to be recited again, not by a man, but by God himself when he is confronted with Satan. But here's the thing about the man Job, right? When you think of a man like Job, when God wanted to judge the nation of Israel in the days of Jeremiah, he was going to judge them because of their idolatry, because they were going after false gods, they were doing all manner of wickedness and on top of that they were naming the name of God and saying we've done no wrong. They'd wipe their mouth and say hey we're righteous, we're doing good. So God says I'm going to destroy the nation of Israel and I'm particularly going to destroy Jerusalem.

And this is what God says in the book of Ezekiel about this man. It says, even if these three men Noah, Job and Daniel were in it, were in Jerusalem. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord. When God wanted to pick three men to say, I'm gonna destroy this place, and even just three people, if they were there, they would have to leave. It's not like even the days of Abraham when Abraham says, Lord surely you won't destroy this place if there's ten righteous.

God is saying it's gotten so bad that if there were just three righteous men they would have to actually leave the city and I'm gonna destroy it but they themselves would be safe. It's talking about the righteousness that these men had. It just gives you a sense out of all history when God chose three men. Daniel by the way was a contemporary of Jeremiah which says a lot about Daniel and his testimony but he was a man who feared God. He was a man whose life spoke, I dare not sin against this God.

He feared God. He really honored God. God is too great, too majestic. He's too awful. He's too holy, too lovely that I don't want to offend him.

In chapter 28 we read these words. It says, and this is by the way centuries before Solomon penned them in the book of Proverbs, it says, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding. And this isn't just a passive man that kind of sat back and you know it's just kind of a good-hearted man. You know in our day and age the religion of the day is kind of nicest.

If you're just nice all is well and you're considered a good guy. But look what it says in 29. Job says about himself in chapter 29. He says, I broke the fangs of the wicked and plucked the victim from his teeth. He was an active man pursuing righteousness, doing what he could to free the oppressed.

And yet the purpose of this book is to show that even a man like Job, a man who is likely greater than anyone in the earth at that time, he set his sights much, much too low. He was upright, he was moral and all of that. He was a man that feared God. But this is what he says in chapter 29 right after that. He says this, because of all the good things, chapter 29 is a litany, a list of his righteous acts, the things that he did.

You know, he was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and as a result of that this is what Job says about himself then I said I shall die in my nest and multiply my days as a sand. My root is spread out to the waters and the dew lies all night on my branch. It was as though because he was doing all these wonderful things that therefore all was going to go well with me for the rest of my days until he's arrested in chapter one by the circumstance. God doesn't owe us anything at all. We're just flesh.

That's all we are And whatever God does, He does for our good, but He does ultimately for His sovereign will to be accomplished. And so the Bible says that, that every man, even at his best state, is altogether vanity. There's only one perfect, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. But it says that he's blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil. And when you think of that word blameless or blameless and upright, that phrase, what it's really referring to is that he was morally pious.

He was straight. He was a man that lived the Christian life. He was a man that you know you wouldn't catch doing certain things that he shouldn't be doing. But one thing I just want to point out is you'll notice it's as blameless and upright and this is so important even when we consider ourselves. You know Paul the Apostle when he was reciting his resume in Philippians chapter 3.

It talked about the fact that he said concerning the righteousness that is in the law. Do you remember how he described it? He said he was blameless but before he came to know Christ and the danger that we have, especially as young people that might be growing up in Christian homes or in a conference like this where everyone's kind of got their game face or you've kind of come with your best behavior and so on, is that there can be an excessive quantity of outward form. You can be blameless and upright outwardly. You can dress the part, look the part, you can be fluent in Christian language and yet inwardly Do you have the fear of God beating in your heart a desire to please God?

You know, you can have the husk or the shell or the scaffolding of the Christian life without actually having the reality of the Christian life. So you can have those first two, blameless and upright, at least outwardly, as man regards it. But the most important thing is do you have the fear of God? Those things should come after or as a result of the fear of God and in Job's case it did. And so in a conference like this there's all sorts of things but What we want to make sure we have a focus on is the inward religion, the religion of the heart.

And so it says this, that Job feared God. And what that means is that his heart was in the grip of something altogether different, the true and living God. He reverenced God's majesty. You know that phrase in Latin? It's called quorum Deo.

And what that means is you live your life as though God is seeing everything. The darkness and the light are both alike to him. There's no difference. Do you live in that sense that God is seeing you in everything? It's really important that we assess that.

Well, here we had a man that did that. And you will never fear or reverence God as you ought to until you truly have a right view of Him. That's why it's so important, these conferences, this conference in particular. But hearing the word of God and really studying his word and then meditating and praying and asking God to help you to see. Because unless you do, you'll never see.

You'll never worship him in the way that we ought to. And so fear also is the key ingredient to holiness. When we see God as a Santa Claus, some just kind of nice man, or often when I'm preaching at the abortion clinic and we're speaking, I'll often say and talk to people, and their view of God is so skewed. I'll say to them, you have this view of God as though he's a senile old man. That he's sitting on the rocking chair in front of the house, kind of in and out of sleep.

He's toothless. You know, and you can kind of sneak past him back and forth. This is the God of American Christianity today, and we ourselves can be suspect, or we can be guilty of having a low view of this God, that we can kind of just live carelessly. But Job had no such regard for God. We need to make sure that we don't have American Christianity, we have biblical Christianity.

And notice that it says, as a result, Job feared God and as a result of that it says that he shunned evil. And the question for all of us is this, think of all the opportunities that you have for evil as a man. Think of all the opportunities you have for evil as a woman. There's so many temptations that are clamoring for our attention to drown us, whether it's the cares of this life, or it could be things like pornography, or it could be, you name it, you can fill in the blank. Everyone will have a different set of temptations.

But are you living in a way that you shun evil? That's an active effort. You say, oh, grace, I'm saved by, but here we see a man as a result of the grace of God who now understands it and he shuns the things that would displease God. And the question is, do we do that as individuals today? We really need to evaluate that because in Job what you'll find is there's a harmony in his character.

The same Job the Job you see here is the Job that you see there. There was no disparity and he wasn't perfect but he had integrity and he was an honest man. He wasn't a Sunday performer or conference performer. He wasn't a hypocrite or two-faced but he loved his God and so he lived with that understanding that God was was beholding everything, everything that he was doing. And I'm going to jump down to verse 8 and 9 here, just to make sure we cover it.

Because this is now we get to the point where Job doesn't actually know what's happening. This is kind of like an interim. And Job is just going through life. And he's never made aware, by the way, even when we reach the end of this particular account where Satan goes before God. We don't know exactly where this took place but we do know that this is a true account And in verse 8 it says, Then the Lord said to Satan, it's almost a recital of what we just read in verse 1 except for one indication.

It says this, Have you considered my servant Job? And it adds this particular piece. This is God speaking of Job, that there is none like him on the earth, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil. So Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for nothing? And so he goes even further and he refers to Job as his servant.

Isn't that amazing? And when we get to chapter 42 we'll see just in about two verses he keeps saying my servant Job, my servant Job, my servant Job. And it's worth thinking as a Christian how are you regarded by God? Isn't that a wonderful thing to think God regards you as his servant, someone that does his will? That was what Job was interested in on the earth.

He was actually actively trying to serve God in any way that he could. And this is the thing that you kind of begin to wonder about. Why would God? You would think, I mean God has a precious jewel and God says to Satan, Notice who approaches who. Satan comes to this conference among the sons of God, these angels, but notice this as they're there.

Where have you come from? Walking to and fro on the earth, and God brings up this man Job. Have you considered, have you laid eyes on, have you observed my servant Job? You would think, and this is what one of the commentators actually says, it's as though there's a diamond thief outside the back of a jewelry store, and he's playing with the lock about to try to get in and just then the owner of the store, the jeweler, is coming out the back door they bump into each other on the veranda going down to his car and the jeweler says what are you doing? He said well I'm kind of I'm just casing the place I'm just trying to see if there's a way that I could get in and as the jeweler walks and hops in his car he winds down the window and says have you seen that 20 karat diamond that I have up on the front and as he drives away it's kind of like that where God is saying have you considered my servant Job He's setting Job up but is he really?

Is he really putting Job in a position where he's just going to be attacked without purpose? We're going to see as we go through that that's not the case at all. God is sovereign. That's the beauty of this, is that God is overall and he's working all things according to his own will but also all things for our good as well. And so Satan's asked this very and everything is really really hangs on that one verse in verse 9 it says so Satan answered the Lord and said does job fear God for nothing And the thing that struck me as I was going through this is that it says Job is blameless, Job is upright, it talks about the fact that he shuns evil, that there's none like him on the earth.

But when it comes to Satan, asking about Job, he says, does Job fear God for nothing? The very, the thing that Job recognizes as most prominent in Job's character is the fact that he fears God. And everything going forward, it's like it hangs on this one verse. This is the most important verse in the sense that as a result of this, God gives the devil or Satan permission to attack Job for who knows how long this attack goes on for. But the thing in this question, does Job fear God for nothing?

The thing in this question is this, is that the devil, Satan, doesn't see anything praiseworthy at all in God. He doesn't see anything worthy of worship and so in his mind he can't see how anyone else would see anything worthy in God for worship And so he's saying he couldn't assail Job's conduct. He knew Job's conduct. He didn't say, well hey, last night I saw Job doing this. God, you didn't say anything about that.

He couldn't pinpoint something on Job's character. And so what does he do? He begins to impugn his motives. He goes after, hey, there's got to be a reason why Job actually fears you, God. And Spurgeon calls this accusation that Satan's making.

He's saying, hey, his love must be covered love, or a love of the table. Covered love, meaning you can go to God and kind of get out whatever you need and that's why you love God. Or you can go to God because he feeds you every day on the table and therefore you love God. It's kind of this mercenary love. Hey God, you're just a means to an end.

You get that with the prosperity gospel. I'll worship God because I'm gonna get this or I'm gonna get that. But the true character of Acts is determined by a man's motives and that's why Satan's going after Job's motives. He's saying, what's in Job's motive God? You gotta search more deeply.

He's well paid. He's, of course he's devout when you heap up all the things you've given him. And that's, that's the thing that Satan is actually inquiring about. And you may get those types of questions, you know, as a Christian in the world you might be assailed and the like in the same manner where people might question your motives or question why you're doing this or that or maybe it's all just about maybe a fad that you're going through. That's what happened to my wife when we first became Christians.

People were saying, oh it'll last about three months and then they'll be back with us. That kind of thought without actually understanding that it is God who saves and God is so remarkably lovely and worthy of praise that the other things begin to become so diminished in their value and in their esteem. And so the most outstanding feature in Job's life, and remember that, is that he feared God. And it used to be, maybe decades ago or a century ago, when somebody would comment on somebody's character, they would say, oh, that's a God-fearing man. They would say, oh, that's a God-fearing woman.

They actually have a fear. It was a compliment. It meant that you were living under the light, that God sees me, and therefore I must live in order to please him. Or I will shun the things that displease him. But those things have fallen on hard times, perhaps with an over emphasis on certain things like what Pastor Robert Ventura was just saying, this idea of you can have a grace, kind of an over inflated view of grace so that there's no sense of holiness and wanting to live for God.

Well as a person you got to really kind of understand that that you're being watched in the right way. God is there over your life watching, but you should also know that someone else is watching your life as well. And so as a young person not yet married, would that be true of you? That someone would say to you that or about you that that's a God-fearing young lady, or that's a God-fearing young man. Are you trustworthy because you fear God?

In other words, could you be entrusted with things when no one is around you for a week or a month or a year and still maintain your integrity because you're fearing God? Well this is the one of the most important questions we need to ask ourselves and and and what we notice here in this falling falling verses is the utter malice that Satan has towards those who put their trust in Jesus Christ, who live for God. And so when I said someone is watching you, God is watching you, realize also someone else is watching you. And I don't know if you know this, but when you became a Christian, you took sides in a war that is going on. There's a war going on as we speak.

It's a spiritual warfare that is going on. And one of the commentators in regards to what Satan is like in Job, he says the black dog of hell had been prowling around to see where he could get in. So he knew that there was a hedge right round Job and round his house and all that he had. And you see the attacks of this dog, this black dog of hell, not only upon Job, but you see it also when we come to the New Testament. Peter was almost taken under by him.

You see Paul attacked on several occasions. In fact, it says that there was given him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. And even the Lord Jesus Christ, think about this, he was approached with terms of peace by Satan. If you do this, all will be well. All these kingdoms of the world will I give you.

All you need to do is bow down and worship me. And so you can see this this glee as Satan leaves we just read what happens. God says here you go there 20 karat diamond have at it, go after it. And can you imagine the glee the absolute pleasure perhaps the rubbing together of his hands, the running of his imagination as he is now given almost carte blanche to go after Satan. The only thing you can't touch, don't take his life.

And think about the ramifications of this. If I can just take down the best that God has, what will the implications be for every other believer who are looking at the man that says there's none like him in the earth, but even greater than taking down the greatest man in the earth? What will this say about God? Satan who hates God, what will this say about God, this God of which all heaven worships and adores, if I can just thwart all of his plans? And this is the thing we need to think about even for our own lives.

When the Lord Jesus says, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat, Peter, but I have prayed for you. This isn't just something that happens to some Christians somewhere, But it's what's happening to each and every individual. And Satan's mindset is if I can just take down the best individual, the best apostle that the Lord has, and I can do it, what will this mean for the rest of the apostles? Well, he was taken down for a time by just a little servant girl, but then don't forget 50 days later. See, the story's not over just like it's not over with Job.

Fifty days later he preaches one of the most remarkable sermons on the day of Pentecost and 3, 000 individuals are brought into the kingdom, into the church. And then another set of sermons brings in, I think it says 5, 000 men and women were saved. And one of the hymns I was thinking about, you know, as you look at this warfare that's going on in our world right now is this. It's called Our Great God. I don't know if you've heard of that hymn, but it's one of the most amazing hymns in regards to the spiritual warfare, but it says, Lord, we are weak and frail, helpless in the storm.

Surround us with your angels, hold us in your arms. Our cold and ruthless enemy, his pleasure is our harm. Rise up, O Lord, and he will flee before our sovereign God. And so this is our hope and our rest, is that even though the storms are going to be violent at times, that God is going to save, He's going to enable, He's going to strengthen us. And you remember, if you look at a man like say Joseph for example, it's every time Joseph was, he was taken into, sold into slavery.

Or then something worse happens, he's falsely accused and put in prison or perhaps he's forgotten in prison for an extra two years after he told the Baker and the Butler exactly what their dreams were but you know what it keeps saying but God was with Joseph but God was with Joseph but God was with Joseph And this is the confidence that we can have as believers that God is with us even though it looks like things are bleak. We have to understand that God is working something in us, like the Lord Jesus himself says in John 15, that every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. And so what's happening in these first one, chapter one and chapter two, is that Job is taken out of the bay, where he can see the bottom, where he can see either side. And he's now way out in the depths, where when he looks around in a 360 degree view, He can't see anything. And beyond that, the waves are coming over him, one after the other, the roughest waters, the strongest gale that you can imagine comes upon this man's soul.

And he's walking right now as we look at him through the valley of the shadow of death. But like we see in Psalm 23, I am with you. I will carry you through. He's stripped of everything except his faith, his fear, his reverence of God. And so what you see is a man out in the middle of this ocean, kind of with a little mini, he's on a plank with all these waves coming over him one after the other, sometimes his head going under the water as you go.

We're not going to go through all the things that he says, but one of the things he says as he's clinging to this little plank is He's clinging to God with all that he has, with his friends assaulting him on one side, his wife gone, his children gone, his business gone, and his own health gone. This is what he says in chapter 13 verse 15, Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. He says in another verse in chapter 19, for I know that my redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth and after my skin is destroyed, this I know that in my flesh I shall see God. In 23 he says this, he knows the way that I take. When he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

And perhaps that's someone here today who's going through or has gone through a trial unspeakable or you will go through one. And we'll have to say the same thing I can't see what you're doing but I'm clinging to you because I know that you're faithful and I know at the end of it all you're doing something for my good and for your glory and so oftentimes he will be taken taken under but he's not taken out and that's so important for us to really really understand here you know Jesus the Lord Jesus makes a statement in Matthew chapter 11 he's talking about John the Baptist and one of the things he says is and from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. And I always used to think of that as some strong man coming and just basically grabbing hold and destroying the works of the devil, that kind of very braggadocious or kind of just a very, very outgoing way of approaching the kingdom of darkness but it's not that at all it's not a muscular kind of Christianity but what it is I remember listening to Paul washer one time and what he was saying is this he said this particular verse the violent taking it by force doesn't really mean violent but what it means is desperate Desperation so overcomes an individual that it's like, for example, yesterday I was sick.

I was lying in bed. I didn't feel good at all. You know, I've got a back problem and all of this and I feel very, very weak. But there is a sense, and this is what Paul Washer says, that a very weak individual could take the three strongest, you pick the three strongest men in this room right now, healthy and vibrant, And there's a sense that this weak man could take down and kill all three. And he says this is how it would happen.

That if you put this man and these other three men in water and this man is drowning and so the other men or three other men are swimming around and because of desperation he will lay hold and grab hold of any of these men to make sure that he stays above water and at the end of the day maybe they all drowned and maybe just one of them or two of them drowned but at the end of it all He's so desperate that he will lay hold to anything that he can to make sure that he's in a good position. And that's kind of what's happening here, that this little weak, frail man is now clinging and leaning on God with such desperation that that's all he has. And so we get to chapter 42 and I'm just going to read a couple of a couple of verses here in chapter 42 because we don't have a lot of time here but just in closing this is the last chapter and the last four chapters is where we had the man, Job, actually confronted by God himself. From chapter 38 to 41 God is saying things like, who is this that darkens counsel without knowledge, with words, by words without knowledge.

He asked Job a question, where were you, Job, when I laid the foundations of the earth I mean these are very stark questions he's basically telling tighten up your belt you're gonna answer some questions right now Joe and Joe gets to the point where he can't really say anything. He comes to the point where he really understands he's nothing more than a breath of air. He's like a blade of grass. He was a great man in all the earth, but God is immeasurably, infinitely greater than anyone else. And so chapter 42, I'm just gonna read a couple verses.

In chapter 42, verse five and six, it says this, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself. And repent in dust and ashes. He was brought to such a point. Remember what we read about in the beginning?

He was a man who was blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil. He knew God, but he knew God in the sense that we know God when we're kind of in the confines of a bay. It's the same water. It's not like the water is saltwater and freshwater in the lake and in the bay, it's all the same water, but sometimes we only know God to a certain degree and Job was the king of the bay. There was none like him in all the earth, but that in comparison to what Job is seeing now, he says it was like rumor, it was like hearsay.

I didn't really understand anything about you, God, but now my eye sees you. And as a result of that, what does he say? I abhor myself, I look at myself, It's like Isaiah. Woe is new, for I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people. It's like Daniel when the angel, when the Lord appeared to him, he falls on his face.

Or John in the book of Revelation. He falls on his face. He's acquainted with the fact that we're nothing. And this is the beautiful thing about this whole book, is when we go down the line, Job is told to forgive his friends. He's told and his friends have to offer sacrifices.

It talks about the fact that the Lord restored, in verse 10, the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. But you know what's amazing here? Is that the great treasure that Job attained wasn't the restoration of double his goods, but it was that he knew God in a much different and greater way than he ever knew him before. So you see a man taken from the mountain through the valley of the shadow of death to an even higher, maybe twice as high mountain than he was when we found him in chapter 1.

It's amazing to think about that, that God never says Job in chapter 38. Job, this is what I was doing. The devil came and I thought it was an opportunity to get glory. He never says anything about Job. This is, here, I'm going to take you back behind the curtain.

He didn't do that. He never told Job what he was doing, but he told Job who he was, and that was enough. And when we can understand who God is in the light of everything that he's doing, Job will be like Job, will be left in an even greater awe than we ever were. And so sometimes we struggle as individuals. We're kind of in and out, what is God doing?

Why am I going through this? Why is it taking so long? You have all these questions. I sometimes would have these questions in my mind and in my heart. But what we need to understand is this, is that the great carpenter of souls is fashioning you and me into the image of his dear son.

It's when you, a carpenter, he takes a raw piece of wood and he'll have to carve that wood. He'll have to do all sorts of different things to trim and cut, to fashion it into something that's useful and that's beautiful at the end of the day. And sometimes that's very, very uncomfortable and that's why Charles Spurgeon, when he was commenting on chapter 42, I'm gonna end with this here, He says this, our longest sorrows have a close, and there is a bottom to the profoundest depths of our misery. Our winters shall not forever frown. Summer shall soon smile.

The tide shall not eternally ebb out. The floods retrace their march. The night shall not hang in its darkness forever over our souls. The sun shall yet arise with healing beneath his wings. Our sorrows shall have an end, " and listen to this, when God has gotten his end in them.

Our sorrows will have an end when God has gotten his end in them. And so all of this is to say that the anchor holds when we fear God, when we trust in God, when we have God at our center, and we desire to please him in everything, that anchor, it says in Hebrews, is sure and steadfast. It's something that will keep us all the way through. And that's why Paul says this, he says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ. Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written for your sake we are killed all day long.

We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. And I love this part, for I am persuaded. Are you persuaded? It's really worth considering.

Are you persuaded? Well Paul says, I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers. We just met a power and a principality waging war against Job, but it wasn't good enough. He's just a footnote at the end of the day. He never appears again after chapter 2.

And then likewise, he's just a useful tool in the hands of God. Well, Paul says this, Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we so thank you.

Thank you, Lord, for this anchor that you give us in our souls. Lord, we pray that we would have faith, that we would be strengthened, Lord, that even as you take us beyond our comfort zones, Lord, as you take us out into the deeper depths of the seas and oceans, oh Lord, may we continuously look to you. Lord, may we say with Job that I know that my Redeemer lives. O Lord, fill our heart with such a fear of you, a love, an awe, a reverence for you, that whether we are alone or in a group, wherever we are on the planet, oh Lord, that we would seek to please you and if there are any here, Lord, that are living as though you do not see all, Father, bring conviction, bring repentance, bring understanding, oh Lord, and May you be glorified and exalted in everything that we say, everything that we do. Lord, bless the rest of this conference, the speakers and our time of fellowships.

Lord, please be with us and meet with us. We need you so desperately, Lord, and we ask these things In the name of your son. For more messages articles and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the Word of God and for more information about the National Center for family integrated churches where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website ncfic.org. You