God Pursues The Lost

This morning we are going to look at some words of revelation from the Lord spoken by the prophet Elihu to Job. In Elihu’s words of wisdom, we find a message that can be applied to those who are lost without salvation in Jesus Christ; and I wish to begin this sermon with an illustration:

One evening a woman was driving home, when she noticed a huge truck behind her that was driving uncomfortably close. She stepped on the gas to gain some distance from the truck, but when she sped up, the truck did too. The faster she drove the faster the truck drove.

Now scared, she exited the freeway, but the truck stayed with her. The woman turned up a main street, hoping to lose her pursuer in traffic, but the truck ran a red light, and continued the chase.

Reaching the point of panic, the woman whipped her car into a service station and jumped out of her car screaming for help. The truck driver sprang from his truck, and ran toward her car. Yanking the back door open, the driver pulled out a man hidden in the back seat.

The woman was running from the wrong person. From his high vantage point, the truck driver had spotted a would-be criminal in the woman’s car. The chase was not his effort to harm her, but to save her, even at the cost of his own safety.

Likewise, many people run from God . . . fearing what He might do to them. But His plans are for good, not evil, to rescue us from the hidden sins that endanger our lives.(1)

This morning we are going to look at how people sometimes run from the Lord, when He is only trying to rescue them, and we will see some of the ways in which God will pursue those who are fleeing from Him. And last, but not least, we will see what happens when the Lord actually catches the person who’s running.

Running from the Lord (vv. 9-13)

9 “I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me. 10 Yet He finds occasions against me, He counts me as His enemy; 11 He puts my feet in the stocks, He watches all my paths.” 12 Look, in this you are not righteous. I will answer you, for God is greater than man. 13 Why do you contend with Him? For He does not give an accounting of any of His words.

In verses 9-13, we can see how people will run from the Lord through their own reasoning. And we can see some of the excuses they tend to make. Look at the display of self-righteousness here. Elihu shared how Job had declared, “I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me” (v. 9). People who do not know the Lord will often try to justify themselves by their own works.

And one of the worldly misconceptions they live by and believe is that they are “good,” and will therefore automatically go to heaven when they die. There are indeed some really good people out there – at least by our definition – but God’s requirement for going to heaven is not goodness, but righteous; to be “holy and pure.” And the Bible says, in Romans 3:10, “There is none righteous, no, not one,” and Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” God requires righteousness but, according to the Bible, all people have fallen short and missed the mark.

The Bible tells us that the only way a person can make it to heaven is if they know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Nowhere in God’s Word does it say, “Be a good person and you will go to heaven.” Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

In verses 10-11, Elihu revealed how Job was thinking that the Lord was out to get him. Think back to a time on the job, or at school, when you were asked to do something by the boss or your teacher that was really hard or painstaking. What was the first thing that you thought about that boss or teacher? Did you think, “He doesn’t like me,” or “She’s really mean?”

This is how those who are lost often feel about the Lord. They think that if God asks anything more of them than being good, that He is too strict, and doesn’t really have their best interest in mind; or as Elihu stated that Job put it, “He counts me as His enemy” (v. 10).