PP0914 DATE
ANSWERING BILDAD’S QUESTION!
CHRIST FIRST AND FOREMOST!
Job 25:1-4; Romans 3:24
Job 25:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
2 Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places.
3 Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?
4 How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
5 Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.
6 How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?
(KJV) Psa 51:5 had not been written yet, but it says, “In sin did my mother conceive me.”
Col 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. (KJV)
INTRODUCTION: One of the four main characters in the Book of Job is a man named Bildad.
Bildad was a Shuhite, one of Job’s three friends. He was descended from Shuah, son of Abraham and Keturah, whose family lived in the deserts of Arabia.
His intent was that of consoling Job, in Job loss of everything, but he became an accuser, asking Job what he has done to deserve God’s wrath. Why is it when a person undergoes a time of testing, or may we say, difficult times, that someone, usually a friend, accuses us of being out of God’s will. Job was not out of God’s will. He was right in the center of the will of God. All that was happening to Job was because it was the will of God.
Bildad, asked this question, about 4000 years ago, and it has been asked by every generation before and since. That question is: “How can a man be justified with God?”
This question is one that the world’s system has no answer for. They would answer it with the usage or the application of religion, or more accurate would be humanism. Humanism is making man’s happiness and well being the center of all purposes of the universe.
Man in his lost condition looks at religion as the same thing that we know Christianity as. Man sees the need is for man to feel good about himself and to not make God mad at him, and then by participation in sort of religious matters a person can become what God expects him to be. Of course, any person that has had any Bible training knows that this approach is false and damnable.
Man can’t answer Bildad’s question – only God can – it is God that does the justifying. Ro 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. (KJV) Since God is God and it was His law that was transgressed, then it is God that defines the sacrifice to be paid for the payment of sin.
In Bildad’s question, he has taken into consideration that God is righteous – God is Holy – God is Just – God is perfect. Therefore, with a God like that how can man ever have a chance of being justified.
In his question, Bildad, has taken into consideration that man is totally unrighteous. Ro 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (KJV)
Ro 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (KJV)
Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (KJV)
In his question, Bildad, realizes that man cannot make himself righteous. Any righteousness that man may attempt will be self-righteousness – which is rejected by God. Think about what all man is in this matter of sin. His attitude is anti-god. His intention is against God. His will is against God. His heart is against God. Man’s total purpose is to exalt self. Every thread of man’s fiber is against God, so Bildad asks this question, “How then can man be justified with God?”
So, Bildad has asked a very hard and difficult question. It is a question that mankind has been seeking the answer since the Garden of Eden. It’s a question that if you do not deal with it in a Bible manner your soul will be doomed for all eternity.
During the training time of the twelve disciples Jesus told them in, Joh 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (KJV) When the Lord made this statement He was referring to being lifted up on the Cross of Calvary. He was telling everyone that when He was crucified He would become the means of salvation for all men.
Satan has so muddied the water of true Gospel until there are hundreds of different beliefs concerning man’s justification.
Let’s examine Bildad’s question for a few moments.
The question he asked was, “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?”
I. BILDAD WAS AWARE OF WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN
He understood justification and knew about the fall of man.
Where did sin come from?
The devil is the father of all sin. He is the father of lies, and most everything he says is a lie or at least the truth twisted.
A. The Beginning Of Sin.
The serpent came to Eve and tempted her to sin and she accepted it. She surely didn’t understand the full consequence of sin even though God had told both she and Adam not to partake of the tree. She knew that it was not to be taken of. She knew that when she did she would die. Whether she knew what dying meant, I don’t know. No one had ever died before this time. She was not familiar with death.
On the very first time of temptation Eve yielded to sin – likewise did Adam. Thus, sin began when man was tempted and yielded to that temptation. So when a person is tempted that person is on the very edge of committing sin. The sin may be a major sin or a more common one. However it is still sin, and all sin brings judgment.
B. The Pronouncement That Sin Had Happened.
Ge 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. (KJV)
When Adam took that bite of the fruit immediately there was a response from earth and the heavens above. Sin had occurred and thus the whole sequence of matters was now tainted with sin.
Eve tried to justify her sin by making an excuse – that same approach is still predominant today among men. There have been thousands of excuses and explanations for sin, but none will ever have any bearing on God’s hatred for sin, nor for His requirement for justification.
The woman was out from under the protection of her husband, Adam. God had a protective umbrella over Eve as long as she remained under it she was protected. Adam was her protection. That’s God’s plan and whether a woman accepts it or not doesn’t change the truth. Once she was out from under that protection she became open game for the devil, and he knew she was vulnerable. When Eve sinned God considered it as of Adam. When she sinned her sin was also against her own husband. God looked at the matter as though Adam was the one that had committed the terrible act.
Satan had now won a great victory – he had stolen the whole creation from God through this one sinful act of Adam. We never know how far reaching one sin of one individual will reach. Always remember that it will go much further than you expected it to go. It will affect far more people than you thought it would.
Sin will always take you further than you intended to go.
It will keep you longer than you intended to stay.
It will cost you more than you intended to pay.
Families today do not realize the importance of following God’s Divine order. God’s plan was made for a specific reason, and all who follow that plan will have much more joy and happiness than those who refuse His plan.
He has a plan for the home, for the individual, and for the church.
C. The Penalty For Sin Announced.
The whole creation was cursed and the death sentence came upon all mankind.
Ro 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: (KJV)
Ro 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (KJV)
You and I must understand that sin is wicked and God must and always will punish all sin. The sinner is wicked and will be thrown into hell to spend all eternity in torture and torment – unless he is justified by God.
II. BILDAD WAS AWARE THAT SIN WOULD KEEP MAN FROM GOD
Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. (KJV)
A. Sin Separates Man From God. “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God….”
There can be no fellowship with God when sin exists. All unhappiness and failure in a Christian’s life is because his sin has separated him from the fellowship of God. There is nothing more unbearable than having fellowship with God broken.
B. Sin Prohibits Fellowship With God.
David experienced loss of fellowship with God when he sinned with Bathsheba. Ps 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. (KJV)
There was no joy even in the fact that he was saved. Do you know why Christianity is not popular right now? Because to many Christians have lost the joy of their salvation, and others can’t see any difference in themselves and the Christian. When a Christian crumbles under the pressures of the world the siiner sees that and sees no difference than himself.
1Jo 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (KJV)
The only way anyone can come to God is to confess sin and repent toward God. 1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (KJV)
When Peter sinned at the arrest of Jesus he lost his joy and fellowship and was a miserable man for a short time.
During 35 years of ministry I have seen scores of Christians that have allowed themselves to get out of the will of God by unrepented sin, and in every cast the person or people were miserable.
III. BILDAD WAS AWARE THAT GOD WAS HOLY AND MAN TOTALLY UNHOLY
Job 25:4 How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? (KJV)
A. There Must Be A Substitute.
The only way sin can be paid for is by the death of the sinner – God demanded that the sinner die because of his sin. God also allowed for a substitute in our behalf. Christ was our substitute.
1. Must be a sinless substitute.
Exodus 12:3-6 & 13.
Ex 12:3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
2. Must be an acceptable substitute.
Ex 12:13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. The blood of the lamb was viewed by God as a substitute of the Lamb of God that would some day make His sacrifice offering on the Cross of Calvary.
B. The Substitute Was Complete.
When Jesus said, “It is finished” it was His divine Person speaking – God saw the sacrifice and accepted it complete and he uttered, thru His Son, “It is finished” – the whole plan for justification was complete.
I would assume that Bildad was not aware of all that was included in the matter of redemption of man’s soul.
Neither Bildad nor any of his fellows could answer it; the doctrine of redemption through the blood of the cross was then known only through types and shadows. We who live in the Gospel dispensation, can readily answer the question. (Adam Clarke)
IV. THE ANSWER TO HIS QUESTION
Justification is more than forgiveness; “it is to be cleared of all blame and to be free from every charge. In an earthly court a judge cannot both forgive a man and justify him at the same time, for if he forgives him then the man must be guilty and therefore he cannot be justified; on the other hand, if he justifies him, he does not need forgiveness. God, however, undertakes both to forgive the sin and to justify the sinner; that is, to forgive the guilty and condemned. Ro 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,…..”
Before the cross of Christ every person had a plaque over their head that read, “Condemned”. Being condemned is the same as being the next one to be executed. In a prison a condemned person is waiting for his sentence to be carried out. He has been declared guilty and the sentence announced, thus he now awaits his execution.
Your sin has condemned you – there is no hope without Jesus Christ. If you refuse and reject him then your execution will be carried out to the fullest.
A. That Night In The Garden Of Gethsemane Was All Part Of God’s Plan.
Jesus had gone there with His disciples to pray. Like many are today they did very little praying. Concluding the prayer time the soldiers came and arrested Jesus. After taking him to be tried in a mock trial He was convicted of NO Crime and sentenced to die on the Cross. Sadly enough, his own people pronounced the sentence.
Luke 23:18 And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas:
19 (Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.)
20 Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them.
21 But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. (KJV)
B. Redemption And Justification Was Made Available To Any And All Who Will Choose It.
“…whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
To find the answer to Bildad’s question we have to go over into the Book of Romans.
Ro 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (KJV)
God’s grace given to us through His Son, Jesus Christ, will freely bring redemption to any and all believers.
Today there is a voice calling for you to come to Him. A voice so tender and loving. A voice that loves you and gave his life for you on Calvary’s Cross. To say “No” is to volunteer for the execution of your own soul.
There’s a voice calling me
From an old rugged tree
And He whispers draw closer to me
Leave this world far behind
There are new heights to climb
And a new place in me you will find.
How can you, that is born of a woman, be justified with God? By accepting what Christ did on the cross in the payment for you sins. All you do is to accept by faith His finished works on the cross of Calvary and redemption of your sin takes place.
