"More Questions from Job"
Job 1:20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Introduction: One of the great questions in the book of Job is one that men have been asking ever since Adam saw the first sunrise. It is a question that all of us will have to answer at some point in life because we will all experience things and circumstances that will provoke us and give us pause. Here's the question that I'm taking about: Is God good? Now some of you are going to say immediately that, yes He is good and I would agree because of 40 plus years as a believer has taught me that He is good. But, there may be some of you that are just not absolutely convinced because of something that has happened in your life. It might be the death of a loved one (especially a child) or an unwanted divorce or the loss of a job or something equally as difficult.
I. THE PROBLEMS JOB FACED
a. They were personal
I think that I would be safe in saying that other than the Lord Jesus himself, very few people have ever faced the personal problems that this godly man faced. When you lose all you've worked for all your life, it is personal. When you lose your greatest treasure, your precious children, you take it personally. When you lose your health, you take it personally and when you lose the support of your mate, your helpmeet, your wife, you take it personally. Now most of us have a certain amount of sympathy for someone who is having trouble but these things weren't happening to someone else, they were happening to Job.
ILL - You know the difference between major and minor surgery? Simple, if it's happening to you it's minor and if it's happening to me it's major, right!
b. They were problematic
I say that they were problematic for this reason. Verse 1 of chapter 1 tells us that Job was an exemplary individual. Adam Clarke's Commentary says: Perfect and upright - úí åéùø tam veyashar; Complete as to his mind and heart, and Straight or Correct as to his moral deportment.
Feared God - Had him in continual reverence as the fountain of justice, truth, and goodness.
Eschewed evil - ñø îøò sar mera, departing from, or avoiding evil. We have the word eschew from the old French eschever, which signifies to avoid. All within was holy, all without was righteous; and his whole life was employed in departing from evil, and drawing nigh to God. Coverdale translates an innocent and vertuous man, soch one as feared God, an eschued evell. From this translation we retain the word eschew. That brings us to the problem. How could this good man suffer so greatly and more importantly how could a good God allow him to suffer? This is an age old question. It has been with us from the very beginning of the human family. Go to Genesis and you will find that Satan's suggested that God was not good because He prohibited Adam and Eve from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thus being like God himself. We wonder why bad things happen to good people like us. But Jesus said that there is no one good but God. The best of us are no better than the worst of us when we measure ourselves by the goodness of God.
ILL - MEASURING GOODNESS
Goodness can only be measured by God. God is the standard of goodness. If we compare ourselves to others we're using the wrong measurement. If we determine goodness by what other people call good, we're using the wrong standard.
It's like the little boy who came to his mother and said, "Mommy, I'm eight feet tall."
She said, "You are?"
"Yes," he insisted, "I am eight feet tall."
His mother asked what he measured himself with, and he pulled out a six inch ruler
SOURCE: Rick Warren, The Power to Change Your Life (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1990), 93. Joel Smith in
Be Good For Goodness' Sake on www.sermoncentral.com.
c. They were perennial
Troubles are a normal part of life! If you are above ground and not under it, you are going to have trouble.
Job 5:7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
Job 14:1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
II. THE PERSPECTIVE OF JOB IN FOCUS
What is your first response when trouble comes your way? Your response to trouble is by and large determined by your perspective. How do you see trouble? Do you charge God "foolishly" or
a. God has a plan
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good...
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
THIS IS GOOD!
The story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"
One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation, the friend remarked as usual,
"This is good!"
To which the king replied, "No, this is not good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail.
About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.
As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.
As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend.
"You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown
off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just
happened. "And so, I am very sorry for sending you to jail for
so long. It was bad for me to do this."
"No," his friend replied, "This is good!"
"What do you mean, 'This is good'? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?"
"If I had not been in jail, I would have been with you."
b. God has a purpose
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
c. God has the power
Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
III. THE PROCLAMATION OF JOB IN FAITH
a. Recognizes the sufficiency of God
He says: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither..."
Job understands that the things of this world are temporal, that they are gifts from God and ultimately that he came into this world with nothing and that he will leave it with no less!
THE GOODNESS OF GOD...
His goodness is an ocean that has no shore.
A Mountain that has no summit.
A Road that has no end.
Not meager, but much.
Not skimpy but sufficient.
Not little, but limitless*
Not barely, but bountiful*
Not feeble, but full.
SOURCE: THE GOODNESS OF GOD by Philip Pascal on www.sermoncentral.com.
b. Recognizes the sovereignty of God
Notice he says: "...the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away..."
"Good when he gives, supremely good;
Nor less when he denies;
Afflictions from his sovereign hand,
Are blessings in disguise."
c. Recognizes the superiority of God
"Blessed be the name of the Lord..."
ILL - Our circumstances are not an accurate reflection of God's goodness. Whether life is good or bad, God's goodness, rooted in His character, is the same.
-- Helen Grace Lescheid
Turn with me to Exodus 33:12-23 "Now, what attribute is God about to show to Moses? His petition is, "Show me thy glory." Will God show him his justice? His holiness? His wrath? His power? No. Hear the still small voice -- "I will make all my goodness pass before you." Ah! The goodness of God is God's glory. God's greatest glory is that he is good... "I will make all my goodness pass before you." There is a panorama such as time would not be long enough for you to see."
Exodus 33:19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
QUOTE: Charles Spurgeon, A View of God's Glory.
Psalms 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
ILL - I love the 23rd Psalms where it says "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. all the days of my life." I imagine two angels, one named goodness and one named mercy, and everywhere I go they follow me, and protect me. I had the chance to experience this first hand. I was travelling to Chicago, Il and saw an elderly man and his wife pulled over to the side of the road in thier truck waving for help. So of course I stopped and asked what was wrong. The elderly man told me he was a pastor, and he and his wife were on thier way to a town up the road, and were about to run out of gas, and was wondering could I give him a ride to the nearest gas station. I said "Sure, but since he had not ran out of gas yet, I suggested that he get back in his truck, and drive towards the next station, and I would follow behind them, and if he ran out of gas, I would take him to get gas from there, but at least we would be closer. He agreed and thanked me. We drove over 20 miles, and I watched him as he would look in his rear view mirror and wave to me, as I followed him. The truck never did run out of gas, we made it all the way to the gas station. At the station he thanked me again, and said "Just knowing you were behind us, just in case we did run out of gas, allowed my wife and I to drive without worry because we knew you were behind us." It's that how God works also. Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
Conclusion: In just a moment I'm going to ask our musicians and worship leader to come and we will sing an invitation hymn and you will have the opportunity to make a public response to the claims of Christ on your life. You must respond publically because according to what Jesus taught if you are ashamed to confess Him (publically) before men then He would be ashamed to confess you before His Father. You may need to come for some other
