Psalm 66:14-20, Job 19:21-27a, James 1:17-21, John 16:5-15.
A). OF ANSWERED PRAYER.
Psalm 66:14-20.
The testimony of the people of God is supplemented with the testimony of one believer: like a good old-fashioned evangelistic meeting, which not only has good preaching, but also individual testimonies to follow. The voice of the one rises above the song of the congregation: “I will go to your house… I will pay my vows, which I made when I was in trouble” (Psalm 66:13-14). The burnt offerings (Psalm 66:15) indicate the whole-heartedness of this believer’s commitment to the LORD.
The choir had sung, ‘Come and see the works of God’ (Psalm 66:5) - but this individual personalises it: “Come and hear… what God has done for me!” (Psalm 66:16). The Psalmist had been in trouble (Psalm 66:14), he cried to God (Psalm 66:17), and God “attended to the voice of my prayer” (Psalm 66:19). Key to this success in prayer, indicates the Psalmist, was the state of his heart toward God: he cherished not iniquity in his heart (Psalm 66:18).
The Psalm ends as it began: by blessing God. For, “He has not turned away my prayer, nor removed His mercy/ loving kindness from me” (Psalm 66:20). Many Christians can relate to this testimony in their own experience - why not share it with others?
B). THE HEIGHT OF JOB’S FAITH.
Job 19:21-27.
It is bad enough when God appears to afflict us, but it becomes all but unbearable when those who are our supposed ‘friends’ seem to use this as an occasion to reproach us (cf. Job 19:2-3).
JOB 19:21-22. “Have pity upon me, O ye my friends,” pleads Job. It is God who has afflicted me, so why are you persecuting me? Why do you judge me as if you were God, and not rest content with the suffering I have already borne?
JOB 19:23-24. “Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed (literally, ‘inscribed’) in a book! That they were graven (literally, ‘engraved’) with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!”
Something written on a scrap of paper is often lost. Something published in a book may last longer. But something written on a rock may endure, it seems, for ever.
And, in a way, Job’s words have been “written on a rock” – they have been inscripturated in the Bible. Now everyone can know what extremes of suffering a man of God may have to go through, and still maintain his faith!
JOB 19:25. “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.”
Whenever I read this, I hear a wonderful soprano voice singing an aria from Handel’s oratorio, ‘Messiah’: “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”
The Hebrew word translated “redeemer” referred to a kinsman empowered to redeem the property of a brother who had fallen upon hard times (cf. Leviticus 25:25-28), or to redeem a brother from slavery (cf. Leviticus 25:48-49), or even to marry a brother’s widow to give her deceased husband children to inherit his land (cf. Ruth 4:3-6).
In this verse Job pauses a little from complaining against his friends, and perhaps even against God, to acknowledge God as his Redeemer (cf. Exodus 6:6; Psalm 72:14). Job’s vision is vivid. He had looked for a ‘daysman’ – a ‘go-between,’ if you will - with the ability to ‘lay his hand upon us both’ (cf. Job 9:33). Now he catches a view - if we can but see it - of Jesus, who is both God and man and therefore perfectly qualified to be the only Mediator between God and man (cf. 1 Timothy 2:5-6).
The book of Job is one of the oldest in the Bible. A long time before the 18th century composer! Yet here Job reaches out of the depths of despair to grasp a truth which will yet find its fulfilment, for all of God’s people, when Jesus, our kinsman-redeemer, shall stand “at the latter day” upon the earth.
JOB 19:26. “And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”
This prophet is on a roll! Job knows he is going to die, and that after death his body shall face decay. But he appears here to anticipate his bodily resurrection. Furthermore, he knows that he shall see God!
JOB 19:27. “Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.”
This is going to be a personal experience. ‘I, even I,’ shall see Him. “Mine" eyes shall “behold” – look upon Him. “Not another” (not a stranger)! Even though “my reins” (literally, ‘kidneys’) be consumed “within me.” ‘Yet in my flesh shall I see God’ (JOB 19:26).
Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Believest thou this?’ (cf. John 11:25-26).
The Apostle Paul wrote, ‘Behold I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
This is the hope of the Christian. Even if we die, death is not the end.
C). BORN AGAIN BY THE WORD OF TRUTH.
James 1:17-21.
James has already indicated that our God is a generous Giver (James 1:5). Here he cites God as the inexhaustible source of “every good act of giving, and every perfect gift” (James 1:17a). There is not so much as a shadow cast as a result of any changeability in God, the Father of lights (James 1:17b). God is “Father of lights” not only in Creation, but also in redemption (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:6). He is the living, giving, forgiving God.
Our salvation is based in God’s will (James 1:18a; cf. John 1:13). It was His decision, not ours, that we should be ‘born of the Spirit’ (cf. John 3:8). We did not choose Christ, He chose us (John 15:16); and no-one comes to Jesus but those whom the Father who sent Him draws (John 6:44). Our faith is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8); the ability to believe is something which is given to us (Philippians 1:29).
The instrument used to bring us to the new birth is “the word of truth” (James 1:18b; cf. 1 Peter 1:23). The written Word, the preached Word; the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the new birth is that we might be a sort of first-fruit offering: set apart unto Him, and marked out for holiness (James 1:18c).
Having been brought to the new birth “by the word of truth” (James 1:18), we continue to be nurtured by the “implanted word” (James 1:21). We will be “swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20).
It is Jesus who has fulfilled all righteousness (Matthew 3:15), and we must learn from Him. There is such a thing as righteous anger, such as Jesus displayed at the cleansing of the Temple (John 2:17). But He was ever obedient to the Father (John 8:29), and His anger was never tainted by sin. Our anger can so easily be distracted, so we are elsewhere only permitted to be angry with a double caveat: ‘Be angry and sin not, and let not the sun go down on your anger’ (Ephesians 4:26).
Not only are we to be swift to hear “the implanted word”, but we must do a little gardening ourselves (James 1:21). We have a responsibility to root out all that taints our lives, and the overflow of wickedness that still remains from our old lives. Not only are we to hear the word, but also “meekly” (in a gentle submissive way) to receive it. Turn it over in your heart, chew on it, meditate, apply.
D). THE AGE OF THE SPIRIT.
John 16:5-15.
When Ezekiel looked out across the valley of the dry bones, the LORD asked him, “Can these bones live?” to which the prophet answered, “Well, Lord, if anyone knows you do.” The Lord GOD spoke to the bones through the mouth of the prophet, and they revived: but they were as inanimate as fallen clay statues. Then His servant prophesied to the wind, and GOD breathed His Spirit upon them (Ezekiel 37:1-10).
When Jesus went to the Cross His disciples were scattered, and Peter denied Him three times. The church seemed finished, but within weeks the same men were courageously preaching Christ crucified as the only means of salvation (Acts 5:28). Such was the change in the Apostles that even some of the priests became believers (Acts 6:7).
What had changed? Well, for a start, the Lord had risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven (John 16:5). Then Pentecost ushered in the beneficial service of the age of the Spirit, whose influence and operation more than compensate for the departure of Jesus (John 16:7).
The underlying message of Jesus’ upper room discourse was one of encouragement (John 14:1; John 16:33). He was concerned that His imminent departure left them seemingly orphaned (John 14:18). He had to remind them not to be borne down by overmuch sorrow (John 16:6).
The Spirit came in the fullness of His power to convict the world of sin, even the sin of unbelief (John 3:18-20); to convince the world of Jesus’ righteousness, cutting to the very heart of those who had crucified Him (Acts 2:37); and to warn the world of the judgment to come, in which the devil already stands condemned (John 16:8-11). It is manifestly the “world” which is challenged concerning these truths. It could be said of the early Christians that they were “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).
Jesus had many things still to teach His disciples, but before His resurrection they were not ready to receive them (John 16:12). We grow up by stages, moving from milk to prepared foods, to fulsome meat. The Holy Spirit came to impart enabling power for the application of the Word of God, to bring glory to Jesus, and to show things yet to come (John 16:13-14).
In the first instance, the Spirit of truth enabled the Apostles for the preaching of the Word of God, empowering them to make their stand before the world. Secondly, He inspired the writing of the New Testament. Thirdly He blesses all His people with understanding of the Word, and with insights into the spiritual truth that they need for their salvation (John 16:13).
The Holy Spirit takes the gifts of God, which Jesus purchased by His death and resurrection (Psalm 68:18), and applies them to our lives. He takes the message of Jesus, and writes it in our hearts (John 16:15). Within the limitations of the incarnation, Jesus could only be in one place at one time: but the Holy Spirit’s ministry on His behalf is worldwide.
