“A Biblical Example of Glorious Faith”
(Sunday Morning October 9th, 2011)
Passage: Job 1:1-12
O.S. As I Prayed About What I Should Preach About This Sunday, I Was Reminded
of the Fact That We Have a Lot of People in Our Church Right Now Who are
Experiencing Some Kind of Emotional Grief or Physical Suffering
-> We Have a Family Visiting Our Church That Has Experienced the Loss of a Child,
and I Have to Say That I Cannot Even Comprehend What That Must be Like
-> We Have a Man in Our Church Who Has Been Told That He Has Terminal
Cancer(So, Besides Being in Constant Pain, This Man is Facing a Very Harsh Reality)
-> Another Man in Our Church Had to Place His Precious and GodlyWife in a Nursing
Home This Past Week, Because She Has Alzheimer’s Disease and Her Condition
Has Become Such That He is no Longer Able to Care for Her Himself
-> Another Family Learned Recently That Their Grandchild Has Scoliosis,
Another Family Lost Most of Their Possessions in a House Fire
-> And We Have Some Who are Dealing With the Problem of Unemployment
-> So, I’m Sure That There are a Lot of People in Our Church Right Now Who Need
to Hear a Sermon About How to Cope With Hardships and Suffering in Life
BUT MAYBE NONE OF THOSE THINGS ARE TRUE ABOUT YOU RIGHT NOW
-> You Might be Very Healthy, and Everyone in Your Family is Healthy, and Your
Job Seems to be Secure, and Your Church is Fulfilling, and All Seems to be Well
Q.n = Well, Listen to Me, are You Listening?
-> You’re the Person I Hope Will Benefit the Most From This Sermon This Morning,
Because Job5:7 Says, “man is born for trouble, as (the) sparks fly upward”
-> So, You Need to Get Prepared in Advance, Because the Day Will Surely Come
When Everything Will Not be Perfect in Your World
-> And When That Day Comes, AND IT WILL COME, My Hope and Prayer is That
You Will be Able to Respond to It With a Great Deal of Patience and Faith
St = Now, There are a Lot of Things About the Purposes of Hardships and Suffering
That God Has Not Chosen to Reveal to Us
-> I Can’t Explain Why so Many Innocent People in Our World Have to Suffer
and Die, Because God Has Not Given Us an Explanation for This
-> I Don’t Have an Answer for the Holocaust (6 Million Jews)or the Killing Fields
(Elaborate = Cambodia = GlassMonument Containing 90,000 Skulls – 15 yr Old Girls)
-> All I Can Say About Those Things is That God Has Revealed to Us in His Word
That He Can Ultimately Use Even That Which is Evil to Produce What is Good
-> There are a Lot of Things That God Has Not Chosen to Reveal to UsAbout Suffering
-> But Listen, One Thing That God Has Told Us Very Clearly in His Word is That
the Way We Deal With the Hardships and Suffering That We Face in Life Will
Reveal the Strength of Our Faith, and That This Can Bring Glory to Him
-> In 1 Peter 1:6-7, for Example, the Apostle Peter Said This; He Said,
“6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you
have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more
precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found
to result (Listen) in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”
-> What the Apostle Peter Essentially Said in Those Two Verses is That How
We Respond as Christians to the Various Trials We Face in Life Will Reveal
the Depth and Quality of Our Faith
-> For You See, There are a Lot of People in This World Who Have What Warren
Wiersbe Calls “A Commercial Faith”
-> “A Commercial Faith” Wiersbe Says “is a Faith That Desires the Gifts More Than
the Giver of the Gifts”
-> In Other Words, the Reality is That They are Only Following God for What They
Think They Can Get From God (Ex. Word of Faith Preachers – Give to Get)
-> “A Genuine Faith,”on the Other Hand, is a Faith That Desires the Giver of the Gifts
More Than His Gifts, and This is the Kind of Faith That Can Endure These Trials
in Life and Ultimately Bring Glory to God
Q.n = Do You Remember How God Tested Abraham?
Ans =God Commanded Abraham to Offer Up His Son Isaac as a Sacrifice
on MountMoriah
-> Now, Abraham Was Understandably Confused, Because Isaac Was the Son
of Promise (Elaborate = All of the Blessings God Had Promised to Give Abraham…)
Q.n = Why Did God Command Abraham to do That?
Ans = To Reveal the Depth and Quality of His Faith
-> God Wanted to Reveal the Fact That Abraham Loved the God Who Gives These
Gifts Even More Than He Loved the Gifts That God Gives
-> And This Even Included Abraham’s Precious Son Isaac
-> And as We Know, Abraham Passed That Test, and God Was Greatly Glorified
in the Process
-> Of Course, the Only Way We Can Know if a Person Has “A Genuine Faith”
or “A Commercial Faith” is by Observing How That Person Responds When
Their Faith is Tested and When These Gifts That God Gives are Taken Away
-> It is Even Possible, Peter Tells Us, to Rejoice Once We Have Finished Enduring
These Trials, Because This Will Reveal That Our Faith is Indeed Genuine
______
T.S. I Believe That This is Really What the Book of Job is All About
-> It is About Proving That Job’s Faith in God Was Genuine, and That is Why Job
Had to Endure so Much Suffering
-> Because God Decided to Prove to Satan, to Job’s Friends, and to All of Us, That
Job Did Not Follow God Merely for What He Could Get From God
-> And So With This in Mind, I Want to Share Three Things With You This
Morning About Job’s Glorious Faith
______
I. The Prosperity That Job Enjoyed
vs 1-3 (Read)
1) He Had Great Faithfulness
a. We are Told That Job Was “Blameless”
-> This Does Not Mean That He Was Sinless, But It Does Mean That He Kept
Short Accounts With God About His Sin
b. We are Also Told That Job Was “Upright”
-> And This Literally Means “To be Straight in Conduct”
-> This Means That Job Had Integrity; He Was as Pure as the Driven Snow; There
Were no Skeletons in His Closet; the IRS Could Not Find Anything Wrong With
His Tax Returns, and the FBI Could Not Find Any Blemishes on His Character
-> He Was What Paul Called in 1 Timothy 3:2 a Man Who Was “Above Reproach”
c. We are Told Why All of This Was True
-> Job Feared God, Which Means That He Had a Deep and Reverential Respect
for God, and He Shunned Evil
-> That Word “Shun” Literally Means “To Turn Off”
-> In Other Words, Sin of Every Kind Was a Real Turn Off to Job
-> And Please Keep in Mind That This Was God’s Assessment of Job
vs 8 (Read)
-> As We Study the Book of Job, We Also Discover That He Was a Great
Philanthropist
-> In Job 31:16-22, for Example, We are Told That Job Helped the Poor; He Helped
Widows and Orphans, and He Gave Them Food and Clothing
______
T.S. 1) He Had Great Faithfulness
______
2) He Had a Great Family
-> Job Had a Large Family and a Good Family, and I Think It is Worth Noting
That They All Got Along With Each Other
-> In Fact, They Got Along so Well With Each Other That We are Told That They
Met Together on a Regular Basis
-> In Psalms 133:1, the Psalmist Said,
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!”
-> That is What is Portrayed Here, and I Know of Some Parents Who Would Give
Anything if They Could See Their Adult Children “Dwelling Together in Unity”
-> Job Was Also Deeply Concerned About the Spiritual Welfare of His Children;
So, He Held Regular Devotions, and He Prayed to God About Them Regularly
______
T.S. 1) He Had Great Faithfulness
2) He Had a Great Family
______
3) He Had a Great Fortune
-> I Have Often Thought of Job as Being Kind of the Ben Cartwright of the Old
Testament, Because God Had Blessed Him With a Ranch That Was Probably
Bigger Than the Ponderosa
-> Uz Was Located Close to Edom, or What We Would Know Today as Saudi Arabia,
and the Bible Says That Job Was the Greatest Man of the East
-> In That Day and Age, a Large Family, a Lot of Land, and Livestock Were Signs
of Great Wealth, and We are Told Here That Job Had All of This vs 3 (Read)
-> And All of It Had Come, of Course, as a Gift From God
-> Deut 8:18 Says That It is the Lord Who Gives a Man the Power to Make Wealth
-> Job Had Proven That He Could Handle the Wealth God Had Entrusted to Him
Responsibly; and So, God Had Opened the Windows of Heaven and Had Poured
Out a Blessing That Was Larger Than Job Could Contain (Mal 3:10)
St = All of This Set the Stage for a Contest That Job Knew Nothing About,
Because It Took Place in a Spiritual Realm
-> Satan Came as the Accuser of the Brethren (Rev 12:10), and He Accused Job
in the Presence of God of Being a Fair-Weather Follower
-> God Bragged on Job’s Faith, But Satan Drew Job’s Faith Into Question
vs 9-10 (Read)
Q.n = How Did Satan Know That God Had Placed a Hedge of Protection Around Job?
Ans = Because He Had Tried to Get to Job Before But He Couldn’t do It
-> This Should be a Comfort to Us, Because It Reminds Us That God is Totally
Sovereign
-> God is in Complete Control of Our Lives, and Satan Cannot Touch Us Unless
God Gives Him Permission to do It
-> Psalms 34:7 Says
“The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them”
-> Even When Satan Saw That Peter Was Puffed Up With Pride, He Had to Ask
for Permission From God Before He Could Lay a Hand on Peter
-> Luke 22:31 is Very Revealing, Because Jesus Said,
"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded PERMISSION to sift you like wheat”
-> You See, Satan is in no Way God’s Equal; He is More Like a Big Dog on a Leash,
and God Decides How Long He Will Allow His Leash to Be (Little Boy/Big Dog)
-> Nevertheless, on This Particular Occasion, God Allowed Satan to Attack Job
in Order to Prove That Job’s Faith Was Genuine
-> But Even So, God Still Set the Limits; God Told Satan What He Could and Could
Not do to Job and to Job’s Family
______
T.S. I. The Prosperity That Job Enjoyed
______
II. The Adversity That Job Endured
1) He Lost His Fortune
vs 13-17 (Read)
-> Now, I Don’t Want You to Miss What This Reveals About Satan’s Power
. Satan Was Able to Influence the Sabeans and Motivate Them to Steal Job’s
Oxen and Donkeys and Even to Kill Some of His Servants
. Satan Was Able to Bring Fire Down From Heaven to Consume Job’s Sheep
and Some More of His Servants
. Satan Was Able to Influence the Chaldeans and Motivate Them to Steal Job’s
Camels
. Satan Was Even Able to Create a Tornado That Wiped Out Job’s Family
. And Satan Was Able to Time These Events in Such a Way That They Came About
Simultaneously
-> Satan Could Not go Beyond the Parameters That God Set for Him, But He Went
Right to the Very Brink of It and He Demonstrated a Tremendous Amount of Power
-> This is Why I Shudder When I Hear These Word of Faith Preachers Rebuking
the Devil as if They Can Exercise Some Kind of Power Over Him
-> In Jude 9, the Bible Says,
“But (Even) Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued
about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment,
but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’”
Q.n = Did You Hear That?
Ans = Even an Archangel
Pt = The Devil is a Very Real and Very Powerful Being; and So, I Wouldn’t go Around
Provoking Him if I Were You
______
T.S. 1) He Lost His Fortune
______
2) He Lost His Family
vs 18-19 (Read)
-> In One Day, Job Lost All of the Things That He Loved and Most of the People That
He Loved
-> So, the Next Time You Think You’ve Had a Really Bad Day, I Want to Encourage
You to go Pick Up Your Bible and Read Job Chapter 1
-> Because No One, With the Exception of the Lord Jesus, Ever Experienced More
Suffering Than Job, and This First Wave of It Came in Rapid Succession
Q.n = So, How Did Job Respond to All of This?
Ans = His Response is Absolutely Amazing
vs 20-22 (Read)
-> This Tells Us That Job Had a “Genuine Faith” and Not Merely a “Commercial
Faith,” Because Someone With a “Commercial Faith” Would Have Responded
Very Differently
-> Someone With a “Commercial Faith”, for Example, Might Have Started Accusing
God of Being Unfair, and They Might Have Started Shaking Their Fist at God,
and They Might Have Decided to Reject God
-> And the Sad Truth is That People Who do That Will Never Experience Spiritual
Healing, Because They Will Cut Themselves Off From the Very Source of It
______
Ill: James Dobson “When Live Doesn’t Make Sense” = the Vine Illustration
______
-> You Know Simon Peter, in Spite of All of His Many Faults, Knew This Much
-> He Knew That He Had to Remain Close to the Lord, and That is Why Peter
Didn’t Follow the Crowd When They Stopped Following Jesusin John 6
-> And When Jesus Asked Peter Why He Had Chosen to Remain, Simon Peter
Said This to the Lord, He Said,
"Lord, to whom (else) shall we go? You (alone) have words of eternal life”
(John 6:68) (Elaborate = That is a Great Question, Isn’t It?)
3) He Lost His Fitness
-> Even Though Job Was Totally Unaware of What Was Taking Place in the Spiritual
Realm, He Clearly Won This First Round
-> But Satan Wasn’t Finished Accusing Him in the Sight of God
Job 2:1-6 (Read)
-> One Thing We are Reminded of as We Read This is That Satan is Not Omnipresent
-> He Cannot be Everywhere at Once, and That is Why He Roams the Earth Searching
for Someone He Can Ruin (1 Peter 5:8)
-> He is Always on the Prowl, But He Can Never be in More Than One Place at a Time;
And So, This Should be a Source of Great Comfort to All of Us as Well
-> Now, After God Granted Him Permission, Satan Afflicted Job With Boils From
the Top of His Head to the Bottom of His Feet
-> We Really Don’t Know What This Disease Was (Elephantitis, Leprosy, Cancer),
But We Know That It Made Job Miserable, and That He Went Out and Sat
on an Ash Heap and Began Scraping His Sores With Some Old Pottery
Q.n = How Did Job React to All of This?
Ans = Amazingly, He Still Did Not Curse God
-> He Cursed the Day He Was Born; He Expressed a Desire to Die, But He Still Didn’t
Curse God (Comment =Prolonged),Even Though His Wife Encouraged Him to do So
Job 2:9 (Read)
-> By the Way, I Discovered What Job’s Wife’s Maiden Name Was This Week
Q.n = Do You Know What Job’s Wife’sMaiden Name Was?
Ans = Here It is “Kervorkian”(Of Course, I’m Only Speculating)
-> But Listen, if She’d Had Her Way, We Wouldn’t be Studying the Book of Job This
Morning, Because She Would Have Put Him Out of His Misery
-> Yet,I Want You to Notice How Job Responded to Her
Job 2:10 (Read)
St = Even Job’s Three so Called Friends Named Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar Didn’t
Give Him Any Real Comfort, Only Criticism
-> That’s Why Job Called Them “Miserable Comforters” in Job 16:2
-> They Just Kept Insisting That All of This Had Come Upon Job Because of Some
Hidden Sin in His Life, and That if He Would Repent God Would Rescue Him
Q.n = What Kind of Faith Did Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar Have?
Ans = They Had a “Commercial Faith” (Answer = Bargaining)
-> In Fact, Listen Carefully, the Truth is That Job’s Friends Felt Threatened by Him,
Because Job KeptInsisting on His Moral Innocence
Q.n = Why Did They Feel Threatened by This?
Ans = It Made Them Vulnerable
-> There are a Lot of People Like This in Our World Today Who Have a Shallow
Theology and a Lot of Pat Answers Who Can’t Accept Adversity From God
-> And When They Begin to Realize That Innocent, Godly, Righteous Men
and Women Sometimes Experience Hardships and Suffering in Life, This
Causes Them to Begin to Feel Very Uncomfortable (It Could Happen to Me)
-> They’re Like That Preacher I Heard About Who Was Met by a Man at the Train
Station Who Said, “Preacher a Tornado Struck My House and Leveled It”…
(Elaborate = “Well, Some of God’s Ways are Just Beyond Our Understanding”)
-> I Want to Tell You Something; Those Kinds of People do Not Havea Strong
Faith in God(Elaborate = Those Who Say “Never Have a Headache or a Hangnail”)