Now we're going to turn tonight in our Bible to Job chapter 10,
and I'm just going to read the verse 13 verses of the chapter,
Job chapter 10. Let's hear the Word of God.
Words will come up on screen for those online reading, of course,
from the King James Bible, Job chapter 10.
This is a little message that the Lord gave me few days ago.
One of my daily morning Bible readings.
Job chapter 10. Listen to these words.
Verse one. My soul is weary of my life.
I will leave my complaint upon myself.
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
I will say unto God, Do not condemn me.
Show me wherefore thou contend us with me.
It is good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress the work of
thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked.
Hast thy eyes of flesh, or seest thou as man seeth?
Are thy days as the days of man? Are thy years as man's days,
that thou inquirest after mine iniquity, and searches after my
sin? Thou knowest that I'm not
wicked, and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.
Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together.
Bring to bite, yet Thou dost destroy me.
Remember, I beseech thee, that Thou was made me as the clay,
and wilt Thy bring me into dust again.
Hast Thy not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like
cheese? Thy has clothed me with skin and
flesh, and has fenced me with bones and sinew that has granted
me life and fever, and Thy visitation hath preserved my
spirit. And these things as thou hid in
thine heart, I know that this is with thee.
Amen. We know that God will stamp with
His own approval and blessing this reading of His own precious
and infallible Word. Now my text tonight is taken
from Job chapter 10 verses 6:00 and 7:00.
It reads as follows that thou enquirest after mine iniquity
and searches after my sin. Thou knowest that I am not
wicked, and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.
And have entitled tonight's message.
Job's assurance of being acquitted by God.
Now Job is an Old Testament believer.
He's a saved man, one who feared God and who hated evil, and he's
come under attack from the powers of darkness.
God had permitted Satan to attack Job and deprive him first
of all of his ten children. 10 children were partying in the
house, and they all died at the same time on the same night.
A mighty tornado hit that house where they were partying, and
they were all dead. He deprived them of thousands of
his possessions. Think of his animals, his sheep,
his camel and his oxen, and also deprived him of his own health
and strength. Now here's an upright man.
And even though we feared God and hated evil, he's brought low
under the sovereign hand of a holy God and yet a loving God.
And in his mind, Job is struggling with a contradiction
between God's holy justice and his own suffering.
Job feels that God is searching him out.
He feels he's been treated as a criminal.
He he feels the exposure of sin that he doesn't perceive in his
own heart and mind. So here he is.
He's sitting in anguish of soul. He is mentally exhausted from
this deep storm of affliction that has engulfed his life.
And in his woe and in his anguish, Job turns to the Lord.
He does the right thing. He pleads before him for
answers. He wants to know why Lord.
He wants to know exactly what is happening to him, and in the
midst of his peeing and suffering, under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, he utters a most profound theological truth.
And the truth is this, that God is both the one who examines the
heart and God is the only one who can acquit the wicked.
Job acknowledges that no one can deliver out of God's hand.
What does that mean? It means this.
If he is to be justified, if he is to be acquitted in a legal
sense, then God himself must do it.
Only God has the power to do it. And these words, as I read them
the other day in my study, these words brought home to me this
theme of being acquitted by God, not on the basis of personal
merit, not because he deserved it, not on the basis of
religious rite and ceremony. He didn't go and join a church.
He didn't start doing religious things, but by the free,
sovereign grace of God. Listen to the text again, verse
6 that thou inquirest after mine iniquity and searches after my
sin. Thou knowest that I'm not
wicked, and there's none that can deliver out of thine hand.
Now three things tonight very quickly. 1 the scrutiny of
Jehovah's search. Look at verse 6 that thou
inquirest after mine iniquity and searches after my sin.
You see, God is not indifferent to sin.
God is not a passive observer. He inquires about our sin.
He searches for our sin. He examines us regarding our
sin. Remember first John 110 says if
we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and His word is
not in US. How many people affirm with
confidence, even brashness, that they have not sinned against
God, and they get angry when you tell them that they are a
Sinner? The Bible affirms this in the
book of Hebrews 4 and 13. All things are naked and opened
unto the eyes of him with whom they have to do.
Young people, tonight God's scrutiny is perfect.
He scrutinises our thoughts, our words, and our deed.
He examines our heart. He looks into our mind.
He thinks of the works of our hands.
God's scrutiny is penetrating. We talked about the onion this
morning. From the outside, layer upon
layer, The outer layer leads to the inner layer.
When you get into the inner, it leads to the outer.
You see, sin is not just on the outside, sinners, not just about
our behaviour. We don't just do wrong things,
we have hearts that want the wrong things.
The bottom line is this, we are sinners by nature and practise.
And to tell people that on the doors, to preach that from the
pulpit and on the street, people get mad and angry.
What is sin? Sure, the Catechism says sin is
any want of conformity unto your transgression of the law of God.
Let me teach you tonight from the Bible what sin is.
Sin is a transgression of the law.
First, John 3 and 4, the breaking of the 10 commandments.
That's the summary of God's law. Sin is more than just a
transgression of the law. Sin is knowing to do good and
doing it, not James 4 and 17. Knowing that you're to love God,
knowing that there's say no to sin and not doing it, that's
sin. The Bible even says that
unbelief is sin. Whatsoever is not a faith is
sin. Romans 14 and 23 the Bible says
in first John 517 all unrighteousness is sin.
So put that all together and here's God defining from us,
teaching us what sin is. And God's scrutiny of that sin
is not only perfect, but it's penetrating because it's our
thoughts, our words, our deeds. Imagine even unbelief saying
there is no God. The atheist is committing sin by
the way he lives and what he pronounces because the fool have
said in his heart there is no God.
I'll tell you something else. God's scrutiny is personal.
Imagine going to the doctor. There's something wrong with
you, but you can't quite figure out what it is.
And the doctor looks at you and says there's nothing wrong with
you, take a paracetamol and go away home.
But you've got a wound, you've got a sore, you feel pain in
your body. What do you want the doctor to
do? You want the doctor to examine
you. You want the doctor to probe.
You want the doctor to expose what is wrong.
Why? Because once he finds a correct
prognosis, then he'll tell you. And you see, the probing of the
doctor is not to destroy you, but to deliver you.
The probing of the doctor is not so that you're going to suffer,
but so that you can be saved and helped.
The probing of the doctors not to hurt you.
The probing of the doctor is to help you.
But before you could be helped, delivered, or saved, you must
have an honest exposure of the problem of the pain that you
feel in your body and what is true in the physical realm.
Here's Doctor Jesus, the great Physician, and your sin must be
brought to light. You have broken God's law.
You're a law breaker. In the book of Exodus in chapter
20 and in the verse three, he says thou shall have no other
gods before me. And if you love someone else or
love some other thing more than you love God, then you're
breaking that first commandment. Remember what we read there in
the Gospel of Matthew in Matthew chapter 23.
He says in verse 37, Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment, and the second is
like unto it. I shall love thy neighbour as
they shall. On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets. In other words, he took the 10
commandments and summarised them.
Love to God the first four and love to your neighbour the final
six. But the reality is natural, man
doesn't love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength,
and he certainly doesn't love his neighbour as he loves
himself. And what does that make us then?
That makes U.S. law Breakers. The Bible even tells us in
Colossians 3 verse 5, covetousness, which is idolatry.
The Bible says in the 10th commandment, thou shalt not
covet. And what is covetousness?
It is idolatry. It's it's a love for things that
maybe somebody else has and you wanted and you're going to do
anything you can to get that thing.
I'm speaking as a pastor. I'm speaking as a friend
tonight. And I don't have a big stick.
I don't have a club to beat you over the head.
I come as a a faithful pastor and friend because listen to
what our old reformers taught us.
True conviction must proceed, a true justification.
John Calvin said man never achieves a clear knowledge of
himself unless first he looks upon the face of God.
And when you look on the face of God, you discover what Job
discovered, That thou inquires after mine iniquity and searches
after my sin. God hates sin.
God searches out sin. God defines sin.
God punishes sin, and a true view of self is necessary before
there can be salvation. Remember what the Lord Jesus
said in Mark 7. For from within hears what comes
in out of the heart of man. For from within, out of the
heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornications, murders, theft, covetousness, wickedness,
deceit, lusciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pridefully, and
all these evil things come from within and defile the man.
Here's the sinner's practise. Here's a catalogue of things
that comes out of his heart and out of his life, and coming out
of his heart reveals that he's a Sinner by nature.
David said, Behold, I was shaped in an iniquity, and in sin did
my mother conceive me. And remember, the Bible teaches
in Revelation 21 and verse 27. And there shall in no wise enter
into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh
abomination or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the
Lamb's book of life. It's said in chapter 21, verse
8. But the fearful and unbelieving,
and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers
and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the
lake which burned up with fire and brimstone, which is the
second death. The fearful, the man or woman
who knows there's a God and knows he's a soul and knows he's
a Sinner and unbelieving, but doesn't want to believe that,
happy to live in their own way. We have such a light view of sin
today. The majority of people do not
have a true view of themselves. They think they're great.
They think they're wonderful in the sight of God.
Oh, and this and that. But we need, as Calvin said, a
clear knowledge of himself. And when does that begin?
When he first looks upon God's holy face.
So that's the first thing, the scrutiny of Jehovah's search.
The second thing in our text is this, the sincerity of Job's
statement. Look at chapter 17, chapter 10,
verse 7. Listen to these words.
Thou knowest that I'm not wicked.
This is what Job said to God. I am not wicked.
Thou knowest that I'm not wicked.
The word wicked is a legal term. It has to do with the law courts
and the legal justice system. The word wicket is connected to
the concept of deserving punishment, deserving judgement.
And Job is pleading before God. He's pleading confidently.
He's pleading calmly, asserting that he doesn't stand before
God, condemned. And let me tell you, Job is
absolutely correct because nowhere in the Bible or nowhere
in the book of Job do we read or find God condemning Job or God
rejecting Job. In fact, it's the opposite.
He receives Job, he he cares for Job.
Listen to what we read in Job chapter 1 and in the verse one.
There was a man in the land of Olives whose name was Job.
And that man was perfect, means fully committed and upright, and
one that feared God and eschewed evil.
You see, God praises him. God tells us that there's none
like him in the whole of the earth.
Job was not claiming here sin, this perfection, rather he's
asserting his integrity. What he's basically saying,
folks, is this. I'm a saved man, I'm an Old
Testament believer, I've a real and genuine faith in the Lord my
God. I am upright before God, I fear
Him, I hate evil. I'm not a guilty, hell deserving
Sinner, I was, but I've trusted Christ as my Lord and Saviour.
Job was telling us all that, and yet at the same time, he's still
a Sinner in need of God's grace. He's not sinless, but he's
sincere. He's not perfect, but he's
pardoned. He's got a full free forever
justification. And God knows that Job was not
wicked yet due to his circumstance and the situation,
Job feels as if he's been treated as if he were wicked.
Job, remember, as a tried and tested St of God, he knows and
loves the Lord. He fears the Lord, and he's
proclaiming here a wonderful truth, a majestic, glorious
biblical truth, a doctrine that stands at the core, in essence,
of what the gospel really is, and hears that truth.
Now listen to me carefully whenever a Sinner comes to the
Lord for salvation and redemption, when he calls on
him, when he believes in him and and repents before him and cries
out God be merciful to be the Sinner.
His sins, real as they are, legal as they are, because he's
a guilty, hell deserving Sinner with a polluted heart that's
impacted upon his behaviour. The moment he calls on the Lord
for pardon, that moment his sins are dealt with by the power of
the blood of Christ. His sins are blotted out, His
sins are put away. Remember Isaiah said, I, even I
am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own
sake, and will not remember thy sins.
See, here's the heart of the gospel.
God sent forth his Son to save sinners.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved. And the Lord Jesus was born for
sinners. The Lord Jesus lived for
sinners. The Lord Jesus fulfilled the the
precepts and penalty of the broken law for us.
He died in atoning death and the cross for us.
He rose again bodily from the dead for us.
And therefore, through receiving Christ as Lord and Saviour by
faith, we can have a full, free and forever pardon of sin.
We can know the joy of forgiveness, we can possess
eternal life here now, we can have fellowship with God, We can
experience peace with God. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you're in Christ tonight and received him as Lord and
Saviour, you can say before him, Thou knowest that I am not
wicked. True believers like Job may
boldly appeal to God, assert before him that truth, not on
the basis of immortal perfection, but on the basis of
an imputed righteousness, even the imputed righteousness of
Christ. The Bible says if any man be in
Christ is a new creature, all things have passed away, and all
things have become new, and all things are of God.
The Bible teaches us in Second Corinthians chapter 521.
For he that is God had been him that is Christ to be sin for us,
a sin offering. That's a tremendous truth, you
know. For he that is God hath made him
that is Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be
made what the righteousness of God in him.
It was Martin Luther that said at the same time we are
righteous and sinners, righteous in Christ, but sinners in and
off ourselves. Remember what the Lord Jesus
taught in John chapter 5 and in the verse 24.
He said this Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my
word and believeth on him that sent me hath what's He got
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but it's
passed from death unto life is not tremendous encouragement not
only the scrutiny of Jehovah's search and not only the
sincerity of Job's statement, but think finally of the
sovereignty of Jesus sentence. Look at verse 7.
And there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.
You see, here's a sobering truth.
God is the final authority. His judgement is ultimate.
It cannot be overturned. There's no appeal court above
him. There's no advocate outside of
his provision. There's only one righteous
advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no escape from his hand.
There's no exit from his sentence.
You see, if God condemns us, no man can save us.
One day we'll all stand before God.
Romans 14, verse 12. Then every one of us will give
an account of himself to God. God is holy, God is just, God is
wise, God is all powerful. One day we'll all give an
account, and the book shall be opened, and the book of life
with your name on it, it'll be opened.
And every sin of thought, word indeed is recorded in that book,
unless it's blotted out and covered by the blood that'll be
held against you. And the Lord will speak to us on
that day. He will address us that day.
There'll be no evading that day. There's no escape that day.
This is the day for which all other days have been made.
And if you're unrepentant, you'll tremble and you'll fear
in that day, and you'll stand without Christ.
And I'll tell you worse, you'll stand without comfort.
And on that day out of Christ in your sin.
This is what you will hear according to the Gospel of
Matthew in Matthew Chapter 7 and in the verse and 20 and three,
you, you, you will hear those terrible words.
In Matthew 7 and verse 23, you'll hear these words.
And then when I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart
from me, ye that work in equity. If God condemns us, then no man
can save us out of his hand. But if God acquits us, then no
man can condemn us. Remember what we read in the
book of Romans in Romans chapter 8, and we read there in the
verse 2033 and verse 34. Romans chapter 8, verse 3334.
We read these words. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
Who is he that condemneth? That is Christ that died.
Ye rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us?
You see, if none can deliver us out of God's hand, then God
himself must provide the deliverer.
The deliverer must come, and the good news is, he has come.
Has God provided a deliverer? Yes.
Who is he? The Lord Jesus Christ, Romans
11/26 There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall
turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and that fulfils the Old
Testament prophecy, one of the lovely titles of the Lord Jesus
the Deliverer. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? The answer is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Romans 7/24/25 who have
delivered us from the power of darkness.
Colossians 113 The Lord Jesus Christ, whose deliver us from
wrath to come. First Thessalonians 1 and 10
Jesus which delivered us from wrath to come.
You see, here's the gospel. Jesus was born for us.
Jesus lived to send us life for us, kept the law of God
perfectly. Jesus Christ in His own life was
searched, examined and found. Send us and spot us.
And even though that was true, He never committed a sinful
thought, uttered A sinful word, committed a sinful deed.
The Lord Jesus went away all the way to the cross.
Why did Christ die? Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures. That is, He took our punishment
upon Himself. He offered Himself as a once and
for all sacrifice for sin and is already read there in Romans
chapter 8. Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died. Yeah, rather that is risen
again. Who is even?
Where is he now? At the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. That's why we sang that
beautiful hymn. Could you imagine this scene as
we close tonight? Think of a judge on the bench
and he's a father and he's trying a case and that father
has two boys and one also works in the legal profession.
He is the chief prosecutor and then the defendant they bring in
to the dock his other son. His other son is a wild, wicked
man. He's been guilty of some
horrible crimes and that father has to sentence that other son.
He has to pronounce him guilty. He has to exact punishment.
The elder brother who's the prosecutor, he offers before his
father to be punished in the guilty stead of his blood
brother and his blood brother, he's pleading, is to go free.
Now that's a faint picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ did
on our behalf. I encourage you tonight to rest
alone in Christ. You're here, maybe full of
feelings. You're full of fears for the
future. Have you felt the weight of sin?
Are you conscious of it? Where do you go with guilty
feelings and guilty fears? I'm not good enough to stand
before God. When I stand in the judgement
I'm going to hear depart from me.
You curse it, you worker of iniquity and the everlasting
fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
But Despite that feeling and guilty fear, I urge you this to
rest in Christ alone. For if you rest in Christ alone,
then you're ready to meet the Father, and you'll not here
depart, you'll hear Come thy thy blessed come and inherit all
that the Father has. We're going to sing in closing
in a moment to him, and we specially choosing it.
And this is what the first verse says.
Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty, are my
glorious dress midst flaming worlds, and these arrayed with
joy, shall I lift up my head. You see, the God who searches
you sees you tonight. But the God who searches you and
searches your sin, and who sees you in a sight, He's the God who
saves you. And how can the Father see if he
saves through his Son? Who said I'm the way, the truth,
the life? No man comes unto the Father but
by me. And I ask tonight this will you
be acquitted? Will you be accepted into the
Father's house because you're resting in Christ?
Yes, you will. But unless you're resting in
Christ, you'll not be acquitted. You'll not be accepted into the
Father's house. And on what basis is that
acquitted, pronounced. The basis of receiving and
resting in Christ alone for salvation.
So I leave this little thought with you.
The assurance of being acquitted by God, the scrutiny of
Jehovah's search, the statement or the sincerity of Joe's
statement, and also the sovereignty of Jesus sentence.
I pray God will give you grace tonight if you're not resting in
Christ, if you haven't received him as your Lord and Saviour,
that you'll come and put your faith and trust in him.
If I can help you, if I can speak to anyone either on the
Internet or here tonight in the meeting, you know yourself
whether you're resting in Christ, whether you've received
him, or whether you're just living without Him, in a sense,
rejecting Him, saying no. May the Lord give you grace as
the Lord applies His word.