Continuing the Verbal Fistfight │ Msg 7/22

2:50 the words of a broken man. If you have ever been there, you can identify. If not, perhaps today's message will prepare you for a time when that may come to you. Would you bow with me for prayer, please? It is easy, our Father, to feel distant from the one we worship due to your silence. We are so accustomed to face-to-face encounters, to dialogue, everything from shallow talk shows all the way to dinner table discussion and deep, insightful talk with close friends and family. But with you, we've never heard your voice.

3:47 We've never seen your face. We therefore, at times, struggle, we confess to you. And in this faith kind of relationship, we are left to trust, and that is as it should be. That is as it should be. And so, our Father, we say with the songwriter that we need a rock that is higher than we.

4:19 One in whom we can hide. We need the conflicts and the sorrows that attack us to lead us, rather than to panic, to a place of solace and quiet. we would hide in you, our Father. We would find our hiding place in yourself, your person, your protection, your presence.

4:53 Always looking for crutches to lean on, we come to days like this and we are reminded that in Christ we have all that is necessary. forgive us for the substitutes we put in in his place forgive us our father for those wasted hours when we trusted in the arm of the flesh which has nothing to offer but disappointment and discontentment Our Father, we come today confident that you are able to meet our every need.

5:36 Yes, our every need. We have no other like you. Peter was right. To whom else shall we turn? You have the words of eternal life. but it gets difficult, it gets complicated. In life's demands, we find ourselves not in the same circumstances, thanks be to God, as Job, but in similar straits. We wrestle and struggle, and we long to know what it is to be still and learn again that he is God, that you are God, there is no other.

6:28 In the quietness of this time of offering, remind us once again that you are sufficient in all things. and as we come to the rock that is higher than we it is there we have solitude and security and hope and reassurance in a special way place your hand of blessing upon these gifts that are given out of hearts that are consecrated and committed to the work of ministry we pray that we will hold them loosely and dispense them wisely remembering that they are not ours they are yours and we commit them to you again now as we do ourselves.

7:23 In the name of Christ, our rock, we pray. Everyone said, Amen. Job and his friends remind me of a forest tale that comes from the northern part of Canada. It seemed as though there was a group of porcupines who on cold nights would huddle together. and to stay warm they pushed up close together but even though the weather was cold their quills were sharp and so they then because they pricked one another began to move further apart and then the cold blast of icy wind would blow on them and they would shuffle back together and they'd stay long enough until they could no longer stand the pricks from one another and they would push apart and they continued this strange dance through the night.

8:21 As one wag described it, they needed each other, but they kept needling each other. And it reminds me of Job. Who doesn't need the presence of a friend when all hell has broken loose in one's life? and who as a friend wants to stay away from someone who is going through the depths like Job was going through, knowing that there might be something that they could say that would bring sympathy and comfort and encouragement. And so they came together. But the closer they got together, as we're learning, the more though they needed each other, they kept needling one another. And rather than carrying out their purpose, which is so clearly stated in chapter 2 and verse 11 of the book of Job, they came for the purpose of sympathizing with him and comforting him.

9:24 They did neither. As a matter of fact, this verbal fist fight only got more severe. One man describes it this way, God appears to be torturing him for crimes which he has not committed, to be relentlessly pursuing him as an implacable foe, and without justice or reason, to be employing his resistless power to crush him to the earth.

10:26 This is the phantom which his friends are constantly setting before him. This phantom apparently so real, Job is incessantly obliged to fight or it would drive him to absolute despair. And so he does. And so they talk. And he responds. And they keep talking. And he responds. And they keep offering these shallow answers or philosophical meanderings, and he fights to survive. H.L. Mencken was the one who first said, There is always an easy solution to every human problem, neat, plausible, and wrong. they came with their neat answers that sounded so plausible to them but they missed sympathy and comfort by a mile Eliphaz was the first to speak, you may recall, and he came bringing experience as the basis of his message.

11:46 I have learned. I have observed. I have seen. And he brings all of that to Job as if Job needed to hear that. Job answers him with greater wisdom, and just about the time that Eliphaz steps back, the tag team match continues as a man named Bildad verse 1 of chapter 8 steps on the scene and if you think Eliphaz was offensive you need to meet Bildad I mean this man is even less tactful he talked about a human porcupine look at his opening line verse 1 Bildad the Shuhite answered, how long will you say these things and the words of your mouth be a mighty wind? You windbag. Now, can you imagine sitting there fevered from the sores that cover your body? The memory of 10 children now buried on the hillside, perhaps by your own hand, your wife whispering in your ear, you need to just curse God and let him take you off the earth.

12:57 Eliphaz coming with his no account counsel and on top of that along comes a second friend who is probably a little younger than Eliphaz. Though old in age, Bildad begins by saying, you're a bag of wind, Job. As he listened to these lines of Job that are recorded in chapters 6 and 7 that we have already looked at. We get to chapter 8. Bildad launches into three realms of argument. Let me give you those realms and then we'll touch on them before we read Job's answer. The character of God is in verses 3 through 7. Bildad speaks of that. The wisdom of the past, which is his basis for speaking, verses 8 and 9. And then, or really 8 through 10.

13:54 and then the evidence of nature, which he goes into in verses 11 to 19, followed by a few words of conclusion, none of which bring sympathy, none of which offer comfort. First, Bildad, after calling him an empty windbag, turns to the Lord God and gives Job a lesson in theology. That's always nice. when you're trying to survive, your mouth is covered with sores as well. You can't eat your food. You can't sleep at night. You can't find peace during the daytime. And on top of that, here comes a preacher with his comments about God, all of which you already know. And so it was with Job, as we'll see. Look at what he says. He says, does God pervert justice?

14:47 Does the Almighty pervert what is right? and if that's not bad enough, get this line. If your sons sinned against him, he delivered them into the power of their transgressions. Yep, means exactly what you think it means. I had to read it two or three times to believe a man would say such a thing. It's plain that your children sinned against him. Otherwise, why would God have punished him as he did?

15:15 Not only are you grieved over the loss of your children, Now this man has the audacity to say that they have died because God is punishing them due to their transgressions. It's amazing Job just didn't, at that point, punch him right in the kisser. But Job is a man of enormous patience. And it's good this book is not named Chuck. Let me just put it that way. Let me just put it that way, okay? If that were Chuck 8.4, you wouldn't read what you just read of Job's silence. And then he hits Job below the belt over and over again, and he does it in the name of God to make matters even worse. Listen to the pious, verse 5. If you would seek God as if he hadn't, if you would implore the compassion of the Almighty, if you really are pure and upright, Surely now he would rouse himself for you and restore your righteous estate.

16:24 The implication is what? It's obvious. Since you too are sinful, Job, God is not able to bring you or God is not willing to bring you to a state of health and relief. You're being punished, man. You're going through this because of punishment. though your beginning was insignificant your end will increase greatly please inquire of the past generation so he shoots back to the past earlier he said job look up and consider the character of god your sons had this happen to them because of the sinfulness of their lives you've had this happen to you because of sinfulness in your life and god who is holy and just and pure can do none other than what he has done. And as Job reels under that barrage, he now says to Job, look back, look back, Job. Verse 8, inquire of past generations. Consider the things searched out by their fathers. We are only of yesterday and know nothing. Our days on earth are as a shadow.

17:33 Will they not teach you and tell you and bring forth words from their minds? Bildad, being a traditionalist says because we know nothing by comparison we need to learn from those uh of of our forefathers those in days past go back to the patriarchs and listen to what they would teach us because our lives are so brief and their words linger on through the timelessness of of the uh of the duration of life on this earth, we can, we can draw from that. You know, the tactlessness of Bildad really grates on me. I know he has some strong things he wants to say, but you would think he would, he would say them carefully. He reminds me of a physician I know who, after giving a particular individual a treadmill test and the individual is rather portly and has finished the treadmill test and he's sweating and he's panting and he steps off the treadmill and the doc says, as he looks at the results, not bad for a guy as fat as you are.

18:43 I mean, the guy's done his best to stay on the treadmill. And now on top of that, he's told he's fat. I mean, some people have a great grasp of the obvious, don't they? Bildad is one of them. now then with the whole idea of cause and effect in mind Bildad addresses the subject of nature and he says we can learn you can learn from nature about what has happened notice in verse 11 the mention of the papyrus which is a plant of ancient days the mention of green in verse 12 we're in the garden now you can see that the spider at the end of verse 14 the garden is mentioned at the end of verse 16 roots that wrap around a rock pile in verse 17 he's out in nature okay he started with the character of god he then went to the past and he looked at the evidence of of the teaching of those in the past and now he looks around he's looking around in this wisdom poem and just as the cause and effect uh is true in life it's true in the world of nature, then it's true where you find yourself.

19:58 Let me draw that together for you. Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh? Implication is obviously no. Then in good poetic fashion, he repeats similar words. Can the rushes grow without water? The point is, if these plants do not have water, they will wither and die. And the implication is, Job, you are withering and dying because you're a hypocrite. It only follows that your hope is perishing because you haven't a pure heart and a right relationship before a holy God. Verse 13, here is he just drives it home with a hammer and nail. So are the paths of all who forget God. What's the implication? Job has forgotten God. and the hope of the godless will perish. He's now calling him even godless. And then he mentions a spider's web whose confidence is fragile, whose trust a spider's web. Can you lean on a spider's web and be sustained? No, of course not. No matter how confident, the web is fragile and will break. Job, your confidence is like that. You will soon break and you will fall. And then having said that, he turns to the garden, no matter how luxuriant the plant, no matter how strong the root system, when it is pulled up verse 18, if he is removed from his place, then it will deny him saying, I never saw you. The implication is that that is what has happened. God has uprooted you, Job, and, um, or something has happened to your root system that has led to this death-like condition in which you find yourself. Now you say, well, that's pretty complicated. Well, it's philosophy. Remember? They're the people who talk about things. They don't know what it's all about. They make it sound like it's your fault. And that's the way it is with Bildad. He is meandering around all these philosophical thoughts. And Job is sitting there

22:04 trying to put them together and think, what is there that I can gain from this? And then he closes it off with verse 20 through 22. God will not reject a man of integrity. What's the implication? You're not, nor will he support the evildoers. By now you're getting it. You've already seen where I'm going. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will be no more. You'll you'll know a day when you'll pass off this earth and all of life will be wonderfully restored for you. You'll know joy. He missed it by a mile. He certainly didn't get the point of what Job needed. A friend of mine sent me an example of this this week that I think illustrates it. A man asked his wife, if you could have anything in the world for one day, what would you want? And she said, well, I'd love to be six again, she said with a smile.

23:09 Early the next morning, the morning of her birthday, he got her up and off they went to a local theme park. What a day. He put her on every ride in the park, the death slide, the screaming loop, the wall of fear, everything that was. Five hours later, she staggers out of the theme park. Her head's reeling, her stomach is upside down. Off to McDonald's next. He ordered her two Big Macs along with extra fries and a thick chocolate shake. And then it was to an animated movie, the latest Hollywood blockbuster. There were hot dogs and popcorn and Pepsis and M&Ms, a fabulous six-year-old adventure. Finally, she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed into bed. And he leaned over and lovingly asked, Well, dear, how'd you like being six again?

24:05 One eye opened, she said, well, actually, I meant my dress size. You know, Bildad misses it by a mile. He comes at Job as if Job needs sermons and condemnation and illustrations from the past and philosophical thought and examples from nature and spiders, webs, and roots around rocks and all of this. And Job just says, look, can you help solve the sores I've got all over my body? Or can't you just say you're here to be with me and to sit alongside as I try to survive? but I don't need to put words in Job's mouth.

25:07 He can speak for himself, and he answered. Now, remember last time we were together? Remember I told you about the cycles in Job? Get that clear in your mind, or you'll be at odds with the book. It'll be a jumble of words and dialogue that doesn't tie together. There's no reason to view it like that. There are three cycles, three cycles, And in these cycles, there are dialogues. The first cycle, there is first Eliphaz, Job answers him. Bildad, Job answers him. Zophar, Job answers him. That finishes the first cycle. Then there's a second cycle, which is exactly the same rhythm as the first. Same ones speak, Job answers each one. The third cycle, everyone but Zophar speaks. Maybe he's walked away with his hands up saying, I can't get through to him. Job isn't very teachable. I'm not going to waste my wisdom on a man like that. And then there appears finally a younger man named Elihu, E-L-I-H-U, chapter 32. And he continues until finally God comes on the scene and they all get the evaluation.

26:19 Sorry, counselors are every one of you, which is a great way to put it. And then the men are put in their place. And they, in fact, are, Job is to pray for them and they make things right. But we're not there yet. It's interesting. You know, there are people like this. There are people like this. I... yeah here it is oh one man puts it this way it seems almost incredible that bildad would reply so callously there's not only indifference to job's plight but an arrogant certainty that job's children got just what they deserved and that job was well on his way to the same fate the lesson we must learn is that there are such people in the world and that they do their heartless disservice to mankind under the guise of being the special friend of God have you noticed that the harshest letters I've ever received have come from fellow Christians who sign it in Christian love.

27:45 Or they begin it with, God told me to write you this. And I thought when I read it, I wonder if he's baritone or bass. And then they unload a piece of their mind they couldn't afford to lose in this letter. Eliphaz ventured a word, but I'm telling you, Bildad was downright blunt. He opens with a blast. I just want to add here, no extra charge. Think before you write a letter of criticism. Think.

28:27 I believe it was Franklin, Benjamin Franklin. I believe it was Franklin, who said, write your complaints in dust, your affirmations in marble. Don't record for posterity your complaints, please. If you need to do that, then say them. Say them face to face and say them kindly. Before you do that, put yourself in the shoes of the other person for a considerable period of time. Chances are good you'll never say a word. or if you do, you'll say them with greater tact. And I'm telling you things that I've had to learn the hard way. I've rarely felt sorry for things I did not say.

29:10 I've often felt sorry for things I said and almost without exception felt badly that I wrote them. and I have no one in mind if I did I'd call your name but I don't because I the wonderful thing about Stonebriar Community Church is that we don't have a lot of people that grouse about petty things thank the Lord many a pastor I know right now lives under the gun of some blast from some Bildad in his life who just has taken him on as he's in the crosshairs of his sight. I just read one yesterday, a letter from a brother.

29:58 A particular officer in the church is just making his life miserable. Now, why do we do that? Job answers and his words are shaped hopefully to fit Bildad's brain assuming there is one sizable enough to get it Job answered you idiot no, no, no he says no, he says he says actually Bildad I know all of this that you have told me. And that's not pride. It's a fact. Bill, Dad, listen. I know those things. Bill, Dad, I've walked with God my adult life.

30:54 In truth, I know so much of what you're telling me. But my question is, how can a man be in the right before God? Tell me that. Scratch the itch. Build it. You're missing the need a mile.

31:20 How? How can I be declared right before God? Oh, you know, I so want Job to scoot ahead by the centuries and meet the Savior. The only way you and I can know what it is to be right before God is to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the person of his son, we are as righteous as he. Job longs to know that kind of peace. You see how he views God? Look at his response.

32:01 He says, in effect, none of what you've told me helps my case. God is... is huge. If one wished to dispute with him, he could not answer him once in a thousand times. Still speaking of the Lord God, wise in heart and mighty in strength, who has defied him without harm? See the fear that there is in him. It is God who removes the mountains, they know not how. When he overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble, referring to clearly an earthquake. Or a volcano. Who commands the sun not to shine and sets a seal on the stars. Who alone stretches out the heavens and tramples down the waves of the sea. Who makes the bear.

32:52 Orion and Pleiades. The chambers of the south. He goes to the stellar spaces. And he alone does that. Who does great things, unfathomable, wondrous works without number. yes I know a great God is what I need is an audience with him look at him he is the one who does all of this about us and he is enormous and I fear him I stand before him in awe and wonder all I want is to be able to approach him and talk this out you haven't helped me do that build that. now with that there are four lines of questions that are that that follow and and keep in mind job has an in the back of his mind we're going to see a courtroom he would love to be able if you will to step into a divine courtroom and to speak to the judge the lord god he would love to walk just as he is covered with these sores and the sadness of his life and the bankruptcy of his condition and just stand before the judge and argue his case.

34:13 Not to be impudent, but to be on a level where they could talk this through. He knows that his God would have answers for him. So, these four lines of questions are, number one if I could stand before God what would I say? verses 14 to 19 see verse 14 how then can I answer him and choose my words before him if I could stand before God what would I say? though I were right I could not answer I would have to implore the mercy of my judge if I called and he answered me I could not believe that he was listening to my voice For he bruises me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause. He will not allow me to get my breath, but saturates me with bitterness.

35:08 It is a matter of power. Behold, he is the strong one. If it is a matter of power, he wins. So if I could stand before him, what would I say? Here's the second question. If I could declare my own innocence, what good would it do? That's 23-24. If I could declare my innocence, what good would it do? Though I am righteous, verse 20, my mouth will condemn me. Though I am guiltless, he will declare me guilty. I am guiltless. I do not take notice of myself. I despise my life. It is all one. Therefore, I say he destroys the guiltless and the wicked. If the scourge kills, suddenly he mocks the despair of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. he covers the faces of its judges. Remember, this is Hebrew poetry.

36:01 Leave some of it. Let it settle. It would be valuable to turn it over in our minds for another hour to plumb the depths of such writings as this. But the point is, if I could declare my own innocence, what good would it do? And then 25 through 31, if I tried to be positive and cheerful, how would that help? 25 to 31. If I tried to be positive and cheerful, how would that help? Look down at verse 27. Though I say I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my sad countenance and be cheerful. I'm afraid of all my pains. I know that you will not acquit me. I am accounted wicked. Why then should I toil in vain? It won't work. And now the real question. the underlying question.

36:56 If I only had a mediator, I could have my needs represented. I could have the truth told. 32 to 35. Now look closely. You'll love this. For he, referring to God, he is not a man as I am, that I may answer him. that we may go to court together. there is no umpire between us who may lay his hand upon us both.

37:36 The point is, if I had a mediator, I could find a go-between so that I could communicate with this mighty and wise and holy God. But there is not. See the word umpire He's calling for a mediator One who could argue his case Job wished to present his case in God's court But he can't find a mediator Hold your place and look at 13.3 Job 13.3 I would speak to the Almighty and I desire to argue with God. That means to bring his case before him and plead it. Look at verse 15 of that same chapter. 13, 15.

38:29 Though he slay me, I will hope in him. Nevertheless, I will argue my ways before him. Verse 18. Behold, now I have prepared my case. I know that I will be vindicated. I've thought through what my case would be. And I would love to come and stand before this holy judge, this God of mine, but I can't do it because he's not a man to come to me. And I am not, I missed this earlier, the end of verse 35, chapter 9. I am not like that in myself. I don't have what it takes to come before him. I need a go-between. I need an arbitrator.

39:07 I need a mediator. years ago when I worked as a machinist working my way through school there was the threat of a strike and the union stood on one side with the laborers and management stood on the other side and there was a great gap in between interestingly an arbitrator was hired to come in. He had nothing to gain in the eyes of the union. He had nothing to gain in the eyes of the management. He was supposedly completely neutral. And he came and worked long and hard to hear both sides as both presented their causes. And then he passed a decision, and the the paper had been signed that if the arbitrator could bring the two together, the issue would be solved and there would be no strike.

40:07 In fact, he did, and there was no strike. But it was interesting to watch the process occur because this man became the representative of both sides and yet not gaining from the argument or losing because of the argument. he was able to judge in the midst of the argument the best decision. And it was fair and it was right and it solved. He put his hand on one, he put his hand on the other as it were, and he stood between the two and he solved the issue. That's what Job wants. But he doesn't have one. he doesn't qualify to stand before God. He isn't God or he isn't deity. And God is not a man that he can come stand before him. So he's stuck. You see why I said, would that Job had lived a few centuries later.

41:05 Let me show you why. Look at 1 Timothy 2. There is a New Testament. 1 Timothy 2. 1 Timothy 2 verse 3 Paul writes to his younger Timothy explaining here the go-between, the mediator 1 Timothy 2.3, not 2 Timothy, it's 1 Timothy 2.3 this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator. One go-between. One arbitrator. One umpire.

42:01 There is one God. Don't forget that in this in this era of many gods, don't you tell one another that all the gods are the same. Don't you believe that lie? There is one God, the creator God. It is not Allah.

42:21 It is the living God of the scriptures. There is one God. And there is one mediator between this God of the heavens who has made us and all things pertaining to us and humanity on this earth. And he has identified there is one mediator, the man Christ Jesus. There are not many. The way is narrow. Don't believe the lie. Don't be afraid to be that specific. I hear people struggle with specificity. When I hear people struggle with that, I think, do you want people to be specific about the flights you take? You ever call up and they'll say, well, it's flight 413, or it actually might be 1096, or really it could be 309. You say, no, no, I want to know which flight is it. Well, and also it takes off from DFW, actually could be Love Field, and flight departs at 1214, thereabouts, maybe 110 or 230. You go, wait a minute, get specific isn't that amazing something as simple as a flight we want exact numbers and times and gates you don't want to walk all over the airport going oh let's see i'm open-minded i'll take i'll i'll take whatever flies just just so the pilot is sincere and and and it looks good It seems right.

44:02 It's just like I need to feel it deeply when I get on the plane. What a crock. There is one God. There is one mediator between God and men, and it is the man Christ Jesus. That is truth, men and women.

44:23 In a pluralistic world, you will not hear that. And by saying that, you will be called intolerant, which is one of the great compliments you will ever hear from the liberal, to be called narrow. Jesus said it, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but through me, not us, not several. one God, one mediator, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. Oh, Joe, there is a mediator. You just haven't met him. But someday, someday, Joe, you'll hear of this. Job therefore back to Job 9 don't you hate to go back?

45:23 I just want to stay in Timothy because it's so it's so helpful there Campbell Morgan writes the cry of Job was born of a double consciousness which at the moment was mastering him. First that of the appalling greatness and majesty of God and secondly that of his own comparative littleness. It was the cry of a man who knew God and was overwhelmed by the sense of his greatness. Over against this was the sense of his own comparative smallness. Track this. This is great writing. He felt he could not get to God. He was altogether too small. It is as though Job had said, there is no umpire. There is no arbiter. There is no one who can stand between us, interpreting each to the other, me to God, God to me. There is no one to lay his hand upon us. Job was crying out for someone who could stand authoritatively between God and himself and so create a way of meeting a possibility of contact. We now turn from the elemental cry of Job from the Old Testament to consider the apostolic word concerning Jesus.

46:22 There is one mediator between God and man. That is the gospel in brief. That is Christianity fundamentally. By faith alone in Christ alone, and there is no other. There is no other way. Job says because he doesn't have that umpire verse 1 of chapter 10 I loathe my own life it's like he would he just gasps I loathe the fact that I haven't a way to stand before the judge on that great divine throne so I plead verse 2 do not condemn me Let me know why you contend with me. Is it right for you indeed to oppress me? He has every right to ask that. He's confused.

47:14 He doesn't get it. He doesn't have a mediator to say, Job, let me explain what's happening to you. And to the living God to represent your case. That's why I'm here. I love toward the end of this chapter I need to race through this verse 18 why then have you brought me out of the womb he's back to that same old song he was in in chapter 3 why did you let me be born alive would that I had died and no eye had seen me would that I had died in the womb and never having been seen I should have been as though I had not been carried from womb to tomb why isn't that a great way to put it you know that was in the Bible when I first read that several years ago, I thought what a perfect slogan for a church and its ministry from womb to tomb. We minister from womb to tomb.

48:08 Boy, then I looked at the context and I thought, yikes, I don't want to do that. That's nothing. it's like you'll sometimes see in a graveyard etched on tombstones a little sleep, a little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest and it'll say proverbs or it'll say sleep well darling or whatever on the stone and I appreciate that but when you check out Proverbs 6.10 you realize that is addressing the sluggard the lazy slobs sleeping late refusing to wake up, to get involved, and it says at the end of that same section, your poverty will come like a vagabond. Yikes! Take that off the stone, you know. You don't want to, don't put that on your stone, a little sleep, a little slumber. When you look at a whole context, it makes better sense, doesn't it?

49:02 Why didn't he just take me from the womb right to the tomb? Oh, Joe. And have your testimony missed by so many of us who need to read it? and learn from you? Job, though God stays silent, remember there's no word from God in here. Bless his heart. I sound like Mark Young. Bless his heart when I say that.

49:30 Let me give you a couple lessons that linger and then I'm through. When misery breaks our spirit, philosophical words don't help us cope. when misery breaks our spirit philosophical words don't help us cope and that's all those men had to offer as hard as Bildad may have tried he said nothing that brought relief or solace or strength to Job and his misery when misery breaks our spirit philosophical words won't help us cope here's the second more powerful of the two when a mediator can't be found futile searches won't give us hope. When a mediator can't be found futile searches won't give us hope.

50:30 Job is right. Death is better than this if I haven't a mediator. The good news is every person here whether you even have thought of it before every one of you has a mediator. Every one of them. It's the same mediator. The same one who represented me as a little boy who came to Jesus just as I was. And told the Lord God, I believe in you and I trust you. And I believe Jesus died for me. And I believe he's living. I believe he was raised from the dead for me. And, you know, at that moment, my mediator represented me before the living God. How wonderful. He will do the same for you. do the very same because you have an umpire Great thought. Let's bow together.

51:23 If you've never turned in faith to this one who has opened the way for you, this is the perfect time to do it. This is the moment. This is why you came today. This is the message for you. One God, one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. turn to him today. Wouldn't you do that? This is the call for you. to turn to Christ alone.

51:59 Thank you, Father, for the hope that there is in the Lord Jesus and in him alone. Thank you for the reminder that we have what Job didn't have. We have an umpire. We have an arbitrator. We have the precious treasure of the Savior. and it's in him we find our reason for continuing though our current world temporarily falls apart. Thank you for the rock, the stability that he is for us and we find our hope only in him. May those who've never met him come to know him this very day. I ask believingly in Jesus' dear name.