Reassuring Hope for the Assaulted and Abused │ Msg 10/22

0:01 Save a little time by having you look through Job 18 and 19 during this time of our receiving of the offering. And then when you get through doing that, put your worship folder over there in Job 1. And we'll continue our study in this book today as we offer reassuring hope for the assaulted and abused. our father we pause to thank you for bringing jonathan and his crew safely back after those many many many months thank you for watching over our women and men who serve in uniform in far removed places in lonely places in dangerous places in secret places For such a time as this, you have raised up.

1:02 These who serve and we who live, thank you for our president and for his cabinet and for those men and women of Congress for such a time as this. thank you for the privilege of living in this 21st century in a culture that's lost its way we have been allowed to step onto this planet through our birth and through the growing up years having gone through all we've gone through to be ready for such a time as this. we give, Lord, not because we have to. We can't help it.

1:57 It's just the way you put us together. You've given us so much, and we have been the recipients of that bounty, and now it's our joy to give in return. Thank you for our friends today who visit with us, and thank you for bringing them here for such a time as this.

2:18 In many ways, I pray that you will show them the importance of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom to know means everything, even life to the maximum. Now, Lord, in our worship, which we do take seriously, we pause to thank you for providing for our occupation, for health, for a car to get us there and back, for protection from the elements with a roof over our heads and air conditioning in the summer and heaters in the winter, for clothing to cover us and food to fill us. Your gifts are constant and abundant. and out of this all it's our pleasure to give to you watch over these gifts may they be spent wisely under the spirit's direction that we might invest ourselves for such a time as this in the name of Christ we pray in the name of Christ we give and everyone said amen.

3:46 What did you talk about at breakfast early in the morning of September the 11th, 2001? Don't remember, do you? There was a small group of people who will never forget what they talked about at breakfast. They had gathered at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. with the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. and they listened to him as he, at that time it seemed, simply offered a theoretical concern. Some might have even gone so far as to say a studied prediction. He said sometime in the next 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 months, there will be an event in the world that will remind people how important it is to have a strong, healthy defense department.

4:55 Little did Rumsfeld and any of those who sat at the breakfast at 8 o'clock that morning in the Pentagon have any idea that Flight 77 was on its way from Dulles International to the Pentagon building.

5:17 How could they have known? Jeffrey Crams, author of The Rumsfeld Way describes the man's immediate reaction when within minutes after the words had fallen from his lips that plane crashed into the other side of the Pentagon taking 180 of Rumsfeld's colleagues and high-ranking officers in the military. Crams writes, The Economist reported, Rumsfeld had done what soldiers have to do, stand fast when the world explodes around you.

6:27 He led by example. During that time and in the hours that followed, what some were calling an out-of-touch Secretary of Defense was transformed into a courageous Secretary of War with a vital mandate. that to this day he has not forgotten. at eight o'clock in the morning of September 11, the same man who had spoken theoretically of the possibility of a tragic event found himself engaged in the same in less than an hour. Reminds me of Job. Remember chapter 1, verse 6?

7:18 Remember how it began? Now there was a day. It seems so innocuous. Like the dawning of the 11th of September, just another early autumn dawn.

7:41 The smell of autumns in the air. Children have been hustled off to school or driven there, and moms and dads are busy about their work, and the world of commerce has just begun. With Job, I can't help but imagine his standing at the kitchen window as his wife is finishing the breakfast and he says to her, you know, sweetheart, just look at this. Crops are full. Caravan is on its way right there. Another coming in. Servants busy. look over there at our son's home. Look at that. And she walks over and looks with him, puts her arms around his waist.

8:32 He says, you know, honey, it may not always be like this. may not always be like this. You know, it's going to all change. while Satan is meeting with the Lord God, offering a sinister strategy, Job and his sweet wife finish the conversation with a soft kiss and sit at the table to talk of home and family and life and the future. until all hell breaks loose. who would have ever imagined.

9:26 And Job, too, ran toward the smoke. And there were buildings that were scattered like pieces of firewood thrown in the air, and one servant after another bringing horrible news and then worse news and then the ultimate all ten children are dead. and he loses it all, possessions, staff, the ability to make a living, his children, and while still soiled from the burial, chapter 2 begins the same innocuous way again. There was a day.

10:17 Another one of those sunrises. Satan back for round two with the eternal God, saying with something of a sneer, yeah, you protect him, but you let this pain touch him, and he will curse you to your face. Who wouldn't serve you in good health? he realized that Job did not blame God, nor did he in any way sin, the last verse of chapter 1 reads, and Job thinks he's gone through it all, he's washing up and drops in bed that dreadful night, only to awaken sore to the touch.

11:12 And before that sun goes down, he's covered with boils. And by the end of that week they're bursting and they're itching and the fever is rising and he's swelling and he shaves his head and he stumbles away from what was once his lovely plantation and finds his way to where dogs root for food, the city dump. Man. cries. But in all this, Job does not sin with his lips. he must have thought when sitting there and his wife comes close to suggest that he simply cursed God and die.

12:06 He must have thought, I remember, honey, when I was standing at the kitchen window. Remember that? Remember that? Secretary of the War, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld must have replayed his speech a hundred times in his mind over these last many months. Remember when I said two, three, four, twelve months? Job, many, many centuries earlier, led by example. And he has become, for all of us, not a perfect man, not a flawless man, not an ideal model, that's Christ, but a remarkable, patient, enduring soul, who to this day has given us a cliche, the patience of Job.

13:11 who knows how many laid aside by sickness have reminded themselves of the story of Job. I can tell you my wife and I, having gone through a few things recently that have just been completely out of the blue, have reminded ourselves several times, just spontaneously, it just takes the endurance of Job to stay at it. and if the pain and the suffering and the loss and all of this destruction were not bad enough, there comes from a distance a handful of friends. Chapter 2, verse 11 tells us at the end of the verse, they came by appointment to sympathize with him and to comfort him.

14:10 That was their goal. That was their objective. they corresponded, they communicated with one another, each living in a different place, and they agreed on the same objective, and they would go and they would put their arms around their hurting friend, and they would thank him for his life, and they would bring him encouragement. But something got lost between the planning of that objective and the implementation of it. Somehow the agenda got blurred. They sat for a week and stared at him, not able to speak because they saw his pain was great. Verse 13 of chapter 2, and as someone said, no problem there. The problem came when they decided to speak.

15:04 And at that point, I think a worse pain than Job had ever known, struck and stayed with him for an undetermined period of time. You and I have known people who have lost things. You and I have known people who have gone belly up in business. You and I know people who have buried not one but several children. I know of one family who buried four in one day.

15:33 But I doubt that we know someone who was landed on after all of that by a handful of people who came for the distinct purpose of criticizing and judging and ultimately condemning this victim. That's exactly what they did.

15:56 Satan danced with glee. It was wonderful. Without knowing it, they were his spokesmen. This is going to work. god will see the man curse him to his face no one can hold up under that kind of barrage and the full first cycle runs its course from chapter 3 through chapter 14 as eliphaz and then bildad and then zophar take their turns as they bent their spleen on him and then round two kicks in in chapter 15. And again, taking turns, probably because Eliphaz is the oldest, he kicks in and dumps his goods and then steps up Bildad for the second round. It's like a tag team match in an unfair wrestling event where they're going to slam him to the mat over and over and over and over again.

16:56 It's getting a little boring. I know. I've looked into your faces now for weeks, and I understand. My family is starting to ask, now how many more weeks are we going to be on Job? My answer is now too many.

17:18 We only have 42 chapters of this, folks, so take heart. We'll be through about the year 2005. No, I'm trying to get through it, but I just can't skip along and play with these passages. God's preserved him for reasons we need to learn. Chapter 18, Bildad responds now for the second time. And if you like comparing, look at chapter 8, verse 2, and compare 18 to, And you'll see its same song literally second verse they began the same how long

18:04 Bill dad's getting a little put out How long will you hunt for words show understanding and then we can talk? Why are we regarded as beasts as stupid in your eyes? Oh you who tear yourself in your anger for your sake is the earth to be abandoned? I mean, does time stop because you have a little pain? Or the rock to be moved from its place? Is God going to hold his breath while you get your life straightened out? That's all the implication of these kind of sarcastic accusations, this exasperating, insulting kind of beginning. George Bernard Shaw once compared the average conversation to a phonograph with half a dozen records. You soon get tired of them all. You have one of those little cartridges in the back of your car where you put in, you can put in only four or six CDs.

19:02 You put them all in. You think that's a great idea when you buy the car. And then you put it in there and then you put the spare tire back in place. You put the cowling back on there and you put the carpet back up in place. You put all the stuff back in. and you realize, good night, how many times am I going to hear this same song over and over and over? It's like small talk at a dull social gathering. It'll drive anybody to drink. I mean, good night. No wonder they drink so much at those gatherings. You've got to stand the talk. How long, Job? How long? That's the way Bildad sees this whole thing. He's not interested in Job's pain. He's interested in Job shutting up and admitting that he's sinful. Here's the way Bildad thinks.

19:56 God is just and fair. God punishes the wicked and he blesses the righteous. If you repent, God will bless you. If you don't repent, he'll keep judging you. Repent. Job is not repenting. He hasn't done anything wrong.

20:17 But you see, Bildad's theology doesn't have room for mystery. Like many Christians today, many. If you suffer, you're out of God's will. He wants everybody well. What horrible theology. if he wanted everybody well we'd all be well he's god he's in charge he doesn't go oh how'd you get sick he's not like that he's running the show if you will he deliberately allows sickness he deliberately permits sometime for mysterious reasons never revealed other times clearly for reasons that he does reveal. But he is in charge.

21:10 And if you pray for the healing of an individual and healing doesn't come, it's not the individual's fault. Because God doesn't want everyone well. Paul himself prayed three times that this thorn would be taken from him, and the Lord said three times, no, no, no. And Paul stopped praying. Most gladly, therefore, will I learn through this that the power of God may rest on me. It's a mystery, but Bildad hasn't any room for mystery. It's clear in build ads mind that there is some secret sin somewhere in job's life That if we stay on him long enough, he'll finally finally admit it I think this great sin that Joe brussel with is how do I kill these guys, but that's just that's just uh No extra charge for that. It's just a Thought that I would have had had I've been sitting there covered in boils uh Bildad now visits Job with one reminder after another of death.

22:24 How's that for a counselor? How's that for a friend? He pulls out all the stops and underscores the presence, verse 14, chapter 18, of the king of terrors. The king of terrors. Put on your margin, death. That's what he's referring to. This is poetry. He uses poetic language. He uses allegory. He uses analogy. He uses word pictures and the poetry of his presentation. And he pictures Job dying in four different word pictures. Verses five and six, a light going out. Indeed, the light of the wicked goes out. The flame of his fire gives no light. The tent is dark, verse 6. Second, a person who is trapped, heading for death. That's verses 7 through 10. The vigorous stride is shortened and his own scheme brings him down. There's an implication that you have a scheme, Job, and you're not admitting it.

23:31 You're not confessing it. Notice the word pictures for this trapped person. He is thrown into the net by his own feet. He steps on the webbing. Nine, a snare seizes him. Verse nine concludes, a trap snaps shut. Verse 10, a noose for him is hidden in the ground, a trap for him on the path. And then when you get to verse 11, he becomes a fugitive who is being pursued. And here is where he introduces the king of terrors by name. All around, terrors frighten him. So there are terrors to frighten him. Verse 11. There's exhaustion that weakens him. Verse 12. His strength is famished. There's calamity that confuses him. Calamity is ready at his side. Sound like Job? Keep reading. His skin is devoured by disease. Job, listen. These are all signs of you and your life. Verse 14. You're torn from security, from the security of your tent. You've lost it all. You've had the removal of all of your goods and all of your financial security. Ultimately, look at 15, how it ends.

24:45 Brimstone is scattered on his habitation. Hell itself, Job. Fire and brimstone, that's coming, Job. Then he describes him after a light that's extinguished and a person that's trapped and a fugitive that's being pursued. He shows him to be a tree that's uprooted, verse 16. His roots are dried below, his branch is cut off, memory of him perishes from the earth like a tree that's cut down. In the passing of years, you can't even remember where it was. There's no name. He's driven from light to darkness and chased from the inhabited world, no offspring, no posterity among his people nor any survivor where he sojourned. Surely, look at this grim conclusion, verse 21. Such are the dwellings of the wicked.

25:40 Can't you hear Bill that? Such are the dwellings of the wicked. This is the place of him who does not know God. Whoa! I mean... Here is Job, itching, madly, fever. He's growing, and he's head shaved, and he's dirty there sitting in that city dump. And here is this man with the audacity to dress him down and to judge him. why would the Lord include this in his word well if I may Bildad still lives.

26:37 Sometime he comes in the form of a mate who no matter what cannot bring a word of encouragement or affirmation. sometime it comes in the form of a boss. Sometime it's a preacher in a pulpit that's using it as a hammer to beat the sheep. Sometime it's a careless and angry head nurse who, you know, will be glad when you're gone so you can get the bed clean, get somebody else in here.

27:18 But Bildad still lives. You know, he made two major mistakes. First, he's talking to the wrong person, and second, he's speaking with the wrong motive. Let me tell you something. The things Bildad says about death and about being haunted by death and being driven to this frightening degree, it's true if you don't know Christ. he's got the wrong man in mind but it's true Bildad's right there is a way that seems right to the man but the end thereof are the ways of death you and I know people who do not know the Lord Jesus and we try every gracious way we know to present to them hope and reassurance and forgiveness and a reason to go on and we weave into it words regarding their coming to Christ and they blink and look at us and they say, no, we make it on our own.

28:13 Well, that's what you get when you try to make it on your own. And the horror is it, this is the place of him who does not know God. But you see, Bildad has no right to say this to a fellow believer. Now let's notice Job's reply.

28:34 Job heard his opening words, verse 2 of chapter 18. Look at Job's opening words. Verse 2 of chapter 19. How long will you torment me and crush me with words? These ten times you have insulted me. You are not ashamed to wrong me. I have the verbs underlined in my Bible. Torment, crush, insult, wrong.

29:03 Let me step in here before we get neck deep in this with Job. reproof is a good thing we all need accountability no question some don't like and don't want accountability so any kind of reproof is resisting preachers love to be kept free of reproof so they love the verse touch not god's anointed All right. So I, you know, I'm a man of the book. You don't, you don't correct me. I'm above that. I correct you. That's garbage.

29:39 We all need reproof. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Faithful are the wounds. Trustworthy are the bruises caused by the wounding of one who loves you. The Hebrew reads, trustworthy are the bruises caused by the wounding of one who loves you, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. You've been kissed by a deceitful enemy lately? isn't pleasant. When you find out that it was deceitful, the kisses didn't mean anything. How much better to have a faithful reprover who loves us too much than to let us get away with wrong. Don't resist reproof, men and women.

30:27 If the reproof comes from the right person in the right way for the right motive, take it. Be grateful for it. It's trustworthy. That's why growing up in the right kind of home is so wonderful. Your moms and dads, reprove.

30:47 The best and most consistent reproofs many of us ever got came from faithful moms and dads who corrected us when they saw us doing wrong and sometimes spanked us and didn't let us get away with being ugly or impudent or deceitful or brutal in our behavior. Let me show you how the tongue can, on the other hand, become a deadly thing. Look at the next book to the right, Psalm number 57. David is writing this as he's fleeing from Saul, which went on for 12 years or so. Imagine that.

31:38 Now stay with me. We've got a point we want to make here. Like all good preachers, it takes me a while to make the point. So stay with me there. Look at 57.4. My soul is among lions. I must lie among those who breathe forth fire, even the sons of men whose teeth are spears. Even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword. Sword thrusts, shoved in, twists, shoved in, twisted.

32:14 That's abusive. That's assaulting people with our tongues. David had been in the been the target of that look at 64 chapter psalm 64 hear my voice oh God in my complaint preserve my life from dread of the enemy hide me from the secret counsel of evildoers from the tumult of those who do iniquity look at their description who have sharpened their tongue like a sword and they aimed bitter speech as their arrow to shoot from concealment at the blameless. This hurts maybe most of all to be attacked in secret, behind the scenes. Things are said against us and not only do we not know, we don't even realize the impact that it's having on people who once believed in us. But the sword thrusts are going on. That's a wrong kind of use of the tongue. Look at Proverbs 12. One more book to the right. Proverbs 12, verse 18. There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. There's the difference. Good reproof brings healing. Ultimately, it hurt. Initially, it hurts.

33:39 Ultimately, it heals. How good it is when we have friends close enough to us to put their arms around us and warn or correct or point out an area that is getting out of control or out of line. I can't let you leave Proverbs without another quick glance. 15 for a soothing tongue is a tree of life, but perversion in it crushes the spirit, crushes the spirit. There's another proverb, like apples of gold and settings of silver, so as a wise reprover upon an obedient ear, Proverbs 25, 11 and 12. Now, back to Job, my point. Bildad blamed Job because he saw Job as sinful.

34:34 And what he was going through was the consequences of wrong. Job realized there was no sin he hadn't confessed. So he saw what he was going through as a mystery. And when you add the silence of God and the distance from God that he felt, it became unbearable. Which explains his, at times, losing control. and those men would not cut him any slack. In my preparation, I came across a fine little piece called, Are You a Builder?

35:06 I saw them tearing a building down, a group of men in a busy town. With a hefty blow and a lusty yell, they swung with zest and a side wall fell. Asked of the foreman, Are these men skilled? the kind you would hire if you had to build? He looked at me and laughed. No, indeed, unskilled labor is all I need. Why? They can reckon a day or two what it has taken builders years to do. I asked myself as I went my way, which of these roles have I tried to play? Am I a builder with rule and square, measuring and constructing with skill and care? Or am I a wrecker who walks the town content with the business of tearing down? By the way, which are you?

36:09 You a builder? You a builder? none of the friends of Job qualified as a builder. They're all wreckers. It's all a matter of perspective. If they had only realized that much of the will of God is mysterious.

36:32 If only they could have imagined there's got to be something that we don't grasp. Job's life lines up. This is not logical. there's something unusual happening here God's up to something great and we must comfort our friend as he goes through this great trial for whatever reason God has and just admit they didn't know why you know just to be there just to understand just show grace Cynthia and I arrived at a wedding yesterday here at the church. We were almost late and had a minute or two to get inside. On my way over, on our way over, my coat had fallen from the back seat to the floorboard. And we parked back here, the back parking lot, and I got a little close to the curb. And so I'm standing on the curb, getting in the back of the car to get my coat.

37:32 and I'm in a hurry because I don't want to be late. And so I grab the coat and boom, I stand up and I hit my head, right? You want to see that right there? There's a knot about that big right there on my head. You know, I tend to be a little dramatic at times.

37:57 And, oh! You know, there's nobody around. and my dear wife is standing there. And I really did. I thought, man, this brought blood. I'm convinced. And I closed the door and she walks over and she was so gracious. She was just so, you know, it was wonderful. She didn't do this. You coming? She didn't do that. She walked over and time was forgotten by her. And it was like, I don't know why this happened, but what a time for it to happen. And I care about what happened and I want to be here.

38:48 And I got to tell you, that just spoke volumes to me. We went into the wedding and as I watched the wedding and listened to the vows and saw this sweet couple standing here. You know, they've never been married before. Okay. So they don't know what's coming. And that's good. That's good.

39:15 They'll never be thinner or more ignorant of life than right then. It's innocence. It's beautiful. It's as it ought to be. And I'm sitting there. You know what? I'm thinking as my head is pounding. I'm thinking. I'm thinking. why I hope they really will have this kind of grace because I knew what was coming today and what Bildad and Zophar and Eliphaz missed by a mile. It's just so valuable in a marriage.

39:52 Some of you are no longer married because you were abused by a partner. You were mistreated. you long to have an understanding hug and you couldn't continue as it was. Some of you are abusing in your marriage. I don't know who you are, but I know in a group this large it's going on.

40:27 And you say, oh, I've never laid a hand. No, it's not that. It's a verbal abuse. It's ugly comments. It's insults and slams to the mat and sarcasm, put downs. You don't realize, I don't think Bill Datt sat on the edge of his bed that morning thinking, let's see, how can I possibly insult him more now than I did before? I don't think it worked like that. I don't believe that. I think it just got worse and worse as they talked. Like an abuser. and that's why this is preserved for us. Whatever is written in earlier times, Romans 15, 4 says, written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort from the scriptures might have hope.

41:20 Listen to this. Bildad lives. And Job lives and they both may live under the same roof. Job calls it tormenting and crushing and insulting and wronging. he talks about the distance there is from God verse 7 I cry violence and I get no answer I shout help and there's no justice heavens are brass that great God that once talked with me has walled up my way that I cannot pass the path is dark that once was lit your heart goes out to this man he has stripped my honor from me I was once listened to in the gate. Now I'm sitting at the trash heap as the dogs root around me for food. And the excrement of this land is all about me.

42:23 This is awful. not only is God silent the others who were once close are now absent they resist me look at the list verse 13 my brother is far from me my acquaintance is completely estranged I don't have any real friends that come around my relatives have failed my intimate friends have forgotten me look at the list maid servant verse 17 even my breath is offensive to my wife I'm loathsome to my own brothers. Even young children despise me, and my associates abhor me. Those I love have turned against me. You, Bildad, you, Zophar, you, Eliphaz, and before you even speak, you, Elihu, I've loved you men, and you've turned against me. It's tragic.

43:16 and then he pauses and says oh I have hope beyond all of this in fact so significant is my hope look at verse 23 I love it oh that my words were written oh that they were inscribed in a book better than that that they with an iron stylus and lead they were engraved in the rock forever drilled etched into granite so that people through time could read. He thought his words would be forgotten. When I read that, I thought of our 16th president. On the 19th of November, 1863, he stood at Gettysburg, bloated bodies popping in the heat of the sun. They died by the scores at Gettysburg. and he stood with this simple little speech written on a piece of paper he had brought with him, written by hand.

44:20 The world will little note nor long remember what I said here, but it can never forget what they did here. I thought when I read that yesterday, oh, Mr. Lincoln, we'll never forget what you said. Most of us can't remember what you did there, soldiers, but we'll never forget your speech. Job, it's going in the book.

44:46 Job, it's in the book. It's along with Psalm 23 and Romans 8 and Revelation 22 and Genesis 3, Job 19, 25. I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he shall stand upon this earth Even after my skin is destroyed yet from my flesh, I shall see God. I shall see him myself. My own eyes shall see him, not another. There will be a resurrection. There will be a changed world. I will come back. Oh, that my words would be remembered. And you know, when Handel writes his magnum opus, he gives this to the soprano and has her sing it. And every Christmas we hear it over again and again. And oh, my Redeemer lives. I know he lives.

45:40 And I think, thank you, Lord, for preserving Job's hope for every generation through time. Let me tell you who are on the side of Job, and your God is quiet and distant and silent, and your friends may have begun to turn against you. Let me tell you, the end of the book has got a great chapter. In the end, God wins. Right rules. And the Zophars and the Bildads and the Eliphazes and the Elihu's. will be forgotten. his conclusion is eloquent. Be afraid of the sword for yourselves, friends. Wrath brings the punishment of the sword so that you may know there is judgment.

46:40 After this burst of hope, 23 through 27, he turns to Zophar with, no, Bildad with renewed strength, and he says, you need to know something. Judgment's not coming my way. It's coming yours. two lasting lessons live on as I complete these two chapters today the first one is about hope and the second one is about assurance there is nothing like hope there is nothing like hope in the truth to clarify perspective and to keep us going there's nothing like hope in the truth to clarify perspective and to keep us going some of you are having trouble going on and continuing in your lot i assure you you are embracing the truth will give you the hope you need even hope that you're not getting from those closest to you the second lesson is that there is nothing like lack of assurance to haunt our steps and make us afraid.

48:02 If you are without the Lord Jesus Christ, let me tell you, your steps are being haunted. And when the lights are out and your head has sunk into the pillow for another night, you hope you make it through alive. Not knowing where you would be if you died, let me tell you, that is treacherous.

48:26 And the worst part, if you die without Christ, judgment is there. It is appointed unto us once to die, and after death, the judgment. To have peace, you need to know where you're going. I have a thing about giving our money while we're alive. Do your giving while you're living, then you're knowing where it's going, I often say.

48:57 Be sure you're believing right when you're living, because when you die, there's no second chance to decide. it's haunting not to be sure where you're going. Billy Graham was invited several years ago to speak at the elegant Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. I have a friend who was there who heard him, and he told me later that Graham had apparently had a little trouble getting there transportation-wise, and he did finally make it, I think a little bit late for the meeting. And when he stood up to speak, he told a true story of Albert Einstein, who was taking a train to the big city, and the ticket taker came by to gather the tickets. And when he got to the great thinker, he waited for his ticket, and he began to search for his ticket, and he could not find it. And the ticket taker noticed who he was, this brilliant physicist and he said oh dr einstein don't worry we we trust you i don't you have to have a ticket that's fine and he left and went on and about 20 minutes later he was coming back through the car again and he noticed that einstein was on his hands and knees still looking around for his ticket and he said no he's please get up he said uh we we we trust you and And Einstein turned around and looked up and said, young man, this isn't a matter of trust, but direction.

50:34 I'm searching for a ticket because I don't know where I'm going. Do you really know where you're going? Do you really know that? Is a destination guaranteed?

50:56 Amazing. Bill Dad talked to the wrong man with the wrong motive. But he had a message for some other person, maybe you. And in that case, motive fits. There's reason to be concerned. I'd like us to bow our heads just for a few moments. Just sit quietly there in this comfortable place. No one will disturb you. You're alone with your thoughts. Job lives. People in tragic circumstances once stood at their kitchen window and thought, you know, it may not always be great as it is right now. And they live to see the truth of their words, just as Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld became actually transformed into a Secretary of War, though his words seemed only a theoretical prediction at first.

52:05 there's nothing theoretical about life may not continue as you've known it. It just may be that hard times are right ahead, especially for you. I don't know. If I knew for sure, I'd pull you aside and warn you. If I had known in Job's place, I would have told him about chapters 1 and 2. but the mystery unfolded, and you know the rest of the story.

52:45 I invite you to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the cross where the payment was made in full for the sins of your life. And I must tell you that is the only ticket that will guarantee you destination. that's the only way you'll know that you're on your way to heaven not by what you have done but by believing in what Christ has done your destination is assured we often say by faith alone in Christ alone. This is the assurance that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son, S-O-N, the Son of God, has the life. He who does not have the Son does not have the life.

53:43 We're grateful, our Father, for words such as we have heard. In many ways, they are warnings for us all. They are preparatory words. that seem today like a distant prediction, but could very well in a matter of hours, days, become a reality. certainly for those without Christ, we pray today that you will bring to them the all-important question of what will I do with Jesus Christ and turn them, our Father, in their hearts deep within to your Son and bring with them at that moment a peace they've never known before. Until then, I pray that you would continue the restlessness and the uneasiness and the sleepless nights and the haunting reminders that death is sure and judgment is real. Now unto him who is able to guard us from stumbling and present us who know him as faultless in his own presence with exceeding great glory to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power this day.

55:04 and forevermore. In the name of Christ, all God's people.