Setting the Stage for Disaster │ Msg 1/22

0:01 If you have a Bible with you, I'd like to invite you to turn to the book of Job. If you're not familiar with your Bible, it's just, it's a large book just before Psalms, toward the center of the Bible. By the way, it's a good time for me to suggest if you don't own your own copy of the scriptures, and I find that more common than one would think, this would be a good time this week for you to go to a Christian bookstore and purchase. I would suggest the new American standard Bible. If you want to follow along with the text that I use and be sure you get the whole Bible, not just the New Testament. And you may want to get a study Bible. It's a little more serious work. It has some helps in the bottom and then you'll find out where I get all my ideas.

0:56 you get a hold of a good study Bible and then you'll begin to mark it and it'll become your own one of the great legacies we leave for our children and our children's children is our Bibles I have my dad's Bible I have a copy of one of my mother's Bibles on occasion it's very insightful to read through there and see the times they were praying for me, among other things. So anyway, book of Job, let me read for you the first 12 verses of chapter one. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants. And that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

2:11 His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day. That probably refers to his birthday. On his day. And they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. It came about when the days of feasting had completed their cycle that Job would send and consecrate them rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. and Satan also came among them.

3:07 The Lord said to Satan, From where do you come? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it. The Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. Then Satan answered the Lord, Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. but put forth your hand now and touch all that he has he will surely curse you to your face and the Lord said to Satan behold all that he has is in your power only do not put forth your hand on him so Satan departed from the presence of the Lord Just leave your Bible open in your lap there and bow with me in prayer.

4:33 Will you do that? As the story unfolds from this ancient document, we are immediately impressed with a man who indeed was just a man, but what a man. He loved you. He feared you, Father, and he disciplined his life in such a way that he had nothing to do with evil and the compromises of those of his day. thank you for the model of this man, and thank you for the lessons to be learned from just the opening words in this resume of righteousness.

5:20 But our hearts skip a beat when we turn the page in his life and see the other side. And we become privy to something that not even Job knew was taking place. and our interest is tweaked. We're intrigued, our father. We would have expected nothing but further blessing from your hand and you, in your profound plan, made other arrangements that changed everything. To us, it seems unfair. And there are some in this place under this roof today who would say with a sigh, my situation is unfair. I do not deserve what I'm going through.

6:12 And therefore, Lord, you speak in a timeless way just as you speak truth to us. And we find ourselves on the edge of our seats, anticipating what you will say to us from these ancient words, even in this 21st century. Thank you, Father, for your faithful, sovereign hand over us. That while you test us, you do not disgrace us. And while you strengthen and mature us, you are never cruel or dishonest. you have our good at heart though your journey to get us there is sometimes shockingly surprising I pray that you will give us not only ears to hear but hearts to receive these verses from the book today and the application from between the lines as to what this message means to us direct our thoughts give us the ability to concentrate remove from us the cares of this age and the worries of our times and the decisions at the office and the needs of the home and and and and and all the stuff of life so that you have our full attention come thou fount of every blessing tune our hearts to sing to hear your praise.

8:00 Lord, we quiet ourselves before you now. We trust you through the coming week for protection from a terrorist attack. Protection for our sons and daughters who faithfully serve their country in a strange place at a threatening time. we trust you to speak words of wisdom and assurance to those who lead us in this city in this state and in our government we ask our father that we might be good citizens just as we are good Christians find us our father actively engaged in things that matter deliver us from the enemy of passivity and the compromise of sloth and laziness.

9:08 And now, our Father, it is our privilege to look to you now in worship as we reach into our wallets and as we write our checks, as we give our money. As those in the first century did, may we first give ourselves and then give of our treasure. we want you to know how much we love you our father and these gifts represent that we give from a pure motive not to receive anything in return but simply to lift our hearts and open our purses to you and say you own it all and we give joyfully and we give generously because of that In the name of the Lord Jesus, we quiet ourselves before you, and we give. And all God's people said, Amen.

10:08 When Scott Peck picked up his pen to write his best-selling book, The Road Less Traveled, he began with a three-word blunt sentence, Life is difficult. when the writer to the inspired book named Job picked up his stylus to write his book he too could have begun with a blunt three-word sentence life is unfair difficult most of us have learned to handle but unfair something kicks in that makes it almost intolerable for us. Our drive for justice overrides our patience in pain. A couple of examples come to mind.

11:05 You're born Canadian, and you're on ice skates almost for as far back as you can remember. And as you skate along the ice, you are dreaming as this little boy or this little girl with hope someday of making it to the Olympics. You fall more times than you can remember, but in every fall, you learn another lesson. And in a period of time, you begin to skate very well. You get a special teacher, and in doing so, you also find a partner who will skate with you, also from your homeland. And the two of you skate along with dreams of being at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics. Then your moment comes. Your names are announced, and you slide out on the ice, and then you do a performance, that routine, better than you've ever done it before. and you know when you finish it was a gold medal performance.

12:08 Until you see the scores. And your heart sinks. Life is difficult. As you read those numbers, you know that you'll get the silver medal and another country will get the gold. In a few hours' time, however, you find out that the judging was skewed and that the competition was fixed. And in fact, one of the judges ultimately would be removed. You didn't know that at the time you hear. When you find out that it's unfair, that's a whole different subject. You can't bear the thought now of not getting what you have coming once you find out that it was judged unfairly.

13:06 The second example doesn't have as good an ending. You're a single parent and you live 1,200 miles from a job offer that comes from Houston. And you give thought to moving you and your three children, who are all under the age of 15, down south so that you might get a job working for a company that is really going up. It's called Enron. And you become employed and you are involved not only in a fine job, but you begin to invest in the stock. And, oh, it just seems like there's nothing but flashing green lights. The money is pouring in and the news is everywhere that this is the company to be a part of. They're even naming the new stadium after the Enron Corporation. then you begin to hear something at the water fountain.

14:06 The scuttlebutt around the office isn't very encouraging. You doubt it. You question it. In fact, you put it out of your mind because, after all, your entire retirement funds are there and your health benefits are there. And it isn't but a few more days and you get a pink slip. And it's all over. You lose everything. Though you were doing a good job, you moved for all the right reasons, and now there's the threat of losing your house. A couple of days later, you're showering, and you notice under your left breast a lump. You can't believe it. Two days later, the biopsy shows the physician that you are suffering in an advanced stage of cancer.

15:09 Oh, I failed to mention your husband three years ago ran off with his secretary. And by the way, they're doing great. Both of them have a new car and fine jobs and no kids. And you now are going to move in with your aging parents, neither of whom is all that healthy. And the home just has three bedrooms. Thank you. It isn't fair. It isn't fair. Welcome to Job's world.

15:55 Without knowing it, you have just walked onto Job's turf. and to think some people believe the Bible is not relevant. This book, to which I invite you to turn, represents one of the oldest and best pieces of literature in all of time. Some would date it back to the days of Genesis. Certainly in light of Job's age, it falls in the category of being written during the days of the patriarchs. Martin Luther once referred to Job with the two words magnificent and sublime. The Scottish essayist 19th century Thomas Carlyle wrote, there is nothing written in the Bible or out of it of equal literary merit.

16:53 Victor Hugo, the French poet and author concluded that Job is perhaps the greatest masterpiece of the human mind Eugene Peterson, one of our contemporary writers in the writing of the wisdom books in paraphrase says this in the introduction of Job it is not only because Job suffered that he is important to us it is because he suffered in the same ways that we suffer in the vital areas of family, personal health, and material things. It is not suffering as such that troubles us. It is undeserved suffering.

17:38 Almost all of us in our years of growing up, writes Peterson, have the experience of disobeying our parents and getting punished for it. When that discipline was connected with wrongdoing, it had a certain sense of justice to it. When we do wrong, we get punished. One of the surprises as we get older, however, is that we come to see that there is no real correlation between the amount of wrong we commit and the amount of pain we experience. An even larger surprise is that very often there is something quite the opposite. We do right and get knocked down. We do the best we are capable of doing And just as we are reaching out to receive our reward, we are hit from the blind side and sent reeling. That's exactly what happened with Job.

18:37 Life was not only difficult, life became, for Job, absolutely, categorically unfair. You May not know the story of job and so I might be shooting in the dark allow me a few moments for a quick and dirty analysis He's a man of unparalleled piety he's a man of well-deserved prosperity. He is a good and rich man, a fine husband and a faithful father.

19:17 In a quick and brutal sweep of calamities, he is reduced to a twisted mass of brokenness and grief. the extraordinary accumulation of back-to-back disasters are enough to finish off any one of us job is left penniless homeless helpless and childless standing beside 10 fresh graves on a windswept hill his wife heaving in sobs beside him having heard him say whether he gives or takes we will follow him she secretly whispers just curse god and die I have a friend who is in ministry and I emailed him this past week, told him of my plans to go into the book of Job.

20:23 He wrote back, warned me about watching out. You never know what happens when you get into books, how often you become the very part of the story that you're preaching on. He also added, I have a friend who was driving across Texas one night searching for a radio station and turned tuned into a country preacher who was beginning a study on Job. He had titled his message, I can't eat by day, I can't sleep by night, and the woman I love don't treat me right. That's Job. And the only thing funny about the story is the title.

21:06 There's no laughter in Job. Misery and mystery are added to the insult and injury of his experience. As he sits there covered with skin ulcers that are now erupting with pus, swelling his body with fever and maddeningly giving him an itch that will not go away.

21:35 There are three friends that arrive. They sit and stare for seven days and seven nights without a word. Just imagine. First, they don't recognize him, which tells you something of the swelling and the sores all over him. And then they are at a loss for words. Unfortunately, they lost that loss for words. And when they spoke, they had nothing but blame. You're getting what you deserve. Though they couch it in much more philosophical terms. That was bad enough. But the misery turns to mystery with God's silence. If the words of the friends were hard to hear, the silence of God was intolerable. Not until the 38th chapter of the book does God speak.

22:36 However long that took, if it were just months, try to imagine. You're the object of your alleged friend's accusations, and the heavens are brass as you plead for an audience with the Almighty.

23:02 And nothing comes to you by way of comfort. and you have done nothing to deserve such pain. The book opens with a wonderful resume of a good man. Don't make Job into something other than a man. That's all he was. He's called a man. He's no superhuman being. He's no quasi-angel in human form. He's a man. He's just a man. Blessed, for sure. but look at him as a person there was a man in the land of uz whose name was job that man was blameless doesn't mean perfect it means he he did not compromise with moral evil he was a man whose business was handled with integrity he was a man who was respected by those around him, whether in or outside the family, he was upright, fearing God, turning away from evil.

24:17 And then the next most important part of him following his character would be his family. He's blessed with seven sons, three daughters that have been born to him. By the time the story is told us in the text, they're all grown. This is a grandfather's life at its best, if you will. By now he has amassed a remarkable number of possessions. Possessions had to do with these 7,000 sheep. The wool from the animals could be woven into fabric which would be made into warm clothing for the cold winter days. The food would also be provided from them, and that would add to the diet. There were 3,000 camels. I would imagine Job ran a trucking business for the caravans that went from the east to the west, and his camels were for hire. And those camels became for him his own personal transportation. There were 500 yoke of oxen.

25:27 Don't miss this. That means there were a thousand of them. Two yoked together to plow the fields, to cause the crops to be plowed and to be prepared, the soil to be prepared for the growing of the food. And then there were 500 female donkeys. I scratched my head on that one and wondered why would that be mentioned. And I discovered in my study that in those days, female donkeys provided the delicacy of the day, donkey milk. And I thought that's a delicacy I would do without if I lived in that day. Over and above that is a wonderful family, all grown, no diapers to change, no baths to give, no carpools, no big meals to prepare, no lunches, no boys with tattoos driving vans showing up and honking out front for the daughters.

26:24 No daughters with nose rings and tattoos and pierced belly buttons to run around the house. These are all grown kids. This guy is rich and he's got it made and no one is criticizing because there's nothing to criticize. Vernon McGee in his day wrote this about him. The man lived in the lap of luxury. He was Howard Hughes, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and the oil men of Texas all rolled into one. When I read that, I thought McGee wrote that in the 1970s. Because by the late 1980s, the closest Texas oil men got to money was when they pumped gas at the Texaco station on the corner. Today we would say he was Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Ross Perot, all wrapped up in one. wealthy, good, godly, but not out of touch.

27:21 You will notice he did have his concerns. His sons, verse 4, used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. came about when the days of feasting had completed their cycle. Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings, according to the number of them all, offering up ten burnt offerings in the name of each one of them, concerned that perhaps, maybe even in their hearts, there had been a little bit of profanity or perhaps an off-colored story that was told in the feasting. And Job was so concerned not only for his walk, but for the walk of his children. Praying man, trusting man, priestly man, faithful man.

28:27 What a man! One man writes, no disapproval of this pleasant life is expressed. It is a mark of good fortune, or rather of God's blessing. The finishing touch to this happy scene is the godly parent making doubly sure that all is well. What a man.

28:54 At the end of verse 5, there must have been a pause. If this were a novel, you would change chapters, have a page go by and move into another part of the story. If this were a film, it would be a slow fade out. You would sit in darkness for a few seconds, and then a bright scene would appear telling you you were in another setting at another time. If this were a stage play, the curtains would close at the end of verse 5. Audience was given a few moments to stretch and stand and sit back down for the opening of the curtains as the stage hand had changed it from heaven from earth to heaven. but there is no such marking in the bible you just move quickly from verse five to verse six don't let yourself do that learn to read the bible pacing yourself with the emotion of the moment verses one to five full of good news wonderful blessing business integrity purity of heart faithfulness of life domestically blameless professionally respected William Clayton's hymn comes to mind from the 19th century God's hand of love shall be your guide and all your need he will provide his power shall every foe dispel, all is well, all is well.

30:36 And so it was that night Job went to sleep. As Job sleeps, another scene opens to us that Job knows nothing about. It happens in our lives as well. When we're not aware of it, God is carrying out a plan that would amaze us and on occasion would shock us. He is permitting things to get underway that we would have never expected. Either that or he is not fully sovereign. This is a very important part of understanding Job. If it teaches nothing else, it teaches the absolute sovereignty of God, which is full of mystery. without Job's knowing it, something is happening in the heavenlies, and we are transported from earth to the third heaven.

31:37 Look at the difference in the opening lines of verse 1 and verse 6. Look in your Bible. There was a man, there was a day. Look at that. there was a man who lived on this earth. There was a day in the throne room of God. We are moved from the familiar planet of our world to the unfamiliar scene of the third heaven. The only ones comfortable there would be the seraphim who filled the presence of the living God with the flutter of their wings, with six wings. Two they cover their face and with two they fly. With two they cover their feet.

32:31 They are the attendants of the Almighty. They are called in verse 6 the sons of God. William Chalmers Smith wrote, Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light and accessible, hid from our eyes, most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days, almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

32:56 Great father of glory, pure father of light, thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight, all praise we would render, oh help us to see, tis only the splendor of light hideth thee. it is in the laser like light of the third heaven we come in verse 6 and god is sitting in this throne room if you will to use our terms and he looks about and he sees the sons of god that have come to present themselves before the lord that makes sense they're accountable to him they do his bidding they carry out his will they accomplish his purposes but there is an intruder Closed Captioning by CSIizzWeb there is one who is not among the elect angels. He is identified in the Hebrew text. Get this, the Satan.

33:50 Has Satan. Every time the name Satan appears in the first two chapters, it is Hasatan. Ha, meaning the Satan, Satan. Sounds strange until you think. sometime we'll use the name Judas in that way. If we form a company of close friends and we put a plan together that is secret and we hope to carry it out in the business world and one of the individuals in the group turns against us and lets that plan be known to our opponents in business, we sometime refer to that man as the Judas of the group. In this case, it isn't the Judas, It is the Satan. What does it mean?

34:43 Satan is the Hebrew verb, and most often Hebrew words originate with the verb form. Satan means to be an adversary, to resist. sometime in noun form it is rendered simply the adversary or the accuser revelation 12 verse 10 tells us that he is the accuser of the brethren i'm sure it would include the cisterns as well he accuses god's people day and night and here the accuser appears among the other angels pause and remember satan is not a little imp with a red body and a pitchfork sitting on one of your shoulders whispering ugly little nothings in your ear that's a medieval caricature that satan would love you to believe he is the most attractive brilliant powerful archangel that god ever created. He has not lost his brilliance. He has not lost his power. He has not lost his beauty.

36:04 He is also insidious and his favorite method of working is behind the scenes. Because he is invisible does not mean he is therefore not real. he is real. As we will see a little later, he has personality. And he is engaged in a wholesale commitment to destroying God's people and ruining, where possible, God's plan. So he's standing in the heavenlies among the group. Beginning at verse 7 down through verse 12, we have a dialogue that is the most interesting dialogue. You won't find it anywhere else in the Bible. Only here. Here and in chapter 2. The Lord said, verse 7, Satan answered. Verse 7.

36:58 I should have said the Satan, the accuser. The Lord said, verse 8, the Satan answered. Verse 9. And verse 12, the Lord said, and the Satan departed. So it's a dialogue back and forth. The Lord God sees the intruder and speaks to him. from where did you come? From where do you come? Please don't misread that. I'm always a little humored by people's reading things in the wrong way. For example, when the Lord came to the Garden of Eden and he said, Adam, where are you? I mean, it wasn't like... I can't find you.

37:52 Help me out. Where are you, Adam? Adam! It's not that. God is omniscient. He knows everything. His question could be, why are you where you are? What are you doing there? What are you doing hiding from me? We don't have that kind of relationship. He says to Satan, tell me where you've been about. What's been going on? Satan's answer is a brief and somewhat impudent Roaming about on the earth and walking around on it The Satan has access to this planet as well as the heavenlies He moves about and his demonic forces as well If you could see the demonic forces, you would be heart sick Frightened You may not ever laugh again Until you also were able to see the angelic presence and what goes on between the two of those forces.

38:49 But he now, Satan, remember, can only be one place at one time. He is not omnipresent. So now that he's brought himself back into this throne room, the Lord says to him, where have you been? I've been roaming about on this earth. He has random access to wherever and matter and the elements of this earth that hold us in check do not affect him. He's a supernatural being. He could move from Asia to America. He could move from Mexico to the North Pole in a split second of time. Those kind of things are not the things that restrain spiritual beings. The same will be true of us in our spiritual bodies. He says, I've been roaming about on the earth. I love the statement the Lord asks. Have you considered my servant Job? Oh, I failed to read the most important part of his resume.

39:46 Chapter 1, verse 3, last sentence, that man was the greatest of all the men of the East. No exaggeration. But you know the wonderful thing about Job is that he was a servant. There was no celebrity about Job. There was no pride in Job's heart. there. Job is a servant of God. Did you observe my servant? By the way, if our Lord were pointing out to the enemy you, would he use the word servant to describe you? I hope so.

40:24 Have you observed my servant Job down there? In fact, he adds, there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God. turning away from evil. With the word evil, the original axis of evil responds, interestingly, does God, does Job fear God for nothing? I mean, look, talk about kid glove treatment, penthouse perks. Look at what he has. Watch closely. Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has? Look at the categories. You have protected him in his body. You have protected him in his family.

41:18 and you have protected his possessions, all that he owns, on every side. I mean, the divine wall around this man's life is enviable. you have not only protected him, you have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. The accuser points out divine favoritism, the audacity of that. you have built a hedge around him, you have blessed him like no other.

41:58 Who wouldn't worship you? I promised you a quick understanding or survey of his personality. We know that he has an intellect because he converses with the Lord. We know that Satan has emotions because he is antagonistic toward Job. We know that he has volition because he purposes to destroy Job and to disgrace God. His great hope is to level Job. You bring him down to the dirt like the rest of those humans have to live and you'll see what he's made of. look at how he puts it. You put forth your hand, verse 11, and touch all, I have marked that word in my Bible, touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face. Now, it's a clever plan.

42:54 First of all, Job does not deserve that kind of treatment. Job has walked with God, certainly in his adult years. Job is now the best of the best. He is the greatest in the land of the East, and he is a servant of God.

43:14 But Satan's response is, you want to know what he's really made of. Remove all the protection. Strip away all the veneer of comfort, and you'll see, deep inside, he'll turn on you. he will curse you to your face, Satan's prediction.

43:39 Instead of treating him like an overindulged child, why don't you treat him like anybody else on earth? Let him feel the pain of a disease. Let him know what it's like to suffer the sorrow, the death of a child. Let him go through the loss of some of those possessions. You'll see what Job made up. His point is that he's worshiping God because of what he gets out of it, not because the Lord is first in his life.

44:09 Verse 12 is an amazing statement. The Lord said to Satan, behold, all, I've marked that, all that he has is in your power. Now that's a, don't go any further. It's a frightening, frightening thought. Look at the permission slip He passes Satan All that he has Is yours to deal with He puts a caveat there Only do not put forth your hand on him Don't you touch his life Don't you touch his body Don't you touch his soul Don't you touch his mind You touch his possessions you touch his family leave him alone.

45:02 So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord. Now, I know some of you are still hung up on how in the world did the intruder get in, right? I don't know. Now let's go on. There are a lot of these things I don't know. I just know what's written and I accept it. There was a time in my life I had answers for questions nobody was asking.

45:34 And I philosophically meandered all around Robin Hood's barn coming up with answers that I thought were so profound, but they had no biblical basis. We're never told why. Well, we have a lot of commentators giving you their opinions, but they're worth nothing more than your opinion or mine. So why waste our time with opinions? The fact is Satan is allowed in and Satan is allowed this moment of bargaining and God, for some profound unrevealed reason, says, I'll take you up on that. Does he still do that? I don't know. I don't know. I know he did it here, and I know when the light flashed green, that's all Satan wanted. Let me at him. We're talking the original ground zero in a matter of hours.

46:29 He is reduced to a twisted mass of humanity. but let's leave for this period and let's, uh, let's apply what we've heard. Okay. I find four principles that emerge from these first 12 verses that help me today. At least I can say these four things from the text and they seem worth mentioning and worth remembering. You may wish to write them down. Who knows? Someday you may need them. Just as I'm sure at this time Job needed someone to help him remember them when this happened. Number one, there is an enemy we encounter we cannot see.

47:23 I don't mean to frighten you with this, but I do mean to educate you. There is an enemy we encounter we cannot see. get past your empiricism. You were trained in college. You were trained to think deeper and not to buy into all of this superstitious stuff. If you can't prove it in a test tube, it isn't there. If you can't see it, it isn't real. Nonsense is my answer to that. Some of the most real things in life you and I will never see. We have a very real enemy, and we encounter him regularly or one of his emissaries and let me add he is real he is real he has a strategy that hopefully will play tricks on your mind and ultimately will conquer you and bring you down his hope ultimately is to ruin your testimony and to destroy your life in the process if it takes ruining your family relationships he'll go there. If it takes tempting you to take cut corners in your business where you would not have done so in earlier day, he'll go there. Whatever it takes, we encounter an enemy and because we cannot see him does not mean he is not just as real. Second principle, there are trials we endure we do not deserve.

48:48 but they are permitted. There are trials we endure we do not deserve. My imaginary lady in my early example did not deserve to have a husband that walked out on her. She did not deserve to work for a company that turned against the principles that she thought they believed in. She did not deserve that kind of physical report. She was a hard-working single mother trying to raise three kids under the age of 15, but it was all permitted. That's imaginary. Yours isn't.

49:27 Do not try to unscrew God's inscrutability. Do not try to grasp his profound plan. Do not try. That's a waste. That's a waste. and because you will not be able to do that, you will become increasingly more confused, ultimately resentful, finally bitter, and then Satan will have won the day.

49:58 Accept it. Accept the trial as permitted by God. Nothing touches my life that has not first passed through the hands of God. Nothing. Nothing. That's either true or he is partially sovereign. which is a little like saying I am almost a husband.

50:19 He is fully sovereign, and he permits trials that we do not deserve. Number three, there is a plan we explore we will not understand. but it is best. There is a plan we explore, but we will not understand. It is best. It works together for good. It isn't altogether good. It works together for good. The disease Job went through wasn't good. It worked together for good. The loss of his family wasn't good. it worked together for good. We see in the pinpoint of time God's view is panoramic. Tozer put it this way, we think of ourselves as inhabiting some parenthetic interval between the God who was and the God who will be. And in this ever-present now we are lost in that ancient and cosmic loneliness.

51:22 God's cosmic plan is at work now and he doesn't feel the need to explain it all to us. If he tried, our answer would be like the student looking at his calculus teacher. What? You wouldn't get it, nor would I.

51:43 And yes, I'm going to add this. Sometime it's the permission of demonic attack. And I don't know why. it's the whole battle with good and evil and it is here and it is you will live with it and my answer to you is to come to terms with it acknowledge it seek the power you have in the lord jesus don't try to understand it don't try to understand it let me say another word about the enemy. Can I do that? Years ago, in fact, for 49 years, 49 years, Dr. William Henry Green was professor of biblical and oriental literature at Princeton Theological Seminary, 1851 to 1900 when he died. wrote a fine book called Conflict and Triumph.

52:41 By the way, that was the era in which the American Presbyterian Church was having its fight over the inerrancy of Scripture. A. A. Hodge, B. B. Warfield, Gresham Machen, those names you're familiar with or should be, along with them, this man Green, Dr. William Henry Green, stood with them for the inerrancy of Scripture. Listen to what he says about the enemy.

53:08 Referring to Satan, he is not a mere spy traversing the earth intent upon ferreting out all he can discover. He is the old spirit of malice and wickedness, aiming to pervert men from the right ways of the Lord and to destroy all goodness as far as it is in his power. There is a profound meaning in his appearing here among the sons of God before the Lord. Don't miss this. It is designed to express his subordination and subjection to divine control. He cannot act at his own discretion.

53:47 He is not at liberty to pursue his mischievous designs to whatever extent he may choose. There is a, I love this, there is a superior restraint to which he is obliged to bow, a superior will that sets limits to his rage, and allows him even within these limits to act out his evil nature only for the sake of some divine end, which he is made to be instrumental in achieving. He concludes Satan is the enemy of goodness and the enemy of humanity. With the powers of an archangel and with the malice and subtlety of a fiend, he is intent on our destruction and hesitates at nothing by which it can be accomplished. He pursues his mischievous designs with sleepless vigilance.

54:45 invisible to human eyes he has all the advantage of secrecy and taking his victims at unawares he never sleeps he never rests he never takes it easy you're never out of the crosshairs of his scope he knows you better than you will ever know yourself Now we're really strong when we were working with them. If we were to move with them to me. If we were to move with them. They were different so.. They were different.. They were different.. They were different..

55:38 necessary I know, I know. some of you are thinking, don't quit. Well, not all of you, but some of you are thinking, don't quit here. We have to. It's enough to digest for now.

56:02 I don't know where you find yourself, but I would be willing to wager that three-fourths of you are going through something that is unfair. Knowing humanity, as I do, I would wager most of you most of us are going through something that we don't deserve By that I mean generally we got what we deserve. We'd all be pretty hot right now, but you know what I mean You didn't ask for that you didn't anticipate that you didn't think it would come you've you've done your best to do You've kept your part. You've you've maintained your bargain of it. You you've stayed by and look at what's happened and I just want to say to you, you have moved onto Job's turf and if nothing else, it has prepared you to pay close attention to the teaching of this book. It has something for us all. The whole story doesn't end with Satan departing from the presence of the Lord.

57:01 There's a whole lot more here. Let's bow our heads, please. I have found in my years in ministry that when you mention the enemy as much as I have, two things happen. First of all, people get very quiet, and I think we should, because it's sobering. And second, he is exposed, so he kicks his work up a notch. I would not be surprised that he didn't turn on some of us in a more direct way, direct demonic attacks against us in some manner that would be a little out of the ordinary for our experience. Remember that last point, you can't anticipate what's going to happen. The good news is for you who know the Lord Jesus, is you have a power in Christ the Lord that no one else on this earth has.

57:59 They are at the mercy of the enemy, you are not. greater is he who is in you that's Christ than he who is in the world that's Satan in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ you are able to restrain and withstand the attacks I urge you to walk very sensitively with Christ this week very sensitively if you do not know the Lord Christ I invite you to him today he hangs ready for you may seem a strange way to put it but you see it was the cross that opened the door between you and god and it's on the cross that he hung and there he died that you might know what life is all about forgiveness relief power strength to go on hope when you seem when this when this path before you seems hopeless and i point you to him today come by faith use your own words in a prayer Lord I'm a sinner I can't make it on my own I come to Christ who paid the penalty for my sins in full whatever you have for me give me the strength through Christ to face it we'd love to talk with you and help you get started in this new life Our Father, we realize in setting the stage for disaster that we have really spoken of a number of different people's situations.

59:37 Without knowing it, there's a plan underway that will reduce us and break us and humble us, and who knows why. Your plan ultimately is to prepare us to be like unto your Son, Christ. But it will hit us full force. And we will need your strength to go through this road less traveled. Help us to understand that a life that is difficult or a life that is unfair is still orchestrated by a God who loves us and has our best at heart. Some of it to discipline us. Some of it to reshape us. All of it for his glory, for your good.

1:00:26 Prepare us now, our Father, for what is before us this week, and find us open and open.