What Have We Learned From Job?

Bear with me one last time, if you would, to the book of Job, the book of Job. And I trust that, you know, my desire was that over the 30 weeks that we've been together that Job would become your greatest hero. I don't know if he has or not. He's my hero and maybe he's not yours, but he's become my greatest biblical hero. Understanding what God did in his life and how God brought him through all that he did and all the things that Job himself teaches us. And when you think about the 30 weeks that we've studied Job and the opportunity that God has given us to open the word of God, and I wonder what you take home the most or what hit home the most for you.

For me, there were several things and I wanna be able to share them with you this evening because I think that they're important for us to understand but I kinda wanna summarize the book of Job by going back and looking at some things that are very important to help you understand that there are certain principles that God wants us to glean as we study the word of the Lord together. And these are some of the principles that God drove home in my life as I studied the life of Job all of last summer, even before last summer into the fall as we began our study back in September of last year.

So let me give you seven principles, okay? I like the number seven. So seven principles that is I could give you more but time will not allow me to give you more than just seven. In fact, time might not even allow me to give you seven but I wanna begin by giving you these principles. And the first one is this, the indisputability and indestructibility of truth.

That's the very first principle I want you to understand. The indisputability and indestructibility of truth. Job was a contemporary more than likely of Abraham. If you've been with us in our study, you know where he lived. He lived in the land of Uz and Ammon was a grandson of Noah and had a son named Uz and they named territories after people's names and that's where he was from. And he was not an Israelite, he was from the East. And Job lived in a time before Moses wrote the Pentateuch. So he lived in a time where there was no written word of God.

He lived in a time where he couldn't read what David said, what Moses said, what the prophets said because none of them had been born yet. And so they had not written anything yet. And yet Job was consumed with the truth. In fact, what Job does is he helps us understand what we think we might know about God to come to a conclusion with certainty about God. Because what he tells us is true. So Job could not read anything in the Bible because there was no Bible. And so the question comes and you gotta try to wrap your mind around this, that everything that he knew was passed down by oral transmission, not oral tradition, but oral transmission.

From the time of Adam and Eve to the time of Noah is a little over 1600 years. From Noah to Abraham is a little over 400 years. So when you think about that, you have 2000 years of truth that's passed down only by oral transmission. Now think about that. The only way they would know the truth about God from Adam and Eve is for them to tell their children and for them to tell their children's children and for them to tell their children's children's children and so forth down the line, right? And so it would be passed down from generation to generation.

Until finally it came to Noah and his family and for 120 years, Noah would preach the righteousness of God and warn people of impending judgment.

And then the global flood came and the only people alive were eight souls. And they were the ones who were the transmitters of truth to their children, to their children's children, to their children's children's children, right? God told Noah, be fruitful and multiply. You got to replenish the earth. But the only way those children of his and grandchildren of his and great grandchildren of his would know the truth is because of oral transmission. Now, just try to wrap your mind around that for a moment.

For 2000 years, you don't have a Bible. For 2000 years, everything is being passed down because of what God said to this individual or God said to this individual. What did God say to Adam and Eve about the seed that would come and destroy the serpent's head? What did God say to Enoch that he might be a preacher of the coming of the Messiah? What did God say to Abraham and about substitutionary atonement? And how did Job know about a redeemer? And how did Job know about a creator? And how did Job know about the invincibility of God?

And how did Job know about God being almighty? It was passed down from generation to generation. Think about the listening skills of everyone. I can preach a sermon today and tomorrow, you can't remember a thing I said. I'm not even sure what I said. But you think about their listening skills. Think about their retention skills, the ability to hear and retain the information so they could pass it down to their children enough so their children would understand it to pass it down to their children.

This talks to us about the indestructibility and the indisputability of truth because all truth is God's truth. Truth is a self-expression of the person and nature of God. It's absolute, it is objective, and it's the truth that God gives us. But everything that Job tells us is consistent with every other book in the Bible. Why? Because truth is a living truth. It's not a dead truth. We're born again by the living and abiding word of God. And God's word is living and active and powerful and works in and among us.

So we're talking about a living word that's indestructible. It's indisputable because it's truth. And if it's based on God, who is the God of truth, then everything that's passed down is absolute and objective. And so when you begin to think about that and wrap your mind around that, everything that Job tells us about who God is, how God functions, everything Elihu says, because God would, in our study, would speak to Elihu and Elihu would convey that image and message to Job. All of it was through oral transmission.

They couldn't open your Bible like you and I open our Bibles and read. Moses was the writer of the Pentateuch. But Moses wasn't born to Exodus. But he had to write all of Genesis. But how did he know what to say? How did he know about Adam and Eve? How did he know about creation? God told him. It's under divine inspiration. We believe in the inspiration and infallibility and inerrancy of the truth of God's word. It's an indestructible truth because it's a living truth that never dies. It's God's truth that lives forever.

Now, when you think about that, think about this. What was the very first question in the Bible? Genesis chapter three. Satan asked the question, has God really said? Satan's first words are the first question in the Bible and what do they attack?

The authority, the validity, the reliability, the veracity of all that God says. Because Satan wants you to doubt what God says.

He wants you to question what God says. He wants to put that doubt in your mind so that you will not follow what God says.

And sure enough, Eve was taken by that temptation and she fell into that temptation and so did Adam and they fell into sin. Why? Because they began to doubt the authority of the word of God as to what God actually said to them. We need to remember that when Job is speaking, remember Job didn't write Job. We assume that Moses probably did, but we don't know. Some say Solomon did because it was a poetic book. Again, we don't know who wrote the book of Job, but we do know that the book of Job is the inspired word of God and it's all true.

It all speaks the truth about who God is. And Satan will always tempt you to doubt the authority of the word of God. Now, we need to realize that our Lord has spoken the greatest truth ever, the truth that saves us, the truth that sanctifies us, the truth that causes us to understand the greatness of God. But just think for a moment about how everything was passed down for 2,000 years. What did they write it on? I mean, I can't go to the store and get something for my wife unless she texts me the lists.

And she texts me while I'm there so I don't forget to look at my phone while I'm there. But you see, these people remembered everything that God said and they pass it down, which tells you this about how important it is to pass down the truth to your children so they can pass it down to their children so they can pass it down to their children. Think about the importance of the transmission of truth, the transfer of truth from your lips to your children's ears to instruct them in the ways of God, that they might learn about the truth of God, understand the truth of God, apply the truth of God to retain what they've listened to, apply it to their lives, memorize scripture.

I know that when you get closer to the original person, Adam, their brains were a lot sharper than ours are at this point, I get that. But to understand that they were responsible parents to pass those truths down so that the next generation would hear them, know them, believe in them. Because how was Abraham saved? By faith, right? Abraham believed God and it was recognized to him as a righteousness because he believed in what God had said. And because Job was an upright man, a God-fearing man, he had to believe what God had already said because that's what faith is.

So God had to already say something, but how do we know what he said unless it was passed down through oral transmission from father to son, from son to daughter, from daughter to grandson, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It had to be passed down accurately, correctly, so people would know, but that's the truth of God's word. So the very first thing that strikes me about the book of Job is the indisputability and indestructibility of the truth.

The next thing that strikes me about Job is the integrity of Job. That's number two, the integrity of Job.

How often did we talk to you about this? Job is called my servant in Job 1 and 2. He's called my servant in Job 42 four times, right? A servant is defined by his loyalty, by his commitment, by his undivided attention to his master. But Job, it tells us, was a blameless man. It speaks to his integrity. It's not that he was a sinless man. He was a sinful man. He wasn't sinless, but he was a blameless man. In other words, there wasn't anything you could hold to his account. There was no flaw in his life that would disqualify him from being the kind of man that God wanted him to be.

He was genuine, he was authentic, he was a man of integrity. So what you are on Sunday is exactly what you are on Monday, right? What you are at home is exactly what you are at work. You're no different. You should be exactly the same no matter where you are, that was Job. He was a blameless man. He was an upright man, a God-fearing man. He was a man who walked with God, who talked with God, who loved God, who sold out for his God. But he's a man of integrity. And we told you early on that when you understand Job one and you understand Job two, a man of supreme integrity, it will help you understand how he handled the intensity of his suffering.

And that's point number three, the intensity of suffering. If Job tells us anything, it tells us about the intense suffering of a man who for all practical purposes, we would think, why is he suffering? Because he's committed no major secret sin. You think that he would be a great guy and things would go well with him. But Job talks to us about the intensity of suffering. And the reason he was able to go through the things he did was because of his character, right? Character is always revealed in time of crisis.

Who you are is seen best when everything around you is horrific. That's who you really are, that's Job. So the man was a man of integrity. And because Job teaches us about his integrity, it helps us understand the intensity of suffering. Now remember, Job had no warning signs. There was no heads up as to what was happening next. Everything was fine. But Job teaches us that life is not a walk in the park, that life is not full of nothing but roses, all happy times. It tells us about the reality of life, right?

And sometimes that suffering is so intense and so severe and so beyond anything we can ever imagine. And that was Job, the intensity of suffering. And Job had no warning. And when one thing happened, the next thing happened, the next thing happened. And there was this domino effect of intense affliction that came upon his life. And what was Job's response? Well, we know what Job's response was because the Bible tells us in Job chapter one, verse number 20, Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and he fell to the ground and he worshiped, he worshiped.

When he lost his children, when he lost his home, when he lost his servants, when he lost all of his livestock, which basically was his business, he lost everything, and he worshiped. Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord through all this. Job did not sin, nor did he blame God. The man of integrity was able to handle the intensity of his suffering. But see, that was just the beginning. That wasn't even the end because then there's another conversation between God and Satan.

And he asked him to consider my servant Job again. And so Satan goes after him, but he can't kill him. He can only afflict him. So he does with these oozing open boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. And his wife challenges and curse God and to die. But he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. He attributed everything to his God. Now think about that.

He understands that God is sovereign, that God rules, that nothing happens in his life unless God approves or God does it. And so he recognizes that he just can't accept good from God and not accept adversity from God for both are true. And so listen to his words in Job 23. Remember these words? Verse number 10, but he knows the way I take. When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. God knows the way I take. So God knows me. He knows me and he tries me and he purifies me. He attributes all to God.

That's in chapter 23. He does it in chapter one and in chapter two as well. He recognizes God's sovereign control over his life and he attributes everything to God. The intensity of his suffering, he attributes to the fact that God knows his ways. God knows what he's doing. How many times have you gone through a difficult time and you kind of say, you know what? I don't know what's going on, but God knows what's going on. God understands what's happening. God's in charge of what's going on. I don't get it, but God does.

And God is mapping everything out to be able to rest in that and to understand that. You see, we need to understand that in the intensity of our suffering, God knows. We know what the Bible says over in Jeremiah chapter 29.

In Jeremiah chapter 29, those very familiar verses attributed to Israel, but it can be secondarily applied to us. It says in verse number four, chapter 29 of Jeremiah, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. God says, I have sent you into Babylonian captivity.

Nebuchadnezzar, yes, conquered Jerusalem. Yes, Nebuchadnezzar took you captive, but it's I who have sent you into exile. This is my plan. And so he says in verse 10, for thus says the Lord, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you to bring you back to this place, for I know the plans that I have for you. In other words, I know them and you do not know them. Job says, he knows the way that I take. He understands the situation that I'm going through because he's in charge of everything.

He understands from a human perspective, the intensity of his suffering is under the sovereignty of his savior, his God, his King, his Redeemer. That's why over in Isaiah chapter 55, the Lord says these words. Isaiah 55 verse number eight, he says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and the bread to the eater, so will my word be which goes forth from my mouth.

It will not return to be empty without accomplishing what I desire without succeeding in the matter for which I've sent it. God says, I know what I'm doing.

Your thoughts are not my thoughts. In other words, he says, quit trying to think like me. You can't. Quit trying to understand the incomprehensibility of God. You can't. So you have to learn to trust him and relax and rely upon him in the midst of the intensity of your suffering. Over in Proverbs 16, verse number nine, it says, the mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. You have plans. I have plans. But ultimately, it's God who directs our steps. Proverbs 20, verse number 24, man's steps are ordained by the Lord.

Every step you take is ordained by the Lord. How then can man understand his way? Answer, you can't. It's all ordained by God. You know the verse in James chapter one? James chapter one, verse number two, consider all joy, my brethren, when you can encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

And let endurance have its perfect results that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. In other words, he says, know this, that these various trials that come your way are for your ultimate good. And then in verse five, we forget to read this along with verses two to four, he says this, but if any of you lacks wisdom, wisdom in what? Wisdom on the meaning of trials. Wisdom, not just in everyday life, the context is dealing with trials and temptation and hardship and difficulty and affliction that come your way.

If you lack wisdom in this, he says, let him ask of God who gives to all generously without reproach and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith. What is faith? Believing in what God has already said. So he must ask believing in the person of God. He must ask believing in the purposes of God. He must ask believing in the promises of God. He must ask believing in the precepts of God because those are the things that God's already said. So you can't ask unless you ask in faith, that is, believing in what God has already said.

Then he says this, but he must ask in faith without any doubting. You can't doubt his person, you can't doubt his promises, you can't doubt his purposes, you can't doubt his precepts, you can't ask in faith, doubting, that's not faith. For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord. Did you ever ask yourself why you don't have any wisdom about your trials? Because you ask not in faith, you ask doubting the person of God, the promises of God, the purposes of God.

You just ask doubting God. You don't really truly believe him, you gotta ask in faith, believing in what he's already said. And then it says, a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. He's not unstable in some of his ways, he's unstable in all of his ways. A double-minded man is a man who asks not in faith, but he asks doubting God because he is somehow trusting in his own intuition or what he thinks is right. He's not praying in line with the authority of God's word controlling his prayer life.

He is praying his own will for his own purposes. He's a double-minded man, he's unstable in all his ways. He's living on shaking ground no matter where he goes. See? So here is Job who says, he knows the way that I take. And he's the one who tries me. And the one who tries me will bring me forth as gold. How do you know that? He hadn't read Job 42 yet. We've read it, we know what he means. We understand, but he said it before anything ever happened. He wasn't anticipating double blessing. He wasn't anticipating more kids.

He wasn't anticipating a better life. He wasn't anticipating the boils being gone. He just said he knows the way that I take. He's going to try me. And when he tries me, I'm going to come forth as gold. The intensity of suffering. There's no one who can teach us that better than Job. None. Except of course, our Lord, who suffered unjustly, who was not a sinner and suffered unjustly, unmercifully by those hands of his oppressors. But outside of that, Job is the one man who can teach us not just about the intensity of suffering, but the integrity of his life that allowed him to endure the intensity.

But all that was based on the indisputability and indestructibility of the truth of God that he held dear, that had been passed down from generation to generation, that he had appropriated in his life that he might live to the glory and honor of his God. Let me give you another principle.

It's principle number five, if you're counting. See, just see if you're awake. Principle number four, okay? This is a good one, I love this one. Are you ready? The inescapability of war. The inescapability of war. Job, unlike anything else, teaches us about the battle in the heavenly realm. Job opens up a brand new setting of warfare. Now remember, Job never knew this, but we do. Job never had the privilege that you and I have. We're able to read about his life. We're able to read about the conversation between God and Satan in the heavenlies, as Satan would come to present himself before the throne of God.

Job had no idea about that, none. But we do, because of what is recorded in the book of Job. But he tells us that life must be prepared for battle every single day, every day. You wake up, you're going to war. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter six, you know this well. Verse number 10, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and against the powers and against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. This is our warfare.

Your battle, your battle is constant. And because we don't recognize our warfare every day, we have too many casualties of war that are laying across the battlefield of life because they were unable to put on the armor of God to fit themselves and ready themselves for the battle they were going to face that day. Having gone through the book of Job, having read what has taken place, and now Satan was actively involved in all that took place because God allowed that to happen, right? And Job never knew it.

But in that warfare came what? A wife that would be used by Satan. When she said, curse God and die. Now Job's wife, Mrs. Job, we don't know her name, we're going to call her Mrs. Job, right? She had no idea about how she was being used by the enemy to tempt her husband to curse God and die because that was the plan. He'll curse you, he'll blame you, he'll turn his back on you. Just let me afflict him.

Let me take everything away from him. So his wife is used by Satan to get him to curse God and die. But because Job is so committed to turning away from evil, because he's a blameless and upright man, he's not going to follow his wife's lead and not do that. His friends came, right? His friends think they were speaking for God, but were really being used by Satan to slander Job's name. Who's the ultimate slanderer? Satan, he's the accuser of the brethren. He's the slanderer. And they had opened themselves up to be used by Satan to turn Job away from God instead of toward God.

That's why God was angry with them in chapter 42. Read about that last week. You see, we forget, but Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2.11, brethren, I don't want you to be ignorant of Satan's devices, but we are, we really are. We think our enemy, we're sleeping with the enemy in our husband and wife relationship. You're not sleeping with the enemy. You're sleeping with your husband or your wife. They're not your enemy. You have an enemy. You have an adversary. He's the devil. He goes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

That's your enemy, but it's not the person you're sleeping with, your husband or your wife. It's not your boss at work either. It's not the guy that you can't stand to be around. You see, Satan uses all kinds of things that we forget. Think about this. Peter, the great apostle, was used by Satan to deter Christ from his mission. And Christ said, get thee behind me, Satan. Whoa, how do you call Peter Satan? Because you see, he was being used to deter Christ from his ultimate mission in life. It was to succumb and to die for the sins of man.

That was the mission. And Satan wanted to keep Christ from the cross. He wanted to keep Christ from his mission. Listen, anybody who's used to keep you from the mission that God has ordained for your life is being used by Satan no matter how spiritual they may appear to be. That's important to understand that. Satan is a master deceiver. He's a master disguiser. And one thing about the book of Job, it tells us about the inescapability of warfare. We're in a war. It's a war that we face every single day.

We must be armed for the battle. What did Christ pray for? Lord, I pray, John 17, verse number, I think it's 15. Lord, I pray that you take them not out of the world, but you protect them from the evil one while they are in the world. Christ is not trying to take you out of the world. No, you're gonna be salt and light, right? So he prays for your protection while you are in the world from the evil one, because he knows of the evil one's tactics and how so desperately he wants to destroy your marriage, your family, your testimony, everything about you.

He'll stop at nothing to do that, nothing. And if Job teaches us anything, he teaches us about the inescapability of warfare. It's an unending combat. I think that we have forgotten that today. We find ourselves fighting everything on a physical plane, on a natural plane, instead of realize that we're fighting everything really truly in a spiritual plane, and that we are to be armed for warfare with the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness and the sword of truth and the belt that girds everything together, the belt of truth, and to realize that our feet are to be prepared with the gospel and we need to be ready with the shield of faith, ready to go to war every day, strapping on the armor of God.

As soon as you wake up, taking it off at the last minute before you go to bed, realizing there's a war going on. Are you fit for the battle? Job teaches us about the indisputability and indestructibility of the truth. Teaches about the integrity of a man who honored God, followed God, served God. It teaches about the, what was the third one?

I'm just testing you. I know what it is. The intensity of suffering and the inescapability of warfare. You know what else it teaches us? It teaches about the iniquity of man. The iniquity of man. That's what Job teaches us. Because Job was a blameless man, but he wasn't a sinless man. He was a sinner. Think about this guy. He was highly respected, greatly honored. He was sincere, moral. He was devout, selfless, compassionate toward those who were poor and needy. He served God, doing the will of God.

And God's testimony about him was that he was a great man, the greatest on the planet. And yet he was still a sinful man. He was still a sinful man. See, the problem with us is that we try to compare ourselves with other people. We compare ourselves to the adulterer or to the fornicator or to the murderer, right? Well, we're not that bad. Oh, but you're still bad. See, you're still bad. You're still a sinner. And we try to compare ourselves with other people thinking, you know, we don't fall into that category.

We don't do those kinds of things. But yeah, you're still sinful. And Job had to learn that. I think that down deep, remember in chapter 29, chapter 30, when Job would go back and rehearse the things the way they used to be, when everybody respected him? Everybody came to him for counsel. Everybody came to him because he was the leader in the community. I think, I think he liked that. And he didn't like the fact that he didn't have that anymore. And God was telling him, you know, Job, maybe you need to come down a little bit from your high tower and to realize that you're not as good as you think you are.

Because Job, like every one of us, suffers from that ego, that pride, that little bit of, you know what? I'm pretty good. I'm okay. But Job teaches us about the iniquity. That's why Job had to repent. Sinless people don't need to repent. But Job had to repent, right? I repent in dust and ashes. I recognize that I am a sinner. And I recognize that I have sinned against my God. I questioned the justice of God. I began to question those things. I began to question how it is that God is God functions.

I began to doubt God. I began to demand a counsel from God until I got a counsel from God. So he had to repent in dust and ashes because he teaches us about the iniquity of man. Every one of us are sinners. Our lives should be marked by a repentant heart, a broken and contrite heart that confesses sin and goes before God, recognizing, Lord, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell amidst a people of unclean lips. Because we do. And Job teaches us about the iniquity of man. That was number five, right?

Number six, Job teaches us about the identity of God. Job was a book about God. It's not a book about Job. He said that from the very beginning, right? We tend to think it's a book about Job because it's all about Job, but it's really not. It's really all about God, how God controls everything, his sovereignty, how God's the creator of everything. He's called Almighty 31 times in the book. He's called Yahweh, the God of the memorial name of God that talks about his redemptive purposes. He is called the God who is the creator, the redeemer of man.

Job in Job chapter 42 would say these words in verse number two, I know that you can do all things. Before, he said, I know he knows the way that I take. He says, I know that my redeemer lives, but now I know, he says, that you can do all things. What, he didn't know that God could do all things before? Is there something Job doesn't know? Yes, a lot of things he doesn't know. But I know that you can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted. In other words, I can't stop God's purposes.

I can't bend his purposes. I can't halt his purposes. I can't correct his purposes. I can't rechannel his purposes. I can't do anything because God has a plan. It runs right on schedule. I can't stop it. I can't alter it. I can't bend it. I can't speed it up. I can't do anything. And Job came to that place because it was all about the omnipotence of God, the power of God in his life and the incomprehensibility of God. Job realized that God was way beyond his understanding. And the book of Job talks to us about God.

It's about the sovereignty of God and the suffering of man. That's all about God's sovereignty in that man's suffering, how God creates it, controls it, predetermined it, how God would take him through it. God was in complete control of everything. It shows us that God is a Redeemer. Joseph says, I know that my Redeemer lives. He talks to us about the redemptive purposes of God. I know that one day He will stand again upon the earth. He says, I know that my Redeemer is gonna live. Or I know that my Redeemer did live.

No, I know where my Redeemer lives. He's the living God. And that one day He will stand upon the earth. He knew something about the coming again of the Messiah. We told you when we talked about Job 19 that he got that from Enoch, who talked about the second coming of the Messiah who would come with all of His holy ones.

And that was passed down, of course, by oral transmission. And he would understand something about the second coming of the Messiah.

Although he didn't comprehend it, he couldn't understand it fully because he didn't know what we know. But what he knew, he fully operated on. And that's more than we can say for most of us, right? We know a lot of things, but we don't always operate in line with what we know. Job did. And just think of what would happen if he'd known what we know. Think of all the things you know now about Job's life, what transpired in his life, how he handled everything, and the conflict in the heavenlies before the throne of God.

You know all those things. Job couldn't read Job, but you can, and I can. Job had all kinds of reasons to question God. We have none. We have no reason to question God. We have 66 books that more than enough information to tell us about this living God who dwells among us and who became man and died for us and rose again the third day and creates everything and predestines everything, is in charge of everything, who's a God of love and mercy and grace and justice.

We're without excuse. And shame on us, shame on all of us, myself included, for not living in accordance with what we know the Word of God says, the identity of God.

And lastly, it teaches us about the immensity of God's grace, the immensity of God's grace. Maybe you missed it. If you were here last week, maybe you didn't. It's easy to miss. At the end of Job chapter 42, verse number nine, it says, the Lord accepted Job. Verse 10, the Lord restored the fortunes of Job. This says in verse 10, the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. Then in verse number 12, the Lord blessed. He blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning. The Lord restored him. The Lord increased him.

The Lord blessed him. God did that. He did that with a man who questioned his justice. He did that with a man who said, I wish I would have never been born. He said that to a man who said, I wish I would have died in my mother's womb. I wish I wasn't even here. You see, that's the immensity of God's grace. He gives us what we don't deserve, right? Undeserved favor towards sinners who deserve nothing but death. What did God do? God graced him. God blessed him. God increased his fortunes. God did so many wonderful things Job wasn't even expecting because he knew he deserved nothing.

Having repented in dust and ashes, he knew he was undeserving of anything from God. And guess what? God graced him. Because God knew Job's mind. He knew what Job was thinking. He understood Job's life. I'm gonna bless you, Job. I'm gonna restore you. I'm gonna bless you. I'm gonna increase all that you have, all of your fortunes. I'm gonna make sure that you are completely and totally accepted by me. And he was undeserving. He knew it. But God blessed him anyway. The immensity of God's grace goes beyond anything we can ever comprehend.

To a man who doubted his God, to a man who questioned the justice of God, to a man who wished he would have never been born, God says, I'm gonna bless you.

Why? God does those kind of things just to let you know that you cannot earn his favor. That's why it's called grace, right? It's unmerited favor. You can't earn it. You can't pay it back because God graces you. That's what God did with Job. Isn't it interesting that Peter would say these words in 1 Peter chapter five, verse number 10, to people who suffered immensely? After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, not just some grace, he's the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself perfect you, confirm you, strengthen you, and establish you.

That's the God of grace. That's why the writer of Hebrews says, let us go boldly before the throne of grace. Because that's the only place it comes from, the God of grace. And if Job teaches us anything, it teaches us about the immensity of God's grace. That God, in his perfect timing, had a perfect plan for the man that he'd chosen from eternity past to go through great suffering, great hardship, great loss, great pain, and I'm gonna do something so remarkable in this man's life that it will be recorded in Scripture for everyone to always read how great I am as their God.

That's Job. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for today. Thank you for our study. Thank you for the things you've taught us. Our prayer, Father, is that we would leave energized, knowing that, Lord, you are so good to us and we are so undeserving of any favor, but the grace of God is marvelous grace. We thank you that it's unending grace, that, Lord, you grace us to save us, you grace us to sanctify us, that we might be set apart for your purposes, for your glory. Our prayer, Father, is that as we have gone through these 30 weeks, that, Lord, Job's life and what you did in his life would make such an impact that, Father, we would be ready for whatever comes our way, knowing that you are the ultimate creator of all things, who is sovereignly in charge of every aspect of our lives.

So we thank you and praise you until you come again, as you most surely will, in Jesus' name, amen.