Address—B. Anstey
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Let's turn to two verses. First of all, in first John chapter four, first John 4, verse 9 and 10. I'll begin with the latter words of verse eight, though first John four. God is love, and this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only, the Son, begotten Son, into the world that we might live through him.
Here it is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And then a verse over in Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5, verses 3-4 and five. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations, or boast in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience, experience, hope and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
Which is given unto us. I've read these two verses here by way of introduction to.
What I'd like to speak about this afternoon, and that is about how God teaches us of His love. Just as we were singing in the desert. God shall teach thee how patient and gracious and loving and so on that He is. But I read that verse in first John chapter 4, which speaks about the love of God.
And providing a way to have our sins put away and bring us into blessing before us before Him. And then these verses here to speak about the wilderness.
Though the wilderness is not mentioned, it is implied here. And my thought is that when we got saved, I trust that each person here this afternoon knows what I mean when I say when we got saved. We hope that you are the Lords. We hope that you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. There's been a time in your life when you felt the need to have your sins put away and you turn to Him in faith and received and believed.
The message of God's grace in the Gospel.
And have known the joy of the forgiveness of your sin. And I say that when we have got saved, we learned something great about God. We learned how great of his that his love is, and that he could provide a sacrifice to put our sins away. And surely this tells us the depths of God's heart and love to think of the way in which he did it.
As we read in that verse, it says that He made Christ to be the propitiation for our sins.
And as the Lord Jesus came into this world as the sin bearer, and he died upon the cross, bearing our sins in his own body and tree, and he bore the judgment of my sins and yours, if you're saved, in order that we might be brought into blessing. And surely we have seen the love of God in that. We can look at the cross and see the love of God, and we have learned that.
And measured more or less, each one of us were stayed of learned the love of God in that way.
But after we get saved, this is what I want to speak about this afternoon. He's not going to stop in teaching us of all His love. And so we're LED into the wilderness where He's going to teach us more about His heart of love for us. And I think this is so beautiful. Romans 5, verses 3-4 and five bring out the wilderness for us. We find here that the way in which he is going to shed the love of God in our hearts.
Is that he is going to do it through experiences through which we pass here in this world which we speak of as the wilderness. It's through the experiences that we through which we pass, we come to know the love of God in a far different way. A far deeper was a far deeper, but in a in a in a deeper way.
And how wonderful that he would take this opportunity in time to show us.
Of the depths of his love and the way in which He instructs us in the wilderness is the way we could not learn if we were to be taken to heaven immediately after we got saved. For instance, the thief that died on the cross, surely he knows the love of God. He's seen Christ there dying for him on the cross, and in simple faith he's received him. He called him Lord. And the Bible says whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And so for that moment, moments later, was taken into paradise to be with Christ. But he missed something of which we have been given the opportunity to learn, and that is by experience, to learn the God with whom we have, to whom we have been brought. And what a wonderful education this is that we have been.
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Given what an opportunity to learn.
The grace and the love of God in this different way, as I said, it's an experimental knowledge that we come to know him and says here that.
Not only so, but where we can boast our glory and tribulations, knowing that these tribulations are working certain things in US for our own good and blessing and capacitating us for the theme that is before us.
What a wonderful God that we have then that would not stop in our education with the cross and His love shown there, but would take us through various circumstances as we live and move through this world and teach us of the depths of His heart. I was thinking of another him and I was debating which one to give out. And I'm going to read the verse that was before me in 294.
And it says there, Oh come thou stricken Lamb of God, who sheds for us thine home's life blood. Watch what happened when we received them as our Savior. We come to know them that way.
Then it says and teach us all I love yes, how wonderful. Then pain in life were sweet and deaf were gained. And so through the experiences of life we learn all or shall we stay the breadth of that love and what a comfort that is. But you know when we face trial and testing it is always.
A time when our state is manifested. We can take these things from the Lord.
Or we can get bitter about them. And so our state is tested when we are tried. But God, whether we are in a state, a good state or not, sees fit in this perfect wisdom to try each and every one of his own. And not one of us who have taken the path of faith, each one of us who have taken the path of faith are going to be tested in the past.
And it's not something that we should shy away from.
Or to be afraid of because it's the love of the one who died for us that is bringing us through this. And sometimes the the chastening or the trials that we pass through amazing grievous and we may not understand it altogether. The one thing we can know and have confidence in is like it says here, knowing that tribulation work for patients and patients experience experience hope and hope.
Make causes us to learn the love of God in a different way.
Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
And so it's an education for us indeed that we would learn his love in this way. The verse that comes to mind in in Isaiah 40. I like to just read this Isaiah 40.
And verse 27. Isaiah 40. Verse 27.
Why sayest thou, O Jacob? That's a way of Speaking of the nation of Israel. Often when he speaks of Israel as Jacob, it's usually Jacob when they are.
Not living in faith as they ought to, when Israel will behave in grace and in faith, he'll often call them Israel. That's an indication generally through the prophets. Why stay a style or Jacob and speak a story as well? My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment or my cause is passed over from my God. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the.
The ends of the earth faintest not, and neither is weary, and there is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men should early fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with ego, with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and be faint.
Here.
Thinking of the particularly the remnant of Israel, and as they go through their trying time in the tribulation period, we know that they are going to get pretty low and discouragement with all of the testing that they'll go through. We speak of tribulation, but they will go through the great tribulation and we find here that they get so low with discouragement that they begin to wonder whether the Lord really understands their way.
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And they say, my way is hidden from the Lord, and my cause is passed over from my God. Yes, their faith has broken down through the testing and they have become greatly discouraged and think that the Lord just doesn't understand their cause. But of course he does. And the way in which he seeks to meet this discouragement is that he points them to the everlasting God, the one who has all power and it's manifested in creation.
To take care of every detail. And then he speaks about how he's able and grace to meet the weary and the faint hearted. And he has the wisdom to deal with it too. But there's no searching of his understanding. And he gives his power and grace to those who have no might. I think that's beautiful, Verse 29.
He gives His power and His grace to those who feel have a felt need.
Who recognize that they have no power of their own and I think this is a good place to begin really on trial comes our way when testing comes our way is to recognize that we have not the strength for it and draw upon him for the strength for the path for the.
The difficulty and he can help us and so he talks about the those who are naturally strong and how that he can.
Even the ones who are naturally strong are going to fall and faint because natural strength and the energy of the flesh is not enough to carry us through. We need the strength of the Lord, and those that wait upon Him will receive His power.
And strength to go through the difficulties. And so now having said that, by way of introduction, I would just like to look at five things that we need to remember when trials and difficulties come our way. And I've already said they're going to come our way at some time in our days. And so let's look first of all, at Job 23, I might just say this.
Too that when we are tested, the enemy makes a good measure of that.
And.
He's always trying to to rock our faith, to disturb the faith of the Christian, to lodge some doubt in his heart that God is not as interested as he thought he was in his ways. And we get discouraged like that. And Isaiah 40, I think, shows that condition of soul.
And what we need to do at all times is to hold faith. You know, Paul told Timothy that didn't he said holding faith in a good conscience from which some who have not have turned away from the faith and have made shipwreck.
And so we need to hold faith. And I'd like to look at these five different things as a way in which we are to hold faith. Let us remember them, these things that are before us. Job 23 and verse 14. For He performeth the thing that is appointed for me, and many such things are with Him.
He performeth the thing that is appointed for me. Here's the first one.
And that is, remember that the thing, whatever it may be in your life or mine to try or test us, it is there by divine appointment.
It is there by divine appointment. Let's look at another one now, and that's the First Corinthians chapter 10. First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13. There have no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear, but with it.
With with the temptation also make a way to escape.
That he may be able to bear it. I think this is self-explanatory, but the point here is that another thing we need to remember is that God is going to give me the grace to be able to bear it so that I will behave as his child should behave. Because sometimes when we get in the midst of trials we almost feel like it's an excuse to act in the flesh or something.
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And no, there's never an opportunity or an excuse for us to act in any other way.
What is becoming to us as His children? And let us remember that He will give us the grace to be able to handle it so that we may behave as we should.
Now let's look at the third thing.
And that's first Peter chapter one, first Peter chapter one, verses 6 and seven, wherein ye greatly rejoice.
Though now for a season, if need be, your heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it's betrayed with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory of the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Here we have another reason are at least another thing that we need to remember, and that is that every trial and difficulty that comes my way, there is a need to be behind it. As he says here and go now for a season if need be. Underline those words if need be. Yes, the Lord doesn't send any trial into our life if there is no need for it. And in his perfect wisdom.
He knows just what we need and he measures that trial according to what is necessary in our lives. And so there is a need to be for everything that comes into our life. You know, I think of that verse in Romans chapter eight. I think it's verse 28, a very common verse, and it says that all things work together for good.
To them that love God are called according to his purpose. And so God has things that work in our lives. He brings them to pass, and there's a need before it. And what I need to remember is that I'm in his school.
And I'm here to be taught of him. And if it's neat he needs to pass me through this lesson, then I must need to learn it and I need to have that spirit of submission to accept it from his hand and see to get the blessing. And then lastly, or least fourthly, in the first Peter chapter 5, turn over pager 2.
First Peter 5-10 But the God of all grace, who have called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, After that ye have suffered.
A while, for a little while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you. It's the words there that after he have suffered a while and the point I'd like to mention here, the fourth thing that we need to remember.
At such a time, and that is that in his good time he will bring me out of it when he sees fit. You see, it's the suffering is for a little while.
He hasn't measured as far as how long it will be, how wonderful that is. And now the fifth thing is really what I'd like to speak about here for the closing.
Moments that are left to us is in the book of Job.
In the book of Job. So let's turn there and read the verses first chapter of Job. There was a man in the land of us whose name was Joe, and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And they were born unto him, seven sons and three daughters.
His substance also was 7000 sheep and 3000 camels, and 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she ***** and a very great household, so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East. And his sons went and defeated in their houses every one his day, and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And it was so that when the days of their feasting was gone about that joke sent it sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning and offered.
According to the number of all of them, four jokes said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts, lusted Job continually, or day by day. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said to Satan, Whence cometh thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it, and the Lord.
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Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that fears God and is true with evil. Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Don't joke, fear God, for not hast not thou made a hedge about him and about his house, about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the word of his hand, and his substance is increased in the land, but put forth.
Hand now and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he had is in thy power only beyond upon himself. Put not forth thine hands. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. Interesting.
Which we have read here. This is the oldest book in the Bible, first one that was written most if not all scholars tell it. And the theme of the subject of this book is why God causes or allows the righteous to suffer. And I believe that that is answered in this book in A2 fold way we'd like to speak about here.
And.
It really answers the greatest question that men have had from the earliest of times. Why is man and even and the righteous man allowed to experience suffering in the way job? Here we find in the introduction, the 1St 5 verses is a man that's perfect, that is full grown, mature and his wife and walk.
And upright he fears God. And she was evil.
He's in the from the land of us. And I think what we can read from the prophet Jeremiah, we learned that that is somewhere in and around the land of Edom, though he lived at a time before there was Edomite, because he lived apparently around the time of Abraham or Abrahams, the eight sons and.
So he lived out there in what became Eden later. So he was not an Edomite, he was a Gentile.
It was before or outside the limits of God's dealings with Abraham's family. And that teaches us something about the grace of God and teaches us that, as we have from Acts chapter 10, that in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him. Yes, God's grace is not hindered.
Or shall we stay limited to covenants and promises that he made to that favorite family of Abraham?
Here's a man that was outside of that and yet we find that the grace of God has been pleased to work with him and he has these a God fearing man. He's a man that has.
Been blessed of God and walks with God. And I believe that the 1St 5 verses are brought before us to teach us first of all that we must get out of our minds right at the very outset that the trials and the difficulties that this man goes through.
Are of a punitive character that could not be the case and God say he's perfect, he's upright and there's none like him and so on that proves that there was nothing in his life as far as a positive sin or a course of sin that he was going on with and yet this man encountered trials.
That shows us that not all the disciplines that God sees fit to allow to reach and touch his own or of a punitive character. And that was the mistake that Jobs three friends had. They had the idea that if trouble comes into a man's life, then he's got to have been doing something wrong.
In fact, 4th chapter brings that out there when 4th chapter verse.
7:00 and 8:00 where he says the the innocent don't have difficulties and it's only being those who plow with iniquity reap the same and each of them over and again press this point upon Joe. But they had missed the mark altogether. No, God has different reasons for allowing discipline and chase things in the life of his people other than the fact that he's trying to.
Correct them with regard to sin.
And or a course of probably heard it before. Mr. Brown used to always speak about it. He lined them all up with peace. Some of them discipline is punitive, some of it is preparative, some of us preventive tough, and some of it's purgative. And it's the last one there that really is more jokes.
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Kind of discipline, if we had time, we could probably go over those four. We've done that before other times. So we it's very important for us to see that the character of this discipline is not for something that job was going on with, whether in sin, something in secret or something.
No, there was a there was a different reason why God allowed the trial to come into Job's life.
And so from verse six, we have something very striking and very interesting. We see that there is a veil drawn aside so that we can peer into heaven. And we see a strange sight. We find the sons of God, which are the angels coming to make a report as to what they have, are responsible to be doing. And Satan comes among them, for he was once among them.
In his pre falling state and now we find that he comes among them.
And God singles out, and we find that he.
Is going to and fro in the earth while Peter tells us that, doesn't it? He says your adversary, the devil walk up the boat seeking whom he may devour. And so that's something he's been doing for a long time in the earth, seeking to stumble men and seeking to thwart the purposes of God.
And so we find here that God brings to his attention Job.
And when he says, hast thou considered Joe, we find that the answer is that he knew all about Job. He said, yes, he's the man that you've got the hedge about and nobody's allowed to touch him. And he's got all this wealth and everything. And immediately he becomes the accuser of the brethren here. And, and behind his accusation with regard to Joe is an insidious attack upon God and his ways with men.
Now let me explain. We find here that what he says is yes, but this man, the reason why he serves you is because you put a hedge upon him and you abundantly blessed him with all this manner of material wealth. And of course he goes on like that. You just take that away from him and you'll see that he'll turn away or depart from God. What he's doing here is he's questioning Jobs motive for serving the Lord and that tells us that he has some insight as to human nature.
Because he knows very well from his experience with men that when trouble comes into the life of men, they usually raise their fists and anger to God. And so he says, you do that to this man, you'll see what will happen. But behind this it, it is this questioning of jobs.
Integrity and motives is an insidious attack against the Lord Himself, and what it is, is that He is as much as raising a question in a doubt that the Lord cannot keep His Saints loyal to Himself when afflictions arise and pass over them. And so the Lord allows Satan to have his way.
Certain limitations are put in there as we find he was not to touch him.
But his his surroundings and his possessions.
And what we're going to find here is that fifth thing that I was telling you that we need to remember when difficulties and trials come, and that is simply that.
Why God allowed this? Firstly, for the righteous to suffer is for His own glory.
Yes, for his own glory. God was going to glory for himself in this. He was going to keep this man loyal to himself, even though the greatest of afflictions were going to sweep over him. And this in itself and the way in which we take the trials that come from God's hand is a way in which we can glorify God. You ever think about that?
When a difficulty comes in your life, if you take it in the right spirit, in the right way, it's like God is giving you an opportunity to glorify Him.
In that thing and to bring glory to Him. And surely a great testimony to all around who know you and your circumstance, whatever it may be, renders a powerful witness to the God that you profess to walk with and see. So God allows trials firstly to glorify himself and puts them upon his Saints and passes them through.
Afflictions so that those around.
The bear get a witness as to the greatness of the God that they walk with.
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One particular example that comes before me in recent times is our sister Joyce Lundin, now with the Lord, when she had come down with this difficulty, as we all know Him and praying about.
We find that she was at peace. Her neighbor sure wasn't at peace. She was.
Very upset, and many of us were, but Joyce was at perfect peace. She had accepted it from the Lord, and the way in which she had accepted that was such a powerful witness to that neighbor whom she had had many contacts with and the people in the town too, that that went straight to her heart.
That she didn't have any ordinary God. This God must be a real God that can help in real difficulties. But at length Joyce had been giving her the gospel. You probably know the story. Hope I have the facts just right. But anyway, when she came over to the hospital here, you know in Tacoma, that this woman and her husband came over to see her in the hospital to comfort her and to give her some news. And that news was.
That God that you have.
We found now ourselves that person that got saved through that difficulty through which Joyce had been passing and the way in which she had accepted it from the Lord had been used of God to work in the hearts of that that woman, I don't know about her husband, and apparently she got saved. And so we find here that God does.
At times bring trials and difficulties into the life of his people for his own glory.
For his own glory and he gives that to us.
May we say that is the fifth thing that I was starting with, that we need to remember that God has given this thing to me that I have an opportunity to witness for him, to glorify him in the way in which I take this. Because those around me in my work, in my school or whatever, who know me are going to see something of the God who might have been talking about now they're going to see it in reality.
And so immediately Satan is allowed to have his hand. There was a day, I'm not going to read these verses, but we find that the trial comes from 7 directions in two ways. The 1St wave is 4 things and then the second wave three more. Firstly, the Sabians come in and wipe out his business. Oh, pretty difficult there. That which he had his livelihoods by, which was his oxygen ***** and so on, was wiped out in a Dane.
Business collapse.
Say yes, and then verse 16 we have that his possessions are struck by lightning and all burned up. And then in verse 17 we have his camels are taken away by the Chaldeans. That was the means apparently in those days by which they traveled desert kept the lands and where they lived out there.
East of the Dead Sea, in desert type of land and the camels were very important. There were needs of transportation. You might see for us today our automobiles and so on.
We have that all taken away too. And then in verse 19, a fourth thing which devastates him, and that is a hurricane comes and.
Takes his family away. His family is killed by hurricane. I don't think anyone of us have had such trial from 4 different directions for such intensity. God no doubt is tingling this man out because he's going to be an example for all ages. But at any rate, we find in verse 21 and 22 That Job got a great victory here.
And he says I was naked, naked I came out of my mother's womb and naked I should return thither. The Lord gave the Lord just take it away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord and all this joke sin not nor charge God foolishly. What an incredible victory Job got here. We read in James chapter 5, you've heard of the patience of Job that's here. Any one of us probably would have lost our patience. Joe did. He said God is given, God is taken away and he didn't charge God foolishly or allow anything to come out of himself.
That would show a sin.
Incredible victory. What a testament testimony to those around of the God with whom he walked. More than that, Satan has been proved.
False God has been able to keep.
Saints loyal when the greatest of afflictions arise. How wonderful God is glorified. The 2nd chapter opens and Satan returns again. On the day when the sons of God have presented themselves to the Lord, He comes again and this time.
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He changes his.
His his accusations and he questions now that if you go to the point of touching this man's health.
Then he will depart from God.
And again, this tells us that he has great insight as to the human nature, because this is usually the way man that behave and is natural man. But this is a man with whom God has wrought, and there has been a work in his soul by grace. And he's one of the the patriarchs, as we speak of it, a St. And so there is something that has worked in him that keeps him in the greatest of trial. And so here we find that.
He says in verse four of chapter 2, skin for skin, all that a man out will he give for his life. In other words, he's saying you take away his health and then he'll do what he'll do that. And so the Lord gives him an opportunity again to Satan to have his hand at this man.
On his life has to be saved, there is a certain limitations and that should comfort us really because God knows the limits of the afflictions that He allows His people to go through and He sets those bounds. It reminds me of Revelation chapter 2 when He says thou shalt have tribulation 10 days. He had already measured the 10 days that they were going to go through.
And so how wonderful the Lord knows how much we can take. And that's what I like you said, didn't you? Way down in the 34th chapter, he said he had not laid upon man that what more than that which is right, he knows.
That we are but dust and how wonderful so we find that three more things now sweep over Joel his health is taken away boils come over his whole body verse seven he takes a puncture that begins to scrape himself puncture there's a broken piece of pottery and he tried to scrape the skin to get some relief and then his wife turns and suggests that he.
Commits suicide.
Verse 9.
There he turns his, he has a trial of his affections, even not her who lie in his bosom begins to utter profane and foolish things, telling him to curse God and to die. And then finally we find 7th and lastly verse 11 to 13, the 2nd chapter we find 3 friends come. But before the three friends come, I would say that it's very interesting to notice.
That again, we read these words.
All verse the end of verse 10 There it says, but he said unto her, That's his wife. Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh What shall we receive good at the hand of God? And shall we not receive the evil and all this did not go.
Sin with his lips.
What a great victory again.
Yes, God has kept his Saints loyal when Satan has had been allowed to have his hand touched their life. Incredible. God is glorified and so it is.
That there are times when we may be allowed to pass through such difficulties.
And from this point on, it's very interesting we find that Satan is no longer mentioned in the book. He departs being come thoroughly and completely defeated. What he has accused Job of has been proved wrong. He said that he has motives for serving God was only because he get what he could from God. And so he kept on serving God because he kept on getting more in the way of material wealth. That was wrong.
Everything has been taken away and he still clings to God. Job could say later in the book though he slay me, yet I I trust him. What a beautiful spirit of dependence there. And so we find that Satan has been defeated. He's been proven wrong with his accusations of Job and his charge against God, that God could not keep his people loyal to himself and affliction.
And so he departs, and now the 7th and final way in which we find trial comes.
Job is in these three friends and I don't believe that Satan exactly is behind the three friends perhaps, but it has been put to me this way that what the three what Joe Satan could not accomplish, God accomplished in Job's life through the three friends and breaking down.
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Joe, his patience and bringing him to, shall we say, see or have the his flesh be manifested.
For what we find after the friends show up that in chapter 3 verse one it says and after this job opened his mouth and cursed his day now there job lost his patience when James says.
You heard of the patience of Job? He's talking about the first two chapters, not chapters 3 on to whatever, because those chapters we find a man who's lost his patience.
And.
These three friends come in here to to insist upon that there must be some evil in his life and they were wrong and they had to be accountable for that at the end of the book. Because you know.
And Dobin maintains his integrity throughout because that was not the case. At any rate, down at the 33rd chapter, you'll find that.
They all stopped speaking to Joe because he just justified himself, and all of their comments only led to bring this man to justify himself. They were not getting to the root at all. And Elijah comes forward, which is a young man, as you know, and he begins to speak on God's behalf and says to Job, why don't you ask the Lord? He'll show you what it is that he's seeking to speak to you about. I think that's the 34th chapter.
He says, What thou seest, what I see is not teach thou me. If I have done iniquity, I will do no more.
And so he says, why don't you ask the Lord, He will help you with this. And it likes this man lays the the foundation for God to come in and speak. And as you know, in the 37th chapter, God speaks, begins to speak to Joe about of the whirlwind. And he speaks and Joe is humbled. But before that, I perhaps should have mentioned it in chapters 30 to 30.
2930 and 31 just as we get to the end of all his friends dealings with him.
You find that he gets to the point where Job just lets go and he begins to speak about himself. And there's over 200 references to how great he was and how how much he did and what he was, you know, and all this in the days before the trial came. And it all comes out that Job has got a difficulty in his disposition.
He was self satisfied with how well he was doing and pleasing the Lord. As Mr. Darby put it, it was not any specific sin, but it was a disposition of attitude that needed to be corrected. And this is that character of discipline as we spoke of as purgative that God often passes the Saints through. You see, that kind of a discipline is not for any specific sin that may be, but there may be characters in our lives that are not Christ like.
Maybe I'm a little harsh or curt, or maybe there's 1000 things that there may be in my character that really hinder the expression of Christ to come out in my life, and He knows that.
I have those things broken down, you see.
From chapter 3 on to the end of the book we have the second reason why that God allows the righteous to suffer if the first reason in chapters one and two is that God may be glorified.
The second one is for the good of His own people. He knows how to perfect holiness in His Saints and to conform us to the image of His own Son. And if there's things that hinder the expression of Christ to come out in our lives, he very often and will allow difficulties and trials to bring about.
The expunging of these things, that is, the taking away of these things to getting them out so that Christ may shine out of the vessel more clearly.
And that's the character of discipline that Joe goes through. And how wonderful in the end.
We find that job comes through as a vessel for the finer, for the finer. And speaking now of Malachi Chapter 3, when it says that this the the silversmith, you know, he begins to stir the silver as it boils and he stirs it and stirs it until it gets to a certain state. And then he pours it because it's ready and what it is that makes it ready.
You've probably heard this before is that he's boiling off the drops or the impurities, the dirt that's in the solar because.
Mind this, out of the sides of caves and whatever down in these mines and dirt all mixed in with the silver, they got a bar like dirt out to get rid of it. And that's what God is doing. He likens that kind of a process to the work which He's doing in our lives, seeking to get rid of the drops. So He heats it up and the heat, the fiery heat trials and the heat that we go through.
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Is used to burn off impurities, but it has been said that the silversmith apparently.
He knows. I'm not saying they do this now. They probably have temperatures and gauges in modern science. But back in the old days when they did silver and the silversmith used to look into the top of the pot and he would be looking for the the silver to become so pure that there be no impurities left in it, that he would begin to see his own reflection in it. And when he saw his own reflection in it, he knew that everything was burned out. It was time to pour it into whatever they were making, silver pots or cups.
Whatever. And I like to think of that with regard to the Lord and his dealings with us. He's looking for a reflection of himself in US, and he's going to get it too, because he's going to conform us to the image of His own son. He uses the heat of trials to do that. I may have told this story to you before, but there was this man, this sculptor who was.
A very famous sculptor and he has been working on a project.
And on a certain day, they unveiled this thing, took the sheet off it or whatever, and they had people around. Reporters were all there, and there was this huge statue of a lion. And in interviewing him and speaking to this sculptor, they said to him, how did you ever do it? It's magnificent. And all this, he said, well, really, I just chipped away everything. It didn't look like a lion.
And you know, that's what the Lord is doing with us. He's chipping away everything it doesn't look like.
Christ himself. And so if there is this feature or that in me or in my character, in my attitude, it is not right.
He uses these difficulties and so on to get those things out so that there be more of Christ in my life. And that's this glorifies God. To have Christ likeness in his people glorifies God in this world. So how wonderful there is an end to it all.
In closing now, I had read this and I wrote it down, got about one of the calendars, and I appreciate these counters. Written by JM Darby, it says what trial accomplishes. Trial itself cannot confer grace, but under God's hand it can break the will and detect hidden and unsuspected evils so that the new life is more fully and largely developed. God has a larger place in the heart. There's more intelligence in his ways, more loneliness.
Independence, more consciousness that the world is nothing, and more distrust.
Of self and the flesh The Saint is emptied of self and filled with the Lord. What is eternally true and divine has a much larger, larger place in the soul, and what is false is detected and laid aside. So how wonderful the Lord has a divine purpose for everything we pass through, and he loves us with such an incredible love that one of the one of the great results of all trial, as we begin with, is that we.
Love in a different way. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. And I can stay through the experiences of my short time here. Although I've never been called upon to pass through any very great difficulty, I can say that I've come to know him in a way that's different than I ever expected. When I got saved, you know, when I got saved, I thought he's a wonderful God that would put away my sins and to bring me into such a blessing. And then when I was taught of the doctrines of grace.
And how that he has set us before himself in the place of his own son. We've even helped thankful if we could have had a doormat, a doorman place in heaven. But he said, I'll give you the sons place floor you. But there as he walks and keep as we walk with him through this world, he teaches us the things that we could never learn by the gospel, nor could we learn in heaven.
Do you ever think about that?
There are things that you can learn down here about Him and His grace that you will not learn in the heavens, and that's why it is so precious to walk with Him now in his school, learning the lessons. For instance, we learn Him now as a God of all mercy, as a God of all patience. You'll never do anything wrong in the heavens to ever learn, to ever need His patience. So you can't learn that lesson there, but you can't learn it here. I'm not suggesting you go ahead and do something wrong to see.
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Is so how gracious, patient, holy God that he is? Let me read those words again.
It says in the desert, God will teach thee. What the gods have done is found patient, gracious, powerful, holy. All his grace shall there abound. What a God we walk with. What a privilege to be in his school. Brother. Let us learn these lessons while we have the time.
So that we may carry that into the heavens with us. You know, one great thing for all these trials that we go through it are to capacitate us for the theme that lies before us in the heavens. One, we sing His praises, we'll sing them with more intelligence as to His ways and all. We will sing with grace and with intelligence as we know our God.