I just, it seemed like we knew it. Anyway, tonight we're looking at going to start a series through the Book of Job. I don't know how long this will last. I mean, how long it'll take to get through the Book of Job. We're going to try it, okay, because other people I have preaching here on Sunday evening, I have Heath and Matthew and Cheekay and who knows what else will happen. So, it may take us a gazillion years. But then I think if John Calvin took, he preached every day. And it took him a year and a half to go through the Book of Job. So anyway, I am not John Calvin. Don't pretend to be. But I want to quote him tonight as we start. So Jan asked me to create a sermon notes page. So that's OK. Okay, so you got one of those. Okay, just wanted to make sure that you understood. I'm not trying to pull some fast, funny business here. Okay, so tonight, the Book of Job. When I say the Book of Job, what comes to mind? Probably trials and afflictions, and rightly so. We'll talk more about that. But here's a statement that John Calvin made in 1521. 54 and 55 is when he went through the Book of Job. So he made this statement. It says, the storyline of the Book of Job is to show us how we are in God's hand, that it is he who orders our lives and disposes of them at his good pleasure, that our responsibility is to yield ourselves to him in all humility and obedience. That is only right seeing that we belong completely to him in life and in death. Now, if that sounds a little bit like the Heidelberg Catechism question number one, it's probably because it was written about the same time. Now, Zachary Ursinus wrote the Heidelberg Catechism in 1562. But he and John Calvin probably were in communication because Calvin did go to Heidelberg from time to time. So it's very likely that the two came out. So just listen to the Heidelberg Catechism. I'll bring it up at the end of this sermon as well. The Heidelberg Catechism is the question, what is your only comfort in life and in death? that I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my Heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. And therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing, ready from now on to live for him. There seems to be a similarity there with what John Calvin was saying about the book of Job. And so tonight I'm going to look at the secret of Job as far as the secret of his being prepared for going through the afflictions. James writes and says, he talks about the steadfastness or the patience of Job. And Job did demonstrate some great patience along the way, although there were times when because of weariness, confusion, he was beaten down by circumstances. Of course, the abuse of his friends had misapplied truth and turned Job's affliction into a test of work's righteousness. Job, however, by God's grace, was humbled out of this and came forth as he said he would do. He says, when he has finished with me, I shall come forth as gold. Indeed, he did. So the Holy Spirit has given us, I think in this first verse, a very important secret to Job's endurance. So that's what we're looking at tonight. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the book of Job. We thank you that you have not only inspired it, but you have preserved it for us, and now we need the help to unpack it. We're only looking at the first verse, but we know that it just goes deeper than that, and so we pray that you would guide us in our thoughts, our words, and help us to apply this to our lives as we consider the fact that many of us are in afflictions, either have been, are, or will be. We know that's the lot for all of us. As Jesus said, in this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Indeed, that is our hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray that we would draw from him as we study Job and begin this series even tonight. As we call upon you in Jesus' name, amen. Well, when we talk about afflictions, we must be reminded, as the book of Job reminds us, that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against rulers and authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. When we consider Job going through the times of afflictions, we sense his pain, his physical pain, his pain of loss, even greater the pain of torment from those who came from a distance, as we read about his friends that came from a distance. We'll cover more of that in the weeks to come, but consider the torment, the pain Job was afflicted by Satan, the accuser, and although what Satan brought was sifted through the hand of God, It did result to give Job sanctification. He was humbled in that time. And as we are told that that's what our afflictions do in our lives, if it wasn't necessary, it wouldn't be. And God's purpose is to make us more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. So we take the book of Job and say that it's a direct line from Romans 15, verse 4, that the things written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through the patience and the comfort of the scriptures might have hope. So tonight I'm looking at Job's secret and looking at Job 1, verse 1, and I'm looking at there was a man, there was an upright man, and Job was a God-fearing man. Job's secret. Let me read it. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. It's interesting that this is an assessment of Job by the writer, and that writer, of course, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And so that's quite a mark on Job, just to begin with, that he says, here's a man who is blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. Well, let's just break it down. First of all, we say that there was a man. There's a man in us whose name was Job. It's very important that we do that because we have to understand when we face different temptations and different circumstances, it's good to know, as it says in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 13, that there is no temptation taken you, but such is this common to man. In other words, God hasn't singled you out. Sometimes we feel like that. Sometimes Job felt like that, that there was a target on his back. But Job was not some superhuman. He was a man like we are. So there was a man by the name of Job. It's interesting. He's not a fictitious character because it says in the book of Ezekiel, when Ezekiel was told by God. Now, if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were here, they would deliver but their own lives, but their righteousness, declares the Lord, would not deliver the other people. So, it's quoted. Why is that important? James also quotes that when he says, we consider those blessed to remain steadfast. You've heard of the steadfastness of Job. Okay, two places in the Bible, Ezekiel and the book of James, are places where Job is mentioned. I bring that up because it was interesting, one year at Presbytery, we were very lackadaisical in our work, and some men were kind of sleeping, I guess, during the examination, and there was a young man who got up and said that the Book of Job and the Book of Jonah were not real people, they were just kind of a genre that was written to kind of some principles. Now, what happened was, it was interesting, because there was a lot of people that weren't there that day, and the other people must have been sleeping. It caught the attention of people, but nobody said anything. Next thing you know, we passed that guy. Wait a minute. Somebody, when they got a hold of those minutes, they said, this is not right. And so they did something really bad. They called the guy back and took away what they did. Well, then the standing judicial committee said, you can't do that. But anyway, he went on to a different denomination anyway. But the point was, The point was, this is a very, very important to say, Job is a real person. He's not a fictitious character. This is something that's real. And I was going to point out next week that when he just shows the immense riches that he had, he had a large family, had a large household, and that means many servants. He was a very rich man. He was the man who was the richest in the area of the world where he lived. Okay, so when that is taken away, And his family is taken away. And then his health is taken away. This is a man who has seen affliction. So Job, he's a real man. Secondly, it says he lives in the place called Uz, U-Z. Some put that in the Far East, probably maybe in around Iran or Iraq, somewhere in there. And some people say he lived in the time of Abraham. Others, this is a new one, has a point that Uz is in the land of Idumea, which is inhabited by the descendants of Esau. Now you'll find that in the book of Lamentations when it says, Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, Esau, for you who dwell in the land of Uz but to you the cup shall pass, you shall become drunk and strip yourselves bare." In other words, there was a curse on those people. So it's remarkable that if that's the case, a lot of people think that, say that there was an Idumea in the land of Edom, that it was probably during the time the children of Israel were in Egypt before the raising up of Moses. In other words, the children of Israel were in Egypt for 400 years. So sometimes between Moses' birth and the time that they went there during Joseph's time was the time that maybe Job lived. Nobody really knows. Okay? But it's just throwing those things out there. But I think it's important that the writer says, he's a real man who lived in a real place. Okay. That's the important part. All right. So, His name was Job. The meaning of Job, people have said his name means weeping or crying out, or a man of enmity, or a man with a target on his back. I kind of like that. I don't know if it was actually surmised from his story or if that was the meaning of his name, but it sure fits, right? If Job's name means I have a target on my back, have you ever felt like there was a target on your back? Now, a lot of people think that. I mean, my dad used to say that sometimes. I think there's a target on my back, because things wouldn't go right at work. And then he could, I don't know, if anybody has lived up north, you understand what it is when you have fuel line freeze up. You go out and start the car, and it says, please don't start me. Please don't start me. Please don't start me. Please don't start. No, no, no, no. OK. And then you just get, you can't ever start your car. And my dad. He was so upset because he said, I feel like everything's going against me. Because he went to work like at 5 o'clock in the morning and his car wouldn't start. So anyway, sometimes we feel like there's a target on our back. Sometimes we feel like our name is Jabez. Now Jabez's name means pain or suffering, and he was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called him Jabez. Interesting, huh? You always wonder what Jabez felt when he went to school. Hey, you sorry Jabez, okay? Just stop and think about it. It's all right, but Jabez called upon the God of Israel and saying, oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my border and your right hand be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so it might not bring pain to me. And God granted him his request. Well, when we feel like there's a target on our back, that God is doing something and we don't understand, we go back to Job. And here's where we uncover his secret tonight to facing the afflictions. He was a man who lived in the land of Oz, whose name was Job, and he was blameless and upright. Let's talk about the blameless part. It says in the King James Version that he was perfect and upright. Perfect really describes it, blameless is part of that, but I like when it says perfect, it's meaning the whole person. He's a whole person, he's not a partial person. He is a whole person in the sight of God. God allowed this to be stated by him. A whole person with no hypocrisy. As I searched around this, I said, you know, that sounds like someone very important in the Bible that is described that way. Well, we find that in the book of John chapter 1, when Philip found Nathanael and said, we have found the one whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote to Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And Philip said to him, well, come and see. Isn't that a good way to invite people to church? Well, just come and see, okay? Describe what it is and say, come and see, all right? Well, Jesus saw Nathanael coming, now watch this, coming toward him and he said of him, behold an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Okay, and he's giving the same words here, there's no deceit, there's no hypocrisy in this man, okay? So Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Jesus said to him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. Something happened under that fig tree, and we have to kind of deduce it together, okay? Something happened there, Jesus saw him under that fig tree. It was more than just sitting there playing tiddlywinks under the fig tree, something is happening in his life. For Jesus to say, here's a man on whom there is no deceit. I love how the King James Version said, there's no guile. Guile is deceit or hypocrisy. When you have sinned, but you say there's no sin. He has something happen under the fig tree. Some of the good commentators, they're only commentators, of course. they say that what happened there was he had an experience with God, probably his sin was mound up before him, and he was calling upon God for relief of that. Wouldn't that make sense? Okay, and that was such a unique experience that he had, and when Jesus said, I saw you when you were under that fig tree, because look what he says, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, the King of Israel. I like that. So he's recognizing who Jesus is because Jesus identified with his experience feeling like he was weighted down with the burden of sin and evidently he found some great relief. So when you look at Job being perfect or blameless, let's put it in the context of Nathaniel here because he had, Job, we don't know, we don't have the account of his experience with God, but there had to be an experience that he had with God. God had worked in his heart. And there's a man without hypocrisy. He is walking blameless because God had done that work within him of regeneration, that he's walking in an upright way. In other words, what God had worked in, he was working out in his life, as Heath quoted this morning from Philippians chapter 2 and verse 12. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. So, when we talk about the upright man, Psalm 112 has some beautiful words where he says, Praise the Lord, blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. That's a sign of a person who is upright and blameless, delights in the commandments. The generation of the upright will be blessed, and light dawns in the darkness for the upright, for He's gracious and merciful and righteous. In Psalm 33, it says that, shout for joy, O Lord, shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous, and praise befits the upright. In Proverbs 11, verse three, the integrity of the upright guides him. So let's look at this. First John gives us some words that we would apply to Job. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. So Job, He who is a blameless man, he's upright, so if he's practicing righteousness and upright, we understand that he has been born from above. He says, little children, no one deceive you in 1 John chapter 3 verse 7, he who practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. We understand if we just think we're going to just practice it, all of our righteousness is our filthy rags as it says in Isaiah 64 and verse 4. So when we look at 1 John chapter 3 and verse 10, by this is evident who are the children of God and those who are the children of the devil, whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is one who does not love his brother. Okay, so Job is blameless and he's upright. He has that mark on him. Isn't it wonderful that God gives us that insight about Job? So how would we prepare? Sometimes we say, how do we even pray that God will prepare us for the afflictions that we're more likely to have than not? How do we prepare for that? Well, the first thing is we look at, have we found the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ to be the solid rock, the solid thing, the true faith in Jesus Christ? Are we living without hypocrisy? In other words, there's no guile. We're coming clean before the Lord often because we realize our hearts tend to walk away. And then are we living in an upright way, seeking to do whatever he has commanded us to do? Well, the third point is that he was a God-fearing man. It says, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. Let's talk about the fear of the Lord for a moment. The fear of the Lord, it says in Psalm 111, verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 1, verse 7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 14 verse 20 says, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. So it sounds like the fear of the Lord is really good stuff. The fear of the Lord. Sometimes we get afraid of that because, does that mean that we go around scared that he's going to wipe us off the face of this earth? Afraid we're going to crack a smile as if God's standing there and saying, I'm waiting for you to smile so I can let you have it. That's not the fear of the Lord we're talking about. As it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of the body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of the Lord. Now, there's a Puritan I love to read, and his name is Richard Sibbes. Richard Sibbes, they say he had heaven in his, heaven was in him long before he was in heaven. I like that. And it's an old bachelor, but it was quite effective. Now listen to what he says. I'm going to have to interpret this a little bit, so stand by. But he says, as a man grows in grace, he grows in awfulness, okay? Therefore, let us preserve this awful affection, comma, the fear of God. There's an awful affection. Awful affection is that there's an affection toward God, but there's a, stand back, he's holy. We have an awe toward him. Jeremiah quotes, God speaks and says, I'm gonna put my fear of me in their hearts in the new covenant. The fear of him is an awe, a reverence of him. And just the remarkable thing, because he pays attention to us, that he even loves us. And it shows an awe of him doing that, that he reaches down to us. In the New Testament, it would be like this. What does the word say? The word is near you. It's in your mouth and in your heart, that word of faith which we proclaim. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is what? Lord. That's recognizing him in awe. bowing before him. In Revelation, I love Revelation chapter 1 verses 17 and 18 because when John saw Jesus in his magnificence there in the book of Revelation chapter 1, he fell at his feet so dead he laid his right hand on him saying, fear not I'm the first and the last, the living one, I died and behold I'm alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades. So we put it in Job's context, of course. Job had an experience with God. We don't have the account of that experience, but we see the fruit of that experience. Job had an experience with God. He was perfect. He was without hypocrisy. He had the real thing. Secondly, because he had the real thing, he lived it out in an upright life. He sought to live by the commandment of God, whatever commandment he had. We didn't have the written word. We don't have any record of that, although we have some really good evidence that he knew a lot about God because of the things that he said. So we're going to look at more of that, but here we are. We have a man who had an experience with God, who was living it out, and a fear of God. And the third thing is that he turned away from evil. Or as the King James says, he eschewed evil. I like that. He eschewed evil. He didn't want to have anything to do with it. He pushed it away. Don't even bring it around, OK? So that's the askew part. In the book of Psalm 34 it says, come, O children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many good days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, your lips from speaking deceit, and turn away from evil, and do good, and seek peace, and pursue it. That's exactly what Peter quotes in 1 Peter 3, verses 10 and 11. So Job feared God. He had an awe, a respect for God. He was full of awe of God. And we find that when we come down to the last chapter of the book of Job, when he says, that I thought I knew you, but now that I've seen you with my eye, I just sit in dust and ashes. I'm nothing, less than nothing, nothing. So Job learned that, so he feared God. So he feared God and lived it out in the midst of a very corrupt society. So that's what we have here. Job is a man who has a fearful, awful respect for God. And he's skewing evil. He's pushing away evil out of his life. How did he do that? And how do we do that? So he's focused. He's too busy seeking God and seeking to do what God has commanded, where he doesn't have time to even think about evil and just push it away. We don't have time for that. He didn't play games when it came to serving God. He was wholly focused, and therefore he avoided hypocrisy. And he was perfect, as it says in the King James. Well, that will carry you through all sorts of afflictions. the only one thing that is Job's secret is in Job's, the Job's secret is in verse 1 where it says he was a man, he was a true man, he lived in the land of Uz, his name was Job, seemed to have a target on his back, that's alright because the man was blameless, he had an experience with God, he lived in a perfect and upright way, who feared God and he turned away from evil. That prepared for what had, what was to come. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, Peter says in 1 Peter 1 verse 13, prepare your minds for action and be sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as it is written, he who called you is holy, so be holy in all of your conduct. He says, since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord. I just want to read to you again the portion I read about John Calvin when he said about the book of Job. He said this, the storyline of the book of Job is to show us how we are in God's hand, that he is he who orders our lives and disposes of them at his good pleasure. that our responsibility is to yield ourselves to Him in all humility and obedience. That is the only right thing, seeing that we belong completely to Him in life and in death. Now, I put on the back of your outline the first question and answer to the Heidelberg Catechism. So if you have one, just follow with me. Let's just do this together as we close out this message. So, what is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood. He has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my Heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him. That summarizes the first verse of the book of Job, of Job chapter 1. Job was so locked in on his relationship with God that later on he's going to question things in Job chapter 9 when he says, I know it's the truth, but how can a man be just with God? Later in that chapter he says, if I just had a daisman, if I just had someone to go and put his hand upon us both and bring me to God, Of course, then later on he says that, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand in the latter days upon the earth. And although these skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I will see God. He knew something about it, didn't he? He knew something about it because I believe that Even though Zachary Ursanus wrote the Heidelberg Catechism, I believe he and John Calvin were on the same page because John Calvin saw what precious things Job believed and how he was affected by the grace of God. And so are we. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your truth, thank you for the Word of God, thank you for this mighty, wonderful book, the book of Job. And as we, in further weeks, unpack it, we pray that you would bless us, and that even tonight, Lord, we pray that you would give us grace to apply what we learned about Job and how you prepared him for afflictions ahead that would not throw him off, but really help him to hold tight to his savior, Jesus Christ, as we do too. Thank you also for Zachary Erzinus writing the Heidelberg Catechism, this question number one and answer is just so precious to us and we give you thanks for that too. Thank you for this evening, we pray in Jesus name, amen.