Beloved, if you would turn in your copies of God's inspired and infallible word, which has been given to us as a perfect lamp for our feet. to Job, the book of Job chapter 8. We'll be looking tonight at the whole of chapter 8, all 22 verses. You can find that on page 793 if you're using one of the Chair Bibles. Last time together when we looked at Job chapter 7, you remember we saw Job lament his calamity as well as the perceived brevity and hopelessness of his present life and then use his situation to justify his bitter complaints as he quarreled against God's present dealings with him. And we learned from that primarily that in afflictions, Christians ought not complain in their bitterness, but be content in God's goodness. And now this evening from Job chapter 8, we'll see Job's second friend, Bildad. give his first answer to Job. But like Eliphaz, we'll see him fail as a counselor in a variety of ways, and that most particularly in his application of God's justice. And the primary lesson then for us this evening The primary truth that Bildad misunderstood and misapplied, and so that we will seek to rightly understand and learn how to apply, is that God is just and righteous in all of our afflictions. God is just and he is righteous in all of our afflictions. And so with that, beloved, let's hear from God's Word then, from Job chapter 8, in the whole of it. Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said, How long will you speak these things? In the words of your mouth be like a strong wind, Does God subvert judgment or does the Almighty pervert justice? If your sons have sinned against Him, He cast them away for their transgression. If you would earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty, if you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you and prosper. your rightful dwelling place. Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly. For inquire, please, of the former age, and consider the things discovered by their fathers. For we were born yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you, and tell you, and utter words from their heart? Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh? Can the reeds flourish without water? While it is yet green and not cut down, it withers before any other plant. So are the paths of all who forget God. in the hope of the hypocrite shall perish, whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust is a spider's web. He leans on his house, but it does not stand. He holds it fast, but it does not endure. He grows green in the sun, and his branches spread out in his garden. His roots wrap around the rock heap and look for a place in the stones. And if he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, I have not seen you. Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth others will grow. Behold, God will not cast away the blameless, nor will he uphold the evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughing and your lips with rejoicing. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame and the dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing. Well, beloved, this ends the reading of God's word, and may he be pleased to bless it and especially the preaching of it in our midst this evening. Well, we remember, and if you just glance back, assuming you can see it on the same page there to the end of Job chapter seven, You remember that Job ended his lamentation in chapter seven by quarreling against and really challenging God's present dealings with him and particularly the justice and the righteousness of God's present dealings with him. And so in response, it's in response here to Job's quarreling against and challenging of God's justice and righteousness in his affliction, that Bildad's first response comes. And so in Job chapter 8, verses 1 to 7, we see Bildad respond to Job's lamentations, complaints, and challenges not by learning from Eliphaz's mistakes and stopping to ask Job questions and to see if perhaps he and Eliphaz were misunderstanding things. So he doesn't learn from Eliphaz's mistakes, but he doubles down on Eliphaz's mistakes and rebukes of Job. He asks Job, how long, how long, Job, will you breathe forth words that are destructive and offensive, as is a strong wind? He challenges Job's challenge of God's justice and righteousness by asking Job some piercing and rhetorical questions. He asks, Does God ever subvert judgment? Does he ever pervert justice? And it's really in those two questions that we see that it's God's justice and righteousness that Bildad is seeking to apply in this counseling situation and to impress upon Job's heart, mind and situation. For in the positive, he's essentially telling Job, you're wrong, Job. You're wrong and you know it. For God is always just and right in all of his ways at all times. And therefore, Job, if your sons sinned against God, and Bildad certainly appears here to be implying that his sons did sin, Bildad says, then they got what they deserved. They got justice when God cast them away for their transgression. And it's with that cold, harsh, and sharp statement that we also see Bildad operating according to the same narrow, mechanical, and exclusive view of the sowing and reaping principle as Eliphaz had. Again, for Bildad, as for Eliphaz, it's all very simple. God is sovereign. God is just. And therefore, everything is black and white. If God took your children in the way that He did, then it's clear that they had sinned against Him. It's simple, Joe. It's clear. And if you won't confess and repent, then the just calamities that God has brought against you will also lead to your destruction and your being cast away. But if you would seek God, Bildad says, if you would seek God and just acknowledge the sin that we all know you're guilty of, if you just repent, then God wouldn't cast you away. He'd pour out blessings abundant upon you more than ever before. So having put forth the justice of God in what can be said to be nothing less than a very cold and mechanical manner, having appealed once more to a very exclusive and narrow view of the sowing and reaping principle, and having on these grounds called Job to repent, Bildad goes on to reinforce his point by an appeal to tradition, saying in Essence verses 8 to 10, Job, you know. You know these things to be true. You know Eliphaz and I are right in all that we've said to you. For just consider the traditions, consider the wisdom and the teaching of our fathers in the faith and the consensus thereof. Will they not teach and convict and confirm to you all that we are saying." And then in verses 11 to 22, Bildad seeks to further drive home and to confirm his point by not only appealing to the tradition of the fathers for confirmation, but to nature and to observation. He asks rhetorically, Can a papyrus grow without a marsh? Can a reed flourish without water? And the obvious answer is no, they cannot. Without water, they will wither away. And Bildad says, so likewise, so does observation confirm to me and us, and experience confirmed to us, that so likewise shall the hope of the hypocrite perish. So likewise are the paths of all who forget God." And Bildad goes on to expound upon this observational point and to implicitly indict Job all along the way, implying Job Your house, like a spider's web, has been torn away. Your house has fallen. You put out your roots and flourished for a time. But now, Job, you are falling just as the hypocrites do. And so he expounds upon this idea and indicts Job before ending with really what can be said to be nothing less than a sarcastic jab about the joyous destruction that awaits Job if he will not repent in the earthly blessings that will come to him, if but only he would. And so with that, beloved, very briefly, no doubt, but we've just seen Job's second friend, Bildad, give his first answer to Job. And like Eliphaz, we've seen him fail as a counselor in a variety of ways. And again, that most particularly in his application of God's justice, his counseling, his application was mechanical. It was cold. It was harsh. It was rash. His theology, as we'll see momentarily, was too narrow. It was partial at best. And so again, the primary lesson for us tonight, the primary truth that Bildad was working with and seeking to apply, and that we as wise counselors want to understand and apply rightly, is that God is just and righteous in all of our afflictions. And to briefly confirm that truth from elsewhere in God's Word, Genesis 18 verse 25, Abraham, in interceding for Sodom, and particularly for the few righteous that were in it, he asks, Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And of course, Abraham's making a statement in the question. The question assumes the truth that God, the judge of all the earth, shall and always shall do right, do justice, do righteousness. But then also Deuteronomy 32, 4, which we already read from earlier. But again, Moses proclaims of God that he is the rock. His work is perfect for all of his ways are justice. A God of truth and without injustice, righteous, and upright is he. And so all, beloved, all of God's ways, all of God's dealings with all men, women and children, they're just. They are righteous. And if God shall always do right, and if God is always just and upright in all of his dealings, then the truth of our passage is sure, that God is just and righteous in all of our afflictions, which are but a part of his ways. But in applying our truth now this evening, we must admit that insofar as the truth stands, as far as that proposition goes, that God is just and righteous in all of our afflictions, Bildad would not have disagreed with that statement at all. Rather, as we've noted and seen, Bildad's error was his misunderstanding, okay, his continued misunderstanding of Job's situation and his incomplete understanding of that truth, that God is just and righteous in all of our afflictions, and his misunderstanding, as with Eliphaz, led to another misunderstanding. application. And so once again, how can we learn? We want to ask, beloved, how can we learn from Bildad's folly and errors here in our chapter this evening in order that we may be wise counselors, helpful counselors to one another in our afflictions? How ought we rightly understand and how can we rightly apply to afflicted brothers and sisters the truth that God is just and righteous in all of our afflictions. But before we get to that specifically, it's a good point here in Job as we transition from one failing friend to another, to be reminded that the basics always remain critical and that it's never too late to get back to the basics of biblical counseling. And what I mean by that is this, beloved. What we see is that Bildad just kept running. He just kept plowing forward with and reinforcing the friend's misunderstandings and mischaracterizations of Job's situation. What I mean is this. Bildad had an opportunity, right? This situation ever since Eliphaz started talking, just was spiraling out of control, getting worse and worse. Eliphaz comes on the scene. He starts giving some bad counseling. This stirs up Job's sin and weakness, dives him deeper into despair, and this thing's just getting out of control until Elihu comes on the scene, and then finally God breaks in. Bildad had the opportunity to reverse the spiral of the dialogue here by returning to the basics of wise counseling, which we've spoken about many times up to this point. Bildad could have said, whoa, let's everybody calm down. We're getting out of control. Let's reset and chill. Let's get back to sympathizing with Joe. Remember, brothers, why we all agreed to come here in the first place? To comfort Joe. To empathize with Joe. To provide wise counsel to Joe. And we've failed. So let's stop and let's leap. Right? Let's stop and let's listen. Empathize. Ask good questions and paraphrase. Let's ask Job. so that we can find out if we are misunderstanding his situation. Let's listen to his answers. Let's then empathize with our brother's grievous and weighty situation and then let's paraphrase him so that we know we're understanding him rightly and so that he knows he's being understood. Let's stop and let's leap. Let's stop and ask ourselves, is it possible that Job's being chastened here, being afflicted for something other than a specific sin? Let's stop and apply the Jonah paradigm, though I know Jonah's after this, but you know what I'm saying based on what we've been talking about. Let's ask if we have any good biblical reason for believing that Job is being chastised for a specific sin. And if we don't, let's actually work on the assumption that such is not the case, because we have no good reason to believe otherwise. And you know what? That being the case, let's remember the devil, that we're not materialists. Because you know what? As I think about it, Eliphaz, my brothers, it seems like the devil's hand might be all over this situation if we stop and look at it for a minute. Let's remember the devil is real. And you know what? Let's also make sure that we're applying all of God's attributes all the time. We've been talking about His sovereignty and His justice, but let's not divide God. Let's remember that He's also good and He's also wise. And so brothers, let's make sure that we're applying all of God's attributes all the time and not some to the neglect. of others, you know, so he had this golden opportunity to, boom, to stop and reset and get back to the basics of providing wise counsel. And so, beloved, I'd encourage you to likewise always start with the basics. And if you find yourself having skipped over them, don't make the error of Bildad and just keep plowing through. So stop and leap. Stop and leap. Stop and apply the Jonah paradigm. Go back and listen to old sermons or ask me afterwards if you need a reminder what that is. Remember the devil's real. Take him into account. And then apply all of God, all of God. to your brothers and sisters' situations. But then concerning the particular point of our passage, concerning a right understanding, an application of the truth of our passage, that God is just and righteous in all of our afflictions. Beloved, it is critical It is critical to have a complete theology, a biblically nuanced theology of God's righteousness and justice. It's critical to be clear about and to distinguish in your own mind and also to convey to the one you're counseling. The distinction, the biblical distinction between what we can call and do in our tradition call God's judicial righteousness and his paternal righteousness. You may remember a little bit different nuance, but you remember we've worked with those terms before when we speak of God's judicial forgiveness and God's paternal forgiveness, right? forgiveness of our sins and justification, and His ongoing forgiveness that we pray for in the Lord's Prayer. So we must distinguish and convey the distinction between God's judicial righteousness and His paternal righteousness, or we could say between His avenging justice and His fatherly justice. Okay, these things, I'm going to unpack them, but these things, of course, we know, just to be clear, are not really distinct in God as if, you know, somebody other than God was creating a God and they took judicial righteousness and they took paternal righteousness and they put these parts together and made God. It's not as if these things are really distinct parts in God, but rather they find their distinction in how God's simple and perfect righteousness and justice is manifested towards different objects in different relationships to him. So we make these distinctions of judicial righteousness, paternal righteousness, avenging justice, fatherly justice, not in God, but in the way God's perfect righteousness interacts with his creatures and his relationships with them. So, for instance, God's judicial righteousness and avenging justice refer to his punishment of sin as a judge for the detriment of the sinner. and as a repayment or a wage for past offense. I'll say it one more time. God's judicial righteousness and avenging justice, those are synonymous for us tonight, refers to His punishment of sin as a judge, for the detriment of the sinner and as a repayment or wage for past offense." And it seems clear that that's the only category Bildad had to operate with. That's the only category of God's justice that Bildad was counseling according to. But while we certainly, beloved, we certainly don't say that the afflictions that come on the saints are ever unjust, since God is always just. And while we affirm, certainly, that some afflictions upon the saints are for specific sins, and that all of them, even the ones that aren't for specific sins, tend toward the sanctification of the saint in the burning away and prevention of their sin in general, Nonetheless, beloved, when it comes to the saints, we do not say that such afflictions are sent by God according to his judicial righteousness and avenging justice, but rather from his paternal righteousness and his fatherly justice and love. And Petrus van Maastricht, whom I've essentially just paraphrased, but goes on, he's very helpful by pointing out that this means what we've just said. This means that the afflictions of the saints. And here's where we're getting down to where this is applicatory. The afflictions of the saints are not punishments, properly speaking, but fatherly chastisements. And the differences between punishments and chastisements lie in the facts that one, punishment is afflicted by a judge, chastisement by a father, punishment by avenging justice, chastisement by fatherly love. Two, punishment tends to the detriment of the punished. but chastisement to his or her advantage. And three, punishment inclines toward repayment for past offense, chastisement toward avoidance of future sin. Okay, punishment afflicted by a judge, chastisement by a father, punishment tends to the detriment of the punished, chastisement to his or her advantage, Punishment inclines toward repayment for past offense, chastisement toward avoidance of future sins. And because, beloved, Jesus Christ bore the justice and the wrath due for your sins once and for all, once and for all, and therefore having been justified through faith in Christ, you through faith in Christ are never again nor ever can be objects of God's judicial righteousness and avenging justice. Ever. Because Christ paid your fine, in Him, get this, you can never be the object of judicial righteousness and avenging justice. And so having this more complete and biblical theology of God's justice and righteousness, this distinction between judicial righteousness and fatherly righteousness, avenging justice and fatherly justice and love, beloved, having these categories and distinctions, it is critical for counseling well. and for comforting afflicted saints. We see here in Bildad what happens if we try and counsel with limited, halfway, half-baked theology. It tends toward harm. Tends toward harm. And this because, beloved, This because in their affliction, in one another's affliction, the saints need to be reminded, need to be comforted, need to be reminded that they are not being punished unto their death. detriment. They are not being punished unto their detriment. Never, ever, never, ever, but rather always being lovingly chastised and refined only for their good and conformity to Christ. The saints, beloved, you and your afflictions, And when you're ministering to a brother or sister in an afflicted state, which is a high stress situation, a stressful state, being in affliction, they need the simple reminder that God is not some mechanical, rash, harsh, cosmic fly swatter just waiting to swat one of his children at any site of a sin. need to be reminded, beloved, that their God is good, wise, and loving, is a good, wise, and loving father who never, ever, the Bible says, afflicts them willingly, but only lovingly and necessarily for their conformity to Christ. And so bottom line here, beloved, if you're counseling an afflicted saint, do not. Do not, like Bildad, apply to them the judicial righteousness and avenging justice of God, other than to remind them that Christ died for them, and so they are never, ever the objects of such. Never, ever. Rather, beloved, apply the goodness, the wisdom, and the paternal righteousness and fatherly justice and love of God to them, reminding them that their affliction is a certain token of God's infinite love before them, and because He is a perfectly wise and good Father, they can be certain that He knows best and is working their best in the best possible way. And so therefore, they can. by His grace, willingly submit to and melt their will into His. So, beloved, have this theology of God's righteousness clear in your own minds that we do distinguish, because the Bible distinguishes between how God's righteousness is manifested to the unbeliever and how it's manifested to the believer. same righteousness, very different in its objects and its relations. And so have it and apply it. A couple more uses of the righteousness of God in counseling for you tonight. First, what we could call the humbling use of God's righteousness, and then second and briefly, the encouraging use of God's righteousness. So first there, beloved, if you find yourself ministering to a dear saint, who is a dear saint indeed, and yet they, like Job, are in their weakness, challenging and quarreling, not just doubting how God could be just and right and good in this situation, but they are manifestly challenging and quarreling against God's righteousness and justice. This doctrine of God's righteousness and justice in all of our afflictions, beloved, can be used by you, no doubt, gently and artfully, but can be used by you to love them by humbling them. To love them by humbling them, reminding them that God's word is clear. God's word is clear. He never, ever treats them unfairly. A dear saint can never say this is unfair. I do not deserve this. I've done nothing to deserve such a thing as this from the hand of God. You can remind them, beloved, of God's word, which says that his ways are never unfair, never unjust. and perhaps needing even more art and skill and gentleness, you can remind them that though Christ has borne God's avenging justice, nonetheless, according to God's paternal righteousness, even as our Father, we will still give account of all of our thoughts, words, and deeds on the last day And that should serve to restrain us and pray and stir us up to pray against such quarrelings and challenges which only come from our flesh. But then also. We can encourage the afflicted saint, beloved, can encourage the afflicted saint with the justice and righteousness of God. Remember or reminding them of Hebrews 6.10 that God is not unjust. OK, this is what Hebrews says. God is not unjust. that He should forget their works, that He should forget their faith, that He should forget their submission, that He should forget their patient endurance, but will certainly, according to His free grace, remember them and reward them. And He will, as Psalm 90,15 says, He will in the end make them glad according to It's a principle of justice. He will make them glad according to the days he has afflicted them. So you see, beloved, God's justice and his righteousness, they make sure to you and to one another, the certainty of his blessings and his promises. He will bless, beloved. He will reward our, he will reward your light and momentary afflictions with exceeding and eternal weights of glory. And here's the point. This not only because he's loving, good, merciful and gracious, but because he's just, true, and righteous. He cannot lie, beloved, and thus his promises are sure because he's just, because he's righteous. And so God's justice is sweet, beloved. It is sweet to believers, and that especially in their affliction. For the unbeliever, for the unbeliever, God's justice is a mixed bag. A mixed bag, I say, because unto the unbeliever, God's justice and righteousness is both bitter and sweet. Bitter and terrible, because it makes certain to them, to you, If you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, God's justice and righteousness makes sure to you, more sure than the rising of the sun tomorrow morning, that you will perish in hell if you do not turn to Jesus Christ and believe in Him. So God's justice is terrible to the unbeliever. But there is a hint of sweetness, and it's this, that He offers the gospel freely to all sinners. And because He is just, His promises that He will in no wise cast away the one that comes unto Him is a sure promise. a sure promise. If a sinner believes in Jesus Christ, who became sin for sinners, because God is just, they can be sure that their sins will be forgiven. They can be sure that they will have everlasting life because his justice and his righteousness demands it. It demands it because he has said it. He cannot lie. He cannot act contrary to his promises and to his word. And so you see, because God is just. You're absolutely guaranteed. either forgiveness or destruction, life or death. And so God's justice puts before you the two, life or death. Which one will you choose? Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, Greatly to be praised and worthy of all praise. Rock of ages, perfect in all of your ways. Just and righteous are your dealings with us. We pray, O God. that you would help us not only appropriate these truths to our own hearts and our own afflictions, and in that sense to be a helpful and profitable counselor to even our own souls. But as we've been trying to learn from the back and forth in Job, from Job's friends and their folly, how to not only be comforted in our affliction, but how to counsel and comfort one another, In the afflictions of others, Lord, I pray that we would take these things to heart, that we would remember the basics, that we would remember to leap, to apply the Jonah paradigm, to remember that the devil is real. To remember that God is all of his attributes and all of his attributes are one. And so to be careful dividing God or overemphasizing one attribute of God to the under emphasis of another. Pray, oh God, that we would think rightly about your righteousness and make biblical distinctions, not only under the comfort of our own souls, but under the comfort of others, and that we would use this doctrine wisely, Lord, for your glory and for the sake of the church. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.