Let me invite you to look with me in your Bibles in Job chapter 16, as we continue our study through the book of Job. And we've been looking primarily at Job as how he is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I've entitled this message smitten and afflicted. We know that that's What was used by Isaiah, the prophet to describe the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah 53 verses three and four, where it's written, he was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And it says we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted. This was certainly the attitude of these friends or acquaintances of Job that came to visit him in his suffering. They looked upon him as one smitten and afflicted of God. And their thought was that certainly he must have sinned. He must have done something or else God would not be dealing with him as he was. And that was the attitude even toward the Lord Jesus Christ. He was crucified as a blasphemer by men, because in the Jewish mind, he would not have died in the manner he did on that cross in the most horrible fashion, were he not a sinner. And sadly today, there are even so-called grace preachers that have taken that and run with it. where in the scriptures, it says that he was made to be sin for us, but they jump over the part afterwards says, who knew no sin? And so they claim that Christ certainly must have been guilty, not of the sin of others, but somehow himself guilty else God could not have justly put him to death. It's an abhorrent doctrine, but it is very popular amongst some so-called sovereign grace preachers. Yet Christ was without sin. It wasn't for any sin of his own that he was smitten. And even when it says there that he was made sin, that word means a sin offering. Like Isaiah said, his soul was made an offering for sin. So when he died, it wasn't for sin of his own, but for that of the people that the father had given him. And he knew no sin, but that through his sacrifice, those for whom he died should be declared righteous. And we're going to see that even with Job in the end, even though these friends so-called were accusing him. of having some sin for which God had smitten him and he was being afflicted. Yet in the end, God would justify him just like Christ was justified when he rose from the grave and that he would offer up sacrifices for these friends. There's some hope that indeed they were the Lords by the fact that God did tell Job to offer sacrifices for them. So that gives us a little brush stroke, if you will, about what we're going to look at here in Job chapter 16. I want to read from verse one down to verse nine to begin with and introduce this subject of smitten and afflicted. It says, then Job answered and said, and again, at this point, It is Eliphaz, the Temanite who is speaking. And he says, I've heard many such things, miserable comforters. Are you all, you can imagine what Job was enduring already under the hand of God by his suffering. And now these came along and. through their own insults to him, toward him. He says, shall vain words have an end or what emboldened of thee that thou answers. What is possessing you to talk to me the way that you are? This is where we need to be careful, even when we see people that we know going through affliction. Unless you've been through it yourself, you've not got a word to say. Shut your mouth. When I talk to somebody that's just been given a cancer diagnosis and it's terminal, I'm the last person to speak to. I don't know what that is. I may have to find out one day, but unless you've been through what somebody else is going through, you have little to say. Certainly you can point them to Christ, but don't be trying to analyze and decipher and somehow get them introspecting to figure out what they, need to do or what you think they need to do in order to get through their situation. This is what Paul or Job is saying here concerning their words, vain words, empty. I also could speak as ye do. If your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you and shake mine head at you. So he's telling them that they. Know nothing about what they're speaking of, but I would strengthen you with my mouth. Job was saying that were he going through with them, are they going through what he was going through? His purpose would be to strengthen them. And the moving of my lips would assuage your grief here. Again, we see a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. How is it that the Lord Jesus Christ can be a comfort to his people in any situation that they are going through? Well, it's because Christ is the forerunner. The scriptures tell us that he was tempted in all things yet without sin. And therefore, when we look to him in our time of need, To find grace, we can find it from one who has already been there. There's no temptation taken us, but such as common to man, common to the man, Christ the mediator. And therefore Job speaks here that were they in the same situation as he, he would have a word. of grace to speak with them, having been through it already himself. And he says in verse six, though I speak, my grief is not assuaged. And though I forbear, what am I eased? But in his situation, he's speaking as one who is going through it alone. And certainly that's the case of our Lord Jesus Christ. He endured in his flesh, everything that the sinner would endure in this life, except for the sin. He did not have a sin nature, but he suffered thirst. He was hungered. He tired and the scriptures say he wept. There was emotion that was a part of his being as the forerunner of his people, as the substitute for his people. And Job speaks to that, that even though he could speak to their benefit, that would not in any way assuage his grief. Our Lord spoke words of comfort to many centers that he encountered, but none of that relieved him in what he was enduring. That's why many times we find him aside and coming aside to pray unto his father, that the father would uphold him. It was a very real trial that our Lord was going through and nothing that men could say to him. could assuage his grief or ease the burden that he was to bear all the way to the cross. That's why in the garden, when he was on his face before his father, those disciples were away sleeping. There was nothing they could do to relieve what he was facing, the just bearing the sin of the unjust. that he might bring them to God. And so he says in verse seven, and again, we see types and pictures of our Lord here in his suffering, but now he hath made me weary. Thou has made desolate all my company. And he's saying on the one hand, he's got God who has wearied him and our Lord Jesus in the flesh was wearied. with the sin of his people that he was to bear. And then on top of it, it says thou has made desolate all my company. Everyone that was ever close to our Lord Jesus Christ by way of being a fellow or an associate fled. And it was necessary that it be that way because there's nothing that any that were close to him could ever do to help or contribute. I know Peter tried to interject himself and told the Lord that even if the Lord went to prison or death, that he would follow him. And the Lord had to remind him that even before the cock crew or crowed that Peter would deny him three times. And we know how that unfolded. There was nobody that stood with our Lord Jesus Christ or could stand with him. When he was crucified, there were that company of disciples that said they watched him from afar. But when he was taken and nailed to that cross, he was alone. It was between him and the father. None could go with him. Even in the garden, when they came to arrest them, they all fled according to what was even prophesied by the prophet Zechariah. And he says, thou has filled me with wrinkles. He's speaking there of these that were coming to somehow speak a word of comfort to him. And yet all he got was wrinkles. You know how the face wrinkles when people say things and you're thinking you don't have a clue what you're talking about. He says, which is a witness against me and my leanness rising up in me, birth wet witness to my face. In other words, from the face, the countenance, they could see that everything about him was suffering. And I'm sure that was the case, even with our Lord Jesus Christ, that his sufferings were real, but he bore. We don't have any drawings or pictures of what his face would have looked like as he suffered there on the cross, but it was excruciating pain. and would have been revealed as such, even to those that looked upon him. Here again, he speaks of God, he tears me in his wrath. It's reminder of what Job would have endured as the substitute of his, or as Christ would have endured as a substitute of his people of which Job was a type in a picture. who hateth me, he gnasheth upon me with his teeth, mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me." So all the while that our Lord Jesus Christ was suffering under the wrath of God, When it says who hateth me, I don't believe that speaking of the father here, because in verse nine, it's a little difficult to see who's he speaking of. He tears me in his wrath. We know that God poured out his justice on his son for the sin of his people, but the hatred he used men. So. Again, as Peter said there in Acts, he was delivered according to the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, that delivering up was to be subject to his wrath, his justice. And, but then it says that he was given to wicked men to crucify and slay him. They did to Christ out of hatred. It says who hate me, he was hated without cause. And he nasheth, he's talking about his enemies. He nasheth upon me with his teeth. Mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. They were mocking him even as he's on the cross. And yet in all of this, not one thing more or less was done to our Lord Jesus Christ than what God had determined should be done. So even here as Job speaks, he's speaking as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, smitten and afflicted and that God in this was accomplishing his purpose with him. Now in verses 10 through 21, that's where we see even more plainly this particular theme that I'm endeavoring to develop here concerning Job smitten and afflicted, but a type of Christ. It says they have gaped upon me with their mouth. And I'm sure as I read this, there are scriptures that will come to mind concerning Christ. They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully. Job is speaking here metaphorically. I don't think any of these friends were smiting him on the cheek, but As a representative of Christ as a type of the Lord, Jesus Christ, they have gathered themselves together against me. It's as if Christ himself is speaking here prophetically. God hath delivered me to the ungodly. Well, we know that's exactly what took place with our Lord and turned me over into the hands of the wicked here in his Peter's declaration in acts two and verse 23. I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder. He hath also taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark. His archers compass me round about. He cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare." Isn't that what? The scripture says he spared not his son, but delivered him up. When it says he spared him, not God didn't withhold his hand from Christ in smiting him because he was a son. No, he was there as a sin bearer and everything that the center deserved is what Christ endured. It says, and doth not spare. That's why we can have hope today. If Christ has paid our debt, that the debt was paid entirely, completely to the utter degree, because God did not spare in order to put away the sin of his people. He pours out my gall upon the ground. Verse 14, he breaketh me with breach upon breach. He runneth upon me like a giant. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and defiled my horn in the dust. My face is foul with weeping and on my eyelids is the shadow of death. I don't think any artist could ever draw or picture what our Lord Jesus Christ endured in his suffering. Not for any injustice in mine hands, Also, my prayer is pure. Now, Job speaking again is just declaring that he could not think or see of any particular sin for which God would be punishing him. But here with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, these words, not for any injustice in mine hands, to even think that somehow God was smiting him because of some injustice. or sin or sinfulness in Christ is contrary to everything you could ever imagine. He says, my prayer is pure. There could be no fault found with the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even going to the cross, every prayer was answered. He never prayed anything that was contrary to thy will be done. And that's why he was heard in the things that he suffered. Is it what the writer to the Hebrew says? Oh, earth cover, not thou my blood and not my cry have no place. Also now behold, my witness is in heaven, regardless of what men were doing unto him on earth. Yet it was God, the father who was witnessing everything that they were doing to him. It had to be. To be that perfect lamb, he had to be scrutinized and found without sin all the way unto death. And he says, my record is high. I love that term. Record is a legal term. It means you can go back and look in the records and you'll find no fault. And John said, this is the record that God has given us of his son. It's a record that in believing on him, resting in and believing on him on the one sacrifice that God himself ordained should be offered up for the satisfaction of God's law and justice, but also the salvation and justification of his people. And again, my friends scorned me. That's what our Lord endured. But mine eye pours out tears where unto God. That's why I say this was very real suffering. This is not just going through the motions as if in a movie where the actors play the part and then afterward, they all get together for a party afterward. No. His was a very real suffering, had to be as the substitute. And yet in those tears, he was looking to his father. Oh, that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleaded for his neighbor here, Joe is speaking now desirous of that umpire of that one to stand between. Well, as we read it, thank God. We know that there was a man that pled for us if we're the Lords and as one pleads for his neighbor, we'll come back to verse. 22 here in a minute. So smitten and afflicted in this chapter, we're drawn into the depth of Job's grief and rejection. And even as the scriptures declared that Job was a righteous man in his generation, that is that God looked upon him as one that he had chosen and for whom Christ would die. And yet here he finds himself alone, misunderstood and overwhelmed with the suffering. I believe that from this chapter, we can get an inkling, small though it be of just what our Lord would have endured in his thoughts. I don't find here in Job any complaint against God. But the more that he was caused to suffer, the more he cried unto God to be his strength and his sustenance. And I believe that's how it was with our Lord in his sorrow. We see how the spirit of God gives us a shadow of one far greater than Job. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe that's how we're to read the scriptures. Because Christ himself told the Pharisees, you study the scriptures, you search them for in them, you think you have eternal life just for reading and memorizing. And like so many do today, but what does he say? They are they, which testify of me. There are a lot of people today, preachers included, they can quote scripture. And yet they do not find Christ in the scriptures. That's not their motive. They're up about preaching about times and events and morals and all of these things, do's and don'ts. But when the Lord opened your eyes, even as we're going through Job here, and I've had a number who have written me and said, they never had a clue. that Job was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, but that the more we study it, the more their eyes are being opened, the more they rejoice. Well, guess what? I'm in the same boat with you because I've preached through Job before and I wouldn't want to go back to those notes. Now going through it, I've asked the Lord to open my eyes and teach me of Christ that when I declare this scripture to you, that together, We're partaking of this one who is the savior and the substitute. I'm sure Job being a center, even though God declared him to be a righteous man, yet as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, we know that the Lord Jesus was truly innocent. He was the. Sufferer who suffered not for sin of his own, but those of his people. He bore the curse is the way that Paul writes about it in Galatians. Not for his own sins, but for those of his people, I can identify. And I need such a savior is that knowing myself to be the center that I am. And so when we read here that he was smitten and scorned by man, let me just bring out a few points here in this portion that we're reading. For example, in verse 10, they gape upon me with their mouth. They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully, and they have gathered themselves together against me. Here. Job's words find a clear echo of the mocking crowd that surrounded our Lord Jesus Christ. And if we had the time, we'd go over there into the gospels and read that, but you can do it. The soldiers struck him, they spat on him, and they gathered in cruel jest around the cross. They were gambling for his garment. And Isaiah 53 and verse three says he was despised and rejected of man. That's what we see typified here in Job, literally treated as a criminal, though he was without sin. So we know that he didn't suffer because he actually was made a sinner. No, there was no sin in him. Yet this humiliation was appointed by God. That's what's clear in Isaiah 53 as you read down through there. And that all that they did to our Lord was simply fulfilling God's sovereign purpose in the redemption of his elect. I say how great must be our sin. If nothing less than the death and suffering of the innocent, perfect, Son of God as God's lamb would satisfy a Holy God, how sinful we must be in our Holy God must be people trifle with that. They think they understand God's holiness. And then they certain times of year, they withhold from partaking of certain things, thinking that somehow that's going to make them better. No, nothing less than. the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ would do. But it's clear when you get over here to Acts chapter four and verse 28, that not one thing was done unto our Lord Jesus Christ and his suffering, but what God the father appointed it. So when we speak of him being smitten and scorned by men, smitten and afflicted, Here's the testimony of the scriptures right here. It says in verse 27, four of a truth against what? Thy holy child, Jesus. So from his conception as the holy child, He was not of the seat of Adam. He was conceived in Mary's womb by the spirit of God himself, and therefore was created in that womb as a man as holy. But it says whom thou has appointed. That's why he came to this earth is because he was appointed. A body had been prepared for him. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together. That's where we see the crowd around him, mocking him. But look at verse 28, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. Well, that's a comforting verse, isn't it? Not one thing, not one slap, not one spit. And the thing is that the very strength to do that, even to slap or spit by his enemies, it was Christ himself who was their strength. And even driving the nails into his hands, everything that had been prepared. Think about a nail is made mind out of the earth. All of that was determined by God's will. And so that's the second point I'd have a see here. Come back to Job chapter 16. Job was smitten and scorned by men, but God's hand was in his suffering. Look at verse 11. God hath delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. God did this. So Job here sees the sovereign hand of God, even in his suffering. Go back to chapter two, where it says, in all this Job sinned not nor charged God with any evil. And here again, he is attributing this to God. Oh, that we could see this even in our suffering. We don't deserve, or we don't receive nearly a portion of what we deserve. That's God's mercy withholding from us what we do deserve and in grace, dealing with us and giving us what we could never merit. But here particularly, even as Job says, God hath delivered me to the ungodly. This speaks so plainly of Christ. And here's where I'd have us turn. I mentioned it earlier to Acts chapter two and verse 23 in Peter's message. This is what he declared. He knew the old Testament. He may well have been quoting from this particular portion of scripture. It says in verse 22, Peter speaking to that crowd that day on the day of Pentecost, he met of Israel here, these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God. They were saying he was disapproved of God because they couldn't see how any that was truly God's servant or God's son could suffer the way he did. But here approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know. Note at verse 23, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken by wicked hands, have crucified and slain. Isn't that the same thing? What Job is saying over here, Job 16, 11. In fact, if you want to write that in the margin. Next to acts two 23 and next, next to Job 16, 11 put acts two 23. I like to do that to follow through the scriptures. He was delivered into the hands of wicked men, but here's where I say we have to plead guilty ourselves because they were our representatives. If I say that Christ died for me, in other words, died for my sin, then that means that my hands were the wicked hands that crucified him. His crucifixion was no accident. It wasn't some plan B, like you read some of these old writers that thought that when Christ came to the earth, it was really to try to set up an earthly kingdom. And they say, had the Jews accepted him as the Messiah, then he would not have had to die. This is literally in some writings that you'll read and that somehow the crucifixion now was plan B. And that because it was not fulfilled, then Christ has to come again and set up some kind of earthly kingdom. Those people reasoning that way or reasoning like drunks without any reason. That's not what the scriptures tell us at all. His crucifixion was no accident. It wasn't any plan B. It was the ordained means by God, even from before time. He wasn't slain before the foundation of the world, but since the foundation of the world and types and pictures and prophecies, all the way back in the garden, when God took those innocent animals and slew them and shed their blood unto death and clothed Adam and Eve, that was the blueprint of what was to come, that God should deliver his own son, that he might justify many that Christ had redeemed. When were sinners justified? It wasn't an eternity. Here, even as Job says that God hath delivered me to the ungodly. And that's the same thing that Peter said. He was delivered into wicked hands. That means at the time that Christ died for his people, they were still ungodly. And Job would have been of that number, even though the Lord called him righteous in his generation. That's what he was before men by the restraining hand of God, but his true righteousness had to be worked out. Christ had to come and earn and establish it. And God then at the cross would have imputed that righteousness to Job, to Abraham, David, all those of the old Testament at that time. So we see it was smitten and scorned by men that it was the hand of God that was the cause of his suffering. But thirdly, we see here, as I mentioned already, that the wrath of God through those that gnashed on him with their teeth, and pierced him, that was according to God's purpose. Here in Job 16 and verse nine, he teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me, he gnasheth upon me with his teeth. My enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. Even though Job here is speaking in anguish, we hear again the voice of the greater one, capital O-N-E. the true sin bearer, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, who endured the wrath of God, not for any fault in himself, but for the sins imputed to him. That's the key word here, as the substitute, the sins of his people imputed to him. Again, we could parallel every one of these scriptures with Isaiah 53, But if you'll look with me in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 11, this is exactly what Isaiah was declaring. And Isaiah was raised up by God many years later than Job. Job would have been one of the first prophets even before Abraham. But it says in verse 11 of Isaiah 53, he shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied that by his knowledge, that is the knowledge of Christ. Notice, shall, so it's future looking. My righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Well, how would he bear those iniquities? Go up to verse 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. So even though Job here, And as I mentioned, when I was reading through it, it's a little difficult to see whether he's speaking of God or whether he's speaking of his enemies, delighting in what he was enduring, but either way it was God. And it says here that he hath put him to grief. And when thou shall make his soul an offering for sin, he, that is the father, shall see his seed, that is Christ and what? Be satisfied. He shall prolong his days. Christ did not remain in the grave, but rose again and ascended on high. And his days are being prolonged even to this point. As I speak, there's a man seated in glory and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. I love that. That just means that Christ is going to have everyone for whom he paid the debt, but the Holy wrath of God. That's what Job is describing there in Job 16 and verse nine. He tears me with his wrath or in his wrath. Yes, he used wicked men to accomplish his purpose, but it's that the Holy wrath of God that we deserved was poured upon him. who stood in our place so that we would never have to know the wrath of God. And then two other points here, number four, we see him here as the wounded advocate. Look at Job 16 and verse 19, where Job says, also now behold, my witness is in heaven. I love it, and my record is on high. It's so high that man can't even get into it and look at it. Here's a glimpse really of what is all of our comfort as God's children in the gospel. Though afflicted on earth, Job here is given faith to speak of a witness in heaven. He didn't have the rest of the scriptures like we do, where we can see the outworking of this. This was truly the spirit of God. giving eyes to Job to look heavenward and seeing one there. Who is this? But the crucified and risen Christ. He was foreseen. And as we're going to see in Job 19 in a little bit, I know that my redeemer liveth. Such were the eyes that were given to Job to see that witness. And that word means an advocate with the father. And that's what John wrote about. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. The same one who was smitten on behalf of that people that the father gave him ever lives now to intercede on our behalf, bearing our name upon his breastplate as the high priest. That's the record that is on high. That means it's a sure place in As Paul wrote in Ephesians two, when Christ died, we died. That was our death, if we're his. When he rose again, we rose again. When he ascended, we ascended. And we're seated now with him in the heavenlies. And then the fifth point, there's so much more here, but you got to draw a line. There's a plea for the sinner. Look at that in verse 21. Oh, that one might plead for a man with God. as a man pleadeth with his neighbor." Christ is that pleader. He's not begging, but in the sense of an advocate, one, a defense attorney, one who stands and speaks on behalf of the guilty. He's the mediator. He's that daysman of which we read that Job once longed for there in Job nine and verse 33. One who lays his hand upon both God and man. And in sovereign grace, that's what Christ does. He pleads not based on our works or our worthiness, but His blood shed. That's what was required. His obedience, His righteousness imputed to us. That is our pleading with the Father. It's in that work that Christ came and finished. He, as Hebrews says, the writer is the surety of a better Testament, Hebrews 7.22. And all who are in him are therefore sure. Their salvation is sure. People will ask you, do you believe in eternal security? And they base it on their decision. I believe once saved, always saved. How many talk about that? And what they mean is once they made a decision, then God will honor it. We believe in the eternal security of the child of God, but it's not anything in us, it's in the work of Christ. And so Job in verse 22, when a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return. He knew that he had an appointment with physical death and he would remain there in the Sheol, in the place of the dead until Christ would come. and would raise him and bring him into glory. You can see how Job's sorrows speak well beyond himself. And I pray that having studied this this way gives you a clue, an inkling of how we're to study the scriptures to see Christ in it all. His sorrows, his suffering, his affliction, they draw our gaze to Calvary where the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous substitute suffered and died. He was smitten of God and afflicted, but all who trust in him rest in this glorious truth. And where does that trust come? It comes from the Lord himself. Again, I'll refer back to our brother Isaiah in Isaiah 53, five. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities and with his stripes. We are healed. May we ever have eyes to be bold. Him who is that one who was smitten, afflicted of God, yet without sin, he wasn't just a man in distress, but a type and a picture of our Redeemer who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. And now ever lives to make intercession for us. Amen.