God's Care Preserves My Spirit

[00:00:00] To God in prayer. [00:00:03] Father, life is so brief, just as you have revealed so clearly in your word. [00:00:11] When we are young and when things are exciting and the future often looks bright, we do not see this as clearly as when one comes to the latter years of life and realizes that from friends and loved ones of the same age have passed on, and that we will see them no more in this life. [00:00:39] But Father, we rejoice in knowing that when we depart this world we will enter into that eternal kingdom where death will be no more and tears will be no more. [00:00:59] All the things that you put your servant Job through were for our benefit and to show your glory. [00:01:10] And so, Father, help us to understand these things as we read your word through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. [00:01:24] Job 10 Notice how Job starts out on a very negative, with a very negative attitude. Here I loathe my life. [00:01:56] I will give free utterance to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. [00:02:04] I will say to God, do not condemn me. Let me know why you contend against me. Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked? [00:02:17] Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man's years? That you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand? [00:02:36] Your hands fashioned me and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. Remember that you have made me like clay, and will you return me to the dust? [00:02:49] Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. [00:03:01] You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. [00:03:09] Yet these things you hid in your heart, I know that this was your purpose. If I sin, you watch me, and do not acquit me of my iniquity. If I am guilty, woe to me. If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction. [00:03:29] And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion, and again work wonders against me. You renew your witness against me, and increase your vexation toward me. You bring fresh troops against me. Why did you bring me out from the womb? [00:03:48] Would that I had died before any eye had seen me, and were as though I had not been carried from the womb to the Grave, Are not my days few? [00:04:03] Then cease and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer before I go. And I shall not return to the land of darkness and deep shadow, the land of gloom, like thick darkness, like deep shadow, without any order, where light is as thick as darkness. [00:04:23] Thus ends the reading of God's word. Please be seated. [00:04:41] There are things that Job says here in this chapter that you would wonder, is this a man of faith? [00:04:53] Someone who can say that he wished that he'd never been born? We noticed that before. [00:05:07] Someone who would look upon his life and say, I loathe my life. [00:05:22] Life can be tough, can be very tough. [00:05:27] What Job was up against was horrible. [00:05:34] But even in the midst of all of his complaints, notice all the things he says there about asking God, does it seem good to you to oppress me? [00:05:51] He reminds God that he fashioned Job, that he created him. [00:06:04] And then in verse 12, he says something quite remarkable that almost doesn't seem to fit with the chapter, does it? Because in verse 12, in the midst of all of his complaints and everything, he says, you have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. [00:06:34] When I started this series, I pointed out that a lot of the things that Job's friends have to say to him are the typical kind of things that are said by those who preach the prosperity gospel. That is, that God's primary concern is with your wealth and your health and that everything goes well. [00:06:57] And that somehow if you're a man of faith or woman of faith, that nothing bad will ever happen to you. [00:07:04] And that when bad things happen to you. [00:07:12] There was a man that I met one time and he was telling me about the church that he belonged to and the pastor that had come there who was preaching that very gospel. [00:07:23] And I said, don't you have sick people in the church ever? And he said, no. [00:07:32] And I said, well, wait a minute, you're not going to tell me that nobody's died? [00:07:38] And he said, well, when the pastor came there, there were some members of the church who were in their 80s and 10 years later they're all still living. [00:07:48] And he was imagining somehow this was going to go on. [00:07:52] Maybe that explains some of those people on the Social Security rolls at 150. [00:08:02] What happens is that this thing becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. When you teach that kind of thing that the people who are ill and don't get well, after you've laid hands on them and you prayed and you've done everything you can, those people become discouraged and leave. [00:08:19] Job has no interest in that kind of Good news gospel. [00:08:25] But Job does have an interest in the true good news because he says, your care has preserved my spirit. And when he says that, he's not talking about his body at all, is he? Because his body's in bad shape. He's not talking about his family, his children have all been wiped out. He's not talking about his wealth because he's lost it all. [00:08:59] But his spirit has been preserved in all these things that Job has to say here. [00:09:19] He never curses God, he never considers suicide, and he never gives up on God. [00:09:31] There's a difference between complaining about God, complaining to God and giving up on God. [00:09:43] Somebody who's willing to complain to God still believes that he is and that you're being heard, because otherwise why would you do it? [00:09:59] I'm not sure who atheists complain to when they run out of relatives and friends to complain to. They don't have anybody else to complain to. We always have someone to complain to, our Heavenly Father. [00:10:16] And I really believe he wants us to complain to Him. [00:10:20] I'm convinced. I grew up singing psalms all the time. And do you realize how many of the Psalms are complaints? [00:10:27] I think there are far more complaints in the Psalms than there are in the hymns. I'm not saying there aren't hymns that complain, but for the most part, you don't see that as much there, but you see it in the Psalms. But it's always complaining to. To God believing that he can do something about it and that he will do something about it. And Job here is struggling with his human understanding because he asks these questions here. He says, have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? [00:11:04] And that question. The obvious answer is no. [00:11:10] We see things outwardly. [00:11:15] There are some people who imagine that looking into your eyes, they can see into your soul. I'm not sure where that comes from. [00:11:23] But God. [00:11:26] God can see into you and read your very thoughts. [00:11:37] He's aware of them. [00:11:48] Please turn with me to Second Corinthians. [00:11:53] It's a New Testament passage that I believe speaks to the very same thing. [00:12:04] 2nd Corinthians 4 and beginning with verse 16, Paul is speaking here. And he says, so we do not lose heart. [00:12:24] Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. [00:12:33] For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. [00:12:43] As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen Eternal doesn't sound at all like the health and wealth gospel, does it? I wonder if they're aware that that verse is in the Bible. [00:13:09] That our physical selves are going to die. Unless the Lord returns before that event happens, we will die. [00:13:25] But our spirit. [00:13:31] When Jesus died upon the cross, his body ceased living and his body was placed in the grave. [00:13:52] But his spirit, he says, father, into your hands I commit my spirit. [00:14:04] We trust God to watch over our spirits, even though our bodies don't always do so well. [00:14:28] Verse 13 in Job 10, he says, yet these things you hid in your heart, I know that this was your purpose. [00:14:43] My outward experience, my physical suffering. Job is saying all these things that he's gone through with the loss of his children and the loss of all of his wealth and these friends of his giving him a bad time, all those things. [00:15:03] He still believes that God's heart intention is one of steadfast love, that that is God's purpose. [00:15:35] I'm not going to be able to preach through the rest of Job this evening or, you know, when I'll ever get through the whole book again. [00:15:42] But I would like us to turn to a certain passage in Job that I think we need to read. [00:15:51] Chapter 19, verses 23 through 27. [00:16:23] Oh, that my words were written. [00:16:27] Oh, that they were inscribed in a book. [00:16:33] Oh, that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever. [00:16:42] For I know that my Redeemer lives and that at the last he will stand upon the earth. [00:16:52] And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not another. [00:17:09] My heart faints within me. [00:17:17] Amazing, isn't it? [00:17:26] His desire was that his words would be written in a book. And here it is right in front of you. [00:17:32] Been around for centuries. [00:17:40] And his confidence was that his Redeemer lives and that he would one day stand upon the earth. [00:17:52] And we see that fulfilled in Jesus Christ. How could Job have known this unless it was revealed to him by God's Holy Spirit? [00:18:05] Sort of helps you see why this book in particular is in the Bible. [00:18:11] It's there, it's a revelation that God gave to Job. [00:18:20] It's a confidence that he had so that he can say that your career has preserved my spirit. [00:18:38] Job's faith does not fail, though. He becomes very discouraged, though he's very down. [00:18:49] And his friends, I'm not sure whether they desire to cheer him up, but they can't cheer him up. There's no cheer to be there. [00:18:57] And yet he constantly turns to God. [00:19:03] When you find yourself in the most difficult parts of your life, turn to God. [00:19:16] He was aware of these things before you were created. [00:19:23] He's aware of everything that comes into your life. [00:19:27] And he is absolutely sovereign. [00:19:37] And he does not promise health and wealth and all those kind of things, but he does promise to to keep your spirit now and forevermore. [00:20:00] Let's look to God in prayer. [00:20:10] Father, you have kept each and every one of us thus far in life. [00:20:17] You formed us in the womb, you brought us forth. [00:20:23] You had a purpose in these things. [00:20:27] There may be times when we will come to see things the way Job did and imagine that it would be better had we never been born. [00:20:40] But Father, we know that that is not true. [00:20:46] We do not necessarily understand the purpose of our lives. [00:20:53] We do not know what the future brings, even tomorrow, the things that may happen. [00:21:01] But we need not fear, as we trust in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice, that our sins are forgiven and that we are acceptable with you, Father. [00:21:25] We thank you, Father, for your Holy Spirit that you've sent and that your son has sent, that convicts us of sin, teaches us righteousness and assures us of our relationship with Jesus Christ. [00:21:51] Strengthen that conviction within us that we might face life's difficulties with true courage. [00:22:10] We ask these things in Jesus name. [00:22:13] Amen.