The Assurance Of Being Acquitted By God

Now we're going to turn tonight in our Bible to Job chapter 10,

Job 10 · chapter mention

and I'm just going to read the verse 13 verses of the chapter,

Job chapter 10. Let's hear the Word of God.

Job 10 · chapter mention

Words will come up on screen for those online reading, of course,

from the King James Bible, Job chapter 10.

Job 10 · chapter mention

This is a little message that the Lord gave me few days ago.

One of my daily morning Bible readings.

Job chapter 10. Listen to these words.

Job 10 · chapter mention

Verse one. My soul is weary of my life.

I will leave my complaint upon myself.

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

I will say unto God, Do not condemn me.

Show me wherefore thou contend us with me.

It is good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress the work of

thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked.

Hast thy eyes of flesh, or seest thou as man seeth?

Are thy days as the days of man? Are thy years as man's days,

that thou inquirest after mine iniquity, and searches after my

sin? Thou knowest that I'm not

wicked, and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together.

Bring to bite, yet Thou dost destroy me.

Remember, I beseech thee, that Thou was made me as the clay,

and wilt Thy bring me into dust again.

Hast Thy not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like

cheese? Thy has clothed me with skin and

flesh, and has fenced me with bones and sinew that has granted

me life and fever, and Thy visitation hath preserved my

spirit. And these things as thou hid in

thine heart, I know that this is with thee.

Amen. We know that God will stamp with

His own approval and blessing this reading of His own precious

and infallible Word. Now my text tonight is taken

from Job chapter 10 verses 6:00 and 7:00.

Job 10 · chapter mention

It reads as follows that thou enquirest after mine iniquity

and searches after my sin. Thou knowest that I am not

wicked, and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

And have entitled tonight's message.

Job's assurance of being acquitted by God.

Now Job is an Old Testament believer.

He's a saved man, one who feared God and who hated evil, and he's

come under attack from the powers of darkness.

God had permitted Satan to attack Job and deprive him first

of all of his ten children. 10 children were partying in the

house, and they all died at the same time on the same night.

A mighty tornado hit that house where they were partying, and

they were all dead. He deprived them of thousands of

his possessions. Think of his animals, his sheep,

his camel and his oxen, and also deprived him of his own health

and strength. Now here's an upright man.

And even though we feared God and hated evil, he's brought low

under the sovereign hand of a holy God and yet a loving God.

And in his mind, Job is struggling with a contradiction

between God's holy justice and his own suffering.

Job feels that God is searching him out.

He feels he's been treated as a criminal.

He he feels the exposure of sin that he doesn't perceive in his

own heart and mind. So here he is.

He's sitting in anguish of soul. He is mentally exhausted from

this deep storm of affliction that has engulfed his life.

And in his woe and in his anguish, Job turns to the Lord.

He does the right thing. He pleads before him for

answers. He wants to know why Lord.

He wants to know exactly what is happening to him, and in the

midst of his peeing and suffering, under the inspiration

of the Holy Spirit, he utters a most profound theological truth.

And the truth is this, that God is both the one who examines the

heart and God is the only one who can acquit the wicked.

Job acknowledges that no one can deliver out of God's hand.

What does that mean? It means this.

If he is to be justified, if he is to be acquitted in a legal

sense, then God himself must do it.

Only God has the power to do it. And these words, as I read them

the other day in my study, these words brought home to me this

theme of being acquitted by God, not on the basis of personal

merit, not because he deserved it, not on the basis of

religious rite and ceremony. He didn't go and join a church.

He didn't start doing religious things, but by the free,

sovereign grace of God. Listen to the text again, verse

6 that thou inquirest after mine iniquity and searches after my

sin. Thou knowest that I'm not

wicked, and there's none that can deliver out of thine hand.

Now three things tonight very quickly. 1 the scrutiny of

Jehovah's search. Look at verse 6 that thou

inquirest after mine iniquity and searches after my sin.

You see, God is not indifferent to sin.

God is not a passive observer. He inquires about our sin.

He searches for our sin. He examines us regarding our

sin. Remember first John 110 says if

we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and His word is

not in US. How many people affirm with

confidence, even brashness, that they have not sinned against

God, and they get angry when you tell them that they are a

Sinner? The Bible affirms this in the

book of Hebrews 4 and 13. All things are naked and opened

unto the eyes of him with whom they have to do.

Young people, tonight God's scrutiny is perfect.

He scrutinises our thoughts, our words, and our deed.

He examines our heart. He looks into our mind.

He thinks of the works of our hands.

God's scrutiny is penetrating. We talked about the onion this

morning. From the outside, layer upon

layer, The outer layer leads to the inner layer.

When you get into the inner, it leads to the outer.

You see, sin is not just on the outside, sinners, not just about

our behaviour. We don't just do wrong things,

we have hearts that want the wrong things.

The bottom line is this, we are sinners by nature and practise.

And to tell people that on the doors, to preach that from the

pulpit and on the street, people get mad and angry.

What is sin? Sure, the Catechism says sin is

any want of conformity unto your transgression of the law of God.

Let me teach you tonight from the Bible what sin is.

Sin is a transgression of the law.

First, John 3 and 4, the breaking of the 10 commandments.

That's the summary of God's law. Sin is more than just a

transgression of the law. Sin is knowing to do good and

doing it, not James 4 and 17. Knowing that you're to love God,

knowing that there's say no to sin and not doing it, that's

sin. The Bible even says that

unbelief is sin. Whatsoever is not a faith is

sin. Romans 14 and 23 the Bible says

in first John 517 all unrighteousness is sin.

So put that all together and here's God defining from us,

teaching us what sin is. And God's scrutiny of that sin

is not only perfect, but it's penetrating because it's our

thoughts, our words, our deeds. Imagine even unbelief saying

there is no God. The atheist is committing sin by

the way he lives and what he pronounces because the fool have

said in his heart there is no God.

I'll tell you something else. God's scrutiny is personal.

Imagine going to the doctor. There's something wrong with

you, but you can't quite figure out what it is.

And the doctor looks at you and says there's nothing wrong with

you, take a paracetamol and go away home.

But you've got a wound, you've got a sore, you feel pain in

your body. What do you want the doctor to

do? You want the doctor to examine

you. You want the doctor to probe.

You want the doctor to expose what is wrong.

Why? Because once he finds a correct

prognosis, then he'll tell you. And you see, the probing of the

doctor is not to destroy you, but to deliver you.

The probing of the doctor is not so that you're going to suffer,

but so that you can be saved and helped.

The probing of the doctors not to hurt you.

The probing of the doctor is to help you.

But before you could be helped, delivered, or saved, you must

have an honest exposure of the problem of the pain that you

feel in your body and what is true in the physical realm.

Here's Doctor Jesus, the great Physician, and your sin must be

brought to light. You have broken God's law.

You're a law breaker. In the book of Exodus in chapter

20 and in the verse three, he says thou shall have no other

gods before me. And if you love someone else or

love some other thing more than you love God, then you're

breaking that first commandment. Remember what we read there in

the Gospel of Matthew in Matthew chapter 23.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

He says in verse 37, Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all

thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment, and the second is

like unto it. I shall love thy neighbour as

they shall. On these two commandments hang

all the law and the prophets. In other words, he took the 10

commandments and summarised them.

Love to God the first four and love to your neighbour the final

six. But the reality is natural, man

doesn't love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength,

and he certainly doesn't love his neighbour as he loves

himself. And what does that make us then?

That makes U.S. law Breakers. The Bible even tells us in

Colossians 3 verse 5, covetousness, which is idolatry.

Colossians 3:5

The Bible says in the 10th commandment, thou shalt not

covet. And what is covetousness?

It is idolatry. It's it's a love for things that

maybe somebody else has and you wanted and you're going to do

anything you can to get that thing.

I'm speaking as a pastor. I'm speaking as a friend

tonight. And I don't have a big stick.

I don't have a club to beat you over the head.

I come as a a faithful pastor and friend because listen to

what our old reformers taught us.

True conviction must proceed, a true justification.

John Calvin said man never achieves a clear knowledge of

himself unless first he looks upon the face of God.

And when you look on the face of God, you discover what Job

discovered, That thou inquires after mine iniquity and searches

after my sin. God hates sin.

God searches out sin. God defines sin.

God punishes sin, and a true view of self is necessary before

there can be salvation. Remember what the Lord Jesus

said in Mark 7. For from within hears what comes

in out of the heart of man. For from within, out of the

heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,

fornications, murders, theft, covetousness, wickedness,

deceit, lusciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pridefully, and

all these evil things come from within and defile the man.

Here's the sinner's practise. Here's a catalogue of things

that comes out of his heart and out of his life, and coming out

of his heart reveals that he's a Sinner by nature.

David said, Behold, I was shaped in an iniquity, and in sin did

my mother conceive me. And remember, the Bible teaches

in Revelation 21 and verse 27. And there shall in no wise enter

into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh

abomination or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the

Lamb's book of life. It's said in chapter 21, verse

8. But the fearful and unbelieving,

and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers

and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the

lake which burned up with fire and brimstone, which is the

second death. The fearful, the man or woman

who knows there's a God and knows he's a soul and knows he's

a Sinner and unbelieving, but doesn't want to believe that,

happy to live in their own way. We have such a light view of sin

today. The majority of people do not

have a true view of themselves. They think they're great.

They think they're wonderful in the sight of God.

Oh, and this and that. But we need, as Calvin said, a

clear knowledge of himself. And when does that begin?

When he first looks upon God's holy face.

So that's the first thing, the scrutiny of Jehovah's search.

The second thing in our text is this, the sincerity of Job's

statement. Look at chapter 17, chapter 10,

verse 7. Listen to these words.

Thou knowest that I'm not wicked.

This is what Job said to God. I am not wicked.

Thou knowest that I'm not wicked.

The word wicked is a legal term. It has to do with the law courts

and the legal justice system. The word wicket is connected to

the concept of deserving punishment, deserving judgement.

And Job is pleading before God. He's pleading confidently.

He's pleading calmly, asserting that he doesn't stand before

God, condemned. And let me tell you, Job is

absolutely correct because nowhere in the Bible or nowhere

in the book of Job do we read or find God condemning Job or God

rejecting Job. In fact, it's the opposite.

He receives Job, he he cares for Job.

Listen to what we read in Job chapter 1 and in the verse one.

Job 1 · chapter mention

There was a man in the land of Olives whose name was Job.

And that man was perfect, means fully committed and upright, and

one that feared God and eschewed evil.

You see, God praises him. God tells us that there's none

like him in the whole of the earth.

Job was not claiming here sin, this perfection, rather he's

asserting his integrity. What he's basically saying,

folks, is this. I'm a saved man, I'm an Old

Testament believer, I've a real and genuine faith in the Lord my

God. I am upright before God, I fear

Him, I hate evil. I'm not a guilty, hell deserving

Sinner, I was, but I've trusted Christ as my Lord and Saviour.

Job was telling us all that, and yet at the same time, he's still

a Sinner in need of God's grace. He's not sinless, but he's

sincere. He's not perfect, but he's

pardoned. He's got a full free forever

justification. And God knows that Job was not

wicked yet due to his circumstance and the situation,

Job feels as if he's been treated as if he were wicked.

Job, remember, as a tried and tested St of God, he knows and

loves the Lord. He fears the Lord, and he's

proclaiming here a wonderful truth, a majestic, glorious

biblical truth, a doctrine that stands at the core, in essence,

of what the gospel really is, and hears that truth.

Now listen to me carefully whenever a Sinner comes to the

Lord for salvation and redemption, when he calls on

him, when he believes in him and and repents before him and cries

out God be merciful to be the Sinner.

His sins, real as they are, legal as they are, because he's

a guilty, hell deserving Sinner with a polluted heart that's

impacted upon his behaviour. The moment he calls on the Lord

for pardon, that moment his sins are dealt with by the power of

the blood of Christ. His sins are blotted out, His

sins are put away. Remember Isaiah said, I, even I

am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own

sake, and will not remember thy sins.

See, here's the heart of the gospel.

God sent forth his Son to save sinners.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,

that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have

everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into

the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him

might be saved. And the Lord Jesus was born for

sinners. The Lord Jesus lived for

sinners. The Lord Jesus fulfilled the the

precepts and penalty of the broken law for us.

He died in atoning death and the cross for us.

He rose again bodily from the dead for us.

And therefore, through receiving Christ as Lord and Saviour by

faith, we can have a full, free and forever pardon of sin.

We can know the joy of forgiveness, we can possess

eternal life here now, we can have fellowship with God, We can

experience peace with God. Therefore, being justified by

faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you're in Christ tonight and received him as Lord and

Saviour, you can say before him, Thou knowest that I am not

wicked. True believers like Job may

boldly appeal to God, assert before him that truth, not on

the basis of immortal perfection, but on the basis of

an imputed righteousness, even the imputed righteousness of

Christ. The Bible says if any man be in

Christ is a new creature, all things have passed away, and all

things have become new, and all things are of God.

The Bible teaches us in Second Corinthians chapter 521.

For he that is God had been him that is Christ to be sin for us,

a sin offering. That's a tremendous truth, you

know. For he that is God hath made him

that is Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be

made what the righteousness of God in him.

It was Martin Luther that said at the same time we are

righteous and sinners, righteous in Christ, but sinners in and

off ourselves. Remember what the Lord Jesus

taught in John chapter 5 and in the verse 24.

John 5 · chapter mention

He said this Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my

word and believeth on him that sent me hath what's He got

everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but it's

passed from death unto life is not tremendous encouragement not

only the scrutiny of Jehovah's search and not only the

sincerity of Job's statement, but think finally of the

sovereignty of Jesus sentence. Look at verse 7.

And there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

You see, here's a sobering truth.

God is the final authority. His judgement is ultimate.

It cannot be overturned. There's no appeal court above

him. There's no advocate outside of

his provision. There's only one righteous

advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no escape from his hand.

There's no exit from his sentence.

You see, if God condemns us, no man can save us.

One day we'll all stand before God.

Romans 14, verse 12. Then every one of us will give

Romans 14:12

an account of himself to God. God is holy, God is just, God is

wise, God is all powerful. One day we'll all give an

account, and the book shall be opened, and the book of life

with your name on it, it'll be opened.

And every sin of thought, word indeed is recorded in that book,

unless it's blotted out and covered by the blood that'll be

held against you. And the Lord will speak to us on

that day. He will address us that day.

There'll be no evading that day. There's no escape that day.

This is the day for which all other days have been made.

And if you're unrepentant, you'll tremble and you'll fear

in that day, and you'll stand without Christ.

And I'll tell you worse, you'll stand without comfort.

And on that day out of Christ in your sin.

This is what you will hear according to the Gospel of

Matthew in Matthew Chapter 7 and in the verse and 20 and three,

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

you, you, you will hear those terrible words.

In Matthew 7 and verse 23, you'll hear these words.

And then when I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart

from me, ye that work in equity. If God condemns us, then no man

can save us out of his hand. But if God acquits us, then no

man can condemn us. Remember what we read in the

book of Romans in Romans chapter 8, and we read there in the

Romans 8 · chapter mention

verse 2033 and verse 34. Romans chapter 8, verse 3334.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

We read these words. Who shall lay anything to the

charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

Who is he that condemneth? That is Christ that died.

Ye rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of

God, who also maketh intercession for us?

You see, if none can deliver us out of God's hand, then God

himself must provide the deliverer.

The deliverer must come, and the good news is, he has come.

Has God provided a deliverer? Yes.

Who is he? The Lord Jesus Christ, Romans

11/26 There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall

turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and that fulfils the Old

Testament prophecy, one of the lovely titles of the Lord Jesus

the Deliverer. Who shall deliver me from this

body of death? The answer is the Lord Jesus

Christ. Romans 7/24/25 who have

delivered us from the power of darkness.

Colossians 113 The Lord Jesus Christ, whose deliver us from

wrath to come. First Thessalonians 1 and 10

Jesus which delivered us from wrath to come.

You see, here's the gospel. Jesus was born for us.

Jesus lived to send us life for us, kept the law of God

perfectly. Jesus Christ in His own life was

searched, examined and found. Send us and spot us.

And even though that was true, He never committed a sinful

thought, uttered A sinful word, committed a sinful deed.

The Lord Jesus went away all the way to the cross.

Why did Christ die? Christ died for our sins

according to the Scriptures. That is, He took our punishment

upon Himself. He offered Himself as a once and

for all sacrifice for sin and is already read there in Romans

Romans 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8. Who is he that condemneth?

It is Christ that died. Yeah, rather that is risen

again. Who is even?

Where is he now? At the right hand of God, who

also maketh intercession for us. That's why we sang that

beautiful hymn. Could you imagine this scene as

we close tonight? Think of a judge on the bench

and he's a father and he's trying a case and that father

has two boys and one also works in the legal profession.

He is the chief prosecutor and then the defendant they bring in

to the dock his other son. His other son is a wild, wicked

man. He's been guilty of some

horrible crimes and that father has to sentence that other son.

He has to pronounce him guilty. He has to exact punishment.

The elder brother who's the prosecutor, he offers before his

father to be punished in the guilty stead of his blood

brother and his blood brother, he's pleading, is to go free.

Now that's a faint picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ did

on our behalf. I encourage you tonight to rest

alone in Christ. You're here, maybe full of

feelings. You're full of fears for the

future. Have you felt the weight of sin?

Are you conscious of it? Where do you go with guilty

feelings and guilty fears? I'm not good enough to stand

before God. When I stand in the judgement

I'm going to hear depart from me.

You curse it, you worker of iniquity and the everlasting

fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

But Despite that feeling and guilty fear, I urge you this to

rest in Christ alone. For if you rest in Christ alone,

then you're ready to meet the Father, and you'll not here

depart, you'll hear Come thy thy blessed come and inherit all

that the Father has. We're going to sing in closing

in a moment to him, and we specially choosing it.

And this is what the first verse says.

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty, are my

glorious dress midst flaming worlds, and these arrayed with

joy, shall I lift up my head. You see, the God who searches

you sees you tonight. But the God who searches you and

searches your sin, and who sees you in a sight, He's the God who

saves you. And how can the Father see if he

saves through his Son? Who said I'm the way, the truth,

the life? No man comes unto the Father but

by me. And I ask tonight this will you

be acquitted? Will you be accepted into the

Father's house because you're resting in Christ?

Yes, you will. But unless you're resting in

Christ, you'll not be acquitted. You'll not be accepted into the

Father's house. And on what basis is that

acquitted, pronounced. The basis of receiving and

resting in Christ alone for salvation.

So I leave this little thought with you.

The assurance of being acquitted by God, the scrutiny of

Jehovah's search, the statement or the sincerity of Joe's

statement, and also the sovereignty of Jesus sentence.

I pray God will give you grace tonight if you're not resting in

Christ, if you haven't received him as your Lord and Saviour,

that you'll come and put your faith and trust in him.

If I can help you, if I can speak to anyone either on the

Internet or here tonight in the meeting, you know yourself

whether you're resting in Christ, whether you've received

him, or whether you're just living without Him, in a sense,

rejecting Him, saying no. May the Lord give you grace as

the Lord applies His word.