Sermon

Ep 440 | "My Redeemer Lives" - Chris Osburn 3/20/2022

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. It's good to be here and thankful for Hall, that have

  2. made it and appreciate the attendance.

  3. And hopefully this morning I'd say something that is a benefit

  4. to the congregation here and and in line with what God teaches us

  5. as well, the primarily so we're going to be talking about and

  6. teaching out of the Book of Job today.

  7. And a jumping between a few chapters and drawing out some

  8. points in this book. So most of us know, the story of

  9. job and how God allowed Satan to afflict job in many ways.

  10. And we'll go over some of those today and when we read the book

  11. of job, I've always wondered and had a question of why, why would

  12. God allow this? Why would God allow Ready to go

  13. through these things to go through this or through that,

  14. and the things that Joe went through.

  15. And the question that I want us to answer.

  16. Here's when we think about our life right now or in the past or

  17. whatever, we may come upon maybe a long time ago is why when we

  18. think about those questions, you know, God, why why are you

  19. allowing this in my life? Why am I suffering so much pain

  20. or going through this or that or whatever it may be?

  21. We're going to be starting in Job chapter 3, so we're not

    Job 3 chapter mention

  22. going to be going through job one and two.

  23. And here's the kind of the setup up to Job chapter 3, in the

    Job 3 chapter mention

  24. beginning of job. One, Joe had everything that he

  25. could ever want to desire. He had a wife, a house.

  26. Full of children, wealth, possessions, good health.

  27. And he was blameless before God, he feared God He did good.

  28. And he turned away from evil evil and then in an instant, all

  29. of his possessions were Stripped Away From Him.

  30. You had everything taken away from him and job, one tells us

  31. the kind of waves after waves of things, start happening to them

  32. one after the other and then all 10 of jobs, children died,

  33. instantly, we could read. In job to he loses his good

  34. health. Physically, he's miserable and

  35. in pain. And his wife is telling him to

  36. curse God and die. Yet, after all of that, at the

  37. end of Job 1 and 2, he is still worshiping God job.

  38. One says that when all this happened to him, to his

  39. possessions, and all his children, it says there in Job

    Job 1:20

  40. 1, verse 20, through 22. It says, then job arose and tore

  41. his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped

  42. and he said naked, I came from my mother's womb and naked shall

  43. I return? The lord gave and the Lord has

  44. taken away blessed. Be the name of the Lord and all

  45. this job did not sin. Or short charge god with any

  46. wrong. so, these are really kind of the And then also to, at the

  47. end of Job chapter 2, it says in verse 10 through 11, it says,

    Job 2 chapter mention

  48. but he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women would

  49. speak. This is his is him talking to

  50. his wife? Shall we receive good from God?

  51. And shall we not receive evil? And all of this job, did not sin

  52. with his lips and those are two of the most remarkable

  53. statements that I can read you know about faith in the Bible.

  54. Those statements are of trust in and worship of God in the middle

  55. of unimaginable tragedy and loss and pain.

  56. But this was just the beginning of what job was going to be.

  57. Experiencing its one thing, you know to get a sudden tragedy

  58. happened in your life, something that happens that you don't

  59. expect, but job experienced a prolonged drawn-out experience

  60. of all this stuff happening to him.

  61. You know, it's one thing to I have sudden paying this one

  62. thing to have prolonged pain, and suffering, two, totally

  63. different things. And that's what begins to happen

  64. to in Job 3. And as we see a job, as a

  65. blameless, upright, man, who is completely committed to God, is

  66. now struggling with questions of why God is letting this happen

  67. to him. Joe was wrestling with the

  68. question of God. Why?

  69. Why is this happening? And he's wrestling.

  70. He's even in a trash Heap while dealing with these.

  71. These things in his life, then before long, some of his friends

  72. showed up, which is eliphaz bildad bildad and zophar and

  73. job, initially speaks in Job 3 and kind of a cycle begins with

  74. he and his friends conversing back and forth.

  75. First eliphaz speaks, then job responds, then build dad's

  76. speech than job responds. So far speaks, then job responds

  77. and they do this in a rotation of three times.

  78. And then The third time, one of the friends drops out in a new

  79. guy, new friend comes in and his name is Ella whom.

  80. So the Council of these friends is not very helpful.

  81. At all. And as we read through the book

  82. that Book of Job, we need to remember that sometimes because

  83. some things are happening in the Bible, does it mean that we take

  84. those specific things as examples to lean on?

  85. This is a clear example of not good counsel to take From job

  86. from job's friends. What a lot of what these guys

  87. are saying or is true at different points, but the way

  88. they apply that truth is often unhelpful or their time your

  89. tone in sharing these truths as unhelpful.

  90. And some of these things that they say just really aren't

  91. true. And at the core of their,

  92. unhelpful council is an instance, that job has done

  93. something. Basically job is done something

  94. to deserve all this. Job, you've done something

  95. wrong. You deserve this, this pain.

  96. Something bad happens, something bad happens to you, you deserve

  97. it. If something good happens to

  98. you, then you deserve it. And that is terrible, theology.

  99. That's a terrible way to look at the book of the Bible.

  100. However, in the middle of all these conversations between job

  101. and his friends, we do find some really some anchors to ground

  102. that job was relying on anchors that job had in order to move

  103. through these things that were happening to him.

  104. Joe 3 is exactly the place that we want to start and because of

  105. how many times job. Ask the question of why and I

  106. want to read the whole chapter of Job 3 and I was you read

  107. through it. Notice how many times job asked

  108. the question of why we'll start there in verse 1.

  109. After this job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

  110. And this is him actually talking about him being born.

  111. And job spoke and said May the day perish on which I was born

  112. and the night in which it was said a male child is conceived.

  113. Met that day. Be Darkness, may God above, not

  114. seek it, nor the light shine upon it, may darkness and the

  115. shadow of death claim, it made Cloud settle on.

  116. It may the blackest of the day terrified as for that night.

  117. May Darkness sees it may it not rejoice among the days of the

  118. Year, may it not come into the Of the months.

  119. Oh may it, that night be Barren, may know joyful, shout come on

  120. into it may those curse it who curse the day, those who are

  121. ready to arouse, the Vaya 'then May the stars of its morning.

  122. Be dark. Made it look for life but have

  123. none and not see the dawning of the day because it did not shut

  124. up. The doors of my mother's womb

  125. nor hide sorrow from my eyes. Why did I did not die at Birth?

  126. Why did I not pray? Irish when I came from the womb.

  127. Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast that I should

  128. nurse for? Now I would have Lain still and

  129. been quiet. I would have been asleep then I

  130. would have been at rest with Kings and counselors of earth

  131. the earth who built runes for themselves or with Prince's who

  132. had gold, who filled their houses with silver or why has or

  133. why was I not hidden like a stillborn child?

  134. Like infants, who never saw light, There, the wicked cease

  135. from troubling and they're the weary are at rest.

  136. They're the prisoners rest together.

  137. They do not hear the voice of the oppressor, the small and the

  138. great are there and the servant is free from his master, why is

  139. light given to him who is in misery and life to the bitter of

  140. Soul who longed for death? But it does not come and search

  141. for it. More than Hidden Treasures who

  142. Rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave.

  143. Why is light given to a man who is whose way is hidden and whom

  144. God has hedged in For my sign comes before.

  145. I eat in my groanings pour out like water for the thing.

  146. I greatly feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has

  147. happened to me. I am not at ease, nor I am

  148. quiet. I have no rest for Trouble Comes

  149. That's some heavy stuff. That's um, that's a guy who just

  150. really is saying why in the world was I even born.

  151. To experience this six times in this chapter job asked, why?

  152. Why is the question that we is the most fundamental of all?

  153. Like we said, why was I even born is kind of his why God?

  154. Why did you even make me? And he's coming before God.

  155. A faithful man hurting and not understanding and asking, why is

  156. he even here? And that's a clear and

  157. implication of job thinking. I don't want to be here.

  158. I don't want to live and he's actually longing for his own

  159. death. Sad state.

  160. So how in the world with Joe with all these problems and

  161. questions and trials? How in the world did he hold

  162. onto his faith in God? And in the chapters that follow,

  163. I'm going to show, you know, this is kind of an honest faith.

  164. That job really had, you know, he had nothing left but to hold

  165. on to God, that's all he had. And these anchors that we're

  166. going to go over. That job was relying on, you

  167. know, it's good for, it was good for him and it is also good for

  168. us today. So anchor number one that we

  169. want to remember that. Remember that God is all-wise.

  170. That's what Joe was holding onto.

  171. I want to jump ahead to Job 28 because this is kind of where It

  172. kind of contains a scene of a job's Journey, the kind of the

  173. climax. And when we get to chapter 8,

  174. God is God speaks to job and in the middle of the book here, the

  175. chapter there, this this chapter is kind of referred to as wisdom

  176. literature. The kind of you kind of see some

  177. stuff that you can see in Proverbs going through this

  178. chapter, kind of the same wording.

  179. And so was job is wrestling with the question.

  180. NY listen to what he said. Start saying here in Job 28,

    Job 28:12

  181. verse 12 and will read through verse 28.

  182. But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of

  183. understanding? Man?

  184. Does not know its value, nor it is found in the land of the

  185. living. The Deep says it is not in me,

  186. and the Sea says, it is not with me.

  187. It cannot be purchased for gold, nor can silver be weighed for

  188. its price. It cannot be valued in the gold

  189. of ophir in the precious Onyx or Sapphire, neither gold, nor

  190. Crystal can equal, it nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine

  191. gold? No mention shall be.

  192. And of coral, or quartz for the price of wisdom is above rubies.

  193. The topaz of Ethiopia can unequal it nor, can it be valued

  194. valued in pure goal from where, then does wisdom come?

  195. And where is the place of understanding?

  196. It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from

  197. the birds of the air, destruction and death.

  198. Say we have heard a report about it with our ears God,

  199. understands its way, and he knows its place for He took the

  200. head ends of the Earth for, he looks to the ends of the Earth

  201. and seas under the whole Heavens to establish.

  202. A wait for the wind and a portion the Water by measure

  203. when he made a law for the rain, and a path for the Thunderbolt,

  204. then he saw wisdom and declared it.

  205. He prepared it, indeed, he searched it out.

  206. And to man, he said, behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom

  207. and to depart from Evil is understanding That's so much

  208. like what we see in, you know, in the Book of Proverbs, kind of

  209. the wisdom literature that we see there and job is searching

  210. for wisdom and understanding and he's frustrated because God has

  211. it. And he doesn't Got a job does

  212. not understand why he's going through these things.

  213. But he know God does he knows God does.

  214. And so when we get to verse 23, this chapter, we see something

  215. that's key for us to understand when we have these.

  216. Why questions? You know I want to show us

  217. basically three ingredients that are necessary for wisdom.

  218. So follow me on this as we go through these number one, wisdom

  219. involves knowledge. God understands the way to it

  220. and he knows its place. So to be wise is to have

  221. knowledge. The second ingredient wisdom

  222. involves perspective verse 24 for for he, which is God looks

  223. to the ends of the Earth and seas under the whole Heavens

  224. wisdom is the ability to perceive its to know.

  225. And to perceive then third wisdom involves experience job

  226. starts talking about how God has created everything.

  227. And he says there, he create he gave To the wind its weight and

  228. a portion of the waters by measure, he made a decree for

  229. rain and a way for the lightning of the Thunder.

  230. God made everything himself and he's the one who saw wisdom.

  231. He declare wisdom, he established wisdom.

  232. And you searched it out and God formed wisdom from the

  233. beginning. So with these three ingredients

  234. pulled from these verses knowledge perspective and

  235. experience, I want you to think on God's Limitless, wisdom. so,

  236. I'm sorry, will think we're thinking about our limited

  237. wisdom first and then we'll get to God's Limitless.

  238. Wisdom? So we lack all these things as

  239. humans. Okay, we lack knowledge.

  240. We lack perspective, we lack experience, we lack knowledge.

  241. And you know, how often do we make or act?

  242. Because or make an unwise decision because of we just

  243. don't know everything. You know how many times we found

  244. our saved saying? You know, if I would have known

  245. that, I would have done this. If what I want to Kno know this,

  246. I would have made. If I don't know there's

  247. construction in Bakersfield, I would have taken another route.

  248. So the knowledge produces wisdom, Likewise, we lack

  249. perspective. We don't see everything.

  250. We don't, we don't see everything.

  251. Clearly, our perspective is always at best limited, okay?

  252. At worst. It's may be jaded or distorted

  253. because of previous experiences in our life, our perspective on

  254. things, sometimes, it's even wrong.

  255. We never perceive all the factors that work in every

  256. situation are all the effects of a decision we might make.

  257. Or maybe we're just not able to see things from somebody else's

  258. point of view, Maybe, Something else has a point of view that we

  259. don't necessarily see all the way in that in that type of

  260. instance. Third, we lack experience, we

  261. learned some things for in the first time we, you know, go

  262. through a situation knowing that the next time how to do it

  263. better than that. You know, the more we grow and

  264. experience the more we grow in wisdom.

  265. But we're obviously limited in our experience.

  266. So we lack knowledge perspective and experience which is why we

  267. find ourselves sometimes searching for understanding and

  268. wisdom. So God's Limitless wisdom.

  269. Let's think about how he has perfect.

  270. Knowledge number one, God knows everything past present and

  271. future. He knows he has all the facts,

  272. she's got all the info. He knows everything.

  273. God never finds himself saying I wish I would have known that.

  274. I would have done it differently.

  275. We don't see that ever happened, God has perfect knowledge of

  276. everything. Secondly God has Eternal

  277. perspective on everything at all times.

  278. In verse 24, it says for he looks to the ends of the Earth

  279. and seas under the whole Heavens.

  280. So true wisdom that God has he is sees everything in a proper

  281. spec perspective and God has Eternal proper, perfect

  282. perspective. God sees and understands how any

  283. one thing will affect every other thing.

  284. Including every person at every time, Through eternity.

  285. That's a huge concept to grasp, but that's what God does.

  286. And he knows and has that perspective and then finally,

  287. God has Infinite Experience. He's always acted wisely and all

  288. that he has done and he's the actually the wisdom of authors

  289. wisdom, wisdoms, author, excuse me.

  290. God is Infinite Experience as the infinitely wise God.

  291. So during our questions, the Situation's we go through the

  292. the pain we might suffer the hurt, we may be feeling or

  293. anything like that, why? Me God, why am I going through

  294. this? Why, why is somebody that is

  295. close to me? Why is this happening to them?

  296. I was thinking this morning, you know what?

  297. Have you ever thought about how God works?

  298. Not only in our lives that may be in somebody else's.

  299. You know, what have God is working in our lives?

  300. In order to have an effect on somebody else's life.

  301. Maybe somebody's looking to us on how we react.

  302. To something for them to learn on how to address that issue may

  303. be that they're dealing with in their lives.

  304. God's Providence, which is the way that we work in our land, he

  305. works in our lives. May not be just about us.

  306. It's not just about us all the time, maybe it's about somebody

  307. else. Maybe we're going through this

  308. trial, whatever, may be in order to show somebody else how to

  309. deal with it. I remember, you know, Frank up

  310. here. Sometimes he would always talk

  311. about this subject and somebody would be asking me, why me and

  312. Frank would say? Well why not you Why not?

  313. Are you above everybody else? To not go through this

  314. experience? You know, maybe God is doing

  315. that in our lives, you know, to refine the goal to make us

  316. better to get us through that situation, whatever it may be.

  317. And he's never going to give us something that we can't handle.

  318. So we need to remember that. We are not all wise but God is

  319. we lack. So much knowledge and

  320. perspective and experience but God lacks none of these things.

  321. And this is why in the middle of jobs questions of why, right?

  322. In the middle of the Book of Job, we have Central declaration

  323. that God is all-wise and as a result, God is trustworthy

  324. because God is always And you and I honestly ask how can we

  325. trust God when this or that happened to us or is happening

  326. to somebody else we can trust God and we when we remember that

  327. his knowledge is perfect that he knows all things that he knows

  328. what is best in all those things and we can trust in God.

  329. And remember that his perspective is eternal.

  330. When we remember that, he sees so many things all at the same

  331. time. Throughout eternity.

  332. We can trust God when we remember that, he has Infinite

  333. Experience and that he has, and is always and will and always

  334. will be in that in wisdom, his wisdom.

  335. He knows how to take an evil and suffering in a certain social

  336. situation and turn to good, The primary example that is Jesus on

  337. the cross. Right?

  338. It's the story of Jesus, the perfect innocent, and blameless,

  339. Son of God, beaten and tortured nailed to a cross to die.

  340. Why? Why would God allow his son to

  341. go through that Jesus was on the cross and said and about the

  342. ninth hour? Jesus cried out with a loud

  343. voice saying, Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani.

  344. And that is to say my God, my God.

  345. Why have you forsaken me? Jesus in his humanity and his

  346. suffering was asking, why why the cross, why the suffering,

  347. why the pain, why the death, why God are you letting this happen?

  348. And the answer is because God, the Father, In his Limitless,

  349. wisdom, his perfect knowledge of every single, he has perfect

  350. knowledge of every single one of our sins.

  351. And in his internal perspective, he has designed a way for every

  352. one of us who obeys, the Gospel of Jesus and lives for him.

  353. 2,000 liters from that event. 2,000 years later from that

  354. event. That's what we count.

  355. Our time by. Is that event right around that

  356. time to be here today and to be saved from our sins God's

  357. Eternal perspective. And is Limitless, wisdom.

  358. So we praise God. That Jesus trusted God, the

  359. father in that situation. To endure the cross.

  360. The most evil act in history. The crucifixion of a blameless

  361. Son of God, ushered in the most wonderful reality in all of

  362. history and Salve. That is salvation for every

  363. person from every nation who follows the gospel, God is

  364. infinitely wise and we are not. So we have all of our questions

  365. about why we must remember that. God is all-wise it honors and

  366. glorifies God when we trust in him, even when we admittedly.

  367. And honestly don't understand what he's doing.

  368. Let me know. Stan, what's going on?

  369. May not want to know the reality of it but we trust that God is

  370. doing what is best for us. So that leads us into our second

  371. anchor that we can rely on and that is to hold fast to God as

  372. you are hope back in Job 3. The term of death and despair, I

  373. think is an appropriate description of jobs.

  374. State of Mine. He's despairing of life itself.

  375. A number of times, you talked about darkness, and this is a

  376. picture of Despair and the continues throughout the various

  377. responses that he has to his friends.

  378. For example, he had a response in job, 6 verses, 8 and 9.

  379. It says, oh, that I might have my request that God would grant

  380. me. The thing that I long for that

  381. at would plead that it would. Please God to crush me, that he

  382. would lose. His hand and cut me off and job

    Job 7:16

  383. 7 verse 16. It says I love my life.

  384. I would not live forever. Let me alone for my days are but

  385. a breath joke. 10 20 through 22 are my days.

  386. Not few cease, leave me alone that I may take a little Comfort

  387. before I go to the place from which I shall not return to the

  388. land of darkness and the shadow of death at land is dark as

  389. Darkness itself as the shadow of death without any order.

  390. Or even the light is like Darkness job, 19 verses 13

    Job 19:13–22

  391. through 22. He has removed my brother's far

  392. from me and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

  393. My relatives have failed and my close friends have forgotten me.

  394. Those who dwell in my house and my maid servants, count me as a

  395. stranger. I am an alien in their sight.

  396. I call my servant but he gives no answer.

  397. I begged him with my mouth. so, Job is in death and despair and

  398. and he's longing for he's longing for Hope in all this

  399. stuff that he's going through. And that's the kind of the

  400. challenge, right? It's what despair is.

  401. Its Darkness was no sign of light and Joseph are Joe hits.

  402. Rock. Bottom in a sense, in chapter

  403. 19, we just read that. I got ahead of myself and

  404. beginning in verse 13. He says there, as we read in

  405. verse 13. Will keep, you know, above all

  406. other things. We should be going through, you

  407. know, these things. You know, we're not above all

  408. these things will continue reading in verse 17 of chapter

  409. 19. I apologize.

  410. I got a little bit out of order. There says my breath is

  411. offensive to my wife and I am repulsive to the children of my

  412. own blood. Even young children despise me.

  413. I arise and they speak against me.

  414. All of my close friends of bore me, and Those whom I love have

  415. turned against me, my bone clings, to my skin, into my

  416. flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

  417. Have pity on me. Have pity on me.

  418. Oh my you my friends for the hand of God has struck me.

  419. Why do you persecute me as God does and are not satisfied with

  420. my flesh. Seemingly basically no hope that

  421. that he had. And it's at this point in jobs

  422. life where we, we, you know, one of the most remarkable

  423. remarkable and thrilling triumphant parts.

  424. In this book. In the very next sentence in the

  425. very next verse in verse 23, o, that my words were written.

  426. Oh, that they were inscribed in a book.

  427. And I want us to feel the intensity there that they were

  428. engraved on a rock with an iron pan and led forever.

  429. And then in verse 25 and 3, 27 says, for, I know that my

  430. redeemer lives and he shall stand at last upon the Earth and

  431. after my skin is destroyed, this.

  432. I know that in my flesh, I shall see God whom I shall see for

  433. myself and my eyes Shall Behold and not another how my heart

  434. yearns. Earns Within Me.

  435. Could you imagine going through this stuff that he did?

  436. And then being able to speak these words still have that

  437. faith and trust in God. Really a remarkable man.

  438. And he says, I know. Somebody else doesn't know.

  439. I know that my redeemer lives My Redeemer mine.

  440. Now that just because he had those questions, you know, that

  441. that he had that faith. It doesn't mean that he still

  442. didn't have those questions of why things were happening.

  443. It's like not like all of a sudden they've all been answered

  444. and quite the opposite. You know, job doesn't seem to

  445. have any of his questions after he doesn't know why.

  446. But he knows who. Jobe understands, who is the

  447. creator, who gives all life, who we can rely on?

  448. No matter what position he is. A redeemer of indicator.

  449. And this word is used in Ruth to describe the champion of the

  450. oppressed. It's used in Exodus to describe

  451. the delivery of the captives. It's used in Proverbs to

  452. describe the defender of the week, and, you know, there's

  453. something after your skin is destroyed, he saying here,

  454. there's something after the pain after the heartache, after the

  455. sickness after the grief, after my skin is destroyed that in my

  456. flesh, I shall see God whom I shall see for myself, my eyes,

  457. Shall Behold yet and not another how my heart yearns Within Me

  458. So, let's hold fast. To God In Hope, do not turn away

  459. from God during our trials. Where else would we go?

  460. To whom shall we go? Because in John chapter 6, The

    John 6 chapter mention

  461. disciples had nowhere else to go, but to Jesus, nobody else

  462. could give the life that Jesus was promising to them.

  463. And to us, there was no other place.

  464. So when we hold fast to Hope in him, you would Behold Him as Our

  465. Redeemer, our Vindicator Defender deliver provider and

  466. our healer, he is the one who alone can make All Things New in

  467. our life. We will see God.

  468. He is our hope. We'll see our hope one of these

  469. days. We'll see his face as we're told

  470. in Revelation. I think about Darren, and he's

  471. okay with me using this, but there has been blind most of his

  472. life and he's going to see God's face.

  473. That's amazing to me. Beautiful.

  474. And so we long for that hope to see God one of these days.

  475. He will satisfy our souls forever.

  476. So, jobs anchors, remember that God is all-wise, and hold fast

  477. to God. As our hope.

  478. We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the

  479. Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you

  480. would like any additional information or you would like to

  481. receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.

  482. Please email us at info at True Church of Christ.

  483. Bakersfield.com. All our service times are on

  484. Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.

  485. please, make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our

  486. honored guest