Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: Job

  • The Glory Days?

    The Glory Days?

    About this sermon

    In Job 29 Job looks back on the days when God’s lamp shone on his head, his children were about him, and the city honored him. Readers of the first chapters know more than Job knew as he walked through his deep valley, and God restored him at the end. God’s Word gives perspective on every season of life, and present trials prepare believers for what God designed them for, to share in the glory of his Son.

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    Sermon transcript

    Let us praise when he is come. Praise to God above my sin. Ever in his sweet abode. Faith that he did prove. In ev’ry day of the year, Spring, thou art within my heart, And to all eternity. You may be seated. The sermon this morning is entitled The Glory Days, and we’ll be looking at the Book of Job, chapter 29.

    And let me say up front that if I were asked to preach just one sermon on the Book of Job, I would not choose this chapter as a summary of this important book on suffering. You know, it is my practice, typically, to be an expository preacher. The challenge of coming regularly to you with weeks in between is that we’re picking different texts. But as I prayerfully considered this particular passage, I’m going to go out on a limb here a little bit.

    I’m going to assume something, and that is that because of your practice and your experience in terms of the life of the Church, no doubt you’ve probably heard already the story of the Book of Job. So what’s more is that, as well being some of the senior saints as well, that your own life experience, you’ve had to wrestle with pain and the question of suffering in your life. And so with that in mind, I want to focus our attention this morning on God’s word as found in Job chapter 29. As you know, the book of Job is rather long.

    In the first three chapters, we’re told the story of Job. We get to know what he doesn’t know. in terms of why things are happening to him. And then at the end of the book in chapter 42, you know, first three chapters, everything’s taken away. Chapter 42, God restores everything to Job and much more.

    But in between these chapters, there are these discourses, there are these speeches that are made. So we begin to understand what’s happening in people’s minds and in their hearts as they’re trying to process all these things. And in the center of the book of Job, Job chapters 29, 30, and 31. This is Job’s discourse. This is where we get to take a look at how he is thinking about what he has experienced. These are the words of a man who has sought to walk with God in the midst of all the circumstances of his life. In Job 29, Job reflects on his past glory. In chapter 30, he rehearses his present misery. In chapter 31, He reaffirms his personal integrity, his desire to believe God in all things. And so this morning, we just want to look, though, at chapter 29.

    And we want to unpack the message, which I believe the great theme of chapter 29 of the book of Job is this, that God wants his people to reflect his glory in all seasons of life. God wants his people to reflect his glory in all seasons of life. And so I invite you to turn with me to Job chapter 29, hear God’s word.

    And Job again took up his discourse and said, Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light, I walked through darkness as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me, when my steps were washed with butter and the rock poured out for me streams of oil. When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square, the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood.

    The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. When the ear heard, it called me blessed. When the eye saw, it approved. Because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him, the blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know, I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made him drop his prey from his teeth. Then I thought, I shall die in my rest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand. My roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches, my glory fresh with me, and my vow ever new in my hand.

    Men listened to me and waited, and kept silence for my counsel. After I spoke, they did not speak again, and my word dropped from them. They waited for me as for the rain. They opened their mouths as for the spring rain. I smiled on them when they had no confidence, and the light of my face they did not cast down. I chose their way and sat as chief, and I lived like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.”

    Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. And Lord, as it has been preserved for us by your spirit, even as it is the words that you place at the heart of one of your choicest servants. Lord, we pray that your spirit might speak that word into the depths and recesses of our hearts, that we might find comfort even as Job found comfort in his relationship with you and that you are God who does all things well. And so it’s in the name of Christ we pray. Amen.

    As we look at this particular passage again, the great theme that God wants his people to reflect his glory in all seasons of their lives, we’re confronted with the fact that Job 29 opens with the loss of glory. Job recalls a time in his life when God seemed present, where God’s blessings, at least the external material blessings on his life were evident, his family, his friends, his fields, God’s grace had been poured out upon Job and Job’s life. And consequently, there was a flourishing of his life personally and also his influence as a servant of God, even in the place that he lived. Job longs for those days again, because those are not the days that he’s experiencing there on the ash heap. Look again there at verses four to six where Job says, as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me, when my steps were washed with butter and the rock poured out for me streams of oil. Do you hear the longing of his heart? Can you identify with that longing? Do you want your life? Do you long for life to be good? to be comfortable, to make sense, to settle into what we consider would be predictable and pleasant routines.

    We could say that these days of our lives would be called the glory days. Job enjoyed the glory days. He had the respect of his countrymen. He worked for social justice. He was treated as a dignitary. Job had experienced the good life and thought that it would continue well into his old age, much like the man talked about in Psalm 1, how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or sit in the way of sinners.

    And so Job meditated on God’s word. Job tried to live that out. And Job figured, OK, then the blessing of God would be upon him all of his days. But God allowed testing, trials, and tumult to enter Job’s life. Literally overnight, Job’s life was overturned, the course altered, and he’s there living on the garbage heap of the city. Job expresses the longing of his heart.

    He longs for those glory days when God’s blessing on his life was evident. Dear friend, now, you and I might not have the experience of Job, but nonetheless, there are times, are there not, that we long for days gone by. when life was a little easier, maybe a little bit more carefree, less filled with trouble. Glory days.

    It’s not uncommon for people, every person at some point in time in their life, to look back over their lives and they long to live in a different time and a different place. The same is true for churches. Sometimes we think of churches and history of churches and we long for what seem to be glory days. And the same is true even of nations, as they experience difficulties and challenges as they age.

    We look back and we long for glory days. That sentiment is even found in our culture. It’s expressed in the song of Bruce Springsteen entitled Glory Days. And here are just some of the familiar lyrics of that particular song, where he writes, now I think I’m going down to the well tonight, and I’m going to drink till I get my fill.

    And I hope when I get old I don’t sit around thinking about it, but I probably will. Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture a little of the glory of, well, time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of glory days. There are times that life can be depressing, especially if someone has pursued the good life and thought that the only thing that mattered was material success, their stuff, their social standing, their sense of significance. These things are fleeting.

    Job had all of those things and he lost all of those things. But the root of Job’s pain here is not the loss of his possessions, or his prestige, or even what others thought of him. His pain was a perceived loss of God’s presence. Where is God in all this? God seems so far away. Not once did Job ask God, why did I lose everything? Instead, he said to God, why did you leave me? Job did not even ask God to relieve his pain, as all the pain that he was experiencing. He simply asked God to be with him. in his pain and suffering. Job felt as if God had deserted him and abandoned him. Now again, we read the first three chapters of the book of Job, we know much more than Job knew as he was walking through this deep valley.

    Let me ask you my friend, have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt abandoned by God or lacking God’s presence in your life? Maybe there were particular circumstances, There are particular decisions, those sorts of things. Ever since that God was once close, and now He seems far away, or even if He is there, He seems to be silent. You know, there’s a reason for that.

    It’s something that God has planted inside of us. You know, it’s a common experience of many of us in the Christian life. At some point, at some point, we will have that longing. And the reason that we have that longing for glory days is in fact that you and I are made for glory. And that’s what we see in this passage as well.

    We go back to the book of Genesis and we know that when God created man, he created man and women, male and female, in the image of God. In fact, John Calvin says that the reason that man was able to stand and walk was so that he could look up to his creator. You and I are made in the image of God so that we might enjoy a relationship with the God of the universe. And it is through that relationship with the God of the universe, who governs still his universe, that we as those who are made in his image are renewed, and that image is revealed before a watching world. We in many ways, not because of who we are, but as the moon reflects the sun, so God’s people reflect the glory of God in the midst of his creation.

    The Westminster Shorter Catechism asked the familiar question, question number one, What is the chief end of man? We know the answer. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But have you ever asked yourself, what is the primary way that we do that here on earth?

    God is most glorified when you and I, in obedience to His word, seek to live out that relationship with Him in every area of our lives. And that includes our ordinary callings of life, our worship, and our work. To worship, we’re given the opportunity to regularly gather with God’s people, to be reminded of whose we are, and to give Him rightly the thanks and praise that He is due, both as our Creator, but even more importantly, our Redeemer. And through our work, we serve God, and we seek to bring Him glory by not only what we do, but the way we do it in His creation.

    But don’t take my words for it. Listen to the words of Jesus. found in John chapter 17. Now there on the way to the cross Jesus said this, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son may glorify you. For you grant him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to those you have given him. Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. And then Jesus said this, I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me. to do.

    What is the work that God has given to us, his people, to do till our Lord Jesus Christ returns? Well, we’re called to be faithful in obeying and fulfilling the cultural mandate, Genesis chapter 1, being fruitful and multiplying, filling the earth and subduing it. We’re called to be faithful in the Great Commission, the making of disciples of all nations, ethnos, better translated actually people groups, baptizing them in the name of the Triune God, and teaching them to obey everything God has commanded us in His word, with the promise that God is going to be with us to the very end, no matter how difficult that work might be.

    The Christian life, as revealed in the scripture, is not get saved, hold on to your Jesus ticket, wait around, and then go to heaven. Though there are some in the evangelical circles, that’s what they actually believe. But the Christian life is literally a journey. from dust to glory.

    The image of God in us is disguised, is marred by the fall. But in Christ it is redeemed. And through our God-ordained worship and our work, we take part in God’s renewal of all things in Christ. That image is being renewed in us, and even through us God is renewing His world to the praise of His glory.

    The Apostle Paul puts it this way. He said this, that has long been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed in God’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Are you experiencing the reality of that in your life?

    You know, when life is going well, it’s all too easy to lose sight of God and think, Life is good, I’m doing the things I want to do, and I’m taking care of things. And the fact is that the glory that we seek, because we are made for glory, is a glory that cannot come from ourselves, it cannot come from our bank accounts, it cannot come from our friends and our family around us. It doesn’t come from ourselves. The glory that we seek is a gift given to us by Christ himself.

    And of course when life isn’t going well, it’s all too easy to somehow think, Why me, God? Where is God in all this? God doesn’t care. Or somehow we might even think that God is punishing us. But Christ is our hope of glory. You and I are made for glory. But the God-ordained path to glory, as Job discovered, is one of great suffering. The path to glory. God longs for His people and to live for His glory in all the seasons of their life. But the path to glory is one of suffering.

    Some of you may be familiar with the allegory of Pilgrim’s Progress written by John Bunyan while he was in prison. And in that story, the main character, Christian, travels from the city of destruction to the celestial city having his home. And along the way he meets various people and journeys through some difficult places. And after passing through the valley of the shadow of death, Christian and faithful must pass through a place called Vanity Fair, a town where the things of this world and the life of comfort and ease are offered to them. They resist, but they are made to suffer because of that resistance.

    And faithful himself is martyred. For the Christian, the path to glory is the road of suffering. Job maintained a relationship with God when things were going well, and he sought to maintain a relationship with God when things were not going well, in fact, when he was in the midst of dire suffering. Though not perfect, Job was a man of integrity. He sought to live for God, though even encouraged by friends and his wife not to do so. What about you? What about me? In all the circumstances of our lives, are we truly living for Christ and His glory?

    Someone has said this, suffering people don’t need a sermon. They don’t need a lecture. They don’t need you to solve their problems. If you encounter a suffering Christian, you need only to remind them that in Christ, they already possess everything that they need. They need the gospel. They need grace. The Bible is not a record of good people earning God’s blessing by their works. Instead, it’s a record of bad people receiving God’s blessing because Jesus earned it for them.

    Jesus Christ is our creator. He’s our savior. He is our great comforter in the midst of suffering. Christ left the glory of heaven came down to earth to suffer and die in our place so that we might be forgiven of our sins, our guilt removed, the power of sin broken, that we might be brought back into a right relationship with God. And He is committed to our growth in grace. But that grace, the scripture tells us, is only made perfect through suffering.

    The pattern is quite clear. The cross first. And then the crown. The writer of Hebrews makes this point. He says this, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him. You made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside of his control.

    At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.

    Christ, when he died, if we understand the scriptures, deep theology, we’re united with him in his death. and his sufferings and his burial, so that we too are united with him in his resurrection and we walk in newness of life. Tim Keller in his book, Walking with God in Pain and Suffering, makes this profound statement about how our faith ought to shape our perspective when suffering comes, because if you are a Christian, it will come. The idea of heaven to be a consolation for suffering, a compensation for the life we have lost, But resurrection is not just consolation, it is restoration.

    We get it all back. The love, the loved ones, the goods, the beauties of this life, but in new unimaginable degrees of glory, joy, and strength. I don’t know about you, but personally, I don’t like to suffer. That’s not what I wake up every morning and say, Oh, today’s, I’m just looking forward to today because today’s going to be a day of suffering. No. And yet as I read the Bible, I know that suffering is not only inevitable. It is that which God as a loving heavenly father has prescribed for us, for our growth in grace, for our preparation, for eternal glory.

    There was a woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and she’d been given three months to live. As she was getting her things in order, she called her pastor, and he came to her house to discuss certain things, aspects of her final wishes. And so there were songs she wanted sung at her funeral, and scriptures that she wanted read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in. And the woman also requested to be buried with her favorite Bible.

    Everything was put in order. And as the pastor was preparing to leave, the woman suddenly remembered something that was very important to her. There’s one more thing, she said excitedly. And what’s that, replied the pastor. This is very important, the woman said.

    I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand. The pastor stood, looked at the woman, not knowing quite what to say. That surprises you, doesn’t it, said the woman. Well, to be honest, I’m puzzled by your request, the pastor replied. And the woman explained.

    In all my years of attending church socials and potluck suppers, I always remember that when the dishes of the main course were being taken away or cleared, someone would inevitably say, keep your fork. It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming, like velvety chocolate cake. or deep dish apple pie, something wonderful and with substance. So I just want people to see me there in the casket with a fork in my hand, and I want them to wonder, what’s with the fork? And then I want you to tell them, keep your fork.

    The best is yet to come. Dear friends, I don’t know what the circumstances of your life are right now. I don’t know what you’re maybe personally going through, what you’re grieving within your family or even among friends. I don’t know the pain or the suffering that God has allowed graciously to be brought into your life, what you’ve experienced. But I do know this. The best is yet to come. That’s what the scripture reminds us. That’s what the book of Job informs us. Keep your faith. Keep your fork. The glory days are yet to come. Let’s pray.

    Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you not only that it instructs us in all seasons of life, but Lord, it gives us perspective to all the seasons of our life. And so, Lord, we do pray that as we experience those difficult things in this life by your appointment, Lord, that you might enable us to keep perspective as well. And Lord, that we might know that our present trials and our difficulties are achieving that which you have designed us for. which is to bask in the glory of your Son, our great Savior and King, Jesus Christ. And so it’s in his name we humbly pray. Amen. I’d like you to stand in response to hymn number 520, Sometimes a Light Surprises.

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  • My Redeemer Lives

    My Redeemer Lives

    About this sermon

    Job’s friends assume a mechanical justice, in which great suffering must mean great sin, and Bildad describes the end of the wicked to accuse him. Scripture rejects that reasoning; in a fallen world God sends common grace and trials on righteous and wicked alike. Job answers with hope beyond the grave: “I know that my Redeemer lives,” and in his flesh he will see God. Believers face suffering with the same hope, fixed on Christ, who identifies with his suffering people.

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    Sermon transcript

    time, let us open to Job chapter 18. As you are turning to Job chapter 18, I’ll just give you a little bit of a preview of what is going to come We see we have an uninspired subtitle right there on page 378. I’ll just let you know why you’re turning to it. Bildad speaks of the wicked. Bildad is one of the counselors slash friends of Job, and he’s going to have some words for Job. He has a few things to say to him, and they’re not very nice. Here now, the word of God from Job 18. Then Bildad, the Shuhite, responded, how long will you hunt for words? Show understanding, and then we will talk. Why are we regarded as beasts, as stupid in your eyes? Oh, you who tear yourself in your anger, for your sake is the earth to be abandoned. or to be abandoned, or the rock to be moved from its place? Indeed, the light of the wicked goes out, and the flame of his fire gives no light. The light in his tent is darkness, and his lamp goes out above him.

    His vigorous stride is shortened, and his own scheme brings him down. For he is thrown into the net by his own feet, and he steps on the webbing. A snare seizes him by the heel and a trap snaps shut on him. A noose for him is hidden in the ground and a trap for him on the path.

    All around terrors frighten him and harry him at every step. His strength is famished, and calamity is ready at his side. His skin is devoured by disease. The firstborn of death devours his limbs. He is torn from the security of his tent, and they march him before the king of terrors.

    There dwells in his tent nothing of his. Brimstone is scattered on his habitation. His roots are dried below, and his branch is cut off above. Memory of him perishes from the earth, and he has no name abroad. He is driven from light into darkness, and chased from the inhabited world. He has no offspring or posterity among his people, nor any survivor where he sojourned. Those in the West are appalled at his fate, and those in the East are seized with horror. Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him who does not know God. Amen. So ends the first reading of God’s holy, inspired, and inerrant Word.

    At this time we would open to 568. 568 in the Blue Trinity. I know that my Redeemer lives and ever prays for me. A token of his love he gives. A pledge of Liberty 586. Please stand. He brings salvation near. His presence makes me free in Thee, and He will soon His will, the council of His praise in me He surely shall fulfill. He’s just my head, upon my word, myself Thou wilt return, and make me more, and to thyself receive. Amen. Amen. Please be seated.

    And continuing to read in God’s wholly inspired and errant word, let us open to Job chapter 19. And as you’re turning to Job chapter 19, I would remind you of words that have already been read. Our first reading was from a discourse of Bildad, and that is one of Job’s friends, quote unquote, one of his counselors, quote unquote. He mocks Job.

    With friends like this, who needs enemies? Here he is saying, why do you hunt for words? That is to say, you have nothing to say. He asks, are we stupid in your eyes? Are you so much greater than us? And he then begins to talk about the fact that Job, he’s talking somewhat in the third person, but he’s really talking about Job, and he talks about the fact that though he was in light, darkness has come upon him, traps have been set for you, Job, and the reason this is is because You are a sinner. You have secret sin that you will not repent of. So that is basically what Bildad has to say. Now hear Job’s response in God’s Word, Job 19. Hear the Word of God. Then Job responded, How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?

    These ten times you have insulted me, you are not ashamed to wrong me. Even if I have truly erred, my error lodges with me. If indeed you vaunt yourselves against me and prove my disgrace to me, know then that God has wronged me and has closed His net around me.

    Behold, I cry violence but i get no answer i shout for help but there is no justice he has walled up my way so that i cannot pass and he has put darkness on my paths he has stripped my honor from me and removed the crown from my head He breaks me down on every side and I am gone. And he has uprooted my hope like a tree. He has also kindled his anger against me and considered me as his enemy. His troops come together, and build up their way against me, and camp around my tent.

    He has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed, and my intimate friends have forgotten me, those who live in my house, and my maids consider me a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight. I call to my servant, but he does not come. I have to implore him with my mouth.

    My breath is offensive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own brothers. Even young children despise me. I rise up, and they speak against me. All my associates abhor me, and those I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. Pity me! Pity me! O you my friends!

    For the hand of God has struck me. Why do you persecute me as God does, and are not satisfied with my flesh? O that my words were written! O that they were inscribed in a book, with an iron stylus and lead, they were engraved in the rock forever. As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God, whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see, and not another. My heart faints within me. If you say, how shall we persecute him? And what pretext for a case against him can we find? Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword. so that you may know there is judgment.

    Amen. That ends the second reading of God’s holy word. May it be blessed to our souls and to us fully, to our full man. Let us pray briefly. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for every word that comes out of the mouth of you, including the words of Bildad and also of Job. We ask as we look into here, how would this apply to us? How would this ancient conversation say anything that is relevant to our time?

    Heavenly Father, we ask that the scriptures would be opened to us and that we might be able be able to see Jesus. What a joy it is to see Jesus in Your Word. We ask that we may see Jesus this day, crucified for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen. So we have listened to just a little bit of debate. We could call it a debate. It’s a discourse that goes back and forth between two people. One is on the side of God. And the other is on the side of God. But can they both be on the side of God? Because they both have something different to say.

    We might just back up and look at the wider context of Job. Job was a godly man, he was a righteous man, and he was blessed in many, many ways. If you were to Look, if you were to just read the first couple of chapters of Job, you may see that Job has some things. He has many material possessions, but some of it might be lost on us.

    Think about this. He had 7,000 sheep. He had 3,000 camels. He had 5,000 oxen. He had seven sons, and he had three daughters, a seven to be a godly number, and ten, a number of completeness. What could be meant by these numbers? What is meant by the sheep, the camels, and the oxen? Let me just ask you this.

    If there are anyone who is familiar with owning of businesses, what would you think of someone who owned just two trucks in their business? Who would think of that person as a small business owner? But what if someone owned 500 trucks as part of his business?

    That’s essentially what Job has as he has 500 oxen plowing in the field. What would you think of someone who has ability to transport things to the farthest reaches of his region? We would think of that person as a very wealthy man. Think about 7,000 sheep. By the estimate that I looked up, you could come up with 51,000 pounds of wool per year from that. And then from that, transport that on 3,000 camels. Job was a very, very good businessman.

    Let what it talks about in the beginning of Job not be lost on us. He has extravagant wealth, not in a wrong way. He’s been blessed by God in great ways. But then what we have in the opening chapters of Job is tragedy falls upon him. And he doesn’t know why tragedy falls upon him, but we do. What we see is that God and Satan have been having a discussion. they’re going to test the faithfulness of Job. Quite a test it is.

    And so, almost in one false swoop, we see that the Sabaeans come and they kill the oxen and the donkeys. And the Chaldeans come and they kill all of the camels. Many of his servants are also put to death as well. But then, something happens that’s a natural occurrence. That is to say, you could blame all of those other occurrences on the fact that wicked people have come and destroyed his business. But also, we see that his children all die. all because of strong winds that came upon them.

    Now understand that Job was a man who ever lived to intercede for his sons and daughters, for they were often at drinking parties, and he was afraid that they may have sinned, so he was as a family priest to them. offering sacrifices for his sons and daughters, just in case they may have had too much to drink, just in case they had sinned in any sort of way. But after that, his body is stricken. He had sores on himself so bad that he had, he actually took pottery and scrapes them off. I would ask you, what is worse, to have sores on you, or to go through the process of scraping sores off of yourself? Surely, either option is not one that we would be envious of. What a tragic situation we have in Job.

    But then, Three friends come, and their name are Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad. Three men who come, and it’s very interesting what they do at first. They are his counselors. They sit with him for one whole week, and they mourn with him. That is good counseling. I would ask you, don’t you get hungry after just a couple of hours? But these men sat with him for a whole entire week. What wonderful counselors these men were, up until a later point, it is at the point at which they opened their mouths when they ceased to be good counselors.

    Because it is at that point that they begin to accuse Job and say, Job Your problem is that you have sinned. And if you have read through Job, you may notice that the intensity of their accusations seem to get stronger and stronger and stronger until they are outright accusing Job, you have sinned. What we see here is that these men have a mechanical view of God’s retributive justice. What I mean by a mechanical view of his justice is that they’re able to say, listen, you sinned, that sin there or some particular sin is manifested in this punishment because these men are standing up for God or at least a God that exists in their mind that they believe is true. They’re saying that there is a one-to-one correspondence between your punishment and a sin that you have committed. And I would just ask you, brothers and sisters, have you ever heard people talk like these men have before?

    As I think about the situation in Haiti just, what was that, a number of months ago, maybe coming upon a year ago, I went online, I went on the internet, because I knew I was going to find something. I didn’t want to be right, but I did. I found all kinds of places where Christians were saying, you know what happened to Haiti? disaster. And you want to know why disaster happened to Haiti?

    It’s because of their sin and because of their voodoo. See, many Christian believers in our time have the same understanding of automatic, mechanical, retributive justice that Job’s friends had. They were saying the sin of voodoo and all of the horrible things that go on in Haiti. And I don’t want to minimize them one bit. Those same, those sins are being punished. God is punishing the nation of Haiti. And they were cold and they were calloused. They were as calloused as these three friends of Job were.

    But we must ask ourselves, is this a right way of reasoning? Is this the way that we should think as Christian believers? Well, if we were to think about this logically, and we have some people who have studied a little bit of philosophy in our midst, we might ask ourselves, is this even logical to think this way?

    The sin that, or the fallacy that these men are breaking or destroying is really the fallacy of affirming the consequent. It would be understandable, at least it would be a good argument, if they knew his sin and could say, well, that sin and that punishment. But they’re not even doing that. They’re looking at the punishment. And then, reasoning from that to the sin, you see, the fact is, God does not always bring punishment upon people as a result of sins that they have committed.

    If we were just to think about some places in scripture where this is not the case, Think about the place where we have the rich man and Lazarus. We don’t see in time and space where the rich man was punished. We don’t see any tragedies fall upon him. It’s not until after he dies.

    We also see that Lazarus was not, some people would have looked upon him and said, that man’s a sinner, as he sits at the gates and the dogs are licking his wounds. See, that’s an instance that is a counterexample to what these men are thinking and what they are saying. In John chapter 9, and I think you all know just a little bit about the gospel of John here in this congregation. In John chapter 9, we have a blind man, and the apostles come to Jesus and they say, why is it that this man was born blind, Jesus?

    Is it because he sinned? Or is it because his parents sinned? Which is it? And Jesus says it’s neither that this man sinned or that his parents sinned. This man’s blindness came upon him for the glory of God. If I might just give you one more example. In Luke chapter 13, we have people who confront Jesus with the fact that a tower fell on some people. It’s called the Tower of Siloam. This tower falls on them, and they were saying, is that God’s justice? Did God get them? Is it because of sins that they have committed? And Jesus says, no, absolutely not. You must must repent, basically. You too will likewise perish, he says. But basically what he’s saying is there’s no one-to-one correspondence between certain sins and certain punishments in this life. That is not the way that God works within our time.

    See, what we understand from reading of Scripture is that we live in a time and a place of common grace. That is to say, God calls the sun to shine upon the wicked and the righteous. He calls the rain and causes both to fall upon the wicked and the righteous. And sometimes, in this time of common grace, it just is the case that the righteous suffer. And it’s also the case that many of the wicked get away with many wicked deeds in this life. To have that type of a view is to have the same kind of understanding that many Haitians have, which is a voodoo understanding that if you do bad things, the gods are going to come down and they’re going to get you.

    God does not operate that way in common grace eras. God does not operate that way in common grace nations. And we live in a time of common grace and our nation is a place of common grace. The same kind of thing happened when the Twin Towers fell. Some radio and TV evangelists got on and they started blaming certain people and certain sins for this.

    No. Not at all. Not in a time of common grace. Not at all. But you might ask, Brett, that doesn’t sound right, because as I read my Bible, I see many places where there seems to be a one-to-one correspondence between certain sins and a certain punishments. And I would say, you are absolutely right. In your Bible, there are very many places where this happens. Let me explain why that is.

    The nation of Israel, the Hebrew people of ancient times, were a special people. and God, in one sense, suspended common grace for them. See, they took an oath as a nation, as a people, that they would be faithful to God. And if you read the end of Deuteronomy, and I think you’ll get there eventually, the end of Deuteronomy, you’ll find that They were a covenant historical nation, and what that means is that if they sin certain ways as a nation, God will bring locusts and lack of rain, and he’ll bring all kinds of people to pillage them and to plunder them, He won’t protect them. But if, as a nation, they obey God, then He will bless them, and He will give them grapes, and He’ll give them strong harvests, and He’ll give them sun, and He’ll give them rain.

    What happens in Israel is like no other nation. It is unique. It’s one-of-a-kind. Let us understand that unique means one-of-a-kind. We should never qualify uniqueness. The Hebrew nation was very unique. It’s not very one-of-a-kind. The Hebrew nation is one-of-a-kind and unlike any other nation. We have a Constitution in our country.

    Theirs is far different than ours is, because theirs is one where they took an oath and said, we will abide by your laws, and if not, we will accept the consequences. Though they were often warned that they may not be able to withstand the consequences and they may not be able to obey. They took that oath.

    So we see within that unique nation a one-to-one correspondence. But how is it that you know that certain sins are punished by people? How is it that you know what you need is a prophet? And that’s exactly what they had in their time. They had prophets who would come to them and they would explain this sin and that consequence. They had that.

    We do not have that. Why? Because the Scriptures are closed. The canon has ended, and we have the 66 books of the Bible, and that is it. There are no prophets to come along and prophesy and tell us what happened in Haiti, and to tell us what happened with the 9-11.

    We ought not to think that way, brothers and sisters. That’s not the way we ought to understand things. We ought to understand that that retributive justice does happen in the Old Testament, in Israel especially, but not without prophets in our time. Job, I’ve never heard anyone try to say that Job was a Hebrew man, or that he was under that covenant historical national canopy. Nobody understands that.

    Job lives during a time also like us, a time of common grace. It’s before Jesus comes, but it is the same as us. But the problem is, these friends have the same understanding Haitian voodoo people. These people have the same problem as all of those Christians who would accuse in that way. Brothers and sisters, what do we do when people are under hardship? This is the non-believing view. What are we to do? We are to be Christ to them and to seek to comfort them.

    We are not to point the finger as Job’s Confronters, we might call them, did. But there they go, misunderstanding common grace for judgment. And there they are, accusing Job. Do you think that Job’s accusers just decided after they saw his difficulties that they would accuse him? Do you think that they just, hey, you know what? I’ve got an idea. Let’s go talk to Job today. I would put forth to you brothers and sisters that they have been watching Job for a long, long time. If you were to go to chapter 29 of Job, we see a whole chapter of Job looking back at how things used to be.

    He’s somewhat nostalgic, thinking about when God blessed him. He says, Oh, that it were as in months gone by, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone over my head, and by his light I walked through darkness. And I was in the prime of my days when the friendship of God was over my tent.” And he continues to talk about how great it was once upon a time when God was blessing him with health and with wealth.

    But I would also put forward to you, starting at 21, we see that Job was a counselor. He was a counseling minister of sorts. And he says, to me they listened and waited, and kept silent for my counsel. After my words they did not speak again, and my speech dropped on them. They waited for me as for the rain, and opened their mouth as for the spring rain. He is telling them that at one time, He was a counselor. People used to come to Him and ask Him for advice, and they would hang on His every word.

    And as every single counselor came to Him, Surely the frustration and the anger of Eliphaz and Zophar and Bildad was building, because as one more after another after another comes to Job, they were not coming to them. and their jealousy and their rage came upon them that they said now is our chance now is our opportunity he has been wise for so long and we have looked foolish but now job It is our time to be wise, and you’re going to listen to us.”

    And so, as they throw their flaming arrows at him, one after another, and he deflects them, and deflects them, constantly rejecting their advice and their counsel, he says, no. He says, no, you’re wrong. This is not a correspondence between some sin. obviously have been a priest to my children. Do you think I haven’t repented myself? But they have watched, and as he deflects and he deflects their arrows, they get more angry and more frustrated at Job.

    They have been waiting for him. And I might put it forth to you, brothers and sisters, that as things are going well with you, many people may be silent. But as tragedy befalls you, many people, not all, many pagans and unbelievers think nothing of it. But there are those who would speak for God, thinking that they’re speaking for God. But they are not speaking for God. They are speaking for Satan.

    And they would try to give you counsel. And you must go to the Word of God for your counsel. and to your minister for counsel, and not to those who would say, ah, so how is Christianity doing for you now that this difficulty has struck you, now that this calamity has befallen you? What are you going to do? Where is your Jesus now? It is at that point that we continue to press on in the things of faith, loving the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us.

    So that is basically the non-believer’s perspective. I’m not sure I announced that. The non-believer’s perspective of suffering is basically the voodoo understanding and the pagan understanding. It’s non-believers, but then I would look, we would look at the believer’s perspective.

    Basically, at one point, Job says, stop it. Stop it. Stop it, but they won’t stop. In Job 16, verse 2, he says, miserable counselors are you all. What pain you can feel in Job as he says, he says these words, miserable counselors are you all. It says in one translation. It’s a little bit different in ours. And then in 18.2, he says, how long will you torment me? You all are supposed to be my friends.

    You know, it’s bad enough that I lose my whole business. It’s bad enough that I lose all of my servants, all of my animals. It’s really, really bad that I lose my seven sons and my three daughters. Just think about David and the way that he mourned for Absalom when he died, and he cried out, Absalom, oh Absalom, the loss of a child. What a difficulty, what a tragedy. It’s bad enough that he has that loss in his life, but then it seems as though God is against him. And these people, these ones who ought to be his friends, then they begin to accuse him.

    Job understands, like few people, what it is truly to be lonely, to have nothing, and to feel as though he is nothing. Haven’t I suffered enough? But we understand from Job that Preparing to die is the first step in learning to live. And we praise God for that. But then Job says something, you can almost feel the intensity of it as he begins to talk.

    He begins to say, Oh that my words were written on 23. Oh, that they were inscribed in a book with an iron stylus and lead. They were engraved in the rock forever.” Basically, what he’s saying is, what I’m about to say, I wish it could be recorded for eternity. I wish I could make it on rock, I could write it on rock, because if it were on stone, then it would never be lost. Basically, we might think, if Job could just put the next thing that he’s about to say up on Mount Rushmore, then it might just be written for all people to see.

    Written in stone, just like the Ten Commandments were written in stone. Why? Because Moses understood, and God understood, that that’s how they last, because they’re written in stone. But obviously we understand, especially from this morning, that we have something more sure, which is the inspired word that we have been given.

    But what Job is saying is that the next words he’s going to say are going to count. Have you ever said something that you wish you could take back? Something you said just on the tip of your tongue, and as you said it, you said, you thought, I wish I had never said that. That is not the case with Job. He wants to say, what I’m about to say, I never ever want to take back.

    And that’s when he says these wonderful words, these glorious words, he says, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the mountain, even after my skin is destroyed. Yet from my flesh I shall see God.” And there he understands, somehow, we don’t know how, but the Messiah is coming. His Redeemer is going to come, and that is the comfort of the believer.

    This is a wonderful word that he says when he talks about a redeemer. It’s a special word. The word is goel in the Hebrew, and I won’t bore you with any Hebrew pronunciation, but I will just mention this to you. When we read through the book of Ruth, When we read about Ruth and Boaz, we read about the fact that Boaz was the kinsman redeemer of Ruth. That is, he was someone close in the family, and that is the one who redeems, who paid the price for this woman.

    The same kind of understanding is also in Leviticus 25.25. I’ll just read it for you. It says, if your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. Basically, if your brother goes into a large amount of debt, you as a brother and as a friend to that person, in Old Testament Israel, can come and pay his debt.

    What Job wants us to understand is that he has been walking with God for his whole entire life. The one who redeems him is not someone far off. It’s not someone he does not know. The one who is going to redeem him is going to be God Himself. God asks in Jeremiah, am I a God who is far off? No, I’m not a God who is far off. I’m a God who is here with you. And we have in Jesus one who is Emmanuel, one who is God with us.

    And we understand that on this side of the cross. But Job understood that his Redeemer lives. And it is because of the fact that our Redeemer lives that we are able to endure difficulty and pain and suffering. We learn patience because of the difficulties that come down upon us. We learn trust. It seems so counterintuitive to think about the fact that we learn trust from God even while we go through difficulties and hardships and pain. Can you say with the psalmist in 119, it is good for me that I was afflicted that I might learn your statutes.

    Throughout all the difficulties, Job drew closer to God through his difficulty. And I would be willing to I’m not a betting man, but I would be willing to think that many of you have drawn closer to the Lord Jesus Christ all because of difficulty and pain and hard circumstances. We also learn from the believer’s perspective that with each difficulty we more and more long for heaven. with every broken nose and broken collarbone and stubbed toe, with everything that happens outside of us, financial difficulty, and all the rest, with every painful circumstance, we all the more find ourselves longing for home. And where is home?

    It is where Jesus is, and that is where Job longed for. He understood that his Redeemer lived, that one was going to stand upon the earth, and he was going to see him with his own eyes. Somehow, Job seemed to understand the resurrection. He was looking forward to the resurrection when he would stand upon earth. and the anointed one would stand upon the earth and he would be able to gaze upon the lover of his soul.

    May we have the believer’s perspective and with each difficulty and pain may we long for heaven all the more. We would also have our third point. We’ve looked at the non-believer’s perspective, the believer’s perspective, and our final point is Christ’s perspective. What is the Lord Jesus’ perspective on suffering?

    It’s very interesting as we are plotting through our Bible, we come to Acts chapter 9, and in Acts chapter 9, We have Saul, who would later become Paul, and we have his conversion. Very interesting words are spoken to Saul slash Paul there. In Romans 9, we see, falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? This is the Lord Jesus talking, saying, why are you persecuting me? Saul wasn’t persecuting Jesus. He was persecuting the believers, the followers of Jesus, the followers of the way.

    But we understand the intimate relationship that Jesus has with His church, that when His church is persecuted, He is persecuted. When His church suffers, when even one individual believer suffers, He is, in some way, as our High Priest, suffering. We also, if we were to look into our Old Testament, this is not something that we find only in the New Testament. If we were to look in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 63 verse 9, we would see God speaking and He says, in all of their afflictions, I was afflicted.

    Isn’t that amazing that God condescends, comes down to suffer with us in some sort of way? Don’t misunderstand me. This is not His divine nature. God’s divine nature never changes. But as God reveals Himself to us and shows who He is as the condescended One who came down and speaks in some way, some mysterious way, He suffers with us. Basically, we are suffering in Christ.

    But why is this? Why is this? In 2 Corinthians 1-2, we see, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. We can ask, why is it that believers suffer? Seemingly, sometimes, unnecessarily, why is that, God?

    And we have many, oftentimes, we’re not sure why that is. But we have here in 2 Corinthians 1 the answer to that. Believers suffer so that they might comfort other people with the comfort that they have received. In John chapter 17 we see that Jesus says, I don’t pray that you take them out of the world. I pray that you would sustain them as they are in the world, as he’s in his high priestly prayer.

    The Lord oftentimes does not take us out of difficulty, but he leaves us in it for his own purposes, because he is more and more conforming you to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this, even the difficulty and the pain, the affliction that comes from God, not as a result directly of sin, we live in a sin-cursed world and difficulty is always here, but we suffer for sometimes seemingly no apparent reason, because God is working with us and He is working in us.

    We obviously would also be remiss to not think about the way that Jesus Christ is our High Priest. For if we are to look at Job and just meditate upon his sufferings, we may be able to say that Job may have suffered worse than many of us, maybe all of us combined. I mean, we’ve had it hard, many of us, but many of us not this hard and this bad all at once. What amazing difficulties and pain that Job went through. But we think about the Lord Jesus Christ, a man whom If we were to take all of the accumulative sufferings of all of mankind and measure them up with the sufferings of Jesus Christ, it would be incomparable.

    If we were to look upon it on a graph, all of the sufferings of all people of all time, and then the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Christ understood what it was to be lonely far more than Job. Christ understood what it was like to be abandoned by all of his friends, all of his family, and also, at the high point of the crucifixion, when he had been crucified, he had nails through him, he had all these beatings, all of the horrible things that had happened to him and abandonment, his father, in a sense, abandoned him. and poured out eternal hellfire upon him.

    And he did that because he loved you. You have a high priest who is more adequate and more able to sympathize and to empathize with your pain and your suffering. And He is doing that for your glory, but He is doing so as He intercedes at the Father’s right hand for us right now. He is doing that for us. We praise Him for doing that. We praise God for Job’s amazing words. Can you say with Job, I know that my Redeemer lives. and that He ever lives to intercede for me. Praise God that we have that.

    May we all be able to say that, that we have one who has undergone such woeful torments, that He might be there for us, and that we might joyfully suffer in Christ. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are not those who would seek out suffering and pain, for we always want to avoid it, because we do not love pain. There is nothing in it that we would desire after or embrace. but we thank you for all the times that you have brought heartache and physical pain upon us, because it has driven us to our knees if we were able, it has driven us to the throne of grace, it has driven us once more to Jesus Christ, and we thank you that we have Jesus in us, and that we are in Jesus, and that this is the hope of glory.

    The same hope of glory that Paul talked about, we can say, is the same hope of glory that Job spoke of. We thank you for the amazing power of your Word. May it never grow dull to us, but may it always and ever grow more and more dear as we go to it. Thank you that we find such comfort in it. And thank you that we have the altar of comfort, which is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We praise you for him this day. It is his name that we would lift up. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Unconditional Election

    Unconditional Election

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Bible and Calvinism” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 25, 1987.

    About this sermon

    The book of Job frames the contrast between Arminian and Calvinistic views of unconditional election, in both its corporate and individual dimensions. Only the cross of Christ, still to come, transforms Job’s view of God.

    More sermons from Job · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Now, if you are reading this morning from the book of Job, the book of Job will be read from Chapter thirty-eight, verses one through twenty-one; Chapter thirty-nine, verses one through fourteen; and Chapter forty-two, verse one. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

    Gird up your loins like a man, for I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. Who laid its measures, if you know? Or who stretched a line upon it? On what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

    For who shut up the sea with doors when it burst forth, as if it had issued from the womb? When I made the cloud its garment and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and set limits for it, and established bars and doors, and said, ‘Hitherto shall you come, but no further, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’? Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, so that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken from it? It is turned like clay to the seal, and they stand as a garment; and from the wicked their light is withheld, and your mighty arm shall be broken.

    Have you entered the springs of the sea, or walked in the search of the depths? Have the gates of death been opened to you, or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Have you perceived the breath of the earth? Declare, if you know it all.

    Where is the place where light dwells? And where is the place of darkness, that you might take it to its boundary and know the path to its dwelling? Do you know it because you were born then, or because the number of your days is great? Chapter forty, verses one through fourteen.

    The Lord answered Job and said, Shall he who contends with the Almighty instruct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer. Then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am dust. What shall I answer You? I will lay my hand on my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer; yes, twice, but I will proceed no further. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, “Gird up your loins now like a man. I will question you, and you shall declare to Me. Will you also annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God, or can you thunder with a voice like His?

    Deck yourself now with majesty and excellence, and clothe yourself with glory and beauty. Cast abroad your wrath, and look with pride upon all who are proud, and bring them low. Look on every one who is proud, and bring him low, and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, and bind their faces in secret. And I also confess to You that Your own right hand can save you. Chapter forty-two, verse one. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. Who is he who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have spoken what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

    Here I beseech You, and I will speak. I will demand of You, and You shall declare to me. I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Go with me briefly. In Your Spirit, O God, You come like a whirlwind, and before You we not only tremble and quake, we are undone. Dear Lord, may we face You in what You have said to Your servant Job, and in all Scripture. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    Our messages have been on the Bible and Calvinism. And thus far, we have considered the matter of God’s sovereignty in a general way. And we have gone on from there to take up the familiar five points of Calvinism. The organization of these five points has been helpfully laid out for us in the acronym, which spells the word. We have considered the key, namely, total depravity or total inability, by which we have contended, according to Scripture, that mankind is totally unable to come to God in his own power by his own strength.

    Even worse, men and women apart from God are dead in their trespasses and sins. And unless God therefore intervene, we are lost in our sinful state. This morning we are moving on to the two remaining points. You are speaking to us about unconditional election. If total depravity, the T, gave us our doctrine of man, then the U, unconditional election, gives us our doctrine of God. We will be considering this morning the matter of God’s election generally, and then next week we will be looking at it more closely in terms of His unconditional character.

    The biblical doctrine of election, of God’s election, is not like the elections with which we are familiar. It is not like a political election or the casting of ballots in a democratic society or organization. Nor is it like the definition of election offered by one Arminian evangelist. His understanding of election, a term he could not avoid, being clearly written throughout the whole of Scripture, was this: God votes for you, the devil votes against you, and you cast the deciding vote. No. That is not the biblical doctrine of election. Rather, this doctrine, in keeping with what Scripture says throughout, is the profound mystery in God’s eternal decree, expressing His perfect freedom in choosing, calling, and saving whomever He will. Let me repeat that. Election, according to God’s word, is that profound mystery in God’s eternal decree, expressing His perfect freedom in the choosing, calling, and saving of whomever He will.

    This doctrine, both outside the church and within it, has been hated, maligned, and condemned. In this decade, the hatred has been expressed in no uncertain terms by a certain TV evangelist. It came home to us here at Grace Church through the fellowship in Oakdale. As Dan Knox was solidifying his Calvinism with the congregation there, troubles began to arise. Many in that fellowship could not accept the doctrines of Calvinism, and defending those who rejected them was a TV evangelist who was preaching and producing material at that time, railing against the doctrines of Calvinism as if they had come from the pit of hell. Let me tell you: the doctrines that we hold dear come from the mouth of God. They do not come from the pit of hell. You may recall that the TV evangelist I have in mind was Jimmy Swagger.

    This doctrine of divine election, hated, maligned, and anathematized by so many, could not be written more clearly or consistently throughout the entirety of Scripture. Rejecting it does not refute it. The rejection of it only testifies to a lack of correspondence between the one who rejects it and God himself. This doctrine of election, contrary to what so many believe and hold, is an exceedingly broad doctrine.

    There is a breadth to it. There is a length and an extension to it, a scope to it, that some have taken advantage of. It is as if the doctrine of election were a train traveling along a line with many stops. But because it is like a train traveling along a line with many stops, many well-intentioned and Bible-believing Christians are provided ample opportunity to get on and off at any point they choose.

    But for the deepest and most unadulterated impact of this doctrine, one must get on and stay on until the end of the line. Some, for instance, in considering the doctrine of election, have suggested that election pertains to groups of people, not individuals. We would hardly deny that the doctrine of election pertains to groups, to a body of people, to a nation in particular. Without question, as we review the Old Testament, we find that God’s election is corporate.

    It deals with the nation of Israel. Amos, in chapter three, verse two, says this: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth,” asserting the election of Israel. Psalm 147, verse 20, says this: “He hath not so dealt with any nation as he has with you, Israel.” And Deuteronomy, a book which could easily be designated God’s book about election, says this in chapter seven: “For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession above all the peoples that are upon the face of the earth.” And later, Moses writes this: “Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even above all peoples.”

    This affirmation that election is corporate—that it has to do with a body of people, a nation—is the first point. But that is not all. While the entire people of God are designated as the elect, it is evident from the history of Israel that not all ultimately prove to be such. Thus, as we move forward, election becomes more focused and even more specific.

    For example, while the northern tribes of Israel were deserting the Lord, the Lord affirmed His sovereignty and His electing power before Elijah. He said, “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” And speaking of the northern tribes under the figures of Joseph and Ephraim, Psalm 78 tells us, “He chose Judah, the southern tribes.”

    You see, there is the breadth of election. We are confronted with it at the first stop on the line, but then there is a narrowing, an election at work within the election of God. You must stay on the train to the end of the line. But you see, we have not yet reached the final depot. For the doctrine of God’s election is even more specific. Not only does God elect the people, not only does He reserve for Himself a remnant among His people, but He is at work electing, choosing individuals who make up that remnant.

    We might think that Abraham’s journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan was his idea, that one morning he woke up with the thought, I need a change. It is time to pick up and move. I need a change of venue. Not so. Abraham moved in response to the call of God. He was specifically chosen.

    That is the testimony of Genesis twelve, and at the end of his life, he says, “The Lord, the God of heaven, took me, took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth.” That Lord of heaven Himself says about Abraham, “I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him through the land of Canaan.” Joshua 24, verse 3.

    No one, and I underscore that, no one should be able to read the stories of Abraham, Abraham’s children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, without being deeply moved by the truth of God’s sovereign election. That God chooses not Nahor, Abraham’s brother, but Abraham, not Ishmael, but Isaac, not Esau, but Jacob, not Reuben, but Judah.

    The testimony of the Old Testament concerning election is pervasive, thorough, and corporate. It is also spoken of in terms of a remnant. But finally, and unmistakably, in terms of individuals directly, the objects of God’s choice. His call is saving. This is confirmed by the capstone. In Psalm sixty-five, verse four: “How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You.”

    The doctrine of election was at work in the Old Testament, but it does not disappear or lose its importance in the New Testament. When we examine the New Testament, we find that this is not true. The New Testament builds upon the Old Testament, both corporately and in terms of the group. Israel is acknowledged as God’s chosen people in both the Old and New Testaments. At the same time, we are told that the church, the Church of Jesus Christ, is the elect of God, and this is true corporately. Therefore, when Paul writes to various congregations, he does not hesitate to address them collectively as the elect of God.

    This is only the first stage. There is also a refinement in the New Testament, as there was in the Old Testament. For Jesus was at work from the beginning in separating out His disciples from Israel. He separated them from the whole of Israel and from the crowds.

    Later, as the Church takes shape, the Apostle John says, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us. If they had been of us, they would have remained with us.” Thus, the affirmation of an election within election is active in the New Testament, as it was in the Old Testament. While the church is called the elect, not all who are in the church are elect. Just as there was a remnant in Israel, so also there is a remnant in the church by election. Jesus says, “The elect will not be led astray.” Matthew 24, for the sake of the elect. God has chosen, and the last days will be shortened. Mark 13. He said, “I know whom I have chosen.” John 13. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” John 15. “All that the Father has given Me will come to Me.” John 6. And He prayed not for the world, but for those whom the Father has given Him, out of the world. John 17.

    Paul tells us in his address to the Romans that nothing can be laid to the charge of God. He says, “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” He tells the Thessalonians, “God chose you from the beginning for salvation.” He tells Timothy, “I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain salvation.” In the very first verse of his first epistle, Peter writes to the elect. He calls them such. He identifies his readers as the elect race of God, a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people for God’s own possession.

    This election, therefore, according to the New Testament as well as the Old Testament, pertains to the body, to the group—Israel, the church as a whole—but also to that remnant within Israel, within the church, and finally to individuals who will stand before God. In Romans 11, only those who were chosen obtained the promise. And again, in Romans 9, it does not depend upon the one who wills or the one who runs, but upon God who shows mercy. And again, He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.

    So there it is. The Bible’s declaration of divine election. That profound mystery and God’s eternal decree expressing His perfect freedom in choosing, calling, and saving whomever He will. The impact of that revelation is shattering. The impact of that truth is awesome. For it introduces us to a God who is increasingly a stranger in the world, sadly, even in the Church. This affirmation of God in His sovereignty introduces us to a God so unlike the God ordinarily presented by and believed in by too many Christians.

    A God who, because of His respect for personal boundaries, refuses to intrude upon anyone’s life or interfere with your affairs. A God, out of His sense of justice, who respects your right to privacy. A God for whom your freedom is the most important principle in the universe, and He would not dare violate that. Can you imagine? A God who, in the end, is so utterly powerless before your will that He must wait for you before He can act, or first obtain your permission before He can accomplish His purposes. We recognize the Arminian God and we recognize the liberal God.

    But we are not like that. Surely we are right, are we not? Surely we have it correct, do we not? We are the ones who boarded the train at the beginning of the line and traveled all the way to the end. And now we are about to disembark, feeling quite satisfied with ourselves. But we are not like that Arminian over there, or even that ungodly Liberal.

    I may well be a card-carrying Calvinist. I might be one for reasons other than good ones. I may be one because of logical and psychological pressures. I, because of my view of life and reality, have been compelled to bow before the necessity of God’s sovereignty. I am a person, for instance, who believes in order. I believe in authority, and when I am looking for some sort of religious expression of that conviction and those commitments, I find it best in Calvinism. I see, logically and psychologically, that there is no other way for order and authority to be maintained except through a rigorous Calvinism, an insistence upon God’s absolute sovereignty and its corollary, his divine election. If I find myself in this situation of this conviction, even though I may be a card-carrying Calvinist to a very deep degree and in a quite serious way, I have settled for something far less than I ought to have. In fact, my failure to break beyond this logical and psychological necessity leaves me in a state of stagnation, and a state in which there is erected between God and myself, despite my orthodoxy, a barrier.

    Now, if you want to read about the destruction of the barrier, I commend to you the Book of Job. The barrier, even for Calvinists, must be blasted away. And that is exactly what God is about, even for those who have confessed His sovereignty. Though Job did not initially confess God’s sovereignty, it is evident from the beginning of the book. But by the end, it is as if he is a new man, because the barrier has been shattered through the experience of suffering which he underwent.

    It is as if for the first time he has faced God. My view of God is not adequate any longer. It is as if I must lose God to see him. I must lose God to gain him. Whatever my ideas were of God, they end up being worthless in comparison to what is now unveiled before my eyes. I had heard of you by the hearing of my ears, but now my eye sees you. Is Job the exception? No. Do you remember Abraham on Moriah?

    There he is, placing the knife upon his son. There he is, at that moment, in his cross, offering the thing he loves most in the world, surrendering it before the sovereignty of God, before God’s absolute command and demand. And he does not withhold his hand in that trial. Abraham meets himself, and he meets his God as never before. Before that, Abraham may well have said, as Job did, “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You.”

    It was not an easy thing for the Apostle Paul. You read in Romans 9–11, where his heart was deeply attached to his countrymen according to the flesh. How do you think he endured it? They were being rejected. But it was through the trial of confronting Christ on the cross, and the absolute sovereignty of God, that the man was shaken to the very foundations of his being. Nothing would ever be the same again. He could no longer look at Israel in the same way.

    I had heard of You by the hearing of my ear, but now I see You. All of these, a chorus in unison, saying the same thing, all pointing to the one whose cross is central. There, in the trial, in the garden, confronted with God’s awesome will and sovereign power, the Lord Jesus Christ said, “Not My will, but Yours be done.” Now I will say to you one more thing: this is the only root of blessing. It is not a second blessing. It is not a charismatic experience. It is not an out-of-body experience.

    It is a confrontation with the absolute, unqualified sovereignty of God. The fact that He, in His freedom, chooses, calls, and saves whomever He will, and does whatever He desires. And whatever my God ordains is right. Is right. The barrier must come down. Your life up to this point may well have been within the bounds of Calvinism. But it is, no less, a near hearing of the year.

    What we need, through the cross of Christ, echoing in the experience of Abraham, Job, and Paul, is to see our God with clear understanding. You know how Job concludes: “Therefore I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.” Amen. O Lord, we would see you, our God, even more fully than Job saw you, for we would see Jesus, and we would understand that the suffering of Job is merely a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ. Lord, may we be submissive, may we realize the full scope, depth, and breadth of your sovereignty, your election, and the unique freedom you possess, by which you choose, call, save, and love whomever you will.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.