Job Pleas For A Mediator

Hi everyone and welcome back to Church of the Bible. It's so good to be back and see everyone again and have another great service, or I expect to be a great service. Some announcements before we begin, mostly around the mobile app. Just reminding everyone it is done. It's been up for about a week.

So please, if you have not already download the new apps, I've got links to them in the old one. So if you go to the old one, there's a link for the iPhone and a link for the Android apps. So no matter what you have, but please get it and then delete the old one. The old one will stop working on Tuesday. So in two days it will not work at all.

So please do that. Also, we will have a new messaging app going out. I've been using it with some people locally here in Milford and in Cedar for the church that I had built. And this will also be where notifications come through. So I will put a link up on the website and in the mobile app.

The new one tomorrow. It's called matter. Most some in this service already have it, but please download that. You'll have to create a separate account and then that's where we'll do all of our message and notifications and whatnot. And then finally, forgiving some people have already started using our new Tithing platform and already have accounts and whatnot some haven't.

But we are moving all of the records from our previous one. I was able to get all the records from that company. So we are moving them all over to the new system so that when he sign in, you'll be able to see your history from 2020 to now. If you have been giving so if you have an account, I'll add that to your account. If you don't, I'm going to create an account for you so that I can add all the records to it.

And then I'll use the same email you already used. But you will have to click on the I forgot my password link to reset it so you can log in and see those. And then so just figure out that you guys know that, so that you don't have to worry about losing your records. It will all move over. And then one additional note.

One thing I was very bad about doing with the last app was after we recorded videos, I was bad at transcribing them so that you could read it. That is now automated. So after every single video, those transcriptions are automatically there for you to read. So I hope that it works out. I've read a few of them and sometimes it gets things wrong.

So if you're reading it and it's just hard to understand, you might want to listen and follow along with it or just know it's automated, so it's not going to be 100% correct all the time. But with those announcements said I'll ask Shawnee am I missing anything? You don't think so? Okay, so let's open up with prayer and then turn the time over to Shawnee for praise and worship. Father.

We just love you and thank you and praise you Lord that we can gather here together today that we can worship you in spirit and in truth that we can pour our heart out to you but also receive from you from Your living word. From Your word that teaches us and reveals you to us that we can learn about Your grace and Your mercy and Your goodness and our condition as humans and inhumanity and I pray Lord that Your spirit will speak boldly to us today that it will touch us at the deepest levels that we will see you God that will want more of you or for those who listen to saying don't already know you and have you that they will and Father. I pray that as we do this it will glorify you as we are not only heroes of Your word. But doers also and we thank you in Jesus name amen.

Music worship his holy name sin like never before oh my soul I worship Your holy name the song comes up it's a new day it's time to sing your song again whatever made hearts and whatever lies before me let me be singing when the evening comes left alone worship Your holy name feel like never before all my soul worship Your holy name you're rich in love and your soul to anger your name is great and your heart is kind for all Your goodness I will keep on singing 100 reasons for my heart to fight some bless I lost my soul my soul worship Your holy name say like ever before all my soul I worship Your holy name and on that day when my strength is failing the end draws near and my time has come still my soul will sing your praise unending 10,000 years and then forever more forever bless all my soul oh my soul worship is holy name I've never done before all my soul worship Your worship is holy name I wish if you're there's a place where streams of grace flow deep and wide for all the love I've ever found comes like a flood comes flowing down at the cross at the cross I surrender my life I'm in all of you where my heart has peace with God and forgiveness where all the love I've ever found comes like a love comes flowing jesus. Savior of the world you. My God has saved my soul I am your forever more I won't be moved up this time short you my God you saved my soul I was lost when you came for me held in chains by the enemy but you broke them in bitter me now I'm free I am free you're my choice and you are my hope I am safe by Your grace alone I will sing all your love for me I am free I am free you might God save my soul I am your forevermore I won't be darkest I'm sure you might gotta save my soul what once was our light you gave to me the breath of life you brought me up out from the grave I'm bursting out with songs all breaks what once was it is now a ride you gave to me the grace of life you brought me up out from the grave I'm bursting out bursting out with some race you my God has saved my soul I am yours forever more I won't be moved up this I'm sure you my God amen sorry about that glitch with the worship music there. After the first song, through an oversight, it accidentally got programmed to be a 43 minutes song. And so if we just waited, it would have taken roughly 38 more minutes before it started and so we had to make quick adjustments on the fly.

There one other announcement I forgot about. Before prayer and worship, we will be doing Exodus chapter 14 hold on, Exodus 15. I had to go look at the study guide on my desk. So we'll be doing Exodus 15 this Wednesday at 630 here on Zoom. So that video and Bible study is already on the website and the mobile app.

So for those of you who are coming, please watch it ahead of time. You can download the study guide I wrote for it and read it. There's also a worksheet to get you thinking about questions and stuff before we meet on Wednesday. So please go through that and then chapter 16 will be posted this Wednesday ahead of next week study. With that said, let us continue today through the book of Job, through his life and his experience to see God.

So last week's chapter, his friend Bill dad, the Shoe Height, the shortest man in the Bible, right? Shoe Height responded to Job, gave this great speech, one of the shorter of the speeches that we see, but in it he said a few things to Job. He told Job that he was just a windbag, right? He was nothing more than this box that when his mouth opens, sensed the sound, just spewed out of it. Then he told him a few things that were true, just not in Jobs context.

And he told him that he had secret sin that he was hiding, he was covering up that his righteousness was nothing more than a fascade. He was pretending, and that his children's death and his suffering was proof of that. Their doctrine was that in their framework, righteous people are always 100% of the time rewarded and wicked people are always 100% of the time judged and punished and go through these tribulations. And as we've observed, God doesn't work in that framework, at least in this world, in this world. Sometimes the wicked, they do really, really they're really well off.

And the righteous sometimes are what some people maybe call the scum of the earth. It's what we have seen in reality, but on a bigger scale. In the final judgments, then the righteous will be rewarded and the wicked will be condemned. But righteousness can only come through Jesus Christ. Now, he had seen that when Job responded to his first friend, he responded of hostility.

And today we see a little bit of a more rational Job than we have seen in the last few weeks. So with that said, let's turn to Job chapter nine. We have today's message is entitled Job Please for a mediator. And let's begin in verses one through four. Who can be just before God?

He says job answered and said, truly, I know that it is so, but how can a human being be just before God if he wants to contend with him? He cannot answer him one time in a thousand. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted him and succeeded?

Job answers very wisely here in these verses. And he begins he says, it is so. Truly I know that it is so. In his rational state. Job understands on a fundamental level that the bulk of Bill Dad's message to him it was true.

The wicked cannot stand. Bill dad responded last week toward the end of the chapter. He says that our righteousness, if we rely upon our righteousness, my self righteousness, that it is like the house of a spider. It's a web, and if you lean against it, it will collapse and that structure will not stand. And that is our self righteousness.

If I lean upon my good works, my righteousness, my deeds, then it is like a spider's house. As soon as I put any weight against it at all, it will tumble and it will not stand in the judgment. But Job responds with the question how? How can a human being be just before God? Is there any way at all that I can go before God Almighty and that I can be just before him?

No, not really. I can be declared just through the blood of Jesus Christ. But if I went and stood before God and was examined only on the basis of my righteousness, how could I be just before God? And so this leads us to our first point of tonight's message that there is nobody who is good. I told a story, I heard a story a couple of years ago.

And when I say a story, I was talking to a man who was a Baptist. He grew up Baptist and he became Mormon. And I relayed the story to somebody in Cedar this last week, but I've never told it before in a church setting. But I was talking to this man. This man actually lives in Cedar City, Utah as well.

And I was talking to him and he converted when he was 17 years old. In some background, this man had a mother and a father. His father was an atheist, but lived a morally upstanding life, right? If we looked at him and looked at his community service, at his criminal records or his tax records, his speeding records, if we looked at this man's father's life, he was by all account, by human standards, a perfect man. He was a good person, but he was an atheist.

He did not believe in God. And our doctrine dictates that a person who dies not believing in God or a person who dies not fully trust in the correct Christ will go to hell. That's what our doctrine teaches. His mother, on the other hand, was a drug user, had struggled with various addictions and problems in her life, but she fully trusted in Jesus Christ as her defense.

Well, one day a pair of missionaries came in and asked him a question and this is how they converted him. They said, well, how is that fair? Right? Now, anyone who knows about Mormon doctrine, there's not heaven in hell, but there's different levels of heaven. So someone who lives the absolute best life might get to one level of heaven, and someone who lives a worst life might get to another.

And these missionaries said to him, how is that fair? How is it fair that your good father will die and go to hell because he doesn't believe in God, but your mother, who by all accounts is a bad person, is going to go to heaven simply because of a belief?

Well, guys, that's a great question.

That is a really good question. And if we knew our Bible well enough, that question would not fool any of us. If we knew God's word and what it really says about men.

If we were asked that question, we could answer. Look with me at Romans 310 through twelve and then the same chapter, verse 23. We know that nobody is good. Romans 310 twelve, just as it is written there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned aside together they have become worthless. There is no one who practices kindness. There is not even one. Look at verse 23 with me. It says that you got verse 22 up there.

But verse 23 says, for all have sinned and fall short to the glory of God.

There's nobody who is righteous, there's no one who is good. And so when we are posed with the question of, well, how is it fair that your good father gets the punishment and your bad mother does not, the answer is simple. It's fair because none of us are good. None of us are righteous, none of us have come to the standard of God. We're all in the same predicament.

So how can it not be fair. I was talking with a guy who he was asked a question by somebody else, this is a pastor. And he was asked, how is it fair to say that the only way into the kingdom of heaven is through Jesus Christ? How is that fair? And the answer is, well, how is it fair that it would be, but by any other way?

For God had to watch Jesus suffer on the cross. He had to watch God incarnate, the only perfect being, the only one at the power of God, be forsaken and become sin, receive the wrath of God for us. He took the punishment that we deserved so that we wouldn't have to take it at all. And how would it be fair to enter the kingdom but through any other means than Jesus Christ Himself, the person who took our deserved punishment?

Well, Job says we cannot stand before God and be just. It's not possible. He says that if we want to contend with Him, we cannot answer Him one time in a thousand.

What he's saying here is that God is judge, jury and executioner. When we go before God, we are standing before our judge and our jury and our executioner, and we cannot answer Him. We cannot plead a case. We do not have a defense.

When we go and we stand before God, if it's just me before the Almighty, I am defenseless.

This is the state that in Jobs rationality he has come to now. Well, I am just defenseless. I'm not just. And I've got good news for everyone. And you'll see it play out later.

We don't have to be without a defense. But if we stand in our own good deeds, then we are. He then goes on to describe this God. Why are we defenseless? Why can't we be just?

Who is this being that we will one day stand before? And this being is L Shaddai. Where God Almighty? Look at verses five through twelve with me. He is the one who moves mountains, and they do not know how he overturns them in his anger.

He is the one who shakes the earth from its place and its pillars tremble. He is the one who commands the sun, and it does not rise, and he fills up the stars. He is the one who alone stretches out the heavens and who tramples on the waters of the sea.

He is the one who made the bear, and Orion the Pleiades, and the constellations of the south. He is the one who does great things beyond understanding and marvelous things beyond number. If he passes by me, I would not see him. And if he should move on, I would not recognize Him. If he would snatch away, who could turn Him, who could say to Him, what are you doing?

This is the God that we serve, the God that we will stand behind. And what this explains is an almighty God or an all sovereign God. For the God we answer to alone stretches out the heavens. He doesn't answer to anyone. There's no one above him.

There's no one greater than Him. There's no one who can command Him. He is sovereign. A few things to understand about our God is that all things are created by Him. And we need to not only understand that by Him, but through Christ, who is God.

Look at Genesis. One. One. It says that in the beginning god created the heavens and the Earth. So he didn't just create the Earth, but he created the heavens, the sky, the stars, the nebulas.

Everything that we look, everything that we can look at in space with our telescopes was created by God and everything else that we cannot see was created by God. John one one three goes into a little more detail about this. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word, according to verse 14, by the way, is Jesus Christ. And this one was in the beginning with God and all things came into being through Him.

And apart from Him, not one thing came into being that has come into being. So through who, through Jesus Christ, did all things come into being. And it says that nothing that exists came without Him. We are dependent on him. And Colossians 116 summarizes up just what the Apostle John meant when he said everything, all things in the heavens and on the Earth were created by Him.

Things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him.

The only thing not created is God. And we stand before Him and we will give an account. So how powerful is God? He's pretty powerful. As we read through the creation account in Genesis, God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

And God said, Let there be a divide between the firminant, between the waters above and the waters below. And he said, Let there be land, and there was. He is so powerful that through the command of his voice where all things come into being. But it's more than that. Look at Hebrews one three with me.

Our God is so powerful that it says he is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, sustaining all things by the Word of power. When he amid purification for sins, through Him He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. But look, it says sustaining all things by the Word of power. You know, the Earth only continues to orbit around the sun in the precise way it does because of the Word of God. Breath only continues to remain in my lungs because the Word of God has allowed it to stay there.

The laws that govern our universe are sustained only by His Word.

And Job he recognizes several things about this God here. He moves the mountains, he overturns them. He shakes the earth and commands the sun, he seals up the stars. He alone stretches out the heavens, he tramples on the waves of the sea, he made the constellations. And he does great things beyond understanding.

Here, in a while, we'll continue to see Job's description of us before God, and he has a very crude understanding of God, or should I say of God's the way that God works. But he's actually very mature in his understanding. The thing that separates Job from us today in our understanding of God is between Him and us. Was Jesus Christ on the cross? And through Jesus and his interpretation of the Old Testament, do we fully understand the way in which God works.

But Job had none of the interpretation of Jesus. But here is what Job did have he knew there was a God. There are things about God that we can know without a Bible. There are things that we can know of God without Christ to interpret it for us. There are things we can know about God because he has not hid Himself away from us.

But he has very clearly made Himself visible, so much so that he tells us that there is no person who has ever lived who has any reason to deny God at all. But all of us have the evidence we need. In Romans One, verse 19 and 20, Paul writes about this evidence. He tells us that what can be known about God is evident among them, for God made it clear to them. For from the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, both his eternal power and deity, are discerned, clearly being understood in the things created so that they are without excuse.

So Job has this underlying understanding of God that all people should and must have. There is no one who can say there's no evidence of God, for the evidence of God is clearly manifested in the creation. In fact, it is foolish to think that we're an accident. It's foolish to think that everything that exists exists because of some big bang or some spark or nothing that created everything, but that evidence of God the Creator is manifest in all things, in the creation, the visible manifest in the invisible. And finally, not only do we see how powerful our God is, but we see also that God is sovereign.

No one commands Him, no one tells Him what to do, but everyone answers to Him. And Jobs said in these verses here, who can say to Him? This is in verse twelve. He says, who can say to Him, what are you doing? Well, look at Romans nine with me.

Verses 19 through 24, paul writes about the sovereignty of God. Therefore you will say to me, why then does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will? On the contrary, oh man, who are you who answers back to God? Well, what is molded saved to the one who molded it?

Why did he make me like this?

Or does the potter not have authority over the clay to make from the same lump a vessel that is for honorable use and one that is for ordinary use? And what if God, wanting to demonstrate his wrath and make known his power, endearth much patience? Thus was a wrath prepared for destruction. God is sovereign and who are we to question Him? It says that he did so in order that he can make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy and that he had prepared beforehand for glory us whom he also called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles.

We are but clay. We are molded, we are knitted in our mother's wounds.

And who are we to question back to God why he has done so and so? We don't have that right for the Creator, the mortar the potter is free to make with one pot of clay one vessel with another another vessel.

And so we cannot stand before God and be justified of our own selves.

El Shaddai is almighty, he's all powerful and he is sovereign and we are indefensible. Our longest passage of the night will be verses 13 to 31 and Joe nine. God will not turn his back on anger beneath Him the helpers of a HAB bow. How much less can I myself answer Him? How can I choose my words with Him whom I cannot answer?

Even though I am righteous from my judge I must implore grace. If I summon Him and he should answer me I do not believe that he will listen to my voice who crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause. He will not allow me to catch my breath rather he will fill me with bitterness. If it is a matter of strength, look, he is mighty. But if it is a matter of justice, who can summon me even though I am righteous?

My mouth will condemn me even though I am blameless, yet it will pronounce me guilty. I am blameless. I do not care about myself. I loathe my life. It is all one.

Therefore I say he destroys both the blameless and the wicked. When the whip kills suddenly he mocks at the despair of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked he covers the face of its judge. If it is not he, then who is it? And my days are swifter than a runner.

They flee away, they do not see good. They go by like papyrus gifts like an eagle swoops down on its prey. Though I say I will forget my complaint I will change my expression and I will rejoice. I become afraid of all my sufferings. I know that you do not consider me innocent.

If I shall be declared guilty, why then should I labor in vain? If I wash myself a soap and I cleanse my hands with lie, then you plunge me into the slime pit and my clothes abhor me.

He makes some points.

He makes some points. We are indefensible. And he describes through his response here how indefensible we are. For when we stand before Him in our own righteousness, we will be declared guilty. He says, even though I am innocent, even though I am righteous, because there are two standards for righteousness.

There are man's standard for righteousness, and there is God standard for righteousness and a man standard, if we obey the laws, if we help our neighbor, if we don't do anything criminal, then we are an innocent person.

We are righteous in the eyes of man. But in God's standard, righteousness comes from keeping 100% of the law from never sinning, never becoming corrupt.

And so the first thing to understand is that we will all be judged. Paul tells us, with or without the law in Romans 212 through 16, and then three, one, nine and 20. He says that for as many as have sinned without the Law will perish without the Law, and as many have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the heroes of the law who are righteous in the sight of God, but the doers of the law shall be declared righteous.

For whenever the Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature the things of the law fees. Although they do not have the law or a law to themselves who show the work of the law written on their hearts. Their conscious bearing witness and their thoughts. One after another. Accusing or even defending them.

On the day when God judges the secret things of people according to my Gospel. Through Jesus Christ. Then 319 and 20. It says here that we know whatever the law says. It speaks to those under the law in order that every mouth may be closed in the whole world.

May become accountable to God. For by the works of the law, no person will be declared righteous before Him. For through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

Someone's going to say to me inevitably, at some point, because they have before, they will again. What about the innocent person who never had the Law given to them, who never had Jesus revealed to them, who never had the Bible? How can they be guilty? And the Bible says that those who sin with the Law will be judged by the very law under which they sin, and those who sin without it will be judged without the law. If you have sinned, you have sinned, and you are guilty of violating the moral code of God.

So what then? For what purpose do we have the law if we're going to be judged and guilty before God, with or without it? What. Then is its purpose. According to Romans 319 20, the law is to reveal to us our very sin nature the reason we have been given the written law.

The law of Moses is so that we know in what ways we are sinning against God, but by no works of the law. Verse 19 said shall any flesh be justified. Let that sink in. You can try and keep the law of God the best that you can, and you will never be justified by it, because you will never be able to keep the entirety of it.

You can think, well, you know what I kept out of? Let's say we did 100 things in our entire life, and 99 of those 100 things were great and perfect things, but you only violated one. The word of God says that we have violated all of it. Look, in James 210.

It says, whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at one point only has become guilty of it all church. You can't be justified by the law. It's not possible. Because the moment you break one law, you do one little sin. You have become guilty of the entire moral code of God.

And once you have become guilty, once you have become defiled, there is nothing you can do to undefile yourself. In fact, our righteousness, all of the good works we can do, are defiled already. A few months ago, or about a year ago, I preached on a chapter in Romans and I talked about a cake, making a cake, right? Now, what if I made you a birthday cake? And all of the ingredients I put in it were good ingredients.

They were healthy, they weren't rotten or spoiled. But all of the eggs I put in it were spoiled. All of them, right? Well, everything else was good. So I make it, I mix it up, I put it in the oven, I bake it, and I give it to you.

Do you want that cake?

No. Why not? The rest of it was good. But that cake has been defiled, right? And the same is true of us.

Once we are defiled, it is like cake batter that has been made with spoiled eggs, throttle eggs. How would that ever be acceptable to God? And so the Bible tells us in Isaiah 64 six, and for those of you who have read any other version but the LEB, you're going to scratch your head. When I read this, we have all become like the unclean, and all our deeds of justice like a menstrual cloth. And we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities take us away like the wind.

When I read this today, I had to stop for a minute and scratch my head. And I had to ask, why do the translators of the LEB choose a menstrual cloth?

I opened up the KJV, and I opened up the ESV, and I opened up the NIV and I opened up the NASB. I opened up all these various Bible translations, and they all translate it like filthy rags or polluted garments, all of them. And then I read, but in the Led, which I'm reading out of, it said, like a menstrual cloth. And so I went to the original Hebrew, when in doubt, when I don't understand why the translators picked a certain way of translating, I go to the original language. And in the Hebrew language of which Isaiah wrote, he specifically used the words for menstrual cloth to describe our works.

There is a vast difference between having a dirty rag. I can go get a washcloth and clean my counters with it. Maybe I cooked chicken and I went and cleaned my counters. That rag is pretty filthy now. And then a rag or a cloth that was used to soak up the menstrual flow, there's a huge difference.

You know, in the Jewish law, in the Levitic law, anything which had come into contact with the menstrual fluids was defiled and contaminated and unclean before God, so much so that the woman herself was until it was done, and she was purified. And the man, if he had slept with her during that time, was also defiled and unclean before God. In fact, we just finished a few months ago, the Book of Genesis, and we read about Rachel and NAIA. And remember Rachel? She had taken her father's idols and had hidden them away.

And when her father had come looking for his idols, she sat upon them and told her father, I can't get up because the custom of the woman is upon me. She was menstruating, and she defiled his gods.

And so I asked everyone, what kind of God would allow himself to become defiled in such a manner? Well, Isaiah describes our works in that manner.

If we have sinned even one time, that is the sight of our works in the eyes of God. We can never wash that out of us, ever. Have you ever gotten a white garment and dumped red paint on it and then tried to wash it out? It'll never happen. And so we are like white garments that are permanently stained red.

We're filthy no matter what we do to remove that stain from us. When we stand before God, that is the sight that he will see.

And so, Job, he concludes here, he says, it's pointless if I will be declared guilty even though I'm righteous, even though I'm innocent. Why should I labor in vain if I will be guilty no matter what? Why shouldn't I just go enjoy my life, do whatever I want, and receive in my punishment? He has concluded this is how he sees God. He says, God sees no difference between righteous people and wicked people.

So what does it matter?

I have a quote from Pastor McKenna. Pastor D. McKenna. He gave us in a message or in a book, I want to read it to you, he says. Charlie Brown.

The Peanuts character goes to Dr. Lucy's psychiatric stand. Because no one likes him. Lucy counts with him to look on the bright side of life by saying cheer up, Charlie Brown, you have lots of friends. And with widened eyes, Charlie responds with bright surprise I do?

Of course you do. Charlie Brown lucy, assures him. I do, I do, charlie tells himself I have lots of friends. And as he walks away with his head in the air repeating the words, Lucy taunts him. Name one.

Job feels as if God will treat him the same way if he puts on the smile of a happy face. God will condemn him for gladness. If he washes himself with the purest of water and the strongest of soap, god will dunk him in a slime pit. Neither reason, righteousness nor repentance will make a difference. God, the prosecutor, will condemn him.

God the jury pronounces him guilty and God, that judge, sentenced him to punishment without appeal. This is how Job is beginning to see God. It's putting him on a path of losing faith. But rather than giving up, let's end tonight with looking at what Job does instead. In verses 32 to 35 he pleads for a mediator for he is not immortal like me, that I can answer him, that we can come to trial together, there is no arbiter between us that he may lay his hand on both of us, may he remove his rod from me and that his dream not terrify me.

Then I would speak and not fear him, for in myself I am not fearful.

Job responds to he says we are on a different level than God's way up here and we're way down here and there's no one between us. But because of our so difference, he's not like me. I can't go to trial with him. We don't have the same standards, we don't have the same perspective. We can't reason together.

So he says I would like a mediator, an arbiter to come between us that he may lay his hand on God and lay his hand on me that he can mediate between us, that he can bring reconciliation.

Job looks then not to plead his case, but to be reconciled. This is interesting. So what we see here is Job is looking forward and is foreseeing Jesus Christ on the cross. He has just spent all this time telling us how helpless we are. But if there could be a mediator, maybe we wouldn't be so helpless.

We look at two corinthians five, 1921 we have a mediator. We are not helpless after all. If only we could be in Jesus because God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting us to the message of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ. As if God were imploring you through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God.

He made the one who did not know sin to be sin on our behalf in order that we could become the righteousness of God. In him. God sent Jesus down, a perfect man deity, God in the flesh, who had never sinned once but made him to be sinned. He took the sins from everyone who professes Him. He took the sins out of me, my stains out of me and put my stains on Jesus and made Him the object of God's wrath for me so that I can be reconciled.

God got to pour out his wrath. He got to pour out his judgment and punishment, and I got to be spared. I am no longer an enemy of gods, but a friend, someone who's beloved by Him, someone whom he cares about.

But how does that fix the issue? Job says that we need somebody. You know, there is a gap between us with God up here and man down here, and that gap has to be closed. There has to be somebody who can both be on God's level and our level, and that is Jesus Christ. Look at Hebrews 414 through 16.

Jesus is our high priest, and he's a great high priest because he is on man's level and God's level. We have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast to our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is not able to sympathize with our weakness, but who has been tempted in all things the same way without sin. Therefore, let us approach with confidence to the throne of grace in order that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Jesus was in the heavens.

He is God. He made the heavens, and he came down and was tempted in every way. So Jesus can put one hand on God, on the Judge, and one hand on us, and he can mediate between the two and through Him, because he lived perfect, because he never sinned, even though he was tempted through Him, we can stand before God and be just. Job says, who can stand before God and be just? The answer is Jesus Christ.

And now when I die, I will not stand before the judgment throne of God, but I will stand before Jesus, and he will stand before the judgment throne of God, and he will be judged, and he will be judged perfect. And because he is the One who stood before God, before the Judge and not me, I will receive my pardon. What a great high priest that we have.

It's as if Job was already reading the mind of God when he suggested this.

In reality, God just allowed, through some means for Job to have an understanding, just some insight into what God is actually going to do. And Job, he asks in chapter ten, which we're not going to read tonight. So I encourage everyone to read it yourself because we're going to be in chapter eleven next week. But in chapter ten, Joe something switches. He goes from this rational thinking of the object of what, what is the problem?

The problem is I can't be just before God and I need a mediator to question and why me again? And he wonders, is God happy? Does this make God joyful to toy with me this way? And the answer is no. The answer to Job's question in chapter ten is Jesus on the Cross?

God isn't happy when we suffer. God is not happy when we receive damnation. And God is not happy when anyone is cast into the pits of hell. So God did something about it and he sent Jesus Christ, God in the flesh to die your death, to be judged your judgment and receive your punishment. And he did that so that if anyone would believe upon Him and be found in Him, that they should not perish but have everlasting life, that Jesus will mediate between us.

He understands us, he loves us, and he will not let us go because that does not please and that's not his will.

So if there is anyone here today, anyone listening out there who you are just questioning, what is the point? The point is that God loves you despite your sin, he loves you despite all that you have done, despite your defilements, and he is just waiting for you to confess Him. The Bible tells us that every knee shall bow before him and every tongue will confess him as Lord. But what separates those who will be in the hopelessness of Job and the judgment and those who do not is your willingness to confess Him as Lord and make him your king today versus being forced to on the other side. And if you want to do that, Jesus says, if you would only confess me before men.

This is in Matthew 1032 and 33. He says, if you would only confess me before man, I would confess you before the Father. He says, I'll be your mediator, but if you will deny me before your fellow man, he says, I will deny you before the Father, I will move out of the way, and that you stand before Him. And Romans Ten Nine says that if you would just confess, if you would confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And so are you ready to be saved?

Are you ready to have Jesus as your mediator? Not me, not some priest, not some bishop, not some other pastor, but Jesus Christ to mediate between you and God? Are you ready to have those menstrual stains removed from you and replaced with white purity because Jesus Christ will give it to you? Are you ready to know that you are loved, that you are desired, then I implore you today be reconciled to God.

It will begin with admitting that you are a sinner, that you can't save yourself, that you can't please God with believing Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, who lived perfectly, who died and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and confessing Him as your Lord and your King. And confessing in this case is not a simple acknowledgement, but making it so, making him Lord over your life, allowing Him to rule you and govern you and you shall be saved. And I want to give you that opportunity in our clothes, in prayer. If you believe these things, if you are ready to have these gifts and to make Him your Lord, please ask Him to do so today. You can repeat after me.

As a reminder to everyone on Facebook and YouTube, we have communion immediately following service. Please join us here in Zoom. I would love to have you here. And if anyone today is receiving Jesus Christ is their Lord and their Savior and their mediator, we would love to hear about it. Let us know.

Let us know of the skip that you received. He tells us to confess Him before men. The Bible also says that the entire host of heaven is rejoicing at Your salvation. And I want to rejoice with you. Let's pray.

Father, I admit that I am a sinner. And Lord, I know I can't save myself. I know I can't live up to the law, and I know I haven't lived up to the law and I'm defiled. And I know that I can never stand before you on my own 2ft and be just. But I also believe your word, God, that you sent your son, Jesus Christ God in the flesh.

You sent Him to die my death and be judged my judgment and received my punishment, that he died and he rose again the thorough day, that he is my salvation, that he is my only hope, and that through Him can my stains be removed. And I confess you. Lord Jesus Christ is my God. It's my savior and my king. And I ask You Lord, to dictate my life from here on, Lord, to guide me and to hold me in Your hands, mediate between me and the Father.

And I thank you and love you, Father. I pray for a great revival nor before the rapture. I pray for Your word, for Your heavens to be opened up and Your power to flow out into the hearts of people. I pray for them to know they are not. They don't have to be hopeless, they don't have to stand before you in condemnation, but they have someone who is willing to do it on their behalf.

And I pray, Lord, that you will use everyone here to share that message. For. We are your ambassadors. That is our identity in you. It's what you have done for us, and you can do for us.

And we love you for it. And we ask that we can glorify you in our lives. In Jesus name, amen.

Amen.