Morgan, J Phillip: Family Conf.01 ~ The Book Of Job

I think I really am from Australia. Obviously, I'm not there, so I must be from it. Oh, I always try to keep the masters of ceremony out of trouble. And I do have my, my name tag on. There it is right there. But I'm basically a shy person, so I keep it hidden under my coat. Someone says we don't have a very big conference this week, and when I go somewhere to preach and there's not many people there, which seems to be par for the course, I say I take that as a compliment, because there's a lot of people that don't feel they have to come and protect the saints from any false doctrine that I might promulgate. But then remember, the Lord only started out with eleven people, didn't he? Look what he did with just eleven. And I thought, I hope nobody gets discouraged. It may be the first time that I've ever been here that I'll get to know everybody's name, and I won't have to rely on my old ploy of saying dear brother or dear sister, which covers about everybody at a conference, you see. And I hope you folks will come to the realization that if you and I are the only ones that are going to be here all week, that you'll say that's the most enriching conference I was ever at in my whole life. Because when the place is filled with people, you got to share the word with all these other people, but you got it all to yourself, and you can take more of it home with you this week than ever before. See, look on the bright side. Anyway, we're looking forward to a good week. What we would like to do, what I would like to do, with your help, like to look at some things from the story of Job. You might want to turn to Job chapter number one. and uh, there's certain advantage to this, and that is you won't have to keep looking up a different text every time we gather together. You can just find the book of Job. Don't be embarrassed to look in the index. And you can find the book of Job, and you can, uh, when we finish here, you can just leave your open Bible on your seat right there, and then when David comes up to minister, you can put the finger in the passage in Job, and then wherever David takes it, now when you and I come back together again, you can just lock your Bible open to where that cold purple finger is, and you'll be back in the book of Job. But that's one of the advantages of sort of continuity of ministry, even though it will not be an expository session, because we'll probably finish with Job along about Thursday, and then we'll do something else until somebody tells me the conference is over, we're all going home now. They may tell me that tomorrow, but at any rate, here we are. The Book of Job, you found it now. You have the Cambridge Bible, it's on page six hundred and fifty three. Book of Job, the first eight verses of Job chapter number one. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels and five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-asses, and a very great household, so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East. You finished reading three verses, and already you know four primary major things about Job. Verse number one has a picture there of his face. Isn't it interesting the Holy Spirit starts with that? Doesn't say he was the greatest man of the East because he had a nice family and because he had a lot of animals. It says it starts off with that which is the most important, as he was a person who knew God. And that's the most important thing that en- anybody can say about any human being, you see. He is a real believer. So in verse number one you get his faith. Verse number two you get the recitation of his family, seven sons and three daughters. In verse number three you get Job's fortune. It tells that he was a very wealthy man, seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, and all these other sorts of things. And the last part of verse number three, you get his fame. He was the greatest man of the East, and and here the word is not simply because he was very wealthy, but because he was a great person personally. And so when you read the first three verses of the book of Job, and already you know a lot about this man. You know all about these things. Now, verse number four says, his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day, and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. So there was no sibling rivalry in Job's family. Verse five: it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou? And Satan seemed to say, oh, I've just been wandering around. Whence comest thou? Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. Now you get the completed story when you turn over to the New Testament, to First Peter chapter five. and Peter, by the Holy Spirit, says that Satan wanders about going to and fro, seeking whom he may devour. And Satan said part of that, you see, in the first chapter of the book of Job. He didn't tell the whole story, but then he never did. He never does. He is the father of lies, and he was a liar from the beginning, the Lord, the Lord taught us. Oh, I, I haven't been doing anything. I've just been going up and down. And the Lord knows his heart, because then in verse number eight, the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? We've already read those same words in the early part of the chapter. Now, on occasion, you may, may visit someone who has been ill for a long, long time, and, and this person may say to you, I wonder why God is mad at me. God is punishing me as he punished Job. That's not biblical. I want you to see, maybe you can point this out to that person, Book of Job chapter one verse number eight. Job was recommended to the trial. The Lord says, here's a man who will sustain his faith in me through it all. He was recommended for the trial. I want you to see that because you may have opportunity to pass it along to somebody that thinks God is mad at them because they are undergoing some sort of physical calamity as they think Job went through. I've often wondered, dear friends, did God examine other people? There must have been more believers in the world than just Job in those days. Did, did the Lord say, well, I'll, I'll try. No, no, no, he wouldn't stand up under the testing. Well, well, here's this dear saint. No, no, she wouldn't be able to do it either. Did the Lord go about and consider a number of different believers before he finally settled on Job. Here is one whose faith is so strong that he'll be able to undergo the temptations that Satan and his ilk will be able to place upon him. Have you considered my servant Job, he says. Verse number eight, and he explains that. Now, same chapter, over in verse number twenty. verse number twenty, the same, same chapter. Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshiped and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. And I think this is not just a recitation of words that Job is saying here. I think this is the attitude of his heart, because this is the way the Holy Spirit treats it in this chapter. In all this, Job did not sin against God, nor did he charge God foolishly with any of these things. Apparently, it's not simply some sort of pious platitude. When Job says, the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Sometimes you and I might say it and really don't believe it, but apparently this was not the case with Job. And so these things are so. Now, you notice, come back to verse number eight. something very important there. Hast thou considered my servant Job? Look at that word that God uses. He uses the word servant. He could have used a lot of other different words that we ought to be as Christians, you see. He, he could have said, you see, uh, his Lord was going to quote later on from John chapter four, for the Father seeketh us to worship him. And God could have said, hast thou considered my worshipper, Job? God didn't say that. We're supposed to be people of prayer, and God could have said to, to Satan, hast thou considered my prayer warrior, Job? But he didn't use that title either, you see. And of all the things that we are supposed to be and to do before God, the important one, as far as God is concerned, is Job is my servant. He is my servant. And I guess, friends, when you said that, you said it all. You find a person who is really a servant, as God gives him honest attestation to it. This is my servant. I don't think you have to worry about that person being a worshipper, or that person being a person of prayer, or that person being a witnesser, you see, in these sorts of things. And I think when you said servant, you said it all. Now here's this very wealthy man, very nice family, all of these other sorts of things. He's really the high priest of his family, chapter one says, you see, and yet he still is a servant of God. He doesn't say, I've got too much on my farm to take care of to serve God. He doesn't say my family is our my God. Some people have told me that, you see. He said, no, the Lord comes first in my life, before all the material things, before all the family life, the Lord comes first in my life, and the Lord chooses him for the great testing times. Have you considered my servant, my servant Job? You know, every once in a while, and seems to come up more readily, maybe because, maybe because the time of life I am and all my contemporaries are thinking a lot about heaven. They are, you know. And, and I get a lot of questions of, well, you get to the point, don't you, where you've lived probably most of your life. You get to the point, don't you, dear friends, when most of your friends are in heaven, and you begin to think about these things. Young folks don't think about these things. Heaven is a million miles away, you see, but as we get older, we begin to think about these things. And I hear about a person who has gone off into eternity, gone home to be with the Lord, and this person is younger than I am, you see. Well, that's life in the fast lane, I guess. But you begin to wonder about this, and I get a lot of questions these days about heaven. What's heaven like? Your brother down our way, he's, he's with the Lord now, and he was about ninety six, I think, when he went, and he and his wife have been married sixty three years. And the last few years, he had to do everything for her. He had to get her up in the morning, he had to get her breakfast for her, he had to clothe her, he had to wash her face, he had to comb her hair, and then the Lord took her home. Now he's got all these empty hours in the day that used to be occupied with taking care of her, and he used to call me up, and he no sooner hang up the phone than he called me up and asked me again, hoping probably I had a better answer this time. But he would say to me, do our loved ones in heaven know what's going on down here? And I said, brother, I don't know if I can give you a chapter and verse, but I do know this, it says that the angels in the presence of God rejoice every time somebody gets saved. So there's some kind of a communication. He says, those are people getting saved. What about our loved ones? Well, I don't know. I don't know. And then he'd hang up. Phone would ring again. Do our loved ones up there know what's going on? He said, still, you've had two or three minutes now to think about it. How about giving me a better answer? This sort of thing. But I talked to other people who are not ninety six years old, and they said, I'm going to get bored in heaven. I said, you are. How are you going to get bored in heaven? Well, I got things I want to do. I want to ask Paul what he meant by this, and and Peter was a fisherman just like I am. I want to go up and put my arms around Peter. I don't feel I could do that with Paul, but I feel I can do that with Peter. I want to ask the Lord what he meant about this and what he meant about something else, but what do I do when all those questions have been asked and answered? Then all of eternity yet stretches ahead of me, and I'll get bored. There won't be anything to do. Well, over in Revelation chapter twenty one, the Lord says, behold, I make all things new. And that means continually revelatory. And our own logic, our own minds ought to tell us that, that even in our glorified state, I will not come to the point where I will know everything there is to know about God. It'll be a continual learning experience. They say, I'm going to get tired of sitting on the cloud, strumming a harp, you see. I said, Wayman, Revelation also says his servants shall serve him. And now think of what James and John said, remember? They said, Lord, grant that we may sit, one on the right hand, one on the left. And the Lord says, that's not mine to give. My father's in charge of the seating arrangements, he says. But maybe there's James and John, you see, who would say, say, grant that I may sit. Revelation says his servants shall serve him. How can you be a servant if you don't serve? You've lost your title, you see. And so there's always be something for us to do. There was something for Adam to do in the garden before sin ever even entered into the realm, wasn't it? God always has things for people to do. Down in Florida, there's a lot of retirees, and and they're always worrying and wondering about what am I going to do to keep myself busy. And uh, one fellow down there said, Phil, the whole, the whole time I was working, I worried about it because what am I going to do with all the endless days of retirement? I've got enough jobs to keep me busy two or three days, two or three weeks, he said, but but then what? Would I hate to see a new day dawn? He says, you know, down through the years, the Lord took care of it. He says, now it takes me eight hours to do what I used to do in fifteen minutes. So I don't have any more time now than I ever had. I start to cut the grass, I got to stop and see what the letter carrier brought. Start to cut the grass, the guy across the street says, come on over, have a glass of iced tea. He says, I don't have any more time now than I ever had. And Christians worry about getting bored in heaven. Give it an, don't give it another thought. The thing will never happen. Serve the Lord. I find this as we get older, sometimes we can't do what we used to do. But I'll tell you this, if you haven't discovered it already, the Lord will give you new ministries. You'll always be busy until the Lord takes you home. Always be busy. It may come to a prayer ministry. Maybe you can't get about physically. Maybe you have other sorts of problems, but you can always have a prayer ministry. This brother I told you about. I usually only talk about people that are in heaven, because then they can't lay a lawsuit on you. This brother's in heaven now, and he and I used to go out together for lunch, especially when he invited me. And he would say, I don't know why the Lord doesn't take me home. There any- isn't anything I can do. And I said, well, you don't even have a hearing aid. I don't have to raise my voice when I converse with you. I said, you can read missionary letters, you can write a lot of letters to m- to missionaries. I said, look at your plate, it's filled with fried chicken. Don't tell me there's anything wrong with your stomach, you see. There isn't anything wrong with you, except that you're a lot of miles on your speedometer. There isn't anything I can... Well, he'd say, yes, that's right. And then he'd go home and write a bunch of missionary letters. Maybe he couldn't teach a Sunday school class anymore. Maybe he couldn't drive a car to go visiting anymore, but there was always a ministry that the Lord had for him. And how significant it is there, people, to read in verse number eight of Job chapter one, the Lord says, this man is my servant. A lot of other nouns he could have put in there, but he used the word servant, and a servant is one who serves, one who serves. Now, there are a lot of other things to be said at that point, but we, we need to move on. I want to note several things about Job from this that we have before us tonight. Verse number one says he was a believer, that is, he was redeemed, a man who was perfect and upright, a one that feared God and eschewed evil. He knew when to say yes to God, he knew when to say no to the devil. We live in an age that doesn't like to tell itself no. I want to do anything I want to do, and I don't want any consequences, or if there are consequences, I want the government to take care of those things for me, you see. And we live in an age that doesn't like to deny itself. Job was a person who knew when to say yes, and he knew when to say no. He got temptations just like anybody else, and everybody else has temptations. But he knew how to say no to those temptations. This is not biblical. This is not Christ-like. This is not what a believer ought to do or be or say, and he knew when to say no, and may his tribe increase. And he was a believer. We notice this first ver- first because it says he was perfect. That means blameless. Blameless. Doesn't mean he was sinlessly perfect, but he was trusting God for his salvation, eternally so, and so he was blameless concerning these things. He was a redeemed person. You notice your Bible also tells you that this man walked what he talked. Not only did he talk about the things of the Lord, but he demonstrated the things of the Lord. He had that in verse number one. He was not only a believer, perfect, but he was also upright. He was filled with integrity. And people who knew Job, maybe they weren't believers, but they say, now that man believes and practices what he does believe. It's like you read about in the book of Acts, and along about Acts chapter number five, of Ananias and Sapphira and the, the destruction that happened to them, and you read this verse in there, and of the rest durst no man join himself with them. They said becoming a part of Christian fellowship is a serious business. These people aren't just playing church, and if there's a hypocrite in the congregation, the Lord finds a way to get rid of that hypocrite. You better be in earnest, you better be sincere if you join yourself to that group. But then in that same verse, you read this, but the people magnified them. People magnified them. You know, they said, now, I'm not saved, and I wouldn't dare join myself to this group because the Lord would know my heart, and I might die on the spot. But I'll tell you this, the people in that fellowship really practice what they say they believe, and may their tribe increase. That's what we need today. The church is not very well respected today. Sometimes it's just because people don't want to respect the things that we stand for. But the congregation of which you are a part ought to be such a lighthouse in the community that people know that you're going to live what they will hear preached and taught if they come into your services. These are not perfect people, we're not saying that, but these people believe the word of God and their family life, family life and their recreational life and their secular life and all these other things. These people are going to put biblical practices and principles to work. As I say, this unsaved person might say, well, that's not for me. I don't care about becoming a Christian, so, but I have to admire people who say, I am a believer, I trust the Lord Jesus Christ, and then they live that way, and that's what the Lord says about Job. He was not only a saved person, he was not only a believer, but he was upright, filled with integrity in his community. And anybody who had a business relationship with Job knew that Job was going to do what he said he was going to do. And this is the way he was, he was not only redeemed, but he also walked what he talked, not just on Sunday, but all during the week. We like to believe that. Verse number one says he was obedient. Verse number one says he feared God. The word reverent is in there. He reverently feared God. As we know, fear in the Bible doesn't mean you're afraid of God, but it's afraid, you're afraid of missing God's will for your life. And he reverently walked in the things of the Lord. He, he reverently followed the will of God for, for his life. He was obedient. Now, he hated and turned from evil. That's also verse number one. One that feared God, reverently so, and one who turned from evil. Temptations came along, didn't they? Remember, Matthew chapter four and verse number one. it says, and the Spirit led the Lord Jesus Christ up into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And you go back and you read that verse again to say, how can there be cooperation between the Holy Spirit of God and the devil himself? But there it is, there it is. The Holy Spirit led the Lord up into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and of course the Lord was successful in that, wasn't he? Quoted three times from the book of Deuteronomy. We are told the book of Deuteronomy is attacked by the so-called higher critics more often than any other one book in the Bible. They hate that book. And the Lord, who could have argued philosophically around Satan, simply quoted scripture. Now, that's what the Son of God did. That's what you and I ought to think about doing. And you know, the Lord has promised his word will not return unto him void, and the more of scripture that you can put in your prayer, the more powerful your prayer is, because the Lord will not deny himself nor anything he has ever said, you see. And so, use the scripture, work it in in that particular way, and and the and and the Lord was tempted there of the Satan, of Satan in the wilderness, and then you read these words, and the devil left him for a season. And I think those three temptations weren't the only temptations that the devil gave to the Lord. He left him for a little while. The devil apparently didn't say, I'll never win against the Son of God. I'll go attack somebody. But apparently, periodically, through the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, the devil would come back again, you see, and throw another temptation at the Lord Jesus Christ. And if that's what happened to him, that's what happens to us. Now, when you've been saved any length of time at all, you recognize it for what it is. You say, this is not what a Christian ought to do or be or say. This is not biblical, that is, this is not Christ-like, and you turn from it. The first question ever mentioned in the Word of God is when the serpent, remember, came to Eve and said, "Yea, hath God said?" I think if Eve had said, "Yes, that's what he said, now go about your business," I think that would have ended it. Here's a willing subject who can be beguiled, you see. So then he pursues it. He pursues it. And when the temptation first co- first comes, you, you cut it right off, as the old folks used to say, you nip it in the bud, right there while it's still young and tender, you see. Say, no, I don't even consider. The Lord will not hear me, the psalmist said, if I regard iniquity in my heart. If I allow it a place to stay, because it's a delicious feeling. And bless your hearts, a temptation is not a temptation if it's not a temptation, isn't it? If it's not appealing, it wouldn't be a temptation. You say, well, I'll just let it hang around for a while because it's a delicious thought, and I'll just ruminate on it a little bit, and I'll just run it around, you see, and get the good out of it and taste it. I can get rid of it anytime I want to. The thing to do is get rid of it right away. Get rid of it right away. This is not Christ-like. This is not pleasing to the Lord. Those are the things I used to do. I don't do them anymore. Get rid of them on the spot. He hated evil, and he turned from it, your Bible says. Now, now we get into the realm of his family. What kind of a father was he? Apparently, he was a very good father. Verse number five: it was so when the days of the boys feasting were gone about, and they invited their, their, uh, sisters to come. Apparently, no sibling rivalry there, that Job sent and sanctified them. I like that word sent. He had authority in the lives of his children. Unlike Job, remember, not Job, remember Lot when he said, we need to do something about it because God has revealed to me that this place is slated for destruction. And his sons-in-law seemed unto him as one that mocked. Why? Because apparently that was the first time he said anything about a Christian witness at all. They said, oh, dad's talking religion. Well, he's never done that before. Now he's got some cockamamie story, and that's the way we live in nineteen ninety six. You see the cartoon character, an old man with a long white beard, a long robe, and he's carrying a sign that says the end is near. And that has happened so often that he now appears on the comic page, you see. People don't believe the end is near. Every once in a while, some religious group will say, we know that the end is going to occur seven o'clock Tuesday morning. And Tuesday morning, seven o'clock comes, and the world goes on just the same. Read about a group out in California, they all put on white robes, went up into a top of a mountain. I had a chance to talk to one of those people, and I said, why'd you go up into the mountain? They said, well, to make it as easy for the Lord as possible when he came, he wouldn't have to exert more power to take us from the flatlands, and if we could get as close to heaven as we possibly could, then the Lord wouldn't have to exert much, much power. I'm sure the Lord appreciated their, their great conservancy. But at any rate, the time came and went. They'd taken their children out of school because what's a kid need an education for in heaven? One guy bought a brand new Buick because he never had a brand new Buick before in his life. One guy went out and bought a brand new VCR. All of his friends had VCRs, he didn't have one. He wanted to see what one was like before he went. The Lord didn't come. A lot of those folks had quit their jobs because who needs an income? We walk on gold up there, you know. Who needs an income? A lot of them lost their houses. A lot of the kids had to drop back one year in school. Guy lost his Buick. Guy lost his VCR. And you know, friends, every time that happens, it sort of dulls the senses. And then when somebody speaks about the return of the Lord is imminent before the service is over, the Lord could come, and we sort of think, yeah, yeah, I've heard that before. I've heard that before. Nobody ever jumps up and says, all social activities after the meeting will be cancelled because there'll be nobody here to participate in them. But we never cancel anything out, do we? We don't cancel anything out. Say, well, I haven't sent in my check yet for the week's conference. I won't do it till tomorrow morning in case the Lord takes us home tonight, you see. Why waste the money? Might as well leave with a good fat bank account for your unsaved relatives to fight over. So he had authority. Apparently he had the respect of his children, you see, and dad was still the authority. Bless your hearts, that's the way it was in our family. Dad was the authority, and and and he expected that I would do what he told me to do. Where he got such a ridiculous idea, I don't know. I don't know what book Dad had been written, had been reading, but Dad says, I'm the father, you're the kid, and if I say do this, you do it. Now, I was born about thirty years too soon. I could have sued my parents for millions of dollars now under child abuse, but Dad expected that if he told me to do something and he was not always obligated to tell me why he wanted me to do it. I may have told you some other millennium when I've been here that Dad would say, I want you to cut the grass before I get home from work, and I would say, what do you give me if I do? And Dad would say, I'll give you something if you don't. That's good enough for me. I didn't need a practical demonstration of that, but Dad believed that he would lay down the rules and regulations, and the kids would obey those things, he said. Kids would obey those things. One of the stores today, it seemed to have turned itself around. I saw a little one-year-old kid pretty well had his family in control. I, I want an ice cream cone. No, you don't need an ice. I want an ice cream cone. Okay, okay, here's your ice cream cone. I thought I ought to go over and say to her, I need an ice cream cone. Maybe I would have gotten one, maybe I wouldn't. He had authority, sent, S-E-N-T. He was the spiritual leader. Verse number five: It was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of the mole, because Job said it may be that they have somehow sinned, and yet everything seemed to be going quite well. The brothers and sisters were getting along quite well, and they were in and out of each other's homes. Didn't seem to be any problems at all, but Job says, I don't want anything to begin to happen with my kids, and because of this, I'm going to do everything spiritually possible as the high priest of our family to prevent this sort of thing. You suppose they knew what he was doing? I think they did. Dad is concerned about our spiritual welfare. Dad offers up a burnt offering. The, the sacrifice to God was total because you read the word burnt offering there. He wasn't making any deals with God. God, I'll promise to do this if you keep my kids safe. He was the spiritual father. He was the high priest of his family, and his sacrifice and his dedication to God was absolutely complete because burnt offering was totally given to the Lord, you see. He not making any deals with God. He trying to do these sorts of things. You notice also, he was not partial to any one of his children. He had a bunch of them, didn't he? Seven sons and three daughters, according to verse two. He had ten children, but he doesn't single any one of them out. Mother once had twelve children, and somebody said to her, which one do you love the best? That's a terrible question to ask a mother. Which one do you love the best? And she thought for a while. She says, the one I love the best is the one who is sick until he gets well. The one who is away until he comes home. But there's room in your heart, isn't there, for every one of your children. You have one, another one comes along, another one comes along. You take any of the love from the first one to give to number two, and number three? No. The love in the heart just seems to grow, and nobody is deprived, you see, of love. One little girl, when she heard mama was going to have another baby, began to cry, and the father said, what are you crying about? She said, well, you're going to have to trade in my little brother Tommy to get the new one. And said, honey, where'd you ever get that idea? She says, I got the idea that whenever you get a new car, you trade in the old one. So she figured she was going to lose her little brother Tommy so they could make room for the new one coming along. I said, did it ever occur to her that she might be the one trading in? No, no, it never occurred to her to do that. So he had these ten children, and you don't find that anyone was, now maybe one of them was naturally more lovable than some of the other ones. Maybe there was one that had a tendency to be re- real rebellious, but you don't read that in your book. He loved them all, and he sacrificed for them all, all ten of them. He was not partial to his children, and he was consistent. Also, verse number five in your Bible, it says early in the morning offered burnt offerings and so forth, and last part of verse five says, thus did Job continually. Continually. He took nothing for granted. He didn't say, apparently, well, I've tried to do my best, and I just have to let him go. He did this continually for his children. He was consistent in his affair with his children. This so he was con- consistent in that he was continuously, uh, uh, doing this. Also in verse number five— verse number five tackled a lot of information. He was concerned about their possible failure. Verse number five: it may be that they have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. He was concerned about the fact that maybe they were losing out or would lose out or had lost out, spiritually speaking. He was concerned about this. He didn't wait until the tragedy had struck and then tried to redeem it, you see. He tried to coat them and surround them and put isolation around and about them before this sort of thing occurred. And that's very, very important. He was consistent in these things, and he was concerned about the possible failure. Now, the last thing is this, and that is Job himself is growing in spirituality. Now, you had the recitation of him here in chapter number one. He feared God and eschewed evil and so forth. Then you turn over to chapter two and, uh, and verse number three. chapter Chapter and verse number number three. after all these tragedies that, that struck, chapter two and verse number three, the Lord said unto Satan, the second time that Satan appears before the Lord, the Lord says, hast thou considered my servant Job? Well, that's what he said in chapter one, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect man and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil. And that's what he had said in chapter number one. but now he adds some words to it. He adds some words to it. And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause. Now, you see, because of the faithfulness and the consistency of Job, God has added to Job's testimony. And bless your hearts, that's usually the way we grow. We usually don't grow as believers when everything is very prosperous and we're sliding downhill and doing all the easy things. Usually we grow when times are hard for some reason or other, because we get closer to the Lord, and we pray more than we've ever prayed before, and we get into the Word, and we read the Word more than ever before, and we get our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we ask them to pray about this situation, about that need, and we grow closer to the Lord, not in easy, prosperous times, but in the very difficult times. And that's what's happening in the life of Job, you see. And the Lord says he hasn't lost a bit of his initial integrity. He still fears God, reverently so. He still turns from evil, but now he's been through this catastrophe. And we find that, that God now can add words to Job's testimony. Despite all that you want me to do against Job, he hasn't lost one foot of his Christian integrity. He grew spirituality. That's chapter two and verse number three. And then you come down to chapter two, verse number thirteen, the last verse of chapter two. Now here you come. Why we call these guys Job's comforters, I don't know. I always mentally put it in quotation marks. We're going to read about them later on. Job's so-called comforters came along, and verse thirteen of chapter two says, these guys sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great. Now, Job, if you're going to curse God and die, this would be a good time to do it, because your grief is so heavy upon your back and upon your heart that even your friends dare not speak for seven days and nights. And yet, in all of this great burden upon his heart and in his life, he still did not turn from his testimony as a believer. He still feared God reverently. He turned from evil, you see, and he did all these same things. So his testimony is growing. Testimony is a lot larger now than it was when you first start the story of Job. He's a wonderful fellow then, but he's, he's even more wonderful now because of the experience through which he has gone. Well, we'll go on with this, uh, a little bit later on. Now we'll have a word of prayer. And Bruce, do you need to lead us in a closing hymn? You don't need to. All right. You intended to, but you'd rather be home. Yeah, all right. We'll have a word of prayer, and then the meeting will be over. Our Father and our God, we give you thanks again for the Lord Jesus Christ and for all he is unto us. And Father, as we see the great things that happened in the life of Job, we are reminded that the Lord Jesus Christ is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief when he came into relationship with us. Father, we are the ones that put the burden of guilt and sin upon his back. Father, we do thank you for the fact that the Holy Spirit has sought to put into the Word of God the story of Job, this very godly man. We thank you, Father, for it. We pray that we might learn from it. We pray, Father, that you might give help in these things, in and for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray these things. Amen.