Job 23:10

0:00 Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Job 23. You can find it on page 432. You can look on the front of the bulletin there. Mac read our passage for us this morning. Thank you for that, Mac. And we're going to focus on one particular verse from that passage, verse 10. So let's read that. But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. but he knows the way that I take, and when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.

0:35 I think the main idea of this verse is pretty clear. God is sovereign over our suffering, and he will use it for our good. God is sovereign over our suffering, and he will use it for our good. That breaks into two obvious points. So point one, God is sovereign over our suffering. You may or may not be familiar with the story of Job and what happened to him. Job was an upright, a righteous man before the Lord. He was blessed by God with unimaginable wealth and a huge family.

1:12 And we read about Job and his life, and then all of a sudden we see into the courtroom of heaven. And let's read Job 1, 8 through 11, just to get a sense of what's happening here. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. Then the Lord said to Satan, From where have you come? Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.

1:43 And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side? You've blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face.

2:17 So God gave permission and Satan went and destroyed all of Job's wealth and destroyed his children in a single day. He lost all of his wealth and all of his kids were killed. Just take a second and try to imagine what that would be like. Unimaginable suffering. How would you respond if that happened to you? How did Job respond?

2:49 Did he curse God like Satan wanted? Job 1, 20 through 22. Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all of this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. Incredible.

3:23 Unlike Satan predicted, Job did not curse God. Instead, he blessed him. But that's not the end of it. Then Satan asked God to take away Job's health. So Satan covered Job's body with horrible sores from head to toe. Even Job's wife told him to curse God and die. But Job remained steadfast. It gets even worse. Job's wife turned on him and then his friends come. First, they come to comfort him, but they end up condemning him.

3:56 According to Job's friends, good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. Therefore, Job must be a bad person. Are you ever tempted to think this way, whether suffering is coming into your own life or the life of a friend or an acquaintance? This type of thinking is much more akin to the Eastern idea of karma, right? What goes around comes around.

4:27 Oh man, what did that person do to deserve that? Why is God allowing this to happen to me? He must not love me. He doesn't care. Friend, that's not true. Those are lies from the pit of hell. Maybe you haven't gone through much suffering or seen suffering. Praise God. Praise God for that. Enjoy that season of life. But trust me, it will. It will come.

4:59 You need to know that up front, especially if you're a newer believer. Praise God for saving so many of you young students at UofL. You need to know this. We're not going to sugarcoat this. Suffering will come. Contrary to what false gospels promise about wealth and prosperity, God promises the exact opposite. Listen to Jesus' words. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation.

5:31 But take heart, I have overcome the world. Or listen to Paul's words in 2 Timothy. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. All, everyone. If you haven't faced suffering yet, it will come. So take the time now to prepare yourself. Prepare your heart, prepare your mind. Surround yourself with godly brothers and sisters, some of them maybe older than you, who have seen a little bit more life than you, who maybe have decades of experience of what it's like to live as a Christian in the world.

6:13 Weave those people into your life so that when suffering comes to you, they can help. Your brothers and sisters can help you carry your burdens and sorrows. If you are that person who's gone through suffering, then be that person in the person's life who's now facing suffering, right? That's what we're supposed to do with one another. We're supposed to carry our burdens and sorrows together. That's what we've promised to do in our church covenant. Maybe you're going through suffering right now.

6:47 So first, if you haven't already, tell somebody. Tell a friend. Tell a brother or sister in Christ. Tell one of your pastors what is going on in your life. Don't suffer silently and alone. You're not alone. Your church is with you. And more importantly, God is with you. God knows. God knew what was happening to Job. If you're in Christ, then by the power of the Holy Spirit, he is with you, he is in you, and he knows what you're going through.

7:18 Listen to what the author of Hebrews says about Jesus' work in becoming a man and suffering. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people, Because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Jesus knows what you're going through.

7:49 Job went through immense and terrible sufferings. And he had many, many questions. Just like Mac talked about this morning. Job had questions. It's okay to have questions. He doesn't understand why this is happening to him. But he cries out to God and he gives this incredible answer in our verse. He knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. Underneath all of his questions is this bedrock of faith in his God.

8:22 That God is in control, that he is good, that he sees, that he knows what's happening. Whether it feels like it or not, God is in control. Nothing happens outside of his control, even suffering in your own life. Job knew that, and he confessed it. Job also knew that God will use that suffering in your life for a purpose, which brings us to our second point. God will use suffering in our lives for our good.

8:53 That's what Job means by the second half of this verse. When he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. If you've paid attention to the news recently at all, you've probably heard about gold, right? You've heard what's happening with gold. Why has the price gone up so much? Why is it skyrocketed in value? Why is gold valuable at all? Well, partially it's because it's rare, right? There's not that much of it. There's only a certain amount in the earth and you have to mine for it and it's expensive to do that.

9:25 It's also valuable because it's a base element. It's one of the elements in the periodic table and it can't be reduced to anything else besides gold. It's just gold. So when you find gold in the earth, you dig it up. It has these impurities on it, and it has things that need to be cleansed from it. So that's why it has to go through this process of being refined. And like gold, according to the Bible, God tests or refines those whom he loves. He brings trials and suffering into their lives in order to remove impurities and make us more like his son. He tests us, according to Job and many other places in the Bible. God tests his people, but as we saw this morning, he does not tempt them, right? There's a difference between testing and tempting. Testing is meant to purify, to make clean. Tempting is to

10:30 lure away, to lure away from God and towards sin. That's how testing and tempting are differentiated. Testing is meant for refining, like gold. You put gold in the furnace and the impurities are melted away. The author of the hymn, How Firm a Foundation, which we sing regularly here at 3rd, had this very verse in mind, Job 23.10, when he wrote the fourth verse. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design thy dross, that's the impurity, to consume and thy gold to refine.

11:12 I can't say that I fully agree with the author here, because testing and suffering is actually extremely painful, and it hurts. So I don't really agree with that part of the verse. But you get the idea, right? The suffering is meant to cleanse, to make you more like Jesus. God tests us because he wants us to turn, he wants to turn us to something even more valuable than gold, which is his son, Jesus Christ. Proverbs 17.3, the crucible is for silver and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. God tested his people, Israel, in the wilderness. You remember the story from the Old Testament? Deuteronomy 8.2, and you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart whether you would keep his commands or not. Well, sadly, Israel failed. But God sent his son Jesus to be the new Israel. And God tested his son in the wilderness. We read about that in the

12:18 Gospels. And there Satan came to tempt him. And where Israel failed, and where we fail over and over again, Jesus succeeded. He withstood the test. He remained faithful. And not only that, he went to the cross to die for us, for our failures, for our sin. And his perfect record of obedience will be given to you if you put your faith and trust in Jesus. So if that's true, then why do we still need to suffer, right? There's still the question, what is the purpose of it?

12:53 Well, Justin explained it this morning, but let's look at it from a slightly different angle. What does Paul say about it in Romans chapter 5? Romans 5, 2 through 5, gives us an answer to this question. Why do I suffer? Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Suffering is meant to lead Christians to a deeper faith and hope in God. That's the purpose for it. Have you experienced this in your own life? Have you gone through a period of suffering and come out the other side and been able to see how God used it to increase your faith? That's what he does for Christians. But of course, on the other

14:00 hand, for non-Christians or for nominal Christians, Christians who are Christians in name only, they're not real Christians, for them when suffering comes into their lives, they're disillusioned. They fall away because they don't actually love God, right? They love the things that God has given them. It's often said that the same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. When suffering comes into the nominal Christian's life, they're totally bewildered. That turns into a mockery of God, exactly what Satan wanted to happen to Job.

14:43 How you suffer serves as a witness to the watching world. God may use suffering in your life to cause others to put their faith in Christ. Praise God for our sister Melody, who's not here, but she sits over here, and she has constantly told us how every time she's in the hospital, she's sharing her faith with her doctors, with her family, and people are listening to her tell them about Jesus, and it's so encouraging. Brothers and sisters, may we all be like Melody in that time of intense suffering.

15:19 When you're faced with suffering in your own life, what's your first thought? For me, it's probably a combination of shock, fear, dread. I know to expect suffering, but I'm still surprised when it comes. Loved ones get sick. Brothers and sisters around the world we read about are being persecuted for their faith. Horrible tragedies are happening around the world. We know that we live in a fallen world and we expect suffering to happen, but on a deeper level, if you believe that God is sovereign over suffering, then you have to address these questions towards him because he's in control of it.

16:02 So you have to say, God, why is this thing happening to me? Why are you causing this thing to come into my life? You have to address the question to him, and he's given an answer. Friends, he's given an answer. We read about it. He intends this for your good. Everything, including suffering, is intended for your good. Well, what is that good? Is it what I think is good? No, it's what he thinks is good. And what he thinks is good is that you would be more like his son, Jesus Christ. And so he's going to use suffering in your life to turn you more into Jesus Christ.

16:39 Let's finish by reading what one more New Testament author says about this topic. Peter, who fled when Jesus faced the most intense suffering, later wrote about this. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

17:10 You're not alone in your suffering. Your brothers and sisters here at Third Avenue are eager to listen, to mourn with you, to help care for you. And most importantly, God is with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. So pray that God would use the suffering in your life to advance the gospel. Our God is in control of all things, including suffering, and he intends it for our good. So suffer well for the sake of the gospel and for the glory of the name of Jesus Christ.

17:42 Let's pray to him. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this story of Job and how he was able to remain steadfast in his faith in the midst of incredible suffering. We thank you even more for sending your son, Jesus Christ, for living a perfect life, for living in obedience to you, even to death.

18:17 God, we pray that we would never take that for granted. We pray that it would be in the forefront of our minds as you bring suffering into our life and we follow in the pattern of the footsteps of our Savior. We pray that you would help us to suffer well as individual Christians and as a church. Help us to care for one another. Help us to bear each other's burdens and sorrows. We pray that you would allow us to do all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.