Why did Job fear God?

Introduction

Good morning. Wonderful to see everybody. Wonderful to have all of the visitors that we have. It is a marvelous Lord’s Day today. And it’s also Mother’s Day. And so happy Mother’s Day to all you all you mothers. I want to begin with a little bit of a story. There were two women who were having a conversation. One was a mother and the other was not. And the one who was not saw the children coming in the room and playing and said, Oh, I’d give my life to have such children. And the mother said, That’s exactly what it costs.

That it really requires a woman’s life to bear children, to birth children, to raise children. And not only to raise them up as good citizens and nice people, but as godly people. That requires a lot. And so I respect so much and I salute the mothers in this congregation and the grandmothers and the great-grandmothers, perhaps, who have done such a marvelous job raising your children and abiding by the biblical role that God has given you. Motherhood is the most biblically noble and the most socially unappreciated role to which a woman can aspire. It is socially unappreciated. In fact, our society has denigrated it to the point that housewives are viewed as desperate. They’re not fulfilled. They’re not doing anything meaningful. And that’s a shame because it is a noble task that God has given to women.

As Paul told Timothy at the end of 1 Timothy chapter 2, that women will be saved in childbearing or raising children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint. That is a biblical role. And it is a godly one. Famous feminist author Linda Gordon writes the nuclear family must be destroyed. And people must find better ways of living together. Whatever its ultimate meaning, the breakup of families now is an objectively revolutionary process. No woman should have to deny herself any opportunities because of her special responsibilities to her children. That’s what the feminist world is telling us. Women, you don’t need to deny yourself anything for your children. Do everything you want to do to fulfill yourself. That is garbage. Absolute garbage. Because it requires your life.

And I stand in amazement. I stand in amazement at my mother and what she did raising her three children. Myself being one of them. Obviously, she’s my mother. It is an amazing thing. And I don’t really know how you do it, to be honest with you. But I want to encourage you to remember, don’t let this society convince you that you need to be leaving the raising of your children to somebody else so that you can go and fulfill yourself in other ways. Because it is it is the role, especially of women, to raise their children. But fathers also, as Paul mentions in the book of Ephesians, or to raise up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. But let’s stand in those roles and wear those roles beautifully, as God has intended.

Well, I’m not even preaching about mothers today. That was all introductory. I’m going to be preaching to you about the book of Job. And that there’s no connection between that and mothers. Why Job feared God? Why Job feared God? There’s a question asked in the book of Job. Does Job fear God for nothing? Do you know who asked that question? Satan. Satan asked that question, and he asked that question to God. And what that question means is, does Job serve God even if he had nothing? Surely not. The implication is that Job, Job only serves you, God, because of the blessings that you have given him. And this is what we read in Job, the first chapter. Remember when Satan came and presented himself along with the sons of God before God.

And remember God said, If you considered my servant Job, and so on. And in verse 9, then Satan answered the Lord, does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth your hand now and touch all that he has. He will surely curse you to your face. You see, it’s a challenge. He’s saying, You have bought his service. Anybody would serve you if you gave him all that Job has. Job had everything. And so what we’re going to do today is we’re going to seek to answer that question. Does Job fear God for nothing?

1. Job’s Faithfulness

And we’re going to begin by looking at Job’s faithfulness. And as we think about Job’s faithfulness, I want to convince you of his faithfulness with a very unlikely passage starting in Job 16. In Job chapter 16, and you can turn along with me, I do encourage you to open your Bibles, but I have the passage up on the screen because I know what it’s like to wrestle with kids throughout the sermon. But in Job chapter 16, beginning in verse 6, Job says, If I speak, my pain is not lessened. And if I hold back, what is left me? But now he has exhausted me. He’s talking about God. You have laid waste all my company. You have shriveled me up. It has become a witness, and my leanness rises up against me.

It testifies to my face.

I mean, it sounds like he’s talking about Satan. In fact, the word Satan means adversary. That’s a different Hebrew word than the one we have here, but still, it is not God who was his adversary. But Job was viewing God as his adversary, the one hunting him down. Verse 10, they have gaped at me with their mouth, they have slapped me on the cheek with contempt. They have masked themselves against me. God hands me over to ruffians and tosses me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, but he shattered me. And he has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces. He has also set me up as his target. His arrows surround me. Without mercy, he splits my kidneys open.

He pours out my gall on the ground. He breaks through me with breach after breach. He runs at me like a warrior. This is shocking. Again, it sounds like he’s talking about Satan. But Job didn’t. He didn’t see or hear that conversation that went on between Satan and God. He didn’t know exactly what was going on. He just assumed God was doing this. And brethren, let us never assume that it is God who is sending the bad things in our life. You know, anytime something bad happens, people always seem to want to blame God. Well, God, God allowed my loved one to die.

God took my job away from me. I even read of one person who said, I don’t understand why God took my pet. We blame everything on God. But have you ever you never hear anybody stop and say, well, I wonder why Satan took my loved one. Why did Satan cause me to lose that job? You know, what I’m saying is we automatically assume it was God, and we don’t need to do that because Job did that, and Job was not correct. He was not accurate in that assumption. Actually, God was on Job’s side, wasn’t he? He wanted Job to bear through this and endure it beautifully, which in the end he did, but he had all these questions. And so what I’m trying to highlight here is Job’s faithfulness.

So why would I point to a passage like this to highlight Job’s faithfulness? Because not only did Job endure all of his suffering, he endured it with the belief that it was God who was doing it to him, and he didn’t know why. And he wanted an answer. Yet he still endured it. That’s how faithful Job was. He never severed his relationship with God. Even though he had all these plaguing questions about what was going on. Consider two passages with me. One’s in Job 13 and verse 15. This is to me beautiful. Though he slay me, I will hope in him. Now, the last part of the verse, Job could have left out. Nevertheless, I will argue my ways before him. But the first part, though he slay me, I will hope in him.

He thought it was God who was slaying him, but his attitude was, I’m still going to serve him no matter what. In Job the 19th chapter.

This one almost gives me goosebumps. It just sends chills to think about just how beautiful this passage is. 19, verses 25 and 26. As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. And at the last he will take his stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God. Your version may read different, but I think this is the best reading in the New American Standard. As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. We just sang a song. That was the first song, and I asked Jim to lead that song. I know that my redeemer lives. You might not guess that that one of our most hopeful songs comes from one of one of the most depressing books in the Bible.

And one of the most depressed people who was absolutely being crushed, and yet he said, I know that my Redeemer lives. And let us, throughout all of our suffering, and no matter what life throws at us, no matter what Satan throws at us, no matter what we have to endure, let us say, I know that my Redeemer lives. And at the last, he will take his stand on the earth, even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh, I think that’s talking about the resurrection. Now I’m not going to be dogmatic because commentators go wild on this passage. Yet from my flesh I shall see God. Utterly sublime.

Now, the first thought might come to your mind suffering. I remember I asked him this question one time in the adult class, and I wanted everybody to think about it and ponder it and be confused. I don’t know, so I could tell them the right answer, and then there would be this moment of the light bulb came on, and I think it was Angelo just blurted out the answer, you know. Endurance. Thanks, Angelo, for just answering that right off, not letting us think about that one. But that’s right. Job’s endurance, his patience is the real point of the book. As James says in James 5 and verse 11, we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

So, yes, suffering is the point of the book, but it’s what Job did with that suffering that’s the real point of the book. He endured. He endured.

And that’s what we have to do, brethren. That’s what every one of us has to do as Christians. Let us run with endurance, this race that is before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Fixing our eyes on Jesus. The imagery of that passage is that of the ancient games, where there would be a column at the beginning of the race and one at the end of the track. That’s where the judge sat. And he had the reward. And so that passage says, let us run with endurance this race that is before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.

So as we’re running down that track, as we’re in this race, we need to look at the finish line, and we need to see Jesus, the judge, sitting there, and he’s the one who has the prize. My father used to give me a lot of advice about driving. And since Greg had some illustrations about driving, I’ll just follow along with that. And I thought those were so good. I think he’s doing a fantastic job, by the way. My father told me when you’re driving, don’t look at the road in front of you, right in front of you. Look down as far as you can possibly see and let your eyes focus on that point of the road. And I always thought that was a good advice.

2. Does Job Fear God for Nothing?

Now he had other advice. One of his words of advice was treat everybody like they’re stupid, and most of the time you won’t be disappointed. But that one doesn’t apply to the sermon, so. But brethren, what we need to do is we need to look down the road that we’re on, not right in front of us. Because that’s not our destination. We need to look down as far as the eye can see, and we need to see Jesus and fix our eyes on him. Don’t get distracted with all the other things. And run this race with endurance. And the Bible is full of exhortations to endure and to be patient. So let’s go back now to our question. Does Job fear God for nothing? Now you might misunderstand the question.

You know, a mother might sweep the kitchen floor. And five minutes later, after the kids have had their way, it’s dirty again. Did I sweep this kitchen for nothing? In other words, uh it was pointless. It was useless. That’s not what this question means. That’s not what Satan meant by this question. What he meant is does Job fear God for no outward benefit? Would Job fear God if he had nothing? Now think of it that way. Well, how would we answer that question? Isn’t it pretty obvious? Job had everything, and in one fell swoop, I guess you could say two fell swoops. One, everything was taken from him, and then even his health was taken from him. The only thing he had left was his wife.

And was she any help? She said, curse God and die. I ate lunch one time with this man who had suffered a great deal in his life. He had he had this sinus surgery decades earlier that had severed nerves, and he can’t lead a normal life. He has permanent migraines, debilitating. And he said, you know, I never understood why all of Job’s family had to be taken away, but his wife had to stick around. She wasn’t exactly any help. But everything else, everything else was taken away from him. But even when he had nothing, he still remained faithful to God. So what’s the answer to the question? Does Job fear God for nothing? Well, he had nothing, and did he fear God? The answer to the question is answered by Job’s faithfulness throughout the book.

It is yes. Absolutely. That is the answer to the question. So what about us? Do we fear God for nothing? For no outward benefit. And we’re taking, you know, spiritual blessings out of this question. This is talking about the physical blessings that are surrounding us. Would we fear him without? Because it’s, you know, it’s easy to, when everything’s going great. When uh when your health is good, and when your family is all getting along and happy, and when your job is good and you have the things that you need, car and house and so on. It’s easy to in those times. But what about when those things start being chipped away? You know, I try to remember when I pray for my physical blessings. Thank you, God, for these blessings, but I would serve you without them.

3. The Most Basic Reason to Serve God

Because there very well may come a time when they are all stripped away from us. Some Christians are just fair weather Christians. And as long as the weather is great, so to speak, they are doing great as well. Well, that leads right into the applications that I want to spend the rest of our time on. First application that we learn from all this is, and let me put it in the form of a question. What is the most basic reason to serve God? Is it because he has blessed us physically? Well, that can’t be the most basic reason. Is it because of the hope of heaven? I think that is certainly the most powerful reason. And we can’t leave that one out. But it is it the most fundamental reason.

What about the fear of hell? Well, of course, that’s not the most basic reason, but it’s a motivator. You see how they have many different motivators and reasons to serve God? I have children. And we punish our children. And we spank. I know I’m saying that, and this is going to go on the internet, and I might get arrested for saying that. But hey, we do. We do it in love, not anger. And with control, but we do spank. Ask our kids, they’ll tell you. One time my son Stone told me, You’re a really good spanker, dad. And we have other forms of punishment. You have timeout and take privileges, and we do push-ups in my household. That comes from my martial arts background. We were in Walmart the other day in Subway, eating, just my boys and I.

And I needed to discipline Stone, so I told him to get on the floor and do push-ups. And he didn’t want to get his hands dirty, so I told him to do them on your knuckles, concrete floor. So you walk into Walmart and you see this man with a six-year-old son doing perfect push-ups on his knuckles on the concrete floor. You think that’s a little strange. But sometimes we do that. You know what? Fear of punishment works. It’s a motivator, especially for the immature. There’s also praise and reward for good behavior. You want to motivate children? Have some reward for their good behavior, and all of a sudden everything changes. But hopefully, as they grow older, hopefully, the way it should be, is that they will begin to obey you less out of fear of punishment and even less out of hope of reward and more out of a sense of you know what, mom and dad deserve it.

The Bible says, honor your father and mother. And so let me just take this moment to say this is Mother’s Day. Children, you need to be honoring your mother, and you need to be honoring your father. Because that’s the role that God has put them in. And when you do not do that, you are sinning. It is a sin.

So take that and apply it to us spiritually. We have motivations of hope of reward. And that’s not an immature motivation. We have motivation of fear of hell. But even more basic than those, I believe, from my study of the book of Job is that God deserves it.

4. Never Allow Your Suffering to Destroy Your Covenant Relationship

God deserves it. And so let us always remember to fear God simply because He is God and He deserves it. Not just for the hope of reward or the fear of punishment. Secondly, never allow your suffering to destroy your covenant relationship with God. And that’s what He can do. I mean, I have seen this. People who they just give up on God. Because why? Because bad things are happening to them. Health problems are going on, or people have died and they get so discouraged, they just completely quit. I’ve seen it over and over again. Never allow your suffering to destroy your relationship with God. If you hang on to God through your suffering, then you have overcome. And in Revelation chapter 2 and verses 10 and 11 to the church at Smyrna, Jesus wrote, Be faithful until death.

And I will give you the crown of life, and later, he who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. So they’re persecuted, they’re suffering terribly, and then they die as a result of that, and Jesus said, You’ve overcome. Well, that doesn’t look like overcoming. And it doesn’t feel like overcoming when the world is throwing all these stones at us and terrible things are happening to us, and we’re being crushed and we feel afflicted and we feel tested in every way. We don’t feel like we’re overcoming, but you know what? If we’re remaining faithful to God through it all, we’re overcoming. We are mounting up with wings like eagles. We are running and not getting tired. We are walking and not becoming weary. And that’s what we must do when suffering is all around us every day.

5. Depression Is Not Sinful

Just hang in there and endure. Thirdly, depression is not sinful. Now you may have never just heard somebody say that out loud, but I want to say it out loud. It can be sinful, but it is not inherently sinful to be depressed. Job was depressed. Being confused about your suffering is not sinful. Job had many questions about his suffering. He even blamed God about it. And he was rebuked by God. In Job 40 and verse 2, God calls in the fault finder. Will the fault finder contend with the Almighty? And he rebukes him powerfully, but what he does is not on the same level as what Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, his three friends did, because in Job chapter 42, Job is instructed to offer sacrifices for his friends, but not for himself.

Because he spoke of God what is right, but his friends did not. So we know they sinned.

And so what I’m saying is, it is dangerous to be depressed because it can’t overtake you. It can cause you to sever your relationship with God. But being depressed is not sinful. Having plaguing questions, why is this going on? That’s not sinful. As long as you maintain your covenant relationship with God. Rejoicing is not easy. That’s why the Bible says it so many times. In fact, in Philippians 4 4, Paul said it twice in one verse, rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. In case you didn’t hear it the first time. Over and over, the New Testament is replete with these exhortations to rejoice, but does that mean it’s a sin not to rejoice? No, the point of those passages is that we have every cause to rejoice.

6. Christians Are Like Hot Tea

And the reason they’re in there so many times is because we need constant reminders, and I want to remind you of this breath this morning, brethren. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. Final application. Christians are like hot tea. I’ll let you think about that for a second. That’s not on your outline, by the way. I threw this one in. Christians are like hot tea. Their strength is not drawn out until they are in hot water. And don’t you know that Job was made the stronger for what he went through? And those questions that he did ask, he wouldn’t do that again. I imagine, after facing God about that matter.

Conclusion

If a tree never has wind, then that tree’s roots are not going to grow wide and deep. But through the constant wind that that tree experiences, the roots are forced to grow wide and to grow deep. So that one day when the big wind comes, hopefully that tree will be able to withstand. And if we didn’t have the trials and tribulations of life, then we wouldn’t be developed into the characters that God wants us to become. So in conclusion, like Job, serve God for nothing. That is, for no outward benefit. Serve him if for no other reason, simply because he deserves it. Would you bow your head with me in prayer?

Our God and Father, you alone are worthy of all of our greatest praise and adoration. Because you alone are God. You alone are powerful. And you alone can save us. And we honor and praise your name, even when we’re confused and we may not know what’s going on, and we we have questions and we have depression. Father, we will not leave you because we know that you will not leave us. And we honor your precious name. It is through your son that we pray. Amen.

Does Job fear God for nothing? Then the answer would be no. Because ultimately, Job had the hope of the resurrection. And I’ll read again. As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will take his stand on the earth, even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God. And again, that goes back to fixing our eyes on Jesus and the hope of reward. And so ultimately, the best things for the Christian are always yet to come. If you’re not a Christian, you don’t have that hope. You have no hope. Because you are lost. And the only destination that the Bible says will come to those who are lost is eternal death, fire and damnation, and eternity in hell.

I don’t like that. I wish it weren’t so. But if it weren’t so, then we would all just live in whatever sin we wanted to live in. So there have to be consequences. But there is hope of reward if you’re a Christian. And do you have that? I mean, do you really have that? Or do you doubt your own salvation? Because if you do, then you’re not going to be able to rejoice in God. And you’re not going to praise him because he deserves it. Because you’re not really trusting in the salvation that God has provided. It is there through a life of trust and submission to the Father and to the Son. Through trusting in Him implicitly, not just with the mind, but also with our actions, we submit to whatever God has told us to do, realizing that those actions in and of themselves will not save us, but the grace and mercy of our God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So if you want to become a Christian, won’t you submit today? Won’t you believe in the gospel? Believe in Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins, and be immersed. And continue to live a life of immersion to the will of the Father. Won’t you come now and become a Christian as we stand and sing the song of invitation?