Episode Transcript
It's 10 o'clock and we're ready to begin our study this morning in Job chapter 5.
Job chapter 5 and we left off in verse 18 last week.
Good to see everybody here.
I love seeing the students seated, ready to learn.
That's the way I feel when I go down there.
It's the way I feel when I prepare for this lesson.
Seated at my computer with my E-Bible open and my concordance, and I'm just ready to read.
And I always ask God to teach me what you want me to know. and then help me to take good notes so I can tell others what you taught me.
And he has never failed to do that.
Our study last week was about how God makes soar and how He binds up.
How he wounds, and how he makes whole.
And we also discovered.
How God makes whole the ones whom Satan has wounded.
Just as Jesus taught us in the story we read about The woman whom Satan had bound for 18 years.
And now we're going to continue the study of this verse by looking at something the Apostle Paul wrote.
About the effect of the law on sinners.
In Romans chapter 3, verses 19 through 20.
Romans 3, 19 through 20, he wrote, Now we know that what things soever the law saith It saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh shall there be there shall be no flesh justified in his sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
No man can be made whole by the very law that condemns him.
The best the law can do for you is to show you that you are a sinner.
In Matthew chapter 9, verses 10 through 13 Matthew 9 verses 10 through 13 Jesus was in a house, and we're going to read the verse here in just a moment.
And just like he was on many occasions, he was confronted with.
Publicans and sinners, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the groups were different and of different mixtures each time.
But there were two things in common.
One, you had people who believed on him, and others did not.
And it says, And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners?
But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole, now that's what we're looking at in Job 5. 18, they that be whole need not a physician.
But they that are sick.
But go ye and learn what that meaneth.
I will have mercy and not sacrifice.
For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Now, what did we read in our text in Job 5:18?
We read, He woundeth.
And his hands make whole.
That's what Eliphaz said about God.
So, this is speaking of the Lord if we take it in the context it was written in in Job.
This is speaking of the Lord making whole those whom he has chastened, those who he has wounded in chastening.
Now, those who are wounded don't need to be made whole, physically speaking, here.
I don't go to the emergency department when I am whole, but when I'm wounded.
And the Pharisees were a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites.
They were very religious, as you may know.
And in their minds, they were whole.
And to them Jesus said, Well, only the sick need the physician.
And then he told them, he came.
To call sinners to repentance.
He came to call those who were wounded by the fall and who realized they were wounded and who wanted to be made whole.
They realized the law couldn't fix them.
It condemned them.
And they needed a physician to heal them.
And Jesus took those who were wounded and he made them whole, and he's still doing that today.
And you don't have to turn on the TV to try to find some miracle faith-healing so-called preacher.
That's just a sham.
The gospel is the balm in Gilead that gives health to God's people and makes them whole.
And not only did the Pharisees believe their own works made them whole, but so do many church members today.
If a church member points his finger at the Pharisees and says, boy, those were a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites, it'd be correct.
But what about so-called church members?
In the book of the Revelation, there in chapter 3, where Jesus addresses several of the churches, the one Whom we'll look at, or that we'll look at this morning is the church of Laodicea.
And in chapter 3, verse 17.
I'll read from that in just a moment.
If you're familiar with that church or from the study of Revelation, you remember some things.
You may remember it was called a lukewarm church.
Neither hot nor cold.
And Jesus said, I'll spew you out of my mouth.
But they had another problem.
And really, it was all one problem.
But they had another problem, and this was a problem with their view of themselves, how they saw themselves.
In verse 17, he said, Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.
Now that was their view of themselves, that they were just fine.
They had need of nothing.
And he said, And knowest not That thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Now that's the view they should have had of themselves rather than the view they did have of themselves.
They saw themselves as whole, and Jesus said, You're wounded.
The Laodiceans have a view of themselves as rich.
Jesus said, You're poor.
They saw themselves as needing nothing, much like the Pharisees saw themselves as whole and needing nothing.
Jesus said, You're wretched.
You're poor and blind and naked.
A wretched person is one who is enduring trials and troubles.
That's what that means in the Greek.
And because of that, he needs deliverance from those trials and troubles.
A miserable man, Jesus said there were miserable, a miserable man needs to be lifted up.
A poor man needs the basic necessities.
A blind man needs to be able to see.
A naked man needs to be clothed.
Imagine being wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, and not knowing it.
One comes by such a person and says, Well, you can't see, sir.
But the blind lay out of seeing says, Yes, I can.
Perhaps another tells him, You're poor, and he says, No, I'm rich.
And another says to him, You have no clothes on.
To which he replies, I am finely clothed.
Thank you.
And these are they who are wounded but believe they're whole.
And this is how most people respond when you try to tell them they're sinners and need to be saved.
They don't usually embrace you.
They tell you they're fine.
I've heard so many people say, Look, we're fine.
I remember a family years ago when my daughter, my middle daughter was in middle school, one of her best friends had a heart attack on the basketball court and died just before her eighth grade year.
And I found out about it when I was on my way to a job site, and I turned around and drove straight back to their house.
And as I sat with them, and the mother and dad, at one point I began to ask them, I said, Do you all have a church?
And they said, no.
And I said, okay, do you have a a pastor who you know, no?
They had no affiliation whatsoever.
And so we finally were able to find a place to have the services for her.
I don't envy any pastor who has to preach a funeral of someone whose salvation he's not sure about.
It's a terrible, terrible thing.
Because the families and the friends sometimes expect you to say, oh, she's a little angel in heaven.
But that's not how we preach the gospel.
But we also want to be sensitive and not say, as perhaps some have it at funerals, that he was unsaved.
We don't know their condition.
But along the way, as myself and other Christians tried to help this family, the wife, who was an avowed atheist, I found out, said, we're fine.
Those were her words, we're fine.
And she needed none of the gospel She needed none of the balm that would heal the wound that she had, not just from her daughter's death, but from the fact that she was lost.
And about three years ago, that woman hung herself in the garage, and her husband found her.
Terrible.
They tell you they're fine and they need none of your gospel.
So we go to the next one and we tell him he's poor and blind and wretched and naked.
And yet he says he's whole in his man-made religion.
And that's where many fall and are wounded and don't know it.
They sit in the pews of a church just like this.
But listen to John chapter 5, verses 5 through 9.
John chapter 5, verses 5 through 9.
And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
And when Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool.
But while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
And immediately the man was made whole.
And he took up his bed and walked, and on the same day was the Sabbath.
Now here was a man wounded.
By an infirmity, a health condition, for 38 years, and yet who desired to be made whole.
And Jesus made him whole.
And so our friend Eliphaz in Job chapter 5 has proclaimed a great truth to the wounded.
Specifically to those whom God has wounded, in the case of Job.
And he said to those, and I believe he has Job in view here.
That God's hands that wound make whole, that He makes whole, and we learn by extension to those whom Satan has wounded.
God's hands make whole.
Look in verse 19 with me now.
Speaking of the Lord, Eliphaz says, He shall deliver thee in six troubles.
Now, here the word deliver is to draw out or to pull out.
It comes from a root word that means to snatch away.
Now, picture a small child about to touch a hot stove.
And the child's father quickly pulls or snatches the child from the harm that is awaiting him.
That's the idea behind this word of deliver.
And that's how God delivers.
The thing about the hot stove is the trouble it represents is certain.
If the stove is hot, 100% of the time that you put your finger on it, you will be burned.
You may be burned a little more or a little less, depending on how quick your reflexes are, but you're going to be burned.
And the trouble is certain, it's harmful, its effects are devastating.
But God is quicker than those troubles.
He's quicker than we are.
He knows what we don't know.
And when he snatches us away in earthly trouble, when he delivers us from earthly trouble, it may not always be obvious to us.
In fact, we may never be aware that we were in trouble in the first place or that God delivered us.
I knew a young lady who wanted to marry her boyfriend, and she wanted to marry him so badly that she was willing to go against her father's wishes.
And at the last moment, this young man broke up with the young lady.
She was devastated.
She was heartbroken.
And she couldn't understand why he did this to her.
And that young man soon married another woman who became pregnant, and then he left her.
God delivered the first young lady in that trouble, even though she may not have thought so at the time.
God foresaw and he knew before the foundations of the world what kind of young man this was and what his character was.
And this is a vital truth for us to remember when we don't get something we badly want.
It may be that God is delivering us, that He's snatching us away in trouble.
We may already be in trouble and not know it.
And God snatches away by closing a door or opening another one.
And it will save us a lot of heartache if we'll think of our lives that way.
You can be bitter about the opportunities you had.
And thought should have come to pass.
You can be bitter about your lack of success in an area that you really desire to be successful in.
But God's sovereign.
He's in charge.
And because you're his child, he will deliver you.
In trouble, he will deliver you from trouble.
And our text says that he will deliver thee in six troubles.
Now, before we look at that, let's not let the word troubles get away from us before we define it.
The Hebrew word for it is translated as distress and affliction. adversity, and so on.
And here we're looking at six troubles.
Now what does the number six mean?
Well, we've studied some biblical numerology before, and it represents the number of man.
Listen to Revelation 13:18.
Here is wisdom.
Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.
And his number is 600 threescore and 6.
Now that's 666.
On the sixth day, God created man.
And understanding this, I believe, will help us understand the significance of six troubles.
And because the number six represents man, these six troubles in my estimation, represent all the earthly afflictions that a man may have All the troubles a person may experience while he's on this earth, and there are many, there are more than six, but six is representing man and man's troubles here.
In this verse, there's not an earthly trouble from which man is exempt.
I remember when I was a child and I had to receive the smallpox vaccination.
And in the 1980s, I wasn't a child anymore then, maybe by the law, but in the 1980s, the world Health Organization stated that smallpox had been eradicated worldwide.
Huh, that's a large statement to make, isn't it?
The earthly trouble of smallpox was no longer among us.
We were exempt from its trouble, or so they thought.
There are still active cases of smallpox in India, in Australia, and other countries.
So we're not free from this earthly trouble, not even that one.
Earthquakes, famines, pestilences.
And other troubles are still present with us.
Murders, thefts, fraud, all sorts of violence continue among human populations all over the world.
And we long to be delivered from these troubles.
Romans chapter 7, verses 18 through 24.
Romans 7, 18 through 24.
Paul said, For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.
For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not.
For the good that I would, or that I want to do, I do not.
But the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now, if I do that I would not, or that is what I don't want to do, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am!
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Boy, the Apostle Paul had a different attitude than those Laodiceans Jesus addressed.
He said, Know ye not that you're wretched.
And Paul said, I am wretched.
The Apostle Paul was painfully aware of the sin nature that still dwelt in his flesh.
He wanted to do well, and he delighted in the law of God after the inward or the inner man.
But as long as he lived in this fleshly body, There was a war between his flesh and the inner man.
He was a wretched man, a pitiable man.
And what did he want?
Did he want riches or fame, restored health?
Oh, he asked the Lord to take that.
Thorn in the flesh from him three times, and God said, No, my grace is sufficient for you.
No, he wanted deliverance from the body of this death.
And if we may tap into our home verse there in Job, we could say Paul wanted deliverance from the six troubles.
It wasn't that he had only six troubles.
Oh, if he could only keep the law, perhaps he could avoid some of those troubles, but he could not.
At least he knew he was wretched.
Now, friend, the troubles the Apostle Paul had afflict you and me as well.
And we need to be delivered from six troubles.
We need to be delivered from all the earthly troubles of men.
And we have the promise.
It's given to us by the psalmist in chapter 34, verse 19.
That's Psalm 34, 19.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all, regardless of what happens to you here on this earth, Christian.
God will deliver you from all of it, whether in life or in death.
I've told, I think, this before, but it's been a while, so I know you forgot it.
I had a great uncle, Riley Caspar McKinney.
And he loved the Lord.
He was dying of stomach cancer in the hospital.
And when you'd go in to encourage him, he ended up encouraging you.
And he said, Hey, either way it's going to get better.
Either I'm going to be delivered from this cancer, or I'm going to be delivered from this cancerous body.
He was ready to go meet the Lord if the Lord healed him, fine.
If the Lord healed him in death by taking him from that trouble, he was fine with that.
In fact, that's what he preferred.
And the Lord took him.
But there's yet another trouble.
And we see it in our text.
Look back at Job chapter 5, verse 19.
Yea, in seven.
There shall no evil touch thee.
The Lord will deliver you in six troubles, yea, in seven, there shall no evil touch thee.
Or in seven troubles there shall no evil touch thee.
Now, just as we looked at the number six that represented man, let's look at the number seven.
And in the Bible, seven represents divine perfection.
And as is the case with the application of numerology to the verses in the Bible.
There are probably several opinions about what six troubles are, what seven troubles are, and I grant there are men more scholarly than I over the ages and even now who have perhaps varying opinions.
On that.
But I'll offer you my studied opinion, and you take that for what it's worth.
And I want to keep it as true to the scriptures as I can.
Don't want to stray from them.
I think that's the best way to safely do something like this.
If six troubles represent all the earthly troubles a man can have, then that must mean there is yet another trouble that awaits man, one that this earth cannot dispense.
And that seventh trouble is the one that awaits man after he dies.
It's the ultimate trouble a man will face.
Psalm chapter 37 Verses 38 through 39.
Psalm 37, verses 38 through 39.
But the transgressors shall be destroyed together.
The end of the wicked shall be cut off, but the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord, he is their strength in time of trouble.
Now, just like the righteous, the wicked also have six troubles.
They have all the troubles of man that we have.
We have all the troubles of man that they have.
They suffer the same things we do.
Disease.
Christians die of disease every day.
Lost people die of disease every day.
Violence.
I read this morning once again of 24 women and children being shot to death by the murderous Muslims in Nigeria.
And every time I see that, I pray for Brother Wisdom and say, Lord, keep him safe.
Thank you for such a bold man in the faith who's willing to.
Not just believe the gospel, but proclaim it and have a school based upon the teaching of the Bible and put it all over Facebook.
Christians and lost people alike suffer thefts, and Christians and lost people alike die.
And although death delivers the wicked from the six troubles, it does not deliver them from the seventh trouble.
How does it deliver them from the six troubles?
Or they're dead.
Their crimes can no longer be punished by an earthly court.
They've been delivered from the sentence of the district judge or from the disease that racked their frail bodies unto death.
They've been delivered by the grave.
But their greatest trouble, and they've always had it, but it shows up the moment they close their eyes in death, that last heartbeat.
Revelation chapter 20, verses 11 through 15 is a very familiar passage, and I refer to it often for different reasons.
Revelation 20, verses 11 through 15, but we're going to use it to make this point about the six and seven troubles.
John wrote, And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.
And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
The scene about which we just read, in my estimation, is the seventh trouble a man will face.
This trouble is the one from which the wicked man will not be delivered.
In death, he presumed he would be delivered from his sixth trouble.
And he was.
He doesn't suffer from his illness.
He no longer has to endure the stress of his workplace or the family arguments and problems there.
They're over.
But it's the seventh trouble from which he has no escape, no deliverance.
And while he lived, he rejected the gospel.
That had the power to deliver him from the seventh trouble.
He was one of those who said, Well, if God is so good, why does he let good thing or bad things happen to good people?
He does not understand God, he does not understand man.
Or perhaps he said he was whole, as the Pharisees did, and needed no physician.
Perhaps he even said he had no trouble as the Laodiceans and as the rich man who sought to build more barns for his excess harvest.
However, the righteous will not only be delivered in six troubles, but in seven.
And going back in that 20th chapter of Revelation where we just read about the second death, the sentence upon those who died in unbelief, I want to read chapter 20, verse 6.
It says, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.
On such the second death hath no power.
But they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Do you see that?
The righteous are delivered in six troubles.
Yea, in seven troubles they are delivered.
And there's the answer to the question the Apostle Paul asked, the answer which he already knew.
Who shall deliver him from this the body of this death?
It's the Lord, the one who delivers man in six troubles, yea, in seven.
To further enlarge on this wonderful truth, let's go back to when man sinned in the Garden of Eden.
Now, Adam and Eve had already eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that tree in the midst of the garden.
God told them not to.
And now, because they had eaten of it, they would experience the six troubles about which Eliphaz spoke.
Now listen to what happened after that in Genesis chapter 3, verse 22.
They've already sinned.
Genesis 3, 22.
And the Lord said, Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil, and now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever.
Now God had already told man that in the day he ate that fruit, he would surely die.
And here he tells us why he would kick them out of the garden so they would not take of the tree of life and eat and live forever.
Had man first sinned and then eaten of the tree of life in the garden, he would have lived forever as a sinner.
I can't think of a worse sentence than that.
All the troubles that come with sin would be on him for all eternity.
And if you think about it, this is how merciful God is, even to the unbelieving sinner.
That even in his disobedience and final unbelief, God would deliver him from six troubles by imposing the sentence of death upon his flesh.
Oh, he'd suffer for all eternity in his unbelief.
But from the seventh trouble, he would deliver only those whose trust was in him.
And he demonstrated that when he clothed them in the animal skins to picture the salvation he would accomplish and which would deliver them in seven troubles.
Now you take what was taught here, search the scriptures, see if it is sound, and I don't claim this to be the only sound interpretation of the six and seven troubles, but I think it's worth consideration.
And looking at the next few verses, we're going to see examples of some of the six troubles from which God delivers man.
Here's one, verse 20.
We're back in Job chapter 5, verse 20.
In famine, he shall redeem thee from death.
Let's look at the first record of a famine in the Bible.
It's found in Genesis chapter 12 and verse 10.
Genesis 12 and verse 10, which says, And there was a famine in the land, and Abram, this is before his name was changed to Abraham.
Abram. went down into Egypt to sojourn there for the famous famine, excuse me, the famine was grievous in the land.
This is a bad time to become dyslexic, isn't it?
I thought when you hit 60, you might not have that problem.
When God created man and put him in the garden, there was an abundance of food.
There would never be a famine in the garden.
The water supply was endless, and it was perfectly dispensed by the Lord Himself.
There was no sin, so there were none of the consequences of sin.
In Jeremiah chapter 11, the men of Anathoth conspired against the prophet Jeremiah, who cried out to the Lord in prayer.
And God answered Jeremiah in verses 21 through 23.
That's Jeremiah 11, 21 through 23.
And he said this, Therefore, thus saith the Lord, of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life.
Saying, Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will punish them.
The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine, and there shall be no remnant of them, for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth.
Even the year of their visitation or punishment.
Now, from that passage, and not that one alone, but from that one, we may learn that famine is a result of sin.
There was no famine in the garden.
Earthly famines have occurred since man fell in sin.
In Genesis chapter 3, verses 17 through 19, Genesis 3, 17 through 19.
God speaking to Adam, it says, And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake.
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground for out of it thou wast taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.
In the garden there was abundance, there was no famine.
And the ground was not cursed, it was blessed.
There was no sorrow, no toiling, no death.
But as we read in those three verses just now, after sin, the best man could do in the way of agricultural prosperity Was to farm accursed ground.
I've seen some beautiful, beautiful cotton fields out in West Texas where I grew up.
That's the only time West Texas is pretty, by the way, around Lubbock, is when the cotton is green and when the bowls are forming before they defoliate it and it's ugly.
But those farmers, as good as they were, as studied as they were in the application of the fertilizers and the weed control and the soil composition, very complicated When you get down to the rudiments of it in chemistry and all of that, they were still farming accursed ground.
Having to deal with weeds, thorns, thistles, having to plant and water and harvest with their own hands and with their own equipment.
And some years would be good years and others would be lean years.
There would be famines from time to time.
This is worldwide.
And you know what a famine ought to do?
It ought to remind us of the consequences of sin.
When somebody dies, among the many things we think of, we should remember the wages of sin is death.
We're going to die.
And that ought to draw us closer to the Lord.
And although the famines would remind man of sin, or should.
They would also remind man of God's deliverance from the famine.
Listen to what God said about this very thing in Deuteronomy chapter 11.
Verses 13 through 15.
Deuteronomy chapter 11, verses 13 through 15.
And it shall come to pass.
If ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul. that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
God did this for Israel over and over again, even when Like Abram, Israel looked to Egypt during times of famine.
It did that during Abram's time.
He did it during when Joseph and his brothers ended up in Egypt.
Do you know why they were there in the first place?
Their father sent them there to look for corn during the famine.
Now listen, our text here says in famine, going back in Job 5, 19, he says in famine Look at the next few words as we close here.
He shall redeem thee from death.
Of course, a physical famine can lead to a physical death in its extreme form.
For those who are affected by it.
And the word for redeem here is also translated as the word ransom or deliver, even rescued.
A famine holds its victims hostage.
If they can't escape the famine, they have no escape from the consequences of the famine.
They can't produce food on demand.
The dirt's not fit to eat.
The famine brings sickness and weakness and eventually death.
Where they die is where they lie.
It's a miserable, torturous death that famine brings.
All a hungry person wants during a famine is a bite of food.
He doesn't care if it's day old bread, slightly burned meat or bruised apple.
He knows the continued lack of food will lead to death, and unless someone ransoms him from that, From its clutches, he will surely die.
In famine, God redeems us from death.
And next week, God willing, we'll look at the spiritual truth we learn about being delivered from famine.
I'm looking forward to studying that.
Father, thank you for all who have come and tuned in this morning.
Lord, for your spirit as you teach us your word.
And Father, we pray that this would build us up into faith.
It'd cause us to think and to study and to love your word more.
And we pray during the next hour you'll give our pastor the same grace that you gave me today to be able to teach what you've shown him in his study, and that the people here will listen, our distractions will be set aside.
And, Father, that we'll be built up in the faith, that we may go forward as a shining light in this dark world, presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who most need it.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
