Walking with a crucified Redeemer (Quality Good)

[0:00] God has given help to venture in directing your thoughts to the book of Job, the 19th chapter, reading verse 21.

[0:15] The book of Job, chapter 19, reading verse 21. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me.

[0:44] I would just further turn to Psalm 22.

[1:13] As we would commence our meditation. And as the Lord may help me, our meditation will still be, as it were, centred upon a crucified redeemer.

[1:38] But as the Lord brings his beloved people to walk just a little, it can only be a little, in fellowship with his sufferings.

[1:57] And I'm just going to read from Psalm 22, which is a psalm of David. We know that it is prophetic.

[2:09] But we also know this, that King David, as it was with Job and many others, as recorded in the word of God, who were brought, as with the Apostle Paul, to not only desire, but to walk in their measure in this.

[2:36] That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death.

[2:57] We shall only walk a little with Christ in his sufferings, as our life and our path is sanctified to us.

[3:09] How vital this is. We so need sanctifying grace to be upon our life and in our path, that it might be used.

[3:26] And we do thank God whenever it is used to bring us near to our Lord. And when we do, walk a little with him.

[3:38] As I mentioned this morning, in the morning text and the word then that we had to read before you, and I believe the Lord did give me just a glimpse of its meaning yesterday morning.

[3:54] And how very sacred, when we are brought even to have a glimpse of Christ in his sufferings.

[4:09] He trusted in God. Let him deliver him now, if he will have him. For he said, I am the Son of God.

[4:25] And then in the midst of his sufferings, and as we sang in our closing hymn this morning, but the awful stroke that found him was the stroke that justice gave.

[4:40] As the Lord Jesus Christ sent the divine sentence of justice that fell upon his sacred head.

[4:54] And as he bore away in his own body the sins of all his people. Dear friends, I must seek to remind you this evening, that there can be no heaven without it.

[5:09] There can be no salvation without it. And what we so need, and what you will be concerned about in your life, you'll ask the Lord to sanctify to you even your deepest distress.

[5:27] And when it is really sanctified, it will bring you to this, that the Lord would use it to bring you near to your Lord. Left to ourselves, we shall fight, we shall kick, we shall rebel against God's dealings.

[5:45] When sanctifying grace is granted to us, we shall then long to be brought to Jesus. We shall then long to be brought to Calvary.

[5:56] And this is where it will bring you in the exercise of your soul. But you may say, he wept, he bled, he died for me.

[6:09] What more, ye saints, could Jesus do? That is where the Lord will bring us. We shall be brought to consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest we be wearied and faint in our minds.

[6:29] And when the Lord does bring us, as it were, just a little, to gaze on a deep so profound, and it is beyond our human comprehension.

[6:40] But I know no other way of trying to convey these solemn, sacred truths before you than this, than I believe it is as the Lord leads his people in their life, and as he brings them into things and sanctifies it to them, and as he uses it to give them a glimpse of their Saviour.

[7:02] And that, dear friend, will put everything right in your life. If you're favoured with a glimpse of your Saviour, in his sufferings and in his death for you, whatever you may be called upon to bear will seem as nothing in the light of it.

[7:24] He trusted in God. Think of these people, these wicked men. He trusted in God. Let him deliver him now.

[7:36] If he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God. And as I said this morning, it was as though they said concerning Christ, He's finished. He's a finished man.

[7:50] That is how they viewed him. They couldn't see beyond this, as his beloved people and his beloved disciples were brought to view and to see.

[8:09] But here you see the Lord of life and glory must come. And I just think again of that which he suffered before he gave his life, before he cried out, it is finished.

[8:28] He was brought into this, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken? I wonder if any of you have been in such a place this week.

[8:41] In the midst of all your anguish and distress in your soul, what has outweighed everything else has been this, that you may have felt forsaken, forsaken by God.

[8:56] And what a place it is to come into. We shall know something of it. We shall cry out in our measure, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

[9:15] But oh, if it is to give you just a glimpse of your Saviour in his sufferings, to be brought to consider him, to be favoured in your soul to see, and oh, to be able to say, all this was done for you.

[9:40] Now, this evening then, first of all, we just read where David came to. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

[9:53] The psalmist David was no stranger to this. we know that the Lord of life and glory, as it is spoken of, concerning David.

[10:07] He was David's greatest son, and yet David called him Lord. But here he says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

[10:19] Why art thou so far from helping me? And from the words of my roaring, I might, I feel reverently say that King David was at Calvary here.

[10:31] This is what I desire to be enabled to bring before you tonight. To those of you that are here, who have prayed and longed, although you've trembled in asking, that you might be brought to Calvary, that you might be brought into Gethsemane, to the Judgment Hall.

[10:53] And this, of course, is the work of the Spirit within the heart. When we are compelled to pray in such a way, and yet tremble in asking, that I think again of the lines of the hymn which is so expressive, that where it says, conduct, bless, guide, and that, of course, is the Holy Ghost, no other way that we shall come to Calvary but by the Holy Ghost.

[11:23] Conduct, bless, guide, thy sinner train to Calvary where the Lamb was slain and with us there abide. Have you been there of late?

[11:36] Have you been there of late, dear friend? Has the Lord brought you there? And then what does he say? not only the desire to be brought to Calvary and with us there abide, but that we might weep o'er his pierced hands and feet and view his wounded side.

[12:05] Now these are the longings of a living soul. And when the Lord reveals to us that what he may lead us into and bring us into is so often in answer to prayer.

[12:19] We sometimes look back to occasions when we prayed such a prayer as this, search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

[12:36] We may have prayed that we might be led into Gethsemane, to the judgment hall, and to Calvary. And then when the Lord begins to answer our cries in what he may lead us into and bring us that he might bring us there.

[12:56] You see, we need this revelation to understand what the Lord is doing with us. And the dear psalmist comes to this, they cried unto thee and were delivered.

[13:12] Speaking of, he says, our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered.

[13:22] They trusted in thee and were not confounded. And some of us here tonight can say amen to this. We know it's true. Some of you, I'm sure, can look back in your life and you think of dear fathers or mothers or grandparents and you know the Lord was with them.

[13:42] You know the Lord sanctified their life. You were sometimes in their company when they spoke of the sufferings of Christ and when they spoke of being brought to Calvary.

[13:55] But here the dear psalmist goes on and he says, but I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. You see, this is the path that the Lord's people must walk in.

[14:13] All they that see me laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake their head, saying, and think of it, here we have the very same words really to the text this morning.

[14:25] He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him, let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. So you'll see that the psalmist knew what it was to come indeed to Calvary.

[14:44] And later on he says, many bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round, they gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion.

[14:56] I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels, my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

[15:20] See, the Lord led the psalmist to Calvary, and so he did Job. And now with the Lord's help then, we come to this word that Job cries out in the distress that he was in.

[15:44] and you can read the chapter through again as the Lord may move you to do so, and if he does move you to do so, the Lord help you to read it through and to pray over it.

[15:59] But here the Lord brings his servant to this, have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me.

[16:13] Now this is where I desire to come to. Now when we are brought by the Lord in our life to rightly understand the Lord's dealings with us, you will notice here that Job is not saying a word about anything or anyone, but he is coming straight to the point, to the very crux of the matter, and he says, for the hand of God hath touched me.

[16:49] And this is where the Lord will bring us. This is where the Lord will bring us. He will bring us to this, dear friends. He will bring us to this in our souls.

[17:03] He will bring us away from everything and everyone to this point, from time to time. Can any of you speak like this tonight, and can any of us say, as we consider our life, for the hand of God hath touched me?

[17:21] Now the Lord help us then in our meditation. the book of Job is a very ancient book.

[17:35] I feel it right to say so. I'm not going for a moment to suggest when Job lived or at what time in history.

[17:46] But the very nature of the book and the very way that it is worded, it reveals this, that it is a very ancient book. It goes back many, many years.

[18:00] And that in one way makes it all the more wonderful, all the more sacred. And dear friends, it is a description of this dear man Job.

[18:13] And if we really carefully consider the whole book, I feel we could say this, that it is primary concern with Job and what the Lord did with him and what the Lord was pleased to teach him.

[18:33] And you well know what took place in the beginning of this chapter and I'm going to pause here. If any of you should ask the question tonight, why should Job suffer as he did?

[18:49] Why did he have to endure what he had to endure? Why did God permit the devil to go forth from his presence to do what he did?

[19:00] And God permitted the devil to do it. But why must Job endure all these things? And as the Lord took him by the hand and gave him a glimpse of his majesty, power and glory, well I can tell you, it was to this end.

[19:21] It was to bring Job into the dust. It was to bring him in gospel terms as it were to the feet of Jesus. And I'm sure of this that in Job in looking back over his life and in those things particularly that are recorded here, I believe the dear man could thank God for it.

[19:48] And I believe with the Lord's people from time to time, and it will certainly be so when they come to glory, they will praise him for all through which they have passed.

[20:02] You wouldn't have one thing altered when you come to die as you view the Lord's mercy and the Lord's goodness to you. And all that he has done for you, and all that you may have had to walk in and pass through, when you come to the end of it all, you'll see, as it were, from the beginning to the end, that it has been in love to your soul.

[20:27] And it may well have been, and what a mercy when it is, in love to the souls of others. So he cries out then, have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye, my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me.

[20:49] Now the object and end then, and as I mentioned this morning, concerning the lines that were once given to me, and I remember this part of it, this refining process, involves for thee a cross, involves for thee a cross.

[21:16] I just go back to the morning subject for a moment, and ask this question once more this evening, has God given you a cross? Do you know that God has given it to you?

[21:31] Has the Lord revealed why he's given you your cross? Oh, I had to say this this morning, and I must say it again this evening, the cross is sent to purge thy pride, and make thee more like him.

[21:48] And this is just what took place in the life of Job. You see, in the first place, as it is recorded, Job was very favoured, he was very blessed.

[22:01] And the Bible says this concerning Job, indeed, God said to the devil, hast thou considered, my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, and one that feareth God and estueth evil?

[22:21] Well, let me make it clear, as I have sought to do in the past, that as God viewed Job, and as he saw him to be perfect, he of course never saw this in Job himself as a man.

[22:37] But Job's perfection was in Christ. And this is where the perfection of every child of God is found.

[22:49] It is in Jesus Christ. It is in him alone. And in Jesus Christ, every blood-bought, redeemed soul is seen to be perfect.

[23:05] And when they come to the end of their life, and as God views them in Christ, it can then be said of them, mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.

[23:20] But now God prospered Job. He prospered him. He prospered him in the things of this life.

[23:33] And it is recorded concerning him, and it is the record of the Holy Spirit, that he was the greatest of all the men of the East. Think of it.

[23:43] what a position of honour and God-given favour that man was put into. And until Satan went forth from the Lord's presence, he had been highly favoured.

[24:01] He'd been favoured in his life, with his all that he possessed. He'd been favoured with his children, and all that that meant.

[24:12] And yet, Job must go into the crucible. Job must know what it was to be put in the fire. But it was God's fire.

[24:28] You see, there's such a contrast here to the awful fire of hell. And who can begin to understand or to enter into what that will mean?

[24:43] only those who are given a glimpse of what hell is, and as they know something of it, and I'm not a stranger to this, when they feel the hell of sin within, and feel the bitter anguish and the loathsome stench of sin, will make your spirits languish.

[25:05] death. But what a contrast between the fire of hell, where the lost will fall into, where they will be sent from the great white throne, depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

[25:27] friends, as you may view these things tonight, if God has delivered you from hell, and brought you through the gateway of regeneration into the fold of Christ, and you're found in the narrow way that leads to life eternal, you'll not be a stranger to the fire of God in this sense, grace, as he puts you in the crucible.

[26:00] Yet what a mercy, I repeat it, what a mercy if our dross is burned up. We shall not be a stranger to what the hymn writer speaks of when he said, thou my dross and tin consume, let thine inward kingdom come, you will know that you have so much dross.

[26:22] it is recorded in the book of Nehemiah that the strength of the bearers of burdens was decayed, and there was much rubbish. Oh, you'll be made to feel in your heart that there's much rubbish.

[26:37] You'll know that you need this refining. You'll know that you need purging. You'll know that it must be burned up. But what a contrast. To know what it is to feel the correcting chastening hand of God here.

[26:56] For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. And this will mean, dear friend, that you must go into the fire.

[27:09] Well, Job went into the fire. What a fire he went into. You can read those first two chapters as you may desire to, or be moved to do.

[27:23] But if you read the first two chapters of the book of Job, you'll read there yet again what God permitted. Now, the Lord help us then to think like this for a moment.

[27:38] Satan, the devil, has awful power. But it is power which God has given to him.

[27:56] But you will remember that the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And when God said to the devil, 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 estueth evil?

[28:21] And then the devil begins. Hast thou not set a hedge about him and all that he hath on every side, but as though the devil would say, take it all away, take all thy favours away from him, and he will curse thee to thy face.

[28:39] well, the devil is still permitted to go to and fro in the earth.

[28:56] Dear friends, a child of God will not be a stranger to the devil. We shall know that there is a devil. we shall know something of what it is to feel his power.

[29:13] Have you ever had to cry out that the Lord would deliver you from his power? Have you ever known what it is to feel the devil, as it were, right inside you?

[29:23] Have you known what it is to feel the devil standing at your right hand to resist you? This is what he does with every heaven-bound pilgrim. he's always standing at their right hand to resist them.

[29:38] Do you know what it is to feel his presence, his awful presence? Have you known what it is to feel and to know the presence of the devil in your life?

[29:49] Have you known what it is to feel the devil's presence in your home? Oh, have you known something of this?

[30:00] when you've really felt the devil to be near? I'm not just saying these things as a matter of course, but I'm speaking them to you tonight because of what I feel.

[30:17] I'm not a stranger to this awful fire, and neither will you be. And it's an evidence that you're among the Lord's people, because let me remind you that the devil, with everyone that is in his kingdom, he leaves them alone, he urges them on to destruction.

[30:39] But a child of God, from the moment that their soul is quickened into life, he will oppose them and oppose them and oppose them in all kinds of ways.

[30:54] Now the Lord then permitted the devil to go forth and to do what he did in Job's life. And I feel tonight that I must seek the Lord's help to keep, as it were, very close to this.

[31:17] Job must go into the fire, because the Lord knew that he needed refining. He knew that this was necessary.

[31:31] I feel that I have the word of God with me when I say this, because Job himself, in speaking of his former life, and if you read the 29th chapter of this book, you'll see there what Job was favoured with.

[31:54] But among other things he said this, I sat chief. He was highly favoured. He was highly respected.

[32:07] And yet the Lord so dealt with him that he was brought away from everything and everyone. And in this chapter that we've been reading, why, and I just read this among other things, he says, my breath is strange to my wife, though I am treated for the children's sake of mine own body.

[32:34] You see, the Lord dealt with Job in this way that he would bring him away from all his possessions, his children, his friends, and everything.

[32:46] He must be brought away from it all. now in the Lord's dealings with his people, this is where he will bring us in our measure. He will, my friend.

[32:58] He will bring us away from everything and everyone in his dealings with us. Oh, the mercy of it, that the devil could only go so far.

[33:19] A friend was speaking to me some while ago about the things that were going on in their life, and it was not one of our own people here, but one was speaking of the things that had happened in their life, and the hand of God was upon them in their providential path.

[33:44] The Lord's hand was placed upon them, and they had to cry out that the Lord would spare their life. death. And you see, friends, the Lord said to the devil on the second occasion, and I've had to think of this, and so will you as you are led into it, and I need the right thing to do is just to turn and read it to you.

[34:17] And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life.

[34:30] Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. Have you known a little of what this means in your life?

[34:43] But the Lord has said, friend, concerning you, but save his life. and your life is hid with Christ in God.

[34:56] Therefore, that life is secure, can never be taken from you. I do not know if there are any here tonight who have been so tempted by the devil that you perhaps have had such thoughts as this, that you would do away with your own life, you would take your own life.

[35:20] You may even have attempted to do so. You may have had the thought in your heart to do so. Oh, the Lord's mercy to his dear people.

[35:32] And I'm sure of this, that he will never permit one of his dear people to take their life. He says concerning them, to the devil himself, but save his life.

[35:49] So then the Lord brought his servant into the crucible. He must come into this refining process. And what was it for?

[36:01] It was to bring him to a place where I believe he'd never been before in the same way. And I'm going to ask you all a question here tonight, at this point.

[36:15] Have you ever been brought in your life as before God to say, behold, I am vile.

[36:27] Have you ever had to say that before God in secret? I have. I've known what it is to feel it in measure. Behold, I am vile.

[36:41] God will come. But you see, this was the path to deliverance. This was the way in which God dealt with his servant.

[36:53] And what was the end and object of it all? Well, it was this. I'm going to use the lines of a hymn to express it as gold from the flame.

[37:08] he will bring thee at last to praise him for all through which thou hast passed till love everlasting thy grief shall repay and God from thine eyes wipe all sorrows away.

[37:25] Job could look back when the Lord delivered him and thank God for it all. Have we been able to thank God for affliction?

[37:35] have we been able to thank God for his dealings with us? Oh, it's something very precious when we have been favoured to do so. When we've been able to say with the psalmist, it is good for me that I have been afflicted.

[37:54] Amen.