Missing the Mark Series: Our Thoughts Affect Our Words and Actions

Missing the Mark Series: Our Thoughts Affect Our Words and Actions

Turn with me to Job chapter 2. Job chapter 2. We've been taking some messages to look at the various different ways that we, well, we miss the mark when we sin and the nature of that sin. But here we are in Job chapter 2 this morning, and we want to see our lives and even our sins, our failure to stand when we ought to have stood. We want to see that from God's perspective. So what a wonderful place to look this morning in Job chapter 2. So let's read here together in Job chapter 2.

The sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? That there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil. Still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause. And Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thy hand, and I will give thee. And Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life.

So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What, shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

And let's go on. Let's mark our Bibles to this portion of Scripture for our text this morning. Job chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. Let's ask God's blessing upon what we have read. Our Father, we know, even as we were singing, the choir was singing that hymn just a few moments ago. Speaking of the whisper of love, we are reminded of how, how it is that you speak to us. We believe that you speak to us through your word. The Holy Spirit illuminating the word and enlightening our understanding to understand what your word says and bringing that to our remembrance, Lord.

How often when stressed and pressed by the test, we go to you in prayer, and we are told, even in our Sunday school hour this morning, we were seeing in 1 Thessalonians, that we ought to pray without ceasing. We ought not to stop praying, and as we call upon you, Lord, we sense that you're speaking to us through your word as we read it, and also by bringing to our remembrance the things you've already said unto us. What more do we need? What more do we need? What more do we need? What more do you need to say to us than what you've already said? You've given us everything we need. All things that pertain to life and godliness are provided in Christ Jesus and revealed in your word.

And so help us, Lord, whatever we may be facing. Lord, help us not to sin with our lips. Help us not to sin in our hearts and in our minds and the way we think about it, Lord. Help us not to sin against thee in our actions, Lord. Help us to hide your word in our heart that we might not sin against thee. But that we might have a right response, not a foolish one, but a right response to your dealings with us. Help us to have that wisdom, Lord. Bless this passage to our hearts this morning as we look at it and the passage unfolds to our understanding. May it be a benefit. May it be a challenge. May it be a strength. May it be a blessing. Strength through us as we draw upon it in the days to come. And we'll give you the glory for these things. In Jesus' name, amen.

This passage of scripture this morning is showing a situation in, really in the heavenlies where there is a spiritual warfare. The stage is being set for spiritual warfare. And then we see the fallout of it, really, throughout this book. And there are going to be intense physical trials, of course. But along with those physical trials, there come spiritual, how do we think about those things? How do we think about those things? How do we respond? Well, it's going to depend a lot on how we're thinking about it. How do we think about God in it? How do we think about others? How am I to respond to others? How am I to respond to others in the midst of the weight of the things that God is allowing to come to my life?

We certainly see here that Satan is, well, we see the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. Perhaps this is very much like what we read later on in the book. In Job 38, if you turn over there with me in Job 38, it says, well, this is in the context in Job 38, where the Lord began, began speaking, and after a lot of speaking, it's happened. A lot of talk has happened, particularly the talk of these three professed friends of Job. And then the Lord begins asking his own questions and making his own statements even here to Job. In Job 38, verse number 4, the Lord is asking, Job, where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. When we look in Hebrews, we understand by faith how the worlds were formed, don't we?

We understand that by faith. We weren't there. Job wasn't there either, even though he was before us. He, before God, before Jesus Christ, there was nothing formed. There was nothing made that was made. And without him, there would not be life. And so he asked Job this question, where were you? Where were you? When I laid the foundations of the earth. Declare, if thou hast understanding. If you would be interviewed today, and someone thought you looked like some famous person, some, you know, biophysicist, or, you know, some nuclear engineer, rocket scientist, whatever, maybe some of you are, I don't know, but if you, I think maybe you have one here, but we have a rocket scientist, and someone comes up to you and they think, well, this must be so-and-so, the famous rocket scientist. And they begin to ask you questions about fission and fusion and all these kinds of things, and you go, I don't even remember what I learned in grade school about that, you know? You might, you could open your mouth and reveal your ignorance very quickly about these things, because if you don't know, you don't know. And Job, these questions are obvious, that Job's not going to know the answer to these questions. It's here in verse number five, who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? Do you know all these details, Job? Whereupon are the foundations? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof?

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? It's, commentators seem to have somewhat of a consensus on the sons of God may not necessarily be taught, it's, you know, we see sons used in the context a number of times where it's not talking about, it's not talking about direct offspring, per se, in the sense of a, you know, Paul's son in the faith was Timothy or Titus. Are these sons of God shouting for joy? Is this during the creation week? Is this talking about, is this a reference to the angels? Well, these sons of God, I think about the sons of the prophets. They weren't literally the biological, necessarily descendants of the prophets, but they were, instructed by the prophets. And we certainly see that God is the author, the creator of all.

Whatever the specifics of this are, it is apparent that Satan is appearing to the Lord to present this matter to him as the sons of God came to present themselves to the Lord. He came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And what does he say? The Lord said unto Satan, from whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth, walking up and down in it. Is that not what he's still doing according to the scripture? He's walking about, the scripture says, as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And what is he doing here? He's looking for an opportunity to destroy something. Or more specifically, to destroy someone. He wants, just like he did with Peter, desired to sift him as wheat.

He desired to destroy him. But the Lord Jesus would say to Peter, but I have prayed for thee, that thy fate fail not. Satan, he doesn't know how to do anything. He can't create anything. He only knows how to deceive and destroy and divide. That's his work. And he is desiring in this passage to destroy him. To destroy Job. Just know that when God is testing us, Satan has a desire to… God does not want to destroy us. That's not his heart. He wants to strengthen us. He wants us to rely fully upon him and learn and receive his patience through the test. But Satan's desire is to destroy. We mentioned last week, in that passage, where the brother that had sinned in gross fornication, evidently he had thoroughly repented of his sin.

It wasn't a crocodile tear sort of situation. He had repented, made the matter right, was humbled, and Paul was now saying to them, you need to restore this brother who has thoroughly, he's acknowledged his sin, he's repented before God, and you need to, you need to receive such a one. Don't, what's going to happen if you don't? Satan's going to get an advantage over us. Satan is going to get an advantage. And we even looked at that passage last week at how, you know, needing to, falling or failing when we needed to stand. And that's something that the Corinthians were not doing. They should have stood and they should have dealt with this matter, but Paul had to come in and shake them up. And say, you should have judged this matter in your midst, but you're not doing it.

Instead, your brother is going to a law with brother over petty matters, really, smaller matters that you ought to just take, you ought to deal with, appoint those even the least among you to judge based on the Scriptures, based upon the truth, judge between you what is right. And you ought to resolve these matters among yourselves. But he says, Satan is going to get an advantage over us. He's going to claim more. He's going to have more than is due if you don't restore this brother. And we know that the devil wants, he's always looking to take advantage of every possible situation to deceive, destroy, divide, and discourage. He's waiting. I think of passages of Scripture that, you know, where it talks about the wicked. They're watching the righteous.

They're looking for their fall. They're waiting for an opportunity. Just like those liars in wait. They're sitting in the hedge row just beside the way and they're looking. They're hoping that their foot will get caught in the snare, so to speak. They're looking for them to stumble in any way. And that's because that's the way the devil is. He's looking for, for any weakness. I know I told my wife when she moved, when we got married and I said, you know, I know you walked around town at night sometimes in the evening in Spain because the climate was a little different there. I said, but first of all, I don't think my wife hardly ever goes to a store without me after it's even remotely dark. But if you ever, I mean, not even just in the dark, I said, walk with purpose.

You know, be aware of your surroundings. Don't be paranoid, but be circumspect in so many words. Be sober. Be vigilant. Because there are people. And now, I've got the volume turned all the way up on my wife. She's watching out for our kids now that same way, you know. She'll give someone the evil eye if they are looking too hard at our children sometimes. Well, all that to be said, all that being said, spiritually speaking, the devil is looking to take advantage. Just like those that are looking. Is that person, they don't know where the car is. They're wandering aimlessly. They're on their phone. They're distracted. Spiritually speaking, are we that same way that the devil would want, could take advantage? Well, here we have a man who's not that way.

He is fearing God. He is, offering, burnt offering, saying, you know, I want to give everything. The Lord has blessed me with this, but I want to commit it all to him and serve him. And we have this, have this man who is, is keeping a circumspect walk. And the Lord said unto Satan, verse 3, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that, feareth God and escheweth evil? Still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause. Have you considered this one? He is a man, not that he is, he's above, that he wasn't born a sinner. I'm not saying that. The word's not saying that, but he's a man that has, he does not have a mere form of godliness.

He has real, he's really godly. He really fears me. He really walks the talk and talks the walk, you know, walks what he talks. He's not a fake. He's not a hypocrite. He is the real deal, so to speak, in the words that we use. Well, Satan answered the Lord. Ha ha. Skin for skin. Yeah. He serves you because you give him good things. Look at him. He has all this stuff. He has all these possessions. He's got a big, beautiful family. Of course he serves you, Lord. That's the role that Satan still fills today. The accuser of the brethren. The accuser of the brethren. He's constantly looking, he's constantly attributed hypocrisy to God's people or looking to point out any fault and any sin in their lives and say, will you just, you know, will you just hand them over to me?

Will you just give them to me? And I'll finish them off. That's Satan's constant way of thinking. And even we can tell the difference between the Holy Spirit dealing with us and Satan accusing us because the Holy Spirit, moving upon our hearts by God's word, will confront our sin where it exists in our lives. He will confront it. The Holy Spirit will, but he will not beat us down into the ground. There will always be hope. Satan desires to destroy. He will say, you have sinned, you have sinned, you have sinned. You have failed, you have failed, you have failed. Well, we see even the Lord's desire. Paul's desire was the Lord's desire. If this man has repented and he's made it right, restore that man. Restore that man.

Now, I mean, in some cases, it may be a disqualifying sin. They can't be restored to the pulpit, but I'm talking about restored to the fellowship. This brother, this sister, if they have sinned, but there's no sin too great for God to forgive if a person will just turn to him and ask for confession. That's that sin and ask for forgiveness and maybe it's going to those that they've sinned against and making the matter right. Humbling oneself. No, you're wrong now to hold that brother out of fellowship. To refuse the fellowship. Look at this man, Paul, himself. He was one before he became a Christian who was killing Christians. He was persecuting them, dragging them to be tried and murdering them.

You can understand why some of those Christians were hesitant to take him into the flock, right? To receive him into the fellowship. But sin abounded. Grace abounded more. And we see, we see that God sees us not simply in our sins anymore, but he sees us in his son. He sees, he sees us, righteousness, placed upon our account for Christ's sake. Job was not righteous in and of himself, but he feared God and he was upright. He believed God's word. Satan attributes to him these motives skin for skin. Yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. He'll sell the truth out. He'll sell out what you think he is if you just take away the hedge of protection that's been placed around him. You take away the good things that you've blessed his life with. He'll curse thee. Verse five, to thy face.

Curse thee to thy face. What a, what a strong thing. But Satan knows. He knows us better probably than we know ourselves. He knows our tendencies. He knows our history. He knows it all. He's been watching. He's been observing. He has his, his minions. He has his demons. But, turn with me to Psalm 37, please. Psalm 37, in verse 30. It's there in verse number 30 that we read that the, the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom. Psalm 37, verse 30 says, the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide. The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay him. But listen to this. The Lord is with him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged. The Lord is allowing Satan to slander and even take away a degree of health and possessions and family, all of those things. Yes, he's allowing it to happen. But the devil can proceed no further than what God allows. And God is superintending the trial. We've got to see that. God is over it and in control of the time, the intensity of the trial that he permits to come to our lives as we see here with Job. We might say Job's heart and flesh failed, but God was the strength of his heart. Job, even at times, would say something to the effects. Oh, that I had never been born. I wish I had never been born. I wish it would have been better that I had not been born, that I wouldn't have to go through this deep affliction.

But even in that, he did not sin with his mouth in cursing God. He did not say that God's been overtaken by Satan. He's more powerful now or something to that effect. Or in vain I have to put my trust in God. No, he didn't say that. But he did question the why. Why? Or what might I do to rectify the matter? Why does it drag on? Why is there no seeming end in sight to this test that I am being put through? A brother pointed out to me this past week a devotional by Oswald Chambers. In his daily devotional and he said in that, and I want to just pull out part of it. He said, we tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to him, he will lead us to great success. He says further on, what is my vision of God's purpose for me?

Whatever it may be, his purpose is for me to depend on him and on his power now. If I can stand, stay calm, faithful and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. He wants us to trust him and obey him. The time, or I might say the possessions, the relationships of life, the various things that God gives us and also may take away from us, they are just the currency with which he tests us, our dependence upon him. And so the greatest thing to us must be not whether or not I have this X, Y, and Z right now or I don't have it, but the question must be, is there anything between me and the Lord that would keep me from, keep me from relying on him instead of my own strength?

Is there anything that has come between me and the Lord? Oh, the Lord may put me through some very difficult things, but I think of the presence or the absence of these things is not to move us. Count it all joy. Oh, isn't that contrary to our thinking? James says, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Knowing this, here's the key, by faith, we know that the trying of our faith is to produce patience. That's the goal, isn't it? Isn't that the whole point of what God is doing? That we would patiently wait on with a trusting heart upon him even though he doesn't lead us to great success or to what we thought we were going to be or what we were going to have? It's just that we would trust him and just obey him.

Well, Paul will say that he rejoiced greatly in Philippians chapter 4. Look there with me. He rejoiced greatly about something. What was it? Philippians chapter 4, verse 10. It says there in verse 10, but I rejoiced greatly in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again wherein you were also careful but he lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Was he born knowing that? No. He learned it. The Lord taught it through the trials. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I cannot.

I cannot be patient under the gun, so to speak, or under the load unless the Lord strengthens me. But I have learned. He's teaching me. He's taught me and he's continuing to instruct me how to both be empty as well as to be full. Job was full. Now he was empty. Everything had been taken. Everything that he had and yet he was empty. And yet he was empty. And yet he was empty. And yet he was empty. And yet he was empty. And yet he was empty. And yet he was empty. And yet he was empty. And yet he relied on the Lord. He relied on the Lord even in the midst of that. Oh, it still… He would still say the thing that I feared greatly has come upon me. I had hoped this wouldn't happen. I knew it could happen but I hoped it wouldn't happen but it has happened.

You know, there's a lot of things that we don't desire to go through. We wouldn't choose it, right? But the Lord has chosen it for us. The Lord has put us through it. And therefore, now that we know that the Lord has appointed this for us, we're going to need His help. We're going to need Him to strengthen us to suffer lack, to suffer need. Not only to abound. Not only on the mountaintop. What His wife tells Him, does Thou still retain Thy integrity? Curse God and die. I did a little more looking into that. What does she… What does she mean by this? Curse God and die. It's interesting she uses the word bless actually in the Hebrew. The word barak. It's translated. It's actually translated 302 times into the English. Bless. And four times it's translated curse.

You… I think most of y'all are from the South, right? Most of you are from the South. I don't know if this is only a Southern expression but we might say of someone they got really upset with another person. Frustrated with another person and they blessed them out. Now that could include swearing but it may not necessarily. It may just be a vicious tongue lashing or a strong worded response or reaction to something. And usually when that tongue lashing gets done the person turns around and walks off. And I believe the best I can understand here the… the… you know we say in the South bless your heart. What do people mean when they say that? They might really mean bless your heart but that sometimes… and I don't…

I think that's a part of our culture we ought not to partake in is to say something we don't mean. We need to mean what we say and say what we mean. But is this… curse God? I think the translators are picking up on the intent of her word here not necessarily the literal typical meaning of it but… but to curse God. After all you've done for God after all you've lived and you've been faithful and every day you're offering these burnt offerings and you're serving God you've not been a hypocrite you've done all these things and now look what God has put on you. Just throw in the towel, Job. Why do you even keep trying? Can you imagine how hurtful those words how painful that must have been? That must have been to hear from his own wife? You've wasted. This is just a waste, Job.

Just give up. Curse God and die. Well, Asaph would look back on his on his thinking when he was envious of the wicked and he'd say, so foolish was I. I was as a beast before thee. And Job looks at his wife and says you ought not to charge God foolishly like this. You ought not to speak as one of the the foolish women speak but shall we not receive good? Shall we not receive good at the hand of God? And shall we not receive evil as well? Shall we not receive evil? He in all this did not, Job, sin with his lips. I can we say with the psalmist today bless the Lord, O my soul and forget not all his benefits. Can I say that? Not only when the times are good but when the times are difficult. Different ones of us are going through different things right now.

Can we say the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. May we not forget his benefits. I think in that Psalm 103 it says in verse 3 it talks about forgetting not his forgiveness and his healing in our lives. His redemption in verse 4. The renewal in verse 5 that he brings. The judgment and justice. That will be on his timetable. Verse 6. He's been very patient with us, hasn't he? Very merciful. Slow to anger with us, the passage reveals. We, especially when we're going, through trials of a nature that are where Satan is present. Like we see with Job. We need to remember we wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for the Lord's mercies. The Lord has been merciful. Let me not forget his benefits to me.

He may take away things at least for a time from my life. And we know that the Lord would restore Job. The Lord would restore some of the and even more of the people more abundance. He would restore these things. May I not forget that God is good. May I not forget. May I not sin in forgetting the goodness of God to me. May I not sin in speaking now upon the words that I'm thinking about God. Wrong thoughts about God. May I not curse God with my mouth or charge him foolishly but may I instead be honest and say the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away but the Lord is good. Blessed be the name of the Lord. May I be able to bless the Lord with all that is within me. Not just with my mouth but from the depths of my soul. May I be able to say may we be able to say today God has been good to us.

It is a sin. For us to charge God foolishly because of the way things are going. It is a sin for us to do that. Just as much as it's a sin for us to worry. Just as much as it's a sin for us to do any other thing. But may God help us to hit the mark in this by God's grace. May God help us to think the right way. To think the thoughts he would have. May God help us to be able to learn what Paul did. What he's trying to teach us through the suffering need. May we be able to learn that it is not only in times of abundance that God is good but it is also in times of lack that God is faithful. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father we thank you for these moments we've had and we are going to Lord willing now partake of this Lord's table.

We are so thankful. Visual vivid reminder to us of the spiritual work of your grace in our lives. We are in Christ today. If we partake of this we are in Christ. We partake of it because we believe that we are in Christ and we know that we have been forgiven of all our sins and trespasses Lord. And we are claiming we are stating we are making a public statement by doing this one with another that all is well it is well with our soul and we are walking walking with the Savior the one who loved us. We may be going through some valleys we may be going through some very trying circumstances Lord but you've not forsaken us. You've not left us to ourselves. You're you're not your rod and your staff they comfort us even wherever we may find ourselves in the test of life. Satan may be against us. He may buff it. Trials may come but but this blessed assurance control that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and shed his own blood for my soul. Can we say today it is well with my soul. Lord teach us to say that. Teach us Lord to be content whatever state we may find ourselves in because it is all of grace it is all of your mercies that we're even here in the first place. And we we are looking forward to that day until you come we want to observe this Lord until you come we want to observe this Lord's table that that we are always being put in remembrance of what you've done for us. Bless us now as we partake in these moments ahead in Jesus name we pray. Amen.