{"id":32891,"date":"2005-09-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/patience-of-job\/"},"modified":"2005-09-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-09-06T00:00:00","slug":"patience-of-job","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/patience-of-job\/","title":{"rendered":"The Patience of Job"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/09\/19224.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p><span style=\"\" class=\"\"><span style=\"\" class=\"\"><\/span>&#8220;Ye have\nheard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord\nis very pitiful, and of tender mercy&#8221; (James 5:11). The end of the Lord, <em>telos<\/em>,\nthe consummation of his purpose: when the Lord is done, his work is always\nbeautiful, good, and gracious. God never purposed an evil thing for any of his\ncreation, least of all for the crown of his glory, the soul and life of a man.\nThe end of the Lord for us always is good. When the Lord looked at the\nbeautiful firmament and the verdant Earth and had finished his creation, he\nsaid, &#8220;It is very good.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Before James, &#8220;the pastor,&#8221;\nwrites that admonition to us, he has a triplet of admonitions concerning our\nbeing patient. It is a part of human weakness to grow restive under the\nprovidences of the hand of God. He says in verse seven, &#8220;Be patient,\ntherefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.&#8221; And he repeats it in\nverse eight, &#8220;Be ye also patient; establish your hearts; for the coming of\nthe Lord draweth nigh.&#8221; Then, again, in verse ten: &#8220;Take my brethren,\nthe prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of\nsuffering affliction, and of patience.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">The voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts\nis patience; the voice of the Holy Scriptures written on the sacred page is\npatience; the voice of our heavenly Father is patience; the voice of our Savior\nis patience. The classic example is the reference in the text: &#8220;Ye have\nheard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord\nis very pitiful, and of tender mercy.&#8221; Job was a patriarch who lived in\nthe times of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob \u0097 the era of Genesis. There is no\nreference in the book of Job to any event or to any fact beyond the book of\nGenesis. There is no reference to the Law of Moses. There is no reference to\nthe institutions of the Jews. The only things referenced in Job look back to\nthe book of Genesis, to the creation, to Adam, to the Flood. But the life of\nJob never goes beyond the age of Genesis. Even the sacrifices that are\nmentioned in Job are never offered by a priest. They&#8217;re always offered by the\nfather as the head of the home and of the family. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Job was greatly tried. He lost everything\nhe had, and he had been an affluent and wealthy man. He lost all of his ten\nchildren: seven sons and three daughters. He himself was afflicted grievously\nin his physical frame. We can look upon the affliction, suffering, sickness,\nand pain of others with nonchalance or disassociation. When it comes to our\nbones and our flesh, it is something else. This man was greatly afflicted,\ncovered with boils and sores from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot.\nHe sat in an ash heap, on a dunghill, in misery and in agony. Every part of his\nbody was a province of hurt, and every nerve was a road for marching armies of\npain. He was greatly afflicted. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">To add to that was his own anguish of\nmind. His wife, who should have sustained him and prayed for him and encouraged\nhim and caused him to look up to heaven, said to him, &#8220;Curse God, and\ncommit suicide. Curse God and kill yourself. Curse God and die!&#8221; What a\nwife. In an hour of such turmoil and anguish and misery and suffering and trial\nand loss, can you imagine having a companion like that? To add more grievously\nto his anguish of mind came Job&#8217;s three comforters. And weren&#8217;t they classics\nof assurance and encouragement! Job&#8217;s three comforters came to him and said,\n&#8220;You must be a vile sinner, for only a vile sinner would suffer like this.\nThe evidence of it is your suffering.&#8221; They rubbed salt into his wounds.\nThey threw dust into his eyes, and they crowned his misery with suffering and\nagitation. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">The trials of Job were not imaginary. They\nwere real. He was no dyspeptic. He was no hypochondriac. He was no hysterical\ngroaner over imagined evils and hurts. He didn&#8217;t lose one child; he lost all\nten of them. He didn&#8217;t lose just a few hundred dollars; he lost his whole fortune.\nHe was not just somewhat sick for an hour or a day. He was grievously afflicted\nand sat in pain and suffering and indescribable misery. How do you account for\nthat? How is it that a good man suffers? <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">That&#8217;s what the Psalmist wanted to know in\nPsalm 73: &#8220;As for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well-nigh\nslipped. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the\nwicked\u0085. They are not in trouble as other men. Neither are they plagued like\nother men; behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they\nincrease in riches\u0085. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened\nevery morning\u0085. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I\nwent into the sanctuary of God, then I understood\u0085.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">When a man gets high enough, he can see\nfar enough, and then he&#8217;ll understand the providences of God in the afflictions\nof the righteous. That&#8217;s why we&#8217;ve come into God&#8217;s house \u0097 for the ministry of\nGod&#8217;s Word to explain to us the ways of the Lord. So, may God today lift us up\nto a high eminence, maybe next to the very throne of heaven, so that from such\na vantage point we can bring true surveillance over our lives and what God\npurposes for us when we meet suffering and agony and anguish and frustration\nand failure. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Pastor, you&#8217;re not talking to me. I\nhave not been introduced to such circumstances,&#8221; you say. There is no one\nwho will escape, not one. When we were born into this world, we were born into\na place of suffering. Some day every heart will have grown from it. Even our\nLord on the cross cried, &#8220;My God, why?&#8221; So if the Lord will thus\nbless us, we shall in the sanctuary of our God climb up to that high eminence\nthat the psalmist ascended to, and we shall see as God sees. Then shall we\nunderstand. Whatever the situation, however the turn of fortune, God is in it. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">When you read the book of Job, you see\nSatan covering the horizon from side to side. There is the waste of death,\nmurder, blood, robbery, violence, pillage, affliction, pain, and misery. Satan\nseems to color the whole creation. We need to remember God is also there.\nThere&#8217;s somebody besides Satan. Satan goes only as far as God permits. He&#8217;s\nallowed this, but no more. The hound of hell and the dog of damnation can snap\nand bark and growl and snarl, but he has an iron collar around his neck, and on\nthat collar is an iron chain. The end of that chain is held by the hand of the\nomnipotent God. Satan can do just so much, and God reins him in. The sovereign\nof the universe, the sovereign of history, the sovereign of national life, the\nsovereign of political and state life, the sovereign of individual life, and\nthe sovereign of your life is not damnation and hell and death and the grave\nand Satan and the Devil. It&#8217;s the Lord God Almighty. He reigns on his throne,\nhigh and lifted up forever, and that chain is in his hand. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">One time the Lord Jesus said to Simon,\n&#8220;Simon, Simon&#8221; (wherever the Lord repeats himself, be awake, open\nyour ears, there&#8217;s something significant to say), &#8220;Satan hath desired to\nhave you that he may thresh you, sift you like wheat poured into a\nthresher.&#8221; Simon had said, &#8220;I love the Lord with all my heart. If the\nwhole world were to deny you, yet I would not deny you.&#8221; The Lord said,\n&#8220;Simon, Satan wants to talk to you about that. He wants to find out about\nthat. Simon, I have given him permission. I&#8217;ve said just so far and no further.\nFor I have prayed for you. Simon, when you turn, when you&#8217;re converted, when\nyou come back, strengthen your brethren.&#8221; Satan sifted the apostles. He\nthreshed them. He put them into the machine, and it cast out Judas all\ntogether. Simon Peter swore and cursed and denied the Lord. Satan sifted him,\nthreshed him, and shook him. When it was done, there came out of the fire a\ndifferent kind of Simon Peter. He was a different man. In the first epistle of\nSimon Peter, chapter 5, you can&#8217;t believe he&#8217;s the man who wrote these words:\n&#8220;Humble yourselves, therefore, under God&#8217;s mighty hand, that he may lift\nyou up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.&#8221;\n<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">When Satan was done with him, in the\npermissive will of God, a lot of chaff was blown away and a lot of dross was\nburned out. That&#8217;s the Lord. He&#8217;s in it all. Job was sorely tempted. His wife\nsaid, &#8220;Curse God and commit suicide.&#8221; But Job never failed in his\nwitness to the Lord, and Satan cast him on a dung heap, on a manure pile. Job\nmade the dung heap a throne in the presence of the great God. Satan afflicted\nhim with sores and boils. Job made them signets of honor, citations and medals\nall over him. Job made Satan eat his words. Job made Satan confess that he was\na liar; God was in it all. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Not only is God in the trial, in the fire,\nin the fury, and in the furnace, but God also purposed to give Job double of\neverything that he possessed. Satan had a purpose, but God had a purpose also!\nGod&#8217;s purpose was to give Job twice as much as he ever had, to give Job twice\nas many camels, twice as many herds, twice as many fields, and twice as many\nflocks was easy. Some of you men have done that yourselves. You&#8217;ve taken what\nyou had and doubled it. Sometimes you&#8217;ve quadrupled it. For God it was easy to\ngive Job twice as much substance and abundance and affluence as he had before. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">But God doesn&#8217;t just think of us in terms\nof silver or gold or bonds or stocks or lands or herds or flocks or cattle or\nreal estate or things! God purposed to give Job a double of everything that he\nhad. He was going to double his grace and double his experience and double his\nlove for the Lord and double his mercies and double his tender kindnesses and\ndouble all of the sweet, precious, spiritual endowments that can come only from\nthe hand of heaven. Job had to suffer. For those things don&#8217;t come in any other\nway than through great trial and through great suffering. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Then Job answered the Lord, and\nsaid, &#8216;I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be\nwithholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?\nTherefore I have uttered what I understood not; things too wonderful for me,\nwhich I knew not\u0085. But now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and\nrepent in dust and ashes.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">This is a man who has found greatness in\nbowing, in kneeling, in yielded submission, in loss, in misery, in pain, and in\ntears. This is a man who has come to glory under the hand of God. That is the\npurpose of the Lord for us, that we might be not only soldiers of the golden\nfleece but also soldiers of the iron cross. In the furnace of God&#8217;s trial, the\nLord also has a purpose. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">From that vantage point, looking as God\nviews our suffering, we see that he&#8217;s in it, number one. Number two, he\npurposes for us a double portion of his grace and kindness. Number three, God\nwould bring Job to glory. Had Job just remained a rich man and that&#8217;s all, a\ngood man, a generous man supporting the work of the Lord, but just a rich man \u0097\nare there not thousands of men just like that? He had thousands of camels. Do\nnot they? Thousands of sheep. Do not they? Thousands of oxen. Do not they?\nThousands of herds and foxes and fields and acres of land. Do not they? Had Job\nremained just another rich man, you&#8217;d never have heard of him. Don&#8217;t you\nimagine that his friends were also affluent and wealthy? It seems to me that\nwealthy men, when they go to their clubs, and when they go to their\nconvocations and their corporate meetings, they sit among their peers. Eliphaz\nmust have been a rich man. Bildad must have been a rich man. Zophar must have\nbeen a rich man. These are the three men who came to visit Job in his\naffliction. Did you ever hear of anybody turning into a Bildad or an Eliphaz or\na Zophar? I never heard of it in my life, nor would it occur to me, nor would\nit occur to anybody else, nor will I ever hear of it. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">But the apostle himself says: &#8220;You\nhave heard of the patience of Job.&#8221; I have. So have you. It was the\npurpose of God to bring Job to glory. God had a marvelous thought in his mind\nwhen he looked at Job and saw how fine he was and how good he was and how\nresponsible he was. And God said, &#8220;I&#8217;ll elevate him. I&#8217;ll lift him up.\nI&#8217;ll bless him beyond what he ever imagined in just having possessions. I&#8217;ll\nadd to him a <em>shekinah<\/em>, an aura, a glory, a presence as though it were\ngiven from heaven itself.&#8221; Did you know trial does that? And without the\ntrial there is no glory \u0097 none. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Abraham is the only man in the Scriptures\ncalled &#8220;the friend of God.&#8221; When was Abraham called the friend of\nGod? When the Lord told the old patriarch to take his son \u0097 born of his own\nloins, born of the womb of Sara his wife, his own son whom he loved, begotten\nin his old age when he was a hundred years old \u0097 to Mount Moriah and build an\naltar. He was to bind his son, put him on the stone, raise the knife, and\nplunge it in the heart. Murder him. Pour out his blood on the ground. Abraham \u0097\nnot staggering before the promise of God but trusting against trust, believing\nagainst belief, and persuaded that God would raise the boy from the dead \u0097\nbuilt the altar, bound the lad, lifted up the knife, and in figure, received\nhim from the dead. It was the trial that made him great. It&#8217;s the fury of the\nfire in the furnace that makes the gold pure, and this is the purpose of God\nfor us. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">God having purposed some better thing for\nus is hard for us to see. Truly, looking at it from God&#8217;s vantage point, just\nto be at ease, just to be wealthy, or just to have an abundance of things, God\nsays, is to be poor. But to be rich toward God, to have experiences of grace,\nto trust God in trial, and to believe God against hope and promise when\neverything God says seems to be against what God says \u0097 that is to be rich. God\npurposes glory for his saints when we endure affliction and trial as did the\nprophets, the apostles, the patriarchs, and Job. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">What does God reveal to us when we come\ninto his sanctuary, and when we are lifted up high, and when we can see as God\nsees and understand as God understands? First, God is in it all. He has an iron\ncollar and an iron chain on Satan. Satan can go just so far and not\nbeyond.<span style=\"\" class=\"\"><\/span>Second, God purposes for us\ndouble everything that we have: double grace, double experience, double\nlove\u0085double everything. Third, God would bring us to glory. In the trial, God\nwould refine us and purify us. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">Fourth, God would, through us as he did\nthrough Job, make us a blessing to others. The Lord put a thorn in his nest.\nThe Lord tore up his house of ease, and the Lord pushed him out and over the\ncliff just as an eagle does: tear up the nest and take the little eaglets and\npush them out. But, over that vast cliff in the blue atmosphere that yawns\nbeneath, the little thing learns to fly. God does that for us. He makes us\nmature and grown up. We come to the consummation of <em>telos<\/em>, the end that\nGod has for us in order that we may be a blessing and an encouragement to\nothers. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">John Bunyan was a fine Baptist preacher in\nthe 1600s. People loved to hear him preach, but that was all. God put him in\nBedford Prison for twelve years, and out of that Bedford jail was born the most\nglorious book penned by a mortal man outside of the Holy Scriptures: <em>Pilgrim&#8217;s\nProgress<\/em>. It was born in the tears of incarceration. The Apostle Paul spent\nmuch of his ministry in prison, in a dungeon, in jail, but out of that\nimprisonment came the letters that form most of our New Testament, our Holy\nBible. And the Lord allowed Jesus to be nailed to the cross, and there in\nsuffering and agony, he died. Out of death came life; out of suffering came\nsalvation; out of his burial in the tomb came our promise of resurrection. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"\" class=\"\">This is the purpose of God. What befalls\nyou is not unknown to him. The sufferings you experience are not strange in his\neyes. He is just bringing you to glory. As pastor James teaches: Blessed are\nthey who endure, who keep their faith, who look up in prayer and surrender to\nheaven, and who glorify God in crucifixion or in suffering or in hurt or agony\nor tears or pain or providence, which wring from our souls the agonizing cry,\n&#8220;Oh, God!&#8221; Blessed are they who look in faith and trust him through\nit all! <\/span><\/p><p>(c) W.A. Criswell 1992<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"><span style=\"\" class=\"subhead\">Preaching Today Tape\n#107<\/span><\/h2><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a><\/p><p>A resource of\nChristianity Today International<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[3274],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[4067,4611,5197],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-32891","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-w-a-criswell","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-god","tax_ctp_tags-patience","tax_ctp_tags-trustworthiness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Patience of Job - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/patience-of-job\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Patience of Job - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy&#8221; (James 5:11). The end of the Lord, telos, the consummation of his purpose: when the Lord is done, his work is always beautiful, good, and gracious. 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The end of the Lord, telos, the consummation of his purpose: when the Lord is done, his work is always beautiful, good, and gracious. 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