The problem of evil and suffering is addressed by examining the adversary, Satan, and his devices. The sermon highlights that Satan operates under God's authority, meticulously scrutinizes the earth, and is committed to warfare against God and His people, particularly those involved in reconciliation. It is emphasized that rebellion against God leaves Satan with a bitter, sarcastic spirit, and that he must gain permission to harm God's children, always with limitations set by God. The sermon also points out Satan's vast resources of instruments and agents, his mastery of details in orchestrating suffering, his love for injuring God's name, his persistence and pride, and his tendency to hurt individuals through those closest to them. Ultimately, Job's spiritual victory is presented as a testament to worshipping God regardless of circumstances, encouraging believers to bless the Lord at all times.
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Good evening. Good evening. Nice to be here. Nice to hear that wonderful singing. I might tell you that we sing like that in Connecticut, but that wouldn't be the truth. But we sing pretty well. Now we're going to read again in the book of Job, and I'd like to ask if you'd turn to your Bible, Job chapter two. And we'll read Beginning at verse one, the first ten verses. Job chapter two, reading from verse one. Again, there was a day when 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, Hath thou considered, my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and shuneth evil? And 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 now thine hand 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 the foot unto his crown. And he took a potchard with which to scrape himself, 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 speakest. 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. Shall we just look to the Lord? Our Father, again we come into thy presence, giving thanks for the word of God. How privileged we are, our Father, as we think of many tonight who have not thy word. And we ask that as we study it, Lord, that the Holy Spirit once again shall be free and shall find in our hearts ground that is ready to receive the word of God. We ask for thy help together as we study thy precious word and pray that it may bear fruit in our lives. For we ask it for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.
Amen. This morning we were considering the opening verses of the book of Job and we saw that God had little to say to us about Job's character, about his wealth and possessions, and also about his walk. And we saw that although it was a very few verses, it had a great deal by way of lessons for us. You know, I've been thinking that it's wonderful the mercy of God to us human beings to anticipate probably our greatest need in all of life, aside from our salvation, of course, and that is dealing with a problem of suffering and evil, and to allow what was probably the first book of Scripture ever written to address this great need of man.
A whole book devoted to this question. And so we really need to pay special interest then to the teaching of it. And tonight we're going to look at the subject of understanding a little bit about our adversary, the devil. I want to say just a word about that. It's the only place in this book where he comes before us, so it's important that we take some time and look at this subject. It's a difficult subject, but I'm amazed at the number of Christians who are ignorant of his devices. And you know, the apostle writing says that we are not ignorant of his devices. And working as I do with young people, I'm always mindful of the words of Peter who says, as long as I'm in this body, I'm not going to fail to put you in remembrance, to remind you.
So even if somewhat of what we have to say tonight is a review for those of you who are older in the Lord, that's okay. Perhaps God would give you one thought. And what I hope to do tonight is to just break this down. And for those of you who are note takers, I know some like to jot things down. I'm going to break it down into ten points that come out of this text. And you'll be able to follow along a little bit more easily that way. Our lesson in spiritual maturity for the mature Christian I would say would be the mature Christian knows the adversary. And God wants us to know a little bit, at least as much as he's put in his word, so that we cannot be ignorant of our adversary and his devices.
I thought it was interesting as I went over the book of Job again and again that all of this book takes place on earth except for thirteen verses. Only thirteen verses of this whole book take place in heaven. And of course Job did not know that little part at this time. God has revealed it to us by revelation. We need to know it. The book would be meaningless for us if we weren't given this inside information. But thirteen verses only takes place between the counsels of God and His subjects there in heaven. You know the story very well. We're going to look at it beginning in chapter one and verse six and go up and pick up some of the verses that we missed this morning.
And we'll just see how that Satan comes in before God and the challenge is given. And then he goes out to do his work. And he returns again and another challenge is given. And again he goes out to do his work. And I think it's interesting that as we see what the adversary goes about, we just see that he can't understand Job apart from Job's possessions. That's just the opposite of God, isn't it? This morning, God defined Job wholly apart from his possessions. He looked at the character of his servant, apart from anything he owned. Satan seems to be just the opposite. He's totally occupied with what Job owns and what he can do and put his hand on that.
Of course, the whole message here is that Job is a worshiper. And Satan wants him to become a cursor. And he says, I believe that Job would curse God to his face. And so God allows him to do a certain amount. And we know how it turns out wonderfully well. Now let me begin right away. And we'll look at these ten points one by one. Just say a few words about each one as we go along. The first point, rather obvious, is that Satan is under God's authority. Satan is under God's authority. And that would be seen, for example, in verse six, chapter one and verse six.
And it's a rather frightening thing when you think of it, that he has access to heaven. He is called the prince of the power of the air, and he comes in here and presents himself before God. Mind you, he didn't sneak in. He was summoned. God calls all of his subjects to accountability, and Satan is required to come, I believe. And he comes as one of the subjects of God. And even though he's the most powerful created being, he comes in to present himself before God Almighty with the limitations of a creature. You know, I think it's important for us as God's people to realize that, that he is a creature. Sometimes we hear people talk about Satan, powerful as he is, as if he is also Almighty.
Thank God there's only one in Scripture that's called Almighty. Satan is mighty, but he isn't Almighty. We could be very thankful for that. And I also believe, now you may differ on this point, but I don't believe Satan can read our thoughts. I know God reads our hearts and knows our minds, but I don't believe Satan can read our thoughts. I believe he can sometimes hear our prayers because prayer is spirit communication. And you may differ on that, and that's okay, that's a minor point. But here is Satan, and he comes before God. And I was interested to find that when the Lord said in verse seven, Verse eight, hast thou considered my servant Job?
That's been a problem for God's people as long as people have read the book of Job. Why would God say that to Satan? It almost seems if we could say it reverently that the Lord got poor Job into trouble. And I was very interested to notice that that could also be rendered very adequately in Hebrew, hast thou considered my servant Job because there is none like him in the earth? And what God is really saying to Satan, as God knows his mind, God knows Satan's mind, have you been considering my servant Job because there's none like him on the earth? That puts a whole different light on it. In other words, God knows that Satan has been contemplating Job. And he says to Satan, have you been contemplating my servant Job because you realize there's none like him in the world?
And I think as disciples of the Lord Jesus, one of the things we desperately need to work through in our minds is what it means to be under the authority of Christ. We talk about Jesus Christ as Lord. Well, that's got to be a hallmark of our faith. And Christians are living in a world today where authority is a bad word. And who of all people should know and understand the concept of submission to authority like we as Christians should? We are under the authority of the Lord Jesus. And it's comforting to know that the adversary is also under his authority. Now, the second thing we notice is that he carefully, that is Satan, carefully scrutinizes the earth and its inhabitants.
We can tell, you know, that he must have really examined the hedge that was about Job because he was looking for a break in it. And he seems to be very familiar. with the heads that God had put about Job. He seemed to know a lot about Job and Job's protection. Well, I suppose that leads us to the conclusion that he also scrutinizes us. There's a brother in the work up home. He's actually the elder in one of the assemblies, an elder in one of the assemblies. And some time ago, he got reading the book of Job. He was very excited about it. And he said, you know, the Lord has burdened my heart that I should not get up in the morning and have my time in the Word without a single day passing.
There shouldn't be a single day that passes that I should not specifically pray and ask God to put a hedge around my family. And several years later, I spoke to him. I said, you remember that conversation we had? Whatever came of that? He said, you know, I still do that. every day before I go out. I pray and ask God to put a hedge of protection around my family. He's a young believer. That's a lovely thought. He was reading Job and he thought how wonderful to go out into the day. He had to work in some pretty rough areas of our state. He said, how wonderful to go out in the day and ask God at the beginning of the day to put a hedge of protection around my family. Well, God has certainly been faithful to care for that man and his family.
I believe God has honored that. As I thought about this, I realized that Satan is not only scrutinizing the inhabitants of the world, the people of God and so forth, but he's also necessarily learning lessons that God would teach him. You remember Paul in Ephesians chapter three, I believe verse ten, speaks about how God would make known to the principalities and powers by the church, the manifold wisdom of God. I wonder what our adversary is learning as he looks at us. I hope he sees devotion, commitment, faithfulness, dedication. I hope he sees love for one another and kindness.
I hope he sees the fruit of the Spirit. It's a sobering thought when you think of it that God should choose to educate principalities and powers through us. How frail we feel for such a task. I'm afraid so often we think that God is only educating the good angels. But he says the principalities and powers, and I believe that would certainly include the adversary and his forces. Well, the third thing that we would notice is in verse nine. Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for nothing? My third point is that Satan is committed to warfare against God.
Well, that's an obvious point, but it is so important. Satan is committed to warfare against God. And it's not only against God, but it is against God's people. And it's not only against God's people, but I believe it is specifically against those who are involved in what Scripture calls a ministry of reconciliation. What is that? Well, you remember this morning how Job... was involved in if his children had sinned, he offered sacrifice. Why? That they might be reconciled, that their relationship might be restored to God. We saw that he was a man that was very interested in his relationship with God.
And many of you are involved in ministries of reconciliation. That might be bringing those who don't know the Lord Jesus to know him. That might be bringing those who know him and have wandered away from him, a shepherd ministry, bringing them back to him. How wonderful when God's people are involved in ministries that bind us together and not tear us apart one from another. And I believe that while Satan is against all of God's people, I believe he's especially adamantly opposed to those who are becoming like the Lord Jesus because the Lord Jesus is the great reconciler. And as we become like him, we also share in the opposition that he faced Ephesians chapter six tells us that we war against spiritual wickedness.
We don't war against flesh and blood, Paul says. My friend, I want to tell you tonight, if you're fighting against people, you're in the wrong battlefield. Isn't that right? If you're fighting against people or somebody, you're not in the battle. Because we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. We should not be wrestling against flesh and blood. We wrestle against spiritual forces, spiritual wickedness. And I think it's a great day in the life of Christians when maturity comes to a point and they realize, and we see this constantly, among young believers, when they realize that it isn't my boss at work.
It isn't my spouse who doesn't know Christ. It isn't this one or that one that irritates me so much. That isn't what I'm wrestling against. And they read the scripture, perhaps Ephesians chapter six, and they realize for the first time sometimes, I wrestle against spiritual wickedness. And that wicked force uses instruments. And I have to get my eyes off the people. The people are just poor sinners for whom Christ died. I have to get my eyes on where the battle is. Then I can begin to war effectively for God. Someone has said that the battle here is not between Satan and Job, the battle is between Satan and God, and Job is the battlefield.
It's true. Job is the battlefield, and it's God and Satan that are at war. On the earth, Satan is called the destroyer, but in heaven he's called the accuser. There's a verse in the book of Revelation. You don't need to turn there. I'll just read it. It speaks of a scene in heaven. It says, I heard a loud voice. This is Revelation chapter twelve and verse ten. I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. Now note, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down who accuse them before our God day and night.
I don't know how you feel when you read that, but I know that I feel that he has some valid things to say when he accuses me. And I'm so thankful for the ministry of intercession in which our Lord Jesus Christ is occupied. I'm so thankful that there's one at God's right hand who can stand up and present another side of the case. Now I'm thankful that he doesn't stand up and present my goodness because he wouldn't have much to say. But he presents his work. And that's what makes the difference. And so Satan is the accuser then, and he is committed to a perpetual warfare against God. Now the fourth thing that we need to notice, and that comes out also of verse nine and a number of other verses in this passage, and that is this.
Rebellion against God has left him with a bitter, sarcastic spirit. Rebellion against God has left him with a bitter, sarcastic spirit. You know, after the first round, if we could call it that, the first round of trials in Job's life was ended and Satan came back before God in chapter two, you don't read of any compassion whatsoever. He doesn't say to God, you know, I have to admit, I'm very touched that this man has performed so magnificently. He doesn't ask for perhaps a little respite or a little break for Job. You could just hear a sneer in his voice, skin for skin, all that a man has he will give for his life.
I suppose one of the things that we need to face when we read that and think about that point is that the character and the attitude of our adversary also can be impressed upon his people. Isn't that true? That the followers of the adversary also can become bitter and sarcastic people. In fact, we could even carry that further and say there's a little piece of that within each one of us, isn't there? We all have the old sinful nature. And except for the grace of God, that spirit that we read of here would begin to manifest itself and that would be the way we relate to other people.
And oh, how should we relate, especially the mature Christian who goes on in years for God. Instead of bitterness and sarcasm, we see that sweet spirit of Christ coming out. We want to see that in ourselves, don't we? That's so important. And I think I see that a little bit in Job. And I see that in many of God's dear saints, and those who are older in the faith especially. And that's wonderful to see. Well, a fifth point. Satan must gain permission to touch God's child. Verse eleven and twelve.
He says to God, put forth now thine hand and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And what he's really asking is for permission here to do this. And that tells us that really God is the ultimate origin of Job's trial. I like the fact that God always puts a limitation on what he allows Job to do. He never once in the passage said to Job, anything you want, Sky's the limit. He never says that. He says, this far, but no farther. Thank God for that. Amen. Thank God for that.
I want to ask if you would turn with me to the Gospel of John and look at two verses. John chapter eighteen. John chapter eighteen and verse eleven. These are both quotations from our Lord Jesus, but ones that I think are so appropriate right here as we consider that Satan must gain permission before he touches God's child. John chapter eighteen and verse eleven, then said Jesus unto Peter, put up thy sword into thy sheath, the cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
What a model of submission. Not the cup which Judas has given me. Not the cup which the Jews have given me. Not even the cup which Satan has given me. The cup which my Father has given me. Shall I not drink it? That's chapter eighteen verse eleven. Turn to chapter nineteen verse eleven. Here the Lord Jesus stands before Pilate. And when he does not answer Pilate, Pilate says in verse ten, Speakest thou not unto me, knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and have power to release thee. Now know what our Lord says. You know it well, but it's so precious.
He says, Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. The word there is authority. And the Lord replies to Pilate, and he says, You would have no power, no authority against me at all unless it was given to you from above. You know, I need to take hold of that and hang on to that. Because if our Lord could say that, then I could say that. And you can say that. And that's a precious promise in God's word. Well, we need to go on.
Well, let me say one more thing about that because it comes to mind. Obviously, then, the greatest good in the world is not Job's personal comfort, is it? If the greatest good in all the world was Job's personal comfort, God never would have given Satan permission. And that's true in your life, and it's true in mine. And I think sometime we forget that. The greatest good in the world is not our personal comfort. God has higher means and higher goals than that. And we benefit tonight as we study Job because a man was willing to be great for God. Who's going to benefit because you were willing to stand for God?
And so the greatest good then is not Job's personal comfort, nor mine, nor yours. Number six. Satan has a vast resource of instruments and agents. Satan has a vast resource of instruments and agents. Now we saw that in our reading this morning, verse thirteen through nineteen. Foreign powers, disease, friends, his own wife. It just seems like everything that the adversary needed to accomplish his purposes, it was right there. I know that I'm always after the young folks at home that we're working with to train them to be leaders, men and women for God.
One of the things we want to challenge them with is this very point. Satan has a vast resource of agents and instruments. And just knowing that one thing you don't want to do is add to his arsenal. He has enough. You don't have to help him and give him more. And don't we often do it, though? We give him more weaponry with which to wage his battle against us. I wonder how much those Sabians and Chaldeans we read about knew of their role in all of this. Do you think Satan explained to them all the strategies of what he was going to do as he used them?
I don't think so at all. I think he just tapped them and spoke a word of greed. Here's a man who has a lot of wealth. You can go right down and plunder and have all you want. They said great, and they went. So often the instruments that Satan uses, poor, blind vessels devoted to him. Paul speaks in Ephesians chapter two and verse two. And he says, the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience. If I didn't know the Lord, that would be one of the most frightening things for me to think that I would be a spirit, a person in whom the spirit of disobedience was able to work, a tool to accomplish his purposes.
Well, thank God the Lord has turned that around for us who know him. And we need to be very thankful for that. I think it would be a frightening thing to study a passage like this and see all the resources that the adversary has. You know, God has resources too. And the child of God needs to know what they are and take advantage of God's resources. So many here in our favored land. How blessed we are. Number seven. Satan is a master of details. He is a master of details. If you haven't learned that, you've missed a vital part of your spiritual education.
You just read this one paragraph and you see that. Do you notice how he works here in verse fifteen? Let me ask a question. What would be more painful for Job than to have all of his servants destroyed? I'll tell you. To have them all destroyed except one who could carry the news back to him. You notice how Satan engineers it that in each case all of the servants are destroyed except one? Furthermore, three times in the text we read that while he, that is the servant who came to give a report, was yet speaking, the next one came in.
And they came in in perfect sequence, one after another. You see what he was doing? The cumulative crushing blow of news that was perfectly timed, one item after another. Now there's a lot of detail there to care for. Who engineered all that? The adversary. Well, I'm very thankful that our Lord is a master of detail too. I'm very thankful for that. I know you are too. We recently saw the beginning of a new assembly up near Hartford and I was exhorting the folks there that we needed to witness for Christ because we want to see people saved and one to him so that we could have an influx of people come in and meet together and we would see the work grow.
We wanted that with a goal, a main goal that we have, a mission to reach others for Christ. And so one young family, they were very zealous about their witness for the Lord. And I told them, I said, now don't say to people come to church. That isn't a biblical witness. Tell them, I would like to introduce you to the Lord Jesus. You introduce them. And so this one couple in the assembly, the new work, they had an addition put on their house and they contracted to have people come and lay the carpet. And the carpet layers came in. And the husband said to the wife, well, what do you think about now? And she said, yeah, now is good. So he went down and he stuttered a little bit, you know, and he got up his courage. And he began to tell the man about the Lord. And the man stood up and looked him right in the eye.
And he said, are you a Christian? He said, yes. He said, well, so am I. And he said, you know, it's an amazing thing. I come from Texas. And he said, I'm a carpet layer. And there's no carpets being laid these days in Texas because of the oil problem. And he said, I got out a little book and I looked in it and I said, where is the most carpets being laid in the United States? And it said, Connecticut. And so then I said, what city in Connecticut? And they said, Hartford. And he said, I told my family, pack everything. We're getting in the vans and we're moving to Hartford, Connecticut. And he said, we came up here without a soul. He said, we just moved here. He said, one thing we need is Christian fellowship. And she said, well, you know, we're just beginning a new work.
He said, sounds exciting. We'll be there. And they have been right in the forefront since we started. Just before I came down, they said, we have some good news. We're going to start an Awana program and get all the children we can to come in. God worked that detail out right to the letter. We're so thankful for that. Well, by the way, I know that most of you folks, most of you, are perhaps retired. But as you think of our work in Connecticut, I want to ask you to pray for a special need that we have. Many of our people that work there are young people.
And many of them have not learned the truth that Satan is a master of details. And time and time again, it's been a heartbreaking thing that we will work with a young man to see him equipped in the things of God. And suddenly, mysteriously, he's transferred. to somewhere far away. And one man I spoke to him and I said, how did this ever come to be? He said, well, he said, I just saw the promotion at work. He said, I put my name down. I didn't think anything of it. And he said, I went home and prayed, Lord, if you sell our house and provide a new house, I'll know it's your will. I said, did you know Satan is in the real estate business too? I said, he would love to get you out of this area. Well, he sold his home in a week.
And he went down to a state in the mid-south and he bought a home that was twice as big. And he wrote to us and he said, we're dying down here. There isn't anything going on for God. He said, oh, we've made a lot of money. We had a big promotion. But nothing's happening for God. Who do you think engineered that? You think the Lord did? I don't think so. Why, no, he didn't because we prayed and prayed and prayed and the Lord transferred him back. I said, don't you ever go signing anything again? Number eight. Satan loves to injure God's name. That's an awful thing, isn't it? But it's true.
He loves to injure God's name. Now look at verse sixteen. This servant comes in, and here's what he says to Job. The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I only am escaped. to tell thee. How do you suppose Job felt about that? Job, it was the fire of God because it came from God and it came from heaven and I'm a witness, I saw it with my own eyes. Job, God burned up all your sheep and all your servants. Now, of course, we know that that's not so. How do you think Job felt about God? No surprise to us to read in Revelation chapter thirteen that in a coming day one is going to have the same power.
That's true. Be able to call fire down. And I think we as Christians need to be very, very careful that when we sing or say such scriptures, O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his holy name together, that we really do that. Number nine. Satan is persistent and proud. He doesn't give up. You never read at the end of the conflict. He comes to God and says, you win, I lose, I was wrong.
He never does that. He is persistent and he is proud. And I think we need to make up our minds that one of the tests of any ministry for God is there opposition from the adversary. My dear Christian friend tonight, if you're involved in serving God no matter what quiet, behind the scenes way, you may not think it amounts to a great deal. God knows it does. But in whatever capacity you're involved, if there's going to be fruit for God, there's going to be opposition. And if we can go on and serve God year after year and there is nothing but praise and no criticism, We have to back up and examine our work.
And we're involved in a little bit of that now up where I labor. I'm not going to tell you about it. God knows all about it. Seems to be that there are some people who feel that they're called to a ministry of criticism. I don't read about it in Scripture. It's a sad thing, isn't it? But God is able to help us with that. Number ten. He loves, that is Satan, he loves to hurt us through those who are close to us. Poor Job, you know, here was the one who was closest to him, his wife. And she says, Job, why don't you just curse God and die and have done with it? Job, he's so gracious, you know, he doesn't say, you foolish woman, does he?
He says, you speak like one of the foolish women. You know, I think he was saying, that's not like you. That's not like you. And Job's wife perhaps had become sad and embittered as she saw what was happening to the man that she loved. It's a hard thing to stand by and see someone that we love suffer. We need to pray as much for those who are spectators to suffering, don't we, as those who suffer. I hope you do that. Well, without doubt, we can say, by way of conclusion, at least to this little section, that there was a great spiritual victory in this warfare.
Let's just read in chapter one, or chapter one, chapter one and verse twenty. We'll read again. Job fell down upon the ground and worshipped and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb. Naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not nor charged God with folly." Well, as I pondered that, I'll tell you the thought that was on my heart. Let me apply this in your life. As you look back over your life, many of you have lived for many years.
You can look back some years. As you look back over your life, perhaps your mind goes to a person who stood beside you when you were down. Somebody who came to you and said, I love you, I still believe in you, I accept you, I care about you. If that's true, then that person's name or face or that experience comes to your mind right now. Why? Because you could never forget that kind of love. Some people go through a whole life and never experience that. But if you've experienced that, you know how precious that is.
And it made me think how grieved the heart of our God must be that there are people who will bless him in prosperity and curse him in trouble. It also made me think that God has His children who bless Him at all times, as we said this morning. And I suppose one of my goals for this week, and I hope it would be your prayer too, is that God would strengthen me to be more in that kind of person. One that would bless the Lord no matter what. I remember the story a man told a wealthy man who lived in the Midwestern states years ago.
He was a wheat farmer. And he was watching the great fields of wheat that he had, turning golden, ready for the harvest. And he was thinking about the tremendous amount of money that he was going to make in this particular year because it had been just such a perfect year for the crop. And as he was thinking about this, the sky darkened and the clouds came in and it looked like it was going to be a bad storm. And indeed it was a bad storm and he stood on the porch of his house. And his son told this story. I never forgot it. He said, as we stood there on the porch and we saw the thunder and the lightning and finally the hail and big hailstones came and beat the whole crop flat to the earth and spoiled it.
He said, I looked up at my dad. And he said, my dad just stood there and looked. And then he said, he began to sing, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. He said, you know, that was the most powerful sermon I ever heard. Those are the kind of sermons we need to hear today, isn't it? It doesn't have to be long. It has to be backed up by a life. There was a man who knew Amazing Grace. Well, our time is gone. Pray for me this week that we'll be able to open the book of Job out because, you know, chapter one and chapter two, there's a lot of good material in there, but when you get into the middle part of this book, it's tough.
And I want the Lord's help in breaking it down so we'll see a blessing for our soul. But I'm excited about the book of Job. And I'm glad you're here. And we look forward to God helping us. Let's pray. Our Father, we come to thee with thankful hearts, for we know that there is one who would seek to discourage and put fear into our hearts. And we thank thee for thy word which declares, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And we have learned in some small measure in our lives to say, Amen, Lord. That's true. We ask that thou help us as we put our little weak hands into thy great big hands.
We receive daily thy portion of strength and courage. Lord, we pray for thy dear people here that thou comfort them and encourage them as they face the adversary. We know, Lord, that a day is going to come where we won't have him to contend with any longer. But while we're in this scene, we need to be wise. We ask that through thy word and through thy powerful Holy Spirit, we may be wise. And then, Lord, help us to use our wisdom and use our strength that we gain in the glory of the Lord Jesus. We ask it for His name's sake. Amen.