He Knoweth the way - Job 23

Then Job answered and said, even today is my complaint bitter. My stroke is heavier than my groaning. Oh that I knew where I might find him, that is God, that I might come even to his seat.

I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me. Will he plead against me with his great power? No, but he would put strength in me.

There the righteous might dispute with him, so shall I be delivered forever from my judge. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him, he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.

But he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept and not declined.

Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.

For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me, and many such things are with him. Therefore am I troubled at his presence, when I consider I am afraid of him. For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me, because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.

Amen. Now I think you'll find it helpful if you have your Bible open at the 23rd chapter of the book of Job. It's my intention this evening to preach a sermon that I shall entitle A New Year's Resolution, and I reckon that the address that I want to bring to you this morning is comparable with that one, it's complementary in as much as I'd like to speak to you on a New Year's consolation, a New Year's consolation.

And is there a better prescription for anxiety, a greater stimulus? Is there a better quality balm for the soul than that which is found within the church motto text for this year? We read, speaking of God, He knoweth the way that I take. He knoweth the way that I take, and I argue that that's consoling. I argue that that's encouraging.

I say that that is stimulating. There is nothing that thrills my heart more and gives me more optimism than this precious promise tucked away in the 23rd chapter of this book, a promise which immediately applied to Job, and by extension applies to each of God's children. He knows the way that we take.

You can adapt this text if you like to suit the purposes of this local congregation and therefore apply it corporately to us all, or you can, if you prefer, just apply it to your own life. Whatever you do, you'll get blessing. You see, as a church we're not too sure of the way that we shall take.

We're not too sure of what might befall us, what challenges might come our way, what lies in the future. No, not the most discerning of our elders is aware of this, but God is, and He's in control of this local church, and because He knows the way that we're going to take, we can have consolation and we can have confidence, and speaking personally, I can't predict what's going to happen to me in the next few months, and neither would I hazard a guess as to what your circumstances will be, but this I tell you on the authority of God's Word. He knows, for within the economy of God there is not such a thing as past, nor present, nor indeed future.

Space and time are something that are unique to the human way of life. They're not known in heaven. God is outside these dimensions, these categories that restrict us.

He is unrestricted. He is the Lord of the past, the Lord of the present, and the Lord of the future, and therefore this text comes into its own. When you apply it to yourself as an individual, when you apply it to the church as a whole, He knows the way that we shall take.

I'm glad of that. Glad to know that the Lord is going to be with me and with this local congregation. Here we are at the dawning of a new year, and there may be many fears, many forebodings that we have.

The poet puts it like this, now at the dawning of the year I stand, the gate is closed behind me. I must go on. I shield my eager eyes with trembling hand.

The way is dim before. I do not know just where the pathway leads. Pitfalls may greet my unaccustomed feet.

Lord be thou near. Hold thou my hand and I shall laugh at fear. He knows the way that I'm going to take.

Blessed consolation, sweet promise that drops from the lips of God. I was thinking about this text almost throughout the night. There is a scripture in Job which says of God, He giveth songs in the night.

Well on a Saturday night and a Sunday morning, it's not songs that I get, it's sermons from time to time. And I mean this quite literally. I was woken up about four o'clock and my text suddenly fell into perspective.

Its various steps, the things that it contains, it's not in an exhaustive fashion. I'm certain God has far more truth to break out from this text than has been revealed to me. But let me suggest to you the lines which came to me earlier on this morning in understanding this text, in digging out the goal that it contains.

He knows the way that I take. Here is a promise of knowledge of, knowledge of. Also there is involvement in.

He knows the way that I take. He's involved in my circumstances. Encouragement from, for certainly there is balm and stimulus here, and enrichment by.

Knowledge of, involvement in, encouragement from, enrichment by. All this I deduce can be gained from our motto text, from this jewel of a scripture. Knowledge of, that's an obvious distinction, an obvious category to make.

He knoweth the way that I take. But when did God know about Job? And how did God know about Job? And when does God know about me? And how does he know about me? When did God know about Job? I answer when he was in a religious fog. Have you ever been in a fog? Somebody rang me up about a year ago, a very close friend.

They had to be close for the request that they made. It was 12 o'clock at night. They were stuck at Arundel.

And they said, will you come out and bring us back into Worthing? And I did. I felt very good about it until I put my head outside the door and saw that there was a, well perhaps not a fog, but to be accurate, a very, very heavy sea mist had come in. And I drove to Arundel station and back, and I literally could not see further than a yard in front of myself.

I got my head stuck out of the side window of the car, just so that I could get that extra few inches of vision in a fog. I didn't quite know where I was going, but I was hoping that I was on the right side of the road. And even if I wasn't, that no one else was going to come in the opposite direction.

Job was in a fog, a religious fog. Have you ever been in one? I must confess I have. You say I'm exaggerating, not a bit.

Look at the ninth verse and the tenth verse, or rather the eighth verse and the ninth verse of this chapter. Job says, behold I go forward, but he, that is God, is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him, he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.

And the whole predicament's well summed up in the third verse, oh that I knew where I might find him. Job is groping around in the dark, his situation is an unpleasant one. He needs help, but God is a God who hides himself.

That's what the psalmist says, and it was true to Job's experience here. Have you ever been in a spiritual fog? You haven't? Then I reckon you're unique, because people like me certainly have, in a spiritual fog. And it was at that time, if you please, that Job says, he knoweth the way that I take.

Knowledge of my circumstances. At that time, at that particular situation, he knew where I was. I thought he didn't, I couldn't see him.

I looked to the right, I looked to the left, I looked in front, I looked behind, but God wasn't there. But he knoweth the way that I take. Knowledge of.

How does God know? Well you see, theologically put, the question is easily answered. God is omnipresent, that means he's everywhere. In metaphorical language, no doubt, the scripture says that the eye of God runs to and fro, up and down the world, it circumnavigates the globe.

There's nothing that happens that he is not aware of. How is he aware? One would have to be God himself to try to answer that question in a fashion that is understandable to us. God is like the most complex computer that there ever was.

Only you cannot make, depersonalize God by using such an analogy. I employ it just to try to be helpful. He is so sensitive that he is aware of the circumstances of every man, every woman, every boy, every girl in the world.

All the millions are known to him. I can't quite understand that myself. In fact, I don't even begin to understand it, but I believe it.

And this is what the Bible says. And right at the beginning of this book, Job, we have God speaking, if you're pleased to Satan, and he says, consider the inhabitants of the world, yet consider my servant Job. Now admittedly there weren't the millions around in those days that there are today, but God knew Job.

And God knows you, he knows me, and he knows us because of his sensitivity and because of his love and his concern for us. Knowledge of, that's what the motto text speaks most eloquently about. He knoweth the way that I take, even when I'm not sure of where he is or of his interest in my life.

But move on in the categories that came to me earlier this morning, and let's think through for a moment, not only knowledge of, but involvement in. Involvement in. There's all the difference in the world between being a spectator and a participant.

You can be a spectator at a football match, and you can shout and shout and shout, but you'll not change the situation in the game. You may encourage the players, but you can't really make any practical contribution. For my sins, I used to support Sheffield Wednesday.

1974 they were bottom of the first division, 1973 bottom of the first division, 1974 bottom of the second division, and it looks as though this year they're going to get a real record and be bottom of the third division. But even if I was to go back to Hillsborough, to that great ground that they have in the North Midlands, and hollow my lungs out, endeavouring to improve their play, it wouldn't really make any effect at all. And I must concede, even if I played with them, it wouldn't make any effect, apart from worsening the situation.

You see, being a spectator is not sufficient. A spectator can have a knowledge of, but in the human situation we need more than that. Not just knowledge of, but involvement in.

And this is what Job has to deduce about God, and certainly towards the end of this book. God is not only aware of His situation, He's involved in it. You know what the distinction is between deism and theism? No, those aren't terms that really should be beyond your understanding.

The deist's approach to God is this, that God has wound up the world. He's made the world like a watchmaker makes the watch, and the watchmaker removes himself from his creation, and he allows the watch to tick along on its own. But the theist believes that though God made the world, He's not removed from it.

He's there, He's present, He's a reality, He's alongside those who need His aid. Job needed God's aid, and God was alongside Job, even though at times he didn't quite understand His nearness. He wasn't sensitive to God, though God was sensitive to Job.

The Lord Jesus Christ tells us that He is always involved in our situation. What an absurd task Jesus left His church to do, if that were not the case. To say to a handful of men, mainly Galileans, and with the exception of one or two uneducated men, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.

What a task, impossible. But you see, appended to that particular order was the glorious promise, and lo I'm with you always. Luke writes the gospel that bears his name.

He also writes the fifth book of the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles. And do you know how he continued, do you know how he commences that book of the Acts of the Apostles? By telling us of the things that Jesus continued to do. But the Lord Jesus is back in heaven, the ascension has occurred.

Nonetheless Dr. Luke is quite accurate in saying that Jesus is continuing to do things. How does He do things? Well He does them through His church, through His body on earth, and He relates to His body. He's involved with His body.

He's involved with the disciples, He empowers them, He qualifies them to work. He knows the way that I take, and He is concerned in my life to the extent that He gets very involved in it. The three Hebrews in the fiery furnace realized that there was one alongside them.

No doubt the rest of the Hebrews in Babylon were praying that Nebuchadnezzar would never throw these men into the furnace in the first place. But if they prayed that way, then their prayers were frustrated, they weren't answered, at least not along the lines that they expected. But it was in the fire that the men met God, involved in their situation, and it's in the fires of life that men and women meet God today.

He does not only have a knowledge of us, He is involved in our circumstances. I recommended on many occasions from this pulpit, and shame on you if you've not read the book last year, Cary Ten Brun's The Hiding Place. That's a phenomenal book.

A remarkable account of a valiant lady who with her sister underwent all the ordeals of a Nazi concentration camp, and that she and her sister were able to cope. It is quite incomprehensible apart from this fact they believed in a God who not only knew of their circumstances but were involved in them, even in the flea-ridden concentration camp of Dachau, to the extent that they could praise God for their situation. He knoweth the way that I take, and my dear friend, he doesn't just know it academically, he's involved in it experimentally.

You see, as a pastor, if I may plead a personal illustration, it wouldn't be much use to you if I was only just aware of your circumstances if you're in need. You pick up the phone and you ring me or one of the elders or a close Christian friend, and we say, oh yes, so sorry about that. Ponk down the receiver and that's the end of it.

We're aware but we're not involved. That's a betrayal of Christianity to know that someone is in trouble and never to minister. You see, practical Christianity starts with the way that God deals with his children, and God deals with us on a basis of knowing our circumstances and getting involved in them, and this is what my text speaks of.

He knoweth the way that I take, knows about me academically, and his knowledge of me promotes him to do something, to slip alongside me, as he was alongside Job during all the harrowing experience that this man knew. So from my text, here is knowledge of and involvement in. Thirdly, encouragement from.

Notice how the text starts. Every word in the Bible is important. In the tenth verse, it leads him with a conjunction, but, but he knoweth the way that I take.

I say that conjunction is important. Why? Well, for reasons that I've already outlined. Job's confessed he's in a spiritual fog.

He's looked for God but he can't find him. He's tried to make sense of his circumstances and he can't, not on the, on the human level, and yet this great man is able to say, notwithstanding my situation, he knoweth the way I take, but this one thing I believe. Everything else in my life may contradict it, but I am holding on to this, but he knows the way that I take.

Dare you do that in 1976? Do what? When you're in a fog, still hold on to this proposition. Still believe, even though there are some of your friends who will say that you're committing intellectual suicide in so doing. Job's faith in God was so absolute that he made another pronouncement that equals, if not surpasses this.

He says, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. What tremendous faith to believe in God when all the evidences are to the contrary, as far as his loving concern in your life is involved. Job does believe.

He knows the way that I take, despite all the evidence that seems to suggest the opposite. Thank God for the buts in scripture, and may there be always a but in your life during 1976. Look, are you the victim of slander? You sometimes get what I get, anonymous letters.

Are you the victim of disease, of poverty, of pain? You're sometimes misunderstood by a family, by a wife, or by a husband, and sometimes does your situation become so horrific that you'd run away a thousand miles if you could. Why do I make these particular suggestions? Well, because that circumstance or those circumstances befitted Job. He was slandered, his friends slandered him.

Job, you wouldn't be as you are, a man who's ridden by boils, sitting here by the local refuge dump, refuse dump, if you hadn't sinned against God. Job was slandered. Job was in pain, terrible pain.

Have one boil, it's bad enough. Have your body covered with boils. Well, what must be this, the greatness of the, of the discomfiture? And Job was misunderstood by his wife, by his nearest and dearest.

Job, she said, you must revile God, you've done things that are wrong. But Job hadn't, and here he is with this body wrecked by pain. His reputation has been dragged down to the very dust and dirt of the tip, and despite all this, he is able to say, but he knoweth the way that I take.

Now, if Job can ride over his circumstances like this, surely my motto text for our church this year has encouragement for each one of us. Despite what befalls us, despite what is the outcome in these next 12 months, he knows, he understands, and he's alongside. Knowledge of, involvement in, encouragement from.

These are things I deduce from my text, and I think I have the mind of the Lord here. Lastly, here is enrichment by. He knoweth the way that I take.

When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. What's the purpose of life? Have you ever asked yourself that? Well, the Christian answer is this. The purpose of life is for us to glorify God, and secondly, it is to prepare us for heaven.

That state of preparation, that process of preparation is synonymous with sanctification. Now, let's be honest, there's a lot of work that's got to be done in the lives of the majority, if not all of us, in the life of the majority, if not all of us here, before we're fit for heaven. How does God fit us for heaven? Well, by getting rid of the impurities that are in our lives, and here's a thought for my older friends.

The longer you've been in Christ, the more like him you should be, for so the length of the sanctification process has been extended beyond and above those of younger Christians. God gets rid of the impurities in our lives bit by bit through this process of sanctification. Now, sanctification can be a very, very painful thing.

Thus, Job employs the metaphor, and he does this rightly, of gold. I shall come forth as gold. How does gold come forth? Well, first you have the ore.

The ore is placed into the fire, and the impurities are burnt away, but the gold remains, and it comes forth. It loses bulk, but it retains its bullion. Maybe some of us should lose a bit of bulk, but also retain our bullion.

Be cut down in size, but be just as precious in the sight of God, as taken from our lives are all those things which are displeasing to him. Those things that degrade our claim, or that jeopardize, that mock our claim to belong to Jesus Christ. I shall come forth as gold.

This is what Job says. It doesn't really matter what happens to me. I even believe that within the sovereignty of God, the things that have fallen out have come as a result of his will, and their spiritual perception, if you like, because Job's unaware of the conversation that has ensued in heaven between God and Satan.

Job believes that whatever happens is within God's providence, and ultimately it will work out for his advantage. I shall come forth as gold. God's concern is to perfect us, to get rid of the impurity of the alloy, and to make us pure 14 carat gold.

I shall come forth as gold. What does a goldsmith do when he's got his gold from his ore? Yes, the bulk has gone, but the bullion is there. What does he do with the bullion? Well, he fashions it.

He makes it into something beautiful. I read a book once called Something Beautiful for Jesus. May God make you and me beautiful for him.

Job became beautiful in the sight of God. The impurities were diminished considerably as a result of his experience, and he came to realize more and more that his, his assertion that God knows the way that he took was not a mad assertion. He had not committed intellectual suicide.

He was dealing in spiritual common sense. God did know the way that he was taking. God had a knowledge of his situation.

God was involved in his situation, and as a result of this, Job gained encouragement, encouragement, and he was enriched. Now take this text and apply it to your circumstance. Let's take it as a church and use it throughout this year as God's promise to us.

He knows the way that we take. He has knowledge about this church, every aspect of it, every development, everything that we have in mind. He's involved with us.

Let us be more sensitive to his involvement, and then let us draw encouragement from the fact that our Lord is alongside us, and when we do this, then we shall be immeasurably enriched at the moment as we appreciate his blessings, and we shall adorn the church of our Lord Jesus Christ universal as he purifies the saints at Worthing Tabernacle as they come forth as gold. He knoweth the way that I take. Consolation for a new year.

Amen. Our Father right now as a congregation, we would submit to your sovereignty and ask that you will order our lives, and that we may gain strength from the fact that you're always alongside us. Help us to conduct ourselves in a way that brings glory and honor to the name of Jesus, and we ask that during this year our lives may be made something beautiful for God, and now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, the friendship and fellowship of the Holy Spirit be our abiding experience.

Amen.