When You Finally Face Your Failures

Job 9:

1         Then Job answered,

2         "In truth I know that this is so;

           But how can a man be in the right before God?

3         "If one wished to dispute with Him,

           He could not answer Him once in a thousand times.

4         "Wise in heart and mighty in strength,

           Who has defied Him without harm?

5         "It is God who removes the mountains, they know not how,

           When He overturns them in His anger;

6         Who shakes the earth out of its place,

           And its pillars tremble;

7         Who commands the sun not to shine,

           And sets a seal upon the stars;

8         Who alone stretches out the heavens

           And tramples down the waves of the sea;

9         Who makes the Bear, Orion and the Pleiades,

           And the chambers of the south;

10       Who does great things, unfathomable,

           And wondrous works without number.

11       "Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him;

           Were He to move past me, I would not perceive Him.

12       "Were He to snatch away, who could restrain Him?

           Who could say to Him, 'What are You doing?'

13       "God will not turn back His anger;

           Beneath Him crouch the helpers of Rahab.

14       "How then can I answer Him,

           And choose my words before Him?

15       "For though I were right, I could not answer;

           I would have to implore the mercy of my judge.

16       "If I called and He answered me,

           I could not believe that He was listening to my voice.

17       "For He bruises me with a tempest

           And multiplies my wounds without cause.

18       "He will not allow me to get my breath,

           But saturates me with bitterness.

19       "If it is a matter of power, behold, He is the strong one!

           And if it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

20       "Though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me;

           Though I am guiltless, He will declare me guilty.

21       "I am guiltless;

           I do not take notice of myself;

           I despise my life.

22       "It is all one; therefore I say,

           'He destroys the guiltless and the wicked.'

23       "If the scourge kills suddenly,

           He mocks the despair of the innocent.

24       "The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

           He covers the faces of its judges.

           If it is not He, then who is it?

25       "Now my days are swifter than a runner;

           They flee away, they see no good.

26       "They slip by like reed boats,

           Like an eagle that swoops on its prey.

27       "Though I say, 'I will forget my complaint,

           I will leave off my sad countenance and be cheerful,'

28       I am afraid of all my pains,

           I know that You will not acquit me.

29       "I am accounted wicked,

           Why then should I toil in vain?

30       "If I should wash myself with snow

           And cleanse my hands with lye,

31       Yet You would plunge me into the pit,

           And my own clothes would abhor me.

32       "For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him,

           That we may go to court together.

33       "There is no umpire between us,

           Who may lay his hand upon us both.

34       "Let Him remove His rod from me,

           And let not dread of Him terrify me.

35       "Then I would speak and not fear Him;

           But I am not like that in myself.

 

Job 9 and 1 Timothy 2:1-5  When You Face Your Failures  You Discover You Need A Mediator

I have a friend who decided recently to take the Australian Federal Government to court for actions taken by the State Government. He decided to do that on the basis of the American Constitution.  That is going to turn out well right?  Now, there are two great questions in the Book of Job. Question number one is: why do the righteous suffer? And the second is.. can I take God to court?

The image that is uppermost in Job's mind is that of a legal trial. He wants to take God to court and have opportunity to prove his own integrity. A glance at some of the vocabulary indicates this:

contend (Job 9:3; 10:2) = enter into litigation          answer (9:3, 16) = testify in court

judge (v. 15) = an opponent at law, accuser                set a time (v. 19) = summon to court

daysman (v. 33) = an umpire, an arbitrator               reason (13:3) = argue a case

order my cause (v. 18) = prepare my case               plead (v. 19; 23:6) = dispute in court

hear me (31:35) = give me a legal hearing      adversary (v. 35) = accuser in court

In Job 9, Job asks two questions:

"How can I be righteous before God?" (9:1–13)  "How can I meet God in court?" (vv. 14–35)

It shows tremendous insight and thought that Job in the midst of excruciating agony, had thought through some important aspects of his sufferings and the character and nature of God!!

Did you notice how his reasoning worked?   Can I take God to court for harsh treatment?

As Job works through this question it helps to resolve some things in his own mind and heart, and prepares us to understand the gospel all the better.

Can I take God to court?  If I appear with God in Court who is going to win?

His invincible wisdom and power control the earth and the heavens. Would anybody dare go to court with an opponent powerful enough to shake the earth, make the stars, and walk on the waves?  Is it smart to take to court the One Who Himself is the Judge of all humanity?

God is not only invincible, He is also invisible. Job couldn't see God or stop Him to give Him a summons to court. God can do whatever He pleases, and nobody can question Him! Even monsters of the sea ( 9:13 ) have to bow before God's power.

God is Infinite in Nature.  He has been from the beginning and He will still be there when everything is wrapped up at the end. And that means that this life is not all there is. Job was admitting his frustration by the apparent injustice when those who haven't committed the sin sometimes suffer and die through no direct fault of their own. But what if the ultimate resolution to this universal question isn't settled until after death?

And God doesn't necessarily pay up all His bills on our time schedule.

And Job was Sinful. How could he appear in God's court? If God and he compared righteousness, Job will lose every time. He was already guilty.

If I could declare my own innocence, what good would it do?

Though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me; Though I am guiltless, He will declare me guilty.

I am guiltless; I do not take notice of myself; I despise my life. It is all one; therefore I say,

"He destroys the guiltless and the wicked." If the scourge kills suddenly,

He mocks the despair of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

He covers the faces of its judges. If it is not He, then who is it? Job 9:20–24

And Job was stupid. How could he stand in God's court? He had no idea what he would say to defend himself.

If I could stand before God, what would I say?  How then can I answer Him, And choose my words before Him? For though I were right, I could not answer; I would have to implore the mercy of my judge. If I called and He answered me, I could not believe that He was listening to my voice, For He bruises me with a tempest And multiplies my wounds without cause. He will not allow me to get my breath, But saturates me with bitterness. If it is a matter of power, behold, He is the strong one! And if it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him? Job 9:14–19

When Job finally did meet God (Job 38–41), the Lord asked him seventy-seven questions! And Job couldn't answer one of them! His only response was to admit his ignorance and shut his mouth in silence.

And Job was mortal. No matter what he was going to die anyway.

Then Job answered, 2 But how can a man be in the right before God?

Message : The question is, "How can mere mortals get right with God?" If we wanted to bring our case before him, what chance would we have? Not one in a thousand!

We come to the end of Job 9 and discover that Job has found an answer, but it would take another 2000 years for that answer to be realized in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Job is asking. "How can I be reconciled with God?" And the answer is Job like anyone and everyone else, needs a Mediator. And that Mediator he needs is the Lord Jesus Christ!

I Need a Mediator Because I have to stand before God

I Need a Mediator Because I have to stand before God and I am not innocent

I Need a Mediator Because I have to stand before God and I am not innocent and Denial won't help

Job asks If I tried to be positive and cheerful, how would that help me?

Now my days are swifter than a runner; They flee away, they see no good.

They slip by like reed boats, Like an eagle that swoops on its prey.

Though I say, "I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my sad countenance and be cheerful,"

I am afraid of all my pains, I know that You will not acquit me.

I am accounted wicked, Why then should I toil in vain?

If I should wash myself with snow And cleanse my hands with lye,

Yet You would plunge me into the pit,  And my own clothes would abhor me.

Job arrives at a major turning point with his fourth question:

Is it possible to have a mediator who could represent my needs before God?

For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, That we may go to court together.

There is no umpire between us, Who may lay his hand upon us both.

Let Him remove His rod from me, And let not dread of Him terrify me. Then I would speak and not fear Him; But I am not like that in myself. Job 9:32–35

 

THE TERM MEDIATOR TELLS US THERE ARE TWO PARTIES WHO NEED TO BE RECONCILED.

THERE WOULD BE NO USE IN A MEDIATOR UNLESS THE TWO PARTIES WERE BOTH WILLING TO BE RECONCILED TO EACH OTHER.

Job longs for an arbitrator who could serve as his go-between, communicating with this mighty and holy God. He's wishing for one who could argue his case. Job would love to present his case in God's court, but he doesn't have a mediator. He is saying, in effect, "I would love to come and stand before the holy Judge, this God of mine, but I can't do it. He's not a man to come to me, and I don't have in myself what it takes to come before Him. I need a mediator, a go-between. Is there an arbitrator available?"

This week we have experienced the Transport Workers Union in conflict with .. everyone. The union stood on one side with the laborers while management was on the other side. There was a list of grievances in between.

"NSW is using Korean made trains.   We should be supporting home industries."

"It may be that being foreign made and  imported some of the trains may be defective?"

After all, Korea makes Kia's and Hyundai's?

Did you notice the difficulty for the union reps to get their stories coordinated?

It is hard to mediate between people when they don't know what their problems are.

If an arbitrator or mediator is hired to come in, they sort of have to know what they are arbitrating about. A Mediator must be neutral, to come in and hear both sides.

If the desire is that some kind of understanding could be reached as the arbitrator could, after hearing both sides, negotiate a settlement and avert a strike.

That's what Job wants. But he doesn't have an arbitrator. He doesn't qualify to stand before God on his own because he isn't Deity; and God is not a man that He can come stand before Job—so he's stuck.

The late G. Campbell Morgan writes:

The cry of Job was born of a double consciousness which at the moment was mastering him; first, that of the appalling greatness and majesty of God; and secondly, that of his own comparative littleness. This was not the question of a man who had dismissed God from his life and from the universe, and was living merely upon the earth level. It was rather the cry of a man who knew God, and was overwhelmed by the sense of His greatness. . . .

Over against that was the sense of his own comparative smallness. He felt he could not get to this God. He was altogether too small. . . .

It is as though Job had said: There is no umpire, there is no arbiter, there is no one who can stand between us, interpreting each to the other; me to God, and God to me. There is no one to lay his hand upon us. . . .

Here then was Job crying out for some one who could stand authoritatively between God and himself, and so create a way of meeting, a possibility of contact.

Man is a sinner. He's a sinner by birth, by nature, by choice, by practice, and by habit. Behavioural psychologists try to explain away sin by saying man is ill not evil, man is sick not sinful, or man is weak not wicked. But that's not what the Bible says. Romans 3:23 states, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." We can try to explain it away by environment or glands, but the Bible clearly calls it sin.

But not only is man sinful; God is holy. If I had to give one word to describe God, contrary to popular opinion, it would not be love; it would be holy. In Job 9:30, Job says, "If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; Yet shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me." That is, "God, if I do the very best I can in self reformation, if I get the purest water and scrub myself from head to toe; yet you see me wallowing in the gutter. You see me as I really am."

So how can a holy God and sinful man come together? How can man be just with God? Man cannot lift himself to God because man is sinful, and God will not lower Himself to man because God is holy. Now that's a problem!

Job was saying, "Oh God, You are holy; I am sinful. I need You. God, I can't argue with You. If you bring me into court, I can't answer one of a thousand questions. I'm a sinner. I need somebody to go between. I need somebody to bring me to You. I need somebody who can lay his hands upon us both. I need an arbiter. I need a middleman. I need a daysman. I need a mediator."

"To act as umpire." The "daysman" is the one with authority to set the day when competing parties come together to settle their dispute. In the East, the "daysman" put his hands on the heads of the two disputing parties to remind them that he was the one with the authority to settle the question. Job longed for somebody who could do this for him and God.

Do you know Who he was crying for? Do you know Who he was longing for? 1 Timothy 2:5-6. "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all...." Job, centuries before the birth of the Messiah, knew he was in need of a Saviour, a Mediator; and he longed for Jesus.

And since Jesus is both God and man at the same time, He became the Mediator. The God man builds a bridge between God and man, and that bridge is made of the rough hewn timbers of the cross. There is one God and one Mediator between God and men — Himself a Man — the Christ Jesus Who gave Himself a ransom for all. How can man be just with God? His name is Jesus.

Job's words are a fore annoucement of the tremendous words of the apostle Paul about the Lord Jesus Christ.

"There is One Mediator," Paul writes to his younger friend Timothy referring to Him who represents us before God the Father. He is none other than Christ Jesus the Lord.

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 1 Timothy 2:3 –  Paul writes of our mediator, our arbitrator, "there is one mediator between God and men," and He is specifically identified as "the man Christ Jesus." When it comes to eternal life, there are not many mediators. There is only one, Christ Jesus. Don't be afraid to be that specific. Jesus wasn't. During His earthly ministry Jesus spoke of Himself as "the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6).

When it comes to the Person of Christ, He is the one and only mediator between God and humanity. He is the one and only Saviour! We find ourselves responding, "Oh, Job, there is a mediator. You just haven't met Him yet."

But even Job recognized that even if he had a mediator, he would still be on the losing end. If all the mediator did was to try to reconcile people to God, he couldn't do it as things stand. The problem isn't on God's side. The problem is on man's side. Man's sinfulness means there is no way we can be reconciled. The Mediator's work would come to nothing. Unless our Mediator brought something to the table. Our Mediator has brought something to the table: The cross of Calvary. There Jesus Christ "gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time" (1 Tim. 2:6).

This is where Paul's argument has been leading all along. The church prays for everyone because there is one God for everyone—a God who wants everyone to be saved—and because there is one mediator for everyone—a mediator who gave himself as a ransom.

The fact that Jesus "gave himself " speaks to the sacrificial nature of his death on the cross. His crucifixion was a voluntary offering, a willing sacrifice. No one took his life from him; he laid it down of his own accord (John 10:18).

He gave himself as a ransom. This expression is a clear echo of Jesus' own statement that the Son of Man had come "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). A ransom was the price paid for the release of slaves or captives. Here, then, is the double uniqueness of Jesus Christ, which qualifies him to be the

only mediator. First there is the uniqueness of his divine-human person, and secondly the uniqueness of his substitutionary, redeeming death. The one mediator is the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom.

The fact that Christ did this for others speaks to the substitutionary nature of his death. Jesus died in our place. His blood was the atonement for our sins. The substitutionary nature of Christ's death is clearly taught here and everywhere else in the Scriptures.

The work of Christ on the cross is further described as a "ransom." This rich biblical term refers to the release of a captive by the payment of a price. When Jesus died on the cross, he was making an exchange for sin. It was not a price paid to the devil (as some of the early church fathers taught), but a payment made to satisfy the justice of God. The reason Christ could pay the price for our sins is the reason already mentioned: he is the mediator. He had to be God as well as man in order to pay the ransom. This was perhaps best explained by Anselm of Canterbury, who said that salvation "could not have been done unless man paid what was owing to God for sin. But the debt was so great that, while man alone owed it, only God could pay it, so that the same person must be both man and God. Thus it was necessary for God to take manhood into the unity of his person, so that he who in his own nature ought to pay and could not should be in a person who could." This is what Jesus did when he died on the cross: he paid the price that only man could owe and only God could pay.

He paid the debt he did not own, I own the debt I could not pay
I needed someone to wash my sins away And now I sing a brand new song, "Amazing grace"
Christ Jesus paid the debt I could never pay He paid the debt at Calvary
The various aspects of ransom are helpfully summarized in a sermon by Charles Spurgeon:

When a prisoner has been taken captive, and has been made a slave . . . it has been usual, before he could be set free, that a ransom price should be paid down. Now . . . by the fall of Adam . . . we were by the irreproachable judgment of God given up to the vengeance of the law; we were given into the hands of justice; justice claimed us to be his bond slaves forever, unless we could pay a ransom, whereby our souls could be redeemed. . . . We were . . . "bankrupt debtors"; . . . all we had was sold . . . and we could by no means find a ransom; it was just then that Christ stepped in . . . and, . . . in the stead of all believers, paid the ransom price, that we might in that hour be delivered from the curse of the law and the vengeance of God, and go our way clean, free, justified by his blood.

A MEDIATOR MUST RECONCILE THE TWO OR HE HAS NOT SUCCEEDED.

Our Lord Jesus has broken down the middle wall of partition. He has really reconciled those who stood apart. Christ has done this for so many. "Why should not he do it for me?"

Why should he not end the quarrel between me and God? Why should he not reconcile me to the Father, so that the Father should give me the kiss of peace? He has never failed in a case yet. Some of the very worst cases have been submitted to his umpireship; but he has always succeeded.

He succeeded for Paul.

1 Timothy 1:12-16 "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life."

 

And Paul says that what worked for him can work for anybody in any station in life.

1 Tim 2:1-6 prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority,.. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.

Paul is saying that He can do that for Kings, Emperors, anyone, from any nation, any place, any socio-economic condition, any sinfulness and any addiction can come to Christ and find a mediator who can bring reconciliation.
Jesus Christ is the arbitrator Job was looking for. Because he is the God-man, Jesus bridges the gap between the Creator and the creature. He is fully God. Therefore, he is able to meet God's standards. But as "the man Christ Jesus," to quote what Paul said to Timothy, he is also fully human. Therefore, Jesus is able to meet our obligations.

The reason Jesus is the only mediator is that he is the only one who has both a divine nature and a human nature—not the angels, or Mary, or the saints, or even your favorite local minister, for none of them is divine. If we want to get to God, we have to go through this one divine person. Jesus is the mediator.

Jesus is able to represent and to reconcile both man and God because he has the most intimate sympathy with both parties. As a member of the Trinity, he has communion with the Father and the Spirit. As a member of the human race, he has union with us. Therefore, in the words of John Wesley, he is able to "to reconcile man to God, and to transact the whole affair of our salvation." As the Puritans loved to say, Jesus Christ is able to strike hands on both sides of the covenant of grace.

As Wesley and Whitefield wrote: Hark the Herald Angels Sing.. "God and sinners reconciled!"

There is only one God, one Savior, and one salvation. Yet it is also broadly inclusive. It is just because there is only one God that the unique way of salvation is open to everyone: "Our exclusive faith (there is one God, and no other) leads necessarily to our inclusive mission (the one God wants all men to be saved)."

According to Calvin, "the apostle's meaning here is simply that no nation of the earth and no rank of society is excluded from salvation, since God wills to offer the gospel to all without exception."  Jesus paid a ransom for all kinds of people. He does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, ethnicity, or economic status. As Hendriksen helpfully explains, he did not die "one by one for every member of the entire human race, past, present and future, including Judas and the antichrist." Rather, Christ died for "all men regardless of social, national and racial distinctions." Whatever neighborhood you come from, Christ is the Saviour for you.

 

Reconciliation, wrought out by Christ, is absolutely perfect. It means eternal life. O my hearer, if Jesus reconciles thee to God now, thou wilt never quarrel with God again, nor God with thee. If the mediator takes away the ground of feud—thy sin and sinfulness—he will take it away for ever. He will cast your iniquities into the depths of the sea, blotting out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your transgressions. He will make such peace between you and God that he will love you for ever, and you will love him for ever; and nothing shall separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The union between God and the sinner, reconciled by the blood of Jesus, is closer and stronger than the union between God and unfallen Adam. That was broken by a single

stroke; but if Christ joins you to the Father by his own precious blood, he will keep you there: for who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?

 

But what if you don't use this Mediator? What if you say to yourself, "My service to God or my service to my country, my service to my family, makes me good enough"? Then you are living in Denial.

You are rejecting peace when you reject Christ. I am sure that it is so. You are choosing war with the Lord of hosts. Take Job's advice: How can you fight with God? Why should you fight with God? To battle with God is to battle against your own best interests, and to ruin your souls.