LESSONS FROM JOB

Adapted from Ray Stedman by Pastor Rick Jackson


I. WE OUGHT TRADE ILLUSIONS FOR TRUTH [Rm. 12:2]

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

II. REALIZE WE LIVE IN AN UNSAFE WARZONE [Job 1-2, Eph. 6:12]

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

“We tend to think we are noncombatants living in peacetime. That’s not how Satan views us. To him, we are military targets.” - Ray Stedman

III. THE TRUE NATURE OF FAITH [Job 13:15]

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
Daniel 3:16-18 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

IV. THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR “GOODNESS” [Job 40:4, 42:5-6]

Isaiah 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Romans 9:30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
Romans 9:31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Philippians 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.


V. THE TRUTH ABOUT SUFFERING [Isaiah 53:3]

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Matthew 5:11-12 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
John 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

VI. THE TRUTH ABOUT SATAN [2 Corinthians 2:11]

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

VII. THE TRUTH ABOUT GOD [Job 7:17]

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?
Psalm 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Psalm 144:3 LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!
Ephesians 2
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins:;
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.