Good morning, friends. Welcome again to "Sabbath School Study Hour." A very warm welcome to our friends joining us across the country and around the world, our extended Sabbath school class. Also, I'd like to welcome our members and visitors right here at the Granite Bay church. Thank you for joining us today. As you know, we've been studying through the book of job, as part of our Sabbath school quarterly.
And we're nearing the end of our study together. Today, we are on lesson number 13 entitled "the character of job." So, for our friends who are watching us, if you don't have a copy of our study today, just go to the Amazing Facts website, amazingfacts.org, and download lesson number 13 entitled "the character of job," and you can study along with us. We also have a free offer that goes along with our program today. It's a book entitled "assurance: justification made simple." And this book is written by Pastor Doug. And if you'd call our resource phone number, we'll be happy to send it to you for free.
The number to call is ... And you can ask for offer number 727. Well, it's time for us to begin by lifting our voices in praise. I'd like to invite our song leaders to come and lead us in some hymns this morning. Shemekah bruton: good morning, and thank you for joining us for "Sabbath School Study Hour" today.
We want to invite you to join us for our song service. We're going to start out with number 149, "once in royal David's city," and we'll sing all four verses. ♪♪♪ ♪ Once in royal David's city ♪ ♪ stood a lowly cattle shed, ♪ ♪ where a mother laid her baby ♪ ♪ in a manger for his bed. ♪ ♪ Mary was that mother mild, ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ her little child. ♪ ♪ He came down to earth from heaven, ♪ ♪ who is God and Lord of all.
♪ ♪ And his shelter was a stable, ♪ ♪ and his cradle was a stall. ♪ ♪ With the poor, and mean, ♪ ♪ and lowly lived on earth our Savior holy. ♪ ♪ And through all his wondrous childhood, ♪ ♪ he would honor and obey, ♪ ♪ love and watch the lowly mother ♪ ♪ in whose gentle arms he lay. ♪ ♪ Christian children ♪ ♪ all must be mild, ♪ ♪ obedient, good as he. ♪ ♪ And our eyes at last shall see him ♪ ♪ through his own redeeming love.
♪ ♪ For that child so dear and gentle ♪ ♪ is our Lord in heaven above. ♪ ♪ And he leads his children on ♪ ♪ to the place where he is gone. ♪ ♪♪♪ Jean: amen, beautiful music. From time to time, before we do our lesson, we like to highlight some various mission activity that maybe one of our church members are involved in, or Amazing Facts is involved in. And this coming week at the office at Amazing Facts, we're having a workers' meeting, and we're bringing together our evangelists that travel around doing evangelistic meetings, and also our international afcoe directors.
Amazing Facts has a number of afcoe training centers around the world, and one of our evangelists and also the director of the africa afcoe program is lowell hargreaves, and his wife is here with us today. And I thought this would be a great opportunity to kind of share a little bit about what's happening in the work over in kenya, africa. So, lowell, we're delighted that you're here. And I know that you've got some things to share with us, and you can even show us some pictures. Thank you.
Lowell hargreaves: yes, and good morning. Good to be here with you in California. And for those of you watching, we bring you greetings from africa. My wife and I have been in kenya for the last over a year. Afcoe has a training program, an evangelism training program in africa.
We were in the Philippines a few years ago, and while we were there, leading out in the afcoe Philippines, pafcoe, we had a man come from kenya, his name is kenneth, kenneth from kenya. Went through the training. And after finishing the training in the Philippines, he said, "we need this program in africa." And through his influence and invitation, we eventually went to nairobi, kenya to do an evangelistic meeting. We weren't planning to start an afcoe in kenya. We were actually targeting zambia.
But God brought us to kenya to do an evangelistic meeting, and we were going to do this meeting together with the largest church there in kenya, the nairobi Central Seventh-day Adventist church, 6,000 member church. And when we arrived there, we discovered that they had targeted a slum in nairobi, where they wanted to start a church, plant a church. And so, they assigned us to do the evangelistic meeting in the slum. And I remember they took us out there, you're seeing a picture of the area, and we stood on this little sort of like a little hill, a little mound, and they said, "we're going to have the stage here, and out over there is going to be the audience." Now, they told me that this used to be a dump. And as I stood on the top of this little hill, you could smell the dump because it was--they had covered--you know, they had covered over sometimes, and then they'd cover over more.
But there was a whole area behind me where it was just open dump, and you could smell the stench. And I thought to myself, "we're going to have an evangelistic meeting here on top of this dump?" And I've done evangelism in many places over the world over the last 20 years, but I had never done an evangelistic meeting on top of a dump in a slum. And I'll have to confess I was discouraged. I felt like quitting. One of the times in my experience where I felt like, "why do a meeting? Who's going to come?" There were some goats that came walking through, and I thought, "I'm coming out here to preach to the goats.
" We did set up our--they covered over the open sewer, and they set up, you can see in the picture here, this rustic stage. I would stand up there on the stage, you can see my screen off to the side, a sheet that they strung up. And across from me, a little farther down the hill, they had this tent with the chairs. And we had about 100, 150 people that came every evening for the meeting. You can see the picture here.
There's The Song leader, leading out with the singing. And after 4 weeks on top of that dump, I want you to look carefully at this picture. Watch now the next picture. There today is a seventh day adventist church thanks to that meeting. We baptized about 50, they put up a church, they're still trying to raise money to buy the spot there where the church is sitting.
But today, we have a seventh day adventist church there in that slum. And if you were to go to the church today, it's a simple tin church, you will discover it's already too full. It's completely full on Sabbath, and they have people sitting outside the church. And so, I praise God for what he did there in the slum. There's another picture of the church, it's the nicest church in the slum, in that area, surrounded by other tin churches.
But the seventh day adventist church is one of the prettiest. Well, because of that meeting, the central church there in nairobi invited us to start afcoe and afcoe training in kenya. And we began early this year. And probably the most--two of the most effective programs we're doing with afcoe africa are our Sunday training for church members. We call it ishare, 12 Sundays of training in personal evangelism.
You can see here the group. In our last training, we had almost 100 church members that came through every Sunday to learn the principles of personal evangelism. And after 12 Sundays, we sent them out to do a group Bible study. We teamed them up in teams of two, and they would pick two church members to join them, so a team of four. And they would go out and do a 26-part storacles Bible lesson series.
You can see them here holding their storacle lessons. Here's another picture of those lessons. We had a whole van-load full of Amazing Facts lessons printed there in kenya. And our students go out and share those. They are doing those lessons right now.
In fact, from our previous ishare session we did earlier this year, there have already been hundreds of people baptized. I met a lady recently who went through our training on Sunday. She had just finished her Bible studies, she and her partner. And I said, "so, are you going to have results?" She says, "yes, we have one ready for baptism." I said, "then what?" She says, "we're already planning our next Bible study series." They had been infected with the evangelism virus. Once you do evangelism, you never want to quit.
The other very effective program that we have, we're doing there in kenya, is child evangelism. This is a picture of a child evangelistic campaign, again in the slum. We had 300 children, many of them not members of our church, in the local seventh day adventist church every night for one month, learning the adventist doctrines, the Bible doctrines, the Bible teachings. And after one month of meetings, we give these children, those that come faithfully, a gift. You can see a picture here of the children holding their gifts.
And for many of them, this is so rewarding because these are slum children that have almost nothing. And they come, some of them don't even have matching shoes. They have one shoe from one color, another shoe from another color. They're just glad they have shoes, slum children. And as they learn the teachings of the Bible, these children, they go home, and they become little missionaries in their homes.
They tell their parents, "you know, the Bible says we're supposed to keep the Sabbath holy. The Bible says when you die, you sleep. The Bible says Jesus is coming soon. The Bible says these are the things we shouldn't eat." So, they become little missionaries in their homes. And many of them make a commitment for Christ.
Here's a picture of one who was baptized. There were many children baptized at the end of our child evangelistic meeting. Right now, our children, my wife and i, we have two children that are still with us, they are our teachers there at our training at afcoe africa. They are doing evangelistic meetings for children as I'm speaking in two different slums in nairobi. They have about 250 children, each of them in their respective different sites, and they're doing child evangelistic meetings right now.
There are so many needs in africa. You can look at the picture, and you can see some of the conditions there. And yet, we praise God for the privilege we have to share the Gospel of hope with people who need hope. Here is an interesting statement from the book "Gospel workers." "The work of God in this earth can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church membership rally to the work, and unite their efforts with those of ministers and church officers." We have a work to do. You have a work to do.
God wants to use you as a soul winner. And that's what afcoe is all about, teaching church members the principles of soul winning. And so, on behalf of Amazing Facts, for those of you that support the ministry of Amazing Facts and the training of afcoe, we express to you our hearty thanks today. The children of afcoe send their thanks, children of africa, salamat. God bless you.
Jean: amen. Thank you, lowell, amen. It's encouraging to hear those great mission reports of things that are currently happening around the world. Well, before we get to our study, I invite you to bow your heads for a word of prayer. Dear Father, once again, what a privilege to be able to gather in your house to study Your Word.
And we ask for the Holy Spirit once again to come and speak to our hearts and guard our minds as we open up the Scriptures, and we look at the story of job, and in particular the faith of job, his character demonstrated in this experience. Be with us this morning in Jesus' Name, amen. Our lesson today will be brought to us by pastor marshall mckenzie. Thank you, marshall. Marshall mckenzie: good morning, and Happy Sabbath.
You know, the book of job, as we've been going through it, is packed full of information. And that just draws us closer to Christ. It's amazing when you dig into job's experience. And this morning, what we're going to do is actually zero in specifically on the character of job, something we really haven't done through the lesson. Just like satan kind of zeroed in on the character of job to defeat or to overthrow him, and ultimately to bring disgrace to God, we're going to study it because we want to understand the truths of job's character so that we can exhibit these truths to glorify God, and to exalt him, especially living in the last days of earth's history.
You know, character is crucial. It's crucial in business dealings, it's crucial in friendships, it's crucial in relationships, right? Character is very central, it's very important. Just in life in general, character is something of great value. But most importantly, in our relationship with God, character is very crucial. We need not underestimate the development of Christian character, and that's something we're going to unpack as we go through lesson number 13, "the character of job.
" But before we dive right into the lesson, I actually want to read to you a statement from a powerful little book entitled "Christ object lessons." If you haven't read it, I encourage you to read it. If you have, I encourage you to go back and take a look at it. This is a powerful statement, it's from page 332. It says, "a character formed according to the divine likeness is the only treasure that we can take from this world to the next." A character that is according to the divine likeness is the only treasure. In other words, there's no other treasure.
House, lands, cars, wealth, none of it will we be able to take from this world to the next. What we will be able to take is a character that is formed after the likeness of Christ. It goes on in the statement to say, "those who are under the instruction of Christ in this world will take every divine attainment with them to the heavenly mansions. And in heaven, we are continually to improve." That's interesting. Even in heaven, we will continually improve.
How important then is the development of character in this life? In other words, the study of job and the study of job's character is really important for us because it's the only thing each of us--our characters is what we will take from this world to the next. So, this lesson is very central to our development. You know, job had quite the character when you dive into the lesson, and we start to unpack his character. And from it, we'll learn incredible truths that help us, or will help us to develop a character that is heaven-bound and heaven-ready. That's the kind of character we want, right? We don't live really for this world.
We live for the world to come. Jesus is coming soon. So, we want characters that are heaven-bound and heaven-ready. Job was heaven-bound, and job was heaven-ready. His character was tested, but we see the level of his character when we study this lesson.
Matter of fact, I want to read to you--there's an important question right in the lesson if you have your lessons. By the way, I encourage you to bring your lesson and bring your Bible, okay? Two important things. So, we're going to turn here in the lesson to page 104. And as we start to unpack the character of job, it starts with an important question, okay? A question we need to ask as we begin to unpack the character of job in this lesson. Page 104 in the lesson says, "who was this man?" Simple question, "who was this man, who did not understand why all these things were happening to him, who knew that what was happening to him wasn't fair, who expressed anger and frustration over it all, and yet stayed faithful right through to the end?" Who was this man who experienced all these things, and yet, through it all, he was faithful unto the end? And as I read that, I thought about specifically in Matthew chapter 24, verse 13, Jesus specifically says, "those who endure unto the end, they shall be," what? "They shall be saved.
" Job, in all of his trials and all of his circumstances, as we're reading through the book of job, begin to understand that job's character of faithfulness shines through and through. And he was faithful unto the end. And I hope that's our desire, that by the grace of God, we'll want to be faithful to God unto the very end. It also reminded me of a passage in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 7, where the apostle Paul says, "I have fought the good fight." Towards the end of his life, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." That's a powerful passage. In other words, job looks back over his life, he was faithful to the end.
Paul looks back over his life, he says to us, "I have kept the faith. I have been faithful to the end." This is a characteristic of God's people. This is brought out in this lesson as we'll go through it together. So, who was this man? If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn with me to job chapter 1. Who was this man? Job chapter 1.
And we're going to actually take a look at verse 1, verse 8, and then we're going to look at chapter 2, verse 3. The lesson brings out very simply who this man was. And then, as we go on, it begins to unpack it more and more for us, the lesson. Job chapter 1, verse 1 says, "there was a man in the land of uz whose name was job, and that man was," what? "That man was perfect," or blameless, "and he was upright, and one who feared God." And what? "And shunned evil." He turned away from evil. We see the same character brought out in verse 8.
It says, "then the Lord said to satan, 'have you considered my servant job?'" Of course he has. He's been walking to and fro over the earth, and he zeroes in on this man, who has this character. And then God describes it for us, that, "there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil." There's no one like this, like job. Then we get to chapter 2, verse 3, and we see this again. "Then the Lord said to satan, 'have you considered my servant job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without cause.
'" Four areas of job's character are highlighted, really kind of defining his character. The first one was that he was blameless. The second one was what? That he was--he was upright. The third one was that he--that he what? That he feared God. And the fourth, ultimately, was that he shunned evil.
He lived his life turning consistently away from evil. And so, the lesson is going to unpack these things for us as we go further and further into it. Matter of fact, in Sunday's lesson, if you have your lessons, you turn over to Sunday's lesson, it begins to kind of define these terms so that we can kind of wrap our minds around it, and really get a grasp and a picture of who this man was, answering that simple question. The word "blameless," as the lesson kind of identifies and brings to our attention, refers to a person that has reached a degree of development that heaven expects, not what the earth expects, but a degree of development that heaven expects of him or her at any given time. The word that is associated to it in the new testament is the word "full grown" or "mature.
" You know, I look forward to the day when my children--now, I know, we all want our children to stay little. But I look forward to the day when they are full-grown, when they're mature adults. And I get pieces of that as my oldest son is growing up. We have these interesting conversations. Here, the word "blameless" means full grown, mature.
And when I read this, I thought about 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 11. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 11, Paul says, "when I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a," what? "When I became a man, when I made this transition," he says, "I put away childish things," Corinthians chapter 13, verse 11. Here, what's interesting is that the apostle Paul uses the example of an earthly transition to explain in a way a transition of character that each Christian, each believer in Christ, should go through. And this is a heavenly transition.
We're preparing to be heaven-bound and heaven-ready. Job, when it defines his character as blameless, he's one who's made this transition. He's one who's making consistently this transition. Matter of fact, if you turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, you'll want to keep your fingers in job, but we'll go and look at the context of 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We're not going to go through the whole chapter, but we're just going to read the verses around verse 11.
Corinthians chapter 13, and we're going to look at the verses around this verse we just got done reading. And I'm actually going to start with verse 9, Corinthians, so we understand this. Corinthians chapter 13, verse 9 says, "for we know in part, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect or complete has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.
But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just also as I am known," 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 9 through 12. And Paul's unpacking this transition that actually is described that job is going through in the word "blameless," this transition from being a child of Christ and moving into being a full grown Christian, a mature Christian, who in character is described as being--job was described as being what? Blameless. He was going through this transition.
Job was blameless. Job's character was one that was in line with what heaven expected, not what earth expected. He was making this transition. Jesus also talks about this in Luke chapter 6, verse 40. He says, "a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.
" In other words, when we begin to first learn of Christ, we begin the character development process. But at some point--we will always continue to develop, but at some point, we make a transition from just being taught to actually teaching. We make this transition. Matter of fact, in Hebrews chapter 5, verse 12, Paul has something to say about the Hebrew Christians here. He says, "for though by this time you ought to be teachers.
" In other words, you should be making this transition in your character. You should be blameless. "You ought to be teachers. You need someone," he says, "to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God." And then he says, "you have come to need milk and not solid food," what is Paul describing? If they need milk and not solid food, where are they still at in character? They're still babes. And yet, Paul says they need to make this transition.
They need--you should be moving from being taught to actually becoming teachers. Your character should be developing and growing. And that's what it means when it identifies job's character as one that is blameless. This also moves us--by the way, you've heard the phrase, you know, so heavenly-minded that you're no what? Earthly good. Job wasn't so heavenly-minded, and the lesson brings this out, that he was no earthly good.
Matter of fact, this helps us with the transition from the word "blameless" to the word "upright." Okay, and the lesson in Sunday helps us define the word "upright," which is straight, level, just, right. In a way, job could be actually called a good citizen. But he wasn't just a good citizen on earth, he was preparing to be a citizen where? In heaven. Heaven-bound, heaven-ready. Character is crucial.
So, job is upright. Notice with me in Monday's lesson, I'm going to turn the page and I want to read a verse. You turn with me in your Bibles, job chapter 29, verse 7. And job actually starts to unpack this, that he was upright, he was a good citizen, he was straight, he was level, he was just, he was right. If you turn with me to job chapter 29, we're going to look there at verse 7.
Job chapter 29, verse 7 says, "when I went out to the gate by the city, when I took my seat in the open square," what's job describing? Job's actually describing a position or a place of administration in his local community. In other words, job was a leader. He wasn't just preparing for heaven, but in his preparation for heaven, he became a good citizen even on planet earth. He was upright in the open square. In the lesson, I'm going to read from page 106.
And it says here, "such seats, when he takes his seat," as we read in verse 7, "he takes his seat in the open square." It's actually a place or a position of administration. Now, for those of you that are sitting here, those of you that are administrators, you'll want to pay close attention in relationship to this aspect of job's character. Interesting. Such seats would usually be given to the senior and respected members of the society. And among them, job was highly esteemed.
Notice with me job 29, verses 8 through 10. When we talk about highly esteemed, notice the rest of these verses, in relationship to describing job as he functioned as an administrator within his community, how respected he was because he was upright. Verse 8 through 10, it says, "the young men saw me and hid." By the way, it's not because they were running away from him in terror, okay? This was out of respect. He had the respect of young men, but then the verse goes on and says, "and the aged arose and stood." So, now we transition. He had the attention of the youth, he had the attention of the aged, and then it goes on, it doesn't just stop there.
It says, "the princes refrained from talking." He also has the attention of who? Of the princes, the royalty, everybody. He has their attention. And then it goes on, "they refrained from talking, and they put their hands on their mouths." This is a respectful silence. It's like you've probably heard some time ago, I don't hear it often anymore, but that commercial, "when e.f. Hutton speaks, everybody listens," okay? When job would take his seat at the gate, in his administrative--in his administrative position, everybody would pay attention.
The young, the aged, the princes would have this respectful silence. And then notice verse 10, "the voice of even the nobles, the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouth." This is describing them in awe. They can't say anything. You know, you have that person of great importance. When somebody of great importance enters the room, people just kind of can't say anything.
Maybe there's somebody that you've greatly respected, and you finally had the chance to meet them, and you just--you can't get the words out. You'd love to say something intelligible, but sometimes that's challenging when you're in front of people that you've looked up to and that you've valued, that have great stature. That was job. This was the character of job. He was one that was close to God, and people around him knew it from the youth, to the aged, to the princes, to the nobles.
What a character. And that's the character that God wants us to have so that he will gain the glory and the honor. And people will listen not because of who we are, but because of what God has made us to be and be like. We'll have the respect of the youth. You know, sometimes we think, "oh, I'm past the age, I can't reach the youth anymore.
" Job could reach the youth. He had their attention. He could reach nobles, princes because he was upright, he was blameless. It's powerful when you actually stop to process who this man really was, who this man really was. You know what's also interesting as I move my papers around? What's also interesting is that job was respected not because of what he did.
You know, sometimes we look for respect just because of a position we may be in. But job's character, it was about who he was, not what about--not about what he did. It wasn't about his position. People respected him for who he really was. Job grew in favor with God and man.
Have you ever heard that phrase in the Bible? We see it in a few different places, but one I'm just going to highlight is our example in everything, and who is that? That's Jesus Christ. So, when you go to Luke chapter 2, verse 52, you don't have to turn, but I'll read you the verse, it says, "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God first, and then with man." Job wasn't so heavenly-minded that he was no earthly good. He was of great value on earth, but to God's purposes, for God's purposes. And so was Jesus. He was like his creator.
He was like Christ. Now, notice with me, I do want you to turn to Proverbs because Proverbs unpacks this even more. These characteristics of job that are--that are brought to the forefront in job, you see them all over Proverbs. But just one specific place because this verse will begin to help us make a transition, okay, to Tuesday's lesson, which is heart and eyes. So, in job chapter 3--or Proverbs, excuse me, Proverbs chapter 3, verse 1 starts by saying, "my son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands.
For length of days," get this, "for length of days, and long life, and peace they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor, find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and," whom? "In the sight of man. Take my commands and put them on your heart. Let your heart keep my commandments.
" And as we do this, this is what job was doing, he says, "that we will find favor and high esteem in the sight of God, and in the sight of," whom? Man. Powerful passage. Look at with me, I'm going to jump to the lesson now, to page 106. And there's a quote in the lesson that helps to bring this out even more so. It's found in a book called "education," it's page 142.
Says, "God has given to--God has given in His Word a picture of a prosperous man," this is referring to job, "one whose life was, in the truest sense, a success." How many of us want to experience success in our lives? Or at the end of our days, we want to look back, and we can see that, looking back on our lives, it was in the truest sense a success. "A man whom both heaven and earth delighted to honor." This is incredible. He's talking about job. But how many of us want that character, where we can look back and say, "in the truest sense, my life has been a success"? You know, I hear lots of people talking about success, and what defines success, and how do we have success. In its truest sense, it's having a character that is blameless, that is upright, that fears God, and that shuns evil.
That kind of character, in the truest sense, will give all of us, no matter where we are in life, truest success, real success for God's honor and glory. Before I jump into Tuesday, though, there's one other point that I want to bring your attention to in relationship to the character of job. If we turn in our Bibles, we're going to go back to job chapter , we're going to look at verse 14. Job chapter 29, verse 14. And I love this verse in the middle of what job is doing as he relates with other people.
He says, "I put on," what? "I put on righteousness, and it," what? "It clothed me." Whose righteousness, by the way, is job speaking about? Because the Bible tells us, in relationship to man, we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So, what righteousness did job put on? Whose righteousness did job put on? Christ's righteousness, God's righteousness. By faith, job was putting on continually the righteousness of Christ. Job knew that there was no righteousness in and of himself. It was impossible.
For any of us, it's not possible. Only through faith in Christ can we ultimately put on the righteousness of God, and walk in that righteousness. And that's described actually in other places of the Bible. In Psalms chapter 119, verse 172, it says that, "all your commandments are righteousness." Okay, Proverbs chapter 3, remember? "My son, let your heart keep my," what? "Keep my commandments." He's talking about putting on his righteousness. He's talking about being clothed in his righteousness.
And then another passage. In acts chapter 13, verse 10, Paul goes on to describe righteousness as the straight ways of the Lord, or the right ways of the Lord. Remember the word "upright"? One of the definitions of the word "upright" is straight, level, right. Righteousness is the straight ways of the Lord. Righteousness are the right ways of the Lord.
This is what, by faith, job was continually putting on. And this is brought out especially in Tuesday's lesson, when we talk more about the heart, getting to the heart. In job here, with his heart he served God, with his heart. Notice with me job chapter 31, verse 7 through 9. Or 7 and 9, job chapter 31, verse 7 and 9.
"If my step has turned from the way, or my heart walked after my eyes, or if any spot adheres to my hands," then verse 9, he says, "if my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door," here job begins to unpack that it wasn't just his actions with his hands and his feet that mattered, it was what? His heart as well. In Psalms chapter 51, verse 6, David writes that God desires truth in the inward parts. In the hidden part, he says he will make us to know wisdom. You know, there was a lawyer in the new testament that answered a question that Christ had asked him. In Luke chapter 10, verse 27, here's the answer the lawyer gives to a question that Christ specifically asks.
He says, "you shall love the Lord your God with all your," what? "With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind." And then he says, "and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus said to the lawyer, upon this answer by the lawyer, he says, "you have answered rightly. Do this and you will," what? You'll live. You'll live. It's not just about what we do with our hands and our feet, but our service comes, should come from the heart. We should treasure God's commands within our hearts.
By faith, we should be living on a day to day basis. In the lesson, we didn't read the memory text, and there's a reason for that. Because now is where the memory text really fits into this lesson. Because the memory text says, "do you see--" this is from James chapter 2, verse 22. It says, "do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?" Job wasn't just acting.
He was living by faith. And by faith, he was able to act. And he acted in accordance with God's will. He was found blameless, he was found upright. He was one that feared God.
Job understood that the deeper meaning of holiness, the deeper meaning of right and wrong and God's law, job knew that God cares about the heart, about our thoughts, not just about our actions. Samuel chapter 16, verse 7 says, "for the Lord does not see man--for the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the," what? "The outward appearance." But God, where does God look, though? God looks at the heart. When he looks at all of us, he looks right at our heart. He goes beyond the hair, he goes beyond the skin, he looks right to the heart. And he gets right to the heart of the issue when he does that.
As a matter of fact, within God's very law, we see this brought out. In Exodus chapter 20, verse 17, it says, "you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." In other words, don't even let your heart covet those things. Because if you do, it's just a matter of time before your actions what? Follow. And you want to--you know that phrase, "keeping up with the joneses"? You know, we go after, "oh, my neighbor has this. Ooh, I really want that.
Oh, my neighbor has this, I got to have that." And with our minds, we begin to covet. The just shall live by what? By faith. Job lived by faith. And it affected his relationships. It affected his relationships.
Notice with me job chapter 31, verses 13 through 15. And I'm going to kind of cruise through. Job chapter 31, verse 13 through 15, he says, "if I have despised the cause of my male or female servant when they complained against me, what then shall I do when God rises up? When he punishes, how shall I answer him? Did not he who made me in the womb make them?" You know, job was far ahead of his time. God is always far ahead of our time. He says, "did not the same one fashion us in the womb?" He's bringing them all together.
He's like, "you know that poor man on the side of the street? We are no different. That beggar, we are no different." We're all equal in relationship to how God sees. He died for all of us, not just some of us. And job sees this. Job understands this.
Matter of fact, notice with me job chapter 29. He unpacks this even more just earlier in the chapter. Job chapter 29, I'm just going to read 12, , and then 15 through 17, job chapter 29. He says, "because I delivered the poor who cried out, The Fatherless, and the one who had no helper, the blessing of a perishing man came upon me. And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban." Notice verse 15, he says, "I was eyes to the blind. I was feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the case that I did not know." This is incredible. "I broke the fangs of the wicked, and plucked the victim from his teeth.
" Job was all about saving man. Why? Because God saved him. And it didn't matter who they were, it didn't matter where they came from, it didn't matter what their background was. He saw man, wherever they were, and he reached out in each situation. A person like this gains a lot of respect from a lot of people.
And job had a lot of respect from a lot of people because of this character that he was consistently developing, he was consistently developing. In the lesson on page 107, the lesson on page 107, you know, job was doing things that people in his day, many had a hard time with. And the lesson kind of points this out when it says, "the ancient world was not a place where concepts of universal rights and universal laws were understood or followed." You know, even the jews had a hard time with this, didn't they? "We're the superior nation, and everybody should be looking to us." Job didn't live his life that way because it wasn't about job. Job knew it was about God. It was all about God.
And that's who we need to be all about. That's what our characters need to be all about, why? Because when Jesus comes one day, we're going to see him what? Face to face. Remember Paul talked about this in 1 Corinthians 13? One day, we're going to see our maker face to face, and will our characters line up? Will our characters line up? We need to be about God. Job was about God. He wasn't just about himself.
And the lesson really brings that out more and more. And I'm going to close, I want to go to Matthew chapter 7. Because on Wednesday, we don't even have time to get through everything in this lesson, but I just want to mention one thing. Job's life was founded on the rock. Job's life was founded on the rock.
Jesus talks about this. What does that mean, founded on the rock? For any of you who are builders, you understand the importance of a good foundation, right? Otherwise, trials, storms, whatever, fires will come. We need a good foundation. Job developed a good foundation, and that foundation was upon Christ. I'm going to turn to Matthew chapter 5.
Chapter 7, excuse me. Matthew chapter 7, verse 22 through 27, it says, "many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, ye workers of,'" what? "Those who practice lawlessness or workers of iniquity." Then Jesus goes on, he says, "therefore." After saying this, "therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the," what? "Who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock." The opposite, Jesus goes on to say that those who build their houses on the sand, when the winds come and the storms come, he says great was the fall of that house. It's important for us to be building on the rock.
Job was building on the rock. Job had a faith in Christ. His eyes were ever to God, and God affected his life in tremendous ways that had an effect on other people around him. As not only job was getting ready for heaven, those who were around him also were preparing for heaven because of his influence, because of his character, because of how he walked and lived his life each and every day. May we by faith truly cling to the rock of our salvation.
And may we have the characters that job had. Because in the last days, satan's going to put a spotlight on them just like he did on the life of job. And by the grace of God, may our lives reflect the life of Christ every moment of every day we live, until he comes again. Powerful study, the character of job, incredible as we look at it and we study it further. I'd like to remind you, those that are viewing, of the free offer, Doug Batchelor's book, "assurance: justification made simple.
" It's offer number 727. For this, you can call ... To get your free copy. May God bless you. Have a wonderful Sabbath.
Male announcer: Amazing Facts, changed lives. Female: my mother passed away when I was three. And my paternal grandparents decided they would care for my two older sisters and I so that my father would have time to mourn. We never really had a mother or a strong fatherly figure, and I'm not blaming my dad. I'm just saying that's how things worked out.
When I was in high school, my older sister got into an argument with our father, and my sister and I decided that we would take her side. And so, that caused a split in our family. For 4 years, we lived in the same house, we ate from the same pot, we used the same restroom, we walked by each other, but we never said anything to our father, and he never said anything to us. A year later, I had decided I would move out for college. He wasn't very happy with that.
We got booted out of the house. We went back to apologize, but we weren't really accepted back. I have felt so alone a lot of my life. I felt like I've had to fend more for myself. I've been missing a fatherly love.
I don't have family with me. I don't have a lot of things. But I have a God, and I've been fulfilled, I've been satisfied. God has been my father. ♪♪♪ Announcer: together, we have spread the Gospel much farther than ever before.
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