Patient Job and the Baffled Enemy

Patient Job and the Baffled Enemy

A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 28, 1890,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." Job 1:22.

THAT is to say, in all this trial and under all this temptation, Job
kept right with God. During all the losses of his estate and the deaths
of his children he did not speak in an unworthy manner. The text speaks
admiringly of "all this." And a great "all" it was! Some of you have
many troubles–but what are they compared with those of Job? Your
afflictions are mole-hills contrasted with the Alps of the Patriarch's
grief. "All this"! He was suddenly reduced from a peer to a
pauper–from a man of great wealth to a person in absolute
poverty–from a happy father to a childless mourner! Who can measure or
fathom "all this"? Yet, "In all this Job sinned not." Here was the
triumph of a gracious spirit. Ah, dear Friends, if God could uphold Job
in all this, you may be sure that He can support you! Look to Him for
this Divine support.

"All this" also alludes to all that Job did and thought, and said. He
was full to bursting with swelling grief. He shaved his head and tore
his garments. And he lifted up his voice unto the Lord his God–but,
"In all this Job sinned not." He rose up, for he was a man of action, a
man of a sensitive and powerful mind, a man of poetic energy who could
not fail to express his emotions in striking symbols–but "In all this
Job sinned not." This is a great deal to say of a man when you see him
in the extreme of trial. If in patience he can possess his soul when
all the arrows of affliction are wounding him, he is a man, indeed.

May we ourselves so live that it may be said of us in the end, "In all
this he sinned not. He swam through a sea of trouble. The roll of his
life story is written within and without with lamentations–but in all
this he did not dishonor the name of his Lord. He did and said many
things–but in them all he was patient, resigned, obedient and never
uttered a rebellious word." Let us think of the wonderful case of Job
in a practical way, desiring the Holy Spirit to make us like he was!

I. Our first head shall be, IN ALL OUR AFFAIRS THE MAIN THING IS NOT TO
SIN. It is not said, "In all this Job was never spoken against," for he
was spoken against by Satan in the presence of himself and very soon he
was falsely accused by men who should have comforted him. You must not
expect, dear Friend, that you will pass through this world and have it
said of you in the end, "In all this no one ever spoke against him." I
heard say of one man, "He was a man who never had an enemy." I ventured
to add, "nor a friend." He has no friend who never had a foe.

Those who secure zealous lovers are pretty sure to call forth intense
adversaries. A man who is such a chip in the porridge that he never
offends, is pretty sure to be equally flavorless in the other
direction. The trimmer may dodge through the world without much
censure, but it will seldom be so with an out-and-out man of God.
Because he is not of the world, the world will hate him! The blessed
and holy Lord Jesus was slandered to the utmost. God, the Ever-Blessed,
was Himself libeled in Paradise, itself, by an old servant who had
turned into an old serpent! Therefore you must not wonder if you are
also abused!

To go through life without calumny is not a thing to be expected–but
it is anxiously to be desired that we may go through every phase of joy
or of sorrow without falling into sin. Neither is it a chief point for
us to seek to go through life without suffering, since the Lord's
servants, the best of them, are ripened and mellowed by suffering.
Amos, the herdsman, was a bruiser of sycamore figs–a kind of fig that
never ripened in Palestine unless it was struck with a rod and thus was
bruised. I fear there are very few of the godly who will fully ripen
without affliction. The vine bears but little fruit unless it makes the
acquaintance of the knife and is sternly pruned. I fear that much fruit
will seldom be forthcoming without much tribulation.

A high character might be produced, I suppose, by continued prosperity,
but it has very seldom been the case. Adversity, however it may appear
to be our foe, is our true friend and, after a little acquaintance with
it, we receive it as a precious thing, the prophecy of a coming joy. It
should be no ambition of ours to traverse a smooth path without thorn
or stone. Rather let us ask–

"Shall Simon bear the cross alone, And all the rest go free? No,
there's a cross for everyone, And there's a cross for me."

Dear Friends, I think, also that it should not be our ambition to go
through the world without sadness of heart. It is true that heaviness
of heart is worse than bodily suffering–"A wounded spirit who can
bear?" Some persons, however, seem to endure terrible trouble without
much feeling. They are case-hardened, stout-hearted, thick-skinned
persons– and truly I have half envied them at times and almost prayed
to lose that sensitiveness which causes fear–but it would be a very
doubtful blessing. We need to be tender that we may feel the slightest
touch of God's hand. "Be you not as the horse, or as the mule, which
have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle,
lest they come near unto you."

The Apostle says, "Though now for a season, if need be, you are in
heaviness through manifold temptations." Many read it as if there were
a necessity for the trial and so, indeed, there is. But the necessity
in the passage has reference to being in heaviness. If you can bear
trial without ever being heavy, it is scarcely a trial to you. "The
blueness of a wound cleanses away evil." It is the ache of the ache–it
is the sting of the wasp which works effectively on the heart. If we do
not smart under the rod, what is the use of it to us? Therefore I would
not have you ask that you may be kept from sadness of soul–but I would
have you pray seven times a day from the very heart of your being,
"Lord, keep me from sin." May it be said at the last, of every one of
us, that in all this we sinned not!

Remember, if the Grace of God prevents our affliction from driving us
into sin, then Satan is defeated. Satan did not care what Job suffered,
so long as he could but hope to make him sin. And he was foiled when he
did not sin. He must have regretted that he tried him, when he found
that he could not make him sin. I think I hear the Fiend muttering,
"Give him back his camels. Give him back his sheep, if by the loss of
these his patience and resignation are made manifest." If he could not
extract a rebellious speech from Job, the Tempter had lost all his
cruel efforts–his malice had spent itself without result. If he could
not make the good man sin, nor charge God foolishly, he was defeated
and God was glorified!

If in enduring your particular trouble, my dear Friend, you do not fall
into sin, you are more than a conqueror over him that hates you. The
arch-enemy will fly away confounded from you if you are able to resist
him while darkness covers your soul. If you conquer him in your hour of
grief, you conquer, indeed! May your conflict with Apollyon be like
that of Christian in "Pilgrim's Progress," and to you, also, may a
monument be erected, bearing this inscription–

"The man so bravely played the man,

He made the Fend to fly;

Whereof a monument I stand

The same to testify."

If you do not sin while under the stress of heavy trouble, God will be
honored. He is not so much glorified by preserving you from trouble as
by upholding you in trouble. He allows you to be tried that His Grace
in you may be tested and glorified.

When one Winstanley, years ago, built a lighthouse on the Eddystone
Rock, he said that he was sure that it would stand any storm that ever
blew and he should himself like to be in it in the fiercest tempest
that ever drove adown the Channel. It came to pass that he was in his
own lighthouse one night and there came a tremendous blast which swept
him and his lighthouse clean away so that he was never heard of again.
He courted trial because he believed in his work– God permits trial
because He knows that His wisdom and Divine Grace have made us able to
bear it. The lighthouse which was afterwards built on the Eddystone has
had all manner of storms beating upon it but it has outlived them all,
and therefore its builder's name is held in honor.

Even thus our God is glorified in every trial of His saints when their
grace enables them to endure with patience. "There," says He, "see what
Grace can do, what suffering it can endure, what labors it can
perform!" Grace is like an

athlete performing before the great King and His heavenly court. A
cloud of witnesses look down upon the feats of Faith and note with joy
how it achieves everything which the Lord appoints it to perform. It
even enters into contest with Satan, the fiend of Hell, and gives him a
signal overthrow–and He that made the athlete and trained him for the
contest is honored thereby. If you do not sin in your trouble, your
endurance of trial will bring glory to God!

Remember, furthermore, that if you do not sin, you yourself will be no
loser by all your tribulations. Sin alone can injure you. But if you
remain steadfast, though you are stripped, you will be clothed with
glory! Though you are deprived of comfort, you will lose no real
blessing. True, it may not seem a pleasant thing to be stripped and yet
if one is soon going to bed it is of no great consequence. It is no
easy thing to part with wealth–but if thereby you are unburdened–the
loss is a gain. A child of God may have the knife sharply cutting him,
but if it only removes the superfluous wood, it may be of the utmost
benefit to the fruitage of the tree–and that is the main thing.

If the metal in the pot loses none of its gold, all that it does lose
is well lost and is, indeed, really gained. Though you are reduced in
circumstances, what does it matter if you are enlarged in spirit?
Though you are sick in body, what does it matter if your soul's health
is furthered? To sin would be terrible–to abide in holiness is
triumph! In all our affliction may there be no defection. The Lord may
send us a ton of trouble, but this will be better than an ounce of sin!
Do not let all your prayer run after deliverance from sorrow, but first
of all pray, "Let not any iniquity have dominion over me." Seek first
the kingdom of God and obedience to Him, and then deliverance shall be
added unto you.

We are permitted to say, "Lord, keep us from trouble," but we are
commanded to pray, "Deliver us from the Evil One." Should trials come
to us, even like those which happened to Job, it shall be well with our
souls if our hearts are not drawn or driven into sin.

II. And, now, a second thought arises out of the text. IN ALL TIME OF
TRIAL THERE IS SPECIAL FEAR OF OUR SINNING. It is well for the child of
God to remember that the hour of darkness is an hour of danger.
Suffering is fruitful soil for certain forms of sin. Hence it was
necessary for the Holy Spirit to give a testimony to Job that, "In all
this he sinned not." It looked as if he must sin but yet he did not
sin–and this is recorded by Inspiration as a memorable fact. He still
held fast his integrity and bowed before the will of the Lord.

Dear Friends, if you are approaching a season of trouble, watch and
pray that in entering upon trial you may not also enter upon sinning.
Many have sorely grieved their God by what they have said and done in
the hour of sorrow. For instance, we are apt to grow impatient. We
murmur against the Lord. We think our trial is too long, or that prayer
is not answered when it ought to be. If God is faithful, why does He
not hasten to deliver His child? In the olden time He rode upon a
cherub and did fly, yes, He did fly upon the wings of the wind–why are
His chariots now so long in coming? The feet of His mercy seem shod
with lead.

Petulance and complaining are sins which easily beset those who are
severely tried. Men are apt to have bitter thoughts of God when He puts
His hand into the bitter box and brings out the quinine of sorrow. Of
the two sexes, women usually carry the prize for patience, especially
in bodily sickness. As for us, who are made of rougher stuff, it is to
our shame that we are, as a rule, very impatient of pain. We do not so
much lose our patience as show that we have none! Job, under his first
set of trials was not swift to complain, for you have heard of the
patience of Job which the Holy Spirit takes care to mention in the New
Testament.

We are even tempted to rebellion against God. I have met with cases in
which rebellious words have been uttered and even spoken again and
again. One said in my hearing, "God has taken away my mother and I
shall never forgive Him. I can never think of Him as a God of love as
once I did." Such words will cause a child of God more pain than the
loss, itself, would have occasioned. I heard one say of his dying
child, whom I was called in to visit, that he could not believe that
God would be so unjust as to take his daughter from him. Indeed, he
spoke so rebelliously that I, with all gentleness, but with deep
solemnity of soul, admonished him that I feared the Lord would visit
him for such proud speeches.

It was clear that his child would soon die and I feared that he would
die himself, when the shock came, because he so stoutly quarreled with
the Lord. I said to myself, "A child of God cannot speak in this way
about his Father without coming under further chastisement." It came to
pass as I expected and he, himself, was laid low. Grieved as I was, I
was by no means surprised. How can we rebel against God and hope to
prosper in that rebellion? With the stubborn He will show Himself
stubborn and we shall find out what a world of misery that will bring
us! Oh, for Divine Grace not only to

yield because we must, but because we trust! May we say, "It is the
Lord–let Him do what seems good to Him"! Before that temptation Job
did not fall, for in this respect he sinned not.

We may also sin by despair. An afflicted one said, "I shall never look
up again. I shall go mourning all my days." Dear Friend, why not be
cheerful again? Are God's mercies clean gone forever? You are bid to
believe always. "Who is among you that walks in darkness and has no
light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God."
In the dark is the place for trust, not for despair! A child that is
sullen will probably make for himself 10 times more misery than the
rod, itself, would cause him. Who dares despair while God bids him
trust? Come, if you are as poor as Job, be as patient as Job and you
will find hope ever shining like a star which never sets.

Many sin by unbelieving speeches. I have repeated one or two naughty
things that God's children have said, but Job said nothing of the kind.
He bravely said, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed
be the name of the Lord." Men have been driven into a kind of atheism
by successive troubles. They have wickedly argued–"There cannot be a
God, or He would not let me suffer so." Beloved, you must not speak as
the foolish do–and such speech is sheer folly. Your mouth would be
greatly defiled if you were thus to vex the Holy Spirit. Has the Lord
saved you and will you speak against Him?

I have no time to say more where so much might be added. The Lord
preserve us in trying times from sinning either with heart, or hands,
or lips.

III. Notice, thirdly, that IN ACTS OF MOURNING WE NEED NOT SIN.
Listen–you are allowed to weep. You

are allowed to show that you suffer by your losses. See what Job did.
"Job arose and tore his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon
the ground, and worshipped." And "in all this Job sinned not." The
mother wept much over her child and yet she may not have sinned–a
mother's grief and a mother's love are sacred things. When a dear child
is mourned over, those may have been not only perfectly natural tears,
but even holy tears.

The husband lamented sorely when his beloved was taken from him. He was
right. I should have thought far less of him if he had not done so.
"Jesus wept." But there is a measure in the expression of grief. Job
was not wrong in tearing his garment–he might have been wrong if he
had torn it into shreds. He was not wrong in shaving his head–he would
have erred had he torn out his hair, as some have done whom despair has
turned into maniacs. He deliberately took the razor and shaved his
head–and in this he sinned not. You may wear mourning–saints did so
in other times. You may weep, for it may, perhaps, be a relaxing of
your strained emotions. Do not restrain the boiling floods. A flood of
tears without may assuage the deluge of grief within.

Job's acts of mourning were moderate and seemly–toned down by his
faith. I wish that Christians did not so often follow the way of the
world at their funerals, but would try to make it clear that they
sorrow not even as others that are without hope. You may wear black as
long as it does not become the ensign of rebellion against the will of
the Lord. Job's words, also, though very strong, were very true–"Naked
came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return." If we say no
more than the truth, we may say it if the tone is not that of
murmuring, although, perhaps sometimes it might be better to be
altogether silent, like Aaron, who held his peace.

David said, "I opened not my mouth; because You did it." If we cannot
maintain a golden silence, yet let our speech be silver–we must use
nothing less than precious metal. Job mourned and yet did not sin, for
he mourned and worshipped as he mourned. This is what I commend to you
who are mourning at this time. If you must fall on the ground, worship
there before the Lord! If your heart is bowed down, emulate the holy
ones who fall on their faces and worship God! I believe that some of
the truest, purest, sweetest and strongest devotion has come to God
from hearts that were breaking with grief. Remember, then, that in acts
of mourning there is not, of necessity, any sin.

IV. But, fourthly, IN CHARGING GOD FOOLISHLY WE SIN GREATLY. "Job
sinned not" and the phrase which explains it is, "nor charged God
foolishly." Here let me say that to call God to our judgment seat at
all is a high crime and felony! "No, but, O man, who are you that
replies against God?" Woe unto him that contends with his Maker! The
Lord is absolutely Sovereign and He gives no account of His matters. We
are usurping fools when we pretend to sit in judgment upon the Judge of
all the earth!

In the next place, we sin in requiring that we should understand God.
What? Is God under bonds to explain Himself to us? Do we threaten to
revolt unless He will put Himself right with us? Blessed be His name,
He is inscrutable and I am glad to have Him so! Do you want your God to
explain His dispensations? Are you not content to believe Him? The
demand for explanation is unbelief! This is, indeed, making yourselves
to be wiser than God! Let us bow before Him without a question.

He is Jehovah and that ends the matter! He would have His children feel
that what He wills is always best. Bow before God and prostrate your
desires and thoughts and judgment before His Throne. What He does is
wise and true and kind–and of this we are sure. We can very easily
charge God foolishly, but we had better not charge Him at all, for who
are we that we should call the Eternal to account?

We charge God foolishly when we imagine that He is unjust. "Ah!" said
one, "When I was a worldling I prospered. But ever since I have been a
Christian I have endured no end of losses and troubles." Do you mean to
insinuate that the Lord does not treat you justly? Think a minute and
stand corrected. If the Lord were to deal with you according to strict
justice, where would you be? If He were now to call you to account for
your sins and lay bare the naked sword of Justice, what would become of
you? You would be at once in despair and very soon in Hell! Never
charge upon the Lord a failure ofjustice, for this is to sin with a
vengeance.

Some, however, will bring foolish charges against His love. "How can He
be a God of love if He permits me to suffer so?" You forget that
word–"As many as I tenderly love," (for that is the Greek word), "I
rebuke and chasten." The more the Lord loves you, the more surely He
will rebuke any and every evil that He sees in you! You are so precious
to Him that He desires to make you perfect in every good work to do His
will. God prizes you much, my Sister, or you would not have to be so
often ground upon the wheel to take away all your warts and make the
jewel of your soul to shine.

"Oh," said a worldling to me when I was in great pain and weakness of
body, "is this the way God treats His children? Then I am glad I am not
one." How my heart burned within me and my eyes flashed as I said that
I would take an eternity of such pain as I endured sooner than stand in
the place of the man who preferred ease to God. I felt it would be Hell
to me to have a doubt of my adoption and whatever pain I might suffer
was a trifle so long as I knew that the Lord was my God. Every child of
God under such a taunt would feel exceedingly jealous for the honor of
his Lord.

Beloved, we are willing to take the Divine love with every possible
drawback that can be concerned–for the love of our Father is a weight
of Glory–and all the sorrows of time are but "light afflictions" and
they last but for a moment. How sweet to hear the Lord say–

"In love I correct you your gold to refine; To make you, at length, in
My likeness to shine"! Alas, at times, unbelief charges God foolishly
with reference to His power! We think that He cannot help us in some
peculiar trial. Throw to the winds such fears–they are unworthy of us
and dishonoring to our Lord! Is anything too hard for the Lord? Through
flood and fire He will bring us in safely.

We may be so foolish as to doubt His wisdom. If He is All-Wise, how can
He suffer us to be in such straits and to sink so low as we do? What
folly is this? Who are you, that you would measure the wisdom of God?
Shall an owl begin to compute the light of the sun? Or an ant estimate
the eternal hills? Shall some tiny animalcules, sporting with myriads
of others in a drop of water, begin to trace the bounds of the sea?
What are you? Who are you, that you should set your judgment against
that of the Lord God Almighty? Less than nothing, will you censure the
Infinite? A worm of the dust, will you arraign the mighty God? Be this
far from you! Job did not so, for he sinned not, nor charged God
foolishly.

V. Lastly–as I must close in haste–TO COME THROUGH GREAT TRIAL
WITHOUT SIN IS THE HONOR OF THE SAINTS. If we are tried and come forth
from it naked as when we were born, we need not be ashamed. And if we
come out of it without sinning, then the greatness of the affliction
increases the honor of our victory. "In all this Job sinned not"–the,
"all this," is a part of the glory with which Grace covered him.

Suppose that your life was all ease. Suppose that you were brought up
tenderly from a child. Suppose that you were well educated, left with a
sufficient fortune to gratify every wish and happily married. Suppose
that you were free from sickness, lifted above care, grinding labor and
heavy sorrow–what then? Assuredly you could never be noted for
patience! Who would ever have heard of Job ifhe had not been tried?
None would have said ofhim, "In all this Job sinned not." Only by his
patience could he be perfected and immortalized!

Suppose that your record should be–from birth a sufferer, throughout
life a struggler. At home a wrestler and abroad a soldier and a
cross-bearer–and, notwithstanding all this, full of joy and peace,
through strong believing–tried to the uttermost, yet found faithful.
In such a chronicle there is something worth remembering! There is no
glory in being a featherbed soldier, a man bedecked with gorgeous
regimentals, but never beautified by a scar, or ennobled by a wound.
All that you ever hear of such a soldier is that his spurs jingle on
the pavement as he walks. There is no history for this carpet-knight.
He is just a dandy. He never smelled gunpowder in his life, or if he
did, he fetched out his scent-bottle to kill the offensive odor.

Well, that will not make much show in the story of the nations. If we
could have our choice and we were as wise as the Lord Himself, we
should choose the troubles which He has appointed us and we should not
spare ourselves a single pang. Who wants to paddle about a duck pond
all his life? No, Lord, if You will bid me go upon the waters, let me
launch out into the deep! Those who are uplifted to the heavens by the
billows and then go down again to the deeps as ocean yawns–these see
the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep! Discomforts and
dangers make men of us and then we deal no more with childish things,
but with eternal matters!

If we had no troubles, we should in the end be dumb for lack of themes
to speak upon–but now we are storing up incidents worth the telling to
our Brothers and Sisters when we join the family circle before the
Throne! Tried souls can tell of the infinite mercy and love of God, who
helped them, and delivered them! Give me an interesting life, after
all, and if it is to be an interesting life, then it must be one that
has its full share of trouble as Job's had! Then shall it be Heaven to
hear the verdict of the great Judge–"In all this My servant sinned
not." The honor of a Christian, or, let me say, the honor of God's
Divine Grace in a Christian, is when we have so acted that we have
obeyed in detail, not forgetting any point of duty. "In all this Job
sinned not," neither in what he thought, or said, or did–nor even in
what he did not say, and did not do–"In all this Job sinned not."

We are apt to purpose that we will shut ourselves up in our own room
and never go out into the world again, or attempt to speak or act any
more. Surely, that would be a great blank and a blot upon our lives.
No! No! No! We must not say, "I will speak no more in the name of the
Lord." Go on speaking! Go on acting! Go on suffering! Breast the wave,
Christian! Swim to the other shore and may God's infinite mercy be seen
in bringing you there! Crowd your life with action and adorn it with
patience, so that it shall be said, "In all this he sinned not." God
grant us a detailed obedience, a following of the Lord fully, a perfect
working out of the minute points of service!

I feel that I must add just this. As I read the verse through, it
looked too dry for me and so I wet it with a tear. "In all this Job
sinned not, nor charged God foolishly," and yet I, who have suffered so
little, have often sinned and, I fear, in times of anguish, have
charged God foolishly. Dear Friends, is not this true of some of you?
If so, let your tears follow mine. But yet the tear will not wash out
the sin! Fly to the Fountain filled with blood and wash there from sins
of impatience, sins of petulance, sins of rebellion, sins of unbelief!
These are real sins and they must be washed away in the blood of the
Lamb. Oh, how dear that Fountain is to us! How dear to you who have
often to lie in bed and suffer–for you still sin! How dear to us who
have health and strength to serve God, for we see sin in our holy
things and we need to be purged from its defilement! You that go into
business every day and mix up with all sorts of persons, how much you
have need of daily washing! Come, Beloved, let us go together and say,
"Lord, forgive us."

I should like to say a little to some of you who are not God's people.
Suppose I were to sum up your lives and wrote it out in this fashion:
"Was fond of gaiety. Spent many days in frivolous amusement. Was
sometimes drunk. Occasionally would use profane language," and so on?
How falsely should I speak if I were to say, "In all this he sinned
not"! Why, in all this you have done nothing else but sin! God has
loaded your tables, clothed your backs, kept you in health and
prolonged your lives–and in all this you have done nothing else but
sin and act foolishly towards God! I want you to come, then, to that
same Fountain of which I spoke, and cry tonight, "Wash me, Savior, or I
die." You have been the very opposite of Job. You have sinned in all
your comforts and your mercies, and have never shown due gratitude to
the blessed God! You have only done evil against Him! The Lord bring us
all to His feet and then may He help us in all future troubles to stand
firm and not to sin.

I know that some of you are entering upon fierce trials. You have the
prospect of it on your minds, tonight, and sitting here you feel
depressed about it. Do not begin to despond, but be doubly diligent in
prayer! Be more concerned to be kept from sinning than from suffering
and pray daily, "Lord, if You will lead me by this rough road, yet keep
my feet that I stumble not, and preserve me even to the end with
garments unspotted from the world! I will ask no more of You but this
one thing. Holy Father, keep me as a dear child, obeying and serving
You with all my heart, soul and strength, till I go up higher to dwell
with You forever!"

May the Lord hear you all in the day of trouble and preserve you to
life's last hour, without spot and blameless! Then shall He be
glorified in you and you shall have joy. Amen, and Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON– Job 1.