Sermon preached by Rev. Brian Goodall B.D. in Dewsbury Baptist Church, Sunday 23^rd January 2005, Time: 10.45 a.m.

Series: Answers of Jesus to Job

Title: The Need for a Go-Between

Text: Job 9:33, 1 Timothy 2:5

Introduction

Of Job’s three friends, Bildad was the blunt one. He said what he thought, spoke his mind and didn’t mind whom he offended.

1. Job’s serious dilemma

In chapter 8, Bildad has his say. He expresses shock and disapproval at Job’s claims to innocence. Job’s children died because they had sinned, he says. If Job will turn to God, everything will become right – his prosperous future will be so great that it will make his early fortune seem humble!

Job says, in chapter 9: you’re right, Bildad. I have always believed that; I have lived by it; my whole hope in life has been based on that way of thinking.

I have feared God; I have shunned evil; I have gone out of my way to make amends for any possible sin I or my family may have committed. Also I have repented; I have turned from sin; I have turned to God,

But the benefits of that lifestyle are not my experience. I have lost all my livestock and property, my family and my relationship with my wife, and now I am covered from head to foot in painful sores.

He continues in verse 14, how can I argue this out with God? I couldn’t possibly win.

And then, in the midst of his misery, he says something that really touches on one of the big themes of the Bible.

If only there were someone to arbitrate between us,

To lay his hand upon us both,

Someone to remove God’s rod from me,

So that his terror would frighten me no more.

Then I would speak up without fear of him,

But as it now stands with me, I cannot.

2. The message of Jesus that can make it all seem harder

In Job, we have a man who was just about perfect – that’s the point. None of us is going to be like that. Yet Job could get nowhere when he wanted to be justified in God’s sight.

Jesus emphasised the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount. He said to people who thought they had fulfilled all the ten commandments that they should think again. People who had not come remotely near to murder – but had they wanted to? Had they hated someone? People who had never committed sexual immorality, and who probably despised prostitutes and immoral people – but had they ever thought of doing something like that? Had they imagined it?

So Jesus said there was a deeper and a more spiritual application of the law. It was not about people getting it right because they were well brought up, and looking down on others; it was about all of us having to recognise our failure and our sin. Before God and his law, we all stand condemned.

Job and his friends might have wanted to say, if I could just talk to God, then he would realise how moral and upright and faithful I am – and this misunderstanding would be cleared up in no time! But Jesus says, no; no one is righteous; as Paul wrote in Romans (3:23) all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Job saw the need for a go-between to bring him to God, someone wise and authoritative, who could really sort this matter out. Well, if Job needed one, with his near-perfect life, how much more do we need one.

3. The Perfect Mediator

The message of the gospel says to us that it’s good that people should want to sort out this human predicament, should want to get close to God and find the answers to all their dilemmas. That’s right, it’s normal. It’s also quite normal to feel disturbed about it – people often do when they are wanting to get right with God.

But the message of the gospel reaches across all those years, and says that what Job was looking for is exactly what Jesus came to do. Go-Between, or Mediator, is one of the names of Jesus.

Paul, writing to Timothy, says this, like many of the important statements of the Bible, almost as a kind of an aside. In 1 Timothy 2, he starts off by saying how important it is for the church to pray for all kinds of people. He says to Timothy, make sure it happens. And then to back this up, he explains why we are able to come to God in prayer: ‘there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.’

But he then also goes on to explain how this is possible – how it has come about. The problem of sin is very very big. Humanity was lost and far away from God. In our lost state we couldn’t hope that God would hear our prayers, much less receive us into his eternal salvation. So what did Jesus do to bring God and man together? He gave himself as a ransom for all men. He gave his life on the cross. He died for us, a sacrifice. He paid the price, suffered the penalty for sin.

So that’s why we can come to God in prayer, and that’s how we can know God.

Conclusion

The only answer for Job, and the only answer for us is God’s grace and mercy. We deserve nothing, and Jesus has done everything.

So if we have a mediator, there for us, available to us, let’s make use of him.

You don’t need to remain distant from God – you can come to him.

You don’t need to have all your questions answered first – you can bring them to him.

You don’t need to try and get your life sorted out first – come to him just as you are.