Preached by Pastor Aimée Simpierre of New Song Church Affirming Christian Ministry Sunday, Jan 14. 2024
It doesn’t take too much of a prophet to see that 2024 is shaping up to be a challenging year. Humanity has walked into this year with all kinds of crises on its back. Wars and rumors of wars, lawlessness multiplying causing the love of many to wax cold, famines and earthquakes and plagues in various places and Matthew 24 tells us these are just the beginnings of sorrows. In the meanwhile the world feels like a tinderbox and everybody’s itching to strike the match. And as we see the injustices that we see, the same question rises that was on the table in the book of Job, “How could a good God let bad things happen to good people?” And still it seems the forces of Heaven and Hell are waiting to see if the tactic will work on yet another generation facing yet a round of punishing losses and challenges. And so we face that temptation to declare God unfair when things get frustrating, and when we get weary. We feel it when we get hurt by somebody and when the money runs out and when the pain is very great. We feel it when we envy what others have that we don’t have and when others seem to be experiencing easy success while we struggle. And the accuser stands by as we - look at God and look at our situations, and then look at God and look at our situations and calibrate the scales of justice in our own minds and let the questions weigh heavy on our minds while we fight the fear that God is not the good and fair God we believed Him to be. But There is still a God who will speak in the midst of the whirlwind.
And God has a word to encourage you today. I have for you the same answer that God had for Job which is to give to you a reminder of who God is. It is to remind you what a mighty God we serve. The point of this reminder is not to dismiss what you’re going through, not to dismiss the severity of it or to dismiss the reality of injustice in the world, but it is to elevate the fact that your situation and my situation and every situation that we have sense enough to put in God’s hands, is truly being handled by One who sits in the courts of Heaven and calibrates His scales of justice against the weight of His own perfect Holiness. He knows every detail in your life down to the number of hairs on your head and the number of mistakes we’ve made, but He chose not to execute justice upon us in the way that we all deserved, Instead He took it upon HImself to balance the scales. It required the blood of His only Son. It required the punishment and death of One who had done nothing wrong. He allowed Himself to be wounded for your transgressions and He allowed Himself to be bruised for Your iniquities. And because of His punishment, you were healed, you were made whole and redeemed and sanctified and righteous.
1Pe 3:18 puts it this way, 18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” It was not a fair death by any human standards - but I thank God for it because our God’s Holy Spirit has the power to make alive again. It was not a solution that would have worked apart from the design of the ONe who laid the cornerstones of the earth while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. And Instead of running away, it makes me turn toward Him when my world becomes unfair. Because my Bible says, [1Jo 1:9 CSB] 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When I became a believer, my case came before the courts of Heaven - and a perfectly Holy God thought it fair to give me mercy.
We read in our text a conversation between God and Job. God asks Who is this who is wondering whether I will do right? Who is this wondering whether my justice is fair? Who is this presuming to understand the breadth and depth of all that there is in my heart to accomplish in the earth. 3 Get ready to answer me God says. And God reveals Himself to be full of compassion, one who restores and judges and has a plan that is so far beyond what we could ever ask or think. And praise God when your case was brought before the brightness of His glory and the fires of His altar, your righteous judge thought it fair to pour grace all over you. He thought it fair to make available to you amazing grace. He saw it right to shower you with His loving kindness. Your case was brought before the One whom the angels bow before and Heaven and earth adore and the All Mighty God thought it fair to cover you under His wings and forgive you, seven times seven times seventy times. And we have seen Him do this for every single believer, whether gay or straight, Democrat, Republican or Independent, educated or street-wise, wealthy or behind bars. In fact God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
So as we experience the challenges of this year we look to a Righteous Judge to be our anchor. ...
God is knitting your life together for His good. Even the strands that seem to make no sense right now. Now when you look at personal situations that seem unfair in your eyes, I advise taking a moment to come to the altar. Lay those burdens before the throne of the righteous judge fully trusting that even every sickness and disease and every stronghold of lack and oppression and greed will soon hear and respond to the thunder of God’s voice, for He does great things that we cannot comprehend.
Because while Job was struggling, every believer was shown the way to defeat one of the enemy’s age-old tactics. You learned to trust the One who sits on the throne.While Job was suffering we learned how to surrender our lives to the One who deals justly. And while Job was bearing up under all kinds of griefs and sorrows, every believer found the words to say like Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” I know He is concerned about me even when the weight of this world gets heavy. While Job was surrounded by death and grief hsi life taught every believer that death is not the end, as he cried out that even after my body is destroyed, I in my flesh I shall see God, 27 Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another.” And when Job lost his family, and his possessions in the blink of an eye, he taught every believer to say even in their darkest moments, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return. The LORD gives, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” I will bles the Lord at al ltimes and His praises will ever be in my mouth.And when you read the end of the book, and see how Job found himself humbled before God, he taught every believer to ask God for forgiveness because our God is just, and He’s holy and He will make everything all right because He’s righteous. [As for] God, His way [is] perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He [is] a shield to all who trust in Him. (Psa 18:30)
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