Page 73 - Job
P. 73

Christians fall so often in the very areas where they think they are strong.
           Boy, the devil loves to get you there. You are standing on guard on your
           weak points and boom. He gets you where you think you are strong. It is
           what happened to Job. Job fell, in his patience.
           If you really believe the doctrine of depravity, then you would take the
           safest course you could take. The safest course anyone who is helpless
           can  take  is  to  just  fall  at  the  feet  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  cry  out  for
           mercy.  Living in total  dependence  on Him. “Unless  you  repent  and
           become as a little child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God”. Job
           did not fall in his strong point. He did not fall in his weak point. He just
           fell. He had no strong points. He had no weak points. He is just helpless.
           The moment you believe that you are strong in an area then watch out. I
           Corinthians 10:12 “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed
           that  he  does  not  fall”.  You  get wiser and  wiser, but  not  stronger  and
           stronger. In your mature wisdom you surrender more quickly to His will
           and  quit  your  own  .  In  the  garden  of  Gethsemane  the  Lord  Jesus
           experienced  the  struggle  of  surrendered  will.  Matthew  26:39  “And  he
           went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my
           Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not
           as I will, but as thou wilt”.

           You give up right away and surrender to the grace of our Lord and Savior
           Jesus Christ. You see more clearly than ever before just how weak you
           are. If you have any spiritual excellencies, they are borrowed. They are
           from God; they do not belong to you. “I am what I am,” Paul said, “by
           the  grace  of  God.”  I  Corinthians  4:6  “For  who  regards  you  as
           superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did
           receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”
           All right, let me give one other practical warning. I will not develop
           this. I will just mention it without a great deal of comment. Job 6:26
           “Do you intend to reprove my words, when the words of one in
           despair belong to the wind?”
           I  call  this  warning  “the  reproof  of  words”.  According  to  this  verse  a
           person who is desperate speaks with words that are wind. That is, when a
           person is under pressure, he says a lot of things he doesn’t really mean.
           That is what this verse is teaching. You have probably known that in your
           own lives. Something has come up in your life and you are under a great
           deal of pressure, and you say things that you do not really mean to say.
           When a person is desperate, Job said, “Do you intend to reprove my


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