Sermon #601                                           Miscellaneous Sermons

 

          Title:           “The Hand of God Hath Touched Me”

          Text:           Job 19:21

          Reading:   

          Subject:      The effects pf God’s gracious hand upon a man

          Date:          Sunday Morning – September 16, 1984

          Tape #       

 

Introduction:

 

          Job was once a man greatly admired by his friends and neighbors. He was a man of great happiness, prosperity, and peace. He enjoyed physical health, material wealth, and domestic tranquility. He was both loved and respected by all who knew him. Now he is poor, friendless, and alone. His body, which was once a palace of strength, is now a house of disease. His children, who once cheered his soul, are now dead. His wealth, which once brought him all that he could desire, is now gone. His friends, who once sought his counsel, now mock and deride him. His wife, who once was a beloved and faithful companion, was now a stranger to him. What happened to this great man? What has brought him down to such a low estate? Listen, and Job himself will tell you – “Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me.” That is my subject this morning – “The Hand of God Hath Touched Me.” God himself had touched Job with the omnipotent hand of his grace; and Job would never be the same again. When God touches something, things happen. The touch of God is always effectual.

 

·       God touched the clouds of heaven and flooded the earth with the waters of his wrath.

·       God touched Jacob in the hollow of his thigh, and he walked with a limp the rest of his life (Gen. 32:25).

·       During the days of Joshua, God touched the sun, and it stood still (Josh. 10:12-14).

·       God touched the Red Sea and delivered the children of Israel from the hands of the Egyptians (Ex. 15:6).

·       When it seemed certain that Daniel would be devoured by the lions, God ‘s hand touched their mouths and sealed them shut (Dan. 6:22).

·       Our Lord touched the leper, and immediately he was cleansed (Matt. 8: 2-3).

·       Our Lord touched a deaf man’s ear, and he began to hear. He touched a dumb man’s tongue, and he began to speak. And he touched a blind man’s eyes, and made him see (Mk. 7:31-35; Matt. 9:29-30). In fact, as many as he touched were made perfectly whole.

·       Our Lord touched the coffin of a young man, who was about to be buried, and immediately his life returned to him (Lk. 7:14).

·       One day the hand of God touched his own well-beloved Son, who was made to be sin for us, and the Lord Jesus Christ was bruised for our iniquities (Lam. 3:12).

 

Has the hand of God touched you? I pray that God will stretch forth his hand of grace today, and touch you.

 

Proposition:

 

          You can be sure of this – If ever the hand of God touches you, you will never be the same again.

 

Divisions:

 

          What happens when God touches a man with the hand of his grace? Let’s take Job for our example. Here are five things that are sure to happen if God touches you.

 

·       You will see who God is.

·       You will be humbled by his touch.

·       You will begin to see all things in their true light.

·       You will begin to seek his saving mercy.

·       You will be saved by his grace.

 

I. When the hand of God is upon a man, the first things that touch of Divine grace does is this – It reveals the character of God.

 

          When God touched Job, he found out that there was a vast difference between himself and God. He said, “If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment” (Job 9:30-32).

 

          NOTE: The only way anyone will ever know God is if God is pleased to reveal himself and make himself known.

 

          When the Lord touched Job, he found out who God is. My friend, if ever you are saved by the grace of God, you are going to have to find out who God is. An unknown God cannot be worshipped or trusted.

 

          A. Job found out that God is absolutely sovereign in all things (Job 23:13-17).

 

          Job found out that God made all things, controls all things, and disposes of all things according to his own sovereign will (Job 37-39).

 

          (Ps. 115:3; 135:5-6; Isa. 46:9-11).

 

·       God is sovereign in predestination (Eph. 1:11).

·       God is sovereign in creation (Isa. 4512).

·       God is sovereign in providence (Rom. 11:36).

·       God is sovereign in redemption (Isa. 53).

·       God is sovereign in salvation (Rom. 9:11-18).

 

Keep silence all created things,

And wait your Maker’s nod,

My soul stands trembling while she sings,

The honors of her God.

 

He sits on no precarious throne,

Nor borrows leave to be:

Life, death, and hell, and worlds unknown,

Hang on His firm decree.

 

Chained to His throne a volume lies,

With all the fates of men,

With every angels form and size

Drawn by the Eternal’s pen.

 

          The first thing God teaches men, when he is about to show them mercy is that he is sovereign; he does not have to show them mercy. When God touches a person, he says, “Look here. Be sure you understand this, I am the Lord; and beside me there is no God.”

 

          B. Job found out that God is sovereign, and he found out that God knows all things (Job 42:2).

 

          God looks beyond your words and actions, which so greatly impress men. He knows you. He knows all that you are, all that you think, and all that you do. God knows the secret thoughts and imaginations of your heart. He knows your secret motives and most hidden lusts. Nothing can be hidden from the Lord.

 

          Hypocrisy and self-righteousness are the most foolish things in the world. God knows you.

 

          C. As God knows all things, God almighty can do all things – “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?”

 

·       God can clothe or strip you.

·       God can feed or starve you.

·       God can kill you or keep you alive.

·       God can save you or damn you. He is God!

 

D. And Job found out that this all-knowing, almighty, sovereign God is perfectly holy, righteous, and just.

 

          “Behold, the heavens are not clean in his sight!” (15:15).

“And his angels he charged with folly” (4:18).

 

·       God is holy.

·       God requires holiness.

·       A holy God must punish sin.

 

If the hand of God ever touches you, you will find out who God is.

 

·       God is sovereign.

·       God is omniscient.

·       God is omnipotent.

·       God is holy.

 

II. Secondly, if the hand of God’s grace ever touches you, you will be humbled by his touch.

 

          Before God exalts a sinner with his saving grace, he humbles the sinner in the dust of repentance. Before God washes you in the blood of Christ, he will make you see your filth. Before god clothes you with the righteousness of Christ, he will strip you of all your pretentious self-righteousness.

 

          God always brings sinners down in repentance before he lifts them up by his grace. It is the hand of grace that brings them down and the hand of grace that lifts them up. This business of being brought down by the hand of God is a painful experience. But it is necessary. God touched Job; and it was a painful touch. But it was a touch of love and grace. (See Hosea 2:6-23).

 

          A. How does God bring his chosen people down?

 

·       Providence (The prodigal – Onesimus).

·       Legal conviction (Rom. 3:19).

·       The revelation of Christ (Zech. 12:10).

 

B. When the hand of God touched Job, he saw himself in the light of God’s holiness.

 

          Once Job had boasted of his own righteousness (Job 10:7; 33:8-12). Then God laid the mighty hand of his retrieving grace upon Job, and stripped him of his glory and took the crown off his head (19:9). Now, Job began to loathe and abhor himself (40:3-5; 42:5-6).

 

          What happened when God touched Job?

 

·       Job saw that he was a guilty sinner.

·       Job saw that he was without excuse before God.

·       God made Job to see that he was utterly helpless and lost (Job 9:20).

 

Now there is hope. When a man sees that he is utterly lost, there is hope, for Christ came to seek and save that which is lost. Is there a lost sinner here? If you truly know yourself to be a lost sinner, that is the touch of God’s hand. There is mercy for lost sinners! No one ever gets saved until he gets lost.

 

III. Thirdly, when the Lord God touches you with the hand of his grace, you will begin to see all things in their true light.

 

          When the hand of God touched Job he began to clearly see the brevity of his life and sureness of death. He began to realize that he would soon stand before God in judgment. He said, “Man that is born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble” (14:1). “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope. O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good. The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not” (7:6-8).

 

          If the hand of God touches you, you will begin to think to yourself, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” (See 2 Cor. 4:18; 5:1, 10-11).

 

          These four facts have a constantly increasing influence over me and my life in this world.

 

·       I have one life to live.

·       I have one death to die.

·       I have one judgment to face.

·       I have one eternity to spend.

 

I live in a world where all things are temporal. I am going to a world where all things are eternal.

 

And I know that these things are true of the people to whom I preach.

 

IV. Fourth, if the Lord is pleased to touch you with the hand of his grace, you will begin to seek his saving mercy.

 

          When the Lord laid his hand on Job, he began to seek someone to stand between him and God. When the hand of God touched him, Job began to ask, “How should a man be just with God?” (9:2). He sought a daysman, a mediator, one who could lay hold of a holy God and sinful man, and satisfy the needs of both (9:33). (Illustration: Moses (Ex. 20:19-21).

 

·       Do you see your need of mercy?

·       Do you need a Mediator, one who can satisfy the justice of a holy God and satisfy the needs of a guilty man?

·       The Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is the Mediator you need (2 Tim. 2:5; Rom. 3:23-26).

 

V. And, finally, if the Lord God is pleased now to touch you by the hand of his grace –you will be saved by his grace.

 

          Job was made to see that his only hope, and righteousness, and acceptance with God was in an all-sufficient Redeemer. When the hand of God touched Job it caused him to embrace a Substitute. The hand that wounded him, the hand that showed him his sin, showed him the righteousness of Christ.

 

          A. Job was humbled in submission to a sovereign God (40:3-5).

 

          B. Job was made to experience the grace of God.

 

          God sent a messenger to Job and made him to see God’s purpose of grace (33: 22-33; Eph. 2:1-10).

 

          C. When God touched Job with the hand of his grace, Job was given faith and hope in Christ (19:25-27).

 

Application:

 

          The touch of God’s hand is always effectual. It is a powerful, life-giving, life changing touch (Ps. 65:4).

 

          Has the hand of God touched you?

 

          “The touch of the master’s hand.”