Jesus Is Enough! Part 1

In the aftermath of the severe flooding in Houston Texas I believe God has a message for our hearts from the book of Job. The Old Testament book of Job may be the oldest book in the Bible. It is certainly a book with a message unlike any other book of the Bible. In fact, it is unlike any book in all of world literature. It is an old book and yet it has a very modern message. The message of the book of Job is for the old and for the young. It is for the rich and also for the poor. It has a message for the Christian believer and also a message for any person in the world who is not a believer.

The book of Job grapples with one of the great problems of the world. It is the great problem of suffering and especially why good people - people who love the Lord - experience suffering in this life. It is a problem that causes God's people sometimes to question Him. Suffering certainly has caused God's people to struggle in all ages of the Christian faith.

We know that God is an all-loving God, but if God is all-loving, why does He permit people to suffer? We know and believe that God is all-powerful, but if God is all-powerful, why doesn't God prevent some of the great tragedies that occur? This is not an easy problem to resolve. There are no pat or easy answers to the presence of suffering in this world.

Job was a real person. This is not fiction, not an imaginary, made-up story. This is the account about something that actually happened to a man who really lived. He is referred to in the book of Ezekiel 14:14, 20. There he is mentioned alongside Noah and Daniel as examples of righteous men. Just like Noah and Daniel were real, Job was a real man and Ezek 14:14, 20 confirms that he was a saved man.

He is also referred to in the New Testament in James 5:11 where it records, "You have heard of the patience (or endurance) of Job.” So, we are not dealing here with fiction. We are not dealing with imaginary accounts. We are talking about a real, live, flesh and blood person.

We will look particularly at Job 1:1-3; 6-12. The key verse is verse 9 and the challenge that Satan put forth to the Lord, "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Here is what is going on. The Lord brings up the subject of Job. The Lord is taking joy in his servant Job. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be the kind of person that the Lord could talk about that way?

Satan was not, or at least did not seem to be, impressed with Job. Here is what Satan said about Job. "He is not really committed to you Lord. He is playing you for a fool. He does not really love you. He only loves you because you have been good to him." You see Satan had been no doubt trying to break through that hedge. But God had been protecting Job.

Satan said, "Take all of that away and don't let him have anything but you and see if he loves you then?" The Lord said, "You don't know my servant Job." So the Lord said, "Okay, Satan he is in your power only spare his life. Then you will see that indeed God is enough."

The question I want to address in the next few articles is: Do you love God for what God has done for you or do you just love God? In other words if all of your possessions and blessings were taken away, all of them, would you still love God? Is Jesus enough? That is an important question to ponder. Until next week when begin to unpack these verses in Job, never doubt God’s love for you and remember that First Baptist Church loves you to.