The Secret Path to Hidden Treasure

Well, good morning. It's me again. How are you? >> Good, good, good. I think I forgot to turn off my mic, so you might have I don't know, but I didn't have to turn it back on. So, uh, welcome in. Welcome in. Let's turn in our Bibles now to Job chapter 28. The book of Job chapter 28. And if you don't have a Bible, there should be some in the seat back in front of you or behind you. And if you don't have a Bible, you can uh make that your own Bible. That is our gift to you. You can highlight it, mark it up, underline it, make that your Bible, and then bring it back uh next week. Job chapter 28. And it's just one chapter this morning. Uh we've been covering three, four, five chapters at a time covering the um the full interactions between Job and the friends. They go together. They're saying the same thing back and forth. So we would cover bigger chunks, but now we're slowing down a bit to cover just Job chapter 28. If you put Stephven Hawking, Albert Einstein, Sigman Freud, Frederick Nichch, and Bertrren Russell all in the same room. What you might have is a lot of knowledge. Hawking is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist. Einstein another influential physicist. Freud is a neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis. Nichch was a popular philosopher and Russell was a mathematician philosopher as well. These men were seen are seen as bright minds, intellectual giants. But the one thing they all have in common is this. None of them feared God. So while there may be a lot of knowledge in that room, what would not be there is one ounce of wisdom. Likewise, if you put Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Andrew Carnegie in the same room, there would be trillions of dollars in that room, but zero wisdom and I might add, no true biblical treasure, because none of them fear God turned from evil and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Now, for some of them, those names, there's still time, but as it stands now in my own research, uh, quick research, none of them believe and are therefore both foolish and spiritually bankrupt. Here in Job chapter 28, Job's so-called friends, Elephaz, Bildad, and Zofar are done with their speeches. Job has given his responses, and now Job is rightly directing his attention to wisdom and to the God of wisdom. After numerous attempts to explain Job's suffering, Job fixes his eyes on the wisdom of God. And with that, let's pray. Father, I thank you for this morning. Thank you for your word. Pray God that you would help us to see truth. Help us to understand what Job is saying, what you are saying through your word. Pray that give pray that you would give us ears to hear what the spirit has to say to the church across church Phoenix in Jesus name. Amen. Well, let's stand. If you are able to stand as we read a portion of scripture together. If you are unable to, that is okay. You can stand with us in spirit as we simply honor God's word together. We will go through the whole chapter verse by verse this morning. Uh but I'm only going to read verses 20- 28, the end of the chapter as we do the public reading of scripture. Job is speaking and he says this, "Where then does wisdom come from? And where is understanding located? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the sky. Abdon and death say, "We have heard news of it with our ears." But God understands the way to wisdom, and he knows its location. For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When God fixed the weight of the wind and distributed the water by measure, when he established a limit for the rain and a path for the lightning, he considered wisdom and evaluated it. He established it and examined it. He said to mankind, "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn from evil is understanding." Amen. Thanks. You can be seated. Quests for hidden treasure fascinates most people. I don't know many who don't enjoy that, but most people enjoy a quest for hidden treasure. There's something about new discoveries, grand expeditions that intrigues humanity. Perhaps you've seen the updates in the news about the Durupanar formation in eastern Turkey. It is traditionally believed to be the location of Noah's ark. And so now they are doing fresh drilling into the formation and it's leading more and more people to believe in its legitimacy. And people are excited. if you're following it online. People are excited. People are energetic online. They're hoping for definitive evidence that will be found. But whether it's gold, silver, precious stones, or Noah's ark, mankind will go the distance and do all he can to discover treasures. This morning, Job will reveal to us, this is our our main heading, the notso secret path to hidden treasure. And if you don't have an outline, a a a hard copy, there's some on the back tables for you to grab. The notso secret path to hidden treasure. Job starts in these first 11 verses talking about how amazing and awesome mankind can be. man will go great lengths to discover what is precious to him. Verse one, Job says, "Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the ground and copper is smelted from ore." Uh, a minor, verse three, puts an end to the darkness. He probes the deepest recesses for ore in gloomy darkness. He cuts a shaft far from human habitation. In places unknown to those who walk above ground, suspended far away from people, the miners swing back and forth. Verse 5, he says, "Food may come from the earth, but below the surface, the earth is transformed as by fire. Its rocks are a source of sapphire." And some translations might say lapis lazuli. um that is another way of saying sapphire uh sapphire. And he says at the end of verse six, containing flex of gold. Job is talking about man's great ability to mine precious metals from the earth. Job also talks about not just the great lengths they'll go, but the risks man will take to get these treasures. He will go, he says, into deep darkness. far away from people, far away from help, meaning he'll risk his life for this stuff. If the mind caves in, he would die. Or if he gets hurt far from people, he may not have help to get himself out, but he'll still go. Why? Because of the precious treasure that he intends to find. Because of that, he'll still go. Verse 7, Job continues. He says, "No bird of prey knows the path. No falcon's eye has seen it. Proud beasts have never walked on it. No lion has ever prowled over it. The minor strikes the flint and transforms." And some translations might say, "Uh, will turn up the or from." Transforms turn up or from the mountains at their foundations. The picture is overturning rock. Verse 10, he cuts out channels in the rocks and his eyes spot every treasure. He, speaking of mankind, verse 11, dams up the streams from flowing so that, get this, mark this, this will come into play later, so that he may bring to light what is hidden. What Job is saying is that man's ability to mine for these treasures surpasses even the most majestic of animals. None of them can discover such gems. The falcon is known for its keen eyesight, a dominant creature of the sky, and yet can't discover the treasures man can. The same thing with the lion. The lion, a dominant land creature animal, cannot spot treasures either. He cannot discover what man can. And Job uses those two intentionally to say neither the majestic land or air creatures can discover what man can discover. Man is the one who channels cuts channels in the rocks. It's man's eye. Notice man's eye, not the falcon's keen eyesight or the lion who can spot its prey. It is man's eye who spots every treasure. In verse 11, man does what he does. He channels rocks. He stops streams from flowing in order to what? Bring to light what is hidden. And that will come into play later. But for now, in all of this, Job Job is pointing out something ironic. Point number one is this. the incompetence of man's competence to find it while complimenting man's ability to innovate and mine the depths of the earth for treasures. He can do all of that yet something does remain hidden from him. Wisdom remains hidden. Yes, humanity has come a long way. We now send subs, submarines into the depths of the ocean, rockets into outer space, and we want to occupy Mars, right? We want we do all these things. None of it equates to finding the greatest treasure of all, wisdom. And so now, before mankind gets too proud of themselves, before we get too proud of our achievements, Job will put us in our place. Verse 12. So he proposes the question, but where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth and it is not found in the land of the living. The deep says it is not in me. And the sea says it is not with me. It cannot be bought for gold and silver cannot be weighed as its price. Verse 16, it cannot be valued in the gold of oper or in precious onyx or sapphire. Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. Verse 18, no mention shall be made of coral or of crystal. The price of wisdom is above pearls. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it. Nor can it be valued in pure gold. All those things Job spent verses telling us how great man can find how great it is man can find him. He says, "Yeah, all that can't buy wisdom." Job is revealing here that if if man could gain every ounce, yay, every pound of every treasure on the planet, it couldn't buy an ounce of wisdom. If we go back into our rich atheistic agnostic room, whose combined worth, I did some calculations for you, would be over $2 trillion, none of them could afford to buy an ounce of wisdom combined. So our second point is simply Job's second point. The inadequacy of the riches of this world to buy it. It was the Beatles who sang, "I'll buy you a diamond ring, my friend, if it makes you feel all right. I'll get you anything, my friend, if it makes you feel all right, cuz I don't care too much for money, but money can't buy me love, right?" And Pastor DJ's going to write the next hit single, Money Can't Buy Me Wisdom Either. It's going to be on watching for Spotify. It's coming out. No, it would be terrible. Um, it would be true, but it would probably sound awful. But money can't buy love or wisdom. Man can go under the surface. The picture is Hebrew is full of pictures and iron ironic talk. Man can go under the surface, mine the depths to find gold, but can't scratch the surface of finding wisdom. And the one thing man can't find even in the depths of the ocean. Man can't find also happens to be the most precious thing beyond everything. My favorite commentator on this has been a gentleman by the name of Doug O'Donnell. He wrote this. I'm just taking a direct quote. He wrote this quote. On God's scale, wisdom outweighs the greatest the earth's greatest treasures. Precious gems. I love this. Precious gems are worthless in the marketplace of wisdom. And money is unacceptable as tender for wisdom. End quote. You could take all the gold, silver, precious stones you have, go into the marketplace of wisdom, be rejected. We don't take that here. You could take all the money you want and go into the store, try to buy wisdom. That is unacceptable tender here. It's unac. We don't take that. We don't take that Visa card or that $100 bill. It's refused. Cannot buy wisdom. The price tag on wisdom is too high to be purchased. Its worth is incomprehensibly more than anything precious in this world. And so Job picks up the question uh verse 20 uh it's like a repeat of verse 12 if you look uh Job 28:20. Where then does wisdom come from? And where is understanding located? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the sky. Verse 22, Abdon and death say, we have heard news of it with our ears. Verse 22 is fascinating, isn't it? What on earth is he saying? Abbidon and death say we have heard news of wisdom with our ears. It's a very curious statement. What Job is saying is wisdom cannot be found in the land of the living. Verse 13. It is hidden from the living in verse 21. Nor can it be found even in the land of the dead. Verse 22. But the dead have heard news of it. Right? How so? Job is driving the point home that wisdom can't be found in the realm of the dead just as much as it couldn't be found in the realm of the living. If we could go down to death or Abdon, these are similar terms to speak of the same thing. If we could go down there and interview the smartest or richest of men and ask them if they finally found wisdom in where they ended up, they would have to shrug their shoulders and say, "Nope, we've heard of it. It's out there somewhere, but it ain't here." Kind of like if you're, you know, playing uh hideand-seek against someone who's like really good. He's the only kid left and everyone's trying to find him and you're like, "Have you checked this place? Have you checked that place? Did you check that room? Did you check over there? It's like going down to the dead and saying, "Hey, did you check the dead?" And the dead look around for a little bit. Yeah, let me go check the dead here and see if we find wisdom. And they respond, "Nope, we check death in Abdon. It's not here either." But verse 23, but God understands the way to wisdom, and he knows its location. For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When God fixed the weight of the wind, it's also a cool statement, and limited the water by measure. Speaking of creation, when he established a limit for the rain and a path for the lightning, he considered wisdom and evaluated it. He established it and examined it. He said to mankind, "The fear of the Lord that is this wisdom." And to turn from evil is understanding. Man cannot find wisdom on his own, nor can wisdom be got. Only God understands, knows the way to wisdom. So guess what? God has the monopoly on wisdom. And finding it begins with fearing the Lord. Verse 28, that's wisdom. Turning from evil, that's understanding. So our last point is simply this. Job's open declaration of where to find it. the open declaration of where to find it. Fearing God and turning from evil is not a secret. It just comes out all over the scripture. Fear God, turn from evil. That's the first step to wisdom. If you remember the first two chapters of Job, if you've been with us or if you're not, a refresher, these echo the last verses of chapter 28, verse 28 where it's God said to mankind, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom to turn from evil is understanding. It is an echo of what the description of Job in the first two chapters. Job 1:1, God is describing Job. It says, "Job what? Feared God and turned from evil." Chapter 1:8. The same. Chapter 2 verse three. The same. Job fears God and turns from evil. Though Job is hurting, though he's suffering, though we've had weeks of this back and forth that you've seen, he is wise. Why? Because he fears God and turns from evil. Solomon with his vast knowledge and gifted wisdom right from God. He came to he had it all riches fulfilled all his sinful lustful desires as well. He had it all according to the world standards and concluded the same thing. Proverbs 9:10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the holy one is understanding." The psalmist came to the same conclusion. Psalm 111:10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All those who practice it practice what? The fear of the Lord. Who have that relationship with God and worship him. All those who practice it have a good understanding. And his praise endures forever. It's kind of cool to think the biblical truth is that you and I are wiser than the smartest atheist or agnostic on the planet. Isn't that great? All that knowledge worthless in the economy of God if not given him glory. And it's cool because I'm kind of an idiot. like I'm not that smart. >> I ain't smart, >> but I fear God. Fear God and turn from evil. And the New Testament carries this on more fully as God is revealed to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And as Paul reflects on the gospel at the end of Romans 11:33, he says, "Oh," he just breaks out, "Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. how uncarchable are his judgments and how inscrable his ways. Or you can look in uh Colossians 2:3. Paul says, "In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." And sometimes you got to think like New Testament writers may have had some Old Testament texts in mind because he uses words like in Christ is hidden all the treasures. And Job is saying, "It's all in the fear of God, not in anything else." Paul says, "Yes, indeed it is all in Christ, no one else." And Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24, he says this, "For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom." So the overtly religious, the pious, they wanted signs. The Greeks, right, they wanted wisdom. philosophy. You want to learn, right? Well, Paul says, "But we preach Christ crucified." Listen, we preach Christ crucified. Listen, we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly or foolishness to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, everyone who's called, everyone who comes to Christ, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and what? The wisdom of God. Don't miss this truth. It says, "Jews demand what? Signs. And what do what do they get in the gospel? A stumbling block." I know we got kids coming in, so it's fun. And then Greeks seek wisdom and what do they get? Folly. God does not give them what they want. He gives him his own wisdom which is Christ crucified. Doesn't make sense to the world. God does it because his ways are not our ways. Jews demand a sign. They get a stumbling block. Greeks seek wisdom. They get foolishness. the foolishness of the cross we preach. And Paul says, "But that is the wisdom of God because God will use the foolishness of what we preach to save many." You can read more of that in 1 Corinthians 1. To the world, the gospel is foolishness. Why would God become a lowly man suffer and die on the cross at the hands of his own creation and be crucified for their sin? That doesn't make sense. Zeus wouldn't do that. Greek gods act like humans because they were made up by humans. So they this the power and authority and you never humble yourself. You never do God's way is different. God's wisdom is not man's. Man is full of pride and arrogance. Christ comes humble and lowly. Man has a me first mentality. Christ says the last will be first and the first last. Be a servant of all. Man has the pro the propensity to selfishness. Christ comes selflessly and gives himself. And Paul says the word of the cross is folly to the unbelieving word uh world but the power of God for us being saved. Bottom line is this. The most foolish thing you could possibly do, not only this morning, but in your entire life, is to reject Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. >> To reject Christ is to believe and say that you know better. And spoiler alert, you don't. Um but you can think you can in ignorance and it will not work out for you in the end. The wisdom of God, true wisdom is coming to Christ. Rejecting Christ is saying you know better. Receiving Christ is to admit to come to Christ is that's wisdom. It is wisdom to admit you don't know better and you do need Christ. And and we, you and I, we look at the cross and we don't see folly. We don't see foolishness. What do we see? The power, wisdom, and glory of God. Because God is saving you on the cross from his own wrath and judgment to come. Do you see that? Do you know that? Do you realize that at the cross, God is saving you from himself? Do you know that? That is biblical sound truth doctrine. Yeah. He's not saving you from the wrath of the devil. He ain't have no wrath. He's not saving you from the wrath of Satan. He's not saving you from the wrath of demons. He's saving you from his own wrath. And so, it required him to come himself. And that's what we have in the son of God, the eternal second person of the trinity. Son of God became a man, died on the cross for you and for me. And this morning we get to celebrate two lovely people, two lovely individuals who have come to Christ and they're now obeying him in baptism. So I want to invite Aiden and Sheridan uh down to the front and the worship team. Yeah. And then if the worship team wanted to come wants to come up and get ready. Um we will we are going to start we're going to start with Aiden. And this is Aiden's dad Matt. Everyone say hi Aiden and Matt. >> Hi. >> Yeah. Um well before before we baptize you Aiden um your dad's going to share a few words. So go for it brother. >> Pray for me. this is going to be difficult to get through. So, um, ever since Aiden was born into this world, it's been like a dream and a prayer of mine to come to this moment. >> Like all the the accomplish accomplishments that you could have in life, like DJ just said, pairs nothing to following Christ. And so, it was an honor to lead her to Christ probably about a year and a half ago to two years. It was around Easter time that year and we led we led her to Christ at the Sardella's pizza joint down the street during dinner. And so it was an honor to do that. And it's been just my my wife and I have just had such a good time and just, you know, seeing her grow in her faith and seeing her just grow just as a young woman of Christ. And so, um, it's an honor to to do have this happen. And ultimately, it's not what I did. It's not what Kelsey did. It's what the Holy Spirit and God did in her life. So, all honor and glory goes to him and him alone. So, amen. All right, Aiden, if you want to step in. I got to see the picture, too. They took a picture sitting there. Sardella is like, "Guess who came to Christ?" And it was a glorious glorious. All right. I'm just going to ask you a couple questions. Okay, Aiden. Is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior? >> Yes. >> Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life? >> Yes. >> All right. Well, it is our privilege and your dad's honor to baptize you, our sister, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death, and raised to walk in newness of life. Amen. And amen. Awesome. Awesome. But wait, there's more. Want to introduce to you Sheridan Sme. >> Yeah, that's what's up. and her husband Zach. And Sheridan is going to share a few words. Sheridan's going to share and then we will baptize Sheridan. >> Good morning everybody. >> There's just two things I want to say. First, I want to say thank you to everyone who's prayed for me so fervently these last six months. There's a lot of you here right now. Thank you. I love you and I'm sorry it took so long. Second, I want to express that for the longest time I looked at each of you with envy. I was jealous of your faith and the trust that you had in Jesus. I actually felt like there was a canyon between me and Jesus. And I didn't know how I could ever cross it until I realized that I didn't have to cross it. I just had to jump. So, if you're listening to this and you too find yourself looking out over a chasm, please let me plead with you. If you can walk to the side of that cliff and just be brave and jump, he will catch you. You don't have to do it alone anymore. Thank you, Jesus. >> Amen. Christ. Christ. Christ. He did it all. Amen. Amen. All right. If you want to step in, share. Sheridan, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior? >> Yes. >> Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day, showing his power over sin and death, and that he has authority over your life? >> Yes. >> Well, then it is our pleasure and I know Zach's honor to baptize you, our sister, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life. Yeah. All right, let's stand as we sing our last song.