Untouchable?

When I worked in the factory we got the same type of material that went to all different places. Some of it went to the higher priced stores too.  It was the same old stuff with a different label. We have the same devil, the same world, the same old, same old.  Thankfully, we have the same God, the same Jesus that’s always been.  This story might jolt us a little bit.  Untouchable?  Do you think you are you untouchable?

Job 1

⁶ Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.

• If you don’t know it yet, Satan is slippery.  The angels of God went to present themselves to God, and Satan just thought he’d go right in too.

⁷ And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

• God asked Satan where he came from.  In effect, how you’d get in here.  Oh, he’d been traveling around (going to and fro).  Remember this.  Satan is not a lesser God.  He can’t be everywhere at once like God can.  He has to use his demons as helpers.  He is a fallen angel.  He is not equal to God.

⁸ And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? ⁹ Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? ¹⁰ Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

• Satan accused God of over protecting Job.  He said he was kept above the devil. He told God Job only feared him because everything was good.  I’m so thankful for the protective hedge of God.  If not for it, the devil would have us dead.  What he does to us is by the allowance of God.  We’re not impervious to the devil’s touch.

¹¹ But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

• Satan tried to get God to hurt Job.  God doesn’t touch us for bad.  He was trying to smooth-talk God so he could lay the blame on Him.  Haven’t you done that?  When something bad happens to you, have you ever looked up at God and said “why are you doing this to me?”  Blame the devil.  Blame yourself.  Don’t blame God.

¹² And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.

• Understand this.  None of us in above suffering, none above being vulnerable to the workings of Satan.  It is most foolish to think you’re untouchable.

Bad things happen.  We act surprised thinking “bad things just don’t happen to me!”  We see others sick and feel sorry for them.  Unconsciously we think to ourselves “it’s not me; it won’t happen to me.”  We go to the funeral home, laugh and carry on and socialize like it won’t happen to us.  We go to great lengths to stop it.  Other people get killed in car wrecks.  Other people get bad illnesses.  “It won’t happen to me.”  Every one of us could be dead before I finish this message.

Job’s friends wanted to know what he’d done wrong.  They were all right.  Life was good for them.  Job pretty much said to them “you just wait.”  I’ve heard people time and time again say they’d never go back on the Lord, they’ll never take another drink.  In no time they’ve been right back out there in it.  Don’t be so hard on those around you.  If you get down and out, you could be there.  If I surrender to the devil, I’ll sin.  You will too.  We don’t get too self-righteous.  We’ll never be saved long enough to be above sin.  Heaven forbid that we’d depart from the Lord and turn back to sin and die a reprobate.

Good and bad happen to everybody.  If we were never touched by bad, we wouldn’t know how to trust the Lord, how important it is to trust him.  If the devil never touched us, we’d see no need for God.  We’d trust ourselves instead of the Lord.  If the devil can touch Job, he can touch us.  He already is.  Recognize it.  Do something about it.  A person has to see himself lost and admit he’s a sinner before he’ll ever be saved.  We cannot help Jesus save us.  We must see the power that sin has over us and realize we’ll never be delivered and have a life of victory until we see we can’t do it by ourselves.  I’ve been saved 40 years, and I still need Jesus.  I’m not devil proof.  We’ve got to come to grips with this.  Don’t let the devil have his way.

The devil has many fingers that will come after us.  There is the temptation to sin.  Don’t give in.  Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world!  He can make us suffer and hurt.  He’ll send personal trials and depression.  He’ll tell you anything.  He knows what to whisper in your ear to try to get you to turn away from God.  He used Job’s wife against him.  She told him to curse God and die.  Job said thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.  He said he came naked into the world and that’s how he’d leave it—naked.  Be careful that you don’t sin in what happens in your life.  You’ll have good and bad.  You’ll have mountain tops and valleys.  The devil runs to and fro trying to get to you.  Don’t let him!  He can sure enough trouble us.  We can have it hard.  He can make sin appealing.  Remember that he can only touch us as God allows.  What happens to us is for our good.

The Lord knows if we’re not tested we won’t trust him and grow, so he allows us to be put to the test.  The many times the devil tempts us are far less than the multitude of times he has been prohibited from touching us.  God simply wants us to trust him, and we must constantly be aware of that need to trust.  We can trust him.  The devil slipped in, but there was only one God in heaven, and he was on his throne.  There wasn’t another throne there for Satan.  There is One and only One over all.

Cases in point:  this is why Jesus came—to touch us.  The Son of God touched human flesh the day his little body was born.  Lepers came to him, unclean and ugly.  No one dared touch them, but Jesus did.  Blind men not worth a dime, beggars for life, came to Jesus and ask for help.  He touched them and gave them their sight.  Deaf and dumb were touched by Jesus.  He is willing to touch us.  Peter’s mother-in-law was sick with the fever.  Others were scared for her.  Jesus touched her; she got up and made supper for them.  The devil burns hot, but Jesus can put it out.  The coffin of the widow of Nain’s son was touched and he rose from the dead.  He touched Jairus’ daughter and she came back to life.  Zacchaeus and Matthew, sinners and tax collectors, took Jesus home with them.  People talked.  Jesus will go home with any sinner who asks him—yes even you and even me.  Without Jesus we’re nothing but dirty, rotten sinners. We’re not righteous.  If not for the Master’s touch, we’d be hopeless.  Matthew 14:36 says and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.  Jesus is willing to touch whoever wants to touch him.  If you’re not willing for Jesus to touch you, the other choice is the Satan.  I’m tired of the devil touching me.  The touch of Jesus sets us free.

Job 13:¹³ Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.

• Are you willing to say that let come what may?  I trust God.

¹⁴ Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand? ¹⁵ Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

• Are you willing to say though I die, I will keep my integrity?

¹⁶ He also shall be my salvation.

• Though God allows trouble to come, I trust the Lord.  I will be delivered.  Can you say that?

We are touchable by the devil, but because he touches us, we know the Lord can touch us, free us. Do you need the touch of the Lord today?  He’s here to do just that.