“‭Though‭ he slay‭‭ me, yet will I trust‭‭ in him: but I will maintain‭‭ mine own ways‭ before‭ him,” Job 13:15.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

No statement is better able to refute the accusation, made against Job by his three friends, that he was a hypocrite and defied God, than this. The ultimate in surrender to God is submitting to death in that time and in that place which He has been pleased to appoint. He that can say amen to these words of Job is yielded in life and soul to the Lord.

Such a testimony requires an unquestioning surrender to the will of God. Instinctive to us all is that clinging to life. Here is a surrender that has reached the very depths of the human heart. When we have yielded up the matter of our death we have yielded up our lives. Was it not in this spirit that Paul uttered the words, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”, Philippians 1:21.

This statement also refutes the slander of the devil, 1:9. Even if God should remove Job’s life itself he would still trust the Lord.

This utterance in the spirit of strong faith is made by a man under the severest trial. Believer, the faith of God’s elect will be increased when trials come. It is divinely given and fed.

I. TRUE FAITH FACES UP VICTORIOUSLY TO THE WORST POSSIBILITIES

That faith which flourishes only in the sunshine is not true faith. Job had been through a great ordeal and still he trust the Lord. He was determined to continue trusting even if things should get worse.

The word though has often been the introduction to an utterance of faith.

Psalm 23:4, 27:3, 46:2-3, 138:7, Hab 3:17-18, II Cor 4:16, 5:1.

II. TRUE FAITH IS STAYED UPON GOD’S REVELATION OF HIS LOVE

It matters not how things appear, it is as God speaks that we rely upon. This was no blind clinging to hope. Rather, it was a clinging to that revelation of God that He himself had given.

Abraham—Rom 4:17-21. When commanded to offer Isaac, Abraham trusted God. Reason said that it was contrary to God’s purpose and grace. Faith relied upon the promise. Hebs 10:23.

III. TRUE FAITH KNOWS THAT IT IS BY DEATH THAT GOD WORKS HIS WILL IN US

1. At conversion there is a dying. Rom 6:4. If you have not known the sin-slaying power of Christ’s cross then you are not saved.

2. Advance in holiness requires death. Rom 8:13, Gal 2:20. It was through death that Lazarus reached new heights of grace, John 11:1, 14, 12:1-2.

3. Death will bring glory to the saint. II Cor 5:1, Luke 16:22.

Death cannot work evil for the one that God has purposed to bless.

Have you faith today? A faith that does not flinch at death?