"Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great
ransom can not deliver thee."--JOB xxxvi: 18.
Trouble makes some men mad. It was so with Job. He had lost his
property, he had lost his physical health, he had lost his dear
children, and the losses had led to exasperation instead of any
spiritual profit. I suppose that he was in the condition that many are
now in who sit before me. There are those here whose fortunes have
begun to flap their wings, as though to fly away. There is a hollow
cough in some of your dwellings. There is a subtraction of comfort and
happiness, and you feel disgusted with the world, and impatient with
many events that are transpiring in your history, and you are in the
condition in which Job was when the words of my text accosted him:
"Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke and then a ransom can
not deliver thee."
I propose to show you that sometimes God suddenly removes from us our
gospel opportunities, and that, when He has done so, our case is
ransomless. "Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a
great ransom can not deliver thee."