If we've missed any of the last few Sundays, we've begun a series on Job, and I've got one of the most encouraging passages that you can find in Job. Remember, he is a blameless and upright man who feared God and turned away from evil, and the accusation by the evil one is that he only obeys and trusts because he's got a blessed life. Take away all his treasures and he'll no longer love God. So God allows that to destroy his property and to take his children. But Job still would not curse God. That's how the story goes. Satan doesn't give up. Destroy his health and he will curse God. Stretch out your hand and touch his bone and flesh and he will curse you to his face. And the Lord said to Satan, behold he's in your hand, only spare his life. And so Job was struck with a terrible affliction with sores from the sole of his feet to the top of his head but he still would not curse God. And the rest of the book is about Job's unending joy in God and the amazement of his friends at his perpetual smile and calm spirit. That's it. Well not so is it. But Job doesn't curse God. but he does have a long, grisly long way. And that's what we'll see through this chapter and through much of Job. And I'm not sure how all the preachers are gonna keep us buoyant through this time. It's not easy. He has weeks of profound despair and depression whilst he defends himself from friends, so-called, who are making unhelpful judgements. Being a person of faith does not mean we are bulletproof. We bleed. It does not mean that we don't struggle with God and what he is putting us through. But a man of faith, a woman of faith keeps talking to God and he will not deny the words of the Holy One. and God still loves him, even when his faith is weak and battered and just hanging on by the fingertips. I got introduced to Job in New Zealand. I was at a Bible school, and much of the teaching was good, but it was very strong in terms of living victoriously in Christ. And then we had this one lesson we had every week for the time I was there on Job, and that was like you know a cold shower compared to the all the other teaching we were receiving and we also had a tutorial group back at the pastor's home and it was very different from the tone of the whole school and at one point we go through Job and he said I think we just need to know that God loves us as we are like where we are now you can tighten that up you can clean it up theologically But boy, that hit me like a thunderbolt because at that time I was on a rollercoaster ride, spiritually. And it was like God just said to me, John, I love you where you are right now. And it launched me into a reading of Romans and I just came alive to the grace of God. And there's therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ, even though I was feeling very much condemned as a failure in my faith. So that was how, I can't remember much else they taught about Job which would have been helpful for today. But that certainly just opened up a whole understanding that God actually loves us in the midst of our pain and struggle. Now I've come to church here and struggled to be here. at certain times in my journey with Coro, not because of the preacher, not because of the congregation, but because of what I was going through. There have been many, many times in the last 12 months that if you'd bumped into me up in Blackford, or at maybe a car mechanic shop, or visited our home and found me in a blubbering mess, I'm on treatment, still on treatment for stage 4 prostate cancer. And one of the side effects of that was this overwhelming sadness. And there have been times here where I've been here, utterly overwhelmed and sometimes feeling I wouldn't have been able to stay. I am convinced I've filled a bucket with tears the last 12 months. I was very buoyant in the first part of last year. But as the treatments hit me, I started going under. And my wife, my family, has seen me in the most vulnerable and the weakest state, mentally, psychologically, emotionally, I've ever been in. And I've cried out to God to help me get out of that darkness. And it's been a trial. Now, I say that because sometimes, Not intentionally, but we can breed an atmosphere of unreality in our faith. And we can assume that if we are struggling and battling, no one here would understand. Now, if you'd seen me in some of those times, and sometimes it was out in the shopping centre, what a mechanics I just broke down. Utterly broke down, I'm saying. Not just a few tears, but utterly broke down. And it's interesting to see what people do when that happens, or when they're taking my blood, not because it hurt, but because all the questions she was asking me, any stress would get me going. The pain of someone else would get me going. I've sought help. I didn't stay alone in my own little, I sought help. But whatever help, nothing seemed to work. Eventually, I actually thought at times, with times going, but I actually thought I was losing my mind. And so did my wife. And eventually, it was necessary for my feeling that I had to try something medically to help me. And I'm on something now. That's why I'm so happy. And probably, there's a few here that are probably on something too. And I don't, I've always said, you know, half the world's on something. What are we doing? Looking for a pill to make us happy. But anyway. I don't think it has helped me much. I think something happened about six weeks ago in my heart and mind that has just stopped the tears and that's another story. But when I read this package I do identify with much of it. And I think probably quite a few of us do. Not all of us struggle with melancholy or depression, but some of us do. And it's a battle, it's a struggle, has been in my life, even before this diagnosis. But I've also experienced God in ways that I cannot discount at all and I've known such joy in him at times that I long for the day when I see him face to face. It's not, I don't want to say it's all dark and gloomy but you cannot read this book and other parts of the scripture without understanding that this is a part of our human experience even as believers. Job's friends initially sat with him without saying anything for some seven days to show him comfort and sympathy. I wish they'd kept silent because eventually Eliphaz, firstly, one of his friends responds with a call to repentance. His main point is that Job's hiding some deep, dark sin or he wouldn't be suffering such grief and pain. Elipaz does not believe the Lord allows the righteous to suffer. Well that's wrong isn't it? Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all either sooner or later or ultimately. But to say that the righteous don't suffer is actually a lie. And so we come to Job's first response to what he's just heard. I've probably missed something there but before it was Job himself vents his pain and that's why Elipaz gives him the first dose of counsel that doesn't do any good and Job now responds. The first part is 1 to 13 in chapter 6 if you've got your Bibles open in one sense he's addressing to no one in particular He's simply expressing his anguish and despair. Oh, that my vexation were weighed and all my calamity laid in the balances, for then it would be heavier than all the sand of the sea. That'd be a lot of weight, wouldn't it? But Job's saying my suffering is greater than that. And when you're in the midst of it, that's what it feels like. And Elipaz has got no idea. He's minimising. He has no idea what Job is going through. Look, different ones have spoken to me over this past year when they've seen me struggling and I'd say other people probably avoided me because they don't know what to say because I've been in a mess. It's difficult. Sometimes it's best to say nothing but just hug the person in pain. I received a text from Ed this week when he saw the title of a message. And I read that you were preaching on Job 6 and 7 and your title, Lord, I've had enough. My heart sang with joy. I'm not pre-empting your message but I pray it will be a word that is heard where it desperately needs to be heard and that will be a word of enormous peace to all those suffering pain or loss and seeming silence from the Heavenly Father and for those who are carers and comforters for those folks. The title speaks powerfully to those who are in that place of torment, longing for relief and solace, and wondering, what is the purpose of this suffering? Slick answers, which can be trotted out by the well-meaning, can often compound the pain by inferring that their faith isn't up to scratch or is somehow inferior. The anxiety and fear experienced by those like Job is real and should not be diminished. Yet there is a Father and Lord who does sympathise with us in all situations. And I look forward to hearing the word from a dear brother who is living through trials and sufferings. Well, there's the sermon. That's it. That would be enough, wouldn't it? Because that's what this is all about. Lord, I've had enough. Real love. Real love from his friends would have looked like someone imagining what it's like to be in that person's shoes, to feel something of the anguish that is crushing them, to walk the mile and bear the load. Real love costs because in some sense it's willing to bear that person's burden. It may take some time for someone to come out the other side. It may take years. It may be that that person will not come out the other side. William Cowper. John Newton supported him for years, and in the end, he didn't come out the other side. He came out the other side in glory. But he died under the weight of deep, deep, dark depression. And yet wrote beautiful hymns, God Works in a Mysterious Way. Read that beautiful hymn. Are we willing to be patient and long-suffering, or is it too hard to walk with others in their struggle with God? Someone has commented that the church is the only army in the world that shoots their wounded. Now that may be an over-generalisation, it is, but it does have some truth in it. And we forget the mercy and patience that God has shown us. We expect others to shape up or ship out. We don't understand the depth of Job's suffering unless we recognise that his deepest pain is not in just what he has suffered, the grief of losing his sons, and the unending pain of this affliction, nor is it being falsely accused, being betrayed by so-called friends. That's all a part of his pain. But his deepest agony is that he feels forsaken by God. Verse 4, for the arrows of the Almighty are in me. My spirit drinks their poison. The terrors of God are arrayed against me. God has become his enemy. And there are many passages in the Prophets and the Psalms where God becomes the enemy of his own people because of their idolatry and their rebellion, the judgments of God come upon them. But have a read of Psalm 44, which says, God, you've deserted us. You've left us to be crushed by the enemy. You've scattered us among the nations. And we have done nothing. We've been faithful. Show us where we were rebellious. Lord, arouse yourself, come to us. In other words, you're being our enemy and we've done nothing wrong. And that's how Job feels in this passage. If our theology leaves no room for struggling with God, we won't have any time for someone who feels that God has abandoned them because of what they're going through. And really, we haven't read the scriptures. Questioning God, wrestling with God, expressing the pain of feeling that God has turned against us, may be a real expression of a faith that is being hammered and battered and not necessarily the rebellion of a hardened heart. And it may be difficult to tell the difference. It may be difficult for us to tell the difference if we're the person in that place of struggle. And therefore what other people say or don't say to us will either help us or wound us. Sometimes all that we need is to have our complaint validated. People often don't want to hear a need explanation. They want us to hear their pain. Some of us husbands have had to learn that through the painful way that our wives just want us to understand not just solve our problem. Problem with being a pastor is that we feel that we're meant to be able to justify God and also solve people's dilemmas. When in fact sometimes we need to just listen and walk with people in their grief. We don't have to defend God. As someone has said, you don't need to defend a lion, do you? God will vindicate himself. And he has. Someone's a person venting is an expression of the deep hunger. they have to know God's comfort and peace and to know that God is in control and over them through their pain. And when they feel God's absence, it's natural to cry out, what have I done? Where are you? And so does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Of course not, he's got a full tummy. He prays when he can't find food. And so Job wouldn't be talking about the way he's talking if he was satisfied in God. And you could say, well, he should be satisfied in God. And that's what Eliphaz would say. That's why you need to repent because obviously you've done something wrong. You think my groaning is for no reason? You may not agree with my irrational words, but at the very least recognise the deep need that I'm in. That's all Job is calling for. Job is saying I'm not bulletproof. If you prick me, I bleed. I'm a human being. I'm not an AI robot that can say all the right things, but there's no heart, no feeling, no real pain. And so Job gets to the point saying at the moment I'd be happy if God cut my life short and the sooner the better, verse 8, that he would fulfil my hope that it would please God to crush me and do it, to do it quickly. This would be my comfort, verse 10. I'd even exult in pain unsparing if it was like that. You know, get it over and done with. For I have not denied the words of the Holy One. And I think the sense of it is, if it was all over and done and quick, then I won't be tempted to deny the words of the Holy One. I don't want to. But if I keep on suffering like this, I don't know how I'll go with trusting God's word and saying he's still true, no matter what. Can you see Job's dilemma? What is my strength that I should wait? What is my end that I should be patient? There's no happy end to all this. I can't see anything good. My flesh is not bronze, you know. He bleeds. He's got no resource left in him. Verse 13. And so it'd be a comfort if God would put him to an end. But in all that he doesn't deny God. He can't hear the word of God, he's in too much pain. All he wants to do is die before being tempted by what his wife said, curse God and die. And he doesn't want to do that. He doesn't want to dishonour God by denying the truth. He is conflicted within himself, doubting the very justice of God and at the same time unwilling to give way to total unbelief. He's fighting himself to stay a believer. Christopher Asher writes, as with a prisoner under torture, there's an urgency to Job's prayer. He is very weak. He knows that he has so little physical strength, and with his physical weakness, there's a psychological fragility. To hold on and not curse God, he feels he will need to be as strong as a stone or as bronze, and he isn't. He doesn't have the inner resources to help himself. If only my suffering could come to an end. It's because Job is a believer that he feels his pain so keenly. You know sometimes when I've been in deep emotional, psychological or physical pain it is very hard to think rationally. It's hard to pray. And your world just shrinks to that moment that you're trying to get through. And the great eternal realities get fogged out. And that's what happens. And so if someone is in that place, you can't just come and dump a sermon on the person, can you? And it's taken me years to learn that as a pastor. You know they wouldn't listen, the Israelites couldn't listen to Moses about the promised land because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So we need to learn wisdom, how we care for one another when we are going through deep, deep anguish. 14 to 30, the rest of chapter 6, Job confronts his friends with their failure to show compassion and, you know, he who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. You know that word kindness is chesed, covenant love, unfailing love. You know, if you don't show unfailing love and compassion to a person, a brother in need, then how can you claim to honour God and obey him. You can't divide the two. You can have your neat theology, but if you have no compassion for those who are broken and struggling, that's not real. That's not real. It's God who calls us to love our brother, not just when they're going well. And kindness to the one in need is dishonouring to God, it's throwing dirt in God's face. You know it was Job who was closer to God even in all that he says. Closer to God than his friends. At the end of the day God calls his friends to repent. Yes Job was rash in his words but in all that he did not sin. That's amazing isn't it? Now we might say but yes but you haven't heard me when I've lost it. I think we hardly understand the grace and mercy of God to those who are going through deep trial and his gentleness. He described them as being like intermittent streams. If you go into the Flinders Ranges and you can see, go up some of the gullies and there's great creeks there and you think, oh, there'd be plenty of water here. Well, maybe once every few years. And when it flows, it dries up as quick as it flows. You know, there's a huge thundercloud flood. It's gone. And a few days later, there's nothing there. You know, you're looking to your friends. to help you in your need and there's nothing there to refresh you. And so Job describes, you know, travellers going through the desert and they think, oh yes, there's water up there, there's a stream up there and they take off and there's nothing there and they perish. You know, people come to church thinking, there'll be people here who will care for me. but they feel judged, they feel rejected, misunderstood and they soon drift away. There's nothing flowing. Now, I trust that's not the case here but maybe at times it has been and it could be if we don't hear this word from Job. You know, he says, Sometimes how we respond to the suffering of others. Verse 21, I'm just dipping in. For you've become nothing. You see my calamity and are afraid. You see my calamity and are afraid. You see, Job, he could see that they actually had fear. When we get our security by putting everything in neat boxes, and even other people in boxes, rather than trusting God with things that are too difficult to understand. When we trust our neat theology rather than God himself, then we will actually have fears and insecurities that are unaddressed. Job saw that in his friends that lay hidden behind their confident talk and their watertight doctrines. They came out to correct Job in order to strengthen their own shaky faith. They appeared more self-assured than they were, and he saw through their smoke screen. That's interesting, isn't it? When we're strongest in advising others, sometimes there's things happening in us that we need to address. There's so much here. Do you think, verse 26, that you can reprove words when the speech of a despairing man is wind? Do you think you can reprove words, that's what they're doing, when the speech of a despairing man is wind? This is so helpful and I've read it before. Words for the Wind by John Piper. In grief and pain and despair, people often say things that otherwise they would not say. They paint reality with darker strokes than they will paint it tomorrow when the sun comes up. They sing in minor keys and talk as though that is the only music. They see clouds only and speak as if there were no sky. They say, where is God? Or, there's no use to go on. Or, nothing makes any sense. There's no hope for me. Or, if God were good, this couldn't have happened. What shall we do with these words? Job says that we do not need to reprove them. These words are wind or for the wind. They'll be quickly blown away. There will come a turn in circumstances and the despairing person will waken from the dark night and regret hasty words. Therefore, the point is, let us not spend our time and energy reproving such words. They'll be blown away of themselves on the wind. One need not clip the leaves in autumn, it's a wasted effort. They'll soon blay off themselves. Oh how quickly we're given to defending God or sometimes the truth from words that are only for the wind. If we had discernment we could tell the difference between the words with roots and the words blowing in the wind. There are words with roots in deep error and deep evil. But not all grey words get their colour from a black heart. Some are coloured mainly by pain and despair. What you hear is not the deepest thing within. There is something real and dark within where they come from, but it is temporary like a passing infection, real, painful, but not the true person. So let us discern whether the words spoken against us or against God or against the truth are merely for the wind, spoken not from the soul, but from the sore. If they are for the wind, let us wait in silence and not reproof. Restoring the soul, not reproving the sore, is the aim of our love. Isn't that beautiful? Look, time has gone and I could preach for another hour here. We haven't touched chapter 7, but really in this chapter he's saying, leave me alone. He talks about what it's like to have his flesh clothed with worms and dirt. My skin hardens then it breaks out afresh. It's just terrible. He would have been a mess. And his life's just flying past like a weaver's shuttle come to end without hope. He says there's no point. I'm a non-person going nowhere. As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up. He's lost all hope in God. Verse 11, therefore I will not restrain my mouth. I'll speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. I'm not gonna shut up. I'm gonna tell God how I feel. And there's much in there, but at one point he said just, you know, why do you make so much of man? He's not talking about the wonder of God making us as the crowning creature of all creation, but he's talking about why do you visit him with suffering and trials every morning and test him every moment? How long will you not look away from me? If I've sinned, you know, can't you forgive it? You know, he won a beautiful film. It was about Jews hiding in a forest and at one point they're burying some friends and they're in Nazi Germany. And they say, look, we can't go on. He said, merciful God, we commit our friends, Ben Zion and Grensky, to you. We have no more prayers, no more tears. We've run out of blood. Choose another people. Leave us alone. I've had enough. That's what Job is saying. Why pick on me? Back off God. It just seems that God is out to torment him. It's not fair. You know Jesus went through such times. In the garden he said, Lord take this cup from from me, I can't bear it. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears. Have you heard someone wailing? You should have come and visited my house. He offered these to God, to him who was able to save him from death. He did not stop believing. The Lord never complained like Job did. No he did not, I'm not saying that. But he did feel the depth and pain and the abandonment that Job never felt in that cross. He suffered when he was tempted and because of that he's able to help us. He has boundless compassion. We may not feel it but we better believe it because of what he went through. He suffered more than anyone has suffered. He was forsaken by man and God and friends, that's what we're saying. Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see, is there any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the Lord brought on me in the day of his fierce anger? Job is not suffering because of the wrath of God on him. He's not. He's not sinless but he's not done something that deserves that pain. Jesus did nothing to deserve what he went through but he did experience the fierce wrath of God on all our sin so that we might not know in the depth of our being because of that cross that even when we feel the deepest sense of abandonment by God, that He has not abandoned us. He will not abandon us. Nothing can separate us from His love. Our dear Father, I pray you take the inadequacy of the words that I've spoken because this could be said so more clearly but Father you know where each one is at and you can speak to each one by your spirit and Father if we've not been there then we can be confident, dear Father, that the great love and compassion of Christ can give us wisdom and a way to be with people in their pain. And if we've been there, Father, and if we're there right now, Lord, I pray that we might know that you have not abandoned us. If God did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, Shall he not along with him graciously give us all things? In your time, Lord, in your way, and ultimately eternally. And you will wipe away every tear and there'll be no anger or complaint then. Because we will see and we will know that you're the God of pain and the God of love. Bless us now as we sing this next song. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.