Turn this morning please to Job chapter number six. Although we are singing mostly Christmas carols and for that, I'm glad with all due respect to you, Mr. Rice. Thought about you a lot this morning, your love affair with Christmas music. When Rices were here and Brad led singing, he always dreaded this time of year. I will say that O Holy Night has one of the most difficult tempos of any song I've ever sung. But anyway, we continue at least for this morning. Next Sunday, seriously, next Sunday we will turn our attention more to the biblical view of Christmas, the incarnation. But this morning we will turn our attention for the last time this year and for the last time into the early part of next year to the book of Job. Let's go ahead and stand please. We're going to read Job 6 verses 1 through 13. Our portion will actually end up being all of Job 6 and 7 this morning. But we will read together for now Job chapter 6 verses 1 through 13. But Job answered and said, O that my grief were thoroughly weighed. and my, I'm sorry, throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together. For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea, therefore my words are swallowed up. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit, the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. Doth the wild ass break when he hath grass, or loweth the ox over his fodder? Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg, even if you turn it into meringue? The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat. Oh, that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for, even that it would please God to destroy me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off. Then should I yet have comfort. Yea, I would harden myself in sorrow. Let him not spare. For I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. And let's pray. Lord God. If you do not open our understanding, it will be closed. If you do not open our eyes, they will not see. If you do not give to us insight and understanding and revelation of who you are, how great you are, how wise you are, and yet how mysterious are your ways, we will do nothing but flounder. Please help us. Please teach us. May we hear the words of God today and not simply the words of man. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Alright, Job chapter 6, this morning our portion. The book of Job begins by instructing us that Job suffers in innocence. That occupies the bulk of the first two chapters of the book. It is not only foundational, it is essential for understanding all that goes on in the book. Job is suffering in innocence. Then the book goes on to instruct us that Job is suffering in isolation, and that's the last part of chapter 2 and all of chapter 3. And when we suffer, for whatever we suffer, whatever the cause of our suffering is, I mean, whatever grief about a relationship or a sickness or an illness or an alienation, whatever it is that contributes to that, though we might be surrounded by people, we will genuinely suffer alone. We will suffer as no others. And even to the extent that we share it, Job shared this suffering with his wife. It is easy to note that Job lost his children, but Job's wife lost her children as well. The text is not trying to take anything away from her. It is just telling the story of suffering through Job. And then beginning in chapter number four, and what really occupies the very bulk of the book, is that Job suffers in ignorance. Nobody really knows why Job is suffering. Everybody knows that he is and as we will see as we work our way through this book, Job is a prominent enough man, prominent enough man that his suffering is noted in the entirety of his community. Now the world was a lot smaller in Job's day. So, you know, it's doubtful that, you know, you shouldn't think of Job as living in a major metropolitan area. But Job was a prominent man who was well known in the community and the entirety of the community understood his plight. And it is evident that the entirety of the community believed what his friends have been accusing him of. And that is that Job has committed some sin that he is trying to keep out of sight that has caused God to turn against him. And so Eliphaz, the most prominent of Job's friends, makes that accusation and levies that accusation against him. And what we have then in chapter six and seven are Job's first response. Now again, folks, as we look at the book of Job, and you're familiar with this, you've read the book enough to know, that the book of Job follows this kind of cycle, spiral of conversations. Eliphaz will speak, Job will respond. One of his other companions will speak, Job will respond. That will go on through the vast majority of the book. And then we will have a man speak, kind of a mystery man who speaks at the very end without any commentary from any other man or God himself. And then God will bring the book to conclusion in chapter 38 through 42. It is, again, for many people, very easy to read the first two chapters, very easy to read the last four chapters, and very difficult to read what falls in between. But that really is the bulk and the substance of the book and is all governed by the fact, folks, it is really in some ways fascinating, is all governed by the fact that there are all this communication going on and all this conversation and all this talking And nobody really knows what they're talking about. Nobody really knows what they're talking about. And so everybody is groping. Now we know more about suffering than Job did. We know more about how suffering fits into God's economy than Job did. That doesn't necessarily make it any easier. And it certainly doesn't make the book of Job unimportant to us because that understanding comes in part from the book of Job. So Job's friends will ultimately take some variation of the theme that Job's suffering is divine retribution. And Job's responses will invariably take some dimension of, well, what have I done? Somebody tell me. Maybe Eliphaz, maybe Yucca tell me. Maybe God, maybe God would tell me. Somebody tell me what it is that I've done to deserve this. And yet folks, our attention this morning will ultimately be this, that Job, and if you look at the sermon titles online, this sermon is titled, The Frustrated Faith of Job. Job's faith remains. And that is part of the beauty of the entirety response is that through all of his ignorance, and of all that he says that He looks for explanations and looks for answers. His faith in God does not change. Jesus one time told us that if we had faith just the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. Which many people have interpreted as some kind of exercise in divine optimism, where you can just whistle away your problems. The book of Job quickly puts an end to that, and that's another subject. Jesus himself did not really mean it like that. I mean, I'm not saying he didn't mean what he said. He didn't mean that faith was an antidote to all kinds of confusion about life. He himself had his own dark moments. So at this particular point in time, folks, Job 6 and 7, we want to turn our attention to Job. What we have is Job's real faith. intersecting with Job's real suffering. Is his suffering real? Most definitely. Is his faith real? Most definitely. What does the suffering faith of Job look like? So we'll begin by looking at these two chapters as they kind of map out into structure. It is important for us to understand not only what Job is saying, but who he's talking to. In verses one through 13, the passage that we read this morning, Job is talking about God. He's not necessarily praying to God, but he is, and he is not talking to his friends. He is talking about God. He's talking about his situation and how he views it. In verses one through four, and I will not go back and reread, all of this. He just makes the observation that God's attack upon him presses down upon him with greater weight than does the sand of the sea. It is as if God had backed up the dump truck of all the sand in all the oceans and poured it on Job's head. Hardly the cheerful optimism that we associate, that we sometimes try to tell people to have in their dark days. He goes on in verses 5 through 7, which admittedly from the poetry are a little tricky, to make the argument that the food, right? God has attacked him, that comes upon him like a crushing weight. God has fed him with food that is inedible. Who has an appetite for this and Verse number five, doth the wild ass pray when he hath grass, or lo at the ox over his fodder, when they're well fed, they're content. Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt? Is there any taste in the white of an egg? The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat. So God has shot me with poison arrows that weigh more than the sand of the sea, and God has fed me with food that is unpalatable. and inedible, who would want to eat this? And again, Job is not, I mean, I've used it humorously, and Job is not at all being funny, right? He's using the poetry of his day to make a point. This doesn't taste good. There's no salt on this. There's no flavor to this. God is out to get me. I don't find, there's nothing pleasurable about this. And then in verses 8, 9, and 10, right? So God is attacking me with these poison arrows that weigh down upon me like the sand of the sea. And God has fed me with inedible food. And the one thing that I have wanted, he has withheld. I have just wanted to die. I have just wanted to die. And if He would kill me right now, there is, folks, in this the optimism of His faith. There is the optimism of His faith. Verse 9, Even that it would please God to destroy me, that He would let loose His hand and cut me off, then should I have yet comfort. Yea, I would harden myself in sorrow. Let Him not spare, for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. What is my strength? What is my hope? What is my end that I should prolong my life? Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh of brass? Is not my help in me and is wisdom driven quite from me? He will not grant me what I want most, to die. But if I died right now, this would be my confidence that I have not concealed his words. I have been upright, I have been faithful, I have been truthful. And then in verses 11 through 13, which I should have read, I don't think I did, he just makes the argument that he is utterly exhausted. That he is utterly exhausted. I have no strength left to extend my life, and what would be the point of extending it anyway? What good is this existence? And verse number 13, folks, our King James Bible treats it as a question. Perhaps we would, that's their interpretation, perhaps thinking of it as a statement would be helpful. Is not my help in me? And is wisdom driven quite from me? I have no help. I am without strength. I am without answers. I mean, here I am. I exist. We have language that we use with people. You just take the next breath. You just take the next step. And this is where Job is. God has attacked him with a heavy weight. There is nothing pleasant about it. It tastes like bland, inedible food. the one thing that I want from him is just for him to kill me and he won't do that and I am at my wits end. Job talks about God. Let's turn our attention secondly to verses 14 through the end of the chapter. To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook and as the stream of brooks they pass away, which are blackish by reason of the ice and wherein the snow is hid. What time they wax warm, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. The paths of their way are turned aside. They go to nothing and perish. The troops of Timah look, the companies of Sheba waited for them. They were confounded because they had hoped. They came thither and were ashamed, for now are ye nothing. Ye see my casting down and are afraid. Did I say, Bring unto me, or give a reward for me of your substance, or deliver me from the enemy's hand, or redeem me from the hand of the mighty? Teach me, and I will hold my tongue. Cause me to understand wherein I have erred. How forcible are right words, but what doth your arguing reprove? Do you imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind? Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend. Now therefore be content. Look upon me, for it is evident unto you if I lie. Return, I pray you. Let it not be iniquity. Yea, return again. My righteousness is in it. Is there iniquity in my tongue? Can not my taste discern perverse things? In verses 1 through 13, Job talks about God. In verses 14 through 30, Job talks to his friends. In verse number 14, he points out that their absence of pity is actually a demonstration of their own lack of faith. To him that is afflicted, pity should be showed from his friend, but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. The word pity here is the word that is usually, but not always in your Bible, translated with the word mercy. It's a beautiful word. It is a beautiful word. Newer translations will usually translate it with something like loving kindness, which I think really misses the beauty of the word mercy. Mercy. It has the idea of kindness. It is anchored and tethered to the covenant keeping of God, to the responsibility that he has towards his people. He is merciful to them. But you guys are not merciful to me. This is the point he's making. You guys are not being merciful. Right? Here comes Eliphaz with his windy words. And they're just words of condemnation. And so in verses 15 through 21 he points out that they're like a dried up riverbed. Which is something that really had significance in Job's world. A desert land where you would only get periodic rain and the rains would fall and they would cut ditches through the desert where they would flow into the main river. But most of the season they would be dry. There should be water there, but there's no water because it's a drought. And that's what you guys are like. You're like dried up riverbeds. You're nothing but an empty reminder. And in verses 22 through 30, he just poses the question. And again, folks, I'm trying to deal with it thematically, not unpack every single verse. But he poses the question in verse number 22, what did I want from you? In your suffering, folks, what do you want from those around you? And this is why he asked the question this way. I didn't want any of your wealth. How are you doing? I'm really suffering. Here, let me write you a check. I don't want your money. How you doing? I'm really struggling and suffering. Well, let me take vengeance for you. I didn't ask you to take any vengeance for me. That's not what I wanted. I wanted comfort. I wanted your pity. I wanted your encouragement. I wanted your help. What did I get? I got recriminations. I got arguments. I got accusations. Verse number 25, how forcible are right words But what doth your arguing reprove? Do you imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as the wind? Right words are powerful and effective, but yours aren't doing anything. You have absolutely no help. You keep on insisting that I have sinned. What sin have I committed? If the answer is, you're suffering this because I've sinned, what is the sin that I've committed? And we've noted before, folks, that there is a striking similarity between the sufferings of Job and the sufferings of Jesus. Listen to what Jesus himself experienced, John 18, 29. Pilate went out unto them and said, what accusation bring ye against this man? What did he do? They answered and said unto him, if ye were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. What did he do? Well, he had to do, if he hadn't done anything, we wouldn't have be here now, would we? So punish him. And that brings us then finally to chapter number seven. All of which you realize did not exist in chapter form when Job was speaking. Job has spoken about God, chapter 6, verses 1 through 13. Job has spoken to his friends, chapter 6, verse 14 through 30. And in chapter 7, Job speaks to God, to God. Let's listen to what he says. Verse number one, is there not an appointed time to man upon the earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hireling? As a servant earnestly desires the shadow as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work, so am I made to possess months of vanity and worrisome nights are appointed unto me. When I lay down, I say, when shall I rise? And the night be gone. And I'm full of tossings to and fro until the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin is broken and become loathsome. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope. Oh, remember that my life is wind. Mine eyes shall no more see good. The eyes of him that has seen me shall see me no more. Thine eyes are upon me and I am not. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so that he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him. anymore. We will stop there. Job speaks to God. What does he say? He talks to God about his mortal, weak insignificance. It's a common theme that Job will ask. How am I a target when I am nothing? I have a limited number of days. The days that I do have are hard. I am physically ruined in your sight. They pass swiftly like a weaver's shuttle. I'm here and gone. I am, in fact, just like a cloud. I am weak, powerless, insignificant. I'm a human. Which brings us then to verse number 11. Therefore I will not refrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest a watch over me? When I say my bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint. Then thou scarest me with dreams and terrifies me through visions. so that my soul chooseth strangling and death rather than life. I loathe it. I would not live all way. Let me alone for my days are vanity. What is man that thou shouldest magnify him and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him and that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment? How long wilt thou not depart from me nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle? I have sinned. What shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself? And why dost thou not pardon my transgression? Take away mine iniquity, for now shall I sleep in the dust, and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be. There are two parts to Job's prayer. I am weak and insignificant, so why won't you just leave me alone? Why won't you just leave me alone? Job views God's oppressive oppression as being so intense and so constant that he doesn't even have time to swallow in peace. No relief. No relief whatsoever. We don't really understand exactly what he is getting at in verse number 12. I'll throw this out just for the sake of those that are interested in such things. Possibly, maybe probably, Job is making a passing reference to a pagan religion. He will talk about Leviathan, the sea monster, which has pagan connotations to it. So the question would be then verse number 12 would be kind of like this. What am I? Am I a pagan deity that you have to watch out over me? What have I done to capture your attention? I'm nothing. I'm nothing. What have I done to capture your attention? And I would just remind you folks that where the book begins, right? When I try to escape, right, Job, the book begins by pointing out to you that Job's innocence has caused his suffering. Job's arguing his insignificance should alleviate it. Even when I try to sleep, you intrude into my dreams. There's no respite, there's no rest, I cannot get away. As I said, verse 18 and 19, you won't even leave me alone long enough to swallow my spit. What does my sin do to you? Job asks. Okay, I've sinned. What does my sin do to you? Why am I your target? Preserver there means the guardian. when he talks about him being the preserver of my soul, the guardian of my soul. Usually in your Bible, you find a translator as the keeper or the watchman. Like I'm a prisoner being guarded. And why not forgive me? Why does that not pardon my transgression? Verse number 21. So there's Job's prayer. In light of my insignificance, why do you keep harassing me? So how do we think about this passage? Right, because we come to it not simply as readers, right, we are readers of the passage, But the scripture is profitable for our correction, for our instruction, for our rebuke. So let me just make a few observations to you about the passage this morning. I've said it before, I will say it again. I don't think I could overemphasize the importance of it, folks. But in your time of suffering, the failure of your friends or your family, or your pastor, or your fellow church members, does not become an opportunity for you to abandon your own faith. It is not sufficient justification. That is not just simply an academic point. If you have been around the world of Christians long enough, you know that Christianity is littered with people who have used that kind of failure for their own excuse. I grew up in church. There are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites that will protect you nothing on the day of judgment. The people of God were supposed to be a help and they were no help at all. Why bother? That will protect you nothing. Folks, this is at the end of the day, At the end of the day, it all comes back to the two main characters of the narrative, God and Job. It is how God relates to Job and how Job relates to God. And Job's three friends are there, they are participants, but they provide no justification, no help, no excuse. And again, we all know, we have all experienced Look, I am more glad than I could express that you are here this morning, a faithful band of brothers and sisters, but you know that the number of people, I don't think I'm exaggerating this, the number of people who have found me deficient in pastoral ministry far exceeds the number of people who are here today content to be at Westwood Heights Baptist. I hope for their sake that they are faithfully active in serving the Lord and that I have not become some kind of excuse for them. Although I know that there have been occasions where people have said, you are the reason that I want nothing to do with God. And I don't say that for my sake. I say, it is no help to you. Anymore than if I want, we had a good laugh this morning. as we were getting ready to come into the choir. Because one of the things that I usually do is hold the door open for the choir, so the choir can come in. And I was derelict in my duties this morning. And somebody said, you got one job. And I said, well, if I got one job, I'm holding the door and I'm going home. And I like that job. I'll be back at 1058 next Sunday morning to do my job. And I like that job. But if I, in seriousness, walked out, and when I'm done with pastoring, and I'm done with people, and I'm done with the Lord, and unfortunately, I went to college with a young man who was just like that. You couldn't drag him back into church with chains because of his experience with Christians. It is no excuse. It is no excuse. Secondly, genuine faith may express unbelievable pain. And the Bible does not require otherwise. Job does not become the sinner his friends accuse him of being by calling God's attack poison darts, inedible food. He does not abandon his innocence by saying, what I really want from God is for him to kill me, but he won't. But equally true is that genuine faith may misinterpret God's actions. This is the thing that is most clearly revealed is that Job comes to the Lord and goes, I'm nothing and I don't understand why as nothing you won't leave me alone. Which completely turns on its head the fundamental precept that introduces us to the book. Job is something. Have you considered my servant Job? Now, I'm not suggesting for a moment to disclaim this, that every Christian who suffers is a superstar in secret. But, folks, the New Testament is very clear that God has chosen his people to suffer in this world. And it is because they are identified with Christ, it is because they are his people that they experience this suffering. And we learn that Job's, that genuine faith talks honestly to God. It is noteworthy here that all of chapter seven is Job addressing his creator directly. He is not talking to himself. He is not talking about God to other people, he is talking to God. He is praying and laying it out before God. And we know enough about the end of the book that God is gonna come down with what at first seems to be a very heavy hand. Let me ask you if you would to turn please to Romans chapter eight. Job's innermost thoughts are for our help revealed. What Job thinks, what Job feels, what Job wants, it's all there expressed publicly. Ours need not be expressed publicly, but it should be expressed privately to God. This is one of the greatest indicators of the enduring faith of Job is that he keeps talking to God as if God is right there with him. Paul writes, from the New Testament perspective, Romans chapter eight, verse number 26, likewise also the spirit also helpeth our infirmities, our weaknesses. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought. Part of our weakness is our own ignorance about what we need. We have wills and we express them about what we need but we have our own ignorance about what we need. And here's one of the ministries of the Spirit to us, nevertheless, or but the Spirit itself or himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, with groanings that are wordless. Not that the Spirit cannot articulate what he wants, but that the Spirit enters into our suffering, is a participant in our suffering. So we will suffer. And at times it will be Job-like suffering. It will be inexplicable. In our faith, go to God. Let's pray this morning. Father,