Job, let's talk about it. Now, tonight, the name of the lesson, I think you have it on your sheet, says, Job and God, my enemy. That's kind of interesting, isn't it? God, my enemy. How many of you think of God as your enemy? Don't raise your hand if you do. Job, he has really been through it. He's going through terrible, terrible difficulty, terrible hurt, terrible pain, terrible loss. few verses I've got to read you right at the first year says a friend loves at all time and a brother is born for adversity that's Proverbs 17 17 and then it says there are friends who destroy each other but a real friend sticks closer than a brother that's Proverbs 18 24 in a modern version Then here's one no longer do I call you servants for a servant does not know what his master is doing But I have called you friends for all things that I've heard from my father. I have made known to you You know, we're the lord's servants and jesus was the father's servant. A lot of people don't like that idea They don't like to be called a servant Well, the bible says in isaiah chapter 52 the last the last four verses it talks about jesus being the servant of jehovah The servant of God he's the servant of the father nothing wrong with being a servant, but I love this verse He says but I'm not calling you servants anymore because the master doesn't reveal things to his servants But he does reveal them to his friends, and so I'm just glad to be the friend of God aren't you? He's revealed a lot to us and in this book of Job He's revealing a lot about suffering and in the New Testament, especially he reveals a lot about his second coming. I Got a little magazine of a sorts that I've never gotten before and it was from turning point. That's dr. Jeremiah's I've never gotten that magazine and he's starting a series and might be good if you want to do the live stream He's going to be talking about what's next You know, what's the day of the Lord and all those things, what's next? It's really, really interesting. And he talks about the fact that we have this blessed hope. I talked about it on Sunday. The coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I don't know about you, but the longer I stay in the world, the longer I see what's happening, I just wish Jesus would come, don't you? I'm looking forward to the coming of the Lord. Well, he is coming again. Job's going through it. I don't suppose anyone other than Jesus can say that they have suffered as much as Joe His losses are staggering. His sickness is enduring and painful and his emotions are shot How many of you have ever been to the place where you know, just been through so much your emotions get just shot Just you just don't think you can handle one more thing. I think that's what's happening here. I His comforters have become his afflictors. They gather to console him, but they're increasingly blaming him and accusing him of creating his own situation. In essence, they are saying you made your bed, now sleep in it. Or they're saying you are reaping what you've sown. Or another way that you would say it is you've dug your own grave. Each of his friends, as Jerry pointed out a moment ago, basically said the same thing. They said, here's what they said, God rewards the righteous, God punishes the sinner, admit it, you're a big sinner. That's what these three men continue to say. We've heard all three of these friends say their peace. Job has responded to their attacks with increasing frustration and emotion, and you're gonna really see it tonight. I want you to notice something now about the changing nature of Job's responses to the suffering that he's been going through. His responses are changing. Now, let's rehearse for a moment. If you go back to Job 1, verse 20, you don't have to, I'm gonna read it to you, but if you wanna go back, you can, but if you went back there, It says this. This is after the initial news. Your kids are dead. You've lost it all. You're poor. You've got nothing. I mean, nothing's left. Everything's lost. And here's what Job said. Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground in worship. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's his initial response to the devastating devastating in waves of devastation the things that come in his life. So initially his response was, to be honest, incredible. I don't know that I would have been able to do that. How many of you think, well, just like Job, I would have just said naked I came into this world. You know, I didn't have anything when I got here. I'm not going to have anything when I leave. And praise God, I don't know. I don't know. How many of you would have been able to react like that? I wish I could. He lost everything, farm, family, servants, livestock, and in all truth, every possession and the potential. He also lost the potential of regaining those things, not to mention what the whole economy lost because he was the richest man of the area. I mean, he employed who knows how many, and his food fed them. At the first blow, his faith, his trust, and his response were, Nothing less than stellar. I think that's it's just fantastic the way that he Responded I can tell you this. I've been in the ministry a long time. I've seen a lot of people go through stuff Initially many times people's response is sterling. I their initial response to somebody gets the news that so-and-so is sick, or they find out that they're sick, or they find out that they've lost a job, or they find out that the business they've been working and pouring into for 20 years is going nowhere and it's going to be bankrupt. Well, praise God, God's closed this door, he's going to open another one, or he closes a door and he opens a window. How many of you heard all those things? Maybe you even said those things. Well, I've seen that. I have to be honest. I've seen people respond amazingly in some of these situations. Now we go to chapter two. In chapter two, Satan and God had another encounter. God allowed Satan this time to attack his person, his health. Once again, Job responds. This is the second he's already, all of his loss, now he's responding to his personal health situation. Verse number nine, chapter two, his wife said to him, do you still hold fast your integrity? Why don't you just curse God and die? Look at his response. But he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women. Shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity? In all of this, Job did not sin with his lips." Amazing. It's incredible faith and patience. Now, think about this scenario. This is Job after two rounds of incredible loss and pain, personal pain. He responds in that fashion and you have to understand he did not have Romans 8 28 to lean on Didn't exist. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose That did not exist. In fact There were no books, no Bible, nothing recorded. The only thing that Job had at that time, understanding what we do, that he must have lived after Abraham, shortly thereafter. Bildad the Shuhite was no doubt the son of Shua, who was Abraham's son through Keturah. maybe a second generation, third generation after Abraham. This is when this is going on. So the only thing he, I mean, Moses ain't on the scene yet. He hadn't written anything. So nothing is written down. Everything is oral. The only thing he's living on is the stories he's heard about Adam and Eve from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And that's all he knows. But with no more than that, he said, naked I came out of my mother's womb, naked I'm gonna return. And then he said, you know, shall we not receive good from the Lord as well as we do good? But now then, Time is passing. His wife has left him to suffer. His friends were agitating him and his patience is running out. How many of you know that as time goes on, situations don't change. At first it's, you know, onward with, you know, onward with Jesus. God's going to work it out. Everything's great. Things are going to change. It won't always be like this, but day after day, month after month, year after year. He never cursed God, but we must be honest. He became very impatient, disappointed, and angry with God. I can tell you this, that when hurts, pain, loss, and illness linger, and when prayers don't seem to be answered and the condition remains or even gets worse, people begin to lose control of their emotions and inevitably lose control of their, what's the hardest thing to control? When pain increases and it lingers, trouble, problems, at first we get a grip, but as time goes on, what happens? We lose control of our emotions and no doubt we start to say things. Rare is the believer that maintains composure always. Job has long past patience. He's flat out angry with God. He feels like God is an archer. He talks about it. We're going to see it. He feels like God is an archer and he's the target and God is getting some practice. You know God never misses. So we come to the second round of accusatory talks from these three friends. In order, the first time they spoke, they were Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Now then, we're going to hear from another young man a little bit later. He's a bystander. He's very young. He's biding his time. He's keeping his mouth shut because in the presence of the aged, you're just supposed to be quiet. Wouldn't that be great today? I'll just go on from that. So he's come to observe and listen, and he too, perhaps worse than all the others, is going to speak at the end, and his criticisms are far worse, but we haven't gotten there yet. So the problem with the three friends is they don't know What they don't know write that down. They don't know What they don't know, you know that can pretty much be said of all of us In certain scenarios, there's just certain things we don't I remember the first time that I heard that It was a lady in our church who's worked in the school systems most of her life brilliant This thing's on the platform, I won't go any further, but she just, I mean, I was in a meeting and she was talking about somebody that we were looking at for a certain position and everything. He says, well, I think he's just really, really good, and this, that, and the other, but you know, to be honest, I don't, there's just, he doesn't know what he doesn't know. And I said, he doesn't know what he doesn't know. And I had to think about that and think about that, and then it started to dawn on me what, in other words, you don't know, you hadn't got a clue what you're missing, what facts you don't have. You don't have all the information. They have some knowledge, and to tell you the truth, they make some very accurate statements during their speeches. It's just that they're not applied at the right time under the right circumstances. Do you know, one of the worst things we can do is say what we know is true to a person at the wrong time. How many of you have ever put your foot in your mouth, you've said the right, you've said something that was the truth, you've said something that was biblically true and accurate, you gave some principle, It just didn't help. It was the right thing at the wrong time. I'll let you raise your hand on that one. I am really good at that one, I'll tell you. I've got the scars on that one. So they don't know about the celestial contest going on between God and Satan. They don't know anything about that. They don't know that God himself has declared in the heavenly realms that Job is the most honest, upright, and good man of his time. They don't know that. What are they doing? Well, look at him. He's suffering. He's a sinner. He's going through it. It must be sin. Now, let's back up a minute. Why are there any problems in the world at all? It's because Adam and Eve did what? So sin is the original root of all trouble, but The particular case in the life of individual people is not always because there is some sin in their life. Now, if somebody smoked five packs a day for 30 years and gets cancer, it might be connected. Somebody got cirrhosis of the liver and you know not going to make it But they it was a six-pack every evening before they went to bed You know I mean it might have something to do with it. You know I'm saying I mean sometimes It's pretty obvious that it's connected You know if everybody you meet every time you see them the first thing you do is punch them in the nose And then you get beat up those two things might be connected so But we got to be careful They don't know that they are working with only some of the facts. They can see Job's suffering and they make assumptions about what's going on. They each and together, it's kind of interesting, they each and together conclude that Job is suffering for sin and that confession and repentance will put him all right and they keep telling him that. but they're saying it more loudly and with more insistence and more rudely. I mean, in other words, the longer it goes, the louder they get, the more forceful they get. And I mean, it's more like they wanna grab Job, even in his pain, shake him real good and hard, slap him a couple of times and say, man, just confess your sin, everything will be all right. That's just how they feel. I have to admit from time to time in the ministry, when dealing with people, I've wanted to grab a few people and say, come to yourself, will you? Well, so with partial information and jumping to conclusions, they judge, condemn Job and even suggest that his sin is really greater than his punishment. You know, if God wasn't so kind, you'd be suffering more. Can you imagine saying that to somebody? Wow. So Eliphaz, we're going to look at him again. Eliphaz criticizes Job, Eliphaz criticizes Job. We'll read as we go. Chapter 15, verse one to six. Here's what he said. This is second round. First guy, he's talking again. Eliphaz, the demonite, responded, should a wise man answer with windy knowledge and fill himself with the east wind? Should he argue with useless talk or with words which are not profitable? Indeed, you do away with reverence. You're not reverent. And hinder meditation before God. You're stopping me from even being able to think about God. For your guilt teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, not I, and your own lips testify against you. Here's what he said. He says, you're just full of empty words. You're just full of hot air. Now, we've gotten to the place now where Eliphaz can't win the argument. I mean, he's no match for Job in an actual contest of wisdom. So his classic employment, the age-old strategy, if I can't win the argument, but I can attack the opponent and try to bring him down. That's exactly what he's doing. Eliphaz, now I want you to think about this for a moment. Eliphaz is hearing his words, but he's not listening to what Job is saying. Job is far wiser, far more eloquent, far more rational than all three of his friends, but they're not listening to Job. They are just preparing the next thing they want to say, the next volley of accusations. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been in a conversation with somebody that elevated into an argument, The person that you're talking to instead of listening to anything that you're trying to explain They are already thinking about the next thing they want to say and the next point in the debate And they really could care less what you're saying. They just want to drive home their next point Have you ever been in a situation like that? Have you ever been the person doing that don't raise your hand? Have you ever tried to have a conversation with somebody who's looking at you but calculating their next response and In other words, they're defending themselves, defending their actions, defending what they did. You're trying to be kind, you're trying to be helpful, but they're just, man, they're gonna cut your feet out from under you, they're gonna just level you with the next words out of their mouth. This is what's happening with Eliphaz. He can't, he's just not on the level with Job when it comes to actual wisdom, but he thinks he's self-righteous and Job is just a big sinner, so he's just attacking, attacking, attacking. He says to him in verse four to six, your ways are evil. Look at it in verse four. Indeed, you do away with the reverence and you hinder meditation for your guilt teaches your mouth. You're just, you're evil. Your irreverent words reveal a corrupt heart. Maybe that's a blank to fill in. He used Job's own words against him. I want you to look back at chapter 14 and verse 13. Chapter 14 and verse 13. Now he's going to use Job's words against him. Verse 13 of chapter 14. Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol. That thou wouldest conceal me until thy wrath returns to thee, that thou wouldest set a limit for me and remember me. If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my struggle I wait until my change comes. Thou wilt call and I will answer thee. What's he talking about? What does he believe in? Thou wilt call and when my change comes, what does he believe in? The resurrection. So he's talking about irreverence and he's calculatingly just destroying Job. He didn't hear a word he said, did he? I mean, here's Job telling him there is life after death. I'm headed for death and I know it, but there's life after death. Wow, that's a beautiful passage. Job, he says in 7 to 13, your wisdom is faulty. I better read it. Were you the first man to be born? This is Eliphaz, he's talking, were you the first man to be born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? Did you ever wonder where the saying older than the hills came from? This is where the saying came from. right here in the Bible. Or were you brought forth before the hills? Do you hear the secret counsel of God and limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that we do not? You're not smarter than we are. Verse 10, behold, the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father. So this tells you how old Job is. Job is, he may have 10 kids, but he's not 90. I mean, he's a younger man as time was reckoned at that time. He lived to be 140. So let's say he's 65. That was young. I happen to be turning 65 this year, so you remember that, I'm young. Anyway, so let's just go on. Are the consolations of God too small for you? Even the word spoken gently with you. He says, we're just speaking gently with you. Amazing. Why does your heart carry you away? And why do your eyes flash? that you should turn your spirit against God and allow such words to come out of your mouth." Wow. Your wisdom is faulty. He says, you are too young to know anything. Boy, you're talking about a put-down. Verse 13, watch your mouth, basically. You know, I want to tell you this. Age does not always convert into wisdom. How many of you have ever known any old fools in your life? You know what I'm saying? Now listen to this. Psalm 119.99, I love this. Bonnie is teaching the women about Psalm 119 right now, and so she and I had a conversation about this. Psalm 119.99, I have more understanding than all my teachers. This is David, I believe. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients because I keep your precepts. That's pretty good, isn't it? Knowledge and wisdom should be the product of age, but it is not automatic, is it? but it is always the product of obedience. That's something we can always take and put in our pocket as something that's going to be worthwhile. Obedience to God is the key to more knowledge and more wisdom. Obey what you know and you will know more. Obey what God tells you, and he has a vested interest in giving more to you. Doing what God tells you makes you wise. The entrance of God's word gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. And when we obey it, it does more at Psalm 119, 118. All right. So Job, the evidence says you are wicked. Look at verse 14. What is man that he should be pure or he who is born of woman, that he should be righteous. Behold, he puts no trust in his Holy ones and the heavens are not pure in his sight. What is he saying? He's saying the evidence says the evidence about your life is is that you are wicked because of the suffering you're going through He says you what you let you lap up wickedness like water He said you're just such a wicked person that you just drink it in you can't get enough and then he says you assume that God doesn't see your wickedness and Now this is an astounding statement here. It says here, behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones and the heavens are not pure in his sight. Now this is Eliphaz talking about God. God puts no trust in his holy ones. He doesn't even trust his angels because what did a third of them do? They rebelled. And then he says, and even the heavens are impure in his sight. In other words, God is so holy, how dare you think you can get away with anything? This is Eliphaz now talking to Job, telling him, you know, you think you're getting away with something, but the angels and heaven itself can't get away with anything, so you just better, you just better fess up and confess your sin because you're not gonna get away with it. They're hammering, aren't they? Just hammering on this thing. Job, you have earned your wretched condition. You've earned it. And I'm not going to read all of 17 through 35, but basically here's what those verses teach. We might read a verse or two. He says, you are getting what you deserve. All the friends are saying the same thing now. It's true that ultimately all suffering goes back to sin in the garden. I told you that. But it does not follow that all suffering is because of personal sin. And so he says, since you are suffering, then you must be sinning. He just keeps hammering this. So let me talk about this just a little bit. The three friends hammer away, making the same point over and over. And by this point, when we start the second round of discussion, and they're saying the same things and it's getting louder and getting more vehement, and it's getting more unkind, many people, Get tired of the book of Job, jump to chapter 38, and say, well, let's see what God says, and let's see how it all turns out. How many of you like to read the last chapter when you first start a book? Well, not a bad idea to read Revelation to know how it all turns out, but it's a good idea to read the whole Bible. So you come to the book of Job, and you're going through it, and you might say, well, man, this is just going on. It's a mistake. Do you know that the type of people that lived in Job's day are still with us today? Just think about this for a minute. Health, wealth, and prosperity proponents thrive on this idea. They thrive on it. Success, health, and wealth are the reward for the righteous, and suffering is the reward for the wicked. Basically, the greatest sin in the health, wealth, and prosperity teaching system is the sin of lack of faith. If you are sick, it's because you have no faith. If you are poor, it's because you haven't believed God would make you rich. If you are suffering, it's because you haven't claimed your freedom in Christ as one of the king's kids. And so they hammer it and they talk about it and they preach on it and they'll say, The reason you're not healed is your lack of faith. But do you know that God said just the opposite all the way through the New Testament? It was the faith of the one doing the healing and the faith of the one doing the miracle. It wasn't the person that wasn't healed. I mean, it's making the victim and the one that's suffering, they're the ones that need to suffer even more because they just don't have any faith. That's the opposite of what the Bible teaches. It's amazing, isn't it? Health well and prosperity this stuff just it keeps on going there is truth there in the ultimate sense We do serve but there is the truth In the ultimate sense, but we have to ask this question Do we serve god as his children? Those that are born again. Do we serve god for the trinkets? that he dispenses from his hand, or do we worship him because of his worthiness, and because of his glory, and because he is God, and because he even pays attention to us at all? What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou considerest him? I mean, think about that. Why bother? I mean, I actually understand When God said to Moses, Moses, step back. I'm gonna kill them all. I'm gonna make a whole bunch, a whole new bunch out of you. He did it once. What'd he do in Genesis chapter six? He said, Noah, I like you. He said, you found grace in my sight. You're different from all the others. You're living a good life. I tell you what, I'm gonna kill them all. I'm gonna start over with you. That's exactly what he did. Do you know what he said to Moses? Moses, this is after he came down off the mountain, what had happened. When he went up on the mountain, he's up there 40 days and 40 nights. He told them he's gonna go up there. I'm gonna go meet with the Lord, stay away from the mountain, stay down here and wait. I'll come down and I'll tell you what God says. What did they do? They went nuts. They told Aaron, Aaron was kind of a wimp in this situation. Aaron, do something. We don't know what happened to this Moses. Make us gods. In other words, they felt this need for religion. You know, that's the root of where religions come from in the world. It is inbred, inborn, it's in mankind to worship. Every human has an inborn desire to worship. We'll either worship ourselves, or we'll worship the object that we've made, we will worship the astral beings, we will worship the creation, or we will worship the one true God. So they had the need to worship. They didn't know what happened to Moses. He goes up on the mountain. When he comes back down, he finds them dancing in some sort of, I'm sure it was some sort of an orgy. He comes down there doing these terrible things and sacrificing to this thing that Aaron formed, this calf. And boy, God says, stand back, Moses. I'm going to destroy all of them. And Moses interceded for him and says, God, if you destroy all of them, then the people in Egypt are going to say you brought them out of Egypt just so you could kill them. Now, God still punished them severely, but he did not destroy all of mankind again. Aren't you glad for intercession? Boy, I wish I had somebody like that praying for me all the time, and I wish I could pray like that and have things happen like that. That's an amazing, amazing story. Now, I want to read you a little something here. It can really get bad. Before I read about Job, let me tell you a story here. William Tyndale was a 16th century Bible scholar with a passion for making the scriptures available to the English-speaking masses. You've heard of Tyndale and Wycliffe. Wycliffe and Tyndale, both Bible translators, Bible publishers, putting them in English for people like me and you to have an English Bible. He translated the Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek into the language of the common people. Because the Church of England did not approve of Tyndale's translation, King Henry VIII banned it. In 1524, Tyndale fled to Belgium to avoid being arrested. In 1535, Tyndale met a student from England named Henry Phillips. Young Phillips said he wanted to know everything he could about Bible translation. So the two men became close friends. One evening, Tyndale and Phillips went out to have dinner at an inn down the street. As they reached the door of the inn, Phillips stepped back and let Tyndale enter. As he stepped through the doorway, two men seized him, agents of the King of England. Only then did William Tyndale realize that his friend, Henry Phillips, had betrayed him. to his enemies. Tyndale spent 16 months in prison, and on October the 6th, 1536, he was executed. His last words were, Lord, open the king of England's eyes. Three years after his death, the Lord answered Tyndale's prayer when Henry VIII dropped his opposition to a Bible translation for the masses. As a result, the Great English Bible was then published and based almost entirely on Tyndale's Translation bad things can happen can't they? So these are his friends that are coming to encourage him and look what they're doing to him Well, it still happens that happened in the 1500s and there's still things going on like this So what happens then we get to chapter 16 and Job begins to complain even more. Remember I said his first response was stellar, his second response was impressive. Time's going on, the criticisms are rising, the pressure is greater, his losses are no better, his health is worse. And he doesn't see any end in sight. So Job is frustrated with Eliphaz and with God, and he talks to both. Chapter 16, verse 1 to 5, Job answered, I have heard many such things. Sorry, comforters, are you all? Is there no limit to windy words or what plagues that you answer? If I could speak like you, if I were in your place, I could compose words against you and shake my head at you. I could strengthen you with my mouth and the solace of my lips could lessen your pain. In other words, I could make you feel worse or I could make you feel better. You have chosen to make me feel worse. So Job felt frustrated. I've heard all this before. You're miserable comforters. He was suffering, perhaps more than any other person than Jesus, but these buffoons just kept on attacking. They didn't have knowledge. They didn't know what was going on, but they just thought they were the self-appointed correctors, and so they were hammering him. His suffering is almost unparalleled. When we say this today, no one knows what I've been going through. Boy, we need to stop short of that, because who would certainly know more about suffering than us? Job. So Job suffered immensely. Job then felt forsaken. If we just read through this section, there's no doubt that he has stopped speaking to Eliphaz. He was speaking to Eliphaz and his friends in verses one through five, but when we read this next section, you're gonna find out that he is now speaking to God. Now I want you to underline a few things in this section as you go, if you got your Bibles. First of all, I want you to look at, let's just read, beginning at verse number, 6 and it says in 16 6 if I speak my pain is not lessened if I hold back What is left from me now look at this, but now he has exalted as exhausted me. Who's he talking about? He's saying, who exhausted him? God did. Thou hast laid waste all my company. Laid waste. Who is he saying did that? God did. Eight. And thou hast shriveled me up. Who is he saying did that? God did. It has become a witness and my leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my faith. His anger has Torn me and hunted me down. He has look at this gnashed at me with his teeth My adversary glares at me. This is the way he's thinking about God right now Now this is not permission for us to do this But I'm just telling you that in desperation and in pain and in raw emotion we're gonna say stuff and he's talking to Eliphaz, but to Eliphaz he's also talking to God and Look at verse number 10, they have gaped at me with their mouth. They have slapped me on the cheek with contempt. They have masked themselves against me. God hands me over to ruffians and tosses me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, but he shattered me. These are the words, shattered. He tossed me over. Verse number 12, he grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces. He set me up as his target. That's what I was talking about earlier. God's shooting arrows at me. Set me up as his target. His arrows surround me without mercy. He splits my kidneys open. He pours out my gall on the ground. He breaks through all of these words. He splits. He breaks through. This is what he feels like. God is hammering me. He breaks through me with breach after breach. He runs at me like a warrior. I have sewed sackcloth over my skin, thrust my horn, or laid my head in the dust. My face is flushed from weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids. Wow. The first thing Job felt was frustrated, and the next thing Job felt was forsaken. I've written a few things down, weren't in the book, but I want you to see this. Job basically didn't expect this. He never saw this coming. He didn't plant such evil seeds to be reaping such a horrible harvest. Remember now, he didn't do anything. This is something going on behind the scenes in heaven. Satan is inflicting all this pain on him, but God challenged Satan. Have you even checked out my servant Job? He didn't expect this. He didn't understand this. Job didn't understand this. God, you are good, but this doesn't feel good. Now just, I want you to think about this. Basically, I'm not gonna re-read the passage, but basically this is what Job was saying. God, you are good, but this doesn't feel good. God, you are almighty, but you're not helping me. God, you are just, but this seems very wrong. God, you are omniscient, you know everything, but you are ignoring my innocence. God, you are omnipresent, but I can't see you anywhere in this moment of need. You see, he's thinking God had forsaken him. You know, many of those who hate God said after 9-11, where was what? Yeah. Job didn't understand this. He didn't expect it, he didn't understand it, and now Job couldn't handle this. This is what we're seeing in this passage. Job couldn't handle it. He's just come to the end. He loved God and he served Him, but it seems when he needed God the most, he had forsaken Him. Job is disappointed, discouraged, and alone in his suffering, he thinks, And look at this, verse number 17 is just amazing. Although there is no violence in my hands and my prayer is pure, there's something that we really need to see. As Job weeps and he leans over and he lays his head in the dust, I can just picture him. He says, I didn't hurt anybody and my prayers are pure. I'm looking for some help here. Is there any mercy to be found anywhere? This is what Job is thinking. Well, there's something to observe. Job, the one who feared God, hated evil, helped the poor, dispensed wisdom, covered his family with humble sacrifice. When in extreme pain, he questioned God, he cried out to God, he blamed God, he even accused God in all desperate, all of it in desperate outbursts of emotion. Guess what? So did David, so did Asaph, and so did Heman the Ezraite. You say, what, who? Heman the Ezraite. Did I read Psalm 88 to you a couple weeks ago? I don't think I did. You better go over there. Psalm 88. Psalm 88. This really goes with the sermon I preached on Sunday about the helmet of salvation. Psalm 88. Now I want you to pay attention as I read this slowly. Don't go to sleep on me. Are you going to sleep on me out there? Anybody out there say amen. Amen. All right, now listen to this. Psalm 88, listen to this. You need to write over this psalm, the psalm with no relief. O Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried out by day and in the night before thee. Let my prayer come before thee and climb thy ear to my cry, for my soul has had enough troubles, and my life has drawn near to Sheol. I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit. I have become like a man without strength, forsaken among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom thou dost remember no more, and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast put me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the depths. Thy wrath has rested upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah. Thou hast removed my acquaintances far from me. Sounds like Job, doesn't it? That has made me an object of loathing to them. I am shut up and cannot get out." He's been quarantined. He's been shut up. He can't go anywhere. He's got a mandate on him. My eye has wasted away because of affliction. I have called upon Thee every day. I'm praying, O Lord. I have spread out my hands to Thee. Wilt Thou perform wonders for the dead? Will the departed spirits rise and praise Thee? He didn't know much about the resurrection. Will Thy lovingkindness be declared at the grave, Thy faithfulness in Abaddon? Will Thy wonders be made known in the darkness, and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But I oh lord I have cried out to thee for help and in the morning my prayer comes before thee oh lord Why does thou reject my soul? Why does thou hide thy face from me? I was afflicted and about to die from my youth on it's been going on my whole life I suffer thy terrors. I am overcome. Thy burning anger has passed over me. Thy terrors have destroyed me. They have surrounded me like water all day long. They have encompassed me altogether. Thou hast removed lover and friend far from me. My acquaintances are in darkness. Period. End of the psalm. What? What, what, what, what, what? Now, how many of the Psalms have you read that they're in desperation, they cry out, but at the end, or somewhere in the middle, it comes out, but God has heard my prayer, and he brought me up out of the pit, and he made me stand on solid, but this guy, Psalm 88, Ezra, or Heman the Ezraite, never got the answer. You say, well, is there any redeeming thing about it? Yeah, he had the helmet of salvation, chapter 88, verse one. Oh, Lord, the God of my, You know, that's what I was trying to say on Sunday. We put on the helmet of salvation because sometimes the only hope is the future hope. This guy, Heman the Ezraite, one of the sons of Korah, went through stuff like Job did. He didn't end up with ten new kids flocks and herds and get ten times as rich as he was the first time didn't happen Interesting stuff The bottom line is this Job loved God and he knew God loved him, but it looks like God had forsaken him So it became very angry. We get angry. Do you get angry? I get angry. Do we get angry? Have you ever been angry at God? Don't raise your hand Have you ever thought he just wasn't hearing your prayer, wasn't answering your prayer? Maybe you felt like heaving the Ezra Hyde. Hey, God, I've been praying every morning. I've been giving my tithe. I've been coming to church. I've been trying to raise my children. My kids, they don't listen to me. My job's going to pot, and my health is going down the tubes, and my wife's mad at me, and I mean, just goes, or my husband's mad. It just goes on and on and on. We don't like to admit it, but we do get angry. Folks, this is not a lesson giving permission to get angry at God. We tread on dangerous territory. If we stay angry, it can lead to cursing God, denying God, abandoning our faith. Be careful. Stay humble. Job felt forgotten. That's the next point. He felt forgotten. He's crying out incessantly, verses 18 to 22. He begs that his prayers arrive to God eventually. Look at it, verse 18. Oh, earth, do not cover my blood, and let there be no resting place for my cry. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. This is beautiful. My witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high. My friends are my scoffers, my eye weeps to God. Oh, that a man might plead with God as a man with his neighbor. For when a few years are passed, I shall go the way of no return. This is a very important passage here. The first thing he says is I have a heavenly witness. Here's what here's the one thing he's holding on to. God is seeing all of this. God knows all of this. God is witness to all of this. You know that ought to that ought to be one thing that helps every one of us and that is this God knows how many of you know how many of you know that's true? Jesus knows all about our troubles, the old song says. God knows. Now folks, I don't believe God has done a repeat performance with Job again in all of history. I don't think there's another Job, I don't think there's another Heman the Ezraite, I just don't think that's true. Job says, I have a heavenly witness to all that has happened. God is my witness. I may die here, but God knows everything. He knows my heart, he knows my innocence. That's awesome. Romans 1 9 listen to these worthless of these verses God is my witness whom I serve in my spirit the gospel of his son that without ceasing I make mention of you all always in my prayers Paul says to the Romans God is my witness. I'm praying for you Philippians 1 8 God is my witness how greatly I long for you all with the affection of cry. I love you people I miss you people. I'm coming to you people. God is my witness. I You know where that comes from. You've heard people say that all the time. They say, well, you know, God is my witness. God knows. How many of you heard that? God knows this, God knows that. Well, he's saying the same thing. 1 Thessalonians 2, 5, for neither at any time do we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness. He's talking about his ministry in Thessalonica. Neither at any time do we use flattering words, as you know, or a cloak of covetousness. God is witness. You know, always, at all times, under every circumstance, whether we are reigning or whether we are in ruins, whether we are happy or whether we're sad, whether things are going perfect or things are going terrible, God knows. He knows all about our trouble. Genesis 31.50, this is a little bit more difficult, but Genesis 31.50, if you afflict my daughters, or if you take other wives beside my daughters, although no man is with us, to see, God is witness between you and me. That was the statement between Laban and Jacob, whenever Jacob took his two wives and left Laban and was going and leaving, going into Canaan. Laban was going back home. He said God is witness between me and you he said if you do something to my daughters I'm coming after you that's basically what he's saying. So God is witness. You see God sees every Event of man. He sees every single thing that is going on So I have a heavenly witness. Now, this is beautiful. I want you to get this. He says, I need someone to stand up for me. Look at verse number 21. Oh, that a man might plead with God as a man with his neighbor. For when a few years are passed, I shall go the way of no return. My spirit is broken. My days are extinguished. I need somebody to stand up for me. I'm fading fast, he said in verse 22. Back in chapter nine in verse 33, Job specifically asked for a mediator. Do you remember that? He prayed for a go-between to God, and he said, I wish there was a mediator, a go-between, a daisman, somebody who could bring us together, set us down at a table, let us have a conversation. I need a mediator. Here he's asking for something else. He's not asking for a mediator, he's asking for a lawyer. I need a mediator and I need a lawyer. This is what Job is saying. I'm not getting anywhere with God. I've been praying my brains out. I've been begging and pleading. He said he knows everything that's going on. Everything that's happening here, God is a witness. But for some reason, I'm not getting to him. I need a mediator. And not only that, I need a lawyer. Start thinking now. You guys putting two and two together here, right? Jesus is everywhere in the Bible. Make sure you see this. He's asking for a lawyer, an advocate, somebody to speak up for him, to defend him, to make his case. And folks, I gotta say it again, Jesus is everywhere in the Bible. Jesus is the mediator between God and man, amen? He is the mediator. How many are there? He's the only mediator between God and man. Listen, folks, it ain't Mary. I'm not picking on a religion here, I'm just here to tell you true doctrine is true doctrine. Mary, the mother of Jesus, the virgin who bore Jesus into this world was a wonderful, blessed, set apart and godly woman and he chose her for a very specific task. She gave one of the most, the magnificat, one of the most beautiful praises and prayers that you'll ever read in your entire life. But she was a sinner. And Mary is not the co-redemptrix. She is not the co-redeemer. She didn't suffer with Jesus. In the Papal Sea, in the middle of the great court in front of where the Pope comes out every Easter, there is a cross. Jesus is on one side and Mary is on the other. The Bible says in 1 Peter, 318, listen to this, 1 Peter 318. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might, listen to these words, bring us to God. There's only one who can bring us to God. Only one who can bridge the gap. There is only one who can do anything about our condition and bring us into his presence. He was put to death in the flesh, but he was made alive in the spirit. How about this, Titus 2.5. There is one God and one mediator between God and man. The go-between, the mediator, the one who can bring parties together, that's the man, Jesus Christ. Now, here we go. Jesus is not just the mediator. What was he crying for? Well, in chapter 9, he wanted a mediator. Here in chapter 16, he wants a lawyer. Jesus is the lawyer. Jesus is the advocate for our defense listen to 1st John chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 if anyone sins we have an Advocate a lawyer with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he himself is the propitiation for our sins He's the atoning sacrifice and not for ours only but also for the whole world so Job is prophesying and predicting Jesus will come. Now, I want you to back up and look at verse number 10 before we move on. Look at verse number 10 of chapter number 16. They have gaped with me with their mouths. They have slapped me on the cheek with contempt. They have amassed themselves against me. God hands me over to ruffians. He tosses me into the hands of the wicked. Who does that remind you of? Who got slapped on the cheeks? Who got mocked? Job, he didn't know. He didn't know he was prophesying. Jesus is everywhere in the scriptures. Now folks, we have the benefit of having the whole Bible and can read it and we can look back and see it. Job didn't even have a book at all, but God used him. You know why I know the Bible's inspired? Because of events like that. Job didn't know what he was saying was going to be recorded and written and that it was going to be a picture of Jesus coming into the world and the suffering. You know, Job suffered, but he's a picture of greater suffering, the suffering of Jesus Christ who suffered this and more for me and you when he died on the cross. Well, Job felt finished. Job felt forgotten and then Job felt finished. Chapter 17, verse 1 to 16. It's just a matter of time now in Job's opinion. Death is welcome. It is the welcome relief that he seeks. It's not suicidal. He's not going to kill himself. He even goes on to talk about, I may not have but a few years left. I'm amazed he even said that. but he knows that his next stop is the grave. Look at verse 22 of chapter 16 through verse two of chapter 17. 22, for when a few years have passed, do you notice that? I mean, we've been reading about this and all the suffering and the pain and the scraping himself with broken pottery and all this. I get it in my mind, he's about dead, but he wasn't about dead. He's got several years left. All he can see in front of him is more suffering and then death, and so he's kind of longing for death, so that he can quit suffering. Man, I've been to the hospital, talked to a whole lot of people in suffering. I'll never forget Richard Sidness. How many of you remember Richard Sidness? Used to sit right here on the front row. If he liked what I was saying when I would preach, he'd go. If he thought I was making a mistake, he'd go. He'd just sit right there. Richard was a blessed soul. He loved the Lord, served God with his whole heart. One day he had a heart attack and almost died. Didn't speak again after that. He never could speak again. He almost died. I went up to the hospital to see him in Lutheran Hospital. I walked inside and see him. There he was. I think you might even been there, Mary. I think you had gone up to see him. I went in to see him. When he saw me come in the door, he rolled his eyes. He rolled his eyes and he shook his head and he asked for a piece of paper. I gave him a piece of paper. He wrote on there. He said, the fact that you're here and you're gonna pray for me irritates me because I wish I was already in the Lord's presence. It happens. For when a few years are past, I shall go, I shall go the way of no return. My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, the grave is ready for me. Surely mockers are with me and my eye gazes on their provocation. This is what he's going through. The next stop is the grave. I've had it, I'm finished, the grave is ready. I'm watching these people gloat. Lord, please let me go. Then he says in verse 3 to 5, he says, God, please be my down payment, my guarantor for the next life. This is beautiful. Who is our down payment? Of course, Jesus, he made the payment and the Holy Spirit is the down payment. I mean, the very thing he's asking for, verses 3 to 5. He says, lay down now a pledge for me with thyself. Lay down now a pledge for me with thyself be my guarantor. That's what he's saying Beautiful for thou has kept their heart from understanding Lord. These people don't understand therefore thou will not exalt them They're not going anywhere. He who informs against friends for a share of the spoil the eyes of his children will also Languish be a down payment. I'm a pathetic sight. He says verses six to nine. He has made me a byword of the people I'm one of whom men spit Upon whom men spit who else did people get did people spit on? Jesus you see Jesus in the Bible. He's everywhere My eye has also grown dim because of grief and all my members are as a shadow What did Jesus what what did Psalm 22 say about Jesus? I look down and all my bones stare up at me might as well have said all my members are a shadow It's talking about Jesus Wow, this is awesome. The upright shall be appalled at this, and the innocent shall stir himself against the godless. Nevertheless, the righteous shall hold to his way, and he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger. The parallels to Jesus are amazing. Matthew 25, 26, 27 talks about this. People spit at him. Eyes are going dim. All of his members are a shadow. That's Psalm 22. Got worthless friends. He said look at verse 10, but come again all of you now for I do not find a wise man among you He's getting a little sarcastic. Come on. Let's hear it. Give me some more Says, um, I do not find a wise man among you. My days are past. My plans are torn apart. Even the wishes of my heart. They make night and today saying the light is near in the presence of the darkness. These are these men that are coming to talk. There's not an ounce of wisdom or encouragement among you. You're making night day and day night, and you're making evil good and good evil. And my only hope is death. The only thing that's going to help me for the suffering to end will be my death. My hope is dying with me and my only companions will be darkness, the pit, worms and corruption. I won't read the rest of it, but that's what it says. We got a graphic description of Job's resignation to the idea that God is not listening to him and that his next step is death. How many of you in some point in your life, you just could not see your way forward? Maybe it was financially, maybe it was in health. Maybe it was, you just couldn't see your way forward. You guys know what happens to Job in the end, right? How many of you have already read the last of the book? You know that Job's gonna come back strong. He's gonna amaze the whole world at the end. He's coming back strong. Do you know what? No matter what we go through into this world, the helmet of hope and salvation tells us that it's gonna be so wonderful in heaven that the remembrance of all of these things is gonna fade into nothingness. I know this sounds trite, but we do need to remember that God said that the average lifespan is gonna be how long? Three score and 10, how many years is that? 70. And if anybody lives beyond 70, it's gonna be hard, painful, difficult, and so on. And so 70 compared to forever, what's that like? I mean, just how long are we going to be in His presence, enjoying the glory? How long? Somebody said, well, Jerry, I think you said this the other day, or somebody, I forgot who it was, maybe somebody else preaching, saying, every time I hear somebody say, what are we going to do? I think it was you, you said it last Wednesday night. Every time you hear somebody say, well, what in the world are we going to do for all those years in heaven? Ephesians chapter 2 is so very, very clear that it's going to take eternity to unfold the multifaceted grace of God. It's going to take forever. Because see, we only have, we're time limited, we're earthbound, we only think in terms of how much time, how much can there be. You know, I've been to Disney World once. How many have been to Disney World? I went down there, I'm never going again, but I went one time. I went and I thought I'd seen it all, but you make another turn, there's more stuff and more things, you just keep seeing and keep seeing and keep seeing, and you think you're just never gonna get to the end of it. Well, we never did. I said, that's it, I'm done. Legs are out, kids were small. By that time, their heads are dragging and they're so tired. We'd been there since eight in the morning, and it was 12.30 a.m. the next morning, and we'd seen it all done. Let's don't go yet. Let's don't go yet. Let's there. Yes, there's gotta be more In heaven, we'll never get to the end of it and we won't be tired Job's he's had it. He's just very low surrounded by unsympathetic uncaring self-righteous religious fanatics Please don't be a religious fanatic They only have one side of the story. He is suffering what seems to be an irreversible illness. Even if he could recover, he would recover to desolation. It's kind of like those sci-fi movies. You ever seen any of them? One of the ones like the day after the H-bomb hits, you know, or the day after there's, you know, a nuclear, you know, blast, or series of blasts, and everybody's, you know, they're all running around in masks, and there's only a few of them, and they're all trying to, and so the question is, you know, you survive, but to what? That's the way Job feels. So what can we say about this? What is there to apply? Why does the book record these continuing repetitions and redundant attacks of his friends, and then his own repeated claims and his cries of pain. Because that's the way life is, isn't it? I mean, isn't life like go round and round? I mean, it does. People around us don't stop and we quickly find, we don't quickly find solutions and resolutions and God does not always run quickly to the rescue, does he? But we need to remember this, Job's friends couldn't comfort him because they only knew what they knew. His friends couldn't comfort him because they only knew what they knew. Job is suffering. They thought righteous people don't suffer. Job must have sinned, and now he continues sinning by not confessing. So they only knew what they knew. And then Job could find no hope or comfort because he only knew what he knew. How much did Job know? He only knew the suffering. Did he know what was going on in heaven? Nope. All he knew was, I'm hurting. I didn't do anything wrong. God has abandoned me. He's not helping. But here's the third one, God knew, God knows, and God is always working. When Job had given up and saw neither relief nor future, God was gonna give him both. Isn't that awesome? When he could see neither relief nor future, God was gonna give him both. How many of you know the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior? I cannot promise you a rose garden, but I can promise you golden streets. I can't promise you relief from your present situation and sickness, but I can promise you a river of life and a tree that bears 12 kinds of fruit and bears fruit all the time. I can promise you a river of life that runs out from under the throne of God. I can promise you a place where the sun never sets. You say, are you promising me that? I can promise you that on the authority of the word of God. I can promise you a place where we don't, we don't gather on Sunday to go to church because you never leave. I can promise you a place where God's there and the Holy Spirit is there and Jesus is there and we will never lack anything and it'll be glorious from day to day from now until throughout all of eternity. I can promise you that God will never, ever, ever, ever, ever allow anything to enter into that holy place. I can promise you that those that have been God rejecters and God haters and the devil and his demons and the And the false prophet are gonna be thrown into the lake of fire, which is the second death and they will never leave They will never be able to do anything again. I Can promise you that when God promises us eternal life, that is exactly what he means eternal life So it just seemed like Job just going down down down down down down But he's got relief and he's got a future. You may feel like you're going down, down, down, down, down, but you got relief and you got a future. You may get some relief and some future in this life, but I guarantee you, you get relief and a glorious future in eternity. We have the mediator advocate. We have him. Job wanted him. We have him. Hebrews 2, 14 to 18 and Hebrews 4, 14 to 16. Brother Jerry, that's their responsibility to read before you teach next time, okay? I want them to read that passage. It talks about Jesus. In chapter two, Jesus that went ahead of us and went through the heavens into the presence of God and he provides an anchor for our soul. Chapter 4 verses 14 to 16 talk about and end up saying that we can go into the throne room of God to find grace in time of need. He invites us and we can go. And so I want you to read those, think about it, and come ready to give a comment next week. Brother Jerry is going to ask you about it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the day. We thank you for the book of Job. Lord, there's a lot to it, there's a lot of reading, there's a lot of negativity, there's a lot of hurt, there's a lot of pain, there's a lot of loss. Well, Father, it's like life. Maybe we haven't all experienced all of what Job mentioned, but all of those things that I just mentioned, pretty much everybody in the room has experienced some of. I pray for a big picture view and an eternal outlook that we can know that you're going to be with us while we're alive and you're going to take care of us, Lord, and you are with us and you never leave us, even if it seems you have, and that you're always working. and that our destiny, our destiny is glorious. Thank you, Father, for your love and for your word. In Jesus' name, amen.