And what it is, is Job answering
Bildad. Bildad said some awful things
about Job. Said he used to talk too much. He said, you think we're like
a bunch of beasts. He said, your strength is going
to be devoured like skin. Death is all around you. and
said, you know, you ain't gonna have a child, and you ain't gonna
have anybody left at all that even gonna remember your name.
And here we are, we're talking about Job. But I'm gonna do like I have
been doing, read a few verses and then come back and comment
on them. Let me read down to verse, I'll
read the first five verses, comment on them, and then go read some
more. Then Job answered and said, he's
talking to Bildad and Eliphaz and all of them has been saying
things, how long will you vex my soul and break me in pieces
with words? These 10 times have you reproached
me and you are not ashamed that you make yourselves strange to
me. And be it indeed that I have
erred, mine error remains with myself. if indeed you will magnify
yourselves against me and plead against my reproach. Now, Job
answers Bildad, and he's talking about how sorry our friends,
they really, really are. He talks about them as friends.
He talked, called, you know, one time he said, you're miserable
comforters, all of you. You're physicians of no value.
And they had no sympathy, had no sympathy for Job whatsoever. And they should have looked on
his calamities and the things that was going on in him with
the tearful eyes and kind and gracious words, but they didn't.
And in fact, they exasperated him. They aggravated him with
their words. That's what he said in verse two. How long will you
vex my soul? And that word vexed means trouble.
I don't know if you've ever had your soul vexed. I mean, it's
just like, it's just like something in your soul. It's just, man,
I mean, it just really messes you up. It gets trouble. And
he said, very troubled soul. He said, why do you trouble my
soul and break me in pieces with words? Huh? And I tell you what,
he says, you use words and what you do, you just, the words you
use, you use to trouble my soul. And there are people which are
that way. They know how to use words, and
they use words that are very vexatious to a person's heart.
They use words that while they pierce the heart, they're not
sympathetic at all. And they trouble a person's soul
by the way that they talk to. Some people don't know how to
show sympathy at all. And so they exasperated him and
troubled him with the word, how long are you gonna vex me? How
long are you gonna trouble my soul with the words that you,
you break me in pieces, you're breaking me up with your words. And that's one thing that the
Lord Jesus, here's one thing about him. When he reproves us,
when he troubles our soul, nobody will know it but you and him.
He's not like Job and these fellas, Bildad and them. And then look
what else they said. They had hostility to him. They
were so hostile. And they were persistent in their
hostility. And he says in verse 3, these
ten times have you reproached me. You just keep on reproaching
me and reproach me. And I'll tell you, listen, they
ought to have just said what they had to say and let it go.
But Job says, you just persist in this. 10 times, you just keep
on doing it, doing it. They persevered in their words
against Job. They persevered against him.
And then look what he says, and you're not ashamed that you make
yourself strangers to me, or aliens to me. And you know what
that means in the margin? It says, you make yourself hardened
toward me. You harden yourself towards me.
You make yourself, I thought you as my friends, and here you
are, you've made yourself strange to me. You've hardened yourself
against me. Hardened yourself against me.
And he says, nothing I say, nothing I say, nothing I say touches
you. My sufferings causes no sympathy
in you whatsoever. And oh my, look what he says
there in verse four. And this is so. Now we need to
pay attention to this right here. Every one of us do. And if it
be indeed that I have erred, if I have erred, it's my error
and it remains with me. It's none of your business. There's
no reason for you to get involved in it. That's what he said. And
that's why it is, my error is mine. And it's gonna stay with
me. So why are you trying to point
out everything's wrong with me? And I'll tell you what, that's
why they exasperated him. Oh my, no sympathy. My anguish
and my heart, the things that goes on, falls on your hearts
just like it's falling on a heart of stone. And oh my, and then
look what they did. They assumed superiority over
him. Look what they said there in
verse five. If you indeed will magnify yourselves
against me, you think you're better than I, you're bigger
than I am, you're more superior than I am, you know more than
I do. I'm nobody as far as you all are concerned. And instead
of, Pleading for the reproach that I'm going through you just
go on and without sympathy keep on reproaching me and reproaching
me and reproaching But now look what Job does Look what he does
After he talks about those you know what he does He attributes
everything that happened to him in his life to God Almighty He
attributed everything look what he says He said, you know, if
you all knew this, if you really understood this, know that God
hath overthrown me. God did this. He said, God did this, and not
only that, but he put a net around my feet. You know, and I've said
this time and again, Joe did not know the conversation between
God and Satan. He had no clue what was going
on. God put a hedge around him. God
blessed him and prospered him. The wealthiest man in the East.
And then when God took everything, you know what he said? The Lord
done this. Blessed be the Lord. He gives
and he takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And he worshipped him. And that's what he's saying here.
If you fellas knew that God done this to me, you'd quit this.
He said, God's got this net around my feet. He said, God done this,
oh my. He said, and look what else he
goes on to say, and I cry out of wrong. I cry out to you that
you're wrong about me, but you don't hear me, I'm not heard
by you. I cry aloud and God doesn't even bring judgment on you. That's
what he said, not judgment on me, judgment on you. And then
look what he says here, what else he says about God. He has fenced up my way that
I cannot pass. You know, he said God is, you
know, it's like that narrow way. It's like that narrow way. He
said he has fenced up my path. He has fenced me in so close
that I can't go this way, I can't go that way, I can't go back.
I'm just fenced up. He's got me fenced up my way
that I cannot pass. And listen to this, and I hope
that he don't do you this, but now these are some of the things
that God uses to chastise his people with. And he says, and
he has set darkness in my paths. Set darkness in my path. Now
I don't know about you all, but the Lord in his mercy, I think
it's one of the greatest mercies and one of the greatest proofs
that God's done something for you when he chastises you. And
there's nothing that he can chastise you better with than to one day
everything's just wonderful, and the next day, darkness, darkness,
darkness, darkness. You can't get nothing out of
the Bible. You can't pray. You say, Lord,
you know, and you're in this darkness, you're in this path,
and you can't get out of it. You say, Lord, I'd love to get
out of this that I'm in, but here you don't, can't get out
of it. And He says darkness, and every step you take, you
think, Lord, it's dark here. When am I going to get out of
this darkness? And that's one of the most blessed things. God,
whom He loves, He chastens. And He puts the rod on them. And the one way you can tell
if you're not God's, if God never chastens you, never puts the
rod on your back, never turns out the light, never troubles
your soul, never takes your sleep away from you, never worries
you about your conscience, about what you're doing, where you're
going, and how you're acting. If He never does that to you,
that's a pretty good indication that He don't know you. He said,
if you're a bastard, you're not one of mine, I'm not going to
whip you. But if you're one of mine, I guarantee you, you get
out of line, and I know exactly how to deal with it. And here's
another thing, the reason he does that. He does that to make
us depend on him, cry on him. If you can't cry on him when
it's dark, How can you trust him when it's light? If you can't
trust him in the darkness, you can't trust him when it's light.
If you can't trust him when you can't feel him and don't have
no sense of his feelings and presence, then you don't trust
him at all. We got to trust him when we feel
like we can't and it's so dark and it's so desperate and our
hearts are so hard and the nights are so long. We got to trust
him no matter what goes on in this world. Huh? What else we
gonna do? That's what they said, to whom
we gonna go, Lord? And every one of you been there.
Every single one of you been there. Huh? And oh, look what
else he says now. And now listen to verse 9 now.
Oh, what we dealt with that this morning about, you know, God
stripping us. He has stripped me of my glory. He said, I had glory one time. I had all kinds of wealth, and
everybody thought I was somebody. God said, I'm going to break
you of that. I'm going to strip you of that. And he has stripped
me. And I tell you, oh, when God
strips a man, he's stripped. I've heard Brother Henry say
time and again, he's going to strip you. Strip you naked before
He ever puts any righteousness on you. He's gonna make you know
that you ain't got nothing, nothing whatsoever. And oh my, He has
stripped me of my glory. All people held Him in high honor,
prospered His life. His life abandoned in hope, now
it's all gone. Look what He says now, what He
says. And then He rushed and got the crown and took it off
my head. He said, I thought I was somebody.
Everybody else did. He said, strip me of all what
I thought was my crown. Oh, my. He said, he took it. Oh, my. Oh, my. Now everything's gone. His glory's
gone. His crown's gone. Everything
on all sides are gone. And then look what he said. He
hath destroyed me on every side. You know, here we are. I got my right side, I got my
left side, I got my front, and I got my back. And Job said,
he has stripped me. He has, what did he say? He has
destroyed me on my right, on my left, and my front, on my
back. He said, when he got done with me, I didn't have nothing.
And he said, God done this. Now, I'll tell you something.
I'll tell you something, I believe this with all my heart, I really
do, and I'll find out one of these days if I really believe
it. But I honestly believe, I honestly believe, that when we get ready
to leave this world, as he read tonight, his rod and his staff
will comfort us. We may have a lot of trepidation, but I believe that God will He'll
fix us up and if He takes everything we got, as long as we're left
with Christ, that's enough. That's enough. That really is
enough, ain't it? And then, you know, we sang that
song, you know, gave me all this and 10,000 blessings beside.
But look what He goes on to say now. He has destroyed me on every
side and I'm gone. I don't amount to nothing anymore.
And he's took my hope, all my hope that I had for this life.
Now that's why he's talking about this life. He's taking my hope
and he's removed it like a tree. It's just like a tree that he
uprooted and throwed it away. He said just like a tree that's
been uprooted, uprooted. And then look what he says. And of course, this is figurative
language. God wasn't angry with him, but
this is what he feels. He hath also kindled his wrath
against me. And he counted me unto him as
one of his enemies. He treats me like I'm somebody
that's an enemy of him. He said he treats me like I'm
an enemy. And I'm not an enemy. I'm not his enemy. He hath overwhelmed
me. That's what he's talking about.
And he said he sends his troops They come together, and they
raise up against me, and they came round about my tabernacle.
He said, God's got people around me, all around me, and He's got
me hemmed up, and oh my. Now listen to this. Oh, this
is something God's done, and I hope He never does us all this
way. I hope He never does. But look
what He says. He says, when he, because of
all this happened, he said, he put my brethren far from me.
Now he has brethren. He had brethren. I don't know
how many brothers he had or sisters he had. He said, he took my brethren.
And he said, they won't even have anything to do with me now.
He says, he has put my brethren far from me. They won't even
come around me. And oh my, and listen, he said,
he took my acquaintance and they're estranged from me. He said, the
people, my brothers, my brothers, they're way off from me. They
don't want nothing to do with me. They want to come around
now. And my acquaintance, the people that I liked and they
knew me and we knew one another, he said, now they don't know
me anymore. They don't know me anymore. They
don't want to know me anymore. I can't do anything for them.
I ain't got no wealth. I ain't got no power. I ain't
got no authority. I ain't got nothing that I can
do for them. And then look what he says. And
my kinfolk have failed. All my nieces, nephews, uncles,
and aunts, cousins, and in-laws, and out-laws. He said my kinfolks
have failed. They failed. They failed. I feel so sorry for For my little brother, and I
feel so sorry for people that are sick and can't do anything
about it, can't even help themselves. And he says, no, listen, he got
in such a shape. When our kinsfolk and our brethren
get in trouble in this congregation, we arise to the occasion. If
they need food, we take food to them. If they need money,
we give them money. If they need prayer, we pray
for them. And he said, my brethren don't do that. My kinsfolk don't
do that. They don't want nothing to do
with that. And look what he says now. And my familiar friends,
and you know what that familiar friend says? People that I open
my heart to. People that I open my heart to.
He said, he had, my familiar friends have forgotten me. They
just forgot me. I used to be a fellow that used
to sit over there in the gate. He was a real wealthy man. He
took care of the poor, and he does so many things for so many
people. What was his name? What was his name? Ah boy, I
tell you what, the last time I heard about him, he was over
in a big old pile, scraping himself, and he was sick, and he was penniless,
he was poor, and his clothes was rotting on him. Don't you remember? What was
his name? That's what they said. They forgot me. They just plumb
forgot me. Plum forgot me. And oh my, look
what else he says. And they that dwell in my house,
in my own house, they that dwell in my house, and my maids, people
that serve me, my maids, count me as a stranger. I go in my house, And ain't nobody pays any attention
to me in my own house. I've got maids and they're supposed
to take care of me and take care of my home and all that. But
you know what they say? Come take care of me. They don't
pay attention to him. Ain't that what it says? They
that dwell in my house and my maids and everybody that lives
in my house and my maids count me for a stranger. He's just
an old stranger here. Huh? And look what he said, I'm
an alien in their sight. I'm an alien in their sight.
Everybody knows what an alien is, especially illegal ones. He said like that, but an alien,
if I went to France, I'd be an alien in France because I don't
speak French. When I go to Mexico, I'm an alien
in Mexico because I don't speak Spanish. Those folks live there,
I don't. And so I would be an alien, that
means that I would be a foreigner. And that's what he said, they
don't count me as a stranger, but they count me as someone
that's a foreigner in my own house. Count me as a foreigner in my
own house. And he said, I call my servant. Call my servant. I need you to do this, I need
you to do that. He didn't even answer me. Listen, why would I need to answer
him? No answer. Don't even give me
no answer. My sweet Shirley, she'll be talking
to me, and she'll tell me something. I'll just keep my head right
straight ahead and don't say anything. And she'll say, did
you hear what I said? And I'll repeat back to her every word
she told me. Just because I don't look at
her and say, yeah, I got it. Somebody can talk to me, and
it don't look like I'm paying attention. But most of the time,
I can put back and tell them every word that they said. So when my servant calls, he
said, give me no answer. And he said, I begged him. He
said, I begged him with my mouth. Begged him with my mouth. Ain't
you grateful that I, Lord, don't treat us the way that these people
treated Job? Huh? I, Lord, don't treat us
that way. When we call on him, he answers. When we look to Him, He beats
our knees. When we're just servants, and
we're unprofitable servants, but still yet when we look to
the Lord Jesus Christ, He's our elder brother. He said we're
his children. We say he's his sons and his
daughters. He said he's our older brother. And listen, as our kinsfolk,
and as we're his children, he's never, ever failed to ever turn
his ear to us and say, I'm not going to listen. It may seem
that way, but oh, he don't do that. Huh? And look what else he goes
on to say. This is one of the strangest
things. Can you imagine how hard it was
for this poor old man? He said, my breath is strange
to my wife. He said, my wife won't have a
thing in the world to do with me. I ain't been close enough
to her that she can even smell my breath. She won't have a thing to do
with me. She don't even smell my breath. My breath is strange
to my wife. And I said, oh, for the children's
sake, honey, for the children's sake, please. Children of my own body. But
his wife wouldn't even have, you know, remember she said,
Job, why do you hold your integrity? Why don't you just go ahead and
cuss God and die? And then look what he said. Yeah, young children
despise me. Young children. They made fun
of me. They despised me. I'm an old
man now. They don't care anything about
me. I used to take care of their mothers, and daughters, and sons,
and mamas, and daddies, and now they despise me. I arose and
the kids, the children, spake against me. All the men of my
secret, my secret friends, abhorred me. And listen to this, they
whom I loved are turned against me. Oh my, and he said God did
all this. God did all this. Boy, it'd be
hard to deal with, wouldn't it? Hard to deal with. My bone cleaves
to my skin. I mean, you know, I just look
like a skeleton. And to my flesh. And I've escaped
with the skin of my teeth. Now listen to what he says now.
Listen to what he says now in verse 21. Oh my. Huh? Look what he says. Verse 20, have, you could listen
to this now. Have pity upon me, have pity
upon me, oh you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me.
Oh my, have pity on me. Could you please be pitiful?
Would you have pity upon me, have pity, he repeated, have
pity upon me. Oh you my friends, still call
them friends, for the hand of God has touched me. Oh my, mm-hmm. Here he goes, here he goes, he
starts talking about it. And he said, oh my, I looked
for your help but you didn't do me. And then he asked in verse
22, why do you persecute me like you're God? Like you're God over
me, like you're the one that's setting in judgment over me and
that you know everything there is to know about me. And you're
not satisfied with what you do to my flesh, it's what you do
to my soul, what you do to my spirit, what you do to my mind.
Now listen to this now. Oh, that my words were now written
in a book, and oh, that they were printed in a book, that
they were graven with an iron pen, iron pen, and laid in the
rock forever. Now, he lost everything but his
faith. Look what he says. He said, oh, that my words, oh,
that my words were printed in a book, Look here. I think there's 44 chapters in
the book of Job. He said, oh, they're written
in a book. They are, Job. Then look what he says. He said,
not only that, but I want them cradled in a rock, in a rock,
and take an iron pin, and take that iron pin, and lead, and
put it in a rock forever. Well, I tell you what, it's in
the Rock of Ages, I'll guarantee you that. It's in the Rock of
Ages, his name's in the Rock of Ages. And then look what he
says. Here's some things that he knows
for certain. He said, I know, I know that my Redeemer liveth. He said, I know it. And the I's
emphatic here, I know. Whoever else is ignorant about
it. Whoever else belittles me about it. He said, I know. I know this. You may not know
it, but I know my Redeemer's living, and He's living right
now. Ain't that what He says? Oh my, my Redeemer lives. He
had confidence in His Redeemer. And then look what else He says.
He lives. He lives. And then look what
he says. You know, this tells us that
he knew that God existed and he had a Redeemer. He felt, said,
I know that my Redeemer lives. And oh, he goes on to say, and
I tell you what, he said, and listen to this now. And he knows
that he gonna come in the latter, and he said, he'll stand at the
latter day upon the earth. Now Job, he seen the future. He knew that Christ, his Redeemer,
would one day come to this earth and stand on this earth in the
latter days. He said, I know that. I know
that. Oh my. Oh my. He'll stand. He's going
to appear. I know he's going to appear.
And I tell you, one day He's gonna appear, and I tell you
what He knows, and this is the thing about it, you know there's
three appearings of our Lord Jesus Christ. He appeared what? To put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. He appeared in the presence of
God, and entered there with His own blood. And He's gonna appear
the second time without sin offering, to salvation for them that's
looking for Him. And that's what Job said, he's
going to appear. He's going to appear one of these
days. And he said, listen to this.
He said, oh, he's going to descend one of these days, and he's going
to stand. He's going to stand on this earth. And he says, I'm
going to die. I'm going to die. And skins,
the worms are going to eat this body, destroy this body. But
look what he says, in my flesh, in my flesh, when the Redeemer
lives on this earth, in my flesh, I shall see God. He knows that his Redeemer is
God. He said, I shall see God. I'm not dead, my body's gonna
be rotten and gone, but he said, I will see him with my own eyes. And who are you gonna see? He
said, I'm gonna see God. Who is God? He said, my Redeemer.
He said, boy, this is the oldest book in the Bible. People say,
boy, like I said this morning, you know, just a rule of the
matter in here. And look what he says. He said, I'm gonna see
him for myself. I'm gonna see him for myself. And that's why we gotta see him
for ourselves. I don't care whether my friends
see him or not, as long as I see him. I'd love for my friends
to see him, and that's why I'm saying have pity on me. But oh
Lord, oh I'm gonna get to see him. I'm gonna see him. I'm gonna
see him for myself. I'm gonna see him for myself.
And listen to this, my eyes shall behold him. And not another. I won't see him as a stranger.
I won't be a stranger to him. And though my reins, though my
reins within me are consumed within me, though my heart and
soul and all that's within me is consumed for this and with
this, that I shall see him one of these days. And then when
I see him, this is what's going to happen to you fellas. And
when He appears, and He appears to you, and you see Him, and
you have to face Him and deal with Him, you're going to, every
one of you say, why did we persecute Him? Why did we persecute Him? He's got the root of the matter
in Him. He's got the root of the matter in Him. He understands
God, He knows God, He knows He's Redeemer, and He's looking for
salvation. He knows He's got to die, but
He's going to be raised again. And then he said, and this is
also, you better watch out for this. When he comes and stands
at the latter days, and we'll see him, he said, you be afraid
of the sword, for his wrath will bring the punishments of the
sword. You remember that now? He said, this is what's gonna
happen to you fellas. And then you're gonna know there is a
judgment. You're gonna know that there's
a judgment. And you're gonna find out one of these days, why
did we persecute Job? Why did we do that? But I'll
tell you, If we know what He did, those that our Redeemer
lives, He did live and He's living right now. Our Redeemer's alive. He's well. And that's why, you
know, this is how we know He's alive. We're saying, you know,
He lives, He lives. I know He lives because He lives
within my heart. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. The
Word of God show you that He's alive and our Redeemer lives.
The Word of God comes to us and in us and it's alive and it gets
in our hearts, it gets in our minds, it gets in our understanding.
And how could that not happen if our Redeemer wasn't living
and making it real and alive and vital in our hearts and souls?
And I tell you, we all, you know what else it's gonna do? We're
gonna be just exactly like Job. I'm gonna see it for myself.
I'm not looking for a stranger. I'm looking for somebody that
knows me and I know them. I know I'm gonna see him. And he knows me. I know I'm gonna
see him. I'll immediately know who he
is. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, when they got there, you know,
when Moses and Elijah was there, those men knew who they were.
How'd they know? Cause they was with Christ. And
they had that glorified body. And what? We're going to see
Him for ourselves. And when we see Him, you know
who we're going to see? We're going to see God. We're going to see
God. And then He said, listen. Everything
in me wants that. Oh, He says, my reign's consumed
with me. I want that. This old body's gonna die, and
I'm still gonna see him. Still gonna see him. Boy, I tell
you what, what a future we have. You know, people talk about the
future. I've got this wonderful future. I've got this wonderful
job, and I got all this, you know, everything. That thing
just looks rosy for the rest of my life. Well, ain't nobody
got a future like believers. Oh, I carry some of you to the
graveyard. We carried in about 18 months,
seven of us to the graveyard. And we're gonna go to the graveyard,
and I tell you what, I will sing a song over you. It's Well With
My Soul or Amazing Grace or Jesus Paid It All. We'll sing that,
and you won't hear a word of it. You know why? Because you'll
be seeing Him for yourself, not another. You get out of this old house,
this old leaky, weird, and frail, and breaking down, this old house
breaking down a little bit at a time. And I don't care how
much we dial it up, how much bills and that thing we take,
it's still breaking down. And one of these days, it's gonna
break down the last time. And then we're gonna see the
Lord. We're gonna be like Job. I see him, I see him, I see him.
How do you know Job? Because he's living. He's living
right now. Oh, bless his name. Oh, our Father. Oh, our Father. Oh, blessed Father. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. And blessed Holy Spirit that
takes these things and teaches us and instructs us and blesses
us to Talk about them, rejoice in them, experience them in our
heart, mind, and souls. We have so much to look forward
to. And Lord, we thank you that we have such a, bless us, such
a redeemer to look forward to being with and spending eternity
with. God bless these dear saints that's
gathered out here tonight. And I pray again for my dear,
dear, dear brothers and sisters, who are hurting in their body,
hurting in their mind, hurting and they have fear and have trepidation
and trouble in heart and trouble in their body and weak in their
body. God have mercy on them. God strengthen them. Lord, please
restore them in their health, because I know that you're able.
But Lord, we're shut up to your will. And I know that's what
we all want. We want your will to be done.
and bring glory to yourself through us throughout this week. Help
us to pray for one another. Help us to provide for one another
as we see the need. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and free. See you Wednesday,
God willing.