This message tonight is a very
unusual message. As we look at chapter 3, Job
after they sat in silence for seven days, Job began to speak. Job opened his mouth. You remember
about Job how that he was tried so severely and he never sinned
He never charged God foolishly, never sinned with his mouth.
He said, the Lord give, the Lord taketh away. And he said, shall
we receive good at the hand, shall we not also receive evil?
Or even trials and burdens and afflictions. So those men had
come. I don't know how long Job had
sat in the ashes before those three men came. But they came
and they sat silent for seven days and seven nights. And they're
just silenced. And then Job starts talking,
starts talking. And I would read the whole chapter,
but I'll read 10 verses and then we'll deal with that. And then
we'll read a few more and we'll deal with that. But look what
he says. They saw that his grief was great.
Remember that? They saw how great his grief
was. I mean, this man's suffering.
Oh, he's suffering so much. The men didn't even recognize
him when they saw him. And after this, after the seven
days and seven nights of silence, Job opened his mouth. First thing
out of his mouth was, curse the day. Cursed his day. What am I even doing here? Let
the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which
it was said, there is a man shall conceive, Let that day be darkness. Let not God regard it from above,
neither let the light thereof shine over it. Let darkness in
the shadow of death stain it. Let a cloud dwell upon it. Let
the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, let darkness
seize upon it. Let it not be joined unto the
days of the year. Let it not come unto the number
of months. Lo, let that night be solitary.
Let no joyful voice come therein. Let them curse it that curse
the day, who are ready to raise up their morning. Let the stars
of the twilight there be dark, let it look for light, but have
none. Neither let it see the dawning of the day, because it
shut up not the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid her sorrow from
my eye. That's some pretty tough words,
ain't it? And what you're listening to
is a man who's absolutely overwhelmed with suffering. He's absolutely
overwhelmed with suffering. And men have suffered in all
ages and are still suffering, and they'll suffer till this
end of time. But just as far as a man goes,
just as far as a man goes, can anyone conceive of the sufferings
that Job went through? Job went through things that's
just unimaginable having to go through, unimaginable. He suffered
in all of his, he lost all of his life's work, all of his life's
work in just a matter of moments, in a day. I mean all of his life's
work. And he must have been an elderly
man because he had 10 children. And oh my, and then he suffered
in his body. Balls was all over him. Satan
had smote him with balls from the soles of his feet to the
crown of his head. And he got pots, a bunch of old
pots, and broke them and scraped himself, setting in ashes and
put ashes on him, trying to get some relief for himself. And oh his heart. Oh, his heart. Can you imagine how his heart
was hurting? His heart was bleeding. His heart
was bleeding. His faithful servants, his sons
and the daughters, all of them gone at one time. Bad enough
to lose one child. Bad enough to lose two. But to
lose ten all at one time? Seven boys and three girls? And we look forward to babies
coming. They just got, Brad and Pam just
got a brand new baby girl. Grandbaby, granddaughter. And
that's good news to them. And I'm sure when Job's children
were born, it was great news to him. But you imagine how his
heart's bleeding. So you listen to how he's talking.
So you gotta understand the condition this man's heart is in the trial
that he's going through. His wife instilled a comfort
in him, taunted him, and became a burden to him. And in his mind,
oh how he suffered in his mind. And he thought and tried to find
answers to his questions. And there's nothing wrong with
asking questions. And his belief in God Almighty
was tried severely, tried severely. And this great trial that come
upon him clouded his judgment. His judgment was so clouded.
And what we're listening to is the language of a man who is
suffering, suffering so greatly. And a man's language is according
to what's going on in his life and going on in his heart. And
one thing about Job here as he suffers is he uses a very, very
excessive, excessive language. He gets carried away with his
language. You know, instead of somebody, you know, we preached
about how, he said, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Oh
my goodness, what a saying. He said, I received good at the
hand of the Lord, and I also received evil. Told his wife,
she talked like a foolish woman. Now he comes to, oh, first time
he opens his mouth. This is after he's already suffered.
Said, I mean, you ain't heard him say a word. And they sat
there, and these men come for long. How long has he been sitting
in the ashes? I have no idea. But instead of
the expressions of a saint, and the words coming out of a saint,
it sounds like a soul of a man who is hurting. Like his mind
is just almost crazy and almost ravening. And his words are so
strong and they're so excessive. And they don't seem to be natural.
They don't seem to be like Job at all. But listen, remember
how suffering he did. And I know this, beloved, and
so do you. Great sufferings cause great stirrings in your soul.
When you have great bodily sufferings, mentally sufferings, physical
sufferings, and heart sufferings, it'll cause you to say some things
that you ought not say. And that's what Job is doing
here. When all's well, there's hope. And if you have any fear and
you got love in your heart and in your mind, you're not often
expressed that. But oh, here comes suffering
to poor old Job and the passions. Oh, the things that broke forth
from his mouth even surprised, no doubt surprised those that
listened to him, but surprised even the best of men, the best
of men. You know here he mentions darkness. Look what he says there in verse
4. Let the darkness, let that day,
the day I was born, be darkness. Verse 5. Let darkness and the
shadow of death stay in the day I was born. So he's talking about
darkness. Do you know why he's talking
about darkness? Because he feels like he's in darkness. He feels like he's suffering
darkness right here. And I tell you, these stirrings
of the soul I mean, he just could not hold it in any longer. Couldn't
hold it in. You know, they have the ability
to restrain their feelings. But sometimes things come upon
a soul that they just can't restrain themselves. And Job was that
way now. And that's why he said, oh, he
said he cursed his day. What day is he talking about?
The day that he found out that he's gonna be born. He didn't
know, but he said, I wish that day had never come. That's what
he's talking about. Let the day perish when I was
born. Let that day never have existed. Let the night it was said a man's
child is conceived. Don't let that happen. Don't
let that happen. Now you can imagine how suffering
a man is in his mind when he's going through these things. When
a person's soul is suffering, and their soul is suffering,
They sometimes express their self in words, and they go overboard
in it, and that's what Job is doing here. He's going overboard
with his language. It's like a flood, you know,
like a flood that comes down, it breaks its banks, and then
it just runs all over the place. And it can't express itself.
Look over here at Psalm 39 with me. Look what David said over
here, and I'm sure that Job felt the same way. It's hard to imagine a man talking
the way he's talking after he, now he couldn't express himself
calmly. This is the language of a soul
that's suffering and suffering intently. But look what he said
here in verse 39 that David did. He said, I said I will take heed
to my ways and sin not with my tongue. He said, I'm not going
to open my mouth. He said, I'll keep my mouth with
the Bible while the wick is before me. He said, I'm not going to
talk. That's why he said, I'm going to keep my mouth shut.
He said, I was done with silence. I held my peace even from good. And then my sorrow was stirred
up. And my heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire
burn. Then spake I with my tongue. And that's what happened to Job
here. He was just, you know, he had been so silent, suffered
so intently in himself, and it had to break out. It just had
to come out. It had to come out. And oh my. Would any of us, if we went through
what Job went through, would we say anything less than what
he said, you reckon? Huh? You know, we'd like to think
that we would be Job at his very best. But Job's a man, just like
the rest of us. And that's what James said, Job
was a man in like passions with us. Like passions with us. And Job's suffering caused him
to declare, to wish that he had never ever been born. Wished he had never been brought
into existence. Look what he says down there
now in verse 11. Why died I not from the womb?
Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? Why didn't I just go ahead and
die while I was a baby? If I had died when I was a baby,
I wouldn't be where I am now, is what he's saying. If I hadn't
come into existence, I would not go through what I'm going
through. I wouldn't have children to lose. I wouldn't have substance
to be destroyed. I wouldn't have a wife to turn
on me. I wouldn't have service to die. I wouldn't have any of
this heartache and trouble and grief that I'm going through
if I hadn't been born. If I hadn't been born. Oh, the
fact that he existed at all troubled him. Look back up in verse three. He said, let the day perish when
I was born. Let that day just be wiped out
of existence. And the night, let the night,
when it was said, this man's house is conceived, let it not
be a day like that. Let it be a day of darkness.
He said, oh my. I wished I had never come into
being, never opened my eyes, never felt an impression, never
conceived a thought. That's what he's saying. He said,
I would a thousand times never to have been at all than to be
what I am now and what I'm enduring right now. That's what he's talking
about. Overwhelmed. Overwhelmed. Now I know what it is. to wish
you'd never been born. I know what that is. I know what
it is to dread going to bed at night because you have to lay
there and not be able to sleep. And I also know what it is to
dread to get up in the morning and have to face the day and
don't know if you can make it through that day or not. I know
what it is to be put away and not have no hope of ever getting
out of anything. So I can kind of a little bit
identify with Job. And then he says, why did he
not die at the day of his being? Look what he says in verse 12. He said, why didn't I give up
the ghost when it came out of my mother's belly? Why did the
knees prevent me or why the breast that I should suck? For now I
should have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept, then
I had been rest. He said, why didn't I just go
ahead and die? He said, why was my mother's lap, that's what
he's talking about, why was my mother's lap and breast ready
for me to lay in her lap and suck her breast when I came into
the world? If that hadn't happened, I would
have lain still. I would have been at rest. That's
what he said. I would have been at rest. I
wouldn't go through what I'm going through right now. You
know, suffering, suffering, I don't know if you've ever experienced
this. I hope you never do. Suffering can make existence
intolerable. When you lose all capacity to
enjoy life, and there's a lot of people go through that every
single day. Their suffering makes existence
intolerable, and they lost the capacity to enjoy life. That's
a sad state to be. Doc Stone told me this morning
about a musician, 21 years old, wonderful piano player, gifted
man, very, very gifted, 21 years old, killed himself. That means
he was, his life became intolerable to him. He didn't want to live
anymore. That's what we're talking about.
What kind of suffering would he going through that would make
him taste his life? Steve and I knew a young man,
very young man. I think he was just still a teenager.
Lived right across the street where Bruce Crabtree lives now.
Steve used to live there. Just a young man, just a teenager. sat in my backyard and me and
him and Scott Richardson were talking, he went home and went
in his closet, I think it was his closet, I don't remember
right, but anyway, he took a rope and put it around his neck as
a teenage boy and hung himself. And he was so old to die that
it was too low for him to actually hang, so he just let himself
drop until he quit living. Yeah, that's what Job said here. My suffering's so great, I wished
I'd have never, ever come into this world. And I can understand that, what
he's going through. He lost everything. Imagine losing
10 kids at one time. We weep and cry over taking one
person to the graveyard. You weep and cry over mothers
and fathers and brothers and sisters, over our brethren and
sisters in Christ. Shed a bucket of tears over them. And Job said, oh my, if I'd have
just been able to come out of the womb and laid down and rested
right then and there. But my mother had a lap. that's
waiting for me. Her breasts were waiting for
me. I wished it hadn't happened, that's what he said. Oh my. And I tell you, desire for death
is no proof of having real religion. Lots of unregenerate men die
rather than live and suffer. And I tell you, he, you know,
tell you something else about his suffering that caused him
to do. This is strange, I tell you it's strange, especially
after how I preached this morning. But his suffering caused him
to bless the condition of the dead. He said, oh my, them that
are dead, I wished I was with them. That's what he says. Look
what he says down here, starting at verse 13. For now should I
have lain still and been quiet. I should have slept, Then had
I been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth which
built desolate places for themselves, or with princes that had gold
who filled their houses with silver, or as in hidden untimely
birth I had not been, as infants which never saw light. There
the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary are at rest,
there the prisoners rest together and they hear not the voice of
the oppressor. The small and the great are there, and the
servant is free from his master. He looks earnestly, I tell you,
he looks earnestly at the grave. And he talks about it as a resting
place. A place where he could just be
free from everything that would happen in his life. And he looks
at death as a real, real rest. And you know nothing affects
man that's in the grave. Nothing. Absolutely nothing affects
him. They don't hear nothing. They don't feel nothing. There's
nobody telling them where to go. Nobody telling them what
to do. Nobody's oppressing anybody anymore. Nothing can disturb
the dead. And that's what he was talking
about. I wish I could just be like everybody that's already
gone and I could just go to rest. He was envious of them. He looked
death as something that was so common. He said, I'll be with
the kings and the counselors. Princes, I'll be with those princes
that had lots of gold and silver. I'll be with the illustrious
and I'll be with the obscure. It's common to all of us. He
said it's all a leveler. And I tell you what, when you
look at what Job went through here, how fleeting, how fleeting
and temporal are all earthly distinctions. You know down here
we have earthly distinctions. Have titles and property and
recognition for this and recognition for that and we have all the,
we have lots of things. And we have people have these
great titles and these doctors and all that, and they have all
these things. But all these earthly distinctions, they're gonna fade
away. You know, there's all different
types of flowers and all sizes of flowers, all kinds of shapes
of flowers, all different colors of flowers in the world. But
every one of them pass away. And in 100 years, in 100 years, Everything will just be dust.
And I'll tell you, it's absurd to be proud of mere
earthly creatures and greatness. You know, I remember Herman,
I don't know if y'all know, any of y'all know anything about
the tide dock down in Clifty? They used to take timber off
the mountain down there and they had a train that went through
there to take timber off of there and coal out of down in there.
There's over 100 houses there, over 100 houses. Train tracks
gone and there's no evidence that anybody ever lived there. And then down at Jumping Branch,
I don't know if y'all know where Jumping Branch is. It's just a little old branch,
you go across a little old branch and go up and back to Big Hill.
That's where Herman lived when he was growing up. They had a
community house there. Houses was everywhere. And they
had pie suppers where they'd auction off people's pies to
raise money. And they'd have dances down there.
They had a big time back in them days. You go to Jumpin Branch
right now and you can't tell that anybody ever existed there. Nobody. That's kind of hard to
imagine, ain't it? And that's why he said, you know,
Job said, listen, I had it all. I had everything. And now I ain't
got nothing. So you can understand his language
to some degree. We may not say it outwardly,
but I tell you, most of us have said some pretty awful things
in our mind and our heart. And that's some pretty tough
questions, ain't we? Oh my. But I tell you what, Job's
telling us the foolishness of making earthly interest supreme. You know, he said, Job knew what
it was to have material pleasures, but he don't have it anymore.
Job knew what it was to have material distinction. They said,
he's the wealthiest man in the East. Job knew what materialism
was. He had houses, he had lands,
he had servants. He had herd after herd after
herd. And then they was gone, gone.
And a multitude had it before he did, and a multitude will
have that stuff after he's gone. But how soon it'll all be over.
And that's why Job said, a grave will put an end to all this for
me. It'll put an end to this suffering for me. It'll put an
end to this grief to me. It'll put an end to my hurting
to me. It'll put an end to my suffering. It'll put an end to
it. And oh my, then he asked a question. Look to these questions, he said.
Down in verse 19, what a question. In verse 20, wherefore is light
given to him that's in misery and life unto him that's bitter
in soul? Oh my, why in the world do I have light in a miserable,
I have this miserable life, I'm misery right now. Why is God
giving me light in this misery? I don't want light, I don't need
light. He said, why in the world would God even do anything for
me in such misery? Why is light given to him? I'm
so miserable right now. That's what he's saying. And
oh, he said, life unto the bitter. Why is life given to those men?
Why is life given to those who got such a bitter, bitter, bitter
soul? And the great question in these
words of Job are, why should God continue the existence of
a miserable, miserable man? Why? Let me ask you, do you think God
Has pleasure in the suffering of his creature? I don't think
he has pleasure in the suffering of his creature. Are the groans,
the sighs, the anguish, the cries enjoyable to God's ear? No, no,
no, no, no, no. No. God was his only hope. God was good to him. God was
gracious to him. And he understood that. But you know, like I said this
morning, great spiritual suffering or great sufferings are spiritually
good for the suffering. Let me show you something over
in 1 Peter 5. Let's look at this together. 1 Peter 5. You know, great sufferings
are often spiritually good for the suffering. Like I said this
morning, David said, it's good for me that I've been afflicted.
And you'll find out it's gonna be good for Job after this is
all over for Job. God's not treating him this way. He said God is, God, He gave
all the glory to God. And I tell you, God's too good
to be unkind, too wise to be wrong, to do wrong, so why then?
Look what He said here in verse 8, 1 Peter 5, 8. Be sober. That means pay attention. Don't act a fool. Be vigilant. Pay great attention. Be watching
around. Because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. Do you remember that God and
him had two conversations over Job? Two conversations. He was worshiping one day and
here comes Satan. You consider, what are you going
for? Say, I'm walking to and fro, seeking whom I may devour.
God said, if you consider my servant Job, a perfect and an
upright man, and he hates evil. He said, ah, listen, I'll make
him cuss you to your face. Just take down that head. She
said, go ahead, have at it. And God turned Satan loose on
him. And I tell you what, I hope he never turns him loose on me.
But look what it says here in verse nine. You resist him steadfast
in the faith. Don't resist him by your flesh.
Don't resist him by your power. Don't resist him by your thoughts.
Resist him by faith, faith in God, faith in Christ, faith in
God's blessed word. Resist him in the faith. Knowing,
knowing this, that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that in the world. People that even out in the world,
they go through trouble. But now listen to this now. But
the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory
by Jesus Christ, listen, after that you've suffered a
while, just a while, he'll make you perfect, He will establish
you, He'll strengthen you, and He'll settle you right down.
He'll make you steady, He'll make you... And that's why Job,
what he's going through here, I can understand it, I really,
really can. And because you got to look at
how he's doing it. You know, and I'll tell you,
suffering teaches us the evil of sin, the vanity of life, And
it'll develop character in us. It'll develop character. And let me tell you this. You
know, sufferings like what Job is going through are awful useful
to those that's watching you. That's watching you. A spiritual
spectator. Somebody's watching you. No matter
what you go through, somebody's watching you. If you're going
through a great trial, somebody's watching you. How are they going
to react to this? That's why it's so hard to deal with Job
over this particular subject. But you know, and people are
conscious, people who are suffering great spirits, they're conscious
of somebody watching them. They're conscious that, how am
I gonna glorify God in this situation? How am I gonna honor God in this?
Am I gonna let God down? Am I gonna shame God? Am I gonna
embarrass God? And oh my. And when you see somebody
going through this, and then you watch them go through these
things, it moves your heart to compassion. I feel sorry for
Job. I hate what Job's going through.
When he went through all those things that day, I just can't
imagine. I can't get my mind around it. One thing I asked God to do,
and I was a very young man, when I first started having babies,
When I first started having babies, and they was little, I said,
God, please don't take my children, because one thing I don't believe
I can handle, one thing I don't believe I can deal with, is losing
a child. And bless his name, it hadn't
happened yet. I don't think I could deal with that. I don't think
I could have. But I don't know. I don't know. I know people that have, I know
people in this congregation that has, and I know one thing, they
suffered, I mean they hurt, they hurt very much. And there wasn't
a whole faint lot you could do to relieve them. Only God could
do that. But when you see people go through
these things, it moves your heart to compassion. Sympathy. Oh, what can I do to help you?
You're not going to just ask, what can I do to help you? You
go to help. If you don't do nothing but sit
in the house and sit there and look at them. Those people, that's
what they do when somebody dies or something. They just go and
sit with them. Not say a word. Just sit there. What are you going to say? Oh my. We want to relieve them as
much as possible. And I tell you what, when you
see somebody go through something like that, it causes you to be
thankful to God. That they can get through it,
God can uphold them, and that you can maybe help them just
a little. And let me give you some facts that we learned from
this here. Now Satan done what happened to Job. They had two
conversations. God and Satan did. And God let
him take all of his possessions. And then he says, you can have
Job, but don't take his soul. You can have his body, but don't
take his life. So everything that happened to
Job, it was because of God letting Satan loose on him. And the greatest
power the devil have is capable of exerting on a man is seen
right here. All these afflictions come on
Job through that wicked one, through Satan himself. God led
him, God gave him permission, go ahead. And what did he do? What did he do? What was he capable
of doing with all the power he used on Job? What was he capable
of doing? Well, I tell you one thing he
didn't. He didn't destroy Job's life. You know why he didn't
destroy his life? And he didn't annihilate Job's
life. He can't give life and he can't take life. Only God
can give life and only God can take life. And he didn't destroy
Job's worship of God. He didn't destroy Job's desire
for God, his knowledge of God, his need for God. His worship
of God, he didn't destroy that either. You know what he expected
to do? He said, oh listen, when I get
through with him, he gonna look at you and gonna raise both fists
and gonna curse you out for what's happened to him. That's what
he said. But what did he, after he said
he'd curse him, you know what Job did? Shaved his head, ripped
his mantle, got down on his face and said, Blessed be the name of the Lord.
The Lord gave and the Lord take it away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. He didn't cuss God. That's after Satan done all that.
And then Satan comes along. And comes again the next time.
And he says, let me get it skin for skin. If you'll let me get
at his body, I'll make him do it this time. He'll turn against
you. He said, go ahead. And the scripture says Satan
come and smote him with balls from the sole of his foot to
the crown of his head. And you know balls, I used to
get them all the time. And I'm telling you what, you
imagine them being all over your body. And pus running out of them,
blood running out of them. And they're itching and they
scream out in pain and agony, no relief. So he just sat down in ashes
and kept his mouth shut. He missed all these words of
Job. I want you to notice this. There's
no accusation. There's no irreverence for God
in anything he says. He just talks about, I wish I
wasn't here. I wish I wasn't where I'm at.
I wish I wasn't going through what I'm going through. What
then could Satan do to him? Well, he made his life miserable. Made his life intolerable. Made
his existence miserable. That's all in the world he could
do. That's all he could do. He can't do no more than that.
And you know what God did for him? This goes to show you how
strong he really was in faith, even though he was talking like
this. In all of his sufferings, he never blamed God one time
for anything he went through. Not one time. Not one time. And I tell you what, look what
he says right there at the end. Down in verse 23, let me read
these to you and then I'll close. He said in verse 23, Why is light
given to a man whose way is hid? hid from him, I mean, I don't
know my way, and whom God hath in. For my sighing cometh before
I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters. I just weep
and weep and weep. Now listen to this, for the thing
which I greatly feared is come upon me. So evidently he greatly
feared these things coming on him. He feared losing his All
his possessions, he feared losing his chill. He feared some things,
he greatly feared some things. And that which I greatly feared
has come upon me, and that which I was afraid of has come unto
me. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I cried. Quiet, yet trouble came. Trouble came. Don't look for
it. Don't ask for it. But it'll come sooner or later.
But I'll tell you, just remember this. I know I didn't do justice
to what Job was going through, but remember this. It's the voice
of a man that's suffering and suffering greatly. Our Father, oh our Lord and our
God, in the precious name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Lord, we try to express what this poor man was going through,
and yet I know nothing of the sufferings he's went through,
nothing. I know what it is to suffer, but nothing like him.
Everybody in this building knows what it is to suffer, to have
great, great grief. But yet, Lord Jesus, we've never,
ever been where he has and where he was. And oh Lord, we know that we'll
go to our resting place one of these days. And please give me
wisdom to deal with your word. Give me understanding to deal
with your word. And take what's been said tonight
and cause it to be profitable to all of us. To make Christ
to be everything. To make this world just to be
a place where we have to live and make a living. And thank you for our homes.
Thank you for our health. Thank you for the blessed hope
you've given us. Thank you for the strength you give us through
our trials. Thank you for the love that's manifested to us
through the grace of God. And our Lord, bring glory to
yourself through every single one of us, which is the best
way that seemeth good to you. Lord, we're in your hands. Every
soul here, every home here, Every person that's represented and
every home is represented. Lord, we're in your hands. And
we believe, really truly believe, that you'll do exactly, exactly
what's best for us. And you'll get the most glory
from this front. And so, Lord, we commit ourselves
to you. Like we sang tonight, I am thine,
O Lord. I am thine, O Lord. And so, Lord,
here we are. We give ourselves away to you
in Christ's blessed name. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth
will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. I'll see you Wednesday, God willing.