Lessons Learned in Trouble

Well, good morning. Sorry, I'm a little tardy. Mechanical or computer problems. If you will, turn to the Book of Job this morning. We're going to have a message from the Book of Job. We've been going through Old Testament in our Sunday school class. Actually, I had one more lesson before getting to the Book of Job, but I had that kind of in the can and I started looking at Job for the next lesson and I thought I'd just go ahead and bring that today.

Let's start this recording here. So, the title of this lesson this morning is Lessons Learned in Trouble. I want to be very, very careful with this lesson because we all experience trouble differently. And I don't want to sound like I'm minimizing any trouble that anyone's going through.

I don't want to feel like I'm offering platitudes, but I want to search the scriptures and see if the Lord can teach us something and give us some comfort. in times of trouble. And before we do that, let's look to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning asking that you would bless this service. Lord, leave us not alone. Pray that you would give me recall of my notes, give Frank a message this morning. Lord, we're a needy people. How can we believe if you don't send a man to preach the truth to us? And if you don't give us hearing ears and receiving hearts, Lord, we pray that you would send your spirit to be among us to apply your word to our hearts.

We pray that you would continue to bless this congregation, that you would especially our young children, that you would hedge them about, that you would guide them and protect them and have mercy on their souls to reveal to them their need for Christ and cause them to run to the Savior. Lord, we ask all these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for our good and for his sake, amen.

All right, so like I said, We're looking at the book of Job this morning. So in Job chapter 1, and as I said, we all experience trouble differently. And what may seem like a great trial for one person might not seem like a trial to somebody else. But to that person, it's a great trial.

And there are some things that you all here experience that I'll never experience, right? That I can't enter into. I can't say to you, I know how you feel. And really, none of us can do that. When somebody's going through a trial, that might be one of the worst things we can say is, I know exactly how you feel. Because we don't. We don't know exactly how somebody else feels. Because we all experience things differently. I love your kids, I pray for your kids all the time, but I don't know the trial of they're out after curfew and I don't know what's going on, right? I don't know that trial, I'll never enter into that.

But there are some things that all believers have in common. We have a common salvation. Every believer, we're all saved by the grace of God through faith in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And, you know, I experienced that going to Mexico a couple times, right? These people down there, we don't have a common language. We can't communicate, but yet we could communicate. You go to a service down there and you just see the love for Christ.

We all have a common faith. Really, there's one faith. It's the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we're all partakers of that faith. And we may have different degrees of faith, but there's one faith. There's one faith, there's one baptism, there's one God, there's one Father, there's one body. And everyone who knows Christ partakes in that same faith, and it's the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in Galatians it says, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

So we have that common faith. Colossians says, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith. not established in faith, the faith. The faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. So we have those things in common. And then one other thing that we all have in common is trouble. Troubles, trials, tribulations, that's common to all the saints.

First Corinthians, it says, There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. And that word temptation, there's really two meanings to that word. There's a temptation to sin, but here it's talking about a trial, And God's not gonna give us a trial that we can't handle. And like I said, we're all different. I can't enter into the troubles and trials that you have, but we have that one thing in common.

And Christ said that to his disciples. One of the last things he said to them when he was meeting with them for the Passover before he went to the cross in John 16, Christ said, these things have I spoken unto you that ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. In this world we're going to have tribulation, but Christ and in Christ we've overcome the world.

And you know, we don't pray for afflictions. but we know that they're coming. In fact, we've been taught to pray, lead us not into temptation, right? I don't want afflictions. I don't want trials, but God has told us that we're going to have them. That's one thing that's common to us. And David, in Psalm 119, he said, it is good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn my statutes. And Paul in 2 Corinthians says, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed. We're troubled, but not as someone who has no hope.

We have a hope in Christ. And anyone that gets up in a pulpit or anywhere else and preaches to you That if you believe God, if you're a true believer, you're going to have an easy life. You're not going to have troubles. That person's lying to you. They're contradicting what Christ told us. And they're just preparing you to fall away because those troubles are going to come. And if you think that you're going to have a life without trouble, you're going to be sadly mistaken.

But remember, Christ has overcome the world. And in him, we've overcome the world too. In this book of Job, Christ is a fulfillment of this book, right? He told us that we're gonna have troubles. And we are gonna have troubles. But in Christ, we can overcome those troubles. We can overcome the world. So let's look at the book of Job. What's the first thing that you think of when you think of Job? Well, we've been talking about it already. Trouble, trial, temptations.

And, you know, some people think this is the oldest book of the Bible. I don't know, you know, oldest one written down first. I don't know that, but I do know that God has put this book in the Bible and he's preserved it throughout generations to give us an example as we go through our lives and as we come up on our trials. James 5, verses 10 and 11, he says, take heed my brethren, the prophets have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience.

Behold, we count them happy And it's hard to understand that, especially when you're going through trials. But we count them happy, which endure. Because they endured those trials. Which endure. Have you heard of the patience of Job? And have you seen the end of the Lord? That the Lord is very pitiful and tender of mercy. Yes, Job was a man of great affliction. But after it was all over, After he had patiently endured the hand of God upon him, he was greatly blessed. So I'm going to read Job 1. This is a very familiar story. And then I want to go through and talk about a few things we see about Job and some things that Job learned during this time of trouble. So first we see Job chapter 1. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job.

And that man was perfect and upright. and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance was also 7,000 sheep, and 3,000 camels, and 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she-asses, and a very great household, so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East. And his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day and called their three sisters to eat with them. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continue. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them.

And Lord said to Satan, whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and issueth evil. And Satan answered the Lord and said, that Job fear God for not, hast thou not made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side and has blessed the work of his hands and his substance and increased in the land, and his substance is increased in the land, but put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he hath is in my power, only upon himself, but not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. Notice Satan said, if you put forth your hand, it's God's hand. It's not Satan. Satan doesn't have any power. He can't do that without God allowing him.

And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And there came a messenger unto Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them. And the Sabians fell upon them and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword.

And I only am escaped to tell thee about, alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, The fire of God has fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and my servants, and consumed them. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thou Chaldeans made three bands, and fell upon the camels, and carried them away, yea, and slain the servants and the edge of the sword. And I only am escaped to tell thee. And while he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and daughters were eating and drinking in that eldest brother's house. And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Then Job arose and rent his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshiped. and said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

So I get emotional reading that story. I just can't imagine it. When we look at this, though, One of the first things that we see about this is that Job knew God. Job was a believer. Now, some people will claim that Job came to know the Lord through this trial, through these trials. But the very first verse says he feared God and eschewed evil. And then in verse eight, God calls him my servant, Job. who fears God and eschews evil. That's a pretty good testimony. The Lord calls him my servant.

I think that's pretty good evidence to us that Job knew the Lord before any of these trials came. And later, Job said, for I know that my Redeemer liveth. Job knew some things. He knew about the Redeemer and that he may stand in the latter day upon the earth. He knew Christ was coming. I don't know how he knew that. I guess he knew it the same way any of us knew it. It was revealed to him by God, right? But he knew that. He knew those things.

Yet he was greatly troubled. He was troubled as few believers ever have been. He lost all his wealth. He lost all his family. He lost his influence and power. Later we're going to see, you know, he was covered with boils. And even his wife turned on him. His wife said, why don't you curse God and die? And he was afflicted in mind, heart, and body, even though he was a believer, even though he knew the Lord, even though he was looking for the Redeemer. So that's the first thing we see.

And the second thing we see that I wanted to notice is that he didn't try to hide the sorrows. Now, I understand we're all different, right, and some of us are more private than others, but you don't necessarily need to suffer in silence. Job didn't. Job, he was very open about his troubles. He wept openly. I'll just say, don't be afraid to cry. Don't be afraid to share your troubles with others.

And, you know, Job complained about his sufferings, but he never complained against God. And believers, we sorrow, but not like those who have no hope. Like I said, in verses 20 and 22, you know, he arose, he rent his mantle, shaved his head, he fell down upon the ground and he worshiped. He, but he never spoke against God's providence. He never charged God with foolishness. He never compared his lot with others.

And you might say, well, Job had that, but I don't have that. You know, when I suffer, I think, man, why am I suffering this and this person not suffering like that? Well, you know, God's recorded in the scriptures that a man after God's own heart wasn't able to live up to that standard that Job set.

Go back and read Psalm 73. David is complaining about, why am I afflicted? And these people that don't know God, you've made them the prosper, and I'm afflicted. But God used that, David said, he took me to the sanctuary and he taught me. And I just want to read a couple verses from that. You know, like I said, God's recorded this, Psalm 73 for us as well, so that when we fall into the same sin as David and think, why? Why is this happening to me and not happening to other people? That we can, that we don't despair in our flesh.

And David, like I said, he was taken down to the sanctuary and taught a lesson. And in Psalm 73 verses 21 and 22, we see what David was taught about himself. David said, thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant. I was as a beast before thee. David saw that about himself. He was taught that in the sanctuary. Verses 23 and 24 tell us what David learned about God. And this is where the comfort is.

Nevertheless, I'm continually with thee. Thou hast hold me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. And afterward, receive me to glory. He was a child of God. He was a man after God's own heart. that God allowed to fall into this sin of complaining against God's providence and giving him trials that he didn't think other people had. So if you fall into that sin, don't despair. Look to Christ. Look to God. So those are a couple things I noticed about Job, but let's look at several things that Job learned during this time of great trouble. The first thing that Job learned was the brevity and the frailty of this human life.

He had everything a man could want in this world. Health, wealth, loving wife, ten children, and suddenly it was all gone. All ten children were dead. He was afflicted with boils from head to foot and it looked like he was going to die pretty soon himself. I mean, he was so disfigured that when his friends came to see him, they didn't even recognize him. That's how horribly disfigured he was with those boils. And after that happened, he began to talk about the brevity of life.

In Job chapter seven, verses six and seven, he says, my days are swifter than the weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope. Oh, remember that my life is wind. Mine eyes shall no more see good. A weaver's shuttle. These mechanical things that weave that, you know, it just goes back and forth so fast your eye can't follow it. And he was saying, even back then, people doing it manually, you couldn't follow it. It was so swift.

You know, James called our life a vapor. Go out in the fall or the wintertime and you breathe out and there's this vapor from your breath and then it's gone. That's what our life is. Job said in chapter nine, he said, now my days are swifter than a post.

They flee away, they see no good, they are passed away as swift ships, as an eagle that hastens to the prey. This life, this physical life is gonna pass very quickly. Job said, man that is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. cometh forth like a flower and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not. Job learned through this trial that this life does not last long.

And I don't know why we need to wait for old age and sickness or death of a loved one to learn that. God has told us that every son of Adam is appointed once to die. Wherefore, by one man sin entered into the world by death and sin. So death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Every sin of Adam is sinned and death is coming.

And knowing that, we ought to ask what Moses asked in Psalm 90. Psalm 90 verse 12, Moses said, so teach us to number our days. that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. What kind of wisdom? The wisdom to seek the Lord, to call upon him, to search the scriptures, to believe his word. You know, Moses asked God for three things.

He said, Lord, show me your way. Then he said, Lord, go with me. If you don't go with me, don't send me. I need your presence. And then finally he said, show me your glory. Show me Christ. Christ is the glory of God. Don't wait. Life's shorter than you think. We all need to know God's way. We need God's presence. And we need to behold his glory. The second thing that Job learned was the vanity of earthly possessions.

He was one of the wealthiest men around and suddenly he had nothing. And he used the word naked to describe that. Naked, I came into the world naked, I'm going to leave. When you're born naked, what do you have? Nothing. And when you die and they put you in the ground, put that physical body in the ground, what are you going to have? Nothing.

And Job learned that. Everything in this world is temporary. You know, Solomon was taught that. He said, vanity of vanity, sayeth the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. It's here today, it's gone tomorrow. And we need to learn that when we die, we're gonna be naked of all these physical positions. Everything we see here is temporary. But you know, a believer doesn't have to leave this world naked. A believer can leave this world rich in grace, rich in faith, with an inheritance in glory.

What did Paul say in the letter to Peter? Peter said, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." In Christ, we're made heirs. We're made sons and heirs. We can call God our father. There is an inheritance for us in heaven. And God's children come into this world naked, sons of Adam. with all that fallen depravity, but we leave this world clothed in the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Job himself said, I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My judgment was as a robe and a diadem. Job learned that. Isaiah 61. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God. Why? For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom, decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride, adorneth herself with jewels." Or Christ's bride. What's it say in Revelations? And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.

Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are never gonna be found naked and ashamed. Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. We're made righteous, we're made the righteousness of God in him, in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. In Christ, we're made righteous. We're not ashamed. We can come before a holy God and cry, Abba, Father.

Then the third thing that Job learned is that all of his sufferings were at the hand of the almighty sovereign God. He saw the purpose of God and what he was suffering. And, you know, many people read this scripture and they think it was Satan that caused this. But I couldn't help but stop even when I was reading this, even though this was my point later to point out, you know, Satan didn't have this power. This was God's hand. And Satan can't do anything without God's permission. And Job knew better. Job knew better. He said, the Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. He knew that his sufferings were at the hand of the almighty God.

And we should not fear those who can kill our body. We need to fear God. That's what we read in Matthew, and fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather, Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. We need to fear God.

And when you hear fear God, which is the beginning of wisdom, this isn't a slavish fear. This isn't a fear of retribution. The definition of fear in God is to be afraid to go before our righteous God anyway except in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't let me be found outside of Christ. That's to fear God, because that's where judgment is.

Christ was judged for us, so we don't have to fear God in that manner. And if you're a child of God, Satan can't touch you. He met Christ and he's defeated. And so we don't need to worry about that. You know, Job knew that it was God who sent the Sabians and the Chaldeans. And he knew that it was God that sent that wind that took his kids. He knew that God is the first cause of everything.

And, you know, we read in Romans chapter 28, right? This is a scripture that Everyone that's ever picked up the Bible is probably quoted, right? Maybe not the whole verse. We know that story of Henry. But Romans 8, 28, and we know, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. All things, all things means all things. And God has told us that they work together for the good of his elect.

But notice, he didn't promise he's going to tell us how or why. And we get caught up sometimes as we go through trials trying to see how or why. And it's good. I mean, we should seek God's purpose, right? But he didn't promise to tell us how or why. We might not know how or why.

A trial that I'm going through could be to reveal God to someone else. to call another sheep or to call another elect. But we do know that it's for the good of God's elect. And, you know, is it any more difficult to believe that all things work together for the good of God's elect than it is to believe that God was made man? and then made sin, made to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, I pray that God would give us that belief. But one thing that I think is very often the reason for our trials is so that we can comfort others. Remember, God the Father is a God of comfort, and mercy. In 2 Corinthians we read, blessed be God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in our troubles so that we might be able to comfort others as they're going through trials.

And I just want to have a quick warning about that, right? It's a blessing if we're able to comfort others, and we want to comfort others. But be very, very careful when you're speaking to someone who may not know the Lord as you're trying to comfort them.

I'm hesitant to say this because it sounds terrible, but don't quote Romans 8.28 to them. Don't sound like you're hard-hearted and, oh, well, it's God's will, right? It is God's will, but it may not be for their good. We don't know that. They may not be. If they're not showing any evidence of believing Christ, it may not be for their good.

So when people you care about are going through trials, just remember, they're not gonna care about what you say unless you say how much you care. So love them, give them love, give them all the support you can give. Point them to Christ, point them to the great Comforter. Tell them to seek God in the scriptures. And with love and compassion, remembering that one time you were just like them. Even the worst atheists out there, at one time in your heart, you were no different. Because believing a false god or believing no god, there's no difference. So be very careful and like I said, tell them that God delights to show mercy.

Tell them to ask for it and pray that God would reveal himself to them and that he would ease their trials because we love them. And like I said, don't bring reproach on the gospel by sounding all hard shell and that but later tell them when they're through that trial, you know, that was for God's good.

God did that for the good of his people. And then finally, the last thing I want to look at that Job learned, not only did he learn that God is the first cause of all things, but he learned to give thanks even during his greatest trial. Job was grief stricken. He was brokenhearted and he showed that grief Yet he fell down and he worshiped God. He said, blessed be the name of the Lord.

And this is one of the hardest things for us to learn in this human flesh. And it's something that we have to learn over and over again. Sometimes we get so caught up in the trial that we don't learn it until God's accomplished his will with that trial. And we look back and we can praise God for it.

But this is the key. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 18, this is the key. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you. And I pray that we would learn that and that we would be able to give thanks in all things. As I was reading that last scripture, I thought that that's so hard, that's so hard, but I'd like to put that in context, right? I don't wanna just pull that one scripture out, that one line out of that scripture. If you would forbear me, I'd like to read that whole chapter First Thessalonians chapter five, and see if this would help us to give thanks to God in all things. Starting in chapter, in verse one.

But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night, And when they shall say, peace and safety, then suddenly, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as to fail upon a woman with child, that they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not found in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all children of the light, and the children of the day, and are not of the night, nor of darkness.

Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even also as ye do. And we beseech you, brethren, that ye know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you. and to esteem them very highly, and love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man, or ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men.

Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit. Despise not prophesied sayings, the preaching. Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray, God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you who will also do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all brethren with an holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. All right. That's all I had. Sorry I went long.

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