That's a comforting song. There's
something sweet about that. He's my friend. Enoch is called
the friend of God. Go back to Job chapter 6. Now, I'm not going to handle
every one of those verses. Too much for me. But I'll just attempt to make
a few statements here and there. Idle the message, a friend that
sticks closer than a brother. I've read this chapter several
times, several times. And Job reproves his friends
for not being friends. And as I read this, this verse
of scripture came to me. We'll look at it at the end of
the message. There's a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
And something else we can learn as we go through this is that
we don't want to be this kind of friend. How not to be. How
not to be. As well as how to be. What is the worth of a true friend? What's the worth of a true friend? Priceless. Absolutely priceless. A person is greatly blessed if
they have one true friend that they can confide in. Someone
you can sit down And you have a kindred spirit
with. And you can talk to that friend
about everything. I mean everything. That's rare. That is so rare that you can
find somebody that you can confide in and talk to like that. That's
priceless. Someone that you can be yourself
and still be a friend. That's a real trick. Find someone
that you can be yourself and still be friends at the end of
the day. A true friend is something that
happens through friendship, I should say. It's something that happens
over time. It happens over time. You know,
you can be friends with somebody, but then there's someone You
start having similar experiences and you start, you're just on
the same page. You're on the same page. And
time just makes that grow stronger. Stronger. And no matter what
happens, that friend is there for you. Look at Proverbs 17. Proverbs chapter 17. In verse 17, a friend loveth at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity. But a friend loveth at all times. Whatever comes your way, my way,
a true friend will be there. Whether the sun is shining or
whether it's a thunderstorm going on, a true friend is going to
be there. A friend loveth at all times. Now let's look at this. I'm going to read verses 1 through
3. But Job answered and said, O
that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid
in the balances together. For now it would be heavier than
the sand of the sea, therefore my words are swallowed up. Do
you know what Job is asking for here? A mediator. Oh, that my grief and my calamity
were weighed in the balance. That there would be one who understood
what I'm going through. One who understands my pain. That's what he's asking for.
There's an old saying that goes like this. Before judging a man, you need
to walk a mile in his shoes. Well, there is one who walked
a mile in our shoes. There is one who was tempted
in all points as we are, yet without sin. There is one. There is a mediator. There's
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Job, you have that mediator. You have that friend who can
make a correct judgment. A correct judgment. That's what
we need. We cannot give a complete and
accurate judgment on a person until we have walked in the same
shoes and the same experience of that person. Our Lord has done that. He's
done that. He says here, Job says. For now, he says here in verse
three, for now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea. And
my words, he says, my words fail me to express my grief. My words, he said, I can't find
the words to express what I'm going through. I can't find the
words to express the grief of the loss of my ten children,
my health, my servants, all my flocks, all my wealth, my reputation. He said, I can't find the words
to express my grief. And I thought of our Lord's grief. There are no words that can express
the grief that He suffered on our part. He bore our what? Our griefs and our sorrow. And
there are no words to express. You know, we tried to describe
the cross. We tried to describe His sufferings. But there are
no words to describe His grief and His sorrow hanging on that
cross. He can identify. He can absolutely identify with
every one of His children who have no words to express their
grief. And sometimes there are no words. Sometimes there are
just no words. And He gives the reason here
for His grief. For the arrows of the Almighty
are within me. He doesn't say because Satan
has attacked me. You know, He doesn't attribute
any of this to Satan, does He? He goes right to the source.
God. God. In other words, God has
set me up for the mark, and he's hit the mark. And his arrows,
his arrows, which is not just an arrow, he says arrows, many
of them. I mean, you look at all the, you remember the first
chapter? After this one came, told him
about his losses, here come another one, then another one, then another
one. It's just like arrows being shot at you. For the arrows of the Almighty
are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit." They
used to, in that day, put poison on the end of the arrow when
they would shoot their prey. They would put poison on the
end of it. And it was a painful death. Painful. And Job was saying
that God has put poison on the end of those arrows and shot
me. That's how painful his experience was. Can anybody identify with
that? Can any of us identify with that?
No. But there is one who can. Look
over in Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Listen to this in verse
14. I am poured out like water, and
all my bones are out of joint." You know how painful that is?
My heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of
my bowels. My strength is what? It's dried
up. Job said, my spirit is dried
up. Our Lord is saying here, my strength
is dried up like a potsherd. And my tongue cleaveth to my
jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death." Oh, I tell you, as I went through
this, I kept thinking, Job, there's one. There's one. There's a friend. We have a friend who can identify
with us. There's a friend who knows exactly what you're going,
what you went through. There's one. And then his complaint is not
without reason. He says, doth the wild ask brave
when he hath grass? Of course not. Do men complain
when they are blessed? No. When the sun is shining and
the checks are coming in, do you complain? Do I complain?
No. No. Or lo at the ox over his fodder? No. No, Job is saying, there's
a reason for my complaint. There's a reason for it. Can
that which is unsavory be eaten without salt? No, you're not
going to eat something unsavory without that which gives it taste, which that makes it edible. You
can spit it out. Is there any taste in the white
of an egg? The thing that my soul refused to touch are my
sorrowful meat. All comfort's been removed. That's what Job was saying. All
comfort has been removed. I have nothing to take comfort
in. He couldn't find comfort in anything. As we go on through
here, we will see where Job says, Oh, that I knew where I might
find Him. I go forward, I can't find Him. I go backwards, I can't
find Him. I go to the left, I go to the right, I can't find Him. I don't know where He is. That's
what God's putting His Son through. Job. It's His child. Job said,
I'm not complaining without a reason here. I'm just not being a baby.
There's a reason for my complaint. The hand of God has touched me. It's touched me. You know, we
don't want to be so hard on people when the hand of God's touched
them. I said, well, if he was a stronger man or if he was a
real believer, well. He said to those friends, he
said, miserable comforters are you all. Are you all. Physicians,
he called them physicians of no value. Comfort those which have fallen.
Comfort those which are bowed down. Be a comfort to them. Be
a comfort to them. And then Job, he still wants
to die. He wants to die so that he can
be relieved of his misery. I've never been to that point.
I don't think any of us have been to that point. But I don't
know your lives. I mean, sometimes somebody will
tell me something about a person and I think, I didn't know that.
It gives me a whole different perspective of that person. You
know, we all have different lives, different backgrounds. But Job
here is in such misery, he's in such misery, he wants to die. He wants to die, and I'll tell
you why he wants to die. Not just to be relieved of the
pain, which is a big part of it, but he knew he'd be with
his Lord. He knew that. He knew his Redeemer
lived. He's known that since this first
chapter. Since the first chapter, I know my Redeemer liveth. He
knew that before the trial happened. And he knew it and believed it
all the way through that trial. He knew it. Oh, he says in verse
8, Oh, that I might have my request and you and I could be thankful
that God does not answer our prayers all the time the way
we pray. And that God would grant me the
thing that I long for, even that it would please God to destroy
me. Now, he's not talking about destroy him in hell. He's talking
about he'd just take him out of this life. Take him out of
this life, put him in the grave. That he would let loose his hand.
I tell you, it just jumps out at me how he
keeps pointing to God as the first cause and not to any other
cause. This is the hand of God. God's
hand has touched me. God's hand has touched some of
us and it'll touch some of us. It'll touch us more. You know,
I may have a hard trial, but I tell you, there's another one
coming. There's another one coming. But he let loose his hand and
cut me off from this life. And here's how I know Joe knows
he'd be with the Lord. Then should I yet have comfort? Oh, I would have comfort. If
God would just put an end to this, take my life, I would go
to be with the Lord, and all this sin and sorrow and sickness
and tears and heartaches would be over! It'd be over! Henry said to me one time when
we were leaving the gravesite, he said, I'll be glad when we
quit dying, when we quit doing this. In a little while, it will. We will. We will quit doing this. We'll quit dying, we'll quit
crying, we'll quit hurting. That's what Job knows, and that's
what he wants. He said, I would harden, listen here, then should
I have comfort, yea, I would harden myself in sorrow, let
him not spare. And you know what he said? He
said, let it get even worse. He said, I would buck up, I would
harden myself, I would take it if I knew that there was an end
coming real soon. If I knew the end was tomorrow,
then whatever he sends my way, I'll take it. I'll take it from
his hand. If he'll just cut me off soon.
Because then it'll be over. Then it'll be over. And here's
his confidence. Here's his confidence that he
knows. He knows that he's right with
God. For I have not concealed the
words of the Holy One. I'm not hid his word. I've not concealed,
I told the gospel. Job can look back over his life
and he can say, I preached the gospel. I helped the poor. He led his family in worship
of God. He never forsook that. Even after
he went through this, going through this trial, he still worshiped
God. I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. What is
my strength that I should hope? And this is sad, and this is
tough. What is my strength that I should hope and what is my
end that I should prolong? Why should I live any longer?
I can't see that it's ever going to be any better.
That's what he's saying. This is how dark, this is dark. You know, what I'm dealing with
here is dark. You know, we are getting to look at a child of
God. Who has two natures here? One,
he curses his day, but yet he wants to go be with the Lord.
He believes the gospel. I have not heard thy word. And yet he complains. This is too dark for me to handle. I mean, I'm just knocking the
dust off the surface right here. That's all I'm doing. That's
all I'm doing. This is dark stuff. that he's
going through. Job saw no reason to live. But you and I, we got the advantage
of the book, don't we? We can see the end of Job,
which gives us great comfort. We see the hand of God in this
whole trial of Job and what the end of it was, but he couldn't
see this. What a blessing that God put him through this for
you and I to see this. What a blessing. But how tough must it be when
you can see no reason to live, that life can't get any better.
It's it. This is it. How can I recover from this? He couldn't see any light at
the end of the tunnel. Speaking of this life. Life can get very difficult,
can't it? It can get difficult. Now, the rest of this chapter,
Job reproves his friends for not being kind and gracious toward
him in his afflictions. And we need to take a lesson
and not be like this. Because we are, you know, we
still have this old nature All the self-righteousness is
not gone. Believe me, it can raise its ugly head. You can
see a brother down, we can get self-righteous real quick if
God allows it. Let me go through these kind
of quickly. I'm not going to try to really get into it. Job says in verse 14, to him
that is afflicted, pity should be shown from his friend. You
should show pity. And not to, listen to this, not
to is to forsake the fear of God. You know, he's saying to
his three friends here, you should be shown pity. You should be
shown mercy. And not doing it, you're forsaking
the fear of God. You're showing your ignorance. of what's going on here. You see it over in Galatians
chapter six, let's look over there. Galatians chapter six. Brethren, verse one, If a man
be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a
one in the spirit of meekness." You should show pity. Considering
what? Thyself. Lest thou also be tempted. You better hope God doesn't let
you be tempted. And to forsake that, To forsake that kind of attitude
and spirit, he says, is to forsake the fear of God. Because your
fear of man is greater. Your fear of something else is
greater. You're showing your ignorance. Because all God needs
to do is let you be tempted. My brethren, he says, have dealt
deceitfully as a brook, as a stream of brooks. They pass away, which
are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is
hid. They wax warm, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed
out of their place. The paths of their way are turned
aside. They go to nothing in Paris.
Job, he saw his three friends coming. And you know what he expected? Comfort. Pity. Empathy. He expected that. And that's, you know what, that
ought to be expected. Wouldn't you expect that to have
a true friend? But he didn't get that, did he? He didn't get
it at all. You're like the deceitful brook.
It runs out and strings out, and the next thing you know,
it disappears into the ground. The troops of Tima looked, and
companies of Sheba waited for them. What did they wait for?
These are tribes that travel across the desert. They were confounded because
they had hope. They came, they came fither and
were ashamed. What were they looking for? What
were they hoping for when they came across that desert? That
the watering hole would be there. They were thirsty. And there
were certain places where there would be watering holes. And
they came to those watering holes and they were dry. He's saying
to his friends, you're dry. When you should have been a watering
hole, you are dry. You're miserable comforters. For now you're nothing. I tell
you what, here's a man that's just from head to toe with boils. And he's got his friends sitting
there just hammering him. I mean, they are hammering him.
Your life has started, didn't rest, and they'll pick it up.
The other two will pick it up. But this man, this man, with all the sorrow and all that's
happened to him, he never loses his integrity. He never loses
it. And he tells them, he's still
teaching. Here he sits in all this pain and all this sorrow,
and he's teaching them. No, I'm telling you how it is.
And he does. You're nothing. You see my casting
down and you're afraid. You are afraid to touch me. You're afraid to touch me. You're
afraid to come close to me. You're afraid to side with me. To side with me. You're afraid
to come close and say, you're my friend. Joe said that you see my casting
down, you're afraid. You're afraid. Did I say to you, did I ask you
to bring me something? Did I ask you to help me get
out of this trouble? No, I didn't ask a dime of you. You're afraid to be seen with
me. Right now, because, you know,
when Joe had plenty, when Joe was on top. Hey, friend, how
you doing? Now that he's sitting there and
he looks like a putrid mess. What do you think we look like? And yet Christ is our friend.
Like that leper we were talking about in there. No one touched
that man. No one want to touch him. But
our Lord, like Dale said, probably put his arm around me, hugged
him up, touched me. He's my friend. This is my friend. Did I ask you to deliver me from
the enemy's hand or redeem me from the hand of the mighty?
I didn't ask you to do anything for me, but you know what? That's
what our Lord did for us, isn't it? A true friend will do that. They'll go the second mile. They'll
do what they can. Our Lord did it all because he can. Teach
me and I'll hold my tongue. Teach me now. Teach me now. I'm
listening. You got anything to say? I'm
listening. I tell you, if you want somebody to teach you, you
want them to be smarter than you. You're not going to be smarter
than your teacher. If your teacher is dumb, that's
going to make two of you. You want one smarter. He said, if
you've got something to say, if you can teach me, tell me.
Teach me. I'm listening. I'm teachable.
Some people are not teachable. Job said he's teachable. And called me to understand wherein
I've erred. Show me where I have erred and
this has come upon me. See, we make the mistake of thinking
that because something tragic happened to somebody, they must
have done something terrible. Don't they get not strange when
fiery trials come up on you to try you? Oh, listen to this. How forcible
are right words? Well, I think of the gospel.
How forcible is it to stand here and tell the truth? On God, on
Christ, and on you, on us, me. How forcible are right words?
God will use right words. You know that? God will use right
words. He's not going to use a lie,
because right words are true. But what does your arguing reprove? Nothing. Teach me. If it calls me to understand
when I err, I wrote out from this, if not, shut up. If not,
just shut up. Do you imagine to reprove words
and speeches of one that is desperate? Huh? Oh, he said, you overwhelm
the fatherless. You overwhelm the fatherless.
You dig a pit for your friend. You're digging a pit for me.
You're not trying to get me out of the pit. You're putting me
in it. Now, who needs friends like that? Enemies will do that. Now, therefore, be content. Look
upon me for it's evident unto you if I lie. You know if I'm
lying or not. You know me. That's what Job's saying. You
know me. Return, I pray you. Let it not
be iniquity. Yea, return again. My righteousness is in it. I'm right. I know what I'm doing. Is there iniquity in my tongue?
I know it. You know when you're lying, don't
you? You know when you're telling one. Job said, cannot my taste
discern her first things? I'd know. I would know it. But now let me close with this. There is how not to be a friend.
There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Is there
anything closer than a brother? I mean, I know some brothers
are not, and it's flesh, and I like that. But now, you take
two brothers. They'd do anything for each other.
Brought up in the same home, same parents. You find two brothers
that love each other, they'd do anything for each other. Spurgeon
was telling a story about a brother who stood over his brother when
they were in a war. His brother was shot and dead
and he stood over his body and fought the enemy so that they
couldn't take his brother. There's a friend that sticks closer than
that. He was telling a story about two brothers also again
in a war and both of them were shot. Both of them were laying,
and the one put the other one on his back and crawled through
the desert as far as he could and died. Then the other one
finally made it to hell. There's a friend that sticks
closer than that. There's a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
Look over at Proverbs 18. Verse 24, a man that hath friends must
show himself friendly. There is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. There is a friend who understands
our sorrows and can help us through them. That friend is the Lord
Jesus Christ. Listen to this, Matthew 11, 19.
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold,
a man gluttonous and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners."
But wisdom is justified with children. There is a friend of
publicans and sinners. And that friend is the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. If you were going to go pick
a friend, would you pick someone, would you pick the worst people
in town? Would you? Would you be seen with the harlot,
drug addicts? Would you be seen with them? We're not naturally drawn to
that. Not, well, the Lord leaves us alone, we are. But religious people will put
it that way. I'm not drawn to that. Our Lord
was drawn to publicans and sinners. He was drawn to people like me
and you. There are different types of
friends. You've got the user friends. I didn't say user friendly.
I said user friends. Proverbs 19.6. I'll read these
because I'm taking too much time. Many will entreat the favor of
the prince, and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.
Yeah, there's no shortage of friends for that man. Proverbs
14, 20. The poor is hated even of his
own neighbor, but the rich hath many friends. Hath many friends. Everybody wants to be a friend
to the rich. Proverbs 19, 4. Wealth maketh
many friends. But the poor is separated from
his neighbor. But Christ is the friend of poor
sinners. Blessed are the poor in spirit. They're migratory friends. They
come around when it's summertime, sunshiny. But when it's raining,
you don't see them. You don't see them. You don't
want to get that trouble on them. Bear, scripture says, ye one
another's burdens. There are deceitful friends,
like Judas. You know the Lord called him
a friend? I don't think he counted the
Lord as a friend. Judas' friends were of the baser
sort. But a true friend is a friend
proven by time, proven by deeds, there when you
need him, has real affections for you, and will be there when
all others leave. They will get in the trenches
with you, and they won't leave the foxhole when the bullets
start flying. That's a true friend. I saw this on television. This
is a true story. Because I saw it on television.
It's like seeing it on the internet. You think it's true if you see
it on the internet. But they were talking about this
Vietnam War. Helicopters down. And these Viet
Cong were coming from all directions. And it's night time. And this
one man had a rifle with a night scope on it. He was a sharpshooter. He was
a sniper. He got up on top of that helicopter, and he started
picking them off, just one by one, here and there. Helicopter
comes in and takes them out, but there's one man trapped under
that helicopter. He couldn't get out from under
that helicopter, and that man would not leave him. He got back
up on top of that helicopter, kept on shooting while that chopper
left and took them all away, and then they came back and they
got them. But he wouldn't leave that comrade. That's a friend. That's the kind of friend we
have in Christ. When the bullets start flying,
he's in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death. I'm going to die right here.
He never left. He stayed the battle. And of course, you know what
the end result is. The victory's won. The victory's already won. It's
over. That battle's over. But a friend
is one who has real affections and will not leave. As I read
to you earlier, Proverbs 17 said, a friend loveth at all times.
And you know, it says here, a friend loveth. That's the difference
between a real friend and just someone that's friendly. There's
a real love between you. Christ is that friend that loves
at all times. When we were enemies, He loved
us. When we doubt, he loves us. This friend, his love knows no
change. As we change, his love knows
no change. Christ proved his love by his
deeds. Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end. And he can be trusted. This man
can be trusted. He can be depended upon. When
all hell breaks loose, He's there. He's there. I'll never leave
thee nor forsake thee. We can cast all our cares upon
Him. And He can handle it. I couldn't handle all your cares.
I couldn't do it. I'd break under the load. Billions have cast their cares
upon Him over the millenniums. And it has not broken Him. It
has not burdened Him. He cares for us. And not only
does He care for us, here's the important part. He not only cares
for us, He can actually deliver us from the problem. Not all
friends can do that. Some of them can sympathize with
you, but they can't deliver you. He can. He can. And he's able to save. This friend
is able to save at all times. At all times. Whatever the case. Whatever the situation. Oh, what
a friend we have in Jesus. What a friend.