Turn again to Job chapter 16. Job chapter 16. We read there Job's reply to Eliphaz the Temanite who had answered him a second time. As these so-called friends of Job that came to comfort him have much to say for themselves. And yet much to say that condemns Job and finds fault with Job. So Job is moved to answer in this manner. Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are ye all. Shall vain words have an end? Or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? I also could speak as ye do. If your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you and shake mine head at you. But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips would assage your grief. Though I speak, my grief is not assaged, and though I forbear, what am I eased? But now he hath made me weary, thou hast made desolate. 21, verse 20 says, my friends scorn me, but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. Oh, that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleaded for his neighbor. And in chapter 17 and verse nine, he says, the righteous also shall hold on his way. And he that have clean hands shall be stronger. and stronger. Job answered and said, I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are you all. Miserable comforters. Job found no comfort in the words of these, his friends. His comfort came from one place and one place only, in Christ his Saviour. Yes, Christ is all and in all. He is all and in all. Christ is all the message of God unto lost sinners like you and I. He is all the message in all the Scriptures. He is all knowledge. He is all counsel, all wisdom in all things. He is all our righteousness. He is all our salvation, if we're His. He is all our hope. in all situations. He is all our comfort in all we experience. He is all our comfort in all our sorrows, in all our trials. Wherever we may be, however dark the way may appear, He is the light in the darkness. He is the strength of his people, the wisdom, the righteousness. He is all their comfort. Job was taught this. Job knew this by experience. He was brought to an end of all things. brought to an end of all his strength, brought to an end of all his health. He was on the brink of death. He had nothing. And those who came to comfort him, those so-called friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, those who came to comfort him, brought him nothing but sorrow. They condemned him, they accused him, they found fault with him. He found no comfort anywhere but in Christ his Saviour. As Job by experience found no comfort but in Christ. and his gospel. His three friends had come to comfort him as we read before in Job chapter 2 verse 11. Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came, everyone from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuite, and Zophar the Naamaphite, for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. But did they? Not at all. Not in the least. Job found no comfort in their words. They just pointed the finger. They accused him. They said, your sins, Job, have brought this upon you. All your family sins. This is all your own fault, Job. They accused him. They judged him. Where was their comfort? Where was their pity? Where was their mercy? They were no comfort. They were, as Job says, miserable comforters. And Job answered and said, I have heard many such things, miserable comforters, i.e. all. You've come to mourn with me, you've come to comfort me and all you do is add to my sorrow. You just look on me and accuse me. Miserable comforters. Job learnt this through bitter experience. He's been stripped of everything, he's lost his family, he's lost all he had, he's lost his health, he's on the brink of death, and these three so-called friends come to mourn and comfort him, and all they do is accuse him and judge him. Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostril, Isaiah writes. Cease ye from man, what hope is there in man? What strength did Job find in himself? What strength did he find in others? None! But Job was brought to hope and to trust in God, his Saviour. He trusts that God will hear his cries. He looks unto Christ alone. He cries out unto God. as it were, have mercy upon me, the sinner. In Job's situation, in his sorrow, in his trial, in his cries, and in his desolation, being cast out by everyone, having all men accuse him and cast him out and find fault with him. In this situation, we see in Job a picture of Christ, his saviour. A wonderful picture of Christ. In Psalm 69, David sets forth Christ in his sufferings. Save me, O God, for the waters are coming unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat is dried. My eyes fail while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that which I took not away. O God, Thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from Thee. Let not them that wait on Thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not those that seek Thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach, shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth also my garment, and I became a proverb to them. They that sit in the gates speak against me, and I was the song of the drunkards. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time. O God, in the multitude of Thy mercy, hear me, in the truth of Thy salvation. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink. Let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Hear me, O Lord. for thy loving-kindness is good. Turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, and hide not thy face from thy servant, for I am in trouble. Hear me speedily. Draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it. Deliver me because of mine enemies. There has known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor. Mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart. and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. David writes, out of his own sorrows, brought in a place much like Job was brought. But he writes by spirit, as it were, in the words of Christ his Saviour, who was cast out by all. When he was nailed to the tree and crucified, all the world pierced him. Their sins condemned him. He bore the sins of his people. He hung in the place of sinners. And God the Father looked upon him and judged him as one who bore sin. And all the world scorned him. They scorned him. He looked for some to take pity, but there was none. and for comforters, but I found none. He wore sackcloth. Job in this chapter said, I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and defiled my horn in the dust. My face is foul with weeping and on my eyelids is the shadow of death. Oh, how Job was brought in his experience to see something of what christ suffered in his stead he looked for that some to have pity he looked for some to have comfort and there was none there was none miserable comforters i.e all miserable comforters Psalm 1 tells us, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. What comfort is there to be found in that? Or in walking in the way of the ungodly, walking in their counsel, standing in the way of sinners, sitting in the seat of the scornful. Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar gathered around Job and counseled him. and scorned him and warned him and judged him. But he found no comfort in the words of the ungodly. We will find no comfort in the wisdom of men. We will find no comfort in the wisdom of man, in the things of God. how many can come to the scriptures and they can pick them up and they can use them in an ungodly manner. All they see in them is law and judgment. These friends came and they spake of God and his ways, but it was all in judgment. It was all scorn and accusation. Where's the comfort in that? We'll find little comfort in this world or in its pleasures. Some, in times of sorrow, turn to many things for comfort it's so easy to. We turn to earthly comforts, to riches, to pleasures, to food, to drink, to pastimes, to all the distractions that we may find, which may bring some comfort and some distraction for a time. and some ease in our sorrows. But none of it lasts. None of it deals with the reality of the soul. None of it deals with the real problem. There's no comfort in the things of time and sense. There's no comfort to be found in self, in our own knowledge, our own wisdom, our own strength. We're sinners by nature. and the flesh will bring us down, cast us down. There's no comfort to be found in false religion or illegal religion or the whipping and the scorning and the judgment of the law. That's all his friends brought him. We may see our way and see our sin and think that if we live this way, if we strive harder to please God, then maybe God will deliver us from this sorrow. Maybe he will reward our obedience. Maybe we've brought this upon us because of our own sin and if I just turn to the law and if I try to live a right, then I will deliver myself. But how soon we will find that the more we strive to deliver ourselves by our own strength, by the law, the more we find it's a sinking pathway. It brings us down into the depths. Because we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin, Paul says. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Though Paul saw the good in the law, He knew that when the law came, it slew him. I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taken occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Paul came to see that that legal religion he was once under just like Eliphaz, just like Bildad, just like Zophar, that religion that he strived to keep, that religion by which he thought he would be justified, only condemned him. And when God began to show him his heart and the reality within, He found that all that outward obedience just hid an evil, iniquitous heart within. He was condemned. He had no ability to keep that law. The flesh brought him down. All that it commanded stirred up sin within, stirred up unbelief, stirred up hatred and resentment. It condemned him. There's no comfort there. There's no comfort in a religion where you strive to live right and all you do is fall, fall, fall every day and feel guilty every day that you've never attained to that which you strive to attain to. You want to serve, you want to serve God and yet you fall every time and it comes and accuses you and condemns you and says you're guilty. There's no comfort there. And yet that's the only comfort these friends brought. I have heard many such things, Job says. Miserable comforters are ye all. Job needed another comforter. He needed true comfort. He needed one that could take away his sin. He needed one who could deliver him from that power of the flesh, who could deliver him from the condemnation. He needed one to say unto Job, Job, you're forgiven. Your sins are washed away. They're blotted out. I love you. You're mine. He needed comfort. And he found that comfort. in one place, and one place only, in Christ. And when Christ came unto his people in time, and showed them what death he must die to deliver them from their sin, he promised them that in this world he would not leave them comfortless. He promised unto his disciples that he would send them another Comforter, the Spirit, who would point them constantly in their trials, in their sorrow, in their circumstances, unto Him, unto Christ, in whom there is true comfort. In John 14, he said, If ye love me, keep my commandments. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him. For he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world seeeth me no more, but ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also. The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things. and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. ye have heard how I said unto you I go away and come again unto you if ye love me ye would rejoice because I said I go unto the father for my father is greater than I and now I have told you before it come to pass that when it is come to pass ye might believe hereafter I will not talk much with you for the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. Christ was headed for the cross. He had to say goodbye to those that loved him, but he promised that they would not be without comfort. When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceeded from the Father, he shall testify of me. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have seen me from the beginning. I will send you another Comforter. I will send you a comfort wherever you are in this world, believer. Wherever you are, whatever circumstance you're in, the Spirit of God will come unto you and be in you and He will point you, not to man, not to self, not to the flesh, not to the wisdom that's from here and below, but He will point you away from that. away from self, away from the flesh, away from the here and the now, unto Christ he shall testify of me. And you will know in the depths, in your trial like Job, when men are just miserable comforters to you, when earthly religion is just miserable comfort, When the Lord just condemns you, you will know, as the Spirit leads you unto Christ in the Gospel, that all is well. Here is comfort in the God of all comfort. Yes, Job found his strength, his wisdom, his peace, his righteousness, his salvation, his hope, his comfort in Christ and Christ alone, who was all his comfort in all his trial. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. Job proved him. He proved that God was the God of all comfort, that His comfort was not in self, and not in His friends, and not in the earth, and not in religion, and not in wisdom and knowledge, but in Christ and Christ alone. God is the God of all comfort, all comfort in all things. And His comfort is made known in one place and one place only. The Spirit of God shall testify of me, Christ says. This comfort is in the Son, in Jesus Christ alone, in his gospel. Oh, how we need, when we're brought into trial like Job was, how we need comfort, how we need consolation, how we need hope, how we need help, and we won't find it in man. Isaiah writes in Isaiah 40, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, say if you're God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Where is that comfort? How will the preacher comfort God's people? In Christ, and in his gospel. Nowhere else, and in no one else. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, sayeth your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, who's in sorrow, who's in trial, who's dying, who's weak, and cry unto her. that her warfare is accomplished, that a victory has been wrought, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she's been washed clean, that she's justified, that she's righteous, that she's perfect. She's received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Christ has come in her place. Christ has come for you, Jerusalem. He's come for you, Job. He's come for you, David. He's come for you, believer. He's come in your place. And he's accomplished your warfare. He's won the battle. He's brought in a victory. Your iniquity has been pardoned. He's washed you in His blood. He's taken your sin and borne it away. He's taken the wrath and the judgment of God that rained down upon it, which your accusers accused you with night and day. He's taken it away and He's washed it and He's paid the price in full. There's nothing to be paid. There's nothing to be done. You're forgiven, Job. You're righteous in Christ alone. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. The only way we can be comforted, the only way we can find true comfort is in the gospel and in Christ alone. He is all and in all. God's servants are sent with this gospel to comfort his people, to comfort his people in Christ. And to comfort one another. When a brother, when a sister is in trial, there's no comfort in bringing the law their way. There's no comfort in finding fault. There's no comfort if you come unto them and say, what have you done? Maybe you didn't do this. Maybe you didn't pray enough. Maybe your faith is too lacking. Maybe you shouldn't have done this. There's no comfort in condemnation. But there's all comfort in Christ. There's all comfort to know that in Christ all is well. Our iniquity is pardoned, our warfare is accomplished, we're washed clean, we're perfect in him. There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. There's all comfort to be found there. Oh how God's people can come with that gospel. with that saviour and comfort one another in the midst of their trials. Nothing else brings comfort. who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." God comforts us in Christ that we may comfort one another. He comes unto us and says, though you were a sinner, though you rebelled, In spite of your unbelief, in spite of your hatred, in spite of all that you've done unto me, you are mine and I loved you and gave myself for you. In spite of every fault and every failing, of which we have many, God's children are comforted to know that God loved us. when we hated him. Christ gave himself for us when we rejected and despised him, when we would not believe. His hands and his feet were pierced. When we like Thomas said, except I see the prints in his hand and his feet except I see the wounds where the nails were except I see it's him I will not believe and he comes unto us in the gospel and says behold my hands and my feet and my side that it is I that I gave myself for you your sins pierced me and you our forgiver. Where is true comfort? In Christ and Christ alone. He's taken away the judgment. He's taken away the sin of his people. He's accomplished the warfare. He's delivered them from all their enemies. He's taken away sin, blotting it out, washing it clean in his own blood. He's taken away the judgment of the law, the penalty of the law. He's paid the price in full. He's taken away the wrath of God, taken the cup of God's wrath and drinking it to the dregs. He's taken away the iniquity of our flesh, having it nailed to the cross. and taken away and burnt under the fires of God's wrath like the scapegoat was taken outside the camp and burnt. He's taken away the flesh and all its power. He's taken away the accuser of the Brethren. The accuser of the Brethren is cast down. He's destroyed. The serpent bruised Christ's heel. But he crushed the serpent's head. Though the accuser may come night and day trying to whisper in the ears of God's people, trying to whisper in Job's ears, in David's ears, in your ears perhaps, it's all your fault, you've brought this on yourself. Though he may accuse us night and day, Christ has crushed him and destroyed him and said there's now no condemnation, he's delivered us from the accuser, he's cast him out. There is no sin. He's taken it away. And he took it away in his death. He gave himself for Job. He took Job's iniquity. He took Job's sins. He bore it all. He gave himself for Job. God judged his son in Job's place. He gave himself. for the him whom he loved in order to save Job, in order to comfort Job. This is true comfort of man, of man's religion, of the pleasures of this world. We can say in boldness, I've heard many such things, miserable comforters, But if Christ has come in his gospel and said, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, I will send you another Comforter who shall testify of Christ my Son and his love for you. If he's come for you in the gospel, you will know that Christ is all your comfort. in all things, in all circumstances. Are you his? Are you his? Has he done this for you? Has he come unto you? No matter how bad things may seem, no matter how dark a place you may be in, no matter the depths to which you are brought, no matter how hard the trial you may be in, No matter how comfortless you may be, no matter what others may say of you, no matter how alone you may feel to be, how cast out and rejected and despised of man, no matter how alone you may be, if Christ loved you and gave himself for you, if you are one of his sheep, none shall pluck them out of his hand. He will never lose you. He is all your comfort. He is all our comfort in taking away all our sin and making us to be the righteousness of God in him. In Christ we stand before God, perfect and holy, without spot and blemish. And no matter what the accuser may say, what man may say, there's no condemnation. In Him, the warfare is accomplished. Our iniquity is pardoned. We're perfect. He is all our comfort in our way. In the trial, in the darkness, in the loneliness, in the despair, He comes unto us by His Spirit and points us unto Christ and says unto us with a certainty that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He's always there. He's there in His clearest when we are at our lowest. He's there at His strongest when we're at our weakest. He shines as light in the darkest of places. He is the power of God unto salvation. He will never leave us nor forsake us. And He is our comfort to know that in the end, When this brief sojourn in this world is brought to an end, as Job could see that his days were coming to a close, one day we will be delivered. delivered from the flesh, delivered from the sin in the flesh, delivered from all the sorrows of this world. One day we have a hope set before us. If we know Christ, if we're His, if He's our Saviour, then there's coming that day when we will stand before Him and He will wash away every tear and take away all sorrow. and we shall live with Him forevermore. He is our everlasting, our eternal hope. What comfort there is in Christ. I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a first of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Where is comfort in Christ alone? In him all is well. All is well. There is no more sorrow. There are no more tears. He shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. There's no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. He is the God of all comfort. All comfort. It's Christ, your all, in all. Is He all your comfort, in all your situation, every day, every moment? Sometimes we see it, sometimes we don't. Sometimes God comes unto us by His Spirit and makes us to see. And sometimes we're cast down in sorrow. But He will never leave us, nor forsake us. And no matter how dim our eyes may become, no matter how sorrowful we may feel, no matter how cast down we may feel, He will lift us up by His Spirit, another Comforter, and testify of Christ and say, it is done. It is finished. Thou art mine. I loved you and gave myself for you. All is