[0:00] In Job 6, Job 6, He is holy, therefore be ye holy. I'd like to read something that a famous preacher once wrote, something I read a while back.
[0:17] And this past month, my wife and I, we were just driving around, and I just had to read it again. And there's just so much truth in this. He said, This is what the author said.
[1:02] He said,
[2:02] Just so you know, Pastor Garner's gone, and so I'm not fancy. I'm just going to read through this scripture. I'm just going to try to give the sense. Okay? I'm just going to take it. There's nothing special about this, except for God's Word.
[2:13] It says this, His grief and problems are so heavy right now that when He speaks, it feels like it's careless. Job states in Job 6, 1, and Job answered, and He said, Oh, that my grief were thoroughly weighed and my calamity were laid in the balances together.
[2:28] For now, it would be heavier than the sand of the sea. Therefore, my words are swallowed up. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say.
[2:40] He's careless. Have you ever been there? Have you had so much inter-turmoil going on, and then you said something that didn't make sense, or something that was totally out of character?
[2:54] At this moment in Job's life, there's been so much external pain in his life. It was physical. It was an illness that has affected his health. It was pain of losing his children.
[3:04] It was pain of losing his livelihood. It was Job's loss of stature or social stature in society. And when all those things that happened to Job's life have now blossomed into a harvest, what he calls internal heaviness.
[3:18] If you were to compare all the stuff that's all the pain, all the agony, all the destruction that I have, and I could just lay it out on a balance. He said, go out there in the sea and start digging up sand, and my problems that I'm facing right now would weigh so much more heavier than sand of the sea.
[3:35] I've never weighed the sand of the sea, but I have. Like I said this to my Sunday school class, I have, Doug, and I've worked with sand, and I know something, that dry sand is a lot lighter than wet sand. And Job's trying to convey the thought that what's going on inside me right now is so heavy.
[3:55] Job then goes on. And he says this pain and agony, it's so much, I can't even think straight. I can't even, it's affecting my speech. Job then goes on to tell his friend what he really thinks and what he really feels.
[4:09] It's like God, the Almighty One, has shot him with poison arrows. Look what it says in Job chapter 6, verses 4. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me.
[4:24] The poison whereof it drinks up my spirit. The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. The poison has consumed Job's spirit within himself.
[4:36] A person that I love, dearly loves, is facing extremely hard circumstances, told me this week. He said this, he said, I feel stale. I feel stale.
[4:51] My spirit, my spirit, it's drunk up. I got no feelings. Sounds like Job. In this verse, have you ever been there?
[5:07] Has it ever happened to you? Job goes on to say in this portion of Scripture of what he's really facing and what it's really like.
[5:19] Any of you men or women ever play with those little green army men back in the day when you were a kid? You had the green ones when you had the gray ones and you had the little yellow ones. And you would go play in the dirt, something that these kids nowadays have never heard of.
[5:31] It's called dirt. It's called outside. And you can use your imagination. You don't have to somebody else tell you something or you don't have to watch something. But you used to play those little army men. You ever do that? Anybody here? Anybody ever play with that? Or is it just me?
[5:41] Okay, yeah. You ever take your army men and you're playing battle and you set your little green army men all around your enemy? Those cheap pieces of plastics that you would go out in the dirt and play with?
[5:53] Well, this is what Job states. He says, the terrors of God that set themselves in array against me. God, you have set your horrors around Job.
[6:09] Like a battle term. You're out to destroy me, God. You've shot me with arrows. You've set your horrors, your terrors around me.
[6:21] Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt like that? God, what are you doing? Why are you doing this to me? Why so much of the things that cause me fear have set themselves to surround me, to take me down?
[6:37] Somebody else I loved a couple weeks ago, they said, the thing that I feared the most, Robert, the thing that I was scared of the most, I tried to not let happen, it has come upon me.
[6:47] And Job now states, that's the way I feel. He's taking me down. Can I tell you, this isn't the only time in Scripture where people have thought this.
[7:02] In Ruth chapter 1, verses 21, this is what Naomi said. She says, I went out full in Ruth 1, 21. And the Lord hath brought me home again empty.
[7:14] Why do you call me Naomi? Seeing the Lord testify against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me. Can I make a statement right here?
[7:28] Robert's personal opinion. It's during times when the external circumstances that we hate, that we don't like, they have been wearing us down, they've been wearing us down, and all of a sudden it begins to trickle inside.
[7:42] And it's no longer an external struggle, it's now an internal struggle. And it's almost to the point where you're like, God, why are you doing this to me? And it's during those moments, this is what I said, this is during those moments, we can become bitter towards God.
[8:01] And that's why Naomi changed her name to Mara, because God hath dealt with me bitterly. Can I say something? When you're having these internal struggles, be careful during these times.
[8:14] You must watch your heart. Is it okay to say, God, why are you doing this to me? My opinion? My opinion? Yes.
[8:27] Yes. As long as you accept His answer. As long as you seek out His answer. When you go through moments, and it feels like God is against you, and He is soaking up your spirit because of the poison arrows.
[8:47] And when you go through these moments, and it's feeling like, man, everything around, I'm surrounded, I'm surrounded, there's no help. Everything that I hated, everything I was afraid of, it's happening to me right now. When you have that heaviness, when you're going through that inner turmoil, can I tell you, you best watch your heart, and watch the heart of those loved ones around you.
[9:07] Job then goes on to speak about what type of hand he had been dealt. Job chapter 6, verse 5, he says this, he says, Doth the wild ass bray when he has grass? Or loeth the ox when he has fodder?
[9:20] Is the cow mooing when he's got the food that he likes? Does the sheep bow when she's got a mouth full of grass? Farmer people, do you guys know this? They don't moo when their mouths are full, because they're enjoying what they got.
[9:34] This is what Job says, Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt? Or is there taste in the white of an egg? The thing that my soul refused to touch are as sorrowful, are as my sorrowful meat.
[9:48] If his complaint sounded like a donkey braying, or a lowing ox, it was because, like starving animals, he was being fed something that he couldn't eat. He doesn't want what he has been dished on his plate.
[10:04] He doesn't like it. The term that we use in this day and age, it's a hard pill to swallow. The expression describes that something that is hard or difficult to accept, when someone receives bad news, that he or she has no choice but to accept, or nobility to change.
[10:24] That's when you use the saying, it's a hard pill to swallow. Job states it like this, The thing that my soul refuses to touch are as sorrowful meat. Have you had times when you feel, when you too have felt like you've been given something you don't deserve, and you detest it?
[10:43] You hate it. You don't want to go through it. It's your greatest fear. I can never do something like that. That's exactly what Job is facing. And now, in life, in the life of Job, the one thing, the one thing that Job wants, after he's been dished a plate that he doesn't want, after he feels like God's against him, after he has all this internal struggles, this is the one request.
[11:07] Because so much pain Job is now faced. Because so much turmoil Job is now going through, it's now weighing at him heavy. It feels like God's against him.
[11:18] He is being served stuff he abhords. And now, because of all this pain, all this suffering, and all this is coming to fruition of an eternal anguish. Now Job has made his one request.
[11:28] And this is what he wants. Death. He thinks death is the way out. Look what he says in verse 8. Oh, that I might have my request, and that God would grant me that one thing I long for, even that it would please God to destroy me, that he would loose his hand and cut me off.
[11:58] Then should I have yet comfort. Yea, yea, I would harden myself in sorrow. Let him not spare. Have some compassion, God. Because I've taken all your words, and I didn't conceal your words.
[12:10] Sometimes we may have the mindset when we are suffering, and when suffering comes into our life, that the only escape is death. The only comfort is to run away from our problems that are causing frustration.
[12:24] Maybe there's safety in death. Let's escape. Look what he says in verse 8. He says, And God, would you grant me? I'm begging God. I'm begging you, please. This one thing that I'm desiring, I'm longing for, I'm hoping, I'm desiring, is that you would just crush me.
[12:41] Crush me. Let go of me. Let go of me. Get your hand off me. Take off your possession. I don't want you anymore. Just kill me. Then, then, verse 10, then I will have comfort.
[12:55] That's going to be my consolation. That's going to alleviate the pain, and the grief, and the trouble I'm going for, going with. God, please. God, please show some leniency.
[13:06] Let him not spare. Show leniency. Have some compassion. Look what he says in Job chapter 7, verse 15. So that my soul chooses strangling.
[13:18] I want to hang myself. And death, rather than life, I loathe it. I would not live all the way.
[13:29] Let me alone, for my days are vanity. How many people, how many people, when faced with extreme difficulties, can believe that the thought of only death will alleviate the suffering?
[13:44] A lot of internal pain going on in Job's life. Job then goes on, and he shows us why he feels this way. Verse 11.
[13:56] This is what he says. What's my strength that I should hope? And what's my end that I should prolong my life? Why should I continue on with life? Is my strength the strength of stones?
[14:09] Or my flesh like brass? Verse 13. This is what he says. This is what Job's getting at. This is what he says. Is not help, is not my help in me? And wisdom has driven quite from me?
[14:21] There is no hope. There is no hope. Why should I endure? Why should I keep on going through these hard circumstances? There's no hope.
[14:31] There's no help. There's no wisdom. Job actually says that wisdom has been completely banished from him. A lot of pain going on.
[14:47] And then, the place where you're supposed to find wisdom, encouragement, the people that are supposed to be there for you as you're going through trouble, those are your friends, right? And in Job's friend, he has only found discouragement.
[15:04] Job pointed out the fact that when he needed compassion, when he needed pity, when he needed help, all his friends were just a mirage of help. They were like a dry brook.
[15:15] They were like a dry brook in the desert that only disappoints the thirsty traveler. Only adding to the pain, isn't it? There's help. You get there. No, it's not.
[15:25] People who you thought that you needed were only there. People who you thought would help lift you up were only there to let you down. You know, many people run from those who are hurting.
[15:43] They see those who are in need, but there are far too often, far too often, too many people like the priest and the Levite that just go on and they pass on the other side.
[15:55] Job was pleading with his friends. He wasn't asking anything for them. That's what he says. He's stating in Job chapter 6. Did I ask for your money? Did I ask for you to take care of the guy that's the enemy against me?
[16:08] Did I ask you for any of that? No, I don't want any of that. Job was pleading for his friends. He wasn't asking anything from them. I didn't ask you, verse 22, to bring unto me. I didn't ask you to give me a reward.
[16:19] I didn't ask you to deliver me. Do you think Job was asking for their stuff? No. Do you think Job was asking for getting them relief? No. Job asked them to request.
[16:31] 24, he said this, teach me. Just teach me and I'll hold my tongue and cause me to understand where I've erred. Verse 28, look at me.
[16:47] Now therefore, be content. Look upon me. He didn't need accusation. He needed illumination.
[16:59] But they wouldn't even look him in the face and see Job's trouble. And all, all his friends are gone.
[17:10] Job was all alone. There was none there for him. Ask this question, isn't it easy to feel that way sometimes? Job now turns his eyes off his friends and now he goes on to God.
[17:26] And basically, he voices all his frustrations. Look what he says in verse 1-3. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his days like the days of a hireling?
[17:40] As a servant earnestly desires shadow, a servant, when he's out there working, he desires some shadow to get some relief. And a hireling, he's looking for his reward. When a guy works, he gets money. Get this, verse 3.
[17:54] So am I made to possess months of vanity. Job used several vivid pictures to describe futility of life.
[18:04] He felt like a man who had been conscripted into an army against his own will. He felt like a laborer or a hired man waiting on the sunset in his daily wages.
[18:15] At least these men had something to look forward to, but Job's future was hopeless. His nights were sleepless. His days were futile.
[18:28] And the Lord didn't seem to care. He sees his life as useless, as vain, as futile, and pointless.
[18:40] Doesn't that happen when you suffer? Don't you think it's pointless? Why am I going through all this stuff? There's just so much other stuff I could be doing right now.
[18:52] If God would just alleviate this, if he would just get rid of it, I could actually get to the point and the purpose that he's made in my life. Job's life is vanity and he can't even sleep. Job 7.4 He says, When I lay down, I say, When am I going to rise?
[19:05] And the night be gone. I'm full of tossing to and fro unto the dawning of the day. He can't even sleep. He speaks out to God, reminding him that his life is short.
[19:16] My life's just like a weaver's beam. It's just like so quick. And it's being spent without hope. He's literally just wanting to die. No more good is going on, or no more good is going to be in the life of Job.
[19:28] There is no point in life. Now I just wait for death without hope. Verse 6, he says this in chapter 7, My days are swifter than the weaver's shuttle and they are spent without hope.
[19:41] Oh, remember that my life is when. God, remember it's quick. Mine eyes shall see no more good. God, remember, I'm not going to see anything good. Job is literally letting it rip in this chapter.
[19:56] Verse 11, he says, therefore, I won't shut my mouth. I'm not shutting up. I'm going to speak the anguish of my spirit and I will complain the bitterness of my soul.
[20:07] He is going to get it out. He is going to complain. He is not going to stop his mouth. His days are short and whenever he dies, he goes in the grave and he doesn't come back. And because of that, he's going to tell us what he feels and the pain that he's going through.
[20:22] No hope, no future, but the grave and no relief. And even when Job lays down for a nap or a sleep, he can't even do that. Verse 13, when I say, my bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint, then, God, you scare me with dreams and you terrify me with visions.
[20:41] Nightmares are coming and they're keeping him awake. My life is short, Lord, just let it die. Just let me go. Let it be over. God, you've only appointed months of vanity.
[20:52] And for Job, it was tearing him up on the inside. Job then does what everyone else does during those times of internal struggle brought on by suffering.
[21:04] He cries out to God in his frustration and then he asks for forgiveness. Job closes his appeal in verse 20 through 21.
[21:16] I have sinned. What shall I do unto thee, O preserver of men? Why hast thou set a mark against me? So I am a burden to myself. And why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity?
[21:31] Time is flying by swiftly, so let's settle things as soon as possible. It was a confession of sin. For Job still maintained his integrity, but it was an opportunity for God to deal with him in areas of Job's life that he knew nothing about.
[21:46] A lot of internal struggles going on for Mr. Job. So what do we do when we face struggles like Mr. Job?
[22:03] I feel or I believe that Job is a man that retained his integrity and can be a good example, but I believe the best example is found in the life of Christ, also known as the suffering servant.
[22:20] In Job chapter 6, verses 1 through 2, this is what Job felt, this is how he thought. Job answered and he said, Oh, that my grief were thoroughly weighed and my calamity were laid in the balance together.
[22:31] Verse 3, this is how he says it, For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea. It was heavy for Job, right? In Matthew chapter 26, verse 37, there's this story of Jesus going into this garden.
[22:51] And he states this in verse 37, And when he took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
[23:06] Then he said unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry here and watch with me. Jesus faced the heaviness too.
[23:23] But what did he do when he felt the heaviness? He fell on his face. And he prayed. Sometimes in life, things happen, right?
[23:43] And that begins to affect our insides, right? And it begins to weigh us down. And it's hard to get through life.
[23:55] And it's hard to deal with stuff. And it's hard to have, man, everyone else seems like they're happy. But if you would just take what's happened in my life and you compare it to what I'm feeling right now, it would be heavier than the sand of the sea.
[24:08] And you're like, there's no hope for me. And then you look to Jesus. And you almost got this deistic type thought, this deistic type thing, a way of thinking, this mindset, this perspective.
[24:23] God is God and he doesn't know how I feel. He's never faced the stuff I went through. And then you read his word. And then you see that Jesus explicitly states out of his mouth and keeps it in his word.
[24:40] He says this, I'm getting sorrowful and very heavy. And so what does he do? Where does he go?
[24:51] He runs to the Father. He falls on his face and he pleads with him. Sometimes in life we are burdened with heavy stuff too.
[25:04] This is simple. So what do we do? Come unto me, all ye, Matthew chapter 11 verse 28 through 30, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.
[25:21] And I will give you rest. Take my yoke and learn. Discipline yourself. Be a disciple of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest for unto your souls.
[25:38] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. What do we do when we feel heaviness? Run to Jesus. Run to the Father. Job felt like God was against him.
[25:53] Job felt like God was causing the pain. Why am I going to run to the guy that I think that's causing the pain? Why am I going to run to the guy that's causing all this suffering? That's what he says in Job chapter 6 verses 4. And this is what he says, The arrows of the Almighty are within me.
[26:08] He's causing me, he dealt me a hand I don't want. My meat's, it's a sorrowful meat. I don't want this dish. Matthew chapter 26 verse 39.
[26:21] Jesus went a little further, fell it on his face and he prayed saying, Oh Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
[26:36] Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Knowing that great suffering was one day Jesus' to endure.
[26:48] Jesus often referred to this as the hour. And in this instance he called it the cup. Jesus was going to suffer like no other, like no one else has ever suffered.
[26:59] And guess who was going to cause the suffering? His Father. You see, Jesus faced it too. What did he do? He asked for his Father's will and not his own.
[27:12] Isn't that what we're supposed to do? Isn't that the way he taught us to pray? Look, I can't take this. He's just being so mean. It's all against me. He says this, Father, teach us to pray. When the kingdom, your kingdom come, Matthew 6, verse 10, he says this, your kingdom come, your will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
[27:35] What do we do when we feel like God's against us? We run to him and we state, not my will, but your will. Not my relief, but your glory.
[27:49] Not my wants, but your wants. Make it like whatever's in heaven, make it down here on earth through my life. That's what I want, Lord, when you face suffering. Job felt helpless, didn't he?
[28:02] Didn't we see that? I have no hope. I have no hope. I have no hope. Vanity, months of vanity, I have no hope. Jesus didn't because of, we see in Hebrews 12, verses 2, he says this, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God.
[28:32] Jesus had hope. He knew what was going to happen. He saw past the problems. The problems didn't consume him. He realized that there was joy that was set before him. Can I tell you, do you realize what we have?
[28:46] In Ephesians 2, verses 12, this is what the scripture says, that at that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers of covenants and promises, having no hope and without God in the world.
[29:02] Job's like, I have no hope. Can I tell you, if you're here without Jesus, you ain't got no hope either. But can I tell you, if you are in Jesus, listen to this. He gives you hope.
[29:12] And not just any type of hope. Get this. When they were looking for those brooks, those different, the army of Tema and those other people, when they were looking for it, they said, we hoped for it and we came and we were ashamed.
[29:26] But the scripture says this in Romans 5, verses 5, and hope maketh not ashamed. You know what you got when you got Jesus? You got hope that doesn't let you down.
[29:38] And so you can face things, internal struggles, and you don't have to be hopeless because we have a new hope in us and hope that maketh not ashamed.
[29:51] It doesn't disappoint because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts because he gave us the Holy Spirit. So wonderful. Verse Thessalonians, verse 5, verses 8, But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and a helmet, and for a helmet, the hope.
[30:17] The hope of one day King Jesus is coming back and I will be made right and all this junk will be settled out. We have hope.
[30:29] Psalms 146, verse 5, and I got to hustle. Happy is he that hath God of Jacob for his help.
[30:41] Happy is he whose hope is in the Lord his God. When you put your hope not in people, not in situations, not in things, not in social status, not, oh, I hope everybody at school likes me or I hope I really excel in jobs or I really hope I can keep this or I really hope I can keep that.
[31:00] I want to make sure my family is closed. Whatever that you're putting your hope in, that's not going to make you happy because they always are temporal. But when you put your hope in God, man, you're a blessed person, aren't you? Job's friends left him.
[31:17] Isn't that what he said? Verse 14, I wish they would show me pity. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6, verse 31, then Jesus said unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night for it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep will flock and be scattered.
[31:36] His friends left too. Get this, at about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani, which is interpreted, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[31:50] Get this, Jesus was forsaken by everyone, friends and the Father so that He could be with you always. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 5, Let your conversation be without covetousness.
[32:06] Be content with the things you have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may say, the Lord's my helper. Job thought it was pointless.
[32:18] We know better, don't we? We know better. Vanity, everything's vanity, months of vanity. Because of the gospel, because God has made us new, we now can say, all things work together for good.
[32:34] All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. It's not pointless. Abba, Abba has something He's doing with this. It's not pointless.
[32:45] It's not futile. It's not hopeless. Job, can I tell you something? Job faced internal struggles and problems and he didn't have this book. I think some of you try to live like Job.
[33:03] And you try to face your struggles and you try to face these anxieties and you try to face this hopelessness and you do so without this book. So you're facing internal struggles.
[33:17] You're facing problems. Where do you go? I love this verse. Hebrews, it's a portion of Scripture for verse 14. Seeing then we have a great high priest, his name is Jesus, that is passed into the heavens.
[33:33] Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our profession. For we have not a high priest that cannot, which cannot, which cannot be touched of the feelings of our infirmities. He knows our inadequacies.
[33:44] He knows our struggles. He knows our troubles. He was tempted in all points like us, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
[33:56] Verse 16, this is the point. Because of that, come to the throne, come to the Father, let us therefore boldly come to the throne of grace and mercy where we may obtain grace and help in the time of need.
[34:13] You have, you have the ability not to live and let internal struggles overwhelm you. You have the ability to obtain help and grace and mercy in your time of need.
[34:30] And it's only found in Christ Jesus. in Christ Jesus.