Well, thank you so much, Neil. Folks, let me encourage you to have those chapters open in front of you as we try and take in the breadth of these four wonderful chapters of Scripture.
These honest, these raw, but yet these glorious chapters of God's Word.
And let me try and give us a picture that I hope we can kind of carry with us as we journey through these chapters today to help us see the kind of key thing I think that's going on.
You know, something that we often do with the kids when we're on holiday by the seaside is we get up early in the morning when the tide is out and we go crabbing.
Right. Ever been crabbing? Yeah. You go in the rock pools and you try and find some stuff.
But if you're lucky, you'll see a crab. If you're fortunate enough, you might see some sea enemies.
They're always pretty cool to see or some sea urchins. We don't see an awful lot, if I'm honest, where sometimes we go.
It's more the expectation that you might find something. But I tell you, without fail, what we see hundreds and hundreds of every time we go down to the rocks.
We see hundreds of limpets.
You've had that experience of finding a limpet, probably hit your foot before you touched it.
Hundreds and hundreds of limpets. You know these little guys.
OK. Unimpressive. Unspectacular.
And as far as I can see, I'm no mollusk expert, but as far as I can see, limpets are good at one thing and one thing only in life.
OK. They're good at clinging.
That's all they do, isn't it? They just cling.
And come calm, come rain or come raging storm.
These little guys cling.
That's all they do. They cling.
And what we're going to hear from Job today, I think, really simply, is what he is clinging to.
Now, remember the story so far.
God has allowed Satan in this book of Job, this believer.
God has allowed Satan to take everything from him.
Isn't he? His children, his possessions, his health.
And all of it is in an attempt to get this limpet dislodged from his trust in God.
So what this has been all about, we've been privy to that as the readers in the opening chapters.
Remember that we are the, I think we have to see ourselves as the sinners in the stalls watching this happen.
OK, this is what we've been privy to, that Satan wants to make Job curse God to his face.
Expose Job as a kind of prosperity gospel guy.
He doesn't really want you, God. He just wants your stuff.
So if you take the stuff away from him, it will expose the fact that he didn't really love you.
OK, and yet this man Job, in the height of the storm, as the waves have come painfully crashing one upon another through his pains and his questions that we've journeyed through,
what we're going to see today is him tell us what he's clinging to.
In other words, we're going to see him tell us where his hope is.
Where his hope is.
And I guess I want us to see straight off the bat that his hope isn't in the place that we might expect.
OK, I remember last year, not long after we went into lockdown, watching the news.
And there was a clip of a poster that someone had put up in town.
And it simply said, believe that this will pass.
OK, don't know if you saw that in the news.
Believe that this will pass.
That's what the poster said.
In other words, keep going.
Let's keep going, believing that this is going to get better.
You know, and by God's common grace to us as a nation, it looks like things are getting better.
Do well to remember that for many people around the world, countless millions, it's not.
But in our nation, it seems to be getting better.
I'm so glad to have my second vaccine the other day.
God's common grace to us.
But I remember at the time, reading that poster and thinking to myself,
but what if it doesn't?
What if it doesn't?
You know, we know, don't we, that life isn't as simple as that.
I mean, friends, what of our struggles with mental health?
What if they remain a constant battle for us on and off, on and off for the rest of our days?
What if the pain of seeing a loved one suffer, the emotional scars that it leaves in us,
what if they never really fully heal?
What if the difficulties of parenting and the emotional tiredness of it all
and the relational tensions in our families remain a persistent challenge
day after day after day, year after year?
What if the job that you hoped would come to fruition,
the job that you poured yourself into trying to get
with all the hopes and the dreams and ambitions that were tied up with it,
what if that never comes to pass?
What if things don't get better?
The thing for us to see today is that Job's hope is not in things getting better.
Job's hope, we're going to see it today.
And indeed, this is right at the heart of the good news of Christianity,
is that there is a better hope for this life,
that there is a more sure and a more steadfast hope for this life,
that God himself has made a way to happen.
And it's one that he invites us as people, particularly as believers,
to come and embrace.
I love it that God in the Psalms is described as a safe refuge in times of trouble.
And Job is going to testify to that.
So come with me to Job chapter 16 and let's take our seats again
as the sinners in the stalls,
as this man Job once again takes centre stage.
Now, a good question to ask ourselves as we try and take in the breadth of these chapters
and everything that they contain,
is to ask ourselves, why are they here?
Why are they here?
Here's what I want us to do in the time that we have remaining.
As a congregation this morning,
I want us just to think about three reasons why they are here.
Okay, ready for this?
Here's number one.
I take it that they are here firstly to expose the folly of Job's friend.
Because Bildad, do you see him?
He's back on the scene.
And we met him last week and here he is again,
offering his opinion as to why Job is suffering.
We're back in at chapter 18.
You know, it was Rebecca McLaughlin who said,
she's a Christian author,
she said, sometimes we love people best by acknowledging that we don't understand.
You feel the love in that, the warmth in that statement?
Sometimes we love people best by acknowledging that we don't understand.
Well, that's not the approach that Job's friends have taken, is it?
See what Job calls them at verse 2 of chapter 16.
He calls them miserable comforters.
Do you see it?
Miserable comforters.
And you feel his pain in that phrase, don't you?
Guys, you're not helping.
You've not helped.
Through my tear-filled, question-ridden, physically sore, sleepless nights,
and restless days that he talks about there at verse 16.
Job once again declares his innocence in the sight of God.
Verse 17.
And he's saying to his friends,
I won't find a sensible one among you.
Okay, that's why we're jumping around a little bit today,
but it's the kind of breadth of it to help us see it.
Verse 10 of chapter 17.
I won't find a sensible one among you.
You're not helped.
And so Job has said this,
you're miserable comforters, you've not helped.
I'm innocent in God's sight.
And yet Bildad, having heard what Job has just said, he doesn't agree.
He doesn't agree.
And you can hear his frustration come across as he launches into his response at chapter 18.
He says, why are we counted as cattle in your sight?
Verse 3.
In other words, why do you treat us like we're stupid?
You know, listening to what we have to say,
because I think the thing we need to understand is that in Bildad's mind,
the world works in straight lines.
Okay, have you ever look at a map of the city centers of places like Glasgow and New York?
Okay, it's why they're filming that film, aren't they, in Glasgow?
Because it's a lot cheaper than doing it in New York,
but you still get the same thing.
What do you get?
You get grids.
You get grids, don't you?
This street goes straight to that street.
This lane intersects with that lane at that point.
Everything is neat and in straight lines.
That's why I love these kind of places.
It appeals to my sense of neat and order.
But in Bildad's mind, that's how he sees the world.
Straight lines.
And we have to say that it is largely true, of course, isn't it, of the world that God has made,
that there is order.
He sovereignly governs all things.
But, you see, in Bildad's mind, that order, that straight lines means that the law of cause and effect,
action and consequence is directly in play.
You behave good.
You get reward.
But if you go down sin street, at some point you are going to intersect with suffering street.
It's his world for you.
It's his world for you, isn't it?
Sin leads to suffering.
And so surely in this neat and ordered world that God has made, that that is what explains Job's predicament.
And you see him express it in verse 3.
In the language he uses, the similes, the metaphors.
He says, God deals with the wicked like a man putting out a light.
Again, just see that snuffed out.
Like one who set a trap for them.
You see his conclusion at verse 21.
What he effectively says, Job, what's happening to you?
It just goes to show that really you don't know God.
Which is such an insensitive thing to say, isn't it?
Now let me give you two gaping gaps in Bildad's view of the world.
And particularly his understanding of how God works.
Firstly, friends, there is no room for grace in Bildad's view of the world.
No room for grace.
The thought that this God, because of who he is, out of his mercy, he wouldn't treat us as we deserve.
In my experience of doing the Christianity Explored course, I've done several here in my time,
that the most hotly debated evening is not the evening on sin and judgment.
The most hotly contested evening is the evening when we look at grace.
Every time.
The notion that we don't need to do anything to be right with God,
except to trust wholly in Jesus and on his work on the cross for us.
People instinctively hear that and say, that cannot be right.
I cannot be right.
Surely we must have to do something to be right with God.
Surely he looks at the good deeds.
Surely we're better than that person.
That means we're more qualified.
I always find that when people hear what I do for a job,
they instinctively, more often than not,
they start talking about the good things that they do in life.
The church that they grew up in, the Sunday school that they attended,
the fact that they loved the Boys Brigade,
the fact that their community does a food bank,
the fact that they're good and lawful citizens trying to do their bit.
It's obviously deeply ingrained in us, friends.
We're all people who like to think of the world in straight lines,
that we can earn our salvation.
We can be right in God's eyes to the things that we do.
That's how Bildad sees the world.
There's no room for grace in his understanding of who the Lord is.
And secondly, he sees no reason and no sense for Job to be waiting and trusting as a believer.
The thought that God might have bigger purposes here in this story for his glory.
Of course, the ones that earlier on in the book we became privy to is the reader
and that are working themselves out through Job's suffering.
All of that, that waiting and trusting in the Lord.
Bildad's thinking, Job, you're wasting your time.
You're wasting your time.
No room for grace and no room for waiting in the world,
the way that Bildad sees the world.
And of course, friends, grace and waiting on the Lord,
aren't they the two wonderful truths of the Christian life?
The words of the old hymn by William Cowper, sung by believers down the generations.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace.
Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.
I take it these chapters are here firstly to expose the folly of his friend.
And I take it secondly there here to help us enter the depths of his pain.
So as we enter chapter 19, what would appear to be true
is that because of what Bildad has said and how he has said it,
things have taken a turn for the worse for Job.
He's made it worse.
And I take it in our relationships with one another, friends,
as a lesson there that we need to strive with great care,
not just with our word choice, but our word tone as well,
as we seek to help one another.
Words that come from our mouths that build up and don't tear down.
Words that come from our lips that encourage and don't dishearten.
Words of truth.
Because look at what Job says, verse 1,
How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with your words?
There's the effect that Bildad's words have had on Job.
And Job tells us, doesn't he, how he's suffering.
And again, we plunge ourselves into the pool of his pain
to see how he's suffering.
He's suffering physically.
Verse 20,
My bones cling to my skin.
Hear him describe it.
Perhaps him describing just how deep and painful the sores in his body have gone.
Or it might just be him telling us how malnourished he is.
He's thin.
He's not eating right.
He's not sleeping.
It has an effect, doesn't it, on your body.
He's suffering physically.
He's suffering mentally.
Verse 7,
Hear his cry.
Even when I cry out, talking to God,
there is no answer.
There is no justice.
I always remember my friend Wayne Sutton,
who's a pastor down at Crubber's Christian Centre.
He always talked about openly,
and some of you might remember this from our weekend away a few years ago,
talked about his mental,
what he called a breakdown a number of years ago.
And he talked about how all he could do for that time
was go into a room at the front of his house
and just stare out the window at the Pentland Hills.
That's all he could do.
And just pray.
As he mentally suffered.
Something of that isn't there in what Job is going through.
He's suffering physically.
He's suffering mentally.
He's suffering socially.
And I want you to see this one.
Particularly verse 13.
What does he say?
He says,
My family are far from me.
And hear what he's describing.
Verse 14.
My friends have failed me.
And in verse 19.
Even my closest friends,
even my most intimate friends have turned away from me.
And what he's doing is he's describing
the spiraling sense of isolation and loneliness that he's feeling.
He's suffering.
And we have to enter the depths of his pain.
And I take it, friends,
that as he wants these words to be recorded,
we see that later in chapter 19,
I take it that as we read this,
that we have to understand that there will be at times,
there will be and there can be,
these kind of things that are the experience of the Christian believer.
Maybe that's you this morning.
Maybe you are struggling physically.
Maybe it is you're struggling mentally.
Maybe you are struggling emotionally.
Maybe you are struggling socially.
And I'd encourage you,
if that is you today,
please do reach out.
Please do reach out.
The wonderful thing that God has done
in giving us as a church community
to walk through life together.
And maybe off the back of that,
you deeply resonate with what Job is saying here.
And particularly you relate to what Job says at verse 21.
What does Job so desperately want?
For someone to have pity on him,
do you see?
He doesn't need his friends' lectures.
He needs his friends' love.
He needs their presence.
He needs their prayers.
He needs their sympathy.
He needs their tears of affection.
He doesn't need lectures.
He needs the love of his friends.
And I take it we're challenged at this point
to think about the way that we can show
love and compassion to one another
as a church family.
Friends, think about it right now.
Who do you know that needs love and support right now?
Maybe you are privy to something.
Who can we show love and support to right now?
You know, I was reading a book
about the human body the other day,
one of the kids.
And I know there's doctors here today
who I'm sure will know much about more than this than me.
But this is my layman's understanding of it, right?
We're reading this book
and the author's talking about
how sometimes you have a cut in your skin.
You ever wondered how scab forms?
Right?
What happens is your body,
when the cut comes,
your body works extra hard
to pump blood to that part of your body
that's suffering.
And that's why the scab develops
to shield it and protect it from the outside.
So what your body does
when something's hurting,
just vroomf,
we're sending blood.
You don't want to be that kind of
Christ-centered community.
Something's hurting,
somebody's hurting in the body,
vroomf,
we're sending people,
we're there.
We want to help,
we want to love.
We're present.
We care.
And let me just give you
one holiday reflection.
You know,
from reading Luke's gospel.
Try and do this on holiday
every time I go away on holiday.
Just take a book of the Bible
and just immerse myself
in it devotionally.
Right?
So going through Luke's gospel.
And friends,
I don't think I've ever noticed
just how many times
Luke records Jesus
having what on people?
Pity.
The word compassion.
Right?
Let's give me a few of these.
The story of the widow
losing her son,
Luke 7.
Right?
None of these are easy.
Enter into the people's pains
as you read about them
in the gospel.
The widow loses her son.
Jesus has what on her?
His compassion.
He tells a parable
of the Good Samaritan,
Luke chapter 10.
Not just a story
about how we can be
better people.
Of course,
that is part of it.
But it's also in the context
him describing
what he is going to do
as the ultimate Good Samaritan.
And what happens?
There's a man
at the side of the road.
What does the Samaritan
have on him?
Pity.
Compassion.
Give you two more.
Jesus meets the ten lepers
in Luke 17.
Jesus,
son of David,
have what on us?
Have pity.
Have compassion.
Same thing,
Luke chapter 18
with the blind man
who's outside Jericho
who presumably is Bartimaeus.
He shouts out,
Jesus,
son of David,
have mercy on me.
The exact same cry.
And Jesus does.
He does.
Oh, friends,
what a Christ we have.
Charles Spurgeon
declared all those years ago,
I have a great need
of Christ,
but I have a great Christ
for my need.
Jesus,
the one who has pity
and compassion on us,
it's almost as if
our infirmities,
our sorrows,
he is drawn to us
in that moment.
Then I went to get my jab
the other day,
got the jab,
felt a bit
peely wally,
there's a good Scottish term for you,
had to go and sit.
Ambulance man comes,
we're chatting away for ages.
He says,
why did you get into this business
of being a minister?
Answer,
Jesus.
Never met anyone like this.
Never read of anyone like him.
All power,
all compassion,
who is like him?
Who moves towards us
in our sufferings.
What we sing with the kids,
Jesus,
strong and kind.
Friends,
can we find a friend
so faithful
who will all
our sorrows share?
Jesus knows
our every weakness.
Take it to the Lord
in prayer.
This is who he is.
I take it these chapters
are here
to help us
enter
the depths
of his pain
and thirdly
and finally,
I take it
that they are here
to encourage us
to embrace
the source
of his hope.
Come with me
to chapter 19,
verse 25 onwards.
This is the time
we have left.
We'll just look
at this section
and to some
of the most famous
and the most glorious
words in the Bible.
What is Job
clinging to?
He is clinging,
do you see it,
to the phrase,
his living Redeemer.
Now,
a Redeemer
in a context,
someone who
in your family line
steps in
when somebody dies,
takes financial
and practical
responsibility
for you and your family
in your time of need.
That's what a Redeemer does.
Someone from the outside
in your family
comes in
and takes responsibility.
Now,
Job might not know
the precise
how
this is going to happen,
but you see
how his confidence
is that at the end
of the course
of his life,
God will
vindicate him.
That's what his confidence
is in
and he will do it
through this living
Redeemer.
And after death,
he will stand
and
he will see God.
That's the rock
that this limpet
is clinging to.
That is what
Job's hope
is in.
And that's the confession
as we turn to the pages
of the New Testament.
is very similar
to the one
that Martha makes
to Jesus
in John chapter 11.
If you wondered
where we were going
with that.
Now,
the context
of Martha's confession
is not a philosophical
discussion.
Her brother
has just died.
Right?
Just journeying
with people
young and old,
the pain of that
never gets any easier.
Enter into her pain.
Brother has just died.
Her world is turned
upside down.
And feel the pain
in Martha's confession.
Lord,
if you had been here.
Right?
If you'd been here.
Where were you, Lord?
Of course,
in the context,
John has told us
that Jesus delayed
in going.
But he's also told us
that Jesus loved them.
He loved them.
And yet,
this was all about
them understanding
something much more
profound about
who he is.
Where were you?
Jesus says to her.
Your brother will rise
again to which
she responds,
I know he will
rise again
in the resurrection
at the last day.
Again,
do you see,
it's so similar
to Job's confession.
And she probably
doesn't understand
the how.
Right?
She knows
something of the what,
but she doesn't
understand the how.
Do you see,
Jesus answers her how,
not with a how,
but with a who.
I am the resurrection
and the life.
The one who believes
in me will live
even though they die.
And whoever lives
by believing in me
will never die.
In other words,
Martha,
I am
the living
redeemer.
Your world is turned
upside down.
Your pain is real.
But I have your life.
Just in case you thought
that was a cold response
from Jesus,
very next scene,
he is at the tomb
weeping
because of the
carnage that death,
because of sin
has brought into
the world.
You know,
we so often go to
celebration services
of people,
don't we?
But I think there is
a right and proper place
to grieve
as a Christian
that death isn't real.
Sorry,
death isn't the way
it's supposed to be.
And Jesus weeps,
but he weeps.
And in case you thought
that was an unfounded response,
know that he is the one
who speaks
and Lazarus rises.
Jesus who is
all compassion,
all pity,
and he is
all powerful.
And Jesus who would
himself suffer
physically,
mocked,
beaten,
Jesus who himself
would suffer mentally
as he sweats
drops of blood
at the sheer terror
of the cross
that is ahead of him
in the garden
the night before.
And Jesus who would
suffer socially,
abandoned by his friends,
betrayed by the,
one of those
who was closest to him.
Jesus who would go
to the cross
to pay the price
of our sin
on the cross
with his blood
as he,
the truer
and greater Job,
entrusts himself
to his father
who judges
justly.
and Jesus
who on the third
day rose
again
as God
vindicates him
in the eyes
of the watching
world.
Friends,
a great question
to ask as we come
to the Old Testament
is what difference
does it make
to this
that Jesus
has come?
What difference
does it make?
Well,
it means
how much
more
can we
declare
in him
that Jesus
our
living
redeemer
lives?
I take it
they are here
thirdly
to encourage
us to embrace
the source
of his hope.
And now
just as we close
let me tell you
just a really
short story
about two
friends of mine.
I won't tell you
their names
just to protect
them a little bit
but I'll tell you
a tiny bit
of their story
just because
it continues
to speak volumes
to me.
Right?
A number of years
ago they lost
their first son
who lived
tragically
only a handful
of days
and I cannot
begin to fathom
the depths
of pain
that they felt
and the scars
that they will
carry with them
but you know
what they called
them?
They called
them Joshua.
Okay?
The man in the
Bible who leads
God's people
into the promised
land.
Joshua,
I'm going to
do this really
quick.
Joshua,
the Hebrew
name,
literally Yeshua,
Jesus.
And it was
their way
of declaring
in everything
that's going
on that
they were
tying their
eternal destiny
and that of
their son to
that of the
greater and
the truer
Joshua.
The one who
will do right,
the one who
will make all
things new,
the one who
loved us,
and the one who
will take us to
the promised
land.
Friends,
what are you
clinging to?
What are you
clinging to?
Here's the
thing,
going back to
my limpets,
right?
You can be
the Sylvester
Stallone of
limpets.
You can be
the strongest
one there,
but see if
you're clinging
to a weak
rock,
all it's going
to take is
a wave that
is stronger
than the rock
that you're
clinging to,
and boom,
you're gone,
right?
Contrast that
if you're a
weak,
an unspectacular
looking
limpet,
and yet
you're clinging
to a strong
rock.
There is no
wave that is
coming that's
going to hit
you.
Your life could
not be in a
better place,
and the waves
will come,
but because your
rock stands
strong,
so will we,
friends.
So will we.
The strength of
our rock is the
strength of Christ,
our living
redeemer,
and boy,
do we have a
solid rock in
the one who
declared,
I am the
resurrection and
the life.
So,
friends,
what are you
clinging to?
Job says,
my redeemer
lives.
So here's what I
want us to do.
I just want us to
be quiet for a few
moments,
just as we
close our time
together,
and I trust that,
friends,
that the Lord by
his spirit will be
moving amongst us
as we respond to
his word this
morning.
Let me encourage
you to bring
your prayers to
him in the
silence.
And then I'm
just going to
read one thing
as we close in
prayer.
So why don't we
do that together?
Just in the
silence,
let me just read
these words slowly
of a hymn by
Stuart Townend.
And just allow
the truth of
what we've read
today to speak
to you.
There is a
hope that lifts
my weary
head,
a consolation
strong against
despair,
that when the
world has
plunged me in
its deepest
pit,
I find the
Savior there.
Through present
sufferings,
futures fear,
he whispers
courage in my
ear,
fear,
for I am
safe in
everlasting
arms,
and they
will lead
me home.
Father, thank
you that you
love us.
And so,
Father, we pray
for everyone
here today,
Lord,
each of us
individually who
perhaps are
suffering in
different ways.
O Lord, we
pray that you
would help us
be a community
that cares,
that loves,
and particularly
for those who
are hurting
just now,
Lord,
would you be
ministering to
them.
Thank you,
Lord,
that in Christ,
with sins
forgiven,
standing
righteous before
you,
that he will
lead us
home.
And so,
Father, we
commit this
time to you,
Lord, in
Jesus'
wonderful name
we pray.
Amen.