Simple Faith

Guest (Male): When a dark time comes along, how do you react? Here's Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: Ephesians 5:17: "Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk on wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Oh, when the troubles of darkness come and they start to get us down, may we remember to speak to our souls: "Why are you cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God."

Guest (Male): If you're over the age of maybe 50, you no doubt remember the Manson family. One maniacal madman had such influence over his friends that they committed some atrocious murders over two nights in 1969. It's amazing how bad advice can bring us down, but we can discern the good from the bad if we rely on God and take in His word.

That's the lesson we learn today as we open the book of Job. Pastor Bill Henry will take us to chapter seven today, and we're about to hear Job's interaction with one of his so-called friends. Now, under normal circumstances, you'd think that when you're struggling, your friends would be the ones to come to your aid. Well, as Job struggled through suffering, his friends had some advice, and much of it was lousy. Here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Henry: Oh, isn't it awesome to know that we have been rescued and redeemed out of the curse? Now, we're still feeling its effects because we'll all still die; our bodies will still return dust to dust unless the rapture comes.

Now, look what he's going on here in verse four about his bewailing the human condition. Verse four: "When I lie down, I say, 'When shall I rise?' But the night is long, and I toss and turn till the dawn." Anybody have nights like that? "My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh." So again, we see a little insight into the suffering.

Verse six: "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, to come to their end without hope." It's interesting; some would basically call this the daily life—the daily toils of life, right? And it's kind of a sad thing when we as Christians fall into what the world believes about life. There is no hope; eat, drink, for tomorrow we die.

And so we have to be careful as we're reading this in here in Job. Again, if the Lord is showing us, "Hey, we've kind of bought into this view," that is not the Christian view. Because sadly, a lot of professing Christians today, we've given up on life. We forget that you and I are here for such a time as this. There are no mistakes.

I've had so many young people over the years, especially the last 10 to 15 years: "Should we have any children? It's getting so dark out here. I don't think I want to have kids into this world." It's like, oh, your faith is in yourself and man, not in God. God told us to go forth and multiply; He hasn't taken that command back.

And yet we're afraid to bring children into a world for such a time as this. God will use them for His glory if they come to faith in Jesus Christ, and He's going to use them no matter what for His perfect will. But again, we have to be careful not to buy into this Christian world view. You see, we have sin all around us, but you and I have been redeemed from sin through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

And His joy is to be our strength. Nehemiah 8:10: "For the joy of the Lord is our strength." Is it your strength tonight? Do you feel that hope that is certain? Psalm 28:7 and 8: "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him. The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving refuge of His anointed."

Ah, how about Habakkuk 3:18 and 19: "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on high hills." That's our God. First Peter 1:8 and 9: "Whom having not seen you love. Though you now do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

Does that give you strength every day, knowing that Jesus Christ has died for you, but He's also saved us? I love this; this is awesome. How about First Thessalonians 4:16 through 18: "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall be always with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words."

Does it bring comfort to your soul hearing that again tonight? It does mine. Woo! It doesn't matter how dark it gets; Lord, I'm yours forever. I'm your beloved, and He is mine. May we be those who find certain hope in Jesus Christ, who seek to comfort one another continually with the words of God, speaking to lift and to build one another up in Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:17: "Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk on wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Oh, when the troubles of darkness come and they start to get us down, may we remember to speak to our soul: "Why are you cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God." And that's a certain hope that we have as Christians—a joyful hope. Now we come back to the depression here in verse seven of our text.

"Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good." So that's what depression does to you, doesn't it? It brings you to that place of, "Oh, nothing good is ever going to happen. Woe is me." And we start to turn into Eeyore. "It'll never work. Everybody hates me. Nobody likes me. I'm going to eat some worms."

Verse eight: "The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone. As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up. He returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore."

It's interesting in James chapter four, verse 14, we read: "Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." That part is true; we are only here for an allotted time, each one of us. But I love how an old dear saint said this: "You and I are bulletproof until God is finished with us." Don't fear this world; don't fear the calamities or trials.

Verse 11: "Therefore because of this," he says, "I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul." So here we come to one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: bitterness. Not. Complaining. A lot of Christians today treat that as a gift of the spirit, a command: "Go forth and complain."

Notice we get to basically the bottom of all this. Job has bitterness in his soul. "I will complain," verse 11 here, "in the bitterness of my soul." What a sad and terrible thing it is when bitterness begins to consume us and gets into our soul. What a very sad thing. You know, it's interesting; over the internet, I found what some were saying the main causes of bitterness are within our culture today.

Number one is a lack of appreciation or feeling unrecognized in relationships. Remember, if you hear any of these things and it sounds familiar—"Hey, that's how I feel"—it's part of the root of bitterness. Be careful. Unrecognized efforts, unresolved anger, holding on to past grievances, negative experiences, frustrating relationships, people fail to provide support.

There's also a loss of trust. And they went on to say bitterness leads to a complex mix of sadness, anger, disappointment, making it hard to identify and express. Bitterness can lead to a persistent state of irritability and anger. We are warned about a root of bitterness in the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews chapter 12, verses 14 through 15, it says: "Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many."

Beloved in Christ, be careful of that root of bitterness within your life. It's like a weed. I remember when Tullee and I first moved up here, we cleared out an area for a big garden on our property. And so we cleared this out, got the rototiller, brought some dirt in, paid for some good dirt. I didn't know you did that before we moved up here; you had to pay for good dirt.

And so as we're going and we're planting corn and strawberries and all these different things, all of a sudden, when they're coming up, it was hard to tell because right next to them, there was these other little things that were coming up. It's like, "What are—oh, these are weeds." And so what would I do? I'd just go right there and pluck off the top, pluck them off, that's all, that's good.

Well, guess what? I come back a few days later, they're coming back stronger than ever. Why? Because I hadn't gotten the roots. You see, beloved in Christ, we have to be careful. "Oh, I've forgiven them. I've done this or that." But we need to be careful to not let those weeds grow in the garden of our hearts and our minds.

May we bring in afresh the blood of Jesus Christ, remembering that we have been, we continue to be, and will always be forgiven of our sins in Jesus Christ. And apply that then to the root of bitterness. That's a root of bitterness killer: is the blood of Jesus Christ, the word of God by the Spirit of God.

In Matthew 6:14, Jesus said this: "If you forgive others who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." Are we forgivers? Are we known as forgivers, or are we known as those who always hold a grudge? "Oh, I don't really hold a grudge, but I remember. I'll always remember." Well, then pray for the Lord to help you forgive and to love those people because they're sinners just like you.

Look at verse 12; he goes on back in our text: "Am I the sea or a sea monster, that you have set guard over me?" Basically saying, "Look, am I your entertainment now? Is this how you're looking at me?" Verse 13: "When I say my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint, then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath."

You know, beloved in Christ, it's very interesting as he says here in verse 13—notice he says that, "Hey, at least I can find comfort in my bed. I can find rest on my couch for my weary bones." But not so with you, my friends. And he points here in verse 14, talking to them about the dreams and the visions they had been told about concerning him.

And so it's interesting as they had come they'd scared him with these dreams, they terrified Job with the visions that "Oh, that I would choose strangling and death over life; to loathe my life." When you have people come into your life and they begin to tell you things that they say are from the Lord, how do you react?

What is your first reaction? You ever had somebody come to me and say, "I had a dream about you and this is what the Lord tells me that dream," or "I had a vision and this is what God says about you"? I know a lot of Christians that will get afraid. "Oh, what do you mean that's going to happen? Is this really going to happen?"

Especially if you're young in the Lord. Instead of, "Hey, what do I do? What do I do when somebody comes to me? They say they're my friend and they tell me all this terrible stuff." Do you listen to them? Do you let it bring you to where it brought Job? Notice it scared him; it terrified him. He would choose strangling and death rather than life.

Some of you have heard those words all your life, at least when you were kids growing up, and maybe even today. You still hear words from others: "You're worthless. You're no good. You're terrible. You're this, you're that." Maybe it was a mom, a dad, a brother, a sister, a friend, a teacher—go on down the line.

And you know what they used to say: sticks and stones can break your bones, but names or words can really hurt you. And there are a lot of people I'm sure here tonight, those watching or listening, that you've had friends, even in Christian churches, "Oh, you know, this thing, this sin right here is because of you," or "your illness is because of you and some sin you've done or you don't have enough faith," or this or that.

So how do we discern and know if the wisdom somebody is trying to give us in the name of the Lord is true or not? Look, there are many biblical ways that we could talk about. Let me just give you two of the main ways. First and foremost, does what they say line up with the Scriptures? Does it line up with the word of God?

Or as in Job's case, are they putting their feelings forth, their religious beliefs forth, their dreams, their visions? Or is what they're saying to you based upon the word of God? There are a lot of people today—Jesus, one of His main criticisms of the scribes and Pharisees was, "You are teaching as doctrines the word of men."

And basically He's saying, "You are putting things that are your own human doctrines equal to the word of God." And we have to be careful when we hear from people that we love and trust and respect that if it doesn't align with the word of God, put it in the shredder; forget about it. Let it just say, "Lord, you need to reprogram me here because what these people are saying is not in the word of God. This is not of God. This is not edifying me. This is not building me up."

Now, secondly, what do we do? We read about it in the book of James. James chapter three, verse 13. Let's turn over there real quick. James chapter three, starting in verse 13. We're going to be looking at verses 13 through 18. James 3:13: "If you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom."

"But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don't cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind."

Verse 17, ready? "But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace-loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness."

Beloved in Christ, when you've heard from these people that have hurt you—and especially in the name of Christ—if it's not this, if it's not what we read right here, then forget it. And can I also challenge us here this evening as well? If this doesn't reflect how you speak to one another in your home, with your friends, with your family, to your kids, to your parents, and in ways that are peace-loving, gentle, willing to yield to others, full of mercy and the good fruits pointing to the Holy Spirit, shows no favoritism and is always sincere, those who are looking for peace and not just to put down and attack.

Be careful, beloved in Christ. Look, "Well, that's how I was raised; my mom and dad, and I turned out all right." You know what, let me just tell you this right now: no, you didn't. "It worked for me, it'll work for—" no, it didn't work for you. Because you're not going to the word of God and seeking to submit yourself to Him as your Father. Take whatever your father and your mother or whoever else was and just say, "You know what, Lord, I reject that in the name of Jesus because it doesn't align with your word."

And, Lord, I'm not going to speak to people anymore stuff that's not found in your word. Now, look at verse 17 back in our text: "What is man that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, visit him every morning and test him every moment? How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?"

So now again, this does seem to be a prayer directly aimed at God, words directly aimed at God. And notice once again that Job is now blaming God for what Satan was doing. He didn't—couldn't see behind the scenes; he didn't know what happened in chapters one and two.

And he would notice it says here he'd rather have the Lord look away from him, thinking that his suffering would end if God would just look away from him—"Just don't look at me anymore. Don't look at me!" Yet it was in reality God's looking at him that was saving him and showing him grace and mercy.

Verse 20: "If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth, and you will seek me, but I shall not be."

I have to say as we're closing here: I love Job's honesty with the Lord. I will say that. Even though he's falsely accusing the Lord, at least he goes to the right place. He goes to the Lord. And he has these questions and laying bare. He doesn't understand what's happening.

Again, as we said, Job didn't have the Bible to encourage him. He had no idea that it was Satan who was doing these things. He thought even here, he says it has to do with some sin that he doesn't know about that God won't forgive him for. And again, sadly, so many falsely teach today that if you or I are sick, it's always because we're in sin or there's something happening; you don't have enough faith or you're in sin. Now, this can be the case. But biblically speaking, most times, it's not. We need to understand as Christians that once we have turned away...