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Bill Henry: What's your measuring stick for life in the year 2026? Here's Pastor Bill Henry.

So we turn to the things of the world instead of realizing that we can come. Notice verse 5 there, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, what He has shown us through His Word. If something out in the world, something in our own mind, goes against the Word of God, we need to take that and throw it in the garbage heap and instead believe what the Bible tells us.

Guest (Male): Simple Faith is on the air. Thanks for joining us as we bring you another study in God's Word. Today we're going to continue Pastor Bill Henry's series in Job. Now, the sufferings this man went through are well-known. He lost his fortune, he lost his children, he even had boils from head to toe. Now, what could be worse than that? Well, we're going to find out today that one of the worst things in Job's life at the time was his so-called friends. Talk about bad advice. Here's Pastor Bill to explain from Job chapter 3.

Bill Henry: So you'll remember in the last couple of chapters, the first two, in each of the chapters, Satan was basically given permission by God to go after Job. In chapter 1, you'll remember that you could go after Job, you can touch anything except his health. You can't touch his body in any way. So Satan came strong after all of his possessions. His children were all killed. And so, just a tragic thing. And yet Job, instead of cursing God in the midst of this horror and loss, we read in Job chapter 1, verse 20: "Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell on the ground and worshiped."

And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. We don't have slides tonight, that's my fault. I forgot to send them to the guys. Are they still working on them? Do you know, Michael? Yeah, so I'll just be throwing the references out. You'll have to do it the old-fashioned way. You got your Bibles right in front of you.

Then in chapter 2, we see once again, just turn with me there if you don't mind. Just turn back a chapter and look at verse 3. Job chapter 2, verse 3, and it says: "And the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth? A blameless and upright man.'" Remember that, what God says about him, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. "He still holds fast his integrity although you incited me against him to destroy him for without reason."

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, "Skin for skin, all that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse you to your face." And the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand, only spare his life." So then Job was on, went on to be attacked physically by Satan, and he had sores throughout his whole body. And unless we just think this was some small rash or not that big of a deal, this is what one commentator said about the illnesses and they're described throughout the book of Job.

Inflamed and ulcerous sores. Job 2:7. He had itching, degenerative changes in facial skin, loss of appetite, depression, loss of strength, worms in the boils, running sores, difficulty in breathing, darkness under the eyes, foul breath, loss of weight, continual pain, restlessness. That's in Job 30, verse 27. Blackened skin, peeling skin, and even had fever, we're told a few times throughout. So this was not just some little thing, this was a major thing.

But yet, as we studied last time, you'll remember thankfully Job had a very encouraging wife and came alongside him to encourage him during this rugged time. If you're still in chapter 2, these are great encouraging words. Look at verse 9. Job 2:9: "Then his wife said to him, 'Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.'" Oh, oops, not very encouraging, is it? But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?" In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.

Well, okay, so Job's wife, okay, that was a dud, right? She wasn't a good source of comfort. But surely his close friends, they've come. They came at the end of chapter 2. If you're still there, look at verse 11. And surely they will come, they will bring comfort to Job in the midst of all his afflictions. Ready, let's start in verse 11, chapter 2. "Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come and show him sympathy and comfort him."

So again, notice they're coming with sympathy, comfort. Look at verse 12. "And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him." That's how bad the sores were. "And they raised their voices and wept. They tore their robes, sprinkled dust on their heads towards heaven." Verse 13, check this out. "And they sat on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him for they saw that his suffering was great."

Before we get into the rest of it, and if you've read Job, and hopefully we've all read it many times, you know that his friends aren't going to be the most encouraging guys in the world. But it's interesting to me that when they first came, their hearts were to encourage him. How many friends do we have that would sit next to us on the ground for seven days and seven nights and mourn with us and just be quiet, not say a thing? It just reminds me of Romans chapter 12, verse 15, that says: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn."

So let's dig in, let's see what happens here. Chapter 3, verse 1. "And after this, Job opened his mouth." So remember, it's now been seven days since the terrible things have happened, especially with his health, that they've all been sitting there quiet, not a word. And so Job, after seven days, seven nights, verse 1, opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said, verse 3: "Let the day perish on which I was born, and let the night that said a man is conceived, let that day be darkness. May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it. Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it, let the darkness of the day terrify it."

So here's Job now simply wishing that he had never even been born, but at this point, never even been conceived. Never born, never even thought of by God. Verse 4: "You know that God above not seek it, it just never even was conceived by God Himself." Look at verse 6: "That night, so in other words, the night that he was conceived, let thick darkness seize it. Let not it rejoice among the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the month. Behold, let that night be barren, let no joyful cry enter it. Let those curse it who curse the day, those who are ready to rise up Leviathan."

Now Leviathan is a reference, mainly most of your commentators say to some mythical creature, seven heads, this and that. Later on in the book, you're going to see that he actually talks about dinosaurs, which is kind of cool. Verse 9 says: "Let the stars of its dawn be dark. Let it hope for light but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes."

Remember now what we just read a few moments ago back in Job chapter 1, verse 8. We read in chapter 2, but God basically says the same thing. He says: "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth? A blameless and upright man." Remember that, what God says about him, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. And now we hear what Job has been thinking about for the last seven days and seven nights, and it ain't pretty. It's very ugly. Let that day that I was conceived, man, just let it never happen. Let the darkness never, let the light never shine, nor see the eyelids of the morning because it did not shut the doors on my mother's womb.

I don't know about you guys and gals tonight, but I find it quite interesting and honestly quite comforting that the most blameless and upright guy on the whole earth, a man who fears God and turns away from evil, is having such a hard time in the midst of his suffering and pain. How many of us here have really suffered in our lives? Raise your hand if you've ever really suffered in your life.

A lot of us here have, a lot of us here haven't. When we're in the midst of suffering, you know, it's interesting, we note here that even though Job is wishing he had never been born, even though he's like, "Hey, I wish that day never even happened, and that the Lord never even thought of me," do you notice that he's not cursing God? Not cursing God. Notice that throughout this whole book, even though he'll argue with God later and kind of blame God later and challenge God, if you will, but he doesn't blame God.

And even as he's talking about not wanting to have been born, that God would have never thought of him, look at verse 11. It goes on: "Why did I not die at birth, come out of the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me or why the breast that I should nurse?" So even now before was, though, that I would never have been born. Now it's like, if I would have just died right when I was born. And it's a sad thing, he wishes that he had never been born. He wished that he would have died at birth, then.

And what's an interesting thing to me, though, is do you notice that he never throughout this whole book, he never tried to take his life? He never killed himself, which he could have done. And sadly so many today, they go that step. It's like everybody, I don't know one person that's never been tempted to take their life, that hasn't been tempted to take their life. Maybe if you're younger, you haven't gone there yet. It's just you're driving down the road, all of a sudden, hey, that tree looks pretty good. No more cares, no more this, or hey, this or that. Don't listen to the enemy.

Don't listen to the darkness. And again, the darkness is getting louder and louder and louder. And we need to listen to the still small voice of the Word of God through His Word by His Holy Spirit. But we can all go through these things, is what I'm trying to say. We will all go, if the Lord tarries, we are going to continue to go through more and more suffering. Even if we stay in the United States of America, even if we are not persecuted as Christians, we still suffer. People we love die, our jobs sometimes go away, we lose things that we need, our houses or our cars. We can get bad news from the doctor, and we will suffer.

But remember, this is common to man. And I love even, turn with me to 2nd Corinthians chapter 1. We're going old school tonight. Turn with me to 2nd Corinthians chapter 1. This is one of my favorite verses, these verses in the Bible, because it just helps me to understand, hey, you know what? Here's Paul the Apostle, and he did went through some really rugged times. But we see why God allows certain things to happen within our lives. 2nd Corinthians chapter 1, verses 8 and 9. Remember, Paul's writing this, okay?

The Apostle Paul, 2nd Corinthians 1:8: "For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure above strength, so that we despaired even of life." So they despaired all the way even of life. Look at verse 9: "Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, but notice, I love the last part here, notice what he says, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead."

God allows these things in our lives as Christians that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. This is obviously a reference back to Abraham when he was told, you know, "Give up your son, your only son." And as Abraham was ready to take the life of his own son, God stayed his hand with an angel, said "Stop." And in the New Testament we're told that Abraham was ready to kill his own son for God because he knew God could raise him from the dead.

Look guys and gals, when we're feeling these ways and the enemy comes in and he will, if he hasn't, he will, go back and read these scriptures and then remember that our trust should not be in ourselves, in our own strength, in our own ways, in the things of the world, but in God. In Him who loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us, and now lives within us, tabernacles within us as Christians. Gives us His Word as a light.

Look back in our text, verse 13 here in chapter 3, Job. Job goes on in this tirade: "For then I would have lain down and been quiet. I would have slept, then I would have been at rest. Notice, with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves, or with the princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver." Basically what he's saying now is that death is the great equalizer. Doesn't matter if they're kings or counselors, rebuilders of ruins, princes who had gold or some people who filled their houses with silver. Once you're dead, all those things don't matter anymore.

And so we see that this is what Job believed. Look at verse 16: "Or why was I not hidden, a stillborn child, as infants who never see the light? There where the wicked cease from troubling, and there are the weary are at rest. There the prisoners are at ease together, they hear not the voice of the taskmaster." So again, you don't have, your alarm clock's not going off, right? In heaven. You don't have the taskmaster, you're not at work every day. Verse 19: "The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master."

Again, wishing he had died at birth, but again, notice that again he had been obviously thinking some pretty dark and grim things during those seven days and seven nights he had been totally silent. May I encourage you when those thoughts come at you, beloved in Christ, and they will, maybe some more than others, remember that by the power of Jesus Christ, we have something now available to us. Turn again please with me to 2nd Corinthians, this time to chapter 10. 2nd Corinthians chapter 10.

You see, we have something that is available to us that a lot of Christians don't realize, a lot of Christians don't even believe that they can do this. But they can by the power of the Spirit of God, or God would not have said it. 2nd Corinthians chapter 10, let's read verses 3 through 6. "For though we walk in the flesh, 2nd Corinthians 10:3, we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, revealed to us by His Word, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled."

Notice it says here: "Look, we have these weapons, they're not carnal, but these are mighty weapons." We try to fight let's say depression or we try to fight these dark thoughts with the things of the world. Some of us, you know, you get on Zantac or I don't know all these different drugs. And it drives me nuts, you watch a commercial and it says: "Oh, you take an antidepressant? Well, if it's not quite doing it for you, we'll give you another drug that's going to help you even more."

So we turn to the things of the world instead of realizing that we can come. Notice verse 5 there, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, what He has shown us through His Word. If something out in the world, something in our own mind, goes against the Word of God, we need to take that and throw it in the garbage heap and instead believe what the Bible tells us.

The world tells me I can't control my thoughts, I can't control what comes into my mind. You might not be able to control what first comes in there, but you can take them captive. Notice here in verse 5, bringing every thought in captivity to the obedience of Christ. Take it right to the cross of Jesus Christ. Memorize this scripture if you're having problems with this, beloved in Christ, and believe what God tells us here that we have. Job didn't have this available, by the way, back then. So we can't really blame Job too much, can we?

Look at verse 20 back in our text in Job. "Why is light given to him who is in misery? The life to the bitter in soul." Anybody again, you ever felt like this? Dude, why is it even, why's the light being turned on? I just want to sleep, I just forget it, just forget light. And life to the bitter soul, who long for death but it comes not, and dig for it more than hidden treasures, who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave. Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

Notice it's interesting there in verse 23. So basically as he is saying, why is God wasting a new day on me? Why, why is the sun coming up? Why, but and so he's saying, I just again, he just wants to be dead. But notice, he kind of questions God. "Why is light given to a man, verse 23, whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?" You'll remember back in chapter 1, do you remember what Satan said about Job? "You have a hedge of protection around." He said this to God, "You have a hedge of protection, you're protecting him."

And yet what Job doesn't understand, notice, he's saying God has hedged me in. Look guys and gals, when we come to the Word of God, it's the same kind of thought. A lot of people think, oh God is just, He's restraining me, He's hedging me in. No, He's protecting us from the things out here and He's protecting us from ourselves. So again, but if you think about it, where is Job's mind right now? He's almost going to where his wife went. He's almost taking the advice, at least he is partially, right? Just curse God and die.

He's not done the curse God part and he won't, but he just he does want to just die. So again, it's really sad. Look at verse 24: "For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease nor am I quiet. I have no rest but trouble comes." It's interesting where he says here in verse 24, "For my sighing comes instead of my bread, my groanings."

We're told in the book of Romans that God helps those who don't know what to pray. We're even still like today, like we have this thing available to us to let the Holy Spirit even like you just you don't know what to pray, oh you just all these groanings of the Holy Spirit. And again, it sounds kind of weird, well you just want me to groan? That's what the Bible says. Creation is groaning even now as the weight of sin is upon it. You don't think we're going to groan? And so notice verse 25: "The thing I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I'm not at ease nor am I quiet, I have no rest but trouble comes." So again, think about all the trouble, all the things that he feared. He lost all of his cattle, he lost all of his camels, he lost all of his sheep, he lost every, donkeys and all the other stuff. And it's just crazy like all these things that he lost.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill from his series in the book of Job. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today. And if you'd like to share today's message with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can even download an audio MP3 version.

We have a large number of Pastor Bill's messages archived, and you can find them all at simplefaith.org. That's simplefaith.org. Click the media tab and if you'd like to contact us, just click the contact tab on our website. And there's a tab at the top of our homepage where you can also send us a prayer request. You can also call us at the church at 833-BY-GRACE. That's 833-294-7223. And if you'd like to write to us, our mailing address is Post Office Box 55, Battle Ground, Washington, 98604.

Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have two services on Sunday morning at 9:00 and 10:45, and a great time of studying God's Word Wednesday night at 7:00 PM. We'd love to have you come visit us and make sure you say hi to Pastor Bill and let him know you listened to Simple Faith. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org. And you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for joining us today. Be sure to join us next time as our series in Job continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry. And be sure to join us for the Saturday edition of Simple Faith and our series in 1st Thessalonians. This program is brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington.