[0:00] Job chapter 10 will be our text tonight as we look at it with one another. The children in the back right now are starting something this summer.
[0:12] ! They are going through something that is not necessarily new to the Baptist. Not new in any sense. Actually, the Baptist did it for a long time. But it is probably abnormal among Baptists now.
[0:25] And that is, they are beginning to go through catechisms. And I'm really excited about that because it will be imparting some truth to them.
[0:37] Some truth in theology. I'm telling you this because you have the opportunity you can go through it with them as well. There's no way they'll cover all 52 of them. But if you want to go through, it's called New City Catechisms.
[0:49] You can actually get it on your phone and it gives you the question and the answers and all that other stuff. And it's really good. It would be good for parents to walk with their children through it around the table and help them to not only memorize the question and the answer, but if you can get it, it's free.
[1:03] I'll open mine up right here. Yes, I have my phone with me. Don't hate on me for that. So if you get New City Catechism, I love the very first one. We sing a hymn about it now because I requested it.
[1:17] And the first question is so pertinent to the message and the passage we have before us. It was not intended that way, but it is well planned that way. First question is, what is our hope?
[1:29] What is our only hope in life and death? What is our only hope in life and death? Now we sing that song, right? And it comes from an early catechism from the 1500s.
[1:42] But the answer is that we are not our own, but belong body, soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
[1:53] What is our only hope in life and death? That we are not our own, but belong body, soul, in life and death, to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
[2:05] There are three things that the students will go through as they study that. Three things that I encourage you to go through, and that is not only the question and the answer, but the verses that go with that.
[2:16] And you can find those verses. We're not going to take time to look at it tonight. Why is that important to understand? Why is it important to walk through those things and to build those disciplines in our life? Well, we find the importance of that found in Job 10.
[2:31] We have the grand benefit that Job does not have. We do not have to see into the courtroom of heaven and see what transpires and see all that takes place. Job surely had no idea that God was using Job to defeat the attacks of the enemy and to prove the faithfulness of his own people.
[2:51] But even in the midst of our lives, where at times we are those instruments and tools used by God in difficult seasons, we have the benefit of the only hope in life and death.
[3:03] that we wholly belong to Jesus our Lord. The mind frame during the time of Job, which is very natural to understand, if you think about it, he is either in a pre-patriarchal or the patriarchal time.
[3:18] That is, sometime between Noah and Abraham or sometime immediately following Abraham. And longevity of life was something that was very common.
[3:29] We do not have to read very far in the book of Genesis, and we see people living for an extremely long time. Even Abraham lives an extremely long time. And this is during the time frame in which Job was alive.
[3:43] Job and his friends, we do not know how old they are, but we do know that their point of view, their reference, was that God blesses with a long life. Even in our casual study of the book of Genesis, if we were to do it correctly, we would see the difference between the lineage of the wicked and the lineage of the righteous.
[4:04] When we follow the lineage of Cain, is Cain had children and then he died. And then these people had kids and they died. And these people had kids and they died. And the emphasis on the lineage of the wicked is that they died.
[4:16] But then we are introduced to Seth. And Seth being the lineage of the godly. And they begot. And the emphasis is on the living and the seed that continues to progress.
[4:27] So when we look at the righteous, we see life. And when we look at the wicked, we see death. And the measure of your faithfulness was the longevity of your life because that was their hope.
[4:41] Their hope was in life. And they had no idea about a hope in life and death. We see that from our passage tonight.
[4:55] And it's hard for us to wrap our mind around that concept. But when we try to put ourselves into the situation that Job found himself, into an avenue where this world is all you have, your promise of God's faithfulness is confined and constrained to this life.
[5:17] And the blessings you seek are those of this life. Then the anxiety is heightened when you do not see those. And in Job 10 tonight, I want you to see the unrestrained cry of the hurting.
[5:33] The unrestrained cry of the hurting. The word of God says, I loathe my own life. I will give full vent to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
[5:45] I will say to God, do not condemn me. Let me know why you contend with me. Is it right for you indeed to oppress, to reject the labor of your hands, and to look favorably on the schemes of the wicked?
[5:57] Have you eyes of flesh, or do you see as a man sees? Are your days as the days of a mortal, or your years as man's years, that you should seek for my guilt and search after my sin?
[6:10] According to your knowledge, I am indeed not guilty. Yet there is no deliverance from your hand. Your hand's fashioned and made me altogether. And would you destroy me?
[6:22] Remember now that you have made me as clay. And would you turn me into dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese, and clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews?
[6:37] You have granted me life and loving kindness, and your care has preserved my spirit. Yet these things you have concealed in your heart. I know that this is within you.
[6:48] If I sin, then you would take note of me, and would not equip me of my guilt. If I am wicked, woe to me. And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head.
[7:00] I am sated with disgrace and conscious of my misery. Should my head be lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion. And again, you would show your power against me. You renew your witness against me, and increase your anger toward me.
[7:14] Hardship after hardship is with me. Why then have you brought me out of the womb? Would that I had died, and know I had seen me? I should have been, as though I had not been, carried from womb to tomb.
[7:29] Would he not let my few days alone withdraw from me, that I may have a little cheer? Before I go, and I shall not return to the land of darkness and deep shadow, the land of utter gloom, as darkness itself, of deep shadow without order, and which shines as the darkness.
[7:48] The unrestrained cry of the hurting. In the chapter before us, Job turns his attention from answering his friends and the accusations of his friends, and he turns and faces God.
[8:04] It is here that he cries out to the Lord God for the first time with the question that is resonating within him. He goes, as he says, without restraint.
[8:15] No longer will he hold back. He has been accused of being a windbag. He has been accused of saying any number of things and really speaking freely. And now for the first time, in the 10th chapter, after answering Bildad, in the 9th chapter, Job says, now I will speak to the Lord.
[8:33] I will not speak to my friends, but I will speak to the Lord. And if we thought he had been very forward in his answer to his friends, now we see how he is just really transparent and honest as he speaks to the Lord God Almighty.
[8:47] This is both challenging and comforting to us. It's challenging in the reality that there are circumstances that happens in individuals' lives in which they have to answer with unrestraint, and they have to be able to be absolutely honest.
[9:01] Now the comfort is that God can handle it. That God absolutely can handle our despair, our misery, our suffering, and even our questionings, because God never chastises Job for coming to him in honesty.
[9:19] As a matter of fact, I believe God now answers him honestly and is just as pointed in his responses to Job later on, though he will never answer the question.
[9:31] We say that over and over again. And we have to know, we have to understand that God is able to handle that. Whenever I do pre-marriage counseling, or if I back it up and I do marriage counseling, and when I'm meeting with a couple, I always tell that couple, listen, if you have an issue, if there's something that you're just at a breaking point, then call me.
[9:58] I say call me and just chew me out. I especially tell dads this or husbands this. I say, if you've just got to go off on somebody, then call me and just go off. I say, because what's going to happen is when you're done, I'll say, are you done?
[10:12] And you say yes, and I'll just hang up the phone and I'm going to go about my day as if nothing happens. And that's not being cold. I say, that's just my personality. It doesn't bother me.
[10:22] You need to have someone you can vent to. You need to have someone you can let. I said, it's okay. Now, if you just need to blow it, then blow it with me. Don't blow it with your spouse, right?
[10:33] Don't blow up and lose it at the wrong time. I said, I can just say, oh, okay, well, that was nice. Thank you. And I can hang up the phone and I can go about the rest of my day. It doesn't, I don't really carry a lot of that with me.
[10:44] Now, I'll pray for you and I'll be concerned over you and all those things, but it's not going to stop my day. I tell them, I'll still sleep well that night and I'm a big boy. My feelings aren't going to get hurt. It's okay.
[10:57] You said, anybody ever taken you up on it? Yeah, once or twice. And that's okay. But it's even more important to know that much like Job, we can speak without restraint and let the full vent of what it is that is on our hearts and minds come forth and God can handle it.
[11:19] And we can cry out to him in honesty. These are harsh words for sure. The third of Job's friends will answer very quickly and his will be the shortest speech, but it'll also be the harshest speech and he'll really chastise and rebuke Job and no wonder because of the way Job speaks here.
[11:38] But we notice this cry here, this cry of the hurting and it is still the cry that is going on today as mankind hurts and they live in this world that is broken.
[11:50] Again, Job is living at a time where he knows no only hope in life and death. He may certainly know the answer to that first one, what is our only hope in life, but in his mind frame and in their worldview, there was nothing for death.
[12:07] It was just the end. That is one of the beautiful things of progressive revelation that we find in Scripture. The further we get along, the more we understand, the further we go, the more we see, even as we read the book of Job because by the time we get to the 29th chapter, Job will say, I know, though he slay me, I know that I will see my Redeemer in the land of the living because the more he walks in fellowship with God and questions and God begins to minister to his spirit because here he says there is no Redeemer and then by the time we get to the 29th chapter, he said, but I'll see him even if I'm dead.
[12:42] So he progresses in his understanding and goes far beyond anything of his time frame. And the thing that we notice here is that when Job cries out, it is a cry for answers.
[13:00] It is the question that man still asks today. He says, I loathe my own life. I will give full vent to my complaint. That means I won't hold it back anymore. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul and I will say to God, this is what he'll say, do not condemn me.
[13:16] Let me know why. This is the heart cry of the hurting and I would say this is the heart cry of all humanity and at some point in their life, they cry out and they say, God, I need an answer.
[13:34] Let me know why. It is the question that so often is unanswered but it is still asked. It is one of the most difficult questions that we can ever ask.
[13:50] God, why is this happening? Now, we need to understand it is not wrong for us to ask that question. but in asking, we are not constraining God to answer it and we need to be okay with that.
[14:10] We need to take that and say, even if he doesn't answer why, because this is the one question we say over and over again, God never tells Job why.
[14:22] we know why. Job never knows why on that side of heaven. Never.
[14:36] We, I mean, today I heard of two accounts since lunch, I've heard of two things that just make me go, why? Why? And we'll never know a lot of them.
[14:52] But it's not wrong to ask. In the land of hurt and in life where there's pain and misery and brokenness, it is natural to want to cry out and say, God, let me know why.
[15:08] Some things we can find out by reading scripture. Some things we can see through our own life. Sometimes we can do a little self-examination because quite often the why question is the one that puts us in front of the mirror and says, is this happening because of something that I have done?
[15:22] Is there something in my life I need to repent of? Something I need to change? Something I ought not to be doing that I am doing or something that I should be doing that I'm not doing? Is there some matter?
[15:33] And it is there that God uses that for evaluation. And sometimes it's an inspection of our own life. At other times it's just a matter of completely surrendering ourselves to the Lord God who does know why.
[15:47] We get a lot of questions. It's okay, I have to be okay with this. I get a lot of why questions as a pastor and there are some that I can answer and there are some that I can't answer. And sometimes the answer is simply saying because God has so ordained it that it may show his glory and power.
[16:05] Just this, earlier this week I sat around with a group of men and we got into discussion of why did God create Satan? Why is it true knowledge of good and evil even in the garden? All these things that you have to look at and say, well if God is omniscient and omnipotent and if he is sovereign then why?
[16:22] Now we can look at that and say well because these display and declare the glory and righteousness of God and we can understand it that way because it fits his sovereign purposes and it is for his ultimate glory and all these realities.
[16:37] Well those are abstract. What about the things in our own life? But what about this? Why this? Even Paul asked himself why. He pleaded to the Lord three times that God would remove that thorn in his flesh whatever it is and he was saying God I need I want this gone and I'm sure the heart cry was why is this still here?
[16:54] Why is it still there? And God showed him that the reason that existed it was so that his glory would be he would glory in the strength of Christ not in the strength of self and that the grace would be sufficient in his weaknesses and I would say if we get real personal we could all look at our lives and say God why won't you just set me free from this?
[17:16] Why is this struggle here? If he could take it away in a moment have you ever considered that by the way let me just stop right here in our sanctification there are some things maybe I'm the only one that's ever seen this in my sanctification not salvation salvation's in an instant sanctification is progressive in sanctification there are some matters that God takes away instantly like that's not even there anymore like wow and then there are some matters where he's just like it feels like he's chiseling on it for ages and they're like God can't you just take that away and you ever ask why?
[17:59] and most of the time I believe the why is so that we don't lose that dependence and we don't lose that reality and we don't lose the having to cry out to God and say God why? because God longs for that relationship and it is the cry of the hurting that brings us to a place of dependence upon someone else someone greater than us and this is exactly where Job's at Job did not ask his friends why his friends all had opinions as to why they all had a thought and an opinion and a world view that determined why these things had happened but he knew that the wisdom of this world fell woefully short for what he was desiring to know so he cried out to one who was greater than the world and in this longing for an answer he comes to this great acknowledgement and he cries out it's one of the most beautiful passages by the way speaking of the precious nature of human life he has this cry of acknowledgement found in verse eight your hands have fashioned and made me all together sounds a whole lot like psalms right but it's a lot older than psalm 139 and just notice the progression here your hands have fashioned and made me all together now here's what he's reasoning this is why he's acknowledging this because God you made me and would you destroy me but notice what he doesn't say Job doesn't say my life is my own he says God you made me so why would you destroy the work of your hands and he not only says that
[19:37] God made him but look at how he says remember now that you have made me as clay there's a beautiful picture that we find throughout scripture is the potter molds the clay and would you turn me to dust again somehow another Job had the reality that dust to dust oh this book in the bible but he had the concept that God had created man from the dust of the ground Genesis isn't written by the way when the book of Job is written Moses hasn't seen the Shekinah glory of God pass him by and then said in the beginning God created that he hadn't seen that yet the Pentateuch is not in existence yet yet Job has this understanding that dust to dust but he goes further than that we see the wisdom of scripture he said did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese and clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews by the way scientists have said this the order of operations there is absolutely correct in the formation of the baby in the womb the oldest book in scripture gets the order right and he acknowledges that God works magnificently and that
[20:59] God not only creates life but notice this acknowledgement and we'll find this again later on in the book of Job he says you have granted me life and loving kindness and here it is and your care has preserved my spirit that is saying that God I am only alive because you make sure that I'm alive your care has preserved my spirit he would say later on that if God was to call his spirit back to himself that all of mankind would die and he acknowledges that God is the giver and the sustainer of life even in the midst of his pain and his hurting and his suffering and here's why he is crying out to God because he says God you are rightfully the giver and the sustainer of life so why would you take my life why would you make it miserable and he acknowledges here very early on we see this admission in in scripture of the sovereignty of God over all human life he is absolutely in control that God creates it forms it fashions it and sustains it and when he acknowledges that and he comes to another admission notice this admission that these things you have concealed in your heart says God the reason why you do what you're doing is concealed in your heart
[22:40] I know that you've created me you've formed me you've fashioned me I know you sustain me but your reasons they're beyond me there are in scripture there are things which we call the revealed things of God and the hidden things of God there are things that he wants us to know and then there are those matters we're not fit to know at times we'd like to say well I can handle it but I have to think that God is gracious in the hidden things and Job is saying here you've hidden these matters in your heart so I don't understand it but he does admit this if I sin then you would take note of me and would not equip me of my guilt so he says God if I sin you know it if I sin you judge me if I am wicked woe is me and if
[23:42] I'm righteous I dare not lift up my head and he's already declared up here he says God you know according to your knowledge that I am indeed not guilty it said that in verse 7 and now he says down here in verse 15 and if I am righteous if I'm not guilty and yet all these things still happen to me then I'm going to just keep my head down in shame for I have no idea why it's coming and he even admits the reality he says should my head be lifted up you would hunt me like a lion and again you would show your power against me what he is saying is God that if I was even to try to flee from you or hide from you there's no getting away from your omniscient sovereignty you know exactly what I do you are not a God who formed me fashioned me set me on the course of life and then abandoned me you are intimately aware of all that goes on in my life your judgments are true and sure and right and you know everything about me and as he admits this he he just comes to this realization sure it's it's not pleasant he's just crying out because it's still here is resonating with the why he says so why is it happening how can it be
[24:58] God I am yours and there's nowhere I can go from you why is he in such despair why is it that now if we read more recent church history after the cross and we can read books like the book of the martyrs Fox's book of martyrs and we can are just so horrendous and the suffering is unbearable and the misery is equal to that of Job and you see but they're written for encouragement it's because on this side of the cross we have an understanding a revelation which Job does not have and we know that Job does not have it because of the closing verses of this chapter and it is the one thing he anticipates is just to be left alone in this life because this is the only good he can perceive but we have to be careful in our hurt what our anticipation is why then have you brought me out of the womb would that
[26:10] I had died and no I had seen me I should have been as though I had not been carried he just wants God to leave him alone now in reality we don't want that he says withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer why because the only anticipation of good in Job's world view is the good of this life it is all banking on what happens here because look at how he views death before I go and I shall not return to the land of darkness and deep shadow to the land of utter gloom as darkness itself of deep shadow without order and of which shines as the darkness do you see the misery of what is expected after life darkness darkness darkness darkness even that which shines is darkness darkness compared to the anticipation of the believer in
[27:18] Jesus Christ where it is an anticipation of light and brightness and revelation it is glory where there is no shadow of darkness but in Job's world view the only hope the only blessing he could anticipate was the anticipation of this life so he is crying out oh God just leave me alone so that the few days I have would be good days as believers in Jesus Christ that does not have to be our cry because we understand that the good days are the days on the other side of this life that these are not the promised good days these are not the best days in Christ the best is always yet to come until we meet him face to face the eternal glory of his presence will so outweigh
[28:19] Paul says that this momentary light affliction does not compare to the weight of glory we will have in his presence and we look at the anticipation of those who know Jesus Christ and the anticipation is not that God would leave them alone in this world so that they may be comfortable in this world but the anticipation is for the world to come that the glory of that world would begin to radiate into this world to make this world bearable so that when we get there we!
[28:48] prepared! And we see this reality that Job's worldview was constraining him and confining him to think that this is all there was but we dare not blame him for that for God had not revealed anything other than that but woe be to the believer in Jesus Christ who lives like this world is all there is because this is not what we are to anticipate there is a much greater grander day coming and when this life is over we are not carried to the land of darkness and deep shadow not in Christ we're not to the land of utter gloom as darkness itself a deep shadow without order and which shines as the darkness rather we are carried to a place in Christ where there is no darkness there is no sun there is no moon for that's the anticipation of the believer too often those who know
[30:05] Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior live as if they're in the days of Job rather than the days of Christ it is difficult when we cry and hurt and we say God I want answers much like Job we may have to wait to glory to get those answers but we do know that it's glory that's going to give them to us not darkness so as we come to him with unrestrained!
[30:34] cries and we come to him with questions and we come to him with longings we know and we have a contentment that it may not be answered to this side and that's okay for we do know that there is a day coming where every answer will be known in Christ every promise will be fulfilled in him Job didn't have that benefit but we do we do not look at death as a day of darkness in Christ without Christ it is utter darkness you're cast into the outer darkness darkness that knows no end but in Christ it is brightness that knows no end and so as we said we see elsewhere in scripture we do not live like those who have no hope rather we live in the everlasting hope that is found in Jesus Christ even in the midst of hurt and even in the midst of unrestrained pain
[31:42] Job teaches us that it's okay to come before God with honesty but Christ teaches us that he's already taken care of every misery so may we reconcile the two say God there are times where I'd like to know why but I am content that I know who and on that day that's the only one that really matters if I know why it still happens but if I know who I know who's in control of what's happening may we be those who lean on him Job chapter 10 thank you my brothers okay you