Hopelessness and Our Blessed Hope

[00:00:00] Let's look to God in prayer, Father, just as that psalm has closed with the thought that not a ray of likeness. I see. [00:00:17] We recognize, Father, that we live in a dark world. [00:00:22] And that we are a people shrouded in darkness. Darkness that is a result of our own sin, darkness that is a result of our own neglect. [00:00:37] And we need your light, Your light for our lives. Your light so that we might see the world as it truly is. And your light that we might know the way to go. [00:00:53] And your word, Father. The Scriptures are a lamp and a light to our pathway. [00:01:05] And we ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit might open our hearts and minds to what is said here in the book of Job. [00:01:14] That we might come to a greater appreciation of all that you accomplished through that terrible experience of Job. [00:01:25] And that we might see whether our own condition be better or worse than his. [00:01:34] That your presence, that your love never fails. [00:01:44] Though we may wander about at times and stumble in the dark, Father, you are always in the light. [00:01:56] And so we ask that we might come to a better understanding of what Job has to say to us. What you have to say to us through these words of Job. [00:02:11] In Jesus name we pray. Amen. [00:02:15] I'm going to ask you to sit down again because once again I'm reading a large portion of this book, starting in the beginning of chapter six in Job. [00:02:43] I don't imagine that I'm going to get through the Book of Job before I head back to Kansas. [00:02:51] But I hope, and this is my hope in this, in taking on a book like this. It was not with the intent that I would go through it quickly and get it all covered and get everything explained, but that I would introduce you to this book. Because I don't think that this book is very familiar to many believers. [00:03:13] It is not an easy book, but it is one of the most beautiful books of poetry that was ever written. [00:03:28] And there is a message here for us. These things were written for our sake. [00:03:35] Job went through these things to teach us, as well as all the wonderful things he learned of God. [00:03:49] But in these chapters six and seven, we have Job expressing his hopelessness. [00:04:05] Then Job answered and said, o that my vexation were weighed and all my calamity laid in the balances. For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea. Therefore my words have been rash, for the arrows of the Almighty are in me. My spirit drinks their poison. The terrors of God are arrayed against me. [00:04:33] Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or the ox low over his fodder? Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the juice of the mallow? [00:04:48] My appetite refuses to touch them. They are as food that is loathsome to me. [00:04:56] Oh, that I might have my request and that God would fulfill my hope. That it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off. [00:05:11] This would be my comfort. I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. [00:05:22] What is my strength that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient? [00:05:29] Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? [00:05:35] Have I any help in me when resource is driven from me? [00:05:43] Who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty? [00:05:49] My brothers are treacherous as a torrent bed, as torrential streams that pass away which are dark with ice and where the snow hides itself. When they melt, they disappear. When it is hot, they vanish from their place. The caravans turn aside from their course. They go up into the waste and perish. [00:06:14] The caravans of Tema look. And the travelers of Sheba hope. They are ashamed because they were confident. They come there and are disappointed, for you have now become nothing. You see my calamity and are afraid. [00:06:32] Have I said, make me a gift, or from your wealth offer a bribe for me? Or deliver me from the adversary's hand, or redeem me from the hand of the ruthless? [00:06:45] Teach me, and I will be silent. Make me understand how I have gone astray, how forceful or are upright words? But what does reproof from you reprove? [00:07:00] Do you think that you can reprove words when the speech of a despairing man is wind? [00:07:07] You would even cast lots over the fatherless and bargain over your friend. [00:07:12] But now be pleased to look at me, for I will not lie to your face. Please turn. [00:07:20] Let no injustice be done. Turn now. My vindication is at stake. Is there any injustice in my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity? [00:07:35] Has not a man a hard service on earth and are not ill his days like the days of a hired hand, Like a slave who longs for the shadow and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, so I am allotted. Months of emptiness and nights of misery are apportioned to me. [00:07:59] When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise? [00:08:04] But the night is long and I am full of tossing till the dawn. [00:08:09] My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt, and my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end without hope. [00:08:25] Remember that my life is but a breath. [00:08:28] My eye will never again see. Good. [00:08:31] The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more. While your eye, 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. [00:08:59] Therefore I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. [00:09:08] Am I the sea or a sea monster that you set a guard over me 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. [00:09:28] I loathe my life. I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath. [00:09:36] 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 till I swallow my spit? [00:09:55] If I sin, what do I do to you, you, watcher of mankind? [00:10:02] Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my transgressions and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth and you will seek me, but I shall not be. [00:10:37] I want to repeat a point that I made earlier when I spoke of Job's first talk that he gives, where he says that he wishes he'd never been born. [00:10:51] And that is that. Job, in all of his complaining, he neither curses God, which is what the devil said he would do if he came to this terrible experience. [00:11:06] He neither curses God, nor does he ever once contemplate suicide. [00:11:15] We live in a day and age in which death is practically worshipped. [00:11:25] The great sacraments of the Church of death are abortion and euthanasia, which is just a fancy way of talking about suicide. [00:11:43] That people believe that it is within their power to decide who's going to live, who's going and who's going to die. [00:11:52] And Job never once suggests taking his own life, because he believes and he knows that that is wrong. The life that you have, no matter how blessed and good it may be, and some of you may very well feel that way this evening as you come here, or no matter how difficult it has been and how many struggles you have gone through, that life belongs to God, and it is his alone to take. [00:12:26] And so when we come to this passage here where Job is talking about his hopelessness, he's the first seven verses there of chapter six. [00:12:41] He's lost his appetite for life. [00:12:47] There are things that taste good to you. [00:12:51] He mentions here about putting salt on things. There are some things I like a little bit of salt on. [00:12:57] Not crazy about too much salt. [00:13:05] But Job here is so sick that nothing, even the juice of the mallow, that's the juice that marshmallows used to be made from. The stuff we have today is not real marshmallow, but it was this marsh juice that was made with. I believe there's an adding of egg whites and so forth. And it makes this wonderful treat that we've all enjoyed. [00:13:44] And in that day and age, this was something that was. The juice was something that's easy to digest, not something that would upset your stomach. [00:13:57] But he says even that, even that is loathsome to him. [00:14:09] This next section in chapter six, he says, oh, that I might have my request. And what is his request? What is it he wants from God? [00:14:21] He tells him right here that God would fulfill my hope that it would please God to crush me, take my life again. I point out that Job does not believe he has a right to take his own life. But he's calling upon the Lord to just take his life, end it. [00:14:48] What purpose is there for his going on suffering? [00:14:53] And this is a question that all of us have asked at one time or another. Maybe it hasn't been your own personal suffering. Maybe it's been the suffering of someone you knew. [00:15:05] I had a very close friend in Kansas City, and I lived in Hutchinson, and his parents lived there in Hutchinson. His father passed away. [00:15:18] His mother was placed in a rest home. And she got to the point where she was just like a very newborn child. [00:15:30] No expectation of communication of any kind. [00:15:34] The caretakers that were there in the home told me that she never spoke to them. [00:15:40] She didn't seem to understand anything they said to her. They just took care of her needs. [00:15:46] And she lingered in that condition for an entire year. [00:15:53] And my friend Jim asked me one time, he says, I don't why. [00:15:59] And I said, jim, I don't know why your mother suffered that, but I want to share something with you that I found out that Jim didn't know. [00:16:11] And that was that Jim's brother, who lived there in the community, went by the home every day after work and stopped to visit his mother and to tell her about how his day had gone and how her grandchildren Were. [00:16:35] And during this time that he was doing that, he and his wife were contemplating divorce. [00:16:46] And he told me that that visiting of his mother convinced him of the foolishness of that divorce. That couple's still married to this day. Their two children are grown and both of their children are married now. [00:17:09] And what I told Jim was, I said, now, Jim, this is just speculation on my part, but I said, can you imagine that if Jesus had talked to your mom, and his mom was a believer in Jesus, if he had talked to her and told her, now listen, I want to give you a choice here. I can take you to be with me right now and this will all be over, or you can linger for a year and I will use that to keep your son and daughter in law's marriage together. [00:17:52] And Jim responded so quickly because he had no doubt that if his mom had been given that choice, she would have said yes. [00:18:04] Now, again, I don't know the exact purpose of it, but I see things like that where some good comes out of something that's very difficult. And Job doesn't see it because he's in the middle of it here. [00:18:20] But God doesn't condemn Job for his words. [00:18:35] Job complains about his friends. [00:18:39] These verses from 14 to 23 fine friends they turned out to be. Remember from the beginning of the story though they're impressive. I think it's very impressive that these guys came and they sat there for a long period of time mourning with Job because of his loss and because of the condition that he was in. [00:19:05] They were there for him. And that's one of the greatest things you can be as a friend, is to be there for someone else. [00:19:13] Their problem was when they opened their mouths, if they just kept their mouths shut, why did they open their mouths? Because they had the solution to Job's problems and they had that gospel of prosperity. [00:19:35] Obviously, Job, if all these bad things are happening to you, you must have done something horrible. [00:19:45] And if you'll just get right with God, then you'll get the bless. [00:19:55] Now, Job couldn't put the check in an envelope and mail it to the particular ministry that promises that if you do that, that God will bless you and do this for you and that for you. [00:20:10] A friend of mine visited a church one time. This stuff is very flagrant. It was during the time of the offering in this church. [00:20:19] And he said, the minister came down to the front there, the people and said, the Lord has told me that if you will give $500 to the church today, he will bless you in this certain way. And I can't remember the particular ways. One of them was a brand new car. [00:20:40] And, you know, but there were other. There were things like that being promised. And he gets down to. He gets down to, you know, hundred dollars, and I think it was $20. And then he gets down to $10. And then he tells the congregation, and if you give less than $10, I have no promise that you'll get anything at all. [00:21:02] He was that blatant about it. [00:21:05] And Job's friends are saying a similar kind of thing to him. [00:21:11] And why are they doing this? Why do people feel they have to do this in the face of someone's suffering? That they cannot believe that the suffering of Job would be a result of God's higher purposes? [00:21:29] I believe there is a hint of this in what Job has to say here in verse 21, when he says of his friends, for you have now become nothing. [00:21:46] You see my calamity and are afraid. [00:21:51] What are they afraid of? They're afraid that this righteous Job, if he can suffer that, what can happen to me? [00:22:02] Can I get terminal cancer? [00:22:06] Can I lose everything I have? [00:22:09] Can my children all die in a terrible accident together without that kind of guarantee? That if I keep on my notion of the straight and narrow, that God is going to bless me and everything's going to go well. [00:22:38] See, they're afraid of that. [00:22:41] That's why they can't face up to the fact. [00:22:46] And they have to find some fault in Job. And we're going to go on later and hear from them again. [00:22:53] And they'll be once again telling Job that he's in the wrong. [00:22:58] And Job knows that he's in the right. [00:23:07] He tells them, here, teach me, and I will be silent. Make me understand how I have gone astray. [00:23:27] Chapter 7. [00:23:38] Job is expressing to God here something that I have heard people say. [00:23:46] Has not man a hard service on earth? And are not his days like the days of a hired hand? [00:24:00] Life is tough. [00:24:05] Two things that I taught my children when they were growing up. And I remember one time someone asking them, they said, you must have learned a lot as a preacher's daughters. It was my two daughters were standing there and they said, yes. [00:24:23] And they said, life is. [00:24:34] Life is difficult. [00:24:39] God. [00:24:41] Life is not fair. Excuse me? Life is not fair. God is good. [00:24:48] And one of the things I told them was that the world sees it just the opposite. Do you know that. [00:24:55] That you'll hear on the advertisements on TV how life is good and God is unfair. [00:25:05] But no, it's. God is absolutely just. [00:25:12] But life is not. [00:25:17] There is no absolute justice in this life. [00:25:23] That's why we can't put our hope in this life. [00:25:27] If you're hoping in this life to be rewarded for all the things that you have been willing to sacrifice, don't hold your breath. [00:25:38] It may never happen. [00:25:45] Job says to the Lord, remember that my life is a breath. God knows that. [00:25:55] He realizes that he's coming to a point where he will ultimately die and the place where he lives will know him no more. [00:26:11] And so he cries out in his anguish in verse 11. Therefore I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in bitterness of my soul. [00:26:26] And he says that he's hoping for some relief. And I know a lot of days when I come to the end of the day, I really look forward to going to sleep. [00:26:42] Usually I have no trouble with that at all. This tossing and turning that he talks about is a very rare experience for me. [00:26:50] I have had it. I know there are people that it is a constant thing in their life. [00:27:07] Verse 16. I loathe my life. I would not live forever. [00:27:14] I would not want to live forever in this life because this life can be so very difficult. [00:27:31] And as you get older it doesn't get easier. [00:27:37] Somehow I always imagined that as I was growing up along the way, when I was a little kid, I imagined it'd be easier when I was older and so forth all along the path and. [00:27:50] And now I am old and I realize that life does not get easier. [00:28:05] Job here says in verse 19, how long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit? [00:28:23] His expectation is that he's going to die and be gone. [00:28:34] Now we know from later in the book of Job that Job is not totally hopeless. [00:28:40] At this point he appears totally hopeless in what he is saying. But Job does not know the full story of Jesus as you and I do. [00:28:53] We have that recorded in the Scriptures and we have a hope. [00:29:01] What is our hope? [00:29:06] Well, our hope is not to be found in this life. [00:29:12] We know the end of this life is the grave. [00:29:17] But please turn with me to Titus, chapter 2, Titus 2 and beginning with verse 11, this is our blessed hope. [00:29:43] For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controlled, un upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. [00:30:30] Declare these things. Exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. [00:30:41] That's what we're waiting for. [00:30:47] I'm not waiting for that check from the government. [00:30:53] I'm not waiting for. [00:30:57] What was that organization, the magazine that you'd send in and they'd come and knock on your door and Ed McMahon, I think, was the one who pushed that and that they're calling on you. [00:31:12] I'm not waiting to win the lottery. I'm not likely to win the lottery because I never play the lottery. [00:31:20] But I know that my redeemer lives, and I know that he is coming again. [00:31:30] And that is my hope. [00:31:34] It doesn't matter what happens to me in this life, this current life. [00:31:40] I have that to look forward to. [00:31:51] Let's look to God in prayer. [00:32:00] Father, as we read of Job and his complaint and his hopelessness. [00:32:09] Many of us here can very well identify with that, with that feeling that nothing is ever going to work out, that nothing is ever going to get better. [00:32:30] Father, there are also those who are believing and trusting in a false hope, in something that will never come, something that is not guaranteed, that even if it is received, that it can be held onto. Because we all know that we take nothing with us when we leave this life of all the things that we have had. [00:33:02] But we also know that we have a Savior who is ours and who will be with us even unto death itself and beyond. [00:33:19] And should we die before he returns, we will be accompanying him when he comes, comes to rescue all of those on earth who have put their faith and trust in him alone and to make all things right and to bless us with blessings that will never end. [00:33:50] Father, keep us in that hope that we might be able to face whatever it is that you call upon us to deal with here and now. [00:34:10] And now. Father, as we come to the time of coming to the table, we are remembering Jesus death because it is that death that paid for our sins. [00:34:27] But we are not remembering a dead Savior, but one who was raised from the dead. [00:34:36] And this supper that we celebrate here this evening is one that we will go on celebrating until he comes. [00:34:47] For when he comes, we no longer need that reminder of all that he is for us and has done for us. For we will be in his very presence, the Savior who died for us. [00:35:08] We will be with him, both spiritually and physically. [00:35:18] So, Father, may we receive that grace that you offer us in the Lord's Supper. [00:35:27] In his name we pray. [00:35:29] Amen.