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Now in Job 16 verse 1 the Bible reads, Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are ye, shall vain words have an end? Or what emboldeneth thee that thou answer'st? Now we're back to Job speaking in the last chapter we heard from Eliaphas. And of course when Eliaphas spoke in chapter 15 it was really just a lot more of the same. And Job's friends are very repetitive, they keep saying the same things over and over again. Job of course has a lot more interesting things to say than they do. And we went over in great detail last week how everything that Job said is right, it's the word of God. He was speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. Whereas his friends were rebuked by God for having spoken that which is wrong and false. Now he says to them, I've heard many such things. And that really sums up his friends arguments, very repetitive. They keep saying the same thing over and over again. And then Job says miserable comforters are ye. Now what does it mean to be a comforter, to comfort someone? We know that the Bible says that the Holy Ghost is our comforter. And we know that God is called the God of all comfort. Well if we go down to verse 5, Job talks about what a good comforter would do. And he says, but I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief. Comfort, if you look at the word, the last four letters of it are what? Fort. And what is a fort? It's a stronghold. And so when the Bible talks about comforting someone, what it means is to strengthen them, to build them up, to infuse strength into them. You see the Bible says the spirit of man beareth his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can help. So when people are down and encouraging words are given unto them, those are words that will strengthen them, that will build them up, and that will give them the strength to continue on. So when we see somebody who is going through a hard time, like Job is right now, he's lost his children to death, he's lost his money, he's lost his health, he's in a bad place. When we see people like that, we should try to encourage them, to comfort them, to strengthen them because we want them to keep on going. It's easy to quit when you're going through hard times, when you're suffering. And when we see people that are suffering, we don't want them to quit on God, we don't want them to quit serving God, just throwing the towel. So we encourage them, we comfort them, we strengthen them. So I just want you to kind of understand what the word comfort means. It's not just talking about, you know, putting a pillow under somebody's head or something when it says to comfort them. You know, when you comfort them, you're trying to give them the strength to go on. You're strengthening their spirit so that they can go on in the face of adversity. You think of someone who's at a funeral and they need comfort, right? We're comforting the loved ones that are there. And of course, the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 4, but I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with them. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain out of the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore what? Comfort one another with these words. Now what is the comfort there? What is he talking about when he's telling us to strengthen one another or comfort one another with these words? He's saying look, if you've lost a loved one, you don't have to mourn like those who have no hope. It doesn't have to be a thing where you say I'm never going to see this person again. I'm never going to get to be with them again. If they're asleep in Jesus, then we know that we will see them again at that meeting in the clouds when Jesus Christ comes and the trumpet sounds. He says comfort one another with these words. I don't want you to sorrow like those who have no hope. Now there's nothing wrong with having sorrow. Job has a lot of sorrow right now. Of course he has sorrow. His children are dead. He's lost all his money. He's sick and in a lot of pain. Nothing wrong with sorrow, but the Bible does talk about being swallowed up with over much sorrow in 2 Corinthians 2. The Bible does talk about the fact that he doesn't want us to sorrow like those who have no hope. And by the way, people that are unsaved, they have no hope. The Bible says that they are having no hope and without God in the world. And it's hopeless to them. I mean, when their loved one dies, they're never going to see their loved one again. There's no hope there, but we know that we will see that loved one again if they were saved. Now, unfortunately, if a lost loved one dies, you know that that's going to be more grief unto us because we know that they're not going to be there. Now, sometimes there's a little bit of hope that you hold out, you know, did they get saved? You know, but a lot of people, you just know they weren't saved. It was just clear by what they said. And that's a really depressing thing. That's a sad thing when a person dies. But at least when our saved loved ones die, we don't mourn like those who have no hope because we know that we'll see them again. Of course, that passage in 1 Thessalonians 4 that I quoted a moment ago is one that people will sometimes try to twist in order to teach that the rapture comes before the tribulation. Here's what they'll say. Well, if it happened after the tribulation, that wouldn't be comforting. Because see, they mixed up comfort with comfortable. I mean, that's what they're mixing up, right? So they say, well, where's the comfort in that, you know, if we have to go through the tribulation? I mean, that's not comforting. You know, because they're picturing like a lot of pillows. They're picturing like a really nice beanbag or something when they hear comfort. But what he's really saying in context is that people can be strengthened and lifted up in regard to their lost loved one. That passage does not mention the tribulation. I mean, does 1 Thessalonians 4 in that passage that we just heard from, did it say anything about tribulation? No. That particular passage was referring to the fact that if you've lost a loved one, you'll see them again. And so we should comfort one another with those words, meaning that if we know a believer who has lost a loved one, we can say, you know what, they're in a better place. They're in heaven. We're going to see them again. You know, and just think of it as that they've gone off to a far country. You will see them again. They're not dead. Because Jesus said, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. And so that's the comfort. And obviously if your wife or your husband or your child or your parents or your close friend died, you're going to be sad. But that's why we need the comfort of the Scriptures to strengthen us to say, you know what, I'm not going to be just swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. You say, well, you know, what's the danger of being swallowed up with overmuch sorrow? Well, you know, when people get swallowed up with overmuch sorrow, they turn to a lot of other things to find comfort than to just turn to the Scriptures and turn to their Christian friends and turn to the church and so forth. And they can turn to drugs a lot. They can turn to antidepressants, you know, comfort in a bottle, okay? They can turn to alcohol. They can turn to drugs. And I've known people who were living a pretty solid Christian life and then something really bad happened, somebody died, some horrible tragedy, and, you know, they go back to their old ways. They go back to the bottle. They go back to drugs. They go back. Because a lot of times when we go through periods of intense stress and difficulty, we will revert back to old habits. You know, we'll revert back to old past sins that we had quit a long time ago. So that's why we want to make sure that we comfort and help people. Job's three friends should have been there to build him up and say, you know what, Job, God loves you. You know, stay righteous. Keep your integrity. Don't quit. But instead they just come and they just rail on him and criticize him and heap up words against him. Let's just read it here. It says in verse 2, I've heard many such things. Miserable comforters are ye all. Shall vain words have an end? Or what emboldeneth thee that thou answers? I mean, can you imagine going to a funeral and somebody says, you know, you're a miserable comforter. You must have said something pretty stupid. I mean, think about it. If you went to a funeral in 2014 and somebody said to you, you know what, you're a miserable comforter. Why did you even come here? I mean, what did you say? But if you think about it, this is tantamount showing up at a funeral because his 10 children have died in the last few weeks. You know, I mean, they show up and this is what Job tells them. You guys are bad comforters. You know, you guys are not helping me. You're not strengthening me. And he says in verse 4, I also could speak as ye do, you know, if the shoe were on the other foot, he's saying, if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you, but I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief. Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged. And though I forbear, what am I eased? He's saying, you know, whether I answer you or whether I don't answer you, I'm still not comforted. Verse 7, but now he hath made me weary. Weary means tired. He hath made me weary. Thou hast made desolate all my company. Thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face. So what does he mean when he says you filled me with wrinkles? I don't know, that sounds like something that, you know, your mother or your grandmother would say to you if you're a wild, disobedient child, you know, you're giving me gray hairs or, you know, my hair is turning gray just from dealing with you or, you know, you're giving me wrinkles. I mean, that's the way I interpret this. Basically, he's going through so much stress and they're just making things worse and he's so depressed that he's being filled with wrinkles, you know, proverbially speaking. And then he says, my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face. He's not eating right. He's depressed, he's upset, and a lot of times when people are upset, they don't eat much or they eat very little, they're not eating very well. So he's getting very lean in the face. He says in verse number 9, he tareth me in his wrath who hateth me. He gnasheth upon me with his teeth. Mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. They have gaped upon me with their mouth. They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully. They've gathered themselves together against me. Then it delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. Now this scripture here has a few different things going on. Obviously, Job is talking about the fact that because he was a righteous, godly man, when he fell, not that he fell into sin because he didn't, but when he fell in the sense that he lost his wealth, he lost his health, he's suffering, and he's just in a miserable condition, there were all kinds of enemies there that were just ready to just rejoice, just to take advantage of that situation. But also, this scripture is prophetic of the Lord Jesus Christ. You probably noticed a lot of the language here in verses 9 through 11 is very similar to language that's used about the Lord Jesus Christ. Flip over to Psalm 22. Keep your finger in Job 16 if you can, and I'll show you the similarities with Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is one of the most prophetic passages about Jesus Christ in the book of Psalms. There are a lot of prophecies of Jesus Christ in Psalms. There are prophecies of Jesus in Isaiah, there are prophecies in Jeremiah, really all throughout the Old Testament because the Bible says, to him give all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive the remission of sins. I was just reading the book of Obadiah and just seeing prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ even in that little book of Obadiah, it's everywhere in the Old Testament. The whole Bible is pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews don't see it, they're blind to it. They have the veil, the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not. They read those Old Testament scriptures and they don't understand it, it goes right over their head. But when we see Job there in Job 16 talking about how everybody's just sharpening their teeth against him, they're just looking at him, they're just gaping their mouths upon him, they're just thrilled, they're just salivating over his failure and their chance to finally see him fall. And let me tell you something, if you are a godly righteous person, ungodly people love to see you fall. They would love to see you fail, they would love to see you quit. If you think about it, you probably have people in your extended family that are not saved. Most people. Or at least people that are very ungodly people. And you know that if you got divorced from your spouse, they would rejoice. Just to see you fail, just to see you fall. Because people who are unrighteous, they hate the righteous. You know this goes all the way back to Cain and Abel. Why did Cain hate Abel? Why did he kill him? The Bible says wherefore, or why, slew he him? Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. And the Bible says that just as Ishmael persecuted Isaac, just as Esau hated Jacob, just as Cain hated Abel, the person who is sinful is always going to be angry and spiteful toward those who do right. That's why Christians have always been and always will be persecuted. Say why? Why persecute Christians? I mean, here Christians are just living their lives, minding their own business, doing their own thing, striving to live at peace with all men. Just raising their families, preaching the Gospel. Why the constant persecution? Well, why was Jesus persecuted? Why did they hate Jesus Christ? Why was he crucified? He said unto his brethren in John chapter 7 why he was persecuted and why he was hated. He said the world hates me because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil. And the Bible says that those whose deeds are evil, they hate the light. And they don't want to come to the light lest their deeds will be reproved and when a person who is ungodly is around a bunch of other ungodly people, it makes them feel better about themselves. You know, they're a loser, they're ungodly, they're sinful, and then they're around a bunch of people. They surround themselves with that type of person and then they feel secure about who they are. Yeah, I'm not so bad. I mean, everybody else is doing the same. You know, sure I'm getting drunk, but so is everybody else. Sure I'm committing fornication, so is everybody else. So I don't go to church, but none of my friends go to church either. People feel better getting around people. You know, I mean, people that are divorced, they're around other people that are divorced and they have a camaraderie there. And again, I'm not attacking anyone who's divorced. My parents are both divorced and remarried. But I'm just saying, they almost delight in just, hey, let's find people who've made the same mistakes I've made, who commit the same type of sins. It's just human nature. And what happens is, when you get around somebody who lives really clean, it makes you mad when you're not living clean. I mean, think about it. Everybody's drinking and that one guy's like, I don't drink. He's going to be made fun of. He's going to be mocked. He's going to be hated. He's going to be razzed. Right? Why? Because they just don't like it. Because it just reminds them, hey, some people don't do this. Some people are doing what the Bible says. Some people, you know, are actually living a clean life. Now look, none of us is sinless. We all have sins, right? I mean, is any of us perfect? But should we just go seek out people who are sinful like us? I mean, think about that. Should we just say like, you know what, I live a pretty good life, but I have this one area that I really, I just really struggle in, this one area. So I'm just going to surround myself with people who struggle in that same area so that I can feel better about myself. I mean, think about the logic in that. Because if we, for example, let's say you're living a really good, clean Christian life, but the one thing that you're struggling with is smoking. You know, you just can't quit smoking. And you know, it's really difficult to quit smoking. You know, from the people I've talked to, they had a harder time quitting smoking than they did quitting alcohol or quitting drugs even. You know, smoking can be very addictive. And you know, they know it's bad for them. They know it's bad for their health. It's wasting their money. You know, your God gives us money. He blesses us with things. And then we just waste it on something that damages our body. We can't be as effective serving Him because we're, you know, we're harming ourselves. We're being a bad example to the people around us, you know, by smoking cigarettes. And you know, let's say I'm living a good Christian life, you know, I'm going to church, I'm reading my Bible, I'm praying, I'm doing soul winning, but it's just this one thing that I'm struggling with, smoking. Now look, there are people like that, believe it or not. I mean, because smoking is a very difficult thing to quit. It's very addictive. It's extremely addictive. Okay, so what should that person do? Just hang around with a lot of smokers. No, because if you hang around with a lot of smokers, you're never going to quit smoking. Because I've talked to people who try to quit smoking and fail, you know what's hard is when their spouse smokes. And then they're like, well I'm going to quit, and then their wife doesn't want to quit. You know, or she wants to quit, and he doesn't want to quit. Being around it all the time is just going to make it that much harder to quit, okay. And the same thing, you know, with any other sin that you want to fill in the blank. I mean, just, you know, you get around people that do that sin, whether it's drinking, whatever it is. It's going to rub off on you. You're going to feel more comfortable doing it. You know, if everybody else is lighting up a cigarette, you know, you might as well just light up. But you know, you're probably not going to come to church and light up in church. I mean, you know, you're probably not going to walk out the door and just light up a cigarette right in front of the front door of Faith Forward Baptist Church. You know, and look, if you do, I mean, I'm not going to hate you. I'm not going to be mean to you. I probably wouldn't even say anything if that's what you do. But you know what, you're not going to do it because you'd be embarrassed to do it. Because you know that you're surrounded by a lot of people who don't smoke. And you know, you don't want to sit there. But here's the thing, a righteous person, are you listening? A righteous person does not surround themselves by people that have the same problems that they have and the same sins that they have in order to make themselves feel better about it. You know what they try to do? They try to get around a godly group of people that can help them get the sin out of their life. You know, they're going to get friends and get around people that are not smoking so that they can then have the willpower to not continue to smoke. Okay. And so that's just an example of smoking. I'm just throwing that out there just because it's an easy example to grasp and to understand. But what I'm saying is, it's a wicked thing in your heart when it bothers you to be around somebody who lives a little bit cleaner than you do or maybe does a little more soul winning than you or reads the Bible a little more than you. You know, if you're humble, you don't mind being around people that are a little bit more advanced than you spiritually. In fact, you want to go to those people so that you can learn from them, so that you can grow. You know, I remember when I was first going to a fundamental Baptist church, I was pretty worldly and, you know, I had a lot of growing to do, but I really tried to seek out and get around people that were more spiritual than me. Just to try to get around them and just hopefully their zeal would rub off on me and just, you know, their excitement about the Scriptures and their way of life would rub off on me. And we need to be careful, even as those that are saved, that we don't get angry at people who are living a more righteous life than we are and get mad at them because, you know, we feel like they're one-upping us. You know, that's just pride. And we need to be humble enough to not, and you know what some people will do, they'll go to a liberal church because then they know they're the most spiritual person there. And they'd rather be a big fish in a little pond than to be a little fish in a big pond. But you know what, if I were looking for a church, I'd rather be a little fish in a big pond because I want to grow. I want to get bigger. I want to just be like, yeah, I'm the only one who goes soul winning in this church. Look at all these people. I mean, these people don't even know the Bible. I mean, I probably know the Bible better than anybody in this church. I mean, it's just total pride. We had to go to a church that challenges us. We had to go to a church where we're surrounded by people that are challenging us and that are spiritually on fire for God and that will help motivate us to do things right and to be a better person. But the wicked, especially the unsaved, no, no. They don't want to be around anybody who makes them look bad. They want to be around people that are on their level. And here's the thing, when you think about really wicked people, like to the point of being reprobate, the Bible says they don't even like to retain God in their knowledge. I mean, they want to just forget that God even exists. They don't even want to hear about God whatsoever or Jesus whatsoever. And so therefore, they hate Christians. They want to persecute Christians. They love to see Christians fall. They love to see them get sick and die. They love to see them, you know, fall into sin or, you know, they'd love to see their marriage fail. They'd love to see, you know, and you know what? As believers, you know what? It's possible for anybody's marriage to fail. It's possible for anybody to get into drinking or get, you know, let him think of his stand and take heed lest he fall. We need to be aware of these sins that could take over and destroy our lives. Let me tell you something, when they do, Christian, someone will be there to rejoice about it when you fall. People will be there that will be thrilled at your downfall. And if nothing else, you know, stay right with God just so that you don't give a chance for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. Think about David. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and Nathan the prophet told him, you've given the enemies of the Lord, you know, great occasions to blaspheme. Because here's David, a godly man, man after god's own heart, and look at what he's done. He's committing adultery, he's committing murder, and you know, the devil rejoices and all the devil's minions rejoice. It says in, you're in Psalm 22, but it says in, stay there in Psalm 22, but it says in Proverbs 4 16 about wicked people. It says, for they sleep not except they have done mischief and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall. I mean, there are people who just live for this, just to make people fall, just to cause people to fail. Why? Because they want to take other people down a notch in order to lift themselves up and make themselves feel better. And that's what we see throughout scripture from Genesis to Revelation, the ungodly persecuting the righteous. And that's why. And of course, there were those who delighted in Jesus Christ being arrested and beaten and killed. Slapped at him, slapped him in the face, and treated him poorly. When Job fell, the wicked rejoiced, and they are ready to take advantage of the situation. Now look at Psalm 22, this is a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice how similar this is to what we see in Job 16. It says in verse 1, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Does that sound familiar? That's what Jesus said when he was on the cross. Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Shout down to verse 6. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. Look at verse 13. They gaped upon me with their mouths. Now, keep your finger there. Look what it says in Job 16.10. What's the first word there in Job 16.10? They have gaped upon me with their mouth. So it's exactly the same thing, right? They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully. Did that happen to Jesus? Yeah, they smote him upon the cheek, same thing. They have gathered themselves together against me. Go back to Psalm 22, we'll see that aspect of it in verse 16 where it says, For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. See how they've just gathered themselves together around him, they've encircled him? And then what does it say? They pierced my hands and my feet. And obviously this is very prophetic of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, being reproach, being hated, being despised, rejected, and then pierced his hands and his feet, nailed to the cross. I was out soul-witting on Monday and I used a point that I got from Brother Garrett's sermon a few months ago where he talked about how the Jehovah's false witnesses believed that Jesus didn't die on the cross. They say he died on a pole. By the way, let me just give you some fun facts about the Jehovah's Witnesses. Number one, they don't believe Jesus died on the cross. Number two, they do not believe that he bodily rose again from the dead. They just think it was a spiritual thing. Even though he had them shove their hand in the hole in his side and put their finger in the holes in his hands, they don't believe that the saved go to heaven and they don't believe that the unsaved will spend eternity in hell. Now what do they believe that is Christianity? Don't believe Jesus died on the cross, don't believe in the bodily resurrection, don't believe that the saved go to heaven, and don't believe that the unsaved will spend eternity in hell. I mean, it's so far from biblical teaching, but I was talking to a Jehovah's Witness young man on Monday, I gave him the whole plan of salvation, gave him the gospel, and he just said, well, it's just different than what I was taught. And I said, well, you know, what if you'd spent your whole life being taught that the earth was flat, you know, and then I was able to produce evidence that it's round. Are you just going to go with what you've been taught? You know, you need to be willing to see the truth and change what you believe. And I showed him those four points that I just mentioned to you. I showed him each of those four points what the Bible said to disprove those four false doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses. And I said, you know, you say Jesus didn't die on the cross, I took him to John chapter 20 where Thomas said, you know, I want to see the print of the nails in his hands. And it keeps talking about it in the plural, the nails that were in his hands, the print of the nails in his hands. And I said, you know, if he was put on a pole like the Jehovah's Witnesses say, how many nails would that be? It would be one nail. If his hands were like this, the way the Jehovah's Witnesses showed it, it would be one nail through his hands, whereas if he was on the cross it would be two nails. And what does the Bible say? Nails. Plural. Over and over again. Nails. Nails. Nails. He said, well, it was one nail in the hand, one nail in the feet. I said, no, no. Read it again. It says the nails in the hands. You know, I kept showing him. But some people, they're just stuck on their tradition and they don't want to see the biblical truth for what it is. And I said, is it possible that the Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong since they falsely predicted the second coming of Christ six times and it didn't happen? Do you think they could be wrong about these things also? And he said, it's possible. I mean, he admitted it was possible. He was close to being saved. But thank God his buddy got saved. His buddy was not a Jehovah's Witness and his buddy got saved, but he just wouldn't let it go. It's sad. And here's the sad thing. He already quit the Jehovah's Witnesses. You know, it's like they ruined him and then he just quit. Now he's just, I don't know. So it's a sad situation. But anyway, in Psalm 22, we see this great prophetic passage of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can definitely see really clear similarities, especially that exact quote, Job 16, 10, they've gaped upon me with their mouth. That's exactly what it said about Jesus Christ in Psalm 22. Let's keep reading in Job 16. Actually let's back up to verse 9. It says, he tereth me in his wrath who hateth me, he gnasheth upon me with his teeth. Now when I saw that in scripture for the first time, obviously it wasn't here, it was in Acts chapter 7. You know the famous passage where it talks about Stephen. And when Stephen preaches that great sermon in Acts chapter 7 and they get so mad that they cover their ears and run toward him and they end up stoning him to death. It says that they gnashed on him with their teeth. And I remember reading that, they gnashed on him with their teeth, are they biting him? I was trying to understand what that meant. But if you get it in context here in Job 16, it's actually a little easier to understand. Because he talks about gaping upon me with their mouth at the beginning of verse 10. And then in verse 9 he says that he gnashed upon me with his teeth. This preposition upon is being used like, you know, when you look upon someone or gaping upon them, gnashing upon them. Basically what that's saying is that they're gnashing their teeth. What is gnashing your teeth? Grinding your teeth, right? Well, the most famous use of the word in the Bible is of course about hell. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. And so you think of people just grinding their teeth together in agony in hell. But you also think of people when they get really angry, gritting their teeth at you. And look, I've gotten pretty mad before in my life. I don't know that I've really gritted my teeth that many times. I mean, who here has been so mad that you've gritted your teeth? Yeah, a few people. But I mean, you have to be pretty mad. When you get to the teeth grinding anger, you know, you start talking through your teeth I guess. You know, your teeth stay closed and you keep talking. You're pretty mad. And so you just feel the anger of these people. They hated Stephen's preaching. They hated the Lord Jesus Christ. They hated Job. And yet so many people today think that preachers who are loved of this world are following the footsteps of Job, Jesus, and Stephen. And they're not. Because a preacher who is loved of the world is not serving Jesus Christ because he said the servant's not above his Lord. And if they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his house? When you stand up for the truth, people are going to get mad. You know, when you preach the Bible, when you preach the truth, people will get angry with you. And they're going to gnash on you with their teeth, and they're going to hate you, and they want to see you fall, and when your children die, they rejoice. And when you get sick and ill, they rejoice at that. We have to understand there are some very wicked and ungodly people in this world that are out to get us. Let's keep reading here. We've seen, of course, in verses 9 through 11, this great prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ, how he's going to be smitten on the cheek. He's going to have them gathered around him, gaping on him with their mouth. Verse 11, God had delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. And of course, that could be said of Jesus Christ as well, that he was delivered up. The Bible says it pleased the Lord to bruise him. The Bible says in verse 12, I was at ease, but he had broken me asunder. He had also taken me by my neck, talking about his enemies, the wicked, into whose hands he has delivered, and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark. So notice the poetry that Job is using, because a lot of this is poetic, a little bit figurative, but he talks about the wicked taking him by the neck and shaking him to pieces. What do you think of when you say, you know, taking him by the neck and shaking? You think of a dog, right? And dogs always go for the jugular, right? They love to bite other animals on the neck, and they'll bite a hold of an animal and go grrr, you know, like with a chew toy, they'll grab it and start shaking it, or they'll bite a bird. I know our dog many times, we have a Labrador, one time, because it's just this tame, meek, loving animal, but every once in a while, just these primitive urges will come over and it's back in the wild, you know, it's a wolf again, you know. It just got off the ark, you know what I mean, this is just going way back and it's breeding. And this thing, this dog, one time I saw the dog just leap into the air. It looked all meek and peaceful, then all of a sudden it just goes grrr, just leaps in the air and just bit a bird out of midair. Like a bird was just chirp, chirp, chirp, and it bit it and it just went like grrr, and it literally just threw feathers just everywhere, right? And the feathers are just like fluttering down. And there were just feathers everywhere, I was like, how can a bird even have that many feathers? But that's the illustration that Job's using about, you know, what the wicked is doing to them. It's like he just grabs them by the neck and just grrr, just starts shaking around, you know, feathers going everywhere. And it's interesting because Psalm 22, the other prophetic passage about Jesus Christ, also describes the wicked that are rejoicing at the death of Jesus Christ as being dogs. It calls them dogs, you know, he refers to them as dogs. So it says in verse number 12 there, he has also taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark. Now verse 12, the end of verse 12 kind of goes with verse 13, because it says, he set me up for his mark, his archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare. What does an archer do? You know, you think of an archer shooting at a target. Basically he's saying at the end of verse 12, they're using me for target practice. You know, he's saying, they've set me up as their mark, just to aim their arrows. The Bible says in Psalm 11, it says, for lo the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. And so here Job is saying that the archers, archers are what? People who shoot a bow and arrow. They're using him for target practice, he says. He cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare. He poureth out my gall upon the ground. What's your gall? What's the modern day word for gall? Anybody know? What would be the modern day, what? Bile, exactly, bile. We call it bile, but the bile is stored in the what? Gall bladder. Okay, so the gall bladder contains bile, so when we read the word, this archaic, unfortunately the King James is very archaic here to use the word gall, but in fact, you know, we can figure out what it means because the gall bladder carries the bile. So if we would just expand our vocabulary a little bit, we can understand this archaic King James version, but it says, like basically what is he saying there? He cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare, he poureth out my gall. He's saying he's just like ripping me apart and just spilling my gall on the earth. He says in verse 14, he breaketh me with breach upon breach. He runneth upon me like a giant. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and defiled my horn in the dust. My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death. You know, you ever see somebody when they've just been crying a lot and their face just looks really just dirty, just disheveled? He's saying that's what I look like. He says in verse 17, not for any injustice in my hands, also my prayer is pure. So notice, throughout the whole book of Job, he always maintains his innocence. I have not done wrong. He knows that he's not sinless. He knows he's not a man who has never made a mistake, but he also knows that he has not done any major sin that would warrant the type of punishment that he would be receiving if he were being punished. He knew that this stuff was coming upon him for some other reason, it had nothing to do with anything he had done because he hadn't done any injustice, and also his prayer was pure. You say, well, isn't all prayer pure? You know, I mean, isn't all, but in reality the Bible says that if a man turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. So God wants us to pray with a pure heart. David said if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So we need to make sure that we, you know, love God's word and respect God's word, listen to it, obey it, and that will assure that God will hear our prayers. It says in verse 18, O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place. What story does that remind you of? Abel. Remember when Abel was killed, his blood cried out from the earth. Verse 19, and now behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. My friends scorn me, but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. Now let me just point out for you something important in verses 19 and 20. This is what I want to kind of focus in on here at the end of the message. It says my witness is in heaven and my record is on high. These are terms that the Apostle Paul uses a lot. I think of in Philippians chapter 1 when he says for God is my record, for God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And then he says in Romans chapter 1, he says for God is my witness that without ceasing I have remembrance of you and my prayers night and day. He's saying God is my witness. Because a lot of people could say hey I'm praying for you brother, praying for you buddy. Does that necessarily mean that they're really praying for you? Sometimes people just say that. And by the way you should never say that unless you actually are doing the praying. You know what I like to do when people ask me for prayer, what I like to do is I say let's pray about it right now. You know and if somebody writes to me and wants me to pray for them, you know I try to just drop what I'm doing and just do it right then and there and just pray for them. Because a lot of times we might say hey I'll pray for you and then it just doesn't happen. And we don't want to be one that's, I mean it's dishonest right to say hey I'm going to pray for you and then we don't do it. But Paul wanted the Romans and he wanted the Philippians and some of the other people that he wrote to to really know that he actually was praying for them. And so he said God is my witness that I have remembrance of you and my prayers night and day. God is my witness how greatly, God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray that your knowledge may abound yet, or that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. He's saying look I'm praying for you and God is my record, God is my witness. But look at verse 20, my friends scorn me. So what's the Bible teaching us? We put verse 19 together where he says hey my witness is in heaven, my record is on high. And then we combine that with verse 20 where he says my friends scorn me. What does that tell us? Even when the people around us don't know the truth and people around us think that we've done wrong or they reject us, God knows the truth in heaven. You know I heard somebody say it this way one time, they said there's a scoreboard in heaven and it always reads the right score. And a lot of times in this life we're going to be wronged and maybe the truth is never known and nobody ever really finds out that we had done right and that it was someone else who had done wrong. We might get falsely accused. People are going to talk bad about you when you're a righteous person. They're going to make false accusations. You might get lied about on the job, lied about in your family, lied about in whatever situation you're fighting. But just know that God is the record, God's your witness. And we don't always have to worry too much about making sure that everybody knows that we were righteous. You know Job here, he's not convincing these people. But God knew, he's saying look, God knows the truth. God is my witness, God is my writer. God knows what's in our heart and it's a lot more important what God thinks about us than what our friends think about us. And a lot of times we have decisions to make. Are we going to do what's going to make our friends pleased with us or are we going to do what's going to make God pleased with us? Are we going to try to prove to our friends that we're doing right or are we trying to prove to God that we're doing right? And sometimes doing right can make you look worse to your friends than doing wrong. You know you think of the story of Joseph. You know Joseph had that woman, Potiphar's wife, that just continually wanted him to commit adultery with her, remember? And she kept just day after day, she's saying lie with me. And she wanted Joseph to go to bed with her and commit adultery, which is a wicked sin. And she kept coming after him, kept coming after him and finally, because she was rejected by Joseph, what did she do? Lied about him and got everybody around him to believe that he had tried to force her is the way that she told the story. He ended up getting thrown in prison for assaulting her. It never happened. She assaulted him. I mean she grabbed him and you know it tried to make him lie with her and of course he just ran away. He ran screaming the other direction. He didn't want any of it. But here's the thing. Have you thought about this? What if he would have just given in to that temptation? What if he would have just committed that sin? You know what? You could say well he might have gotten away with it, you know, but would he have gotten away with it in the sight of God? No way. So from a human standpoint, oh okay, well if he would have just committed adultery with Potiphar's wife, nobody would have known. There's nobody in the house, nobody's going to find out, make her happy, just get her off his back, commit that sin. But by standing for what was right, he ended up being thrown in prison. By standing for what was right, he was accused of doing the very thing that he refused to do. So sometimes we might come to a point in our life where we have a decision to make. Are we going to do what's right in the sight of God or are we going to do what's right in the sight of the people around us? And sometimes our friends are going to scorn us and people might even talk bad about us and even think that we've done wrong. Because sometimes when you do right, people look at it and they think you've done wrong because they're mixed up about what right and wrong is sometimes. And so we need to make sure that we always keep in view that God is the record, God is our witness, and all that matters is what he thinks at the end of the day. He can lift us up or he can take us down, but we should care what God thinks. I also think of when I read this verse, 1 John 5, 7, which if you have a King James Bible says, for there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one, and there are three that bear witness. So notice both words again being used together, record and witness. There are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God, which he had testified under the sun. So when it says my witness, it's saying that there's somebody up in heaven who's witnessing everything that's going on in this earth that will testify to my righteousness. And what happens at the end of the book? God testifies under the righteousness of Job. And when he says my record is in heaven, it means that God is in heaven keeping a record of all the things that we do right and wrong. And he keeps that record and he knows the truth about our lives and he will exalt us in due time. The Bible says in verse 21, oh that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleadeth for his neighbor. And in verse 21 we see intercessory prayer, like I preached about a few weeks ago. He's saying that what his friends ought to be doing, because what are his friends doing in verse 20? They're scouring him. But mine eye poureth out tears unto God, oh that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleadeth for his neighbor. He's saying, look, why don't you pray for me? Why aren't you praying that God would be gracious unto me? And I'm not going to re-preach my sermon on intercessory prayer that I preached three or four weeks ago. We talked about the fact that when we see someone sin, a sin which is not in a death, we're supposed to pray for that person, that God would go easy on them. You know, when God just wanted to burn up everybody in the Old Testament because they'd all just worship the golden calf and got naked, Moses made intercession and said, pardon them, go easy on them. We are commanded to do that in 1 John 5, when we see people commit sin, we are supposed to intercede for them. When we see our brother, the Bible says if any man see his brother sin, a sin which is not in a death, when we see a brother or sister in Christ commit sin, we don't get on our knees and say, God, shock it to them, Lord, punish them double what they deserve. And look, this is how kids are sometimes, right? You know, alright, you're getting a spanking, somebody grab me a spanking paddle, they bring the belt. You know, it's like, you know, somebody bring me a paddle, they find the biggest paddle, you know. Why? Here you go! I have to make a correction right here. You know how newspapers will sometimes run corrections, you know, when they make a mistake? Miriam corrected me on my last sermon because when I preached on intercessory prayer a few weeks ago, I said, yeah, that never happens where the kids make intercession. I said, it never happens where one of them needs a spanking and the other one says, no, go easy on them. Usually it's like five paddles are being handed to you, you know, it's like somebody give me a paddle, just five are just right there, because kids usually delight in seeing their sibling get spanked. But Miriam corrected me, she said, Dad, you said that that never happened, but she said a couple months ago, Isaac was, wasn't it Isaac? Who was it? Yeah. He hurt my tongue and my tooth. Yeah, he accidentally hurt her and hurt her tongue and her tooth, okay, she says, and basically, you know, Isaac was getting spanked and she's like, no, don't spank him, it's okay. You know, she made intercession for him, right? But look, that's the way we're supposed to be as Christians, you know, so have I set the record straight? Look, Miriam, your record's in heaven, you know, your witness is on high, all right, you know, whether I say it or not, God knows that you made intercession, all right? But anyway, that's what we're supposed to do. It's that old, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Or like Paul, listen to this, Paul said in 2 Timothy 4, at my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me, I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. I mean, think about that, what if you were in Paul's, you're getting thrown in prison and people are forsaking you. People aren't, they're like, we're out of here, you know, this guy's going into prison, I'm not going to stand for this guy, you know, Paul who? You know, I don't want to be associated with this guy. Look, that would hurt, right, but you know what Paul said, I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. He prayed for God to forgive them and to pardon them and to be easy on them. That's what Job's saying here, oh, and look, why don't we say this in 2014, oh, that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleaded for his neighbor. You know, why don't we pray for people that commit sin and pray? You know, even if Job had sinned, you know, why aren't they praying for God to turn away his anger from him and to go easy on him like Moses prayed, you know, to go easy on the people and go easy on Aaron and everything like that. But they're not, instead they're just heaping up words upon him, they're just attacking him and they're not giving him any comfort, they're not praying for him, they're not helping him at all, they just want to just glory in his downfall, you know, it's sad. So intercessory prayer, I think it's interesting too that right after we talk about the record and the witness, we get into the verse on intercessory prayer in verse 21. It's funny because in 1 John 5 it's that same order, he talks about the record, the witness, and then he gets into intercessory prayer. And then it says in verse 22, when a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return. And of course he's referring to his death there, he's talking about the fact that in a short time his life will be over. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord, and for the things that we could learn from it. Lord, the chapter that, this chapter seems to teach from beginning to end that what really matters is what you think about us, not what the people around us think. Of course, Job talked about his enemies that just hated him and delighted in his downfall. And he also talked about the fact that his friends weren't there to comfort him. And they scorned him. Lord, help us to realize that sometimes both friend and foe will turn on us. And at that point all we've got is you in heaven with the record, you are our witness, and help that to be the most important thing to us, that you are there with us, that we know that you have not forsaken us, and we know that you know the truth and that someday the record will be set straight. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.