Our scripts for reading comes from the Old Testament and the New Testament first from Deuteronomy chapter 11 and that passage can be found on page 169 in the Pee Bible and then in first theater chapter 3 which is on 1777 in the Pee Bible. Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Deuteronomy 11 beginning in verse 13 and it shall be that if you earnestly obey my commandments which I command you today to love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul then I will give you the reign for your land and its season, the early reign and the latter reign that you may gather in your grain, your new wine and your oil and I will send grass in your field for your livestock that you may eat and be filled. Take heed to yourselves, let your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, bless the Lord's anger be aroused against you and he shut up the heavens so that there be no reign and the land yield no produce and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you. Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul and bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up and you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gate that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them like the days of the heavens above the earth and then down in verse 26, behold I set before you today a blessing and a curse, the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God but turn aside from the way which I command you today to go after other gods which you have not known. And then in 1 Peter chapter 3 beginning in verse 18, reading, beginning of verse 8, reading through verse 18, finally all of you be of one mind having compassion for one another, love his brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary blessings knowing that you were called to this if you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love life and see good days let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking to sea, let him turn away from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good, but even if you should suffer for righteousness say you are blessed, do not be afraid of their threats nor be troubled but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a dissent to everyone to ask you a reason for the hope that is in you with meatless and fear. Having a good conscience that when they disame you as evil doers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sin, but just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. Amen. To turn to Job chapter 6, that is where our first reference in these chapters will be. We won't have many and we only have a few next week as well, a little bit more lengthy as the weeks go by, but just reminding you that these chapters, these middle chapters, are really giving an overview, sort of hitting some of the highlights and showing for example this week, Job's friends answered to him and then next week Lord willing his answer to them to his friends. The title is important this morning, I just want to direct your attention to that first, and you'll notice where the possesses are. Notice what it does not say, it does not say Job's friends without the apostrophe there. Job's friends answer as if they say to state a fact and say Job's friends answered him, that's not the title. Nor is the title Job's friends plural possessive answers plural. That's not the title, it's not Job's friends, many answers to Job, rather the German title is Job's friends plural possessive answers singular. The point being that as you read the middle chapters, which I'm urging you to do, certainly by this time next week, to have read chapter 4 to 31, you will get the feeling that you are reading the same thing over and over and over again and if the truth be known, you are. Because Job's friends, in essence, are giving him one answer, a single answer, and they may say it differently, and they may place their emphasis in different places, but basically, these three friends are telling Job one thing. The last review, just a bit, Satan is saying Job is happy, Job is a prosperous man, Job has everything Job wants, therefore Job is a good man, Job is a righteous man, and the reason why Job is a righteous man is because Job has everything he wants and who wouldn't be a righteous man. For that, God has handed him in, and now, because that is so, he acts the way he acts, and then Satan would further say God is no better, and back Satan would go as far as to say that the fool, because God is satisfied with Job's hypocritical obedience. As Job's wife says, no, my husband is not happy, Job is no longer prosperous, he is no longer rich, everything has been taken away from my husband Job, but he is still a righteous man. He is still a good man, he is still being blessed, the problem is not with my husband Job, his wife would say, the problem is with God, and if God treats his children like this, those that are so faithful to him, then that God is not worthy of our worship. And so Job's life advice is curse God and die. Enter Job's friends. They come on the scene and they say, our friend Job is not happy. In fact, our friend Job is miserable, he is no longer prospering, all these things have been taken away from him, therefore our friend Job cannot be righteous, because everybody knows God blesses the righteous and God curses the wicked. And so if our friend Job is not prospering, if he is not receiving the blessing of the Lord, then something must be terribly wrong with Job. The friends, as we will find, have a tendency to wrap up their theology the way they view God, their thoughts of him, and they just wrap it up very neatly in a little box. And they preach the same tune over and over and over again to Job. It is like a broken record and they are saying, you have sinned Job, you are unrighteous Job. You need a repent Job on and on and on and on and on. Elifat says, if it were, I would have peeled a God, build that, says, although he is not exactly pulling the finger in the actual context of this verse. But he says, surely God does not reject a blameless man, and so far, who is directly pointing the finger at Job, says, if you will put away the sin that is in your hand, then God will restore you and forgive you. Calvin said that these friends bring a poor case, but they plead it well. They bring a poor case, but they plead it well. They are very eloquent people. They know how to turn a phrase. They know how to spit out all these clever proverbs that they have a poor case. Even Job says to them in Job 6, notice beginning at verse 14, he says to him, who has afflicted kindness should be shown by his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, like the streams of the brooks that pass away, which are dark because of the ice and into which the snow vanishes. When it is warm, they cease to flow. When it is hot, they vanish from their place. The paths of their way turn aside. They go nowhere and perish. The caravans of Pima look, the travelers of Shiba hoped for them. They are disappointed because they were confident. They come there and are confused. For now you are nothing. You see terror and are afraid. In other words, Job is saying to his friends, and by the way, Job says to his friends, over and over and over again, you are not helping me. You are not doing anything for me. All these things that you are saying to me are of no help to me. You are like a mountain stream gone dry, and you make a poor case. Even God turns from Job to Elephaz in chapter 42 verse 7. God says to Eleph, as my wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. Satan sure has his way, doesn't he? Satan's strategy? He knows what button is to push, doesn't he? He goes for the jugular. He goes for those people that are closest to you, doesn't he? If it's not Job's wife, if it's not the one who is his closest friend, then it's going to be his other close friend. And in that so awesome case, we have looked only as far as our Lord who turns to his good friend. One of the disciples who was in the very inner circle of friendship with Jesus, and Jesus turns to him, is that, get me behind me, Satan. Because that's the way Satan acts. Many times you young people in particular listen many times through your friend, or those who you think are your friends. And the comfort that these friends should have shown Job turns out to be the most severe trial for Job. Because now he doesn't have anywhere to go. He doesn't have anywhere to turn. So we have a lot of things to learn from Job's friends. A lot of things from their mistakes, their failures. If we can learn from Job's friends' failures, then perhaps we, as a church, perhaps we can have success in our comfort to our friends. Because in that, what we want, don't we want to be good friends? Don't we want to be real friends with each other and be there in time of need? Don't we want to have that reputation? We know how to be friends. We know how to be a family. We know what to say, and we know what not to say, because perhaps from this morning we'll learn what not to do from Job's friends. First of all, they did not speak the truth. Why would God say that to them in the first place? I mean, what is it that they said that may God say to them, you speak right of me. I've already alluded to the answer. We've already made it fairly clear, but it's the broken record. It's the things they keep saying over and over and over again. God blesses the righteous, but punishes the wicked. Therefore, Job is wicked. Therefore, Job is an evil man. Job is in sin. So is what they say true? Is it right to say that God blesses the righteous, but punishes the wicked? Yes. Is it right then to discern that Job is wicked? No. So the answer is, are they right? The answer is yes and no. The first part of the argument is very right. The second part of the argument, their conclusion is dead wrong. It is true that God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked. Patrick read it in the Old Testament reading in Deuteronomy 11, it says, and it shall be that if you earnestly obey my commandment, which I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, then I will give you the reign for your land in its season. The early reign, the latter reign, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, your oil, and I will sin grass and your fields for your livestock that you may eat, and be filled. All these things I will do for you, I will do, I will do, I will do as long as you obey me. God is saying to Israel. Then He says, in verse 16, take heed to yourselves, let your heart be deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them, let the Lord's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no reign, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving. In fact, how could it be more clear, in 26, the Deuteronomy 11, behold, I said before you today, a blessing and a curse, the blessings, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey, the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. There's not a person in this room who doesn't understand that verse. Those verses who don't understand the simplicity of what God is saying, if you obey me, I will do all these great things for you. I will bless the righteous, and if you don't obey, I will punish God. I will curse you, Bible is filled with such statements, and Proverbs 10, verse 3, the Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but he casts away the desire of the wicked. Verse 6, the same Proverbs, chapter 10, the blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. In Proverbs 13, 6, righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but wickedness overthrows the sinner. Verse 3 is read earlier from 10 to 12, for he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking to sea, let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Job's friends think truth when they say that God blesses the righteous, but punish the wicked. It's what they said next. It was their conclusion when they said that Job was therefore a wicked man. Have you ever known someone who got a hold of a truth in the Bible, and you think that was the only truth in the Bible?
They get so caught up and enamored, I guess, with that truth, that they can't see the rest of the Bible. They can't take the Bible in its whole context, and they harp on that truth over and over and over again, as if there's no other truth in the Bible. The Bible must be read in the context of the whole. For example, and this is the truth, that God blesses the righteous, and he punishes the wicked, and able the righteous was killed, and came the wicked was not. It's a true statement. God blesses the righteous, and God punishes the wicked, and the wicked flourish. The wicked prosper, the wicked have everything they want, the wicked, and it doesn't seem like anything ever comes to the wicked. The wicked seem to live on easy street. God blesses the righteous, and he punishes the wicked, and Paul says that Timothy, those who would live, a godly life will suffer. God blesses the righteous, and God punishes the wicked, and there were Christians in the World Trade Center on September 11th. He blesses the righteous, and he punishes the wicked, and it pleased Almighty God to crush his own son, through Ninocia, who was righteous. The encouragement is, live a godly life. By all means, live a life that is obedient to God's Word, God's law, know His Word, and live by His Word, live a life that God says of you. You obey me. You are a servant that obeys me, and the warning is, don't live an evil life. Don't be immoral. Don't be unethical. Don't lie. Don't live an evil life. The reality is, God has not given us a blue plan so that we can then make these blanket statements and come up for these easy equations, make these easy equations out of life, and say, well, this person over here, they're so blessed. They must be righteous. And this person over here is not as blessed, so they must not be as righteous. Let's not be guilty of that. Very American. Very American. It's very, very shallow. But somehow religion is my ticket to peace, and prosperity, and peace of mind, and success in business, and if a person has all those things, then they really must be blessed, and they must really be righteous people. Let's put them on the board. Or a woman who really has it all together, and she has all these blessings, she has all these little children yet, she always seems to look so good and can put on these parties. Boy, she must be a righteous woman. Don't be so crafty. Don't be so shallow. God's blessings are much deeper than that. Obviously, their spiritual blessings, eternal blessings, and young friends didn't know what they were talking about. And we don't want to be guilty of that. We don't want to have the reputation that those people are extruded. I just don't know what they're talking about. Secondly, the untrue, and really just a part of the first point, but it doesn't fit Joe. These friends, they knew that people suffer because their sinners, what they didn't know is that sometimes people suffer because their saints. Joe was suffering because he was righteous. He was suffering because he was the best man God had. But these friends didn't know that. How could they? They didn't know. They weren't privy to the discussion they went on in the heavenly between God and Satan. Then that's the point. That's the problem. They didn't know. And they should have admitted they didn't know and shut their mouths. But instead, they come with all their seeologizing and all their little proof texts and all their little belief systems and not one bit of that helps Joe but all. They should have come to him and said, Joe, we know you're righteous. And we know God is righteous. And we know that everything God does is right. And we can't figure this out. We don't know what God is doing, but I say this brother, we're going to sit with you. We're going to pray. And we're going to wait. We're going to wait on God together until he sheds greater light on that. They never say anything like that because they believe that they somehow got a forced job into thinking just like they think about God. They've got a convinced job of their little box that they have in which they have God. Even if it means lying about Joe of anything, anything at all to make their case. And brother, let's be honest, sometimes we're no better than Joe's friends. We PCA, Cresbeteria, who have it all figured out. And we've got all the answers. You just let me come in there and fix your little problem and I'll tell you everything you need to know about God. You ever think that way? The church is so slogan-minded today. Let's say, it's siphoning. And we have what I've heard referred to as bumper sticker theology. It means I can sum up everything I believe about God and suffering. And I can put it all in one bumper sticker and pronounce it to the world in the back of my car. Or everything God thinks about this. Or everything God thinks about that. just spread these little text over here but verses on my refrigerator over here and they're not wrong. They're true statements. They even come from the Bible and just don't help anybody. I mean, really, because they're not the gospel. It's not the whole word and so often things like that. They're just taken out of context because as I looked at earlier they just get a hold of one truth without taking the pain to finding out what the rest of those God's words are. People need the whole word, brethren. Not just a few verses. They need a whole system of theology as it's presented in the Bible, not bits and pieces and they need the whole council of God. Not just what they want to hear about them, just what makes them feel good about themselves. They need everything and that's really what we need to ask ourselves is, are we able to do that? Can you offer someone, when you go to them in their home after they lost the loved one or in the hospital and visit a friend and give them everything, it takes work, it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of work to become a church like that. You've got to read the Word. You can't give somebody the Word, if you're not reading the Word, you've got to read the Word and study the Word every day of your life. Not every day, but Saturday, or every day, but Sunday, but I'm going to church anyway, and you've got a big insurance. You've got to sit in church, worship in church, morning and evening. You've got to be there when the saints gather. You've got to sit on the preaching and have the Bible open and take notes at that health. That analogy has been said before. You've got to get up out of your seat and come out of the stands and start playing in the game for change. Stop being a spectator and dude, work and serve. Or to turn that analogy over and say quit playing the game. Quit acting like church is a game. Just play in church, please. It's only then that a church is a void of superficiality. And God forbid that we ever, ever be accused or anybody would ever have a leg to stand up, they would say of Trinity that they're superficial people over there, or that they're a church of path truths. Because that's all they know. Path to truth. I pray with you that God would give us good counselors and good disciples and good teachers and make us good friends, real friends, a real family who is there when there's a need, but never it'll never happen. Unless we know the whole word and we give the whole counsel of God. And great mythology for crusties had one bed in his house for gas. One bed and whoever came, if they were to tall for the bed, he would just lock all on each end his cast and put them in the bed so they fit. Or if they were too short, he would stretch them to make them fit. He is one bed. Let's not be guilty of Trinity saying, well, we just have one bed at Trinity. And every one of our guests who come through those doors have to fit in the bed. Or they're not welcome at Trinity. We realize that people are different. We realize that life is too complicated and people are too different to be to help them with slogans and catchy phrases. People don't have to fit into our mold. They don't have to fit a certain clientele or be a certain person or have the same experiences that you have to be spiritual.
They don't have to have attended a certain weekend or gone to a certain retreat or taken a certain pilgrimage or been to a certain rally. Everything they mean is found right here within these walls. Everything because this is God's institution, this is God's ordained means. Everything they need and you remember that when you think about inviting a friend. Everything they need to be born again is right here. Everything they need to grow in the Lord Jesus is right here. We have the potential to show Montgomery. State of Alabama, for that matter, that this is the way it is. This is God's means. I don't want to say that with pride and I don't want you to hear that with pride either. If you really, really do have the potential to show everyone else that did everything anyone needs has found in the church of Jesus Christ and that they don't have to have all this other love. But it's only if we don't act like Job's friends. Job's friends need just enough to be dangerous. They didn't know enough to help. I'll say another thing about them. They didn't love Job either, which is really the third point. They showed him sympathy but not empathy. They didn't love them. They came. They traveled to be with him. They sat with him in sympathy. But their silent compassion, remember that? How good their silent compassion was? But it's a mistake because it wasn't followed by empathetic communication. They wouldn't go again to the pains of seeing it as he saw. That sympathy is feeling sorry for somebody. Sympathy is an emotional feeling. Anybody can have sympathy. But not everybody can show empathy. Empathy is when you've been there. Empathy is when you've experienced empathy takes work. Empathy says, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to see the world as you see it. My hurting friend. Job's friends weren't willing to do that. Job knew it. Job knew they didn't love it. This is a point that was written by one of our members when his daughter died in 1984. It's called the man with the pebbling sheep and it reads, have you earned the right to say, I know how you feel? Have you ever lost your mother, father, wife, husband or the most painful loss of your very own child? Do you feel unbearable pain? I say you're not listening. You say, yes, I am. Do you see the man out there walking using the cane? Do you know what causes his pain? It's a pebbling issue. If you wear his shoe with the pebbling it for several days, a bruise will appear, a limp will be near. Soon you'll be seeking a cane and now be feeling the pain. You've earned the right to share his plight, but now you know how he feels. Job in chapter 16 says of his friends, he says to them, chapter 16 verses 4 and 5, he says, I also could speak as you do if your soul were in my soul's place. I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you, but I would strengthen you with my mouth and the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief. In other words, if you were the one suffering and I was the friend coming to you, I could say all those things you're saying, anybody could say that, but I hope I wouldn't, and I would say things that really comforted you. For time's sake, what we've done is provided you a list in the bulletin that's on the fourth panel and it's just things to look for. When you read through chapters 4 to 31 and please do that this week and have this list with you and just maybe read the list and then read a couple of chapters today. I would draw your attention to the 8th on this religious professionalism. That's the way they saw him. They didn't see Job as a suffering friend, but rather some interesting case. Dr. Paul Reese was to conduct the funeral of a man who had lost his daughter and the man, the father, said to the pastor, pastor, you do this all the time. Please remember these all we have. That means that that's just to help us understand what it means to be empathetic toward others. Let me just say this in closing and then I'm going to have you bow your head while we make a couple more comments, but just something about our church, about this idea of our thing. When I say the word potential and I say it'll never happen until please don't get the impression that I think that we're not experiencing that now and that we're certainly on our way, we're all growing together. I believe that I would say to our visitors here today, if you're looking for a church that is empathetic and loving and great friendship here, that this is a family and you need to look no further because this is a very loving place. But I would throw out that maybe the grander tells you, what does they experience when they do come here? Do they hear God's truth, not only here is truth, but do they experience his love or in your business or when you have people in your home or wherever they find you? Do they hear God's truth from your lips at the same time? Are they experiencing the love of God because they've been in your presence? They've done business with you and therefore they know God's love. They say the reason they're Christians in the world is because of Christians. They also say the reason why there's not more Christians is because of Christians. So what do they think about us? We may see ourselves as earnest and sacrificial and dedicated. Is that what they see? Do they see us? Do they see us as empathetic friends? People who know the God of truth. If you'll bow your heads, I do want to make just a couple more comments, but I want you to bow your head so you're not thinking about anything else and it's just really between you and God and it is to make application about Jesus in the text. Jesus is on every page of Joe and we need to remember that and you remember that as you're reading it this week that the message or the incarnation of Jesus Christ is very simple. You do have a friend and you have a friend who has come where you are. He's come alongside of you and he engages in the trivial things of your life. In fact, for Jesus there is nothing trivial in your life whatsoever. Now one thing in your life is a minor detail that he doesn't care about. He does care about it. He is a friend that is born for adversity. He is a friend who has for you divine empathy. He carries the burden of your sin. He bears your judgment for you. Do you know that this friend of yours anticipates every question you have and he is never a loose, never distant and he's never hostile for you and he says you are my friend if you do what I command you. If you do not do what he command you he's not your friend and the frightening thing is to realize I am at war with God so I urge you to come to Christ today to make peace with him be reconciled to him forever and ever from this moment forward. God, that's our prayer for any who are not believers in here this morning or in the sound of my voice on the radio. If they don't know you they would come to Christ. They would put faith in your son trusting that he died for them and will henceforth live their lives obedient to your law your word loving every page every promise that is ours every promise that is yes in Jesus in whose name we pray amen