Now, in Job chapter 3, if you remember, his friends just showed up at the end of chapter
2, and they've sat with him for about seven days now.
No one's really said anything.
They're just giving him some time, and he's been just distraught.
If you remember, he's lost all of his children.
He's lost all of his wealth.
He's lost his employees, and his wife has told him to curse God and die.
He's covered in boils and sores from head to toe.
He's scraping himself with a potsherd just to relieve the physical agony that he's in.
And after seven days of just sitting there astonished with his three friends, he opens
his mouth after that, and we really get into the meat of the book of Job, because chapters
1 and 2 are just pretty much introductory.
And in chapter 3, we start out with Job cursing the day that he was ever born, basically wishing
that he had never even been born.
That's how upset he is.
That's how much agony he's in.
And that is going to take up this entire chapter.
It's a pretty straightforward chapter, but there are some interesting things that we
can learn from this chapter.
There's definitely some good doctrine in this chapter.
Remember, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
And especially down toward the end of the chapter, there's some important doctrine that's
taught in this chapter.
But let's start at the beginning with the morning that he starts with.
It says in verse 1, after this, Job opened Job's mouth and cursed his day, and Job spake
and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said,
There is a man child conceived.
Let that day be darkness.
Let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it.
Let a cloud dwell upon it.
Let the blackness of the day terrify it.
As for that night, let darkness seize upon it.
Let it not be joined unto the days of the year.
Let it not come into the number of the months.
Lo, let that night be solitary.
Let no joyful voice come therein.
Let them curse it that cursed the day, who were ready to raise up their morning.
Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark.
Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the dawning of the day.
And he finally finishes that really long thought in verse 10 when he says, Because it shut
not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
So he's just listing off all these curses that he wants to place on that day.
He's saying it was a horrible day, and the reason it was such a horrible day is because
I did not die in my mother's womb, because I was actually born alive.
I mean he's wishing that he had never been born.
Now you probably have to be pretty miserable to get to that point in your life where you
wish that you were dead and you wish that you died.
But some people have probably been there.
And many people in the Bible got to that point.
If you remember, Elijah got to a point similar to this where he was so discouraged that he
wished that he would die.
And he actually prayed to God that God would kill him.
Same thing with the book of Jonah.
We see Jonah asking God to allow him to die, saying that he wants to die.
And so we see a lot of great men of God like Jonah, like Elijah, like Job getting to this
point.
So one of the things we can learn from this is that obviously when bad things happen,
especially the degree that they're happening to Job, it's normal and natural for us to
be upset, for us to mourn, for us to grieve.
Now we know that by reading the beginning of Job and also reading the end of Job, we
realize that Job did not sin with his lips or charge God foolishly.
And we know that at the end of the book, God sanctions that which was spoken by Job and
says that Job has spoken the thing which was right concerning me.
So it's important to understand that when we're reading the book of Job, whatever Job
is saying, he's speaking by the Holy Ghost and the words of Job are inspired.
Okay, so whenever we read things in Job, they are authoritative.
I remember I showed somebody something from the book of Job one time and it was about
the second coming of Christ and it had to do with end times prophecy.
And in fact, the teachings of the book of Job are completely compatible with what Jesus
taught in Matthew 24 and what Jesus taught in Mark 13 and what we read in Revelation
chapter 6.
The book of Job backs up a clear understanding of those things with a post-tribulational
pre-wrath rapture.
And I showed somebody from the book of Job and they basically brushed it off just because
it was coming from the book of Job.
Now that's a mistake because it was Job that prophetically was speaking about the resurrection
of the saints, the resurrection of the dead of Christ, and we know that what he spoke
was right.
Otherwise why would God even give us this book?
God gave us this book because it contains the inspired word of God out of the mouth
of his servant Job who was a prophet who spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost.
Now his friends of course are in error.
So when we deal with the chapters of his friends, we're going to look at it and we're
going to be critical of it.
And we're going to decide which of the things they said were right and which of the things
that they said were wrong because they are men that are not infallible.
But when we're reading the book of Job and Job is speaking, the Bible's clear at the
end of the book that Job spake the things that were right concerning God and obviously
he was inspired by God, he's a prophet of God, he's speaking the word of God.
Same thing when we read the book of Psalms.
People will try to write off the book of Psalms and say, well that's just David talking.
Well by that logic, Colossians is just Paul talking, Romans is just Paul talking.
You know the book of Luke, well that's just Luke talking.
I mean where does that end?
You see you have to realize that God's word is inspired by God.
It might have characters in it that say the wrong things, but when we're dealing with
the author of Scripture, whether that author that's humanly being used to pin it down is
Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, whatever they write is infallible because the Scriptures
are given by inspiration of God.
And this is a case in the book of Job where holy men of God spake as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost.
That includes Job and everything that he says in the book of Job.
We should not question the validity or the truth of anything that Job says in this book.
It's God's word.
What his friends say on the other hand needs to be examined critically.
So he's wishing that he was never born.
He's very upset, he's depressed.
Now it's normal when you're faced with an extreme tragedy to be sad, to be upset.
Now the sinful thing is if he charged God foolishly, if he blamed God, or if he cursed
God, or if he forsook the laws of God.
We don't see him doing that.
All we see him doing is just venting his suffering, his sorrow, his sadness, and there's nothing
in the world wrong with that.
I mean Jesus wept.
Great men of God throughout the Bible wept.
They went through periods of suffering.
The Bible says that now at this present time, if need be, we are in heaviness.
Heaviness means, you know, depression, sadness.
We go through sorrow and so forth.
Now our world today has a strange view sometimes of sorrow and suffering.
And in fact they think that we should never experience sorrow or suffering and that if
we do something's wrong.
I remember someone whose child died and they were still mourning a week later.
Can you imagine that?
Obviously it's going to take much longer than that to get over the loss of a child.
But a week later she's still mourning and they're saying, you know, you need to stop
being so sad and depressed and in fact let's put you on an anti-depressant.
And she took the anti-depressant and she said, now I feel more depressed.
That's what she told me.
She said, I'm more depressed now.
This anti-depressant has made things worse for me.
And so our society says, oh if you're depressed, if you're sad, you need to get on drugs.
Well first of all, sometimes you should be sad.
You should mourn.
I mean, great people died in the Bible and there was a period of mourning that could
last even 30 days, 40 days of just mourning.
Now we don't mourn like those who have no hope, but does that just say we don't mourn
period?
No, it just says we don't mourn like those who have no hope.
We do mourn.
We do go through sorrow and suffering.
You know, it's funny, I was looking at an advertisement for, I don't know if it was
Tylenol or one of these headache type medicines and it said, you know, just one more step
toward a pain-free world.
Look, it doesn't exist.
A pain-free world?
We're not going to live in a pain-free world.
I mean, pain is part of life.
In fact, pain can be helpful to you and beneficial to you, okay?
For example, let's say you're not taking very good care of your teeth.
You know, maybe you're busy and you're traveling and you're not taking good care of your teeth.
Well then what starts happening?
You start getting a serious pain in your mouth and that pain tells you, hey, you're not taking
good enough care of your teeth.
You have a problem with your teeth.
You know, and then you're like, oh wow, I need to floss more.
You know, I need to brush my teeth more.
I need to rinse my mouth out with peroxide or whatever you use.
I need to keep my mouth in better condition.
But here's the thing.
What if I just take a painkiller?
Don't floss the teeth.
Don't brush the teeth.
You know, my teeth are going to rot and fall out of my mouth.
That pain is there to tell me there's a problem that you need to address before it gets worse.
So instead of just masking the pain, we deal with the problem.
Well here's the thing.
There are other types of pain besides physical pain.
There is emotional pain.
There is pain that goes on in our heart, sorrow of heart.
Just as physical pain serves a function in our lives, so does the sorrow of heart serve
a function in our lives.
Prove it from the Bible.
Well the Bible says through the sorrow of the heart, the countenance is made better.
The Bible says, be afflicted and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord that he may lift you up.
The Bible teaches that sorrow and sadness can do a work in our life and make us a better
person.
Pain can make us a better person.
So we don't want to just always think that we have to be happy and cheerful all the time.
And if not, find me a drug that will get me there.
But that's the philosophy of our world today.
You know, you'll go into the doctor, you'll go into the emergency room, and they'll say
tell me what your pain is on a scale of one to ten.
And you'll say like one, two, and they're like let me write a prescription for some
pain medication.
You're like what in the world?
I just told you my pain is like two out of ten.
You know, you're writing me a prescription for a painkiller.
I mean good night.
If it's two or three, just grin and bear it.
Are you serious?
But anyway, so that's one thing that we can just learn from this passage.
We can see a real human being here with Job.
I mean what if we read the book of Job, all his kids are dying, he's got sores head to
toe, he's going through all this suffering.
And what if he was just, you know, the Lord gave the Lord, take it away, blessed be the
name of the Lord.
I mean that sounds great, but we probably wouldn't be able to relate to it as well until
we get to chapter three and we can really feel his suffering and say okay, I've been
there.
You know, not to the extent that he was there, but you can understand this isn't a robot.
This isn't a superman.
This is a human being who's suffering and going through things like we would go through.
Now before I move on to the next point, I want to show you something about this passage
that the modern versions have done with this passage because, you know, of course we're
working on a new documentary about the modern versions and constantly over the last eight
years of preaching at Faith Forward Baptist Church, I've constantly pointed out the errors
in the modern versions of the Bible.
And the reason that I constantly do that is because it's something that we need to
be reminded of.
Because if we just one time preach a sermon and say okay, we're King James only, we don't
do the modern versions, in fact the lettering on the window says King James Bible only,
and the license plate of the pastor's car that no longer exists used to say KJV only.
You know, if we just did that one time, your memory can start to fade and even though you're
still King James only, you'll start thinking well, these modern versions aren't really
that bad and, you know, it's not a big deal and it just, it starts to fade.
So I like to just constantly bring it up, constantly put it in front of you.
Like not a whole sermon on it, but just in a sermon, just show you how they change things,
okay.
Now this isn't really a big doctrinal change, but it's just a weird thing that's in these
modern versions.
And you know, most of the changes that the modern versions do, they affect doctrine.
Because all scripture's profitable for doctrine and there's so many doctrines that little
changes can affect.
But I just want to show you something interesting here in verse number 8.
I'll start with the new King James, okay, which this is where they actually resurrected
King James, okay.
They brought him back from the dead 300 years after his death and he actually produced a
new version.
He commissioned a new, he authorized a new version of the Bible.
Okay, so this is the new King James version, which of course is a fraud in and of itself
because the King James version has been the same for the last 400 years, despite what
liars will tell you.
Oh, and I have a new King James where on the back it says, the King James has been revised
four times.
This is the fifth time.
That's a lie.
In fact, the King James Bible that you have in your lap today is a 1769 edition of the
King James Bible.
Pretty much everybody in this room probably has a 1769 edition of the King James Bible.
And people say, well, you know, is it the 1611 or is it the 1769 or is it the Oxford
or the Cambridge and try to make you feel like there's all these different King James
versions out there and, you know, they're all different, they all say something different.
But here's the truth of the matter.
The only difference between the 1611 King James version and the 1769 version is just
spellings, okay.
And remember, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The Word of God is a verbal inspiration.
So spelling doesn't matter, okay.
I mean, you could change the spelling as long as the words are the same.
It doesn't matter, okay.
And it boggles my mind how some people think that the spellings are inspired.
Well, you know, the spellings have changed a lot since 1611, but so what?
The words are the same.
So the only difference between the 1611 and the 1769 are spellings, capitalizations, which
are also irrelevant to the meaning because you say, whoa, they changed the meaning.
Only if your doctrine's wrong because it should be able to be spoken the same way that
it's read.
Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy.
So if the spelling or the capitalization changes doctrine, that verse wouldn't be correct.
All that's different is spelling.
The only thing that's different between 1611 and 1769 is spelling, capitalization, punctuation,
and just the correction of typos.
And I guarantee you probably every Bible in this room has a typo.
So what?
There's no corruption, we're not changing the word of God.
You can point at it, well this one has S capitalized and this one doesn't.
If you look at the list that somebody will show you of the supposed differences, none
of them change the meaning of the verse.
You know, it's the same verse, it's the same words, they don't change any words.
So don't ever get sucked into this lie that the King James has changed and oh yeah, and
then somebody corrected me about this.
There is one other thing different from the 1611 and 1769.
They did change font style.
They changed the font, okay, because you know, in 1611 they used the Gothic type font, you
know, and then in 1769 edition it's the Latin type font.
Do you really think that that means that the Bible that we have today is different
than the 1611?
Because it's a different font, different capitalization, different spelling.
Does anybody think that that just means we're on a different version?
Whereas the New King James just says things that are completely different, okay?
So let me just show you an example of this.
This is just kind of a weird thing that I found.
You look down at your Bible there in Job chapter 3 verse 8, remember this is when he's cursing
his day.
He says in verse 8, let them curse it that curse the day who are ready to raise up their
mourning.
Now that verse makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
He's talking about cursing the day that he was born and he's talking about raising up
mourning, which makes perfect sense.
That's exactly what he's doing.
Listen to the New King James.
It says, may those cursed who curse the day, those who are ready to arouse Leviathan.
Wait, did you get that?
Let them curse it that curse the day, because remember the New King James is just getting
rid of the these and the those for you, making it a little bit easier to understand.
That's pretty hard to understand, right?
Let them curse it that curse the day who are ready to raise up their mourning.
So they made it a little easier by changing it too.
May those curse it who curse the day who are ready to arouse Leviathan.
Now of course the modern versions pretty much are all going to say the same thing.
Look it up for me, guys.
I'm going to look it up in the ESV here, which is gaining a lot of popularity amongst Baptists,
amongst the conservative.
They're going to the ESV and it says the same thing pretty much in Job 3.8.
Let those curse it who curse the day who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
Now if you know what Leviathan is, Leviathan is this gigantic sea creature that is described
later in the book of Job in chapter 41.
Basically something that is probably extinct today or it's in Loch Ness.
You know, pretty much those are the two options.
I mean this thing is probably extinct, it's a giant sea creature and the Bible describes
it as being very huge, very powerful.
You know, you think about the fact that there have been discoveries of bones and things,
what is today referred to as the dinosaurs, right?
And of course the word dinosaur is not found in the Bible because the word dinosaur was
not invented until the 1800s.
In the Bible we see mention of Behemoth, which seems to be a gigantic land animal like what
is commonly drawn as a dinosaur, and then Leviathan seems to be a sea creature, again
similar to a gigantic extinct type of a, you know, call it what you want, dinosaur, whatever
you want to call it, this giant sea creature.
So that's what it's talking about with Leviathan.
Now who do you think is ready to rouse up Leviathan?
What is he talking about?
When he's saying, okay I want people to curse, he's saying, curse the day wherein I was born,
curse the day wherein it was said that there's a man-child brought into the world, and those
that are ready to raise up Leviathan, let them curse the day.
Now that doesn't make any sense.
So even just on the surface level you say, well how dare you Pastor Anderson, you're
not a Hebrew expert.
But just on the surface, if I just use common sense and just look at what the King James
says, it makes perfect sense.
And then I look at what the ESV is saying, you know, let those cursed who curse the day
who are ready to rouse up Leviathan, hey everybody, let's rouse up Leviathan.
What is that talking about?
You got this one ready for me?
Yeah, this is the New American Standard, let those cursed who curse the day who are prepared
to rouse Leviathan.
What do we got here?
The English version is this, the NIV.
May those who curse days curse that day those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
Now I don't have the physical Bibles with me, but I looked this up online.
Some of the versions get really weird with this verse, okay.
The contemporary English version, and this is one that I've seen a lot at the Christian
bookstore, it kind of was popular I think a few years ago.
Let those with magic powers place a curse on that day.
Are you listening?
You look down at your King James Bible.
Job 3.8, this is what the contemporary English version says, let those with magic powers
place a curse on that day.
Listen to the contemporary English Bible.
May those who curse the day curse it, those with enough skill to awaken Leviathan.
Now Leviathan must be a pretty heavy sleeper, you know, if you have to have that much skill
in order to wake him up.
Listen, this is the ERV.
I don't even know what that is, but the ERV says, some magicians think that they can wake
Leviathan, so let them say their curses and curse the day when I was born.
I mean if these magicians think they can raise up Leviathan, they sound like great guys to
enlist to curse the day when I was born.
And then the GNT, the good news translation, tell the sorcerers to curse that day those
who know how to control Leviathan.
So according to this now, sorcerers know how to control Leviathan.
I mean sorcerers can manipulate, I mean I wish they'd bring him out of Loch Ness so that
we could all see and believe, right?
But anyway, I'm just trying to show you, these new Bibles are a joke.
They say a lot of weird things and I don't really trust the scholarship behind these
new versions.
Not to mention the fact that they're translated from the wrong Greek and the wrong Hebrew.
I don't even trust the scholarship behind these things if that's how they translate
this thing.
And you say, well but Pastor Anderson, I looked it up in the Hebrew and it kind of looked,
the word kind of looks like Leviathan to me.
But here's the thing, you don't speak Hebrew, you're not an expert in Hebrew, okay?
And I think it's so dangerous when people who know nothing about Greek and nothing about
Hebrew, they just start looking into these languages to try to correct the King James
Bible.
Okay?
And they basically, they're like, well I'm going to get to the bottom of this.
I'm going to see whether it's sorcerers and magicians, you know, bringing up Leviathan
or whether it's just, you know, raising up mourning.
I'm going to figure it out.
You know, you're not going to figure it out because you don't know the language.
You know, you either believe the King James Bible or you believe in these new versions.
But you, you know, until you're going to become fluent in Hebrew, then come back and talk
to me, you know, and then become an expert in ancient Hebrew, you know, and then come
back and talk to me.
Okay?
Then get fluent in the Greek and then come back and talk to me.
But we have so many people, you'll talk to people who know nothing of these languages.
For example, a guy that we were talking to recently, there was a scripture that said
that the disciples met on the first day of the week, right?
So then somebody took that and they said, well, you know, because these are the Sabbath
keeping style, and they said, well, but if you go back to the Greek, that, you know,
first day of the week is Miaton Sabaton.
And they said, see, Sabaton, that's Sabbath, because it was spelled S-A-B-B-A-T, you know.
So they look at it and it's like, wow, that looks like Sabbath.
So I guess every Bible for the last 500 years is wrong.
But you figured it out, because that word looks like Sabbath.
Okay?
But here's why that's so misguided, because the word Sabaton in Greek means week.
Because it says in the King James, the first day of the week.
And the word that you think looks like Sabbath actually means week.
That's what it says in the King James.
But you didn't know that because you don't know the language.
So people just fool around with things that they don't understand.
Here's a great example that I like to use, just to show how silly it is for you to think
you're going to go to the original language and figure out what it means without studying,
you know, without actually being fluent.
And these pastors, you can tell by the way that they pronounce the words that they don't
speak the language.
This word, dokeo, you know, it's like, what?
Nobody ever talked like that.
Okay, but they basically prove that they don't know it because when you confront them they
don't know it.
They just know how to look things up in a dictionary and look cute and look smart and
sound convincing about how they went back to the Greek and back to Hebrew.
But here's an example I like to use.
You know in the book of Jude, where it talks about how Sodom and Gomorrah, they went after
strange flesh?
Everybody know what I'm talking about?
Well you know, if you go back to the Greek, the word strange flesh there, the word strange
there is hetero.
That's what it is.
Now if you go back to the Greek, the problem was that they were actually straight, you
know, because they went after hetero-sarks, strange flesh, but see they just don't even
know what it means.
See, you look at words in another language and you think you know what they mean, but
you don't.
I mean you might look at words in Spanish and think, oh I know what that means, but
it means something completely different in English.
It's called a false friend.
When you look at a word in another language that seems like something that you're used
to.
Like for example, you look at the word sensible in German and you think, oh that means sensible.
Sensible, sensible.
Sensible is a compliment.
Sensible is derogatory because it means that you're overly sensitive.
It doesn't mean sensible at all.
Sensible is frenunftig, okay?
So what I'm saying is you can't just go to the Greek and just look at it and be like,
wow that looks like Sabbath.
Oh wow, this looks like Leviathan, so Pastor Anderson's wrong.
No, Pastor Anderson's not wrong and neither were the 50-some people who translated the
King James Bible wrong when they said they're ready to raise up their mourning.
But these modern scholars are so deluded, they're so blinded, they're so warped that
they actually think that this verse is talking about sorcerers and magicians who have the
ability to control and rouse up and bring Leviathan to them.
Next, they're going to tell us that they can draw out Leviathan with a hook apparently,
you know?
But anyway, I don't want to spend the whole night on that, but I just want to go to show
you how these new versions are not the same as the King James.
They make a lot of changes and, you know, you say, well no doctrine was affected there.
No, but it's weird, okay?
But other changes do affect doctrine and if you trust the people who translated that verse
to translate the rest of the Bible about salvation, about the deity of Christ, you know, well
then go ahead and get one of these new Bible.
Or better yet, since you are able to just look into the original languages yourself
with your lexicon and your dictionary, you know, you can just translate your own version
of the Bible.
Wrong.
Just get a King James and shut up, alright.
But anyway, go back to the book of Job here in chapter 3.
I just wanted to show you that, just to show you how these new versions have got a pretty
weird scripture there in Job 3.8.
Who's already seen that before?
Anybody?
Nobody?
Alright.
After eight years, I'm preaching something new.
No, I'm just kidding.
Anyway, Job 3, look at verse 10.
It says, Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine
eyes.
Why died I not from the womb?
Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
Why did the knees prevent me, or why the breasts that I should suck?
For now should I have lain still and been quiet.
I should have slept.
Tonight I have been at rest, with kings and counselors of the earth, which built desolate
places for themselves, or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
Or as in hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants which never saw light.
There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.
There the prisoners rest together, they hear not the voice of the oppressor, the small
and great are there, and the servant is free from his master.
Now that scripture that we just read is actually very important doctrinally, because Job talks
about two things there.
He talks about, you know, dying in the womb, right?
He talks about being an untimely birth, which is also known as miscarriage, right?
He's talking about being miscarriage or dying in the womb.
Or he's just talking about being born and then dying as a newborn because he talks about,
you know, not sucking the breasts, okay, when he comes out of his mother's womb.
He's basically dying of starvation, and he's wishing that he had died as an infant.
He's wishing he had died either during birth or before the birth in the womb, and what's
interesting is that he talks about the fact that if that had been the case, basically
that he would have gone to heaven, if you look at this passage.
Because he says that it'd be better for him to have died in the womb or to have been as
a hidden untimely birth, look at verse 16, as infants which never saw light, there the
wicked cease from troubling.
Where's the there?
Well, let's read about it and see if you can figure out where the there is.
There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.
There the prisoners rest together.
They hear not the voice of the oppressor.
The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master.
Let me ask you this, does that sound like a good place or a bad place?
A place where the servant is free from his master?
A place of rest, a place where there's no oppressor.
It's a good place, and a little bit early on, he called it in verse 13, I had lain still
and been quiet.
I should have slept.
Then had I been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth which built desolate places for
themselves or with princes that had gold who filled their houses with silver.
What he's explaining there is, you know, whether you're rich, you're poor, the small and great
are there, the servant is there, and the master is there.
The oppressor and the oppressed, but in that place everything's good.
Everything's rest, there is no oppression, the servant is free from his master in that
place because he's talking about being in heaven.
You know, rest is something that is never associated with hell.
Because the Bible talks about those who spend eternity in hell, it says they have no rest
day nor night.
It says the smoke of their torment is set up forever and ever and they have no rest
day nor night.
But we which have believed do enter into rest.
As it is said today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
So what we see here is that the Bible's teaching us that a baby that dies goes to heaven.
And a lot of people wonder about this.
You know, perhaps they've had a miscarriage or perhaps they've had a young child die.
Maybe even let's say a three month old or a six month old die.
And they, you know, you say what happens to that child?
I mean, they didn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they didn't get saved, right?
They didn't even have an opportunity to.
They didn't even have the mental capacity to even understand such a thing.
And so you wonder, and sometimes when women have a miscarriage, people will just kind
of think, well, it just kind of disappeared.
It was never really a child.
But is that what we believe as Bible-believing Christians, that it was never alive, it was
never a child?
No, that was a real living human child with a soul, just like John the Baptist leaped
inside of his mother's womb.
Just like all throughout the Bible it teaches that what's inside the womb is a child, okay?
It's a human being.
So we see that the child that dies without seeing the light, without living out its life,
just dying as a newborn or an infant or in utero, that child goes to heaven.
Let's look at more evidence of that.
Go to 2 Samuel chapter 12.
Now a lot of people will wrongfully state that 2 Samuel 12 is the only place that teaches
this doctrine.
I've heard a lot of people say, well, you know there's only one place in the Bible that
deals with that, and that's 2 Samuel 12.
And they'll go to 2 Samuel 12 to prove that the baby that dies goes to heaven.
Now this is a legitimate proof, but the error is to say that there's only one place that
teaches that, because actually there are many places that teach that.
It's actually a doctrine that is very solid in the Bible.
Old and New Testament deal with this.
We've seen the proof in Job 3.
Did everybody understand that proof in Job 3?
I mean it's pretty clear.
He's saying, look, I would have been better off if I died in the womb, I'd go to this
good place, I'd be with other people there, where we'd all be at rest, where we'd all
be in a wonderful place.
Look at 2 Samuel 12, this is after David, his child, has died at 7 days old.
And during the 7 days he's praying and fasting for God to spare the child's life.
The child is dying as a punishment for David's sin.
This child was conceived through adultery.
This child was conceived in adultery and is being killed as a result of David's sin, a
direct punishment for David.
And yet the Bible says in verse 20, when David arose from the earth and washed and anointed
himself and changed his apparel and came into the house of the Lord and worshiped, then
he came to his own house and when he required, they set before him and he did eat.
Then said his servants unto him, what thing is this that thou has done?
Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive.
But when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
And he said, while the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who can tell
whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live?
But now he is dead.
Wherefore should I fast?
Can I bring him back again?
I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
So we know that obviously David is on his way to heaven.
And so if he says, I shall go to him, but he shall not come to me, it sounds as if he
believes that he's going to see this child again.
So when we combine that with Job, and then we combine that with what it says in 2 Samuel
chapter 12, then also we can look at Ecclesiastes.
Let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter 6, and then we'll go to the New Testament and understand
doctrinally why a child goes to heaven.
It's not just, well the Bible says it, I mean that would be enough, but it's good to understand
the doctrine behind it.
And here's the thing, the thing that's dangerous about saying that 2 Samuel 12 is the only
passage is that it's not that strong of a passage, as far as proving the fact that babies
go to heaven, because you could misinterpret it.
But when you have it side by side with the other passages, like the one from Job, like
the one from Ecclesiastes, like what we read in Romans, then it all fits together and shows
us a picture of a very clear doctrine of infants and babies and those that are in the
womb going to heaven when they die in an untimely way.
It says in verse number, let's see, are we in Ecclesiastes chapter number 6?
It says in verse 3, Ecclesiastes 6, 3, if a man beget a hundred children, he probably
has more than one wife, that's a safe bet, okay, if a man beget a hundred children and
live many years so that the days of his years be many and his soul be not filled with good
and also that he have no burial, I say that an untimely birth is better than he.
So right there we see that if it's better to be an untimely birth, it's better to be
a miscarriage than to be a man who lives a long and productive and fulfilling life and
yet has no burial.
Basically what is it saying there with the no burial?
Saying that the people he leaves behind on the earth don't care about him.
That's the way I interpret this.
He doesn't have a burial.
Nobody even cares enough to bury him.
Nobody shows up at the funeral as it were.
And by the way, this is part of why I'm against cremation.
Now look, if I die, I don't want you to put me in some gold-plated coffin and get some
expensive plot or anything fancy like that.
But I do want to be buried, okay?
Say, well, it's cheaper to cremate.
Well, you know, just put me in a pine box, but please bury me, okay?
At least do me that respect.
Burial is a biblical doctrine because it's a picture of the burial and resurrection of
the saints because the Bible likens it into a seed that is buried in the ground and then
springs up a new life.
That's a picture of the fact that the body is placed in the earth because one day it
will be resurrected when the trumpet sounds at the second coming of Jesus Christ.
But it says here that an untimely birth is better than he, verse 4, for he cometh in
with vanity and departeth in darkness and his name shall be covered with darkness.
Moreover he hath not seen the sun nor known anything.
This hath more rest than the other.
Now isn't that consistent with what we saw in Job 3?
Rest.
Yea, though he live a thousand years, twice told, yet hath he seen no good, do not all
go to one place.
Now go to Romans chapter number 7, Romans chapter number 7, and let's understand doctrinally
why a child that is not believed on Jesus Christ could still make it into heaven because
you say, well, you have to believe on Jesus to get to heaven.
But let me explain to you why.
While you're turning to Romans 7, I'm going to read for you from chapter 9, verse 11 of
Romans.
In Romans 9-11 the Bible reads, for the children, this is talking about Jacob and Esau while
they were in the womb, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of
in the called.
So according to Romans 9-11, Jacob and Esau in their mother's womb, what were they doing?
Do you remember back in Genesis, what were they doing with each other?
They were wrestling, they were fighting, they were struggling, they were striving within
her.
Now the Bible says here that they had done neither good nor evil.
So a baby in its mother's womb, isn't it pretty obvious that that child does not do either
good or evil?
I mean it's pretty much going to drink amniotic fluid and the amniotic fluid is going to come
out the other end.
It's going to suck its thumb, it's going to suck on its toes, it's going to kick its mom
every once in a while, you know, it's going to, I mean, what is it going to do that's
so evil?
I mean, is it going to commit adultery?
Is it going to steal?
Is it going to kill?
Is it going to covet?
Is it going to take the name of the Lord God in vain?
Is it going to create a graven image?
No.
And its whole life is one big Sabbath, you know, so I mean, it's not doing any work.
So anyway, what I'm saying is, the child in the womb does not commit sin.
It really isn't capable of committing any of those sins.
Now look at Romans chapter 7, the Bible says in verse 7,
"'What shall we say then?
Is the law sin?
God forbid, nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except
the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence,
for without the law sin was dead.'"
Now here's the key, look at verse 9, "'For I was alive without the law once.
But then when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
And the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death.'"
Okay, so what the Bible's teaching here is that Paul started out being alive before he
knew what was right and wrong, before he even knew what coveting was, before he even knew
what lust was.
Before he knew the law, he was alive.
But then it says, when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
Then we know that when Paul believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, he was then brought back
to life, wasn't he?
He was quickened, he was dead in trespasses and sins, but when he believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ, he was quickened or brought to life.
So get the picture, Paul was alive once, without the commandment.
Then the commandment came, sin revived, and he died.
Not physically, he's talking about dying spiritually.
His spirit was dead.
Then when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, his spirit is quickened.
Okay, now that's not unique to the Apostle Paul, obviously that is the process that everyone
goes through.
So therefore, the child who does not know the commandment in the womb or as a newborn
baby or as a very young child that is not able to comprehend or understand the laws
of God.
That child is not held accountable for the sins that they've committed and they're not
seen as having done good or evil because they are still alive and they have not yet died.
Okay, when the commandment came and they can consciously commit sin and so forth.
Now, you say, well what is the age that is the cutoff?
When does that take place where, you know, sin revived and they died?
Well obviously we know also that God is a loving and merciful God.
Okay, so God is not going to, I do not believe for one second because the Bible is clear
that whom God did foreknow, right, them did he also predestinate to be conformed to the
image of his son.
And the Bible talks about how we are the chosen and we're in him, you know, from the foundation
of the world.
Now look, I don't believe in Calvinism at all.
I don't believe that God chooses based upon his own will and nothing else, no.
I believe that God foreknows who will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that we are elect
according to the foreknowledge of God.
Not elect according to, nothing, unconditional election, no, I don't believe in any of that.
So I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm saying right now.
But obviously if God knows who's going to get saved and God knows who's going to give
them the Gospel and when that's going to happen.
Not saying that God is controlling it, just saying that God foreknows all things.
Let's say God knows that a person is going to get saved and they're going to hear the
Gospel on this and that date.
You know, God's not just going to allow a truck to just run over that person like the
day before they were about to get the Gospel and get saved and like, sorry sucka.
I mean, you think that's what God is doing up in heaven?
But, sorry.
No, obviously if God knows, God can basically preserve the one who's going to hear the Gospel.
He knows which ones are going to hear it, who are going to be receptive to it.
For example, I'll be out soloing and I'll talk to a guy and I talked to a guy one time
that I don't know, he was 80-some years old, he'd had three heart attacks.
He wasn't saved.
He got saved.
And I told him, I said, you know, God kept you alive so that you could, I mean who thinks
that God would keep a guy like that alive because he knows that Pastor Anderson's going
to come by, he's going to hear the Gospel, he's going to believe it.
Why wouldn't God keep him alive?
God loves people and wants him to be saved.
He doesn't give people just unlimited chances, but he does know how people are going to react.
So I don't think God's going to allow, let's say a child just gets to that age, right?
Where they just get to that age where they just are consciously committing sin and understanding,
whatever the cutoff is, where they are dead spiritually and condemned.
Obviously if God knows, okay, that child's going to get saved when they do hear the Gospel,
he's going to preserve that child.
So that's why we just need to trust in the Lord and just understand, look, God's going
to be righteous, God's going to be fair, and we don't need to worry, you know, if your
toddler dies, if your little child dies, you know, I would just trust God that they're
in heaven, period.
You say, well I don't know, because they were one and a half, you know, I don't know, but
you know what, obviously God is merciful and loving.
He's not just on a hair trigger to just send everybody to hell that he can.
He wants to get everybody to be saved that he can.
He's long suffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance.
So he's not just sitting there just, sorry, you know, I don't believe that for one second.
Now I think that a lot of people believe in a God that is very cruel, that is not the
God of the Bible.
Now look, does God have great wrath and vengeance?
Of course.
Does God have great anger against sin and against sinners?
Yes he does.
But God is a loving God.
I mean the Bible's real clear on that.
And just because he's a God of wrath and vengeance and justice does not take away from the love
of God.
God is a loving God.
God is a very tender mercy.
He is kind, his goodness and his mercy endure forever.
He's very gracious, he's a good God, and so we don't have to worry that God is going to
somehow just be up in heaven just looking to just damn people for no reason.
Now look, I believe that if you do believe in Calvinism, especially hyper-Calvinism,
you believe in a pretty messed up God, because I mean you're basically saying that God, and
if you talk to hardcore hyper-Calvinists, they basically believe that God is behind
all of the sick, twisted things that go on in the world.
I mean let's say some pedophile abuses a child, they think, oh that was God's will.
God ordained that.
That was God's will.
God planned that.
That's all part of God's plan.
Look, if you think pedophilia is part of God's plan, you're worshiping a messed up God.
I don't even think, I don't believe that you're saved.
You're not even worshiping the God of the Bible.
You have a warped view of God.
I have heard Calvinists use that exact example.
Who's heard examples like that?
I've heard it.
They talk about brutal murder, brutal rape, and they'll say, you know what, that was God's
plan, that's God's will.
No, God talked about perverted things in the Old Testament.
He said, that never even came into my mind.
So how can you believe in this Calvinist garbage that God ordained everything, when God flat
out said, look, you're offering your children and sacrifice to Molech, that never even came
into my mind.
I never even thought of such a thing.
Or what about the fact that the reprobate sodomites in Romans 1, he said that he gave
them over to do those things.
He said, through their own hearts, lust.
God's not the architect of the perversion of sodomy.
That was through their own, he gave them over to vile affections, through the lusts of their
own heart.
Did you hear that?
That's their lust, of their own heart.
Look, the imaginations of man's heart, where he devises evil things, that God said, I didn't
even think of.
He said, that never even came into my mind.
Do you believe that scripture or you don't?
And so this warped view of God, and I've heard Calvinists actually say that babies who do
not, you know, who die go to hell.
Who's ever heard that taught?
I've heard that taught.
I mean, I've heard it taught by some, and I'm not saying all Calvinists believe that,
but I've heard it taught by some Calvinists that they said if the baby dies, it goes to
hell.
You know, I've heard that even spoken by some Catholics that said if it dies before baptism,
it's going to hell.
Or limbo or purgatory or one of the other warm places, you know, that's not quite as
warm as hell, but you know, limbo or purgatory.
Okay, they say it's not going to heaven though.
Now I've only heard one fundamental Baptist ever say that, and it was Dr. Jack Scott from
Hammond, Indiana.
He actually taught and said that, well, the only scripture is 2 Samuel 12, and you know,
makes us feel good to say that, but you know, it's not a clear passage, and you know, they
go to hell.
I mean, you know, of course he's in prison right now for being a pedophile, but that's
another story.
So the point is that there are false teachers out there who believe this.
I remember one of my neighbors.
You know, I was preaching the Bible to one of my neighbors when I was nine years old,
and I was in my neighbor's house, and I was preaching this doctrine, and I was preaching
against Calvinism, and I was arguing with my friend about Calvinism because he went
to a church that had reformed in the name, that was really Calvinist.
So I was preaching to my friend, and we were both nine, and I'm arguing with him, and basically
this subject came up.
You say, well this is kind of a heavy subject for nine year olds, but you know, in between
playing Sega Genesis and reading Calvin and Hobbes comics, I mean, we were having a really
serious discussion about this doctrine, and I was providing evidence.
I didn't have all the evidence I have today, but I was providing the story about David
saying that when a baby dies, it goes to heaven.
And so he said, well let's ask my dad.
Let's go ask my dad, you know, because he didn't know if he believed it.
So we go get his dad that goes to this so-and-so, the reformed church, and he said, what about
it?
And this is what the dad said.
He said, well it depends on the parents.
He said, you know, if they're godly Christian parents, and the child dies, it's going to
go to heaven.
But he said, if the parents are, he's like, you'll never, he's like, if the parents are
murderers and thieves and adulterers and they're ungodly, you know, that child's going to go
to hell.
That baby's going to go to hell.
That's what he said.
I mean, that's what my friend's dad said.
And you know, if you think about that logic, now apply that to the David story.
The child's conceived in adultery, right?
The child's being killed as a punishment from God on its father, yet it's going to heaven.
David's going to go to be with it.
So I mean, that's just a man-made doctrine that says, well it depends on how good the
parents are.
That's what's going to determine.
And by the way, baptizing your baby, you know, you're basically just increasing the chances
of it going to hell when you do that.
Did you hear me?
I said baptizing your baby is not going to get your baby to heaven.
You're basically just getting it started on the road to hell called Catholicism.
You're just starting it on that path of, let's start out by sprinkling you and we're going
to say all kinds of incantations on you and we're going to sprinkle and poofoo dust all
kinds of demonic forces on your child and we're going to blaspheme God and put on a
funny hat and call the Pope father and we're going to, you know, we're going to believe
all this damnable heresy that is the pagan religion of Roman Catholicism.
And you know what, baptizing that baby is the worst thing you could do for that child.
That they believe that baptism somehow saves.
You know what, it doesn't save.
And in fact, Acts 37 is in your Bible, you must believe with all your heart before you
are even allowed to get baptized, before you even may get baptized.
But anyway, back to Job chapter 3 if you would.
So I hope that helps you to understand the doctrine of why a baby, and if you think about
the book of life, it's interesting when you study the book of life, you'll never find
a place in the Bible where somebody's name is being added to the book of life.
You know, because when I was growing up I was taught a doctrine, you know, when you
get saved, God writes your name in the book of life.
But there's really no scripture that says that.
You'll find lots of verses about being removed from the book of life, blotted out, removed,
but you'll never find where they're being added and the only verse that even mentions
anything about a name being added is in Revelation 17 and it talks about them being written there
from the foundation of the world.
So there's no indication of, oh, you know, the moment you get saved it's written down.
But there's a lot of indication that it's removed.
So it makes sense that basically when a person comes into existence, their name is in the
book of life.
They are one of the living men that God has created, you know, living people on this earth.
So basically from the foundation of the world, the names of all of mankind are written in
the book of life and then what happens is when a person dies without Christ, then that
name is removed.
Or if a person does something before they die, such as blaspheme the Holy Ghost, add
to or remove from God's word, the Bible is clear that if you do that, your part will
be blotted out of the book of life.
That's why in Revelation 3 it says, Tim that overcometh, let me turn there quickly, but
it says, he that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not
blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father
and before his angels.
Notice he doesn't say if you overcome I'll write it there.
He says if you overcome then I will not blot it out, meaning I'll leave it there.
So if you think about that then wouldn't that mean that every baby and unborn child would
already have their name in the book of life?
So when they basically prematurely die, whether in the womb or as a newborn or just before
that age of accountability, some people like to call it, I don't know, sometimes that name
is associated with other doctrines, other false doctrines, but as long as it means the
right thing to us, I don't think that's a bad term to use to just say the age when God
holds you accountable.
And I think it's different for everybody.
I mean if somebody has Down syndrome, that's going to be different than somebody who's
an Apgar 10 when they're born.
I mean there's going to be a difference there in accountability and God's going to deal
with that on an individual basis.
Same rules for everybody, but still obviously it's going to be a difference in when that
person understands the commandment.
Now you say well wait a minute, so what if a guy in Zambia, what if he's 30 years old
but he's never heard a Bible verse?
He didn't hear the commandment so he gets a free pass too, right?
Wrong.
Here's why.
The Bible says as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law.
He said that these having not the law are a law unto themselves having the law of God
written in their hearts.
And the Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God.
The Bible says that that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has showed
it unto them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly
seen being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power in God is that
they are without excuse.
So if somebody becomes old enough to understand the world that we live in, even if they've
never heard a Bible verse, they're still accountable because they still know.
You can find somebody who's never heard a Bible verse, they still know stealing is wrong.
And they do it anyway.
They still know that lust is wrong.
They do it anyway.
They still know that whatever is wrong.
And so what I'm saying is that a child that gets to that age where they comprehend and
understand, we don't know the exact level of understanding, but we know that when the
commandment comes, sin revives, they die, there comes a time when God holds us accountable
for the knowledge that we have and that we are now in our sins.
And if we die in our sins, of course, we'll be in hell.
But thank God those of us who believed on Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven and forgotten
of the Father.
So hopefully that helps you understand a little bit of the doctrine of the Book of Life and
just why babies do go to heaven.
And you know, we have three scriptures in the Old Testament that indicate that.
And we have Romans giving us the doctrinal foundation for it.
So it all fits together nicely.
Job chapter 3, if we pick up where we left off, the discussion about the wonderful place
that the unborn go to when they die, you say, well, why are we worried about abortion then?
Well, look, just because the baby dies and goes to heaven, it doesn't mean that God's
not going to severely punish the perpetrator of the murder and the nation that allows it,
promotes it, tolerates it, etc.
Verse 20, wherefore is light, wherefore means why, wherefore is light given to him that
is in misery and life unto the bitter in soul, which long for death but it cometh not, and
dig for it more than for hid treasures.
That's a pretty extreme statement.
He's just saying, you know, more than anything I just wish that I would die.
And if you remember in Revelation chapter 9, this is where people are going to be at
while God's pouring out His wrath in the end times.
He talks about people being tormented with these locusts from hell that have stings like
scorpions and he says, in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it and shall
desire to die and death shall flee from them.
That says Job being in that physical pain is going to, you know, he wished that he was
dead.
The Bible says that in the end times the unsaved who are here while God's pouring out His wrath
will wish they were dead because of the sting of the scorpion-like locusts that are tormenting
their flesh, which rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave.
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid and whom God hath hedged in?
For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roaring are poured out like the waters.
For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is
come unto me.
I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet, yet trouble came."
And so here Job ends his monologue.
In the next verse, Eliphaz the Temanite, who I like to call Eliphaz the Charismatic because
pretty much his doctrine and his experiences are that of the charismatic movement.
There's nothing new under the sun.
So he represents for me a life as the charismatic or a life as the Pentecostal, if you will.
But what we have here at the end, what Job is saying when he says, the thing which I
greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
So I think what he's saying when he says, I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither
was I quiet, I think he's talking about the first batch of stuff that happened to him.
He was already in pretty much the worst situation he'd ever been in his life, and then trouble
came.
And then it's like, it got even worse.
But just to give you the chapter in a nutshell, throughout chapter 3, he's mourning, he's
wishing he was dead.
It's a very beautiful chapter, in a dark sort of way, admittedly.
But it is a very beautiful chapter.
I have the Bible on CD read by Alexander Scorby.
He really does a good job reading this chapter.
Who's listening to him read this chapter?
That's how I like to listen to the Bible, is the Alexander Scorby CDs.
He reads this with some feeling.
You think you're listening to Job, but he does a really good job of reading this.
It's a very beautiful passage in a dark way, but it's a passage that we can turn to when
we're in suffering and realize that Job went through worse suffering.
He felt the way that we feel, and that in the end we can know that God blessed the latter
end of Job, and that if we have the patience of Job, God's going to bless us as well and
see us through trials and tribulations.
And then in the end, he's basically saying in so many words, trouble came upon me.
He said, the thing that I was afraid of has happened to me.
I've been doomed.
And I think what he's saying there is, I don't understand why.
I don't know why.
His friends are going to start to tell him why, because they know why.
And so they're going to tell him all the sin that he's been into that he didn't even know
he was into.
But anyway, a lot of really interesting things coming up in these chapters.
And don't say, well I'm going to stay home when Eliphaz is talking.
I'm just going to come on the weeks where Job talks.
Because honestly, you know, you may not, I'll say this, I've never heard the book of Job
preached through chapter by chapter.
So most of the things that are, you know, spoken by Eliphaz, the Temanite, and Zophar
the Naamathite, and Bildad the Shuhite, you know, you've probably never heard preached
before.
I know I've never heard preached before.
And so it's going to be interesting to dig into those things and see what truths we can
glean and what falsehoods we can identify.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for the fact that we can
meet together on a Wednesday night with people who love you and we can just be refreshed
in a world of sin and debauchery.
We can come to a place where we can get together with your people and have wholesome conversation,
have good friends for our children, and have good friends for ourselves.
Help us to stay faithful to your house.
Help us to read your word daily and to be filled with your spirit.
And Lord, when we do go through trying times, help us to have the patience of Job.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.