July 16, 2025 • 54 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. I'm Rick Burgess, Thanks
for taking time to be with us, host of the
Rick Burgess Show. That's my day job. You can find
out about that by going to Rick burgesshow dot com.
We're in those studios right now. Also director of the
Manchurch dot Com. The Manchurch dot com is a men's
discipleship strategy hub. But you can go there for all
(00:21):
resources you need. We have speakers, we have curriculum, we
have individual resources, we do our own conferences, and of
course also coming up, speaking of our curriculum, we have
a brand new forty week curriculum coming out in August
called The Standard. This is a walk through the Book
of Acts, you know, taking on the truth that after Pentecosts.
(00:45):
You know, these men are not the same men that
seem to make all these mistakes. They certainly weren't perfect,
but they there's things that changed about them and now
we're on the other side of Pentecosts and have access
to the same power in the Holy Spirit. In the
entire curriculum, go through that. So it'll be coming out
in August of twenty twenty five. Also, a brand new
individual resource that has been out since may men don't
(01:09):
run in the rain. This is a book I wrote
about my dad and some of the things that he
taught me, a true original and then we do biblical
application with every chapter with that as well. So if
you haven't picked that one up, it's available, yes, at
the Manchurch dot com, but also wherever you get booked.
So if we help you in any way, let us know,
(01:29):
go to events there at the Maanchurch dot com. Find
a man church that's us gathering high challenge and then
putting them into the curriculum high equipping. You can find
a manchurch happening near you, so check that at Themanchurch
dot com. We also do want to take time today
and we did mention this and talk about it and
(01:50):
just think about the incredible legacy of John MacArthur. A
what a powerful man of God. Of course, the only
thing good about him was the power were of Jesus,
his devoted Lord and Savior. Uh. But we we all
have been impacted greatly by the ministry that God has
had through him, and that will continue on his legacy
(02:10):
certainly getting a well done. But there's a lot of
things you can say about John MacArthur. He's been a
great influence on my life obviously, and so many other men.
But one of my favorite things he ever said when
Joel Ostein put out the ridiculous book Your Best Life Now,
and I remember MacArthur, you know he pulled no punches.
He said, well, the only thing wrong with that title,
(02:31):
he said, the only people that are living their best
life now are people that are going to hell. Uh
and uh and and I loved that. Uh. He had
a way of getting He had a way of getting
right to the point, didn't he. So So anyway, Uh,
let's open up in a word of prayer. We'll continue
to prayer, pray and mourn with that church and with
that family. But when someone lives a life like John MacArthur,
(02:51):
there's a lot of celebration going on and for and
for good reason. Lord, Thank you for today we do
pray for John's family and all those we're impacted by
the ministry that you continue to do. Thank you for
the boldness you gave him, Thank you for his unwavering
devotion to you and to your word, and Lord, his
(03:13):
legacy lives on. And be praying for that church on
who will lead them now, and with his family as
they grieve today. Lord, help us to open up this wonderful,
wonderful lesson today that continues through your servant Job. Help
us to apply it to our own lives correctly through
the power of the Holy Spirit. In your name, we
pray Amen. Okay, So Elifas is going to have his
(03:36):
final shot. We realize that Job has really made his case.
These three friends are not listening. Elifas is not going
to listen today as Some of this will be a
little bit repetitive, but there's some new stuff there. But
the bottom line when it comes to what Elifas is
going to say, is he's going to say, well, look,
(03:57):
if you keep wondering why you suffer, I'm going to
tell you again why you suffer. We do get some
specific accusations from Elifaz this time, he hasn't been as
specific as he's gonna be. He's gonna he's gonna accuse
Job of doing things that there's no evidence that he
ever did. But Elifas will make those accusations this week. Uh.
And to me, when when you look at this and
(04:18):
all the commentaries I was reading, they seem to agree
elf As. His attitude is getting so negative. It seems
that that he's he's becoming more embolden to what he
thinks is true. He continues to be passionately wrong. But
you can also see with now these specific accusations, the
(04:41):
more specific they get, you can kind of see that
the rift between he and Job it is actually widening.
It's not getting better. So so we we will get
also at the very end, which remember there's always things
that take away, even if the person's not using it correctly,
if something is still true, there's alway something to take away.
(05:01):
We get a pretty good evangelical message from Elifaz there
at the end that we can certainly apply. He's just
telling the wrong person, but we can still take those
truths and apply them today. So let's open now to
chapter twenty two of Job. The first verse is always
just to change a speaker. That's all that is to
(05:23):
let us know that Eliphaz is now going to answer
what Job has been saying. And Job has just laid
out a pretty good case last week that the theology
is flawed. He goes the other way by saying, apparently
the wicked do prosper I don't. If you're wicked and
you get punished by God. Look at all these pagans
(05:45):
and all these people we know, and all the ways
they live, and they seem to be doing great. Eliphaz says,
if that just was never said, he never He still
continues to act like that, He's not moved by these
obvious examples. I anybody ever been through that, You ever
been in a disagreement with somebody, and no matter how
(06:07):
good a case you make, it just doesn't change anything. Yeah, right,
and then you just kind of say, oh, well, okay,
I guess I need to move on. But let's go
with what eliph has has to say in verse two. Hey, job,
can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who
(06:28):
is wise is profitable to himself. Now, this is interesting.
Elfas is gonna he's gonna he's gonna do something a
little different here. He's saying, you know, you keep telling
us that you're this great man of integrity. Well I
got news for you. Good deeds don't impress God at all.
And you're gonna see eliph As. It's it's interesting because
(06:49):
I guess it's it's a flaw in what he and
his friends are saying. So they're kind of they're kind
of taking God and changing him. We see this a lot,
don't we. I mean, we just where people just all
of a sudden declare that God's evolved or changed. They
can't show you any revelation on that, you know, dealing
with some of the things we're dealing with now with
(07:10):
the you know, what is this chip in Joanna Gain's bunch,
you know, and the things that they're doing. It was interesting.
I heard some commentary from Matt Walsh and he said,
I've been searching the scriptures. I don't see anywhere where
too a man and a woman who made a living
on a home decor suddenly come out of the wilderness
with the new revelation for all of us. Maybe I
(07:31):
missed that somewhere in the scriptures, but anyway, so he
doesn't really give any any grounds for this, but he
goes from God's involved in everything, which is why you're
being punished, to God's not involved really much of it.
He's distant, and that's really what he's saying now. He said,
God's not impressed. I don't think there's anything you can
(07:51):
do that depressed that can impress God. He's actually distant
and really kind of detached from what's going on in
our individual lives. This is a This is a bit
of a shift here, maybe because that serves their theology better.
He goes on in three, isn't is it any pleasure
to the Almighty if you are in the right? Or
is it gained to him if you make your ways blameless? Uh?
(08:17):
And and and this this continues. He says, God isn't
concerned about how good you think you have lived. He
isn't concerned about or are gains in any any profit
at all from your goodness. God is far removed from
this earth. And you seem to think that he's really
impressed with you when I'm telling you, I don't think
(08:37):
God really cares much at all about what you what
you do? Well, that that's weird because if you're saying
that God doesn't care, you're kind of now making your
point less effective. Because if he doesn't care about the
good I'm doing, couldn't I say, well, he must not
care about the bad I'm doing either. If he's not
(08:59):
paying attention, how could I be being punished for the
wicked things I do? If God is so aloof, he
doesn't really know what I'm doing, right, So he's mad
and he's backing himself in a bit of a corner here,
he says God is far removed from this earth, and
God's justice is what he's gonna talk about. Next, Eliphas
(09:22):
has taken for granted because he's saying, I've already taken
for granted that God is rebuking you. So that's what
I already believe. So the big question that you keep
asking is why. And then Eliphas says, well, I think
I know why, because you're wrong. Now again, this is
a problem if you're arguing with people and you finally
(09:48):
begin to realize they've already had their foregone conclusion. They've
already decided what they want the conclusion to be. Boy,
your life is wasting way the minutes you keep talking
because it's not going to accomplish anything. And we have
arrived there, but it's too late. Job still has to listen,
(10:12):
even though Job did say in the last verses last
week that he's done and and but he's still getting
one more speech. I don't know if you've ever been
there before, or somebody's got a speech for you and
you try to cut off the speech and say, hey,
by the way, I'm done with this conversation, or I've
received speeches before when I actually explained the misunderstanding. But
(10:35):
I guess the person thought the speech was so good.
I just got it anyway. You know, when you clarify
this thing, you're about to give me a speech about
that never happened. Here's what happened, and you get the
speech anyway. Have you ever had that happen? I guess
some people just have a good speech and they want
to give it. But I think Eliphaz is there. He goes,
but you want me to answer for you? Why? I
think God, that's what you keep saying. If God's punishing you, why,
(10:58):
Well I'll tell you why. I number one Piet uh So,
So this is interesting because so he gets to to
four and he says, is it for your fear of him?
That he reproved, reproves you and enters into judgment with you.
So what he's really saying here is if you fear
(11:18):
the Lord like you claim you fear the Lord, well,
then why have you been chosen for this? Well Job
would come back in a very frustrating way and say, no, No,
the fact that I fear the Lord is why this
can't be punishment for wickedness. And then elfas says, well,
if you're being punished for wickedness, you must not really
fear the Lord, and and and it is kind of
(11:38):
arrogant of you to say that. So I think God's
upset with your arrogance. You're claiming to have a relationship
with him that you really don't have, and you've gone
out and done things like you don't fear the Lord. Okay.
So then then we get to five, and he says,
and he begins to really really unpack some stuff here.
He says, is not your or evil abundant? There is
(12:04):
no end to your iniquities. Wow, and now this this
is true because you got to be careful here. Is
it true that Job is a sinner like the rest
of us? Yes it is, Yes, it is. Okay. Remember
none of this blameless and upright means he's sinless. What
he's saying is I'm blameless and upright because there's nothing
(12:26):
I haven't repented of. There's nothing in my life that's perpetual.
I'm not practicing sin. We're all gonna make mistakes, you know.
Remember when John's, you know, trying to rebuke the Gnostics
in First John, he clearly says, there's a real problem
if you continue to practice sin versus a stumble and
he's defending you know, he said, no, no, no, Jesus taught
(12:49):
me what we call John fifteen. If we abide in him,
and he abides in us, and that he transforms us,
that he produces much fruit in us. And if we're
not producing the right kind of fruit, then then we're
not connected to the vine. So the gnostists are telling
you sin doesn't really matter. I don't even think Jesus
was sinless, not if he was human. Don't worry about
your sin. God loves everybody. The Gnostics still exists today,
(13:10):
by the way, they're just called universalists. Now, it's all
gonna be fine. Everybody's going nothing to be concern about it.
Don't even worry about how you living your life. God's
God's mercy and grace is coming on everybody. Well, you know,
John took issue with that and said, that's not really
what Jesus taught us. Well, here you're gonna see that
even though he is not sinless, okay, like all of
(13:33):
us after the fall, he's not guilty and he's not
sinful in the way that Eliphaz is implying. Because Eliphaz
is implying that you are living a double life, You're
living a secret life, and in a minute he's gonna
claim he knows things that he's doing that there's no
evidence that he did. I guess eliphas may say I
(13:53):
got to come up with some better stuff than I'm
coming up with because job keeps refuting this, so I'm
gonna get real specific. But there's no indication that any
of these things he claims in a minute are really happening.
But he's claiming, no, you're living a double life, a
secret life, which, by the way, to Ela Phaz's point,
he's wrong. There is a difference in that I remember
(14:13):
hearing one time from it was a terrible call that
I got from a person that I have great respect for,
and somebody that was very very dear to him, very
close to him, trusted for years, had been arrested for
something that was going on that the friend did not
(14:35):
know about. And this was not a casual relationship or
a casual person in his life. And he said, you know,
when I first started confronting him about it, he was
talking to me about it, he said, well, you know,
I just kind of got on a bad track and
I had a bad run and he stopped him. He said, no, no, no, no, no, no,
you didn't just stumble. You didn't just make a mistake.
(14:56):
What they've revealed is you've been living a double life
that's completely different. So Elifaz is right about that, he's
just wrong that job's doing that. But that so that's
what he's trying to imply here. So let's go to six.
For you have and here comes Now he's gonna get
specific here, which is here come these specific accusations. Okay,
(15:20):
for you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing
and strip the neked of their clothing. Now let me
let me explain that a little bit in the culture,
and this gives us some idea of the things they're
aware of. If if you they're apparently they're aware of
some of the teachings that go that go on to
(15:40):
be the canon. They're they're they're aware of these things
because this is right out of Exodus. This is out
of Exodus twenty two, twenty six. And what you hear
there that like say say that I needed you to
give me something of value. So I knew that you
were coming back with something I loaned you ever had
you ever gone anywhere like to get that make you
(16:02):
leave a watch or leave a credit card. So if
you go off with what you've rented from them or
borrowed from them, they got you. Well. In these times,
sometimes clothing would be that I'm gonna I'm gonna leave
my clothing with you, or some of my clothing that
I need, so you know, I'm gonna come back and
get my clothing. And but you know, things were done
(16:23):
a little bit different under the original law. There was
a commandment from God that said, now, look, once the
sun goes down, give them their clothes back, okay, but
they can't go on without their clothes. You can hold
it for a little while, but you can't keep their
clothing forever, okay, no matter if they ever can't get
the debt paid back or whatever. And so what he's
(16:46):
referring to is, you know you've you've taken you know,
some down payments for some people and you kept them.
You you didn't return them like we are commanded to do.
You kept clothing deposits on loans, and you left people naked.
And you know that we're supposed to give those things
back to people. You don't just leave people out their clothes.
(17:07):
But you would do that. So that's one accusation, no
evidence that that was ever true. Now we get into seven.
You have given no water to the weary to drink.
You have withheld bread from the hungry. Now that one
we can understand pretty clearly. You don't take care of
hungry people. You don't care take care of thirsty people.
(17:28):
And we know that we're commanded to give drink to
the thirsty and to give food to the hungry, and
you job, you're not generous, you don't take care of
poor people. Well, now the reason why we know, well
we're pretty sure that accusation is absolutely a lie, is
(17:50):
that when we get to job twenty nine and job
thirty one, he's gonna specifically come back to this say, now,
that's not true. I didn't do that, So he will
deny that. Coming up in verse eight, the man with
power possessed the land and the favored man lived in it.
You are an arrogant landowner and you abuse your power. Again,
(18:18):
there's no evidence that this has happened, but that is
the accusation. You got all this land, you got all
this power, and you have always you're a favored man.
You lived in this land and you kind of ruled
over everybody with an iron fist, and you abused your power. Again,
(18:39):
there's no evidence that that was true. Nine, you have
sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless
were crushed. Widows and orphans. You don't take care of
them either. Now you're greedy. You neglect the widows, you
neglect the orphans. Now again, I want to be really clear.
(19:01):
These are strong and pretty specific accusations. All the commentaries
that I read, all of them seem to come back
to these are just guesses. Elifaz is just throwing out
things that might be going on. He's thinking that if
God's punished, you remember these still thinking God's punishing for something,
and it's really more like he said, and it's probably
(19:23):
might be this, or maybe you're doing that, or maybe
you're doing that. He's making an accusation. But I don't
want you to get in your minds, and we don't
need to get in our minds that he has seen
Job do this, or he knows for a fact that
Job did this. He really doesn't. And I think Eliphaz
is mad, and I think he realizes that Job keeps
(19:43):
rebuking what they're saying, and he's sick and tired of it.
And it almost sounds like have you ever have you
ever seen somebody come up to somebody and say, well,
I got a story for you. You're not gonna believe
what so and so did. And they tell them and
they get persons like eh, and then and then before
you know it, now it starts getting worse because they
(20:04):
realize they're not getting much of a reaction. You know,
maybe they're trying to get somebody fired, or they don't
want you hanging out with that person anymore, or they
got some vendetta. And the thing they tell you, they
think that's really gonna make you mad. It really doesn't.
So they start trying to say, and let me tell
you what else they did, and so it probably is
a little more accurate to say it's there. So in
ten and eleven, after these accusations, now Elifaz is going
(20:28):
to say, and here's the results of that. If you're
that kind of person, then here's what happens. And then
he says, starting in verse ten, he says, therefore, snares
are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you. Anybody
remember those words Job said, this, Job said, this is
the way he feels. And Elafaz is saying, you want
(20:52):
know why you feel like they're snares all around you?
You know why you have terror all around you? You
said that yourself, and I'll tell you is because you're
doing all this stuff. That's the result. And then eleven
he comes back again or darkness so that you cannot see,
and a flood of water covers you. This darkness you
(21:13):
speak of, these floods, it's all connected. These are things
if you lived in kind of the desert ecological system
that we believe this part of the world was in darkness,
you didn't want to not be able to see. If
it was so dark you couldn't see your hand in
front you face, you're now susceptible to robbers, gangs. You
(21:36):
don't know what's coming after you, a beast. So that
was something they didn't like to have that situation. The
other is what we don't have a lot of water,
but when the flood comes, it wrecks everything, because we
know the water here is very devastating if it comes
too much, too fast. So these are things they were
very well aware of. And he's also saying, now, Job,
you said that you feel like that. Well, if you
(21:58):
feel like that, that's cost God is punishing you. This
is the results of the way that you've lived. And
so that's that's the point that Eliphaz is making there.
Now twelveth through eighteen, he's going to say, now, here's
the punishing of God. He's a punishing God. And then
he goes to twelve and he says, is not God
(22:20):
high in the heavens? See the highest stars? How lofty
they are? He's reminding Job of the obvious. This is
that point that we've seen lawyers do this before, and
you've heard me mentioned this for and it's good to
and it always is a good analogy because what you
really have here is a case against Job and then
(22:40):
Job defending himself. So it really is like a courtroom.
And so what you're getting here is that it's a
really it's a good tool. And what Eliphaz is doing
here is he's doing the Now we all agree on this,
this is undisputed. Don't you Job believe that God's high
in the heavens? Don't you believe that see the highest star,
(23:01):
how lofty they are? He's showing God in creation. Job,
we all agree on this, don't we, And of course
they do. And then in thirteen, but you say, what
does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness?
We don't see that Job ever said that no one
(23:24):
really knows where Eliphas came up with this. So now
you see, Eliphas is getting in a bit of a
problem because he's now starting to counter his original point.
He went from God doesn't know everything, to God knows everything,
know anything, to God knows everything. He can see through anything.
You can't hide from God. Well, just not long ago,
(23:45):
he's saying, you think God thinks you're so righteous, he's
a distance, he's detached. So Elfhas, I think he's got
a lot of emotion going. Usually when you let a
motion get the most of it, you start getting really inconsistent.
And so we don't see anywhere. That Job said that
that God doesn't know anything. Okay, that God doesn't know everything.
(24:08):
We never as he said that, And he says, but
you think that he can't see what's going on, but
he can see and he knows exactly what you've been doing.
So Eliphaz is getting a little bit of problem now
he's starting to kind of he's kind of all over
the road. Fourteen, thick clouds veil him so that he
does not see and he walks on the vault of
(24:31):
heaven and he says, yes, maybe maybe you know. I
alluded to a veil of clouds. But I never said
that God couldn't see. Okay, he's trying to say that
because Job used these examples. You're saying that Job that
God couldn't see, Job would count us. I never said that.
(24:54):
I said I feel like there's distance between us, that
I'm separated from God. I never said he can't see me.
Elafast that we Oh, you one said that about the veil.
You're the one said that about the clouds, like he
can't see through them. But Joe never said that meant
that God didn't know what he was doing. But you
see elapas man, he's trying. He's throwing up some hell
Mary's In fifteen, he says, will you keep to the
(25:20):
old way that wicked men have trod? Are you gonna
stick with this? Are we gonna hear this again about
the wicked people? Are you gonna stick with this narrative?
And that you're innocent? And you're innocent because wicked people
don't all seem to be suffering? Are we just gonna
continue to hear this? Is? Is this gonna be the
(25:40):
narrative that you're gonna stick with? And then he goes
into sixteen and he says they were snatched away before
their time, their foundation was washed away. Here we go
get I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine when
when I thought about this, I thought about the times.
Have you ever just known something was true? Somebody keeps
(26:00):
trying to tell you it's not true, but you know
it's true because you saw it with your own eyes,
and they keep this happened many many, many years ago.
So there was I'm trying to think how I can
word this? All right, So the guys in the room, Okay,
the guys there that are in the room, that y'all
this will be easy for y'all. Sorry if you're just
(26:21):
listening to this. But look, I'm looking toward a production
studio across all the men in the room, and you can,
y'all see there's windows you can see through, so that
there's a window here so I can see into that room.
You could shut that door and I could still see
in that because there's a window. Well, I was working
at the time, and there was something that somebody working
(26:44):
with me wasn't supposed to be doing in a production room,
just like that during the live show. And so I said, hey,
so and so is in there doing to another the
team what I said not to do during the show.
(27:04):
And I was told that he wasn't doing it. But
I could see it. I could see right through the window.
And I got at the end of my rope and
I stood up. I said, I can see it. Don't
tell me he's not doing it. I see it. Oh no,
I don't think he's doing that. I'm looking at him.
(27:25):
He's doing it. And so, so this is really what
I can't imagine how Joe feels when Elafast just goes
right back. You know what, They die young. I just
told you that I've seen wicked people live and see
their grandchildren. I just told you that I've seen that
with my own eyes. Well, Ela Fast goes right back
(27:46):
to it. I'll tell you what happens to the wicked.
God punishes them and he snatches them away before their time.
Their foundations washed away, and he's back to They die young,
and flood come and take away all their stuff, and
Job just said, that's not what I've observed. I'm sure
it happens to some of them, but I've seen as
(28:08):
a real Like we said last week, it's a lot
more arbitrary than y'all are making. Y'all are saying, don't
we see that? Even today? I see sometimes people pay
a horrible price for what they're doing. And sometimes now
they're going to pay a price if they don't fix
it before they stand before the final judgment. But as
far as here, in this falling creation, with falling people,
(28:28):
like I said, there's nothing fair. I know, wicked people
that are doing great from from a from a worldly standpoint.
And so he's just been told that he didn't see
what he saw, and I bet that feels great. They said,
to God, depart from us, and what can the Almighty
(28:50):
do to us? And you know what Jobe should have
siti over here, that's what I said. I said, they
said those same things, but they seem not to be
being punished by God. You're using my thing, that's my thing,
you know. It's like the great commercial. Yeah, but when
I said it, I did my hand like that, you
know what I mean. It's like you're using my words
and acting like I told you that they say these
(29:11):
things to God and he doesn't punish them immediately on earth.
You're back to saying he does, and I told you
that I saw that he didn't. I can't imagine the
frustration of this right now. So Lafas just keeps on
going and says the same thing that Job has already said.
It's a direct quote from Job, and then eighteen Yet
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he filled their houses with good things, But the counsel
of the wicked is far from me. Now it sounds like,
right here, he's agreeing with Job for just a minute,
but then he uses Job's words to actually repudiate the
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statement that he made last week in twenty one sixteen.
Job said this in chapter twelve six, and he's almost
agreeing with that. But what Job just said in twenty
one sixteen. He's rejecting that the wicked are not a
counsel to be considered. Certainly agreeing there, but he's saying
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this mockingly to Job when Job's like, no, no, no,
I have seen that they actually are doing pretty well.
Now Eliphaz is still saying no, they're not, and he says,
I'm going to use your own words. God doesn't tolerate
wicked people. That that's not what I said. He doesn't
take counsel from them, and they don't take cancel from him.
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But but I'm telling you I've seen them still do
quite well. So now he's gonna Elafas is going to
go into in nineteen and twenty. The righteous will react
to the sinners. Ruin nineteen the righteous see it and
are glad. The innocent one monks at them gloating over
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the wicked's demise. Now, let me be clear, you got
to be on the right timeline with scripture on this,
because the first thing you would say is that what
Eliphaz is saying is contrary to Proverbs twenty four seventeen,
because it is when it says, do not gloat when
your enemy falls, when he stumbles, do not let your
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heart rejoice. So Eliphas considers himself righteous and innocent, and
so he's saying, I'm so righteous and I'm so innocent.
You're going to get what you deserve. And I'm going
to be glad because God's finally going to have justice,
and I'm going to rejoice over this because that's what
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righteous people should do. When the wicked are punished. It
sounds contrary what it iss, But there will be a
time forward in the Revelation when the new Heaven and
the New Earth are being established, and all the redeemed
are there, and we will rejoice. Remember we covered this
(32:16):
in the Study of Revelation. We will rejoice at the
wicked's demise and their destruction, because we'll be so enamored
with the glory of the glorified Christ, and we will
worship him in such a way that we've never experienced
before in our lives, and will be glorified, and our
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sin nature and any love of our sin nature will
be completely gone. And we will begin to rejoice at
the destruction of anyone supernatural or human that opposes our
glorious Savior. Now, that will happen. But here Eliphast is
probably more in the Proverbs situation than he is that
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because we're we're not there yet so anyway, But but
I don't ever want to say that we'll that will
never gloat over the destruction of the wicked, because we
will one day. It won't be gloating, but it will
be a celebration, all right. So let's go to twenty saying,
surely our adversaries are cut off and what they left
the fire has consumed. You know, he's not talking about
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an actual physical war between the two, but ultimately it's
the obvious result that that when the wicked go down,
because they're not really at war with these pagans, so
it's not an actual war. But what he is saying
here as far as adversaries, he means those that are
wicked opposed to those that are righteous, not in a
(33:44):
real physical war, but in a in you know, a
chasm between the two views of God. He said, ultimately
they are going to be destroyed, and ultimately it's going
to be God that destroys them. Okay, now, and I
want you just imagine this because now Elafaz is gonna
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talk to Job as if Job doesn't know these things,
and he's gonna say, if you want to hear a
little advice from me, Now, I think Job told us
last week at the end, I'm done with advice from y'all.
Have you ever told someone you didn't want their advice
and they just gave it to you anyway? Well, well
that's what you're gonna get here. Now. Let me say this,
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if I were preparing to preach, I get a chance
to why this is happening in real time. I do
get a chance to preach again this Sunday night. And
I'll tell you one thing. I could take this piece
of paper right here, and I got myself a sermon.
It's a beautiful sermon. It's just being given to the
wrong person. But Elafas does get this right. He's saying
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in twenty one, agree with God and be at peace.
Thereby goodwill will come to you. So what's the message there?
Got to submit to God. You got to stop trying
to do things your own way. You got to quit
using your own standards. You got to go back to God,
and you got to be at peace with God, and
you have to agree with him about what your sinfulness. Well,
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that's actually correct that that's that's the new covenant that's
coming right because and I've noticed this, and this has
been sadly absent in the Western Church in many places.
Hopefully none of us are in churches like that. Repentance
has just like left the building. There's no discussion of
repentance whatsoever. You you're hearing things being taught now that
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that is that God has just just met you right
where you are, and he just hangs out with sinners.
He doesn't call anybody your repentance, you know, he he
he has listen. This is the truth. Did Jesus spend
time with sinners absolutely and do what call them to repentance?
(36:03):
And when he left the company of sinners, he was
not more like them. They were more like him. Okay,
but uh but so so this is true in order
for me to be redeemed. And where we're all from
a lot of you out there and listening y'all from
different places. Let me tell you there's nothing that's easier
(36:24):
than preaching the gospel where everybody knows they're lost. You
ought to try to preach the gospel where we live,
where everybody thinks they're saved. Uh, I said. One of
the biggest, the biggest mountains you'll climb doing ministry in
the Bible belt is convincing people they're they're they're lost,
so you then can convince them they need to be saved.
Because just about everybody that you encounter thinks they're all
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going to heaven because they believe the right things, or
were raised in something or went to church a few times,
and so so that But what he's saying is you
got to acknowledge that you're sinful, and you got to
agree with God about his holiness and your sinfulness. If
you're gonna make peace with God, that's correct. Jobs is
not in that situation. He has recognized his sinfulness. He's blameless.
(37:10):
He's upright. Eliphaz isn't buying it. What did he say? So? So,
if I was doing a sermon, you know what I'd say.
Zero point one. Submit yourself to God under his authority,
acknowledge your sinfulness and repent. All right, here we go
number two. Receive instruction from his mouth and lay up
his words in your heart. You gotta be You gotta
(37:31):
accept God's standard. You got to do things the way
God says to do. What do we say what is
true obedience? Remember this, let's review it again. This is
not obedience. I'm gonna do God's I'm gonna do God's
will my way, and I'm gonna see if I can
get God to do his will my way. That's not obedience.
(37:53):
It's doing God's will God's way. Right. It's just like today,
I was talking about the thing that happened, you know,
with the sin of homosexuality, and I had somebody send me,
you know, the loving texts where they would ever talk
to me to my face. You know this the world
today of social media and people being to a same
thing to you, to you, they want to anonymously. It
(38:15):
has just been it is a wonderful, fruitful soil for
coywards and so so. Anyway, the person said, I don't
want to sit here and hear you talk about the Bible.
I said, I've not asked you to listen to me,
but you might want to look at the Bible and
see what God says about it. I'm just pointing you
to the standard. I'm not the standard. You're right about that,
but let me tell you who is, and let me
(38:36):
tell you how he sees it. I have not found
anywhere in scripture that He's evolved on this. Now it is.
It is absolutely true that homosexuality is not some special
sin that requires extra repentance. But it's also not a
special sin, meaning God's evolved on it and now he
gives it a pass. The fornicator of the adulter, they're
in the same bind if they don't repent. Sexual sin
(38:59):
is sexual sin. However, it's not special and God has
decided that he's good with it. Now we can find
that nowhere. And this is where human beings have a problem.
I actually was confronted with that one time, face to face,
and I said, where do you get the authority that
God has evolved on marriage, on gender, on intimacy? You
(39:21):
know what? The person said, I've just observed it. Well,
I've observed all kinds of things. I mean, is that it?
So if I just observed something and say, well, you
know what, the fact that people seem to be doing that,
they seem to be perfectly happy, and they seem to
be getting long, they seem to love each other, I
guess God's okay with that. Raise your hand. If there
(39:44):
were all kinds of things that you loved and were
perfectly satisfied with them the short term that God still
hated Okay. Yeah, So that's no indication of God evolving.
That's human beings satisfying their flesh is all that is.
And so but again, we you got to be careful.
Sometimes we can really get on our soapbox about homosexuality,
and we're real quiet about fornication, adultery, pouring things like that.
(40:07):
It's God hates all of it, and and and homosexuals
do not have some sort of repentance that's beyond what
everybody has, they can be transformed forgiven. I've seen it
many times. I've seen incredible, powerful men and women of
God that at one time struggled with that sin and
God delivered them from it, and and and I'm talking
about devoted to their Lord and Savior and completely transformed.
(40:30):
So so now he says, so you've got to submit
to God. You've got to accept his standards. And then
then he goes into verse twenty three and he says,
if you return to the Almighty, you'll be built up.
You got to return to God. You got to return
and be restored to God. You gotta turn What does
that sound like? You got to turn from from whatever
you're doing. And there's repentance again, and you've got to
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go to God. He's absolutely right. That that is that
that's that's a truth. So if I was preaching, I'd
be talking about submitting to his authority. I'd be talking
about accepting his standard and right there, I'd be talking
about repenting and turning from your sand. I got me
a pretty good message going. Uh So, the only problem
is he's sitting there preaching this to somebody who agrees
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with all this and says, that's what I've done my
whole life. So now we get to to his next point.
This one's a little a little deeper, and he's talking
about resigning or abandoning the things you have. Okay, twenty
four if you lay gold in the dust and you
(41:35):
and gold with you mayber We talked about this where
they would go and find gold, these these gold stones
there on the on the bed of this one river. Uh,
it's it's o fur or o fire ofer among the
stones of the torrent bed. Now what he's saying here,
tell what you did to do, Joe and twenty five,
same thing, all going down and then the almighty will
be your gold and your precious silver. You got to
(41:56):
get rid of all you wealth. You got, you got
to you got to just this. This is almost like
what Jesus told the young rich ruler. Hey, if it's wealth,
it keeps calling you trub causing you trouble job. You
got to get rid of all of it. You know
what you need you get. You got to stop finding
your you know standard, you got to start finding your
(42:17):
your peace. You got to stop finding satisfaction and material
things your gold and your silver, where they rule you.
They're too important to you. You got to get rid
of them. And how about this. Let God be the gold,
Let God be the silver, Let him be your wealth.
Well this must be really really interesting for Job right now,
because you think Job here kind of wants to point
(42:38):
to the obvious. Why don't have any of that anymore? Uh,
God's already taken all that away. That that that's all gone.
So if that was the problem, God's already resolved that.
But yet here I stand and I haven't heard from him.
I keep trying to hear from him. So the next
(42:59):
thing that we go into to twenty six to thirty.
So that's the speech as he's telling him what you
can expect if you'll do these things. Here's the benefits
that you should expect. Don't miss that. Eliphaz is preaching
to Job about righteousness. Okay, And because he just hasn't
(43:21):
heard anything that Job has said, apparently, he says, for
then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift
up your face to God. Now remember in these times
lifting your face to God? Was they use that as
an analogy for you? To be in shame, to be
(43:43):
in defeat, and finally give in, lift your face to God,
just finally own it and lift your face to the
Almighty and acknowledge your defeat, acknowledge your shame, and maybe
this suffering will end twenty seven. You will make the
prayer to him and he will hear you, and you
(44:05):
will pay your vowels. Now, now let me tell you something.
This one, this one had to hit Job hard. Don't
you know that Job? And I know, look, maybe you've
been there before, but you got to keep trusting. Maybe
you're there right now. You've got to keep trusting. I
just can't imagine Job hearing this, don't you know? He
(44:28):
just wants to scream and plead and say, I've been praying,
I've been crying out to God. I have kept my
vows to him. I have. I haven't betrayed my vowels.
I haven't betrayed my commitment to him. I've done nothing
but cry out to him. And I don't hear anything.
Have you ever felt that way, or maybe maybe you
(44:49):
feel that way now you Have you ever gone back
to something? I've got things in my life right now
that I completely have faith in God, and I pray
about them every single day, every day, and he still
hasn't moved every day, and I know that he will.
(45:13):
I think one of the things that was tough for me,
and we talked about this, I think several lessons back
is I finally have gotten to the point and it
doesn't matter because God's gonna do what God's gonna do,
and the way God does it is gonna be right.
And then there's that whole tension of God's sovereignty being
(45:33):
sovereign and human beings will and I'm all knowing that
tension of yes, I will do it, but yes people,
I'm allowing decisions to be made inside of all this sovereignty.
It's a tough things. A lot of tension there is
(45:57):
that I finally have resigned myself to these things that
I hope come to completion. But I was just had
to be honest. I wanted to be here to see it.
And I finally have just resolved to God, I know
you're gonna do it. I know it's gonna be on
your time. I don't have to be here to see it.
(46:19):
And if that's sinful on my part trying to put
some sort of and now look, I want you to
do it, but I want to see it. Uh and uh,
you know, if I'm with you when this happens, I'm
not gonna care anyway. I'll celebrate it right there with you.
But God does not. We don't tell him what to do.
But job has been praying and he has kept his
(46:40):
vows that that had to be hard to hear. Well,
I just you all got does just start praying to him.
I've been praying to him and I'm waiting on his answer,
and I don't have it yet. Verse twenty eight. You
will decide on a matter, and it will be established
for you, and light will shine on your way. These
(47:02):
are wonderful things. But Eliphaz is exaggerating job Sin. Now
keep in mind, he's exaggerating job Sin. We don't even
think these accusations he made or have any truth to
them at all. But he's he's also looking Remember he
b what I said a min ago. He's exaggerating job
Sin to try to make his his place where he's standing,
(47:26):
make him look better. I mean, God should wipe you
off the face of the earth. And he's saying, so,
what a wonderful day it's going to be when you
finally decide, and and and it's going to be established
for you and all the light that's going to shine
on your ways because you're so bad that it's going
to be so wonderful that God finally takes this away.
(47:48):
He's he's inflating his sin to also inflate his advantage,
you know, on on saying that he must repent, and
how that's gonna look twenty nine For when they are humbled,
you say it is because of pride, But he saves
(48:10):
the lowly. If you speaking pride, God will humble you.
He only saves the lowly. They keep in mind with
this accusation, is you're prideful, Job, No, wonder God's not
answering you. When you decide to be hunting. He's gonna
lay you low either way. Stop fighting it. He he
(48:33):
only forgives the lowly. He you said that if you're humbled, well,
if you've got to be humbled, that means you're prideful.
And yet we agree he saves the lowly. Well, if
you need to be lowly, that means you must be prideful.
(48:53):
Because that's the counter and Job is not saying that, No,
that's not what I've been saying at all. I'm not
saying that I'm prideful and I need to be humbled
and I need to be lowly. I'm saying that I'm
humbled and I'm lowly, and I still don't see God
boo it, and I know he's humbled me. You know,
have you ever been through difficulty in your life? I
(49:14):
tell you one thing it'll do, it'll humble you. Right,
So Job said, already there, already there. So now we're
coming down in twenty and thirty he delivers even the
one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through
(49:35):
the cleanness of your hands. So again the guilty are delivered,
but only only when they acknowledge their sin and they
were pented. True, absolutely true. The only problem is none
(49:56):
of this applies to Job, and and Job has had
to sit and listen to this go on and on
and on. And now he's already said he's done with
their counsel. Okay, and you're going to see Job. It's
gonna start getting shorter and shorter. Bill, Dad's gonna have
(50:19):
one little short comment back to him. Job is going
to take the center stage, and it's going to be
directed at God and he's going to continue to try
to defend himself. We're actually going to have a young
fellow show up and he's going to set the three
friends straight and he's going to basically acknowledge what we've
(50:40):
all been seeing and say, well, y'all are not really
good friends at all. And then we'll get to God,
and then y'all know that God does come on the
scene before we're done. So let's take what is said
by Elafass, even though you know, God's been using for
a long long time, really really flawed people, even people
(51:00):
that don't even know they're being used by God. But
the last thing that Eliphaz has said that that completes
this little sermon is maybe something that we do need
to think about. Maybe, unlike Job, maybe when we hear
these things we realize that that does apply to me.
And it is true that he delivers the one who's
(51:24):
not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of
your hands. You know, some of us are sitting here
with dirty hands. Some of us are out there and
there's sin that we have not repented of their sin,
we have not acknowledged. And maybe Job doesn't need to
do that, but maybe we do. That was one things
(51:44):
that one of things I took away is this assessing
myself with these with these truths though even so, even
though they're being directed by an arrogant friend who has
no sympathy for his friend at all, but the truth
that he's throwing out there should be heard, and they
should they should be applied. And it goes back to
(52:04):
the analogy that God has really put on my heart
about Jesus and true repentance and how we kind of
keep this little bag with a few things in it
when Jesus says true repentance has given me the whole bag,
and we go, well, we're giving you most of the bag,
but I still got a few things here that I
(52:27):
still hanging on to because they bring me satisfaction, they
bring me some sort of jolly. And I'm justifying the
sin or I'm treating it like it's no big deal.
And maybe today's today for you or me to look
to Jesus and say, you know what, I'm just going
to give you the bag. I truly trust you. I
(52:50):
don't think there's any sin that I need. I don't
think there's anything that's better than you. These things may
give me moments of flesh satisfaction or even moments of
you know, satisfaction in my mind, or whatever the case
may be. But they're in conflict with you. And my
(53:12):
hands are mostly clean, but they're not completely clean. Maybe
today you just need to repent of that. That's how
I'm done with it. You'll never regret it. But I
know it's tough. I know it's tough living in this
falling creation, which is why Peter told us and tewond
(53:34):
Peter make every effort to supplement these things to your faith,
because though you've been redeemed, you still have a sin
nature and you still live in a sinful world. We're
still playing on the road, boys, We're not in our
home stadium. Let's pray, Lord, thank you for today, thank
you for this message, thank you for the example we
(53:56):
find throughout this incredible documentation of the life of job. Lord.
I pray that you continue tor modius into something that
you're more comfortable with. Then we'll stop the sin of
trying to make you something we're more comfortable with. You
are here, You are who you are, and there's nothing,
nothing that comes close to the perfection and the satisfaction
(54:19):
and the piece that comes with being right with you. Lord.
I pray that you will forgive us of our sins,
draw us closer to you, Lord, transform us into the
people that you desire. For our own good, sure, but
also for your glory and your holy name. We pray Amen.
(54:44):
Thank you, guys,
Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. I'm Rick Burgess, Thanks
for taking time to be with us, host of the
Rick Burgess Show. That's my day job. You can find
out about that by going to Rick burgesshow dot com.
We're in those studios right now. Also director of the
Manchurch dot Com. The Manchurch dot com is a men's
discipleship strategy hub. But you can go there for all
(00:21):
resources you need. We have speakers, we have curriculum, we
have individual resources, we do our own conferences, and of
course also coming up, speaking of our curriculum, we have
a brand new forty week curriculum coming out in August
called The Standard. This is a walk through the Book
of Acts, you know, taking on the truth that after Pentecosts.
(00:45):
You know, these men are not the same men that
seem to make all these mistakes. They certainly weren't perfect,
but they there's things that changed about them and now
we're on the other side of Pentecosts and have access
to the same power in the Holy Spirit. In the
entire curriculum, go through that. So it'll be coming out
in August of twenty twenty five. Also, a brand new
individual resource that has been out since may men don't
(01:09):
run in the rain. This is a book I wrote
about my dad and some of the things that he
taught me, a true original and then we do biblical
application with every chapter with that as well. So if
you haven't picked that one up, it's available, yes, at
the Manchurch dot com, but also wherever you get booked.
So if we help you in any way, let us know,
(01:29):
go to events there at the Maanchurch dot com. Find
a man church that's us gathering high challenge and then
putting them into the curriculum high equipping. You can find
a manchurch happening near you, so check that at Themanchurch
dot com. We also do want to take time today
and we did mention this and talk about it and
(01:50):
just think about the incredible legacy of John MacArthur. A
what a powerful man of God. Of course, the only
thing good about him was the power were of Jesus,
his devoted Lord and Savior. Uh. But we we all
have been impacted greatly by the ministry that God has
had through him, and that will continue on his legacy
(02:10):
certainly getting a well done. But there's a lot of
things you can say about John MacArthur. He's been a
great influence on my life obviously, and so many other men.
But one of my favorite things he ever said when
Joel Ostein put out the ridiculous book Your Best Life Now,
and I remember MacArthur, you know he pulled no punches.
He said, well, the only thing wrong with that title,
(02:31):
he said, the only people that are living their best
life now are people that are going to hell. Uh
and uh and and I loved that. Uh. He had
a way of getting He had a way of getting
right to the point, didn't he. So So anyway, Uh,
let's open up in a word of prayer. We'll continue
to prayer, pray and mourn with that church and with
that family. But when someone lives a life like John MacArthur,
(02:51):
there's a lot of celebration going on and for and
for good reason. Lord, Thank you for today we do
pray for John's family and all those we're impacted by
the ministry that you continue to do. Thank you for
the boldness you gave him, Thank you for his unwavering
devotion to you and to your word, and Lord, his
(03:13):
legacy lives on. And be praying for that church on
who will lead them now, and with his family as
they grieve today. Lord, help us to open up this wonderful,
wonderful lesson today that continues through your servant Job. Help
us to apply it to our own lives correctly through
the power of the Holy Spirit. In your name, we
pray Amen. Okay, So Elifas is going to have his
(03:36):
final shot. We realize that Job has really made his case.
These three friends are not listening. Elifas is not going
to listen today as Some of this will be a
little bit repetitive, but there's some new stuff there. But
the bottom line when it comes to what Elifas is
going to say, is he's going to say, well, look,
(03:57):
if you keep wondering why you suffer, I'm going to
tell you again why you suffer. We do get some
specific accusations from Elifaz this time, he hasn't been as
specific as he's gonna be. He's gonna he's gonna accuse
Job of doing things that there's no evidence that he
ever did. But Elifas will make those accusations this week. Uh.
And to me, when when you look at this and
(04:18):
all the commentaries I was reading, they seem to agree
elf As. His attitude is getting so negative. It seems
that that he's he's becoming more embolden to what he
thinks is true. He continues to be passionately wrong. But
you can also see with now these specific accusations, the
(04:41):
more specific they get, you can kind of see that
the rift between he and Job it is actually widening.
It's not getting better. So so we we will get
also at the very end, which remember there's always things
that take away, even if the person's not using it correctly,
if something is still true, there's alway something to take away.
(05:01):
We get a pretty good evangelical message from Elifaz there
at the end that we can certainly apply. He's just
telling the wrong person, but we can still take those
truths and apply them today. So let's open now to
chapter twenty two of Job. The first verse is always
just to change a speaker. That's all that is to
(05:23):
let us know that Eliphaz is now going to answer
what Job has been saying. And Job has just laid
out a pretty good case last week that the theology
is flawed. He goes the other way by saying, apparently
the wicked do prosper I don't. If you're wicked and
you get punished by God. Look at all these pagans
(05:45):
and all these people we know, and all the ways
they live, and they seem to be doing great. Eliphaz says,
if that just was never said, he never He still
continues to act like that, He's not moved by these
obvious examples. I anybody ever been through that, You ever
been in a disagreement with somebody, and no matter how
(06:07):
good a case you make, it just doesn't change anything. Yeah, right,
and then you just kind of say, oh, well, okay,
I guess I need to move on. But let's go
with what eliph has has to say in verse two. Hey, job,
can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who
(06:28):
is wise is profitable to himself. Now, this is interesting.
Elfas is gonna he's gonna he's gonna do something a
little different here. He's saying, you know, you keep telling
us that you're this great man of integrity. Well I
got news for you. Good deeds don't impress God at all.
And you're gonna see eliph As. It's it's interesting because
(06:49):
I guess it's it's a flaw in what he and
his friends are saying. So they're kind of they're kind
of taking God and changing him. We see this a lot,
don't we. I mean, we just where people just all
of a sudden declare that God's evolved or changed. They
can't show you any revelation on that, you know, dealing
with some of the things we're dealing with now with
(07:10):
the you know, what is this chip in Joanna Gain's bunch,
you know, and the things that they're doing. It was interesting.
I heard some commentary from Matt Walsh and he said,
I've been searching the scriptures. I don't see anywhere where
too a man and a woman who made a living
on a home decor suddenly come out of the wilderness
with the new revelation for all of us. Maybe I
(07:31):
missed that somewhere in the scriptures, but anyway, so he
doesn't really give any any grounds for this, but he
goes from God's involved in everything, which is why you're
being punished, to God's not involved really much of it.
He's distant, and that's really what he's saying now. He said,
God's not impressed. I don't think there's anything you can
(07:51):
do that depressed that can impress God. He's actually distant
and really kind of detached from what's going on in
our individual lives. This is a This is a bit
of a shift here, maybe because that serves their theology better.
He goes on in three, isn't is it any pleasure
to the Almighty if you are in the right? Or
is it gained to him if you make your ways blameless? Uh?
(08:17):
And and and this this continues. He says, God isn't
concerned about how good you think you have lived. He
isn't concerned about or are gains in any any profit
at all from your goodness. God is far removed from
this earth. And you seem to think that he's really
impressed with you when I'm telling you, I don't think
(08:37):
God really cares much at all about what you what
you do? Well, that that's weird because if you're saying
that God doesn't care, you're kind of now making your
point less effective. Because if he doesn't care about the
good I'm doing, couldn't I say, well, he must not
care about the bad I'm doing either. If he's not
(08:59):
paying attention, how could I be being punished for the
wicked things I do? If God is so aloof, he
doesn't really know what I'm doing, right, So he's mad
and he's backing himself in a bit of a corner here,
he says God is far removed from this earth, and
God's justice is what he's gonna talk about. Next, Eliphas
(09:22):
has taken for granted because he's saying, I've already taken
for granted that God is rebuking you. So that's what
I already believe. So the big question that you keep
asking is why. And then Eliphas says, well, I think
I know why, because you're wrong. Now again, this is
a problem if you're arguing with people and you finally
(09:48):
begin to realize they've already had their foregone conclusion. They've
already decided what they want the conclusion to be. Boy,
your life is wasting way the minutes you keep talking
because it's not going to accomplish anything. And we have
arrived there, but it's too late. Job still has to listen,
(10:12):
even though Job did say in the last verses last
week that he's done and and but he's still getting
one more speech. I don't know if you've ever been
there before, or somebody's got a speech for you and
you try to cut off the speech and say, hey,
by the way, I'm done with this conversation, or I've
received speeches before when I actually explained the misunderstanding. But
(10:35):
I guess the person thought the speech was so good.
I just got it anyway. You know, when you clarify
this thing, you're about to give me a speech about
that never happened. Here's what happened, and you get the
speech anyway. Have you ever had that happen? I guess
some people just have a good speech and they want
to give it. But I think Eliphaz is there. He goes,
but you want me to answer for you? Why? I
think God, that's what you keep saying. If God's punishing you, why,
(10:58):
Well I'll tell you why. I number one Piet uh So,
So this is interesting because so he gets to to
four and he says, is it for your fear of him?
That he reproved, reproves you and enters into judgment with you.
So what he's really saying here is if you fear
(11:18):
the Lord like you claim you fear the Lord, well,
then why have you been chosen for this? Well Job
would come back in a very frustrating way and say, no, No,
the fact that I fear the Lord is why this
can't be punishment for wickedness. And then elfas says, well,
if you're being punished for wickedness, you must not really
fear the Lord, and and and it is kind of
(11:38):
arrogant of you to say that. So I think God's
upset with your arrogance. You're claiming to have a relationship
with him that you really don't have, and you've gone
out and done things like you don't fear the Lord. Okay.
So then then we get to five, and he says,
and he begins to really really unpack some stuff here.
He says, is not your or evil abundant? There is
(12:04):
no end to your iniquities. Wow, and now this this
is true because you got to be careful here. Is
it true that Job is a sinner like the rest
of us? Yes it is, Yes, it is. Okay. Remember
none of this blameless and upright means he's sinless. What
he's saying is I'm blameless and upright because there's nothing
(12:26):
I haven't repented of. There's nothing in my life that's perpetual.
I'm not practicing sin. We're all gonna make mistakes, you know.
Remember when John's, you know, trying to rebuke the Gnostics
in First John, he clearly says, there's a real problem
if you continue to practice sin versus a stumble and
he's defending you know, he said, no, no, no, Jesus taught
(12:49):
me what we call John fifteen. If we abide in him,
and he abides in us, and that he transforms us,
that he produces much fruit in us. And if we're
not producing the right kind of fruit, then then we're
not connected to the vine. So the gnostists are telling
you sin doesn't really matter. I don't even think Jesus
was sinless, not if he was human. Don't worry about
your sin. God loves everybody. The Gnostics still exists today,
(13:10):
by the way, they're just called universalists. Now, it's all
gonna be fine. Everybody's going nothing to be concern about it.
Don't even worry about how you living your life. God's
God's mercy and grace is coming on everybody. Well, you know,
John took issue with that and said, that's not really
what Jesus taught us. Well, here you're gonna see that
even though he is not sinless, okay, like all of
(13:33):
us after the fall, he's not guilty and he's not
sinful in the way that Eliphaz is implying. Because Eliphaz
is implying that you are living a double life, You're
living a secret life, and in a minute he's gonna
claim he knows things that he's doing that there's no
evidence that he did. I guess eliphas may say I
(13:53):
got to come up with some better stuff than I'm
coming up with because job keeps refuting this, so I'm
gonna get real specific. But there's no indication that any
of these things he claims in a minute are really happening.
But he's claiming, no, you're living a double life, a
secret life, which, by the way, to Ela Phaz's point,
he's wrong. There is a difference in that I remember
(14:13):
hearing one time from it was a terrible call that
I got from a person that I have great respect for,
and somebody that was very very dear to him, very
close to him, trusted for years, had been arrested for
something that was going on that the friend did not
(14:35):
know about. And this was not a casual relationship or
a casual person in his life. And he said, you know,
when I first started confronting him about it, he was
talking to me about it, he said, well, you know,
I just kind of got on a bad track and
I had a bad run and he stopped him. He said, no, no, no, no, no, no,
you didn't just stumble. You didn't just make a mistake.
(14:56):
What they've revealed is you've been living a double life
that's completely different. So Elifaz is right about that, he's
just wrong that job's doing that. But that so that's
what he's trying to imply here. So let's go to six.
For you have and here comes Now he's gonna get
specific here, which is here come these specific accusations. Okay,
(15:20):
for you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing
and strip the neked of their clothing. Now let me
let me explain that a little bit in the culture,
and this gives us some idea of the things they're
aware of. If if you they're apparently they're aware of
some of the teachings that go that go on to
(15:40):
be the canon. They're they're they're aware of these things
because this is right out of Exodus. This is out
of Exodus twenty two, twenty six. And what you hear
there that like say say that I needed you to
give me something of value. So I knew that you
were coming back with something I loaned you ever had
you ever gone anywhere like to get that make you
(16:02):
leave a watch or leave a credit card. So if
you go off with what you've rented from them or
borrowed from them, they got you. Well. In these times,
sometimes clothing would be that I'm gonna I'm gonna leave
my clothing with you, or some of my clothing that
I need, so you know, I'm gonna come back and
get my clothing. And but you know, things were done
(16:23):
a little bit different under the original law. There was
a commandment from God that said, now, look, once the
sun goes down, give them their clothes back, okay, but
they can't go on without their clothes. You can hold
it for a little while, but you can't keep their
clothing forever, okay, no matter if they ever can't get
the debt paid back or whatever. And so what he's
(16:46):
referring to is, you know you've you've taken you know,
some down payments for some people and you kept them.
You you didn't return them like we are commanded to do.
You kept clothing deposits on loans, and you left people naked.
And you know that we're supposed to give those things
back to people. You don't just leave people out their clothes.
(17:07):
But you would do that. So that's one accusation, no
evidence that that was ever true. Now we get into seven.
You have given no water to the weary to drink.
You have withheld bread from the hungry. Now that one
we can understand pretty clearly. You don't take care of
hungry people. You don't care take care of thirsty people.
(17:28):
And we know that we're commanded to give drink to
the thirsty and to give food to the hungry, and
you job, you're not generous, you don't take care of
poor people. Well, now the reason why we know, well
we're pretty sure that accusation is absolutely a lie, is
(17:50):
that when we get to job twenty nine and job
thirty one, he's gonna specifically come back to this say, now,
that's not true. I didn't do that, So he will
deny that. Coming up in verse eight, the man with
power possessed the land and the favored man lived in it.
You are an arrogant landowner and you abuse your power. Again,
(18:18):
there's no evidence that this has happened, but that is
the accusation. You got all this land, you got all
this power, and you have always you're a favored man.
You lived in this land and you kind of ruled
over everybody with an iron fist, and you abused your power. Again,
(18:39):
there's no evidence that that was true. Nine, you have
sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless
were crushed. Widows and orphans. You don't take care of
them either. Now you're greedy. You neglect the widows, you
neglect the orphans. Now again, I want to be really clear.
(19:01):
These are strong and pretty specific accusations. All the commentaries
that I read, all of them seem to come back
to these are just guesses. Elifaz is just throwing out
things that might be going on. He's thinking that if
God's punished, you remember these still thinking God's punishing for something,
and it's really more like he said, and it's probably
(19:23):
might be this, or maybe you're doing that, or maybe
you're doing that. He's making an accusation. But I don't
want you to get in your minds, and we don't
need to get in our minds that he has seen
Job do this, or he knows for a fact that
Job did this. He really doesn't. And I think Eliphaz
is mad, and I think he realizes that Job keeps
(19:43):
rebuking what they're saying, and he's sick and tired of it.
And it almost sounds like have you ever have you
ever seen somebody come up to somebody and say, well,
I got a story for you. You're not gonna believe
what so and so did. And they tell them and
they get persons like eh, and then and then before
you know it, now it starts getting worse because they
(20:04):
realize they're not getting much of a reaction. You know,
maybe they're trying to get somebody fired, or they don't
want you hanging out with that person anymore, or they
got some vendetta. And the thing they tell you, they
think that's really gonna make you mad. It really doesn't.
So they start trying to say, and let me tell
you what else they did, and so it probably is
a little more accurate to say it's there. So in
ten and eleven, after these accusations, now Elifaz is going
(20:28):
to say, and here's the results of that. If you're
that kind of person, then here's what happens. And then
he says, starting in verse ten, he says, therefore, snares
are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you. Anybody
remember those words Job said, this, Job said, this is
the way he feels. And Elafaz is saying, you want
(20:52):
know why you feel like they're snares all around you?
You know why you have terror all around you? You
said that yourself, and I'll tell you is because you're
doing all this stuff. That's the result. And then eleven
he comes back again or darkness so that you cannot see,
and a flood of water covers you. This darkness you
(21:13):
speak of, these floods, it's all connected. These are things
if you lived in kind of the desert ecological system
that we believe this part of the world was in darkness,
you didn't want to not be able to see. If
it was so dark you couldn't see your hand in
front you face, you're now susceptible to robbers, gangs. You
(21:36):
don't know what's coming after you, a beast. So that
was something they didn't like to have that situation. The
other is what we don't have a lot of water,
but when the flood comes, it wrecks everything, because we
know the water here is very devastating if it comes
too much, too fast. So these are things they were
very well aware of. And he's also saying, now, Job,
you said that you feel like that. Well, if you
(21:58):
feel like that, that's cost God is punishing you. This
is the results of the way that you've lived. And
so that's that's the point that Eliphaz is making there.
Now twelveth through eighteen, he's going to say, now, here's
the punishing of God. He's a punishing God. And then
he goes to twelve and he says, is not God
(22:20):
high in the heavens? See the highest stars? How lofty
they are? He's reminding Job of the obvious. This is
that point that we've seen lawyers do this before, and
you've heard me mentioned this for and it's good to
and it always is a good analogy because what you
really have here is a case against Job and then
(22:40):
Job defending himself. So it really is like a courtroom.
And so what you're getting here is that it's a
really it's a good tool. And what Eliphaz is doing
here is he's doing the Now we all agree on this,
this is undisputed. Don't you Job believe that God's high
in the heavens? Don't you believe that see the highest star,
(23:01):
how lofty they are? He's showing God in creation. Job,
we all agree on this, don't we, And of course
they do. And then in thirteen, but you say, what
does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness?
We don't see that Job ever said that no one
(23:24):
really knows where Eliphas came up with this. So now
you see, Eliphas is getting in a bit of a
problem because he's now starting to counter his original point.
He went from God doesn't know everything, to God knows everything,
know anything, to God knows everything. He can see through anything.
You can't hide from God. Well, just not long ago,
(23:45):
he's saying, you think God thinks you're so righteous, he's
a distance, he's detached. So Elfhas, I think he's got
a lot of emotion going. Usually when you let a
motion get the most of it, you start getting really inconsistent.
And so we don't see anywhere. That Job said that
that God doesn't know anything. Okay, that God doesn't know everything.
(24:08):
We never as he said that, And he says, but
you think that he can't see what's going on, but
he can see and he knows exactly what you've been doing.
So Eliphaz is getting a little bit of problem now
he's starting to kind of he's kind of all over
the road. Fourteen, thick clouds veil him so that he
does not see and he walks on the vault of
(24:31):
heaven and he says, yes, maybe maybe you know. I
alluded to a veil of clouds. But I never said
that God couldn't see. Okay, he's trying to say that
because Job used these examples. You're saying that Job that
God couldn't see, Job would count us. I never said that.
(24:54):
I said I feel like there's distance between us, that
I'm separated from God. I never said he can't see me.
Elafast that we Oh, you one said that about the veil.
You're the one said that about the clouds, like he
can't see through them. But Joe never said that meant
that God didn't know what he was doing. But you
see elapas man, he's trying. He's throwing up some hell
Mary's In fifteen, he says, will you keep to the
(25:20):
old way that wicked men have trod? Are you gonna
stick with this? Are we gonna hear this again about
the wicked people? Are you gonna stick with this narrative?
And that you're innocent? And you're innocent because wicked people
don't all seem to be suffering? Are we just gonna
continue to hear this? Is? Is this gonna be the
(25:40):
narrative that you're gonna stick with? And then he goes
into sixteen and he says they were snatched away before
their time, their foundation was washed away. Here we go
get I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine when
when I thought about this, I thought about the times.
Have you ever just known something was true? Somebody keeps
(26:00):
trying to tell you it's not true, but you know
it's true because you saw it with your own eyes,
and they keep this happened many many, many years ago.
So there was I'm trying to think how I can
word this? All right, So the guys in the room, Okay,
the guys there that are in the room, that y'all
this will be easy for y'all. Sorry if you're just
(26:21):
listening to this. But look, I'm looking toward a production
studio across all the men in the room, and you can,
y'all see there's windows you can see through, so that
there's a window here so I can see into that room.
You could shut that door and I could still see
in that because there's a window. Well, I was working
at the time, and there was something that somebody working
(26:44):
with me wasn't supposed to be doing in a production room,
just like that during the live show. And so I said, hey,
so and so is in there doing to another the
team what I said not to do during the show.
(27:04):
And I was told that he wasn't doing it. But
I could see it. I could see right through the window.
And I got at the end of my rope and
I stood up. I said, I can see it. Don't
tell me he's not doing it. I see it. Oh no,
I don't think he's doing that. I'm looking at him.
(27:25):
He's doing it. And so, so this is really what
I can't imagine how Joe feels when Elafast just goes
right back. You know what, They die young. I just
told you that I've seen wicked people live and see
their grandchildren. I just told you that I've seen that
with my own eyes. Well, Ela Fast goes right back
(27:46):
to it. I'll tell you what happens to the wicked.
God punishes them and he snatches them away before their time.
Their foundations washed away, and he's back to They die young,
and flood come and take away all their stuff, and
Job just said, that's not what I've observed. I'm sure
it happens to some of them, but I've seen as
(28:08):
a real Like we said last week, it's a lot
more arbitrary than y'all are making. Y'all are saying, don't
we see that? Even today? I see sometimes people pay
a horrible price for what they're doing. And sometimes now
they're going to pay a price if they don't fix
it before they stand before the final judgment. But as
far as here, in this falling creation, with falling people,
(28:28):
like I said, there's nothing fair. I know, wicked people
that are doing great from from a from a worldly standpoint.
And so he's just been told that he didn't see
what he saw, and I bet that feels great. They said,
to God, depart from us, and what can the Almighty
(28:50):
do to us? And you know what Jobe should have
siti over here, that's what I said. I said, they
said those same things, but they seem not to be
being punished by God. You're using my thing, that's my thing,
you know. It's like the great commercial. Yeah, but when
I said it, I did my hand like that, you
know what I mean. It's like you're using my words
and acting like I told you that they say these
(29:11):
things to God and he doesn't punish them immediately on earth.
You're back to saying he does, and I told you
that I saw that he didn't. I can't imagine the
frustration of this right now. So Lafas just keeps on
going and says the same thing that Job has already said.
It's a direct quote from Job, and then eighteen Yet
(29:35):
he filled their houses with good things, But the counsel
of the wicked is far from me. Now it sounds like,
right here, he's agreeing with Job for just a minute,
but then he uses Job's words to actually repudiate the
(29:58):
statement that he made last week in twenty one sixteen.
Job said this in chapter twelve six, and he's almost
agreeing with that. But what Job just said in twenty
one sixteen. He's rejecting that the wicked are not a
counsel to be considered. Certainly agreeing there, but he's saying
(30:23):
this mockingly to Job when Job's like, no, no, no,
I have seen that they actually are doing pretty well.
Now Eliphaz is still saying no, they're not, and he says,
I'm going to use your own words. God doesn't tolerate
wicked people. That that's not what I said. He doesn't
take counsel from them, and they don't take cancel from him.
(30:47):
But but I'm telling you I've seen them still do
quite well. So now he's gonna Elafas is going to
go into in nineteen and twenty. The righteous will react
to the sinners. Ruin nineteen the righteous see it and
are glad. The innocent one monks at them gloating over
(31:10):
the wicked's demise. Now, let me be clear, you got
to be on the right timeline with scripture on this,
because the first thing you would say is that what
Eliphaz is saying is contrary to Proverbs twenty four seventeen,
because it is when it says, do not gloat when
your enemy falls, when he stumbles, do not let your
(31:32):
heart rejoice. So Eliphas considers himself righteous and innocent, and
so he's saying, I'm so righteous and I'm so innocent.
You're going to get what you deserve. And I'm going
to be glad because God's finally going to have justice,
and I'm going to rejoice over this because that's what
(31:53):
righteous people should do. When the wicked are punished. It
sounds contrary what it iss, But there will be a
time forward in the Revelation when the new Heaven and
the New Earth are being established, and all the redeemed
are there, and we will rejoice. Remember we covered this
(32:16):
in the Study of Revelation. We will rejoice at the
wicked's demise and their destruction, because we'll be so enamored
with the glory of the glorified Christ, and we will
worship him in such a way that we've never experienced
before in our lives, and will be glorified, and our
(32:37):
sin nature and any love of our sin nature will
be completely gone. And we will begin to rejoice at
the destruction of anyone supernatural or human that opposes our
glorious Savior. Now, that will happen. But here Eliphast is
probably more in the Proverbs situation than he is that
(32:59):
because we're we're not there yet so anyway, But but
I don't ever want to say that we'll that will
never gloat over the destruction of the wicked, because we
will one day. It won't be gloating, but it will
be a celebration, all right. So let's go to twenty saying,
surely our adversaries are cut off and what they left
the fire has consumed. You know, he's not talking about
(33:23):
an actual physical war between the two, but ultimately it's
the obvious result that that when the wicked go down,
because they're not really at war with these pagans, so
it's not an actual war. But what he is saying
here as far as adversaries, he means those that are
wicked opposed to those that are righteous, not in a
(33:44):
real physical war, but in a in you know, a
chasm between the two views of God. He said, ultimately
they are going to be destroyed, and ultimately it's going
to be God that destroys them. Okay, now, and I
want you just imagine this because now Elafaz is gonna
(34:07):
talk to Job as if Job doesn't know these things,
and he's gonna say, if you want to hear a
little advice from me, Now, I think Job told us
last week at the end, I'm done with advice from y'all.
Have you ever told someone you didn't want their advice
and they just gave it to you anyway? Well, well
that's what you're gonna get here. Now. Let me say this,
(34:27):
if I were preparing to preach, I get a chance
to why this is happening in real time. I do
get a chance to preach again this Sunday night. And
I'll tell you one thing. I could take this piece
of paper right here, and I got myself a sermon.
It's a beautiful sermon. It's just being given to the
wrong person. But Elafas does get this right. He's saying
(34:50):
in twenty one, agree with God and be at peace.
Thereby goodwill will come to you. So what's the message there?
Got to submit to God. You got to stop trying
to do things your own way. You got to quit
using your own standards. You got to go back to God,
and you got to be at peace with God, and
you have to agree with him about what your sinfulness. Well,
(35:15):
that's actually correct that that's that's the new covenant that's
coming right because and I've noticed this, and this has
been sadly absent in the Western Church in many places.
Hopefully none of us are in churches like that. Repentance
has just like left the building. There's no discussion of
repentance whatsoever. You you're hearing things being taught now that
(35:41):
that is that God has just just met you right
where you are, and he just hangs out with sinners.
He doesn't call anybody your repentance, you know, he he
he has listen. This is the truth. Did Jesus spend
time with sinners absolutely and do what call them to repentance?
(36:03):
And when he left the company of sinners, he was
not more like them. They were more like him. Okay,
but uh but so so this is true in order
for me to be redeemed. And where we're all from
a lot of you out there and listening y'all from
different places. Let me tell you there's nothing that's easier
(36:24):
than preaching the gospel where everybody knows they're lost. You
ought to try to preach the gospel where we live,
where everybody thinks they're saved. Uh, I said. One of
the biggest, the biggest mountains you'll climb doing ministry in
the Bible belt is convincing people they're they're they're lost,
so you then can convince them they need to be saved.
Because just about everybody that you encounter thinks they're all
(36:46):
going to heaven because they believe the right things, or
were raised in something or went to church a few times,
and so so that But what he's saying is you
got to acknowledge that you're sinful, and you got to
agree with God about his holiness and your sinfulness. If
you're gonna make peace with God, that's correct. Jobs is
not in that situation. He has recognized his sinfulness. He's blameless.
(37:10):
He's upright. Eliphaz isn't buying it. What did he say? So? So,
if I was doing a sermon, you know what I'd say.
Zero point one. Submit yourself to God under his authority,
acknowledge your sinfulness and repent. All right, here we go
number two. Receive instruction from his mouth and lay up
his words in your heart. You gotta be You gotta
(37:31):
accept God's standard. You got to do things the way
God says to do. What do we say what is
true obedience? Remember this, let's review it again. This is
not obedience. I'm gonna do God's I'm gonna do God's
will my way, and I'm gonna see if I can
get God to do his will my way. That's not obedience.
(37:53):
It's doing God's will God's way. Right. It's just like today,
I was talking about the thing that happened, you know,
with the sin of homosexuality, and I had somebody send me,
you know, the loving texts where they would ever talk
to me to my face. You know this the world
today of social media and people being to a same
thing to you, to you, they want to anonymously. It
(38:15):
has just been it is a wonderful, fruitful soil for
coywards and so so. Anyway, the person said, I don't
want to sit here and hear you talk about the Bible.
I said, I've not asked you to listen to me,
but you might want to look at the Bible and
see what God says about it. I'm just pointing you
to the standard. I'm not the standard. You're right about that,
but let me tell you who is, and let me
(38:36):
tell you how he sees it. I have not found
anywhere in scripture that He's evolved on this. Now it is.
It is absolutely true that homosexuality is not some special
sin that requires extra repentance. But it's also not a
special sin, meaning God's evolved on it and now he
gives it a pass. The fornicator of the adulter, they're
in the same bind if they don't repent. Sexual sin
(38:59):
is sexual sin. However, it's not special and God has
decided that he's good with it. Now we can find
that nowhere. And this is where human beings have a problem.
I actually was confronted with that one time, face to face,
and I said, where do you get the authority that
God has evolved on marriage, on gender, on intimacy? You
(39:21):
know what? The person said, I've just observed it. Well,
I've observed all kinds of things. I mean, is that it?
So if I just observed something and say, well, you
know what, the fact that people seem to be doing that,
they seem to be perfectly happy, and they seem to
be getting long, they seem to love each other, I
guess God's okay with that. Raise your hand. If there
(39:44):
were all kinds of things that you loved and were
perfectly satisfied with them the short term that God still
hated Okay. Yeah, So that's no indication of God evolving.
That's human beings satisfying their flesh is all that is.
And so but again, we you got to be careful.
Sometimes we can really get on our soapbox about homosexuality,
and we're real quiet about fornication, adultery, pouring things like that.
(40:07):
It's God hates all of it, and and and homosexuals
do not have some sort of repentance that's beyond what
everybody has, they can be transformed forgiven. I've seen it
many times. I've seen incredible, powerful men and women of
God that at one time struggled with that sin and
God delivered them from it, and and and I'm talking
about devoted to their Lord and Savior and completely transformed.
(40:30):
So so now he says, so you've got to submit
to God. You've got to accept his standards. And then
then he goes into verse twenty three and he says,
if you return to the Almighty, you'll be built up.
You got to return to God. You got to return
and be restored to God. You gotta turn What does
that sound like? You got to turn from from whatever
you're doing. And there's repentance again, and you've got to
(40:52):
go to God. He's absolutely right. That that is that
that's that's a truth. So if I was preaching, I'd
be talking about submitting to his authority. I'd be talking
about accepting his standard and right there, I'd be talking
about repenting and turning from your sand. I got me
a pretty good message going. Uh So, the only problem
is he's sitting there preaching this to somebody who agrees
(41:13):
with all this and says, that's what I've done my
whole life. So now we get to to his next point.
This one's a little a little deeper, and he's talking
about resigning or abandoning the things you have. Okay, twenty
four if you lay gold in the dust and you
(41:35):
and gold with you mayber We talked about this where
they would go and find gold, these these gold stones
there on the on the bed of this one river. Uh,
it's it's o fur or o fire ofer among the
stones of the torrent bed. Now what he's saying here,
tell what you did to do, Joe and twenty five,
same thing, all going down and then the almighty will
be your gold and your precious silver. You got to
(41:56):
get rid of all you wealth. You got, you got
to you got to just this. This is almost like
what Jesus told the young rich ruler. Hey, if it's wealth,
it keeps calling you trub causing you trouble job. You
got to get rid of all of it. You know
what you need you get. You got to stop finding
your you know standard, you got to start finding your
(42:17):
your peace. You got to stop finding satisfaction and material
things your gold and your silver, where they rule you.
They're too important to you. You got to get rid
of them. And how about this. Let God be the gold,
Let God be the silver, Let him be your wealth.
Well this must be really really interesting for Job right now,
because you think Job here kind of wants to point
(42:38):
to the obvious. Why don't have any of that anymore? Uh,
God's already taken all that away. That that that's all gone.
So if that was the problem, God's already resolved that.
But yet here I stand and I haven't heard from him.
I keep trying to hear from him. So the next
(42:59):
thing that we go into to twenty six to thirty.
So that's the speech as he's telling him what you
can expect if you'll do these things. Here's the benefits
that you should expect. Don't miss that. Eliphaz is preaching
to Job about righteousness. Okay, And because he just hasn't
(43:21):
heard anything that Job has said, apparently, he says, for
then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift
up your face to God. Now remember in these times
lifting your face to God? Was they use that as
an analogy for you? To be in shame, to be
(43:43):
in defeat, and finally give in, lift your face to God,
just finally own it and lift your face to the
Almighty and acknowledge your defeat, acknowledge your shame, and maybe
this suffering will end twenty seven. You will make the
prayer to him and he will hear you, and you
(44:05):
will pay your vowels. Now, now let me tell you something.
This one, this one had to hit Job hard. Don't
you know that Job? And I know, look, maybe you've
been there before, but you got to keep trusting. Maybe
you're there right now. You've got to keep trusting. I
just can't imagine Job hearing this, don't you know? He
(44:28):
just wants to scream and plead and say, I've been praying,
I've been crying out to God. I have kept my
vows to him. I have. I haven't betrayed my vowels.
I haven't betrayed my commitment to him. I've done nothing
but cry out to him. And I don't hear anything.
Have you ever felt that way, or maybe maybe you
(44:49):
feel that way now you Have you ever gone back
to something? I've got things in my life right now
that I completely have faith in God, and I pray
about them every single day, every day, and he still
hasn't moved every day, and I know that he will.
(45:13):
I think one of the things that was tough for me,
and we talked about this, I think several lessons back
is I finally have gotten to the point and it
doesn't matter because God's gonna do what God's gonna do,
and the way God does it is gonna be right.
And then there's that whole tension of God's sovereignty being
(45:33):
sovereign and human beings will and I'm all knowing that
tension of yes, I will do it, but yes people,
I'm allowing decisions to be made inside of all this sovereignty.
It's a tough things. A lot of tension there is
(45:57):
that I finally have resigned myself to these things that
I hope come to completion. But I was just had
to be honest. I wanted to be here to see it.
And I finally have just resolved to God, I know
you're gonna do it. I know it's gonna be on
your time. I don't have to be here to see it.
(46:19):
And if that's sinful on my part trying to put
some sort of and now look, I want you to
do it, but I want to see it. Uh and uh,
you know, if I'm with you when this happens, I'm
not gonna care anyway. I'll celebrate it right there with you.
But God does not. We don't tell him what to do.
But job has been praying and he has kept his
(46:40):
vows that that had to be hard to hear. Well,
I just you all got does just start praying to him.
I've been praying to him and I'm waiting on his answer,
and I don't have it yet. Verse twenty eight. You
will decide on a matter, and it will be established
for you, and light will shine on your way. These
(47:02):
are wonderful things. But Eliphaz is exaggerating job Sin. Now
keep in mind, he's exaggerating job Sin. We don't even
think these accusations he made or have any truth to
them at all. But he's he's also looking Remember he
b what I said a min ago. He's exaggerating job
Sin to try to make his his place where he's standing,
(47:26):
make him look better. I mean, God should wipe you
off the face of the earth. And he's saying, so,
what a wonderful day it's going to be when you
finally decide, and and and it's going to be established
for you and all the light that's going to shine
on your ways because you're so bad that it's going
to be so wonderful that God finally takes this away.
(47:48):
He's he's inflating his sin to also inflate his advantage,
you know, on on saying that he must repent, and
how that's gonna look twenty nine For when they are humbled,
you say it is because of pride, But he saves
(48:10):
the lowly. If you speaking pride, God will humble you.
He only saves the lowly. They keep in mind with
this accusation, is you're prideful, Job, No, wonder God's not
answering you. When you decide to be hunting. He's gonna
lay you low either way. Stop fighting it. He he
(48:33):
only forgives the lowly. He you said that if you're humbled, well,
if you've got to be humbled, that means you're prideful.
And yet we agree he saves the lowly. Well, if
you need to be lowly, that means you must be prideful.
(48:53):
Because that's the counter and Job is not saying that, No,
that's not what I've been saying at all. I'm not
saying that I'm prideful and I need to be humbled
and I need to be lowly. I'm saying that I'm
humbled and I'm lowly, and I still don't see God
boo it, and I know he's humbled me. You know,
have you ever been through difficulty in your life? I
(49:14):
tell you one thing it'll do, it'll humble you. Right,
So Job said, already there, already there. So now we're
coming down in twenty and thirty he delivers even the
one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through
(49:35):
the cleanness of your hands. So again the guilty are delivered,
but only only when they acknowledge their sin and they
were pented. True, absolutely true. The only problem is none
(49:56):
of this applies to Job, and and Job has had
to sit and listen to this go on and on
and on. And now he's already said he's done with
their counsel. Okay, and you're going to see Job. It's
gonna start getting shorter and shorter. Bill, Dad's gonna have
(50:19):
one little short comment back to him. Job is going
to take the center stage, and it's going to be
directed at God and he's going to continue to try
to defend himself. We're actually going to have a young
fellow show up and he's going to set the three
friends straight and he's going to basically acknowledge what we've
(50:40):
all been seeing and say, well, y'all are not really
good friends at all. And then we'll get to God,
and then y'all know that God does come on the
scene before we're done. So let's take what is said
by Elafass, even though you know, God's been using for
a long long time, really really flawed people, even people
(51:00):
that don't even know they're being used by God. But
the last thing that Eliphaz has said that that completes
this little sermon is maybe something that we do need
to think about. Maybe, unlike Job, maybe when we hear
these things we realize that that does apply to me.
And it is true that he delivers the one who's
(51:24):
not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of
your hands. You know, some of us are sitting here
with dirty hands. Some of us are out there and
there's sin that we have not repented of their sin,
we have not acknowledged. And maybe Job doesn't need to
do that, but maybe we do. That was one things
(51:44):
that one of things I took away is this assessing
myself with these with these truths though even so, even
though they're being directed by an arrogant friend who has
no sympathy for his friend at all, but the truth
that he's throwing out there should be heard, and they
should they should be applied. And it goes back to
(52:04):
the analogy that God has really put on my heart
about Jesus and true repentance and how we kind of
keep this little bag with a few things in it
when Jesus says true repentance has given me the whole bag,
and we go, well, we're giving you most of the bag,
but I still got a few things here that I
(52:27):
still hanging on to because they bring me satisfaction, they
bring me some sort of jolly. And I'm justifying the
sin or I'm treating it like it's no big deal.
And maybe today's today for you or me to look
to Jesus and say, you know what, I'm just going
to give you the bag. I truly trust you. I
(52:50):
don't think there's any sin that I need. I don't
think there's anything that's better than you. These things may
give me moments of flesh satisfaction or even moments of
you know, satisfaction in my mind, or whatever the case
may be. But they're in conflict with you. And my
(53:12):
hands are mostly clean, but they're not completely clean. Maybe
today you just need to repent of that. That's how
I'm done with it. You'll never regret it. But I
know it's tough. I know it's tough living in this
falling creation, which is why Peter told us and tewond
(53:34):
Peter make every effort to supplement these things to your faith,
because though you've been redeemed, you still have a sin
nature and you still live in a sinful world. We're
still playing on the road, boys, We're not in our
home stadium. Let's pray, Lord, thank you for today, thank
you for this message, thank you for the example we
(53:56):
find throughout this incredible documentation of the life of job. Lord.
I pray that you continue tor modius into something that
you're more comfortable with. Then we'll stop the sin of
trying to make you something we're more comfortable with. You
are here, You are who you are, and there's nothing,
nothing that comes close to the perfection and the satisfaction
(54:19):
and the piece that comes with being right with you. Lord.
I pray that you will forgive us of our sins,
draw us closer to you, Lord, transform us into the
people that you desire. For our own good, sure, but
also for your glory and your holy name. We pray Amen.
(54:44):
Thank you, guys,
Host
Rick Burgess
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