Silent in the Face of God's Law

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the eighth chapter.

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So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.

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They answered him, we are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free?

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Jesus answered them, truly truly I say to you everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever.

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So if the son sets you free you will be free indeed. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.

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Here again the words of the song, the hymn we just sang, a mighty fortress is our God. A mighty fortress is our

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God, a sword and a shield victorious. He breaks the cruel oppressor's rod and wins salvation glorious.

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The old satanic foe, he is sworn to work us woe. And boy I gotta tell you that's truer than you think.

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With craft and dreadful might he arms himself to fight and on earth he has no equal. No strength of ours can match his might, we should be lost, rejected.

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But now a champion comes to fight whom God himself elected. You ask who this may be?

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The Lord of hosts is he. Christ Jesus, mighty Lord, God's only Son adored, he holds the field victorious.

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Brothers and sisters, scripture is so clear that we have an enemy. This is the enemy who deceived our first parents and boy is he angry.

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He is the earth's tyrant. We were born under his dominion and we were born enslaved to sin to death and the devil and he's not about to give up.

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And so we had better be ready for the fight and we had better be sober minded about just what it is that saves a person or condemns a person.

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Because each and every one of us, we keep throwing the word around here in church, salvation, salvation, salvation, salvation from what?

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A bad hair day? Salvation from purposelessness? What are you being saved from exactly?

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Answer, an eternity in the pit with the devil.

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That's what you're being saved from. So note then the words of our Lord in our gospel text.

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Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, but the son remains forever.

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So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. But in order to be free, we must keep the proper distinction between God's law and the gospel central in our thinking.

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And when we err in this way, we make some pretty serious mistakes.

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Ones that, well, open us up to God's rebuke and his discipline. So here again, our epistle text, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

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For by works of the law, no human being will be justified.

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That is to be declared righteous or innocent in God's sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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And so you'll note then, the scriptures are so clear, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

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Me, you, everybody with the exception of one, and that's Christ. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ.

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In fact, our epistle text ends with these words, we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

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So this requires us to sober -mindedly consider our lives in light of God's Word and to stop fooling ourselves with this kind of thinking.

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I'm a good person. I'm a good person and I have earned from God the right to have a blessed life.

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No, you ain't. I'm not a good person either. And so I'm gonna do something a little bit odd today.

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We're gonna go into the book of all books, Job. We all know the story of Job, right?

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Have you ever read Job and thought, I just don't get it. This is a book that requires, when you're reading it, to actually focus.

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You know, you got to turn off the alerts on your phone and stop checking Twitter or Snapchat or Instagram.

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You know, turn off the alerts on your computer as far as the emails are coming in and apply yourself to this.

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And the weird thing about this book is that on a first read you don't quite get it because there's this really interesting flip right at the end.

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I mean, if you don't know that Job's comforters, that their theology is all wackerdoodle, then you don't really get what's going on because at the very end

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God will actually condemn them and it will pay attention to that. But let me kind of give you the quick setup. We all know the story that the sons of God, these are the angels in this particular context, come and present themselves before Yahweh and who else shows up but the devil himself,

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Satan, has presented himself. And so the Lord, seeing that he's there, says, hey, have you considered my servant

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Job? You know, how much he really loves and serves me. And the devil's all, yeah, listen, the only reason he does that is because you've blessed him so much.

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I mean, the guy's a wealthy man. His kids are awesome. I mean, this guy's life is just blessed beyond all measure.

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But if you take all of that away from him, he'll curse you to your face. And so God kind of scratches his beard.

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No, he didn't do that. God doesn't have a beard. But anyway, so he kind of thinks it over and he goes, all right, you're on.

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Yeah, go ahead, take everything from him. And so in one day, catastrophe and calamity like you wouldn't believe, all of his kids die in a tragic weather incident.

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All of his flocks and herds are taken captive by a foreign army, and Job is left with like nothing at all.

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And Job's answer is, well, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. All right, so the devil loses round one here.

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And so the devil represents himself to God, and God says, have you considered my servant Job? And he's all, listen, just strike him in his body.

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Take away his health. Make him suffer in his body, and he will curse you to your face.

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God's all, you're on. Go ahead and just mess him up, but don't kill him. And so, wouldn't you know it, the guy breaks out with this horrible, body -wide boils, and he's just in absolute agony and suffering.

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And his friends, oh man, his friends like, they know he's in so much pain and agony.

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For the first seven days, they just come and they sit quietly with him.

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They say no words, just as he sits there in agony. But then they open their mouths, and you find out that one of these guys is like a

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Joel Osteen prosperity guy, and his theology is like way off the mark.

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And then you got this other guy, he's like totally self -righteous, and it's like, oh man. And the other guy, I can't even explain what his theology is like.

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And every one of them are all trying to say, the reason, Job, the reason you're suffering is because you've done something wrong.

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And we all know that the reason why Job is suffering, so these guys are totally way off the mark. But then in chapter 31 of Job, Job makes a huge miscalculation.

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In fact, a great sin against God he commits by basically trying to argue, and here's his argument,

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I am righteous, and God is treating me as one who is unrighteous.

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And all the Norwegians said, oofta, right? Because what does scripture say? None is righteous, not even one, not me, not you, not nobody.

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None is righteous. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so this is a huge, ginormous blunder on the part of Job.

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Consider his words in Job chapter 31. I'll just pick up some of the highlights. He's going to lay out all of his good works as if somehow this proves his righteousness.

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And we'll note the blunder here. Job 31 .1, I've made a covenant with my eyes.

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How then could I gaze at a virgin? What would my portion from God above and my heritage from the Almighty be?

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Is not calamity for the unrighteous and disaster for the workers of iniquity?

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You see, there it is. By saying, even in the form of a question, the calamity is for the unrighteous, he's not counting himself in that category.

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In other words, he's blaming God and saying, God, you have erred.

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You have done something unjust. You are treating me as somebody who is unrighteous, but I'm righteous, and let me prove it to you,

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God. And he goes on, he says, does not God see my ways? And he numbers all of my steps.

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If I've walked with falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit, well, let me be weighed in a just balance and let

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God know my integrity. If my step has turned aside from the way and my heart has gone after my eyes, and if I have any spot that has stuck to my hands, well, then let me sow and another eat, and let what grows from me be rooted out.

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If my heart has been enticed towards a woman, or I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door, then let my wife grind for another and let others bow down on her, for that would be a heinous crime.

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That would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for that would be a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon, and it would burn to the root of all of my increase.

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In the rest of the chapter, Job is laying out all of his good works as if that proves that he's righteous.

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And this is not good. He has, at this point now, condemned

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God himself. You are in the wrong,

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God. Let me ask you this, is God ever in the wrong? No, not at all.

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So what's going to be the solution? Well, if you've read the book of Job, then this character shows up like out of nowhere,

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Elihu. Elihu? Yeah, Elihu. He shows up out of nowhere, and we learn that he's a young man, and he's going to burn with anger inside of him, and he's going to rebuke

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Job, and he's also going to rebuke Job's three comforters. And so we'll just hit some of the highlights, chapter 32.

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So these three men, his comforters, they cease to answer

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Job, and listen to the reason why, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Yikes.

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That's not a good thing. That's a bad category. If you're righteous in your own eyes, that's a bad category. So then

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Elihu, the son of Barachel, the Buzite of the family of Ram, he burned with anger.

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He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.

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He burned with anger also at Job's three friends because they have found no answer, although they had declared

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Job to be in the wrong. Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he, and when

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Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he burned with anger.

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By the way, it is possible to be angry, righteously so, and to not sin. You'll note that nowhere in the book of Job is

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Elihu censored by God or punished by God or told that he had sinned in this capacity. So Elihu, the son of Barachel, the

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Buzite, answered and said, I am young in years and you are aged, therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you.

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I said, let days speak and many years teach wisdom. But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the

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Almighty, that makes him understand. It is not the old who are wise, nor the age to understand what is right.

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Therefore, I say, listen to me. Let me also declare my opinion. Behold, I waited for your words.

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I listened for your wise sayings while you searched out what to say. I gave you my attention and behold, there was none among you who refuted

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Job or who answered his words. So he begins with basically upbraiding

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Job's three comforters. And note that they'd never engaged

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Job in the words that he spoke and the things that they said were gobbledygook. But in chapter 32,

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Elihu now turns his attention, full force, double -barreled, right in the face of his elder

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Job, and here's what he says. But now hear my words, O Job, and listen to all my words.

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Behold, I open my mouth. The tongue in my mouth speaks. My words declare the uprightness of my heart, and what my lips know, they speak sincerely.

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The spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Answer me if you can.

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Set your words in order before me. Take your stand. Behold, I'm towards God as you are.

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I too was pinched off from a piece of clay. Behold, no fear of me need terrify you. My pressure will not be heavy upon you.

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Surely, you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard the sound of your words. You say,

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I am pure without transgression. I am clean. There is no iniquity in me.

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And that's his problem. But listen to what Elihu says.

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Behold, God finds occasion against me. God counts me as his enemy, and he puts my feet in the stocks, and God watches all of my paths.

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You see, Elihu understands. Even before the Apostle Paul penned those words, none is righteous, no, not one, even

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Elihu understood quite well. And by the way, Paul was quoting the Psalms. He knew quite well that none is righteous, all have sinned, all have fallen short of the glory of God, and that none can point to himself and say that I am without transgression.

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This was a grave error on the part of Job. So, what does Elihu do next?

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Let's him have it. Full rebuke. Behold, in this you are not right.

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I will answer you, for God is greater than man. Why do you contend against him, saying he will answer none of man's words?

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For God speaks in one way and in two. Though man does not perceive it, in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men while the slumber on their beds, then he opens the ears of men, and God terrifies them with warnings, so that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man, in order to keep him back, keep his soul back from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.

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And so, you'll note, Elihu here understands the proper distinction of law and gospel, and note that when God speaks, he first begins by terrifying us with warnings to convince us of our sin, in order to turn us aside from our unrighteous and sinful deeds for this purpose, so that he can keep us back from jumping into the pit and having our life perished by the very sword of Christ himself.

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It is God in his mercy who confronts us and warns us to turn us away. But then

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Elihu continues here, and it gets really interesting because not only does he understand the law, he also understands the gospel.

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He said, man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones, so that his life loathes bread and his appetite.

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The choice is food. His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out.

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His soul draw nears to the pit and his life to those who bring death. If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand to declare to man what is right for him, and he is merciful.

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God is merciful to him and says, deliver him from going down into the pit, for I have found a ransom.

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No way the gospel shows up in the book of Job. The purpose of God terrifying us with his law is to show us our sin, to silence us, because God wills for us to not go down to the pit, to not spend an eternity in hell, and God here in the words of Job of all places, which many consider to be the oldest book of the

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Bible. If there be found for him, God says, an angel, a mediator, to declare to man what is right for him.

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God is merciful to him and says, deliver him from going down into the pit. I have found a ransom, and that ransom is

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Christ, the one being prophesied here by Elihu, is Jesus. And so he notes then, listen to the mercy of God.

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I have found for him a ransom, so let his flesh become fresh with youth. Let him return to the days of his youthful vigor.

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Then man prays to God, and he accepts him. He sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness.

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He sings before men and says, I sinned. I perverted just what is right, but God did not repay me.

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He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.

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And behold, God does all these things twice, three times with a man, in order to bring back his soul from the pit so that he may be lighted with the light of life.

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Have you ever considered that self -righteousness, that when you think that you are righteous because of your deeds, that you can stand before God and say,

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I have pulled myself up by my self -righteous bootstraps. I am righteous in my own sight.

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That when you do that, you are accusing God of falsehood. You are accusing him of acting unjustly and wrong.

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Well, now that both the law and the gospel have been preached to Job, and his sin has been rebuked by a younger man to his own shame,

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God himself is going to pay a visit to these four men,

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Job and his three comforters. And I must say that God's manifestation in this way was quite theatrical, because out of nowhere, off in the distance, a supercell thunderstorm started to form, and it came barreling down the highway straight at them.

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And just before it got to them, it drops a tornado, and God himself is now speaking out of this whirlwind and tornado with the flashes of lightning and all this kind of stuff.

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This is usually a sign of God's judgment. Pay attention, and God is going to answer

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Job. And all I can say is, have you ever had one of those moments when your dad has confronted you with something that you have done wrong, and he raises his voice, and the things that come out of his mouth just terrify you, and he says, do you hear what

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I'm saying, boy? And you say, yes, sir. That's this kind of moment.

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So the Lord, Yahweh, answered Job out of the whirlwind, and he said, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

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Dress for action like a man. I'm going to question you, so you make it known to me. Where were you when

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I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know.

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Who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, and who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

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Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it, and set bars and doors, and said, thus far shall you come and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed?

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Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it?

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And this monologue goes on for quite a while. Usually, it's just a good idea that when the horse is dead, you dismount.

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But God keeps beating this one. In fact, this is just part one of the monologue, and it goes on for a bit.

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And then in chapter 40, he ends the monologue, the Lord ends this first part of this monologue, his upbraiding and rebuke of Job with these words, shall a fault finder contend with the

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Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it. What did

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Paul say in our epistle text that the purpose of the law is? Listen again to his words.

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We know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and so the whole world may be held accountable to God.

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So here, God rebukes Job to his face and let him know that he's speaking without knowledge, accuses him of being a fault finder, and rightly so.

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And as Paul says, the law silences us. So listen to what Job says. So Job answered

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Yahweh, and he said, Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you?

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I lay my hand on my mouth. I've spoken once. I will not answer twice, but I will proceed no further.

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But still, this is not repentance. This is not repentance. This is just having his mouth silenced.

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So the Lord now begins monologue part two to push even further.

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Dress for action like a man, I'll question you, so you make it known to me, Job. Will you even put me in the wrong?

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Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God?

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Can you thunder with a voice like his? So adorn yourself with majesty, Job, and dignity.

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Clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.

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Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. And this part of the monologue,

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God's direct rebuke of Job goes on for a little bit longer, and listen to what it produces then in Job.

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Chapter 42, verse 1. So Job answered

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Yahweh, and he says, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

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Remember, God pointed out that Job had put God into the wrong. He says, who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?

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Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things that are too wonderful for me, which

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I did not know. Hear, and I will speak. I'll question you, and then you can make it known to me.

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I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. Therefore, I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.

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To say that he repents, Job is saying, God, I was wrong. You're right.

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I'm not righteous. Forgive me. And so you know, this produces godly sorrow in him and true bonafide repentance.

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I was wrong, God, to put you in the wrong. And that's what repentance is.

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God, you're right. I was wrong. Now, he doesn't receive a direct absolution from God.

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He receives a tacit one, one that is implied, because now something interesting happens.

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Now that Job has been brought to repentance, has abandoned his self -righteousness, no longer views himself as righteous in and of himself, but that he is a sinner and that he was wrong to say he didn't deserve what he had been given, now the

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Lord speaks to Job's comforters. And pay attention to the details.

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It's rather fascinating. So Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, and then Yahweh said to Eliphaz, the

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Temanite, my anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant

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Job has. And now the wind gets sucked out of the room.

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I wish every false teacher in the visible church would read and ponder these words. It is a great crime against God to not speak truthfully and accurately about him.

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When you make up stuff about God and pin it on him, and you distort who he is by twisting

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God's word or thinking that your direct revelation somehow come on par with God, oh, man, pay attention.

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You have not spoken of me what is right, and my anger burns against you, God said.

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Now therefore, and note here, God's going to refuse to deal with them directly. He will only deal with these three through a mediator.

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Now therefore, take seven bulls, seven rams, and you go to my servant Job. Notice he keeps now referring to Job as his servant.

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Things are made right between Job and God by Job saying he repents, right?

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And you offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And then my servant Job, he will pray for you.

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I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly, for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant

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Job has. Wow, God won't even deal with them directly.

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So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what

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Yahweh told them, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer. Huh, sounds a lot like Jesus, you know, because Jesus is our mediator.

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Interesting. But then Job, having been forgiven for his self -righteousness, having been forgiven for putting

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God in the wrong and saying that God had done something unjust, having been forgiven and restored,

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Job no longer is going to sit in anguish and pain, and what follows next is a type and shadow of the life that awaits us in the new earth.

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So the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends.

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How does the scripture say it in the Psalms? When the Lord restored our fortunes, we were like those who dreamed.

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Can you imagine having your fortune restored? And it will. Your youth restored to you, and it will.

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So the Lord gave Job then twice as much as he had before, and then came to him all his brothers and his sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house, and they showed him sympathy, and they comforted him for all of the evil that the

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Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. And then listen to this last part, because this is, again, a picture of the new earth that's coming.

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You see, remember, part of the curse that we all are experiencing as a result of our fall into sin is that in this current creation under the curse, women are to be in submission under their husbands.

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And even when the children of Israel were brought into the promised land, which is a type and shadow of what's to come, women were not permitted to own property or to have their own inheritance.

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This next part kind of prefigures the change that's going to come when that part of the curse is lifted in the new earth.

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So the Lord blessed the later days of Job more than his beginning, and he had 14 ,000 sheep, 6 ,000 camel, 1 ,000 yoke of oxen, 1 ,000 female donkeys.

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He had also seven sons, three daughters, and note here none of his sons are named, only his daughters.

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And so he called the name of his first daughter, Jemima, and the name of the second, Keziah, and the name of the third,

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Keren -Hapuch. And in all the land, there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

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And after this, Job lived 140 years, and he saw his sons, and his sons' sons for generations, and Job died an old man full of days.

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So this Reformation day, we are again reminded that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

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None is righteous, no, not one. And that it is God who justifies us by grace through faith.

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And as Jesus says, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

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And the truth is that you're a sinner in need of God's grace, and that nothing that you do in obedience to God can be held up to God as currency for your own salvation.

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You are saved because God has provided a ransom in Christ, and he has done this, and he has warned you through his law, and comforted you through his gospel, because he wills for you to not spend an eternity in the pit.

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And all of this is because of his great kindness, his love, and his mercy, and his grace towards his fallen creation.

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So as Jesus says, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, but the son does.

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So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. In the name of Jesus.

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Amen. Oslo, Minnesota.

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56744. And again, that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950, 470th

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Avenue, NW, Oslo, Minnesota. 56744. We thank you for your support.

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