Job 35

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And as Elihu speaks, he continues to seek to give understanding to both the friends and Job.
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And he kind of goes back and forth between speaking directly to Job, speaking directly to the friends, and a couple more chapters of Elihu.
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And then, of course, God will come in. And that has really been the desire on Job's part, is that he wants to see the
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Lord. He wants God to give him understanding, because, again, his life has been turned upside down.
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All right, Job chapter 35. Moreover, Elihu answered and said, do you think this is right?
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Do you say my righteousness is more than God's? Now, just before we go forward, remember what he said at the end of the previous chapter.
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In chapter 34, at verse 35, he said, Job speaks without knowledge.
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His words are without wisdom. Oh, that Job was tried to the uttermost, because his answers are like those of wicked men, for he adds rebellion to his sin.
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He claps his hands among us, and he multiplies his words against God. So he had rebuked him in the previous chapter, and that's why he says what he says in the opening of chapter 35, where he says, do you think it's right that you say my righteousness is more than God's?
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For you say, what advantage will it be to you? What profit shall
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I have more than if I had sinned? I will answer you and your companions with you.
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Look to the heavens and see, and behold the clouds, which are higher than you. If you sin, what do you accomplish against him?
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Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give him?
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What does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects a man such as you, and your righteousness a son of man.
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And because of the multitudes of the oppressions, they cry out, they cry out for help because of the arm of the mighty.
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But no one says, where is God, my maker, who gives us songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of heaven.
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There they cry out, but he does not answer. Because of the pride of evil men, surely God will not listen to empty talk, nor will the
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Almighty regard it. Although you say you do not see him, yet justice is before him.
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You must wait for him. And now, because he is not punished in his anger, nor taken much notice of folly, therefore
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Job opens his mouth in vain, and he multiplies words without knowledge.
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And again, this is this continuation on the part of Elihu. Some of it is based on rightful observation, but I want to submit to you that some of this is,
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Job has been misunderstood. And we talked about this in the past, that we ought to be careful with our words.
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Many times people will misunderstand us. Have you ever been misunderstood? I have.
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Matter of fact, I probably deserve to be misunderstood at times. But I've said things that no one understands but me, and then, at times,
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I don't even understand what I say. That's not right. But nevertheless, he's dealing with this, and because of the abbreviated time,
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I want to kind of focus on something, and then if we have time, we'll look at the rest of it.
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But I do want to get through the chapter today. So I'll ask you to focus, first of all, on chapter 35, verses four through eight, where he says this.
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I will answer you and your companions with you. Look to the heavens and see. Behold the clouds which are higher than you.
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If you sin, what do you accomplish against them? Or if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
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If you are righteous, what do you give him? What does he receive from your hand?
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Your wickedness affects a man such as you, but, such as you, and your righteousness a son of man.
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So I want to ask us the question, just as he says that in verse six.
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If you sin, what do you accomplish against him? So I ask us all to think about this, and then
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I'm gonna ask us to think about a couple of things. What do we accomplish when we sin against God? What does, let me ask us to think about this.
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Impassibility, anybody know what that means? It means this,
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God does not suffer. Impassibility means that God does not suffer, which means that God is not, he's not affected, not affected by emotions or externals.
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That's basically what impassibility means. That God is not affected,
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God is not altered, God is not changed by things that are either merely based on emotions or by things outside of himself.
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Now, when you and I think about that, can we say this about ourselves?
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Do we possess, and I think this is an I, it's either an
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I or an A, so I'm close. Can we say that about ourselves?
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No, Barry? Something with God is immutable, unchangeable, but I know when we sin, the
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Holy Spirit is grieved by our sin, but I guess that doesn't really count as changing,
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I guess. No, no, I'm glad you brought that up, because the way we need to understand this is based on two different things.
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I'm gonna write this down, and then we'll look at it. There's God's essential being, and then there's
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God's, if you will, probably use a couple different terms, but then there's
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God's manifested glory. So God has an essential glory, and God has a manifested glory.
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Now, you brought what you brought up, and that's where I want to focus in on, because if we think about it, does
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God ever increase or decrease? Just look what he said.
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He's gonna, in verse four, I will answer you when your companion is like you. Look to the heavens and see, behold the clouds which are higher than you.
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If you sin, what do you accomplish against him? In other words, does God become more
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God and less God by the attitudes and actions of external things?
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And where would we say that, which one of these categories would that fall under?
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Well, it would fall under this, right? In God's essential being, in his internal character,
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God does not change, right? And many, many scriptures, we could support that, that God does not change.
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And if we get these, if we don't understand the difference between these two, it gets confusing.
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And I'm gonna bring up what you just said, Barry, because there are scriptures that talk about both of these.
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In other words, it says in the Bible, in Malachi, God says,
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I change not, okay? So that certainly is a proof text, if you will, that God in his essential glory,
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God is an essential being, God never changes. He's not moved by things outside of himself.
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Even as we read, and you brought up the immutability of God, God does what?
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Whatsoever he pleases to do in the armies of heaven or among the inhabitants of the earth, and there is none that can say to him, what are you doing?
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So God in his essential glory does not change, okay?
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We have an internal glory, but is, could we say that about ourselves?
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So you see, when we think about God in his essential character,
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God is the great other, right? I always talked about this, but just think about it.
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We are bound by space, time, surroundings, relationships, all those things.
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God is without bounds. He's outside of the things that he's binded us with.
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And so God is in truth, the great other, and God, the reality of that is that God in his essential glory has always been
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God in his fullness, God in his absolute contentment,
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God in his absolute glory, and that he does not change. So when Elihu says this, he says, if you sin, what do you accomplish against him?
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That's the negative. Or if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
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And then he shows it even from the positive in verse seven. If you are righteous, what do you give him?
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What does he receive from your end? In other words, God doesn't do something like,
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God doesn't have plus and minuses. We do. If someone sins against me, it affects me, it changes me.
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If my emotions get carried away, it alters me. God is never altered.
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God is perfectly content. God is perfectly, and it's not the best way of saying it,
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God is perfectly happy with God. Now, as he says this, we're in Job 35, brother.
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As he says this, when we think about the impassibility of God, that he doesn't suffer, he's not affected by anything other than his holy being.
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Yet, as Barry brought up, and this is where we need to spend a few minutes, let's think about things, some things, anyway, that affect
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God. Now, before we do that, before we list some things, let's understand the difference.
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In God's essential being, change is not. In God's manifested glory, or in what is seen and outward things, does
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God change? Is God affected by outward things?
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Well, in a manifested way, he certainly is. And here's what, and again,
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I want us to think about this. So in other words, Barry, you kind of brought it up that at times,
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God appears to be what, grieved. How can that be?
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God is, we just said, God is his essential glory, change is not, he's not moved. But in a manifested way,
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God can be grieved by the actions of men. Now, does that alter
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God's eternal character? No, but is it a reality?
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I mean, and that's what it says in Genesis, right? God was grieved. Was not God grieved with the sin of Adam and Eve?
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Was not God grieved with the actions in the days of the flood when men just did what they want?
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Was not God grieved with Sodom and Gomorrah? Yeah, he was. So in a way of the manifested glory of God, it did grieve
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God. I mean, it caused God, as long as we understand, it caused
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God to be grieved, but that does not change, nor did it change
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God's essential glory where God was affected in such a way that it altered his actions, altered his behavior.
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God has, even as it says in the book of Acts, known unto God, if you will, the end from the beginning.
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So it didn't surprise God, let me put it that way. It didn't surprise God that men sinned, and yet it affected
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God in a manifested way, in an outward way, as it's revealed to us.
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It certainly did. Let's think of another thing. I can show you where the
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Bible says that certain times God was displeased.
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What happens to us when we get displeased? Show emotion. Yeah, yeah, and then we get angry, and then it alters our behavior, agree?
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I mean, that's usually what happens when you're displeased, is you get angry, and in some way, it affects your outward, your actions.
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Bible says God is at times displeased, and yet, how could that be if God, if this is true, how could that be?
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Because outwardly, as it's displayed to men, it certainly does appear that way, that God is displeased.
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Let me, I'm gonna show it to you so you understand. If you're in Job, go to Psalm 60 real quick for a minute.
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Psalm 60, I'm gonna show you where it says it, and I just picked out specific verses to prove the point, but the point is there in many ways, but Psalm 60, and it should be the very first verse.
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Yeah, look, oh God, you have cast us off. You have broken us down.
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You have been displeased. Oh, restore us again. What does it say?
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It just says that I said to you that in the book of Genesis, several times, God was grieved, and it says he was grieved in his heart over the actions of men, and here, it says that God is displeased.
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I'm gonna show you something else, too. There are times when the Bible says that God hates.
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Now, let me ask you that. When you hate somebody, does it affect you? Anybody that says that they can hate somebody and it doesn't affect them, either they don't hate it or they're not telling you the truth, but yet the
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Bible says in many places, and I'll show you where God says that at times he hates.
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Look, go to Isaiah chapter one. We're in, just go to Isaiah, the very first chapter, and again,
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I am not trying to confuse us with these two things.
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I'm trying to help us get our arms and our minds and our hearts around it that because God is the great other,
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God is not bound, but as it appears outwardly, God is affected by outward things.
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So in Isaiah one, just look at it from verse 10. Hear the word of the
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Lord, you rulers of Sodom, and give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the
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Lord? I have had enough of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of cattle, and I do not delight in the blood of bulls or lambs or goats.
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When you come to appear before me, who's required this from your hand to trample my courts?
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Bring no more futile sacrifice. Incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, the
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Sabbaths, the calling of the assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred things.
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Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. How could someone who is not affected outwardly,
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I mean, not affected in his person, yet be revealed to us as one who is affected because friends, this manifested glory is in that sense where God is affected.
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Does it change him? No, and that's what he said in Job. If you sin, what do you take from him?
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If you're righteous, what do you give him? And again, God doesn't wake up in the morning because God's not bound by time, but even that,
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God doesn't wake up in the morning and because of the actions of men, God becomes bigger or smaller. We're affected by those kinds of things.
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Let me show you something else. At times, God is definitely said to be angry.
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Just look at Psalm 7. Go ahead, turn to Psalm 7. And this one you can find in many places, but I think this one example will help us.
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This is in Psalm 7 and read what he says. I can get to it.
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Okay, pick it up in verse six. Arise, O Lord, in your anger.
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Lift yourself up because of the rage of my enemies and awake for me to the judgment that you have commanded.
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So the congregation of the people shall surround you for their sakes, therefore return on high. The Lord shall judge the people.
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Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity within me. Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just with a righteous
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God. Test the hearts and minds. My defense is of God who saves the upright in heart. Look, God is a just judge and God is angry with the wicked every day.
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See? We have different understandings in that sense.
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We have different understandings of what being grieved is. We have, I'm gonna say deficient understandings of what being displeased does.
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God could be displeased and it doesn't affect him at the same time. And again, that's very difficult to understand for us.
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It's not easy because we are, if you will, we are so emotional in our creaturehood and yet God is in that way said to be moved by these things, just not the same way we are.
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Jealousy. Huh? Jealousy. Yeah, that's another one, right? And it says God is jealous and as soon as you think of that word jealousy, what happens?
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We think of jealousy in a really different way than God thinks of jealousy. And the reason why
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God can be jealous, by the way, is what? Because it's all his.
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You're really, jealousy in our understanding is being desiring what, what? What someone else has that you don't have.
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God could be jealous because it's all God's. What doesn't he own? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth in every mind.
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So again, it really depends on how we begin to understand it. Okay. I could give you other examples of these things, but I can also show you, and I will because I think it's important, that in an outward way, there are times that it says that God is pleased.
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And this was the positive that Elihu mentioned. Remember, he said, if you sin, what do you take from it?
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And that would be these things, if you will, in his manifest word. But what about pleased?
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I want you to just turn one verse into the New Testament. Colossians chapter three. And again,
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I could show it to you as from a number of different directions, but I think this one should be sufficient.
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So look in Colossians, the third chapter. Okay. So verse 18, he's talking about husbands, wives, the
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Christian home, those things. He says, wives, submit to your own husbands as is fitting in the
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Lord. And husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter towards them. And children, obey your parents in all things for this is well -pleasing to the
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Lord. See it? It pleases God. Well, we read about how things displease
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God at times. Now we read about something that pleases God. And again, I ask you, because God is pleased, does it become more
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God? Does it become bigger? No. And because he's grieved and displeased and he hates, does it become less
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God? No. So putting that together, go back into Job now and let's think about what he's really saying.
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And I do think that Job, I mean, Elihu in this area has a real good understanding of the character of God in that he declares this before Job and his friends.
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And that basically you'll see, because he says in verse eight, and this is important, your wickedness, he's talking to Job, he says, and his friends too, if you will, your wickedness affects a man such as you.
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And your righteousness, a son of man. In other words, if we're evil, we hurt other people, right?
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And if we're righteous, we add to other people. So in that sense, our sins or our righteousness, it can be looked at in a plus minus situation, not that we're gaining merit with God, because faith comes through hearing of the word and it's through the work of Christ.
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So we're not saying that we become more righteous or less righteous, but outwardly that's true, right?
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It's manifested in our life. That's why this is so important, friends, that you and I can at least get our minds around the fact that in God's essential character, he never changes, he's never altered, he's not affected, he does in truth do whatever he pleases to do.
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And yet, at the same time, there is a reality in which these things enter in.
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So when he says that, and he says, listen, you might affect someone else, but you're not gonna affect
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God. And that's why I just love that thought that God is the great other.
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And yet God is personal, isn't he? Just like, to me, it's just like the fact that we proclaim that God is infinite, without beginning, without end, there is no measure that God is contained in.
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And yet, we also glory in the fact that God is intimate, that he's just, in that sense,
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Christ was like us. He was a man like us, right? Yet without sin, but he was a man like us.
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And we see that because Jesus cried at Lazarus' death, didn't he?
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So Jesus wept. Did that alter him? Well, it affected him.
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Did that make him more of a savior or less of a savior? No, because again, he is the second person of the
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Trinity. So again, I just wanted us to highlight that more than anything else this morning, because I think it's important that we understand it.
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And this has been something that, in some senses, that his friends didn't understand, because they said, and with some truth, by the way, that Job is sinned, and because he's sinned, he's angered
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God, and because God was angry, he struck Job down, made him suffer, right? What has
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Job been complaining about? Well, I'm righteous, I've maintained my integrity, and yet for all that,
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I still seem to suffer. So almost like, what's going on with that?
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So you can see it from both sides, that unless we really understand the person and nature and being of God, we can get crisscrossed.
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Thoughts, compliments, comments, actions, revolts, rebellions, anything? Does that make sense at all?
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And again, I'm not trying to say I understand this incompleteness, because I don't. Is it too simplistic to say, and I don't even know if that's the right word, but because he's
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God, he can do all these things? You know what I'm saying? Yes, I understand what you're saying. And yes, I do think it's because of the fact that he's the great other.
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See, again, he's not bound like we're bound. He's not subject like we're subject.
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God is subject to who? No one. And so yeah, it's because he's
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God that he's, it's like what I said this morning. Jesus didn't rise from the grave to become the
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Messiah. Jesus rose from the grave because he was the
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Messiah. There's a world of difference between those two things. It wasn't, remember it said it in Psalm 16, he will not leave his
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Holy One in Sheol. Well, he didn't rise from the dead to become the
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Holy One. He arose from the dead because he was the Holy One. There's a world of difference between those two things.
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So God in his essential glory does not change, does not alter, is not affected.
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Does that mean that God doesn't have feelings in that sense of thought? Well, these certainly would appear to be feelings.
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Again, the problem is with us. We got some warped understanding of these things.
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Our understanding of these things and God's understanding of these things are in that sense worlds apart, right?
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I think we should be thankful that God has these. You ain't kidding. Emotions.
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Absolutely. On our behalf. Yeah. For our behalf. Sure, and Jesus went into the temple and they were what?
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They were selling in the temple and what did he do? He said he got angry and he drove them out, turned the tables over.
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Wasn't that a glorious thing? Yeah, and remember what his, the zeal of my father's house has eaten me up? Was he affected by that action?
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Yes. Did it alter him? Did it make him more zealous for the glory of God?
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No. He always, he was the son that always pleased the father. But in a manifest way, it was demonstrated that he was displeased and he was grieved and as I showed you that we can even find places where it says
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God is well pleased. You remember a couple weeks ago, I asked you this question. I said, does
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God have favorites? And we had some discussion around it and some thought about, well, maybe
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Moses was one of his favorites or maybe John, the apostle John. I mean, he was the one that laid on his breast.
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I mean, come on, John was, Jesus and John were tight. Does that mean
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Jesus and Peter weren't? I think it's more than just saying yes or no because I'm just as important as the apostle
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John in God's eyes, because I'm a son of God. Now, does that mean
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I might, I'm certainly not gonna have the same place as John in heaven, but that's by decree, right?
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I am loved with an eternal love. John was loved with an eternal love too. So all of us in Christ, in that sense, are all on the same level because the level we're on comes from being interdependent.
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Now, does that not mean that one servant could be in that sense, well -pleasing to God?
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Because you remember what it says in Thessalonians? It says, grieve not the Holy Spirit.
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And so there are ways for us, a disobedient child is a disobedient child to God.
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Same way in a family. It ought to be, you don't love your children more or less because of only what they do outwardly.
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You might be happier with one of them. It might be easier to bring one of them up, but you love them because they're what?
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They're your children, right? Now, again, in that essential way, you do not change or you ought not to change, but in a manifested way, if you have a rebellious kid, well, your actions would definitely not be the same as,
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I'll just say it, I have two daughters. One of them, all I had to say was boo and whatever
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I wanted, she did. And another one, I had to beat her every six seconds and then she still did whatever the heck she wanted to do anyway.
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Right? So essentially, I love them both because they're both my daughters that God has given both of them to me.
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In a manifested way, man, I'll take number one all day long. Did you raise my children?
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I'm telling you, me too. Right? And that's just the way it is. So again, from an essential standpoint, we ought not to change because we are those who are possessed by the spirit of God.
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The reality is we're full of this. God has these, if you will, feelings, but it doesn't alter who he is.
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And so as he says this, and again, in verse eight, listen,
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Job, your actions will affect others, but your actions do not make
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God bigger or smaller. Then he goes on, and we just have a minute or two.
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I'm watching out the window, baby, so if I see him, I'll let you know. He goes on and he says that, in verse eight, because of the multitude of the oppressions, they cry out and they cry out for help because of the arm of the mighty.
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So in other words, Job, you can't affect another person. Matter of fact, you do. Other people are affected by your actions.
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If you're mean, other people are hurt. And that's what he's talking about. He's talking about oppressing other people and they cry for help because of the arm of the almighty.
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But here's the thing, and this is an interesting verse, verse 10. No one says, where is God, my maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth.
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In other words, what I think he's saying is, listen, all of that is true, but even men who are oppressed by others, many times, they don't cry out to God.
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They cry out against men. In other words, the actions, the manifested actions of men affect other men.
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And many times, men, because they're affected, want that to go away. Like, if you're constantly being oppressed, you want the oppressor to leave, great, in whatever situation.
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If you got a ratty employer, you're usually not that upset if your employer gets fired.
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Like, you're out of here, right? But how many people would cry out to God against a mean employer?
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See, that's what I think he's saying here. He's saying that because men affect men, they cry out to men, but they really don't lift up their voice to God.
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And he says, in that sense, we really should, because in verse 11, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth that makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?
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And there they cry out, but he does not answer because of the pride of evil men. In other words, we being created,
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I think that's part of us being created in the image of God. There's Lindsay and Jamie and Maddie. That we are affected, but God isn't affected.
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Again, we could really spend some time on this whole chapter, and just let me just walk us really quick through the rest of it.
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So, surely, verse 13, surely God will not listen to empty talk, nor will the
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Almighty regard it. And although you say you do not see him, yet justice is before him. Think, in essence, what
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Elihu is saying. Listen, God, in his essential, he doesn't change.
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And God's doing right, Job, whether you understand it or not. And on top of it, not only whether you understand it or not, whether you agree with it.
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See, God never asked her. I always get, some people talk about God as if he's on the same level.
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You ever hear someone say, when I get to heaven, I'm gonna ask God a lot of questions? You ain't gonna say boo.
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Every knee's gonna bow. Me and the Lord, we gotta talk about some things, because I think some things have been unfair.
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Well, whoop -de -doo for you. Who are you, old man, to reply against God? Now that they formed, say to him, why have you made me thus?
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Again, we need to be careful how we manifest our
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Christianity. And in a sense, I think you can almost make that analogy.
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Once we are in Christ, will we ever be without Christ? Once we are saved, are we saved forever?
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Yep, faithful is he who began the work in us, who will what, continue it? Okay, does that mean that we should, like Paul says, should we sin that grace may abound?
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God forbid. So there is a manifested glory that we should seek to maintain. We should become more and more like Christ.
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But let's just say for a minute, we become, in that way, not more and more like Christ.
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Does God kick us out of his family? Is God chasing us? Do we find pleasure in it?
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If you find pleasure in displeasing God, then you're not a Christian because the whole essence of the new nature is we want to serve him.
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And even the sin we commit, it no longer has the same attraction that it did before, or at least it shouldn't.
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And again, all these things come into play. And so as, see, that's why
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I say Elihu has a lot better understanding of God than, because those friends, they kept saying,
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I almost said it the way I shouldn't have said it. You tick God off, you know what
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I was going to say, right? You can't say that in church. Yeah, but you get my point, right?
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You tick God off, and now you're getting what you deserve, Job. And then there's
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Job. It's like, I've done everything I'm supposed to do, and yet I'm still getting whacked.
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Couple more chapters of Elihu, and then we're going to see
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God enter into the picture. I can't wait to chapter 38, where it says, the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, you stand up,
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I'm going to question you. You imagine that, woo. Okay, let's close with a word.