Job 15

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

9 views

0 comments

00:00
there. And again, we haven't read this, so I'm going to read the whole chapter, and I think we can get through the whole chapter this morning.
00:07
Again, sometimes the chapter is a little slower than others, but this chapter follows, if you remember, just to bring us back up to where we were, that Job has spoken for the last three chapters and has given much in the way of his defense towards his friends.
00:29
And if you remember, the first round of speeches had stopped from Eliphaz and Bildad and Sophas, and this morning, again, we're going to meet
00:38
Eliphaz. Brother Lee and I were talking as he walked in, and he said,
00:44
Eliphaz this morning? And I said, yeah. And he said, Eliphaz is the gentlest of the three friends, and he is, but he's brutal.
00:51
I mean, like we've said, with friends like these, I'm not so sure we really have a need for an enemy.
00:59
But anyway, let's read the chapter, chapter 15, and then we'll discuss it a little bit.
01:05
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, should a wise man answer with empty knowledge and fill himself with the east wind?
01:15
Should he reason with unprofitable talk or by speeches which he can do no good? Yes, you cast off fear and you restrain prayer before God, for your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the craft that your own mouth condemns you and not
01:32
I. Yes, your own lips testify against you. Are you the first man who was born, or were you made before the hills?
01:41
Have you heard the counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know?
01:49
What do you understand that is not in us? Both the gray head and the aged are among us much older than your father, and the consolations, are the consolations of God too small for you?
02:02
And the words spoken gently with you, why does your heart carry you away?
02:08
And what do your eyes wink at? That you turn your spirit against God and let such words go out of your mouth?
02:16
What is man that he could be pure, and that he is born of a woman that he could be righteous?
02:23
If God puts no trust in his saints, and the heavens are not pure in his sight, how much less man who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water?
02:34
I will tell you, hear me, what I have seen I will declare, what wise men have told, not hiding anything received from their fathers, to whom alone the land was given, and no alien passed among them.
02:47
The wicked man rides in pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden from the oppressor.
02:55
Dreadful sounds are in his ears, and prosperity destroyer comes upon him. He does not believe that he will return from darkness, and he watches for the sword.
03:05
He wanders about for bread saying, where is it? He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand.
03:11
Trouble and anguish make him afraid, they overpower him like a king ready for battle. For he stretches out his hands against God, and acts defiantly against the
03:22
Almighty, running stubbornly against him with his strong embossed shield.
03:28
And though he has covered his face with his fatness, and made his waist heavy with fat, he dwells in desolate places, in houses which no one inhabits, which are destined to become ruins.
03:41
He will not be rich, nor will his wealth continue, nor will his possessions overspread the earth.
03:47
He will not depart from darkness, the flame will dry out his branches, and by the breath of his mouth he will go away.
03:55
Let him not trust in futile things deceiving himself, for futility will be his reward.
04:03
It will be accomplished before his time, and his branch will not be green. He will shake off his unripe grape like a vine, and cast off his blossom like an olive tree.
04:14
For the company of hypocrites will be barren, and fire will consume the temps of bribery, and they conceive trouble, and bring forth utility, and their womb prepares the seed.
04:28
Wow. What a friend. Yeah, what a friend is right. I mean, when you begin to think about, let me say this, and I was thinking about this a little bit this week.
04:41
I got to imagine that this little, not this little, but this conference between Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophaz, and Job, and whoever else is present, because again,
04:56
I was silent about if there's anybody else there, and maybe we could discuss that a little later on in the book, but this must have been a pretty energetic conversation, don't you think?
05:07
In other words, Job, I don't think Job defended himself in a monotone voice in a way that was very,
05:17
I think Job was rather animated, don't you? And I think his friends are very animated, and so I would think that this must have been, like I said, full of energy as they discussed these things, and I wouldn't even doubt that there was some voice raising along the way.
05:37
You ever notice that sometimes when you really want to make a point, you say it louder? I think we all probably have come to that at one point or another, where we're seeking to stress a point, and perhaps the person that we're stressing the point to doesn't seem to get it, and so what do we do many times?
05:55
We just get a little louder, as if the volume is definitely going to be the answer to it all.
06:01
So I would think, and I would hope you would think, that these conversations that are going back and forth, and it's written in a poetic form, and so we might think it's almost like theater, but this is real life, right?
06:13
These are real people speaking real things, and as we said,
06:18
Eliphaz has taken his turn early on in the chapters, and now he comes back for a second bite, and so here we go again, and he demonstrates that,
06:33
Job demonstrates that his suffering is in a way tormenting him, but at the same time, remember now, he doesn't lose his integrity.
06:47
Do you not remember, do we remember what was the thought of the evil one when he came up before God, when he was called by God to come up and to consider
06:58
Job, and you remember what he said, right? He said, well, if you take all that he has, he'll do what?
07:05
He'll curse you to your face. Well, guess what? Job has so far answered his friends, and Job has complained, and Job has said some rash things, not that any of us have ever said anything rash, but Job has done many of the things that come out of suffering, and anguish, and misunderstanding, but the one thing that Job has not done, nor will he do, is curse
07:31
God, and so even the, all the onslaughts of the evil one, all the onslaughts of his friends, all the maladies, and the suffering, and the physical, mental, all those things, all the memories of having lost children, and houses, and that has not brought
07:54
Job to the point where he cursed God, and that's where I think we need to rest in the fact that Job retains his integrity through this all, but nevertheless, as Eliphaz, the
08:07
Temanite, he comes back, and so again, I just want to look at some of these verses.
08:16
Let me just preface this, too. Great afflictions are not always a true indicator of great sin.
08:29
Let me say that again, make sure we understand that. Great afflictions are not always a true indicator of great sin, because many times, those who are very sinful live very prosperous lives, right?
08:49
They seem never to be in turmoil, and yet the opposite is also true.
08:55
Many of God's people who seek to live for him suffer some of the greatest anguishes that you can imagine.
09:06
I was reading this week a handbook of the Reformation, just because we're talking about the
09:13
Reformation, and it's a nice little, it's a fairly thick paperback, but it talks about all those people that were involved in the
09:20
Reformation, and certainly the ones that we know, Luther, and Calvin, and Zwingli, and Molokhtin, and a couple of others, but there was so many, and you just read how these people, and it talks a lot about the peasants, because they basically, it was either you were rich or you were poor.
09:40
There wasn't really a middle class, and how the rich suppressed the peasants, taxed them to death, and how the
09:50
Protestants, as they began to form in the Reformation, how they were persecuted predominantly by the
09:58
Catholic Church, and the civil government, because the Catholic Church at that time basically ruled in civil matters, and used the emperors and the kings to accomplish their deceitful purposes.
10:12
I didn't mean to get off on that too much. My point was some of those people suffered the worst lives possible, just having everything confiscated, being burned at the stake, being thrown and forgotten in prison, being tortured, being outcast, and so again, just as long as we keep that in mind as we go through this, that great afflictions do not always translate because of great sin, and so as Job begins, as Eliphaz begins to say these things, he's basically, let's just look at it.
10:47
We'll read the first four or five verses, and that's where I want to take it in groups. Eliphaz the
10:52
Temanite, he answered and said, should a wise man answer with empty knowledge? It's a great way to start.
10:59
Basically, he's calling her a bonehead. He don't know what he's talking about, and Job has spilled his heart, hasn't he?
11:08
That's what he says, empty knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind. There he is calling him a windbag again, and so should he reason with unprofitable talk or by speeches with which he can do no good?
11:23
Yep, you cast off fear, restrain prayer before God. So basically, everything that Job has said,
11:29
Eliphaz is now coming to him and saying, you know what? You're full of baloney, and you're just, you're so deceived,
11:38
Job. You're so twisted in your mind, and you won't listen to us, and this is the ongoing thing in the book, right?
11:46
Job's friends are trying to get Job to listen to them. Job is trying to get his friends to listen to him, and it's constant back and forth, and I want to read a comment that one of the commentators made at this point.
12:03
He says this, he says concerning Eliphaz, Eliphaz, not a little incensed that Job should pay no regard to his advice and should dare to challenge the
12:17
Almighty to argue the point with him, charges him with self -conceit in entertaining too high an opinion of his own knowledge, with arrogance in undervaluating the arguments drawn from their experience, whose age was a sufficient voucher of their wisdom, and with impiety in thus rudely challenging the
12:42
Almighty to answer for his conduct in afflicting him. He presses home the same argument a second time, to which he adds that of universal tradition.
12:53
In other words, what he's saying is, here comes Eliphaz again, and Eliphaz just can't see the forest to the trees concerning Job, and that he's going to continue along this path and accuse
13:06
Job of not only ignoring the counsel of them, but challenging
13:15
God, and we looked at that in chapter 13, where it would appear that Job places somewhat of a challenge before God, because you remember what he said?
13:25
He said, two things I ask of you, give me strength, and don't overpower me, and then remember what he said?
13:31
He said, I will speak, and you speak, and I'll answer you, and then he said, no, I'll speak, and you answer me, and so certainly this continues.
13:40
So he's really making quite a serious accusation against Job, and you cast off fear and restrain prayer before God.
13:52
How would we feel if we gave our testimony, or we gave our thoughts on how we came to Christ, came to know him, came to be one of his, and someone says, no, that's not right, you're lying, you're a windbag, you're just, how would we feel?
14:18
I mean, I would think in some ways your blood would start to get a little hot, wouldn't you?
14:24
And that's why I said, I don't think this is, I don't think this is just a couple of people sitting around a campfire eating a hot dog, having a conversation.
14:35
These are fighting words, absolutely, you're right, and he's the best of the three.
14:41
Wait till we get to the second speech of Bildad and Zophaz, and they just pile on, and here comes
14:47
Job, and he just continues on along. So he tells them, you're a windbag, your reason has no merit to it, because your reason went on a profitable talk, and you cast off fear in verse four, and you restrain prayer.
15:03
You basically tell him, you don't fear God, do you Job? Because if you feared God, Job, you wouldn't have said the things that you said, or you wouldn't have done the things that you do.
15:12
Again, he cannot, he has a presupposition in his mind, and he's not going to give up on that, and so his other friends, and then look at verse five.
15:23
He says this, your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
15:31
This is not the first time that he's called
15:38
Job crafty, and that word really means, he's really saying to Job, you really are a good liar.
15:44
You really are one who is very subtle. I want to show you where he says this, because again, he won't let go of these things.
15:53
If you flip back real quick to chapter five, when we looked at the first speech of Eliphaz, and look at what he says, he's not giving up on the idea that Job is a liar, a hypocrite, and deceitful, because in Job chapter five, verse 10, this is what
16:13
Eliphaz says, he says, he gives rain on the earth, sends water on the field, he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are listed in safety.
16:24
Now look at verse 12. He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot carry out their plans.
16:33
He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the cunning comes quickly upon him.
16:39
So again, he hasn't given up on this. Basically, he hasn't listened to Job. So he still calls him a windbag, still calls him one who doesn't fear
16:47
God, and now he again calls him deceitful and crafty, and then in verse six, he kind of looks at it and he says, you know what?
16:58
Your own mouth condemns you and not I, and your own lips testify against you.
17:04
Again, just won't listen, basically to a man who spilled his own heart.
17:13
And so this will continue as we go through these verses.
17:19
And then he says in verse seven, it's kind of interesting how he says this.
17:25
He says, are you the first man who was born? Again, he's trying to grind Job into the ground.
17:31
Are you the first man who was born, or were you made before the hills? Basically, he's saying,
17:36
Job, who do you think you are? Do you think that you're more important than God? Do you think you understand more than God?
17:42
You're not listening to us. And so do you think that God has shared with you something that he hasn't shared with us?
17:52
So were you there before the hills? Have you heard the counsel of God? In verse eight, do you limit wisdom to yourself?
18:03
And again, this is one of the things where his friends, supposed friends, think that they have the wisdom of God.
18:17
And their accusation to Job is, who do you think you are? Do you think you're smarter than us?
18:23
Do you think you're smarter than God? And you know what? There are people who think that they're, in a sense, can outfox
18:32
God. I was just thinking, I remember many, many years ago,
18:38
I was talking to someone when I was still in the Teamsters, and I remember this one guy, and he was yeah, he was pretty vulgar.
18:51
And he would always make fun of us for preaching the gospel and talking to people about Christ.
18:57
Anyway, one day he came up to me and he says, I want to ask you a question. I said, okay,
19:02
Frank. He said, can your God do everything? I said, yes.
19:08
He said, can your God make a rock so big that he can't pick it up? And he thought that he had confused
19:18
God. He thought that he had destroyed the integrity of the word of God by catching me in his own craftiness.
19:28
If your God is able to do everything, can he make a rock so big that he can't pick up? And so I remember that conversation and I remember telling him, my
19:36
God could do whatever he's pleased to do. But he thought he was crafty.
19:43
And so Eliphaz basically, in a sense, is accusing Job of, do you think you're wiser than God?
19:51
He's already said, you think you're wiser than me and the other two. So he says that, do you limit wisdom to yourself?
19:59
In verse nine, what do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not in us?
20:06
And this has been a continual sword fight, in a sense. Because if you remember how many times
20:12
Job has said to them, what you know, I know. I'm not inferior to you.
20:18
And Job's friends have said, what you know, we know. And we are not inferior to you.
20:23
Again, this is a, it's basically a, there's no winning in this thing.
20:29
And so these words, I'm not going to say that the friends weren't convicted, because they were convicted.
20:36
And I'm not going to say that they weren't sincere. But guess what? You and I could be sincerely wrong.
20:46
Sincerity is not the, is sincerity the proof of truth? No. You could be sincerely wrong.
20:53
I've done that many times. Me and Candy have been driving and I'll say, this is the way we need to go.
20:59
And she'll say, no, it isn't. And I'll say, yes, I'm sure of it. And guess what?
21:05
I come to find out I was sincerely wrong. But I was sincere about it.
21:12
I was, I was earnest about it. I had great conviction that to go down this road would be the right way.
21:19
It's almost like, you know, the commercials today where you throw the video, the flag for the instant replay.
21:26
And uh -oh, rut road. So, but in this thought, these friends and Joe, both are dueling back and forth on and on about who's smarter, who's wiser, who knows more than the other one.
21:46
What do you know that we don't know? What do you understand that's not in us? And then, and then start to think a little bit further what he says.
21:53
Um, and he says this, uh, verse 10.
21:59
Both the gray -haired and the aged are among us much older, paper, much older than your father.
22:07
Are the consolations of God too small for you? So now he brings in this thought of, and I've kind of thought about this and read a little bit about some maybe suspect that these friends were older than Job, had more years on them.
22:24
And so basically now he, Eliphaz is now turning and saying to them, hey, saying to Job, hey, you should listen to us because we're older than you.
22:35
And with, because we're older than you, we're smarter than you, we're wiser than you.
22:41
And again, um, the scriptures do say that wisdom comes with gray hair, right?
22:48
Um, but it also says that you could be a gray haired fool too at the same time.
22:53
So again, that's not a guarantee. I mean, you and I would think that someone who's been through life and a issues of life and as things change, um, and even physically, and you begin to look, um, there's a place, uh,
23:21
I remember there's a place in Bradenton and you might've not, it's called Piccadilly Cafeteria.
23:27
Yeah. Remember that restaurant? It was a, like a walk through, uh, pick up what you want as you're going.
23:32
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It used to be over there off of Commonwealth, right? Yeah. Um, and I remember when
23:39
I was working in Bradenton, the first time I went into that cafeteria to have some lunch and I looked around and I, and it must've been about 12 o 'clock.
23:47
And I'm going to tell you why now I know why they call Bradenton Q -tip city. Cause there, there, there wasn't a person in there.
23:58
I don't know what a in there underaged. They didn't have to prove anybody, prove anybody for what they wanted to, to get.
24:06
And so that's, and then I found out that's why they call it Q -tip city because at 12 o 'clock in the afternoon, all the gray hairs come out.
24:15
Um, I hope I'm not being too offensive, but, um,
24:21
I'm part of the group myself. So I feel comfortable saying that, but anyway, that's what they begin to say.
24:28
Okay. Both the gray head and the age of moments. And they say much older than your father or the constellations of God too small for you.
24:38
In other words, job, do you think that you can, um, in a sense become wiser than God are the words spoken gently with you?
24:52
Are you job? One who knows more than God? Does God answer to you job again?
25:01
Um, or you could even go all the way back and we'll see that as we move on in the chapter, he actually almost challenges job to think about Adam.
25:13
I remember in, in what we said in the beginning, I'm not sure exactly where job fits in chronologically in the history of the, of the
25:23
Bible. I do think that it's somewhere, as I said, right after the patriarchs, which would be
25:31
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. And again, some people think that Moses actually wrote the book.
25:39
Some people think Solomon wrote it. Some people think job wrote it. Some people think this, some people think that, but nevertheless, he's actually going to go back all the way there and challenge job.
25:50
But right now he's, he's basically saying to the, to him, Hey, listen, what you know, we know. And, uh, guess what?
25:57
We know we're not subservient to you. Matter of fact, um, we might even be wiser than you just by the mere fact of our age and, and has what
26:11
God said too small for you. And the word spoken gently, why does your heart, this is an interesting verse 12, right?
26:18
Why does your heart carry you away? And what do your eyes wink at?
26:24
Again, not very nice words to speak to job. Basically. Um, why are you getting upset job?
26:34
Are you, why is it in God? Does God answer to you again? It's the same thought. And we ought to be careful.
26:43
I think we need to be careful. In other words, Eliphaz is seeking to speak for God, isn't he?
26:50
That's what he's doing. And that's what the friends are doing. They're seeking to, to speak for God to job job in between that wants to do what he wants to speak directly to God because his friends are not really helping him.
27:07
Now, again, um, question, should we counsel one another? Should we admonish one another?
27:15
Should we encourage one another? Should we instruct one another? Yes. Should we do that as, as if we are above one another or that God has personally selected us to, to be the ones chosen to go around?
27:35
And have you not been in a church situation where someone comes just per venture on a
27:43
Sunday morning? We've had it happen here. And we've had it happen to many other churches. Someone will come in on a
27:49
Sunday morning and all of a sudden they'll, and many times they'll come to a Bible study. And that's because they think that that's the atmosphere, which they can begin to tell you what
28:01
God has revealed to them and that God wants them to give to us.
28:08
And you probably have memories of that. I have in a number of churches, me and Candy, both have experienced where people come in and they come in a very authoritative way.
28:18
Right. And it's almost as if they say, thus says the Lord. Right.
28:24
And, and, and they try to hide it by saying, we're just, we're looking to help.
28:31
We're looking to encourage. And they're really not. They're looking to command attention, almost like the, in a pharisaical way that you need to listen to me because I have what you need is that story.
28:51
And probably heard it before of one day in Spurgeon's church, some guy walked in and told
28:59
Spurgeon that Spurgeon should let him preach because God had given that man a message for Spurgeon's church.
29:08
And Spurgeon said, well, God might've gave you a message, but he didn't tell me. So you're not preaching.
29:14
So again, and that's the way it ought to be, but this, this conversation just continues to go downhill.
29:21
And so, um, why does your heart carry you away? Verse 12. Why do your eyes wink at that?
29:27
You turn your spirit against God and let such words go out of your mouth.
29:34
Verse 14 and 15 are interesting and 16 are interesting, not only for what they say, but for who is saying it, this is
29:42
Eliphaz, right? And he says this, what is man in verse 14, what is man that he could be pure.
29:49
And he who is born of a woman that he could be righteous. If God puts no trust in his saints and the heavens are not pure in his sight, how much less man who is abominable and filthy who drinks iniquity like water.
30:06
Is that a true statement? Yes. Right. What is he speaking about?
30:14
Human depravity, right? The, the reality that, that not even the heavens themselves are, are pure.
30:21
And this is not the first time or the last time we're going to hear this, but what I find really interesting is this is
30:27
Eliphaz. And to me, one or two things, or maybe both, he's seeking to instruct
30:36
Job. He's streaking, he's seeking to, if you will shut Job down and have
30:41
Job listen and then have Job repent. And then therefore, if he repents, God will bless him. And I find this amazing that Eliphaz says this, but does
30:53
Eliphaz realize this about himself? In other words, he's almost, he's almost as if he's detached from the very thing he's saying.
31:05
Eliphaz, do you not realize that your own words condemn you? Are you in that group,
31:13
Eliphaz? Are you the one who drinks iniquity like water? Do you dare to speak for God? And, and if you will,
31:20
I think his friends, and again, my thought, I think his friends in many ways are just prideful and a little bit arrogant and a little bit self -righteous.
31:38
And what is the reason for them coming against Job? Well, guess what? To them, his life is a mess, but their life, their life isn't a mess.
31:48
And again, we need to be careful. Remember what Jesus taught us, right? Be careful about trying to pull a splinter out of your neighbor's, out of your neighbor when you have a plank and that's the way it's set up, right?
32:05
It's not, you get this beam in your eye and you're trying to take out a splinter in someone else's eye.
32:11
Then he says, first take out the beam in your own eye, and then you'll be able to take out the splinter in someone else.
32:17
And again, should we make judgments? Should we admonish? Should we correct?
32:22
Should we instruct? Should we do all those one another's? Absolutely, but we need to do it in a sense of what?
32:29
Fear, in a sense of realization that, guess what? We're all made of dirt anyway, and from dust we all came, and thus we're all going to return.
32:39
And so as he says this, great deal of truth, Job has already said this, and that's why this thing goes back and forth.
32:45
Job already has made indications that he knows that man is not pure. And it's amazing how many people would argue about that, that not only is man abominable and filthy, and he drinks iniquity like water, but nothing, no one can be trusted but God.
33:08
Just think about that, friends. No one can be trusted. Who is of purer eyes than to behold evil?
33:15
God. Who is the holy, holy, holy one? God. Is there anyone like him?
33:21
No. Is there anyone equal to him? No. So when you think about it, and you think about what he's saying, it's just amazing to me that he would, in a sense, be so bold to do this.
33:38
I want to ask you to look at something, because just real quick, I want you to go back to Job chapter 4, and I want you to see something that Job is told by Eliphaz again.
33:53
Again, Eliphaz won't give up on his thoughts. You ever meet people like that, that you might talk to them, and they have one line of thought, and then you see them three months later, and guess what?
34:06
They still have the same line of thought. They still want to go back at it about the same thing. Look what he says in chapter 4 in verse 12, and this is
34:17
Eliphaz. He says, Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it in disquieting thoughts and visions of the night.
34:25
When deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me in trembling, which made all my bones shake.
34:31
And a spirit passed before my face, and the hair of my body stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance.
34:39
A form was before my eyes, and there was silence. And I heard a voice saying, and this is a dream or a vision or whatever way you want to understand it, of Eliphaz.
34:49
And he says this in verse 17, Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his maker?
34:58
If he puts no trust in his servants, and if he charges his angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth, they are broken in pieces from morning to evening.
35:15
They perish forever with no one requiring. Does not their own excellence go away?
35:21
They die even without wisdom. So again, Eliphaz has said this to Job before. And Job has, in a sense, sought to explain what's going on inside of him, and Eliphaz just comes right back to the same stuff.
35:39
And then in verse 17, we'll see if we can get through the rest of this, he says this. He says, I will tell you, this is
35:45
Eliphaz, I will tell you what I have seen, I will declare. Remember he had that dream in chapter four.
35:52
What wise men have told, not hiding anything received from their fathers, to whom alone the land was given.
36:00
That word land, in some of your translations probably says earth, because that's the word that's used many times for earth.
36:07
And I think what he's saying is that the reality is that God from the very beginning has given out wisdom to men.
36:18
And if you think about it, Job has had his life turned upside down.
36:29
And remember, it was the Sabians and the other marauders that came.
36:34
And what did they do to Job's land and his possessions? They took it away from him. And what he's saying,
36:40
I think in part what he's saying is what wise men have told, in other words, Job, consider those that went before you.
36:48
God put them in a place and God protected them. Well, Job, you haven't been protected, therefore, what?
36:56
It must be your fault. He keeps going back to that. It must be because you have sinned greatly and God protected his people in times past, but not you because, well, look at verse 20, that's what he says.
37:14
He says, the wicked man rides in his pain all day. What is he basically saying to Job?
37:20
You're wicked. You're a sinner. You're getting what you deserve. In another place, he says, you're getting less than you deserve.
37:28
Again, is he making himself the judge, the jury and the judge?
37:35
Who's the jury and the judge? God is. So you and I need to be careful to think this way.
37:42
And so the wicked man rides in pain all his days and the number of his years is hidden from the oppressor and dreadful sounds are in his ears.
37:51
In prosperity, the destroyer comes upon him. What is he saying? Job, you're getting what you deserve.
37:59
You're getting what you have sown and now you're reaping. And if you look at our life,
38:05
Job, we're not in the same situation that you're in. We have been blessed of God.
38:11
We've been protected by God. And again, if you would only listen to us,
38:17
Job, if you would only pay attention to us and things would get much better.
38:24
So verse 22, he does not believe that he will return from darkness and he watches for the sword.
38:33
He's talking about Job and he's saying, Job, you know, it's coming. You know, you're getting what you deserve.
38:39
You knew it for a while because you're a sinner and you try to hide your sin. And guess what?
38:45
Your sin will find you out. And he says in verse 23, speaking of that kind of a person, particularly
38:54
Job, he wanders about for bread saying, where is it? He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand.
39:02
Trouble and anguish make him afraid and they overpower him like a king ready for battle.
39:09
For, and this is the reason, he stretches out his hand against God and acts defiantly against the
39:16
Almighty. Again, what is he saying? He's saying to Job, Job, you are in great need to repent and we're here to help you to realize that and you haven't listened to us and you haven't listened to God.
39:40
And guess what? You're going to suffer the consequences. Now, is that a true statement?
39:47
That if we deny the truth of the word of God, do we suffer the consequences? Absolutely.
39:54
Is there anyone that can escape the judgment of God? No. And if you think about it, even in that sense, we must all appear before the judgment seat to give account of ourselves.
40:08
So even us who have been redeemed by the blood, we still have to give an account for what we've done, what we've done with our abilities, what we've done with our disabilities, what we've done with what
40:19
God has given us physically, what God has given us spiritually, what we've done concerning other people.
40:24
I mean, we're going. When we get before him, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.
40:33
And so he's basically saying to Job, your day's at hand, Job, and you have stretched out your hand against God, acted defiantly against the
40:43
Almighty. You, verse 26, you've been run stubbornly against him with his strong embossed shield.
40:50
And though he has, speaking of Job, he's kind of trying to make Job think that this is him.
40:56
And he says, though he has covered his face with his fatness and made his waist heavy with fat, he dwells in desolate city.
41:03
Again, Job, you used to have a lot. Job, you used to look a lot better. You used to prosper,
41:10
Job, now look at you. You're a mess. Well, you're a mess because you're a wicked person.
41:20
He dwells in desolate cities and houses which no one inhabits, which are destined to become ruins. And he says he will not be rich, nor will his wealth continue, nor will his possessions overspread the earth.
41:33
He will not depart from darkness. Again, he's just piling on, man. The flame will dry out his branches and the breath of his mouth will go away.
41:43
And let him not, here it goes again, let him not trust in futile things, deceiving himself, for futility will be his reward.
41:53
He'll be accomplished before his time and his branch will not be green. He will shake off the unripe grape like a vine, cast off the blossom like an olive tree.
42:04
And he ends, as we come to the end of this speech, the company of hypocrites.
42:10
There he is again, calling Job a hypocrite. Fire will consume the tents of bribery and they conceive trouble and bring forth futility and their womb prepares the seed.
42:21
So as we finish this, and then chapter 16, now Job's going to come and respond to that. And Job's going to have some things to say about that and himself, but this will continue on and on until we get further on in the book.
42:36
And there are some interesting things that come up, but then remember Elihu comes in, in chapter 32,
42:43
I think. Yeah, it's chapter 32. And he brings a different message to Job.
42:49
And it's closer to being the truth, but nevertheless, it's still lax.
42:56
And then as we get towards the end of the book in chapter 38, that's when God comes and God clears the deck.
43:06
Whenever God comes, he clears the deck. So we'll just keep that in mind. And then as the book closes, of course,
43:12
Job is vindicated and Job's friends have to ask Job to pray for them because they've sinned in many ways.
43:24
And so Job finds his, in a sense, his vindication after God comes.
43:30
All right, let's just close the word prayer. Our Father in God, thank you for this time.
43:36
Thank you for who you are, for who we are. Thank you for your truth, Lord. And may we be those who are sincere in our hearts, honest before you, honest before men.