Job Chapter 27-28:ALL

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee, Weekend Edition. Pastor David McGee is internationally recognized for his unique conversational verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter teaching through the Word of God. We have hundreds of his teachings through the many books of the Bible and encourage you to visit crossthebridge.com to study the scriptures along with Pastor David. But right now, open your Bible to the Old Testament Book of Job and follow along for today's teaching. Pastor David has been teaching practical lessons from the life of Job.

We are finding out that what needed to be learned back then still needs to be learned today. I think you'll find that to be true today and tomorrow as we take a closer look at chapters 27 and 28. Now, here's Pastor David. Thank you for this evening. Lord, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for a place that proclaims your Word, teaches your Word, and seeks to live by your Word.

Lord, as these gray areas are disappearing, God help us to continue to hold on to what's right and what's pure and what's true. And no matter how unpopular it may be to proclaim your Word or biblical marriage or creation or any of the other discussions, God help us to stand on your Word. Lord, that whenever you appear, we're ready and we will hear that awesome, awesome thanks from you of well done, thou good and faithful servant. Lord, help us to follow you and help us to serve when we don't feel like it, to pour out when we feel drained, to tell others about your goodness when maybe it's inconvenient or we're concerned about being rejected. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to evangelize, something we will not get to do in heaven.

We won't be able to invite people to church in heaven. So God, may we enjoy those things now here before this life as a blade of grass withers and passes by. God, may we stand on your Word, which stands true forever. We ask that you would open our hearts to your Word and open your Word to our hearts in Jesus' name. And everybody said amen, amen, praise God. Turn with me to Job chapter 27.

So we're looking at the life of Job. It's the oldest book in the Bible. It surprises some people because it's kind of in the middle of the Hebrew Scriptures, but it's older than the Pentateuch.

You know, it covers a portion of time that's after the start of Genesis, obviously. And we need to always remember these meetings with God and the enemy that Job and his friends were not part of. So we talked about how something can happen, something bad can happen.

And we think, oh, God is speaking to us through this. Now be careful about that. Or why did God do that bad thing to me?

Be careful with that. Of course, why did God do that bad thing to that person? Oh, something bad happened to them. They must be a bad person. Interestingly enough, do you know what we talk about spirits? So body, you know what part of your makeup probably comes up with that? Your body.

What's wrong with that person? You don't come up with that spiritually. The spiritual statement would be, oh, what's wrong with that person?

How can we help? When it comes to why do bad things happen? And do bad things happen to bad people? Do bad things happen to good people? Well, biblically, let's understand that none of us are good.

None of us are perfect. We live in a fallen world. We're born into a fallen world. We're born as a fallen sinner into a fallen world.

And then we expect nothing to go wrong. Like we're in heaven. We're not in heaven yet.

If you're taking notes, jot that one down. We're not in heaven yet. So challenges happen. Let's look at Job. And what we'll do here is we'll read through the two chapters and then come back and comment. Job chapter 27 verse 1. Moreover, Job continued his discourse and said, as God lives, who has taken away my justice, and the Almighty who has made my soul bitter. See, again, we know from the Bible that it's the enemy that has done these things. And Job keeps making the mistake of, well, God did this and so therefore, when something bad happens, friend, don't assume that God did that.

He may have obviously allowed it, but there's a big difference between causing that with the intent to harm you and God being able to take something bad and get something good out of it. Verse 3. As long as my breath is in me and the breath of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

Far be it from me that I should say you are right. Till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live.

May my enemy be like the wicked and he who rises up against me like the unrighteous. For what is the hope of the hypocrite? Boy, that's a great question. What's the hope? What is the hope of the atheist? There is no hope. That's why so many atheists commit suicide.

There's no hope there. Though he may gain much if God takes away his life. Verse 9. Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? When the unbeliever hits trouble, he doesn't have God as a recourse.

God will hear the prayer of him asking to be forgiven. But let's remember with the unbeliever, there's a big void. There's a canyon there of the sin that's not dealt with. And for us to have a relationship with God, that has to be dealt with. Now Jesus dealt with it. God did his part, but we have to accept it and become his child.

According to John chapter 1 verse 12, that as many as believed in him, he gave the right to become children of God. Go back to verse 9. Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call on God? I will teach you about the hand of God. What is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

Surely all of you have seen it. Why then do you behave with complete nonsense? That's a great question.

I have to remember that quote. Why then do you behave with complete nonsense? That's a great spiritual question, isn't it? This is the portion of a wicked man with God and the heritage of oppressors received from the Almighty.

If the children are multiplied, it is for the sword. And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. Those who survive him shall be buried in death.

Notice this. And their widows shall not weep. So Job is talking about the judgment that's on the unbeliever, the unrighteous.

And then he goes into some of these prosperity things and issues. Verse 16, though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up clothing like clay, he may pile it up, but the just will wear it. Somebody else will wear it. And the innocent will divide the silver. How do we get ready for what's coming? We know from the Bible what it says about what's coming. We don't know when it's coming, the tribulation and these things, or the time of trouble leading up to the tribulation. How do we get ready for that? Well, God tells us about these things so we can get ready.

And I want to point out something. There is wisdom in being prepared. You should have a few days of food and perhaps a generator. Depending if you've got somebody with health issues in the house, you might want to pray about a generator. Have food.

I think FEMA says three to five days. Water and food that's not going to rot in your fridge if the power goes up. But nowhere does it say that when these things start to happen, Jesus said unto them, freak out and buy 14 years worth of food and go hide in a cave.

That's not in there. Be careful about giving away your peace. If you give away your peace and you become fearful, you can be manipulated.

Don't do that. That's why the enemy wants you to be fearful. That's why the enemy wants to cause fear in your life. And when you think about the end times and whatever's coming, may I suggest the words of Jesus.

When you see these things start to happen, look up. Your redemption is close. Focus on Jesus. Amen. Praise God. Focus on Jesus.

Praise God. And look, if you're post-tribulationist, I'll explain it on the way up before the tribulation to you. But even then, if you're post-tribulation, don't focus on the tribulation. Focus on the rapture because that's the highlight of the seven years. And incidentally, we're told to look for Jesus in mid-trib, post-trib. The Antichrist shows up before Jesus.

It's an important point. I wish there was a book that explained it all. Oh, wait.

The editor laughs out loud from the first trial. Praise God. I appreciate all the people that helped out. Neil played a big part in my life and Lauren and Randy. Actually, a lot of people got in on it, so thanks.

Thanks so much for everybody who helped. Like, everything around here is a team effort. So let's go back. Verse 16, though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up clothing like clay, he may pile it up, but the just will wear it and the innocent will divide the silver. He builds his house like a moth.

It's a weird thing to say. He builds a temporary shelter, not a home like bait. It's interesting, in the Hebrew, the word, the second letter of the alphabet, bait, is also the word for temple, which is bait. That's why whenever you see a synagogue or a temple, it's bait Israel or bait Hallel or something like that.

What's interesting is the word for house or home in Hebrew. It's bait. I thought you said the word for temple was bait.

Yeah, I did. Well, which is it? It's both. You spell it like Beth, but it's almost close to bait. So that's the word for temple. That's the word for house, because the temple you're supposed to fill at home at wherever you go to worship, but your house and home should also be a place of worship.

Amen? He builds his house like a moth, verse 18, like a booth, which a watchman makes. The rich man will lie down, but not be gathered up. He opens his eyes and he is no more. Terrors overtake him like a flood. A tempest steals him away in the night. The east wind carries him away and he is gone. It sweeps him out of his place. It hurls against him and does not spare. He flees desperately from its power. Men shall clap their hands at him and shall hiss him out of his place. Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined.

This is now in chapter 28, verse 2. Iron is taken from the earth and copper is smelted from ore. Man puts an end to darkness and searches every recess for ore in the darkness and the shadow of death. He breaks open a shaft away from people. In places forgotten by feet, they hang far away from men.

They swing to and fro. As for the earth, from it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire. Its stones are the source of sapphires and it contains gold dust. That path no bird knows, nor has the falcon's eye seen it.

He's being somewhat philosophical, so I'm going to roll with it for the moment. Verse 7. That path no bird knows, nor has the falcon's eye seen it.

The proud lions have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed over it. He puts his hand on the flint. He overturns the mountains at the roots. He cuts out channels in the rocks and his eyes see every precious thing.

He damns up the stream from trickling. What is hidden, he brings forth to light. Verse 12. But where can wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.

The deep says it is not in me and the sea says it is not with me. It cannot be purchased for gold, nor can silver be weighed for its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir and precious onyx or sapphire. Neither gold nor crystal can equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or quartz, for the price of wisdom is above rupees.

The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. Verse 20. From where then does wisdom come and where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air.

Destruction and death say we have had a report about it with our ears. God understands its way and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees under the whole heavens to establish a weight for the wind and apportion the waters by measure.

He tones the waves how far to go. Verse 26. When he made a law for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt.

What an awesome description of God. He made law for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt. Then he saw wisdom and declared it.

He prepared it, indeed he searched it out. And to man he said, behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding. It doesn't say and to depart from wisdom is understanding. It doesn't say and to depart from the truth is understanding. To depart from evil is understanding. To cling to the truth is good.

Boy, a lot of stuff in here. Pastor David will be back in less than one minute as he continues teaching in the book of Job. A great way to start out each day is with a practical email devotional every morning from Pastor David. Visit crossthebridge.com to start receiving yours for free. If you have a cell phone you can also text the word encourage to 94253 to receive a short encouraging text from us each day.

That's 94253. And now back to the teaching. First, let me bring up something. We're told in the Bible that God has not given us a spirit of fear. It's interesting that it uses that term spirit of fear. So is there some demon that's responsible for fear?

No, they all use it. But it is interesting, spirit of fear. And he says it's not God. So when you feel fear or anxiety, that's not the Lord. Now when you get fearful again, like I said earlier, you can be manipulated even if you're fearful about something good. You shouldn't say fearful about your kids. You shouldn't be fearful about your kid. You should be concerned about your children. You should be loving and prayerful about your children. But if you're fearful about your children, the enemy will manipulate you. If you begin to think, oh, there's something wrong with my child. Maybe he's got some disease. You know what?

Instead of going to church, I'm just going to take him to get ice cream tonight because we don't know how long he has. Quick, it gets weird. These chapters speak of several issues, several things. One of them that we see playing out with Job and his friends is they're condemning Job and he hasn't done anything. And that's one of the things we're supposed to be learning is not to condemn someone that hasn't done anything wrong. Do we do that?

Yeah, we do. Now, two of the things the Bible brings out is to love unconditionally. God wants to teach us to do that. And God also wants to teach us to honor and obey and even be loyal to authority.

He talks about that a lot. And it's interesting that in thinking about the veterans that came up, that honor and that courage, here's the first life lesson. To be fully blessed, love unconditionally and honor authority. In order to be fully blessed, love unconditionally and honor authority.

Now, when we say love people unconditionally, Jesus said to love our enemies, but let's not start there. Love your spouse. And when I say love, I mean the commitment. I don't mean the feeling. Sometimes we redefine love as a feeling.

Love is an act of the will. When somebody says to somebody, oh, oh, I don't love you anymore after 10 years. What they probably mean is I don't feel love at this moment and I'm going to be ruled by my emotions and not God's word and say to you, instead of loving you unconditionally, to say to you in a hurtful fashion, I don't love you anymore.

I'm leaving you. That's hurtful. It's meant to be hurtful.

When somebody leaves, it is meant to be hurtful. Another one group to love unconditionally is your family. To love your family unconditionally. And the third one, your spiritual family. So the people that you should love unconditionally are your spouse, your family and your spiritual family. We can see that from the Bible. Now, yeah, we could go on to the enemies and all that stuff, but there's a two-way relationship here with your spouse, with your family, with your spiritual family, and something will happen to test all of those.

Now, I guess first of the list, we should put God. Love God unconditionally. Now, we don't think of loving God unconditionally because God's perfect, but our perspective of God is not always perfect.

So anytime you think God's done something to hurt you, love him unconditionally. Love your spouse unconditionally. Love your family unconditionally. Love your spiritual family unconditionally.

And something will happen to test all of those relationships to see how committed you are. The Bible tells us to honor certain groups of people. It's mentioned in this verse about integrity and honor. We are to honor authority.

Now, with the government, we may come to a period where civil disobedience is called for. They told me tomorrow, you cannot proclaim the name of Jesus. You all better just go ahead and get a bail fund for Pastor David because he's going to declare the name of Jesus. Amen?

So it's okay. Is it time to do the civil? It's not time yet. Is that time coming?

It could be. I know who's going to make the world right. Amen? But I want to bring up six groups that the Bible says to honor. And if you honor these six people or six groups of people, you will be blessed.

And I know we don't talk about this very often here, but you also prosper. Now don't freak out and think that's a dirty word. That's a word from the Bible. How you can walk in the fullness of your blessings. We don't talk about it a lot here.

We certainly don't talk about it all the time. We're not a word faith church, but here's an issue that is biblical that we want to walk in the fullness of what God has for us. So these six areas are first, honor God, honor God, honor your parents, honor your spouse, your wife, honor your spiritual leaders, honor your employer or boss and honor government leaders. I didn't ask you if you felt like honoring any of those or if any of those groups had earned your honor. We're to honor those groups because the Bible specifically says to honor those groups and uses that word honor. Now it's not hard to figure out where to honor God.

And you may think, oh, he's going to the Ten Commandments because those, you know, no image, no gods before me. No, actually where the Bible talks about honoring God, Proverbs 3 5 tells us to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. And a few verses later in chapter 3 of Proverbs, verse 9 and 10, it says, honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase.

The writer of Proverbs doesn't stop there. He says, honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase. And just like Malachi when it talks about giving and tithing says there's a benefit, verse 10 says, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. We don't want to present you give to get.

Maybe we do. I don't, you know, I said that, but that's exactly what the verse does. So, I mean, it tells you if you honor with the first fruits that God will bless you. So your motive in giving shouldn't be to get. It should be because you've already been blessed, but there's a blessing in that obedience. The second one, honor your parents unless you were raised in a dysfunctional family. That's not what it says.

We were all raised in a dysfunctional family. Exodus chapter 20, verse 12 in the 10 commandments, it says, honor your father and your mother. But look at this again, that your days may be long upon the land. Again, it presents your blessing in the obedience that your days may be long upon the land, which the Lord your God has given you. And then in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 1, it says, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. It doesn't say honor them if they deserved it. It doesn't say honor them as long as they're loving and kind and the mother and the father they should be or could be. It doesn't matter if your parent has looked at you and said, I'm no longer your mother or I'm no longer your father. That still does not release you from honoring them.

There is no release from honoring your parents and there's no age. Ephesians 6, 1 and 3, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. So the 10 commandments, that's the first one that says, if you do it, you get this. Remember what it says, Exodus 20, 12, honor your father and mother that your days may be long upon the land.

Ephesians calls that a promise and then Ephesians goes on, verse 3, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. We're to honor our spouse. Now it's kind of interesting because men were told to love our wives but our wives are told to honor or respect us. Men and women are different and if the Bible tells us to do that, it's for a reason. One possible reason is that love is one of the foremost things for a woman and respect and honor are one of the foremost things for men. Now ladies, if you apply the biblical principles as you honor your husband, what you're going to find is that he's much more loving.

And guys, if you're more loving, your wives will honor you more. crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There you will experience a live service from David's home church, The Bridge in North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com.

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