Job Chapter 41-42: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. 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 the concluding chapters in the Book of Job.

Now, here's Pastor David. We usually do one chapter a night, but I think that the way it's laid out, what we're going to do is cover the two chapters tonight and next time we get together, because the chapter we're in tonight is talking all about the Leviathan. And it's interesting, fascinating, but we also have Job coming to this incredible revelation.

So there's some incredibly deep things happening that relate to us. Turn with me to Job chapter 41. One, can you draw out Leviathan with a hook or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? Can you put a reed through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you?

There is such intrigue in this mystery, in this chapter, and yet we could spend six hours talking about this beast, trying to figure out what it is or even who it is. And yet that really won't help us, spiritually speaking. Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever? Verse five, will you play with him as with a bird or will you leash him for your maidens? Will your companions make a banquet of him? Will they apportion him among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

That's where it sounds like a whale or something. Lay your hand on him, remember the battle, never do it again. Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false. Shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him?

This is a huge being. No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand against me? God switches gear and he says, you know what? I created this thing.

I control it. So how do you compare to me, Joe? Anything that we compare ourselves to God over shows our weaknesses and our frailties. So verse 10, no one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has preceded me that I should pay him?

Everything under heaven is mine. Verse 12 says, I will not conceal his limbs, his mighty power or his graceful proportions. Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle?

Who can open the doors of his face with his terrible teeth all around? His rows of scales are his pride, shut up tightly as with a seal. One is so near another that no air can come between them, speaking about his teeth. They are joined one to another.

They stick together and cannot be parted. His sneezings flash forth light and his eyelids are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lights, sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke goes out of his nostrils as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals and a flame goes out of his mouth. Strength dwells in his neck and sorrow dances before him. The folds of his flesh are joined together. They are firm on him and cannot be moved.

Here's an interesting one. Verse 24. His heart is as hard as stone, even as hard as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid.

Because of his crashings, they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail, nor does spear, dart or javelin. He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee. Sling stones become like stubble to him.

Darts are regarded as straw. He laughs at the threat of javelins. His undersides are like sharp potsherds.

Those are like pieces of pottery that are broken. He spreads pointed marks in the mire. He makes the deep boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. He leaves a shining weight behind him.

One would think the deep had white hair. On earth there is nothing like him which is made without fear. He beholds every high thing.

He is king over all the children of pride. You know what? I don't know what it is, but I don't want to see it. Amen?

I don't want to hang out with this creature. The very first that sounds interesting, the second half sounds ominous. And why in the middle of it does it speak of the heart being hard?

Because it's one of our biggest enemies, our hardness of heart. I'll spend more time with this another time, but I was rereading the parable of the sower. It's interesting that on one of them it says that they are offended and the seed withers. The seed is the word of God. When you get offended, you can wither the seed of God. If you get hard-hearted, you can wither that seed. But it says then these were dried up because they had no root in themselves. Now when you first read that, the seed is talking about the word of God, so you might assume that the root is talking about the word of God. But is it?

No. How do we know? Well, in part because of Ephesians 3 that says we're rooted what? Rooted and grounded in love. If you have the word of God without love, it's not going to get you very far. If you have the word of God and the love of God, incredible things happen. Okay, how do we get the love of God? Well, how can we get into this covenant relationship with God? First of all, let's realize God has already done everything needed and necessary to be our Messiah, our Goel, our kinsman redeemer. He's already done everything.

He doesn't have to do anything else. Isaiah 118, come now and let us reason together says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. They are red like crimson. They shall be as wool. And remember Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10. For by grace you've been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in Him. So He's already done His part. So what's our part? Is it to obey the Ten Commandments, to keep the Ten Commandments?

No, it's not yet. Number two here, anyone who accepts the covenant and its conditions gains all its blessings. We say it again, anyone who accepts the covenant and its conditions gains all of the blessings. Where do we find the conditions for this covenant? All over the New Testament. John 1 12, but as many as received Him, who's it speaking about? Jesus. As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.

Let me help you. I know the Pope sometimes says we're all children of God, we're not. It's unbiblical. In John 8, Jesus is talking to some very religious people, but He says you are of your Father, the devil. And then we have John 1 12 that says we need to believe and receive Jesus in order to become children of God. So we're not all children of God. Those who believe in Jesus become children of God. We were all created by God, but we're not all children of God. That's why we're adopted.

If we were all children of God, how could we be adopted? 1 John, again, verses that we've memorized, 1 John 1 8 9 10. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. Then we have Galatians 3 14 that says that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, non-Jewish people, in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Point number three here is the covenant offered brings with it blessings that are only available to those who accept, receive, and believe the covenant.

Let me say it again. The covenant offered brings with it blessings that are only available to those who accept, receive, and believe the covenant. You're not just automatically in the covenant.

You have to make a choice. Once you make those choices, you are in covenant with God, an unbreakable promise. John chapter 3 verse 3 says, So Jesus is the one that came up with that phrase, born again, right there in John 3. Later in the chapter, he says, He says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever, whoever believes, whatever you're a Muslim, and then you believe in Jesus, then you'll get everlasting life. Not as a Muslim, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And the Quran says that anybody that says God has a son is an infidel.

So you can choose, but you can't be both. Even though 300 American pastors have signed an agreement that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is also the God of Islam. 300 American pastors. They've even got a new name for it. Chrislam, it's the merging of Christianity and Islam.

Isn't that special? John 3 16, For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And then Romans chapter 10, verse 9 and 10, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has risen from the dead, you will be saved. For the heart one believes unto righteousness while the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

And then again, Romans 10 13, And who can do this? John 3 16, 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. We've been talking about spirit, soul, body. The moment we're born again, our spirit is pure cleansed.

But our soul is that part of us that begins to be sanctified. We begin to make choices. We choose. God says choose life, death, blessings, cursing. And so we begin to make choices.

And is there a theme to these choices? Yeah, because Jesus laid it out. Love God, love people.

So if we're making choices, we always want to refer back to that. Well, how does this love God, love people? You know, I feel like holding unforgiveness against somebody. Well, how does that fit love God, love people? It doesn't.

Well, then I have to forgive them. Exactly. So we continue to grow.

This is important, gang, that you understand this. Because if we're not being intentional in our spiritual growth, like we've been talking about lately, that drift sets in. It takes you to places you don't want to be. So how do we continue to grow? Somebody prays for us and touches us and poof, we grow. Sometimes, but more often than not, we read the Word, we pray, and then we come to a cross in the road where we must choose. God's way or our way?

Faith or feelings? To love or to hate? And gang, when I say hate, keep in mind, I use that phrase as a biblical hate. In other words, anything under perfect biblical love is hate. I know like we go, well, I don't hate them. Well, do you love them unconditionally? No, then you hate them. Pretty much. It's kind of either or. And even if you think they're your enemy, you're not off the hook about loving them because Jesus said, you got to love your enemies.

Now, it's sad that might describe somebody in your family, but so be it, you know? Here's a life lesson. We are to continue to grow in our faith as we choose God's way over our own way. We choose God's love over our hate, apathy, or indifference. We choose God's forgiveness over our unforgiveness.

You say those three things again. We choose God's way over our own way. It's not enough just to know what to do, gang. You have to do it. You have to make the choice. We choose God's way over our own way.

That's how we grow. We choose God's love over our hate, apathy, not caring, or indifference. I do believe that militant Islam is a big issue.

I don't think it's the biggest in this country. I think the biggest issue in this country is believers not walking as believers, Christians not living it out. And I know sometimes we blow it. I'm not talking about you living a perfect life. When you blow it, apologize.

Ask forgiveness. Now, here's an interesting one. As I was driving over here earlier, you may have seen some of the construction they have going on in Kernersville and putting in a grocery store and whatnot over there about Burger King and stuff. And they're tearing down trees and moving our earth.

And it wasn't there a couple of days ago, but they have made like this huge dirt mountain, a man-made mountain. I tell you what, before I go there, let's look at Job 42. Now, we're going to go ahead and read part of the next chapter. Job 42 one, Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. You ask, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak. You said, I will question you and you shall answer me.

I have heard you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. And therefore, I behore myself and repent in dust and ashes. And so it was after the Lord had spoken these words to Job that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, my wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

Verse eight, now therefore take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams. Go to my servant Job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. So they messed up, they sinned. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly. So God can deal with us according to our folly, or He can deal with us according to His forgiveness. Do you want God dealing with you according to your folly or according to His forgiveness? His forgiveness.

It always tickles me when people say, I just want what's right, I want what's mine, I want what's coming. No, you don't. You want mercy and grace. I want what I deserve. Really, seriously? Hell, death, and destruction, that's what you deserve, man.

No, no, no, no. Give me grace and mercy, lest I deal with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of me what is right. They misrepresented God, and He was upset. He called it sin. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shoahite and Zophar the Namathite, these are the three supposed friends of Job, went and did as the Lord commanded them, for the Lord had accepted Job, and the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends.

Huge. Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. The Lord restored Job when he prayed for his friends. What if he hadn't prayed for his friends?

I'm not sure he'd have been restored. And what about his friends? God said, you need Job to pray for you. There's a verse that people love to use it about finances, but I don't think it's about finance at all.

I mean, you can use it for that, but I don't think that's the context. Mark 11 23 says, For verily I say unto you, that whosoever, we got that word again, remember, whosoever believeth on God can be saved, can be a child of God, but once you're a whosoever, there's other things that apply to you. Whosoever believeth in Jesus can be a child of God.

Are you a whosoever? Thank you. For verily I say to you, that whosoever shall see unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he said shall come to pass, he shall have whatever he wants. And we stop there. See, you can have whatever you want. You can have a Lamborghini, you can have a Cadillac, you can, is that what it's talking about? You could stretch it to go there, but what is the context?

You might be surprised. Let's read on verse 24. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Praise God, that's the Lamborghini. Now wait a minute, we still haven't got to the context.

Now people use that for money, they use it for cars, whatever. What's the context? Let's keep reading. Verse 25. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any, that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. If we take it at the main and plain, that mountain looks like unforgiveness in context.

But it says, if you say to that mountain, be gone, and you believe and don't doubt, it'll be gone. That describes the forgiveness pattern when you've been wounded deeply. When somebody has really done you wrong and wounded you deeply, you don't want to forgive them. There is something about the wounding. Part of it is we think if we forgive them, we're saying that what they did was okay. You're not saying that.

As a matter of fact, something far from it. You're saying, you know what, Jesus died for me, but He also died for you, and He died for that sin, and so I can forgive you. It spoke of the hardness of the heart in this chapter, and it reminds me that Jesus said, when they asked Him, they said, what about divorce?

And Jesus said, it was for your hardness of hearts that God came up with that. I just wonder if there's anybody in here that's been through the pain of a divorce who's not completely forgiven their spouse. Is there unforgiveness towards a parent?

Is there unforgiveness towards somebody in the fellowship? It's interesting that God never answered Joe. He never gave him answers or understanding. He reminded him he was God, and He reminded him he needed to forgive his friends. In order for them to be restored, in order for Job to be restored, he had to pray. Matthew 16, 26, it says, for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? That's countered by what God gave. What will man give? What did God give? John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him, as though so ever, should not perish but have everlasting life. We're going to dig next time we're together, but we're coming to a key here.

It's probably not the key you think it is, but it's much better. The whole point of this whole thing was that Job would not forgive his friends. It would not be restored. That he would curse God and not have fellowship with God. Job 2, 4, so Satan answered the Lord and said, skin for skin, yes, all that a man has, he will give for his life.

Man will do anything just to keep his life. That was his goal with Job, but that's not what Job did. Job forgave. Job prayed for these friends that had wounded him. Job was healed.

Choose life that you and your children can live. You've been listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge Weekend Edition. Tune in again tomorrow afternoon as Pastor David continues teaching on most stations. If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern time, or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern time? Just visit 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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