Job Chapter 15-16: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. In this series, 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 15 and 16. Now, here's Pastor David.

Let's dig in. First quickly, Pastor David, you're the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you. Verse 7, are you the first man who was born or were you made before the hills? I probably want to skip verses more than I ever have. So he continues.

He's just brutal. heard the counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not in us?

Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us much older than your father. Are the consolations of God too small for you and the word spoken gently with you? Why does your heart carry you away? And what do your eyes wink at that you turn your spirit against God and let such words go out of your mouth? What is man that he could be pure and he who is born of a woman that he could be righteous? If God puts no trust in the Saints and the heavens are not pure in his sight, how much less man who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water?

If you ever want to feel bad or you're trying to chop somebody up, you can get some pointers in here. I don't think that's the intent of the Scriptures. I will tell you hear me what I have seen.

I will declare any continues. But here's the thing. What I find with most of us is that we miss a lot of opportunities to encourage, to comfort, and to share because we're too busy trying to appear spiritual that we won't hesitate to wound people or think about now is this dripping with grace and mercy?

Now here's the life lesson. God rarely leads us to condemn other believers. So they thought they had a spiritual reason for being ugly, unloving and so unkind. And yet the Bible tells us over and over and over and over to be loving.

So next time you think you have a reason to be unloving towards the money, stop and ponder and pray. Let's read on. Verse 18, 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? UFOs? No, it's not UFOs. That's talking about it like a stranger alien.

Let's read on. Verse 20, the wicked man writhes in pain all his days. The number of years is hidden from the oppressor. Dreadful sounds are in his ears and prosperity, the destroyer comes upon him. He does not believe that he will return from darkness for a sword is waiting for him.

He wanders about for bread saying, where is it? He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand. Trouble and anguish make him afraid.

They overpower him like a king ready for battle. For he stretches out his hand against God and acts defiantly against the Almighty, running stubbornly against him with a strong and boss shield. Though he has covered his face with his fatness and made his waist heavy with fat, he dwells in desolate cities and houses which no one inhabits, which are destined to become ruins. He will not be rich, nor will his wealth continue, nor will his possessions overspread the earth. Now we know that Eliphaz is a false prophet because Job ends up to be twice as blessed in the end as he was in the beginning. Verse 30, he will not depart from darkness. The flame will dry out his branches, and by the breath of his mouth, he will go away. Let him not trust in futile things deceiving himself, for futility will be his reward. Now, see, that's a biblical truth, but it has nothing to do with Job. Verse 32, 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. Those are bad things, causing him to be unfruitful. For the company of hypocrites will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery. They conceive trouble and bring forth futility. Their womb prepares deceit. Chapter 16, then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are you all. This is one of the first times Job is standing up. Job understands these people should be comforting me.

Those three friends didn't have a clue. And what's supposed to happen is when we sense somebody's hurt or weak or vulnerable or trouble, we're supposed to comfort them spiritually. But our flesh, the old selfish nature, would want to take advantage of that. Verse 3, shall words of wind have an end or what provokes you that you answer? Since we have such a glorious opportunity out in front of us because of the times, we have in front of us one of the greatest ministry opportunities of the last 2,000 years. People are hungry. People are wondering.

They're fed up with the fake, and they want something real. And the bridge is as real as it gets because we keep pointing back to the Word and about Jesus, amen? Give Him some praise. Praise God. And so, we think about that, and we look in here, and this has to be one of the greatest examples of missed ministry opportunities in all of the Bible.

Hopefully, the biggest one we will ever see, meaning we don't see it in our own lives, that we don't miss that opportunity. 2 Corinthians 1, verses 3 through 5 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. If you've been through something, you're uniquely qualified to help somebody that's in the middle of that. If you have had children that died, you're uniquely qualified to minister to my brother. If you've been through the death of a brother or sister at an early age, you're uniquely qualified to minister to somebody else like that. Why did Job's friends fail so miserably?

I mean, they were just on the opposite end. And here's the life lesson. Job's friends failed because they were supposed to be on a mission of comforting, and they took on the ministry of judgment and condemnation.

Let me read that again. Job's friends failed because they were supposed to be on a mission of comforting, and they took on the ministry of judgment and condemnation. What mission are you on? Are you on a mission of evangelism? Are you on a mission of judgment and condemnation?

You know, you can always look at somebody, and if you look close enough, long enough, you'll find something that's wrong with them, and then you can feel better about mistakes that you've made. That's not the way God wants it. As a matter of fact, Romans Chapter 2, and there's some ministries out there that say, well, you got to talk about hell for at least 10 minutes before you can talk about heaven. You know, there's some times when you should talk about hell, and I'm not afraid to talk about hell. Jesus wasn't afraid to talk about it. You know, you don't have to mention hell every time you're talking to somebody about salvation. I've done a lot of street ministry, and you know what? Most people out there partying on the street, they know they're on their way to hell. I don't have to run up to them, you're going to hell.

They go, yeah, I know. Tell me something I don't know. Romans 2, 4 says, don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can you see that His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? Or, in the New King James, or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? It's interesting we don't usually include verse 5, but let me include it. Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

But in accordance with your hardness, in your impenitent heart, you're treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation with the righteous judgment of God. Our words are powerful. I have shared things that caused somebody to respond to the Spirit, and them get saved. Words are powerful.

When they prayed, what did they use? They used words. The Bible says, power of life and death is in the power of the tongue.

It certainly is. And I honestly believe that this whole church, including myself, that we can do a lot better with what we say, and we can do a lot better with what we don't say, meaning there's things that we should say that we don't. There's things that we shouldn't say that we do. Now, if you're counting on God to help you and you're willing to be honest, say, Amen. Amen.

Praise God. Notice I said, including me. We're living in times that are changing, and we don't change the core, but we have to realize things are going on around us. The enemy is trying to stir everybody. If you've ever had a complaining thought, then the enemy is dead on you about complaining 24-7. If you've ever had a rebellious thought, the enemy is trying to stir up some sort of just hatred towards me or another leader. That's the enemy stirring stuff up. Here's the life lesson. Our words are supposed to comfort, to minister, to encourage, and sometimes to challenge, but our words are to always point to God.

Say that again. Our words are supposed to comfort, to minister, to encourage, and sometimes to challenge, but our words are always point to God. We see it mishandled here. Every one of us has mishandled words. Let me go through some verses, and I want to encourage you. If you take a notice, jot these down to look at later. 1 Timothy 5.13 says, if they are on the list, they will learn to be lazy and will spend their time gossiping from house to house, meddling in other people's business, and talking about things they shouldn't.

It's talking about younger widows, but talking about yakking. 1 Timothy 6, verse 20. Old Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust. Avoid the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge by professing its sum of straight concerning the faith. Grace be with you.

Amen. Or in the New Living translation, Timothy, guard what God has entrusted to you. Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge. Some people wandered from the faith by following such foolishness.

May God's grace be with you all. Wow. Did you hear the godless, foolish discussions of people opposing the leader, and then people wander off from the faith because of that? There's a reason this stuff is in the Bible.

It's interesting. 2 Timothy 2.15. I'm not being diligent. A lot of us know that scripture. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

But some of us don't know where it goes after that. 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. A worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, verse 16 and 17, continue and say, but shun profane and idle avalings for they will increase to more ungodliness and their message will spread like cancer. Hemeneus and Phileas are of this sort. Or, new living translation, avoid worthless foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior. This kind of talk spreads like cancer as in the case of Hemenius and Phileas.

Titus chapter 1 verse 10 and 11. For there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. They must be silenced because they are turning whole families away from the truth by their false teaching.

They do it only for money. Matthew 12 says this, but I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words, you will be justified and by your words, you will be condemned.

But let me minister to you and really help you because there's something that we read that verse and we don't hear. The one word that's really important. But I say to you that for every idle word, men may speak, they will give account of it. Not every word. You won't give an account of every word.

You'll give an account of every idle word. Idle word like they're not doing something. Exactly. Like they're supposed to be doing something. Exactly. Your words are supposed to be doing something. If they do, then you'll be rewarded as a servant.

But if your words are tearing down and they're crushing and all these things, or if they're idle, you have to give an account. Somebody needs to pray for Job's friends because with idle words, they got some serious judgment coming on, don't they? When people, two friends greet, a lot of times they hug, but sometimes they shake hands. And people say, well, where did the handshake come from? And some people say, well, the handshake came from when people were traveling and roads were dangerous and nobody ever knew if, you know, your friend or foe. So the extension of the hand was saying, I don't have a weapon and I'm safe. Anybody ever hear that?

There's a bunch of problems with that. You feel safe because somebody is outstretched. They could easily be hiding a sword in their left.

You shouldn't feel safe just because somebody's got a hand outstretched. So that's not it. What is it? Well, this is interesting.

Now, I wish I could go deeper, but I can't with this. But the way that you spell handshake in the Hebrew, the way that you would say it, this is the way that you would spell in Hebrew, the handshake. The yod and this is a vav, okay?

Yod, vav. That's the way you spell handshake. What's interesting, not handshake, hand, hand. This is a yod and the hand is called a yod and then the vav, okay? So this is hand. If I want to spell a word for friend, it's two hands together. This is a hand, this is a friend. You'll see pictures of the brotherhood or a friend that has two hands, like this. It means friendship. Hand, hand, friend. There's a reason for that because when we join hands together, we are friends and we can accomplish so much more than we can separately. We've already accomplished so much more than we think about.

Is there something spiritually, supernaturally that we can know or understand that will help us in our relationships with one another? Absolutely. Part of this is real easy. One of the stories that Jesus told was parable of the sower. In Mark chapter 4 verse 14, it says, the sower sows the word. In Luke chapter 8 verse 11, Jesus tells us when he's explaining the parable, he says, now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. And then verse 11 entwists it, now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who's here.

Then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. The word is the seed. A better job description, if you would, is that I am the seed man. I'm the scatter and seed. Every time you come in here, I'm scatter and seed. Peter talks about the word being the incorruptible seed, the living God. Every time, seed, seed, seed, seed, seed. I go online, seed, seed, seed, seed. I go on a team, I talk about scripture, seed, seed, seed. We do the teaching, seed, seed, seed, scripture, scripture. The enemy wants to take the seed out of your life. If every time you see me, I'm casting seed into your life, guess what the enemy wants for your life? He doesn't want me in it. You just said that you know more about the Bible than Jesus since you met me. You think the enemy knows that? Do you often feel the enemy encouraging you in your relationship with your senior pastor? No, that's not you.

Here's what I know. Some of you have had really, really weird thoughts, you know, like, oh, I should just smash his car. And it was just a fleeting thought. It's not anything you planned.

If you're planning something, let us know. And you thought, oh, it wasn't that. It was the enemy.

It was the enemy. You know, you're online and, oh, you ought to go. Just, you'll post an honor and say, but share about the problems you've been having. You think that's God? Here's a life lesson that I really think every person should write down. Every person that calls this their church room or calls me their pastor, you should write this one down. Here's the life lesson. Every demon in hell wants you to hate me, hate my kids, hate my family, hate this church, and hate this ministry. The enemy wants you to be ungrateful and unthankful for what God has done in your life through me, through this church, and through the people in this church. I signed up for it. You need to have some knowledge that the enemy is trying to be at work here.

He would miss a huge opportunity. The word's not just kind of sliding under the door here. It's going out here. It's going out locally.

It's going out across the United States and all around the world. So people are getting saved and the angels are singing and the enemy's mad. God is doing something. I mentioned all that God had done here.

That's not me. I was born a deaf mute. To me, there's a pretty significant wall in trying to develop spiritual pride because I couldn't talk and I couldn't hear when he got his hands on me. So every time I talk and I listen, I know that's God.

He's already done so much here. I prayed for years for God to raise up a ministry in the triad that would teach word by word, verse by verse. And some of you may not be aware, we started as a Calvary Chapel. We were the fifth Calvary Chapel that started here in the triad. Four others started and quit.

Some of them went as long as seven years, but nobody ever got over like 50 people. There's a thing about the right time, right place, right man. There's a combination and God just does what he does, but I know that we have certainly been blessed. There's no doubt in my mind about that. And we should be thankful. And I certainly am thankful. Let's read verse 5, that I would strengthen you with my mouth and the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.

Job is saying what he would do. Though I speak, my grief is not relieved. And if I remain silent, how am I eased? But now he's worn me out.

You've made desolate all my company. You've shriveled me up. And as a witness against me, my leanness rises up against me and bears witness to my face. He tears me in his wrath and hates me and gnashes at me with his teeth.

I'm not sure he's speaking of Eliphaz in this next statement. He says, my adversary sharpens his gaze on me. And then verse 10, they gape at me with their mouth.

They strike me reproachfully on the cheek. They gather together against me. God has delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over to the hands of the wicked.

Those are his friends. I was at ease, but he has shattered me. He has also taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces and he set me up for his target. His archers surround me. He pierces my heart and does not pity. He pours out my gall on the ground. He breaks me with wound upon wound.

He runs at me like a warrior. I have sown sackcloth over my skin and laid my head in the dust and my face is flushed from weeping and on my eyelids is the shadow of death. All the low violence is in my hands and my prayer is pure. All earth, do not cover my blood. There was the Hebrew thought that when blood was spilt that it cried out, that it was unrequited, unresolved. I think there's probably something to that. And when you consider how much blood we've shed with abortions, innocent blood crying out from the ground for justice, people can be forgiven for that.

But a government that says that's OK, a government that allows people to sell murdered body parts, there is something really, really wrong with that government. And let my cry have no resting place. Surely even now, my witnesses in heaven and my evidence is on high, my friends scorn me, my eyes pour out tears to God. Oh, that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleads for his neighbor. That's sad. Oh, that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleads for his neighbor.

Job is wishing he had intercessors for friends. But when a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return. Let me share a couple of verses and then we're going to close. 1 Corinthians 13, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels that have not love, I've become sounding brass or clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, though I have all things so that I could remove mountains but have not love, I'm nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself.

It's not puffed up. Does not behave rudely. Does not seek its own. Does not provoke. Thinks no evil. Does not rejoice in iniquity. But rejoices in the truth.

Love bears all things. Love believes all things. Believes the best of people. Love hopes all things. Love endures all things. And verse 8 says, love never fails. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three.

But the greatest thesis love. Here's an interesting question in the close. Satan wipes out his resources, his businesses, his buildings, wipes out his kids, taxes, health. Why were the friends left? If the enemy was wiping out everything, why leave the wife? Why leave the friends? And why did God not mention the friends?

These are some things for you to ponder. I think it's safe to say they did not appreciate or value their relationship with Job. They weren't thankful.

They weren't grateful. I'm not sure I'm thankful enough for all that God has done. And I know I'm not grateful enough. Let's pray. God, thank you for this word tonight.

God, help us to be grateful. When we look through this book, God, we can see you in the midst of this book. 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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