Job Chapter 19-20:ALL

Welcome to Cross the Bridge But right now open your Bible to the Old Testament Book of Job and follow along for today's teaching. In this series of special weekend edition programs, Pastor David has been teaching lessons from the life of Job. Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible.

We are finding out that what needed to be learned back then still needs to be learned by us today as we continue studying chapters 19 and 20. Now here's Pastor David. Let me read these first six verses to you. In Job 19, it says, Then Job spoke again, How long will you torture me? How long will you try to crush me with your words? You've already insulted me ten times. You should be ashamed of treating me so badly. Even if I have sinned, that is my concern. Not yours.

You think you're better than I am. Using my humiliation is evidence of my sin, but it is God who has wronged me, capturing me and his net. Now, it's both a life lesson and a Bible study tip that Job keeps repeating bad theology. He said the Lord gives and the Lord has taken my things away.

I was wrong. The Lord had given those things and the enemy, we plainly see, was the one that took the things from him. So here's the life lesson. The reality is that when Job was blaming God, God protected Job and God had a hedge of protection around Job.

It was the enemy who was attacking Job. We never know what God is protecting us from. When we get in a traffic jam sometimes, God is protecting us from an accident that's up in front of us. 2 Timothy 3.16-17.

All Scripture is given by inspiration. God is profitable for doctrine. That's for what's right. For reproof, that's what's not right. For correction, to get right. And the instruction in righteousness, to stay right. So it tells you what's right, what's not right, how to get right, and how to stay right. The Bible.

Amen. That's all Scripture. So that includes the book of Job here. So here's the Bible study tip. The Bible reports on many events that people did that the Bible is not condoning or approving of. David's marriages and Solomon's wives.

They did it and both of them paid a price for it too. God doesn't approve that. In the Old Testament, the enemy had to come to God and say, God, I'd like to mess with this person. And God would either say, no, or he would say, a little bit. He never, never let the enemy bear down on any believer.

Let's understand that. Here's the life lesson. In the Old Testament, the enemy had to ask permission to do anything to a believer. In the Old Testament, the enemy had to ask permission to do anything to a believer. Next life lesson.

Here's what's interesting. In the New Testament, under the New Covenant, the enemy doesn't get to even ask to do anything. You see it again in the New Testament, under the New Covenant, the enemy doesn't get to even ask to do anything. Amen. Praise God. That's a good thing.

Amen. You've got to get this clear game because some of you think God has done things to you that he didn't do to you. And you should be mad at the enemy if you're going to be mad at somebody. That's just an act of God.

It's interesting that a government that will not recognize God will call something bad that happens an act of God. Let's understand something. And these two friends that sat with Joe missed this. And it's like torture to me to read this.

It's slamming over and over and over. And here's the thing. I know there's several life lessons tonight, but there's a lot of important stuff in these two chapters.

Here's the next life lesson. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation. We're joining two separate people together. Reconciling. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation.

That's what it's supposed to be about. We don't have the ministry of condemnation. Amen. We've got reconciliation. God loves you. He came here. He died for you so that you could be forgiven. If you turn to him and away from running your own life and away from sin, he's there.

He loves you. There's a million steps between you and God. And God's already taken 999,999 of them and he leaves the last one up to you. And if you're an unbeliever and these days recognize that first of all you will go through the seven year tribulation as an unbeliever and the enemy has full access to you. And yet you're still gambling with 95% of what you don't know.

Those are bad odds. Romans 5 and 11 says, And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we've now received the reconciliation. We're in the New Living Translation.

It says, So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us, listen to this, friends of God. Jesus dying for us in access to forgiveness has made us friends of God. Friends of God. Let's say that out loud. Friends of God.

Wow. That's what Jesus did. Romans 5 and 9 says, Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Job in here speaks of God's wrath being against him. In chapter 19 verse 11 he says, He's also kindled his wrath against me. No he hasn't. And God will never exercise his wrath against a believer.

Why? Because he's already poured out his wrath on Jesus in our place. And that includes the tribulation. The tribulation is to punish unbelievers and the wicked and to drive the Jewish people back to God. And to drive from some loose fence sitters back to God.

But it's not for us. First Thessalonians 5 and 9 says, For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. First Thessalonians 1 and 10, And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

You know it's interesting. It says, Jesus will protect us from the wrath to come. The Jewish people understood what Paul was saying completely. That we were all going to miss out on the seven year tribulation. How do we know that? That's First Thessalonians.

We have a Second Thessalonians and nowhere in Second Thessalonians does Paul say, Oh yeah, he asked me a bunch of questions about how we're escaping wrath or how Jesus is getting us out of wrath or what that coming together, dwelling together, that end-gathering is. No. No questions. Why? They understood it.

Wow. Well, it ties back into Judaicah, but I tell you what, let me simplify it for you. There's a picture of Jesus coming forward with the bride of Christ. That's the church, okay?

You know, with us and with the Jewish people, marriage and wedding is a very sacred time. Can you imagine Jesus saying, okay, I love you. You're the bride of Christ and I'm going to put you into the worst hell on earth that it's ever known where my daddy's going to pour out all his wrath on you. We'll see you in seven years.

Happy honeymoon. If it doesn't make sense in the natural and you wouldn't do it, you can be pretty sure God wouldn't do it. Be my bride of Christ, go into the wrath. And I could sit here and talk about how we know it's a pre-tribulation rapture. There's a new book with 271 pages of reasons why the Bible points out that it's a pre-tribulation rapture.

And I'll give you little pieces of the book, but it's really conclusive. We had a call yesterday, called in and said, well, what do you do if our pastor said there's no such thing as a rapture? And the next thing that's coming is people are going to say there's no such thing as the second coming either.

As a matter of fact, they're already starting to say that. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 16, it talks about these things and it describes them. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. And here it describes the coming together. It says, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Hallelujah.

That's the front. Praise God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. And Paul says, hey, and be encouraged.

Encourage each other when you think about these things. That God's going to pull you out and not have the wrath poured on you. Praise God. Now I could go on several verses, but Job, he spoke of the wrath of God being poured on him. He was wrong.

And people who think the wrath is going to be poured on them in the tribulation, if they're a believer, they're wrong. Verse 17, he says, my breath is offensive to my wife. I'm repulsive to the children of my own body. Gang, it's hard when a couple has a child that dies.

It's very hard. We've been involved with a good bit of a tragedy here. Funerals for a three-year-old, a five-year-old, a seven-year-old, a funeral for three people, a family. DA and I helped a family that the father had killed the mother and the seven-year-old had seen it.

And he went down the street and hung himself. We ministered to that family. And it's tough. And a lot of times those folks don't stay with us, even if they were here before, because sometimes we remind them. Because we reached out in the middle of the tragedy, we somehow remind them of the tragedy.

It makes it a little more difficult to come back. Then again, some people stay in the middle of it and work through it. And because of the power of God, we can. Years ago, I went down to a leaders' conference in Florida, Merritt Island. I was also sharing music down there. And so they were kind enough to put some of us up. And so they found a family that said we could stay there.

So me and another guy that I knew stayed with them. So the first night, we're talking to them. And she says, hey, we need to get together and talk. And I was like, uh-oh.

Either we've already done something wrong or we're going over the rules of the house. And she said, you're probably going to hear this from somebody else, so I feel like I should tell you. She said a few months ago, we were here and a man came in to rob us and had a knife and stabbed both of us repeatedly. And we recovered in the hospital. But while we were in the hospital, we were made aware that our daughter had apparently pulled up to the house during this and the man had attacked her. And she did not survive. And she was a young person. She actually helped out the sound in the church. So this precious lady's telling me this.

This is the house. It had been just months before. And they never caught the guy.

They had 48 hours on it and all sorts of stuff. And I asked the obvious question. I said, why didn't you guys move? And she said, God chose me to go through this trial. I'll not run from him. Friend, if ever you're in a moment like that, God will give you the strength.

God will give you the comfort. You know what's awesome? We go to the conference. A friend of mine, John Corson, awesome teacher. He's taught here before. He's been through some things. And John, his daughter had just been killed in a car wreck.

In the same intersection, his wife had been killed. When John did the funeral, when he did the funeral for his daughter, he was given her to Jesus. It was like a marriage ceremony.

It's hard to describe. But that had just happened. And I sat there and I watched as this couple began to talk to John. And they prayed and then they wandered off.

And they were gone for a few hours. And then Pastor Chuck remarked, he said, you know, you can wonder about how God allowed these things or you can be amazed at how he takes somebody from Oregon who suffered a loss and puts them together with somebody in Florida that suffers a loss so they can comfort each other. That is the goodness of God. Amen.

Praise God. Pray for people who have kids that pass away. It's hard. My brother had two daughters and one died when she was 18 months. The other died when she was 23. They got divorced and he's remarried.

But it's hard because of the blame game. And here's the interesting thing in the next life lesson. In the midst of Job's pain, God is using Job more than he could ever imagine. Here we are, three, four thousand years later, maybe 3500 might be closer, and we're reading this book. Oh, that my words were written.

Oh, that they were inscribed in a book. In the midst of Job's pain, God is using him. We never know how God is using us when we're in pain, but I can guarantee you somebody is watching and somebody is learning. And in that verse, my Redeemer lives.

Your Redeemer lives. 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.

That's 94253 to receive a short encouraging text from us each day. And now, back to the teaching. Your Redeemer lives. Jesus is alive.

There's a reason when we wear crosses, Jesus is not on it, because Jesus is not still on the cross. Amen. Praise God. My Redeemer lives. My Redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth. Hebrews 7 25 says this, Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever lives to make intercession for them. Ever lives to make intercession for them. Tonight he is at the throne room of God to make intercession for us.

Why? Because we're friends of God. So when we sin, God says, You're forgiven. Turns to the Father, they're forgiven.

I'm interceding on their behalf. And it's a legal thing. We cannot be charged or punished twice for the same crime. We're standing in court. We're guilty. It's a life sentence.

And Jesus comes up and says, You know what? I'll do the time. Let them free. That's what he did.

I'll do the time. Set them free. No greater love. So don't blame God for something the enemy has done in your life. And he probably has done things in your life that you're blaming God for. The next life lesson is you have been given supernatural spiritual power and authority. You have been given supernatural spiritual power and authority. Luke 10 17 says, Then the 70 are eternal joys, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Praise God. If you know Jesus, your name is written in heaven. Thank you, Lord.

That's something to rejoice over. So let's understand. You are a spirit. You have a soul and you live in a body. Before you were saved, if you've asked God to forgive you, your spirit was unregenerated. But when you got saved, you were born again and began a special relationship with God. Your sins didn't go unpunished.

Jesus suffered for your sins. So that means it's done. The punishment's over.

There's no more punishment. You don't have to earn anything from God. Now, because he's done all that, we love him and we follow him. In the New Living Translation, Hebrews 7.25 says, Therefore he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him.

He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. Man, that's good. Praise God. You have supernatural power. You are a spirit.

You have a soul. You live in a body. Your soul, your spirit should exercise control over your soul and body. Unfortunately, a lot of times our body exercises authority over our soul and our spirit. It's backwards.

It's not the way it's supposed to work and it gets you in a lot of trouble. If we listen to everything our body says, that'd be bad. We want to listen to everything the Holy Spirit says. When we were saved, our spirit was born again. And so we want to put our spirit in charge, if you will, and make good decisions. And now that you know Jesus, you have the ability and the authority to do just that. You've actually got ability and authority over these bad spiritual powers, the enemy and demons.

You have authority over them. Ephesians 4.27 says, Don't give place to the devil. Ephesians 6.10 says, Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

James 4.7, Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. It doesn't say, Sit down and have a conversation with him. It doesn't say, What's your name, spirit?

It doesn't tell you to do that. It says, Submit to God knows the first thing. How do you submit to God? Submit to God? Submit to his word? Submit to whatever leadership God has placed in your life?

No, we hate that. But that's the flesh. Our flesh doesn't want to submit to leadership.

But we grow as we do that. It's interesting, James 4.7, he continues on, he says, Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. You're getting on with it, aren't you? James is a pretty intense book. If you've read it, it's intense because of who James is writing to. He's actually writing to the Jewish people.

Don't look at me with that tone of voice. It's in the Bible. It didn't make that up. Where does it say that? It's in the Bible, is it? James 1.1 says, James, the bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.

Greetings to the what? Twelve what? Tribes. Whose twelve tribes? Twelve tribes of Israel. And that's not plain enough. In James 1.1, New Living Translation says, This letter is from James, the slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am writing to the twelve tribes.

It's pretty plain, isn't it? But all Scripture, remember? So we can benefit from reading James.

Why? Because it's all Scripture that we benefit from. Praise God. And let's remember in Job 42.7, and we're coming down to a close here, but James 42.7, in chapter 42. Hey gang, I would encourage you, go ahead and read the whole book of Job so that you know how it ends.

And then we'll come back and study it because here's the thing. In Job 42, the last chapter, it says, 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. He gave Job some mercy because of what ought to happen, but he came down hard on his friends.

Why? They were misrepresenting God. Don't misrepresent God.

If God has forgiven somebody, don't call that what he has called clean, unclean. And so gang, let your spirit receive the word. Do things that will plant good seeds. Remember Galatians 5 and 6?

Planting good seeds. Those who plant of the spirit will reap of the spirit. And then your spirit exercises control over your soul and your body.

Speak to your soul. That may have freaked some of you out, but the psalmist did that in Psalm 103 too. It says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

Actually, it's a great little passage. It goes on, it says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mountains with good things so that your use is renewed like the eagle's. Praise God. That's in the Old Testament right there. It's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. And I want to share a closing verse that's a challenge. Philippians chapter 4 verse 8. God has blessed us and forgiven us and blessed our kids and he's been better to us than we've been to ourselves. Now some of you may have had challenges and even attacks and you're thinking it was the Lord and it wasn't. You've got to wipe the windshield because you think that it was God who did that. You're afraid he might do that again.

The fear has got to go. Philippians 4 verse 8 says this, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of a good report, or if there's any virtue, or if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Meditation, incidentally, is biblical. The New Age people stole it from us. We had it first.

It was in the Bible 3,000 years ago. Meditate on the good things. Well, what things? Whatever things are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, good report. Well, I'm not sure what that is in my life.

If you're not sure what that is, then I can tell you one thing it is every time. That's Jesus. Jesus is true and noble and just and pure and lovely and of a good report. So think about Jesus and his goodness.

Think about the fact that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Let's go to prayer. Lord, we invite your Holy Spirit into this place and ask you, God, to do a work. Lord, we open our hearts.

We open our minds to you. If there's anybody here that's not been filled with the Spirit, you've never asked God to fill you with the Spirit, or you need a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, I'm going to ask you to come on up. Let's have the elders come out, too, and the elders begin to pray for those people and pray that God would fill them with the Holy Spirit.

God said that if you ask for bread, he won't give you a stone. How much more would the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for him? So you need to ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you. And also, from time to time, you need to ask him again to fill you because the Bible says be filled with the Spirit. Be constantly filled with the Spirit.

So come on. If you want to be filled with the Spirit, come on. Maybe it's been too long since you've been filled with the Spirit. And there's a power in agreeing with prayer. If you need prayer for a physical healing, come on up. The Bible says that if there's any sick among you, bring out the elders who will anoint them with oil and pray for the sick so that God will heal them. We're not just praying for people and rehearsing what's wrong with them. We're praying that God would do the miraculous and would heal them. We believe God for it. We've seen it before.

We'll see it again. You may be a testimony of God's miraculous healing. So if you need healing, come forward.

If you're unable physically to come forward and you want somebody to come to you, let us know. Let's just stay in prayer. Lord, we thank you for what you're doing right now. You're drawing us closer to you. You're filling people with the Holy Spirit. And Lord, I want to pray for anybody in here that thinks you did something that the enemy did. Maybe it was a betrayal from a friend, some tragic accident, and God will protect you far more than what you ever go through. You've been listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge Weekend Edition.

Tune in again next Saturday afternoon at 4.30 Eastern and 1.30 Pacific Time as Pastor David continues teaching Lessons from the Life of Job on most radio stations. Friends, God loves you and wants you to experience His peace, forgiveness, and life. The Bible says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. How do you receive this gift of everlasting life from God? First, acknowledge you're a sinner in need of forgiveness. Believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and died for you on the cross, taking your sin upon Himself to provide forgiveness for you.

Then ask for Him to enter your heart in life, turning away from your sins, that is, your own selfish desires, and then open your heart to follow God's plan for your life. You can start your new life by praying something like this from your heart. Dear Jesus, I believe that you died for me that I could be forgiven. I believe you are resurrected that I could have a new life. Lord, I have done wrong things and I am sorry.

Please forgive me for all of those things and please give me the power to live for you the rest of my life. In Jesus' name, amen. My friend, if you prayed that prayer today for the first time or are coming back to God after wandering away, please let us know. Email PastorDavid at CrossTheBridge.com and share your good news. That's a great first step to growing in your new faith. We'd love to email you back some more ways to continue in this wonderful adventure of faith.

Remember that you are not alone and you are loved. Also, don't forget to visit CrossTheBridge.com to discover more resources provided at no charge to help you learn more about the Bible. If you'd like to help us share God's Word with others, please click on the donate button and support this program with your regular gifts. And tune in to Cross the Bridge weekend editions each Saturday and Sunday on this station or on the CrossTheBridge.com website. God bless you and have a great day!