Job Chapter 21-22: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 21 and 22. Now, here's Pastor David.

We're going two chapters at a sitting. So here's Job. And God says Job's a good guy. And then Satan comes and wants to mess with Job. And God gives him permission somewhat. So then the enemy goes after Job himself. But God says you can affect him, but you can't take his life. God is protecting Job from the enemy. And it's the enemy who's doing these things. Now, let's do a read through here. Job chapter 21, verse 1.

Incidentally, Zophar had a chapter just slammed him. Job, he'll go for a little while and just kind of yank him. And then he'll just be this diamond, this lightning bolt. Then Job answered and said, listen carefully to my speech and let this be your consolation. Bear with me that I may speak. And after I've spoken, keep mocking. As for me, is my complaint against man?

And if it were, why should I not be impatient? Look in me and being astonished. Put your hand over your mouth. Even when I remember, I'm terrified. And trembling takes hold of my flesh. Verse 7, why do the wicked live and become old? Yes, become mighty in power. Their descendants are established with them in their sight and their offspring before their eyes.

Their houses are safe from fear. And neither is the rod of God upon them. Here's the life lesson. Whatever we fear besides God opens us up to spiritual confusion, bad decisions, and speech.

Now, let's go ahead and read through, and I want to come back because there's a point I want to linger on a little bit. Chapter 21, verse 10. Who is the almighty that we should serve him? And what profit do we have if we pray to him? There is much reward in serving God. And there is untold riches in praying to God. I'm not talking about material. I'm talking about the things that really matter.

Love, joy, peace. Verse 16, indeed their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me. How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their destruction come upon them? The sorrows God distributes in his anger.

They are like straw before the wind and like chaff that a storm carries away. They say God lays up one iniquity for his children. Let him recompense him that he may know it. Let his eyes see his destruction and let him drink of the wrath of the almighty. Understand wrath is a very unique term. God poured his wrath that we deserved out on his son. So our punishment, it's not like our sins went unpunished. No, no, there was great punishment for our sins, but it wasn't on us.

It was on Jesus. For the unbeliever, he still has the wrath hanging over his head. And when this world goes into the tribulation, I believe very firmly the Bible teaches that there will be the rapture. We'll be in heaven for the seven year tribulation and return with Jesus in his second coming. And that's when he sits his feet down on the Mount of Olives and we will be with him. And the seven year God will be pouring his wrath out on the unbeliever. God cannot pour his wrath out on the believer because he's already poured it out on his son to pour it out twice. It'd be injustice and even we recognize it.

It's called double jeopardy. Verse 21. For what does he care about his household after him when the number of his months is cut in half?

Can anyone teach God knowledge since he judges those on high? One dies in his full strength, being holy at ease and secure. His pails are full of milk and the marrow of his bones is moist. Another dies in the bitterness of his soul, never having eaten with pleasure. And they both lie down alike in the dust and the worms cover them.

Look, I know your thoughts and the schemes with which you would wrong me. So he kind of turns back to them. For you say, where is the house of the prince and where is the tent, the dwelling place of the wicked? Verse 29. Have you not asked those who travel the road and do not know their sons for the wicked are reserved for the day of doom and they shall be brought out on the day of wrath? Who condemns his way to his face and who repays him for what he has done? Yet he shall be brought to the grave and a vigil kept over his tomb. The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. Everyone shall follow him as countless have gone before him. How then can you comfort me with empty words, since falsehood remains in your answers?

Chapter 22. Then Eliphaz the demonite answered and said, Can a man be profitable to God though he is wise? May he be profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or is it gain to him that you make your ways blameless? Is it because of your fear of him that he corrects you and enters into judgment with you?

There's some sarcasm going on here. Is not your wickedness great and your iniquity without end? For you haven't taken pledges from your brother for no reason and stripped naked of their clothing. You have not given the weary water to drink and you have withheld bread from the hungry. But the mighty man possessed the land, the honorable man dwelt in it. You've sent widows away empty and the strength of the father of this was crushed.

Literally in the Hebrew there in verse 9, you break the arms of the orphans. Let me remind you, Job had all of his children killed. All of his wealth gone.

His crops gone. And this is the response? Judgment and condemnation. Why does God want us to read this book? Because he wants us to stop misrepresenting him.

We misrepresent God to people when we say certain things or do certain things. At this point, he's making stuff up. Eliphaz is making stuff up about Job. He's lying. Job has never done that to widows. He's never broken the arms of orphans. That's not a man that God would call righteous.

They're lying and yet somebody probably believe them. Verse 10, therefore, snares are all around you and sudden fear troubles you or darkness so that you cannot see and an abundance of water covers you. Is not God in the height of heaven and see the highest stars how lofty they are? And you say, what does God know? Can he jump through the deep darkness? Thick clouds cover him so that he cannot see. He's saying God is up there and there's clouds. So God doesn't know what's going on here because he can't see through the clouds.

He's a deep theologian, isn't he? Verse 14, thick clouds cover him so that he cannot see and he walks above the circle of heaven. Will you keep to the old way which wicked men have tried who were cut down before their time whose foundations were swept away by a flood? They said that God depart from us. What can the Almighty do to them? Yet he filled their houses with good things but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. The righteous see it in their glance.

The innocent laugh at them. Surely our adversaries are cut down and the fire consumes their remnant. Now, acquaint yourself with him, capital H, and be at peace. Thereby, good will come to you. See, here's the thing. In the midst of these chapters, these guys will be totally wrong and then something pop, bam.

There's a little diamond like this, a little nugget of gold, a little pearl. Acquaint yourself with him and be at peace. Know God and know peace. Receive please instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up. You will remove iniquity far from your tents. Then you will lay your gold in the dust and the gold of a fear among the stones of the brooks. Yes, the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver. Then you will have your delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to him and he will hear you and you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing and it will be established for you so light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down and you say exaltation will come, then he will save the humble person. He will even deliver one who is not innocent, yet he will be delivered by the purity of your hands. So he dons Job out to the most point and we need to be learning about relationships, learning how to relate to one another, being committed to each other no matter what. Unconditionally, I'll just mention real quickly about this fear thing.

Be careful. You know that's the reason a lot of people don't give is fear. Their fear of God is outweighed by the fear of lack or that they might run out of money. So they're willing to disobey God because they're afraid of lack or not having what their neighbor has. A lot of people that's the reason they don't give is fear.

It's amazing. Because God has promised to rebuke the devourer, to open the windows of heaven to bless you. But you let that fear rip you off. Martin Luther, interestingly, he said there is three conversions. He said there's the conversion of the soul, the conversion of the mind, and then the conversion of the wallet.

You know what? There's a lot of wisdom in that one. I'm telling you as a pastor, there's a lot of wisdom in that. Because God wants you to overcome your fear in whatever area you have fear. There's only one that you're supposed to fear, and that's God. The fear of man is a snare.

Matthew 10 28 says, And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. With fear comes bondage. Where are your issues of fear?

Everybody has them. Don't say it out loud. Just Holy Spirit, we ask that you would reveal to us areas of weakness, areas of fear, areas of a stronghold, or a well-worn path of the enemy. God, we ask through your spirited discernment that you would help us to identify those things this evening so that we can be set free. God, if people are afraid of lack or not having, God, may they realize you're a blessing, God. And as they honor you, you will bless them and protect them.

But if they walk in fear of lack and disobey you, it'll bring more lack. So God, release them from that fear. God, those who are afraid, those who are afraid of dying, may they realize, God, that you're going to be there.

You're going to be there as soon as they close their eyes. And God, you've been through it. Lord, set us free. Set us free from fear.

The Bible says in Romans 8.15, for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again the fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we crown Abba Father. And 2 Timothy 1.7 says, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of us our mind. John 4.18, but there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment.

But he who fears has not been made perfect in love, and we love him because he first loved us. I want to plant something in your head. When I started looking at Martin Luther's three conversions, I started thinking about that. And I started thinking about what God calls us into when we come to him and ask for forgiveness. It's more than just us asking for forgiveness, and that's it.

Here's a life lesson. In the New Testament, Jesus, Peter, and Paul all speak repeatedly about our need and command for three conversions. A conversion to Christ, conversion into community or the body of Christ, and the conversion to the call or mission. Seek the kingdom of God first, workers in the harvest, all those are calls to the mission. 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. So when you come to Jesus, you are first of all converted to Christ first and foremost. You can't go anywhere until you got that number one, okay? But along with that is a call to be a part of the body of Christ.

That's not an elective. God is the one who invented the church. He is certainly the one that planted this one. He's certainly the one that called me to be the senior pastor of this church.

He certainly has blessed it. We're seeing so many people getting saved and being a disciple, praise God. There are attacks going on. Why? Because people are getting saved.

Now, when some people get attacked, they get fearful, they panic. Sadly, some of them bail and that hurts. Honestly, the expectations are higher.

We don't expect our friends to do that. So that hurts. Hurts you, hurts me, I understand that. I get that. Don't let your fear of pain keep you from loving the next person.

No. And don't let it draw your eyes away from the good things God is doing in your life. Amen. And don't let the fear start to run. Oh, what do they know that I don't know?

Oh, everything on the internet is true and I read this and that and the other. Incidentally, it's Pastor Appreciation Month, so I thought it'd be cool. Let's do a church appreciation month. And so that's what we're doing out of my church. We usually post something online when we're mad or something's gone wrong.

That's human nature. This month, post good stuff. Talk about what the Lord's doing here. Talk about the good things of people getting saved, people being discipled.

We get to hear so many awesome things that God is doing here with us. Don't forget that. The enemy doesn't want you thinking of that. He wants you thinking about somebody that left and what was wrong, whatever. Forget it.

Doesn't matter. Jesus said to Peter, what is that to you? You follow me. And we're involved in the Great Commission. And honestly, together, we're doing the Great Commission. It ain't like one day we're going to do the Great Commission.

We're doing the Great Commission. There's people getting saved outside of the walls of this church from this month. There's people all over the world getting saved. There's people in Uganda getting saved through this ministry. Praise Him. Let's come on now.

We've got more than that. Praise God. Praise the Lord.

Here's a Bible study tip. It is called the Great Commission, not the Great Suggestion, not the Great Omission, meaning we are all called to it, not just me. We are all called to it. So we're called into Christ's community, into the mission. I want to ask you these three questions.

There's no doubt. You look in Scripture. God calls us to Christ. He calls us to a community, the body of Christ, to be part of the body of Christ, to perform a function in the body of Christ, to be a working, active part of the body of Christ, meaning faithful in attendance, gracious in serving, generous in giving, part of the body.

Now, we don't have an official membership here. That doesn't mean that there's not a commitment. So here's the three questions. First, are you committed to Christ? But along with that is are you committed to the community here? I'm speaking to the people that this is your church. And are you committed to the mission? Build the kingdom. Spread the word. Now, you have to answer those questions.

I can't answer them for you. Paul in the book of Acts went through a whole lot of stuff, beaten up, left for dead, shipwrecks, make bit, all these things. But he says none of these things move me. What does it take to move you? What does it take to get you off of being committed to Christ or off of being committed to the community of believers here or off from the mission? Or have you come to the point where you've said, I will not be moved. God sent me here.

I am here until God tells me to go somewhere else. Amen? Praise God.

And let me say something in case anybody in here is wondering. I want to be very clear about this. This might be our final life lesson. God will never tell anyone to not honor their commitment. God will not tell anyone to not honor their word. And when someone does not honor their commitment or word, it is the flesh putting themselves over the needs of others. There is no excuse.

That's rather vague, so I'll read it again. God will never tell anyone to not honor their commitment. If somebody says, well, God's telling me to not honor my commitment, they're lying because God in His word tells us to keep our word.

God is not going to contradict the Bible. Amen? That was a little weak, guys. Amen? Thank you.

Thank you. Get an amen for 100, Alex. God will never tell anyone to not honor the commitment. God will not tell anyone to not honor their word. When someone does not honor their commitment or word, it is the flesh and putting themselves over the needs of others.

And there's no excuse. Well, I heard this pastor or this assistant, he did something wrong and, therefore, I'm going to just leave everybody in the way. Do you realize Paul told us to submit to leadership when Nero was Caesar and he was writing from jail? See, we're called. And this is revelation, guys. It's a three-part calling. We're called into Christ. We're called into community to be part of the body of Christ. And we're called into a mission. And if you're weak on any of those three commitments, you're weak, make the commitment.

Say, you know what? I will not be moved. God brought me here. God's going to have to take me out. I can tell you, as pastor, I'm committed. I mean, look, if I was going to leave, I'd have left a long time ago, man, because, anyway, I'm committed to being here, are you? Sadly, it's rare that a pastor is committed to a church nowadays. I've had different offers, and people have said, oh, you could have this size church if you were in L.A. or somewhere other than K-ville.

You know what? God called me to K-ville. Let's go. So we struggle with self. And so we put self down to follow God. In all of those areas, to Christ, to community, to the mission.

And you stay committed to that. Here's one last thought here. Let me read these verses to you again. Job 1, 1 says, There was a man in the land of Oz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And then in verse 8, Then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered, my servant Job, that there's none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? Wouldn't you like to hear God say that about you, that you're blameless and upright and shun evil? Wouldn't it be awesome to have him make that declaration over us?

It is awesome, because he does. You see, when we accept Christ, we are wrapped in the road of his righteousness, and we are without fault. When the Father looks at us, he doesn't see anything we've done wrong.

He sees his Son. Let's pray. God, thank you for this evening. Thank you for revelation.

God, not only being clear about what is happening in the first chapter, but the tone and your character and your personality. And God, thank you. Thank you for the time tonight to talk about these things.

It just can't happen in five minutes. So, Lord, thank you for folks that are hungry and willing to commit part of an evening to hearing your word. God bless them. Bless them for that.

Fill them, because they're hungry. And, Lord, thank you that whatever they are in need of, whatever their problem is, whatever their issues are, whatever their weaknesses are, you're the answer. And, God, we know that you're not finished tonight, that you want to do something before we walk out of here in a few minutes. Lord, thank you for that. Thank you for the revelation of what you've already done. And thank you for what you're going to do. In Jesus' name.

Everybody said amen. A few moments ago, I asked about fear. Maybe you had a good friend that left you in the lurch and now you're afraid somebody's going to do that. Maybe you're in that group of you're fearful if God will come through so you don't give because you're afraid of lack. Maybe there's a fear of what you don't know.

You walk around thinking everybody else knows something that you don't know. Maybe there's a fear of dying. That's understandable. And yet even that God has covered.

He's got that covered. Are you struggling with fear? Are you struggling with your calling to Christ, to community, to mission? Tonight's the night to recommit yourself to all three. As God says, your iniquities and your sins, I will forget and remember no more. 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 and 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 were 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. ...