Job Chapter 11-12: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 by us today. I think you'll find that to be true today and tomorrow as we take a closer look at chapters 11 and 12. Now, here's Pastor David. This is Job chapter 11.

And if you don't have a Bible and you need one, just raise your hand and one of the ushers will come and hand you a Bible so that you can read along with us. So what's going on here is in the last chapter, chapter 10, Job was speaking about what's happening in his life. And then they're kind of going back and forth with these chapters. In chapter 11, Zophar will start again.

Job is sitting with three people who call themselves his friends. And Job, of course, has been attacked by the enemy, attacked by Satan. Satan is the one that attacked and took things and destroyed things. God allowed it. But we need to be careful that we don't assign blame to God for allowing something. There's a difference between God doing something and God allowing something. Amen?

It's interesting in the New Testament when we read about Jesus, you don't see Jesus going around and go, you know what? I'm going to make you sick so you can learn something. You don't see that, do you? Uh-uh.

Why? Because of the point. The enemy is the one that attacks. The enemy is the one that does evil things. Now, if you believe in sovereignty, as I do, as most Christians do, that means God's in charge, then how do you answer how's evil in the world? Some people say, well, evil came through man. It happened before then. There was an angel who was very powerful, who was part of the heavenly worship, and he decided that he would step up his authority, that he would grasp authority that God had not given him. Now, we see people do that.

Sometimes you wait and watch, as I have over the years, and people start talking, and then long before others see it, I know what's motivating. They're starting a new church. Surprise, surprise. I'm surprised at some, but we need to be careful about taking something that God hasn't given us. Let's jump on in here. Let's read Job 11, verse 1.

Zophar's starting in again. One more thing before we jump into this. Let's remember that in chapter 1 of Job, it says that Job was a good man and a just man and a spiritual man. And then if that's not enough, I think it was in verse 8 somewhere in there, that God himself says Job is a good man and a just man. And it's important for us to understand that God says, hey, have you considered my servant Job?

More appropriately, it was probably, hey, you have been considering my servant Job, haven't you? It's not like God said, hey, did you ever think about Job? And Satan was like, nah, I never thought about him. Satan had already been thinking about him, strategizing. And so I think God is like, hey, you think Job's going to wobble and fall down?

No. It's amazing knowing everything about us, knowing the human condition, knowing the hearts and the minds of people. God still endues and endows us with power and trusts us with building the kingdom of God.

Isn't that amazing? Praise God. Absolutely praise God. So God says Job's a good man and a just man. His three friends, in talking to him, start accusing him. Job, you brought this on yourself.

Job, you got some sort of secret sin in your life, repent and everything will be okay. But Job didn't have secret sins to confess. They thought they were his friends and yet look how quickly they did not believe the best about Job.

Why? I don't know. Some thoughts on the matter are we know that Job was a blessed man, had a lot of stuff, had a lot of things. It'll been easy for maybe his friends to have some envy about all the stuff and things Job had. Chapter 11, verse 1. Job said and said, should not the multitude of words be answered and should a man full of talk be vindicated? Should your empty talk make men hold their peace?

And when you mock, should no one rebuke you? Let's keep in mind, again, Job is, he's hurting. He's really in pain. His kids were killed. Everything he had built up, gone.

And his friends, I just don't get it. I hope it confuses you because I think it's one of the big lessons we're supposed to learn from the book of Job is how to comfort. Verse 4, for you have said, my doctrine is pure and I am clean in your eyes, but all that God would speak and open his lips against you, that he would show you the secrets of wisdom, for they would double your prudence. Know therefore that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves. In the New Living Translation, Job 11, verse 6 says, if only he would tell you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom is not a simple matter. Listen, God is doubtless punishing you far less than you deserve.

That's his friends. Verse 7, can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven.

What can you do? Deeper than she old. What can you know?

Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. If he passes by, imprisons and gathers to judgment, then who can hinder him? For he knows deceitful men. He sees wickedness also. Will he not then consider it? For an empty-headed man will be wise when a wild donkey's colt is born a man.

I am getting where I really would like to see so far in person. Man, this guy. Verse 13, if you would prepare your heart and stretch out your hands towards him, if iniquity were in your hand and you put it far away, it would not let wickedness dwell in your tents.

I wonder if he's got a bullhorn. Then surely you could lift up your face without spot. Yes, you could be steadfast and not fear. Now listen to these verses. Because you would forget your misery and remember it as waters that have passed away and your life would be brighter than noonday.

See, this is what's so interesting about the book is that these friends will be missing it and be wounding him and hurting him and then they'll get on a little track that's right, that's good. In the New Living Translation, verses 14 and 15 say, get rid of your sins and leave all iniquity behind you. Then your face will brighten with innocence. You will be strong and free of fear.

And he talks about the fruit of repentance. Verse 17, and your life would be brighter than noonday. You were dark. You would be like the morning and you would be secure because there is hope. Yes, you would dig around you and take your rest and safety. You would also lie down and no one would make you afraid. There's also a little verse there. If you're struggling with anxiety, if you're struggling to sleep at night, look at verse 19.

You would also lie down and no one would make you afraid. Yes, many would court your favor, but the eyes of the wicked will flail and they shall not escape and their hope, loss of life. I want to go into Job's answer.

I want to go ahead into chapter 12. Then Job answered and said, no doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you. His sarcasm tube is full and he's got to let it out and says, you know, you're so smart. When you die, all wisdom dies with you. But I have understanding as well as you, and I'm not inferior to you. Indeed, who does not know such things as these? I am one mocked by his friends who called on God and he answered him, the just and blameless who is ridiculed. A lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease.

It is made ready for those whose feet slip. The tents of robbers prosper and those who provoke God are secure in what God provides by his hand. But now ask the beast and they will teach you and the birds of the air and they will tell you or speak to the earth and it will teach you and the fish of the sea will explain to you who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this. What an interesting thing. So there's all these animals. Everybody knows God created them.

Who among you doesn't know that? Well, some people believe in evolution though. It was interesting the other day on the to every man answer program, somebody called in and they said they had been a Christian and been doing well in church, growing Bible studies and whatnot and started to believe theistic evolution. And they said literally that their faith began to fall apart as they embraced more and more of what they thought was right, not what was in here. He knew, falling away from the Lord. They came back, but be careful trying to make theistic evolution work. Theistic evolution basically says the evolution process is really responsible for the creation of man and God just kind of watched it. It's not what my Bible says in the beginning. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Amen. That's confusing. I wonder what he meant by that. Verse 10, in whose hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind?

Does not the ear test words and mouth taste its food? Wisdom is with aged men and with length of days understanding. With him are wisdom and strength. He has counsel and understanding.

If he breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt. If he imprisons a man, there can be no release. If he withholds the waters, they dry up.

If he sends them out, they overwhelm the earth. With him are strength and prudence. The deceived and the deceiver are his. He leads counselors away, plundered, and makes fools of the judges. He loosens the bonds of kings and binds their waste with a belt. He leads princes away, plundered, and overthrows the mighty.

He deprives the trusted ones of speech and takes away the discernment of the elders. He pours contempt on princes and disarms the mighty. He uncovers deep things out of darkness and brings the shadow of death to light. He makes nations great and destroys them. He enlarges nations and guides them. He takes away the understanding of the chiefs or the people of the earth and makes them wander in a pathless wilderness. Wow. They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.

Your attention, please. Christians a lot of times think judgment from God is when bad things start to happen. That's actually about the third or fourth thing that happens in judgment. The first thing that happens is the people become convinced that they don't need God. And so they tell God, we don't need you, we don't need you, we don't need you, we don't need you. And what starts judgment is that second phase where God says, well, if you don't need me, have at it. If you don't need me in your schools, have at it.

And then spend millions of dollars trying to figure out why it's not working. If you want to try to ban me from the courtroom and remove the Ten Commandments from the whole legal system of America was built on Judeo-Christian ethics and you want to take the Ten Commandments down from the courtroom and then wonder why your judges are so foolish, go ahead. Then bad things start to happen. Are we being judged? Billy Graham said, if God didn't judge America, he would owe Sodom and Gomorrah an apology. There's a lot of truth in that statement. So here we are with Job's Comforters.

That's a label that these people carry. Job's Comforters. I hope if you're ever in pain that you don't have Job's Comforters around you. Amen. Now, you don't have pastors here who are Job's Comforters.

You understand that? If you've got a problem, this is not our response. Now, the whole question here is what about pain? What do you do with pain?

What do we do with pain? Because Job's feeling this pain and his friends, it's almost like they're ignoring his pain so they can speak spiritual things. 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. It's almost like they're ignoring his pain so they can speak spiritual things. It reminds me of the parable of the Good Samaritan where the Levite and the priest walked past the man in need. Incidentally, there's an interesting thing in chapter 12. It says he would loosen the bonds of kings and binds their waist with a belt. For a leader to move his belt or to pull up his robe to do something was kind of a sign of disgrace. As a leader, you didn't do that.

As the leader of a home, you didn't do that. Why did I mention that? Because we're talking a little detail in the parable of the prodigal son that a lot of times folks miss. It says, when the father saw him, a long ways off, meaning he'd been looking for him. He saw him.

Remember what he did? He pulled up his robe and he ran. He disgraced himself to go honor the prodigal like Jesus did. So we look through these chapters. Chapter 10, Job bewails his condition. Chapter 11, Zophar reproves Job. Chapter 12, Job answers his friends. Chapter 13, Job defends his integrity. Chapter 14, Job speaks of life's woes. Chapter 15, Eliphaz repels Job.

It's like a cycle with a buck of Job. So let's look at some of the bigger things. Here's a life lesson. In this life, we will know some pain.

This is part of life. Even if we know pain all of our life, it will be a short season next to an eternity without pain. In this life, we will know some pain.

Even if we know pain all of our life here, it will be a short season next to an eternity without pain. Amen. Praise God. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you. You may take pain up to the doors of heaven, but you're not taking them in. You may take scars up to the gates of heaven, but you're not taking them in.

You may take disease up to the doors of heaven, but you're not taking them in. Praise God. That's something to look forward to.

Your future is so bright, you better wear shades. Amen. Praise God.

Revelation 21, 3 says this, And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. And God Himself will be with them and be their God, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

Praise God. Man, say no more pain. No more pain. Now, I want you to stop, and I want you to think about no more emotional pain, no more physical pain. It will all be gone. Now, let's say no more pain again. No more pain. Hallelujah, man.

That's something to look forward to. Then He sat on the throne and said, Behold, I make all things new, and He said to me, Write for these words of truth and faithfulness. Now, here's an interesting thing. Revelation 21, 7 says, All who are victorious will inherit all the blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be My children. But cowards, cowards, that's an interesting first choice. Cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshippers, and all liars, their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.

Now, that list, idol worshippers, that word literally is Gentile, describes us. Here's the next point, next life lesson. The real question in life is not if we will have pain. The real question is how will we react to the pain we experience, and how will we react to the pain we see others going through, and we see others experiencing? Because sometimes we don't get offended over ourselves and something that happens to us, but we get offended on somebody else's behalf.

That's a trap. First of all, you're better off not getting offended at all. We get offended, and we pick up an offense, and then we carry it around.

And it steals our joy, so people ask about it. What's wrong? Oh, you hadn't heard? What happened to me? Oh, what somebody said to me, or about me, or I think they said about me, or because I think they're always thinking about me, because I'm always thinking about me, so I'm thinking everybody.

So they hurt me, so I'm offended. And then you're like, okay, all right, enough, all right, see you later. And they walk off, and then somebody, oh, what's wrong? Oh, what's wrong? Didn't you hear? On and on and on. Problem is, what's the person talking about, their offense? Well, they should be talking about Jesus.

What do you do? Put the offense down. Amen?

Don't carry it anymore. Life's too short to be talking about offenses. And when you get offended on somebody else's behalf, you know what happens? You get upset, because it's happened to me. Early on in ministry, somebody said something. I told Nora, I said, and they said, you know, she got upset. She got fired up.

Some of you may have not seen that side, but that side does exist, let me assure you. And so she gets fired up. And then a couple days later, the guy apologizes. I said, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I'll forgive you. So like a week later, we're walking down the hall, and Nora like glares at this guy.

I'm like, what's up with that? And she said, well, you know, he did all that and said all that. Oh, he apologized. I forgot to, yeah, I forgot to, he apologized. But usually when you get offended on somebody else's behalf, you're never aware of the resolution.

You're never aware of the other person apologizes. So be careful with that. So pain hits you or somebody you love. What do you do? Pain hits a loved one with cancer or disease.

What do you do? How you respond is the big thing. You become either a hater or a lover.

It's easy to hate. It's harder to love. And where did pain come from anyway? Pain come from God.

Yeah. We do have a pain system, and it's a warning system. But Genesis 3 is where pain came from.

And here's a Bible study. Pain is first mentioned. Remember the law of first mention? In the fall of Genesis 3. So pain came in with the fall, and we'll go out when we get to heaven.

Let me say that again. Pain is first mentioned. Remember the law of first mention? In the fall of Genesis 3. So pain came in with the fall, and we'll go out when we go to heaven. So Genesis 3, and I'll read through here, says, Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you? So he said, I heard your voice in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. That's not a good response when you mess up to hide yourself. Where do you hide yourself from God?

And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? We go down to verse 16 of chapter 3 of Genesis. And it says, To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children.

Part of the curse. Man, not only is it pain, it's childbirth pain. All the women were like, Yeah.

Guys were like, But. I just I can't even imagine. I think it's Bill Cosby that said, If you want to try to imagine that pain, take your lower lip and pull it real hard and stretch it over your head.

That's the pain of childbirth. So Eve gets part of the curse, serpent gets part of the curse, Adam gets part of the curse. What's interesting is the last verse of Genesis 3 that a lot of people misread is that so he drove out the man and he placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. It didn't say guard the way from them. It said guard the way to the tree of life.

Not guard the way of life from them, but make sure they can get to it. What's the tree of life? It's in the book of Genesis. And also there's a tree of life in the book of Revelation. And also there's a tree of life on Mount Calvary because the tree of life is the cross. The Bible says cursed is anybody who hangs on a tree.

Jesus hung on a tree for you and I. Proverbs chapter 9 kind of brings it down. Proverbs chapter 9 verse 7 says, He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself, and he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Some people have asked before, when you read the book of Proverbs, and it says rebuke a fool and dah, dah, dah, and then don't rebuke a fool. So it tells you to rebuke him, but not to rebuke him. What it's saying is there's no profit in rebuking a fool. But you don't know if the person's foolish until you correct them and the way they respond.

I've sat with some people and correct them and say, look, I love you. I've been watching. I'm for you.

You do some things great. You're gifted, but there's an issue. So what we need to do is just deal with that issue, not make it a big deal. But that's it. Let's repent.

Let's move on. So I'm going to rebuke you and I'm going to find out if you're a fool or a wise man. Because if you're a wise man, you're going to receive this correction. If you're a fool, you're not going to receive the correction. What's interesting is people that are foolish and don't receive the correction, they somehow want everybody to know they didn't receive the correction. Isn't that interesting?

My goodness. So Proverbs 9 verse 8 says, Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Proverbs chapter 6 verse 16 goes into six things the Lord hates. These six things the Lord hates. Yes, seven are an abomination to him, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift and run into evil, a false one who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. Have you ever done any of those things? Probably.

Do you do them repeatedly without repentance? I hope not. I hope not. Here's the thing. What is the difference between the people who are going to heaven and the people who are not? Is the people going to heaven keep turning to Jesus, keep asking for forgiveness?

They've done some of the same things, haven't we? Let's be honest about it. Yeah, some people in heaven will have done far worse things than some people that aren't going. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 says this. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves nor covetous nor junkers nor revilers nor extortion will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. Paul, say it ain't so.

Were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. That's your choice. When these things come up, oh, well, this is okay, and I did this because of that, and let me explain what I did. No, no, no. Don't cling to your sin, cling to your Savior.

That's the next life lesson. Now, God is a healing God. He wants to heal you.

No doubt about it. Wants to heal you. It's interesting. Jesus walks up to people and says, you want to be healed?

He's still asking that. Do you want to be healed? Some people would rather carry the offense, carry a little bit of pain, and then begin to act out works of the flesh. Don't let that be you. Be healed.

There's a C.S. Lewis quote. A little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tension of the love of God more than all. 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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