Job Chapter 33:ALL

Welcome to Cross the Bridge 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 chapter 33. Now here's Pastor David. Job chapter 33, but please, Job, hear my speech and listen to all my words. Now I open my mouth. My tongue speaks in my mouth. My words come from my upright heart.

My lips utter pure knowledge. The Spirit of God has made me. And the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Verse five. Surely I am as your spokesman before God.

I also have been formed out of clay. Surely no fear of me will terrify you, nor will my hand be heavy on you. Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard the sound of your words, saying, I am pure, without transgression.

I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me. Yet he finds occasions against me. He counts me as his enemy. He puts my feet in the stocks.

He watches all my paths. Look, in this you are not righteous. I will answer you, for God is greater than man. Why do you contend with him? For he does not give an accounting of any of his words. For God may speak in one way or in another, yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men while slumbering on their beds, then he opens the ears of men and seals their instruction. In order to turn man from his deed and conceal pride from man, he keeps back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword.

Man is also chastened with pain on his bed and with strong pain in many of his bones, so that his life abhors bread and his soul succulent food, his flesh waste away from sight, and his bones stick out which once were not seen. Yes, his soul draws near the pit and his life to the executioners. Verse 23. If there is a messenger for him, a mediator, one among a thousand, to show man his uprightness, then he is gracious to him. And he says, Deliver him from going down to the pit.

I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be young like a child's. He shall return to the days of his youth. He shall pray to God, and he will delight in him. Ye shall see his face with joy, for he restores to man his righteousness. Then he looks at men and says, I ascend and perverted what was right, and it did not profit me. Verse 28. He will redeem his soul from going down to the pit, and his life shall see the light.

Behold, God works all these things, twice in fact, three times with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life. Give ear, Jove. Listen to me. Hold your peace, and I will speak. If you have anything to say, answer me. Speak, for I desire to justify you. If not, listen to me.

Hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom. Notice Elohim starts in there. There's compassion. You can hear it in his voice. He cares about Jove.

You can tell. And then he goes in here, and he talks about real repentance, turning your heart to God. Here's what's interesting. When you look at the middle of this chapter, Jove chapter 33, verse 12, look in this. You are not righteous. I will answer you, for God is greater than man. Why do you contend with him? For he does not give an accounting of any of his words. Jove didn't start out in sin, but apparently, as he kept going, he fell into sin.

Here's a life lesson. In trying to explain the bad things that happen, Jove considered himself innocent and found fault with God. In trying to explain the bad things that happen, Jove considered himself innocent and found fault with God. And you know what?

Everybody does this. It takes all sorts of different forms. A common form is religion kills people. What do you mean religion kills people?

That's a cop-out. Man kills people. Not religion. People kill people. Not religion.

Yet, obviously, Islam, when people are saying you don't have to go through hell if you kill people, you got an issue there. That's not religion. That's hate. That's men. That's men killing men. So, Jove is trying to explain and sort through all this stuff. But as he does, as he tries, he condemns God and he tries to justify himself. You can't do that.

Sometimes we try. Oh, well, yeah, I shouldn't have said that. But, you know, did you hear what they did? Oh, I shouldn't have done that. But did you hear what they said? No, it doesn't matter. It was wrong.

It was wrong. And God is so much higher than us in working these things out. And, gang, we have to trust Him. We have to trust Him. And if you're walking in fear, you're not trusting God. So, I'm not supposed to be afraid of ISIS.

No, you're not supposed to be afraid of ISIS. That's man. What can man do to you? The worst thing man could do to you is the best thing, and that's put your hand in Jesus. Amen? Isaiah chapter 55 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. That's the next life lesson. God's greatest deed involved meeting man's greatest need, and that was forgiveness.

Say again, God's greatest deed involved meeting man's greatest need, and that's forgiveness. That is every person's greatest need. Maybe you're thinking, well, no, no, no. Now you've got to have food, water, and shelter. No, if you don't have those things, what happens? You die. And then what happens when you die? Depends on whether you're forgiven or not. Forgiveness is the greatest need, and it's time to God's greatest deed. Incidentally, if you keep reading in the Isaiah 55 passage, you come to a couple other interesting verses. Isaiah 55 verse 10 says, For as the rains come down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth.

It shall not return to me, boy, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace, and the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall cut their hands, instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. So it says it's a sign when these things happen. One of the signs is the briar shall come up the myrtle tree. I was driving in one day three years ago, four years ago, and there was a briar patch across the road here, but I noticed there were flowers in the middle of the briars. I slowed down, ended up pulling over and looked, and I know because I looked, I walked the property, I don't know how many times, and there were briars out there, but the flowers were from crepe myrtles, myrtle tree in the Bible. So when you look across the street and you see bushes over there, those are myrtles, and you'll see them flowering this spring.

Let's read this again. And be let out with peace, the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands, instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Praise God.

It's a neat thing. Now, when we look at the last verses here in chapter 33, there's the heart turning. Look at verse 28. He will redeem his soul from going down to the pit, and his life shall see the light. Verse 25, you have the second part. He shall return to the days of his youth. Were you on fire for God when you were a kid?

Remember those days. In verse 26, it says that he will restore to man his righteousness. Now, don't miss this. It says for he, capital H, restores to man his, capital H, righteousness. It's not saying that he will restore a man's righteousness.

No, no, no. He will restore to man his righteousness. He puts his righteousness on a person. Beautiful way the New Testament puts it is to be wrapped in the robe of righteousness. And in verse 27, he says, I have sinned, or I was wrong. Can you say that? Without qualification, or why, or justification, or because of this.

No, no, no. Just I sinned. You know, sometimes we think others sin against us, and sometimes they do.

You know, it's interesting. David, who just went through a season where he was just trashed a lot of things in his life with Bathsheba, and with the kingdom, and not being in the battle, and murder conspiracy, and all these things. But the Bible says that he's a man after God's own heart, and David, after all that, of messing up the kingdom, and messing up his friends, and messing up Bathsheba's family, and all these things, he says to God, against thee and thee alone have I sinned. The main issue is not what somebody else has done to you. It's what you've done against God. You can't get somebody else to be forgiven with God. You can ask God to forgive you. So I did that a few years ago. Praise God.

It's time to do it again. Hebrews chapter 8, verse 12 says, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more. And he says it again in Hebrews 10, 16, 17. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord.

I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them. That's what God's doing this past week with us reading the parable of the sower and memorizing Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. He's putting his word into our hearts, and he's putting his word into our minds. Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

And that phrase no more. He will remember our sins no more. He will remember our transgressions no more. And then Revelation 21, 4, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there shall be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more sickness, no more death, no more pain. All things become new. That's what we have in front of us.

That's what we need to be talking about. We need to be talking about Jesus, the marriage supper of the Lamb, be talking about heaven, and making sure we're ready. The Bible says that these days hold trying times, and times that some people will fall away.

Nobody ever plans on falling away. But it's been my experience as a Christian, I've been a Christian a long time. I've been teaching the Bible a long time. It's in those basics. Reading the Word, going to church.

Those are two things. And so as you're coming here and we're reading every day, you're protected. God is blessing you.

Insulating you from the world is going crazy. And now, back to the teaching. Now, Job is early on the oldest book in the Bible, and there's a Job early on in the book of Genesis that's before Moses, even. You and I have charges written out against us. It's the Ten Commandments. And nobody in the entire world gets through the Ten Commandments innocent. We've talked about the Ten Commandments. And when we talk about the Ten Commandments, by the way, and I'll walk you through those things, it's to help you to use those exact same things in witnessing the people.

Asking them two questions. That's why we produced that booklet, the 2-5-10. Two questions, five minutes, Ten Commandments. We take the Ten Commandments and we think, oh, that's the stairway to heaven that we climb.

No. That shows us we need a Messiah. Ephesians 2-15, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. Or in the New Living Translation, For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people, and in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of His death on the cross, and our hostility towards each other was put to death. Christ brought peace to us. At what price?

A high price. His death upon the cross. We put a guilty son over there at one time where we were holding the guilty son, and He put that upon Himself.

Maybe tonight, maybe something's weighing on you. Maybe there's shame and guilt tied to something that happened as a kid, or I don't know. Maybe you want to write out what sin is still holding you back or that you recall or you think of. Maybe write that down on a piece of paper and take it to the cross. Job in chapter 19, 25, he says, For I know that my Redeemer lives. I'm so grateful that Jesus died for us.

We need to remember the tomb is empty. Jesus is alive. And what He's doing is not a mystery. He's interceding on our behalf.

He's representing us. Oh Father, that's one of mine. Oh, He's forgiven. He just prayed this morning. He's covered in my righteousness.

Hebrews 7, 25 says, Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. What's Jesus doing here tonight? He's making intercession for you and for me. He's making intercession for your friend, for your family member that's struggling. He's making intercession for your family member. He's making intercession for you. 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. He is able. Hallelujah. Let's pray. God thank you that you are able.

You are able to save to the uttermost. Lord, we pray for our lost loved ones. We pray for our family and our friends and our co-workers.

We pray for the people we go to school with. God, so many of them don't know you. And so many of them, they're not coming to a church, so the church needs to go to them. Send us to them.

Lord, send us to the ones that don't know. Acts chapter 1 verse 8 says, You shall receive the Spirit that you may be bold to be a witness. Maybe some of you tonight want more boldness in being a witness. Maybe you want more strength, more power. Maybe you just need somebody to pray with you.

Maybe there's a health issue and you want somebody to pray for you, pray with you. And also these supernatural gifts that are listed and available to us. We're going to pray that you guys receive those, that you receive this boldness, that you receive power to walk out your Christian life.

We all need power to do that. We believe that God still heals people. Amen. A precious sister that was diagnosed with stage four cancer.

We prayed for her and she went back to the doctor and cancer was gone. Praise God. Absolutely. Absolutely. But the enemy doesn't just sit and quit. He came back and after getting a clean bill of health for over six months, she has cancer again.

So we need to be praying for each other. Standing, the phalanx that we talk about, that was when people stood arm to arm and there was no way to penetrate them because their shields were covering each person. They were locked down. The phalanx was, it was indestructible for hundreds of years. They couldn't beat it. But there was one great, great weakness to the phalanx and that is if somebody in the middle fell back, it would crumble. So we're each responsible for keeping the line. Yeah, and I understand, you know, it gets hard. You probably feel like giving up sometimes and quitting sometimes and I'm quite sure that Jesus felt like giving up and Jesus felt like quitting sometimes, but he didn't.

He didn't. He kept going and we got to keep going because there's a finish line somewhere. We don't know where it is. Might be closer than we think. The rapture might be closer than we think. We're thinking we've got years of continuing the battle and toil and Jesus could call us all up there tonight. But while we're here, we need to be the light to a world that's getting increasingly dark. Lord Jesus, let us be filled with your light. Let us be filled with your spirit.

Let us be filled with you. God, thank you for these precious people. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to pray for one another. God, thank you that you are praying for us. God, that you are interceding for us even now. God, thank you for the opportunity and the ability to pray for one another. To pray for boldness, pray for power, pray for healing, pray for the gifts. And Lord, thank you for your word that tells us about all these things.

And the enemy doesn't want us to have supernatural spiritual gifts because he knows that we will use them against him. Lord, thank you for these gifts. Thank you for these people. Lord, thank you for the lives that we see changed. Lord, people getting saved and recommitted and rededicated and revamped us. Many of the prophets and the priests longed to see those things but didn't get to see them, but we get to see them.

Lord, because you chose us to show us the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Let me encourage each person to get prayed for. Let somebody pray for you. Ask God to fill you with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God which will empower you. We're told in the Bible to lay hands on people and to pray for them. Just begin to worship the Lord.

Focus on him. Lord, thank you for the second birth. Lord, thank you for your Holy Spirit. Jesus, you said I have to go away to provide him for you.

Thank you for the gifts that are available. Help us not to chase after stuff, experiences. But God, thank you for those special moments like tonight when we feel and sense that peace of God, that freshness of forgiveness. And God, thank you that we can have and we do have that peace that passes all understanding. Lord, there's things that if we sat and really thought about them, we would be concerned or sad or troubled or even fearful. But whatever we think about comes to an end except you.

These government problems will come to an end. All these things will come to an end except you, Jesus. You and the kingdom of heaven will never end. And Lord, thank you that as we follow you, we're storing up rewards as we serve you here on this earth. Thank you that what we earn in secret, God, you will reward openly in front of others. Thank you for choosing us.

Thank you for choosing this time. The world has nothing like peace that comes with the presence of the Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord's face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face to you and give you His shalom, His protection, His peace, His healing, His wholeness, His protection. You are in His hand.

Nothing can snatch you out of His hand. God has not given you the spirit of fear but of the peace that passes all understanding. 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 are 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 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.