This evening here at Faithful Word Baptist Church.
It's good to see everyone here this evening, if you would please take your seats and find
the hymnal close by.
Once you have your song books, let's turn them to hymn number 323.
More About Jesus, number 323.
Once you find your place, we'll sing it on that first verse, number 323.
More About Jesus, Would I Know, More of His Grace, The Other Show, number 323.
Let's sing it out nice and loud, all together on that first verse, number 323.
More, more about Jesus, More, more about Jesus, More of His saving, fullness Heed, More of His love, who died for me.
More about Jesus, let me learn, More of His holy will discern.
Spirit of God, my teacher be, Showing the things of Christ to me.
More, more about Jesus, More, more about Jesus, More of His saving, fullness Heed, More of His love, who died for me.
More about Jesus in His Word, Holy communion with my Lord, Hearing His voice in every line, Making each faithful saving mind.
More, more about Jesus, More, more about Jesus, More of His saving, fullness Heed, More of His love, who died for me.
More about Jesus on His throne, Riches in glory all His own, More of His kingdom sure increase, More of His coming Prince of Peace.
More, more about Jesus, More, more about Jesus, More of His saving, fullness Heed, More of His love, who died for me.
Amen. I've asked Brother Kevin to open us up in the Word of Prayer.
Father in Heaven, thank you for salvation and this church of believers. I pray that you fill us all with your Holy Spirit so we can sing praises to you and bless the preaching that is to come. In Christ's name I pray, Amen.
Amen. Hymn number 288.
I am resolved, number 288.
Number 288. I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delight. Number 288.
I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delight.
Things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have alert my sight.
I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.
I am resolved to go to the Savior, leaning by faith and strife. He is the true one, He is the just one, He at the words of life.
I will hasten, hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.
I am resolved to follow the Savior, faithful and true each day. Heed what He saith, knew what He will live. He is the living way.
I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.
Amen. Good singing.
Alright, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bullet, then slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we'll be in Judges chapter 15.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. And thank you to all who participated in the soul winning trip to Globe. There's another one coming up to Safford this Friday and Saturday.
Check out the information over here. All the details are there. You could also talk to myself, Brother Segura, Brother Raymond, Brother Corbin Ressel to get details on these trips at any time.
Of course, Brother Corbin Ressel is only here on Wednesday nights because on Sundays he's preaching down at the church in Tucson. And we don't necessarily always talk a lot about the church down there in Tucson, but it's doing well.
It's thriving and Brother Corbin Ressel is doing a great job preaching. They're knocking a lot of doors. Tucson's a huge city. You know, it's probably about like one fourth of the size of our area up here in regard to population, but of course that is still massive.
There's over a million people in that area, and so they're doing a great work down there. I believe that they're running around 30, maybe in the 30s, typically weekly.
And Brother Corbin Ressel is also moving down there permanently. He's in the process of buying a house down there. So hopefully by the end of the month he should be moved down there.
So he's still going to be up here on Wednesday. He's still going to be working up here, but he's actually going to be living down there because that's the main focus of his work is the church down there in Tucson, getting it going.
So pray for that church. If you ever want to go down there and visit, if you're ever, you know, doing some kind of a recreational day trip with your family or weekend or something down that way, you could always stop in and visit the church down in Tucson.
Or if you know anybody down in Tucson that you think needs a good church, then let them know about Faith Forward Baptist Church in Tucson.
And then below that is our new Bible memory passage, Romans chapter 4 verses 1 through 8, one of my personal favorite passages. So I think this is a phenomenal choice here to memorize this.
I quote this to people constantly. I'm quoting it in my sermons all the time. It's probably just the strongest proof of just the fact that salvation is not by works. It's all by faith in this passage.
I mean, it's just such a case closed. I remember when I was a kid, I was going to Christian school and one of the Bible teachers that I had, you know, was teaching some false doctrine in regard to salvation and kind of teaching a watered down gospel.
So we were supposed to write some paper about salvation or whatever, and I wrote my paper just hammering how it's all faith, it's not works, and all this stuff. And I remember using Romans 4, 5 as my big proof text, one of the things that I hammered.
And he literally took a red pen and wrote next to it, not biblical, minus five points, for saying that it's all faith and that you don't have to do any works to be saved.
And I was really mad. I remember coming home, showing my brother, and we were both really mad about it and everything. Anyway, that has nothing to do with anything, but it just actually it has to do with the fact that even as a kid, I knew the importance of Romans chapter 4, verse 5.
And really just 5 through 8 is really the powerhouse. And then it's, you know, it's set up in verses 1 through 4. All that to say this, even if you don't memorize a lot of Bible, this is a great passage to have memorized.
And this is your antidote to a wrong understanding of James 2, because James 2 and Romans 4 are both approaching the same subject matter from different angles.
And so when you put Romans 4 and James 2 side by side, mystery solved. But how many times have you had somebody try to throw James 2 at you?
Well, here's what you do. All right, let's go to Romans 4 and let's compare it with James 2. Let's look at both, not just one of them. Let's look at Romans 4 and James 2.
So this is a very useful passage of Scripture. And of course, all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, but some stuff is just really profitable, all right?
So anyway, on the back we've got the note about the homeschool field trip that has been moved to March 18th, so it's just coming right up. Be sure to read up on that.
And that's about it for announcements. Yes?
It was snowing in, where is this place? Oh wow, this is all the way up in Camp Verde. Oh, okay. So just be sure to check the weather. Just Google weather in Camp Verde, and that way you can dress accordingly, because my wife said it was extremely cold up there yesterday.
So with that, let's go ahead and tally up the soul winning from the past few days, going back to Thursday. Anything from Thursday? All right, gotcha. Anything else from Thursday? Is that a 1 back there? All right.
Okay, anything else from Thursday? How about Friday? Okay. Anything else from Friday? Got it. And then what about Saturday? All right, 7 for the team with brother Raymond. Anything outside of that? Another one over here? Okay, anything else?
What about today? Sunday? Brother Scott? 3. Brother 7 for brother Tilston's crew? Is that a 5 or just for the west side? All right, anything else from today?
All right, also let me just mention, be in prayer for brother Raymond Cooper and brother Daniel Ryder. They are about to embark on a major journey tomorrow morning. They're going on a missions trip into West Africa, and it's not a super long trip or anything. I believe they're getting back in about a week and a half, you know, a little less than 2 weeks.
But they're going to be going over there, doing a bunch of soul winning, scouting out some new territories, meeting up with some local listeners that have reached out to us, and also just, you know, distributing a lot of micro SD cards. Because everybody in Africa has got a cell phone, my friend, and that is not a joke, all right?
You know, people have mocked our church. I saw someone mocking our church one time online, like, oh, they go to these third world countries, you know, as if these people can even receive the technologies that they're bringing them. Well, we've actually been there, they're ready to receive, my friend.
We've been to all these places. You can go to some of the poorest countries. We have been to some of the poorest countries in Africa. Now, Botswana is one of the nicest countries, but you can go to one of the poorest countries, like, say, Malawi. And guess what? People have phones over there. I didn't go to Malawi, but I've been to other pretty rough places in this world.
I've walked into places where it's a dirt floor, they're living in a dirt hut, everybody's got a phone, all right? That's just the reality. Now, they don't all necessarily have computers, but they almost all have phones. There are a lot of phones out there. We're talking about the young people now. They've got phones. It's all about priorities, right?
Hey, we would all skip a few meals if it meant having a phone. It's true, though. So, anyway, the cool thing about these micro SD cards is that, you know, that's what they have over there. Because a lot of places where we go sold and we bring USB flash drives and we give out the flash drives.
But because the big thing in Africa, big thing in the Philippines, big thing in the Caribbean is phones, then the micro SD card is perfect. Plus, you know, American phones usually only have one slot for a micro SD card. So you don't necessarily want to remove it and put in another one. Or if you have an iPhone, there's not even a slot for it at all.
But when I've been over to Africa, it's like a dual slot micro SD and dual SIM card. It's got like a place for two SIM cards, two micro SDs. I was like, whoa, but that's how all the phones are over there.
And so, you know, this is great because this can be like their auxiliary SIM card. Excuse me, micro SD card. They don't even have to take out their normal one. They can slide this in and it provides hundreds of hours of preaching and audio.
Or we can give them like 10 hours of video. They can watch after the tribulation, New World Order Bible versions, marching to Zion. So these things are really cool. You can win somebody to the Lord and just right away get some material in their hand to disciple them and get them to learn a little more, keep them interested in the Word of God.
So just be praying for Brother Daniel Ryder and Raymond Cooper as they go on this trip that God will bless their endeavors, keep them safe, and that it would be a profitable trip for the gospel.
In fact, let's just bow our heads quickly and just pray for them right now. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for these guys that are willing to go over and do some missions, Lord, in Africa during this difficult time.
We just pray that you would just fill them with the Holy Spirit as they go, give them safety and help it to be a blessed time for them, a joyful time for them, help them to have a good time and also to get a lot of good work done for you.
And that, Lord, whoever over there is ready to receive the gospel, anybody who's interested, Lord, just guide them to those people that want to hear the good news.
And we just ask your blessing upon every aspect of this trip and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
All right, with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us.
All right, we're going to sing Rejoice in the Lord. You should find that incident in your hymnals. If you don't have one, please raise your hand.
And we'll sing it on that first verse. Rejoice in the Lord. God never moves without purpose or plan.
Rejoice in the Lord. Let's sing it on that first verse, all together, on this first verse.
In darkness He giveth a song. Oh, rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake.
We go at the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold.
I could not see through the shadows ahead. So I looked at the cross of my Savior instead. I bowed to the will of the Master that day.
And these day my tears fled away. Oh, rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake. We go at the end of each path that I take.
For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold.
Now I can see testing comes from above. God strengthens His children and purges in love. My Father knows best, and I trust in His care. Through purging, more fruit I will bear.
Oh, rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake. We go at the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold.
Turn to hymn number 344. We'll sing that chorus. Fall fresh on me, 344. If you know this, sing it out. Number 344. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me, 344.
Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Let's sing it again from the top.
Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.
We'll sing it tonight.
Alright, this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Job chapter 32, the book of Job chapter number 32.
As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, starting in verse number 1. Job chapter 32, starting in verse 1. Follow along with brother Dan as he reads.
Job 32, starting in verse number 1.
In Job 32, the Bible reads,
In Elihu, the son of Barakah, the Buzite answered and said,
Yeah, I attended unto you, and behold, there was none of you that convinced Job or that answered his words.
Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom. God thrusteth him down, not man.
Now he hath not directed his words against me. Neither will I answer him with your speeches.
They were amazed. They answered no more. They left off speaking.
When I had waited, for they spake not, but stood still and answered no more, I said, I will answer also my part.
I also will show mine opinion, for I am full of matter. The spirit within me constraineth me.
Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent. It is ready to burst like new bottles.
I will speak that I may be refreshed. I will open my lips and answer.
Let me not, I pray you, except any man's person. Neither let me give flattering titles unto man,
for I know not to give flattering titles. In so doing, my Maker would soon take me away.
Thank you for this opportunity to be here tonight, and I pray that you would fill our pastor with your Holy Spirit,
and please help us all to learn something tonight. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen.
In the book of Job is a very strange character because of the fact that when you're reading the book of Job,
you start out and you've got the introductory chapters and chapters one and two, setting up the story,
explaining what's going on in the book of Job, then you get into this big long conversation between Job and his three friends.
And it, you know, goes back and forth between Job and his three friends.
But then all of a sudden you get to chapter 32 and all of a sudden there's just this new character introduced.
You know, where has this guy been? We didn't hear anything about him previously.
All of a sudden he just pops up in chapter 32 and pipes up.
And this gives us the idea that maybe there's a little bit of an audience here that's listening to Job and his three friends talking.
You might have kind of just pictured this as just Job with his three friends.
But apparently there are other people around that are listening to this and hearing this.
And this guy Elihu, apparently one of them, he gets upset. He doesn't like the outcome of the conversation.
He doesn't like what Job said. He doesn't like what the friends said.
And so he's going to pipe up and give his two cents.
And there's really a big chunk of the book of Job devoted to what this guy says.
He actually gets six chapters from chapter 32 to 37.
Then after this, of course, God comes and answers Job out of the whirlwind for chapters 38 through 41.
And then in 42 we wrap up the end of the book.
Now what's the sermon about tonight? The sermon is about this.
The fact that there's a false teaching out there that seems to be fairly prevalent that teaches that what Elihu says is somehow right.
That Elihu is a good guy and that what he says is correct.
And some have even taught that he's the author of the book of Job.
That's what Peter Ruckman taught.
And so his followers will often teach the same thing.
That Elihu wrote the book of Job. That he's a godly man. That what he said was right.
And I'm here to tell you tonight that that is totally absurd.
It is completely ridiculous because what Elihu says is utterly wrong.
And I'm going to prove that to you beyond any shadow of a doubt.
That what Elihu speaks in these six chapters is not correct.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with the book of Job, let me just explain this to you about the book of Job.
Job is a conversation between Job and his three friends.
God says at the end of the book that the three friends are totally wrong.
And the three friends are arguing with Job. They're going back and forth. They're not in agreement.
Job is saying one thing. They're saying something else.
Who's right? Well the Bible tells us who's right.
God in the end states that Job spoke what was right. They spoke what was wrong.
Now why would God give us so many chapters of men speaking who are in error?
You know when you're reading the book of Job, you're sitting there reading a lot of wonderful things from the mouth of Job.
But then you're reading all this wrong teaching from Eliphaz.
Wrong things from Bildad. Wrong things from Zophar.
And then you get to six chapters of wrongness from Elihu.
Now here's the thing. Of course everything that these guys say isn't wrong.
Because even wrong people are still going to say something right every once in a while. Am I right?
You know if I went to some church that taught a whole bunch of false doctrine, I'm going to hear some right things.
But in general, what the friends say and what Elihu says are not the right things.
And so we can't trust what they say.
Now a lot of people would say, well it's scripture so it's correct.
But hold on a minute. The scripture is true. Every chapter of Job is true because it's true that Eliphaz said that.
It's true that Bildad said that. The Bible's telling us the truth when it says that Elihu said that.
But that doesn't mean that what they said is true.
For example, the Bible tells us what Satan said a few times.
The Bible says there's no truth in him.
So what if I just took a Bible verse where Satan is speaking and quoted that and said, thus saith the word of God.
And then I quoted Satan.
Or I quoted other false prophets in the Bible that, you know, God gives us the words of false prophets.
He gives us the words of wrong people.
Now this is most dramatic in the book of Job.
But I think that Job exists for this exact reason so that we'll understand when we're reading the rest of the Bible.
We'll realize, hey wait a minute.
When a character in the Bible is talking, they're human and not everything that they're saying is necessarily correct.
We always trust what the narrator says.
We always trust what the Lord says or what Jesus says.
And whoever's writing the book, you know, when Paul's writing the epistle of the Corinthians, obviously what he says is the word of God.
When he's writing Romans, when David's writing Psalms, that's all God's word.
But when the Bible gives a quotation of a human character, we have to evaluate that critically.
We have to think about, hey, is what they're saying right or wrong here?
We can't just take it to the bank that everything that's said in the Bible is always going to be true
because sometimes the Bible truly records people saying wrong things.
So the book of Job kind of serves as this super dramatic example of that
where you have entire chapters from people that we later find out are bozos.
And obviously they kind of seem like a bozo even going in.
But God is really driving in that point with the book of Job.
Now there are people out there teaching that Elihu is correct.
I'm going to completely demolish that.
If you have a Bible in your hand and you actually follow along with me tonight,
I don't see how any rational person could walk away saying, well, I still think Elihu is correct.
It's absurd.
But here's what's out there.
I did a quick internet search just to see what people were saying.
I found some quotes from people.
He's more right than any other human speaker in the book, including Job.
Job doesn't answer Elihu because he agrees with them.
Elihu sums up Job accurately talking about the quotes that he gives.
And of course Peter Ruckman teaching that Elihu is the author of the book of Job.
Let's look at the evidence tonight and just be open minded.
Let's just examine the evidence and see if there's any possible way that's true
that Elihu is correct or a godly man teaching the truth.
Or as I'm saying, is he speaking error just like the other three guys are speaking error?
Look if you would at Job chapter one.
We're going to examine the evidence.
Let's go through this and examine the evidence.
And this is a good exercise in how to read and interpret the Bible.
You see, the Bible is a lot like algebra.
And I know that, you know, that might scare some of you when I say that.
But, you know, the simple concept of algebra is this.
You start with what you know and then you solve for what you don't know.
Okay?
You don't just start worrying about what x and y are when you haven't even looked at what you know.
Look at the stuff you know and the stuff that you know is the key to figuring out what you don't know.
Because once you look at, well I know this, I know this, I know this, well then guess what?
Only one answer is going to fit in x.
Or maybe a couple answers but there's not an infinite number of right answers
because you've got these things that you know and you use what you know to solve for what you don't know.
Here's the thing.
The Bible is filled with clear verses, clear statements out of the mouth of God.
That's what you know.
The Bible also contains quotations from characters that, you know, are they right?
Are they wrong?
We don't know sometimes.
The Bible also contains difficult passages that are hard to understand.
So those could be a little bit of an unknown as far as the interpretation.
So always start with what you know.
Figure out what you're given.
You're given like an algebra story problem.
Sometimes the first thing to do is just make a list of everything you know and write it all down, kind of catalog.
Well I know this, I know this.
That's the way the Bible is.
When something is clear cut, straightforward in the Bible, put that in the column of stuff that you know.
And then use that to solve for the unknown, okay?
And if your answer is three divided by zero, you did something wrong, okay?
So here we go.
The evidence.
Job 1, 1.
That's always a good place to start, right?
Chapter 1, verse 1.
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job.
And that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil.
This is something that we know for a fact to be true.
God is telling us right here, the narrator of the Bible is telling us right away,
Job is a perfect and upright man that fears God and he eschews evil.
This guy despises evil.
He stays away from evil.
He's upright.
Now when the Bible says he's perfect, it doesn't mean that he's sinless.
No one is sinless.
Perfect means complete or mature or the entire package, okay?
Job is the whole package.
He's not one of these guys where, well, you know, he sacrificed in the high places,
but other than that, his heart was right with God.
No, he's one who just, he did what was right in the sight of the Lord.
I mean, if you think about in 2021 being a Christian, he checks all the boxes.
He's going to church.
He's reading his Bible.
He's praying.
He's living a clean life.
He's winning people to Christ.
You know, that's what perfect would mean, that there's not an area in his life that's
just ungodly or wicked.
It's not to say that he never sins, but it's to say that he's the whole package and he's
a godly man.
That's what we know from verse one.
Look, look what else we know from verse eight.
And the Lord said unto Satan, has thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him
in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fearth God and escheweth evil?
Not only is the Bible telling us that he's a very godly man, it's also telling us that
there is no one on the planet as godly as Job.
He is literally the number one most righteous, most godly person on the planet.
I mean, that's what the Bible tells us.
And just to quickly give you the summary of the book of Job, basically Satan accuses Job
before God.
He doesn't really have any sin to accuse him of.
He can't point at some wickedness in Job's life.
So, he basically just says, well, you know, I mean, the only reason Job's serving you
is because you bless him so much.
I'll bet if you were to hurt him or take away what he has, he's going to curse you to your
face.
And so, God takes him up on that challenge and says, okay, I'm going to allow you to
hurt Job.
And then, of course, Satan hurts Job in various ways and then Job still retains his integrity.
Job still does what's right.
And so, Job is vindicated.
Look at chapter 2, verse number 3.
And so, Job goes through all this horrible suffering.
We know that Job loses all of his wealth and eventually his body is covered in sores and
boils and he's itching and scraping himself.
His 10 children die.
His wife disrespects him.
I mean, this guy loses everything.
His health is gone.
His money is gone.
His respect is gone.
His family is gone.
He loses everything.
Look what the Bible says in Job, chapter 2, verse 3.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him
in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil, and
still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou moveth me against him to destroy him,
and these are the key words, without cause.
So, does God have a good reason to bring any evil or harm into his life?
Like, well, you know, yeah, Job's a good guy, but God needs to do this to humble him.
He's too high and mighty.
God needs to do this to take him down a notch.
Is that what the Bible says?
No.
God is saying, you moved me to destroy him without cause.
There was nothing to warrant the suffering that Job went through.
Job is simply suffering as a test, as a trial of his faith that he passes with flying colors.
That's what's going on in the book of Job, according to the narrator himself.
Now, let's jump forward, if you would, to Job, chapter 34.
Let's see what Elihu says about Job, and let's see if what Elihu says matches what God says
about Job.
God says, you know, I went against him without cause.
Job is a perfect and upright man.
The fear is God and the shoe is evil.
Job, there's none like him in all the earth.
Now, look down at your Bible, let's see what Elihu says.
It's funny, because Elihu says something very similar to what God said, except that it's
the exact opposite of what God said.
Job 34, verse 7.
What man is like Job?
Oh, sounds like he agrees with God, that Job's unique.
What man is like Job who drinketh up scorning like water, which goeth in company with workers
of iniquity, and walketh with wicked men?
For he hath said, it profiteth the man nothing that he should delight himself with God.
Elihu is literally teaching the opposite of what God says out of his own mouth in chapters
1 and 2, that there's none like Job, perfect and upright.
He said, well, who's like Job going in company with wicked men, going in company with the
workers of iniquity, drinking up scorning like water?
And then look at the lie that he tells in verse 9.
For he hath said, it profiteth the man nothing that he should delight himself with God.
Now, that's not a good thing to say, is it?
Now, if Job really said that, there'd be an issue there, wouldn't there?
Except guess what?
Job didn't say that.
This is a lie.
Come back if you would to Job 21 and let's see what Job actually said.
You can keep your finger if you want in Job chapter 34.
Let's see if Elihu is telling the truth about what Job has said.
Now, that might have been what Elihu heard.
You know, sometimes when we talk, people hear something different than what we said.
Sometimes they take what we say and they kind of put their own spin on it in their mind,
but the good news is it's written down in black and white so we can actually rewind
the tape and actually see what it is that Job said.
Let's see what Job said.
Job 21 verse 7 says this, Wherefore, why, do the wicked live?
Become old, yea, are mighty in power.
Their seed is established in their sight with them and their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
Now, let me stop and explain this quickly.
Job's three friends are basically saying, well, if all these bad things happen to you,
you must be a bad person.
That's why all this bad stuff is happening to you.
You must be getting some kind of a punishment.
And Job's saying, I didn't do anything.
That's the basic argument between him and his three friends.
Who's right?
We know from the narrator that he didn't do anything.
No, you must have done something because bad things are happening.
That's what the three friends are saying.
He's denying it.
He's saying I'm innocent.
So what Job explains many times in the chapters where he's talking is that, you know what?
I've seen a lot of really bad people prospering in this world and it seems like they're doing pretty well.
And I've also seen a lot of good people have bad things happen to them.
Now, who here has ever seen those things in this world?
Have you seen bad people prospering and good peoples?
Of course we all have.
And so Job is saying that the three friends aren't making any sense based on what we see in reality.
Based on what we see in our lives.
So Job is pointing out in verses 7 through 9, you know, he's saying, well, here's a good question.
Why do the wicked live and grow old and why are they mighty in power?
And why are they having all of these prosperities?
Look at verse 14.
Just for sake of time, we'll jump down to verse 14.
Therefore, because they're doing so well, basically, therefore they say unto God,
Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
What is the Almighty that we should serve him?
And what prophets should we have if we pray unto him?
Now, this is exactly what Elihu is accusing Job of saying.
Did you notice that?
Because in chapter 34, verse 9, Elihu lies and says, well, he said,
it profited the man nothing that he should delight himself with God.
When in reality, Job is quoting wicked people saying, wicked people say, in verse 15 of chapter 21,
what prophets should we have if we pray to him?
But does Job agree with these wicked people?
Look at verse 16.
Lo, their good is not in their hand.
Watch this.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
So he says, that's what the bad guys are saying and I am far from agreeing with them.
I don't agree with them at all.
Then Elihu comes along and says, well, here's what Job said and quotes these wicked people.
Now, is Elihu telling the truth or not?
I mean, look what the Bible says right in front of you.
It's clear that it's wicked people that would say it profits nothing to serve God.
It profits nothing to pray to God.
It profits nothing to love God.
That's what wicked people would say and Job said, yeah, that's what they say and I couldn't disagree more.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Alright, let's examine what else Elihu has to say.
Go to chapter 34 verse 35.
Chapter 34 verse 35, this is what Elihu says about Job.
He says in verse 35, Job had spoken without knowledge and his words were without wisdom.
So let me ask you this.
Can we accept both what Job says and Elihu says as correct?
Can we say, well, I don't like the three friends, but I like Job and I like Elihu.
I like what they're saying.
They're speaking correctly.
Can both Job and Elihu be right?
When Elihu turns around and says of Job, his words are without wisdom.
He's wrong.
Job's wrong.
Job has spoken without knowledge.
You can't have both, my friend.
Now, here's the thing.
Job is filled with some extremely powerful scriptures out of the mouth of Job.
I mean, you want to talk about great scripture.
You know, we just sang a song, in fact, what, 20 minutes ago based upon scripture from
Job, the song that we sang about, when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as
God.
How about the prophecies about Jesus, prophecies about the resurrection?
I mean, the book of Job is a powerful book and it ain't Elihu that makes it powerful.
It ain't Eliphaz that's powerful.
It's not Bildad that we like to read.
It's not Zophar.
I don't know about you, but those chapters are, you know, you're kind of just enduring
Bildad and enduring Zophar so you can get to what Job says.
And then when you get to what Job says, the awesomeness begins.
Okay, that's where the powerful stuff begins.
So, are you willing to trade Job for Elihu?
Because you can't really have both.
You can't sit there and say, well, Elihu is correct, but what Job said is correct also.
I'm up here telling you that what Job said is 100% correct and that Elihu is wrong and
that Elihu says Job is wrong, so how can you have both?
Alright, maybe more algebra is needed on your part if you don't understand what I'm saying.
He says in verse 36, my desire is that Job may be tried unto the end because of his answers
for wicked men, for he addeth rebellion unto his sin.
Of course, we know Job is not being dealt with for any particular sin.
How can he add rebellion to his sin when there's no sin in question here?
I'm not saying that he's sinless, but in regard to this scenario, there's no sin that's causing
him to be judged for him to add rebellion to.
It is Elihu who is wrong.
I always crack up when Elihu says, I got to find the part where he says that he's full
of matter and I'm thinking to myself, you know, where's that verse?
Yeah, verse 18, for I'm full of matter of chapter 30.
I always say you're full of beans is what you are there, Elihu.
He addeth rebellion unto his sin.
He clappeth his hands among us.
He multiplieth his words against God.
Is that true?
Folks, that's not the book of Job that I've been reading.
Job is constantly glorifying God, worshipping God.
I mean, this is the guy who said, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall
I return thither.
The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Okay, we're talking about the guy who said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
So, is he multiplying his words against God?
Absolutely not.
He's preaching the word of God throughout the book of Job.
Go to chapter 35, verse 2.
Job 35, 2, this is what Elihu has to say.
Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou seest?
My righteousness is more than God's?
Okay, can somebody give me chapter and verse where Job said that?
So Raymond, do you think you were right when you said that you were better than God, Raymond?
Remember when you said you were better than God?
You think you were right?
You think you were right when you said the Bible wasn't God's word, Daniel?
You think you were right when you said that?
It's a stupid question, isn't it?
You know, and people are like, well, how come Job didn't answer him?
How do you answer that question?
This is like a question like, so when did you start cheating on your wife?
It's like, what?
That doesn't make, it's like, no.
How do you, this is a, this is a loaded question.
This is an unfair question.
It's a question that makes no sense.
Answer not a fool according to his following.
I'm glad we don't have to listen to some back and forth between Job and this guy, okay?
It's hard enough just to get through what this guy has to say.
So, you think you were right when you said my righteousness is more than God's?
In verse 2 of chapter 35, verse 3, for thou saidst, what advantage will it be unto thee and what profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin?
Again, that's what Job said wicked people think.
He said, I don't think that way.
That's how they think.
I will answer thee and thy companions with thee.
Jump down to verse 16.
Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain.
He multiplieth words without knowledge.
Look at chapter 36, verse 2, and you'll see that, you know, Elihu is claiming to be speaking on behalf of God.
But yet, why does what he says not agree with what God said at all?
It says in chapter 36, verse 2, Suffer me little and I will show thee that I have yet to speak on God's behalf.
Jump back if you would to chapter 33, verse 32.
Now tell me if this is true.
Job 33, verse 32, if thou hast anything to say, answer me, speak, for I desire to justify thee.
Who believes that?
Who here thinks that Elihu desires to justify Job when he tells us in verse 36 of chapter 34,
my desire is that Job may be tried unto the end because of his answers for wicked men?
Hey buddy, I want to justify you.
I want you to fry, buddy.
It's like, well, which one is it?
Look at chapter 33, verse 9.
I'm sorry, I didn't include enough in my notes.
Let me back up a little bit.
Go to verse 8.
This is Elihu talking about Job, starting in verse 8 of chapter 33.
Surely thou hast spoken in my hearing, and I've heard the voice of thy word, saying,
I mean, we're all here, we all heard it.
Now he's going to begin to, you know, quote Job.
I'm clean, without transgression, I'm innocent, neither is there iniquity in me.
Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy, he putteth my feet in the stalks,
he marketh all my paths.
Behold, in this thou art not just.
Folks, that's exactly, what Job, what Job is saying here, you know, even though it's Elihu telling us what Job said,
and we know how accurately he quotes Job,
but this is in essence correct that he was without transgression,
and that God was treating him like an enemy, and that God was moved against him without cause.
So Job is correct here.
But according to Elihu, he says, you're unjust in this, you're wrong on this.
The reality is that Job is innocent, and that God is moved against him without cause.
That's what the narrator actually tells us, that's what the Lord actually told us.
Go back if you went to Job chapter number 9.
Job chapter number 9, and I want you to pay close attention to what Job says in Job chapter 9, beginning in verse 20,
because, you know, Job is not claiming to be sinlessly perfect, or that he never makes a mistake.
He's just basically saying the obvious thing, that he hasn't done anything of this caliber.
I mean, look, you know yourself, you know your life, and you know, I hope you're living a pretty good Christian life.
If all of a sudden some horrific thing came upon you when you're living a pretty good Christian life,
I'm not saying you're perfect, I'm not perfect, but you know, you're serving God, you're doing a lot of right things,
you don't have some major sin, it's not like you're committing adultery, or going out and getting drunk and taking drugs,
or, you know, you're not sleeping around, or, you know, you're not going to casinos and gambling and partying or something, right?
You're living a, you know, pretty decent life, pretty clean life.
You'd know if something horrible happened, you'd know, like, this is not God punishing me for stuff
because I'm just going about my business here, living a Christian life.
That's the situation that Job's in. But the difference is that you and I have more wrong in our life than Job.
Because Job is the most upright man on the whole earth.
So even if you could sit there and kind of do a self-check and say, you know what, I'm pretty much right with God,
I'm not perfect, but I'm trying, I'm reading my Bible, I'm praying, I'm pretty much right with God,
Job was way more right with God than me or you.
And he's just thinking that obvious thought that we would all have of, no, I didn't do some horrible sin to bring this on myself.
That's a right attitude because God agrees.
But look what he says in verse 20 of chapter 9.
If I justify myself, my known mouth shall condemn me.
If I say I'm perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul, I would despise my life.
This is one thing, therefore I said it.
He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
Is he right about that? Yes, he is right about that.
God will sometimes allow bad things to happen to good people.
He will sometimes destroy good people and bad people.
Now there's one thing that Job is missing here.
There's one piece of the puzzle that he's missing and that is that in the end, the latter end of Job is blessed
and he's twice as blessed at the end of the book as he was at the beginning of the book.
So Job doesn't know that part yet, so Job's just looking at it as, you know what?
Hey, though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
He destroys the perfect and the wicked.
He doesn't know that even if he does destroy the perfect, he's gonna lift him up again.
He's going to fix things.
You see, the Christian life is not without its trials and tribulations, but the end is always good.
You will always end up in a good place as a Christian.
The end will always be a good and you'll always be satisfied in the end and glad that you served God
and you'll say, hey, it all worked together for good to those that loved God, myself included.
I'm glad it went the way it did.
Now, it doesn't mean it's always gonna be good at every step of the way, but in the end it's gonna be good, right?
Job, you know, sees that only through a glass darkly here, so he's just saying, look, I'm not saying that I'm perfect.
I'm not saying that I am just totally, you know, justified and everything, but he's saying, here's what I'm saying.
He destroys the perfect and the wicked.
He says, even if I were perfect, I would despise my life.
Even if I were perfect, you know, now here's the thing, what did God say about him?
What word did God use to describe him? Starting with a P?
God said he's what?
And he's like, well, you know, I'm not perfect.
So who are we gonna believe, Job or God?
What about when they asked John the Baptist, art thou Elijah?
What did he say?
I'm not.
What did Jesus say about him?
This is Elijah.
Who's right?
I mean, this is a good, this is a good lesson how to read the Bible, friend.
When people talk in the Bible, human beings talking in the Bible aren't always right.
But when Jesus is talking, when the Lord is talking, when the author of the book is talking, when the narrator is talking, take it to the bank.
When Jesus says, this is Elijah, which was for to come, case closed, it's Elijah.
Now, I'm not saying that it's literally Elijah or the reincarnation of Elijah or something like that.
You know, although that theory is out there, here's the thing about that is that however you want to take that,
when the Bible says Elijah will come first and restore all things, when there's a prophecy in the Old Testament about Elijah coming before the Messiah, it's John the Baptist.
John the Baptist, though, didn't realize that.
You know, John the Baptist, when he's asked that question, he could have said, yeah.
You know, are you Elias?
Yeah, I am.
You know, I'm Elias, which was for to come.
When the Bible says, Elias comes first, that's me.
He didn't say that because he didn't know that.
But Jesus did know that and that's why Jesus says, this is Elias.
So, if Job has a low view of himself, does that mean that he's a bad guy?
No.
I hope that I don't have a higher view of myself than God has of me.
You know, whatever I think of myself, I hope God's like, nah.
I hope God's not like, nah.
You know, you think you're, you think you're at this level, you're here.
I'd rather that God look down at me and say, well, you think you're down here, you're actually up here.
Oh, okay.
You know, we should think of ourselves in a humble way.
Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, strangers and not thine own lips.
And of course, the best person to be praising you is God.
That's who you really want to get the praise from.
So, the fact that Job says this, now here's why this is important.
Go if you would to Job 38.
This is the crux and I hope you've processed all the information that we've seen so far
and that you're comprehending everything that I'm explaining.
This is kind of a little bit of an advanced level sermon in a sense, you know, expecting you to really think
and pay attention and maybe know a little something about the book of Job.
Even if you don't know anything about the book of Job, I hope you'll still get something out of the sermon tonight
and understand something important, but here's the key thing.
Job chapters 32 through 37 are Elihu talking, who I'm saying is full of beans, full of matter, okay?
At the end of chapter 37, we abruptly end Elihu's speech and jump right into God talking.
And this is the key passage that people are twisting or misunderstanding
and we want to get a right understanding of this, Job 38.
So, look at the end of verse 24 of Job 37.
So, Job 37 verse 24, right before chapter 38, this is still Elihu just going on and on.
Men do therefore fear him, he respecteth not any that are wise of heart.
It's just he's talking.
It doesn't seem like he's done.
There's no closure.
He's just talking and talking and talking and talking and talking.
Then all of a sudden, in chapter 38 verse 1, it just says,
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.
Who's he talking to?
Job. He's not talking to Elihu.
He answers Job out of the whirlwind and said,
Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up now thy loans like a man,
for I will demand of thee and answer thou me.
Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare if thou hast understanding.
Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest?
Or who hath stretched the line upon it?
And on I ask all these questions.
Now, here's something that we need to understand here.
Is that throughout the book of Job, God, excuse me, throughout the book of Job,
Job has been wanting to talk to God.
He brings this up a bunch of times in the book of Job.
Like, man, I wish I could talk to God about this.
I wish I could just ask God what's going on.
And I think we've all felt that way before.
Like, where something's going on in our lives and we don't understand
and we just wish that we could just ask God, what do I do?
What's the deal? Why is this happening?
I mean, I think we've all felt that way at times.
So Job, of course, with all the horrible things he's going through,
he's like, man, I wish I could talk to God about this.
I wish God would talk to me. Okay.
So God is showing up and talking to him.
And God is showing up and speaking these things and asking these questions.
Now, to me, it's obvious that when God jumps in here to what Elihu is saying,
he says, well, who's this?
That he's clearly talking about Elihu.
Elihu's the guy who's darkening counsel by words without knowledge.
But here's what people will say.
No, no, no, that's not about Elihu. They'll say that's about Job.
Here's why this is absurd.
Number one, Job's not talking when he says that and Job hasn't said a word in six chapters.
Job has not opened his mouth for the last six chapters.
So as I was surfing the net about, you know, people trying to defend this view that Elihu is speaking truth,
I found this website. I think it was like some kind of an East Orthodox website or something
where they were saying that, you know, Elihu is correct.
And they said, this is for sure talking about Job and here's why.
They said, context exclamation point, okay?
Context exclamation mark. Listen to this.
Here's the opposing side.
All of the rhetorical questions in Job 38 are directed at Job.
Why would verse two be an exception?
So they're claiming, hey, look, every other question is directed at Job.
This one's clearly directed at Job too.
Look at the context.
Let's see if that's true.
Look at verse two.
Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
Now let's look at the rest of the questions.
Where was thou if thou knowest?
Do you notice how it's thou, thou, thou?
So he starts out by saying, who's this guy?
And then he says, where were you? Where were you?
Do you know? What are you doing?
So is it true that, well, all of these questions are directed at Job,
why would verse two be any different?
Here's why verse two's different, because verse two's different.
Because verse two is talking about a third party
and the other verses are talking to him.
I mean, think about it.
Would it make any sense for me to answer Job?
Okay, Daniel's going to be Job right now, okay?
So I'm going to answer Job out of the whirlwind, right?
Who's this?
This guy's been talking for the last six chapters, right?
So who's this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge?
Now gird up your loins.
It's like, that doesn't make sense grammatically.
See, who's this is someone else.
Okay, now let's talk about you.
Does everybody see the difference?
This guy is third person, you is second person.
So no, the context does not put these questions as parallel.
They're not parallel.
One's talking about a third party, one's talking to Job.
It would make the most sense when he says this.
By the way, notice he doesn't say, well, who are you that darkens counsel?
He says, who's this?
Notice he doesn't say, well, who's that guy?
He didn't say that, he said this.
Now what's the difference between that and this?
This is right next to me, right?
This cup, that cup.
What's the difference between saying this cup and that cup?
Location, right?
One of them's far, one of them's close.
One of them's right here.
Does everybody understand?
So by saying this, who is this that darkens present tense with words without knowledge,
this guy who right now is saying stuff that is not correct.
Oh, well, obviously that's the guy who talked seven chapters ago.
No, the word this is talking about the guy we just heard,
this guy that just is talking right now,
who I'm interrupting right now because otherwise he will never stop.
Okay.
So then, you know, God goes on and on and on and speaks all these wonderful things
about Behemoth and Leviathan and all.
I mean the best part by far of the Book of Job, in my opinion,
is verses, chapters 38 through 41.
I mean that's the climax, right?
That's the best part.
So let's go to chapter 42, the conclusion.
You know, in chapter 41, he finishes up talking about dinosaurs.
You know, I mean, I mean he covers a lot.
Starts out with the creation of the world and ends up talking a lot about dinosaurs.
Well, we get to chapter 42, verse 1.
Then Job answered the Lord and said,
I know that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholding from thee.
Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?
So people will say, wait a minute, see right there, he's owning that about himself.
He's taking that upon himself right there.
Well, first of all, number one, it's not exactly the same statement,
but let's pretend for a minute that it were the same statement, right?
Let's say it's the exact same statement.
Just because Job is saying this about himself, like, well, I'm an idiot,
it doesn't mean that God's saying that about Job.
Again, are we going to turn everything that we've seen so far tonight on its head
because of this one question?
And by the way, I never base anything I believe in the Bible on a question.
I only base it on a statement.
I would never build an entire doctrine on a question.
I don't have a statement to back that up.
Questions can support things, but, you know, I don't want a question mark at the end of my biggest proof text.
But it says here, who is he? Watch what else Job says, though. Keep reading.
Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?
Therefore have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
He's like, I don't even know what I said, man.
The stuff I said, I don't even know.
But what do we know about what Job said?
What do we know about what Job said?
We know that what Job said is correct.
That's chapter 1, chapter 2.
We know that he's right.
And then in chapter 42, look at verse 7.
Chapter 42, verse 7.
And it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job,
the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite,
My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends.
For ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, watch this,
as my servant Job hath.
So what does God say?
Job spoke right.
Now look, I don't even need God to tell me that
because of the fact that what Job said throughout the book of Job
is clearly inspired by God.
Because it's some of the most powerful scripture in the Old Testament.
That doesn't just come from man's heart.
You know how many people have tried to write books like the Bible?
They all failed.
The Bible is unique because only God can write the Bible.
And so Job, and I'm not talking about Eliphaz now.
I'm not talking about Zophar and Bildad.
Hey, the stuff that Job preaches in the book of Job
is some powerful, powerful stuff.
Some of the greatest, most quotable texts in the Old Testament.
Of course what Job said is right.
But yet in chapter 42, what do we have Job saying?
Just shut me up right now because I don't even know what I said.
Here's the thing.
If God answers you out of a whirlwind,
you're going to say some funny things too.
Think about it.
What happened when Jesus was transfigured in all of his glory
on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter and James and John?
He wants to go camping.
Right?
Hey, it's good for us to be here.
Let's build three tabernacles.
Let's start a campfire.
It's like, what in the world?
And the Bible says that Peter did not know what he was saying
when he said that.
When he said like, hey, let's build three tabernacles.
Let's build one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.
He knew not what he said because he's terrified.
When people are confronted by the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament,
they're falling on their face as dead.
Some people, God has to like resuscitate them
and literally pick them up off the ground
and give them supernatural strength
to be able to even stand there and listen to him.
So Job is just so scared and terrified,
he's just confessing to everything that he didn't even do.
Think about it.
Let me ask you this.
Do human beings ever confess to stuff that they didn't do?
And by the way, we don't even see Job
confessing to any sins or anything,
but look what he says. Watch what he says.
He's just like, I uttered that I understood not, verse 3.
Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Here I beseech thee and I will speak.
All demand of thee and declare thou unto me.
I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear,
but now mine eyes see it thee,
wherefore I abhor myself.
I hate myself, okay, God?
I hate me.
I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.
Repent of what? I don't even know, but I repent of it.
I don't even know what I did,
but I'm sorry.
Because here's the thing, look,
Job believes himself to be innocent, doesn't he?
That's what he spent all those chapters telling us
that he's innocent.
Job believes himself to be innocent,
but when God comes out of a whirlwind
and starts speaking all these powerful things to him,
out of a whirlwind.
Do you know what a whirlwind is?
It's a tornado.
When God shows up in a tornado
and in some booming voice,
is telling you about dinosaurs.
You know what?
You're just like, I hate myself.
I'm sorry.
Forget everything I said.
I'm an idiot.
Kill me now.
So I'm sorry.
I'm not going to take that and say,
oh, well, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, Job,
you are lame, Job.
You know, here I am in 2021.
Yeah, Job, I'm glad you finally figured out
what trash you are.
He's not trash.
But when you're in the presence of Almighty God
as a mortal human being,
you're going to feel like trash.
You're going to feel this big.
I mean, what Job is saying here
doesn't really even make sense
because he says like,
I uttered that I understood not
things too wonderful for me,
which I knew not.
Verse four, here I beseech thee
and I will speak, I will demand of thee
and declare that unto me.
Who is he talking to?
And what does he mean by that?
What is he saying?
What is that?
You know what that is?
That's Job just repeating back stuff
that God said.
Kind of apropos of nothing.
Kind of like the part about darkening words
without counsel that he misquotes
is kind of apropos of nothing
because this is just Job
terrified before God
because here's the thing.
What else can we learn from the book of Job
is that even the greatest man
on the planet
is just nothing before God.
I mean, we all believe that, don't we?
You know, the Bible says
there has not risen a greater man
of those that are born among women
than John the Baptist,
notwithstanding the least in the kingdom
of heaven is greater than he.
Mortal man on this earth,
even if you're the greatest man
on the earth at the time,
Job, who was the greatest man
on the earth in Christ's day?
John the Baptist.
You know, obviously aside from the Lord himself,
John the Baptist,
and yet the least in the kingdom
of heaven is greater than he.
The greatest man on earth
can't just waltz into heaven
and say, all right, here I am.
Roll out the red carpet for me.
The party can start.
I'm here.
No, the greatest man on the earth
is greater than God.
This does not mean, well, see,
Elihu was right about him
being filled with sin.
That's absurd.
He wasn't filled with sin.
He's just not up to God's level.
So he just basically is just terrified
and just repenting,
and he doesn't even say what he repents of
because what does he even need to repent of?
I don't know.
He's just like, he's pretty much
just signing a blank check like,
sign a bunch of blank lines,
sign Job, just fill it in.
I mean, I'll confess anything
right now, you know.
Here you go, you know.
And so I, again,
I find this to be such an
open and shut case because
we have the narrator telling us
about Job's godliness.
We have the narrator
and the Lord himself telling us
that what Job said is correct.
So to me that's a case closed.
That's correct.
If Job says, well, I said some,
I said things too wonderful for me,
he's wrong.
When Job says that he said
things too wonderful for him,
he's wrong because what he said
was actually correct.
Who's ever said something that was right
and you thought it was wrong,
but then it turned out you were right?
Everybody, right?
You know, you blurt out some answer
and it, you know, my wife and I
were just playing a board game
and she's like, that's stupid,
I shouldn't have done that.
And she's like, it's correct.
It was like a Job moment.
I've been there.
I've done it.
Peter did it for sure in Matthew 17.
Let's keep reading.
I'm going to hurry up and finish.
Job 42.7, and it was so that after
the Lord had spoken these words unto Job,
the Lord said to Eliphaz the demon,
my wrath is kindled against thee
and against thy two friends.
And that's what people will bring up.
He didn't say Elihu was wrong.
Yeah, but he didn't say Elihu was right either.
He expects you to be smart enough
to figure out that since what Elihu said
is basically the exact same stuff
that the three friends are saying.
It's so funny because Elihu's like,
oh man, you three friends have got it so wrong
and then he just proceeds to give
the exact same arguments.
Job's a sinner, Job's wicked,
that's why stuff's happening to him.
Same, it's like, hello,
we've already heard this before.
Job is not acknowledged
because Elihu's such a bozo
that he's not even worth answering
by God or Job.
That's why God's like, who's this guy
darkening counsel with verses?
And he's just like, shut him up.
All right, let me talk to you,
let me talk about you and your three friends.
Because some people just aren't even worth it.
They're not even worth answering.
They didn't bring anything new
to the table that had merit.
And so he doesn't get dealt with.
Therefore, take unto you,
now seven bullocks and seven rams
and go to my servant Job
and offer up for yourselves
a burnt offering
and my servant Job shall pray for you,
for him will I accept.
He's saying like, I don't even want
you guys to even pray for yourselves
because I'm angry with you.
My wrath is kindled against you
for falsely accusing my servant Job.
You sound like Satan here,
falsely accusing my servant Job.
Elihu did the same thing.
All day long I showed you the verses
Job will pray for you,
him will I accept,
lest I deal with you after your folly
in that you have not spoken of me
the thing which is right
like my servant Job.
So Eliphaz the Temanide
and Bildad the Shuhite
and Zophar the Neamathite
went and did according
as the Lord commanded them.
The Lord also accepted Job.
So basically the three friends,
they end up, you know,
getting right with God.
God forgives them
for their wrongness here.
Now I mean they're probably
not necessarily considered
the coolest guys in heaven right now
as far as like, you know,
they kind of go down
as the guys who got it wrong
but you know, they said,
like I said a few, you know,
Eliphaz like I said some stuff,
you know, that was good.
Yeah but you were wrong though
in general.
And the Lord turned the captivity
twice as much as he had before.
Here's a quick bonus point.
Go to chapter 32 quickly.
Chapter 32.
This is where Peter Ruckman says
that Elihu is the author
of the book of Job.
Here's his evidence.
I'll read for you what Ruckman wrote.
The age of the book is indicated
by the text itself
which reveals the human author
to be one of Job's contemporaries.
The AAV 1611 shows
that the writer is the young man Elihu.
According to the distinct change
of tense in Job 32, 15 through 17
from the other verses in the chapter
that make up Elihu's speech,
he says that that statement
of Elihu's is clearly in retrospect
showing that according to the AAV 1611
that he is the human author
of the book of Job.
Let's look at what he's talking about.
In chapter 32 verses 15 through 17
claiming that this proves
that Elihu wrote the book.
Because I'll back up a couple verses.
In chapter 32 verse 13,
lest ye should say,
we found out wisdom,
God thrusted them down, not man.
Verse 14, now he hath not directed
his words against me,
neither will I answer them
with your speeches.
They were amazed.
They answered no more.
I will and answered no more.
I said, I will answer also my part.
I also will show my opinion
for I am full of whatever, okay?
So the point is,
this is not evidence at all
that the book of Job is written by Elihu.
In his imagination it is.
All it is, it's simply
he's going from talking to Job
to the three friends
and then back to talking to Job, okay?
So let's say this is Job
and the three guys are the three friends, right?
So let me read this.
So he's talking to the three friends
in verse 14, right?
Now he hath not directed
his words against me,
neither will I answer him
with your speeches, right?
Talking to the three guys.
Am I going to answer them
the way you guys did?
Verse 15, they were amazed.
They answered no more.
They didn't answer no more.
I said, I will also answer my part.
I also will show my opinion
because they're done.
Talking to Job now, right?
Does everybody understand?
Because I'm full of whatever.
The spirit within me constrained me,
blah, blah, blah.
And then he says, wherefore, Job?
So who's he talking to in verse 1 of chapter 33?
He's talking to Job.
Who's he talking to in verse 14?
He's talking to the three friends.
So he simply went from talking
to the three friends to talking to Job.
That's a fact.
Here's a fact.
He's for sure talking to the three friends
in verse 14, and he's for sure talking
to Job a couple verses later.
That's the shift.
So that gear, here's what he wants you to believe.
What Ruckman is saying is that basically,
you know, Elihu is writing
about himself in the third person
because remember Elihu said,
Elihu this and Elihu that.
But then in this one part,
he just kind of pauses and kind of like
breaks down the fourth wall
and gets all meta on us.
And he's just like, I lost my place, sorry.
Like he just gets all meta and is like,
oh, by the way.
Like he's just giving us the narrative
and he's just like, pause.
You know, they were amazed, man.
They were done.
And I was like, I'm gonna say something.
And he's like, okay.
So then he just jumps right back into the story.
It's absurd.
It's invented.
It's not the normal reading of this passage.
So what is the moral of the story?
Number one, trust the narrator of the Bible.
Trust the verses where it's thus saith the Lord.
Trust the verses where the author of the book,
whatever the book, when the author is speaking,
when the narrator is speaking,
it's absolute truth.
It's an omniscient narrator.
But every character in the Bible is not necessarily right.
You know, Mary says of Jesus,
oh, your father and I sought you sorrowing.
Was she right about that?
No, because then Jesus turns around and says,
no, I'm about my father's business.
Trust the narrator.
Characters in the Bible say wrong things.
Number two, don't base what's right and wrong
based on whether things go well in your life.
Oh, things are going good, I must be doing right.
Oh, things went bad, I must not be right with God.
No, base what's right and wrong
based on what the Bible says is right and wrong,
not on your circumstances,
because he destroys the perfect and the wicked, right?
Bad things happen to everybody
and it's not necessarily a punishment.
And don't you dare ever judge other people
and just say, oh, bad things happen to them,
they must not be right with God.
They must be in sin.
And you have to falsely accuse people
and bring a railing accusation.
So don't assume that people who go through suffering
are being punished.
And if you're going through a bad time right now,
hang in there because you will always be blessed by God
in the end if you're serving God.
In the end, not necessarily in the short term,
weeping may endure for the night,
but joy cometh in the morning.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the book of Job, Lord,
and thank you for all the wonderful things that Job says.
I hope that people will read the book of Job
and especially savor all the words
of the prophet Job himself.
And Lord, thank you for this great example book
that just makes it so clear
how we need to be critical sometimes
when characters are speaking in your word
and not take everything that a character says
as absolute truth, Lord.
I pray that this sermon would edify the body here
and that people would have a better understanding of Scripture,
and maybe this is something that someone needed to hear
because of some hard times that they or a loved one
are going through right now.
Bless us as we go our separate ways,
and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Then take your song books, please,
and turn to hymn number 123,
the Christian's Goodnight, number 123.
123, sleep on, beloved, sleep and take thy rest.
123, sing it out on this verse, verse together.
Sleep on, beloved, sleep and take thy rest.
Lay down thy head upon the saber's breast.
We love thee well, but Jesus loves thee best.
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
Calm is thy slumber as an infant's sleep,
but thou shalt wait no more to toil and weep.
Thine is a perfect rest secure indeed.
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
Until eternal glory lights the skies,
until the dead in Jesus shall arise,
then he shall come, but not in lonely guise.
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
Only goodnight, beloved, not farewell.
Till wild and all his saints shall dwell
in hallowed union, indivisible.
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
Until we meet again before his throne,
but in the spotless world he gives his own,
until we know even as we are known.
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
Amen. Great singing tonight, you are dismissed.
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