Job chapter 11, we see that Zophar the Neamathite answers for the first time.
There are three friends that Job is going back and forth with throughout the book of
Job and then later on another guy named Elihu is going to step in and start to speak.
But this is the first time that we hear from Zophar the Neamathite and it's a little
bit disappointing because Zophar just doesn't really have anything that new to bring to
the table.
If you listen to what Zophar says, it's pretty much the same thing that Elihu and I and Bildad
the Shuhite have said, that Job's living in sin and this is all just a punishment for
God's sin.
But Zophar takes it a little bit further because the Bible reads in verse number
one here, then answered Zophar the Neamathite and said, should not the multitude of words
be answered and should a man full of talk be justified?
Of course he's referring to Job.
Would thy lies make men hold their peace?
And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
For thou hast said, my doctrine is pure and I am clean in thine eyes.
But oh that God would speak and open his lips against thee and that he would show
thee the secrets of wisdom that they are double to that which is.
Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
Now that's just a bizarre statement.
Zophar does not have anything specific that he's accusing Job of and in the next few chapters
one of the things Job is going to say is just tell me what my iniquity is.
What is the big sin that I'm being punished for?
But they just assume that because bad things are happening to him he must be sinning and
they just judge according to the appearance.
They're not judging righteous judgment.
They have no evidence that he's done anything wrong.
But just this bizarre statement at the end of verse six where Zophar says that basically
what's happening to Job, God's going easy on him in light of how bad he's been, in light
of his sin even though he's not accusing of anything specific.
So Zophar is a little bit disappointing in that he just kind of rehashes the same
arguments of the other two guys.
God of course at the end of the book is going to say that they did not speak
that which was right concerning him.
But there's one thing that's interesting that I wanted to kind of home in on that's
a little bit different that Zophar mentions here.
In verse number six he says in that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they
are double to that which is.
And then in verse seven he says, canst thou by searching find out God?
Canst thou find out the Almighty under perfection?
It is as high as heaven.
What canst thou do?
Deeper than hell, what canst thou know?
The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.
And what he's basically saying is that we as human beings are unable to know the wisdom
of God.
We're unable to know the truths that God has and it's similar to what I believe Eliphaz
said when he said that we know nothing.
So here what he's saying is that if we're to search out and try to find out God, if
we want to understand wisdom, if we want to know God, it's just too hard.
I mean wisdom, knowledge, it's higher than heaven, it's deeper than hell.
And he says in verse four, thou hast said my doctrine is pure and I'm clean in thine eyes.
Basically what he's saying is we can't really know doctrine.
We can't really know exactly what God thinks and what God says and what's right and wrong.
And isn't that a mentality that you run into with people a lot today?
Like for example you'll tell them that you can know for sure that you're on your way to heaven
and how many people will tell you this?
Well nobody can know that.
Or you'll preach the Bible and you'll say, you know, this is what God thinks about this.
Here's what God feels about this or here's what God says about this.
And they'll say, well how do you know what God thinks?
How can you know God's opinion or how can you know what God says?
You know, how dare you as a human being be so presumptuous as to speak for God?
And that's pretty much what he's saying here.
We can't really know the wisdom of God.
We can't really know God.
Now there's an interesting scripture that uses almost similar wording to what Zophar
says here and it completely says the opposite of what Zophar says.
Now go to Deuteronomy 30.
You might already kind of know where I'm going with this if you're familiar with the very
famous passage in Romans 10.
Because in Romans 10 the Bible talks about how God's word is not up in heaven, it's not
down in hell, but that it's nigh unto us, it's near us, it's within our grasp and
within our reach.
Exactly the opposite of what Zophar is saying.
Oh man, it's higher than hell, it's deeper than, you know, it's higher than heaven,
it's deeper than hell.
God says no, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
Before we get to Romans 10 though, go to Deuteronomy 30 because Deuteronomy 30 is
the source of that quotation.
Romans 10 is actually quoting Deuteronomy 30.
And what's interesting is that Deuteronomy 30 is not about salvation.
Deuteronomy 30 is about knowing and keeping the commandments of God.
Because in Romans 10 the Apostle Paul is making a contrast between the righteousness
which is of the law, the righteousness which comes by obeying the law, and keeping God's
commandments, and he compares that to the righteousness which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
And of course in Romans 10 he says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth.
So if we go back to the source of his quotation in Deuteronomy 30, it's talking
about the commandments of God.
And this passage is actually the one that is the most relevant to what Zophar the Neamathite
is saying.
Because Zophar the Neamathite is looking at Job saying, well, you know, God's obviously
upset with you, you just, maybe you don't know what you did wrong or maybe we don't
know what you did wrong, but God just has way more knowledge and wisdom and stuff
that we don't even know about and so, you know, you're missing something, Job.
But in reality the Bible is real clear that not only can we know for sure that we're
going to heaven, we can also be sure what God's commandments are and what his expectations
are of us.
We don't have to wonder whether what we're doing is right.
Not only do we not have to wonder whether or not we're saved, but we also don't have
to wonder whether this is right or this is wrong.
You know, God has shown us his commandments.
God has shown us his expectation.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 11.
It says, for this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee,
neither is it far off.
It is not in heaven that thou shouldest say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring
it unto us that we may hear it and do it.
Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldest say, who shall go over the sea for us and
bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it.
Notice the three words at the end of verse 12 and the end of verse 13.
And do it, hear it and do it.
And then at the end of verse 13, hear it and do it.
Verse 14, but the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that
thou mayest do it.
See I've set before thee this day life and good and death and evil and that I command
thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments
and his statutes and his judgments that thou mayest live and multiply and the Lord
thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
Now according to this passage, are we left guessing or were the children of Israel left
guessing as to what God wanted them to do?
And they don't really know exactly what he expects, I mean they're just trying to
be a good person, trying to do the best they can, but they just don't really know
what he expects.
No, he says look, God's commandments are apparent unto you, they are nigh unto you,
you don't have to go to heaven to find out what they are.
A lot of people will say that about salvation, well you know nobody's ever been to heaven
so therefore we can't really know how to be saved.
Nobody's ever been to heaven and talked to God so we don't know what his expectations
are.
Yes we are because we know his expectation through his word.
And God's word is nigh unto us, it's available to us, his commandments have been made known
unto us, and we have the ability to hear God's word, to hear his commandments, and
to do them.
And if we do them then it shall be our righteousness, the Bible says, if we keep
these commandments.
Now go if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter 12, Ecclesiastes chapter number 12.
God's word is not just up in heaven.
Now the Bible does say, forever oh Lord thy word is settled in heaven, but God's
word is also available to us on this earth.
Now there are people out there who believe that the Bible has not been preserved unto
us today, even though God said heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall
not pass away, and that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than that one jot
or one tittle should pass from the law to all be fulfilled.
Even though he said that I know that whatsoever God doeth it shall be forever, and nothing
can be taken from it, and nothing can be put do it, and he doeth it that men
should fear before him.
Even though the Bible says the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried
in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, thou shalt keep them oh Lord, thou shalt preserve
them from this generation forever.
God's word has been preserved unto us today, but yet there are Christians and even
Baptists out there who say this, well the word of God was perfect in the original
when it was first written.
That was perfect, but that there are things that today are errors in the Bible.
How can you believe that when God has promised us in so many places that not one
jot or one tittle would pass from the law?
People will question, there are so many crazy new things on the internet, crazy beliefs
that are just gaining popularity.
Just with the internet it's so easy for whoever to just get on their soapbox.
It's great if they're up there preaching the truth, but then there are a lot of people
who just spread a lot of weird doctrine and they use it to shake the faith of those
that are unlearned and unstable.
They're easily deceived and carried about by the slight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
Now there are obviously good things on the internet, there's good information on
the internet, but a lot of the information on the internet is not from a trusted source.
Now this is the trusted source, the word of God, but so many things out there that
are contrary to this and people need to learn that they need to take what they hear
with a grain of salt and not just believe it.
One of the things that I've seen a lot of people saying, I've never heard this, they
said that the Hebrew Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures that this was translated from,
they say that was changed and corrupted and they say we need to be on the Septuagint.
You know the Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, but they say
oh the Jews that didn't believe on Christ, they went in and changed stuff and it's
the Greek Septuagint that we need to believe.
The Old Testament Hebrew text that we have today is corrupt they say, but in reality
Jesus Christ said that one jot or one tittle would in no wise pass from the law.
He's talking about the Hebrew Scriptures and he said that they would be preserved
word for word, letter for letter, and thank God they have been preserved.
In fact, today when people discuss and argue about the difference between the different
manuscripts, it's only the New Testament that they're even talking about.
Because the Old Testament, I mean even the modern false Bibles are translated from
the same, pretty much the same Hebrew Old Testament.
Now they're still corrupt because the men who are doing the translating are men who
do not believe the word of God and so they doubt things and they twist things
and they change things in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
So if you pick up an NIV, you know the New Testament and the Old Testament are both
going to be goofed up.
But they're goofed up for two different reasons.
The Old Testament's goofed up because of translation.
Just you know just translating things differently to remove hell and to you know to just soften
things up in different places.
Whereas the New Testament is corrupt in the NIV and others because they're translating
from a completely different Greek manuscript and they're making strange translation decisions.
So that's why the New Testament is more messed up in the modern versions than the
Old Testament is.
And of course of the two, which one's more important, the Old Testament or the New Testament?
I mean if you want to make sure that you have one right, the New Testament is
the final authority for all matters of faith and practice.
Obviously we know the Old Testament is God's word.
Obviously we know it's authoritative.
But the Bible calls the New Testament the better testament, the better covenant because
it is the New Testament that we are living in today.
You know under the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and so forth.
The Old Testament's very important.
But think about it, if you could only have one or the other, which one would you do?
I mean like you know what I mean?
And people would criticize you for saying that but it's true.
I mean if you were going to some barbaric coast somewhere, if you were going to be
shipwrecked somewhere amongst the natives, you know which one would you want to have?
You'd rather have both, but if you could only have one book, you know it'd probably be the book of John.
If you could only have one testament, you'd have the New Testament.
And that's why the devil has gone after the New Testament more than he's gone after
the Old Testament.
Are you listening?
So that's why in these new Bibles, the New Testament is dramatically even more corrupt
than the Old Testament in these modern versions.
And there are people out there though now that are calling the Old Testament text into question.
The one that everybody's agreed on for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Don't be deceived by these people.
Jesus promised that the Hebrew Old Testament would be preserved and it has been preserved.
And that's exactly what this is translated from, the King James Bible, which is perfect
and without error in both Old and New Testament.
But they want to get you to believe that God's Word isn't available to us.
You know, well it was perfect in the original and I've even heard them quote that, you
know, forever settled in heaven and say, well in heaven it's perfect.
Well what good does that do us if the Word of God's perfect in heaven if it's not available
to us?
And God said, no, you don't have to go to heaven.
The Word is nigh thee.
It's in your mouth, it's in your heart.
What we preach is the perfect Word of God.
You don't have to go dig it up somewhere.
You don't have to bring it down from heaven.
You don't have to dig down into the deep with some archaeologist to try to find the
Word of God that's been buried all these years.
No, it's nigh thee, it's in your mouth, it's in your heart.
Now in Deuteronomy 30 he said you have it so that you can hear God's commandments and
do them.
Now look at Ecclesiastes 12 verse 13.
It says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God and keep His commandments, and listen to this last phrase, this is important,
for this is the whole duty of man.
Now let me ask you this, does God expect us to do anything other than what He has
commanded us to do in His Word?
He says, look, fear God and keep His commandments, this is the whole duty of man.
For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good
or whether it be evil.
So there are people out there who will try to tell you that there's something else you
need to do besides what God has commanded.
Now for example, when it comes to financially, you know God has commanded to give the tithe
that basically His workers would be able to be paid and that the work of the ministry
could be paid for and that there would be meat in God's house.
In the Old Testament the tithes were paid unto the tribe of Levi, right?
And the tribe of Levi did not have an inheritance among the children of Israel, they did not
have a land where they owned that land as an inheritance for their tribe, but rather
the offerings made unto the Lord by fire, that was their inheritance.
And they served about the tabernacle, they were a full time minister in the work of
God and they lived off of the tithes of the people.
If you think about it, there are 12 tribes in Israel and one of those tribes the Levites.
So if everybody were giving one tenth or ten percent, you know it would pretty much cover
the needs of that tribe, that was the rationale behind that.
And in the New Testament a lot of people teach, well, that's been done away with.
But in reality in 1 Corinthians 9 the Bible makes it clear that just as the Levites lived
off of the tithes in the Old Testament, that in the New Testament God has also ordained
that they that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel.
So basically now we give to the local church that the preacher might be paid, that the
bills might be paid, that we pay for the rent and we pay for the gas in the church
van to the soul winning and we pay for food and activities when we have meals and
so forth.
You know, all the different things that the tithes pay for.
But I've grown up my whole life in independent fundamental Baptist churches.
All the churches that I grew up in, they believe in tithing, but they also, they pushed
you to give a lot more than that.
I mean, they really pushed, and you know I was just thinking about it, thank God our
church has been around for over eight years, we've never had a fundraiser.
Over eight years, we've never had a fundraiser, we've never even had a building fund, we've
never had, you know, any kind of a push to raise money, we've never put a thermometer
on the wall, we've never put goals, we've never said, hey, we're a little short on
money, let's give a little extra, let's do it.
We've never asked for money ever, once.
No fundraiser, no push for money.
Now one thing that we have done is I have just biblically taught, and I don't have
time to preach, you know, go back and get my sermons on tithing, you know, I have
taught probably a total of five, six times, you know, just about as much as it's mentioned
in the Bible.
You know, I don't want to put a huge emphasis on money, because the Bible doesn't put
a huge emphasis on money.
The streets of heaven are paved with gold.
To God, money is an after, I mean, it's the thing that he walks on.
It means nothing to him.
It's not the big emphasis of the Bible.
And just to show you that money was not a huge emphasis in Jesus' ministry, look who
he put in charge of the money.
I mean, he has 12 apostles, and he put Judas in charge of the money.
If he thought that the money was the important thing, he wouldn't have put the
traitor in charge of the money.
But Judas was the one who had the bag, and he held what was put there in, because
God does not want us to have the church be all about money.
And there are churches where it says every week, it says about money, money, money, we're
raising money, we've got to have money, we've got to make money, money, money, money.
And it takes the emphasis off of where it should be.
Now is money important?
Of course money matters.
Of course, we as men especially, we know that we have to go out and work hard, and
by the sweat of our brow, make enough money to pay the bills.
And it's important to us as men that we accomplish that.
And we work hard, and we care about the money, and we want to make sure that we can
feed and clothe and house our family.
So we don't want to just say money doesn't matter at all.
Does money matter to our church?
Well obviously, there are things that we use the money for at church, and if we didn't
have the money, we wouldn't be able to do those things.
We wouldn't have a building to meet in, you know, we wouldn't be able to have the
activities and things that we do.
But honestly, money is not as important as everything else, because even if our church
had no money, our church would still exist.
Even if there was no money.
Because it's free to sing hymns, it's free to preach, it's free to go soul winning,
it's free to read the Bible, we would find a way to exist even without any money.
So our church is not real big, just push, push, money, money, money.
The only reason that we even talk about tithing is just because we're just teaching
the Bible, and that is a command of God, and if we did not teach that principle that's
throughout the Bible, and that command that's throughout the Bible, then I would be remiss
as a pastor.
That would be like if I didn't teach you when it said thou shalt not steal, or if
I didn't teach you not to commit fornication, or if I didn't teach you not to do anything.
If I left out part of the Bible, then I'm not teaching the whole Bible.
But that being said, the Bible does not command you to give more than the tithe.
It doesn't.
I've heard preachers get up and say that if you're not doing more than tithing, you're
not right with God, and you're in sin.
And they say you need to give the tithe, and you need to give in addition to that.
You need to give extra, you need to give more than the tithe.
You know they say the tithe is just giving back what already belongs to God, now you
need to go above and beyond that and give more.
Now I agree that God does expect us to tithe, but anything beyond that is what the Bible
calls a free will offering.
Now if it's a free will offering, how can you say you're commanded that you must
do it?
And the Bible says that keeping God's commandments is the whole duty of man.
That's the whole duty.
And God commands us to give the tithe, he does not command us to go above that.
Now if you do go above that, that's great.
If you are generous beyond that, if you believe in what our church is doing, and
you want to help, and look, there are people who've given huge donations to our church
over the years.
One time a few years ago, somebody just mailed us this massive check in the mail.
That's what even allowed us to get into this building and get the church van and
really take things to another level.
It's a huge blessing when people give unto the church out of their own free will because
they want to, but to get up and say, hey, you need to participate in this special offering,
you need to get involved in this fundraiser, you need to give more, you're not given enough,
you know, that's just not biblical.
And we need to understand that all of God's commandments are in this book, and no one
should ever lay upon us any commandment that is not in the Bible.
Because God says that we know what his commandments are.
He said, you know what they are, you don't have to go to heaven to find out, you don't
have to dig down into the deep, you don't have to go over the sea to figure it out.
God's word is in your mouth, it's in your heart, you can know it and you can do it.
And he says that if we fear God and keep those commandments, that's the whole duty
of man.
That's it, we're done.
Now I don't know about you, but there are a lot of commandments in this book, and it's
pretty tough just to keep every commandment in this book.
Who thinks it's just easy to just keep every commandment in the whole Bible and to just
nail it?
This is already a challenge, is it not?
We don't need to add more commandments, I mean this is enough commandments.
You know, of course our government, they keep adding more rules all the time.
New rules, new rules.
But God isn't like that.
God just says look, these are the rules, and keep these laws, keep these commandments.
And he says you can know when you've done that.
You can know what the commandments are, you know how to do it, and look, Job is sitting
there wondering what have I done wrong?
And Zophar is saying well there's just other stuff that you just don't know about.
But that's just not true because Job knew what God's commandments were and he knew
he was keeping them.
And because he knew he was keeping them, he knew that he was not being punished for
his sins because he was in compliance with God's word.
And so we can be the same way.
Now go to Micah chapter 6, you'll see something almost similar in the Minor Prophets with
Micah chapter 6.
And there are other, sometimes there are other, I'm trying to think of other examples of just
extra biblical commandments, you know commandments that are not found in the Bible.
The extra giving comes to mind, which of course I'm not against extra giving, and
there have been times when I went above and beyond my tithe and gave something.
I mean I'm not saying it's great to do that, but it should be voluntary, it should
be of your own free will.
No one should be pressuring you or pushing you to give more than your tithe.
And by the way, for eight years we never had a fundraiser and we've never been low
on money.
Like we've never needed money, we've always had enough money.
In the last eight years we've paid all of our bills.
You know if a bill wasn't paid on time it was just because we just got busy and
paid it a few days later or something, but honestly we've always had enough money to
pay the bills.
We've always had enough money to take care of everything we need in our church, and
we've never had any debt.
And our church is 100% debt free without all the fundraisers, and you know it seems
like a lot of churches are just obsessed with building buildings, and obsessed with
buying giant buildings.
And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with building a building or buying a giant
building, but honestly it's not something that we have to do.
You know I mean honestly we could just rent, we could just rent a space like this forever.
And if the church gets bigger we could just rent a bigger space.
You know and a lot of these liberal mega churches, they'll be running five, ten thousand
and just renting.
You know and but it seems like fundamental Baptist though, it's like no we gotta build,
we gotta own.
And I remember when we got that big check a few years ago that I alluded to, you know
I thought like are we supposed to use this to buy a building, you know or should we?
And the buildings are so expensive, it's crazy.
I mean to get a building that would be big enough for the amount of people that we have
coming to our church would cost like about a million dollars.
And you look at that and it just makes so much more sense to just rent a building.
And just not, just don't get into debt, you don't have to do all the fundraising,
just rent a building.
And then if the church grows, you rent a bigger one.
And if the church gets smaller, you rent a smaller one.
And thank God our church never gets smaller, it's been continually growing.
But if our church were to theoretically get smaller, we just rent a smaller building.
And we don't have to say oh no the church is getting smaller, we're going to have
to change the preaching, we're going to have to tone things down, bring in some
new tithing people, you know bring in some people with money.
No, no, we don't have to worry about that, we just do what God wants us to do.
We don't have any pressure, we don't have any debt.
We don't have to worry about anything, we just preach God's word and just serve God,
do the soul wedding, and whatever money comes in, we use it.
And whatever money doesn't come in, we don't need it.
We do without.
And that's the way our church has always operated for the last eight years, and you
know that's the way I'd like to just continue operating.
I don't see why not.
It just, it works to just not get in over our head and get into a bunch of debt and
just be obsessed with buildings.
And you know, are there people out there who will make a mockery of our church and
say, oh yeah, you know, you guys are meeting in a rented facility, oh you guys are still
in that strip mall, yeah, I mean in a storefront.
You know what, those people, they'll just mock it for another reason.
So what, I'm not trying to please them, I'm not trying to press them.
You know, they made fun of us when we were meeting in a house.
And then they make fun of us when we're meeting in an office space.
And then they make fun of us when we're meeting in a storefront.
And then we get in a storefront that's two times the size or three times the size,
and then they'll make fun of it then.
You know what, it's not about the building.
They just hate the word of God being preached and so they're just trying to find a way
to criticize and attack it.
You know what, I'm sorry, I don't need to be in some stained glass cathedral somewhere.
I don't need some big obelisk on top of the building, you know, to tell everybody
it's a church.
I don't need to impress man and you don't need to impress man.
You know what, it's just about having a place to sit down and open our Bibles and
read the word of God and sing the hymns and that's what it's about.
It's not about a building and so it's not about money and raising all kinds of money.
What are some other extra biblical commandments that people will sometimes try to lay
on you besides just extra, the altar call, you know, if you don't come down the aisle
at the end of the service, they'll say you're not right with God.
You must come down the aisle to that altar.
That is not a biblical command.
What other extra biblical commands will people sometimes lay upon you?
What's that?
Yeah, no beard, thank you, praise God.
You know, they'll say, you know, hey, you need to be clean shaven, they'll say.
I mean how many times have you been to churches where it was not allowed for anyone
to be on the platform who has a beard or does anybody who preaches can't have a beard?
That is an extra biblical command that is not taught in Scripture.
Now I believe that it's okay to be clean shaven or to be bearded.
I mean God created a lot of people without the ability to grow a beard.
I mean there are a lot of nationalities that are just clean shaven naturally.
They don't even grow a beard.
Other nationalities just grow some facial hair.
You know, as a white, Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, I have the ability to grow a beard.
I'm taking advantage of that.
But again, the Bible nowhere commands you to have a beard and it nowhere commands
you not to have a beard.
But that's one of those extra biblical commandments and the Bible says that if we just keep
God's commandments, that's our whole duty.
That's it.
We don't have to just go by all these man-made extra commandments that are laid upon us.
And you try to confront these people about their beard rule, they have no Scripture.
I mean Jesus had a beard.
The prophets had beards.
I mean remember those guys in the days of David, they got their beards shaved off.
He's like, don't even come back until your beard grows in, buddy.
And so back then, people had beards.
It was the normal thing for everybody to have a beard.
Just because in the 1950s, beards went out of style and then the hippies came along and
started having a beard, so it's like, you know, hippie wears beard, therefore beard
is bad.
Well, that's a bad logic, okay?
What else?
Help me out.
What other unscriptural, just extra rules do people sometimes put upon you that are
not anywhere in the Bible besides telling you, you have to give more than the tithe.
You need to give more money.
You need to give extra or you need to shave that beard or you need to, what else is there?
Come down the aisle or you're not right with God.
Is that it?
I mean, you know that there's stuff out there.
There's stuff to be, you know, I don't know, head coverings, you know, whatever, different,
you know, plain, you have to dress plain.
Now I'm for modest apparel.
You shouldn't dress flashy and you shouldn't look like Las Vegas, but this thing of just,
you have to have plain clothing.
It has to be certain, like the Amish do, you know, where they tell you you can't have
even a pattern on your clothes.
It has to be just plain or if it does have a pattern, it's like a floral print
and they'll even tell you how many flowers, you know, per square inch on that fabric.
They have it just nailed down to a science.
You know, there are a lot of people out there who will try to give you dietary commandments.
You must be a vegetarian.
You know, that's not a biblical command.
So what I'm saying is we need to just focus on obeying God's commands and that is a full-time
job.
We don't need a bunch of other commandments and we know what they are.
Look at Micah 6.7.
It says, will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of
rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
So in Micah 6.7, he's questioning, you know, what does God want?
What pleases God?
What does God expect of us?
What does God want from us?
And then look at verse 8, it says, He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what
doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly
with thy God.
So this is another scripture that just drives in the fact that we are able to know what
God's expectations are.
We are able to know what God commands us to do and what God commands us not to do
And that we don't have to wonder whether this is right or this is wrong.
We need to go to scripture and test everything with scripture.
If there's a question, hey, is this right or is this wrong?
Let's go to scripture.
And if there's no scripture to prohibit it or no principle against it, then it cannot
be a sin because sin is the transgression of the law, okay?
And we need to let scripture determine what is right and what is wrong.
You know, the Catholics, they have a lot of weird rules that are not biblical, that are
just man-made rules.
You know, meatless Friday.
Don't eat meat on Friday.
Show me that in scripture.
And that used to be, I was talking to people that had been former Catholics, I think
I was talking to you, brother Tom.
They said it used to be one of their deadly sins or what is it called?
Mortal sin.
Mortal sin to eat meat on Friday.
And then they're like, just kidding, eat meat on Friday.
What?
That used to be a mortal sin.
Now it's not even a venial sin, right?
It's just fine now.
But still, if you go to any steakhouse, the soup of the day is always clam chowder on
Friday.
Have you ever noticed that?
Any restaurant you go to, and if you like clam chowder, you got to go there on Friday
because that's when they serve the clam chowder at restaurants because they always
do a meatless soup on Friday just because that's become so ingrained even though I
don't think most Catholics, brother Tom, do most Catholics even observe that anymore?
I don't think so.
It's rare.
Well thank God you don't know anymore because you're not in that.
But they have a lot of weird rules.
The Catholic Church teaches you that it's a sin to go to bed with your own wife and
have a relationship with your wife and enjoy it.
They say that's a sin, you know, you need to get absolved of that.
What in the world?
You know, so these are just weird man-made doctrines and teachings that are trying to
lay upon us burdens that are heavy and grievous to be born.
And this is what the Pharisees and the scribes did.
They added a lot of extra rules that were not biblical.
It says that they themselves were not even touching with one of their little fingers.
But they love to load men up with really heavy burdens and really difficult commandments
to keep.
We have enough commandments.
Now some people will try to accuse us of a man-made commandment when it's actually
biblical.
You know, like you'll tell people, hey no tattoos, and then they'll say like, oh that's
man-made.
But there's a scripture on that.
You know, or you know, whatever, the short hair on men, they'll say, oh you're man-made
teaching legalism.
No, no, that's biblical.
The Bible says that in 1 Corinthians 11.
So I don't want to spend the whole night on that, but I just want to show you that
God's real clear on the fact that we know what His commandments are.
And we need to search the scriptures to figure out what God requires of us, because He has
showed them to us.
Now go to Romans 10 quickly and we'll see the other side of this coin, is that not
only can we know, in spite of what Zophar the Naamathite taught, not only can we
know what God's commandments are, and what God expects of us, and what God wants us
to do, but we can also know for sure that we're going to heaven.
And we can know for sure that we're saved.
Now the Catholic Church also teaches that this is the sin of presumption, to just say
that you know for sure you're going to heaven.
But yet the Bible tells us in 1 John 5.13, these things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life,
and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Now look at Romans 10.
This is the scripture that quotes Deuteronomy 30.
It says in verse 1, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved.
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
So in this scripture, he's referring back to the Mosaic law, that when the Bible
gave those commandments back in Deuteronomy, he said when you keep these commandments,
he said this shall be thy righteousness, when you keep these commandments.
But that can't save us because our righteousness is as what?
Filthy rags, because we're never able to fully keep those commandments perfectly.
And so here, the Bible has said that they being ignorant of God's righteousness are
going about to establish their own righteousness.
Going back to what it said in Deuteronomy when he said this shall be thy righteousness
when thou keepest these commandments.
He says Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
The Bible says in Philippians 3, 9, not having mine own righteousness which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith.
It says in verse 5, for Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that
the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
So is there a righteousness that does come through the law?
There's a righteousness that comes through keeping the law.
If we obey God's laws, then we're righteous.
We're doing the right things.
But the difference is that the righteousness which comes through the law can't save us
because it is insufficient to save us, because our righteousness that comes through
the law is not good enough.
Now we all have righteousness.
I've got righteousness, you've got righteousness, that's our own righteousness from us keeping
God's commandments and keeping God's laws.
But that's not sufficient to get us into heaven.
We're going to need Jesus' righteousness to get us into heaven, which comes through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
Have you ever been out soul winning with Brother Garrett?
He always gives the illustration when he's soul winning about how when he was a kid
he had a piggy bank.
Who's ever been soul winning with Brother Garrett?
You've heard that illustration.
So he says I had a piggy bank when I was a kid, and he had money that he put in that
piggy bank, and he used it to buy what?
Bubble gum and ice cream.
And he bought that stuff, but here's the thing, he didn't pay the bills.
And if his parents would have come to him and said, Garrett, we don't have the
money to pay the bills, can you help us with the rent?
Can you help us with the groceries?
His little piggy bank had, what was the most you ever had in that thing, Garrett?
Ten bucks or something, so he's got ten bucks and change in that piggy bank.
That's not even going to feed the family for one day, hardly.
That's not even going to put a dent in the mortgage.
That's not even going to put a dent in the car payment.
And so that's like us.
We're like that kid with the piggy bank, and we're putting change in that piggy bank
of our righteousness.
And one kid, you know, Garrett might have had ten bucks in his piggy bank, the kid
down the street's got five bucks in his piggy bank, another kid's got 75 cents, another
kid's got maybe $23, he's really saved a lot.
But none of them have enough to pay for their life.
None of them can pay the bills, none of them can pay for their food, none of them
can even put a dent in that, and that's like us.
We all have our own levels of righteousness, we've all done some good deeds and good works,
but none of it is enough to purchase our salvation.
That's why, as Garrett did when he was a child, we have to put our faith and trust
in Jesus Christ to save us.
It's like we trusted our parents to feed us and clothe us and take care of us.
As believers, we're fully trusting that Jesus Christ has paid our way to heaven, we're
not trying to buy it ourselves with that piggy bank of good works and righteousness.
Now once we're saved, the good works that we do, you know, God's going to reward
us for that, and God's pleased with that, and God likes that.
But it's not going to get us into heaven.
So the Bible says, Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them.
You see, Garrett's piggy bank, the money in there, that increased or improved his
quality of life, because he was able to enjoy some extra things.
He was able to enjoy some bubble gum or some ice cream.
I know we were at Trader Joe's yesterday, Miriam, and you got some green tea mints.
That's not something that we were going to put in the cart.
But Miriam had some money that she'd saved up and so she wanted to buy these little
mints and so I'm like, okay, you know, so she bought these mints.
That was just something extra, just a frill, okay?
That's how it is when we're saved, you know, because that didn't make her, she doesn't
have to pay to be in our family.
Just like Garrett didn't have to pay to be his parent's son, she didn't have to pay
to be in our family, okay, but by having that change, she was able to enjoy some extra
sweets or, you know, she can buy an extra toy or whatever.
It's the same thing with God.
We are born into that family.
Nothing can take us out of that family.
The Bible says that we are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
You know, our good works are going to improve our quality of life.
The man that doeth those things shall live by them.
And if we obey God and keep his commandments, God's going to bless us, we're going to live
a better life.
Whereas if we disobey and disregard God's commands, we're going to be punished and
chastised and we're not going to have those extra frills and those extra good things
in our life.
But none of that can get us into heaven.
So the Bible talks about the righteousness which comes through the law, which is beneficial
to our lives on this earth, and then there's the righteousness which comes by faith,
which is what saves us and gets us into heaven.
It says in verse 6, but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise,
say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven.
So here's what he's doing.
He's quoting the scripture from Deuteronomy 30 but he's applying it differently now.
He's saying, you know, Deuteronomy 30 taught you about the righteousness which comes
by keeping God's commandments.
But now he's telling you what the righteousness which is of faith says.
Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven.
And then parentheses, he gives his interpretation of that, which is obviously God's interpretation
since the scripture is being given by inspiration of God.
But he's giving a New Testament interpretation of it.
He says that is to bring Christ down from above.
Or who shall descend into the deep?
That is to bring up Christ again from the dead.
But what sayeth it?
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith
which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation.
So there you have it folks.
We can know everything that we need to know in this life through God's word.
And even though Job in his day did not have a physical leather-bound 66 books that
we have today, we have more than he had.
But that doesn't mean that man did not have God's word at that time.
Because the Bible says that God spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.
And in the last days he spoke unto us by his son.
And there were prophets that preached God's word.
Job was a prophet who preached God's word.
There were other prophets.
They knew God's word.
They knew what God expected them to do.
Man did not live and die in Job's day having no clue what God wants us to do, having
no clue what God's commandments are, not able to figure out what's right and wrong.
No, they knew exactly what God required of them at that time.
Just like today we know exactly what God requires of us.
Number one, we know how to be saved.
We can know for sure we're going to heaven.
We can know that we have eternal life.
And number two, we can know what God wants us to do with our lives and what the commandments
are and what the rules are so that we can do the commandments and that God will be pleased
with us.
Go back to Job chapter 11.
And in Job 11, Zophar then the Amethite is saying, well, you know, you don't know Job.
I mean, what you know there's double to that that you don't know and, you know,
if you look at verse 6 in Job 11 it says that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom
that they are double to that which is, know therefore, and look, the therefore is
referring to what he just said, know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine
iniquity deserveth.
Because he's basically saying, you know, there's just stuff that you don't know.
There's just doctrine that you just don't know, Job, and if you did know those things
you'd realize that you're being punished.
And how do we know that?
What's the evidence?
Well, because you're being punished.
And because they have this false belief that anybody who's going through a bad time,
it must be a result of their sin.
And that is not true.
By that logic, you know, they'd look at Jesus as he's being beaten.
And they'd look at Jesus as being crucified and they'd say, you know what, this guy must
have done something wrong.
And remember when Pontius Pilate said, you know, why have you brought Jesus unto me?
And they said, well if he were not a malefactor we wouldn't have brought him.
If he weren't a criminal we would have brought him.
Okay, what's he being accused of?
Well of course he's a criminal.
Okay, what do you do?
They bring all these false witnesses, they don't agree with each other, they just keep
throwing stuff at the wall until something sticks, you know, and they couldn't even get
two witnesses that would even agree with each other to try to condemn Jesus.
It's the same thing here, just railing accusations, just no basis in fact.
Just trying to pin something on him.
And then when you try to pin him down on, well which commandment did he break, it's
just, well, you know, there's just a lot of stuff that God expects that you just
so know about.
You know, there's more rules than just what's in the Bible, and in reality there aren't.
You know, we know everything.
You know, the Bible says we have the mind of Christ.
Who have known the mind of the Lord that we may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ.
And so I can stand up and preach with authority today, whether I'm preaching about
salvation or whether I'm preaching about the commandments of God, I can get up and
say, thus saith the Lord, and preach with authority.
And I don't have to be a namby-pamby preacher up here saying, well, you know, here's what
I think, or here's my opinion, or, you know, a lot of good men believe this, and
well, you know, we hope that this is, no, I can get up and say, look, I'll tell
you exactly how to be saved.
I can tell you exactly what God wants you to do with your life.
I can tell you exactly what's right.
I can tell you exactly what's wrong, and I know for sure it's right, and then the
zofars of this world will be like, oh, well, you think your doctrine's pure.
Yeah, I do.
Well, because you've said in verse 4, you've said my doctrine's pure.
Well, of course our doctrine's pure, and if it's not, let's purify it.
Show us in the Bible how to make it more pure.
But here's what I say, ah, you just think you know everything.
You think you're just right about everything.
You Baptists just think that you guys are just right and everybody else is wrong.
Well, you know what?
The Bible is right and everybody else is wrong, and if this is our final authority,
and we're actually conforming our doctrine to this book, then yes, we are right and
everybody else is wrong.
And the zofars of this world will just try to put doubt around it, just cloud every,
you know, we don't even know, you'd have to go to heaven, you'd have to go to,
you know, we don't know.
But yeah, we do know.
Now, are there things that we don't know?
Well, if there's something we don't know, it's because we're too lazy to dig it out
of the Bible, or else it's just something we don't need to know, because everything
that we need to know is in this book.
God has revealed it unto us by his Spirit.
And so he says in verse 10, if he cut off and shut up or gathered together, then who
can hinder him?
For he knoweth vain men, he seeth wickedness also.
Will he not then consider it?
For vain men would be wise, meaning that they want to be wise, though man be born like
a wild-asses colt, I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but in verse 13
it says, if thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hands toward him, if iniquity
be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thine tabernacles.
For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot, yea, thou shalt be steadfast and shalt
not fear, because thou shalt forget thy misery and remember it as waters that pass
away.
And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday, thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as
the morning, and thou shalt be secure, because there is hope.
You know what this reminds me of, just reading this blathering of Zophar the Naamathite?
It reminds me of liberal preaching, where they never actually tell you what the sin
is.
They're just like, look, you just need to quit sinning.
Get the sin out of your life.
Just get rid of iniquity.
I mean, isn't that what he's saying?
And just do right, just serve God, just put God number one, just keep him first,
just get the sin out of your life, just don't give in to the devil, just do what
he wants, just do what God said.
And you're like, okay, what is it?
I mean, isn't that what this is?
I mean, did he ever get specific?
Okay, Job, here is the exact sin you need to get out of your life.
Never said it.
Okay, Job, here's the right thing you need to start doing.
But who's been to a liberal church and heard this kind of sermon?
It says, keep God number one, put him first, love him with all your heart, do right,
just do the next right thing that comes along, just do right till the stars fall.
You know, sin is wrong.
Can I get an amen on that?
Sin is wrong.
But this is the type of liberal preaching.
Whereas real biblical preaching points out specific sin and says you're wrong when
you look upon a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery with her already
in your heart.
That means that looking at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition is a sin because you're looking
at a woman, you know, turning on the TV and watching scantily clad women in the bedroom
scenes, you know, you're lusting after women in your heart and they'll give you specific
things of saying, hey, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
And when you're saying, oh my God, and when you're throwing Jesus' name around
as a curse, you know, that's wrong, that's sin, you need to stop that.
And you know, you're living together when you're not married, that's a sin.
You know, the Bible says that you're supposed to, it's good for a man not to touch
a woman, nevertheless to avoid fornication.
Let every man have his own wife.
Let every wife have her own husband.
And look, stealing is a sin.
And you go to the store and put something in your pocket and walk out with it.
You're in sin, that's wrong, that's stealing.
And you need to stop lying.
And you need to tell the truth.
And you need to go to work and you need to pay your own bills.
That's real Bible preaching.
We actually show people in the Bible what the Bible tells you to do.
But you know why they can't preach that way is because they don't even, they can't
really find fault in Job.
So it's just this generalized thing.
I remember how frustrated I used to be as a teenager sitting in a liberal church, because
they just kept saying, serve God, serve God, and I just kept thinking, I really want
to serve God, but I just don't know what to do.
What do I do?
I mean, who's ever felt that way?
Just, man, I want to serve God.
What do I do?
You know, that's why I love a church that has soul winning.
It's just really easy just to find something that you know God wants you to do.
I mean, is there any doubt you're serving God when you're out soul winning?
I mean, you just know like, yes, I'm serving God, I'm doing something.
I'm accomplishing something.
Whereas in liberal churches, you're left wondering, what do I do?
You know, and they don't, you know, what do I do?
Read the Bible.
What do I do?
Go soul winning.
What do I do?
Pray.
What do I do?
You know, clean the sin out of your life.
Here's what it specifically is.
And that's what we need, specific teaching.
Not this Zofar Baptist that just tells you, do right, do good, love God, stay pure.
You know, but it's okay, what does that mean?
Be specific.
Give me an example.
This is that kind of preaching.
It says, thine age shall be clearer than the noonday, thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt
be as the morning, and thou shalt be secure because there is hope.
Yea, thou shalt dig about thee and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.
Yea, thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid, yea, many shall make suit
unto thee.
But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope
shall be as the giving up of the ghost.
You know, when we look at Job later on, when he finally rebukes them in the later
chapters, I'm not going to talk about it today of course, but you know, later in
the chapters where Job kind of gives his final closing argument, especially in chapter
31, he lists specifically the sins that he is abstained from.
He lists a bunch of specific sins.
He says, I haven't done this, I haven't done this, I haven't done this, and then he lists
a bunch of good deeds that he did.
I did this, I did this, I did this, I did this.
The three friends, it's just this big generalization.
Do right, stop doing wrong.
Everything will be great.
Let's pray.
You know, that's every sermon at some of these liberal churches in a nutshell.
Do right, stop doing wrong.
God loves you, you know, and you know, don't forget about the building fund.
You know, I mean that's pretty much it.
So we need to, you know, we need to take a lesson from this scripture that says, look,
we've got everything, we've got all the information we need right here, and let's
take advantage of it.
God's going to hold us responsible for what's in this book whether we read it or not.
So let's take advantage of the fact that we do have the mind of Christ, that we don't
have to go across the ocean to find it dug up in some monastery somewhere.
You know, we don't have to dig it up archaeologically, we don't have to go to some foreigner to
give it to us in a different language and interpret it to us.
We don't have to go to a priest to tell us what it is.
It's in our mouth, it's in our heart, it's in our hand.
This tells us how to be saved and how to live our lives.
Don't let the zofars of this world try to put doubt in your mind that says we can't
really know for sure.
Yes, we can know for sure.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for just specific teaching.
I'm glad that the Bible doesn't just tell us do good and do what's right.
I'm glad that the Bible actually tells us what's right and it gives us commandments and
it gives us do's and don'ts so we actually know what we're doing.
And thank you so much for also telling us how to be saved because without your sacrifice
on Calvary, we wouldn't even have any hope of making it to heaven because our righteousness
is as filthy rags.
Lord, please bless us as we go our separate ways.
Help us over the next several days to keep your commandments and also to search
the scriptures to figure out what your expectations are.