Now in Job 33 we continue with the words of Elihu.
If you remember last week we were introduced to Elihu.
He didn't really say much last week.
He had this really long intro where he keeps talking about how he's going to say something
and it's going to be great but he never really got into it and that's kind of how this chapter
starts again with just a lot of fluff before he actually gets into the meat of what he
has to say.
Real quickly, let me just remind you from last week, I don't want to re-preach last
week's sermon, but just really quickly let me just bring up the fact that Elihu is wrong.
He is false.
Just because you're reading something in the Bible, you have to be able to rightly divide
the word of truth between what God is saying and between what a false teacher is saying.
For example, the Bible even has the words of Satan within it and we know that there
is no truth in him.
So if the Bible quotes Satan, you can't take the words of Satan and say, well it's true,
it's in the Bible.
There are people in the Bible who lie and say things that are wrong.
And the whole book of Job has been a discussion between Job and his three friends and God
clearly tells us that the three friends were wrong and that God was angry at the three
friends for being so wrong.
Now when we get into the words of Elihu, you will see that Elihu says a lot of the same
exact things that the three friends are saying.
In essence, he is accusing Job of being a wicked, ungodly, sinful person.
In chapter 34, he very strongly rebukes Job for being very sinful and that his words are
all false.
Well, we know that the words of Job were spoken by inspiration of the Holy Ghost and that
Job was a prophet of God speaking the word of God and that Job was a perfect and an upright
man that feared God and eschewed evil and that there was none like him in all the earth.
So this man Elihu is way out there in left field.
He's just flat out wrong.
And even though there are a lot of people out there who will teach and say, oh yeah
Elihu was right, you have to wonder have they even read the book of Job?
Because the whole book is three friends attacking Job and God says they're wrong and then Elihu
jumps in, attacks Job, says all the same things and he's right?
Did you read the book?
You know?
He's saying the same thing as the three friends.
But let's get into what he says today because he's not really going to start accusing Job
of a lot of sin specifically until chapter 34.
In chapter 33, he puts forth some other thoughts and arguments that we're going to talk about
tonight.
It says in verse 1 of chapter 33, wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches and hearken
to all my words.
Behold now, I have opened my mouth.
My tongue hath spoken in my mouth.
I mean, this guy has been going on already for 22 verses of just intro.
Never getting into the meat of what he's saying.
I mean, this is the most long-winded preacher ever.
He says blah, blah, blah and he's, you know, we're not even going to get into what he's
saying until verse 8, okay?
Twenty-nine verses in to him talking before he actually says anything of substance.
Verse 3, my words shall be of the uprightness of my heart and my lips shall utter knowledge
clearly.
And by the way, you know, the Bible says, let another man praise thee and not thine
own mouth.
And this guy is just really praising himself a lot in this chapter and the previous chapter
and at the end of this chapter.
But it says in verse 4, the Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty
hath given me life.
Now, this is just part of his intro that has nothing to do with what he's saying about
Job.
Just, you know, my tongue's talking in my mouth and the Spirit of God made me.
He's just kind of stating the obvious a lot of things.
But I will stop and just point out one thing about what he said here.
Flip over to Genesis 1 if you would.
Genesis chapter number 1, first chapter in the Bible.
Because it's interesting that he says, the Spirit of God hath made me and the breath
of the Almighty hath given me life.
Now Spirit and breath in the Bible are used interchangeably and the reason why is that
if you actually look at the word spirit and think about the word inspiration, okay, what's
another word that has to do with breathing that sounds almost just like inspiration?
What is it?
What?
Respiration.
Right, yeah, respiration.
Or expiration also.
When you breathe your last breath, you know, you expire.
But also respiration means you're breathing.
Respiration means that, you know, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost and that all scripture is God-breathed or spoken by God.
It's through the Spirit of God.
And even the word ghost can also be traced to a root word similar to our word gust.
And what is a gust?
Well, those of you who hiked with us to the top of Mount Humphreys know what a gust is.
But anyway, you know, gust is air moving, right?
Breath, okay?
Spirit.
And so those two things are related throughout the Bible.
Remember when Jesus breathed on the disciples?
He breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost, okay?
So it says in Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And watch this, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
So God is very clearly telling us in Genesis 1 that the Holy Spirit was there involved
in the creative act of creating the earth.
Now we know, of course, that Jesus Christ is the Creator.
According to Colossians 1, Jesus Christ created all things.
And in John 1, 1, it says in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him, okay, meaning the Word.
And without Him was not anything made that was made.
So there's nothing that was just made by the Father, but the Word had nothing to do with
it, okay?
The Word was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by Him, and without Him
was not anything made that was made.
And then it says, of course, in verse 14, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us.
And He held His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth.
And in Genesis 1 there, if you look down at verse number 26, it says, and God said, let
us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of
the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So when He says, let us make man in our image, that right there is already showing us the
truth of the Trinity, even in the first chapter of the Bible.
A lot of people today attack the Trinity and say that the Trinity is a false doctrine.
All that the word Trinity means is three in one.
You think of the word unity, right, would be one thing.
And then tri, like a tricycle, okay, Trinity, the tri prefix with unity, Trinity means three
in one.
Now is the word Trinity used in the Bible?
No, but here's what the Bible says, for there are three that bear record in heaven.
The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
So if we have the statement in the Bible, these three are one, that is the Trinity in
the Bible.
That statement is exactly what the word Trinity is expressing, three in one.
There are three that bear record, and these three are one.
Now there are two sides of false doctrine out there.
There's one doctrine that says they're not one.
They're not one.
And that's a doctrine that teaches that Jesus Christ is not God.
It's a doctrine that denies the deity of the Lord Jesus.
They say the three are not one, there's three.
And this is when you talk to the Mormons, when you talk to the Jehovah's Witnesses, they'll
deny the fact that Jesus is the same as, you know, the God that created the heaven and
the earth in Genesis 1-1, okay, they don't believe in the Trinity.
And then there's another false doctrine out there that's known as the, sometimes called
the Jesus only movement.
And basically it's a doctrine that says that the one, it's just one and it's not three.
That is also a false doctrine.
And so we need to have a correct doctrine, I'll prove that to be a false doctrine, go
to 1 Corinthians 15, just to prove that the doctrine of the Jesus only movement is a false
doctrine.
I've done whole sermons about the Trinity and proven it scripturally, that there is
a distinction between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
There is a distinction between those three.
So one heresy says they're not one, and the other heresy says they're not three.
Biblical Christianity teaches that the three are one.
You say, well I don't understand that, that doesn't make sense.
It doesn't matter whether you understand it or not, you need to believe it by faith.
It's the truth.
And the bottom line is, every single one of us as human beings is made up of body,
soul, and spirit, which is also in a sense a Trinity, because of the fact that if we
took the body of Stephen Anderson, let's say I were to die physically right now, I fell
over dead physically right now, the body would be lying here, but would the soul be here?
No.
I would have given up the ghost, and the ghost or the spirit would return unto the Lord Jesus
Christ in heaven.
Because I'm saved, if I were unsaved, the spirit would go to hell, the soul would go
to hell.
But because I am saved, my soul would go to be with Christ.
The Bible says, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.
Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
To me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
So if I died, the body would be here.
Would it be accurate to walk up to that body and say, yes officer, this is Stephen Anderson,
let me identify the body for you, this is Stephen Anderson.
That would be accurate, to say this is Stephen Anderson.
Is it a different person?
No.
Okay, now but wouldn't there also be a Stephen Anderson in heaven?
That would be the soul, and I would be in heaven, and if you were to meet me in heaven,
let's say you're up there too, you were so shocked when I died you just had a heart attack
and fell over dead.
So now we're both up there and you identify me as, hey, it's Stephen Anderson.
Now that would be accurate, that would be correct.
Now notice, Stephen Anderson, the soul, is going to be in a different place than Stephen
Anderson, the body.
But they're both Stephen Anderson.
It's not two different people, is it?
It's the same person.
It's one person, Stephen Anderson, who consists of body, soul, and spirit.
And each one of those independently is Stephen Anderson.
If you just have the body, you have Stephen Anderson there.
If you just have the soul, you got Stephen Anderson.
There's a separation that could take place.
Right now all three are together.
Then my body would be dead in the grave until the rapture, or what the Bible calls the first
resurrection, when I would be raised and my vile body would be changed into an incorruptible
spiritual body, and then it would be reunited with the soul from heaven.
And that's why, it's such an interesting passage in 1 Thessalonians 4 when it talks about the
rapture because it says that, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning
them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with Him.
So notice, when Christ comes in the clouds at the rapture, it says He will bring who
with Him?
Those that are asleep in Jesus.
He's going to bring them with Him.
So let's say, like the illustration that we're using, I died tonight, and then later on down
the road the rapture happens, and God's going to bring me with Him.
Why?
Because I'm where?
In heaven.
So that again defeats this soul sleep, like I'm just in the grave.
No my soul's in heaven.
So when Jesus comes in the clouds, He's going to bring me with Him.
It's called the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.
And so the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 4, then which are asleep in Jesus will God bring
with Him.
But then it also says the dead in Christ shall rise first.
So on one hand it's saying He's going to bring them with Him, on another hand it's saying
the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Why?
Because one of them were talking about the soul, one of them were talking about the body.
The body's going to rise, the soul He's bringing with Him.
But they're both the same people.
They're both Steven Anderson.
They're both those that are asleep in Jesus.
So it's an interesting passage that also proves the deity of the Lord Jesus because it says
will God bring with Him?
God's coming in the clouds, because Jesus Christ is God.
And so we have the Trinity even all the way back to Genesis 1 because He says let us make
man in our image.
Now I've heard people try to explain this verse away and say well when it says let us
make man in our image, it's not the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost that are talking.
They could be talking to anybody.
They could be talking to the angels.
But here's the thing.
He's not talking to angels in our image.
See the angels are not in the image of God.
So He couldn't be talking to anybody else because we're not made in anybody else's image
except God.
I mean we're made in the image of the Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
That's whose image we're made in.
So He says let us make man in our image.
He's saying we have the same image and we're going to make man in that image.
So if God is talking to the angels, the angels are different because the Bible says verily
He took not on the nature of angels but He took on in the seed of Abraham.
Angels are of a different nature as far as the beings such as cherubims and seraphims
and so forth than the human beings that are made in the image of God.
To none of the angels did He ever say at any time, thou art my son, this day have I
begotten thee.
And He never said to any of the angels according to Hebrews 1 verse 6, I'll be to him a father
and he shall be to me a son.
The angels are not in God's image.
Human beings are.
So this right here in Genesis 1, God right away is showing us the plural nature.
Even though He's one singular God, God created the heaven and the earth.
But there's a three in one there.
It's an important doctrine.
And so we see that right away that the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters
shows between Colossians 1, John 1, and Genesis 1 that all three, the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost were all involved in creation.
They all created the earth, okay?
It was one God made up of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost just like there's
one Stephen Anderson who consists of a body, soul, and spirit that are all equally Stephen
Anderson.
I turned to 1 Corinthians 15, didn't I?
Because I wanted to just quickly disprove this false doctrine that says, hey, there's
no three.
Jesus is just basically the Father just came to this earth, but they don't distinguish
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
And in 1 Corinthians 15, I think we have one of the clearest passages that definitely distinguishes
between the Father and the Son.
And it talks about the millennial reign of Christ.
It talks about Christ's second coming.
But it says in verse 22, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
But every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, that took place when?
A couple thousand years ago when Jesus rose again.
Afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
That's the resurrection at the rapture, the first resurrection.
Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
So right there it says that Jesus Christ is going to reign on this earth, ok, until he's
put down all rule and all authority and power.
Then it says basically he's going to deliver up the kingdom to the Father.
So Jesus is going to rule on this earth for a thousand years, what we call the millennium,
then the Bible says right there in verse 24 that he's then going to deliver the kingdom
to the Father, ok?
Keep reading.
It says the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, verse 27, for he hath put all things
under his feet, but when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he
has accepted which did put all things under him.
And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject
unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
Now does that not clearly say in verse 28 that after the millennium that the Son, Jesus,
will deliver up the kingdom to the Father and be subject unto him?
Ok, this is biblical doctrine, and when Jesus was on this earth, he said, I do always those
things which please him, he did the will of the Father.
And he said, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.
There was a difference in the will of Jesus Christ with his human being on this earth,
and obviously he didn't want to go through the suffering of the cross.
The Bible says he endured the cross, despising the shame, ok?
He did not enjoy it.
Obviously it was a terrible thing to be spat upon, to be mocked, to be crucified, but he
endured it for the joy that was set before him through his love for us.
He sacrificed himself on the cross for us, but there is a distinction between the Father
and the Son.
It's a false doctrine to attack the Trinity and say there's no three in one, and a big
way that people will attack it is they'll say, well, 1 John 5, 7 shouldn't even be in
the Bible, you know.
And look, whenever people have to tamper with the scripture to make their point, that's
a real bad sign.
When somebody tells you, oh, you know, you've got to go to the Greek to see it.
If you go to the Greek, you know, no.
If I can't see it in English, it ain't there.
And the King James Bible is correct, 1 John 5, 7 is the Word of God, is the truth.
Even without 1 John 5, 7, the whole Bible teaches the concept of the Trinity, but 1
John 5, 7 is the best verse on the Trinity.
It's the best one.
If you remove it, you've removed the best verse on the Trinity, it's that simple.
So anyway, back to Job 33, we see that he talks about being created by the Spirit of
God and that is accurate, that the Holy Spirit was involved in the creative process in Genesis
1.
We saw that.
It says in verse 5, if thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me.
Stand up.
Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead.
I also am formed out of the clay.
Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.
So this guy's saying, I'm going to judge you in the place of God.
I'm going to put myself in the place of God.
Well, this guy doesn't have any authority for that.
And if you look at what Elihu speaks of, he doesn't really sound like he has any great
authority because keep reading and let's see where he's getting his information from.
It says, surely thou hast spoken in my hearing, and I've heard the voice of thy words saying,
I'm clean without transgression, I'm innocent, neither is there iniquity in me.
Now let me ask you this, was Job innocent?
The Bible told us in chapters 1 and 2 that he was innocent.
When God began to afflict Job and allow Satan to afflict Job, God said to Satan, you have
moved me against Job without cause.
You moved me against him without cause.
I mean, God flat out says in chapter 2, though thou moveth me against him without cause.
So he is innocent.
He is being afflicted without cause.
There's no sin that he's being punished for.
So what Elihu is accusing him of saying is the truth, okay?
He is innocent.
Now obviously Job was not sinless, but Job had not committed any sin to warrant the kind
of punishment that he's going through.
See when God chastens and chastises his children, the punishment matches the crime.
Isn't that what justice means when the punishment matches the crime?
I mean think about the symbol of justice is usually a scale, or a lady holding a scale
and you have the balances.
Why?
Because the punishment should fit the crime, shouldn't it?
And even in our own homes where we discipline our children, we're not going to sit there
and give a huge spanking for a tiny offense.
Or there's just a major offense and it's just a little slap on the wrist.
I mean it just doesn't make any sense.
Obviously the degree of punishment needs to match the crime that's been committed.
You know, I mean what if we just had the same punishment for every crime?
It would be ridiculous, wouldn't it?
Let's say they have all kinds of laws, right?
You know, you can't roll through the stop sign.
Isn't that a law in the state of Arizona?
You can't do that California stop because this isn't California so you have to come
to a complete stop at the stop sign.
Okay, so what if rolling through the stop sign and murdering somebody, just same punishment?
It would be ludicrous, it would be insane because those two crimes, quote unquote, are
so different in scope.
Or even if I just, let's say we even had real crimes, like let's say I stole from you.
Let's say I stole five dollars from you, okay?
Do you think I should be put to death for stealing five dollars from you?
But what if I murdered someone?
You know, then I should be put to death.
You know, if I'm just in cold blood, first degree murder, yeah I should be put to death.
But not for stealing five bucks.
But you know throughout history there have been some cultures and some places, like for
example England in the 17th century, where you would be put to death for stealing.
I mean, you know, you forge a check at the bank, death.
I mean at the time that the pilgrims came over on the Mayflower, there were like 150
some crimes in England that were just all punished by death.
That's ridiculous.
Somebody who forges a check should not have the same punishment as someone who's committing
first degree murder or adultery, major, major crimes versus, and look, I'm not condoning
stealing.
I'm not condoning of shoplifting.
Those are wicked sins.
But they're not punishable by death.
I don't think anybody here would say, hey, I think we should institute the death penalty
on shoplifting.
You know, it's just ridiculous.
But everybody here would admit that shoplifting is wrong, it's sin, it should be punished,
it should even be a crime.
Everybody would agree.
So the punishment has to fit the crime.
So, Job is not claiming to be sinless, but he's claiming, look, I haven't done anything
of the caliber of this punishment.
He has been in general a very good man, a very righteous man, the most righteous man
in the earth.
Very upright.
And you know the difference, don't you?
Don't buy into this stupidity of all sins equal and, you know, it's all equal.
Don't buy into that.
That's a really wicked doctrine that's in these last days, very popular, just to get
people to think, hey, you know, I can go out and commit big sins and we're all sinners
and, you know, none righteous, no, not one.
No.
We're all sinners, but we're not all fornicators.
We're not all drunkards.
We're not all extortioners.
We're not all adulterers.
Okay, we're not all murderers.
And to sit there and try to put everybody in the same boat.
Yes, as unsaved people, everybody's in the same boat in the sense that they're all condemned
and unsaved and unregenerate.
But as Christians, as God's people, we are chastised by God in proportion to what we've
done wrong.
And God's not going to sit there and kill your 10 children, take all your money and
cover you with horrible, itching, burning sores from head to toe because you thought
a bad thought or because you, you know, knew to do good and did it not and it was sin unto
you.
You know what I mean?
Obviously, we have to understand that when reading the passage.
So Eli is like, well you're saying that you're innocent.
Well he was innocent, wasn't he?
And again, when somebody goes to court and they're declared innocent, we're not saying
this from your honor, he's never sinned.
What we're saying is they're not guilty of what they're being tried for, okay?
So he says here, you know, yeah, you're saying you're innocent.
Verse 10, behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy.
Now Job did say that because Job felt that God is attacking him and in a sense he was,
but it was just to try him and just to prove how great he was unto Satan.
But it says in verse number 11, he putteth my feet in the stalks, he marketh all my paths.
And then Elihu speaks in verse 12, behold, in this thou art not just, I will answer thee
that God is greater than man.
Now again, Elihu is stating the obvious here when he says that God, does anybody disagree
with that?
You think Job disagrees that God's greater than man?
That's not relevant, Elihu, that has nothing to do with the discussion at hand.
In the next verse he says, why dost thou strive against him?
For he giveth not account of any of his matters.
So he's saying don't fight against God, God doesn't answer to you, God doesn't have to
explain to you what he does.
Now look, it's true that God doesn't have to answer to you and that God doesn't have
to explain to you what he does.
That's true, but wait a minute, does God just act at random?
He's just God, he just does what he wants, no, God is a just God.
Now God could be whatever he wants because he's God.
And you know, God though has spoken and stated that he is just in his word.
Over and over again the Bible says God is just, God is righteous.
Everything that God does is right.
So therefore God does not act at random and do things that don't make sense.
God does not do things that don't make sense.
Everything God does is for a purpose and it makes sense, he doesn't just act at random.
For example, the Bible says that God cannot lie.
Now that's a limitation that God has placed upon himself that he will not lie, he will
always tell the truth, he is the truth, that's who he is.
So in a sense you can't really say God can do anything because God can't lie, God cannot
be unjust.
So Elihu's reasoning here that just says, well God doesn't answer to you, he can do
whatever he wants, well it's true that he can do whatever he wants, but there is a purpose
behind what he does.
Now look at verse 14, it says, For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not,
in a dream and a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, and slumberings
upon the bed, then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he
may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.
Now this is not the primary way that God has ever communicated with man, okay.
What Elihu is saying here is that the way that God communicates with man, the way that
God speaks unto man, is through dreams.
Now you say, wait a minute Pastor Anderson, didn't God communicate with a lot of people
in the Bible by dreams?
Go to Hebrews 1 quickly, keep your finger on Job 33 because we're coming right back.
See God, this is not the way that God has ever communicated with man as his primary
basis.
God would talk in dreams to the prophets, not just to everybody, not just to every person,
he just comes to everybody in a dream, and he's going to come to you in a dream, he's
going to come to you in a dream, he's going to come to you in a dream.
That's not the way that people, let's see what the Bible says in Hebrews 1-1, it says
God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers, watch
this, by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.
So what the Bible is teaching, and we could look up all the passages on dreams and so
forth, God would appear unto prophets in a dream, and unto men of God, and men like Daniel
and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would have things revealed unto them, and prophets
like Abraham would have things revealed unto them in a dream.
But God has spoke to man through his word, which was spoken by the mouth of the prophets
throughout history.
There were men of God throughout history that spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost would come upon, think about how many times we read the Old Testament,
it'll say the Spirit of the Lord came upon so and so, and he prophesied, and they hear
God's word through prophets, okay?
This guy's final authority is just telling you that the way that you know God's word
is just, it's just only through dreams.
I mean you just, you go to bed at night and it's just going to come to you in a dream.
And this is the exact same thing that Eliphaz the Temanite spoke about in chapter 4, I believe,
of Job.
Now I just wouldn't trust that to be my final authority of just stuff that I dreamed, because
I've had some pretty weird dreams.
I don't know about you.
Now some people don't remember their dreams that much.
I remember a lot of them.
Who remembers a lot of your dreams?
I remember a lot of dreams.
You know so last night I went on this scorpion massacre last night.
We've had a scorpion problem in our house for a long time.
For the first five or six years we lived here, you know, we had no problem, we'd never even
seen a scorpion.
In fact, we took the whole family on a special scorpion hike, where we drove like 45 minutes
away and had someone guide us through the desert with UV lights to find scorpions, because
we thought that'd be cool.
Yeah, we don't go on scorpion hikes anymore, because for a while we were kind of living
in a scorpion hike, because we kept having scorpions in our house and they stung a few
of us, and I haven't been stung yet, thank God, but a few people have been stung and
we don't want anybody else to be stung, so we're like, man, we need to take care of this
problem because we've got all these scorpions.
And so, you know, we're treating it with this and treating it with that, but we didn't want
to put out just the napalm that, you know, the typical pest control is using, just because
we didn't know how healthy some of it is.
But it's hard to kill scorpions, they're pretty tough as far as pesticides go and things anyway,
so we didn't want to just spray the most hardcore, you know, chemicals in our house.
So we were trying to figure out different strategies to get them, so we had this guy
come out and he's kind of an expert and he walked me around and he kind of showed me
some stuff about how to find them and everything, so I got a black light flashlight.
And he told me that before when I went out with a black light, he said I was doing it
wrong because I was going out at 9 or 10.
He said, you need to go out at like 11 or midnight, that's when they're really going
to be out, and he gave me a bunch of tips and stuff.
So I went out last night and I was armed with two primary weapons, okay.
I had a shoe on one hand, okay, that I just kind of put over my hand and just be able
to just get them, you know, and then I had a paint stir stick from Lowe's, okay.
So those were my two main weapons.
I had this black light and I went out hunting scorpions last night and I was just going
to kill them all, you know, and let God sort them out.
But I wanted to just kill as many as I could because they said, you know, if you go around
you can find them and kill most of them and if you do it a few nights in a row, that'll
help and then along with the other strategies and everything.
So I went out last night and I was on a mission and I, you're not going to believe this, I
counted as I went, I killed 30 scorpions last night.
I mean with the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have
I slain 30 scorpions.
So I killed 30 and I had three or four, three or four of them got away from me and I'm coming
after them tonight and they're going to die tonight.
But anyway, I was out there and I'm killing scorpions and I mean a couple of them I had
to use some really unorthodox techniques because I was just, I didn't want any of these things
to escape.
I mean I wanted them all dead and so, you know, one of them I couldn't get it to come
out of this roll of chicken wire so I lit a little fire in a Frisbee, slid the Frisbee
under, you know, get it real and then it ran out and then I'm like, you know.
So you know I used some unorthodox, I used one of them, it was in a box and I couldn't
get it to come out of the box so I just lit the box on fire, you know, just, it just went
alive into hell, just, you know.
But anyway, so then I went to bed, you know, I didn't get to bed until like almost one
in the morning because I'm out there doing this 11, 12 at night just killing them and
I killed 30, three or four got away.
But let me tell you something, I had the worst dreams all night, let me tell you.
I mean all night I was getting stung by scorpions, scorpions were falling off the ceiling into
my bed.
One time I jumped out of the bed and ran across the room thinking it was real and then I get
across the room and I'm like, there's no scorpions in this house, why don't I do it, you know.
But I mean I literally jumped out of bed like, ahhh, you know, because I mean I was just,
there were scorpions and spiders all over me all night last night in my dreams.
You know, I mean that wasn't God trying to tell me anything.
That wasn't like God telling me, you know, Hinduism is right and you're, you know, you're
harming all these animals and you have bad, now you have bad karma, you know.
Guess what that dream meant, nothing.
You know, I had this other dream where my teeth fall out all the time and then I went
on Google and it's like, oh, here's what that means, you know, when your teeth fall, when
your teeth crumble and fall out in your dream.
No, it means that you have a toothache and you went to sleep and so you dream about your
teeth falling out all night or whatever.
You know, you have all kinds of crazy dreams at night.
You know, I thank God that we have a more sure word of prophecy than just dreams in
our bed at night, you know, and that's just what we go by, just, you know, like Eliphaz
said in chapter 4, I mean, a spirit moved into the room, the hair on the back of his
neck stood up and a voice came and, you know, I thank God that we have the Bible.
It's so, it's such a sure foundation, you know, and I mean, you say, well how did they
know back then whether the prophets were telling them the truth or not?
You know what, you can always tell God's word from a fraud.
I mean, how do we know when a preacher is lying or telling the truth?
How do we know that the Bible is even the word of God?
I mean, everybody here pretty much, I'm sure, at least I would hope, 99% of the people here
believe that this Bible is the word of God.
But why do you believe that?
Because of the power of God's word, because faith comes by hearing the word of God, because
the spirit of God dwells in the word of God and, you know, you open up other holy books,
you open up the Koran or the Book of Mormon, it's a joke, my friend.
It's not, the power is not there.
It's funny, even the Apocrypha, you know, because if you get one of those old 1611 King
James like the one we have back there, it has the Apocryphal books between the Old and
the New Testament and a lot of people will say like, oh yeah, you know, they believed
in that.
No, they put it there as reference material, as historical reference material and that's
all.
In their statement of faith of the Church of England at that time, they say no doctrine
shall be based on any of the 14 books of the Apocrypha, they're only for historical value.
It's in print, 39 articles of the Church of England.
And not only that, but in the notes, because, you know, that Bible back there, that replica,
it has little notes in the column, there are all kinds of places in the Apocrypha that
will say, oh, this text is corrupt, go to Ezra and Nehemiah for the truth or, you know,
this part's wrong.
It says right in there that they don't believe it and that it's false, okay?
But here's the thing.
You know, there have been times when I've sat down and said, you know, I'm going to
read some of these Apocryphal books just for the historical value, just to see what it's
all about, just to see why they even took the time to even translate these and even
stick them here.
And let me tell you something, it's pretty hard to get through it, my friend.
And it'll have you shaking your head.
I mean, you start reading it and you're just kind of shaking your head like, are you serious?
And people will say, oh, well, the reason you think the King James sounds so cool is
because it's just such a cool translation, but you know what, the same people that translated
this translates to the Apocrypha and it's not.
There's no power.
Well, how do you know the Apocrypha is not God's Word?
Because it has no power?
Because it's poor quality?
This is perfect.
I mean, think about it, when you open the book of Proverbs, isn't it just amazing?
I mean, every verse is so powerful and such truth and it all rings true.
When you read the cheap imitations of Proverbs that are found in the Apocrypha, they have
you shaking your head.
Why?
Because God's Word is different.
The Bible's different than a, well, how do you know these other books?
Because they're not the, they don't even have, they can't even hold a candle to the power
of these 66 books.
This is unlike any other book out there.
And you know, we know that this is true.
Our faith has found a resting place in this book right here, okay, and Elihu's final authority
is just, you know, when deep sleep falls upon men and slumbering's on his bed.
I'm not going to trust that.
Now I will trust the prophets who spoke dreams only because of the power and rightness and
authority of what they spake after they had those dreams, but I wouldn't just give it
a free for all where everybody in the church, you go to bed and get your own doctrine from
your own dreams.
I mean, we're going to have some crazy doctrine.
If everybody, everybody's just having their own dream and their own, it's like, what in
the world?
Only certain men God spake to in that way that were the prophets.
And how'd we know they were right?
Because they kept being right over and over again and because everything they said was
right.
With power and authority and with the power of the Holy Ghost.
So it says in verse number 16, then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction,
talking about through these dreams at night and deep sleep, that he may withdraw man from
his purpose and hide pride from man.
He keepeth back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword.
So basically God's plan, according to Elihu, God's plan for winning people to Christ is
that he's going to go to all of them individually in their dream and win them to Christ.
Now that would make our job a lot easier because we wouldn't have to do any soul winning.
You know, if God's just going to show up and talk to each person, but you know what?
That's never been the way that God worked.
God has always used his messengers and his prophets and his servants and in the New Testament,
he's committed to us, the ministry of reconciliation, and we as believers go out and preach the
gospel to every creature.
That's how they're going to be delivered from the pit.
God's not going to go around and just deliver people from the pit by just coming to him
at night and just talking to him.
He's going to send you to talk to him.
He's going to send me to talk to him.
Jesus Christ, when he was on this earth, he went and gave the gospel to a lot of people,
but he said, as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world, but then he said
unto his followers, you're the light of the world.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which is in heaven.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, as my Father had sent me, so send I you.
He's committed unto us, the ministry of reconciliation.
We beseech them in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
That's our job.
Elihu doesn't understand that.
It says in verse 19, he is chastened also with pain upon his bed.
He's talking about the sinful man, just an unregenerate man.
He's chastened also with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong
pain.
So here's what he's saying, if you're a bad person or if somebody's sinful or somebody's
not saved and they're on their way to hell, God's going to send a lot of pain to that
person in their bed.
They're going to have all this pain, strong pain.
And then it says, so that his life abhorreth bread.
I mean, he has so much pain that you don't even want to eat anything.
Not even dainty meat, his sole dainty meat.
Verse 21, his flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen and his bones that were
not seen stick out.
So he's saying he's starving.
Basically he's going to make you so sick and in so much pain that you don't want to eat
anything and you can't eat anything and so because you're not eating anything, you get
really skinny and your bones start sticking out because you're just so emaciated.
Everybody get the picture?
And then it says in verse 23, or verse 22, yea his soul draweth near unto the grave in
his life to the destroyers.
If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his
uprightness, then he is gracious unto him and saith, deliver him from going down to
the pit.
I have found a ransom.
His flesh shall be fresher than a child's.
He shall return to the days of his youth.
He shall pray unto God and he will be favorable unto him and he shall see his faith with joy.
He will render unto man his righteousness.
Now what is he saying there?
And I know this is kind of heavy language that Eli is talking in, but he's saying that
this guy is going to be punished by God because he's a bad guy and he's in a bunch of strong
pain and he can't eat anything, he's so sick that he starts getting emaciated and his bones
are sticking out, but then basically God's going to be gracious to him and he's going
to deliver him from going down to the pit because a ransom has been found, his flesh
and his health is going to come back, and it says that God's going to render unto man
his righteousness.
That man's going to be rendered unto him.
Now, here's the thing about his righteousness.
It's filthy rags.
How are we going to be ransomed from going to the pit?
And the pit is referring to hell.
How can man that is born a woman be justified with God?
How can we be ransomed from the pit?
Is it through our righteousness that we're ransomed from going onto the pit?
No, absolutely not.
Now look at verse 27 and we'll get to what Elihu believes about salvation.
Look what he says.
This is a false salvation that Elihu is teaching.
It says in verse 27, he looked at the pond men and if any say, I have sinned and perverted
that which was right and it profited me not, he will deliver his soul from going into the
pit and his life shall see the light.
Though all these things work with God, oftentimes with man.
Now what is Elihu's plan of salvation here?
Basically what he's saying here is that you just have to say, I've sinned and I've perverted
that which is right, it profited me not, and God's going to save you.
This is basically the type of salvation that's even being preached to this day.
This false salvation that says, turn over a new leaf and thou shalt be saved.
Just admit that you've sinned and you'll be saved.
There was a famous sermon that an apostate false prophet named Jack Scopp, who was the
pastor of the largest independent fundamental Baptist church in America, and he went around
preaching a sermon all over the country, this was his big sermon for that year, you know.
It was called For Christ's Sake, which I felt like was a blasphemous title because that's
usually something that people would use as a cuss word, like, oh, you know, they say
that in a way that's disrespectful.
So he had this sermon called For Christ's Sake, but he didn't mean it in that blasphemous
way, except that in the sermon, he taught a lot of false doctrine in this sermon, but
it was a very popular sermon.
I had all kinds of people tell me, oh, this wonderful sermon.
And in the sermon he preached a lot of false doctrine, one of the things he said is that,
you know, it was like God hated man.
God hated everybody and wants them dead, but Jesus is talking them down.
You know, saying, no, no, I'll take care of it, God.
And the Father's like, no, burn them all, kill them all, I hate them all.
And Jesus is basically talking about, but here's the thing, actually the Father sent
the Son to be the Savior of the world.
You know, I mean, God, okay, and this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.
Here in His love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins, beloved, if God so loved us.
I mean, look, do I need to show you all the Scriptures to show how stupid that is, to
say that, you know, the Father just wants to just kill everybody and Jesus is talking
them down?
The Father sent the Son because of His love.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, okay?
But anyway, there's so many different Scriptures, but in this sermon, He says that He'll save
them if they'll just admit that they're sorry, if they'll just be sorry.
That's basically what the sermon comes down to.
You know, it's this big dramatic sermon, and for Christ's sake, He's going to do it, but
He just keeps saying in the sermon, if they'll just say that they're sorry, if they'll just
be sorry for their sins, I'll save them, and that, you know, that's not salvation.
And by the way, He's in prison now for statutory rape, because He was a wicked false prophet
and also a pervert.
But anyway, that sermon, you know, it just blew me away how many people heard that sermon
and they thought it was a great sermon when it didn't teach that the way to be saved was
through the faith of Christ, it's saying, it's adding this other thing and really focusing
on this other thing.
Like He didn't even say if they'll believe in Jesus, it's just if they'll just say that
they're sorry, then they'll be forgiven.
You know, it's if they'll just admit.
But here's the thing, there are a lot of people, listen to me now, this is an important doctrine,
there are a lot of people who are really sorry for their sins that aren't saved.
Okay, and if you think about it, that's what Catholicism is all about, just being really
sorry for your sins.
I mean, isn't that what penance is all about?
You know, penance, okay?
And basically, you know, you read about these people who came up in Catholicism, like Martin
Luther for example, and he goes away to some monastery, pretty much just to grovel before
God and just, oh, I'm so sorry.
And the Catholics, they're crawling around on their knees and sometimes they even do
extreme things like beating themselves or nailing themselves to crosses.
You know, even in Guadalupe, two miles from here, there's a Catholic church in Guadalupe
where they flog people once a year on a holiday because we talked to a teenage girl that says
she'd been flogged over there as a way to atone for her sins, okay?
But here's the thing, Jesus has already atoned for our sins, we don't need to earn our way
into heaven by being flogged down in Guadalupe or flogging yourself, like the people in the
New World Order Bible versions, we show those people in Mexico and the Philippines that
are flogging themselves, crawling on their knees through glass or even just kowtowing,
you know, just beating their head against the ground, oh, I'm so sorry, God, I'm so
sorry.
And people just grovel and wail and whine and they're so sorry, but you know what, that's
not salvation.
You know what salvation is?
Lord, I believe.
It's that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine
heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
And you hear so many people now that just want to emphasize, hey, you know, you've got
to be really, really sorry for your sins.
And honestly, I've heard people say this, they say when I'm giving the gospel to somebody,
if I don't sense sorrow, meaning sadness or just kind of like, oh man, what have I done,
I've committed all these sins, if they don't sense that, they'll walk away, I mean that
person's not ready to get saved.
I mean they're not saved, like they love it when people are crying.
Now who's ever won somebody to Christ and they start crying?
Lots of times, many times.
Those are the ones who really got saved.
No, because here's the thing.
A lot of people that I've won to the Lord were just really happy.
Now there are a lot of people in the Bible who gladly received the word and they went
away rejoicing and leaping for joy and happy.
Not everybody's going to have the same emotion when they're saved, right?
Some people when they hear the gospel and get saved, they get really sad and they're
crying and they're like, oh man, you know, because they just feel so unworthy and they're
just so moved by the fact that Jesus loves them, he's willing to forgive them.
You know, a lot of people who've had a really sinful past are just so moved by the love
of God and they're so sorry for the sins that they've done that they're crying.
Look, that's great, but you know, other people have a different emotion where they're just,
this is great news.
I mean it's called the good news, the gospel.
They're just, wow, this is cool, this is great, hallelujah, you know, and they get saved.
Oh, wait a minute, where was the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth about your sins,
now they already, now obviously they know they're a sinner, they admit they're a sinner.
I mean people will just be like, oh yeah, I know I'm a sinner, I know I deserve to go
to hell.
Wow, this is cool, this is great, salvation is free, it's the gift, it's grace.
Okay, salvation is not based upon emotion.
Just where in the world did we get all this emotionalism?
My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed, I trust the ever living
one, his wounds for me shall plead, my hope is leaning on the Word, the written Word of
God.
Salvation by my Savior's name, salvation through his blood.
I need no other argument, I need no other plea, it is enough that Jesus died and that
he died for me.
It's a great song, what in the world is all this emotional stuff?
Now look, I'm not against emotion, but is emotion required for salvation?
Where in the world are you getting that?
Oh you've got to have all this sorrow.
No you don't, to get saved, no.
Now look, every time we sin we should have sorrow for our sins, but that's not a requirement
for salvation.
Every time we sin we should be sorry and feel bad about it and have sorrow over it.
The Bible tells us, let your laughter return to mourning, your joy to heaviness, humble
yourselves, but look, that's not a requirement for salvation.
Salvation's not an emotional experience where you come down an aisle and a lot of music
is playing and there's a lot of crying and there's a lot of white knuckle gripping of
the bench and the pew, it doesn't have to be that way when you get saved.
Look, when the Ethiopian eunuch got saved, you don't see any of that, but you see him
rejoicing.
When he got saved, he's excited, he's woo, he's shouting, he's happy.
Some people are going to cry, some people are going to be sorrowful, some people are
going to be joyful, some people are going to have different, some people might just
be kind of stoic.
And I've talked to some people that just didn't show a lot of emotion at all, but then later
it becomes obvious that they really got saved.
You'll see, you'll talk to that person, it's clear that they got saved.
And then other people are real emotional and turn out to be a false profession, somebody
who wasn't really saved, because obviously we can't see the heart of every person that
we talk to when we give them the Gospel.
But listen, it's dangerous false teaching when you start making emotion a requirement.
And a lot of times this emotionalism gets smuggled in using a word that's an abused
word called conviction.
Hey, there's got to be conviction, brother.
If there's no conviction, you're not really saved.
And what they do is they use that word conviction to basically just smuggle in emotionalism.
That's what they mean by that.
Now here's the thing about the word conviction, it's not in the Bible.
Oh yeah, sure, no.
But what about that verse that says you're going to convict the world of sin, yeah in
the NIV.
I thought we were King James only.
In the King James, the word conviction doesn't exist.
The closest thing you have to conviction in the King James is that the Pharisees, when
they were going to stone the woman taken in adultery, and Jesus told them, he that is
without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her, it says that those men were
convicted of their own consciences.
And guess what, they all died and went to hell, all of them.
They were convicted by their own conscience and they all died and went to hell.
You know who else was really convicted of his own conscience?
Doesn't use that word.
The only time that word's ever used in the Bible is in John chapter 8, convicted of their
own conscience.
But yet people make that a requirement for salvation.
Now look, if something's required for salvation, wouldn't God tell us that at least once?
I mean, okay, Richard Miller, what do you believe is required for salvation?
Faith, okay.
Do we find faith mentioned?
How many times, right?
I mean, faith or belief, believe is a verb, faith is the noun.
That word, believe or faith, that's the requirement for salvation, why do you think it's mentioned
hundreds of times?
But yet this other requirement of just emotion or just conviction are words that aren't
used and yet we're supposed to believe this is a requirement for salvation.
But hold on a second.
David said in Psalm 51, I'll be sorry for my sin.
Right, he'd already been saved for years.
We should be sorry for our sins every day.
So what I'm saying is we've got to be careful that we don't get mixed up in just this emotionalism
of the Gospel and a Gospel that just spends a lot of time talking about how you've got
to be sorry and turn from those sins and turn over that new leaf and you can't keep
on living the way you're living because eventually it just degenerates into a full work salvation.
That's where that road, go ahead and get on that road and you know where you end up with?
Work salvation.
And I'll just turn to one place to prove that, Jonah 3.10.
I mean, there are lots of places we could go to teach this and a lot of people have
said, oh, your attack on repent of your sins, salvation is all based on one verse, Jonah
3.10.
But here's the funny thing.
I was preaching this long before I'd ever even noticed Jonah 3.10.
The first time I ever noticed Jonah 3.10 was when I woke up on the morning of October 19th,
2008 and on the morning of October 19th, 2008, I opened my Bible and I read the book of Jonah
on October 19th, 2008.
And that morning I had a sermon written called 1, 2, 3, Repent After Me.
And that morning I was reading Jonah and that verse jumped out at me and I said, wow, that's
a great verse for my sermon.
But you know what?
I'd already been preaching the truth about salvation for many years before that.
I'd already preached whole sermons against this false, hey, if you repent of your...
You can't be saved unless you're willing to repent of your sins.
You have to...
You know, hey, you're living with your girlfriend, you've got to be willing to end that relationship
to be saved.
If you're a drinker, you've got to be willing to quit drinking.
I was already preaching against that for many years because I believe salvation is not by
works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.
Salvation by grace, it's through faith, it's not of ourselves, it's not of works, it's
not by the deeds of the law.
And the Bible says in Jonah 3.10, it says, and God saw their works, their works that
they turned from their evil way.
Now those were some good works, to turn from their evil way, but they were works.
So a person who says, you must turn from your evil way and believe on Jesus Christ, is saying,
do works and believe on Jesus Christ.
And salvation is not of works.
And it says right there, God saw their works that they...
I just yelled a baby awake, alright?
But anyway, you know, look, everybody, when you walk in here, you know, you have to sign
a form that says, I understand my baby's going to be awoken, I'm going to be screamed
at, I'm okay with that.
No, I'm just kidding.
Sign a waiver.
But anyway, God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented
of the evil that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not.
Why?
Because he saw their works.
And what were their works?
The fact that they turned from their evil way.
Now here's another guy who was really sorry for his sins, really sorry.
Judas Iscariot.
Remember in Matthew 27?
I mean he was so sorry, remember he sold Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver?
He brings the money back.
If that's not repentance, I don't know what is.
I mean he brings the money back and says, I've sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent
blood.
And he brings it back.
And they said, you know, what does that do to us?
See that or that.
And they wouldn't take the money back.
So you know what he did?
He threw it on the ground.
I mean he wouldn't even take, he tried to return the money to the Pharisees to undo
that which he had done and he couldn't.
They wouldn't take it.
They said, we don't want this money.
It's the price of blood.
He throws it everywhere and runs out and he went out and hanged himself.
And he went to hell.
He's in hell, my friend.
The Bible's clear on that.
Why is he in hell today?
Is it because he wasn't sorry?
Because he never turned over a new leaf?
He never admitted he was wrong?
I mean look what Elihu is saying.
Look down at your Bible in Job 33.
We'll finish up here.
Elihu, who is a false teacher, who is wrongly attacking Job, says, he looked at the pond
men, verse 27, and if any say I've sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited
me not.
Isn't that what Judas Iscariot said?
I mean that's pretty much what Judas did.
I've sinned and it profited me not.
Here's the money back.
I don't even want it.
I'm sorry.
If anybody does that, he'll deliver his soul from going into the pit.
So I mean according to Elihu, Judas is going to heaven.
But Judas is not in heaven, Judas is in hell today.
Judas is a son of perdition.
It would have been better for Judas if he'd never been born.
Why is Judas in hell today?
You know why Judas is in hell today?
Because he did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Bible is crystal clear.
A lot of people say, oh, Judas lost his salvation.
Read the Bible.
In John 6, it makes it crystal clear, read the last 10 or 15 verses of John 6 where he
says that Jesus knew from the beginning who it was that did not believe on him and who
it was that would betray him.
Judas did not believe on Jesus Christ from day one.
You say, why did he follow him?
Because he had the bag and he stole what was put in it.
He was stealing from Jesus and stealing from the disciples and he followed them and he
got all the glory of being a disciple, but he was stealing money all along.
He was a devil, the Bible says.
Now look, you say, but wait a minute, Pastor Anderson.
What about when he was sorry?
Didn't he at that point confess that Jesus Christ was the son of God?
No.
When did he say, hey, Jesus is the son of God.
Hey, I need Jesus as my savior.
I need to put my faith on the Lord Jesus Christ when he went into that temple.
That's not what he said.
He said, I betrayed innocent blood.
He knew that Jesus was not guilty of what he was being accused of.
So he felt bad to see Jesus, an innocent man, going to his death.
And when he saw that he didn't, I don't know if he didn't think Jesus was going to get
put to death or something, because it's like when he saw that he was getting the death
penalty, he's like, whoa, and he backed off.
Part of it is because when Judas betrayed Jesus, the Bible makes it clear that Satan
entered into Judas.
He was actually possessed of Satan.
Once he's not possessed of Satan anymore and once he sees that Jesus is being put to death,
he feels bad about an innocent guy.
Look, if you lied about somebody and they were being put to death, can you see yourself
feeling bad about that and saying, oh, man, what have I done?
Especially an unsaved person, they're under demonic influence, falsely accuses somebody.
Then they see that person being put to death and they're sorry and they repent and say,
oh, man, please don't put this innocent person to death.
Okay, let me ask you this.
Does that mean that they're trusting that person to get them to heaven?
Does that mean that they feel that that person is the Son of God?
No.
So Judas went to hell because he didn't believe on Jesus Christ because the Bible says that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Salvation is by believing in Christ.
It's by faith.
It's not just if anybody will just be sorry and just grovel and prove you're sorry.
Give back the money.
Prove you're sorry.
Give back the money.
Get on your knees and say you're sorry.
Cry.
I want to see tears.
I want to see you on your knees crawling.
I want to see you being flogged and nailed to a cross to show how sorry you are.
What in the world?
That's Catholicism.
And we need to make sure that we make it crystal clear that the Gospel is the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ and that salvation is through faith in Him.
Not this emotional experience.
Now look, who's had some emotional experiences in your life, reading the Bible and being
in church?
Yeah, I've had a lot of emotional experiences, but you know what?
That's not what I base my faith on.
How do you know the Bible's true?
Because I tingled in a service?
I mean is that really what you base your faith on?
You're like the Mormons.
Well, I had a burning in my bosom.
I went to Faith Forward Baptist Church, had a burning in my bosom.
That's how I know the Gospel is true.
No.
That's not it.
It's the Word.
It's faith.
It's belief.
So let's just read the last few verses.
Verse 30 says, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light
of the living.
Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me, hold thy peace and I will speak.
If thou hast anything to say, answer me, speak.
And then this statement is just bizarre.
For I desire to justify thee.
At the beginning of chapter 32, it says in verse number 2, it says in the latter half,
against Job was his wrath kindled because he justified himself rather than God.
Now he's like, well I want to justify you.
I thought the whole reason you're mad is because he justified himself.
This guy, look my friend, Eli is not making any sense.
Have you noticed that about this chapter?
Did you notice it about last week's chapter?
Well guess what?
Next week, Elihu is not going to make sense either.
You know, because Elihu is a false accuser and he's wrong.
Okay.
Let's just read the last verse.
It says, if not, hearken unto me, hold thy peace and I shall teach thee wisdom.
You just sit down, Job.
Let me just teach you something here.
This guy, Elihu, is full of hot air, all right?
Thank God that we have better things to anchor our faith to than guys like Elihu and all
their dreams and all their, you know, crazy stuff that doesn't make any sense.
Thank God we've got a more sure word of prophecy.
We've got the Bible.
We've got Jesus Christ.
We've got the whole book right here in English for us and this is the truth right here.
The King James Bible is the word of God in English for us to understand and you know,
he's like Elihu.
You know, you say, well, is Job chapter 33 true?
Well, it's true that Elihu said that.
That's what's true about it, but he's preaching false doctrine.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for salvation, Lord.
Thank you that it's free.
Thank you that it's not based on an emotional experience, otherwise people that aren't that
emotional would be doubting their salvation.
They don't know if they felt enough conviction or felt enough sorrow or cried enough, Lord.
Thank you for just making salvation easy, just through faith, just believing in you,
Lord.
And Lord, I believe in your word, Lord, because of its power and we thank you so much for
the fact that we have it in English today and that we can come to church and read it
and learn from it and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.