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Job, chapter number 1, verse 1, the Bible reads, There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. Now, let me start out by just explaining to you a little bit about the book of Job, who we're dealing with, where these people lived, what time period of history this is. You might have noticed that the Bible is not always laid out in perfect chronological order. That's because the Bible is grouped by topic. You have the first five books of Moses, which are the books of the law. Then you have the historical books that take you from Joshua and all the way up through to after the captivity, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. Then when you get into the book of Job, you get into what's called the poetic books of the Bible, and that's Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Then you get into your major prophets, minor prophets. Just like in the New Testament, you have the four gospels, you have Acts, then you have all the epistles, then you have the prophecy in the end. So the book of Job, chronologically, I believe the events in the book of Job would fall between the book of Genesis and the book of Exodus. But as far as when the book was written, we don't know exactly when the book was written, but I believe that the book was written after the time of Moses, and let me explain to you why. In the book of Job, the primary name that you're going to hear the characters in the book of Job refer to God as is God Almighty. They're constantly calling him either the Almighty or God Almighty, far more than any other book of the Bible, just constantly just the Almighty, the Almighty, the Almighty. In the first two chapters where it gives the introduction to the book of Job, and in the final chapter of the book of Job, it keeps calling him the Lord. Look down at your Bible and you'll see in all capital letters there, the Lord in verse 6, verse 9, you see it again, you see it in verse 21. So basically, when the narrator of the story is talking, the primary name that he uses to refer to God is the Lord, in chapters 1, 2, and 42. Whereas throughout the book, they're not really calling him the Lord, they're calling him God Almighty. Well, if you remember, Moses at the burning bush heard about the name of Jehovah, or the Lord. And God said that he was known unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by the name of Jehovah was I not known unto them, okay? So that shows that we can get a kind of a timeline if these people are calling God, God Almighty, it's probably before the time of Moses. And not only that, but, you know, when Moses came and he received the law, the Ten Commandments, all the different ordinances and statutes, none of those are mentioned in the book of Job. If those had already existed, there would have been some mention, okay? Now if we look at the names of people and places in the book of Job, we see first of all in verse 1 that he was from the land of Uz, and then we see a little bit later on that he has a friend called Eliphaz the Temanite. Well, if you understand that the places Teman and Uz are placed in the land of Edom, and Edom is another name for who? Esau. We can probably see that these men in the book of Job are living in the time before Moses, but after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they're probably descendants of Esau, or at least living in the area where a lot of Esau's descendants are located. So that gives you a little bit of a timeline that we're looking at events taking place between Genesis and Exodus, but being written down by the narrator in chapters 1, 2, and 42 after Moses. That's why they're constantly calling God Jehovah, and hopefully that didn't go over your head. So anyway, the story here starts out with Job. The Bible says in verse 1 that he was a perfect man and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil. Now go to James chapter 1 quickly, James chapter number 1, James chapter number 1, because I want to explain to you what the word perfect means, because a lot of people might look at that word perfect and they'll think, well, Job was totally without sin. Maybe that's not true, because the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. So nobody is completely perfect in the sense that they are without sin. What did the Bible mean when it says that Job is a perfect man? Well in James chapter 1, it says in verse number 5, if any of you lack wisdom, let a mask of God, they give it to all men liberally, and a braideth not, and it shall be given him. I'm sorry, back up one, I got the wrong verse here. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. See what the Bible means by perfect is complete. When something in the Bible is described as imperfect, it's incomplete. Now what does entire mean? If I said I'm going to eat an entire pizza, what does that mean? I'm going to eat the whole thing, right? So it's the complete pizza, entire. And so God's saying you will be perfect and entire wanting nothing, means you're not lacking anything. So that's how Job was. Now for us today, go back to Job 1, if we were going to be considered by God a perfect man, not saying that we're sinless, but if we're going to be complete and entire, it basically means we have the whole package when it comes to our walk with God and our service for God. For example, if you knew someone who was really good at reading their Bible, and they were really good about praying, but they didn't do any soul winning, that's not a perfect person because they have this part of their life that's missing. Their Christian walk is incomplete. Or maybe someone who is great at reading their Bible and does a lot of soul winning, but they don't pray. Or somebody who is great at reading their Bible, great at praying, great at doing so, but they don't go to church. There's some huge thing that's missing. Or maybe they're going to church, reading the Bible, praying and soul winning, but they're living a very sinful life. Maybe they're very worldly. Maybe they're committing a lot of ungodliness in other areas of their life. There's something missing, the holiness in their life is missing. So what I'm saying is that Job was a guy where you couldn't really look at any area of his life and say, you know, Job's a great guy, but there's just this one area that he's messed up in, or there's just this one area where he's failing. No, Job was a perfect man and upright. I mean, in every major area of his Christian life, he had it together. And so he was an upright man, and the Bible says that he feared God and eschewed evil. So not only did he do the right things, he abstained from the wrong things. He eschewed evil, and the Bible also says that he feared God. Over and over again the Bible tells us that he wants us to fear him. You know, we need to have a respect for God that realizes that he holds our fate in his hand. He can destroy us anytime he wants to. So he says in verse 2, there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels, and that's not talking about cigarettes, that's talking about the animals, 3,000 camels and 500 yoke of oxen and 500 chias in a very great household so that this man was the greatest of all the men, and again, the geographic location of the east, again, pointing to somewhere in the region where Edom and his descendants were. Now notice here that in the same breath as God is telling us about all his financial prosperity, he mentions the fact that he has seven sons and three daughters. Why? Because all throughout the Bible, children are viewed as a blessing. You know, today people wouldn't brag about the fact, they'd be ashamed of it and be like, you know, I have seven kids, you know, but, and by the way, I do have seven kids, but I'm not up to Job's level yet, you know, I don't have ten yet, but I'm on the right track. I've got the three daughters, I've got four sons, so three more sons, and I'm up to Job's level of prosperity. I don't have the camels yet either, but what I'm saying is that God is listing off just how blessed this man is with financial prosperity, also how he's been blessed with ten children, because we need to get a biblical view that children are a blessing. The Bible says children are inherited to the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Of the what? Youth. Oh, wait till you're much older to have kids. No. So are children of the youth, happy as the man that hath his quiver full of them, they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. But in our birth control society, our eugenicist programmed society, you know, children are a burden to be avoided, okay? That's wrong. That's not biblical. We need to view children as a blessing from God. And so we see Job was very blessed in his family, in his finances. Now look, you may only have one child, you may only have two children. If that's all God blesses you with, great. I mean Abraham was one of the greatest men in the Bible, right? You know, Sarah and Abraham in that marriage were only blessed with that one child, Isaac. You know, when it came to Isaac and Rebekah, two very godly people, they were only blessed with two children. But you know what, you should have as many as God gives you and not artificially limit the number of children that God's going to give you. And I practice what I preach on that, let me tell you. But anyway, it says in verse 4, and his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. So what this is saying is that his sons decide to have a great feast or a party and they're going to do it for seven days straight. They're going to have a week-long celebration and because there are seven of them, each of them hosts the gathering at his house on the subsequent day. So you know, we go to one brother's house this day, we go to one brother's house the next day, seven of them, seven days in the week, the sisters are invited and they have this feast day. Job doesn't even know that there's been any sin, Job doesn't know that they've done anything wrong or you know, there's no evidence in the Bible that they've done anything wrong. But Job, just in case they had done wrong or cursed God, even in their heart, just if they had thought the wrong thing, Job is making sacrifices unto the Lord and he's praying for his children. He loves his children, he cares about his children and above all, he wants his children to be right with God. And listen, that's my greatest desire for my children. Obviously we all want our children to grow up and to be smart. We want them to be educated, right? We all want our children to grow up and we want them to be healthy. We want them to be physically fit. You know, we want them to be successful. We want them to be able to provide for their own needs. But honestly, above any of that, I just want my children to love God. I mean if my children grew up and loved and served God, that's more important to me than if they even loved me. I mean I'd rather have my children grow up and love God and want nothing to do with me than to grow up and love me and want nothing to do with God. I mean to me, and I can say that, and I'm telling the truth from the bottom of my heart, the most important thing, and you know what, if my children grow up and they're poor, but they love God and they serve God, you know what, I'll be proud of them. I'll be, I don't care how poor they are, I don't care how unsuccessful they are, I don't care if they have a job where the world would look at that job and disdain that job and say, oh man, he's only, you know, fill in the blank, some kind of a lowly job, you know, just cleaning toilets somewhere or whatever. You know what, the most important thing to me is that my children grow up and love God and serve God. And you know, Job, he loved his children, he cared about their spiritual well-being, and he wanted them to grow up and serve God, and he prayed for them and he loved them and he wanted to make sure that they were spiritually right. And that ought to be our main concern. I think that homeschooling is obviously the best way to raise your children, you know, than to put them in the government school, to be brainwashed and indoctrinated. But I'll say this though, I think it's really important that you actually take homeschooling seriously though, you know, and not just, don't just unschool, right, have you ever heard that term? You know, you should actually teach them the material, you know, teach them the academics, but above all, make sure that they're learning the Bible. Make sure that they're, you know, and even if you're not homeschooling, I mean, are you reading the Bible with your family every day, you know, are you praying, are you praying for them, are you praying with them? We need to make sure that we do everything possible to keep our children spiritually on the right track. Job is even taking it to an extreme where he just, he's praying for them to be forgiven of stuff that they may not have even done. I mean, he's that worried about their spiritual well-being. So God's just giving us a picture in the first five verses of the kind of guy that Job was. Look at verse 6. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan came also among them and the Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou? Then answered Satan, then Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. Now let's stop right there and understand that the devil is not in hell. Because people have this misconception that the devil is down in hell, and many people even have the misconception that he is ruling and reigning in hell. Like Porky Pig, you know, when, you remember when people on Looney Tunes used to die and go to hell? Who knows what I'm talking about? Who grew up with Looney Tunes? On Looney Tunes, you know, let's say the Wile E. Coyote takes a misstep, you know, he's after Road Runner and he falls off a cliff and, you know, he just, when his body stops but his soul just keeps going down. You know what I'm talking about? Wile E. Coyote, you know, bam! And then the body just, the body, the soul descends into hell. And who's there waiting for him down in hell? Porky Pig. With a pitchfork and he's the devil, you know. But look, that's not biblical, okay? Because the devil is not in hell. The devil has never even been to hell that there's any evidence of, okay? The devil is walking about on the earth. The Bible says, be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. He's walking about. And here, when God asks Satan where he's been, he says, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down it. Satan is on this earth. He goes up and down the earth looking to make trouble for God's people, looking to pervert that which is righteous, looking to promote false religion, okay? And he also goes back and forth between earth and heaven. Because notice he's walking up and down the earth, then he goes up and presents himself before the Lord and speaks to the Lord. Then he goes back down to earth. In chapter 2 he's going to be back talking to the Lord again in heaven. Now you say, well when was the devil cast out of heaven? The devil has not yet been cast out of heaven. And to me, it boggles my mind how this goes over people's heads sometimes. Because people sit there and debate, I remember when I was in Bible college, they're debating about when was the devil cast out of heaven. You know, was it before Genesis 1, 1? Was it, you know, right before the Garden of Eden? You know, was it when Christ was crucified? You know, they're going back and forth. And I raised my hand and said, the devil has not yet been cast out of heaven because the devil's going to be cast out of heaven in Revelation chapter 12. In Revelation chapter 12 is where the devil is cast out. And when he's cast out, you know what it says? The accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night. Well in Job 1, what do we see the devil doing? Accusing Job before God. Accusing the brother, accusing a saint before God, and that's exactly what it says in Revelation 12 when he's cast out in verse 10, talks about him being cast out of heaven. He's the accuser of the brethren and it says that when he is cast out, he knows he only has a short time and he goes to persecute the woman. He persecutes the woman for 1,203 score days, which is three and a half years. He persecutes the seed of the woman, you know, for additional time after that. So what we see is that the devil is cast out at the very beginning of the tribulation. Right at the beginning of the tribulation, the devil will be cast out. That has not yet happened. The Bible often talks about the things which be not as though they were because the Bible talks about, for example, the crucifixion of Christ in Isaiah 53, 700 years before it happened, in the past tense, despised, rejected. Brought as the lamb to the slaughter. Why? Because God calls the things which be not as though they were. He knows the end from the beginning. He talks about things that are going to happen in the future as if they've already happened because he dwells outside of time. He dwells in eternity. He inhabits eternity. So what I'm saying is that the devil will be cast out in the tribulation. Until then, he spends time in heaven accusing the brethren and he spends time on this earth. He's what? The tempter. He's our adversary. Okay, now what does the Bible say here? In verse 8, and the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? Now, what does it mean when he says there's none like him in the earth? The Bible's saying here that Job was the greatest man living on the earth at that time. Out of all the people that lived on the earth, Job was the most righteous person living on the planet at that time. And the Lord is bringing that up to Satan that hey, have you noticed, have you considered Job? He's the greatest man that's on this earth. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Naught means nothing. He's saying, you know, what, does he fear you for nothing? Hast not thou made a hedge about him? And about his house and about all that he hath on every side? Now what's a hedge? Think about hedges. Front of somebody's house, what is it? A barrier. You know, it's a bush, right? If you think about what a hedge is. It's when people have like a little fence in front of their house, but it's not a fence. It's a bush that's trimmed to be like a fence. It's a barrier. And the Bible's saying here that the devil is telling God, well the only reason Job is serving you is because you've been so good to him. You gave him all these blessings and you've put a hedge around him. You're protecting him and he only serves you because you're being good to him. Look what it says in verse 10 at the latter half. Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face. He's saying, look, of course Job's just so happy to serve you, he's got all this money, he's got all these children, everything's going his way, he's got a hedge around him protecting him. If you take away what he has, he'll curse you to your face. Look what the Lord says in verse 12. The Lord said unto Satan, behold, all that he hath is in thy power. Only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. So Satan is given a restriction. God tells him, look, you can take away all of Job's possessions, you can damage all of his goods, but you cannot harm him personally. So basically Job's health or his life are not going to be taken. Job's still going to be healthy, he's still going to have his life, but he's going to lose everything. Satan is going to come and destroy everything. And that's exactly what happens in the next verses, we see that he loses everything. His ten children are killed, all of his belongings are gone, everything is gone in a moment. Now I'm going to come back to that, but first of all let's talk a little more about the scene in heaven. Now we know that they're coming and presenting themselves before the Lord, and I think it's pretty clear that the Lord dwells in heaven. And again in Revelation chapter 12, when the Bible talks about the devil accusing the brethren day and night, it talks about him doing that in heaven, and being cast down from heaven. After he's cast down, he's restricted to only being on this earth. He's not able to access heaven anymore. Then at the end of the tribulation, and then after God is done pouring out his wrath, the devil is bound for a thousand years. That's where the devil goes to hell. And let me tell you something, the devil will not rule and reign in hell. There is no evidence of that. You know who rules and reigns in hell? The same one who rules and reigns. This entire universe, heaven, earth, below the earth, the sea, everything in this universe is ruled over and controlled by God. And there's even an angel that's called the angel of the bottomless pit, that has authority over the bottomless pit, that has a key to the bottomless pit, and that angel known as Abaddon or Apollyon is not the devil. Because that angel known as Apollyon in the Greek tongue or Abaddon in the Hebrew tongue, he lays hold on the devil and casts the devil into hell and binds him and locks him up for a thousand years. So the devil's going to be suffering in hell. He's going to be punished in hell. You know there's a famous saying amongst those that worship Satan, and this is their mantra. They say, better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. Who's ever heard that saying before? It's a very famous statement. I believe that it comes from the epic poem by John Milton called Paradise Lost from hundreds of years ago. I don't know where it comes from, but it's a pretty bad statement. Because let me tell you something, nobody's reigning in hell except the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. It's God's spirit. It's the breath of fire out of the Lord's mouth that kindles the fire of hell. He created hell to torment the devil and his angels. The Bible says, depart from ye cursed and everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, to be on the receiving end of that everlasting fire. Now they're in heaven. If we compare Job 1 with Revelation 12, it's clear. The scene is in heaven. Now on this day in heaven, the Bible tells in verse 6 that the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And then that's when Satan shows up, also among them, and starts to accuse Job. So the question is, well who are the sons of God? Now let me tell you an important principle of Bible interpretation. Always base what you believe on a clear scripture, on a clear statement. See if you ask me to back up anything that I believe that's of any major doctrinal importance, I should be able to give you a clear scripture to back that up, don't you think? It shouldn't have to be some weird, complicated explanation or proof. I should be able to have a clear statement, a clear scripture for everything that I believe. Let's go over some major doctrines that we believe and just how there's just a clear scripture to prove. Okay, how about the deity of Christ? We call out a scripture that proves the deity of Christ. What's that? John 1-1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God, right? Or you could say God was manifest in the flesh, unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Okay, virgin birth of Christ, Isaiah 7-14, behold a virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth the Son. Okay, and then Matthew chapter 1, same thing, right? Matthew 1-23. If we go through and talk about creation, you know, just a six day creation, for in six days, Exodus 20-11, in six days God created the heaven and the earth and all that in them is. Okay, if we talk about, you know, hell being eternal, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, right, it's a clear cut verse. We could show you another, you know, the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, they have no rest day or night. Revelation 14-10 and 11 teach that. Okay, anything we believe there should be a clear scripture that backs up that doctrine. Okay, the inspiration of the Bible, you know, 2 Timothy 3-16, all scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine. Okay, you know, when it comes to our belief on end times prophecy, we have a clear scripture. Matthew 24, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, you know, Christ comes in the clouds, trumpet sounds, the whole thing. Here we believe there should be a clear scripture to teach it. And if we don't have a clear scripture that states it, it might not even be true. Because you can get the Bible to teach just about whatever you want if you take it out of context and if you use all kinds of logic and arguments. Let me say this. Any false doctrine that you want to come up with, are you listening to me? Any false doctrine that you can invent, you can find a Bible verse to support it. If you take that verse out of context. But you'll never find a clear statement, never, never. You'll find verses to support it. Like for example, the Mormons get baptized for the dead. Is there a clear verse that tells us to get baptized for the dead? But do they have a verse to support that false doctrine? Yeah, in 1 Corinthians 15 they have a verse that mentions it and that's what they use to support it. You can always find Bible to prop up false doctrine, but you'll never find a verse that just comes out and says it. For example, there are people that teach that if you don't get baptized, you're not saved. Now is there any clear verse that says if you don't get baptized, you're not saved? But are there verses that they can use to support baptismal regeneration? Oh yeah, they can take the scripture in 1 Peter 3, 20 or 21, and they can twist that. They can twist what it means to be born of the water, when it's really just talking about your mother's water breaking when you're born of the flesh. It is. Born of the flesh, born of the Spirit, born of the water, born of the Spirit, that's all it's talking about. Okay, you can find verses to prop up the doctrine of baptismal regeneration like Mark 16, 16. But wait a minute, does Mark 16, 16 say if you don't get baptized, you're not saved? No, because you'll never find a verse in the Bible that says that because it's not true. And this is a key point. I want everyone to pay close attention to what I'm saying right now. Any false doctrine can find support in the Bible, but you'll never find a verse that says that because the Bible is always right and never contradicts itself. But because the Bible is so long, there are verses you can take out of context and make it say whatever you want to say, but never a clear statement. That's why if you only base what you believe on clear statements, you'll never go wrong. You'll never go into false doctrine. You'll never go into heresy when you just go by really clear statements. Is this a clear statement that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life? And I could give you tons of clear statements on salvation by faith alone. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God. We could go down the line. Clear verses that you can't lose your salvation. Clear verses that you have everlasting life, that you have eternal life, he'll never leave you nor forsake you. But people will have a lot of hazy verses making it sound like you could lose it. But never a crystal clear verse that just says hey, you can be saved and then lose it. Never going to be there. Because you can't. Okay, so when it comes to our doctrine of who the sons of God are, I've got a clear scripture. You ready for a clear scripture? John 1.12. But as many, are you listening? As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So do we have a clear scripture stating that believers in Christ are the sons of God? Human beings who believe on Christ are the sons of God. Is there any question about that? Anybody's mind? What about 1 John 3? This is another clear scripture. Because what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. Clear statement. Clear scripture. I mean, you can't go wrong with that, okay? Now go to Hebrews chapter 1. Because I'll tell you what the modern Bibles are doing in this passage. The modern Bibles have changed this passage. And I'll focus in on the NIV as one of the modern Bibles that changed this passage. By the way, the NIV is the number one best-selling Bible in America today, okay? The non-inspired version, the NIV. And in the NIV it says instead of saying the sons of God presented themselves in the book of Job, it says the angels presented themselves. Then at the bottom of the page there's a footnote at the bottom of the page that says, oh by the way, Hebrew says sons of God. Now wait a minute, if the Hebrew says sons of God and you're supposed to be giving me the Bible in English, shouldn't you just translate the Hebrew into English? But here's what the theologians behind the NIV have decided that you're not smart enough to interpret the Bible for yourself, so they're going to interpret it for you. And here's what they're saying. Well we know that the sons of God are angels, right? So let's just put angels, because we know sons of God are angels. So let's just go ahead and put angels. Is that what the Hebrew says? Even they themselves are admitting at the bottom of the page, they're saying that the Hebrew here says the sons of God. But we just decided to translate it as something completely different because we feel like it. Now that doesn't make any sense. That's not a translation, that's a commentary. That's a private interpretation, I mean that's not a translation. Okay now, the reason that they changed sons of God to angels is because we all know that the sons of God are angels, right? Wrong! Because the sons of God are not the angels. Now first of all, let me challenge you to produce one scripture from Genesis to Revelation that says the sons of God are angels, or the angels are the sons of God. Show me it. That scripture does not exist. Now people have all kinds of theories and reasons why they believe the sons of God are angels, but they'll never find a verse that says that, because there is no verse that says that. And in fact, if you go to Hebrews 1, you'll find that the Bible teaches something quite different. Look down at Hebrews chapter 1, this is about Jesus. This whole chapter is about Jesus and it says in verse 4 that Jesus, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. So Jesus has obtained a more excellent name than the angels, got that? Look what it says in verse 5, for unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. Now look, does that not right there tell us that he never said to any of the angels, I'll be to you a father, you'll be to me a son. He makes two different statements. He says look, he never said to the angels, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. He also never said to the angels, I'll be to you a father, you'll be to me a son. Now let me ask you this, has he said both of those things to us? You say well, we're not begotten, we're not begotten sons. Yes we are, the Bible says that he hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. It also says in 1 John 5, verse number 1, it says, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him, by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. So the Bible calls the children of God those that have been begotten by God, and the Bible says that we have been begotten again by a lively hope. It says in James 1, of his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creature. So there's three verses that say God begat us. There's three scriptures that say we're the sons of God, we're the children of God, right? Go to Romans 8. Hebrews 1 said that he never said that to the angels. Look, what about when he said to us, I'll be to you a father and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord. Did he ever say that to the angels? So how in the world can you look at a clear scripture stating, look, I didn't say to the angels, you're my son, I didn't say to the angels I'm your father, I didn't say to the angels I've begotten you, three different ways, do you get it? The angels aren't my sons. But these people have just substituted angels for the sons of God. Do you believe that they have the right to do that? And look, I run into independent fundamental Baptists all the time that believe that the angels are the sons of God. In spite of what I just showed you, all this evidence. Now if you look at Romans 8, and it's such a doctrinal fallacy, see the reason why we are the sons of God, let me tell you why, because we're in Christ. And anyone who is not in Christ is not a son of God. You know the Mormons will teach that we're all God's children, wrong. Because the Bible says that we're all the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. He said when we believe on Christ we become the sons of God, meaning that we did not start out as the sons of God. Now in Romans chapter 8, we have a scripture that talks about us being the sons of God, and starting in verse number 16 it says the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together. Now let me explain to you that the angels are not inheritors of the riches of Christ. I mean, they will not inherit with Christ. They will not rule and reign with Christ. We as believers, we will reign with Christ. We do have the inheritance with Christ. We are the sons of God. Jesus Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. And we as believers are the sons of God, but the angels are not joint heirs with Christ. Because He says if we're children that means we're joint heirs. Are the angels joint heirs? No. Look, there are a lot of verses that say we're the children of God. I've only shown you about five. There are a lot of verses that say we're the sons of God that we're the children of God. There are no verses that say the angels are the sons of God. And Hebrews 1 tells us He never said that. Okay? So I don't understand where people are getting this doctrine. Now, whenever I challenge people on this, because I'll challenge people on this and I'll say, look, the angels are not the sons of God. You can't prove that. There's no Bible verse that says that. There's nothing to teach that. They'll say, oh well Genesis 6. Go to Genesis 6. And here's the thing, Genesis 6 never says that. Genesis 6 never teaches that. But they'll interpret Genesis 6 that way. Now to give you the background on Genesis 6, in Genesis 4, God gives us a genealogy of Cain's descendants, beginning in verse number 16. It starts to talk about Cain and his descendants. So from Genesis 4, 16 and downward to verse 24, it talks about the descendants of Cain. Then in chapter 5, we see the descendants of Seth. Okay? Seth is the godly seed that replaced Abel. So all of Seth's descendants that represent the godly line are in chapter 5. And then Cain's descendants that represent the wicked line are in Genesis 4. When we get to Genesis chapter 6, it says in verse 1, It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be in hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air, for it repented me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, jumped down to verse 11. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold I will destroy them with the earth. Now look, over and over again, God talks about what the problem is here. And you know what he says over and over again, man, man, man, man is the problem, man, man is corrupted. And another word that comes up over and over again, violence, violence, did you see that? Is anybody listening? Violence in verse 11, verse 13, violence. Who's he mad at? Man. Who's he want to destroy? Man and the animals. I'm going to destroy the man, I'm going to destroy the animals, man is corrupt, man is done wrong, man, and you know what people say? Oh, this chapter is all about the angels. What? There is no mention of any such thing in the verses that we just read. If this was all, and they say, oh, the angels came down and mated with humans, but hold on a second, then why would he be mad at man? Wouldn't he get mad at the angels? Wouldn't he have said one thing like, and he also judged angels, because look, when the devil came and tempted Eve, he didn't just condemn man, first he started by condemning the devil. And he told the serpent, you're cursed, you're going to be punished, then he deals with man. There's no mention of angels, there's no mention of anyone being cursed in this passage except man. Man is corrupt, man is violent. Now look how else they twist this passage, because what I believe it's saying in verse 2, it says, the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. That's saying the sons of God, meaning believers, the ones who called upon the name of the Lord in Genesis 4.26, the ones who worshiped the Lord, they basically intermarried with Cain's descendants who were not saved. They're the children of men because they're not saved. They're not sons of God, they're just children of men. And they basically, sons of God, are marrying the daughters of men because they're beautiful, and basically then the whole earth is corrupt. Because let me tell you something, when you mix the righteous with the unrighteous, guess what you end up with? Unrighteousness. And that's why it's so important for God's people not to intermarry with the heathen. We should only marry believers, we should only marry Christians. We should not marry unsaved, unbelievers, because everybody will go corrupt. Your kids will go corrupt. You know, I mean it's possible that you could raise them in the Lord, but good luck with that. Because you know what, there's a good chance that they're going to go corrupt. That's what we see here. Now here's how they'll twist this. And you've heard people say this. Here's what they'll say, well, but when the Bible says that when the sons of God went in under the daughters of men, they produced giants. That is not what this says. Because let's look at it. Let's look at it, shall we? Verse 4, there were giants in the earth in those days. Now does that say that these giants were the product of the sons of God and the daughters of men? And in fact, look at the next verse. It says there were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that when the sons of God came in under the daughters of men and they bare children of them, the sin became mighty men of which were of old, men of renown. Let me ask you something. Does that say that the giants were the product of the union of the sons of God and the daughters of men? No. It says the giants were there first. It says there were giants in the land after that when the sons of God went in under the daughters of men. Those men were mighty men and men of renown. What does men of renown mean? Well known. Renown. They were known. Famous men. Leaders. What this is talking about, the leadership of the earth was basically from this corrupt union. So look, to sit there and look at verse 4 and say the Bible is teaching that the sons of God and the daughters of men produce giants, that's simply not what the verse says because the Bible says that that union took place after the giants were already there. Now let me just clarify for you what the Bible means by giants. We're not talking Mickey and the Beanstalk here. We're not talking Gulliver's Travels. We're not talking about people that are 40 feet tall or 30 feet tall. When the Bible talks about giants, he gives us two numbers. First of all, there's Goliath. He was one of the Anakims. He was one of the sons of Anak. Do you know how tall Goliath was? Six cubits in a span. How tall is six cubits in a span? About nine and a half feet tall. I mean, there are human beings that have lived on this earth in the last hundred years that have been that tall. Nine and a half feet tall. I mean, we're not talking about, and look, there are all kinds of hoaxes and frauds and you know what? There's a sucker born every minute and if you go on YouTube, you'll find all the archeological discoveries where they found a man that was 40 feet tall and 50 feet tall and you'll find all kinds of pictures of an archeologist next to a skull that's this big, Jack and the Beanstalk size. And guess what? It's all hoaxes. Guess what? It's a fraud. Guess what? It's not from any serious source of news or science. It's all just internet hoaxes. It's Photoshop. I mean, and look, by the way, you know that famous picture of the Loch Ness Monster? That's not real either. Now look, I'm not saying the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist. I'm leaving that possibility open. But I'm telling you that picture's been proven to be a fraud. It was a toy that was like 12 inches tall and you even, you can look at the water ripples and you know, it was a little toy. It zoomed in. That's how they made it. The guy confessed it on his deathbed that it was a fraud. There have been other fraudulent photos of Bigfoot. I'm not saying that Bigfoot's not out there and you know, in Arizona, did you know that we have our own Bigfoot in Arizona called the Muggion Monster? Who's heard of it? A couple people. Only my kids. They're like, yeah, we've heard of it. The Muggion Monster's out there, folks, if you're ever around Payson, alright? But what I'm saying is that there are hoaxes on YouTube and on the internet of giant skulls and giant femurs. They're not real, folks. When the Bible talked about a giant, he's nine and a half feet tall, okay? And then he talks about another giant and actually calls him a giant, Og the King of Bashan. And the Bible says, Og the King of Bashan was of the remnant of the giants. His bed was nine cubits, okay, what's nine cubits? Thirteen and a half feet. Now this guy's bed was thirteen and a half feet long. Now do you think this guy lays with his head jammed up against the headboard and his feet jammed against the footboard? I mean when you make a bed for yourself, isn't it a little longer than you are? I mean he definitely wasn't like this in it. So therefore if his bed's thirteen and a half feet long, he was less than that. He was less than thirteen and a half feet. I mean he might have been eleven feet, twelve feet, thirteen feet, probably more like eleven or twelve because you know you're gonna leave some room to go like this. I mean look, usually your bed's probably the length from your hands to your feet, not your head to your feet. So this guy's probably, you know, eleven, twelve feet tall, Goliath's like nine and a half feet tall. We're not talking Mickey and the Beanstalk. We're not talking the Book of Enoch. You know this bogus Book of Enoch that says that, you know, there were giants that were four hundred and fifty feet tall. I mean King Kong was only as tall as ten men, folks. You know what I mean? King Kong is as tall as ten men. I mean how many men does it take to, you know, what's four hundred and fifty divided by six? As tall as seventy some men? I mean, you know, I'm not buying it, folks. So what I'm saying is this doctrine is, you know, it's a fraud. And it's based on extra biblical sources. It's not a doctrine that's derived from the Bible. It's derived from the Book of Enoch. It's derived from other, you know, apocryphal writings and other, you know, pseudo-scripture. Okay, it's not a biblical doctrine. Just get off of it. It's not legitimate, okay? The Bible does not teach that they produce these giants as a result. And here's what's so foolish about it. Supposedly that's why God destroyed the earth, to get rid of these giants or these hybrids or whatever. Okay, well then why do we have giants after the flood? Because when the children of Israel go to the land of Canaan, what's it filled with? The Anakims and all the other different Kims, you know, the Zimzomims and, you know, all the different Zims and Kims and whatever. Why are they still there? Why is he only talking about judging man? I mean, just none of it makes any sense. Also the Bible says that the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage. And yet here it says they, it doesn't say they fornicated with it, it says they took them wives, you know. So therefore it's not a legitimate doctrine. So they'll point you to Genesis 6, I gotta hurry, but go to Job 38. Here's the other place they'll point you to. Now let me ask this. Is Job 6, I'm sorry, is Genesis 6 a clear scripture that states that the sons of God are angels? Would you say that's a clear, I mean, even if you believe in this stuff, would you say it's a clear scripture that says these are angels, folks? Does the word angel occur in Genesis 6? Okay. Now let's look at Job 38. Here's the other evidence that they'll give, okay. In Job 38, here's their other crystal clear verse, folks, that the angels are the sons of God. It says in verse 6 of Job 38, whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Actually let's back up to verse 4 to get the whole context. Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof? When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. So they say, see right there, there it is. Because they say this, well if the sons of God shouted for joy at the creation of the earth, they say, and this is again not a clear statement but just their logic, well if the sons of God are shouting for joy at the creation of the earth, that must be the angels. Because human beings weren't around at the creation of the earth, right? Now look, were human beings around at the creation of the earth? No. But first of all, let me start by saying this. Angels were not around at the creation of the earth either. Because the Bible says that God created everything in heaven and on earth in six days. That would include the angels, okay. But let me say this though, beyond that, this verse is not, now look if you just glance at this, I can see how you would think that. It's talking about the creation of the earth. This verse is not saying that the morning stars shouted for joy at the creation of the earth. Read it again. He says in verse 6, whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Asking if Job knows where the foundations of the earth are fastened. Look at the next phrase. Or who laid the cornerstone thereof when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? When did the sons of God shout for joy? When the cornerstone was laid. Is that not what it says? Because they're trying to connect verse 4 with verse 7. But that's not what we're connecting here. We're connecting the end of verse 6 with verse 7, and it says, who laid the cornerstone thereof when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Now look up the word cornerstone in your Bible. Let's go to one reference, 1 Peter 2. Go to 1 Peter 2. Look up the word cornerstone in the Bible. Listen to me now. It's mentioned many times. You won't find it once, you won't find it twice, you won't find it three times. You'll find it many times. And every single time it's a reference to Jesus Christ. Every single time. There's not an exception to that. When he's talking about the cornerstone, he's always talking about Jesus. Every time. And if you look down at just one example, while you're turning there I'll quote for you an example. Jesus said to them about himself, the stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. But if you look at 1 Peter, chapter number 2 is another place where it's mentioned. It says in verse 6, wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone. Elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Under you therefore which believe he is precious but under them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. So notice it says in verse 6, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone. The only mention of a cornerstone ever being laid in the entire Bible is about Jesus. And it's mentioned over and over and over again about Jesus. This is one example for the sake of time. Okay now look, first he had to be rejected of that generation because it says, the stone which was rejected of you builders, that's what it says in the book of Acts, who were the builders? The scribes and Pharisees. So the Jewish scribes and Pharisees rejected Christ, he became the cornerstone. When did he become the cornerstone? When he was resurrected, okay? Then the stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner at his resurrection. That's when God said unto him at the resurrection of Christ, according to Acts 13, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the cornerstone. We are built a building in Christ, we're a holy priesthood, Jesus is the chief cornerstone. So look, when the Bible says that the sons of God shouted for joy when the cornerstone was laid, that's a reference to Jesus Christ. You say, well why would I expect a reference to Jesus Christ in Job? There are many references to Jesus Christ in Job because God knows the end from the beginning and there are prophecies of Jesus in every part of the Old Testament. To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. All the prophets witness that message, including Job. So we see that they're shouting for joy. Look what did Jesus say about Abraham? Abraham rejoiced to see my day and was glad. And they say, you know, well you're not even 50 years old and hast thou seen Abraham? He says verily verily I say unto you before Abraham was, I am. He talks about things in the Old Testament as if they've already happened. He talks about Satan falling from heaven in Isaiah 14-12, how art thou fallen from heaven Lucifer son of the morning? Even though it's not going to happen until Revelation 12. He talks about Christ being crucified in Isaiah 53, even though it's not happening until many years later, 700 years later. So anyway this is not, this is not a proof here. This is not a clear scripture stating who the sons of God are just because they shouted for joy when the cornerstone was laid. I say that's believers because that's what the Bible says over and over again, the sons of God, the children of God are believers in Christ. Hey, isn't it great to be a child of God? I mean that's a great honor. I mean God is our Father. We are joint heirs. I mean how would you like to inherit some great estate? You know you get some in the mail, you know this guy, he's your great grand uncle and he doesn't have any descendants and so you're inheriting a million bucks. You know we're going to inherit much more than that. And by the way the Bible says we shall judge angels. We're inheriting the kingdom. We will inherit the kingdom that was prepared for us from the foundation of the world and guess who we're going to be ruling over? The angels because they don't have that inheritance. They're not the sons of God. We're the sons of God. Okay anyway we've got to finish Job 1 quickly here. I'm running out of time here but I just wanted to put that to bed you know because that doctrine is a weird doctrine. The Bible says that the angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation and Jesus said come handle me. He said put your finger in the holes in my hand, put your hand in my side, be not faithless but believing and he said a spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me to have. He said I'm not a spirit, I'm flesh and bone. And let me tell you something, the reason this is so important in Job 1, this proves that Old Testament believers were in heaven. Not down in some resort down in the center of the earth somewhere. You know on the good side of hell. What? You know that reminds me of when I used to live in Indiana and you know Gary, Indiana. People all lived on the good side right and I'm thinking Gary doesn't have a good side. You know what I mean? Oh they live on the good side. You know hell doesn't have a good side. There is no good side. But they say oh yeah they're down in the center of the earth, look. And here's what they say, well Jesus hadn't died yet so nobody could go to heaven. Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And let me tell you this by the way, Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven. So how'd he get there folks? By grace through faith anyone? Okay what about this, what about in Ecclesiastes when Solomon says the spirit of man which goeth upward and the spirit of the beast which goeth downward into the earth. But they say nobody went to heaven in the Old Testament. NIV changes the verse in John 3.13 to say no one's ever gone into heaven. That's not true. Because the Bible tells about Elijah going to heaven, the spirit of man going upward. And here we see in Job 1 and 2 the sons of God are presenting themselves before the Lord in heaven. Okay again I don't want to go too deep into that, I already have gone very deep into that. But let's look here. We see where Satan is going to go after Job and we already read it earlier before the sermon but we see that you know the first thing that happens, it says in verse number 13, there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house there came a messenger unto Job and said the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away yet they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped only to tell you. So first of all, marauding foreigners come in and just steal away the cattle and kill all of his servants in that section. Then in verse 16, while he was yet speaking there came also another and said the fire of God has fallen from heaven and has burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I only am escaped alone to tell you. Now was that really the fire of God? No, this is actually the devil that's torching his goods. But you know that's just what the servant thinks. Verse 17, while he was yet speaking there came yet also another and said the Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away, yea and slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking there came also another and said thy sons, this is the worst one, thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house and behold there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and they are dead and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. All of his wealth is gone, his children are dead. And let me tell you something, that could happen to any of us at any time. See people say this, you know, I'm going to diversify my assets. I'm going to have precious metals, I'm going to have stocks and bonds, I'm going to have money in the bank, I'm going to have cash, man I've got it all faded out, I'm all set. You know, Job had diversified assets. He had his camels over here and in a completely different place he's got the asses and the cows and if you would have told him they're both going to be destroyed on the same day he'd say, well that's impossible. But God can take away what you have like that. The devil can take away what you have like that if God allows him. Because really this is God allowing this to take place. You know, don't get too big for your britches and think that God can't touch you. God can do anything to just bring you down to nothing any time he wants or he can elevate you as high as he can take you from, like he did with Joseph and like he did with Daniel, you know, from prison all the way to the number two in the kingdom. But look what it says in verse 20, then Job arose. What's his reaction? I mean what would your reaction be? I mean 10 children. Look having children it takes a long time and it takes a lot of work. I mean he probably had these kids over the course of 20 years, you know, because kids come about two years apart. He probably had these kids over the course of 20 years and he's raised them, he's loved them, he cares about them, he's praying for them, and they're all just gone. Just dying. And just the house fell in on them. All dead. All his wealth is gone. Now look if this happened to you wouldn't you think to yourself, what have I done to deserve this? Why is God doing this to me? But look what he says in verse 20, then Job arose and rent his mantle. His mantle is his coat. He tore his coat. He rent his mantle, he shaved his head, which is something that they would do as a sign of mourning. They would shave their head, shave their beard, rip off their clothes. He fell down upon the ground and worshiped. He's bowing down to God and said, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, and look at the last phrase, nor charged God foolishly. Charging God would be blaming God. He's not blaming God. He's not saying, God why are you doing this to me here? Oh man, why is God doing this? God's not fair. You know, a lot of us have gone through hard times and I know, I've wondered sometimes, why is God doing this to me? Does God hate me? You know, what is going on here? But you know what, I bet you that nobody in this room has had anything this bad happen. Ten children all killed, all your wealth gone, all your servants killed. I mean, this is bad. And yet, had Job done wrong? Was this a punishment for Job? The Bible just finished telling us that Job was the best man living on the whole earth. And some people are so foolish as to say that, oh, Elihu wrote the book of Job and everything Elihu says later in the book of Job is all correct. Elihu condemns Job as being a major sinner. Elihu says that Job is drinking iniquity like water and he's in company with wicked men. He's an ungodly man. Well, wait a minute, is that what the Bible said? The Bible says he's perfect and upright. Elihu was wrong. And I'll tell you right now, Job was the greatest man who was alive at that time. So when bad things happened to us, first of all, we shouldn't get angry at God. Does God owe Job anything? Does God owe us anything? Nothing. He owes us nothing. And you know what, we should never get angry at God when things don't go our way. We should never, we should also never just assume that we're being punished. Now if you're in sin and these type of things start happening, then you better pay attention and get the sin out of your life. But if you know that you're doing right and you're serving God and this kind of stuff happens, it's a trial. Maybe the devil is smiting you because of a trial that you're going through, okay? He said in all this, Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly. But you know what, it's about to get way worse for Job. I mean this is just round one. You're like, what else can happen to him? His kids are all dead. It gets worse in the next chapter. And he's still going to retain his integrity. He still stays right with God. Job's an amazing man. This is an amazing book. It's 42 chapters and every single chapter is very interesting. It's a very fascinating book. I hope you'll stay with it. 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 the example of a man like Job because we can go to the book of Job for comfort. We can read the end of the book of Job and see that God blessed Job in the end. We can see the happy ending of the book of Job. And we can know that there's a happy ending for us also even when we go through the worst circumstances. Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. Lord, help us to have the patience of Job. Help us to have the faith to believe that the God of Job is our God. In Jesus' name we pray.