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Job chapter 21 beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads, But Job answered and said, Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolation. Suffer me that I may speak, and after that I have spoken, mock on. As for me, is my complaint too man? And if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled? Mark me and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth. Even when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh. Pay close attention to verse number 7, he says, Wherefore do the wicked live? Become old, yea are mighty in power. Now let me just quickly remind you of what chapter 20 was about in the book of Job, because Job's going back and forth with his three friends here. And if you remember last week, Zophar the Neamathite was the friend of Job that was speaking, and pretty much everything that Zophar said last week was true, except for the fact that he was applying it to Job. He was talking about the fact that the wicked are going to be destroyed. He basically mentions the fact that they're going to end up in hell. He talks about all the judgments of God that are going to come upon the wicked, even in this life, even upon this earth, how they will reap what they've sown. But he does not have the complete picture, and in Job 21, when Job answers Zophar, we get the complete picture, because Job actually brings up both sides. Job brings up the fact that yes, God does often judge the wicked in this life. Yes, we do see wicked people often meeting their doom right before our eyes, and we see them suffering hard things in this life. But also, as Job points out in verse 7, he says sometimes, you know, the wicked live, become old, are mighty in power. And then back in chapter 20, Zophar had said, well, but yeah, you know, their kids are going to suffer, all the kids are going to suffer, but look what it says, verse 8. Their seed, talking about their children, is established in their sight with them and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. So Job is explaining to Zophar that although everything he said in chapter 20 was true, he's missing the fact that sometimes wicked and ungodly people do get away with their ungodliness in this life, and actually they are not punished in this life. Now of course we know that wicked, ungodly people who are not punished in this life, we know of course they're going to be in hell for all eternity. There's no question about that. But Job is just pointing out the error in thinking that basically everybody's going to get what's coming to them in this life. It's just simply not true. There are very wicked and ungodly people who make it all the way to the end of their life without reaping what they've sown. Now that doesn't make God an unjust God because they're going to spend eternity in hell and they will be punished everything that they deserve, of course. But that's what Job is bringing up here in chapter 21. So he spends basically the first third of the chapter talking about the fact that a lot of wicked people do get away with their sins, but then he turns around and changes course in verse number 16. He says, lo their good is not in their hand, the counsel of the wicked is far from me. So he's saying to Zobar, I don't want you guys to get the wrong idea that I'm saying that living a wicked life pays off because of the fact, it says in verse 17, how oft is the candle of the wicked put out, and how oft cometh their destruction upon them. God distributeth sorrows in his anger, and he goes on to just decide their destruction and their doom. And look what it says in verse 23, one dieth in his full strength, being holy at ease and quiet, his breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow, and another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure, they shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them. So I'm trying to tie the whole chapter together for you. He starts out by saying, look, you're wrong Zobar, you're saying that the wicked are always going to be doomed, they're always going to be destroyed, and if not them then their children. And while that's often the case, he says look, there are wicked people that we can observe that do live a life of luxury, they do live a happy life, and even their children receive their wealth passed down to them, they live the same way. He's saying how are all these wicked people prospering then, if every wicked person's going to be judged in this life? We can see it, but then he says that obviously often they are punished, often they suffer, and so what we need to understand is that when it comes to the unsaved, when it comes to people who do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they're unsaved people that are on their way to hell, and they're living a wicked and ungodly life, some of them will be punished in this life before our eyes, others will go through this life not being punished, seemingly getting away with their crimes, but yet both of them in the end are going to be in hell. So at the end of the day does it really matter how much punishment they got in this life or not when being in hell is obviously worse than anything that's going to ever happen to you in this life? I mean all the bad things that could happen to you in this life are not even to be compared with spending an eternity in hell, and the worst part about hell is that it goes on forever. You know the Bible says that they shall go away into everlasting punishment. In Matthew 25 it says, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. See God didn't want anybody to go to hell, the Bible says God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, he prepared hell for the devil and his angels. But the Bible says that he will say unto those who are not saved, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And a parallel statement to that is where Jesus talks about the fact that he will say unto them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity. And then it says, These shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal. No matter what happens to us in this life, or no matter what happens to a wicked person in this life, at least it comes to an end. No matter how painful, no matter how bad the suffering, at least it doesn't go on forever. There's always hope, but in hell there is no hope. It's over. The Bible says the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever and they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast in his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. The Bible says in Revelation 20, 10, the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. Chilling verses from the word of God about eternal punishment and eternal torment in hell. It's the worst part. You know, I heard somebody say, well, the worst part about hell is that you're separated from God. Wrong answer. The worst part about hell is that it's eternal. The worst part, you know, second only to that would be the fire. You know, the fact that you're on fire, the fact that you're in torment. That's what is the worst part about hell. And by the way, when you're in hell, you're not separated from God. Because first of all, God is omnipresent. He's everywhere. The Bible says if I ascend into heaven, behold thou art there, if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. I mean, God is everywhere. You cannot flee from the presence of the Lord. The Bible says that those that are punished in hell, it says that they will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb. Who's the lamb? Jesus. They'll be tormented in the presence of the lamb. And the Bible also says in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. That's where the punishment comes from. The Bible says in Isaiah that, I don't have the verse memorized, but it talks about basically a stream of fire and brimstone out of the Lord's mouth is what kindles that lake of fire. I mean, it's his wrath, it's his anger that even kindles the fires of hell. It's not the state of being separated from God that the Jehovah's false witnesses will teach or that other people will try to teach and even Baptists will use that term. It's not a biblical term because the Bible says they'll be tormented in the presence of the lamb. Period. End of story. And so we see here that Job has a more full understanding than Zophar than Amethite because look at the last verse of chapter 21. Job says, how then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood. Even though Zophar was pretty close to the truth in chapter 20, the falsehood that's there is number one, they're categorizing Job as wicked when he's done nothing amiss. And number two, they have an overly simplistic view of the world that says, hey, every wicked person is going to get what's coming to them and every good person is going to always be blessed, and that is not exactly how things work. In general that's true, but that's not the whole story. Can't you see and can't you think of examples of people in this world who are just wicked, horrible, ungodly people who get away with what they do? But we know that they're really not getting away with it because they're going to be in hell. That's what Job is pointing out. Now let's look at a few highlights of this chapter. Now that we kind of got the overview of what the chapter's about and what Job is explaining in this chapter, look what it says in verse 9. Let's start reading in verse 7 just to get the context. It says, wherefore do the wicked live, he's saying, why do the wicked live? Become old, yea are mighty in power. Their seed is established in their sight with them and their offspring before that. You know, you can think of like these families, like the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers, these really wicked families that have all kinds of wealth and they pass it on to their children, and they continue on in prosperity. It says, why are the wicked prospering? Look at verse 9, their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. And I want to point out that important statement there, neither is the rod of God upon them. Go to Hebrews 12, Hebrews chapter 12. In Hebrews chapter 12 we learn about the rod of God, we learn about God's discipline. Now when we think of the rod, we think of disciplining our children. You know, spare the rod, spoil the child is what the world will tell us, and they're right about that. But what the Bible actually says is, he that spareth his rod, hateth his son. So I guess that just doesn't roll off the tongue as easily in today's world. You know as, spare the rod, spoil the child, and I agree with that too. But the Bible has an even stronger statement in Proverbs when it says, he that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. Now that clearly is teaching that if you don't spank your children, you do not love your children. And you know, you say, well I can't believe you say that. I didn't say that, that's what the Bible said. The Bible said, he that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. You say, oh I just love my children too much to spank them. Wrong answer, you don't love them enough to spank them, according to the Bible. Or you've been brainwashed and you're leaning on your own understanding. Either way, the loving thing to do is to spank your children. The Bible says, if you don't spank them, you don't love them. The Bible says you hate them. And by the way, if you don't discipline your children, they're going to grow up and become monsters. You'll probably just hate them because they're such bad people, because you didn't discipline them. And they need to be taught, they need to be trained and corrected. And in fact, discipline is a loving act. And the world says, oh it's just an angry, hateful, mean thing to do, you know, you beat your children. But look, the Bible teaches that it's loving to administer discipline. Look what it says in Hebrews chapter 12, and you say, oh you're in the Old Testament, you're in Proverbs. Okay, well the book of Hebrews is which Testament again? Yeah, we're in the New Testament, we're almost to the end of the Bible here. And in Hebrews chapter 12, it says in verse 5, and you've forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he receiveth. Is there anyone who is a child of God who is not disciplined by God? Is there anybody on this earth who is saved and commits sin and goes out and lives a wicked life and does not receive the rod of God and the punishment of God? No, because he says he scourges every son whom he receiveth. What does it mean to scourge? It means to whip. It says in verse 7, if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons, for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. So the Bible's really driving this in. He says he scourges every son whom he receiveth, whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and he says all are partakers, all sons of God will be partakers of God's discipline, and he says if you don't get disciplined, you're bastards and not sons. He's saying you're not even really a son. If you can go through life and just live a sinful, wicked life and never get punished, you're not saved. Now according to Job chapter 21 where we're studying, can a wicked person sometimes go through life living wickedly and not getting punished? Yes they can. Remember what Job said, the rod of God is not upon them. Neither is the rod of God upon them. But we know that they will of course be punished in hell. Think about it. I spank my children, but do I spank other people's children? Do you think I spank the neighbor children? You know I see one of the neighbor kids breaks one of my sprinklers, or one of the neighbor kids borrows a toy out of the front yard without asking, one of the neighbor kids damages something in my yard, do I say that's it, come on over here, you're getting a whipping. Not going to happen. Because I don't spank other people's children, but I do spank my children. So think about this, God spanks his children. God disciplines his children, but hold on, does he use the rod of correction upon those that are not his children? No the rod of God is not necessarily upon them. Now God will punish wicked people and punish evil doers, but he's not administering the loving chastisement, discipline, father to son style discipline that he does with his people. Now let me ask this, are there any exceptions to Christians being disciplined by God? No exceptions. Because if you're living wicked and you're not getting disciplined, you're not saved, you're not a child of God. But are there exceptions with the wicked? Yes. Sometimes he disciplines them, sometimes he doesn't. There could be situations where somebody does discipline somebody else's kid. Now probably not going to happen in 2014 America. If you discipline somebody else's kid, you're probably going to jail for that in today's world, which whatever, I don't care because I'm just going to discipline my own children, I'm not trying to discipline anybody else's children. But my pastor in Sacramento used to have a story that he loved to tell because he grew up in Cody, Wyoming I believe it was, somewhere in that neck of the woods. He grew up in Cody, Wyoming and John Wayne came to Cody, Wyoming for whatever reason, it was some kind of a parade or something, and he was riding his horse down the street in Cody, Wyoming and a little kid jumped out and did something stupid and spooked his horse and it almost threw him from the horse. John Wayne climbed off the horse, walked over and took that kid and gave that kid a whipping in the streets of Cody, Wyoming. So times change, right? Back then you could get by with it, especially I guess if you're John Wayne, you could just come on over here pilgrim, over my knee buddy, and he gave this kid a whipping. That just shows you how times change. But here's the thing, do you think John Wayne was just consistently everywhere he went just spanking every kid, no way. It might happen, there was a situation where it happened, but it's not going to be happening all the time, it's not going to happen consistently, but here's the thing. When it's your children, you are consistently, or at least you ought to be consistently disciplining your children. It's not just a one time deal, it's not a maybe, it's something that you do, it's a part of life. And so that's what we need to understand about God. God will consistently, regularly, and without exception, discipline his children. Other people he might discipline on occasion, John Wayne style, but he's not just always going to do it. That's why they seemingly get away with things. So it says in verse number 9, furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. What does reverence mean? Fear and respect is what that means. Fear and respect. It's where we do not take them lightly. And he's saying that because our parents disciplined us, we took them seriously. Meaning that if your parents don't discipline you, you're probably not going to take them seriously. If you do that one more time, if you do that one more time, then what's going to happen? Nothing. And the kids are smart enough to figure that out. And then it says, we had fathers of our flesh which correct us and we gave them reverence. Verse 9, shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. But he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. So what is God's motive in disciplining us? It's not just for his pleasure. Now he says our physical parents, they chastened us for their own pleasure, meaning they don't want to put up with us being a brat, so they disciplined us so that we would do what we're supposed to do. And that we would give, the Bible says if we chasten your son, he'll give you rest. You know, right? So you want a break from your kid that's just walking all over you and tearing the place apart. Obviously you have discipline in your child. But what's God's motive in disciplining us? For our benefit that we would be partakers of his holiness, the Bible says. So again, you can see why this discipline applies to believers, and unbelievers aren't going to be partakers of his holiness. Even if he punishes them, it might not change anything. I mean, they're not even his children. They're not even saved. They're definitely not holy, they definitely haven't been sanctified by the Holy Ghost. And so we see here the description of discipline for God's people, the rod of correction, and Job 21 said that, you know, there are wicked people out there where the rod of God is far from them. They're not experiencing the discipline of God. Now, this doctrine of Christians being disciplined is a very, very important doctrine, for a few reasons. For one, obviously it's an important doctrine because we should know that we can't just go out and just live however we want and not have any consequences, because God will take the rod and discipline us, and he will scourge us, and we need to fear God's discipline in our lives, because he has the power to really put us in some pain, and we need to have that reverence for him. That's the first thing. Second of all, really, the discipline of God, it helps us understand salvation. Because one of the main illustrations of salvation in the Bible is a father-son relationship. The Bible says, but as many as received him, talking about Jesus Christ, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So when we believe on the name of Jesus Christ, we become the sons of God. And what's significant about that is that when we are a son of God, he has promised us I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. He's promised us that we're sealed under the day of redemption. And so just as my children will always be my children, so God's children will always be God's children. You cannot lose your salvation. Now here's the thing, you say, well, can we just do whatever we want? But wait a minute, can my children do whatever they want? Now hold on, they can do whatever they want and they'll still be my child. I mean is there anything my son could do where I'd say, that's it, you're not my son anymore? No. But does that mean that I just let them do whatever they want? No. But what do I do when they break the rules? Do I just, I mean if my kids break my rules, do I just say, that's okay, don't worry about it. Okay, so let me ask you this, if you break God's rules, is he going to be like, that's okay, no problem. No way. God is going to discipline you. But is God going to send you to hell? No. And those are two very different things. It's very different thing for me to give my son a whooping, for me to give him a spanking, as to say, you know, you're not my son anymore. I mean look, going to hell is permanent. You're done. And God is not going to send his own children to hell. Just as we would not send our children to hell, just as we would not kill our child or hate our child and basically, you know, say you're not my son anymore, they'll always be our children. But when they break the commandments of the household, they're going to be disciplined. I have commandments, you have commandments for your children. When they break them, they're punished, but they're not cast out. Same thing with salvation. When we break God's rules, we are punished, but we're not cast out. We're not sent to hell. We are punished on this earth in this life. That's why he says, you know, if you're living a wicked life and just getting away with it, that just means you're not saved. Now if a wicked person lives a wicked life and gets away with it, well, that happens. Never happens for a believer. They will be punished. They will be disciplined. Now I encourage you to share this with people when you're out soul winning. In fact, me personally, when I go soul winning, every single time I give somebody the Gospel, I actually bring up God's discipline. That's how important I think this doctrine is. Because I find that sometimes when I'm explaining the Gospel to someone, and I'm explaining the eternal security of the believer, you know, I'm showing him that it's eternal life, that it's a gift of God, that he'll never leave us or forsake us, a lot of times people can get the wrong impression or the wrong idea of what we're teaching. And this can be a stumbling block to them getting saved, to receiving the Gospel. Because as we start to tell them the Gospel, look, it's by faith, it's not by works, it's a free gift, you don't have to earn it, a lot of times people will mistakenly think that we're saying, live however you want, you know, do whatever you want. And is that really what message we're preaching? Are we really going out and saying, hey, live however you want, do whatever you want? Now we do want to make it real clear to people that no matter what we do, we're saved as long as we believe, because we don't want people to be trusting in their works. We want them to be trusting in Jesus Christ alone. And so I will often make statements to people as I'm showing them the Gospel, I'll make statements to them to the effect of, hey, there's nothing I could ever do to lose my salvation. You know, I've often said this to people. You know, I could go to church tonight, or I can go to the bar tonight, you know, either way I'm going to heaven, because it's not going to church that saves me, it's not living a good life, it's not keeping the commandments, it's not the works of the law. It's not the obedience of the law that saves us, it is the faith of Christ that saves us. But sometimes when you explain that to people, they're taken aback by that, you're saying we can just live however we want? And I'll often have people ask me this, well then why even go to church? Why even live a good life? And I find that when you explain to them the concept of God disciplining believers just as parents discipline their children, then it seems to click with people. And that's why every single person I give the Gospel to, when I'm on the point of explaining eternal life and how salvation is all by faith and that it's not of works, I usually mention to them, now look, if we break God's commandments, He's going to discipline us, He's going to punish us. I'm not saying that you can live however you want and have no consequences, I'm just saying that you're not going to go to hell no matter what, as long as you've believed, as long as you're saved. It doesn't mean that He's not going to punish you on this life and make you go through all kinds of horrible things. And so I really encourage you, when you're giving the Gospel to people, when you're talking to them about eternal security, when you're talking to them, and by the way, a good way to explain eternal security is to take them to John 1.12 and explain them the concept of the fact that we're sons of God and show them that. That's a good scripture to take them to. And while you're on that point, if you explain the chastisement and discipline aspect of being a Christian, I find that it helps people to understand the Gospel a lot more. Because otherwise they think that you're telling them, yeah, just live wicked and just believe in Christ and just live a wicked life, you're going to go to heaven anyway, it's great. I mean, is that really what we, I mean, is that the life that we're living? No. I mean, you don't see us out living a wicked life and drinking and fornicating and partying and committing adultery and robbing and, you know, why? Why do we, because people will often ask, well then why even do anything good, why even go to church? I was just asked that recently when I was giving somebody the Gospel. And here's the answer, I always tell people when they say, well why even do anything then if you could just go to heaven anyway? I always tell people, well let me give you four reasons why I do what's right even though I'm going to go to heaven no matter what, even though there's nothing I can do to go to hell because I'm saved, I'm sealed, I'm secure, I'm forgiven. Here's four reasons to do what's right. Number one, we just saw it, because God's going to punish us if we don't in this life, He's going to discipline us. And to me going to heaven's not enough, I don't want to just live a horrible messed up life and then go to heaven, I mean I want to actually be blessed in life too. So number one, we do what's right to avoid God's discipline. Why do my children obey me at home? One reason is to avoid my discipline, because if my children defy me in my home they know they're getting spanked, period. Okay number two reason, and these are in no particular order, number two reason is because we love God. The Bible says if we love God, He said if you love me keep my commandments. So we don't just serve God because we're scared of hell, we serve God because we want to, because we love Him. And I often ask people, so do you only do the right thing when you're forced? No? Okay, well sometimes you just do the right thing because you want to do the right thing. That's love that's motivating you, that says you know what, if Jesus died on the cross for me, if Jesus forgave me of all my sins and gave me a home in heaven and He's blessed me so much, the least I could do is show Him some love by keeping His commandments. So that's the second reason. Number one, we want to avoid His chastisement. Number two, we want to show Him that we love Him. And we can never even begin to even try to repay the gift of God. We can't even come close, but at least we can show Him love by keeping His commandments. Number three, because we love other people. I mean think about it, if we go out and just say oh I'm going to heaven, who cares how I live, well then our actions and the sin in our life is going to hurt others because whenever you sin you always hurt the people around you. Say well it's my life, no you always, no man liveth unto himself, no man dieth unto himself, you will harm the people around you when you live a sinful life. You're hurting your husband, you're hurting your wife, you're hurting your children, you're hurting your parents, you're hurting your church members, you're hurting everybody around you. You're not helping anybody by living a wicked and sinful life. And so if we love God, we want to keep His commandments. If we love others, we're going to keep His commandments. The Bible 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 says that not only are we showing our love for Jesus Christ by keeping God's commandments, we're also showing our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. So we love others, okay? We love God. We don't want to be disciplined. These are all great reasons to do what's right. I don't remember what the fourth one is, but those three have got me convinced. I'm going to live for God. So the bottom line is that God's going to chastise His children, He's not necessarily going to chastise unbelievers. Why? Because He doesn't have to, to be fair or just, because everything will be balanced out when they stand at that great white throne judgment, when they're judged according to their works, and when they're placed in the lake of fire for all eternity. Every wrong will be righted at that point, and so He doesn't have to punish the unsaved in this life in order to be just. Now wouldn't you like to see that, though? Wouldn't you wish that you could just see every wicked person, get what's coming to them in this life? Okay, but we must instead, because we're not going to always see that, we must have the faith to believe that everyone will eventually be punished. That's why the Bible says, you know, avenge not yourselves. He says vengeance belongeth unto me, saith the Lord. I will recompense. Do you believe that? So you don't have to sit there and say, oh, these wicked people, they're getting away with everything. No, if we believe the Bible, then we have the faith to know that no one is ever going to get away with anything, period. So we don't have to take it into our own hands, we don't have to take revenge and avenge ourselves. You know, we can just sit back and say, you know what, God will avenge. God will judge, God will recompense. Not He might, but He will for sure. And so that's a great statement from Job 21. Go back to Job 21, verse 9, their houses are safe from fear, talking about the wicked, neither is the rod of God upon them. Now the rod of God is on His people, but not necessarily upon the wicked. It says their bull jendereth and faileth not, their cow caveth and casteth not her calf. Verse 11, they send forth their little ones like a flock and their children dance. Now notice in verse 11, having children is equated with blessing. You see that? He's saying, man, the wicked, look how they're prospering. Look how their animals are reproducing. You know, their cow is not casting its calf, verse 10. He's saying their animals are not miscarrying, the animals are reproducing. He says their house is safe, things are going good for them, and then he says they send forth their little ones like a flock. Meaning that, you know, when you have a flock of little ones, now I don't know how many kids you have to have before it's considered a flock, but it's probably more than two. You know what I mean? When you say, you have a flock of children. That's a lot. And he's saying, look at these wicked people, they're blessed, because look, they have this multitude of children. This shows you how from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible always teaches that having children is a blessing, not a curse. But yet today we think that having children is something that we should try to avoid. That it's something that, you know, is a pain in the neck. You know, people, when people see me around town and sometimes I'll take the kids off my wife's hand and give her a break, I'll take the kids with me to the bank or wherever. You know, people aren't walking up to me saying, I'm so jealous. You're so blessed. Look at these blessings, you know. They're not thinking that. Why? Because they've been fooled by the world. Because they've been deceived. Because I am blessed. These are a bunch of little blessings that I, you know. And so a lot of times people will have something positive to say, sometimes people will even confront me with something negative to say, believe it or not, just because of my flock of children. And it just shows you the mentality of our world today that does not see children as a blessing when the Bible says, lo, children are inherited to the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Now, obviously different people have different amounts of children. There were great men of God in the Bible who only had, you know, one child with their wife. Look at Abraham. And then look at another great man of God, Isaac, who only had two children. One set of twins, Jacob and Esau. So I'm not saying that, you know, hey, if you don't have a lot of children, you're not blessed. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying if God blesses you with one, that's a blessing. That's not one curse, that's one blessing. And if you have two children, you have two blessings. If you have five children, you have five blessings. The point is that we need to look at children and be thankful to God when children come in the picture. When a child is added to the family, we should thank God. And pray and say, thank you Lord for giving me children. And you know, maybe even pray and ask God to give you more children. You know, if you see it as a positive thing and a blessing. But there's an agenda today to brainwash society into thinking that the world's overpopulated and you know, you can't afford kids, you need to do this, you need to do that. How are you going to have a college fund for them each to go to an Ivy League school, it's not going to work. You know, I'm thinking about starting a fund to basically say to my children, I'll give you money if you don't go to college. Instead of a college fund, I want to start an anti-college fund that says, son, you know, go to college if you want, son, but you know, I'm not going to pay for that. But I'll give you money not to go to college. I'll pay you not to go to the devil's institution and just have the raw sewage of humanism and atheism and perversion put into your mind. You know, I'll pay you not to go to Devil State University, to ASU, where the mascot is literally Satan. I mean the mascot is literally the devil with a pitchfork and horns, okay. No, I'm not saving up for my children to go to Devil State or Satan U. I'm not saving up for it. And so, oh, how do you afford all these children, oh, how are you going to give them everything that they need? They're not going to be able to wear name brands, oh, oh, well let me tell you something. When children grow up with too much, they're spoiled. It's okay for them not to have every single fancy thing and every bit of fancy clothing. Oh, you have to buy your clothes at the thrift store. I buy my own clothes at the thrift store. My wife buys her clothes at the thrift store. Why is that not good enough for my children? What do we have to go around with our fancy clothes and our goodly apparel and go around impressing people with gold and silver and precious stones and costly apparel? No, we're going to be clothed with good works like the Bible says. We're going to be humble and modest before God. And I want my children to have a humble and modest upbringing. I don't want them to live in poverty, but I say like the man who wrote Proverbs chapter 30, Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me. Give me the middle state, Lord. Help me to have durable clothing and nutritious food, but no, we don't need all the name brands. We don't need all the fancy things. We don't need a silver spoon in the mouth every morning with their breakfast. No, we need to live a humble, modest life. This world is not our home and we don't want to lay up treasures upon the earth and have our one child just so that we can just load it with everything and it's going to grow up and be a spoiled brat. It's better when you have more children because then they do have to share. Oh, they have to have hand-me-downs. Good for them! Oh no, they're going to have to, you know, look, what are they going to have to learn? How to get along with people? How to care about others? How to take care of other people? Those are good things to learn. You know, you learn when you're in your family, you learn how to exist in a home with other people. Then when you grow up and get married, you actually can coexist with somebody else because you learned how to do that when you're growing up. You know, you learn how to get along with your brothers and sisters. That's going to help you get along with your spouse. When you learn to do without things and you learn to not throw away your food, when you learn to eat the crust, that's good for you. And learn, hey, don't waste that. That costs money. Not just, oh, let's just give you everything. Let's dress you fancy, you know, you have everything that heart could wish, and then we pay for you to be a full time student at Beer Pong University, and you can go there and learn from the burned out, gray pony tailed hippie that will teach you, and then in the evenings and weekends, you can drink and party and fornicate because you don't have a job. You know, wrong. Not the vision I have for my children's life. Oh, but they can be doctors and lawyers. I don't respect any of that. God's not a respecter of persons. I don't need my children to grow up and have some fancy job. I mean, you know what? If they want to be a lawyer, you know, I guess I'll just show them the verse that says woe unto you lawyers. You know what I mean? And I'm not against somebody being a lawyer. I mean, I'm sure that somewhere, maybe, possibly on this planet, there could be an honest lawyer. So I don't know. It could be, right? You know, I'm sure it's right next to the four leaf clover and a pot of gold and unicorns are there and it's a land of honest lawyers. I mean, it's possible, okay. And you know what? And I don't have anything against doctors. I mean, Luke in the Bible is a beloved physician and there are good doctors out there. I'm not against doctors. I'm not against lawyers, but I'm telling you something. My children don't have to have a fancy job in order for me to be proud of them. I will be proud of my children if they love the Lord, go to church, and go soul winning. When they read their Bibles and pray and live a Christian, clean, and godly life, I don't care how little money they make, I don't care if they're living and they're poor, I'll be proud of them if they're godly. It's not about whether they make it into the Olympics or whether they can, you know, drive a Lexus and have fancy clothes. That's not what the world's about. That's not what life's about. And so this thing of, well, I'm going to have less children so that I can really just invest in my children, you're flushing money down the toilet is what you're doing. And you're really flushing money down the toilet because you're paying more taxes. You need those write-offs, okay. I mean, I already pay way too much in taxes. I pay so much in taxes and that's with writing off my wife and writing off my seven children. I mean, I can't even imagine how much I would pay if I didn't have that many children. I mean, it's, good night. And what would you rather spend your money on? You know, some bridge to nowhere, some $15,000 toilet seat in some congressman's office, or would you rather spend it on your own flesh and blood children that you're raising? You're going to spend it one way or the other. You're going to tax the daylights out of you, you know, if you don't reproduce, my friend. But anyway, you know, the Bible here, again, as always, whether it's the wicked or the good, I mean, they just view children as a blessing. Those are just different days. He says in verse number 12, they take the timbrel and harp and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave. He's saying, you know, they die a quick and painless death. In a moment they go to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Now why are they saying to God, depart from us, we don't desire your knowledge? Because everything's going so good for them and because they have so much wealth. This is why the Bible says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved. Why? Because a rich man is wise in his own conceit. Because the rich man trusts in his riches as something that's going to keep him safe throughout life and protect him from all evils and he's not used to trusting someone else for anything. And to be saved you have to trust someone else, you have to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. The rich man has always been able to pay his own way. I mean, you know, when he goes out to eat, he's buying. He doesn't take charity from anybody. He's never asked anybody for anything. He always pays his own way. Well guess what? You're not going to pay your own way to heaven. You're going to pay your own way, you're going to end up in hell. Because the Bible is crystal clear that salvation is the gift of God, not of works that any man should boast. And if someone could pay for it or work for it, then they could boast. I am in heaven because I did X, Y, and Z. And you hear people even boast like that. You go soul-winding and you're like, do you know for sure if you die today you go to heaven? Yes I do. How do you know? Well I'm a good person. If you do say so yourself. Oh, I try my best every day to live for God. You know what I always tell people when they say that to me? I don't. Oh, how can you say that? Look, nobody can honestly say, I do my best every day. I mean can anybody really say, I do my best for God every day? No way because you do stuff that's wrong and that's not your best. Give me a break. You know I was thinking about this because I like to go running. I was thinking about this, how often do I go running and really give it everything I've got? That would be like giving it my best, right? You know I'm going to go out running and I'm going to give it everything I've got. I mean if I did that, if I just gave it everything I've got, you know I mean at the end of it I'd be like. I mean that's when you've really given everything. Because if you could take one more step, you haven't given everything. Now Mike Madison, he told us that story about one time he ran and he gave it everything. He ran this race, it was like a 20 mile race. He did it in like under two hours or some crazy, but he literally, he couldn't run for months afterward, but he did his best, he gave it everything. So I'm just using that as an illustration to show you that I might go out and run pretty hard and push myself a little bit, but you know what, it's rare that I give it all effort. You know we as God's people, we ought to serve God, we ought to try hard, we ought to do our best. But to sit there and say I do my best all the time, you'd be perfect then. Let me ask you this, is it humanly possible, let's think about this for a second, is it theoretically humanly possible for you to do everything right tomorrow? Well if you think about it, if you think about it, if you think about it you could because somebody already showed us how to do it, Jesus. I mean theoretically there's nothing forcing you to sin tomorrow, there's nothing forcing you to do wrong. I mean you theoretically could wake up, read your Bible, but here's the thing, is any of us going to go tomorrow without even having a foolish thought? I mean just a perfect life, probably not. But theoretically we could, we do have the ability because of the new man, because of the Holy Spirit, we do have the power to get victory over sin in our life and frequently in our lives we will get the victory over sin. Frequently we will go many hours or maybe even a day where we're not sinning. Frequently we will, but you know what, we are going to fall so many times and we are going to make so many mistakes and we are going to sin, and you know what, just to be honest with you, I'm sure that I sin every day, either doing something I shouldn't do or not doing something that I should do or thinking about something I shouldn't think about or just being lazy, I mean there's just so many different ways that we could come short of the glory of God on any given day. And can we really get to the end of a day that we have come short of the glory of God and say well I did my best? No you didn't, you screwed up. Multiple times because you didn't do your best, because your best would be to succeed. I mean your best would be doing it right. I mean is everybody getting this? So to sit there and say well I'm doing my best, and I've heard people say I do my best every day. Now look, I can see them saying sometimes I do my best. Just like I could say you know there are some runs where I really push myself, I really give it everything I got. You know I really work hard, but you know what, to sit there and say I give it my best every single time, and that's like what pretty much every Mormon will tell you. It's true, you think of the Mormons, because you talk to the Mormons and it's like that's a big thing with the Mormons, do your best, do your best, do your best and thou shalt be saved. So they're just like, so I've been told by a lot of Mormons like I do my best, we have to do our best as long as we do our best. And basically what they do is they just kind of try to do what's right, come in way below the glory of God and just call it their best. Whatever they do, they're just like that's my best. No, it's not your best, do better. So I bring that up just to show the boasting of the unsaved. I do my best every day, well good for you buddy, you are amazing. I live a good life, I've given up this and that and the other. Any salvation that is outside of faith in Jesus Christ alone is a boasting salvation, where it just becomes a boasting of I have been baptized and I have been catechized and I have been sanctified and I have repented of all my sin and I have done my best every day and I live a good life. And you hear this stuff out so every time. But salvation is a free gift, it's not of works lest any man should boast. And so quickly look at verse 14, it says, Therefore they say unto God, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Many people who are wealthy and prosperous, they don't need God in their mind. They don't want to hear about God. They boast a lot in their own achievements, physically the fact that they've made a lot of money, and that carries over into their spiritual life, they want to boast about that too. They want to feel like they have earned it themselves. That's why it's so hard for rich people to get saved. That's why when we go soul winning in a poor area, way more people get saved. You go soul winning in a rich area, very few people get saved. So what's the chapter about? This is Job coming back at Zophar who thinks that every wicked person is always going to be punished in this life. He says wait a minute, some of them get away with it, others are punished. He says some prosper all the way to the grave and even their children prosper. One interesting thing he said, their breasts are full of milk. He's actually speaking of men, and it's interesting because the Bible is always ahead of science because in fact men, obviously men don't breastfeed their children, although we're living in such a weird day and age that anything's possible. But anyway, I don't know if you know this, but actually men do have the anatomy to technically lactate or give milk. Now they don't. So men don't give milk because our hormones are different than ladies and our chemistry is different, but in fact newborn babies, there's a phenomenon amongst newborn babies, either male or female, that sometimes when a newborn baby is born, there will be some milk coming out of their chest. Has anybody ever heard that? Almost no one, alright. But yeah, their nipples will have a little bit of milk coming out as a baby, male or female, just showing that men do have that anatomy. The Bible is always scientifically correct. And obviously Job is a book of poetry, and poetry in the Bible often uses great exaggeration or hyperbolic speech of saying, oh man, these guys haven't, they're fat and flourishing, their breasts are full of milk, their marrow and their bones, it's just really trying to lay it on thick just how healthy and fat and flourishing these guys are. And that's why you'll sometimes see that the term breast or nursing or milk, even associated with men, I was just reading it in Isaiah, talking about how they're going to suck the breasts of kings and stuff, what in the world? But actually the Bible is, believe it or not, scientifically and anatomically correct on that. I'm sure that a lot of freakish people will get a lot of weird ideas going forward because anything is possible in 2014, but obviously a normal man has different chemistry and hormones to where that's never going to happen. But a baby, sometimes that will happen, interesting fact. But the Bible says sometimes they're flourishing, sometimes their breasts are full of milk, sometimes they succeed and prosper all the way to the grave, other times they're cut off and the candle of the wicked is put out. There's not any consistency to it, is what Job is teaching. Sometimes they get it in this life, sometimes they don't. But take it to the bank, when you're saved, it's consistent. You cannot prosper in sin as a saved person, it will not happen. He will chasten you, he will scourge you, and he will even come to the point of killing you if you just will not change your ways, like he did with Saul. I mean Saul just wouldn't repent, he keeps getting warnings and God's like, you're going to die tomorrow, you're going to come to be with me tomorrow. And so we need to understand that as Christians we must not envy the wicked and think, oh man, they get away with it, so can I. Wrong, you can't. Father, we thank you so much for your word and for the Bible's clear teachings. Thank you for all the things that we can learn from the book of Job. And Lord, help us to show our love for you by keeping your commandments, help us to avoid your chastening and chastisement, and walk in your blessing and goodness. And Lord, help us never to envy the wicked because often, yes they do prosper, but they're also often destroyed. And one way or the other they're going to hell, that's nothing to envy, Lord. Help us to have role models that are godly, Christian people, and help us to mark the perfect man because the end of that man is peace. Help us to have godly role models and godly leaders and not follow the wicked people of this world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.