Job Ch. 18 | Bible Study by Rick Burgess - podcast episode cover

Job Ch. 18 | Bible Study by Rick Burgess

Jun 18, 202555 min
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Speaker 1

Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. Hello, it's Rick Burgess. Nice to meet you, host of the Rick Burgess Show. Hopefully you'll continue to join us if you're a first time or today. If you'd like to find out about the day job, you can go to Rick burgesshow dot com. All the information is there and all the different ways to get the show, either live or archived. This is a Bible study we've been doing for a decade now, and there are lots of archives if you'd like to

go back and pick up things you've missed. Right now, we're in the book of Job. We're already today in Job eighteen, so if you missed the first seventeen chapters, you can go back and pick those up on the archives that you can find by going to themanchurch dot com. Themanchurch dot com there's a drop down menu you can watch archives or you can listen to archives. You can go through them and pick up studies we've done in the past. Also, the manchurch dot com is a hub

for men's discipleship. We are a turnkey men's discipleship strategy. We are here with our team ready to come alongside your group. Are your church and we have resources, we have speakers, we have conferences. As far as men's ministry is concerned, we do it all and we're ready to help you any way that we can with our curriculum designed for men in small groups, our devotions designed for individual men. A new resource that we just released is

called Men Don't Run in the Rain. It's the first full book that I have actually written on my own and as far as more of a full length book. It is about my dad and the things that he taught me, and of course there's biblical application on every single chapter. And it was released about a month ago. If you're catching this live, but it's available now and we'll always be available. You can get that at Themanchurch

dot com. But that's our newest resource. We also have a new forty week curriculum coming out this fall called the Standard based on the Book of Act, so that'll be coming up this fall as well. Just keep looking at the Manchurch dot com and you can get all the information there for anything that you may desire. Also would like to also remind you for about something we're doing with Blaze TV. It's a brand new podcast and it is about spiritual warfare. So many times, I wish

this wasn't the rule. I wish it was the exception, but and there are exceptions, but a lot of times, especially in the Western Church, spiritual warfare is something that we don't talk about much. The Bible talks about it quite a bit. The problem with that is it comes with two extremes. We either obsess over angels and demons, which is not healthy, or we completely ignore it like it doesn't exist, and that's dangerous. So anyway, we're hoping to give you some insight and talk about angels and

demons and the supernatural from a biblical worldview. We have already done four episodes. They are available if you'll just search Strange Encounters and follow us on that podcast, and then you'll be getting alerted when a new episode comes your way, which we do have one coming out this weekend. If you are catching the Bible Study on the same week that it actually happened. All right, So let's turn

right now to job eighteen and open a word of prayer. Lord, thank you for today guide us through the power of the Holy Spirit. So much to learn, so much to learn, Lord, and some of this just gets so frustrating, but it really prepares us. And one of the things that we've decided to do, prompted by You, the Holy Spirit, is when we look at Job interacting with his friends, we don't always put ourselves in the role of Job. We need to also look at ourselves and the role of

the friend and learn both ways. So help us to unpack this correctly through the discernment and the power of You, the Holy Spirit. In the name of Jesus, we pray Amen. So here we are so we know that Job has been defending himself, and he's gone as far as he's asking God to defend him in all the foreshadowing of him saying I wish I wish I had an advocate, you know, in heaven, and and I know that I'm not being punished by God for doing something wrong. I

do know why I'm being punished by God. He seems to be fully aware of that. He's not sure why. Now that his friends, you'll you'll hear old Bill Dad today, Bill Dad, the brutal he He's he's not confused. Uh, he's not confused at all. Uh. He's he's gonna just keep doubling down. I know why you're being punished. You're being punished because you're wicked. Uh and uh, and so that that's not all that pleasant to hear that from

somebody you thought were your friend. Uh. And you thought that he had arrived with your other friends to comfort you and to grieve with you. But really they they've they've come to accuse him of being with kid and sinful and what does he need to come clean about because they know and you'll see Bill Dad do that again.

We know that the wicked are punished period. So in the second speech from Bill Dad, he's going to start in the first couple of verses pleading with Job to give up on this, give up on this, defending yourself, let this go, and you just need to realize that we're right and you're wrong. He's gonna he's also going to criticize Job. This time's different. The first time that we heard from Bill Dad, if you remember, he was cold hearted, he was to the point, but he was calm.

This time he's not just cold. He's mad. He's angry, he is furious that Joe continues this narrative, and he's he's gonna ask Job a question here pretty quick, and he's going to base say, do you think we're stupid. I mean, do you think we were dumb? And he's gonna call for Job to respect his friends and listen to them, so we know verse one is just showing

us a change of speaker in chapter eighteen. We learned this back in chapter four verse one, that this would be how the book would always let us know when we have a new speaker. Then Bill, Dad the shoe height, answered and said, so now we get into what he's gonna say. That's who's saying it. Here's what he said, verse two, How long will you hunt for words? Consider? Then we will speak? He said, how much longer are you going to stick to this narrative? You need to

be sensible now. By the way, when he tells him to be sensible here, this is not this is intended to be negative and an insult. It's not don't picture. This means something nice like, hey man, let's be calm, let's all be sensible. Well, he's if you ever just kind of wanted to just grab somebody by the collar and say be sensible, I mean, stop this man, You're you're out of your gord. Come come to your senses. It's really that kind of tone with with Job uh.

And he says, you are just like you're just you're just like all the others who claim to be innocent, and we all know they're not because it is true. And you've seen this, if you, if you've talked with anyone who deals with the legal system in any way, shape or form. Uh, they don't get a whole lot of folks in front of them that say they're guilty. Everybody's innocent. You ever heard the joke if you, I thank god that hasn't happened. And there was a time

when like it might. But I never have been put in prison. But I understand that when you get to prison, you find out everybody in they're supposed to shouldn't be in there. They're all innocent. Uh. And but but that doesn't mean that they actually are. Uh. And so he's saying, you know, you're no different than all those people that claim to be innocent when they know they're not, and it's time for you to stop holding on to this.

And then he gets in the part about where really, I'll give you a Calhoun County commentary on this verse in verse three, Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid? In your sight? Calhoun County. You think we're stupid. I mean, I mean really, you've really lectured us here like we like we're dumb, like we don't have any sense. So that's what you think of us. And then he gets into verse four, you who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken? For

you are the rock removed out of its place. Now this is this is big here because Bill Dad's about to double down and he's gonna ask a pretty profound question. But he's also going to give us a great look into the belief system of the day. Now this is gonna be a little different because we know that some of the others and even Build Dad back the first time, they're all kind of saying, this is the theology that

we've always known about God. But Bill Dad's going to do something here, and he's doing something in this verse that he's a little bit of apostle Paul here where he's kind of leaving the I believe in God, you believe in God, And he's now almost going it's so obvious that this is true. When Paul tells everyone, no one really has an excuse my goodness, look around, God reveals himself in creation. And now Bill, Dad's going to say, we know this is true. This is the law of

the universe. And he's saying, you tear your own soul in anger, and you're putting out all this anguish and you can't believe you're being accused about this, And I guess what you want, Job is everything we know to be true is suddenly not true because of you. You're the one that this doesn't apply to. It's applied to everybody else. It's the law of the universe. But no, not when it not when it's an accusation of Job. When it's an accusation of Job, everything we've always believed

suddenly is in question because of you. You're the one we're gonna change this about well, I mean, all theology is going to change because of Job. Let's just take the whole universe and restructure it for your benefit. I understand his point, if that, if you, if you're that locked into it. I do think that Job has made some really good points that that his friends just don't seem to acknowledge. You ever done Have you ever done

that before? Have you ever had somebody come to you and say this, this, this and that, and you go, I can actually refute that. Have you considered that this happened so that that that's a that's a problem. And you remember they never have acknowledged it. When Job when we were talking on one of his narrative and he said, here's where we got a flaw and what we've always believed. There's pagans all around us. They blaspheme God, and I

don't see him treating them like he is me. So maybe maybe the wicked are always punished by God because of their wickedness. We got some examples right around our neighborhood that that doesn't seem to be true. No one, none of his friends have ever said, well, you know what, that's something to consider. They and if you've ever been in a situation defending yourself like that and you can't you just can't get them off the narrative. You're just like, Okay,

So I don't know what else to say. I've done this in theological you know things before, because you know, like I've told you many times, being in the entertainment business and being you know, I'm not I'm a Christian who does radio. I don't do Christian radio, so so it's you know, it's that horrible line that's hard to walk in the world, but not of the world. But it's what we've been called to and we're supposed to, you know, stand on our faith no matter where we are.

And I can tell you that most of the problems I get are not from people who say I reject your religious views. Most of the stuff that I get is denominational arguments. And most of the complaints I get is you're not doing it right, and and you I can't believe that you're teaching that because and then you go, well,

here's where I get that from. I just dealt with a guy a minute ago, and I said, the problem, the thing I find the most offensive by your your email is that you think that everything that I teaching comes from the denomination I was raised in. You're and you're making it that elementary, and you're just completely discounting the the mobs, decades of Bible study, the decades a verse by verse teaching, the curriculum, the devotions, the teaching.

I mean, you're treat me like I'm somebody who just walked into, you know, a Southern Baptist church and everybody told me what I was supposed to believe, and I walked out that's the extent of my wholee of theology. And then you go, here's a verse, here's a verse, here's a verse, here's a verse, here's a verse, here's a verse, here's a verse. And they come back and they say, say, you're completely wrong, and you just go, well, there's just not much. There's nothing else I can do.

So sometimes you defend yourself, and even with the best defense you can possibly come up with, some people are not coming to you for a discussion. They're coming to you to win an argument, and they've already decided that what they say must be the win. And at that point you just kind of say, I remember when I was just man. I was just so in nineteen ninety seven, Man, I was ready to go and I was ready to fight and argue on any anywhere, anytime. But I had

a lot or life left inn at sixty. I'm like, yeah, I can feel my life being sucked away by you. I got to move on to something else that seems a little more positive. So so I'm not I'm not willing to waller around with the unreasonable, as I've told you, like I maybe once was when I was younger and maybe not as uh not as wise. All right, so now we're going to get in to retribution. Here comes Bill. Dad. He's now going to say, I'm going right back to it,

retribution on the wicked. Now there's two kinds of this, and it's going to get a little different in here is he's he's going to He's going to instead of the divine retribution. You know, this is God is active in the administration of justice and the punishment of offenders. He's also going to jump over here and not the divine retribution, but the dynamistic natural system of justice. You know, it's Bill into the universe. It takes over to enforce

God's laws. You know, God is doing this, but he's doing it through the universe, not just from his divine place. You know. An example would be the law of gravity. We know God still behind that, but the universe has affirmed the law of gravity, So build that seems now, I guess maybe he tried the other. And now he's just going to start saying, I mean, look all around you. I mean, the universe is telling us about the retribution

for the wicked. In course, God's behind the universe. He's not denying that, but it's a little bit of a different approach. Everybody's still tracking with me on that one. I didn't mean to take a turn there, but I want you to be aware of that. So we go into five and he says, Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine. He says, look, Job, this darkness you keep talking about and you've brought this up yourself, buddy,

this darkness. Do you keep talking about this darkness that you sense? It's because your light is growing dim and your light is growing dim, and this darkness is coming upon you because you're wicked. You're trying to blame it on something else. But that's what's happening. Can you imagine? And I still one of the best emails I've gotten in this study, and I shared this with you a few weeks ago, as someone says, you know, I'm just amazed at how everyone gets to finish their dialogue. No

one's interrupting. Does Job just sit there and go, huh, here we go again. Let's let him finish and then I'll come back again. And one of the most famous coming backs that you probably are most aware of from Job comes next week in nineteen. So anyway, so he says, this is why you're this way, and I look at six. The light is dark in his tent and his lamp above him is put out again darkness here Bill Dad says,

that's actually equaling death. And I'm just telling you this darkness you have that you know right now, the dark in your tent and the reason why the lamp that's usually there is being put out is I'm going to tell you something. Job, you're so wicked that you are about to die because God is going to kill you. That's what all this about. Your your your life's closing on you. Your light's being put out, your tent's being filled with darkness. Now he's going to go next and

he's going to talk about the wicked. Look at him in seven. His strong steps are shortened and his own schemes throw him down. Now you you what he's saying here, and this is true, by the way, the wicked are not growing stronger again. Remember he's using this, uh, this dynamistic retribution. We we've watched the wicked, and we know they don't get stronger. We know that things don't get better, they start getting weaker. You know, kind of like you, and they start to waste away in front of us,

kind of like you. And so eventually all these schemes that you are hiding from us, Joe, because apparently they're there because God's punished you, and so is the universe. Eventually, these same schemes that you're protecting that you won't deal with, they're eventually going to lead to your demise. Well, that's true if they're there, right, I mean, it's one of

those things. You know, if you're doing wicked and you're doing evil, there's a period of time will you almost think you're getting away with it, But the wicked don't get away with it. It appears to us they do sometimes in the short term, but in the long term they don't get away with it. And he's saying, you know, you may you were all big and strong, you were the man, but now those strong steps are shortened, and those those schemes, whatever they are, they're going to do

you in. You won't be so strong. You're not so strong now, are you why? Because of your schemes again, just not even remotely veering off of the old theology. Now he's gonna talk about how you've been trapped in your schemes. He's really gonna double down in verses eight through ten, He's gonna use six synonyms for a trap. I'm gonna start with the net now. Now listen, it's a different kind of set up here. Don't put your

a net that we throw into the water. It's a little different here, for he is cast into a net by his own feet, and here here's where it explains it, and he walks on its mesh. The vision you need to have here is trapping an animal. And you know how they would. They would dig these big holes and they would put mesh over the top of it, and then of course the animal trips up in the in the mesh, falls down in the hole, and they've also got the net that they can eventually get him with.

This is like a net that would be over a pit, So it's thrown over a pit, not into the water. The wicked walk on that mesh and it doesn't hold them and they fall in. You're on shaky ground, Joe. You're not on a firm foundation anymore. You might as well be standing on a piece of mesh over a hole, and all this is coming down on you. We can all see that you're about to be done in. It's all coming down on you. You've set a trap, and how about this, you have snagged yourself in it. Look

at nine. The trap seizes him by the heel and the snare lays hold of him. How many of you have ever set a snare and tried to catch an animal? My hands up? You know. This week he's talking about, what do you do? You kind of camouflage it, you kind of hide it. You know, you set it up and you hope the animal steps in there with what they're foot. See here the heel, it snatches them and pulls them up. He said, that's what's about to happen

to you. You're about to be snatched by the heel because the lord in the universe that has laid a snare out and your wickedness has blinded you and you've walked right into it. And now this you're getting what you deserve. Look at Ten's key's caught in their own snare. But then he gets to ten and we're talking about a noose. Now, a rope is hidden for him in the ground, a

trap set for him in the path. Now this one, if you look at the original language, here that we're talking about a noose now, kind of a lasso that's been camouflaged on the ground, very similar to a snare. And and of course job doesn't see it. And the reason why don't forget what Bill Dad is always insinuating the reason why you don't see this news that's clearly on the ground. You don't see it because your wickedness is blinded you. Well, again Bill Dad's talking about sin

does do that, and he is right about that. I have been blinded by sin and I have not seen the trap that was set before me. And I'll go further to say this, and this what you got to watch out about. You said nature. Remember, if you're redeemed and you're in this room, or you're redeemed and you're out there, you're in a battle. You can decide you don't want to be in it. I don't lie, I want to be in about it. You're in a battle. It does it does not matter. There's a battle going

on right now in the supernatural realm. There's a battle going on with you flesh. There's a battle going on with you spirit. There is a battle raging now. If you're out there and you go I don't feel a battle, then you're probably not redeemed. That means your spirit still dead. Uh, and you're not under conviction. You're not under a struggle because, let's face it, the flesh has no opponent, so it

just wins. But I can remember I can't even remember the flesh being so strong when my spirit was dead. That it was it was plainly obvious that the things I was doing in the games I was, I was playing that that they were eventually going to do me in. I mean, just about every everybody who lived the way I was living got themselves in trouble. But I will tell you that was not enough to make me stop doing it. It's the reason why when we start talking

about things like sexual purity. Okay, I'm just to be very frank here. If you're parenting, or you're in some leadership role, and you have a biblical world view and you've been redeemed, please don't try to get your children to stay sexually pure by trying to scare them over earthly consequences. It doesn't work. You gonna get somebody pregnant,

You can get yourself pregnant. You don't catch some disease, No one thinks that's going to happen to them, and it's not enough, frankly, to overcome the desires of the flesh. What you need to teach them is God's standard is going to be violated by this, and you will sin against the one and only living God, and you will regret that. You will wish that you were standing on your wedding day and you would have done things the

way God said to do them. And trust me this, if you've already messed up, you can be redeemed, then go ahead and set that right. You can be made pure again. But let me assure you that God has called us to a sexual purity that is sin. If we don't do it, and you will not be sending against your parents, certainly will be disappointed. You won't just be sinning against yourself. Certainly you'll regret it. You're sinning

against the one and only living God. And if you truly want to be right with God, you don't compromise your sexual purity because that's his standard. That's such a better teaching that you're gonna get yourself pregnant, or you're gonna get somebody pregnant, or you're gonna catch some disease. Nobody listens to that. So so, and you think the people who are committing sex before marriage, you think they don't know that that that could happen. Of course they

know that it's just not enough. It's just not enough. If that's all it took, everybody would be sexually pure, right, they would all wait to marriage, you know. But but people know that's they already know that's out there. And I knew the things I was doing could and likely would get me in trouble. But let me tell what the flesh says. But let's not worry about that today. Today, let's just satisfy ourselves in the moment. Let's just do what we want to do. But what's going to happen

after this? Hi? Who cares? And and you've been there, I've been there. In the moment, you went all in because all you cared about was satisfying your flesh. And the minute the flesh you thought would be good, the flesh comes back and says you shouldn't have done that. And then then all of a sudden, just a minute, you feel kind of bad about it. And what happens just a little bit later, when we're gonna do it again, it's just a never end of cycle. I've told you

all this years ago, but it's probably worth repeating. How many of you have ever been around been in some national park, which, by the way, can I just tell all of you out there? How many more people got to be gored by buffalo? How many more people got to be run over? Stop trying to pet the buffaloes? What are we doing? Have we not learned this bison thing yet? Don't go pet a bison. Every day on the show we get videos of more people getting knocked

up in the air by bison. How many more people have to be knocked up in the air for you to go. I don't want to be knocked up in the air by bison. I'm not going near it. But if you've ever been in these parks and I'm dealing with bears, now, what are we always seeing? Do not feed the bears? Some of you are we going? I know this now, Jerix using before? Don't feed the bears. Now, if you're kind of one of these people that you know you're a little too into animals, Okay, probably more than you

should be. Let's be good conservationist. Let's not worship animals. You're probably thinking, oh, they do that for the bear. They don't want the bear to have a bad diet. Marshmallows and stuff are not good for bears. That has nothing to do with it. The reason why they do that is because the bear will never say, twelve marshmallows are enough for me. I'm good. Hey, that water melon was great, Take the rest of it home. Maybe I don't put refrigerator. Y'all can have it tomorrow when you're

out of food. The bear says, where's the food? Well, I gave you all the marshmallows I had. Do you have more marshmallows? I don't. And then you know what the bear says, Well, I guess I'll just eat you. The bear never says I'm good. All that does is bring a bear into your life demand who's on fire for food. That's why you don't feed bears, because they're never satisfied. That's why you're never going to satisfy your flesh. I'm never going to satisfy mine never. I remember when

I was dealing with my weight and glutt me. I remember people trying to talk about giving me things that would help my appetite. I said, that doesn't do any good that don't help me. And they said why, I said, do you think I'm fat because I stop eating when i'm full. I'm fat because I eat whether i'm full or not. Anybody ever drank a milkshake cause you were hungry. I drank a milk because it tastes good. I ate the third piece of Poe, not because I was hungry.

I wanted to taste the pie some more. So that doesn't work. You know, you got to have some sort of self control where you realize I've got to be able to say I shouldn't overeat. My flesh never says we're good. The taste buds say can we get some more of that? And I'm like, tastebuds, You've had plenty of it, and taste bud say, I'd like to have some more. But see, that's what's happening with the flesh. So, yes, that's true what Bill Dad is saying. But the problem

is is that friend Job is not in that situation. Okay, a nice warning and certainly true, but it's not what Job's dealing with. And somewhere there's been a breakdown in this relationship between these men and Job because Job's word to them isn't good because they're blinded by bad theology. But that sent a minute. So now we get into the verse verse eleven terrors frighten him. This is talking about the wicked and job on every side and chase

him at his heels. Do you remember when did they did the hunting And this is true too, they did the hunting analogy. What's back? The wicked are constantly being harassed, being pursued of. This is an analogy here of almost like dogs chasing you. And let me tell you something I've I've I've been in some bad situations. I've got a friend of mine that he and I of course didn't live very well. Uh And he said, and this never happened to me. I will say, I'm thankful for this.

We did it on the when I was doing the Rick and Bubba show. We did this with Speedy. We had him attacked by a police dog in one of the suits. And let me tell you something. They're serious there. But I had a friend of mine that that actually he got so out of hand one time in a situation and he said, let me tell you something, Burgess. He said, it's not a great feeling when all of a sudden you hear them release that dog. He said, I was running, He said, I was running down at

Alley's Heart. I could go and I could hear that those dog feature and he said, you think to yourself, oh no, they've let the dog go. And you know it's just a matter of time too he jumps on you. I mean, because you can't outrun him. And he said, hey, that thing will knock you on the ground before you know it. It's shaking you left and right. And he said, so just go ahead if they say they're going to release the dog, listen to him because there's no there's

no outrunning the dog. And so what he's saying here to the wicked, he said, this is the life you live. And I don't know. I don't wantnybody to raise your hand. I'll raise mine because I've been very frank about being delivered from from a wicked, dark life. Again, Bill, Dad is right, So let's use this when we have these moments. Even though Job's not guilty of this, these are truths as far as the wicked. Let me tell you something. If you're out there right now and you're living a

wicked life and you've never repented, of your sin. You haven't left faith in yourself and put your faith in Christ. I've lived your life, and I know you don't ever have peace. You're constantly worried about when when something's gonna catch up to you. You can't remember who you lied to, You can't remember who you double crossed. You can't remember you know you know who that person actually had a relationship with. And they're gonna find out that you were

sneaking around with them. How you took money you shouldn't have taken. Hey, in a moment, you know, you decided you did what you need to do to get through the moment. You've wronged the wrong person. Now they're after you. Let me tell you it's it's not a great life. It's not a great life. Like I've told you all before.

I remember, in the center of the darkest days of my life, I was cutting grass at my house and some yellow jackets flew up out of a hole in the ground and hit me in the back of the calves. And I never thought I was getting stung by yellow jackets. I thought I'd been shot and I and I dove on the ground. God they got me, and I start rolling down the hill, and I start trying to get behind something, and then and then all of a sudden, how about this. This is how wicked I was. I

was thankful it was yellowjackets. I was, Oh, thank god, it's just yellowjackets. I mean, because I thought I thought I'd been shot, and that was a possibility, because you just you start running in these wrong circles and you do one thing and that, and then that's not enough. Now I gotta get more wicked. Now, I gotta get more daring. And let me try to do that. It's

never enough, and that flesh keeps going. Let's try something else, for you know what you are, You with the wrong people, and you don't want to be on the wrong side of them. And in that world they play, they play a serious game. And that's exactly what Bill Dad's talking about. When you're living a life that's wicked. Let me tell you the peace that you're looking for. And there's no greater feeling, even though there's always gonna be earthly repercussion.

But if you'll just stop, at least they won't keep compounding. Stop it right here, redeem Maybe you can go back through there and fix some relationships I've been able to fix most of them. Some of them I couldn't fix, but I fixed all the dangerous ones. You know what I mean. And and but you can start a new life, you can be born again. There is a piece that comes with finally going. I'm tired of running, I'm tired

of not being able to sleep. And I was talking to some young guys one night and they were and it was at an event where I spoke, and they came up and they said, we want to know more about this redemption and we want to know more about this redemption. And and I told them, I said, well, you heard me talk tonight. I'm not going to tell you that your life's going to get easier, but your life will get better. And they said, what do you

mean by that? I said, I've still had really hard days, but when i'm my head hits up, pillow, I sleep under the piece of redemption. And if even all you got is that, that's better than anything you had before, because I sure to remember not not being that way, and I'm glad that's over. And doesn't mean things have been easy, but the things that matter have been resolved. And there's a piece that comes with that. Amen And I'm not running from the dogs anymore. So, so now

we go to twelve. His strength is famished and calamity is ready for his stumbling. You know what, you used to be a strong man? Job? Look at you? Now? Look at you? Now? Where's that vigor that that we were all so impressed with? It's turned into calamity, hadn't it. How about this? You're stumbling on your very wickedness. You don't look so strong, you don't look so blameless and upright now all the bigger of Job has turned into weakness and calamity. And then you know what Bill Dad's saying.

And that's about the way it is for the wicked. So what other conclusion shall we come to? Job? Look like a wicked person does thirteen? It consumes the parts of his skin. The first born of death consumes his limbs. Now, hang on a minute here, because this is a phrase that we don't use anymore. And we're going to get to his kids, don't They don't think Bill Dad's gonna let that go because we know how kind and soft hearted he can be. He's saying, look at your skin,

Look at you, Job. Your skin is just riddled with disease. Now this death's first born. What they mean by that, the first born of death is disease. And so they're looking at him, and he says, look at you. You are consumed. We can see it on your skin. You are consumed with the firstborn of death. Look at your limbs. You mean to tell me that God would do this to you? Do you telling me that a righteous man, a blameless, an upright man would be eat up with

all this disease? Is that what you want us to believe? Job, does that sound like the laws of God and the laws of the universe. Everything we've ever seen, everything we've ever known, tells us otherwise. So God would just let you be eat up with disease? Well, the answer is yes, if that's what would serve him the best, and that's what would serve you the best. But that's but they

don't know that that theology is not theirs. Job is gonna learn it, and they're gonna, they're gonna the're go, They're gonna all of these people, Remember, they're gonna be dealt with. I know you're I's if you're watching this movie for the first time, you're just screaming at the screen. I hope these people get theirs. I hope this gets corrected. Does it drive you crazy to watch a movie and you're like, they don't have this information? Right? When is

somebody going to clear this up? Does that drive you crazy? Like it does? But I can't stand that I'm watching the whole time and somebody's thinking, I said, that's not what happened. Somebody clear this up. You know the marriage was legitimate. I hope they find the paperwork and and so that's a movie I just saw. But anyway, so he's saying that your body and the disease is another thing that tells us about your situation. Now, listen, it's

important that we know that. Listen. Don't think that this theology has gone away. Yeah, they're around. Some of them are still around. If you're sick and unhealthy and you're poor and you're broke and you're having a rough life, it's because you're not right with God. Now they have to ignore so much scriptures. I guess they didn't read this at all. Okay, And of course if you're healthy

and wealthy, wow, those are the righteous. Those are the ones that are right with God, because he puts out blessings on those that are right with him, and he punishes those who are not. I will tell you it's difficult as this is, but it's important to say it, and I think enough times pasted it. It's okay, highly sensitive.

When my youngest son died his earthly death, there were a lot of health, wealth and prosperity folks that were trying to pull Sherry and Eye into their world, and we kept saying he got too many inconsistencies with scripture, and they so wanted to be right. Now, I will say this, they didn't. If they did it publicly, if they did it privately, I don't know. They never did it publicly. They had watched Sherry and Either the way we lived our life, though not perfect, but they knew

that we were right with God. They had acknowledged that themselves, and they honestly thought Bronner was going to live because of that. I got a call that they were literally down at the funeral home trying to get in and they were going to raise him from the dead. And I said, tell these idiots they got to go. Do not let them anywhere near that child's body. And because they couldn't let it go, they were still clinging to it.

And h and I will say not all of them, but some of them left that theology after this, and they came up to us and said, hey, we were wrong, we had that wrong. But that's how that's how how much they were hanging on to it. So these things are still around, and that's why. Don't don't just sit here and roll your eyes and say, well, I'm glad none of this is around anymore. It still is okay, even though this theology has been debunked so many times, even in the life of Jesus, but for some reason,

they still cling to it. I guess it is an easy sell. And I do believe that nine out of ten times they're also being misled by Charlatans who know it's not true, but they play on people for their gain. Notice where the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel usually finds itself in the poorest parts of town, in third world countries, where it's an easy sale, you know, and then you keep going, nothing's happening. I'm still sick, I'm still poor

because you don't have enough faith. If you had enough faith, maybe you need to plan a seed with me, because I'm a man or woman of God and show God you're serious this. Think about how disrespectful to God that is. We played some kind of game with him. So anyway, know that some of that's still out there, and I'm sure i'll hear from them today if somebody passes this Bible study to them, because I don't think they're watching it are listening to it. Let's go to verse fourteen.

He is torn from the tent which he trusted and is brought to the King of Terrors. This is saying, hey, job, you know what happens to the wicked. They eventually get arrested, and they get carried away from their home, and they get carried to their death, and they stand in front of the executioner and they receive the death penalty. You need to go ahead and confess this because that's what's going to happen to you. Job. Now, look what's going on in fifteen in his tent dwells that which none

of his sulfur is scattered over his habitation. His house is burned, is what they're saying. We know that he had a house destroyed by the tornado. It's a fiery lake of destruction. The wicked is headed to doom. The very place you were so comfortable will now become a lake of fire. Sixteen His roots dry up beneath, and his branches whither above again another looking at creation. The roots below your tree, they are rotting away, and the

earth brings up for the wicked, total destruction. It's not going to be bringing you know, flowers, it's not going to be bringing fruit. Those roots are destroyed. The earth is nothing but destruction for the wicked. Seventeen His memory perishes from the earth. He has no in the street. Now. Now keep in mind in the ancient Near East where we think this is taking place, but even Ford and even today to the modern hebrew there is no fate.

But this is a fate worse than death in the Near East, which was happening then and the Hebrews of today, the only thing worse than death was for your name to be forgotten. They they're they're huge on legacy. And if somebody were to say to you, if you want to just disrespect somebody in death, there's no greater way to do it than to say we won't remember you anymore.

Your name's gone. Has it has no lasting value of any kind to say that his name was going to perish from the earth and that there would be nothing named after him going forward was about as offensive thing as you could say to someone in that culture and in the modern Hebrew culture. Eighteen he is thrust from the light into darkness and driven out of this world. That one's pretty straightforward. There's the light and darkness analogy again.

This time he is thrust into darkness for his final punishment. What Bill Dad is saying right here now, I want you to think about this. This is like you looking at some friend of yours and say, I thought you were redeemed. You're going to help. That's what's about happen to you. You're about to die, and you're going to die forever. You're going to experience eternal death. Can you imagine hearing that? Don't you start looking past these three

going is anybody else gonna show up? Did he just tell me that he thinks that I am not right with God to the point that I'm going to be punished in the lake of fire. I'm going to die eternally Verse nineteen. Now this is here comes Bill Dad. He's going to the kids. He has no posterity or progeny among his people, No survivor where he used to live. Well, this is another low blow. See what happens as the wicked job. You know what, you got no children. Our

life and the life of our children is taken away. Job. You have no children, You are childless. You had ten children, and now because of your wickedness, you got nothing, You got zero. Your legacy dies right here. Your family don't even continue. The kids are gone. And that's what happens to the wicked. I can't imagine him sitting there listening

to that, but he does. Can you imagine somebody coming to mourn with you about the death of your child or your children, and instead they walk in and say, well, this is your fault. God killed them because your wickedness, and they're probably wicked to the way they acted. Would you want that person in your house as you were sitting there weeping? Would that be what you'd want to hear? That's what he's here in and he's heard it more

than once at this point verse twenty. They of the West are appalled at his day, and horror seizes them of the east. You know what he's saying there, everybody's horrified by you. I mean, there's nowhere we wouldn't go right now, that the name of Job wouldn't be bad, East West doesn't matter. Everybody is horrified at the fate of the wicked. No one feels good about the wicked. You can't go anywhere where they celebrate the wicked. All this, I'm sure very comforting for Job. And then twenty one.

Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous? Such is the place of him who knows not God. Wow, I kind of was getting the picture, you know, when you were telling me basically that I was going to hell, but you just went ahead and said it. So he's saying, where you're going is where you deserve to go, and that place is where all the ungodly go, and that's where you belong. Now, I want you to think about this.

He has just described Job as as someone who is un righteous, and he is looking for them to comfort him, and he can't. He can't find it. This is a this is a word that says you don't know God, and the place where you should go is the place of the ungodly. Mhm. And he's just looking at him.

And really what you're seeing here is he's talking about how gaunt he looks how if you look at the words here, he's emaciated, he's he's dying, and he looks scared, he looks grotesque, and he's basically saying to job, you'll never find comfort because you're unrighteous and you know not God. Can you imagine? I mean, have you ever had anyone say that to You've ever had anyone say that? But yeah, I know you claim to be redeemed, but I think I think you're going to hell. I don't think you

know God. You know. It's one thing for somebody to say, hey, I didn't like something you did. I think it's something you I may I disagree on something you said. But what if somebody just looked at you and you said, I think you're lost. All this time i've known you, you've been a fraud, and I know that now because you're suffering. I thought I thought you were right with God when you were. You had all the riches, you had, all

these children, you had all this stuff. But it's obvious, based on artheology, if all this has been taken away from you and you're sitting here all gaunt and diseased and ying, that God would not be doing that to people that know him, he would not be doing that to righteous people. You made a claim that you were righteous, but all I see is the evidence of the unrighteous. But the problem is their definition of righteous and unrighteous is wrong, but they don't know it. This is where

you could just start screaming at the screen. You're in the story. Somebody, somebody set this right. Well, Job's faith is being tested like no other, and what he says next is going to show while God trusted him, and it's not going to get his friends to stop for a while. I guess. I guess that when we look at this, we have to say, no matter how much people bang on us and beat on us and lie about us and make accusations about us, we just can't

give in. We have to keep clinging to what we know is true, and we keep having to go to God and say, I wish you would clear this up, but I have faith that at some point you will, and whatever your timeline is is okay with me. Now Again, I'm going to ask this before we close, and I'll close this in prayer. I'm fine with us being job right. Here a lot to learn, but we need to be learning from Bill Dad too, because let's be Sure, let's

don't ever get to the point as we're growing spiritually. Okay, this is important, and I'm saying this to myself too. Let's don't ever get to the point that we think that we know it all. I've got God figured out, I've learned it and know what the Bible says about everything. I don't know about you. But in my sanctification process, I've had to go back and clean some things up that I had wrong the more I studied the Bible. It's also a challenge that if you're not studying the Bible,

you have a really good risk of being wrong. Okay, you really don't need to be pontificating to somebody about something you don't know what you're talking about. And so we need to also make sure that we're not still walking around with the things that we thought, you know, from the flannel board at vacation Bible School, about these historic moments in scripture. Sure, maybe as a grown man, it's time for us to learn a little more about it so that we don't go out and see things

that aren't true. Let's pray Lord, thank you for today, thank You for the ongoing teaching and sanctification. None of us have arrived. If the apostle Paul said he had not arrived, then I think that would be kind of lofty of any of us, any of us to think we have. We've been Joe, but we've also been built at and we need to assess ourselves to make sure that we are ministering to our friends the way you called us to do it, and approaching a fellow center

with that mindset. Hey, I'm just a beggar, and I'm trying to help you define where the bread is not the sanctimonious. I know it all, and because I know so much, you must be wrong. We're not trying to win arguments here. We're trying to all cling to good theology through the discernment of the Holy Spirit. Teach us, Lord, help us to be able to handle the word of God appropriately as a weapon against evil, but not as a weapon against our friends. May we approach them with

the right attitude, humble and willing to help. In your Holy name, we pray Amen. Thanks guys,

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