When Rebuke and Resistance Collide │ Msg 8/22

0:01 We're engaged in an examination of the life and experience of Job. If you're not familiar with the book in the Bible, it's just before the very large book of the Psalms, right in the center section. And just to the left, we'll find Job. If you'll locate chapter 11, I'd like to read a few verses from that as well as some from a couple of other chapters later on. And we're sort of trying to take it in chunks so we don't become tedious about this and break everyone's back over it. You know you've been in Job a long time when you greet people at church, and rather than they're saying, how are you doing, they ask, what happened to you this week? And I think that's starting to happen in our lives, and I want to be sensitive to the fact that you can take just so much of stuff like this. But what a man. What an experience.

0:56 You will recall he's lost everything, including now his health, as well as all in his family except his wife. Friends have come, so-called friends, to bring him comfort and sympathy. They bring neither, and their words have turned to rebuke and insults and sarcasm. And that sort of is a running commentary through the poem of this section, beginning at chapter 4, really, and going on through to chapter 38. Now, look at Job 11, verse 1. This is the third of the friends. Zophar the Namathite answered, Shall a multitude of words go unanswered, and a talkative man be acquitted? Shall your boasts silence men, and shall you scoff and none rebuke? For you have said, My teaching is pure, and I am innocent in your eyes.

1:56 But would that God might speak and open his lips against you. Job answers in chapter 12, verse 1, where we read, Then Job responded, truly then you are the people and with you wisdom will die. But I have intelligence as well as you. I am not inferior to you. And who does not know such things as these? I am a joke to my friends. The one who called on God and he answered him. The just and blameless man is a joke.

2:42 13 verse 15, sort of Job's declaration of faith. Though he slay me, I will hope in him. Nevertheless, I will argue my ways before him. This will also will be my salvation, for a godless man may not come before his presence. Listen carefully to my speech. Let my declaration fill your ears.

3:14 Behold, now I have prepared my case. I know that I will be vindicated. 14, verse 1. Man who is born a woman is short-lived, and full of turmoil. Like a flower, he comes forth and withers, also flees like a shadow and does not remain.

3:42 Verse 10, but man dies and lies prostrate. Man expires, and where is he? As water evaporates from the sea and a river becomes parched and dried up, so man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no more, he will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep. Oh, that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath returns to you, that you would set a limit for me and remember me.

4:19 If a man dies, will he live again? all the days of my struggle I will wait until my change comes our dear father we bow before your word that has been preserved through centuries of time against all odds standing against the hammer of the critics it like an anvil has never worn away though the hammers have come and gone It is eternal. Heaven and earth will pass away, but your word will never do either.

5:12 Men and women come and go, but your word remains forever. Our times change. The obsolete and old is replaced by the new and modern. Your word remains the same. our needs vary according to each individual. Our cares weigh heavily upon us. Your word remains the same, full of hope, permeated by promises that keep us going. I thank you today for those who have been trained to handle your word, who graduated from Dallas Seminary yesterday, and I pray for each one. I pray for their families. I pray for their partners in life. I pray that you will go before them as you go with them.

6:09 Guide them in the way that you would have them go. May they walk sensitively and in obedience with you. whatever you have for them or for us our father today we place ourselves before you as obedient servants we have sung of this and now we state it in this prayer find within our hearts and honesty and an integrity where words are true and thoughts are authentic use us in our own sphere of influence wherever that may be for some it is as a mother of small children still at home caring for them and their many needs for others it is the business of work and the career that keeps us occupied where again you use us in capacities we're not even aware of for many it is after the days of hard work and they find themselves with more time again not to be passed away in nothingness but used in new ways as they invest themselves for your purpose for a few there is a search going on as they seek to know where you would have them be employed I pray that you will lead them in the way they should go and that they will do that with passion and confidence that you have placed before them this opportunity for work.

7:54 There are some obligated by the military to serve in places that they would not have chosen to be in danger for they would rather be like us in protected peace. Watch over them. keep them carefully and sensitively under your eye. Guard our country during these tenuous days where we learned that we too can be invaded, that the terrorists are not those who strike other lands but in fact are loose in our own land. We pray that you will watch over us, protect our homes protect this nation guide our president and his cabinet may truth be that which guides and guards his life not partisan politics may he live a life that honors you may he listen well to those spiritual counselors and wise advisors, protect him from harm and those who would tell him lies and persuade him to go in the wrong way.

9:17 Our Father, we acknowledge from this study of Job that life, as we have just read, is full of turmoil. How frail we are. How few our days. How full of trouble. May we learn vicariously from this good man what it is like to hold up under pressure, to continue to honor you no matter what others say or think.

9:52 We acknowledge finally, our Father, that everything we have and everything we are is yours. You own us all and you own it all. So we today do not give from what we own, but we return back to you what you have temporarily placed on loan to us thank you for our occupation, for the privilege of earning a wage, even for some of investing what they have made. From our savings and investments and from our hard work, from our labor, from our daily wage, we give for the work of ministry that it might continue unhindered and it might be used wisely for your glory. our worship continues as we focus on you our father speak to us that we might further deepen our walk with you as we worship with our offerings in the name of christ and everyone said amen have you noticed that problems don't just go away they they don't evaporate they proliferate says one of murphy's laws i thought recently they're sort of like roaches you you can't just ignore them you you you kill everyone you see i when i moved back to texas i had a friend tell me when he saw me in cowboy boots one day he said you know why we wear cowboy boots and i said well i thought i did but i think i'm going to learn a new reason right now. And he said, yeah, it's, you can kill roaches in a corner when you wear those cowboy boots. When we were at the seminary, we lived in the campus apartments, which, praise God, had been destroyed now. And there's a new library there, but we lived in the old campus apartment number nine. Sounds like a jail sentence, doesn't it? Apartment number nine. But boy, roaches. I

12:01 said to Cynthia one day, we don't have a single roach in our place. She looked at me like I was crazy. I said, they're all married, have large families. Problems are like that. They just, they just get worse. They just, especially conflicts. And even when you try to solve them, they just get more complicated. And I have a feeling there is not a person listening to me right now who has not on occasion attempted to make things right with another individual and have it blow up in your face. Or other individuals, plural, only to have the scene get increasingly more difficult. It's easy to forget the original agenda. When one person is sick and three people come to bring encouragement, there is a simple agenda, and these men had it right, who came to visit Job.

13:01 There's nothing wrong with their original intent. Chapter 2, verse 11 tells us these three men, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, came from their homes all the way to Job's ash heap, where he found himself without his children, without a means of making a living, where he found himself with no home, no buildings on his place of his own property, and where he found himself covered with sores that were now cracking open and oozing with pus.

13:45 Miserable in the daytime and restless through the night, the three men came to sympathize with him and to comfort him. Great agenda. If you learn nothing else so far from Job of a positive nature, learn. When someone is laid aside and for whatever reason you are by their side, you've come to sympathize and to comfort. End of agenda. but somewhere between their leaving with the right agenda and seven, eight, nine days later as they're into the dialogue, the agenda got lost. I would venture to say you cannot find a sentence of sympathy and comfort that fell from their lips.

14:49 in all of these chapters from 4 through 31 there is accusation, there is blame, there is shame, there is insult, there is sarcasm, there is finger-pointing, there is judging, there is condemning, there is preaching, but there is no sympathy and there is no comfort. so that Job winds up as we're going to see in the time we spend in these chapters today he winds up saying it had been better if you had just stayed silent awfully good advice what is it our mothers taught us if you can't say something nice that's it don't say anything at all if you cannot bring sympathy and comfort bring nothing at all just your presence Thank you.

15:49 well Eliphaz has spoken and he's talked about experience of the past in his lecture Job on learning from experience as Eliphaz stands there in good health with plenty in his wallet and a happy family at home. Bildad stands then in Eliphaz's place the next in age and Bildad says what we must learn, Job, is lessons taught us from the brilliant minds of the past. And he represents those philosophers and teachers and sages of yesteryear, and he offers those words of advice to his friend as Bildad stands healthy and wealthy and in his own eyes wise. Then Zophar.

16:41 Zophar verse 1 of chapter 11 now answers using not experience or the wisdom of the past as his basis but just rank legalism just legalism verses 1 to 4 you are guilty Job verses 5 to 12 you are ignorant Job verses 13 to 20 you are sinful repent end of Zophar's sympathetic comforting message verse 2 shall a multitude of words go unanswered and a talkative man be acquitted how's that for an opening line he heard the word windbag earlier and decides to use it again We have listened to you about as long as we plan to listen, Job.

17:39 How many more things do you think you have to say to convince us you're full of words, but your life is empty of righteousness? Shall your boast silence men like us? No way. Shall you scoff and no one rebuke you? There is no way. You have said my teaching is pure and I am innocent in your eyes. Stop. Stop at verse 4. Job never said that. You know, it's hard enough to be dealt with rudely, tactlessly, but to be misquoted is a very, very painful thing to take sitting down.

18:23 Back in chapter 6, Job had been vulnerable enough to say in verse 24, teach me, show me how I have erred. Just show me. Verse 28, please now look at me and see if I lie to your face. Point it out. Identify the wrong. Of course, they don't deal in specifics. These men are given to generalized, universal criticism. And so they take Job on with both fists. They now misquote him in chapter 11, verse 4. and if telling him that he's guilty isn't enough, Zophar now says, you are one ignorant man. Remember Job when he was earlier identified as one of the greatest men of the East?

19:22 In fact, as I recall, the greatest. He feared God and turned away from evil. Sounds to me like a man who wasn't guilty and wasn't ignorant of God. But you understand when legalists make their statement, they don't need facts. All they need is volume. And the ability to put you down so that you're intimidated by their presence. Oh, they're awfully good at that.

19:53 Would that God might speak and open his lips against you. This is calling down a judgment from heaven. would that God might show you the secrets of wisdom for sound wisdom has two sides Job probably meaning the side we can understand and the side we can't the side we can see and the side we can't see the invisible wisdom of God know then that God forgets a part of your iniquity can you discover the depths of God Job can you discover the limits of the Almighty they are high as the heavens what can you do deeper than the grave called here in the hebrew sheol the place of the departed dead in the days of the old testament deeper than the grave what can you know why job the measure of god's mind is is uh longer than the earth it's broader than the sea if he passes by or shuts up or calls an assembly who can restrain the almighty job he's delivering Job a lecture in what we might call Theology 101 as if Job needs a theological lecture.

21:08 let me pause here and say that Zophar's are still on the loose if you haven't met one just hold your breath he'll come along they have zero capacity to connect the dots they have a complete inability to even color by numbers they don't get it but they have a message for you.

21:42 And the message usually is a put down because you are not doing what they believe you ought to be doing or you are doing what they believe you should not be doing. and in this case since he sees job is ignorant of god he decides he needs to teach him about god and he tells him of god's length and breadth and depth and width and height and reminds job job that this this god cannot be restrained and then if that isn't enough verse 11 with the implication you're the man. He knows false men. He sees iniquity without investigating. And then the ultimate, an idiot will become intelligent when the foal of a wild donkey is born a man. Just look there for a few moments.

22:41 The word idiot comes from a Hebrew word that means to be hollow, empty. When used of a person, it's referring to empty-headed. We have the colloquialism airhead in our day. He's calling Job, by implication, an empty-headed man. and there is no more possibility that a person like that could ever become wise than a donkey could give birth to a human. now for just a moment since you're not there try to imagine yourself there you've lost it all including your health you haven't been able to sleep you can't eat now we're in a third round of this first cycle of dialogues and it's just getting worse and of all things you're now called an idiot, a hollow-brained individual who himself can't connect the dots.

23:47 Warren Wiersbe wrote, how sad it is when people who should share ministry end up creating misery. How tragic that these three friends focused on Job's words instead of the feelings behind those words. Then he quotes a Chinese proverb, though conversing face to face their hearts have a thousand miles between them. Ever been around a person like that? I'm going to venture something, but don't move a muscle, okay? Or you'll let us all know that it's true. You may be married to one like that. That's a terrible existence. It's a dreadful existence. You converse face to face, but your hearts have a thousand miles between you. how true that was at the ash heap.

24:46 After all, information is not the same as communication. Sidney J. Harris reminds us, information is giving out, communication is getting through. It's a great line. Today, my desire is not simply to give out information to help you know Job 11 through 14. You can get that on your own by reading it or by finding commentaries and reading them. My desire today is to communicate, to get through, to take the side of the person who has no good reason to have to endure something like this, who lives with it regularly. he has the audacity in verse 13 to begin with the condition if you would direct your heart right and if you would spread out your hand to him meaning god if iniquity is in your hand put it far away if you do not let wickedness dwell in your tents then now he offers the promise you could lift your face up. Your face could be lifted up without moral defect, implying what? Moral defect.

26:02 And you would be steadfast and not fear, implying what? He is neither. He is not steadfast and he's fearing. You would forget your trouble as waters have passed by. You would remember it. Your life would be brighter than the noonday. Then you would trust. Verse 18 concludes, but verse 20 gives the consequence, the eyes of the wicked will fail and there will be no escape for them. and Zophar's through.

26:34 Well, not really. He's coming back, but thankfully it will be a while. The sheer arrogance of Zophar is shocking. You know, I think I need to point out something that needs to be said. Zophar makes an error in judgment that commonly occurs among legalists he does acknowledge the infinitude and greatness of God that's correct he urges Job to understand such truths and to realize their implications and that's necessary not in this case but normally would be necessary That could be helpful. But then, with veiled arrogance, he exhorts Job to fall in line,

27:30 implying that he knows what Job won't admit. Men and women be awfully careful about... telling other people they're going through what they're going through because they're sinful. Be very careful about that. if you don't have the evidence and if you don't have the proof, you're terribly close to serving as a judge.

28:02 And people are sometimes implicated in a wrong where they themselves are innocent. Following the first morning service today, I had a gentleman who was a partner with Arthur Anderson come by to say a few words to me about what he's learning from our study in Job. He said it's been very helpful. It so happens that my part of Arthur Anderson is just as clean as a whistle. But we've been smeared over from the media announcement that all of Arthur Anderson is questionable. That's a bad call. when the Jim and Tammy Baker nonsense hit the news back in the 80s, Insight for Living suffered, suffered in a difficult manner for a period of time, though I've never met either one of them and do not in any way agree with that style of ministry.

29:05 But because we're also a media ministry, we had to somehow answer to a number of people who became our critics because we, like them, are on the air, and therefore we, like them, must be... You finish the sentence. How insulting. Be really careful about generalizations.

29:33 Guard yourself from taking a role of prophet and priest. as Zophar does with Job. I know, and I do not mean this sarcastically. Some of you are very intelligent. You have a great grasp of God's word, and I commend you for that.

29:59 Prove it by your restraint. let your wisdom show through by demonstrating a lot of understanding and grace, especially when another hurts in a way you have never hurt. well Job responds and I'm so delighted he doesn't say well you're right Zophar I'm not going to fight this the rebuke of Zophar is met by the resistance of Job and that is the only way to deal with a legalist legalists are like roaches you leave them alone they proliferate They attract others. And before you know it, the legalists run the show because bullying tactics is their favorite approach.

30:56 And if they can't bully, they take their ball and bat and they go elsewhere. Thank God they leave. There was a time in my life when I allowed legalists to take a little more control of me than they should have been allowed. I'm making up for lost time now. we're not going to have that at this church we're not going to have you playing king of the mountain over somebody else's life nobody died and left you king nobody put you in charge of answering for somebody else stay real quiet the lord is well able to handle his children and by the way if one of your youngsters is wayward and you're just eating your heart out because you raised them right and they're going wrong, remember the one who has done the most perfect job of being a parent has the most wayward kids, and that's God.

31:52 isn't that a relief? Remember how far, remember the tether he let you have when you were going wrong and when I was going wrong and times in our lives and isn't it amazing how the Lord in long suffering and finally one day said, that's enough, boom! And you know, like a dog on a clothesline, and it runs out of chain and you kind of jerks a snot out of him when he goes, I guess I shouldn't run that far next time. And it's amazing how God can do that. Well, Job says, okay, that's enough. Job responds, and we've got to admire him. By the way, it's a good time for me to tell you a story. When our older son, Kurt, was in high school, he played flute. And the flute section sat in that particular band in front of the trombone section.

32:47 Kurt was a lower classman and there was an upperclassman who was not only Further along in grade, but he was a bigger boy and played trombone And if you know trombone, you know, it has a spit valve right on the end of the slide And you've got to be careful where you blow your spit, okay? And professionals don't just go All over unless they're in high school and they're upperclassmen And so this fellow puts his finger on the spit valve and goes and blows a spit all over Kurt's arm. So Kurt tells me about it later. He said, so, Dad, I told him don't do that anymore. Don't blow the spit on me. Well, that kid couldn't wait to work up more spit. I mean, he would just. So he fills up his slide with it.

33:41 Kurt says, you know, you're going to wish you hadn't done that if you do that one more time. Boy, it gets good. Come back next Sunday. I'll tell you what he did. No. The third time the guy goes and Kurt goes and hits the bell of the trombone and drives the mouthpiece through the teeth of the kid. And now he looks like the opposite of Bugs Bunny, you know. He goes, oh, blood and everything. Kurt continues to play flute. It's amazing. It's the last time the kid blew his spit on him. Remarkable. Um. I would love to go further with that story, but I'm going to stop there.

34:40 Chapter 12, Job goes, You're not going to keep talking to me like that. Fellow Christian, listen to me. You're not a doormat placed before the heels of every legalist that comes down the pike. You are neither ignorant nor unimportant.

35:09 You are a child of God. no one has the right to shame you or take advantage of you. No one. Job responds, having learned a little sarcasm from his friends, truly then, you are the people. By the way, it's plural, so y'all. Truly then, y'all are the people. And with all y'all's wisdom, it's going to die when you die. Oh, what a shame. You three guys are going to die and there won't be any more wisdom left. Isn't that a great line? Truly, you are unbelievable. As he's scratching his sores and trying to survive. Look at verse 3. But I have intelligence as well as you, and I am not inferior to any one of you. I love that.

36:07 You're not going to keep blowing the spit on me Who does not know the things you've told me about the living God? Gentlemen, I am your age. I've been there and back. and in your eyes, I am a joke, verse 4. He called it what it was. They didn't have the gall to call him what they thought of him. I am a joke to my friends. I am the one who called on God and he answered him. I am the just and blameless one. I am the one you think of as a joke. Are there worse insults in life than being seen in the eyes of another as a joke? Maybe not. probably worse than being seen as a pawn has to be seen as a joke me the one who has talked with the living God me the one who understands who he is and what he is about I am a joke in your eyes He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt as prepared for those whose feet slip.

37:24 And then he goes into the whole subject of the control of God and he asks them to visit the beast of the field and the birds of the air, verse 7, and the fish of the sea, verse 8. Who among these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? it is of god so far and build dad and eliphaz listen to me it is of god you can't explain it i can't explain it but the beasts of the field acknowledge built within them are all of these God controls. They would be able, if they could speak our language, to tell you their story.

38:13 He gets into a, he sort of gets a roll on, if you will, beginning at verse 16 down through 24. Look carefully at the list of things. With him are strength and sound wisdom. The misled and the misleader belong to him. He makes counselors walk barefoot, makes fools of judges. Who's in charge here? It's the living God. He loosens the bond of kings and binds their loins. He makes priests walk barefoot. He likes that word picture. And overthrows the secure ones. He deprives the trusted ones of speech and takes away the discernment of the elders. He pours contempt on nobles and loosens the belt of the strong. He reveals mysteries from the darkness and brings the deep darkness into light. It is God. It is the inscrutable almighty God who is in charge of such things. Don't you think I know that?

39:07 What a creative way to say it. The God I serve takes delight in undoing human doings and in dismantling human enterprises, in executing his miraculous undertakings. He alone is in full control. Daniel wrote, all the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can say unto him, what are you doing? Daniel 4.35 Job says that's the one before whom I bow and Job implies I'm not sure you've ever met him. Don't bully me.

39:49 While I cannot answer why I'm suffering like this, I can tell you somehow and in some way the God of heaven, the silent God, the one who seems to be the absent God from my setting right now is still in control. You think I'm a hollow-headed dummy? Verse 1, chapter 13, my eye has seen all of this, my ear has heard and understood it. What you know, I also know I am not inferior to you, I repeat. matter of fact you are of no help to me but i would speak to the almighty and i desire to argue with god but you smear with lies you look at his look at his uh diagnosis you are all worthless or his prognosis you are all worthless physicians i'd say that pretty well puts it on the line right there. Look, oh, that you would be completely silent, that it would become your wisdom.

40:53 turn to Proverbs 17, 1727. Okay, just hold your place here and look at Proverbs. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, there it is, 1727. I want you to see the wisdom of keeping your mouths closed. This is a great verse, 1727. He who restrains his words has knowledge, he who has a cool spirit isn't that great he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding even a fool when he keeps silent is considered wise see why take away the question if you open your mouth they'll know if you don't ever open your mouth they'll think you're wise when he closes his lips he's considered prudent there you have it that's what job is getting at would to you would to God that you would just stay silent.

41:52 If you would just come to sympathize and if you would just come to comfort, then your silence would have conveyed all of that and more. But you open your mouths and you are such fools, though you speak as though you were wise. your worthless physicians. Look at the indictment of verse 9. Will it be well when he examines you? Great question. Verse 13, be silent before me so that I may speak. Then let come on me what may. Though he slay me, verse 15, I will hope in him. 17, listen carefully to my speech. Let my declaration fill your ears. Behold, now I have prepared my case. I know that I will be vindicated. who will contend with me for then I would be silent and die. With that, he closes his comments to the men and he opens his words to the God he loves at this point, the one he wishes he would get an audience with.

42:58 Don't remove your hand from me and don't let the dread of you terrify me. Verse 23, how many are my iniquities and sins? Make known to me my rebellion and my sin. Just reveal it, Lord. Just show me. Whatever it may be. Then he describes life in verse 1 of chapter 14. Man who's born of a woman is short-lived and full of turmoil. The Living Bible says, how frail is man, how few his years, how full of trouble. Isn't that a good commentary on life? how frail, how few, and how full of trouble. he describes himself with three word pictures, like a flower, verse 2, like a shadow, verse 2, like a hired man, verse 6.

43:53 man is frail like a flower. Man is fleeting like a shadow. We humans are full of trouble like a hired man. This is a vulnerable man. This is a hurting man. now he uh he really searches an issue that plagues every person with a terminal illness job doesn't see himself getting better and so he now is deals with life beyond he says in verse 7 don't don't don't let your mind wander here track this there is hope for a tree when it's cut down that it will sprout again. Its roots will not fail. Though its roots grow old in the ground, its stump dies in the dry soil. At the scent of water, it will flourish and put forth springs like a plant. That's why when you clear a field, the old seasoned woodsman will say, pull them out with a stump. Don't leave the stump. You leave a stump, as soon as rain comes, the green sprouts, the tree will come back, the shrub will come back.

45:10 That's the way it is with a plant, with a tree. Verse 10, but man, man dies and lies prostrate. Man expires. And where is he? Job's questioning life beyond. As water evaporates from the sea and a river becomes parched and dried up, so man lies down. It does not rise.

45:38 He mentions he rises later on, but understand something. This is an ancient book. Stay with this. This is an ancient book written in probably the patriarchal era when very little progress of revelation had run its course. Job knows very little about the doctrine of resurrection. And it's recorded here exactly as he thought. that doesn't mean that's all there is to the subject for we have a whole bible full of further truth the progress of revelation has revealed more and more so that today we can pretty well describe what happens at death immediately after death and beyond even the destinies of heaven and hell job has a question mark and he says a a man dies he lies down and he doesn't rise verse 14 unlike a tree if a man dies will he live again all the days of my struggle I will wait until my change comes then the chapter ends in sort of a depressed whimper the message renders it meanwhile mountains wear down and boulders break up stones wear smooth and soil and erodes as you relentlessly grind down our hope you're too much for us oh god as always you get the last word we don't like it our faces show it but you send us off anyway if our children do well for themselves we never know If they do badly, we're spared the hurt, body and soul.

47:11 That's it for us. A lifetime of pain, a lifetime of sorrow. End of Job's response. We know now that when one dies, we live on. Jesus himself taught. I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, even though he may die on this earth, yet shall he continue to live. He that lives and believes in me shall never die. In fact, we all have eternal life. we all have eternal life but the destinies are different some will spend eternity with God in heaven some will spend eternity without God in hell those are the only two alternatives and he says more about hell than about heaven in the scriptures sobering yes Job when we die we live again in fact we live on it's always a challenge to know how to wrap up a message that is this broad you've been very patient to sit through this and to listen to these comments let me close with three questions all three from the text three questions one has to do with depth one has to do with discovery one has to do with destiny depth Job 11 7 are you seeking to know the depths of God or are you just skimming the surface you've got to answer i am so busy answering for chuck swindoll i can't answer for another person here i i do not know you well enough to know and we're all good at faking it so we can look like we're going to the deep things when in fact we're just skating so you answer Thank you.

49:05 are you seeking to know the depths of God or are you just skimming the surface? Just going to religious meetings, just reading religious books, learning religious language. I'm finishing Larry Crabb's fine latest book titled The Pressure's Off, where he writes, As a culture, present-day Christianity has redefined spiritual maturity. The Reformers knew we were saved to glorify God. We moderns live to be blessed. the mature among us are now thought to be the successful, the happy, the effective people on top of things and doing well.

50:00 We're more attracted to sermons and books and conferences that reveal the secrets to fulfillment than to spiritual direction that leads us through affliction into the presence of the Father. we seem more interested in managing life into a comfortable existence than in letting God spiritually transform us through life's hardships that cuts to the quick doesn't it don't run from the hardship don't seek a friend who will help you get out from under it quickly stay there stay in it he'll get you through it but he'll take you through it friends will try to get you out of it because after all, we want to be blessed.

50:59 he'll bless us for going through it are you seeking to know the depths of God or are you just skimming the surface 13.9. Will it be well when God examines your life, or will it be a disappointing discovery? I can't speak for you because I don't know.

51:30 But I do know that we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one of us may give account of the things done in his body, whether they were good or evil, even whether the motive was right or wicked. We'll give an account. Is that going to be a disappointing discovery or will it be well with you? Probing isn't it? Haunting. You anticipate already the last one.

52:08 1414, when you die, where will you live again? with him or away from his presence forever. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, at the time you die, you will spend forever in the presence of the Father in what is called heaven. The bliss and the rewards of glory with him, they are beyond our imagination. Or if you in this life choose not to take the Lord Jesus Christ as your substitute for sin and placing your full confidence and trust in him for forgiveness and eternal life, at your death you are in hell forever. There is no purgatory. There's no praying out of that place where you are temporarily for a while until enough people pay enough money or say enough prayers to get you out.

53:08 You're a goner. Sobering, isn't it? C.S. Lewis wrote, There's no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than the doctrine of hell. if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and especially of our Lord's own words. It has always been held by the Christian church and it has the support of reason. C.S. Lewis was no intellectual pushover. Believe the Bible. Your destiny is determined when you're alive, not after you die. Let's bow together. I invite any one of you who has not, up until this time, given your heart to Christ to do so now.

54:12 The key word is now. Now. you're surrounded by those who have been so persuaded and they would tell you without hesitation that they have never regretted the decision. You will never know peace. You will never know real strength when hardship becomes unbearable like you can know it in Christ.

54:46 Come today. Believe now. Our Father, we thank you for the searching truths of your word, for what seems to the passerby as philosophical meanderings what we have here are dialogues of destiny, truths to live by, insights that prepare us for now and for eternity. are frail, our years are few and full of trouble. They proliferate, it seems. Thank you for not leaving us. When those problems surround us and we feel as though they are drowning us, thank you for staying near. I pray for those who have never trusted the Lord Jesus that you will bring them this very day.