Let's open our Bibles to Job
32. Job chapter 32. I've taken the title of this
message from verse 8 of Job 32. The title is The Inspiration
of the Almighty. The Inspiration. And as you know,
in the New Testament, that word inspiration from the original
Greek means God's breath or God breathed. And it has much the
same connotation here in the Old Testament. God breathing
His knowledge into our hearts. And that's what's being spoken
of here. But let's look at this. This begins a new section of
the book of Job. It's really coming to a close.
Spent most of the bulk of this book with a debate between Job
and his three miserable, comforting friends. And now that's ended. The debate between Job and his
three friends is now ended. It says in verse 1, look at Job
32, 1. So these three men, that's Eliphaz,
Eliphaz, however you want to pronounce it. And Bildad and
Zophar, those three men. These three men ceased to answer
Job. And the reason they cease to
answer is told here in verse 1, because he, that is Job, was
righteous in his own eyes. Now I want you to understand
that that is their assessment of Job. That's their charge against
Job. They continued to say that Job
was a self-righteous hypocrite, that he was trying to hide or
excuse or cover over some great sin or number of sins and that's
the reason God was punishing him and as you know we've seen
it all through this debate they had accused Job falsely and they'd
failed miserably to answer the question the main question of
this book and that is why do the righteous suffer and why
do the wicked prosper in this life uh... that question is uh... we're going to begin to see some
of the answers here and it's an interesting and uh... instructive
portion of the bible these last ten verses of the book of joe
but you have to remember keep in mind that ultimately and eternally
the righteous will prosper ultimately and eternally And of course the
righteous describes those who are righteous before God in Christ. That's who that describes. Sinners
saved by the grace of God. Forgiven sinners, pardoned sinners. And then at some point in time,
regenerated sinners called into the kingdom. And that's what
Job was. And they will, the righteous will ultimately and eternally
prosper by the grace of God in Christ. And then no matter what
they go through in this life, may suffer greatly. So many do. And there is a suffering that's
common to all of us now. We will suffer. We will be tested. We will be tried. And I want
to show you, I'll show you that later on. But ultimately the
righteous will dwell in glory with Christ. Perfectly, completely,
eternally, unchangeably, no tears, no sorrow, no pain. That's an
unimaginable thing to us, to go through something like that.
And then ultimately and eternally, the wicked will perish. He that
believeth not shall perish. Except you likewise repent, Christ
said, you shall perish. And you know, remember one of
the verses that I think that I've raised several times throughout
this study of the book of Job is Psalm 73. verses 16 and 17
where David is trying to contemplate that same question. Why do the heathen prosper? Why
am I, one of God's children, God's King, a man after God's
own heart. Why am I suffering so? Why am
I being persecuted? And you remember there in Psalm
73 verses 16 and 17, he had this answer. We don't have time to
read the whole Psalm, but he says, when I thought to know
this, to know the answer to this question, it was too painful
for me. I couldn't figure that out. There's
no, you know, when we look through the eyes of the flesh, at this
world doesn't it seem to you if you're honest to be a world
of chaos to be a world out of control why why does tropical
storm sandy hit new york and not hit los angeles what what
what answer do we have for that we don't say and uh... we we were talking back in the
study the you know how the lord how he dealt with things like
that you know when he would pick out some great disaster that
had happened in their day and he would look at the people of
Israel and he'd say, suppose ye that those who suffered like
that were greater sinners than what you are? And of course,
the natural man, just like these three friends, would say, well,
yeah, yeah, they got what they deserve. And then he turns the
tide on them with a master stroke. of wisdom that we don't even
have. We don't even touch. He says,
except you likewise repent, you shall perish. What if God gave
Ashland, Kentucky the buckle on the Bible belt? Everybody,
I think, in the South calls their town the buckle on the Bible
belt. What if God gave Ashland, Kentucky
or Arlington, Ohio or Huntington, West Virginia what we deserve? Where would we be? And so the
psalmist says, when I thought to know this, it was too painful
for me. It gave me a headache. That's
kind of like the language. It's the stuff that I can't even
imagine. And then he says this, he says
in verse 17 of Psalm 73, he says, until I went to a particular
place, you know where he went? Do you remember? Into the sanctuary
of God. Then I understood their end. I understood how all this is
going to end up, you see, ultimately and eternally. Now that's basically
what's going to be taught in these next few chapters of the
book of Job. Now Job had been adamant and
zealous in defending himself against the false charges. He
defended his character. He defended his good name. Job
in doing that, as I told you last time, now he didn't... Listen,
Job did not deny God. And Job admitted he was a sinner
in need of a mediator, in need of grace and mercy. That if God
were to give him what he deserved, it would be eternal damnation.
But Job did not understand why he was suffering such, and his
friends didn't have the answer. His friends judged here, Job,
you're righteous in your own eyes. That means you're a hypocrite.
A person who's righteous in their own eyes is a hypocrite. I want you to think about this.
To think that we're righteous in our own eyes, you know what,
that's to be lost. True believers do not see themselves
as righteous in their own eyes. But true believers are assured
and believe that we are righteous in Christ. And you know why? Not because we see it with our
own eyes, but because God says so. That's why we believe it. That's where we have the assurance
that I'm righteous. I don't see myself as righteous
in my own eyes. I know myself too well. When
I look at myself and assess myself and consider myself and how I
go through trials, I'll tell you what, I wouldn't even hold
a candle to Job, let alone to the Lord Himself. I don't see
myself as righteous in my own eyes, but I can tell you without
blushing, I'm a righteous man. I'm a righteous person. Why?
Because my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And God says that's a righteous
person. I believe it because God says
it. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that does. That's
what God says. And I want to tell you something.
What God says is more of a reality and a certainty than what I see
with these eyes. Do you believe that? I sure do. What God says, God sees it all. He knows it all. So what He says
about a sinner who's trusting Christ, just like that old publican.
You think that old publican saw himself as righteous in his own
eyes? He said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's how
I see myself. Well, that's a righteous man.
That's what Christ said. He went down to his house righteous,
justified, and the old Pharisee who saw himself as righteous
in his own eyes, he went away unjustified. So that's the key
to this whole thing now. It's not how you see me. It's
not how I see myself. It's how God sees me. I'm accepted
in the beloved. And how do I know that that includes
me? You might ask the question, well, how do I know it includes
me, that I'm in that number? Well, what is your hope? Now,
are you looking to Christ and resting in Him and believing
in Him for all righteousness, for all forgiveness, for all
eternal life? Or are you looking somewhere
or to someone or to something else? It's pretty simple. And I know we wrestle at times. But now you remember this too.
Job in all his suffering, as I said, he did not deny God.
I think about that statement at the beginning when he lost
his belongings and his family. And he said, the Lord giveth
and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That's grace. That's not flesh. You know what
I'm saying? That's grace right there. Nobody
can make a statement like that truly without being hypocritical,
but by the grace of God. You couldn't say that. You might
be able to mimic the words, and some people I believe do, but
I mean to really mean it from the heart. God gives, God takes
away, blessed be the name of the Lord. God does what's right. So Job, in all his suffering,
he had not denied God. He continued to show himself
a sinner in need of God's grace and mercy in Christ. His hope
was always in Christ alone. And it's at this point that we're
introduced to a young man here. Job 32. A young man named Elihu. Look at verse 2. Then was kindled the wrath, or
the anger, of Elihu, the son of Bereichel, the Buzite, and
the kindred of Ram. And his anger was kindled, like
stoking a fire, and that indicates that he'd been listening to this
whole thing. It kind of built. You put kindling on the fire
to keep it going. And his wrath, his anger was
kindled as this thing built, as he listened to these three
men, as he listened to Job. And it says his anger was kindled
against Job. Against Job was his wrath kindled
because Job justified himself rather than God. Now what's he
talking about? Well, hold on. And then it says
in verse three, also against his three friends. Elihu's anger
was kindled against his three friends because they found no
answer and yet had condemned Job. They didn't know the answer,
but they condemned Job out of their ignorance. Now, it says here, the implication
here is that Elihu disagreed with what they were saying, Job's
three friends. Their false gospel, Elihu didn't
agree with it. Their false judgment. And he
was angry. He didn't agree with his false,
works-oriented, self-righteous, legalistic, soul-damning gospel
that man has concocted. And he was angry with Job because
Job justified himself rather than God. What's he talking about?
Now, we know that Job did not claim to be a righteous man based
on his works. He did proclaim his innocence
of the charges that were brought against him, but he wasn't like
the Pharisee who judged himself to be righteous based on his
worth. That's not what Elihu is saying here. That's not what
he's angry over. Here's what he's angry over.
He's angry because Job did not vindicate God in the matter of
this suffering. He accused God of injustice. Job actually accused God of not
being fair. Remember I told you that Job,
he proclaimed his innocence and you could make a good case that
Job went too far. How far did he go? Well, he went
this far. He said, God, you're not fair
to me in this matter. Why am I suffering? I don't deserve
this. You're not treating me fairly
or treating me justly. And so what happened there? Well,
Job He justified himself in this suffering. This is not talking
about how God justifies the ungodly, how sinners justified before
a holy God in Christ. It's talking about the affairs
of this world and what you're going through right now. You
may be going through something right now, and you may think
God's just not treating you right. God's not treating you fairly.
Well, let me tell you something, and this is based on the Word
of God, because that's what this whole thing's about. Let me tell
you what God says. I'll tell you what God says.
He never does wrong. Never. He's never wrong. God is never wrong. He never
acts unfairly or unjustly. He always does that which is
right. In fact, you could say it this
way in biblical terms, whatever God does is right, it's right
because God does it. He always has a noble, honorable,
God-glorifying purpose in mind for everything that His people
go through, and that includes even the judgments of the wicked.
God never makes a mistake. God never has a contingency plan
because He doesn't need one. He declares the end from the
beginning. He's the God who works all things after the counsel
of His own will. God never acts in an unjust,
unfair, erroneous way. And for us to think differently
in our lives day to day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, is to justify ourselves more than
God. Now that's exactly right. Now,
that is not an easy thing for us to live with and consider
and live by. Why? Because we love ourselves. We love ourselves And we hate
the pain and the problems and the terror and the sorrows and
the ignorance, because I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow
to me or to you. It may be something that is utterly
terrible. And I'm not here just trying
to scare you tonight so that you won't sleep tonight. I'm
just, you know this. We're anxiously awaiting who's
going to be the president of the United States. You know it's
already set in stone by God Almighty. He just hadn't let us in on it
yet. I guess he'll let us in when ABC, NBC, and Fox, and CBS
tell us. And they could be wrong. They
were about eight years ago, weren't they? God knows. And I want to
tell you something here. Now, this may be even harder
to swallow. Whatever happens Tuesday night, God didn't make
a mistake. You say, well, that ain't right.
God did it. It's right. And that's how we live. That's what we must live with.
And see, Job lost sight of that. Well, I can understand Job losing
sight of that. I haven't lost my family and
all my possessions, my health completely. But I can understand
Job questioning that. I know. I know what it is to
hurt. I know what it is to be accused
falsely. And it ain't pretty, and it don't feel good. And sometimes
I can't even hardly get my mind on it, and I just want to take
a hammer and hit myself over the head, because I think about
that stuff. And I pray, Lord, give me better
thoughts than that. Don't let me focus on the ones
that I think are going to do me harm. Let me focus. It's just
like us as a church. I mean, think about it. Our mission
here as a church is to worship God and evangelize the lost. And anything that distracts us
from that, whether it's somebody trying to sow discord or whatever,
that's not, our focus shouldn't be there. It's got to be on God,
what God is doing and how he's operating. This is what Job lost
sight of. We see, think about, we see the
righteousness of God. Listen, it's right because God
does it. God is the standard of righteousness.
Now we see the righteousness of God most. in our salvation
by His grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you see it?
You can think about that. I thought about this as I was
preparing for this message. You know, Christ, when He walked
this earth on His way to the cross, humanly speaking in His
relationships on this world, He had people against, everybody
was against Him. He had the ones who weren't against
him were pitiful, pitiful and ignorant, selfish. Think about
that. He's got his mind focused on
the cross. Now what he said, he set his
face like a flint, focused on the cross. And here's Peter and
James and John over here arguing about who's going to be the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven. Now what do you think of that?
Well, that's us, isn't it? I mean, he's focused on the crux
of redemptive history, eternity, and they're over-arguing on who's
going to have the best seat in the house. Pitiful, you see. And yet, did
he focus on them? No, he turned on them. He said,
now here's the way it is, and except you become his little
children, you won't even enter the kingdom of heaven. And then
he focused right back on the cross. And nothing was going
to keep him from it. And that's what we're to focus
on, the cross. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't focus on this person or
that person, focus on Him. Now Job, in the tenor of his
life, he did that, even in the midst of his suffering. But when
he was attacked, and this is, I find this is the way I am.
When I'm attacked, then my focus turns to the, and that's what
Job's doing. And Elihu says, well, I'm angry. I've listened
to it enough. But you know, if God, if God
provides a way to save me from my sins in a way that is righteous
and holy, through His Son, punishing His only begotten, well-beloved,
perfect and holy Son for our sins, and still be a just God
and a Savior, a righteous judge, as well as a loving, merciful
Father, Then how in the world could we imagine that God would
be unfair or unjust or wrong in dealing with our puny little
problems here on this earth? It's unimaginable, isn't it?
Well, that's what Elihu's saying. Look at verse 4. He says, Now
Elihu waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder. See,
Elihu, out of respect for their age, he kept silent up to this
point. And that's a good thing. The Bible says in Proverbs 16
and verse 31, it says that the hoary head, that's the gray head,
that's the elderly, is a crown of glory if it be found in the
way of righteousness. Now here's three men who because
of their age, they had the hoary head. But they weren't found
in the way of righteousness. They were preaching salvation
by works. And then here's Job. Job in his
age, the hoary head, he was not vindicating God in this matter
of his suffering. But Elihu goes on, it goes on
here, verse 5. When Elihu saw that there was
no answer in the mouth of these three men, Then his wrath was
kindled. Now, I don't believe Elihu is
being arrogant here. I don't believe he's saying,
I know something you don't know. What's he saying? Well, look
on verse six, Elihu, the son of Berecho, and the abuse I'd
answer and said, I'm young and you're very old. Wherefore, for
this reason, I was afraid. In other words, I had respect.
That's what he means there. and durst not show you mine opinion."
Now, that word opinion, hold on to that. I'm going to come
to that in just a moment. He said in verse 7, I said, days
should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom. So,
in other words, I listen to you because of your age. Respect. But here's what he says. Elihu
states how knowledge and... Here's something Elihu learns
here. Listen to this debate. And here's what he learned. that
knowledge and wisdom can only come by revelation from God which
means this the hoary head may not have the wisdom even a younger
person might have the wisdom that comes from God if God's
pleased to reveal his wisdom to a young person and not to
the hoary head That's what he said. So in other words, old
age and wisdom doesn't necessarily go together. I think the supreme
example of that in scripture is the oldest man that ever lived,
Methuselah, recorded 969 years old. There's nothing said about
having faith or knowledge, seeking the Lord. All that's said about
him is he lived 969 years and he died. The only revelation that you
get from Methuselah was his name, which was prophetic of a flood
that would come at the end of his life. God punishing sin. That's it. I guess Methuselah
knew what his name meant, I don't know. But there's certainly nothing
in the Scripture to indicate that he had any spiritual wisdom. Well, these three men that tried
to advise Job, they didn't have spiritual wisdom. They had earthly
wisdom. But earthly wisdom is foolishness
in the eyes of God. Read 1 Corinthians 1. The wisdom
of men is foolishness in the eyes of God. Just like men determine
that the wisdom of God is foolishness. But my friend, don't ever, don't
ever doubt. There's no foolishness with God.
That's why we see Christ as the wisdom and the power of God,
don't we? Oh, what wisdom. Think about the gospel of God's
grace. What wisdom! You know, the Gospels
that are so popular today, they don't really sound that wise.
I mean, that's just what man could figure out for himself,
you know. Here's the condition, you meet
it, God will bless you. That's the natural man's thinking. But God, who is holy and righteous
and just to provide a way of salvation for sinners who deserve
nothing but wrath and eternal damnation, and do it in such
a way that He's just, all what wisdom Christ is the wisdom of
God Christ in him crucified well he says here verse 8 look
at he says but there is a spirit in man now I believe he's talking
here about men who have been given spiritual life men by nature
are spiritually dead but here's a spirit in man and the inspiration
of the almighty giveth them understanding." Now that's where you have to
go if you want to know the answer. And it may not be the answer
you want. And it may not satisfy your earthly
appetites. But it's God's answer and that
means everything. I'm telling you, it's God's answer
and that means everything. It's, if there's a spirit in
you, if there's a spirit in me, if we've been born again by the
spirit, if we've been given a heart towards God, a new heart, a broken
and a contrite heart, a heart of faith, a heart of repentance,
to know Christ and to look to Him, a heart of love, a heart
that's hungry to hear from our Heavenly Father, then the inspiration
of the Almighty will give us understanding. Enough understanding
to please God. I think about it. John said these
scriptures are written to give us that understanding and assurance
of salvation that we have in Christ. And this is one thing
Job did have. What did he say? I know my Redeemer
lives. And how He'll stand in the latter
day. He's going to die and be raised
again from the dead, and I'm going to see Him. I know that,
but everything in between that I'm suffering on this day, I
don't understand. Well, Elihu says, well, don't
listen to these three self-righteous legalists. He says, go to God. Listen to the Almighty, the inspiration,
the God-breathed Word is your only answer. That's the only
way. Verse 9, he says, great men are
not always wise. That's old men. Neither do the
aged understand judgment or justice. Therefore I said, hearken to
me, I will show mine opinion." Now it's interesting that Elihu
twice here says, my opinion. And here he's talking about the
inspiration of the Almighty. That's the God-breed revealed
word. That's what Paul talked to Timothy
about. Every word in this book. Listen, this book is not my opinion. This is God's word. It's not
man's opinion. It's not even God's opinion.
So why does he say opinion? Well, opinion here means something
different than what we mean by opinion today. When they take
opinion polls, they want to find out what you think. God doesn't
care what you think. What I think or what you think
doesn't settle any issue, doesn't answer any question. This word
opinion means knowledge. And here's what Elihu is actually
saying. He's saying, I'm going to tell
you what I know by the inspiration of the Almighty. I'm going to
tell you what I know to be true because God's taught me. What
you're saying is not what God teaches anybody. That's what
the natural man... Remember over in 1 Corinthians 2.14, The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them. They're spiritually discerned.
God has to teach us this from His Word. There are things that
we can know. Brother Bill read it in Psalm
19. There are things we can know from nature, the creation. But there are also things that
we can only know by the word of God, the law of the Lord,
the word of God, the commandment of God. The scriptures are able
to make us wise unto salvation. We need to be in the word. That's
where we need to be. That's where we feed our souls. You see, that's where God the
Holy Spirit brings us to keep our focus upon Christ. Look over
at 2 Corinthians chapter 3 with me. Let me show you this. You
know the Old Testament. Somebody said the Old Testament
is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the
Old Testament revealed. Well, look at 2 Corinthians chapter
3. Here's the children of Israel
under the Old Covenant law. And it says in verse 14 of 2
Corinthians 3 that their minds were blinded. Now think about
Eliphaz and Zophar and Bildad in this same... their minds were
blinded. Now what blinds the minds of
unbelievers. Well, we're told in 2 Corinthians
4 that the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not. You know what he blinds our minds
with? Self-righteousness and self-love. Ignorance. And it says in verse 14, their
minds were blinded, for until this day there remaineth the
same veil taken away in the reading of the Old Testament. He's talking
about Moses putting the... Moses had a literal... when he
came down out of Mount Sinai after having been given the Ten
Commandments and the rest of the law, he had a glow. I mean, there was a literal glow
about his face. It was a physical manifestation.
They could see it with the physical eye. And it was so bright that
they had to put a veil over Moses' face or they couldn't look there
on. God the Holy Spirit inspires Paul to write about that in these
terms. He says, it's like a veil that's over your mind. The minds
were blinded in the reading of the Old Testament. Look at verse
14. Which veil is done away in Christ? In other words, when
you see Christ, the glory of his person, the power of his
finished work, then that veil of blindness and ignorance is
moved away. He says in verse 15, But even
unto day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.
Now he's talking about a veil there of darkness. Nevertheless,
when it shall turn to the Lord, when it turns to Christ, the
veil shall be taken away. Christ is the key. That's what
he's saying. You remember back in John chapter
5, look over there. John 5 and verse 39. Now what he's talking about here
is the answers that reside in the wisdom and knowledge of God
concerning the salvation of sinners. That comes by revelation from
God. No man can figure that out. Look
at all other religions. I'll tell you what, every religion
of man has in common, with all the vast differences, with all
the hatred, with all the cultural difference, the one thing they
have in common is at some point, some stage, to some degree, it's
salvation by works. The religion of Cain. But only
God could come up with this now, salvation by grace. And look
at John 5.39, he says, you do search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life. They are they which testify
me. Here's your key. You will not
come to me that you might have life. You've got to work for
it. You've got to earn it. What's causing you to do that?
There's a veil over your heart. Pride, ignorance, self-righteousness. Just like the old boy told the
preacher one time, he said, what I've been through has to count
for something. What I've done has to count for
something. Paul said, I count it all but done. There's what
it counts for. Done. But I may win Christ. You
see there? And he goes on, he says down
here in verse 45, look at John 5, he says, Now Elihu back here
is saying this, when it comes to these answers, The only thing that we've got
to depend on is the inspiration of the Almighty. The Word of
God, that's it. The scriptures that are able
to make us wise unto salvation and the scriptures that are able
to preserve us in the things of this world. Now look at verse
11 of Job 32. So here's what happens now. From
here to, I think it's around chapter 36 or 37, Elihu begins
to speak. He's guided by the Spirit of
God, and he takes a really different approach to Job's problem than
what his three friends did. He's not speaking a legalistic,
self-righteous approach, but one that's solely immersed in
God's Word. He says in verse 11, Behold, I waited for your
words. I gave ear to your reasons whilst you searched out what
to say. You tried to figure it out. Yea, I tended unto you,
and behold, there was none of you that convinced Job, or that
answered his words. Not only did you not convince
him, you didn't even answer him. Lest you should say, we have
found out wisdom, God thrusteth him down, and not man. What he's
saying here is, lest you should say, well, we've told you everything
that's right now, we'll just leave you in the hands of God,
Job. Well, that's where he needs to be. Verse 14, now he hath
not directed his words against me, neither will I answer him
with your speeches. In other words, Job hadn't spoken
against Elihu. And he says, I'm not going to
answer him with your speeches. I'm not going to talk to him
like you did. I'm not going to beat him down with self-righteousness
and legalism. In verse 15, they were amazed.
They answered no more. They left off speaking. They
shut up. When I had waited, for they spake not, but stood still
and answered no more. Now that's the power of God,
isn't it? Keep those fellas shut up. Verse 17, he said, I said,
I will answer also my part, I also will show mine opinion, for I
am full of matter. In other words, I'm full of words,
is what that means. It's almost like I've been wanting
to jump in here and just say some things, but I've had to
hold up. He said, the spirit within me, constraineth me. All
right, this Holy Spirit gave him wisdom to constrain, to wait,
wait for the right time. I'll tell you, doesn't it take
wisdom to wait for the right time to speak? I've done it so
many times, like a bull in a china shop, you know, jump in where
I shouldn't have. Verse 19, behold, my belly is
as wine that hath no vent, like that new wine, like wine in a
bottle that's ready to burst and come out. He says, it's ready
to burst like new bottles. I will speak that I may be refreshed
I will open my lips and answer. Let me not, I pray you, accept
any man's person. Now the first thing he says,
I'm not going to speak in a way that is prejudice or that shows
favoritism to any man. This is God's word, period. It's
God's word for me. It's God's word for you. It's
like the gospel. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That's you. That's me. You see,
that's why I say so often when I preach the gospel, don't get
the accept me syndrome because God is not going to accept, except
you. You're not the exception. I'm
not the exception. This is the way it is for every
or any sinner. Salvation by the grace of God
or not at all. Salvation by Christ alone or
not at all. Salvation is for sinners. If
you accept yourself in that category, then salvation is not for you.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Non-righteous,
no not one. That's you, that's me. Our righteousness
is in Christ. You say, but my family, my mother,
my daddy, my grandma, my... God's not going to respect any
man's persons. That's the first thing you have
to understand about the inspiration of the Almighty. Whatever He
says, it applies equally to all in their situation. And He will
not make an exception for me, for my children or my grandchildren.
No, sir. No, sir. There's only one way
and that's Christ and Him crucified. So Elihu says, let me not, I
pray you, accept any man's purse. Neither let me give flattering
titles unto man. Now boy, I'll tell you, if you
want to get somebody on your side, if you want to win friends
and influence people, just give them flattering titles. Elevate
them. Increase them. John the Baptist
said, don't do that to me. I've got to decrease. Christ
must increase. Lift them up, you know. Invoke
their name. Oh my. That's another thing you
have to understand about the inspiration of the Almighty.
The only name that is lifted up and exalted in the inspiration
of the Almighty is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And if you
look to anyone else or anything else for your authority and your
assurance, you're going wrong. Verse 22, for I know not to give
flattering titles, in so doing my Maker would soon take me away. In other words, I don't think
Elihu is saying here that God would kill him. There's plenty
of false prophets, preachers running around alive and well
on planet Earth. Has been and now. But what he's
saying here, the sense of it is this. If I accept your person,
in other words, if I make an exception for you, if I elevate
you or elevate myself or give us flattering titles, I can tell
you right now, I'm not speaking by inspiration of the Almighty.
I'm not speaking for God. I'm not the ambassador of Christ.
You see there, that's when I become the preacher of lies, the teller
of lies, the man of the flesh. That will do us no good. And then as we get into Elihu's
answer here, here's what we're going to find. That it's directly
in line with the inspiration of the Almighty concerning how
God deals with his children, his children like Job, even in
our suffering. That he deals with us not as
a tyrant trying to beat us down, but he deals with us as a loving
father. And that chastisement is one
of the greatest evidences that we belong to him in Christ. And
that we're certain for heaven's glory in Christ. And that he
loves us and we love him. All right. Let's sing as our
closing hymn, Close to Thee, hymn number 328, Close to Thee.