So Close, Yet Zophar

I wonder if you have any friends Do you have friends? I'm sure you probably have at least one friend, maybe two, maybe three How many good friends do you have? Nobody has a lot of good friends We have a lot of associates, a lot of acquaintances, but most of us have one, two, maybe three really good friends in our lifetime The question is, what kind of friends are they? Job had friends He had at least three friends that we know of. I'm sure he had more. I mean, after all, he was the greatest man on the planet, so I'm sure he had other friends We just don't know who they are

But he had at least three friends, three friends. I think his wife was his friend. I'm not so sure. I mean, after she told him to curse God and die, maybe she wasn't his best friend. I don't know But he had at least three friends But with friends like Job had, who needs enemies, right? Because his friends were not the best of friends In fact, when they began to speak, they were condemning, critical, condescending toward this person they believed was a friend of theirs

And when you read the story of Job, you really begin to understand what's the best way to communicate with people and how not to communicate with people And Job's friends help us understand that Tonight, we come to Job's third friend We've already heard what Eliphaz has said and what Bildad has said But tonight, we're going to hear from a man named Zophar Some people believe that he is the youngest of the three Maybe he is That's because he speaks last, and they would give preference to age order And so maybe he was the youngest We don't know that for certain, but maybe that's the case

But he's brash He's harsh Maybe he's trying to gain the upper hand on the other two or show the other two how much he knows and how he can best them in the conversation But Zophar was close, but yet, Zophar from the truth In fact, one author says it this way, 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 these words The Chinese proverb says, Through conversing face-to-face, their hearts have a thousand miles between them How true that is as Job sat in the ash heap

After all, information is not the same as communication Information is giving out Communication is getting through These men, these three friends were interested in informing Job as to why he was the way he was But they did not communicate with Job They were miles apart They would sit next to each other in the ash heap They would converse with one another face-to-face, but their hearts were so far apart so they could not communicate to one another We find that in marriages, do we not? We want to be close to our spouse, but sometimes our hearts are far from our spouse

We want to inform our spouse as to what they did wrong and how they did it wrong and how they could do it right or really how they could do it my way instead of their way And we want to inform them, give them information, but we don't communicate with them because we don't communicate heart-to-heart, just face-to-face We find ourselves miles apart instead of being close Instead of being intimate and having a ministry, we create misery And that's because our hearts are so far from the truth And these men who believed in God were still far from the truth of how God's Word applied to Job

So Zobar is going to speak He's going to indict Job in three arenas He's going to attack him when it comes to his integrity He's going to attack him when it comes to his ignorance about God And attack him in his inability to repent Just 20 verses, a very short summation, and then we'll spend some time in application as to how these verses apply to your life and to mine The text begins in verse number 1 of chapter 11

Then Zobar, the Amethyte, answered, Shall a multitude of words go unanswered, and a talkative man be acquitted? He begins the same way Bildad begins, by condemning Job for speaking too much In fact, he condemns Job by saying, all these words that you are speaking truly are covering up the real reason you are the way you are You're trying to convince us of something that you can't convince us of Now it is true that Proverbs chapter 10 verse number 19 tells us that in a multitude of words there wanteth not sin The more you speak, the more you cover up your sin

It also says in the latter part of that verse that he that retaineth his lips is wise But Zobar tells Job that he's just babbling He's talking too much, and therefore trying to hide something He tells Job that he is unwise, he is untrue, and he is unkind So he attacks his integrity He tells him, shall your boast or lies silence men? Do you think you can lie to us? Do you think you can exaggerate the truth? Do you think you can keep talking and try to cover up that which is real, Job? Do you think you can lie to us and silence us? Put us to silence? The words you say are untrue

And then he says, and shall you scoff and none rebuke? In other words, why do you mock us? You're unkind Here we are trying to communicate with you or talk to you, and yet you respond with unkind words But Job didn't do that They accuse him of that simply because he won't bow to their criticism He stands strong on what he believes to be true It says in verse number four, For you have said, My teaching is pure, and I am innocent in your eyes Now Job never said that But they're accusing him of that He's accusing Job of saying that his teaching is pure and that there truly is no sin in his life

Now Job never said that either On at least three occasions Job said that he had sinned He has sinned He knows he's not sinless And so he knows he is not an innocent man, although he's upright, God-fearing, blameless, turning away from evil That's Job chapter one God says that about Job The writer of Job tells us about him So that's who he is But he never said these words And so they say he's a hypocrite, basically You say one thing and live another way So he begins by attacking the integrity of Job And then he attacks the ignorance of Job when it comes to understanding who God is

For God is an all-wise God Now Job knows this But instead he says this But would that God might speak and open his lips against you Would it be that God would just tell you, Job, where you're wrong? That he would speak Now God is going to speak And when he speaks, he's not going to condemn Job He will condemn Zophar and Eliphaz and Bildad He will rebuke them, but he will not rebuke Job We saw it last week, Job chapter 42, verse number seven So Zophar is going to get his wish God's going to open his mouth He is going to speak, but he's not going to speak against Job

So he says in verse number six, Show you the secrets of wisdom, for sound wisdom has two sides God needs to show you his wisdom, Job There's the revealed side and the concealed side And maybe he's going to open his mouth, speak to you, and reveal to you that which is concealed And then he says these words, if you can believe it or not He says, Know then that God forgets part of your iniquity In other words, he says, Just be glad that God hasn't punished you for all your sin

What you have gotten, your loss of your children, the loss of your business, the loss of your home, the loss of your health, is only partial punishment God can do a lot more than that, but it's only punished you for part of your iniquity, not all of your iniquity Now, how could you say that to Job as he sits there? But he does Now, it is true that God never gives us what we deserve That's a good thing, is it not? You know, it's because it was mercies that were not consumed He knows our frame He knows that we're nothing but dust God treats us with mercy and grace and compassion and love

He does do that And if God punished us every time we sinned, then we'd be in big trouble But God is merciful He doesn't do that But Zophar truly condemns Job He comes against him and says, You know what? Be lucky you were not punished to the full extent of the law, that God didn't unleash on you everything you deserve because of your sin How do you say that to a man who's lost everything and has nothing to show for it? But Zophar does that He says this, Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? Answer, No, nobody can But Job knows that

Remember last week in chapter 9, what did Job say? Verse number 10, Who does great things unfathomable and wondrous works without number God does those kind of things Job knows you can't understand the Almighty Job knows you can't comprehend everything that God does Job understands that But Zophar wants to wax eloquent and try to inform Job that he's ignorant concerning the things of God He says, They are high as the heavens What can you do? Deeper than Sheol What can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea

If he passes by or shuts up or calls an assembly, who can restrain him? Answer, No one can So he talks about the awesomeness of God He talks about the abilities of God He talks about the awareness of God, that God's aware of everything He says in verse number 11, For he knows false men, he sees iniquity without investigating We know that God never has to search us He just knows all about us Why? Because he's omniscient So he's trying to inform Job He's giving Job information, but he's not communicating with Job

He's not wanting to understand Job's predicament and the pain that he's in to console him in working through these things Nope, he's just trying to inform him about the fact that you are ignorant concerning the knowledge of God, the wisdom of God, the omniscience of God, the ability of God Job, you just don't understand But if you're with us, you know that Job does understand because his theology is extremely sound So he says, verse number 12, An idiot will become intelligent when the foal of a wild donkey is born a man Well, that will never happen

So he tells Job, from the human's point of view, you're never going to be intelligent enough You're never going to come to an understanding of these things Well, we know that We're never going to understand all that God is But Zophar wants to make him understand you'll never get the knowledge you're searching for, Job So he attacks Job's inability to repent If you would direct your heart right and spread out your hand to him, if iniquity is in your hand, put it afar away and do not let wickedness dwell in your tents We know that repentance is a hard issue

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me Psalm 66, 18 That's why we preach the word Why? Because Jeremiah 29 tells us that when you preach the word, God's word is like a fire and a hammer It purifies the soul It pummels the heart It crushes the hard heart So we know that repentance is a hard issue But he's trying to get Job to repent from some wickedness that he's committed, but that he hasn't So he says, Then indeed you would lift up your face without moral defect, and you would be steadfast and not fear For you would forget your trouble

As waters that have passed by, you would remember it Your life would be brighter than a noonday Darkness would be like the morning Then you would trust because there is hope And you would look around and rest securely You would lie down and none would disturb you And many would entreat your favor Job, these are all the benefits of repentance If you just repent, you'll rest securely If you just repent, things will go so much better for you Well, that's not necessarily true There are people who sin and repent, and they still have to suffer the consequences of their sin, right? That does happen

But Zophar is trying to convince Job that you need to repent, and because you are unable to repent, unwilling to repent, he says this as he closes out, But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and there will be no escape for them, and their hope is to breathe their last If you don't repent, Job, your only hope is to die That's it Now, Zophar speaks twice Not three times like the other men do He just speaks twice, which is a good thing Because he wants to leave Job hopeless He wants to leave Job groveling Think about that

That's speaking to a man who's in so much pain, completely isolated, all by himself, and yet you want to leave him in that condition And that's how Zophar leaves him And Job won't respond He'll respond in a magnificent way But what I want to do with you tonight is show you how it is this applies to us Job, James 5, verse number 11, says these words We count those blessed who endured You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings with that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful You have heard of the endurance of Job

Now, if we've gone through these first 11 chapters, we realize that for Job, he has inexplicable pain, so harsh, so difficult None of us can really imagine it And so when the writer James says that you've heard of the endurance of Job, it is true he had to endure all the affliction, all of the loss, all of the pain And he did endure all that But he also had to endure the criticism of his so-called friends. A lot of us can endure physical pain, but we can't endure criticism We can't endure when our friends come to us and say things that aren't true about us We begin to crumble

But not Job. I told you on Sunday that Job's a book about hope It gives hope to people like you and me Because Job was a man who lived in light of hope It will unveil that to you even all the more as Job responds to Zophar next week But there's something about Job's endurance that's remarkable His ability to sit there amidst all of his pain and hear the words that are spoken to him with no mercy and no compassion That's why James says that you've heard of the endurance of Job and how the Lord dealt with him with mercy and compassion Because our Lord is full of mercy

But Job, even though Zophar wanted to leave him hopeless, he lived in light of his hope His hope was in God It wasn't in anyone else His hope wasn't in his friends And you can't have your hope in your friends or your family Why? Because they're going to fail you Inevitably, they're going to fail you So your hope must be in God alone The psalmist said these words in Psalm 146 Whose hope is in the Lord, his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry The Lord sets the prisoners free

The Lord opens the eyes of the blind The Lord raises up those who are bowed down The Lord loves the righteous The Lord protects the strangers He supports the fatherless and the widow, but he thwarts the way of the wicked The Lord will reign forever Your God, O Zion, to all generations, praise the Lord The psalmist learned to hope in God Over in Psalm 71, it says, In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge Let me never be ashamed in your righteousness, deliver me and rescue me Incline your ear to me and save me Be to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually come

You have given commandment to save me For you are my rock and my fortress Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the wrongdoer and ruthless man For you are my hope, O Lord God You are my confidence from my youth By you I have been sustained from my birth You are he who took me from my mother's womb My praise is continually of you Verse 14, As for me, I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more Romans chapter 14 Romans chapter 14, excuse me, chapter 15

Verse number 13, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit In other words, the Bible tells us that God is the God of hope Timothy tells us that Christ is our hope And in the book of Galatians, Paul tells us that the gospel is our hope Job lived in light of his hope in God And no matter how critical his friends were, he never lost his hope in God because his hope wasn't in his friends His hope wasn't in his wife His hope was in God So James says, You have heard of the endurance of Job

Yes, you know that he endured physical affliction You know that he endured pain immeasurable But he also endured constant criticism from his so-called friends And he endured it in a unique and special way The question is, how did he do that? Because we need to learn how Job endured If we're going to endure, right? So many times we just crumble under criticism We crumble under difficulties We crumble under things that we shouldn't crumble under But Job never did Yeah, he said some things that maybe we'll question at times But remember, God has nothing but good to say about Job at the end

So what is it about Job that caused him to endure not just the physical anguish but the misery he experienced from his friends? How could he do that? You know, you don't wake up one day and say, Today I'm going to endure through everything You don't wake up tomorrow and run a 26-mile marathon You'll die after 26 feet. I mean, I would. I wouldn't make it 26 feet alone, 26 miles, right? You've got to build up toward that It's like football You've got to endure all the way to the end Football is four quarters, not one quarter, right? So you train so you can endure through all four quarters

And it takes time to endure, to build up endurance Same is true spiritually You just don't wake up one day and endure affliction or endure criticism There has to be the groundwork that's been laid There has to be the cultivation of the spiritual muscles that will allow you to continue keeping on amidst all the affliction and persecution, amidst all the pain, all the disappointments How do you do that? How does somebody endure not just physical affliction, not just personal anguish, but relational misery because no one stands by you? Now, there was no one there to hold Job's hand

No one there was caressing his hand and maybe rubbing his bald head or putting their arm around him, mainly because his body was full of oozing, pus-filled sores, right? But there was no one there to give him any comfort whatsoever, which makes his endurance all the more marvelous because he didn't have a human support system He only had a divine support system But that's all he needed See, our problem is we think we need a human support system Now, it doesn't mean we don't support one another, encourage one another, pray for one another It doesn't mean we don't do those kind of things

It's just that you can't depend on those kind of things Job didn't depend on his friends He would depend solely upon God So let me give you three words, three words that I believe are critical to Job's endurance that help us understand how he could sit there and listen to Zophar, Bildad, Eliphaz, eventually Elihu, and never crumble under the criticism, but remain steadfast, strong, even though physically he was frail His inner spirit was strong Three words, right? Confidence, conviction, and commitment, okay? Job's endurance was rooted in his confidence in God That's where it was rooted

There was no self-confidence in Job It was all God-confidence He says later in the book of Job, Job chapter 31, If I have put my confidence in gold and called fine gold my trust, if I have gloated because my wealth was great and because my hand had secured so much, if I had looked at the sun when it shone or the moon going in splendor and my heart became secretly enticed and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, that too would have been an iniquity calling for judgment, for I would have denied God above Job did not put his confidence in his gold, and he had a lot of it He was a very wealthy man

He did not put his trust in anything outside of his God His confidence was in his God alone If we're ever going to endure, we must be solely confident in God himself and no one else And that's where Job was In fact, every great man of God in the Bible was confident in his God, whether it's the Apostle Paul, whether it's Daniel, whether it's Joseph, whether it's Peter, John They all had confidence in God Confidence in what? Not only God's activity, but God's ability Great confidence in God's activity as well as his ability

Paul said it this way, being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ That's how Paul defined it Paul says, I have this persuasion It's another word for confidence. I am confident of this very thing. I am confident of God's activity. I am confident of God's ability That is, I am confident of God's activity Being confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you God begins a good work in you It began in eternity past with predestination, right? Paul says it well in the book of Ephesians

Ephesians chapter 1, verse number 4, when he says, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love And then he says in verse 11, We have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will In other words, God who began a good work in you which deals with the realm of predestination and then when time and eternity intersect, I call upon the name of the Lord and I am saved

That good work just comes to be realized in my own life, the work of salvation as well as the work of justification and sanctification and conformation So ultimately there is this glorification of my body Paul was confident in the activity of God that what God began in you, he will complete it Job had that same confidence We know he's an upright man That is, he is right with God And the only way he can be right with God is because God declared him righteous God did the work So he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ

Not only in God's activity when it comes to His salvation, but God's ability when it comes to your sanctification He will complete the work In other words, God's already at work God's never not at work in your life He's always doing something to conform you to His image, to sanctify you, to set you apart, to make you holy, that you might serve Him in a way that honors and glorifies His great name So, like Paul, Job endured because his endurance was rooted in the confidence that he had in his God Did he understand all that God was doing? No Do you? No

We understand a lot more than Job did because we have the Bible We have all 66 books Job didn't have a Bible We can read theology books Job didn't have a theology book So, we have a lot more understanding of God and knowledge of God and the workings of God because we know Job chapter 1 Job didn't know that chapter He didn't understand the conversation going on in heaven between God and Satan We do But yet Job endured He was able to be steadfast and immovable because of his confidence in God Let me ask you a question

Where's your confidence this evening? Is it in your gold? Is it in your friendships, your family, your job? Where is your confidence? We can only be confident in God himself He's the only one we can count on He's the only one who's true to his word fully and completely He never reneges He's always there He never forsakes us He's always present with us He is our confidence So, when Paul defines what a believer is in Philippians chapter 3, verse number 3, he says that we are the marked ones We are the circumcision We are the ones that have been set apart by God

We are the ones who put no confidence in the flesh But we worship God in spirit and glory in Christ Jesus We have no confidence in anything of the flesh Our confidence is solely in God himself Salvation is the work of God Salvation is when God saves you and redeems you He calls you He moves you He conforms you He's going to bring everything about you to completion until the day of Christ Number two, not only was Job's endurance rooted in his confidence in God, but it was riveted by his conviction about God

He had a deep conviction about God. I told you early on that unless you understand Job chapter 1, you will never be able to live through anything like Job lives through Unless you understand Job chapter 1, you'll always crumble under pressure because Job chapter 1 is the crux to the book It tells us he was an upright, blameless, God-fearing man turning away from evil The character of Job is supreme And so that's Job's character But his ability to endure, yes, centers around that character because that character had a confidence in God, but it was riveted by a conviction about his God

And that conviction was that God was a holy God, a pure God That's why he would turn away from evil That's why in Job 31.1 he says, I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look immorally, unfaithfully upon a woman because he had a deep conviction about the holiness and purity of God That's why he was a blameless man because he knew that God called for blamelessness He knew that God called for purity of heart He knew that God called for a cleansing of the soul And he had a deep conviction about that He was so convicted about God's purity and God's holiness, he wanted to live to that standard

That was the standard So he can make a covenant with his eyes not to look lustfully upon another woman He would not trust in something outside of his God because everything was riveted by one conviction that he would not compromise And he didn't You know, every man of God in the Scriptures is the same way Daniel was that way, right? Daniel 1.8 But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank So he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself

He had a conviction that he would not defile himself And that conviction was based on the fact that his God was a holy God and he could not defile himself Well, the same was true with Job The same was true with Paul, Peter, John, all these Joseph, right? Joseph had confidence in his God He knew his God was going to be with him But he also had a conviction about the purity of his God, the holiness of his God So that would cause him to run away from Potiphar's wife when she tried to seduce him because he wanted to live a pure and holy life

That's a deep-rooted conviction that unfortunately a lot of people just don't have But Job did It caused him to endure all kinds of criticism, all kinds of adverse circumstances Later on in the book of Daniel, it says of Daniel, these words, and you know them well, Daniel chapter 6, verse number 3, then Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary kind of spirit His spirit was different than everybody else's spirit And the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom

And then the commissioners and satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs But they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption inasmuch as he was faithful and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him Well, not only was that true of Daniel, but it was true of Job That's why he was an upright, God-fearing, blameless man His conviction about God's holiness moved his life How about you? How convicted are you about the holiness of God, the purity of God? The Bible tells us that he's holy, holy, holy

It's a very important aspect of his character Everything stems from his holiness He is so separate from us, so different from us And Job understood that The Bible tells us in Psalm 15, these words, which makes Zophar's attack on Job's integrity just so wrong He didn't tell lies He wasn't boastful He didn't make untrue statements He wasn't a hypocrite Psalm 15, the Bible says, That's it And then it says in verse 15, at the end of verse number 6, he who does these things will never be shaken In other words, integrity causes you to endure and never be shaken Never be fearful Never turn away

You see, he had this deep, riveted conviction that God was holy, and because God was holy, he needed to be holy That's why the Bible says he was a blameless, upright, God-fearing man turning away from evil He was convicted concerning his own purity and his testimony that he would live for the glory and honor of his God

And so when you look at Job, and you realize that this man had supreme endurance, it's simply because of his confidence in his God and his conviction about the character and nature of his God, as well as his commitment to that God, to know him, to understand him, and to live for him Know what the book of Proverbs, the 24th chapter says, the 10th verse, if you are slack in the day of distress, your strength is small

Are you slack in the day of distress? Are you the kind of person who can't bear up under the pressure, whether it's verbal criticism, whether it's physical suffering? If that's the case, your strength is small It's not large, certainly not You won't endure, certainly not That's why Daniel says that those who know the God will display strength and take action Why is it Job could endure? Because he knew his God He was committed to knowing God He was committed to understanding God with not nearly the tools that you and I have today He was committed to knowing his God in a deep and intimate way

And he did The things he says about God shows us how stound his theology is As he talks about the greatness of God, the wonders works of God, Job knows those things But he didn't let it rest there He kept wanting to know, like the apostle Paul, all that I may, they know him in the fellowship of his sufferings Right? Paul says, I just want to know my God more and more and more And whether it's Daniel or whether it's Job or whether it's Peter or Paul or whoever it is, maybe they want to know their God Why? Because that commitment causes you to endure It causes you to stand strong, unfazed

When the Bible talks about Job fearing God, fearing God is the beginning of knowledge Right? Proverbs tells us that knowing God is equivalent to fearing God The knowledge of God is equivalent to fearing God If you fear God, you know God Why? Because you know he needs to be feared The more you know God, the more you're going to fear God There is forgiveness with thee, Psalm 130 verse number 4, that thou mayest be feared Why does God forgive you of your sins? That you might fear him Romans 3 tells us that there is no fear of God before the eye of the unbeliever They don't fear God

But Job feared God because he knew his God And the more you come to know God, the more you fear him And Job did So when the Bible says that he was an upright, God-fearing man who turned away from evil and was blameless, it's because he had a deep commitment to know his God And I wonder if that's your commitment How much do you really want to know God? You know, the Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 9, right? Let not the mighty man boast in his might, or the rich man boast in his riches, or the wise man boast in his riches But isn't it funny? We boast in all those things

Right? We love to boast in our might, our riches, our intellect We love to boast in those things And we all have this tendency, right? We can send our kid to junior college, or we can send our kid to Harvard. I want my kid to go to Harvard Why? Because in reality, I boast in wisdom But the Bible says let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. I can let my kid play at a Division III school, or let him play at a Division I school, and I can tell everybody he's on TV We boast in our abilities

See? I want my kid to go to a good school so he can get a good education, so he can be a lawyer or a doctor or somebody who makes a lot of money, because we boast in our riches We tend to lean that way, don't we? Yet the Bible says, but let him who boasts boast in this The word boast, the word glory means to be heavy, to be weighed down All right? The Old Testament word means to be heavy Why? Because the more riches you had, the heavier you were The more intellect you had, the heavier you were Right? And yet God says, I want you to be heavy in knowing me

Knowing me, because I'm the God who exercises loving kindness and mercy and justice. I want you to know me Is it wrong for your kid to go to Harvard? No Is it wrong for your kid to get a D1 scholarship? No Is it wrong for your kid to be a lawyer? No Those are all great things Nothing's wrong with them You just can't be heavy in those things You just can't boast in those things Glory in those things Be heavy in the knowledge of God Knowing God Coming to understand your God And that requires you knowing Him and fearing Him Listen to what the Bible says in Psalm 112

How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments Isn't that great? The man who greatly delights in His commandments is the one who fears God They're parallel statements If you're fearing God, you're delighting in God's commandments If you're not delighting in God's commandments, it's because you're not fearing God And then He says this, His descendants will be mighty on the earth The generation of the upright will be blessed For this man, verse 6, will never be shaken He'll never be shaken The righteous will be remembered forever He will not fear evil tidings

His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord His heart is upheld He will not fear Fear what? Fear what man would do to Him See, the man who fears God delights in the commandments of God because he's coming to know more and more about his God That kind of man's never shaken He never teeters He stands established and strong, see? And that's what we need today People like Job, who endured It's easy to endure when things are easy You know, someone said one time, there's two choices in life, the easy way and the right way, right? The easy way and the right way

We love to take the easy road because it's so cushy, so smooth, so we say But there's a right way to do things And usually that's the hardest way And Job was a man of great endurance. I marvel at that. I just can't understand and believe what I'm reading when I read the book of Job That when they criticize him, he didn't say anything until they're done And then he speaks, not to defend himself, but just to show them the reason of what's happening in his own mind, what's going on

But for him to sit there and endure criticism, to endure condemnation, to endure ridicule, when he's already in physical pain, when he's already in emotional pain, when he's already lost everything that he has, he has nothing to hold on to, right? And then the constant throughout all these accusations against him, one after another, after another, after another He sits there and listens And he endures all of it He is the Bible's greatest hero Bar none This man is heads and tails above everybody else because he was able to endure what others never did endure

Paul endured the affliction of his enemies His enemies spoke against him Job's friends spoke against him And you'd think that Job's friends were his enemies But he endured it all And my prayer for you and me is that we would be men and women of endurance, that we would understand our confidence is only in God That's it No one else and nothing else His ability to make sure that he brings us to a point where we look just like him Not only that, that we have this deep conviction about the character and nature of God, that He's a pure and holy God, and I am to be as holy as God Himself is holy

That I might then be committed to knowing Him every day more and more because I want to understand my God, that I might live to His glory and honor Let's pray Father, thank You, Lord, for tonight And thank You for the opportunity, as brief as it is, to look into the Word of God And our prayer, Father, is that we would be men and women who exemplify You Thank You for this man, Job, who understood You Did he grasp everything about You? No, he did not Did he understand why he was going through what he was going through? No, he didn't But he had great confidence in his God

That God was going to do something great When, where, how? He did not know But he never lost his faith He never, never backed away from his trust He hoped in his God My prayer for all of us, Lord, is that we would live that same kind of life Hoping solely on You for everything In Jesus' name, Amen.