In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the fear that Job had towards God and how Elihu claims to be speaking for God. He emphasizes that God does not want us to be terrified of Him, but rather to understand His message and learn from our trials and testing. Pastor Chuck encourages listeners to confess their sins and acknowledge that there is no profit in wrongdoing. He reminds them that God will deliver their souls from destruction and bring light into their lives if they turn to Him.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse by verse venture Through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be continuing with Elihu And his claim to be speaking for God As we turn in our Bibles to Job chapter 33 verse 7 And now with today's message Here's Pastor Chuck Smith Behold, my terror shall not make you afraid Now Job said he was terrified of God He didn't understand God And therefore he was terrified of God He says, look Job, you don't have to be terrified of me I will be here as God's counterpart And my terror shall not make you afraid Neither shall my hand be heavy upon you And Job had complained about the heavy hand of God upon his life Behold, surely you have spoken in my hearing I heard you say this, Job But he does not quote Job exactly He misquotes Job Or he takes inferences from what Job said And declares them as Job's words He's not really quoting in a verbatim way I have heard the voice of your words I've heard you say this, Job I've heard you say that I am clean without transgression I am innocent Job really didn't say that Job confessed that he had sinned Neither is there iniquity in me Now Job was saying, I've not done anything to deserve all that I am experiencing You've said, behold, God finds occasions against me And he counts me as his enemy Job did say words to that effect He puts my feet in the stocks And he marks all my paths Behold, in this you are not just You've been making statements that are wrong That you are innocent And that God has put your feet in the stocks And he's found occasions against you That is not right I will answer thee that God is greater than man And why do you strive against him For he giveth not account of any of his matters Job, God doesn't owe you any answers God doesn't have to give you an accounting of his ways This is very true Paul the apostle in talking of the sovereignty of God over man And using the figure of God as a potter And man as the clay that is formed by the potter That the clay has no power over its destiny The clay is in the hand of the potter And the potter has the power to make of that clay anything he wants He can make a spittoon Or he can make a vessel to carry water Or a vessel to hold food Or a vessel to hold flowers And that God has the sovereign power over man To make of me whatever he wants A vessel of honor or a vessel of dishonor And that the clay has no right to say to the potter Hey, why did you make me like this And so, this is the direction that Elohim is coming from with Job That God is greater than man And why do you strive against God? Because he doesn't have to give an account of any of his matters For God speaks once, yea, twice Yet man does not perceive it God often speaks to us in the situations of life But we don't see it, we don't perceive it So he speaks once, he speaks twice And yet a person doesn't perceive that God is seeking to speak to him He speaks to man in a dream or in a vision A vision of the night when deep sleep falleth upon man In the slumberings upon the bed And throughout the scripture, of course, we can find many places Where God spoke to men in dreams And during that time he opens the ears of men And he seals their instructions That he may withdraw man from his purpose And hide pride from man God deals with us in order that he might change us Change our direction We decide we're going to do something We plunge into it And God will put something, an obstacle in the path To turn us away from a path that maybe is destructive to us Change our purposes And to hide us from pride To keep us from being lifted up in pride He keeps back his soul from the pit God is actually protecting you From the destruction that awaits And he is keeping him from perishing by the sword I believe that the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord And he delights in his way And I do believe that God often keeps us from danger Through things that we often look at as irritating We come out to go someplace We jump in the car, we're a little late And we have a difficulty backing up And we hear this thump, thump, thump And lo and behold there's a flat tire Oh of all the times to have a flat tire Oh Lord, you know And so we change the tire And it takes us 10-15 minutes We get the tire changed But I happen to believe that God is possibly Sparing you from some accident on the freeway Here we are moaning and groaning about You know this delay that's forced upon us But yet God could be protecting us from something we don't even know And I've learned to look at interruptions this way As God sparing me from some kind of pit From some kind of danger And that his timing is perfect Now that surely changes your attitude Towards these kind of disturbances For when you consider that God may be in fact Keeping you from some kind of harm or danger You then don't curse the disturbance But you bless the Lord for the disturbance So if you look at it, well listen God knows and God's hand is on my life And God is guiding me And thank you Lord for being so gracious And caring so much And watching over me and keeping me So he withdraws man from his purpose He turns us many times from the path that we are on He keeps back his soul from the pit His life from perishing by the sword He is chastened, man is also chastened with pain Upon his bed and the multitude of his bones With strong pain God sometimes uses pain For his purposes of instruction in our lives So that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat You can be so sick that you just don't want anything to eat And man's flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen Through the prolonged illness he becomes like a skeleton His bones are now sticking out His flesh is over his bones like a tight drum almost And of course you see a person whose bones are sticking out You know they're sick Yea his soul draweth near unto the grave And his life to the destroyers But God is seeking to get a message across to man through these things Brings him right down to the grave many times Almost to the point of death But if there be an angel with him Who can interpret for him the things of God What God is seeking to say One among a thousand to show unto man his uprightness Then he is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransom So if the man is corrected someone can point out What God is seeking to say to the man And the man's path is corrected He can be saved He can be ransomed And he is restored His flesh shall be fresher than a child's Job you know if you just learn What God is seeking to teach you through this And I'm going to be the one that's going to teach you what God is trying to teach you You know I'm the interpreter for you I am the angel who's going to help you in this matter And then his flesh shall be fresher than a child's He shall return to the days of his youth You'll be restored again And he shall pray unto God And he will be favorable unto him And he shall see his face with joy For he will render unto man his righteousness And so again the idea is learn the lessons God is trying to stop you from something He's trying to turn your back Learn what God is seeking to say And you'll be restored Back to health He looketh upon man and he say I have sinned and perverted That which was right and it profited me not He will deliver his soul from going into the pit And his life shall see the light That is If you will confess Look I was wrong I sinned But there was no profit in that sin I wasn't profited by what I did I cheated but it only made matters worse Or I lied and it just compounded the whole problem I sinned and it was not a profit to me There are people who think that They have profited by their sin But this man has made the confession And he said God will deliver his soul from going into the pit His life shall see the light I know that God often times he says works with man this way To bring back his soul from the pit To be enlightened with the light of the living Mark well oh Job and hearken unto me Hold thy peace and I'll speak Now at this point Job probably started to answer this kid He saw that Job was getting ready to respond to him So he said wait a minute keep your mouth shut Let me finish is basically what he is saying Mark well oh Job hearken unto me Hold your peace let me speak now You know you had your turn let me have my turn Let me speak And then he probably felt bad for Job being The older man and all and so he said Now if you do have anything to say Go ahead and answer me Speak for I desire to justify you And so first of all he told Job Just be quiet wait let me speak And then he felt better about the thing Or felt wiser about it Well if you have anything to say go ahead But I'm really wanting to get the answers for you And if not If you're not going to speak And probably he gave Job He probably was quiet for a minute Job probably just shrugged it off So he said ok if not then listen to me Hold your peace and I'm going to teach you wisdom This kid he's pretty brash So Elihu now turns from addressing Job And addresses the friends of Job And he said hear my words oh ye wise men Give ear unto me You that have knowledge For the ear trieth words as the mouth tasteth meat Interesting kind of a thought As your mouth is able to taste and Discern the various tastes and enjoy some And find some rather sour and some bitter So the ear there are words that are sweet There are words that are bitter And so the sensory perceptions that we have Both from the mouth and from the ear The ear acts in a similar kind of a way In that it weighs the words that are said As the mouth tastes the meat And the ears the words Let us choose to us judgment Let us know among ourselves what is good For Job has said I am righteous And God takes away my judgment That's what Job has said Should I lie against my right Job said this He said you guys are wanting me to confess my sin And I maintain that I am innocent And if I confess to a guilt in this I wouldn't be telling the truth So should I lie against my right You want me to lie and say that I am wrong Have you ever been in that I have been in that position when Pearson is insisting That you know you're not telling them the truth And I've said this sometimes I say hey you want me to lie would you feel better If I just lie about it and tell you Yeah that's what I was thinking That make you feel better And so Job pretty much said Should I lie against what is right Job said my wound is incurable Without transgression I've been wounded incurably And yet I'm not guilty of the transgression And so these are the things that Job had been maintaining His righteousness That God had taken away his judgment That if he confessed to some guilt He would be lying against the truth That his wound is incurable And he said what man is like Job Who drinks up the scorning like water I mean you guys have been scorning this guy And he's just been drinking it down like water I mean you haven't been able to affect him Who is like Job Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity And walks with wicked men For he said it profits a man nothing That he should delight himself with God Job really didn't say that But this is an inference from the things that Job did say This is something though That the psalmist did say in Psalm 73 As he was trying to understand Why the ungodly prospered And he was suffering When he sought to follow after God He said I have cleansed my hands in innocency I've washed my hands in innocence It doesn't pay To try and serve God And this is what he is accusing Job of saying It profits a man nothing That he should delight himself in God Job didn't say that and of course that is not true There is tremendous profit in delighting yourself in the Lord Delight yourself also in the Lord He will give you the desires of your heart Therefore he said hearken unto me you men of understanding Far be it from God That he should do wickedness And from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity For the work of a man shall he render unto him And cause every man to find according to his ways God gives to a man that which he deserves As a man sows that shall he also reap Yea surely God will not do wickedly Neither will the Almighty pervert judgment Abraham said shall not the Lord of the earth be just And Elohu is making the same kind of a claim which is correct God is absolutely fair He will not pervert judgment Who hath given him a charge over the earth Or who hath disposed the whole world If he set his heart upon man If he gathers unto himself his spirit and his breath All flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again into dust All God would have to do is just withdraw From man and it would be over If God should withdraw His spirit his breath we would perish together We would turn again to dust Now he is saying to these fellows if you guys have understanding Listen to this Hearken to the voice of my words Shall even he that hateth right govern And will you condemn him that is most just Job he said is condemning God Saying that God isn't fair But he said is it fit to say to a king that you are wicked And to princes you are ungodly I mean would you dare say that to the king you're a wicked man If you wouldn't say that to a king or a prince How much less to him That does not even accept the persons of princes Nor regards the rich more than the poor God is so far above man That God doesn't accept The rich more than the poor Or the persons of princes You are just as important to God as the Pope As the president In God's eyes you're just as important to God As anyone else But lest you be puffed up That native in New Guinea dancing nude around the fire In the full moon is just as important to God as you are God doesn't respect a person's position in life He's high above it He doesn't regard the rich more than the poor These are characteristics of man In giving deference to the rich But not so with God We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the Bible In our next lesson As Elihu continues to declare that God is just And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you that If you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again 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Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station With your correspondence And now on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse-by-verse study Through the book of Job That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today Now once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith with today's closing comments Again we pray God's blessings upon you through this week As you walk in fellowship with the Lord There is a testing and a trial often of our faith But God is faithful And will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are capable of bearing And will with the temptation provide the way of escape God bless you and give you a beautiful week Walking in fellowship with Him Filled with His Spirit Growing in grace and in knowledge Of His love for you Looking for direction and understanding Our world values knowledge But people don't always strive to know the most important things The truth is You may be extremely knowledgeable about something But if you don't have the wisdom of God You're missing the most important knowledge a person can ever hope to attain Join the tens of thousands who have benefited from reading Pastor Chuck's devotional, Wisdom for Today Which takes you systematically through the entire Bible One day at a time Start each day with biblical wisdom As Pastor Chuck gives practical everyday examples In which to draw God's wisdom from your daily life To order your copy of Wisdom for Today A leather hardback for yourself or for a loved one Please call The Word for Today at 1-800-272-9673 Or visit us online for more information And to read a preview at thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California