 Job chapter 11. We'll look at the chapter today. We'll begin at verse one, read to verse four, and get into our study. Beginning at verse one, Job chapter 11, then, so far, the Namathite answered and said, should not the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk be vindicated? Should your empty talk make men hold their peace? And when you mock, should no one rebuke you? For you have said, my doctrine is pure, and I am clean in your eyes. Well, Job has been making a statement. We already saw how he had begun. He had stated in chapter 10 that he was making a complaint to God. And in chapter 10, we saw last time we were together how that this man had spoken of the bitterness of his soul. And he had asked God, as he was contending with him, he asked God, why? Why is this happening? So as he was doing so, as we saw, he tried to reason with God by giving vent to his frustration and by asking questions. It is good. Is it good to oppress and despise the work of your hand? Does not your ability to know all things reveal to you that I'm innocent? This is what he was saying. You fashioned me with your hands, but you would destroy me? I don't know why. What have I done to deserve this? I'm simply a miserable man. I am unrighteous. I'm filled with disgrace. He went on to say, why did you survive? Let me survive childbirth. Leave me alone. I'm in such need of comfort. Please, God, just let me die because I can't take any more of this pain. And that's what he's been saying. He's been pouring out the complaint of his heart. He was speaking, as he said in verse 1 of chapter 10, of the bitterness of his soul. And that's what we received him to last time we're together. He was complaining. He is speaking. He was wanting God just to let him die. He was saying, I can't take this anymore. The pain that he was going through is unimaginable. Nobody in this room, beginning with me, could understand the kind of pain that he went through. We can't understand that. But he was in such great pain. He was saying, why was I even born? I should have died in my mother's womb. I should have died when I was born. Why did I go through all of this? And so he's complaining and crying after God. And as he's complaining in verse 1 of chapter 11, a man by the name of Zophar begins to speak to him. Now he's one of his miserable comforters, if you will. And as you look at this, man, you're going to see that his words are filled with a lack of understanding and a lack of compassion. A lack of compassion. One of the scriptures that I have in my heart that reminds me of the God that we serve is simply when the scripture tells us that Jesus saw a multitude and his heart was filled with compassion for them. Well, this man doesn't have compassion. He's an interesting man. We've already seen Ali Hu and Bill Dad speak. This is the third who's speaking so far. Because he is third to speak, if you take notes, you might want to note this. He's more than likely the younger of the three men who are speaking. But he's more passionate. And as he's been listening to the conversations with Ali Hu and Bill Dad and the response of Job to the things that they're saying, it has obviously caused him to become a bit irritated. Now, we know that when we looked at Aliphaz, Aliphaz was a spiritually minded man. As we went through some of the things he had to say, let me refresh your memory. He spoke of visions of the night. He spoke of revelation in Job 4 verses 12 and 13. He said, now a word was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it in disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night when deep sleep falls on me. So we see him and know him as a man who is given over to visions of the night and all, very spiritually minded man. Then we were introduced to Bill Dad. Bill Dad was more representative of one who holds fast to tradition and one who holds fast to authority. Remember how he in chapter 8 verse 8 had said, inquire please of the former age. Consider the things discovered by their fathers, for we were born yesterday. Know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words from their heart? So on one hand, we had a kind of a mystic, a man who spoke of visions. And on the other hand, we have a man who holds fast to tradition and authority. And so so far is a man who argues from what you would call a common sense perspective. He doesn't like Job complaining. He's basically going to tell him, why don't you just be quiet? Why don't you close your mouth? He's saying, shut your mouth, quit complaining. After all, Job, you deserve everything that you're going through. And so we get an opportunity to see somebody else who doesn't know how to minister to those who are hurting. We get the chance to see Zophar the Namathite. And so in verse 2 he says, should not the multitude of words be answered and should a man full of talk be vindicated? So he begins in this loving, caring way. Job, you love hearing yourself talk. In fact, you're getting less than you deserve. You've been speaking for a long time, but your words have no weight to them. Now when he speaks of a multitude of words, you use a multitude of words, the words that phrased a multitude of words very often in Scripture speaks of folly or speaks of sin. Ecclesiastes 5.3, for example, says a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. In Proverbs 10, verse 19, it says in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. So when this phrase a multitude of words is used, it very often will speak of folly or it can speak of sin. And so he's saying that, and he's basically inferring that you are foolish and sinful. And he says in verse 2, should a man full of talk be vindicated? In other words, should we by our silence seem to be approving the things that you're saying? Do you think that because you talk so much that this means you're right? Just because you're opening your mouth and speaking so much, do you think that that makes you automatically right? Just because I haven't responded and just because nobody has really been able to defeat what you're saying doesn't mean that you're correct. He says in verse 3, should your empty talk make men hold their peace? And when you mock, should no one rebuke you? Empty talk. Empty talk in the Hebrew can also be translated lies, should your lies, but it can also speak of that which is improper, what is called improper speech or vain talk. So you can say that he is saying, should your vain ramblings cause everyone to remain silent and not respond? All right, I get it. You're in pain. You've lost everything. You've made your complaint to God. You've been speaking with a lot of words. I guess you assume that we ought to just be quiet and let you speak as if you're right. That's his attitude, but you're not right. You see, by complaining that God is unfair, you're actually speaking against him. Isaiah 45 verse 9 says, woe to him who strives with his maker. Let the potsard strive with the potsards of the earth. Shall the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making? Or shall your handiwork say he has no hands? Are you saying that the potter doesn't have the right to form the pot in any way he wants? How dare you take the place of God and proclaim that you're right and even complain to him? You've even gone so far as to ask God to show you why he's contending with you because in verse 4 it says you have said my doctrine is pure and I'm cleaning your eyes. You say my doctrine is pure. My way of life is proper. I've done no wrong. How dare you do that? Even questioning God, why are you condemning me? Why do you contend with me? That's a wrong attitude and that's what he's doing. He's bringing correction to him for the things that he said. He says in verse 5, but oh that God would speak and open his lips against you. I wish God would just show up and take you at your challenge. I wish that he would just show up. You want to complain against him? Well, I wish that he would be standing before you right now. See all the compassion. It even gets better. In verse 6, that he would show you the secrets of wisdom, for they would double your prudence, know therefore that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves. The secrets of God's wisdom is far deeper than you can ever fathom. His wisdom is complicated. It's beyond our ability to understand and most certainly beyond our ability to explain. He's saying, Job, you need to remember that God's wisdom and the secrets that God has are so far beyond you. His wisdom exceeds your understanding. It exceeds your good judgment. It exceeds your ability to live life in a practical way. You don't understand how deep God is. That reminded me as I was studying this of Romans chapter 11 verse 33 where Paul had said, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. Who are you to argue against God, Job? Who are you to complain against God? Who are you to question his decisions? His wisdom is past finding out. You're just a human being. He's God Almighty. You have limited understanding. He has all understanding. Why hasn't that dawned on you so that you have taken upon yourself, you're saying, to call into question the works of God? And then he hammers him in verse 6 by simply saying, know therefore that God exacts from you, less than your iniquity deserves. You're not even getting it as badly as you deserve it. Even when he's punishing you, you get less than you should. Now briefly, much of what he's saying is right. Much of what he's saying in its right context is true. This is something that others have said in the book of Ezra in chapter 9 verse 13. Ezra prayed and Ezra said, after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such deliverance as this. You have punished us less than our iniquities deserve. Well, he's basically simply saying, and again, he's assuming that Job is in sin and thus receiving what he deserves. He's saying, you ought to get it worse than you're getting it, Job. Don't you have any humility at all? Can't you understand this? And then he goes on in verse 7. Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? Are you able to do that? Can you discover the depth of his wisdom? Job, can you give me an explanation, give me the reasons why he does what he does? Do you really think you're capable of understanding his ways? Do you really think that you're capable of knowing all that God knows and thus you can correct him for what he's doing? In the Psalms, in Psalm 145, verse 3, it says, great is the Lord and greatly do be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. So you cannot search out these deep things of God. You cannot find the limits of the Almighty. He's so far beyond you. Don't you understand that? In verse 8, they're higher than heaven. What can you do deeper than Sheol? What can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. So he speaks of that which is higher, that which is deeper. And so far as making a simple point, he's saying, God's wisdom is above any human's ability to reach and deeper than any man could ever really know. In Isaiah 55, 8, and 9, it says, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. You know, it's interesting. I'll speak about this for just a moment. The fact is, and this is, this is true, what he's saying here, by the way, the fact is, if God didn't reveal himself to us, we could never know him. If God didn't make himself known to us, we could never know him. Isaiah 45, 15 says it like this, truly you are God who hide yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior. If God determined to not reveal himself to us by searching, we could never find him out. You go all the way to the book of Genesis, guys, and you begin to read concerning our first parents, Adam and Eve. And you see how the serpent enters into the garden there, and Eve begins to dialogue with the serpent. And in the conversation, the serpent presents to her a temptation to take of the fruit that has been forbidden. And the scripture very plainly says, says that she took it, she did eat of it, and gave it to her husband, and he also ate of it. And their eyes at that time become open, and through experience, they understand what sin is. And what was their brilliant plan, their strategy? Well, they decided to hide from God by putting fig leaves on, to hide their nakedness. I don't know, have you guys ever, my grandmother had fig trees, and we would, when we were little kids, we would climb in the fig trees and we would hide in the fig trees. And I found out something about fig leaves. They're very itchy. So when I picture Adam running around with a fig leaf, that was not the smartest thing you could do with a fig leaf. But they're hiding. They're thinking that they can create something that will block their sin from God's sight. And God begins to speak to them. We all know the story, and the scripture says that the Lord was there in the garden, and he called out to Adam. And he said, Adam, where are you? And Adam answers him. And he says, you know, we were naked. So we hid ourselves. And God says to him, who told you you were naked? And he goes into the confession. Well, you know, the serpent, you know that woman you gave me? I don't want to call into question your wisdom, God, but she's a bad one. No. When you look at that story, though, it was not Adam searching for God. Why? Because sin had made a separation. It was Adam hiding from God. Our sin makes a separation. And what we end up doing, even when we think we're doing well, is we're actually hiding from. So we sow our own fig leaves, good works, religious behavior, various things that we think get us brownie points in heaven. But God has to speak because God is the one who searches out and it's God who reveals himself. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each has turned into his own way. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all, Isaiah tells us in chapter 53. What we have is a seeking God. We all have sinful, short of the glory of God. There's none who does that which is right. No, not a single one. All of our righteousness is as filthy rags, Isaiah tells us in the sight of God. They're like lepers' cloths that with this, the pus that would be emitted from the second arm and the various things that would ooze out. We are like lepers' cloths. That's our righteousness in comparison to the spotless righteousness of God. So if God does not reveal himself to us, guys, and this is where we ought to be really so blessed, if God did not reveal himself to us, we could never know him by searching. We would not find him. His ways are past finding out. He is beyond us. Truly thou art the God that hideth thyself, Isaiah says. You are a God that is distant from us. And so what God has done and this is the heart of Christianity is he took upon himself human flesh. He dwelt amongst men and John said, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten Son of God. He revealed himself to me. He showed himself to us. You see, Job had cried out, oh, that I had a mediator. Oh, that I had someone who could plead my case for me. Well, that's why we need Jesus, our mediator. You see, Jesus knows the Father. He knows all of the Father because he himself is God in the flesh. And he reveals the Father to us. In Matthew in chapter 11, verse 27, he said, all things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Remember, there was a time in chapter 14 of the Gospel of John, one of Jesus's disciples, a man by the name of Philip, is mentioned there. And do you remember when Philip said to Jesus, show us the Father, show us the Father, and that will be sufficient for us. Show us the Father. Jesus show us because Jesus had been speaking and he had just said, I am the way, the truth in life. No man comes to the Father but by me. And then Philip there says, show us the Father, and it'll be enough. Show us the Father. Reveal God to us. And Jesus responds to him. It's a beautiful response. It's found in John 14.9 where he says, have I been with you so long, and yet you've not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say show us the Father unless God reveals himself to you? You cannot know him. He reveals himself through the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And he has revealed himself by taking upon himself human flesh, came and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld his glory. When Paul was writing to the church in Colossae, in chapter 2, verse 9, Paul said, speaking of Jesus, in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Jesus is the incarnate God. And that's how we know him. No, we cannot on our own search out the deep things of God. No, we cannot find out the limits of the Almighty. As he said, they're higher than heaven. What can you do deeper than hell itself than shale? What can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. There's no way that we in and of ourselves as a point that is being made could ever know him because he's beyond anything that we as human beings could ever fathom. Our sin is made a separation between God and ourselves. We need a mediator. He says in verse 10, if he passes by in prisons and gathers to judgment, who can hinder him? This is interesting. When I read the words passes by, I thought, what does that mean? So I looked it up to see what the literal translation of that phrase passes by because it says passes by in prisons and gathers to judgment. So how does that work? So the words passes by. It carries with it the thought of rushing something that's moving quickly. And the thought is it's making rushing to arrest someone to rush after them in order that and that makes sense here. If he rush, if he passes by, if he rushes to arrest, then in prisons and then gathers to judgment, who can hinder him is the point he's making. God rushes to arrest. He's saying God in prisons and God judges. And when he decides to do that, who can stop him? God is righteous. God knows all things. God knows the details of the crime. And God is going to judge properly. And because he has a righteous judgment, who can argue with him and who can plead their case and who could prove him wrong? Who can resist God is what he's saying. No one can deliver a criminal from his hands. In Isaiah 43 verse 13, it reads, Yes, and from ancient days I am he, no one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it? It says in verse 11, he knows deceitful men. He sees wickedness also. Men do not know God or very little of him. They can't judge his ways and they can't determine his purposes. Though men cannot judge him, he knows everything about men and he can judge them. He sees wickedness and will he not consider it? In other words, he sees what is wicked and he punishes it. God, he's saying, sees not only the action, but he also knows what motivated that. He knows the secrets hidden within the heart. Job, you don't have the capacity to do that. And because you're incapable of seeing anything other than outside behavior and you don't know a man's hearts and you don't know the things that go on within him, you need to stop arguing with God. You see, God knows everything about us. When I was reading this today and preparing this study, I thought of John chapter 2 verses 23 through 25 because it says, when he was in Jerusalem, speaking of Jesus at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of man for he knew what was in man. You know, that ought to cause people like me and us pause for a moment because, listen, he knows you. He knows when you sit down, like the Psalmist in Psalm 139 says, and he knows when you rise up. He knows the words that you're about to speak before they're even formed on your tongue. I was taught that when I was seven years old. God is omniscient. He knows everything. And I was a logical kid. I've always had a bit of a logical bent. So when our my catechism teacher taught us, God knows everything and God knows the words before they're formed on your tongue. For a while, true story, when I was seven years old, I would go to bed at night and I had been taught to say my nightly prayers. And I still remember doing this. I would lay my head on my pillow and I'd pray because you're supposed to. And I said, God, I learned that you know everything. And because you know everything, that means you would know what I would pray tonight if I were to pray and seeing that you already know what I would pray if I was going to pray. Good night. That made sense to me because if you already knew it, why would I repeat something you're already aware of, right? I'm being rude. But the Bible makes it very clear that he knows, you know, he knows everything about you. That isn't something that should scare us, by the way. That speaks of intimacy. That speaks of awareness. The thing that ought to cause us to real is when I add to that, he knows everything about me and he still loves me anyway. Now, that to me is amazing because we have a tendency of trying to be the best that we can to win the love of somebody, don't we? You have an opportunity to go out on a date. This comes from both men and women, both do the same thing. On the first date, if you have some kind of an interest in that person, what do you do? Do you show them what you're really like? No, if you're a man, you shave. You even take a bath, even though it's only Friday. Put on clean socks and everything. I mean, you go all out, even coming here. You're very polite. Open the door. Try to get to know one another. Do you tell them all the secrets? Do you tell them everything about you? Do you say, oh, by the way, I was arrested four times for this? No, no, no. You were the president of the high school. You were on the track team. Yeah, I was very fast. Yeah, when you were running from the cops. Now you put your best face on, right? And then you share with them as much as you want them to know about you over time. Sometimes you don't tell them everything. You can be with them 30, 40 years in marriage and still they don't really know your real story. It's a fact. They don't know your real story. They only know what you trusted them with. And sometimes some guys who have hidden their past from their wife are afraid that someday she may find those secrets. And he's afraid that she may not love him anymore because she really doesn't know the true guy that he was, even though he may be different right now. But guess what? God knows everything about you. He knows everything about you. There's not a single thing you've ever done. That's that such, that causes me to wonder. But he does. He knows everything I've ever done. Every word I've ever spoken, even the words that will come from my mouth tomorrow next week or next year. He already knows those two. He knows the things that I wouldn't want anybody to know about me. He knows those things. And he loves me anyway. He loves you anyway. Have you allowed him to love you anyway? You know, because you can try real hard even before God to hide what you really are. But when you finally say to him, God, this is who I am, I'm worse than I pretend, but you know everything about me. There's a freedom in that. There's a freedom I've experienced in that. He knows you and he still loves you. And that's something that causes me great joy. The God that I worship knows me and he still loves me because that's the God of the Bible. In verse 12 it says, for an empty-headed man will be wise when a wild donkey cold is born of a man. That's a little sarcasm there. An empty-headed man is a man by nature who is ignorant of God in his way. He's an empty-headed man. It's a foolish man. And so man by nature being ignorant of God in his ways means that he's devoid of wisdom and understanding of the Lord. Again, Paul made that clear when he was writing to the Romans. He said that when someone's not born again, they don't understand the ways of God. In Romans 8 verses five through eight, Paul said, those who live according to the sinful nature have their mindset on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their mindset on what the spirit desires. He goes on to say, the mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. We are by nature before we're born again rebels in rebellion against the king of the universe, is what the Bible teaches. And as I've said so many times in various ways, if God says, go to the left, our nature says, no, I want to go to the right. If God says, stop, our nature says, no, I want to continue to go. If God says it's up there, we say, no, it's down there. If God says that's bitter, we say, no, that's sweet. That's what we do. We argue with God constantly. The unregenerate mind, the mind that hasn't been set free by the spirit of God hasn't been washed by the blood of Christ that is prone to doing that, which pleases itself, the flesh. Well, we can't know God because we're in rebellion against him. An empty-headed man is going to be wise when a wild donkey is cold as born a man. He's saying it's not your nature to have wisdom any more than it's the nature of a human being to give birth to or be given birth by an animal. It doesn't happen that way. And so we need to be born again. He continues, verse 13. If you would prepare your heart and stretch out your hands towards him, if iniquity were in your hand and you put it far away and would not let wickedness dwell in your tents, then surely you could lift up your face without spot. Yes, you could be steadfast and not fear because you would forget your misery and remember it as waters that have passed away. Your life would be brighter than noon day, though you were dark, you would be like the morning and you would be secure because there's hope. Yes, you would dig around you and take your rest in safety. You would also lie down and no one would make you afraid. Yes, many would court your favor, but the eyes of the wicked will fail and they shall not escape in their hope, loss of life. Even a stubborn man may be reclaimed if he repents is the point he's making. Listen, all you need to do is confess that you've sinned and if you confess, you'll be forgiven and you'll be healed. He says in verse 13, if you would prepare your heart and stretch out your hands towards him, so so far is convinced that Job is guilty of sin and has been punished for his sin by God. He said, God knows deceitful men. God sees wickedness also. He told Job that he was without wisdom. He didn't understand the ways of God and because of this, he believes that Job is in sin and therefore he's giving Job an invitation. Job, listen, you need to seek God and when you do, God will once again bless you. You see, to Zophar, it's obvious that Job is reaping what he's sown. Job, you need to repent. So in verse 13, he's telling Job, don't argue with God. Recognize your sin. Turn from it. You need to repent. Prepare your heart. Stretch out your hands to him. Now that phrase stretch out your hand in verse 13 is an interesting thing. To stretch out your hand is a picture of surrendering to him. Surrender. It's also a picture of surrendering and begging, making your supplication. It's like what it says in Ezra 9, verse 5, at the time of the sacrifice, I stood up from where I had sat in mourning with my clothes torn. I fell to my knees and lifted my hands to the Lord, my God. It's a picture of repentance and surrendering. That's what he's saying here. If you would prepare your heart, you need to repent. Stretch out your hands. Ask God for help. That's what he's saying. If you don't turn from your sin, it will have a foothold in your life, Job. Well, in that, that observation in general, by the way, would make Zophar right. He's right about that. If you don't turn from sin, it does have a foothold in your life. Here's something that I don't say often enough, so I'll say it now. Sometimes, listen carefully because I don't want to say this wrong, and hopefully I won't, but sometimes we can speak of sin and actually lessen the depth of evil that it really is because our desire is to recover people, and thus we don't want to say sin is as terrible as it is sometimes. But if you're ever going to be set free from sin, guys, and some of us in this room perhaps have been hedged about to be setting sin, this is what the Bible teaches. Sin needs to be dealt with harshly. Harshly. It needs to be completely obliterated in your life. In Romans 8.13, if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Sometimes Christians get the mistaken belief that sins, well, some sins are more like pets. The things we want to keep around because after all these happen to be our pet sins, the things that we like. I don't do these ugly ones that I used to do, but every once in a while I don't mind doing this particular one. So we basically allow it to continue living in us unaware of the fact that if you keep feeding it, it eventually works to destroy. That's what it does. It works to destroy you. Like the woman who found a baby raccoon and brought the raccoon into the house. And it was a baby, so she gave it a bottle of milk and fed it like it was a cat or a puppy. And every day she would play with it. Every day she pet it. Every day she loved it. She take it with her place and put it in the purse and go places. As it was growing and started to mature, it got bigger and bigger. And then one day she is there on the couch and she went up and did what she'd been doing for so long. She put her face next to it to greet it. And they have these claws on them. And it reached up and ripped her face. Just ripped her face, tore her face because she thought that she could domesticate a wild thing. Eventually what happened is that what she loved and cared for and nurtured harmed her. And your sin does the same thing and even worse. You don't keep sin as a pet. You don't make an excuse for it. You don't say, well, it's just the way my family is. Or that's just the way we are. That's the way my culture is or whatever. Because we can find various things that we use as excuses. Now the Bible says you mortify the deeds of the flesh. You put those things to death. In Colossians, Paul said it like this in chapter three, verses five through eight. He said, put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Then he begins to list some things. Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways. In the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these, anger, rage, mellus, slander, filthy language from your lips. Sin is to be dealt with. It's to be obliterated. It's to be put to death. It's to be turned away from. So you don't hold fast to it. You put it to death. You die to it on a daily basis. Prepare your heart. Stretch out your hands toward him. Surrender to God. Verse 14, if iniquity were in your hand and you put it far away and would not let wickedness dwell in your tents, then surely you could lift up your face without spot. Yes, you could be steadfast and not fear because you would forget your misery and remember it as waters that have passed away. Your life would be brighter than noon day, though you were dark, you would be like morning. So he continues on and he speaks concerning the things that should be put away. If iniquity were in your hand, put it far from you. Like other men, so far is certain that Job has brought all of this upon himself. Like the other guy said, you see righteous people in his mind don't go through this kind of suffering. So in verse 14, if iniquity were in your hand and you put it far away, in other words, if you were rich because you dealt him properly with people, well, confess that and repent. If you oppressed the poor, you got rich by injustice, did business sinfully, you need to repent. In verse 15, then surely you could lift up your face without spot. You can have joy, you can have purity, you can have a righteous boldness and a confidence if you get rid of this sin. You see, obviously this is in contrast to the disfigured and pain filled face that Job now has. So put away your sin so you can once again have a bright smile. Job had just said he could put off his sad face and wear a smile, but it would be fake for him to do that. Well, Zophar says, if he repents from his heart, then he'll have a smile that's for real. It's like what it says in Psalm 32. One, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. In verse 15, he said, this will result in you being steadfast. Steadfast speaks of, it's actually a word that speaks of molten metals being poured into a mold and becoming combined and solid. Instead of being in doubt, he's saying you will be firm and fixed. You'll be unwavering, like it promises in Proverbs 28.1 where it says, the wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. He's saying you'll be steadfast. Verse 16, you would forget your misery. It's be like waters that have passed by. If you do this, your happiness will be so great. It'll be so great, you'll never remember your pain. So repent, put away this sin. You can be healed. Your pain will come to an end. The blessings will be so immense, it'll wipe out every memory you have of pain. In verse 17, your life will be brighter than noon day. The rest of your life is going to be more bright than the sun or even the moon. Your life is going to be like a beautiful sunlit morning. Isn't that a beautiful promise to him? You're talking to a guy who's scraping his sores, whose disfigurement has been mocked, he's been ridiculed. And he's saying, I need to do a say, I'm sorry. And all of this is going to go away. Everything's going to be lovely. In verse 18, he says you would be secure because there's hope. Yes, you would dig around you and take your rest. It's safety. The rest of your life will be great. Your mind will be at peace. It'll be free from the fear and terror because your sin made a separation, Job. Now you can have a relationship with God. You can have hope in him. It's like what it says in Psalm 73, 18 and 19 where the Psalmist said, surely you set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with tears. Your mind will be at peace and you will be free from terror because your hope is in God. He says you will dig around you and take your rest in safety. That's an interesting phrase that could speak of preparing a place for your tent or it could even speak of digging a well. Either way, it speaks of security as well as provision. He says in verse 19, you would also lie down and no one would make you afraid. Yes, many would court your favor. That's an interesting thing to say. You see God in Psalm 48, in Psalm 4 verse 8, it is said of God, I will both lie down in peace when I'm right with him. I will both lie down in peace and sleep for you alone. Oh Lord, make me dwell in safety. You're going to have peace and you have the ability to rest, Job, if you confess. Notice how he says, many will court your favor. Your repentance and restoration will open the door for people to come to you once again for advice. Your honor is going to be restored to you, but you need to repent. And then he finally says, but the eyes of the wicked will fail and they shall not escape in their hope, loss of life. The eyes of the wicked are looking for help, but we'll never see it come their way. Their hope will leave them, even as their final breath leaves their body. Their hope is going to go like their final breath. Well, you know here, let's close with a couple of thoughts. Much of what he is saying is true, but the problem is Job didn't do what so far says he did. Job had not consciously sinned. They're giving him advice, a prescription, if you will, for a healing, for an illness that at that time he really wasn't sick with. You see the way Job's friends thought at that time is still common today. Be very careful, if I might close with the word of encouragement and advice, be very careful. The church needs to learn this, especially some of my Facebook friends who furiously post advice. I can almost picture them pounding away at their keyboard with a halo over their head as they give advice of things that they've never encountered. One of the wisest things you can learn to do seriously is you can learn to weep with those who weep. You can learn to just sit quietly and let them be who they are right now, not that you want them to stay there because you don't. But when you go about, when a person goes about accusing somebody of sinning simply because the circumstances surrounding them seems to make sense that they did, that's what's taking place with these men. Elihu and Zophar and Bildad, they all are accusing Job of one thing, you have sinned. You're reaping what you've sown. It's the best thing you can do is to listen to somebody and ask God, give me understanding because I don't want to come on like a self-righteous judge, Lord. And I don't want to give them a word of healing when they're not ready to receive it. So give me the wisdom to listen and to listen, Lord, with your heart. Read the words of Jesus, spend time looking at how he ministered to the sinner. And as you see him speak, there are so many times you see his love and his compassion. He never gives them a reason to continue in sin. He never gives them permission to remain in sin. And these are sinners he's speaking to. But he seems to have saved or reserved his greatest irritation towards the religious people that seemed to think they had it all together and other people didn't. We're living in a time in the church where we're quick to give the remedy but we're not so quick to have compassion on the one who's suffering. Sometimes we get frustrated, I understand that. And sometimes we give advice and they don't seem to listen and we just think, my goodness, and I just got nothing else to say. But I discovered and I have continued to discover that one of the things that makes somebody a healing agent in the hands of God is a willingness to let your heart be touched with their pain. To allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to try to understand where they're coming from. Yes, we have the answer in Christ. We do. And yes, His word brings healing. Sometimes I need to just listen to what they're saying because sometimes they're confused and they don't know exactly how to put into words the pain that they feel. And some of us have a tendency unfortunately of wanting to give the solution before we hear the problem because we really don't have the compassion of Christ. But when you say to the Lord, help me to have an ear to hear and a heart to feel. Watch your ministry start taking off because there are so many broken people. So many broken people. And I say this to pastors. When I teach pastors at pastors conferences, I say look at your congregation. You've got a broken hearted woman over here and you have a sorrowful man over here and you have a young man over here. You've got a young lady over here. They have gone through pain and sorrow that you don't understand. And you're so busy wanting to feel the pews with people that you forget these people have hearts and needs. And you're not there to feel the pews with people. You're there to feel empty people with Jesus. Understand that and give them the Lord and give them your heart and give them your understanding and listen to what they say. Because these people are giving good theology and many of the things that we just read that's solid except for one thing. It didn't apply to Joe at that moment because he came in with this idea you're in sin. Let me tell you how to get out of it. So who isn't in sin and who doesn't need help from Jesus to get out of it, right? So always remember that one finger pointed at that person leaves three fingers pointing at you. Never forget it.