This is the, again continuing with, I've been calling him Elihu because it's easier for me to say than Elihu. I have trouble with that name, so forgive me if I continue to say Elihu. But remember that this is the one who is coming between Job and God. One man has called Elihu the John the Baptist of the Old Testament in Job, because he's coming before God's going to speak. And he's the preparer, in a way, preparing Job for God to speak to him. And so, in chapter 35, he continues with his words to Job and condemning Job for his self-righteousness. And so, let's read 35. Moreover, Elihu answered and said, do you think this is right? Do you say my righteousness is more than God's? For you say, what advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have more than if I had sinned? I will answer you and your companions with you. Look to the heavens and sea and behold the clouds. They are higher than you. If you sin, what do you accomplish against him? Or if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects a man such as you, and your righteousness a son of man. Because of the multitude of oppressions, they cry out. They cry out for help because of the arm of the mighty. But no one says, where is my God, my maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, makes us wiser than the birds of heaven there they cry out but he does not answer because of the pride of evil men surely God will not listen to empty talk nor will the Almighty regard it although you say you do not see him yet justice is before him and you must wait for him and now because he has not punished in his anger nor taken much notice of folly. Therefore, Job opens his mouth in vain. He multiplies words without knowledge. These are strong words. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us today to hear from your word, Lord, that we would hear for ourselves, not for others, Lord, that you would speak to us, including the speaker. We pray your blessing upon your word. And we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, two of the things that I was going to bring up today would be obedience to God and waiting on the Lord. But since that was already spoken about this morning, we will change the topic of our speech, of our preaching this evening or this afternoon and go a little bit of a different direction. No, we won't. We'll actually go in the same direction. And the reason for that is we know that when God brings a word and he says it twice, he means it. And he wants us to hear it. And a lot of times we have trouble hearing the first time, sometimes even trouble the second time, and sometimes he has to repeat it three times for us to really get it. I'm sure in your life and mine he's knocked us over the head a few times about the same thing over and over again till we finally get it. Well this is what Elihu is going to do with Job today and hit him over the head a few times till he gets it. And certainly he's going to prepare because Job's going to hear from God and it's going to get a little more intense. And so here we are. So I'm going to go quickly through Job chapter 35, and then I'm going to hit the applications for you. And the topic, the title is Pride, Vanity, and Empty Talk. and i want to go quickly through thirty five here and and explain to you what's happening in what ellie you were saying to job you have your bibles will be helpful if not i'm going to not go for word for word but in verse two he says bear with me a little bit here and i'm gonna show you uh... i'm sorry says more over the answer said do you think this is right he's gonna ask job right now job he says job has said that his righteousness was before god and god has unjustly acted toward him. He has not been just in the sense of vindicating Job. Job's been waiting for this vindication. It has not come. And Elihu sees these words as Job having claimed a righteousness that's perhaps even greater than God. In other words, that Job knows what needs to be done. How many of you know what God needs to do for you, don't you? Or you don't? Have you act like you know what God needs you to do? No, I wouldn't think we'd do that, do we? So his rhetorical question is just, is that just? Of course, the answer is no. And he's underscoring the absurdity of claims. See, Job claimed to be righteous, which he was, according to God's grace. But his focus was on his righteousness and on not submitting to God's plan here. Because God had a whole different plan for Job than Job realized. And so he says, if you notice in the last verse, in verse 16, he says, Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge. Job, you say to God in verse 3, what does it profit you if I am righteous? What does it profit me if I'm righteous? Other people are sinning. They have the same thing. I don't see God doing anything different for the sinner or the righteous person. Do you? And so he says, that's what Job is saying. Job had assumed that God would reward his obedience, vindicate him, And he began to question that, and in chapter 9 he said, it's all one, therefore I say he destroys both the blameless and the wicked together. And so Elihu is really coming down upon Job's words of vanity and empty talk here. And he's going to continue that. He says, you see Job, while thinking that God rewards those who do his will, which is true to some extent, Job, you desire to see it played out according to your plan. the way you want it done, in the timing that you want. And LU sees this attitude of Job as pride, vanity, and empty talk. You see, brethren, LU wants Job and us, and I hope today that these words, we don't normally, like when I prepare this, you know, the natural tendency is, oh man, I hope somebody gets this. Hope somebody that I'm speaking to will get this today. Meanwhile, I'm the one that needs to get it. Today, I hope you're thinking, I need to get it. I need to hear it. Because that's what Elihu is trying to get to Job. And so we will not misunderstand the purpose of the trials that come our way. So that Satan will not be able to use our natural pride that we have in the flesh to speak vanity and empty talk. Ecclesiastes 5 says, when a dream comes through much activity and a fool's voice is known by his many words. In the multitude of dreams and many words there is vanity, but fear God, he says. In the multitudes of words, sin is not lacking in Proverbs, but he who restrains his lips is wise. In verse five through eight, he begins to tell him that God is so exalted above you. Look at me, he says, God is mighty. He says in verse five, look at the heavens and sea and behold the clouds, they're higher than you. God is so much higher than you, Job, you have no idea. And if you think that your righteousness or the wicked sin is gonna impact God in any way, it's not happening. God is not influenced by anything under the sun. Nothing influences our God. He is not induced to any injustice or any justice in a timing other than his own. And so when Job doesn't see the wicked getting what they deserve, God is not just. Therefore, when he afflicts, It must be from a different motive than what we think. And it is for the glory of God. See, God is higher than the heavens. You can't even see God, Job. That's how high he is. Stop bringing God down to your level. How can a mere man affect God who is so far above him? Not with his sins and not with his righteousness. Proverbs says that he who sins against me, the Lord, hurts his own soul. God is not impacted by anything that we do. He is totally separate. We think that if we do something, it impacts God. If we don't do something, it impacts God. He is under no obligation at all. And he is totally sovereign to do his perfect will. And Job needs to learn this lesson. He's going to learn it when God starts answering him some questions. And so we cannot fathom. You know, it's interesting. I thought about this. You know, God is really happy, if I can use that term, and I really know I can't, but if I could use the term, God is really happy with himself. He doesn't need anybody else. He doesn't need anything. He's totally perfect and totally content and happy in himself. We, on the other hand, That's a problem, isn't it, for us? Being happy and content in ourselves. We can't, because we're sinful creatures. Even though made in God's image, we can't be satisfied in anything but the Creator Himself. Nothing created, including our own self, can make us happy. But of course, our sinful nature just drives us to try to be happy in ourselves in many cases. And we think God is like us. And we try to make Him into our image and put Him in a box and He should act as we think. And that's what Elihu or Elihu is telling Job. And evil deeds have no effect upon Him. And there is oppression in this world. And the mighty do overcome the weak. And we don't see. Do you see anything happen to the murderers in Middle East right now? We pray, God. get him get it end it no no no no see God has his God is separate he doesn't think like us he doesn't rule like we would rule forbid that one of us would rule right if one of us were ruling we'd be in deep trouble and so God is not like us And in verse 10, but no one says, where is God, the maker, my maker, who gives songs of the night? Sometimes we don't cry out to the Lord when we are truly, when we are overcome, even those who are overcome by the mighty, don't cry out to God because of their pride and their vanity. And it's not true sometimes that the first place we don't go is to the Lord when we are overcome. And God, He says, who will ask? Where is God, my maker, who gives songs to the night? We sang the song just before about panting as a deer pants for water, so my soul pants for you, oh God. Wouldn't be that that would be true by the Spirit of God for us today, that we would pant and thirst God. My soul thirsts for you, the living God." And then he goes on to say, the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me. This is what Elihu was saying. A prayer to the God of my life, my maker, my God, my life. The Lord is our maker, brethren. He is our creator, He is our sustainer, and He is ever-present. In spite of what we see, as we heard this morning, we have to wait. In spite of what we see, God is ever-present and ever-active. And He never leaves us or forsakes us, ever. Not one minute. If we are in Christ, He is never away from us. But the devil, of course, will come and give us all sorts of things to think about. And not, where is God, my maker, who gives songs in the night? You see, Elihu says that God will not listen to empty talk or vain talk. Talk that is not true about him. Talk that does not glorify him. Talk that, or attitudes of pride with no dependence upon God's sovereign hand, my maker. That does not hollow God's name. It does not concern itself with the kingdom of God. It does not deny self. It does not just ask for daily needs, but ask for whatever we want, not willing to wait and trust. As we noted in chapter 34, there is no quietness of soul when the kingdom of God is not the priority. God gives quietness of soul as we search for God and his righteousness. And it is true that Jesus told, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, as we sang, for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Filled with God and His glory and His peace and contentment in Christ. Filled with the peace that passes all understanding. And verse 13, He says, Surely God will not listen to empty talk, nor will the Almighty, El Shaddai, the Most Powerful One, will not regard vain words. Words that have nothing to do with thirsting for God, but something to do with my agenda. God will do justice. God will perform what is in his will and what is good and perfect for us. And just because you can't see him, in verse 14 it says, although you say you do not see him, yet justice is before him and you must wait. And I was going to give a big thing on waiting today, but I'm going to leave that because you already heard about waiting on the Lord. But let me just quote. Isaiah says, Have you not known? Have you not heard the everlasting Lord, our God, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints or is weary? And I'll put parentheses for you in your cause. Or anybody's cause or even justices cause his understanding is unsearchable, he's beyond us. And he gives power to the weak. And to those who have no might, he increases strength. And he gives songs in the night for those who need it. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. And not only will they renew their strength, but they will be on wings. like wings of eagles, and they will fly and be filled as they hunger and thirst for righteousness. And so this is what is being said to Job by Elihu. And so we need to consider these things. And he says in verse 15, And now, because he has not punished in his anger, nor taken notice of folly, because Job hasn't seen it, what does Job do? He says, Therefore Job opens his mouth in vain. and therefore he multiplies words without knowledge. And this is what Elihu is upset about in talking and hearing what Job had to say all the way along. And so brethren, one of the things that we have to be careful about as we hear in this thing is this idea of vanity and pride in ourselves and our natural tendency to live for self. and to bring God down to our own agenda. And we must learn, number one, we have to die daily. As we heard in Luke, the reading, the first reading, says that you need to pick up your cross daily and follow him. anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow him because what happens is as we want to live our own lives and our own self agenda we it is we think it's going to be life oh if I can only get this my way it's going to be real life but in fact we know it winds up being death We saw that in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were tempted to think of their own self-preservation, right? And what happened? Rather than leading to life, it led to death. Proverbs says, there's a way that seems right to us, to our own heart, but in the end, it's death. So Satan comes and pictures in our flesh, pictures all these things that, oh, that's right, because that's going to give me life. But in the end, it is the opposite. It is a lie. And we must die to that self. As Paul had said in chapter 21 of Acts, he said, not only am I willing to die spiritually in Christ, but I'm also willing to die physically if that's what the Lord has for me. It was the cost of following Christ. Who goes to war without knowing the cost? We're thinking about that right now, aren't we, in Syria? What's the cost of going to this war? We don't even know. What is the cost of following Christ? Who builds a house without knowing what the cost is? The cost is dying to self. The cost is dying daily, picking up our cross and crucifixion daily. It is our Paul telling us to be disciplined in our lives daily, to die to ourselves. The law of liberty, which Paul spoke in Romans 14, he said, we should not live for ourselves and we do not die to ourselves. We think, well, I'm going to just die daily, but it's not to us. It's dying to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, We are the Lord's, in paren, I put, not our own. To this end, Christ died and rose and lives again, that he might be the Lord of the living. And so we want to pursue life, and we want to pursue God's agenda, and not our own agenda. And so the question we need to ask is, is Christ our first love? It's a very important answer to that question, because the answer to that tells us whether we died a self. Job needed to get off himself and to forget his own righteousness and to submit to the will of God in his life. And it was difficult. You can imagine Job's situation. It wasn't easy. He was in trouble. But he needed to remember that it's not his plan, not his agenda, but it is the God who is so much higher than him, who had an agenda for him. What is God's agenda for you? What is God's will for you? So brethren, we're called to deny ourselves, to let go of our life, you know, that hand that goes into the bottle and wants to get that thing in the bottle and it can't get it out until it lets go. And that's what God is calling us to deny ourselves, our pride and our vanity, and to look to Him and His life for us, His goals, His wants. And then we will truly begin to live. Your talents, your gifts, your trials, God is bringing them for your benefit. And as we trust Him and lean on Him, and not our prideful selves, and we acknowledge Him in all our ways, He will direct our paths. We must acknowledge Him in all our ways. The ways that we want, we got to get rid of those and acknowledge Him in those ways. And that timing of His ways. And so we need to continue. And so James tells us, so what happens? What does it look like when we die to self? When we pick up our cross daily and follow him? Well, it looks like what James talked about, it looks the opposite because he said, where does fights come from? And where does strife come from? That is the death that occurs when we want our own thing, right? When we want, you lust and can't have, you covet, you can't obtain, you fight, you war, yet you don't have. Because you don't ask rightly. You ask because you have your own agenda and you want to spend it on your own pleasure. See, you want what you want. But you ask amiss. And the Lord, the Almighty, does not hear vain talk. He wants us to come and submit to Him. And He says, so don't you realize that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Adulterers, adulteresses of the world. And so we are to die to self. And that is, of course, daily difficult other than by the Spirit of God. He says, do you think that the Scripture says in vain, the Spirit who dwells in you dwells jealously. We have the Holy Spirit to empower us to die daily to ourselves. And we need to ask God to help us to submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. And for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And dying to self includes dying to sin. It's impossible to die to self without dying to sin as well. In Romans 6, he says, shall we continue in sin that grace shall abound? Ridiculous, certainly not. How shall we sin if we've died to sin? therefore we were buried with him into death just as Christ was raised from the dead even so we should walk in newness of life for we have been united to in his death certainly we shall be in his likeness of his resurrection knowing that our old man was crucified and the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin And he goes on to say in verse 12, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies. That is, if you crucify yourself and you die daily, you will not let sin reign and do not present your members as unrighteousness. And so Elihu says, just because God doesn't display his anger against sin, let us not take sin lightly. Yes, our God is goodness. He's long suffering, he's forgiving. But if we are to die to self and serve our king, who hates sin we are to follow him and we are to mortify that sin by his grace and brethren i don't know if you've uh... there's a book uh... written by uh... robert spinney it's a little uh... pamphlet and it's it's uh... and that you know you the seven ways to do this in the twelve ways to do that we had twelve strategies that satan uses to tempt us to sin And that wonderful topic, wouldn't you like to know what those are? Well, I'll give you a few of them, because I think it's something for us to think about in denying ourself, dying to self, and dying to sin as well, because we know we're fighting a battle, right? We're fighting a battle against the world, Satan, and we're fighting the battle with our own lusts. And it is a battle. We're in a battle every day. And so we need to be prepared for the battle, and we need to know What is the enemy's tactics against us, right? Wouldn't you want to know what, if you're going into battle, what the enemy is going to do? Well, you're in a battle today and the enemy has some tactics that he wants to employ. And you need to know what they are. Because they get us to, you know, nice and easy to figure out what we need to do. He gets us to use our own pride and vanity. He says, I'll give you a couple real quick. He says the bait and hook. We know what that is. It looks enticing and then after we get, we're tempted to sin and we sin and we realize the hook is in our mouth and it's not feeling too well. And he immediately, we immediately realize it's wrong. It happened in the garden. He makes sin appear harmless and even virtuous. I'm very thrifty, you know. I'm a very thrifty guy. I'm actually very covetous in this, but I want to admit that. I actually get angry at my spouse Because, you know, she's not doing what I want and I'm the head of the house. Isn't that a virtuous thing, being the head of the house? And then when my wife starts to nag me a little bit, she's doing the right thing because she's helping me to see what's right. Isn't that virtuous? So Satan gets us to do those things. He downplays the seriousness of sin. No, I'll just do this. No one will get harmed by it. It's not gonna harm anybody. He tempts us to excuse sin. Oh, we read the sins of David, and we read these great sins, and we say, oh, look at that. I can't avoid sin. David, look at David. He fell into great sin. Who am I to be fighting against this sin? Another nice little trick that the devil likes to play. God is so indulgent that we don't need fear punishment. He's just love and compassion. We heard that God is goodness, and He is. And he's forgiving and he is, but he hates sin. And he tempts us to fear sin so little that we don't keep a safe distance away from it. And we play near the fire and we think we're not gonna get burned by that fire. And all of a sudden we realize how burnt we are. And he shows us the happiness of the wicked. Oh, they're so happy. They're enjoying their sin. What's so bad about sin? They're having a great time. He shows us the opposite. He shows us the trials and temptations of the godly. Oh, look at what these people have to go through. The godly, look at that life. Do I want to do that? That's a difficult life. Dying to self, mortifying sin. Oh, that's, you know, sin's not that bad. And he gets us to compare ourselves to others. Oh, isn't that a good one? Oh, my sin's not so bad. Look at so-and-so. Look at so-and-so in church, man. They're always doing that stuff. You know, I see what they do over here, they do over here. I'm not doing any of that stuff. It's really easy. Satan is constantly trying to get us to think differently biblically about sin. And sin, we are soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are not to be entangled with the world. Jesus said, if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it's more profitable for you that one of your members perished and your whole body be cast into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. Now, you don't hear many of these messages in church, in other churches, do you, about sin? Well, we know we're sinful every day. We know that we're to love our Lord, our God, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. and love our neighbors ourselves. How often do we do that daily? No, right? See, so what happens though, the blessed thing about dying to self or desiring to die to self and to die to sin is that we realize how wicked sin is and where does it drive us? To Christ. It drives us to Christ. And that's the purpose of it, because none of us can possibly live as we are called to live in total obedience. It would never have been done in the history of mankind except for one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we must die to self, but we must die to sin, and we must, in order to do that, we must pursue the one who made us. Our maker who gives us songs in the night is what we need to do. And that's the last thing, brethren, that we need to think about. And as we heard in the psalmist, as we thirst for the living God, he says, my tears have been my food day and night while they continue to say to me, where is your God? The world and Satan will say, you're a sinner and you're a lousy piece of, you know what? And you're going to believe it. But if you're in Christ, you don't have to believe that. Because if we're in Christ, We have, where is God our maker? We know where He is, who gives songs in the night. And we need to pour out. He says, when I remember these things, they say, where is your God? But when I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. He says, I used to go with the multitude to the house of God and praise. with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept the pilgrim feast that used to be joyful. Going to the house of the Lord was joyful to me. And now, why are you cast down on my soul? Why are you disquieted within me? The answer, hope in God. my maker, the one who gives me songs in the night. Oh my God, my soul is cast down, therefore I will remember you. When your soul is cast down because of your sin, because of yourself, because of your constantly living for yourself, where do you go? as a believer, the only place we can go. We take our sin and the wickedness and we bring it to Christ because he took it already for us and we come to him and with joy and thanksgiving after repenting of our sin, we realize that our God, he says, the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime and in the night his song shall be with me. prayer to the God of my life. So brethren, while we must deny ourselves, while we must abhor sin and truly repent of this sin that is in all of us, and the wickedness that we do, we must realize its utter wickedness and that will drive us to the one who has made us in his image and desires us to know him intimately. and get to know Him by denying ourselves and reckoning ourselves dead to sin, we are able to pray the Lord's Prayer and begin with our Father. That's a great place to go, isn't it? We heard that today. Would a father give you something you didn't need? Well, certainly this wicked father might, but certainly our Father would not. Our Father in heaven, You are higher than all that I can see, but you are my father, the father of mercy and the father of all comfort. Peter said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope. See, we have a living hope. We don't have to wait till we're in heaven. We have a living hope today in spite of the fact that what we do, what we don't do every day, we don't love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we don't love our neighbor as we ought to. But it is to drive us to this Father, the Father of mercies. And we have the spirit of adoption by which we can say, Abba, Father. And we can cry out to our God, where is my God, my maker, who gives me song in the night? Sometimes we need a song in the night, don't we? That night, meaning that darkness of time where things are, we're thinking and they're challenging. We need to go to our maker. The only place we can go is the Lord Jesus Christ. the Father who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy and the God of all comfort. He is our maker. And Paul said, for this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Where is my maker who named me? The Father in heaven of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might to deny yourself to pick up your cross daily and follow him through his spear in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your heart so that you be rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the width length depth and height of the love of Christ, which passes all understanding and passes knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God." You see, we need to think about denying ourselves because we don't do that every day. We generally, that's not our nature, is to deny ourselves. It's not our nature to deny sin, to die. We are dead to sin. Scripturally, we are dead to sin. And we are to reckon ourselves. That is, we're to consider ourselves dead to sin. Not alive to sin, but dead and alive to righteousness. And only by God's grace and the Spirit that lives within us, who can give us this strength, can help us to do those things. But the way we do those things is we don't go to ourselves. When they say, where is your God? Look at you, look at how you fell, look at you. Where do you go? You go humbly before God and you thank God for Christ. And you thank him for all that he's done for us. But we won't, we will not deny ourselves. We will not die to self every day if we don't realize how sinful we really are and how it really offends our God. And the church in the United States doesn't teach that. God is love and everything's wonderful. Well, yes, he is, especially to the ones who he loves. His sheep, he loves you, he loves me. But he wants us to come to the Father and ask for forgiveness. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Not my kingdom come, but your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth in my life, as it is in heaven. Give me just what I need, my bread today, and forgive me all my debts. We have a lot of debt. We, every day, we pile up debts to God. If it wasn't for Christ paying for those debts, we'd be, it's gone, we're done, we're undone. But thanks be to God, he's paid your debt, my debt. He paid the price, the ransom for you and for me. And He calls us to deny ourselves, pick us up our cross and follow Him. And if you're not in Christ today, all those debts that you've accumulated, you will pay forever. Why not humble yourself, seek Christ and His forgiveness, and He will give you total forgiveness and peace that passes all understanding, because you have peace with God. Come to him today, all of us. The message is for us to come to him. If we're in Christ, we can rejoice in repenting of our sin. If we're lost, we're in trouble and we need to repent for our sin because we'll pay for them forever. Let's deny ourselves, be died to sin, died to self and pursue our maker who gives us a song in the night. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask you for your blessing upon your word. We pray that when we are depressed and we are at our weakest, Lord, that you told us that you would give us the strength to come to search for you, to come to you, our Lord God, God Almighty, the Father of mercy and all comfort and grace. Lord, Abba Father, help us. We know that we can come, repent and you will forgive us our sins and you will cleanse us from all unrighteousness help us lord to live for your glory help us to pursue you and not to pursue our own agenda lord let us let go of our lives and follow you and pick up our cross daily we pray in jesus name amen