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[0:00] It is good to be together. Take your Bibles, come into the book of Job, Job chapter 32.! Job chapter 32 is where we will be at as we just continue working our way through Scripture and working our way at this point in time to the book of Job.

[0:16] Job chapter 32. We'll look at a chapter in its entirety. It's an introduction to an extended portion, much like what we just finished in the last three chapters of Job.

[0:28] It was his extended speech or his extended lament. Here we have the extended speech of Elihu. So we will look at that. So it begins the speech, which finds its conclusion there in chapter 37.

[0:43] Job 32 is where we will be at this evening as we make our way through the Word of God. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful. We're thankful for this day. We're thankful for every chance we have to open up the Word of God with one another.

[0:58] We rejoice in the fellowship in which we can enjoy. We rejoice that that fellowship can be an encouragement to us. It can be a challenge at times. And Lord, may it draw us closer to you. And may our heart cry be that you are glorified.

[1:13] And not only in our time together, we definitely want that, but in our lives, in our existence, may it be for the glory of Christ. Lord, would you take this Word now, and Lord, help us to understand it. May we come to the truth of it.

[1:27] And may we, in the truth of that, see you exalted and see you lifted on high. And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Job chapter 32 is now bringing the book of Job to its conclusion.

[1:41] It's really unique in who we are introduced to here because we are introduced to a fifth individual, which we were unaware up until this point that he was even there.

[1:51] We've known about Job and his three friends. We've known that they've been in some extended discussion, if not referred to as an argument. For some time, it has extended. For a little bit of time, we're not exactly sure how long it went on or how long it transpired.

[2:06] But we can kind of declare or determine, rather, from the wordings of Job that had been going on for some amount of time. And apparently, the whole time this was going on, or for at least the majority of the time this was going on, there was a fifth individual, at least one more individual, who was present.

[2:23] And we will meet him tonight. Possibly, there could have been even more individuals present. As one Bible commentator said, when you are someone as eminent in society as Job was, or prominent in society as Job was, and the suffering is so severe, that surely there will be a crowd gathered around to understand why or what is going on.

[2:48] And so there may have been more than just one more individual present. But we do know that this is the only one that speaks. We did not know that he was there, but all of a sudden we see him there, and he takes a major portion of the remainder of the book up.

[3:05] We hear from him, then we hear from the Lord God Almighty himself. And then we bring it to a conclusion with the end of the matter. But we are here in Job chapter 32, where it says, Then these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

[3:22] But the anger of Elihu, the son of Barakal, the Buzite of the family of Ram, burned against Job. His anger burned because he justified himself before God.

[3:32] And his anger burned against his three friends, because they had found no answer and yet had condemned Job. Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were years older than he.

[3:43] And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men, his anger burned. So Elihu, the son of Barakal, the Buzite spoke out and said, I am young in years, and you are old.

[3:57] Therefore I was shy and afraid to tell you what I think. I thought age should speak, and increased years should teach wisdom. But it is a spirit in a man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.

[4:09] The abundant in years may not be wise, nor may elders understand justice. So I say, listen to me. I too will tell what I think. Behold, I waited for your words.

[4:20] I listened to your reasonings. While you pondered what to say, I even paid close attention to you. Indeed, there was no one who refuted Job, not one of you who answered his words.

[4:32] Do not say we have found wisdom. God will rout him, not man, for he has not arranged his words against me, nor will I reply to him with your arguments. They are dismayed.

[4:43] They no longer answer. Words have failed them. Shall I wait? Because they do not speak. Because they stop and no longer answer. I too will answer my share. I also will tell my opinion.

[4:54] For I am full of words, and the spirit within me constrains me. Behold, my belly is like unvented wine. Like new wineskins, it is about to burst. Let me speak that I may get relief.

[5:06] Let me open my lips and answer. Let me now be partial to no one, nor flatter any man. For I do not know how to flatter, else my maker would soon take me away.

[5:22] Here we find the introduction of Elihu. And what will follow in the chapters that come after that is actually his speech. This chapter, chapter 32, is just a lengthy introduction into his actual speech.

[5:39] His speech will be far different from any other that has been shared up until this time. Elihu himself is a man of unique standing within the book. It is interesting to note that we know more about Elihu than any other character in the book of Job.

[5:56] We know more of his ancestry. We don't even know who Job's father was. We don't know anything about his descendants. And yet in the genealogy of Elihu, we find more about him than anyone else.

[6:11] It doesn't necessarily answer all of our questions. We find out who his father was. We find what region he was from. We find that if we were to kind of relate that to what we know of extra biblical account, that he probably was someone living at the time of Abram.

[6:29] So we could see this is how we've kind of said it was either pre-patriarchal or during the patriarchal period. They could have existed during the early days of Abram from the land of the early Chaldeans.

[6:39] But rather, we know more about Elihu than any others, which leads some scholars to say that Elihu is the actual author of the book. Now that's just kind of assumptions.

[6:51] That's an opinion. I don't know. We have no idea the revelation of who this is. We know nothing else about him in Scripture other than what is contained in these passages before us. We do know that he is the youngest one in the group.

[7:04] He says that himself. It's his own admonition. Admission. He understands that he alone is the youth in this party. I have got a gnat flying all over my paper up here. That drives me nuts, okay?

[7:15] I'm not ADD or ADHD or I don't know. Maybe I am. But I know that when I see a squirrel, I follow a squirrel. And this thing is all over my Bible. And it's about to drive me nuts. Sorry about that. But if that thing would leave me alone, I'd be great.

[7:27] If you see me clapping a minute, it's not because we're doing glory. Hallelujah, okay? I try not to clap in the microphone. But I'm going to kill this thing if I ever get a chance at it. So maybe it will come bother you, not me. But if you clap, I won't hold that against you.

[7:39] You go ahead and clap if you need to. Let's get back to our message. But what we find in this passage before us is one that is compelled to speak. What does it look like to be compelled to speak?

[7:52] Those moments where you know you have to say something. Those things that are moving you. And as Elihu says here, it was welling up inside of him.

[8:04] He was like an unvented wine vat about to burst if he didn't say something. He said, let me speak that I may find relief. It would be what Paul would say, woe of me if I do not preach the gospel.

[8:18] Elsewhere we find, as Isaiah said, Jeremiah said, there was a fire in my bones. I have to declare this. We find this all throughout scripture that people are compelled to speak.

[8:31] Elihu is one who is compelled to speak in the circumstances. He will speak something far different than anyone else. When I get into it tonight, we're going to look at what compelled him to speak.

[8:44] But we ask ourselves, why is he so prominent? Why is his position even here within the pages? It is showing us, I believe, that when we read his speech and we read his statements, that the answer is not found in conventional wisdom.

[9:00] We are challenged to think beyond ourself. He is angry with those who are thinking in conventional wisdom. He is angry with Job. We'll see why in just a moment. He's angry with both parties involved.

[9:11] He speaks something totally other than what has already been said. He seems to try to take the place of God and to be the one who's going to speak on behalf of the Almighty.

[9:22] He is pushing us, as is all of the book of Job, to show us that our understanding of current events is not always dictated by our wisdom, that we need God's point of view.

[9:35] Thankfully for us, we're not reliant upon Elihu to give us God's point of view, though he does speak some great truth. It is he who says that we are all humbled before the Almighty.

[9:47] There are none of us. If we were to really truthfully consider our ways, they could ever say God is unfair for the disciplinary inaction that is upon us. He speaks some wondrous things to us, and some things that really cause us to pause and consider.

[10:00] But also, we have the benefit that God does indeed speak for himself at the end. So we don't need Elihu to even be the intercessor between God and man.

[10:13] But it is also telling that by the time we get to the end of the book, there's no rebuke for the words of Elihu. There's no correction.

[10:25] Job does not have to intercede for Elihu. Some commentators will tell you that if we read this introduction in the first few verses of 32, by the way, I don't mind commentators, but the best commentation on Scripture is Scripture.

[10:40] So the best commentary you'll ever find of Scripture is the rest of Scripture. And so be careful whose commentaries you read, but also read multiple commentaries. Don't constrain yourself or confine yourself to one, because in the words of Adrian Rogers, nobody knows that much about all of Scripture.

[10:56] So read a variety of individuals and read a variety of people. Some people are really strong in some areas, and they're maybe a little bit weaker than others. And even some that are really drawn to, they tend to cast doubt at moments.

[11:09] And here's one of them where he speaks of his anger and the burning. So they would try to tell you that because the author of the book of Job tells us multiple times in just a few short verses, it's like five times that Elihu is angry, that he's mad, that his anger is burning within him, that everything that he says after that is a result of his anger.

[11:28] Therefore, we should just discount it because he is speaking out of anger. By the way, you can be angry and sin not. Right? You can be angry and sin not.

[11:38] You can also be angry and sin, but you can be angry and sin not. So don't discount it just because he's angry. Find the reasoning and the cause for the anger, and therefore see the truth that he speaks as a result of that.

[11:50] But the best commentary we find on this is the fact that God never says he's wrong. In his listing of those who are offended by what they have said, Elihu is not counted in that listing.

[12:05] And he has a longer discourse than anyone else other than God in the book of Job. And when God does speak, he doesn't rebuke or refute anything that Elihu says.

[12:19] So we pay careful attention to that. But in this chapter, what we see is that he is compelled to speak. He has to speak. And he has moved to intervene in the argument that has come to a pulse.

[12:37] And he's not content just to let it remain, let bygones be bygones, and let's just let it go. He has to say something. Why? Why is he so compelled?

[12:49] And what does the Lord use in our own life to cause us to speak and to stand and to give an account? The first thing that we notice here is he is compelled to speak because of the very weight of the argument.

[13:04] The very weight of the argument. You say, well, this is easy because the argument is about why Job is suffering. Well, on the surface. The argument is about why Job is entered into all these trials and tribulations and one side thinks one thing and the other side thinks the other thing.

[13:22] Well, that's how it started out. But we understand that weight is given to matters as it goes a little bit further and it becomes a bigger ordeal than it originally started out with. And while the discussion may have surrounded at the beginning why Job is suffering and why all these bad things happen to Job, it very quickly went down a grander path and it is the weight of the argument that compels Elihu to speak.

[13:45] By the way, Elihu's name is translated God is my God. That's the translation of his name. His father's name is translated the blessing of Jehovah.

[14:01] Pre-law. Pre-Mosaic covenant. So we find very early on there are those who have this distinction of walking with the Lord God Almighty.

[14:17] And he is speaking on behalf of God. He's not speaking on behalf of any of the other friends or for Job. And we are told, sure, multiple times that these three men ceased answering Job.

[14:31] And Elihu burned. He was angry. But he burned against the three friends of Job.

[14:47] And he burned against Job. And so let's find the cause. If we look at the cause of his anger, we will understand the weight of the argument why he had to say something.

[14:59] The first burning was against the three friends of Job because these three men ceased speaking. But they were not done condemning.

[15:13] They had brought a condemnation against Job but had failed to justify that condemnation. They had cast judgment and opinion only.

[15:23] And when Job argued and refuted even their accusations, they had no response. And so the first weight that we find is do not bring condemnation without reason.

[15:43] To say, well, Job, you must be guilty because all these things are happening. And surely what I'm looking at and conventional wisdom teaches me this, then don't pass judgment quickly. He's angry with the three because they have not quit condemning Job.

[15:58] They've just quit speaking about it. And they don't know how to answer. And they don't know what to say. And we'll get to that in just a moment.

[16:10] And so that bothers him. Like, how can you bring a judgmental condemnation without justifying that condemnation? Don't just say it has to be.

[16:23] Tell me why. And they failed to do that. But he's also burning against Job because he is neither declaring, by the way, he doesn't declare that Job is a outright sinner the way the other three have said and that all these things happening to Job are a result of his sins.

[16:37] He never says that. What he does say later on is, Job, if you really stop and truly consider yourself, you would understand that none of us are good enough not to expect trials and tribulations from God. I mean, that's a good statement, right?

[16:48] That none are holy and righteous. And we would call that the gospel, that we are all deserving of some type of judgment and we're all deserving of that. And so he speaks some truth into that. But he never says, Job, surely you did all these things.

[17:01] He doesn't bring the same condemnation against them. He says, even in this passage, I will not say the same thing you have said. I will not speak your words to him. I will not give the same answer. But he's angry at Job because Job has exalted his righteousness.

[17:15] Now, here's the weight of it. He's exalted his righteousness before God. Now, the New American Standard reads it that way. He exalted his righteousness before God.

[17:26] And really, literally, what it is saying is he has exalted his righteousness over God's. And here's why we find when Job puts his hand over his mouth and says, I have heard, but now I see.

[17:46] Because Job, and it's not necessarily a pride. It's the learning. It's the relational. We're not here saying, well, see, Job had it all wrong.

[17:57] We're not doing that. Job is learning in this relationship. But in part of that, he says, I am righteous. Let God answer me. I know I'm right. And we know he is. We do. We know he's innocent. We get it.

[18:09] The only reason we know it is because God has told us that. Not because Job has said it. Because we have the benefit that Job doesn't have. We know that God is doing something else. But before his friends, Job is saying, God is the one who has to answer to me.

[18:21] God has to tell me why these matters are going on. I haven't done anything wrong. Sure, he's innocent. But he's not putting his hand over his mouth going, woe is me. Not until there's this great revelation of the God that he is exalting his righteousness over.

[18:37] And he begins to see how high and lifted up God is. And Elihu, when he sees this, that Job is exalting his righteousness before God, that's a matter which he cannot be silent about.

[18:50] That's a matter which he can no longer just sit in silence. He's not going to bring the condemnation, but he's also going to try to bring some revelation.

[19:00] You don't know who you're talking about. You don't understand the weight of what you're declaring. And this is the great cry for each and every one of us.

[19:14] Sure, we hit those moments where we know, we've searched our hearts and our minds, and we've went before the Lord, and we've tried our desperate thoughts, and we say, I'm righteous. But we can never, ever say, I am right, and God needs to tell me why.

[19:30] Why? Because we never exalt our own righteousness before God. We know the gospel tells us we have no righteousness, for all of our righteousness is like filthy rags.

[19:49] The righteousness that we have is a declared righteousness. We are declared righteous in Christ. It is the word imputed unto us. It is placed upon us.

[20:00] So the righteousness that we bring into the throne room of heaven was put there by the one we're going to intercede with. God imputed righteousness to us in Christ.

[20:14] And so any righteousness we bring into his presence is a righteousness that he has put in place. And if he put it in place, then it is definitely not to be exalted above his.

[20:29] This is why we pound our chest and say, woe is me, I am a sinner condemned unclean. Job has not learned that yet. He will. By the time we get to the end of the book, he will.

[20:42] This is one of the reasons why the book of Job is here for us, so that we can understand. We are not righteous because we do everything right. We're not righteous because we haven't messed up and done something wrong.

[20:55] Job hadn't done anything wrong. We are righteous because he declares we are righteous. And this is a weighty matter.

[21:07] This is something that Elihu could not remain silent about. He is not trying to defend Job. He is not even trying to defend the three friends.

[21:24] He is defending the righteousness of God. Now does God need us to defend his righteousness? No, he can do it on his own. But what this shows us is that the answer, the whole thing the book of Job is showing us, is that we need someone else to speak into our situation.

[21:42] Will Elihu fall short? Yes, he will. And so we're still found, even when Elihu finally quits talking, we need someone else to speak into our situation. Man cannot figure this out on his own.

[21:54] We need someone other than us. We need God himself to speak into our situation. And that's why we rejoice in that God became flesh.

[22:05] In the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And God has spoken into our situation his truth. But Elihu here sees the weight of the argument, and he understands this is more than about conventional wisdom or retribution theology or Job's, if Job's done wrong or right.

[22:27] It's more than that. This is about who God is. And that's something that has to be defended. May believers never fail to be compelled to speak about the character of God.

[22:47] Does he need us to defend him? No. But are we called to declare his worthiness? Yes. Sometimes we have to be the Elihu.

[23:04] You say, you don't even know what you're talking about. Not taking sides with either one, but understanding the weight of the issue is about the character of God, not the behavior of man.

[23:17] which leads us to the second matter in which compelled Elihu to speak, and that is the wisdom to be salt. The conventional thought of that day was length of days led to greater experiences, and greater experiences led to an increase in wisdom.

[23:37] So Elihu says, I'm the youngest one here. We don't know how old he was, but he said he's the youngest one there. And twice we're told, he said, I didn't speak because I'm younger than the rest of you. I'm just a child.

[23:48] I didn't say anything because you guys are older than me. And it would stand to reason that you've had more experiences than I. Therefore, you are wiser than I am.

[23:59] And it is true. It's conventional wisdom means that it's normally true. Right? It's normally true. We save ourselves a lot of heartache when we listen to those who have already experienced the things that we're just beginning to experience.

[24:10] We save ourselves a lot of heartache, or I would have saved myself a whole lot of heartache had I heeded the counsel of older saints before me a little bit more rapidly so that I would not have to do the very things that I have done, and I wouldn't have to learn the hard way, but that's who I am.

[24:24] I learn everything the hard way. That's just how it goes. But we understand that's conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom, the book of Proverbs, even the book of Psalms, at times it's poetic, but it has some conventional wisdom there too. It is those things that are normally true.

[24:36] We can expect it to be true. We can expect it to be right. But is that the only wisdom that we need to seek?

[24:47] We've already seen now that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We've seen that reality. We've seen it already here. But what Elihu says, he said, I didn't want to say anything because I thought age should speak and increased years should teach wisdom.

[25:00] He said, I just wanted to listen. I wanted to know how you could reconcile Job's righteousness, yet Job's suffering and his testimony. And he said, I just wanted to hear.

[25:11] I just wanted to hear what you had to say. I remember even now I do it. This may be surprising to you, but when I go to pastor's meetings, if I'm ever in a group of pastors and I'm meeting with pastors and I'm fellowshipping around them, I am the quietest guy in the room.

[25:29] I know that's surprising to you, but I just don't talk much in pastor's meetings. And I used to not talk much as a habit that I got into because I was the youngest pastor in the room. Now I look around and I'm like, one of the older pastors in the room.

[25:42] But I just don't speak very often in pastor's meetings. And I get kind of, sometimes I wish some of our younger ones would kind of learn that same wisdom too. Maybe they would just bring it down just a little bit because those saints that have went before us and have 40 years in the ministry have a lot to speak to.

[25:58] Some of us that may have two years in the ministry. I'm not one, I'm a middle of the road guy. I don't mind being a middle of the road guy 20 years and I can have a lot to learn from either side. But I can understand this of what Elihu is talking about.

[26:17] Some of you don't know this about your pastor, but several years ago, I was young. I was still one of the young in the ministry guys. I was like three or four years in the ministry.

[26:30] So I would have been, I was like 28. I was two years, probably 28, 29. So I was either two or three years in the ministry. I was the youngest pastor in the association and there was some turmoil within our association.

[26:43] Our director of mission retired. We brought in a new director of missions, Tim Key. I love him by the way. He's still our director of mission. And when he came in, there was some conflict that was going on internally at the director of missions, at the mission association.

[26:56] I don't really want to get into it. The old secretary was there. Tim came in. There were some issues that were going on and the secretary was calling some of the pastors and was trying to kind of win everybody over to her side and Tim was new.

[27:09] He just moved up here and there was just a lot of confusion going on. Okay. Somehow or another, I got involved in that. They thought, here's the young pastor. Let's get the young pastors.

[27:20] There were like three of us young pastors. Why in the world they called us young guys? I don't know. So I spent like the next three or four months just going around talking to other pastors and trying to figure out what happened.

[27:34] Maybe it's because I was still naive. I didn't know. And I was trying to figure out what happened, what went on. Long story short, I still don't know what happened. I just know there was a lot of bantering back and forth and a lot of root of bitterness and a lot of gossiping that I was kind of getting tired of hearing.

[27:50] What just so happened that that month we were hosting an associational meeting at the church I pastor, which was First Baptist Normandy. Back then we used to have really highly attended associational meetings.

[28:02] So we have an executive board meeting there. And on the agenda, when they gave you an agenda, there was always this old business, new business, miscellaneous. There was a line called miscellaneous in the agenda.

[28:14] And I was like, well, I mean, I feel compelled to speak because I've had both sides talking to me. I didn't really know. I mean, I didn't know anything. And I just had to say something. I'm like, it's not old business. It's not new business.

[28:26] But here's miscellaneous. But who's going to listen to this guy because I'm the young guy. I'm like the youngest one in the room. But it was at our church. And at that time, it didn't necessarily mean you preached.

[28:36] Another pastor was preaching and leaving everything there. I just happened to be the host pastor. But I'll never forget. It said any miscellaneous. At every meeting I'd went to, because I was on the executive board before I was a pastor, I was on the executive board for years.

[28:47] Every meeting I went to, it was like this. Anybody have any miscellaneous? Okay, next item. With that particular Monday night, said, anybody have any miscellaneous? I said, yes, I do. And here's the thing.

[28:58] They asked the question, so they had to give me the right to speak. So I took the next 10 minutes, for all the gossip and the backbiting that was going on in our association.

[29:12] I was a nervous wreck. I was a nervous wreck. But it had to be said. These guys were wiser than I, knew more ministry than I had forgotten.

[29:27] These were people that I looked up to, but it was tearing our association apart. But I had to say it. Why? Because the wisdom didn't need to be determined by length of years, but by, what Elihu says, the spirit of God.

[29:46] At that moment, I just had to say something. I would love to say, and everything's smoothed out right now, the secretary left, and Tim's still here, but we did see unity come back to the association.

[30:00] Side note, from that point on, the line item miscellaneous has been removed from every executive board meeting since then. That's the last time it was ever put on the agenda because they didn't want someone standing up saying something that they didn't know about.

[30:12] But I had my opportunity. Why? Because there are some moments where the wisdom to be sought is not necessarily conventional wisdom.

[30:25] Elihu said, I was silent because I'm the young guy. He says, but, notice what he says, but it is the spirit in a man.

[30:42] The wording means it's the spirit put into man and the breath of the Almighty, same wording, that gives them understanding. What he's saying here is the wisdom that is to be sought is not the world's wisdom or the world's ways or conventional wisdom.

[30:59] It is one who's living in relationship with the Almighty and it is the Almighty speaking through that individual. When we approach a situation, and I promise you, I was terrified when I spoke and I'm not saying everything I said was right.

[31:14] I probably burned a lot of bridges. I shouldn't have burned, but I did at that time. But I knew that God told me I had to speak. It's the only time I ever did anything like that in our association.

[31:26] It's been like 18 years. I haven't done anything else like that. I haven't had to. But I knew that I had to do something that was compelling me to do it.

[31:36] Why? Because God was speaking to my heart saying this isn't right. The Word of God says let there be no divisions among you.

[31:49] And what needed to happen was we didn't just need everybody's opinion of what was going on. We needed a word from God that was going on. When we go and approach someone, may it be a word from the Almighty that is declared from our lips, not a thought from our own mind.

[32:05] And what compelled Elihu to speak was that there was another wisdom, another perception that needed to speak truth into this situation.

[32:16] Job's friends had a thought. Job had a thought. We need a word from God. And he seeks to be that word. Let Scripture speak through us and may we answer with Scripture, not with opinions.

[32:33] Or if we are answering with opinions, may we be like Paul. This is my own wisdom. This is my own thoughts. In my own opinion. I mean, Paul said that one of the most difficult passages when Paul's talking about marriage, right?

[32:46] He says, in my own opinion, it's better for a man to remain single. And so people come to me all the time, should I not marry? Well, Paul says that's his own opinion. He said that's his thought.

[32:57] And so may we have the boldness of Paul that if we're given it, just say, hey, in my own opinion, this is what I think. But if it's the word of God, maybe we say, but the word of God declares the wisdom from above says this.

[33:12] And there's the wisdom that needs to be sought in that circumstance and that situation in a lie who speaks of that. He's compelled by that wisdom. The third factor that compelled him here that we see in this is the weakness of their silence.

[33:27] He repeats the refrain over and over again. He says, behold, I waited for your words. I listened to your reasoning while you pondered what to say. I even paid close attention to you. Indeed, there was no one who refuted Job.

[33:41] Not one of you who answered his words. He said, I'm waiting and I hear nothing. I'm waiting.

[33:52] And he is exalting his righteousness over God and yet all you're talking about is his actions? And then when he declares his actions and he shows you that his actions are right, you have nothing to say?

[34:11] He says, I've waited, but there's nothing. He says in verse 15, they are dismayed. They no longer answer. Words have failed them. And what is he speaking about here?

[34:21] The weakness exhibited by their silence. Why are we told in the word of God to always be ready to give a defense for the hope that we have for us? To study to show ourselves approved.

[34:32] Is that a matter of pride? We don't need to know our scripture so well that we can have this prideful arrogance about us and go ahead and test me, try me, let me know if I got an answer. We don't need that. But what we do know is that when someone comes to us defaming the character of God or someone comes to us questioning the reality of God, that we show more weakness by our silence than we do even in the simplest of answers.

[34:56] We don't want to exhibit weakness by not being able to answer the critic. Don't be afraid of the critics. Don't be afraid of the doubters or the questioners. Don't be afraid of those. As a matter of fact, it tells us, and I know people say this, well, Jesus says, don't worry about what you're going to say that day.

[35:13] Don't worry how you're going to answer for the spirit will tell you right. Let's read the rest of scripture because the spirit says what? The spirit will bring to mind the things that I have told you. So what does the Holy Spirit bring to mind? Jesus said, the Holy Spirit brings to mind all that I have told you.

[35:25] The very words of mine he will bring to mind. So I say this to people all the time. Give the spirit something to work with. You say, does he need anything to work with? No. God can create things out of ex nihilo, but his admonition to us, if he has spoken to us and we have the recorded word of God and yet we are not in it, then we are displaying weakness when we just remain silent.

[35:56] You say, well, I don't know it that well. Neither do I. You don't have to, you don't have to give a dissertation on dispensationalism.

[36:08] You don't have to explain every one of the marks of the beast that we find. You don't have to do all that. But know the word so that we have something to say.

[36:23] Know the character of God exhibited in his word. Be able to answer those who question or those who doubt. Because weakness is often exhibited in our silence.

[36:35] Silence is not a bad thing. Sometimes we need to be still and know that he is God. But in a moment where we are called to speak, may we have the boldness to do so.

[36:50] May we be willing to say, okay, God, you can use me for your glory. Paul, let's go back to what he said this morning. Every prayer request of Paul is he's asking the churches to pray that his mouth would be opened.

[37:08] for the proclamation of the gospel. That he would have the boldness to proclaim the gospel. And so Elihu is compelled to speak because of the weakness that is displayed in silence.

[37:26] Finally, what we see is he is compelled to speak because he is going to declare words of accountability. Not of holding other people accountable, but the words out of his own mouth will be accountable.

[37:39] He says in verse 14, nor will I reply to him with your arguments. He says, I'm not just going to repeat the same refrain you've been singing over and over again. Even though some of what he says seems to line up exactly and even seems to contradict himself at times.

[37:52] He says, I'm not just going to repeat what you've already said. He cries out in verse 20, let me speak that I may get relief. Let me open my lips and answer.

[38:02] Let me now be partial to no one nor flatter any man. So what he says, when I speak, I want to be able to declare these things without partiality, without being an ear tickler, without being a man pleaser.

[38:19] So he's holding himself accountable. Why? Because he says, I do not know how to flatter. Again, some people say, see, you shouldn't even pay attention to him because he says right here he's not very wise.

[38:30] That's not what he's saying. He said, I don't know how to flatter else my maker would soon take me away. What is he saying? He said, the accountability is that I realize what I am about to say, I will have to stand before my maker someday and give an account for it.

[38:49] I read today that the average human being will utter 850 million words in their lifetime. for the preachers of the gospel, that's well over a billion, I'm sure.

[39:07] 850 million words average human being. Sound waves never dissipate. They're always there. I've said this before, everything you have ever said and everything you're ever going to say will always be in existence for all of God's created time.

[39:25] sound waves are one of the things that scientists have discovered. They never dissipate. They just expand to the point that you can no longer audibly hear them but they are still in existence floating around out there somewhere.

[39:38] So we let that thought set in our mind for just a moment that everything we've ever said is still floating out there somewhere. And while our human ears cannot hear it, we do know the one who created the sound waves absolutely does.

[39:52] And what he's saying is there will be a day where I will stand before my maker and give an account for 850 million words. He says, God, that kind of judge, well, if we lived as if he was so and we lived with some accountability of our words, it would cause us to speak because we are compelled to speak not because we want to speak.

[40:25] He said, may my words be words that I'm going to be accountable for, that I will give an answer for. I don't want to speak flattery or appeasement to anyone.

[40:41] I mean, he'll rebuke all of them before he's done. Why? Because though he's been present the entire time, he hasn't been there trying to make friends.

[40:52] He's speaking on behalf of the maker that he was stand before. Are all of his things 100% true? No. No, absolutely not. Well, there'll be some faults in them, sure. But, so too are we.

[41:10] That's why the greater voice that we need to hear is not a voice of another man, but we need to hear the voice of God. And Elihu is just one of those steps, kind of like the kings. We meet this king, oh, this king is great.

[41:22] We read about him in 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Samuel and all those, you know, oh, what a great king. Look at everything. Oh man, he fell, I didn't know he was going to mess up like that. We need a greater king.

[41:34] We need a greater king. We need a greater king. In the book of Job, we keep reading, Job is one that is righteous and yet in his declarations, sometimes his righteousness reaches to the point of he exalts it before the Almighty.

[41:46] Then Elihu speaks and we're like, yes, that seems so right, but then it falls so short. It doesn't really answer. And it's amazing because by the time God speaks, we don't need the answer.

[41:56] We just needed a word from him the entire time. And we're no longer concerned about the answer because we're caught up in the speaker. And we're caught up in who it is that's talking.

[42:12] And we go, yes, that's what we need. But Elihu is a man who's compelled to speak. At times, we too will be compelled to speak and may we be compelled for the same means to Elihu us.

[42:28] May we also realize that we're about to speak words of accountability that we will be held accountable for before our maker. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this night and we thank you for our time together.

[42:43] As we prepare to leave here this evening, we pray that you be glorified in our thoughts, in our actions, in our living in the days ahead. We pray that you give us wisdom, not the wisdom of the ways of this world, but the wisdom of living in relationship with you.

[43:02]  I pray that as we walk before you that we would be used by you as you see fit. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.