Job 18 – A Great Sermon But Who Is The Audience?

This chapter presents us with a mini sermon given by Bildad to Job. It would have been a great sermon if only it was directed at the right audience. But unfortunately Bildad sees Job as ‘the wicked’ and proceeds accordingly, and although he makes some generalisations, much of what he is saying is clearly directed at Job.
We can learn from this sermon that there is a way to speak to certain people. It has been said that, “Soft words produce hard hearts, and hard words produce soft hearts” (Mark Driscoll), and that it is inappropriate to preach about the grace and love of God to the heart-hearted and rebellious and proud, since ‘God resists the proud but grace to the humble’ (See Prov.3:34; Jas.4:6). So why do some preachers ‘give grace to the humble’, when God Himself is opposed to this? See also Isa.26:10.

Some of the people we talk to, including militant atheists, think that they have great ‘counsel’ or are so wise with their arguments. They may lay traps for the person witnessing, but if a believer has done a course in apologetics and knows how to challenge views such as relativism, those arguments can be demolished. This actually is the point of 2 Cor.10:4-5.

We need to call wicked sinners to repentance. Unfortunately, though some preachers may say they believe in repentance, they will water-down the meaning of repentance to something that they often quote from Thayer’s Bible Dictionary. Did you know that Thayer gives 2 definitions concerning repentance. 1) To change the mind. 2) To change one’s mind in respect to sin, God, and self. To turn to God and from sin.
Now how come that these preachers or believers, only quote the first part of the definition? It is almost as if they are doing their level best to avoid any mention of SIN, RIGTHEOUSNESS, and JUDGEMENT, and they certainly won’t want to mention HELL, because these terms will just put people off! So instead they sugar-coat the Gospel, speak only of HEALTH and WEALTH, the GOODNESS and GRACE of God!

Yet it is true that if all we do is go on about HELL without speaking of the HOLINESS of God and His JUDGEMENTS and LAWS, then we also would be off balance. The wicked need to be brought to REPENTANCE, and presented with the Gospel. This message is not designed only for WICKED SINNERS, but to HIM WHO DOES NOT KNOW GOD (Job 18:21).

To watch this sermon on Youtube, click here

Michael Robson