Page 63 - Job

Chapters 3-31 are a wonderful illustration of the futility of argumentation.
NOTHING, NOTHING is gained by arguing the truth with someone.
Here is something it takes years to begin to learn. See if you can get this.
It is a little complicated to explain. God has not called you to win the
world or to convince the world. He has called you to know His Son. As
we walk in the intimacy and knowledge of the Lord, the Holy Spirit will
convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. He has not called
you to convince the world of anything.
We are tempted to think that the more we argue and debate these things,
the closer to the truth we will get. No, that’s not what the Bible says at all.
The fact is, the longer you debate and argue, the deeper the ditch you are
digging yourself. The passion of the conflict excites the flesh and fans the
flames of self-righteousness. Worst of all, it takes our undivided gaze off
of Jesus.
I love to compare before the argument, chapter 1:21, “The Lord giveth
and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
With Job 38:2 which is after the argument. God looks in the face of Job
and says: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without
knowledge?” “Darkens counsel”. He says, “Hey, I have been arguing in
order to get counsel”. God says, “No, you are a lot darker now than you
were when you began. You were better off when you said”, “The Lord
giveth and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the
Lord.” Where did you get after all this arguing? More deeply entrenched
in the darkness.

These chapters are a great demonstration of how debating can take you
from the truth. Job was more confused after all of this philosophy than
before. It is always that way. Do you know the verse, “The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom?” Here is an amazing thing. If you
start your reasoning anywhere but “The fear of the Lord”, the more logic
you apply, the further from God you get. I remember one time getting
ready for a Bible study and I started buttoning my shirt wrong. The more
I buttoned the worse it got. If you don’t start out right, you’re not going
to end up right. And so, you have to begin with the Lord. Do not ever
think that you are going to win anyone to the truth by an argument. You
will not.
Now I realize what I am about to say might be an unpopular position in a
world where seminaries and Bible schools teach the exact opposite of this.
But as I study my Bible, I do not see any place for what is called
“apologetics”. The idea of apologetics is to create logical arguments in
order to defend the faith. I think seminaries that teach such courses are

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