LIVE DISCUSSION: (Job 15:21-23) "WICKED MAN'S DEMISE" Part 2/4

What if the loudest sound in a successful life is a troubled conscience? We dive into Job’s debates and find a mirror for our own moment: brilliant arguments that miss the mark, confident opinions that drown out wisdom, and a culture that calls greed ambition while the heart keeps asking harder questions.

We walk through Eliphaz’s portrait of the wicked and the “dreadful sound” that follows them into prosperity, connecting it to modern leaders and celebrities who can buy anything except peace. Along the way, we challenge a popular myth: that knowledge alone guarantees truth. It doesn’t. Without wisdom, humility, and love, even accurate doctrines become arrows aimed at the wrong target. We talk about why study matters, how to ask God for wisdom that tempers learning, and how to keep counsel from turning into cruelty.

From Psalm 73 to Proverbs, we trace how Scripture reframes success, suffering, and the restless chase for “just a little more.” Wealth isn’t evil, but the love of it distorts our vision and hollows our desires. True inheritance doesn’t pad an account; it anchors a soul. Streets of gold are pavement because presence is the treasure. That’s why legacies fade while life in Christ endures. If your reward is now, it ends. If your reward is Christ, it begins now and it doesn’t end.

Listen for a grounded, honest conversation that trades performance for wisdom and noise for clarity. If this resonates, share it with a friend, subscribe for more thoughtful episodes, and leave a review to help others find the show. What are you chasing, and does it finally bring you peace?

Transcript

Fear, Conscience, And Waiting On God

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Invoke fear upon somebody who already, like you said, tell me something I don't know. You know what I mean? I know what's going on. I'm I'm I'm hip. I'm in fear. I I see the boils. I see my kids. You're like, I get it, you know. So, and I guess people try to make you feel convicted about something, as if you don't know, because you're just sitting here. Like, I know what's going on, but I just know if I move without God's permission or sometimes I do that. Sometimes I may talk and like I didn't tell you the same thing. Now you messed it up. Now I gotta make you wait till the end of the week and stuff. I was gonna give it to you right now, but yeah, man. You know, it's it's this is good. I feel like it's gonna be good.

SPEAKER_06 0:40

All right, brother. Good to have you as always.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

Thank you.

Smart Friends, Wrong Conclusions In Job

SPEAKER_06 0:42

Thank you, brother Pat. Your opening remark, brother. Good to have you. Good evening.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Good to see you guys. Um, yeah, I really am in agreement with with Meg, and Brother Rodney seemed to be on sort of on the same page with Meg. And if I could just build upon that a little bit, one of the things that's so frustrating to me, Jonathan, in life, it's it's because of the flesh, is the world doesn't operate the way I think it should operate. In my mind, smart people should always be right because they're intelligent. And dumb people should always be wrong because they're less intelligent. And that should be the determining factor. And but when you look at these three friends, these are no dummies, man. You could take any one of these statements that they've made in the entire chapter of Job, and you could preach an entire sermon on any one of these things that they've said because that these are things that they have thought about. This is not third grade level stuff they're throwing out there. This is college-level stuff they're throwing out there, this is university level philosophy. These are observations um that would be true in other in other situations. So they're not they're not stupid people. And one of the frustrating things is all the intelligence and education in the world doesn't help you get to truth. Right. That's such a frustrating reality. Our flesh doesn't want to believe that. I've known so many intelligent atheists that operate the same way as these three friends. They have all the education and intellect in the world, and it does nothing to help them get to the bottom of things and get to the truth.

Knowledge Without Wisdom Falls Short

SPEAKER_06 2:30

Brother, you said a mouthful there. You really did. You know, it it's like this is why it's so interesting, because I will hear people on this platform and you know, uh, primarily, and they would have you say, don't listen to all these theologians that have that have been responsible and instrumental in building the church and sustaining it. Don't listen to Jonathan Edwards or Whitfield, don't listen to Samuel Rutherford or William Perkins, don't listen to these guys. Listen to me. Some guy sitting in his garage dancing with his dog. And I'm supposed to get my theology from him. This is this is the mentality that people have today. And and this is why it's so important that as I've been talking about all week, we need to become students of the word of God. Because these people here, I'm telling you, there's not even, there's nothing. And they just come up with something and they want to tell you things based on how they feel. So they end up spewing out all of these weird things that is based on this cursory assessment that has no modicum of reason behind it or logic. It's just random spewing. And generally speaking, they just heard it somewhere. They don't know it, they didn't read it, they didn't study it, they just say it, they just recite and regurgitate. But we have a responsibility to be students of God's word. Every one of us, every single one of us. Brother Jeff, go ahead.

Mockery, Pride, And Scriptural Correction

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Well, I was gonna add to that, and I'm sure you'll agree, is that you can have all the knowledge in the world, but if it's not tempered by wisdom, it's a waste of it's a waste of time. And James says to ask God, the Father, for wisdom, he'll give it to us freely. But people don't do that. They just memorize a bunch of stuff and they sort through it and they don't think about it, and they don't have the wisdom to deal with it. And uh that's what's needed. I mean, knowledge without wisdom is wait is a waste of time.

SPEAKER_06 4:52

Amen, brother. That's totally true. So true. Brother Penn, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

I don't know why it's reminding me so much of like people of our time, but it reminds me of somebody like Richard Dawkins, the atheist. Yeah, clearly a brilliant biologist, and will say the most intelligent things, and then a sentence later will say the most moronic, you know, things because that intellect, it's just not enough to give you truth. It it doesn't matter. You can't be smart enough to have God's truth. There's no level that you can achieve in your you get what I'm saying? You can be a scholar of scholars, and it will never be enough to walk in God's truth. You have to be changed spiritually. Even these guys, they're no dummies, and it's not helping them at all.

The Wicked’s Restless Conscience In Prosperity

SPEAKER_06 5:48

Absolutely. You're right, because they these these guys are very smart men. These are not like these aren't goofy dudes. They they they they have been informed. And um, and so and and and it's also can be grounds for our own caution because we can be we we you know we can see ourselves as having an understanding about certain aspects of the scriptures when we are having or engaged in conversations. But we too have to see to it that we don't find ourselves put in that place where they are where where we are just we're just spouting out the the doctrine as a truth, but not aiming it anywhere where it should actually hit and and and be effectual at hitting a goal. Um and so this is what's happening here. These guys are they're not even they're not even anywhere near the target. They they have the right bow, they have the right arrows, but they they but they they're not even aiming at the target at all. And so they we don't want to be that either, and we have to really be careful ourselves, each one of us, because we are all uh belong to this ministry where we're all expected to to whatever degree to be able to be in a situation to have to teach someone something about the things we believe. Everyone who's a Christian has that responsibility. Every single one of us. No one's exempt, and so it's it's really important. Uh, Sister Candy and then uh Jeffrey, encouraging servant. Candy and then Jeffrey the encouraging servant.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

And it's awesome how every what everyone said's led up to what we're actually witnessing. It's the mockery of his friends, and we know that that's like for someone that's not of God, that's like a typical response, right? Is to mock someone because of their beliefs, so to say. But I like how Proverbs 122 says, How long you simpletons, will you insist on being simple-minded? How long would you mockers relish your mocking? How long will you fools hate knowledge? And then he says, Come and listen to my counsel, and I'll share my heart with you and make you wise. And that's exactly what Job is doing, even though it we don't see it, but that's what he's doing. They don't see it, but he's still teaching them throughout all of their ridicule and mocking. Um in Psalms 89, it was funny because um I was at 89, 50, and 51 when Mariah said something about verse 90 or chapter 90, and he says, Consider, Lord, how your servants are disgraced. I carry in my heart the insults of so many people. Your enemies have mocked me, oh Lord. They mock your anointed king wherever he goes. So not only we're seeing it what happened to Job, but they did the same thing to Jesus. So anyone that is of God, we're all gonna experience that.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

Right. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

It's like if if if again, if we're gonna be heirs to the kingdom with with Jesus, then we're to suffer right along with him as well.

SPEAKER_06 9:14

That's right. That's right. Uh, brother uh Jeffrey, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 9:19

Encourage the sermon. Yeah, Jonathan, I just wanted to add tonight that there is a danger here for all of us. I mean, we can continue to fill our minds with more and more and more knowledge. Which, but as it was pointed out earlier, Jonathan, if it's not tempered with wisdom, it's useless. Paul said in Ephesians 3:19 that the love of God that he has for us is beyond all knowledge. Right. So, Jonathan, we've got to be very, very careful here. I mean, we can get prideful, full of pride in all of the knowledge we possess. And I think for me, Jonathan, kind of reading between the lines here a little bit with Job and his three friends, I'm beginning to think that they're very prideful of the knowledge they have, but it's not tempered and forged with it needs to be tempered and forged with more wisdom. Because they they seemingly so far, it hasn't even dawned on them, uh even a tiny bit, that Job is telling them the truth, and they have uh uh misrepresented the situation to Job. I mean, they have misunderstood. So again, the lesson here for us, brother, is to be careful, proceed cautiously when we're in a situation similar to what Job is dealing with and his friends, too. Amen, brother. Amen.

Prosperity, Greed, And Misnamed Ambition

True Inheritance And The Poverty Of Wealth

SPEAKER_06 10:45

So now we come to verse 21. So in 20, he says, the wicked man travails with pain all his days, the number of years is hidden to the oppressor. Verse 21. A dreadful sound is in his ears, ears of the wicked man, a dreadful sound is in his ears. And then he says, In prosperity, the destroyer shall come upon him. In his prosperity, the destroyer shall come upon him. So he taught he speaks about the the wicked man's fear being constant and always agitating him and always sort of being uh intruding on his on him on him in some kind of way. And so, and he and he tells us here that even in times of great abundance and outward prosperity and success, that terror is echoing in his conscience. Wicked men know. They know. Now listen, I've seen, I'm sure some of you guys have seen this, right? But I've seen a couple of these uh of these uh of these uh press conferences or whatever that our president has has been saying, has had, where he talks about, he's been where he's been talking about his concern about going to heaven or hell. And I gotta tell you, I found it fascinating to have a president talking about this. Fascinating. He seemed in these in these conversations to have a concern, maybe not the way he should, I don't know. But it seems like there is a awareness of some of some type. And it may be a faulty awareness, it may be a true awareness, I don't know. But I do know he was talking about it publicly. And you're talking about a you're talking about a guy who's a multi-billionaire, and there's a lot of them out there, and what this is talking about is you know, uh Elifaz is saying here that there's a dreadful sound that penetrates the ears of these wicked. And it says that even in their prosperity, the destroyer, the destroyer will come upon them. They don't know when it's coming. And this is what this is what aggravates and intensifies their anxiety. So they have to continue oppressing, they have to continue consuming because somehow they think that their purses, their wallets, will save them. It won't. It won't. Will not be, will not provide any degree of comfort or of comfort for any person. For any person. And this is what we're talking about. He says this dreadful sound. This is not talking about just something that is external, this is talking about something that is internal. That dreadful sound is blowing loud in the conscience of these souls, souls of people. God is telling us here that we something we need to understand because I say this because so many of us will look at these guys or women and say, I want what they have. Why is everything going right for them? But what did David say in Psalm 73? Lord, I went into your temple and I saw their end. David said, Now I get it. My favorite song, 73. He says, Now I get it. I wondered why they prosper so much. I wondered why their fields produce and overproduce. I wondered why they have multiplicity of children and they're all healthy. I wondered why they live so old and live so many years, and they accumulate so many things, and nobody's attacking them. Nobody's doing anything. Why do they prosper? And he says, I went into the I went into the temple. And I and he says, The Lord, you showed me their end. And that's a little bit of what we're getting here. That's a little bit of what we're getting here. This dreadful sound is is in their consciences, it's in their heart. The voice of guilt, expectation of judgment, and the fear of sudden ruin always plays them. It always plays them. They're always protecting what they have because they have this built in to their spiritual DNA that they're gonna lose it unless they put every effort that they can into holding it, which is the very thing that you cannot do, and is the very thing that ensures you will never hold on to it. Never. You can build all the extra barns you want, it will not be what will comfort you. It will have nothing to do with providing you any degree of security of any type. And it certainly is not indicative of you having a right standing with the thrice holy God. It has nothing to do with that at all. Brother Rod, go ahead. And then Jeffrey.

Legacies Fade, Christ’s Riches Endure

SPEAKER_04 16:19

Um, I just want to touch one. It's just like one thing. It's just no thing I see people talking about love, is that's just as ferocious as the grace. You know, I agree that. Um, because it just like there's he doesn't Aliphaz doesn't mention like repentance, mercy, grace, you know, any type of restoration. And it's kind of, and I'm gonna take a leap of faith here, but it's kind of make me think about uh Daniel and his two friends and how they, you know, uh they just didn't want to enter into uh Babylon, like the files what he had already told God. And by by way of doing that, he was blessed with the two gifts, you know, and just reading through that and watching him bring um Nebuchadnezzar to the place of prostration, you know, just you know, none of your gods, none of the stuff that you prayed to was gonna work and stuff like that. So it's kind of like just it made me think about that, just like having the love of the Lord as your as your number one and had that armor on. I don't care how big the enemy is, if you have that love and that true love, you can bring down move mountains, as they say, right? So he bought Nebuchadnezzar and his son, if I remember correctly, you know. So I just wanted to say that really quick.

SPEAKER_06 17:30

Amen, brother. Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 17:32

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 17:32

Encourage you, sir.

SPEAKER_05 17:35

Yeah, Jonathan, I just wanted to make a quick comment about how the wicked prosper. Jonathan, it's always been my thought that they have chosen their reward of this world. Their reward is the temporary things of this world. They have it, they're enjoying their reward right now. But as you said, it will end right now. We have to go through some sufferings, through some pains, and through some difficulties, but our reward is coming and it will be eternal. The wicked will have nothing in eternity. We will have everything because we have Christ. And that's what we need to remember. When we see the wicked prosper, and people who are serving God sometimes struggling, we need to remember this. They've got their reward. That's it. That's all they got. Our reward payday is coming someday. Amen, brother. Brother Pat, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

I could not agree with encouraging servant anymore on what he just said. It's something that people don't want to hear because we want to be attached so badly to the things of this world. But um, I have a family member who uh founded a Fortune 500 company. He's he's one of the most wealthy people in the United States. And people don't want to hear this. But when they ask, how did he get his money? I'm gonna tell you the number one uh character trait that he has that guaranteed his success, greed.

SPEAKER_05 19:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

He is his entire life, he was obsessed with money, and it wasn't hard work. I mean, he has other things, but but by far, the number one thing that guaranteed his success was obsession and gr with greed. And Christians don't want to hear we don't want to accept that because we love the things of this world so much, man. But it's a harsh reality. They they are um just like uh Jeffrey said, they're enjoying this world while they have it, and it's a short-lived thing.

SPEAKER_06 19:53

Well, see, brother, you first of all, you're 100% correct, and I agree with you and Brother Jeffrey. And and here's the here's the thing. We like for instance, here in America, we live in a very we live in a capitalist society, which is another way of rationalizing greed. You know, it comes under that. And we and and and what we call it, we don't call it greed. I mean, people don't really talk about greed, you know. Christians, we may talk about it, but what they call, what we call greed, they call ambition. They call it ambition. See, we are good at putting at putting labels on things so that we can be at peace with things. And believe me, I'm not knocking capitalism. This is what this is a country where you can make money, you can go do something or whatever. But let's not get it twisted. Christ made it, you know, the scripture tells us something very plain. You can't have God and mamma. So that's number one. That's number one. I don't care what you say about capitalism, you have to reconcile that with what he said. The Lord Himself. And then his word tells us also that the love of money is the root of all things. Not money itself, but the love of it. And that's what greed comes in. And what we need to do as Christians, we need to be not we need to be greedy for our fellowship with the Lord. We need to be greedy for the bread of life. Not for the not for money and monetary gain and stuff. But we are we come out of the cradle in this country believing that we need to pursue and do all that we can. Go to school, why? To make more money. Buy a house, why? So you can have more stuff. Buy a bigger house, why? So you can have more, you know, it just goes, there's no end to it. Now, somebody will probably walk away and go, oh, you don't want you don't think we should have. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that it is the inordinate love and affection for money. There is a there is There's greed, and then there's other people who take it to another another level. They love their greed. They love their greed. And it is built into the DNA to get more and more and more and more and more. But none of it satisfies. None of it satisfies. And so we need to understand that we are heirs to the king of creation. We are his heirs. We're his offspring. When we leave this life that we know right now, we inherit all things. And the scripture calls us joint heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Notice the term joint heirs. We will inherit all things. The Muslims in Islam, they believe they're going to inherit the earth. The Jews, Judaism, those people, they believe they're going to inherit all things. They're not. Those who are servants of the Lord Jesus Christ and them only are joint heirs with him and will inherit all things. We need not fret at all. If you really want to be a true, listen, if you really want to be a true capitalist, put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and Him alone. Then you will know what true riches really is. There's a reason why the streets of gold are paved because to us, that will be dirt. Gold will be dirt. Not what we aspire after. And it shows that everything above that ground, above those streets, is of far more value. And that value comes with being in the presence of our one and only Lord and Savior, the Creator of all, who saved us from death and prepared for us a mansion in his house. Think of the idea of having a mansion, multiple mansions, in what he refers to as his house.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

He says, I can have somebody drive me wherever I want. I can literally get anything that I want. But what I can't do is pay for somebody to take this cancer from me. And that that I'm sure was a very humbling moment for him. Because in the end, it doesn't matter what you have. When your appointed time is coming, everything that you have worked so hard to obtain in this life is gone in an instant. And you can't take anything.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

First of all, Meg, uh, I love you. And uh the thing is that the precious love for my brothers and sisters uh is a reflection of the love of Christ, and I appreciate that so much. Uh what I wanted to say was that Satan's tools to attack us are always in the categories of uh uh the pride of life, the pride of the eyes, and lust of the flesh. Money kind of goes on all three of those. And the thing is, too, is that you know God makes a person wealthy. Some wealthy men said, Well, look at how much I've done, I'd say, Well, you know, God gave you that to help other people. Because let me tell you something. If you're a millionaire, you can still live like a king and help lots of people.

SPEAKER_05 27:14

Right.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

And the last thing I wanted to say was a quote uh was a story that supposedly someone asked Howard Hughes, and I'm sure maybe some of y'all that are younger don't remember who Howard Hughes was. He was a billionaire when there was only I think he was the only one. Um alive at that time. And uh they asked him how much money was enough. And you know what he said? Just a little more. Yep. Isn't that isn't that pitiful? Because the thing is, when you cross the line and go when you die, they don't show you to your Swiss bank and show you where all your money is. It says in Hebrews 9.27, you go to the judgment. That's what you go with. That's what I wanted to add here.

SPEAKER_06 28:00

You know what? I'll add something to what you just said, and that's this, because you're right, because most people don't know who Howard Hughes is. I mean, you know, they don't they don't know. And that is also further indicative of what we're talking about, because who like how it how many people listening here even know who he is now? But back then, you know, he was the man. He was known for being rich outside of the spruce goose and and all the things that he was involved in, but he's gone and no one remembers it. No one remembers it. Somebody mentioned uh Dawkins. He hasn't been dead that long. We forgot him. When I'm when all of you give it give it 20 years, we will be forgotten. And men are always talking about building legacies, building legacies, getting their names on buildings and getting their names on street signs and getting their names on carved on brick walls and getting statues, you know. America was going through a time here recent years where they were arguing over pulling down statues and whatever. It doesn't matter, not to the Christian, it shouldn't matter to any of us. We are living, walking, vibrant monuments to the salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to us. I don't want to be a dead statue, I want to be a living servant, one who lives to serve for eternity. I know all of you feel the same way. But man has gotten his perspective in general really twisted and focused on things that have no ability to provide any lasting comfort at all. And even the comfort that they think they have, that they pretend to have, we only know from the scriptures that it is not what it all seems like. They may put on an act in a show in front of us. But when we read the scriptures, like right here, we should know better. When we watch, when we watch these people on TV, most of the time, more often than not, these people look miserable. How often do we hear about people overdosing or being caught up in drugs? How many times do we have to see a celebrity, you know, doing something crazy in the middle of the street or just out there in public doing something really ridiculous? All the money in the world doesn't give them what Christ has given us. That's what they're seeking for.