Job chapter 11 I Worked on a message from Job
11 And I'm gonna bring that message
We're willing at another time. I've worked on it up until about
2 o'clock and then it switched After I got to reading a certain
verse in this chapter It just It just kept coming. And I thought,
well, this is going to be at least two messages. The message
that I worked on was Zophar had no gospel. He had no gospel. If you'll notice down in verse
13, if thou prepare thine heart, it's everything about what Job
needs to do in order to gain God's favor. But we'll look at
that the next time. but the title of the message
for tonight is the incomparable the incomprehensible the incomprehensibleness
of god god can't be comprehended that's the simple way to put
it god cannot be comprehended and i'll look at this at verse
7 8 and 9 10 11 and 12 But one of the great problems
of today's preaching, and this is what one of the things that
stood out to me as I was reading this. You know, Zophar says some
good things. He said some true things, and
I want to touch on some of that tonight. But one of the great
problems of today's preaching is how little they make God. That's sad, how little they make
God. God is not preached as the great
and terrible God that he is. They won't even use those phrases.
The God of today's preaching, we need not fear. He gets us. You've seen that stupid commercial.
He gets us. It took him a while, but now
he gets us. I hate that commercial. I want you to, I'm going to use
a lot of scripture tonight because God has promised to bless his
word. Not necessarily my words, he
may, but he has promised to bless his word. And as I have gotten
older and in preaching, I try to use more of the word of God
in my, in my notes. And we're gonna look at a lot
of them tonight, but I've already got a copy down You can if you
want to write down the reference you can do that But listen to
these scriptures in Malachi 1 6 a son on earth his father and a servant
his master If I then be a father, where is mine honor? And if I
be a master, where's my fear? Where's my fear there's no fear
of God in preaching today is there I The God that's preached
it, there's no reason to fear Him. Listen to Nehemiah 1, 5. And Nehemiah said, I beseech
thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great, the great and terrible,
terrible God, God who does terrible things, great and mighty things. This is how they address God.
And God has not changed. He's still the same God. There
again in Nehemiah 9.32, Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty,
and the terrible God, who keepeth covenant and mercy. He said,
let not all the trouble seem little before thee, but he addressed
him as the great, the mighty, the terrible God. When's the
last time you heard anyone pray like that? Bow before God's majesty and
tremble to even be in his presence, to even pray, call upon him. Listen to Daniel. This is how
these men prayed, because this is the God they knew, and God's
the same. God hasn't changed. And Daniel 9, 4, And I prayed
unto the Lord my God, and I made my confession, and said, O Lord,
the great and dreadful, dreadful God. You see, they remembered
the Red Sea. They hadn't forgot that. Daniel
hadn't forgot that. Even though years later, he hadn't
forgot that. That story kept coming up. God
drowned Pharaoh and his army in the sea. Pharaoh dealt with
a dreadful, terrible God. And outside of Christ, that's
him. That's him. God's love and God's mercy, God's
grace is in Jesus Christ. outside of him, you've got to
deal with a God who is a consuming fire. And he's not being preached
today in most places. Some places he still is. He still
has a witness throughout this world. Job 37, 22, fair weather
cometh out of the north with God is terrible majesty. glory majestic person this has
to do with his person terrible magic we've never seen a majesty
like this who rides upon the wings of the wind who has his
way in the whirlwind and in the storm terrible majesty psalm
47 too for the lord most high is terrible he is a great king
over all the earth My, my, my. God has not changed. He's ever the same. Now he says
here in verse 7, Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst
thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as
heaven. What canst thou do? Deeper than
hell. What canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer
than the earth and broader than the sea. I know this through
the reading of the scriptures. I believe the Lord has made this
known to me. God is infinite in every way. Everything about
our God is infinite. It's unmeasurable. Everything
about God is unmeasurable. No man in the flesh can fully
know and comprehend God. Now this does not mean we do
not need to seek Him. We do. He said to seek Him with
all our hearts and we would find Him. But even when we find Him
and He makes Himself known to us, we still can't comprehend.
We still can't comprehend God. You still can't comprehend such
a being. You can't do it. For any man to know God in any
measure, I mean any measure, in truth, in truth, God must
reveal Himself. God Himself has to make Himself
known to you, or you and I cannot know Him. We can't know one so
high above us. It's on such a higher level than
we are, of another nature than we are. God is Spirit. We are flesh. That's why we have
to be born of God, because that which is born of the Spirit is
Spirit. And when we're born of the Spirit,
now we can have some comprehension of who God is, but we can never
fully comprehend God. He's incomprehensible. We cannot contain such knowledge
in this flesh. Paul went to the third heaven.
He saw things he said that were unlawful to utter. There's no
way to put it in human language. You can't do it. He said, I cannot
even begin to tell you about that place. and tell you the
things that I heard, the things that I saw. I can't tell you.
Job 5.9, he says here, that God, that which doeth great things
and unsearchable, unsearchable. We ought to realize this, that
whatever God does in time, throughout eternity, we cannot search it
out to its fullness. You can't know it to its fullness. It's impossible. Listen to this
in Psalm 145, 3. Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised and His greatness, the greatness of God is unsearchable. It's unsearchable. The only book
we have is this book that contains a revelation of Him. No other
book does. There's no other book of all the billions, probably
billions of books that's been written. There's no other book
that God has revealed Himself, except in this book, and still
He has not revealed the complete fullness of Himself, because
we can't know that, we can't comprehend it, can't do it. Romans 11.33, Oh the depth of
the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable
are His judgments! That's why we can we can never
set in judgment on God. How unsearchable are his judgments?
Listen, and his ways past finding out. You know, when God spoke to Job. There in, I think it's 30 chapter
37 or 38 in there, when he started to speak to Job, he never explained
to Joe why he did what he did. And one of the reasons why, number
one, he's a sovereign, he gives no answer to any of his matters. That's one reason he's a sovereign.
Second reason, he couldn't understand anyway. You and I couldn't comprehend
why God does what he does with us. We can't comprehend that. God is incomprehensible, listen,
in his being. Isaiah 46, 5, to whom will you
liken me? and make me equal. Pick somebody
out. Pick out one of the gods of the
Egyptians, all those Egyptians. He's writing this to Israel.
They was there for 400 years. They saw all those different
gods that they had. He said, now who are you going to liken
me to? Who are you going to make me equal and compare me that
we may be alike? There's none like our God. God
is on a level of his own. Exodus 15 11 who is like unto
thee O Lord among the gods He's talking about the gods of Egypt
there in Exodus who is like the glorious in holiness what God
ever possessed holiness like our God Holy holy holy is the
Lord God Almighty Glorious in holiness fearful praises he deserves
all praise you and I cannot cannot praise him too much there are
a lot of things we can do too much of there's a whole lot of
things we can do too much of but we cannot praise God too
much we cannot worship him too much we cannot give unto him
the glory that's due unto his name too much can't do it We
can't even scratch the surface of the glory and the praise that
God Almighty deserves. Standing here trying to preach,
I'm struggling. Struggling trying to preach such a being as God. How do you preach such a one
as Him? Glorious and holy, fearful in
praise, doing wonders, doing wonders every day. Every day
He's doing wonders. I bet you we didn't for the most
part, didn't recognize any of it. You know, wonders were done
all around us today. Wonders were done all around
us. But for the most part, we were just keeping our heads down
and just doing whatever we're doing, like cattle out in the
field eating. God is doing wonders. Who can, listen, who can comprehend
God's eternality? No beginning. No ending. No searching of His existence. There's no searching of the existence
of God. There's never a time He was not.
You can't comprehend that. That's why the world, when they
think of that, they say, no, it's easier to believe that we
came from a monkey than God who's always existed. You can't comprehend. We can't comprehend His eternality.
Listen in Psalm 92 before the mountains were brought forth
Or ever thou has formed the earth and the world even from everlasting
to everlasting thou art God you were there No one gave you an
existence You can't comprehend that you know that I mean it
just You blow a fuse trying to figure that one out. Can't do
it. No one made him He made all things but no one made him. I
He made everything out of nothing because nothing existed. But He wasn't made out of anything. God is God. He's always existed. Who can comprehend His omnipresence? Equally present with all His
creation, with all His children at the same time. He's here with
us, and He's on the other side of the earth with them. He's
in heaven. Heaven, it says, can't even contain
Him. The heaven of heavens can't contain Him. He said, you gonna
build me a house? Nothing can contain God except one, Jesus Christ. In Him, it says, dwelt the fullness
of God. there's only there's one man
who contained the whole the whole the whole of god the man christ
jesus the whole god had dwelt in him bodily but who can comprehend the omnipresence
of god david said in psalm 139 you could read that whole song
i mean it's He says here, if I ascend up to heaven, thou art
there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I
take the wings of the morning and go to the uttermost parts
of the earth, thou art there. Read that Psalm. He's everywhere.
He's omnipresent. There's nowhere he's not. You
can't comprehend that. Then who can comprehend the power
of God? With God, nothing is impossible. That's what our Lord said. With
man, it's impossible. With God, there's nothing impossible. The heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water. He turns it whithersoever
he will. God has power over all. Christ
said, you've given me power over all flesh, that I should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. God has all power
over all flesh. He has all power over all demons. He has all power over Satan. He has all power over creation. He has all power over the universe. God has all power. He's the embodiment
of power. No one gave him power. If you
and I have power, it's like he said to Pilate, you could have
no power at all against me except to be given you from above, but
he was not given power, he possesses it. Power doesn't exist apart
from God. It doesn't exist. Psalm 62, 11, God has spoken
once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. It belongs to God. Job 26, 14. Lo, these are parts of his ways,
but how little a portion is heard of him, but the thunder of his
power. Who can understand? Who can understand
the power of God? And you know what? He uses that
power for good. Nothing but good. The power of
God is used for nothing but good. You know, they say with men,
what is it? Absolute power corrupts. Absolutely. Is that the saying that absolute
power corrupts? Absolutely. But not God. It doesn't corrupt him. He uses
his power. He uses his power for good. For
good. psalm 66 7 he ruleth by his power
forever no one's going to dethrone him he's not in a battle that
he can't win his eyes behold the nations let not the rebellious
exalt themselves somebody says i'm going to do
this i'm going to do that oh i you might you might not Paul
said, don't you know I have the power to crucify you and the
power to let you go? No, you don't. You don't have
any power at all, except what's given to you from above. Jeremiah
15, 15, he hath made the earth by his power. We know he made
it by the power of his word. He spoke it into existence. Think
of that kind of power. Say something right now and make
it happen. Say something and make it come into existence.
You and I can't make anything happen, but God speaks. He commands life, and if He does,
you live. If He commands you to die, you
die. He says to one, go, and he goes. He says to one, come,
and he comes. He says that those demons come
out, and no demon says no. Did you ever read of a demon
saying no? I'm not coming out. When our Lord says, come out,
they came out. They come out. Oh, he has power. he hath made the earth by his
power he hath established the world by his wisdom his infinite
wisdom you ever notice how everything someone said this steven sharnock
said this that it took divine wisdom to make such variety work
in such harmony it took divine wisdom to make
such variety to work in such harmony infinite wisdom and listen
he has established the world by his wisdom and has stretched
out the heaven by his understanding infinite understanding psalm 66 3 saying to god how
terrible art thou in thy works through the greatness of thy
power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee i see some
of them right here some of the enemies of god Including this
one by the power of God was made to submit to God He brought me to my knees just
as he brought you to your knees and he made you willing to win
Psalm 110 when did he make you willing in the day of his power? He made you willing until then
you were not willing and I was not willing But in that day,
when God exercised the power of His grace, you were made willing. Lord,
save me. Save me. In fact, you were afraid
He wasn't going to. I was. For the first time in my life,
I was afraid of God. I was afraid He wouldn't save
me. He didn't have to. Up till then,
everybody kept telling me He wanted to. Then one day I realized
he didn't have to, and he might not. Rolf Barnard, I heard this on
tape and I heard Henry mention it here last week. He said, seek
the Lord. He may save you and he may not,
but if I were you, I would seek him. He may save you and he may not,
but if I were you, I'd seek him because he said to. Who can comprehend, listen, the
knowledge of God? There's nothing he does not know.
You and I went to school and we learned very little, really. I mean, even the smartest one
here knows very little. I know that. I know how little
we know. It's amazing how little we know.
You can take a genius and then take him out and tell him to
change a tire and it's like, how do you change that tire?
I thought you was a genius. You and I just, we know very
little. We know very little. But listen, there's nothing that
God Almighty doesn't know. Now listen, that He doesn't know
unto perfection. Unto perfection. He knows it
to the point that it can't be known. There's nothing else to
know. Besides God, His knowledge, there's nothing else to know.
There's nothing that exists beyond that. He knows all things. He's a God
of description say he's a God of knowledge Job 21 22 Shall
any teach God knowledge? He's never learned anything.
He knows everything and shall any he says shall any teach God
knowledge seen he judges those that are high Job 36 for for truly my words
shall not be false he that is perfect in knowledge and is with
me. He's my teacher. He's my teacher. And then who can comprehend his
moral perfection? These are things that are just
jumping out at me. Who can comprehend the moral perfection of God? The only thing I've ever known
in my life is sin. I'm good at it. I'm good at it. And you're good at it. But God
is morally perfect in every attribute. Every attribute of God is morally
perfect. There's not a flaw in it. God
is light, and it says, and in him is no darkness. No darkness
at all. This is our God. This is the
one we worship. This is the one who saved us.
And how little we know him, really, truly, how little? It's amazing. Psalm 99 3 let them praise thy
great and terrible name for it is holy His name is who he is
his name represents all his attributes and all his attributes are holy
They're holy And then God is incomprehensible in his purpose.
He has determined the end from the beginning before God created
the first thing he already purposed the end of it and And the end
of everything was purpose before God created it. He took care
of it. God is a God of order. He's a
God of purpose. He never created one thing without
a purpose. Who can comprehend such a thing? Determine the end from the beginning.
Listen to this Romans 11 33 36. Oh the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God How unsearchable are his
judgments in his ways past finding out? For who hath known the mind
of the Lord who hath been his counselor? No one is counseled
God Who can dive into that eternal mind? Who can dive into that
eternal mind and comprehend and understand what's going on there?
Nobody. Or who hath first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed unto him again. For of him, and through
him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. but especially the eternal purpose
which he purposed in Christ he speaks of in in Ephesians chapter
3 and you can read that chapter and it says in verse 11 there
according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus
our Lord everything that God did purpose he purposed in Jesus
Christ and for Jesus Christ his son our Lord One writer wrote this, We can
only understand God's Perfections as He reveals them, and not as
He possesses them. We can know them as He reveals
them, but not as He possesses them, because He possesses them
to the fullest. We cannot, cannot, cannot comprehend
that. Can't do it. And then, God is
incomprehensible in Providence. It says in Nahum 1 3 the Lord
is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all quit
the wicked the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the
storm that's his providence God has his way in the weather that's
what he's saying in the hurricane in the tornado in the storm God
has his way it's his storm every storm is God's storm it's his
earth He has His way. Who can comprehend the providential
workings of God throughout the universe? We can't even comprehend
what went on in our little world today, let alone what went on
in the universe, let alone what went on throughout this globe,
that God providentially has worked everything to bring about His eternal purpose.
I mean, God's eternal, it's just reading, thinking of this, just
this afternoon, thinking of this is just, it's mind boggling. Who could comprehend Romans 8,
28? And we know, not to perfection,
but we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Here's my thought after I read that today. If we could comprehend
just a small part of God's providential workings, we would not complain
anymore. If we could just comprehend what
God did today providentially in our life and in the world,
in the universe, we wouldn't complain anymore. because He's
already purposed the end of it from the beginning of it. Then God, who is incomprehensible,
is sovereign over all that He does. Look in verse 10. If He cut off
or make a change, if He cut off and showed up or gathered together,
then who can hinder Him? If God cuts off my death, or
if he make a change in a man's life, who can stop him? He's the sovereign. He gives
no answer for any of his matters. He rules in heaven and among
the children of men. He rules over the earth. He's
the sovereign. If he shuts up the heavens and
withholds the rain, who can overturn it or change his decree? Who
can do that? Nobody. He's sovereign. If he shuts up in prison, who
can lose the prisoner and set him free? If God locks you up,
you're locked up. If he shuts the door on you,
that door's shut. And if he gathers together, who
can limit him? Listen to what Job 34, 14. If
he set his heart upon a man, if God sets his heart upon a
man, If he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath. If
God sets his heart... What did he say to that rich
man? Thou fool, this night thy soul is required of thee. All
his money could not buy him one second longer. God set his heart
upon it. You're dying tonight. This is your end. Right to the
second. All flesh shall perish together
and man shall turn again unto dust. Or if he cuts off, he cuts off.
Nobody can stop him. Or if he shuts up, he shuts up
and nobody can open it. Or if he gathers together, nobody
can scatter or hinder him. Nobody can stop God. That's just
a simple way to put it. None can stop him. and then God
who is incomprehensible knows the hearts of all men he perfected
knowledge and he knoweth you know our Lord said this he knew
what was in man that's why he didn't commit himself to men
he knew what was in man he knows the heart verse 11 for he knoweth
vain men he seeth wickedness also will
he not consider it will he not then consider God knows all men
he knows even their vain thoughts He knows their vanity. God knows
every man perfectly. There's nothing hid from him. I tell you what, the day of judgment
is going to be a day of surprises. It's going to be a day of surprises.
The things that were done in secret are going to be revealed. The things you thought nobody
knew, God knows. And it's going to be brought
up to those who are not in Christ. He knows every man perfectly. We only know what we see. God
sees all things. In Mark 4, 22, for there is nothing
hid which shall not be manifest. Neither was anything kept secret,
but that it should be that it should come abroad. Lord had me in Christ. Because
that is one day I don't want to deal with. Will he not then
consider it? Yes, yes, he will, and he'll
deal with it in time. You know, God deals with ungodliness,
sinfulness in his time. He deals with it in his time,
not our time. He'll let a person go long enough, he'll give them
enough rope to hang herself, and they'll hang themselves sooner
or later. He'll deal with it. asked for
man listen man likes likes to be thought of as wise he's a
fool he's a fool listen verse 12 and i'm gonna
close we're vain empty empty every man every woman outside
of christ and here's why the gospel is not popular they are
nothing empty Useless. Useless. That's the truth. The scripture says there's none
good, no, not one. God said he looked down from
heaven to see if anybody was seeking him. Nobody sought after
him. Nobody. Not one. For vain man would be wise, though
man be born like a wild ass is cold. You see, this started in
the garden. A tree to make one what? Wise. And what did it do? It made him
a fool. He'd been wise if he'd just listened to God and done
what God said to him. Don't eat it. Though man likes to be thought
wise, he likes to be thought of as wise. You know, people,
you know, like to set themselves up as gurus, you know, just,
or sets himself up on a stage and asks me questions, and I'll
answer them for you. Man likes to think he's wise.
But he says here, he's like a wild ass, unteachable. You know, a
wild ass is cold as one that's out there in the desert. One
that's out there in the wilderness, wild as a buck. Unteachable. Man, by nature, is spiritually,
listen, spiritually unteachable. Henry said one time, you can't
counsel the ungodly, there's nothing to work with. You don't
have anything to work with. Now if you have a man that's
been born of God or a woman that's been born of God, you've got
something to work with. They've got something to put it in. A
new nature. A new heart. The right spirit. They're teachable. But not until
then. They're like a wild ass. Unteachable. A beast. A beast. God made man
wise, but he became a fool and has been one ever since. Man
is an ignorant fool. Period. How foolish is it not to believe
God? How foolish is it to hear the truth and get up and walk
away and not believe what you heard and not take God at his
word? I know I was there. I was there
before. No. And like the wild ass, he wants
nothing but to feel the lust of his flesh, that's all. That's
why so many of these religious meetings, it's all about the
flesh, it's all about excitement, and it's all about the hoopla,
it's all it's about. It's not about God. You don't get the scriptures
that I've just read to you tonight. You don't get that. You've been
instructed tonight. You and I have been given a little
more light again tonight from the Word of God. That's the reason
I wanted to read so many scriptures. This is not what I think of God,
this is what God has revealed of Himself. But listen, listen, I'm going
to close. God must be preached as He is. If the God we preach
is not incomprehensible, If He's not the great and terrible, dreadful
God of heaven and earth, then we have the wrong one. We've
missed it. We've missed it. I'm going to
close by saying this. Seek the Lord with all your heart.
In the Scripture, He promises you'll find Him. That's a promise.
But we can never know all there is to know of God fully. Are
you satisfied with your knowledge of God? With your knowledge of
Christ? Paul wasn't. Paul said, Oh, that
I might know him. And I think Paul probably knew
the Lord as much as any human being on this earth. Paul knew
him. He went to the third heaven. He was given an abundance of
revelation. That's why he was given a thorn
in the flesh to keep him humble. He had so much revelation given
to him. But he said, Oh, that I might know him. And I do believe
this, I believe the more you come to know him, the more you
crave to know him. Lord, make yourself known to
me. Let me know you. Pray, pray that, ask sincerely,
ask God to make himself known to you. Believe me, you won't
exhaust that. You won't exhaust that. Let us, listen, let us preach
Him as He has revealed Himself in His Word and stand in awe
of Him. All right.