Come on and pick and grin. We
enjoy hearing good music too. And so don't forget that. I'm
gonna start reading here in verse six. I went over this real fast
last Sunday night, but I'm gonna take my time and go through it
tonight. Verse six, hell is naked before
him and destruction hath no covering. He stretches out the north over
the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth
up the waters in his thick cloud, and the cloud is not rendered
unto them. He holdeth back the face of his
throne and spreadeth his cloud upon it. He hath compassed the
waters with bounds until the day and night come to an end. The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astonished at his reproof. He divided the sea with his power,
and by his understanding he smited through the proud. By his spirit
he hath garnished the heavens. His hand hath formed the crooked
serpent. 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? Part of his ways. Job's three comforters had offered
many, many remedies to Job, but they never even touched the disease. Their idea was that Job had to
be an incredibly, incredibly bad, awful sinner to be in such
a terrible condition. And they gave him many remedies,
but never touched the disease. They were blind men trying to
describe Job's troubles and the reason for them and also the
remedies. Job called them all miserable
comforters, all of you are. You're just miserable, miserable
comforters. And you know, and we went through
that chapter 25. Last week, too, also, where God
said, the moon, sun, and shine don't even shine in his sight,
they're not pure. How much less man that is a worm. So Job, words reveal that though
Satan, God had let Satan, allowed Satan to come after Job, and
had brought ruin, he had had ruin and desolation upon himself. God had brought this desolation
and ruin upon him. He had not destroyed his hope,
his view, and his faith in God Almighty. No matter what they
said, no matter how bad a shape he was in, he never ever lost
his view of God, and his love for God, and his submission to
God. And I tell you what, and here
he is, and he's gonna go through six chapters. He goes through
six chapters that Job's gonna answer these fellows. And he
hath not touched the Spirit that was in him. And that's why verse
14 says, you know, these are just parts of his ways. In that
same way, parts of his ways means the outskirts of his way, just
the outskirts out here. And look what it says there in
verse six. Hell is naked before him, and
destruction hath no covering. Now you know this means more
than just the bottomless pit. He sees all the hell that some
people cause on this earth. A lot of people bring a lot of
hell on a lot of people. And I'm not using it, I'm using
it in a biblical sense. There's a lot of people that
make people's life absolutely miserable. And you know what
people say all the time, they say, There's hell on this earth. I've been through hell on this
earth, and people do that. Well, God sees that. That's open
before Him. He sees everything that everybody
does. You mistreat somebody, you make
their life miserable, and you bring hell to them and hell into
their life, and all the darkness that hell brings with it, and
that's what it means, darkness. It means meanness. It means a
cruelty. It's a cruelty. And then there's
a hell beneath. A hell beneath, that's a place
that you want to shun by God's grace. And the world of spirits,
the world of spirits, and this world got full of spirits. He
says, you know, he said, we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
against spiritual wickedness in high places. And he's talking
about the spirits of this world. And he said, the world of spirits
is naked before God Almighty. There's no telling how many demons
are in this world at any given time. Well, who do you think
causes all these people to shoot all these people? Who do you
think makes these people do these crazy, crazy things? It's the
demons in them, it's the devil in them. And that's what he's
talking about, the world of spirits is naked before his eyes. I tell
you what, his eyes see all the way to the bottomless pit. He
sees all the way down to the bottomless pit. And I know this,
that's why we say, Lord, you know me, you know me. Search
me, try me, and if there's any wicked way in me, Lord, save
me from it. I don't want nothing in me that
would hinder my relationship with you, because hell is naked
before Him. The bottomless pit, He can see
all the way to the bottom of it. And I tell you, look, you keep
Job, and look with me over in Hebrews 4. Look in Hebrews 4,
look what it says over here. Not only is that, but look in
Hebrews 4 in verse 13. Oh, not only does he see all
the way to the bottomless pit, and he sees the hell that's on
earth, he sees the hell that's beneath the earth, he sees the
darkness and the world of spirits is naked before his eyes. But
look what he says there in Hebrews 4.13. He even knows your heart
and mind, they're naked before him. Listen to this. Neither
is there any creature that's not manifest in his sight. I
said everything, I see everything. But all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. God says,
as far as I'm concerned, I see everything there is about you.
Everything there is about you. And so I'll tell you, hell is
naked before his eyes. And all mine destruction and
all the destruction that's caused by these things. He said, I see
them all, I see them all. Then look what he says there
in verse seven. He stretches out the north over
the empty place. Now you know, when you go to
the north, it gets, go to the north pole and start from the
north pole and go down as far as you can to the equator. And
you know, and he said he took the north And just stretched
it over, just stretched it out. Just stretched it out. And he
said, I want this place to be cold. He just stretched it out,
and look what else it says here about it. And he hangs the earth
upon nothing. That's one of the most astounding
statements that I've ever read in my life. You know, this world,
here we live in a world. We live on this earth. And when
He's talking about the world, He hangs the world upon nothing. And we're living in this world.
We're living on this ball that God created. And God, He said,
He just, here it is, and He just, He said, here, this is this wonderful
space here. I believe I'll take the earth
and I'll just hang it out here. And I'm gonna, you know, not
only am I gonna hang it out here, but I'm gonna tell it to stay
right where it is. And I don't want it to never move. Oh my, do you know what the foundation,
do you know what the foundation of the earth is? Look in Psalm
11. Look in Psalm 11 with me. Look
in Psalm 11. Oh, he hangs the world upon nothing. Oh, do you know what the foundation
of the earth is? He asks this question. Psalm
113, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Well,
what foundations? Well, the foundations of the
earth. The foundations of grace, the foundations of righteousness,
the foundations of mercy, the foundation of the death of Christ. If the foundations be destroyed,
what are the righteous gonna do? Well, that verse four answers
it for us. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne's in heaven.
Go ahead, go on and mess with, listen, you're messing with God
when you mess with the foundation. And listen to what he said. And
his eyes behold the eyelids of the children of men. And he tries
them. Oh my, what a foundation we have. God himself hangs this world
upon nothing. And the scriptures always told
us how things were created. The Bibles always told us how
things were created. And then science finds it out
centuries and centuries later. You know, here's the thing. When
people used to get in ships and they'd go sailing somewhere,
when Christopher Columbus took out to sail, He didn't know if
he was going to get to the end of the earth and then just fall
off. That's what they thought. They thought the earth, you know,
went so far, and then you got to the end of it, you know, if
you went too far and didn't find someplace to do, you'd just fall
off, you'd just go off the end of the earth. They didn't know anything about
the earth being round until they read Isaiah. 40 in verse 22,
the Lord sitteth upon the circle of the earth. You know, and that tells us, you know, have y'all ever heard
anybody believes the flat earth? That's the most ridiculous thing
I ever heard in my life. And here he says he sits upon
the circle of the earth. And I was talking to a fellow
one time, and he told me, he said, I got a different cosmological
view. I said, what in the world's a
cosmological view you're talking about? I don't understand. He
said, well, I view how the cosmology come into existence different
than you. And I said, what are you talking about? Speak plain
language. He said, I believe the Earth's
flat. I said, what about he sits upon the circle of the earth?
He said, oh listen, all these pictures you see of the earth
and up and above and it's just a great big ball. He said, that's
all pictures that they put out just to deceive everybody else.
Can you imagine? But God said, God sits upon the
circle of the earth. God does. He let us know right
quick that there ain't no danger of you falling off the earth.
You start in one place and go all the way around, you come
right back where you started. You start at the top, go all
the way to the bottom. And go all the way around that
way, and you come right back where you started. Oh, I tell
you, I'm going to believe what God said, ain't you? I'm going
to believe what God said. And all the balancing of the
earth, just think about it. This earth is balanced. He said,
there's nothing out here And in fact, that's what the scripture
said. God created the world out of nothing. There was nothing
here. Nothing. And all God had to do
to create something, just speak. Just say. He just said. That's all He had to do to create.
He just speaks. He said, I want a heaven. There's a heaven. I want an earth. There's an earth. I want trees
on the earth. There's trees on the earth. I
want seven oceans. There's seven oceans. He said,
I want mountains over there. And I want deserts over there.
And there they was. He just speaks to get something
done. Oh my. And he balances this world
and everything on it. He said, I'll put you here. And
I want you to stay right there until I create a new heaven and
a new earth. And I tell you what, this earth
is balanced. You know, Ed, can you imagine
hanging on nothing? And it don't fall. It don't never
move. It don't go too far this way,
that way, nothing. It's just exactly where it ought
to be. Why? Because God hung it on nothing. Oh, the balance in the earth
and the worlds in space. These are just the parts of His
ways. And when He talks about the world,
hangs the earth upon nothing and the world, earth upon nothing.
You know, there's all kinds of worlds in this world. God's made
lots of worlds. He made the world full of stars,
the seas, the sun, the moon. And how many worlds are there
in this world? And I say, I think about this.
Every one of us in this building have our own world that we live
in. Every one of us have our own little world. Some people
have a bigger world and a wider world and a larger world than
some people and other people have just a small world. Very
small world. And you know, my neighbor, before
he died, he'd never been farther than 50 miles from where he was
born and raised. So his world was so small. And there's people that, they
got big worlds. I mean, they know lots of people,
lots of traveling, lots of, and then other folks, but every one
of us in our homes, we all have our own little world. Husbands
and wives can be married and yet the wife has her world and
the husband has his. And God made them. Aren't you
glad he gave us a world? I'm comfortable with my world,
are you? I'm comfortable with the world God gave me. You're
all comfortable with the world God gave you, huh? Oh my, bless his name. And I
tell you what, look what it says now, and also then in verse eight. He bindeth up the waters in thick
clouds, and the cloud is not rendered unto them. Oh, what in the world does this
mean? That he takes these clouds, These great big clouds that we
see, thunderheads and all that that we see. He fills them, fills
them plum full of water. The water, He just got water
just packed in them clouds. And He binds it up, binds it
in them clouds. And He holds them together by
an invisible hand. And He can hold them by, He can
hold them up And until he wills for them to open. Has an invisible
hand that he binds them up. Then when he wants it to rain,
he just opens his hand. Huh? I'm glad he's got his hand
open right now. These clouds, that rain coming
out of them clouds. Oh my. He opens them and pours
out the water. Oh, look with me over in Proverbs
30. Look in Proverbs 30. This is a blessing to me. I hope it'll be a blessing to
you. Proverbs 30 in verse 4. Oh my. You know, we'll watch
the clouds go by. And they'll have the promise
and hope of rain when we really need it, and then none will come.
And then other times, we're not even expecting rain. Next thing
you know, it's a deluge. And I tell you, you know, these
meteorologists, they talk about Mother Nature. You know, Mother
Nature's gonna give us, she's gonna make it rain. You know,
Mother Nature, Mother Nature, Mother Nature. And I've told you about them
three women that don't exist, ain't I? Mother Nature, Lady
Luck, and Miss Fortune. We don't believe in any of the
three. That's three women that I don't believe in at all. Look what it said here in Proverbs
30, verse four. He asked this question, who hath
ascended up into heaven, or descended, listen to this, who hath gathered
the wind in his fist, who hath bound the waters in a garment,
who hath established all the ends of the earth, What is his
name? And what is his son's name, if
thou canst tell? Huh? Oh, my. Oh, God. He binds up the waters
and the thick clouds. Next time you see a big old dark
cloud there, you say, God's got that thing. He got it in his
hand. A visible hand's got that. Huh? A visible hand's got that. And oh, my. Look what he says
there in verse 9. This is another one
of them things. He holdeth back the face of his
throne. What in the world can he mean,
holding back the face of his throne? But Job is saying behind
everything that we see, Everything that we can see Everything that
we can see behind The visible creation that we can see and
all the laws that God put in force in this world And everything
that we can see All is veiled and spread over the face of his
eternal throne And that's what he's saying He said He hides
the face of His throne. Have you ever seen His throne?
He's got a head. He's got a head. There's three
thrones in the Scriptures. There's the throne of judgment.
There's the throne of glory. And there's the throne of grace.
And I'll tell you what, we've already been to the throne of
judgment, as she sung in the Beloved. When he went to the
tree, I went there with him, accepted in the Beloved. And
I tell you what, so we've already been to the judgment throne. And we delight in the throne
of glory. But bless His holy name, ain't
you glad He's got a throne of grace we can come to to obtain
mercy and find mercy in our time of need? Oh, listen, we got a
throne of grace to come to now. And I tell you, He said behind
all of us three, His throne is not visible. It's not visible.
It's not visible. Behind that whole creation, The
whole creation behind the creation, and everything holds back the
face of His throne. And all the glory and majesty. God Almighty who rules over all
things. And He shines through all of
His material world. And Job saw Him, but you can't
see His throne. You can't see His throne. But
I tell you what, one of these days we're going to see it. Huh? And guess who we gonna see sitting
on it? Oh, it's gonna be a blessed day
when we get to see that throne. Oh, what a blessed day that's
gonna be. Look at Psalm 92. I gotta show you this. 97, I'm
sorry, 97. 97. Look what he said in verse 1
and 2 about God. The Lord reigneth. Let the earth
rejoice. Let the multitude of isles be
glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round
about him. You see he's got his face, throne,
face of his throne. Clouds and darkness are round
about him. Righteousness and judgment are
where His throne lives, and He sits on His throne, where righteousness
and judgment. That's the habitation, that's
the place where His throne's at. All right, let's go back
over here in our text. I want to show you something
else. And verse 10 says, He hath compassed
the waters with bounds. What does that mean? He went
around all the oceans. And he said, now you can come
this far and you can't come no further. Come this far and you
can't come no further. He set the boundary upon the
face of the waters. And he set the bounds of the
oceans and the seas. He marked the horizon. When you
stand in one place and you see as far as you can see, he set
the horizon as far as you can see. From the earth to the sea,
he set the horizon. And I tell you, look in Isaiah. You're gonna love this. In Isaiah
40. I believe you'll like it. Isaiah
40. Talking about God setting the
boundaries of the water. Look in verse 12. He set the limitations to everything
upon the earth. And look what he said in verse
12. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Try to hold water in your hand.
It runs right through your fingers. You can't get it to stay in your
hand, but God can hold all the waters in the hollow of his hand.
And not only that, but He can hold us in the palm of His hand. How great! No wonder He said
these are just parts of His ways. And yet, He said He measured
the water in the hollow of His hand, meted out the heavens with
a span, comprehended the dust of the earth. He had a measure
for it. And weighed the mountains and
put them out and said, I'm going to put these mountains in scale,
see how much they weigh. And I'm going to put the hills
in a balance, see if they balance out. Look what he says down here in
verse 15. Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket. He measures all the water in
the whole of his hand. He said, now look at all these nations.
They're just a drop in the bucket. and are counted as small dust
to the balance. Oh my. So he set the boundaries. He has set the limitations to
everything. And back over here it says this,
in verse 10 again, he says the water's with bounds until the
night, day and night come to an end. When day and night cease
to be, that's how long God has set limitations on things on
this earth. Till night ceases to be. You know when Paul stood
on Mars Hills, he looked at all the, he went in that big temple
there in Mars Hill, and the Acropolis in Greece, and he stood there
and they had altars all over the place. I mean altars everywhere. Round and around and around and
around altars. And they had one, it said over
here, to the unknown God. In case there's one we missed,
we got the rest of them named. But, and Paul stood up and says,
men, and Brandon, I got news for you, you fellas are way too
religious. He said, you got all these gods,
I see all your idols, but you see that one right there, the
one you don't know, that's the one I'm gonna tell you about.
I'm gonna tell you about the one you don't know anything about.
And you know what he said? God, the first thing he said,
God who made the heavens and the earth. He said, you see this
temple? God don't dwell in these temples
that you made. See all this gold and stuff you
got in all these idols? God don't worship by the works
of men's hands, silver and gold. Sin that he gives life and breath
to all men. It's by him we live, move, and
have our being. And God help us to see beyond
time and sense and behold the eternal. And then look what he
said in verse 12, about the sea. He devised the sea with his power.
That's talking about when he parted the Red Sea. That talks
about, you know, he can make the sea, he can part the sea,
and by his understanding he smites through the proud. When he went
through that, smited through the Red Sea, you know what he
did? He also smoked Pharaoh. who was proud. He's my favorite.
I'll tell you another fellow that was real proud that he smoked. Solitarsis. He was so full of
himself, so full of self-righteousness that he said, I hate Jesus Christ,
I hate him with a passion, and I want to put him out of business. Until one day, God said, I'm
gonna smite that proud fella. I'm gonna smite right through
him. I'm gonna go right to his heart, and I'm gonna put a dart
right in the middle of it. And when I get done with him,
you know what he'll say? I'm the chief of sinners, and
though I be an apostle, I don't know how you can do this, but
he said, I'm less than nothing. He went from being a hater of
Christ to saying, I ain't nobody. When God smites the proud man
and he puts him down, you know what the first thing he says?
Boy, I ain't nobody. I ain't nothing. I ain't nothing. Oh my. And then look what he
said. He smites the proud. There again,
he smites them on the way. Job said this, that he says,
you know, he took the crown off of my head. You know the wisdom
and power of God ought to humble a man, but it won't. He won't
do it until God gives him a view of the wisdom and power and love
manifested in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he smites
the proud. Oh my. Isaiah 23 19 says this, I won't
have you look at it, but it says that God stains, stains the pride
of man. He stains it. He stains it. He
giveth grace to the humble, but he said, I ain't having nothing
to do with that proud man until I smite him. And then look what
it says there in verse 13. By His Spirit, He's garnished
the heavens. Oh my, everybody knows what garnish
means. It means to dress it up, dress
it up. Religious men garnish their self.
You know what, when that evil spirit left that man's house, and he went back, and it was
swept and garnished. Cleaned it out. The evil spirits
left and it's cleaned out, the unclean spirit was. And it was
all cleaned out and it's garnished. You know how he garnished it?
Got him a cross, put it on his lapel. Got him a Bible, red letter
of course. And got him some calendars, got
him some pictures of Jesus. Started going to church. Started
talking, you know, like a religious fella. Got all cleaned up, all
changed his ways. And then that fellow said, listen,
I am tired of being out here. I'm going to go back where I
come from. I'm going to get right back in that house. When he went back
in, he took seven others worse with him. But that way, God garnishes
something. You know, if I'm wrong, you tell
me. Some of you astronomers. If you ever seen, if you ever
seen, you know, there's seven constellations out there that
they say, there's Aquarius, the water bearer, there's the Big
Dipper, there's the Little Dipper, there's Leo the Lion, there's
Orion. They got all these different
things, and if you know where to look for them, you can find
them, you know. If you got something, some way to look, and you look
in the sky in certain places, you can see these images. You
can see them. You know, and I used to be able
to look up and tell you where the Big Dipper was, but I ain't
looked up to look at it in a long time. But I mean, that's what
I'm talking about. That's what the scriptures mean. God garnished
the heavens. He garnished the heavens. I'll tell you, next time you're
out and it's real dark, look up and see if you can find the
Big Dipper. And then look, see if you can find the Little Dipper.
Then look and see if you can find the Lion. Look and see if
you can find Aquarius, the Water Bear. Let's see if you can find
them. Huh? And you know what you're
looking at? God garnishing the heavens. And the Milky Way. Oh
my goodness, the Milky Way. That goes on and on and on and
on and on and on. It's just a gob of stars. Just all You know why? God said, I want
to make these heavens look gorgeous. I want to make them shine. I
want to make them, people, when they look up there, they'll think
of me. They'll see my glory up there. He dresses up the heavens. And
I tell you, not only does He dress up the heavens, but He
dresses up our souls. Now, I tell you what, I'd rather
Him dress my souls, dress the heavens. You know, it dresses
our soul. What does He dress it with? He
dresses His redeemed with the righteousness of Christ. And
I tell you what, he can, I love it that he's dressed up the heavens,
but I love it much more that he's put a dress on, he's dressed
me up. He dressed, you may not see it, but he's dressed me up
really, really good. I've got the best robe on, I've
got the most glorious robe on, that God himself looks at it,
and he said, all I see, it's like she sung in that song, all
I see is my son. Huh, all I see is my son. Oh
my. And then this is my last little
point right here. He, by His Spirit, verse 13,
He guards the heaven, and His hand hath formed the crooked
serpent. Now what in the world is He talking
about? His hand has formed the crooked serpent. And He subdued that crooked serpent.
He subdued that swift serpent. Now let me, this could mean Satan
himself. It could mean that. He's crooked. He's called that great serpent.
It could mean that and it could also mean that when he sends
lightning. He sends the lightning out, it'll
look like a crooked serpent. Lightning comes and it just flashes.
And it just looks like a crooked serpent. But I tell you what,
it don't make any difference. Whether it's Satan or whether
it's lightning, they're both under his control. You know,
with Satan walking around, looking, and him and God had a conversation,
two conversations over Job. And Satan could not make a move,
could not make a move, until God said, you can do that. I'll let you do that. Satan cannot
make a move until God says you can do that. I've told you, I
think I've told you all about Bunyan and Pilgrim's Progress.
Bunyan and Christian, he became Christian, he's the one who became
Christian. And Faithful was with him. And they was going one night,
and they seen this beautiful house all lit up. All lit up,
and they wanted to go to that house. It was called Gareth's
house. And they wanted to go up to Gareth's
house. It's all lit up. And that's where Christ was the
light of that place. And they wanted to go up there.
They wanted to go up there. And it was so welcoming to them.
And when they got there, there was these two lions. And they
went by there. And all of a sudden, them lions
run out there. And they just scared them to
death. They backed way up. They backed
way up. And then they looked and looked and looked. Them lions
would run out there and they could only go so far. And they
said, oh, listen, we'll just go around this way and go on
up to the house. You know what that means? That
God's got the devil on a chain. He can't go no farther. And God
said, you can go that far and no farther. He ain't gonna do a thing, except
God allows him to do it. And oh my, I do know this. How mighty, look what it says
there in verse 14. How mighty and glorious is our
Lord. And it says these are just parts
of His ways. Just parts of them. The outskirts, how little a portion
is heard of Him. You know, he said, we see through
a glass darkly. One of these days, then we'll
see face to face. Now we hear just a whisper. Now
we hear a voice, and it's not much. Creation, God spoke, a
whisper. But it's God's voice. But in
the cross, in the cross, God spoke loudly, clearly, and plainly. He said this is how I deal with
sin. This is how I deal with judgment.
This is how I deal with wrath. This is how I deal with my neglect. I put my sin on my son and then
the greatest cry that was ever heard, the most blessed word
that was ever heard, when I Lord cried from the cross And it says,
he said it with a loud voice, it is finished. I heard that voice. I heard that
voice. I hear it every day. When I see
my sin just crawling all over one another, all the sins that
I've done in my lifetime, especially when I was a kid and sometimes
they come back, and my sins ever before me. But I remember this,
it is finished. It is done. Nothing left to do. Oh, that's just part of His ways.
Imagine what it's going to be like I can't imagine what it's going
to be like for God to take us out of this world, create a new
heaven and a new earth, and us to be in this presence for all
eternity. I just can't. But you know why we keep coming?
Every time we come, we'll hear part. And that's the thing about
it. At our best, the best hearing
we do, we only hear part of what's being said. And by the time we
get to the house, the part we got, a lot of times it's gone
before we get back there. But that's what I'm talking about.
That's all we get, just a part of His way every once in a while. But bless His name, at least
we get some of it. We get something. Our Father, oh, blessed, blessed
God, how blessed are you, how glorious are you, how majestic
are you, how infinite, how eternal. Your ways are past finding out.
Oh, the wisdom, both of the wisdom and knowledge and counsel of
God. Who can find out His ways? But
Lord Jesus, we want to know your way. We want to know you. We
want to know you. We want to be found in you. We want to be found in your righteousness. We want to be found accepted
in the beloved. And God bless these dear saints.
Thank you for bringing them. Thank you for allowing me to
preach. Lord, you're such a blessed God. Oh, give us such words. Give us such, such views, such views of yourself. Oh, Lord. Blessed be your name. God bless and keep these dear
saints as they go their way. Bless them as they get up in
the morning. Bless them as they go down in the day. Bless them
as they go throughout their day. Preserve and keep them. For Christ
our Lord's sake I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. There's just something about
that name. Master. Savior. Jesus, like the fragrance after
the rain. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, let all
heaven ? And earth proclaim ? ? Kings and kingdoms will all pass away
? ? But there's something about that name ? See you Wednesday,
God willing.