Turn with me to Job chapter 26,
if you will. We want to remember Patsy and
Joe and Bruce Daly. She went to get a biopsy yesterday
on her lung, and her lung collapsed. Of course, they got it back up
pretty quickly. They was down there overnight, came home today
and got to go back in the morning, done some x-rays. They've got
some things ahead of them to face. Oh boy, bless their hearts. And then Bruce, I remember him. The Lord continued to let that
blood clot dissolve, dissipate into his body. And also remember,
we're gonna have a regular fall get together at our house on
October the 14th. October the 14th, rain or shine,
rain or shine, rain or shine. about what? Oh, the ladies' luncheon,
Thursday. Didn't write nothing down. I
was doing that off the top of my head. Got to forget something.
Y'all don't want me to. Of course, y'all know I ain't
perfect. You know that. But try to do
it right sometimes. I want to start reading here
in verse 6. Hell is naked before Him, and
destruction hath no covering. He stretcheth out the north over
the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth
up the waters and thick clouds, and his thick clouds, and the
cloud is not rent under 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?" Look back
here with me in Job 26, got a few things I want to say about it. You know, Job, the verses I read
for you, and then you get down to the very last verse, verse
14 of Job 26, it says this, lo, these are parts of his ways,
the outskirts of his ways, just parts of them, just parts of
them. That's all we ever see, just parts, outskirts. But how little a portion have
heard of him, but the thunder of his power, who can understand?
Job's three comforters continually tried to get him to admit that
he had committed an awful sin. That's why God was dealing with
him the way he was. They kept telling him all the
trouble that he was in, but they never told him how that would
be fixed. And that's the way men are. That's the way fundamentalism,
that's the way religion is. If anything goes wrong in your
life, it's because you've sinned and God's got to deal with you
on account of your sin. That's why a lot of people believe
that, you know. That if you sin, then, you know, you're in trouble.
And that's what these fellows was. Instead of trusting in the
righteousness of Christ, they say God wouldn't deal with you
the way He's dealing with you if you hadn't committed some
great sin. When old Job, you know, listen, though his words
reveal that though Satan had tried to bring him to ruin and
desolation had still happened and destroyed his view of God
and his relationship with God Almighty, his view of God. And
though Satan, you know, he had to ask permission. And God said
this, if anybody thinks Job wasn't converted until the last part
of the book, this is what God told Satan. Have you considered
my servant Job a perfect and an upright man? You ever considered
him? That's what God said. That's
God's testimony about him. That's God's report about all
those in Hebrews 11. God gave them a good report. They had a good report. Who reported
it? God did. He gave them a good report. And
so Job here, though they hadn't touched his spirit, and they
had really, really said some awful things about him. Just
let me give you an illustration. Look up here in verse 1 of chapter
25. Bildad's doing the talking, one of his three friends. And
here's what he says. Dominion or fear, and fear are
with him. He maketh peace in his high places.
Is there any number of his armies? Can you count God's armies? Upon
whom doeth not his light arise? How then can a man be justified
with God? Or how can he be clean that's
born of a woman? And ever this is true. Behold,
even to the moon, and it shineth not. Yea, the stars are not pure
in his sight. How much less man that is a worm,
and the son of man which is a worm. And listen how Job answers him.
Job answered and said, Hast thou helped him that is without power?
You're talking about a man being justified with God. Have you
ever saved anybody? That's what your next question
is. Do you have enough strength to save him that has no strength?
That's what he asked him. I know that it's right and how
can a man be just with God. I know how a man's just with
God. Have you helped him that doesn't have any power? Have
you ever justified a man who has no strength? Have you ever
justified? Can you got the power and the
strength to actually save somebody? That's what he's asking. Have
you counseled him that hath no wisdom? Have you been the one
that took a man who has no sense at all and sees the wisdom of
God in Christ? And oh my, so he goes on down
through here and then he says this, and I'm going to talk about
just the outskirts of his ways, or just a part of his ways. And from verse 14, but look what
he says here, hell is naked before him. and verse six, and destruction
hath no covering. Now what in the world's he mean?
He mean just what he said. Hell is naked before him. Whatever
hell there is on earth, people say, boy, my life is a living
hell. They put me through hell. And people talk about things
like that. And people come back from Vietnam, they said, I've
already been to hell, so you know nothing you can do for me.
That's what they say, things like that. But there is people
that have a miserable, miserable time on earth. There are people
that are hellish in their nature. Not only does hell on earth naked
before Him, but hell beneath is naked before Him. Hell beneath. The world of the spirits is naked
before His eyes. In fact, His eyes see all the
way down into the bottomless pit. That's what the Scriptures
teach us. Your heart and mind is open and
naked before Him. Look with me. Keep Job 26 and
look in Psalm 139. His eyes sees all the way to
the bottomless pit, because He knows who He's going to put there,
for one thing, and all hell is naked before Him. The world of
spirits is naked before His eyes. All the demons that's on earth,
all the demons that's in hell, all those are reserved and chained.
God sees them all. He can look down right now and
see all those that's already perished. He can see them. He knows where they're at and
He knows what they're going through. Look what He said here in Psalm
139 and verse 7. This David said, whither shall I go from thy spirit?
Whither shall I flee from thy presence? Where can I go? If
I ascend up into heaven, you're up there. If I make my bed in
hell, behold, you're there too. There's not any place I can go
where you're not. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell
in the uttermost parts of the sea, I fly over the sea like
a big bird. Even there shall thy hand lead
me and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness
shall cover me, even the night, when darkness come, you know
what he said? The dark, the night will be just like daylight to
you. That's what he said. It'll be just like daylight to
you. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee. The night shines
just like the day. The darkness and light are both
alike to you. And that's what he's telling
them here. He said, everything just said, there's no difference
to you as what you see. Now back over here in Job 26.
Go in Job 26. So He said, Hell is naked before
Him, and destruction hath no covering. I mean, everything's
just open unto Him. Then look what He says in verse
7. Now, these are just parts of
His ways now. He stretches out the north over
the empty place. He took the north and all that
cold and all that misery, and He stretched it over nothing,
over the empty place. And listen to this, he hangs
the earth on nothing, on nothing. Now you think about this. Science
teaches this now. You know the Bible, science has
to catch up with the scriptures. Now here's the earth, and God
said he hung it on nothing. And here's the earth, it tilts
at a certain angle, and it rotates. It rotates. And nobody ever falls
off of it. And as it rotates, it causes
it to have four different seasons every year. And it's hanging
on nothing, but it never moves, never varies, never changes. And he hangs it on nothing. And
how does it hang there and stay there all the time exactly like
it is now? It's been like that since he
put it here. Do you know what the foundation
of the earth is? Huh? Do you know what the foundation
of the earth is? God's the foundation of the earth.
Huh? Oh, I want you to keep Job and
then look in Psalm 11. Just barely over past Job in
Psalm 11. Look what he says here. And I'll
tell you what, we got an answer for this. Oh my, he said here
in Psalm 11 3, If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous
do? If the foundation that God has
laid in this world, He's laid a lot of foundations, not only
of the earth, but in the home, in the church, in His Word, in
the family, in society, in civil government, everything, God's
laid the foundations. And He said, if the foundations
be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Here's what they do. The
answer is found. Here's what we do. Cardinal verse
4, the Lord is in His holy temple. God's in His holy temple. The
Lord's throne's in heaven. His eyelids behold. His eyelids
cry. The children of men. Oh, we've
got an answer for it if the foundations be destroyed. The scriptures
have always told us how things were created, and science finds
it out years and years later. You know, the scripture says
that God rides upon the circle of the earth. That means that
the circle of the earth is round, and He rides upon that circle
of the earth. And that was for centuries, people
thought they were scared to death to go so far in a ship, because
they thought if they go in that ship, if they go too far, they'll
go off the end of the earth. They thought the Earth was flat,
and that would be an end to get off the end of the Earth. But
God said He rides on the circle of the Earth. You can't ride
on something flat. I mean, He's riding on the circle
of the Earth. And now everybody, they know
they get these pictures from space. What do we see? This great
big ball. Looks blue from out of space.
And all beloved, and then the balancing of the earth. You think
about the earth being balanced. All the things that goes on in
this earth. All the worlds that's in this earth that he keeps in
balance. He hangs it on nothing and it stays in balance. It stays
just like it's supposed to stay. All the earth and all the worlds.
You know how many worlds are in this world? There's the world
of stars, there's the world of the sea, there's the world of
the moon, there's the world of the sun. You and I, we have worlds
that we live in. You know, we'll say, boy, my
little old world don't amount to much. And now somebody say,
boy, he lives, you know, he got a big world because he knows
so many people. Other folks say, my world is
so small, it's because I don't know that many people. And their
intellect won't let them have a bigger world. But oh, there's
worlds everywhere, worlds. And God said he hung this world
on nothing. Oh my, the stars, the sea. How many worlds are there in
this world? World of animals, insects, minerals. And guess what? He keeps them
all in balance. Keeps them all without. Guess
who helps him do that? Nobody don't need any help. And
then look what he says. That's just parts of his ways
now. Look what he said here in verse eight. He bindeth up the
waters in thick clouds. Oh my, he'll take a cloud and
he'll hang it up there. And it'll be so thick and so
full of water. He puts the waters in the thick
clouds. And yet when that clouds are full of water, the cloud
is not able to open itself up. It won't rend. All that water
in it, it won't rend. It won't bust open. And they're
held together. Them clouds are held together
by his invisible hand until he's pleased to open that cloud and
let the water come out of it. And how many times over the years
that we've seen those clouds come rolling by and see them
start coming out of the southwest or out of the west and we'll
say, boy, we're going to get a good rain and we really need
it. And then the clouds go by and ain't no water in them. And
then there's a cloud comes behind it, hang right over you. And
then God just takes his finger, slices it open. Deluge comes. Oh, I tell you how God, that's
just parts of his ways. Oh my, and I tell you, I'm going
to tell you something about Mother Nature. These, these meteorologists
that they say, well Mother Nature is going to really throw us a
doozy this week. Mother Nature ain't going to throw us nothing.
I told you three ladies that we don't want in this church.
Three ladies, three women we don't want in here. We don't
want Mother Nature, we don't want Lady Luck, and we don't
want Miss Fortune. We don't want nothing. Mother
Nature, she's not allowed here. Lady Luck, she's not allowed
here. And old Miss Fortune. So, and that's what we're talking
about. God said he holds his clouds up, fills them full of
water, and they won't bust open until he busts them open. Until
he busts them open. He binds them up in the thick
clouds. And oh, look what else he says
down here now. And down in verse nine, this just, I love this
right here. I just love this. He holdeth back the face of his
throne and spreadeth his cloud upon it. He holds back the face
of his throne. In other words, he don't bring
himself, he don't bring the face of his throne out for us to see.
And what Job is saying here is behind everything we see, behind
the visible creation that we see, behind all the laws and
all the forces and all the things that God's ordained to happen
in this world, all is avail spread over the face of His eternal
throne. And behind this face of this throne, there's this
invisible God. Everything is going just exactly
the way it's supposed to go. And he covers himself. Oh, his
throne's not visible to us. In the heavens is his throne,
but he said he puts a veil over his throne. You know, he told
Moses, he says, no man's ever seen me and lived. A man can't
see me and live. He can't do it. He said, well,
you know what I'll do for you to see me? He said, I'll put
you over here in this rock. And then I'm going to put my
hand over you. And when I put my hand over you, I'm going to
go by you. And my hand's going to stay right where it's at.
And I'm going to go on the other side of you. And all you're going
to see is my back parts. He can keep his hand over him
and go all the way around him. And all he can see is his back
parts. That's just part of his way. And here He sent awe of
hell spread upon His face. Behind the whole creation, behind
that whole creation, God holds back the face of His throne.
The glory and the majesty and the might of God Almighty who
rules over all, He shines throughout this material world. And Job
saw Him, but where did he see Him at? Behind a cloud. Hit His
throne. Hit His face. And I'll tell you
something, beloved. He's behind the cloud. God's
behind the cloud. But one of these days, one of
these days, we're going to see His throne. One of these days,
the cloud's going to be taken away. One of these days, the
veil's going to be taken away. And you know where the greatest
veil is? Not that God covers Himself up, but the greatest
veil is in our hearts and in our minds. That's the greatest
fail. We see through a glass darkly.
And then look what else it said about Him. Down in verse 10.
Not only did He hold back the face of His throne, spread His
cloud on it. Everything that you see, God
created. But He's invisible. You can't see. You can't see.
And He sent the boundaries upon the face of the waters. He hath
compassed the sea, the waters with bounds, until the day and
night ends. What in the world does He mean by this? If you've
ever, of course, most of you have been to the ocean. I remember
the last administration, he said that, you know, these climatologists
have been saying that the ocean is going to keep encroaching
and encroaching. And one of these days, New York City is going
to be underwater and then, you know, it's going to keep coming
until everything's underwater. Ain't going to happen. You know
why it ain't going to happen? God said he set the bounds of
the sea. You come up to here. You come
up to here. Even when a hurricane comes,
you can only come so far. And you ain't going no further.
And he put the bounds on the ocean. He put the bounds on the
sea. And he marked the horizon where the earth and sky is going
to meet. Wonder how far you got to look when you see the horizon
where the sky meets that ocean. I don't know how far it is. It's
a long way. And he set the boundary of that. Marked the horizon where
the earth and sky would meet. He set the limitations to every
earthly thing. And look what he says. Until
the day and night come to an end. until day and night cease
to be. Until that happens, I've got
bounds set. I've got boundaries set. People
ain't gonna get over them boundaries. And even He set bounds for us.
You keep Job 26 and look over in Acts 17. Look in Acts 17. He even set bounds for us. He even set bounds for us. Look
here in Acts 17, 22. You know what the sea would do
if God didn't set a bound on it? what the ocean would do.
He set the tides. It's going to go out so far and
then it's going to come back in so far. Going out, coming
back in. And it's set on a schedule. Set
on a schedule. And look what he said here in
Acts 17, 22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hills and
said, You men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too
superstitious. That word superstitious, same
word as religious. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, the gods that you worship, I found an altar
with this inscription, to the unknown God, whom therefore you
ignorantly worship, Him declare unto you." And this is what he
said about God. This is the God you don't know, and I'm going
to tell you about it. I'm going to declare Him, God
that made the world, that's the first thing he said. You ain't
got a God that made the world. God made the world. And not only
did He make it, but He made everything that's in it. And since He's
that way, seeing He's Lord of heaven, And earth, since he made
this outfit, opposes outfit, he's the Lord of heaven and earth,
so he can't put him in a house. You can't put him in a house.
He don't dwell in temples like you've got here made with hands.
Neither is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed
anything. Seeing he gives life, he gives
breath, and he gives all things that matters to life. And here
we go. Listen to this now. Listen to this. and hath made
of one blood," Whose blood? Adam's blood. "...he hath made
of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face
of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and
the bounds of their habitation." He has appointed our time, and
He's got a bounds for all of us. I thought of this, and if
I'm wrong, I want to know it. But He has made a bound for our
whole life from the day we're born till the day we die. We
can go this far, we can go this far, we can go this far, we can
go this far. But He's got bounds set for us,
and we can't go past those bounds. He bound us in His covenant of
grace, and I'll tell you the day He let David go so far, And
then he brought him right back. But there's bounds he's got set
for. And he's got an appointed time set for. And he's got a
bound set for us when we get to that last moment that a time
appointed, we're going to break all bonds and bounds and we're
leaving here. And ain't you glad that God's
got bounds set for you? What if He just, what if He removed
the bounds? That's what, that's what, that's
what Satan said. He said, you've got a hedge about
Job. If you let me in Job, he said, you take that hedge down
and I'll destroy you, make you curse your face. Well, he said,
have at it. Job never cursed him. After he
took everything Job had, you know what Job said? The Lord
give, the Lord take it away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
And he said he's bound. Thank God we got bound. That
God will only let us go so far and then bring us back. Our minds
and flesh wants to go here, but the Holy Spirit wants us to stay
here. Thank God he's got bounds around us. Oh my Lord, we want
to be kept in bounds. I want God to put a hedge about
me, Lord. I've got so much hellish hell
in me that if you don't put a boundary around me, ain't no tellin' what
I'd do. Oh, ain't no tellin' what I'd
do. Oh my. God help us to see beyond time
and sense and behold the eternal. Behold the eternal. Sets the
boundary in the face of the water. And then look back over here
again now. And verse 12. He divideth the sea with his
power. Oh my. How many times? He departed
the sea by his power. Divides the sea. What does he
mean? That he divides the sea. That's
what he means. There's seven, if I, somebody
tell me if I'm wrong. There's seven, seven, there's
two oceans, Atlantic and Atlantic, and there's five or six seas. And he, who did separate them?
God did. But the thing that he's talking
about here is, that He divided the Red Sea and His people walked
through on dry land. And He held them up until they
got through on dry land. And He calls Israel to walk through
the sea as by dry land. And then look what else He says
there in verse 12. Not only does He divide the sea
with His power, He parts it with His power. Let them go through
on dry land. And by His understanding, He might smite us through the
proud, Proud, the arrogant. He smites them. He smites them
through. He smites them through the proud. He smites right through them.
And I tell you some people that he did that to. Paul of Tarsus. You're talking about a proud
man. Arrogant man. Oh, he's proud of his heritage.
Proud of being a Jew. Proud of being a Pharisee. Proud
of a zeal. Proud of persecuting Christ.
And God said, listen, I'm going to bring you down. And he put
him down. And I tell you what, he knows
how to smite the proud down. And look what Job said in Job
19, 9. Look what Job said over here in Job 19, 9. This is what
we're talking about. He smoked Paul on the Damascus
road. And then when he got through
with Paul, you know what Paul said? Everything, everything
I ever trusted in before, you know what I call it? Everything
I was proud of, everything I gloried in, everything I hoped in, when
God got through with me, I counted it done. And look what Job said
here in verse 9, 19, 9. He has stripped me of my glory and took the crown off of my
head. He's got to do that to us. He stripped me of my glory. We
thought we had some. until he stripped it. We thought
we had a crown, crown of goodness and morality and merit, and he
took it off. And oh, that's what he told,
he told them over there in Isaiah, he said, you know about Isaiah,
he said, he has stained the pride of man. And I tell you, the wisdom
and power of God ought to humble a man. God's wisdom and power
ought to humble a man. By his understanding, he smites
the proud, but it won't. God's power, God's wisdom, God's
grace, God's righteousness, God's might. It won't humble a man
until God gives him a view, gives him a view of His wisdom and
power and love and grace manifested in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And I tell you what, He smiteth
the proud. And our Lord said, you know,
you're not gonna be You condemned already? Condemned already. He
come to stain the pride of man, and man don't like his pride
to be stained. Don't like it. You know, Ruby
mentioned this the other night. God said, six things I hate,
yea, seven are abomination. You know what the first one was?
Most people think, well, it's adultery. First, second, third
marriage, something like that. But you know what God said? That
he, it's six things I hate, yay, seven abominations. The first
one he said was, you know what it was? A proud look. A proud look. And not only a
proud look, but die like that. Die like that. Oh my, can't imagine
it. I've told you all about my aunt
one time. I went to talk to her. She was in the hospital, great
old big tall woman. Name was Edie, Edith. I went
to talk to her, deal with her. She's in the hospital down Southern
Ohio. And I went in there and asked her if she wanted to pray.
I said, you know, she knows she's dying. She's going to go into
eternity. You know what she said? This is exactly what she said.
She said, I've been too proud to pray all my life, and I'm
not going to give up now. Been too proud to pray, and I'm
not going to start now. And she's as proud now as she
was then. Death never took, never humbled
her. Death never humbled her. No,
no. And then let me show you something
else here. In verse 13. I'll hurry. What else He does?
He hath garnished the heavens by His Spirit. You know, the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep. By His Spirit,
He garnished the heavens. And that garnish means He dresses
up the heavens. You ever looked up in the heavens
at night? You know, Shirley lived up in Lexington, and all this
ambient light, you couldn't see the stars at night. She gets
out there where we live, she walks out there and she said,
I didn't know there was like this in the heavens at all. And
she gets out there, and there ain't no light on. And you look
up, and look how God dressed up the heavens. He put Orion,
the hunter, then He put the Milky Way, and then He put the Big
Dipper, and the Little Dipper, and Aquarius, the water bearer,
and He put all these people in the heavens, and garnished the
heavens with all these more glorious, and then He garnished it with
the moon. And then that moon gets bright, and you can almost
drive without your lights on. He dresses up the heavens for
us. And then during the daytime, He'll dress it up one day with
the clearest blue sky and the beautifullest day you've ever
seen. And then the other day, He'll dress it with all these
beautiful white clouds going along through there, you know.
And then the next day, He'll dress it up with rain. But I
tell you what, He garnishes the heavens to suit Himself. But
I tell you what, I sure like to look at Him, don't you? Oh my, he dresses up the heavens
by spirit and he dresses up the soul who he redeemed with his
precious blood, he dresses him up with the righteousness of
Christ. Oh my, and then look what it says, I'm about done
here. In the last part of verse 13, he garnished the heavens,
his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. His hands has formed
the crooked serpent. That old serpent that's just
giving it that. His hand formed it. Huh? He's
probably talking about the devil here. That's probably what he's
talking about. That serpent. That dragon. Talks about over
in Isaiah. Talks about the dragon
that was there. And then in Revelations, that
dragon stood to devour the woman's child. And it makes no difference,
but I do know this, whether it's the devil or whether it's just
a serpent, I do know this, whether it's the devil or a serpent or
anything else, everything's under his control. Everything's under
his control. In fact, Satan couldn't do anything
without first asking God's permission. So next time you hear somebody
talking about how powerful the devil is, remember, he's got
to ask God for it to do anything. God asked God. In fact, the devils
told him, said, if you come here to torment us for our time, put
us in torment for it's time for us to be put in torment. And
our Lord Jesus said, shut up, just shut up. Don't say another
word. And they never spoke, they just touched up. He said, don't tell nothing,
just stop. And they did. And they did. And all down in
verse 14, then he said, lo, these are parts of his ways. All these
things that I've been talking about tonight, all just went
through him so quickly. How mighty and glorious is the
Lord, if these are just parts of his ways, the outskirts of
his way. And look what it says, how little
a portion is heard of him. How little a portion is heard
of him. How little do we know, you know,
how little a person heard of him. We just hear a whisper.
That's all we get, a whisper, small whispers. In creation,
we just get a small whisper, small glimpse, but we do know
it's God's voice, and we know His voice when we hear it. But
in the cross, in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, we don't
just hear a whisper. We hear a loud cry, a loud cry. Christ cries out. The rocks cry
out. The heavens refuse to shine. A loud cry at that cross when
He by Himself purged our sins, when He Himself faced God Almighty,
when He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.
We just hear a whisper, how little is heard of Him. And I'll tell
you one thing, the Scriptures tells us in Ephesians 2, 7, that
in the ages to come, that world ages means worlds and worlds,
eons and eons and eternities and eternities, that in the ages
to come, He might show forth the exceeding riches of His kindness
and grace towards us through Jesus Christ. And the next word
says, worlds without end. You think we're learning just
a little bit here. We're still going to be learning. We're getting
in touch. We've been there for an eternity. We still ain't going
to know all there is to know about it. That's how big and
glorious our God is, ain't it? That's just part of His ways,
just part of His ways. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, thank you for your abundant mercy and grace
given to us. Oh, you're so gracious to us,
so kind to us, so merciful to us, that we could speak of you,
talk of you. And Lord, every one of us would
meet here tonight. There's so little we know of
you. And when we've heard all that we've heard, we've still
heard so little, so little. You're so full of glory and power
and majesty that we ain't even touched the hem of your garment
yet. But we thank you for what we have seen and what we do know
and what you've taught us. We thank you for it in Christ's
name. Amen.