Job 11, 7 through 9, starting at 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. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word from Job 11, verses seven through nine. Let us pray for the Lord to bless us in the reading and hearing of it and now in the preaching and hearing of it. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the glorious truth that you are beyond the searching of men. So teach us to be humbled as we consider your glory, to be in awe and fear and dread of that one true and living God, even you, our gracious Redeemer. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. We looked at two weeks back, Jeremiah 10, 1 through 10, and 1 Corinthians 8, 4, and 6. We saw that there is one true and living God, contrary to the heathen and semi-heathen doctrines that pose many gods, many lords, many heroes, many saints. many demi or full gods. We have a duty to believe in the one God and Father of all, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and man. Now then, Job chapter 11, concerning God infinite in being and perfection. Verse seven, canst thou, in other words, assuredly thou canst not, A vehement negation under an affirmative question. Can you do this? Of course you can't, is the implied answer. Canst thou by searching? Are you able to investigate, to inquire, to examine, to ask all the right questions? Please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 13 concerning this same verb and how it's used. Deuteronomy 13 verses 12 through 15. Page 216 of your pew Bibles. Verse 12. If thou shalt hear say, in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their cities, saying, let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known. Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently." Notice, make search, it's the same verb. If you have a case where someone is accused of such a grievous wrong, you had better look into it. You had better search out. You had better ask questions, inquire. You had better be diligent in your asking. Turn over to Judges chapter 18, page 293. The same verb is used as searching out God. Judges 18. Verses one and two. Page 293, Judges 18, one. In those days, there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in, for unto that day all their inheritance was not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel. And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valor, from Zorah and from Eshtael, to spy out the land and to search it." Look. Can you search out God? Can you spy Him out? Can you make a map of God and see all the little details as they were going to do? No. Turn over to 1 Samuel, chapter 20, page 329. Jonathan, the faithful friend of David. Verse 12 of chapter 20, 1 Samuel 20, verse 12. And Jonathan said unto David, O Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about tomorrow anytime, or the third day, and behold, if there be good toward David, and I then send not unto thee and show it thee, the Lord do so and much more to Jonathan. Here, Jonathan's going to sound his father out. He's going to figure out the mind of his father, the purpose of his father. Can you find out God, Job? That's the question. By your searching, can you understand, can you spy out God's depths? Can you sound him out? Can you examine his nature, his attributes, his purposes? Can you do that? No. Please turn back to Job. Job 11, verse 7. Canst thou by searching find out God? Is there some lost truth that you will find in your search? The Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint uses the word where we get Eureka from. Can you have some Eureka discovery about God by your searching? Can you understand His being and nature better by your search? Matthew Poole says, can you discover all the depths of His wisdom and the reason for all His actions? Can you do that? You cannot. Canst thou find out the Almighty? ha-pantakrator, the all ruler. That's what that means. Jerome has omnipotente. God has absolute power in all things according to his holy will. The Hebrew word is Shaddai. Harris, in his theological word book of the Old Testament, says that this word is used 48 times in the Old Testament and 31 of those in the book of Job. The name of God signifies that His power knows no bounds. There's no external force that limits God. His power is bound by His holiness, yes, because God is one and simple as we shall see. He doesn't have this part and that part. He's not composed of parts like we are. His power is only bound by His righteousness, His holiness, and His decree, but not bound by things outside of Himself. He is the all powerful ruler. Now, is there some human capacity to understand and to search out his omnipotence? Can you find out unto perfection the power of God, what it does, what it ought to do? Can you understand his providence that directs the course of all things, that causes the sun to rise, that holds your body in being, that gives you breath in your nostrils to breathe? Can you understand that? Can you search it out? Is there some yardstick you could measure God by? Some kratometer? Remember God is Pantocrator, he has all power to rule, kratos. Is there some meter to measure that by? No. Please open to Ecclesiastes chapter three, page 696 of your Pew Bibles. Solomon deals with this issue in his wisdom. Ecclesiastes 3.11. He hath made everything beautiful in his time. Also, he hath set the world in their heart. so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. God put something in us that made it impossible for us to see the whole thing. The world is rammed into our heart. Can we see the whole? We cannot. Please open to Romans chapter 11, page 1144. Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? Job is asked. Verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. Here we are doing our philosophy, doing our natural theology, doing our heathen religions. How far are you gonna get down the perfections of God? Can you search him out and understand his ways? No, you cannot. You cannot find out God unto perfection, or as the Septuagint has it, esta eschata, unto the all final things. You're gonna sound the depths of God? Jerome says, ad perfectum, can you find him out all the way to the perfection of the thing? Please turn back to Job, Job 11, page 567, verse eight. Now we're going to see why we can't. It is as high as heaven. What canst thou do? Deeper than hell. What canst thou know? How high is heaven? Could you search it out? Could you measure the heights of the visible heavens, much less the divine perfections? Men think they know how high the heavens are, and then they find out ten years later they didn't know the half of it. And then they find out ten years later they still didn't know the half of it. Higher than the heavens. You know what God thinks of the heavens? Like a little curtain. that he stretches out. All the heavens. It's like God says, that's about the span of my hand. He takes all the dust of the earth and puts it in the balance like we would measure out salt when we're putting it in something. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And can man measure it? No. High as heaven. God's wisdom is so high, you can't search it out. What canst thou do? What can you actually hope to accomplish with all your searching? Will you really be able to examine or sound out God's mind? You cannot do anything. Again, a vehement negation under an affirmative question. What canst thou do? Nothing, you can't do anything. And any labor you spend on an impossible task, what is that labor? That's wasted time, wasted talent, wasted treasure. Why are you wasting your time asking these things, Job is asked. Deeper than hell. Do you know hell is called a bottomless pit? Revelation 20 verse one. The Greek word is abyssos, an abyss. A bottomless pit, you keep on falling. There's no bottom to it. pit so deep only God can search it out. Proverbs 15, 11 tells us that hell is before the eyes of God. How much more the hearts of men? You think you understand the hearts of men? No, you don't. I don't understand my own heart. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? God says, I, the Lord, search the heart and try the reins. He can search it. Can man? Can you know yourself? Can you know the heart of other men? You cannot. I cannot. God can. He can look into hell, but can we? You ever tried to take a trip through hell? Traverse all the way down to the bottom? How far down is that? It's bottomless. You're never going to get there. And if you tried, what would you do? Burn yourself. High as heaven, deeper than hell. You cannot search this out, in other words. What canst thou know? What specimens of rock will you take from hell? How far down the ladder will you get? How far will you be able to see? This is a vain quest, far beyond the capacity of mere mortals. Verse nine. The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. The measure thereof is used of cloth or of a yardstick. Measure out the cloth. Okay. How far are you going to measure till you get from here to the other side of the earth? Start walking. See how far you get. See how much you can measure. What will you find? Well, it's beyond your capacity. You can't do it. Men have machines. They can guess. They can estimate. They have technology. They say, oh, see, we know exactly how the earth is. No, you don't. You're guessing. Do you know if the earth expands and contracts? You don't know. Well, maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. Who knows? They think they know. They don't know. It is longer than the earth, this wisdom of God. All the guesswork men have, they can't understand it. They can't search it out all the way. How much less than God? God's wisdom is longer than the earth. And yet, how does God measure the earth? Please open to Psalm 104, verse 2. Psalm 104, verse 2. Page 644. Now the earth is one planet in the heavens. Think of that. Verse 2 tells us of Psalm 104, who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who stretchest out the heavens like what? A curtain. You know those planets are bigger than earth. Think about God's relationship to the vastness of the universe. It's like us with a curtain, no big deal. Stretch it out, put it in its place, put it over the window. That's what God does with all the heavens, you see. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 12, page 740 of your Pew Bibles. referring to God, who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span. Kids, here's a span. Four fingers, that's it. That's a span. When God looks at all of the heavenly bodies, what does he say? Well, it's, you know, kind of like, it's no big deal. It's about this big to me. It's like nothing to him. He meted out heaven with the span and comprehended the dust of the earth. A little quarter teaspoon, just a little tiny bit of salt you put in something. That's how he measured it out. All the dust of the earth, took it up into one little measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. Can you imagine how heavy the mountains are? Filled with rock and water and soil and clay. Can you imagine how vast and heavy that is? God says, I'll just put it on the scale here. Just like you would measure things out. It's nothing to him, small potatoes to him. The Lord, when he looks upon the earth, looks at it as if it's nothing, nothing whatsoever. Why? Because he is so great, because he is so vast, because he is infinite in his being. Zophar goes on, broader than the sea. When you look with your eyes, you see trees, you see mountains, you see houses. When you get to the sea, what do you see? Water, water, water, and more water. That's all you can see. As far as the eye can see is water. Maybe a little ship here and there. Maybe a little otter comes up to play. Maybe a dolphin, maybe some kind of bird. But what do you see? Water. Just goes on forever, it seems. And this is where man can see the farthest with his eyes. Now ask yourself, this great and wide sea, How great is the wisdom of God compared to that? Well, God's measurement longer than the earth is broader than the sea for his infinite wisdom. The Geneva Bible notes say the following. If man is not able to comprehend the height of the heaven, the depth of the earth, the breadth of the sea, which are but creatures. How can he attain to the perfection of the creator? And by the way, why do we have a Bible? Do you know why? Because we would never figure these things out by ourselves. It's not just that we can't sound all the depths. Okay, I can know 99% about God. No, you can't. No, I can't. God had to open his holy mouth and give us oracles, words from him so that we could know the least bit about him. All the knowledge we have by creation leads to our judgment, Paul says. We suppress the truth in unrighteousness. We harden our hearts and bring judgment and wrath upon ourselves through the natural knowledge we have of God. This is why God has spoken to us so that we may know his truth. This doctrine then from these verses, the one true and living God is infinite in being and perfection. The one true and living God is infinite in being and perfection. There are no bounds imposed upon God by others. There's no yin that stops the yang. There's no darkness that stops his light. He is infinite in his being. We cannot, therefore, search him out. We cannot sound him out. We can't find the bottom or the top or the sides. In power, he is omnipotent. He has all power. In knowledge, he is omniscient. He knows all things. If we measure him by the vastest, greatest creature that we have, we still haven't even scratched the surface. Go to the bottom of the bottomless pit, still not as deep as his wisdom. Deeper than hell, Zophar says. God is greater still than even what we can imagine. Ascend to the highest heavens. He's still higher. Let us then in exhortation, let us fear the living and true God. Let us fear to offend him. to drive him away, to disobey his commandments, to spurn his promises not to believe them. Remember the scribes and the Pharisees, they set God's counsel at naught. They would not believe his messengers. They would not hear his word. Let us fear the living and true God. Let us ponder the vastness of his being. Men will create for themselves images, and this is generally where the prophets lampoon images. They contrast the true and the living God with something you made. What's the comparison? How big is your tree? How much gold are you going to put on that tree? What good does it do you? God measured the waters in the hollow of his hand. He meted out the heaven with a span, and you're going to bow to an image? It's absurd, which is why chapter 40 goes on of Isaiah to mock images. They make a God with part of it, you cook your food with the other part. Does that make any sense? No, it doesn't make any sense. God must be feared. We must ponder the vastness of his infinity. Lay aside all vain curiosity to peek into his wisdom or his judgments. Mortify that idle curiosity of our fallen minds. God, I want you to justify your decrees to me. Tell me the reasons for the things that you do. I have a few questions for you, God. Really? How far can you find out God and understand his glory and his providence and his wisdom? How far down that line can you go? Not too far. Let us rest in the almighty power of God. Let us trust in his word of promise, because behind the word of promise is the God of promise. Behind the word of scripture is the God who breathed it out. So when he makes a promise, is it yea and nay? No, it's yea and amen through Christ Jesus to the glory of God the Father. Rely upon his word of promise. Adore his infinite perfections. Take pleasure in the infinite knowledge of God that he is unsearchable, is only a fearful thing to his adversaries. To those reconciled to him through the death of his son, what a glorious being we serve. Let us submit to his righteous commandments. What is it like to be like God? Well, in one sense, we cannot know. He has attributes that are what we call incommunicable. They cannot be given to creatures or he'd stop being God or there would be several gods. There are some that are unique to him. There are others that he has made us in his image that we must reflect and they are summed up in 10 commandments and knowledge. That's what it is. The image of God. Can you know? Well, beasts can't. Man can. He's like God. Man has a moral function. The first table of the law, the second table of the law. Would we be like this infinite, this glorious being? Would we reflect in a creaturely way his perfection? Then we must know his laws and we must keep his laws. They teach us what he is like. How to reflect his image. We cannot find out the Almighty unto perfection, but God has given us of His infinite store of wisdom, words of truth and wisdom called the Word of God. His word of promise, His word of precept. I will do this for you. You shall do this in obedience to me. This is a sum of the Bible. It is gospel. It is law. It is doctrine. It is duties. Let us then be about our master's business, building his kingdom, hoping in his word. Amen. Let's pray.