Lord we just thank you for this church thank you for those who attend and support may we be faithful to you we want anything we do to bring for you to bring honor and glory to you not ourselves so bless us this evening help me as I speak as we look into the life of Job and this last finally get to the last friend in his little diatribe may we just see and learn together in Jesus name I pray amen If your Bibles are there, handy-dandy, ready to go, the shortest chapter in the book of Job, you're saying, yes! Short message, short chapter. I'm doing two chapters tonight before we get too hyped up on that. And the second chapter's not too long either. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite and said, the minion and fear are with him. He maketh peace in his high places. 25 verse three, for following along on lying, et cetera. Is there any number of his armies? And upon whom doth not his light arise? How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? 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, Joel, that be you, and the son of man, which is a worm. May the Lord's blessing to the reading of his word. You know, the study of Job is essentially a study about God. It was God who first met with Satan and said he was considered Job. It was God who released the adversary to go after Job and his family. It was God who put the reins on Satan. It was God who set the boundaries. It was God who permitted it all to happen. It was God who will break the silence in chapter 38. And it's God who will reward the three friends with rebuke, chapter 42. So it's really start to finish about God. It's who the Book of Job is. Hold your finger and look at Romans 11.33. Now, as we consider the book of Job, it captures our attention, makes us wonder, perhaps even brings confusion, forces contemplation. Romans 11.33, Paul sort of hits it right on the edge here, right on the nose, actually, if you would. 11.33 of Romans. 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. Kathy Whiteley posted this past week a quote from J.C. Ryle, I have all and abound. I want nothing more. Christ dying for me on the cross, Christ ever interceding for me at God's right hand, Christ dwelling in my heart by faith, Christ soon coming again to gather me and all his people together to part no more. Christ is enough for me. Having Christ, I have unsearchable riches, end quote. As far back as the first century, when Paul penned his letter, he informed the readers at Rome, ultimately, God's ways are past finding out. They are unsearchable. They are unfathomable. Now, don't get me wrong. Don't get the wrong impression. It does not mean that he stops being good. It doesn't mean that he is no longer loving and merciful. He is all those things. He's still about that. But he is incomprehensible. And by the way, I'm okay with that. I want it to be so that God is infinitely greater than me for eternity. We have a people who have made their own gods and bow down to their own gods and worship their own Allah or Confucian or Buddha, whomever. And it's just a discouraging type religion. I'm telling you, our God's greater than you and me and all of us put together, infinitely greater. And I'm good with that. But the word I want you to get your mind around is inscrutable. That means he's unfathomable. It means it's like, I don't understand all that God is doing. We trust him. But why is this happening? Why does he not do more here? Why did Job have to go through this that God would bring glory through it all? John Wolvard used to tell the Dallas Theological Seminary graduates on the day of graduation, this was in the early 60s, there will be times when you try to unscrew the unscrewable. You can't do it. You just can't do it. Everything within us longs to explain everything about God and interpret all His ways and come to a full understanding. Why is God doing that? Why is He allowed that? I certainly would have done that if it had been me. I want to understand all God's workings. Well, good luck with that. I don't believe in luck, but good fortune with that. We can't. He's unscrutable. He's beyond our understanding. We want to try to explain and correctly analyze whatsoever we can so we understand the whole story, but it's impossible. Do you remember Isaiah 55, eight? For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. It's just, that's just the way it is. You say, well, I don't like the sun shining down on me every day. That's just the way it is. The sun's going to shine, by the way. The sun gives us life. It's what gives us life. The sun, God's so gracious to give us that. We are finite and limited. He is unlimited and infinite. We are small. He is vast. Just for a moment, an imaginary trip to outer space. Consider the enormity and awesomeness of our God. If it were possible, we could travel by the speed of light from here to the moon in 1.3 seconds. Here to moon, 1.3 seconds. Do you know how long it would take us to get to the nearest star? for years, the same rate. Another analogy for us, let's imagine you have a very clear five mile in diameter circle, five miles in diameter. And we shrink the sun from 865,000 miles across to two feet. We put a basketball, a two foot basketball, I guess it's bigger than you should be, right there in the middle as the sun. So we place a ball there. And we step off 82 paces, about two feet each pace. And we come to the first planet, Mercury. Put a tiny mustard seed there. And we take 60 more paces and put down one for Venus, perhaps a BB there. And we mark off 78 more steps. And we come to the Earth. We put a little green P for the Earth. And then we do 108 more. We come to Mars, put a little pinhead for Mars, and sprinkle some dust on this clear, transparent surface, if you would. 788 steps more. We put a little orange down for Jupiter. 934 more steps. We put a golf ball down for Saturn. And now we get a little more involved. We mark off 2,086 steps more for Uranus. Put a marble there. Another 2,322 steps. And you arrive at Neptune. We put a little cherry there. And this is about 2 and 1⁄2 miles from the sun. We've gone about 2 and 1⁄2 miles now on our circle. And then Pluto's out there somewhere. So we have five mile clear surface, the sun's in the middle. Now do you know how long it would take us to go from Pluto to the nearest star? It's how big God is. It would take us 6,720, not steps, miles. We're at this five, the end of our little solar system here, five miles, 6,720 not steps, which we've been doing, miles to the nearest star, which is only one of a hundred billion in our Milky Way galaxy, which is only one of the one septillion stars, they estimate, according to nasa.com. I just step in back, that's a pretty big God. Here we are, I'm a little podunk person on the planet Earth, and yet He loves me! I am His and He is mine. What a wonderful truth! What a wonderful God we have! And yet, it's not like random helter-skelter out there. These things are so accurately orbiting around the sun, you can set your clock by it. As a matter of fact, they set their clocks by it. and everything out there in the universe stays right where it's supposed to be, and we know there's some comets. Don't the comets even have the same return factor when they come back? We know it's coming back. Yes. Our God is an awesome God. And yet, 2,000 years ago, he came into history to live and to die for me. We should be on our face, worshiping such a God as that. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. Too wonderful for me, David said in Psalm 139, it is high. I cannot attain unto it. If David were writing today, he'd say, this blows my mind. He would write today, perhaps. Tosher, a little bit of Tosher. What you're thinking, Capbon? Left to ourselves, we tend immediately to reduce God to immanageable terms. We want to get him where we can use him, or at least know where he is when we need him. We want a God we can, in some measure, control. We need the feeling of security that comes from knowing what God is like. And what he is like is, of course, a composite of all the religious pictures we have seen, of all the best people that we know and heard about, and all the sublime ideas we have entertained. but we want to put God in a box, very popular thing. How can you even make an image to the God who's infinite? What are you going to choose? What of his creation, what of his creation are you going to make an image of to worship the God who owns it all, sustains it all? So first big point tonight, what's left to say? Chapter 25. Back down to Job, like over in Job chapter 25 if you would, if you meander back over there. The three friends just don't understand that. See, the inscrutableness of God, if that is a word, inscrutableness, the inscrutability of God. We have got this way of thinking. We know if you're like Job, we know he's done wrong. You cannot persuade me otherwise. See, like, if you would try to tell me that evolution is true, I tell you, I'm going to die telling you it's wrong, and I'll be gracious with you, and I'm not going to kill you. But you cannot persuade me. You cannot persuade me of the fact that Jesus is God. I will die first before I give up that. Virgin birth of Christ. Do you see? And so these folks, these three friends, have gone dead set. Their theology will not waffle on the fact they know what's right and you can't tell me otherwise. And Job's on the other side. I'm telling you, I've not done wrong. I don't understand what God's doing, but I have not sinned. Job, we know you've sinned. Matter of fact, build that, finish. The last words the three friends say, how much less man that is a worm. My goodness, how encouraging is that? What they should have been like put an arm around Job and said, we are here. We do not understand why this is happening any more than you do. God knows, but we are here to be with you through it. God is doing something deep and mysterious, but it's so beyond us. We cannot understand it either. And we're going to sit and we should have gone back to the city in silence for seven days. They should have done. They didn't. May I go a step further today? God's plan for every single human Christian is not always wonderful as we would see wonderfulness regarding our health. For some of God's, some of you have gone through and are going through, will be going through some very serious health things. For some, God's plan is Lou Gehrig's disease. For some, it's like Job, a lot of life of pain. Some of you, I know, live in pain every single day. And we know you mention it, but I know you do. It's heartbreak and brokenness, blindness, paralysis. I asked a choir if they'd ever seen, there's a blind Japanese pianist who's phenomenal, blind from birth, yet he plays these piano concertos. It's amazing to watch someone who's given their life to do something like that. For many, the plan is no to your request for healing. We don't like that. Some would even say to us, you don't have enough faith because you're still ill. I'm telling you, it's not God's plan that every single person's healthy. Look around us. Look at our church. Very godly people are struggling with health issues. God would much rather have us holy than healthy. So when he allows things into our lives, We have to step back. What's he doing? I don't understand it, necessarily, at all, but I know he's allowed it, and Job has, that's where Job is. I don't understand why I got these sores from top to bottom, and I don't understand why I had to lose, can you imagine Job's condition, how sad it was. So, what's left to say? Very briefly, an attitude, we find in verse one, Bealhead, the Shuhite, said this thing. He has no clue about inscrutability, Bealdead. He just wants to ramble on. And due to the brevity of the chapter, we can hardly even call a speech, so there are four observations. It's the last presentation of the three friends, and we might want to say thank the Lord for that. Shortest chapter in Job, it's brief and leaves little doubt because there's little left to say. By now, it may have been Bill had thought Job was absolutely unreachable. And fourth little point, having run out of arguments, Bill Dad spins no more, attempting to prove Job wrong. He simply wants to lecture. So that's the attitude. And the argument comes next. The eighth speech of his friends. As the friends' speeches have gotten smaller except for one, they've tried to level reason with Job, and Job says, no, I'm still innocent. Matter of fact, in Job 32, if you want to hold your figure there, look, Job 32, verse 3 and 11 and 12, we see they missed it. Job 32, 3. Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled because they hadn't found no answer and yet had condemned Job, verse 11. Behold, I waited for your words. I gave ear to your reasons while she searched out what to say. Yea, I tended unto you and behold, there was none of you that convinced Job or that answered his words. And that is true. They were so blinded by their agenda. Blinded by their narrative that no matter what you do. They're not interested in truth, and they'll shout you down That would be I'm sorry what a morphism to our today's culture They will if you don't agree with them where Scott and then if you don't if you if they can't somehow Debate with you reasonably then they will start attacking you oh It's sort of called Nazi propagandism. Just throwing it out there. It's humiliation. It's not. We'll just stop right there. They had their own agenda. They wouldn't listen. Our hearts go out to Job. Calls him, in verse 6, a worm. A worm. Can I just say there's a lesson clearly here? Whenever you have the opportunity to be with someone in great need, even if what they are going through is the result of their own wrongdoing or failure, putting them down does not help. Does not help. Does not help. Attitude, argument, assertions. We see the transcendence of God in verse 2 and 3. Dominion and fear are with him. He make his peace in the highest places. Is there any number of his armies and upon whom doth not his light arise? God is omniscient. He's all these things. His armies are great. But how are you going to fight? God's an impossible foe. He's going to win. His armies are great. Poole says, of the angels and stars and other creations, all which are his hosts, wholly submitting themselves to his will and to be and to do what God would have them. And therefore, how insolent and how unreasonable a thing it is for thee, Job, to quarrel with him. God is great. He's beyond our imagination. So why, Job, are you quarreling with him? That was the transcendence of God. And then there is the transitory state of man, verse 4, 5, and 6. How then can man be justified with God? By the way, that is a crux question of the book of Job. Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? 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, even the stars and the moon pale in comparison to God. So what are you, a worm? How are you going to stand up to the awesomeness of God? Perhaps he's trying to rouse a final pang of self-doubt. Worms against his pool is mean, vile, impotent, proceeding from corruption and returning to it with all filthy and loathsome and so very way a very unfit person to appear before the high and holy God and much more to contend with him. And perhaps there was a worm crawling through one of Job's sores right while he was saying that. And that was And with that we say, we bid Bill Dead a not fond farewell. And that ends the hopeless notes of the friends. They are on two different planes. Job's got to be guilty. I'm not guilty. I don't understand, but I'm not guilty. What you think I've done, whatever it is, I've not done that. And those two planes are like two railroad tracks, and they're gonna meet. And Job's on the right side, and they will not come over to the right side. So that was Bildad, what's left to say. Chapter 26, Job, let's look at the Sovereign. This is a grand recital, starting in verse 5, of who God is. Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. 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 in 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 smiteth 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, the edges of his ways, if you would, but how little a portion is heard of him but the thunder of his power. Who can understand? Now that's almighty God. The analysis we see, first of all, in the first four verses, Bildad has struck a sensitive nerve. Look what Job says in verse two. But how hast thou helped him that is without power? How savest thou the arm that hath no strength? How hast thou counseled him that hath no wisdom? And how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? To whom hast thou uttered words? And whose spirit came from thee? A little bit of a paraphrase. What a help you are to the weak. Sarcasm. How you have saved this arm without strength. What counsel you have given to one without wisdom! How helpful insight you have abundantly provided!" Now Job gets tough. You know, sores will do that to a man. I was reading that nurses will tell you that the more pain increases, the more the governor comes off, if you would, of what they say, people say. The tact sort of goes out the window, and you can understand that. And a little statement, pain plants the flag of reality in the fortress of a rebel heart. Pain plants the flag of reality in the fortress of a rebel heart. Even those who have been stubborn and rebellious, when pain hits and persists, reality comes to full measure. It's like you will see sometimes something is floated about in the culture and something gains a lot of traction and is supported for the time until the truth finally takes over. No one wants to be a part of that once the truth takes over because we're going... And that's sort of the pain when the truth of what is happening. I was listening to a presentation by Dr. John Lennox from England and he was speaking to the oncology department and Boston University. And they were saying that only 7% of those going through the cancer treatments remain atheists all the way through the treatments. Because when people are faced with eternity, that makes them think spiritual thoughts. Bildad championed the obvious. God is great. Who can dispute the magnificence of God? No one can. But see, Job has no quarrel with such assertions about the magnificence of God. But here's the inference. See, according to Bildad, puny man counts for nothing in the infinite space of God's mind. But Job thinks precisely the opposite, that because of his boundless capacity for knowledge, he can give every individual the most complete personal attention. Aren't you glad for that? Mrs. Stevens' father can be watched up in Vermont. Christie and Shane Basto can be watched in the Philippines. Masato Miki Funakoshi, who've gone through so much in Ukraine, God is watching over them all at the same time. And when you pray and I pray, we can all pray at the same time and he can handle all that. Because he's handling a star that is some, can't even believe how far the first star is. And he's upholding all things by the word of his power and keeping all these stars. Can you imagine coming up with names for one septillion stars? I can hardly come up with nothing for 10 children, let alone one septillion stars. I think it's one with 24 zeros, it's a big number. Bigger than my puny mind can handle. the analysis, and then there's attestation starting in verse 5. To show the poverty of Bildad's argument, he spoke of the greatness of God. And by the way, you want to show the poverty of any human argument, it's to show the greatness of our God. He soars in his own meditation on the glory of God as reflected in creation. His expressions are unsurprisingly consistent with modern astronomy and meteorology. By the way, the Bible, when it speaks on science, it's accurate. Correct. Spot on. When it speaks about history, it's accurate. It's correct. It's spot on. I'm telling you. But pastor, you always say the Bible's... It's like God wrote it. And it's like perfect. Yes. It's inerrant. Impellable. That's the Word of God. But pastor, I think there's... I'm telling you, if you want to lose your consistent faith, start doubting the veracity of God's Word. When you start down that path, there's not going to be an end likely, unless it's in the total. You see these people who jettison Christianity. Well, I just go, I'm not a Christian anymore. It's too negative. I'm on my way. They went out from us because they were not of us. John would tell them, verse John. Chapter 26, verse 5, dead things are formed from under the waters and the inhabitants thereof. I like what Morris says regarding the dead things. He says it refers to the spirits of deceased. Some of these are in Sheol, or Hades, far below the ocean waters. Some seem to inhabit the waters themselves, possibly the Nephilim drowned in the great flood mentioned in Genesis 6-4. These two groups may comprise or correspond to the scene as envisioned by the Apostle John. Do you remember that vision in Revelation chapter 20 verse 13? It says here, and the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell, Hades divided up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. The sea. I've been buried at sea. If I get buried at sea, that still doesn't mean I can't escape the judgment of God. He's going to bring everybody back together. Look, they're going to cremate my body. God can put it back together. It's a small thing. I'm just thinking that, didn't we all start with dust pretty much? They can put the dust back together again. We're not even humpty-dumpty. Yet the point of context is, don't miss it. The point is this, wherever you go, God is there. He sees you. You can't get beyond. Verse 26, hell is naked before Him, and the destruction hath no covering. Destruction there in the language of Hebrew is abaddon. It means a special compartment, possibly the bottomless pit type thing. Tartarus. Abandoned. It hath no covering. If I ascend into heaven, the psalmist said, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. Verse 7, he stretches out the earth over the empty place and hangeth, he stretches out the north over the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing. The empty place, interestingly enough, Genesis 1-2, same word, T-O-H-U in Hebrew, The earth received its spherical form in response to the gravitational force systems activated by the spirit when he moved. And so the earth started rotating around, if you would. He stretches out over the north, the empty place. He stretches it out. Psalm chapter 48, verse 1 and 2, Psalm 48, 1 and 2. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness, beautiful for situation or elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the North. Sides of the North. If you ask me, where is heaven? I would say it's toward the North. That's my person, where God's sitting right now, where my mom and dad are. Start going North. tied to the north. But we find in, and that's just my personal opinion, but we find in that the empty place, the north was set out over the empty place and he hung the world on nothing. Isn't that amazing? 35 years before Isaac Newton discovered his things, he hung the earth on nothing. It's just out there. How does it sit out there and not fall from the sky? How does it not crash into the earth? How does the sun stay 93 million miles from us, not 92, not 94? The perfect distance so that Mr. Skagg's corn can grow, so Cisco and Buttermilk and Rebel can have all the food for all winter long. It shines on us so tomorrow morning you can get up and go to work once the fog's burned off. How does that work that it works just, it's just a, oh, pastor, it's just a chance happening. It takes far more faith to believe in evolutionary mindset than to believe that the God who said He did it, did it. 28, 26 verse eight, he bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds and the cloud is not rent under them. Only in recent centuries, we find the words in 37, 16 of Job, balancing of the clouds. How is it that the clouds just don't empty out all the rain at once? How does that happen? It's because God is balancing the things. Now, I wish we'd get some clouds with some rain over us about right now and start, and give us some more rain. Perhaps that will come this week, we don't know. The updress, how does that work? How does it work to wear the clouds? Why don't the clouds just come down to earth and just wipe us all out? He's upholding all things by the word of His power. The Bible's spot on when it comes to science. It says in 37 16, Thus thou know the balancing of the clouds, 26.9 to the end. He holdeth back the face of his throne. He 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 divides the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens, and his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. It is God who has put these things in. And it's interesting, some clearly believe that the stars originally were meant for a gospel message. And do not sailors, even in the past, have guided their ships by the stars? They're always in the same formations. I can look up and count on that. Here's our point of reference. The global sea level, why does it not get worse? Why do the seas just keep coming higher and higher and higher? Because He has said He's in control of those things. Now there are incidents where you know tsunamis, etc. But in general, even the winds in the sea obey the Master. And verse 14, lo, these are the parts. And the word means sort of the edge, the boundary lines, the coastlines, the corner. These are the parts of his ways. It's like if you came to America in the early 1400s, and you landed on Myrtle Beach, and you thought, well, this is nice, and then perhaps you walked five miles inward. And I don't know, perhaps you're still going to be on sandy soil. I reckon you see, wow, all of this. You don't realize that you are on a continent that's 9,000 miles this way, 3,000 miles that way. And what you see is just a moment. I'm telling you, there's so many fish up in the lakes in Minnesota. You can fish for a lifetime. There's 10,000 lakes. There's over 1,000 lakes where I go fishing up in Minnesota. Over 1,000 lakes in that area. Over 1,000. And I'm telling you, you've got some of the best fishing ever. Or you can go down to Guntersville and catch all the crappie and bass you want there. You've only walked five miles inside. I'm telling you, there's so much more than you can see. I'm telling you, there's so much more than you can see. It's our God. It's not Allah. It's not Confucius. It's not Joseph Smith, who had 44 wives. It's the God of the universe that we're serving. And though these are the parts, the edges of His way, and the portion carries the idea of whisper. The word's a major term for speech in the Hebrew. Job's speaking from the other side of the written revelation, if you would, as far as we know. But even on this side of biblical revelation, God has disclosed in the Bible a tantalizing tiny percentage of what there is to know about God and His ways. Just a smattering. The gospels record was that 50 days total of the three and a half years Christ, that they only record incidents from 50 days of Christ's life. Can you imagine if they had all 300 and a lot more days than that? Can you imagine how big the gospels would have been? Break the pulpit. I'm telling you. But we have enough to know I'm a sinner. And He's a Savior. He's not just a... He is the definitive pronoun, THE Savior. That's not a pronoun, but whatever it is. THE Savior. I will close with these words from a devotional this past week. The God that created and named each one of the stars, and then calls them by name, is in no danger of forgetting His children. He knows each of our cases thoroughly, as if we were the only creature He ever made or the only saint He ever loved. Hear well, discouraged Christian. There is no inconsequential or unimportant children in God's world. It is most important for God's people to learn that the smallest and often overlooked details are as much arranged by our great God as the most startling events in all history. It is He that is our wise manager, controlling our sitting down and our rising up. Oh, Christian, know well that our deepest problem begins when we fail to trust Him in every detail of life, and making it worse when we take matters into our own hands. Oh, man, that's why I read these devotionals, because every once in a while, it's like, that's a home run. By the way, if you wrote a devotion every day, I can guarantee you, you wouldn't hit a home run every day. But that's why, take heart, discouraged Christian, there are no inconsequential or unimportant children in God's world, and you and me's is one. Shall we rejoice in that? Let's pray. Kids are bowed, eyes are closed. Lord, that you would love me is, it's too great. Grace greater than all our sin. Marvelous, matchless, infinite grace. Lord, that's what I needed. Oh, there are some really wicked people in the world of which I was one. Lord, thank you that I heard the gospel. Lord, if there even be one person here on the sound of my voice somewhere down a future date that does not know Christ as Savior, may they turn themselves over to you in faith and repentance and receive you, whom to know right is life everlasting. I ask these things in Jesus' name I pray, amen.