Turn with me in your Bible to Romans chapter 11, please. Verse 33. Romans 11, 33. I've titled this message, Questions from God. As I said, there's only one God, and these are questions from the God of the Bible. We often feel a need to clarify Him as the God of the Bible because He's the God that this book declares. The God who truly is God. The God that you must not ignore. The God that you cannot ignore without consequence. And this God is the God of the Bible. The sweet psalmist wrote, but our God is in the heavens and He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. What does that mean? Just what it says. Unfortunately, that's not the God that many today preach. You can turn on your TV, radio, get online. You don't hear much about this God anymore. You hear about the God of self that we talked about a week or two ago. And friends, I'm gonna be honest with you. The more I study the scriptures, the more I see just how much I myself don't understand about this God of the Bible. I sit in my study, and I read, and then I read some more, and then I pray, and I beg God, open up these Scriptures to me. And I just see how much I myself don't understand. And I beg the Holy Spirit to give me some understanding of the Spirit. Why? Because I want to give some comfort to you. That's what God demands of preachers. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. I want you to profit from the preaching of the gospel. I don't want us just to be here. I don't want to try to stand up here and tell you how to live when I can't live right myself. We're all sinners. We're all in bad shape if God don't do something for us. I just confess to you so much I don't understand about God. There's so much I don't understand concerning His Word and His character and His way and His forgiveness and His grace and His salvation. But I've told you before, and I mean it, I don't need a God that I can understand. I just need God. We need His help. We need His mercy and grace. We need His forgiveness, don't we? We need His perfect righteousness. We need His everlasting salvation. We need Him more than anything else in this life. So much I don't understand about the Lord Jesus Christ laying down His life for wretched sinners like you and I. So much I don't know, but it's not about how much we know. It's all about who we know. And we can't figure these things out. I used to often say that, well, I just haven't figured that out yet, and I never will. We don't figure them out. God's got to show them to us. God's got to reveal to us these things. And the way he does it is through preaching. He said through the foolishness of preaching, what the world calls foolishness. And it is foolishness too. It's the means that God uses to save them that believe. So we don't take preaching lightly. So much I don't know. But I know who I have believed. And I'm persuaded He's able. To what? To keep that that I've committed to Him. What have I committed to Him? My very soul. God is incomprehensible. Now that's a big word, but it simply means that the God of the Bible is past finding out. He can't be understood, not in the fullest sense of the word. And the truth of the matter is, if we could figure him out, he wouldn't be God. We need a God who's past finding out. Why? Because we need a God who's bigger than our understanding, and we need a God whose grace is greater than our sin. The greatest revelation that God gives a sinner is need, and those who are sick need a physician. And the Lord Jesus Christ is a great physician. Though we don't understand God, there are many things that we can understand about one another. Why? Because we're all very much alike. Scripture says, there's none that doeth good, no, not one. Five different times we're told that in the Bible. We're all grouped into that category. That's none of us who do good. There's none that seeketh after God. That's what God said. They've all gone their own way. We've all ditched God's way for our own way. That's true of all of us. We are rebellion itself wrapped in self-rule and pride. I encourage you to read Romans chapter 3, what God says about us. You see that you and I are very much alike, spiritually speaking. We're identical. But God's not like us. He's far above you and I, and we understand very little about Him. You know, faith, true faith, is believing what this book declares, even if we don't understand it. My friend Gary back there, Gary Vincent, he's a pilot, flown an airplane for years, commercially even. I don't understand the principles of aviation like he does. I've told you this before. But I believe that airplanes fly. I've flown on an airplane and I don't understand the mechanics of flight. I just know that if I need to go somewhere far, especially at my age, I get on that airplane and it takes me there. And I don't need to know all the details of how and why that airplane flies. I just need it to get me where I'm going. And friends, I don't need to understand all the details of God's omnipotent power and saving grace. I just need a God who's able to save and is willing to save. And the God of the Bible, according to Hebrews 7.25, can save me and you to the uttermost. Listen to what God says about himself through the prophet Isaiah. I'm gonna get to my text in a moment. Keep your place there. Speaking to the whole world, God said, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. That's what God said. And like Job in Job chapter 42 verse 3, I'm uttering words here that I understand not, things too wonderful for me, which I know not. These things are too wonderful to completely understand, yet by His mercy and grace, I believe them. As David said in Psalm 139 verse 6, too wonderful for me, it's high, I cannot attain it. Above my head. Yesterday, something was said at our Thanksgiving get-together with our children, and it just flew right over my head. I didn't get it at all. And Tracy even said, you know, like, boom, it flew right over his head. A lot of things to do anymore. But these things, really, they're too high. I can't attain unto them. They're above, past finding that, above my understanding. But by God's grace, I can believe it. And it takes a miracle of grace and revelation from God in the heart of sinners in order for them to do that. We're talking about the God of the Bible, the God who made all things from nothing. The God who spoke this universe into existence with just a word. Let there be light and there was light. That's the God we're talking about. Now here in Romans chapter 11, verse 33, the apostle Paul writes, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. And then he says, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. Paul didn't understand the depths of God either. None of us can understand all there is to understand about God. And for us to let on like we do is just nothing but pride and arrogance. Look at verse 34. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor? Listen, Paul wrote these things, but it was by the divine inspiration of God. This is God asking these questions. Who hath been God's counselor? Huh? For who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Let's ask ourselves these same questions. How deep are his riches? Unfathomably deep. How unsearchable are his judgments? Past finding that. Who's known God's mind? Who's been His counselor? Who's instructed Him? The answer to all these questions is none of us. No man, no woman, nobody. Who's ever given or supplied anything to God that would cause Him to owe us in return? That's what that word recompense there in verse 34 means. Does God owe and pay back a debt to us? For what? We did the sin and God does the saving. We owe him a debt that we cannot pay. And Christ paid that debt that he did not owe. All things are of Him, through Him, and to Him, and for His glory forever, verse 34 said. Now, I want you to turn with me to Proverbs 30. I want us to consider some serious questions here that God asked in His Word. These are questions that God asked. They're very important questions. They're questions that all of us need to consider. Proverbs chapter 30, I want you to look at verse four. Questions from God. Proverbs 30 verse 4. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? 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's his name? And what is his son's name, if thou canst tell? Who's done these things? Has man? No, it's the God of the Bible, the only true and living God, and He's the God that we must put our trust and confidence in. Have you ever seen anybody climb into heaven and take charge? Can a man grab the winds and control them? No, but our Lord can, and He did. One time, Him and His disciples were on a ship in the midst of the storm. The disciples, most of them skilled fishermen, Then out on that sea, many times when a storm came up, they were scared to death. And the Lord Jesus stood up and he said, peace, be still. And there was a great calm. And the winds and the storm ceased. Do you know anybody can do that? Now, I want you to turn with me to the book of Isaiah. I won't turn to you anymore. I know I say that all the time, but I'll try not to. Isaiah chapter 40. We'll start there and maybe look at a few other places close by. Let's read a few verses here, beginning in verse 12. Here we got more questions from God. That's what this is about. Questions from God. Verse 12. Isaiah 40, got it? Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who's done that? Who can? Can you? Can I? No, but the God of the Bible can. Verse 13, who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught him? That's what Paul was saying. He was quoting this. With whom took he God counsel? And who hath instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding? Has anybody taught God anything? Verse 15, behold the nations. This ain't just talking about man, it's talking about nations. It says they are as a drop of a bucket. Do you know what a drop of a bucket is? Not a drop in the bucket, this is the drop of a bucket. That's when you take a bucket. I think about an old rusty metal bucket like they used to. my grandparents used to use, and it's full of water and you pour all the water out and you sit there and you do that and do that until there's no water left in it. Then you reach, you go to hang it up and you look and there's a little old rusty, dirty drop of water fixing to drop off the bottom of that bucket. That's what this is talking about. That's what the nations are compared to God. What is man that's much, much left, huh? A drop of a bucket. They're to God, they're nothing. Read on, verse 15, the nations are counted as the small dust of the balance. Insignificant, amounting to nothing. That small dust found on the balance of the scales that doesn't make any difference in what you're weighing. You know, I weigh myself every morning. It's just something that I do. And I don't dust the scales off before I weigh. Why? I don't dust the scales off to get an accurate reading because that dust is insignificant. It's not going to make one difference in what I want that scale to read. I said that on purpose that way, because it don't always read what I want it to. It's such a small thing. A drop of a bucket. The dust on a scale. That's what the nations are to God Almighty. Nothing but an insignificant drop and just small dust. It says, behold, pay attention. He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. God's power is so great that all the coastlands of all the islands upon planet earth, all the nations, all the people amount to nothing compared to him. Verse 16, in Lebanon, not sufficient to burn the trees of Lebanon as great and mighty as they are, nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. Verse 17, and all the nations before him are as what? Nothing, nothing. And they are counted to him less than nothing in vanity. So in verse 18, God Himself asked this question, to whom then will you liken God? If God is all these things, who are you going to compare Him to? What likeness will you compare God to? There is none. There's nobody you can't compare Him to. Sinful men and women's problem is that they think they're like God. And that's who they compare Him to, themselves. We don't even come close to comparing to God. Psalm 50, verse 21 says, God's saying this, thou thoughtest that thou was altogether one such as I. And that's what men think. That's why men's opinion of God's too low, and it is. Our opinion of God by nature is way too low. We refer to him as the old man upstairs. Disrespectful things like that. Little old man upstairs. Me and Jesus got a good thing going. I'm not so sure about that. We've endeavored to bring God down to our level so that we can feel good about ourselves. But in the end, it'll prove to be condemnation to men and women. Men's unbelief does not make the faith of God, the faithfulness of God to be without effect. Paul said, God is true and every man a liar. Listen, we're the ones in need here, not God. God doesn't cease to be God. He doesn't need us. He doesn't cease to be God because we don't believe. Man's low and wrong opinion of God doesn't change him in the least. Look across the page here, Isaiah 41, verse 26. More questions from God. Who hath declared from the beginning that we may know, and before time that we may say He is righteous? He says, yea, there's none that show it. Yea, there's none that declare it. Yea, there is none that heareth your words. It's God who declares these things. It's God who reveals Christ's righteousness to us. Turn over to chapter 45. Look at verse 21. More questions from God. Tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient times? Who hath told it from that time? Hath not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There's none beside me. How many gods are there? Just one. And it's the God of the Bible. And He says there's none beside me. I don't want God to deal with me in justice either. I'm just telling you that. I want God to deal with me in mercy. We want justice. In a court of law, we want justice. We don't want a judge that just throws everything out and says, oh, no, no, I wouldn't be a good judge. We want a just God. We want a just judge, and we want a just God. But I don't want God to deal with me in justice. I want Him to deal with me in mercy. And because the Lord Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us and lived a perfect life for His people, died in their place, justice is satisfied, and those folks that He died for are saved. So God is a just God. His justice is not compromised. And yet, at the same time, He's a Savior. Best news these wretched ears ever heard. Because that's what I am. I'm a rich. I can't save myself. I can't do anything to be saved. It's 100% His mercy and His grace to me. Don't look anywhere else. Don't search anywhere else. And don't look within yourself. In our present state, the Scripture declares that we know in part, and we preach in part. That simply means we don't understand all there is to understand about God. Naturally, we don't understand much. We know very little, really. It says we see through a glass darkly and dimly. I've told you this before. My dad was a welder, and you take those welding glasses, and put them up, you could see nothing through them. You could use those to look at the sun. That's how we see God, dimly and darkly. But what I do see through this glass dimly is this. God, the God of the Bible, is ruling and reigning in the heavens, and He's done whatsoever He hath pleased. He's still doing whatsoever He's pleased. You say, well, this world is in a mess. Everything that's going on in this world, according to Romans 8, 28, he's working together for the good of them that love him, those that are called according to his purpose. And you know what? I don't understand that. But I believe it. I do. I believe it. Not like I should. But I believe that's the God of the Bible. And I'm not interested in hearing about any other God that's less than that, because any God that's less than that can do me no good and profit me nothing. That's the God of the Bible. He does everything for his people's good and for his own glory. And you don't hear these things preached much anymore. Men have, by their own evil devices, lied on God. Let's just call it what it is. These preachers today standing up and saying, God don't mean for you to be sick, and God don't mean for you to be poor, and God don't mean for this, and God don't mean for that. They're lying to you. They're lying to you. Read the book. Read the book. Our Lord told a parable in Luke chapter 19, and the Lord in that parable, referring to Himself, said that the citizens of that country, you and I, by birth of practice, that's who He's talking about, hated Him, and they sent a message after Him saying, we will not have this man to rule over us. And that's what's going on in this world today. That's what's going on in religion today. Men and women hate this God. I don't want this God, the God of the Bible, to rule over me. So I'm going to conjure up, I'm going to imagine a God that's more like me. One that I can manipulate and one that I can control. And that's what religion's done. Men don't want this God. They don't want this Lord Jesus Christ. Not the one that's truly proclaimed in the scriptures. They want a little puny God that they can control by their own free will. That's why we hear so much about man's free will today. And they want a little Jesus who wants to save them if they'll just let him. That's not my God. That's not the God of this Bible. Is that your God? That's not the Lord Jesus of the Bible. Now, we're either going to bow to the God of the Bible, or we're going to reject Him, refuse Him, and rebel against Him. So what's it gonna be? Well, that's between you and God. But I'll tell you this, without hesitation, that Christ, the God-man, The man who, the one who was 100% man and 100% God is ruling and reigning over all the affairs of this world. And he is out to do me good. And you can rebel and die in your sin or you can bow and have everlasting life. And it's my responsibility as an ambassador of Christ. Listen, that's not the title I gave myself. That's what all of us are. That's what every believer is. They're an ambassador for God to tell the truth of what God says. And there are many things I don't understand, but God has given me faith to believe and honestly answer these questions from God. Doesn't matter if I understand these things or not, I must believe them. And by His grace, I do. Listen, I'm just gonna A few minutes longer. I don't understand how God spoke this world into existence. My little finite mind will not allow me to understand how God said, let there be light and there was light. I don't understand at all how God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. And I don't have any clue how he did that. I believe he did. There's a book out for sale. I saw it years ago and it's been republished. And it's titled, Answering the Unanswerable Questions. If they're unanswerable, how's this book going to answer them? How do you answer an unanswerable question? And did you know that so-called intelligent men and women have serious debates today on whether Adam and Eve had belly buttons? I think we've talked about that before. Well, if they weren't born, if they were created, why would they have belly buttons? All I know is that Adam and Eve fell, and I fell in them. And unless God has mercy and grace and saves me by the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm lost and condemned. Their belly buttons don't matter one bit to me, knowing that won't give me eternal life. My only hope of redemption is the sacrifice of God's beloved Son who died to shed His blood in His people's place and was accepted by God. And my only hope of acceptance is being in Him whom God accepted. I don't accept Jesus as my personal Savior. He accepted me, the sinner, that I am. But He accepted me only in Christ. Paul told Timothy, he said, foolish and unlearned questions avoid. That's pretty plain. So if anybody starts talking about Adam and Eve's belly buttons, do you just leave? Foolish, unlearned. They gender strife, and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach patience and meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. " People that concern themselves with these things are opposing themselves. You know what that means? They're their own worst enemy. My mom used to tell me that a lot. You're your own worst enemy. And we are, aren't we? I don't have a scientific answer as to how God brought all those plagues upon Egypt. There are men and women who've dedicated their lives to try to scientifically prove how this and that happened. They explained the flies that God sent. There are flies everywhere. because of the dead frogs. Well, they said the flies were there because of the dead frog, and the dead frogs came because the river turned into blood, and the river turned into blood because of this, and because of that, and that, and the other, and blah, blah, blah. It's ridiculous. God sent the flies. God sent the frogs. God turned the river red with blood. God did it. They're not going to find out scientifically because it was supernaturally done by God. Men are still debating today how the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea. I know how they crossed it. God departed the waters and they crossed on dry ground. And people claim at certain times of the year, they try to explain everything away. Certain times of the year, the water in the Red Sea, it's only three or four feet deep. So they could just walk across. But it says they pass over on dry ground. You got three or four feet of water, you still got, you're gonna get wet. And my question to those skeptics is, if the people of God crossed the Red Sea in three foot of water trying to discredit God's supernatural miracle, the most amazing thing to me is how the whole Pharaoh's army, the Egyptian army, drowned in four foot of water. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Men, got to have proof. I got to have proof. From the show me state. I guess everybody's from Missouri anymore. You're going to have to show me for I believe. That's what Thomas said. Unless I see the nail scars in his hands and the scar on his side. And when the Lord came and showed them to him, he said, my Lord, my God. Blessed are those who believe and don't see. I don't know how God caused bread to fall from heaven. I don't know how God caused water to flow from a rock. And that very rock followed Israel around for 40 years in the wilderness. I don't know how God did that. I believe he did. I have no clue how the clothes and the sandals of God's people lasted for 40 years without any wear or tear. I can't answer that, but that's what the scriptures say. And I can't explain how God led people by day by a pillar of a cloud and at night by a pillar of fire. But I know he did because that's what the book says. Men and women spend their whole lives trying to discredit God's word. By the grace of God, believe it. I'm not going to waste my time trying to figure it out because I never will. I can't explain how the walls of Jericho, that big city, fortified city, fell down by the people walking around it, blowing a trumpet, and then shouting out in unison. But I believe it did. And I believe God knocked those walls down, don't you? And he left one little corner of that wall standing where Rahab the harlot lived because he determined to save her. There's a lot that happened that I don't understand, but I believe it all happened. I don't understand how in the heat of battle, when Israel went out fighting against the Canaanite nations, that God rained hail storms down from heaven which fell with such precision that it only hit the enemies of God as God's people was chasing them. I tell you what I do know. God's a good shot. God knocked them off their horses. I can't explain that. I believe it. How does God give a son that He promised a man, Abraham, when he was 100 years old and whose wife was 90? I don't understand it. The answer is simple and plain. It's simply, please God, do so. That's the only answer I can give you. Why did God hide His Word from the wise and prudent and reveal it to babes? The answer was it seemed good in His sight. That's the only answer we can give. Why did God make the Lord Jesus Christ sin for His people, that perfect God-man who knew no sin, and at the same time give us His perfect righteousness? Because He's God. And that's how He saves sinners. How and why does God take stony hearts out of such a wretch as me and give me a heart of flesh that loves him? I don't know. You could ask a lot of my old friends. You could tell them that I'm a preacher now, and they'd be the first to tell you. Of all the people that I went to school with, I sure wouldn't have thought he'd been a preacher. That's God's doing. That's God's doing. You're here this morning because it's God's doing. The only answer this sinner has is God does as He pleases, and it seems good in His sight. That's a good answer. It's a sufficient answer for God's people. How can men and women look at the beauty of God's creation, see the sun that sustains life and behold the stars and moon, and yet deny there's a marvelous, amazing, sovereign God who created the whole shooting match? I don't know. John 12 says that they could not believe because God had blinded their eyes. Harden their hearts that they should not see with their eyes or understand with their heart. That's the only answer I have. And David said, whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth and in all deep places. And he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. And he makes lightnings for the rain and he brings the wind out of his treasury. Who does? God does. Who smoked the firstborn of Egypt? Questions from God, both man and beast. Who sent tokens and wonders in the midst of the old Egypt upon Pharaoh and upon the servants? Who smoked great nations and slew mighty kings? God did. And this is the God with whom we have to do. Now listen to me. God reveals the answers to these questions that He has. These are questions from God. And He does so in this book by His Spirit. And I suppose out of all the things that God did that baffles me the most, more than any other thing, is that God would save a good-for-nothing sinner like me. That's the thing I understand the least that amazes me the most. I bet the same with you, isn't it? And though I don't understand it, I believe it. When it pleased God, He separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. That's the only reason. That's the answer that the God of the Bible gives to all these questions. It pleased me to do so. It seemed good in my sight. Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief.