I want to call your attention this afternoon to Job 26. Job 26. We want to remember in our prayers Brother Bob Bedard, who is not feeling well and had to go home, and any others that may be sick and hindered from being here. That includes Brother Les Walls also. Job 26. Verse 1 says, But Job answered and said. Then we have a fairly short chapter in this portion. This is the beginning of the last of Job's discourses. He speaks here for several chapters and in chapter 32 Yet another speaker appears on the scene. And Job here is answering Bildad. It's always helpful if we look at what each one is following. Job answers Bildad, who spoke in chapter 25, very briefly. We pointed out that Bildad spoke much truth about God in chapter 25. About God's sovereignty and dominion in verse 2. His worthiness of being feared there in verse 2. His supremacy and authority over all things. Unlimited resources at his disposal, verse 3, no number of his armies. His holiness and purity so much that the question of verse 4 applies, how can a man be justified with God or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? He emphasizes the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. He compares man to a worm in verse 6. Actually, two different worms there in verse 6. I don't think I pointed that out last time, but two different Hebrew words there. They both mean worm, but there are different kinds of worms. But however you cut it, man is like a worm. We saw, however, that Bildad, left out some things that needed to be included. Number one, a sympathetic heart toward Job. And number two, he did not include any hope for Job or for anyone else. He just leaves us with the idea that no one can be justified before God and that's it. And while that is certainly a necessary truth, it is not all the truth. Thank God there is good news that follows this bad news. Matthew Henry sort of summarizes Bildad's problem in this way. Everything that is true and good is not suitable and seasonable. To one that was humbled and broken and grieved in spirit as Job was, Bildad ought to have preached of the grace and mercy of God rather than of his greatness and majesty. To have laid before him the consolations rather than the terrors of the Almighty. And then Henry refers to Isaiah 54 that speaks prophetically of Christ, how that He would speak a word in season to him that is needy. Christ knows how to speak what is proper for the weary. And his ministers should learn rightly to divide the word of truth and not make those sad whom God would not have made sad as Bildad did. Bildad just piles on and adds more and more grief, grief upon grief for Job. What Job needed was some comfort and some hope. So we can understand why Job might respond sarcastically as he does here in chapter 26 at the beginning of his answer in these first few verses. It is quite remarkable that a man who was as sick as Job was and in as much pain and reeling with grief and his whole world has collapsed, how that he might still be in so much possession of his faculties as to use this device of mockery and sarcasm with Bildad. I think it speaks of how that God had obviously sustained Job's spirit in spite of everything else. So, we have this chapter. Let me just give you a general outline of it. In verses 2 through 4, we have Job's mocking of Bildad, and by extension, the other two as well. Then in verses 5 through 13 we have a description of some of the mighty acts of God. And then in the last verse, 14, we see the point that Job is driving at in all that he has said here about the mighty acts of God. So he says here, first of all, verses two and three, 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? This seems to be sarcasm. Job is in effect saying to Bildad, Bildad, thank you so much. You have really been a help. You have solved the problem. You have really helped the powerless and strengthened the weak and helped the needy. You've given wisdom to those that were ignorant and you have just fully answered. You've given us a completely satisfying answer to this whole dilemma that we've been debating here for quite some time. You've delivered me. In reality, what Job intends is, Bildad, you have not helped me at all. You have not comforted me at all. You have not delivered me at all. You have not solved any problems here. You have not made a significant positive contribution to the whole discussion. He goes on in verse 4, "...to whom hast thou uttered words?" Bill, Dad, who have you been talking to? Job is now getting down to business more. Who were you trying to impress? Who did you think needed to hear what you had to say? And he says at the end of verse 4, and this is sort of the the final nail in the coffin, whose spirit came from thee? Job seems to imply that God had not sent Bildad with this message. That it came from Bildad, or some other spirit, whose spirit came from thee? Maybe Job was beginning to grasp the perspective of Satan's involvement in this whole affair. Whatever the case, Job's initial reaction here to Bildad must have been very deflating to Bildad's ego. You can just see the air coming out of his ego, the balloon of his ego to where he thought that he had answered the case once again indisputably. And Job says, no, you haven't answered a thing. You haven't helped a thing. Pride of intellect was in Bildad. and it needed to be humbled. God has a way of humbling proud intellects. And he uses Job here to do it. And all three of them are later on humbled. In fact, all concerned, including Job, are humbled at the end by God in the last chapter. It makes us question what Bildad's whole motive was in what he said and as far as the other two are concerned as well, in all of their discourses. Especially when they're talking about God and God's attributes and God's ways with mankind. Were they speaking just to show off what knowledge they had? Were they speaking so as to get the praise of man? Did Bildad expect Job to stand back in amazement and say, My Bildad, you are brilliant. Beloved, we must be very careful. When we speak the truth of God to others, when we let them know what we know of God, and through his word. Let us make sure that our motives are not so that people might look at us and say, what a brilliant person. My, what a mighty knowledge of God that he or she has. Because God is able to humble us. He has many ways to do that and he can do it very quickly. And Bildad needed to be brought down from his high opinion of himself. Let us make sure that we maintain a right opinion and a humble opinion before God of ourselves. whose spirit comes from us, who moves us to speak even when we speak the truth. The New Testament talks about speaking the truth in love and edifying one another in that way. Let us make sure that we don't leave out that part about the love. Going on here, Job immediately launches into a listing here of some of the mighty acts of God. And everyone agrees that this is one of the greatest chapters or the greatest portions in all of Scripture concerning God's works in nature and in mankind. Some of the phrases are difficult for me to understand and difficult to pin down exactly what was in Job's mind when he said these things. And maybe it is safe to ask the question, how much did Job understand even about what he said? Did he understand the scientific accuracy of what he says? I don't know the answer to that question. But I do know that the overall emphasis here is pretty clear. By talking about all these great mighty acts of God, Job is saying in effect to Bildad, you are not telling me anything that I don't already know, Bildad. In fact, I know more than that. And though Bildad's knowledge of God in chapter 25 is great, it's obvious that Job's knowledge of God in chapter 26 is even greater. And he waxes more eloquent than Bildad. Now, is this Job just showing off his knowledge? Is this more pride of intellect? I don't think so. The others were rebuked at the end because they had not said that which was right about God. Job here only says these things because he is provoked and driven to do so in order to humble the pride of a Bildad. We saw something similar back in chapters 12 and 13, only Job was answering Zophar in those two chapters. He starts out saying, no doubt, but ye are the people and wisdom shall die with you, but I have understanding as well as you. And then he goes into a description of the greatness of God and the manifestation of his power and so forth that eclipses anything that Zophar had brought up previous to that. And he does the same thing here with Bildad. Bildad in chapter 25 spoke of God's supremacy over the whole heaven. Job expands that even further and he points out in this chapter the supremacy of God over all the earth and even that which is under the earth. So let's pick up here in verse 5. Dead things are formed from under the waters and the inhabitants thereof. Job here begins at the lowest point, beneath the waters, under the earth. And he moves upward and ascends and he ends up in the end of the chapter in the stars, in the heavens. Exactly what he's referring to here in verse 5, I'm not sure, but it may be a reference to the souls that perished in the flood. Dead things under the waters, destroyed with the flood. I would encourage you, if you are interested in reading authorities on that verse, and it's very interesting to see all that they come up with, but that is my best guess. That it's a reference to all that perished under the waters of the floods and were formed. The forming aspect has to do with the fact that their spirits, as far as mankind is concerned, their spirits are still intact, still alive. And he goes on and mentions in verse 6, hell and destruction. Hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering. Hell here of course is Sheol, the place of disembodied spirits, the underworld. And the word destruction here is the word Abaddon that is mentioned in the book of Revelation as one of the names for Satan. But here it's destruction. Destruction hath no covering. God's dominion extends, Bildad, not only in the heights of heaven, but in the depths of the earth, even in the grave, even under the earth and under the water, even in hell. Even in the grave and even in what lies beyond it, God is in absolute authority and control. We talked about this a few weeks ago, studying the subject of hell. And I can't remember if we read this verse or not, but listen to this from Revelation 14.10. It says, In verse 9, if any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." Here, the presence of Jesus Christ and of the angels is part of the torment that the ungodly receive. While we usually think of the presence of Christ as being bliss, it is that for the redeemed. But the same presence of Christ is utter misery for those that are lost. Remember the demons that wanted to stay away from him when he walked on this earth. Being in his presence was misery to them. Jonathan Edwards preached on this psalm. He said that both the godly and the ungodly will spend eternity in the immediate presence of God. He will be the heaven to the one and the hell of the other. Hell is naked before him, Job says, and destruction hath no covering. No one can hide from him. He is present everywhere. He is present in judgment, even in everlasting hell. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. Henry Morris sees great scientific significance in this verse in terms of the earth and its axis and where north is and so forth. And I'm ashamed to say that I just don't quite have the mind to grasp it. But if you have that kind of mind, read Henry Morris. You'll find him very helpful and interesting, I'm sure. What I do see here is a description of creation that parallels much of Genesis chapter 1. The empty place here in verse 7 is the same word as without form in Genesis 1-2 when it says the earth was without form and void. And God stretched out the north over this," Job says. We know from Isaiah and Psalms that God stretched out the heaven like a curtain and spread it like a tent to dwell in. It speaks of the unfathomable, immeasurable power of God manifested in putting this universe No, I can't even say it that way in creating the universe. It's the only way to say it creating it out of nothing Creating the basic Elements putting them in the combinations according to his will Determining North Stretching out like a curtain the heavens remember we read in a place or two in the New Testament. We're at the end of that they will grow old and the Lord will roll them up like a garment. Stretch them out in the beginning, rolls them up at the end. He says that the Lord hangeth the earth upon nothing. Man cannot hang anything upon nothing. We cannot take a feather and hang it upon nothing. As I was working on this last night, a bunch of little gnats had gotten into the room where I was working. These little gnats, so small and tiny, you can just blow them away with your breath. We can't even hang a gnat on nothing. If you hold it here and let go, it will fall. The Lord hangs the earth upon nothing. We have this globe and there's no supports or columns underneath of it. There's no rope going up to a beam overhead. It's just suspended out here with nothing else. How does that happen? Man can't do that. We can't come close. God doesn't. does it with ease. According to Hebrews 1.3, He upholds all things by the word of His power. He makes everything consist. He holds it all together just with His bare will and His decree, His word of His power. And then, the water cycle is mentioned in verse 8. He bindeth up the waters in His thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them, or at least I should say part of the water cycle here. The waters being in the air, it's as if they're bound up in a bottle up there in the clouds. And the cloud is not rent under them. Why, you would expect the cloud to just break in half, or all the water to come down in one big gush. But instead of the cloud being ruined like that, the Lord makes it rain so that it comes down drop by drop, one drop at a time, and drop upon drop, of course. Man, on the other hand, is in great contrast here. We can't make it rain one drop. If we could, We wouldn't be in the drought that we're in in Oklahoma. We need rain. We need it desperately. But God is the one who binds up the waters in the thick clouds. This is His act. Verse 9, He holdeth back the face of His throne and spreadeth His cloud upon it. Now what's this talking about? He's speaking of the atmosphere, evidently, and the clouds as if they hide God from our view. God, of course, is a spirit. The New Testament tells us that He is invisible as well as immortal. But poetically speaking, we cannot see God because we're blinded by the clouds that cover his face. You remember when he came to Israel in a very special way on Mount Sinai, there was what? There was a cloud and smoke. They heard the voice, but there was great darkness. And while on the one hand God is light, And you see that instance of Saul on the road to Damascus with that bright light that shines down from him and there's that sense of brightness about God and His glory. There's also the sense of clouds and darkness that hide his face. Verse 10, He hath compassed the waters with bounds until the day and night come to an end. This, I think, is referring to the flood. After the flood, God made specific boundaries for the waters. He promised, you remember, to Noah after the flood in chapter 8 and chapter 9 of Genesis that there would not be a worldwide flood ever again. There would, of course, have been local floods, many of them, but none that covered the whole earth, like Noah's flood. Now we call it Noah's flood. It was God's flood in the days of Noah. And God, according to His covenant with mankind and with the earth itself, has compassed the waters with bounds. The word compassed here is an interesting word. It literally means to encircle, or encompass around. Some seem to think that there is a connection here with the shape of the earth itself. You can dig into that as you wish. But He has done this. He controls the location of the waters until day and night come to an end. That also is part of the promise and the covenant that God made with man. after the flood there at the end of Genesis chapter 8 where he said there would be seed time and harvest and the seasons and so forth unceasingly on the earth. Day and night, that's part of it too. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. This is one of the difficult ones for me, but I think that The best explanation is that the pillars of heaven spoken of here may be the tall mountains that are like pillars that reach up. But yet even these great mountains tremble and are astonished at God's reproof. When God sends a thunder, even the mountains, the great mountains tremble. When God sends an earthquake, even Mountains tremble. And that is spoken of as his reproof, if my understanding is correct. Verse 12, more of God's great acts. He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. This speaks of God's control over large bodies of water. oceans and seas that are so intimidating to man. Some of the Psalms speak so eloquently of this, that those that go down to the sea in ships, they see the mighty hand of God, the mighty deeds of God. Being out there on those waves, tossed around, That boat looks so strong and able when it's near the shore and you get it out there on the waves of the sea and it's just like a little toy. Just like a piece of bark on a tree that is just being thrown around on the waves. And the Lord is in control of that sea and those waves. He divides them. He determines their location. and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud." Who is the proud? Well, without going into an explanation as to why, my best guess is that the proud here may refer to actually a sea animal that the Lord is in authority over as well as the sea in which he dwells. We'll see the Lord later on talking about Leviathan and some of these great creatures that are probably or were probably large dinosaurs. Some of them earth-bound and some of them water creatures. And the Lord is in control of all of these things. Finally, verse 13, By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens. Now we move all the way above the earth. We've been beneath the earth, on the earth, around the earth. Now we are above the earth. By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens. He has beautified the sky. With what? With the stars. We've already mentioned several of the constellations that are mentioned here in the book of Job. As far outward as we are able to observe, we see the beauty of God's handiwork, his garnishing of the heavens. His hand hath formed the crooked serpent. Now what is this? I think it's referring to one of the constellations. Albert Barnes argues that it is the dragon constellation that is referred to all the way back as far as Virgil. These are the best guesses that I'm capable of at this point. Whatever the case, I again say we get the overall point that Job is making to Bildad in this, and that is that Bildad's knowledge of God, as great as it is, still has room to grow. and that Bildad has no room for pride of intellect, because he still has more to learn about God. Well, that brings us then to verse 14, and this is really the clincher of the whole argument here. 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? Job says, I've given you just a little thumbnail sketch here of God and His ways. He says, but this is just a part. This is just the tip of the iceberg. This is just a small beginning. There is so much more that could be said about God. And because God is infinite, there's an endless amount that could be said about God. It's as if Job stretches us to the very limits of what we can see and what we can even comprehend that is beneath us and what we can observe through a telescope beyond us. And he says, this is just the beginning. This is just a little taste. These are parts of his ways. Can you imagine infinity? But how little a portion is heard of Him. But the thunder of His power, who can understand? Job says, all that I've said thus far is just a whisper compared to the roaring of thunder. And he says, just the whisper of God, just a little portion heard of Him is enough to blow our minds and humble us before Him Can you imagine what the thunder of His power should do and would do to us? The point of this whole discourse then is that we should behold the grandeur and the glory and the majesty of God and get a grasp on Him and His mighty acts that reveal who He is. as much as we can, as much as we are capable of grasping and understanding. And then, after we have done our best to understand all that we can and learn all that we can, then to sit back and realize this is just a beginning, just the tip of the iceberg. There is more about God than we can begin to conceive. We cannot fathom His unlimited wisdom and power. There is a word given to this by theologians. It's called the incomprehensibility of God. I remember distinctly a sermon by Max Nunley on the incomprehensibility of God. Many years ago, James Durham said, God is never rightly studied till he be found incomprehensible. If we haven't gotten to the point where we realize there is so much more about him than we can grasp, then we haven't even begun studying him, Mr. Durham tells us. Or listen to Matthew Henry. I've had to get as much help as I could, and so I'm quoting these other men. Despairing to find the bottom, we must sit down at the brink and adore the depth. Oh, the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! It is but a little portion that we hear and know of God in our present state. He is infinite and incomprehensible. Our understandings and capacities are weak and shallow, and the full discoveries of the divine glory are reserved for the future state. Remember, after describing the scene at Mount Sinai so graphically there in Habakkuk chapter 3, he says there was the hiding of his power. All that was manifested there at Mount Sinai, there was more hidden than was manifested. That's the glory, the majesty of God. If we learn anything from Job 26, We should learn to acknowledge our ignorance and acknowledge our limitations. We should not use that, however, as an excuse not to study and learn all that we can. A person shouldn't just close his Bible and say, well, it's all above me, I can't understand it, you know, God is infinite and so forth, and so what's the use? No, we must go as far as scripture goes, but realize that we are limited. Mr. William Cunningham was writing on a different subject, on the subject of the eternal sonship of Christ. When he said this word that applies to this subject of the incomprehensibility of God, he said, as on the one hand, we ought to beware of trying to be wise above what is written, So, on the other hand, we must guard against laying aside or leaving out of view anything which has really been revealed upon this point." End of quote. In other words, we must go as far as written revelation will allow us to go, but not dare go any further and to acknowledge our limitations. And so, Job understood something. Something that Bildad needed to understand, that there is much about God, and his purposes, and his method, his power, that we do not understand, that we simply cannot understand. Those who know God best know that they have much more to learn. And so let us put ourselves to the test here this afternoon as we draw to a close. Bildad knew a lot about God. Job knew more. Bildad's knowledge had left him in a rather proud condition. And the New Testament tells us in one place that knowledge puffeth up. Job, on the other hand, was much more humbled before God. It should be The more a person knows of God, the more humble he should be. So I want to ask you, do you know more about God? Think of your neighbors. I'm sure you know more about God than they do. How about other relatives? I'm sure you could point to many whose knowledge of God is just a fraction of yours. Those that you work with and so forth, those that you see and have contact with, friends that are lost, you know God much more than they do. Has your knowledge of God humbled you? That's a sobering question to contemplate. How about those who are in the church down the street? Or maybe one of the dozen or two that you probably drove past on your way here today? Well, we know more about God than they do. After all, we're the Calvinists. Well, thank God for it. Are you more humbled before this great God than they are? Do we imagine that because we have so much knowledge about God that others don't have, that there's nothing more for us to learn? and that all that we need is just a repetition of what we've already heard so we can sit back in comfort and ease and pat ourselves on the back? Or do we, with Job, say, these are parts of his ways? Just parts of his ways. All that Moses got to see in His best revelations.