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JOB 11:7, 8, 9

"THE SEARCH FOR GOD"

Intro: In the previous chapter Job cries out to God concerning his
       confusion. He could  not understand God's ways. Zophar responds.

I. "CANST THOU BY SEARCHING FIND OUT GOD?"
        A. Man is conscious that God is.
        B. And so he searches for "what" God is.
                1. Some seek to make God after their own image.
                        a. Your mind is God.
                        b. You are God.
                2. Some envision God as being very abstract.
                        a. He is an essence.
                        b. He is energy.
                3. Many speak with great authority and convictions.
                        a. Yet there is such great diversity in what
                           they are saying they can't all be right.
                        b. Listening to the myriad of concepts one is
                           brought with Job to confusion.
                        c. "So many religions I don't know which one
                           to believe."
        C. God cannot be discovered by purely intellectual quest.
                1. I know that statement offends some of you who have
                   crowned your intellect King.
                        a. Yet if He were only to be apprehended
                           through intellectual genius, look at how many
                           would be eliminated.
                        b. A child often has a purer apprehension of God
                           than the adult.
                2. God is far too vast as to be confined within the
                   narrow orb of our intellect.
        D. The net result of man's search for God is a confused maze.
                1. The answer to Zophar's question is no.
                        a. You cannot start from this level and reach
                           God if man is to know God in truth.

II. IT IS NECESSARY THAT GOD REVEAL HIMSELF TO MAN.
        A. God has revealed Himself in His Word.
                1. The Bible purports to be a revelation of God to man.
                2. If you are truly searching for the truth you can't
                   brush aside this claim lightly.
                        a. You owe it to yourself to fully, personally
                           examine it before disclaiming it.
        B. How has God revealed Himself?
                1. As to power:  the creator of the Universe.
                   "stretched forth the heavens as a curtain."  " He is
                    going to close them as a curtain some day."
                2. as to Wisdom: All knowledge & wisdom He created
                   all -life forms and designed...
                3. As to His Character: loving, kind, patient.
                4. As to His Justice: Absolute.
        C. How did God reveal Himself?
                1. Holy men wrote as inspired by Holy Spirit -
                2. "God who at sundry times in diverse manners spoke by
                   the prophets."
                        a. They did not understand many of the things
                           they wrote about.
                3. So in these later days He has "spoken to us by His
                   own dear Son."
                        a. He was in the world & the world was made by
                           Him
                        b. What did He tell us of the Father?
                                1. "For God so loved the world."
                                2. "God is a Spirit they that worship
                                   Him must worship Him in spirit..."

	Here is the key. God reveals Himself not to my body or mind but to
        my spirit. "The Spirit bears witness to our spirit.

	My spirit must first be made alive; it is buried under all the
        garbage of my body and mind.