In Scott Brown's sermon 'The Immensity of God,' based on Isaiah 40:12-18, the speaker explores the unparalleled greatness of God through various measurements and rhetorical questions that highlight His power and majesty. Brown emphasizes that God's immensity is a source of comfort, urging the congregation to seek solace in Him rather than worldly means that ultimately fall short. The sermon contrasts human wisdom with God's infinite wisdom, illustrating that man's understanding and capabilities are limited and insignificant compared to God's. By focusing on the imagery of creation, such as the heavens and waters, Brown underscores God's ability to comfort and shepherd His people, proposing that true comfort comes only from beholding God's greatness. The sermon concludes by challenging listeners to reflect on their capacity for comfort and to recognize God as the ultimate source of peace and assurance.

Sermon text is from Isaiah 40 verses 12 to 18. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, measured heaven with a span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counsellor has taught him? With whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him and taught him in the path of justice?

Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales. Look, he lifts up the isles as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing and they are counted by him less than nothing and worthless. To whom then will you liken God Or what likeness will you compare to Him?

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we approach this text, O Lord, I pray that you would open our minds, open our understanding. Fill us, Lord, with an awe of the awesome God. O Lord help us to see what Isaiah saw. Your throne room, the temple, your robe, the train of your robe that filled the temple.

Father, help us to comprehend your might, help us to comprehend your greatness. In our small minds, I pray Lord that you would expand it so that we may understand your glories. May you be lifted up through your word. Enables God now Lord as he comes and Preaches and teaches and exhorts us Lord. Help us to be a changed people.

Help us to behold our God. In Jesus name, amen. I can't help but think that God must know that this church needs to be comforted, because it's in one of the most magnificent passages of scripture of the comfort of God. It begins with the words comfort, comfort my people. The entire testimony of Isaiah 40 is a word of comfort.

And I just can't help but think that somehow this church needs to be comforted. Why would it be that one Sunday after another, there would be all these words of comfort and joy, all of these good tidings? And so far, in Isaiah, the prophet is pictured a people that are comforting one another because of the gospel. That their warfare has ended. That their iniquity has been pardoned.

That they've received from the Lord's hand double blessing for all of their sins. And he takes them into a place where they are recognizing that the valleys are brought up and the mountains low and the crooked places are made straight and the rough places are made smooth. God is in the business of bringing everything right that has been wrong. The obstacles are removed and the glory of the Lord is revealed. And everybody sees it.

And the glory of the Lord really is all of this kind of thing happening in people's lives. And then Isaiah just continues to bring us these reasons to be comforted. And one of the questions I have for us today is would we be comforted? Would we be comforted by the means that God is bringing to us as a church now to be comforted? Have you ever been uncomfortable, in other words, not able to be comforted?

You know, maybe you haven't actually been all that comforted by all these words of comfort that we've passed over over these last few weeks. But here's what I would just like to ask. Would you be comfortable? Would you be able to be comforted? To be comforted by the means that God has given you to be comforted.

We often seek our comfort in so many places and there's no comfort there. But there are God's means of comfort and before our eyes today as has been for many days so far in Isaiah 40 we've been exposed to the means of God's comfort. He's showing us the ways that he desires to comfort us. And the question always is, would we be comforted by the things that God would comfort us with? Would we be able to receive it?

Would our hearts be receptive enough so that we could actually be comforted, or to be comfortable, able to be comforted? And so Isaiah just keeps spinning out these pictures of of comforting in the last section there's this there's this scene again that Isaiah throws out among his many scenes of people standing up on a high mountain and they're proclaiming they have something to say and they're saying to the cities of Judah something. They're saying the thing that is the most comfortable. They're saying, Behold your God. There's this imagery here that they're going through the cities of Judah and they're comforting their brothers.

And they're using the God's means of comfort they're saying behold your God this is God's primary means of comfort that his people would behold him This is the comfort by which God uses to comfort his people. God comforts his people in himself. And so this whole focus of behold your God continues to be made plain in this passage of scripture. And I think that probably the heart of everything in Isaiah chapter 40 revolves around perhaps two verses. Verse 9, behold your God, that, and verse 18, which is the final verse of where we're in today, to whom will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare to him?

This is the essence of Christianity, that God is superior to all things. This gospel that is being proclaimed here in Isaiah 40 proclaims that man is totally inadequate in himself. He cannot be comforted by his own means of comfort. He can pile up hundreds of means of comfort every day and he'll never be comforted. And this is what we do as human beings.

We're always choosing the wrong comfort food when God and God alone is the one. And so we have to say, behold, your God to our souls if we would ever be comforted. And here in this passage we find man is just hopelessly small. God is immensely, magnificently, majestically immense. That man is needy, that man is not sufficient, and that man cannot even grasp the magnitude of God and the comfort that he has.

You'll never be able to be completely comforted by the comfort of God because God is so immense. His ability to comfort, His name, His word, His beauty, His holiness is so great that man can't acquire it in any level of completeness. And so in this passage we have this great message of comfort, comfort through the immensity of God. Now let's just think of this in terms of a doctrinal perspective for a minute. I want to propose that section one and two of the Baptist confession of faith is an explanation of our text today.

So I'm going to read it kind of slowly but you've read Isaiah 40 12 through 18, you've seen the language that's there. Tell me if the language does not correspond. I think it corresponds so remarkably. Paragraph 1. The Lord our God is but one only living and true God, whose subsistence is in and of himself infinite in being and perfection, whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself.

A most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach who is immutable immense eternal incomprehensible almighty every way infinite most holy most wise most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory, most loving, most gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, the rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and with all most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin and who by and who will by no means clear the guilty. Paragraph two. God having all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself, is alone, in and unto himself, all sufficient, not standing in need of any creature which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, Of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things. And he hath most sovereign dominion over all creatures, to do by them, for them, or upon them.

Whatsoever himself pleases in his sight, all things are open and manifest. His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature. So as nothing is to him contingent or uncertain, he is most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in all his commands to him is due from angels and men whosoever worship, service or obedience as creatures they owe unto their creator and whatever he is further pleased to require of them. Behold your God. This is the picture that we find here in Isaiah chapter 40.

And so what we find here in this passage is that Isaiah has just explained in the previous verse in the tenderest language of the care that God has for his people. He feeds his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs. He carries them in his bosom and he gently leads those who are with young. But now Isaiah qualifies all of this by explaining that this intensely personal, compassionate God is absolutely immense.

He's beyond big. He's beyond all comprehension. How can God be a shepherd who holds your hand and carries you in his bosom, and yet the heavens are measured by his hand? How is that? This is the God of comfort.

The God who is so immense, so absolutely and incomprehensibly powerful. He would hold your hand and he would be your shepherd and he would take you through your life. This is your God. And so here's my question. Would you be comforted by that today or are you still looking for such little things to comfort you.

This is our problem. We look at the littlest things to comfort us. When God says, no, let me be your comfort, As the Apostle Paul said, he is the God of all comfort. And so would we, could we set aside our stupid, ridiculous, insipid, unworkable, quite comprehensible ways to comfort ourselves and to be comforted in God and in God alone. That's the question today.

Isaiah's using the doctrine of the majesty of God to prove that he will take care of his people, that he is a shepherd and he is sovereign and he is almighty. So he presents himself in all of his omniscience and omnipotence and eminence, and so we behold him today as our only comfort in this world. So let's move into the text. Verse 12. First of all we see a picture of his infinite greatness.

You have an outline before you. You can see how the thoughts flow here in this passage. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, measured heaven with a span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. In this verse, there is a key word. It might surprise you.

It's the word who, The word who. That's the key word. You can't understand verse 12 unless you understand the word who. And this word who appears here in verse 13 and in verse 15. And It indicates a contrast between two different beings There is God that's one being and there is then that there is who?

And you are the who in the story. This is human beings are being referred. Who has measured the waters? Who? What human being has done that?

Because you are who in the passage. And you know, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand. So Isaiah 40-12 is a focus on measurements. There's several measurements that are being made. And the bigness of God is the factor of the measurement.

And so when you measure something, you're always comparing. You're comparing it to other things. Whenever you put a number on something or measure it in any way, your mind absolutely and uncontrollably moves to comparisons. If you're five feet tall, then you're comparing yourselves to those, perhaps, who are 4'11 or 5'1. You're always comparing yourself in terms of measurements.

Measurements are the ways that we compare ourselves and we determine our value. If you can run a certain distance at a certain speed then you're comparing yourself with others and you actually use those numbers to exalt yourself. We use numbers to exalt ourselves, whether they are numbers in time or perhaps they might be even weights or they might be distances of some kind. We use numbers to exalt something or to diminish something. You might be heavier or taller or faster or slower, but whatever it is, all human beings do this one thing.

They use numbers to exalt themselves, and God uses numbers to exalt himself every time you see someone trying to exalt themselves by a number be reminded of God and that's what we find here in this passage distances are distances are important to God The reason that God has placed the stars at such great distances, incomprehensible distances to the mind of man, is to make man know that God is greater than man that God is truly great and So there are these distances that are beyond the ability of the mind to comprehend their mind numbingly complex and difficult. You can't understand how they possibly could be. And so God, he uses these measurements. Now there are several measurements here And these are placed in five rhetorical questions that are all having to do with measurements. And the rhetorical questions, the answers are obvious.

The first are the waters. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Waters is plural here and it typically only occurs as plural. In men's Bible study on Tuesday we learned that 71% of the earth's surface is covered with water. There are 366 million trillion gallons in the world, over 332 million cubic miles of water.

Our presenter on Tuesday morning said that he did measure how much water would fit in the palm of his hand. One ounce. And so that God is making a comparison with a number to declare his immensity, his glory. He does it to comfort you. He does it to show you how big he is.

He does it to show you how small your problems are. He does it to show you how big he is he does it to show you how small your problems are he does it to show you how immense and good and beautiful and Shepherd like and compassionate he is and it and nothing at all can stop his shepherding and his compassion and his mercy and his love to you. Nothing, nothing. Not a single dollar or a lack of it. Nothing can stop it.

Psalm 104 speaks similarly, makes very clear that his creation of the water is a declaration of his glory and his greatness. Whenever you see water, it should remind you of many things well it should remind you the waters of life it should remind you that Jesus said out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water but it should also remind you of the majesty of God that God God holds all the waters in the hollow of his hand as just by way of illustration because I'm not confident that God is saying, yes, I have my hand. I think he's understating the matter by infinite degrees. Psalm 104 says, bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh Lord, my God, you are very great.

You are clothed with honor and majesty. He lays the beams of his upper chambers in the waters, who makes the clouds his chariot, who walks on the wings of the wind. You cut verse 6, you covered it with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains. So God is using this measurement of the waters to declare the magnitude of his ability to comfort for his greatness. Would you be comforted by the fact that God is so immense that he holds the waters in the hollow of his hand.

Does that comfort you? Could that comfort you? Are you comfortable? Are you able to be comforted today by a measurement. Here's another measurement, heaven.

Measured heaven with a span. And so Isaiah is indicating that God measures the heavens with the span. A span is is the distance between your thumb and your little finger. That's the span and so when God measures the heavens the billions of galaxies with billions with with hundreds of trillions of quadrillions of stars, infinite, unable to actually count, unable to get as far as it goes, because of the emanations of light in the universe. Man can't get there and yet God measures all of the heavens like this.

It's just this much, this much. You know people say, you know grandparents and parents say, do you know how much I love you? I love you this much. I love you this much. And children think that's such a big thing.

And so because that's not quite big enough, you say, you know, I love you from here to the moon. And children are actually blown away by that actually I had grandchildren telling that to my wife you know that she they they love for from to their tear to the moon they think that's such a great distance it's actually a very small distance but God God in his immensity He measures the heavens with a span. It's nothing to Him. It's nothing. I mean, what, what are your problems to him if that is true?

You know, how did he do this? And Jeremiah 10, it says that he did it by his, the reason he did it was from his discretion. He says, he has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by wisdom and has stretched out the heavens at his discretion. At his discretion.

The majesty of God is designed to do something to man, to humble him in his smallness and to encourage him in the greatness of God. And that's why we have this phrase, behold your God. This is the greatest thing that we can ever do. That's why David said, when I consider your heavens, the work of your hands, your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him? And then how did he do it?

He did it with his word Psalm 33 verse 6 says by the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. And the Bible indicates the absolute effortlessness of God in his creation. In Isaiah chapter 48 verse 13 we read, Indeed my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has stretched out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand up together. God in his effortlessness, not only does he measure all of the heavens with the span of his hand, he creates it with his hand.

The bigness of the universe is nothing to God at all. 1 Kings 8 27 says, behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you. So they actually to God are small. The heavens are absolutely enormous. It's been my great temptation to quote to recite all these distances that exist in the universe and how astonishing they are.

I'm not even going to do it at all. It's just too astonishing. Go look for yourself. Go Google the immensity of the universe. There are hundreds of videos that will show you just how absolutely incomprehensible this universe is.

But the heavens have a specific purpose. Psalm 19 verse 1 speaks of it. The heavens declare the glory of the God and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day and today pours forth speech, night and night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard Their line has gone out through all the earth in other words God has laid the heavens there for us in order to declare His glory, to speak to you all the time.

It was such a beautiful moon last night. It was so light last night. And I thought of this, just how beautiful God is in declaring to us his glory. He gave us the stars to to show us, to show us that we ought to be comforted if we've turned to him, if we've loved him. We should be terrified if we've not.

The heavens declare his righteousness in Psalm 97 verse 6, but God uses the heavens to demonstrate the inability of man. Job 9, 9 speaks of this. Job 38, 31 speaks of this, And they are all his belongings. Our minds break down at the size of the universe. And then the dust of the earth, the third measurement.

And the dust, and has calculated the dust of the earth in a measure. And I'm not sure exactly what in a measure means. The Latin Vulgate renders it three fingers. Matthew Henry thought that it was like with three fingers you brush off the dust. That's how big.

There's a little bit of dust on your fingers, and so you dust it off that way. This is how God measures the dust of the earth. And the fourth measurement is the mountains. Weigh the mountains in scales. All of the mountains, Mount Everest, all the great mountains of the world, well, they're nothing.

They fit on his little scale, on his little tabletop. Fifth, the hills and the hills in a balance. You know what a balance is as well. But all of this is just to say that all flesh is grass. You cannot trust in the dust.

You cannot depend on a drop of water. You cannot find refuge in the mountains and the hills. They are nothing, but God is everything. God is greater than everything that he's ever made. And yet, why is it that we place all of our trust in the little things, and we cannot trust him, and we are uncomfortable, and we can't let God comfort us.

You know, I just by a way of applying this, You know, man can never be right until he knows his place. He cannot know who he is. He cannot know what's happening in his life until he can know God, until he sees the distance that exists between him and God. He cannot know God until he knows his own smallness and God's great immensity. Both are necessary.

But there's nothing worse for a person when they do not know their place, when they do not understand where they sit in the universe. One of the most important things that parents give their children is a sense of place. Who they are, who they are in this world, what they are all about, and how did they get there. You've got to somehow give children a sense of place and who they are. But that's just the foundation of all healthy living.

But God does that with us and he gives us a sense of place. But he places us in contrast with himself so that we would see his greatness in the midst of our weakness and so and until you see God you cannot know how to interpret anything that you're experiencing. Being caught up in the things of the flesh, interpreting everything by the flesh is the most disastrous thing that a human being can do. This is why we have so much depression in the world today. This is why we have so much lust for entertainment and dissatisfaction and dislocation in people's souls.

This is why we have so many painkillers and drugs. This is why people turn to alcohol and every imaginable entertainment in order to try to deal with their problem because they don't know who they are and they don't know the immensity of God and they don't know that that God is the only comfort in this world. And so first of all there's this picture of His infinite greatness in verse 12. And then in verses 13 and 14, there's His solitary, independent wisdom. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord?

Verse 13. Or as his counselor has taught him, with whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him and taught him in the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? And so Isaiah, after having presented five rhetorical questions, he now presents seven more rhetorical questions. And all of them are designed to drive men that there are only two categories of beings in the universe There's the God who knows everything and men who do not know Those are the two categories that are presented by these rhetorical questions.

And Isaiah is demonstrating how much man needs God's counsel. And there are four categories in these seven rhetorical questions. The first category has to do with direction. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? And this has to do with who has controlled God, who has regulated and adjusted to God.

And this is, by the way, the Spirit of the Lord. You cannot regulate the Spirit of the Lord. This again is the word ruach. We've seen this word in Isaiah a couple of times already. It means spirit, breath.

It has to do with the wind blowing. And the Bible says that the wind blows where it wishes because God is in control of the ruach, the breath, the spirit of God. God is the one who directs his spirit in the world. And then there's instruction as the second category, or as his counselor has taught him. There's some redundant language in these rhetorical questions, but there's this whole matter of instruction and this idea of someone instructing God, telling God what to do.

And he's speaking of how ludicrous it is to tell God what to do. And yet how often we do that. Telling God what to do. And then thirdly, knowledge and the teaching of knowledge. And then fourthly, understanding, which has to do with discretion and insight and skillful application of knowledge.

And so these are these are the things that God has and that man does not have. And that's why Paul said in Romans chapter 11 verse 34, who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor. It's because God has unaided wisdom. He does not need our ideas at all. God is wise in everything.

This is quoted in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 16 where the Apostle is speaking about the miracle of the new birth and how in the new birth you receive the Spirit of God and God speaks to you through his Spirit. And in verse 12 he says, now we have received not the Spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one." And then verse 16 brings it together, for who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ." This is a picture of the miracle of the new birth where the Spirit of God enters into the believer and you are given the mind of Christ and yes because of that you can speak to God but you are not God's instructor he has instructed you. And so Isaiah is arguing with the people of Judah over the superiority of God and the wisdom of God. You know Isaiah has already said stop trusting in man whose breath is in his nostrils. Because we need something more than ourselves. We need the law of the Lord, which is perfect, which converts the soul, which makes wise the simple, which rejoices the heart, which enlightens the eyes.

We need that. We need something from God. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ was full of grace and truth, that he is the spirit of wisdom and understanding as we learn in Isaiah 11 he's the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord this is the Lord Jesus Christ and his delight is in the fear of God and that's where his wisdom comes from this great well of wisdom here God is solitary and independent in his wisdom and and Isaiah I believe is is just speaking of this God of wisdom. You know, how would you be comforted? You can only be comforted if you take the wisdom of God, if you actually hear it and put it into practice.

You know, people are often so uncomforted because they might read the word of God, but they don't take it to heart, and they don't think that it means anything to them. And so they remain uncomforted because they're filled up with their own words and not God's words and his wisdom. You know, We need God and his wisdom if we would be comforted. This is a disclosure of how small we are and how great God's wisdom is. You know, people want to be thrilled.

Every human being wants to be thrilled. And you love the feeling of being thrilled, and it's an addiction in many ways. People are always seeking to be thrilled through knowledge and through experiences. This is what Eve wanted in the garden. But she wanted a different thrill through knowledge and experience of her senses than what God had designed to be satisfying to her soul.

She was seeking her thrill in knowledge and experience in the place that it couldn't be found. In fact, it was a poison pill of a thrill is all it was. And there was such emptiness in it. And this is the problem with man. He seeks the things that makes him empty.

This incurable thrill seeker, seeking the thrills in different things. You know, we want to be moved from within. And there are many, many means in music and film and extreme sports and food and poetry and images and experiences and sports teams. There are millions of people today, they're so thrilled about the Seahawks. They're so thrilled about it.

And yet, they have no thrill in the everlasting thrill of God. Feeding the wrong thrills will kill you. And here God is presenting himself as this solitary independent source of all wisdom. You know how different God is. His wisdom is completely independent.

Completely independent. These verses are so helpful because they put a finger on the wound. And while they show us God, they also show us the contrast of what is not God. Remember, all of this is about, behold your God. I think that our Lord Jesus Christ explained this passage of scripture in so clear terms when he said, except you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Unless you see all of your wisdom coming from God, unless you see all of your hopes in him, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven because he is all wise. His wisdom is far beyond all that there is. And That's why he says, who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or has his counsel or has taught him? God's wisdom is entirely and solitarily independent of man. And in the kingdom of God, we have this truth that man needs God.

Man needs to throw off his wisdom and take on the wisdom of God. That's man's problem is that he loves his own wisdom too much. And you can trace almost every problem down to that one thing, that man likes his own wisdom better. I would just suggest problems you're having in your marriage go right back to that. Problems you're having in your business, in your work, in your cash flow, in your relationships, they all go back to that.

You like your own wisdom. You don't like the things that really work. We're not very wise people. You know, somebody once said, wise people find out how things work, and they get on the right side of them. What's up with us?

Why is it that we keep getting on the wrong side of the way things work. But God's wisdom is the way that things work. And then there's this assessment of the nations and capabilities. Again, the whole message is, Behold your God. And so Isaiah now moves from the natural world.

He started with the cosmos and world history, and I'm sorry, he started with the cosmos and then moved to this matter of wisdom and knowledge. And now he moves to matters of the world and nations and religious sacrifices. And you see the comparative worthlessness and insignificance of all that has been created compared to God. I'm not saying that these things are worthless or insignificant, but they are worthless and insignificant compared to God. I mean, God has placed these things in the world for his own glory, for beauty, for blessing of mankind.

But they are not ends of themselves. They're designed to point to the infinite God, who is infinitely satisfying. And so we read this, the nations are as a drop in a bucket and are counted as the small dust on the scales. Look, he lifts up the aisles as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted by him less than nothing and worthless." This verse, verse 15, starts with the word behold.

It means to look up. It means that there's something important before you. And while the word behold has already been used to introduce God, Now the word behold stands for something different. The word behold is followed by the nations. Behold your God, behold the nations.

God in all of his immensity, the nations a drop in the bucket. That's the comparison that he's making. There are three Hebrew words that Isaiah uses to drive home his point. Ayin, which means that which is not. Ephes, which means that which does not exist.

And Tohu, which means chaos and emptiness. That's the thrust of this section right here. That compared to God, all of these things are chaos and emptiness and they're not worth anything. It begins with the nations, they're a drop in the bucket. Again, Isaiah has such a fruitful and beautiful mind and he pictures a drop going into a bucket.

Your nation, your great nation, or how about the great nation of Assyria or the other greatest nations of the world that wield so much of their power. What are they like? They're like a drop in a bucket. Have you ever tried to get a drop out of a bucket? You know, if you're walking along and you slosh water out of the bucket, you know, Would you go and try to find the drop?

No, it's nothing. This is the comparison that God is making. And I think God brings these things to us to demonstrate His immensity to us so that we can see how immensely good and beautiful he is to us, so that we would receive his comfort, so that we would be a people who could be comforted by him, not the little things, but by him and by him alone. And so he speaks of the nations and then he speaks of the isles. He lifts up the Isles as a very little thing.

I'm not exactly sure what he means by Isles, I'm just going to tell you literally, islands, the islands, the beautiful islands that are so substantial are nothing to him. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn. In other words, the great trees of Lebanon, to him, they're just not enough firewood. Have you ever had not enough firewood? It's like that.

And then, nor it be sufficient for a burnt offering. In other words, even all of the animals are not enough to really make a significant offering for him because he is so immense. And then this jaw-dropping phrase, all nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted by him as less than nothing and worthless. Let me ask you a question. Are you afraid of the government?

You should not be afraid of the government. If this is true, you should have absolutely no fear of any government that ever existed. We have so many people who are afraid of what governments are going to do. They should recognize verse 17 is designed to help us deal with that problem that we have. They are nothing and God is in control.

Okay, I'd like to move to some applications here. I have several. I think we should recognize what this passage of Scripture is designed to do. It is designed to comfort by the immensity of God and the immensity of God is profiled in his creation and so we should really we should pause and marvel at creation. If we would be comforted, it would be good for us to pause and marvel at the creation.

You know, we live lives under these roofs and these antiseptic, you know, air conditioned, you know, climate controlled worlds that we live in. We hardly ever go outside. It's a tragedy in a lot of ways because we don't see the glory of God like others did who are more exposed to the elements. But all things were made by him and nothing, and without him nothing was made that was made. That the Spirit of God adorned the heavens, that's what Job 26.13 says.

You know this is one reason that I'm a Christian because I believe that the whole idea that creation just popped out of a mindless ooze is insane. I think it's stupid to think that. I think God created this. I think there's no other explanation than an infinite, immeasurably great God could create this. This is one reason I'm a Christian.

The other reason is that I think he's wonderful. I think all of his words are wonderful. That's why I'm a Christian. But if we would be comforted, let's marvel at creation and how the measurements that exist in creation are designed to tell you something about your comfort. You should be comforted because of the measurements, because he holds the waters in the hollow of his hand, because he measures heaven with a span, and he does that to comfort you.

Second application this may seem somewhat irrelevant to this the majesty of this passage but don't listen to the global warming crowd don't listen to the global warming crowd about the universe man does not control the weather God is not in saying in heaven saying man please do something about the weather. That's not what God is doing. He's not waiting for man to step up to the plate to fix the weather. He's not doing that. God is in control of absolutely every particle of the entire universe.

In a remarkable statement, just last week, affirming the power of man, Pope Francis said on Thursday that he was convinced that global warming was, quote, mostly man-made and that he hopes that his upcoming encyclical on the environment would encourage negotiators at a climate change meeting in Paris to make courageous decisions to protect God's creation. He said, quote, we have in a sense taken over nature. Somehow, he didn't, somehow I don't think he remembered Isaiah 40 verse 12. Bon K Moon said, speaking of these dangers that are about us, He says this, we are the first generation that can end poverty and the last generation that can take steps to avoid the worst impact of climate change. Future generations will judge us harshly if we fail to uphold our moral and historical responsibilities, " said the UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon at Davos.

Psalm 124 says, the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. Psalm 135 verse 6 says, whatever the Lord does he pleases in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all the deep places. Psalm 115 verse 3 says, but Our God is in heaven. He does whatever He pleases. Now there are different levels of fear that people have about the weather.

You know, there's this, there's the money machine crowd, the global warming crowd who want to turn this into a profit center, and then there are the people who worry about the weather here. We check it every day and we worry about it. But here, I just think when you look at the immensity of God and His universe, Let's don't listen to the global warming crowd number three Consider Your capacity for comfort Consider your capacity for comfort like would you be comforted if you came in today? You're a Christian you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He's sent His Holy Spirit into your soul, but have you been refusing to be comforted did you come in here like that consider your comfortability scale are you able to be comforted like like if we said that God was greater than everything would that could that possibly comfort you today could it set you could it could it make you free to love, to do the things that you ought to do?

But you're so bound up in yourself, you only care about yourself, your own problems, your own issues. So there's no love, there's no energy going outward because you're not able to be comforted. You are not comfortable. Now I think Christians go through periods of time where they are both able and less able to be comforted. And I just want to know where you are today.

Are you able, if God said, if God said he was absolutely in control of absolutely everything and he measured the heavens in the palm of his hand by a span would that be would that comfort you is that enough for you is God enough for you to be comforted or do you need something else Do you need anything else in this world to be comforted? Somebody once said if you have to move more than 18 inches to be happy, you'll never be happy. You know how dissatisfaction is such an inappropriate thing. You know, when we are unhappy with what God has ordained, when we are complaining, We're saying that God is not good. We're saying that he's not in control.

We're saying that he doesn't hold the waters in his hand. We're saying that we are the measure of all things. It's the height of arrogance to complain against a sovereign God. But often that's really the problem. Yet we're depressed, but the truth is we're so stinking arrogant, and we're so self-exalting of our own feelings that we completely forget God, and God cannot comfort us.

Not even God can comfort you. And then the fourth application. The power behind the intimacy of God. You know, when God said he was your shepherd, There was a lot backing that up because he is your shepherd and he does carry you in his bosom but he is so vast and immeasurably powerful at the same time. That is the power behind the intimacy of God.

I've been praying that somehow myself and all of us together, we would have a sense of the comfort of God, the greatness of God, and that it would be such a comfort to us here this morning. That we would somehow find all of our comfort in God. We're not finding our comfort in the way that this church operates. We're not finding our comfort in the way, the kinds of songs we sing, you know, and we're just so comfortable. This is so comforting to us that we're so comforted by whatever, but we're comforted by God.

Like these lesser comforts are so counterproductive to us, but God is our comfort. And I know that if in this church God is not our comfort, we can never be the kind of people that God would have us be. God, God alone, behold your God. You know there is there is none like him. There's none like him.

That's what verse 18 says. This idea of none, none like. Isaiah 44, 8 says there's no other rock. In Isaiah 45, 21 it says there's no other justice but God in in Daniel chapter 3 verse 29 says there's no other deliverer in Daniel 3 29 there's no other protector in in first Corinthians 3 11 there's no other foundation, but, and I think this makes us understand the significance of the uniqueness, the immutability, the solitary independent wisdom, and the infinite greatness of God, and that is this, there's also no other name By which man can be saved Acts 14 says this there is no nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." And God is presenting himself as the all-sufficient Comforter. He's the only name by which we can be saved.

He's the only rock. He's the only justice. He's the only thing that we can hang our lives upon. And So I'm here to ask today, would you be comforted by God? Would a vision of His universe comfort you?

Is He enough for this church, or do we want something else to comfort us? And could it be that maybe today there are a few comforts we should set aside because we have been thinking they are going to comfort us and they're not and they never have. But God, God is the great comfort and so Isaiah brings us this whole matter of behold your God. Finally, I think 1 Timothy 1.15 summarizes this in a beautiful way. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

However, for this reason I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Now, to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God, who invisible to God who alone is wise. Be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray.

Oh Father, in our earthbound thoughts, lives, ways, you are here to show us that you are show us that you are the God of comfort, that you are almighty, that you are immense and infinite, that you are entirely independent, and oh how we need you. I pray Lord that you would make a glorious church here where we all with unveiled faces, are beholding your glory. Amen.