It's a privilege for me to be able to introduce Pastor Richard Barcelos. I've known him for about 22 years. He was the church planter or founding pastor of the Palmdale Bible Church, which then became the Palmdale Reformed Baptist Church, which then became, these are just name changes, the Free Grace Church in Lancaster, California. He spent a few years after After that work as church pastor, he went to MCTS, which is the Midwest Center for Theological Studies in Owensboro, Kentucky, where he was professor at the seminary there.
And then just recently, within the last year or two, my timing is not impeccable, he's gone back to the Antelope Valley in California. And there he is, the church planting pastor. for the Grace Reform Baptist Church of the Antelope Valley. So it is a privilege for him to come and to preach to us this morning. Pastor Barcelos.
You probably thought Pastor Butler hugged me and gave me some Hurton quote, or a Spurgeon quote, he said, we know your toes are cold. It is great to be here. Before I forget, I want to thank the congregation for many things. But just recently, I was informed that you will be, once again, as with last year, this year as well, helping us financially with our church plant. depend on the outside benevolence of the churches to help fund our budget, and your gift is very much appreciated.
It will help me feed my family for an entire month in 2013 while we try to get the church further established. Palmdale is in northern Los Angeles County, north and east of Los Angeles, almost straight north of Pasadena, over the mountains 2,600 foot elevation. We have less than 10 inches of rain a year. It's a great place to retire.
It's a marvelous economy compared to Los Angeles itself. So if anybody's interested in moving to Southern California, you can see me afterwards. We started with 25 people on the first Lord's Day in November 2011. And about six or eight months later, we had 50 people.
Most of the growth was children of couples who came. And we met in our living room. So at September 2012, we rented a hotel. And we got visitors at least once a month in our home for the 10 months that we were there.
And then since we've been into the hotel, we've gotten The only visitors we got were people from out of town that were staying at the hotel that just kind of walked in. So it's been kind of an interesting transition. We have 17 members. We started with 17 members.
February 2012 was our constitution. We still have 17 members. I think we have about five or six who are probably going to join the church here pretty soon. It's an uphill battle. to plant a church like we're planting in the area that we're planting it.
It's a battle that I'm certainly not qualified for, so I'm very dependent upon God to bless the simple means of grace. It was a great privilege to sit here and hear you sing. In our evenings, we're in our living room with about 40 people. In the mornings, we're in a smaller 900-square-foot room in the hotel, and it just doesn't sound like it sounded this morning.
And so I appreciate that and I'm encouraged by that. And your pastor is a dear friend of mine and a great example and model of perseverance, slow obedience in the same direction. If you haven't figured it out, it's easy to kind of predict what Pastor Butler is going to do. It's the same thing all the time.
And that's a good He's not going to come here and start walking up and down the aisle and doing all kinds of shenanigans and not preach the Bible. He's going to preach the Word of God. And that's a great gift that you have from Christ. And I think the older I get, the more I appreciate men like that who just stay behind the plow and study, pray, and preach, and love the people, and help as much as they can, but keep the main things the main things.
And that's the way I view this church. You're a good example for our small church to follow in. And some of the things Pastor Butler does is a good example for me to follow in as well. So with that, if you have a Bible, you can turn to the book of Romans.
Romans chapter 11, and the focus of the sermon It's on verse 36. I want to read verses 33 through 36 to get a little of the context. And then as I see to explain the text, I'll put it in a larger context. Paul says in Romans chapter 11 verse 33, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments. and unfathomable his ways.
For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his counselor? Or who is first given to him that it might be paid back to him again? For from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever.
Amen. Let's pray.
Opening Prayer
Father, we come to your word. We come to an infallible written word from God through men inspired by the Holy Spirit. And we pray for the subsequent ministry of the Holy Spirit in the proclamation of the word taking that which is accurately reflecting that which is contained in the Bible, taking it, using it as a sword, and bringing it with power, with light, with fire to the souls, to the minds, to the hearts of hearers. Preaching is not merely a horizontal exercise where one man speaks in the presence of others.
But true preaching is more than that, and only you can make it that. And that's what we ask for, that the Lord Jesus Christ would give of His Spirit to bring the Word of God with power to our souls. Please do this, and we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
Introduction
Romans 11.36 for from him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. Some of you have heard the Latin phrase, soli deo gloria.
It means to God alone be all the glory, the fame, worship, and praise. And I think that's, in essence, what Paul is saying here. God is glorified in everything. Everything he made, he preserves.
Everything he made and preserves, he brings it toward a goal, toward an end. And I want to try to show you that in our exposition of the text. In one sense, this text answers the question of why. It's an age-old question.
Why? Now, not why in the sense of your six-year-old child. Why? Why?
Why? But why all that is? Why are we here? Why is there an Earth?
Why the sun? Why the moon? Why our Milky Way galaxy? Why all the billions of galaxies and the billions and billions of stars in all the galaxies?
Why the universe? Maybe even more specific, why do you exist? Why do I exist? Why mankind?
Why history? Is history heading someplace? Is it going somewhere? You know, the successive events of man's experience on the earth.
We record that, we write it, we call it history books. It's occurring right now. Unless Christ comes again, it's gonna occur in the future. Events will succeed one after another.
Somebody will look at them, interpret them, write them, and somebody in the future is going to read about it. Is history, is it heading someplace? And who is driving this massive, what we might call a massive ship that we call a universe, which floats along at a pace we can't alter? And we're forced to submit to.
You know, as history unfolds, we're just like players in the drama. And we hear of events, and we go, wow, we didn't tinker with God's creation or providence to make those events occur. They happened, and we witnessed them, or we hear about them. And we're just kind of, in one sense, we're passively floating along as this thing keeps moving.
Why does it exist? A reason for writing this is to say that not just this creation, everything that is exists for a particular goal, aim, and purpose, and that is the glory of God. Now, some people say the universe has always existed in the way that we know it. Matter, things that we can touch and feel, matter is eternal.
If it did come into existence, a variety of things kind of consulted together, worked together to cause this explosion, out of which came the universe and all the rhyme and reason that's connected to the universe. But explosions, what do explosions produce? Pastor Butler often walks into my study and said, looks like a bomb just went off in here because it's chaotic to him, not to me. To me, it's very orderly.
That stack of trash has these various things in it, and that pile of books means this. But explosions produce what? Chaos. Some people think an explosion produced not chaos, but the cosmos, an orderly system that we live in, billions and billions of years ago.
What is its purpose? Nobody really knows. Man just kind of exists on the stage of existence. And this process that started a long time ago for purpose, who knows, it could exit man stage left off of the stage of existence at any point.
So we really don't have a purpose. That's pretty depressing. If that's it, then move to Washington and smoke dope and do whatever you want, because tomorrow we die, like Paul says. This is not the biblical or Christian teaching.
There's purpose, there's rhyme, there's reason. There's telos, there's goal to that which has been made. That is the glory of the maker himself. And I want to show you this from this text.
Context of Romans 11:36
So first of all, let's look at Romans 11, 36 in its context, the context of the verse. Verse 36, note with me, is connected with verses 33 through 35. If you see that little word, Four in verse 36, there's that connecting particle. 36 is connected to verses 33, 34, and 35 by the little word four. And verses 33 through 36, that section forms a doxology.
A doxology is words of praise to God, okay? It's an anthem of praise, and it's promoted by the subject matter that ends in verse 32. Notice verse 32. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that he may show mercy to all.
The end of chapter 11 in Romans discusses the fact that God had delivered some ethnic Jews to disobedience and the hardening of their hearts, and was now at the same time in Paul's day, on the one hand, judicially hardening the hearts of some and toward others, Gentiles, lavishing grace and mercy in the gospel upon those. So that's the context. He concludes his discussion of God's unrivaled sovereignty in the withholding of mercy, justly, and the dispensing of mercy, kindly. He concludes this discussion with this bold assertion in verse 32, God has shut up all in disobedience so that he may show mercy to all.
And then he immediately follows after that concluding statement with what I'll call this sigh of wonder. Notice, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. There's this sigh of wonder. It's a sigh of astonishment.
It's a sigh of amazement. It's a sigh of praise. And the wider context of chapter 11 is dealing as I said before, with God's sovereign display of mercy to non-Jews in the midst of widespread Jewish unbelief in Jesus as God's one and only mediator, the Messiah, the savior of sinners. Going wider than just chapter 11, Romans 9 through 11, as many of you know, contains what we might call some of the hard sayings of the Apostle Paul.
He's dealing with the unbelief of God's ancient people in the first century. And he says he has sorrow in his own heart, grief in his own heart toward his own blood, his own ethnic people. And he deals with this widespread rejection of Christ, but not in a way that's real popular in our day. He basically says, look, when it's all said and done, everything that is is all about God, not us.
He is the potter and we're the clay. God can have mercy on whom he wants to. God can withhold mercy. God can dispense it.
He's simply being God. He's not to be argued with, so shut your mouth. He is to be praised for being who he is. That's basically what he does in Romans 9 through 11.
Now, he doesn't do it like some cold-hearted philosopher. He's got a tear in his heart. He's got a tear in his eye as he's doing this. He says there's grief in his soul, not necessarily a physical tear.
But he could have had a physical tear, I don't know. But I'm not trying to impose a law on him. You have to have a physical tear to really mean something. You don't have to.
Sometimes it helps if it's natural to you. But here we know this. He did have grief in his heart. He was concerned in his soul about his fellow countrymen.
But when it's all said and done, he basically argues for God's unrivaled sovereignty in this. Listen what he says in Romans 9, 15, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then, it doesn't depend on the man who wills or the man who runs that is gaining mercy, but on God who has mercy. God is the sovereign giver, the sovereign dispenser, he designed it And he dispenses mercy, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.
So as far as we know, God raises up this great leader, Pharaoh, to demonstrate his power, then he puts him aside. And as far as we know, he died in unbelief, and he's going to suffer eternal damnation. So then he has mercy on whom he desires. and hardens whom he desires. You will say to me, then, why does he still find fault?
For who resists his will? On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?" In other words, button your lip. You're not just talking or arguing theology with another sinner here. I'm dealing with God, who is sovereign, dispensing mercy.
The thing molded will not say to the molder, Why do you make me like this? Will it? Does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy which he prepared beforehand for glory?
Even us, whom he has also called not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. You see, God can have mercy on whomever he pleases and whenever he pleases, and he cannot be impugned with evil because of it. He owes mercy to no one. And when he shows it, which Paul says he was showing it then, and of course he still shows it When he shows that he's simply being himself, executing his divine and therefore sovereign prerogative, and he should be loved for it, not despised, and certainly not argued with.
So Romans 11.36 is the conclusion of Paul's doxology promoted by the unrivaled sovereignty of God in the withholding and dispensing of mercy, which displays the incomprehensibility of God's counsel, verses 33 through 35. So that's the context.
Contents of Romans 11:36
Let's look at the contents of the verse. The contents of the verse under four points.
The Connecting Particle: "For"
Notice, first of all, the connecting particle in verse 36, four. As I said before, this word connects verse 36 with verses 34 through 33 through 35, but primarily verses 34 and 35. And notice those verses, quotation of the Old Testament, but they're questions. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who became his counselor?
Who was first given to him that it might be paid back to him? So we have here rhetorical questions, and the implied answer is obviously Negative, right? No one, no one has exhaustively known the mind of the Lord. We only know God insofar as he has revealed himself and insofar as he has illumined our minds to understand that revelation.
But nobody knows God like God knows God. Only God knows God incomprehensibly or comprehensively. But he also says, who is first given to him that it might be paid back to him again? Both questions imply the answer, no.
Hence, verse 36 answers these questions. I'm going to put the questions in a different kind of a format here. How come no one knows the mind of the Lord? How come no one has been his counselor?
How come no one is first given to him that it might be paid back to him because of him or from Him, and through Him, and to Him, or are all things. In other words, no one tells God what to do, man is not God's equal, and certainly man is not God's superior, not His advisor, and not His counselor. Why not? Why is it that no one has known the mind of the Lord?
Why is it that no one is God's counselor, And why is it that no one has first given to God that it might be paid back to the one that first gave to him? The answer comes in three little prepositional phrases in verse 36. And we're going to look at that secondly. We looked at the connecting particle four.
It introduces us to the answer or the reasons for the answer no to those questions.
Three Prepositional Phrases
The three prepositional phrases are found in verse 36. An older commentator, Charles Hodge, gives this expanded Translation, for by him all things are. Through his power, all things are directed and governed. And to him, as their last end, all things tend.
So here we have the judicial hardening upon unbelievers, unbelieving Jews in the first century. dealing with that issue. At the same time, we have mercy lavished upon those who are outside the ancient covenant people of God, Gentiles. And Paul's dealing with that issue. The sovereignty of God on both hands.
Withholding mercy, judicially hardening, dispensing mercy, giving it. Okay? How can that be? Why is God doing all this?
Paul basically says, God is God. Look, we don't counsel God. We don't tell him what he can and can't do. Nobody was there and first did something and God says, oh, you did that, now I owe you, I better give back to you.
We're not his advisor. There's not a bench that we go to. God's on one end, we're on the other, we sit there, we roll dice together, we do paper, scissors, rock game or whatever, and if we win, he goes, okay, nice advice, I'll do it. It's not that way. anything in God's creation, okay?
And I think this is what Paul's getting at, and these three prepositional phrases kind of accentuate this for us. Again, Hodge says, by Him all things are. Through His power, all things are directed and governed. And to Him, as their last end, all things tend.
From Him: God as Creator
So the first one, I have, by the way, the New American Standard Version. It translates from Him, or all things. It could be translated of Him, or all things. Either way is fine.
It means the same thing. Namely, God is the source. God is the originator. God is the creator of all things that have come into existence.
There are some things that exist that have not come into existence. That is God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Everything outside of God, everything other than God, it came into existence. Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 33, 6 through 9, the various things said there.
One thing is this. He spoke, and it was done. What is the it in the context there? It is the creation of all things.
God has creative power. God exerted creative power. And that which became and was not became by virtue of the power of God's spoken word, everything that is is created by God. Without any pre-existing materials to work with, without consulting architects and planning commissions and scientists and geologists, without consulting you or me or anyone else, the God of the Bible spoke and the universe came into existence.
That which became was not until he said, let there be. And when he said to let there be, there was. Everything that is, is of him, or from him, or because of him. So how come no one knows the mind of the Lord?
How come no one has been his counselor? How come no one first gave to him that it might be repaid to him? Here's Paul's answer. God set things in order the way he wanted to because he possesses the right to.
He's the potter. We're the clay. He's first. He's primary.
He's the designer of all things. And he needs no help, especially from comparatively puny, fickle, and sinful creatures as man. Who has known the mind of the Lord? No one.
Who has become his counselor? No one. Who is first given to him that it might be paid back to him? No one.
Why? God is the creator. This is his theater to display his glory.
Through Him: God as Sustainer
The second prepositional phrase in my translation reads, through him are all things. And I think Charles Hodge is right. The first phrase, of him or from him, refers to creation. The second phrase refers to providence.
God is the providential, not only sustainer, but providential director and ruler of all that which has been made, and all that which has been made was made by him. Daniel 4.35, for instance, says, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. That includes us. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
Now, most evangelical Christians, in our part of the world would say, of course, God does what everyone's among the inhabitants of heaven. But the Bible goes even farther, and among the inhabitants of the earth, no one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? Isaiah 45, 6, and 7, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting, that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I, the Lord, do all things. For from him, creation, and through the exertion of his providential power, all that has been created is preserved and directed and sovereignly ruled over by God." Ephesians 1.11, in him also we have obtained an inheritance. being predestined according to the purpose of him who, here's providence, works all things according to the counsel of his will.
So providence, the superintending sovereign authority and power of God exerted upon all that has been created, sustaining it and directing it, providence is in accordance with an eternal blueprint in the mind of God. We do not live, then, in a closed system of reality. We are not off limits. God isn't the old illustration, the cosmic clockmaker.
He made a clock, he wound it up, and he set it on a shelf, and then he turned around and did something else. And when the clock runs out, then he comes back and deals with it. That's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible sustains and directs everything without exception that he made.
God then isn't a passive bystander. One man says that providence is the continuing act of divine power subsequent to the act of creation by means of which God preserves all things in being. God supports their actions. God governs them according to his established order, and God directs them toward their ordained ends.
The extent of divine providence encompasses all creatures and all things This includes animate and inanimate things, men and animals, trees and mountains, storms, earthquakes, kings, governments, traffic accidents, cancer, and colds. That was, and colds, everything. So how come no one knows the mind of the Lord? How come no one has been How come no one has first given to him that it might be paid back to him?
Because God not only made all things, God preserves all things, and he does so the way he wants to, and he often does things that we cannot understand. How can God make peace and create calamity, the Isaiah text that I read, and yet hold us accountable for our sin? How can the exhaustive, omni-comprehensive sovereignty of God, and man's real, live, bona fide responsibility for evil be reconciled in our minds. Now, do you realize you can have two apparently contradictory things that we can't reconcile, okay?
And that's okay. You know why? Because God's mind is what really matters. Not yours and not mine. simply because we may not know how two difficult things may be true one at the same time, does not mean that God doesn't know how they are true at one and the same time.
To Him: God as Ultimate End
The third prepositional phrase is, to him are all things. In other words, all things are tending toward him. He made everything. He sustains, preserves, directs everything all toward Him.
His value, His worth, His glory, His honor. Everything that is, is for him. I'd say that's pretty important to understand. How come no one knows the mind of the Lord?
How come no one has been his counselor? How come no one has first given to him that it might be repaid to him? Because he made all things and sustains all things for his glory and does not need to consult us in how to bring glory to himself and what he does. He is omniscient.
He knows everything. He's there for all lives. What are we going to do? Say, God, come here.
Come here. Listen, we've hired this firm. They're going to help you out. These guys are professionals.
They went to Stanford and the University of whatever is over here. They're professionals. They're specialists. They helped Dubai become what Dubai is.
They were able to use their minds. They put them together. And they have computer programs that helped utilize all the resources that were in this certain area. They put human resources together, natural resources together.
And they produced this wonderful whatever it is. God, they're going to help you out with all the resources that you have to really do a good job in presenting yourself well. That's what we do. You could get the greatest group of consultants together and multiply them billions and billions of times in intelligence and ability and experience and put all that stuff together in one person, and it would not get even close to the majesty, the knowledge, the wisdom, and the power of the God. who spoke all things into existence, the God who sustains everything that He made, the God who drives this massive ship we call the universe toward showing Himself off.
God's supreme goal in all things is His own glory. God's supreme goal in all things is His own honor. his own praise, his own fame. Now, I heard recently a friend of mine said he was at a church and they had a Sunday school and it happened to be one of the elder's teenage daughters was in the Sunday school class and the Sunday school teacher was saying this kind of stuff and she put her hand up and said, and it was a great question, okay, that's selfish. Selfish of God to do that, isn't it?
I don't think she meant it in a wicked way. It was just like a natural question. Isn't it self-centered of God to be all about God? Now, one of my big problems is I'm quite often all about me.
If you haven't figured it out yet, you've got the same problem, okay? The solution to our problem, is not, I gotta be me. I gotta be me, whoever that was, Frank Sinatra, or somebody saying that a long time ago. The solution to our problem is not to be self-absorbed.
The more you get into yourself, and if you're honest, the more you realize that you're a messed up jalopy of a being. You got problems. We got problems, okay? Now, if we didn't have problems, that might be different, but still then, let's say I was sinless, okay?
And I could say, I don't have problems, I'm sinless. But there was a time still when I was not. So there was a being other than me in my sinless condition. There was a being other than me outside of me, that predated me, that called me into being in the first place, which automatically makes that being slightly better than me.
Now, slightly was a rhetorical understatement. Everything that is outside of God came into being. Everything other than that which came into being has never come into being, always existed. Namely, God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
So if God, who is infinite in all of his perfections, you can't even conceive of a being better than him. Because all that we know about him and all the goodness and glory of God, we don't know everything there is to know about him. It's better than we know, right? So if that being focused his attention on anything else, then whatever he focused his primary attention on could become more worthy than him.
In other words, if God isn't God-centered, then he's not God. He has to be this way. So how come no one knows the mind of the Lord? How come no one has become his counselor?
How come no one has first given to him that it might be paid back to him? Because this massive thing that we live in, called the universe, was brought into being by him, has been and will be sustained by him, and is being brought by him to an ultimate goal. He doesn't consult in us. Of course he invites us.
Concluding Ascription of Glory
Notice thirdly in our text we have a concluding ascription. We had the connecting particle, the. We had the three prepositional phrases. Now we have a concluding ascription to whom be glory forever.
In one sense, Paul can't contain himself and says, soli deo gloria. He's ascribing to God what is due him, honor, supreme value, praise, and adoration. Unrivaled worship should be given to this one and this one alone.
The Final Amen
And then fourthly, we have in our text a final word, amen. What better way to end than to say, so be it. That's what he concludes with. So that's the text, that's its context, that's its contents.
And there are a lot of ways you can go with, so what? How do you just bring this home and kind of give it some little practical feet? Well, there are several ways. And one is to think a few things through.
Application
And so I have a few things I'd like to think through with you.
The Universe Is About God, Not Man
One thing that we get from this is that, if you haven't seen it yet, the universe is all about God, not man. For from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever. The vastness and the mystery of the universe does not point to the supreme importance of man. Now, man, I think, is the apex of creation, the Mount Everest of creation, male and female in the image of God.
He created them. Very unique. No other creatures created his image. But that doesn't make us the target, the bullseye, the center of attention.
As a matter of fact, living as if I am the center is not the solution to our problems. It's further diving into our problems. Our plight starts with us. A plight is, we got a problem, okay?
If you came to church this morning, I just want to be told I'm good, I'm all right, I'm going in the right direction, I'm okay, you're okay, you came to the wrong church, we're all messed up, okay? We're sinners, we got problems. We read texts like this, there are some people here that heard me read that text, I really didn't have to preach it. They were already going, yes, that's right, I exist not for me, not for other men or women, I exist ultimately for the glory of God, the creation and providence and that toward which everything is heading is all sole deo gloria, it's all for the glory of God.
Some people loved to hear that. The first time I started hearing stuff like this, I didn't love it, because you know what it meant? You mean the world's not all about me? You mean existence isn't here to make me happy?
If you live that way, You're going to be frustrated your whole life. Temporal happiness is all you're going to have. That's the best you'll have. And it's going to fatten you up for the day of wrath.
It might get you things. It might get you boyfriends, girlfriends. It might get you a wife. It might get you a husband.
It might get you a car. It might get you nice vacations or whatever you might get. But it won't get you through that horrible day. Our plight is ourselves and living this way.
The solution, by the way, the solution isn't to say, okay, I'll knuckle under everything that is for him. I'm okay now. No, the solution is what Paul was agonizing about. He's agonizing about the fact that, that that God had sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that He might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and be justified and adopted and ultimately glorified.
He was agonizing over the fact that that had occurred in space and time in history on the earth. The Old Testament said it would happen. There's going to come one. He's going to crush the head of the serpent.
He's going to demolish the devil. He's going to procure righteousness. He's going to suffer, and he's going to enter into glory. It's Christ.
It's Jesus of Nazareth. OK, he came. And Paul says, but some of my countrymen didn't believe and don't believe. But at the same time, God is giving mercy to Gentiles, people who want a part of my old the Old Covenant nation of God and weren't recipients of the oracles of God and the scriptures of the Old Testament.
They're now believing. How do I answer that? God's sovereign. This is God's world.
God's sovereign in the making of it. God's sovereign in the preserving of it. God is sovereign in creation, providence, grace. And God is sovereign in taking it to where he wants to.
That's his answer. So the answer to your plight of being messed up and sinful and violating God's law and messing up your life in the past and having all these closet sins that you hope nobody ever finds out. The answer is to be found, connected to Christ. That's the solution to our problem.
It's not just generic Christian theism. Oh, I believe the Bible's the word of God and everything exists for the glory of God in me. Therefore, I'm okay. No, you've got to have Christ, the righteousness, of God for sinners.
So one thing we learn from this is that the universe is all about God and not man. And I think it's that theology of the universe that Paul had in the backdrop of his mind that he was able to interpret what was happening there in a way that gave glory to God.
Finiteness Should Move Us to Wonder
Another thing I think we need to get from this text is that deep theological questions that display our finiteness and creaturely limitations should move our souls to wonder and amazement." You know, Paul's agonizing, OK? He's got grief in his heart. My countrymen don't believe he's the Messiah. And at the same time, God is bringing the enemies, the Jews, the dogs, he's bringing them into the covenant community.
And here's his response. Verse 33. Oh. Now, he's not saying, oh, wow, huh.
This is a sigh, a sigh of amazement. Like, oh, the depth. You could hear Martin Lloyd-Jones maybe say this. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
In other words, Paul's mind, Paul's soul is astonished that God is doing what he's doing and the response, the proper response is astonishing adoration. Not bitterness, not anger, but praise for the sovereign withholding and the sovereign dispensing of mercy. So deep theological questions that display our finiteness and creaturely limitations should move our souls to wonder and amazement. I remember reading this many years ago.
Whatever God ordains is right simply because he ordains it. And he ought to be praised for it as well. And that's what Paul's doing here.
God's Mercy to Anyone Is Astonishing
Third practical implication here in consideration. The fact that God is merciful to anyone is astonishing. I think Paul's astonished by that. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that he may show mercy to all.
All the unbelieving Jews, all the believing Gentiles is what he means there. We should never forget this. It is astonishing that God is merciful to anyone. There is not a righteous man on the earth who continually does good and who never sins.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God constantly every day. Everyone has the innate knowledge that the God of the Bible is and that he's powerful, that there are ethical absolutes in the world and that judgment's coming, but they suppress that truth unrighteously. And what does God do? He gives us seasons.
He gives us food. He gives us joy and laughter constantly over and over. Yeah, but there's a lot of problems in the world, okay? All right, there is.
Who was it, C.S. Lewis, the problem of pain? And then John Gerstner writes in his little pamphlet, The Problem of Pleasure. Pain in the world isn't a problem.
I can answer that. Sin. The bigger problem is, why is anyone happy? Why is there pleasure on the earth?
Why doesn't God... Man, if I was... You're lucky I'm not God. You know, when we get an enemy, what happens?
Facebook, Twitter, texts, letters, notes, shut the door, we drive, we don't go by their house, you know, whatever you do, okay? Call in the bomb squad. God has enemies, and he brings the sun to them, and he causes their gardens to grow. God has enemies every second, billions of them, all at the same time, doing this, suppressing, as he's causing rain to come down so that their crops grow.
He shows mercy, not just general kind of mercy like that to the undeserving. I'm talking even more so. God takes his enemies and he makes them into his friends. God renovates the jalopy of our human nature by sending the Spirit to rejuvenate us, to give us life from above, life from heaven, life that Christ earned for his chosen ones.
The Spirit brings it to our souls, convicts us of our sins, ushers us into union with Christ through faith, confers upon us justification, adoption, puts us on the process of sanctification, and Jesus is going to bring those who are His enemies to glory someday. God just doesn't cause the sun to shine on His enemies. God turns His enemies into His friends. We go from sons of Satan to sons of the Son, and therefore sons of the Father.
Never forget, we go from rags to riches, you know the rags to riches stories, that's what believers are. Rags, filthy rags are sin and guilt to the riches of eternal glory and praise and the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwells righteousness, all based on the obedience of Jesus Christ. So, I say that the fact that God is merciful to anyone is astonishing.
Comfort and Terror for Hearers
A fourth consideration is this, that this doctrine of the glory of God in all things is a great comfort for believers in Christ. At least it should be. I hope, if you're a believer in Christ, you've gained some comfort in what has been said. But listen to Hymn 21.
You probably know it. God moves in a mysterious way. This is his providential ways. His wonders to perform, he plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable minds of never failing skill, he treasures up his bright design and works his sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense.
You know how you try to read into providences, God is chastising me, he's punishing me for something. You know, I broke my leg or whatever it is. Maybe it's just this simple. You broke your leg.
And it's not necessarily connected to an angry father against a wayward son. Here's what the hymn writer says, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour.
The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain. God, not his people, God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain." I think this doctrine of the glory of God in all things created, preserved, and brought to their ultimate end is a great comfort for believers in Christ. And it's a great comfort for believers in Christ alone.
So if it's a great comfort for believers in Christ alone, then it's not a great comfort for unbelievers. And if it's not a great comfort, what's the opposite of comfort? It actually ought to scare you if you're not in Christ. It ought to terrify you.
Because, you know, no man knows what a day brings forth. We can't boast about tomorrow. We don't know what's going to happen. You could die today.
But for believers in Christ, great comfort. This text answers the question that I asked at the beginning, why? You know, why all of this? It's for the glory of God.
It's so that God would display his beauty and his majesty all throughout his creation. The chief and supreme way that humans are involved with this glory of God is understanding ourselves as guilty sinners, and then casting ourselves upon the promises of God in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and receiving, taking Christ as our own. Because God has so designed the world that, matter of fact, God has so designed the entirety of that which is made, the universe. to give Him glory through what He does in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the way that we, as sinners, creatures of God, get back to God is through Christ.
And God gets glory by bringing His sons to glory through the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that heaven still is dispensing mercy. Paul said that in Romans. Heaven dispenses mercy.
And the mercy dispenser in heaven isn't one of those things that, you know, like soap dispenser, you hit it, you hit it. And if you hit it too many times, what happens? Well, for some people, they hit it more times, even though it's empty. You know, it's like the street crossing thing.
If you hit it once, it doesn't work. It's going to work if you hit it 40 times, right? No, you got to wait. Well, the soap thing gets empty.
Heaven's mercy dispenser is not like a soap dispenser. It doesn't ever get empty. There's a bucket in heaven called mercy, called forgiveness, called righteousness, called adoption, called justification, called glory. It has no bottom to it.
Exhaustless resources in heaven, procured by Christ, deposited to sinners on the earth, brought special delivery to our souls by the Holy Spirit, in conjunction with the proclamation of the word. Jesus Christ is heaven's mercy dispenser. And like the hymn says, his hands are full of pity. He really pities us.
But you know how we can pity somebody? We see a picture, an image on the screen, a television screen, and go, oh. Wow, look at those poor people. If I could only...
His hands are full of pity. I love this part of it. Joined with power to save. Okay?
Jesus is just not some passive, little effeminate thing, okay? This is the Lord of Glory, who has pity towards sinners, power to actually save them. And you know what? not just save you from a messed up life, but to ultimately usher you into the safe presence of God. You know everybody gets into the presence of God?
Not everybody gets into the safe presence of God. Jesus ushers his people into the safe presence of God. Okay, there's believers here, I assume primarily. What about for you?
What do we do with this text? For from him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
You know what we do with it? We read the verse following it. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, has God been merciful to you? To present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Don't be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may know, prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. If you've received mercy, if God has lavished mercy upon you in and through his beloved son, if you're saved, if you're a believer in Christ, what do you do? Well, you add to the finished work of Christ.
No, you realize that mercy has been heaped upon you, and you express your thankfulness. We're guilty. God's gracious. We show our gratitude.
Let's pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that the Holy Spirit would take that which has been expounded and is a true reflection, an accurate reflection of the Bible. We pray that the Holy Spirit would take those things and bring them to our minds and souls with power. and effect change in us. For your glory, for our good, and the good of others, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.