Scripture Reading: Romans 11:25–36
Please turn with me in your Bibles to Romans 11. We're going to focus this morning on verses 33-36. Those three verses make up a doxology, a praise to God. The Apostle Paul has discussed many wonderful things in the book of Romans up to this point.
Very specifically, he's been discussing the sovereignty of God and the salvation of sinners in chapters 9-11. I recently saw a preacher on YouTube, a video clip, and he said that he was denying God's sovereignty. He was denying what men call the doctrines of grace or the Reformed faith. And he says the word sovereign never appears in the Bible.
It's a curious statement because neither does the word Trinity ever appear in the Bible. But from first to last, the Scriptures are Trinitarian. From first to last, the Scriptures set forth a sovereign God. A God who is unrivaled in His power and majesty and in His excellence and in His glory.
And last week in the Sunday morning service, we considered the grace of God and how it ought to promote awe in our hearts toward Him. This morning we're going to look at the sovereignty of God and how it ought to promote awe in our hearts. I'll pick up reading in Romans chapter 11 at verse 25. For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
And so all Israel will be saved as it is written. The deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake.
But concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you, they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become His counselor, or who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to him. For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.
Amen. Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, the reading of this passage is so wonderful, and we pray that Your Spirit now would guide us as we consider the teaching that Paul sets forth here. Help us to examine Your Word, God, and help us to be humbled in Your sight. Help us to have a right esteem of God, to see Your glory and Your supremacy, to see Your majesty and Your excellence. And God, may this promote in us a right fear of You. a reverence before you and that holy awe and adoration that is fitting.
We ask that you would forgive us now for all of our sins and transgressions. We thank you that there is a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. We thank you that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to live and to die and to rise again so that we may know that pardon of sin and that imputation of righteousness. We would just pray now, Lord God, that You would give us the mind of Christ.
And we pray in His most blessed name. Amen.
Introduction
I don't think it would surprise any of you for me to say that we have issues. We all have issues facing us in our daily lives. We have issues as a local church. We have issues in our families.
And very often we look to the Scriptures for answers. Very often we want a very practical answer for our very practical issues. And the Scriptures are fitting for such a thing. But as well, there is an answer to all of our issues when we understand just who God is.
In fact, theology promotes good, godly living. Theology helps us to deal with the various challenges and issues that we face in our daily lives. Theology is what really matters for the Christian. And that is precisely what Paul is doing in this particular passage.
As I said, he's been discussing the place of Israel. He's been discussing the place of God's sovereignty in the salvation of sinners. And so here in verses 33 to 36, he takes up his pen and he praises and honors and glorifies God. That is the end of theology.
It's not just so we'll know more than our opponent, but so that we'll be humbled before God and so that we'll praise Him for who He is and what He's about. One man has well said, theology must exhilarate. Theology must inspire praise. Theology must indeed move us to doxology and to worship.
Three Considerations in the Text
I want to take up these several verses this morning with three considerations. The first, there is an exclamation concerning God's character. That is in verse 33. Secondly, we'll take up a confirmation from the Old Testament Scriptures, verses 34 and 35.
And then finally, an ascription of glory to God there in verse 36. But
God's Wisdom and Knowledge
notice this exclamation. He says, of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. It's only the Gospel of Jesus Christ that could promote such a response in the Apostle Paul.
In other words, if a man could earn his salvation by his own law-keeping, by his own works, by his own merits, there's no reason to say, oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. No, it's simply a barter system at that point. If I can just render up religious observance to God and He gives me salvation, there's nothing puzzling about such an arrangement. There is nothing baffling about such a way.
The way of God in the Gospel, in terms of His sovereign election, redemption through blood, and the application of this redemption through the Holy Spirit of God, causes Paul to praise. to worship, to marvel, to glorify, to extol, and to just admire who God is. He speaks of God's omniscience here. He says, O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Omniscience means God's knowledge.
God knows everything. There is nothing that He doesn't know. He doesn't have to go to school. He doesn't have to learn things.
He doesn't have to acquire it. All knowledge is always readily available to our sovereign God. And Paul praises Him for this. And we ought to praise Him for this as well.
We may not know what a day may bring forth, but we know who brings it. We know that our God has promised that He would work all things for our good. How could He promise such a thing if He Himself did not know intimately every detail, if He did not orchestrate the affairs of the universe? That would be an empty-vein promise.
It would be me saying, oh, I hope everything works out for you, without realizing that you're about to get hit by a truck. If God says He will work all things for our good, He says it consistent with His omniscience, with the fact that He knows that He will accomplish this on our behalf. Wisdom refers to the arrangement and the application of all things to accomplish His will. God's not only purposed the end, but He's purposed all of the means to achieve that particular end.
It is God's wisdom that He has brought us out of darkness into marvelous light. The Scriptures celebrate the wisdom of our great God. One place in particular is in 1 Corinthians 1. In verse 17, Paul says, For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.
He says, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. How does the Lord do that? But through His wisdom.
Through His arrangement of all things. Through His carrying out His perfect and holy will. The Scriptures in the Old Testament celebrate this wisdom of God. But Paul doesn't stop there.
He says not only the riches both of the wisdom, but he says the knowledge of God. This means His all-inclusive and exhaustive knowledge of everything. Again, I think this is sometimes difficult for us to understand. How do we gain knowledge?
We read the Bible. We pick up a book. You want to learn how to fix your car, you go down to the library. You find a book and you start flipping through it to sort of understand the workings of an internal combustion engine and that car specifically.
That's not the way God does it. God always has known and always will know everything there is to be known. Why should we be people of prayer and dependence and searching the Scriptures? Because our God has every answer.
This is why Solomon says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Why? Because He's infinitely wise and infinitely knowledgeable.
The Scriptures celebrate this attribute of God as well. So Paul says, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. And then he speaks of his judgments.
God's Unsearchable Judgments
He says how unsearchable are his judgments. I want to make sure we understand what Paul is not saying. When he says that God's judgments are unsearchable, it doesn't mean we can't know anything of God. It doesn't mean that.
He doesn't mean God is unknowable, but rather he means God is unbelievable. Not unbelievable like we can't believe Him, but unbelievable like it's amazing. It is mind-blowing. These new Bible translations, this might be a good place to put in mind-blowing.
That's the point of the Apostle. His judgments are unsearchable. Again, a statement that makes no sense whatsoever if we work for our salvation. A statement that makes no sense whatsoever if Arminianism is right, or Romanism is right, or Islam is right, or if any of the religions of man is right.
This statement makes no sense. When Paul says his judgments are unsearchable, certainly he means all of God's ordering of the affairs of the world. But I take it in the context of his judgments with reference to salvation. You read the gospel accounts, you see some pretty mind-blowing things, don't you?
You see some things that are quite impressive and amazing. You see two men go to the temple to pray. One man is a self-righteous Pharisee. One man stands and prays thus with himself.
Thank You, God, that I am not like other men. Thank You, God, that I'm not unjust, that I'm not an adulterer, that I'm not an extortioner, that I'm not like this publican here. Thank You, God, that You have made me in such a way and in such a capacity that I always perform well. I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all that I possess. Thank You, Lord, for making me thus. And then you look to the next man, and he can't even look up into heaven. All he can do is beat his breast and say, God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
What's Jesus Christ say? I tell you, this man went to his house justified. How unsearchable are his judgments? That would have been revolutionary to Jesus' crowd.
They would identify the Pharisee as the heaven-bound man. They would have put that publican in hell faster than you and I could ever do so. And yet, Jesus says, I tell you, this man went to his house justified. Consider the thieves on the cross.
Make no mistake about it, brethren, there were going to be three crucifixions on that day. Remember, they said, give us Barabbas. What do you want me to do with Jesus? Crucify Him.
Crucify Him. Barabbas was the ringleader. I believe these two men on either side of Christ were His cronies. What happens in that event?
The day starts off and both men are blaspheming the Lord Jesus. But then by God's grace, in an unsearchable judgment of the Lord, this one man is convicted. This one man confesses the justness of God's judgment in his own life. This one man looks upon Jesus, looks beyond the blood, looks beyond the crucifixion, looks beyond all that everybody else said.
And he says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He acknowledges Jesus as Lord while he's hung upon a tree. And then he acknowledges the fact that Jesus has a Kingdom. How unsearchable are His judgments.
Ways past finding out. He confounds us. He confuses us. Not because He's confusing or confounding, but because He's a God of grace and a God of mercy and a God who meets us with that kindness.
What about in Paul's argument up until this point? Unsearchable in his judgments. Look at Romans chapter 9 for just a moment. Romans chapter 9, the immediate context illustrates the unsearchableness of the judgments of God Most High.
Notice in Romans chapter 9, verse 6, Paul is taking up an argument here. Paul is dealing with the issue. What about Israel? You know, you say God sovereignly elects, God chooses.
What about this old covenant people, Israel? That's the whole point of chapters 9 to 11. Notice what he says in verse 6. But it is not that the Word of God has taken no effect.
For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children, because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called, that is, those who are the children of the flesh. These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise, at this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.
And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac. Now notice this. For the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, it was said to her, the older shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.
Now, there are many people who trip on this statement. There are many people who do not accept the clarity of this statement. In fact, just by way of an aside, when Paul says how unsearchable are his judgments, beware, brethren, of saying it's such a mystery. It's so confusing.
It's so difficult. No, it isn't. There are some things about God that are difficult for us to understand. Deuteronomy 29.29, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things He has revealed are for us and our children.
There is nothing difficult about this passage. We may not like it, but that doesn't make it hard. We may not appreciate the sentiment, but that doesn't make it mysterious. But the place where a lot of people trip is in this statement, Esau I have hated.
Why do people trip there? Because at core, we're humanists. It is to relinquish any idea of what sin is all about. I submit the most puzzling part of this passage is not that God hated Esau, because God hates the workers of iniquity.
The most puzzling part of this passage, the unsearchableness of his judgment, is that he loved Jacob. One man wrote a book, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? That's to ask the wrong question. The issue is, why do good things ever happen to bad people?
This makes perfect sense. that a rebel against the Lord God, that one who contends Him, the one who is opposed to Him, it surprises us that God would oppose Him? It would surprise us that God would hate Him? No, that makes perfect sense. What is absolutely amazing is that Jacob, I have loved, especially when you read the Jacob narratives, I'd find it difficult to love Jacob if I was in his circle of friends.
I would find it quite difficult. How unsearchable are his judgments? We think it's the upright. We think it's the polished.
We think it's the handsome. We think it's the noble. We think it's the wise. And what does God do?
Yeah, He may save some noble. He may save some wise. Not all of them. But what God does is He takes the low things, the base things.
He takes those things which are not and He bestows upon them grace and mercy and love and kindness. This is why the apostle says, oh, the depths of both the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments. Again, not that we can't know them.
But that it's mind-blowing. That it's amazing. That God would save a wretch like me. Or as we saw last Sunday morning, that God would be merciful to David.
That God would say, I have put away your sin. That's unsearchable, brethren. We expect God to smash his teeth. To smash him into the ground.
To end his life and cast him into hell. That's not what God does. God gives him consequences for his sin. God says, because of this, you've given cause to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.
The sword will never depart from your house. But this thing is sure. I have put away your sin. How unsearchable are His judgments with us?
We were not brought up seeking God. We were not brought up loving God. We were not brought up in that context of wanting to worship God. Consider right now, even as Christians, we don't always want God.
Worship at times is tedious to us. Bible reading isn't always something we just readily do. Prayer is not always something we just immediately fly to. How unsearchable are His judgments?
Can't you think of half a dozen or a dozen people that deserve salvation more than you? I can. There's no dessert about it. It's mercy.
It's grace. It's according to God's purpose. The twins in the womb, before they had done anything, God made His decision. That's what brings Paul to this point.
See, Reformed theology isn't just about beating up Arminians and Romanists. Reformed theology is understanding this so that we'll be humble before the Lord. So that we'll imitate the disposition of that publican. God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
So that we'll respond in praise. We don't understand these doctrines just so we can be right. We understand these doctrines so that we can worship. that we can approach Him properly, so we can fall before Him, so that we can stand in wonder and amazement. If these truths have not promoted in you a desire to worship, you've not understood them properly.
It's not supposed to just be a cerebral exercise. You just get it up here so that you can have sound theology. And you know I'm an advocate of sound theology. But sound theology ought to promote worship, praise, Adoration.
Prayer. You know, when you consider the fact how unsearchable are His judgments, there's nobody outside of God's scope. We can pray with great earnestness. I always think this way.
If God saved me, He can certainly save a whole bunch of others. God saved you. He has the grace and the mercy. If God saved the publican, if He saved the thief on the cross, if He saved the very man that's penning this letter, then certainly there is grace and mercy enough for sinners that we know.
We ought to be prayerful. The sovereignty of God does not get rid of prayer. The sovereignty of God is the blessed foundation for prayer. We ought to be in earnest at the throne of grace, calling upon the Lord.
The immediate context displays the validity of Paul's statement here. How unsearchable are his judgments. And then he says, and his ways past finding out. His specific dealings with men in his works of providence.
Remember when Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost to preach. They're wondering about this outpouring of the Spirit. Some had charged the disciples were drunk. Peter stands up and says, these men are not drunk as you suppose.
It's only the third hour. He says, this is that which was prophesied in the prophet Joel. Joel 2, the age of the Spirit, the messianic reign had come to fruition. There's a rich biblical theology going on there.
Man at Babel was confounded by God. Man at Pentecost is blessed by God. We see that being fleshed out. And then Peter starts to preach and interpret this whole scenario, and he puts it in the context of Jesus' life and death and resurrection.
What does he say concerning the death of Jesus? This Jesus, whom you crucified, was according to the predetermined plan of God. There's no plan B in the mind of God. This was not a reaction to the wickedness of man.
This was orchestrated. In fact, the book of Revelation can refer to Jesus as a lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. This is the grand event of history. It wasn't haphazard.
It wasn't an unlucky day. It wasn't a lucky day. Paul says that in the fullness of the times, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. God orchestrated all those times.
God gave His infant people in Old Testament Israel, the tabernacle and these types and these shadows, to lead them along the way until the coming of the Davidic king, the one who would live, the one who would die, the one who would rise again. His ways are past finding out. I think one of the best examples of the inspiration of Scripture, I mentioned last week the fact that the David narrative founded into 2 Samuel, the fact that he committed adultery and murder. That shows God inspired the author.
One of the very best proofs of the inspiration of Scripture is the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. What man would ever think this up? What man could ever dream this up?
Remember when I was in high school, Roman Catholic high school, my buddies and I, once in a while would get philosophical and theological, and we concluded that the Bible was probably just written by a bunch of guys, they buried it, and then somebody found it way along the way. That's absolute folly. What bunch of guys would make a God who is holy, who is righteous, who is pure, who cannot look upon evil? You see, the problem with man is that we create God in our image.
That's how we would fashion Him. What man would conceive of a triune God? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God, the same in substance.
All three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. Who would have ever conceived that the Father would send a Son? That the Son would take on our nature? The Son would become a man in the Incarnation?
The Word would tabernacle among us? He would say things like, the birds have their nests and the foxes have their holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. Who would have conceived such a thing? Who would have conceived the doing and the dying and the rising again of Jesus Christ?
His ways are amazing, brethren. This is of God. And Paul doesn't just stop after his theological reflection. He says, oh, the death.
Brethren, I want to encourage you to consider sound doctrine so that it will bring from you this kind of an exclamation. Oh, the death. Think on the character of God. Think on His wisdom.
Think on His knowledge. We can go to the Bible and get some good practical advice on how to be better men and women. We can go to the Bible and get some good practical advice on how to be better children and better parents. And we ought to do that.
Those contexts ought to be in place. Those sermons ought to be there. But the overarching theme that the Christian most desperately needs is this understanding of just who God is. I've got to tell you, when you're going through the valley of the shadow of death, you need this God.
You don't need one you fashioned after your own image. You don't need one that you put together in your workshop. You need one that is infinitely wise, infinitely knowledgeable, whose judgments are unsearchable and His ways are past finding out. This is the God to whom we throw our anchor.
This is the God that keeps and is committed to keep that which we have entrusted to Him until that day. This is the God whom Paul said in another place, I am confident in this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ. Don't you need that God? We don't need the gods of the false religion.
We don't need a God who changes with us. Prayer doesn't change God, brethren. You've heard that before. Prayer changes God.
If my prayers change the immutable God of glory, majesty and excellency, then I have become God and He has become my puppet. You know what prayer does? Prayer is an act of worship. Prayer is an acknowledgement of our dependence.
Prayer, if anything, changes us. Hopefully conforms us more to His will. conforms us more to His written Word, causes us to reflect upon these things so that in prayer we don't ask God to change. That kind of a God is useless. We want the rock-solid God of Malachi.
I, the Lord, do not change. We need the rock-solid God of James 1. Every good and perfect gift comes from our Father in heaven, in whom there is no turning. There's no variation.
There's no, oh, I'm for you today, but I'm against you tomorrow. No, we need a solid, rock-solid God from beginning to end. Is it any wonder that so often in the Old Testament God is referred to as a rock? Isn't that amazing?
He's our rock. He's not our sand. He's not our performer. He's not our puppet.
But rather, He is our rock. So Paul says, Oh, the depths.
Confirmation from Isaiah and Job
Now notice, secondly, he confirms this from the Old Testament Scriptures. He goes to the prophet Isaiah and to the patriarch Job. Notice in verse 34, For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or, who has become His counselor?
This highlights God's self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency in us is a bad thing. I mean, it's a good thing to some degree. You hope that you're able to wash your own face and get out of bed and eat food.
There are some areas of self-sufficiency we ought to really seek to achieve. But I mean the idea of being independent. We are always dependent creatures. We are always dependent upon God.
God does not depend upon us. Remember when Paul is at the Areopagus in Acts chapter 17, he says, I see your objects of worship. I can see you have an altar here to the unknown God trying to cover your backs. This God whom you worship in ignorance, Him I proclaim to you.
And he tells them very clearly, God does not need you. We were not something that sort of completed the Trinity. We're not something that sort of supplements God or makes Him really happy. Now, God is glorified in and through us to be sure, but He didn't create out of necessity.
He is self-sufficient. The prophet says, who has known the mind of the Lord? Again, we need to be careful. That doesn't mean God is unknowable.
God has revealed His mind a whole lot in the Scriptures. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 2.16, Paul says, we have the mind of Christ. Well, certainly Jesus knows the Father, so in terms of the revelation that has been given to us, we can know God. The idea here is who has exhausted Him?
Who has fully explored Him? You know, you would sooner fully explore the Pacific, the Atlantic, and all the other oceans of the world before you dent the knowledge of God. That's the point here.
God's Self-Sufficiency
Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? I really believe we all need a great big dose of Romans 11.34 and of Isaiah 40.13. Because we all want to counsel God, don't we?
Think about it. We all want to counsel God. We know what's best, Lord. We may not be so brazen, and we may not put it in those particular terms, but we indict God if things don't go our way.
We get angry with God when things go wrong. We get upset with God. What's the implication that we know better than the Lord? We're like the guy who gets pulled over by the policeman and then chastises the policeman.
Why aren't you out catching robbers? Why aren't you out catching bad guys? Why are you harassing me because I'm not wearing a seatbelt? We're like the person who goes to Walmart and yells at the customer service rep, because we know better.
You jipped me. You shorted me. I know the way it's supposed to be. Here's what you should do.
Now, there may be a sense where in a godly way you go and you remind somebody or whatever. But the point is, brethren, we all want to counsel God. We all want Him to do as we say. We don't look at prayer as an act of worship, a means of dependence and a means of our conformity to the will of God.
We look at it as a set of rules and marching orders. We think we ought to say, jump, and God's response ought to be, how high? Now, you may not be that brazen, brethren. But I know of a truth that when bad things happen to us, we oftentimes indict God.
We saw it in 2001. What was the question everybody was asking on September 12th? Where was God? Bad things happen and where was God?
Bad things happen in my life, where was God? We get angry with God. We get upset with God. We want to counsel God.
We in our 25 years, or our 40 years, or our 50 years, or our 80 years, have attained a measure of wisdom such that God should get a piece of our mind. How many of you, honestly speaking, would let your five-year-old reprimand you or lecture you on how better to manage the family home? You'd be like, get out of here. Let me help you out of here.
I'm not talking just about the world. Christians who should know better. Now, I'm not saying, brethren, that we can't be like the psalmists crying out to the Lord God, Not suggesting we ought not to be like these men of old, or even Jesus Christ and the apostles. I'm not talking about an earnest heartfelt prayer, beseeching the Lord our God.
I'm talking about this mindset that develops when something bad happens in my life, I am not going to honor God until He makes things right again. J. Gresson Machen spoke to this, and I think he spoke it very, very well. He says we value God solely for the things He can do.
It's called a fair weather fan. I'm not much of a sports fan, but from what I understand, there's guys who might support a particular team as long as they're doing well. I've even seen it, I think, in Chilliwack. Comes time to the NHL playoffs, I see all these Canuck flags on people's cars.
As soon as they lose, those Canuck flags are gone. We're on to the next team. We're on to the next group. We're going to wave our banner for someone else.
Is that how you respond to God? Is that how you conduct yourself with God? Wasn't this the devil's accusation concerning Job? Oh, he only serves you, God, because everything goes his way.
You afflict him and see what happens. See, that's the categories the devil thinks in. Machen says we value God solely for the things He can do. We make of Him a mere means to an ulterior end.
God is simply a means to my happiness. God is simply a stepping stone so that I can have the fulfilled life. Much of Christianity or evangelicalism has degenerated to this state. Take his principles for success.
Take his principles for fulfillment. Take his principles and everything will go your way. We have every bit as much as a health, wealth, prosperity gospel as the most rabid charlatan. God is not a means to our end.
God is the end. That's what Paul is saying. He says God refuses to be treated so. Such a religion always fails in the hour of need.
When we treat God as a means to an end, he says such a religion always fails in the hour of need. Listen to what he says. If we have regarded religion merely as a means of getting things, even lofty and unselfish things, then when the things that have been gotten are destroyed, our faith will fail. He says when loved ones are taken away, when disappointment comes and failure, when noble ambitions are set at naught, then we turn away from God.
We have tried religion, we say. We have tried prayer. And it has failed. Of course it has failed.
God is not content to be an instrument in our hand or a servant at our beck and call. He is not content to minister to the worldly needs of those who care not a bit for Him. Has it ever dawned on us that God is valuable for His own sake? That's what Paul's point is.
That just as personal communion is the highest thing that we know on earth, so personal communion with God is the sublimest height of all. He says, if we value God for His own sake, then the loss of other things will draw us closer to Him. We shall then have recourse to Him in time of trouble as to the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Oh, that that sentiment would be grasped in the church today.
God is not a means to our end. And that end may be noble. We'll have a good life. We'll raise up good kids.
We want to have a happy family. Those aren't bad things. I'm not here telling you those are wicked things. Go out and have the worst family you could ever have.
Go out and be as unfulfilled as you could ever be. God is not the means to that end. We are to seek Him. Seek Him first.
And His righteousness. This is a kingdom principle that we need to get ingrained in our hearts. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things will be added to you." It's a promise from our Savior. It's a promise from our blessed Lord.
So Paul, inciting the prophet Isaiah, highlights the self-sufficiency of God.
No Creature Has First Given to God
And then inciting the patriarch Job, he highlights his sovereignty. He says, "...or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him." Our salvation is in a bartering system. It wasn't as if God said, wow, you've done well. Here's your salvation.
Who's first given to God that it should be repaid? What do we possibly have to give to God in order to get just recompense? We have sin. We have wickedness.
We have evil. We have viciousness. We have rebellion and opposition. You're going to bring that to God and say, well, here you go, Lord.
Even our best works, according to the prophet Isaiah, are like filthy rags in your sight. And in that context, those works were their religious observances. They're coming to the temple, they're bringing the animals, they're going through that particular cultic ritual. Isaiah the prophet looks at that and says, even our righteousnesses are like filthy rags in your sight.
What is it that you have to present to God? And if you don't know the Lord Jesus this morning, listen to me and listen good. You don't have anything to present to God. You don't have anything that you can say, well, God, you know, I've done such and such.
I've been a pretty good guy. I've been a pretty good girl. I've done a few bad things. But you know, in the grand scheme of things, I'm not as bad as others.
So why don't you hit me where I live? Why don't you give me something? You've got nothing. In fact, what you have is offensive to Him.
That's the glory of the Gospel. He says, bring that offensiveness to Him and He'll clean you. Bring that wickedness to Him and He will take care of it. Bring that sin and He will pardon you.
And He will give you a righteousness. He will give you the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You have nothing. You can do nothing.
There is nothing in you that can merit favor with God. That's what the man said. That's what Job said. Who is first given to Him and it shall be repaid to Him.
Hasn't Romans 9-11 convinced you of that already? Before the twins were even born? You can't say, well, you know, there was a native bent in little Jacob there. No, there was a native bent, alright.
It was a bent away from God. But God in His mercy said, Jacob, I have loved, Esau, I have hated. One man said, the attempt to domesticate God by reducing His ways to human ways turns out to be the attempt to make Him indebted to reward us for our works. The attempt to domesticate God.
You know what domestication means. You might see a stray cat in the parking lot. I'm going to take it home and I'm going to domesticate him. I'm going to put a little dish there, a little saucer.
I'm going to teach him how to drink from there. I'm going to teach him how to use the litter. But I'm going to domesticate him. I'm going to control him.
I'm going to subdue him. That's what Christians try to do with their God. He's a bit too much the way He is. He sort of embarrasses us, doesn't he?
I speak as a man. I speak as a fool. We get out in the world and somebody says, how could you serve this God who sent the Israelites in to Canaan to purge those people, to engage in genocide? And you say, well...
God is God. We had a man live right over there. Steve and I talked to him. Oh, your God's a murderer.
He instructed Israel to go into Canaan and to murder people. Oh, really? God's a murderer? God is not a murderer.
He makes alive, He kills. That's not murder. And if God sends Israelites into Canaan to purge their wicked selves out of that land, or you die in your sleep, God is sovereign in both instances. Christians get embarrassed.
Especially when we come to the Reformed faith. You mean that God shows us in Him before the foundation of the world? You really think that? It's irrespective of what we would do or what we would choose?
How could you ever believe such a thing? It's a mystery. No, it isn't. What's mysterious about Romans 9.16?
It does not depend upon him who wills or upon him who runs, but on God who shows mercy. You tell me the mystery there. There's no mystery. It's just that we hate it.
We want to tell God what to do. We want to domesticate Him. We want to take Him from the parking lot. We want to put Him in our house.
We want to give Him a saucer. We want to put a leash on Him. We want to tell Him where He can go and where He can't go. The attempt to domesticate God by reducing His ways to human ways turns out to be the attempt to make Him indebted to reward us for our work.
In the former citation, Isaiah, there was a warning not to imagine ourselves to be clever. Here there is an implicit warning against imagining that our works gain us any privilege with God. Who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to Him. And
Ascription of Glory to God
that brings us thirdly and finally to the inscription of glory to God. One of the beautiful statements concerning God and His glory and His majesty is found in verse 36.
God as Source, Sustainer, and Goal
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. That means that God is the source or the origin. For of Him. He's the Creator.
He spoke this world into being. This is not an embarrassment in the biblical record. This is an issue, a test, a reliance upon the character and nature and work of God. Genesis 1-1 doesn't start to present why we should consider God.
You ever notice that, how presuppositional the Bible is? In the beginning, God doesn't argue for him, doesn't try to give us some theological prologomena, why there is a God, why we need... No. In the beginning, God.
God did this. He created the heavens and the earth. For of Him are all things. Things seen and unseen.
Things that we can see in this parking lot. Things at the subatomic level that we cannot see. God is sovereign in all of these things. In fact, in Hebrews 1.3 it says that Jesus upholds all things by the Word of His power.
The very chairs that you're sitting on, the very wood that I'm grabbing on, it's upheld by Jesus right now. For of Him are all things. He says, and through Him. This means that God sustains everything.
God is sovereign in what we call providence. There are no haphazard events. Everything happens according to God's plan. Ephesians 1.11 makes this crystal clear.
The prophet Isaiah makes this crystal clear. You didn't just wake up willy-nilly one day and decide for Jesus. It was orchestrated according to a great and glorious plan. Praise God that we live according to His plan.
And we don't have Him live according to our plan. He is sovereign. God is governor. God is sustainer.
This is clearly displayed throughout the Scripture. Remember just one instance with Joseph. Talk about a bad family life. Brothers hated Joseph.
He was the apple of his father's eye. So what do the brothers do? Well, let's kill him. The one intervenes, no, let's not kill him.
Let's throw him in a pit. Okay, that sounds good. That's horrible. What happens?
Some guys come along, take him out, make him a slave. And what happens? He ascends. God exalts him.
His brothers come back into the scene. He hides himself, he disguises himself, then finally he reveals who he is. What's the grand lesson in the entire scene? Not, that's a bad family, I'm glad I don't have brothers like that.
Or, let's be good men even if we're in prison, like Joseph. Let's learn how to resist temptation, like Joseph in Potiphar's house. Those are good lessons, I grant you. But the key theme, key verse in the whole Joseph narrative from Genesis 39 to Genesis chapter 50 is found in 5020.
You meant this for evil, but God overruled it for good. That's the point, brethren. Remember I said last week, God is the hero from Genesis to Revelation. Not Joseph.
As godly as he is, and as much as we should imitate certain characteristics, the point there is that God takes crooked things and makes them straight. God takes wicked things and overrules them for good. And then finally, God is the goal of all things. To whom?
Be glory forever. Amen. All of history is moving forward. History isn't cyclical or circular.
It's not like we're just, you know, we've jumped into the circle of life, we're here for a time and then off we go. If you notice this particular verse, it sets forth something that is very important for us to understand that is being denied at every step of the way. The Bible presents what's called a linear view of history. There was a beginning, there's a middle, there's an end.
Why do you think evolutionists have attacked the beginning? Oh, because science has shown them so many things. By denying the beginning, they hope they can escape the end. We get God out of the beginning.
We don't have to worry about Him now. And we're certainly not going to stand before His judgment in the future. Christian history begins, sustains, and ends. with God. Not just Christian history, all of history.
A Christian view of history. This is what we insist upon. He is the goal. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, the very first question says, what is the chief end of man?
I hope you all know this one. The chief end of man is the glory of God and to enjoy Him forever. That's the chief end of God too. His glory and the enjoyment of His triune self forever.
Charles Hodge commenting in his commentary on Romans said this, and I think this is a good summary statement, and then we'll close with just a couple of brief observations. He says, that system of religion therefore is best in accordance with the character of God, the nature of man, and the end of the universe, in which all things are of and through and to God, and which most effectually leads men to say, not unto us, but unto thy name be all the glory." That's a great assessment, a great litmus test. A great representative of what biblical religion is all about. We say, not unto us, Lord, but unto thy name be glory.
For that is exactly what the Apostle Paul says here. For of him, and through him, and to him are all things. To whom be glory forever. Amen.
Application
If Paul rejected God's absolute sovereignty in the matter of salvation, he would have never penned these words. If we could domesticate God, if we could figure God out, if we entered into a barter system with God, Romans 11.33-36 are completely out of whack. But it's for the very reason that God is not domesticated, that God is not on our leash, that God is not at our beck and call, that God is not a performer, that God is not a puppet, that Paul could say, oh, the depth of both the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. His judgments are unsearchable.
His ways are past finding out. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has become His counselor? Who has first given to Him so that He would repay them?
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. It's only that soteriology, that salvation that he has discussed in the rest of Romans that leads him to this most blessed ascription of praise. You see, if you don't understand this, you're not going to praise God accordingly.
We need to imitate Paul. We need to make this confession. We need to worship and adore. Listen to what A.W.
Pink said. He said, the apprehension, the knowledge of God's infinite knowledge should fill the Christian with adoration. The whole of my life stood open to his view from the beginning. He foresaw my every fall, my every sin, my every backsliding.
Yet, nevertheless, He fixed His heart upon me." He says. Do you realize that? He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Before you believed the Gospel, what did you do?
Even as a believer in the Gospel, what do you do? He says, oh, how the realization of this should bow me in wonder and worship before Him. That's the point. There is a resurgence today of what men call Calvinism, or what men call Reformed theology.
We need to make sure that as that takes root, it's not something that is cold, detached, or just a weapon to beat up opponents with. but that it fills us with that awe. It fills us with that reverence. And we, with Pete, say, oh, how the realization of this should bow me in wonder and worship before Him.
The Argument of Romans as a Whole
Consider as well the whole flow of Romans. We'll end here. Romans is a book about man's problem and God's solution. That's it.
That's what the book of Romans is about. Man's problem. God's solution. Man's problem is outlined beginning in chapter 1, verse 18, all the way to chapter 3, verse 20.
What's man's problem? It's not that he's ignorant. It's not that he doesn't have enough money. It's not that he was brought up in a bad home.
It's not that society has gypped him. It's not that he's been victimized. His problem is very simple. Not denying that those are real issues and they really create hurt and pain and all that.
But when God looks upon man, the problem is quite simple. You don't often hear this even in Fox News. You don't hear it in the, you know, CBC. You don't hear it, you know, as a reason why so and so did such and such.
But the issue is very clear from Romans 118 to Romans 320. The issue is sin. Very simple. There is an unrighteous, no not one.
There is none who seeks after God. There is no fear of God before our eyes. Fat Paul begins his declaration in Romans 1.18 with God's wrath revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. He starts with the bad news.
He tells us God is angry. He tells us that God is going to send His wrath. But then he shifts to the good news in Romans 3.21. He says, But now the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.
The coming of Jesus Christ fulfilled all that they had stated. So Paul then develops justification by faith alone. He deals with the imputation of righteousness. He deals with issues concerning sanctification.
He deals, as we've seen, with election and sovereignty and predestination and foreordination. Brethren, it is in this context that man finds fulfillment. It is in this context that man finds happiness. It is when he comes to an end in himself, when he sees that assessment as accurate, when he realizes that he has sinned against this holy God, and by God's grace he casts himself upon the mercy of Jesus.
That's the point. That's what Paul wants. That's where he's moving. That's where he's going.
Yes, God's ways are unsearchable. Yes, you've sinned against Him. Yes, you've violated His law. Yes, you have thrown into the dust the very knowledge of God that you possess by nature.
But God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. All those who believe in Him will never be disappointed, He says in chapter 10. All those who believe in Him will not be ashamed. You may be a young child today.
You may be an old man today. Old woman. You've not come to the Lord Jesus Christ. His judgments are unsearchable.
It is amazing for the rest of us why He would ever save. It is amazing that He would save one like me, or He would save an Apostle Paul, or He would save a John Bunyan, or He would save a John Newton. And of all the men in the history of the world, would you pick Newton? A blasphemer?
A slave trader? Why does God do that? to demonstrate His glory and His grace. So, if you do not know Jesus Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus today and you will be saved. And hopefully you will say, oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. You'll say, Lord, forgive me that I ever tried to be Your counselor. Lord, forgive me that I ever tried to give You something so that You would pay me back. Lord, forgive me that I have ever sinned against You.
Lord, thank You for so great a salvation in Jesus Christ the Lord. That's the answer.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word and we thank You for its clarity. We thank You for its consistency that Isaiah and Job and Paul and Daniel and Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, and all the prophets, and all the apostles, and our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, testify of the one sovereign God in human history. The one sovereign God who is the Creator, who is sovereign in providence, and who is the One to whom all history is moving toward.
Our Father, we just pray that we would be like the Apostle here. That we would worship You, and that we would adore You. That we would never shrink back from declaring the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And we would ask now that you would go with us and watch over us, protect us.
And again, we commit our sisters Marilyn and Rebecca to you. I pray that they would receive comfort from the Scriptures and the comfort that a sovereign God alone brings. And we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.