Romans 11:33-36The Foundation of Great Doxology Is Good Theology

WREFC 6/09/19

Over 60 years ago, J. B. Phillips wrote a book entitled Your God Is Too Small. The title says it all.

Your God may be too small if you think your problems are too big for Him to handle. If your concept of God is smaller than the God of the Bible you’ll be crushed by the next crisis.

How big is your God? If an infinite God fits in the tiny box of your finite thinking, perhaps it’s time to take closer look at the what the Bible says about the God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. The apostle Paul does just that in the last four verses of Romans 11. Paul ends the doctrinal section of Romans with an outburst of praise to the greatness of God.

In the first 11 chapters of Romans, Paul talked about the righteousness of God; why we need it and how to get it. In the process, he covers the doctrines of sin and salvation, grace and faith, justification and sanctification, and the sovereignty of God in saving both Jews and Gentiles. The point of all these deep theological truths is to humble us before an awesome God and worship Him. If your study of God doesn’t deepen your worship of God, your study of God is deficient. Seeing the God of

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Scripture more clearly, seeing what He graciously did for us in Christ, should drive us to our knees in humble worship.

Romans 1-11 reminds us that good theology is the foundation for great doxology. In Rom.1-11:32, Paul built a sound theological foundation upon which He expressed a magnificent doxology of praise to God in the last four verses of chapt.11. This morning we’re going to look at Four Qualities Unique to God (33), Three Things No One Can Do (34-35), and Three Reasons to Worship God (36).

Rd Rom.11:33

The exclamation “Oh” tells us that Paul is overwhelmed with joy; he’s filled with awe and wonder over four qualities unique to God:

Oh, the depth of the riches of God’s wisdom! Oh, the depth of the riches of God’s

knowledge! Oh, the depth of the riches of God’s judgments! Oh, the depth of the riches of God’s ways!

Paul knew God as well as any man. And yet he confessed that he was at a loss about understanding the depth of God’s divine essence. Just how deep is God? So deep that Paul could only

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stand on the edge of a theological peer, look into the depths of an infinite God, and go no deeper than his finite mind would allow.

When a fisherman wades into a river, he feels safe as long as he can feel the bottom. But if he’s not careful, his next step may take him into a drop off. Nothing but water under his feet. As the strong current carries him down river he may cry out “Oh, the depth of this river—I’m being swept away!”

This is what Paul felt as he came to the end of his theological journey through Romans 1-11. Paul said it was humanly impossible to plumb the depths of those magnificent truths of sin, salvation, sanctification, and sovereignty. He just let the current of God’s wisdom and knowledge and judgments and ways sweep him into a river flowing with praise.

Let’s start with God’s knowledge. God’s knowledge is His omniscience. God knows everything about everything exhaustively. That’s why His knowledge is beyond our comprehension.

Here’s one commentator’s summary of God’s knowledge: “[God] knows what is going on in the chemical reactions of the stars in billions of distant galaxies. He knows what is going on in the cells of your body. He knows your thoughts before you

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have them and your words before you speak them (Ps.139:1-4). He knew you when you were being formed in your mother’s womb and He knows the exact number of your days (Ps.139:16). He not only knows all things that will happen, but He also knows all things that would have happened had other [factors] prevailed …” (1)

Here are the lyrics of a Southern gospel song: “Did it ever occur to you; Nothing ever occurred to God?” (2) That sounds strange at first because things occur to us all the time. Some of you are thinking about what I just said, “Yea, the fact that nothing ever occurred to God never occurred to me before, but I see it now.”

It’s true: Nothing has ever “occurred” to God. He never wakes up and says, “A great idea just occurred to me.” In the first place, God never sleeps so He never has to wake up. In the second place, God knows all the great ideas all the time, from the beginning of time. He knows everything that has been, everything that is, and everything that will be. That’s why Paul exclaims with wonder and awe, “Oh, the depth of God’s knowledge! It’s beyond our comprehension.” Next is God’s wisdom.

God’s wisdom is intertwined with God’s knowledge. Knowledge is information; wisdom is the

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application of that information. Wisdom explains how and why God does what He does.

Who, but an all wise God would provide salvation by means of His grace and mercy, not through mans’ good works? Who but an all wise God would extend salvation to the Gentiles based on the disobedience of His Chosen People, the Jews? Who but an all wise God would provoke a disobedient Israel to jealousy through the Gentile’s acceptance of their own Jewish Messiah whom they had crucified?

In 1Cor.1:18-25, God’s wisdom is especially seen in the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross which the world calls foolish, weak, and lame. V.24 says “But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” If you want to go deeper in God’s wisdom, meditate often on the cross where Jesus died for your sins.

As best as your finite mind allows, seek to understand the infinite wisdom of God; then stand in awe of His majestic glory and declare with Paul “Oh, the depth of God’s wisdom! It’s beyond my comprehension.”

Kata v.33, the third quality unique to God is His judgments. God is not only a God of love, grace

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and mercy, He’s is also righteous, holy, and just. God not only rewards believers, He judges unbelievers. For example:

God judged sinful man with a worldwide flood, except for righteous Noah and his family.

God judged a proud and rebellious people at the Tower of Babel by confusing their languages and scattering them across the globe.

In Rom.1, we learned that God judged unrepentant Gentiles by giving them over to their sinful passions.

In Rom.11, we saw that God judged the Nation Israel. Like a branch, He broke them off the tree of blessing for their rejection of Jesus Christ.

In the future, God will judge the the lost at the GWT to determine their eternal punishment.

Reflecting on God’s righteous judgments is another reason to say with Paul “Oh, the judgments of God are unsearchable, inscrutable, and beyond our ability to fully comprehend.

The fourth quality unique to God is His ways. Paul says God’s ways are past finding out. The phrase, “past finding out” literally means, incapable of being traced or tracked by footprints.

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The footprints of God’s will are clear and plain in some areas of life. Regarding unjust suffering, the apostle Peter pointed to the example of Jesus Christ. In 1 Pet. 2:23 he said, “For to this reason you were called, because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow His steps.” Persecution should come as no surprise to the Christian. When you believe in Christ, and follow Christ, and live for Christ, you may one day suffer for Christ.

But some of God’s ways are dark and mysterious. He leaves no footprints behind. There’s no trail to follow. That means that many things will happen that we’ll never understand this side of heaven. Sickness, disease, accidents, violent crimes, financial loss, divorce, unfulfilled dreams, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, famines, war, broken promises, evil triumphing over good, children dying, coworkers get promoted while we are passed over. The list is endless; it’s heartbreaking and puzzling at the same time.

Some of you know that thirty plus years ago, a drunk driver crashed into my nephew’s car. He was 20 at the time. The accident damaged Mark’s brain stem leaving him a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. To add insult to the injury, the drunk driver was only given 3 years probation. And because the driver had no insurance and Mark did, the injured

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passengers in Mark’s car sued him to cover their medical expenses. It was awful, horrible and sad. Nothing can adequately describe the grief and misery it caused my brother and his wife. They decided not to institutionalize Mark and consequently forfeited a normal social life by personally caring for Mark at home 24/7 all these years. My brother’s greatest fear was that they would die before Mark. What would happen to him then? Who would care for him? In May of 2009, my brother died of a fatal heart attack. He died a bitter man, and as far as I know, entered a Christless eternity.

I don’t understand it. There are some things in life that must be wrapped in a mental package and offered up to God. When we get to heaven, God will open it up explain it to us. Until then, God gives us life. Invest it wisely and enjoy it while you can. Only God knows what will happen and why it happens.

In Isa.55:8-9 God says, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”

Trying to understand God is like trying to empty the ocean with a tiny bucket. Dip your bucket in a

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thousand times and you haven’t made a dent in the vast expanse of water. Your bucket is too small, and the ocean is too big, too wide, and too deep. So it is with God. We can’t begin to comprehend the depths of His being.

John Wesley said “Show me a worm that fully comprehends a man, and I’ll show you a man that can comprehend God.” At times the only thing we can do is to humbly bow before God in worship and declare with Paul “Oh, the depth of the riches of God’s ways; they’re beyond human comprehension! ”

Having looked at four unique qualities of God, Paul next asks three rhetorical questions that tell us what no man can do. Notice rhetorical question #1 in v.34:

Rd Rom.11:34a

People think they know everything about God, but the only things we know about God are things he has chosen to reveal to us. Who can read the mind of God or who can explain why God does what He does? The answer is “No one can.”

Perhaps you heard the story of the six blind men who were trying to describe an elephant. The first man felt the tusk and said, “An elephant is sharp,

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like a spear.” The second man touched its massive side and exclaimed, “No! An elephant is like a wall.” The third man stroked his wiggling trunk and concluded that an elephant was like a snake. The fourth man tried to wrap his arms around one of the elephant’s legs. When he couldn’t, he said, “It’s like a tree.” The fifth man felt the expanse of its huge ears and said, “It’s easy to see that an elephant is much like a fan.” The last man felt the tiny tail and said, “You’re all wrong. An elephant is shaped like a rope.” Who was right? All of them. Who was wrong? All of them.

We are all like those blind men when it comes to knowing God. We know bits and pieces about God, but no one knows enough to explain God. God is so incomprehensible, no one can fully understand Him. Here’s the second rhetorical question:

Rd Rom. 11:34b

In other words, God is God is so wise, no one can give Him advice. Is anyone smart enough to tell God what to do? Of course not! Most high schools have professional guidance counselors. They gather information about students and help them make wise decisions about the future. But God needs no guidance counselor because He is the ultimate Counselor.

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For a mere man to counsel God would be like a candle trying to give light to the sun. He doesn’t need our wisdom, but we desperately need His.

Jas.1:5 says “if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally.” It’s not, “Lord, why did you allow this to happen, you should have done it this way instead of that way.” Rather it’s “Lord, I don’t understand why you allowed this to happen. Please give me insight on how I should respond to this situation so you get the glory.”

A college student was struggling through his final exam in economics. He happened to be taking the test just before Christmas. In desperation he scrawled across the bottom of the paper, “Only God knows the answer to these questions. Merry Christmas!” When he got the paper back, the teacher marked it: “God gets 100. You get 0. Happy New Year!” (3)

God is so incomprehensible, no one can fully understand Him. God is so wise, no one can give Him advice. Listen now to the third rhetorical question. It’s a quote from Job 41:11:

Rd Rom. 11:35

No one can ever say, “God, you owe me something,” because the Lord is debtor to no one.

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The opposite is true. We’re indebted to Him! In other words, God is so self-sufficient, no one can demand that God owes them anything. He is under no obligation to repay anyone, for no one has ever given God anything that didn’t belong to Him in the first place.

This verse alone eliminates any notion of salvation by good works. Everything this side of hell is mercy. Titus 3:5 says “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us …”. Eph.2:8-9 reminds us that everything this side of heaven is grace: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Let us be very clear on this point. God is in under no obligation to save anyone. He could have destroyed the human race and started over again with better raw material. But He didn’t. What He did was mindboggling. Almighty God became a tiny baby. Deity was wrapped in diapers. No one but God would have come up with an idea like that. And then in the Father’s wisdom, the Son suffered and died on a Roman cross—He died in our place; He took our punishment; the Sinless One paid the penalty for our sins.

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So far, Paul has given us four qualities unique to God and three questions that remind us what no man can do. Now He gives us three glorious reasons to worship God:

Rd Rom. 11:36

Paul can hold back no longer. He wants to show us that God is the first Cause, the effective Cause, and final Cause of everything.

James Montgomery Boice calls this verse the secret of a “Christian worldview” because it dethrones man and puts God on the throne of the universe. He illustrates his point by asking a trivia question: What was one of the last songs recorded by the Beatles before they broke up? Answer: “I, Me, Mine.”

The Beatles’ last song is the first and the last song of an unbeliever—“I, Me, Mine” is the self-centered focus of focus of our godless age. But the song of a Christian is “of Him, through Him, and to Him.” It’s God-centered, not self-centered.

Crooner Frank Sinatra’s signature song was I Did It My Way. But the moment He died, Sinatra faced the shocking reality that He should have done it God’s way. The wisdom of Prov.14:12 is a wake-up call for the proud hedonists of our world: “There is

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a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”

Back to v.36: Paul says “For of Him and through Him and to Him …” Each one of those prepositions—of, through, and to—give solid reasons why God is worthy of our praise and worship.

The phrase “of Him” means that God is the first cause. He’s the creator of all things. He is the source of everything good. He’s the giver of life and the originator and perfecter of our faith. For that reason alone, God is worthy of worship and praise.

But there’s another reason to worship God as we look at the next preposition—through Him. What does Paul mean by “through Him”? It means that God is the effective cause. He’s the sustainer of all things. Everything created by God continues by God. Paul put it this way in Col. 1:16-17:

“…all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Take, for example, the center of the atom. It contains protons that are all positively charged. But Coulomb’s Law states that “like charges repel.”

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If we bring the positive poles of two magnets together, what happens?—they push apart.

For years, scientists referred to the force that held the center of an atom together as “an unknown mysterious force.” Now they call them “gluons.” That’s right; the most brilliant minds in the scientific world hypothesize that repellent protons stick together by massless gluons. (4)

We may not know WHAT makes matter stick together, but we know WHO makes it stick together—Jesus Christ. In Him, all things hold together.

Jesus not only holds together all the atom of matter, He holds together the all the galaxies of outer space. The forces of motion, gravity, and all the mechanics of the universe are sustained by Him. Countless stars and their satellites travel at enormous speeds on amazing orbits—all continue by Him. They travel with such mathematical precision that we can predict an eclipse or a comet years in advance. This is God’s sovereign power over the universe. He created it; He controls it.

Everything good comes from God, continues by God, and it also ends with God. That’s the meaning of the prepositional phrase “to Him”. God is the final cause—He’s the goal of all things. Of Him,

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through Him and to Him—All things flow from God and back to God.

Theologian John Stott writes “These three prepositions indicate that God is the creator, sustainer, and heir of everything, its source, means, and goal. He is the Alpha and Omega, and every letter of the alphabet in between.” (5)

How do we respond to all of this? Paul said “to God be the glory forever …” It is because all things are of Him and through Him and to Him that glory belongs to God and God alone.

Why did God create you? To bring glory to Him. Why are you living? To glorify God! Why do you do what you do? Paul told the Corinthians, “… whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1Cor.10:31)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism reflects the underlying message of the Bible: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

Do you want to be happy in life? Of course you do. We all do. But happiness is secondary to the goal of glorifying God. Do you want to be happy, content, and experience the peace of God that surpasses all understanding? Then glorify God in your home, in your church, in your career, or in

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any other goal you may have in life. Paul said his aim was that “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.” (Phil.1:20b)

Here’s an admonishment we all need. It comes from a sermon by Pastor Ray Prichard: If your God is too small, meditate on the sovereignty of God in Romans 9-11 until you can say with Paul “To God be the glory forever!”

In life and in death–To God be the glory forever!

In joy and in sorrow–To God be the glory forever!

In sickness and in health–To God be the glory forever!

In your losses and gains! –To God be the glory forever!

In prosperity and poverty–To God be the glory forever!

In moments of victory and defeat–To God be the glory forever!

In prayers answered or unanswered–To God be the glory forever!

Whatever comes our way, whether we understand it or not—To God be the glory forever!

Don’t forget the last word of chapt.11—“Amen” Paul wants you to say “amen” to all that he has

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written thus far in Romans. Here are a few that should elicit our “amens”:

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Amen!

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Amen!

The gospel of Christ is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. Amen!

Sinners are justified, declared righteous by grace alone through faith alone in the death and resurrection of Christ alone. Amen!

Believers can say no to sin and live for God through sanctification of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him and those whom He called kata His glorious purpose. Amen!

God is absolutely sovereign: On the one hand, He chose to have mercy on those whom He prepared beforehand for glory and on the other hand, He chose to harden the hearts of those He prepared for destruction. Amen!

God set aside His disobedient People—the Jews—so He could offer salvation to disobedient Gentiles. Amen!

Are you submitting to these truths begrudgingly or are you embracing them wholeheartedly? God

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leaves the choice to you. You can believe and be blessed or you can doubt and be depressed. Can you say in all of your circumstances, “To Him be the glory forever. Amen”?________________________________________(1)https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-73-god-great-you-are-not-great-part-1-romans-1133-36(2)https://www.letssingit.com/mullins-lyrics-did-it-ever-occur-to-you-n62zhxn (3http://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/our-awesome-god/) (4)https://www.britannica.com/science/gluon)(5)Stott, John, Romans, Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity Press, 1994, p.311 (6) http://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/our-awesome-god/