Well, turn with me, if you would, in the Word of God, not to the Gospel of Matthew, but to Romans chapter 11. And as you are doing that, let me explain to you very briefly why there's a change in the bulletin. I had come here prepared to preach on Matthew chapter 17, or actually I prepared earlier this week on that, But this afternoon, I thought it may be helpful and expedient for me to preach something on the Book of Romans. Since in Santee, we've been in the Book of Romans now for almost a year. And we've just completed Chapter 11 and come to something of a milestone in that expository series. And since this is the mother congregation of that church, and I thought it might be helpful for you to share in what we are doing down there. Of course, we would like you to come visit sometime if you're able. But nevertheless, we'll be looking at Paul's doxology at the end of chapter 11 of Romans. But I'll read, just for the sake of some context, beginning in verse 25. Reading from the NIV, let us hear the Word of God. I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the Deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins. As far as the Gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account. But as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. Just as you were at one time disobedient to God, have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. So for the reading of God's holy Word, may He bless it to our hearts this evening by the power of His Spirit. Well, as I said, I would draw your attention to this doxology in verses 33 through 36. We come to this final section of Romans chapter 11. And since I haven't been preaching on the book of Romans here in this place, it might be helpful just to remember where Paul has come from up to this point. You know, of course, that the book of Romans is probably the greatest articulation and expression of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Paul has laid out man's need for the Gospel, his need for righteousness in Romans 1 and 2 and going into 3 so that he confines everything under the judgment and wrath of God because man does not have the righteousness that God requires. And he says that by the law, none can be saved. And he turns this point in Romans 3, verse 21 and begins to show that that righteousness which God requires of us, He Himself has provided in Jesus Christ. And He just goes and He explains that so carefully from chapter 3 verse 21 through chapter 4 through chapter 5 and then showing that we are in Christ. Now, we're not in Adam. That all people are in one of those two categories, either Adam or Christ. But if we are justified, if we have faith in Christ, that means we are in Christ. And if we are in Christ, then we've been freed from the slavery of sin as he goes on in chapter 6. But then, of course, as we live in this age, the pollution of sin still clings to us and it's almost as if we still act like slaves even though we're not, is what he explains in chapter 7. But then he lifts up our eyes in chapter 8 as he just goes and climbs up and up and up showing us all that we have in Jesus Christ, that there is no condemnation to the One who is in Jesus Christ. And that to be in Christ means to be in the Spirit. To be in Christ and not in Adam means to be in the Spirit and not in the flesh. And he explains this in chapter 8 until, of course, he reaches that glorious mountaintop in Crescendo where he says if all of these things are true, We have God before us. Who can be against us? But just as soon as Paul's heart is way in the mountaintops, it plummets in chapter 9 when he says, well, my heart is grieved, however, when I think of my fellow countrymen according to the flesh, fellow Israelites like myself because they don't share in these things. They don't know these things. And then he deals with the very tricky question of, well, if all this stuff is true from Romans chapter 1 up to chapter 8, what about God's promise to Israel? Has God's Word failed? And then he deals with that question in chapters 9, 10, and 11. And he shows that it's according to election. And he deals with this very thorny and somewhat difficult doctrine, but lets it out of the bag, as it were, And shows all that it is. And of course, God's outworking of His plan of election means that there is a fullness of the Jews and a fullness of the Gentiles. And in these two things together, we have all of Israel being saved. And that brings us to this doxology here in verses 33 through 36. And the doxology, as we use that word here, It means really an expression of adoration and praise. It's a form of words used to bring God glory. In fact, the very word doxology is a derivative of the Greek word doxa, which basically means glory. A doxology can be used in the same form of words regularly, in song by the people of God, as we often do at the end of a service or in the middle of a service. Or it can be like the many doxologies that we find in Scripture. That is, a short written praise to God in the middle or the end, usually of a letter. But what all doxologies have in common is that they bring God glory in response to what He has done. In response to particular doctrine. Paul's outlined doctrine and theology and the response, the proper response to doctrine and theology is praise. It's a doxology. And even in the doxology itself we find doctrine. For in a doxology we don't find mere empty words of praise. Well, I just want to praise You, Lord. Or I just want to love You, Lord. But we actually find praise that specifically recognizes particular truths about God. And here now, at the end of this long argument from chapter 9 to 11, Paul breaks out into doxology. It's as if he has just painted this grand mural on a wall of everything that God has revealed to him concerning his redemptive purpose and the covenant given to Abraham and how that plays out with the Gentiles and the Jews and the salvation of the true Israel. And even though he hasn't answered all of our questions that we have and our curiosity, nevertheless, he has displayed all that God has revealed to him. And in that display, he stands back in wonder and awe. And he breaks forth into this praise. And we find Paul praising God in particular for his incomprehensibility, his independence, and the fact that God is the center of all things. And so let's consider those three things for the rest of our time here. The fact that we are to give God glory because He is incomprehensible, because He is independent, and because He is the center of all things. And meditating upon this, loved ones, we too ought to find ourselves breaking forth into doxology and into praise. So then in the first place, we are to give glory to God for He is incomprehensible. Now what do I mean by incomprehensible? Well, that should become clear as we look carefully at what Paul says in verses 33 and 34. The first thing he says is, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. Now, I know the NIV in many translations will translate that phrase to say something like, Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. But it's probably more correct to translate this in this way, that Paul is praising God for these three things in particular. At least this is what we find from the original Greek grammar. He is marveling at God's riches, at His wisdom, and at His knowledge. The riches of God most likely refers to God's riches in mercy and grace as they're found in Jesus Christ. We find that kind of language elsewhere in the New Testament when Paul says to the Ephesians, To me, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. The wisdom of God refers to His direction of all things to their best end. The fact that God selects the means to that end so that He executes His whole plan of creation and providence and redemption, even the consummation, all to His glory. Riches, wisdom, and the knowledge. The knowledge of God, of course, is His total and utter omniscience. The fact that God knows everything and knows what is best in everything. His knowledge completely understands all the necessities and circumstances of the subjects of His plan. He knows everything that is required for the accomplishment of His divine purpose and all the results of those means from beginning to end. And so what Paul is saying is that God is not lacking in riches, wisdom, knowledge. God has all three of these qualities in the fullest excellence. And we couldn't deplete these qualities. They are inexhaustible with God. And the fact that God has dealt with Jew and Gentile as he has throughout redemptive history is a grand display of his riches and wisdom and knowledge. And it's what moves Paul to marvel at the depth of those qualities so much so that he goes on to say how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways or how his ways are past finding out. The word here that Paul uses for judgments is a word that might be better translated decisions or decrees. It has to do with what God has ordained. And Paul is saying this in light of the doctrine of election in particular as he has gone into this in some length in chapter 9. And he's saying that these things are unsearchable. We can't know God's decrees to the fullest extent. The word there, the adjective unsearchable, we could also translate unfathomable. You can't find its depths. We might think of something that is incredibly deep. Boys and girls, I've just learned this past week that the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean is over 36,000 feet deep. That is deep. We can't even imagine going that deep. We can barely even imagine going that high in an airplane. But going down 36,000 feet? But as deep as that is in the ocean, you know the oceanographers using their scientific methods, they can find the bottom eventually. And even if there's deeper parts out there in the Pacific Ocean, they can find the bottom eventually. You reach it. But not so with God's decrees. Not so with His judgments, with His decisions. We can learn something about them, but we can't find the bottom. They are so deep. They are incomprehensible. It's simply impossible for us to fully comprehend the mind of God because we're finite. He is infinite. Now that's not to say that God is altogether unknowable. The 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, he vigorously promoted a view, something like that. He said that, well, God, you know, He dwells in a whole different realm. A realm where things are as they are in and of themselves. And he called that realm the noumenal realm. And he said, well, we don't dwell in that realm. We dwell in a realm where things only are as they are as they appear through our senses. And he said, that's the phenomenal realm. And the problem is we can't know anything about God because we don't have the equipment to penetrate that noumenal realm. And for this reason, he's been called by many the father of modern agnosticism. Because many unbelievers like to take this route. They just say, well, you know, you really just can't know after all. I mean, who's to say? No one really knows for sure. So you might as well just decide in your own heart what you think is right and live by that. And that's exactly what Immanuel Kant said. But you see, we need to be clear here. When Paul speaks about the incomprehensibility of God, He's not saying that we can't know anything about God. Yes, God is infinite and we are finite. He is the Creator and we are creatures. And there is a line there that can never be crossed. His knowledge is, as we say in theology, archetypal. And our knowledge isn't exactly like His knowledge because we're creatures, we're finite. It's only an analogy of His knowledge. There's this great line between creator and creature. But, the incomprehensible creator has made himself known to us who are finite. He's made himself known to us in his revelation that reveals himself to us. He's done that generally in nature. Man looks at all of nature around him and he knows that somebody made these things, that God has made these things. And He's done it specially in His Word and in His Son. And so, we have to understand that while God is incomprehensible, nevertheless, God has condescended to us and given us a revelation of Himself in His Word. Calvin used to call this baby talk. He used to say that, well, in all of Scripture, it's as if God lisps when He talks. You know the way you kind of talk to a baby? You don't speak to a baby usually the same way you would speak to an adult. Well, God condescends to us, but He reveals something about Himself so that He is not altogether unknowable. And Paul here in this doxology, he's saying the same thing that Moses says in Deuteronomy 29.29, a passage of Scripture that is very, very important for us to know. That is, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. The things that God has revealed to us are for us. The doctrines that He has laid out, the theology that He has laid out in His Word, it's our responsibility to know these things. We can't be satisfied with sort of that modern evangelical idea that, well, I'm really not interested in doctrine, you know. I just want Jesus. Well, Jesus is a doctrine friend. The minute you say, well, I believe Jesus is the Son of God, that's doctrine. That's theology. And it's our responsibility to know these things that God has revealed. But the secret things, the secret things belong to God. And there is no possible way that we can penetrate that secret place in God's mind. Because we're finite. And this leads Paul to ask a series of questions now in verses 34. And here Paul moves from not just the incomprehensibility of God, but also adding to that the independence of God. Not only can no created being know the mind of the Lord except to the extent that he chooses to reveal it, But we also have to understand that God is completely independent of finite created beings. He is sovereign. He is self-sufficient. He is self-sustaining. He doesn't need anything. He has life in Himself. He is dependent on nothing. And everything in the universe is dependent upon Him. His mind is such that it cannot be instructed. There's nothing that we can add to God. There's nothing that we can bring to God so that He might be better. And we have to keep that in mind, loved ones, when we hear people often in the face of tragedy, in the face of something that happens like 9-11, or the tsunami, where there's thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, dead. Atrocity. Horrific circumstances. Loss of life, weeping, sadness. And what do we so often hear on the places we work, from our neighbors, from people on TV? In frustration they say, I just can't understand how a loving God would let something like this happen. But what that person is implying, whether they realize it or not, is that they wouldn't have done something like that if they were God. They want to be God's counselor. They want to give God advice. They want to come and say, you know, I know something that you don't apparently because I can't understand why you would do this. Therefore, I want to be your counselor. Loved ones, we need to remember not only is no mere finite creature qualified to advise God and to give Him counsel. But God couldn't possibly profit from the counsel anyway because He is independent of His creatures. He is incomprehensible. Sure, there's plenty of things that we say, I don't know why this happened. But as Christians, we know that the mind of the Lord is perfect. That God is sovereign. and that God has a plan and that things are in His hands. We know that He is incomprehensible, for He says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. We know that He is independent of His creatures. And yet on the other hand, we are utterly and totally dependent upon Him. We have no life outside of Him. But God is not only independent in that sense, He is also independent in the sense that no one can bring Him under obligation. We notice here in verse 35, Paul quotes from Job 41 when he says, Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? Who has done something for God that God is obligated to that person? Who has come to God in his own merit? Hoping that he is going to somehow move the arm of God or move the heart of God. Meriting God's favor and love. Who can place God under obligation? Of course, that is the tendency in fallen people ever since the fall. Man wants to earn his way into a right standing with God. Earn his favor with God. And loved ones, often we even do this as believers. We tend to think sometimes, Well, God, you must bless me, for after all, I've served you in this way or done this. And we lose sight of what grace is. That we could never be deserving of God's favor or love or mercy in the first place ever. That all of the love and mercy and favor and anything that we have from God comes to us in spite of the fact that we are still sinful. It comes to us because of Jesus Christ. Just as ridiculous as it is to think of ourselves as being the counselor or teacher of God, it's just as ridiculous to think of ourselves as giving something to God so that He is in debt to us. And that's the same point made by David in his prayer recorded in 1 Chronicles 29. Everything comes from You. And we have given You only what comes from Your hand. We can't possibly place God under obligation. He doesn't owe us anything. For, as Paul says in verse 36, from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. And this brings us to our final point. First, we've seen we are to give glory to God for He is incomprehensible. We are to give glory to God for He is independent, sovereign. And we are to give glory to God for He is the center of all things. He is the source, the means, the end of all that we have. All comes from Him. All lives by Him. All ends in Him. Look there at verse 36. If we ask, where do all things come from? The answer is, from Him. If we ask, how do all things come into being? The answer is, through Him. If we ask, why do all things come into being? And where are they going? The answer is, to Him. By Him, all things are. Through His power, His wisdom, His goodness, all things are directed and governed. And to Him, all things find their final end. As Paul said to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 8, there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. God is the center of everything. And here too we find our tendency to try to make ourselves the center of everything. Here, too, we can trace this back to the fall. Man wanting to be the center of the universe rather than God being the center of the universe. Go ahead, Adam. Go ahead, Eve. Just do it. That old tyrant, that God, He's just trying to wreck your fun. He doesn't want to share with you the center of the universe. Look within. Don't look without. Go for it. Be the master of your universe. And sadly, man still thinks this way. If I could only be the master of my own universe, if I could only have all the comfort, all the success, all the respect, everything that I want, oh, that would be heaven on earth. But of course, loved ones, Making ourself the center of the universe is not heaven on earth. It's not the road to heaven. It's the road to hell. Because we are creatures made in His image for His pleasure and for His glory. From Him, through Him, to Him are all things. He is the Creator from Him. He is the Redeemer through Him. He is the consummator to Him. He is the Alpha and the Omega and every Greek letter in the alphabet in between. He is the beginning and the end. The first and the last. He is the One in whom we live and move and have our being. God is not a part of your life. He is not a part of your life. He is not a part of your world. You don't have a world. You're in His world and your life is given to you by Him. He is the beginning and the end. You're in His world and you've been made for His pleasure and to bring Him glory. To Him be glory forever. Amen. That's the proper response when we consider God in this way. When we consider that He is incomprehensible, independent, and the center of all things. Now, as we think on these things this evening, this is a bit scary in the sense that we consider God as great as He is. There is a fear that overcomes us and should, a right respect. Loved ones, we should also be comforted by the fact that this same God, who is incomprehensible, is independent and sovereign and the center of all things, the first and the last, from whom, through whom, to Him be all things. That same God has become your Father through Jesus Christ. We don't want to separate this glorious doxology from everything else that Paul has said in his letter up to this point. Nothing can separate us from the love of Him, this God, this high and mighty, incomprehensible, independent, sovereign God of the universe. Nothing can separate us from His love as it comes to us through Jesus Christ. Because this same God, who demands righteousness as good as His own, has provided that righteousness in His Son and has given it to you through faith and has sealed it to you by His Holy Spirit. And when we consider these things, we ought to break forth into praise. Does it grip you? Does your heart soar when you think of these things? But we realize that whatever happens to us now in this life, we can always remember that we have great reason to praise God, to bring Him doxology, to worship Him. Even if we're poor and afflicted in this world, all the happiness of heaven and the inheritance that we have is enough to soothe us, to sweeten our sorrows and our pain and to give us such contentment that we can open up our mouths and praise God and ask for more. Thanking Him that He has rescued us from sin, death, and hell and lavished upon us all the riches of His grace in Christ. And we too can say, oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we give You praise for You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. For You created all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through You and for You. And we give You glory and praise this evening, O Lord, thanking You not only for creating us, but Lord, for redeeming us through Jesus Christ that we might know You as our Father and we won't have to face you as our judge because Christ faced you as judge for us. And so now we too can break forth into praise as we consider who you are, your works, your plan of redemption throughout history, all that you have done, even how incomprehensible you are, even how we can never wrap our minds around you, even how independent and sovereign you are and the fact that you are the center of all things. O God, we give you praise this evening. May we go forth from this place, worshiping you, breaking forth into praise this evening and throughout our life. May it be so, we pray. In the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.