You may be seated. I'm going to turn our attention now to the reading and preaching of God's Word, and let me lead us in prayer as we enter into this time. Gracious Lord God, we thank you so much that you have revealed yourself in all of creation, but also especially, Lord, in your holy written word. We thank you that this is a wonderful means of grace, that it is the primary means of grace. And we pray, O Holy Spirit, having inspired this Word and seen to its inscripturation, that you would even now pierce our hearts with it, for we know it is the living Word of God. And we pray that it would have tremendous effect upon us, changing us and conforming us more into the likeness of Christ, for His sake and for His glory. Amen. Before I read from Romans 11 this morning, if you want to turn there, Romans 11 verse 33, I want to say that I'm particularly happy to be here. Austin is my hometown. I grew up here and went to high school here and was an undergraduate at the University of Texas, met my wife here. I have a daughter who's with my wife Betty here, Julia, and her husband Tony, who are members of the Church in Pflugerville, and I have a mother here and and a brother who lives in Pflugerville, so it's a delight to be with you again this morning We're looking this morning at the end of Romans 11 and I'll begin reading at verse 33 This is the holy and errant Word of God give it now your full attention 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 or 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 All things to him be glory forever Amen Up to this point in Romans from chapter 1 all the way through chapter 11 verse 32 I The Apostle Paul has given us, first of all, a thoroughly Christian anthropology. That is the doctrine of man as God's unique image bearer, who in Adam broke covenant with God and has fallen in sin under the curse and the misery of death. And mankind in this state of misery and spiritual death is morally helpless, bankrupt before God, and is worthy only of God's eternal wrath. And Paul sets this out for us in chapters one through three, explaining clearly mankind's dilemma, mankind's defiance, and our subsequent doom. And in these 11 chapters, Paul has also given us, secondly, a thoroughly Christian soteriology. which is God's merciful, gracious answer to our sinfulness, to our dilemma, the doctrine of salvation. God's plan to redeem and to rescue sinners such as us through faith in his promised son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul sets this out for us in chapters four through eight. And that portion of Romans 4-8 concludes in chapter 8 verses 28-30, I mean verses 28-30 with what is often been called the golden chain, the unbreakable chain of God's saving actions, also referred to as the Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation. that God carries out to make us His forgiven people, those whom He blesses with the gift of eternal life. And Paul writes in Romans 8, 28 through 30, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom he foreknew, we could also say foreloved there, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that we might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. And in this soteriology section, Paul also gives us the essentials of Christology, the doctrine of Christ, describing and expounding the person in the work of our sovereign Savior and our covenant mediator, who lived for us and died for us. He became our substitute so that we might be forgiven for our sin and raised to new eternal life with our God forever. And then in chapters 9 through 11, Paul gives us the essentials of ecclesiology. That is the doctrine of the church, the body of Christ. And Paul shows us from the Old Testament that it never was God's intention to limit salvation and all of its blessings to one race, to one ethnic group, the Jews. But it was always his plan to rescue, to save a vast number of people from all nations. from every tribe and tongue and race of men, namely Jews and Gentiles, to be His holy people in Christ, to enjoy Him and to glorify Him now and forever. And then in this section on ecclesiology, Paul also introduces us to the basics of eschatology. God's future plan, His end game, His ultimate purposes consummated in Christ and His blessings that are bestowed on all the chosen race. A multitude, that race is a multitude of remnants from all human races, those who forever will inhabit His eternal kingdom and sing His amazing grace. As one of our favorite hymns puts it, until all the chosen race with one voice and heart and soul sings his redeeming grace. Now, throughout what I've just described, throughout this syllabus of redemption, if you will, in chapters one through 11 of Romans, just nine short pages in my Bible, Paul consistently appeals to our thoroughly Trinitarian theology. That is theology proper, the doctrine of God. describing the perfectly unified, majestic, glorious work of the one true God, who is triune in nature, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and is utterly worthy of all glory and submission, all obedience, all desire, all devotion. There is no one no being who deserves more adoration, more sheer exaltation and total allegiance than our Savior God, who as a covenant being keeps all His promises and who graciously and mercifully has given to us in Christ all that He has demanded from us And now having presented, that's all introduction by the way, having presented this robust, exhilarating chronology of Christian theology, Paul then, in a moment of existential clarity and reflection, Here in Romans 11, beginning at verse 33, he responds to all of that appropriately, bursting forth with doxology, with the overwhelming wonder and worship and praise and exaltation to God. In fact, the proper response to true theology is resounding doxology. R.C. Sproul often told how years ago one of his professors at the Free University in Amsterdam always began his class with this statement, gentlemen, all sound theology begins and ends with doxology. And the goal of our theology then is not pride in what we know. But it should be praise for the one whom we know. During my years of pastoral ministry in Amarillo, Texas, that's where I served for 25 years or so, I always stressed with the congregation there over and over again that our knowing Our gaining theological and biblical knowledge must not be an end in itself. It's not so that we can impress others with what we know. It's not so that we can simply win arguments or engage in any kind of self-congratulations or self-esteem. It's not the Christian way to participate in the rampant me-ism. that has flooded our secular society. No. For believers, our knowing is for living. And true Christian living entails, from first to last, God's exaltation. It's all about Him. Now, this is the sentiment, of course, you know, Our first catechism question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Man's primary purpose, your ultimate chief reason for existence, beloved, is to glorify God, to honor, to praise, to esteem God, to bring adoration to Him by the way you live. Now Paul's doxology here has three simple stanzas, three strophes in this hymn of praise. He begins in verse 33, you see, with an exclamation, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. One commentator calls Paul's first word here a sigh, a holy groan. But it's not a sigh of sorrow, nor is it a groan of grieving. Rather, it's an expression of wonder and amazement that is really ultimately beyond words. A sense of astonishment that exceeds the descriptive power of our words. Oh, the riches. Now for the Hebrews, many of you know this, For the Hebrews, not being a seafaring people, the most mysterious, frightening, unknown, or unexplored place on the planet was the ocean or the sea, which is often referred to in the Old Testament simply as the deep. The ocean depth. or the deep became actually in Hebrew a metaphor, not only for confusion or chaos or unknown dangers, but also for what is profound, what is mysterious, for things beyond our comprehension. For example, in Job 11, 7, we read about, quote, the deep things of God. which this passage then goes on to tell us is a measure. It says, greater than the earth, broader than the sea, higher than the heavens. A distance, if you will, without limits. Now Paul uses this same metaphor as he extols the Lord, as he begins, oh the depth. meaning the vast, oceanic, limitless amount of His riches. It's a way of saying that God who created the universe, which itself is beyond our ability to measure, God is Himself greater than, higher than, deeper than, He is other than His creation. Oh, the magnitude, the immensity of the Creator. It staggers. It should boggle our minds. Our limited, shallow, fallen human categories and our vocabulary cannot adequately describe the utter magnificence and incomprehensible majesty of God. He's greater than the universe, the entire creation, which itself appears boundless to us. So Paul's adoration begins with his listing, you'll see here, three profound attributes of God, his riches, his wisdom, his knowledge, God's wealth, is immense, because He owns all things. All creation belongs to Him, as the psalmist says in Psalm 89, 11. The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours, the world and all that is in it, for you founded them. It's also true that God's wisdom and knowledge are without measure or comparison. As you know, Job found out when the Lord questioned him about the nature of the created order. Job's response, do you remember, was, I lay my hand on my mouth. And when the full interrogation was over, Job confessed, I have uttered what I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me. Things which I did not know. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job realized clearly that God is the definer of all things. He does not learn anything, nor acquire knowledge. He declares truth. He dispenses knowledge. And Job's proper response to the unfathomable wisdom and knowledge of God was reverence and humility. Now although we generally recognize the grandeur of God's riches and wisdom and knowledge, Paul here at the end of Romans 11 was most likely thinking of those attributes in reference specifically to God's plan of salvation. So we see first of all the richness of God in the abundance of His kindness and mercy shown to undeserving sinners. His pouring out on us full pardon and forgiveness and the countless blessings that are now ours in Christ. We see, secondly, the intricacy and the efficiency of God's wisdom from the beginning, from Genesis 3.15 forward, as He reveals His plan and His saving purposes, sovereignly directing all of human history to accomplish His goal. I love this statement about God's goal and salvation from Dr. Lane Tipton. Some of you may know Dr. Tipton from Westminster Cemetery in Philadelphia. Dr. Tipton puts it this way, God's goal and salvation is to confer a holy kingdom upon a holy people by means of an obedient federal head, Jesus Christ, the last Adam. And that kingdom is conferred upon His holy people when they are united to Christ by faith, faith given in their effectual calling." End quote. And we see thirdly as well that God's knowledge, it's not only His omniscience, His flawless awareness of all things, including our hearts and minds, as the psalmist writes, Behold, before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. And in the Gospels, you learn that the Lord numbers, He knows, and He numbers every single hair on your head. So yes, he knows all things, but in addition to this empirical knowledge of God, Paul no doubt is thinking of God's relational knowledge of us. His knowing us in the sense of intimacy and his foreknowledge of us in love. His loving us. with his deep electing love before the creation of the world." Now, as Paul reflects here on the greatness of God's saving grace, he adds a second exclamation. How unsearchable or unfathomable are his judgments. referring to all of God's decisions, to His will, both hidden and revealed. His righteous decrees, in other words, God's holy, absolute, sovereign design of all that is, of all that exists. And the exclamation continues, and how inscrutable, or we could also say untraceable, His ways. Now the term ways right here, referring to God's providence, His sovereign power to bring about His perfect plan is His holy will. And Paul's adjectives, unsearchable and inscrutable, they remind us that we are creatures, we are finite beings who cannot in an identical way comprehend the mind or the will of the creator. It's impossible for us to know God as he knows himself. Even in heaven, even in eternity, he will remain mysterious and beyond our greatest understanding. John Calvin put it this way in Latin, so if you're working on your Latin terms, as good Reformed people, you might want to add this one to the list. Finitum non capax infinitum, meaning the finite cannot contain, cannot grasp the fullness, the uniqueness of the infinite. In eternity, we will see him and we will know him purely, no more through a glass darkly or through the haze of sin. But even in that burning clarity, we will never know him exhaustively. And we will praise him endlessly for his incomprehensible glory. Paul continues his praise here in this hymn of praise in the second stanza with, you notice, three rhetorical questions from the Old Testament. First, from Isaiah 40, verse 13. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Implied answer, no one. The second is also from Isaiah 40, 13. Or who has ever been his counselor? Or we might say his consultant. Again, the answer, no one. The Lord has no advisors, no consultants. These two questions confirm that no human being fallen in Adam can understand exactly or precisely what God is doing unless God clearly has revealed it. Apart from His revealed will, His written word, we cannot figure out the intricacies nor unravel all the subtleties of God's holy secret will. But we do know it's perfect and it will result in our greatest good as His people. And then the third question is from Job 41, 11. Or who has given a gift to him, that is to God, that he, the giver, might be repaid, and implied there is by God, might be repaid by God. Perhaps an easier way to ask this is who has ever made God a debtor? or put God under obligation to pay something back? Again, the answer is no one. This is what is called the doctrine of aseity, A-S-E-I-T-Y, meaning that God is a self-existent being, that he is absolutely independent and utterly self-sufficient. Paul, you may remember, told the philosophers in Athens, the God who made the world and everything in it does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. We are the totally dependent ones. We are the ones who are utterly indebted to God for everything. We have nothing except what he gives us out of his benevolence and mercy, including the very last breath we took. Now, as we contemplate God's great benevolence here and his generosity to us, the supreme gift of his only begotten son, in the midst of our sinful animosity and our total dependency, knowing, as Paul said, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. As we contemplate that, our hearts, like Paul's, should explode with praise and thanksgiving to God. Daily we should live our lives in awe of God. We should be filled with the overwhelming sense of His surpassing goodness and beauty and power and glory. You know, I think it's very unfortunate in our culture, especially in the recent past, that we've corrupted and in many ways cheapened the word awesome. You know what I'm talking about? Which means having the quality of awe, of superior greatness and grandeur. If you're under 20 years old, you know what I'm talking about. We tend in our culture now to use that word, awesome, to describe pizza, movies, wardrobes, cars, hairdos, video games, and the list goes on. I have a friend who wouldn't allow his children, a number of years ago, to use the word awesome for anything except God. And I commended him for it. Because it should be a word reserved for God Almighty. He alone is awesome. He's filled with awe. And that awe, that glory, it will astonish us for all eternity. We will never come to the end of it. And the climax here of Paul's doxology in verse 36, the third stanza in this simple anthem that confronts us with the most profound truth we can ever embrace. It says to each of us, your life, beloved, is not meant to be all about you. It's meant to be all about Him. Paul says, all things, all things ultimately and purposefully exist for God's good pleasure, honor, and glory. And if we attempt to make all things about ourselves as the world tempts and urges us to do, those things will leave us empty and miserable. If, however, you make all things about the one true God, that is as it should be. For from Him, He is the Source, the Creator, and through Him, He is the achiever, the perfecter. And to Him, He is the goal. He's the ultimate end of all things. It's all about Him. To Him be glory forever. And when you join that chorus, beloved, when you participate daily in that profound doxology, There's no greater joy possible for the human heart. Amen. Amen.