God's Mercy, Wisdom, Independence and Sovereignty

So today actually we're going to finish up, believe it or not, we're going to finish chapter 11 today. And I kind of thought about trying to divide it up, but actually it turned out that if you look carefully at the verses we're going to study, he starts off talking about mercy the first three verses 33 30 through 32 are about mercy God's mercy which actually connects really well with as we get into chapter 12 here by the mercies of God present your bodies a living sacrifice and so on and then but then he goes into 33 through 36 this marvelous what's called a doxology, a praise to God, praise and glorifying God.

So it actually fits pretty well together, but kind of two distinct ideas here. Okay, so let me get my notes here. You know, I find as time goes on, I look less and less in my notes, but it's sort of like having it here just in case. You know, if I go blank, I'll have it. So anyway, okay. So this outline is something I've used when I've taught. This is from Merriman. And actually, I've kind of adjusted a little bit.

But we've been talking about Israel, the nation of Israel. He starts off in chapter 11 by that they've been hardened nationally, but only temporarily. We've gone through the idea that Paul wanted to motivate them through jealousy. And we talked about the olive tree quite a bit. And then we talked about the benefits. We're going to come back to 22 through 25, talked about the benefits of Israel's transgression. That's going to be kind of a part of today's message too.

But then we have a couple of climactic facts, kind of borrowed from Merriman. The first climactic fact was last week, when all Israel shall be saved. But this is a climactic fact, too, is that God has showed mercy to both Jew and Gentile. That's a climactic fact, too. And then lastly, this wonderful doxology, God's wisdom, independence, and sovereignty.

So we kind of have a two part message today. So let's kind of get into it here. So part one is 30 to 32 talks about God showing mercy. I'm going to try to walk you through it. It helped me to go through. I like to do this and if there's pronouns or whatever, who's he talking about in each situation, because I find it confusing, so we're going to go through each one. But the bottom line, he's showing mercy to both the Jew and the Gentile, and the bottom line is he shows mercy to all, both Jew and Gentile.

And then we get into this wonderful doxology. We talk about his wisdom, the knowledge of God, his judgments, his ways. A couple of quotes from the Old Testament from Isaiah and Job. And then we get down to that final verse, for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Just incredible stuff. Okay, so let's get into the first part. So Yonamna Label, who I believe this is correct. If I'm incorrect, let me know. If I've got the wrong syllable, I've got the wrong person identified.

He starts off talking about the Gentiles. for just as you Gentiles once were disobedient." So that's a fact, and he's going to use that fact to kind of talk about Israel and their disobedience. But he starts off, disobedience is the idea, and here's something I kind of picked up on, it took me a little bit to pick up on this, but disobedience in scripture is much about not believing, not believing God, refusing to believe. That's kind of one of the essence. In fact, actually, if you look at the Weiss translation, he'd render this disbelief rather than disobedience, which I think is correct.

So you could say, To obey in the Bible is to obey what God has said, or the reverse of that, to disobey is not to believe what God has said. So believing what God has said, if you think about to the garden, what was the problem, right? They didn't believe God. He proclaimed something, they didn't believe it. So that's the key aspect of disobedience, if you will.

All right, and here's a verse that kind of connects these two. I've always wondered about this verse. I share this verse with people, and I'm always trying to present Christ. He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son does not see life. So you ask, well, why didn't he say, not believe? In my mind, it's this close connection between obedience and belief.

Okay, so now the B part of the verse says, labeling again the players here, but now Gentiles have been shown mercy because of their, meaning Israel's disobedience, literally unbelief. Okay, mercy here is this idea to have pity. It's the passive voice. God is having mercy on mankind. He's showing mercy to mankind.

So Newell comments here, it seems that we Gentiles are to be to Israel an example of divine mercy. So what he says here, and we're gonna see this come up again, are we started off, every Gentile, if you look at the big nationally, started off in disbelief, not obeying God.

But because of God's mercy, connected to Israel, they are now believing, by which at the last they will understand, seeing the heart of mercy of their God. And I have a typo here, it should be 77 through 78, and this is where Zacharias praises God through the Holy Spirit of his tender mercies talking about his son John the Baptist and his ministry so this tender mercy of our God and that tender mercy shown to the Gentiles and shown to Israel in different ways but connected okay so rather than just read this I'm gonna go through kind of a separate each part we start off again labeling the players thus also these Israel now have disbelieved or disobeyed. In order that, with a purpose that, through the occasion of the mercy which is yours as Gentiles, they themselves, Israel, might also become recipients of mercy. So do you see the interconnection between the Gentiles and the Jews? Different time periods, but Gentiles start off in unbelief, They became obedient, or they believed. The Israelites are now in disobedience, but God, in his great mercy, they will come to believe, and all Israel will be saved. So then a comment by Constable here. These verses are a warning to Gentile believers. We should beware of becoming critical of God's planning to bless Israel in the future.

And I don't see that so much today. I mean, it seems like in the time of these commentators, they mention that quite a bit. But it doesn't, that's not my, that's not my perception today. Okay, so let's go on. This is, now let's go to 32. So this is kind of the climax of this section.

And it has the idea of, uses the word shut up, for God has shut up all in disobedience. He's gonna make a summary statement about Israel and the Jews, Israel and the Gentiles. And it's different articles there. The true God has shut up and this idea to shut together, to close in on all sides.

It's used to the idea of if you're a fisherman, the catching of the fish. And the reference here is to Luke 5, 6, where it says, when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish or shut up the fish and their nets began to break. So the thought is that God confined, He confined both the Jew and Gentile within the scope of unbelief. If you think about it, right now, historically, the Gentile was in unbelief nationally, and now we have the Jew nationally in unbelief. So there's a similar pattern there.

They're all confined under God's, shut up to God in unbelief, okay? So then, and then he says, and all Israel Gentiles in disobedience or in disbelief are viewed as being disobedient. Again, unbelief and disobedience are connected. Unbelief is a disobedience of man. That's a hallmark of man's disobedience. And all both Israel nationally and the Jews nationally and the Gentiles nationally are in unbelief and God has remedied that by His mercy.

Okay, so that takes care of 30 through 32. Actually, I didn't get the last part. I didn't get the climax. So that, or with a purpose that, He may show mercy to Israel and the Gentiles So Merriman says this brings Paul's argument to a climax and gives the final proof that God will yet show mercy to Israel and so to the world. If you think about it, it would be outside of God's character if he didn't extend mercy to Israel There was no mercy to the Gentiles, and actually until the Jews were disobedient.

When they became disobedient, mercy was shown to the Gentiles. Now it kind of flips around. The Gentiles are experiencing God's mercy nationally, and God in the end times will show mercy to all Jews. So a couple more comments. Salvation has come to the Jew and the Gentiles alike by way of free grace. This is, like I said, the mercy of God to Jew and Gentile alike, having made them to feel the need of grace by being shut up under disobedience. He treats both Jew and Gentile in the same way. They both were disobedient, and they both wish to see his mercy.

Okay, so now we're finished with this 32 here. So now we go to this, he starts this marvelous doxology. So it starts off, oh the depth and the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. So here's some comments about this section. So Newell says, now the apostle burst forth into the most rapturous utterances concerning the ways of God in view of his mercies. Barclay says, here theology turns to poetry, here the seeking of the mind turns to the adoration of the heart. Pretty neat statements. Really, as you read each section you see one more aspect of God that he extols and he just keeps building and building and building on these.

Okay, so let's get into it. So we start off with the first idea he brings forth, and it's not exactly the first word in the Greek text, but it's close. It's the next, you know, O is the first word, but the depth is the main noun here. And he's going to use that word depth, and he's going to define it here. And he's going to talk about, he's going to say, let's look at how deep or how magnificent or how vast the riches of God are, how his wisdom is deep, how his knowledge is deep in this section. So he says, and so what you can do is, by looking at this verse, you can kind of rearrange it, and you can emphasize that, oh, the depths of the riches of God, oh, the depths of the wisdom of God, Oh the depths of the knowledge of God. So he's going to focus on that in this section. Just marvelous, marvelous thoughts here. So depths is this word bathos in the Greek. It's the idea of greatness, immensity.

The greatness and immensity of these characteristics of God. Ephesians passage here kind of speaks to this depth idea, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints, and he does the whole, besides depth, he gets the whole, you know, cube approach, if you will, the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of Christ's love. And then we're going to find, when we look at these attributes of God, we're going to find God the Son as being the epitome of many of these attributes. And Christ's name is mentioned many times in terms of some of these riches and wisdom and knowledge. Christ is the epitome of that.

Okay, and so first is riches. spiritual and moral riches possessed by God and exercised toward men. So I have a verse here, Romans 2, 4. Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and the tolerance and patience? So Paul is magnifying the greatness, the depth of the greatness of the riches.

That's number one. Number two, wisdom. Sophie. Wisdom of God. God means His divine wisdom, including the idea of infinite skills, insight, purity. It helps to have verses with these. I try to connect, you know, if I have a definition of an attribute of God, and then we have a verse that, and here's a case where we're going to see Christ as being the epitome of that.

1 Corinthians 1.24. but to those that are called, both Jew and Greek, Christ, the power of God, Christ, the wisdom of God. So now he's, that's the second one, he magnifies the greatness of the depth of wisdom, using Christ as the example. And then the third one is knowledge, gnosis, act of knowing, God's knowledge testifies to his ability to construct plans, such as plans, decisions spring from logic that extends beyond human ability to comprehend.

You know what we're gonna find here? We really, we think we have a handle on God, and we do, we have more than any person, you know, a Christian has a view into who God is better than anyone on the planet, right? He, he, because he knows him, he's in, and Christ is in him. know the personification of knowledge but even with that the vastness of God is so far beyond that it just and these verses in these statements kind of attest to that so now he he magnifies the greatness of his knowledge okay and then in this verse here I like this again Christ will be glorified here and when you read about this he says I kind of broke into the thought, having been knit together in love, attained to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in the true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So as we study God's word, we're looking at the God who made us, the God who loved us, the God who died for us. We're looking at these wonderful statements. As we interact with his word, we see this wonderful person, this God that made us and loved us. Okay, and then he goes on in the B part, he goes on to more accolades.

How unsearchable are his judgments? I found it better if you kind of flip it around and kind of have it in a different order. The judgments of him, how unsearchable. So judgments are the idea or decisions or verdicts or sentences. This is God's decree. This is what God has ordained. He's ordained just the vast number, look at the vastness of what He's ordained, just so many things He's ordained.

Isn't it interesting that man always is butting against that? We think of evolution, we think of climate change, the list just goes infinitum. Everyone that God has ordained, man in his sinfulness bangs up against that and says, no, I don't want it that way, I want it this way, or I want it different, it's gotta be different. It's just kind of amazing. of him, how unsearchable, not capable of being searched out. You know, we really cannot, like I said, we have an incredible view, but we cannot really search out all of who God is.

Pretty interesting word. And so Job has a couple of statements here. God who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number. I like that. Then another one by Job. Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? We can't. I mean, we have a small view. We look into the atom. We look into the sea. We look into the stars, and they're limitless.

But we just really can't totally wrap our heads around that. How unfathomable, I kind of flipped this one around too, the ways of him, how unfathomable, the ways or the way he does his administration, the way he does business. It's neat, after a while, you know, I've heard people say, that doesn't sound like God. How can we say that? How can we the creature say that? It's only because we have his very life. We have come to understand God and the way he thinks and we know he's holy and righteous and just and he operates in a certain way and Lord is so gracious in time we begin to think like God. We think like him because we have his very life.

Okay, so in Acts it says, will you not cease to make crooked? This is kind of a negative. Will you cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? God's ways are straight, absolutely righteous and holy, but will you pervert that? He's saying that. In Revelation it says, great and marvelous are your works, O Lord, the Almighty, the righteous and true are your ways, the King of the nation.

So then this word unfathomable, this is a really neat word, and I've always liked the King James here. Paths finding out is this word, and his ways are unfathomable, or paths finding out, or better actually, they cannot be tracked out. And the example that's used from Greek literature is the one of where you have a guide, and I gather they found this in the Greek literature, and this word was used, unfathomable, however you pronounce that Greek word.

So here's a guide, and you're making a path, and you lose it. You can't find where it goes on. You lost it. You can't trace it out. Or you're a hound dog and you lose the scent, right? You can't, well, I lost it. Well, his ways, we can't. We know his ways from knowing him and being in us, but we can't truly know everything that he knows, certainly.

Okay, let's go on. Okay, then he gets into a couple of quotes here. He starts off with one from Isaiah, and then he moves on to Job. So the one from Isaiah. So basically, and these are rhetorical questions he's quoting here, he's going to put a rhetorical question out and his answer is going to be none. Nobody can do that. You can't do that. That's the answer to the question. To have the answer in advance, no, none, nada, nothing. Okay?

So he starts off with who, and it's the idea, this is from Merriman, it's literally who among men, he's saying, who among men, even believers, who among men is the idea. has known, to understand completely, to have that as something you totally understand, who has known the mind of the Lord?

But you're gonna say, well, Roger, we have the mind of Christ, right? You're a good Bible student, we do. But even with that, that's just, you know, we're not there, we're not there. We don't have the mind of the Lord, totally. We do have the mind of Christ. Again, Next part, this is kind of inserted to make it continuity good here. Who among men became, or come into being, his counselor? So we don't have his mind. Are we counseling God? Some people think they are. I mean, and I've done it too, right?

Lord, it can't work out this way. It can't be that way. Something bad happens. No, no, it can't be that way. But we can't counsel God. We can't give him counsel. And there's a verse that kind of speaks to that. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? Or who as his counselor has informed him? Can we inform him of anything he doesn't already know? Can we tell him about something that he missed? Well, you missed that. You missed that, Lord.

And it seems like from our limited view, like we're so thankful for our For Miles and his family, the Lord preserved them. I mean, I think of many cases, and Vonnie has a story to tell about that, where her sister passed out in church from carbon monoxide poisoning, and she was okay. But still, there's many stories where the whole family dies, so the Lord is very gracious.

So we can't become his counselor. Or, another rhetorical question, who among men has first given, can we give something to the Lord? Does He need something from us? Do we need to give Him something? I'll give you a boost. I'll make your day, Lord. Some people think I'm going to make the Lord's day. Well, I don't know about that. Okay. That it might be paid back. So can we give something to the Lord? Do we put Him in debt? Can we put the Lord in debt?

This is this is a favorite topic. We get it too many times Can we no we can't put him he doesn't owe us anything We cannot put him in debt Job talks about this who has given to me that I should repay him Whatever is under the whole earth Whatever is under the whole earth is mine. I like the one I own the cattle in a thousand hills. That's a King James Version I love that verse you know he owns everything and we can't give him something. He doesn't have he doesn't need our gift Okay, so let's go on here So now we come to the climax of this chapter.

This is of this doxology. I should say Well, I have a couple charts on this for for from him and through him and to him are all things I So I'm never satisfied with the arrangement. You're going to say, Roger, here you go again. That's the chart, too.

So let's talk about all things to start with. Well, first of all, let's put this phrase or clause. The clause has a subject and a verb, according to what English I learned a little bit. Subject and verb. So let's rearrange it in subject-verb. Well, the subject-verb here is actually all things is a subject, and the verb is implied, are.

All things are. and we're gonna have a list here. All things are, but before you do that, let's define all things. Let's back up. This is a beautiful passage. I thought Jim was gonna read this. When you started talking, I thought he's gonna quote this verse, because this one just nails it. This is just beautiful.

This is, what are all things? Colossians 1, 16 and 17 tells us. For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." Wow, just incredible.

So Paul's going to amplify, if you will, on that. He's going to say some more things about all things, all of his creation. So the remainder of this verse tells us about these all things that God's created and what's cool is verse 36 has three and this is from Merriman I didn't notice this initially has three prepositions and Mike and Miles and I have been studying prepositions and We haven't been studying cell phones either. So there's three prepositions in here that really will point out about these all things.

So now let's get to the verse here. So you can start off from the first preposition is ek. Ek is the idea of out of a source. Out of God is the source. Out of him is the source are all things. God is the source of all things. Second, and through him, diah, so God is the sustainer of all things. Third, ais, and to him, or you could say unto him, God is the goal of all things.

So this is great, maybe a little bit too Greek-y, but boy Constable just nailed it on the wall. He's just amazing. So I decided to do, Constable's going to comment on this first part of this verse. So here's Constable's take. He's going to try to put that in words, or he does put it in words, but phrase it maybe a little bit more helpful. Here we go.

God is the source from which all things come, the means by which all things happen, the goal toward which all things are moving. He is the originator, the sustainer, the finisher of everything ultimately. Man, why would I put that on a Christmas card? This is just, let me read it again. God is the source from which all things come, the means by which all things happen, the goal toward which all things are moving. He is the originator, sustainer, and finisher of everything ultimately. And what's our response to that? To him be the glory forever. Amen.

I'm going to take a picture. I'm going to make you a copy. It's good. If somebody wants this, I'll be happy to send it to you. I'll just send you this chart if you just want that. OK. Well, I made two. After looking at this, I should just stop right here. This is a climax. But Roger wasn't satisfied. I had to make two summary charts. So bear with me. Here we go. Two more summaries. Summary one.

Okay, this is going to talk about the summary of God's mercies. God's mercy to the Gentiles and the Jews. This is good. The past unbelief of the Gentiles and mercy they presently enjoy. God has used that. So the first point is the past unbelief of the Gentiles. Every Gentile was in unbelief. God in his mercy, we enjoy that mercy he's extended to us and we believed. And God has used that. He's used the unbelief.

Second point, the present unbelief of the Jews and the mercy they are determined to enjoy in the future, God will use that too. So the point here is, these things not only correspond to each other, and this is from Newell, I think, or maybe it's, I forgot who, I'll show you shortly who it's from. These things not only correspond to each other, but they are interwoven, and I didn't quite see the point. They're interwoven together, being shut up together, they're interwoven, And this state was this is this is actually Denny through East I guess God allows sin and think about God is God allows sin right and he uses him he uses sinful nations against Israel he uses sin to glorify himself in this case Denny says he uses sin for the sake of with a view to redemption okay, that's Final thought number one final thought number two we're going to talk about the God's glory and one of the most glorious things of God's glory is His salvation of man and how He procured that. God is the source of all good. Two statements before we start. God is the source of all good.

In fallen man there is neither merit nor ability. Boy, and that's one of the sticking points in talking with people, trying to get people away from, well, I got something I can bring to God. Or maybe they have nothing to bring to God. Maybe they're just totally in the dumps and they have nothing. But God cannot help himself. He's helpless, right? But God reached out in his helpless state to save man.

Okay, so salvation, and I put the definition here, salvation, first phase one, salvation from the penalty of sin is all of grace. Salvation from the power of sin or sanctification is all of God's grace. And salvation from the presence of sin, glorification, is all of God's grace. So God's salvation package from beginning to end, penalty, power, and presence are all about His grace.

And man can only benefit by that, by belief, by believing what He said. So what's man's final response? Because of because of him and through him and for him are all things to him be glory forever. Amen. Okay. All right. Hopefully that encouraged you today in this cold day. All right, let's close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for the magnificence, Lord, of your word, how you tell us in just so many ways the magnificence of our Savior, the magnificence of what you accomplished, and what you plan to accomplish, and we thank you so much. In Christ's name, amen.