Romans 11:36

And as we normally do, I'll start at the very, very beginning even though we're on the last verse, so that way we can hear the whole thing.

Paul starts in verse 1, he says, I ask then, has God rejected His people?

By no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?

Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left and they seek my life.

But what is God's reply to him? I have kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace.

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened as it is written.

God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.

And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them.

Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever.

So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall by no means? Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the

Gentiles. So as to make Israel jealous, now if their trespass means riches for the world and if their failure means riches for the

Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? Now, I am speaking to you

Gentiles, and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order to somehow make my fellow

Jews jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

But if some of the branches were broken off and you, although a wild olive shoot were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.

If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root who supports you.

Then you will say, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true.

They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith.

So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will

He spare you. Note then the severity, note then the kindness and severity of God.

Severity toward those who have fallen, but kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness.

Otherwise you will be cut off, and even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in.

For God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree?

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers.

A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way, all

Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion.

He will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when

I take away their sins. As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience.

So they too have now been disobedient in order that they may, sorry, that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy.

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways.

For God has known the, for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given him a gift that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever.

Amen. So as I said before, we have come to the very end of chapter 11 and I could have covered verse 36 last week, but I felt that this is such a rich statement here at the end of the chapter, that it deserved more in depth, a more in depth look, but in coming to the end of chapter 11, we haven't just come to the end of where Paul is talking about the remnant and Israel's future salvation.

We've also come to the end of his treatise on the doctrines of grace, starting in chapter one, all the way through until now is what

Paul has been talking about. All five solas, all five doctrines of grace have been covered in depth.

If this was read in an IFB church or some other Armenian church, which

I'm sure it's probably not, they would most certainly be conflicted with their current convictions.

By now the doctrines of grace are undeniable. You cannot read chapter one through 11 and not see them, but all of this has, as I said last week, brought

Paul to this beautiful doxology that we covered last week and this very succinct statement that he makes in verse 36.

Just for you again, he says, For from him, in the very beginning of this book,

God says this in Genesis, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

So here first we see God has created time. That's the first thing, not the heavens and the earth, but time in the beginning.

He then goes on to create the heavens and the earth, and this is worked out over six days.

Creation, this first part of creation is further exposited in John one.

That's the other place that we go to hear John describe who Jesus truly is.

He begins his gospel with it. John one, verses one through five, he says,

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.

We see that Christ is present at creation. So the idea that he is a creation is negated right there in the first verses of John one.

He is in the beginning with God, but he's not only there,

Christ is an active participant in creation.

Later in Colossians, we see in Colossians one, verses 15 through 17, he says,

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn, meaning preeminent, meaning before all or above all others, firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

The statement in Colossians is longer but very similar, saying the same things that he says here in verse 36.

So as we see that all three persons of the Godhead are present and participating in creation, both everything that we can see, everything that we can't see, every rule or authority given to men, every concept that we hold, all of this stems from God.

Now, if you remember back in chapter nine, Paul uses this analogy that he gets from Jeremiah and Isaiah of the potter and the clay, that does the potter not have a right to create whatever vessel he deems fit from the clay?

Of course he does, it's his clay. In God's case,

God did not only shape the clay, but he created the clay, and he created what the clay is made of.

So would he not have even more authority over that creation, over all the things in creation, and over all those in authority within his creation?

Remember at the very end of the book when he comes back, what does it say? On his thigh,

King of kings and Lord of lords. He is before all and above all things.

God is also the one from whom all truth comes. Everything that is true of objective reality comes from God.

This includes the laws of logic, laws of nature, objective morality, now in our day and age, we have to deal with postmodernism, which says that these things are all subjective, but the more the

Holy Spirit works on a person, you come to know that there is a singular truth, and that truth begins and ends with God.

We know that in no matter what culture or people or time, there are certain things that are objectively evil, certain things that are objectively good.

Even in our confession in chapter four, paragraph one, it says, in the beginning, it pleased

God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, goodness to create or make the world.

And all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days and all very good.

It was perfect when he created it. Paragraph two, it says, after God had made all other creatures, he created man, male, and female with reasonable and immortal souls, rendering them fit unto that life to God for which they were created, being made after the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, having the law of God written in their hearts and power to fulfill it.

And yet under a possibility of transgression, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject to change.

Amen. God created an ordered universe, an ordered creation.

And he created man to be over it, to take care of it, and to know it.

Tell me, if the heavens scream of the glory of God, does it not make sense that he created beings that could hear it?

When we talk about the Imago Dei, that's what we're talking about. Not that just we look like him, but that we reason and think in a similar manner.

Not the same manner, but a similar manner. Paul then says, and through him, everything in creation is sustained by God.

It is kept in place by him. Referencing back to chapter eight, where Paul expresses

God's sovereignty over absolutely everything, especially the events regarding his people.

God is not only the creator of the universe, but he consistently exercises his power and authority over it.

In Hebrews 1, verses one through three, the writer says, long ago, at many times, and in many ways,

God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he spoke to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things.

Through him also, he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

And he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

He consistently exercises this authority and power over absolutely everything, all the time, everywhere.

We've talked about the concept of no rogue molecules. If there was a single thing in all of creation that God did not control and know to its depths, then he would not be sovereign.

If he is not sovereign, then he is not God. God does this in various ways.

Most people commonly look at that through miracles that happen in the New Testament and the Old Testament, where God steps in and separates from doing things through normal means and does them specifically to bring attention to what's going on.

But most of the time, God works through normal means. Now, if we wanna have a longer conversation about primary causes and secondary causes, more than happy to have that discussion.

But I had to take something out of this really long sermon for your benefit, so I apologize.

But I'm more than happy to talk about it. But the fact is that God governs and orders his universe by the power of his will through people, events, and any other means that he deems necessary.

And this is not in a manner of making this happen and then making this happen and then making this happen.

No, everything happens at the same time according to his will. And as we read in Romans 8, is it not a comfort, as Paul says at the end of that chapter, that the

God that we serve is in constant authority over absolutely every aspect of creation all the time.

Who can work against us, he says. One of the ways in which

God holds things together that we have talked about before is by his grace. When he designed the world, he designed it perfect.

In Genesis, it says, and it was good. By good, that means by God's standard, which is perfection.

But Adam and Eve, in their ability to disobey, did so and therefore brought sin into the world.

But in its creation, it was perfect. But as I said before in Colossians 117, in him all things hold together.

He causes creation to operate. And a part of this is his grace and his grace on human beings, especially since the corruption of sin has been introduced into the world.

His restraining grace is the reason that the world did not immediately descend into madness.

It is the reason why people are still here and why animals still exist.

We harm each other and hate each other because of sin. And we operate contrary to God's design because of sin.

Animals didn't originally eat each other. We didn't eat them. Everybody was a vegetarian.

Whether you like that idea or not, that's how it was. And that's how it ought to be.

Not that I'm advocating for vegetarianism. I'm not. I like meat, but we won't be eating it in the new creation.

We confess in chapter 5 of the 1689, it says,

God, the good creator of all things, and his infinite power and wisdom, does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things from the greatest even to the least by his most wise and holy providence to the end for the which they were created.

Everything in creation has a purpose in service to God. The simplest way to see this is bees.

They pollinate. They're pollinators. And without them, many species of plant would cease to procreate.

Also, we wouldn't have honey, and that would be sad. But they have a design.

They have a thing that they were created for, just as we were created for a purpose, which we're going to talk about here in just a second.

According unto his infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy.

And to him are all things for the glory of God alone.

Similar to what I said before at the very beginning of this, whether it is a scientific truth or a historical truth or a moral truth, it can all be discerned.

It can all be found out. God created an ordered universe and created us in the image of himself to be able to do these things.

Now, some, as I said before, may think that that just means that he looks like us, or we rather look like him.

But no, we are separate from every other creation on the face of the planet, and no one but Christians can figure out why.

I've heard people talk about us being from another planet, and I've heard people talk about us being monkeys that ate mushrooms and all kinds of absolutely ridiculous nonsense, except for the truth of the fact that we were simply created different.

There is a reason we can do math and a dog cannot. And while we may wonder at the intelligence of some of the other creatures that God has created, they are not comparable to us.

We are the pinnacle of this creation. Now, if that makes you sad because you have a dog and you love your dog, and you're wondering whether or not you'll see your dog in heaven when you're with the

Lord, we'll have that conversation after the fact, but we're different.

As we don't have an equivalent in our catechism, I'm pulling from the

Westminster here when I say, what is the chief end of man?

To glorify God and enjoy him forever. Forever. He created his universe to be discovered, and he created man with the ability to discover it.

When we look up at the heavens and can see the majesty of heavenly bodies in their precise movements, a clockwork more complex than anything man could even will to create.

When we look at the smallest molecules and how they work and interlock with each other to create the things by which he created everything, we see his handiwork.

When we sit down to work these things out further in various maths, this also shows us the precise nature of creation, of the creation that God created.

Psalm 19 one says this, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth. The heavens declare the majesty of God.

We see it in the complex creatures that exist on this planet and how they function in and with one another as we spoke about bees before.

We see the intricacies of them in complex ecosystems. We see his handiwork there.

This is how we know that the truth can be discerned because his creation is ordered.

Now there are mysteries that God has not revealed to us either in his creation or by his word.

And even in there, there are mysteries yet. We spoke last week or the week before about how the

Trinity works or how the hypostatic union works. We don't know. We know that they do.

We know that these are truths that we can hold simultaneously that are not contradictory but we see

God in all of reality. And we see as it flows together in his consistent plan across the board because it is ordered.

And whether it is logical or mathematical or physical or even spiritual, we have men a long time ago who observed these things and decided that if the universe is ordered, an ordered

God created an ordered universe, then there must be a method by which we can test these things or discover these things.

So they asked three questions. Is it observable? Is it testable? Is it repeatable?

This is the scientific method that most people learn in grade school. There's nothing wrong with the

Christian scientific method. There's just something wrong with the people who practice it.

Would you say that there's something wrong with Scripture? No, it's inerrance.

There's nothing wrong with Scripture. There's something wrong with the people who subscribe to it, right?

We're the sinners. We're the ones who sin. So in the ability to discern

God's world, there are Christians at work and there are non -Christians at work.

It is the responsibility of the church to put the truth out, to make sure that we keep on a consistent path with God's truth.

We do not let their biases or our own biases get in the way. There's no issue with the idea, only an issue with the person.

Now, there are ideas that are terrible, socialism being one of them, but those, just as everything else, we can test against the

Word. But by these things, we have the study or ologies of various subjects because they are knowable.

In all of this, even if the person looking or attempting to discover has zero intention of glorifying

God in that, whenever they discover what they are looking for, the simple act of discovery is glorifying to God.

All of history is worked out in much the same way. We see the rise and fall of kingdoms and empires, the individuals that live within them.

All of this, whether they want it to glorify God or not, it does. I know that I use this example way too often, but it's a really good example, that of, take all of the events that we read in Scripture of from Abraham to Christ, all of the events of ancient

Israel that led all to the fullness of time in Christ, his ministry, his death.

And at the same time, all of the events, people, and things that took place to bring about the

Roman Empire. This wasn't like a thing that happened somewhere else, and they just kind of happened to meet.

Like all of this was going on at the exact same time. To bring about Christ, Jesus and his ministry and his life and his death, and the ability for them to disseminate the gospel all at the same time.

It didn't go out during the Macedonian Empire. The gospel didn't go out during whoever else's empire.

It was the Roman Empire, the first time in history where you could literally go anywhere you wanted to go.

Especially if you were Roman. We can move a little bit further in history to the

Reformation. At the same time that you have Martin Luther calling out the rampant inconsistencies in the

Roman church, or what would become the Roman church, rather what had already become the

Roman church, but the reformers hadn't yet called the Roman church. Like many men did before Martin Luther, he was not the first one to do what he did.

However, at the time in which he did it, that was important.

Because not a hundred years prior, another

German man created a machine. His name was

Johannes Gutenberg. He printed the Gutenberg Bible. You may have heard of it. Luther translated the

Gutenberg Bible into German so that his kin, folk, could read it for themselves.

And the printing press played an absolute necessary role in the dissemination of information and Bibles in native languages throughout

Europe. The old way that the church used to deal with dissenters was they just found the dissenter and killed him.

And once he was gone, he didn't preach no more. So eventually, even straggler followers would die off, and you wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

Most of the time, people who copied works copied it by hand. The apostles, their letters and notes and their epistles, they were all copied laboriously by hand, right, till the printing press.

And at this time in history, information was able to get out faster than the church could keep up with it.

So once Martin Luther's ideas were out, and you had other reformers and other people doing the same exact thing and printing their thoughts on Scripture and putting these things out, the church finally just had to say, well, there's no point in killing him.

They wanted to, but there wasn't a point anymore. The word was out already.

So the only thing that they could do then was the same thing that he was doing from their side.

And that's where you read his various back and forths with Erasmus and other folks, which are fantastic, by the way, if you haven't read them, read them.

Totally different way of talking to each other publicly. Actually, it's about the same as social media is now, how people talk to each other on social media.

It was pretty bad. It was common parlance for you to do this in disagreement, but it was, for the things they said, way more intelligent than the way that we say things now.

Anyway, all of this, ancient Israel, Rome, Luther, Gutenberg, everything throughout human history all points to one being,

God. All of it, none of it is outside his authority.

All of history, even the things that aren't yet history, think about that one for a second.

All of it points to glorify God. Do you remember how the book ends?

Furthermore, with the example that I gave before of laws of logic, these aren't corporeal truths.

These aren't things that we can reach out and touch. They're not maths that we can write down. We can write them with words, but we know these things to be true.

They are discernible. If you get into studying debate and logical fallacies and things like that, laws of logic, you see this, how thoughts have to be ordered in a certain way to be consistent.

This is part of God's ordered universe, right?

If Adam and Eve had not sinned, and even when we are made whole, our thoughts will not be incorrect.

They will not operate in an incorrect manner. They'll be perfect.

We won't be walking around in new creation constantly, constantly having a picture of Jesus in our minds, but our thoughts and our actions and our behaviors and our feelings, they will all point to Christ as they should.

One of the greatest things, one of the greatest blessings that we are given in being given the

Holy Spirit is the fact that He orders our thoughts. Not only does

He give us the information or the knowledge, which thankfully

He doesn't just download all at one time. I don't know if any human being could handle that except obviously by His grace, but He causes us to understand them and understand them how we should to understand them correctly the way that He does.

We are then again being conformed to the image of Christ, are we not? But our thoughts begin to become ordered and consistent.

I don't know about many of you, but before the Holy Spirit took hold of me, my thoughts were all over the place all the time.

Yes, I have this thing that people call ADHD where my thoughts are all over the place all the time just in general, but I mean ideas.

I held so many ideas in my head that were logically inconsistent with one another and I didn't see it.

I mean, we can go off on theories or aliens or Bigfoot or new age ideas or deism,

Arianism, any kind of thing you want to think of that was from the culture that sounded good.

I had it, it was there and I believed it and not once did

I ever think, this thing doesn't really go with this thing and yet as the

Holy Spirit took hold of me, these ideas fell away as I read through and He caused me to understand

His word. Now I'm positive that there are still some nonsensical things in my head somewhere and there probably will be until the day that I'm glorified, but there's certainly, certainly, certainly far, far fewer than there were.

When our thoughts are ordered in the right way, they flow together as one consistent, not just worldview, but general thoughts as well and this is glorifying to God as this happens.

As we further and further are conformed to the image of Christ because we can then truly begin to see

Him how He is. Many years ago when

I thought of Christ as nothing more than a good teacher, as many, many do today, was it not glorifying to Christ when the

Holy Spirit said, no, this is who He is. My last example is this, in Scripture, you can break it down this way.

We have chapters 1 through 3, it's creation and the fall of man, institution of marriage and all of that and the institution of the promise that God would fix what we broke and then

Genesis 4 through Revelation 22 is how He did and is both spiritually and physically fulfilling that promise.

All of this is to Him, is to bring

Him glory. Revelation 8 says this and I know everybody knows this one,

I am the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and the end, says the

Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the

Almighty. All things begin with Him, they are sustained by Him.

Managed by Him and they end with Him. To Him be glory forever.