The Impenetrable Mind of God

The Impenetrable Mind of God

“The Impenetrable Mind of God”

(Romans 11:33-36)

Series: Not Guilty!

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

First Baptist Church Henderson, KY

(10-4-09) (AM)

 

  • Take God’s Word and open to Romans, chapter 11.

We have been making our way, verse-by-verse, through this doctrinally rich book of the New Testament.  We come this morning to a praise-filled paragraph at the end of a theologically-deep section of material that prepares us for the application of all that we have learned.

 

I love this paragraph of Scripture at the very end of chapter 11!  Paul has just been talking about the mystery of why there are so few Christian Jews in the churches.  He has answered that question in chapters 9, 10, and 11.  And he has written about the doctrine of election and God’s future plan for the Jews, a large-scale revival when many Jews will come to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  And before that Paul had been writing about God’s freely giving to us the grace to stand before Him without guilt and condemnation.  He has been talking about a righteousness that is credited to us in the person of Jesus Christ.  If we believe in Jesus Christ and receive Him into our lives, not merely adding Him to other things, but receiving Him as Lord, then God declares us “not guilty.”  We are justified—declared righteous in His sight—and those whom He has justified, He has also glorified.  That is, we may be certain that our salvation lasts forever.  We can never “lose” our salvation.  So Paul concludes these 11 chapters of teaching with this God-exalting paragraph of praise.  Are you ready to hear it?!

 

  • Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

 

33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

34 “For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?”

35 “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?”

36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

 

  • Pray.

 

Introduction:

 

There are times in our Christian walk where we need to just close our eyes, bow our heads, and recall verses such as these in Romans 11, verses 33-36.  So few Christians really know verses like these.  And yet they are supremely helpful to us in our daily lives.

 

If there is one great concern that I have about the contemporary church in America it is that far too many churches fail to produce Christians who appreciate the mystery and complexity of God.  Churches are so man-centered.  Worship is very man-centered.  People dance, clap, and sing to loud music that too often sounds much like the world’s music.  Services entertain with the goal of making people feel good.  Sermons are preached to entertain and the goal again is to make people feel good about themselves and to see how the Bible can make them successful at work or winsome among their friends, rather than making them feel the often uncomfortable wonder and mystery and complexity of God.

 

See, this paragraph of praise follows 11 chapters of deep, doctrinally-rich theological teaching.  It is that which precedes this paragraph of praise that makes the paragraph itself so wonderful!  We cannot rightly and fully praise God until we understand the doctrine about God.  We cannot sing with delight about the God we love until we learn about the God we love.  The two go hand-in-glove.  Praise is informed by sound, biblical teaching.

 

One of the reasons some people cannot sing the praises of God is simply because they know so little of God.  It’s hard to sing in heartfelt praise for something you do not have in your heart!  But when we have spent time reading about God, studying about God, delighting in the Word of God—the end result will always be praise—whether we sing or not—I am not so much talking about singing as I am about praising, though I think the two are nearly inseparable.  I simply mean that deep, doctrinal study of the God of the Bible naturally leads to praise and worship of the God of the Bible.  You study these doctrines in Romans—I mean, really study them; not just give a nod to them as we come together in worship, having missed a Sunday here and there, but really studying them on your own, carefully reading and reviewing the teachings—and you will find yourself on your knees in praise and adoration to God!  Do you ever find yourself on your knees just smiling and thanking God in your devotion time?  Do you ever find yourself practically shouting as you are driving down the road?  This is the natural result of studying the deep things of God.  It leads to praise.  Praise can take many forms.

 

We may praise God by simply bowing our heads and closing our mouths, as in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”  That is praise.  Ultimately, praise is manifested in our bowing before the One, True God of the Bible.  Together, I want us to identify some actions of praise in our study of this praise-filled paragraph.  How does this paragraph teach us to praise God?  First, by teaching us to bow down before God’s complexity.

 

I.  We must bow before His Complexity (33)

 

God is complex!  Look again at how Paul puts it in the first part of verse 33:

 

33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

 

The Phillips translation has, “Frankly, I stand amazed at the unfathomable complexity of God’s wisdom and God’s knowledge.”

 

When was the last time you said that about God?  When was the last time something you read in a popular book from the Christian bookstore caused you to close the book, put it down, close your eyes and say, “I stand amazed at the unfathomable complexity of God?”

 

When Paul mentions his amazement at the “depth” of God’s wisdom and knowledge, he means to stress a fathomless depth of God’s character, a depth that has no bottom.  It’s like throwing a rock in a well and never hearing it hit bottom because there is no end.  There is “no end” to the riches of God’s infinite wisdom and knowledge.

 

We are reminded here of God’s infinite nature.  We are finite.  We end.  Our bodies end at death.  There is an end to what we can do.  There is only so much man can do and only so much man can know.  God, however, is not finite.  He is infinite.  There is no end to God.  There is no end to His wisdom and knowledge.  He knows all things at all times, all things past, present, and future, He knows all things simultaneously.  He is infinite.  We are finite.

 

Think of it!  This means that we will never know God completely.  We will never understand God fully.  This is what Paul stresses in the second half of verse 33:

 

How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

 

We will never understand God fully nor know God completely.  Sometimes a person erroneously says, “When I get to heaven, I’ll know everything about God!”  No, you won’t.  God is infinite.  Oh, He may grant eternal life to us, but we will never know everything about God and we’ll never know as God knows.  I believe we’ll know as much as we need to know.  I believe we’ll have all the answers to the questions that plague us here.  I believe all of that.  The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now we know in part, but then we will know just as we are known.”  We’ll have a fuller knowledge, but we won’t know everything!  We are not omniscient.  We are not God.  He is God and we are not.  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!  He alone is infinite.

 

When we get to heaven and gaze upon the beauty of God, we’ll never see all of Him.  We’ll never know all of Him.  Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.  There is no end to Him.  He is utterly complex.  He is infinite.  So when we get to heaven we’ll never see all of Him.

 

Gazing upon the beauty of God and beholding all of His attributes will be like gazing upon a multi-faceted diamond that is never seen in its entirety!  Imagine looking at a diamond and with every turn of the diamond you see a new aspect of beauty.  Each cut of the diamond reveals something new of the rock itself.  Now imagine gazing upon the beauty of God and learning more about Him in heaven.  But God is like a diamond that never stops turning and never stops revealing.  Every time He turns, we see another aspect of His glory, we learn something new of His character. What a precious unending, infinitely wise stone is our God!  We will spend eternity in heaven gazing upon Him, learning with His every turn something infinitely new and wonderful about Him.

 

This is something of which the hymn-writer had in mind when he wrote those words:

 

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,

In light inaccessible hid from our eyes.

 

How “unfathomable” are His judgments—or decisions—and His ways—or methods—past finding out.  His ways are untraceable, or incapable of being tracked down.

 

The image is that of a hunter, “on the scent” of the trail.  Before long, the hunter will track down that which he is hunting.  Paul says, “You can’t track down God.”  His judgments and ways are untraceable.  His decisions and methods are beyond your ability to figure out.  God’s mind is impenetrable.  Paul goes on to ask the rhetorical question in verse 34, “Who has known the mind of the Lord?”  Answer?  How many of you would vote, “I do?!”  How many of you would vote, “No one?!” God’s mind is impenetrable. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.

 

Paul has been writing most recently about the doctrine of election.  He has been writing about the mysterious way God sets His heart upon certain ones for salvation, choosing some to be saved, choosing the Jews as His special people over the Gentiles, choosing Jacob over Esau.  Why?  Why does God choose some and not others?  I don’t know.  “How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.”

 

Remember, the real question is not, “Why does God not choose everyone to be saved?”  The real question is, “Why does God choose anyone to be saved?  Why did He choose me?”  I mean, yes I had to exercise my faith.  Yes, I made a free decision to receive Christ, but I never would have done that had God not come to me first, rescuing me from the graveyard of my trespasses and sins, awakening me from the lostness of my spiritual condition, “turning the light on,” by giving me His grace so that I would respond in faith.  I don’t know.  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.

 

Why does God allow the existence of evil?  I don’t know.  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.  Why does God allow the existence of the devil?  I don’t know.  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.

 

Why does God harden Pharaoh’s heart in the Exodus story?  I don’t know.  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.  Why does God not override the stubbornness of His people to keep them from wandering 40 years in the desert?  I don’t know.  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.  Why does God take Gideon’s army and whittle it down from a force of 32,000 to just 300 in order to manifest His glory?  I don’t know.  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.  And speaking of Gideon and his army, what’s the deal with this strategic warfare—you know, trumpet in one hand and pitcher with lantern in the other—break the pitcher, expose the light, blow the trumpet and go into battle!  What’s that all about?!  I don’t know.  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.

 

And what about the way God chooses to bring salvation to this world?  We would expect the King of the world to be born in a palace, yet He comes in such obscurity, in the little town of Bethlehem, not in a golden palace, but “away in a manger, no crib for a bed.”  Why?  I don’t know.  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.

 

And what of the way God makes His salvation known to others?  What kind of a marketing program is this, what Paul calls “the foolishness of preaching?”  I don’t know.  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.

 

And what of your present illness?  What of your stressful situation right now?  What of your sudden loss and grief.  I don’t know.  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.

 

Of this we may be certain: while God’s judgments and ways are past finding out, we know that it is God’s character to always do that which is right.  He always does what is right.  Because He knows all things simultaneously—and because we don’t have that kind of perfect knowledge—we may rest assured that God’s ways are perfect.  He is doing what is best for us, allowing certain things to happen because He knows somehow these things are for our good.  He is good.  So what He does is always good.  We must bow before His complexity.  Secondly:

 

II. We must bow before His Sovereignty (34-35)

 

34 “For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?”

35 “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?”

 

God is sovereign.  He is an independent ruler, wholly self-sufficient.  He needs no one and no thing.  That’s Paul’s point here in verses 34 and 35.  The three questions here are really rather humorous: Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Answer, no one.  Second question in verse 34, “Who has become His counselor?”  Another translation has, “Who knows enough to give Him advice?”  Anybody here dare to say, “I am competent to give advice to the Lord?”

 

Imagine God’s coming to us and saying, “Hey, I’m in a little bind here.  Help me out, should I do this—or this?  What do you think, Todd?  What would you do?”  I mean, it’s silly, isn’t it?!  Even as I say this, I feel as though I am being sacrilegious.  Who has become God’s counselor?  No one.

 

Yet, so many people are ready to tell God what they would do.  “Oh, I would have done this or I would have done that.  I wouldn’t have allowed this to happen, or that to happen.  I would have done something about this or that.”  You’d better watch what you say.  You are in no position to counsel the very One who gave you the brain you’re using.

 

And this third question in verse 35, “Who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to Him?”  Question: What does God owe us?  Answer: Nothing.  Question: What do we owe God?  Answer: Everything.

 

God never says, “Thank you.”  We sometimes strut about as though, “I am such a blessing to God!  What would God do without me?!”  God will get along just fine without you.  You are expendable.  You are replaceable.  God doesn’t need you.  He never says, “Thank you.”  He is sovereign.  He needs nothing.  He is totally self-sufficient.

 

We need Him.  He wants us to come to Him.  He wants us to love Him.  He wants us to thank Him.  He wants us to remember that our lives came from Him.

 

This is what makes the third action necessary.  We must bow before God’s complexity, bow before God’s sovereignty, and thirdly:

 

III.  We must bow before His Glory (36)

 

36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

 

You see?  It’s all about Him!  Everything comes from Him and through Him.  So everything exists to Him, that is, everything exists for His purposes, to praise Him.  Everything exists for God’s glory.

 

You are on this planet for God’s glory.  You came “of Him.”  You were created “through Him.”  You are to live your life “to Him.”  That’s verse 36.

 

Your life is not about, “Well, here’s what I’m going to do.  I’m going to do this and then this and then this.  I’ll make a lot of money doing this.  I’ll be a huge success doing that.  I’ll retire and do this and that.”

 

No!  We exist “to Him.”  We are here for Him.  We ask, “God, how can I better serve You and bring glory to You today?”  How will this school better prepare me to live for Your glory?  How will this relationship better equip me to bring You glory?  How will this job transfer better position me to bring You glory?  How will my weekend better equip me to bring You glory?  How will my spare time better equip me to bring You glory?  How will my present health challenge, financial purchase, present difficulty—bring You glory?  Because that is why I am here.  We must bow before His glory.

 

  • Stand for prayer.

 

The Scottish preacher, Eric Alexander, wrote a hymn about bowing before God’s glory.  It’s entitled, “Lord, we bow before Your glory.”   Listen to these words:

 

Lord, we bow before Your glory

Manifested in Your Son.

Radient with Your perfect beauty

He is Heav’ns’ Beloved One.

Saving grace has giv’n us vision,

Opened eyes that once were blind,

He on whom we brought derision

Now delights our heart and mind.

 

Does Jesus delight your heart and mind?  Has God opened your eyes to see Jesus?  Let’s pray.

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: The text contained in this sermon is solely owned by its author. The reproduction, or distribution of this message, or any portion of it, should include the author’s name. The author intends to provide free resources in order to inspire believers and to assist preachers and teachers in Kingdom work.