May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Holy Word.
Let's turn to the epistle of Paul to the Romans, chapter 11,
and we'll read verse 33. The epistle of Paul to the Romans,
chapter 11, and reading verse 33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past
finding out. You may be aware that this 11th
chapter to the Romans is really the principal chapter which directs
us to believe that the Jewish nation, Israel of old, will indeed
be blessed again before the end of time. We don't know of course
exactly when that will come, and it may come very suddenly,
but as we follow through, This chapter, we'll see that the Holy
Spirit speaks to us about, in the 17th verse, if some of the
branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive, treework
graft in among them, and with them partakest of the root and
fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches, but
if thou boast thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. So then, The branches were broken
off that I might be grafted in. Well, because of unbelief, they
were broken off. Now standest by faith, be not
high-minded, but fear. And of course, as we know, the
Jewish nation were not believers. They were blessed wonderfully
with the Savior, Jesus Christ, who was, of course, a Jew, But
how many of course spoke against him, they crucified him, and
still today most of the Jews, not all the Jews, most of them
are not believers. Well, what a wonderful thing
it will be if the Lord comes and opens their eyes For if God
spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare
not these. There's a warning here to us
who are classified as Gentiles that we should be concerned that
although we have today, we have the Bible don't we, the great
truths and how relevant and important it is, that we are amongst those
who do believe the Word of God, the truths contained in the Bible. And the Apostle tells the Romans,
Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God on them which
fell severity. But towards thee, goodness, if
thou continue in his goodness, Otherwise thou also shalt be
cut off. You should not think that just
because we go to a good church, and just because we perhaps have
parents who are believers, and we have friends who are believers,
that that will automatically pass on to us. We know that grace,
the knowledge of spiritual things, is the gift of God. And all of
us must know that. And so the apostle says, And
they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted
in. For God is able to graft them
in again. For if thou wert cut out of the
olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were graft contrary
to nature into a good olive tree, How much more shall these which
be the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? You see the Lord can work and
can cause the Jewish nation to once again be brought to that
state of believing. And so the Apostle says, For
I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery,
lest ye should be wise in your own conceits that blindness in
part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles
be come in. And we don't know of course when
that will be. We are told it will occur when the Lord has
blessed the Gentiles, all those who will indeed believe and how
necessary and relevant it is for you and me today. And so
all Israel shall be saved. All true Israel shall be saved. None will be lost. And we shall
be thankful for that. As it is written, there shall
come out Zion, the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob. Well, we have these evidences
here and He goes on, for the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance. That shows to us the sovereign
grace of God. For as in times past have not
believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief,
even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy
they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all
in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. And that brings
us down then to this 33rd verse. And we read here really of the
greatness of God and of his amazing mercy and favour. And it tells
us, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God, well, we cannot fathom, we cannot actually recognize
and realize how great God is and how wonderful His riches
are, and those riches extend to the whole Church of God. And as we perhaps look at ourselves,
or if the Holy Spirit instructs us to look at ourselves and what
do we see there? We don't see any person who deserves
any mercy. What do we see in our own heart?
We see sinfulness, we see unworthiness, we see so often we disobey God
and disobey the law of God and follow our own way. And yet,
God hasn't cut us off. We're still here. What a mercy. What a great blessing. And we
have then just a little insight into the depth of the riches
that God bestows upon his people. He doesn't deal with them as
their sins deserve. And what a great blessing that
is if you and I look into our own hearts. And what do we discern
there? We see that God hasn't dealt
with us as our sins deserve. What a great and merciful and
gracious God we have. And do we stand indeed amazed
at his love and mercy and grace toward us? And as we think and
look at the whole world today, how many people there are who
know nothing of the things of God, nothing of the saving grace
of God, but they continue aimlessly, really, in this sinful world,
content with all the poor things that this world has to offer,
those things which Solomon tried to find comfort in and had to
declare all his vanity of vanity and vexation of spirit. Naturally, we try and find happiness
in time. There's only really true happiness
in that saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, today, May we each
look into our hearts and see whether God has come and caused
us to consider our condition, our lost condition, our sinful
condition, and has caused us to plead and to cry for mercy. And God has looked upon us and
God has remembered us. in our lowest state. It's a great
blessing, isn't it? If the great God has looked upon
us. And surely that brings us to
think of the truth of these words. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. God knows, God knew from
eternity past how he would come and deal with his people, deal
with his church, What a mercy for you and me today. If we have
the evidence of God's grace in our heart to realise He hasn't
left us just to wander on aimlessly in this world. But He's taken
us in hand and He's dealing with us in love to our soul. He's instructing us. He's showing
us our need. He's showing us the glory and
blessings of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Comes down
really to that great question, what think ye, what do I think
of Christ? What do we think of Christ this
morning? It won't really matter to you.
if you haven't been brought to realise you have a great need. A great need of a saviour because
of your sin. But what a blessing if you stand
guilty before a holy God. You cannot justify yourself. You cannot excuse yourself. You
have to come and plead for mercy. Mercy is welcome news indeed
to those who guilty stand, and it is. It's a wonderful, wonderful
truth. And may each one of us know the
mercy of God, and we shall know the mercy of God if we know the
blessing of God. If God has looked upon us and
told us, I am the way, the truth and the light well no doubt we've
read that many times but a great blessing if it has been applied
by the Holy Spirit to our very souls so that it is not just
a word but it's God's word speaking to our souls And we realise that
God has dealt with us in love. And we come and say, oh the depth,
how deep is God's love towards me. He saw me ruined in the fall. That fall occurred in the Garden
of Eden. He saw me ruined in the fall
and yet loved me notwithstanding all. It's a very humbling truth. It's a very humbling fact and
how wonderful it is, therefore, to understand this great and
wonderful truth. And Lord has therefore given
us that faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You may remember,
I expect you do, that great statement, what must I do to be saved, said
that Philippian jailer. And what did the apostle tell
him? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. What that means is, if we're
outside of Jesus Christ, we will not believe. And yet everyone
who is saved, everyone who is eternally blessed will believe. Believe the great truths of God,
will believe that God is just and God is faithful in condemning
those who do not believe. and blessing those who by his
grace do believe. So what a mercy then if you and
I do believe. And we have an encouraging picture
in the Bible about that. We have that case of that man
who the Lord Jesus said to him, dost thou believe? And he said, I do believe. help thou mine unbelief and what
that picture tells us is that the devil never wants you and
me to believe he will always put objections to it and if he
could stop us believing but we should be thankful to know that
the bible tells us by grace she are saved through faith and that
not of yourselves it is the gift of God God gives us that glorious
gift and ability to believe in the gospel and to believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ that we shall be saved you know these
are very very important things you know we live in a world where
so many things appear to be important and appear to occupy our time
and our mind, but don't forget, as the Lord Jesus said to Martha
with regard to Mary, one thing is needful, one thing, and that's
to be found a true believer. He said one thing is needful
and Mary has chosen that good path. And what was that? She was found sitting at the
feet of Jesus, listening to what he said. Well, that's a good
thing, isn't it? To be found there. And what a
blessing if you and I are found there. Oh, the debt for the rich,
both the wisdom and knowledge of God. God knows where we are. He knows where we were born,
doesn't he? He's watching over us every moment of our life. It's amazing, isn't it? The greatness
of our God, the depth of his knowledge is just far beyond
what we can possibly imagine. His knowledge is so great. He
knows all about us. And I love to think of the illustration
he gives in the Word of God. He knows when the hairs of our
head fall to the ground. That's beyond our comprehension,
isn't it? And that's not just you, and it's not just me. It's
everybody in the world, God knows. This is the greatness of God.
This demonstrates something of his wonderful knowledge, the
depth of his knowledge. And yet so often people mock
God. They mock God by not obeying
God. They mock God in going their
own way and thinking, well I needn't worry about that, I can just
carry on and ignore that command. My friends, we must not mock
God. We must not turn away from God.
We must follow the Word of God and follow the truth of God and
really rejoice in such a grand and Glorious statement as the
Apostle makes here. The Apostle was very aware of
the greatness of God and the depth of his knowledge. The riches
of it is wisdom and knowledge. He'd seen it in his life. He'd
seen how God had converted him. He'd seen how God had directed
him. He'd seen how God had blessed him and encouraged him and strengthened
him and therefore he was able by the grace of God to write
such truths with divine authority because he knew these things
were true indeed. What a blessing it is for us
today. We walk on the earth today. It's
our turn to walk on the earth. God has called us to be on the
earth. such a time as this. It's not
any has-happened time, it's God's time appointed for you and me
to be on this earth. And the purpose for you and me
to be on this earth is to show the depth of his riches and wisdom
and knowledge by our lives, by our walk, by our conversation. We're not to hide our light. The Word of God speaks against
it, doesn't it? The Word of God gives us the
wonderful picture in that Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6
and 7 and it shows us that we are not to hide our light. It
uses an illustration of under a bushel, that means really under
perhaps an upturned basket. light, if God has given you me
light, that means if God has shown to you and me something
of the depth of his riches, of the wisdom and knowledge of God,
we're not to just ignore it. We are to set it forth and demonstrate
what God has done for us. The Word of God tells us so plainly
and so often we ignore it. Tells us this, ye are my witnesses. Every true believer is a witness,
a witness in this world. As you walk about day by day
to show forth his praise, not show forth our praise, not show
forth our abilities, but show forth what God has done. And I wonder if you were to stop
and consider and perhaps write down what God has done for you
in your life, in two ways, in your spiritual life and in your
natural life. It's a great wonder to realise
what God has done. So often we pass it by, but it's
good to remember, it's good to ponder, and it's good to think
of what God has done for us, And so easily we forget, so easily
we pass it by, but what a mercy if we have a record of it in
our mind and it's good to write it down. Write it down and testify
therefore what God has done. This depth of the riches both
of wisdom and knowledge of God. You see, God guides and directs
us. He knows what we need in our
little life. There may be mountains before
us. God knows what you and I need, to the very smallest detail.
And not what we think we need. There's a big difference, isn't
there? What we think we need and what we do need. But what
a great blessing it is when God provides that need. And this God is able to do for
each one of us far more exceedingly abundantly than we can ask or
even think. He supplies our natural need
and above that he supplies our spiritual need. You know we are
encouraged to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. And yet by nature we seek first
the things of this world. We're more concerned about the
things that we have and possess and our natural health and strength
than we are our spiritual life and our spiritual health and
strength. And yet, again as I've told you
very often, Our natural life is but a mere few years. Our spiritual life is eternal. And therefore, really, there's
no comparison between the two. The one is so great, the other
is so small. And yet foolish men, foolish
women, set their hearts and affections upon the things in time, which
will perish and pass away, forgetting that we have an eternal soul
which lasts forever. Well, we should be thankful that
the Lord has given us such a statement as this just to remind us of
the greatness of God over the depth of the riches. God is rich. He possesses everything. He can give us all that we need.
Just again, not what we think we need, but all that we do need,
God will give. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both in the wisdom and knowledge of God. You see, God's wisdom
is so great. He knows the end from the beginning.
It's hard to try and think how great this wisdom is. Because
it was from eternity. We can't understand that, can
we? God had wisdom. He always has. He always will. And it's so deep beyond our natural
understanding. God has this wisdom and riches,
both the wisdom and knowledge of God. How wonderful it is to
recognize that we, as mere mortals on this earth, wonderfully blessed
and privileged to be able to consider these things and to
commit our way unto God, to trust also in Him that He will bring
it to pass, that He will appear for us, that He will bless us. It's good, isn't it, if you and
I are concerned about the blessing of God which maketh rich and
endeth no sorrow with it. And that, of course, must refer
to our spiritual life, because the riches of time pass away.
The riches of eternal things are forever. And what a great
blessing it is, therefore, to understand that great truth. And we know, the Word of God
tells us, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. And he will show them, reveal
to them, His covenant, His promises, His great truths. My friends,
we have such a kind and gracious God. And you look at yourself
and myself, we think how sinful we are and how often we turn
our back upon God. We don't want to know. If things
don't agree with our little plans, then you see, we think we'll
change it and go a different way. What a mercy to be submissive
to our God. To recognise that the way that
God chooses, choose thou the way and still lead on. What a mercy then to have a God
who does do that for us and to recognise how kind and gracious
and merciful God is. O the depth of the riches Both
are the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways are past finding out. That's a clear
description, isn't it? How unsearchable. You and I can't
really search out God's judgments and the way and his ways are
past finding out. Our minds are so narrow and so
small, really, by comparison. It's a great blessing when you
and I are made willing to cast all our care upon the Lord, casting
all your care upon him, for he careth for you. That's a very
wonderful truth, to think that day by day, he cares for us,
cares for us so much. that he shows us ourselves and
then by his amazing grace shows us himself as that great merciful
God, that one who has made us, that one who planned our life
in eternity past. He knows every single step that
you and I take. Nothing is unknown to him, unknown
to us, known to our God. That's the greatness of our God. And it's good really just to
have a little view of that. A little view of it is, it's
good to direct us that God knows all these things. He knows all
the secrets which concern us and we're told by him in Deuteronomy
in the 29th chapter and 29th verse the secret things belong
unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong
unto us and to our children forever that we may do all the words
of this law Probably we don't read the book
of Deuteronomy as much as we should. There's many great truths
in it and you might just remember of course that Moses was directed
to write the first five books of the Bible and he wrote the
book of Deuteronomy a short time before he was taken from this
earth. And what he wanted was that the
children of Israel might indeed listen to that which he'd written. And it's good for us just to
note that in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy He tells us this
in the third verse, Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it,
that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily,
as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land
that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the church of
God, the Lord our God is one Lord, And then he says, And thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all
thy soul and with all thy might. And these words which I command
thee this day shall be in thine heart. And then he goes on. Very wise instruction. And thou
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. and shall talk
of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest
by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. So we are to speak about the
things of God in all situations. The law of God, the truth of
God, His love, His grace, His kindness, And then he says, And
thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall
be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them
upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. Few of us do this,
I'm sure, but therefore Moses was so concerned that Israel,
when he was gone, would not forget the great truths of God. And it shall be, when the Lord
thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware
unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give
thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and
houses full of all good things, which thou fillest not, and wells
digged, which thou diggest not, vineyards and olive trees, which
thou plantest not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full.
Then beware lest they'll forget the Lord. You see, when the Lord... And I think it's good to remember
also that everything that you and I possess, God has given
us. Don't forget that. And you may
say, well, I think I really got that through my own ability.
Well, just ponder, first of all, who gave you the ability? God
gave you the ability. God's given us all the brains
that we have. It's God's gift to us. And therefore
we can't claim that we were great and we worked it out ourselves.
It's because of God's mercy and favour. And then he goes on,
then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth
out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Well I
won't go on but you can read, carry on reading in the book
of Deuteronomy, that was in the sixth chapter and it's great
and important truths and how relevant it is today as it was
then. What a mercy! You know, we have
the Bible and it's not just to pick up and read a few verses
and then put down and forget what we've read. It's there for
our instruction and indeed for our blessing and how we should
thank God for it and be brought to this great knowledge that
we have in this verse and be able to exclaim as The Apostle
Paul did. 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. And as the Lord
then opens up to us the way of salvation. You see, we were born
spiritually dead. But what a blessing if God has
opened unto us that way of salvation. And what does it do? It demonstrates
the greatness of God. It shows to us his wonderful
mercy and wonderful love. And we see it displayed so clearly
in the Lord Jesus Christ as he lived on this earth. He didn't
please himself. He did his father's will. And
that was to pay the price required to free the Church of God from
the condemnation of sin which they'd committed. The sins which
you and I have committed. We must be freed from them. We
can't free ourselves. What a blessing to view the Lord
Jesus Christ as that great and wonderful saviour of sinners
who did all that was necessary with that culmination of giving
his life to atone for our sins. To atone means to make us once
more one with God. Adam and Eve in that Garden of
Eden were made holy and pure and they were one with God. And
sin entered in. And sin separated. And my friends,
sin has separated between you and me and our God. But what
a blessing the Lord Jesus Christ came to make that new and living
way. That one who paid that price
gave his life for an atonement for our sin, to bring us back
to God, to make us one again with God. I rejoice in it, my
friends, and recognize this great plan of God. It's an amazing
plan. It's a glorious plan. It's a
blessed plan. Oh, the depth of the riches of
wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out. His ways with dealing with you
and dealing with me. He knew where we were born. He knew where we would be brought
up. He knew what we would do because he'd planned it all for
us. what a mercy to think that way
was the perfect way because that way was to eventually bring us
safe home to glory and if we're brought safe home to glory it's
because by his wonderful grace we are saved through his death
through his atonement what a great blessing it is to have a savior
we can never deliver ourselves. We've sinned, we're separated
from God, and we need that atonement to bring us back to God. The
Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, as the Apostle Paul so
beautifully said, to save sinners of whom I am chief. He realised The truth of God's Word and the
condemnation of it to him. My friends, we might think, well
that's the Apostle Paul, but it's not. It relates to all of
us, all of us. What a blessing it is if we come
and stand alongside Paul and can agree with what he says.
Yes, the chief of sinners, and yet he was saved by grace. And what a mercy to know that
we're saved by grace, through the love of God. And therefore
it gives us a little idea, a little inkling really, of this great
truth, of the depth of the riches Yes, He poured out the blessing
into our hearts and souls. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom. God knows what to do and how
to do it. The knowledge of God, it's infinite,
infinite. How unsearchable. We can't search
it out. It's just beyond our ability.
This is the God you and I have to deal with, not a little God,
a great God, the all-powerful God. That word describes it beautifully,
the Almighty God. And may we know it and praise
Him for it and to realise, yes, my God's ways are past finding
out. He knows exactly what He will
do with you and me, what we need to make us conformable unto his
image. I wonder if we sometimes pray
that as the Apostle Paul did when he wrote to the Philippians
and spelled it out so very clearly in that third chapter. And he
tells us, he says, but what things were gained to me, those I counted
loss for Christ. Just ponder that. The things
that you and I thought were very important, we were willing to
count as nothing. Loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. The one thing so important, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, to lay them all
up, wasn't worried about it, and to count them but done, that
I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God, by faith, that I may
know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship
of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.'
Well that's a very clear and wonderful statement by the Apostle
Paul, the same person that wrote this letter to the Romans, what
a mercy therefore this morning if we may meditate and consider
such great truths and be given grace to put first things first
and to rejoice in the greatness of our God and are thankful that
we have such a consideration as this to take away and to think
upon 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. Amen.