Good evening, everyone. It is my sincere delight to be
here. It's my sincere honor and privilege
to be here with you. I'm so grateful, as Brother John
said, for the Lord's people. Aren't you so thankful to find
men and women that the Lord has caused to bow the knee to the
Lord Jesus Christ. What a great blessing and honor. I was just sitting here thinking
as we were singing and worshiping. We are members of His great congregation. One of these days, we're going
to sit down with all of His people in one great congregation, and
we're going to worship Him from the bottom of our souls. And
this is that same congregation right now. And I'm thankful to
be here. I'm thankful to Brother John
for inviting me to come. I'm thankful to Kathy for having
us in her home. I'm just thankful. Turn with
me, if you would, to Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. I would like
for us to glorify and praise and worship
and honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ tonight. And I'd
like to read from verse 33 down to verse 36, the end of the chapter. Romans 11, beginning in verse 33, it says, 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? For who hath known the mind
of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor?
Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto
him again? For of Him, and through Him,
and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. If the Lord ever allows
a person to enter into His glory, and His honor, and His perfection,
fullness. If the Lord ever allows a person
to enter into who He really is, as Paul is saying right here,
when you get down to it, this is all you can say. God is God. When you get right
down to it, God, if He ever reveals who He is. There's a dear brother
in Kingsport who came in a few years ago because he saw our
sign. We have a sign in front of our
building, it says Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church. And he was headed
to his place that he was not happy with. And he had to meet,
some family was in town, and he met them for breakfast before
he went to church. So he doesn't normally come for
breakfast. took a road he doesn't normally take. And on this road
was a church building with a sign that said, Kingsport Sovereign
Grace Church. And he saw the word sovereign.
And he pulled his car over. He said, you see that? It says
sovereign. And he came in. And I wasn't there that day.
One of the men was preaching for me. But he sat down and listened.
And he said, I wish you'd come back and meet our pastor. And
he said, well, I will. So he came back next Sunday.
And he walked in. And they introduced me to him. Met him, nice guy,
talked to him for a minute. He said, I came in because your
sign said sovereign. I said, yeah, right. He said,
you know, he said, I'm tired of people trying to convince
me that God is not God. I said, amen. Me too. Welcome. When you get right down
to it, God Sovereign God Almighty. He is the Sovereign God Almighty. He does what He wants, when He
wants, with whom He wants. This is God. This is God. Don't you wish men and women
could see this and could know this and could bow to the true
and living God. Not these made-up idols that
men and women have made up all over the place. God. God does what He wants, when
He wants, with whom He wants. And He's right in doing it. Everything
that He does, He's right in doing it. He's perfect about all of
His ways. All of His ways. In Romans 11,
each line here deserves an eternity of pondering. And I love the
thought that one day we will be able to ponder these for eternity. Not one word of his will ever
fail. But let's just see if the Lord will allow us to touch on
and have a glimpse of what the Apostle Paul is saying here about
our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Almighty God. Verse 33, if
you look at Romans 11, verse 33, he said, oh, the depth of
the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How could we possibly
grasp the fullness of that? Oh, the death of the riches,
both of the wisdom. I tell you, this is comfort to
a child of God. Yes, sir. Oh, the death of the
riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. The depth of
the wisdom, the depth of the knowledge. and the depth of His
willingness to apply it and to impart it to us. The riches of His wisdom that
He's willing, He's made known to us. 1 Corinthians 1 says, He is made
unto us wisdom. Look with me if you would at
Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians 3 verse 16. Paul is praying some things on
behalf of the Lord's people here. And verse 16, he said, I pray
that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory. To be strengthened with might
by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all
the fullness of God. What is the fullness of God? Christ is the fullness of God. The Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1.19 says, It pleased
the Father that in Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I tell
you, if a person ever gets a hold of this, if God ever reveals
this, They will know everything they need to know about wisdom,
knowledge. It pleased the Father that in
the Lord Jesus Christ should all fullness dwell. All fullness. All the riches of God. All the riches of God. Ephesians
1 talks about the riches of His grace. Don't you love grace? Don't you love favor? Don't you
love a free gift from God Almighty, the riches of His grace? That's Christ. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the gift of God. The next
verse in John 3, For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten
Son. We try to associate that so flippantly
by saying, could you imagine giving your own child? That is
no comparison. No. God, the father gave God
the son, God, the son. God, what a gift, what a gift. Christ is the riches of God's
grace. Ephesians two talks about the
riches of his mercy. Don't you love mercy? I'll tell
you who loves mercy. Somebody who needs mercy. Christ is the mercy of God. The
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the mercy of God. The only
way that God, the holy God, The fact that God is holy, what that
means is He must do right. People think salvation is God
sweeping a bunch of stuff under the rug and then turning a blind
eye to it. That is not it. He's holy and He must do what's
right. And the only way that God can
show mercy to a sinner like me is by taking all of my sin, laying
it on His Son, and then punishing His Son for my sin. That's the
old way. Judging Him for my sin. Pouring out His wrath. We cannot
imagine what Christ suffered during the wrath of God. If we could ever comprehend the
breadth, and the length, and the depth, and the height, and
the fullness, of the riches of Christ. If we could ever really
comprehend that, everything that He is, all the fullness that's
in Him, this verse would slay us. If we could ever comprehend
that, this verse would slay us. Look with me at 2 Corinthians
chapter 8. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9. Just amazing. Just amazing. It
says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
though He was rich, all the fullness of the riches of Jesus Christ,
though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye
through His poverty might be rich. That means He gave His grace
to us, to His people. He gave all of it. All of His
gift. He gave His mercy to His people
and He gave all of it. God even gave His wisdom. God gave His knowledge when He
gave Christ. He gave everything, though He
was rich with all things. For the sake of his people, he
made himself to be poor, that we through his poverty might
be rich. Oh, the depth of the riches. The depth, the height, the length,
the breadth of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people.
Go with me back to Romans 11. Verse 33 says, 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. I told Brother
John earlier today, I get a little excited sometimes and I have
everybody turn all over the Scriptures. If you want to follow me, you
can. But we're going to turn a little bit here. We're going
to go to Job 11. If you want to look with me,
go to Job chapter 11. Job 11 verse 7 says, Canst thou by searching find
out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? Man in his ignorance says, I'm
going to go search out God. I'm going to go seek God. I'm
going to go find God. And God says right here, no you're
not. Not without me. Not unless I
reveal these things. Verse 8, he says, it is. I and my ways are high as heaven. What canst thou do? Deeper than
hell, what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer
than the earth and broader than the sea. If he cut off and shut
up or gather together, then who can hinder him? For he knoweth
vain men, he seeth wickedness also. Will he not then consider
it?" This is in His hands. All of the wisdom and treasures
of God, this is in His hands to give. It's in His hands to
reveal. David said in Psalm 139, he said, I have not searched
you, you've searched me. I haven't known you, you've known
me. He said, when I consider you,
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot
obtain to it. Can a man figure out God? People
say, well, I think God is like this. Okay. Can a man figure out God? Moses
said in Deuteronomy 29, he said the secret things belong to the
Lord our God. But he said those things which
are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. How
are we so thankful that God, this high and holy unsearchable
God would condescend Himself to reveal who He is to such low
worms as we are. What grace, what kindness. This is glorious to me. Look
with me back at Romans 11. Verse 33. It says, 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, For who hath known
the mind of the Lord? So amazing. Who hath known the
mind of the Lord? Do you know who has? By His grace,
by His revelation. We have. We have. Moses said the secret
things belong to Him. But He said the revealed things,
the things that He has revealed to us in His Word. He has revealed His mind to us. He has revealed His will, His
heart, His desire, His purpose, the purpose of God Almighty.
He has revealed that to us. If you want to look with me at
1 Corinthians chapter 2, Verse 16 says, in 1 Corinthians chapter
2, it says, For who hath known the
mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Who hath known the mind of the
Lord? Well, he said, we have the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been given the mind of
Christ. Where? Right here in His Word. Look
with me at Ephesians chapter 1. Just a few more pages over
to Ephesians 1 verse 8. It says, wherein He hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to the good pleasure, his good
pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. And that's how it
goes. It's his will, it's his pleasure, it's his purpose. Verse
10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he
might gather together in one all things in Christ. both which
are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will." Aren't you so glad? Aren't you so thankful
that we don't get our way? Aren't you so thankful it's His
way? And I love this verse right here. Verse 12 says that we should
be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.
Who's that talking about? That's talking about the Father.
He was the first one to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. According
to His will and His purpose, He handed everything into the
hands of the Father. Son of God, and He said, I trust
you to handle all the work. And He did. He did. He accomplished
every bit of it. But that's His mind. That's His
will that He purposed in Himself. Go with me over to Philippians
chapter 2. Philippians 2 verse 5 says, Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. The Lord Jesus Christ being
God Almighty, He knew who He was, the equal member of the
Trinity of God. Verse 7 says, But He made Himself
of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant. and
was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross." Oh, the depth. The depth of the riches. The riches of the death. He humbled
himself. He condescended and brought himself
all the way down. even to the death of the cross.
Now because that was the mind and the will of God the Son,
this is the mind and the will of God the Father. Look at verse
9. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. What blessed people we are if
we're allowed to do that. If we are caused to do that. Bow the knee to Him. How amazing
is it that we have been given the mind of God. The will, the
purpose of God Almighty. The mind of the Father was to
give an undeserving people to the Son for Him to lose none
of them. And the mind of the Son was to
take them from the Father and do just that, lose none of them. Redeem them, raise them up again
at the last day. He said, I want them for my inheritance. I love in Psalm 2 where the father
said, if you ask of me, I'll give you the heathen for your
inheritance. He must have asked. I'll take them, I'll raise them
up. I want them to be with me where I am. Oh the depth of that
knowledge. Thank God we know that. Thank
God we have that. We have the mind of the fullness
of God in the person and in the word of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look with me back at Romans 11. Verse 33 says, 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? For who hath
known the mind of the Lord? For who hath been His counselor? Who has been His counselor? The
answer is nobody. Nobody. In prayer, Man thinks
he needs to counsel God on what he needs to do and how he needs
to handle situations. And I'll just tell you, we've
all been guilty of it. We pray to Him as though we're going
to inform Him, okay, this is what's going on, and this is
how we think it would be best handled. Wouldn't we be wise
to stop doing that? I wish I could learn that. I'm
serious about this. I honestly wish I could learn
that. I just want to learn to say, thy will be done. Not my
will, but thine be done. You know what's best. You always
do right. As Isaiah 9, 6 says, the government
is on your shoulders. You're the counselor. You're
the mighty God. You're the everlasting father.
You're the prince of peace. Even the things that seem to
be bad. You know, we have so many things,
and when they, when news comes to us, it's just
devastating sometimes. And we just think it's so bad.
You know that every single time it turns out to be good. May
not turn out the way we wanted it to go, but it turns out to
be good. I love the story of, George Whitfield, he was a preacher
back in the 1700s and he was telling on himself. He
was called to go preach in a town that was a distant horse ride
over. And he was headed there on one
particular night of the week and it was It was dark and it
was raining on him. It was just pouring rain on him. And he was soaking wet. And he
was headed down here to preach. He was just in a bad way. He
just said he had a bad attitude. He said, I just had a bad attitude.
I was riding and he said, I was asking the Lord, why all this
rain, Lord? Why so much rain? I'm going to
preach Your Word. Why do I have to be so miserable?
Why do I have to be so cold and so wet? And he said, I was just
soaking, sopping, miserable, and complaining. And he said,
all of a sudden, I came around a corner, and a man jumped out
with a flint pistol to rob him. And he fired it. And the flint
was so wet, it wouldn't go off. And he said he hightailed it
out of there, crying, thank you for the rain. You know what's best. Don't you
wish we could learn to say, Lord, You know what's best? In this
moment, I don't see it, but You do. Who has been His counselor? Oh, the depth of the wisdom,
the depth of the knowledge, the depth of everything He's doing
with His people, for His people. Lord, You're doing right. The
Judge of the earth is going to do right. Just teach us that. Let us bow to that. Thy will
be done. Verse 33 says, 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. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counselor?
Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto
Him again? False religion is built on man's
works. The way that a person can know
if he or she is in a false religion, I would want to know that. I
want to know it right now. The way that a person can know
if he or she is in a false religion is by asking this question. Is
my salvation dependent on what I am going to do for God? Is my salvation dependent on
what I am going to give to God? If it is, if my hope of salvation
starts with me doing for Him, or if it starts with me giving
to Him, I'm in a false religion. Verse 35 says, Who hath first
given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again? The
answer is nobody. Nobody. There is nothing that
a man can give to God without God giving to that man or that
woman first. What do we have that we have
not received? God is in need of nothing. That is glorious news to me because
I don't have anything to give to Him. I really don't. I don't have anything to give
to Him. You say, well, we have our sin.
Yeah, but we couldn't even give that to Him. He had to willingly
take it from us. He gets the credit for that.
He gets the glory for all that. So what this verse right here
means is because man cannot do anything for God, and man cannot
give anything to God, God doesn't owe man anything. He doesn't
owe man anything. And that's what makes this whole
thing be grace. It's all grace. The reason salvation is by grace
is because man could not earn it. And God did not owe it. But God gave it anyway. Who is rich in mercy for his
great love or with he loved his people, he gave it anyway. Man
didn't start the work. Man doesn't finish the work.
Man has no claim on it. No claim on the work of salvation. Verse 36 says, For of Him, and
through Him, and to Him are all things. All things pertaining
to life, all things pertaining to forgiveness, all things pertaining
to redemption, all of it was of Him. Out of His willingness, out of
His sacrifice, out of His generosity, all of it was of Him. Just listen
to these. James 1.18 says, of His own will. This is one of my favorite verses.
I've got thousands of them. This is one of them. It says,
of His own will begat He us with the word of truth that we should
be a kind of firstfruits of His creature. Of His own will. John 1.16 says, Of His fullness
have all we received, and grace for grace. 1 Corinthians 1.30
says, Of God are you in Christ Jesus? How do we get in Christ?
I used to ask that question when I was a kid. I heard men stand
up and say, You must be in Christ. And I used to think, How do you
get in Christ? I think that's a good question.
Of God are you? That's God's doing. of Him and through Him. John 3.17 says, God sent not
His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world,
His elect out of the world, through Him, through His sacrifice, through
His blood, through His death might be saved. Romans 5.9 says,
much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved
from wrath. through Him. Romans 8.37 says
we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Through Him. Through Him. It is of Him. It is through Him. Look to Him. Look to Him. There are moments
where Things happen, the Lord allows
things to happen that you just don't forget them as a pastor. Everybody has moments. This is
one I won't forget. I tell these stories in Kingsport
all the time. I love telling it to people I've
never told it to. I had the privilege of talking
to a group of people a few years ago who had come out of a very
hard bondage religion. And it was all about progressing
in sanctification and just the bondage of the law and just looking
to yourself to see holiness. The Lord was bringing them out
of that. I had the privilege of talking
to them, and we were talking about 1 Corinthians 1.30, which
says that of God, or you and Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Christ is our wisdom. And that's what we were talking
about. If you know Christ, you know everything you need to know.
If anybody asks you something, just say Christ. Yes, Christ. Where's your righteousness? Where's
your good works? Christ. Amen. But what about
your good deeds? You've got to produce these good
deeds for God to be pleased with you and say, well done. Where's
your well done good deeds? You're going to have to look
at Christ for that. You can't look here. He's my righteousness. Well, what about your sanctification?
What about that inner purity and that inner holiness? You're
going to have to look at Christ for that. He's my sanctification. This is sinful flesh, and that's
all this is ever going to be. But He's my purity before God.
What right do I have to be there? He is my right. He's my redemption. He's everything. Just look to
Him. I was talking with a young man about this. And as we were
talking about it, he was pondering these things. And he just kind
of stared off for a minute, just dwelling on that. And he said, isn't that so relaxing? I said,
yeah. So relaxing. Oh, that's just
so relaxing. It's all of Him. It's all through
Him. It's all to Him. Amen. Of Him,
through Him, to Him. Sometime when you get a minute
and you want something to read, read Psalm 136. It says over
and over again, Oh, give thanks to Him. To Him who alone doeth
great wonders. To Him that by wisdom made the
heavens. To Him, to Him, to Him. The scripture says, to Him give
all the prophets witness. To Him give all the people glory,
honor, praise, thanks. That's going to forever be our
cry in heaven. That will forever be our cry. May that be our cry
right here, right now. Verse 36 says, for of Him,