As we seek again this evening
to direct our minds into this portion of the Word of God for
the benefit of those who are not with us this morning, I mentioned
on that occasion that having had to preach numerous times
this past week and some of the ministry focusing upon this text,
I felt far more prepared, at least in mind, To treat this
text, then, the next section of Ephesians in the morning and
the next section of Proverbs in the evening, and so we're
getting a double-barreled dose of Romans 11.36 for our study
in the Word of God today. And I had at least one very encouraging
note of feedback this morning that God was pleased to use the
Word in a very significant way at least in the life of one individual,
and that makes the labors of the day worthwhile many times
over. The text that we looked at is
Romans 11, verse 36. I shall read it, briefly recap
what we considered this morning, and then move primarily into
the area of application which time did not permit in our previous
study. The Apostle says at the conclusion
of these first eleven chapters of the book of Romans, the letter
to the church at Rome, for of him and through him and unto
him are all things to whom or to him be the glory forever. Amen. And we approach the text
with this basic perspective before us, that when we come to read
and understand the Bible, we must seek to read and understand
the Bible biblically. It is not enough that we subscribe
to the full authority of the Bible, its inspiration and authority,
believing its promises, respecting its commands, accepting the validity
of its history and the binding nature of its doctrines, We must
seek to read and understand the whole within the framework in
which it comes to us. And I'll not repeat that rather
extended illustration about the car. Suffice it to say that you
may maintain all the nuts and bolts and rods and pistons and
the rest, but unless you maintain them in the arrangement in which
they come to us by the manufacturer, you miss the end for which it
was manufactured. And so with the Bible there must
be this sense of the wholeness of God, the whole end for which
it was given, and this text, as well, if not better than any
other I know of in the Scripture, sets before us the framework
within which the Bible itself comes to us. Then we spend some
time, then, seeking to just expound those simple phrases. Of Him
means that God Himself is the origin of all things. Through
him means that God is the executor and administrator of all things. Unto him means that God is the
end and the goal of all things. And what should be the response
of our hearts to that? The words of the Apostle, to
him be the glory forever. There should be the loving response
from the heart of the child of God in glad recognition that
the God whom he knows and has come to know through Jesus Christ
is this God who is the origin, the means, and the end of all
things. And we emphasize again and again
that the all things is very specific. It has to deal with all that
Paul has been treating in the previous eleven chapters. The
problem of human sin. God's grace against the backdrop
of that sin. That grace coming in history. Coming in relationship to God's
dealings with Israel as a nation. Coming in relationship to His
dealings with the Gentile nations. All of the whole fabric of these
matters, Paul says, of every one of them, of him, through
him, and unto him, are all things to whom be glory forever. And we closed our study this
morning with the suggestion that when we begin to think this way,
and begin to read the Bible this way and begin to live in the
light of this, it can be a spiritual Copernican revolution. It can
bring a whole new center of our thinking. We begin to be able
to praise God for things in His Word which before perhaps were
an embarrassment to us. We begin to be able to thank
God for things in our own lives which were a source of irritation
to us. As long as we're at the center,
they are an irritant. When we begin to see that of
Him and through Him and unto Him are all things, then, as
we saw in the life of David, we are able to pray, Be Thou
exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let Thy glory be above all the
earth. What happens to David is of little
consequence, but, O God, what happens to Your glory is of supreme
consequence. So much for the brief review.
What I wish to do tonight is to show some very practical lines
of application or to follow out some very practical lines of
application with reference to this perspective. When we begin
to think in these terms, when we begin to assess the work of
God in us and in others and in the church, When we begin to
consider other facets of Christian life and experience within this
perspective, I say the implications are all pervasive and very radical. First of all, let's consider
something that is close to the heart of every single Christian.
The matter of the conversion of a sinner. Your own conversion
if you profess to be a believer. The conversion of others for
which you yearn if you are a true Christian. And if you are a true
Christian, you do yearn for the conversion of others. How does
this perspective cast its shadow upon the whole biblical doctrine
of the conversion of the individual sinner? Well, let's take this
text and see its application in those three areas. For of
him are all things. What is the ultimate cause of
the conversion of a sinner? When a sinner is brought to repentance
and faith, to embrace the offers of mercy in Jesus Christ, what
is the ultimate cause of that conversion? Well, you see, the
Apostle Paul has been very explicit in teaching us in the previous
chapters that the cause is God Himself, particularly God in
His sovereign, electing love. When Paul writes, For of him
are all things, he is the Paul who has written the ninth chapter
of Romans. And that very clear statement,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, it was said the elder
shall serve the younger. It's the Paul who had written
the eighth chapter in which he views the people of God as those
who have been loved before in the purpose of God. Romans 8
and verse 29, whom he foreknew. whom He regarded with distinguishing,
purposeful love from all eternity, He never can think of the conversion
of an individual Christian apart from this perspective, for of
him are all things. And the thing that interests
me the more I read the epistles of Paul is the fact that he did
not regard this concept of God's sovereign electing love as the
ultimate cause of the conversion of any sinner, as some kind of
advanced esoteric truth, Some kind of contraband goods to be
kept under the shelf only to be brought out upon request by
those who happen to know that you carry the goods? No, no.
He was not black marketing this great concept. He writes to the
infant church of the Thessalonians, and he wants them to know how
he regards their conversion. So in the very opening words
he says this, We give thanks to God always for you all, brethren,
remembering without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of
love, your patience of hope before God and our Lord Jesus Christ,
Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election, how that
our gospel came unto you, not in word only, but also in power,
and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. He says, I want
you to know, when I praise God for your conversion, I trace
it back to its ultimate source in the sovereign electing love
of God. And if I do this when I pray
for you, you better do the same when you get on your knees and
thank God for saving you. It's a beautiful way to teach
indirectly. And in case they missed the message, he repeats
something very similar in the second letter, and he says in
chapter 2 and verse 13, we give thanks to God. Well, let me get
the exact wording of it. I told the fellows this afternoon,
having preached so many times in the past few days, My mind is not holding even the
verses rightly. All right, 2 Thessalonians 2
and verse 13. But we're bound to give thanks. There we are.
Bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren. Beloved of
the Lord, for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation
and sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
he called you through our gospel. You see where he puts himself?
The cause, he says, is not ultimately even the gospel or the fact that
it was our gospel and that we preach. We're bound to give thanks
to you, brethren, he says, knowing what? That God chose you from
the beginning. writing to this little baby church,
this infant assembly, plunked down in the midst of great opposition
and suffering at the hands of apostate Jews. And he wants them
to know, as one of the kindergarten lessons of the Christian faith,
that when they think of their own conversion, they have to
think of it in terms of Romans 11, 36. For him are all things. God is its cause particularly
in his sovereign electing love. What about the means then by
which they are saved? Here comes the Apostle's profuse
use of his word calling. Why does the apostle constantly
refer to the people of God as the called ones? Ye remember
your calling, brethren, 1 Corinthians 1. Romans 8, Whom ye foreknew,
them ye also predestinated to be conformed to the image of
his Son, whom ye predestinated, them ye also called. Why does
he address the people of God as called saints? Because, you
see, the whole concept of calling is something external to yourself.
He wants them to know that if they are saved, it is not only
of Him, but through Him. God is the author of the calling. No man calls himself into the
Christian faith. If you make the word call even
just summons, a summons never comes from your own mouth. When
you kids are summoned to dinner, you don't stand out there in
the playground and say, Johnny, go home! No, no, mom or dad or
somebody else is standing on the front porch. Johnny, come
home! The summons comes external to yourself. The biblical concept
of calling is never just summons. It may mean that in one instance
in the Gospels, but all through the epistles, it means that mighty
work of God in which he not only summons us, but powerfully draws
us into possession of gospel blessings. And so the very fact
that the Apostle Paul and Peter does the same thing, he speaks
of the God who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous
light. Now why do they use that terminology?
Were they just concerned to give fuel for theological squabbles
throughout the centuries of the Christian Church? No, no. You
see, a great measure of the theological squabbles have come because man
will not be submissive to the Word of God. and they will be
wiser than God, and they will be more fastidious than God.
God, through Paul and Peter and the other penmen of the New Testament,
profusely uses the word called to describe the Christian. Why? Because they want in the common
consciousness of those infant believers this recognition that
not only of Him are all things, but through Him are all things. And if I'm no longer in darkness
but in light, it's because God called me out of darkness into
His marvelous light. Well then, what is the end then
of this work of conversion if the cause is God in His sovereign
electing love of Him? If the means through Him is His
effectual calling, what's the end? Is it my happiness, essentially? No, no. And again, writing to
these infant churches, many of them spattered with totally pagan
people as far as their background. Some of them, yes, a great heritage
of knowledge in the scriptures because they came through the
synagogue and were converted, but many of them raw pagans. unacquainted with the most elementary
biblical concepts, and yet early in their Christian experience
when these epistles come, what are they led to believe as far
as the end of their conversion? Well, look at a couple of sample
passages. 1 Peter 2.9. 1 Peter 2.9. But ye are an elect
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for God's own possession. What's the end of His calling
them to be the possession of God? That ye may show forth the
excellencies of Him who called marvelous light. You see the
of him, through him, and unto him all in this one verse? Of
him ye are an elect race. Through him he has called you. Unto him that ye may show forth
the excellencies of his character, that ye may be his peculiar possession. You see, the whole emphasis is
not on what the sinner gets, but what God gets in the conversion
of the sinner. And he wants these young Christians
to understand that. Look again at the Apostle's description
of the end of conversion in 1 Thessalonians 1. 1 Thessalonians 1. Back up to verse 8 to catch the
thread of thought. For from you hath sounded forth
the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, But
in every place, your faith to Godward has gone forth. May I
emphasize, often this verse is used to sort of contradict what
Mr. Cantine gave us in the lesson
this morning, that the main emphasis in the New Testament for the
Christian, we are told, is that he should be verbally witnessing,
and this verse is pressed into service. See, it says, from you
sounded out the word of the Lord. Ah, but how did it do it? Read
on, read on. For from you hath sounded forth
the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but
in every place your Our faith to Godward is gone forth, so
that we need not speak anything, for they themselves report concerning
us what manner of entering in we had unto you." How did the
Word of the Lord go forth? People beheld these transformed
people, so Paul said, whenever we go and we start to tell them,
hey, do you know what happened down there at Thessalonica? They
tell us, you don't need to tell us, Paul, we've already seen
it. It's very evident that the Word is coming. We're no longer
living with the same kind of people. We need not report, he
says. They themselves report. And what
was the thrust of that report? Look at it. How ye turned unto
God from your idols to serve a living and a true These people no longer serve
idols, but they're serving the living God. What was the end
of their conversion? That they might be the servants
of the living God, and that becoming His servants, this is such a
radical thing in a world that serves its own lust and its own
idols, that men stand back amazed. Because it's not a matter of
somebody just incorporating a little bit of Jesus to get a little
bit of peace and a little bit of happiness and a little bit
of security, but still being basically found in the same perspective. This rents the moose from the
man-centered life and set them free to be the servants of the
living God. The very thing for which the
creature was made. Again, look at the statement
of Paul in Romans 8. telling these Christians that
they are not to view the blessing of God in terms of what they
might call smiling providences alone. So often we fall into
this trap. How are things going? Oh, the
Lord's been blessing. Kids are well, and bills are
paid, and jobs going well. The Lord is blessing. I let the
kids get sick for a week, two weeks, six months on end. You're
laid off from work. How are things going? When's
the last time you heard anyone say, boy, the Lord is blessing.
He's showered trials upon me to prove my faith. When did you
hear anyone talk that way? If we're biblical, we ought to.
That's what Paul is telling them in Romans 8, verse 28. What does
he say? And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them that are the
called according to His purpose. Why? For whom He foreknew, He
foretold. the image of His Son. The all
things are what we would call the frowning providences that
do nothing to create immediate giddy happiness and joy, but
all how they can be sublimated by the Spirit of God to make
me more like Christ. There is nothing in God's providence
that cannot subserve that great end of making me more like the
Savior. There is much in His providence
that is not calculated to make me giddy and happy. In that narrow,
limited sense, there is much to bring me to agony, and to
tears from the brokenness, and at times to confusion. Where
I've got to pray some of those psalms in which I cry out, Lord,
hast thou clean cast me off forever? Why hidest thou thy face? Why
cry I all the day long, and thou art silent? Do you know what
that is as a Christian? And this view of conversion that
makes the end of it, the sinner's constant and immediate happiness
and ebullience and this flighty kind of joy, it has no place
for these disciplines of God that are a frowning providence
on the surface. But when I see that God's end
is to make me like His Son, and how was His Son made perfect?
Through suffering. Through suffering, Hebrews 5,
verse 8, though he were a son, yet learned the obedience by
the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, how,
through suffering, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all that obey him. Oh, the difference when we view
our own conversion from this perspective, that of him sovereign
electing love, through him effectual calling unto him, that I may
bring praise to him, that I may be like his son, that I may show
forth the virtues of him who called me, unto him are all things. Need I remind you of how explicitly
Paul states this in Ephesians 1? The little phrase is there
three times, to the praise of His glory, to the praise of the
glory of His grace. That's the end. Now, not only
must we view our own conversion this way, but as we aspire to
the conversion of others, we must view it in this light. And
what a radical difference it will have in our whole perspective.
As we long to see others converted, whether they are our children,
our neighbors, our loved ones, our friends, we recognize if
ever they are to be converted, it will be because God is pleased
to save them. Of Him is the conversion of that
loved one. It must be through Him, His mighty,
His effectual, His powerful working. And the whole end of it will
be not that I may cut a few more notches in my rifle and tell
people how many souls I've won, But that a rebel sinner who's
lived indifferent to God with the bit in his teeth, dishonoring
the God who created him to live to his praise, now, like the
Thessalonians, turns from his idols and begins to serve the
living and the true God and to fulfill the very purpose for
which he was made. To live in God's world, subject
to the law of that God, that even when he's doing things most
like the animals, eating and drinking, he now does them to
the glory. of that God. It has a radical
effect upon our whole view of evangelism, the content of our
message, the methods we employ. And then, if God is pleased to
give any fruit, we'll describe it in those beautifully God-centered
terms that you find throughout the book of the Acts. Again,
and I'm amazed how Luke writes history, evangelistic history,
with such a God-centered perspective. Thirty years after Pentecost,
looking back on what happened, how does he describe it? And
the Lord added to the church such as should be saved. He's writing the account of what
happened at Antioch. Some unbelieving Jews turn away
and Paul says, all right, your blood be upon your head, henceforth
we go to the Gentiles. And wonder of wonders, numbers
of Gentiles believed. How does he describe it? Acts
13, 48, and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Luke's
writing history this way. Why? Because this is his mentality
of him. Through Him, unto Him are all
things. He doesn't want anybody to read
the account of the evangelistic trust of the early church and
to make little laurels to lay at the feet of Peter, Paul, or
anyone else. He wants them to fall upon their
faces and say, what a great God, the living and the true God He
is, who through the power of His Spirit has wrought he's describing the conversion
of Lydia, all of these texts that are familiar to us. I want
you to see them in this light. Why does he say, whose heart
the Lord opened? Why is he doing that? Is he again
looking down through history and saying, well, you know, some
town down the line, these people that hold a certain theological
position are going to need some good little proof texts so I'll
feed them some ammunition? No, no, that's the way he thought.
When he sees and hears the report of Paul He knows that on Him
is this opening of the heart of Lydia. Through Him is the
opening of that heart, and unto Him the end of all of this, that
Lydia and her household may now glorify God by embracing the
salvation tendered in His Son and by living to His praise. This emphasis pervades the epistles. So when Paul's dealing with the
very practical matter of division at Corinth, how does he deal
with the division? He says, now you silly people, you're the
group over here and say, Apollos is my man. Somebody over here,
Peter's my man. And somebody over here, he says,
how stupid. What are these ministers? Look at 1 Corinthians 3. What
does he call them? He calls them big zeros. Neither is he that planteth anything,
zero. Neither is he that watereth anything,
zero. But God who gives the increase,
He is everything. Now does that mean Peter has
no significance? Of course not. Does it mean Paul
has no significance? Of course not. He says, They
are ministers through whom ye believed, but each as the Lord
gave to him. See how careful he is to guard
this biblical concept. Now stupid we can be that we
allow our affections to be idolatrously attached to men simply because
they were instruments of God to bless us when we need to see
that of Him was the blessing, through Him was the blessing,
and unto Him in praise is to be the blessing, but we've missed
it. Any time you begin to get idolatrously
attached to any human vessel that's been an instrument of
blessing, just look around. There are people who haven't
received one drop of the water of life from the very lips that
God has used to assuage your thirst. To change the figure,
look around and there'll be people who are as dry of life from the very vessels
that God has made instruments of life to you. Why does he do
this? To remind us that neither is
he that planteth or he that watereth anything, but God that giveth
the increase. And oh, beloved, how we need
that lesson to be underscored with the coming of my dear brother
Blaze. How we need to understand that.
God is going to be pleased to use him in lives that he has
never touched through me. And as I stand before you now,
I believe I can say before God with all honesty, nothing will
thrill me more. And I pray God that that will
continue to be so. But there will be others whom
God will be pleased to continue to minister to in greater measure
through me than through him. What do we need to learn? It's
not a matter that this one is more effective, this one is more
efficient, this one deserves—no, no, no, no, no, no! Neither is
he that planted If we don't learn that lesson
and have it vividly implanted in our hearts and minds, the
very blessing of God bringing another man to share in the full-time
pastoral oversight can become a curse and the very seedbed
of God-dishonoring dissension and division. You see, this perspective has
tremendous practical implications, doesn't it? That's why I'm sorely
tempted. In fact, I think we may have
a congregational meeting to give a few directions on this. So
if people call up and say, is so-and-so preaching tonight?
We want all of you to answer, say, the Word of God will be
preached at the church tonight. Well, is Mr. So-and-so going
to be in the pulpit tonight? You say, a man of God with the
Word of God will be there. Oh, you say that's a little bit
extreme? Well, maybe it's necessary to get this emphasis through.
Because in a man-centered, man-worshipping age, it's so hard for us to think
consistently in terms of this biblical perspective of Him.
Through Him, unto Him are all things. Well, so much then for
the conversion of the sinner. How we view our own in this perspective
and its implications. How we view the conversion of
others. Now let's touch a few minutes on the whole area of
the worship and service of the visible church. For remember,
the Apostle Paul was a high churchman. All of his labors flowed out
of and fed back into the church visible. He called in 1 Timothy
3 the church the pillar and the ground of the truth. Having evangelized
as he was sent out by the church at Antioch, He goes back and
visits all of the churches planted, comes back to his home church,
and there spends time to renew friendships and to share the
joys and blessings of the ministry. So this perspective cannot be
divorced in the Apostle's mind from the whole matter of the
extension in life and ministry of the church. How does this
fit into the whole perspective of church life? Well, let's trace
out a few lines again. What is the cause of the Church's
being? The Apostle is very, very careful
to tell us in Ephesians chapter 2 that the Church has as its
ultimate cause the purpose of God. Look at the passage to which
I am referring, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 20 and following. We should pick up the thread
of thought at verse 18. For through him we both have
our access, Jew and Gentile, in one spirit unto the Father.
So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow
citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being
built. See the passive verb, not building
yourselves, being built. Upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Christ Jesus himself, the chief cornerstone, in whom
each several building fitly framed together groweth into an holy
temple of the Lord, in whom ye also are built together. See again the passive, ye are
built together. for inhabitation of God in the
Spirit. What is the cause of the church's
existence? According to this passage, God
has said, I will have a temple on earth in which to dwell, and
I will form that temple. Now where will I quarry my stones? Shall I form it of angels who've
never fallen? Make then my dwelling place?
He says, no. Shall I go to the fallen angels
and take out of that great quarry of intelligent, rational beings
the stones for my temple? God says no. I'll go to the quarry
of Adam's race, lost, fallen humanity, and I will cut out
of that quarry an innumerable company out of every kindred,
tribe, and tongue, and nation. And I will make them, switching
to the analogy of first Peter, I will take them and make them
living stones and I will build them up to be a temple in which
I myself will dwell on earth and on into the new heavens and
the new earth. That's the cause of the church's
existence. The church is of him. He has
initiated the concept that he will dwell amongst his people.
And when you see the consummation of the church in her glory, the
dominant note as we saw several Lord's Day mornings ago, the
hope, the riches of the glory of our inheritance, the emphasis
that comes through again and again in the book of the Revelation
is what? God himself shall be with them. He will tabernacle
amongst them, they shall see his face." That's the cause of
the church. Jesus stated it when he was evangelizing
an immoral woman. He says, the Father is seeking
men to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Where do true worshipers
come from? Because the Father is seeking
them. The Father is seeking them. And the seeking Father is the
one who creates them to be such. Think of the words of Jesus,
I will build my church. If the church is built, it's
because I purpose to build it. The worship and service of the
church, then, is to be seen in the light of this text. Of Him
are all things, and wherever there is a true church, be it
a true church of four or four thousand, we must never look
upon it as the product, as the cleverness of some human instrument,
we must never look upon it as the corporate product of the
combined influence of zealous, clever people. We must stand
back and say, of Him are all things. But He is not only its
ultimate cause, He is the means by which it is brought to pass.
I go back to the Ephesians 2 passage. Ye are builded together. There is the present activity
of God. God who purposed to have a dwelling
place is the God who is actively, presently, and powerfully at
work to bring that to pass. Hence, whenever you find a true
worshipper, the Spirit of God's been at work. Listen to Paul's
statement in Philippians 3.3. We are the true circumcision
who worship God by the Spirit, who glory in Christ Jesus, and
who put no confidence in the flesh. The means by which the
church is built is the present activity of the Spirit of God,
taking out of that quarry of lost humanity dead, lifeless
stones, quickening them to life, making them living stones, putting
them into that structure, His church. And to what end is all
of this? That there might be some kind
of religious three-ring activity of feverish religious noise and
kicking up the dust of programism and all the rest? No, no. No,
no. What's the end of all this? Turn
to 1 Peter chapter 2. And you have again the whole
concept of the church as a building. And Peter mixes his metaphors
and the rest. Out of it comes a beautiful picture
of what God has as his goal. 1 Peter 2, verse 1, putting away therefore
all wickedness and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all
evil speakings, as newborn babes long for the spiritual milk which
is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation,
if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. unto whom coming
a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect and
precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up, see the
passive again, ye are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy
priesthood, now never forget that emphasis, with whom was
the priest primarily concerned? With God. Hebrews says that the
priest was the one who dealt in things pertaining to God. He brought the sacrifice to God. He brought the offering to God.
He came out from the presence of God to lift up hands of blessing
on behalf of God toward the people. Now notice what he says. You
are built up as living stones. There's one figure, the Ephesians
2 figure. He's made us living stones to
put us in the temple, but then He's taken those stones and out
of them He's made men, and He's clothed them with priestly garments,
the garments of the righteousness of His Son, washed us in the
blood of His Son, no ceremonial washing, but true washing, the
cleansing of the conscience through the blood of Christ. To what
end? That we might be little busy beaver people running around
in a thousand activities directed to men? No! Listen to what the
passage says, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. That's the aim of the church,
to be God's dwelling place, that out of that sanctuary of His
people may come spiritual sacrifices directed unto Him. The sacrifice
of praise that we read about in Hebrews 13. The whole idea,
you see, of coming together in the singing is preliminary. Preliminary
to what? To the performance of the homiletician? Abominable! God says, I want
to sacrifice a prayer from my people. And so when we sing,
we're rendering that sacrifice that He seeks. We're teaching,
we're demonstrating that we have learned the lesson that of Him,
through Him, unto Him are all things. Why did He send His Son
to die? For me? Why in time did He send
His Spirit to quicken me? Why did He incorporate me into
the church? That I might come within the
gathering of the people of God, clothed in my priestly garments,
those garments of the righteousness of Christ, the cleansing of His
blood, and render a spiritual sacrifice to that God who has
redeemed me, to what end? That He may be satisfied with
His own work. If the whole world stands on
the outside and jeers and mocks and calls it all stupidity, and
if the witness of the church is not owned of God to the salvation
of one more soul, God will still get what he seeks from his people,
the sacrifice of their praise. Not only the sacrifice of praise,
the sacrifice of their giving, Paul calls the gift of the Philippians
in chapter 4, he says, I've received your gift from Epaphroditus,
an odor, a sacrifice, well-pleasing unto God. The sacrifice of a
broken and a contrite heart? David speaks of it. The sacrifices
of God are a broken and a contrite heart. What does God want from
His people? In concert, He wants them to pour out the confession
of their sin, the confession of their failure, their need,
fleeing again to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness,
drawing near through the new and living way, having, as it
were, a thousand echoes throughout the earth at any given moment
of the glory of that new and living way, open through the
person and work of Jesus Christ, that now unto the angels and
principalities and powers might be made known through the church
the manifold wisdom of God. Think of it tonight. Wherever
the people of God are gathered, angels and principalities look
in with a thing, fallen sons of Adam, stones
that were once in the great quarry of lost and damned humanity,
who've been quarried out, forged, mixing my metaphors, into the
temple, suffused with light, standing as priests, offering
praises to their God. Oh, that the vision of it will
grip us. What does God get from the church? He is the great end that the
spiritual sacrifices may be offered unto Him. And then, of course,
it's in that context that the evangelistic endeavors of the
Church are seen. Part of her spiritual sacrifice
is her desire to see others brought to the knowledge of Christ. She
is not a people who simply sit and worship. No, no, having seen
that God, she longs to say in the words of Isaiah 40, from
the high mountain, behold your God. You long to enter into the
iniquitous circumstances of our day as Paul did at Athens, and
as you see people ignorantly worshiping a thousand gods of
their own construction. The man who's looked with adoring
wonder upon the true God and brought to him the sacrifice
of praise the sacrifice of his giving, of his worship, of his
submissive attention to his word. He's the one who longs to say
with Paul, the God whom you ignorantly worship, Him I proclaim to you. But listen, he's never going
to huckster that God off. He's never going to pawn off
his salvation in some kind of a cheap jack trick to get people
to sign on the dotted line. His most intimate, tender, compassionate
pleadings with sinners will always be suffused with the grandeur
and the glory of the great God whom He serves. Of Him, through Him, unto Him
are all things. We've applied it to the matter
of the individual Christian and his conversion, his own, his
yearning for others. We've briefly looked at the worship
and the service of the church, and we've seen how this text
has such tremendous implications, and these have only been a few
suggestions. One of the tape men asked me,
he said, Pastor, is this just going to be two messages or are
you going to end up ten like some others have? And I said,
no, I'm too tired and my mind's not fertile enough to go beyond
the two at this time. But I do want to apply to one
other area that's one of tremendous relevance for us, particularly
in our day. This text has a lot to say in
terms of the educational framework that we provide for our children. We say, how in the world do you
get anything from that text that has to do with the educational
framework of our children? Well, let's look at the text.
What's Paul been dealing with in those first eleven chapters,
over which he writes the words of him, through him, unto him,
are all things? Well, he's been dealing with a view of history.
He's been dealing with the history of the Gentile nations in chapter
one. He says, you want to explain
the behavior of those nations? that went apart at the seams
morally and ethically, and the judgment of God has come upon
them. You know how you explain the history of those nations?
You explain them religiously. You explain them in terms of
their relationship to God and God's dealings with them. They
did not want to retain God in their knowledge. God gave them
over. And he describes in graphic detail those steps of degeneracy
from natural heterosexual relationships to homosexuality and to bestiality. And he says you don't understand
history apart from this perspective of him, through him. Unto him are all things. The
wrath of this God is revealed in the nations, and their conduct
is to be explained, not sociologically, biologically, or any other way,
but religiously. He deals with the whole matter
of the history of the Jewish nation. Here's a philosophy of
world history. Why the prominence and the grandeur
of Israel Why their tremendous growth and influence, and why
their terrible downfall and their almost being obliterated as far
as a national entity? Paul tells us in Romans 9-11,
it all has to do with the sovereign purposes of God in grace for
the world. Yes, those are the terms he uses.
These are world-encompassing perspectives with regard to history. Paul has a view of science here.
He's talking about the present order, the ecological structure.
In Romans 8, the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now. He says the curse is evident
in the present structure of the natural world order. And he says
that will last until such time As God's redemptive purposes
for his own are culminated, and he says the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth, waiting for what? Not waiting for some ecological
Messiah who is going to resolve all our problems of ecology.
Now I'm not saying we should not as Christians be responsible
in all that other business. I'm fully aware of that. But
what I am saying is this. In the midst of all the talk
about the ability of man, if only he'll use his resources
to bring back Eden, is foolishness. There's only one who's going
to bring back Eden, and that's the Lord Jesus, who'll come from
flaming fire and taking vengeance on his enemies and consume this
world. And the scripture says in 2 Peter
chapter 3, that after he's consumed it in the fires of his judgment,
then will be ushered in the new heavens and the new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness." You see, you can't approach the whole
subject of ecology apart from the perspective that of Him,
through Him, unto Him are all things. The whole matter of human
behavior Romans 3, he tells us, none that understandeth, none
that seeketh after God, all gone out of the way, together become
unprofitable, no fear of God before their eyes. You see, every
facet of life has been touched and put under this canopy of
Him, through Him, unto Him, are all things. What is Paul saying?
You cannot understand life at any point apart from the sovereign
God who is the beginning, the means, and the end of all things. Now, what's happened in state,
public, school systems today? There is the pervasive influence
of pure humanism that says man's good is the chief end to be attained
at, pure secularism that says man can understand himself, his
world, and his problems without reference to God, and the state
should not mingle its function with the church. And since, this
is the philosophy, that since the training of the children,
their education is primarily the county, the state, the city,
the town's responsibility, don't mix religion with it, what are
they saying? They're saying that it's possible to understand God's
world, my place in it, my function, myself, and my fellow creatures,
with no reference to God. They're saying of Him, through
Him, and unto Him are religious things, and religious things
alone. But of man, through man, and
unto man are secular things. But this text will not allow
that bifurcation, that separation. This text says of him, through
him, and unto him are all things. The Bible says the fear of the
Lord is the chief part of all knowledge. That's a proper rendering
of the text. And when you send your child
Carelessly and irresponsibly. Now that does not cover those
who thoughtfully and prayerfully have come to this conviction.
I am not standing to judge anyone. I am challenging you to think
through the whole matter of the so-called neutrality of the public
education system. It is not neutral. It is saying
that God has nothing to say about human behavior. Man's behavior
can be explained in terms of his genes, his hormones, his
environment, his sociological influences. Now who's right? God says you can't understand
man unless creature made in my image. Unless
you see him as a creature upheld by me, in him we live and move
and have our being. Unless you understand him as
a creature accountable to me, God shall judge the world in
righteousness. Now who's right? Secondary education
says, little boy, you can understand yourself without God. Leave God
for mommy and daddy and the preacher or the priest or the rabbi. But
we'll teach you this, this, this and this and God doesn't enter.
Now who's right? Who's right? You've got to make
a choice. Secular education says you don't
need God to understand history. History is just the facts of
what happened. There's no more greater folly
than the idea of neutral observation of history. You see what you
want to see. You see what your eye is trained to behold. And
it's the presupposition of those eyes that interprets history.
Paul interprets history in terms of the presupposition that God
has a redemptive purpose, and he will move men and nations
and pharaohs and Jacobs and Esau's to accomplish that purpose. The public school system, they
say, no, you don't need God to understand history, Egypt, Greece,
Rome, just nations, this is what happened. We're just giving neutral
facts. No, they aren't. Why should you
learn? What's right? What's wrong? The
whole matter of sex education in the public schools. The whole
assumption that the function of sex can be understood apart
from reference to the God who made them, male and female, and
set unto them, and set the boundaries for their sexual function and
expression, all of this is not neutral. You get forever out
of your head that the public school system is a neutral thing,
not for God or against God. No, no, it's not neutral. Well,
you say, maybe in some areas, but certainly things like science
and math and these things, those are just facts, no matter who.
Well, wait a minute now, wait a minute. What does God say about that
world out there that you kids examine when they're in the laboratory
or in the science class? The scripture says the heavens
declare the glory of God. and the firmament showeth his
handiwork. God put it there to be revelatory of himself, so
that you never look at it without thinking of him, and see something
of him in it, and you never really look at it unless you see him
in it. Suppose the day Michelangelo
finishes his tremendous work of art that they've just had
to repair, and I understand the proper way to pronounce it is
the pieta, with the emphasis on the last syllable, And Michelangelo stands by his
tremendously moving piece of art, the Pietà. And it's veiled
and he stands there and this is the day of the unveiling and
all the proper ceremonies have transpired and it's unveiled
and he stands there looking upon this that was born of his own
wisdom, his own creative, his artistic creative genius and
there's a sense in which he feels his very soul enters that shining
white marble for that is an extension of himself. And it's revelatory
of the wisdom of the creative genius of that great man. Suppose someone comes to look
at that and admiring it and speaking glowing terms about it and says
to someone next to him, oh, by the way, who is the sculptor?
And in the hearing of that great artist, someone says, oh, that's
totally irrelevant who the sculptor is. That has absolutely nothing
to do. Isn't it just beautiful in itself? How would you feel
if you were Michelangelo and you stood there and heard those
words? You get the message, don't you? The
heavens declare the glory of God, and God stands by his handiwork. And he says, when you see that,
see me. And in thousands of classrooms
across our country, People are saying, it makes no difference
how or who. Just look at it. Nature is beautiful. Nature is lovely. You say, Pastor,
you're not being fair. No, I may not be fair in the
sense of glossing over issues, but I'm being honest and stating
the facts as they are. There's no such thing as neutrality.
God is insulted. By saying, nature this, and creation
that, as though it existed of itself, came into being by itself,
stands by itself, exists by itself. No! It exists to reveal Him. The heavens declare the glory
of God. day utter his speech, and night
unto night show forth knowledge. There is no language where their
voice is not heard." And the secular educationist stops his
ears and says, I'll not hear God's voice. He swaps his head
for his eyes because I'll not see God's character. I'll just
look at the thing itself. And he ends up not understanding
the thing itself. And then he begins to worship
and serve the creature more than the Creator. Romans 1 lived all
over again. Why? They did not want to retain
God in their knowledge. They said, we'll be neutral.
We'll be mature 20th century secular educationists. We won't
kill God. We won't obliterate God. We just
won't retain Him in the field of knowledge. That's what the
text says. They did not want to retain God
in their knowledge. And what did they end up? You
end up worshiping the pieta if you don't see beyond that to
the wisdom and the genius of its creator. And when man begins
to worship man, it isn't long before man ceases to be man.
So Romans 1 goes on to say, he began to worship the beast and
then he became life. The only way man can remain a true man
is to be man as God made him in relationship to God. and viewing
all of life in that relationship and when he refuses to, he loses
his manhood! He ends up becoming a beast.
We've told a generation, three, four generations, we've come
from the beast, and this present generation says, well if that's
what I am, I might as well live consistent with what you've told
me I am. And then the generation that taught him that throws up
its hands in horrors and says, look at that, no good generation,
no standard, blah blah blah, and all the other business. They
programmed that very philosophy of life into them by the pure
secular, evolutionary, humanistic perspective with which they were
disciplined in mind and thought hour after hour, day after day. Some of you wonder why the instruction
for a few moments in the home and a few hours a week in the
church does not take hold in your children. You see the problem?
The mind is taught to think secularistically five days a week, then you try
to raise it loose and make it think theistically a half an
hour a day at home and an hour or two on the Lord's day. Not
only is the public school system teaching certain things as so-called
facts, but they're teaching a way to arrive at facts. The Bible
says, in thy light we shall see light. The Bible teaches that
we know only as we know in the light of His countenance, so
that all knowledge is approached from the standpoint, Oh God,
my mind is full of darkness until You give me light to understand
myself, my world, my fellow men, my relationship to myself, to
them, to one another. In Thy light we'll see light. That's thinking theistically,
biblically. But the programmed mentality of the secular school
is, God is not a necessary commodity in the attainment of true knowledge.
Now some of you may be offended at that, but please, if you're
a Christian, you have a responsibility to love and pursue the truth.
And I challenge you to pursue the truth in this matter. Go
to the teachers who mold the lives of your children and talk
to them. Say, do you believe my child can understand the world
without looking at it as God's world? Do you believe my child
can understand himself without viewing himself as a creature
made in the image of God? One of our members applied for
a part-time teaching post in a nursery school next year, and
when being interviewed, this was just this past week, when
being interviewed and making it clear that the whole teaching
structure would be such in which the concept of the child's relationship
to God would be brought in, they were shocked and horrified to
think that an intelligent person with a teacher's degree and certification
and some experience would think so archaically. Now thank God for the blessed
exceptions, the Christian school teachers who seek, I mean teachers
who are in secular schools but as Christians are seeking to
teach in a biblical framework. We have one or two in our own
assembly. Thank God for the blessed exceptions. And no way am I saying that anyone
who's in a public school system is apostate. No, no, no. Please don't any go out and say
that or feel that. No, that would deeply grieve
me. But I'm talking about the general framework and structure
that pervades as the overriding climate. If this text is true of him,
Through Him, unto Him are all things. Do you see the necessity
of providing for our children the framework in which they learn
to interpret all of life that way? All is from this God, through
this God, and unto this God. Do you see the necessity? Do you see why we have a responsibility? Now, you can carry this out in
many other areas. I think these three that we've
traced out are enough to begin to at least make your minds exercise
to think within the framework of Romans 11, verse 36. Of Him, through Him, unto Him
are all things, and it ought to start with your own life.
That's the first circle in this great collection of concentric
circles. But you say, but Mr. Martin,
I've never thought that way before. My whole life has had me at the
center, my plans, my will. How can He be at the center?
There's only one way. You must start with bowing to
the salvation this God extends to you in Jesus Christ and in
the gospel. It is by Jesus Christ that we
are wrenched loose, wrenched loose from the man-centered center. from your idols to serve the
living and the true God? And how did they turn? Through
Christ! I am the way, the truth, the
life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. Having begun there,
let us as Christians pray, O God, extend the circles in which my
whole life pattern reflects the framework of Your Word, of You,
through You, unto You, all things. Anything You cannot consciously
believe is of Him in terms of His own purpose revealed in His
precepts, His will. that you cannot expect his spirit
to enable you and call upon his assistance in that activity,
in the pursuit of that goal through him, anything that you cannot
consciously submit to him, pleading that he be glorified life, whether
you eat, drink, whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. This has great ethical, moral
implications. I must stop because you see it's
a text that just ranges out in all directions of the compass.
May God guide us as we seek to live with it and be subject to
it for His glory. Let us pray.