to the book of Romans chapter
11, the 11th chapter of the book of Romans. I'd like to begin my reading
with verse 33 and read down through verse 36. 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. The Apostle Paul has been instructing
the Lord's people, the Roman believers, and of course all
those who would believe on the Lord after his writing of this
scripture, in the doctrines of God's sovereignty and in the
truth of the doctrines of grace. And he comes now down here in
the 11th chapter of the Book of Romans To make this statement
in verse 33, he 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! The Apostle Paul understood that
there were many of God's truths that were unfathomable, that
men would not be able to reach the depth of them or be able
to ascend to the height of them. He understood there was great
mysteries involved in God's truth, and he knew that the truths of
God could only be understood as God revealed them and unfolded
them unto the hearts of men. We understand that there's so
many, many things about God's ways that are past finding out.
And that's what Paul tells us here in this verse. Now, the
Apostle Paul was not like some in our day who say, well, you
know, the ways of God are past finding out. His wisdom and knowledge,
they're so deep, nobody can understand them, so we will not make any
attempt. to present the great doctrines
that Paul has revealed on the pages of Holy Scripture here
in the first 10, 11 chapters here of the Book of Romans. We
make no attempt to do it. Therefore, we'll have nothing
to do with the doctrines of sovereignty and predestination and election. We want nothing to do with it.
We won't even touch them. Well, beloved, we believe that
to be wrong also. We believe that all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God and it is profitable for reproof
and for instruction in righteousness that the people of God may be
mature in the faith, thoroughly furnished unto a knowledge of
every good work. We believe that these things
must be preached. We agree with Paul that there
are many things hard to be understood. We agree that there are many
things about the attributes the attributes of God that are, we
believe in the incomprehensibility of the infinitude of the attributes
of God, if you please. We believe that, and we know
there's great depth to it. But however we come to the Word
of God, and I hope that we have the attitude that David had in
the Psalms, in Psalm 131, He said, Lord, my heart is not haughty,
nor mine eyes lofty, neither do I exercise myself in great
matters or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved
and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother.
My soul is even as a weaned child. David said, my heart's not haughty. And if we take a text of scripture
like this, my, it's more than what we can comprehend. And there's
such a tremendous weight of truth in these verses that that we
have no feeling in and of ourselves that we can preach a sermon that
is worthy this morning of our text. We feel that we shall surely
fail in being able to talk about these verses, and I want us to
primarily focus our attention on verse 36, where it says, For
of him, and through him, and to him are all things to whom
be glory forever. This is a tremendous verse of
scripture. It reminds us of another verse
of scripture that we find over in the book of Revelation, chapter
4, and verse 11, where he talks about His creation, and it says,
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for
Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are
and were created. So for of him and through him
and to him Paul's talking about this great God that he's been
that he's been declaring his mercies and his grace And he's
talking about this God He says for of him through him to him
are all things to whom be glory forever now I made mention to
the fact that I don't think that that there's a man living who
is worthy or who can preach a sermon that is worthy of this text. And I'll go further and say this
morning that of all of the sacred orators and the eloquent pleaders
for God that ever lived in this world and that ever will live,
there's not going to ever be a man capable of reaching the
height of the great arguments contained In these few simple
words here in Romans 11 and verse 36, our great God alone can expound
this verse only by the Holy Spirit of God coming and revealing and
making known God to us can we understand these words. We trust the Lord this morning
that he might condescend to us and that our hearts shall be
lifted up in his ways and that we'll have a partial understanding
and knowledge of his ways. Now there are two things that
I want us to notice in this text this morning. One of them I think
is worthy of our observation and the second is worthy of our
imitation. First of all you have in the
text A doctrine, and then you have devotion, two things. The
devotion, or the doctrine might we say, is of Him and through
Him and to Him are all things. And then the devotion is to whom
be glory forever. Amen. First of all, let us notice
the doctrine. Beloved, it is laid down by the
Apostle Paul as a general principle that all things come of God. That all things come of God. Now, this is a general principle.
They are of Him as their source. Meaning that all things originated
with God and everything sprung from the will of our God. And they're through Him as their
means. The way they got here was through
the power and the Word of our God. And they're to Him as their
end, meaning that they serve His own end and eternal purpose. They serve the end that God had
planned for them when He created and when He made them and when
He put them here in this world. So they are of Him in the plan.
meaning that God planned all things. They are through him
in the working out, and they are to him in the glory which
they will ultimately produce unto our God. So we have here
this general principle, and it applies to all things. Now in
John chapter 1, and verse 3, there's a tremendous verse of
Scripture which I believe that we should read at this time.
John 1 and verse 3 says, All things were made by Him. And
this verse of Scripture is talking about our Lord Jesus Christ.
We know He's God. Don't we know that? that He is
God. And it says all things were made
by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. So it just bears out the very
things that we've been saying. Without Him there was nothing
made and there was nothing made that was not made by Him. And
so in the plan and in the working out and to him this is the message
of the text, this is the doctrine of the text. But we will this
morning make it our business to mark two things which I think
that this truth is most manifestly set forth and which it is manifestly
the case. Now, first of all, I want to
talk about creation a little bit, and secondly, about redemption. It is evident that the creation
of this world and all things in it is of God. It originated
with God in its planning and in its outworking. to the end
that he would be glorified through all of his creation. And then
the second thing we'll talk about is the redemptive work, that
great work of redemption of our God. Now then, there was a period
when God dwelt alone before there was any creation, when there
were no creatures. And in that time, before all
time, when there was no day but the Ancient of Days, God, the
great I Am, was as perfect and glorious and powerful and blessed
as He is at this very hour. God existed before there was
anything that was made. Now the Lord, abiding in this
solitude, chose at a time to create all things. The first
thought and idea must come of him for there was no other individual
there, no creature to think or no other creature there to make
a suggestion to him about the creation and so the thought or
the idea had to come from God. It must be of him in its design
because with whom could he take counsel? Or who hath known the
mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor? Who could have instructed him?
There was no creatures there. And so it is of him, it is of
him, the creation sprung forth from his will and from his purpose. He ordained the pathway of every
planet and the abode of every fixed star. As to the earth,
the Lord planned its foundations. Psalm 102 and verse 25 says,
Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens
are the work of thy hands. He appointed the bounds of the
sea, and settled the course of the winds. He formed in his own
mind the mold of all of his creatures and found for them a dwelling
and a service in his creation. He appointed the degree of strength
with which he would endow each creature when it would be made
and put into this world. He settled its length of life,
its hour of death, its coming and going throughout the earth.
The Lord did all that. Divine wisdom mapped the earth,
its rivers and seas, the towering mountains and the valleys. Psalm
19 and verse 1 says the heavens declare the glory of God and
the firmament showeth His handiwork. It shows that this is God's work. It's His, the work of His hand. Hebrews 11 and 3 says, Through
faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word
of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things
which do appear. Meaning that God made the world,
He spoke it into existence. He spoke all of these things
into existence. They were made out of things
that did not appear before God spoke them into existence. We're talking about a God that
all things are of Him. and through him and to him. So, beloved, we need to tread
lightly as being God's servants and tread softly and be reverent
in our hearts because as truly as God is in heaven, wherever
you and I and whatever you look at and whatever you see in this
world, beloved, we're in God's workshop. where every wheel is
turned by God's hand. This is God's world and God has
created it. It's of Him and through Him and
to Him. I want you to turn with me to
the book of Isaiah chapter 40. I want you to look at some verses
here that I believe will set this forth very clearly to our
hearts. First of all, notice the last
phrase of verse 9. It says, Behold your God. Behold your God. And then we
begin reading with verse 12. Who hath measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span,
and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed
the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance. who hath
directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath
taught him, with whom took he counsel, and who instructed him,
and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge,
and showed to him the way of understanding. Behold, the nations
are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust
of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the isles
as a very little thing, And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor
the beast thereof sufficient for a burn offering. All nations
before him are as nothing, and there counted to him less than
nothing, and vanity. To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness will you compare? unto him. We skip down to verse
22. It is he that sitteth upon the
circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers,
that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them
out as a tent to dwell in. Look at verse 25. To whom then
will ye liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Lift
up your eyes on high, behold, who hath created these things,
that bringeth out their host by number? He calleth them all
by names, and by the greatness of his might, for that he is
strong in power, not one faileth. Now then, look at verse 28. Hast
thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God,
the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not,
neither is weary, and there is no searching? of His understanding. There is no searching of His
understanding. These verses set forth the fact
that it's our God that made and sustains all things. Everything
is not of God, but God is in everything. And nothing works
or even exists but by the present power and might of our God. Of Him, through Him, and to Him
are all things. Everything will praise the Lord
He has so designed that he will praise the Lord, that everything
that he made will give praise and adoration and will extol
the Lord. Listen to these verses, Psalm
104, verse 31. The glory of the Lord shall endure
forever. The Lord shall rejoice in his
works. Psalm 98 and verse 1, O sing
unto the Lord a new song, for He hath done marvelous things.
His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory.
Psalm 95 and verse 8, Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His
name, bring an offering, and come into His courts. Psalm 96
and 2, Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among
all people. I'm telling you this morning
that God's creation will glorify Him. Everything has been designed
by Him, and He must be praised by it all. God must have the
highest motive, and there can be no higher motive conceivable
than His own glory. In other words, if everything
serves the purpose of God as intended, it will glorify God. And there can be no higher motive
conceivable than the glory of God in this world. His motive
must be Himself. His own glory is His highest
aim. Now, beloved, it is ours to put
a tongue, now you listen to me, most of us, we live in this wonderful
state where that we see so much of the majestic splendor of our
God in creation. We see so much in this state
that just fills us with awe of the majesty of our God. And it
is ours, brother, sister, as we go out and some of us hunt
and fish and some of us may hike and we may boat and we may ride
horseback into the mountains and we go out and we try to enjoy. Some may go skiing, but we get
out and we get into the creation of God and we look upon it and
we see it. And it is ours, beloved, to give
mouth and tongue to this, what I will call, dumb world in that
sense that it cannot speak other than its beauty speaks, but it
cannot speak words of praise back to its creator and maker
like you and I can. It is to us, it is our business,
it is what we should be taken up with when we look at what
God has made and what he's created to give tongue and mouth unto
God's creation and make beauties of creation. Praise their God.
That's our business, don't you think it is? That we ought to,
when we see some majestic sight and a few years back Conrad and
David was up Elk Creek and I believe it was Conrad took the picture
of David standing in a unique place back in a basin there.
Beautiful picture and I've showed it to a lot of people and And
everybody just thought, well, that ought to be printed in every
sports magazine in the country, because it was such a wonderful
picture. And anytime we see those things,
we ought to give tongue and mouth, and praise the God who made it,
and praise the God who has set forth these things so that we
could look upon them. The poet said, and lift up thyself,
my heart, and with the angels bear thy part, who all night
long unwearied sing high praises to the Eternal King. And that's
our business as the Lord's people. Well, this is the great work
of creation. It's of Him, it's through Him,
and it's to Him, and to Him be glory. And we ought to be about
that. Now then, in the second place,
I want us to talk about the great work of salvation. How that it's
of Him, and through Him, and to Him, and all things involved
in the new creation. In 2 Corinthians 5 and verse
18 it says, well let's back up to verse 17, it says, If any
man be in Christ, he's a new creation. All things are passed
away, and behold, all things become new. The very next verse,
verse 18, says, And all things are of God, which hath reconciled
us unto himself, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. But what all that means is that
all things having to do with the new creation. That which
makes a man one with Jesus Christ and which puts a man in union
with Christ, which is the essence of salvation, that is all of
God. It's all of God from the beginning
to the end. Well, let us lay a little bit
of groundwork here in order that you might more fully appreciate
The fact that all of redemption's work is of Him, through Him,
and to Him. Now we know that it was in God's
power to have made a universe very different from this, if
He had so pleased. And that He has made it what
it is must have been merely because in His wisdom and prudence He
saw fit to make it just like He did. follow me now, we're
going to get someplace here. There cannot be any reason why
that God should not have created a world from which sin should
have been forever excluded and that he allowed sin to enter
into his creation must again be inscribed or ascribed to his
own infinite sovereignty. Now what we've said is God could
have made this world different if he had wanted to. And what
we've said is that God made this world just like he wanted to
and he permitted sin to come into his world. Now had he not
known, had he not known that he would be master over sin and
out of evil would evolve the noblest display of his own glory,
he would never have permitted sin to enter into the world. Is that alright? Do you believe
that? Can you accept that? Well, in sketching the whole
history of the universe, which God was about to create, He permitted
even that black spot, sin, to defile His work, because He foreknew
What songs of everlasting praise and triumph would rise to himself
when in streams of blood, even the blood of his own dear son,
that sin would be washed out of his family, those that he
would purpose to bind to his heart forever and ever. Now the
sin is not God's. Remember that. The sin is not
God's. God's sin, but the temporary
permission of its existence form part of the foreknown scheme
of Him through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory,
part of the scheme. Tell me that the world is marred
by sin, and I agree, and I lament that with you. Tell me that the
slime of the serpent is upon everything that's beautiful here,
in this world, and I agree, and I would sorrow with you over
it. But yet, even yet, brother, sister,
shall everything speak to the glory of God. The day will come
when with a spiritually enlightened eye, you and I shall see that
even the introduction of the fall and the curse did not after
all mar the splendor of the majesty of the Most Highest creation. It did not. Now you listen to
me a little bit. Beloved, we would have never
known His justice. if it had not been for sin. We
would have never known anything about the justice, the inflexible
justice of God, if it had not been for sin. Well, in the curse
that God placed upon sin, in the death that sin brings to
the sinner, and in the punishment and the judgment that God brings
upon the sinner, we see the justice of God set forth in such a marvelous
and wonderful way. God's inflexible justice. He's a just God and a holy God. And we see that and sin had never
been permitted into his universe. We'd never known it. And then
secondly, the wisdom of God. Oh, the omniscience of God, the
ability of God to know all things. And we see His wisdom displayed
in the plan of salvation, in redemption's plan. And we see
His wisdom in that that He set forth a way. Only God could have
come up with a way. whereby sinners could be pardoned
and brought into right relationship with Him, and where they could
be accepted into His family, be adopted into His family, and
where they could have a nature that is like the nature of God,
and be with God in holy fellowship throughout the ages. and then
the love of God. We would have never known the
love of God if it hadn't have been for sin. It was the love
of God that moved God's heart to send His Son into the world. The Bible says here in His love,
not that we love God, but that God loved us and gave His Son
to be a satisfaction for our sin. This is love, beloved. Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. And because of sin the life of
the Lord Jesus Christ was laid down. Christ died because of
the love of God for his family, for those that he would save,
for all of the elect. And we would have never known
the love of God if it had not been for sin having been permitted
to come into the world. and then the power of God. We
would have never known anything about it. We could look at creation
and we could say, well, there must have been power behind this
thing of creation. But my friend, when we look at
a sinner, when we look at a sinner, I mean a sinner who is dead when
he's lost in the state of nature and separated from God, separated
from eternal life, and we see God by Holy Spirit power, come
down and lay hold of a sinner, and bring that sinner out of
his death, and puts life into him, and translates him from
darkness into life, and that sinner into light and life. We
see that sinner fixed up by God to where that sinner who dishonored
God as he lived. He was a sinner, and sin dishonors
God, but God is able to take that old sinner, and he's able
to fix that sinner up so that not even he himself can find
any fault with him. And you look him over, and you
look him over again and again, and you can't find any fault.
with that sinner that he took, and he's embraced him, and saved
him, and delivered him, and changed him, and he's converted, and
he's saved, and God looks him over, and there's not a thing
he sees wrong with him. He says he's without spot. He
says he's without blemish. And you tell me that God didn't
allow sin to come into this world? He allowed it! He permitted it!
In order that he might show himself off in the display of all of
his attributes in bringing his living family and reconciling
them unto himself and making them one with him. Oh, my friend,
this is so important that we see this. Courage then, beloved,
is the word of the hour. When you think that things are
going against the cause of God and truth, then you put this
pillow under your head. When you hear the hiss, of the
old serpent in your ear, and the old serpent says, it's no
use, you're a failure, you'll never be anything, you're a sinner,
and there ain't nothing can come of you. Listen to me, put this
pillow under your head. Of him, through him, and to him
are all things to whom be glory. Tell the enemy that God's defeats,
what looks like God's defeats, are really victories. They're
victories. God's weakness is stronger than
man, and even the foolishness of the Most High God is wiser
than man's wisdom. Well, beloved, without doubt
this principle is manifest in the work of divine grace. of
Him, through Him, and to Him. Here everything is of God, and
through God, and it's to God. Everything. Grace first moved
the heart of God and joined with divine sovereignty to ordain
a plan of salvation. This plan was the offspring of
God's wisdom alone. None but God could have imagined
a way of salvation such as that which is presented in the Gospel. Well, the thought of divine substitution
could have never have been suggested by the most educated of all creatures
if they would have been there. Now, there were none of them
there. But if they would have been there, if they would have
been his counselors, if they would have been his instructors,
You know when you listen to how men in our day and time, the
philosophers and the religionists of our day and time, if they
would have been there to put their two cents in. Now God says
it's going to be of me, it's going to be through me, and it's
going to be to me. But the counselors and the religionists
of the world, if they were there, They would have said, well, now
wait a minute. Now you listen to them explain the revelation
of God now, and how messed up they are with it, and how they
mess it up, and how they're always so confused. They don't know
what they're talking about half of the time in the way God saves
sinners. They couldn't tell you the truth
about how God saves sinners if they had to. They don't know
the gospel. They wouldn't know it if they met it in the street.
They wouldn't know the gospel of true grace. Wouldn't know
it. But they'd be telling God, well, I think if we just point
out or set out here that if everybody does the best they can, then
we'll take them home to heaven. If they do the best they can.
Well, you see, there's a lot wrong with that. First of all,
man, I don't know if anybody ever done the best he could.
Anybody want to stand up here and say, I just do the best I
can. Well, I never met anybody in
my life that could honestly say, if they stop and think about
it, just a minute, who wouldn't have to admit, no, there's places
in my life where I didn't do the best I could. I could have
done a whole lot better than what I did. That's not the gospel.
That'll not get you into heaven. But that's the idea of the religionist.
Pay your bills. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
That's the right thing to do. But that ain't going to get you
into heaven. That's got nothing to do with this. You see, we're
talking about of Him, through Him, and to Him. To Him be glory
forever. Now, it was God's will and plan. Listen to me. He ordained the
hour when Jesus Christ should come into the world. of whom
he should be born, by whom he would be betrayed, what day he
would die, when he would rise, and the very hour of his ascension
was all of God. He ordained those who were to
preach the gospel. I believe God calls men to preach
the gospel, and those to whom the gospel would be preached
Those who hear the gospel are favored of God. It's a privilege
to hear the gospel of God's grace. And those who would be the favored
individuals in whom effectual calling would make that preaching
mighty to the salvation of the soul. He settled it in his own
mind, the name of every one of his chosen, and the time when
each elect vessel should be put upon the wheel of the great potter
to be fashioned according to his will, according to his mind. What conviction of sin would
be felt when the time of faith would come to the sinner? How
much of holy light and scriptural enjoyment would be bestowed on
each one of the vessels of mercy? God had it all planned out. He
had it all purposed. Can you accept that? Of Him,
through Him, and to Him? And let's say this, Jesus, listen,
it's through him, it's through God. God provided the lamb that
was to be slain, whose blood would wash the vilest clean. God provided the lamb. Jesus
sweats blood in Gethsemane, and then he bleeds on Calvary. None stood with our Savior there. No blood of martyrs, no blood
of crusaders, no blood of priests, no blood of noble confessors
of the faith was mingled with his blood. He tread the winepress
of the wrath of God alone, and not one soul has ever been saved
or redeemed by human suffering. It was the suffering of the God-man. And God said, it's through me.
It's through me. He laid our sins on Him. Redemption
was the work of Jesus Christ alone. He paid the price. The ransom was found, but Christ
was that ransom. And as through him the atonement,
so through him the application of the atonement. By the power
of the Spirit, the word is preached. Christ is lifted up. And he's
lifted up as the all in all of a sinner's hope. He's lifted
up as being the all-sufficient one, the one who is able to give
you acceptance before God and to give you perfection before
God. He's lifted up. And men are called,
men are converted, men and women are saved as the Lord Jesus is
lifted up as they're brought to faith in Him. And next, we
want to make haste to say that salvation is all to Him. It's
all to Him. Now, beloved, we don't have one
note of praise to give to anyone else. We don't have a note of
praise. Oh, the day will come when a
nobler, sweeter song will sing His power to save, but we don't
have a word of praise to give to anyone else. Not a word of
praise. All glory to His name. Psalm
115 verse 1 says, Not unto us, not unto us, but unto His name,
but unto Thy name give glory. for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake, we'll have a word of praise to the man who would retain a
solitary word of praise for man or an angel in the work of divine
grace. Let him be silenced forever with
everlasting confusion. Let his mouth be shut if he's
got one word of praise to offer. to man, or to man's constitution,
or to man's free will. Let him be everlastingly silenced
with confusion, never to open his mouth. The Lord Jesus, listen
to me, will you rob God of his glory? Would you rob him? Will
you steal the Jews out of his crown, which he suffered and
bought with a shedding? He dearly bought them with his
precious blood. Will you glorify man's will above
the work of the Holy Spirit? Now listen to me. As the people
of God, we always, we hope, trust, if we don't lose our minds, we
will always say, It's what we will say. Listen to me. To God,
to God alone, be all the glory from the first to the last. Let
him who is the Alpha and the Omega have all the praise. Let
his name be extolled world without end. That's what the people of
God will say. Right? Amen? What are we saying? Well, we're saying what every
individual believer will attest to, will agree to. Ask yourself. Who thought of this thing of
salvation in the first place? Who thought up this thing of
a sinner being saved? Who ever thought it up? Well,
scripture says of him, so we know it's of God. We will attest
to that, will we not? Well, was I saved by accident
or was I saved on purpose? You ask the question. And an
intelligent person ought to ask that in question. He ought to
ask that question. Am I saved by accident or am
I saved on purpose? Of Him, through Him, to Him. Don't look to me like it's any
accident. God, purpose, our salvation,
and it was His will that brought it to pass in our lives. And
we're attesting to it. We don't have a word of praise
for anyone else. It's to Him. And the glory is
to be given to Him. Well, where did my salvation
come from? Who bought it? Who paid for it?
How did I ever get a new heart? Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? How can the Spirit come of the
flesh? Well, we as God's people, we
must not hesitate a single moment. We must be clear on this. If
there is in any of us faith, true faith, true hope, if there
is in any of us any spiritual life, any vital godliness, in
any of us, It must have come from God. Everybody would say,
Amen, who believes that? Amen! That's right, I'm telling
you the praise belongs to God. Now any soul who would give any
honor to his own natural constitution, well, I doubt whether he knows
anything at all about the matter of hand if he'd give any praise
whatsoever to any other. I'm telling you God deserves
the praise. He gave his Son And don't you go, don't you ever
think that you have, listen to me, listen to me, this idea that
we can put God somewhere or another under obligation to us, by our
works, or by our pedigree, or by where we came from, or anything
else, what we've given, the idea that we can put our Creator under
obligation to us is the biggest heresy that I can speak of this
morning. Look at verse 35. Who was first
given to him? Romans 11, 35. It shall be recompensed
unto him again. You find somebody that is first
with God and that gives to God first and puts God under obligation. God said no. He said I would
have already paid him back. I would have already paid him
back. You don't, listen, you can't put God in debt to you.
You cannot. You cannot. God is first. He's out front with the work
of redemption. He's out front with it. He's
the one that has provided it. Now then, let those who will
extol the dignity of the creature. Let who may boast in the power
of free will. We cannot do it because we found
our nature to be depraved, our will to be impotent. our will
to be in bondage to our own nature. We found that our nature and
our will is biased to sin and biased to evil. So we can't boast
of who we are or what we are. We're sinners. Salvation is grace,
Ephesians 2.8.9, for by grace are you saved through faith,
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. The glory goes to God. We must,
even if others will not, extol that unchangeable, omnipotent
grace of God which has made us what we are before God, and will
continue to keep us so till it brings us to the right hand of
God into everlasting glory. Now, beloved, that's the doctrinal
part of this text. That's it. We have the devotional
part of it, and I'm not going to take long on this, but I need
to say a few things to you in order that... Now, see, I have
to do it because I couldn't leave this. It's like a fellow... See,
my dad was a blacksmith, and he had a forge, and he'd heat
up iron, and when he got that stuff hot, he couldn't take off
for a coffee break or something. He got to beat that iron when
it's hot. And so we got this thing going here, and we've got
to finish it. So you just bear with me just a little bit longer
this morning. Now there's three verses I've got to read, and
these three verses will help you to see exactly what this
last phrase of verse 36 means. when it says, to whom be glory
forever. Number one, Jude verse 25. Jude
only has one chapter in the book, and it's verse 25. To the only
wise God our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion, and power
both now and ever. Amen. Both now and ever. Amen. Keep that little word now.
in your mind, 2 Peter 3 and 18, but grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory
both now and forever. Amen. And then the verse out
of Revelation 4 and verse 11, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure They are and were created. Now, listen
carefully. We'll be done just right away.
Philosophers represent the communication of happiness as the chief end
of man and the chief end of creation. In other words, everybody's happiness.
If everybody's happy, that's the chief end of God having created
man and God having created the world. That's what the philosopher
says. But listen to this. The scriptures
uniformly declare the glory of the Creator as the paramount
object of all that takes place throughout the vast limits of
the universe. The glory of the Creator. That's what it's all about. You
remember that he said, of him, through him, to him, be glory
forever. That's what it's all about. Now
then, quickly, to whom be glory is the duty of all men. This is not optional. This is
not optional. Now, you may have options open
in other areas of your life, but this business of God getting
the glory for creation and salvation, you don't have any option. But
there's no option here. To Him be the glory is the imperative
duty. and it's the universal duty of
all men, whoever you are, whatever be the color of your skin, wherever
you were born, whether you were born before the flood or after
the flood, I don't think there's anybody here that old, but we
were born after the flood, but listen to me, listen to me, or
whether we were born on the other side of Calvary, I don't think
anybody here that way, or on this side of Calvary, I'm just
using this to illustrate my point, you were born under this solemn
duty, To God be the glory both now and forever. This is your
supreme duty. This is the chief end of man.
The Catechism says to glorify Him and obey Him forever. Now this answers some questions.
You hear this morning, what am I doing here in this world? What
am I here for? Well, it's to glorify God. Where
did I come from? I came from God, and it's His
purpose that put me here, and His purpose demands that I glorify
Him while I live in this world. What is my purpose? It's to glorify
God. What am I about? To glorify Him. This is man's all-comprehensive
duty. It is the essence of every duty
and every law that God ever gave to His creatures. What does God
require of a man? God only requires that every
thought from birth to death, every word and deed be continually
and totally for His glory. That's what He demands. Now listen
to me. 1 Corinthians 10 and 31 says, whether therefore you eat,
or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Ask yourself before you do something,
can it be for God's glory for me to do this? Would this be
honoring to my God? Would it be for His glory? We
should ask ourselves. Now, let me say further, this
is a reasonable duty. This is a reasonable duty. Our
text says that He's worthy to receive or that to God be the
glory. Now then, God deserves glory.
Let me tell you quickly, He's not trying to steal something
that don't belong to Him. He's got it coming. He's worthy
to receive glory and honor and praise. He's not out to steal
something from you. Now then, when you've done that,
when you, as we said, God only requires that from birth to death,
every word, deed, be continually and totally for His glory, when
you've done that, you can stop. You can stop. Has anyone ever
done that? Seems like eternity would be
too short. for any individual to do that.
Seem that way to you? Seems that way to me. If you
ever give God the glory due unto such a majestic sovereign, then
you can stop. You're obligated until then. Give unto the Lord the glory
due His name. His name. See, this is something
we need to work on. Well, now, we noted that little
word now a few minutes ago. Why? Somebody says now. Why don't
we just wait till we all get to glory, and then we'll just
give him glory. We'll give him glory. Well, we're
going to do that. We're going to give him glory
when we get there, but this says that now, both now and forever,
that means that we'll be doing this right now in this world.
Well, the reason for that is this. We read in 1 John 3 and
2, it says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God. We're children
of God right now. Right now. And then not only
that, in Romans 8 and 1 it says there's now no condemnation to
them which are in Christ Jesus. Salvation experientially, as
far as the experiential part of it. starts now. It starts in this world. Don't
you see? Now God planned it before all
time and chose us in his Son before the foundation of the
world. But now is when it begins. Now we're accepted now. We are complete now in Christ. Now we're to give him glory.
A salvation, listen to me now, that does nothing for me now
will do nothing for me in eternity. Now you remember that. If your
old tongue won't loosen up a little bit here and glorify God, and
if you just cannot get it to come out of your spiritual system,
that God gets the glory for your salvation from the first to the
last, then listen, if that don't do something for you here, it
won't do nothing for you in eternity. I'll tell you, a man is affected
now. Don't you think so? He's affected
now. Don't he have some feeling now?
Don't he have something in his heart now? Don't he have some
desire to worship and praise now? Don't he have something
now? Don't you have something now?
Well, if you're a true child of God, you do. And there ain't
anything gonna keep you from speaking up and saying, I've
got something now in here. And it's a salvation that I expect
to.