Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Bridge Illustration

A bridge is all at once point of termination, a point of connection, and a point of introduction Think of the bridges over our grand river.

When travelling west the beginning of that bridge marks the end of the east side of town, the center of the bridge acts as the connection point between the east and west side, and the end of the bridge marks the beginning of the west side of town.

Our text today in Romans 11 is a bridge.

Paul’s letter to the romans is cleanly divided, as most of Paul’s letters are, between orthodoxy and orthopraxy, between doctrine and duty.

In Romans 1-11 Paul begins by teaching the doctrine of the gospel.

And in Romans 12-16 Paul turns to teaching the duties of gospel living.

This pattern reminds us that doctrine and duty go together in the Christian life.

We must both think and act biblically.

Following Christ is not head knowledge and heart knowledge alone, nor is it merely practical.

After explaining the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone and before explaining the duty of believers to present their lives as sacrifices to God, Paul pauses in our passage today to write a doxology in praise to God.

And Paul declares this doxology because he is moved by the revelation of the mystery of God’s plan for redemptive History.

And as R. Kent Hughes puts it, “Our study of God and his ways among us should turn our hearts to music.”

Main Point

And the theme of Paul’s hymn here in Romans 11 is this: God is worthy of all glory for His salvation shows His supremacy and His sovereignty over His creation.

Stated simply God is worthy of all glory because He is God and and we are not.

Transition

Paul’s doxology here is divided into three stanzas.

And in our first stanza in verse 33 we see that God’s salvation shows that He is Infinitely Supreme

God is Infinitely Supreme - Romans 11:33

Oh the Depths

Paul begins by celebrating the wonder of God’s supremacy with several theologically significant words.

But perhaps the most important word is the one he says first: Oh!

This is the cry or groan or sigh of an enraptured heart.

In these past chapters Paul has scaled mountain top after mountain top after mountain top of the glories of God in salvation.

And as is the case when you reach the peak of a mountain range and look out at the beautiful vistas before you and your heart and mind are overwhelmed by the majesty of God in Hs creation.

So too are Paul’s heart and mind filled with awe and wonder at the righteousness of God revealed in His Gospel.

And what Paul sees when he looks out from the mountain top of Romans 11 is that God is too deep for us to figure out.

Read with me in verse 33

The governing statement of this stanza is that God is deep.

God is supreme in that He is too deep for us to fully comprehend.

As one pastor put it, “the truth of God is shallow enough that children can come and get a drink without the fear of drowning, and yet it is so deep that scholars can dive in and never touch the bottom.”

Think of the depths of the sea.

The further you go out in the ocean the darker it becomes.

And the ocean is so weighty that the pressure at the very bottom of the ocean is so great that human life cannot survive.

That is where God hangs out.

God’s Riches are Deep

If you were to have a physical representation of his riches and stack them on top of the other the height of that stack would encompass the entirety of space in the universe.

He is rich for He for He has the power to create something out of nothing

He is rich for He owns all that He has created.

His riches make the wealthiest man in all the earth look penniless in comparison.

He has the deepest of pockets.

Paul also uses this term riches to refer to God’s kindness, God’s glory, God’s mercy, and God’s grace to those whom He saves.

God spends His infinite riches for the benefit of sinners.

Paul says in Romans 2:4

And then in Romans 9:22 he says

And then in Romans 10:12-13 Paul says

And then in Ephesians 1:7 Paul says,

And again in Ephesians 2:4 Paul writes,

There is no need to live in fear, doubt, and sin for our God is a rich God.

He is rich in mercy.

He is rich in glory.

He is rich in kindness.

He is abounding in riches

God’s riches are deep and God’s Wisdom is deep.

Depths of His Wisdom

If you were to fill books with his wisdom all the libraries in all the earth could not contain a decimal of what would be written.

Wisdom is more than mere understanding or knowledge.

Knowledge is what you know, wisdom is what you do with what you know.

In Scripture wisdom is the pursuit of the right end through the right means.

And the question then is how does one become wise?

God gives wisdom generously because God is the unending source of wisdom.

Wisdom in Creation

His infinite wisdom is evident in creation.

As the psalmist declares in Psalm 104:24

And as the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed in Jeremiah 10:12-13

Wisdom of the Cross

But to see God’s infinite wisdom on its greatest stage we must look no further than at the cross.

Ponder with me a minute, the wisdom of God in the gospel as taught in Romans.

Wisdom of Justification

God’s wisdom is seen in our justification by faith alone in Christ alone

Faith alone is necessary for both Jew and Gentile are bound up in sin.

All men and women are incapable of justifying ourselves and fully dependent upon Him to justify us.

Romans 3:23,

Furthermore, the wisdom of justification by faith is seen in that it is the only way in which God is just in forgiving sin - Romans 3:24-26

It is only in the wisdom of the gospel of God that we could receive mercy without violating the justice of God.

For it is in the gospel that God exercises His just wrath upon the only innocent and perfectly righteous man that lived - in the God-man Christ Jesus.

So at the cross of Christ God’s justice was satisfied and our sinful souls were justified

Who is wise enough but God to think of such a solution to the problem of sin

Wisdom of Sanctification

But God’s wisdom in saving us doesn’t stop there.

Think with me of the wisdom of God in sanctifying us in Christ by the power of His Spirit.

If it were not for the wisdom of God in sanctifying us through the power of His Spirit, we would remain unchanged in our sinful nature.

In uniting us with Christ who rose from the dead to newness of life, He has given us a new nature, and made us new creatures thus freeing us from our slavery to sin.

By His infinite wisdom we are forgiven of sin’s punishment and freed from sin’s power

Wisdom of Redemptive History

Lastly, we see that the unending depth of God’s wisdom is most evident in His plan of Redemptive History.

In His wisdom He called Abraham and His descendents and gave the glorious gifts of His covenant relationship.

In His wisdom He designed a covenant given to Moses that bound Israel to experience blessings for their obedience to His law and curses for their disobedience - a disobedience which was inevitable due to their sinful hearts.

In His wisdom He designed the ultimate curse of exile and then the hardening of their hearts towards their Messiah, so that the gospel would then be taken to the gentiles and so that He could mercifully restore Israel to Himself.

In His wisdom, as Paul says in Romans 11:32, God has shut up both Jew and Gentile in their disobedience so that He might show His wisdom to all - both Jew and Gentile.

Who could devise a plan of this scope, who could weave the tapestry of human history this beautifully.

Surely we could not.

And to even understand what has been shown to us in these verses required the revelation of a divine mystery from the pen of a divinely inspired author.

Oh how deep is the wisdom of our God!

But that is not all.

God’s riches are deep.

His wisdom is deep.

And His knowledge is deep