Sermon Tone Analysis

We’ve come to the end of the great theological work of Paul.

We are at the top of the mountain!

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle slowly ascended the mountain of divine truth and now he stands at the top.

Looking back over the terrain through which he climbed, considering the implications of the things he set forward, comes this dynamic doxology of praise to God.

It must be seen as the logical conclusion when God reveals the truth to us.

This doxology expresses genuine praise to God for the depths of His character revealed from chapter 1 through chapter 11.

This is appropriate praise for Him who reigns on high!

God’s Superior Wisdom

God has vast knowledge and indescribable wisdom.

A diver can only go down so far into the ocean before the capacities of the human body are tested to the breaking point.

We are made to operate at only a certain depth in water, beyond that, the pressure is too much to bear.

So it is with the DEPTH of God’s wisdom and knowledge.

WE cannot bear what He can, nor can we follow His paths

Depth - This is to an extreme degree, inexhaustibly deep.

It is a profound

Riches - Wealth, the wealth of kindness ( & )

Wisdom - The practical wisdom of God.

Knowledge - In planning to save so many in such a wonderful way.

How unsearchable are His judgments —> Another reference to God’s wisdom.

These are His decrees, decisions.

They are unfathomable, unsearchable.

They go out into a place that man cannot go.

His judgments - the way He runs the world.

His path is untraceable!

No man made religion can even come close to the beauty of God’s grace.

In the context of Romans listen to this...

Chapter 1 - salvation is come through the Gospel

Chapter 2 -

Chapter 2 - the work of the law in the hearts of man

Chapter 3 - the sinfulness of man

Chapter 4 - The imputation of righteousness without works

Chapter 5 - The marvelous plan of atonement through the second Adam.

The substitute known as Jesus.

Chapter 6 - The new life in Christ…being dead to sin, but alive unto God

Chapter 7 - The sin principles still residing, but hope and victory in Jesus Christ

Chapter 8 - The plan of salvation

Chapter 9 - The children of promise

Chapter 10 - Salvation is by faith

Chapter 11 - God’s working with both Jew and Gentile unto salvation

We do not fully understand election.

We do not fully understand hardening.

God has used everything to make it contribute to the ultimate goal He had determined.

He has made the sin of man to so turn out.

He made the death of Christ to become the propitiation for the sins of the world.

He even made the rejection of Israel to bring about the evangelization of the Gentiles.

We do not fully understand God closing the eyes and ears of people who need his truth, people whom he wants to receive it.

We do not fully understand his timetable.

We do not fully understand (though we try because we want to) the eternal destinies of those who live and die in the period of Israel’s hardening.

We do not fully understand what makes those who live at a time when Israel’s disobedience is removed more “deserving” of mercy (to speak in human terms) than those who did not receive mercy.

And least of all, we do not understand why those who write about Romans, and teach others about Romans, have received mercy, knowing ourselves as we do.

Paul was right.

The riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God are too deep for us.

Kenneth Boa and William Kruidenier, Romans, vol.

6, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 346.

God has used everything to make it contribute to the ultimate goal He had determined.

He has made the sin of man to so turn out.

He made the death of Christ to become the propitiation for the sins of the world.

He even made the rejection of Israel to bring about the evangelization of the Gentiles.

The whole redemptive work of God in Christ was a manifestation of the God’s wisdom.

This kind of plan does not fit into schemes of man.

God’s Supremacy

Verse 34 - We have an inability to properly comprehend God and His ways.

Paul quotes one more time from , where Isaiah marvels at God’s future grace in bringing the people up from Babylon, looking forward to the wonder of the forgiveness of sins.

,

God doesn’t need a counselor, for there is no one wiser than Him.

He has never needed a person assistant, or management consultant to help Him rule and rescue the world.

There is no special counsel, heavenly advisor, none would qualify.

Who has knowledge enough of all that is involved in the present or what will happen in the future to be the adviser or counselor of God?

Verse 35 is a quote from the book of .

This is God’s second speech to Job.

FAced with the awesome terror of the evil leviathan, Job needs to know that no creature in heaven is able to make any claim on God.

You don’t say to God, Hey God, you owe me for that one.

God is the source of all power and grace.

Paul’s argument here:

Can we think like God?

Can we advise Him?

Does God owe us?

Then why do we sometimes think God is wrong?

How can we say He isn’t just, that He isn’t fair?

Why do we say things like, “old Billy Bob left this earth to soon” when clearly teaches that God has our days numbered?

We say things like that we are saying God was wrong.

The key understanding this last passage is to see it as a conclusion to all that Paul penned from Chapter 1:17 to Chapter 11:32.

Job 11:

God’s Self-Sufficiency

This last statement is given as the reason why we will always owe God, and God is NEVER indebted to man.

“From Him” - SOURCE points to God as the great source of all things, the Creator, the Initiator.

Nothing exists apart from Him.

“Through Him” - AGENCY - points to God as the great Sustainer of all things.

He is the power behind everything.

“And to Him” - GOAL - points to God as the great goal, the last end of all things.

The ultimate purpose, the ultimate end of everything is found in God and the goal of everything.

For from

‘For from him’ (since he is the source of all) ‘and through him’ (for he is the sustainer of all) ‘and to him’ (for he is the goal of all creation) ‘are all things.

To him be the glory forever!

Amen.

This is the doctrinal message of Romans.

All of salvation, from its origin in eternity to its consummation in the New Creation, is a GRACE ALONE by the sacrifice of CHRIST ALONE, mediated to men and women by the SPRIT OF GOD ALONE, received empty-handed by FAITH ALONE.

And because it is all without exception from GRACE, it is all without any exception TO HIS GLORY!

Don’t doubt His plan

Don’t doubt His purposes

Don’t doubt His decision