Dale Partridge - Romans 11_33-36 Paul's Great Doxology

00:00:00.000 Amen.

00:00:09.320 Romans 11, 33 through 36.

00:00:13.840 Wow.

00:00:14.980 I remember starting Romans chapter 1 a little over two years ago.

00:00:23.840 And so what a blessing it is to be here talking about this great chapter.

00:00:28.400 really this great section. Now, Romans 11, as you guys just heard,

00:00:36.720 has the second greatest doxology in the entire New Testament.

00:00:42.800 It's only second to the doxology that's at the very end of Romans and Romans 16, 25 through 27.

00:00:52.260 Now, the Greek word or the word doxology, I should say, is made up of two Greek words.

00:00:57.740 doxa, which means glory, and logos, which means to give a word or a word.

00:01:06.200 And so when you put them together, doxology, you get a word of glory.

00:01:14.020 That's what this text is.

00:01:16.080 It is a word of glory.

00:01:19.220 to understand why the apostle paul is ascribing such glory to god i think that we need to have

00:01:30.140 a bit of context and because this is the end of a great section of scripture

00:01:34.760 i'm going to offer that to you romans 8 28 all the way through 11 32 that whole section

00:01:46.340 basically is a multidimensional systematic argument for the sovereignty of God in salvation.

00:01:57.500 It is a robust argument. Romans 8 28 I believe is the thesis for this entire section. It says

00:02:10.240 but God causes all things to work together for good for those who love him and are called

00:02:17.900 according to his purpose. From that line all the way to 1132 is a defense for that truth.

00:02:29.120 It's followed, Romans 8, 28, if you go to 29, 30 through 31, 32 even, it's followed by what

00:02:36.580 theologians called the five points of salvation, or you may have heard it is called the golden

00:02:43.840 chain of salvation. It states, those whom God foreknew, he predestines. And those whom he

00:02:52.980 predestines, he calls. And those whom he calls, he justifies. And those whom he justifies,

00:03:00.760 he glorifies. It's this interdependent causal effect of the plan of redemption.

00:03:09.920 In chapter 9, Paul defended the doctrine of election, showing how God has always elected

00:03:20.520 a group within a group. He gave the

00:03:24.440 examples of Isaac and

00:03:28.300 Ishmael and the example of Jacob and

00:03:32.480 Esau. Then the apostle

00:03:35.700 dismisses this concept of free will

00:03:39.840 in the work of salvation. In his

00:03:44.360 concluding statement on election, he says in chapter 9, I will have mercy

00:03:48.700 on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion

00:03:53.560 on whom I will have compassion. So then, conclusion,

00:03:57.720 pay attention, it does not depend on the

00:04:01.600 man who wills, or

00:04:05.660 the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

00:04:11.080 Chapter 9 also touched on the purpose of

00:04:13.440 sin and God's relationship with

00:04:17.620 the presence of evil in the world. We learn that God cannot have attributes that do not have

00:04:24.920 functions. Pay attention to that phrasing. God cannot have attributes that do not have functions

00:04:33.180 in the world. And because justice and wrath are attributes of God, it is demanded that there is

00:04:43.580 the presence of sin. When we understand this, we can see the fullness of God's glory to see not

00:04:51.520 just his mercy and grace, but also his justice and wrath. In chapter 10, we learned that many

00:05:02.040 Jews were not saved because they sought salvation by works and not by faith. Paul said that they

00:05:12.080 had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Many such

00:05:20.060 people live today. In chapter 11, Paul addressed the question,

00:05:25.980 if the Jews have rejected the Messiah and they sought

00:05:30.220 salvation through works, has God cast off Israel, ethnic

00:05:36.020 Israel? To which Paul emphatically answers, by no

00:05:40.140 means. Then Paul

00:05:43.300 says, or reveals a great mystery of the redemptive

00:05:48.000 plan for the world. He said that God had preserved

00:05:52.060 for himself a remnant of Jewish believers.

00:05:57.860 Paul being one of them. 1.00

00:06:00.460 And that the Jews' rejection of Christ 0.97

00:06:03.120 would result in the Gentiles' acceptance of 0.94

00:06:08.080 Christ. Now, the Greek word for nations is Gentiles. And so, when we see the word Gentiles 0.78

00:06:18.540 in English, it really means nations, those nations that are not Israel. So, what made this more 0.68

00:06:27.620 incredible is how the Jewish remnant, this tiny group in a tiny nation, would inaugurate 0.93

00:06:38.160 a Gentile revival through what we know as the Great Commission. Twelve men given a commission 0.87

00:06:51.240 from Christ to get the nations.

00:06:56.660 Then, what makes this even more incredible

00:06:58.840 of God's plan of redemption

00:07:01.440 is through the conversion of the nations, 0.98

00:07:05.820 God would provoke the Jews to jealousy. 0.92

00:07:11.300 So as all the nations come to Christ 0.98

00:07:14.980 over millennia,

00:07:16.520 The Jews would watch and be provoked to jealousy that the entire world is inheriting the covenant promises and blessings that were originally given to them. 0.94

00:07:33.200 And then in 11, 25 through 26, Paul says, this partial hardening of the Jews will remain until, quote, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 0.80

00:07:54.800 And so all Israel will be saved, end quote. 0.82

00:07:58.160 Meaning that after the last non-Jew convert or the last Gentile convert, God will bring about a mass revival among ethnic Israel, which will ultimately usher in the return of Christ. 0.53

00:08:14.500 it's to this grand plan

00:08:18.520 of redemption

00:08:22.080 that God is sovereign

00:08:24.340 over who is saved

00:08:27.040 and over how people come

00:08:30.160 into his kingdom

00:08:31.620 it's to this idea

00:08:33.800 this systematic explanation

00:08:38.680 an interdependent relationship

00:08:40.980 between the Jews and the Gentiles

00:08:42.380 that Paul breaks out into doxology. 0.82

00:08:46.840 That's what happens.

00:08:48.720 That's why we're here.

00:08:51.280 He begins by saying,

00:08:54.960 Oh, which is in the Greek.

00:08:58.640 Oh, the depth of the riches,

00:09:02.420 both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

00:09:07.120 How unsearchable are his judgments

00:09:11.020 and unfathomable are his ways.

00:09:15.300 Now, the reason that his ways are unsearchable and unfathomable

00:09:19.320 is because of how deep they are.

00:09:25.080 Oh, the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God.

00:09:33.860 They're so deep that they're unsearchable.

00:09:36.540 They're so deep that they're unfathomable.

00:09:38.680 now i want to begin by making a point that i've made several times before

00:09:44.060 our doxology will only go as high as our theology is deep

00:09:52.560 truthfully this nation is plagued with a shallow church because we have shallow theology

00:10:02.980 It's that simple

00:10:06.560 When you have weak theology, you will have a weak church

00:10:11.960 When you have a weak church, you will have a weak culture

00:10:16.920 When you have a weak culture, you will have pain

00:10:24.520 For decades, we thought that simplifying and minimizing and casualizing the church

00:10:31.460 to make visitor-centric Christianity more comfortable for those that walk in.

00:10:38.440 We thought that this would be the effort that expanded the church

00:10:42.740 and built America into this great nation.

00:10:48.340 The reality is, it simply inflated the church with false converts.

00:10:54.980 We had millions upon millions of people come to church without ever coming to Christ.

00:11:01.460 people that have never heard the gospel

00:11:08.340 I shared a Burke Parsons quote I know actually it was

00:11:12.420 it was Stephen Nichols quote about the reformation he says imagine going to

00:11:19.860 church your whole life and never hearing the

00:11:23.280 gospel that's why the reformation was so

00:11:27.260 important. Honestly, you could say that of our own day. I was in the church for about 12 years

00:11:40.520 before I was saved, because I was in mega churchianity in Southern California

00:11:45.620 that was filled with Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

00:11:52.380 there was never a repentance of sin

00:11:55.580 there was never the imputed righteousness of Christ

00:11:58.880 there was never wrath or justice

00:12:01.220 there was never shame

00:12:03.800 without

00:12:09.280 a strong theology

00:12:14.040 and a clear gospel

00:12:15.240 this nation will continue to have a weak immune system

00:12:20.640 toward evil 0.67

00:12:21.780 If you want to strengthen the immune system of our nation, it requires strong churches.

00:12:30.520 Again, to vote conservative, to vote for Trump, but refuse to go to church, it's a contradiction of efforts.

00:12:45.780 we know that we don't need a conservative president as much as we need a christian

00:12:56.320 people in this nation that only occurs through the faithfulness of local churches do you want

00:13:04.100 national fruitfulness it starts with local faithfulness that's what happens it's getting

00:13:10.780 your families to church every sunday it's prioritizing the word of god it's catechizing

00:13:14.560 your kids. It's raising up a generation of gospel-fluent

00:13:18.580 families that can proclaim the gospel over the next decade or century

00:13:22.440 in this town. It's small. We're a church plant.

00:13:29.340 It's praying that the Lord

00:13:30.560 will take seeds of faithfulness and turn this church into

00:13:34.520 a movement for the gospel in the

00:13:38.680 years to come.

00:13:39.260 if you want to praise like paul you have to have the devotion and doctrine like paul

00:13:49.580 if you watch people that praise the lord and and weep it's because their theology

00:13:58.080 is so deep think about paul washer what i love about paul washer and guys like john piper

00:14:08.080 is that you know for certain that they care.

00:14:14.140 You know for certain that their convictions are real.

00:14:20.740 It's not some sort of act about piety.

00:14:28.760 It's truly a love for the gospel.

00:14:32.020 second i want to make sure

00:14:37.880 you see how this particular doxology is connected to paul's sorrow for the jews that he has in

00:14:47.700 chapter 9 and chapter 10 now if you remember back in chapter 9 he's he's so broken that his kinsman

00:14:55.940 has fallen away, that he's willing to even die for their sake. He mentions it again in chapter 10.

00:15:06.460 Now, I don't know if the Holy Spirit had revealed this great plan of redemption while Paul was

00:15:13.700 writing the book of Romans, or if it was revealed prior and is essentially the cause of the book of

00:15:20.060 Romans. I don't know. Nobody knows. But in either case, the ultimate redemption of the Jews

00:15:26.260 changes Paul's sorrow to praise. He's sorrowful for the Jews walking away, rejecting Christ, 0.73

00:15:39.100 and then ends in chapter 11 with this great praise. The sorrow is kind of engulfed up in 0.90

00:15:45.920 the doctrine and theology of this future revival

00:15:49.160 and this grand interdependent plan of redemption

00:15:52.480 between the Jews and the Gentiles.

00:15:58.180 Oh, the depth of the riches,

00:16:01.860 both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

00:16:05.620 The way I understand this text is this.

00:16:09.680 Imagine for a moment,

00:16:10.740 So, Paul is working from 828 to 1132, walking up this theological mountain.

00:16:23.220 And when he arrives at the top of this mountain, he looks back and he says,

00:16:28.420 Oh, the depths of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God.

00:16:34.520 That's essentially what we're seeing textually here.

00:16:38.740 think about the order of events one more time

00:16:42.000 God chooses the smallest nation

00:16:45.500 blinds a majority of them to their savior 0.99

00:16:49.680 and elects an even smaller remnant 0.75

00:16:52.780 he uses that very tiny remnant

00:16:57.640 to bring about a global revival

00:16:59.200 and eventually that global revival

00:17:02.160 will bring about a Jewish revival

00:17:06.060 that will result in the redemption of the world

00:17:08.520 in the closing of history, and that God is sovereign over it all.

00:17:16.000 This is all the depths.

00:17:19.580 It is beyond me, is what Paul is saying.

00:17:23.280 It's not the story that I would have written.

00:17:28.240 It's a constant reversal of expectations, honestly.

00:17:31.860 If you read Romans 11, it's a constant reversal of expectations.

00:17:35.700 It's counterintuitive.

00:17:36.940 It breaks the mold of man's mentality.

00:17:42.780 But honestly, it aligns with God, right?

00:17:46.120 This is totally God's way.

00:17:48.980 If you're a student of the Bible, you know this.

00:17:52.260 He's the one who has the king of the world born in a manger.

00:17:56.600 He's the one who says being weak is strong and being first is last.

00:18:00.780 he's the one that made death that leads to life and that a cross brought about victory

00:18:07.800 it's constant counterintuitive kingdom ethics

00:18:11.880 of course a small nation and a remnant of that nation will bring about a global revival 0.76

00:18:18.980 that'll bring about a revival of that Jewish nation of course that'll happen

00:18:23.120 Now, do you want to know why I believe in election and predestination? 0.71

00:18:36.100 Because humanity hates it.

00:18:40.660 Because it is the exact opposite story that I would write.

00:18:45.180 That's why. 0.84

00:18:46.100 Do you know how offensive election and predestination is to the average Christian in America? 1.00

00:18:53.120 it's that offense that actually makes me convinced that it's true 0.99

00:19:01.800 yes i believe the doctrine is there

00:19:05.100 but god writes stories that break human minds

00:19:12.400 it shows that god is not dependent upon human strength to accomplish his will

00:19:19.920 the very reason many reject

00:19:23.800 the sovereignty of God

00:19:27.780 is the reason we should believe it

00:19:31.000 because it's difficult

00:19:34.220 in fact the only reason that you do believe it

00:19:37.540 is by the grace of the Holy Spirit

00:19:42.120 the offensiveness of this doctrine

00:19:47.120 When you, I guess when you read these words, Paul resigns his understanding.

00:19:57.200 He resigns his intellectual assent by saying how unsearchable are his judgments.

00:20:06.240 How unfathomable are his ways.

00:20:10.320 He's basically saying, I can't grasp this.

00:20:13.740 I don't know about you, but I have read through 8, 9, and 10, and then jumping into 11.

00:20:22.360 There have been multiple points that I go, it's too much.

00:20:26.720 I can't grasp it.

00:20:29.160 The paradoxical reality, the counterintuitive nature, the tension here, it isn't clicking with my mind.

00:20:39.020 if you want to know if you have the holy spirit look to your own heart submission to truths like

00:20:47.340 this you want to know if you're saved just just look to the truths that the world absolutely

00:20:55.620 rejects number one you're a sinner deserving of hell if you if you submit to that your intellectual

00:21:02.920 ability and desire submits to that truth i'll tell you what that is the evidence that the

00:21:08.920 Holy Spirit is dwelling in you? What about you are only redeemed by faith and not by works?

00:21:19.880 You submit to that? Again, that's evidence. Because you know what the world wants

00:21:26.580 is works-based moralism. They want to earn salvation.

00:21:34.500 Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

00:21:38.920 Do you submit to that?

00:21:40.800 It's only because you have the Holy Spirit.

00:21:46.080 Wives submit to their own husbands as to the Lord. 1.00

00:21:50.180 Ladies, you submit to that?

00:21:53.180 If you do, it's only because you have the Holy Spirit.

00:21:57.440 It is one of the most offensive statements in all of the Bible today.

00:22:01.240 if you believe these truths it's a grace and mercy to you and you only believe them because god has

00:22:16.060 permitted you to believe them if that doesn't make sense to you just look around look to your family

00:22:22.700 and friends. Watch them reject those truths wholesale. And you can't sit here and go,

00:22:32.760 well, the reason they reject them and I don't is because I'm smarter.

00:22:38.980 Well, then you get yourself into a boast. And then you cannot say, all glory be to God.

00:22:46.340 Because what you're really saying is, most of the glory be to God, but a little bit to me.

00:22:49.760 A little bit to me.

00:22:55.360 Without the Spirit, those truths are abhorrent and repulsive. 1.00

00:23:02.220 This last week, I posted on social media that a wife's vote should follow the direction of her husband's authority. 0.97

00:23:12.060 The last thing a Christian man would want is his wife to cancel out his own vote. 0.95

00:23:17.980 Now, we know also the truth that if this wife's husband is not saved and voting for sinful policies, 0.94

00:23:31.360 that she is not to submit to her husband, but submit to her head's head, Christ. 0.71

00:23:39.180 There's a limit to authority in a husband's home.

00:23:42.260 if the husband isn't submitting to God

00:23:45.560 then the wife doesn't have to submit to that husband 0.74

00:23:47.960 and gets to submit to Christ instead

00:23:49.440 but in a Christian marriage 1.00

00:23:53.500 a wife should be directing her vote

00:23:57.440 in the same way that her husband is voting

00:24:00.640 they should be unified 0.94

00:24:03.600 oneness extends to politics

00:24:06.740 this post went out to five and a half million people and we had voicemails emails and messages

00:24:19.460 at our church thousands upon thousands of messages online of the most hostile intense

00:24:29.620 vitriol and hatred.

00:24:35.160 If you believe

00:24:36.400 these truths of unity and marriage,

00:24:39.360 that Jesus Christ is Lord,

00:24:43.300 you have the Holy Spirit.

00:24:45.420 It's just so obvious

00:24:47.380 because they are extremely offensive

00:24:50.700 truths to the flesh.

00:24:53.880 This conflict between God's mind and the human mind

00:24:56.680 is brought out into the next verse. If you look at verse 34, it says,

00:24:59.620 For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor?

00:25:07.020 This is a rhetorical question with an obvious answer.

00:25:11.100 Nobody, nobody has known the mind of the Lord or offered him counsel.

00:25:17.280 I want to look at this for a moment.

00:25:19.160 Moses in the Bible is called the most humble man alive.

00:25:24.120 Job is called by God the most upright and righteous of his time.

00:25:30.240 Both of these men sought counsel.

00:25:33.340 Both of them sought counsel.

00:25:35.440 Moses seeks it from his father-in-law.

00:25:37.900 Job seeks it from his friends.

00:25:40.420 This is not true of the Lord.

00:25:42.480 The Lord does not seek counsel.

00:25:44.540 He does not need counsel.

00:25:50.360 One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 55, 9.

00:25:54.200 It's one of those verses that you could just memorize

00:25:56.200 or have written somewhere on your walls in your house.

00:26:01.060 It says, for as high as the heavens are above the earth,

00:26:04.480 so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts,

00:26:06.860 and my ways higher than your ways, says the Lord.

00:26:12.900 How high is the distance from here to Mars and beyond?

00:26:18.080 That distance is getting close to the distance

00:26:21.500 between your understanding and God's understanding,

00:26:23.980 and your thoughts and God's thoughts.

00:26:26.200 us trying to comprehend the Trinity and us trying to comprehend the deep things of the Scripture

00:26:33.400 are like, as Doug Wilson says, ants trying to do calculus.

00:26:41.160 It's beyond us.

00:26:44.520 It's beyond us.

00:26:48.220 And so the moment you find yourself disagreeing with the clear teaching of Scripture,

00:26:52.420 because you're bumping in to the intellectual frustrations.

00:26:58.980 It's the moment that you've claimed to supersede the wisdom of God.

00:27:03.240 I know more.

00:27:06.360 This can't be right.

00:27:08.580 It doesn't make sense to me.

00:27:13.460 In other words, what Paul is saying is to reject the ways of God

00:27:16.420 is to imply that, you know what, God could benefit from my counsel.

00:27:22.420 I don't think that predestination or that God's plan of redemption for a full revival of the Jews, 1.00

00:27:31.800 I don't think that's right. 1.00

00:27:34.020 You know what? I need to counsel the Lord.

00:27:36.960 It's the most utter pride and honestly is present in all of us.

00:27:43.980 Please, for a moment, don't think that you're above this,

00:27:47.760 that you're the guy or woman that's, I've never done that.

00:27:51.320 You have.

00:27:52.420 You have.

00:27:54.560 Proverbs 16.25 says,

00:27:56.260 There is a way that seems right to a man,

00:27:58.780 but its end is the way to death. 1.00

00:28:04.500 The Christian life is basically conforming your life to the word of God. 0.97

00:28:13.280 It is our life's work, conforming our lives to the word of God.

00:28:19.120 In this particular context, Paul is calling us to submit to God's incomprehensible plan for redemption.

00:28:24.240 It's incomprehensible.

00:28:26.600 Not only is God sovereign, not only does he use election, not only is there predestination, 0.81

00:28:31.440 not only is there a remnant, not only is there a Gentile specific number when the fullness comes in, 0.74

00:28:39.640 and that potentially all of the Jews or Israelites will be saved at the end of time,

00:28:46.600 and grafting them possibly back into the church.

00:28:49.900 Wow, these are really intense claims.

00:28:57.440 To the flesh, it's just insanity.

00:28:59.900 I just reject it in the flesh.

00:29:04.320 Only by the Holy Spirit can we accept these truths.

00:29:09.820 Romans 8 through 11 goes beyond intellectual reason.

00:29:14.480 spend the last next week this week read romans 8 through 11 read it slow

00:29:20.920 it goes beyond intellectual reason

00:29:27.140 it surpasses your threshold for mystery

00:29:32.120 here's the solution when you know who god is you can be content with not knowing

00:29:42.460 why or how God operates.

00:29:48.080 When you know who God is,

00:29:51.000 you can be content with not knowing

00:29:55.420 how or why God operates.

00:30:00.380 Let me give you an example.

00:30:02.520 The Old Testament, Job doesn't understand

00:30:04.460 why he's suffering.

00:30:07.680 He doesn't understand.

00:30:08.500 And out of frustration, he says one of the most prideful set of words that is ever recorded in human history.

00:30:20.880 Let the Almighty answer me.

00:30:25.780 As we know, what does God do?

00:30:30.040 He doesn't answer why.

00:30:33.700 Instead, he asks Job 49 questions.

00:30:38.500 that reinforce Job's limited understanding and his need to submit to God's ways because of who he is.

00:30:52.280 Now, it's really easy when life's well.

00:30:56.280 It's really easy when life's well.

00:30:58.700 It's not easy in the face of terminal illness.

00:31:02.680 It's not easy in the death of a child.

00:31:06.000 It's not easy when church splits occur.

00:31:11.940 It's not easy when suffering, tragedy knock at your door.

00:31:21.540 Why?

00:31:25.320 I've asked that question many times.

00:31:26.820 I've been chronically ill for many years.

00:31:28.520 In fact, this morning I was in bed for an hour because I felt so terrible.

00:31:32.420 Why?

00:31:35.200 Again, in our context, Paul is posing this rhetorical question

00:31:41.260 that challenges any opposition to God's plan of redemption.

00:31:46.740 Do you not approve of his plan?

00:31:49.800 Do you not approve of how God saves?

00:31:54.280 Do you struggle and dislike the doctrines of predestination?

00:31:59.700 Do you believe the Jews ought not to experience mercy?

00:32:05.200 Do you think you are owed more clarity? 0.65

00:32:09.140 These types of prideful questions, Paul moves on to the next verse to eliminate this false sense of obligation.

00:32:16.860 God has no obligation to us.

00:32:20.220 Verse 35, or who has given to him that it might be paid back to him again?

00:32:26.300 God owes you nothing.

00:32:27.280 the very fact that you're alive and here

00:32:32.020 is an absolute blessing?

00:32:39.820 The answer is obviously nobody.

00:32:43.760 Nobody has first given to him that he might be paid back again.

00:32:47.840 In verse 36, the apostle provides the basis or the grounds

00:32:51.600 of why God is not obligated to anyone.

00:32:56.840 This is probably one of the most beautiful verses in all of Scripture.

00:33:00.000 In fact, it's right here engraved on the front of my Bible, Romans 11, 36.

00:33:06.800 For from him and through him and to him are all things.

00:33:12.880 Just honestly, just sit on that for a second.

00:33:15.480 Look down at your Bible and just read those words.

00:33:18.220 For from him and through him and to him are all things.

00:33:30.120 That verse alone, if you just submit to that verse alone, it solves the vast majority of theological arguments around Calvinism.

00:33:43.960 I have it on my Bible because it reminds me that all things come from God.

00:33:48.220 we live in a time where we have this kind of dualistic view of God

00:33:53.100 where we think that there's this battle between God and Satan

00:33:56.880 as if God has no involvement

00:34:00.960 in Satan's affairs

00:34:01.960 we forget that it was God

00:34:06.140 who offered Job to Satan

00:34:10.740 have you considered my servant Job

00:34:13.200 we have to remember that our sufferings

00:34:16.980 our sicknesses, our illnesses, our tragedies, as well as our joyful moments and our grand

00:34:24.880 moments of praise, our wellness, all of it comes from God.

00:34:34.400 Now, you don't need to, typically, you don't need to remember as a Christian when something

00:34:40.500 good happens that it came from God. It's kind of an immediate, oh, praise the Lord.

00:34:46.980 But when your wife miscarries, it's a different need.

00:34:55.160 That's when you need to say, for from him and through him and to him are all things.

00:35:01.480 That verse will solve so many of the real problems that hit in this life.

00:35:10.740 Job rebuked his wife

00:35:15.360 For her anger with God's providence over their suffering

00:35:20.360 In her trial she told Job to quote 0.99

00:35:24.060 Curse God and die

00:35:25.980 Job responded saying 1.00

00:35:29.180 You speak as of one of the foolish women 0.97

00:35:32.020 Shall we receive good from God 1.00

00:35:36.080 And shall we not receive evil

00:35:38.500 shall I take the blessings

00:35:42.420 and not the difficulty

00:35:46.200 a few verses earlier Job said

00:35:50.400 the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away

00:35:54.480 blessed be the name of the Lord

00:35:56.720 these verses are so important

00:36:01.140 because every one of you children included

00:36:05.680 Every one of you is going to have some incredible loss in this world.

00:36:12.000 And it's so easy to look at what the Lord gave.

00:36:17.180 Recently I saw a wife who was married.

00:36:21.940 The Lord gave her a husband.

00:36:24.100 She got married late, in her mid-30s.

00:36:28.560 And within nine months he died.

00:36:30.240 the Lord gave

00:36:34.400 and the Lord takes

00:36:36.220 can she say blessed be the name of the Lord

00:36:40.720 for from him and through him and to him

00:36:45.980 are all things

00:36:47.820 just for a moment

00:36:52.600 I want you to try to name one thing that you have received

00:36:56.100 that's not from God

00:36:57.280 just one thing

00:37:00.160 One thing that even was tragic, difficult, sinful, evil

00:37:08.340 That did not come from the permission of God

00:37:14.460 While God may have not afflicted you

00:37:17.060 But your affliction came from the enemy 1.00

00:37:19.620 God approved that affliction

00:37:22.740 God approved that stumbling

00:37:26.200 And yes, we're dealing with the intertwining of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.

00:37:32.480 And they are great and mysterious.

00:37:35.460 But from him and through him and to him are all things.

00:37:42.240 1 Corinthians 4-7 says to those who were boasting of what they had,

00:37:47.580 What do you have that you did not receive?

00:37:50.280 If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

00:37:56.200 I've done this.

00:37:58.920 I'm so quickly, easily able to forget that I am not the source of my blessings or my failures or progress,

00:38:12.700 but that from him and through him and to him are all things.

00:38:17.520 When you get to that place, it allows you to constantly redirect glory to God.

00:38:28.120 Constantly.

00:38:30.060 Paul's sufferings.

00:38:31.800 Paul's sufferings.

00:38:33.540 This has been one of the most comforting verses in the New Testament for me.

00:38:38.020 2 Corinthians 12, 7, he says,

00:38:39.620 To keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself.

00:38:58.300 I've had a thorn in my flesh for the last five years that's been difficult.

00:39:02.120 I prayed for it to go away hundreds of times.

00:39:07.680 I have a gentleman in Southern California who writes articles about me

00:39:11.900 and knows more things about me than some of my family does.

00:39:15.120 He researches my life.

00:39:18.060 He has photographs of my childhood that I don't have.

00:39:24.760 He gives a timeline of every failure that I've ever had and exaggerates them

00:39:30.400 and then slanders and spins them and twists them and puts them all over the Internet.

00:39:36.680 He has this immense amount of time

00:39:42.980 And that's just one guy

00:39:47.340 But there was given to Paul a thorn in the flesh

00:39:52.860 Given to Paul

00:39:54.500 A thorn in the flesh

00:39:57.660 To keep him from exalting himself

00:39:59.320 Some of the families that have recently left

00:40:04.660 left because of that article.

00:40:12.740 A messenger of Satan to torment me,

00:40:16.040 to keep me from exalting myself.

00:40:19.600 For from him and through him or to him are all things.

00:40:24.880 It's incredibly difficult.

00:40:30.200 Allow me to make two points.

00:40:31.680 First, again in context, to have the audacity to argue against who and how the Lord gifts salvation while using the gift of a mouth to do so is absurd.

00:40:51.900 C.S. Lewis once said, to argue with God is to argue with the very power that makes it possible to argue it all.

00:41:00.640 It's stupid. 1.00

00:41:02.160 It's a self-refuting contention. 1.00

00:41:06.520 Second, to have the audacity to believe that all things come from God except your desire and will to receive Christ and your repentance and your faith.

00:41:23.260 For from him and through him and to him are all things except those things.

00:41:27.680 Those things came from my own intrinsic free will.

00:41:31.680 it's absurd.

00:41:37.280 The reason the vast majority of people reject the doctrines of grace,

00:41:44.000 that sovereignty of God and salvation,

00:41:46.040 is because they are theologically illiterate.

00:41:49.580 They have not sat down and looked at the text and worked through it

00:41:52.940 with a grammatical, historical, cultural reality.

00:41:58.180 When you look at it like an attorney,

00:41:59.940 and you take God at his word, you cannot get around that God is sovereign over salvation.

00:42:11.900 James 1.17 says, quote, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

00:42:22.580 coming down from the Father of lights.

00:42:31.840 Thomas Constable says of this verse,

00:42:35.440 God is the source from which all things come,

00:42:38.880 the means by which all things happen,

00:42:41.720 and the goal to which all things are moving.

00:42:45.400 He is the originator, sustainer, and finisher of everything.

00:42:52.580 That's why Paul ends by saying, to him be the glory forever.

00:43:01.120 To him be the glory forever. Amen.

00:43:04.700 That is because all things come from and through and to God.

00:43:09.300 All glory must be ascribed to God.

00:43:14.160 To glorify self or anything other than God is to miss the purpose of everything.

00:43:19.940 It's why the Westminster Shorter Catechism famously opens up with the great question,

00:43:26.340 what is the chief end of man?

00:43:30.240 Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

00:43:37.800 So how do you glory in your salvation?

00:43:42.880 How do you glory in life and you glory?

00:43:49.940 How do you do it?

00:43:57.060 Are you thankful that you had the faith to repent and believe?

00:44:04.440 Do you ascribe that glory to your own free will?

00:44:10.420 John Calvin once said, we never truly glory in him until we have seized glorying in ourselves.

00:44:19.940 It happens every day, honestly.

00:44:22.680 You start glorying in something that you did,

00:44:25.920 something that you made, something that you said. 1.00

00:44:32.100 It's a real Christian act to slay that

00:44:35.520 and to ascribe that glory to God alone.

00:44:40.240 I'll close with this.

00:44:41.880 When you glory and when you boast,

00:44:45.380 God gives us direction on explicitly how to do that.

00:44:49.380 It's in Jeremiah 9, 23 through 24.

00:44:53.800 It says, thus says the Lord.

00:44:56.520 Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom.

00:45:00.080 Let not the mighty man boast in his might.

00:45:03.060 Let not the rich man boast in his riches.

00:45:05.880 But let him who boasts, boast in this.

00:45:09.420 That he understands and knows me.

00:45:12.680 That I am the Lord who practices steadfast love,

00:45:16.720 justice, and righteousness in the earth.

00:45:20.160 For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.

00:45:25.060 Amen?

00:45:26.060 Amen. Let's pray.

00:45:29.760 Father, we thank you.

00:45:32.720 We thank you, Lord,

00:45:34.780 for all things.

00:45:40.240 Lord, we ask that you would help us grasp

00:45:42.420 the gravity of these statements.

00:45:46.800 Lord, take us to the deepest parts that you will allow us to.

00:45:51.160 That we can see by your Holy Spirit, just a glimpse of those unsearchable and unfathomable realities.

00:46:04.380 Lord, help us not to ascribe glory to anyone or to anything or to ourselves.

00:46:09.620 let us live in light

00:46:13.800 of that great statement

00:46:16.800 for from him and through him

00:46:18.720 and to him are all things

00:46:20.960 we pray this in Jesus name

00:46:23.360 Amen

00:46:39.620 Thank you.

Dale Partridge - November 22, 2024

Romans 11_33-36 Paul's Great Doxology

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