SFJ Bible Reading Plan

Going Deeper

All Glory to God (11-22-14)

Grab your bible and let’s go deeper into Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ³⁴“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
³⁵“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”  ³⁶For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

This amazing passage gives us great insight into who God is.  Let’s use it to answer the question:  WHO IS GOD?

Let’s start at the end in verse 36.

1. All things are from him and through him. 

• Paul says: “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28)
• Ezra says: “You are the Lord, you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you” ( 9:6)
• David says: “Whatever the Lord pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps” ( 135:6)
• Solomon says: “The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly from the Lord” ( 16:33)
• Job says: “makes nations great, and he destroys them: he enlarges nations, and leads them away” (Job 12:23)
• Daniel says: “he removes kings and sets up kings” (Daniel 2:21)

All things are from him and through him!  He is GOD!  He is worthy.

 It gets better

Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!”

1. The riches and wisdom and knowledge of God are REALLY DEEP! 

That is what the OH means!  Ohhhhh = really Deep!

How deep is God?  How vast?  How rich?  In the first century, they would say, “The cattle on a thousand hills belongs to God.” Quoting Psalm 50:10.  I am from Orange County CA.  I’m a city guy.  So, I don’t know a lot about farming and agriculture, but here’s what I do know:

In this context, he who owns the cows drives the community.  You can’t plow up your land without them, you can’t fertilize stuff without them.  So in this agricultural society, to say, “A thousand hills and all the cattle on them belong to the Lord” is a way that communicates “this is the expanse of the riches of God.”

I could go on and on about “How deep is God?  How vast?  How rich is God?”, but we must move on.

Romans 11:35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”

1. Because he owns it all, no one can give a gift to God so that you are to be repaid by him and therefore put God in your debt.   You can’t give God something he doesn’t already own.  You can not put God in your debt.

If everything is his, you and I have nothing to give him that he doesn’t already own.  Which means, in the end, God owes no man anything.  He owes us nothing.  Your very existence has been gifted to you by his grace.  Every bit of laughter, every great morsel of food, every smile on your face is his grace, and he owes us nothing.

Romans 11:34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”


1. No one can counsel God and give him insight he doesn’t already have.

Let me ask you, what is the thing you tend to offer to God more than anything else?  More than worship, more than obedience, more than respect, more than trust, more than honor?  We offer him counsel! “God I think…you should…how could you… God, why would you…”

This is like when a four year old in the car seat is asking His dad if he knows where he’s going.  Or worse… tells him which way he should go.

Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.”

Nobody gets to counsel God.  Nobody gets to give God advice.  Nobody gets to straighten God’s path, no one.  He is God and we are not!

Romans 11:33 “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

1. His judgments are often unsearchable and his ways often inscrutable, unfathomable. Meaning they are understood by the mind of God and not the mind of man.

This doesn’t mean we cannot understand him.  It just means we understand what he wants us to.  He will remain to be God and we will remain his subjects.

Read Romans 9:13-23

In this passage that we read earlier this week we see Paul reminding us of these very truths.  Who are we (the clay) to say to the potter what he should do with us?  He is sovereign and holy in his choice and rule over all things.

Who are we to scrutinize God?  You and I can’t even comprehend and figure out our own shortcomings, our own failures! And yet, we’ll scrutinize God?  He is God and we are not!  This is truly Good News when we see it clearly!

There is so much to say about who God is, I could go on for days.  The Bible sure does! But we must move on and answer:

What is God alone due?  The Answer is:  GLORY! We use the phrase “glory of God “ so often that it can begin to lose its deserved awe.

God’s glory is like the sun in the sense that it is no less blazing and no less beneficial, just because people ignore it or go indoors to hide from it or put on sunglasses.

So, what is the glory of God? The glory of God is the holiness of God put on display. Ii is the infinite worth of God made manifest. His importance above all else.

Isaiah 6:3 “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

When the holiness of God fills the earth for people to see, it is called glory. Holy means “set apart from what is common.”    In speaking of God’s glory, God’s infinite value shines.  God’s glory is the radiance of His holiness, the out-streaming of His infinite value.

“The glory of God” is a way to say that there is an objective, absolute reality to which all human wonder, awe, veneration, praise, honor, acclaim, and worship is pointing.   God alone is truly worthy of our worship and wonder forever!

This brings us back to Romans 11:36. To it’s perfect climax.

Romans 11:36 “For to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

1. To him are all things. To him be glory forever!

The Glory of God is the ultimate purpose of everything that Exists!

What is included in “all things”?

1. God is ultimately for God’s Glory

God is God-centered!  It is important that we see scripture teaches that the primary reason that God acts and saves is “ultimately” for His sake and His glory and not ours.

Read: Colossians 1:15-20

Everything that exists, including our lives, exists ultimately for the Glory of God.  Not only do we exist for God’s glory but we are “ultimately” saved for the Glory of God.

Isaiah 43:25 
“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins”.

Ezekiel 20:44 “And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.”

It is vital that we acknowledge that God is ultimately for God.  His eternal glory is the highest purpose in “ALL” that he does.

2. The universe and everything in it is ultimately for God’s Glory

The glory of God is the goal of all things.  Psalm 96:1-3 “Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. ³ Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!”

What this helps us to understand is that the things of life…the everyday things we have come to enjoy…. these things he has created and entrusted to us are to be enjoyed so that we will see him as central to it all and give him praise.

So when I say, God is Good …it isn’t just because he gave it to me …it is because that thing he gave me all points me back in satisfaction TO HIM!

How do we, practice daily, Glorifying God alone?   You Treasure Him above all else!

Glory to God alone means: God is the ultimate prize! So when we are looking for the best way TO GIVE GOD unceasing GLORY and PRAISE we don’t accomplish this by trying real hard to be a good Christian.  We accomplish this by feasting deeply in HIM and as a result we will overflow with praise and GLORY that will terminate not on us and our temporary pleasures but on HIM and his ETERNAL SUPREMACY!

The Apostle Paul got this when he said, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”  (Philippians 3:8)

How does Paul glorify God above all else?  By treasuring Christ above all else so that everything else in his life is as nothing by comparison. I count everything – money, as loss; food, as loss; beauty, as loss; friends, as loss; family, as loss; job and success, as loss; graduation, as loss in comparison with the treasure that Christ has become for me.

What does this practically look like in everyday life? 

• You steward the money entrusted to you in such a way that shows money is not your treasure, Christ is!
• You steward the food entrusted to you in such a way that it shows food is not your pleasure, Christ is!
• You steward the friends and family entrusted to you in such a way that it shows they are not your treasure, Christ is!
• You steward the computers, houses, motorcycles and patches entrusted to you in such a way that it shows these are not your treasure, Christ is!

The way we display the supreme worth of Jesus is by treasuring him above all things and then making choices which make the joy we have in his supreme worth clearly evident to the world around us.

I will conclude with this:  In the words of a great hymn, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face,

and the things of earth will grow strangely dim,  in the light of His glory and grace.”

By His grace and for His glory,

-Shepherd / Soldiers for Jesus MC / Bakersfield CA

Romans 11

The Remnant of Israel

11:1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham,¹ a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written,

  “God gave them a spirit of stupor,
    eyes that would not see
    and ears that would not hear,
  down to this very day.”

9 And David says,

  “Let their table become a snare and a trap,
    a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
10   let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
    and bend their backs forever.”

Gentiles Grafted In

11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion² mean!

13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root³ of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation

25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers:⁴ a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

  “The Deliverer will come from Zion,
    he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
27   “and this will be my covenant with them
    when I take away their sins.”

28 As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now⁵ receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

34   “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?”
35   “Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?”

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Footnotes

[1] 11:1 Or one of the offspring of Abraham

[2] 11:12 Greek their fullness

[3] 11:17 Greek root of richness; some manuscripts richness

[4] 11:25 Or brothers and sisters

[5] 11:31 Some manuscripts omit now

(ESV)

Romans 10

10:1 Brothers,¹ my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.²

The Message of Salvation to All

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?³ And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for

  “Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
    and their words to the ends of the world.”

19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,

  “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;
    with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”

20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,

  “I have been found by those who did not seek me;
    I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”

21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

Footnotes

[1] 10:1 Or Brothers and sisters

[2] 10:4 Or end of the law, that everyone who believes may be justified

[3] 10:14 Or him whom they have never heard

(ESV)

Romans 9

God’s Sovereign Choice

9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,¹ my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion,² but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,

  “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
    and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26   “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
    there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel³ be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,

  “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
    we would have been like Sodom
    and become like Gomorrah.”

Israel’s Unbelief

30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness⁴ did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,

  “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
    and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Footnotes

[1] 9:3 Or brothers and sisters

[2] 9:16 Greek not of him who wills or runs

[3] 9:27 Or children of Israel

[4] 9:31 Greek a law of righteousness

(ESV)

Romans 8

Life in the Spirit

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.¹ 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you² free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,³ he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus⁴ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Heirs with Christ

12 So then, brothers,⁵ we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons⁶ of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Future Glory

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because⁷ the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,⁸ for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God’s Everlasting Love

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be⁹ against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.¹⁰ 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

  “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Footnotes

[1] 8:1 Some manuscripts add who walk not according to the flesh (but according to the Spirit)

[2] 8:2 Some manuscripts me

[3] 8:3 Or and as a sin offering

[4] 8:11 Some manuscripts lack Jesus

[5] 8:12 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 29

[6] 8:14 See discussion on “sons” in the Preface

[7] 8:27 Or that

[8] 8:28 Some manuscripts God works all things together for good, or God works in all things for the good

[9] 8:31 Or who is

[10] 8:34 Or Is it Christ Jesus who died . . . for us?

(ESV)