Foundations of the Christian Faith Series
by Matt Black (Message 1)
THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD INTRODUCED
ROMANS 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Proposition: The Study of God leads us to wonder at the Greatness and Glory of His Person.
The purpose of the Word of God is to lead us to the greatness and glory of God. In this series we will be looking at the chief doctrines of the Bible, and each doctrine will lead us to see how small our minds are and how great our God is. You may think the study of God, called “theology”, is of no use to you, but you would be greatly mistaken. The deepest doctrines of God will affect your daily life. If that isn’t our experience it’s either because we don’t believe our theology, or because we go about it in a spirit of pride and make a game of it. The study of God is not to puff up our heads, but to humble our hearts and to leave us barren of self before Him--enabled to see how small we are and how great He is!
Now to begin, let us look at our text, which articulates this thought better than any human, because it was written by the finger of God:
ROMANS 11:33-36
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? 35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
The context of these verses deals with our salvation. Paul is coming to the end of a dissertation in which he shows how God rejects the physical nation of Israel so that He might have mercy upon all. Paul, himself a Jew, is humbled before the greatness and glory of God, and he gives this beautiful statement about the person of God. For the purpose of this study, I am going to show how this statement applies to the whole of Scripture. We will find that the God Who is unsearchable in salvation is also high above our thinking in every doctrine of the Bible.
O THE DEPTH!
We read first Paul’s words of amazement: “O the depth.” There is a depth to God that no man can fathom. When Job thinks on Him he says that He “doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number” (Job 9:10). Most men on earth never ponder God. Even saved men hardly ponder upon the greatness of God. It is against our proud Adamic nature to wonder at God, and so we find ourselves trying to make God small in our minds. We trivialize Him, and we end up with superficial lives.
There are usually three reactions that man will have when He comes to God:
1. He will reject God, and view the things he cannot understand as contradictions. An unbeliever can understand the reason of Scripture, but there are limits on the capabilities of human reason. He can understand that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified by the Romans and was buried. He can comprehend that he was raised from the dead and preached on earth for forty days before His ascension. Unsaved man can understand the reasoning of truth. What he cannot do is love truth—to love truth is to believe truth. To love God is to believe God. Unbelievers cannot love God and His truth. This can only happen by the regeneration of the soul by the Holy Spirit of God. And so fallen man though quite capable of seeing truth, cannot love the truth, and so rejects it even as he formulates it. Now because he does not love the truth, when the limits of his reasoning are challenged, he rejects these limitations as contradictions. Take for example the resurrection. He can understand that Jesus’ body was raised back to life. Of course this challenges human reason. When is the last time you saw someone raised from the dead?! And so because the unbeliever does not love truth, he rejects God, and views the things he cannot understand as contradictions.
2. The second reaction is that he will accept God, but make Him small in order that he may fit Him into the limitations of human reasoning. There are many unbelieving people that fill the churches today. For vain glory they have presented an outward acceptance of God. They say they are followers of God, but they are not followers of the all powerful God of the Bible. They have created a new God, a small God that they can control. They come to the miracles in the Bible, and they say that they can all be explained by nature and natural science. They come to the Person of Christ and say that he was a good man and worthy of imitating, but He was in no way God. You see, they recreate what the Bible means and explain it away. They shrink the Great God of the Bible. They take away the fear of the Lord. They say there is no hell and that all will go to Heaven. My brethren, they can say whatever they want about God, because they have created him and control him. They make God small that they might fit Him into their human reasoning. And so you see that this acceptance of God is really a rejection of the True and Living God, and a creation of a smaller god that they can control. Though this is a trait of unbelievers, I believe that even God’s people tend to do this. We do not naturally yield to His Almighty control. We baulk at the Lordship of Christ, because we want to be lord of our life.
3. The third reaction to God is that he will accept the God of the Bible in all His greatness, and fall before Him in awe and wonder. This is where Paul is coming from when he exclaims “O the depths!” He says there is an infinity with God that I cannot comprehend with the limits of human reasoning, but I love God and know He is true, so I stand back and wonder. Now with the old nature, it is impossible to yield God His greatness and the glory due His Name. The old nature is far too proud to wonder. He demands that everything be figured out for his puny little brain. He thinks that no one could be bigger than he is! Any thing that surpasses his understanding must not be true. Look at a few verses:
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Matthew 13:14 And in them [that is, in lost men] is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Lost man can hear, but he cannot understand, he can see, but he cannot perceive it. But what does the apostle John say in another passage?
1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
And so you see that because we have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and only because of that, we can yield our pride to be nailed to the cross and fall humbled and awestruck before God.
PURPOSE OF THE SERIES: That being said, I want to reiterate my intentions for this series of studying God and the doctrines of the Bible. It is my purpose to plunge the depths of God’s greatness and fall in wonder and humility before His authority.
My purpose extends directly from the great commission where Christ said,
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
We have a command from heaven to teach you all things about Christ. I intend to attempt to fulfill this. Now let me be clear, it is not knowledge that I am aiming at. “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (1 Corinthians 8:1). It is not the knowledge of God’s truth alone that I am expecting. It is the love of God’s truth that we must have.
Neither bad theology nor good theology gives us the knowledge of God which changes a person’s heart. "Taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Psalm 34:8). There is a knowledge that only comes through tasting. Five seconds of honey on the tongue will show you more sweetness than ten hours of lectures about the sweetness of honey. "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Until God gives you a taste of his goodness all the theology in the world will not change your soul.
Conclusion
Do not be offended by the Word of God if it goes beyond your capacity to reason. Instead, stand in awe of the greatness of God, and be humbled before Him. Taste His goodness and glory in His greatness!
MEMORY VERSES FOR THE WEEK
TRY and memorize just one of these verses this week. We memorize advertising slogans, why can’t we memorize the Bible? With one verse a week, you will have memorized 52 verses in a year!
1. Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
2. Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
3. 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
4. 1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
5. I Corinthians 8:1 Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
6. Psalm 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
