Sunday 04 • 01 • 18

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. — Romans 11:33-36

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Would you join me in prayer? Father, we pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts would be pleasing and acceptable in your sight. You are our rock and our fortress and our redeemer. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

You know, if you think about it, musicals are kind of weird. Some of you are big musical fans and you're probably already offended, but there's a unique problem to musicals. People who are fans of musicals can suspend their disbelief immediately. But for the rest of us, this is called the musical alternative universe hypothesis, which is that you're watching along and people just burst out into song, and everybody acts like that's normal. It just happens and nobody says, "What are you doing?" It just sort of happens.

Now this is especially noticeable in a handful of movies, many of which you've seen, that have this element but aren't musicals. You're watching the movie and suddenly people burst out into song. So audience participation time in the sermon—I'm going to name a movie and I'm going to see if you can name the song that they sing. You have to say it loud so we can hear you.

Let's start with an easy one: Wayne's World. (Bohemian Rhapsody—thank you.) Ten Things I Hate About You. (Can't Take My Eyes Off of You—I heard that. Great.) My Best Friend's Wedding. (Say a Little Prayer for You—come on.) How about Ferris Bueller's Day Off? (Twist and Shout—good.) Superbad. (They're Good People—okay, yeah. So These Eyes—come on.) Anchorman? (Afternoon Delight—very good.)

Thank you. Good job. So now, that's weird in non-musical movies, but it's even weirder when we read it in the Bible. And today, as we're picking up this passage, we have gone through heavy lifting at CTK since the fall. We have been walking through chapter and verse, going through the book of Romans, and finally we come today at the end of chapter 11, and suddenly Paul—who's been writing all this 200-proof theology—breaks out into song.

Scholars, the people who've studied this far more than me, agree that this is a song written for us in the Bible. Paul breaks out into singing. It's like Paul who's been working through all this really heavy, intense theology, his heart is just getting hotter and hotter like a volcano, and it just erupts in this praise and glory and awe at who God is.

So question for you: What makes you sing? I mean, what makes you really sing? Not just mouth the words. What makes you really, really sing?

My wife, Susan, has been going with some friends over to Chapel Hill every so often for the pop-up chorus. The pop-up chorus is a gathering—just a random group of people who show up at Cat's Cradle and sing eighties songs together. They've sung things like "With or Without You," "More Than a Feeling," "Friday I'm in Love" by the Cure. You get together in a big room full of people and just sing. And Susan's described this as something that Brené Brown, the writer, refers to as an expression—an opportunity for collective joy, moments of collective joy.

You've experienced these things. You go to a concert, your favorite group, and you're standing in a crowd of, I don't know, 20,000 people. You're in a room full of people who all love the same band and you're all singing at the top of your lungs. It's an amazing experience. You go to a football game, it's your favorite team, and your team is winning and all the people are wearing the same colors as you, and you're standing up and you're all cheering at once. It's this moment of collective joy.

And today, Paul invites us in this passage into his joy, into a moment together of collective joy. We look at this and I want to give you an opportunity to join into song, to join in with Paul.

We look at this passage and it tells us where you get this kind of joy that we see. It's very simple. Look at verse 36. This is where I'm preaching off of.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever and ever. — Romans 11:36

Paul says this theology, words of theology—from him and through him and to him are all things—and then he breaks into doxology: "To him be the glory forever and ever." And today, that's what we're doing.

This is my main idea: theology done right doesn't lead us to be arrogant.

It doesn't lead us to just be smart, smug people who know lots of things and have cold hearts. Theology done right comes up like a volcano and explodes out of us in joy, in doxology, in praise to God.

So if you don't like the word theology or doxology, let me break it down for you this way: Big Jesus, big praise. Little Jesus, little praise. Big God, big joy. Little God, little joy. That's where we're going this morning.

Theology and Doxology

I'm going to look at two points, very simple: theology and doxology.

I know that among Christians, theology can get a bad rap. Some people hear that word theology and they think one of two things. They either think, one, that's boring—time to go to sleep. Or two, that's actually toxic to faith. If you've ever heard the term dead orthodoxy, there's something about studying theology that takes this living relationship I have with God, puts it on a dissecting tray, and by taking it apart, kills it. And so theology gets a bad rap.

But here's something I want to ask you to look at with me: everybody does theology all the time. All of our God talk, all of our God thoughts are theological. We are always interpreting the world around us and God's place in the world and my place in the world and how those interrelate.

So if you've ever said or heard or thought these things—like, you have a bad day and you're like, "Man, God has it out for me today"—you're doing theology. If you've ever said, "Ugh, karma," you're doing theology. If you've ever looked at a great personal tragedy or a national disaster and said, "Where is God?"—you're doing theology. If you ever feel like God is answering other people's prayers and yet God doesn't hear you, you are doing theology. All of our God talk, all of our God thoughts are theology.

Now, if you have been with us in the book of Romans, you know that Paul is into theology, but you may think theology is really long-winded. But today, as we pick up this passage, we're going to see how Paul packs a forest of theology into some acorns. These little prepositions—"in him, through him, to him"—he packs this forest of theology in there.

Paul is saying something about the enormity of God and the majesty of God and the supremacy of God and the excellency of God. From Paul, God is the beginning, and he's the middle and the end. He's the originator. He is the sustainer. He's the purpose. He is the headwaters. He is the one who administrates everything, and he is the goal of all life. It's all God, God, God in this passage. This is what he's pointing us to.

The key in looking at these little prepositions is that it's almost like Paul is saying a lot and a little bit. He's saying, "Look, you've got God. It's a little box. You just need to allow these prepositions to expand the way that you think about who God is."

From Him

"From him" means that God is the source. God is the headwaters. He's the originator. He's the inventor. He is the author. He is the one from whom all things come. All things.

Of course, we can consider that in creation. An atheist would say to us, "Nothing times nothing equals everything." And a Christian looking at Scripture says, "No. God times nothing equals everything." God is the one who spoke everything into existence, who placed the galaxies where they are, who perfectly ordered the universe for his purposes. He is the prime mover. One writer says this: there's no rogue atom in all of that universe. He set it all up. He made things such that the universe is like a big theater for God to display his glory on.

But you don't have to be a scientist. You don't have to go to a planetarium or study the night sky to know this. You can look at the end of your arm.

I want to ask you to consider with me your hand. Scientists and engineers have never been able to replicate the technology that exists at the end of your arms. The human hand is such a marvel that it can take an egg and crack it and yet stop from crushing it. You have the ability to stop pressing tension and feel it and restrain yourself. This comes from several things.

First, it comes from your tendons. The muscles for your fingers aren't all bunched together in your hand. They're actually down here in your forearm such that the tendons that work these muscles are connected down here, and that allows you a lot of dexterity. Scientists for a lot of years thought that all of the process, all of what controls these tendons comes from your brain and your central nervous system. But more recent research has said, "No, you actually have thinking tendons." What's happening in terms of your reflexes and how you move—a lot of that actually takes place here and not here. You have smart hands, in other words.

Grip Strength

Second, grip strength. The hand is structured in such a way that it's capable of three basic motions. Or maybe four depending on where you're in this building. Crushing, pinching, supporting. If you're over in those classrooms, punching. Those are the kids' classrooms over there. But what this means is that your hand has, between that and the movement of your fingers, an almost limitless variety of ways it can move, ways it can function. The ways you can use your hands is incredible.

Under the palm of your skin, right here, there are a lot of these globules of fat, and they look like tapioca pudding—squishy, round. And yet they're connected by these fibers, these interwoven fibers of collagen, which functions sort of like balloons in a big rope net. And what that means is that your hand is really pliable and soft. So when you pick up a hammer, those fat globules don't just squish out of the way, but squish along the lines of those fibers in such a way that they perfectly can grasp a hammer. Your hand perfectly conforms, can perfectly hold anything without it squishing out of the way or being too hard that it hurts you. Use it over and over again.

Finally, your fingerprints. The way that your fingerprints work is they help us feel objects through vibrations. They're not just random lines on your skin. They actually help you to feel better. In fact, scientists have said that if you didn't have any fingerprints on your fingertips, your sense of touch would be a hundred times worse. But the human hand can feel a thread or a human hair and scraping your hand along a piece of glass, you can feel an etching up to one two-thousandths of an inch thick deep into that glass. Incredible sense of feeling that you have in your hands. My hands are an incredible marvel. Isn't your hand amazing?

All Things From Him

And yet, I don't think it's creation that Paul has in mind when he says, "all things are from him." It's not just creation. I think this "from him" is about all the rest of these pages of Romans that we've looked through. As we've walked through this book, this is the dominant image I've used several times. I've said Paul is like a good jeweler. If you go to a jewelry store and you want to buy a diamond, you walk in and the jeweler puts the diamond on a black piece of cloth under a bright light. If you put a diamond on a glass countertop, it just sort of disappears. You can't see it. Put it under a really bright light on a black piece of cloth, and you can see all the complexity and beauty and shine, and it makes you want to gaze upon it.

This is what Paul has been doing throughout the pages of Romans. He has taken the treasure of gospel grace, and he has put it, as it were, against the black backdrop of the human heart, the darkness of my sin and depravity, our utter inability to move toward God. Paul's put it there in such a way that we can say, "From him. All that we have in the gospel is from him. There's a one-way salvation."

See, Paul is showing us that although this was incredibly expensive for Jesus—worth more than any diamond—it came at the price of his cross. God makes it free for us. C.S. Lewis describes salvation this way. He said, "It cost God nothing so far as we know to create nice things. But to convert rebellious wills like mine cost him the crucifixion of his Son." What was incredibly expensive for Jesus comes to you and me absolutely free. So much so that God is in nobody's debt.

You read this in verse 35 of this passage:

Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? — Romans 11:35

Who's given a gift to God that God owes him anything, owes her anything? And the answer is obviously nobody. God's grace is absolutely from him. It's absolutely free for us. From him. This is why he breaks out into song.

Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God. — Romans 11:33

Through Him

Second, "through him" means that God is the means. God is the executor. He is the administrator. He is the one who sustains and preserves everything. You sang this as children. How many of you grew up singing, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands"? You sing that song and we read the book of Romans, we're like, man, we mean that. We mean every bit of that. God is not the god of the deist.

If you're familiar with American history, a lot of our founding fathers were deists, which means that they believed in a god who is the prime mover, who initiated and created, but then walked away. It's as if God had a gigantic grandfather clock called the universe. He winds it up and walks away and lets it tick down over time. He has nothing to do with it. But nothing could be further from what we read in the Bible. The Bible tells us that Jesus sustains all things by the word of his power.

Laws of thermodynamics by his sustaining work. The universe as it runs, the galaxies, the way things rotate and revolve without crashing into each other, the shifts in tectonic plates, the seasons, your own life. The Bible shows us a God who is so in control of all things that nothing continues without Him.

Now this is where deism has really crept into the American church. I think a lot of us have bought into this, which comes from deism: that what is will always be unless acted upon by some outside source. The things that you see and experience in your life as reality, those just are, and they will continue unless acted upon by some outside source. But the Bible tells us, no. God is behind the active sustaining of all things. There is no tomorrow without his hand.

But it also shows us, look, this world is not gonna burn up. It's not gonna blow up. This solar system we're in—God is sustaining all things. They go according to his plans. And this is true in human life too. This is true for us. It's not just that God designs the stage and the actors come on and leave when they want to. No. God has built the stage, and he is the one who calls the actors on. He is the one who's in charge of all their movements, and he's the one that tells them when they leave. God is in charge of all aspects of human life.

This is why we say there's not a hair from your head that falls to the ground except God knows it. He knows exactly what's going on. There's no superstition. There's no blind fate. There's no random chance.

For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? — Isaiah

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is to come. I say my purpose will stand. I will do all that I please. — Isaiah 46

God is that in charge. And even this week, as Christians around the world during Holy Week walked through from the triumphal entry to the resurrection, we walked through the stages of what Jesus experienced. We don't look at what happened on Thursday—the mock trial and the crucifixion on Friday—as some kind of aberration, as if God was asleep that day. We say, look, this was according to sinful people who put Jesus to death. But Acts 2 tells us this happened according to God's plan. God was in charge even on that day. He's that in charge of all things.

And look, this is why humans pray. We don't like it. We act like we don't like this. We act like, man, I do not want a God that's that in charge. But this is why humans pray. And lots of people who don't even have our theology, who would disagree with lots of things I'm saying, still pray. Why? Because we want a God that's this in charge. We want a God who is in control of the universe. We want a God who is not just whatever. We want a God who is actively involved in your life, in the seasons, in the salvation of other people. And that's why we pray to him. Because we want this God who's like this. We don't want the deist God.

All Things Are to Him

All things are from Him. All things are through Him. And finally, all things are to Him. That means God is the goal of all things. God is the point. He's the aim. He's the direction. He is the purpose of all life.

I think this one's the hardest for people. You know, I can say, hey, all things are from God, and even if you're like, yeah, I don't know about creation and evolution and how that all works together, but alright? And if I say, well, all things are through him, you might be like, well, okay, maybe I can get that. But all things are to him. This is the hardest.

See, what exactly is to him? Spring break? Spring break to God? Is great music to God? Is Downtown Raleigh to God? Is my life to God?

See, for a person to say, "All things are to me," that is an incredibly arrogant statement. You know, we know people like that who act like that. We don't like those people, right? All things are to me. It's all about you all the time. We know. You don't want to hang around them that much. But why is it okay for God to say, "All things are to me," and that's not arrogant? Why is it okay for God to say that?

See, it's because God is the ultimate. God is the ultimate of goodness and beauty and love and grace and mercy and truth. He is the ultimate of all those things, and God could keep all those to Himself. In fact, in eternity past, God the Trinity did keep those things to Himself. And yet what we find in the creation of people is God wants to share. You know how watching a really funny movie by yourself is really different from watching it with a group of close friends?

So let's say you're gonna watch a comedy and you open up the laptop and you put the earbuds in and you're watching this thing and you might laugh, you might giggle. I mean, could be a great comedy but you take that same movie and you watch it with a group of five of your best friends who have all the same sick sense of humor that you do. Right? You watch this together and what happens? What goes from like giggling becomes all out laughing. And you're stealing glances at each other. Why? Because you're sharing the experience. It's funnier. The experience of that is shared. And so the experience of laughter in that is magnified and intensified.

Or let's take this one. Let's think about a great meal. Let's say it's one of those meals where you're eating and you're talking and you just have to stop talking. You ever had this experience where you're like, this is so good. I can't finish the sentence. I just need to have a moment. Right? And then you taste it. This is a wild thing that humans do. You would think in that moment for the rest of the meal, this is what you would do. Eat it by yourself. Like, protect the plate. You don't want anybody to taste it. And yet what do people all over the place do this in all kinds of different cultures? You got to try this. It's incredible. Instead of hoarding more for yourself, you're like, you need to be in on this. You need to share this with me. You've got to try this. This is the best pork or steak or kale, whatever you guys eat who don't eat meat. Why do we do this? Because sharing joy amplifies the experience. Sharing the joy, it enhances the joy.

So with God. When we say all things are to him, this is what we're saying about God. It means God generously wants to share himself with you. God who is the ultimate of beauty and truth and goodness and grace is like this is incredible. You need to try it. See, it's God's love. It's God's incredible gracious generosity where he says, all of this being to me, I want you in on that too. The only way that God from eternity past can expand the amount of joy that he has because he's satisfied in himself is by including us in it.

If you don't hear anything else in the sermon, would you hear this? God wants to know you and he wants to give you himself. He wants to share himself with you. It's just that kind of lavish, that kind of generous. That's why we say all things are to him. It's just such a statement of grace. Do you see how theology leads Paul, therefore, to doxology, and he breaks out into song.

Oh, the depths of the riches, the wisdom, the knowledge of God.

See, theology should always lead us toward doxology.

I want you to picture a scene. So here's Paul, and he's with this guy, and they're writing the letter together. Did you know that Paul didn't actually write this down? Paul is dictating the book of Romans. I can't imagine. He's dictating this guy named Tertius, and it's like he's been going through all this heavy theology, and he stops. He's like, Tertius, can you believe it? I mean, God is this wow. He's this good. You have to try this. It's incredible.

See, this is why the beginning part of this theology, from him to him through him are all things. Paul's like, to him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. That word amen is a Hebrew word which means, yeah. Right? High five, chest bump. You know, my kids say, big facts. Right? Like, this is awesome. Celebrate this.

See, theology should always lead us toward doxology. God saturated truth about who he is should come like gasoline on the flickering flame of my heart and your heart in such a way that there's an eruption. That it's like, God, yeah. It should lead us to be intense toward God, to feel boldly toward God, to be fervent, to be urgent, to be zealous, to be passionate.

And conversely, if your theology doesn't move toward doxology, well, can I help you out? Because I know that's hard. And some of you may be here this Easter Sunday and, you know, we all look good this Sunday. Right? Like we have more coats and ties than we ever have in our church on this Sunday. Right? You know, we look good today. And yet, inside, you're like, meh, flatlined. Glad everybody else is into this. I'm kind of blah. Do you ever know what I'm talking about? Can I help you if that's you?

There are two possible barriers to you that I just want to address briefly. First is this: maybe you're struggling with doubts and unanswered questions which feel like a huge roadblock to you to doxology. And I get that. If that's you, many people feel like they can't bow and worship. They can't praise God unless they understand him completely or there are things that they're like, I just can't get this and you seem stuck.

But remember, knowing comprehensively is not how human relationships work. Otherwise, nobody would date until they were in nursing homes, right? You'd be like, "Okay, we're 85. I guess we can start dating and call it official now." Because no one knows another person comprehensively. It's impossible. Why would you think that would be such with God? That you could know everything before you could begin to move toward him and worship him.

See, what I love about this passage is that Paul, the apostle Paul, doesn't even have it all nailed down. Look at verse 33:

How unsearchable are his judgments? How inscrutable his ways? — Romans 11:33

Right? I mean, preaching through the book of Romans has been hard for me. Chapters nine through 11, man, this three-pound brain is working overtime to figure out how do I get this and how do I communicate this? This is hard stuff. And it's just so encouraging for me to hear apostle Paul say, "God's ways are inscrutable, unsearchable." How do you hold together comprehensive sovereignty of God and human personal responsibility? It's mysterious. And that is not a cop-out answer. So if that's you this morning, I want to tell you, mystery is a great category. And that is part of faith.

Doubt and Faith

Related to that, I want to say this: maybe you're struggling with doubts and unanswered questions. You know what that is? Healthy. Normal. Yeah, I just said those two words—healthy and normal.

Tim Keller, who's a pastor, says that doubts are not the opposite of faith. I'm going to read this quote from him:

A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection. Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts, not only their own but their friends and neighbors.

That's why we say all the time, this is a safe place. Come here with all your questions. The church should be a safe place where you ask all your God questions. And you know what some of the answers are going to be? "I don't know. I don't know." But here's the thing: rather than allowing those things to be a barrier to you, can you come worship the God as much as you do know? Can you worship God as much as you do know as he's revealed himself? You're like, "I don't know all this, but I know this. And I can worship him in this way," as Paul does.

Hey, some things are unsearchable, inscrutable to me. But how infinite his ways, how incredible the wisdom, the depth, the riches of the knowledge of God.

Getting Your Prepositions Straight

The second barrier to joy, to doxology, may be that your prepositions are out of whack. I bet you didn't even know you had prepositions this morning, did you? You're like, "Those are my hip or my lower back. I didn't know I had prepositions." You don't need a chiropractor. Don't worry. I just mean these kinds of prepositions, and I'm sorry to go all English major on you, but this is the one part of this.

So the prepositions in this passage are "from" and "through" and "to," and it's really, really common that our prepositions are out of whack. And when they are, we lose joy. We lose our praise.

Let me ask you. Let's review where we've been. Can you say "from him are all things"? Now, a lot of people can say this. A lot of people who are just sort of general deists can say, "Yeah, God's behind everything. I don't know all about the evolution-creation thing, but God behind everything—I can bind to that."

But what about "through"? What about God being through all things? See, when we say that, many of us in the church would sing songs that say that, but in reality, this is how we live. Who is it that makes things happen in my life? Is it God? For most of us, the answer to that is: me. I make things happen through my willpower. I don't delegate because I can't trust anybody to get it done like I get it done. I know how to make things happen. I trust me. I can't trust God with this.

And see, finally—"to"? Can you affirm "to him are all things"? See, when you say that, you're saying God is the point. He is the direction. He is the aim. He is the purpose. And his glory is my greatest joy and desire.

And let's be honest, for a lot of us, this is a hard one to say because what we really want to say is, "Yeah, sort of. But to me—I mean, to my career advancement, to my having a perfect family, to my having a spouse who adores me, to me being physically fit—those are all good things."

But anything that we separate—see, everybody has an answer for the "from," the "to," and the "through." And it may not be what we confess. It may not be what we sing.

But all of us have pronouns or nouns that we put in those places. And the Bible tells us that when we put other things besides God in the from slot or the through slot or the to slot, that's called idolatry. And not only is it sinful, it's actually really destructive. You want to talk about robbing you of joy? Singing songs like "to him are all things," but the rest of my life is like "to me are all things." Those are on a collision course.

See, if the answer to any of those isn't God—to any of those prepositions—we're in trouble. That's why I say, man, your prepositions are out of whack. Mine are too. But here's the good news. I don't want to just leave you here like, "Oh, man." I want you to hear this: this is not like petting a cat. You don't just go from theology to doxology. You can go the other way. You can go from doxology to theology.

The first service got that one. With a cat, you only go one way when you pet it. But you can go both ways, right? So you can go from theology to doxology, but you can also go from doxology to theology. Do you know what we do every Sunday in this church? We do a spiritual chiropractic visit. You come in with all your prepositions out of whack, and you know what we do? We sing songs. We confess our sins. We listen to God's word. We take the bread and the cup, and it's just like everything kind of gets put back in the right place.

God is through—the one through whom all things happen. I don't have to make stuff happen this week. I can pray and I can wait on Him. Wait—it is for Him. His glory is actually what I really want when I'm singing. And see, what worship does is just rearrange things, puts them all back in the right order.

So this Easter morning, if you're apathetic and flatlined and kind of blah, what you need to do is worship. Let's just do that right now. Danny, would you come and lead us? We're gonna break out into song. We have an opportunity for a moment of collective joy.