Coffee House Chapel #5

October 6

Romans 11:33-35, “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! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counseller? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?”

Dr. Boice writes that God is difficult to know. God is not like us - so we have difficulty relating to who God is. So how do we form right thoughts and ideas about God? We must form all our opinions about God and who He is from the Bible. J. I. Packer, in his book “Knowing God” adds two practical things:

1. Remove from your thoughts limits that would make God small. We are limited by our human bodies and their feeble qualities. We often attempt to limit God - thinking He can do no more than we can do. We must always remember that God is self-existent, self-sufficient, and eternal. These are concepts we cannot begin to understand, yet in the smallness of our thinking power - we attempt to limit God with our own frailties. Stop trying to limit God and join Paul in this doxology and worship the God of unsearchable judgments.

2. Remind yourself of the acts of God that are great. This should be an important part of our worship. Thinking on and thanking God for who He is and what He has done for us. We need to be reminded that God created the heavens and the earth, how He intervened on the behalf of the Israelites, and how He loves and protects His church. Most of all we should be expressing our eternal gratitude for the gift of Jesus Christ - who paid for our sin with His own death, burial, and resurrection.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

October 8

Romans 11:33-35, “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! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counseller? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?”

“Who is like God?” That is what the name Micah means. Micah the prophet lived in evil days. God’s chosen - Israel had sinned - and they would not repent. Micah’s prophecy is mainly about divine judgment. But towards the end of his book he asks the question that his name conveys:

Micah 7:18-20, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.”

This is the same message Paul is asking in our text! The simple answer is - there is none like God.

Dr. Boice writes, “If God were like us, He would never have shown mercy in the first place, for the people of Micah’s day (in fact, of any day) did not deserve it. If He were like us, even if He showed mercy at one time, He would have ceased to show mercy later, because the people would have exhausted His patience. But God is not like us! Thank God for that! God is God, and there is no one like Him. He is ‘The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty (Exodus 34:6-7).’”

We can be thankful that God is not like us - for if He were - we would all perish.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

October 10

Romans 11:33-35, “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!”

We will following the Apostle in our text as he looks at some of the attributes of God. The first one is the perfect knowledge of God. I am reminded that we are not like God, and that would present an insurmountable problem had God not condescended to reveal Himself to us. We have been looking at the incommunicable attributes of God - attributes that God possesses alone. Any attempt to fully understand those attributes is totally beyond our grasp. But there are other attributes of God which He shares with us. Though these attributes “are beyond our full understanding, they are nevertheless things we can begin to understand because we possess similar characteristics, though to a lesser degree.” (Boice)

God’s knowledge is unique - because it is perfect. Our knowledge is partial and imperfect. How do we describe God’s knowledge? Arthur W. Pink wrote, “God is omniscient. He knows everything; everything possible, everything actual; all events, all creatures, of the past, the present, and the future. He is perfectly acquainted with every detail in the life of every being in heaven, in earth, and in hell .... Nothing escapes His notice, nothing can be hidden from Him, nothing is forgotten by Him .... He never errs, never changes, never overlooks anything.”

A. W. Tozer interestingly adds negatives to his description of God’s knowledge. “God cannot learn. Could God at any time or in any manner receive into His mind knowledge that He did not possess and had not possessed from eternity, He would be imperfect and less than Himself. To think of a God who must sit at the feet of a teacher, even though that teacher be an archangel or a seraph, is to think of someone other than the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth .....

“God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thought, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell ....

“Because God knows all things perfectly, He knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything, He is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything nor (except when drawing men out for their own good) does He seek information or ask questions.”

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

October 12

Romans 11:33-35, “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!”

Last time I wrote about God’s knowledge - that He cannot learn anything - because He knows all! Paul expresses his awe of God’s knowledge by writing “O the depth of the riches .... of the .... knowledge of God!” Paul “is admitting that God’s knowledge is so much greater than ours that we can only stand in awe of it.” (Boice)

Boice writes, “The perfection of God’s knowledge is also disturbing, however, if we think about it, which is one reason why people try so hard not to think about God.” As long as we think of God knowing things about others - we find this attribute of God amusing – but when it hits home - that God knows all about us - even the things we think about, things that no other human being knows - it no longer is amusing - it is devastating! “We do not mind an ignorant God, or a God who forgets. But what are we to do with a God ‘before whom all hearts are open, all desires known?’ Such a God is immensely threatening, which is why we try to banish Him from our thinking.” (Boice)

Dr. Boice suggests four things that the perfect knowledge of God should do for believers:

1. It should humble us. Think about Job and his suffering. God allowed Satan to attack Job - to prove that a believer is able to love God for who He is - not for what He gives the believer. Job lost all that he had - with the exception of his wife. When Job had lost all - his comment was, “The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)

Job’s friends came and “comforted” him (though with friends like Job’s - I don’t think he needed any enemies.). His friends were sure that sin had caused the great calamities in his life. Job knew that he was a sinner, but he also knew that there was nothing in his life that deserved the great trials that had come upon him.

For thirty-seven chapters Job did not hear from God. But in the close of the book - God finally speaks. What would we expect God to say to Job? Perhaps that He had allowed Satan to tempt and test Job? But that’s not what God said - God rebuked Job for “presuming to think that he could understand God’s ways, even if they were explained to him. This is in the form of a lengthy interrogation having to do with God’s perfect knowledge as contrasted with Job’s ignorance.” (Boice) The interrogation begins:

“Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?” (Job 38:2-11)

God’s rebuke of Job lasts some four chapters. By the end of the rebuke - Job is completely humbled. He replies to God:

“Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:3, 6)

“If we begin to appreciate the perfect knowledge of God and, by contrast, our own pathetic understanding, the first effect it will have on us will be humility, as in Job’s case. We will be embarrassed to think that we ever supposed we could contend with God intellectually.” (Boice)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

October 14

Romans 11:33-35, “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!”

Today we continue with Dr. Boice’s suggestions of four things that the perfect knowledge of God should do for believers:

1. It should humble us.

2. It should comfort us. God knows all about us. He knows the worst about us - yet still He loves us. He knows the best about us - even when all others think poorly of us - or blame us for things that are not our fault. Job in his suffering said, “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).

Hagar, Ishmael’s mother, was badly mistreated by Sarah. Hagar ran away. God met her on her journey and told her that He knew what she was suffering and to return to and submit to Sarah. Hagar gave God a new name, which is translated as, “Thou God seest me” (Genesis 16:13). It was a great comfort to Hagar to know that God saw her and knew about her suffering.

“The second year he was in London, Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached a sermon on that text in which he told of visiting the cell of a man who had died while imprisoned. The cell was down a long winding stair of a castle, where light never penetrated, and it was only as large as the man himself. ‘Sometimes they tortured him,’ said Spurgeon’s guide. ‘But his shrieks never reached through the thickness of these walls and never ascended that winding staircase. Here he died, and there, sir, he was buried,’ he said pointing to the ground. Yet, said Spurgeon, there was one who did see him and knew the extent of his suffering, and that was God.” (Omniscience by Spurgeon)

“If you are in difficult circumstances and no one on earth either sees or cares, remember that God sees and cares and that, if you are a true Christian, He will make it all up to you one day.” (Boice)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

October 16

Romans 11:33-35, “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!”

Today we continue with Dr. Boice’s suggestions of four things that the perfect knowledge of God should do for believers:

1. It should humble us.
2. It should comfort us.

3. It should encourage us to live for God. Psalm 139 deals with God’s perfect knowledge.

“O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.” (Vers 1-4)

David said, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high (lofty).” (Ver 6)

“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” (Vers 7-10)

God’s gaze penetrates everything - David states that God knew him (and us), even before he (we) was (were) born.

Where does this Psalm end? It ends with David asking God to help him live a godly life!

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Vers 23-24)

We know so little - we do not even know ourselves. But God knows all about us! “He knows our weaknesses and our strengths. He knows our sins and our aspirations toward godliness. He knows when isolation will help us grow strong but also when we need companionship to stand in righteousness. He knows when we need rebuking and correcting but also when we need encouragement and teaching. If anyone can ‘lead me in the way everlasting’ it is God. Moreover, since I know He knows me and wants to help me, I can be encouraged to get on with my Christian living.” (Boice)

4. It should help us to pray. Jesus taught His disciples to pray confidently - expecting answers. “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” (Matt 6:7-8)

Boice writes, “God’s knowledge of what we need is so perfect that He often answers even before we pray to Him.” “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” (Isaiah 65:34)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

October 18

Romans 11:33-35, “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!”

How does God’s knowledge apply to the unbeliever? Believers can say with the Apostle Paul, “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” Unbeliever - you have sinned knowingly, willfully, brazenly, and repeatedly - in the face of almighty God. Do you think that you will escape His judgment on the day you stand before Him? “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” (Heb 4:13)

Do not delude yourself - God sees you - and He will punish you for your sin. Adam and Eve tried to hide in the brush - but God saw them. No human being saw Cain kill Abel - but God saw. Achan stole a piece of gold and a beautiful garment and hid them in the ground - God saw him. Ananias and Sapphira lied to the church - but they could not lie to God, because God knows all! “Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Num 32:23)

When you stand before God on judgment day - He will read to you the list of sins that you have committed. Your mind will explode in wonderment as to how God knows all the sins you committed - sins you had forgotten that you had committed - but sins that did not escape the watchful eye of God. You will cry out to God to stop the recitation of your sin - but it will not stop until every last sin has been listed. “On that day you will be abased, confounded, speechless, and overwhelmed, as God unfolds the records of your sinful past life, page after page and paragraph after paragraph.” (Boice)

My counsel to you is not to wait for that awful day to arrive. Jesus died so that you might be saved from your sin and that awful judgment. You can escape that judgment by coming to Jesus, believing on Him, and trusting Him as your Lord and Savior. By the authority of God’s Word, if you believe on Jesus Christ and truly trust Him - “you will be saved” (Acts 16:31)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

October 19

Romans 11:33-35, “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!”

What is God like? We may be amazed at times with people, places, or things that seem to defy description. But all of creation is extremely describable/definable when placed alongside the Almighty. The reason - God is incomparable, He is undefinable. “This is preeminently true of His incommunicable attributes, things such as God’s self-existence, self-sufficiency, and eternality. But it is also true of His communicable attributes, those qualities that He shares with us in some fashion.” (Boice) Previously we looked at God’s knowledge, now we will look at His wisdom.

What do we mean when we say God is wise or all-wise? Certainly it includes God’s omniscience, but it is more than that. Wisdom is more than knowledge - more than perfect knowledge. I’ve known people who had a great deal of knowledge - but absolutely no common sense - or the ability to use their knowledge effectively. It has been said that there’s a fine line between being a genius and a fool. Added to knowledge in our definition of wisdom must be goodness. “Without morality or goodness, wisdom is not wisdom. Instead, it is what we call cunning. Clearly, wisdom consists in knowing what to do with the knowledge one has and in directing that knowledge to the highest and most moral ends.” (Boice)

Charles Hodge wrote that wisdom is seen “in the selection of proper ends and of proper means for the accomplishment of those ends.”

A. W. Tozer wrote, “Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means. It sees the end from the beginning, so that there can be no need to guess or conjecture. Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision.”

J. I. Packer writes, “Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it. Wisdom is, in fact, the practical side of moral goodness. As such, it is found in its fullness only in God. He alone is naturally and entirely and invariably wise. ‘His wisdom ever waketh,’ says the hymn, and it is true. Wisdom, as the old theologians used to say, is His essence, just as power and truth and goodness are His essence – integral elements, that is, in His character ... Omniscience governing omnipotence, infinite power ruled by infinite wisdom, is a biblical description of the divine character.”

I trust that you can see why human wisdom cannot be compared to God’s wisdom. Paul understood this concept when he wrote, “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1 Cor 1:20-21)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

October 20

Romans 11:33-35, “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!”

As Paul speaks of the wisdom of God - he thinks of the gospel, as this is the place, above all else, that the wisdom of God is seen. This is the place that Paul brings us to at the close of Romans 11. Nothing is more awe inspiring than God’s wisdom in saving sinners such as you and me. We shall take a look at God’s wisdom as Paul outlined it in the first eleven chapters of Romans.

1. The wisdom of God in justification (Rom 1-4). Romans 1-4 can be outlined as follows:
a) Introduction - Rom 1:1-17
b) An analysis of man’s sin - Rom 1:18-3:20
c) A statement of the gospel - Rom 3:21-31
d) A proof of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith from the Old Testament - Rom 4:1-25

The main focus is Paul’s statement of the gospel - Rom 3:25-26, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

Let me relate to you the substance of these verses with an illustration taken from an atheistic tract published in the early 1900s:

Two times Abraham was willing to sacrifice his wife’s honor to save his own skin. Yet the Bible calls Abraham “a friend of God.” After pointing this out the tract asked, “What kind of a God is He who can be friends with a cowardly man like Abraham?”

Jacob was a cheat. He cheated his brother out of his inheritance. Yet God refers to Himself as the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” The tract asked, “What kind of God is He who can identify with a scoundrel like Jacob?”

Moses, the great leader and law-giver, was a murderer. He killed an Egyptian and buried him in the sand. Yet God called Moses, “My servant.” The tract asked, “What kind of God could speak face to face with a man who was a murderer?”

The atheist’s chief witness is David. David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and had Uriah killed when Bathsheba was found with child. Yet David is called “a man after God’s own heart.” The atheists asked, “What kind of a heart must God have if David, the adulterer and murderer, was a man who was after it?”

The atheists reasoned that the mere existence of these stories was sufficient to prove that either God does not exist, or that He does not have a character worth admiring.

The atheists were correct is some of their reasoning. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David were indeed sinners. In fact they were worse sinners than the atheists even imagined, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer 17:9) It could be said of these men, as Paul wrote of the entire human race, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Rom 3:10-12)

What did those men deserve? What do we deserve? Eternal damnation in the Lake of Fire. But through the annals of time, God has been saving those depraved and godless characters and others just like them.

How could He do that? That question does not relate to whether God had the power or not to save them. Nor does the question relate as to whether or not God wanted to save them. The question has to do with God’s justice. “How could God save such sinners and at the same time remain a just and holy God? Since God was justifying the ungodly, it would seem that for centuries there was something like a shadow cast over the good name of God.” (Boice)

Although we are puzzled by this question - it is not beyond the wisdom of God to provide an answer. Gal 4:4-5 tells us, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Or as Rom 3:25-26 tells us, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement ... to demonstrate his justice at the present time.” (NIV)

“This means that God satisfied the claims of His justice by punishing the innocent Jesus for our sins. Jesus bore the wrath of God in our place. Thus, the demands of God’s justice were fully met and, justice being satisfied, the love of God was then free to reach out, embrace, and fully save the sinner.” (Boice)

Only God could have thought up such a solution to the sin problem! “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom ... of God!”

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd