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Guest (Male): Trusting in our great God even when we don't understand what's going on around us. That's next on Sound Doctrine.

Jeff Johnson: We've got to hide His word in our hearts. Faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God. So that's why we're here this morning to have our faith built up and to understand that there is a concept we need to have. We need to get to know our God and who He is, how big He is and what He can do. And then we need to trust Him.

Guest (Male): How big is your God? It's a question we're confronted with throughout life. Maybe it's when you've been diagnosed with a serious illness, or the bills are stacking up and you're not sure how to make ends meet. Today on Sound Doctrine, we'll get to know our all-knowing, all-powerful God.

And we're going to marvel for a bit at His grace and goodness in our lives. How should we respond to God's goodness? The only proper response is to trust Him and then praise and worship Him. Here's Pastor Jeff Johnson with a look at the final verses of Romans chapter 11.

Jeff Johnson: Well, in the psalm we read this morning, Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. God is great. God is good. And He's done a great work as far as revealing Himself through everything that's around us. And then He gives us His word. So this morning we're going to learn His word.

And hopefully, you're going to learn as I did early in my walk with the Lord the importance of a right concept of your God. In other words, that you would have the proper perspective of who your God is. So we're in Romans chapter 11. We left off in verse 33. And I guess the question comes out: how big is your God?

And Paul's going to share with us in a moment how big his God is. But how big is your God? Is He a six-foot Jew? Well, that's pretty small, right? How big is your God? I love what is shared in Acts chapter 4. And before we get into Romans, I just want to share this story.

In Acts chapter 4, the disciples were going around and they were ministering in Jesus' name. And they captured them and they rebuked them and they threatened them and they told them never to do this again or your family's going to pay for it, you're going to pay for it, and you're going to lose everything in the society. You're going to be ripped off. We're going to and they threatened them very heavily.

And after they were threatened, it says in verse 23 of Acts 4, and being let go from these guys, they went to their own company. That means they went to the fellow believers, the brothers and sisters. There's nothing like going once you've gone through it out there in the world and you've been threatened or something's happened to you to come into the presence of the Lord with the brothers and sisters. There's nothing like fellowship.

Being together, praying together, worshipping together, learning the word of God together. There's just something so incredible about that. And they reported everything that the chief priests and the elders had said unto them, the religious of the society. They threatened them of their very lives not to share in Jesus' name anymore. And then it says in verse 24, and when they had heard this, they lifted up their voices.

Notice the reaction. They lifted up their voices to God with one accord and they said, "Lord, you are God. You've made heaven, earth, the sea and all that's in them is. You created everything. You're great. You're powerful." So this is a prayer that I think is showing their concept of God. They understood who He was: the creator of all things, who they were going before, who they were praying to.

So the first thing that I see here is that God is all-knowing. He's everywhere present. He's all-powerful. And then as they acknowledged Him, who He is in their prayer, verse 29, they said, "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings. And grant unto your servants," and this is their prayer, "with all boldness that we can go out and speak in Jesus' name again."

Just give us boldness not to be afraid of their threats. They're men. You are God. You gave us an assignment. We're going for it in Jesus' name. Give us boldness to preach it by stretching forth your hand, Lord, to heal, that signs and wonders may be done by thy name and thy holy child, Jesus. I love this.

The boldness that they asked for, God gave it to them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and God gave them boldness to go forth and do it. And God was glorified. Abraham is another guy that really had a very strong concept of who God was. And this is in you're in Romans already, so turn over to Romans 4 verse 20.

This is father Abraham, father of our faith, who believed God and because he believed God, he was given righteousness and the same with us. And it says about him, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. He didn't allow unbelief in. But he was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what He had promised, what God had told him, He was able also to perform.

So Abraham, a man of faith. "God, you said it. I believe it. That settles it. You're able to perform it and so you're going to bring it to pass. You're going to give me a son even though I'm a hundred years old. You're going to bring it to pass and you are able." And I have to admit that being a part of Calvary Chapel Downey for so many years, I too am convinced of a great God.

And my concept of God is huge because what He did here on this property blew my mind. And I don't even meditate on it all the time, but when I go look at what He's done, I just have to say you're awesome, God. You're Creator, man, and you are able to do great and exceeding things. And He's proven it to us as we're here in this property.

As God has opened the doors of heaven and poured out upon us His blessing that we would be a lighthouse in the darkness that's surrounding us. Wow, what a calling. What a God. But He is awesome and to God be the glory. But we've got to hide His word in our hearts. Faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God. So that's why we're here this morning to have our faith built up, to understand that there's a concept we need to have.

We need to get to know our God and who He is, how big He is and what He can do, and then we need to trust Him. Right? So what they did was they were threatened and they had some heavy things coming down on them. And once they realized who they're going to, they put their little puny prayer request before a great God as, "Oh, God, can you handle it?" Knowing He's going to handle it, knowing He's going to do it.

And they brought their little prayer request. See, your prayer is overwhelming when you're in the midst of it, but when you realize who you're giving it to, then you start to rejoice because He takes it. And He takes it and answers it one way or another. Paul's been giving us a history lesson from the beginning of man from chapter 1 of Romans to the very end of the age, which is chapters 9, 10, and 11, which we've been studying.

When God will deal with Israel from the beginning, from "all have sinned" to God's sovereignty, His calling, His election, our many blessings and many privileges. As Paul's just going one after another, pouring them out to us. All this causes Paul to well up inside of himself. Emotionally he bursts forth with praise and adoration. He is blown away at all that God has done.

As he's writing this down, the Holy Spirit is moving upon him, he's writing it down and every once in a while he just has to drop the pen and praise God. I mean, he's blown away. He just goes, "God, you're so great, man. Look at what you've done and look at what you're doing." And that's what we're seeing here in these verses. Paul's theology actually turns into a doxology, which is a praise unto God.

Here he is putting down about our God and then he begins to praise the Lord. So as he marvels at God's greatness, he's marveling at His mercy, at His grace. Now, you can marvel at the grace of God just by understanding the word grace. It means undeserved, unearned, unmerited favor. In other words, we're here this morning in the grace of God, under the grace of God, not because of anything we've done, just because of who He is and what He's done.

You see, it just captures us. It just grabs a hold of us just to meditate on that for a while. So Paul's like a mountain climber. He's climbing this mountain who, after getting to the top, it's always something to get to the top. And you finally get to the top and you look at this incredible view that you have before you. And this view is breathtaking. It is overwhelming as he's looking at it.

And then we get to our text now in chapter 11 verse 33. And he says, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out." I like how he starts it out. He says, "Oh, the depth," that God rules. He reigns. He is sovereign. We can trust Him because of how great He is. Because of who He is, we can bring our prayer requests to Him, that He is able.

Then he talks about His riches. Some of His riches are not like we would think. "Oh, the riches of God. Yeah, you're a kid of the King so you should have a Learjet, you should have the best car," how some of these preachers go off. That's not what he's talking about: the riches. He's talking about the richness of His mercy. In Psalm 51 verse 1, "Have mercy upon me, oh God," David cries out, "according to your loving kindness." It's overwhelming. "According to the multitude of thy tender mercies."

That's the riches. He says, "Blot out my transgressions because you're such a God of love. You're such a God that cares, that wants to bless. So I come to you with my problems, with my sin, and just give me your riches, Lord. I want your riches." Jesus said that to John. He said there are those in the church that say, "We're rich, we have need of nothing. We have everything we need." He says, "No, you're poor, miserable, you're wretched, you're naked."

Buy of me gold tried in the fire. This is the true gold: the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Be rich in the things of God. Get to know God. Man, you're going to be the richest man or woman in the world just to know your God. So Paul's just saying they're inexhaustible, the wealth of exhaustless grace. It just keeps being poured out and poured out and poured out.

Now, he says, "And his wisdom and knowledge." At times it's hard to understand. The reason it's hard for us at times to understand is because we are finite beings. We have such limited brainpower when it comes to God-power. We think so small. We're finite. We don't understand everything like He understands everything. He's infinite. So we do struggle and that's all right. We have to understand that, though.

We struggle with so many of God's ways. Why did God allow this? We ask, we cry out. "Why, God? To what good is this? You say all things are working for the good. Well, what good is this?" But you can understand how sometimes we get in situations that are just overwhelming. What good is this? There is a story in the Old Testament and it's way back in Genesis chapter 42.

And in Genesis 42, it's a situation where Jacob was going through it because God was really getting his attention. Now, how did He do that? Well, all his sons came to him with Joseph's robe full of blood and said, "Well, we're sorry. Your son lost his life and the animals carried him away." "My favorite son, Joseph? You've got to be kidding." "No." And then they went over to Egypt to get some food because there's a famine in the land and they had to leave Simeon.

And they came back to report to dear dad. "Dad, we had to leave Simeon. Simeon's in prison in Egypt." He was going, "Oh, no." And this is what he said. This is in Genesis 42:36. And Jacob their father said unto them, "Me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not. Simeon is not." In other words, they're dead. "And you will take Benjamin away? All these things," he says, "are against me."

"I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe God is allowing this. What is going on?" And he lost control because what had happened is the Pharaoh said, "I want Benjamin to come." Young little Benjamin, another one of his favorite kids. And he says, "I will not let Benjamin go." And he says, "All things are against me," and he cries out. This happens a lot, especially when a loved one has been taken away.

Or say all of a sudden a husband or wife just dies out of nowhere, an aneurysm, a heart attack. That's it. They're gone. They're not coming back. And you just go, "What? What's this about? I don't understand this." Isaiah, in chapter 57 of Isaiah and verse 1, says this about this situation. He says, "The righteous perish." Isn't that sad? It's the young, especially when it's a child. When a young person is taken away in a car wreck or something. It just devastates everybody.

"Not youth. Not my son, not my daughter. I was supposed to go first. What's this?" Well, the righteous perish, he says, and no man lays it to heart. And merciful men are taken away. I mean, the good are ripped off from us. I don't understand. "None considering," Isaiah says, "that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." You see, God knew what was in their future. God knew what was coming and God reached down and allowed that one to come to Him because He saw the future.

Because He knows what He's doing. Now, we'll we take that? Will we understand that? Will we take it as an answer? I don't know. We wrestle with these things, don't we? But that's what He's saying: that God knows what He's doing. Then over in Isaiah 55, just jot it down, verse 8 and 9. For God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways," saith the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

That doesn't make it any easier, though, does it? But to understand that and to receive that, to sort of embrace that. To say, "God, you are God. You do all things perfect. You don't make mistakes. And there's a purpose and a reason for this." And again, you stand on Romans 8:28. All things are working for the good. So, God, I'm looking and I'm waiting for the good. You said it. I believe it. That settles it. And we move on.

There's some things that seem irreconcilable. I mean, there are some situations like there is a warfare that goes on with Calvinism and Arminianism. Different ways of theology of different ways that people look at how God is working today and what He's doing today. These two different groups that have split off in the church and you say, "Well, which is it, though? Which? What does the Bible say about that?" And that's a good thing to ask.

What does the Bible say? Man says Calvinism is the way to go. Calvin was a guy and he had this certain way of teaching that there's a lot of people saying, "Yeah, that's where it's at." And then there's Arminianism. Calvinism is "once saved always saved," right? And that's his thought. Once you're saved, you're always saved. You can go do what you want to do, go whatever you've got to do, but you're always going to be saved. You're never going to be forsaken. That's his thought.

And then there is Arminianism: you can fall from grace. And there's a lot of people are going, "Well, which is it? What does the Bible say?" And you get into the Bible and you find out, well, both those guys are right and both those guys are wrong. So when you really get into the Bible and you start studying the Bible, you find out that there's good points that they have and some bad points that they have. And you find out just the balance of what God has said. Not what man has said.

We don't follow a man. When you start thinking about following after what a man has said, you're in trouble. Now, what does God say? So we search these things out. Seems irreconcilable, though. Which is it? It's both. I think some things we'll never understand on this side of eternity, don't you? There's just some things we're just not going to get. Now, I do have a file that I put "do not compute," "do not understand."

And it's in my brain and when I don't understand something and I'm asking people "what about this, what about that" and they go, "I don't know, well, here's what I think," and I go, "Man, I didn't get an answer." So I put it in that file. And then when I get to heaven, I know I'm going to take that file out and, "Aha! I got all the answers now. Thank you, thank you, thank you." Throw that file away.

Let's enjoy eternity. And that's just the way it is. Don't let it bug you. Don't let it freak you out. We don't understand everything. It's okay. But we do know this: Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with what? All your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. We have those things to hold on to, stand on, hide within our hearts.

So we've got to trust Him wholly. He's God. He can do whatever He wants to do. He can harden my heart. He can show me mercy. He can damn me. He can save me. But wait a minute. I know something. I know this: that God has given man the power to choose who he will serve. He's given us what is called reason. How we're going to live our lives, who we're going to live our lives to, who we're going to submit our lives to, who we're going to serve.

Everybody's got to serve somebody. You're serving somebody. It might be money, it might be sex, it might be pornography. It might be a number of things. But you've got to serve somebody. Serve the flesh. Or are you serving God? Have you made the choice to serve God? And that's a wise choice. Whosoever will, let him call, let him cry unto me. The power of God to forgive sin and to cause you to make the wise choice and to be blessed in your life instead of cursed.

So I don't understand this completely, but I believe it because I see it all the time. It's a truth. Now, he talks about His wisdom. In other words, His decisions, His judgments. God's judgments, he says they're past our finding out. We ask a lot of times, "Why do I have this pain? I don't understand this pain. To what good is this? Why this situation? Why has God allowed this to come into my life?" And we have a lot of questions.

And yet, a lot of times there's no answer. We ask why and then nothing. We get nothing. We go to somebody, we talk to them, they give us something, we go, "No, that's not getting it." It's at these times I have to, and you must, we all must go back on what we know. There are those things that are called foundational truths that God has already showed us that when we're in the midst of loss and in the midst of chaos and in the midst of not understanding, we need to fall back on that word.

I love what Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 11. He says this, "Now no chastening for the present," the chastening is the spanking of the Lord, "seems to be joyous, but grievous." And it does. When the Lord goes after you and you're His child and you're blowing it and He's spanking you, it's a bummer. I mean, He's just trying to get your attention. You hit the wall, you hit the wall, you hit the wall.

And you go, "Man, I've got to get back with the Lord. I am running and it's getting me nowhere." And it's not joyous, okay? It's grievous. And he says that. "Nevertheless though," he says, "afterward," after time, "it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness." And that's really what God has for us. He wants us to have that fruit of righteousness because we've been chastened of the Lord, because time was involved and we've learned over time to be in that place of blessing.

Guest (Male): So when you're faced with a question or problem you don't know the answer to, fall back on what you do know in the scriptures. A good word there for us as we close. This is Sound Doctrine and today we covered the last few verses of Romans chapter 11 with Pastor Jeff Johnson. It's a message called "Great is our God."

You've been listening to a study in the book of Romans here on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson. We pray you've been blessed by what you heard today. Romans is one of the greatest books in the Bible. And if you'd like to hear this study again, go to sounddoctrineradio.org or listen through the Sound Doctrine podcast app. You can also hear Sound Doctrine on oneplace.com or wherever you enjoy your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

By the way, you can donate to this radio outreach right there at sounddoctrineradio.org. Thank you in advance for whatever God leads you to do. We hope you'll join us for our next study in Romans here on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff. Presented each day by Calvary Chapel Downey. Have a blessed day in the Lord.