Church Sermon - August 21, 2005

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Old Testament Lesson; Exodus 6:2-8
Gospel Lesson; Matthew 16:13-20
Sermon Text; Romans 11:33-36

The very first verse of the Bible begins this way. It says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The Hebrew word for the heavens is ha-shamayim. As you look at that passage you can see that God divides the entire universe into two sections - the earth and then everything else, called ha-shamayim.

And, just to show you the difference between the earth and ha-shamayim, let’s think about it in terms of distance. The distance from our earth, (this little speck of a planet that we live on), the distance from here, to the sky is pretty far. And, to the clouds, that is pretty far. The sky and the clouds are part of ha-shamayim, the heavens. But, the heavens go beyond that. They go way up to the moon and the sun. You know, the sun is 93,000,000 miles away. And, if you traveled 65 miles an hour in your car, it would take you 190 years just to get to the sun. But, ha-shamayim, (the heavens) go beyond that! The sun is only the closest star in our galaxy. There are stars that are billions of miles away in our galaxy. That is all part of ha-shamayim. That is how far it reaches.

But then, scientists know that there are many, many more galaxies, than our galaxy. In fact, there are enough galaxies that you could name a galaxy after every person in the whole world, and there would still be galaxies left over! No one knows for sure just how far ha-shamayim goes, but what we do know is what God says, in scripture.

"My ways are not your ways,

neither are my thoughts your thoughts.

My thoughts are as far above your thoughts

as the heavens (ha-shamayim) are above the earth."

That is a long ways. That is a LONG ways. God’s thoughts are as far above ours are, as the heavens are above the earth. I wanted to give you that little introduction, before I would have you look at these two boxes up here. This little box represents our minds, our way of thinking, the thoughts we have, the intellect we have, and the mental abilities we have. We will call that human reason.

This larger box is going to represent God’s thoughts, God’s mind, and God’s intellect.

I gave you that passage to help you understand that this large box is a lot smaller than it really should be. I could not get a box big enough up here, to represent God’s thoughts. It should be as far above this other box in size, as the heavens are above the earth. It should be HUGE! God’s thoughts are far above ours.

And so, our scripture reading deals with that when it says, "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen."

As we look at our human reason, we know that it is God who gave us our human mental abilities. And of all the creatures that God created, (besides the angels), we are the most intelligent. Our human intelligence has been able to accomplish many, many, many things. Over a hundred years ago, somebody invented electricity – Thomas Edison. It is pretty awesome how that changed our world. And yet, while that was brilliant, humanly speaking, it is nothing compared to the wisdom of God. God is the One who created those protons and electrons that make electricity. He is the One who created the Laws of Science that cause electricity to work in the first place. Nobody can duplicate or reduplicate what God did, when He created the world, so that we could have electricity.

God’s ways

are as far above ours are,

as the heavens are above the earth.

We could go on and on showing how God’s ways are far beyond our ways in understanding, wisdom, and knowledge. His wisdom is infinite.

Today we particularly want to deal with spiritual issues. When it comes to spiritual issues, this little box represents human reason. If we want to know things spiritually, "Who is God? What is God like? What is God’s Will for me?" not only is our human reason limited, but the Bible tells us that when it comes to spiritual things, there is a real serious problem with human reason. Our human reason, our human way of thinking, when it comes to spiritual things, has been affected by sin. Sin makes it impossible for us to arrive at the right conclusion with our own minds of who God is, what His Will is, and what He has done for us. Think about some Bible passages. There is a Bible passage that says,

"The sinful mind

does not accept the things of God,

nor can it do so."

My sinful mind, on its own, cannot accept the thoughts of God. It is not able to. It is not capable of doing that. My sinful mind cannot arrive, on its own, at the right conclusions of God. In fact, the Bible goes so far as to tell us that God’s thoughts are offensive to our human mind. The greatest thought that God has revealed to us is the Gospel - that we are saved by what Jesus did on the cross. What does the Bible tell us? The Bible tells us that the cross is foolishness; it is foolishness to the human mind. The human mind, on its own, looks at the cross and says, "You mean God is happy with me, by killing somebody else?"

That doesn’t make sense to human reason. And so, sinful human reason, in its pride and arrogance, has a tendency to place itself above God and try to determine who God is, how God should think, and what His Will for us is. Human reason, in its arrogance, wants to fit God’s way of thinking into our little box.

I will give you an example from today. God’s Word is where God reveals some of His thoughts to us. In His Word, God clearly says, (and I could show you many passages) that homosexuality is a sin. You can’t hide from that fact, when you look at scripture. But, what is human reason doing today? Human reason is saying, "But weren’t they born that way? They can’t help it. Doesn’t God want them to be happy? Wouldn’t it be ok for them to live in a committed relationship? Therefore, God must not really mean what He says in His Word. He must not really mean that."

And so, human reason makes an attempt to sit in judgment over the Word of God, not accept the Word of God, and then change the Word of God. Anytime you and I question what God does in our lives, we are really questioning the wisdom, the authority, and the knowledge of God.

If you are in a car accident, you may ask yourself, "How could God in His wisdom let this happen to me? This is only going to hurt or harm me. It is only going to hurt or harm my plans."

When our human wisdom tries to sit in judgment over God, that is a sin. All of us have questioned God’s Will for us, in one way, or another.

There is a TV program called Court TV. Maybe you have seen it. Recently, they allowed relatives of victims to speak out to the criminal. One of those relatives was a daughter of a sheriff. A criminal had murdered the sheriff. After the trial, the daughter was able to say to the criminal, whatever she wanted to say. (They had it right on TV.) Here is what she said to that criminal who had murdered her father. "I hope you suffer. I hope you suffer."

Think about what we did to God’s Son. God sent His Son to this world and what did we do to Him? We rejected Him. We put Him on a cross. We killed Him, the Son of God.

God could have every right to look at us and say, "I hope you suffer. I hope you suffer for what you did to my Son."

And, human reason could arrive at that conclusion, couldn’t it? But, the awesome thing that God tells us (and this is something that human reason could never, ever, ever arrive at, on its own), God looks at us and He says, "When my Son died, it made me happy. That made me happy with you."

Human reason says, "How can that be? How can that be?"

And, God answers in a way that we would never know, unless He told us. God, in His Word, tells us, "When my Son was on the cross, I saw Him, as you. He was taking your place. He was suffering for you. I was pouring out my anger against your sin, on my own Son. And I poured out all of my wrath against your sin, on my Son. And when He died, He satisfied my anger against your sin. I will never hold your sins against you anymore, because my Son has made the full payment for all of your sins. You are forgiven, because of what my Son did for you. And, you are saved simply by believing that."

That is God’s wisdom. That is what God has revealed to us in His Word. And because of that, we, as God’s People, who believe the foolishness of the cross, who believe God’s wisdom, we do not sit in judgment over the Word of God, but we let God’s Word sit in judgment over us. God’s Word controls our thinking, rather than we trying to control the Word of God.

Which ultimately gets me to what I want to talk about today. There are things that happen in our lives that scripture doesn’t talk about, doesn’t tell us what God’s Will is, or what God is doing. If I have a car accident, the Bible does not anywhere talk about my car accident. If someone I love gets cancer, the Bible doesn’t talk about that person getting cancer. And yet, we want to know what God’s thoughts are, what His Will is, why He is doing that, and why is He permitting that? Our human reason begins to question, "Why would God do that?" And, it tries to begin to fit God’s way of thinking into ours. But as God’s people, as God’s people who submit ourselves to the Word and the authority of the Word, God has revealed three things to us in scripture that are enough, no matter what happens in your life.

Number one, God has revealed to you, in scripture that He loves you infinitely. He could not love you more, than to sacrifice His own Son for you. And, we cannot comprehend, our reason cannot comprehend how much God loves us, but He tells us He loves us infinitely.

Number two; in scripture God reveals to us that He is omnipotent. He is all mighty. He is all-powerful. God can do all things, and control all things.

Number three; scripture gives us His promise. All things work together for good to those who love God. That takes God’s infinite love and His almighty power and combines them together. God loves you so dearly, that when He uses His almighty power, no matter what happens in your life, (no matter what!) He is going to work it out for your good. That much God has revealed to us in scripture.

Now let’s look at an example. I have probably talked to you about my college roommate, who was born with arms that were only eight inches long. And, he had little hands on the ends of his arms. He grew up having arms that were that short, with little hands. I am sure, when he was born, and his parents looked at him for the first time, I am sure they began to question the wisdom of God. "Why would God let that happen to our dear, little son?"

What do you think would have happened, if God had asked for their advice and their counsel, before their little son was born? If God would ask you, "What do you think? You are going to have a son. Do you think he should be born so that his arms are one-third the size of everybody else’s’ for the rest of his life, or should he be born with normal arms?"

What would you answer to God?

Our scripture reading for today says,

God does not ask us for our counsel. And, God does not need our counsel, because God’s ways are as far above our ways as the heavens are above the earth. Our scripture reading today says,

God’s paths are beyond tracing out. And so, what we do is trust that God loves us. His power is infinite. And, He is going to work out everything for our good.

What if God were to have asked my roommate’s parents, "Ok, you want him born with normal arms, then you trace out the path of his life. If he is born with normal arms, is he going to stay a Christian? Who is he going to meet? Who is he going to fall in love with? Will they be Christians? Whose lives will he touch? If your son is born with normal arms, will you stay a Christian?"

We cannot trace out God’s paths, but God knows. He knows exactly, He knows exactly what is best. And, His ways are always wise. And so, as God’s people, we submit to them.

I will give you another example, and in this example, (in just a partial, little way), we can trace out God’s paths, just a little bit. I was reading my family history and way back in 1868 my great, great grandfather lived in Germany. He was a 28-year-old man, who had grown to be a very successful engineer. He had become so successful that he had rejected his Christian faith, because he thought he didn’t need God, anymore. He was not a believer.

He was very close to his brother and sister-in-law. This sister-in-law got deathly sick. She was deathly sick for about 2 months. She was a Christian. She was a believer. During her illness, the pastor never came and visited her, not once. And then, she died.

My great, great grandfather, who was an unbeliever, questioned the wisdom of God. Even though he was an unbeliever he asked, "How could God do that? How could God let her pastor not come and visit her?"

He said, one day, it troubled him so much that he went out on a walk. And for the first time in years, he began to pray to God. He poured out his heart to God. Then he went to church and he began to listen to the Word of God and he became a Christian, again! He wrote in his family history, that he probably would not have returned to his Christian faith, if God in His wisdom had not permitted to happen what at the time, my great-great-grandfather didn’t understand."

He then asked his father for permission to come to the United States, and become a pastor. And, he became a pastor!

Who knows how many lives he touched. Only God knows. Only God knows, because God’s ways are beyond tracing out!

What would have happened if that sister-in-law had not died and as a result, my great, great grandpa would not have come to faith? What lives would not have been touched, if that would not have happened?

His son went on to become a Christian Day School teacher. How many lives did that son touch, with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? No one knows.

His great grand son went on to become a Christian Day School teacher. And then, his great, great grand daughter, (my mom) went on to become a Christian Day School teacher. And, she married a pastor. And they had two sons who are pastors!

In a little way, we traced out the wisdom of God, (just in a little way), and saw how God used something that seemed difficult. His wisdom is almighty and all knowing. We cannot trace out, all the other lives by what God permits to happen in our lives, but what we do know is this:

And so, we conclude with the words of our scripture reading.

"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen."

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