What an Awesome God!

14th Sunday after Pentecost, 9/14/14
Romans 11:33-36

What an Awesome God!
I. His saving wisdom astounds us.
II. His eternal glory consoles us.

It’s still billed as “The Greatest Show on Earth.” I’m wondering if those of you who are under the age of 30 know what I’m talking about. Many of you recognize that as the tagline for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. And I’m sure that, in the heyday of the traveling circus, prior to the invention of the television, this circus show allowed spectators to see things they had never seen before. Adjectives such as amazing, unbelievable and awesome were used to describe the circus acts.

Now we see what’s amazing on a daily basis whether it’s broadcast on a TV channel or stored for viewing at our leisure on a website. Hardly a day goes by in which I don’t receive an invitation via email to click on this link and see something amazing.

Amazing. Awesome. Those words are used so often they’ve become worn out. They’re cliché. We use them to describe everything from a bite of good food to a panoramic view of nature to the raw power of our Air Force’s latest fighter jet. Amazing. Awesome.

And here we go again using it this morning. But I would have you consider how different its use is this time. That’s because we’re not talking about something another human has made, or something that only possesses tremendous power but not all power, or something that’s beautiful but will only last for a time. We’re talking about our God.

At this point in his letter to the Romans Paul breaks into one of the most beautiful doxologies in all of Scripture. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he says it far better than any of us could. In short, he reminds us what an awesome God we have. But sometimes we’re not so sure about that. Sinful pride dulls our view of how awesome our God is. Sinful stress and worry rob us of our confidence in our awesome God.

So let’s remind ourselves again this morning. What an awesome God! May our God convince us of it once again this morning.

Part I.

When we use the word “awesome,” there’s always a context. We’re reacting to something. We’re responding to something we’ve used one of our five senses to perceive. What has just occurred has touched us in a special way and we feel compelled to let others know about it.

The same is true for the Apostle Paul. He wrote, “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?’” Paul was responding to something when he wrote these words. Wouldn’t it be nice to know what that was so that we could share Paul’s amazement at our awesome God?

Well, wonder no more. This section of Paul’s Letter to the Romans is the ending to part one of his two-part letter. From chapter one through chapter eleven, Paul has systematically laid out how spiritually dead and bankrupt we are by nature, but how loving and gracious God has been toward sinners and it boggles the mind when you think about it.

Think it through with me. If you had never read your Bible or listened to a story from the Bible, if no one had ever told you about Jesus as your Savior from sin, what would be your natural way of thinking about how you’re going to get to heaven on the day you die? It’s this: I’ll try to be good and hope that God will let me in. I’ll base my eternity on how I act here in time. I’ll do something so that God will owe me one. I’ll do unto others as I would have them do to me. Surely God won’t expect anything more. If you’re tempted to think that way, read the first few chapters of this letter. Paul bombs that thinking into oblivion. He shows us just how wrong we are.

No, instead our salvation is all the doing of our awesome God.

Don’t ever think that you’re an after-thought to your God. The Bible states clearly that God knew you by name as one of his believers even before he created the world. Of all the things God could have been thinking about for eternity, he was thinking about you. How’s that for a mind-blowing thought?

And then, when he does create the heavens and the earth and he places a perfect couple of humans on it and they bring his perfect creation to ruin by their willful disobedience, what does God do? He doesn’t crush his creatures like bugs under his boot. He comes to them, seeks them out, calls for them to admit their guilt and—here’s how awesome our God is—he promises them a Savior from sin. Now what other god—if there were such a thing—would do that? But it doesn’t stop there. The Savior he promises to send is none other than God himself. God’s going to undo the eternal damage we did because we can’t do it ourselves and God knows it.

Then he sends the Savior—we know him as Jesus—and Jesus perfectly carries out that plan of salvation to the letter. In spite of the fact that the sinful people around him—at times his own disciples—gave him more than enough reasons to throw up his hands in despair and shout, “I quit! I’m going home to heaven. You guys figure out your own salvation,” Jesus stuck to the plan and refused to let anyone or anything get in the way. On the cross he shouted, “It is finished!” and his resurrection from the dead three days later assures us that it was.

To get to that point, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit had made perfect decisions about how to keep that plan on track. Paul referred to it when he stated, “How unsearchable his judgments.” Paul is actually referring to all the decisions God had to make for all those centuries about the plan of salvation. For instance, look at what God decided to do for all those times powerful people wanted to wipe out his people and thus snuff out the line of the Savior. It’s amazing what he did! How awesome!

As Paul states, we can’t search his paths. Our feeble minds cannot know what’s going through his all-knowing mind. And God has never asked any of us for advice on what to do; he doesn’t need to.

What an awesome God! His saving wisdom astounds us!

We likely don’t acknowledge how wonderful our medical professional is until she correctly diagnoses and treats the issue that has bothered us for far too long. We tend to take our spouse for granted and then they do something wonderful and we’re reminded how wonderful he or she is. We forget how precious our children are until some tragedy strikes. And to be honest, we simply fail to recognize how awesome our God is. In fact, unless we admit just how terrible our sinful condition is, God’s awesome grace and mercy and power and glory slip by without any notice. It’s only when we realize the hell we deserve and the heaven we’re going to receive that our God impresses us. And it’s all because of what Jesus did. His perfect record before the holy God for us. His sacrificial death on Calvary’s cross for us. Our God planned all that and carried all that out for you. What an awesome God! His saving wisdom astounds us!

Part II.

The older you get, the farther behind the “glory days” are. In fact, it can get to the point that your memory of the glory days begins to fade. In some cases, sadly, people lose their memory of them altogether.

We’ve just discussed the awesome things God did to accomplish his saving plan. Is it possible that his glory days are over? Look at what’s going on in our world. Last week we sadly recalled the terrorist attack on our nation 13 years ago and we’re afraid it could happen again. If it’s not wild fires, it’s floods. We either hear about wealthy swindlers or the burden of poverty. And the church isn’t immune. There are attacks on Christianity all over the world. And Satan never stops his deadly barrage of heresies within the church. Are God’s glory days past?

If you’re wondering, listen to Paul’s Spirit-inspired words, “’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.” Paul states that all things are from God, go through him and have him as their goal. Now, he’s not speaking about evil. God is not the author of evil. What Paul is saying is that the substance of everything owes its existence to God who created all things and all things find their fulfillment in God. In the final analysis—and I mean final—God will neatly tie up all loose ends and prove to one and all that he was always in control.

That’s the God who deserves all glory forever. We may praise individuals for their accomplishments, but only briefly. God and God alone will be praised forever because of his astounding saving wisdom and for carrying that wisdom out in his Son, our Savior.

You are part of that plan. You’re the result of God’s saving wisdom. You belong to him by faith in Jesus as your Savior. As such, the Bible declares that you will reign forever with Jesus. Astounding, isn’t it? God has everything figured out for you so that you will praise him forever. Do you worry that some petty world power will derail that plan? Are you concerned that some social issue or godless movement will bring his plan to nothing? Do you fret over the huge number of problems we’re facing that don’t seem to have a solution? Let it go! “From him and to him and through him are all things. To him be the glory forever!” What an awesome God! His eternal glory consoles us.

What problems have you recently put behind you? What stress-makers are ruining your day today? What’s coming tomorrow? Next month? Next year? The victory Jesus won by his death and resurrection assures you of victory over all these problems. His death and resurrection have removed your sins and have won eternal life for you. It’s all God’s doing. It’s all to his glory. Nothing can rob God of that. He promises that to you. What an awesome God! Amen.