Dr Greg Bahnsen - Higher Thoughts: The Holiness and Wisdom of God (Part 5)

You know, let's get underway again by turning to Isaiah, the fifth chapter. Our theme verses, as you know by now, are verses eight and nine. We're doing what I'm calling a theological exposition of these verses, trying to pull.

In some of the theological themes that.

Are related to what Isaiah says about God's thoughts being higher than our thoughts. Well, I'd like to put it in its textual and historical context by reading the whole chapter this evening. So again, give this your reverent attention, as it is the word of God to you, to every one that thirsteth.

Come ye to the waters.

And he that hath no money, come.

Ye buy and eat.

Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money? For that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies not. Hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me. Hear, in your soul shall live.

And I will make an everlasting covenant with you.

Even the sure mercies of David.

Behold, I have given him for a.

Witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that.

Thou knowest not, and a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee.

Because of Jehovah, thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

And let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah.

For as the heavens are higher than.

The earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not.

Thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh.

It bring forth in bud, and giveth seed to the sower, and bread to.

The eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.

It shall not return unto me void.

But it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

For ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hill shall bring.

Forth before you into singing. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. And thus far the reading of God's word Isaiah tells us, declaring for Jehovah himself in verse 8.

My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither.

Are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah. In this verse, Isaiah is thinking of God's thoughts and ways as those which we are to emulate.

According to verse seven, the wicked is.

To forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return to Jehovah. Verse 8 is reinforcing the need for that return to the ways of God and the thoughts of God by God saying, my ways are not yours and my thoughts are not yours.

Here then, it is appropriate that man's.

Thoughts become God's thoughts. He should think God's thoughts after him. He should emulate that conduct that God calls for. He should emulate the righteousness and justice and love and goodness of God by making his ways God's ways.

But then verse nine reminds us that even when man's thoughts and ways come.

Into coordination with God's, nevertheless God's thoughts are still higher than our thoughts, and his ways are higher than our ways.

The combination of these two verses has led us to examine the sense of.

Mystery, that sense of awe and wonder.

Wonder that we find in Christian theology.

Based on especially the declaration of verse.

Nine, that as the heavens are higher.

Than the earth, so God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways higher than our ways. God is beyond us. God is the Exalted One. God, in a sense, is mysterious. He cannot be brought down to the level of earth. His thoughts and ways are like the heavens above the earth.

And thus we've examined in our course.

Thus far the transcendence of God, the.

Way in which he exceeds human experience, how he goes beyond the temporal realm.

And the created order as we know it, the transcendence of God.

Secondly, we looked at the subject of theological rationalism and the use of reason in theology, its appropriate place, and then.

Also the inappropriate use made of reason when people turn it into a standard.

Of judgment rather than a tool of submission to God. We've looked thirdly at the incomprehensibility of God, the sense in which his thoughts.

Will always have a dimension and a.

Quality to them that is beyond anything, capable of anything the human mind is capable of. The incomprehensibility of God does not mean.

That he is inapprehensible doesn't mean that.

He cannot be known, but it does mean that his knowing is not exactly like man's knowing.

There is that sense of exaltation even to the knowledge of God, of the world, or of Himself, that we can never attain to. And then last week we looked at the subject of mystery and mysticism, the way in which the mystical approach to religion is not endorsed in Christianity. But in fact, there is a very deep sense of mystery to the Christian faith, and the two of them needed to be distinguished and set off against one another.

Now, tonight, I'd like to take up four concepts.

I'm only going to deal with two of the four, but I'm going to begin the last four concepts in the.

Theological exposition, looking at ways in which there is a sense of awe about.

God that our Christian theology would bring to us. We need to speak of the transcendent.

Mystery and the wonder of God in terms of his holiness, in terms of his wisdom, in terms of his grace.

And in terms of his power. So we'll be looking at those four attributes of God in light of Isaiah 55, the holiness and wisdom of God.

Tonight, then next week, Lord willing, the grace of God.

And then our final lesson will be on the power of God as we explore what Isaiah says about God's Word never returning to him void. And so let's begin then by asking.

In what way we learn that God is above us, that God's thoughts are.

Above our thoughts and his ways, or above our ways when we study the holiness, there are many scholars who would.

Say that the concept of holiness is really the basic core of all religion. In fact, perhaps the best known book.

In the philosophy of religion, the philosophical study of religion in the 20th century, is a book entitled the Idea of the Holy by Rudolf Otto O T T o, who was a German scholar and his work was translated into English in 1923.

It was his contention that if you look at all religions and study what is common to them, you will find the feeling, what he called the numinous.

The feeling of the numinous.

There's the feeling of the uncanny in reality, the feeling of reverence, the feeling.

Of a thrilling awe before a mystery that cannot be comprehended.

The sense of man's dependence and man's impotence in the universe, a sense of.

Rapture and exaltation, a sense of the tremendous.

Now, I give you a pile of phrase upon phrase and characteristic upon characteristic, because Otto was not trying to say, in some analytical and clear sense, there is one specific feeling Emotion, or certainly.

Not a thesis, because this is not the rational side of religion as he saw it anyway.

But there is in all religions this sense of the foreboding and. And yet the wondrous, the mysterious, the tremendous.

And as I said, he called it the numinous, that overpowering sense of the.

Awfulness and tremendous, mysterious, fearful power of God. Not always a personal God. Sometimes the idea of the holiness comes.

To expression in the sense of.

The overwhelming terror of reality that goes, goes.

Beyond our minds and controls us in a way that we have nothing to say about it. It doesn't have to be the personal God of the Scriptures that communicates this. All religion, he said, however, comes down to, as the translation puts it, the idea of the holy.

Now, this is an interesting.

Concept, interesting.

Thesis, because Isaiah, who is the author.

We'Re studying in this course, in speaking.

Of God, having that otherness and mystery.

About him and saying that God's thoughts and ways are higher than our thoughts and ways.

Isaiah, it turns out, is the author in the Old Testament, who more than any other one, speaks of God as.

The Holy One of Israel.

In fact, that particular title for God, the Holy One of Israel, is found 26 times in the prophecy of Isaiah.

Which in itself I think is rather.

Overwhelming, but it's found 26 times there and only six times in all the rest of the Old Testament. So here, this title of God, the Holy One of Israel, is found 32 times in the Old Testament, 26 of.

Which are found in this particular prophecy. Obviously, then, the holiness of God as the God of Israel is particularly important to Isaiah's conception, to his theological way.

Of looking at God. The prophet Isaiah sets the perfection and purity of God over against the sinful.

Impurity, Israel at the opening of the prophecy, Chapter one, verse four.

We're going to be turning to a.

Lot of verses in your Bible, so you might get nimble fingers and we'll get started right here. Isaiah 1:4.

Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children.

Jehovah.

They have despised the Holy One of Israel.

They are estranged and gone backward. Here's Isaiah, you know, laying some very heavy moral indictment upon the nation of.

Israel and contrasting Israel in its unrighteousness and iniquity, being a seed of evildoers.

To the Holy One of Israel.

So now here, the concept of holiness is obviously one of moral perfection.

That's what we usually think of, I think, in evangelical circles. And there's nothing wrong with that, as we'll see. But there's something much more to it as well.

And we see that, that notion of holiness, God's moral perfection in the dramatic.

Call of Isaiah to the prophetic ministry.

In Isaiah 6:1:8, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sit sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Here we have Isaiah's notion again of God being higher than us. What an awesome picture Isaiah now is in the presence of God. And he finds that those angels that attend the throne of God eternally, night and day, without ceasing, this is what they cry over and over and over again. Jehovah of hosts is the thrice holy One. He is the most intensely holy One. He is holy, holy, holy for all eternity, night and day, that is uttered in the presence of God. That's how important this concept is. That's how central it is to the character of God. I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and I heard the unceasing declaration of his intense holiness. Then said, I, woe is me.

I am undone because I am a.

Man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King Jehovah of hosts. Isaiah's moral impurity and the corporate moral impurity of the people makes him unworthy.

To stand in the presence of God.

Then one flew of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his.

Hand, which he had taken with the.

Tongs and from off the altar, and he touched my mouth with it and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin forgiven. And I heard the voice of the.

Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, here am I. Send me.

And so, knowing the holiness of God, Isaiah is undone. He wants to close his mouth and then being purified from his sin, symbolically.

The coals from the altar of sacrifice being brought and placed against his lips. Now Isaiah wishes to speak for God. He says, God, I'm here. Send me. This is his prophetic call.

The Holy One of Israel is the.

One that sends Isaiah. And he will eventually declare, of course, the highness of God's thoughts and ways over our own.

So thus far in Isaiah we note that the holiness of God is moral.

Perfection, intense moral perfection such that we.

Don'T even stand in his presence.

We don't open our mouth before him unless he redeems us and cleanses us.

But there's another dimension or aspect to the holiness of God in Isaiah's prophecy, which can be seen in God being presented as so powerful and wondrous as to be held in awe.

The idea that God must be held.

In awe by men is also part.

Of the holiness of God.

Look at Isaiah 8:13. Jehovah of hosts him shall ye sanctify, that is, make holy treat as holy consecrate. And let him be your fear or dread. And let him be your dread.

You can translate the Hebrew as a parallelism here.

Fear has the sense of a trembling, although also thrilling awe. Let him be your dread. Isaiah 29:23. But when he seeth his children, the work of my hands in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name. Yea, they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall stand in awe of.

Of the God of Israel.

Now, the Holy One of Israel and the sanctifying of his name, the hallowing.

Of his name has to do with.

Standing in awe of him. So there's this sense in which God.

Is so overpowering, so tremendous, so mysterious, so transcendent, that we can do nothing but tremble and stand in awe before him. That too is his holiness, moral perfection.

On the one hand, and overpowering wonder so that he is held in awe.

On the other hand.

Let's just look at some of the ways in which then the holiness of.

God comes to expression in Isaiah's prophecy.

What kind of God does Isaiah speak for? He is sent by the God who is intensely holy, eternally declared to be holy. This kind of God is holy from all other gods. The Hebrew word as well as the.

Greek word, by the way, they're very similar in meaning.

Has the notion of being set apart, set over, consecrated in one sense, but also distant from common use, distant from impure use. That which is standing by itself, it is set apart. And in that sense the Holy One of Israel is holy over against all other gods, because he is supernaturally unique. It's in Isaiah particularly we get the ridicule of the idolater who makes a.

God after his own image, the idolater who goes and cuts down a tree and shapes it in a certain way and polishes it and sets it up and then bows down and calls that idol his God.

Isaiah ridicules this, and he says, where are your gods? They cannot speak, they have no voices, they cannot see, they can't do anything. And so he declares that these gods should bring out, you know, the declaration of their power. They should show themselves, they should vindicate themselves. Moreover, because of the awesome holiness of God, this kind of God is such that no one dare despise. Isaiah 37:23. No one dare despise the Holy One of Israel. Whom hast thou defiled and blasphemed, and against whom has thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high, even against the Holy One of Israel? Isaiah says, how dare you? What do you think you're doing? This is the Holy One that we're talking about. How dare you despise him? Holiness can has a sense of threatening power. If you knew what you were talking about, you wouldn't dare stand over against.

God because of his power.

Raj shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water in the habitation of jackals, where they lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

The beautiful prophecy of the coming redemption of God. Recognize the situation. The third chapter of Exodus dealing with Moses encountering God at the burning bush.

And when Jehovah saw that, he turned aside to see God called unto him out of the midst of the bush.

And said, moses, Moses. And he said, here am I now, verse 5.

And he said, draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereupon thou standest is holy ground. Because of God's presence, the ground itself is holy. And that's why you don't approach, and.

That'S why you take the shoes off your feet.

Holiness, you see, in the very first presentation in the Old Testament is the sense of the unapproachableness of God, the distance of God. It's not the same figure of speech, of being higher than us, but the theological kernel there is the same.

It's the same truth that's being presented.

God is beyond us, and God is unapproachably beyond us. And one must be very careful in.

The presence of of God.

The holiness of God points to his uniqueness and power. Look at Exodus 15:11. Who is like unto thee, O Jehovah, among the gods? Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.

The word wonders, having the sense of miracles.

Here is a God, unlike all other gods, doing miracles, wondrous in his holiness. The uniqueness of God and the power.

Of God then, are expressed in his holiness.

And yet the presence of God brings dread. Exodus 19, verses 18 and 24. The holiness of God brings a sense of dread. Moses goes up on Mount Sinai to meet God, to receive the law. Verse 18 says, In Mount Sinai the whole of it smoked, because Jehovah descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly. And how did the people respond to this quake? Quaking, smoking mountain, of course, with fear and trembling. Verse 24. And Jehovah said unto him, go, get thee down, and thou shalt come up thou and Aaron with thee. But let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto Jehovah, lest he break forth upon them.

In fact, Moses was to put a warning around the mountain that if even.

A beast, if even the animals of the Israelites, were to wander onto that.

Mountain, they would be destroyed.

The holiness of God, when he touches.

Down, as it were, to use, you know, spatial metaphors, when he comes down.

On Mount Sinai, it quakes and it smokes, and the people fear, and they.

Are told not to approach.

The holiness of God brings dread Indeed. Trembling. Psalm 96:9. O worship Jehovah in holy array. Tremble before him all the earth. The interesting thing about this psalm is that we're accustomed to to speaking of people trembling before God when they quake because of their sins, in fear of.

His curse and his judgment.

But now the psalmist is calling to those who are people redeemed and are there to worship God in holy array. But here the holiness stands for their trembling in his presence. Even when we're on a good standing.

With God, there's a sense of trembling.

Because of who he is. Now, of course, this holiness of God is moral purity as well. In fact, Habakkuk 2:13 tells us that God is so pure that he cannot look upon evil. God will not even set his eyes upon evil in that sense. And of course, he sees the evil.

In the sense that he judges it.

He records it, he will punish it. But he will not look with favor, and he will not look with indifference. It is abhorrent to him the evil that men do. So the holiness of God in that sense means trembling because we are unacceptable and we are going to be judged by Him. And then, on the other hand, the holiness of God is used in Old Testament theology to refer to the fact.

That he won't forsake his promise of grace.

Look at Hosea 11:9.

It's just an example of that. Hosea 11:9.

I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee, and I will not come in wrath. We think of God's holiness, meaning that wrath will break forth if even a beast wanders up on the Holy Mount, where God has set down to speak to Moses, it will be destroyed. We think of holiness as God's consuming moral purity. And yet here God says, because I am the Holy One of Israel, I will not in enter in in wrath. The holiness of God means He doesn't forsake his promise of grace. There's an awesomeness about his holiness, but it's not just the fearfulness of judgment. There's an awesomeness to his character, his faithfulness, and his power as well. He is a gracious God. Isaiah 55, 8 says God. God's ways are not our ways. Truly, he is set apart from us. Then he is set apart from our sinfulness. But now the Bible tells us that because God is set apart from our sinfulness, when he calls us to Himself, when He chooses the people, they too become set apart. They become holy from the world. They become to him a holy people. Deuteronomy 7:6. For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God. Jehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth. The election of Israel, the setting apart of Israel from all the other nations on earth, the setting of God's love upon Israel and His grace being expressed to Israel means Israel is holy. Israel is now set apart from the world and consecrated to God. And this is symbolized in the rituals of Israel and expressed in the lifestyle of the Israelites. First of all symbolized in their rituals. Because Israel was a set apart holy people, God gave them rituals to remind them pedagogically of their holiness. They were to have tassels on the edge of their garments as a reminder of their holiness. They were not to eat unclean meats as a reminder of their holiness. They didn't mix clean and unclean. They were not to mix different kinds of fiber and different kinds of seed in their fields. All ritual ways of reminding Israel, you are set apart, you are separated out, you are holy unto God. You are not worldly. But then, apart from the symbols of Israel's holiness, there were also commands given by God where the holiness of Israel was expressed in their moral purpose, purity and lifestyle. Peter recognizes that element of Old Testament theology in his first epistle, chapter 1, 1 Peter 1:15, 16. He there says to New Testament believers as well, but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all men manner of living, because it is written. And here he quotes Leviticus 11, Ye shall be holy, for I am holy. This is in the New Testament New Testament believers, just like Old Testament believers, are to emulate the holiness of God because the one who calls us to salvation is holy. We are to be holy even as he is holy. And so God gave his law to his people, Old and New Testament, to express his holiness and to show us how we are set apart from the world.

It's interesting to me how often in counseling, both personal counseling as well as theological tutoring with people, I have to.

Go over with them the idea that we follow the law of God even. Even when it doesn't seem to conform to our preconceived ideas or our cultural patterns and traditions. So often people, when they're told the law of God says, this is the.

Way you're to behave, will say, well.

I mean, nobody does that. I mean, can't expect that kind of. I mean, that would be almost weird to do that. Weird in the sense of completely unlike the world around you, set apart from the world. The very weirdness of the law is something that is a virtue. Now, you may want to put that sentence in your notes and meditate on it and understand the way I'm saying it.

But you understand, if you study the.

Notion of holiness, the fact that the law stands over against our culture is, to its credit, not discredit. That's not a reason for turning from it. That's a reason to say all the more that it's likely this is what God wants me to do. The law of God by Paul in Romans 7:12 is called holy, just and good. It is holy, like God is holy. And because it is holy, it is not to be judged by worldly or common sense standards. It's not to be judged by human customs and traditions. The law of God is set apart in a way that you can't criticize it based on your ordinary way of thinking. Romans 12:1 2. Paul tells us that we are to present our bodies, a living sacrifice, holy.

And acceptable to God.

This is our reasonable service. And he says, not to be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may be able to prove what is God's will. You see? Transformed thinking rather than thinking conformed to the world is what characterizes those who follow the law of God, who are willing to be be holy as he is holy. And so the very fact that the law of God is weird to us should not scare us off from it, should not be taken as a defect, but rather as an indication of how it reflects God, who is separate from the world. My ways are not your ways. Please turn tape over at this time. Churches today in particular, I want to.

Just take a moment for this aside. Churches today in particular need to be made aware of the holiness of God and therefore the holiness, the weirdness, the set apartness, the unaccustomed character of his ways, as he calls us to live them. The the sad thing about so many denominations and so many individual congregations is that their desire is to become more.

Attuned to the world than to be.

Attuned to the God who is high and lifted up, the God who can.

Change his mind to fit the changing customs of culture.

So that you can have the feminist God and you can have the God who is favorable toward homosexuality and a.

God who would allow the ordination of those that in the Bible are called abominable. Indeed, I recently read there are theologians now who are saying we need a theology that thinks things through from the perspective of mountains and animals and plants, so that our theology, our view of God is oriented toward everything that has life.

Of course, this is the whole ecological movement in theology. And not only are the particulars preposterous.

That they come up with, but you.

See, the whole methodology is ridiculous. We don't want a theology that conforms to the world. We want a theology that expresses the holiness of God, his sense of being set apart. The law of God is holy and is thus not to be judged by worldly standards and customs. The New Testament also commonly calls believers holy ones, saints.

There's a whole perverted concept of sainthood in Roman Catholic theology that many people inherit by saying things. And I do this too, because that's just one of the uses of saint in the English language now.

But we'll say, well, he's no saint.

Meaning he's got flaws and so forth.

Well, the idea there is that if.

You'Re a saint, that means that you don't have any flaws at all, that saints are a special category of believer or human being.

But you see, saints are all of God's people because he has set them apart, he has elected them. That makes them saintly. And so because they are chosen by God, set apart by God, they are made acceptable to him through his redemptive mercy. Look at Hebrews 10:10 for this concept of holiness.

Hebrews 10:10.

By which will we have been sanctified.

Made holy to through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Christ dying as our substitute, has made us holy, not because we actually in living day to day conduct are holy, but because he provided a perfect offering for Sin. We have been made holy. In First Corinthians 1:30, Paul tells us that Christ has been made unto us holiness, righteousness, and wisdom unto God. Through the imputation of Christ's work, we are set apart. We are made a different people in God's eyes. But then as well, the Bible says that should lead to us being transformed people. Our holiness is by God's grace, his election, his setting us apart. But that holiness then calls for us to be a different kind of people and to live a holy lifestyle. First Thessalonians 5:23 and the God of peace himself sanctify you.

Make you holy.

Make you holy.

Sadly, my translation has the word holy here too, and that's what I'm tripping over.

Sanctify you wholly, that is, make you completely holy.

Holy. Holy, you understand?

And the God of Peace himself sanctify you wholly. And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus. God calls on his holy people to.

Act in a way that their whole.

Body and soul is pure before him. Look at 2 Corinthians 7:1.

2 Corinthians 7:1.

Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So now we've made an interesting arc here in our theological concepts. Gods, unapproachable purity. That concept of holiness, God's unapproachable purity, his awesome holiness, draws near to us in redemption. That which sets him apart brings him close to us in redemption, and not only opens the way of access for us, the way of holiness is opened by Him. The imputation of Christ's work makes us holy and brings us into his presence, but also makes us like unto the.

One who is set apart.

He's set apart, but now we can be like Him. He's holy, but we can be holy as well. These literary paradoxes show, I think, as Isaiah would put it, that God's ways.

Are higher than our ways. The holiness of the God as we see it expanded throughout Scripture, as well as in the prophecy of Isaiah, shows us the uniqueness then of God, the.

Mystery of God's work, and the way.

In which his ways are not like ours. We would never have been able to dream this up. And to imagine this is one of the apologetical arguments that I sometimes use with people, is if you do a.

Study of biblical theology, it's incredible the way these things tie together. It's like a person could not have dreamed this up. Our Ways and our thoughts would never.

Have come to this kind of thing.

The Holiness of God Time is short. I need to talk about the wisdom.

Of God as well.

That God does things in a way which is unlike our own comes out in another way when we look at.

The wisdom of God.

The wisdom of God, if nothing else.

Is a declaration to us in Scripture.

That he does things in a way that we don't.

His ways are not our ways.

God surprises us by accomplishing things in.

A way which we would not have.

Expected and a way which we would.

Not have been able to devise on our own.

He brings about good through a path which we just think is tortured with.

Contradictions to his goodness.

Or things we just can't possibly understand. The most elaborate laying out of that theme, by the way, is the entire book of Romans. Paul's concern in the Book of Romans has to do with the justice of God and what he has declared to his people.

The Jews.

Can salvation come to them? And I can't trace the whole thing.

As Steve Schlissel does so nicely. I don't have the time to do it tonight, even if I had the ability.

But I want you to look at Romans 11.

We'll do it real briefly.

Romans 11, 11, 12. Paul says, I say, then did they stumble that they might fall. God forbid. But by their fall salvation has come unto the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy. Now if their fall is the riches of the world and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. Paul here says, do you think God has forgotten his promise? Just because the Jews have stumbled, they are now rejecting Christ and will have nothing to do with him. God forbid. God knows what he's doing. The wisdom of God in this plan is remarkable. He says, their fall brings salvation to the Gentiles. That is, the hardening of the Jews sends the gospel to the Gentiles. Now what's God going to do? He's going to bless the Gentile world with the Gospel, and in so doing provoke the Jews to jealousy. Amazing. He's going to send them away to bless the Gentiles, so that as sent away, they might see that blessing and be provoked to want it themselves. And he says, if their fall is the riches of the world and the.

Riches of the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness they're being brought in in fullness be?

The Gentiles will be blessed by this method as well. Verses 25 and 6. For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery Lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath before fallen Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, and in this way all Israel shall be saved. Okay, so then again, God is hardening Israel to bless the Gentiles so that all Israel will eventually come back in to the kingdom. Verses 30 to 32 whereas ye in time pass, that is you Gentiles and time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their the Jewish disobedience. Even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now obtain mercy. For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. You know, here's Paul, the Jewish apostle, but an apostle to the Gentiles. What about God's promise to his people as he cast them off? And he gives this answer, yes, he has cast them off temporarily, that he might bless the Gentiles and bring them in, and by showing mercy to them.

Bring all Israel back in as well.

And here's how he concludes then, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past tracing out. We couldn't have thought this through. We couldn't have been able to figure out how God is going to use these counterpoints in history to accomplish his plan to save the whole world. And so he declares the riches of God's wisdom. You see, the concept of wisdom is God doesn't do things in a way that we might have devised, been able to think up on our own a way that we would have expected or think back to the Old Testament book of Job. The message of Job is that unsearchable wisdom is to be found in the Almighty.

Job 12, 13.

Job declares that God is the source of unsearchable wisdom. He is the Wise One. And then we see Job in a series, series of Encounters. In chapter 13, verse 3, in chapter 23, verses 1 to 5, in chapter 38, 1 3, Job repeatedly says, I.

Want to have my interview with God.

I want to reason with God. Let God set forth his arguments. Because Job knows of his innocence, his righteousness. Why then is he suffering? He has questions for God. He has declared that God is the Wise One, but now he wants God to give him arguments. And of course, you know, if you've.

Read the book of Job, it's marvelous.

What God does is Job, I'll answer.

Your questions, but first you answer mine. Where were you when I made the world?

Where were you when I designed the.

Way things would happen?

What kind of wisdom do you have.

To compare to mine, Job?

And the end of the book of Job, Job puts his hand upon his.

Mouth and says, I spoke too soon. No one can contend with the Almighty.

This is by the way, the book.

Of Job I had intended to tell.

You now, is part of the wisdom.

Literature of the Old Testament.

This is one of those things that circulated out of Israel, even through other cultures, as an example of their concept of wisdom. And what Job was to learn here, you see, is that the one who is all wise doesn't bend to our.

Expectations or give us explanations of what he does.

Though the book ends showing Job, now restored and blessed by God, the book does not end with Job getting an.

Answer to his questions. God does not explain to Job what why Job suffers. He does not show him how A leads to B and B leads to C. And here's the plan.

In it all, Job is not shown.

The meaning of all of these things that have happened to him. Job rather learns to close his mouth and trust the Almighty. That's what the concept of wisdom is in the Bible.

It's something we could not have expected, we could not have devised on our own, we could not not trace out. It's something we cannot ask God to set in order for us.

It's beyond us.

And thus the Bible teaches us not to try and read God's secret purposes, not to try and impose our own.

Man centered interpretation on the course of history or the course of our own personal experience. The book of Ecclesiastes, as I read it, is precisely a sermon on that subject.

How when you look at the world.

You can't make sense of things.

There are little lessons that you can learn, you can feel fairly sure of, but we do not see even in.

The world round about us, God working out everything according to our understanding of what his holiness and his plan will mean.

Ecclesiastes repeatedly thwarts the human intellectual from.

Being able to be in the position of, say, the controller out at the airport who can take all of these different airlines, you know, and all these different planes in the air and coordinate them.

The person on the ground watching all.

This activity says, boy, is there a.

Plan to all this? You know, it doesn't seem to work.

Out the way I would think.

And so for me to be wise, I wish I could go up in the control tower and see the plan.

And watch the mapping out of all these things. But Ecclesiastes says, you can't. God doesn't give you that kind of answer. Look at Ecclesiastes 12, 9, 14. That's the answer of the matter.

When life seems to befuddle us and not really work out according to our understandings of righteousness and what we might expect from God. And further, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered and sought out and.

Set in order many proverbs.

The preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written uprightly.

Even words of truth.

The words of the wise are as goads and as nails well fastened are.

The words of the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.

And furthermore, my son, he admonished, of making many books there is no end.

And of making much study is weariness of the flesh. This is the end of the matter when all hath been heard, Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every work into.

Judgment with every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.

It looks to us, when we look.

Out on the world, like a lot of evil gets unaddressed, is not resolved. A lot of things happen that we think should not happen that way. And when we compare what's happening to the law of God, they should not happen. But Ecclesiastes says that the wise person.

The one who is going to take.

Counsel from God, will know that your job is simply to fear him, stand.

In awe of him and keep his.

Commandments, and know that he'll bring every work into judgment. He knows what he is doing.

Isaiah declared, my thoughts are higher than.

Your thoughts, and my ways higher than your ways. And what I've tried to teach you tonight is that this aspect of God's.

Character points to his awesome holiness, which sets him apart, makes him mysterious in many ways, and shows that his ways.

Are indeed different from our ways. For he is righteous and we are.

Unrighteous, and he saves in a way.

That we wouldn't save. But it also shows his unsearchable wisdom that he does things and accomplishes things in a way that we would not expect. And he calls for us simply to trust him in that matter, to regard ourselves as needing to submit to him and to his plan. Even though we can't see the end of it all, we simply walk in faith that well, as we say, even though I don't know what the future holds, I know the one who holds the future. And that in the end, you see.

Is the wisest thing to do is.

To submit to his wisdom and how he plans out our lives and how he has directed the course of history. If we understood the theological implications of Isaiah saying, my thoughts are not your thoughts thoughts and my ways are not your ways. But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my thoughts are higher than your thoughts and my ways than your ways. We would then submit to the holiness of God found in his law, and we would submit to the wisdom of God, as in his providence, he directs all the affairs of life. And we can all pray for each other. We can learn this lesson better. I know I need to learn it myself. Do you have any questions tonight, Stacy?

He said about God's wisdom, therefore, try not to read God's purposes. That kind of go in direct conflict with a lot of current talk of discovering God's will for your life. God's opening door here and God's closing.

Yes, I was trying to make a nice subtle point with, you know, kind of like the brick and the velvet glove approach. But no, if you want the head on, that's exactly what I'm disputing. There's so much of evangelical theology that encourages us to think we can understand what God is doing and how God opens and closes doors and how he's blessing us or giving us signs or not giving us signs. The Bible tells us that is so foolish to think that you can do that sort of thing. I didn't bring up in the lecture, but I'll add right now, the fact is that if God were to try to explain to us, we probably couldn't understand anyway the complication and the depth of the mystery of what he's doing and relating all these different lives and different events and nations. I mean, it's just phenomenal. It's incredible. We are not supposed to be reading the meaning of things. The secret things belong to the Lord our God. But those things which he has revealed are for us and our children unto all generations. God specifically says, don't pry into the meaning of things. Just obey me and teach your children to do the same.

How does that relate them to. In our circles, we talk about God giving you a call to be a missionary.

Well, God expects us. God expects us to take his law, not his secret will, but his revealed will to take his law and apply it to the details of our circumstance. Okay, so now I'm going to try.

To contrast what you see in more mystical evangelical circles and what you would hear in more Reformed circles on that matter. A reformed understanding of guidance is that God gives me a greater moral ability as I grow up and mature in my faith, to take the law and apply it more adeptly to my situation. Part of applying it to my situation is knowing myself and my opportunities well enough to know what God would want me to do given the abilities that I. I have and so forth.

That is a rational process.

By rational, it may not be as clear as the laws of mathematics, but it's rational in the sense that it's.

Objective that you, if you felt that.

You were called, say, to be a nurse, you should be able to sit.

Down with your pastor and say, pastor.

Here'S why I think God is calling me to be a nurse. His word says xyz.

I see this about myself. I see these opportunities in the world. And plus, I have a desire to do that.

All this taken together would suggest to me that that's the best course for me. I'm better at being a nurse than this and so forth. So you start comparing it to other things.

Now, that's a long process, which is.

One of the reasons why people prefer the mystical approach.

No, I mean that the mystical approach is God, tell me what your will is.

God says, open your eyes and start walking.

I've given you a mind. I've given you my word. You have the ability to find some things out, grow up and learn about.

Yourself and make some decisions. The mystical approach is. No, it's almost like a new line.

Of scripture has been added, although they don't think it's corporate scripture for everybody.

But it's like God has revealed all.

These verses all the way through.

And then you can open up and.

Say, oh, and there's one, one more. Now Greg Bonson should become a minister.

Well, okay, now I know God's will for my life.

Now I'm overplaying it.

You see the difference between the mystical.

What is God's will for my life?

And the I need to know God's will.

So I need wisdom and maturity in applying scripture to my situation. One's objective and the other subjective. One is discursive and the other is immediate. One is rational and the other is mystical. Yes.

What will the Jews see in the Gentiles that will provoke them to jealousy?

Well, not much today.

And I don't know if your question comes from that, but you know, I get real discouraged at the state of Christianity in our day Bible believing Christianity. But the day is going to be there when they will see the blessings of those who are walking with God and knowing him and having the joy of salvation and Living in love with one another and applying God's word to all areas of life and finding success and prosperity in so doing. They're going to look at that and say, what are we missing? And then they'll look into the claims of Christ and they will submit to them as well. And Paul tells us that's just going to bring super abounding blessing upon the Gentile world when the Jews turn. So I look for a day in the future when the Jews en masse are going to be converted to Christianity. But what's going to convert them, according to Paul, is they're going to be provoked to jealousy seeing the saving blessing of God in the Gentile world.

One more question. Maybe we don't have any more questions.

Okay, Mike.

Verse 6, Seek ye Jehovah.

Why maybe town would that relate bring us back in sense to what the safety question was? In what sense do you speak to over the transcendental?

Well, I think there Isaiah is calling upon those who need to repent to seek Jehovah while he may be found in the acceptable day of salvation. While God is given opportunity, take it. This is a good verse to use with those who say, well, you know, maybe in my own time I'll think about this. Become a Christian. If God is being gracious to you and giving opportunity and wooing your heart at this point, you'd better seek him while he may be found. Because of course it's one of the most dreadful doctrines of scripture, one that I'm seeing applied in the life of one of my loved ones, where God apparently hardens hearts and doesn't make it possible to be found anymore. And so Isaiah says, while God is opening the door and inviting you turn from your wicked ways, come to know Him.