Our Awesome God - Part 1

As we move through the Bible, we've come to Romans chapter 11. Tonight we'll be studying the 11th chapter of Romans, and we look forward to a time of study in the Word of God. This morning I'd like to draw your attention to the last few verses of this chapter, beginning with verse 33, where Paul sort of goes into a doxology of sorts.

Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the 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 counselor, or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again.

For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

There are four things that are revealed to us in this particular verse, and that is, of course, the riches of the knowledge and the wisdom of God, and then His unsearchable judgments, and finally His ways, the ways of God past our finding out. The Lord's wisdom and knowledge. In Psalm 104, the psalmist said, Oh, Lord, how manifold are Thy works in wisdom.

You have made them all. The earth is full of Thy riches. In Proverbs 319, Solomon said, The Lord by wisdom has founded the earth.

By understanding, He has established the heavens. The wisdom and the knowledge of God manifested in the creation of the world, the earth. And as we look at this earth, it's interesting how that there are so many issues that are just on a fine balance.

The nitrogen-oxygen, 79 parts of nitrogen to every 20 parts of oxygen with 1% of inert gases, but it's just the right proportion for our existence here. Any more nitrogen and we would all go around with such lethargy that we would hardly be able to move or to function. If there were more oxygen, say 50-50 nitrogen and oxygen, you'd have what is known as nitric oxide, which is laughing gas.

We'd all go around just laughing uncontrollably, no matter what was happening. I just got my arm up. Is that by accident? Or was it by design? The position of the earth in the Milky Way galaxy, according to the astrophysicists, it's just the exact place in the galaxy to sustain the gravitational pulls and all that we have.

And it's just, again, one of those things that is by design. Hugh Ross wrote an interesting book called Footprints of God. And he talks about these many different things concerning the earth, its position in the universe, its the makeup of the earth, the distance of the earth from the sun, just exactly 93 million miles necessary that we receive the heat of the sun and the energy from the sun that is necessary for life, but not so much heat like, say, Mercury or some of the other closer planets, but just the right amount so that it can sustain life as we understand it.

The ratio of the water and the land, as far as the six parts of water, the earth covered by water six times more than by the land, and again, just exactly what is necessary for the survival of man upon the planet. And we look at the wisdom and the knowledge of God as Solomon said, manifested in his creation of the world. But then we also see it in the creation of the life forms that God has made.

How that he talked about a herb yielding its seed after its kind. How that all of the plant life has a way of perpetuating itself by the developing of seeds that are transported by different methods and thus the propagation of the earth. The seed is really just an encapsulated DNA molecule, but in it is all of the information for the replicating of the original tree or plant or whatever.

And marvelous how that God has created the plant life here on the earth, designed it in all to spread itself over the earth. They have what they call hitchhiking seeds. As you are walking through the fields, these hitchhiking seeds, they have a way of attaching themselves to your clothing.

And when you get to your destination, you maybe see these little black curlicues kind of things on your pants and you brush them off. Well, you're just helping to spread that little weed a little further. Or the foxtails, you pick out the little from your socks, you know they're irritating, you toss them aside and you're spreading that particular weed.

The parachute seeds. How that they sort of, as the seed is there, has this little parachute kind of a thing. And when the wind comes blowing like today, the dandelion, that little ball of white fluff, the seeds are dislodged and they go floating through the air and they are spreading all over.

Dandelions you have to remove out of your lawns every once in a while because they just have a way of spreading themselves by design. The thistle, artichoke and so forth. Again, the parachute seeds.

Then there are exploding seeds. When they dry there on the tree, they pop open and the seeds are exploded, spreading the seeds out. And of course there are also the coconuts, which are interesting.

They have a waterproof husk and as the coconuts ripen and they drop, oftentimes they are dropping into the ocean, carried by the ocean and tides floating and they are tossed up in time on some distant shore. And there's just enough milk in the coconut to actually sustain it, to put down its roots and the coconut has conquered the South Pacific by just spreading itself with this waterproof husk.