No sacrifice sufficient

Would you read in Romans chapter 11, please? The book of Romans and chapter 11, verse 33. Oh the depth of the riches both of his wisdom and knowledge, of the wisdom and 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 has been his counselor? Or who has 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 and ever.

Amen. Don't put a wall between that and the next verse. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Isaiah chapter 40. Our reading will start at verse 10. Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him.

Behold his reward with him and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom.

He shall gently lead those that are with young. Now the tense changes. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with a span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance.

Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord or being his counselor hath taught him with whom took he counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed unto him the way of understanding. Behold the nation's are tense change again as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn nor the beasts thereof for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity. I want to speak this afternoon had just closed the meeting with one truth that I trust God will impress on all our minds.

I'll put it in three words. No sacrifice sufficient. Not his sacrifice.

Thank God his sacrifice is eternally sufficient for you and for me. No sacrifice sufficient. I did a little of a poor job and just pointing out to you the difference in the tenses as we read through there.

Now don't get tense about the tenses but you recognize that actually you're taken back backwards to the past. I think probably you're looking at the past in terms of creation and it does have a great relevance to this nation. Now how much they grasp of this I wouldn't want to dismiss it totally but I do know this that the that the Lord speaks about a kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world and God's purpose in creation.

He has a purpose for this nation of Israel the past. But we read before that about the future and God does definitely have a future for this nation and their God will come to them their king and their shepherd. And then we have read about the present and God's dealings with nations and with islands even whatever it may be how small and minor that is as far as God's power to work.

I do see a connection between that and what you have in the book of Romans chapter 9 chapter 10 and chapter 11 because you will know that chapter 9 takes us back to the past and God's purpose for Israel. And you will know that chapter 11 will take us to the future. And you will know that chapter 10 is telling us that what has been is now the characteristic of that people and the reason why God has turned away from them.

So in some sense you have the past, the present, the future in Romans. Here you have the future, the past, and the present. There's a reversal, a change in the order in which they are found.

But there is that connection between these two passages Isaiah chapter 40 and what we have read in Isaiah and that's Romans chapter 11. And in fact what is in Romans chapter 11 where we read at the end is quoted from the passage from which we have been reading here. Let me ask you first of all then to think with me about God's capability.

We sang it last night I think about the one through the woods and forest glades I wander and see that here let me see how see the brooks and no and see the about the birds saying I'm now I got it all backwards okay you you know what it is and I I'll just bypass and I you know sometimes would think that that verse actually it would be all right to omit that verse from the hymn because the next verse is just stellar the best verse of a hymn I think I've ever sung when I think that God is son not sparing so I would leave out verse 2 except when I stop and think I think it's good for us all to get a picture of the greatness of the God of creation I think it will help us to recognize if I can just borrow that he must increase and I must decrease to get myself straight relative to God who am I what am I you think of the capability of God that God outlines here just so simply as he talks about who measured the waters in the hollow here is the God who stretches out to divide the waters day one day two day three of creation let there be light day one and it is a scene in which there is a mass of water that covers all day two he separates the waters that are above the firmament from the waters below the firmament day three he the waters from the dry land and all of that mass of waters do you have any trouble getting enough to drink in your hand if you just put your hand out like that if I have to take a pill I can get by with a little bit of water I can goodbye with about that much water if I can get enough in there hold it carefully and splash it on the front of my face I'll get enough in to take a swallow and your God and my God measured out the waters just in the hollow of his hand the dividing of those waters stretching out his hand to just measure them here and there he's the one who has actually the word has the idea of controlling or of limiting or of regulating the heavens the span of his hand now I'm sorry I was born on this side of the border I got to get a good word in first and then apologize for living on the other side of the border because all I know that the speed of light is eight hundred and sixty thousand is that right no it's not right how did I cut my numbers backwards I think I need this at the moment I wasn't gonna say this but you know when the men were all arguing about the glasses and all that stuff President Reagan at one of the presidential debates in which he was being faced with a much younger gentleman and his age was really being brought up as a an issue in the campaign he neutralized the whole thing by saying when the subject of the age was brought up at the debate he said I really would prefer not to mention anything that will highlight the relative inexperience of my opponent at which point there was no further issue of age so I keep my glasses on for reading here and reading and looking there and my memory is going but I don't want to make a big issue about the relative inexperience of nevermind all right so 186,000 miles per second and a light year is beyond my ability to understand and when you get all the millions of light years to God but that big the vastness of the capability of God who actually is able one of the translations give it he's able to calculate or he's able to just put it all in his hand that's the idea all the dust of the earth now that doesn't mean all the the clay of the earth because I think it would be easier to get the clay into a container than it would be to just scrape up all the dust because when the wind blows and and Sun the least Rio Colorado it really kicks up quite a cloud on the streets hard to gather it all together if you got it all together it'd be blowing out of your dustpan pretty quickly and God can just take all the dust and the dry places of the earth and just take it all in his hand and put in a bag he can measure it just with a might be a big enough bag but he can measure it all just just nothing to him the dust of this earth calculates the whole thing and when it comes to the mountains he's got a scale that he can put the mountains on I read yesterday a question oh yeah I think it was it was a Tim Hortons out of her I read the question before Mount Everest was discovered to be the highest mountain in the world what was the highest mountain in the world oh yeah it was Mount Everest and men just discover these massive things and God says I have a little scale I can put them on and when it comes to the hills he's got an exact measuring instrument to measure the whole thing how big is your God I dare say that not one of us has a big enough concept of God he is beyond our ability to grasp and the greatness of his capability but Isaiah turns God revealing himself turns to not only God's capability but God's counsels and we're reminded if I just go to Romans chapter 11 you remember that there's sort of that cadence about wisdom and knowledge and judgment and ways and you find something of the same thing here when you're looking through Isaiah the reminder of the of God's counsels his wisdom God did not have any counselor God did not need any counselor there's a lot of us that don't take counsel but we need it but as far as God is concerned God did not have any counselor and God did not need it but more than that there was no one before him that could counsel him and there is no one above his transcendence that could instruct him the tremendous reality of a God who does not have to consult anyone to know exactly what is best who is not somehow or other questioning at some moment I wonder should it be this or should it be that a God who has eternally foreknown all that should be done never caught by surprise has a design and the design of that is absolutely perfect and he has full identification of where he is going how he will get there and when he will arrive and there is absolutely no one else required to give counsel to this God when it comes to creation God did not have to consult anyone that's why Proverbs chapter 8 speaks about wisdom involved as though wisdom were itself the Creator the absolute wisdom of the design of God when it comes to every aspect gonna bearish again what was that about the beauty of the butterfly wing was that something like that yesterday in the prayer oh you want to get a buttercup into this so it's the beauty of the petals of the flowers and the beauty of the feathers of the birds and the beauty of the snowflake we had that one yesterday I was listening to maybe a little bit and the grandeur of the mountains and the beauty of the lakes and the waters and all by the design of wisdom it all works and then just stop at night don't you do this and you look at the stars and you say I like this later on in Isaiah 40 but I love the way the way it's put God every night this is the imagery that use every night God says okay all of you stars come out here in your place on my playground he's got them all in their right place they don't all come at the same place every night but he's got them all in the right place every night and he knows them all by name every single one of them the greatness of that God and all the vastness of the expanse of of the universe itself he did not need anyone to help him figure it out he did not somehow need to consult Pascal to get some angle on trigonometry it's all designed by the infinite transcendent wisdom of God and as far as the nations themselves are concerned the consequence is this God has his design not only in creation but God has his design in the nations now moving over to Romans chapter 9 10 and 11 and here is the infinite wisdom of God that the Apostle now goes into a sense of wonder and worship as he is overwhelmed by the depths of the wisdom and knowledge of God and his the ways of his judgments that he can set aside Israel and bring in Gentiles that have no connection with Abraham and no connection with blessings and in that he can work to the jealousy of this nation of Israel because he will bring fullness to the Gentiles and he will bring fullness to the Jews how amazing the counsel of God not only in creation but the counsels of God when it comes to the nation's and God's dealings among men and you're reminded then you have in the past his capability and his counsels and in the present his control as far as the nations are concerned because did you read about this to him the nations are like the drop in a bucket of a bucket so you got a man carrying water along on his shoulders maybe he's got a yoke has he got it and he's got two pails of water there is that good enough and he's going along very carefully and he kind of stumbles a little bit over the stone and he doesn't stop to worry about it to just the drop fell out back there it's nothing of tremendous consequence as far as the worker is concerned I'm not saying that God has no interest in the nation's but as far as his vastness and control it's no problem to God as far as just this matter of the drop of a bucket you have a transaction in which you have a merchant and he's he's got his scales now this would be a little bit of an older store than some of you young fellows know I mean you're just relatively inexperienced but I've seen it like you went to the store and they used to have well some of the supermarkets still have a scale and you put your apples in there and all that stuff did you ever before you before you put your apples on the scale did you ever go over to it don't do this I didn't mean to do that and you blew the dust off because you didn't want the dust to affect how many how much you're gonna have to pay for the apples you didn't bother with that did you yeah as far as God is concerned just like the dust and the balance it doesn't really affect the weight of things at all no problem as far as God is concerned relative to controlling it and in fact I like the translation that mr. Darby gives of the islands he says where does it say here but this behold he taketh up the islands as a very little thing he takes the islands up as an atom is the way that mr. Darby translates that and the word takes up there since that word is used elsewhere in Isaiah it's got God speaks about taking up Israel out of Egypt and bringing them into the land so it's for God to rearrange the islands no problem to God just it's like moving an atom as far as God is concerned just take that thought now into the picture that you have in chapter 9 and you're reminded of the God who is the Potter who is just framing this nation for this purpose and framing this nation for that purpose just by the touch of his hand he just makes the vessel just exactly suited for his divine purpose the transcendent God capability and control and counsels now let me come to verse 16 and highlight now what Isaiah tells us as far as Lebanon is concerned now do you know anything about Lebanon like what would you have in your mind about Lebanon in the Word of God the Cedars of Lebanon I imagine there must have been a bit like the state of Washington those massive ancient strong tall Cedars and what chapter 40 of Isaiah is telling us is this if you took all those Cedars and you cut them all down and you used every one of them for a wood offering upon which you would have the rest of your offering offered if you were to bring all of that together it would not be sufficient as a sacrifice for God and if you brought all the animals that you could all the clean animals of Lebanon and brought them all together it would not be sufficient when it comes to the claims of God himself God's so far transcendent that is what I see and the last verse now of eyes of Romans chapter 11 for of him and to him and through him are all things have we got this grasp of God in all his greatness in all the grandeur and wonder of his person all things by right Oh their origin to him they are all of him all things by right operate through him as a result of his control and of his working and wisdom and all things are to him he deserves that everything in the universe should serve his purpose he deserves that every island of the sea should reverberate with his praise to bring honor and glory to him do you do you agree with that do you believe it is that how great your God is really I beseech you therefore just if there were no other reason for it I beseech you therefore because it is only right that God should have everything there is absolutely no rational way of moving around this and saying he has made me as a creature and therefore I deserve some for myself and I should give something back to him I should give quite a bit back to him I should give a massive sacrifice back to him if I gave my all it would not be sufficient to express what he deserves the claims of this one and so when you put these two passages together you're looking in the in the book of Isaiah at the reality that this people are is a people that first of all have grasped are to grasp the greatness of the person of their God and recognize no sacrifice is too great for him no sir no sacrifice is sufficient for him but more than that God is intending to remind them in Isaiah chapter 40 that that as far as God is concerned this masterful God this marvelous God do you understand that this is the God that has placed you in a place of unique privilege and unique position before him among all the nations as far as God is concerned God has singled out one nation to be uniquely his people and while all these other nations are worshiping their false gods you have the true God the living God and that God has a significant and an eternal purpose as far as you the nation are concerned come over to the book of Romans if you think of this person of him and through him and to him are all things I beseech you therefore but then he says brethren will you recognize that there is a time when he speaks at the beginning of that section about my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh and my brethren there are the Jews to whom is Paul speaking when he says brethren in Romans chapter 12 and verse 1 there are some Jews and there are some Gentiles there are brethren in Christ they have come into something new and something distinct and as far as the purpose of God is concerned the great plan of God God has brought them into something uniquely different in his sovereign dealings among the nations God has moved Israel out of its place of present privilege and God has brought in Jew and Gentile together and that's where you and I live and I hope we never forget that we don't deserve to be in the place of we are we don't deserve to have been brought up hearing the message of God in the gospel you and I have been brought in by the sovereign mercy of God I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that's as far as I can go from Isaiah but I can go further than that in Romans because I remind you now that what we have before us is this that ye present your bodies go back now to Romans chapter 8 and you're being reminded of the body of the believer that body indwelt by the Spirit of God that body no longer a body of death in which there is absolutely no hope and futility at the end of Romans chapter 7 it is now a body destined for glory it is now a body controlled by the Spirit of God it is now a body in which the believer has a power to live for the glory of God a power to please God what a tremendous provision has been given to you and to me our brother Ronald reminded us yesterday of the wonder of being indwelt by the Spirit of God and with all of that God has by the indwelling of the Spirit of God given you everything that is required that you might live for the glory of God that you might surpass the frustration of a of a body that's subject to death and all that goes along with that and willing to do and incapable of doing there is a power within us that is not of us and in light of the fact that your body has been claimed by redemption it is only right that that body cannot be reserved for your purpose but that body must be handed over not my hands and not my feet and not my mind but my all I have nothing more than I can give than myself if I give myself that the Macedonian believers had first given themselves to the Lord and then there was the financial result of that but the first thing is our brother has given it to us from Luke chapter 14 today there's nothing else but my all that belongs rightly to him all the mercies of God and the body that he has given us and the tremendous provision of the Spirit of God but let me bring something else into Romans chapter 12 that was not seen in Isaiah chapter 40 when you look at an altar and you think of willingly laying yourself on that altar as a living sacrifice is there anything else that comes to your mind are you not thankful today that there was a man who willingly went to an altar he was bearing a cross it would be all the shame that's connected associated with the curse of the tree we've been reminded of it was all the shame of the spitting of men it was all the shame of a crown of thorns it was all the shame of mock worship and the hairs being plucked from his cheek it was all of that and it was all the full fury of the wrath of God and Jesus knowing all things that should come upon him went forth would you prefer that the Lord Jesus had given a partial sacrifice at Calvary or do you like to sing he gave us all his lifeblood flowed to reconcile a world to God do you appreciate the total giving of Christ for a world do you appreciate the total giving of Christ for the church when the great privilege to be part of that church if he was going to have you to be his and to be with him in heaven could he have given anything less than all nobody's questioning that is is it are you it required all the sacrifice of Christ to meet my need and to fulfill God's purpose and longing for me am I right did you pay did he pay that much for you so what should be the result I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies all that you are all that you have that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God it's the only reasonable worship that you have you can express it is not let me just make it clear when a person lays themselves on the altar and gives all forsakes all for the Lord Jesus lays down all willingly and sacrifice for Christ it is not a business transaction all right Lord I will give all to thee if it will mean at the end of my life a rich reward I'm not saying there's anything wrong with keeping your eye on the reward but I'm telling you that that's not what's in Romans 12 and 1 it is not somehow or other okay Lord I will submit myself I'll give myself to you as long as you promise to use me in Mexico or anywhere else it is an act of blind worship if I may put it that way it is simply being overwhelmed by the greatness of the God who has this intense interest in you who has equipped you so fully and all that you owe to him all that would rightly be his no offering no sacrifice sufficient I slipped one time and I said what I didn't want to say and I'll say it now I'm not saying I think there's a difference difference in emphasis I'm not saying no sacrifice is too great I think there's a difference see if I were to say to David jr. and Dan reminded us that he forfeited is the finishing of his education if I were to say to him today did you give up too much I don't have to ask him I know his answer no he did not give up too much if I were to ask Dan Dan five years out you didn't tell the folks but there was a big sacrifice of career and material things did you give up too much it's five years five years of reflection what about some others here today whatever you gave up did you give up too much whatever you gave up was it just really a struggle to think of giving up that much for him let me turn it around it's not a matter of no sacrifice is too much if I have a grasp of what I owe then simply all the cedars of Lebanon and all the animals that could be put on the altar and a total giving of myself will not be sufficient he deserves more than I will ever be able to give him and I'm looking at some of you that have a little experience in life and you're saying good David I hope the young people get it let me just get my imaginary mirror up here today and say David is there any sacrifice that you could make today at this age at this stage of life is there anything today that you could sacrifice that would be sufficient to give him what he owes and I may not understand the vastness of eternity but I think when the vast ages of eternity have rolled and if anybody kept count the number would be far beyond their ability to calculate they won't have any computers to do it I don't think but when all the ages have rolled and every moment of those ages from the moment I have been made like him until that immeasurable distance of time will I ever have given sufficient worship to him he will deserve more than I will have ever been able to give him eternally and when all of us have joined together and our voices unsinning and unstinting have sounded his praises through ages of the ages he'll still deserve more he deserves everything today in his presence in the silence of your soul in the presence of the wounded living glorified Christ he deserves everything and no sacrifice is sufficient I don't want to ask for an emotional response I want to ask for a rational response and a spiritual response that there will be business done in these moments in this conference in this meeting that you will recognize today I can never give him sufficient by God's grace may I give him all