Jesus Christ thank you for all of your love and for your magnificent and effective Grace that you shed abroad at the cross where you took our sins willingly in love towards us where you bore your father's wrath willingly in the place of us and where you did all that was necessary to open the doors of heaven and to welcome into your father's arms into your family and into the kingdom forever more lust hopeless Sinners who trust only in you father God we praise you and thank you for the grace and the love which Drew out salvation's plan which willingly sent and gave your own son for our sake and we ask that in this moment you would uh intensify our understanding of the Gospel you would increase our love of the gospel and uh uh uh establish furthermore our our gratitude for the gospel so that we would live for you in way that are glorifying to your most most holy name we ask in this moment that the Holy Spirit would apply to our minds what is taught apply to our hearts what we have understood and bring out through our fingertips what we hear to obey and glorify you in our life in our midst Lord God tonight would you bless your son with more souls added to him through conversion would you please do that in our midst we pray we ask and we expect we pray all of this in jesus' name amen please take a seat everybody it's great to see you if you weren't here for the first welcome uh my name is Tom I'm the uh teaching elder or Pastor here at Hope and we have H celebrated in baptisms this morning praise the Lord and uh tonight uh uh we're going to be hearing uh from a guest preacher who I'll introduce in just a moment uh by way of announcements let me remind you that in the week we study uh what we hear in sermons on Sunday so there's seven households across uh our tribe City area Brisbane Logan and even ipswitch and uh so there's plenty of opportunities uh and zero excuses I would add to uh uh to be there and to be uh encouraged uh double down on the learning from Sunday evenings uh a few of the uh studies groups are all finishing off and they're all run by people who are trusted by the church elders and who are in some kind of either trusted position of being able to facilitate the the the content that the uh elders and primarily myself put together and also they are usually people in some measure of training so you're there learning and they I'm sure are blessing you you're also partaking in their future Ministry and helping them to develop to be future pastors and elders and we thank you for that so be there they're currently going through a finishing off the series on the blood of Jesus Christ and what it means for us uh going forwards that you're going to be studying the the Trinity uh the nature of God and the Divinity of Jesus Christ as we sort of go into Hebrews chapter 1 in the mornings you're going to be studying that in the households in our Bible studies throughout the week so I think that's going to be a very edifying very uh uh equipping uh study for you to do so that you can uh preach the gospel give defenses for the faith uh against all sorts of uh Cults or unbelievers out there so I recommend that to you be there uh this term maybe this is the the first term you're going to make a commitment to be at a Bible study more weeks than you're not and maybe that'll be brand new for you welcome to the club it's amazing it's good for you uh and uh for those who serve in those God bless you and thank you for doing that so there's the Bible studies this coming Saturday we have the men's Master are the men in the house L uh on Saturday we uh we we get together just about once a quarter sometimes in a uh some kind of establishment in one of the Cities uh sometimes it's one of our congregants houses and this uh this term we're meeting in the nutter's house over in CA so ask somebody if you need a specific details but it's it's that IP switch way and uh we're going to be uh jumping into the word of God singing some songs together and it's always Evangelistic as well uh I know there some of you know this you m to just never come to church that's a few steps down the road uh in terms of warming up to the whole idea but they might come to a friend's place they might come to a barbecue or brunch and hear a guy yell at them in the forest and that's what this is for so it's Evangelistic um I'll be preaching the gospel to them as well as preaching uh God's standards and Commandments for men uh to the Christians so please do be there uh other than that um I'm going to pray over the offering which uh the gentlemen are going to come around and poke you with a stick with a bag on it until you feel generous and uh that's that's that's this time father God you are The Giver of all good gifts and all of us have what we need because of your Divine merciful kind fatherly Providence uh we ask that no one would be giving in this moment out of a a drawing necessity out of a begrudging out of a resistance or reluctance but the our minds and our hearts would be well aligned with what we hear from your word that we would believe in those things pertaining to the kingdom and eternal life and the building of your church on Earth as being the most important things that we can invest in we pray Lord God that this would go and uh uh By Your Grace you would multiply our giving so that we have and continue to have a a splash and an influence beyond our size to the glory of God and for the good of the kingdom and everybody said amen so the guys will just come around and uh take that up now I was just uh down this afternoon at the uh uh the church that we planted out of here about two and a half years ago now where Pastor James is just uh leading a people who are zealous they've currently got a a a mission trip planned soon to go down to Northern New South Wales and evangelize a great area I think during schoolies weekend um so it's just uh if you're fresh around here you might not have known that there is a church down on the go co Coast if you're driving more than half an hour north we forbid you to come and you need to go down to the go Coast Church of course uh you're welcome to please at least check them out and pray for them but if you're new around here um yeah you wouldn't have been here when we were planting our prayer by God's grace is that we would be able to see four more churches planted by the year 2032 and by God's grace that looks like a an dismally low number but we're praying to God that it would happen and then the Lord would uh extend us further than that um there's a lot of good things happening in our midst and sort of adjacent parallel to our midst um uh especially this week at at Haden Institute uh there we had a guest preacher Aaron guess teacher here he is Aaron uh forgettable face but beautiful shirt uh and he was um he was lecturing actually on the doctrine of God theology proper uh the nature of God the attributes of God the Incarnation of God and the rest and there were just some uh folk from Hope who were really learning and that's going to pay dividends into their Ministry into their lives into the future uh also of course we've been blessed with the presence of Dr Neely and your amazing wife Cornelia so we're just very thankful to the things that God's doing in our midst and I want to encourage you uh that God is uh uh uh blessing and using the giving that you're sacrificing and the prayers that you're offering up and the work that we do as a church God is blessing it and uh as Ephesians 3 tells us abundantly more than we would even dare to ask or think I I probably would have rebuked you for some kind of arrogance if I had heard you praying for the things we're now seeing done in midst a year ago really that's the case so we we praise God for his mercy and his work um and we are are praying obviously for more and more to come in a month from now me and a team of I think there's six others at this point are going up to North far North Queensland and we're going to be uh uh trying to hit an entire we're partnering with some local churches there to letter box drop uh every household in a port some begins with a G it's north of Sunny Coast I don't know what it really is uh somewhere up there assures me there's there's there's Villages of human beings up there uh in Far North queens and they speak some version of English we will be giving them the gospel tracks and uh um and partnering with those churches to do some conferences and preaching so please be praying for that kind of local but at least uh domestic Australian uh uh Outreach mission trip please be praying for that and if you would like to come and you have zero experience in theology or tracting or preaching you're welcome you can come uh wherever you are on that Spectrum we would love to have you to train you and have you contribute to the mission uh so I'm going to hand over to Aaron who will be preaching the word for us tonight Aaron is a lead Pastor over in Journey Church which is in Rochester New York State up in northeast America um uh he has been been there for a number of years before he served in uh Texas uh also uh in the ministry uh he's a good friend of ours A good friend of uh Craig Ireland who planted this church many moons ago and uh we're uh been pleased to have he and his wife in our midst over the last week they've been sewing into and blessing and teaching at Haden Institute but it's our uh pleasure to now hear the word of the Lord from him a faithful brother and a good friend so please uh come up brother and we'll give you a hope welcome thank you Tom and thank you everyone for coming here I want to welcome you on Tom behalf on Tom's behalf to Hope Reformed Baptist Church or as you also may know it Ascension Logan I'm also told that uh as you Faithfully uh gave to to tonight uh Tom has graciously committed all proceeds to Ascension Church so we want to thank Tom for his generosity in that if you could grab a Bible turn to Romans 11: 33 through 36 Romans 11: 33-36 I want to speak to you today about the Transcendence of God because it is a doctrine that is currently under heavy fire in today's culture by Transcendence I mean what St anel confessed that God is the one greater than which none can be conceived not just that God is the greatest being but that his greatness is quite strictly speaking off the charts that the god that we worship that we Proclaim is a god beyond our imagination and even our comprehension and yet that incomprehensible God became man died on the cross for our sins rose again triumphantly from from the dead and that God is the one that we Proclaim that Transcendent God however his Transcendence is being impune in today's culture one expression of this is just a few weeks ago a renowned New Testament scholar named Richard hay published a book with his son Christopher Hayes entitled The widening of God's mercy sexuality within the biblical story now Richard Hayes is an American New Testament scholar who is widely known for his book The moral vision of the New Testament where he defended a conservative biblical critique of a homosexual lifestyle and yet Richard Hayes has now changed his position to say that the Bible affirms homosexual Lifestyles and he has changed his position because in his view God has changed his mind that God has changed his mind and in his view in order to widen his own mercy and the scope of his love for his people and for other people he claims that that means that God has changed his mind about sexual ethics he the words from Hayes himself from this book he says we suggest that for those who would like to make sense of the Bible these statements about God's unchanging word must somehow be held together with a long tradition of examples where God does in fact change his mind and so do faithful people in particular God repeatedly changes his mind in ways that expand the sphere of his love preserve his relationship with humankind and protect and show Mercy toward them because of that we are forced to conclude that Many religious conservatives however well-intentioned are wrong about the most essential point of theology the character of God may I submit to you that there is actually one thing in that paragraph that we can agree with Dr Hayes on and that is that the essential point of theology at stake is the character of God that your understanding ing of God literally will cast ripples across your entire world view that if you believe God changes then that will affect the rest of what you believe about what is right and wrong what determines the meaning of your life and who the God is that you serve and worship I introduce this to you today not not because I'm going to speak directly on the topic of homosexuality but to show you that what we think about God has widespread effects on our Liv life worldview and culture when we are wrong about God everything else unravels and where most people go wrong about God is on the topic of transcendence is our God one who sits enthroned above the circle of the Earth or is he one that is changed by what goes on on that Earth is our God A Mighty Fortress a bull workk never failing or is our God a bull workk sometimes failing that those are the two options that we have before us when we consider the doctrine of God is our God a Transcendent God or is our God like us that's what leads us to our text this morning Romans chap 11 verses 33-36 hear now the words of our living Eternal unchanging God oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever amen amen he now the word word of his Lord now Romans 11: 33-36 talks about the Transcendence of God and how great and unspeakable his glory is our focus is mostly going to be on verse 36 that our God is the one from whom through whom and to whom are all things that he is the creator the sustainer and the ultimate purpose for all things but before we get to that text we need to get some background about why Paul erupts into this culmination of praise and glory to God because Romans 11: 33-36 is a conclusion to Paul's Proclamation and Declaration of God's mercy that Proclamation began all the way in Romans 1 when Paul talks about how he was been set apart by the for the gospel of God that that gospel is one that proclaims that the god of righteousness is pouring out his wrath on the wickedness and the unrighteousness of mankind who suppress the truth and unrighteousness because although they knew God although they could look around at creation and see his Divine his eternal power and divine nature clearly instead they exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship created things rather than the Creator who is blessed forever amen that that is the righteous God that we proclaim the righteous God that we Proclaim stands in judgment over the world because whether they know the law or not they reject the God who has graciously revealed himself to us but then Paul comes in Romans 3:21 and says that the righteous of God is not just declared in his wrath but has now been shown to be the righteousness that justifies Sinners by faith in Christ for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and all are justified by his grace as a gift through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus this Christ Jesus Paul tells us is the one in Romans 4:25 that was delivered up for our trespasses and raised again for our justification that this Jesus was the better Adam who succeeded where Adam failed who obeyed where Adam disobeyed and where Adam fell under the penalty of Death Christ took the penalty of death for you and me and destroyed death by his resurrection from the dead and it is that Christ that is proclaimed for us and those who trust in Christ Paul tells us have died with him to be raised to walk in newness of life with him but for us as Christians we know that though Christ has conquered sin and death there are some days where we feel that sin and death are conquering us that we feel a war inside of us the war of the spirit between the spirit and the Flesh and yet Paul continues this triumphant declaration that there is no condemnation for the one who's in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death now that is after Paul says that we struggle if you feel a struggle between you're you the what you want to do to glorify God if you feel struggle between that and the sin in your life what Paul tells you is for those who have trusted in Christ no matter how hard you struggle against sin for those who have trusted in Christ there is no condemnation for you you are set free but then Paul hits a problem in his Declaration of the gospel and the problem that he faces is that this God of the Gospel is also the god of Israel and yet it seems that Israel has rejected their Messiah Jesus Christ if they have rejected their Messiah then what is to what is to be said about the promises of God if God promises righteousness in the gospel to all people Jew and Gentile what does that mean about the promises he already made to Israel but yet as Paul Works through that problem in Romans 9:10 and 11 he comes to the conclusion in Romans 11 that God does not abandon his people he will not abandon Israel but just as the gospel will go to the fullness of of the Gentiles so Paul declares in Romans 11 all Israel will be saved so that God has consigned all to Disobedience that he might have mercy upon all and it is that Declaration of the Gospel that leads Paul to say oh the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God when we consider the breadth of the Gospel God's Plan of Redemption it's wider than we can imagine not wide in a sense where he where he compromises on his previous law as Dr Hayes might try to argue but widening in the sense that the gospel of God's son is spreading across the world such that people from every tribe tongue and Nation will bend the knee to Christ and confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the father that is what leads Paul to conclude that this God that we serve is the one from whom through whom and to him are all things a couple more notes before we look at verse 36 the verses verse 36 is connected to verses 33-35 verse 33 tells us that the depth of God's wisdom in the gospel is such that we cannot scrutinize them or search them out I'm afraid that sometimes as Christians we might get to the point where we become so familiar that the with the gospel that it no longer is amazing grace to us that we become so familiar with what God has proclaimed in his good news in the scriptures that we rehearse them over and over again in our minds to the point where Christ dying in our place for our sins becomes normal brothers and sisters this is no normal gospel this is not something that we are meant to get used to or to let our hearts grow cold and dead against but this is a gospel wherein the mercies of God are new Every Morning where every day we see new evidence of God's faithfulness chiefly seen in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ let us never grow weary or tired or complacent in the gospel the gospel does not just make sense to Paul it leads him to confess that God's judgments and ways are Beyond Comprehension it is true that God comes near to us in the gospel but it is precisely the Transcendent God who comes near God does not cease to be the Transcendent one as he comes near and thank God for that because we cannot have a God who changes or abandons heaven to save us we must have a God that while filling Heaven and Earth he elects to become incarnate in a man we must have a God who not only comes near to us but brings us near to his glory verses 34-35 show us that none are God's equal no one knows his mind no one counsels God no one gives God a gift whereby he might be repaid God is in no is not in any way contributed to by creatures you have never a day in your life helped God and thank God for that if God was a God who could be helped that would mean he lacked something and how could one who lacked something give us all things in his son Jesus Christ it is this God who deserves Glory forever and it is this God that Paul proclaims in verse 36 where he breaks out into Praise of the Transcendent God who is the Transcendent source sustainer and end of all things that's what leads us to to consider verse 36 in Greater detail first that God is the Transcendent source of all things God is the one from whom are all things because all things flow from God as the sole creator of all things in Heaven and Earth God is the one that as we look at creation as we see those things that show forth his Divine Glory that those things all come from a single source and all and all those things come as entirely distinct from God God did not reach in himself to create everything but he created all things out of nothing or in the Latin he created everything X niilo God does not make things from pre-existing matter he creates All Things by the word of his power now this is something that atheism denies that people who claim to be atheists are those who say that not that all things do not come from God that God is not the Creator that God does not even exist but here's the problem with that way of thinking according to scripture even atheism flows from God because as the atheist uses the breath that God gives them to deny the existence of his creator that breath is a gift from God himself the way that the apologist Cornelius vantil put it is that a Believer and an unbeliever arguing about about God is like two people arguing about the existence of oxygen they could be arguing about it but they are both depending on the very thing they are arguing about to make their arguments if you have a conversation with an atheist this week and they deny the existence of God they might say I don't believe God exists you might respond what doesn't exist and they might respond God and then you might say what's that because the minute that they start answering that question about what God is they confess that they have an idea of God that they have received from creation and that their worldview is dependent on a God that they deny we Define all things with reference to something that exists which means that even the idea of God in the mind is something that we have received by Revelation from God so the atheist who has an idea of God and then rejects it received that definition that idea from God's revelation in creation which means even as they deny God they confess that he exist and are culpable are responsible are condemned for the rejection of that God that they speak of all things are defined in relation to God but not the other way around we must be careful to reflect on this we are made in God's image God is not made in ours we must be careful to make sure that God himself is held up as distinct from all things one of the things that my students have been learning this week we've been talking about the Creator creature distinction that God is Creator and we are creature and we hold that distinction always that God relates to time as a Creator and therefore is not bound by time but we are bound by time we change we cannot see the future we do not declare the end from the beginning but our God who is eternal who has no beginning and end is the creator of time itself we must understand that God in his creating all things holds all things into relation to him and one example of how we Define all things in relation to God is and how we Define love that the scripture says that God is love but our culture says Love Is Love and our culture says that they get to Define what love is and how to affirm that kind of love and yet we as Christians cannot let our culture define what love is we must instead let the scripture Define what love is and love is not defined by coming from us John says in 1 John 4 7-10 beloved let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love in this the love of God was made manifest among us this is the definition of God's love that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him in this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins God is the definition of love and that love is defined is demonstrated by him giving us his son as the Wrath bearing sacrifice for our sins that is where we start in our definition of love and that is where we pull down the strongholds of our culture the Define love and God despising ways instead we see that it is Christ in whom we see God's love most highly demonstrated all things including love itself come from God as the transcendent source of all things so first all things come from God second all things come through God God is the Transcendent sustainer of all things this is also something that the atheist must grasp must grapple with is that they have to face the facts that they have no reason to believe that the sun will rise tomorrow morning when they wake up the only reason you could believe that the world will continue to spin that the sun will rise again in the morning that you will have oxygen of available to you the only reason you can believe all those things is that there is a God who is upholding the World by the word of his power otherwise you have no reason to believe that the future will be anything like the past this is something that even the most respected atheist philosophers have recognized that one atheist philosopher named David Hume talked about the talked about this problem where atheists could not give a reason how they could know the future will be like the past past and then the responses would often come well the the past has always been like the past but Hume says that that assumes the very thing that you're trying to prove that you don't have any confidence on an atheistic worldview and David Hume who was no lover of God recognized this critical flaw in The Atheist worldview that in order for the sun to rise tomorrow there must be a God who is not dependent on the sunrising tomorrow but on whom the son is dependent for its every moment of existence and so too we Christian brothers and sisters or even non-christians in the room you are dependent every moment every breath on The God Who Reigns in heaven who sustains All Things by his own power what that means is that if you are sitting in this room and you are rejecting God living in opposition to him every breath that you draw is a gift from him but it is a gift from him that you receive and yet you stand under judgment what God calls you to do right now is to recognize that every moment you have lived up until this point has been a gift of Grace to bring you into this room right now to hear Christ proclaimed to hear the way of Salvation given to you that this God you have rejected up until this point has brought you to this place because he loves you this is the shock of all shocks about the gospel is that those who who have rejected God that while we were still Sinners while we hated God Christ died for us that it is God haters who God himself sustains not just in their life of rebellion but when he calls them to himself God sustains them in their salvation and so Christian brothers and sisters if you have professed Christ in this room the good news is that God who is the sustainer of the world and the whole universe that same God will sustain you in your lowest moments this Psalm 23 puts it though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we fear no evil because God Our Shepherd is with us that God does not abandon us when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death but God is the one who as our Shepherd leads us through that Valley he enters through it with us and he promises that he will carry us out so if you have a version of God where you say God would never let anything bad happen to me God would NE never let any suffering befall me brothers and sisters you do not have a God who will walk with you through the valley of the shadow of death but because God is the one who sustains you even in your lowest moments even at the darkest points where you do not have you cannot feel like God is there with you God promises I will never leave you nor forsake you God is the one through whom are all things he is with us in that Valley he does not stand outside unable to break into our Darkness he is with us there and he does not leave God is unspoiled and undefiled by your sin because he is the Transcendent sustainer of all things God is the one from whom are all things through whom are all things and finally to whom are all things we must recognize that if you are living a life outside of Christ you may try to escape him for as long as you want but there is a day where you will return back to God and stand in judgment before his throne that in that day all the things that you have done in your life the time that you have wasted the sins that you have committed the blasphemies that you have uttered against this God that you now stand before will be held to your account and you can try to ignore them today you can try to push away the call of God and his word to you this evening but there will be a day where you can't ignore it anymore that day is coming and you will either bow the knee to Christ today or you will bow the knee to the one who judges you for your sin and will cast you away in that sin and make no mistake about it the cause of Christ is not one that is going to lose in the world what the scripture says is that God that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that John says in 1 John Chapter 2 that Christ is the propitiation not for our sins only but the sins of the whole world Revelation 5 tells us that Worthy is the Lamb who was slain for by his blood he Ransom people to God from every tribe tongue and nation has made them a kingdom and Priests to our God and they shall reign forever so if you are trying to escape the tide of God's rushing Grace you will not be able to escape for long because one day it will not be Grace but it will be judgment that you will experience and this evening is the last time you have guaranteed to hear the gospel we are not guaranteed tomorrow we are not guaranteed the rest of the time that we have this evening God is calling you today bend the knee to Christ repent away from your sins turn away from living life on your own terms and go to the god to whom all things will eventually bow Christ has called us as the one who is the Transcendent end of all things he will not fail he cannot but succeed because he has bought the world for himself and he will return to claim the world for himself so as we conclude our time together this evening we can ask the question does God change according to Dr Hayes the scripture tells us no God is the the same because he stands above all things as their source sustainer and end and because of that we can trust that God will supply our needs sustain our lives and direct us to to the end of everlasting life with him with that let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask that he would bless the rest of our time of worship bow with me if you would father we recognize this night that we are totally dependent on you and that you are not dependent on us us father we thank you that though we as creatures are woefully undeserving of your grace yet you have poured it out abundantly in your son father I pray if there is any soul in this room who has not trusted in Christ that they would hear the good news that though they have not trusted in him Christ has died to save them father I pray that they would bend the knee to Christ tonight that they would stop running that they would recognize that you are the one from whom through whom and to whom are all things and because of that you are the only one that can save them from the horrible condition they are in we pray that you bless the rest of our time together tonight that it would be glorifying to you and we ask these things in Jesus name and all God's people said amen