What happens when the Apostle Paul, master theologian and brilliant communicator, suddenly runs out of words?
Well, in Romans 11, after systematically explaining God's plan for Jews and Gentiles, Paul encounters truths so magnificent that human language breaks down completely. And he's forced to reach for a few extraordinary descriptors like unsearchable and unfathomable. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl reminds us that these superlatives represent a breaking point. where finite minds meet infinite reality. They give us a way to express our worship when our reflections leave us speechless.
Chuck begins with prayer. Of you and through you, and to you or all things.
Solidio Gloria. Only to you be the glory.
So Father, today Be our hope. Our hope. Not only for strength today, but For guidance this week. Be thou our forgiveness. We all come as a as sinners.
We're not pleased with it, we're cursed by it, but it's true. And part of that curse has been acted out this week in every one of our lives. Be our forgiveness, Father. Be our joy.
So little around us provides it. You be that for us, our Father. Be our provider. Remind us that what we have is not our own, it's all on loan. We'll carry none of it with us to the grave.
So open our hearts and open our hands and Be our provider.
Now be our vision. O Lord of our hearts. In the name of Jesus. we give. And we pray.
And all God's people said. Amen. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook. by going to insight.org slash offer.
Chuck titled today's message Unsearchable, Unfathomable, and Unmatched. What words do you use to describe the mountain peaks of God's greatness? words like uh unsearchable and uh and unfathomable and Unmatched. No truth you've learned, no invention you've studied. No person you've met.
is unfathomable. Only God. That's as it should be.
Now we are inserted into the picture of all things, we of all people. Because of God's unsearchable mercy.
Now I've left out a section of Romans 11 deliberately because, in good Pauline fashion, he says the same thing again and again in different ways. And I think you've gotten it by now. I think you understand that the Jew has temporarily been set aside, put under discipline, if you will. And it's true, a few in the remnant have come to Christ. A few have been converted to Christ, and some of you are among us.
And some of those who have come to Christ, we know personally, most of them we don't. But it's a remnant. Which is the word Paul uses when he describes those few. But during this period of time, God, by his mercy and grace, has allowed Gentiles to be grafted into the vine. And he describes that in the section we're leaving out.
We come to the climax of it at verse 30. Down through verse 32, the unsearchable mercy of God is highlighted. Before we read the word four times in three verses, Where we're shown mercy, we're shown mercy, mercy is shown us, we're shown mercy. Let's understand what mercy is. The theologian A.W.
Pink gave it this description. The ready inclination of God to relieve the misery of fallen humanity. Once again. Mercy is the ready inclination of God to relieve the misery of fallen humanity. That's all of us.
as we'll see when we get to verse 32. How grateful we are for the mercy of God. Remember Ephesians 2? We were dead in trespasses and sins. We were engaged in transgressions that at times were downright filthy, wicked to the core.
And God in His great mercy came to our rescue and relieved us from the consequences or the misery of our lifestyle. by delivering to us his Son, Jesus Christ. Who came to live inside us? That's called the mercy of God, his inclination, his ready inclination to relieve our misery. Look at the mercy of the Gentiles in verse 30.
Just as you. It's plural. Y'all. Paul was from the southern part of Turkey, just as y'all once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience. What's he saying?
The Jews, in their disobedience, finally God said, that's enough. You reject the Messiah I have sent. I will turn to the Gentiles. And God used Paul to reach the Gentiles. Our forefathers in Europe.
Heard the gospel of Christ. We have no Abraham to point back to, like the Jews. But the Jews in their disobedience turned from the Messiah, and the Lord said, Then I will turn to the Gentiles. And by his mercy, we heard. We received the gift of eternal life.
We were shown mercy because of their disobedience. But Paul doesn't leave the Jew out. He can't. He is one. He won't let us forget, verse 31 reminds us.
So these also now, meaning the Jews now. Have been disobedient that because of the mercy shown to y'all, They also may now be shown mercy. We saw that last time. Our lifestyle is to be lived in such a contagious way that the Jew who is lost witnesses what Christ can do in a life and will realize out of envy and jealousy what he or she is missing and will turn to Christ. We are testimonies of that around us, all around us, how grateful we are.
But God in mercy has not forgotten the Jew either. Verse 32 says there's mercy to all. Talk about unsearchable. God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy. Too all.
The next time you're tempted toward arrogance. The next time pride gets a foothold in your life, Remember verse 32. God's mercy has been shown to all of us. See verse 32. God has shut up.
It's the word that means to enclose together. The Greek term is a combination of two words to enclose together. It's the idea of a fish caught in a net. was said to be Shut up in the net. An animal caught in a trap.
was shut up in the trap. In this case, Our prison is depravity. We have all been In the dungeon of sin. We are all depraved. How do we get free of it?
How do we get out of the trap? How do we get released from the net? Mercy. God's ready inclination. to relieve the misery.
of our dungeon. And as Hebrews writes, if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ Relieve us of our sins. God sees His Son. And sees the blood that was given on our behalf, and He in mercy saves the sinner. How important is the mercy seat?
The tabernacle is gone. The temple is gone. Even the ancient golden chest is gone. Never to be found again, for we no longer need it. We have the person of mercy who has come to our rescue.
And he's rescued all of us. His mercy is unsearchable, and how grateful we are for that.
Now, this causes Paul to look across the theological mountain peaks. and began to describe the greatness. of God. I just hope I can get through it. Oh, Bathos.
Writes the Apostle. Bethos. The Greek term is bathos. We get our word bath from it. The word means depth, as we see it rendered here.
It's used in 1 Corinthians 2:10. The Spirit searches all things, even the baphos of God. The depths. The old Latin vulgate renders this Profunda.
Okay. The profound Depths of God. No one can plumb the depths. A.T. Robertson writes of it, Paul's argument has carried him to the heights, and now he pauses on the edge of the precipice as he contemplates God's wisdom and knowledge, fully conscious of his inability to sound the bottom with the plummet of human reason and words.
Once again, they're stupid things. The best he can do is unsearchable. Unfathomable. What is that?
Well, look closely. The depth of God's riches. The depth of God's wisdom. The depth of God's knowledge. If you and I could live ten lifetimes, we would not ever come near plumbing the depths.
of any of the above. We live in a humanistic era when everyone, it seems, is important and influential people are again. Pointed out as being awesome in their presence. None of the above is true, only God. And when we reserve those thoughts for him, there is a respect that opens up and a trust.
That is then Ours to enjoy. We're trusting in an infinite. God, see the explanation that needs no proof? God knows no bounds. God cannot be measured.
God defies comparison. His activities have no human explanation. How often we find ourselves As Wesley put it, lost in wonder, love, and praise. Saying, what is God doing? Why is God not changing?
This situation. Why did God allow this to happen? You cannot get. the answers. You simply trust him.
And when you trust him, you trust in one who is infinite. A.W. Tozer writes in his fine work on God's Infinitude: when we say that God is infinite, we mean. that he knows no bounds. Whatever God is and all that God is, He is without limit.
And here again, we must break away from the popular meaning of words like unlimited wealth. And boundless energy. They are further examples of the misuse of words. No wealth is unlimited, and no energy is boundless, unless we are speaking of the wealth and energy of God. Stay with me.
It gets deeper. Again, to say that God is infinite is to say that He is measureless. Measurement is the way created things have of accounting for themselves. It describes limitations, imperfections, and cannot apply to God. Weight describes the gravitational pull of the Earth upon material bodies.
Distance describes intervals between bodies in space. Length means extension in space. And there are other familiar measurements, such as those for liquid and energy, and sound and light, and numbers for pluralities. We also try to measure abstract qualities and speak of great or little faith. High or low intelligence, large or meager talents.
Is it not plain that all this does not and cannot apply to God? It is the way we see the works of his hands, but not the way we see him. He is above all. Outside of it all, Beyond it all, Our concepts of measurement embrace mountains and men, atoms and stars. Uh Uh Uh Nothing in God is less or more or large or small.
He is what he is in himself. Without qualifying thought or word, he is simply. God.
Now some of you right about now are going what? Uh I understand. Because words are stupid things. I mean, we read that he's infinite, and here's this preacher trying to describe the infinite. One of my Former teachers at Dallas Seminary used to say, Lord.
Humble us, guard us against trying to unscrew the inscrutable. He is inscrutable. How unsearchable are his judgments, how unfathomable his ways, and if it. If statements aren't enough, he offers three questions that defy an answer. Verse 34, who has known the mind?
of the Lord. He draws that from Job. Remember Job asking that? Remember back in our marathon? Going through Job for 28 years, remember?
Little exaggeration there. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Second question, who has been his counselor? Who advises God? Who was given to him that it might be paid back to him again?
Oh, we've got it backwards. Who understands God? Who informs God? Who provides for Him? Job and Isaiah blend together in the quoting of that verse.
The whole point is, there is none like unto God, and how easy to forget it. when our lives break down. During the era of our darkest time as a nation. Following the assassination of our 16th president, Following our bloodiest war. when a third of the male population in the South had been killed.
It was a time of reconstruction, and we were people. in chaos. The people were uneasy and Restless. Across the Atlantic in the little Scottish village. lived Walter Chalmers Smith.
whose heart went out to our country. In eighteen sixty-seven And he wrote a hymn we should have learned and sung. But it didn't become a beloved to him until years later. Immortal, invisible. God only wise.
in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes Most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days, Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise, Unresting, unhasting, and silent, as light Nor wanting nor wasting thou rulest in might. What words? of the unfathomable depths of God. Words a nation needs to hear when we're back on our heels. wondering if we will ever reconstruct and recover.
The next time you find yourself flat on your back. The doctor's report is dark. The future is foreboding. Remember your God. is limitless.
Unfathomable. And as soon as we use the word impossible, It's an exciting thing to God. Since that's his specialty.
Now when you realize this, you You finally come to the doxology. Don't you love the doxology? For of him, and through him, and to him are all things. Meaning what? Of him.
He is the ultimate source. Through him, he is the ultimate means by which things occur. To him, he's the ultimate goal. The ultimate end of all things.
Source, means, end of him, through him, to him. are most things. Let's look again. One of Paul's favorite expressions: all things. All things.
That includes your current situation. That includes what you cannot figure out. That includes your loss of employment. That includes your promotion. That includes the test you're going through right now that you cannot see an end to.
That includes where you find yourself, regardless of how painful or how pleasant the situation may be. Of him, through him, to him. Of him, source, through him, means, to him, both and all things. Only one thing to say after that, Solide of Gloria. only to the glory of God.
And we might as well. Amen. Amen. Amen. You know what this does to all of us?
It reduces us. To something smaller than a fleas whisker. I don't know that fleas have them, but They need them right now. I need him to have whiskers right now. I mentioned William Beebe earlier.
He was a good friend with our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt. And they would on occasion have dinner together at Roosevelt's great home at Sagamore Hills on Long Island, New York. They had a little game they played together when they would finish their meal. Beebe and Roosevelt would walk out into that great yard. And they would lie flat on their backs.
And they would look up into the night sky. Great thought, huh? President on his back. Looking up. This brilliant explorer next to him looking up.
My source tells me that they together. Would look for that faint spot of light beyond the lower left corner of the great square of Pegasus. One of them would then recite these words there. There, that is the spiraled galaxy in Andromeda. It is as large as the Milky Way.
And it is only one of 100 million galaxies. It consists of 100 billion sons. each of which is larger than our sun. Pause. Roosevelt would turn to the title.
turn and look at his friend with a smile and say, No. I think we're small enough. Let's go to bed. Isn't that great? You can't remember the last time you laid on your back and looked up at the stars.
I can't remember the last time I saw the stars in Dallas. I think they're there. Out in some distant area, when you find yourself free to do it, get alone. Get on your back. The only way you'll look is up.
And let the wonder in. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments? How unfathomable his ways. Of him, source.
Through him means to him. Ending are all things. I am Nothing. You are everything. And by your Mercy.
You have let me be here. Your child. That's the right mental attitude. Oh God. Degrees or no degrees.
influential or unknown. Male or female, young or older, ruined past or magnificent past. Significant today are struggling today, Lord. God.
Be merciful to me. A sinner. Oh, awesome. God.
About before you. Let's pray. Our Father, when we survey this wondrous cross on which our Savior died. You realize after a message like this that it is the bridge. that connects The undeserving to the awesome.
The depraved. to deity. The unworthy. to the sovereign God. of glory.
Thank you for the cross. Lord, our trust in you has been strengthened. as a result of hearing what we have heard. We have been reduced to nothing but an observer of the stars. A sinner Trapped in a dungeon.
Without your mercy coming to our relief, we would never have known the light. Our life.
Now, our Father, we come back to this epical moment where we remember our Savior's body and blood. Again, accept our gratitude. are profound Gratitude for the sacrifice. For the perpetual mercy seat. That is in Operation 24.
Seven three sixty five. May our worship now. Honor. You. You know we Trust.
In the name of Jesus, everyone said, Amen. God's infinite attributes, unsearchable wisdom, unfathomable ways, and unmatched sovereignty set a high watermark. As human beings we are drowning in our sin. But he is our rescue. From Him, through Him, and to Him flow all things.
You're listening to Insight for Living. Chuck Swindahl is teaching from Romans chapter 11. a passage that reinforces the sovereignty of God. Stay with us because Insight for Living has prepared a number of study tools that are designed to deepen your understanding of this passage. and we invite you to take advantage of this exclusive bundle of resources.
The first item in the bundle is our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook. This spiral-bound resource for Romans comes in two volumes, and both are available today. Second, Chuck wrote a full-length commentary on Romans. This is hard-bound, and it's from the Living Insights commentary series. Anyone who loves the Bible should own this commentary from Chuck.
In his approachable style, Chuck helps us discover the rich theological treasures that are found in Romans. And third, Insight for Living has produced a collection of audio messages so you can listen to Chuck's sermons in their entirety at your own pace. and so you'll have a permanent record of this hallmark study. To purchase this special trilogy of resources from Insight for Living, call the Library of Life. Call us at 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/slash offer.
Before we wrap up another week of programs together, I want to conclude by extending a word of thanks to those who consistently support Chuck's teaching ministry. Because of your generosity, Insight for Living is available to millions of listeners on the radio, YouTube, our website, our mobile app. And all the different digital platforms like Instagram, X, and Facebook that are so popular these days. To send a contribution in the mail, address your envelope to InsightForLiving. Post Office Box 5000.
Frisco, Texas 75034. If you'd like to make a donation online, just go to insight.org slash donate. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us again on Monday when Chuck Swindahl continues our study in Romans, the Christian's Constitution. right here on Insight for Living.
The preceding message, unsearchable, unfathomable, and unmatched, was copyrighted in 2007, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
