Background to Romans 12:1

Now we're going to be looking together in the book of Romans and I'm just going to notice a couple of verses in chapter 1 and then look at a little bit in chapter 8 before we get into the section that we're more directly going to be looking at. Romans chapter 1, this is just a glimpse of the Lord Jesus in contrast to the rest of humanity. Romans 1 and 3 concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to a spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.

Let's turn over to Romans chapter 8. Verse 19 says for the earnest expectation of the creature or the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. Verse 28 and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose for whom he did for know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified.

What shall we then say to these things if God be for us who can be against us? He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Ye rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now we'll just notice a little bit of what we have read before we start thinking about the section of Romans chapter 9 to 11.

I hope to get at least to Romans chapter 12 tonight. I don't expect to get into it very much I just want to basically help you to see the background to Romans 12 and 1. I don't know if it has been as common with you as it is with me that many many times I have heard Romans chapter 12 and verse 1 preached. I'm sure most of you could quote it to me without hesitation but I've often thought that Romans 12 and 1 starting there is like a cold start to something that is intended to be a very fervent response and we're missing what is the lever for it and so I want to try to emphasize that tonight and I've been looking a lot in the book of Romans in the last number of months.

I'm sure most of you remember the conference at Mount Sterling back in the spring when we were trying to look at Romans 5 to 8 and the Bible readings there. Tremendous truth is given to us in Romans chapter 5 to 8. I just want to draw attention to the contrast that we have in chapter 1 with chapter 8. In chapter 1 we're presented to the Lord Jesus as God's son. Of the seed of David, yes, he belongs to the Jewish family.

He has come in fulfillment of prophecy to the nation of Israel but he's God's son and he stands in Romans chapter 1 completely unique, completely aloof from a fallen and depraved humanity. You couldn't think of a greater contrast of the Lord Jesus and the rest of us in Romans chapter 1. A depraved, disgusting bunch of people we are. And yet when we come to Romans chapter 8 we find creation on tiptoe expectancy looking, longing for a moment when the sons of God are going to be manifested.

And we find Christ and his redeemed brethren. It has become one of the most thrilling truths to me personally to consider the relationship that Christ has brought me into with God. He is the channel of God's blessing to us.

The final, full revelation of God to humanity is in his son. And so if God's greatest revelation of himself is in and through his son, it follows quite logically that the greatest blessing that we are brought into and the essential character of our blessing is that we are sons. So in Romans chapter 8 you have the son of God and the sons of God.

And we really haven't, hardly, we hardly have a clue what is waiting for us. To be perfect, all those defects of character that everybody else notices, whether you notice it or not, all those deficiencies and weaknesses, all those struggles with evil, all gone. And we will express then perfectly what God wants us to be like.

So Romans chapter 8 brings us to a pinnacle of blessing and glory. And many of these expressions are quite familiar to us and yet we somehow miss the impact of what is being said. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.

How often have you heard that? And yet are we living in the triumph of it? What is this really telling us? This is telling us that everything in the present that can possibly touch our lives is bounded in the hands and the power of a sovereign God who is determined to bless us, determined to bring us to a final perfection of goodness and perfection. And so anything that he allows to affect us, to touch us, is not permitted to destroy us. Not with the intention of harming us, even though it may hurt us.

But under his hand, in his power, in his wisdom, in his understanding, to be part of the means by which he brings us to the final glory that we are destined for. Now most of us would be quite content to just get saved and go to heaven. To just, you know, have the process pain-free.

To just be able to step into the perfection of glory and not have any pain on the way there. God could have done it. He hasn't chosen to do so.

And part of that reason is that he has a program that is still ongoing. And he wants us to be part of his program for the present while it is moving towards the ushering in of his kingdom. And that's what Romans 9 to 11 is bringing us to.

But there's another aspect that is more personal, and that is this. He wants to be able to reward you to the maximum amount. In order to do that, he has to work in ways in which we must cooperate.

Do you think it matters whether you live a godly life or just a careless Christian life? Do you think it makes any difference in the end, if we're going to get there anyway? It makes a tremendous difference, because the overcoming of evil is one of the major things that God is working at in the present. Yes, there's a moment coming when he's going to eradicate evil from our beings, but he has left evil present with us, not so that it might destroy us or overcome us, but that we may learn how to walk as sons of God in this present evil age, with evil still within us, and to be able to live in triumph, in power, in holiness. And so the more that we recognize what God is desiring to do within us, as well as with us, and we cooperate with him, then we will see the benefit and the blessing in the ages to come, because there is a corresponding recompense in his kingdom for everything that we suffer, for everything that we overcome, in faithfulness to God.

And so this passage is leading us in the triumph of faith, to recognize that we are truly more than conquerors. In other words, we have already won the war, we just have a few battles to go through before the final triumph is declared. And Christ has guaranteed this, and that's the wonderful thing about the Christian life.

You might say, anything that is truly critical, he has already taken care of it. We're justified. We will never have to face condemnation for our sin.

We are set free. And the God who, in order to do this, didn't even spare his own son, gives to us this assurance that now that he has raised Christ out of death, and exalted him to his right hand, and given him everything, God's will is that he's going to share it with us. Share his kingdom.

Share his joy. Share his love. Share his companionship.

What a brotherhood. What a family. What a kingdom that we are brought into.

And so in this wonderful triumph of Romans 8, he looks at the whole universe, you might say, and he challenges everything that exists. And he concludes, I am persuaded, there's nothing, absolutely nothing, that can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ. Now there is no other faith, there is no other gospel, that could ever bring us to this pinnacle of confidence, except the gospel of Christ.

That's why when you come to chapter 9, the contrast is startling. And it should be almost shocking to us when we start reading it at chapter 9. I want to just read with you the first few verses. He says in chapter 9 and verse 1, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not.

My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish, and that is literally I was wishing, that I myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertains the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises, whose are the fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God blessed forever. Amen.

Now I sometimes wonder how long, how long Paul paused from the finish of Romans chapter 8 to the beginning of chapter 9. There's such a change of atmosphere. What is he now beginning to contemplate and to develop for our understanding? Well, he is looking at the dilemma of the reality that this gospel of Christ, which has opened up a whole new vista of what God is like, of what God's plans are, of how great God's program really is. And he says, how does that fit with all that we have known of the program of God up to this point? Because God had made Israel the focus of his purposes.

The nation of Israel was the channel of God's revelation to the world. And that's some of the privileges that are referred to here, the tremendous spiritual blessing and heritage that belonged to the nation of Israel. But now things have come to a crossroads because they have rejected the greatest revelation of God of himself.

God personally among his people. That's the impact of verse 5 where it says, of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God blessed forever. This is actually a description of the deity of Christ here.

Who is, some translations actually give this, who is God over all blessed forever. This is the crowning glory of the nation of Israel. This is the crowning blessing ever conferred upon this privileged people that God has come in person and has come among them to be their redeemer.

In fulfillment of the promises of an everlasting kingdom, of an eternal covenant that was going to be inaugurated, he has come and he's been despised and rejected. Where does that leave God's purposes, God's program, God's plans, and God's ways in the world? And so basically from chapter 9 through to the end of chapter 11, it's it's what we might call dispensational. It is looking at how God works, the sovereignty of God among the nations, and his dealings with Israel.

And so really he has, he is now looking at the aspect of the gospel and what God is doing in the world. And so we want to think about this and I want you to see the parallel that we have today. First of all I want to draw attention to Paul personally here.

Paul didn't have an easy time. He was a Jew, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He had been at the forefront of his nation but now he's a turncoat.

He's an apostate as far as the Jews are concerned. He's a fervent apostle of Christ and he's hated, he's persecuted, he's hounded everywhere he goes. They oppose him every step of the way.

What is he going to become like in his attitude towards his own relatives? What I am, what I have been really impressed by in thinking about this is that I see a very clear parallel to ourselves in this generation among the people of Western culture. What I'm saying is this, just as Israel was in a place of highest spiritual privilege but had deliberately, decisively turned away from this greatest revelation of God, so we also are living at a time when a heritage, a spiritual heritage, has been decisively rejected and the people among whom we live no longer want to hear about the Bible. There has been a deliberate turning away from the knowledge of God and Paul is wrestling with this issue in Romans 9 to 11.

Is God righteous in what he's doing? Because he goes so far as to declare that God has blinded them. Is that fair? Is that just? And so he is justifying God. In fact one of the questions that he raises in verse 14 is, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Is there unrighteousness? You know this is one of the most important issues for us to settle in our own hearts.

There is no unrighteousness with God. And yet life challenges us and not only just the hardships of life, the problems of life, but the spiritual issues that we have loved ones who are not right with God. And they seem to be blind and if we could we would save them.

There's hardly a Christian family that doesn't have somebody, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, sometimes his parents, who are despising, neglecting, rejecting God's purposes for them. And what we learn in these chapters is that God makes decisions that affects individuals, nations, even the highly privileged nation of Israel. And sometimes those judgments are for judgment.

So Paul as someone who has never lost his longing and his love for his own people despite the personal attacks upon himself, what I appreciated about the Apostle here is that he manages to hold on to his fervency and his love and his longing for his own people just like the Lord Jesus did himself. So he's in harmony with the heart of God as God is working in the midst of a world that is defiant and rebellious. And so I take that as a challenge because I have wrestled with this and have felt that I have lost a lot of my own zeal and will to struggle to reach people.

It seems easier to just live and let live as the expression is. The only problem with that is what it really means is live and let die because they are perishing. And so we have this earnest witness that he bears concerning his own inner heart.

He says, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. He says, I was wishing, I was actually wishing that I could be accursed from Christ for my kinsmen. And I wonder if we truly share in this kind of love.

You know, there's only one other man in the Bible that actually conveys this language apart from the Lord Jesus himself. And that goes back to Moses. And it's interesting that Moses is referred to here in our inner passage.

If you just notice verse 15 and 16, when it talks about is there unrighteousness with God and he says, God forbid, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that wills nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.

Do you remember the context of that quotation? That's coming from Exodus chapter 32, 33, 34. That section where Israel at Mount Sinai were given the revelation of God on the Mount. And when Moses went back up into the presence of God to receive the tables of the covenant, before Moses gets back down to the people, they've already turned away from God and they're worshiping a golden calf.

They have broken the covenant and God is angry. And God says to Moses, just leave me alone and I'll destroy them. Now you wonder why God bothered to tell him if that's what he wanted to do.

It's a very, very interesting and thrilling passage, to read through. Because Moses in that setting becomes one of the most beautiful pictures of Christ. And Moses was willing to become accursed.

He was willing to have his name blotted out to spare the people. That's how far Moses was willing to go to deliver Israel from the judgment of God. Now you have a man in the New Testament who shares that same faithfulness to God, and yet love and compassion for a disobedient people.

You know it's a challenge for us. I think it's a real challenge for us today to properly represent God, even among the believers, let alone among the unsaved. To hold within us the loyalty and faithfulness to God, and yet to have the mercy, compassion in our hearts.

Because this is the real secret of these three chapters, is that all this sovereignty of God, this divine working, is an outflow of his mercy. And what I want to emphasize, because I do want to come now to chapter 11, just to mention again this context when he speaks this to Moses in Exodus 33 and 19. When he said that to Moses, there was no reason, no righteous reason, that God could find to spare Israel.

And so he simply, you might say, retreats into his own mercy. And he says, I will have mercy. The one important thing to remember about mercy is that mercy is one step beyond justice.

Whenever we're talking about mercy, we have moved beyond the issue of right and wrong. We're talking about someone showing mercy when judgment is due. And so it is wrong to even raise the question of whether God is unrighteous in his dealings with men.

Because if God only acted in righteousness, we would all perish. And so for God to move among humanity, and for God to save whomever he will, it is the moving of his mercy. And there is no righteous challenge to the movements of God among us.

But it's interesting that as we come into chapter 11, not only does Paul vindicate God's right to turn away from the nation of Israel, and to turn to the Gentiles, and to show them his salvation. When you come to chapter 11, we learn that there's another motivation in turning to the Gentiles. It is to make the Jews jealous.

So that at least some, even during this time of blindness and unbelief, that at least some might be stirred to seek God when they see the mercy of God going to the Gentiles. And so Paul refers to that in verse 13 of chapter 11. He says, For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office or my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to emulation, that is to jealousy, them who are of my flesh, and might save some of them.

And then he makes this interesting statement, For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? And what this is giving to us is one of the clues that God has not abandoned his purpose. God has not abandoned his promise to the nation of Israel that he is going to, through them, bless the nation. And he is saying this, If God, upon the disobedience of Israel, has turned to the Gentiles in mercy, how much greater is God's blessing to all of humanity going to flow when Israel is restored to God? And they are in the right place, in the right condition, where God can use them as he intended for them to be used, and through them to bring the whole creation into its millennial blessing.

So let's just drop down then to the close of chapter 11. In verse 25 he says, For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. Now that's the spiritual privilege of blessing that we presently know as Gentiles.

Verse 28 says, As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes. But as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

For as ye in time past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God has concluded, or shut them up all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.

For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who was first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him again. For of him and through him and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Now I'm just going to read the first verse of chapter 12. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So as I said, when we come to the conclusion of these three chapters, and there's a tremendous amount of important teaching given in them that I'm just passing by, but if we can grasp this much, that underlying all of God's decisions and the way he works in the world today, there is a motivation.

He wants to show mercy. Now I take this confidence in relation to my own praying for my own son, and I'm sure most of you have family, close family, those that you long for. Some profess to be saved, and yet we don't know whether there's reality or not, and some have never professed to be saved.

I recognize as I pray and plead with God that I don't have to try to persuade him to be interested, that his mercy is deeper than my compassion for my closest loved one, and that if there is any way that God can righteously save that person, he's going to do it. That's the confidence that I have as I come through this section of the Book of Romans, and to see that even as he deals with the nation of Israel, and as he is today dealing with the Western nations, who have been so tremendously blessed to have the knowledge of God generation after generation on such a wide scale, he is still working to show mercy. And judgment is the last thing he does.

There is a longing to mercifully reach and to save. So I want to come to the conclusion that we have here. Because mercy is the key to this appreciation of God.

Now one of the things that I've suggested to people often in recent years is when you come to a place in the Bible where there is worship being expressed, you should stop and ask yourself, as I read this, do I enter into this desire or emotion or sense of awe and worship? And if I don't, well it's kind of obvious that I have missed the impact of the passage. When a writer has been giving his exposition and then he bursts out into worship and adoration of God, if we've been following him accurately, we also will be drawn to appreciate God in this way. Now what brings you to worship God? Well most often it is our recognition of God as creator.

That's a very foundational reason to worship God. And of course, as the Redeemer, in our appreciation for the work of salvation to us personally, we worship. And that is absolutely suitable.

But what this is encouraging us to see is that as we contemplate God's ways, God's dealings in the world, we should be drawn in appreciation to worship him. Now unfortunately, it is more often that as we look around in the world, we get discouraged. And we're even caused to question God rather than worship him.

And so I want you to try to appreciate what he is saying here. It is in this awareness, as someone who has had such a longing to reach his own people, and he is seeing the rejection over and over again, he yet clings to this revelation of God that finally in the end, God is going to bring his people to repentance and to redemption. Now there's a terrible, terrible valley of sorrow and suffering involved in it.

What we know as the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation is to bring the world to its knees, but it is especially to bring Israel to repentance. That's a pretty costly way to bring a people back to himself.

But underlying it all is this divine mercy, this divine desire to manifest himself to a people and to make them a beloved people once again. And so they are beloved for the Father's sakes. And so his desire, his working, and if you can just keep this in your mind, whatever God is doing, whatever God is doing in your life, whatever he wants to do through your life to the people among whom you live, that you have influence with, it is that his mercy might flow out to them in salvation.

And so he bursts out into this praise. And I want to look at this. There's an interesting structure here that I noticed in reading Vine's commentary on Romans.

And it's called a chiastic structure. Now that probably doesn't mean an awful lot. The word or the letter chi is really the Greek X. And it's pronounced C-H-I, so it's pronounced chi.

At least I'm guessing at that. And so a chiasm is a poetic structure that goes, and I'll give it to you as sometimes you see it in poetry, where it's A-B-C-D-E and then E-D-C-B-A. Sometimes it's just A-B-B-A.

And there's many, many verses where the thought pattern goes that way. There's a thought given, a second thought, then the third thought corresponds to the second thought, and the fourth corresponds to the first. So let me just give it to you in that way.

And I'll give you an alternate translation here where it says, O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. This can also be translated, O the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God. And if it is accurate that this is a chiastic structure, that is probably the most accurate translation.

So in other words, he's not only talking about the riches of wisdom and the riches of knowledge, but he's really talking about the depth of God's riches. And of his wisdom and of his knowledge. So there are really three things that are being gloried in, the riches of God.

And I would suggest that those riches here are not the fact that he owns all the silver in the mountains and the cattle in a thousand hills and that kind of aspect of riches, but the riches of his grace, the riches of his mercy, the riches of his goodness. And so the apostle is saying, O the depth, the infinite depth of the riches, the resources of God and of the wisdom of God and of the knowledge of God. And so when he comes to the end of verse 33, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.

This is where it comes to the point of the X, where he has said, O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. Those are the two expressions that meet together in a little point. So what does this really mean? When he says how unsearchable are his judgments, he is saying that the decisions that God comes to are beyond our ability to search out and reason out.

And his ways past finding out, can you figure him out as to how he is going to bring about his purpose? You know, so often it's when we look back, even in our own lives, and when we hear the testimonies of others who get saved, and we think, as we see how God has worked, it's usually easiest looking back, isn't it, to see the ways. But the apostle is saying here, even though God has given to us the great insight of these chapters to appreciate his principles, yet his actual decisions as to where he brings his blessing, can we figure out why some people get saved and some don't? Why some families are blessed, some aren't? Why some communities seem to be responsive to the gospel, some totally resistant? We can't figure it out. God's judgments, God's ways, they're untraceable.

They're beyond human reasoning or analysis. And then the next expression in verse 34, for who has known the mind of the Lord, that corresponds back to the expression, the knowledge of God. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Now that comes from Isaiah chapter 40.

I always encourage people to look up quotations in the Bible. Go back to the context in which those quotations are given, and you'll usually see important things to appreciate. When it says this, who has known the mind of the Lord? We are being drawn to contemplate the infinite mind of the eternal God.

I've come to appreciate that the reality of God as the eternal is really the fundamental revelation of God. That God is the eternal is saying far more than just that he has always existed. He is the one who is uncreated, uncaused.

Do you realize that no one ever has taught God anything? No one has ever helped him understand. No one ever has instructed him, and that's what Isaiah 40 brings out. Who has known the mind of the Lord or being his counselor has instructed him? Do you know what that means in practical terms for our lives? He doesn't need our information or instruction.

He knows what he's doing, and he knows how to do it. And yet sometimes even as we are praying, we're suggesting to the Lord how we ought to do things. Sometimes we're even demanding.

We should have a tremendous appreciation for the mind of God to recognize that he understands perfectly every circumstance. And he knows everything about everybody and all events, past, present, and future. The eternal God.

When it says, or who has been his counselor, that's corresponding to the expression, the wisdom of God. You know, it's one thing to be educated, to be informed, to have the information, but it's another thing to know how to use it, and to make wise decisions. And so we have a God who is sovereign.

A God who is in control. Who understands everything flawlessly. And who has an infinite capacity to move in a wise way to bring it about.

And then the next expression says, or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again. This gets back to the idea of the riches of God. Who has first given to him? You know, sometimes we like to think we're kind of independent.

But we came into existence helpless, totally dependent on someone to take care of us. And we took a lot of care, didn't we? To get to be the responsible adults that we are today. The useful, independent, successful adults, hopefully.

We needed a lot of help, a lot of input. We have received so much from others to help us to become anything useful. But he says this, anything you ever do, anything you ever become for God, will only be, in some sense, returning what is already his.

If you gave everything you have to God, you would only be giving him back a little bit of what he has already given you. If you gave your life, you would only be yielding back to him what he already first gave you. And so God is always first in giving.

He is first in goodness. He is first in caring. There is no act of kindness, no expression of love that has ever been seen in this world that did not have its origin in the eternal God.

So that is how it climaxes in a verse 36, for of him and through him and to him are all things. That's a marvelous, marvelous expression. How do we get blessing in our life? It is by being in harmony with God.

Of him is origin. Anything that is ever worthwhile has its origin in God, ultimately. But this section of Romans 9 to 11 has been emphasizing the through him part and the fact that God is superintending all things and bringing them to their intended final purpose.

And that purpose must include glory to God. If there's one thing I haven't really looked at it and drawn attention to it in these verses, in these three chapters, but I'll just state it to you this way, that every human being must glorify God somehow. Everything that God has created must in some way bring honor to God or glorify God.

In chapter 9, he has spoken about vessels of wrath. In contrast to vessels of mercy, God wants us to be vessels of mercy. Vessels in which his mercy flows out too.

We become vessels of glory in which the glory of God is going to be seen forever. But what about the vessels of wrath? They will express eternally the righteous judgment of God. Now God would far, far rather have you shining in his kingdom as a vessel of his mercy and his glory.

Where you can for eternity reflect the beauty of God. That you can reflect the goodness of God, the righteousness of God, the wonder of his character. But for those who despise, reject, and ignore God, ultimately, they will be an expression of the righteous judgment of God.

Because everything that exists must return some revenue of glory to God. So this passage brings us to that reality that God is sovereign. And God will have his way.

But he would like to unite that with our willing response. Our willing response to him. And that's where we come into chapter 12.

And the wonderful reality that it is our privilege as those who have experienced the mercy of God and will never know that eternal judgment of God that we would present ourselves to be vessels, to be instruments through which he might do his work today. Shall we pray? Our Father, we draw near to thee. We pray that we may gain a deepening appreciation of thy righteous ways.

We are often perplexed. And there are so many things that are wrong and that seem so wrong in the world. And as we see the the darkening of the age and how far from God the world is moving, it is hard to imagine it being otherwise.

But we thank thee for the assurance that thou art going to bring all things finally into subjection. And every nation will be brought under subjection to Christ. We think of the nation of Israel and their blindness, their hardness of heart, their stubborn rejection of Christ, and what it is going to take to bring them in humble repentance and mourning for him as for an only son.

Our God, we would yield ourselves to thee tonight and recognize thy glory and thy goodness and entrust ourselves to that merciful heart that moves in the circumstances of our lives and in the events of this world. And so we would draw near to thee and pray that our hearts might be encouraged and strengthened to live our lives in harmony with the purposes that thou does presently have. And we look to thee for this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.