In the sermon 'Sorrow for My Countrymen,' Scott Brown delves into Romans Chapter 9, emphasizing the doctrine of God's sovereignty and Paul's deep sorrow for his fellow Israelites. Paul expresses a longing for his countrymen's salvation, highlighting God's sovereignty and justice in election. The sermon underscores the importance of having a correct understanding of God's nature, as it influences every aspect of life and faith. Brown discusses the privileges given to Israel, such as adoption, glory, and covenants, and reveals how these are relevant to believers today. The sermon encourages believers to have a God-centered vision and to maintain a fervent heart for evangelism, driven by a correct understanding of divine sovereignty. Paul's passion for sharing the Gospel is presented as an example for believers to follow, challenging them to examine their own conscience and love for the lost.

Good morning. Turn with me to Romans chapter 9, please. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have a great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain 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 overall. God be blessed forever. Amen.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the wisdom that you've hidden in that word for us to take out of it. And Father, as we come together this morning to listen and to be instructed by your word, we just ask that you would bless this time, that you would send your wisdom out from that word and give us a part of it and impart it to us so that we could be blessed. We just ask that this time of teaching would be glorifying to you. In Christ's name, amen.

Well, welcome to Hope Baptist Church where every sermon is a children's sermon, where The average age of the hearer is eight years old, where every morning when we gather together we look into the eyes of these precious young people, perhaps one of the most wonderful youth groups I've ever been a part of in my life. And I'm so grateful for it. And this morning we're going to engage in a passage of Scripture that is so critical for every young person to understand. And if you don't understand it when you're young you may end up understanding it through blows when you get old. And so let's start early on this.

Now my approach to this text this morning is going to be unusual. First of all, Most of the morning we're going to focus in on just the first five verses, but I want us to step back and walk through all of chapter 9 and get our thinking going right because there are a number of phrases that we need to pick up throughout the chapter. Now we also need to understand that Chapter 9 begins a new section in the book of Romans. Chapters 1 through 8, the doctor of justification by faith. The Apostle Paul has just gone from one beautiful point to the next to explain what it means to be saved.

Now he continues the same thought, but he's giving an illustration of the nation of Israel. And he speaks of divine sovereignty, the power of the Word of God in election, and he uses Israel as an example and explains a lot about justification by faith through chapter 9 through 11. Then 12 through 16 is an enormously practical section which gives lots of detail about how you deal with people in this life. So that's the book of Romans. Now as we engage in this first new section, 9 through 11, I want to give us a number of things that are in the section first.

So, I'm going to give you an introduction to the section, we're going to walk through this section, and then we're going to loop back and focus on verses one through five. Do you see what we're going to do here this morning? Okay, so the first thing, if you have an outline here, you'll see that there's a time of introduction, And the first thing I want to address here is that in this section, in 9 through 11, in particular chapter 9, we get a vision of God. The doctrine of God is proclaimed here. One of the greatest needs of any child or any adult is to know who God is.

If you have a messed up understanding of God, you're going to have a messed up understanding of life. And so the apostle is helping to knock off bad ideas that have accumulated in our brain, to blow away cobwebs of thinking. Because the truth is, we grow up and we develop a God in our own image. That's what we do. That's what idolaters do.

We are all idolaters. We are all sinners. And because of that, we have accumulated a lot of wrong ideas about God. We want God to think like we do. But what we'll find here in this text of Scripture is that, well, your ways are not my ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts.

That's what we'll find. And this issue of the doctrine of God is so critical for the church in every generation, but I would just say in this generation particularly, because as a result of a number of movements that have moved through the church in the last several decades, the doctrine of God has been lost, The doctrine of man and the performances of man and the activities of man have been exalted. How to get your needs met. How to be successful. Finding a verse that sounds so wonderful and beautiful.

It's the church of the favorite verse, instead of the church of the doctrine of God. And we have a whole generation of believers who look at the Bible looking for their favorite verse, instead of God Almighty and the explanation of who He is. If we do not understand His holiness, His omnipotence, His character, His wrath, His love, His mercy, His justice, We can't understand life. We can't understand marriage. We can't understand relationships with those in the community.

We can't understand work. We can't understand anything until we begin with God. And so Romans 9 gives us a vision, a vision of God. We have what R.C. Sproul has called a creature utilitarianism that has invaded the church.

We have an institutional pragmatism that governs our church life and really our daily life. And we end up preferring an image of God that we like, that we can relate to. And so here is an image, a vision of God, and this God accomplishes our perseverance. He is from the right hand of God, praying for the will of God to be carried out in this world. This is God.

And we will find in this text that God says things that we could never say. That He says things that are embarrassing to us. But He is God. We should become more like Him, think more like Him, rather than ourselves. So the first thing we bump into here is the doctrine of God.

In the next three chapters, you will learn much about Almighty God and what we will find is that He is different than we perceive Him to be. And by the way, that is a good thing. That is our only hope. Would we really want God in our image? Would you really want God to be a reflection of your own heart and your own inclinations?

Absolutely not, if you're honest and say that. Secondly, this is what many have called a theodicy. What is a theodicy? Well, Paul is launching into what is called a theodicy. It's a vindication of the justness of God.

Theodicy, two words, theo, God, two Greek words, God, and deke, justice. The justice of God. Theodicy, okay? This is an argument for the justice of God. That what he has done is just and it's right Because there are those in this world who don't think God is just they're angry at God They don't like what God has done this Text of Scripture is is a theodicy.

Lloyd-Jones says it's a vindication of divine attributes, particularly holiness and justice in establishing or allowing the existence of physical or moral evil. So it's a theodicy. For Paul is defending the justice of God and how did he do it? He uses the most difficult thing he could choose. He uses the doctrine of election to prove that God is just.

That's what he does. Now, you just wouldn't expect him to use that. Isn't there an easier argument to make? No. He begins at the top, he begins with the most difficult doctrine, and uses that doctrine to defend the justice of God.

Now, what's this chapter about? Is it about the sovereignty of God? It's about far more than that. Is it about the justice of God? No, it's far more than that.

It encompasses so many big issues that revolve around the doctrine of God. But Maybe here's another way that you could explain this is this. Paul is showing how it is that all things work together for good for those who love him. Chapter 9, 10, and 11 is an explanation of how that works itself out, particularly with the Jews, but not just the Jews. So Paul sets out to prove that the Word of God has not failed, and he's proving Romans 8 that all things work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

And what he says here is that the promises of God are fulfilled by the mighty sovereign hand of God because they are secured by the blood of Christ. They are secured by election. They're secured by a choice that can never be broken. And so here, Romans 9, it just gives us a very close and intimate encounter with the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. And he proclaims that God's Word is true, and he uses election to prove it.

And then There's this continuity of thought from Romans 1 through 8. And again, we see that God is accomplishing our perseverance. He's at the right hand of God, praying His will. And his will is surprising. He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy.

You know, it's interesting. When you take a look at the theology of the songs that we use, have you ever heard a song that says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Jacob I loved and Esau I hated. You ever heard a song like that? You know why you haven't heard a song like that?

Nobody wants to really think that at all. It's too hard to explain. Maybe Jason will write a song. Jacob I love, and Esau I hate it or something like that. But here also we find a harmony of the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Old Testament imagery is abundant in these texts. He's constantly just going back to Old Testament quotations, Old Testament personalities, and things like that. So it's interwoven into every single thought that's in this text of Scripture. And he's displaying the wisdom of God. The whole section at the end of chapter 11 ends with, maybe it's the summary of it, maybe when we get to the end we'll figure out whether it's the summary of it or not.

But he says, Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways are past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor, or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him. For of him and through him and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever. Here's what every eight-year-old needs to know, is that God is wonderful. That for Him and to Him and through Him are all things.

When you walk outside and look up and see the stars scattered across the sky, or you see the rocks and the trees and the water of this earth, that you know that God's ways are unsearchable. He is so wonderful. Perhaps even today, which will be a warm day, you can walk out and look up into the sky and declare that the intent of this passage to bring us to this place, oh the death of the riches and the wisdom of the knowledge of God, oh he is wonderful. So I hope that that's where we all end up today as we go through this text. Okay, the introduction, Paul's love for his countrymen.

We're going to go through that in detail, verses one through three. And then God's love toward his countrymen, verses four through five. And then the third section is God's love toward those who have genuine faith. Now look with me at this section, verses six through 13. Please have your eyes bearing down on your Bibles because I want to introduce you to a number of words that will help us get our wits about us for what the meaning of this text of Scripture is.

The key verse is verse 6, do you see it? But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel." He's saying that salvation isn't a nationalized, genealogicalized kind of thing. It is a spiritual thing. And it's the Word of God that establishes salvation in a person's life, not his genealogy. Verse 7 says, Verse 7 says, Nor are they children, because they are the seed of Abraham.

But in Isaac your seed shall be called, that is, those who are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted as seed so he's saying he's saying it's not the children of the flesh of the children of God at all he's talking about spiritual sonship Both Jacob and Esau came from the same mother. They came from the same family. But redemption doesn't flow by genealogy. Redemption flows through a supernatural spiritual work that takes place in your heart. You know, this is a blessing.

I don't know. My suspicion is that most of you did not grow up in Christian homes. You are proof of this verse. That you don't have to grow up in a perfect Christian home to be a recipient of the blessings of Almighty God. No, you don't.

It's not necessary. God has chosen His people out of the world. And so salvation is a matter of election. It's a matter of election. And when we get to this section, we're going to speak in detail about the doctrine of election.

Now, here's just one thing I want to say about election. God doesn't look out on the whole earth and say, I want that one, that one, and that one. He has looked for an eternity past, and He said, I will cause that one to be born. I will cause that one to be born and follow me and I am making for myself a kingdom of priests." That's what God is doing. God is not random about it.

Now it seems random to us, but it's not random to him. We don't know who they are in the world, who will be for his kingdom, but he knows. And he's called us to be indiscriminate in our casting of the gospel to all those in the world who knows who might be saved. And then the fourth section, well, in that section we run across this statement, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. We're going to spend quite a bit of time on that as well.

That will be next week. What does that mean? And how can we sing that song with all of our hearts? And then the fourth section, Paul addresses the natural response that all of us have had. My guess is, and that is, that's not fair.

What do you mean, Jacob, I loved and Esau, I hated? That is not fair. That's exactly how everyone of flesh would respond. I don't think we should feel guilty about responding that way. I think it's part of our flesh.

It's part of our stupidity before God. It's part of our not knowing the heart of God. How would we know it? It's by understanding what he has said here. Then in the fourth section, oh yeah, and then we have this objection.

It's not fair. And then we learn that there are two factors. It's not our will and it's not our running that cause our salvation. Not to begin it or to end it. But the factor that swings everything in the world is God's mercy.

It's not dependent on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. And then the fifth section, Paul answers a very pressing question. Well then why does he still find fault? If he's chosen it this way, why in the world would there be any fault? Well that's also another very natural question.

He asks that question in verse 19. That's the question he's going to answer. Paul is very careful to work systematically through the objections that we have. And then he answers the question. Now, you may not like the answer, but here's the answer.

Why has God done it this way? And He's done it for one reason. He's done it for His own glory. He's created vessels of wrath for His glory, and He's created vessels of mercy for His glory. And that explains why there's evil in the world, why all these heartbreaking things happen.

And that is because God is preparing to display His glory through His mercy towards sinners and His wrath toward the ungodly, unrepentant sinners. That's what God is doing. That's what this whole Earth history is about. What is the history of the world? It is right in verse 22.

The history of the world is summed up there. Everything that ever happened under heaven and earth is summed up in verse 22 and following if God wanting to show his wrath and make known make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction." How long, oh Lord? Why? Why is it that we've had 6, 000 years of world history? Why?

Why 6, 000 years of suffering? Here's why. Now, you might not like the answer, but this is the answer. This is what God is doing and it's the most hopeful answer that anyone can have. God is going to glorify himself and his sons forevermore.

And then the sixth section, this is fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy for the blessing of his people, verses 25 through 29. And he begins speaking about Hosea because Hosea connects well here I will call them my people who were not my people and her beloved who was not beloved And so this is the gathering of those, us, we, we who had no heart for God, we who were not beloved, we who were not a people, we who had nothing in this world, and God rescued us and gave us treasure in heaven. And that's what this is all about. This is a fulfillment of prophecy. And then finally, the last section, verses 30 through 33, the conclusion.

What shall we say then? He comes to the end of chapter 9. He says, OK, what shall we say? What do we conclude from all these things that, you know, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated, what shall we conclude from the fact that it doesn't depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." What does it mean that you were not a people, but now you are? And here's how he answers all of these questions in this last section.

And you could sum it up by just reading the very last phrase in verse 33. Look at it. And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." And that is, of course, a wonderful summary statement about the Gospel, that God will glorify Himself by seeing that those who believe in Him will not be put to shame. It is for His glory that He will do it. And just let that sink in for a minute.

If you're a child of God, He will see to it by His mighty sovereign hand that you will not be put to shame." Do you fear shame? You've heard the term fear of man. You've heard that you fear shame. Well here this says that God in His grace has ensured that all of His people will not be put to shame." Now this is the grace of God. This is beyond our comprehension.

But let that sink in for a moment. He will ensure that you will not be put to shame. So that's Romans 9. Now, We're going to loop back now and we're going to take on the first five verses. This is the first five verses are kind of an introduction, the first three verses actually.

He begins by saying, I tell you the truth in Christ, I am not lying. Now, I mean, he's defending something here. He is defending his own conscience right here. He's defending himself. And it's interesting what Paul, and then he connects himself with his countrymen.

And he is proclaiming his love for his countrymen. Now in each, at the beginning of each chapter in this section, 9, 10, and 11, Paul does the same thing. He connects with his countrymen. You'll see this as we go through these different chapters. And it's shocking that Paul would work so hard to be connected with his countrymen.

His countrymen have treated him shamefully, and yet his love abounds for them. He is dedicated to Israel. He is willing to sacrifice his life for her, even though they've stoned him, they've beaten him, and now he's blessing those who curse him. Hey, do you remember when we were in the book of Acts, the forty assassins who went on a hunger strike and vowed that they would not eat until They killed Paul. And it was God's will that these men would become very, very, very hungry.

And they made this vow. These were Paul's countrymen that did this. You remember he was stoned outside of Lister and he was left for dead. And he comes to consciousness. And what does he do?

He gets on his feet again and walks right back in the city to make connections with those people there again. His love was enormous. He knew no fear. Would that God would give us a generation like that, who had no fear of any persecutors, who would not shrink back from any challenge. Imagine an army of eight-year-olds who feared nothing but God alone.

Imagine, like the Apostle Paul, whose love would never be destroyed by an enemy, ever. Apparently that's what happened with Paul. He's brimming with love. He says, oh I'm not lying, my conscience is crying out to me and my conscience is saying I love these people I do love them and Remember the riot in Ephesus when the Apostle Paul came in and they were preaching the gospel and it was having a negative effect on the economy because the gospel will typically have an effect on the economy particularly if it's an economy built on wickedness and so there's this massive riot that ensued in Ephesus. These were Paul's country.

Remember the mob in Jerusalem, where they thought he was going to be torn to bits. It was that angry, a mob. And he was finally transported by the Roman government out of the mob and God rescued him. And notice here his wholeheartedness. And notice the cause of his sorrow.

Why did he feel this way? It's because they were cut off. He said, I wish I were accursed, but no, you are accursed because you rejected the Messiah. The cause of his sorrow was that they did not have the gospel of Jesus Christ. What can we learn from this man here?

Who is cut off from Christ that you know. Is your conscience crying out to you like Paul's and saying, oh, would that I would be accursed, that my countrymen would be blessed by the blessings of God? Notice the intensity of his sorrow. It's called, look at the text, great sorrow. Great sorrow.

How, think about this for a minute, of those who do not know Christ in your pathway, Do you have great sorrow for them? Or do you have a moderate sorrow for them? Or do you have no sorrow for them? Let's just compare consciences here for a moment. It's appropriate that we would compare the pattern of Paul's conscience with our own conscience and ask ourselves, is our conscience spirit activated and is it truthful according to the way things really are?

Or is a conscience perhaps seared? We know that our consciousness can be compromised and become seared, and we can become very dull in our consciences for things. And here, though, we find, and I'm going to call it an inflamed conscience. And it's characterized by great sorrow And continual grief. Continual grief.

You know, it's easy to think for a short time about your unsaved friends and then just forget about them for long periods of time. You pray, you get that off the table and you move on with life and you forget about them but they're lost they're still headed for perdition the the boards that they're walking on could fall in at a moment and they would be ushered into eternal perdition that's why Paul's conscience was characterized by great sorrow and continual grief. He desires his countrymen to receive the gospel. So here we are under this Instruction here in this text of Scripture. We are here for a reason, brothers and sisters.

We are here that God Almighty would, by His Spirit, would inflame our conscience as anew and that we would not live an inward life. God forbid that the eight-year-olds and the eighty-year-olds in this church would live an inward life and have no care and would have a dead conscience toward the unsaved. It's always a danger in a church. In every church I've ever been in, it's a looming danger. And it's a danger in our church.

That our consciences are active only for a few things. So let's let the conscience of the Apostle Paul come and help us think more clearly, help us to repent of all these things. Now Let's talk about election for a moment. Now, here's one thing I want us to see here. Paul's belief in election did not dampen his hot passion for the salvation of his countrymen.

The doctrine of election should never lull us into inactivity or carelessness and he's an example to us. Well who is a greater Calvinist than the Apostle Paul? That's what I want to know. The Apostle Paul preached the doctrine of election, that before the foundation of the world, God chose us in him, that we should be holy and without blame. The doctrine of election was always on the apostle Paul's tongue.

And it is in Romans 9. In Romans 9, one of the pinnacle passages for the doctrine of election, there is more passion for evangelism than you'll see. There's massive, great sorrow, continual grief for the lost. If the doctrine of election would cause lack of love for the lost, then it would be no true doctrine of election. It's something else.

It's some bifurcation. It's some twisted remnant, some ungodly conclusion, some wicked Implication that you've injected into it yourself. Because the Apostle Paul is full of passion for the Gospel. Paul's response to his grief for his countrymen is recorded in chapter 10 verse 1. What does this, what does the doctrine of election do to Paul?

Does it make him passive? Does it make him not care? No, it makes him pray. He says, brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God is for them for their salvation. The doctorate of election shouldn't dampen zeal for evangelism.

And so his tears and his prayers would continue to roll and flow, and it was as a result of his understanding of divine sovereignty and it activated him into tremendous levels of action and he took great pains for his countrymen. So does a belief in divine sovereignty or should a belief in divine sovereignty actually dampen evangelistic zeal? Not with Paul. Oh, by the way, not with Southern Baptists either. A few of us were at a conference recently on Calvinism that Southeastern Seminary and the founders and Lifeway put together.

And there were lectures of what to do with Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Convention. And at the beginning of the conference, Ed Stetzer got up And he gave a number of statistics. And I'll just give you a summary of the statistics. The Calvinists in the Southern Baptist Convention are more evangelistic than the Arminians. How's that?

Not much more, okay? But more. More is more, right? More is more, right? So because of God's sovereignty in election, we pray.

And so it should not be an impediment to our missions and our evangelism. In fact, think about it this way. Divine sovereignty should fill the heart with confidence in evangelism. It should, it's the only, it's perhaps the only thing that would make you sane in your conversations with those who are not saved because you know that God will make it right you know that even that you don't have to be angry you don't you don't have You don't have to lose your mind, but you can rest assured that the message will be heard if God Almighty would allow it to be heard. And so it causes for a peaceful and loving communication because you know that God will fulfill his work with them.

When you feel like there's no chance, you remember of God's divine sovereignty. The human heart is so dead, it's so blind, only God can speak to it. If success in evangelism was the result of your wisdom, what would that mean? It would just mean that you're persuasive. It doesn't mean that God is almighty and that God rescue sinners.

It means that you are sharp or funny or relevant or persuasive. Do you want anyone's salvation to rest on that? Absolutely not. Divine sovereignty is the greatest gift to the evangelist because it sets him free. It makes him fearless of all attacks coming back.

For he knows that Even Saul, on his way to murder, those in the church can be saved. Was Saul waking up to his salvation? No. God knocked him off a horse and blinded him and woke him up by his own will. So the doctrine of the providence of God, the sovereignty of God in election, is our greatest help in evangelism, because we know that God will do his work and that we are merely his servants.

We are his water carriers in it. Okay, so let's test our desires for our countrymen. Have we lost our love for the lost, even those who do not appreciate where we've gone in this life? Now, the second thing that we see, not only do we see Paul's love for his countrymen, we also see God's love toward his countrymen in verses four through five. Here's a beautiful section that explains the marvelous work that God did for his people in the Old Testament and he's doing them for us as well in these times of the New Covenant.

Every promise of the Old Testament, every image of the Old Testament is for us to learn of the heart of God. And so here he explains God's love toward his countrymen in verses four and five. They are Israelites who to whom pertain the adoption, that's one incredible blessing, The glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises of whom are the fathers and from whom according to the flesh Christ came who is over all the eternally blessed God. Amen. Now here we find the privileges of the love of God toward the Jews and how wonderful the old covenant was.

Even though it was a shadow, even though the new is better, it was still marvelous. There are six things that God provided the Jews. First is adoption. He adopted them as His sons. In Hosea 11.1, we read, When Israel was a youth, I loved him, and out of Egypt I have called my son.

God has called all of his sons and daughters out of Egypt, and he has adopted us. Think of that terrible taskmaster Pharaoh who ruled your life all those years God through the blood of Jesus Christ Broke the power of sin and opened up a new springtime He justified you by faith through through penal legal Justification And it didn't make you perfect, but it made you begin to blossom, like God desired you to blossom. And He adopted you out of Egypt. I've called my son out of Egypt. And yes, God does justify the Gentiles, not just the Jews.

He adopts all of His sons, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, and He adopts them all out of one place, Egypt. Whether it's a religious Egypt or an irreligious Egypt, it's Egypt nonetheless. Now, not only do we have the adoption, but we have the glory. God appeared in his glory in the wilderness, in the tabernacle and in the temple, and he dwelt with his people directly and he related to them and he shone forth his glory. And there are many places that we could camp on from Genesis to Revelation where the glory of God was communicated to his people.

God has given that to us as well for our own hope that we can see that God is glorified and He is marvelous. Not only the glory but the covenants. There are a number of covenants. The covenant to Abraham, I mean to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to David. God is making covenants with His people.

He's making promises. He says, I will make you a people who are not a people. I will make you my sons. And he makes covenants with his people. And then the giving of the law and the blessings, if they followed the law, and the curses, if they rejected it.

The law was a beautiful blessing and still is a beautiful blessing to all of God's people. We read about it in Psalm 119. We read about it everywhere in Scripture. Deuteronomy 4, 5 through 8. Surely, I have taught you my statutes and my judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess.

Therefore be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear these statutes. And they will say, surely this nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us? So he says, for this reason I set before you today my judgments and my law, to make you wise among the people so that you would know how to live and not have to be banging your head against the wall against every worldly proposition that the culture serves up, but to be a people for God's own possession who would be blessed in keeping of the law. And then the service of God, That's the ceremonial system that God revealed to Moses.

And the service of God was in the tabernacle and the sacrifices of the Levites and the priests and the offerings of the feast. You know, God gave his law at Sinai, didn't he? And he provided the tabernacle and the Levites and the priests and the offerings and the feasts. Why? To declare his glory in the world.

He gave us all of these things in in the imagery in the temple and many of the things that he communicated to his people in the Old Testament. And then he gave the promises, the promise of the Messiah. You know, Peter picks it up in the book of Acts, he says, the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off. God gives his promises. And so, God's love toward his countrymen is enormous and he has demonstrated his love to his countrymen through all these wonderful blessings.

They are for us as well and we can take the accumulated blessing of Israel into the church and learn from it. Okay, let me give you some applications from this text, this introduction in verses 1 through 5. Here's the first point of application that I want us to consider. Consider the state of your conscience. Consider your anxiety for your unsaved countrymen.

Consider that. I know that only God can activate a conscience, but we also know this. God activates conscience through our activity. He does that. That's the way we're wired.

And often our consciences are dead to certain things because our activity toward godly things has lowered. If our consciences are dead, then we have become dead to something beautiful in the Word, and we're not paying attention to it. So Consider the condition of our consciences before our countrymen. Realize that our consciences can be seared or it can be led captive by the Lord. And then, secondly, consider our vision of God.

And we will be considering this as the weeks spread on in this section of Scripture. But consider your vision of God. Is He the eternally blessed, as is spoken of here? Our vision of God is of absolutely critical importance because it's out of our vision of God that everything in life flows, and I mean everything. Flows and I mean everything.

And the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is critical for the formation of every thought, of every action, of every attitude, of every emotion. The doctrine of the sovereignty of God bears down on everything of the heart, everything of the feet. It is our vision of God that controls everything that we think and do in this life. And for instance, our responses to events that happen to us spring from our theology. They always do.

Your theology, your doctrine of God is the source of everything. And the way we respond to circumstances is always a reflection of our theology. Many of our bad responses are because we just keep thinking worldly about God. And so we are in this process of renewing our minds by the washing of the water of the Word. We need that.

And that washing begins with our vision and our doctrine of God. You know, what kind of God we worship will determine how we respond when we're disappointed, when we're hurt, when we're slandered, when we're wronged, when we suffer. And this is why it's so critical for us to be humble students, because God has said, for my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways as high as the heavens are above the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts now Let's bring this down to a little bit closer to earth. Our simple irritations over your sister have to do with your knowledge of God. Your simple irritations over the weather, or the breakdown of your automobile, or the irritations over finances, or the irritations often of the government, the irritations over in-laws and relatives, the death of a loved one, the loss of something so dear to us.

Each of these are related to our theology. And our understanding of God will win the day. And this is why it's so critical in the church today that we recover the doctrine of God. A vision of His holiness, a vision of His justice, a vision of His sovereignty. How can you live without knowing for whom you live and what He is doing?

If a person struggles with anger, it's almost always because of their defective view of God. And they do not believe that God is the ultimate ruler. Anger is almost always traced right back to your doctrine of God. Because you don't believe that God cares about you. And that you need your anger to protect yourself.

Well, you don't need it at all. God is almighty. God is sovereign over all creation. If a person is irritable, It's because he does not see God clearly and does not understand the love of God. Now this is all of us, isn't it?

That's the problem. The problem with what I've just said is that we're all there on some plane. And so I pray that God would help us to know Him better, that we would quit thinking our own thoughts about God, and that we would truly find ourselves adoring and treasuring who He really is through all these things that we'll be engaging in. And that we would make progress in weaning ourselves from this world, from a man-centered religion, from a man-centered life to a God-centered life. Now this is the stuff that God will help us with for all of our lives.

And that we would destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised up against the knowledge of God and take every captive, every thought captive to obey Christ. And we will, we will end up in this place in chapter 11, 33, oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the 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 become His counselor, or who has first given to him and it shall be repaid to him for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever and ever amen let's pray father you you have declared yourself to be almighty, and we pray that in this little flock, you would help us to know you more thoroughly and that we would love our brothers and sisters more thoroughly as a result of your washing our minds clean of our own idolatry. In Jesus' name, Amen.