I always have that moment before
when you use electronics. I always have that moment of
fear. I've only seen it happen to one pastor. Cody Groover. It happened to him. He had that
brand new electronic device and that thing just was black. The
screen was black. There was nothing he could do
to get that thing working. And he had to preach from nothing.
No, no. So it was one of those, every
pastor's nightmare come true. Well, it's working, but that
don't mean anything either. So we'll begin. We want to go back to God in
prayer. And I'm thankful to see many faces here
and their visitors, and to see Kevin, and to see you made it. Family's coming in two weeks,
two weeks. I know we miss Patty and Chuck.
I miss seeing them. Glad to see that y'all are heading
this way. It's good to see y'all this morning. I want to pray for those who
are struggling in the body and mind in our congregation, those
who are physically ill, weighs heavy on the heart and
mind. Pray for them. Pray for those
that travel, Chuck, Patty, as well as Rylan and Emma. They should be with Clay this
morning. I'm so glad that they're close.
So pray for them and Jackson, and pray for him and his treatment,
and others who have needs. Ask your prayers for me as I
preach the gospel this morning. These are practical passages for a pastor
Very difficult. Very difficult, because we see
the things that we're telling you to do, and we ourselves find
ourselves have failed miserably at these things. But this is
the common experience with the believer, and you'll see Paul
is including many times himself in these passages. Ask God's
mercy upon it, because I want Preach it as it is the Word of
God. And the authority that this is
taken in is from that. It's God's Word, not mine. Not mine. So this Word is to
you and me. It is to the church, to the saints. And I pray that God will give
us a heart to receive it. Grace, not only to receive it,
acknowledge it, One thing to acknowledge it, isn't it? Now
acknowledge it, do it. Give us grace to do it. And we're going to find out that
all these things we're exhorted to do, if you ever do them, it's
really the Spirit of God doing them in you and through you,
and you get no praise for doing them at all. It is His glory. It is His honor. And we say,
here we are. Use us. Here we are. What purpose
you have, Father, use us. Let's go to him in prayer. Gracious Father, we bow before
your throne, seeking grace and mercy in time of need. And this
is a time of need. We have met together, Father,
to hear the word. and confess we have no strength
in ourselves to hear it. We desire to be refreshed in
our minds and our hearts, but find ourselves incapable of refreshing
ourselves. These glorious truths that you
have revealed in Holy Scripture, I pray, Father, that you would
not just settle them on the mind rather in the heart. Then by your grace, work from
the inside out to do these things that you have exhorted us in
this place to do. I pray, Father, for those that
are sick. Struggles in the mind and the body are real, painful,
they grieve us. beg you to be gracious and deliver
us. I pray that you would use these
things for the furtherance of the gospel, for the growth of
your people, that we might grow in the grace and knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless those that travel and bring
them safely. Again, thank you for these that
you have brought here I pray, Father, for those in this place
that are lost and without Christ, lost and undone. I pray, Father,
that you would be gracious and send your Holy Spirit in power
to give them faith to believe on Christ alone. Father, forgive us our sins and
cleanse us of our unrighteousness. And I pray these things. by the
merits and in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
and for his sake. Amen. Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. The title of this message, The Offering
of the Body and Renewing of the Mind. The offering of the body
renewing of the mind. The Apostle says, I beseech you,
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service. And Be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. Way of introduction I want to
mention this you know I'm always going to do that preach from
verse one recently I'm going to get a running start at it
again But by way of introduction I
want you to know that this chapter is easily divided into three
sections three parts The first part is what we just read the
exhortations given to the whole church to every believer To present your body as a living
sacrifice. Wholly acceptable. Why? It's
reasonable. And the second exhortation is
this. Don't be conformed to the world,
but be transformed, and he tells us how this process takes place,
by the renewing of your mind. By the renewing of your mind.
And this is going to do something. that you may prove, that you
may try it and find out it's true, prove it. What is that
good and perfect and acceptable will of God? So first of all,
the exhortation of giving ourselves, giving ourselves. The first verse,
the apostle here says, I exhort you brethren. I like the way
he does this. He's not going to use fear to
preface exhortation. That's what religion does. If
you don't give, God's going to take your house. If you don't
give, if you don't do this, if you don't love your neighbor,
then God's going to kill you. They'll use all kinds of threats.
It's not a threat. It's not a threat. That's not
the way these exhortations work. These exhortations, the Amplified
Version says this, I implore you. I appeal to you, brethren. As one believer to another, listen,
I implore you because this is good for you. I love you and
I want what's good for you. His motivation here is love. I beseech you. These things that
I'm going to exhort to you, this is what God has given to me to
give to you. I implore you to do these things. Why? Because it's good for you.
It's good for you. It's not a matter of fear. Why? Because if you're in Christ,
what is there to fear? Perfect love casts out what?
It casts out fear. trying to threaten you, and when
you were lost, there was a fearfulness, there was a vengeance, and holy
justice was coming, and it caused you great fear. But listen, now
that we are in Christ, what is there to fear? The justice of
God has been satisfied. God is for you, and if God be
for you, listen, who can be against you? So these words are imploring
words of love. He desired their growth. And He brings to their mind all
that He had stated before. He said, I implore you, now this
is the grounds on which you should do these things. Listen, not
out of fear, but out of this, the mercies of God. because of
the mercies of God. He calls their mind to all 11
chapters He had went through before. Which is what? To display
the mercy of God that is in Christ Jesus. Mercy. He said, I appeal
to you, remember the mercy of God in your election. Isn't that
merciful? Did you deserve to be chosen?
No. Remember, He chose you before
you were born. That's mercy, isn't it? Remember
that. Bring to mind the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ. How merciful was it when the
Lord gave Himself for us? How merciful was that? What did
you do to earn that? Not a thing. God sent His Son
into this world as my representative He lived a righteousness that
I could not live. He died a death I could not die.
He satisfied the justice of God in my stead. Washed my sins away before I
even had my first sin. where I was conceived in sin. He had already taken away my
sin. And then He rose again. He's seated at the right hand
of God. And He is manipulating, moving all things after the counsel
of His own will, so as to find me and save me. That's mercy,
wasn't it? Consider the mercy of God in
your calling. How merciful was that? You weren't
looking for God. You didn't know God. You couldn't
know God. You couldn't earn God's favor. I like to think of that infant
polluted in his own blood. Remember that? That's how the
Lord described us. He said, your mom was a Hittite,
your father was a heathen. He said, you're a bastard. You
know, that's what He said. He said, you're a bastard. And
then He said, then they hated you. When you were born, they
hated you and threw you out in the field in your own blood.
Left to die. What'd He say? He said, then
I passed by you. I saw you polluted in your own
blood. And I said, live. And you were born again. Who
did that? Do you have anything to do with
your new birth? Anything whatsoever? Not at all. He said, I saw you dead in your
sins and I said, live. That's mercy, isn't it? Mercy. He called us from death to life. He brought us from darkness to
light. You didn't have a clue who God
was or what God required and now you do. You see God as holy
and just and righteous. You see yourself as you truly
are, a sinner without any merit before God whatsoever. And by His grace, He showed you
Christ. He didn't have to. You understand that? He could
have left you right where you were and been just as holy and just
as right. But He didn't. He called us by
His mercy. And so by His mercy we are in
union with Christ. Listen, you that believe, you
are an heir and joint heir with Jesus Christ. You are an heir
of God. God Himself is your exceeding
great reward. And whatever Christ merited,
You're a joint heir with that. You're a joint heir. And all
because of what? Mercy. And what part of mercy
is merited? Can you merit mercy? Is there
anything you can do to merit mercy? If you can, it's no longer
mercy. It's merit. So we are saved by His mercy. And the reason you're still here
is what? By His mercy. The reason you still believe
is because of His mercy. That's the only reason you believe
at all. Is because of His mercy. And
this was His promise. He says we are kept by the power
of God. You know what it takes to keep
a sinner? Power of God. Not your power, And all these exhortations, you
do all these things. None of these things that you
do are keeping you. Kept by the mercies of God, by
the power of God. So nothing then can remove you
from Him. Is that not a mercy? Isn't that
what Paul says in Romans 8? He said, What shall separate
us from the love of God's in Christ Jesus? Tribulation, persecution,
famine, peril, nakedness, sword, Life, death, angels, principalities. He was defying everyone and everything. He said this, I am persuaded
that nothing can separate me from the love of God that's in
Christ. Is that not mercy? Do you deserve any of this? What have you done to merit any
of this? All I've done is sin. Everything I've done is mixed
with sin. I need mercy. And so the grounds
of all Paul is going to exhort us to do is based on that mercy. Keep that in mind. And so Paul here, he exhorts
Exhorts those that are saved by the grace of God to do something
look at this I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God listen
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice Here the Apostle exhorts every
believer that have tasted of the mercies of God to present
your whole self as a living sacrifice for the worship and service of
God, all of yourself. And he's going to say this, isn't
it just reasonable? Compared with what great mercies
you received and what he is now requiring of you, isn't it just
reasonable? If you understand anything about
his mercies, then you understand that this exhortation is just
plain reasonable. It makes sense. It makes sense. So then, but I want you to see
this, this reasonable service is to give ourselves wholly,
completely, without reservation to the worship and service of
God. To present your bodies a living
sacrifice. Now listen to me, it's not just
the body. How many people go through ritualistic
ceremonies to great pains? I think there's one ritual in
the Catholic Church, one, to where they've got to make the
sign of the cross I think like 27 times or something like that.
It's outrageous how many times they've got to do this and then
walk so many feet and do it again and then bow and then do this
and there's a big, big ceremony. That takes a lot of effort, doesn't
it? What is that, but just giving the outward shell of yourself
to something God never required? You won't find any of that in
here. None of that. So it's not just saying giving
your body to come and sit and pay your seat rent, what's Persian
call it, seat rent. Some people just come in, pay
seat rent, and leave the same way they came in. When he's talking
about giving your body, it's not just outwardly. But it's not just also a sentimental
thing. It's not just a sentiment. A
lot of people will do this. They'll say, they acknowledge,
here I am Lord, I present myself to you, and then when the opportunity
comes to do something, they say, well, you know, God really don't
want me to do that. Well, that might be embarrassing.
I don't want to do that. As long as I acknowledge I've
got to give my body, but I really don't have to. No, you really
have to. Not a suggestion. So what is he saying when he
says give your bodies? He's saying give your whole self. If you understand mercies, then
this will be reasonable. If you don't understand the mercies
of God, this won't be reasonable to you. The meaning here is plain, that
we are to give our whole being, all our soul, all our faculties
of the body, the faculties of the mind, at all times, with
all readiness and willingness to glorify God in His service. Now why should you do that? Because
of the mercies of God. Because of the mercies of God.
This is what it means to present your body as a living sacrifice,
not just a hollow shell with no heart or love, nor is it just
an inward notion. But it is to recognize this. I belong to God. You that believe. Are you not
bought? You're bought. than you're owned. Paul said, we're not our own,
we've been bought with a price. Precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so by the mercies, He came
to me, He redeemed me, He quickened me, He gave me faith, He keeps
me, I am His! And not just the part of me,
Not just the shell, not just the heart, not just the mind,
but all of it. It belongs to Him. Now the question comes, is this
reasonable? Are you taking this too far? I said this last time,
but it still occurs to my mind that man that Brother Don ran
around with when he was lost. He was running around with this
old guy. Man, that guy just thought Don was Every sin that Don did,
he just thought was the best. You know, but when Don, the Lord
saved Brother Don, he came to that man and he told what the
Lord had did for him. He said, you know that's good
Don, just don't take that religion thing too far. You take sin as
far as you want to, but don't take this religious thing too
far. Someone who understands the mercies
of God, you can't take this too far. Can you? in offering yourself as a sacrifice
to God, is it not just reasonable? Some say it's too extreme. That's
too radical. Now, the apostle knew the objections
of the mind. He knows the wicked reasoning
of the flesh so as to figure out how to wiggle out of this.
Isn't that what the flesh is trying to do? Right now, in your
mind, is that not? It is here! It is here trying
to find some wiggle room so I don't have to sacrifice everything. So we say things like this, well
how in the world could my offering myself be of any benefit? False humility. That's what that
is. Acknowledge that. You say, well,
I'm a sinner. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Surely, surely this, if I give
anything in the service of God, that it would be useless. So
why give it? I guess I'll just hold on to
it, you know, since it's not going to be worth anything. What you're saying is true. I
know I'm weak. I know I'm sinful. Sin is mixed with all we do.
So what good would my offering do? That's the flesh. The flesh
is always opposed to offering our whole self to God. It is
always in opposition of it. The flesh will try to find anything,
any reason it can not to do it. But here is the reason, the answer
of God to that supposed opposition. Look at what he said. Present
your bodies a living sacrifice. Well, I'm so sinful and I'm just,
I'm not, you know, I don't know, when I witness, I just don't
have the right words or I don't have the right ability of this
or this or that. Some excuse. Listen. Listen to
what God says about your offering yourself. Holy and acceptable
unto God. You came this morning to worship.
You came to hear the Word of God in this few minutes that
we've been here. Were you perfect? Absolutely! Out of the mouths
of babes. No, we're not. None of us are. But listen to what God says about
your service. It's holy. Does that not bless your heart?
Are you not thankful for that? How is that possible? How is
that possible? It's wholly unacceptable with
God. God testifies that all we do in the service of God according
to the word of God. Now that's important. The service
of God according to the word of God. I remember the Israelites
when they were captives in Babylon. For 70 years they were captives,
and on the anniversary of their captivity, they dedicated a fast. They said, we're going to fast!
Oh, we're going to weep! We'll go up by the river and,
you know, strum our harps, and by the willow trees, and lament
our ex-condition. It was a bad condition, no doubt
about it. And then when 70 years was done, they said, Lord, we
have fasted all this time! They murmured about what they
had to give up. You know, God said, who told you to fast? You did that on your own. You
sacrificed all that for yourself. I didn't tell you to do that. But according to the Word of
God, listen, what God commands of us, and we do, is holy and
acceptable. Because of this. Because of your union with Christ. It's the only reason. It is the only reason your work
could be ever considered holy and acceptable unto God. When
I come to God and present myself, I say, here am I. I'm yours.
Do with me as you please. Yet I know, even then, I feel
the guilt, I feel the shame of my sin. Yet this is true. God accepts it. God accepts it only in Jesus
Christ. Why? Because we are clothed with
His righteousness. I like that. With His righteousness
on, I am holy as the Holy One. That's what Romans 3.22 tells
us. Even the righteousness of God
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe. You that believe, don't you know
this, that you don't have just any old righteousness? You have
the righteousness of God. So we're clothed in His righteousness,
and listen, we are continually washed in His blood, cleansed
of all of our sins. I like how John puts that, He
cleanseth us. He has cleansed me. He's right
now cleansing me and He shall forever cleanse me of all my
sins. That's how powerful the blood
is. So when you present this miserable thing, you call service. When I present this miserable
thing, I call service. Because of Christ, it is acceptable.
Is there any reason not to do it? Any reason that you should withhold
everything you have from Him. Is there any reason, anything,
anything you have, is there any reason to withhold it from His
service? No, Paul says it's just reasonable.
It's just reasonable. Now I can understand this. If
your service was really empty, useless, And I can understand
it wouldn't be reasonable. But God says, I've made it holy
and acceptable. In other words, I intend to use
you. Is that not astounding? And if God intends to use our
service, then isn't it reasonable to give it? It is. Seeing all we are and
all we have are His. It is most reasonable for us
to give our whole self without reservation. This means my family, my plans. You got plans? I got plans, but here they are.
I got aspirations, but here they are. Yours. I have a job. Here it is. Do it as you please. Health. Sick. Here I am. I'm yours. All should be committed to the
worship and service of God. Believer, this is how we live
by faith. When the scripture says the just shall live by faith,
this is exactly what he's talking about. To present my body and
everything I have as a living sacrifice, it has to be done
in faith. It can't be done any other way.
Faith in what? The mercies of God. I have to
be totally dependent upon His mercies to sustain me, to keep
me, to give me the ability, the will, the mind, the desire to
do those things that are pleasing to Him. I'm dependent upon Him. Now verse 2. Look at this. And
be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Now Paul is going to show you
what a living sacrifice looks like. There's going to be a manifestation
of this. If we're giving ourselves, we're
not doing it to be seen of men, that's not our purpose. I'm presenting
myself to God, not you. I want to be in service to God,
and by being in service to God, surely I'll serve you, I'll love
you, but I'm not doing it for the praise of men. I'll tell you this, if God is
using us, and we are presenting ourselves a living sacrifice,
and look, it's going to get out on you. That's what Ralph Laurence said.
That lady came up and said, Brother Ralph, the Lord saved me, what
do I do? He said, don't worry, it'll get out on you. It will. It'll get out. Whatever God works
in, you listen to me, He'll work out. He'll work out. Be not conformed
to this world, be ye transformed by the ruining of your mind.
Now the word world, what is this? It is the fashion, it is the
religion, it is the principles, the system, the habits, the thoughts,
and the sins of this present world. Don't be conformed to
that. Don't fashion yourself after
that. We who are born again of the
Spirit of God. The Scriptures are very clear
that you are a new creation. Paul says, therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Why? Because that's
exactly what took place when God saved you. God created something
in you that was not there before. He created in us a new nature. Now what are the principles of
a new nature? A nature has a mind, it has a
heart, and it has a will. Now our old nature had a mind,
a heart, and a will. And it was all in opposition
to God. When God created us a new nature,
we had a new mind, a new heart, and a new will. That's what I
mean by nature. Everything's new. We were dead in sins. Paul said, we walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
pie of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience. We all had our conversation in time past, according
to the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature haters of God, just like everybody
else. And that's us. That's what we
were. But God. But God. Now, you have been given a new
nature by which we love God. By which we believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the evidence of the new
nature. If you want to know if you've got a new nature, do you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the evidence of it. Faith. And I'll tell you this, we no
longer love our sin. We no longer desire to follow
the doomed course of this world. When God gives you a new nature,
that nature's desire is to not sin, not sin. Yet the flesh, the old man God Did not change Him. The old man
of sin is warring right now within us. And we must be exhorted again
and again to cease from following the world. That's why He says
it. If that wasn't true, if God saved you and all of a sudden
you didn't want to sin anymore and everything's alright, you're
not tempted, then that wouldn't need to be there. But the exhortation
is there. Why? Because the flesh is constantly
seeking to be conformed to the fashion of this world. Paul says, there is therefore
a struggle. He says, don't be conformed to
this world. We are exhorted to cease from
it. But rather, Paul says, be ye
transformed. The word metamorphosis. My old caterpillar. My old caterpillar's
ugly. Ugly old caterpillar. All of
a sudden, at some time, he puts this cocoon around him and you
don't know what's happening, but something's happening inside
of there. It's just an ugly old cocoon.
You don't think anything of it. But on the inside, there is a
transformation taking place. metamorphosis. And one day that
cocoon breaks and what was inside comes out. The same is true in the, takes
place in the believer. What we call spiritual growth,
spiritual growth. As we grow in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is always going to be a change. A change. And this change, this
change like the illustration I just gave, takes place inside. And then works its way out. Now religion flips it. They say,
don't be conformed, be transformed. And they think that you're going
to be transformed by what you do. What you do outwardly, they
believe, affects your holiness inward. So if you do this, and
do this, and do this, you are more holy. They believe the more religious
you become, the more moral you become, the more you serve God,
the more then you are transformed, the more you're acceptable with
God. They believe that we by non-conformity to the world will
somehow earn conformity, a transformation. They long to be made like Christ
by their outward actions. But the truth is the growth of
the believer, the growth of the believer is something produced
from the new heart. It's produced from the new heart,
it is transformed inside and then is manifest outwardly. Therefore, this transformation
is not a work you can do. It is something that God the
Spirit does in you. And when God the Spirit works
this transformation, you will do this. You won't be conformed
to this world. You will be transformed. You
will be metamorphosized. But this growth is not what you
think. It's different. When a man grows, when a believer
grows, in himself, he does not see himself as holier. In fact,
he sees the opposite. He sees the opposite. He is made,
as God swears in the eternal covenant, to loathe himself. And in Ezekiel 36, God said,
I'm going to give you a new heart. I'm going to cleanse you. I'm
going to bring you to glory. And He said, this is what you're
going to do when I do that. You will remember your sins and
loathe yourselves. Every time I recall the mercies
of God, you know what I have to do? Loathe myself. And the
more I know about that, the more I what? Loathe myself. I think Paul is a good illustration
of this. In 1 Corinthians 15 verse 9, listen to what Paul
said. He said, I am the least of all the apostles. That's humility. Paul learned something. He said,
Peter, John, James, those guys, they're the chief apostles. I'm
the least of the apostles. Later on, in Ephesians, When
Paul grew substantially, he said this, I am the least of all the
saints. He took into account every believer
and he says, I'm the least of them. I'm the least. You know
what Paul said before he died? He said, I'm the chief of sinners.
Is that how religion plots it? Religion begins you as a sinner
and then you get better and better and better. When God grows his
people, in their own estimation they become worse and worse and
worse. This is the metamorphosis that
takes place. I become least. And Christ becomes
everything. That's the metamorphosis. That's
what constrains me from being conformed to this world, is that
I am the least and Christ is all. And so as we grow, do we
grow averse to sin? Yeah. We grow more averse to
sin. We see more of the vanity of
this world as you grow, don't you? You see more of the vanity
of this world? I mean, I'm watching my kids, and
I see how they act. And some of the things that they
do, it just seemed like, man, that's just useless. But I remember,
did the same things. I did the same things. But you
know what? I'm looking at life now, and
life is empty. I'm beginning to be more like
Solomon in Ecclesiastes. I didn't think I'd ever be like
that. I thought, Solomon, man, that guy, he has it rough. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. See, this is what the transformation
is, is that the world becomes less and Christ becomes more. That's the transformation. That's
the metamorphosis. Therefore, it is our desire more
and more to live, not after the world. I see the vanity of the world,
then why would I want to live after it? I don't. But notice now, Paul here gives
us the means by which this growth comes. Look at this. Don't be
conformed to this world, be transformed, listen, by the renewing of your
mind. The word renewing here has the
idea of renovation. I think of somebody redecorating.
You know, somebody has a couch over here and furniture over
here and one day the wife comes in and says, man, I don't like
this arrangement. This is just not right. And they
start moving things. And they get done, they say,
That's the way it should be. And six months later they look
around and say, that's not right. They start renovating again.
It means renovating the mind, renewing the mind, refreshing
the mind. Now listen, when you were lost, your mind, you had an idea, a
thought of God. You thought God was like this.
You were like Naaman, the leper. I thought it should go this way. We all had our thoughts of God.
We thought we were able to please God, that if we were just sincere
in our efforts that God would somehow accept us if we're just
sincere. We had that thought. In fact, we thought very little
of God's holiness and thought much of our self-righteousness. We believe that we somehow could
contribute to the work of Christ. Do you still think that? Do you
still think that salvation is his work plus yours? Is that in your mind? Do you
have that in your mind? We did. We all did. But by the power of the Holy
Spirit, God rearranged our thoughts. Matter of fact, our thoughts
were upside down. We were on top and God was on
the bottom. But when the Spirit of God came, God set our thoughts
right side up. We began to see ourselves on
the bottom. We were sinners, worthy of God's
wrath, worthy of God's justice, God was holy. Listen, that's
a right thought. You understand that, your thoughts
are upright. God is holy. He will punish sin. You are a sinner. You are worthy
of nothing but hell. That's a right thought. That's
a right thought. When God came to us, we found
out we had no free will. We thought we did. When He came, He put our thoughts
right. You don't. You don't. We were dead in sins,
enslaved to sin, but God revealed Christ to us. God revealed Christ. He said, Paul said in 2 Corinthians
4, 6, For God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. Where? In the face of Jesus Christ.
Your thoughts have been made upright now. You see Christ as
all your salvation. Now was this renewal a one-time
thing? Did you all need this one time? No, this renewal you need constantly.
You need to constantly, your mind needs to be renewed. It's constant and necessary work
of the Holy Spirit upon the minds of the children in order for
us to grow spiritually. Now, our thoughts come from where? They're in the mind where they
come from. They come from the heart. The heart. You got a bad
heart, you got what? Bad thoughts. God give you a new heart, you
have what? New thoughts. New thoughts, they
come from the heart. So then we see that even this
regeneration of the mind comes from what? The Spirit's work.
The Spirit's work. So the mind now, believer, is
the battleground. Isn't it? The spiritual warfare
that now rages within you. The flesh lusting against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh. These two are contrary
one to another so that you could not do what you would. You have
a constant warfare in your mind. Two natures struggling in your
heart, and the battlefield is the mind. So what do we need
to do? God must constantly renew our
thoughts and set them right. How many times have you thought
something that's just wrong about God, about yourself? And what
does God do? He corrects us. He instructs
us. continually renews our minds,
our thoughts, our feelings about ourselves and about God. How does he do this? What's the means that God uses
to renovate your mind? Is it not trials? Afflictions? Sufferings? You're going along,
everything's well, And all of a sudden God sends wave after
wave after wave of trials, afflictions, sickness, pain, grief, agony,
despair. And in your mind you begin to
faint. Now you may wax eloquent like
Job at the very beginning. The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
God wasn't done with Job, was he? He said, that's not what
I want, Job. You've not been humbled yet.
You've not had your mind renewed yet. But you know what? When God continued with Job,
you know what he ended up saying? He said, I put my hands over
my mouth. I don't dare answer you. He fell in the dust before
God, and his mind was what? Renewed. All that he thought
was good about himself, he found to be evil before God. What he thought about God was
not right, so God humbled him. So what is God doing with these
dark providences, friend? He is renewing your mind. He's
setting it right. Sometimes we get to the point
of John Newton, to the point I long to know, Often it causes
anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not? He can bring us to such despair
to where we don't even know if we belong to Him or not. What
is He doing? He's renewing your mind. He's
setting it right. When God put these trials on
you, you think He's killing you. Another hymn writer said, Will
thou pursue thy worm to death? And that's how you feel. But
your mind must be renewed. Because God never intended your
trials to be evil. He intended them for your good. The dark providence is not intended
for your ill, but for your growth. Do you want to grow? I ask the
Lord that I might grow in grace and knowledge and truth. Righteousness
that I might grow! You didn't understand what you
were asking for. You were asking for Him to renew your mind about
how that happens. How does it happen? Affliction,
pain, sorrow, sickness, trials. So when He says the renewing
of your mind, this is what He intends to mean. That God is
going to set your mind right. What is it that set my mind right?
It's this. I have no strength in myself. I have no goodness in myself.
I have no ability to offer myself a body as a living sacrifice. I have no ability to not be conformed
to this world and be transformed. I know this! God has to do it. That's what trials teach me.
And you know what they also teach me? They teach me this. God will
do it. Go to Romans chapter 5 and tell me if this is not your experience. This is how God renews the mind. Look at verse 3. And not only
so, we glory in tribulations. Why? Well, tribulation does something. It works patience, endurance. It doesn't mean a quiet sitting
in meditation, patients. That means a gritting of the
teeth, struggling to hang on in faith. That's what it means.
Tribulation puts you in a place where you're hanging on by the
skin of your teeth. Like you're hanging on a cliff
or rock with just your fingernails. It's what it feels like. You're
not, but it's what it feels like to you. And you endure. And what does this endurance
do? Patience work is experience. You experience what? You experience
God's strength. The only reason you're hanging
on by your fingernails is because God's holding you. That's the experience
that you learn. And experience gives me what?
Confidence. Hope. Not in self, but in God. Hope makes it not a shame. And
then what? The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts. Our minds are renewed. And now
what do we see these trials at? As good. You meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good. Your mind's renewed. Your mind
is renewed. And then what? Starts over. Tribulation,
work with patience. Basic experience, experience
hope. Hope, make it not a shame. The love of God is shed abroad
in your heart. Start over. Tribulation, work with patience.
And all the time, He's renewing your mind constantly. Now, if
He didn't do that, you would become as stagnant and dead in
the water, if He didn't do that. What if the ocean didn't churn? What if God didn't move the waves
of the ocean, and He remained stagnant? Everything would die. What happens if you remain stagnant?
You would die. What does God do? He stirs it.
He stirs your mind, your heart. Notice, go back here and notice
what this produces. That you may know what is that
good and perfect and acceptable will of God. You'll know this
when God tries you. You'll know that His will is
good. You've got to change your mind about that. Don't we need to be renovated
about that? When bad things, evil things seem to happen, we
don't recognize it as good. We will. When God renews our
mind, everything's good. Perfect. His will's perfect.
Nothing's lacking. And acceptable. Will of God. And by this, in verse 3, you'll
see the result, humility. Don't let any man think of himself
more highly than he ought to think. The renewing of our mind
will always humble you. And so we offer ourselves in
sacrifice to God, wholesale. Isn't that reasonable? Seeing
the mercies of God, isn't that just reasonable? You think of
any excuse you could give that you should not present yourself
as a living sacrifice to the worship of God? Not if you know
the mercies of God. Reasonable. Don't be conformed
to this world. Be transformed. How? By the renewing
of your mind. By the work of the Holy Spirit
within your heart, He transforms us inside. And then what does
that do? That works humility outside. And who gets the glory for this? When your mind is renewed, you'll
see this. God receives every ounce of the glory. You get none. And I like it. I love it that
way. I don't deserve any of it. The mercies of God. That's my
hope. I pray God will help you with
this. Stand and be dismissed in prayer. Our gracious Father, dismiss
us with your own blessings and mercies. Take the word as you
please. Apply it to the hearts of your
people as you please. Give us the grace to see the
mercies of God and then offer ourselves as we should, every
part of ourselves, for the service of God, for the love of the brethren. Pray for those who are suffering
in these trials that you would renew their minds, renew their
hearts and strength. Forgive us our sins and we pray
this in Christ's name. Amen.