Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. The title
of the message is The Believer's Transformation. The Believer's
Transformation. That's what Paul is talking about
basically for the next four chapters. In the previous chapters, Paul
dealt with the doctrines of grace, the great doctrines of the faith. But here, starting in chapter
12, after establishing that salvation is all of grace, it's all of
God, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, He now deals with the
experience of grace in the everyday lives of believers. This is just
as important as the doctrines. The everyday life of a believer
and their experience of grace and the living out, the living
out of that grace within. Now, Paul in the first couple
verses is going to show us something about worship and dedication
and consecration in the life of a believer. In the first verse,
he uses the word beseech. That word can also be translated
appeal. I appeal to you. I beseech you."
And He appeals to them instead of commanding them because God's
mercies, God's mercies to us and Christ are great reasons
to worship and serve Him than anything else. Anything else. There's no command given that
will motivate you. But when you and I consider the
mercies of God, that will greatly motivate us. Now, a command we
can follow, but when we are beseeched by the mercies of God, considering
what God has done for us, and the mercies that we receive from
Him day by day by day, nothing motivates like that. And when we consider these mercies,
such as how we are justified in Christ, sinners like you and
me, sinful people like you and me, justified, cleared of all
charges in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are adopted as sons and daughters
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in union with Christ as
Paul wrote to the Philippians. He wrote to them as the saints
who are in Christ Jesus. We are united to the Son of God.
We are united to God in Christ. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit
who guides us, teaches us, and keeps us. And He helps us in
all our afflictions. He has promised to help us in
all our afflictions. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou
shalt glorify me. We have that promise. He chose
us, as I said to you this morning. That grows sweeter to me day
by day, week by week, year by year, that God chose me. He didn't
leave me to myself. He didn't leave me alone. God
has every right to leave me and you alone. Every right to leave
us alone. But by grace, I read to you there,
we looked at it in Romans chapter 11, the election of grace. Of
grace. And then we have the certainty
of His coming, and we have the promise that we will never be
separated from His love. When we consider these as mercies, I tell you, to present our bodies
is just reasonable service. To present ourselves. You know,
our Lord presented His body as a sacrifice. He bore our sins
in His body on the tree. Now, for me to present my body,
which is, and what He's saying here, when I present my body,
He's talking about my whole person, me. Body, soul, and spirit. And he says there, I beseech
you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a
living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. He's not
asking us to present our bodies and offer them up as a sacrifice
or as a blood sacrifice as the heathens did. They would offer
up their children. Some offered their children up
to Moloch. They offered them up as sacrifices. No, ours is offered up as a sacrifice
of praise. Ours is offered up as a thanksgiving. Listen to 1 Corinthians 6, 19
and 20. What? Know you not that your body is
a temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of
God, and you are not your own? I don't want to be my own. There
was a time I wanted to be my own and it was like, Don't tell
me what to do. I want to be my own. That starts
from being a child. You get in those teenage years,
it's like, don't tell me what to do. And it just continues. But I don't want to be my own.
I want God to guide me, direct me, stop me. And I want that. He says, you're
not your own, for you're bought with a price. And that price
was not silver and gold, it's the blood of Christ. You're bought
with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. In your body and in your spirit,
in your whole being. And that's what Paul is talking
about when he says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Which are God's, they belong
to Him. We present our bodies, we present
ourselves, and we present ourselves willingly. Every believer is
a willing bond-slave of Jesus Christ. Every one of us who believe. Jeremiah said, Here am I, Lord,
send me. I'm yours. Do with me as you will. And it's to present our bodies
that means this, it's to consecrate ourselves to God. I'm His, and
He is mine. We are consecrated to Him. Body,
soul, and spirit. Listen to this in 2 Corinthians
8.5. Paul said, "...and this they
did, not as we hoped, but first," he said here, "...but first they
gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will
of God." But they first gave themselves, they consecrated
themselves unto the Lord. Where He is. And Paul says here,
it's our reasonable service. It's just reasonable. It's not
unreasonable for us to present ourselves, our bodies, our whole
being to God, to consecrate ourselves to God, to dedicate ourselves
to God. That's not unreasonable at all.
That's not even close to unreasonable. Paul said, it's your reasonable
service. And listen, this reasonable service
here, it has this meaning. It has the meaning of worship.
It means this, worship rendered by reason. It's worship rendered
by the reason. That's what it means. That's
why Paul said, it's your reasonable service. It's worship. It has to do with worship. That's
what it is. When you are consecrated, dedicated
to God completely, it's a matter of worship. It's not like God
gets this part, and you get this part, and somebody else gets
this part. No, it's all His. It's all His. And it says in verse 2, and he
starts here with the believers' transformation. and be not conformed
to this world." Now, you have to remember, Paul is writing
to the church at Rome, and Rome, up to this time, they had never
heard anything like this. It was like, anything goes. That
was pretty much their attitude. Sin was absolutely rampant. Their bodies was their pleasure. And he says here, be not conformed
to this world. You're not of this world now.
They'd never heard anything like that. You're not of this world. This is a new way of thinking.
I tell you what, it was a new way of thinking for them, and
it's a new way of thinking for us, isn't it? We are not of this
world. Go over and read John 17. Chose them out of the world,
but you're not of the world. You're not of the world no more. To be of the world, to conform
to, he's speaking of here, be not conformed to the world, it
means to conform to another's pattern. That's what it means.
When you conform to something, you're conforming to the pattern
of something else or someone else. It's stop being fashioned
and do not have the habit of being fashioned to the world
like you used to. You know, I was thinking this
morning, you know, somebody says, well, what you're wearing, it's
not in style no more. Well, most of what I wear is
not in style anyway. But what they're saying is, and
it's this, and I know what we're talking about, and I'm using
the example of clothes here, and I know what we mean when
we say it's not in style, but that's not what the world's wearing
anymore. Isn't that what we're saying? That's not what everyone's
wearing now. The thing is, Vicki told me once,
you don't wear white in fall or winter. I'm like, I wear white
when I want to wear white. You're supposed to change even
the color. It's not the style. And that's
why Paul's saying, don't be conformed to the thinking, the actions,
the way, the style of the world. The world doesn't set the pattern
for you. The world's not the pattern.
Jesus Christ is the pattern. And it starts in spirit. That's
where it starts at. If it doesn't start in the heart,
it's just all fake. What's on the outside, it's all
fake. It's all window dressings, all this. But you're not of this
world, so don't be conformed to its pattern. There has been
a great change made in us by the Spirit of God. You're not
the same person anymore. You're not. Now we are non-conformist. That's what we are. We are non-conformist. We don't conform to the world.
But that's not the way we do it. What's that got to do with
anything? If this is what the Word of God
says, then this is the way we do it according to His Word.
It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks or does. Now, why
does Paul say this to them and to us? Well, first of all, there's
still a very strong draw by the world on our old nature to conform
to it. There's a very strong draw. Someone
wrote this. The popular culture and manner
of thinking that is in rebellion against God will try to conform
us to its ungodly pattern, and that process must be resisted. It's still in us. It's not easy
to be different. It's not easy to be different.
Not on this flesh. But he says, be not conformed
to the world. What's he talking about? What is it to be worldly?
What is it to be worldly? Is it owning a nice home? Is
it driving a nice car? Is it having those things, buying
those things? Is that worldly? No. No. No. Being worldly is an attitude. It's literally an attitude. It's
going after the world. You can be the poorest person
in the world and be worldly. Crave and desire those things
even though you can't get them. It's to be in league with the
world. And this jumped out at me as
I thought about this. After it's kind, you go over
to Genesis, And when God created all things, and everything reproduced,
and it was always after its kind. And you can tell when people
are around certain crowds, you can tell when they're with their
kind, because that's when they're the most comfortable. That's
when they can, so to speak, let their hair down. They're after
their kind. Our kind are those who believe
the gospel. They are the ones who believe
God. If I enjoy, if I really enjoy the things of the world,
I'm not talking about material things, I'm talking about the
world, that's my kind. That's my kind. But be ye transformed. I thought
this is interesting. Be transformed. That word means
metamorphosis. That's what he's talking about.
It's a metamorphosis. Be metamorphosized. Is that a word? Be metamorphosized. I don't know if that's a word
or not, but it is now. To put it in another word, it
means transfigured. You remember when the Lord Jesus
Christ went to the Mount of Transfiguration, and the disciples saw Him, and
He transfigured in front of them. His face shined, everything glistened. He actually transfigured in front
of them. That's exactly what He's talking
about. You and I are transfigured into the image of Christ. He's
talking about spiritually. Because whatever we are inwardly
is going to come outwardly. It's going to come out. And so
he's saying here, be ye transfigured. Now listen to this scripture
in 2 Corinthians 3.18. Paul says, but we all with unveiled
face. Well, let's go over and read
it, because you need to read two or three verses before that,
and I'm not going to try to quote it. Over in 2 Corinthians, go
to 2 Corinthians 3. This is interesting. This is
very interesting to me. In 2 Corinthians 3, look at verse... Let me see if I got that right.
2 Corinthians 3. I want to see where I want to
start reading at. Look at verse 12. Seeing then
that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. Not
as Moses which put a veil over his face that the children of
Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which
is abolished, but their minds were blinded. For until this
day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old
Testament, which veil is done away in Christ." When you turn
to Christ, that veil is taken away and you see. You see all
those Old Testament types and pictures, how they represent
Jesus Christ. You see. But even unto this day,
when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless,
when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. Now listen, verse 18. But we all, talking
to believers, with open face, the veil's been taken away. It's
not, you know, we don't have the veil on, it's taken away.
Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, This is what we
do as I stand here and preach the Gospel. We behold the glory
of the Lord. When we read His Word, we look for Him in His
Word, we behold something of the glory of the Lord. And while
we are doing that, you don't even realize it as believers.
You don't even realize what's happening. As you come here and
you hear and listen to the Gospel, here's what's happening. It says,
"...but we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord, are changed..." You're being changed, listen,
"...into the same image." When God created Adam, what did He
say? Let us make man in our image
and after our life. You are being transformed into
the image of Christ. Every time you sit and hear the
gospel, you sit and you read the word seriously, you read
the word, you're being transformed. You're being metamorphosized.
That's what's happening. You are changed into the same
image. Listen, from glory to glory, from one degree of glory
to another degree of glory, Christ is being formed in you. You are
growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you are becoming, listen, in spirit, more and more and more
like Him. You can't remain the same and
call yourself a believer. If a person is just as mean 20
years after they said they believed, they're still lost. You're still
lost. If I'm just as mean, if I'm just
as bad a husband as I ever was, I'm lost. I'm lost. I'm telling you the truth. You're
being conformed to the image of Christ. Every time you hear
the gospel, you're being transformed. You're growing. You're being
more like Him. And what's that? Grace, gracious, loving-kindness,
merciful. You're becoming more like that
in spirit. You're being transformed. And
listen here, be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what's good and acceptable, perfect will
of God, but it starts in the mind. It starts in the mind,
which starts with that new birth, which is that new man. Here's the battleground. Here's
the battleground. It's Satan and the world fighting
to take over your mind. That's what's going on. In this
world of darkness, they're fighting to take over your mind. Satan
wants your mind. He wants the way you think. The
way you think of God. The way you think of Jesus Christ.
The way you think of yourself. The way you think of others.
He wants your mind. You know what a great gift God's
given us? This is the one thing we have
above everything on creation here, is the mind. We can think. We can reason. You know, we have
emotions and, you know, we can cry, we can rejoice, but we can
think. We can think. And Satan wants
the way I think. And it comes at us in every direction
all day long. All day, turn the TV on. It wants
the way you think. Advertisement, they want to sway,
they want to pull you into their way of thinking. That way they
can get to your billfold. Really. And that's what Paul's
saying. He's saying here, by the renewing
of your mind. And this process of the renewing
of the mind is a continual process that happens day after day after
day until the Lord takes us home. It's a continual renewing of
the way we think of God, Christ, ourselves, all people. You know, you think, well, you
know, maybe it's not that, maybe we're not as bad, maybe people
aren't as bad as the Word of God says. Oh, yes, they are.
Actually, they're worse than we understand. I've learned this
about myself. However sinful I think I am,
I'm worse than I understand. I'm just thankful. I'm thankful
God doesn't give me the full-blown revelation and turn me loose
on myself. Don't turn me loose on myself. That would be a terrible thing. This renewing process is a continual
growth in grace and in knowledge of Jesus Christ. We become more
and more and more like Him. Believers do. Believers, they
become more like Him. We do not look at world events
from man's standpoint of view, but from God's standpoint of
view. That's how we look at things. It's His eternal purpose. I'm
more concerned, and I believe this with everyone that believes
the gospel and grows in grace, knowledge of Christ. I'm more
concerned with my relationship with Christ and how things are
being run by Him at this time for His eternal purpose and glory,
than I am anything else. I've seen people over the years
be so wrapped up in different things of the world, they get
wrapped up in it, whether it be their job or whatever, and
then one day they come up and it's time to retire. And then
it's time to die, if you make it to retirement. And it's time
to die. And it's time to meet God. Pointed
unto me and wants to die after this judgment. Now to me, everything
pales in comparison to that. Yes, we have our responsibilities
here, but my responsibilities here are connected to Christ. That's what they're connected
to in His kingdom. And then he tells us here, starting
in verse 3, that the believer's life is a
gifted life. You know that? You are a gifted
people. You are a gifted people. And I'm not talking about natural
talent. I'm talking about gifts given by the Spirit of God for
the body of Christ. For I say, through the grace
given unto me to every man, every believer that is among you, not
to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, because
he's getting ready to deal with his gifts, You know, if you remember
Corinthians when we went through it, there was a very gifted congregation,
but some of them got really puffed up by that. Don't think of yourself more
highly than you ought to think, but think soberly, properly.
According as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Remember, you believe because God has given it to you to believe.
Don't have an inflated view of yourself. Don't have an inflated view of
yourself. What you have and what I have,
even the measure of faith is given of God. But we, listen
here, and he's showing our unity here. This is why he's saying,
you know, if you think of yourself soberly and not with an inflated
view, it'll bring unity. We have discontent when we start
to have an inflated view of ourselves, an opinion of ourselves. I have
learned that people who are easily offended just have too high opinion
of themselves. That's why they're easily offended.
I like what Paul Mahan said. He
said one of the first signs of maturity He's taking everything
personal without being offended. That's a good statement. He says
here in verse 4 and 5, For we have many members in one body,
all members have not the same office or same position. God,
just think if everybody in the world was, just for an example,
what if everyone in the world was an auto mechanic? Who's going
to build the house? Have you noticed the wisdom of
God throughout just humanity, all the differences that people
have? People have skill, they have
a carpentry skill, they have mechanical skill, they have math
skills, all these different skills. You know why? Because it makes
all this variety work in such harmony. It all works. That's why, you know, I'm glad
I'm not, I'm glad I don't, my body is not one hand, just one
hand. What would that do? He made the
body in such a way that it all operates in such a way that it's
all taken care of. The wisdom of God, just look
in the mirror, the way He put you together. We have many members, but they're
all in one body, and having then gifts differing according to
the grace given to us, If it's prophecy and it's preaching,
then let us do it according to the proportion of faith. If it's
ministry, that is, and I know it has to do with the pastor,
but it also here has to do with the serving, service. He says, on ministry, then let us wait on our ministry,
be about it. Our Lord said, I must be about my Father's business.
You know, when you get up in the morning after you go home
today, you get up in the morning, you go to work, you go to all different
places. Get up with this attitude. I've got to be about my father's
business today. Do that. It'll make a difference.
It'll make a difference when you realize you're serving the
Lord and not men. And this is the transformation
Paul's talking about. On he that teaches, the ability
to teach. If God's given you the ability
to teach, teach. Boy, I tell you, that's a serious
thing. Those of you, those teachers
in here, that's a serious thing. Now you're working with somebody's
mind. You're working with somebody's mind. That's serious business
to teach. Especially if you're teaching
the Word of God. On exhortation, encourage one another. You know,
some people are just better at encouraging than others are.
You know, some people couldn't encourage anything. But now,
some people have the gift of being encouraging. You know,
my pastor, Henry, that man was so awesome, it was just a word,
just a word that just encouraged me so much. I can look back at
the times he has just pulled me aside and said something to
me. It was just so encouraging. And I've had others, I heard
him say this one time from the pulpit in a message. He said,
you know, and it was a congregation of 400 people. And he said, you
know, I've been here all these X amount of years, and some of
you have never said one encouraging word to me. I thought, ooh, but
that's so. Some just don't. Everybody ought
to encourage. Everybody here ought to encourage
one another. But he says here, or he that
exhorts on exhortation and encouragement, he that gives, do it with simplicity,
don't have fanfare. You know, some can give more
than others, all are to give. Remember that woman, she just
gave her last mite, and the Lord says she gave more than all of
them. And he that shows mercy, Don't say, well, you know, I'm
supposed to do this. I'm supposed to show mercy. No, he says here,
show mercy with cheerfulness. In other words, somebody offends
you, forgive them before they ever come back and ask you for
forgiveness. Forgive them. Forgive them before they even
ask. Don't wait till they ask. Don't make them ask. Just do
it and move on. And do it with cheerfulness.
Glad you can do it. Now, I'm going to be brief with
the rest of this, but listen. Because this is the transformation
we need to see. And what we see from verse 9
on down here, I'll briefly go through these. The believer's
life is a life of truth. Let love be without dissimulation,
hypocrisy, pretension. God's people are honest people.
They're honest people. He made them that way. And then
it's a life of purity. Abhor that which is evil, cleave
to that which is good. And then it's a life of love. Be kindly affectionate to one
to another with brotherly love in honor of preferring one another.
It's a life of truth. It's a life of purity. It's a
life of love. It's an energetic life spiritually. Not slothful. Not lazy. in business, but fervent
in spirit serving the Lord. That fervent in spirit means
boiling over. There is no such thing as half-hearted
worship. It's either worship or it's not.
And he says fervent in spirit. And then the believer's life
is an optimistic life. We shouldn't, of all people on
this earth, we should not be going around woe is me. Paul
said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's
the attitude we should have. It's an optimistic life, listen,
in verse 12, rejoicing in hope. That's optimistic, isn't it?
It's a life of patience, patience and tribulation. It's a life
of prayer, continuing in prayer. It's a life of generosity, distributing
to the necessity of the saints, and giving to hospitality. We
saw this in Philippians. As soon as the Lord saved Lydia,
she opened her home. He saved that jailer, he opened
his home. He brought him in and fed him.
It's a life without bitterness. It's a life without bitterness.
Bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not. It's a life
without bitterness. It's a life of sympathy. Rejoice
with them that rejoice. Weep with them that weep. It's
a life of unity and humility. Be of the same mind one toward
another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low
estate. Be not wise in your own conceit.
It's a life of unity and humility. And then it's a life of meekness.
Recompense an old man evil for evil. provide things honest in
the sight of all men. It's a life of meekness and honesty.
It's a life of peace. If it be possible, as much as
lies in you, live peaceably with all men. See the transformation
going on here? They weren't used to this, neither
were we by nature. It's a life without malice. Dearly
beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath,
for it's written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the
Lord. It's a life of being merciful, therefore thy enemy hunger, feed
him if he thirsts, give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head. And it's a life that overcomes. Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good. All of this is accomplished by
the work of grace in us. And what's in us comes out of
us. If we have been transformed,
so will our conduct. That's what he's saying. The
life of a believer is to be lived out day by day. And I'm going
to close with what Paul was saying there in Philippians 3. When
all this is present, It is evident that the power of the resurrected
life of Jesus Christ is at work in us. It's evident that the
resurrected life of Christ is at work in you. And day by day,
you are being transformed. You're being transformed into
the image of Christ until God comes and takes us home and that
image is complete. It's complete. Isn't that necessary? To me, that's as necessary as
all the doctrines of grace are necessary. This, to me, is where we glorify
our Lord in living out our lives day by day in front of the world.
You're the light of the world and salt of the earth.