Alright brethren, if you will,
let's open our Bibles to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. I'm going to read our text before we get
started. Romans 12, be in verse 1 and 2 tonight. I beseech you,
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service. And not to be conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. Now last year, on January 8th,
we had our first Wednesday evening service together. Here's a group. And we began Romans 1. We started
in Romans 1, 1. And I prayed that for your sake
and for my sake, for at least a year, I pray it don't ever
change, but I prayed for at least a year, we could just lay a sure
foundation. or give us a year to lay a foundation.
And how fitting that our first Wednesday service is exactly
one year later, this year, and we come to Romans 12. You'll
see how appropriate that is in a minute. In those first 11 chapters
of Romans, Paul's laying the foundation. He's laying the foundation. And he plainly tells us that
we are justified in the sight of God only by grace. That's
it. And that's through the gift of
faith in Christ. He told us there in Romans 3,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. Said in Romans 3, 28, therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law. Because of that, we're freely justified by faith and
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Because
of that peace that He's given us, He's justified us in, He's
sanctified us in. It says in Romans 8.1, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
In these first 11 chapters, Paul tells us that we are saved by
Christ alone. Who He is, what He accomplished
in and for His people, that is our salvation. Him. That's who
it is. Through that electing grace of
the Father, sinners were chosen in Christ before the world began. They were made one with Him and
made pure in Him. Jew or Gentile. Made no difference. He's no respecter of persons.
Only those that sinned Christ. What a blessing it is to be taught
these mysterious things. What a gift it is. We looked
at that recently. That's what those angels listen in to. They
want to learn more of. I want to learn more of that.
I want to see what Christ is doing in the hearts of His people,
for His people. And we all should want to know
that, shouldn't we? But with this foundation laid,
these first 11 chapters, Paul writes by the Holy Spirit chapters
12 through 16 for us. He writes five more chapters.
And this is about how grace is made apparent How the love of
God towards an undeserving people is manifested in us. How our walk in this world, our
attitude, our spiritual fruit, our conduct, all this is evident
as a result of His grace working in us and through us. It's not
that we receive this walk that we have. We don't receive our
attitude. We don't receive our fruit. We
don't receive our conversations by those things that we do, that
doesn't bring His love to us, but because of His love, a response
to His love, not a reward for doing something, but a response
to His love towards us, it affects how we walk in this world, our
conduct in this world. Let's turn over to 1 John, you
can leave a marker there, we'll come back in a little bit. 1 John chapter 4. Now this order
is always clear. God loved His sheep, those He
put in Christ our substitute. And then through the Holy Spirit,
He reveals Himself to us and in us. And our response to His
love for us is our love for Him and our love for our brethren.
And we know it. We know it. Look here in 1 John
4 verse 16. 1 John 4, 16. And we have known and believed
the love of God, the love that God hath to us. God is love,
and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
We believe this love that he's given to us. We know this love
of God towards us. But is that because of something
we did? Is it because of something in us that I have good clean
living? Is that what brought it to me?
Look here in verse 19. We love Him because He first
loved us. The Lord loved His elect. And
when we are made to see His love for us, when He reveals Himself
to us, then we love Him. To know Him is to love Him. But
we also love our brethren. Look here at verse 20. If a man
say, I love God and hateth his brother, he's a liar. For he
that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love
God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment we have
from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. The love
of God revealed in us and to us and our love for him who saved
us, it gives us freedom. That love from God gives us freedom. It gives us freedom from the
law, freedom from religion, from superstition that we once lived
in, freedom from the bondage of sin, and He gives us freedom. We always look at freedom as
getting away from something, don't we? He gives us freedom
to love one another. Now we know what love is. The
Lord gives us freedom to love one another, love our brethren.
He gives us freedom to serve the true and living God. At times
past, we may have thought we were serving God, I mean, I thought
we were doing His bidding, but that liberty in Christ gives
us freedom to truly serve God, to truly love Him and truly love
our brethren. Turn back a little bit there
to Galatians 5. Here in Galatians, they were
those that, in word, in word, they said that God loved them
and they loved God. They had a good, solid doctrine
in them. But there was no freedom. There was no liberty to love
the brethren, and we know that because they tried putting those
Galatians right back under the law. A little freedom from the
law, and they took them right back to that mountain, didn't
they? Said, you've got to be circumcised. And speaking of
those people there in verse 12, Galatians 5.12, Paul writes,
I would they were even cut off which trouble you. He's saying,
I would that the hindrance you are bearing is removed. All this
strife, all this hindrance is removed because for, verse 13,
for brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Not only use not
liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one
another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. All the strife and arguing and
hindrance, we've been called to liberty in Christ. Free in
His love to honor our Lord and to love one another truly. In
mercy and in grace. Not in correction and restriction. You better stop doing that. You
better knock it off. Oh, I wouldn't let my family
do this. It's our church punishment stuff,
don't it? See how the Lord deals with us? He gives us liberty
and grace and mercy, doesn't He? And then love. Now back in
our text in Romans 12, now knowing all this, knowing our liberty
given in the Savior, knowing our love of God towards us, knowing
our calling is election, is sure, and our foundation of Christ,
that chief cornerstone, Him being our justification, Him being
all of our righteousness before God. Now we will get some instruction
on how to walk in this world as believers. Paul begins there
in verse 1, I beseech you therefore brethren, I beseech you, I plead
with you, I beg you, I beseech you, brethren, says brethren. He's not talking to everybody
in the world. He's talking to believers, fellow saints in Christ
and those recipients of grace, those recipients of the Lord's
love in Christ to them. Why are we being beseeched? Why
is the Apostle begging us and pressing us? It says there, by
the mercies of God. That's the reason. This is the
source of motivation for our conduct in this world, in our
walk of life. By the mercies of God. The motivating
love known in the mercies of God towards us. Knowing what
His mercy is, is merciful to me. That's our motivation. That's what Paul wrote there
in 2 Corinthians. For the love of Christ constraineth
us. Christ's love arrests us and
holds us together. That's what constrain means.
It persuades us. And what does it persuade us
to do? Remember, the mercies of God beseech us. What does
it beseech us to do? It says, I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice. We present our bodies. What does
that mean by our bodies? That's the whole of us. Everything in my body right now
is standing before you. I was thinking earlier, if I
had a hurt pinky toe, you'd see me lean into one side, wouldn't
you? It's attached to me. That's a whole of us. We present
our minds, our thoughts and affections set on things above. We present
our tongues, how we speak concerning our Lord, how we speak concerning
His will, His purpose, His power, how we speak concerning His salvation.
And we present our tongues as to how we speak about our brethren
as well. We present our tongues. We present our hands. This body
has a hand on it. Our labors in this world, our
occupations that we have, whatever is put in our hand to do, we
are to do that as unto the Lord, aren't we? Nothing's different in our worldly
occupations as it is here. If I'm to clean up a mess in
the back, I should do it as unto the Lord. We present our feet
in our walk in this world, but also in our feet that brings
us to worship when we come into His house. Our walk to see a
sick or mourning brother or sister. who present our bodies, the whole
of me, everything that encompasses my inner man and my outer man,
ought, out of that debt of gratitude, that's what the word means, we've
looked at it before, in response to God's mercies towards me,
not as a reward, but in response to His mercies towards me, I
ought to present my entire self to the cause of Christ who saved
me, His will, His work, and His glory. The Lord spoke there in
Isaiah 6 and He said, Who shall I send? Who will go for us? Isaiah
answered Him. And in verse 8 He said, Here
am I. Send me. Not just send my money. You got
something working over there? I'll give you two dollars. Not
just my thoughts and prayers. He said, Send me. Not a finger
or toe. Send all of me. Everything that's
in me. Says there in verse 1, I beseech
you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present
your bodies a living sacrifice. Living sacrifice, not a dead
sacrifice, not a lifeless, loveless, stoic, just robotic sacrifice. A living sacrifice. I see those
signs that says live, laugh, love. I always get a kick out
of that. We ought to live We ought to
live giving our bodies, presenting them as a living sacrifice every
time that we laugh, every time that we love, but also when we
cry and when we mourn. Lord, I'm yours. I'm saved by
you. We present ourselves when we're
feeling just refreshed and great and, oh, I just feel good today. present you whole bodies to God,
living sacrifice. And when we're just in pain and
we're tired and we can't keep our eyes open, Lord, I'm yours. Nothing's changed. At any time
or season, we should present ourselves to Him, not to anything
around us, to Him. Some may say, well, it sounds
like you're just forsaking the world. You're throwing away all our
works and all of our righteousness and everything. You're just living
to God. Exactly. That's what Paul told us there
in Romans 6. He said, Likewise reckon ye yourselves
also to be dead indeed to sin. And that's not just sin to the
body of sin this world, this body of sin was born into. We're
dead to it. Dead to the world. But alive
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Who do we commit these
bodies of living sacrifice to? If I turn myself over, all of
me, who do I commit it to? Look here in verse 1. I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present
your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, unto God, which
is your reasonable service. We submit it unto the Lord. Commit
it, submit it, and turn ourselves over to Him as a living sacrifice,
presented to Him, which is your reasonable service. This is reasonable. That sounds like a lot, doesn't
it? That's reasonable. Why would it be reasonable? Why
would a person think that just committing everything to the
Lord is reasonable? It's only reasonable in the light
and in the power of His mercies of God towards us. That's the
only way it's reasonable. It's insanity in any other light,
in any other power. If it's of man, of our thoughts,
of our wills, That's insanity. Why would I do that? But when
we see His light and power, His truth, His love for us, that's
reasonable. I didn't ask Him much, is it?
Turn back to 1 John again, there in chapter 4. We've covered this before, but
remember what aught means. That's out of a debt of gratitude.
Debt of gratitude. 1 John 4, there in verse 9. In this was manifested the love
of God towards us because that God sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him. How are we going to be alive
with sacrifice? We're alive in Christ. We might live through
Him. Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. He sent His Son to be the living
sacrifice for our sins. that acceptable bloody sacrifice
for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. That's our reasonable service
out of a debt of gratitude. He sent His Son for me. Of all people on earth, He sent
His Son for me. And true love sent Him as a living
sacrifice for me. Ought I not love those that He
sent His Son for to? Ought I not love Him and give
myself to Him? That's not so unreasonable, is
it? We ought to love one another. And we ought to do so in reaction
to the love of Christ towards us. Not for reward. Not for reward,
but out of a debt of gratitude. So many people I've heard say,
well, you're going to earn you a bigger mansion in heaven. You're
going to get another jewel in your crown, some kind of payment,
all kinds of other nonsense. That's to motivate them to serve
the Lord and to love their brethren. You're going to get something
at the end. That's a reward. That's not a
response. That's a reward. You can motivate soldiers by
giving them medals if they do something heroic. And I've seen
a whole lot of people do some silly stuff thinking they're
going to get a medal. You can motivate an athlete by saying,
oh, we're going to give you fame. You're going to get a trophy.
I'll make them run a little faster, won't I? That's a reward. You
can motivate a businessman. You get up early, honor your
word, show up on time every day, and you can make a bunch of money.
They'll beat you there, won't they? That's a reward. But all
these rewards, it's not in response to grace and love found in Christ
alone. That's getting something in return.
That's working, isn't it? The love that we have, the grace
that we have, is in response to His grace and love. He is
our reward. People say, well, I can't live
like that. I can't live like I should. I can't give myself
totally as a living sacrifice to God, present myself. I can't
do it. Me neither. Don't feel bad. Paul
couldn't either. The very man that the Lord used
to pen Romans 12 is the same one that penned Romans 7. He
said there, he said, for I know that in me that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. I want to
do these things, but I don't know how to. He said he found
a law in his members. He said there's two natures inside
of me, war and at all times. It ain't a theory, it's a law.
Happens every day to me. And he said, Oh, wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death,
this miserable state that I'm in? Oh, wretched man. As I wrote
that, I thought, Oh, this wretched man, how could I present myself
a living sacrifice to God? Paul kept going. He said, I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of
sin. That new man in me, that one
born again of the Spirit, that inner man, he serves the Lord. There's no sin in it, just like
Christ, the incorruptible seed. But this flesh that I'm stuck
in, This wretched man that new seed is put in, it serves the
law of sin, doesn't it? Always does. I can't be a living
sacrifice as I ought to be. That's a precept. That's written
in the Word of the Lord. We are to honor that. I am to
give myself as a living sacrifice to God. I can't do it. But let me ask you something.
Is there anything required of a sinner that was not satisfied
in Christ our Lord. He was that living sacrifice.
He was a propitiation for our sins, wasn't he? He fulfilled the whole law. You
know in the law, I was reading through that before, sometimes
I sit down and read those Levitical laws. There's a bunch of them
and I never can remember how many they are. But if a man's cured
of leprosy, that's an impossibility at the time that was written.
You have to take two doves to the high priest. Why in the world? Can you imagine Moses writing
that down? Why am I even writing this? This is an incurable disease.
The Lord cured a man of leprosy and us being made one with Him,
our new man inside of Him is so one. He cured that man of
leprosy. He said, now take two doves and
go give it to the high priest. That sinner being made one with
Christ and me being made one with Christ, I took two doves
to give to the high priest because I was cured of leprosy. The whole
law is fulfilled. in Him. He presented Himself.
But I ought, I ought to present myself. I have that debt of gratitude.
He presented His holy, acceptable body as that living sacrifice
for our sins. But we're made one with Him.
We're joined to Him, married to Him, aren't we? Turn over
to Ephesians chapter 5. When we submit to Christ our
husband, we're not submitting to laws. We're not submitting
to rules. We're not submitting to do's
and don'ts. We're submitting to a person. We present ourselves
to Him. I don't present myself before
the court. I don't present myself to a law.
I present myself to Him, unto God. Look here at Ephesians 5.22. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands. Not to every husband, to your
own husbands. How many husbands were we given?
One. We were given Christ, weren't we? Wives, submit yourselves
unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is
the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church,
and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
So many people take Romans 12 and they take Ephesians 5 and
they whip people, don't they? I've got to give you something
to do. I whip me when I read it. Oh, I ought to be doing this. Before us husbands get too puffed
up, let's read on to what it has to say to us. We're in verse
25. Husbands, love your wives. How are we to love our wives?
even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it,
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word. Do I do that? Is it possible for me to love
that woman over there the way that Christ loves me? But ought I want to. I have a desire to. Don't I?
Look at verse 28. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. If each believer is made one
in Christ, if I love you, that's loving myself. I wouldn't hurt
myself on purpose, would I? Why would I want to hurt a believer?
My brothers and sisters in Christ. Now here's the spiritual application
given to us. In Ephesians 5, verse 32, this
is a great mystery. But I speak concerning Christ
and the church. This is what this is all about.
Some people say, ooh, I'm off the hook. He was talking about
spiritual things. This doesn't apply to me. No,
not so. Look here at verse 33. Here's
the practical. Nevertheless, let every one of
you in particular so love his wife even as himself and the
wife see that she reverence her husband. We'll see this when
we get to chapter 5 in Ephesians on Sunday mornings. But a marriage
is a picture of Christ in the church. That's why we're given
the institution of marriage. It's a picture of Christ and
His bride. As bearers of that picture, I
have that in my possession. I get to hold the picture of
Christ in His church every time I go to the house. All day. I'm
a husband. I ought to love Kimberly the
same as Christ loved me. And that's not a burden. I want
to. But I've been given liberty.
I know what His love towards me is and the Lord allows me
to do so. I now have liberty to love her
as I ought. It's liberty we have, it's not
to serve our flesh that's still alive, but to serve the one that
made us spiritually alive. She kept saying there in Ephesians
5, even as Christ, how do we submit to our husband? Even as
Christ gave himself. How do we love our wives? Even
as Christ loved the church. Even as Him. He said, I must
be about my father's business. God Almighty in human flesh said
I must be about my Father's business. You think even as Christ I ought
to be about His business? Should my heart and affections
and hands and feet and tongue and everything be looking to
Him to serve Him, to present myself a living sacrifice unto
Him? I should, shouldn't I? Turn back to James chapter 2. James 2. This whole book of Romans
is about grace. Every book in these scriptures
is about grace, aren't they? And there in Romans, starting
in chapter 12, we see the difference between believing grace and having
grace. That's where it transitions for
Paul. He starts going from this earth, believing grace, and now
we're going to see somebody that has grace. James picked up where
Paul left off there in chapter 11. showing us the proof to us,
our proof of Christ's grace and faith to us. That's what He shows
us. There's an old quote, it said,
many people say they believe in the grace of God, but they
do not have any. They believe the doctrines of
grace, but they've never experienced it. They don't have it. It's
my prayer that we have His grace. Not just agree with it. I don't
want to just agree, yep, that's how the Lord does it. I want
to possess it. I want to experience His grace.
Here in James 2 verse 18, it says, Yea, a man may say, Thou
hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I'll show you my faith by my works. Thou believest that
there is one God. You're doing well. Thou doest
well. The devils also believe, and
they tremble. outward appearance to that, too.
They tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without
works is dead? And the unregenerated heart will
pound their fist, and they'll say, you see there? You've got
to have works. But the works of faith are not
the products of flesh. The works of faith are not the
products of flesh, but it's the product of the mercy of God.
Any faith that I have, any fruit that I produce, it's by His mercy,
by His doing. Look here in verse 25. I couldn't
pass this up. James 2, 25. Likewise also was
not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received
the messengers and had sent them out another way? She was justified by her works,
weren't she? Well, this is going to turn some people just inside
out. What was that work that Rahab did? Do we remember that? In Joshua chapter 2, Joshua sent
in two spies in that city, didn't he? And they ended up being in
Rahab the harlot's house. And she hid them up on the roof. And here comes the enemies. We
heard there's two spies in town. Where are they at? And she said,
you know, I just had got home. It was getting evening. They
were shutting the gates. I didn't see nothing. And I don't know
if they went left or if they went right. But if you hurry,
you'll catch them. I don't know which way to tell
you, but you look hard, you'll find them. And then she went
back up on the roof and she lowered them down. And she said, you
go to the mountain for three days. Go that way. And had sent them out another
way. She knew which way she'd sent those enemies, didn't she?
What did she do? She lied to him, didn't she?
A worldly person, my old nature, would see that as lying and being
secretive. Oh, that harlot, she was just
dead. The Lord said, she's dead to
the world and alive unto God. Don't ask me to explain that,
but He said so. That was an act of faith, wasn't it? Now back
in our text. Some people say, well, that don't
make sense to me. No, you don't have to. The Lord said that was
a faithful woman. She was justified. Look here,
Romans 12, verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service, and be not conformed to this world. Don't be conformed
to this world. What's conformed mean? That means
to ascribe to a plan. You get on board with the plan
of the world. Don't get on board with the plan
of the world. Be not conformed. And that's not Paul preaching
down to these Romans. That's not Paul preaching down to us.
That's not me preaching down to you. Now don't be out there
getting tied up with the world. That's to every one of us. evenly
and equally from the pulpit to the pew to the public. Wherever
we're at, this applies to us. This concerns how church service
could be conducted, should be conducted. Do we have a rock
and roll show? Or do we come in and worship the Lord? Do we
have America's Got Talent who can sing the best and showcase
everything you got? We come and worship the Lord.
That's what we're here for. What about the scriptures? Do
we reverence the scriptures? Do we read the Lord's Word? I've
been reading through King Josiah there, and 2 Samuel, and he sent
a scribe to the temple to remodel it. He said, you go take account
of the money, and you buy some lumber, and you patch up the
walls, whatever needs done, go refurbish the temple. That's
what I want you to do. And he got down there, and he
saw that high priest. And the high priest said, oh
yeah, we've got all the money, we'll take care of it. And they said,
oh, by the way, we found this old book. They dusted it off. While we was cleaning, we was
doing spring cleaning, we found this book. See if King might
want it. That was the first five books
of the Bible. That was the books of Moses. Where was it at? Tucked underneath a shelf gathering
dust somewhere. We're living in the worst times
ever. Really? Anything changed? We go into people call houses
of worship and you gotta go dig underneath some shelf in the
back and Knock some dust off to find the Scriptures, the Word
of the Lord. Don't be conformed to this world.
All those things that physically go on around us, too. That stuff
going on in D.C. today, I have no interest. Well,
if the Lord came to us, or a doctor, He used a doctor to come to us,
or whatever, and said, you've got 40 days to live, just like
He did to Nineveh, 40 days. You think I care if it was raining,
or windy, or the power was off, or there's protest, My whole body, my mind, my abilities,
my tongue. If He enabled me, if He is merciful
to me, I would present myself to Him as a living sacrifice,
wouldn't I? What part of us is beseeched
not to conform? Every bit of us, our inward and
outward man, not be conformed to this world. Our feet, our
arms, our hands, all of our actions, serving our flesh through the
Spirit of God. Our eyes, our mouth, our ears, things that
we speak from the heart. It's not to be conformed to this
world. The Lord has to give you a new heart to be able to speak
that way, doesn't He? What we tolerate listening to, our ears. You don't have to, when Paul
said, sanctify yourselves, not to say that that was sarcasm,
but You that know the Lord, go sit underneath a false preacher.
Go sit underneath a false gospel. You're going to separate yourself
real quick. I can't stand it. If it's on TV, turn it off. If we're there in person, honey,
get your purse. We're leaving. I can't take it. These ears can't. Through His
mercy, both in our flesh and in the things of God, attend
to Him. But be not conformed to this
world. Don't get on board with the plan of fallen man, physically,
but especially spiritually. Don't be conformed then. Don't
be conformed, but be transformed. Don't be conformed to the world,
but be transformed. It says there in verse 2, and be not conformed
to this world, but be ye transformed. How? By the renewing of your
mind. Turn over to Titus 3. I'll try
to hurry. Titus chapter 3. Conforming is
just aligning with something. That means ain't a whole lot
of change takes place. You just get on board with it. But transforming,
that's changing from one thing to something totally different.
You transform. Here in Titus 3 verse 3. Titus 3.3, for we ourselves also
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one
another, conformed to this world. I was. Every one of us was. We were born that way. But after
that, the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appeared. What made it appear? We were
made to know His love for His people. Did clean living make
it appear? No, look here at verse 5. Not
by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior. We have been abundantly Revived. We've been abundantly regenerated.
We've been abundantly saved. We've been abundantly washed
by His mercy. That's what He is. That's the
renewing of the mind. So we see how we are transformed by His
work, by His mercy, His grace in us. Why are we transformed?
What's the purpose of that renewing of the mind? as we're transformed,
back in our text there. The purpose of that is to prove
to us, to prove to us the good, acceptable, perfect will of God
and the saving of His people and the glorifying of His name.
To prove to us. It says, 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. What is this good, acceptable,
and perfect will of God? Paul wrote to that church in
Thessalonica, he said, for this is the will of God, even your
sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication. And
people say, see, gotta do something. No, no, no. God's will is to
set you apart, make you as holy as Christ is holy, and turn your
whole body Head to toe, from the fornication of religion,
of our imagination, to Christ. From our fornication, our adultery
with idolatry, turn us from that to be transformed and conformed
to the express image of Christ. That's our end state. Everyone
that Christ died for will be made just like Him. After this
body of death passes away, this world of death that we live in,
that I get so concerned over so easy. This world's going to
pass away. I have life in me. A new man
ain't going to die. This world's going to die to
me. But when this world passes away, we're going to be 100%
like Christ, made like Him, in mind and body, without sin and
perfect. We'll be transformed to His character. His character. That is mercy. That is grace. That is love. Now, isn't it just reasonable
to live in this life looking to Him alone? When we know what's
coming, and we know what it took to make us conform to His image,
and what I was, the pit of corruption He pulled me out of, that's just
reasonable to look to Him, isn't it? To serve Him. Being told
those doctrines of Christ is necessary. It's necessary to
have Christ preach to us. Through that, God reveals His
love towards us, and we love Him. And just as naturally as
we love Him, when we see His love for us, we love our brethren.
Paul continued there in 1 Thessalonians, he said, but as touching brotherly
love, you need not that I write unto you. I don't need to tell
you how to do that. For you yourselves are taught
of God to love one another. He taught us that. And indeed,
you do it toward all the brethren which are in Macedonia, but we
beseech you. You love your brethren. Oh, you
do such a wonderful job of loving your brethren. But we beseech
you, brethren, that you increase more and more. I love you and
I want to love you more. He loves me. and I want to know
more. His love can't be perfected,
but I want to know more of His love for me and for His people. Let's read a text one more time.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed
to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. God's love, His mercy, and His
grace towards us revealed. It's not only our reasonable
service, That's not just an acceptable job for me to be given, is it? It's a desire of a believer to
present ourselves lock, stock, and barrel. I want to turn myself
over to Him, to a person. Whatever needs to be done. Lord,
here I am. Send me. I need somebody to plunge
toilets. Lord, here I am. Send me. I need
somebody to preach. I'm here, Lord. Send me. whatever
it is. As we go through these next few
chapters, as we finish up Romans, we're going to learn more about
the walk of a believer, how this affects our lives, how to handle
one another, how to handle ourselves whenever we fail at it, as always. But we'll come back to this,
this presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. I hope the Lord will
bless it then too.