Alright, I'd like for you to
open your Bibles to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. I preached
on verse 1 last week and I want to continue here on this subject
of holiness and Christian living. Let me give you an idea of where
I'm going to and I hope it catches your interest. He says here,
look at verse one, he says, I beseech you therefore brethren, so he's
talking to believers, brethren in the Lord, that's who he's
speaking to. And you remember what Christ said about brethren
when they talked about his mother and his half brothers wanting
to speak to him while he was involved in the business of ministry.
And he said, who is my mother, who are my brothers? My family, that's what he's talking
about. And he said, those that do the will of my father. And
what is the will of his father is to believe on the son, is
to rest in the son, rest in Christ, and to follow him in the grace
of God out of gratitude and love, not by constraint of law. And
that's what Paul's saying here. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, The foundation and goal and the motivation for
obedience that he's going to be talking about is not legalism,
it's not mercenaryism, it's not a mercenary reward, earned reward,
it's love, it's gratitude. Paul said, the love of Christ
constrains me. That's what compels me. Gratitude, thank you, Lord. That's
what he's talking about here. the mercies of God. Remember
last week I used the analogy of the man who would pay your
debt for you and give you a million dollars to the good. That's imputation
and that's real. And then we see the blessings
of grace that come from that. That's salvation, that's new
life, spiritual life in the new birth. And these mercies, I was
telling my Sunday school class that I was listening to a fellow
on radio, he's writing a dictionary of the King James Bible, the
words and what they mean. And this word mercies, you know
there's several words in the New Testament and the Old Testament
for mercy. One of those words is the word
sometimes translated propitiation, you see that? Three or four times
in the New Testament, Christ is the propitiation for my sins. What does that mean? That means
that he's the substitute who satisfied the justice of God.
That's what a propitiation is. It's related or it comes from
the root word or the root word back in the Old Testament that
means mercy seat. Remember what that mercy seat
was? That was the lid. made of wood and gold, wood covered
with gold, that sat over the Ark of the Covenant, and the
high priest would come in and sprinkle the blood of the Lamb
on the mercy seat one time a year, and that was the atoning sacrifice.
That meant satisfaction to God's law and justice, righteousness
established, and all that was a picture of Christ. And so sometimes
the word mercy is propitiation. I'll give you an example, Luke
18, the old publican, God be merciful. to me the sinner."
That's propitiation. Well, here the word mercies is
compassion. And the fellow brought out this
point, and he's right on this. He said this word mercy and compassion,
the root word for it is the same word that we use for mercenary.
And you know what a mercenary is. I mentioned that earlier,
that we don't serve God because we're mercenaries. In other words,
preachers try to motivate people to serve God for what they can
get out of Him, not just for who He is intrinsically in His
glory. And it's the right thing to do. I've had people ask me that,
say, well, if I don't get anything for my obedience, why obey? And
I say, well, that's Pharisaism. That's what that is. I give God
something. He gives me something in return.
That's why people give their money. Don't you all get tired
of hearing that on TV anymore? Plant your seed. And they're
talking about what's in your wallet or your bank account. That's mercenaryism. Well, the
root word for this word mercies is mercenary because it is the
compassion of God that is based on payment. But here's the point. Who did the pain? Who does the
pain? I'll tell you exactly who Christ
did all the pain. Everything that God gives to
His people in His mercy and grace is based upon that blood sacrifice
at the cross. Everything. That's why I had
Brother Heron read that Psalm 39. That Psalm 39 is talking
about the struggle within of a child of God. And we're going
to talk about that. The struggle within. And he comes
to the end of his rope and he says, man at his best state is
altogether vanity. Worthless. But then, where is
there any hope? He says, my hope is in thee.
My hope is in the Lord. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. You see what I'm saying? And
that's what Paul's saying here. I'm begging you, not by constraint
of law, not by promise of mercenary earned reward, but by the mercies
of God in Christ. If God has done anything for
you, If God has forgiven your sins and justified you, if the
Spirit has given you life, I beg of you that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice. Your bodies, meaning all that
you are. In your physical makeup, in your
mental makeup, your attention, your time, everything you are,
a living sacrifice. That's a service sacrifice. That
sounds like a little contradictory. Sacrifice is one of death, but
we're to be living sacrifices, offering ourselves unto the glory
of God. And then he says, holy, acceptable
unto God, pleasing unto God. In other words, we're not doing
this to make ourselves holy. We're doing it because we already
are holy in Christ. Our obedience is not good enough.
Our efforts to obey, they're not good enough to save us or
to make us righteous before God. Only Christ is good enough to
do that. And that's what we are in Him.
But we want to please God. He says, this is your reasonable
service. This is only logical. That's what it really means.
Anything else is unreasonable. Now look at verse two. Now this
is where I'm headed with this whole thing, and I'm gonna preach
several messages later on on this as we go along. Here's verse
two. He says, now that's the, verse
one is the positive. Verse two starts with the negative,
and be not conformed to this world. Don't be conformed, molded
to the world. Now, what he's talking about
here is the world. When you hear the word world,
you might think of different things. You might think of the
universe, the natural universe, the physical universe, the creation. Some people are very tied to
the word world, meaning every person without exception that
has ever been born or ever will be born. You know, the Bible
very rarely when it uses the word world means every person
without exception that ever has been or ever will be born. To
be honest with you, I really can't even think of one example
right now for that, but I'll show you some different ones
here. Some people, when they think of the word world, they
don't want to be conformed to the world. What do they think
of? Well, they think of the immoral world. You know, they think, well, I
don't want to be worldly. And they think about what they're
not supposed to do. Taste not. Touch not. Handle not. You ever heard of that? Turn
over there to Colossians. I want to show you something
about that. It's really interesting. And this is why we need to study
our Bibles and not just listen to people. I mean, I don't even
take what I say just at face value. What does the scripture
say? Be a noble Berean. You know who
the noble Bereans were, don't you? They were those who, when
they heard Paul and Barnabas, or I think it was Barnabas, may
have been Silas, one of them preach, they went and they checked
the scriptures to see if what these men were saying was true.
And I'll tell you what now, if you want to make somebody mad,
just make them back up what they believe with the Scriptures.
I've asked several men that several years ago. They talk about what
they believe about this or that, and I'd say, well, what Scriptures
do you use to base this belief on? And they'd shut right up.
And they'd get mad and talk about how I'd back them into a corner.
Oh, I said, what Scriptures? The Word of God is our foundation.
Look at Colossians chapter 2 and look at verse 17. He's talking about the law, the
Mosaic law there. And he said, these things in
the law were a shadow of things to come. They were pictures,
types, that tabernacle, the temple, the sacrifices of animals, the
priesthood, all of that was a picture and type of Christ and salvation
by God's grace in and by Him. And he says, but the body is
of Christ. Now, what's the body there? The
body there is the church. Back over here when he talks
about our bodies in Romans 12 and verse 1, he's talking about
my physical body, how I use my hands, how I use my eyes and
my ears and my tongue, my legs, all of that. What he's saying
is use these things in the service of God and don't be conformed
to the world. And as I said, you know, people
that go to the world. What was he talking about? Well,
he says here, the body, the church. Now he says in verse 18 of Colossians
2, look at this. He says, let no man beguile you,
that literally means judge against you, of your reward. What is our reward? It's the
reward of grace in Christ, salvation and all of its blessings and
glory. that is founded upon Christ and Him crucified and risen again,
His blood, His righteousness, blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. He says, let no man judge against
you of your reward in a voluntary humility. Now, you know what
a voluntary humility is? It's a self-imposed humility. That's what it is. Man trying
to humble himself of his own power. And you know what? He
cannot do it. The only one who's going to make
us humble is the Lord God, by His Spirit, who shows us our
sin and our depravity and brings us, as where old Daniel said
in Daniel chapter 10, where I have no strength in myself, I have
no goodness in myself, I have no righteousness in myself, I
have no hope of salvation in myself, my only hope is Christ. That's where God brings a sinner
to, down in the dust. Hannah prayed, lifting the beggar
off the dung heap. But this voluntary humility is
self-imposed. People trying to make themselves
that way. And then he said, worshiping of angels. Now, there's a little
debate over that. You know, the word angel, you
know, automatically when you hear the word angel, you think
about a being with wings and a halo. And that's not what an
angel is. There are angelic beings. There
are angelic beings. But the word angel means messenger. Messenger. And do you know what
one of the biggest problems in the early New Testament church
was in just about every congregation? Especially Corinth, but even
Colossians, every one of them, is worshiping ministers. messengers
instead of worshiping Christ. Following me. Remember in Corinth
they said I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas. They
were dividing over preachers. My friend, don't let anybody
beguile you that way. Don't do it. Stay away from it.
It's wicked. It's satanic. It's worldly. It's deadly. Don't do it. Don't get involved in that kind
of stuff, stay away from it, just like you'd stay away from
fire if you were made of gasoline. I'm serious. He says, verse 18,
"...intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly
puffed up by his fleshly mind." I've got the truth, and don't
you question me. And then he says in verse 19,
"...and not holding the head." The head there is Christ, not
holding up Christ. Like John the Baptist said, I
must decrease, Christ must increase. Let's hold up Christ. "...from
which all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment,
ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase
of God." You see, that body of Christ, that church, when you
hold up Christ, you know what happens? They're knit together. They're not divided. When you
hold up Christ, they grow. Now, when you hold up men, what
happens? They divide. Because men divide. So, hold up Christ. Now, he says
in verse 20, he says, Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ...
Now, what is it to be dead with Christ? That means he died for
me on the cross. He put away my sins. His death
is my death to the law. We're dead to the law by the
body of Christ, Romans 7 and verse 4. I'm justified in Him. Sin cannot condemn. Wherefore,
if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, the
elements of the world, now, you hear that, the world? Now, Paul
wrote over in Romans 12 to be not conformed to the world. He
says, why as though living in the world are you subject to
ordinances? In other words, what he's talking
about is the legalism of the law that would demand, verse
21, Look at it. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. Now, the religious world would
tell you that touch not, taste not, handle not is holy. Wouldn't they? Don't men, by
nature and religion, measure righteousness and holiness by
what you don't do? Remember I quoted last week,
they say, we don't smoke, we don't chew, and we don't go with
girls who do. And that's just kind of like
an emblem of a lot of different things, isn't it? Oh, I wouldn't
do that. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't touch that. I wouldn't
taste that. I wouldn't go there. Well, preacher, aren't there
places we shouldn't go? Yes. Most certainly. Aren't there things we shouldn't
taste and touch? Yeah. But here's the key. That's not my holiness. That's
not your holiness. And if you think it is, you know
what that is? That's worldliness. Why are you acting like the world?
Now go back to Romans 12 too. Here's my point now. This world
that he's talking about when he says in verse two, be not
conformed to the world, what he's talking about is the world
or whatever portion or populace of the world as it stands in
opposition to Christ and salvation totally by the grace of God in
him. I'm gonna tell you something, if it stands in opposition to
the glory of God in the salvation of sinners by His sovereign mercy
and grace in Christ. It's worldly. It's sinful. Be not conformed to it. And that
would include the world in its morality, in its immorality,
and the world in its religion. When Paul the Apostle, before
God saved him, remember what his name was? Saul of Tarsus. What did he say? He said that
my hope was built not upon Christ, but my hope was built upon the
fact that I was a physical descendant of Abraham. I was a Hebrew of
Hebrews. I was circumcised the eighth day. I tried to keep the
law." When he saw the glory of Christ as he recorded it in Philippians
chapter 3, you know what he found out? He said, all that stuff
is unprofitable. It's worthless. It's even dumb.
It's worldly. Religion without Christ, no matter
what else it does, is worldly. That's right. Works religion. Back in Genesis chapter 4, brought
an offering unto the Lord. Didn't he? Trying to worship
God. Brought the best that he could
bring forth. And he was rejected. Why? Because
he didn't come God's way. He didn't come the way of Christ.
He didn't come the way of the blood. Like Abel, bringing the
blood. He didn't come the way of the
cross. He didn't come the way of righteousness in Christ. He
came the way of the world. That's what he did. Now over here in Romans 12, 2,
he speaks of the world, be not conformed to the world. Now here's
where I'm headed with this whole thing now. Not just today now,
don't get worried. But I'm talking about in future
messages. I want us to talk about what I call a holy warfare. We hear a lot about that on the
news, don't we, with the Muslims. They call it jihad, means holy
war. There's nothing holy about it.
Nothing holy about it, and there's certainly nothing Christian about
any warfare like that. Do you know some, you know when,
you know Christians, now listen, true believers, sinners saved
by the grace, we are all engaged in a holy warfare. But the moment
you pick up a gun or a knife or raise a fist, thinking that
you're engaging in that warfare, it becomes unholy. Did you know
that? Because our warfare is not physical. And our weapons
are not carnal, fleshly, but spiritual. And I want to talk
about that warfare. I'm going to go to several scriptures.
What we've come to see from Scripture, and men will say this, but here's
the problem now. Basically, we're in a warfare
with three entities, three realities. We're in a warfare with the world.
That's why Paul says, be not conformed to the world. But here's
the problem, what is the world? How do you identify the world?
And then secondly, how you fight it? Now, I'm gonna be talking
about that later on in more detail. I'll deal with it a little bit
today. What is the world and how do you fight it? All right, the world. Second
is the flesh. Galatians chapter 5 speaks of
the warfare of the spirit and the flesh. But here's the problem. What is the flesh? How do you
identify it? And then how do you fight it? We'll be talking
about that. And then thirdly, the devil.
The world, the flesh, and the devil. But now you say, well,
that's an easy one to identify. Oh, no. Not according to this
book. What is the devil? And when you
find out who he is or what he is, how do you fight him? Now
that's the issue. There's the holy warfare. Now,
here when he talks about the world, let me just read you some
scripture. You don't have to turn to all
these. But here's how Christ addressed his disciples in this
issue of the world. This is John 15. Remember he
said in verse 18 there, he said, marvel not if the world hate
you, It hateth me before it hated you. So he's talking about the
world in opposition to him. And here's what I'm saying. Anything
in this world that opposes Christ or rivals Christ or denies Christ
or ignores Christ is worldly. We're not to be molded to that,
conformed to that. We're not to act like that. See what I'm saying? And he says
in verse 19 of John 15, he says, if you were of the world, talking
to his disciples, the world would love his own. If you were of
the world, the world would love you. But because you're not of
the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hated you. I've chosen you out of the world,
he said. In John 17 and verse 14, now
this is his high priestly prayer. And I'll tell you who he's praying
for in his high priestly prayer, all whom he died for on the cross. All whom he represented, all
whom he will bring to salvation. And he says in verse 14, he says,
I have given them thy word. That's how they're identified.
That's how a child of God is identified. Christ gives them
his word. What is his word? It's the gospel, which is the
power of God and the salvation by the Holy Spirit. When we're
born again, we're ruined by the fall, we're redeemed by the blood,
we become regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And he says, I've
given them thy word and the world hateth them because they're not
of the world, even as I'm not of the world. The world in opposition
to him. John 17, 16, he says, they are
not of the world even as I'm not of the world. In John 16,
33, listen to this one. He said, these things have I
spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world
you'll have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I've overcome
the world. In the book of 1 John chapter
two, verse 15, listen to this. He says, love not the world.
Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. Did you hear that?
If any man loved the world, the love of the Father, the love
of God, is not in him. For all that is in the world...
What's he talking about? The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father, but is
of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but
he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Paul writes, be not conformed
to this world. Listen to this in verse two.
He says, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now you may, I doubt if you study
verb tenses in the Bible, but this is what we call the passive
voice in the present tense. When he says, be ye transformed,
That's passive voice. What does that mean? It means
God is the one who does the transforming, not you, not me. We're acted
upon. We don't do the acting, God does
the acting. It's the power of God here, that's
what he's saying. And it's not just, and it's a
present tense, in other words, it's continual. It's not just
one time, but it's a continual process, this renewing of our
minds. Now the mind here doesn't exclude
the heart because the mind is part of the heart in the Bible.
Maybe not in poetry and songs today or in the Western way of
thinking, but in the biblical way of thinking, the mind is
part of the heart. It's an essential part of the
heart. The mind, the affections, the will, the inner man. You
don't exclude the mind in the Bible. And he says, it's not just a
one-time thing, it's a continual process of growing in grace and
in knowledge of Christ through His Word. And in this we come
to know ourselves better, to trust Christ even more. Let me
take you back to Psalm 39 there. Brother Aaron read. Listen to what he
said here, this is amazing. Verse one of Psalm 39. This is
a struggle here. He said, I said I will take heed
to my ways. I'm gonna watch my ways. I'm gonna take, I'm gonna be
careful now. I'm not gonna just live life
willy nilly. I'm not gonna just throw caution
to the wind. I'm gonna be real careful about
it. See, tomorrow's Monday. I'm gonna start tomorrow. And
I'm gonna be real careful about how I act, how I think, what
I say, what I do. That I sin not with my tongue. The tongue is a real, real offending
member in this thing of sin, isn't it? What we say. We can talk about God's, James
talked about it. You know what James said about
that little old member? Set on fire of hell. Now certainly we can see that
in one who preaches a false gospel, but my friend, that's in every
way. I mean, you know, I could murder you with my tongue. All I have to do is go out here
and murder your character. You ever have been the object
of anything like that? I almost would say I'd just about
be stabbed in the heart with a knife. All right, we can do
that. We can murder somebody's reputation. Murder somebody's character.
I heard a man on tape stand up in a pulpit and murder my character.
It didn't feel good. The only problem is, you know,
I wanted to jump through the tape and choke him. That's not
right. But that was my first impression.
I'd like to go knock his head off. And that's sin. But listen, David said that I
might not sin with my tongue. That I sin not. I will keep my
mouth with a bridle. You know what a bridle does to
a horse. You know, he put the bridle, the bit and the bridle
in his mouth and that's supposed to guide him and stop him and
all that. He says, while the wicked is
before me. Now, he's putting it to a real test here now. You
remember Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount, He said, love your
enemies. He said, for what hope have you
or what reward have you? He mentioned reward there, that's
okay. What reward have you if you just love your friends? He
said, the heathen do that. But he said, love your enemies.
That's the standard of God's law. If you want to be righteous
by your works, that's where you have to go and that's where David's
going, while the wicked is before me. I'll hold my tongue while
my worst enemy faces me, wanting to do me the most harm. See,
that's the kind of love that it takes to equal God's law and
God's holiness. That perfect love for your worst
enemy without any thought of anger, any thought of vengeance.
You see, I don't have that kind of love in perfection. I have the fruit of the Spirit,
and you who are saved have the fruit of the Spirit, but we don't
have that imperfection. I hear men talking about they
have a perfect sinless nature that cannot sin and cannot be
contaminated. I asked a fellow that told me
that, I said, well, how do you know you have that? He said, well, love.
And I said, so your love is not contaminated or tainted with
sin? Mine is. How about yours? David said, I'll keep my mouth
with a bridle while the wicked is before me. When that worst
enemy comes to you and says, I'm gonna do you the most harm, you don't have any thoughts of
anger or vengeance. The Bible says vengeance belongs
to God, not to me. You see what I'm saying? In verse
two, look at verse two of Psalm 30. He said, I was done with
silence. I held my peace, even from good. What he said here,
I found I couldn't say anything. And my sorrow was stirred. I was troubled. What's going
on here? He's in a warfare now. In his
mind, in his heart, in his affections, in his will. He said in verse
three, my heart was hot within me. I'm boiling over. While I
was musing the fire burn, while I was thinking about it, trying
to shut my mouth, then spake I with my tongue. It's almost
like it all just blurted out on him. Lord, make me to know
mine end. What's he doing? He's come to
a point where he says, I'm a sinner. Lord, make me to know when this
is all gonna be over, mine end, and to measure my days. What
it is that I may know how frail, how weak and pitiful I am. He says in verse five, behold
thou hast made my days as a handbreadth. There's a handbreadth right there.
And mine age is nothing before thee. You young people, you might,
if you ever read the obituaries, you might read of somebody, I
read of somebody yesterday that lived to 94, and I think on the
Today Show, Willard Scott, he comes up, you gotta be over 100
to get on his program. And we think, man, that's a long
time. No, it ain't, it's a handbreadth.
That right? Us older folks, we know. Mine
ages as nothing before thee. God's eternal. Barely every man
at his best state is altogether vanity. And I'll tell you what,
if he's talking about sinless perfection in himself, he sure
wouldn't say man at his best state's altogether vanity. Me
at my best state, I'm altogether vanity. What does that mean,
preacher? Shouldn't that lead us to despair?
Shouldn't that let us drown in old John Bunyan's slew of despair? No. No. Look on verse six, surely
every man walketh in a vain show. Now let me say this, I'll say
by nature we're hypocritical, we are in some ways, and I'm
not gonna get into all that because I don't have time. But he's not
saying everybody is a hypocrite here, openly a hypocrite. What
he's saying is that vain show is I don't know everything about
you. And you don't know everything
about me. There are things about me that you can't see. You understand
what I'm saying? There are things about you that
I can't see. There are things that go through
your mind, that enter into your heart, that man can't see, and
it's a vain show. We may look at that fellow and
say, boy, he's a pillar of society. When I was in high school, we
studied a poem called Richard Corey. Anybody ever heard of
that? It's talking about poor people.
Richard Corey, he was the rich man in town. They'd say whenever
he would walk in the streets, all the people would envy Richard
Corey. Want to be like Richard Corey.
Oh, if I could just have what he had and be what he is. And
at the end of the poem, I won't quote the whole thing, but it
said, one night Richard Corey went home and put a bullet through
his head. That's what this is talking about. It's a vain show.
There are things about me that I don't want you to see. And
you're not going to see. But I want to tell you something.
God searches the heart. Isn't that right? So that's what
he's saying in verse six. Surely every man walketh in a
vain show. Surely they are disquieted in vain. He heapeth up riches
and knoweth not who shall gather them. He may think he knows,
but he really doesn't. And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee. Now there's
the hope. You see what he's saying? Go
back to Romans 12 too. He says, be ye transformed by
the renewing of your mind. How do you do that? Well, in
the power of the Holy Spirit, by prayer, and by the Word of
God. That's what you're doing this morning. If you're listening,
you may not be. I may not see that in you. Your
mom may be off on the golf course somewhere or at the fishing hole.
I don't know. But that's a vain show. But here, if you're listening,
if you're studying the word of God, if you're gleaning from
his word, then that's what's happening by the power of the
spirit. You're being led to Christ. You're
being shown more of yourself. Oh, what I am by nature. and
led to Christ. And he says that you may prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. What
he's saying there is that you may be a living, walking example
and proof of the grace of God in Christ. What am I? Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace of God. Let me show you one more. Turn
over to Ephesians chapter 2. Let me show you this. that we
may be living proofs, not of self-righteous Pharisees. I don't
wanna be a living proof of what Pharisaism is. I don't wanna
be a living proof of what depravity is. In that sense, somebody says,
well, I believe what you believe, I'll just go out here and sin
all I want to. Well, you do anyway. You may not go the full swing
of it all, but we all do. We do what we want to do. That's
the case of it. We have constraints within us.
We have natural conscience. But what I want is the Spirit
of Christ and the love of Christ to constrain me. I don't want
to be a living proof of of some kind of a hedonist or some kind
of a fool out here, I wanna be a proof of a sinner saved by
the grace of God in Christ. A Christian, a true Christian,
not just what the world thinks a Christian is. You remember
there in 1 John, look at Ephesians 2, you know in 1 John 3, you
remember there the word world is used? When John said, beloved,
oh what manner of love it is that we sinners Vanity should
be called the sons of God. It does not yet appear what we
shall be, but you remember he said there, the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. What's he talking about? The
unbelieving, unregenerate world in opposition to Christ. But
here's what I want you to see, Ephesians 2, by nature, there's
not one which difference between us and the world. by nature,
as we're born into this life. He says in verse one, and you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Before
the Holy Spirit gave us spiritual life, we were dead in trespasses
and sins, just like the world. And he says in verse two, wherein
in time past you walked according to the course of this world,
whatever course that was, whether it's the immoral world, the moral
world, or the religious world. We didn't walk in Christ, we
didn't walk in the grace of God. According to the prince of the
power of the air, that's Satan. The spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, that's the flesh, that's unbelief.
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in
the lust of our flesh, the flesh again, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind. And were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. Not one difference between us
and the world by nature. Well, what separates us? Well,
Paul said it this way. He said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. But let me give you this real
quick. First of all, God's electing grace separated us. God chose
us from the foundation of the world in Christ. That means we're predestinated
not to be conformed to the world but to the image of Christ, Romans
chapter 8. Secondly, God's justifying grace. This is amazing. God justified
us in Christ by His blood and righteousness. Remember last
week I couldn't find this little article? I told you I had it
on the bottom of my notes. I thought it was in my Bible.
But listen to this. I won't read the whole thing,
but I want to just give you this. Here's what separates a sinner
saved by grace from the world. This is what every true child
of God can say without reservation. God sees no sin in us as a matter
of divine justice. The record books of heaven record
no iniquity, no transgression, no sin against God's elect. God will not impute sin to his
saints or require satisfaction from us because our sins were
made Christ and were justly imputed to him when he was made sin for
us. He paid for them. Our sins have
been forever expunged, erased from the book of God's offended
justice by our Savior's precious blood. That's what separates
us from the world. And then God's regenerating grace.
Look over at 1 John 5, and I'll close with this one. 1 John 5,
this is what I opened the service with. God's regenerating grace separates
us from the world. The world is in unbelief. But we believe God. And that
faith is the gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Look at verse 18 of 1 John 5.
We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. Now that
doesn't mean that that person does not actually sin anymore. Because he already said over
in 1 John 1, if we say we have no sin, we lie and do not the
truth and we call God a liar. What's he talking about, sinneth
not? He's talking about something specific and he identifies it
in the next line. But he that is begotten, born
again by the Spirit, begotten of God, keepeth himself. What does that mean, keep yourself?
That doesn't mean you keep yourself by your own power and goodness.
It means you keep looking to Christ and resting in him. That's
what he means. You won't turn away from him. You may stray, but you won't
totally apostatize and leave Christ. That's what he meant
in 1 John chapter 2 and 1 John chapter 3 when he said, Whosoever
is born of God sins not, cannot sin. Now I know in Christ we
have no sin, but in ourselves we're still sinners. But we,
by the grace of God, we will never leave him. And that's proven
by the next line, and that wicked one, that Satan toucheth him
not. Satan cannot bring us, he cannot take us away from Christ.
He can't do that. He's powerless. And then verse
19, and we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth
in wickedness, or in the wicked one. We're of Christ, they're
of Satan. And we know that the Son of God
is come and hath given us an understanding. Understanding
what? Understanding who God is. He's holy. And He must punish
sin. Understanding who we are, sinners
who deserve nothing but damnation. And understanding who Christ
is, the God-man, mediator, the Savior, of His people, who came
here and died on that cross, shedding His blood. He was made
sin, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. We know Him that is true, and
we're in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. And
this is the true God in eternal life. Now He says, little children,
keep yourselves from idols. Keep yourselves away from anything
that would deny, ignore, or distract you from the glory of God in
Christ. from worshiping God, seeking
the Lord, growing in grace and knowledge. That's what separates
us from the world. And his preserving grace separates
us from the world. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. All right.