All right, Romans chapter 12. We're going to back into Romans
11, leading into Romans 12, because we see, I appeal to you therefore.
So start with me in Romans chapter 11, starting in verse 28. Let's just read that and then
we'll move right into chapter 12 tonight. As regards the gospel,
they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election, they
are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and
the calling of God are irrevocable, just as you were at one time
disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their
disobedience. So they too have now been disobedient
in order that by the mercy shown to you, they may shall, they
also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to
disobedience. that he may have mercy on all.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God,
how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.
For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his
counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
For from him, and through him, and to him are all things, and
to him be glory forever. Amen. I appeal to you, therefore,
brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
worship. Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. By testing, you
may discern what is the will of God, that which is good, acceptable,
and perfect." So here we are. We're at this place in this text
where it's going to go fairly quickly, because there's not
a whole lot after this. And then, as I've already promised,
we're going to go through Galatians. in the same manner in which we've
been doing Romans and Revelation last year. But getting here to
verse 1 of chapter 12, I appeal to you, therefore. I know it
seems cliche, but as we see the word therefore, we need to say,
what's it there for? Therefore, because of what I
have just taught you, therefore, brothers, I appeal to you. I appeal to you. I encourage
you. I exhort you, I admonish you,
I ask of you, please, by the mercies of God, do these things. Now, there's an interesting conundrum
that we've come across already as a congregation in our John
teaching over the last two years and then also here. In Romans,
we have come across the claim or the accusation in many different
times that we were antinomian, antinomian. And we need to recognize
that we've already dealt with that, but we need to recognize
what that claim is according to those who accuse it. And then
we need to see what is antinomianism literally, really, and show that
we are indeed not antinomian. So let me do the second first.
Antinomianism says this, that there is no instruction given
by God to the New Testament Christian for which we should follow or
listen to. That's what antinomianism is. Now, people argue that, I
don't want to hear your academic foolishness. That's what you
mean. That's what antinomianism really
is. And so when someone says that
you're antinomian, they're saying that there's nothing in the Bible
that you have to follow, obey, or submit to, which is to say
you don't have to submit to the Word of God. You don't have to
submit to Christ. Now the answer to antinomianism is legalism. The answer to antinomianism in
our culture has become a works condition. Or no, it's not conditioned
upon salvation, but it's conditioned upon assurance, which faith and
assurance are synonymous. So if the object of our assurance
is the object of our faith and the object of our assurance is
our works, then we are works-based righteousness. And we could just
keep digging on and on and on and on, but there are people
who are truly antinomian who would say, it doesn't matter
what you do, carpe diem, eat, drink and be merry. And in one
sense, in a forensic way, they're right. In another sense, the
Bible teaches us not to be crude. The Bible teaches us to love
one another. The Bible teaches us, Paul commands by God himself,
for us to be gentle and patient and kind and forbearing. And
that when these things are not the way they should be, as he
would say to the Ephesians, he would say what? He would say,
I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the election of God
through which he's called you to life in the finished work
of Christ. That's the idea of the calling. And so in that,
we see that it's commanded, it's taught of us. We call that in
the true gospel, the law of Christ, to love the Lord and to love
each other. But we do that because of our
redemption. But we never do that perfectly.
Paul has annihilated the reality or the idea that it is reality
that the sinner who is now a saint, by the mercies of God, will establish
any credible works of obedience before the Father. And that is
where some people say we're antinomian. Because in one way, they want
to say, oh, we're about to have us a grace-truth brothel, and
they're just gonna make money for missions in that option.
That's silly. Why? Because we have church discipline.
We're not going to be left to our own devices, because we love
one another. And there's a motivation that
comes out of the gospel that drives us to the place where
we don't want to disappoint the Father. even though I've prayed
as we open up our service that we are not disappointing to the
Father because He sees us as Christ is, righteous and perfect
before Him. Christ has satisfied our sin
debt, so propitiation He is for us. There is no judgment, there
is no condemnation, but in the same way, though our flesh is
totally alive, it has been crucified in Christ, with Christ, so as
Christ was crushed by God, Sovereignly and judicially and forensically,
this did something to our flesh. In other words, it killed it
also. So as if we have also suffered with Christ, but we in our suffering
must suffer eternally. Christ being the righteous one
of God now has satisfied the debt that we owe. And more than
that, He has given us His perfection to our account. He has called
us to be declared righteous because of His righteousness. And that
is the beauty of the good news of Jesus Christ. Because it is
true, I appeal to you therefore That's what he's saying, because
this is true and there is no way in which you can be condemned
by God. There is no sin that you could
commit. There is no doubt that you could hold. There is no blasphemy
that you could utter that would separate you from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, because of that. Now, I appeal to you, beloved. What is he doing? He said, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice. To present your bodies
as a living sacrifice. Friends, this is one of those
things that, one of those texts that
is so cut off from the gospel in our culture that it can be
said, well, anything can be said of it. Let's put it that way.
Exposition keeps the truth in line. Exposition puts more emphasis
on therefore than it does offer your bodies. Because the offering
of the body is tied to the central power of what therefore is pointing
to. By the mercy of God. Because from Him And through
Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. You
don't know the mind of God. You can't question Him. You can't
sit down and have Him explain His ways to you. And He has,
in the depths of His riches and the unfathomable expression of
His wisdom, saved you perfectly and completely in Jesus Christ. You don't ask Him to answer to
you. That's what Paul's just got through
saying. Because at the end of this 11 chapters, it's real easy
for our flesh to go, you know, God just doesn't sound fair.
Paul's already asked that. God just doesn't seem faithful.
Paul's already answered that. God's Word just doesn't seem
authoritative. Paul's already put that to rest. Well, I just
sin the way I want to. Paul's knocked that out of the
park. So any question that our flesh and our stupid philosophy
could come up with as a rebuttal to God's sovereignty, Paul has
said, get it out of your brain. Look at what I'm teaching. Jesus
is the only way to life. But what about the Jews? Who
cares? They're disobedient now to your joy. And then he gives that doxology. He gives that doxology. It's
all about the Lord. It's all about the worship of
God. It's all about the glory of God and his name being praised,
as he said through the prophet Ezekiel to those disobedient,
rebellious Israelites. It is not for your sake that
I'm about to act, O Israel, but for my name's sake. I will cause you, I will make
you, I will take you, I will save you, I will, I will, I will,
and every place you look in the Old Testament when it's talking
about the picture of redemption temporally and the absolute certainty
of redemption spiritually, there is no actor but God. And the instrumental icing. on all of this is His grace. His grace. God is merciful to
me. One of my favorite songs that
we sing. I find it a little out of taste, though, because I'm
praying for Him to be merciful in the singing of that song,
but He already has been merciful. The song works, but in my own
worship, it should be past tense. That's just a pet peeve of mine. So I appeal to you. Because of
this, because of this, not in your flesh, but by the mercies
of God, I appeal to you. By the grace of God, I appeal
to you. By the reality of the power of God, I appeal to you
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. Now, Paul establishes
that in a certain sense so that you understand he's not saying
die for Jesus. I remember in 1988 hearing a
man talk about the practice of, I'm going to give your life for
Jesus, you want to give your life for Jesus, you want to die for
Jesus. And he says, how about we live for Christ? Isn't that
what Paul says? It is not I who live, but Christ
who lives within me. I live this life by faith in
the one who loved me and gave himself for me. So here we see
that Paul is expressing this. It's not the first time Paul
wrote it. He wrote it to the Galatians. He wrote it to the
Ephesians. He wrote it to the Colossians. He's written this
instruction to every church in Asia Minor. And not only he, but Peter has
written it, and so has James. John has written instruction
to the saints of God. And it's all fueled by the mercy
of God. By grace you have been saved. By grace you have been
saved. By grace you have been purchased.
And see, when you feel that, when you see the power of that,
and you resolve to be at peace, you have confidence in the mercy
of God. It is all about the grace of
God. It is all about the work of Christ. This is where our
culture then twists the scripture by demonic influence. I know you're trusting in the grace
of God, but are you living right? Why do we bring that question
into the gospel? Why? Any man that says, yes,
I'm living right, is a liar and he's not living right. Any man
that says, yeah, I'm working on my sins, is a liar. He's not
working on anything. The only way we work on sin is
to build it up. It's by the mercy of God we can
even ward off temptation if we're praying for the Lord to lead
us not there. By the mercy of God. And so this text is not
an open door for us to begin to start being spiritual police
officers, to start measuring by some unnamed standard, or
even worse, by the standard of the life of Christ like we saw
how he lived his normal life. And start saying, well, we know
that you're probably weak in the faith, or maybe you're not
in the faith at all. Look at this. And I know that it seems
like I bring it up often, but friends, it is the false gospel
of our day. It is the preeminent false gospel
of our day that has been perpetrated from the days of Christ, has
continued to be taught by the will of God through the persons
who belong to the enemy, who continually teach over and over
again, this work after work after work after work, examine oneself
to see if you're in the faith. How do you know if you're in
the faith? That you have faith in the one who's faithful. We want to bring people under
this microscope of this unwritten standard by which they cannot
stand. If we are to take the righteousness
of God and put ourselves underneath the screening of it, we are guilty. That's what the law does. And
there is no transformative power of grace that's going to respect
us enough to make us Jesus. And so we see, since the days of Finney in our
culture, I wasn't going to say this or not, but I am, and he
started the cult that we often think is the gospel
church. Charles Finney is as much of
a cult leader as Joseph Smith That's Russell or anybody else
who twists the scripture to bring in a condition of works to God's
people. Manipulative devils and anyone who has come to a
semblance of faith in that Jesus has not come to life by the mercies
of God. I appeal to you, by the mercies
of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. So we've
got that out of the way and we're doing what the scripture is showing. Eternal salvation, the promise
of salvation. And the mercy of God will always,
let me say this, will always lend to some people's mind, wow,
I can still live in wickedness because it's by grace, you see? And Paul's already dealt with
that, so we don't have to deal with it again. And if you want to
know what I had to say about that, go back a couple of months
and you say, and you can see what Paul says about these things. What is the body? Some people
like to say this is myopically just dealing with our human physique.
We need to eat the right stuff. Yep, you're not doing well if
you don't eat organic strawberries. Now you might not do well with
unorganic strawberries, but it's not a sin against God. Paul would rebuke us for that.
Why are you making your brother stumble because he's not eating
organic? We know those are tennis balls painted red. Let him eat
them. Toughest strawberries in history. It's not about our bodies, it's
about our being. Our bodies here, as we've seen
in other places, our members, our bodies, it's about the wholeness
of our existence, everything we are, our mind, our conscience. our desires, our will, our movement,
our passions, our words, our deeds, our hands, our eyes, our
ears, what we do, present, display, prepare, establish. This is not our life. Why? Because we were bought by
Christ. God has purchased us with the blood of His Son. We
belong to Him. And that purchasing has given
us an absolute certainty of eternal hope. So in that hope, by the
mercy of God, we are now being admonished to present our bodies
as a living sacrifice. To present ourselves, to present
our lives. as we live as a sacrifice to
God, what does that look like? What does it look like? Now see,
this is where, as a pastor, preacher, teacher, shepherd, I could really
have a good time. I could think to myself, you
know what, there's a little thing Ben does that I don't like, and there's
a little thing Noah does that I don't like, you know, and there's
a little thing that Hannah and Ruby and Michaela do that I don't
like, and I could just go through the list, and I say, yeah, we're
gonna preach on those things. You're not presenting your bodies
as a living sacrifice wholly. and acceptable to God. So you
want to do that? You're going to stop chewing
gum in church. You want to do that? Then stop
sticking the gum in your sister's hair. You want to do that? Then you stop going to the bathroom
when you have to. You want to do that? Then don't
bring your drinks and leave them on the table. And I know I'm
getting silly. Because you're all like, I do
that every week. I do too, that's okay. But I can't teach and chew
because I'll bite my tongue off. Or I would. I could talk about attitudes.
You know, come in here, would your head hang low and you're
just so mopey? Don't be mopey. What if you're
mopey? What if you're tired? What if you just had a terrible
drive to the building? What if you had a horrible day?
What if you have sinned so bad this morning you feel too guilty
to stand in God's building today? You're gonna be mopey. Where's
your joy? Preachers that preach that are
just liars and actors. Friends, there is nothing that
befalls you that doesn't also fall on me. But by the mercy of God, I, to
the best I can, fulfill my obligation to be here. To teach and to share
and to live and present my life, my schedule, my brain, My mouth
to be set apart, hageos, hageosmos, holy to God. Acceptable to God. And when I don't, I got to get
it together before I get before you, right? And what does that
getting together look like? See, this is the emphasis that
Paul puts here in this text. It's not about what you do and
don't do, it's about where you focus. Right now, there could be someone
listening to this on the internet this very moment and go, this
guy is a heretic. I don't care. I really do not. Because we as
a congregation are not going to fall prey to people and their
accusations. We are not going to listen to
our neighbors who tell us that we believe a false gospel. We're
not going to listen to our families who tell us that we are condemned
because we believe in the free and sovereign grace of God. We're
not going to listen to each other at times when we play games with
the Word of God because we like to manipulate one another. Y'all
don't do that in your marriage or your household? I'll teach
you how later. We're not going to condemn our
children By twisting the Scripture, you
know, of course these things could take place. But we can
see the Word of God says, don't do these, practice differently. Live with a different focus in
mind. Live with a different perspective.
Put your mind on the things of Christ and then act as though
you're thinking about Christ. You know how I know I'm not thinking
about Christ because I'm not acting as if Christ is on my
mind. Something you forget to feed
a fish or something, you know. I thought about my fish all week, and he's
floating. There he is. Tie a rock to his tail, let him
stay down. Y'all know you've killed a goldfish
or two, or a betta, betta, or a plant. We've gotten real good.
We don't kill plants in my house. But beforehand, we were the dead
plant factory. You hand me a live plant, I just breathe on it.
Why? Because we would neglect it.
We weren't thinking about that plant until we saw it blowing
down the porch. Focus on that which is necessary
to maintain a sense of maturity and to maintain a sense of hope
and to maintain a sense of health. That's really what this is all
about. It's about healthiness. Because Paul has given a lot of time
to the gospel and its depths and its roots and its focus.
And now before he lets them go, he wants to show them. And by
the way, beloved, My brothers and sisters in the faith, redeemed
by the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, alone in period and forever,
you cannot be lost. You cannot be separated from
God's love for you in Christ. It is impossible. And because
of this, all glory and honor is due. Please present your lives as a sacrifice to God. In other
words, give. yourself to the service of the
Lord. Where do we find that service
list? See, sadly, a lot of people, I've got to get busy about heresy
hunting. Yeehaw! And get out there and
heresy hunt. No, it's not there. Stop. You're not Jude. Just like you're
not David standing against Goliath. Most of us are David staring
over at Bathsheba. That's the David we are. And
then lying about it. That's right. Murdering people
with our mouths and hearts. It's about what the scripture
would also give and teach. And Paul doesn't leave us hanging
here. He doesn't leave us hanging.
He tells us. the foundation of this practice, the foundation
of this purpose, because it's really a purpose for living,
isn't it? I remember in 1997 being handed a book about purpose.
And in this book, it talked about how I would be driven by specific
purposes. And then it outlined five ways
in which my life could be purposeful for Christ. And none of it was
biblical. but I bought it for a few months. Because it was something neat,
it was something tangible. Like when the Judaizers came
into Galatia, those who had been saved by the grace of God, hearing
the gospel, God the Spirit giving them faith, granting them repentance,
in power and by the Spirit, they received the word of God. And
then all of a sudden, the Judaizers come along and say, hey, hey,
hey, check these out. Got some circumcisions going on here,
got them for sale. If you really love Jesus, you'll
take part. Never been downtown New York
City, you know what I'm doing. They have coats with things in it
for sale. I guess selling circumcisions is a bad picture. But these Christians thought
for a minute, you know what, that makes sense. I see the shadow. I see the reality. I see the
covenant sign. Hey, sign me up. Cut me in. And Paul heard about it, and
he says, who has bewitched you? You've received the gospel, and
now it's like you're dumb as a bag of potato chips, and I'm
sorry, potato chips, to curse you so badly. That's what's happened,
and that's what happens in our life. We hear these things, and
then all of a sudden we sort of get snagged by them. And then we try to put things
in perspective. But the beauty of exposition
is that the scripture in its context just keeps on telling
us. For, for, for. Let love be genuine. Abore what
is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Isn't
that a simple teaching? That's proverbial. Paul commands
it in verse 9. Love, let it be genuine. What's genuine love? We see it
in the Ephesians. We see it in Philippians. Don't do anything
out of vain conceit. Don't do anything to manipulate
people to get what you want. Let love be genuine. What's genuine
love look like? You know what? I'm here for you.
Oh, that hurts. Oh, that cost me. Oh, that killed
me. I love. I give it anyway. Because this is the mind of Christ,
which is yours. Does it mean we're going to do
it? No, we're going to strive for it, we're going to look at it.
Why? What motivates us? The grace and the mercies of
God. The salvation that we've been granted so pleasantly, so
powerfully, so permanently. Does that not
motivate you? Grace motivates me. Christ's
body was destroyed for the sake of my sin. Past sins, present
sins, what present sins? I don't want to stop and think
about them right now, but I'm sure they're there. I'm sure
there's something in my mind right now that makes me think
I really got this under control and I'm doing something, y'all
gonna do something great and my oratory is so awesome, yee-yah-yee,
and I'm gonna lose my voice. I mean, who knows? And future sins. The sin that
I will commit tonight when I get home, whatever it may be, the
sinfulness of my nature, how it has carried out that door
up there in the front, Christ was crucified for. So it doesn't
give me a yeehaw, I can't wait to get out here and just keep
on doing that for which Christ died. It gives me motivation
to want to do that which is honoring to His death. I have been crucified
with Christ. Lord, help me to live according
to your mercy in that way. I'm saved and I love you and
my love for you motivates me to lay my own flesh down for
the sake of my brothers and sisters. And you'll see that. That's actually
where it fleshes out. This has a lot more to do with
our relationships with each other than it will ever have to do
with our personal sitting down and molding our lives. God has
not kept us here for us to be. That's a good word for it. What's that thing they do in
the Christmas time? Elf on a shelf. Saint on a shelf. Look at that
saint. Hair's done. Teeth are clean. Smells good. Stay right there. No problem. Your spiritual worship. What
is worship about? It's exaltation. That means joy
that is ours in the finished work of Christ. We are rejoicing,
even as Peter would say, we suffer trials and that rejoicing is
not expressible. We can't say, I'm so happy! We
feel it internally, but out here is tears. Sometimes gnashing
of teeth. Sometimes despair. But the gospel is a promise beyond
the despair. The gospel is a promise beyond
the tears. The gospel is a promise beyond
this life. This life and the world in it is passing away.
So let us then, by the mercy of God, because of His love for
us, love Him and pray. Together live for His glory. And then the commandment starts
in verse 2. I didn't finish about worship,
but I'm running out of time. I want to get to this one. Two,
do not. Now, I've learned through the
years to try not to command my children when they're younger
with the don'ts. Why? Because I've learned psychologically
that children don't ever hear the don't. They just hear the
command that you don't want, and then they do it anyway. See,
that's how I've made myself not hate my children so much. I'm
teasing. I love them. I said many years
ago when all my kids were really small, I said the reason God
makes children so cute is so we won't kill them or sell them
on eBay. But do not is very clear, isn't
it? It's a command. God, through
Paul, is saying do not be conformed to this world. Now see, this
is where you got to be careful, because it's another place, right?
Living sacrifice. Let me give you 473 billion ways
to be a living sacrifice. Matter of fact, here's our volume
17 on how to live a holy life. You know, it's in our church
documents now. Memorize it. We'll test you next
week or you're excommunicated. I mean, that's how most people
live. The same thing could be true
here. The world. Don't be conformed to the world. Oh, the world drives
cars. Don't drive cars. The world uses
technology. Don't use technology. Hogwash. The technology of Paul's day
was the pen. The technology of Paul's day
was Koinai Greek. He used it. It's a tool. We own it. It's
ours. We're stewards of it. Use it
wisely for the glory of God. Use our words wisely for the
glory of God. We don't get to decide what conformity to the
world looks like just because we want to make somebody else
feel guilty for not being as good and cool and holy and righteous
as we are. That's not how it works. We see what the Bible
already teaches, not in pretext, but in full context. Do not love
the world or the things in the world, for the things of the
world are passing away and not from God. He's not talking about
cars, but can we make idols of cars? Yeah, absolutely. If somebody
offered me a brand new monster Mustang, I would have a hard
time turning it down. Because I'm just about that age
where going real, real fast for a few miles is fun. For a few
miles. Conform to the world. What does
the world look like? That's not the point. The world
hates the gospel. The world pushes away the truth. The world doesn't believe in
the righteousness of Christ. The world is inclusive of spiritual
zealots who have passion for so-called glory of God, who live
in a way that's almost impossible to upkeep, and they lie to themselves
that they are actually standing right before the Lord. and all sorts of things. Be not conformed to the world.
And in the context here, look at the last part of that. But, see, if we didn't have Paul's
context, if we didn't have his other letters, we could make
up whatever we wanted. We could become the cult of legalism.
We could become the cult of antinomianism, which is also another form of
legalism. It's some condition that you
don't have to meet, which is a condition that you do have
to meet. And so on. I don't have time
to unpack that. Probably shouldn't have said
it. But be transformed. Be transformed. In 1982, I got my first Transformer. And the only reason I got it
is because it was at the KB Toys on the front row facing the mall. And I saw it, and I didn't know
what they were, could have cared less about robots, But it was
a Walther P38 with a stock on it and a suppressor. I wanted
that gun. Hey, mom, I want that toy. That's awesome. Well, son, what
is it? It's a gun. Can't you see? And it was like
$40. In 1982, that was an expensive toy. So we talked about it, and
then she gave in. I was persuasive. I didn't care
that it transformed into a robot. It was a gun for me. I didn't
care. But all of a sudden I started seeing, wow, this is cool stuff.
And then by the time I graduated high school, I had hundreds of
these transformers. They would be a car one minute
and a robot the next. And you could put them all together
and make bigger robots or bigger things or bridges or bases or
all sorts of stuff. And people like to think that
Christians are transformers. I used to smoke, drink, dance,
cuss, and date girls who do, and now I don't. Well, that's
sad. I'm just playing. I know I'm saved because I'm
transformed by the power of God, and yes, I'm mocking that because
it's a false gospel. And I don't know what voice that
was, but it's just one that was popped in my head when I started talking.
Next time, I'll do a French accent. Sorry, Tim. Sermon's over. Mr. Keffing. Don't be conformed,
be transformed. I mean, become something different.
Don't be like this, be like this. And now here's how we know what
Paul is trying to illustrate. When he gets into the simple
practical, let love be genuine, show brotherly affection, outdo
one another in showing honor. You know what's amazing about
these teachings? Unbelievers across the world
for generations have been teaching them to their children. Pagans, world religions, idolaters. I mean, we have archaeological
evidence that shows and writing that shows that people who sacrificed
their children to false gods would teach them to honor one
another. The law of God is written on
the heart of all men. be transformed. But where is
this transformation? Yes, there are things that God
will take away. There are prunings that God will do in my life.
Thankfully, my anger is not consuming. Oh, but the kindling that loves
to get it burning is still deep in my gut. The only difference
is by the mercy of God that as I choose when to strike the match And I'm thankful that he doesn't
let that happen, because if he did, I wouldn't stand here before
you. Because I would be unqualified
to teach if I have fits of anger. You know, Pastor Tibbs is a good
teacher, but don't look at him wrong. Don't pull out in front
of him in a church parking lot. Don't get in front of him at
McDonald's. Don't misspeak. Don't ask questions. Now, where do I get that from?
I hear that from people every week about their pastor. And God will prune us. God will
shape us. God will mold us. God will do some things. But
it's not perpetual. It's not progressive. It's not
a constant. It's not a promise. God may decide
He wants me out of teaching. Give me a temper again. Not give
me, but let me have it. And I'll sit right there and
listen to another brother preach until I'm at peace. Maybe a day, maybe
a week, maybe a year. But I want to be transformed.
And how does that transformation take place? The biggest thing
in Paul's arsenal here is that he's talking about the way we
think. Because smart people taught me
a long time ago that Words create pictures in my brain, do they? And those pictures in my brain
create thoughts, and those thoughts in my brains create feelings,
and those feelings in my brain create action, right? If somebody says fire, I envision
a fire in the same nanosecond. I think, we're gonna die, and
then I'm scared And then I'm excited, then I'm heroic, and
I'm like, let's all go outside quickly. The action is, pew,
as we watch the building consume with fire. It's instantaneous. It's one of those things that
the human brain processes information so quickly, it's unbelievable.
A dream that could last literally less than a second could be weeks
in your mind. Just like, boop. It's crazy. But the renewal of the mind is
how we're transformed. And listen to this in context.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by. Our transformation is not done
in the flesh. Our transformation is in the way we think by the
renewal of our mind. But what is renewal all about? To return again to that which
is the source. To establish once again life
to, as Jesus would speak to the church of Ephesus, return to
the things that you did before. Renewal, being made new in the
mind. How are we made new in the mind? By focusing with our mind on
the things that are eternal. Now, we get that later And we
get that clearer as Paul continues here. But just think about 2
Corinthians chapter 4 for a minute. I mean, I go there a lot. There's
a lot of so-called proof text there that Paul teaches this church. Verse 13 of that text says, since
we have the same spirit of faith. Matter of fact, I think this
is the third time I've read this text in our teaching of Romans. I
believed and so I spoke. We believe with the mind and
so we also speak. Knowing that He who raised the
Lord Jesus will raise us up with Jesus and bring us into His presence. So it's about what we know. About what we're confident of.
About how we are assured. About how we are established
before God. So if we start out Romans 12
with this idea that we're about to get real technical with a
list of things that need to be really deconstructed in our lives,
we're going to put the emphasis on our fleshliness rather than
the emphasis on the gospel. We're going to trust in ourselves
rather than trusting in God the Holy Spirit. We're going to start
to establish our own form of righteousness and obedience when
it's not obedience anyway. And then before we know it, we
are in despair or we are in denial. Denial that we don't have sin
anymore or despair that we really can't escape it. So why try? But in this text where Paul teaches
the Corinthian church, he's already said the death is in our body. We are being destroyed or struck
down but not destroyed. All these things persecuted,
perplexed, afflicted. But we're not crushed, we're
not despaired, we're not forsaken, we're not destroyed, we just
carry in the body the death of Christ. So that the life of Christ
will be manifested in our bodies. So we have the same spirit, we
are able to believe, and so we speak knowing that He who raised
the Lord will raise us and bring us into His presence. For your
sake, so that His grace extends to more and more people. it may
increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. So we don't lose
heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self
is being renewed day by day. Four, the four there is an explanation,
further expression, for this light momentary affliction is
preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison
as we look. to the things that are, not to
the things that are seen, but as we look to the things that
are unseen. For the things that are seen
are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Renewing
our mind on that which is eternal and doing that includes testing. Testing? What testing? Are we
testing? We're not testing. Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing..." Are we testing? John says to
test the spirits. How do we test the spirits? By
the Word of God. The spirit that cries out that Christ is Christ
is a spirit of truth. The one that twisted is a spirit
of error. But by testing, are we being
tested? Absolutely. But then what here? By testing that you may discern
what is the will of God. So we look at these things in
the world. We look at these options in the
world. We look at opportunities in the
world. We look at thoughts and we look at feelings. We look
at assertions. And we ask ourselves, is this
the will of God? Now here, Paul closes this sentence
out with a description of the will of God. The will of God
is good, acceptable, and perfect. That's what he says there. I'm
not going to say anything else about those three terms because
people put too much emphasis on those terms and they try to
make it three wills, three ways, three tests, and the rest of
this letter doesn't teach that. It teaches the exact opposite
of that. It's like someone saying, pastor is tall, dark, and handsome,
two of which are lies. You figure out which two. The
attributes there of God's will is that it is a good will, it
is acceptable, and it is perfect. It is the will of God and these
things are true of it. It's an expression continually
of these adjectives to show us what is the will of God. And
now we are able to discriminate what is the will of God by testing
if what we're thinking or looking or viewing or considering is
good, acceptable, and perfect. By how? Renewing our mind on
the gospel of grace. reading the scriptures and continually
growing in our understanding of Christ. Divinely God works
in that discipline to restore to us the gospel and then feed us and then mature
us and cause us to be healthy. Then we can see then what is
good, acceptable and perfect. And the reason I know that this
is true is because it says it and syntax, but also it explains
it in context. Let me read the rest of the chapter
in closing. For by grace given to me, I say
everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he
ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according
to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Now look at
that. Instruction number one. Actually, instruction number
two. Instruction number two, and how does that fall into this
do not be conformed? The world says what? I'm the
most important thing here. The world says it's all about
me. The world sings praise songs, thank you God for what you did
for me, what you gave to me, what you're going to do for me.
Rub the bottle, poof, here comes Jesus, give me what I asked for. The world would say, if you get
in the way of what I want, I move over you, I run over you, I mow
you over, I get you out of the way. The world, even sometimes
in our flesh, in our bodies, in the fellowship, we don't like
something someone else has, does, or says, and so we decide we're
going to disrupt the fellowship of the body of Christ, we're
going to cut off the ear of Jesus so that we can get our way. Everyone among you not think
of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Renew your mind. How do we renew
our mind to that? It's real easy if we take that
out of context. Right there, just take it out.
I don't want to think so highly of myself. What do we do there?
Self-deprecation, moping, worthlessness, listening to lies. See, I could
preach a really damning message with this type of psychobabble. Because I could turn that around
and then tell everybody what to do. Don't listen to those
words. I remember coming up in the middle
school era where there was a will, there was a way. Remember that?
A few of us in here. You just got to want it and you
can have it. What's that? How do we renew
our mind in that? Christ, though he was equal with
God, did not take equality with God, something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, a slave, obedient to death, even on a
cross. Therefore God most highly exalted him to become greater
than all names, the name above all names, that at the name of
Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that
Jesus is Lord. Have this mind among you. That's
what we do. So we see the passion of Jesus
Christ, the Messiah. We see the passion of Christ.
We know that when we think about His divine glory, stepping out
of it, taking on human flesh, dying as a sinner in the place
of His people. I have little room for James
having arrogance. Thinking that he's all that and
a bag of chips. Who are smarter than some people? but to think with sober judgment,
each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned."
Notice that Paul expresses that. I don't mean to keep going, but
I think I need to explain it. Paul expresses that some of us are
going to be better at this at different times. Some of us are
not going to be able to be just as lowly as we should, and none
of us, even the lowest of lowlies, are not low enough. So by the
faith that you have, God is a sign. For as in one body, we have many
members. This is how I can prove what
I said in the beginning of this message. This is about us and
our relationship with one another. And the members do not all have
the same function, so we, though many, are one in body, one body
in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts
that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use
them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our
serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who
exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity,
the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy
with cheerfulness, Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil.
Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly
affection. Outdo one another in showing
honor. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve
the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in
tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute
to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless
those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live
in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate
with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
Repay no evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable
in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends
upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves,
but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance
is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your
enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him drink.
And by doing so, you heap burning coals on his head. Do not be
overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. See, it makes perfect sense,
doesn't it? I should've just read all that and we could've
just prayed and gone home. Michaela could've come up, we could've
sung for an hour. We could've played. You see that? This is all about the grace of
God. Establishing His people. And
you know the last time I read that entire chapter in context? I read 13, I read chapter 12,
and I read chapter 15 in one sitting. And it was the day we
had public division in our fellowship. Two years ago this November. Because that is the grace of
God to us whereby we can renew our minds and live through it. And when we have some of us who
don't want to renew our minds in the gospel, we can't live
together. And that's where Paul's going.
It's about our relationship with each other for the sake of the
name of Christ. We'll pick up there next week.
Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for just this beauty. Father,
how your word just preaches itself in so many places. You don't
really need me, but I'm thankful that you've called me. I'm thankful
that you've called me because I believe you called me because
without the call, I wouldn't read it. And so I'm forever indebted
to the gospel, to your grace, to your love and to your perfect
plan to redeem your people. And so because of that, help
us all walk in a manner worthy of this sovereign grace. In Jesus
name. Amen. Thank you, beloved.