Amen. Romans chapter 12. We started
looking in Romans 12 at verse 1, and this is where we will
continue. We started off by dealing with
verse 1 of chapter 12. And I want to remind us once
again of what it's saying. In your outline, we have three
phases. And the first one has to do with
presentation. Notice what it says in chapter
12, verse 1. I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service. We did open this up
last week, right? We began to talk about it. Did
we enlarge on this? Did we enlarge on it a little
bit? Y'all ready to go on now? No,
we gotta back up. I don't think we enlarged enough. Present. Remember I said the
concept of presentation according to that verse meant to stand
alongside of. That's the preposition connected
to the verb paristomy. It means to stand alongside of.
And the idea is that of taking your body and presenting your
physical body right along with your soul and spirit in the presence
of the Lord. And I think I gave some examples
of that, but I want to give a couple of more, a couple more. And I
want to show you the kind of attitude that Paul is actually
seeking to elicit from this group of people that he's talking to.
Go with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter two, Luke chapter
two. This has to do with the birth
of our savior. At the time in which Mary had
conceived him under the Jewish law, every male child was to
be circumcised on the eighth day. Now, if you notice what
it says in chapter two, I'm gonna start at verse 21, and it'll
be clear in verse 22, the idea of presenting your bodies. Verse 21 of Luke chapter two,
and when eight days were accomplished, that is fulfilled for the circumcising
of the child, his name was called Jesus. which was so named of
the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days
of her, that is Mary's purification, according to the law of Moses
were accomplished. Now listen to the language. They
brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. Do you see it? They brought him
to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. This is precisely the
same connotation that Paul is, uh, affirming in Romans 12, one
present your bodies, come alongside of your bodies and present them
to the Lord. I think we looked at second Timothy
chapter four last week. where the Apostle Paul was fighting
for his life because of the cause of the gospel. He stood before
the Roman Empire, the Roman Caesar, and he had to give a defense
of the gospel. And he had said in 2 Timothy 4, everyone forsook
me, but the Lord stood with me. And that's the same connotation.
And what's being impressed upon by this, go back to Romans 12
now, so we can develop this a little bit more. In fact, no, go with
me in your Bibles to Psalm 42. Psalm 42, and then back to Romans
12, Psalm 42. And what's being impressed by
the apostle Paul on the hearts of these people in Rome is the
idea that serving God should be something that is conscious
and aware of, and something that takes place every day. The idea that the Apostle Paul
is trying to connote. As a twofold sphere, one is. He is drawing us back to the
Old Testament, him being a Jew, him knowing the law and being
a Pharisee, he's drawing us back to the Old Testament paradigm,
our model, as we learned last week in Deuteronomy 1616, that
the male children were to present themselves, the male men were
to present themselves before the Lord three times a year.
Now, what we said. Three times a year Deuteronomy 16 16 and
they must not appear what empty-handed That's Deuteronomy 16 verse 16
and 17 when the male children of Israel appear before the Lord
They were not to appear empty-handed. They had to have some sort of
what? Sacrifice it depended on how
wealthy or poor you were Determining which sacrifice you brought it
could be as little as a an ephah of flour as large as a lamb or
a ram or a bullock. If you were wealthy, you were
not to come empty handed. And this is the same idea. You
don't have the freedom to think that you can serve God any kind
of way when you become a believer. And the idea of assuming that
you can serve God in your heart, but not serving with your body
is an oxymoron. It's a contradiction in thinking. And what the apostle is trying
to drive home with regards to the people of God is that your
worship and service of God is comprehensive and is consistent.
It has more to do with than just going through external modes
of religious observance. It has to do with a whole lifestyle.
Your whole being is to be presented to the Lord. And we'll see here
in a moment continually. Now, this doesn't make any sense
to you and me unless You have been in the presence of God and
you know that the best place you could ever be is in the presence
of God. The concept of appearing before
God and being in his presence means nothing to the lost pagan. But for the believer, he or she
knows she was created to be in the presence of God. We talked
about it last night. God reconciled up. He removed
the hostility. He broke down every barrier and
hindrance by which you and I stood at variance with God in hostility
with God. God removed that and he changed
our hearts so much so that believers love to be in God's presence. So when you say to the believer,
come, let us go to the house of the Lord. Let us bow down
and worship together. That's easy for the believer. That's
not a drudgery. It's not a toil. It's not a grief. It's not a
burden. I'm made to worship God. Got it. That's the idea. So I
want you to see how this works with David in Psalm 42. I want
you to hear how David says it. And I want to drive this home
a little bit tonight because the way that chapter 12 opens
up, there's an assumption that the believer agrees with the
apostle Paul on this. And then we'll go on and expand
further with our outline. I'm in Psalm 42. Are we there?
I want you to simply hear how David understands the importance... the necessity of being in the
presence of God. Listen to how David said it.
And Mark now, he's an Old Testament saint. He was part of that Old
Testament paradigm that is that old system of external ritualism
of bulls and goats and bull ox and external things. And yet
David was a New Testament believer. Some of y'all know what I'm talking
about, right? See, when you're born again, you were born again in
the Old Testament the same way you are born again in the New
Testament. You simply had an external system that was encumbering
with all types of outward ceremonies, laws, and regulations. In this
New Testament age, those things are removed, but the spirit is
the same. The worship of God for the saints
in the Old Testament is precisely the same with the new, with the
exception that we have a fuller revelation, and by virtue of
that fuller revelation, we can put away the tithes and the shadows
and walk in the reality. This is why David could say,
I know God. Ultimately, you don't care about
bullocks and lambs and goats, sacrifices and offerings you
do not require. You desire a broken and a contrite
heart. That you will not despise. David
understood that those things only pointed to a reality and
Imagine how the believer in that time could enter into the temple
and engage in what we call gospel worship The worship of the triune
God in the person of Christ high and lifted up represented in
every article in the temple everywhere they turn they saw Christ and
And they said, that's my savior. That's my intercessor. That's
my sacrifice. That's my sanctification. That's
my propitiation. That's my bread. That's my light. This is my covering. This is
my salvation. They understood that. They understood
that. Now listen to how David says
it here. He says in verse one of Psalm 42, as the heart panted
after the water broke. Do you see it? That's what I'm
talking about. Some of you know, some of you
don't know when the heart is one of those animals is a small
deer that is seen in the Middle East, very small, a little bit
larger than a dog. And he runs a lot because he's
a very vulnerable animal. The heart represents the believer.
The believer is like the heart in that he's small and he's very
vulnerable and he runs a lot. He's always running for his life.
Some of y'all know what I'm talking about. He's always running for
his life. He has ears that are acute to
every little noise. He has a profound sense of smelling,
but his heart is beating all the time because he has to dash
in and out often because of the adversary. And he must continue
to drink water in order to satiate his thirst so he can keep running. Some of y'all just lost right
now. As the heart pants after the
water brook, soul pants my soul after you, oh God. After you,
oh God. In that same way, remember that's
a parallel conjunction, soul. That's a parallel, in other words,
the conjunction soul parallels what's said before with what's
said afterwards in the same way that the heart pants after that
water, I'm patting after God. Now listen to it, my soul thirsteth
for God. for the living God. Now watch
this, here's what I'm talking about. When shall I come and
appear before God? See it? See it? Now here's what's going on. In
the context of this particular Psalm, David has been excommunicated
from the kingdom. He's been persecuted by his own
children. Absalom's out to kill him. And
so he's running up and down the mountains like a flea, like a
dog from his own kingdom. He represents the Lord Jesus
Christ being persecuted by the apostate church. Absalom was
a fair looking, glorious son, but Absalom was an antichrist
type seeking to usurp David's authority. So David is running
and David is hiding in the woods. And David's thinking about those
wonderful times when he sat in the temple of God and Worship
the true and the living God the tabernacle at that time the temple
didn't get built until his son built it But when he went to
the tabernacle, he could remember the worship of the true and the
living God and he wanted that He wanted that have you been
out of the church out of the gospel away from God so long
and you found your heart begging God to get you back and begging
to get back in the presence of God under the sound of the gospel
in the presence and influence of his spirit where your heart
could be nurtured, where your mind could be illuminated, where
your will could be corrected. Let the righteous smite me. It
won't break my head. I've been so far out of the way.
I don't care what God does to me as long as he brings me into
his presence. See, that's what David was saying,
because he was out there because of his disobedience. You do know
that, right? He's out there because of his
disobedience. and yet he wasn't blaming God. He was just saying,
Lord, when you gonna let me back in? When you gonna let a brother
back in? When shall I appear before God? This is actually
connoting the kind of attitude a man or woman has when they
have experienced the revelation of Christ in their heart. That's
what he's saying. When shall I appear before God?
Go back to chapter 12. I wanna make a couple of observations
that are in your outline. Present your bodies. Present
your bodies. I beseech you, therefore, by
the mercies of God. We talked about that. We talked about the
threefold mercies of God, the mercy of salvation, the mercy
of being made a vessel of mercy, and then the mercy of being put
into the ministry of mercy. We talked about that last week.
Everything about the sinner's experience of salvation is predicated
upon the mercies of God. If you are saved, it's only because
of the mercies of God. If you are worshiping God in
your hearts, it's only because of the mercies of God. There's
nothing about salvation that you and I deserve. Isn't that
true? And Paul called the ministry of the gospel the mercies of
God You can read it for yourself 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verses
1 through 7. He says therefore seeing that we have received
this mercy We don't say we keep preaching Christ Exposing the
dishonest things of those who handle the Word of God craftily
and we preach the gospel Hoping that God would be pleased to
cause the light of the knowledge of the glory of God to shine
out of the hearts of many women So we don't faint This, this
ministry is a ministry of mercy and God saving sinners through
it. So there's three things I want you to recognize and you don't
see it in your English Bible, but there's three things I want
you to know in this presentation concept. Trying to find a key,
a pin that the kids didn't wear out. That'll work in this presentation
concept. There are three things I want
you to keep in mind. You personally. You personally, that's the first
application. You personally are to present
yourselves before the Lord. You guys got that? You personally,
that's an individual command, individual imperative. Every believer is to present
himself before the Lord and to present his body. Isn't that
logical? Okay. But then it has a second application
and that is us together. It is actually, present your
bodies in the plural form, which means all of us together. Every
one of us who are true believers are members of the body of Christ.
And as members of the body of Christ, it should be a normative
process for us to present ourselves before the Lord. Do you guys
get that? It is a normative process for
God's people to gather together. And if it's vague for you, I'll
share with you what I really know and believe is right now
you're in the presence of God right now. In fact, you have
executed Romans 12 verse 1 tonight. You have come into the presence
of God. You actually drug this body, kicking and screaming. Attitude and everything. Plopped
it down in the presence of God. You didn't know what was going
to happen. You don't know what God's going to say to you tonight.
You don't have any idea, but you know I've got to get into
his presence. That's what we do. That's what
we do. And this is designed, again,
for people who think that When you come to Christ, you can do
whatever you want to. You can. It is fundamental to your life
and your growth and your fruitfulness to be under the hearing of the
word. It is fundamental to your life, your growth and your fruitfulness
to be under the word. You got, you know, your maverick
Christians that kind of run around, do whatever they want to do.
You know them, right? They don't go to church. They don't sit
under anybody's authority. They don't sit under yours. They
don't even sit under their own. They like the wind, right? Wherever
the wind blows, there they go, like a leaf in the wind. Mark
that, that professing Christian, they may or may not be a Christian.
Mark them. Because see, when you're part
of the body, you don't disconnect unless you got a problem. Unless
you got a problem. Now mark it. Here's for those
of you who are new in the faith, because you are new in the faith.
You got a long journey to go. Okay. And this race ain't given
to the swift. It's not given to the strong.
It's given to the person who endures to the end. Now watch
this. I want you to get this now. I had a very germane question
raised to me a couple of weeks ago. Is there any need for us
to be part of an organized structural church? And the answer is yes,
because God knows best. He knows how he functions in
terms of building his people up. He knows how he operates
in terms of discipline and correction and guidance and those things
that are necessary for you to be two things, honoring to him,
honoring to him and fruitful in your life. One of the things
I've seen over the last 10, 12, 15 years, and this is absolutely
remarkable and phenomenal to me, are professing Christians
who are fruitless in their life. The thing that marbles me about
Christians is how complacent they can be about their fruitlessness. Now, God called you to bear fruit. Isn't that what the Bible said,
John chapter 15? You didn't choose me, I chose
you. You got that right first, right? God chose you. You didn't
choose him. Not only did he choose you, he called you and ordained
you that you should bear forth fruit. Much fruit and that your
fruit should remain. Now, he was talking to the apostles,
but that applies to every believer, too, because as he opened up
John 15, he used the analogy of the vine tree. I'm the true
vine. Israel was a type of the true
vine, but I'm the true vine. You are the branches. Isn't that
what he says? Every believer is a branch. We
saw that when we were dealing with the olive tree, isn't that
so? Every branch in me that bears fruit. Guess what his father
does? I didn't hear you. Y'all act like y'all don't know.
See, when you're saved, you know, and you need to talk like you
know, because salvation is an experience. It's not merely a
set of propositions. It's an experience. It's a dynamic. When a man or woman is saved,
the true and the living God has invaded your life. He's entered
into your space. He's took residence on the throne
of your heart. And he started communicating
with you. He said you are his and he is yours. Salvation is
knowing Christ. Isn't that what it is? So when
a person expounds the word and are talking about the things
that make for salvation, when you're a true believer, the only
thing that happens is you go, yes, amen, unless you have not
attained to that experience. So when I say the fruit bearing
Christian is a person who is used to being purged. The fruit-bearing Christian is
used to the Father pruning him. The fruit-bearing Christian has
become accustomed to the disciplinary work of God Almighty because
he knows that the more he decreases, the more Christ increases. This
is what we call the mature Christian. You got two categories of Christians
that I observe. There are more in the Bible,
but the two categories I observe in this present generation, this
21st century, are very immature Christians. Isn't that true? A whole bunch of baby Christians.
Now, it's dangerous to remain a baby Christian because if you
remain a baby Christian, it means you're not saved. Because everyone
that's alive grows. Well, I've been a baby for 20
years, you probably lost. You probably don't know God,
you just went to church, got baptized of Jesus in your heart
and you never were born again. Please hear me. Please hear me.
It's a lot of Christians like that don't know God. And therefore
they haven't come under the discipline of tutoring, becoming a disciple
of Christ, learning his word and growing in his will. See,
this is what Romans 12 is actually getting at. Before we break out
into the larger application, Paul is saying fundamental to
what's going to transpire in terms of the body life, Notice
what I said as the title of our outline, the church, a living
stone. You guys got that? I don't know
if you know that's an oxymoron. Stones don't live unless, of
course, God gives them life. And then there's a virtue there
because stones are solid. Stones are fixed. But when they're
alive now, they are alive and solid and fixed. And that's what
believers are supposed to be alive, solid and fixed. Not tossed to and fro by every
wind of doctrine. Firm and consistent in their
walk with Christ. Solid as a rock because their
rock is Christ. See what I'm getting at? It's
not going to take us all the way back to the temple now and
I'm not going to do that because time won't allow. When God gave
the temple, it was a mystery and it was a metaphor of how
he builds the church today. Every true believer, according
to 1 Peter chapter 2, is a living stone. Do you know what Peter
said? Christ is the living stone. So
it's an honor to be called a living stone placed in the body of Christ
for the purpose of edification. And so the believer individually
learns that his place is in the fellowship of the saints where
there is sound leadership and vital Christian life because
there he gets rooted and grounded and prepared to serve the Lord. So let me say this for some of
you who are born again, you're saved, but you are totally deficient
in your walk in Christ. Here is your problem. You don't
have good guidance. Here's your problem. You're like
a lot of our young adults who unfortunately were part of our
culture from the 60s to the present hour where the family got tore
apart in 50 different ways. And so the children didn't have
models in terms of moms and dads. Am I telling the truth? So consequently
what happens is a lot of our young adults right now are really
craving for fathers and mothers to guide them down the right
way because they didn't get that growing up. And consequently,
because they are still in a grown man's body or a grown woman's
body, operating like adolescents, they're making adolescent decisions.
Isn't that true? Can I be real? We're getting
so close to judgment day I can just smell the fire. Uh, and, and, and consequently
this generation we are struggling with because many of them are
coming into the church. So my brothers and sisters who are
coming into the church are coming into the church as orphans. And there's a lot of psychological
and emotional and physiological, uh, deficiencies and aberrations
in our lives. We have great and profound needs
in these areas. Am I telling the truth sisters?
We have great and profound needs in the areas of emotions and
connection and relationship and the dynamics. And here's the
problem that goes on with us as male-female dynamics. Men
can't help the women and the women can't help the men because
we vote a lot. It's just true. So what do you do? In the church,
this is what God has provided. Here's what God has provided.
God has provided leadership to model and represent Christ. So let me say it like this is
gonna be very practical before I go to the third one that I
have for us tonight. Am I boring you? Good, good. This is so relevant. So for those of you who are new
and young in Christ, and you're trying to figure out where those
vacuums are, those vacuums have to do with you not having a crystal
clear, we call it a flashpoint in psychology, a revelation,
a revelation of what you should be doing as a first principle
priority. You know, when the Bible says
in Matthew 6, 33, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all his
righteousness and everything else will be added. That's what
the new believer is supposed to do for about five to 10 years. And he should strive with everything
in him or her not to get distracted by the devil. Because the goal
of the devil is to distract you, to deceive you, distort you,
delude your mind, and bring you into a place where he can destroy
your course. And a lot of young Christians
get knocked off course over time. And you don't get back on for
10, 15, 20 years sometime. Isn't that true? And here's the
reason why, because you weren't told to get on the straight and
narrow from the time you were born again and run, don't look
to the left, don't look to the right, don't listen to nobody,
just stay straight in front of you. And when the Lord is pleased
to take you in another direction, believe you me, He knows how
to get you off the track and take you somewhere else. And
what that means is everything that comes into your life, jobs,
marriages, family, whatever, none of that should have priority
over your growth and walk and fellowship and communion with
the true and the living God. None of it. Heard that it's true. Even good
things can send you to hell. Even good things can send you
to hell. So what I'm saying, particularly for those of you
who are younger, you have an opportunity to get it right,
get your priorities right. Run, run, run, drink, drink,
drink, eat, eat, eat of Christ. And when it's time, he'll move
you to another place of fruitfulness and usefulness is very important
to see that. So individually, we're called
to do it. We looked at Romans chapter six,
11 through 14. I want you to go back there for a moment, Romans
six, 11 through 14, because Paul had already actually in a prerequisite
way addressed the conduct of the believer. In Romans six,
he starts off by dealing with the metaphor of death in the
analogy of baptism. And he said, those of us who
are baptized into Christ have put on Christ. He talked about
in verse five of chapter six, for if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, and that's what baptism signifies,
right? Death. We shall also be in the likeness
of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him. You guys got that. Is that true? Okay. I'll leave it right there.
That the body of sin might be destroyed. You guys know what
the body of sin is? Look at me. This is the body
of sin. This is the body of sin. This body. is the body of sin.
Here's what Paul is saying because he's doing the same thing in
Romans 6 that he's doing in Romans 12. He's trying to help you to
understand that when you found yourself professing Christ as
Savior, Christ did something for you that allows you to do
his will. When you were brought into union
with Christ, you died. And when you died, your body
was brought into a grave with Christ. so that in your death,
in your death, the powers of the flesh were destroyed. Now we talked about this two
years ago when we were back in the sixth chapter, we're in the
12th chapter now. I don't want you to get lost in the term destroyed. Both in the Old Testament and
New Testament, the term destroyed doesn't take on the idea of annihilation. It does not. The word destroyed
is actually a contractual term. Hear me now. I want to make sure
you get this. Some of you going to benefit from this. The word
destroyed is a contractual term. And what it means is when you
die with Christ, your old man, that is the body of seeing your
fallen nature that manifests itself in our members. You know,
you're all Adamic nature, which can allow you to cut somebody
out and think evil. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? And do the wrong thing. You're
all Adamic nature. When you were brought in the
union with Christ. Listen to me. By virtue of Christ's death
on Calvary Street, the contract that your soul had with the old
Adam was disannulled. which means there is no authority
that your old man has over your spirit or will to tell you what
to do. That's what that means. That
contract was broken up. It was like a divorce and you
got a new contract. And the man to whom you are married
is called the new man. That's Christ. He signed the
bottom line. Now he tells you what to do. Got it. Does that
help? That's precisely what that term
means. What that means is, is that your old man is still there
and he will harass you, but you ain't got to listen to him because
he's been divorced from you. You ain't my husband no more.
Who you are telling me what to do? My husband is the Lord Jesus. That's Romans chapter 7. If you
need some help, look with me in Romans 7. I want you to see
this. Are you there? No ye not brethren, for I speak
to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over
a man as long as he lives. Do you see that? the law is the
strength of sin our fallen nature under the law is driven to sin
whenever the law says don't do it because of our fallen nature
we will do it that's the strength of the law covenant listen to
what he said for the woman which happened husband is bound by
the what law to her husband so long as he lives but if the husband
be what she's loose from the law of her husband that's what
happened when we died in christ notice the next verse so then
If while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she
shall be called what? An adulteress. She shall be called
an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law. so that she is no adulteress,
though she be married to what? Another man. Wherefore, this
is what we call a conclusive clause. My brethren, you also
are become dead to the law. How? By the body of Christ. See,
when Christ died, our old man died with Christ. Do you see
that? You also have become dead to
the law by the body of Christ that you should not be married
that you should be married to another rather even to him Who
was raised from the dead? Here's the reason that we should
bring forth fruit unto God Now I took you guys back to Ruth
and Naomi to teach you that doctrine did not both Ruth and Naomi lost
their husbands But they were remarried reconstituted again
under Boaz and under Boaz they became fruitful didn't they they
had babies And the idea is as long as you and I are married
to the old Adam, we can't bear fruit. But if we're married to
the new Adam, which is Christ, well, that's the purpose. He
married us so that he could bear forth fruit in our life. Am I
making some sense? Okay, good. Go back to our text. Go back
to our text. I'm sorry. Go back to chapter
six. I didn't get my point across. I need you to get this now. Verse seven, verse eight. Now,
if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live
with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth
no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died,
he died unto sin once, but in that he lives, he lives unto
who? That's a parallelism. When we died, we died once unto
sin too in Christ. In that we live, we also live
unto who? Yes, we do. Whatever Christ does,
we do. If you understand union with
Christ, whatever he is, we are in him. Whatever he did, we did
in him. Wherever he is, we are in him. Because what everything we were,
he was for us. Am I making some sense? This
is called the simplicity of the gospel. This is why you got to
learn about your savior. Because the more you know about
him, the more you know about yourself. Because everything
cares. You are in him. You guys got
that? That's critically important.
So to the degree Christ is not preached at all, you don't get
to know yourself. Now listen to what he goes on
to say. Likewise, I'm in verse 11. Likewise, reckon ye also
yourselves to be what? See, that's what I'm saying.
Indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. Now how? Through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Is that what I was saying? All
right, just wanted to make sure you got it. Look at it. Let not
sin Therefore what pocket right there? Park it right there. The word is Dominion are curious. Don't let sin be your Lord The
Lord is the person who can tell you what to do But you don't
have to do that now because Christ is your Lord Am I making some
sense? And see, this is Paul's argument.
Paul's argument is not that you buy a white-knuckle attempt like
you're trying to get off of drugs or alcohol labor to try to do
what's right in the sight of God. Paul is saying because God
has changed your position and because God has changed your
condition, now you have all the apparatus necessary to obey Him. I talked to our ladies about
this, I think our ladies, as I did in our women's class a
couple of weeks ago in our theology class about what is called a
gospel hermeneutic. A gospel method of interpretation
goes like this, indicative imperative, and it means this, when God tells
us to do something, he tells us to do something because of
who we are in Christ. He doesn't tell us to do something
in order to become something in Christ. He tells us what to
do because we are already something in Christ. He doesn't tell us
to look to Christ if we're dead. He tells us to look to Christ
because we are alive and he's given us eyes to look to Christ. And so gospel imperatives and
commandments are predicated upon a relationship with Jesus. And
so the one who has a relationship with Christ already is told to
live out your indicative. If you are in Christ, then walk
in Christ. If you are in Christ, then talk
to Christ, then look to Christ, believe on Christ, trust in Christ,
serve Christ, obey Christ. You guys got that? But if you're
outside of Christ, none of these things matter. You need to be
born again. You've got to be saved. And the only commandment
is given to you is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only commandment given to you. But for true believers who
have already went through this major dynamic of salvation, your
job now is to let Christ, who operates in your life, manifest
himself in your life. That's what we are doing. And
that's the command here. So listen to what he says. Just
another couple of verses and then we'll go back to our text.
Let not therefore sin reign in your mortal bodies that you should
obey it in its lust thereof. Neither yield ye yourselves members
as instruments of unrighteousness. Do you see that? Unto sin, but
yield yourselves unto God as those that are what? That's what
I meant. The reason why we're yielding
ourselves unto God is because we're alive. You don't do it
to get alive, you do it because you are alive. Does that make
some sense? Now, the language there is evasive
because in the Greek, this is really what it means. Do not
yield your members as weapons of war against God. That's the literal language of
instruments of unrighteousness, weapons of war against God. Everything that's unrighteousness
is against God. So you do not yield your members
as weapons against God. Now watch how this goes. Is that
okay? Can I talk about this? That means you don't use your
lips to say something that does not glorify God. You don't use
your hands to do something that does not glorify God. You don't
use your mind to think something that does not honor God. You
don't use your body to do something that would militate against the
Lordship of Christ. Because when you do, you are
waging war against God. Believe it. Believe it. Believe it. Go back to our text
now. I'll leave you with that. John Piper, the one who was actually
doing that commentary on the, on the script, when we, when
I was at his pastors conference about two or three years ago,
he had a big pastors conference, a bunch of wonderful brothers.
One of the things that I appreciated about John, and I still do appreciate
about John. And he said this, when he got
up to his pulpit to the pulpit to talk to the brethren, about
2,500 pastors, these are all pastors that were sitting there
listening. And the first thing he said when he got up to the
pulpit was brethren. Brethren, please do not dumb
down your people. Do not dumb down your people. Do not water down the word so
much that your people have no appetite for learning, no appetite
for truth, no appetite for diligence. And what he was saying was so
acutely right, because see, you can get conditioned to jokes
and laughter and anecdotes and silly stories, and then you get
to a point where you don't even want to be taught the word in
a solid way. Am I telling the truth? Yeah. And that's what's
going on in our generation. That's what's going on in our
generation. I almost wanted to jump up and say amen, but it
was only one or two of us black brothers then, so I just keep
my decorum. You know what I want to do. Amen. Jump up, do one of those football
moves. Amen. Because what's been happening
over the last 20, 30 years in pulpits all across America and
around the world is an utter dumbing down of the word of God.
And people don't know the gospel. They're so dumb. Listen to me.
They're so senseless. They don't even know that they
don't know the gospel. That's how bad it is. That's
how bad it is. This is a real serious problem
in our present day. And you know what, ladies and
gentlemen, less than 100 years ago in America, you couldn't
get past the sixth grade without learning your Bible and learning
Greek. Did you understand that? To pass
elementary, you had to learn Greek and learn the Bible. You
had to learn the books of the Bible and you had to learn different
theological concepts of the Bible because our educational system
in America was rooted in a Judeo-Christian presupposition. That means the
Bible was a foundation to all education. This is why I told you on Sunday.
I said, if we were to go back a hundred years and look at our
culture then and come back to where we are right now, you throw
up at how, how totally devoid of truth we are in this present
hour. You throw up. The enemy has been slick boy.
He just Peters out that poison a little bit by a little bit.
And the bride is going to sleep. The virgins are going to sleep.
We are sleep. We are sleep. We have no tenacity
for truth. Truth bores us. We want to be
entertained on our road to hell. We don't want propositional truth.
We don't want propositional truth. And we certainly don't want someone
who's anointed enough to cut the spotlights on and go deep
down into the crevices of our soul and say, we got to get right,
brother. It's not right there. And my
pastor brother, who are who are reformers and Puritans, they
couldn't preach without doing what I'm doing. They said that
if you don't preach to the souls of eternity bound men and women
as souls that are eternity bound, you have not been faithful. You
might as well quit preaching. There's no more crime can be
committed on planet earth than destroying souls. There's no
worse crime. You can kill a body. A person
can still go to heaven when you kill a soul. I see it. That's
it. It's serious. It's so profoundly
serious. So here's the third thing. First of all, it's personal. It's to you. So I hope the Spirit
of God speaks to you. Secondly, it's for us together. This here
is going to give what we call a contextual hermeneutic or interpretation
to the passage. Everything that's spoken in Romans
chapter 12 Spoken to the church. I got what I want you guys to
make sure you understand that it's spoken to the church It
is not spoken to the unbeliever the things that are going to
be developed over the next several weeks are not Imperatives or
encouragements or exhortations that are given to the unsaved.
This is to the community of faith This is to the body of Christ. This is to the believer What
I said last week as we opened up verse 1 was that you present
your bodies a living sacrifice you guys got that Not a dead
sacrifice, living. The Greek word there is zoe.
There are a couple of Greek words for life in the New Testament,
two or three, actually four or five, but three of them are prominent.
One of them is bios, bios, from which we get our term biology.
And bios life has to do with the physical life of this world.
the physical life, the material things, the birds of the air,
the water, the sheep, the goings of this physical life. The other
word is suke, suke, suke. And it actually has to do with
the psychology, the mental state of your life, what you aspire
to, what you seek to acquire, what you are driven by, your
passions. A man's life does not consist
in the abundance of the things which he possesses. You guys
got that? But that's the kind of life that
is acquired as you are mentally thinking and you prepare and
you pursue it. That's a suke life. It really
is a fleshly life. That's where the word suke goes
to. A fleshly life. It's the fleshly mind seeking
to be happy by things on this earth. You guys got that? Jesus
talked about this in Matthew 6 the third life that's prominently
spoken about is called Zoe life Zoe life is spiritual life When
the Bible talks about everlasting life is talking about everlasting
Zoe Zoe life eternal life When a man is born again, that's what
he's given Zoe life and that life is spiritual is connected
to God It thinks God's thoughts it pursues God's will which is
why Paul is about to say what he's about to say so he's giving
you a quality of service when he says give your bodies present
your bodies as a living sacrifice You guys got that now watch how
it says it. This is very important Heal your
bodies or present your bodies a living sacrifice. Here's the
first one. Holy. Got it. Here's the second
one acceptable unto God. You got it. He says a spiritual
life of sacrifice is a life that recognizes what it means to be
set apart to God. That's what holiness is. And
what we learn holiness is three things to be set apart to be
washed and to be used. Isn't that right? To be set apart. When God saved you, he set you
apart. Did you know that? Actually, he set you apart in
his mind before the world began. Then he set you apart in Christ
when he died on Calvary Street. Then he set you apart when the
Holy Ghost came and said, come on, let's go. You got that? Remember
that day? Time to go. Time to walk out
of this dark house into the kingdom of God. And every since then,
you and I have been walking in Christ. It's called walking in
holiness. Holiness simply means to be set apart in its first
sense, doesn't have to do anything with your own personal condition,
our temperament, our, our disposition. Holiness has to do with you being
claimed by God in the first sense. Is that okay? Then secondly,
holiness has to do with God intentionally qualifying you for fellowship
with him. In order for him to do that,
he had to change your heart, had to renew your mind. This
is what we're about to get into. Because, see, the first intention
of God in the salvation of sinners is for you to have fellowship
with him. The purpose of saving you is so that you can enjoy
God. That's what David is saying.
When can I get back to God? David enjoyed him some God, didn't
he? Now, did David walk with his feet off the ground? No,
but he knew God. Don't ever forget it. David knew
God. He was that brother that wrote
50, 60, 70 of those songs. You can't write songs like David
wrote and not know God. His songs went from jubilation,
hallelujahs and praises to Lord, help! You missed that Help Lord That's a real believer a real
believer somebody knows what I'm talking about a Real believer
see if you if you take the time to parse Psalm 42 Psalm 42 says
Lord. I need to get with you cuz My
soul is disquieted in me My soul is cast down In fact, while I'm
walking through this wilderness, I've been talking to my soul.
Have you ever done that? Soul, what's wrong with you? Why are you disquieted like that?
What's got you all discombobulated, twisted inside and out? All I
can say, soul, is hope thou in God. He's our health. He's our
continence. He'll get us out of this. Isn't
this amazing? David knew how to preach to his
soul. Can you do that? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
He knew how to preach to his soul. And see, when you become
saved, you can do that. Don't care about what people
look when people look at you. What are you doing? He that that
man is that man is working out his salvation and being trembling.
That's what he's doing. Talking to his soul, man. Come
on, man. We got to get with it, man. Just
look, we got to pray. Come on, man. Don't get disturbed.
And while you're praying, you know how your mind gets drifting
and going all over. So come on back, man. Come on. We got to
get to God. I'm helping some of you. Learn
how to worship for real. Because when all hell breaks
out and it will. And you don't know how to keep
your mind fixed on God. If you can't do it with the foot
soldiers, you're not going to be able to do it with the horsemen.
You ain't going to be able to do it in Jordan swelling. And
so when David says. When David says, I think it's
Psalm 16, he says, though the earth be removed and be cast
into the midst of the sea, yet will I not be moved. because
I have set the Lord always before my face. My heart is fixed trusting
in the Lord. That's huge. When this thing
is shaking, you can, it's shaking and you got your eyes on Lord.
I'm, I'm, I got my eyes on you. That's a mature believer. Isn't
that right? That's a mature believer. and a mature believer knows how
to cry out for help too when he gets in trouble. David used
to say, Lord, did you forsake me? Lord, I feel like a man out
of sight and out of mind. Lord, would you remember me?
Know how to do it? Know how to do it? God will teach
you. He'll teach you to long to be
in his presence because in his presence is where you get prepared
for those types of battles. There's a third truth here in
our text that I wanted to make sure that we got. So it's the
church life, but it's also life in Christ. So it has to do with
Christ's body, Christ's body, Christ's body. This, this concept
is not always clearly understood by the believer. You personally
are a Christian. We together are Christians and
we are the body of Christ. But we as true believers are. Christ's. Body. So I want to help us with that,
is that OK? That's a concept that evades us because we are
so autonomous in America when you're part of a third world
country. Middle East and Far East, where people are dirt poor
and they have to really work together to live together, they
understand community. And so the first person singular is
not used a lot. I is us and we. And you're working
it out because that's all you can do. And as you're thinking
about putting some food to your mouth, you're thinking about
your little brother, your little sister, what have you, because
that's the way it is in those cultures. And that's the matrix
in which my Lord grew up and the disciples grew up and where
the gospel started and spread. And this is why Jesus says it's
hard for rich folk to enter into the kingdom. It's hard for wealthy,
opulent, well-to-do people like you and me to really rejoice
in the things I'm saying because we're so fat. with resources. But one of the things the Apostle
Paul learned of which he was made a minister was that when
God saves a sinner, every one of them, they are actually placed
into the body of Christ and become a member of his body. You guys
know that? Go with me to 1 Corinthians 12. I want you to see this. I'm
going to go to three or four verses. Just bear with me now.
See, I want to make sure that before we get into verses two
and following, you guys have a clear understanding, a vivid
understanding Those to whom Paul is speaking 1st Corinthians chapter
12 some of you've heard this before and it's going over your
head some some of you not I just want you to see it I'm at 1st
Corinthians chapter 12 and I'm gonna read I'll start at verse
11 and then I'm gonna read a few passages throughout chapter 12
and then we're gonna look at a couple of it this here has
to do with a The body of christ being brought together by the
work of the spirit the subject of chapter 12 is the spirit of
god, okay? First corinthians chapter 12
the subject is the spirit of god. Look at verse one now concerning
spiritual You guys got that it's not spiritual gifts. The word
gifts is not the original Do you guys see that see yours is
italicized? That means it's not the original
grief Concerning spiritual things brethren. I would have you not
to be what? You know that you were Gentiles
carried away unto these dumb idols, even as you were led.
That's how we were when we were unsaved. Isn't that right? Dumb
idols. They used to carry us. That's a wild metaphor, isn't
it? Dumb idols used to carry you. Pastor, what was some of
those dumb idols, men and women, that you were influenced by?
Ooh. men and women that you were influenced
by, the culture with this ideology picked you up and carried you
along in the flood of its own trends and agendas. You weren't
your own boss. You thought you were, but you
really weren't. You were so influenced by this culture, driven and led
by dumb idols, Paul says. Now listen to what he said. Wherefore,
I give you to understand that no man speaking by the what? See, now the subject is the spirit
of God. Call it Jesus. What? And that
no man can say that Jesus is what? But by the Holy Ghost. Now, be very careful, because
in our superficial religious age, what that has been suggested
is that you can't say that Jesus is Lord unless you have the Holy
Ghost. That is to literally vocalize
that you can be a demon and say Jesus is Lord with your lips.
Are you hearing me? You can be a demon and say Jesus
is Lord. All the demons call Jesus Lord. Just because you say Jesus is
Lord doesn't make you saved. Now you can go back to the Luke
chapter 6 and Luke 7 where Jesus says, why call ye me Lord, Lord,
and don't do what I say. So this is called precept upon
precept, isn't that right? Precept upon precept. So you
got some churches will say, see, if you really have the Holy Ghost,
then you can, you can say Jesus is Lord. No, the devil can say
Jesus is Lord. The phrase, when it says, say
Jesus is Lord, connotes two things you can take home and you can
put this in the bank. To say Jesus is Lord is to be
ready to die for Christ. Got it? when the Roman Caesars
went throughout the regions of Rome and Palestine and demanded
that everyone burn incense to Caesar Augustus, Caesar Tiberius,
Caesar Nero. And if you didn't do it, you
would be put in prison, ostracized or killed. The Christian, when
they came around saying, say Caesar is Lord. You know what
the Christian said? Jesus is Lord. and they were ready to go wherever
they had to go. And the point is to say Jesus
is Lord is to say it in your heart because he reigns on the
throne of it and you can't help yourself. He loved you and gave
himself for you and wherever he wants to lead you even unto
death, that's what you do by the Holy Ghost. You cannot do
this in the flesh. Am I helping you? Am I helping
you? Only the spirit of God can grace
you to face your adversaries and say, Jesus is Lord. You can't
even call Jesus Lord on your job today in front of your knucklehead
boss who threatens you with cutting your pay or firing you in the
flesh. Am I telling the truth in the
flesh? This is why you got to pray. Lord, help me. Help me
help me if this is my time to stand for you spirit of god. Give me some help Am I making
some sense? Okay now so it's the holy ghost
that he's talking about the spirit of god the third person of the
blessed trinity the vicar of christ the witness of christ
the apostle of christ given to the church to help the church
become christ body on the earth Right now listen to what he says
i'm down at verse uh I'm at verse 10 now I'm sorry verse 11, but
all these worketh the one and the self same spirit Dividing
to every man severally as he wills verses 4 through 11 described
the gifts of the spirit for the edifying of the body and What
Paul said is the Spirit of God is the one who gives the gifts
and he gives him sovereignly In other words, the gifts aren't
hanging up on a rack and the Christian get to go and plug
down the gift of tongues and the gift of this and the gift
of that and the gift of miracles and the gift of this. That's
not your prerogative. Ah, stabbed at something else,
didn't I? You know what the text said?
The Holy Ghost is the one who dispenses gifts. Sovereignly
as he will. this is why this idea the evidence
of being safe speaking in tongues is absolutely ludicrous ludicrous
listen to verse 12 for as the body is one and have many members
and all the members of that one body being many are what one
body is that true watch it so also is who What Paul is saying
is the members that are individually called and saved and filled with
the spirit. We become collectively the body
of Christ. There is necessary. There is
a necessity then a sense of consciousness when we come together that we
behave as the body of Christ. Does that make some sense? You
don't get to behave like your pagan past. in the body of Christ. When you and I are together,
we are one body, members in particular, but we are to function in harmony,
in unity, and in purpose. Now we ain't schizophrenic, are
we? That's how the church is though
today. You got a brother going this way and a sister going that
way and they fighting and arguing and going on. That's what the unbeliever looks
like when they look at the church sometimes. That don't even look close to
nothing like righteousness and definitely not peace. And I don't
think that's joyful to be doing all this. Go with me in your Bible to Colossians
chapter two, show you how Paul thought this one through. Can
I hold your attention for five more minutes? Okay, just asking. I'm gonna show you a body, I
wanna show you and demonstrate for us a body, a body that's
healthy. I wanna show you a body that's
healthy, is that okay? I want to show you a body that's
healthy. This is the local church that knows Christ is rooted in
his gospel, grounded in his gospel. Colossians chapter 2. I love
the book of Colossians. I can't wait to actually expound
this to us. The book of Colossians is absolutely
fabulous. But in Colossians chapter 2,
I'm going to start at verse 4 of Colossians chapter 2, but I might
as well start back in chapter 1 because there's something in
chapter 1 that Paul sets down. And here's what he says. I'm
going to start over at verse 23 and then I'm going to go through
verse 24 and then I'll jump down to chapter 2 verses 4 through
7 and give us a vivid picture. I'll close with a statement that
will help us and then we'll come back next week prepared to deal
with verses 2 and 3. Is that okay? This is what we
call exegesis. Exegesis is when you open up
the passage. and make it to be understood
for everything that it can possibly be mean, be understood in the
minds of fickle men and women like us. Exegesis is to draw
out of the passage everything that's been intended for us to
hear. And so when we read Romans chapter
12 verse 1, there are a number of participles there, a number
of fragmented statements there that need to be understood. I
beseech you, I exhort you, I encourage you, I'm preaching to you by
the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice
unto God, holy and acceptable, which is your reasonable, or
your rational, or your spiritual, which is what I'm gonna talk
about here in a moment. Worship, got it? Worship, you
can stay on verse one for a month, I can tell you that now. Listen
to what he says, I'm in chapter one, verse twenty three I love
I love this when I was teaching at St. Matt's in Vacaville we
went through the book of Colossians chapter one and two had a great
time and here's what Paul says speaking to them he said to the
church at Colossians verse twenty three he says you guys are reconciled
if you continue in the faith do you see that that the faith
there is the articles of the gospel the doctrines that constitute
the gospel you have been reconciled you are saved if you continue
in the faith in other words the evidence that you truly say is
you continue in the gospel now watch how he says it grounded
do you see that word grounded and settled do you see that grounded
and settled you know what that is that's what is that's actually
a uh that's actually a property term it's a term that's used
for Now watch this, this is interesting. The purchasing of land and when
you purchase that land to let everybody know that you own that
land, you squatted on that land and you stayed there. This is
my land. It's called squatters. You guys
got that? Squatters, y'all know what that's like in the old days,
right? We ain't gonna get into no fights right now, but the
squatter was the person found him some land He marked his land
out and he squatted on the land and he claimed it as his. What
Paul is saying is you are a believer if you squat down and claim Christ
as yours. Now watch what he says. This
is quite interesting. Grounded and settled and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel. Do you see it? In other words,
don't get a chair, sit down on your property, claim Christ as
your inheritance, and go to sleep. Because somebody might just sneak
on up, pick you up in the chair, and move you away from the hope.
And set you down over on that quicksand over there. You wake
up, where am I? See what I'm saying? And be not
moved away from the hope of the gospel. See because when god
saves you he plants in your heart a living hope And that living
hope is not that god would increase your territory make you rich
That living hope is that one day you will see jesus face to
face And be made just like him. The living hope is the resurrection
the gospel implants in our soul a down payment That one day i'm
going to be raised from the dead and i'm going to be with christ
for all eternity And what Paul is saying, don't let any wind,
don't let any doctrine, don't let any devil put you to sleep
and take you off your property so that you wake up one day talking
dumb stuff. Like, you know, the Lord told
me if I do this, I'll become wealthy. 10 years ago, you were
preaching Christ. Now you preaching foolishness.
You were moved away from the hope of your calling. It happens
in churches all the time. They start off preaching the
truths of the gospel, then they get caught up in the money making
and manipulation and conniving and scunning, scheming. Am I telling the truth? The whole
church was moved away from the hope of his calling. Now they're
not talking about the hereafter, they're talking about the here
and the now and how to get it. You've been moved. You've been
moved. And take a church that's in that
kind of environment with that kind of attitude and they couldn't
even remotely relate to what john was saying Isn't that right? You know, I was thinking about
that. I'm gonna close here. We'll come back to colossus next
week I was thinking about what john had done. He He is such
Some of the pastors that god has raised up are very wise men
And god opened opens doors for these men learn wisdom especially
those of you who are young budding theologians, learn wisdom, learn
wisdom. Wisdom is better than weapons
of war. And by wisdom, you have a good
inheritance. Christ is our wisdom, but learn
wisdom. John had the opportunity that day to speak to several
thousands of college students. Those were all college students.
Did y'all know that? Y'all didn't know that? They
didn't look like you. Those was young people. They wouldn't look
like us. Did anybody know that y'all was
watching a pastor speaking to a college? Did y'all do that?
There you go. I'm messing with you. I'm just
about done. But imagine you have an opportunity
to stand in front of 18-year-olds, 19-year-olds, 20-year-olds, 21-year-olds, And you know that their little
brains have been mushed with and driven by and, and totally
overcome with and, and just completely, uh, overwhelmed with the idea
that they need to get a degree and make some money and buy a
house and build the American dream and die and go to hell. And that man got up and he raised
the conscious level. That's what you do when you preach
truth. That's why people don't like it. Because the preacher
walking in the light raises the conscious level. When you walk
in the light, you like that. He raised the conscious level
and he brought them to an eternal perspective and he told them
God is doing something. God is doing something all around
the world. And what God is doing is saving
sinners. through the preaching of the
gospel by those he calls, saves, quickens, qualifies, and sends. That's what God is doing. And
that is oxymoronic for the Christian to live a beggarly mentality
of life about just getting a house with the white picket fence and
the two bicycles and the scooter and the two car garage and the
family with the three little kids. Souls are perishing under
the wrath of God. He raised the level See I could
give up my children for that. I could give up every one of
my children to Legitimate bona fide God honoring Christ exalting
Bible based spirit field missionary work I could bury them for that
Are you hearing me? I could bury them for that. I
Could bury every one of my eight children for yielding their life
to Christ and I know that that God would have crowned me, crowned
me with doing what he called me to do for the children whom
the Lord had given me. Present them to the Lord. Say,
Lord, take them and use them. Now, everybody ain't called to
be a missionary. What I'm scared of is ain't no missionaries today,
which means God's backing up and letting folk go to hell. Are you hearing me? He's backing up, giving people
over to their own lusts, own passions. America used to be
the leading efficacious missionary country in the world. But the
devil moved in and took us off of our crown rites while we went
to sleep. On the television, the internet,
the media got us. And he got us today to. In your outline, I say there's
one more thing and I'm just going to say it and I'll close. You
notice what it says down at the bottom after seeing your first
first point, present your bodies, point A, present your body, your
personal body, point B, the church body, the body of believers collectively,
point C, the body of Christ as a whole, we are one unified body.
That's what we're going to develop next week. And let me just say
this to put it into your head. We individually and we corporately
are not called to do anything for God apart from his power. The church has been given the
power to operate out of his fullness. He ain't calling us to operate
out of our weakness and sinfulness. We don't have the ability to
do it. But he's given us the resources of his presence and
his spirit and his word and leadership in the church and the fullness,
the fatness of his presence to help us do what he's called us
to do. So if any of you are moved by
the study and wonder, how do I do that? You don't. You ask
God to do it through you. And he'll do it. He'll do for
you what you can't do for yourself. The reason why some of us aren't
moving is because we're trying to operate out of the flesh and
the flesh is weak. Even if the spirit is willing
without the enablement of the spirit, it can't get done. Does
that make sense? Father, we thank you for your
time. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. Thank
you for the Lord Jesus. Thank you for your servant, the
apostle Paul. Thank you for plain teaching. Thank you for those
admonishments that may move us in the right direction. Only,
you know, as we go our way, give us traveling mercies. And Lord,
be gracious to our sister Pat as she makes her journey to Louisiana
and buries her niece. And as I talk to the saints here
in a moment, be pleased to do whatever you will to help those
that are in need. Again, as we go our way, give
us traveling mercies, take us home, prepare our hearts to worship
you on Sunday in Jesus name.