Living As a Sacrifice

Transcript

GR 1462
03/06/11
Living as a Sacrifice
Romans 12:1-2
Gil Rugh


We're going to Romans 12 in your Bibles. We come to a new section in the book of Romans, the final section. After the introduction to the book in the first 17 verses in chapter 1, Paul gave the first major section of the book which we entitled Condemnation. It went from Romans 1:18 through 3:20. And there Paul demonstrated clearly that all, Gentiles and Jews alike, are sinners guilty before a holy God and under His condemnation. And there is no partiality with God. He judges all sinners from the same basis and as such all of us are under condemnation, guilty before Him.


The second major division of the book is what we call Justification, God's provision of righteousness for those who are under condemnation. That went from Romans 3:21 through 5:21. And there Paul showed how in Jesus Christ God could consistently with His own righteous character provide righteousness for those who in and of themselves were sinners, justly condemned by a holy God. Why? Through Jesus Christ and faith in His finished work, the righteousness of Christ could be credited to our account.


And the third major division of the book was what we called Sanctification. That went from Romans 6 through 8. And there Paul talked about the new life that we have in Christ, a new life to live, to live in a new way, doing new things, the life that now pleases God.


Then in Romans 9-11 we dealt with what we might call predestination. We keep condemnation, justification, sanctification in balance, we could call that predestination, using the word theologically in the broad sense of God's sovereign work in election and choosing and appointing men and women to salvation, showing particularly how the plan of salvation that He had unfolded in the chapters up to that point fit with the promises given to Israel as a nation. And he showed that nothing had changed. Every promise given to the nation Israel would be fulfilled exactly as God had given it and it was part of His sovereign plan to place Israel under a disciplining judgment so salvation could be brought to the Gentiles during this period of time in which we live called the church age. In the conclusion of this focus to the Gentiles God will restore His program with Israel and bring it to a glorious conclusion with the salvation of the nation.


Now we come to the last major section of the book and we might call it Application. I'll say something about that in a moment so we don't misunderstand. But here what Paul is going to do is give specific focus to how we conduct ourselves in various areas of our lives. He touched on this earlier in the book but now that will be the emphasis in this last section which begins with Romans 12:1 and runs through Romans 15:13. Then from Romans 15:14 to the end of the book we have the conclusion. So this section that we might call Application, he's going to take what he has taught through the first 11 chapters and show how it impacts our lives as believers in various ways in various areas. How do we now live. His plan of salvation includes our sanctification which we saw involves living godly lives.


Come back to Romans 6 where he talked about sanctification, the new life we have in Christ. He said in verse 4, therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, and we noted this is the baptism of the Spirit that identifies us with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. So that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, note this, so we, too, might walk in newness of life. And that's what Romans 12-14 and into Romans 15 will be talking about—walking in newness of life. And what that means in various areas of our lives. Behavior, life, living The conduct of a believer is totally changed and transformed because we have new life to walk in. It's different than the old life, it is radically different. So Paul wants to give some areas of life that this touches upon.


Come back to Romans 12. When we call this last section Application, we want to be careful. In Paul's letters we often divide them between the doctrinal section and the application or the practical section. For example in his letter to the Ephesians the first three chapters he lays a doctrinal foundation. And then beginning with Ephesians 4 he says, therefore. And for the last part of the letter he shows how this doctrine is to be lived out in their lives. It's not that there is a separation between doctrine and practice, it's two sides of the same coin, we just saw in Romans 6. So the new life we have in Christ will be manifest in every area of our lives and what we're doing, he's showing how we are to live and how this new life manifests itself.


So you see Romans 12 begins with therefore. Therefore in light of what we have just studied in some detail through the first 11 chapters. You know one of the major problems with much of Christianity today is we like to start with Romans 12. How many times do you hear people say, I want to hear something practical, I want to hear something that will help me live, as though doctrine is something cold and stuffy and rather irrelevant. But it is the foundation and motivation for everything that we do. And we become attached to just tell me how to live, tell me how to have a good marriage. What do I do to be a good husband? Tell me how to raise kids, tell me how to (fill in the blank). Go to the bookstore and go to the How To section and it is flooded. The tragedy is you go to the religious section and it is almost all How To things also. We've just become enamored with give me the shortcut, just cut right through to Romans 12 and I won't have to wade through the first 11 chapters. You mean I have to talk about sin, condemnation and understand something of the wretched condition of a person and then go through all that he unfolds regarding justification and how God provided righteousness and how that is consistent and understand how Christ is the second Adam. And the guilt and condemnation that came to me as a descendant of the first Adam and how it is necessary to be in Christ the second Adam to have righteousness. And then the whole doctrine of sanctification, of dying with Christ, of being raised with Christ and slavery to righteousness versus slavery to sin. And if that is all not enough to load you up, then we have to know about election. I don't even like to bring it up because it is controversial and it discourages me. How many times have I heard that? I don't like to talk about the doctrine of election, it's discouraging. Why is it discouraging? But that's the foundation. You end up with evangelical churches that have no doctrinal foundation and people are adrift. So the pastor becomes the authority to tell them how to live. We become dependent on man for the basics of life. We find Christians unraveling just like the world. We have to have the foundation of the word, we have to have a relationship with the Savior that transforms a life. Then we have to have the solid foundation of His truth that permeates our life and controls us in all we do.


So the therefore that starts Romans 12 is crucial. And sometimes we've studied Romans 12 or 13 in individual messages but there I presuppose that the audience I'm preaching to has something of the foundation of the first 11 chapters or they won't really understand the basis for such a life.


Therefore I urge you, brethren by the mercies of God. I urge you, I exhort you, I beseech you. A word that has the mixture of a command and an exhortation, a pleading. I'm pleading with you with authority, here's what you must do, please, that idea. I exhort you, brethren, He's talking to believers. He has just walked through the whole matter of the gospel of Jesus Christ and you the church at Rome who are now my brethren in Christ, by the mercies of God. Mercies of God, that's what we have just unfolded in the first 11 chapters. We who are wretched, sinful beings have experienced the mercy of God.

Come back to Romans 9:15. God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. God's work of salvation, the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of mercy, it's a message of compassion. You'll note in this very you have I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. That's one Greek word for mercy. That's not the Greek word we have in Romans 12:1. The word we have for mercy in Romans 12:1 is the word translated compassion in Romans 9:15. They are basically synonyms, gives emphasis here by using two words that basically mean the same thing—mercy, compassion. It's something undeserved and unmerited. In that sense it's like grace except mercy and compassion carry the idea of pity. Someone in a desperate condition, grace tells you it is undeserved and unearned, that's true of mercy as well. But mercy and compassion bring you that idea of a person in a pitiful condition, a wretched condition, a position not able to help themselves.

Come over to Romans 11:30, a little bit before we come into Romans 12. And note in these three verses the word mercy appears four times. For just as you once were disobedient to God but have now been shown mercy. Verse 31, so these now have been disobedient that because of the mercy shown to you, they may also be shown mercy where God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all. You know, people say, I just want what I deserve. That's the last thing I want, I don't want what I deserve. Paul made clear what we deserve in the opening section of Romans—we deserve condemnation, we deserve the penalty for our sin which is death. What I want is mercy, God's compassion to be shown to me, and deal with me not according to what I deserve but according to His grace and His mercy shown to me, one undeserving. More than undeserving, deserving of the opposite. So that is what he has unfolded in these first 11 chapters—the mercy of God. That's why he had to start out with our sinful condition and our condemnation. How can you understand that you need mercy, how can you appreciate God's mercy when in pride and arrogance you see yourself without these? You don't see yourself as a sinner, guilty before a holy God. The starting point is our sin so we can appreciate the mercy of God, it's the ministry of the Holy Spirit when He was sent into the world, He came to convict the world of sin. We have to realize our need of the mercy of God.

So therefore I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God. Here's what we are to do—to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship. Present your bodies a sacrifice. Sacrificial language. Draws out from the Old Testament the sacrifices brought and offered to God by the people of Israel. Now we are to present our bodies a sacrifice. This is not new, the doctrinal foundation of it is back in Romans 6, where Paul showed that to experience the saving work of God and have His righteousness applied to us, we must be identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. And with that then comes the responsibility to present our bodies to Him as a sacrifice.

Romans 6:13. Verse 12 says, don't let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you should obey its lusts. Now note this language, do not go on presenting. There is our word. Romans 12:1, present your bodies. Here, don't go on presenting the members of your body as instruments of unrighteousness, using our bodies and the various parts of our bodies to serve sin, to do unrighteous things. But, here's our word again, present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead. We're going to talk about this sacrifice being living, we present our bodies as those alive from the dead. Your members, the parts of your bodies, as instruments, weapons, tools of righteousness, God's righteousness. For sin shall not be master over you for you are not under law but under grace.

Jump down to Romans 6:16, do you not know when you, here's our word again, present yourselves to someone as slaves through obedience, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, resulting in death, obedience, resulting in righteousness. Thanks be to God, though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching which you were committed. Verse 19, I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members, the parts of your body as slaves to impurity, to lawlessness which simply resulted in further lawlessness, so now, here's our word, present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. You see that emphasis. So here he explains, you have been raised with Christ to new life. Formerly your body and all your parts, your mind and everything associated and contained with this body were used for sinful things. You were a slave of sin, you never did anything pleasing to God. Now that you have been given new life in Christ this is the life of God in you, now you use your body to express that life and serve Him. And so that exhortation that he touched on doctrinally in Romans 6, now he's going to talk about how we live our lives as believers, he takes us back to that emphasis, that's foundational. Present your bodies a sacrifice, back in Romans 12.

Turn over to I Corinthians 6. This same emphases with different analogy is used a number of times in the New Testament. It is in the context of immorality. And there in verse 18 the instruction is flee immorality. Then verse 19, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, that you are not your own. You don't belong to yourself any longer. Why? You have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. Same point, same foundation, little different analogy. Instead of being presented as a sacrifice, here you are reminded you were purchased from slavery to sin with the death of Christ, now your life is no longer yours, your body is no longer yours. You'll note the end of verse 20, glorify God in your body. This body is the expression of who I am, I manifest what is true of me within by what I do with this body. Same point. I am to glorify God with this body.

Come over to Hebrews 13. You see this emphasis on sacrifice. You present, you are bringing like they brought the sacrifice. Here you have a sacrifice. Verse 15, therefore through Him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. What we say with our lips, the words that come out of our mouths are to be consistent with what we are in Christ. We give thanks to His name. When we do that is a sacrifice of praise to Him. So we see we have presented our bodies, one part of our body is our lips. What comes out of our mouths, that is to be a continual sacrifice of praise to God. So no matter what my situation, no matter what my circumstance, I can give thanks to God. May be a difficult circumstance, may be an unpleasant circumstance, but I can give thanks and praise to God that I belong to Him. And even this painful situation, even this unpleasant situation, even this unfair circumstance, Lord, it is not out of your control. I'm going to praise you for caring for me, having your hand upon me in this time. It's a sacrifice of praise.

He goes on in the next verse. And do not neglect doing good and sharing or helping one another. Why? For with such sacrifices God is well pleased. So I went over and helped this person in the body that was going through a difficult time or needed special help, it just was a mundane, normal toil but I did it. No, it was not. We're doing it as a sacrifice of praise to God. You see what he's saying, when you present your bodies a sacrifice, that means everything I do with this body is an act of worship, it is a sacrifice offered to God that transforms our lives from mundane drudgery. Tomorrow is Monday, back to work, back to the grind. Wish I could sleep in on Monday. But now my whole life gets transformed, right? Because everything I do is part of my worship and service of my God.

Turn over to Ephesians, just an example of this. Ephesians 6, and you'll remember Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter to the Ephesians. So he is not relaxing on vacation on the Mediterranean, enjoying the breezes. So he writes and tells other people what they have to do. He is in prison. Verse 5, slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters, according to the flesh, and these are your physical masters. With fear and trembling, note this, in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ. All of a sudden for these slaves who have no life of their own, who have really nothing of their own in most cases, you are obedient to your physical master in the sincerity of your heart as one obeying Christ. Not by way of eyeservice as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service as to the Lord, not to men. Because you see this body is not my own, I've been bought with a price. I'm living now the new life I have in Christ which is His. So everything I do with this body, and a lot of it is out of my control. If I'm a slave, I do the will of my master and he may be unfair, he may be harsh. Peter deals with that in I Peter. But that's all right, I'm serving the Lord. And even doing what is unjust and unfair as he puts more responsibility on me, more burdens on me, and doesn't treat me justly. That's not the problem, this is an opportunitiy for me to honor the Lord by putting my heart into this, doing it to the best of my ability. Even when my master is not aware and I could slack off, I can't slack off because my true master is always observing. And I'm doing it to please Him and He is watching.

At the end of II Corinthians 2, we function in the sight of God. So that's what he's saying here. You render service, Ephesians 6:7, as to the Lord, not to me, knowing that whatever good things each one does, he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. In other words, we say, what am I doing? I don't get anything out of it, I do all this work and he gets all the benefit. That may look that way physically, humanly speaking, but that's not the way it really is. Do you know why? I'm doing it for the Lord and He is storing up reward for me. So I can have joy and satisfaction in knowing I'm pleasing my Lord and the reward will be more than gracious and abundant when He bestows it.

So you come back to Romans 12 and he talks about present your bodies a sacrifice, he's talking about our lives. It puts life in a whole different realm for us as believers. What is mundane, drudgery, unfair and crushing treatment for us is the opportunity to please our true Lord and Master, offer sacrifices that are pleasing to Him. And Paul is writing from a prison, is he grumbling how unfair and unjust the Romans system is and how people have not treated him right and all? He is just about bringing honor to the Lord. Do you think the reward for Paul has not been more than adequate? I'm sure it will be more than adequate. But they didn't treat him fairly, they didn't treat him right. He lost much of his life by wasting away in prison and being treated unfairly. He didn't have to worry about that, did he. His only concern in life had to be I must do this to please my Master. And let his Master, his heavenly Lord, take care of payday. That's how we live as believers. That's why for what the world can hardly stand, we as believers can do with joy. Our bodies don't belong to us, my life is not my own. We present our bodies a sacrifice.

Then he qualifies it with three expressions here, three words. The first is sacrifice is living. Of course it's a contrast with the Old Testament sacrifices, the animal sacrifices were executed. This is a sacrifice that is ongoing, but it's a sacrifice that has died in the sense that we were identified with Christ, but now we are living it out as new life, we are living a new life as we saw in Romans 6. We have new life in Christ, we were alive in Him. So now all we do in life is done as a sacrifice. Whatever I do with my body and my body includes my mind and everything as we're going to see in a moment, it is all that I am, it's all that I do.

Just one verse in Romans 6, verse 11, even so consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ. Alive to God in Christ. Verse 4, we are walking in newness of life, those who are alive to God. So everything about my life is in the context of a sacrifice. One who is alive to God, one who is serving Him. We come together in a service like this as a family of believers, and we are instructed to and not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together and so on. But you know when you get up tomorrow morning it's just as much a day of worship as this day is. And when you are at your job and the pressure is on, it's just as much a time of worship. What you are doing in that job or in that home or wherever is just as much an act of worship as what you are doing here this morning because we give our bodies and all that we do with these bodies as a sacrifice to our God. It's a living sacrifice, it is what we are privileged to do day by day as those who are alive from the dead.

Come back to Romans 12. It is a holy sacrifice. That's why in Romans 6 we read we are to give the members of our body as instruments of righteousness. Before we were made alive with new life in Christ we used our body as instruments, the parts of our body as instruments of sin. But now we are to use them as instruments of righteousness. To be holy means to be separate. The word holy, the word sanctify, the word saint all come from the same basic Greek word, it means to be separated. God is holy because He is separated from sin, not defiled by sin in any way. We are now to present our bodies as holy sacrifices, separated from sin. I don't use my eyes, my ears, my hands, my feet, my mind for sinful things, but I use them for those things that are consistent with the character and will of God. Holiness characterizes us, that's why we are saints, we are holy ones, literally. Why? Because we have been set apart by God from sin for Himself.
So I need to be careful to use my body and all its parts for things that are consistent with one set apart from sin because I present this body and all its parts to God. It is a holy sacrifice, these parts aren't used for sinful activity, sinful thoughts, sinful behavior any longer.

It is a sacrifice which is acceptable or well-pleasing to God. ________________ word with well and pleasing, well-pleasing to God. Just like the sacrifices in the Old Testament, if they were not offered properly were pleasing to God. This is how we live our lives, pleasing to God. You'll note it's a life. Isn't it great to know that on the worst day of the week when you are having the most difficulty and the most trouble you can be offering your life and what you are doing and how you are going through it as a sacrifice that is well-pleasing to God. We don't want to miss the great blessing of our life as God's people. Circumstances don't crush us, they can be painful, they can be unpleasant, they can cause tears and suffering and heartache. But through it all my life can be a sacrifice that is well-pleasing to God.

How amazing. What a transformation. From the description of us before Christ in the opening chapters of this letter, one who never does anything pleasing to God, never did good, nothing acceptable, one without worth, without value as we saw in Romans 3. But now I can be pleasing to God in every moment of every day, in every place, in every circumstance, in every situation. What are you doing at work? I'm grinding it out. I'm worshiping my God because I'm doing it to be pleasing to Him, I'm doing it in a way that would honor Him. If you took out those that I'm responsible to here, they are just a minor, intermediate level. I'm doing it for the One that I serve ultimately.

Present your bodies a sacrifice, living, holy, well-pleasing. This is your spiritual service of worship. This word translated spiritual, we have it in English, logikos, we bring it over into English as logic, just soften the “g” and we have logic, that which is reasonable, rational. That can carry the idea, some would have it spiritual, some would have it rational, reasonable. It's true, this is our spiritual service of worship. We function now with the new life we have in Christ, that's a spiritual reality directed and motivated by the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is that which is rational, reasonable for us in light of the mercies of God that we've gone through. This is our service of worship.

We don't go to work and have ups and downs and act like the world and do things inconsistently. But we come on Sunday and we get refreshed and ____________. People will say, I can't control my temper. But you know hardly anyone ever loses it in the auditorium. I can't control it, I can't help it. Yes, you can help it. I told someone who was in, they were having marital problems and they were having temper problems. I said, you haven't lost your temper once since we've been here. Well it just wouldn't be appropriate to lose it in the pastor's office, but wait until we get into the car. That means what? You can control it. When you know it won't be acceptable, you control it; when you know the consequences would be unpleasant, you control it. Like our kids, right? They know, they don't talk back to you but they go out and tell their friends what they think. Why? Well, I had to tell somebody, but they can control when and where.

This is our spiritual service of worship, this is what is reasonable, rational, this is how we function. So wherever I am, I am in worship; whatever I'm doing, it's part of my worship. I'm naturally going to be different than the people I work with. I do more work than anyone else. That shouldn't be surprising, I'm doing it for the Lord, they are doing it for that unfair, selfish person they work for who is not paying them fairly, who is making them work more than is fair for them, and on we go. But that's not me. Why do you work so hard? You make less than I do. I work hard because you are working for so-and-so in this business, I'm working for the living God and the ultimate payday. That's different. Shouldn't it be different? If they are looking at me they ought to see something different. I'm not saying you have to work 20 hours a week overtime for no pay, we have certain rights given to us and so. I'm saying we ought to be carrying out our responsibility and things are not under our control, they are under God's control as we saw with the slaves and the master.

This is our spiritual service of worship. Now we come together once a week. This is so we can join together with one heart and one mind and appreciate the value of how God uses us in a group like this. But don't forget, Monday morning you are at worship, Tuesday afternoon you are at worship, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That's our life.

What does that mean negatively? Verse 2, do not be conformed to this world. That's it. When you have presented your body a sacrifice to God that is living, holy and well-pleasing to Him, that means you can't be conformed to the world. Do not be conformed to this world, this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. ____________________ the word conformed, the basic word here, we get the word scheme or schematic from it. That's the fashion, the order of something. Don't be conformed. Some of you are familiar with J. B. Phillips paraphrase, and this verse became well known because in his paraphrase he paraphrased it, do not allow the world to press you into its mold. And that idea. Don't be molded by the world, don't be conformed to the world. We get concerned with our young people, especially when they become teenagers we become concerned with their friends, that they are going to be conformed by their behavior, their activities. And it's a just concern. But for all of us as believers, we are not to be conformed to this world, this age, not to be shaped by it. This is a transitory passing age, transitory passing world. Ages focuses more on the time, the world, the overall picture and system but often used almost interchangeably.

Come over to I Corinthians 2. The message of the gospel which is the wisdom of God as he has talked about in I Corinthians 1 and into I Corinthians 2, note what he says in verse 6. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, that's the godly, a wisdom, however, not of this age. There's our word, age, that we have translated world in Romans 12:2. Nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory.

You know the tragedy of Christians and churches being conformed to the world. Looking at a brochure that came this week, multi-paged brochure, done as well as any large company could do, advertising a conference for pastor and church leaders, supposedly evangelical. I couldn't find anything about the gospel in it. The pictures, it was all about being current. One pastor, you would know the name but I won't mention it, but he likes to speak at this conference because I'm speaking to men who are current. It's all about being current in your ministry and up to date and you are really ministering on the edge. What about the gospel?

Do you know what it says here? We have the wisdom of God that was predestined before the ages to our glory. We have the church running from one idea to the other, to the other because we have to be current, we have to be ready to minister to this generation. We've gone from a boomer to a bummer to a millennial, to a who knows what. But the church has to get on the bandwagon and come to this conference. For what? We have the wisdom of God that is not time related. That's what we are to have, a consistency, a stability. The evangelical church is like the world is, bouncing off the walls. You just about get started on one idea and we have to move on to something else. We think that because we come up with things that fill auditoriums and attract people, we're doing something. We are, but that doesn't mean God is. Sad for the church where it is people doing the work and not God. It's God's truth, the things of this age are transitory.

Look at II Corinthians 2:8, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood. I can't let the world shape how we function as a church, they don't understand God's wisdom. They think we are out of date. We are more up to day than they can ever be because we are already dealing in things that are significant in eternity. But they are out of date because they are things that go back before the world was. But they are the things that matter. We are in date and out of date, depends on how they are looking at it. The world doesn't understand it, if they had understood it they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory. If they understood it today, they would be falling down on their knees, crying out for mercy, believing in the salvation He has provided. They don't have a clue what is going on. I should be concerned that the church looks like something the world likes? They are clueless, they don't know. That's what God says, and yet the church wants to give something that they will be comfortable with. The very thing we as believers ought to be very uncomfortable with.

Turn over to I John 2:15, do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but from the world. The world is passing away and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God lives forever. Children, it's the last hour. Pay attention. We fall in love with the world, we allow the world to shape our thinking, shape our goals, mold us. Do not be conformed to this age, this world. It is transitory, it is passing. You are part of an eternal work of God, you are to bring honor and glory to Him so that He might use you and He might use us together as His church to bring honor and glory to Himself.

Come back to Romans 12. Do not be conformed. This doesn't mean we have to do weird things. When we lived in the Philadelphia area, we were about an hour from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We have the Amish there, they are stuck in time. They think if they dress like it is 1850 and ride with horses instead of cars and don't use electricity, they are not being conformed to the world. We are not talking about irrelevant matters here, we're talking about matters of biblical and spiritual importance. I don't have to dress like something out of an old time movie to show I'm not conformed to the world. But in my character, in my conduct, in my behavior it always ought to be done in light of the fact that the one who travels with me everywhere I go is the living God. The one observing all my conduct and my most secret times, my most public times is the living God. I'm not to love this world, the things in the world, the passing things of the world. My life is not to be built on having the kind of life that the world admires and says is important so I can do what the world says is important with my life and have all that it values. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy the things God has given, but I want to be careful that I don't use that excuse to be shaped by the world and I end up looking just the world, behaving like the world and wasting my life like the world.

Don't be conformed to this world but be transformed. We're familiar with this word, the metamorphosis. And it is a transformation that comes from within, the life that He gives me. In Matthew 17:2 Christ was on the Mount of Transfiguration and His glory shone, that innate glory that was His that was veiled. He took to Himself humanity but there He underwent the transfiguration, the metamorphosis. And for that time the glory, that innate glory that was His shone through. We are to be undergoing a metamorphosis by the renewing of our mind, that now what we are in Christ we have become, as Peter says, partakers of the divine nature. The divine nature now is being manifest, the very character of God being produced in us. Certainly we will be different than the world, certainly the world may see us as strange. We have a whole different set of values, we are motivated by something they know nothing of, we are living with a goal that is totally outside their realm of understanding. How tragic that I should allow the world to shape me, that I should take on their silly, pitiful, empty hopes and goals and activities. Is it any wonder the light we have seems to shine so dimly? It's just like them, we live just like them, our goals are just like theirs, our hopes are just like theirs. We talk about what they talk about, we live like they live. But we want to squeeze church in, but as long as it doesn't take too long and doesn't intrude too much into my life, that's okay. My life is about the people of God, the service of God, the things that please God.

Transformed, by the renewing of your mind, the making new of your mind. So you see when he talks about our bodies he is talking about everything including our minds. They are being made new. We have to look at several verses. II Corinthians 3:18, but we all with unveiled face ______________ now as we look into the word of God, as we look into the truths revealed concerning Christ, what we call our New Testament by and large, the new covenant as Paul has been talking about in II Corinthians 3. We all with unveiled face, the veil is removed in Christ, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. This is a supernatural mirror because you are looking into this mirror but what is being reflected back is the glory of Christ. We are being transformed, there is our word. We are undergoing that metamorphosis. Into the same image, the image of Christ that we are seeing as we behold Him in the mirror of the word, we are becoming like Him. Into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. So why do we come and study the word of God? Why do we read it through the week? Why do we hold it up? That's the mirror, I'm looking into the mirror of God's word but it's the image of Christ I see. But the supernatural work of the Spirit of God is to take and transform me so I look more like my Savior, into His image. The beauty of His character is being created and developed and produced in me. We ought to have a hunger for the word, more of it because I want to be more like Him.

Look in II Corinthians 4:16, therefore we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed. There is our word, by the renewing of your mind. Our inner man is being renewed, and note this, day by day. It is an ongoing process, not only one hour a week but day by day. The work of God as I'm living a life submissive to Him, obedient to Him, submissive to the word, I'm undergoing that transformation. Our outer man may be decaying, physical problems of one kind or another, the difficulties that come. Momentary, light affliction, it's brief, it's light compared to what? It's producing for us an eternal, contrast to momentary; weight, contrast to light. Light affliction, weight of glory far beyond all comparison. How can you compare the glory that God has prepared for us with the afflictions that may come as we serve Him in this life. There is no comparison, it is far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, the things which are not seen are eternal. How do we compare ourselves with the people of the world? I'm looking at things they cannot see, they are looking at things they can see. That's what their life is about, what they can have, what they can get, what they can do to make life more enjoyable and pleasant. And we are looking at things they never have seen—eternal glory. Do you know what happens when they talk so much about how wonderful the things they are looking at are and they bombard us with their advertisements and why life couldn't be fulfilling and happy without it, pretty soon my eyes start to look at the things which are seen. And I lose my perspective. I have to keep my eyes on those things which are not seen, not on the things which are seen, which are temporary.

Come back to Romans 12. So that you may prove what is the will of God, that which is good and well-pleasing and perfect. You know the ability to discern the will of God. How can I know the will of God? Learn the word of God, submit to the word of God, conduct yourself every day in light of what you know God has said and you will be able to prove, discern, put to the test and come to a decision. To know the will of God. Everything God intends us to know, His will for us, we know. And it's that which is good. That's how you know the will of God, it's that which is good, that which is well-pleasing to Him, that which is perfect, consistent with the perfection of His character. That's how I want to live my life, according to the will of God. I wonder what God's will for me is. The more you know the will of God, the more that you mature in the word of God, the more you'll know the will of God. God's intention for you to function according to His will. His intention is not to keep it secret from us, it's His intention to make it known and have us to live according to it.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your word, the richness of your word. What honor you have bestowed upon us that we should be called sons of the living God, that we should be privileged to give our bodies as a sacrifice to you, that you would be pleased to receive our bodies as a sacrifice, that we are honored to live our lives every moment of every day in an act of worship, sacrifice, service to you, that we can live lives not conformed to this world. But transformed lives, minds made new. Lord, may that characterize us in every situation, every circumstance. May we not lose our perspective. We pray in Christ's name, amen.