Living the New Life of Worship

Transcript

GR 2253
10/18/2020
Living the New Life of Worship
Romans 12:1-2
Gil Rugh

We’re going to Romans chapter 12. We begin a new chapter in the book of Romans, and we begin a new section of the book of Romans. The book of Romans is logical in its development. After the introduction we went to Paul unfolding in some detail from chapter 1, verse 18 through chapter 3, verse 20, where he talked about condemnation. The reality of our sin and guilt before God, and the judgment that brings on our lives if it’s not dealt with. And the only way it can be dealt with is in the next section of Romans from chapter 3, verse 21 to chapter 5, verse 21, the doctrine of justification; God providing His righteousness for us through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. So that logical progression. You first have to understand your sinful condition. Understand why it was necessary for the Son of God to come and die on the cross to be the propitiation for our sins, to turn God’s wrath away from u, and satisfy the demands and requirements of a holy God.

Then we moved to what follows, justification. A life to be lived for our Savior and our God, sanctification, holy living and the provision that God’s work of salvation provides. Not only for us to be cleansed and declared righteous but now to live by the power of the Spirit the new life He’s given to us in Christ. Then we had to have, keeping the alliteration going, clarification. How does Israel fit into the work of redemption that God is now doing in this church age? So, chapters 9, 10, and 11 explained how this is part of the eternal plan of God. Israel is under judgment for their rejection of the Messiah, but God is not finished with Israel. They are in a time of discipline of God and there will come a time when God will turn His attention back to Israel in His work of salvation and the Gentile world will come under the devasting judgments of God. And we are ready for the last major section which is exhortation. So, we went from condemnation to justification to sanctification to clarification to exhortation.

How shall we now live as God’s people? Let’s get to the specifics. This section is built on everything that has gone before. The first eleven chapters laid the foundation, particularly those first eight chapters. Chapters 9, 10, and 11 showed how God’s mercy and grace in salvation provides for Israel, His chosen nation, even with their rebellion. Now His grace and mercy provides for this time of Gentile salvation as He prepares Israel for His dealing with them.

This section, when we start chapter 12, is really an elaboration and applying of the theological truth that comes out of this previous section, in particularly, the section on sanctification, chapters 6, 7, and 8. Because chapters 6, 7, and 8 showed how God has provided for holy living in His work of justification. Not just He has provided for us to be cleansed, forgiven, and declared righteous and now we just wander on our own. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 showed how God has provided clearly that work of redemption includes for holy living.

Now what we are doing, picking up with chapter 12, is applying in details of certain areas how that theology, if you will, of sanctification is worked out in our conduct. So that’s why we call it exhortation to godly living. Crucial that we have the foundation in the previous chapters. Sometimes what becomes in a weakness in the evangelical church is that we are always concerned with being practical. I want practical teaching. I want things that will tell me how to live. But if you don’t have the theological foundation, you are building on sand. So really this is just the natural outflow and showing us how it works out in different areas in our lives, but if you just start with Romans chapter 12 into chapter 15, what’s the foundation for that? We just are being told what to do and God gives us guidance in our conduct, but it flows out of a transformation that has taken place.

We divide and Paul’s letters often do. He lays the doctrinal foundation then he gives what we call the practical application of it. So, you can distinguish the two, but you cannot separate them. What God has provided for us in His work of redemption must and does lead to holy living. People who start with trying holy living end up with a false religion. They are trying to build a life out of trying to conform themselves to what God has said they should do. Wait a minute! Do you have a relationship with the living God, His Spirit indwelling you? Have you become a partaker of the divine nature as Peter put it? Have you been set free from the power of his enslaving sin? If these things aren’t answered, we don’t want to be trying to encourage people to reform their lives, clean it up. We can see it ultimately deteriorates. It’s like someone who has a fatal disease and you just give them something that makes them feel better, but the problem is not solved, and it will only deteriorate.

We pick up with the word therefore in chapter 12, verse 1 of Romans. “Therefore…” and that builds on what he has said in the previous eleven chapters, because even what he said about Israel showed the mercy of God and how it is God’s mercy and God’s grace that is working out the purpose and plan of God for the redemption of Gentiles as well as Israel. Now, “Therefore (with our understanding of what God has done and is doing) I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God...” We talked about mercy. The last part of chapter 11 stressed God’s mercy. Verse 30 of chapter 11, “For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy...so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience, so that He may show mercy to all.” So that summarizing of those previous eleven chapters. It’s all about God’s mercy, God’s grace, God’s sovereign work in bringing us salvation. So, on the basis of these mercies, same idea. A little different word used here, but God’s compassion, God’s mercy, what He has done on our behalf.

“…I urge you, brethren, (fellow believers) by the mercies of God, (here’s what you are to do) to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice...” That’s what we do. We present our bodies, “…as a living and holy sacrifice...” This is not new. Come back to Romans chapter 6. I was reading a theological journal article on Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and for some reason the writer missed the connection with chapter 6 and he’s off building his own kind of framework for this instruction, “…present your bodies.” But this is clearly what Romans chapter 6 is talking about, “…present your bodies.” The first part of the chapter talks about that we were identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Again, that’s foundational. That picked up from the previous section on justification, that Christ died. And chapter 6 opened showing how when we placed our faith in Christ we are identified with Christ in His death, in His burial, and in His resurrection, so that now we have a new life. The old life has been broken off. We have been made new.

Verse 11 said, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts...” Don’t lose the connection. We have evangelicals all caught up in what’s going on in the world thinking it’s so crucial that we get people to understand that they need to stop the sinful behavior, they need to pass laws. Sin is a reproach to any nation, that’s true. But we can’t cleanup these lies. We don’t want to give that idea because it’s a denial of what God says. Only He can set us free. You can’t clean yourself up. You need to die and be made new, made alive. “…do not let sin reign in your mortal body (this physical body) that you should obey its lusts…” because this physical body becomes the vehicle through which we express our true inner condition. As he will go on, either a slave of sin or a slave of righteousness.

Note the next verse, “…and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but (here’s our word again) present yourselves to God...” That’s the same word we have in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, “I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies…” That’s not new material. He’s picking up what he instructed us, with the theological foundation in chapter 6. So, the first two verses of Romans chapter 12 prepare us. Then he’ll get into specifics, specific areas of behavior. But it’s all founded on this: we died with Christ, we’ve been made new, we’ve been raised with a new life. So, don’t go on presenting your bodies to be used for unrighteous, ungodly activities, “…but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” The parts of your body, now to be used to carry out the righteous acts of God. So our behavior is changed because we have been changed within. I’m not the old person. I’m a new person. So that’s foundational to the instruction.

This word “present” is used five times in the verses following verse 13. Just pick them up with me here. Twice in verse 13 as we saw, “…do not go on presenting…but present yourselves...” Twice he emphasized, you don’t present yourselves to sin. You present yourselves to God. Down in verse 16, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” So here, our body being given over either to sin, so it is presented to sin. It was in our old state to be used for sinful purposes. Don’t be surprised at the wretched condition that the world, particularly in our own country, has deteriorated into. You say, I never expected I’d see this! The major thing being debated in a Presidential election comes to be, should you kill babies and is immorality an acceptable lifestyle? And it becomes discussion, but that’s what He says.

Down in verse 19 we’ll have the word “present” used again. “I am speaking in human terms…” so he’s drawing analogies here. Verse 18 he said, “…having been freed from sin…” How? By believing in Christ and being identified with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection, “…you became slaves of righteousness.” We move from one realm of slavery to the other. Everyone is a slave in a biblical sense. We can use the term free and that, but you either are a slave of sin and you are a slave of sin until you are set free by faith in Christ. Now some who are slaves of sin have a more cleaned up exterior than others, but God says He looks at the heart and the heart is desperately wicked above all things and only He can know how desperately wicked the heart really is and that’s what matters. Jesus said in Mark 7 and parallel passages that it’s out of the heart that all these sinful activities come. So you don’t fix it by suppressing the expression of those sinful activities and think, now I’m more pleasing to God because He’s looking at the heart, and you haven’t changed anything until the heart has been changed, the inner person.

So in verse 19, “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness...” It’s a deteriorating condition and you presented your body. That’s how you used it. Your mind, your body, your brain, your thinking, your hand, your life was devoted to sin, within and without. “…so now present (there’s our fifth use of that word since verse 13 in chapter 6) your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.” What? “…as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.” What? “…slaves to righteousness, resulting…” really in holiness. Sanctification really being just another basic use of the word holy. It comes from the same basic word, to be sanctified, to be holy, to be a saint. Those are set apart from sin to God, the parts of my body. What do I think of when I come to Romans chapter 12, verse 1? “Therefore I urge (beseech) you, by the mercies of God…” on the basis of the mercies of God. Those mercies have been unfolded. Here we see them in chapter 6. God in mercy provided for us deliverance and freedom from the slavery and bondage to sin. That was explained more in detail in the chapters on justification. How Christ paid the penalty for our sin so that we, when we believe in Him, could justly be declared righteous and that involves cleansing from sin and set free from sin.

So now with that background, let’s go to Romans 12. We may come back to Romans 6, you might want to leave something there although it’s easy to get there. Romans 12, verse 1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” So that’s why I say you can’t start in Romans 12. And this is where, if the church slides into, well, we don’t want so much doctrine and theology, we need practical, life application teaching. What do you think the first 11 chapters of Romans are? God talking to Himself? You have to have a foundation to go from, otherwise you think, well, I’ll present my body. I have people who are earnest, sincere in a human way of talking. They go to church faithfully. They partake of the sacraments. They send their kids to parochial schools. And then in other parts of the world, different religions, they’ll put themselves through painful experiences. They’ll die for their prophets. But it’s all wasted. The only hope is the mercies of God.

Now we’re talking to believers, brethren, you who have entered into the mercy of God, His multiplied compassions, present your bodies to Him. This is what you ought to do. So, you see, he’s picked up chapter 6, and now he’s going to give us some examples of this. And we’ll see that as we come through chapters 12, 13, 14, and into 15. He’ll talk about specific areas. Look down in chapter 12, verse 17, “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.” Well, he doesn’t start there. We find people quoting bible verses who have no understanding what the bible is about. Love your neighbor. I saw a lawn sign that somebody put out. We’re all about love your neighbor. What does that mean? Well, it’s biblical, don’t you believe the bible? But if you don’t have any foundation, we’re just throwing out things that fit. So, we begin to use Scripture, and the unbeliever does this for his own selfish ends. Not because he’s submitted himself to the living God, and now is motivated to please Him. It’s just a convenient way to use the bible to promote their own selfish ends.

So, “…present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice…” This sacrificial living where a sacrifice would be presented, we are a living and holy sacrifice. Now, in Israel they had sacrifices, but those sacrifices had to die. But we have died with Christ. We’ve been raised to new life. A life now, that is to be His life, lived through us. 1 Corinthians 6, “…you are not your own…you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” That’s a natural, that’s what he’s talking about here. Remember we went from being a slave of sin to being a slave of righteousness. What does a slave do? He obeys his master. That’s what Romans 6 was about. This is what he talked about in those earlier chapters, before you got saved when you were a slave of sin, you devoted your whole life to sin. Your thoughts and your actions, all were consistent.

Well, now by God’s grace and mercy, you’ve been transferred to a new realm. A slave of righteousness, which he also calls a slave of God, at the end of Romans 6. So, you have that total, complete devotion to Him. Just like you used your body and served sin with it, now you use your body to do what would be pleasing to Him. They are not complicated concepts. We are a living sacrifice because we’ve been made alive in Christ. Come back to Romans 6, verse 4. “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death…” And this is spirit baptism, by one spirit we’ve all been identified with the death of Christ. So, when you believed in Christ, God looked at you and considered you as having died when Christ died. Because He was taking your place now. His work is being applied to you. “…so that, as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” That’s where we are. We are now, presenting our bodies, a living sacrifice because we’re going to be walking a new life. Living a new life. Come down to verse 11 of chapter 6. “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God. There you are! We are living. We have a new life. We’re living this new life. “…alive to God in Christ Jesus.” That’s the pattern. We go onto verse 20, which I referred to, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.” Verse 22, “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, (your fruit) resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.” It’s a new life lived. It’s not, well, now I’ve been saved, now I’ve been forgiven my sins, now I know I’m not going to hell, now I can go on with life. No! Now I’ve got a new life to live. Now, it’s going to have pressure, that’s what we’re going to see.

Come back to Romans 12, verse 1. It’s a living and holy sacrifice, holy set apart to God. Our bodies are parts used as instruments of righteousness, as we saw in chapter 6, verse 12 through chapter 12 of Romans. Use the members of your bodies as instruments. Things to do righteous things. To do the will of God. Not to earn righteousness from God, but now I’m His slave. The new life I have is His life, if you will. It belongs to Him. He purchased us out of the slave market of sin, to use that analogy. Paid the price. Now, we belong to Him. This body belongs to Him. I have to use it for His purposes. This is what is well pleasing to God. That word acceptable, you have in your margin, well pleasing. Compound word there, well pleasing, acceptable because it’s pleasing to God. That’s the desire isn’t it? He’s our new master in the picture. We’re slaves of God, we’re slaves of righteousness. Everything about my life is to be about pleasing Him. That becomes a sifting for my life. Would this be pleasing to God?

It’s what we talked about in Jude. Keep yourselves in the love of God. The same concept. I want to consider everything in that light. This is “…your spiritual service of worship.” That word “spiritual”, it could be a difficult word. You have an alternative, “rational” in the note beside it, if you’re using the NASB. It’s only used one other time and that’s in 1 Peter 2. “Logician”, we get the word logic from it. So, it can carry the idea, as you go outside the bible, since we only have the two uses. Something that is rational, that is according to clear thinking kind of thing. But it takes it into the realm of the spiritual. This is what we offer to God in our religious service, our spiritual service. I think it carries that concept of that which is consistent. Because he’s going to talk about the mind. So, it is a rational thing to do. It’s the only rational thing to do, in light of the fact, what? We died to the old life. We were set free from the old realm in which we were enslaved. We have a new life enslaved to God and righteousness.

What’s the only rational thing to do in our worship of God? Here I am, it’s Yours, I’m Yours. What I do now. That doesn’t mean that I don’t go to my job. That’s what he’s going to talk about in this following area. But I do it with a new motivation and a new clarity and a new intention. This is our spiritual service of worship. You know we talk about how we come together for worship, and we’re not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, that’s biblical. But really, our life of worship is to be a life of worship. It’s not, well I went to worship today, and we sang, and we studied the bible. Now I’ve got the rest of the week. Well, there is a refreshing that comes and the fellowship of believers as we come together and worship. It is a refreshing time. Its why God appointed it, it’s His purpose. And we join together and that strengthens us.

You know what tomorrow, Monday morning will be? Part of my life of worship. What is worship? It’s submitting to the living God, with a desire to give Him honor. A life that honors Him. That’s what I’m going to do tomorrow, right? We as evangelicals, this building becomes a “sacred space”. This is just a building we built to meet in. People say, Oh I wouldn’t do that there, that’s the church, not just a building where the church meets corporately. You know what? Where’s the Spirit live? Inside here, right? Well, wherever we go, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So, that’s the controlling factor. So, no matter what I’m doing tomorrow, whatever my responsibilities and job that God has entrusted to me, I don’t lose sight of what I am there. That doesn’t mean I always have to be talking spiritual things and acting holy. But in my conduct, I’m going to be careful. There are things that the people around me may get involved in, may do, may talk about that I don’t want to be part of. I can’t do that. Now, I want to be careful, I don’t give the idea that I’m a better person, I’m not. And the holier than thou, but I want to live a holy life. If you live a holy life, it will be different than other lives of those who are not holy. We get the idea, well, we want to show the world that we’re like them. No, we don’t! We want to show them that we are not like them. Not with arrogance, but I live a different life. I don’t talk down to them. I don’t try to point out to them how bad they are because they do what I wouldn’t do.

But it may provide an occasion; they might wonder why don’t you do that? I’m not trying to come down on them, I explain well, Christ changed my life. He made me new. And quite frankly, some things that I want to be involved in, I’ve wanted to do, I don’t anymore. And I want to be careful that I explain things. So, this is where we are, we don’t want to lose. God didn’t save us, and now all I’m doing is, hanging on. Do I get the glory? No, I’m living out the new life in preparation for the glory that He has promised. Now, other verses. Remember, Jesus corrected the woman at the well in John 4. She wanted to know, where shall we worship? And well, the Jews are right and you’re wrong. He didn’t blur the issues. The Jews say this, and we Samaritans say that, well the Jews are right. Jerusalem is God’s appointed place and the Jews are God’s people. He doesn’t blur, but he understood that the physical place is not the issue.

God is looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. If that’s not what we’re doing, it doesn’t matter if you come to this building. If your life is not a life of worship, coming and taking up a seat won’t turn that into an act of worship. That’s a privilege. I walk with God tomorrow. Monday’s not oh no, Lord, here we go again, out into the world! But I’m going out there with You, and You’re going with me out there. He said I’ll never leave you or forsake you. The Spirit doesn’t step out of our bodies when we leave this building. This is His permanent residence. So, wherever I go tomorrow, He’ll be just as much with me. I think there’s a sense in the bible where the Spirit is with us as we corporately gather together because we as believers gather together. If we leave here and people who do not know Christ come in and take up seats, will the Spirit be here? No. He doesn’t stay in the building waiting for us to come back next week. When we walk out the door, the Spirit, so to speak, goes out. I realize He’s omnipresent, but in the way that the Scripture talks about.

So, what’s our responsibility? Verse 2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…” That’s Romans 6 wasn’t it? You’ve been raised to newness of life. So, you see what he’s doing, he’s just preparing us for some of the specifics he’s going to talk about. How we do in practical daily matters. What he laid the foundation for in chapter 6. So if you want some help, see, what does it look like when I’m living this life? What do I do out here? He’ll pick that up in verse 3. I’m going to start out with how I think about myself and how I think about others, how I think about fellow believers and so on. Because that’s where we’re moving out from. We’re starting with ourselves individually and then we’re talking about ourselves corporately, because God has put us together. We understand that being now, when you placed your faith in Christ, given new life, He placed you into a body. Now, we talk about your body individually is the Holy Spirit, but this is a body of believers. The church is His body. There’s a corporateness, so that’s where he’ll pick up.

“…do not be conformed to this world…” Same thing as Romans 6. What? Don’t present the members of your body to sin. Now, the enlightening thing, I remember how it struck me with clarity many years ago when I was sitting in a theology class in bible college and John Cawood, who spoke here, and is with the Lord many years ago, said, “Men, you never have to sin. You’ve been set free. You never have to sin.” And I thought, I never have to sin. The slavery to sin has been broken. You have been made new. He’s clear, that doesn’t mean you never will sin, but whenever you sin, it’s because you willed to sin. And you know, we forget that as believers. He’s instructing us, “…do not be conformed to this world…” He doesn’t say, well, because of God’s power you never will be. And we have this sovereignty of God and responsibility of man. Here we have it in the life of one now who has been raised to new life in Christ. Romans 6 says it, you do not present your bodies. He doesn’t say because God so now overrules, you never will present your body to sin. There’s a responsibility to it. But the power is there. So, don’t be conformed to this world. That’s why people say I’m simplistic. They come and say, well, I’m entangled in sin. First, I start out, are you a believer? Work through that. If they’re convinced they are a believer, then I say, stop it! Oh, that’s easy to say. Yes, it’s very easy to say, that’s why I said it. We have to go back to the foundation. We all have to do that for ourselves.

We say, well, that’s simple. It is! I didn’t say it’s easy, because that’s what Romans 6 said, remember? You present your bodies to do something, you allow yourself to be enslaved. I can’t say, well, I’m a believer, I could go take drugs because they couldn’t enslave me. I’m a believer, I can get involved in immorality, it wouldn’t enslave me. I’m a believer, I could drink all the alcohol I want, I wouldn’t get enslaved. We think of all these things. No! I have a responsibility now and I have to be careful because there is nothing the devil would like more than to pull me back into his realm again. As we talked about in Jude. What he wants to do is little by little. We saw that with believers getting entangled. The picture of a brand snatched from the burning and so on because sin is deceptive.

Even as believers, we think, well, I’m a child of God, I wouldn’t surely go too far. But there is pleasure in sin. Sometimes that pleasure can have a strong pull. If I don’t stop it sooner, it doesn’t get easier to stop it later. Then I’m really frustrated because I know enough theology to say, I thought I was set free but I can’t stop. Yeah, nobody said it’s an easy life; otherwise we’d be living perfectly. And we keep going to James, why do you keep saying things you shouldn’t have said, using your tongue improperly? Why do we do that? Because we want to. Why do we say that? Sometimes before we’ve said it we know we shouldn’t, but we want to get it out because I’ll get certain pleasure by saying it. But if I’m a believer then I have a certain misery knowing I said what I shouldn’t have said.

So, “…do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing (making new) of your mind…” We are back to the mind. This is another area where the church deteriorates. We either want to go one way or the other. We want an emotionally driven church. I want to feel like I’ve worshiped. Then we go to the liturgical side and we’ve got evangelicalism involved in that going back to the old ways. You dim the lights and we’re going to have candles. You see this in religions. They walk around throwing the incense and creating a mood. In some studies I was doing years ago I remember talking to one of the professors. He’s talking about all these things you do. I said, when you’re all done it seems to me what you’ve done is create a religious experience without the Holy Spirit being involved. You can build a church without the Holy Spirit being involved. You’ve found a shortcut in adopting these methods and do this with people going along. Oh, I like it because I feel like I’ve worshiped. You know where he is.

It is “…by the renewing of your mind…” That’s why we had all that theology poured into our mind in the first eleven chapters, because this is an ongoing process. The mind has to be developed. That’s growth. Just like the picture of a little child. If they stop developing mentally that’s not a good thing. For us it’s the renewing of our mind, that’s how this transformation process works. It’s the maturing process. We take in truth. We take in truth not just to have more knowledge, but it becomes clear to me now how I should conduct myself. I sift things out more clearly. I’m more discerning. It’s the making new of your mind. This enables us so we may be able to prove, put to the test, and evaluate what the will of God is.
We have whole books written on the will of God. Paul puts it pretty simply here. Keep filing your mind with the word of God, with sound biblical truths. Don’t allow yourself to be conformed to the world and its thinking. “…so that may prove (sort out, put to the test) what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (well-pleasing).” There’s our word again, “perfect.” That’s what He wants. We want to cut through and I just want to know what I should do here. I don’t want a theology lesson, just tell me. What do you think is the right thing to do? There’s no shortcut. You can’t make this three-year-old be a thirty-year-old. It just doesn’t work. You have to grow. If the growth stunts at three, it’s going to be a problem ongoing. That’s why the devil is always working. We’ll worship out of the mind. Now music is used and what happens in evangelicalism is to create a feeling, an atmosphere. We have people who pick their church because, oh, the music moves me. Then we have to have music for this age group and music for that age group. We are communicating theology.

I was thinking that in our music both this morning and this evening. How this just expresses in such a clear way and it impacts you because music does communicate. You find you’re going over in your mind but what? If we are not presenting sound theology, what are we doing? We’re like the song in a sad movie that always makes me cry. We can be moved emotionally by a lot of things that don’t have anything to do with sound theology. We create churches like that. People are excited and enthused. What about the theology? I asked my professor when I was out in California, and said yes, but what about the theology? I’ve shared with you many times that he said, Gil, that’s the beautiful thing about these methods. They work whatever is your theology. He thought that was good. We can have success broad based. I thought it was the whole problem of what they were doing. What do we want to do? Build a church and God doesn’t have to be in it? We’ve learned how to do it whether He’s part of it or not? That’s what we’re really talking about isn’t it? So, we want to please Him. We want to know what the will of God is. That doesn’t mean there aren’t times we talk about people. Talk with other believers, sound believers when I have decisions before me. I’d like your input, but I ought to be growing in knowing what the will of God is. He wants me to know His will. It’s not something He’s hiding from me. He doesn’t necessarily reveal it all at once.

When I went to study for the ministry He didn’t reveal to me that He’d be sending me to that forsaken part of the country called Nebraska. Didn’t reveal to me there’d be a church there. He didn’t reveal to me…no! Step by step! So, if I don’t take in the Word and I’m not looking, then I might have been looking for a church different than what God would have had for me. I come and I at least had enough of a foundation to reveal, and there were people here with enough of a foundation. Yes, we’re on the same page biblically, theologically. We want to join together in growing in the Word and being used of God. That’s what you want to know, what the will of God is? Get in the Word! That’s why it’s important for young people to be in the Word. To be in a church with the Word. I get concerned. Parents move to churches where the kids like it. Well, maybe they’ll have to learn to like their vegetables. We want to put them where they’ll learn the truth and early. So, the earlier they learn truth and trust in the Savior through the truths as revealed, the more prepared they’ll be for life. Now we’re ready to go into some of the details. What we would call the practical application of this being fleshed out, worked out in our lives as God’s people.

Let’s have a word of prayer. Then I want to deal with some of the questions that you’ve sent to me. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. We are reminded, it is a practical Word. The most serious theology has in the intention that it be lived out in a godly life. Lord, we want to have a proper perspective on Your Word. We are excited to come into this section because it just reveals how practical the theology we have been studying together, really is. These truths were not just to give us knowledge. These were truths that enable us to live lives that are pleasing to you, lives that are really lives of worship of the true and living God. What a privilege is ours as Your children. Bless even our further discussion. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.

I’ve received a number of questions. I don’t know whether I’m going to get any shorter. I did talk to the preacher from the morning hour and gave him a stern lecture. He’s going to have to learn to be shorter. He’s not a very good listener. He’s an old man but I’m working on him so keep that in mind. Something for your prayer list. Lord, help him to be biblical, but shorter. Alright, some questions and I haven’t picked these in any particular order but I’ve got a series that connect.

*** Is it possible for an unfallen angel to sin today? What prevents an angel from sinning now or in the future? Why would Satan’s fall and those who followed him be the only time that could happen? Are the current unfallen angels being kept sinless by the same power that will keep us sinless after the rapture, in other words, the Holy Spirit?

I think we are in two different realms. And again, it’s the sovereignty of God, just like God’s plan provided for the sin of Adam. Now when that sin of Adam occurred, as we studied in Romans 5, the rest of us did not have the same choice. We were born in sin. As the psalmist wrote, “…in sin my mother conceived me.” We were sinners from conception and Romans 5 developed that. Because of our connection to Adam we were born sinners. Why is that? Because God planned it that way. And then when we place our faith in Christ and our sin is forgiven, His plan is that we will never be lost again, even though we may sin. Because of the redemption He provided, He provided to encompass all of our sin, past, present, and future. So, there’s certain things that fit that realm. I take it for angels, there was a dividing line there, like there was for Adam, where the angels were created, then there came a time when God had made a decisive point for them. A decision was to be made just like Adam had that decision point, Adam and Eve in the garden. Angels had that. We have a little bit of that in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 with the fall of Satan. And God provided there that decision would settle their eternal destiny. Now Adam’s decision did settle the eternal destiny for his descendants, except God planned to intervene in Adam’s descendants and provide a Savior. But His plan for angels did not include that. So I take it for angels, it was a settled matter and settled as far as we can tell. If Adam hadn’t eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but had eaten of the tree of life he would have been confirmed in his righteousness and there would have been no fall. There’s no indication that the fall could have occurred in a subsequent descendant of Adam. Just like the undoing of it could only happen in one descendant of Adam and that took a unique descendant who was not only a descendant of Adam physically, but He was the eternal Son of God. So, I would take it that angels are kept because their decision not to sin but to be faithful to God, confirmed their destiny permanently. They don’t need the presence of the Holy Spirit to keep them holy, if we can express it that way, in light of the question. They won’t be kept sinless. They are sinless by the eternal plan of God. Those angels who did not join in that initial rebellion will be confirmed in their holiness. There wasn’t any such group in existence because God created all the angels directly. He only created one man, Adam. Out of that one man, He created the counterpart to Adam, Eve, remember, out of the side part. Then all the rest are descendants. That’s not the way the angels were created. So, when God made the decisive point, that division settled their destiny, confirmed the angels who were faithful to God in their holiness and confirmed the angels who rebelled with Satan in their unholiness, and that cannot be changed. Cannot be changed because God didn’t provide a Savior for them. That’s Hebrews chapter 2. Christ became a man. He didn’t become an angel, so there is no salvation for angels. The only explanation for that is, it pleased God to do it this way. I think it is a matter of God’s plan and work in creating them for their own purpose. Angels are different beings than human beings. They were created differently in that they were all created at once. All humanity was not created at once. There was one man and then from that one man the rest of humanity descended.

***Regarding believers who survive the tribulation and pass into the millennial kingdom in their earthly bodies, will they be capable of sinning during the millennium, much like believer’s sin today? Evidently their sin nature will be passed on to their children during the millennial kingdom, thus each person born during that period will need to repent and trust in Christ for salvation. Is that correct?

Yes, it’s correct. And so, those people who survive the tribulation, and are believers in Jesus Christ will go into the millennium in their physical bodies. That’s the sifting out of the judgments in Matthew 25. All unbelievers are executed at that judgment. All believers at that judgment, this is a judgment of living people at the second coming of Christ. Those who have survived that seven years. Believers, they have trusted Christ because remember the rapture of the Church occurred at the beginning of that seventieth week of Daniel, the seven years. So those go into the tribulation and are saved during the tribulation and particularly God’s working with Israel in that period, preparing them, although there will be Gentiles saved. We have the two prophets raised up in Jerusalem that will be proclaiming the Gospel and so on. Those people will go into the kingdom in their physical bodies and they will repopulate the earth because we see the devastating judgments of the tribulation in Revelation. Billions of people die. Now with Christ coming, the establishing of the kingdom, He’ll go into the millennial kingdom, the first phase of the eternal kingdom, that thousand years, and children will be born. They will pass on their sin nature. So I take it that would indicate, even believers could sin, but there’ll be some things that would minimize that we don’t have present today, but they won’t have then. The devil and the demons are not present during the thousand years. So they will not be deceiving people in the world. They won’t try to deceive believers and lure them into sin. It will be a perfect environment, perfect conditions. Physical illnesses and so on will not be present. Open sin and defiance will meet with immediate judgment.

***One of the questions relates to that, I’ll mention. So all of that helps I think to keep believers from practicing sin. Now since they have a sin nature could they sin?

The bible doesn’t address it, but I take it, that it would be possible because they are going to have a sin nature they pass on. But the sin nature will be more restrained, if I can put it that way. Even in the unbeliever, they won’t be allowed to express it with the openness that they will, when the devil is released at the end of the thousand years. Then you have that number like the sand on the seashore that join him in that rebellion. So, there is a suppression of the expression of sin. But I think the context to which it occurs, the devil not being present, helps a lot. Remember when Peter had to be rebuked by Christ? Christ said to him, “get behind Me, Satan.” The devil was using Peter, and Peter was allowing himself to be used by the devil, but you won’t have demonic activity and the devil, because they are bound during that thousand years. And then the other things, the changes that take place, I think will make sin on the behalf of the believer at least more restrained, more limited. But I wouldn’t say it wouldn’t be possible, because we will have a sin nature and it will be passed on to the children.

***I have two questions here on Zechariah 14. No rain will fall on Gentile nations or families who do not come to Jerusalem to worship Messiah during the millennial kingdom. The millennium is the first thousand years. There’s going to be changes in the earth, but the major changes don’t occur until the new heavens and the new earth after the thousand years, in the chronological developments. I may say something more about it in a moment. I’m trying to limit my answers here. It is assumed that such a nation like Egypt will be comprised of believers and unbelievers. Therefore, is such a judgment based on a country nationally? In other words, those who won’t come up to Jerusalem for the appointed feast.
I think we are dealing with national entities there. It’s not going to be every person from every nation comes up, but there is a national representation and an agreement in that. It’s like we have our nation and the leaders are to represent the nation. We have elections that supposedly help keep them representative of the rest of the nation, but in the millennium, there will be that. But the judgment is on the nation. God will withhold the nation from Egypt because if they, as a nation are moving that way. Because keep in mind, we’re getting large numbers of unbelievers during this thousand years because when we get to the end of the thousand years, Revelation chapter 20, verses 9, 10, in there, we have a number when they are given the option to openly rebel against Christ, and they choose Satan as their leader rather than Christ. So, these more limited expressions of resistance to God’s will, will be met with that kind of judgment. Now some of this is hard to work out because all we have to relate to is the earth we are living on and its present conditions. And there are connections because He is withholding the rain and the rain will be necessary and they are coming up to Jerusalem. We have a physical, little earth here and that will be true in the future, but there’s going to be more major differences. I think the judgments, because He’s not going to withhold rain on individuals within the nation. It’s an expression, there are nations and it will require, remember, Christ is going to rule with a rod of iron in the millennium. So, resistance and rebellion will be firmly dealt with. That’s why I think in Isaiah it says when a person dies at one hundred, he’ll thought to be accursed because he’s just a child. Certain expressions, there won’t be murders. There won’t be those kinds of open acts of defiance. So, these limited expressions, if I can say that, well we won’t go up to the feast. We won’t send representatives up to the feast as is appointed. I’m not minimizing that, that is an expression of rebellion but it’s not the open rebellion that we will see at the end of the millennium or would be expressed like we have it. We have sin going on all the time and people lie, but they don’t go to prison usually for their lies. Don’t get too specific here. But for murdering someone, that carries it to another level. I think in the millennium we are evidently going to have that. It’s a rule of iron and it’s going to be clear enough that the severity of the judgments are for open defiance, but there’s going to be these things that happen. So I think it will be national, national entities.

***And a related question. In Zechariah 14, that passage, how will nations from great distances travel to Jerusalem?

It doesn’t seem possible there would be mechanized transportation without a refueling network after the tribulation. Some of these things, yeah, you start to think about.

***Is it possible that nations in North and South America or others a great distance a way will not longer exist so the travel to Jerusalem is reasonable for the remaining nations?

Well remember, we have changes, significant changes in the topography and the condition of the earth, even during that thousand-year period. Now again, how travel will be affected, we just don’t know. And what these changes will involve and some of these things, the desert will be changed, so you won’t have to worry about making a way, another way around the desert. But how are they going to travel? You know, fossil fuels? Maybe electric, maybe natural gas, but how are you going to get there? And these are going to be people in physical bodies that have to make the trip so there is going to be a trip involved because they have to come up to Jerusalem. So that, all that in the millennium. I think we can’t grasp the amount of changes. And then when we move to the next phase, this got me thinking, well what about when we move into the new heavens and the new earth? We were in Colorado for a little bit. I was looking at Pikes Peak. You can see it from everywhere in Colorado Springs. It’s just over 14,000 feet. Now I’m on one of my rabbit trails that take up my time. It’s just over 14,000 feet, 14,115 feet. I got to thinking about that they have 58 mountains that high in Colorado. They call them the “fourteeners.” You can get a t-shirt or something to hang on your wall that lists them all. I don’t have one of those t-shirts, but it gives you the height and everything. I’m thinking, 14,000 feet. I’m going to round these off so I’m not always getting 14,115. A mile is 5,280 feet. So Pikes Peak is less than 3 miles high. I’m looking at the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. It’s 1,500 miles high. It’s a cube, but I’m just doing the height now. 1,500 miles high and I don’t know. Some of you may correct me because my Dad always told me how important it was that I studied mathematics. So, I took trigonometry, and calculus, and algebra I and II and it really helps me when I tell you to turn to Romans chapter 12, verse 1. But I did it. So I’m working here, a guy who is not into mathematics. 5,280 feet make a mile. 15,000 miles, the New Jerusalem is high. I multiplied it out. The New Jerusalem is 7,000,900 feet high. Well, you know what happens when you go high? It’s true Colorado Springs is 6,000 feet high, just over a mile. You go up to the top of the mountain. They are always reminding you, now be careful if you are not acclimated to altitude. Drink lots of water. Don’t overexert yourself. Marilyn and I did jeep off roading. We were up in the mountains. We came down after doing that for a couple days and decided to get a bite to eat at a restaurant. Marilyn, having a great lunch, says, I’m not feeling well. I’m going to the restroom. She stands up, falls over backwards, on the floor, head sounds like a bowling ball hitting the floor, eyes roll back in her head, and she’s nonresponsive. Oh, that woman. I was just going to order dessert. But you know, what do you do? You can’t get any response. Everybody runs over. So, they call 911. They come; they can’t get her blood pressure up. They put needles in, and the guy wasn’t very good. He couldn’t get it. They had to wait for somebody else. All this, they take her to the emergency, take her to the hospital and she spends two days in the hospital. What do they say? Well, you were up in the altitude. You didn’t drink enough. You did too much. We can’t find anything else wrong with you. I said, well, I’ve got a list. But no. What happened? Now, I’m thinking, we didn’t even get up all the way, maybe to 14,000 feet. What are you going to do when you get up to 7,000,900 feet? What’s the oxygen like up there? We get a new heavens and new earth, there’s connections to this but it is different. People are going to come in and out of the gates to that new city. Are they going to be able to say, I’m going up to the 4 millionth floor. How long will it take? How do we do this? And I’m thinking, now we’re back up to the millennium because we’re not in the new heavens and new earth with the New Jerusalem, but changes made in the earth. So some of these questions, I think they are good questions, and I think about them too. Like me sitting at my desk and that led me in to thinking about the New Jerusalem which is also 1,500 miles square and that’s just one city sitting on the new earth. And there will be nations out there on the new heavens and the new earth coming up and coming through the gates of the New Jerusalem. That city’s footprint will be farther than from here to Los Angeles or to the east coast. We are about the middle. What’s that new earth going to be like? Pretty soon, I’m thinking, it’s going to be a lot different, yet it has connections. It’s Jerusalem. It’s nations. There are gates and there are seasons because the tree of life is there, and it gives different fruit for each month of the twelve months. I say what do you mean? Wait, we are in the new heavens and new earth. I’ve got fruit trees every month. We are going to have seasons. We are going to have twelve months. But keep in mind, created beings function in time. I know there’s a discussion, does God live in the eternal present or does He live in time, we’ll get that resolved there. But for right now, let’s just talk about us. Created beings can’t move outside of time because we have to do one thing after another. Angels are created beings. So, when I back up and say let’s talk about the first thousand years before the new heavens and new earth. What I read and talk about the desert being changed and blossoming and all these things, we move into the kingdom, Christ is on earth ruling, even that first thousand years is going to be like something we haven’t seen because you’re not going to have to die. The one that dies at a hundred is thought to be a child and must have been under the judgment of God because nobody dies at just a hundred. I’m seventy-seven. I don’t have much anticipation of getting to a hundred. Marilyn, probably. Me, as long as I go first, I’m okay. If you get to be a hundred everybody is talking about it. Her mother lived to be a hundred, but she wasn’t jumping rope. And people are going to live to be a thousand. You just got started. And that’s in the millennium. It’s going to be the same world but it’s going to be so different. So I appreciate those questions and they did get me thinking. You got me off track. I’m sitting at my desk and I’m thinking, I wonder how you would get there. I wonder what kind of vehicles you use. I wonder if you’ll be able to walk fifty miles an hour. I don’t know. All we know is we’re going to do it. It’s just like if you were going to explain to someone how you could get from the United States to Europe and do it in hours and talk about that to King David or King Solomon, the wisest man who lived. How would he have ever understood that? So, I think we’re going to have a great time.

Ok, I have other questions on the new heavens and new earth. I’ll answer the rest of these. It’ll take me a little bit and then I have a question on women teaching. I’m going to hide that in the prophecy questions.

Let’s have a word of prayer. Thank You, Lord, for Your grace and blessings. Lord, we are reminded You have planned for us a future glory. And Lord, for this earth when Christ comes back and He rules and reigns, and He transforms this earth, even during the first thousand years. Then we move into the eternal phase, Lord, the things You have for us are beyond our comprehension now. You’ve revealed to us things that we can know, but Lord if You would have revealed it all we wouldn’t be able to grasp it anyway. We take it by faith, and we look forward to it with anticipation. Lord, the week You’ve laid out, the days ahead, we are concerned that they be days that we live for You. May we take the truths that we have considered together today and apply them wherever You put us, whatever situation we find ourselves in. Lord, may we first consider how we honor You with the decisions we make and the actions that we carry out. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.