Sacrificial Living Pt 3

Romans, chapter 12, Romans, chapter
12, which we have just begun to enjoy. And by which we have
continued to be nourished, Paul is taking this. Passage that
he opened with this verse where he had urged us by the mercies
of God to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice
acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service of worship.
It was worship that he was talking about. It was worship that he
was calling us to, but not a worship that is done in an hour or even
an hour and a half or some extended period of time. What he’s talking
about is life. He’s talking about a worshipful
life. He’s talking about making your
entire life and active worship. We’ll learn a little bit more
how that can be accomplished, because that’s Paul’s goal, really,
is to tell us what it means to offer your life a living and
holy sacrifice that is acceptable to the Lord. Not only what that
means, but what it looks like and how the child of God arrives
at that point. If you would glance down at Romans
chapter 12 and we’ll once again review the first eight verses. Where Paul writes, I urge you,
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies
a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
service of worship. And do not be conformed to this
world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you
may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable
and perfect. For through the grace given to
me, I say to every man among you not to think more highly
of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound
judgment. as God has allotted to each a
measure of faith. For just as we have many members
in one body and all the members do not have the same function,
so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members
of one another. And since we have gifts that
differ according to the grace given to us, let us each exercise
them accordingly. If prophecy according to the
proportion of his faith, if service in his serving, or he who teaches
in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives
with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows
mercy with cheerfulness. Paul had issued that great call
to worship in verse one, But it wasn’t enough just to issue
that call. Paul wants to tell us how we
arrive at presenting our bodies a living and holy sacrifice.
And we began to look at that last Lord’s Day. We looked at
that. Just that brief passage in verse
two, where Paul discusses transformation. We began to look at the nature
of that word that it talks about real change, not just superficial
change, not just change on the outward surface, but real and
lasting significant change, change from the inside out. But before
we can begin to change, before we can begin to think about transformation,
we need to think about the fact that we have to set aside sin
and sinfulness. We have to think about first
repentance before we think about committing or recommitting ourself
to a life of growth in grace. One Puritan, as we saw last Lord’s
Day, said it this way regarding this issue of conformation to
the world. He said we must forsake evil
before we can do good. Renouncing our lust first, before
the embracing of holiness. Men put off their old rags before
they can put on new apparel, dig up the weeds before they
sow or set herbs. Where there remains the love
of any lust or sin, there is no true grace in the heart. Neither
will any grow till that be rooted out. Christ, when He came, when
He began to preach, He didn’t say bring forth the life of holiness
to begin with. He said, repent, turn from your
sin, be done with your life of sin, be done with your worldliness
and worldly mindedness. That’s where Paul begins, do
not be conformed to this world. We looked at this little phrase,
the world, this world, the points in a number of different ways,
not only to This world is opposed to the next world and he has
heaven in view. He has eternity in view. In other
words, what he puts in contrast is the perspective of life in
the here and now. As over against the perspective
of heaven, heavenly mindedness. God’s perspective. It is the
mindset that is fixed on this side of what we call eternity. And this word when it’s used,
and we went through the entire list last week, this word when
it’s used is very rarely used to just speak of a temporal setting. What Paul has in mind in the
use of this world is not just a time centered concept. What he has in mind is a moral
concept as well. It’s the present order of things
as we know them to be. It’s the world’s view. It’s the
period of sin and death in which we now live in complete with
all of its mindset, the principles, its affections, the things that
the world loves and its practices. As one referred to it, it is
the immoral atmosphere in which we live in this day and age. It is the entire world of the
ungodly pressing in around us. And Paul says, do not be conformed. It’s vanity fair. We considered
Bunyan’s descriptive of the world last week, where life as it is
just seems to be a party. It just seems to be all about
us and that all of life is focused upon us and the pleasing of self. God says that’s a worldly perspective. And what he says quite explicitly
here is do not be conformed to that. The child of God cannot
be conformed to the world and its standards, to the world and
its pleasures, to the world and its affections. We cannot. This
word conformed, we looked at it, we spent a little time on
it. It refers to individuals assuming an outward appearance. It’s something that someone puts
on almost as if it’s speaking of clothing. It doesn’t speak
of his inward personality. It’s merely attire. It’s a veneer.
Now, we know that the word, as I suggested last Lord’s Day,
is used in a positive way of Christ, that Christ, when he
came, he came in appearance using the same word. He came in appearance
as a man. And essentially what. Paul goes
on to say is that don’t put on the appearance of the world,
don’t act like the world, don’t think like the world, don’t love
what the world loves. You’ve been changed and what’s
in you now is so radically different from what the world is and what
the world thinks. In a very real way, Paul says,
be what you are, be what you have been called to be, be what
God has designed you to be, be what you have been redeemed to
be. J.B. Phillips, I quoted this
last week, it is a classic translation and we’ll touch upon it more
in a moment. But J.B. Phillips, when he translated
the scriptures, was looking for a fresh way to communicate God’s
word. And if you remember from our
study of the history of the written word of God, those of you who
were there, J.B. Phillips really delved into the
Greek and the Hebrew texts. J.B. Phillips really wanted to
bring forward the real meaning of the words that were penned. J.B. Phillips nailed this passage
when he said, Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its
mold. I thought about this this past
week, we had opportunity to to go to the mountains, we had opportunity
to take a swim. And of course, I watched around me as several
people were blowing up their blow-up things. To be conformed
to the world is just to let those, it’s like a pool toy laying there
that hasn’t been blown up yet. And the world has pushed it into
its own mold. We call it gravity. It’s when
we begin to inflate those toys that they take the shape that
they’re designed to take. It’s when we blow up those pool
toys that they are what they’re supposed to be. They’re filled
from the inside with what they are supposed to function as. It’s when the plug gets pulled
that the world begins to press in. and change the shape, change
the appearance, change even the function of those that it’s pressing
in on. Don’t let the world squeeze you
into its own mold. The child of God, the Christian,
the one who has claimed that he belongs to God, can’t be controlled
by worldly ideas, worldly precepts, worldly affections, Selfish motives. He’s called to be different.
As Peter said, do not be conformed to the former lusts. That’s the
old life. Be who you are now. We need to
be transformed, not conformed to the world, not like the unrenewed
people of this world. And that’s why Paul says first
deal with that. First deal with those things in repentance. First
come to God and acknowledge that the world’s ways are not your
own. The world’s ways are not how
you are called to live. And then Paul says, as we saw
last week, not only in this course of transformation are we preparing
for transformation by repentance, not being conformed to the world
of voiding the world’s influence. But Paul moves here secondly
to this call to transformation where we literally begin to enjoy
God’s change. The reason I said it that way
is it’s totally it’s passive. This is something that’s done
to us this transformation. We don’t transform ourselves.
We don’t announce ourselves when we’ve when we’ve Come to Christ
when we call ourselves Christians, we don’t introduce ourselves
as I am. I am one having transformed myself. That’s a foolish idea. And it’s
not just this external change, as we saw, it starts from within,
it’s a work of God, it’s a change of heart and mind. It’s a complete
change of life, it’s absolutely radically different than what
the world is. And this transformation becomes
an expression, an outward expression of what God has done within.
It’s not just a change of opinion. It’s not just a change of subtle
thought patterns here and there, it is a radically different approach
to life. We looked at the word. This very
word transformed was used of the Lord Jesus Christ when he
was transfigured. on the mountain. Well, what the
apostles saw as they stood around him, foolishly thinking of, you
know, building tents and tabernacles to honor those that were transfigured. Essentially, what they saw was
Christ in His real state, His deified state. They saw the divine
Lord Jesus Christ as He is They had seen the outward shell of
his physical body, his human body. What they hadn’t begun
to perceive was the Son of God walking with them, the Son of
God Himself living among them. He was transfigured, he was transformed. When Paul uses this word, believe
me, Paul knew the word that he was using Paul in very real way
says to us, we need to be transfigured. We need to be transformed. We
need to let the world see us as we are changed people, new
creations in Christ. We started we left off here last
week, and. If you would turn, there’s a
Parallel passage that is just an excellent commentary on the
passage before a 2nd Corinthians chapter 3. 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, all
I did was point this passage out last Lord’s Day. We’ll start
here and delve in a little bit deeper into this idea of transformation. 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, look
at verse 18, but we all. All believers. Not just some,
and not just believers who have walked with the Lord for a while,
or believers that, you know, are really committed to Christ
and to a changed life. But we all, with unveiled face,
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed. Same idea. It’s passive. We’re allowing God to change
us. We’re enjoying God’s changing
us Day by day, we are being transformed into the same image from glory
to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. God is doing the
work. God is doing the change and he’s
doing it from within. But it’s going to have. A manifestation
in time. And that’s why that word transfigured
is so appropriate. As one said, The conformity to
the image of Christ as it arises from beholding his glory must
begin here. It is the vision of that glory,
although only as in a mirror which has this transforming power,
the transformation proceeds from glory and it results in glory. The transformation is carried
out without intermission from the first scarce, discernible
resemblance. to full conformity to the image
of Christ. Did you hear what he said? He
said that this transformation, once you place your faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, once you say, you know what? I am done
with a life of sin. I am done with a life of emptiness
and hopelessness. I want to live for God and for
His glory. I place my faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ and in Him alone. I want to be forgiven of my sin
and I want to walk and live in a new and different way. At that
moment, and that’s when he says from the first scarce, discernible
resemblance. The first time that you see a
child of God having just repented of his sin, That’s that first
scarce discernible resemblance. He’s not saying become perfect,
clean up your life, transform yourselves. That’s not at all
what he’s saying. He’s echoing essentially what
Paul says in the opening chapter of Philippians, what God has
begun, God will continue. God will complete the work that
he has begun in the life of the Christian. And what he points
to here is this idea that we’ve been pursuing and considering
for chapter upon chapter, this progressive sanctification. We’re
not perfect now. This whole life that we live
is a life of growth and grace, a pursuit of godliness, and we
follow hard after God and we look and the more that we look,
the more that we see. Needs reformation. The more that we see needs change.
The more that we look at our life, even as we bow in confession
here in church. We could go on all day confessing
before God, couldn’t we? The longer you walk with Christ,
I know that’s the sentiment. It’s a continual process of growing
into the image of the Lord. That’s the goal of this life
to be like Christ. Now, which one of us can raise
our hands and say, yeah, I’m pretty much there. Not a one
of us, not a single one of us. And so what is the means of this
transformation? That’s the third point, not only
the preparation to transformation, this repentance by way of confirmation
or a reluctance to be conformed to the world, not just a call
to transformation. That’s what Paul says when he
says be transformed. But he wants to tell us how.
He wants to give us the means. He’s already called us to offer
our lives as a living worship to God. And he wants to tell
us how. He doesn’t want to leave us hanging.
And he wants us to give us the means of transformation. Thirdly,
adjusting our thinking. And adjusting is too weak of
a word. We need a total makeover. We need to totally reboot the
system. We need to totally reprogram the system. We need God to come
in and do a totally radical makeover. A complete overhaul of the software
and the hardware. Look at the verse where Paul
says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. How? By the renewing of your
mind. This is good stuff. This is really
good, practical stuff. Look at this. This word renewing,
it means exactly what it says, a making new, a reworking, a
total, not just remodel of the mindset. We’re talking scraping
and obliterating the foundation, digging down and building an
entire new edifice, a new structure. A completely new way of thinking. Paul says, be transformed, how? By the renewing of your mind.
It’s the Holy Spirit that is at work here to change us. And
this is this is one of Paul’s favorite images to describe the
Christian life. Listen to how he says it. Second
Corinthians 4.16, jot them down if you wish. Therefore, we do
not lose heart. You’re going to have bad days
as a Christian. You’re going to have days where you would
think God hasn’t even begun to work in me. I look so much like
the way I used to look. I’m totally unchanged. Therefore,
we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying,
yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. And look at what
he says. It’s a lifelong effort. It’s
a lifelong work of God in our lives. We are being renewed,
but don’t think that you’re going to press reset. It’s going to
do the software download and you’re going to be complete in
33 minutes. It doesn’t work that way. It’s
a lifelong process of renewing the mind, changing the way that
the Christian thinks. Colossians 3, chapter 3, verse
10. where Paul says they’re having
put on the new self. We’re not in a state of conversion
here. We’re not approaching Christ. We’re not pondering our sin and
weighing whether we want to follow God or the devil. No longer having
put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according
to the image of the one who created him. We are already, Paul says,
in a state he’s talking to the Christian. He’s talking to one
who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ. And he says, if
you have done that, you’ve already put on the new self who is being
renewed. You might ask the question, why
didn’t God just plunk in a brand new blank? He’s already given
us the new self. Why didn’t he just plunk in a
new mind? That’s for us. That’s for us to passionately
follow hard after God and to seek him and to long for the
change that he offers through his word. We are being renewed. But the Christian must cooperate
with God, that’s what this passage is all about. Let God transform
us. How? By the renewing of our mind.
Titus 3.5, another one. He saved us. You know, this is
one of my favorite verses. I just preached it not long ago.
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in
righteousness. It isn’t ever about us or our
works or our good deeds. He saved us, not on the basis
of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according
to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing
by the Holy Spirit. It’s always God. It’s always
God at the center of what’s going on here. And notice that this
word, the renewing of your mind, it’s present tense. It’s a continuous
process. The renewing of the mind is the
means by which this transformation takes place. So if you’re not
committed to renewing your mind, you can’t even hope. You can’t
even conceive. of living a transformed life.
If you’re not willing to adjust your thinking, or to have God
adjust your thinking, don’t even begin to think that you’ll live
a life that’s changed and different. There’s a fourth passage, and
this one I’d have you turn to. Ephesians chapter 4. In Ephesians chapter 4 Paul talks
about renewal as well. And it’s a lifelong process as
we’ve seen and it’s a process that God has initiated in the
life of the Christian and God wants to complete and will complete
it in glory. We won’t ever be complete in
this life. We won’t ever be. We can never
introduce ourselves as those having been transformed. We are
in the process, always in the process. Look at verse 17. Where,
once again, he calls us first and foremost to a repudiation
of the old life. Essentially what he said in the
beginning of this verse, do not be conformed to the world. Look
at verse 17, this I say and affirm together with the world, with
the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk. How do they walk? In the futility
of their mind. being darkened in their understanding,
excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that
is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. And they, having
become calloused, have given themselves over to sensuality
for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
I mean, you couldn’t even paint an uglier picture, could you?
They want what they want. They want that ugly, horrible
sin, and they want it passionately. It’s their whole life. Paul says,
don’t walk like that. Don’t live like that any longer. Do not be conformed to this world. But look at verse 20. Where Paul
turns and he talks about transformation, there is change, there is renewal
possible. He says, but you did not learn
Christ this way. In essence, he says here again,
be who you are. You did not learn Christ in this
way, if indeed you’ve heard him and have been taught in him just
as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner
of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted. Do you hear what he’s saying? That old life is still there
and it’s going from bad to worse, and if you dip back in now, it’s
far worse than when you were saved. Far worse. It is being
corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit. And that
you, being renewed in the spirit of your mind, put on the new
self, which is in the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness
and holiness of the truth. You’re a different person. Life
has been changed. You’ve been renewed. And its
process has begun. And you can’t look back. You
can’t dip back in. What he talks to what he presents
here, this renewing of your mind is is cultivating a moral sensitivity. An understanding of God’s Word
where we begin to understand what God wants, what he’s teaching
us, what he’s calling us to as believers. And he speaks of renewing the
mind. He acknowledges here, does Paul, that the mind is part of
the fallen element of our sinful frame, isn’t it? We know that
our bodies had sinned in many ways. We know that our eyes had
looked at things they hadn’t ought look at. We know that our
mouths had said things. Our fists had done things. We
know that our hearts were sin sickened. But we often forget
about the mind. The mind. Yes, I did. I entertained thoughts. I conceived
of things, I I purposed things in my heart and my mind that
weren’t right. What Paul points to here is you’re
right. The mind needs a total makeover. The mind needs to be renewed.
Before it can ever recognize the will of God, what does God
want from me as a Christian? How does God want me to live?
You see, now we have this conscience and the conscience was used by
God to bring us to repentance, remember? God used the conscience,
we began to feel our sin and our sinfulness, and God uses
that conscience all the time that the conscience just left
by itself is no good. Conscience has to constantly
be nourished and fed. And it’s fed by Scripture. It’s
fed by God’s Word. It’s fed by God’s standard. That’s
how you begin to renew your mind. That’s how you begin to think
differently as you feed the conscience with Scripture and the. The conscience,
the mind looks at that Scripture and says, oh. I do this. I do this all the time or I don’t
live like that. I don’t live like the. Bible
is calling me to live here in this particular area and the
conscience begins to do its work, but not alone. The conscience
takes the word of God and by the Holy Spirit of God begins
to press upon the individual conscience. Lloyd-Jones said
it this way. You cannot renew your mind. You
cannot renew your mind unless you are acquainted with God’s
word. Unless you have a regular nourishment
of God’s Word and Sunday isn’t enough. Unless you’re constantly
dipping in and constantly examining, not if you’ve sinned, but where
and when and how and how often. It’s a renewal of the mind. And
here what Paul points to is this faculty, this capacity of our
thinking, which is able to apprehend concepts and to understand that
when God says that this is wrong, this is God’s standard and it’s
wrong. God is against this. But it’s
also. Has the capacity to understand
what is good, what would God have, what is right, what is
appropriate in this setting, how would God have me to function
as a husband? How would God have me to live?
As a Christian in the workplace, how would God have me to function
with my neighbor? How would God have me to live
as a father? God has given us that capacity
in our minds. The mind is one of those things,
too, that needs redemption, doesn’t it? And renewal. One pastor said it this way,
it is the mind that our new nature in our old humanness are intermixed. It is the mind that we make choices
as to whether we express our new nature in holiness or allow
our fleshly humanness to act in unholiness. It’s here. It’s
in our thinking. And if you think that I’m stretching
this, it’s it’s the faulty mind that really begins to send us
on a downward spiral. We don’t just sin. In some happenstance
fashion, it doesn’t just happen. We paint this picture for you,
a couple of different verses, Paul talks about the mind in
a corrupted state. In a difficult state, Paul says
in Colossians 218, let no one keep defrauding you. You see,
that’s the way the world operates. First, they trip you up and then
they want to keep you down. They hold you down in your sinfulness. Let no one keep defrauding you
of your prize. You’re different. You’re supposed
to live different. He says the same thing another
way. Let no one keep defrauding of your prize by delighting in
self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand
on the vision he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly
mind. You see, the mind here, Paul
says, can be fleshly, it can think only of earthly things,
even in an attempt to earn God’s favor. Paul uses it likewise
in the pastoral epistles, he says in Timothy, first Timothy
six, five, that there is a constant friction between men of depraved
mind. God has let their minds become
depraved. Not only fleshly, but now depraved,
it’s given over. It’s a depraved man, they’re
deprived of the truth, and they suppose that godliness is a means
of great gain. What he’s talking about here
was the charlatans that went around speaking and preaching
only what people wanted to hear for money. They were men of depraved
minds. He paints another image in Titus,
not only a fleshly mind and a depraved mind, But in Titus 1 15, he says
to the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled
and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their
conscience are defiled. He talks about a defiled mind.
Now, where those are on the continuum, I don’t none of them sound real
pleasant, do they? We don’t want a fleshly mind,
we want to we don’t want to cultivate A fleshly mind, we don’t want
to end up with a depraved mind, and we certainly don’t want a
defiled mind. We fight against images and thoughts
every day, don’t we? That’s why when I preached through
the book of Philippians, there was something that was very noticeable
about Philippians. I called it the Froneo factor
because Froneo means the thinking, the use of the mind. Listen to
this. Paul says in Philippians 1-7,
it’s only right for me to feel this way about you all because
I have you in my heart, that the word there is my, I have
you, I think about you all the time. And what Paul wanted more
than anything for the Philippians to do was to change their thinking. You know why? Because he knew
that if they changed their thinking, behavior would follow. You notice
that Paul does the same thing here in Romans 12 to he doesn’t
say, I want you to do this and this and this. He says, which
you need more than anything is to change your thinking, you
need a renewed mind. And that’s what he says to the
Philippians in chapter 2, verse 2, make my joy complete by being
of the same mind. Unity doesn’t just start, you
know, we don’t just walk in and enjoy unity. It starts in the
mind being of the same mind. It’s a mind of humility. He goes
on to say Philippians 2, 5, have this attitude, which is also
have this mind set. Be of this mind. Be humble like
Christ was humble. Repeatedly, Paul goes through
that book, calling us to renewed mind, to a different way of thinking,
to a changing in our thinking, and what he calls us to ultimately is a process where we become
aware of and convicted by the truth of God’s word. That’s how
we change. We don’t just think that, you
know, we pray up to God and pray, God change me. And it’s all on
God now to transform us, to make us new and different people.
It’s a process. It’s a process in which God uses
us. What he calls us to is a complete
focus. A total focus on making a maximum
approach or a maximum effort rather in approaching the prize
of Christ likeness. That’s that’s what we’re after,
isn’t it? That’s what we want. The apostle here. What he’s pointing
to is that those ultimately who renew their minds They will end
up following the leading of the spirit in their lives. They will
end up following what God wants them to do. When we have. Minds that are
transformed, renewed. We begin to live lives that are
transformed and different, and when we grab hold of those doctrines
and those principles of Scripture, The Holy Spirit uses those things
to guide us in a new and completely different direction. We begin
to look differently. We begin to act differently.
We begin to function in the world with a completely different mindset.
And God uses that. One pastor said it simply in
these terms, he said, the believer whose life is that of the new
world does not think like an unbeliever. Paul does not envisage
a mindless emotionalism, but one who is deeply intelligent,
a characteristic of the Christian who has been renewed by the Holy
Spirit. So there is a preparation for
transformation. Paul doesn’t just say be changed.
He says, first, we must avoid the world’s influence. Then he
calls us to transformation where we enjoy God’s change. Then he gives us the means of
this transformation in renewing our minds. And then you know
what is just the most beautiful thing? He gives you the purpose
of transformation. Why should we be changed? Why
do we want to work so hard at this? Pleasing God. What a beautiful
thought. Look at the passage. Paul says,
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. How? By the
renewing of your mind. Why? So that you may prove what
the will of God is. That which is good and acceptable
and perfect. You know, a lot of Christians,
especially, you can always tell about the age. You don’t have
to cut them open and count the rings. You can always tell the
age of a Christian. Because when they first become
a Christian, they start worrying about the will of God and praying
about the will of God, praying for God’s will on what time to
leave for work in the morning. They become almost fixated on
this will of God thing. Paul says here that we don’t
just have the ability to test God’s will. But that we will
be able to know and determine and ultimately prove that this
is God’s way. The will of God is knowable.
Not ultimately and perfectly, we can’t know everything there
is to know about God and why God does everything and exactly
what he wants me to do in any given moment. But God gives you
ways of living. There are at least 10 things
that God says that we should do or should not do, right? God
has given us his will. God has given us his mind. And
it’s our job to dig in and find out what that mind and will is.
This little word to prove it can be translated in a number
of different ways. It can be translated prove or
test or approve. And that’s what it really speaks
of is testing and trying something in order to determine what is
the right way. You know it’s God knew that we
were we were creatures that need to we need to live and act like
scientists. We need to get bumped and bruised
and hurt and broken. And we need to find out the hard
way almost every time, don’t we? That’s why the proverb says,
oh, wise man, only a wise man learns from the fool’s mistakes.
Only a wise man is going to stand from afar and he’s going to watch
somebody fall into it. He’s going to watch them pay
the consequences of their own foolishness. And he’s going to
say, you know what? I’m not going to do that. That’s wise. That’s
wisdom at work. See here, Paul knows, God knows
that most of us aren’t going to function that way. Most of
us have to learn. That’s why I told my college kids, not my
personal children that were in college, but the young people
to whom we ministered when I was a college pastor. I had one say
to me one time, I only learn lessons the hard way. I said,
oh, I’m sorry to hear that because God has the resources, doesn’t
he? And that’s what Paul says here. Paul says, you know what,
this is going to be a process. And you’re going to have to learn
to test and try and ultimately prove what the will of God is. You need to find the right way.
And you find out by personal experience, you find out by practical
means what is good and what is acceptable, that ought to be
the Christians main goal in life. I want to know how God wants
me to do this. I want to know what kind of a
dad God wants me to be. I want to know what kind of a
wife God wants me to be. I want to know what kind of a
worker in the workplace God wants me to be. I want to know. And once I know, that’s what
I want to do. I want to do that like nothing
I’ve ever pursued in my life. That’s what I want to do and
be and become. Because it’s good. And it’s acceptable. And it’s perfect. What does that
mean? I want to do the will of God which
is good and acceptable and perfect. That it’s good. It’s inherently
good. And you know that when you’ve
discovered some principle of Scripture and by God’s grace
you begin to apply it. Doesn’t the child of God know
this? You know, almost instantly, this is good. It’s good not to
be drunken. It’s good not to be an angry
man. It’s good not to be at odds with
others. It’s good to be humble. You know those principles, don’t
you, children of God? That when you come across the
will of God, it’s so soothing. It’s so comforting. You know
it to be of God because it’s good, it’s inherently good. But it’s also acceptable. This
is with regards to our relationship with God, you know that it’s
pleasing to God. You know that your whole life
now begins to take on a new meaning that you are walking and living
in this world, knowing that if you would only think the way
God wants you to think, you’ll live the way God wants you to
live. And that is pleasing to God. Isn’t that what we want? But it’s not only good and acceptable,
but it’s perfect. It’s exactly what God designed
us to be. It’s exactly what God wants of
us. And so, you know, this contemporary
thing where they have the bracelet, the rubber bracelets, which I
never understood in the first place, but that’s OK. What would
Jesus do? W.W.J.D. You know, it goes far
beyond that, right? And if you’re wearing a bracelet,
please don’t pull it and take it off and hide it. It’s not
that that’s not the issue. It’s almost like you have to
reframe it, though, it’s not just what would Jesus do? It’s
W.D.G.W.U.T.D. Did you get it? What does God want us to do? That’s the Christian’s goal.
That’s what it’s all about in the Christian life. You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind. That’s the Christians entire
goal is how can I please God? One pastor said. Of the fashion
of this world, it may be truly said that the more you try it,
the less you find it to be satisfying. And isn’t that the testimony
of all of us who have Come to Christ. We tried it. We delve
deeply into the world and its ways. It looks well, it looks
fair at first. But who that has lived long has
not found it to be vanity at last. It is altogether otherwise
with the will of God. That often looks worst at the
beginning, it seems hard and dark. But on. Prove it patiently. perseveringly
with prayer and pains, and you will get a growing clearness,
light, enlargement, joy. You will more and more find that
the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more
and more unto perfect day for wisdom’s ways. are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired than gold,
yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. Moreover, by them thy servant
is warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Would you humble yourself with
me before God? Our merciful God, we thank You
so much for sending our Lord Jesus to pay our penalty on the
cross. We did not deserve Your kindness. And we thank You for beginning
a work in our lives. And we thank You for this urgency
of Paul to point us to lay aside the world and its ways and to
allow You to continue the work of transformation in our lives.
And we rejoice that You allow us to participate. You urge us
to participate in the renewing of your minds by feasting on
Your Word. God, if there are any here who
don’t know the Lord Jesus, this is the way of salvation. Not
works and change first, but repentance and faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone. And then God will do the
work. Lord God, we rejoice before You
in the work that You’ve begun in our lives. And we take up
with renewed eagerness the desire to live so as to please You. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray,
Amen.