Exposition of Romans 12:1-2, Part 2

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin shares a personal anecdote about leaving his dome light on and his calm, non-self-condemning response, illustrating a personal experience of growing in grace.

Pastor Martin shares a personal story of leaving his car's dome light on, causing a dead battery and delay. His calm response, free from self-accusation or irritation, illustrates a personal experience of growing in grace and the Lord's providence.

Okay. As I was telling Pastor Barker, when these strange providences occur, and, the heart of a Christian wants to know if there is any lesson in that providence, and when I discovered precisely what had happened, that I had left the dome light on Friday night in trying to be gracious in having people come into the house through the garage rather than slip and slide on our angled driveway, I said, Lord, what lesson am I to learn from this? And as I sat reflecting, I didn't hear any voice, but in answering my own question, I said, so the Lord said, well, did you get upset? I said, no.

4:58 - 5:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Be very careful of any Bible translation that leaves out God's inspired connectives.

The 'umbilical cord' analogy is used to describe how Romans 12:1-2 ties together the doctrine (indicatives) of Romans 1-11 with the practical instruction (imperatives) that follows.

From chapter 12 in verse 3 all the way through to chapter 15 and verse 13 the Apostle is going to give very practical instruction on some burning issues of the Christian life with respect to the church at Rome. Issues that he knew were of real concern to them. But he would not address those burning practical issues until he had laid out the doctrinal foundation of the first 11 chapters and in these opening two verses of chapter 12 shows as it were the umbilical cord which ties together the doctrine and the practice, the indicatives and the imperatives. And we saw that connection that hinges on...

8:03 - 8:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Be very careful of any Bible translation that leaves out God's inspired connectives.

The 'therefore' in Scripture is likened to a connective, emphasizing its importance in linking preceding truths to subsequent commands, and cautioning against translations that omit such divine connectives.

Sense? Therefore. And whenever you see a therefore in the scriptures you should ask why is it there or what is it there for? It's telling you that there is a connective and that's why you want to be very careful of any Bible translation that leaves out God's inspired connectives.

9:01 - 9:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: They have spiritual understanding their minds are illuminated they have a spiritual desire their wills have been renovated and they have spiritual power their impotence has been replaced by gracious divine ability.

Martin uses his morning's experience of desiring to start his car but lacking the power to do so as an analogy for the unregenerate person's lack of spiritual ability to please God, despite potential desire.

to have laid my hands on the battery this morning and injected some electrical impulses into it but alas I had no such power. Now some would have said well if you had more faith you could have. Well that's another whole discussion. But I didn't lack desire.

14:09 - 14:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin asserts that the 'mercies of God' (plural) refer to God's tender pity and compassion manifested in salvation, underscoring that the call to obedience is based on gospel…

Paul's appeal is described as being 'baptized in the mercies of God' and 'dripping with his mercies,' conveying the profound and pervasive influence of God's compassion on the call to obedience.

Or if we were giving it a wooden translation through the mercies of God. There is a particular preposition that used with a certain case means on account of in another case it means by or through. And so it's as though the apostle is saying I have baptized my appeal in the mercies of God and having brought it through that sea of God's mercies dripping with his mercies I now present. I beseech you by the mercies of God.

16:58 - 17:35 Read in full sermon

The point: If you go a whole day without being amazed at God's mercies and don't feel any sense of recoil, the devil has begun to gain ground.

The soul of a believer is described as needing to be 'percolated continually with the sense of God's mercies,' implying that a lack of this awareness leads to being 'weaned away from a life of practical obedience.'

You repudiate those thoughts. But what you do when you go a whole day and you've not stood as it were before the cross stood before Mount Sinai stood before the great realities of the gift of the Spirit and the horrible, horrible agonies of Christ on behalf of sinners and what it is to be adopted into God's family and marked out forever by God. You see, many of us can go through a day without being amazed at God's mercies and not feel any sense of recoil and the devil's begun to gain ground. Because when the soul of the believer ceases to be percolated continually with the sense of God's merci...

25:21 - 26:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't ever let divine mercies revealed in a bleeding Savior get far from your consciousness as a believer.

Awareness of God's mercies is called 'the oil on the wheels of our obedience,' illustrating that without this awareness, obedience becomes difficult and heavy.

Know that difference? To retain them as theological convictions, not hypocritically, truly to retain them, but not to know them as present, as present spiritual graces percolating, as it were, through the cells of the soul so that when we face the day, we face it as those who are under a canopy of mercy. I beseech you by the mercies of God. You see, it is that awareness of God's mercies that forms the oil on the wheels of our obedience.

29:14 - 29:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of people who exegete a text properly, but they take, the principle in that text, and they make a universal out of it.

Martin uses Jesus' different approaches to witnessing to the woman at the well (John 4) and Nicodemus (John 3) to illustrate the danger of universalizing specific biblical principles or methods.

Beware of that. All kinds of stupid notions on the theories of the Christian life grow out of taking a legitimate principle in one text and making a universal out of the specific. For example, you hear someone saying, you know how you ought to witness? And they take you to John 4.

32:22 - 32:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A law driver insists with threats and penalties. A preacher of grace lures and incites with divine goodness and compassion shown to all to us.

An extended quotation from Martin Luther is used to powerfully articulate the difference between a law-driven compulsion and a grace-driven, willing, and joyful obedience that flows from God's compassion.

It's my own sneaking suspicion that his own mind and heart were so suffused with the sense of God's mercy to him. And as one who could say for the love of God Christ constrains me literally holds me in its vice-like grip that he just could not imagine that anyone could look at the display of mercy he's just penned and not feel toward God in the light of those mercies as he felt. And he didn't need an imperative to have his own life follow the channels that he's going to mark out for the Romans. And he's assuming that the grace that worked that disposition in him would likewise be operative in ...

38:06 - 39:23 Read in full sermon