Exposition of Romans 12:1-2, Part 3

Introduction and Review: The Entreaty's Foundation

0:06 This adult Sunday school class was held on February 21st, 1988 at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:22 For those who may be visiting with us today, perhaps just this brief word of introduction, and then for the help, I trust, of all of us, a brief word of review as we continue in the third of our studies in this new series of studies. We have embarked upon a series of guided discussions in our adult class in which we will eventually, God willing, deal with a number of very burning, relevant concerns to the people of God in any age, but in a special way of great concern to us at this particular point in seeking to be consistent Christians in our American culture due to a number of factors that have greatly eroded and in many cases violently oppose biblical perspectives that are not true. So we'll be touching on such matters as male and female roles and identity. What is it to be a man, to be a woman, according to the word of God, not according to the latest pronouncements of fashion in which a certain image is projected, or according to the latest pronouncements of Betty Friedan or any of the other gurus of the so-called feminist movement, but what is it to be a man, to be a woman, according to the word of God? And then we will touch on such matters as a biblical perspective on work and industry.

1:51 And by industry, I don't mean the people that produce goods, but I mean industry working at our legitimate calling. We'll touch on matters of the family and many of these practical concerns. But in order to be biblical in our approach to the intensely practical directives of the word of God, I felt it necessary to be biblical in our approach to the intensely practical directives of the word of God. I felt it necessary to couch this entire series in a thoroughly biblical framework and on the basis of what is probably one of the clearest texts in all of the Bible showing the relationship between doctrine, that is, what we believe, and in particular the statements of what we believe concerning God's work for us, and then duty or practice what God requires of us. And so we've been looking for a couple of weeks at Romans, verses 12, 1 and 2, as a text which epitomizes this great relationship between the indicatives of God's grace, that is, the statements of what he has done, and the imperatives of our duty, what we are to do or to be in the light of what God has done. And thus far we've considered the introduction to Paul's great entreaty in Romans 12, 1 and 2, and we have seen that the word therefore, I beseech you, therefore,

3:17 shows the connection of this entreaty with everything that precedes in the epistle. And then we saw together that the objects of this entreaty are brethren. I beseech you, therefore, brethren. Paul is conscious that he is writing to the family of God, those in whom God's grace has worked that great transformation, those in whose, whose hearts there is a love to Christ and a love to holiness and a love for the ways of God who has redeemed them in Christ.

3:52 And then we saw, thirdly, the basis of his entreaty. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. And we sought to trace out from the scriptures last week something of the significance of this phrase by the mercies of God and saw that, that Paul, in that phrase, summarizes all that he has already written about God's gracious salvation in Christ to hell-deserving sinners. He calls them the mercies of God.

4:27 And therefore, he expects the people of God to consider his entreaty and the duties that flow out of it against the backdrop of the mercies of God understood, received, and presently bringing their glow to the affections and perspectives of the hearts of God's people. And then we concluded our study of the introduction by noticing the manner of this entreaty. Paul does not say, I command you, though as an apostle he had every right to do so. No, I haven't turned this thing on.

5:02 All right, Bill, I'm sorry.

5:05 All right. Now we're all right. I still go back. It must have been wonderful to preach in the days when all you had to do was have a Bible and a message, and some people.

5:16 I still find it hard to bring in mechanics when my mind is full of the message and the people. All right, I'm sorry, Bill, that I didn't catch that earlier. Where were we? Yes, all right.

5:28 The manner of this entreaty. He does not give an imperative, though he had every right to, though in other places he does give commands. But he says, I beseech you, I entreat you, I urge you, I plead with you. And he does so, because his own heart is so suffused with the wonder of God's mercies in Jesus Christ, that if I may say it reverently, Paul thinks it unthinkable that anyone would not be moved to the highest expressions of the response of love simply by being entreated to contemplate God's mercies and to follow a course of action consistent with the mercies received.

6:12 Well, that takes care. That's the end of our introduction and review. Now we come to consider the substance of Paul's entreaty. The substance of Paul's entreaty.

The Goal Envisioned: Proving God's Will

6:24 And we're going to consider it under two major headings. First of all, the goal envisioned. As he gives his entreaty, what is the ultimate goal that he has in his mind, which if the people of God embrace the entreaty and in the strength of the Lord implement the entreaty, this goal will be realized. And then having determined from the text, and you're going to be the teachers as we look at the text together, we want to then consider the threefold means which he indicates will result in the attainment of this goal of the entreaty.

7:07 All right? Looking then, particularly now, at the rest of the text, beginning now, with the middle of verse one, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, your reasonable or spiritual service, and be not fashioned according to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, or as you have in the margin, in the original reading of the old ASV, that you may prove the will of God, even the thing which is good, acceptable, and perfect. Now, looking at the passage, and I urge you to try to do this this week, what would you say is the goal envisioned by the apostle as he gives this entreaty to the Roman Christians? What is the goal of this entreaty embodied in verses, one and two of Romans, chapter 12? Anyone want to venture an assertion or maybe a sanctified guess?

8:26 And you can use the very words of the text to state the goal. All right, Chet? Proving what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. All right, his goal then is that in the lives of these Roman Christians, they would prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

8:46 All right. So, everything in the exhortation is leading to this end that they may prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Now, what does he mean when he says that you may prove? And I could take you down many paths showing how the word is used in various ways in the New Testament, but in the interest of time and economizing on that precious commodity, let me simply state and give you the fruit of not only my statement, but my study on this.

9:17 But I checked with Dr. Bob yesterday and in studying this passage, he has come to the same conclusion. Though this word prove, dokimadzo, is used in many ways in the New Testament, sometimes to put to the test. You remember the man said, I have bought a yoke of oxen and I must test them, try them.

9:37 That's the word he uses. I must put a yoke on them and see if they can really plow or if they're just nice big hunks of beef that we ought to have in terms of some roasts in the freezer. Luke 14, 19. And 2 Corinthians 13, 5.

9:51 Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Put yourself to the test. Sometimes it has the concept of having put something to the test and it proves itself to be real, then you approve it.

10:07 And it's used in this way in such passages as Philippians 1, 10, that you may approve the things that are excellent. And 1 Corinthians 13, and verse 3, in which he refers, if my memory serves me, my right to where Paul says, seeing you seek a proof of Christ that speaks. No, that's 2 Corinthians. I think it's speaking about a brother who was approved.

10:32 When I arrive, whomsoever you shall approve, them will I send with letters. So you've put certain brethren to the test. You've selected one as one whom you approve. So it has that sense.

10:44 But in this particular setting, the meaning, seems to be, and would be best conveyed by the word discover. If we were to use one word, it speaks of conscious, intelligent recognition leading to a favorable choice, which means, in short, that you discover in your own experience the reality of the will of God, that is, the good, the acceptable, and the perfect. So the end point, Paul has in view in this exhortation, is that the Roman Christians as a body of the Lord's people, and therefore as individual Christians, would discover, that is, would prove in their own personal life history the will of God, that is, the good, the acceptable, and the perfect. As he writes to the believers at Rome, his great passion is, that the will of God will not only be a concept that floats by their eyes, but it will be that which directs their feet so that individually and corporately they are day by day, week by week, hour by hour, month by month, discovering the will of God. Now that immediately raises a question, what aspect of God's will?

Distinguishing God's Decretive and Preceptive Will

12:13 There are two basic aspects of the will of God, revealed in Scripture. Someone want to tell me what they are, and the terms that are generally used.

12:24 Yes, Parnell?

12:26 Alright, the sovereign will of God, and then you use the term the revealed will of God. For the sovereign will of God, what term is more frequently used? I want you to be familiar with the terms when you see it in your reading. Jim?

12:40 Alright, the decretive will of God, that is, the will of God in terms of God's own eternal plan and purpose. And this phrase, the will of God, is used with respect to the decretive will of God in such passages as Ephesians 1.11. He works all things after the counsel of his own will.

13:08 That is, after the will of his decree. What he has purposed in himself from eternity. Now, my question is this. Is the will, the will of God's decree, ever to be the rule of a Christian's duty?

13:31 Anyone want to venture an answer? Alright? It is. Alright, if it's to be the rule of our duty, John, where do we discover it?

13:38 Do we walk up to the throne of God and ask God if we could do a little browsing in the book of his decrees?

13:52 Alright, as we read the word of God, now, does the word of God contain the revelation of God's decree? God's decrees in their particulars? Or does it contain God's revealed will in terms of his precepts?

14:09 It teaches us about his decrees and it tells us that he has decreed to build his church, to save his elect, those general things, but the specifics.

14:20 So, is the will of God's decree, his decretive will, ever to be considered as the rule of a Christian's duty, that by which he walks? Yes or no? No. The will of God's decrees, though it governs all that we do, for he works all things after the counsel of his will, it is his revealed will or his will as revealed in his precepts that is to be the rule of our duty.

14:52 And we must make that distinction and forever settle in our minds and hearts the validity not only of the distinction, because the same phrase, will of God, is used for the will of his precepts in such passages as Matthew 7, 21, not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven. He who regulates his life by the revealed will of God, the will of God's precepts, or 1 John 2, 17, he that does the will of God abides forever. Well, even the wicked are fulfilling God's decreed will. He hath made all things, for his own end, even the wicked for the day of evil.

15:36 But in terms of his preceptive or his revealed will, the wicked do not do the will of God. They do their own thing. So in all things, we are to regulate our lives by the revealed will of God, the will of his precepts. Now, what will of God is referred to in Romans 12, 2?

15:56 When Paul says, here's the great burden and end of my entreaty, that you may discover the will of God, is it the will of God, the will of God's decrees or the will of his precepts? Anyone?

16:13 The will of his precepts. Why?

16:26 All right. This is none of our business, except insofar as the Bible speaks that God has decreed to accomplish certain things, but it is in the will of his precepts that the will of God for the details of our existence and practice as the people of God, it is here that they are, set forth in the will of his precepts. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. He that discovers my decrees, he it is that loveth me.

16:59 No, he that keepeth my commandments, he it is that loveth me. If ye love me, seek to peek into my decrees. No, if ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, etc.

17:12 So when Paul here indicates that his concern, the great end of this exhortation is that they may discover, work out and prove in their own experience the will of God. It is the will of God's precepts, his revealed will. And this must always, in every circumstance, be the basis upon which we order our thinking about ourselves, our wives, our husband, our children, work, marriage, the training of children, schooling, career, all of these things. We are never to say, well, it may be because of certain providential factors that I see that God has decreed to do this and then we leap out and do something contrary to the revealed will of God hoping that it's in the decrees of God to bring it to pass. The Bible has a word for that. That's called tempting God.

18:13 That's called tempting God. And thou shalt not tempt, the Lord thy God. We are to walk by the precepts of God by the revealed will of God. All right?

Characteristics of God's Revealed Will: Good, Acceptable, Perfect

18:26 So the goal envisioned is that these believers would discover in their own experience the revealed will of God and then he calls that revealed will of God three things or says it is characterized. And this is not exactly a string of adjectives and we'll not go into the technicalities of the Greek grammar on it, suffice it to say that lovingly to entice them again. It's beautiful how he does this. Having entreated them that they should know this end, that is, discover the will of God lest someone should say, oh, the will of God, that may hold such harsh, such terrible things.

19:09 He says it is the thing that is good, acceptable, and perfect. It is nothing which the heart, the heart of a person set upon these things need ever fear. And let me take just a moment now to give a little working description of those three words. It is the thing that is good.

19:32 It is intrinsically good. That is morally virtuous. It's not only good in relationship to some other thing. A surgeon may be in the operating room doing something that is not good in itself.

19:47 He may be cutting out a man's lungs. That's not good in itself for a man to lose a lung. But in terms of the fact that that lung is so infected that it will take the man's life, it is good in relationship to the man's overall health to take away one of his lungs. So some things that are not good in themselves are good in relationship to other things.

20:09 But the will of God is in and of itself always good because it is the will of a God who is good.

20:21 That's why Paul could say in Romans 7 if you'll just go back for just a moment with reference to the law of God which is the expression of the will of God notice what he says in verse 12 of Romans 7 so that the law is holy and the commandment holy and righteous and good. Now dear people, hear me. Hear me, hear me, hear me.

20:51 One of the most, one of the most effective ways for the devil to turn the people of God aside from the will of God the will of his precepts is when they begin to reflect on how those precepts apply to them in a specific instance he tries to convince us that that expression of the will of God is harsh, is bitter, is unreasonable and is not good. And will destroy our highest good. That is the lie that he brought to our first parents in the Garden of Eden. You remember it?

21:35 God said, Adam, it's good for you not to take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because I've so arranged my moral universe that all the bliss that we now know can only remain if I'm God and you're the creature. I call the shots and you obey them. I reveal what's right and wrong and you accept it. But by revelation the devil came along and said in essence, you know, God really wasn't good in giving that command.

22:01 He said it was good. That is, in the day you eat, you'll die. It will not be for your best interest. But God was really lying to you.

22:10 You see, he told you that because there's a good thing out here that he doesn't want you to have. And that good thing is to know good and evil like he does. So, Adam, God's keeping a goody away from you and if you stay within his revealed, will, you're going to miss something good.

22:31 And it's only when Adam believed that lie that he could ever have taken of the fruit.

22:36 And dear people, that lie comes from the pit of hell again and again. I've seen it coming out of hell this week in some of my pastoral dealings.

22:50 If I don't have that particular career,

22:54 God will be mean to take that from me. That particular object of my affection, I love him. I love her. Oh, yes!

23:05 He or she is not a Christian. He or she is not a proven child of God.

23:12 But if I say no to them, my heart will be broken. I may not have a wife. I may not have a husband. God will be mean and keep me an old bachelor.

23:28 Keep me a shriveled up old maid. God's not good. That's a lie from the pit.

23:37 God's will revealed in his precepts is the good. The good thing is good. Nothing good.

23:52 Are you going to believe God or the devil?

23:57 Fathers, nurture your children. He that spares his rod hates his son. He that loves him, chastens him, speaks times. Oh, but it wouldn't be good.

24:09 I'll turn my son or daughter against me if I spank them. It won't be good to do what the will of God in the precepts says. The purple of the wound drives away foolishness.

24:22 It'll be good to just stroke them and love them into maturity. God says no, no, no. God says that's the way to send them to hell.

24:33 The will of God is good in every single area. You say, Pastor, why do you get excited? Well, you can prepare the notes in the detachment of the study, but as you mingle with your people and hear some of the testimonies that we heard from 9 o'clock yesterday morning until 6 o'clock in the afternoon in this building, his elders, and realize what a master liar the devil is. You get mad at the devil when he says God's will is bad and his way is good.

25:05 When the devil's way is always according to Jesus, the thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy. He steals happiness and fulfillment and goodness. He destroys all that is noble and peaceful and upright. He comes to steal and to destroy.

25:24 Now, who do you think is the devil? Who are you going to believe? God or the devil? Now, that's going to have tremendous relevance for some of you.

25:31 Because when we get into male and female roles in relationships, we're going to see that the Bible says that a married woman with children at home belongs in her home as the ordinary, normal sphere of her labor.

25:45 And that's going to pinch some of you. Yes, but you see, I have such a mind that I am...

25:51 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I know all about that. But I have such talents that they should not be compressed and confined to the drudgery and...

26:00 Yeah, I know all about that, but let me tell you something. God's got a bigger mind than you've got. And He's smarter than you are. And He says that's the place that's good for you.

26:13 Now, see, if you don't believe this, you're going to squirm and you're going to be fighting with God and you won't have the courage to get up and fight with God. Know what you'll do? I don't agree with Pastor Martin.

26:31 Well, don't agree with him if he's just giving his own theories. But if he's expounding Titus chapter 2, which says, the older women that are trained, the younger women to be keepers at home. And when we get into what a keeper of home is, not just being at home, but keeping that home. Finding noble service to God in keeping the dust off your furniture.

26:52 In keeping a neat house. And you say, well, any old maid with an IQ of 70 could do that. Yeah, so God knows that, but He still told you to be a keeper at home. Is the will of God good?

27:05 See, it comes right... It comes right back to that, doesn't it?

27:07 The thing that is good is the will of God.

27:12 Now, I don't want to anticipate the whole series, but you see the implications? Do you see the implications, dear people? And that's why I can't be dispassionate in treating it. The will of God is the thing that is good.

27:22 Look at the next thing about it. It is called the thing that is well-pleasing. And that word is difficult to translate and you can feel the difficulty when you get into the various expositories You notice the marginal reading, the old ASV, well-pleasing. You Greek students.

27:50 It's used about ten times in the New Testament and all but one use. It has the idea of something well-pleasing to God and therefore acceptable to God. Because it is well-pleasing to God, it is acceptable to God. Look at one example of it in Philippians 4.18.

28:09 This is the example of it. This is the example of it. This is the example of it. This is the example of it.

28:09 This will perhaps be a good illustration of the sense of the word. I have all things and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice, here it is, acceptable, well-pleasing to God. A sacrifice, acceptable, well-pleasing to God.

28:40 So what does he say? He is saying, whatever God prescribes in His will, when He sees it being worked out in His children, you know it is pleasing unto Him. It is acceptable to Him because it is well-pleasing unto Him. Now you see how that brings tremendous pressure to bear upon the heart of a true Christian because at the end of the day, when you can strip away everything else and all of the influences of the remaining sin in the world, when you get down to the real core of what drives a Christian, is there anything more real in the heart of every Christian than the desire of 2 Corinthians 5-9, we make it our aim to be well-pleasing unto Him. Isn't that it? If you are a real Christian, can't you say, in spite of all my sin, my failures, my coldness, my wanderings, God knows that the thing I want more than else, is to please the Savior who redeemed me and the God who sent that Savior to die for me and who is now my Father. So you see the tremendous pressure this was bringing to bear upon the Roman Christians.

29:54 He said, the end of my entreaty is that you may discover, put to the test in your own experience, the will of God, that is the will of His precepts, the thing that is good in itself, the thing that is well-pleasing that is acceptable to God and the thing that is perfect. Now when something is perfect, it has attained its proper end. When you speak of a perfect apple, you mean an apple that is grown up to the proper size that an apple is to grow and if it's a delicious apple, it has the proper shape of a delicious apple, has the proper nubs at the top and all of the rest. It is a perfect apple. It is an apple that has come to its full development as an apple, a perfect vacation. It's a vacation that had all the elements that make for a good vacation.

30:52 So he says, the will of God is the perfect thing, that is, it is perfectly suited to the end for which man was created. You see, man was not created for the service of the devil. He was created for the service of God. And you and I attained the end, the end for which we were created only in so far as we are discovering in our own experience the will of God.

31:22 The will of God is the perfect thing. In the will of God we come to our true potential. You see here again, our faith is tested. Who knows better what our true fulfillment is?

31:34 The world or God?

31:37 Dr. Brothers or God?

31:41 Spock or God? Who knows best? How husbands and wives should relate to one another?

31:50 Gloria Steinem? Betty Friedan? Or God?

31:56 That's the issue. Well, you see, the God who made us and who knows the end for which he made us, he says, my will is the perfect thing. The good, the acceptable or the well-pleasing and the perfect. Now, if you're a Christian, do you want anything short of the good, the acceptable and the perfect?

The Threefold Means to Attain God's Will

32:18 Surely every Christian says, no, the thought is abhorrent then Paul says, I invite you then to see now how this end can be realized. If the end has caught your spiritual fancy and awakened longings within you, now he says, there's a threefold means to attain this end. And in the time that remains, we should have time, let's seek to discover now what are the three things that must be realized in us if we are to attain this end of proving the will of God. All right?

33:01 Do you see them in the passage? What's the first one? All right, Doug? All right.

33:15 The first is presentation of our bodies as a living sacrifice. Let's try to find all three before we open them up. Or what's the second? Someone see the second?

33:29 John?

33:31 All right. So, presentation of our bodies to God. Secondly, non-conformation to the world. So, we have presentation is the first.

33:45 Then, non-conformation be not conformed to this present age. And then, the third one is? Chet?

33:55 All right. So, transformation by the renewing of our minds. All right. Now, what is he saying?

34:03 Here's what he's saying. Now, follow closely. It's right there in the passage. You've all been able to exit.

34:08 See, this is what we preachers have to do at our day. Yes, when we're working on how to preach a sermon. So, you're getting a lesson in exegesis and homiletics as well. All right?

34:17 So, we've seen the end envisioned. Now, the means to that end. Presentation. Whatever it means to present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable or spiritual service, we will never have a life of proving the will of God without this presentation as the fundamental posture of our relationship to God.

34:39 To God Himself.

34:42 That's clear from the text. However, that presentation does not automatically bring us here.

34:50 It puts us in the ballpark, so to speak, that is, it doesn't get you from first to home base. There must then be this negative and positive process continually going on in one whose posture is that of presenting himself as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, and those two things are negatively do not be conformed to this world or this age. And we'll consider briefly what that means, but we must be continually transformed by the renewing of our minds. Then and only then will we discover and prove in our experience the will of God, the good, the acceptable, and the perfect. So, when we start thinking now about such issues, as male-female roles and relationships, what must we do? We must be sure that we think about those things from this posture. I am a living sacrifice presented unto God, saying, O God, I want to be, think, do everything that you say.

36:05 In your word, a Christian man ought to be, think, and do. And in that posture, Lord, I'm prepared to have you flush out of my mind every last drop of the spirit of this age that would influence my thinking and thereby cause me to miss the will of God, the good, the acceptable, and the perfect. Lord, I'm willing to unlearn anything that I picked up in my home, that I picked up in school, that I picked up from society. Lord, flush it all out.

36:40 And then, Lord, I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. I want to think your thoughts after you about what a man is. I want to think your thoughts after you about what a woman is. I want to think your thoughts after you about what a mother is, what a husband is, what a wife is, what I should think about my boss and how I should look at my work and my fellow workmen.

37:04 Lord, I want to think your thoughts after you. You see, as we go through these specifics, if you move away from these perspectives, you're going to be in big, bad trouble. We must think that we cannot come back and exegete this text at the beginning of every lesson. I want to say on the front end, and that's why we've taken so much time to lay the foundation, everything that follows presupposes this spiritual posture and this ongoing spiritual experience of being in the position of living sacrifices, not conformed to this age, but transformed in our minds.

37:44 You see, our thinking must undergo constant radical transformation, and only then will we prove, will we discover, will we put to the test in our experience the will of God, the good, the acceptable, and the perfect. All right? Now, let's go back to these three and just take a few minutes. If we can take five minutes on each, that'll bring us right to the end of the class.

Means 1: Presenting Bodies as a Living Sacrifice

38:09 All right? When he says, I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, what do you think he means by using those terms? Maybe I should rephrase the question this way. And here I'll try to look at my notes and see the questions I've written down.

38:39 What kind of imagery just kind of oozes out of that first directive to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing unto God. Where does that language derive from? Anyone got an idea?

38:57 What's it sound like?

39:00 Yes.

39:06 All right. In the Old Testament, the center of all of the worship of the people of God was the altar and the sacrifices offered upon it. Whether we think of the holiest of holy, where once a year the high priest went in on the Day of Atonement, or whether we think of the external holy place where you had the altar with the daily offering and the special offerings and sacrifices, this is language that is extracted out of what you'll find in your writings. Whenever you find the term the Old Testament cultus, C-U-L-T-U-S, or Old Testament cultic worship, that's not referring to some Jehovah's Witnesses who are in Israel, the cults.

39:50 But what it means is the Old Testament cultus would be the Old Testament frame and form of worship. And its cultic worship is referring to that aspect of Israel's life. Now, what marked every single sacrifice in the Old Testament? It was never a sacrifice without being what?

40:17 All right. So it had to be a holy animal, a pure animal. All right. What else?

40:25 George? Had to be dead and had to be dead and had to be dead. That is blood taken out. All right?

40:32 Is that what you were going to underscore, Doug? All right. So, sacrifice. If you were thinking as a Jew, you'd think of death, blood, that was the symbol, the living symbol of that the life had been taken out of that animal and that it was a special animal.

40:49 It was set apart unto God and offered in that way. So you see the whole language derives from that. But then by some stark contrast, he shows the difference of the New Testament cultic worship.

41:07 And what it is that God now seeks is not a dead sacrifice, but a living sacrifice. Not the dead carcass of an animal, but the living body of a living saint. Now, my question is this. Why do you think, he says, present your bodies a living sacrifice and not just present yourselves?

41:32 Anyone got an idea why he says present your bodies?

41:38 Jonathan?

41:44 All right, it's in our bodies that we perform that which is righteous or unrighteous, the language of Romans 6, as you presented your members, the members of your body, instruments of unrighteousness. All right? Any other reason why you think he says body?

42:02 Yes, Evelyn?

42:11 Okay. He wants the whole person. Now, let me ask you this. If he had said present your souls, might people think, all right, yes, I've given my soul to God, but now I can do my own thing with some of my bodily appetites, what I eat and all the rest.

42:29 You see, we so con ourselves that there's a sense in which we could kid ourselves that we've given our souls to God while we held back our bodies. But what's the only way you can give your body to God?

42:41 How do you give your body to God? Maybe you pick it up somehow and throw it on up. What's the only way you give your body to God?

42:49 When you give yourself to God, right? In other words, he says, I beseech you, brethren, you're to be the priest presenting your body. Well, how do you present your body? God doesn't have an altar somewhere where you get up there and crawl up on it and say, Lord, here I am.

43:05 See, by saying your bodies, there is a concreteness to the reality and the totality of our joyful self-surrender to God Himself.

43:18 And there's a concreteness, you see, to it. When he says, present your bodies, that means right out to my fingertips and down to the nail on my little toe. I am conscious in the language of 1 Corinthians 6. I am not my own.

43:36 I have been bought for the price. I am to glorify God, therefore, in my body. And you'll see how he brings in the inner life later on in a masterful way. And there's so many strokes in this.

43:51 That are just fascinating. We just don't have time to go into them. But he says, all right, there's to be the presentation of the body. And may I simply remind you of two other texts that are very, very crucial for us as Christians.

44:05 One is Paul's ambition in Philippians 20. He says, this is my ambition, whether by life or by death, Jesus Christ shall be magnified in my body. That is, in the totality of my body. My bodily existence here on earth, I want Jesus Christ to be magnified.

44:28 And then 2 Corinthians 5.10, for we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ that each may receive the things done in his body, whether good or whether bad. So it is the things done in the body for which account shall be given in the body. In the last day.

44:52 Now, quickly notice, to whom is this presentation to be made? Well, since it is acceptable to God, obviously the presentation is made to God. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, or well-pleasing to God. Well, you see, in the context, to whom else could we present it?

45:17 I beseech you by the mercies of God. And in the language, in the language of the hymn, hear, Lord, I give myself away. Tis all that I can do. You're not giving yourself to the church.

45:30 You're not giving yourself to abstract ideals. And may I say it reverently, you're not even giving yourself to the rules and regulations of a book called the Bible.

45:45 And we've got to remember that. We're giving ourselves to God. The God who made us. The God who could have made our bodies and souls.

45:54 The eternal objects of His righteous wrath and consumed us in the terrors and pains of hell forever. That God has graciously in His mercy redeemed us. And so the reflexive desire is to present ourselves unto Him. Living sacrifices.

46:15 And then notice what he says. It is to be presented a living sacrifice and a holy sacrifice. Sacrifice. Separated unto God.

46:27 And why should this be done? He says, it is your spiritual or reasonable service. The Greek word logikain. We get our word logic.

46:38 That which pertains to the mind or the rational faculty. And it's reasonable in itself that we should do so. So if you translate which is your reasonable service, people often think, well, it's reasonable, we should do it. But that's not the emphasis of the passage.

46:54 It's speaking of an intelligent internal service rendered unto God. As opposed to mere external form and ritual, these people draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. God doesn't want a dead carcass on an altar from a dead and a distracted and an uncommitted heart. He wants a living sacrifice which is a reasonable, a rational, a fashionable service.

47:25 And the word service is the word often used for temple service, for priestly service, latreion. And it's true spiritual worship. It is the worship that God seeks in response to His mercies in Christ through the gospel that we should present ourselves unto Him. So let me say very quickly, my friend, if your will has never been conquered through the grace of Christ, your enormous, no position to prove the will of God in your life.

The Unconverted Heart's Resistance to God's Will

47:59 And the more you know of that will, the more your hostility to God is going to surface. And I venture to say that with some of you, this series of studies is going to be a revelation that you don't have the root of the matter in you. Because the more you see from the Bible what God says you're to be as a woman, you know what you're going to find? You're going to find a clenched fist rising up and getting bigger week by week by week by week.

48:20 Why? Romans 8, 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the will of God.

48:27 Neither indeed can it be. And oh, my friend, if God shows you that that's where you are, don't get mad and leave. Fall down before God and say, Lord, thank you for showing me what I am. Make me what only your grace can make me.

48:41 Don't get mad at God when He shows you how much you need His grace. It's the best thing He can do for you. Not to let you go on self-deceived. Others of you, it's going to be a wonderful revelation to you because you're going to be so relieved that you're going to be so relieved that you're going to be what you don't need to be, what the world has told you you need to be.

49:00 And there's, as it were, some spiritual instincts leading you in certain directions, but it's so contrary to everything you've ever heard. You wonder, well, am I some kind of a weirdo? And you're going to say, no, that's the will of God, the good, the acceptable, and the perfect. And it's going to underscore that this is your posture, one of presentation of your body unto God, and then the other two very quickly, be not conformed to this world literally be not fashioned.

Means 2 & 3: Non-Conformity and Mind Transformation

49:30 The word means to fashion. One has paraphrased this phrase this way, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. We're not to be fashioned by this age, this age that is marked by a preoccupation with the temporal as opposed to the eternal. It is called this evil age, Galatians 1.4, as opposed to that which is righteous and holy, and it is called the age that is ignorant of God's wisdom, 1 Corinthians 2.6-9. And so we must recognize as we come to these areas of burning practical relevance in Christian experience, the world does not back off and say, well, look, you folks are a little odd, but you're not a bad bunch, so we'll leave you alone to work out your principles, to work out your ideas of life, of the home, of family, of work, and of labor, and of sexual relationships, and we'll leave you free. We'll declare a truce.

50:32 Oh, no. The world is aggressive in its evangelistic attempts to conform you to itself because everyone who's not conformed to it is a condemnation of it. We are light shining in darkness. We are salt in the open wounds of their rebellious lifestyle against God.

50:51 And so the world, restless with that sense of the people's of God exposing it for what it is, wants to press us into its mold, to dull and dim our light, to neutralize our saltiness. And if we are to prove the will of God, there must be a constant determination to confront anything in which this evil age is exerting its influence and say, I will not be conformed to this present age, whether that confirmation comes from the pressure without or my own remaining sin, from within. And then he says, but be ye transformed. Be continually transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words, our minds must be constantly undergoing an influence of restoration and refurbishing. We must have that work done in our minds, the realm of thought, and understanding. Sometimes it's used almost as a synonym for the heart, Romans 1.28 and 7.23 and 25.

52:07 But it certainly means the mind, the way of thinking as the sum total of the mental and moral state of our being. And so in this way, we will come to that glorious end of proving, discovering in our own experience the good, the acceptable and the perfect will of God. So will you not pray that as we come to our first study next week, that if this is not your posture of joyfully presenting yourself a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, if your posture is not one of not only willingness but eager desire that God will expose in your own thinking wherever the world has been squeezing you into its mold and then to pray that God will transform you by the renewing of your mind that you may prove the will of God, the thing that is good, the thing that is acceptable or well-pleasing and the thing that is perfect. And all of this as we stand in amazement at the mercy of God to us in Jesus Christ. Well, let us pray that God will write these things upon our hearts. Our Father, we thank you

Prayer for Grace and Repentance

53:35 for your word. We thank you for this portion of it and we pray that as we with those Christians of hundreds of years ago think of our privilege of living in an evil and a wicked age but living as light and salt. Oh, how we plead with you that as we now enter into some of the specific burning issues of the day, that you would help each one of us to take that posture of being living sacrifices, so responding to the grace that is ours in Christ, that we will not be holding back anything, Lord, but that we will joyfully and willingly say, Here, Lord, I give myself away. It is all that I can do. Give us grace to see where we have been squeezed into the world's mold in our thinking, for we know it is only as we are transformed by the renewing of our minds that we will be able to prove your will, the good, the acceptable and the perfect. We pray for any who sit here this morning believing the devil's lies that some good can be found outside of your perceptive will.

54:56 For some of your children, Lord, who are walking and thinking and acting in a way that is blessed and blatantly contrary to your revealed will because in it they think they shall find some good to be found only there. Lord, smite their consciences. Move them to repentance that there will not be one Christian in this place today who seeks good anywhere but in your will, who seeks to be well-pleasing to you anywhere but in your revealed will, who seeks to be well-pleasing but in your revealed will, who seeks to be well-pleasing who seeks to come to true fulfillment and Christian perfection anywhere but in your will. O Lord, beard that foul fiend of hell who is a liar, who has death and destruction in his spirit, and we pray that you would unmask him and rout his influence from the hearts and lives of your children. And, O, may we by grace prove, discover, joyfully experience the truth the will of God that is good, acceptable, and perfect. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.