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And lay the tyrant low.
Let my friend.
Let my friend.
Hear I've all our journey from.
As my presence.
Let my friends.
Here are all our journey.
Waste and.
Tear up the hardest time turning light.
Rendered my presence.
Fearless.
9.
12.
Day you're what I love is time.
Lord of glory.
Lord of glory.
Ever on my household shine.
Father, thou hast said thy word. We have not, because we ask not.
Well, we asked. Like little birds and a nest, we open our mouths wide.
That we might be filled. Our greatest desire is that we would receive from you that which will fulfill our needs.
As hungry and thirsty.
Children.
We trust the.
Lord Jesus, we would have a fresh few of these and when we leave this place.
We would have a renewed sense upgrades.
We have it all the way home, Savior. Indeed. It's all of grace all the way.
Father, we thank thee.
And we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We sing the first stance of Amazing Grace.
Amazing.
Grace, how sweet.
A sound.
Must save.
The Reds like me.
I want.
What's my?
Name.
I'd like to suggest a portion that is intensely practical. I realize that some of us the other night in Asheville took up the 1St 3 or 4 verses of this portion, but I I'd like to suggest that it's on my heart. It's the 12Th chapter of the book of Romans.
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Romans chapter 12. You want the whole chapter read? Yes, I think we can read the whole chapter, Jonathan.
Jonathan, I'm gonna make a suggestion that maybe you read from the 33rd verse of the previous chapter please. Alright. Romans Chapter 11, verse 33.
All the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgments?
And his ways past finding out.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor?
Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again.
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever.
Amen. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
For I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself.
More highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
For as we have many members in one body.
And all members have not the same office. So we being many are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another.
Having them gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Whether prophecy, let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith.
Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering. Or he that teacheth on teaching. Or he that exhorteth on exhortation. He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.
Let love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good, be kindly affectioned. 1 to another with brotherly love in honor, preferring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.
Distributing to the necessity of the Saints given to hospitality.
Bless them which persecute you, Bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
Recompense to no man, evil for evil.
Provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you. Live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath.
For it is written, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil.
But overcome evil with good.
Well, as I said, this chapter is intensely practical, and it's often been pointed out, but I think it's good to point these things out again, that when you read the epistles, you find usually two parts to the epistle. It begins with the doctrinal principles laid out, foundation, truth brought before us, and then as you get to the end of the epistle, you have the practical, and it's always in that order.
Because you must have sound doctrine to have sound behavior.
Sound behavior is based on sound doctrine. People talk about practical truth and where the rubber meets the road in our Christian pathway and so on. And that's all very well and good. And I trust we can glean some very practical lessons from this chapter because that's really what's on my heart and suggesting it. But it is important to realize the context of all practical truth at because it goes back to what we have in the beginning of the epistle.
As to that which has been laid down, as to the doctrinal part of it. And in this epistle, as we know, we have the great subject of justification brought before us. And, uh, he takes it up and he brings before us too, that not only has Christ died for us, but we're dead and risen with Christ and that position that we've been brought into. And then as you get to the end of the epistle, you find these very practical things brought out.
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But before we comment on the 12Th chapter, the reason I asked Jonathan to read the last four verses of the previous chapter is because we have the apostle here breaking out in a little doxology of praise and appreciation before he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, because we might say what we have in the end of the 11Th chapter is.
Appreciation because again.
If there's going to be any practical walk in our lives, any expression of the truth in a practical way, moral piety and godliness, it's going to be in the measure in which you and I have an appreciation of the person and work of Christ. And brethren, I believe that we need to have in our souls a deeper appreciation of Christ. Again, we talk about practical truth and following the Lord.
But I believe these things come unconsciously and naturally in our lives, in the measure in which Christ is real and precious to our souls. And if our coming together for meetings like this.
Has the effect of Christ being more real to us as we sing the good scriptural hymns that we've sung together? As we hear that which is expressed in praise and worship, such as in the last meeting? As we enjoy fellowship together and our appreciation of Christ and share together as we have Christ before us in these meetings, brethren, if our hearts go out more to the person of Christ.
Then the practical things that we take up in this chapter are not going to seem hard or difficult, not going to seem forced or sometimes, as the young people say, legal, but they're going to fall into place because our heart is going to go out more to Him and our feet are going to naturally follow in the path of faith and service. So let's seek to have our appreciation of Christ deepened that we might then be able to present ourselves as a living sacrifice.
I'd like to turn to a verse in Isaiah that might seem a bit odd.
But uh.
Uh, no, it's chapter 28.
Isaiah chapter 28.
And there's a little little phrase here in verse 21, and I think it's also somewhere else. But for the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Parism, He shall be rocked as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange acts.
Expression there his strange work. You know strange means in scriptures for it. So someone who is a stranger.
Is a foreigner, and it's not, shall we say, the usual case. And God says that he has a work, which is is not the usual case, and it is.
Judgment. Judgment. Well, if that's the unusual case, what is the usual case?
And, uh, actually with the little intro there, I don't think that would be very difficult to figure out what I'm going to say next. But the usual case is Grace.
That is God's way of working, or it has been, always will be.
You know, we get into this chapter, chapter 12 of Romans and we read about mercy and we do read about grace and interestingly, towards the end of the chapter we read that vengeance is mine. That's the Lord. And you know, that is a very important.
Thing it belongs to him. It might be his strange work.
It's not, it's not to be our work at all.
It's it's his strange work. It's not even his normal work. His normal work is great.
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He might pick it up if it's necessary, but we are to function in this world with grace, with mercy, and this chapter reflects that in an astonishing way. And as we live this out and we have an Ezekiel, I don't know the reference, but.
And how, then, should we live?
And uh, God does give principles for how we should live. As you say, it's not a law thing, it's really living out.
What is truly the nature of God that has been imparted to us through salvation, and that is to function in grace and in concern and care for others, and showing forth those mercies that, uh, God himself?
He's the leader in that, in the way that he has showed those things out, which they manifest in our lives.
What I just referred to uh, Romans chapter 8 and umm, it says there in Romans chapter 8 and verse 15.
Well, let's read verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For you have not received the spirit of ******* you gain the fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA. Father, the Spirit itself maketh beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, while this little portion brings the forest, the the fact that we're no longer strangers and foreigners, but we're.
Sons of God, we're heirs of God, we're joint heirs with Christ. And now the portion that we have before us in Romans chapter 12 really brings before us the exhortation, the practical exhortations that the apostle brings forth to the Saints that they might have the right attitude and the right motives of heart as they walk through the Pilgrim scene. And, uh, because they are sons, because they are in relationship with God. You and I are in relationship with God. What ought our, uh, motives to be?
What are our attitudes to be? And the very first attitude that he begins to take up in chapter 12 and verse, uh, verses one down through eight is our attitude towards God himself. And, umm, how we ought to recognize the, the price that was paid to redeem us and the price that, uh, was paid at the cross of Calvary by the Son of God who shed his own precious blood. And, uh, how we ought to have that attitude of praise and Thanksgiving and worship as we think of the price that was paid. And then our attitude that, uh, he paid everything. He spared nothing.
To bring us into such great blessing and to bring us into the relationship that we have with him. And umm, the intelligent response to our hearts is to give him everything that we have to render him unto him everything that we have, not to hold back anything. And so the Lord Jesus, uh, when he went to the cross, he gave everything. There was nothing. He didn't even have a, a tomb. He had to borrow a tomb. He had uh, uh.
Vegas what language? He begs us to offer ourselves a sacrifice, a living sacrifice. Not a dead sacrifice, but a living sacrifice and the life that is yours and mine precious. Only one life that God has created, just like yours, he said. Won't you just offer it to himself?
I'd like to go back to the 6th chapter for a moment as well, in connection with the comments that have been made by both brothers, because I believe that what we have in this chapter is the practical carrying out of what we have in the 6th chapter.
And I'll begin reading at verse 11.
Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.
That ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God.
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As those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God for sin, shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. And So what we have in this 12Th chapter is really the practical carrying out of that.
We alluded to it earlier, but we find in Romans that we are dead and risen with Christ. That's our position. But rather than there needs to be that practical reckoning of it from day-to-day in your life and mine, not because of a set of rules like under the laws, Bruce said, but because we're under grace, under the law, it was this due and thou shalt live. And it says who through fear of death were their whole lifetime subject to *******.
Because there were certain boundaries and penalties if he transgressed those boundaries. But that's not the way it's to be in your life and mine. No, Christianity, as we say, is a person. It's a question of the heart. And that's why the apostle Paul at the beginning of this chapter, he doesn't say I command you to do no, he says, I beseech you. He's.
Burst out in this doxology of appreciation.
Christ, now he says, if you have that same appreciation, I don't have to command you, because when the heart is engaged, a request has the power of a command. If someone you lo loves you and you love them, why they just have to breathe the word and you're there. The heart responds. It's not a command, but it has the power of a command or maybe even more than the power of a command. And it's not a hard thing.
So he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. And brethren, aren't we thankful for those mercies?
We talk about grace, and certainly that's where we're under grace, not law, and we're thankful for the grace of God, but there's mercy as well.
And he's talking about our bodies now. He's talking about practical and temporal things.
And mercies are for the practical and the temporal. It's of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. They are new every morning. Great is by faithfulness. And so those mercies are what meet us in the practical and temporal things of life. And brethren, if you and I are willing to respond and to lay ourselves on the altar of sacrifice, then he's going to give everything that's needed.
He's going to provide those mercies day by day so that we can present our bodies a living sacrifice.
Just consider the word justification, which our brother Jim mentioned in his opening remarks. The connection between justification and righteousness is often lost upon us. In English there are two very different words, whereas in the original.
There are related words the same route. And so to be justified is to be declared righteous. We're not made righteous. We're declared righteous judicially in Christ. God sees us as being righteous in Christ, and nothing will change that. Nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. But there are those things that we can allow in our life that are not righteous. There are those things that are defiling. And so in the portion Jim read, it says that we're not to yield.
Ourselves.
As members, as instruments have uh, umm, sorry, neither you do your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members instruments of righteousness unto God. Another thing too that I think that we all struggle with, perhaps more so in our youth is and, and, uh.
But is this reckoning ourselves dead? What does it mean to reckon ourselves dead? Is that by some intense thought? Is that by something that I do? No, I believe it's the sense that, you know, if, uh, someone had been executed for, for whatever reason, and, and you said, I can't believe that person is dead. And you go back to the newspaper and you go, no, there it is. It's written, it is, it's, it's true. It's so. And that's what it means to reckon ourselves dead to account itself. Just go back and see what God has to say.
And we are seen as dead in Christ.
And that's what I'm to remind myself of, because soon as it gets back on me that I'm trying to be dead, it's never going to work. But to reckon myself dead means go back to the Word of God and see what God has to say about me and my old nature.
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Verse 14 in Romans chapter 6 says for sin shall not have dominion over you.
So I remember as a young person saying, but it does.
It's us.
You can't live in Romans 12 until you've been through Romans 6-7 and eight.
And this reckoning that we're talking about, it's the secret.
This is this. The subject, this that we're talking about is the very secret of victory and deliverance.
And reckoning.
Is counting something to be So, as our brother was saying, like reading in the newspaper, it is written, it is declared. But then we have this confusing situation because though we've been declared righteous and we're born again.
We find in ourselves what is described in Roman 7. But sin does seem to have dominion over me. So what's wrong? What's the conflict? Well, one of the things about reckoning is counting on what God has said to be true.
In spite of experience, in spite of the way things may appear. And one of them, I remember the day the light bulb went on when I read.
In Romans Chapter 7.
And uh.
There's two verses here, but uh.
Verse 17.
Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me, Speaking of sin.
If I understand that the scripture tells me that as to my position, I am to think of myself as a new creature, a new creation in Christ Jesus. The enemy, as we saw in the song, would have us think all kinds of things about that we are under dominion of sin, that we are just sinners, that we are uh.
You know, less than that we're defeated that we're we're all the bad things that you can think of and even get you to thinking in a false way.
We are nothing, nobody, nowhere if you say that.
In regards to who you are in Christ, that's not true.
If you say those things and you think those things, you need to say it this way in and of myself.
I am nothing. I am nobody.
That's true.
But in Christ.
Oh, that's a different story now. It is no more I that do it, that I is the new creature in Christ Jesus, that eye.
Has no power of itself. It has one desire. That new nature, that new creature that we are, only wants to please Christ. When we are first born again, there is not much intelligence, but its desire is towards this one. Like a baby who looks up with its eyes into its mother's face. That's all it knows. And then as this baby learns, just like we learned as baby Christians, we begin to see the things in the Word of God.
Someone told me years ago that the relationship we have with the Lord Jesus Christ is like a romance. And when the romance.
Is good, then there's no problem with doing those things that we discover are pleasing to the one that we love. I've told many people that, you know, when I was first going to BTP to see my wife, before she was my wife, you know, I had understood that a good thing to do.
When you like a girl is to bring her flowers. And so I brought her roses and she liked them and was happy with them. But later on at some point I overheard her say to somebody that her favorite roses were Peach colored.
Well, what do you think I did when I went and got roses again? I got Peach colored roses because I just heard that she those were her favorite. It was no duty. It was not difficult. It was not hard. There was no rule. It was just, oh, great, I've got something, I've got some inside information.
I think of the David's mighty man who overheard him just simply say that he would love to have some water from a well. And they jumped up and they broke through the enemy's lines, and they got the water and they brought it to him simply because they discovered that something might please this one that they love. Well, if we have these right thoughts, renewed minds about what the Bible says we truly are that we are not In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I am not that thing. And if you are born again.
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You are not that thing. You are not to go around thinking of yourself.
As this old thing that was. And when you reckon that you died with Christ on Calvary's cross, that you were crucified there, it's the absolute truth. God is done with the old you. You and I need to be done with the old you. But guess who likes to dig up the old you from that coffin and bring him out of the ground again? The place of death. It's the enemy. He wants to dig it up and point at it and see how it stinks. Well, guess what? Dead things do stink.
There was an old farmer that said that.
That he learned this lesson one time in a very practical way. They had a horse that they all loved and they had for many years and it died and everybody was very sad and like farmers will do, uh, they would take, they took the carcass out behind the barn in the pasture and they dug a hole and they buried it.
Well, one morning about three days later, he woke up with this terrible smell.
And he said, uh oh, I know the dogs are some animals have dug up the old horse. And sure enough, they go out to the pasture and there's that horse, this beloved animal that they love, bloated and all looking not very MO, very lovely like they had remembered. And so once again they covered it over. And this happened again the next morning. So they dug a very deep hole and put rocks on it to, to put it in there. But he happened to be reading about this matter, this this subject the Lord brought before his heart.
That that old thing?
The old man that has, which has to do with what we were before we came to know the Lord Jesus our Savior. If you dig it up, if you poke a stick at it, if you pay attention to it, if you wrestle with it, whatever you do with it, there will be an odor.
And the enemy loves to get us occupied with that which will make us depressed and dejected and down in the doldrums. But Christ would have us look at him and that new life that we have is hid in him. It's where it is. And when we have a renewing of our romance with our precious Lord Jesus Christ, then when we hear things like, oh, it's a good thing to present my body as a living sacrifice with him, Well then there's no problem. There's no difficulty. It's oh, that's a good thing to do. I will do that.
Whatever we hear and discover from this book.
That we know pleases the one that we love and that we have this fresh romance with. We know He loves us. It's something that we delight to do. We don't even think of it as being a command or a law or an order. It's just something that we delight to do.
Not first verse that were therefore. I beseech you, brethren, therefore.
It says by by the mercies of God, by the by the compassions of God. We have in the 1St 8 chapters of Romans the subject of our justification and the freedom that God puts us in now before him so we can be free to present our bodies, because through our bodies he's going to express himself and have his work done.
But it says by the compassions of God, and we had as we read in the 33rd verse with reference to the other chapters between 8:00 and 12:00, in which God gives us His perspective as to Israel. And he ends up with the 33rd verse, 22nd verse of Chapter 11 where he says that God had closed up Jew and Gentile under disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.
When the Samaritan went by that man who had been, who had fallen before the thieves, he says, it says that his heart was filled with compassion. He had compassion on him. And this I believe is what we have here is by the compassions of God. And my French Bible, God is sharing with us now that he's brought us into a position of comfort and security and love before him. He wants us to be the vessels through which he can express his compassion.
His compassions to Jew and Gentile, his compassions to a lost world, in misery, in suffering and pain, and his compassion to.
Is children the ones that he loves and that belong to him already?
So what a privilege, dear ones, to have this sharing from God's heart of his compassion and to be privileged. If we let him use our bodies and present our bodies as a living sacrifice, to be the expression in our lives and the things that we say that we do and how we behave of the very heart of God, a heart of love and a passion full of grace and mercy. The last thing He wants to do is judge this world. He's going to judge it.
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But he's left us here.
So we could still express to this world that he has compassion and forgiveness for them.
There are three sacrifices that the believer is called on to make in Christianity. You have two of them in the end of Hebrews, where it says first of all.
By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.
That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name, because God delights in the sacrifice of praise. Interesting that it's called the sacrifice. You know, if there is any note of praise from our hearts and on our lips, He implants that all things come of Thee, and of thine own have we given Thee. I create the fruit of the lips, it says. And yet he so values the return of any little praise from our hearts.
That, he says, I counted as a sacrifice.
But then the next verse in that chapter in Hebrews says to do good and communicate. Forget not.
For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. That is his desire is that we would, he, we would take what he has entrusted to us in a temporal way and use it for his glory in sacrifice. You know, a sacrifice is something that should hurt. We should feel it. I, I'm gonna speak very plainly, but you know, my putting a $5.00 bill in the collection plate on Lord's Day morning is not really a sacrifice.
Every man is to give as God has prospered, and we're to feel it.
I just say that on a very practical note, that's only one way to give and but whatever we have, whatever is entrusted to us in a temporal way, be it our home, our car, Oregon, a dollar bill, where to use it, be exercised. It says it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. I'm going to have to give an account of everything that God has entrusted to me in a coming day. But here we have a sacrifice that is a little bit different.
It's not simply giving what has been entrusted to us, it's giving ourselves, It's offering our bodies. Now, brethren, we're not our own. We're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body, uh, and in your, your spirit, which are gods. We're encouraged here or exhorted here to lay down ourselves on the altar of sacrifice. In first John chapter 3 and 16, it says, and this was manifested the love of God.
And that he laid down his life for us. And then it says, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. You know, it's easy sometimes to reach into our pockets and give when we see some need. But it's quite a different matter, isn't it, brethren, to give ourselves?
That takes real energy of faith, it takes real purpose of heart. If we had appreciation in the end of the previous chapter.
We have dedication in the first verse of this chapter and that's what God is really looking for from each one of us.
If you just allow me to say this too. In fact, maybe we better look at the couple of scriptures first of all in Revelation chapter 2.
In connection with laying down our lives says, as we said, we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren, but that doesn't necessarily mean we give our lives physically. There's two ways that believers can lay down their lives. The first one is in Revelation chapter 2.
Two, and in connection with the Saints at Smyrna, in verse 10 it says, Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, and that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation. 10 days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. You know the crowns that are rewards for faithfulness at the judgment seat of Christ.
Are always taken up. In contrast, a crown of righteousness and Timothy is for living righteously in an unrighteous world. A crown of life here is given to one who physically in this context lays down their life.
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For their testimony, there were Saints in the city of Smyrna in the days of John who were suffering to the extent that they were laying down their life as martyrs. We often refer to this crown of life here as the martyr's crown, but perhaps none of us in this room will ever be called on to lay down our lives physically for our testimony. So let's go to the book of James where you have this same expression.
James chapter one.
James chapter one and verse 12.
Blessed is the man who endureth temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Now here's the crown of life promised again, but if you notice the context of this, it's not one who lays down his life physically, but it's one who lays down his life in the sense of what the Lord said himself. He that loses his life for my sake and the gospel shall find it. And in the context of our chapter in the 12Th of Romans were to present our bodies. Notice this expression, a living sacrifice.
We never, may never, be called to give our bodies as a sacrifice in death physically, but we are called upon to give ourselves as a living sacrifice. Is it sacrifice? Yes, it is.
Will it cost us? Yes, it will. But he says, never mind, I'll give you a crown of life. There's a special reward, brethren, for those who give their lives in sacrifice to the Lord and for one another. Here he says, I'll make it up. The world says that person has a lost life. It's a wasted life. The Lord says no, you've used your life for me. You've given yourself. You've been dedicated to myself.
And my service and my people. There's another life, there's another world.
And I'll make it up, the Lord said to Peter. If you give up things down here, I'll give you a hundredfold in the coming day. That's quite a percentage on your return, isn't it? Wouldn't we like to have that kind of a return?
You have that brought out in, uh, First Corinthians chapter 16. In the last chapter, an example of it in connection with, uh, Stephanus, it says in verse 15, uh, First Corinthians 16 and verse 15. I beseech you, brethren.
You know, the House of that it was that it is the first fruits of A and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the Saints or to the service of the Saints. And there you have an example of one named in Scripture who addicted himself to the servant of the Saints. I'd just like to bring out another aspect of the sacrifice and that is that, uh, we offer something that's exceedingly precious to ourselves and it's precious to God, but it's precious to ourselves.
It's valuable and we.
Present it to another. That's what a sacrifice is in that way. And so your life is precious and, uh, it's uh, filled with all kinds of potential. And it can be potential for the blessing of others, the potential for the honor and glory of, uh, the Lord Jesus himself. And, umm, God isn't going to command you to offer that sacrifice as he did in the Old Testament, but because you have relationship with him that you're brought into such a blessing because of the finished work of Christ.
He just, uh, asked for that sacrifice, as it were. Would you take what is so precious to the Lord, precious to yourself, your own life, and live it for Himself, for His glory?
You know the Marine Corps as they're advertising, where they say they want a few good men and only the best.
And they don't hide the fact that it's very difficult. It's going to be hard. Special forces in the military, the same kind of thing. Yet they have no shortage of people willing to volunteer and go because those who look at it and really examine it know that even though it's difficult and hard, it's worth it.
Now they may do it for personal pride and glory, but the Lord Jesus doesn't hide anything either. Following Him and being a Christian, even in America, isn't easy. Living a life for Christ involves sacrifices. It may involve some kinds of persecution. And as our brother said, we may not be called upon to give our lives in death here in this country. But who knows, as things are changing dramatically, there may be more and more persecution that comes up in this country.
But God tells us in his word that it's difficult, that it can be hard, that there will be sacrifice. But then he says it's worth it. And those who have gone that path before us will turn and tell you in a moment.
00:45:15
Was it worth it? Yes, it's worth it. It's worth it now. But we are promised that in glory. God's stock market, if you will, has great returns, and there's nothing that can corrupt that return there. When it's laid up, it's laid up this life. And the older you get, the more you realize it is a blink. It's a blink. It goes by and eternity is a long time. So if we say, you know what?
Uh, this, this kind of sacrifice is just too much. I have other plans. Yes, I know the Lord is my savior and I know I'm going to be in heaven, uh, when I die. But you know, there are other things that I want to do now. And I think that temptation faces everyone. And we say, well, you know, I, I, I don't really want to give those things up, But what we keep for ourselves, we lose for eternity. What we give up, the investment is multiplied a hundredfold.
But there are some qualifications here in offering ourselves as a living sacrifice. You know, in the Old Testament, when the Israelite brought a sacrifice, it couldn't just be any old sacrifice. It had to be a sacrifice that was according to God's standard. It had to be without blemish. When they brought the, uh, Passover lamb, they had to even keep it for a certain number of days.
To make sure that that lamb was going to be acceptable, that it was without, without spot and without blemish. And so he speaks of this sacrifice of holy, because there must be maintained in our lives, brethren, moral purity. And I just want to make an appeal to the young people because this is a day of lowering standards. This is a day when moral purity is looked at very lightly, or perhaps it isn't even considered at all.
You know, I grew up in an immoral society. I'm afraid our young people are growing up in an amoral society. Morals, there's no standard anymore. Morals are thrown out the window. But it says, again, keep thyself pure.
And we're not our own. We're not to let our bodies go the way we want. Man says just follow the lust, and whatever you desire your body desires to do, just let it go and do it. Is that what God wants? No. And young people, there have been many who have not maintained moral purity in their lives. They've fallen into fornication. They've fallen into moral evil. And it's the one sin that leaves a blight.
A mark on the human body for the rest of their life.
You know, it says of moral evil, a wound, not a scar, but a wound and dishonor shall he get. A wound is something that doesn't heal over. David sinned and he sinned grievously in connection with Bathsheba, and he was happily restored to the Lord, and he was used mightily of the Lord subsequent to his sin, but a sword never departed from his house forever. There was that blight that not that wound that never went away.
And many young people have spoiled their testimony and even though they've been happily restored to the Lord.
They may have been used of the Lord in later life, but there's always been a blight there. There's been a hindrance to their, uh, ministry and a lack of moral weight to their, uh, to their service. Oh, I beg of you, keep yourself pure. He wants us to present our bodies holy, acceptable in a way that is acceptable to God. Which is your reasonable, Or if you notice a more accurate translation.
Intelligence service, you know, again, it's not just that we choose whatever we think is going to be acceptable to God and do our service in a way that we think goes along with, uh, the course of the day and so on. No, it must be in a way that is acceptable to him and it tells us and he, Ephesians, he's abounded to us in all wisdom and intelligence. You and I have an intelligence.
Service to render to God.
Now, again, in the Old Testament, they had a service in connection with the sacrifices, but it wasn't necessarily an intelligent service if we had stepped up to the brazen altar in the wilderness and asked the priests or the Levites now.
00:50:11
Why do you have to do things in a certain way? Why do certain sacrifices have to be filleted in a certain way? And when it's the bird, the head has to be pinched off and the crop and the feathers set aside and this and that. They would have said, look, this is the way God has told us to do it. We've seen what happened to Nadab and Abayu when they didn't go by the letter of the law. And we have no choice in this matter. This is the way God has said it's acceptable.
It was acceptable to God, but it wasn't an intelligent service.
But you and I have an intelligent service. But how are we going to serve wholly, acceptably and intelligently? We must peruse this book, brother. We have the guidebook for our service for God and Christ and to His people here in this book. Sometimes I talk to people, young people, and they say I want to serve the Lord and I'd like to know His mind for me and how I can serve Him. But you talk to them and you find they're not reading their Bible.
You'll never know how to serve God acceptably and intelligent intelligently.
Unless you orderly and consistently and prayerfully with exercise read your Bible every day. So I just say that many Christians say, well, I can serve God whatever way I choose and it doesn't matter what I allow in my life otherwise. No, He wants us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, but it must be holy.
Acceptable under God, and it must be with intelligence, divine intelligence, which comes from the Word.
Just like to speak a little on the subject of holiness, even though many of our comments we've contrasted what we have.
As Christians with what we find under law, but nevertheless there's principles that we find in the Old Testament. They're just as true today as they were then. Though as Brother Jim has pointed out, there is an intelligence in connection with them that Israel did not have. So Leviticus 18.
It says in verse two, Speak unto the children of Israel and saying to them, I am the Lord your God.
Just just remember that statement, I am Jehovah your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do? And after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, ye shall not do.
Neither shall you walk in their ordinances. Well, that's the principle that's applicable today, as it was then. We walk in a well that's very much like Egypt and the Weld will justify.
Anything as you know today that that would justify that they completely destroy the concept of marriage, they destroy the concept of morality, and they'll have very reasonable arguments as to why they should.
Go over to Chapter 19.
It says you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
Sometimes someone may point to you or me and say you think you're better than me. Well, I'm not holy because I'm better than you. I'm called upon to be holy because God is holy. And that is a principle we find in first Peter. It is something that has not changed. Now look through chapter 19 and I'm mocked about one day. I didn't count them specifically and write them down, but it says you shall fear every man, his mother, his father, and keep my Sabbath. I am Jehovah your God.
Verse four, I am Jehovah your God. Verse 10, I am Jehovah your God. Verse 12, I am Jehovah. And so all these things were presented to Israel. Why? Because there was some logical reason for them in man's sight. No, because in God's sight they are holy. And so there are things that you may reason in your mind as to well what can, what harm can there be in that first thing you need to ask yourself.
Is this what Egypt is doing? Is this what the world around me is doing? That's a good reason right there why I shouldn't do it. And what does God have to say about it? I may not understand his reason why.
You know, when, uh, when we're, my children were little, I might say to them, don't do this. They have no reason and no, no way of knowing why, but it's for their own safety and their own good. And one day we'll find out why God has made us the way he has made us and why doing certain things, particularly in connection with moral things in our lives can be so destructive. As Jim said, they can leave a mark and they will leave a mark on this for the rest of our lives. Why they can be so destructive doesn't mean to say that God can't heal us in those things.
00:55:07
You can't deliver us from those things, but nevertheless.
Just, you know, I, I look at spring, it's beautiful. The leaves come out on the trees and they're perfect. But by the time fall comes around, they're scarred and damaged. Well, that's kind of like our bodies and we're gonna be raised and you and have changed bodies, but.
That's that's the sort of things that this world can do to us, can leave us scarred and wounded. There's a reason why God has asked us not to do these things, even if we don't understand, despite the fact that we do have spiritual intelligence.
So he goes on to say, be not conformed to the world. If we were to bring a chameleon in here and put him on this green carpet, he would soon conform to the color of this carpet we have. We, uh, scare him and he climbs up the wall. He soon conforms. He becomes a tan color. He conforms to the color of the wall. They call it camouflage amongst the lower creation. And God has given them that ability to survive and protect themselves.
But brethren, that's not how the Christian survives in this world. We don't survive in this world be by becoming chameleons are conformed to it. A young man went off to college one time and after a year of college he came home and some a brother asked him. He said well how did you survive as a Christian at college? All he says they said they never found out that I was a Christian. That's as being a spiritual chameleon and that is not what God has given us to survive as a Christian.
In this world, but I would like to also say a word in the context of this expression in the second verse, because we have just done it and we often do, and rightly so, apply this expression, be not conformed to the world in connection with many outward things. But I believe in the context here in Romans it appli, it is, uh, brings before us something else, a very important principle. You know, the world, the man of the world draws a circle around himself.
Puts himself in the center of the circle and he does everything for himself.
That's what the world's event is. That's what the bent of a natural man is.
They talk about me first. You know, I grew up in the me first generation. This is the me only generation. But nevertheless, that's the bend of the natural man. But that is not to be the way it is for the believer. The believer now is not to be the center of his life and his world, but it's Christ as the center of his world. And when Christ is the center, when we, we don't.
Conform to the way of the world and the natural man. Then Christ is the center and Christ's interests are taken up as important in our lives. We put Christ and his interests first. We then are able to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice in service to himself and in service.
To, to one another and let's stop. And I, I just stopped and examined my own soul. You know, they, the world says it's all about me and I'm #1 and I have my rights and I owe it to myself and so on. But what about Christ? Is Christ really the center of our thoughts, the center of our world? If he is, then it will be Christ, his interests and then ourselves that's not being conformed to the world.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live.
Yet not I, but Christ. That should be emblazoned across our foreheads, yet not high, but Christ. It's the opposite of that expression. The Me generation. We ought to be called the Christ generation. Yet not I, but Christ.
Says in verse 2, be transformed by the renewing of your mind and so the outward is transformed by the inward, not the other way around. I mean you can put a nice looking coat and jacket on and a tie, but be a terrible mess on the inside.
And just, uh, perhaps, uh.
In in the very sense that Jim said that being conformed up to the world is used in Romans. But in in first John, it says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. That's written by John and as we often say, the abstract way that he writes, but.
01:00:03
When it says the love of the Father is not in him as believers have a little note that I wrote my Bible. At some point the Father's love should possess us. You know, if we are trying to possess the Father, we will fall down. If we are trying to put on the outward without the inward, we will fail. But if we understand what God has done on the inward and if we understand the Father's love for us, then.
The the attractions in this world are gonna fade away. Just in connection with some of the very opening comments about wrecking ourselves dead and so on. I just wanna point out to your young people that there will always be that inside of you that will respond to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. How blessed. And Savior did not have a nature that responded to any of those things. Satan could set before him whatever, and there was not.
Anything. Anything in him that would respond to them but you and I.
There is something in us where as a man put in front of us a a picture of a beautiful woman. There is something inside of me and you that's going to respond to that. And it's true as a sister as well. And I could go through whatever and Satan knows how weakness is. It's not gonna go away. It's not gonna be changed. We are simply to recognize that it's done with done with in the sight of God. But.
Sometimes we can so struggle with those things because we keep finding within ourselves that which responds to these lusts that Satan delights to set before us in that struggle that we read about in Romans 7 in particular. But to recognize that God has done away with it, that that we don't have to be under control of it, that's, that's the position that we should find ourselves.
First Corinthians chapter five, he said God sanctify you, Holy Spirit, soul and body. And here we're talking about our bodies and having.
Our, uh, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So the transformation is a result of what occupies our minds. And if the one that's occupying our mind is the Lord Jesus, that's who we're gonna be resembling. That's who we're gonna be transformed like.
We with all the open faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, I transformed into the same image from glory to glory. It's it's a passive thing because of an active thing going on. And the active thing going on is our mind being renewed as we look at the Lord and learn of Him. If we read the scriptures, if we spend time in fellowship with the Lord and one another, that's what's gonna be on our minds and that's gonna be showing up in our lives. If all we read is a newspaper and watch television, that's how we're gonna be transformed. And we're gonna be transformed to look like the world and think like the world and speak like the world.
Being conformed also has the aspect to it that the world brings outward pressures upon us to form us or to press us into a form that, uh, will not touch their consciences. And, umm, so the Lord is working with us to form us, or to press us, as it were, into the very image of Christ, that we might display the glory of God in this scene. Because the only, uh, glimpse of Christ that this world ever sees is in your face and mine.
And in your life and mine. And so as I say, the world is trying to press you into a ma, into a mold. You know, when I was in business, I used to buy injection molds or steel stamping dyes. And, uh, there was a tremendous amount of pressure brought to bear upon molten plastic. Perhaps 60 tons or 100 tons of pressure to press that piece of molten plastic into the image of the mold that was, uh, it was pressed into. And uh, this world brings tremendous influence and pressure.
Into the life of a believer, to try to conform you in your thoughts, in your attitudes, and in your motives, to be conformed to how the world is thinking about politics, by how the world is thinking about being green and all those sorts of things. But then there's also the pressure outwardly to look like the world, to talk like the world and to dress like the world, to, uh, own the cars that the world has and enjoys and, uh, to live in the fancy neighborhoods, all those things.
And the Lord just desires that we would be formed into the image of Christ himself, who was a stranger in a Pilgrim in this scene. And uh, he walked as a stranger and he was a happy man because he would not allow this world to appropriate him in any way.
He was pressed into the form of God. He was God the Son, and God wants you and I to live as the sons of God. I'd like to stress this thought about the mind too, and Michelle brought it up because it's very important. And I believe the great attack of the enemy today is to fill the mind with everything that is not of God and of Christ and with everything that is absolutely filthy and unholy.
01:05:27
Just seems like you can hardly drive down the road anymore without seeing something on a billboard with you can hardly stand at the checkout line at the counter without seeing something to fill your mind. And you almost feel like you need to be a horse, like a horse with blinders. But I'd like to just notice a portion in Colossians that I think is very helpful. Our brother Michelle quoted that portion in Corinthians about, umm, the, uh, to being occupied with Christ and, uh, in the measure in which we're occupied with Christ.
Will be transformed and so on.
It's like Moses, you know when he came down from the mount having been occupied and in the presence of God on the mount. His face shone. There was an unconscious reflection of being in the presence of God. He he wished not that his face Shawn. He didn't try to make it shine. It was just the unconscious reflection. But I want to notice in connection with the mind here in Colossians chapter 3 verse one. If he then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above.
Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Now notice this next verse. Set your notice your margin, and Mr. Darby translates it. Not affection, but mind. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hit with Christ in God. Why is it really the mind? Because again, the mind affects us more than we think. What we take in in our mind is eventually going to affect our hearts.
And we need to be careful, brethren, to fill our minds with Christ.
And how are we going to do that? Well, our brethren have alluded to it. It's to read the Word of God. Wherever you read in the Word of God, the subject is always Christ. How are we going to know what's holy and acceptable by the standard of the world? Not for one moment. Their standards are gone. They're out the window. How are we going to know? We're going to know only from this, this book. And we need to set our mind on things above. We need to be occupied with Christ.
Where he is, he's not here in this world. He wasn't of this world. I am not of this world.
They are not of this world, uh, even as I am not of this world and he's gone from this world. He's above now. He's glorified at the right hand of God. Are we occupied with him where he is now? Are we setting our minds on things above? Are we to empty our minds rather never. I I've often given this warning, but I, I'm gonna give it again because it's serious. You know, we send our children and young people off to school and in some school districts.
There is this great movement to have the children empty their minds. It's all done under the guise of relaxation. But there is never a precedent in scripture that would teach us to empty the mind. It really is Eastern meditation. It it has to do with the occult and Eastern religion, and some of us have seen it first hand. And if we empty our minds?
The enemy is gonna have plenty to fill that vacuum. What are we to do with our minds, brethren? We're to bring every thought into captivity under the obedience of Christ. We're to fill our minds with Christ.
David said, Thou anointest my head with oil. The head is the mind, and it's having our thoughts governed from the Word of God, by the Spirit of God, that Christ might fill our minds. Well, that's what's gonna preserve us, brethren. And so it says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, not the thoughts of the world, not the way the world thinks, but to have God's thoughts concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then we're going to be able to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You go to the world and their counselors, you're never gonna learn the will of God there. They might have some advice for what courses to take in school or how the job market's swinging or something like that. But you're never going to have, you're never going to know the will of God, the perfect will of God, unless you fill your mind with God's thoughts of Christ from this book.
01:10:08
A simple example.
Of the of a process.
You see some advertising about ice cream.
Well, it was set before your eyes is the person of the Lord Jesus. If you read the scriptures, the results should be.
Not that you make yourself love the Lord more. You're gonna love the Lord back because you're gonna be enjoying His love and you're gonna be wanting to do something for Him. And what distance would you be ready for? To go for an ice cream cone? And I said, what distance would you be ready to go to? Please. That one that fills your heart with His love and that you love back.
I believe this is the secret of our lives. You know, we can be doing a lot of things for the Lord, but what we're doing for the Lord is that the result of my enjoyment of His love and loving Him back. The Lord sees the motives why we do things. We can look good before our brethren because we're doing things for the Lord. Everybody sees that. But the Lord sees in our hearts why we're doing that, and He's looking for responsive love because of His love.
In a practical way, to take your illustration a little further, if you were on a diet and you saw the Dairy Queen and you start thinking the way you're thinking, well, what do you do about that?
We had bringing into captivity.
Or how do you cap I, I? I have a mental image of a cowboy lassoing a horse.
How about girding up the loins of your mind? Suppose a thought process starts and we we Daydream. It's easy to your thoughts just start going well if they've been influenced by something. If you're on a diet and it's ice cream, you don't want to be doing that. Well, what do you do? I'm not going to think about ice cream. I'm not going to think about ice cream. The more you do that, the more you think about ice cream, you know, uh-huh. It it just doesn't work like that, But you can catch when you catch yourself thinking.
Down a pathway.
My wife and I, we call them little rabbit trails.
Are trails that go down to the river of funk or some place when you catch yourself you notice it. My thoughts are going down a road. I don't want to go there. You can refuse it. I don't. I don't want to go that road and right of way if you've been reading the word.
The Spirit of God brings thoughts that balance, that those thoughts out something other than that you recognize it for what it is, that perhaps the enemy has dropped a seed of thought, some of his advertising to get you to think down this pathway. You catch it, you guard against it, you bring it upshore. And then what's the best thing to do? You replace it with another thought. And the Spirit of God is very good at drawing out the word of God.
That will bring a good thought and a right thought, and there's a renewing going on. You know, one of those old blessed farmers from Iowa that I grew up around gave an illustration that when you have a dirty sponge.
And you want to clean it.
You have to put it in clean water and squeeze it.
And then again and again. And each time you do, if you put a sponge in clean water and you ring it out, you see The Dirty going out. But each time you do it, it's cleaner and cleaner and cleaner. But we have that interesting expression about the washing of water by the word. And I think about that, how that when the word of God, just reading it, thinking about it, listening to it, it just goes through and it's like that sponge being squeezed, it just washes away some of those things.
I remember Gordon Hayhoe once in a meeting years ago saying that, you know, one of the things about renewing the mine has to do with bringing our thoughts in line and that the the what the enemy does, he attacks us to have wrong thoughts about ourselves and wrong thoughts about God. And the the world, of course, is that way. The enemy is that way. And when we get our thoughts filled with the word of God, our thoughts about ourselves get corrected and our thoughts about God get corrected.
If we are brought to a place where we begin to doubt the goodness of God because of some circumstances in our lives, what's going to renew that? What's going to bring our thoughts back into line with the truth of this book? It's going to be the words of this book, and the Spirit of God can bring those out. But if you don't read this book, how can you bring it out? If if it isn't put into the well, how can you draw it back out again? Well, he could perform a miracle and bring something to mind. You've never read, I suppose, or never heard.
01:15:21
But he doesn't do that. He draws out what's already been put in there. One day I was a little bit surprised when I read that you could literally read this book from front to back in 72 hours.
If you can read this Bible in 72 hours from Genesis to the Revelation physically, that would be a hard thing to sit down and do directly in line.
Well, what problem do we have with actually getting through this book and reading?
While the enemy has a vested interest in keeping a believer away from this, and if he can do that, then there's plenty of things. There aren't all evil, they're not all.
File. They're not all immoral, but we can get occupied with seemingly good things, interesting things about nature, about industry, about the jobs we do, or just in areas of interest we have. And the enemy is happy with that too. If we can just be filled up with those. There may be a hobby, be filled up too much with that, out of balance with that, instead of a balance of the things that we need from this book that will draw us on and clean our minds, renew our minds, and have Christ be the foremost.
So that we can have a true romance with our Lord Jesus.