Address—P. Johnson
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I'm going to read first of all in Hebrews chapter 10.
10th chapter of Hebrews and verse one.
For the law having a shadow of good things to come.
And not the very image of the things, and never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually.
Make the comers therein too perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshippers once purged?
Should have had no more conscience of sin.
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin.
Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering. Thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared me in bird offerings and sacrifices for sin? Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book, it is written of me to do thy will, O God.
Above when he said sacrifice and offering and bird offerings and offering for sin, that would it's not neither had pleasure therein which are offered by the law. Then said He, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, He taketh away the 1St that he may establish the second by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And we will turn to Ephesians Chapter One.
And we'll read from verse three through verse 11.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.
Having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, for any hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of His grace, for any of the bounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will.
According to his good pleasure, which he had purposed in himself.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ.
Both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.
Being predestinated according to the purpose of him to work with all things after the Council.
Of his own will, one other passage in Romans chapter 12.
Verse one.
Verse 2 verses of this chapter.
I beseech you therefore, brethren.
By the mercies of God, that you present your body as a living sacrifice.
Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will have gone.
I know there are a number of portions that one might read and take up in connection with the thought of the will of God, but I have selected these three that we might consider the will of God in three ways as we read in the 5th chapter of Hebrews. We have the the will of God as setting us apart, sanctifying us, setting us apart for himself and from everything that was.
Not pleasurable to him, everything that was against us and everything that would have have ruled us out of his presence.
Then the will of God in regard to his own purposes and counsels. Here in Romans 12 we have the will of God in regard to you and me individually in our Christian path.
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Well, I know the subject of the will of God is a great subject, and I trust that we might be able to make it simple enough to for the youngest believers with what I have to say, what I trust would be helpful to the older ones as well. Not restricting our thoughts to just young Christians, but to all of the people of God.
And you'll notice I refer to those who are the people of God.
And I don't know everyone in the room, and I certainly do not know everyone's heart.
But we know that there is one who knows everyone in the room and everyone's heart.
All things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And I do trust that each and everyone in the room this afternoon is a true child of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Trust that there would be none here in our midst this afternoon that would have no part in that of which we're going to speak.
And it is true that you have neither farting a lot in the matter, if your heart is not right with God.
And a heart that has not received the Lord Jesus is not right with God.
Now you remember, that's what Peter said to that man, Simon Magus, that his heart was not right with God, and the result was he had neither part nor locked in the matter. That great matter of receiving the Holy Spirit, that great matter of being brought into blessing, that man had neither parted a lot in it because his heart was not right. And as I say, the only way the heart can be right before God is by having Christ. In that heart you receive the Lord Jesus Christ.
As your savior, I believe it's good to bring that before everyone in the company.
I'm sure all of us here this afternoon know the gospel and know how to be saved.
It's another matter whether we really are the Lord.
Well now in regard to the thought of the will of God.
I think it's a wonderful subject, and I'd like to say at the outset that when we speak of the will of God, it always, to my mind, is connected with the fault of sovereignty, because his will is sovereign, the sovereign will of God, the sovereignty of God. And when we speak of the will of God, we're going to speak of that which he desires to do, that which is his own default, his own mind.
The act of his own will.
Know the act of will in man is sin the will of man.
Was has brought sin into this world. When I think of the of what the will of man has brought in, we read in Romans chapter 5 that for by one man sin entered into the world.
And he says and death by sin.
Everything that produces sorrow, everything that produces difficulty and sadness here in this world is the result of the will of man.
Man's will, when you think of what the will of man has brought him this whole world system.
Is built up on the principle of the will of man, and that's why it's the stamp of death is upon every bit of it the will of man, and I would like to say to anyone here this afternoon.
Who is going on in a willful path?
If you could only realize how dreadful and terrible the will of man is. Man's will, and we know that in the flesh each one of us has a will that is contrary to the mind of God and our own will.
Our own will.
Would take us away from the Lord.
And the things of God, the will of man, and what it has brought in, how dreadful and how terrible. The first I want to refer to in that connection turn back to Luke 23.
Helpful that we read something like this and in connection with the will of man.
This is what the will of man culminated in.
The worst expression of the will of man in verse 25 of Luke 23.
And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison. Barabbas.
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Whom they had desired.
But he delivered Jesus to their will.
What an expression. He delivered Jesus that his pilot delivered Jesus to their will, and it was the will of man to put the Lord Jesus on the cross. It was the will of man that said away with him.
Away with him. That's the way the will of man expresses itself. And you know the, as I say, the flesh in the believer is no better than the flesh in those who are still outside of Christ.
Now, I know that we all accept this in a doctrinal way. I doubt even the young believers would disagree with that. If I were to speak with the with every believer in the room, even the youngest one, they'd say, Oh yeah, the flesh.
The flesh is incorrigible, and there's no good thing in the flesh.
But yet, on the other hand, sometimes we say that with our lips. But do we really feel that there is that in us, in the flesh?
As we read in Romans 7, I know that in me that is in the flesh, in my flesh, that dwelleth no good thing. And not only that, but there is a resistance to the things of God. There is a resistance to the things of God. The will of man is it's contrary to God.
And we see it here. The greatest expression of that will of man was seen in saying the Lord to the Lord Jesus about the Lord Jesus away with him. We will not have this man to rule over us, crucify him, and he delivered Jesus to their will. But what we want to speak about is something far greater and more blessed, and that is the will of God.
And God's will brings in blessing.
What is in the heart of God is blessing and being sovereign. He can do whatever he wills to do.
Someone might say that's a rather strong statement.
He can do whatever he wills to do, and that's true. And the wonderful thing is that we know that he is. He is perfect.
And God is love, and God is light and being perfect in love and being perfect in holiness.
When he does what he wants to do, we know it always for good and blessing.
And he never does anything wrong. He is. God is, you might say.
May sound a strange expression to say he's worthy to be sovereign. If sovereignty was put into the hands of sinful man, he might abuse it.
That God being perfect, his sovereign will, is always going to bring blessing. Now turn back to the 10th chapter of Hebrews, and I'd like to consider what we have there in connection with the will of God.
First of all, we read here about the Lord Jesus.
When he came into this world.
When he came into this world, he came in, as it were, with those words upon his lips.
Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God.
He came to do the will of God.
And a body was prepared for him. At the Incarnation he became man.
To bring in the will of God, to do the will of God, as well as bring in what God's will is for man.
I believe that's involved here, the Lord Jesus.
Coming to do the will of God.
What a wonderful example he is, and we know that that this is in connection with his manhood.
Because you'll notice in the verse.
He says in the.
1St at the end of the verse a body hast thou prepared for me.
In other words, the doing of the will of God was in connection with manhood. Now I mentioned that, and I'll tell you why I mentioned that. You may say that. That's obvious. We all know that. But I want to impress upon us this.
That in his doing, the will of God here as man, he's not viewed in that light as a divine person. We know of course, that he was, and he is a divine person. He never ceased to be God when he became man.
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But when he became man, he took that place of doing the will of another. And in that way he's an example of What I mean by that is sometimes I find that believers, they say, well, yes, the Lord Jesus did the will of God, but he was he was a divine person, as if it we might say it was easy for him to do the will of God because he was a divine person. We're not a divine person.
And I think we missed the thought of Scripture when we think of the Lord Jesus doing the will of God as a divine person. He was a divine person, but he was in manhood as a man and as a real man here in this world. He cooked up the will of God and it cost him something to do the will of God. He couldn't take up the will of God without consequences.
In fact, we read in this epistle to the Hebrews that though he were Son, yet learned he obedience.
But the things that he suffered, he didn't learn how to obey, but his taking the place of obedience and doing the will of God.
Brought him into suffering.
Suffering is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we know the ultimate.
The ultimate expression of his doing, the will of God, was becoming obedient to the very point at the very point of death, and that the death of the cross.
We might say that in Philippians 2 we have brought before us the fact that the Lord Jesus would rather die.
That disobey God.
And in order to do the will of God and to be obedient to that will, he had to go into death. He was obedient to the point of death. Now in Philippians 2 it isn't the death of the Lord Jesus to put away our sin.
It's his death as the expression of supreme obedience to the will of God.
As a man, and it cost him something.
It cost him his life. Well, I think of that in regard to us. Sometimes we might shrink back.
From doing what we know is God's will, because it might cost us something, it might bring us into a conflict with those about us. It might bring us, or it might cause us to a call for us to make a sacrifice.
But it costs the Lord Jesus that too.
But not only did he come to do the will of God.
But I like to think of him bringing in the will of God. And what do I mean by that? Well, I mean that he brought in what God willed for you and me in the way of blessing.
In this these verses that we read.
We read about.
Those who?
All those sacrifices that could not take away sin.
And we read about those sacrifices in which God had no pleasure.
Well, in bringing in the will of God, we read in verse in that 10th chapter of Hebrews, in verse 10, by the which will we are sanctified. That's what I mean by bringing in the will of God. The will of God has been brought in in such a way that you and I, as believers now on the Lord Jesus Christ, are no longer connected with a system of things that could never put away sins, no longer connected with a system of things in which God found no pleasure.
Religiousness.
We know, of course, that it has reference to the law and all of the ceremonies connected with the law, but it's a system of things that could never deliver us from sin.
And he was the will of God that we should be delivered. It was the will of God that you and I should be.
Delivered from sin, and that we should be delivered from that in which he had no pleasure, mere religiousness, that we might be brought to himself, that we might be brought within the veil, that we might be able to approach Him.
We know under the old system why ones had to stand outside while a priest went in for them.
We read in the beginning of Luke's Gospel how that the priest went into.
Perform His service services. But the people had to stand outside. So God would deliver us from a system like that. We're sanctified, We're set apart because God desires that we would be delivered from our sin, that our sins and iniquities would be put away, and He desired that we might have liberty to approach Him to come into His holy presence.
That was the will of God. It was God's will. God willed it to be so, but he could only bring that will in. That is what God willed in the way of blessing for you and me in removing our sins and bringing us into His holy presence.
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The only way that that will could be brought in is through, as we read here, the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. It is only through His coming into this scene.
As man and going to the cross and making that sacrifice on the cross, he has brought in the will of God. Not only did he do the will of God in his own pathway.
He did the will of God. He took up the will of God in the beginning, and he did the will of God in every in all of his pathway through this scene. But he has brought in the will of God, and how wonderful that God, God's will, God's desire was that you and I should be brought into His holy presence, that we might have liberty. Notice verse 19, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood.
Of these.
Well, I wonder how much we have entered into this, and even I think of the young believers too.
To know not only the forgiveness of sin.
The blood of bulls and goats could never put away those sins, but we know that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has put them away.
But not only that, but it has opened up the way that we can come into His holy presence.
Now I suppose that we think of this very often in connection with our worship.
As a company of worshippers, but I would apply it as well to the privilege that we have as believers to come into the very presence of God himself. And I would encourage young believers.
To avail themselves avail yourself of this great privilege.
That the will of God has.
Provided for you access into His Holy Presence.
You know we are so much in contact.
With the world.
And as I said in the beginning, this world is built up on the will of man.
And everything you touch.
In this world and every place you go.
That is, of the world has the touch of man's will and man's way, man's fault associated with it.
And I believe that it is a very health, a very necessary theme that young believers.
Make a habit of being in the Lord's presence in prayer and in the presence of the Lord, listening to His word, reading the Word, listening to it.
In order that you might have that which brings you into touch and contact with God.
You're in contact with man.
But what about being in contact with God?
God made provision for us.
In the bringing in of his will, it could not be until the Lord Jesus came in.
To this scene and accomplish that work in which the will of God has brought these blessings in, as I mentioned a few moments ago.
Another had to go into the presence of God. The priest went in the presence of God for the people. But now we can draw near. It's the privilege of the youngest believer to think if you can come into the presence of God himself and speak with God as your Father, and speak to the Lord the one who is in heaven this very afternoon.
The one who is in heaven is the Lord of glory. You can come into his presence and speak to him.
And you can hear him speaking to you.
Well, this is the result, I believe, of the bringing in, of the will of God. But oh, what it called God to bring this in what it calls Christ, to bring it in through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Well, let's turn over to the first chapter of Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter One.
I trust that none will feel that these things are too high.
Are too deep.
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For us to enter into so that I firmly believe that we need to be more.
Occupied with divine thought.
And divine things.
We're so much in contact with that which is human and of man, and the result is that we we it rubs off on us. We can put it that way. These things rub off on it and we find ourselves thinking along the lines that man in this world think. And we find ourselves picking up habits and weeds that are common to man in this world who knows nothing of the will of God and who has neither partnered a lot in these matters.
We need to have divine thought and the Divine mind brought out that we might be occupied with that which is going to be.
You might say our occupation for all eternity in Ephesians. One those verses that we read, we read three times about the will of God here.
In Ephesians 1.
In verse 5, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children are literally.
The placing as sun. Now the word here is not really children, but son.
And there's a there is a part of distinction to be made there, I believe.
The children of God would have more reference to what we are here in this world. It's what we are here in this world. We are the children of God.
Not only belonging to God's family, but we represent him.
But as sons, it speaks of our position before God. It speaks of what we are before him for his pleasure.
Sonship is for the pleasure of God.
And we know that of course the supreme example of that is the the delight and pleasure that God has in his beloved Son the Father loveth the Son.
I believe the thought of sonship brings before us what we are before God is the Father, what we are before Him.
As the object of his delight and pleasure.
Well, I maybe I can hear someone thinking, if you can hear anyone think thinking well.
We are for God's pleasure. I can understand the Lord Jesus being for the delight and pleasure of God, but I can't think of myself.
Well, now that's true in one sense. If we look at ourselves as to what we are in ourselves, in the flesh, we have to say no. God could have no delight in me.
If you know the apostle Paul speaks of a man in Christ, he said, I knew a man in Christ talking about himself, and he said if such a one he could vote when he thought of himself in Christ, when he thought of himself in sonship, as has the many sons that Christ is bringing to glory, when he thought of himself in association with Christ before God as his companions and those who are sons with him.
Now of course.
We are not in that place that he occupies alone in the Godhead as the Son, but we do share that place that he has as son, as in manhood.
We share that place with him, and as God has delight in the Lord Jesus, he has delight in you and me as sons before him. And we read here that he predestinated us under that. It's not only that he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, but he predetermined that we should be in this place as sons before him.
You know, when the Lord Jesus was born in this world, the angels proclaimed the glory to God in the highest and on earth peace.
Goodwill toward man. Literally good pleasure in man.
God could announce his good pleasure in man because there was a man here in whom he could delight. But I think it also brings out the fact that God desired to find pleasure in man whom he could delight. But I think it also brings out the fact that God desired to find pleasure in man.
God desired to find pleasure in man, and he has saved you and me, that he might have pleasure in US.
He hasn't saved you and me and young person this afternoon.
He has saved you if you're a believer on the Lord Jesus, not just to keep you out of hell.
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And from judgment, but that you might be for his pleasure.
And to that end he has placed you as a son before him.
And he has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts and my heart, whereby we cry ABBA father, giving us the consciousness that we're sons. For his delight and his pleasure, He he He predetermined that place for us, and it says according to the good pleasure of his will at the end of verse five, Why did God do it? Because he wanted to. Why did God predetermine that we should be his sons before him for his pleasure?
Because he wanted to do it, not because of what he saw in you or me.
Not because he thought we might respond. It was according to the good pleasure of his will He wanted to. It was his desire, and his will is absolute and his will is sovereign.
I believe that we need to have these divine faults before us.
That we might realize the greatness of what God has done according to his own will, but now then we have another expression of his will in verse 9.
Since having made known unto us the mystery or the secret of his will.
The secret of his will.
You know, I think this is a real indication of how the Lord, you might say, how the Lord takes us into.
Nearness to himself. And you might say, in a way, he trusts us. You never tell a secret to someone you don't trust.
If you have a secret.
You wouldn't go tell it to someone that you consider to be untrustworthy.
And I thought of it this way. Here he says, I'm going to make known to you a secret, the secret of my will. He makes it known to you and me, because I believe there is the assumption that we will be delighted to know this secret.
Sometimes a friend might come to us and say, I'm going to bring you in on something that I'm going to do. I'm told everybody, but I'm going to tell you. Well, he tells us that because he the assumption is that we will be delighted to know that we'll be interested in that. Wouldn't it be sad that God would make known the mystery of his will? And we're not really that much concerned as to what his will is all about. What is this great secret of his will? What is this great secret that he's made known?
10th verse.
The 10th verse is the great secret of his will.
And that is that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be supreme.
And a world of blessing.
In a universe in which the will of man is suppressed and subdued, and the will of God is supreme.
And the Lord Jesus is going to be the center of the whole thing.
That God's great secret, he's the center. Everything is going to be headed up in him.
You know, I believe that the one of the reasons at least that the Antichrist, that name Antichrist is used.
I'm thinking of it now not so much as being against Christ. When we think of anti, sometimes we we are limited to the thought of being against, and we perhaps think of Antichrist as being against Christ. But the word anti also means in place of.
And I believe really the primary thought of the Antichrist is that he takes the place of Christ. That is, he makes himself the center of everything.
Everything is centered around him because in a sense you might say that it's a it's usurping what God has purposed for Christ. The great secret of of the will of God is that Christ everything is going to revolve around him, everything headed up in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.
And the Antichrist is the one who is going to try to be that center himself and everything revolve around him.
But we read about that man that he does according to his own will.
For the Lord Jesus did the will of God, and so he is, you might say.
Morally qualified. You know, I like to think of this. I believe that God. I believe everything that God does and ever will do is morally justified.
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That is, there is a there can be demonstrated A moral reason for the thing.
I don't believe even souls being cast into Outer darkness is going to be seen to be irrational. There'll be a moral reason for everything.
And the Lord Jesus having this place, being the center of the universe.
We might say that he is. He's morally qualified for it.
He's morally qualified.
Because in his pathway through this scene, he never did his own will. He did always the will of God, always the will of God, never did his own will, and everything that was placed into his hands he carried out perfectly.
For God, not a thing fell to the ground. He could say in John 17 that those that the Father had given him none are lost.
Everything that was placed into his hands he preserved.
So he's morally qualified to have this place of universal headship, and that's the great secret of God's will, the secret of his will. And he's made it known to you and me. Do we rejoice in that? Do we rejoice to think that there is a time coming when when the will of man and all that the will of man has brought in is going to be set aside?
And the will of God is going to bring in universal blessing, and the Lord Jesus is going to be in his rightful place.
Oh, how ugly this scene is when we when we get a glimpse of what God is going to bring in in the world to come.
And how it would cause us to turn away from that which is the expression of the will of man.
In this world, as we see more and more of what the will of God is going to bring in the secret of His will. But now notice another expression in connection with His will is in verse 11.
Now this brings us in.
Verse 10 is the place the Lord Jesus has. But here it says in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.
Now how do we how did we obtain this inheritance?
Well, we obtained this inheritance, you might say, in the same way that Eve came into that place that Adam had as being head or being over this creation, she shared it with him as being his partner, and you and I.
It belongs to the Lord Jesus, but we come into it as being associated with him, being identified with him, and this is according to the council of God's will, the.
The counsel of God's will is this. The secret of God's will is that Christ would be the center.
Of a universal of bliss. The council of his will is that you and I will share it with him. We'll share that inheritance with him.
The end of this chapter, The very last verse.
Speaks of the Lord Jesus as the one who fills All in all.
That's the last word. Him that filleth. All in all, he's going to fill the universe. But it says that the church, the assembly, is the fullness of him.
It's a part of himself is the one who fills the universe, the one who is going to be in that place of universal headship. He's going to have a partner, and it's the will of God that has purpose that it isn't because we have been more faithful.
Than Saints of other dispensations.
It isn't because of anything that we have done. It's according to the council of his own will.
It's what the will of God has purposed and the will of God has been brought in by the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I believe these are our thoughts that we need to have before us that would enlarge our thoughts. Sometimes we sing a hymn, Lord, enlarge our scanty fault, because too often our thoughts center around ourselves and we get occupied with ourselves. We get occupied with our difficulties, we get occupied with our trials. We get occupied with our weaknesses.
With our feebleness now all of these things are there, that God would have us to enter into the the great thoughts that he has in connection with his will, But now turn to Romans 12.
Here we have a very practical side, you might say, in regard to the will of God.
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The will of God in regard to you and me.
We have the will of God in regard to Christ.
You have the will of God in regard to his own purposes and counsels. Now we have the will of God.
In regard to the believer, in regard to us.
And in that respect he would have us to know to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will have gone.
I don't believe here it's necessarily the thought sometimes we say about knowing the will of God as to whether we should go here or go there or do this and do that. But here it's a more general thought, I believe, of the will of God.
It's the thought of what God wants for his people, and we've been talking about the will of God.
In regard to his purposes and counsels and the blessings that he's brought to us. But here I believe in Romans, because Romans views the the people of God as those who are justified.
Forgiven and brought to God, but living in this world.
Now what is God's will for you and me as being in this world?
What is his will?
Believe that Romans 12 and two, he would have us to prove that will, that is, that we might know what it is to prove it by walking according to it. That's how I believe we prove it.
And the first step that we have here is something that each one of us can do.
In verse one I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Now this is something that every believer can do.
Now I know sometimes we think of things that maybe we say we just can't do that.
It isn't everyone of us who can go out and preach the gospel with power.
And it isn't everyone of us who have a great deal of talent to present to the Lord. It isn't every one of us who have, you might say, material funds that we could give to the Lord. But every one of us has a body. Every believer has a body. And the youngest believer. If you've only been saved a week, here is something you can give to the Lord.
Maybe you don't even have a job. Maybe you have no income. You'd say, I would like to give something to the Lord, but I don't have anything to give.
Maybe a young believer says I'd like to serve the Lord, but I just don't have any ability.
I don't know how to go about it. Well, here is something we can give to the Lord.
And here is a service to the Lord, because you'll notice it says at the end of the verse, which is your reasonable service.
The presenting of our bodies to the Lord.
Is not only something we can give the Lord, but it is a service to the Lord.
And everyone has a body, every believer to present to the Lord.
That means that when you present it to the Lord, you turn it over to the Lord so that the Lord has control.
You know, I fear that's really our problem. Deep down in our hearts, we don't like to lose control of our lives.
We want to control them ourselves. We want to control where we go, what we do, what we are associated with. We want to control things ourselves. And there is instinctively the feeling that if we present our bodies a living sacrifice to the Lord, then we've lost control. And that's true.
And that's the only way we'll ever prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God is to present our bodies a living sacrifice.
When I was first saved, I wasn't gathered. I was saved in a in a fundamentalist church and it was a very missionary minded church. In fact, the man who formed the church also was the originator of the Central American.
Mission.
And of course, there was quite an emphasis on missions.
And I remember shortly after I was saved, this was presented and was sort of pressed.
And the way this way this was presented, of presenting your bodies, meant that you were to go off to the mission field, and there would be young persons who who were zealous and energetic and.
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So they would quote this verse and this was the indication now that they were willing and ready to to leave their employment or whatever they were and go out into the mission field.
But I don't believe that's what this is talking about. Of course, if God puts his hand on one and says go, you go.
That's why Paul says woe is me if I preach not the gospel, because God had put his hand on him.
And told him to go, but the presenting of our bodies a living sacrifice.
May mean that that body goes right on in the in the, where it is, in your home and your school, in your work, in your business. But it's presented to the Lord, and the Lord has control. The Lord has control. And so that that body goes where the Lord wants it to go, that body acts.
And that body is associated and identified with that which is according to his will.
Presenting of the bodies.
Now notice verse 2, because there are two things really here in connection with the.
Proving the good and acceptable and perfect will of God the One is of the presenting of your body.
And I might just say a further word in that. I think that's a very simple thing, isn't it? I think we all can understand what it is just to present it.
Just to give the Lord control.
Now in the second verse it says be not conformed to this world. That's a negative side, but be ye transformed or transfigured.
By the renewing of your mind.
Well, there's not only the presenting of our bodies.
But there is the renewing of the mind not being conformed to this world.
That means that we do not take up.
The Mohit's.
And the pursuits.
I'm not speaking now in a way of livelihood and things like that, but those things that that the world goes after as an expression of its own will.
For instance, let me read a verse in Titus that I believe would be.
What really speaks of how the world?
Operate.
I'm thinking of Titus chapter 3 and verse 3.
He's talking about the believer. It's what they were in the past for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers, lusts and pleasures, living in malice, envy, hateful and hating one another.
Was thinking especially of that expression serving divers lusts or divers pleasures, In other words, just doing what one wants to do.
When we think about being not conformed to the world.
Perhaps it has been emphasized mostly on the side of maybe dress or something of the sort.
I think primarily it has reference to the spirit that characterizes this world.
And that is of justice, doing what you want to do.
Now, what you want to do may not be necessarily injurious to your neighbor.
But it's just doing your own will, just doing what you want to do.
The renewing of the mind.
Another verse comes to mind, who will turn over to Ephesians chapter 4?
And verse 17.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye walk, that ye henceforth walk not, as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart.
Well, we're not to walk, according to other Gentiles.
The vanity of their minds would have the renewed mind, and our minds are renewed, of course.
Through the Word of God, the washing of water, by the Word, as the Spirit of God makes the Word of God good to us.
And heart and conscience so that our whole outlook in this world.
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Now, the word mind here, I don't believe it means just the thinking capacity. That is, it's not just intelligence.
But he would have her reference, I believe, to everything that involves intelligent action.
What moves a man in this world to do what he does?
Well, it's his mind.
And our minds need to be renewed because we know that by nature born into this world, even as others we would like to those Gentiles that we were reading about in Ephesians there, that that the vanity of their minds and having their understandings darkened. But oh here, to have that mind renewed. It's a process and I would encourage young people.
You know, you don't come into everything all at once. In fact, the learning process continues and should continue. As long as we're here in this world, we should never get too old to learn.
We never get to a place where we can say well I'm I've been completely as it were renewed. We have to go through this renewing process constantly and young person should begin while you're young. The reading of the word of God. Sometimes I've had young people say to me, you know I read but I don't really get anything out of it.
Well, now, you might not get anything out of it in an intellectual way. You may not be able to get anything out of it just reading sometimes, so that you can go and tell someone what thought you had on the Scriptures. But I do believe that if you read the word of God, as in the presence of the Lord, reading it as the word of God, and not just reading it as a book or just reading it, you might say as a as a duty or saying, oh, I haven't read my Bible today. I've got to sit down and read a few verses if you really read it as the word of God.
It will have an effect. It will have an effect, and you may not even recognize it. But you'll find as time goes on that your your attitudes change about certain things and you look at things in a different way, that renewing of the mind takes place, that renewing of the mind takes place. It isn't something that's done by effort, but it's the effect, I believe, of being in the presence of God and the word of God and being in touch with with him.
And then we learn as it says here, we prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will have gone.
The Lord Jesus is a man in this world founded that, he said. The lines are falling unto me in pleasant places.
He put everything in the hands of God his Father. And he said everything is just good and perfect and acceptable. And I believe that's what this means here. If we really present our bodies of living sacrifice and we're not conformed to this world, but we're transformed by the renewing of our minds, we will prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will have gone well, I trust that we might be.
Impressed with what the will of God has brought in and what the will of God has, is going to bring us into.
As he has purposed that coming day of glory, and our being conformed to the image of his beloved Son and sharing the glory with him, and then to know the will of God in a practical way, and our walk and our passage through this scene.