WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.599 Good morning. Let's turn to page 1139, Romans 12, verses 1-2. 00:00:10.599 --> 00:00:40.579 A living sacrifice. 00:00:40.600 --> 00:00:47.719 Great. Thank you, Al. That's such a short reading. You might not even have time to find it, like me. 00:00:48.820 --> 00:00:53.900 So it's on page 1139, 1139, if you've got a church Bible. 00:00:54.100 --> 00:00:58.219 And do keep that open, and we'll be working our way through it together. 00:00:58.299 --> 00:01:01.439 But let me pray for the Lord's help as we come to his words. 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:06.460 Father, we do want to pray and ask for your help this morning. 00:01:06.459 --> 00:01:20.419 We know that the task that we are involved with now as we open your word is not a merely human task, but is a spiritual one in which you're engaged. 00:01:20.420 --> 00:01:29.240 And so we want to pray not just that we would understand intellectually what we are looking at together this morning, 00:01:29.240 --> 00:01:34.680 but that we would spiritually take a hold of it in our hearts and live it out for your glory. 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:41.380 And we know that that work is certainly beyond me and beyond any of us in the room. 00:01:41.460 --> 00:01:47.800 And so we ask, please, that you, by your spirit, might be at work this morning for the sake of your glory. 00:01:48.220 --> 00:01:51.240 In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. 00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:58.000 Well, after a brief break for Easter, we are back in the letter of Paul to the church in Rome. 00:01:58.399 --> 00:02:03.759 And after eight months of study, we have arrived at chapter 12. 00:02:03.859 --> 00:02:06.339 Can you believe it? Eight months in the book of Romans. 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:12.919 Now, chapter 12 marks the start of a new and final section in Paul's letter. 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:24.619 Paul here begins to, if you like, land some of the great doctrines of chapters 1 to 11 into the sort of practice of our lives in chapters 12 to 16. 00:02:25.399 --> 00:02:29.619 Now, before you come to me at the end and say, well, Steve, I know that that division doesn't really work perfectly. 00:02:29.699 --> 00:02:32.500 There are applications before chapter 12. I know that. You're right. 00:02:33.459 --> 00:02:36.039 There are applications beginning in chapter 6. 00:02:36.039 --> 00:02:46.340 But really now the focus of Paul's attention from chapter 12, more than it has been the focus before, is what difference does this make? 00:02:46.899 --> 00:02:48.459 What difference does this make? 00:02:48.959 --> 00:02:57.739 And chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, operate like a sort of introduction or a heading of that section and everything that follows. 00:02:57.939 --> 00:03:03.180 And so we're going to make sure this morning that we have this section right and that we understand it properly. 00:03:03.180 --> 00:03:06.520 And I want us just to see three things from these two verses. 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:11.480 And in the interest of honesty, I'm going to tell you that I borrowed these headings from somebody else. 00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:14.920 These are Martin Lloyd-Jones' three headings on these verses. 00:03:15.340 --> 00:03:18.840 But I want you to know that I only borrowed his headings. 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:22.300 He preached 14 sermons on these two verses. 00:03:22.780 --> 00:03:24.319 And so I haven't borrowed his content. 00:03:25.080 --> 00:03:28.080 And so we're only here for one sermon and there are three headings. 00:03:28.140 --> 00:03:30.460 And the first heading is this, motive. 00:03:30.460 --> 00:03:34.280 What is the motive of Christian living? 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:41.840 What fuels, what drives, what stands behind our desire to live as a Christian? 00:03:42.939 --> 00:03:52.800 And notice first that Paul starts with therefore, which means that the exhortation to Christian living is fueled by or follows on from what has gone before, 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:55.540 which he summarizes as God's mercy. 00:03:55.879 --> 00:03:57.060 Let me read the verse to you again. 00:03:57.060 --> 00:04:03.620 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy. 00:04:04.900 --> 00:04:06.460 Now, notice what this means. 00:04:06.659 --> 00:04:08.719 It means the motive of Christian living. 00:04:09.379 --> 00:04:15.420 The reason that I live as a Christian is not in order to become a Christian, right? 00:04:15.419 --> 00:04:22.419 The motive of Christian living is not to become a Christian because you do not become a Christian by living as a Christian. 00:04:23.259 --> 00:04:31.979 If that's your plan this morning, if your plan this morning is, listen, if I behave enough as a Christian, then I will end up as a Christian. 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:36.019 If that's what you think, let me tell you right from the off, Paul says that's wrong. 00:04:36.019 --> 00:04:38.120 It doesn't work like that. 00:04:38.199 --> 00:04:40.519 You do not become a Christian by behaving as one. 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:44.659 You can become a Muslim by behaving as a Muslim, right? 00:04:45.060 --> 00:04:50.099 You can become a religious Catholic by getting baptized, going to mass and confession and praying the right way. 00:04:50.299 --> 00:04:52.620 That is sufficient to make you Catholic. 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:57.340 But that is not the kind of thing that Paul is talking about in the letter to the church in Rome. 00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:07.800 A Christian, says Paul, is someone who is in Christ, who has been saved from future judgment through the work of Christ on the cross. 00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:16.959 A Christian is someone who enjoys a relationship with God by the Spirit and who knows because of Christ's work they have a place in glory. 00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:25.519 And all of that has happened not because they started behaving as a Christian, rather it happened because of what Christ did. 00:05:26.439 --> 00:05:31.120 Paul refers to it as an encounter with the mercy of God. 00:05:31.719 --> 00:05:38.439 A life transforming, eternity destiny changing encounter with the mercy of God. 00:05:38.799 --> 00:05:44.659 And the motive and the fuel and the driving force of Christian living is that mercy and kindness. 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:47.280 Not our own efforts. 00:05:48.640 --> 00:05:50.140 Now we must be really clear on this. 00:05:50.220 --> 00:05:51.200 I'm going to labor it a bit. 00:05:51.300 --> 00:05:54.360 Forgive me if I bore you with it. 00:05:55.220 --> 00:06:04.300 I think it's almost certainly true to say that the average person thinks that being good is an adequate description of a Christian. 00:06:05.820 --> 00:06:08.600 This is, if you like, the sort of theology of the bus. 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:16.120 If you ask someone on the bus what they think a Christian is, they would say that Christians are in some sense earning a place in heaven. 00:06:16.200 --> 00:06:16.879 That's what they're doing. 00:06:18.020 --> 00:06:24.840 You know, they're the people who want at the end of the day God to look at their lives and go, well, their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds. 00:06:24.839 --> 00:06:28.560 But Paul's message is not that, is it? 00:06:29.219 --> 00:06:39.339 The good news of the whole Bible, the focus of Romans 1 to 11, is not that God saves good people, but that God saves bad people. 00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:44.279 And that we are all bad people who don't deserve salvation. 00:06:44.620 --> 00:06:47.519 And he freely forgives us through faith in Jesus Christ. 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:52.819 But there's more to this as well, because it's not just outsiders who go wrong here. 00:06:53.299 --> 00:06:55.560 Christians get muddle-headed about this as well. 00:06:56.199 --> 00:06:59.859 And not maybe just because they think that the motive somehow is to earn salvation. 00:06:59.979 --> 00:07:01.180 We can go wrong there, can't we? 00:07:01.219 --> 00:07:05.799 But it's because sometimes we live as if there's no motive for Christian living at all. 00:07:06.919 --> 00:07:09.039 Notice how Paul starts this verse. 00:07:09.740 --> 00:07:11.979 His first word is actually urgent. 00:07:12.779 --> 00:07:15.139 I urge you, he says. 00:07:15.139 --> 00:07:20.300 In other words, what he's saying is, listen, I've not come to chapter 12 now. 00:07:20.360 --> 00:07:24.740 And this is like appendix number one for those of you who are still actually reading my letter by now. 00:07:25.300 --> 00:07:29.360 Those of you who are kind of keen enough to still be sitting in the church by the time they get to chapter 12. 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:38.879 No, Paul thinks, really, God the Spirit who inspired these words thinks that Christians should be motivated to live the Christian life. 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:40.779 And they need encouragement. 00:07:40.899 --> 00:07:44.319 They need urgent encouragement to live the Christian life. 00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:49.439 Because although sanctification, Christian living, discipleship, whatever word you want to use for it, 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:52.579 is the result of the merciful new birth that we've talked about, 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.439 living that new life that we've been given, not earning our salvation, 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:01.719 still that living requires our effort. 00:08:01.720 --> 00:08:09.580 And that effort requires encouragement, even urgent encouragement from God. 00:08:11.660 --> 00:08:13.640 Maybe you'll forgive me if I put it bluntly. 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:18.020 I have a habit of speaking bluntly, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not so good. 00:08:18.100 --> 00:08:18.980 But please forgive me. 00:08:18.980 --> 00:08:27.560 We need to see, don't we, that Paul is saying that the reason perhaps that our Christian lives this morning are not what they could be, 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:30.740 not what they should be, 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:32.779 not what they would be, 00:08:33.460 --> 00:08:35.120 is not a deficiency in the gospel. 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:38.360 It's not because the mercy of God is an insufficient motive. 00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:44.519 Rather, it's because either through laziness or neglect or distraction or suffering, 00:08:44.919 --> 00:08:47.759 we've lost sight of the motive and have given up. 00:08:49.379 --> 00:08:51.100 So we fail to work. 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:55.980 We become satisfied with sort of half-heartedness in the Christian life. 00:08:56.800 --> 00:08:57.740 Oh no, we know we're all out. 00:08:57.800 --> 00:08:59.360 My salvation doesn't base on my work, 00:08:59.480 --> 00:09:03.639 so it doesn't really matter that much if I'm half-hearted about the Christian life that I live. 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:12.019 So we think we get away with being tepid and kind of lukewarm about being a Christian. 00:09:12.699 --> 00:09:13.960 It's not a big deal, is it? 00:09:14.899 --> 00:09:17.019 And Paul says, no, no, no, it is a big deal. 00:09:18.059 --> 00:09:24.100 There is an urgent requirement for you to make every effort to live the Christian life. 00:09:25.080 --> 00:09:31.939 In fact, the whole point of the gospel is to create a people who are motivated to live the Christian life. 00:09:31.940 --> 00:09:38.200 And we can be sure that our laziness, our neglect in this task will rob us of joy and rob us of assurance 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:40.580 and rob God of the glory that he deserves. 00:09:42.360 --> 00:09:45.440 And so the motive to live the Christian life is the mercy of God. 00:09:46.400 --> 00:09:48.840 Secondly, what is the manner of the Christian life? 00:09:49.940 --> 00:09:52.560 In other words, what does the Christian life live? 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:54.500 What does that look like in practice? 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:55.580 What does it shape? 00:09:56.260 --> 00:09:57.300 Look down at verse 1. 00:09:57.299 --> 00:10:06.659 This is what Paul is urging upon us, that we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:09.319 This is our true and proper worship. 00:10:10.679 --> 00:10:12.659 Now, notice the contradiction here. 00:10:12.819 --> 00:10:15.559 Sacrifices aren't normally living, right? 00:10:16.059 --> 00:10:20.779 In fact, the process of being a sacrifice involves dying. 00:10:21.099 --> 00:10:23.759 The sacrificial lamb does not walk away. 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:26.419 Living sacrifice is an oxymoron. 00:10:26.500 --> 00:10:27.019 I love that word. 00:10:27.319 --> 00:10:32.379 Oxymoron, like dry water or cold fire or hardworking Gen Z, right? 00:10:33.379 --> 00:10:34.319 That was a joke. 00:10:34.419 --> 00:10:36.659 I was just checking that you're all still listening, right? 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:38.019 Some of you are. 00:10:38.779 --> 00:10:39.620 So how does this work? 00:10:39.700 --> 00:10:41.419 What is a living sacrifice? 00:10:42.659 --> 00:10:49.419 Well, remember, the mercy of God is seen in a once for all sacrificial death in Jesus Christ. 00:10:49.419 --> 00:11:04.779 He did die in our place so that now we can be living sacrifices, making an ongoing, repeated sacrifice of our living bodies, our physical selves in true and proper worship to God. 00:11:05.860 --> 00:11:07.379 Now, there's loads to see here. 00:11:07.479 --> 00:11:08.759 I'm going to try and unpack some of it. 00:11:08.860 --> 00:11:11.039 But notice just how rich this is. 00:11:11.819 --> 00:11:14.419 Just how broad Christian worship is. 00:11:15.299 --> 00:11:16.279 Proper, true. 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:19.059 Sometimes that word is translated spiritual worship. 00:11:19.659 --> 00:11:24.179 For the Christian, it is not a description simply of the songs that we sing at church. 00:11:24.819 --> 00:11:31.120 Worship is not an emotional experience or just a single action that we might perform. 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:38.980 Rather, Christian worship is the repeated giving of all of myself to be holy and pleasing to God. 00:11:38.980 --> 00:11:45.720 And this broad, it involves all of my life, in every way, in every place, in every aspect. 00:11:46.100 --> 00:11:48.300 It also involves costliness. 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:50.159 Giving up. 00:11:50.860 --> 00:11:51.700 Laying down. 00:11:52.259 --> 00:11:53.039 A sacrifice. 00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:56.800 Christian worship, by definition, costs me. 00:11:57.680 --> 00:11:59.200 Take up your cross. 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:02.259 Deny yourself and follow me, says Jesus. 00:12:02.259 --> 00:12:02.580 Jesus. 00:12:04.379 --> 00:12:07.200 So it involves the sacrifice of desires of the flesh. 00:12:07.439 --> 00:12:11.220 It's the giving up of the things that are dear to us, that we feel the loss of. 00:12:11.299 --> 00:12:14.480 It's the crucifying of unholy actions and aspirations. 00:12:15.059 --> 00:12:17.019 It's considering others better than myself. 00:12:17.220 --> 00:12:19.539 It's hating what is evil, clinging to what is good. 00:12:19.620 --> 00:12:25.620 It's being patient in affliction, faithful in prayer, giving ourselves wholeheartedly to God and for his glory, 00:12:25.740 --> 00:12:28.139 whatever and wherever that might take us. 00:12:28.139 --> 00:12:32.559 And we do that, don't we? 00:12:33.179 --> 00:12:36.899 Not suggesting that there is a part of our lives that we're able to hold back. 00:12:37.799 --> 00:12:43.120 There are not corners of our aspirations where the worship of God is not required to dominate. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:50.899 The hymn writer Isaac Watts, who was a pastor in the 16th century or 17th century in London, put it like this. 00:12:50.899 --> 00:13:02.439 When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. 00:13:03.059 --> 00:13:08.879 Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God, all the vain things that charm me most. 00:13:09.500 --> 00:13:11.819 I sacrifice them through his blood. 00:13:11.820 --> 00:13:17.020 Now, let me ask you this morning, if you're a Christian, let me ask you, how are you getting on? 00:13:17.800 --> 00:13:18.360 How's it going? 00:13:20.300 --> 00:13:24.060 How are we getting on with this giving up of ourselves, this self-denial worship? 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:25.260 It's tough, isn't it? 00:13:26.340 --> 00:13:32.940 If you're anything like me, you will find that the body is not so compliant with the living sacrifice demand. 00:13:34.560 --> 00:13:36.200 And it's not just the big things, is it? 00:13:36.200 --> 00:13:42.540 Paul isn't actually saying that Christian worship involves everyone selling everything and living as itinerant missionaries amongst the most unreached. 00:13:43.020 --> 00:13:46.120 Ironically, actually, that's probably easier than what he is saying. 00:13:46.420 --> 00:13:54.259 What he is saying is actually that we lay down the self-indulgent sin in every area of our lives. 00:13:54.820 --> 00:14:02.259 In the petty squabbles, in the inappropriate anger, in the anxiety that God might not love me or be working for my good. 00:14:02.259 --> 00:14:07.860 In the wasted time fantasizing about comfort or popularity or an aesthetic that we're aspiring to. 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:11.779 So here's the question for us, right? 00:14:11.899 --> 00:14:17.580 If the manner of Christian living is the offering of my body as a living sacrifice. 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:20.819 If that's what the Christian life looks like for me. 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:25.159 And I find resistance in my body to do that and to live like that. 00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:31.360 What action do I do to get my body onto the altar of true Christian worship? 00:14:32.259 --> 00:14:39.740 What is it that I actually do to fight that desire for more sleep and actually get up in the morning and read my Bible? 00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:41.299 What am I going to do? 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:49.000 What is it that will help me to deny my body's desire for a lazy Sunday morning and prioritize the attendance of Christian worship? 00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:52.319 You all feel kind of smug about that because you're here, right? 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:54.679 I said that one for the podcast. 00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:56.899 They can have it when they listen to it later. 00:14:56.899 --> 00:15:02.980 But what is it that's going to help us to prioritize the things that God wants us to? 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:07.059 Well, just look at how Paul tells us how this works. 00:15:07.500 --> 00:15:08.659 He shows us a principle. 00:15:08.779 --> 00:15:09.879 The principle is this, right? 00:15:10.319 --> 00:15:13.659 Our bodies do what our minds think. 00:15:14.279 --> 00:15:16.079 Our bodies do what our minds think. 00:15:16.199 --> 00:15:20.159 So look down at verse 2, which carries on describing the manner of Christian worship. 00:15:20.600 --> 00:15:21.939 Notice it does it with a negative. 00:15:21.940 --> 00:15:28.740 Living sacrifice worship does not, he says, conform to the pattern of the world. 00:15:28.840 --> 00:15:31.300 It's not squeezed into the world's mold. 00:15:31.820 --> 00:15:38.540 Instead, it is being, what does he say, transformed by the renewing of your mind. 00:15:39.500 --> 00:15:45.580 This then is how you get your body onto the altar of a living sacrifice to please God and not itself. 00:15:45.580 --> 00:15:52.240 You do that through a transformed mind that is not being squeezed into the world's mold of thinking, 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:57.759 but is instead being transformed by God, renewed by him. 00:15:59.020 --> 00:16:02.220 Now, I don't know how long your attention is, but please zone in now. 00:16:02.420 --> 00:16:05.960 As much as I'm able, I want to communicate this to you because this is so important. 00:16:06.920 --> 00:16:13.040 In chapter 8, Paul talked about being a Christian as having the mind of the spirit in place of the mind of the flesh. 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:20.500 When we become a Christian, we are given a new mindset, a new way of thinking. 00:16:21.059 --> 00:16:25.360 God, by his spirit, comes to dwell in our lives and transform us. 00:16:25.500 --> 00:16:27.719 It's called new birth, right? 00:16:28.059 --> 00:16:31.579 And that mind is not just a static deposit of information. 00:16:31.879 --> 00:16:37.059 It's not as if you've been downloaded with the required information to pass an exam. 00:16:37.459 --> 00:16:38.579 That's not it. 00:16:38.580 --> 00:16:49.980 It's a new mind, a new life force that wants to live out in your life through a process of internal renewal and change and transformation. 00:16:50.800 --> 00:16:57.480 And it does that as it learns and thinks and ponders on the truth of what God has done and who he is. 00:16:57.480 --> 00:17:00.980 Maybe you can think about it like this. 00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:05.460 The new mind is like a plant that needs watering and growing in order to flourish. 00:17:06.099 --> 00:17:11.980 It's like a child that needs feeding and nurturing as they learn to run and walk and talk and think and speak. 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:16.339 So think about how that works for you if you're a Christian this morning. 00:17:16.860 --> 00:17:23.160 If you're a Christian, if you believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have, by the mercy of God, a new mind. 00:17:23.160 --> 00:17:28.740 A new mind that drives the offering of your body as a living sacrifice of worship. 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:31.800 But it does that, and this is the key. 00:17:32.060 --> 00:17:39.820 It does that not as a subconscious process whereby the Spirit of God zaps you into shape without you knowing anything about it. 00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:44.580 Now, the Spirit of God does not make you a robot who no longer thinks or feels for themselves. 00:17:44.579 --> 00:17:55.259 Rather, it does it through you or he does it through you consciously, thoughtfully engaging with your personality, your strengths and your weakness, 00:17:55.639 --> 00:18:01.419 and reshaping them increasingly as you internalize the truth about who God is and what he's done. 00:18:03.399 --> 00:18:04.619 Perhaps we could put it this way. 00:18:04.740 --> 00:18:08.299 Our bodies do what our minds think. 00:18:08.299 --> 00:18:18.460 And then our body's ability to give itself to please God is directly connected with our willingness to engage with the truth about God with our minds. 00:18:19.220 --> 00:18:20.339 Let me say that again. 00:18:21.399 --> 00:18:33.480 Our body's ability to give itself to please God is directly connected to our willingness to engage with the truth about God with our minds. 00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:41.019 Thoughtless Christianity is fake worship. 00:18:42.019 --> 00:18:48.200 Not because real worship is simply an intellectual pursuit that requires us all to have PhDs. 00:18:48.599 --> 00:18:49.599 No, not at all. 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:59.819 But rather because the access point to motivate Christian worship, and therefore the manner in which it's done, is through our minds. 00:18:59.819 --> 00:19:04.539 Not bypassing our minds, but through our minds. 00:19:04.879 --> 00:19:09.159 So the church that thinks that it can transform you overnight with an emotional experience, 00:19:09.159 --> 00:19:15.819 rather than with the steady discipleship of an open Bible engaging with what God has said with your mind, 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:20.000 that church is selling a false hope and fake worship. 00:19:20.579 --> 00:19:27.960 Not because it's some kind of brain-only, emotionless Christianity where we're all just kind of great intellects who are just thinking about it all the time. 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:29.180 There are churches like that. 00:19:29.240 --> 00:19:30.680 I really hope we don't become one. 00:19:31.400 --> 00:19:34.079 We all need to be emotionally engaged with the truth here. 00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:38.259 I wish I myself were more emotionally affected by the truth of God's word. 00:19:38.519 --> 00:19:39.740 I wish we all were. 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:49.220 But let me tell you, you access your emotions and your will and your body through the mind, not bypassing the mind. 00:19:49.220 --> 00:20:00.980 So what we need is not soft music and emotional altar calls, but conscious, spirit-filled engagement with what God has said about Jesus Christ. 00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:03.259 That will move us. 00:20:03.660 --> 00:20:05.100 That will change us. 00:20:05.620 --> 00:20:10.339 That will give us the right emotions as we pray and trust him. 00:20:10.339 --> 00:20:14.619 Now, before we go on, just think about the contrast that's here. 00:20:15.139 --> 00:20:19.519 This is how you know that your mind is growing and thriving and transforming you. 00:20:19.579 --> 00:20:20.139 How do you know? 00:20:20.679 --> 00:20:21.279 Verse 2. 00:20:21.939 --> 00:20:24.299 Because you're not conforming to the pattern of this world. 00:20:25.699 --> 00:20:28.339 Increasingly, how you think makes no sense to the world around you. 00:20:29.079 --> 00:20:35.879 Your thoughts, your understandings, your doctrines, your belief about God, the purpose of your life, the definitions of a life well lived, 00:20:35.880 --> 00:20:38.660 those are different to the rest of the world around you. 00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:41.680 People don't understand what you're doing anymore. 00:20:42.300 --> 00:20:43.400 Why would you do that? 00:20:43.700 --> 00:20:44.840 Why would you live like that? 00:20:45.100 --> 00:20:46.580 Why would you make such a sacrifice? 00:20:48.600 --> 00:20:50.840 So, Christian, this morning, how are you doing with that? 00:20:51.600 --> 00:20:57.980 You find yourself being squeezed into the world's mould, resisting climbing onto the altar of living sacrifice worship. 00:20:58.160 --> 00:21:00.660 Well, if that's you and that's all of us, isn't it? 00:21:00.660 --> 00:21:05.880 We need to come back to the gospel that saved us, to this message about Jesus Christ and his sacrifice, 00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:08.120 and we need to think about that with our minds. 00:21:08.779 --> 00:21:10.840 We need to wake up in the morning and read about it. 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:13.940 We need to make the most of listening to it taught and explained. 00:21:14.340 --> 00:21:15.500 We need to come on a Sunday. 00:21:15.600 --> 00:21:16.860 We need to join a community group. 00:21:16.920 --> 00:21:20.460 We need to find people at church who will pray with us and talk to us about it. 00:21:21.259 --> 00:21:24.960 If we're just starting out, coming to Christianity Explored would be a great place to start, 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:34.319 to give the best of our efforts and the greatest of our thoughts to understanding better and more deeply and more richly who Christ is and what he has done. 00:21:35.840 --> 00:21:37.259 The wonders of his love. 00:21:38.380 --> 00:21:39.759 The richness of his mercy. 00:21:41.019 --> 00:21:44.579 We need to read more, don't we, about the depth of our lostness without him. 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:48.539 And then the greatness of his compassion for the lost and the broken. 00:21:48.539 --> 00:21:59.039 And then we will find that our bodies, driven by our minds, climb onto the altar and perform this true, proper spiritual worship. 00:22:00.139 --> 00:22:01.740 Giving ourselves to please God. 00:22:02.680 --> 00:22:04.859 So that's the motive and the manner. 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:06.460 Finally, let's see the objective. 00:22:07.579 --> 00:22:08.279 The objective. 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:09.339 Where is all this going? 00:22:09.700 --> 00:22:10.839 What's the point of it all? 00:22:11.740 --> 00:22:13.119 Well, you pick it up at the end of verse 2. 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:14.619 Notice where this section ends. 00:22:14.619 --> 00:22:20.019 Then, he says, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. 00:22:20.459 --> 00:22:23.479 His good, pleasing, and perfect will. 00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:27.559 Now, just notice with me what this is not saying. 00:22:28.139 --> 00:22:31.399 There's a common misunderstanding, I think, when we read about the will of God. 00:22:32.219 --> 00:22:38.339 Paul is not saying here that God has a secret plan for your life that you need to discover. 00:22:38.459 --> 00:22:43.919 And you will only discover if you give yourself to mind-driven, body-giving, spiritual worship. 00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:45.660 He is not saying that. 00:22:46.300 --> 00:22:47.660 How do you know he's not saying that? 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:50.519 Well, because he doesn't say about finding God's will. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:53.180 The Bible doesn't really talk like that as if the will is a mystery. 00:22:53.320 --> 00:23:01.019 Rather, the point is this is about testing and approving the will of God as if that has already been revealed to us. 00:23:01.640 --> 00:23:06.080 And the point is here that God does not have a mystery will about who you should marry, where you should live, 00:23:06.560 --> 00:23:09.779 or whether you should become a missionary or not that you have to find out and discover. 00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:12.720 Rather, the point is that God has a moral will. 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:19.039 A good, pleasing and perfect moral will that he has revealed to us. 00:23:19.579 --> 00:23:26.640 And the process of Christian growth is that we will increasingly and more wholeheartedly approve of, test, 00:23:26.759 --> 00:23:36.940 or even if you like, in a sense, kind of fall into giving ourselves to that with a mind-driven, body-given, spiritual worship. 00:23:36.940 --> 00:23:46.000 In other words, it's as we live more and more like this, we begin to read what God has said about himself and what he demands of us. 00:23:46.039 --> 00:23:47.840 And we go, that's brilliant. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:49.460 I want to live like that. 00:23:49.519 --> 00:23:50.660 I love to live like that. 00:23:50.680 --> 00:23:52.380 That's the best way to live my life. 00:23:53.180 --> 00:23:56.799 So I live for his glory, not reluctantly, but joyfully. 00:23:56.799 --> 00:24:00.879 I find my purpose in enjoying God and glorifying him. 00:24:01.579 --> 00:24:07.319 The irony, if I can put it that way, is that I find losing myself in a living sacrifice, 00:24:07.700 --> 00:24:15.000 I find more joy in that than I ever did in keeping myself to live for myself. 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:21.400 I find greater joy in pleasing God than I ever did in pleasing myself. 00:24:22.279 --> 00:24:23.779 And this is always the end, right? 00:24:23.819 --> 00:24:25.519 This is what eternal glory is like. 00:24:25.579 --> 00:24:28.039 If you're a Christian this morning, this is going to be eternity for us. 00:24:28.599 --> 00:24:32.740 God hasn't so much just saved us and forgiven our sins so that we could carry on as we were. 00:24:33.380 --> 00:24:37.599 He's not given us new birth by the Spirit for us just to carry on in this world as this world does. 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:44.919 Rather, the very purpose of the gospel is that he might recapture what was lost in the fall of Adam and even more besides. 00:24:46.119 --> 00:24:54.240 That God might have through Christ a rescued and created humanity who live for his praise and his glory for all eternity, 00:24:54.500 --> 00:24:56.939 who find their great joy in doing that. 00:24:58.119 --> 00:24:59.599 Heaven will not be miserable. 00:25:00.599 --> 00:25:03.519 Eternal recreation will not be miserable. 00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:08.759 Because we'll be living and finding our joy in praising and glorifying God. 00:25:10.279 --> 00:25:12.279 Think about how that works in practice. 00:25:12.859 --> 00:25:16.379 Where do you find the moral will of God revealed? 00:25:17.799 --> 00:25:18.819 I'll give you a clue. 00:25:19.420 --> 00:25:20.559 It's on tablets of stone. 00:25:21.859 --> 00:25:26.019 The Ten Commandments are the summary of God's moral will, his good, pleasing and perfect will. 00:25:26.039 --> 00:25:28.359 That's how Jesus expounds them in the Sermon on the Mount. 00:25:28.359 --> 00:25:35.059 And so for the Christian who is offering their body as a living sacrifice, who's been transformed by the renewal of their mind, 00:25:35.419 --> 00:25:41.119 they don't read those commands or those instructions and go, right, okay, that's what I need to do in order to be saved. 00:25:41.719 --> 00:25:46.599 They don't read it like that because they know that they are unable to keep it like that in order to be saved. 00:25:47.199 --> 00:25:48.819 That's Jesus' point, isn't it? 00:25:48.839 --> 00:25:52.119 As he expounds the Ten Commandments in the Sermon on the Mount. 00:25:52.500 --> 00:25:54.359 You cannot keep these, he says. 00:25:54.359 --> 00:25:59.079 But instead we read them and see that this is what we want to do. 00:25:59.479 --> 00:26:01.299 This is what we would love to be like. 00:26:01.559 --> 00:26:03.559 This is where we want our lives to go. 00:26:04.119 --> 00:26:07.519 And so we read, you shall have no other gods before me. 00:26:08.119 --> 00:26:09.719 And you don't think, oh goodness me, what a chore. 00:26:10.500 --> 00:26:15.459 I quite wanted to go to the temple, to the mosque and worship another god. 00:26:16.139 --> 00:26:17.859 We don't think, what a chore. 00:26:17.859 --> 00:26:22.639 I quite like bowing down to the idol of pleasure and affluence and success. 00:26:22.939 --> 00:26:24.219 No, we don't think that. 00:26:24.919 --> 00:26:27.159 We hint, you shall have no other gods before me. 00:26:27.199 --> 00:26:29.119 And we go, I don't want to have any other gods before you. 00:26:29.119 --> 00:26:29.979 You are my God. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:30.579 I love you. 00:26:30.639 --> 00:26:33.279 I want to live for your praise and your glory and your worth. 00:26:33.639 --> 00:26:35.759 How great thou art, we say. 00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:38.119 It's a joy. 00:26:38.279 --> 00:26:38.899 It's a delight. 00:26:39.879 --> 00:26:42.339 You know, we read, you shall not make an image of God. 00:26:42.399 --> 00:26:44.679 In the Second Commandment, don't worry, I'm not going to go through all of them. 00:26:45.199 --> 00:26:46.839 I'm not going to make an image of God. 00:26:46.839 --> 00:26:47.000 God. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:50.759 And you don't think, oh, well, I quite like inventing. 00:26:50.839 --> 00:26:53.779 I've got some quite good ideas, God, about what I would like you to be like. 00:26:54.699 --> 00:26:55.819 We don't say that, do we? 00:26:56.559 --> 00:27:00.819 We go, no, I want to dive into your word. 00:27:00.899 --> 00:27:02.559 I want to learn about who you are. 00:27:02.559 --> 00:27:05.159 I want to see you for what you really are like. 00:27:05.159 --> 00:27:09.399 I don't want any kind of images that I might make or that others might make. 00:27:09.519 --> 00:27:12.220 I don't want to say, oh, you know, this is what I think of when I think of God. 00:27:12.259 --> 00:27:15.019 I want to think of what does God think of when God thinks of God. 00:27:15.379 --> 00:27:16.259 That's what I want. 00:27:16.259 --> 00:27:23.700 When I read about how God's moral law tells me of my obligations to those around me, 00:27:23.700 --> 00:27:26.039 when it says that I am not to commit adultery, 00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:31.619 and I listen to Jesus' explanation and realize that doesn't just include actions, 00:27:31.759 --> 00:27:33.640 it's thoughts and desires as well. 00:27:35.920 --> 00:27:37.059 I don't moan. 00:27:37.660 --> 00:27:40.339 I don't complain that his standard is too high to attain. 00:27:40.339 --> 00:27:44.559 I see my sin and my weakness and my failings, 00:27:44.699 --> 00:27:52.039 and I turn to Jesus in repentance and know that he has grace sufficient to forgive and show me mercy. 00:27:52.639 --> 00:27:57.319 And I say to Jesus, make me like this. 00:27:58.119 --> 00:27:59.799 This is who I want to be. 00:28:00.759 --> 00:28:04.639 I want to love others truly and properly. 00:28:04.640 --> 00:28:11.520 I seek with all my heart to cut out lust and unholy sexual desire. 00:28:11.660 --> 00:28:14.740 I don't feed it with what I watch or with what I read or what I wear. 00:28:14.900 --> 00:28:17.080 I approve of God's moral law. 00:28:17.340 --> 00:28:19.200 I find my joy in following it. 00:28:19.660 --> 00:28:23.000 And when I fail, and I will, and I do, I don't seek to hide it. 00:28:23.060 --> 00:28:26.380 I repent of it, knowing that God is sufficient for me. 00:28:26.380 --> 00:28:35.280 So here's the motive and the manner and the objective of the Christian life. 00:28:35.280 --> 00:28:41.200 And the objective is that you might love and enjoy living for God and his glory. 00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:46.140 As we finish this morning, I just want to leave you with some questions to ask. 00:28:46.700 --> 00:28:49.520 How do you finish a sermon on Romans 12, 1 and 2? 00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:54.220 There's so many sort of things to kind of ponder in our lives. 00:28:54.280 --> 00:28:55.720 I just want to finish with four questions. 00:28:55.720 --> 00:28:56.700 Maybe you want to write them down. 00:28:56.759 --> 00:28:57.680 You don't have to if you don't want to. 00:28:57.740 --> 00:28:59.539 They will come up on the screen behind me. 00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:01.819 Just for you to go away and think about. 00:29:02.680 --> 00:29:05.819 Think of them as like a kind of diagnostic questionnaire, really. 00:29:07.539 --> 00:29:09.900 Really just kind of holding up ourselves, saying, 00:29:10.100 --> 00:29:13.400 this is what Paul is describing in the Christian life. 00:29:13.460 --> 00:29:14.400 And how am I getting on? 00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:16.539 So let me ask you this. 00:29:16.559 --> 00:29:17.440 This is the first question. 00:29:17.539 --> 00:29:19.360 How urgent is holiness for you? 00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:23.799 What I mean is, if you were to take an honest look at your life, 00:29:23.799 --> 00:29:28.299 what would you be forced to conclude was your most urgent desire? 00:29:30.039 --> 00:29:33.839 What is it that you are longing for in your life? 00:29:35.460 --> 00:29:37.539 Maybe I could give you a couple of examples. 00:29:37.539 --> 00:29:42.200 If we looked at your life and your prayer life and your desires, 00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:47.740 would it be true that it's more urgent for you to find a husband or a wife 00:29:47.740 --> 00:29:49.859 than it is for you to be godly? 00:29:53.139 --> 00:29:56.519 Are you more urgent in your desire for success 00:29:56.519 --> 00:30:00.579 than you are in your desire to live for the Lord? 00:30:00.579 --> 00:30:04.199 That's not to say, is it, that marriage or success are bad. 00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:05.419 They can be good things. 00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:07.599 It's about desire, though, isn't it? 00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:09.659 What do we urgently want? 00:30:11.059 --> 00:30:14.779 Would we rather be godly in a difficult situation 00:30:14.779 --> 00:30:18.220 that's far from what we would actually choose for ourselves? 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:21.000 Would we rather be godly in that situation 00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:23.599 than have everything we wanted, even if we were ungodly? 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:27.059 Second question. 00:30:28.359 --> 00:30:30.699 How much of your decision-making would still make sense 00:30:30.699 --> 00:30:32.079 even if the gospel wasn't true? 00:30:33.539 --> 00:30:36.359 Now, of course, we live in the same world, don't we, as everybody else. 00:30:36.379 --> 00:30:38.819 And we need to eat, we need to work, we need to earn, we need to live. 00:30:38.919 --> 00:30:40.939 And Christians don't have a monopoly on wisdom. 00:30:41.359 --> 00:30:43.799 Yet these verses do suggest to me that, in some sense, 00:30:43.859 --> 00:30:45.699 the acid test of my Christian life 00:30:45.699 --> 00:30:48.539 is whether it makes sense to my unbelieving friends and family. 00:30:48.539 --> 00:30:54.200 If your life makes perfect sense to your unbelieving friends and family, 00:30:55.099 --> 00:30:56.599 you should be concerned by that. 00:30:57.519 --> 00:30:59.799 Because really what Paul is saying here 00:30:59.799 --> 00:31:03.240 is that there should be a distinctiveness to the Christian life. 00:31:03.859 --> 00:31:06.579 The decisions about where I live or what I do with my time 00:31:06.579 --> 00:31:09.839 or where I spend my money or what I watch, what I think about, 00:31:10.359 --> 00:31:12.720 they should be distinctive because I'm a Christian. 00:31:14.460 --> 00:31:17.599 Oftentimes, as I said before, I think we make a mistake 00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:19.699 thinking it's the big decisions that matter. 00:31:20.419 --> 00:31:22.319 But actually, it's the everyday little decisions. 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:25.719 If you were to get out your bank statement, 00:31:25.819 --> 00:31:28.039 is it clear from your bank statement that you're a Christian? 00:31:28.759 --> 00:31:30.740 Is it clear from your calendar that you're a Christian? 00:31:31.459 --> 00:31:33.959 Is it clear from your internet search history that you're a Christian? 00:31:34.779 --> 00:31:37.679 Is it obvious from your Pinterest that you're a Christian? 00:31:38.539 --> 00:31:40.039 But what stands out as odd there? 00:31:41.579 --> 00:31:45.119 Third question, what does being a Christian cost you? 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:48.159 What I'm trying to say here is, 00:31:48.459 --> 00:31:54.039 what is being a living sacrifice in your life? 00:31:55.339 --> 00:31:57.699 Can you look around the place that you live 00:31:57.699 --> 00:32:00.839 and see what you don't have because the gospel is true? 00:32:02.699 --> 00:32:03.119 You know what? 00:32:03.500 --> 00:32:06.899 I've gone without that because the gospel is true 00:32:06.899 --> 00:32:09.539 and I have different plans for my aspirations, 00:32:09.739 --> 00:32:11.099 for my money and where I live. 00:32:11.099 --> 00:32:14.099 Can you look at your calendar and your plans 00:32:14.099 --> 00:32:15.439 and see what you're not doing, 00:32:16.259 --> 00:32:17.259 that you would like to do, 00:32:17.319 --> 00:32:19.079 but you're not doing it because the gospel is true? 00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:22.779 What are you denying yourself 00:32:22.779 --> 00:32:24.619 because you want to serve others 00:32:24.619 --> 00:32:27.240 as you live for God and his glory? 00:32:29.319 --> 00:32:30.119 Question four. 00:32:31.740 --> 00:32:33.779 And don't skip this question 00:32:33.779 --> 00:32:36.219 because I think this is really important. 00:32:36.220 --> 00:32:38.920 if you do all the other three, 00:32:39.100 --> 00:32:39.839 but you're miserable, 00:32:40.240 --> 00:32:41.220 you've really not understood. 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:43.620 Question four. 00:32:43.740 --> 00:32:45.600 How delightful are God's ways to you? 00:32:46.940 --> 00:32:47.579 In other words, 00:32:48.059 --> 00:32:50.880 how much joy is your Christian life bringing you? 00:32:52.100 --> 00:32:54.600 Do you find that the Christian life burdensome 00:32:54.600 --> 00:32:55.700 and joyless? 00:32:56.660 --> 00:32:57.600 Do you read the question, 00:32:57.740 --> 00:32:59.200 oh yeah, okay, I understand, 00:32:59.339 --> 00:33:00.299 like urgent holiness, 00:33:00.420 --> 00:33:01.059 I get that, 00:33:01.120 --> 00:33:02.120 but that's so miserable. 00:33:02.119 --> 00:33:05.739 That's not right, is it? 00:33:06.399 --> 00:33:09.000 It should be a joy to us to live like this. 00:33:09.519 --> 00:33:11.119 God's ways are supposed to delight us. 00:33:12.799 --> 00:33:15.500 Miserable Christianity is not supposed to be a thing. 00:33:15.959 --> 00:33:18.119 Serious Christianity is a thing, right? 00:33:19.459 --> 00:33:21.379 Thinking Christianity is a thing, 00:33:21.559 --> 00:33:24.259 but it's meant to be joyful. 00:33:24.899 --> 00:33:26.859 It's meant to move our emotions 00:33:26.859 --> 00:33:29.759 to love God and enjoy him. 00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:34.720 And if we're not finding the Christian life delightful 00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:35.799 and joyful, 00:33:35.799 --> 00:33:36.519 what do we do? 00:33:37.700 --> 00:33:40.619 Well, the access is through our minds. 00:33:41.379 --> 00:33:44.700 As we think on and ponder and read 00:33:44.700 --> 00:33:47.079 and engage with the truth of who God is 00:33:47.079 --> 00:33:47.759 and what he's done. 00:33:48.539 --> 00:33:51.859 Because our bodies do what our minds think. 00:33:53.339 --> 00:33:56.119 And so let's think and ponder on the gospel 00:33:56.119 --> 00:33:57.859 of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:33:57.859 --> 00:34:00.439 I'm going to leave those questions on the screen 00:34:00.439 --> 00:34:02.179 and just give you a couple of moments 00:34:02.179 --> 00:34:03.740 to have a think and a ponder on those. 00:34:03.879 --> 00:34:04.740 And then we will sing 00:34:04.740 --> 00:34:07.179 When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. 00:34:07.180 --> 00:34:37.159 And then we will sing 00:34:37.179 --> 00:35:07.179 who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who the who 00:35:07.179 --> 00:35:25.839 heavenly father we we know that we are unable to live like this in our own strength 00:35:25.839 --> 00:35:32.599 thank you that you have given us sufficient motive 00:35:32.599 --> 00:35:37.199 in these new minds that you've given us by the spirit 00:35:37.199 --> 00:35:48.779 please forgive us for times where maybe we've been lazy or distracted or perhaps just the 00:35:48.779 --> 00:35:55.219 sufferings and challenges and difficulties of our lives have clouded out your mercy to us 00:35:55.219 --> 00:35:59.360 and so we remember again that you are the merciful god 00:35:59.360 --> 00:36:09.300 you loved us and gave himself up for us that we might be forgiven and so it is our joy 00:36:09.300 --> 00:36:17.539 to live for you and for your glory help us we pray now as we sing when i survey the wondrous cross 00:36:17.539 --> 00:36:21.840 and when we sing those words that we pour contempt on all our pride 00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:30.140 help us to mean it lord and give us the strength to live it we pray in jesus name amen 00:36:31.780 --> 00:36:31.780 00:36:31.780 --> 00:36:39.720 thank you 00:36:39.720 --> 00:36:41.720 you 00:36:41.720 --> 00:36:41.720