All right, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, as we come to you right now in the name of Jesus, we ask, dear Lord, that you would just bless this time of study that we have. We pray, dear Lord, that you would just allow us to learn from your Word tonight. May the Holy Spirit have free course in all of our lives. Open our understanding that we might understand the Scriptures. And then the Heavenly Father grant us all a filling of the Holy Spirit. And the Heavenly Father give us unusual wisdom in these days in which we live. And now, Father, may our focus be on you. And we thank you for that. And now, Lord, bless this time. Challenge us from your word tonight. We ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right, Romans 12, 1 and 2. I put up there a changed life, a focused life. And we'll start off with verse one. Those first three words, I beseech you. And when you start looking at that word beseech, It goes in all kinds of directions. Many years ago, I heard an old preacher preaching, and he preached for about an hour and a half on those three words. And he brought out the reality that in this verse, where he says, I beseech you, therefore, that word beseech talks about begging you. imploring you, just trying to talk to you any way possible, trying to persuade you. I beseech you. When you start looking at the word beseech in a thesaurus, it'll come up, beg you, all right? And anyway, so that's what this is talking about. You have the word therefore. And that means there's something in the previous chapter that would cause Paul to look at these people and say, I beseech you. In other words, I'm going to beg you because of what was just said, because of what we just heard, I'm going to beg you. And so when you look at verses 33 to 36 in the previous chapter, Of course, you got Romans 11, which is filled with stuff. But verse 33, 34, 35, and 36, it starts off, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. That's God for you. Verse 34, for who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor? Verse 35, 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. So as we start this lesson tonight, when we look at Romans 12.1, You realize that, boy, he gives this declaration about God in Romans 11, and then he starts off Romans 12 with this. I beseech you, therefore. I'm gonna beg you, Paul says. I'm gonna beg you because of what we've just looked at. The depth and the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable. Wow. I beseech you, therefore. Let me challenge y'all to something. And that's this. When I look at those first four little words, I beseech you, therefore. The question comes into my mind of this. Is there something spiritual worth begging somebody for? Is it because we've read something? Because we know something? Because we've experienced something? Is there something worth beseeching somebody else? Is there something worth begging somebody else to serve God? And when I look at this, I beseech you therefore, beseech you therefore, singular. Brethren, wow. So Paul, because of what was in chapter 11 there, and as Paul views God, like verse 36, for of him, through him, to him are all things to whom be glory forever, amen. Because of that, Paul says, I beseech you. I beg you, brethren. And so think about this. Is there something spiritual, like I just said? Have you experienced something, read something, saw something that was worth begging somebody else to give themselves to Christ? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice. What Paul does here, he realizes the most valuable, worthy, thing any of us will ever do, it will be for you and me to give our lives to Christ. Like I put right here, a changed life, a focused life. And so, do you, just think about this now, Do you see the value of giving your life in service to the Lord Jesus Christ? Because of Romans 11 and what Paul says there in Romans 11, he thought it was worthy to beg you Therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, look, that ye, plural, present your bodies, plural, a living sacrifice. Now, if you're going to do that, I want you to see a changed life, a focused life. For you to do that, for me to do that, if we're going to be a living sacrifice, that means you've got to die to self. And remember something, like I said, and I think it's in John 15, unless that grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it's not gonna produce anything. But if it fall into the ground and die, then it'll produce something. And so what we see Paul saying here to these Romans is that, look, present your bodies a living sacrifice. Now that's total, isn't it? I'm sure you have all heard the story about the chicken and the pig, right? The chicken come up to the pig and said, let's make sure the farmer has a good breakfast. I'll furnish the egg, you furnish the ham. And see, one of them was a total sacrifice. And so we find then, The type of sacrifice. Listen, the sacrifices of God, those old lambs, they had to be spotless. I mean, the priest took those lambs and those sheep and they looked at them and if they had a scar on them, they weren't qualified for a sacrifice. If they had a bruise on them or cut on them or anything, They were totally unqualified to be a sacrifice. That's why the very next word you see in that verse is the word holy. I've got it enlarged there for you. Holy. And then the next word is acceptable. Because if it's not holy, it's not acceptable. Now let me talk to you for a second about something. A lot of people, even though they're saved, they still live in the past. I want you all to know something. To do that is a great disgrace to the blood of Christ. Your You're disgracing the blood of Christ. You're disgracing the absolute work of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleansed us from all sin. Your soul is as spotless as Jesus Christ himself. Because if it wasn't, it would never be acceptable. And so, when I look at this, Paul saw something, and what he saw and what he experienced, to him, it was worth becoming a total sacrifice. And so when you get into Timothy, Paul says, he didn't say, I'm ready to die. He said, I'm ready to be offered up as a sacrifice. You see that? And so he looked at this service to God in Christ, so valuable that he was going to beg other people to do that, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice. Then the word holy. Now, if you look down underneath those verses, you'll see verse one, then verse two. Verse one, when we talk about holy, let's look at the practical side of this. The practical side of holiness in your life and mine. This is just one of many passages of scriptures. This is Roman 6, 13 to 16. This is the practical side of this. And since we're in Romans, I figured I'd just drag something out of Romans and show it to us. Watch this now. What does it mean when he says holy? Hold me. Let's look at this. Romans 6, 13. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. He starts that verse off and he says, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But then he says, yield yourselves. That's you. That's the complete you. That's your legs, your hands, your body, your arms, your eyes, your ears, your mouth. He goes from yielding the members to being all inclusive, but yield yourselves. See that? Because listen, if you cut the trunk of the tree, the whole tree dies, branches and all, doesn't it? And so what he's talked about here is the fact that, boy, the members as instruments of unrighteousness under sin, but yield yourselves. He knows this, that if you yield yourself, If you give yourself unto God, you know what that's going to do? That's going to take control of your mouth. That's going to take control of your mind. That's going to take control of your heart. That's going to take control of your conscience that's going to take control of your eyes, that's going to take control of your ears. It's going to take control of everything. And so what we find then, Paul understands the importance here of yielding yourself. I like the word yield. Because what we find in the yield is this. When you yield to it, that means you give up, you tap out. When you yield to it, well, I just had to yield to it after a while, you know? And so Paul uses the word yield here. In other words, there's something there and are you going to yield to it? So what you find then, but yield yourselves. Here you have the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. You have the Word of God on the outside of you and the Spirit of God on the inside of you. Both of them working in tandem. And so now you're saved and the Holy Spirit now dwells within you. So now you've had the Holy Spirit on the inside of you. And you know what true peace is? Is this, is that when this flesh yields to the Spirit of God, the Word of God, we find ourselves willingly doing that. But yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Look what he says, alive from the dead. What do we find in the Bible? Like I've said before, well, even Jesus said, well, let the dead bury the dead. Just think, before you're saved, God considers every unsaved person as dead. And he said, let the dead bury the dead. But now, but the Bible teaches that every saved person is made alive. And so what we find then, just think about this. You're sitting here tonight as a saved person. Just think about this. The work that Christ has done in you, the work that God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit has done in you, is 100% complete. Not partial, it's complete. And you know what he's done for you? He has made you alive. And so when Paul looks at this, holy, acceptable unto God, wish you a reasonable service. Wow. Presents your body as a living sacrifice. Holy. Wow. So we see then, that the first step of this being holy is that the presence of the Spirit of God in our lives, we have the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the Bible says, all three in us, right? Well, guess what? So what do we do now? We give it up. We yield to the power of the Spirit that dwells within us. You see that? Holy. Watch this now. Verse 14, Romans 6, 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you. Look at that. For sin shall not have dominion over you. For ye are not under the law, but under grace. Now listen to me. A lot of people say, well, sin has dominion over me because I don't need to eat that other biscuit, but I do. I want you to know something. He's not talking about that flesh right there. He's talking about that saved soul. Sin will never have dominion over that which Christ has cleansed. Sin will never have dominion over the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Holy Spirit that dwells within you. Sin will never have dominion over the things of God. Never. That's why he says, for sin shall not have dominion over you. The work of Christ in you was complete. And the work of Christ in you was powerful. The work of Christ in you was eternal. The work of Christ in you was absolutely effective, effectual, everything. And sin will never get the... Now just think about this, folks, how precious this is. Sin will never have dominion over your cleansed soul. This flesh and this life, oh, we're gonna, let me tell you what, we're tied to the world, this flesh. The flesh is not going to heaven. Nope. Something's gotta happen. There's gotta be a transformation. So I want you to think about this. Do you realize, now just think about this, folks. The Bible says, come boldly to the throne of grace. Isn't that what he said? Now, consider this. Do you realize that means you are accepted? The Bible says we are priests and kings. Amen. A priest is a mediator. A priest. Do you realize the priest prayed for the people, didn't he? Well, when you realize your position in Christ, think about it. You've been adopted into the family of God. You're a child of God. The Bible declares that you're a priest unto God. Listen, when we think about our position in Christ, that allows you and me to boldly go to the throne of grace. We don't have to sneak up to it. Do you know what that means? That means you're accepted. You're accepted. You say, yeah, but I've sinned. Your soul hadn't. You might say, I don't feel like it. Big deal. What's that got to do with it? Nothing. Listen, if there's ever a time when you and I need to boldly approach the throne of grace, It's when the world has got us right by the throat. Yeah, amen. We make such a big mistake thinking, well, you know, I cussed today, I lusted today, you know, I smacked my neighbor today, whatever, you know. And you think, well, you know, I can't, I don't need to talk to God right now. No, that's when you need to talk to God. Amen, that's right. We can go boldly to the throne of grace, not because of what this flesh has done, but we can go boldly to the throne of grace because what Christ has done in us. I hate to tell all of you, but if you're sitting there and you're still alive and in the flesh, you're gonna be in the flesh today, and if you're alive tomorrow, you'll be in the flesh tomorrow. Sorry. That's just the way it is. You'll be mad, sad, and glad for the weeks out. That's the word holy we're talking about. All right, verse 14, let's finish it now. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. See that? You were saved by grace, God's amazing grace. Verse 15, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Verse 16, know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are? to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness." You see that? What happens? Listen, when you're saved, you become a new person. That conscience that you have, boy, when you do something wrong, it burns and stings and Just eat you up. Do you know what that is? That's pleasing to God. Because that means your conscience is doing its job now. The Holy Spirit takes your conscience and begins to beat you, beat you to death with it. You see, why? Because true conversion is eternal conversion. See that? Well, listen, the only way you can have eternal life all the time, anytime, is simply this, is because of the complete work of Christ in your soul. If sin could get dominion over your soul, you wouldn't have eternal security. You see that? And so what we find, sometimes we wanna say, well, in this place, I done thus and thus. That does, listen, what you, listen, once God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit cleanses your soul, you will never soil your soul again. The eternal work of God in you is permanent, not temporary. Pity the poor souls that think it is. And so as we journey through life, at first John 1, 9, we grab a hold of that thing. Why? Because of this flesh. It's there for us to get ourselves right, get our heads right, thinking right. We gotta be able to go somewhere when the spirit of God begins beating us to death. And that's it. All right, verse two. Wow, I've already spent 35 minutes on verse one. Let's go to verse two. 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. Wow. Let's see if I can bring this to you. Now look down to bottom there where it says verse two reference. See that on your page? Very important. Let's work our way through this. I want to show you something. Romans 12, two. It says, be not conformed. What is that? Well, it's a primary preposition denoting union with or together. Much closer, para, i.e., by association, companionship, union. Be not conformed. Well, when you think of that, conformed means to make the same or similar, to bring into harmony or agreement with. Be not conformed. Don't be in union with them. Well, that takes us right over to 1 Corinthians, doesn't it? What do we find there, you know? How can light fellowship with darkness? It can't. How can Christ fellowship with Belial? You can't. It's an impossibility. Be ye separate, saith the Lord. Come out from amongst them. We find all of those verses. But here we find there in verse two, and be not conformed to the world. Don't be in union with the world. Don't be in association with the world. Don't be in companionship with the world. On the way to the church tonight, Sister Fowler and me was having this conversation and we were talking about the fact that she looked into the scripture. She realized that once Christ started his ministry, who did he fellowship with for the rest of the time that he was on earth? The church. The men that made up the first church, that was it. You don't find him going anywhere else, doing anything else with anybody else. Only in passing, only in passing. All the rest of his fellowship was right there with those disciples. That's it. You see, when we look at these verses, that's why I put a changed life, a focused life. That's why the world wants to grab us and pull us away and distract us. Why? Because, listen, a focused life is a disciplined life. And discipline wins out every time. You might say, well, I'm motivated. Yeah, we can all be motivated, but the only thing that's gonna keep you going is discipline, because motivation will go away. We'll get tired, we'll get weak, we'll get discouraged, and motivation begins to collapse, you see. People say, well, I'm really motivated. Listen, I've seen a lot of people that were really motivated, and I looked at them, and I knew motivation's one thing, but they're not disciplined enough to make it. And so their motivation, buddy, they started off like a ball of fire. And within a week or so, they look like a match burning. You give it another few more days and somebody blew the match out. I mean, motivation died. But you show me a disciplined person, I'll show you somebody that'll just keep on going. You might say, well, the flame went out. Yeah, but he'll keep on going. He knows the value, she knows the value of a disciplined life. She knows the value of a focused life. Listen, we win the battles of life one at a time. And you win the things of life a little at a time, a little at a time. Listen, the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. And one of the things that I've learned in life is this which is so important, be not conformed to the world. Well, the way that's going to happen is because of me understanding that now I'm not going to do that. Why? Because the Spirit of God dwells within me. And the Word of God gives me directions. And those things will help me not to be conformed to the world. All right, I'm not gonna be in union with the world. But look what it says, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Wow, what a statement, transformed. That comes from the word metamorphosis. And we all know what that is, huh? Here comes a little wooly worm and man here he's crawling on the ground and next thing you know he's a butterfly. Now that's what you call a radical change. Isn't it? Well do you realize that is exactly what happens to a believer. Well that goes right along with 2 Corinthians 5.17, doesn't it? Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Behold, old things pass away. All things become new. What happened? He had a metamorphosis. He or she changed totally. Watch this now. Be ye transformed. In other words, go through a metamorphosis. How? By the renewing of your mind. Now down here, I've got Ephesians 4, 20 to 24. Let me go over that with you. First of all, it says, but ye have not so learned Christ. What's he talking about? See, he's talking about being worldly. He's talking about living in the world. He's talking about living sin. but you have not so learned Christ. Stop right there just for a second, look up here. What have you learned about Christ? Do you realize, like I said when I started, we have such a tendency today to insult the finished work of Christ in us. Dominions you'll not have, sin's not gonna have dominion over you, over your soul. We find this flesh is gonna be flesh, and the world's gonna be the world, and we're tied to the world. But just think about this. When you go to prayer, the Bible says that you're a priest. We go to prayer, the Bible says to come boldly to the throne of grace. When we go to prayer, we must realize because of that, you are already accepted in the Father. So you might say, well, I don't feel like it. I've done this, I've done that. Well, why don't you just crawl right up to the throne of grace and boldly talk to your heavenly Father? You see, what we have here is something of when we learn Christ, it changes everything in our life. You are forgiven. You are empowered. You are cleansed. Remember now, your eyes see what others don't see. Your ears hear what others don't hear. Your emotions and feelings, you feel things now that you didn't feel before. You see, the more you learn about Christ, the more praise you want to give him. Watch this now, how by the renewing of your mind, Ephesians 420, but ye have not so learned Christ. Watch this, verse 21. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Now just think about that. If so be that ye have heard him. He, if you've heard him, he made it possible for you to hear him. Now watch this. and have been taught by Him. How do you like that? God the Father, the Bible says taught of God. God the Father teaches us that we're sinners and even the Savior, that He teaches us who the Savior is. And then the Savior teaches us. The Spirit of Christ teaches us. That's why in verse 21, 421, Ephesians 421, if so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Wow. Just think about it. Taught by him as truth is in Jesus. You see that? Jesus. Jesus. To be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. Who's the Lord? Jesus. You see that? And so what we have here, if we've heard him, if we've been taught by him, we're gonna know some truth about him. Your soul is eternally cleansed. We are absolutely in the hand of God, 100%. Right? If God wants you to die, you're dead. If he wants you to stay alive, nobody can kill you. That's all there is to it. That's all there is to it. God gives life and God takes life, the Bible declares. The Bible says that God provides breath for us. You see that? The Bible teaches that you got a guardian angel. And some of our guardian angels, boy, they earn their wings. Verse 22, Ephesians 4, 22. They put off concerning the former conversation, that's your manner of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. Amen. Verse 23, and be renewed. There's that word again. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Listen, let's read verse 24. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Whoa, look at this. Many people never get to this point. Many people never see it. Most preachers read it, pass over it. But I want to show you something that's wonderful tonight. Verse 23, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Listen, that's how you think. You can spend your whole life with a bad case of stinking thinking. and then God save you, you're gonna be renewed in your mind. You're going to see things different. You're gonna hear different, recognize different. Your thinking is different. Verse 24. And that ye put on, this is Ephesians 4, 24, we're dealing with verse two there, transformed, being renewed by the renewing of your mind. And that ye put on the new man, which after God, which after God, see that? This new man is going to be created after God. In other words, that spirit that dwells within you is after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. Look at the word created. Do you realize that when you were saved, when you were born again, look at what happened to you. You became a new man, new woman, new person. How'd that happen? Which after God, the Holy Spirit took your spirit and just think your spirit is acceptable to God the Father because of God the Son is created in righteousness and true holiness. No wonder the Bible says, for sin shall not have dominion over you. Why? Because your soul is created. Look at that. That's being born again. Your soul is created again. It's a new one. See that? You have a soul, but now it's going to be created. But now look, it's going to be after God, created in what? In righteousness and true holiness. If you're here and saved tonight, your soul was created after God, created. created. How? In righteousness and true holiness. That is real salvation. No human can bring that about. That's why this stuff about Arminianism and you know, you having the power to say yes and no and your yes causes God to do this. Listen, God's not gonna be subject to no human. Period. God will never be a debtor. That's totally contrary. But boy, look what he does. Look, to put on the new man. which after God, in other words, you're gonna be made like God, what is created. What changed me? When God saved me, he created in me, in my soul, right? My soul was created. Might as well say created again. That's why we say born again. created in me in righteousness and true holiness. What happened to you? The same thing. I don't care if your sins are blacker than the hinges on the doors of hell itself, makes no difference. When God saves you, just think about this now, your soul is exactly like the soul of Jesus Christ. You've got the same righteousness as Christ. It's in you. That's why it says you are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. That's what God has done for the soul of a sinner. And so when we look at verse two, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Wow. But now watch this. That ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now, let me show you the truth of that. I've heard everything. I've heard some of the awfulest stuff you ever heard about that. Insane stuff. That ye may prove. See that? See those words? You are proof. You're the proof. What is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God? You're the proof. You're the proof of what is good and acceptable and perfect. It was God's will that you were saved. Amen. You're the proof. What is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God? that ye may prove. You're it, you're the proof of it. You see, your change is so radical, you prove what is good and acceptable. What's the one thing about salvation that's absolutely important for us? The blood of Jesus Christ makes us acceptable in the Father. You see that? And so, boy, when we're transformed, we are made acceptable. That's why you're called a priest. That's why he says, come boldly to the throne of grace. Why? Because you're accepted. The Bible says we are accepted in the what? Beloved. You're the proof that ye may prove you as an individual. But he said that word is plural. that ye, all of you that are saved may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect, what? Will of God. It's God's will. Listen, if God did not will you to be saved, you would not be saved. But in God's perfect will, If He's willed you to be saved, blood-washed, born again, heaven-bound, renewed, created, created in righteousness and through holiness, if God has so willed that concerning you, who's gonna stop Him? Who's gonna stop Him? Nobody. Nobody is gonna stop you. So you see, ladies and gentlemen, when you look at this, you realize that your salvation that you may prove, your conversion, your complete conversion, you are proof of that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You're the proof of it. Somebody might say, well, look at you, man, boy, God really changed you. Ha, thank you for saying that, appreciate that very much. I am proof of God's perfect will. You are proof of God's perfect will. Do you see it now? It's right there. Oh, and it's good, isn't it? It's good. Praise God for these verses. What a blessing they are. I'm glad you were here tonight to get it. Because I tell you what, as I was putting it together, I was just having me a shouting fit. You know why? Listen, if the people of God can't praise God, if your blessers broke, there's something wrong with you. You know that? Gather around. Let's pray.