Take your Bibles and turn with me this morning to Romans 12. As we have arrived at the place in the book where Paul is admonishing the Roman Christians of their responsibilities and of the practical application of the Gospel. I'm going to read verses 1 and 2 and then give kind of an introduction. And then we're going to work through the verse one clause at a time. And then at the end we'll put them together and look at a couple of applications at least. Beginning in v. 1, we want to read v. 1-2, but we will be preaching v. 2. Hear the Word of God. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Our Father, we tremble at Your Word and how much grace there is in Your Word. And yet, how much there is before us in responsibility. We could not do it without Your Spirit. And we thank You that You have sent Your Holy Spirit into our midst and into each one of us who believe so that we might have strength and power to render unto you the type of service and the type of response we should have to a full and clear understanding of your grace in the gospel. Guide us this morning to see our response as that which is our reasonable service. In Christ's name, Amen. Now, by introduction, we want to make sure you understand that these two verses apply to Christians only. Paul is taking for granted that they have been with him through Chapter 11, from chapter 1 all the way through chapter 11. And now he gets to chapter 12 and he says, I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. This is not to lost people. Paul never encourages lost people to give themselves as a living sacrifice in order to be saved. That is not the gospel. The gospel is there is one sacrifice for sins forever. And that was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And knowing that, And knowing how we have been freely accepted in the Beloved, what is our reasonable response? We should therefore render our bodies a living sacrifice to God. And then, in verse 2, we should take our minds and submit them to God, in order that they may be renewed in the knowledge of His will. Having gone through v. 1, then we arrive at v. 2, and the first thing we see is the word, and. This conjunction ties v. 1 to v. 2, causing us to see that v. 2 also applies to Christians. present your body as a living sacrifice, and now we're dealing with your mind. So, body and mind, you belong to the Lord. You've been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your mind, which are His. By the word not conformed, or the verb conformed, It indicates something like being forced into a mold. Don't be formed like. Don't let your form take on that of the world. The Greek word to help you, and everybody will understand it after that, is the schematidsophy. Now I know you know what it is. But it's built on the word schematic. It has the preposition sus, which means together with, schematize, have a schematic together with. And then there is the negative to begin with. Don't have your schematics, your blueprint, your plan of life formed like the world. Don't let your form take on that of the world. Therefore, don't have your schematism, your plan and purpose as the same as the world. Therefore, we should not have the same world view Nor should we take the present world as our pattern for fashioning ourselves. We should be independent. Not necessarily combatant with this world, although that will be involved when the world does not love us but hates us. But we should not seek to be combative. We're just not supposed to be conformed. We're in the world, but we should not be of the world, as we have heard. We have our own battle plans. We have our own philosophy. Our own blueprint on how we should be building our lives. In what ways, then, should we not be conformed to this world? Well, we should be humble and not proud. We should consider others, and not just ourselves. Philippians 2.5 We should be responsible members of our families, not deserting one another for the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, etc. We should not be looking to destroy others, but to love others. Beginning with the church, and then going on to our neighbors also. We should seek to glorify God and not ourselves in everything we do. Now when we get to the word, to this world, this world does not mean just the people of this world, though it will involve many of them. But it's talking about the world system. The wickedness of this world. The present world as opposed to the world to come. The things of this world as opposed to the things which are above with Christ. The worldly philosophy is dead set against a Christian view. So we should not adopt theirs. but use our own. They presuppose God does not even exist, let alone that He created the world. But we know He did. That changes everything. Their view of everything is skewed to fit into their philosophy. So we should not be looking to frame our thoughts into their views. This world is passing away and the things of this world are as well. We don't want our lives trusting in vanishing vapors, but in the reality of the truth of God's Word for God's world. Sometimes it's tempting to be like the world or the culture around us so we don't look funny, but we're going to live with the King of Glory forever. What will the way we look and the face of the world be in light of that? Let's quit worrying about what the world thinks. Let's quit worrying about what we look like. Let's think about whose we are and what He has done for us. Paul tells us here to stop fashioning ourselves after this world. Stop putting on the facade of a like-mindedness to the world. Let's begin to think more about Christ and the world to come. So he said, don't be conformed to this world. But, on the other hand, Be ye transformed. The word is metamorphose. From which we get our word metamorphosis. Be ye changed. We used to have the mindset of the world. For we were born in Adam into a God denying existence. And that's who we were. But this just highlights the idea that we need to be putting on a new mind. We need to be transformed in our very being. But again, remember, Paul is talking to those who are already born again. So he's not telling them to change themselves. We have been changed by the grace of God. But he's saying, to be moving towards more change in your mind. Be transformed. Your whole being needs to be going under a metamorphosis. This word transformed is used of the Lord in Mark 9 and Matthew 17 in the transfiguration of Christ on the mount. figure was transformed and he's shown as white as the light. An illustration of this change comes from the word used metamorphosis and describes what takes place in the life of a caterpillar. He crawls, in fact he's a worm. but then he rolls himself up into a cocoon for a while and after some time he comes out a beautiful butterfly. This little worm was metamorphosized or changed into a multicolored butterfly. His whole being was changed into the form of a moth which could fly as free as a bird. just so we are entreated to be metamorphosized into a new form that no longer lives according to the course of this world and is in bondage to the prince of the power of the air. Though we can't make the change happen, it has already happened, yet we are encouraged to be yielding ourselves to the changes and look not to our old way of life. We are to be, as we were mentioned in Sunday school, using the means of grace that God has given the church and the private means of grace that we have in our homes. This whole idea of a change brings to mind what happened to Moses in Exodus 34. where it said that the face of Moses shone so brightly that the children of Israel could not look into his face. And so they got a veil and put over it while he talked with them. When he went into the tabernacle and talked with God, he took the veil off. And the Bible says that he talked with God as a man talks with his friend. And when He came out, He was so glowing that Israel could not bear the sight. So they put a veil over His face. Paul relates this in 2 Corinthians 3, 7-18. I want to read it. But at the ministration of death, Moses was in a sense a ministry If that was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how should not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more that the ministry For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excels. For if that which was done away was glorious, the covenant in Moses, much more that which remains is glorious. Paul writes, seeing then we have such hope. We use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses who put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament. which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away." Now, the Lord is that Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are, here's the word, changed into that same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. How? By looking into the new covenant, and that which was done by Christ." Here, Paul points out four things. Moses' face shone so that he had to wear a veil. Number two, Moses' revelation was that of condemnation. And it was pale in relation to the revelation we see in Christ and the new covenant. Three, Christ's revelation is a revelation of glory and of grace. And the veil of Moses is done away when people see the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, of whom Moses wrote. And then four, we all who believe are changed into the same image from glory to glory as we behold the truths of the new covenant in Christ. We are transformed into the image of Christ more and more. An illustration of what this word means has been shown to be that of the caterpillar. Are you a butterfly? Are you still eating leaves as a worm? Have you been changed? And he says in that one word, in the present middle tense, be being transformed. That means it's progressive. You don't do it once and you're done. be being transformed. We're even told that we have been predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's dear Son. So day after day, we should be drawing more and more closely to His lifestyle. Now, don't hear Moses in me. Sometimes I may want to dwell on the responsibilities, on the law, on what we should do. We've got to do this. Don't hear that so much. Hear the fact that we are changed in Jesus Christ. But in sanctification, we have a responsibility to take that which we have been given in justification and continue working on that. Paul says in Ephesians 2, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. So there is the responsibility. But the next verse says, for it's God that works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. So it's grace. Grace upon grace. But it's not responsibility-less grace. It's not antinomian grace. It's responsible grace. Next we see how we are to be being transformed, and that is by the renewing of your mind. Paul didn't say by the renewing of the way you hop around and jump around in your services. Some people get that idea as that's what God wants Christians to do. To just be fulfilled in happiness and joy. You've seen it. As if being sanctified means learning a holy religious dance. How are we to be transformed? By the renewing of our feelings. No. By the renewing of our mind. Anakinosis. Kainé is the new. Ana is renew it again. And then osis means it is a process you're working on. Renew your mind. R.C. Sproul named his ministry after that, Renewing Your Mind. Because he believed, as we do, that the mind is what we need to be submitting to the Lord. And let emotions take their own course. Will we have emotions when we come to truth? When we come to realize what God has done in Christ for us, absolutely it will change our emotions. But we don't study our emotions. We don't focus on our emotions. We focus on the truth, that the truth will set us free. This refers to the fact of the effects of the fall on the minds of men. Our minds were corrupted. Some people believe that our thought processes is the only thing that wasn't affected by the fall. That the lost are still able to think the way God wants them to. But no, our minds were corrupted. And even though we've been renewed in regeneration yet, though the mind has been renewed in principle, we must continue the process in sanctification. We have been renewed, but sin still abides in us. It doesn't reign over us. But we must be renewing our mind day by day, rejecting the things of the old man and putting on the mind of Christ. More and more. How do we do this? By reading and studying the Word of God. Using the means of grace that God has given us for this purpose. The public means as were listed this morning. Attending worship. Singing to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Participating in the ordinances of the church. Baptism in the Lord's Supper. Prayer. Being attentive to the reading and preaching of the Word of God. In all these ways, we are seeking to renew our mind. Those who think we do not need to renew their minds are in arrogance, denying the very fact of abiding sin. Our minds are still earthly, and need to be brought under submission to the Word daily. But the most direct way to renew our minds is the daily reading and study of the Word of God. This is where God has planted spiritual food for the Christian to grow on. Yet so many Christians are short-circuiting their own failings by not being attentive to this. Oh Christian, are you trying to grow spiritually by just using the knowledge you already have? The word renewing indicates our wisdom is not built on old, misunderstood principles that have not brought any change yet. We need a new mindset that is learning and trusting in the righteousness of Christ, and not in ourselves. The Christian now minds the things of the Spirit, not the things of the flesh as he used to do. He never had this mindset before. So he must exercise it more and more unto godliness. And then we get to the end of the verse that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, perfect will of God. This is a purpose clause. We are renewing our mind for a purpose that we may prove the will of God. How do we find out God's will? Through renewing our minds. It again is not one of those that are one and done for several reasons. Number one, God doesn't illuminate us completely any more than He sanctifies us completely in this life. Number two, we forget so easily. And there was a third thing, but I forgot it. No, we approach the Christian life in a somewhat piecemeal sort of way. We can't get the comprehensive picture of all of life before us. We interpret providence historically, And even though we look to the Scriptures for information, we apply them to our lives as we understand them in relation to our lives at the present time. We're still limited creatures. Most of us are. As well as creatures with sin still abiding in us. So renewing our mind is a process we all need to be in. The mind should be in control of all our affections. So, even more so, do we need to be renewing it that it can function properly. What is it that we are trying to prove? The answer is, what is God's will for my life? Every church I've ever been in had preachers preaching on how to know God's will for your life. There have been some pretty mystical answers that I've heard also. Emphasis, debate, what's the best way to find God's will? I was working on a Master of Theology And one of my professors overseeing my work got very upset with me because I wanted to tie ethics to New Testament doctrine. I wanted to apply the Word of God to ethics rather than just a Christian mind to ethics. But the point is, how do we know what God's will for our life is? Do we just pray, squint our eyes a little more strongly, and dream of what God has for us? No. We are renewing our minds so that we can tell what the will of God for our lives is. We live in the world. We come back to the Word. We live in the world some more, we come back to the Word. And as we come back to the Word, God is active in bringing the Word to our mind and applying the Word to our lives. We especially look to two places in the Word, and that is to the law and to the Gospel. What is God's moral law? What are we supposed to be doing? If I am doing God's moral law and God lays something on my heart and it's not breaking that law, I'm good. I'm not good in and of myself. But that's how I find the will of God. If there's something in that thing I want to do that is breaking the moral law of God, I've got to back out of it. But even when we know the will of God, right? We know what's right. And our heart knows what's right. And when I seek to do that which is right, guess what happens? I still have sin abiding in me. And when I will to do that which is right, I do wrong. I praise God there is a Gospel of grace through Jesus Christ. I don't murder myself just for messing up. But I pick myself back up and I look back to the Word of God. Where should I go to learn the will of God? And the grace of God points me back to the law of God. And the law of God It points me to the way I should go, and it also points out where I don't go that way. So it points me back to the Gospel. And in the Gospel, I find the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I grow in that grace, the Lord Jesus Christ points me back to the law. So as we wander and work through this world, we have to come back to the Word of God, to the Law and to the Gospel in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want to conclude with a couple of applications. The question, how are we doing? Are we becoming more and more like Christ? Are we still seemingly a part of the whole world as it is apart from Christ? Are we seemingly just cookies cut out of the same mold as the world? Are we getting anywhere in renewing our minds? Or are we still in stall mode? If so, don't get comfortable there. There's no excuse for not knowing God's will. He calls us to move forward. Even those who are already believers are called to repent and believe the Gospel. Have you done anything lately about renewing your mind? Or are you just coasting along with the flow? Well, look to Jesus Christ right now. Begin looking into His Word every day seeking to renew your mind into the image of Christ, that you may be changed into that same image. Maybe you've not turned to Christ as Lord and Savior yet, so why not now? Call on Christ, and He will give a new mind and a new heart with His Spirit giving life to you. Look to Jesus Christ who gave Himself a ransom for sinners as the only hope you could ever have to stand before God. He will clothe you with the righteousness of Christ. This doesn't seem to make a lot of sense yet. My advice is call on Christ. Ask Him to help you understand your truly need of Him and a righteousness that will stand the test of time. Application 2. Chapter 12 begins Paul's discussion of how the gospel is to have an effect on our lives. In verse 1, he speaks about our bodies. Here in verse 2, Paul speaks about our minds. We are not to leave them in the form of this world, but we are to be being transformed into the image of Christ daily, putting on the things of Christ and those of the Spirit of God, like the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. It's not just about what we wear, though an air of modesty should even surround our clothing. It's more about our character development. Are we putting on things like love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance? Or are we just living and let live? All through Scripture we learn that conduct only reveals what our character truly is. And our character shows what our true creed expresses. Christ through Paul here teaches us the mind is primary to all our other responses to the Gospel. Yet we're not just being moralistic because it's Christ by His Spirit that brings these things to pass in our life. The Gospel teaches that Christ in us is the hope of glory. But that doesn't do away with our responsibility to be putting on the mind of Christ. Christ is truly coming again. And He will reward His saints before Him. But are we thinking enough about how much we owe to His grace so that we are actively seeking to renew our minds in the things of God. Final question. Are you wearing out your Bible in seeking to renew your mind?