All right, Romans chapter 11, verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who can become his counselor or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again? for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and a holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. You cannot give your body or your life or your heart or your mind or your will to God unless you see Romans 11, 33 through 36. You can't read Romans 12 where it says that you're to give yourself as a sacrifice to God. unless you've come to grips with all that is said in verses 33 through 36, where you see the power, the meaning, the purpose, the beauty of the mind of God and the heart of God, then you give yourself to Him. But until you really get to that point, it's very difficult to sacrifice yourself to Him. Certainly it doesn't, often it becomes a duty of this sacrifice. When it's not, if it becomes more than a duty then it's because you know these other verses, okay, where you feel that everything is from Him, everything is to Him, everything is for Him, okay, then you can give yourself to a God that is unfathomable, Okay, and his mind is in absolute total control. Then you sacrifice. Therefore, you sacrifice. Okay, and so that is what you're seeing in this verse. It is very difficult for us to get to that stage until truly that dominates us. If you're walking through a day and those verses 33 through 36 do not dominate you, what you find is that you are running the schedule of your life. It is not sacrifice to God. You are running your schedule. You're running your life. Okay. And occasionally you turn to him and you ask to give yourself to him. Okay. And occasionally you may find yourself calling to him about struggles and things that are a part of your heart. But the truth of the matter, you have not really come to a point of real sacrifice to him. And again, this is what you said. It's your reasonable service. It's what God would say. I bought you. I paid for you. You were bought with a price. You are not your own. And so that's what you see in this passage that's being said. It's an enormous passage. It's quoted over and over and over and over again as to what it is our life is really to look like, Romans chapter 12, one through three. Okay, but you can't read Romans chapter 12, one through three without reading 11, 33 through 36. You cannot understand how to therefore sacrifice yourself. The passage that we're studying in Hebrews is the same concept. It's the very same concept. It has a different view, a different way of putting it to us so that we can see it differently. But it really is, actually, this is very succinct. The other one is more in Hebrew, is much more evolved, okay, as to what we're doing. So if you turn to Hebrews, where we are actually studying. Chapter 12. Now I gave out a sheet, this is our second lesson on this passage, and I gave out a sheet last week that we went through, but we didn't finish the sheet. We really only got to the first part, and there's a second part called the commitment. So those of you who have not gotten the sheet or didn't have to bring it with you, if you would hold up your hand, I'll send some around. Hopefully you'll get back to me. The passage that we're looking at is beginning in verse 18 of chapter 12 of Hebrews, the last passage in chapter 12 going through 29. And then, however, it carries itself into chapter 13 of Hebrews to verse 6. So that is essentially what we're looking at over the next few weeks together. Last week, we looked at verses 18 through 24. That's what we have on the sheet there that you have under number one, the drive of life. Now, Ryrie, who is the guy who edited and put this Bible together that I use, it's called the Ryrie Bible, it's a study Bible. This is how he termed this passage. This is what he said, he put a title on it. And the title is The Drive of Life. And what it's trying to explain to us is exactly what we looked at in Romans chapter 11, 33 through 36. What is the drive of a person's life? Well, the reason that a person makes any kind of move is because he is driven by that particular idea. It causes him to sacrifice to it. It causes him to give his heart to it, his life to it, okay? And that is exactly what Romans 12, one through three says, okay? Because you understand God, because you see him as to what he is, that he is unfathomable, and that his mind and his wisdom is in control of all things. And when you understand the beauty and the meaning of his own heart and the meaning of his own will, then you therefore sacrifice to him. You give yourself to him. And that becomes the drive of your life. You get up in the morning, and what galvanizes you? What drives you? What drives you is your perspective of what this day holds. That's what drives you. Otherwise, it's a random movement of actions. It's really more atheistic. In other words, it's just you get up and you just go through the motions. There is no drive, or centering, or purpose, or meaning. And the only way that you can get that is when you center yourself upon Him. and not trivially, but to where it actually washes over you and causes you to become one with Him and you sacrifice to Him. Now, how many of you, as we've already stated, we've lived a long time here, most of us, and what you have found very, very often in your life is that God calls you into a movement that is not your own, this would not be what you would choose to be the purpose for your life. you have a much different view if you were a teenager. When you talk to a teenager, all they do is map out everything that is good for life. And what they're really wanting is the best that life could give. But in reality, God would say to you, I will give you the best of what life can give, but I'll give it in a way and a path that you do not understand. This path is what will cause you to find what life really is. And you will have to come one with me to be able to get there. So beginning in verse 18, what you have is a phrase that we looked at last week. It's the beginning of this passage. For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched. And then verse 22, for you have come to a mount, okay, that is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem to the myriad of angels, to the great assembly, to the church of the first form that are enrolled in heaven, to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood. It is comparing two mountains that are in the Bible. One is Mount Zion, Excuse me, yeah, Mount Zion and then Mount Sinai, okay, where God came down visibly just to let Israel, his people, see him. But when he did so, it was so terrifying to them, as we studied last week, that they really wanted him to shut up and disappear. They actually told him, don't let him speak anymore. The sound of his voice is so terrifying to us. And he's made a comment, and it was a very strong comment, let nobody come on this mountain because if they come on this mountain, they'll die. And they came forth as a group of people and surrounded that mountain and looked upon what God had. And there was a trumpet that kept getting louder and louder and louder and smoke and earthquake and lightning. And then they hear the verse of God and they basically said, I don't think I can take that. That was the holiness, and that was the law, the perfectness of God that was shown to those people, and they couldn't handle it. Neither can we. If we were there, we would also say the same thing. It would terrify us. But what we have come to is something that's completely different. This is a picture of the God that you and I have come to. It's just like Romans chapter 11, 33 through 36. We have come to a God that has delivered us by the sprinkling of the blood to a place that we do not fear. We have come to a God that we do not fear. We have come to a God that has changed us. so that we can stand before him and be perfect. In our souls, we long for this because he has promised it. I've told you many, many times, one of the things that I think that is one of the biggest drives in my life is to be free of what I am not, what I am in terms of my sins. I long to be free from my imperfection. I long to be free from my failures. I long to be free to love God in a way that I long to love God but can't seem to get there. And this is a promise that I will be. It is a promise that I'll be perfect. It is a promise that God will receive me, not in anger and in smoke and in fire. And that if I come close to him, he will actually kill me because of his holiness. But now I can come close to him. And so over and over and over, the word of God is, you see this, you see this, and you do verse 25. It's just like Romans 11 through 11, chapter 11, 33 through 36, and then you come to 12-1. You say, okay, you ask me to be your son. You ask me to sacrifice my life to you, okay? How can I do that unless I have, and the only way you can do it is get that vision of who God really is. This is the vision. This is the vision out of this chapter. This is where you have come to, as verse 22 says, but you have come to something different than the fire of Mount Sinai. And so that's essentially what you're seeing. And then verse 25 says, see to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking to you. Now that you've seen all that he's given to you, now that you see where your destiny is, now that you see what is available to you, and because of what you have, you have Mount Sinai, and all that God has for you on that mount. And it says, now see to it, just like Romans chapter 12, one, therefore sacrifice, see to it that you give your life to him. Okay. See to it that you listen to what he says. Okay. And submit your heart to it and say, that's the exact same pattern that you found in Romans chapter 11, 33 through 36. And then Romans 12, one same pattern. Okay. This is all that's yours. This is who you are. This is what you give yourself to. And because you see that, you understand that, you easily, it's acceptable to you. It's reasonable to you to turn your life to him like that. And to listen to what he has to say on any given day. Okay? Everybody knows when I, I'll just be really frank here, when I pick up a bedpan for my wife and take it and empty it in the toilet, that is not what I consider the way life ought to go. Okay? And she demands of me to do this and this and this. It's not the way that I would expect life to go. And how does a person get past that sense inside of maybe anger or impatience? Or what am I doing here? Bitterness. Bitterness. How do you get past that and submit to where you're supposed to be? How do you do that? The only way you do it is to see this view. That's the only way you do it. And you see the view that's given to you in Romans 11, 33 through 36. It's the only way. And when you turn and you start going in an opposite direction, which I have many times done, in other words, I'll get angry at my wife. And when I turn, there is something inside of me that immediately tells me this is not the way. I've asked you to go this way and this is not the way. Okay. And I asked God to forgive me. Now, why do I do that? Is because I can see this. Okay. I can see it. I've felt it. I've tasted it. I love it. I long for it. It is my destiny. Okay. And without that, you cannot do verse 25 or Romans 12 one, you cannot do it. Okay. It is the thing that is the foundation of the whole thing without that move. Otherwise it's a law that you fail in all the time. Okay. It's a work that you're trying to accomplish for yourself to be right in God's eyes. And so this is what you see in this verse. Now, this verse goes on to give you even more to grab ahold of, to be able to do what that says. See to it that you do not refuse him and that you listen to what he says. Okay, and Hebrews chapter two and three, it talks about the people of Israel refusing God and they have an evil heart of unbelief because they refuse him. Okay, it then goes on to explain, for if they did not escape those who were warned and they refused him, His voice shook the earth then, but now he is promised saying, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven. This is a reference to the second coming and the final judgment. Okay. And this expression yet once more denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. You and I have got to live on a day-to-day basis for the unshakable. You have to live for the unshakable because that's all that will remain. And there is an attitude inside of us that it says, it is an acceptable service to live for what he has to say and where he wants you to go. Okay? It's an acceptable service to do that. And you should do it with great thankfulness. And then the last word is, because God is a consuming fire. Now, what that really references is 1 Corinthians 3, where all of us are judged as Christians. It's not the white throne judgment, it's the Bema Seat judgment, which we've studied before. And what it's referencing is everything that is not shakable, okay, everything that's shakable, okay, will be burnt up That's what it says here and that's what it says over in 1 Corinthians 3. If your life is not given to him in this kind of way, where it says that you have not refused him and you listen to what he has to say and where he wants you to go on a given day, okay, then essentially he says you're living for the shakable. And when your life comes before me at the end, that will be burnt up. Only the things that are unshakable will not be burnt up. And I am a consuming fire, and I will refine you at the end to where all of that's gone. But why live for something that is shakable, that can be burnt up? So that's the concept that's going. Don't refuse me. Live for all of those things that are unshakable in a given day. Because all the rest of it will be burned up. So listen to what I have to say and don't refuse me. Again, why? Because verses 22 through 24, all that I have given to you, I made perfect to you. So this is not easy. I've watched my dad and mom die. It was not easy for them, no different than most of us. Very, very godly men and women, and it was not easy. And I watched my wife for nine years. So it's not easy, but God chooses. Okay? And that's what we have to understand and live for. They are the unshakable things that we live for on a day-to-day basis. Okay? When I go to help her in these kinds of ways, I happen to sense inside that even though this is really, really kind of gross, it is unshakable in terms of what I just did for my wife. And she says it. She says it. to me. And so that's essentially what you're seeing here in this beautiful, beautiful passage that basically, in my opinion, really unfolds Romans 12, 11, and 12, where everybody camps, not to go camp here for a while, because it's a very more elaborate description of the choices and what it is that God has done. And don't you find yourself trying to figure out what God's purpose is. Certainly. And then finally giving up and saying, OK, God, you're in charge. That's right. Because a lot of times you can't see the purpose. Right. You really cannot. And we're not meant to. Right. And we're not meant to. And in truth, that's perhaps the greatest walk of faith that you and I deal with. because we cannot see it and oftentimes it doesn't seem to have any meaning. And so it's very difficult to hold to and trust to. Yeah. And for me, I don't know if anybody else has done this and this is a shameful thing, but in my experiences I have found myself even questioning if there is a God. And then I've had to stop and say, I know you are. I know, or his love. And it's like I still can battle on those targets when things are really hard. And he takes everything out from under you. It's like everything out from under you. It's like, is there God? And I remember one night saying that, and now five minutes later, it's like, but you are. And if you are, then all these things you said are true. That's right, that's right. I came to a point, because you know most of me about my doubting and all the things that I had, and I came to a real revelation of how to move through this. It's because exactly what you're saying is 90 to 95% of stating doubt is sin. It's a sin. When you say, the circumstance comes up here and you go, how can this be love and where are you? That's a sin. I never saw it as a sin. I thought it was just doubting. But what I really said is, to God, what you told me about yourself is a lie. It's a lie. Because this isn't love. I don't feel it as love, I don't see it as love, and how can this be love? And that's what you were just saying. Everything's yanked out from under me, how could you possibly call this as love? But then we have to have the faith of a child. That's exactly right. Because the Bible says it, it's true. Right. That's very true. When you do that and get rid of it. If you don't get rid of it. It's so freeing. That's exactly right. Until then, you keep struggling. That's right. The only way that you can actually do is say, God, forgive me and help my unbelief. I know you love me, but it doesn't look like it. But I know you love me. But I know you love me. That's right. And I can't understand, because I'm not on mission. You are. That's right. So quit trying and get on with your serving. Right. OK. I think my thing is, why give me such a quirky personality? All right, well, I haven't given you the the the bottom page is looking at the verses that we just went through. OK. Madame part on that page, see to it that you do not refuse him. Do not live for those things that can be shaken. Because we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken because God is in our life, he is forming a kingdom through you. that cannot be shaken. So the very mundane things that you do that are in him are unshakable, and they will stand the fire at the end of burning up all the things that were the dross of our life. And what we want to do is build more and more and more in terms of the kingdom to the very smallest thing that we do, okay? By offering an acceptable service is how we show gratitude. that this is what this verse says. How do you show gratitude to God? How do you thank Him? You basically thank Him by your acceptance of what He has given to you. And you thank Him for it. And that is the way you show gratitude towards Him. And how is this done? Through awe and reverence. Through awe of who he is and reverence of what he is. That is how you are able to move in this direction. And you have to really see verses 22 through 24 to get the awe and the reverence. And so that's what you're seeing. It's a beautifully put together passage in terms of how a person moves. I'm going to give you this second sheet. And we won't get hardly into this because I don't want to get too far into it, but this is what we'll be doing. Then we do 1 through 6 out of verse 13, and actually we may go clearer to verse 19, okay, but at least we're going to do 1 through 6. I actually started on all of this in terms of my own personal walk with God in verse 5. And of course, I always spread it back out and see the context. You can't get to verse 5 unless you go back up to 18. You're not going to have the attitude of verse 5. The word you don't love money and you're content with your life. That's what verse 5 is talking about. You don't have money and you're content with what God has given to you. Well, how do you get there? I mean, you go, well, that's what I want to do. No, you don't want to do that at all. So you have to go all the way back up to verse 18 to see how you get there. And that's what you're seeing here. So we're laying the ground for what it is really I wanted to talk about was verse 5. That's right. What you find in chapter 13 is the beginning of the actions of this service. So it now begins to paint for you what a lot of this service looks like. In other words, it's an acceptable service that you give to God. Well, what does actually that look like in actions? You can say you're this way, but then it has to, it is not just what you say, it's what you are and how it looks when it gets into life itself. Okay, so you can look at God and you be awed by him and you surrender to him and you love him, but in reality, there's no demonstration of any of that unless it can be seen in your life. So that's what you find beginning in chapter 13. Okay, and so that's essentially where we will find our topics in the next few verses, okay, in terms of what's going on. So let me, Joe. Everybody get a sheet. I did off 40, and this doesn't look 40 to you. Does it look like 40 to you? That's what it is. All right. This is, if you notice on the first page that you were just looking at, you have number one, Roman numeral one, the drive of life, and then you have A and B, and then the second one, The second Roman numeral is the commitment. And the commitment has to do with a challenge that God gives to us. Listen to me and don't refuse me. Okay? And give yourself to me. And give yourself to the unshakable things. So that's the challenge. And then this now becomes the actions. This is how it looks. This is the way it's supposed to look in your life to other people. You know, you don't sit down and my students can hear me just like you can hear me talking right here. But that really doesn't happen all that often. I mean, most of you don't get up and say these things to people. What they see is your life and how it works its way out. Then maybe they'll come and ask you, why are you doing this? Or how do you do this? But most often, all they do is see you doing something. So that becomes the evidence. This becomes the real meaning of what it is you sacrificed, what it is you gave to him. Your kids have got to see this. Your husband or wife have got to see it. Your friends have got to see it. Because that's the reality of it. Otherwise, the reality gets cut off because you're not obedient to what he actually asked you to do. So you say all this stuff, or we sit here and look at it, but it has to have a reality. It has to have an obedience. It has to have actions to see. And now these are the actions that basically are stated. So next week we'll begin the actions. I wish sometimes they would ask, how do you do that? Instead of just saying, I don't see how you do that. That's true. That's right. That's exactly right. Yeah, you have to butt in and tell them sometimes.