Evangelical Free Church of Embarass

Today we begin a new series of messages and usually the introduction to a series is not something that could be a reference point in your life, but today could be. Today could be the kind of day that 10 years from now you will look back on, because I believe that God will be asking some of you to do something that you haven’t done before. And it will be a “something” that will affect the rest of your life. So even though it’s an introduction to a series, it’s a crucial introduction this morning. So I’d like us to pray before we get into it.

Our Father, we give You thanks for all that You have done for us. We don’t deserve it and yet by Your love and Your grace You saw fit to provide for our salvation, to call us to Yourself as we responded in faith, to give to us as a gift Your wonderful salvation and all that that means. We thank You. As we enter this new study, I pray, God, that from the very beginning, You would use the words from Your Book to touch our hearts and that Your Spirit would do the work that He needs to do. Father, open our hearts. Help us to hear You today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I am a John Grisham fan. I admit it. I enjoy his books and the movies that are based on his books, so this week I made sure that I got his newest book. I haven’t started reading it yet but what would happen if I decided to start the book ¾ of the way through. I usually don’t do that, but what if I did. In this case, I would start reading at chapter 27, and I would read this:

After a day of rest, there was no way my father would tolerate further absence from the fields. He pulled me out of bed at 5 and we went about our routine chores of gathering eggs and milk. I knew I couldn’t continue to hide in the house with my mother, so I bravely went through the motions of getting ready to pick cotton. I’d have to face Cowboy at some point before he left. It was best to get it over with and to do it with plenty of folks around.

Now, that’s how the 27th chapter begins. That’s ¾ of the way through. If I were to start there, already after 2 paragraphs I have a lot of questions on my mind. I’m not getting it. First of all, who’s talking here? Secondly, why is he trying to hide in the house? Why doesn’t he want to go out? Who’s Cowboy, and what has happened between this guy and someone named Cowboy that calls for him at some point to confront the person and to actually see him face to face? I don’t know any of those things so it’s very hard to start ¾ of the way through the book.

Now having said that, we’re about to start a study ¾ of the way through the book of Romans. For the next 10 weeks, we are going to go through Romans 12 and 13, so you can open up your Bibles again to Romans 12. Because there are 16 chapters in Romans, that means we’re starting ¾ of the way through. Do your math. Which means we’re skipping 11 chapters. So as we start reading the first 2 verses of Romans 12, which we’ll look at today to introduce the study, some could be confused. There could be questions on our mind. What is Paul saying? What does he mean, especially when verse 1 begins with the word “therefore” which obviously is tying in what he’s saying with what came before. So lest you’re confused, I want to do a very quick review of the first 11 chapters of Romans so that we have a little bit of an idea what has come before where we are starting.

If you would turn back to Romans 1, you would find that the apostle Paul is writing this letter. Obviously because of the title, he’s writing to Romans. Specifically if you look at verse 7, he’s says, “To all who are beloved of God in Romans called as saints.” So he is writing this letter to Christians in Rome. Verse 8 he says, “First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.” Paul is writing this letter to Christians who live in the city of Rome whose faith is such that people in other parts of the world are talking about it. As you go on in chapter 1, you find out that Paul has never been to Rome at this point. He would like to, he has tried, but he hasn’t been there, and his desire is to someday get to Rome so just like he does in all the other places, he can preach the gospel in that city. But since he hasn’t been there and he can’t right now, he decides to write about the gospel in this letter to the Roman Christians. So in the first 3 chapters of Romans, and I’m very simplistically outlining this book for you, Paul talks about the sin problem, that all have sinned, whether you’re Jewish or Gentile, all have sinned. As a result of that, you’ve been separated from God, fallen short. The result is that we’re under the judgment, the wrath of God. “The wages of sin is death.” Chapters 4-7 talk about salvation as the solution to that sin problem and Paul presents salvation as that which is obtained through faith, not by the works of the law. And he spends a lot of time proving that and developing that. He says to the Romans, reminds them because they are Christians already, that by God’s love, He sent Jesus Christ while we were yet sinners. And Jesus went to the cross and paid our sin penalty. Through faith in Jesus Christ and His work, not by doing the works of the law, we can be freed from sin’s penalty, freed from sin’s control, saved from the wrath to come. Then in chapters 8-11, Paul talks about security. He begins chapter 8 saying, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ,” those who have experienced this salvation. And he talks about how those who have come to faith in Christ are indwelt by God’s Spirit. They are the children of God and nothing can separate them from the love of God. God is FOR them. So you have the sin problem, the solution of salvation through Jesus Christ, and you have security for those who have trusted Christ for that salvation. He concludes chapter 11, you’ll notice, (verse 33) “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments, unfathomable His ways.” Verse 36, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. I urge you therefore, brethren,…” do something. (He says) here’s how you should respond to all that I’ve reminded you of in the first 11 chapters. The first 11 chapters of Romans are doctrinal. It’s what we believe. It’s what God has done. There are hardly any instructions to the reader in the first 11 chapters. In fact, there are only 3 or 4. They’re in chapter 6, all right together. Otherwise, there are no instructions in the first 11 chapters. In chapter 12 alone there are over 30 instructions. So between 11 and 12, we move from doctrinal teaching to practical instructions. So in this study these weeks, we’re going to look at the practical part. We’re going to look at what Paul says as to how believers, God’s people, should respond to the truth of Romans 1-11. This is what our response should be.

We’re going to quickly go through the first 2 verses. I’m going to put the first 2 verses, verses 1 and 2 of chapter 12 into 2 words. It’s going to be really simple. The 2 words are presentation (that’s verse 1), and transformation (that’s verse 2). The first 2 verses of Romans 12, the response we are to have to the truth of the first 11 chapters in two words – presentation, transformation.

PRESENTATION.

Paul says (verse 1), “I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…” Paul is really serious about this. He says I urge you. I plead with you. The King James Version says, “I beseech you.” I call upon you to do something. It says, “I urge you, therefore, brethren…” Remember, he is talking to the Christians in Rome. He’s not talking to unbelievers and now that he’s presented the gospel he’s going to say I urge you to trust Christ for this salvation I’ve talked to you about. No. He’s writing to the “saints” in Rome, so he’s going to urge them to respond as people who have already believed that gospel, embraced it, trusted Christ for salvation and are enjoying the security he talks about. And he’s saying to those people, “I urge you, by the mercies (plural) of God…” Not just by the mercy of God but the “mercies” of God, His kindnesses, all these great things that I’ve just told you He’s done for you (he says). In view of those things, I urge you, my fellow Christians in Rome, to respond in a certain way. And what’s that response? Presentation. Notice he says, “I urge you… to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God.” That’s the response that the apostle Paul urges from the Roman Christians after they have been reminded of what God has done for them through His salvation.

He puts it in terminology that the original readers would understand better than you and I. The way he puts it is “ Present your bodies – offer up your bodies – as a living sacrifice.” Now, when the original readers, whether they were Gentile or Jewish, heard that, they would understand the word sacrifice and offering up sacrifices, because whether they had come before trusting Christ from a Gentile, pagan religion or from the Jewish religion, sacrifice would have been a familiar part of their practice in those religions. Sacrifice would have been a common way that they expressed themselves to their God. They would have been familiar with the practice of taking usually an animal, usually the best, bringing it to a tabernacle or a temple, such a place as that, to a priest, someone like that, and having that priest kill that animal and put blood, and part of the animal even, onto an altar of some kind and for that person to offer that up as a sacrifice, as their way of expressing themselves to their god, an act of worship, an act of service, an act of dedication. It was common. So as Paul chooses to use those words in urging the Roman Christians in their response for all He’s done for them, they have a good picture of what he’s saying. He says, “I urge you, in view of what God has done for you, brethren, to offer your bodies -- and I think bodies just involves all of you, all that you are, every part of you -- offer you to God as a living sacrifice. They would understand that. The difference here being, he’s not urging them to take something apart from themselves and have it killed and put it onto an altar as an act of service and worship to God, but he’s saying “put yourselves on the altar, very much alive, and offer yourself, all that you are, to God.” Presentation. Because of what God has done for you, present YOU to Him. Why? Notice what he says. “It is your reasonable service of worship.” The Greek word is the one we get “logical” from. Paul is saying, “Do this, not out of some emotion of the moment, but because it is logical, it is reasonable, it is rational. I’ve just told you for ¾ of this letter all that God has done for you, how He’s taken you from your sinful, ungodly life, headed for the wrath of God, and how He loved you enough to send Jesus, Who went to the cross and paid for that sin. This God Who offered you salvation, and when you trusted Him, He forgave you, gave you His Spirit, saved you from wrath, placed His Holy Spirit in you, made you His child, gave you security. Now he says, it makes sense, it is rational, it is a reasonable act of service or worship to now, in return, put yourself on the altar and offer up you. Present yourself to this God. He says it’s reasonable. It is a rational act of service and worship to do that. It makes sense.

A very important thing, as far as I’m concerned, in verse 1 is that the word translated “present” appears in the original Greek as a word that is in the form where it means “once and for all.” So when the apostle Paul says to these people, it is reasonable for you, based on what God has done, that you, once and for all, offer yourself to Him for whatever He wants, whatever He chooses to do, whatever His plan is. Once and for all, you present yourself to Him. He’s not talking about salvation. He’s writing to people who have already experienced that salvation. But he’s saying because of what God has done in saving you, it is reasonable that now, once and for all, you put yourself on the altar and you present yourself to Him.

TRANSFORMATION

Then he says in verse 2, “Don’t be conformed to this world.” Don’t copy the world, and the world here means the age, the system all around you that is opposed to God, whether it’s the values, the lifestyle, the beliefs, the desires, anything that’s part of the system of the world that’s opposed to God. He says, don’t be conformed to that. The word means to copy, to fit into a mold. It’s an external idea. When you conform, you try externally to be something that you’re not. And a lot of us as Christians tend to conform, don’t we, to the world? We try to copy things in this world, even things that we know are in opposition to God, that do not fall in line with God’s principles and His truth. For whatever reason, we Christians are known for trying to conform. Like one of the paraphrases says, we allow the world to squeeze us into its mold and we try to copy things that are true of the world. It’s external because that’s not who we really are, but for some reason we try to copy it. And he says don’t do that. Picture in an airport if they were to take one of those security check things that you walk through and they were to set that thing to go off at any sign of worldliness, rather than metal. I would guess that every one of us as Christians, if we were to walk through that, it would beep, right? I know it would for me. For some Christians that thing would go crazy. You couldn’t stop it because there would be so much conforming to the world. Paul says don’t do that. Don’t be conformed to the world. Don’t try to copy the world. Don’t let it squeeze you into its mold. Instead be transformed. See, the main issue in verse 2 is transformation. Be transformed. Metamorphoō, that’s the Greek word. We get metamorphosis from it. It’s what happens to a caterpillar. Metamorphosis. It means to change in form. There’s a difference between conforming and being transformed. Conforming is just copying on the outside, trying to be something you really aren’t. Transformation means to be changed totally from the inside to something completely different like a caterpillar to a butterfly. And that’s what Paul is teaching in verse 2 to these Christians. Be transformed, not conformed, but be transformed. Be different. Be changed. How? “By the renewing of your mind.” Do you see that? It’s the next phrase. Be transformed because of what’s happening in your mind, the renewing of your mind. Let your mind be changed. Start thinking differently, and obviously in the context, start thinking like God, start thinking as He would have you think. And as your mind is renewed and changed (as a man thinks, so he is), you begin to change and you’re transformed, you’re different. So verse 2 is transformation.

Then verse 3 to the end of chapter 13 has Paul giving examples of what the transformed life is like. He says instead of conforming to the world, be transformed, be changed, be different and this is what that transformed life will look like. You will use the gifts God has given you to serve other people. You will love others and be devoted to them and honor them. You will cling to good not evil. You will be diligent and fervent in serving the Lord. Hope will be a part of your life and you’ll persevere in tribulation and you’ll be a person who’s devoted to prayer. You’ll contribute to the needs of the saints and practice hospitality. That’s the transformed life. You’ll bless those who persecute you. You’ll be sensitive. You’ll weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. That’s the transformed life. You won’t be a get-even person. It’ll even affect how you view the government (first part of chapter 13). And it’ll affect your lifestyle (at the end of chapter 13). You won’t be involved in carousing and drunkenness and sexual promiscuity, strife and jealousy because Jesus will be all wrapped around you. You will have put on Him. Now I’ve just taken you through the whole series. That’s what we’re going to look at in the next 9 weeks. We’re going to look at how Paul describes the transformed life, when a Christian is willing, rather than being conformed to the world, to be transformed. Now, remember transformed is different than conformed. There are a lot of people who conform to Christianity and they’re not even Christians. Conforming is just copying on the outside, and there are unbelievers who do that with Christianity. Paul isn’t saying to Christians here “conform to Christianity.” He’s saying be transformed. Be totally changed from the inside by the renewing of your mind. And we’re going to look then at what he says will be the result of that. Here are different practical ways in which that will show itself. The transformed life. So we’re going to take each of those things I’ve just breezed through and we’re going to look at them and talk about them. And we’re going to keep relating them to verse 2 because they are a part of the transformed life. And that’s God’s will for you and me as Christians, that we would live a transformed life. A different kind of life. His kind of life. That our minds would change. We would think differently and that would lead to a different kind of life. But notice this statement.

Before you can experience this transformation and really live the transformed life we’re going to look at the next 9 weeks, you have to deal with verse 1.

Romans 12:1 comes before Romans 12:2 through 13:14. You can’t have transformation until you’ve made the presentation. And there are many Christians, and I would say some here this morning, who have skipped verse 1. And they are trying so hard in their Christian life to do the transformation part, trying so hard since they became Christians to be different and to think differently and live differently and even practice some of these things we’re going to look at in the next few weeks. And they’re frustrated. They say, “What’s wrong with me. I’ve been a Christian 6 years, 7 years, 12 years. I’ve hardly changed at all. I try but it doesn’t seem to work. It doesn’t seem like much has changed in my life. There hasn’t been much transformation. I’m a Christian but I’m still this old caterpillar crawling around.” And they can’t figure out what’s wrong. My suggestion is you’ve skipped verse 1. You’re trying to do the transformation without the presentation. Because as I said, the presentation that Paul talks about, I believe, is a once and for all thing. Some people might say, “Hey every day I present myself to God as a living sacrifice.” Now that’s good, that’s fine, that sounds great. But that’s not what Paul is saying in verse 1. That’s not the idea of what he’s saying. That’s not the form of the words he chooses. He is urging these Christians to do something that is once and for all. It becomes a reference point. You see, when those people, whether they were Gentiles or Jews, brought that animal to the tabernacle or temple, whatever place of worship it was, they handed it to the priest and the priest put it on the altar. As far as that sacrifice, that animal was concerned it was once and for all. You couldn’t take back that animal. Paul is saying because of all that God has done for you Christians, once and for all put yourself on the altar. Offer yourself up to God for whatever He has in mind for you and say, “God, here I am, all of me. It is the most rational thing I can do because of what you’ve done for me that I give you myself. Transform me. Change me.” And we just take our hands off ourselves and once and for all give it up.

My presentation. I still remember it because when you do this it becomes a reference point in your life. And some of you can remember when you made this presentation to God once and for all. For me it was my first year in college. It was in the chapel. It was after a chapel service. It was on my knees at the front of that chapel with some fellow students. And once and for all, I offered myself to God as a sacrifice and I said, “I’m yours. Whatever you want. Transform me.” Now obviously I haven’t lived the most perfect transformed life since then. But when I don’t, I have a reference point that I keep going back to. I remember where it was, when it was. I once and for all presented myself and I don’t know how many times that has helped me through my Christian life, having that reference point. My presentation.

For some of you it was at a Bible camp. You can remember the night of the week. You can remember who your counselor was maybe that was kneeling with you when you put yourself on the altar once and for all. For some of you, you can remember the church or you can remember the day it was, maybe in the quiet of your home. But you can remember your presentation when you once and for all offered yourself to God in response to what He had done for you and you said, “Here I am. Transform me. I’m yours. Whatever you want.”

So as we begin this study, I just want you to know that we’re going to talk about the transformed life, the details of that, different examples of what that means practically, how the transformed life is lived, how all the rest of chapter 12 and then 13 fit with 12:2. But I also want you to know that you’re going to be a frustrated person if you try to live out what we’re going to talk about without dealing with Romans 12:1. You don’t get to the transformation without first dealing with the presentation. And this is for Christians. That’s who Paul’s talking to. This isn’t evangelistic here. If you don’t know Christ you’ve got to back up to the first 11 chapters of Romans, get back in there and read the gospel and become convinced of your sinfulness and your need for Christ and see what God did by His love through Jesus and offers to you through faith. You need to go back to the first 11 chapters. But the urging of verse 1 of chapter 12 is for us who are believers, who have experienced that salvation and because of all that God has done for us it makes sense that we, in turn, offer ourselves once and for all as a living sacrifice on that altar and say “Here I am. Take me. Transform me.” And it becomes a reference point in your life. And I guarantee you’ll keep going back to it, to that reference point, your presentation. And then that opens the door for God to take you and transform you. He’ll transform you. You won’t transform you. He’ll transform you because you put yourself on the altar and presented yourself for that.

So have you had a presentation? Maybe today can be it. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a Christian, but maybe today can be it, your reference point, the day of presentation for you.

I’m going to invite anyone who believes with all your heart that right now it is the most rational thing you can do to pray a prayer of presentation and put yourself, once and for all, on the altar. Present yourself to God as a living sacrifice. I’m not looking for some emotion of the moment. If emotion accompanies it that’s tremendous but I’m looking for people who will say “I realize that this is the most rational, logical, reasonable thing I can do right now in view of all that God has done for me. I need to offer myself as a sacrifice once and for all and say, ‘Lord transform me. I’m Yours, do whatever you want. From this day forward, I’m yours.’” And if that’s you, I encourage you pray the prayer of presentation with me. How you want to do that is up to you. It works anyway you do it. Maybe you want to just sit there and present yourself. Maybe you need to stand. If so, you do that. Maybe you need to kneel like I did on my day of presentation because you feel that’s important. However you need to do this, make your once and for all presentation to God of yourself.

May God bless you.