Romans 12:2

Coram Deo Reformed Baptist Church iconCoram Deo Reformed Baptist Church

0 views

0 comments

00:01
this morning when I got up, I couldn't find it anywhere. So I very quickly remembered what
00:09
I could and wrote through it again and pulled all the references again and kind of did that and then found it a little bit closer to lunchtime and went, oh.
00:20
So I just smooshed them together because there was some things in this one that weren't in this one.
00:25
So this is the original version, not the first draft, but it is a little bit long because there were some things in there the second time that I wanted to include.
00:40
We're in Romans 12. Doing a huge chunk today. Verse 2.
00:49
That may sound like a joke, but I'm actually half jesting in saying that, but so we don't forget the context of what we've done so far.
01:04
Let's start in verse 1. It says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
01:24
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
01:41
So as I said last week, we've come to a point. We're still at the beginning.
01:46
We're only on verse 2 of Paul's application of all of the doctrines that he has given us in 1 through 11.
01:58
In verse 2, verse 1, he gives us the very first part of this.
02:04
Why? Why all of these things? So that we can make ourselves living sacrifices.
02:18
In verse 2, he gives us a first command in Romans as to how this should play out, but it's a command in the negative in the first clause.
02:30
Do not be conformed to this world or this age. There is so much in just these seven words.
02:42
The amount of sermons that have been or could be preached on just these seven words could fill a library,
02:50
I presume, but as the church, as those set apart from the world, we are different and we are supposed to conduct ourselves in a different manner than the world does.
03:07
We're supposed to think differently than the world and we're supposed to speak differently than the world.
03:14
2 Corinthians 5 17 says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
03:22
The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. But what is it to conform?
03:34
What is conformity to the world? Well, the word that is used here,
03:43
I'm not going to presume to pronounce because I won't get it right, but if you're curious about what the word is,
03:52
I can tell you here in a little bit, but it says in Strong's for that word, it says,
04:04
In the Greco -Roman world, and I'll say as in the world today, conformity to social norms and expectations was a common practice as social harmony and order were highly valued.
04:18
The concept of conforming to the image or pattern of something was well understood in a culture that emphasized public behavior and appearances.
04:27
In the New Testament, this term is used to contrast the temporary and external nature of worldly conformity with the transformative and internal work of God in a believer's life.
04:41
So seeing as we are new creations, our initial, before we are justified and before we are made new, the thing that we desire is to not be singled out.
04:57
No one wants to be singled out. Even those who want to be contrary are contrary together, aren't they?
05:08
Remember high school? All the different groups you had, right? How many loners were there?
05:16
How many people were there that didn't fit into a group? Not that many. Everybody wants to be part of a group, a tribe, right?
05:27
But in that same example or in a similar example, we are different, but we're not just socially different.
05:35
We're internally different. We're new. Our thinking is different.
05:41
Our doing is different because we are new creations.
05:50
Now at the same time, we also understand that our sanctification, while we are new in spirit, we are not completely new in body.
06:00
Our thinking, our thoughts, our flesh, that's being renewed. That's the process of sanctification.
06:09
But this is why we have the church, why we have the Word, why we have the Holy Spirit, why we are told to gather with people that are like us, other elect, other saints to further this process.
06:27
Can God sanctify a person apart from the church?
06:34
Yes, He can, but this is not the means by which
06:40
He does it. We're told expressly that we are to be part of the church.
06:50
Many people would say, well I'm part of the church, so how is the church working your discipleship?
07:02
Is it? Are the people that you listen to online discipling you?
07:10
Are you just listening to them? This is why we have local churches.
07:16
We have the universal church, and we have local churches that you become a part of so that you can be discipled, so you can be cared for, so that you surround yourself with people who love you and understand what you're doing.
07:30
People that love you enough to call you out on the things that you're doing, and praise
07:37
God when you do well. But at the same time, as we are supposed to be different, to be called out from among the world, to be an example to them, at the same time we aren't supposed to outright reject it.
08:00
Now that may sound funny to some people, but was the old term, we are supposed to be in the world but not of it, right?
08:16
This doesn't mean that we should be like the Amish are, or even
08:23
Mennonites, not their theology, but their practice, separating themselves from the world.
08:33
We're to be in it. But this is something that is super common today for people to do, to push themselves into an echo chamber, either theologically or socially.
08:51
They push themselves into circles where the only thing that they ever hear are the same things over and over and again.
08:58
They're never challenged with anything. That's a problem. This is a serious problem, because guaranteed if you're not challenged by the church, you will be challenged by the
09:10
Word of God. Your thinking will be changed. It's not up to you if you're elect.
09:21
So the other thing, considering God's providence in all of this, is the people that you submit yourself to in your local church, or the people that you that you listen to that exegete the
09:35
Word properly, or as you go through the Word, all of that providentially is there for your benefit.
09:44
Even if the person who challenges you is wrong, it is for your benefit, because they made you think about it, right?
09:59
How many times in our lives have we held positions that never came into conflict?
10:07
We never questioned until we had to. Every bit of thinking that we had before we were saved, right?
10:27
But another thing that's super common that we see, especially in our own camp, in the Reformed camp, is where people come out of a secular mindset, or they come out of Pentecostalism or another type of church, and swing way too far in the other direction.
10:43
This is part of in cage stage, as we would call it. Everybody has that thing, right?
10:51
That nitpick. But that's very common, commonly what happens.
10:58
Part of the problem with that is when you have people fall into what is called anti -establishmentarianism.
11:10
These are the folks that go, okay, so the people in charge said thusly, and because they're in charge, it must be a lie.
11:24
And that can be the church, it can be the government, it can be whoever, right?
11:30
But because they said it, it's a lie. That's anti -establishment, right?
11:37
Or the attitude of the people who are anti -establishment, anti my thing, or anti the same thing, they said a thing, so it's right.
11:51
Because they said it, it must be right. In both those scenarios, zero discernment needed, right?
12:03
Friends, if I say a thing, it should be questioned against the
12:10
Scriptures. If you say a thing, it should be brought up against the
12:16
Scriptures. Doesn't matter who it is who is saying it. We shouldn't believe someone just because they agree with us, and what we notice especially here recently, is that many people who agree with us have begun very closely to either walk a line that they shouldn't, or step right across it, no holds barred, into things that we had gotten rid of in this country, because they listened to people and took the
12:54
Word for it. We take the
13:04
Word of God above all things. That doesn't mean that everything else is a lie or is foolish.
13:14
It may be brought to by foolish people, but it doesn't mean it's a lie. If it was a lie, then why would we also be told in the
13:22
Scriptures to test everything by the Scriptures? That must mean that some of it must be true, right?
13:33
If it was all flat -out lies, He wouldn't tell us to test it.
13:39
There would be no reason to, right? But the things we are to believe are the things that do not come into conflict with the
13:52
Scriptures, that support the Scriptures, right? Not that we should believe the
13:59
Scriptures because they're supported. We know the Scriptures are true, so if this person came to this conclusion at whatever point in history, and it's congruent and supportive of the
14:09
Scriptures, we know that that's correct. But Paul also gives us a command to us not to allow ourselves to be influenced by, and therefore act in the same way as the reprobate world does.
14:32
Our thinking is different, so our actions are different. John 17, 14 through 17, it says,
14:41
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
14:52
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
15:00
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth.
15:07
Your word is truth, right?
15:13
So some people have this issue of believing that if we're contrary, and this is many different groups, but you can probably think of a couple that are in our camp at the moment.
15:28
Many, many different groups that because we're being persecuted, that is affirmation that what we are doing is correct.
15:37
This isn't correct thinking, this is cult thinking. That's what that is.
15:43
Name a cult, guaranteed that's what they taught. Right off the bat. Mormons do it,
15:50
Jehovah's Witnesses do it, the folks down in Waco did it. FBI is here, we're being persecuted.
16:00
That means we're right. No, it doesn't mean you're right. It just means you're weird enough that the world hates you, right?
16:13
We understand that Mormons are wrong. What's the world's view of Mormonism? If it's not
16:20
Christian, it's not good, right? They either think that they're just another denomination, or they think that they're
16:26
Mormons and we don't like Mormons, but that's not an affirmation that they're correct. So being contrary for contrary's sake is not what
16:36
Paul is talking about. We're actually told to be the opposite of being contrary for contrary's sake.
16:46
We're told to be contrary because of the truth, because of what is true, right?
16:56
And we're not contrary because we know what is true. The truth is just contrary.
17:02
Therefore, we are. But in that, we are to conduct ourselves in a manner that is good and acceptable to God.
17:14
First thing Paul says in chapter 12 is inciting people to violence or to anger when sharing the gospel, good and acceptable worship.
17:31
No. It's sharing the gospel with people with loving kindness and compassion, with our words and then our actions, good and acceptable worship to God.
17:46
Yes. We also have an issue in our churches, not in necessarily just groups, but we have an issue in churches themselves.
18:16
This is why if you really really think hard about it, in the visible church, the rampant amount of pragmatism that we have seen over the past 20 years, really since forever, the church has dealt with pragmatism.
18:36
How do we get people in? How do we get people to spend money? That's always been a problem.
18:45
Bringing in reprobate people just to fill seats, just to fill coffers.
18:56
Most commonly today, we associate this with the Baptist Church or Pseudo -Baptist churches,
19:04
Big Eva churches, mega churches. They bring people in, pray a prayer.
19:14
We're not gonna look at your fruit. You remember, here's the offering plate. And then what happens?
19:22
They bring their unsaved. Those unsaved people bring their unsaved kids. Right? And we understand
19:28
Presbyterian churches do that too. But people, members of the church, bring their unsaved kids into the church.
19:35
But inevitably, those people die. We die. That's a thing that we do as human beings.
19:41
We die, and our children take our place. So those children who grew up in the youth group, in the programs, and all the cool stuff, what do they do?
19:50
That's the only thing that they know. So they turn the church into the youth group. That's what we have now.
19:59
Pick a Baptist Church. Pick one. Go there, and probably 6 out of 10 of them are gonna just be big youth groups.
20:10
At least the second service is. First service might be old people who aren't dead yet.
20:18
Second service, and I say that for a reason because once they are, there's gonna be one service because he's not gonna have to preach two sermons no more, is he?
20:29
Once all of the original members of the church are gone, all that's gonna be left is the pragmatism.
20:35
That's it. It might still be two services, but the sermon is gonna be the same.
20:44
The worship is gonna be the same. We've all been to churches like that. You go to the first service. It's full of all of the older folks.
20:53
Maybe there's some young folks who want a traditional service. Some people go to both. Either way, it's two different churches, but then you have people who want to go for the fun and for the youth group and for the second young people service, right?
21:11
The second young people service is just youth group. That's all it is anyway.
21:17
Sorry, but this is pragmatism. This is what we usually associate with pragmatism.
21:23
The problem with this is this is not the only pragmatic move that the visible church has ever made.
21:32
Methodists and their shift into liberalism, right?
21:42
The Church of England and its shift into liberalism. Any church and its shift into liberalism.
21:49
It's just a different form of pragmatism. That's all. It's a different form of conforming to the world and really that's what pragmatism is in a church.
22:03
We need to sound like the world. We need to talk like the world. We need to act like the world in so much as it gets people in the door.
22:18
It's certainly not doing what Paul is saying here. How many churches do you think?
22:29
Just churches period. Visible churches. Take a guess in your mind. You don't have to answer this question. How many visible churches exist in North Carolina alone?
22:42
Consider the fact that there are like 19 just like within five miles of us, right?
22:49
How many of those are correct in their theology? So first you have to break that down.
22:57
How many of those are actual churches? Part of the invisible church, right? I don't have that number.
23:05
I can't give it to you later if you ask for it, but that's a huge chunk removed right off the bat.
23:13
Then you have to take people that are saved in those churches and include some of the people that are saved in spite of the places that they go until they get fed up with not being able to make any headway with their church and inevitably leave or get kicked out, right?
23:34
So the visible church just in our state is much, much smaller than we see.
23:41
So the natural progression of human beings is pragmaticism. We grow up and are taught, don't be different.
23:53
It's what we're taught. How many times did your parents call you out? How many times did your friends call you out?
23:59
How many times did your friends call you out for just being weird? Why are you doing that? Super weird. Nonconformity is the way of the world, and yet right here
24:13
Paul is saying be nonconformist, not for the sake of nonconformity, but for the sake of the
24:20
Lord. There is a solution to...
24:35
sorry, I skipped ahead. Speaking of when we're evangelizing, we are to make sure that the truth of the gospel is at the absolute forefront of what is perceived.
24:54
Now I'm gonna say it should be at the forefront of our minds.
25:03
It should be at the forefront of the teaching. It should be at the forefront of our actions when we evangelize. It should also be at the forefront of what everyone else sees.
25:15
The last thing that should be on a person's mind is that an evangelistic group or an evangelizing person is protesting something.
25:26
That should be the last thought. The first thought should be, oh they're sharing the gospel, because if it isn't, you've already lost them.
25:37
No one likes to be protested, right? And while it is a form of protest, sharing the gospel in general is protesting the world, you have shut the door to about 90 % of the people who may have talked to you simply because you look contrary in a manner in which they don't like.
26:02
Now if they don't like it because you're sharing the gospel, they don't like it because you're sharing the gospel, but the gospel has pushed them away.
26:11
Their hatred for it, their hatred for God has pushed them away, not their hatred for another thing.
26:19
There is only one solution to every problem that the world has. Guaranteed.
26:28
Take it to the bank. Every problem, every social problem, every problem with justice, every problem with economics, all of it is a symptom of sin.
26:41
And the only cure for sin is that the world needs the gospel.
26:48
That we are sinners separated from a holy God. That for God to be just and loving, for God to be loving,
27:00
He must also be just and therefore punish those who break His law, who offend
27:07
His character. And the punishment for offending an eternal God is eternal because it's not the law that was broken, it's whose law was broken, right?
27:22
Same as if you break a state law, you break a city law, you break a county law, you break a state law, you break a federal law, misdemeanors, felonies, dissenting and sentencing is different depending on whom you've offended, right?
27:37
Same goes for God. You have offended the being that is above all things.
27:44
He is eternal and therefore the punishment is eternal. But we are all sinners deserving of this eternal punishment for offending
27:59
Him. But the God of the universe, before the beginning of the world, by His grace, chose those
28:13
He would save. Not because of anything that they did, but as a display of His mercy and of His grace.
28:23
And He sent His only Son to save them, to pay their penalty, right?
28:36
Christ who suffers and dies for us, for the elect, and as an affirmation of this obedience,
28:46
God raises Him from the dead and He sits at the right hand of God the
28:52
Father. Only by the hearing of the message of the gospel will people be changed, period.
29:02
You can listen to all the self -help you want to listen to. Any change that you see from that is temporary, and it's temporary because it's contrary to your nature.
29:26
Only by the hearing of the Word are people changed and therefore the world is changed.
29:39
We also see where many churches, many people have fallen away from the path that they're supposed to be on because of their own pride, because they're scared of men, because they're greedy.
29:54
This goes along with the pragmatism. We have an issue right now,
30:08
I think, in not just our camp, but in many camps. This has always been a problem where people are more willing to devote their time to something else than they are to the gospel.
30:23
Well, this is a thing that I can latch on to. This is a thing that I can push. This is a thing that I can see results from, so I'm going to push, push, push, push, push this cause.
30:36
The members of the church have crusaded for causes for a super long time, some of them very good, some of them very bad.
30:44
All of it is worked out by the will of God. Causes aren't bad, but when they lead the people who are pushing them away from the gospel, that is a problem.
31:02
It doesn't matter what it is, whether it's a physical one to change maybe the way socially people think about a thing, or whether it's a theological cause.
31:15
It doesn't matter. If it takes away from the gospel, if it pulls people from the gospel, it's terrible.
31:29
But in with what Paul is saying, regardless of pragmatism and the crusading for causes, we don't share the gospel because we want to further our thing.
31:45
We don't share the gospel because we want to make our tribe bigger, because we hate the people who don't believe it.
31:51
We want them to be like us. That's what the world does. The world does those things.
32:01
They want to change people's minds because they don't like how they think. They want to further their group, their own thing.
32:13
We share the gospel because this is how we show love for Him who saved us.
32:20
We share the gospel because it's the truth. We share the gospel because we have compassion for those who haven't heard it yet.
32:30
It is the loving thing to do, and it is in that manner one of the purest forms of worship that we can do in our lives.
32:47
Not the only, but one of the purest.
32:56
Let us not forget that this story is not about us or about our things. It is about Him and His things.
33:09
He is just graceful enough to allow us to play a part. If it is the state of things, calling back to verse 1, that everything that we do in our
33:28
Christian life is worship, is to worship
33:34
God, whether it is cleaning our homes, or working, or singing, or corporate worship, or sharing the gospel, doesn't matter what it is.
33:42
If everything that we do in our daily lives apart from sin is worship, we are to do so to the glory of God.
34:00
We should not introduce the world into our corporate worship, right? We just talked about that pragmatism.
34:05
We're not supposed to bring it into our corporate worship, and we're not supposed to bring it into our daily lives either, should we?
34:18
A quick example of this would be music, right? They have a song that's theologically contrary to Scripture.
34:25
It's a pretty song, and your church says, no, we're not singing that. No, we're not singing that song.
34:32
You say, why? And they say, well, because it's contrary to the truth. All right. Well, I'll just sing it in my car, right?
34:41
And we'll sing it to the glory of God in my car by myself. No. No.
34:50
If a song is a bad song, that should not be used in corporate worship. Now there are differing opinions on this and whatnot, and I take that into account, but if it's a bad song, you shouldn't sing it by yourself either.
35:05
That's a small example. You shouldn't worship God with your greed either, right?
35:16
Aaron had two sons that decided that they would worship God contrary to how God told them.
35:23
That didn't work out too well. If you've ever heard the term strange fire, that's where that comes from.
35:33
They introduced strange fire into the tent, and God burned them up with it.
35:45
Physically. Not metaphorically. Physically. Metaphorically, as we were talking about the other day, right?
35:56
Introducing metaphorical strange fire into your worship, God will burn you up with that also, right?
36:03
Your pursuit of strange worship, exotic, the exotic church, right?
36:10
The false church. It will burn you up. It will cost you your life.
36:20
So if we are not supposed to act like the world or think like the world, what are we supposed to do?
36:26
Paul says, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
36:35
The reason that we are not to act like the world, right? First, we're not supposed to act like the world.
36:43
Inevitably, we don't because our sanctification is not up to us. It is up to God, the
36:50
Holy Spirit, who transforms us into the image of Christ, right? But this is done by the renewal of our minds, and as we begin to be transformed, as our thoughts are renewed, because our thinking is different, our actions become different.
37:13
That follows. We understand differently, therefore we act differently, and because we begin to understand that everything that we do is worship, that has to be fixed, that to present ourselves as a living sacrifice, we must conduct ourselves separate.
37:39
Colossians 3 .10, and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator.
37:55
Our sanctification has to do with thought and deed. We continually slough off the old man. We are putting on the new.
38:03
By the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word, our minds and our actions, and thus our emotions are transformed.
38:11
Our thought patterns, level of discernment, they grow, and it's in this progressive process, all of these things get better and better and better.
38:28
So as we worship God in our lives now, and understand things now, we understand them now way worse than we will understand them in 10 years, and this goes for everyone.
38:47
Our confession says this. Chapter 13, paragraph 1, it says,
38:56
They who are united to Christ, effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, are also further sanctified really and personally through the same virtue by His Word and Spirit dwelling in them.
39:16
The dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts of it are more and more weakened and mortified, and they are more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of all true holiness, without which no man shall see the
39:38
Lord. We just read paragraph 2 earlier. I'm not going to say convenient, because I don't believe in convenience in that aspect, but rather than submit ourselves, we conduct ourselves different because we are different.
40:06
Before, we thought differently about people. Before God saved us, pulled us out of the world, we thought differently about people.
40:21
Everyone is either, like a comic book, an enemy or an ally.
40:29
Just think about it. That's how the culture teaches it, friends and enemies, right?
40:35
You're either a friend, an ally, or you're an enemy, and those who tell you, those who are contrary to the way that you're thinking, are enemies.
40:46
You don't surround yourself with people who are contrary to you. You surrounded yourself with like -minded people.
40:54
Didn't matter how wrong you were, but this is how we thought of things.
41:01
We thought of ourselves as the hero of our own stories, the main character.
41:11
Then, we also lived our lives based on our own moral code.
41:18
We spoke about that just a couple of weeks ago. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes, and how that works out.
41:26
Then the Scripture shows us that everyone, regardless of how they act or treat us, are image bearers, whether they're friends or whether they're enemies.
41:41
They're image bearers. So in that, there is some level of respect that must be given to a human being.
41:54
There is a line in which you can't cross anymore, whether they're hateful towards you or whether they're kind towards you.
42:08
It doesn't matter. They get the same respect because they're image bearers. Now, has the church reflected this well over the centuries?
42:19
No, but this is what the
42:27
Scriptures say. The other thing that we come to understand is that they do what they do, one, because they hate
42:36
God, and two, because they're ignorant of the truth. Is ignorance malice?
42:46
Are they the same thing? You can be both at the same time, and most people are, but as Christians, we're to see the ignorance first.
42:58
We teach ignorant people. We share the gospel with ignorant people. When the malice comes, we deal with that, but we have compassion on them because they don't know.
43:10
They don't know what's coming, but as before, we treated everyone according to how we were treated.
43:34
God changed that for us. He renewed our minds on the subject, and the more time that we spend in the
43:45
Word and in prayer and in worship, the further transformed we become. We begin to fall away from those desires that we had in the world, whether it's country and heavy metal music to a move to hymns and worship music, or whether it's...it
44:04
doesn't matter what it is. Those things that you loved, you now hate. Those things that you hated, you now love.
44:18
I give a warning also to go along with what
44:24
I said before. If by chance you are one of those who's read it, so you got it, you understand,
44:39
I'm good. Yeah, I read the Bible. If you're one of those, or if you do ministry,
44:56
I do ministry. Thank you. I do ministry. I'm good. I got this. Or if you're one of those that knows a lot of big words, there's a difference between people who know theology and people who practice theology.
45:26
Do not become inflamed in your own mind because of your ego, because you know more, because you know more people, because you don't think you've sinned in a while, or because you made it a day, or because you did this, or because you did that.
45:50
You never, never have the thought, I'm sanctified.
45:57
Past tense. That's a lie. Are you dead yet?
46:05
If the answer is no, I am breathing right now, you are being sanctified.
46:13
It doesn't end until your glorification, which doesn't come until you die or Christ returns.
46:25
We agree on that? Just like our salvation is by God and God alone, so is our sanctification.
46:44
Do we play a role in our sanctification? Yeah. We do things that God has set before us, and we do them because of the
46:56
Holy Spirit. Did Paul write Romans? Yes. Yes.
47:05
Did the Holy Spirit write Romans? Yes. The both end, but credit doesn't go to you.
47:14
It goes to God. Yes, you share the fruits, but it is not your labor that bears them.
47:21
It is His. Had He left you alone, the only thing that you could produce is dirt and rotten fruit.
47:34
That's it. Nothing usable. You benefit from it.
47:41
Yes, because God loves you, but even in those benefits, they're for His glory, not yours.
47:50
So check your ego. Paul then says that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
48:05
By this work of sanctification, by this renewing of our minds, by the Word, by the Holy Spirit, we can then begin to test and discern and find out the truth.
48:18
We can discern what is the will of God, what is His will overall, what is
48:24
His will in our life. By the reproof of the Word and the changing of the way that we think about things, one of the things that happens that you may have noticed is that many of the things that you thought and the ways that you thought slough off.
48:47
I talked about this before. How many things did you have in your head before your salvation, and through the process of the renewing of your mind, those things fell away because they weren't congruent with the new way of thinking.
49:11
But thoughts begin to come together. Ideas begin to come together, and this will continue until the day that we die, or as I said before, until Christ's return.
49:25
The reason for this is because we want to know what is good and what is acceptable and what is perfect to God in our worship.
49:38
We want to know that as the elect. The Holy Spirit causes us to want to know that, but the reason we want to know that is because God wants it done.
49:48
Right? Period. Otherwise the
49:53
Holy Spirit wouldn't cause us to be that way. Proverbs 6. We just went over this, some of us.
50:00
For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life.
50:09
We talked about this Saturday that the Word of God is also the Word of Godly.
50:14
Parents is a lamp that you carry with you. It lights your way.
50:21
A good comparison is, especially if you're a fan of fantasy works, is being in a dark dungeon.
50:29
That's the world, by the way, and suddenly you're given a lamp, and by that lamp you can finally see the way out.
50:41
You can see the path and navigate it to do the things that you should do to be able to get out and to see the pitfalls and traps that are in your way.
50:55
If you're wandering through the dark and you fall down a hole because you can't see it, that's one thing, but if you're given a lamp and you go, oh that's a hole, and step into it anyway, that's a problem.
51:15
We do do that as Christians. It's part of chastisement.
51:23
The Lord chastises us very often, but by it we are able to see what is in our way.
51:32
We are better able to discern what is truth, what is untruth, what is false, and as I said, this is a progressive condition, so that lamp gets brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter, and by the way, there are other people in this dungeon with you, and you should never ever hide your light.
51:56
Is that connecting with another part of Scripture there? I hope so. How cruel is it of you to have this light that lights your way, and you hide it from others.
52:13
You keep it to yourself. No, you're supposed to be the person in the front of the group, lighting the way.
52:25
If people step off and want to go do their own thing, fine, but you're supposed to be the person showing the way.
52:34
The church is supposed to be the people showing the way. One of the greatest things about our sanctification in that is that, as I said before, we're not in charge of it.
52:53
Praise God. Glory be to God that we are not in charge of it.
53:00
You would have failed at it the very second it started. Romans 6 verses 19 and 22 through 22.
53:15
It says, I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations, for just as you once were presented, once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, lending to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.
53:35
This wasn't that long ago that we read this. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
53:43
You didn't care about it, but what fruit were you getting at that time from the things which you are now ashamed?
53:57
For the end of those things is death, but now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification, and it's in eternal life.
54:15
I go back to Romans 8 too, where we can talk about all the struggles that you have in your Christian life are there to fix you.
54:23
They're there for your benefit so that you will be better and better of a servant, of a thrice holy
54:37
God that saved you unto Himself while you hated
54:43
Him, while you were His enemy, that you would worship and you would glorify
54:49
Him, and by the renewing of our minds that we might offer day by day a more holy and acceptable sacrifice.
55:07
I will conclude with Matthew 5 verse 14 to 16.
55:19
Christ says, You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and He gives light to all in the house.
55:37
In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your