Avoiding Worldly Drift: Romans 12:1-2 by Jeff Kliewer

And I think it was, I think it was David, I think David, I think you mentioned this, that, or no, John, I think it was you, that Melt B.

Babbock is the author of this. He died at the turn of, the end of the 1800s, early 1900s, that's around the time he died.

But he would go up to Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, and he would say, I'm going to my father's world.

And what a beautiful song. And we sing it 120 plus years later. Isn't that, isn't that amazing? So I'm going to introduce here again,

Jeff, I introduced him yesterday. But I figured I'd say some different things today. So one year ago at this time,

Jeff and I did not know each other. In June of so about 11 months ago, 2023,

I was following kind of from what was happening within the Evangelical Free Church of America.

And as I was following him, what was going on there, he was one guy that had really taken a stand.

And I noticed that and, and I was really discouraged and disappointed by what I was seeing.

And, and one day I decided to, you know, I'm going to give him a call. You know, why not? So I called his church, didn't even know if he would ever even return the call.

I called, I left a voicemail. And then a day later, I see in my phone, I missed a call. It was

Jeff Cleaver, calling me back. And Jeff and I, we talked and I just wanted to show support to him before he went to the national conference in California at Fullerton, where he was going to be on trial.

And that was the conference where they censored his ordination. I'm going to switch mics here.

One second. Is this better?

Okay. Okay. Yeah. So, so he goes, I called him before Fullerton and I texted him the night of the vote.

I didn't know it wasn't live or anything. So it all happened behind closed doors. And I texted him that night.

I said, how did it go? And he said, it went bad. 93 % of the people voted against me.

And I, where's John Laskin? So he was one of the ones who voted for him.

So we have one of the, one of the 29 men here, one of the 29 brave, brave souls who voted for him.

And, and I, and right around this time, TrueScript started, you know, and I thought, you know what, on this new platform, maybe

I should say something about what happened in Fullerton. So I would only do it though if Jeff gave me permission.

So, so I, I wrote an article defending Pastor Jeff and, and I submitted it.

And before I submitted it, I actually got his approval. He read it. He, he approved it. And I wanted to be as accurate as, as I could be in, in what

I wrote. And so from that point on, we, we really have become good friends.

And I'm not kidding when I say that. I think every single week we have some kind of communication.

We're always, there's some pastors that you really feel a connection with, a camaraderie with certain guys.

I mean, I feel that with these guys, with, with Russell, John, and David, and it's such a gift to have that, that connection with fellow pastors and Christian leaders.

And so, yeah, so Jeff and I certainly have that. And so we only give this pulpit to people who we, who we really trust.

And Jeff is a guy that we, we trust a lot. And so what he's going to do today is he's going to bring the word from Romans 12, 1 and 2.

It's a lot easier to stand in a war when you know you have fellow soldiers that would take a bullet for you or smother a grenade.

And that's the kind of brother we have in Seth. So thank you. Let's pray. Our gracious heavenly father, we pray that as we open your word, you would humble our hearts before you, that we would not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, but rather Lord, that we would be sober in judgment,

Lord, that we would be reminded of the deep things of God, that you would motivate us and encourage us to stand strong in a crooked and depraved world.

And Lord, that we would have discernment to know what is right and what is your will.

Help us God to grow this morning through the preaching and the hearing of your word in Jesus name.

Amen. One of my great memories growing up was when the cousins would come down from Indiana.

And I had cousins that lived in Florida plus these Indiana cousins. So when they would come during the summer, we were all about the same age and we would go to Clearwater Beach.

I'm a Floridian, grew up in Florida. And then I don't know why, but moved the opposite direction that most people do.

I went from Florida up to New Jersey and that's where I live now. But when the cousins would come down, we'd have 10 cousins, we'd go to Clearwater Beach and our favorite thing to do would be to go out in the water.

The surf coming over you, we'd throw footballs, we'd just hang out. It was eight boys and two girls.

And one of the things that always surprised me was that when we would finish playing in the water, we would come out of the water and we couldn't locate where our parents were.

They were like half a mile up the beach. And not because they moved, but because we were slowly drifting in the water.

The current was just slowly moving us along. I see this same phenomenon. We don't have many lakes in New Jersey.

You guys have lakes here. Although I learned from Seth that Wisconsin kind of doctors the evidence of what is a lake.

Minneapolis has a higher standard than Wisconsin or Minnesota does. So maybe you don't actually have more lakes than Minnesota.

Well, we don't have many lakes in New Jersey, but we do have the ocean. We go down to the shore and now as the dad, my kids run out into the water and I always start them at the far edge of where they're allowed to be based on what's marked off by the lifeguard.

And sure enough, as they play and they ride the waves, they begin to drift. And they're always shocked when they see me waving and calling them in to say, look, you've drifted beyond the border.

And they have to get out and run back up the beach and start again on the right because there is just this steady drift to the left.

A steady leftward drift that they're not even aware is happening to them at the time.

It's a great picture of the world's pressure to move us along as the culture drifts away from biblical standards.

John MacArthur said that the greatest problem that the church is facing is the lack of discernment, discernment, awareness of what's happening, ability to determine what's right and what's wrong.

Discernment is the pressing need of the hour because Christians, even very sincere

Christians, are prone to this worldly drift, to be more influenced by the world than what we realize.

Turn with me, if you will, to Romans chapter 12. And let's read verses one and two and then situate this passage within the larger book and break down the text here into three parts.

The first will be about the motivation to live for Christ and to stand strong in a crooked and depraved culture.

The first part of verse two is about not being conformed, not drifting with the culture.

And then the second part of verse two is about our discernment and being trained in how we think.

It says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

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.

The book of Romans divides at this point between the first 11 chapters, which are largely doctrinal, a teaching of what we are to believe about justification, sanctification and Israel and election.

And then from chapters 12 to 16, we have the very practical section of the book.

So there's a transition that happens here as we move into Romans chapter 12. It becomes practical exhortation.

And really all that unfolds from 12 .1 through the end of 16 is imperatives for Christian living.

And they can be summarized in these first two verses. The first two verses are applying to practical life everything that we've learned prior to chapter 12.

And this phrase in verse two, the will of God, then becomes the central issue.

What is God's will? As we are to discern what is right and acceptable and good, this is not something for us to invent on our own.

It's not a matter of mere opinion that each of us should come to our own private truth, but rather that there is a will of God that determines what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So the imperatives that follow after verse two, the commands, unfold from the will of God.

Therefore, we need to ask the question, how does Paul use this phrase, the will of God?

Before we unpack the three major points, let's take a moment to talk about that word philema in the

Greek. Will, desire, philema. The first use in Romans is in chapter one, verse 10.

Turn with me there. I didn't have my little stringy thing marking it,

David, so I'm not cheating here. I'm turning with you. In Romans 1 10,

Paul says, always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will, the word there is philema, will, desire.

I may now at last succeed in coming to you. Paul is not here looking to obey a command, but the will of God refers to God's secret will within God's plan, within his decree, a door will open for him or it won't.

It's not up to Paul to obey what he's saying here is that he has this desire to come and see the

Romans, but it's somehow by God's will. This would be what theologians called the decretive will of God, God's decree, his secret plan for what is to unfold.

If you turn a page in the Bible to chapter two, verse 18, here we have what is called the revealed will of God.

It is prescriptive. It's what God desires for us to obediently do what he's given us to do in chapter two, verse 18, it says, and know his will and approve what is excellent because you are instructed from the law.

The law gives us knowledge of right and wrong and teaches us that we shouldn't do this and we should do that.

It teaches us what is acceptable. And we know that there are ceremonial and civil laws that somehow are changed in the death of Christ.

There are no longer sacrifices of animals because Christ has fulfilled that as the one and only final sacrifice for our sins.

And yet there's that general equity from the law, which instructs us, teaching us to do

God's will. So the same word is used, but here you have what is called the veiled will of God, the prescriptive will of God.

In chapter eight, verse 27, we learn that the

Holy Spirit knows the secret will of God. Chapter eight, verse 27, and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

The word philema has been repeated now already three times. Philema referring to this time the secret will of God.

Now, lastly, let's look at chapter nine, verse 16, to understand from verse 16 that we also have a will, a philema, the same word is used.

So then referring to election salvation, it says it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy for the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose,

I have raised you up that I might show you my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth, verse 18.

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills philema and he hardens whomever he wills.

So in verse 16, we're told it does not depend on our willfulness, but in verse 18, we learn it does depend upon God's will.

Again, this is his secret will, his decree in election. This is an amazing teaching, a deep teaching.

And in verse 19, Paul strengthens this idea with a different word. It is bullae, but it means purpose, will, desire, verse 19.

You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?

Paul in Ephesians chapter one, verse 11, will use both philema and bullae according to the purpose of his will in order to strengthen this idea.

And here's the big idea that God has a secret will. His plan will pass in Ephesians one 11.

That includes everything that happens is according to his will. But sometimes that word philema refers to what we are commanded to do, and we must discover what that is, his revealed will, his prescriptive will.

So there are two wills or two different ways that the word philema is used when referring to the will of God.

This is not idiosyncratic to Paul, but is also how Peter uses the word philema.

We won't look verse by verse at Peter, but there are four uses of philema in Peter.

Maybe you want to make a note of it. First Peter 2 .15, First Peter 3 .17,

First Peter 4 .2, and First Peter 4 .19. And interestingly, the way

Peter uses that word is alternating between the secret will of God and the revealed will of God.

In chapter two, verse 15, we are to do God's will. He's revealed how we are to respond to the government and be submissive.

And in what context we are to do that. And this is a revealed will of God. In chapter three, verse 17,

Peter teaches us about the secret will of God that sometimes it's God's plan for us to suffer.

Now, clearly we're not commanded to go out and suffer, but rather if it be

God's will, we must endure suffering. He uses it that same way again in 4 .19.

And in 4 .2, you have the revealed will. So I think the point is clear. The will of God can refer to God's secret decree, anything that happens under the sun, or it can refer to what we are prescribed to do, what he has revealed in his word, that he has made known to us.

So now back to Romans 12. Which do we find in chapter 12, verse 2?

We're told that by testing we may discern what is the will of God. This is clearly the revealed will of God.

What has been prescribed for us to do. And really this passage can't be understood without that phrase.

Because discernment is all about knowing God's will. Now every

Christian in America assumes that they know God's will.

But very often to think they are doing right because it feels right to their own heart, will assume they're doing

God's will. Without having tested to see if they're actually being conformed by their own desires or if they've learned and discerned from God.

So the will of God is central. Now look at verse 1 and the first major point, that was all introduction by the way.

No, we've covered a large amount of the territory already, but it needed to be laid down as a foundation before we could get to what

Paul is saying in verse 1. Because he's actually appealing to something that is in you. Namely a real creaturely will.

Your will is not free. You don't have free will. But you do have real creaturely will that in Christ, if by the mercy of God you've been regenerated, you are able to exercise.

So let's look at verse 1. It says, I appeal to you therefore brothers. Hear that language.

Appeal. I appeal. What is he trying to influence?

Your will. And it's not just an appeal out into the ether, but it's to you.

Paul is saying you. Brothers, to whom does he speak?

Is this to the world or to the Christian? To the Christian. The brothers who have a will are to present.

That word present is something that you must do. And so Paul here is understanding that by his theology.

Romans chapters 1 through 3, 21 is about the sinfulness, the fallenness of man.

Right. And we just see that people are not just good, but are in fact enslaved to sin and their throats are an open tomb and the poison is on the tongue.

Paul has described man as enslaved to sin, but God justifies by faith and then gives the spirit so that now we walk in the spirit.

Romans chapter 8. We no longer present our bodies. So what the picture is in the doctrine section of Romans 1 through 11 is the picture of regeneration and being made new so that in Christ and by the spirit you are able to exercise your will to do

God's will. Now, why would you do it? What motivation do you have to put to death the works of the flesh?

Well, according to our text in verse 1, it is the mercies of God.

We are to consider the mercies of God by the mercies of God.

We exercise our will to worship.

And what does that worship look like? It's the taking of our body, which here the word isn't so much just about the physical body, but the word body here refers to the whole person.

And it would include the physical body, but it's to take you and all of you and bring yourself to God as a living sacrifice, to give yourself to God to do his will.

This is true worship. But what motivates true worship? And the answer is the mercies of God.

Turn back to that Romans chapter 9 verses 15 to 18 passage. Here is that word mercy used again.

Romans 9, 15 to 18. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom

I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

So then he has mercy. Or Russell would tell you as a

Greek scholar that it's actually in the verbal form there. He mercies whom he wills and he hardens whomever he wills.

So the language of Paul in Romans sees mercy as a term that describes

God graciously changing your heart, giving you the gift of faith, mercying you.

It speaks to the grace of God in salvation. There was nothing that I brought to the table when

I was raised in Florida and my parents, when I was a little boy, began to teach me the scriptures.

I remember they used the A to Z memory verse method. Any of you guys do that with your kids or any kids here?

You know, you learn that A, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. B, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

And you go right through A to Z, 26 verses memorized. I did that because they were giving me rewards.

I remember I would run around the living room and my brothers and I, we would jump over the couch and quote the verse and then run throughout the house.

And that's how we would move about the house while we learn the scriptures. But I couldn't control the place of my birth.

I couldn't control who it was that was rearing me and training a child in the way he should go.

And so when I look at the fact that I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was crucified, buried and rose from the dead, all

I can say is thank you God for your mercy. There was nothing in me that made me come.

The outward call of the gospel came to me through my parents, teaching me the gospel.

And the inward call was not even something of my own doing. It was that the Holy Spirit of the living

God changed this dead heart of stone into a living, beating, feeling heart that believed.

He gave me ears to hear and eyes to see. And so why would you be motivated to stand when everybody around you, if you live in Minneapolis or I live in a very blue state,

New Jersey, why would I? What am I motivated? What am

I motivated by? Well, it is this thought. Turn with me lastly to Romans 11 to finish this verse.

He uses this phrase one more time. In Romans 11, 30 to 32, he's been talking about Israel and how

Israel has been hardened for a time. But later, God will have mercy on them and one day

Israel will be saved. Verse 26. But here in verses 30 to 32, he says, for just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have been disobedient in order.

The mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy.

God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have.

There's our word mercy on. So what Romans 12, one picks up on is this train of thought.

But I want you to see what's in between that glorious thought that it's

God who has mercy, whether on Jew or Gentile, because there's always a remnant of Jews who do believe the gospel.

And most of us, one of our brothers here is a Jew, but the rest are Gentile most likely.

Whether Jew or Gentile, it was because of mercy that you came. And I want you to see what

Paul does in verses 33 to 36, because he just explodes with gratitude.

He moves into a doxology before it's even the end of the book. He says, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.

You see what's happening in Paul's mind as he thinks about justification by faith.

Romans one to three and sanctification six to nine and this doctrine of election nine to eleven.

It's not that he's thinking himself wise in his own eyes, like he's really figured out how, how do we have a compatible creaturely will with the sovereign will of God.

He's not debating online. What he's doing is he's glorying in the

God who saved him. And he even recognizes that some of these things are beyond his understanding.

Comes to a point he can't reconcile all these things. Spurgeon said it's like two train tracks that when we look at it, human responsibility, divine sovereignty, how could these train tracks ever meet?

They just seem to run parallel and they can't come together. They're opposed. But he says somewhere in eternity, those two tracks merge.

God knows. And this is what Paul does. He says, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.

He's marveling. He's delighting in the deep things of God. His mind is on the things of God.

And so as he delights in that, he says in verse thirty four, for who has known the mind of the

Lord or who has been has been his counselor or who has been given a gift to him that he might be repaid.

And here's that doxology for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever.

Amen. Do you hear the heart of Paul come through in those words? Why is

Paul willing to be beaten five times, receiving the 40 lashes minus one stoned and left for death, shipwrecked, suffering, imprisoned and writing letters of joy?

The book of Philippians, where does this passion and zeal come from? The mercies of God.

The doctrines of the book of Romans that he's just written for us in chapters one to eleven, you can't live for God unless you've heard his will and been touched by his grace, that you've experienced the new birth.

But brothers and sisters, if you can be addressed this way, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, if you're a brother, if you believe in Jesus, you have every motivation to stand.

The Savior came and died on a cross, allowed himself to be lifted up and mocked.

Come down from the cross, the mocker said. Save yourself if you're the

Savior. Spit upon the spear of the soldier, lifted up with vinegar.

The mocking and the pain of crucifixion, but not just physical pain. My God, my

God, why have you forsaken me? Our Savior did this by mercy for us.

What a Savior. The motivation is in everything that Paul has already written.

He sums it up in this term by the mercies of God. This is what he was referring to, that your salvation is all of God.

You have the motivation. The second point, and there's only three. The second is shorter.

It's just the first part of verse two. Do not be conformed to this world.

So if there is a strong motivating force for every sincere Christian, you want to do right.

You want to reject the passions of the flesh, reject the world and stand.

We all do. We're sincere in that. There is, however, a countervailing force.

And the problem is it's often imperceptible. My kids, when they're in the ocean, they don't even realize that they've drifted a hundred yards with the current.

And in the same way, very often living in such a wicked culture, we don't realize how it's affecting our minds, the things that we see on television, the things we hear, the friends that we keep, the influences pushing us along.

And so Paul says, do not be conformed to this world. The word in the

Greek there is we'd have to call on Dr.

Russell for that, but I'll break it down into the parts. The first prefix sin means to be not like S -I -N, but S -Y -N.

You would get that in the word syncretism, to be united with.

The word begins with this idea of being joined to or united with like in sync, which is,

Seth, that's your favorite boy band, right? In sync? Yeah. No, I don't think so. The idea of being united in sync, that's the prefix.

And then schismatic is like a schismatic. Have you ever seen like someone draw an outward design of something, make a mold, not the thing itself, but a schismatic of it.

Maybe I'm using the words wrong. I'm sure Russell is like just rolling his eyes over there right now, but I'm using what the commentators give me here.

Having outward shape, that's the idea. So properly what's happening here is that you are not to let yourself be pressed into a mold.

That outward shape that the world would have you become, you're not to be united with it, not to press you into its mold.

What's the spirit of this age? Well, that's been evolving over the years.

John has helped us understand that it didn't just start with the woke incursion. It's something that's maybe more baked in, that's been in the water longer than that, liberalism.

But certainly we could say that diversity, equity, inclusion is all around us all the time, right?

Everything has to be equal. I was shocked when I just recently read, for the first time

I read Abraham Kuyper. I'm no expert and my jury's still out on whether this guy's good, bad, ugly,

I'm not. But I was amazed that when he came to Princeton in 1898, he gave the

Princeton Stone Lectures. And listen to this quote from 1898,

Abraham Kuyper. Finally, modernism, which denies and abolishes every difference, cannot rest until it has made woman man and man woman.

And putting every distinction on a common level kills life by placing it under the ban of uniformity.

Blew my mind to think that Abraham Kuyper at Princeton University in 1898 said this modernism is trying to make women become men and men became become women by placing everything under the ban of uniformity, meaning everything has to be equal.

No distinctions, no hierarchies, no patriarchy. Even back then, he saw that this was the direction of modernism.

So it's the water we swim in, and I have seen denominational leaders stand strong and say,

I am opposed to critical race theory. I am opposed to female pastors.

I am opposed to the LGBTQI plus agenda.

And they seem so stalwart in the faith. One of these leaders who made that very claim and was called upon to speak out against these things was then asked by the question and answer.

Well, give me an example here. I have a daughter who's going to college, and I want to give her a book so she can resist critical race theory.

And he said, can you give me the name of an author who has written to resist critical race theory?

And he thought for a second, and this leader, who's against critical race theory, said my first recommendation would be

Rebecca McLaughlin. Well, who's Rebecca McLaughlin? I had never heard of her.

But the more I began to investigate, I realized that this is a woman who touts her same -sex attraction as a part of her own identity.

She's a female preacher, and here's what she says about race. On June 1st, 2020, yesterday, our pastor preached on racism.

Remember, this is 2020. It was necessary. As the

U .S. reels from yet another broad daylight murder of a black American by a white

American paid to be an officer of justice, it was for our white pastor to stand up and call our majority white church to corporate repentance, lament, prayer, and action.

That is the language of the left. That is this identitarianism of the church, dividing the church into majority church, minority church.

And it is the language that comes from critical race theory. Now, when this key denominational leader recommended

McLaughlin, he was trying to be helpful. But McLaughlin, a couple years later, would argue for the gospel coalition in the good faith debates that woke church is not a stepping stone to theological compromise.

Think about this for a minute. The very person that we were given to resist woke church, critical race theory, herself argued for it a couple years later.

What I'm trying to say is that this denominational leader was sincere.

He believed the same doctrines that I've been teaching from verse one. He did not realize how far the culture had moved.

And although he was to the right of where the Overton window had drifted, he didn't realize that he himself was part of the problem.

He was advocating what leads in the very same direction. He was not standing like he thought he was.

It's easy for me to get up here and say, you know, wave my finger and point my finger. Look what he did.

He recommended the wrong guy, the wrong lady in this case. But how many ways am

I influenced by the culture around me? Here's the point.

I'm not sure. When I'm watching the Sixers, who are now out of the playoffs or the

Eagles, oh, you're the Wolves guy, yeah. When we're watching and ingesting the culture, how influenced am

I? Just like that denominational leader didn't know that, maybe there's areas that I don't realize that I've been influenced by the culture.

And maybe that you have compromised. And you haven't even known that you were pressed into the mold that you were given.

So that first phrase in verse two, do not be conformed to the world. The idea here is that it's always happening, and that conforming, it's not something you're actively seeking to do.

The world is exerting this pressure on you, and it's subtle. It's kind of in the water in which you swim.

It's moving you. It's a current that you're not even aware is happening. So lastly, what then is the answer to this?

But be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God.

Now here, this will of God, you're not going to learn the secret plan of God, who He's going to save and who

He's going to harden. It's not what's in view here. This is the use of Thelema that refers to His prescriptive will.

It's the revealed will of God. And by revealed, I mean you are able to know it.

Look what the verse says. By testing, you may. It doesn't say you may not, but that you may.

Does it mean that as you test the Word of God, each and every time, you will be right?

There's a funny saying that the millennium is a thousand years of peace that Christians love to argue about.

A thousand years of peace that we love to argue about. I'm not sure that any of us can have certain knowledge of what's going to unfold in eschatology.

We need to hold some things a little bit with an open hand, but still read and still test and come to convictions.

But some things we can't know with the same level of certainty as other things. But the idea here in the text is when this denominational leader was fed the name

Rebecca McLaughlin back in 2020, he probably had never heard of her any more than I had.

And he probably repeated what he read on Gospel Coalition because he trusted

Tim Keller and D .A. Carson. And without even realizing it, he was promoting the very thing he was supposedly guarding against.

The problem was he didn't test what was proposed before him. What made the

Berean more noble than the Thessalonians? That's right.

We just made this interactive. I love it. Acts 1711. They examined the scriptures daily to see, to test if what they were being told is true.

Everything that a preacher or a radio personality or podcaster, everything that you're told, you yourself need to test by the word of God.

And you need to spend time in the scripture on that question. You can't just say, well, you know what? I really like this guy.

And therefore, I'm going to go with it. It sounds like that's my tribe. That's how you get into trouble.

All of us are prone to that. But you need to test to discern what is the will of God.

The Bible is very clear that we can know, but it is things for although I did first Thessalonians 5 .23,

we are able to be sanctified completely. That doesn't mean perfectionism here. It means in all areas of our lives, even in our discernment and our thinking,

God wants to sanctify our minds. Ephesians 1 chapter 1 verse 1 talks about how we are in Christ.

First Corinthians 2 .16, we have the mind of Christ. Ephesians, I can give you these notes later if you want to take some of these scriptures, but Ephesians 5 .17,

we can understand what the will of the Lord is. First Corinthians 2 .15,

the spiritual person judges all things. You get the idea. We live in a culture that says truth is really just relative and each person can come to their own opinion and value everybody's opinions equally.

Whereas the word of God says the truth is what God says and His will can be known.

He will make it known to the one who tests by the word. You can have certainty on certain things.

You can know things and stand upon them. And we will stand on this.

Well, we must develop discernment, thank you, by testing.

So Hebrews 5 .14, that's one scripture to really do take note of and perhaps memorize.

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment.

There's the word for the day, discernment. Trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Discernment is a gift, I think. In First Corinthians 12 .10, it looks like distinguishing between spirits refers to someone who is especially gifted to tell the difference.

Clearly, John Harris has a gift of discernment. But here, discernment is also something that can be practiced and approved upon.

Hebrews 5 .14, and every Christian is called to this discernment.

That's the point, again, back to Romans 12 .2, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, pleasing, and perfect.

So what application can we take, then, from this message? How do we land the plane? Well, you need to love the truth.

Love the truth. Worldly drift will only be avoided by those who really love the truth.

Develop the habit of testing every assertion that you hear before you yourself accept it.

Test from the Bible. And be especially alert to new movements.

If something is a movement, it's going somewhere, and usually it's left. It's a leftward drift.

Watch out for new movements. Test everything by the word of God. Be a good Berean.

The Scotsman William Still said, the whole Christ is in the whole word.

Don't unhitch from the Old Testament. Spend time in the Old Testament. Spend time in the minor prophets.

Spend time reading the law of God and thinking about how would the general equity of this law apply in how we do church, and how we raise our families, and how we involve ourselves in the public square.

Athanasius was a young man when he first met Alexander. Alexander was the bishop of Alexandria when he saw a young Athanasius down playing in a pool with his friends.

And Athanasius dunked his friend under the water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And then he did this again with two or three other of his friends, until to his amazement he looked up and there stood the bishop of Alexandria, watching him do these pretend baptisms.

To his surprise, and I'm not sure this was a great decision on the part of Alexander, but Alexander proclaimed those valid baptisms.

He said, did you believe before you went under the water? And the kid said, well, yes. And he said, okay, then you were baptized by Athanasius.

But you see, Athanasius was only playing baptism. From that time on, he came to work with Alexander, the great bishop of Alexandria.

And he began to study and learn, and as a deacon, he went and stood with him at the council of Nicaea.

He stood and he learned and he grew, and then he spent the rest of his life fighting for the truth that he had learned.

You only fight for a truth that you love. If you've never spent time in the

Word and you don't love what the Word of God says, why would you fight? You would just go along with the drift.

You would just be conformed to what everybody else is doing. It got to the point where Athanasius, the young man, was exiled as many as five times.

Sometimes spending cold nights on the Rhine. Other times he went deep into the desert with the hermits, with Antony, out in the deserts of Egypt.

He was willing to suffer for the truth. He started off playing baptism, but he grew to be a truth warrior.

And ultimately, he was the one that led the fight against Arianism, which that was the struggle in the 300s, the fourth century.

Athanasius was a truth warrior. But how many Christians continue to play baptism, play

Christianity? They never fight because they don't know what's at stake. They haven't loved the truth.

Let us be Christians that do love the truth. There is no such thing as a left -leaning

Christian. Christians as opposed to the left have an absolute standard.

One can lean this way or that like a reed in the wind if there is no definitive word on which way is up.

But a Christian stands under the authority of the Bible. When the Bible teaches that life begins at conception,

Psalm 139, there is no option to lean toward allowing that life to be killed.

When the Bible teaches that sex is for one man and one woman in marriage, Matthew 19, 4 and 5, there is no leaning toward the idea that love is love.

When the Bible teaches that all people descend from Adam and Eve, Acts 17, 26, there is no acceptable lean in the direction of racialized collectivism.

When the Bible teaches private property rights, Exodus 20, 17, there is no innocent leftward lean toward anti -capitalist

Marxist economics. When the Bible teaches that Israel is the apple of God's eye,

Zechariah 2, 8, there is no leaning in favor of redistributing their land.

Leaning this way and that is the bad posture and sad predicament of the rudderless left.

Left -leaning and even right -leaning is the language of non -Christians, how they identify their positions.

They can only locate themselves with reference to where masses of other waffling human beings happen to be for a moment.

Christians have an objective moral standard, so Christians don't lean.

We stand. Let's pray. Father, we say that we stand and we do because we sincerely love the truth and we pray that this morning you would motivate us by the mercies of God to stand for Christ and hold forth the word of life in this crooked and depraved generation.

But we are also aware, God, that there are ways in which we are conformed to the culture around us and often in ways that go against your word.

Lord, this morning make us aware. Teach us to test everything by your word.

Examine our own hearts and look for ways that we have drifted from the truth of your word.

We pray, Lord, in Jesus' name that you would give us greater discernment through the love of the truth.

Help us to be Bereans, that we would know what your revealed will is in each and every aspect of our lives, what is good and acceptable and perfect, that we could discern these things.

Help us, Lord, to train the powers of our discernment by constant practice. We thank you,