Romans 12:12

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still in 12. We'll get to 13 probably a year from now.
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We're in Romans 12, and I'm thinking we might be again in Romans 12 next week.
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I want to cover the last little bit of 12 a bit more expansively, but we'll get to that next week.
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But as we normally do, let's start in verse 1. Paul 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.
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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.
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For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you, do not think of himself or not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
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For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
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Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
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Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.
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Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
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Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the
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Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation.
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Be consistent in prayer. Whereas before when we were in Romans, before we transitioned to this point,
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Paul would lay out an argument, and that's what we got used to. Here in 12, as I said, when we started verse 1, he's more or less throwing bullet points.
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It's a different style of writing that he is giving to us. We are in this area of application.
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There is wonderful theology to be found in 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16, but it's the application of everything that he has said before.
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So all the stuff that we've talked about over the past year, year and a half, here is where Paul applies it to the
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Christian life, and he isn't saying, go and do these things and you will be
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Christian. He is saying the Christian does these things.
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Their love is genuine. They hate what is evil. They cleave to what is good.
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They love each other with brotherly affection. They outdo one another in showing honor. They aren't slothful in their zeal.
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Rather, they're fervent in their spirit or in the spirit. They serve the
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Lord. They rejoice in their hope. They're patient in tribulation, and they are constant in prayer.
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In the first section here in verse 12, he says rejoice in hope. We are to rejoice, to delight in the hope that we have.
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That hope is real. It is realized, not fully, but it is realizable in this life through the
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Holy Spirit's work in our life. We can see the work that he does by the fruit that we bear.
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The hope that we have is in Christ. It is in the promises of God from Genesis 1 all the way to the other end of the book, the
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Revelation. There is not one of those promises, not one prophecy that he hasn't and will not fulfill.
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Not a single one. I dare any theologian, those certainly that are greater than me, to name one promise that he won't fulfill.
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Now granted, there is a lot of error in human interpretation of these. A lot of error, even in those within the
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Reformed church. I'm sure there is error in some of them, the way that we think it ought to be interpreted.
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We won't know until we're glorified, and that wisdom is given to us.
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But there's not a single thing that God has said he will do that has happened or has supposed to have happened yet that hasn't been done.
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Think about Christ, right? So he makes this promise in Genesis chapter 3 to fix the problem of sin by the seed of the woman.
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And you read all through the Old Testament about the Messiah and the hope that Abraham has in God that God will fix this problem, right?
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And his faith is attributed to him as righteousness, right? And then in the
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Gospels, we have Christ in the first century. Every single prophecy and promise that was made about Christ, he fulfilled all of them.
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And this is easily understood as a thing that a human could not do.
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A normal person with false prophecies, you might be able to get one, maybe two of them, not more than 300.
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God does exactly what he says he's going to do, and he has promised his people that they are justified, that they have been made right with him, that he has forgotten their sin.
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Don't ask me to get into that or explain that, how an infinite God forgets sin or forgets anything for that matter, but that's exactly what he says he does with our sin.
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But he has promised our sanctification and our glorification as well. Just to touch on it real quick, our confession in chapter 13, it says this of sanctification, there are only three parts, so bear with me.
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Say, they who are united to Christ, effectually called, and regenerated, have 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.
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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 more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of all true holiness, without which no man shall see the
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Lord. See, it's not a promise that God made that we could do it.
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I promise you can. I'm not going to give you anything you can't handle. I promise that you can sanctify yourself.
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No, he says you can't, so I'm going to do it. Effectual calling.
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He does it of his own will. He made the promise. He does the work.
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He brings it to fruition. Irresistible grace. This sanctification is throughout the whole man, yet imperfect in this life.
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There abides still some remnants of corruption in every part. Wherefrom arises a continual and irreconcilable war.
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The flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. We haven't gotten there yet, but that part where Paul is talking about,
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I do the things that I don't want to do, and I don't do the things that I want to do, that's the war. That is the war that we all experience.
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When the Holy Spirit makes us realize our sin, we don't want to do it anymore, and yet we still do it, but gradually throughout our
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Christian life. We sin less and less, and grow in holiness more and more.
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In which war, although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail, yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctification of the
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Spirit of Christ and the regenerate part does overcome. And so the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, pressing after a heavenly life, in evangelical obedience to all the commands which
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Christ as head and king in His Word has prescribed to them.
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When Christ says, if you love me, you will follow my commandments. He doesn't mean do that, and that shows your love.
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He means those who are called to me, my sheep, my people,
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I love them, and I will make them do it, and that shows their love.
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We have nothing to prove, nothing. Our whole salvation is worked out by God.
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We are not justified of ourselves, rather it is a gift of God.
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There are enough verses in that song that you ought to remember it by now. We have no effect in our own salvation aside from the fruit that we bear, neither in the beginning or at the end of it.
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He calls us, He justifies us, He sanctifies us, and as Paul says in Romans 8,
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He will glorify us by His will and His power.
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It's been a while since we were in 8, so I'm just going to read verse 30 again. It says, and those whom
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He predestined, He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified, and those who
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He justified, He also glorified. That is a synopsis of the ordo salutis, but it is the
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Word of God again saying, He begun a work, He will finish a work, and at the end of Romans 8, if you can remember,
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I know it's like I said, it's been a while. Paul proclaims that there is nothing in heaven and earth that will keep him from doing it.
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Nothing. You can't sin enough. There is no creature, no created being, no thing in the entire universe that will keep you from Him.
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He is God. He says, be patient in tribulation.
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A lot of people have this idea that the means the tribulation. That is not true.
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Tribulation means hardship. Job went through tribulation.
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David went through tribulation. The apostles, the early church, every saint ever has been through tribulation.
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When we face hardship or persecution, either one or any other form of of, you know,
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I didn't know another word for it, but any other form of hard time in our life, because of the hope that we have, that we've just spoke of, we have the ability to be patient in it because we know that we serve a holy, infinite, powerful
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God that is sovereign over absolutely everything. That we are indwelt by His Spirit, by the
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Holy Spirit. That all things are worked for our good and for His glory.
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Whether it is to sanctify us further, it usually is.
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It pretty well always is. Even when the end of that tribulation ultimately sends us home.
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When the world wants to perpetrate an evil against us because they can't get to our King, we can truly rejoice in that tribulation.
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Be patient in it. It is the will of God. Paul says in his last letter in 2nd
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Timothy chapter 4 verses 6 and 8, he says, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
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I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. Sorry.
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I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
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Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day.
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And not only to me, but also to all who have loved
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His appearance. All the saints. This should be our attitude every minute of every day.
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Paul is sitting in Rome in jail for the second time.
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The part where he met with Nero, where he claimed his right as a
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Roman citizen to appear before the Emperor to hear his case.
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That was the first time he was in Rome. This is the second time where they'd had enough of Paul and his fervency for the
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Lord. And Paul knows that this time, this is it.
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He is going to be executed and he knows that it is glorifying to God and his attitude toward it is, send me home.
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Sorry. Oh, but that we could put the groaning of our flesh to sleep and that this be our constant attitude toward the tribulation and toward the blessing that He gives us.
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That even our death as saints is ultimately a blessing toward our glorification.
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We literally have nothing at all in the world to fear, but that the church could realize the confidence of Paul or even just the confidence of Job.
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Job has everything, everything taken from him. But Job has something that other people don't.
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Job has the Spirit of God. What is
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Job's response? He falls to his knees. Well, first he sackcloth ashes that whole thing.
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He falls to his knees and he said, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the
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Lord. And I sit up here in this reaction because I know that I don't have that.
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I am not far enough along in my sanctification to not groan when He gives me tribulation, when
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He sanctifies me. My flesh still groans.
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Why do I have to deal with these things? Why is this happening to me?
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That is still my knee -jerk reaction. I suspect that that is still most
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Christians knee -jerk reaction to everything that they face that is inconvenient.
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Not even an actual tribulation or a trial, just an inconvenient. Wow, sorry.
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That leads me into the last part. To be consistent or to be constant in prayer, rather.
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One of the things that we should always be persistent in is our prayer.
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Always. Not only when we are facing tribulation, but when we see blessing.
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Doing our best to stay in constant communication. I'm sorry. Doing our best to stay in constant communication with our
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Father. In Ephesians 6 verse 18 it says, pray in the
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Spirit at all times with every kind of prayer and petition.
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To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.
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Pray constantly. That doesn't mean lock yourself away in a convent or in a monastery and completely devote your life to kneeling on your knees or crawling on your belly, constantly praying and only talking to God because you took a vow of silence.
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That is not what that means. What that means is persist in a constant dialogue with your
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Heavenly Father. Whether it is a need or whether it is a praise, it does not matter what it is.
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There's nothing too great and nothing too small that He does not want you to bring to Him.
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We should always endeavor to draw closer to God through His Word and through prayer, growing in the need for them.
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I've talked to several people about making sure that you're setting aside time, and I think
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I've talked about it up here, setting aside time every day to be in the Word and pray.
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Not for study, but just to be with God, just to be with Him.
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I mean, you're with Him all the time. You're in with the Holy Spirit, but to be in conversation with Him.
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Perhaps on this vein, there is some of us, certainly there are some
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Christians who have a tendency to pray only when they have blessing, to pray prayers of praise, and when
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God sends them tribulation, when He sets them in a place to grow them in sanctification, to give them hardship, to make them better, they don't pray.
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Their attitude is one of, He gave me this to do. I'm going to do it.
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I'm not asking for help, which is culturally noble.
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It is not the way of the Christian. Pray at all times.
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This should never be the case. Though we may have doubts at times, though we may struggle with our assurance at times, it doesn't matter what it is, what deep hole we have been put in, we should run to God in prayer for absolutely everything.
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Why wouldn't we? Why would that not be your attitude? You can't even save yourself.
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Why would your attitude towards anything else be different? We rely on God for this greater thing.
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Why not for the lesser thing? There are also those who forget or perhaps don't just for whatever reason pray in times of blessing.
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They only pray in hardship. Lord, please bring me out of this this tribulation that you have me in.
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Sometimes there's people who make deals. That's not a thing that the Holy Spirit does. Just go ahead and get that off the table.
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If you bring me through this, I promise I'll do it blah blah blah. Nope. Because you can't keep the promise.
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You can't. But there's people who only pray in tribulation and then when they come out of it, they totally forget who brought them through it.
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The whole point to blessing or tribulation is to continually sanctify us and also show us that we can not.
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He can. He does. I hate the phrase and I didn't put this in here.
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I didn't put it in here for a reason, but oh well. I absolutely and utterly detest when
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I hear people who claim to be Christian or Christians, people that I know to be Christian, say
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God doesn't give you anything you can't handle. It is absolute and utter nonsense.
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He gives you things you can't handle all the time. Otherwise, how would you grow? How would you grow in sanctification if he just gave you easy things all the time?
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You wouldn't. Those things are necessary no matter what it is.
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If it is hard, it is good for you. If it is a blessing, it is good for you.
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All things for our good and his glory. And I want you to realize this also.
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Our prayer, and we'll talk about this more next week, but our prayer life. Though I have a hard time using that phrase because it's overused persistently.
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That time that you spend in prayer with the Lord. There is not a thing that you pray for that he does because you prayed for him to do it.
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Because you affected him in some way to do it. Throughout our sanctification,
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I don't know if you've ever thought about this or noticed this, your prayers started out this way.
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And if you have grown in sanctification, your prayers are different. Because over our life of sanctification, our prayers become more and more and more in line with the will of God.
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With what he has already decided is going to happen. God doesn't change, right?
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He doesn't change his mind. There is no way that you can pray enough to change it.
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What he has already decided from eternity is going to happen. The process of sanctification in our prayer life is to bring us in line with that.
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How many people started out their Christian life and the prayer that they prayed the most was thy will be done?
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I would assume not many. Surely in the first century there was.
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Once given the Holy Spirit, that massive change and then more and more over their life.
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But I certainly know it wasn't mine. It was a process to get to that point.
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To put my ego and pride to rest enough, to mortify it enough that my opinion didn't matter anymore.
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That what I wanted, I cared less about enough to say thy will be done.
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Most people, most people, and I say this for a reason, that use the moniker of child of God or call themselves
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Christian. Most of the time what unsaved individuals do when they pray, even in big churches, is they act in such a way as if God is a dune.
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Eugenie, I want this. I want that.
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Give me this. Give me that. Do this. Jump. That's their perception of God in prayer.
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Their God, the one that they worship, is not the God of the Bible and is a very small and puny
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God. If you have to tell God what to do, how is he
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God? Also, we don't have magic powers.
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If you have this idea that your prayer in any way affects the mind of God, that it changes his will, now there is power in prayer.
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Not magic power, not magic power, but the idea of saints coming together and praying together for a singular purpose.
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Elders coming together and anointing a saint with oil and praying for them, that is a good thing.
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Us coming together and praying in corporate prayer is a good thing, so long as we understand that what we want out of that particular situation very well might not be the will of God.
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We may pray for another saint to be healed while they lay in the hospital and it is God's will to call them home.
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The problem with the idea that I ascribed before and that kind of teaching is that the minute that that prayer is not met, they lose confidence in their
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God because he didn't do what they wanted him to do, and if a true saint, to put that on someone who is truly saved, to put that on anybody, is criminal.
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To paint God in such a fashion that a person would pray to him and have this idea that they didn't pray hard enough, that they didn't say the right words, to give them this idea that God doesn't care enough,
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I promise you the people who teach that will not make it if that is the the idea that they die with.
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We should remember back to the beginning of the verse, our hope, that it does not lie in some tiny puny wooden idol or some view of God that is not biblical, but rather in the
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God that created the universe and works all things as we reviewed in eight and in nine.
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He is sovereign over absolutely every aspect of everything. There's nothing that is outside of it.
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Our hope is in him, is in the Father and in the Son and in the
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Spirit who dwells within us, that we can have hope and we can have the confidence to serve, that we can be, that we will one day be glorified servants.
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In fact, children, heirs with Christ in that hope.
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There should be no other attitude in tribulation, at least in your spirit, than that of patience, even if the end of it is death.
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You shouldn't be in constant prayer having that hope. We spoke this past weekend when we met, when some of us met for breakfast, about wisdom in Proverbs 8, the very beginning of Proverbs 8.
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Wisdom is personified as a woman and she's crying out in every part of the city to the fool, to the stupid.
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Wisdom is more valuable than silver and gold. I'm going to tie that to for a moment to the wisdom that you have been given in the gospel.
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There is nothing more valuable than that.
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That is the pinnacle of all wisdom. There's a reason that for millennia you have had church fathers and theologians be able to go through the
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Old Testament and through the New Testament and pull the gospel out of every single word.
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It is the absolute finest point of wisdom, the work of Christ for his people.