When you received your bulletin, you should have had some notes in there with the diagrams from last week. And if you weren't with us last week, you'll still be able to follow along. Some things might be a little more challenging as we build upon the foundation. So let's open our Bibles to Colossians chapter three. Let's read the first four verses together. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind or your affections on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is manifested, then you also will be manifested with him in glory. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, Lord, we come to you. We wish to see Christ. We wish to see you in your glory displayed in that perfect image. We wish to grow closer to him, to live for him, to have our affections drawn towards him. And yet we know, Lord, that the desires of the flesh, indwelling sin, Keep us from doing just that so Lord help us also by exposing our sin. Let us know you and through you let us know ourselves. May you aid us. May you aid me by filling us with your spirit. Give us grace. We can't do this in our own strength. And it is sinful even to try. So give us grace that this time might be profitable for each one of us to be conformed to the image of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. So if you look at your diagram here, we went over this last time. If you look at diagram A, you see this is what we are made up of as people. Material and immaterial. And there's different phrases used for each. Body, flesh, senses, our five senses are part of the material, brain, organs, physical abilities, and so on. Immaterial, mind, heart, understanding, affections, the will, the conscience, et cetera. And if you look at the one over to the right, diagram B, you see a crude rendering of how they work. Our understanding, that part of our intellect of our mind, sees things in terms of good and evil. And corresponding to that, the way it ought to work is that the affections follow after the understanding to love the things that are good and to hate the things that are evil. And then from there, all other affections will flow out. So for example, The object of my love, let's say, is my wife, Crystal, and when I'm not with her, the affection that I feel because of the love is desire. When I am with her, the affection that I experience because of the love is delight. When someone tries to stop me from seeing her or being with her, the affection that I experience is hatred, because here is someone or something standing in between me and the object of my love. And if the object of our love is good, then that hatred is also good. But consider for a moment Matthew 18. The object of my love is sin, and a brother or a sister comes to love me and to show me This is sin, you can't have this, and stands in between me and the object of my love. And now I have hatred for one I ought to love, for one that's doing something good. because of the sin within me. When we saw how these things and us being made in the image of God is where these come from, when we looked at Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 and we saw the material versus the immaterial with respect to us being created, that God's will and God's actions are not separate, that he wills actions. There's not anything in between, there's no buffer, but for us there is. We don't just will something and it happens. Then it sends to our body and we have actions. And we don't will every tiny little piece along the way. If I will to pick up this bottle, I just go and pick it up. And even because my mind is registered where it is, I don't even have to look to pick it up. So I'm not calculating the distance between the angles, the amount of strength I need for my fingers to grasp it, That's just happening. And we see the material and the immaterial intersecting. And we saw that in Genesis 3. When Eve was tempted, and she was deceived, and she fell for it. And this is what happens in diagram C. Our understanding and our affections motivate the will. And we saw what she did. was she elevated her affections above what she knew to be true in her understanding, and that motivated her will to sin. She reached out and touched it. And for her, with respect to her conscience, even touching it was a sin, because she said, you shall not touch it. So objectively, it was not a sin. But subjectively for her, because of her conscience, to her it was sin. But we saw she went even further than that. And then diagram D, the will, motivates the actions. Another word that we could use for will is volition. So we see how all these things come together, material and immaterial. Because every time we see something with our physical eyes, and our brain is processing it, our mind is grasping the thoughts and the understandings and making observations and judgments from it. And those thoughts are not material. I reach into my pocket, and I can feel what's in my pocket. And by my memory, which is not material, and by my sense of feeling, I can discern what's in my pocket. And that's a thought in my mind. So we see them working together with one another. However, after the fall, we see these categories get skewed, they get mixed up. Consider Ephesians 2, where we saw that we're doing the desires of the flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the mind. That's important. The unregenerate man does the will of the flesh and the will of the mind. darkened in sin. Doesn't mean that he can't do good things on a horizontal level. Care for someone's needs, bandage a wound, bring food. But none of it is done toward the proper object and the reason we were created, to bring honor and glory to God. And so we see the image of God marred. As it says, you will be like gods. or be like God. And that's exactly what happened. Internally, Eve and then Adam saw themselves as God. And now there's a competition from person to person and from every person with God. Because our God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases. And the unregenerate man says amen and me too. And so everything that we do still follows these diagrams, except the object of our love, our affections, our feelings take over. And we see this, especially today in our day and age, even with the language that's used. We don't even say, what do you think about this? Well, I feel... I don't care how you feel. I didn't ask you how you felt. I wanted to know what you thought about it. Your feelings are largely irrelevant. But this object of our love now is ourselves. And so that which is good and that which is evil is now interpreted through that lens of love to self. As we saw last week, looking through Colossians 3, 1 to 4, That we are to be about the business of keeping, seeking continuously things above where Christ is. To set our mind so as to set our affections. That's the idea behind it. Engaging the intellect to inform and engage the affections. So that we see that which is good and lovely and delightful And it registers to us as good and lovely and desirable. We want it. Christ. We want the things above. We want to be pleasing to Him. And then He says in verse 5, Therefore, literally, put to death the members of your earthly body. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire. Well, that's interesting. Passion and evil desire are immaterial. But we already saw in Ephesians 2 the will of the flesh, and the will is immaterial. It's not made of matter. It's part of the immaterial man. But what I want us to do is to get another angle, another glimpse at this look, and I want us to turn together to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. And we have a lot to cover this afternoon. Romans 12 one, therefore, I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect. How do you do this? How is it that you present your bodies as a sacrifice? So if we were to take the rest of our time, and I was just to go around one by one and say, in the past week, last week, in what ways did you present your body as a sacrifice? What would you say? How have you obeyed my text? Well, let's get a better understanding of what he's saying. And let's also resolve together that if we did not know what it means, we will listen today, and we'll study afterwards so as to do, so that next week, when we dig a little bit deeper, we can say, in these ways, by God's grace, I've presented my body as a sacrifice. Notice what he starts out with. Paul says, therefore I exhort you brothers by the mercies of God. I love how he's affectionately urging the Christians in Rome, and by extension us. But before he even gets to what he wants us to do, he pauses briefly and reminds us of the basis upon which we are to act. The basis of our sacrifice, if you're taking notes. The principle. guiding this conduct of presenting. And what does it say? By the mercies of God. And it's interesting because quite literally, this word isn't mercies, this word is compassion. Now, if you remember from our Sermon on the Mount, and from some subsequent sermons, mercy is compassion in action. Compassion is the affection. And when it acts, it acts in mercy. So it's not wrong to say, by the mercies of God, because God has acted toward us. But Paul's getting at the heart of it, he's getting at the affection. God's affection. toward his people has always been compassion, pity, and it doesn't stay there. It extends out to give. We see that in the life of Christ. When you're reading through the Gospels, you'll see, and he felt compassion, and then he does something. He feeds them, he heals, he teaches. In fact, this word, rendered mercies here is used in Romans 9.15. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. And it echoes the illumination of God's glory revealed to Moses. Do you remember that? Show me your glory. I will make all my goodness pass before you. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. One of the aspects of the glory of God is his absolute sovereignty to do what he wants with that which is his own. We want that same thing. And we're okay if God has it provided He exercises his sovereignty in line with our will. So do you know this compassionate God? The one that has mercy on whomever he will and has compassion on whomever he will. Not on the God that doesn't get to pick and choose who he's going to save according to his own pleasure. Not a God that looks down the corridors of time as if that were possible. and makes his decisions based off the learning and the counsel he receives from the will of a creature. No, friends, that's a different God. He's not real. But the God that we would cry out, please, show me mercy. Please have compassion on me. I have seen some of my sin and I am undone. It is grotesque. And though you have every right to crush me, to cause the ground beneath me to open up and swallow me alive and send me to hell this day, I beg of you, be merciful to me, the sinner. Well, there's one word in this phrase that we didn't tackle yet, and that's the word therefore. Therefore. And this one word is the key that opens the treasure chest of the glorious affections of compassion from God to us in Christ. Each day spent meditating on these glorious truths will yield the life explained in the rest of the passage. Studying the mercies and compassions of God by his grace will fuel us. So come with me and let's get a glimpse, let's open this treasure chest so that we can see this glory and splendor contained therein. And let's do that by turning to the beginning of the book, Romans chapter one. And for the sake of time, let's go to verse 21. And I want us to see the image of God affected. We've seen it in other passages. It's all over the Bible. But let's look at it here in the context of therefore. For even though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks. So intellectually, they know that there's a God. God's revealed himself to everyone. They don't know everything there is to know about God. Nobody does. But they know enough. that they ought to give him glory. They know his eternal power and his divine nature. They've been clearly seen through what's been made, and these are his invisible attributes. So we also get another glimpse. The things that we see and interact with in this earth are meant to teach us something spiritual. His invisible attributes have been clearly seen. Does that make sense? Not to the natural man. They didn't glorify God, they didn't give thanks. What happened? They became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image, and the likeness of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed animals, and crawling creatures. Well, I know that's sin for Israel, but that's not sin for Gentiles, right? They didn't get that command. Oh, it still is, because they know enough. This is one of the things, what did Adam do? After he ate of the fruit, and he heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, he went and hid. You see the diagrams that we have in the notes. Why is he not drawn and pulled by love towards that which is good? Why is he running away, scared and afraid as if some evil will befall him from an all good God? Because he was now futile in his thoughts and his foolish heart was darkened. Because he had worshiped and served. the creature rather than the creator. They professed to be wise, they became fools. 23, exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image and the likeness of all these other animals. Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts, the desires of their hearts to impurity. So he removes restraining grace. You have these desires, you have these affections, you have these lusts. I'm gonna let you taste it. He's not pushing them to do it. He's not causing them to do it. He's not forcing their will. The understanding and the affections are already darkened and they're chasing it. And he removes that which he's not obligated to give, namely grace. And what was the effect in 24? So that their bodies, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. Through the exercise of the will into action, their bodies were dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who's blessed forever, amen. For this reason, God gave them over again. Dishonorable passions for their females exchanged natural function for that which is unnatural. And in the same way also males abandoned natural function of the female and burned in their desire toward one another. Males with males committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons a due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over again to an unfit mind to do those things which are not proper. Tell me if this resonates with what you know about yourself before you came to Christ, or you're sitting here maybe deceived that you're in Christ and you're not, or you're just here checking out what is this all about? Having been filled, 29, with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, violent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, and although they know the righteous requirement of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. Each one of us has a conscience given by God. But that can be abused, that can be seared, and little by little over time, as we set our affections on things that we ought not, and we have those moments of lucidity where we know this is wrong, but we want it, so we push through it, searing. Picture it like a skylight, and each time you push through when you know it's wrong, you're taking some thick black paint and swiping it on. and swiping it on, pretty soon the light won't come through. And the only reason that you didn't fall into worse sin than you have in your life is the mere grace of God, not because you're better than anyone. If it were not for the grace of God, we would be more vile than the worst child molester. And if you don't believe that, You have not yet seen the depth of your depravity. You have not yet seen the grace of God, and in some part, you are still clinging to your self-righteous works. Well, let's see how it culminates. Not only are pagans under sin, but Jews are also under sin. Look at 310. As he's bringing it all together and summing it all up, there's none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. Ever since Adam went to hide from God, all of his offspring have done the same. We're not seeking for God. And if we are in some way, it's the same way someone involved in active bank robbery is seeking the police. I just wanna know where they are so I can stay as far away from them. Altogether they've turned aside. Together they've become worthless. There's none who does good, not even one. Now look down at 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are in the law so that every mouth may be shut and all the world may become accountable to God, the whole world. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. And he gives us the reason why. Because through the law comes knowledge of sin. That's the function of the law. To show us we can't keep it. 21, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. It was all pointing in this direction to begin with. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there's no distinction. between Jew and Gentile. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is a standard that is perfect and is beautiful and is glorious and we were created for that. God created us good and we have sinned and we have not attained to that standard. We've missed the mark by a long shot. We weren't even aiming at the target. being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Then we see it in Romans chapter four, that it's always been this way. That Abraham was not justified by works. He was justified by faith. And that happened before he was circumcised. Circumcision came after. And Paul tells us the reason is so that he would be the father of all who have faith. To the circumcised and the uncircumcised. He believed God. based on the word he had received, immaterial. He saw nothing. He heard the word of the Lord, and he believed, and it was credited to him as righteousness, as a gift. Now, let's look at 5.1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith. Our introduction to what? This grace in which we stand. The gift of faith was just the first part of the grace. This is the introduction to the grace of God. to us recognizing we are not gods. No matter how hard we might try, we cannot attain that righteous standard. We've already failed. Even if we tried, from the moment we were made aware, we couldn't keep it. But there's grace in which we stand. And he says this, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we boast in our afflictions. How many of us boast in our afflictions? Oh, thank you, Lord. Oh, thank you for this. This is not going according to plan at all. Thank you. This hurts. This is hard. This is painful. Why would we boast in affliction? Watch. Knowing that affliction brings about perseverance. Perseverance, proven character, proven character, hope. Now do you see? This grace in which we stand, we boast in the hope of the glory of God. That confident expectation looking forward to that glory of God. And he's saying not only do we boast in that hope, in that goal that we're seeking after, But because we know the process is directly related, we boast in the process too. Because now, by grace through faith, we can see the process works towards the goal. This is working out for my salvation. This is for my good. This is conforming me to the image of my savior. This is doing what I want, though I couldn't do it. So he's boasting in both, and he says, hope does not put us to shame because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. And that Christ would die for the ungodly, even that while we were still sinners, his love is displayed in that Christ died for us. Christian, he doesn't die to make you lovable. He loves you. His affection was already set upon you. And the death is a demonstration of that already existing love to do for you the greatest good that you are too weak to do yourself. and actually had no desire for it while we were still sinners. Now he brings up in verse 10 that we will be saved by his life since we've been reconciled by his death. And we're also boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ because now we have this reconciliation. And we've gone over verses 12 and following a number of times to show there's only two families, there's only two races. There's Adam and there's Christ. Whenever anyone is born, we're all born under Adam. And we show it, we flaunt it with our sin. And it is a gift of grace to be brought into Christ. And at the end of the day, this is what matters. Which family are you in? Are you in Adam? Or are you in Christ? Because when Christ stands, and he separates all peoples from all times, There's going to be two categories, sheep and goats. The sheep are all those that have heard the voice of Christ. True God of true God, true man of true man. Perfect in every way. He calls his sheep. They hear his voice. And all the goats are those that are in Adam. And that's the end of the road for the goats. As far as opportunities to come to Christ are concerned, that's it. See, this is one of the reasons why I don't like that question. When you die and you stand before the Lord and he says, why should I let you into my kingdom, what will you say? I get what they're trying to get at with that question. But my fear is it'll give a false hope. Because that interaction's not gonna happen. Because it's already happening. Right now. Court is in session. But look at verse 20 of chapter five and 21. Now the law came in so that transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so, remember this introduction to faith by grace, Grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we have sin reigning and we have grace reigning through Christ. How marvelous is this? The compassion that God shows us. These acts of pitying us, these acts of mercy. Now friends, do you see that we've fought tooth and nail to bring God down off of his throne so that we could take his place. We'd have no qualms if we thought there was a vacancy in the Trinity to submit ourself and do anything that was necessary to get our name in there and to take that position. The big problem that we have with God is he doesn't recognize our lordship. He doesn't recognize our authority. And he's trying to exert authority over me. I don't think he knows who I am. I'm a really big deal. But in the shoreless ocean of God's mercy, being filled with these rivers of compassion and pity, we find ourselves. Though our sins are more numerous than the stars of heaven, though our sins each day are more numerous than the stars you'll see tonight, God stoops low to our misery by grace in Jesus Christ. And he extends this loving, compassionate hand to be received by faith and Christ lifts us up with Him to the heavenlies, to be seated with Him in the heavenlies. What we wanted to take with sinful desire by force, He gives to us a free grace to be with Him, to reign with Him. This brings us to our second point, the object of our sacrifice. And he does this by the mercies of God, the compassions and pities of God. He's exhorting us with this affectionate, tender, brothers, I exhort you, present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Again, how have you obeyed this? How have you presented your body as this kind of sacrifice? Not theoretical, we'll get into some of that, but how have you been doing it this week? How do you do it in the course of your life? Is this a text that's on your mind during the week? I am not my own, I have been bought with a price. I'm called to glorify God in my body. I'm called to make my body presented to the Lord of glory as a living sacrifice. Holy. He says, this is your spiritual service of worship. And unfortunately, we have the word for spiritual, we'll see it in Romans, this is not the word spiritual. This is the word logical, rational, reasonable. Peter used it and we went over it in 1 Peter 2 too. This has to do with the mind. And he says service of worship. The idea behind this word is like priests in the temple. like priests in the temple. But those sacrifices differ, don't they, in that they were dead. This one is living. But those sacrifices had to be clean. They had to be the best. Going back to the beginning, Cain and Abel. Abel offered the first and the best from the first of his flock and from the fat. Cain offered some. He's tipping God, oh yeah. Thanks for the food, I guess. Thanks for the sunshine and the rain and yeah, whatever. And then when God has regard for Abel's sacrifice and not for Cain's, what does that wicked heart do? It became angry. Why does he say bodies? Why does he say present your bodies as a sacrifice? Why doesn't he say soul? Why isn't he trying to go for like the whole person? Why is he limiting it to body? This is fascinating. So go back to Romans 6-1. Remember, we're under the reign of grace in Christ. And then he says, what shall we say then? This is the objection of the natural man. Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? And this can come different ways, but this is coming from the natural man devoid of the spirit. You could say, ah, so the more I sin, the more grace I get, I'm gonna glorify God by letting him pour out his grace on me. and in the strongest way known to the Greek language, he says, may it never be, absolutely not. Some translations try and go for the thought of it and say, God forbid. You see, this is what grace does. To the unbeliever, grace fuels his rationale to sin. He's having a little bit of a battle in his head. Should I do this, should I not do this? Should I seek forgiveness, should I not seek forgiveness? Should I read, should I pray, should I do this, or should I do that? Well, I know it's wrong, but I know God's really forgiving. And so he uses passages like this to sear his conscience a little bit more. The believer, on the other hand, sees it quite differently. Grace reigns in Christ. I don't have to give in to this sin. I know that it's coming over me. This temptation is really pulling at me right now. But I have not yet availed of the power of the grace in Jesus Christ. So that's what I'm going to do now. And I know that he will supply all my needs richly through Christ. That's a big difference. And notice the argument that he gives here in verse two. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know, are you agnostic, that all of us who were baptized, that's immersed, into Christ. Immersed into Christ Jesus, we're immersed into his death. Therefore, in light of that fact, which is immaterial, you haven't seen it, I haven't seen it, but it's being communicated by the truth of God's word, and it is to enter into our mind, and we are to grasp it by faith, and our affections are to follow after. Do you see how this is working? Therefore, now he's building off of that immaterial argument. It's real, it's true, it's not material and tangible. One day it will be. Therefore, we were buried with him. There's a finality to death. Through immersion into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. That glorious display of his power raised him from the dead. And that glorious display of that resurrection power fuels us to walk in new life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with, that body that was controlled by sin, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died has been justified from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death is no longer master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. And now we come to this portion where we have our first commands in the book of Romans. We have four of them, and then we don't have any more until chapter 12, verse one. And this is the first. Even so, consider. That's the command. Consider. It's often used of entering your mind into mathematical process. And then came to be used of entering your mind into thinking deeply, pondering something extremely important, engaging all of your mental faculty to mentally grab hold of something so as to know it. And what does he command us to grab hold of and to know? That you're dead to sin, just like Christ, died to sin, and alive to God, just like Christ. Alive to God in Christ Jesus. You don't reach out and touch it. but it is true and it is real and it must be grasped by faith. This is what he's getting at here too. In part of God's magnificent plan with all of this grace, the bedrock, the foundation of our life and of our holiness is union with Christ. We've been united inseparably to Christ. And this truth is what has to be considered. It has to shape our understanding. It has to shape our affections. Christian, the prison door is open. You are free. You are no longer under the tyranny of sin. It's not your master. You don't have to obey anymore. You are free. But the question remains, will you, by faith, walk out of that cell, or are you too comfortable? You have to do this. It has to be an act of your will. which is why considering is so important, because considering engages our understanding and our affections, and we grab hold of it by faith, and then the will is initiated. Consider this. Picture the risen Christ when he returns for war. Picture Ephesians 6, and the armor that he's given to you, soldier. And by faith, each day and all throughout the day, you are considering the armor and you are taking each piece and adorning it on your body. I am alive by God's grace. I am equipped by God's grace. I am united to Christ by God's grace. And then he gets into verse 12. Therefore, you can't move forward unless you've considered this. And if you consider it and you find you're outside of Christ, you need to go back to the fountain. You need to go back to God. You need to repent of your sins. You need to beg for His mercy and for His pardon. You need to cling to Christ. You need to see Him as altogether lovely, altogether beautiful, without comparison to anyone or anything else, seen or unseen. that He is the treasure, that He is the joy in the field, that He is the pearl of great price, that He is the one that a man would sell everything he has because of the joy of finding this precious one, Jesus Christ. And you need to grasp wholly to Him. Let Him wash you. Don't try to wash yourself. Don't think that you can by your works accomplish or merit any righteousness because all your righteous deeds, Isaiah says, the best things you've ever done are filthy rags. And you're not trusting Christ, you're trusting yourself. Lean wholly on Christ, grab hold of him by faith. Therefore, do not let sin, there's a second command, reign. Why? Because grace is reigning now and you belong to Christ. Where? In your mortal body, in that body of yours that is subject to death and corruption, so that you obey its, the body's, lusts. That's interesting. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey the body's lusts, its desires. and do not go on presenting, so stop it. This is another command. Your members, the members of your body, to sin as literally weapons of unrighteousness. But, here's the fourth and final command in Till 12, present, keep on presenting yourselves to God as those alive, there's that word again, life, alive, alive from the dead and the members of your body as weapons of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. You see, You're starting to see how this is a living sacrifice. God gives us life in Christ. What shall we say then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law? We're no longer under the law, now we're under grace. So on account of that, should we sin? Absolutely not. And he gives this very helpful picture. Do you not know when you go on presenting yourselves to someone as slaves of obedience, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. He doesn't give a third category. This is it, one or the other. But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were given over. Isn't that interesting? You obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching. You took something that was immaterial by faith in your heart and put it into action. That pattern that we see previous to this, our union with Christ, our justification by faith alone, our sanctification by his grace, are putting off and putting on. Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. And then he says, I'm speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. When he's talking about slavery, because he's gonna go on to say we're not slaves. For just as you presented your members, your body, as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, now present, in further lawlessness, now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. And he keeps explaining, leading to sanctification because the wages of sin is death, but the grace gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, something that we step into and we inherit as a gift even now, and it grows as we grow until its fullness in that day, because everyone lives forever. It's a quality of life that he's talking about. And so you see, it's a living sacrifice because God gives us life in Christ. It's a holy sacrifice because God makes us holy in Christ. It's pleasing to God because it begins in the new man, in the inner man. Your understanding is given light. The light of the gospel of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ shines into our dark hearts and says, live. Your affections now take pleasure in God's word. You're no longer sleeping during sermons or having no desire to read the word. You're hungering and thirsting for the righteousness that is found in God's word, especially in the gospel, especially in the face of Christ. And your desire will be to do good. But I have to remind you, it's still a battle. It's a fierce battle. It's a lifelong battle. 2 Corinthians 5 says, therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. And then this brings us to our next point. The consecration of our sacrifice. Verse two, Romans 12. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Why does Paul bring this up? I thought he was talking about the sacrifice of our bodies. He's like all over the place. Material, immaterial. What's he doing here? He's giving us this precisely because this is the method of sanctification. It's a passive, continuous command. This is passive. You must be being conformed, transformed, changed. This is the same word that we see in Romans 8.29. The purpose of God working everything together for our good is so that we would be conformed to the image of Christ. So conformed in Romans 8.29 and transformed in Romans 12.2 share the same root, morph. Transform is metamorph. Conform is soonmorph. Change together, with. because it's the likeness of Christ. How are we to do that? He says, by the renewing of your mind, the making of a new mind. from one degree of glory to another by beholding the truth as it is in Christ. So that diagram B, good and evil, love and hate, will begin to be properly ordered where they ought to be. And it will go like this, beholding the beauty and the glory of Christ, apprehending it by faith, trusting it, believing it as it is in the scripture, informs my understanding And I'm praying and I'm seeking and I'm chewing on, meditating, wanting to grab him. And my affections are then placed in their proper order so that which is good I love. And that which is good is that which God says is good through his word. And so, how would I do this? Well, exactly as we've been saying, meditate upon the truth of Christ and his word. That means you're chewing on it. Some of you guys just give your Bible a little tap and give your prayer a little, hey God, didn't forget ya, thanks again, and you're gone. You don't even know what you read. You didn't even think about it. And your prayers are gimme, gimme, gimme. There's nothing wrong with asking God. to supply, what are your gimme's? Have you ever just sat and prayed to reflect on his beauty and his glory? Just to praise and adore him. Because he's so perfect, he's so holy, he's so beautiful. Our affections come out in those times. Let Scripture wash your stained mind. Let Christ's Spirit give fresh life to your mind. Let this enliven your affections with love to Christ. Set your affection then on the beauty of Christ. Desire Him in your heart and engage your memory. Remember his love towards you while you were still a sinner. Remember his promises towards you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I go to prepare a place so that where I am there you will be also. Remember his coming again to receive you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. And engage your will to run to him in joyful obedience. Your body will be a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing. But Paul began here with a negative. He began with a danger. He says, do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed. This age in Ephesians is rendered the course of this world. This age is what Demas loved. And so he forsook Paul. This age is ruled by Satan. And though we don't physically see it, we can see some of the effects of it into varying degrees, depending on our understanding of scripture. We're called not to be conformed to it. Not to be. Not to be molded into it. Molded into an appearance of. Think of it as we are God's puzzle pieces. crafted and painted in certain ways to follow after his will so as to be placed in that right spot in the puzzle, to see that beautiful picture of the manifold grace and glory of God. But when we're conforming to the world, what we're trying to do is smash ourselves in. You've tried that before. This piece has to go here. I'll make it go here. It should fit. But remember Galatians 1, that Christ gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age. There is future, hope and glory. But there is present grace to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. And remember again what we learned from 1 Peter 1, verses 13 to 15. about the dangers of these lusts, about the call to be holy. Read through that again and it'll help give light to this. But we have to ask, if we're new creatures in Christ and we have this new light, why all these warnings? What's with all the warnings? Because we don't just have an enemy without, we also have one within. And the enemy without and within our allies. And Satan knows it. That ally he has within us is indwelling sin. And we have our fleshly senses. They've been improperly trained, day by day, decision by decision, in sin. And so let's go back to Romans chapter 7, verse 1. And he gives this illustration about a husband and a wife in one to three. When the husband dies, the wife is free from the law concerning her husband. And his focus isn't to get into all the little details and say, well, this person equals this. His point is, when there's death, then that power of the law is broken in some regard. And so when he ties it in in verse four, he says, so my brothers, you were also made to die to the law, through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, and for this purpose, to bear fruit for God. Which is the reverse of what we see in the next verse. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the law, those sinful passions were at work in our members, in the members of our body, to bear fruit for death. Complete reversal. Verse six, but now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were constrained so that we serve in newness of the spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be. Rather, I would not have come to know sin except through the law. Remember, that was its purpose. Romans 3.20, for through the law comes knowledge of sin. And he gives an example. And think about for Paul. Out of the 10 commandments, the first nine, you could do on a surface level, you could do those to be seen. I'm not worshiping any other gods. I'm not making any idols. I'm putting God first. I'm keeping the Sabbath. I'm honoring my parents. I haven't killed anybody. I haven't committed adultery. I haven't stolen anything. I haven't bore false witness. But coveting, coveting, fully and wholly aimed at the heart. And the law is exposing sin. And what we tend to do when the law exposes sin is cover it up, excuse it, justify it, brush it away. But do you not understand that that's a grace and that's a mercy? That is your enemy that you have been called to put to death And you're being shown where your enemy is, lurking and hiding, where you did not know him before. You lose your patience, or you lose your temper, and you go, sorry, I'm not normally like that. Don't brush it off. Why? Why did this happen? Where is this coming from? Don't just kill the fruit. Seek down to find the root. You wouldn't even do this with your lawn. Got some weeds, I'm just gonna keep mowing over them. Nope, no more weeds. They're just gonna keep growing and spreading. You've gotta pull it out. And thankfully, once you pull the weeds out of the lawn, they're gone forever, right? You never have to do it again. You move into your house, you pull out the weeds, and it's done. No, you have to keep doing it. And so he says, but sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, worked out in me coveting of every kind, for apart from the sin, law is dead. Now, what he's saying is this. You have this sin within you. I am a God. And then here comes this foreign authority. Who is this trying to tell me what to do? I'll show you you don't have authority over me. I'm gonna do what I want. That's what the unregenerate man does. I once was alive apart from the law. Everything was going well for him. He had no knowledge of his sin. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And this commandment, which was to lead to life, was found to lead to death for me, because sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me. That word is very critical. Deceived me, and through it, killed me. So the law is holy, the commandment is holy and righteous, and good. So, he says, is that which is good, did that become a cause of death for me? The law? No. May it never be. It was sin. And the purpose was that it would be shown to be utterly sinful. And it's working out his death through that which is good. So it's exposing, oh yeah, whoops, I made a mistake. No, that was wicked. And it's exposing that. The law is good at what its function is, bringing knowledge of sin. This is good, we want this because it shows us where the enemy is. Now we come to verse 14. And I know there's some different views out there, but I think I can help you with that. It's interesting, even reading through Martin Lloyd-Jones, the great doctor, who's inconsistent on this. This is why it's so important that we read the context, not just what comes before, but what comes after. And some people will say, this is the unregenerate Jew trying to keep the law. But that doesn't fit with the rest of the testimony of scripture, or even with seven to the end of the chapter and the beginning of eight. If we looked at Galatians 5, for example, 17, that's gonna be very helpful, because Paul's battling similar things in the region of Galatia. And in 5.17, he's helping us by saying, the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you do not do the things you want. Verse 14 of Romans 7, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, having been sold into bondage under sin. The idea behind the verb here is an action that happened in the past, and there's effects continuing to the present. All of us have been sold into bondage under sin. All of us have those effects continuing up to the present. For what I am working out, I do not understand. For I'm not practicing what I would like to do, but I'm doing the very thing I hate. Have you ever felt like that? This is what's happening. We'll keep reading and then I'll explain it. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I agree with the law that it's good. Because his main point is absolving the goodness of the law. So now, no longer am I the one working it out, but sin, which dwells in me. So he's not saying, it's not my fault, it's the sin's fault. What he's doing is he's meditating on and pondering, how did this happen? Because remember, sin will come in and it will deceive. And this is how it tends to happen. We'll take some truth of God and set that up as our premises. And somewhere along the way, The lust of the flesh will creep in and the conclusion will be skewed slightly, just a little bit. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? I mean, there's forgiveness of God and there's grace. And somewhere along the way from our affections and our understanding to the will, we've believed something that is not wholly true. And we carry it out. and we end up doing that which we don't want to do, as he says in Galatians 5, 17. 18, for I know nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. Now he's used this before. He says we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly. He uses the same phrase in 1 Corinthians 3. When he says, and I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ. Because of their immaturity, because of their trusting in the flesh more than in the spirit. Now hold on to the law being spiritual, because that's gonna be important too. For the good I want, I do not do, verse 19 of Romans 7. But I practice the very evil I do not want. But if I'm the one doing the very thing I do not want, I'm no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me. So he's making this dichotomy within himself. I find in the principle that evil is present in me, in me who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur. This is the word hedone, where we get hedonist. I hedonistically agree with the law of God in the inner man. The law of God is spiritual. Now really quickly, drop down to Romans 8, 5. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. You cannot have an unregenerate man. Desiring to do good by God's standard, especially not to the extent of joyfully concurring, hedonistically agreeing with the law of God, which is spiritual, in the inner man. That is not possible. 23, he says, but I see a different law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin. What does that mean? 616, do you not know that when you go on presenting yourselves as someone to slaves for obedience, his flesh and the sin and the temptations of Satan working in that are trying to re-enslave him again. This is the danger that we have. We have sensual and we have rational appetites. And sometimes those senses that we have within our body And our rational thinking, cognitive processes, affections, understanding, are at war with one another. And we don't even realize it. Sometimes we do. What we need is to continue to train these new appetites. And the way we do that is by eating new food. And the food that we're called to eat is bread. And the drink that we're called to drink is wine, because this bread is the bread of life. And the more we're eating and drinking from Christ's body and Christ's blood, the more we are growing and being built up, and the more our tastes are changing. If you have a steady diet of filet mignon, you will scoff if someone offers you some cube steak, because you know it's not worth it. Verse 24, wretched or miserable is the idea, miserable man that I am. Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Because his inner man is in great and raptured pleasure with God. Thanks be to the God through Christ Jesus, our Lord. So then on the one hand, I myself with my mind, I'm serving the law of God, which is spiritual, but on the other with my flesh, the law of sin. And then he gives this amazing encouragement here. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is a battle raging and you're going to sin. There's a huge difference though between desiring that sin Sin is going to be working in you, Christian, by deceit, just like Genesis 3. There's gonna be some premise from some truth of God, and then it's gonna be subtly twisted. But then we have this glorious comfort. You're gonna fall, but I want you to get back up. You're not seeking after that sin. You're not setting your mind and your affections on that sin. That's not what a Christian does. But we still do sin. There's no condemnation. We still have to repent of that sin, confess and repent. We're gonna be broken over that sin. And you'll find the principle that as you grow in the Christian life, the worse you feel. Because the more you see your sin, the more you see God's holiness. And then he says this. this compassion, this mercy, and this grace, and this beautiful gospel, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in the flesh of his Son. And he did that so that the righteous requirement of the law would be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, even though we're in the flesh, but according to the spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For the mind set on flesh is death, but the mind set on spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on flesh is hostile toward God, It does not subject itself to the law of God. It's not even able to do so. So the guy in Romans 7 that's doing that with his mind must be a believer. Otherwise, this section of Romans 8 is rendered contradictory, null and void. and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God. If you're outside of Christ, there's nothing that you can do to merit anything, to earn anything, to have any kind of favor with God. You're doing dead works. You're wasting your time, and you're sinning more and more. The only way to be pleasing to God begins with, continues in, and ends with being united to Jesus Christ by faith loving him, supreme. We're gonna stumble, we're gonna fall, we're ignorant, we've got sin. But we're fighting through it by faith, grasping hold of the truth of scripture as we look unto Christ. And then I love this. In nine through 11, we see this Trinitarian indwelling. There's a future resurrection. for those who are in Christ. Yes, this body of sin that we have that's fighting against us, it's gonna die. And a new body will be raised up, not stained with sin, not tainted with sin, not even possible for that to happen. And here's what we're getting at, and we'll get into this more in the future. Verse 12 and 13. So then, brothers, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, If you live according to the flesh, you must die. But, if by the Spirit, you are putting to death the practices of the body, it's interesting he changed it there again, back to body, you will live. If, there's a condition, by the Spirit, there's the means by which we are to do it. Putting to death, there's the action that we are to do. Practices of the body, there's the aim. And just like with pulling weeds, we gotta get the root out, and they're gone forever. No, they keep coming back. Though you kill a sin, mortify a sin, do not rest thinking, glad that's done and gone. Rejoice in the grace God has given you to put that sin to death. Boast in his glory, but don't think that the war is over. Because while you're still breathing, the war is still on. This is what Paul says over and over. This is what our Lord says, the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. Paul says in Philippians 1.20, I want that with all boldness, Christ will even now as always be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. And this brings us to our fourth and final point, the benefit of our sacrifice. "'so that you may approve what the will of God is, "'that which is good and pleasing and perfect.'" This word approve is to know by doing. Immaterial, this is material. "'Be transformed by the renewing of your mind,' immaterial, "'so that you can put it into action, "'through your affections, your understanding, "'to your will, and to your person, "'and that you can know by doing.'" You can approve. And this sacrificial life of joyful obedience is God's will for us. And you're never gonna grow apart from this. The reverse of the process was seen in Romans 1.28. They didn't approve God. And he's beginning that unwinding here. How do we do this? We're putting to death the deeds of the body, but look at Romans 13.14 with me. This sums it up greatly. but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust. Put on the Lord, clothe yourself with the righteousness of Christ. Clothe yourself with the truths you already know in scripture. Let your hands be thought of as his hands. Let your mouth be thought of as his mouth. Your feet, his feet. Your mind, his mind. Your body, his body. Just like our Lord who said, I delight to do your will. I've come to do the will of my Father. Not my will, but thine be done. And who also said, it is finished. It is finished. And gave testimony to that by rising from the dead and being seated at the right hand of the Father. So that we would not grow weary, fainting in heart. So that we would have hope. Do you see this? Do you love this? This Christ that we're called to put on and make no provision for the flesh? If you do, then my task is complete. Run to him. Let's do that now. Father in heaven, I ask that you would save those here who are outside of Christ. I ask that you would sanctify those of us that are in Christ. Let us see the beauty of Christ. Let us put on and adorn him. in his life, his death, and his resurrection. Let us labor not according to our own strength, but the strength you provide in the pattern that we see in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, may you give grace to this word of yours that was spoken, that it might bring about change in each one of our lives, starting from our heads, to our hearts, to our wills, to every action that we do in this body, for your glory.