Turn in your Bibles now to the book of Leviticus, chapter 20, beginning at verse 22 through verse 27. You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgments and perform them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out. You shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you, for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them. But I have said to you, you shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore distinguish between clean animals and unclean, between unclean birds and clean. You shall not make yourselves abominable by beast or by bird or by any kind of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. For you shall be holy to me, for I, the Lord, am holy, and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine. A man or a woman who is a medium or who has familiar spirits shall surely be put to death, and they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them. And that is God's word through the end of chapter 20 of Leviticus. Now turn to Romans, once again, chapter 12, and we again read verses 1 and 2. Likewise, this is God's word. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. This is God's Word. If you received it, therefore, as His Word, confess that by saying, Amen. We come, our Heavenly Father, pleading your mercies for us in our understanding of these passages which have been read, these passages from your Word which are preserved by your Holy Spirit, inspired of your Holy Spirit. We ask that we would learn to rightly apply what we have read to our lives today, and not just today, but for all of our days that are given to us on this earth, we ask now in Jesus' name, amen. Well, congregation, one of the things that is common in our day, it is the spirit of the age, I think it can be easily demonstrated, is that there's an assumption that change is good. It often appears in political campaigns, whether for good or ill. I'll leave that to your judgment. But, for example, the politician will say, what we need is change. We need change, change, change. And often it is undefined. Whatever it is, is simply just different than what was before. And the idea of change or changing from what has been is not unknown to us, but that's not really the issue that is before us as such from verse two. That's where we will spend our time today, primarily in verse two. You find there words such as conformed and transformed, or especially with the word transformed, the word there, we can understand that, at least in one sense, as change. Something has changed. from what has been. When looking at verse 2, which is a very well-known verse, there is an element of it which for a long time was a little bit unsettling to me, and I wonder if it has been unsettling to you. And that is, be transformed, for example, by the renewing of your mind. Well, who's doing the transforming? Whose work is this? Can I do this? Is this God doing this? Are we both doing this? Well, I hope by the time we come to the end of the ministry of the Word today that we'll have a better grasp of that. That's certainly my aim. Part of the answer to this concern that I had for many years finally was resolved, as it happens, with the grammar. Now in this verse, one of the things that you don't see is that there is some disagreement about what the text actually is. That's not my concern that much here. And in particular, what tense or what form of word conformed and transformed is. If you're interested in that, I can explain why there is the disagreement. And it is a legitimate disagreement. It's not people trying to undermine the scriptures. It has to do with the nature of the language. Nevertheless, the word, words conformed and transformed ought to be understood as passive. At least that's part of the grammar, and in the Greek it is subdivided more, but it is passive. And the notable commentator, William Hendrickson, in all of his commentaries he provides his own translation of the New Testament, and sometimes I agree and sometimes I don't agree. In this particular case, I think what he writes actually helps in our understanding, even if it's not a particularly firm or word-for-word kind of translation. What Hendrickson says is, stop allowing yourselves to be fashioned after the pattern of this evil age. Now, that's a very wordy way of saying what I think, I agree with him, the Greek is intended to mean. And what is being referred to here is that there are things that we can do or things that we can not do that can hinder our progress. And one of those things is, for example, that we can allow ourselves to be fashioned after the pattern of this age. See, as much as we do advance and teach and hold to the doctrine of God's sovereignty in all things, and I say that without equivocation at all, Nevertheless, we are humans. We have agency. We are made in God's image and we do have a will. That is, we are not stocks and blocks, as the Canons of Dor says. That is a perversion of the doctrine that we hold to. We do have We can do things which, even in God's providence, can either help or hinder our growth, or they can move us toward that which is more godly or biblical, or away from being more godly and more biblical. And that's the sense in which you ought to understand this. That is, there are things that we might conform to, And I'll talk about the significance of the word there in a moment. But there are things in which we might conform to that are not good for us spiritually, and yet they might be normal for the rest of the world. Now, we get a hint of that in Leviticus 20 as we read there that the Lord is instructing the people, when you go into the land, which I promise you, don't behave like them. There are certain expectations, certain norms of you, people of God, that you must do or not do. Now, it's in the Old Testament context, of course, and so it has to do with clean animals or unclean animals and other such things. Nevertheless, the principle remains. Don't fashion yourselves, don't conform yourselves to those norms of the people in the land. That applies now. That applies now. You see, there's a way in which we can conform, which also can be very subtle. It can be something that we hardly recognize. And that really does go to the danger. And part of it is, for example, that sometimes that conformity even masquerades as spirituality. If we're really considering the world around us today, we see it all the time. I was quite taken back this past week when I was listening to a news report And there was a news report about, you may remember, there was that church in the Dallas area a few years ago where there was that horrible tragedy where someone came into the congregation and a number of people were shot and killed. And one of the members of the church who was armed ended up killing the person who was killing people. And to be quite honest, that specific incident had passed from my mind. I hadn't thought about it too much recently. But as it happens, the congregation there of this Baptist church had voted to demolish the church, the church building. And I can understand that, certainly. And yet, and so that vote took place, if you'll be patient with me here, that vote took place some time ago, but they needed the approval of the county in order to do that. Well, the county had given its permission. Well, one of the things that has happened from the time of that horrible incident till now is that the church building had become something of a place where people would go as a memorial for those who had died, had been killed. And so there was some opposition to the demolition of the church building. And this news report, and this is the part that I'm getting to here, the news report interviewed very quickly one of the people who would go there from time to time. And she was very much opposed to the destruction of the building because, and I'm assuming she was a member of the church or friendly, you know, with the, you know, maybe an attender in that church. And she, and I think it was her brother had been killed. And she said that she was very upset that it was being torn down because she would go because she would feel his presence there when he went, when she went to visit the church building. And that just sort of passed by. That sort of just, there was, of course, the person that was interviewing him just didn't really mention anything else about that. And it sounds very sweet. It sounds very, it really does touch us in an emotional way. And yet, I'm assuming, I think with reason here, I'm assuming that this woman is a Christian. What she expressed was pagan. There's no way other than that to express it. It was pagan. She had in that moment of intense pain, no doubt, some sorrow, no doubt, rather than, for example, expressing her hopes of the resurrection, expressing in some way, even in a very perhaps simple way, maybe in a maybe not so accurate way, her trust in God's providence, that God is a good God, and even through this horrible thing that God was turning it to her good. or perhaps some other sense in which she could put this incident, and then in the years that have come after, in a way, and when she's trying to deal with this, to attempt, even not in a particularly skillful manner, a biblical view of these things, she failed completely in that. Now I say this with the utmost charity, I'm saying with the utmost concern, I would say not only for her, but for what it represents in the church. What she expressed is not unusual in our day. It is unbiblical. It is not Christian to bow to the superstitions of the world mingled with emotional self-validation. I know that's a lot of big words to simply say that it was contrary to the view that we ought to have as Christians. And this is precisely the application of this admonition in the scriptures. I also want to point out to you this word here, which is a relatively rare word in the New Testament, to help us to understand what the idea here is about not being conformed. If you're to look at Philippians chapter 3, for example, and another passage where the Apostle Paul uses this word in Philippians chapter 3, verses 8 through 11, listen to the entire context here. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, a righteousness which is from God by faith. that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed, that's the same word, different grammatical use of it, but being conformed to his death if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. And being conformed to his death, that was all part, that is the death of Jesus Christ, that was all part of the Apostle Paul's growing in faith and grace and the Christian life and to serve him in his particular calling. even if that meant, for him personally, the loss of all things, as he says. That is, his entire life, as it was before his conversion, has been set aside so that he might be changed, he might be conformed to a different perspective of all things. And that has to do with the death of Christ and the significance of the death of Christ and, as he says, also his resurrection. And also in 1 Peter chapter 1 in verses 13 through 16. So we see two times Paul uses this and then a third time Peter uses it. Again, this is a very familiar passage, I think, to most of us. 1 Peter 1 verse 13 through 16, Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, be holy for I am holy. And here, not only does Peter use that word, but he uses it in the same kind of context that we saw in Leviticus chapter 20. And here, particularly in Peter, it is very explicit. What does it mean to be conformed here, or to not be conformed, as the case is in Peter here? That is, he's talking about the way that we think about things, the loins of your mind, being sober, that is, not easily swayed one way or another, fully trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and his grace. looking towards the last day, the revelation of Jesus Christ, and I interpret that as the last day, looking at ourselves as children within the household of God and learning to be obedient, for example, and not living in the same way that we lived before, setting aside those things that we set our desire upon, which, by the way, lusts in the New Testament can often mean something much broader than how we ordinarily understand it. That is, to do so with the knowledge, not in ignorance, the knowledge of who Jesus Christ is, and to do so because we're called to a life of holiness. You see, there is a sense here also which we ought to understand, and this goes back to the word itself of being conformed, which is a completely different word than transformed here. is that the sense of the meaning here is that these are transient things. They're temporary things. The things of this world pass away. And that's the nature of the word that's used here, changeable from day to day. What is the fashion of the convictions of the spirit of the age? What is it that is okay today and wasn't okay yesterday? Or maybe it's the other way around. Something that you might have said two years ago is now something that must not ever be said. That's the nature of the world. That's the nature of the fallenness of this world. But when we are conformed, not with the world, but we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, the ethical image of Jesus Christ, you might say, are transformed in that sense. When we conform ourselves to the biblical testimony of the nature of reality, the nature of the struggle and the fight against sin, the nature of this fallen world, when we conform our worldview, if we might say it in that very broad term, very broad way, when we do that, well then what is expressed there is actually what is described in the next term. See, right now, congregation, You have the truth and you have the truth in all of its manifestations right there in your Bible. Now we apply the scriptures to the world around us. There's nothing in the Bible that tells us how we ought to use the internet or not use the internet. But we have the principles there. We have the principles about how we ought to live in every possible aspect of our lives. It's right there in the scriptures. And to the extent that you conform to the scriptures, then you are not conforming, or you're not allowing yourselves to be conformed to the world. So the word here, conformed, is at least in part, it's a compound word, but the word in part is the word that we get scheme from, a scheme, a system of the schemes of the world, we might say. The plan of the world. So you don't need to be schemed together, which would be a literal translation, probably too literal translation of the word. And it's quite the contrary based upon the full testimony of the scripture, that is to be schemed according to the fashions of the world or to be conformed rather to the scriptures. And so here at the very beginning it is, do not allow your thinking and doing to be dictated by today's fashions. There is intense pressure to do so, isn't there? It doesn't mean we ought to go out of our way to offend people. That's not what I'm saying at all. We need to be wise as well as faithful. Nevertheless, we are not to allow the world to dictate to us what is normative, holy, godly behavior. but rather we are to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now here, this is talking about that subsequent work to your conversion. When you were converted, there was a transformation that took place that's described for us even back in the Old Testament. For example, in Ezekiel, we read of that taking what is dead, stone, and making your heart one that is of flesh. So that's a change, that's a difference. When you're converted, you're no longer the same person in that sense. But here, what is being spoken of is that continuing work in us. When you were converted, you didn't stop right there. your experience might have been what would be a common experience when you're converted. There's this sort of surge, there's this rush of joy and energy for the work of the Lord in you and in the world. It's manifested in all kinds of ways. But what about 10 years later or 20 years later? Oftentimes those fires are cooled a little bit. Sometimes it seems as though the work of the Holy Spirit has come to an end. But this is that work, speaking of that continuing work of transforming us, renewing us day by day, even as we read in Ephesians 4, verses 20 through 24, but you have not So learn Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man, which goes corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Now, what ought to stand out to you in that passage there that I just read from Ephesians here is, even though it's a different word, renewed, it's that same concept. And the thing that ought to stand out to you is the active part that you have in that. See, if your view of the Christian life is, well, I was saved and I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ back when I was 16 years old, and, well, if God wants me to learn to be more holy in my day-to-day life, he'll make me do that. Wrong. Wrong. There are all kinds of means by which the Lord has given you in order that you might learn to be more holy in your day-to-day life, that that work of sanctification might be pursued with increasing vigor, not less. Primary among those things is, for example, God's Word, the Bible, prayer, the sacraments. Those are all given to you. in part for that very purpose. And it is something that you are required to do. That is, for example, when you come here on the Lord's day in the morning, is this just habit? Is it just because there's nowhere else to be on a Sunday morning? Is it just because your friends are there? Is it just because mom and dad make me go Or is it because you truly want to be strengthened in the inner man? Is it because you want to learn of the Lord Jesus Christ and learn to apply His Word to your life? And that is something, as I say, that you are required to do. Are you desirous to grow in strength, in spiritual strength? Do you pray for that spiritual strength? Do you call upon God to grant you growth in obedience Or is it rather a very passive idea of growth in Christ? Now the word that's used here, that's translated here for us, is transformed. Let's also look at how this word is used in the New Testament to help us to understand what it means. If we look at Matthew 17, for example, verses one and two, it says there, Now, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. The same word is used in Mark 9 too, but interestingly not in the account in Luke, which is the more full account. And there are some reasons for that. I agree with some commentators in regard to that. He uses a different word. And so it is used to describe what the disciples saw when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration and his appearance, his outward appearance changed in front of them. And in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, we also read, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now the emphasis here is on the outward. The word itself indicates that. It's talking about that inner work. It's talking about that outer work. The inner work is complete. You are purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. Your heart has been changed from one of stone into one of flesh, as the biblical illustration is. That work of becoming a child of God is complete in an inner sense. But in an outer sense, it is not. It is ongoing. And you are being metamorphed. That's the word here. That's literally the word. That is, to change into another form, to transform into another form, to transfigure, we might say. That is, when the disciples looked at Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, he looked different, outwardly, the same Christ, but his appearance changed. And another reason that we know, for example, that this is the ongoing work is the tense of the verb here. And it is passive, like the other one, but it is different in the other sense. And that is, it is a tense of continuing action. continually being transformed. And so likewise, Hendrickson, I'll refer back to him, translates this, but let yourselves be transformed, which I think is a good, more wordy rendering here. But one more thing, it's often the little words, and it's that word, two words before transformed, at least in the New King James, but be transformed. In the original, there are a lot of different ways to say a lot of different things, even the word translated but. This one here is the strong one. That is, there is this very strong distinction that is being made, not to be conformed but, On the contrary, very much contrary to that previous thing, this is what ought to be. So the intent here is to emphasize this radical separation, this radical contrast between being conformed to the world and being transformed into the ethical image of Jesus Christ. And so we don't look like him physically, but we look like him ethically. We behave like him. And not in the often perverted sense of, what would Jesus do? But rather, what would Jesus have me do? It's a completely different thing. So that you may prove. When we look at that little phrase there, that last phrase, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, what is explicitly not talked about here is the purpose of God that is hidden to us, is always going to be hidden to us. That's not for us to know, and that's not something that we will know even if we're converted. There are many things that will be left in God's secret purposes. Nevertheless, here the idea is that we show what God's will is. That's the idea of prove here. Proving as in If a metallurgist is testing a certain kind of metal, it is proved to be what it appears to be. That is, by our lives we demonstrate what God's will is, the will that is revealed to us. It is enough for us to look, for example, at the Scriptures and say, what would God have me do? What would God, how would God have me live? How would God have me speak? As a Christian, as one who has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, as one who claims that I belong to him. I've been purchased, not with gold and with silver, but purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. How then shall I live? How shall I think? And it is enough for us to know the will of God as it is given to us in the scriptures and work out that will in our lives day by day. And the example that is immediately before us, for example, is again, Leviticus 20. How would God have us to live? Well, first principles include not to assume that the world's ways are the ways that we are to live. In fact, quite the contrary. That is, we have a distinctiveness from the world that is around us, not so much in the outward things that don't matter, whether it's clothing or haircuts and those kinds of things. Those are likewise transient things. But rather, for example, how is it that we see our duty to our neighbor? How is it that we understand our duty before God in this world? How is it that we represent Christ in this world? We carry his name with us. Do we show the love of Christ to those that we encounter? Are the words of thankfulness upon our lips? Or do we present in our outward life a sullen sort of kicking the can down the dirt road sort of, well, I'm a Christian, but I'm not liking it very much. How is it that We are to show not only the love, but also the salvation that is in Christ. You see, when we are transformed and we are, by our change of mind, by our view of the world around us and our view of ourselves, And when we prove that as we demonstrate what God's will is, the principle here is that faith and life are never separated from one another. They cannot be separated from one another. And you should not act like it is. So what is God's will for you? What is it? I hope you took that question seriously. It's meant seriously. What is God's will for you? So if you don't know the answer to that question, for example, you might say, I don't know what, what God would have me do with the rest of my life. I don't know. Well, that's in a sense, I might say that that's okay in the specifics, but the answer to the question is at least at the very least is that you show by your life, the work of God in you, according to his revealed will. That's God's will for you. That's God's will for you. Now, does it mean you'll apprentice to be a plumber? Does it mean you'll study to be a lawyer? I don't know. What has the Lord said on your heart? But nevertheless, to ask the question is at least the beginning of understanding the significance of what we're being told here to be transformed so that we might prove what is God's will. Now, before we close today, I want to point out something to you. And it has to do actually with the title of the sermon. And you'll note there that I have designated this part three of Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice. That is, it is my conviction, my firm conviction that there is a direct connection between what is described here in verse two with what was also described in verse one. different verses, two different verses, but nevertheless, when it comes down to it, it is the same subject. They describe the life of thankful obedience and transformation according to the ethical image of Jesus Christ. And that transformation will not end until the last day or until the Lord takes you home. It is always ongoing, but at that last day, What we read in 1 John 3 will be accomplished. 1 John 3, verses 1-3 say, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Now, that's through verse 2. I'm going to read one more verse there. But before I do, I want you to note something. That is, there is an objective truth here that that we have experienced love of God. If we belong to him, we are his children in a way that is distinct from all of the other creation. And that means that there is this separation between us and the world. Now in John here, it's reversed, right? It's that the world doesn't know us because it doesn't know him. The world doesn't understand a genuine Christian who's living out his life as a Christian. The world doesn't understand. It baffles the world. What is also true, as we read here, is that it is an ongoing thing. That is, whatever life that we're living in this life of thankful obedience to Him, that it is not yet done, and it will be done at the last day. But then verse three is what speaks directly to the point. And that is everyone who has this hope in Him. That is, that day that we will see Him as He is. purifies himself just as he is pure, or we might say is transformed by the renewing of the mind. Amen.