The Scripture reading this morning is Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. Once you have found that, please stand with me as I read to you, not the words of men, but the words of the living God. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect. May the Lord be pleased to bless the reading and the proclamation of His word this morning. Please be seated. Let's pray. Father, we have now entered into a brand new year. And it's a good time to pause and to look back and to consider. It's also a good time to contemplate what is ahead of us and to make decisions. Decisions that would draw us closer to you, that would cause us to walk in the power of the Spirit and in obedience to your words. So, Father, grant us grace as we hear the Word of God. Give us ears to hear and hearts to love and to believe and wills to carry out your commandments in this brand new year. We thank you for the grace that you grant us abundantly in our Savior. In His name we pray. Amen. Elizabeth Elliott says, planting tongue firmly in cheek. And I want to underline that for you. May I suggest the following pledges for the year that is upon us. And the title of this is A Dozen Ways to Make Yourself Miserable. And quite a few other people along with you. This is a picture of the way and the works of the flesh and the way of the world, you see, and so what you hear by way of introduction, think about it and do the very opposite and I think you're on safe ground. Okay? This is teaching by opposites. Count your troubles, name them one by one. Take them to the breakfast table with you every morning. Worry every day about something. Don't let yourself get out of practice. Pity yourself. If you do enough of this, nobody else will have to do it for you. Devise clever but decent ways to serve God and mammon. After all, you've got a life to live. Remember now, the opposite, the opposite. Make it your business to find out what the Joneses are buying this year and where they're going. Try to do them at least one better, even if you have to take out another loan to do it. Stay away now from absolutes. It's the way of the world. There are no absolutes in the world, you see. It's what's right for you that matters. You follow your heart. We hear that all the time. They say it in movies all the time. Follow your heart. Make sure you get your rights, never mind other people's. Don't fall into any comparison traps, the sort of situation where people can walk all over you. If you get too involved in other people's troubles, you may neglect your own. Don't let Bible reading and prayer get in the way of what's really relevant. Things like TV and newspapers and the internet and so on. These are big things. Invisible things are eternal. You want to stick with the visible ones. They're where it's at now. Be right and be sure to let folks know it. If you catch yourself in the wrong, don't breathe it to a soul. Review daily the names of people who have hurt, wronged, or insulted you. Keep those lists up to date and think of ways to get even. And then the last one, never forget a wrong. Clutch it forever and you'll never be unemployed. Resentment is a full-time job. That's the way of the flesh. That's the way of the world. That's being conformed to this The very opposite is the way of Christ. If you have an outline, you should have found one in your bulletin. You have the proposition statement before you. Don't follow the vain ideas and lifestyles of this shallow world. Be transformed from within by God's Word and Spirit so that you will clearly know God's will for your life. And I add and see how perfect his will really is. Now, the context is important here in Romans. Notice, Paul says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, and so you've got to ask the question when you see, therefore, in front of you, what has preceded? He's now driving some points home. He made his points in the first 11 chapters. Now he's beginning to drive them home in 12 through 16. And there's a lot there. But in summary, we studied many years ago the doctrine of man's fall of sin and depravity, the doctrine of justification by faith alone, of sanctification, God's unbreakable love for His chosen vessels of mercy. And now He says, in light of the mercies and the grace and the goodness and love of God to you in the Gospel, I urge you to give your bodies over to the Lord. It's your reasonable spiritual worship to God. To grant yourself to God. To give yourself to Him. God is pleased with this kind of worship and service. And I thought, what better time than at the beginning of a year to say, Lord, I again, brand new, consecrate and commit my whole being to you. What better time to do it at the Lord's table at the beginning of a new year. How do we maintain this and grow in God's will, delighting more and more in it? And that's the emphasis will be on verse 2 of our text this morning. Point number 1. Do not be conformed to this world. Now the word to be conformed is from Saskamatitzo, which refers to an outward expression that does not reflect what is within. Did you catch that? It is used of masquerading or putting on an act for people. Specifically, by following a prescribed pattern or scheme. The word schema, scheme, is the very heart of this word. It carries the idea of being transitory, impermanent, and unstable. It's a way of thinking and living. It's the under-the-sun world and life view that you read about in the book of Ecclesiastes. New Testament scholar Kenneth Wiest paraphrased this clause. He puts it this way. Interesting. Stop assuming an outward expression which is patterned after this world, an expression which does not come from, nor is representative of what you are in your inner being as a regenerated child of God. If you look at the world, it's all about what I look like, and how I talk, and what I wear, and what I drive, and all those kind of things. It's always an outward thing to impress people, and it's constantly changing. It's difficult to keep up with it. And Paul says, don't even try. That's not the point for the Christian. The root word here is scheme. Don't give in to the scheme of the world. Be conformed to the scheme. It implies someone who is behind this, the devil himself, the master schemer. He wants to trap you. And he wants to trap me. And he doesn't put it out there for you, so you automatically go, whoa, that's evil. No, he puts the bait on the hook in such a way that all you see is the bait. You never see the hook. And if you've ever done any fishing, you're sitting there and, you know, lines down there, 20, 30 feet down, whatever, and nothing's happening. Some people don't like to do that. You know, it's a little boring. But for fishermen, I want something to happen and every once in a while I reel it in and I look to see what? I look to see if the bait is covering the hook sufficiently. That's what I do. Because I don't want that big juicy worm or that cricket or whatever is on there for bait. I want that to attract the fish. And the evil one does that to us and he says, be conformed to this John says the very opposite in 1 John 2. You might turn there because we're going to look at a few verses there. 1 John 2.15, he says, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now, he's not talking about this beautiful day that we're enjoying and going to enjoy today. He's not talking about the world of God's creation. talking about the world system, the ideas of men who are influenced by that evil fallen spirit. You see, the world is this age as compared or contrasted with the age to come, which is eternity, which is our glorious hope. John Murray puts it well. He always puts it well. Conformity to this age is to be wrapped up in the things that are temporal. To have all our thought oriented to that which is seen and temporal. It is to be a time server. How far reaching is this indictment? If all our calculations, plans, ambitions are determined by what falls within life here, then we are children of this age. You see, a child of this age thinks only about this world, this life. child of the age to come, bases your life here in this age upon the one to come, you see. Glory, the hope of glory impacts your decisions, your thinking, your relationships, how you handle money, what you do for fun, and so on. We live by the principles of heaven. Notice in 1 John 2, John continues, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride in possessions is not from the Father, but is from the world. And what's going to happen to it? Well, he says, and the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. So you're holding on to something you can't take with you, and everybody knows that. Or are you living for that which counts forever, for eternity? That's important. That's pivotal for your life. That's pivotal for this year that lies ahead of you. This world or this age can be described by four isms. There's all kinds of isms out there, you know. I'd like to talk about four of them for just a moment so you get an idea of what this age is about. The first one is secularism. You know, the word secular. Seculum is the Latin. It means age, this age. Carl Sagan was a secularist, and here's how he put it before he died. The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. That's the secularist. That's the one who says everything is in this age. There isn't anything in the future. R.C. Sproul explains this in a marvelous way with his very clear pen. He says, for secularism, all life, every human value, every human activity must be understood in light of this present time. What matters is now and only now. Forget about tomorrow, let alone heaven. I'm not going to worry about heaven and after death. I'm a young person. I'm healthy. I'm going to live a long time. If you read the recent World Magazine, and there's a list of people that passed away this past year, some of them were quite young. And I don't think they thought that they were going to die so young. He says all access to the above and the beyond is blocked. There's no exit from the confines of this present world. The secular is all that we have. We must make our decisions, live our lives, make our plans, all within the closed arena of this time, the here and now. But Christians, we make our decisions based upon knowing the Lord of life, The one who dwells in eternity, you see, the one who we long to see and to be with, and we will be. And that impacts our daily life in every way, or it should. Remember the Pepsi slogan that we are the now generation. It's a generation that does not allow for God. That's what it is. It is a godless, generation. Another ism is humanism. You've heard of humanism. Humanism deifies man. Man is the measure of all things. The evil one said you will be like God and you'll know good or evil. Humanism says forget God. I am God and I'm going to define and I'm going to bring meaning to everything that I touch and everything that I create and so on. The third one is relativism. There are no absolutes, that's what the relativist says. There is no word from God. And well, Alan Bloom writes in his book, The Closing of the American Mind, there is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of. Almost every student entering the university believes Or says he believes that truth is relative. I mean, that's the setting that our children go forth into unless they go into a Christian college setting. And even in many of those contexts today, it is a great disappointment as to how far the truth has been given up. We have to be careful wherever we are. He says, if this belief is put to the test, one can count on the student's reaction They will be uncomprehending that anyone should regard their proposition as not self-evident astonishes them as though he were calling into question 2 plus 2 equaling 4. These are things you don't think about. What did he say? There are no absolutes out there. I'm not standing on anything. It's all relative. It's what you want to make it, he said. And then there's another ism, and we live in the very middle of it. It's called materialism. Nothing exists except what we touch, what we measure, what we test, what we taste. That's it. And so you talk to me about your invisible God, and I scoff at you. Materialist says, if I can't see him in some way and feel him and hear him with these senses, then forget it. Just forget it. James Boyce quotes A. W. Tozer here and then goes on and gives his own comments. The moment we make up our minds that we are going on with this determination to exalt God over all, we step out of the world's parade, writes Tozer. And Boyce says, I think that is a great expression, out of the world's parade. We're out of step with the world. We were talking about that last night in our home. If you live as a Christian consistently and humbly in this world, you will stand out. People aren't going to always appreciate it, but you will stand out. We shall find ourselves out of adjustment to the ways of the world. and increasingly so as we make progress in the holy way, the way of holiness. Boyce is very accurate when he says that. He says, let the average man be put to the proof on the question of who is above and his true position will be exposed. Let me be forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition, God and self, God and human love, And God will take second place every time. And I have seen that as a pastor. I'm in love. It's not a believer I want to marry, but that's the way it is. I'm in love, you see. No, I'm sorry. I've got to go into this debt. It's a business deal. It can work out, and so on and so forth. And God is set down below whatever becomes the God of the moment. And so we are not to be conformed to this world, but we are, Paul says, to be transformed. We are to give our bodies over to God, and then we are to have our minds transformed and renewed. That's the second point. As an act of worship, we give our bodies to the Lord. We commit ourselves wholly and fully and unreservedly, and everything we do in and through these bodies is to be done for the glory. of God. And so, yes, young people, we are to discern what our gifts are and develop those gifts and be the best that we can be for the honor and glory of God. And it's refreshing once in a while we see that someone is interviewed, maybe they're in the sports world, and they actually give glory to God for the gift that God has given to them. That's rare. But once in a while you see that, you hear that. Nody says here, being conformed. We've seen that is outward or outside of man. But this word transformed is inward. And that's the key to the changing of your life. It has to be an inward change of the mind and the heart of man. The Greek word metamorpho. We get our English word metamorphosis. We think about the caterpillar turning into this beautiful butterfly. It's a complete transformation. We call it being born again. And once one is renewed, regenerated by the Spirit, then he is constantly being renewed in his mind and his life will change by the grace of God, by the work of the Spirit of God. Now, this word Transformed is found four times in the New Testament. It's always interesting to see the different contexts that you read a word in. That's how you define it and understand it. Twice, once in the Gospel of Matthew 17 and once in Mark 9 in the transfiguration of Jesus. The word is there. And then in 2 Corinthians 3.18 we read, But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed. There's the word into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. He is the one who transforms us. It is a passive imperative in our text. God commands us to be transformed, but ultimately it's the Spirit of God and the Word of God that transforms us. We can't do it. Only He can do it. But we are involved in this process. We're involved, turn to Colossians chapter 3, by setting our minds on Christ and upon His Word. And you read that throughout the Scriptures, but just a couple of instances. In Colossians 3 and verse 2, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. How do you do that? You do it through the Scriptures. The Bible is a book given to us from God. And it not only talks about heaven, but it talks about how to live as a Christian in this world. He gives us everything we need for faith and life. to be godly in an ungodly world. Look at verse 10 of Colossians 3, "...and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator." And so, brothers and sisters, we cannot grow and be transformed and be changed if we are not men and women of the Word of God. It's impossible. Look at verse 16. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. It's a ministry, one to another, of encouraging one another in the Word of God. You see, it's not the idea that you hear one sermon a week and that'll do it. That's enough for the week. You hear the sermon, but it ought to motivate you to open the scriptures when you get home. And this idea of reading the word and talking to family and friends about it is an ongoing exercise of your life and mine. And I hope that's what's taking place in your home. And this is done not simply by hearing some words. It's done by the practice of meditation. You know, how the old cow chews the cud, brings it back up and chews it over and over again. So we bring the Word to mind and we chew it over and we think on it. Little portions of it. We read those portions in their context. That's why it's good to read through books of the Bible and get the context. And we take those portions that really speak to us and we begin to think on them. And chew them over and take them with us as we go about our daily labors, you see. Psalm 1 talks about the godly man who is blessed is the man who meditates on the law of God day and night. James says you have to look intently at that perfect law, the law of liberty. And you need to abide by it, and this man will be blessed in what he does. Ezekiel talks about not only hearing the word, but being those who are doing The Word. God is not pleased with those who hear and walk away and forget and essentially reject the Word of God. So what do we put into our minds? You see, it's what you're putting into your mind. It's what you read, see, think about that is impacting you. That is changing. Let's not just choose the verses that make us feel good. Those favorite verses. It's great to have favorite verses and to go to them. But let's be wise in all the Word of God. Let's grow in sound doctrine and absolute truth in the objective written Word of God. The church today has just moved away from that. And sermons have become light and fluffy filled with stories and not filled with the Word of God. You know, our culture is moving in the very opposite direction. We're not into text, the text on a page like we used to be. We're into images. And I'm not saying that that is all absolutely wrong, but I think we need to be very, very Let me give you an illustration of this. This was 1987. It was at a graduation at Duke University. Ted Koppel of ABC's Nightline, many of you have seen, heard him speak, was speaking. He frequently quoted by Christian communicators because of something he said about the Ten Commandments in that speech. He was deploring the declining moral tone of our day and reminded his predominantly secular audience of the abiding validity of this religious standard. It's amazing, the Ten Commandments. He said that they are Ten Commandments, not ten suggestions, and that they are, not were, the standard. But then, voices in the background commenting on this says, but to me the most interesting thing about Koppel's address was his opening sentence in which he said that America has been vanitized. What does that make you think of? He was talking about Vanna White. Do you know who Vanna White is? She's the beautiful, extraordinary, extraordinarily popular hostess of the television game show Wheel of Fortune. And you know, it's interesting. She is exceedingly popular. And when you ask, well, what does she say? What does she do? The answer to the first question is, well, she doesn't say anything. That's amazing. She's never said anything. And all she does is she stands there and well, you know how it goes and it lights up and she turns the thing around and there's the letter. And then she gets to the other side and she does it so well. And what Koppel said is, and people love her and she's popular. And they trust her. Well, why is that? There's no content there to think about. And so you can make Vanna White anything you want. You can put upon her this beautiful figure that I can trust. She's always there. She's always doing the same thing. She's never let me down. And on and on it goes. Whatever you want to fill in the blank, you see. That's a scary thought, but you know, in our day and age, especially with the Internet, What are we thinking? Where are we gaining our values? Where are we going? And then I'm going to say something that is not popular in the world, but it's not really popular in the church. You see, we build our world and life view on sound doctrine. On what the Bible says about God, who is God? Have you read the Bible? Ask the question, what does it say about who God is? On man, what is man? Is man a fallen creature? What happened in that garden? And what has happened to the human race? And why is it in such a mess? Have you ever stopped to think about that? Do you base your answer to those questions on the scriptures? Do you have the hope of redemption, the doctrine of redemption? It works its way throughout the scriptures. And we take this book and we take these statements of objective truth and we build our lives upon them because they are unchanging truth given to us by the infinite God who loves us. And so I say be careful because often times it's easy to read this, close it, and I gotta do it quick because the next NBA basketball game is on. You know, or whatever it might be. And that gets me where I live because I like NBA basketball games. And it's tempting, you see. Nothing wrong with watching an NBA basketball game, but if we If we take a little bit of this and we take a lot of that and this is where our heart and our thoughts and our affections go, be careful because you could very well be conformed to the image of this world, not to the image of Christ. Notice the final point. Prove what the will of God is. God's will for each of us is good. It is pleasing. It's perfect. Why don't we give ourselves fully to Him? Why are we so afraid that His will is not nearly as good as my will, my choices, my way? We're afraid of that. We're just afraid to let go and say, OK, Lord. And so what kind of will are we talking about here? What's Paul referring to? Well, we have in the Bible God's sovereign, secret will, His decree or His decrees. He has planned all things and he's working out his plan right now. That is the will of God. OK, well, yes and no. Then there's God's moral will revealed in the written scriptures. That's God's will for us. Yes, it is. But you see, God's will for us includes both of the above, both the sovereign hand of God working out his sovereign will and my responsible response to his word and walking in obedience to it. That's how I discern, you see, the will of God. The immediate context is offering up of our bodies, refusing to be conformed to this world and being in this process daily of being transformed. And brothers and sisters, you can't take off a few days or a week or whatever. Sin is encroaching upon your life and mine all of the time. It's 24-7. There's never a vacation from it. There's never a break. There will not be one until you are in glory. And so, unless you are in the mindset of doing battle and taking every thought captive, then you are in trouble. And it's so silent and so insidious and it's within, you see, and unless I Keep every thought turning them over to the Lord. It wants to take over, not just one little corner of your life, but it wants to rule every detail of your life. And so we demonstrate what it is to be a child of God, you see, by discerning the will of God, by walking according to the scriptures, you see. God's will is described here in a marvelous way as good and pleasing and perfect. I mean, is this a good will for you? When He sends His Son to this world, taking on flesh, and He obeys the law perfectly, His holy law that He upholds, that reveals His holy character, and then He takes upon Himself the punishment of a holy God because our sins were laid upon our Savior. Is this a goodwill that He then offered to me a salvation without cost? He offers to me a full payment for my sin. He says, come to Me and trust in Me Give your heart, your life to Me. Believe on Me. Receive Me. And follow Me. And I've made the payment for you. I've paid the entire price. You see, it's either we believe in Christ's payment, His redemptive work, or for eternity, a man, a woman will pay for their own sins. In hell. I mean, there's nothing else. I mean, people come up with all these options out there and these options are just smoke and mirrors. They're meaningless. They're not reality. So is this a good will that He would regenerate us and justify us and adopt us, calling us His own children and sanctify us and bring us to glory? There's no better will than that. Paul says the commandment is holy. It's righteous. It's good. And this is the will of God for us. He says it's pleasing or it's acceptable. And one way of looking at his will and seeing how acceptable it is, is to look back over one's life and see where you were and see the awful bitterness of sin and the effects of it. and see the Lord bringing you to himself and what it is to walk with him now. You see, free from the guilt and that burden of sin. It's incredible how pleasing, how acceptable his will is. And then he uses a third word. It's the word perfect. in the original, it's teleos, it's something that has attained its full destiny, is complete. Jesus was the teleos man, the complete, perfect man. Nothing is left out of or lacking in God's will for us. That's why to turn my will, my heart, my affections over to Him every day is the wisest thing you and I can ever do. And here we are at the beginning of a new year. What a way to start. And then notice, he says, we prove God's will. You see, it's not enough to say, I just want to look at it from a distance. It's not enough to say, oh, yes, I believe that. But now I've got to get on with the real world stuff. To prove God's will, you can't stand on the side of the pool and look at it and say, I think it probably feels pretty good, but there's the water and here I am. No. To prove it, you have to dive in. And I urge you, dive in. I challenge you. Dive in, give your heart and your life and follow Christ. Don't be afraid to give all to Him because that's what He requires. Get wet in the will of God and you'll find out that it is perfect for you. Job was one who dove in. Well, maybe he got pushed in a little bit, but he certainly was in the midst of it, wasn't he? The ups and the downs and the grief and the debate and the sorrows. And God brought him through. And Job says, I heard about you, but now my eye sees you. I see you and I see myself and I just, I repent in dust and ashes. And did God bless Joe? Well, most of us know the last chapter of Joe better than any other chapter except for maybe the first. He certainly did. He certainly did. Robert Candlish in his commentary on Romans 12. says this, of the fashion of this world, it may be truly said that the more you try it, the less you find it to be satisfying. I mean, you can go all over this world. You can try everything in this world and you're going to find out your tank's empty because it doesn't satisfy. People sense this quite a bit this time of year with all of the lights and all of the gifts and all of the celebrations and everything. And at the end of the day, when you're throwing your Christmas tree out and putting the lights away, you kind of go, is that all there is? Candlish writes, it looks well, it looks fair at first, but who that has lived long has not found it to be vanity at last. It is altogether otherwise with the will of God that often looks worst at the beginning. It looks tough to become a Christian. It looks tough to really, really give your heart and life to Christ. We're afraid to do that. That looks tough at the beginning, he says. It seems hard and dark, but on. On with you in the proving of it. Prove it patiently, perseveringly, with prayer and pains, and you will get growing clearness, light, enlargement, joy. You will more and more find that the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. That's the will of God. For wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and her paths are peace. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." How many times have we sung those verses out of Psalm 19? Moreover, by them thy servant is warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Great reward. So what now? Well, I ask you, what side are you on? Being conformed to this world? or being transformed by the renewing of your mind. You're on the edge of the pool. You're looking at a brand new year. Are you willing to dive in? Are you willing to surrender it all and say, Lord, this is the year. Not that I'm going to live for you, but it's the year that I'm going to give myself to you. I'm going to let go. I'm going to trust you to do what you want. Francis Havergill's hymn, We've sung it many times. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee, and then stanza after stanza. Take my hands and my feet and my voice and my lips, my silver and my gold, my moments, my days, my time. Take my intellect. Take my will. Take my heart. Take my love, my God. I pour at Thy feet its treasure store. Take myself and I will be ever only all for Thee. What if I handed out to each and every one of you a blank sheet of paper this morning, and I said, you write on the bottom of that paper your name. And then give the paper to God. And you say, Lord, fill it in. Lord, do whatever you please in my life, with my life. I'm not going to fill it in. You're going to fill it in. You're going to come into my life and I'm going to open up every cupboard and every door and everything that's locked away and everything that's hidden to everybody else. And Lord, it's blank and you're going to do whatever you please with my life. I'm giving you my heart, my life. I'm done calling the shots. See, that's what it is to demonstrate the will of God, that it's good, acceptable and perfect. We start by what? By giving our bodies over and our minds being transformed, you see, and we give ourselves fully. And He demonstrates His goodness, His love, His faithfulness. It doesn't mean it doesn't take you through deep water. It doesn't mean there will not be tears and sorrow. and difficult times, but that's part of that goodwill, because in all of it, He draws you to Himself and He shows you what life is indeed. He's able to do that, but you've got to dive in. You've got to take that step of faith, not just once. I wish it was that easy. It's not that easy. Every day, every moment, we get up and we look unto Jesus, you see, and walk by faith in Him. Let's pray. Father, for many of us, we've had quite a few new beginnings, brand new New Year's, that we've contemplated some serious issues and questions about our lives. And here we are at the beginning of another one. How quickly they go by. Lord, grant us the grace to surrender, to surrender to your love, to surrender to your mercy and your power And Your perfectly wise will for each one of us to find out how good, acceptable, and perfect Your will is. Give us the faith to do it, Lord. To follow Jesus regardless of what the world says or thinks about us. To cling to Him. And may He cling to us in the process. May we know Him better each day. In His name we pray, Amen.