Well, good morning. I think everybody reset their clocks, hopefully, for this morning. We all got here, right? That’s how we know. That’s good evidence. Fall back, right? Is that clock doing its thing? It’s a magic clock.
We used to have a clock that did not. We had to put someone on a tall ladder and have three of us hold them up. But now this thing is automatic. It’s wonderful. Check. Did it work? Are you sure? You didn’t cheat? Okay.
All right, if you turn with me to Romans 12, we’ll just look at verses 1 through 8. Very important section, very important verses. We want to just focus on these.
Reading through the J. N. Darby New Translation, I’ll read:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
Holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service.
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
For I say, through the grace which has been given to me, to everyone that is among you, not to have high thoughts above what he should think, but to think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith.
For as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office, thus we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other.
But having different gifts, according to the grace which has been given to us, whether it be prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
Or service, let us occupy ourselves in service; or he that teaches, in teaching;
Or he that exhorts, in exhortation; he that gives, in simplicity; he that leads, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
Let’s pray. Lord, we’re so grateful we have the Word. I often think about it and often pray about it: where would we be without Your Word? And where would we be without Your Word made alive?
So we’re asking You once again, as we consider these most important eight verses, that the Holy Spirit would make alive Your words, which are spirit and life. This we ask together, in that only name, in that mighty name, in that precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Well, we’ll begin today looking at the third section of Romans. I think you all know this. I’ve told you enough times, but I like repetition. Some of you think it’s dreadful, but I know others understand it with repetition. Eventually, it might stick, and that’s my hope. I know that was, with me, an important thing.
First of all, we’ve looked at chapters 1 through 8. I am just going to mention a few things in introduction. Chapters 1 through 8, we called the mighty works of God. Now, if you don’t understand the first part of Romans, you’ll never be saved, you’ll never grow in the Lord, you’ll never know the Lord.
These are works of justification. A lot of people pray that we have a righteousness; it’s not our own, it’s His righteousness. It’s the way we can know God, serve God, and come into His presence.
But those weren’t the only mighty works: the mighty works of sanctification. You know, you can be saved immediately. You can be justified immediately, but you can’t be sanctified immediately. When you look at those eight chapters, it is a sanctifying process where the Holy Spirit actually makes you into what He wants you to be—into the image of the Lord Jesus.
Only the Holy Spirit can do this, and that’s also true for what we’ll cover today. And then there’s glorification. Aren’t you so glad He didn’t leave us with just justifying us and just sanctifying us, but we shall be with Him forever and be glorified as sons of the living God? That’s what He’s looking for. How marvelous.
We’ll even have a new body. Let me tell you, I appreciate that thought as this body gets more decrepit and more old. I can’t wait for that new body of resurrection. I’ve got the biggest amen out of our dear brother. How we need that.
And then you go to chapters 9 through 11. Chapters 9 through 11 are the untraceable ways of God. How past finding out are His ways. Who could have thought all that God would do?
We see His way of salvation, we see His way of election. We see the mystery that was behind everything God did in the past, will do in the present, and will do for the future, which is the mystery of election. How wonderful.
And at the end of that, we discover we’re all objects of mercy, when you look at that last chapter, Romans 11.
Well, today we’re moving on, and we’re going to look at chapters 12 through 16. I think these are the divine will of God. Not only works that He does, mighty works; not only ways—we begin to discover His ways and all that He is—but He has a will for every one of us: individual Christians and the assembly of God.
And we need to know—we need to know—the will of God. It is absolutely important. These last five chapters, Romans 12 through 16, deal with this matter of knowing the will of God.
And this message today, I’ve titled it from the verse in there: “The Good and Acceptable and Perfect Will of God.”
Now, I’ll tell you a little story as I think about that. Sometimes we think of this as three wills: “I’m willing to do the good will of God. What’s the least that’s acceptable to You, God? I’ll get by with that.” But many of us think, “Oh, we’ll never get to the perfect will of God.”
It’s just one will. It’s described three ways. I’m a little bit of a tinkerer, and I build things and love to build things. I can get lost in building. I don’t build so well, but I still like to build.
And I was at Home Depot the other day, struggling over this weather stripping to go in the door in the renovation I did downstairs—or that Brian mostly did. I got in Brian’s way, and Brian did most of the work. But he let me tinker. That’s all you have to do with me.
And I remember looking at these three different weather strips, and it said, “Good, better, and best.” You know, it’s a brilliant marketing campaign. We market our goods as good, better, and best.
And of course, you know me, I went to the best. It ended up it didn’t work too well. I had to go back and get the better, and it seemed to work. But once Brian straightened me out, I said, “Brian, I’ve got this problem. What do you do here?” So I went back and got other weather stripping, and it worked fine.
This will of God is good for us. Don’t ever forget. We often think, “Oh, the will of God, the will of God. It’s so hard for us. It’s so difficult for us. We could never do the will of God.” The will of God is good for us.
The will of God is acceptable to God. And the will of God is the perfect will. That’s one will altogether.
Well, we’re going to look at number one: God’s will for the individual. It’s very important. Every Christian has to understand God’s will—knowing the will of God. That’s in Romans 12:1.
The second thing is God’s will in transforming. Aha, here’s the problem. This is where we get in trouble. It’s a transforming process, and we’ll go into that. So this is verses 2 and 3.
And finally, God’s will in the body of Christ. God has a perfect will for His church, and we’re part of it. We need to know our place in it, how to function in it, and where to live in it. So we’ll look at those three things.
First of all, God’s will for the individual. Now, I think that first verse, Romans 12:1, is an exceptionally comprehensive verse. Now, I think most of you know what comprehensive means. It means full. It can’t be any more full. It’s complete. It’s whole.
Everything you need to understand is right there in this comprehensive verse. It says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
Holy, acceptable to God.
This is the divine thought of man contained in this one verse. This is more than that. This is the response that God is looking for in those that are saved.
More than that, this is the cause of that response—why we can respond to God and do His will. And this is the single act God is looking for in you and me to live in His perfect will. A single act.
You may not think it’s that clear, but it is. I like to make things simple. It seems these verses we’ve heard so often are quite simple.
This section often is described as explaining consecration. I don’t have any problem with consecration. I think, in a way, that’s right. But I think you need to take it further than consecration, because I think that when we look at consecration, we often think of consecration as what we do, right?
And often—I don’t want to offend anybody here; I’m speaking for myself, and it was a hard lesson to learn—our consecration is in our own power, in our own strength, and according to our own will. And we hope the Lord accepts us. That’s an idea of consecration.
This consecration is the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s a lifelong process.
Now, let me say something, for I just remember looking out. I just remembered I don’t need to be so thorough today, because Brother Lenny has already shared on this. I didn’t know you were going to share on this, but thankfully you shared on this and paved the way. I appreciate it. Everybody will remember what you said.
And then Mac has surprised me. I didn’t know he shared on this. I thought, “Well, there would be nothing for me to share. These brothers have shared everything.”
So we want to look at this process, this process of being brought into this place of consecration. You know, it’s not something we do in our own strength. We need to yield. We do. We need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. We do. We need to allow the Holy Spirit a free hand to do His work.
But don’t ever go past what it means. It means for the rest of your life, this is the process you’re in: this process of consecration—oh, really, this process of transforming. That’s what this is. It’s a lifelong process.
I often wonder—I told brothers and sisters this past weekend in Austin, Texas—you wonder why God didn’t just save you and zap you up, you know, like Spock: “Beam me up.” You wonder why God didn’t just do that. It would have been much easier for us than to leave us here on earth to struggle and find our way and determine what His will is.
But no, the reason He didn’t is that He left you here, for as long as your life is. Some of us, it’ll be long; some of us, it’ll be short. But He left us here to do that transforming work.
So you know and prove—it literally means, prove in your lifetime—what is the good, the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.
So this is where sometimes our consecration can get us in trouble, because we consecrate and then we give up, right? I remember the brother who led me to the Lord, a dear man, Worth Johnson, at the little Assemblies of God chapel in Richmond. It’s still there on Park Avenue.
When I was saved on February 4, 1972—I know, it’s a long time ago; most of you weren’t born. Usually, when I say that, people come to me and say, “I wasn’t born then.” No, I know. It was one of the dark ages for many of you.
But this man told me a story about the wrong kind of consecration. It was a living story. I never forgot it. He actually preached in Tennessee for many years. I think I said his name: Worth Johnson. Not that you’ll remember that, but what a dear brother, dear man of God.
And he knew Elvis Presley personally. You know, now I’m really in trouble, because the young people will say, “Who’s Elvis Presley?” He was the king of rock and roll, as they say.
And he actually told a story I had never heard before, and had never heard from anybody else since. He said that Elvis Presley would come to many church services, and he would come down to the front, get at the altar, and consecrate himself over and over again. And he said he would come down and do it with tears.
But I think maybe the problem was, it was only to the next consecration. It never can be us unless the Holy Spirit is allowed to do this work. It’ll never be done. But when He does this work, it will be done.
Well, you get the point. The first thing to make this happen is an appeal from the apostle Paul, which is actually God’s heart cry to us: “I beseech you.”
You notice, he didn’t say, “I command you.” I think that’s the way we look at the Word of God: a list of commands. “I tell you to do this and don’t do that.” He never said that.
At the end of these two marvelous sections of the book of Romans, after seeing the mighty works of God and after seeing the untraceable ways of God, it was an appeal to the heart. This is the only way. This is the only way you can become that living sacrifice.
It means to ask someone urgently and fervently to do something, to implore them, to entreat them. In other words, it’s something we can’t do. But it’s a heart cry of God that you would yield to that indwelling Holy Spirit, and He would do it in us.
Griffith Thomas said, “This is the true spirit of all Christian teaching and exhortation: pleading, exhorting attitude.”
Well, may the Lord help us. I remember when Paul wrote to his dearly beloved brother in the Lord, Philemon. All of you know the book of Philemon, right? I think everybody does. Well, it’s one of the shortest books in the Bible.
And of course, Paul called on this dear brother Philemon, whom he loved. And he said, “I beseech you.” He implored him about his slave, his runaway slave. You know the story. It’s in Philemon 1:10-11, who ran away and happened to go to Paul, and Paul led him to the Lord in his bonds. And this guy was forever changed.
And he said, “I beseech you for my son, the son of my bonds, Onesimus, who was unprofitable to you.” Now, you think about that. Most of us are unprofitable to God. In our natural state, there is no profit to God. He was picking—don’t get offended at me—from the bottom of the barrel.
But Paul said, “Who is now profitable to you and to me.” How wonderful. This is what the work of the Holy Spirit does: takes us from being this unprofitable one and makes us profitable through the Lord’s great work in us.
I like what Newell says about this beseeching, this appeal, this divine appeal. It’s not duty. That would be law. But it’s a great drawing power. How wonderful.
You’re not commanded. You’re not told to do this and do that, and don’t do this and don’t do that. God is appealing to you to come to Him. And if you come to Him and yield to Him, He will do His work. It’s His guarantee.
Well, I think that’s rather marvelous personally. I don’t know if it hits you the same way. This is the divine motivation. God is pleading.
Another thing we see is what that drawing power is—how He motivates us. First of all, you see that word therefore. I always think, and a lot of commentators have said this over the years, we need to understand what the therefore is there for.
Do you understand? I talk slow enough anyway. I tell people they ought to be able to keep up with me. We need to understand: what is it there for?
Paul is looking back over those first two sections of Romans, and he looks at everything from chapters 1 through 8, and then 9 through 11, and he says, “Therefore, by the mercies of God.”
This is what the therefore is. He saw all the mighty works of God as the mercy of God. He saw justification as the mercy of God. He saw sanctification as the mercy of God. He saw glorification as the mercy of God. He saw the mystery of election as the mercy of God.
He saw us, in the end, as objects of mercy—as the mercy of God. How wonderful. That’s the therefore: by the mercies of God.
If you haven’t seen the mercies of God, you’ll never be a living sacrifice. You’ll never go through this transforming process. If the mercies of God have not captured you, if you’re not caught by the mercies of God, you can never live the Christian life. It’s impossible.
But once you see the mercies of God, once you see it’s all according to the mercies of God, you then can yield, and you then can cooperate, and you then can grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think this is marvelous. The whole secret, the whole key, is wrapped up in the mercies of God.
Now, I like—that’s the old King James, right? My version says, “By the compassions of God.” This is one of my weak moments: I’ll say I like the King James better, far better: “By the mercies of God.”
Well, I will give a little defense. All the Bible I use and the four literal English translations I use all say, “The compassions of God.” But most English versions, I think, say, “The mercies of God.”
What a difference mercy makes. Mercy there—I think that song:
Mercy there was great, and grace was free;
Pardon there was multiplied to me;
There my burdened soul found liberty.
Isn’t that wonderful? I think mercy is the key. This is the drawing power. This is the secret that unlocks the door for being consecrated, for being transformed, for being a living sacrifice.
How we need to understand the mercies of God. This is a divine calling: “I beseech you by the mercies of God” that makes this possible.
Oh, when you see it, you’re never the same. When you see it, the second thing you have is a response.
God is looking for a response. You know, I’ve told you this story before. When I went back to school and got tired of engineering courses, I took this class which was the aesthetics of jazz—okay, the appreciation, I think it was, in the aesthetics of jazz.
I didn’t learn so much. I still like jazz. I didn’t learn so much, but I’ll never forget that professor. I can’t remember his name, Dr. So-and-So. He did this thing from a keyboard, and he played this music, played this jazz, and he would explain it.
And he said, “What you have to understand is jazz—the whole beginning of jazz was from this idea of call and response.” That was the whole thing.
You know, it was like the old African—I’ve told you this story before. These are the ones that Linda says are on the cut list for being told before. But all of the Bible is call and response.
God is calling. He is beseeching. He is crying out to us. And He’s saying it’s all according to the mercies of God. And then He’s looking for a specific response.
Look at the rest of Romans 12:1. Pardon me:
To present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Now, that’s kind of serious, right? I wish he hadn’t said that. That’s like Jerry and that message, “All in.” That’s not half-hearted.
You know, we like to think of people, Christians who aren’t wholly following the Lord, as having one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world, right? That’s the way we look at it. This is a whole, all-in response.
Present yourselves a living sacrifice. Oh, I don’t know about that. That seems too hard for me and for you. And it is.
A living sacrifice. Are you willing to be a living sacrifice upon the altar, consumed for God? That’s what a lot of people say: “I’m leaving this meeting. I’ve gone.” Fourteen people just left. No, I’m only kidding, cameras. Fourteen people. I was just joking.
Are you willing to be a living sacrifice? Let me tell you something: if you are willing to be a living sacrifice, you’ll never regret it. You’ll never regret it.
Because you will discover more and more of the wonder of the Lord, the beauty of the Lord, the fragrance of the Lord, as we heard.
So this is the one response God is looking for:
Present your bodies a living sacrifice,
Holy, acceptable to God.
This is our calling. Now, you know, let me go back to the whole burnt offering. Notice the word. That’s the way the Bible, the Old Testament, describes the whole burnt offering—not part, not a hand, not a toe. It’s the whole burnt offering, the consecration offering.
If you read the Bible, it was consumed completely on the altar. God is asking you to do something you can never do. And unless you see the mercies of God, you will never do it.
This is the secret of this chapter. By the way, this is the practical part. We’ve seen all the doctrine in Romans 1 through 8. We’ve seen all the ways of God in Romans 9 through 11. But now we get to the part that is the practice of living the Christian life. And oh boy, that’s so much harder than just understanding doctrine and even seeing something of His ways.
Well, this is what I believe is the call and the response that the Lord is looking for.
I remember an old story, a story of mine. I don’t know if Linda remembers—probably doesn’t want to remember this one. It was about a guy who discovered what it was to be a living sacrifice. It’s a story called “The Old Indian, Too.” Have you ever heard that story?
Now, I don’t mean like these brothers from Hyderabad and sisters from Hyderabad. I’m talking, Linda, about an American Indian. Native American—thank you, brother, for being very politically correct—a Native American Indian.
And this Native American Indian, the Lord called him. And he was touched. He was moved. And he began to think of what he could give to God, and he said, “I’ll give You my wampum.”
Now, none of you know what wampum is, only when you watch those cowboy and Indian movies I grew up on in black and white. It was their money. It was the beads, the string of beads, the shells made from shells. It was their currency. He was willing to give up his currency, his money.
And he had no peace in his heart. That old Indian was still troubled. He had a better idea. It was like most of us do. He said, “I’ll give You my squaw.”
Now, that’s not politically correct either. As a matter of fact, they say, I think now in Wikipedia, that’s a racist term, right? You cannot say that. Forgive me for saying that. If “squaw” is a derogatory term, I used to hear them call them squaws on Roy Rogers and all that when I watched it, but apparently you can’t do that anymore.
“My squaw, too.” It means his bride. That cleans it up a little bit, right? You can all accept that—his bride. “I want to give You my bride.”
The old Indian chief had no peace. No peace. He didn’t understand what it meant to be a living sacrifice.
And then all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit came upon him, and he realized. And in tears, broken down, this old Indian chief said, “Old Indian, too.” That was it.
This is a living sacrifice. Are you willing to be that one, to present your body a living sacrifice? I think that’s what God is looking for.
You know, it goes on to say something else in this. I’m still on the first verse. Jack’s getting so nervous. I want to tell you, I’m still on the first verse.
But you know, it says in the King James Version, “It’s your reasonable service.” Do you think it’s reasonable? I think most of us say, “Well, that’s not any definition of reasonable I know.”
It says in the version I use, “It’s your intelligent service.” This is the smartest thing you can do. You know, a lot of us boast about how smart we are. We get it, you know?
Well, if you got it, you would be the first to be a living sacrifice. It’s the intelligent thing to do, because in Christ everything is provided for life now and life forever. Most intelligent thing you can do.
And of course, a lot of you like the NASB, and it says, “Which is your spiritual service of worship.” We like to come to a meeting and offer a few words and then go home and live the way we want to live for the rest of our life, all for ourselves.
But being this living sacrifice is your spiritual service of worship. And this is only possible through the Holy Spirit. Well, you get it, right? Can I go on from verse one? So, if fourteen people say, “Please.”
John said this was his favorite part. He couldn’t wait until we got to Romans 12. That is a comprehensive verse, full of depth and meaning.
God’s will in transforming is in verses 2 and 3. It says:
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
For I say, through the grace which has been given to me, to everyone that is among you, not to have high thoughts above what he should think, but to think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith.
I think these are such important verses. They deal with how God actually transforms us. This is how the work is done—that impossible work.
We’re first of all told, “Be not conformed to this world.” Now, there are two people groups that fall into this problem. There’s the whole world, the unsaved world. They naturally fall into this.
When we were unsaved, we lived according to our own lust and for ourselves. It’s natural. The world falls into this. But the biggest thing to God is that many of His people fall into this category. We’re conformed to this world.
It means after the fashion of this world. You know, the world’s in fashion; we live according to the fashion of this world. And we’re not living sacrifices.
The second option is to be transformed. Only two options. Don’t think there are sixteen options: “I can take option B, or door three, or door six,” or whatever. As a believer, you only have two options, and as a believer, you don’t want the first one.
You can be conformed to this world. It doesn’t mean you’re not saved. We believe once saved, always saved. We don’t believe God takes away His salvation from us. If we have believed in the Lord, “you shall be saved” is the Word. Thank God for that.
But if you look at 1 Corinthians 3, it says you might be barely saved, but as by fire. When the works—speaking of believers—are tried, whether you built upon that foundation of Christ with gold and silver and precious stones, or whether you built upon that foundation of Jesus Christ with wood, hay, and stubble.
Now, wood is the nature of man. The Psalms talk about man being as a tree planted by the water, right? Straw—you can think of Exodus and making bricks—straw is like grass. You remember James said we’re like grass that burns and is gone.
Or—what was the third? Stubble, yeah, stubble. It’s the same. It’s just, yeah, sticks and stubble. If we build with those things, it’s the nature of man. They’re the wisdom of man. They’re man’s will, if you want to go back to the subject.
But if we build with those things, it’ll be tested—not at the great white throne. We never have to go through the great white throne once we believed in the Lord. At the end, we go through the judgment seat of Christ.
And the judgment seat of Christ is described in Greek as the Bema. It’s where family gathers. And at His footstool, He will say, “How did you build? What did you build with?” And you will suffer loss, though you will be saved.
Well, I think maybe you get this: the transforming process is a lifelong process. It begins with new birth in Christ. You remember Jesus said to Nicodemus, the finest of Israel’s sons, “You must be born again.”
But born again is only the start of the process. It’s a lifelong process that we need to experience every day. As a matter of fact, it’s a maturing process.
That’s why it says in Romans 8 that God is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. We need to grow up from being little children, or just children, as the Bible says, and as John says in 1 John, to young men, and even to fathers.
You know, I’ve never been called a father, but my daughter and my wife have. You would get it if you heard it. She knows exactly what I’m talking about. She tells me about it. Well, she hadn’t said that. We’ll leave that without further explanation.
This transforming process for you and for me is a maturing process. That’s why God left you on this earth. It is to shape you. It is to mold you. It is to make you and to conform you into the image of the Lord Jesus, as it says in Romans 8, and to transform you from what you were to what He wants you to be.
I think this is God’s will in transforming.
You know, when Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, the Corinthian believers were a mess. I used to tell people, when we thought we were something years ago, we thought we were Ephesus, and then we discovered we were Corinth.
It says of Corinth, that fleshly and carnal people, in 1 Corinthians 3:1:
And I, brethren, have not been able to speak to you as spiritual, but as fleshly, as babes in Christ.
We understand God’s divine plan when we read Hebrews 2:10, where He is bringing many sons to glory. These are mature sons. These are grown-up sons. These are ones that, as Lance used to often say, can take over the family business.
I’ve been reading for a second time Destined for the Throne, by Paul Billheimer. I recommend that you read it. All that we go through in this life, he puts in one category, and that one category is eternal training—on-the-job training.
Preparing you to reign with Him forever. And preparing you, he says—the ultimate event, I love this—is so that our Lord Jesus may have an eternal bride.
That’s what our training is for. That’s what this transforming work is for. That’s what He’s doing in your life in this present hour. Practical things now. As sons, we shall be like Him.
You know, John said that. He said, “Now we’re children, but one day we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.” How beautiful. I think that’s marvelous. I can’t imagine what a hope we have.
Transforming work done, we will be like Him. Ah, I can’t imagine.
Well, we’ve already talked a little bit about these two options. You only have two choices, not three or four or six. You can be conformed to this world, or you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Now, do you notice what he says? The renewing of your mind. I’ll tell you another story about this. When I was saved, I had a problem with my mind. Now, many of you might think I still have a problem with my mind. I don’t mind if you think that, by the way.
And I remember, as a young believer, loving the Lord, caught by the Lord, I went to Brother Stephen. And I said, “Brother Kong, I’m not sure I’m saved.” He said, “What do you mean?”
I said, “These thoughts, these thoughts—they attacked me. They paralyzed me. They made me fear, these thoughts that come into my mind.”
And he said, “You are a new creation.” Oh, I was relieved to hear that. But he said, “You have an old mind.” You understand? The mind needs to be renewed.
It’s part of the soul. Brother Nee—we owe so much to Brother Nee—understood that tripart being. You know, he understood the spirit, soul, and body. And the soul is the mind, will, and emotions.
And I’ll never forget, Brother Kong did offer me some comfort, because these thoughts would fly over my head and rest in my brain, and I couldn’t get rid of them. I was paralyzed, saying, “The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus, take away this thing.”
And he said, “Even though the bird flies over your head, you don’t have to let him roost in your hair.” Do you get it? Oh, it was liberty to me.
I was a new creation with an old mind, and that was encouragement to me. And then he began to share with me about how to begin to yield to the Holy Spirit.
I even thought my personality was so wrong. I said, “Brother Kong, I wish I didn’t have this personality.” He gave me great comfort, to your chagrin. He said, “Your personality is the way God made you.” I should tell that to Linda every other week.
Your personality is what you are. God will never change your personality. Brother Kong told me that—that’s a good source. I said, “Really?” He said, “No, I don’t want to do that. But what He does want to do is bring you under the control of the Holy Spirit.”
That’s what the renewing of the mind means. Do you know that only the apostle Paul in the New Testament speaks about renewing? He’s the only one. Don’t believe me; check it for yourself. He’s the only one.
So important, while you’re in this lifetime, for your mind to be renewed, for your mind to be changed, for you to be brought under the control of the Holy Spirit. And then you’ll be delivered from those agonizing thoughts. It was liberty to me.
Well, I don’t know. Better stop telling stories; we’re all in trouble. This is a long process. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says:
But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.
You see who’s doing it? Do you see that we’re gradually being transformed from glory to glory?
Now, I want to tell you something even more remarkable about this verse in Corinthians. This word, transformed, is the exact same word used in Matthew 17 about the transfiguration of Christ.
You remember, He came in His human body—God with us, Emmanuel. And yet that hidden glory was in that human body. And that day on the Mount of Transfiguration, when He took those three to the mount and they looked at Him, He was transfigured, or transformed, before them, and that glory shone out.
What a glory it was. Oh, Peter said—and of course, Moses and Elijah—“Let us build three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” And God couldn’t stand it. God couldn’t tolerate it.
And He said:
This is My beloved Son,
In Whom I am well pleased;
Hear Him.
There’s no one else. It’s only the Lord Jesus. Well, that same word—when I discovered it, when I discovered it, brothers and sisters—that same word about the Lord being transfigured or transformed before them in His presence is the same word in Greek for you and for me.
That inner glory of Christ, so hidden in us most of our life, during this process of transformation eventually will come out in all of its glory. And only Christ will be seen.
Well, I think you kind of get that. This transforming process has been—Lenny referred to this, and very well, better than I can do—the Greek word is metamorphosis.
Now, you know this. This is the caterpillar-to-the-butterfly deal, right? If somebody said, “Oh, yeah,” well, you just agreed with it. I woke you up, right? You agree with me. The caterpillar to the butterfly.
This ugly—if you don’t mind me saying, we were pretty ugly when we weren’t saved in the sight of God—ugly. Oh, I think caterpillars are ugly things. I hate when I see them. I get sort of antsy when I see a caterpillar.
And yet God’s mind for this caterpillar, born as an egg and then a larva—a caterpillar; I’ll start calling you larva if you don’t like being called a caterpillar—and then in this, what is it, chrysalis? Is that the state? This tomb, in this thing—it’s the dying to self.
That’s what it is. This caterpillar disappears into this tomb and dies, and then all of a sudden is transformed into this remarkable glory, and a butterfly emerges.
The long part of that is in that cocoon. You’re in that cocoon right now. You’ve got to learn to die to self, rely upon the Lord, follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
But believe me, if you do, one day you’ll be transformed into this beautiful butterfly. I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful in the world than this beautiful butterfly, doing this and going around. I think this is the most beautiful thing. This is the transforming work.
But then, how is this renewing possible? It still seems a little abstract. Most of us would say it’s abstract. But there are two things he talks about in verse 3. It’s grace and faith.
Look at it carefully:
For I say, through the grace which has been given to me.
Grace has been given to you. The problem is, we underestimate the grace that was given to us. It’s amazing grace. According to Paul’s learning, as he learned, it was a grace beyond anything, that superseded everything.
You know, he even said, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” And he talks about how that grace was in him and transforming him, and he talks about, “Yet I labored more than any man.” Think about that.
Grace makes us what we are. But we have to labor with the Lord, who transforms us. But then he says the most wonderful thing in that verse. He says, “But not me, but the grace that was in me.” Isn’t that beautiful? This is Paul’s own testimony.
It’s another thing it says at the end of verse 3. It says we need to think soberly, basically, but then it says, “As God has dealt to each a measure of faith.”
So two things are essential: grace, the grace of God that can change us—the amazing grace—and the measure of faith. Every man and woman, every believer in Christ Jesus, has been given this grace and been given this measure of faith.
You know, what does it say in Ephesians 2? I think it’s verse 8:
For by grace ye are saved through faith;
And that not of yourselves, it is God’s gift.
This is what makes it possible. This was the one thing Paul contributed to it: amazing grace and a measure of faith. And through these divine provisions, I can forever be transformed.
I think this is marvelous. The last vital ingredient is humility. Oh, this is a hard word. You know, we Christians like to act humble, but most of us aren’t so humble when it gets down to it. You press us to the wall, and you’ll quickly discover the mask of humility falls off.
But he said, “Don’t think of yourself as more than you should.” Why could he say that? He just said it was grace. It was through faith. That’s the only way. So why should we think we’re anything?
At the end, our only testimony about this transforming work is going to be: “Grace brought me through. Faith brought me through. And that faith was a gift of God.”
That’s why Paul, when he wrote his, I think, signature verse in Galatians 2:20, said, “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” I don’t like the versions that say, “I live by faith in the Son of God.” Now, I get it. I understand why, but I don’t like that. It’s something—it’s a faith given. What a difference it makes.
Oh, may the Lord find ones like us who can be transformed.
I remember once Brother Kong saying to me—and I think it was with all of us brothers; it was in a ministry, it was for all of us—he said, “You know, humility is not thinking less of yourself.”
You go up and talk to a brother, and he says, “Well, I’m nothing. Don’t say it. Don’t say I did a good job. Don’t do that, don’t do that.” Sometimes it’s false humility.
Brother Kong said something I’ve never forgotten. He said, “It’s not thinking of yourself at all.” Isn’t that beautiful? That’s how we can be transformed. That’s how we can be transformed.
Well, I always tell you my last point is a short point, right? I know I’ve tested your patience this morning, and you’re wondering, “Will they ever get to those last verses?” You know, you agree? I hear some squeaking and noises. Was that amen?
Notice in the last verses, it’s God’s will for the body of Christ. God’s will for the individual is in verse 1. But the majority of what the apostle Paul wanted to share with us is being in the body of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, during this life on earth, this short life, you need to find your place in the body of Christ.
Because the perfect will of God is not just that individuals could be saved and transformed and become living sacrifices. The perfect will of God is that He would have a church.
And one day that church will be so transformed, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, as it says in Ephesians 5. It will be presented to Him a glorious church without any of those blemishes.
Yeah, I can’t imagine being blemish-free. The older I get, the more blemishes I get. I went to my dermatologist and said, “Doc, I’ve got this problem. I start growing things.”
He calls them barnacles. That made me feel worse. Barnacles—old barnacles, gnarly barnacles—get on a ship and sort of seize to the hull underwater. You go down and look underwater on your boat, if you haven’t pulled it out lately, you may have a few barnacles on it.
But thank God, there’s a transforming process that, if we come into the experience of the body of Christ, this is the perfect will of God.
It’s not just that you would be saved. It’s not just that I would be saved and transformed, however glorious that is. That is part of it. But there are those that can somehow live without the church. I cannot understand it, and Paul could not understand it.
So what he spent most of his time talking about was the church and what is made available to the church. The church is that vessel through which Christ will be expressed.
I think those verses in Ephesians talk about the body of Christ being the fullness of Him that fills all in all. Isn’t it amazing? Oh, it says, I think—maybe the translators got it wrong. Surely they mean Christ. But no, they didn’t.
The body of Christ is the fullness of Him that fills all in all. This is that transforming process.
Now, he ends with seven gifts. We read the gifts. I’m just going to take five minutes and hit slightly on those five gifts. There are seven gifts.
You know, I was saved in the charismatic movement. I’ve told you that before. And oh, we only thought that 1 Corinthians 12, those nine gifts, the gifts of the Spirit—if you didn’t have the gifts of the Spirit, these miraculous things, maybe you didn’t really know the Lord.
And besides, if you didn’t speak in tongues, you didn’t have the Holy Spirit. I no longer believe that. Matter of fact, that’s the reason I left the charismatic movement.
I could see people, I met people, that were the Lord’s, and they were filled with the Spirit. You may speak in tongues—good. Paul says, “I speak in tongues more than you all.”
But his emphasis in the end, in 1 Corinthians 14, was the functioning of the body of Christ. And that’s what Paul’s emphasis is.
It says in Romans 12:4:
For as in one body we have many members,
But all the members have not the same office.
Now, I don’t like this version. I’ve done it twice. Don’t expect me to go too far to say that. I like the versions that say functioning, because I think that’s better. It’s clearer.
I used to go to an office. I went to an office fifty years. I saw enough of that office. Matter of fact, one of my partners said, “Would you like to come back part-time and work forty hours?” I said to them, “Don’t you think fifty years was enough?”
It’s not an office. It’s a living, functioning, breathing body of Christ, where the Lord is expressed in this organic thing. That’s the reason we’ve been left here: for you to discover your place in the church.
I’ll just mention these seven gifts. I like the fact that it’s seven here, and they’re different than the ones in 1 Corinthians. I like the fact that they’re seven here, by the way. Seven is a perfect number. It’s like Paul saying, “This is what you need to build up the body of Christ. This is what you need to function in the body of Christ.”
Prophecy. You know, prophecy—again, I’ll never forget a thing Brother Kong told us. He said, “Prophecy is not foretelling the future.” Oh, I used to think it was: “Thus saith the Lord, you’ll have sixteen children, and you’ll be rich,” and you’ll get what—you know, we had all kinds of prophecies, I remember.
But it’s forth-telling the mind of Christ. It’s the secret. Oh, that gets back to being renewed by the renewing of your mind.
How we need prophetic ministry. We need more prophetic ministry that tells us who Christ is, tells us what Christ is like, tells us about His fullness and His enabling. That’s what Paul meant by prophecy.
In service—now, you notice service is different, right? Service: we all can serve. You might not have a prophetic word, but you can serve in the house of God.
The wonderful thing about the body of Christ is everybody has a place of service. Let us serve. If you haven’t learned to serve in the body of Christ, you will not be transformed. But if you do, you will be wonderfully transformed.
He talks about teaching. Oh, we absolutely need sound teaching. We ought to pray for ones that can teach us clearly. We ought to pray the Lord would raise up such ones that we can understand and unfold the Word of God. Teaching is of absolute importance. The body of Christ cannot function without teaching.
And exhortation—I love this one. You know, everybody, brother or sister, can exhort. Isn’t that beautiful? It’s a living word.
As a matter of fact, when Paul spoke about the function of the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 14, he spoke about edifying the body of Christ, comforting the body of Christ, exhorting the body of Christ.
How we need to be ones that can give a word, in private or in public and among the saints, that is a living word of exhortation. It will transform the body of Christ. I think this is absolutely one of the most important gifts.
And then there’s giving. You know, we don’t think giving is a gift necessarily. All of us should give, but this is giving—let me get to that again:
He that gives, in simplicity.
You know, God loves a cheerful giver. We’re usually hounded by people saying, “Have you given your offering this morning? Have you given your ten percent this morning?” Brothers and sisters, that’s the Old Testament.
God loves a cheerful giver. It’s what He revealed to the Corinthian church.
He that leads, with diligence. We need leaders. We need to pray for the body of Christ, that people will be raised up who can lead by the Spirit of God and lead us into the fullness of Christ, and lead us into this transformation of being a babe to being a mature son of God.
And then the last one. This is so wonderful. It’s mercy: showers of mercy. Now, do you think that’s an accident that it’s there last? I don’t think it’s an accident at all.
I said already, Romans 11 ends with mercy. We’re all objects of mercy. Romans 12 ends with, “By the mercies of God.” And so Paul’s thought is on mercy: showers of mercy.
That’s what it literally means: showers of mercy. Now, I think this is one of the most important gifts in the whole of the church. And brothers and sisters, believe it or not, every one of us can be a shower of mercy.
This is how the church is strengthened. Everyone—I would love to sit up here and name some names, but they would be mad at me and you wouldn’t forgive me.
But there are people among us that I’ll look at and say, “Boy, they are showers of mercy. They’re showers of mercy.”
It says, “With cheerfulness.” It literally means, in the Greek, hilarity. They do it with such joy. They’re not thinking about themselves. They want to build up the body of Christ, and they’re willing to be these showers of mercy.
A gift of God, not of human compassion. And they can transform the body of Christ. All of these things, when they are done, will see the body of Christ manifest and expressed.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we’re so grateful for Your Word, even when we have difficulty expressing it. We’re asking You, by the Holy Spirit, to give us wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.
Lord, cause us to be these living sacrifices. Cause us to be among that number in our lifetime. Open our eyes to see the mercies of God that will change us forever.
Lord, we want You to do this. Only You can do this. Only You can do this work. We want You to do the transforming work. Change us, Lord.
We believe that’s why we’re still here. We want to cooperate. We want to yield. We want to submit. But we want You to be free to do Your work.
And then, Lord, You came for Your church. Ephesians 5 says You loved it and gave Yourself for it.
Oh, we’re praying that we find our place in the body of Christ, that we find every gift made available to us, and that we would be built up a holy habitation for God in the Spirit.
We’re asking You to do this, Lord, for Your glory and for Your sake. And we ask all these things in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.