← ArchiveSunday, January 5, 2014DateJanuary 5, 2014SpeakerChris BurnsTextRomans 12Passages in this sermonRomans 120:34Romans 10:57Romans 313:19Proverbs 2529:24Ecclesiastes 729:36TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00As I introduce this study that we're going to be doing over the next several weeks, I want to make sure that you understand something. Salvation is not something that you earn. It is something that is given to those by faith that trust in it by faith. In other words, you can't ever be good enough, you can't ever work hard enough. But to say that, as I get, if you have your Bibles with you out, will you turn with me0:29to Romans chapter 12? And in Romans chapter 12, there's a pulse from where Paul has been explaining about justification, explaining about glorification, explaining about the grace of God. And he comes to chapter 12, and the challenge then is pointed toward the Christian, toward the believer. As he's been given a great understanding of what sin is, and the fall of man in Romans0:57chapter 1. And then chapter 3, we find that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And we read in chapter 8 about the Holy Spirit of God, and how God provides that Holy Spirit for us. It is God with us, since he's not with us. You know, he said he had to go away so that he could send the comforter to us.1:24And as you read through Romans, you come to understand the theology of our life. But then when you come to chapter 12, it gets very personal, very direct, and very pointed. Last night I was watching the end of a movie, and you've seen the movie, Saving Private Ryan. And in Saving Private Ryan, it's about a soldier whose three brothers have been killed.1:51His mother is about to get the notification that two of them were killed on the invasion of Normandy. One of them was killed in Indonesia. And now she only has one son left. They don't know whether he's alive or not. But they're going to send Tom Hanks and a group of men out. I don't think he's called Captain Tom. But anyway, they're sending him out with a group of men to find this man.2:15Find him, Private Ryan. Find Private Ryan and make sure that he's protected, that he's taken to safety, and that he's no longer in combat or harm's way. And so you've seen the movie. He goes out. They find him. At the end of it, Tom Hanks, that burn, gets killed. But he's all shot up, and he's all wounded, and he does like everybody does in the movies.2:42He's whispering at death, and he brings this young Private down, and he speaks these words into his ear, and he says, earn it. Earn it. And then the movie fades out, and it goes over to where this man, Private Ryan, is an old man. He's got his children with him. He's got his grandchildren with him. And he brings them with him back to Normandy beaches, and he finds that cross with this captain's3:09name on it, and he bends down, and he has a moment there. But then he gets up, and he goes back to his wife, and he, with tears in his eyes, says, tell me, tell me, tell me that I was a good man. Tell me that I am a good man. Well, folks, one day, remind you, you haven't earned your salvation.3:36But how you live your life out as a believer in Jesus Christ, one day, you're going to face him who gave his life, who bore your sins. And you're going to hear him say, or not say, well done, good and faithful servant.4:03You are a good man. You are a good woman. Now, that goodness comes from God working through us in his Holy Spirit when we are obedient to his word. I want you to look at Romans chapter 12.4:33What can I do to change the world? What can I do to see change in my life? And I believe all we've got to come to understand is all we have to do is follow God's wisdom. All we've got to do is follow God's plan. All we've got to do is follow God's word. Paul says, God's done everything. We were sinners.5:02We've been saved by grace. He's working through us. He sent his Holy Spirit for us. He's begun a good work in us. And then he writes, therefore, and that therefore, we'll read about in a minute why it's there. He says, therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.5:30For through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.5:46For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do have the same function, do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.6:04Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly. If prophecy according to the proportion of his faith, if service in his serving, or he who teaches in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.6:28Let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor, and not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.6:55Rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer. Contributing to the needs of saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you.7:23Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.7:51If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. And if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, he will heap burning coals on his head.8:21And do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. You know, I could stop preaching right now. If we were really listening to that passage, give the invitation and see what God would do. Because that may be one of the more powerful challenges of Paul. And yet Paul gives the same challenge in different words to the church at Philippi and to the church at Ephesus.8:49To the church at Colossae and even to the church at Galatia. But in this passage, we have all the ingredient that we need to have to earn it. And please don't take that wrong. Don't go out here and say, oh, Brother Chris said you earned yourself. No, I'm not. I'm saying take the salvation that God has so freely blessed you with.9:16And use it to glorify him. Take the salvation that God has brought into this world that has changed your life and glorify him. You know, a lot of people in our day and in our age especially take the gifts and the opportunities that others give them only to lace their own pockets with whatever they can.9:43They tank up good works so that they can be looked upon as being good. In our Sunday school class, we talked about how many people today still believe and how many churches still preach a gospel that in orderly gives in their presentation of the gospel the ability of good works to have some sort of place in a person's life. And my friend, I can only share with you according to Ephesians and according to Romans10:12that any good work you have, God has already ordained that good work. For you are his workmanship created unto Jesus for good works that he's prepared before the foundation of the world for you to be a part of. That's Ephesians. Here in Romans, Paul's just challenging us to take what we've learned in those first 11 chapters. To be a Romans 12 Christian, we must first understand what a Romans 12 Christian looks like overall.10:38And then we can look at the changes that we need to have in our hearts and in our lives so that we can meet the expectation that Paul has established for us through the working of the Holy Spirit in his hand, and he's written it in Romans 12. Well, David Platt wrote a book called Radical, and in that book Radical, it talks about the Christian life being radical.11:02Well, I want to tell you, when you read Romans chapter 12, that's radical. It's a very radical life. It shouldn't be radical. It should be commonplace for us who've been born again in the Spirit of God dwelling in for us to take all those truths that Paul's listed in Romans 12 and be living them out every day. It shouldn't be radical. What kind of Christian do you want to be?11:32Well, let me tell you, I got to thinking about that, and I came up with this thought. This is mine, so you can tweet it out. It's Brother Chris's thought. Are you willing to take the challenge and be a biblical Christian or remain of what I think a Christian is, Christian? Does that make sense to you? There is a clear understanding of biblical principles12:01that tell me what kind of a Christian I should be because of God's grace. And then there are those, inevitably, that sit down at my desk or sit down with me or eat lunch with me or talk with me over the phone or I meet that say, well, let me tell you what I think a Christian is. My friend, it's not what you and I think a Christian is that counts. It's what God's Word says a Christian is that counts. And, you know, we need to get back to that.12:29Paul says in the beginning of Romans 12 in verse 1, he says, I beseech you, the word is parakaleo. It means I beg of you, please. The word, therefore, reaches back to the contents of the previous chapters. The basis of Paul's exhortation or by which he urges obedience to the exhortation is by the mercies of God.12:58So Paul says, therefore, because of God's mercies that I've just shared with you, because of his grace, what are his mercies that he shared with us? We were dead in our trespasses and sin, and Christ died for us. He shared that with us. He shared with us in Romans chapter 1 what the gospel was and how important it was to our life. He shared with us in Romans chapter 3 that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that there are none that seek God. There are none righteous, no, not one, none that seek after him. We find out how desperate and destitute we were when we read Romans chapter 3.13:27And we continue on to understand in those first 11 chapters of Romans that we as believers have absolutely nothing to do with what God is doing. He's doing it because he loves us. He's doing it out of his mercies, Paul says in Romans chapter 12. So he says, I challenge you.13:57The mercies of God here are in the justification, sanctification, and the glorification of the believer, which is God's doing. He's talking about the exhortation to a holy life in conformity to the exalted position of the saint in Christ Jesus is to be obeyed in view of these mercies. Thus, in view of the fact that we are justified persons, righteous in our standing before God, we are under obligation to live a righteous life, earn it.14:22Tom Hanks said to that young private, because all of them were going to be left there dead. In view of the fact that we are the objects of the Holy Spirit's work of sanctification, we are to live those lives in the spiritual energy he supplies. In view of the fact that we are yet to be glorified,14:53we are to look forward to our Lord's coming and purify our lives. Thus, the exhortations are to be obedient. In view of the content of what we just read in Romans 1 through 8, 9, 10, and 11. So what are they? I'm going to give you a quick overview of what the next several sermons are going to be about. So next week, I'm going to preach about the first point of this sermon.15:23So you say, well, we're going to get, it just makes it a lot easier to preach. That way, you repeat things and people pick up on them. Amen? I mean, we sing the same songs. Brother Rick, I tell you what, you're going to blow their mind. Find me five songs next week to sing that we've never sang before. Everybody be like, but to preach the same sermon. Now,15:54Now, I'm not going to preach the same. We're going to open it up a little further. So I hope you plan on being here. We first must be surrendered to God. You see, that's what Paul is saying. He says, You know, I come to understand that in my flesh and in the flesh of 99.9.9% of the people that I know surrender is the hardest thing on earth that we ever do. I mean,16:25I mean, after all, we don't surrender in battle. We die to the last man. We don't surrender in life because we know that when we surrender, we fail and failure leads to failure after failure. So you never surrender. We keep on going. But Paul says, Therefore, I urge you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable, which is your spiritual service of worship. Surrendered in this context means to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand.16:53In other words, we are to surrender our life to the Lord Jesus Christ. Under the compulsion and demand of his Holy Spirit. Do you realize how many Christians enter a church on a given Sunday morning and continuously from the beginning of the first prayer to the end of the service, wrestle with the Holy Spirit of God.17:21For them to surrender to him so he can begin living through them. And they wrestle and they wrestle as truth after truth is given. And we wrestle with the life that we're leading. We wrestle with the decisions that we're making. We wrestle with the hardship sometimes that the gospel calls us to. We wrestle with the radical lifestyle that the Lord is calling us to. And we wrestle and the invitation is given. And we clinch the back of the pew.17:50And we walk out with no change at all because we refused to surrender. I want to tell you if you want to be a Romans 12 Christian, you will surrender. If you want to be a Christian, a child of God that one day hears those famous, infamous words that Paul declares that he desires to hear. Well done, good and faithful servant.18:19Well done. You did good. Can you imagine seeing God one day and hearing God speak into your ears? Good job, Stuart. Good job. Whoa, how glorious. That just makes you think that God might say that, but we would sit here today and say, I'll never hear that. The only reason you may convince yourself that you'd never hear that is that you're not willing to release your will and surrender.18:45The only reason you may convince yourself that you'd never hear that is that you're not willing to release your will and surrender.19:01I surrender. You know, for years we sing that invitational hymn, I surrender all. All to him I surrender. I surrender all. You know, I want to tell you something this morning. We sang the song. We didn't do the act. I surrender. Doubtless in the thinking of Paul, the word was used here to speak of the believers, priests, sacrifice, service.19:27He's talking about literally holding up ourselves that God may take hold and use us as his will. I saw one of the cute, I'm not a Facebooker, but my wife is, so what do you call that person that, stalker?19:50God, that don't sound good, does it? But I'm a Facebook stalker. And there's a reason I don't do Facebook. I don't want to read what some of y'all might say about me. It hurt my feelings. But, you know, I read about what all those other church members are saying about their church.20:16I'm just hoping some of us would say some of the same things. Oh, I want to read the wolf's wonderful sermon. No, let me get on with it. You know, there was a picture of this little boy. He had gotten a wheelbarrow for Christmas. And the caption, I think, under, and they're here today. I won't embarrass them, but the caption under is, there's my hardworking little boy, something like that. And I thought, it won't take long. He'll get away from that.20:46But, you know, I got to thinking, then, maybe we ought to buy all our kids' wheelbarrows for Christmas when they turn three years old, four years old, until they learn how to use them. We ought to buy them rakes when they're five years old, until they learn how to use them. Don't let them see you cut the grass. Make them think that you bought them the lawnmower.21:17We surrender. The word present is to place beside or near, to present, to offer, to put at one's disposal. So I lay my life surrendered beside the Lord Jesus. And that means I'm willing to say, God, if the life that I'm living is contrary to your design and purpose in any way, show me today that I may find the opportunity for forgiveness21:43and repent of the sins that so easily beset my life that I may be surrendered. Notice the next point in verse 2. We, secondly, are to be separated. And I want to pick it up a little bit because I do want to finish before tonight. But we must, secondly, be separated from the world. Paul says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.22:10I want to tell you something. I believe that we're more like the world than the world is like the church. We find ourselves, I'll guarantee you, fashion is established by the world, not by the church. Fashion, hair color, everything is established by the world, not by the church. We fall into whatever in the world, and, you know, we say, we use it. You know, we even try to make church so unassuming that the world can come to the church and not be convicted.22:40I want to tell you something. If the church were what it should be and God were in the church where he wants to be, you couldn't get in this place without feeling convicted. You're going to be convicted all over because God is there. The thing that bothers me is we have people come in and they're not convicted. We hear a message and we're not convicted. We hear the truth and we're not convicted.23:08We sing a song and the song penetrates our heart. We're not convicted. We may show emotion, but the conviction is not there for our lives to be changed. And he says, the reason is you're not separated. He said, do not be conformed to this world. Well, if he's writing to believers, does that mean the option is open? Well, I think he's writing to believers to close the option. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is.23:37Earn it. Prove it. You know, what Tom Hanks was saying to Private Ryan is to go out from here and do something with your life that we're not going to do with ours because we're here dead.24:07Here's what one of the writers says. Stop assuming an outward expression which is patterned after this world and an expression which does not come from nor is it representative of what you are in your inner being as a regenerated child of God. One could translate, stop masquerading in the habiliments of this world, its mannerisms, speech expressions, styles, and habits.24:34My friend, I believe that if we're not careful, the reason one generation after the other generation is weaker and falls off, maybe are there more and less and less young adults coming? It's because we've created a society of young people that look just like the world.25:04We've taught them how to be chameleons rather than how to stand out.25:19Humility is an important ingredient of the change that must take place. So then Paul says, surrender. And then he says, separate. Separate. Does it really matter? You know, I went through the same things that you guys went through with my children, and they're going through, I'm sure, the same things with their children or will be as fashion statements become a reality. But I'll never forget one of my deacons in my home church who only had one daughter, and they were a wealthy family.25:47They didn't live real wealthy looking, but they were a very wealthy family. And his daughter came home on her 16th birthday, and she let her dad know that it was time for her to get a car. And he said, okay. He said, I can understand that. Let's go look for your car. What kind were you thinking about? And she said, I want a little red BMW. And he said, excuse me? She said, I want one because everybody at my school's got one.26:16Now, how many times has you as a parent have heard from your child that they want some because everybody else has one? And I want to tell you something. Then you get this, they get to this age where they don't want to look like anybody else or be like anybody else, but they spent their whole life trying to be like everybody. I mean, we do. You know, I want to be my own self. So I wear clothes like everybody else.26:45I wear shoes like everybody else. I wear my hair like everybody else. I've often thought about what if I just one Sunday came in, and I had personally myself just shaved my head. Not shave it off bald-headed because there are people that like that. I'm talking about just gap it out there. Let it just stand out. People are going to probably think, oh, what kind of fungus do you have that your hairs fell out that way? But I just want to make a statement. And then somebody comes, and they say, well, I'm making a statement.27:15You know, we have the guys down there in Louisiana with the Duck Dynasty. They're making a statement with their beards. I could never grow one like that. My wife wouldn't let me grow one like that. But I don't want to be like them. Let them make their statement. Let me make mine. Let us make ours according to what God's doing in our lives.27:43Thirdly, and this is the hardest one of them all, and there are several of them. And when we get to this sermon, you're going to really go, well, I think I'm going to lay out that Sunday. Thirdly, make a sober assessment of your personal lives. Notice he says, for through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.28:11That's making an assessment of yourself. You've made an assessment, and you think, well, I'm pretty good. I think I'm pretty sharp. I'm pretty ravved. Hey, I hold this position in the church. I hold that position in the church. I hold this position in society. I hold, you know, I've had, you know, people to tell me about their accomplishments before, which mean very little.28:34For, he says, make this assessment, since the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Examine your life where you are with what God has given you.29:01If you know there are things that are wrong in your heart, confess them, repent of them. Let the great spiritual surgeon have open-heart surgery on your life today. Proverbs 25, 7, it is not good to eat with much honey, nor is it to glory to search out one's own glory.29:24Nor is it glory to search out one's own glory. Ecclesiastes 7 says, do not be excessively righteous, and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? Have you ever thought about what you think about yourself? And then have you ever read the Bible and thought about what you ought to think about yourself?29:50And you say, well, if I do that, I'm a stinking low down, no good rotten dog. Yeah, but you are that in Jesus now. And you can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens you now. You can accomplish things that you never believed you could accomplish before in your life now. So you make that personal assessment. The word for there is your.30:20And it indicates that humility is the immediate effect of self-surrender to God. So one of the things Paul is saying is surrender yourself to the Lord. Separate yourself from the world and look at your heart to see how God is humbling you. And I want to tell you something. If God doesn't humble you, you will never last the rest of this book or this chapter.30:44There's a play, according to one of the commentators used here on these words. The play upon the words in the Greek text is not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Offered, renders the text, not to be high-minded above that which he ought to be minded, but to be so minded as to be sober-minded.31:13Thinking and realizing that we're not anything without Christ. All of which goes to say that a Christian should appraise the gifts of God which he has given him fairly, glorifying God for their bestowal and their exercise through dependence upon the Holy Spirit and not in mock humility make light of them.31:40Let God lead you to be what God wants you to be. Don't be what somebody else thinks you ought to be. And then, not only are we going to make that assessment, we are to love service. Last spring, we prepared the summer for love serves. I want you to listen to what he says.32:08Let love be without hypocrisy. And so, when our staff sat down and we began to look at what we wanted love serves to look like, we just began to look at ministry opportunities that nobody else was doing. We began to look at opportunities where there were a few people doing them or a few churches doing them so that we could do them. Not so that we could be the ones seen on the side of the road, which I know there was some concern over by some over the fact that we stood in the pulpit32:36and talked about what we did, but we did that in here. We didn't do that out there. We didn't go out there. And I really didn't want Bethel Baptist on there at all. Just love serves. But Bethel Baptist is there in small letters. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.33:06Be devoted to one another. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor. Not lagging behind in diligence. Fervent in spirit. Serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope. Preserving in tribulation. Devoted to prayer. Contributing to the needs of the saints. Practicing hospitality. What a powerful collection that God gives us to follow of opportunities.33:29With brotherly love, it's the same word as we use the city Philadelphia. Made up of phileo. To have an affection for. To be fond of. Adelphios to a brother. Brotherly love. Don't be an actor with your love. Be real. We must be horrified at what's taking place around us.33:55My friend, I want to tell you something that doesn't horrify us anymore. It doesn't horrify us when we see all these states voting in same-sex marriage. It doesn't horrify us when we see that abortions are still going every day rapidly. People destroying life.34:25We don't, we're not horrified. You know, I could go on and on. But when I do, the things that I would say that we need to look at is, Why are those very things not driving us from the pew to the altar and the altar on our face and on our face crying out, Oh God, why have I become so callous and intertwined by the things of this world? That we have come to the place that we will teach our young people don't have sex out of marriage.34:52That's not what you should do. You need to be holy and celibate. But let someone get a divorce or let someone's wife or husband die or let someone grow up and become 40, 30. Oh, then it's okay to go live with someone. Then it's okay to go have sex outside of marriage. Then it's okay. You've reached the age of maturity when you can begin sinning appropriately. My friend, those things ought to horrify us.35:21Those things ought to break our hearts. We shouldn't get angry at that group of homosexuals that attack those dynasty men, whatever. Why we should be horrified is that there's a nation, a world of people who are saying these things are okay. And we as Christians are just up throwing rocks rather than weeping over the sins of our brothers and sisters.35:49My friend, we will never change the world as long as we become like it. Then he gives us this supernatural response that we should have in closing.36:06Bless those that persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.36:34Respect what is right in the spirit of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. Bless those that persecute you. Bless those that curse you. Rejoice with others that are rejoicing. Weep with others that are weeping. Be in full, complete unity.37:02That means that there are people in our lives that are brothers and sisters in Christ that we need to be right with. If we want to be a Roman 12 Christian, we must determine that we're going to study this book. We're going to study this chapter. We're going to look intently at what Paul is saying about surrender. We're going to look intently at what Paul is saying about sacrifice. We're going to look intently at what Paul is saying about service.37:30We're going to look intently at what Paul is talking about when he says be separated from the world. And we're going to seek the leadership of the Holy Spirit to apply these things to our life. And if we need to step out of that comfortable pew where we've found solace for so many years, let us make our way to the altar crying out to God for his mercy and forgiveness that we might be different in life, different in the world, different in the church, different in the home.37:56My friend, until we are willing to do more than listen and hear, but act upon what we're hearing. Can I promise you something today? Nothing will change in your life, in the church's life, and in the world's life.38:24Can I tell you, there are a lot of churches that are having a party this morning. But I want to tell you something. We don't need to be having a party when our world and our society is going to hell in a handbasket.38:44And we, the church, are sitting in our comfortable pews, in our heated buildings, with our lovely surroundings. Oh, God, have mercy on us. And change us to be Romans 12 believers.39:14Let's pray. Father, today, oh, God, I want to be a Roman 12 believer. If I'm not already, which I doubt I am. Because I see so many faults and failures in my own heart. Oh, God, have mercy. Lord, once again, revive us.39:45Once again, come down upon us. Search our hearts. And know us, oh, God. That we may be obedient. God, help us not to harbor indifference, hatred, or concern, or malice, or anger. Any of those things in our heart toward another brother, another sister, another family member. But, God, today, have mercy.40:15And, God, break our hearts. Let the church gather with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Because, God, we know one day we're going to face you. And will it be heard? Well done, oh, good and faithful servant.40:39Enter into your rest. Oh, God, help us be a Romans chapter 12 church. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Our invitation is before you. How God has spoken to you.41:08Move. If you are not a Christian today, I invite you to come. And we would love to share with you how to become a believer in Jesus Christ. Because it's not about your works. You can come to church here. You can come to church here for a millennia. And it ain't going to get you to heaven. God's done everything that needs to be done for you and I to go to heaven. Now, it's just a matter of our obedience and faith in him. Today, you're looking for a church home.41:37You believe God's led you to this church. You need to exercise your spiritual gifts in this church. You've prayed about it. You know that's what God wants you to do. Then I challenge you to step out and do it. But for those of us, church members, I want you to hear me. I challenge you. Look at yourself today and ask yourself, what about Romans chapter 12?42:01Am I not? And God, would you make me what I need to be? Stand for a hymn of invitation. Thank you.More sermons on Romans →
