Good morning again, just supposed to say again. Can everyone hear me? I understand that my voice was a little scratchy to begin with, but the technical person back there put a little velvet thing up here. I guess now he's muffled me. Just kidding. I hope you can hear me. I want you to turn with me to our text, by the way, if I have shaken your hand this morning, you might think it's a strange handshake. It's a long arm handshake. Some people think it's a secret handshake, but it's not. It's the tendonitis shake. I got that several years ago and I've developed a habit of shaking like that. So, if you would turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2, and as I mentioned last week, this is the Word of God. The Bible does not contain the Word of God. The Bible does not become the Word of God by your experience. You do not wake it up. You do not turn it on by your experience. It's just the opposite. It's quicker and sharper than any two-edged sword. The Bible is the Word of God. So, hear the Word of God this morning with me. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. 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. You mentioned persecution. What if your came in time in the U.S. of A when Christianity is outlawed against the law to practice Christianity? Supposing with that they've ruined you on an island somewhere, maybe somewhere at the warrior river. I'm not sure. But they told you you could only have one book of the Bible. What would you pick? I don't know about you, but I would certainly pick the book of Romans. The book of Romans is like a mini-bible as far as what the Bible teaches, although the great doctrines of the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul was a Jewish lawyer, and he wrote the book of Romans just like that. And of course, we are here today, by the way, because of the great truths that the book of Romans contains. Martin Luther, when he nailed his 95 thesis on the door of Wittenberg Church in Germany, that was after he had gotten a grasp on the great teaching of justification, not just by faith, but just by faith alone in Christ alone. That's the cry of the Reformation. The great book of Romans is indeed a great book. And Paul, if I were back then, and following the reputation of Paul, if I needed a defense attorney, it would be him. It's not about he writes the book of Romans like it's preparing his case to defend. And he starts this out here in chapter 12. He says, I appeal to you, brothers. I appeal to you, I urge you, therefore. Of course, you've always been told whenever you see the word, therefore, in scripture, you need to find out what, therefore is there for. What is he talking about? It's always a summation point in scripture, and when an author of the text uses that word, therefore, what has he been talking about? He has talked about everything that has gone on before him in the book of Romans. And he lays it out quite consistently like a defense lawyer would. The first three chapters of the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul, covers that great doctrine of condemnation that we always like to talk about. Nobody likes to talk about condemnation. And he sums up, he, chapter 1, he can, he can fix the pagans, chapter 2, the Jews, and, matter of fact, chapter 3, the whole world. And he sums that up by saying, for all have sin and fallen short of the glory of God, the doctrine of condemnation, bad news. But he doesn't leave us hanging in the bad news. He goes on in the next three chapters to give us the good news. Next three chapters, chapter 4 through 6, dealing with the teaching of justification. What is justification? You know, I heard one very eloquent preacher say, justification has often been described as just as if I had never seen. You know what he had said about that? It couldn't possibly be that because we did sin. But what is justification? Justification is an act of God's free grace where he pardons us not because of what we have done, but because of Christ's perfect record imputed to our account and received by faith alone. Grace alone through faith alone. And grace and faith, of course, are two sides of the same coin. Grace and mercy are two sides of the same coin and he says that he moves us by the mercies of God. And mercy, of course, is, you know, if grace is getting something that we don't deserve, then mercy is not getting what we justly deserve. I certainly do not deserve God's grace. But he says, I move you by the mercies of God. I appeal to you, I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. And of course, the reason why you could do that is because of the one sacrifice that Christ has given to us and Paul explains that very beautifully in chapters 4 through 6, the doctrine of justification. But he doesn't just stop right there, either. You know, why did God save us? Did he save us in order to take us to heaven with him? Well, if that be the case, why didn't he bump us in the head and take us on the heaven? When he saved us, no, we have a purpose here. What is our purpose? You know, back in the 70s or late 60s or early 70s, when I was around in school, we had the hippies. The hippie era, my wife was a big time hippie. I was an athlete, she was a hippie. But anyway, I'd run into these hippie-minded people. And as an athlete, I just did not understand the mindset that said, I'm trying to find myself. One guy said that, and I said, well, you're right here. You don't have to look anywhere, you know, right here. But not coming to Christ later on, I understood what they were talking about. But God saved us. He justified us. Not by our works, but by Christ's works. And I often roleplay sometimes on the doctrine of justification. I say to people, I am saved by works. What would your response be? Oh, no, you're not. Oh, yes, I am. I just didn't tell you whose works they were. They're not mine. They're his. And I received them by faith, which is a gift as well. He saves us by grace through faith, but he saved us to conform us to his dear son. And our moral character, in our inward fiber, in our being. And he goes on from chapter six to chapter seven and eight to talk about the transformation of sanctification that we are all going through. Sanctification is a work of God's grace by the Holy Spirit, more transforming us more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. And then, of course, in chapters nine through 11, he gets into those minor doctrines of election and predestination. I'm waiting for a reaction. Now, those are foundational. We were chosen in him, saved in time and space and history, but we were chosen in him before the foundation of the world. How do I understand that? I understand that because God's word says that. We're certainly not worthy to be saved in time, space, and history, but God's mind is greater than mine. And that is very, very foundational. And we get to this point in the book of Romans in chapter 12, and we can almost hear Paul saying, I've said all that to say this. Therefore, brothers, because God has had mercy upon you, not giving you what your sins justly deserve, but giving you something that you don't deserve the record of Christ. Therefore, you are to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, a living sacrifice. Of course, you and I know or should know the difference between a living sacrifice and a dead sacrifice, right? Well, the living sacrifice has a tendency to once crawl off the altar, of course. But if you go back in the Old Testament on the great day of Atonement, the high priest would be brought a lamb, and he would be also brought a dagger and knife. And what he would do, he would stab that lamb, shed his blood, and he would confess the sins of the people. And they were told that they had forgiveness in the lamb. What he was doing was actually transferring the guilt of the people to this innocent third party, you see. And that, of course, after that one sacrifice, it's a dead sacrifice. Paul says that we are to be a living sacrifice. And again, the living sacrifice has a tendency to crawl off the altar all together. We don't really like that at all. Paul says this is, we are not only to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, it is something that we are to do with our whole heart, with our whole mind. We are to love the Lord our God, with all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of our strength, something that is wholly giving our best. He says this is our spiritual worship. Other translations say reasonable service of worship. In other words, it should make sense to us. He gave his all, we are to give him our all. And believe you may, it did cost the Lord Jesus Christ. It cost to pay for our salvation. A great price and our day and age. This is going against our culture. Paul says that not only are we to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, this is reasonable. He says, don't be conformed to the world. Don't allow the world to squeeze you into its mold. What do we think of when we think of the world? I'm going to read you a few things here in a minute from the Manhattan Declaration about five years ago. The Christian leaders took a stand on as far as our witness as the body of Christ to an unbelieving world and a dying culture that we're in. But years ago when I was in Warrior Presbyteria, I can't remember why I was in Tuscalus of that particular day. But you know, I looked up on a billboard sign and said the epicurians are coming. And I had been studying about the Apostle Paul debating the epicurian and stoic philosophers at Mars Hill at the area opagus. And I said, boy, Tuscalus has got it wrong. They're not coming. They've been here for a long time. But I later found out that that was talking about some musical group. The epicurians are coming. Well, wasn't the same thing. But the epicurians of Paul's day were a lot like people are today. It's kind of years ago. You probably don't remember this. People my age would. There was a beer called Slitz. You remember how the commercial went with a Slitz beer commercial. You only go around once in life and you got to grab for all the gusto you can. Get all you can, can all you get and sit on the lid and dare anyone to come near it. Basically it's a non sacrificial way of life. But that's what we are looking at today when we talk about conforming to the world. I mentioned the health and wealth gospels. And again, I appreciate your prayers for me in a couple of weeks as I will be in India about this time. Training pastors on how to handle the health and wealth gospels, the name and claim it and grab it as someone has said. But this false gospel that has permeated not only American culture to various tele-abangilist, it is everywhere in the world that I have been over the pond. And apparently it's in India as well. So pray for that to separate truth from era in that. But we live in such a culture today, a very pragmatic culture and society. And this is exactly what we're talking about when we, when Paul says don't be conformed to this world, don't allow it to be to mold you or force you into its mold. Have you heard of the Manhattan Declaration? A call of Christian conscience. This was released in November 20th, 2009. I remember when one of the former's of this, Dr. Timothy George, who's president of Beasts and Seminary and at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, came to speak to Evangel Presbyteria about this. And after he presented this, I had a question. I said, Dr. George, we appreciate the attempt on this. But years ago there was the ETC agreement about the evangelicals and Catholics together trying to find common ground on issues that we can agree to stand against the moral degradation in our culture and society. And that one did not work because it bled over into the issue of doctrine and the distinction between faith in Christ versus faith alone in Christ. And so this is another step, but it's a very clarifying step and I applaud this one. There are Christians from all over the world who have endorsed this. Orthodox Christians, some of them Catholic, but a lot of evangelical Christians have endorsed it. I'd like to read you a few things from this. It says this while the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a spectrum concern, a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention. We are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened. That the institution of marriage already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity, and divorce is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies. That freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions. This is a nine-page thing, and I'm not going to read all of it, but a couple of more paragraphs. We are Christians who have joined together across historical lines of ecclesiastical differences to affirm our right and more importantly to embrace our obligation. To speak and act in defense of these truths, we pledge to each other and to our fellow believers that no power on earth be it cultural or political will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence. It is our duty to proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in its fullness both in season and out of season may God help us not to fail in that duty. That's a commitment. As a matter of fact, those that have signed this have agreed to take such a stand even if it's life threatening to them. That's the kind of living sacrifice that our Apostle Paul is talking about because we live in perilous times, brothers and sisters. Let me read you one more before we get to the business of the imperatives that you and I must embrace. The impulse to redefine marriage in order to recognize same sex and multiple partner relationships is a symptom rather than the cause of the erosion of the marriage culture. It reflects a loss of understanding of the meaning of marriage as embodied in our civil and religious law and in the philosophical tradition that contributed to shaping the law. Yet it is critical that the impulse be resisted or yielding to it would mean abandoning the possibility of restoring a sound understanding of marriage and with it the hope of rebuilding a healthy marriage culture. It would lock into place the false destructive belief that marriage is all about romance and other adult satisfaction and not in any intrinsic way about procreation and the unique character and value of acts and relationships whose meaning is shaped by our ateness for the generation promotion and protection of life. In spousal communion and the rearing of children who as gifts of God are the fruit of their parents married love, we discover the profound reasons for the benefits of the marriage covenant. We live in a world in a culture in which really has gone paganistic to the core. I don't know how I can state it any planer but do you understand paganism? Paganism robs God of his rightful worship and strips him of his divinity and applies it to themselves. That is what has happened in our culture. If you take a warning that the Apostle Paul gave in Romans 1 he said for the exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Paul said that in the light of all men knowing that God exists through creation and conscience and he said that also before he said that God gave them over to doing the unnatural instead of the natural men with men, women with women. A lot of people say well God is going to judge America for homosexuality and context, context, scriptural context. What Paul gives as homosexuality is the residual effect of people abandoning worshipping God and recognizing him. In the beginning as God created man his image where basically ever since the fall man has attempted to return to favor robbing God of his rightful worship and a lot of people would say well when people stop worshipping God they become atheistic they cannot become atheistic. They have been created with a spiritual appetite and as such they hunger spiritually. In other words they are going to worship something and so instead of worshipping the creator God who is apart from his creation they worship creation is paganistic to a core and we have it running rampant in our culture. The only way that this can be reversed is for you and I to assume our God given call to be living sacrifices, holy acceptable to God, being willing to count the cost of rejection. Well I tell you what soon as the popularity of the LGBT community started being pulsated at us through our liberal media I've never seen such a quick retreat by the church in all my life. It is as almost as if we have been can went into the lot syndrome for the body of Christ maybe it's because we really haven't taught how to minister to people in this particular culture. We need to be taught and the scripture does teach us God does love the center but he hates the sin he wants you and I to be salt and light to a culture that so desperately needs it and Paul says that if we do this if we are living sacrifices not being conformed to this world but being transformed by the renewing of our mind believe me. It has to come through the mind to the heart and faith does not come by osmosis it comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God no one has ever come to Christ without hearing the truth Christ said it is the truth it sets people free. He said I am the way the truth and the life all said if we do this being transformed by the renewing of our mind taking in the word of God feeding on the word of God we prove by testing we prove what the will of God is. Now I don't know about you when I first heard the phrase the will of God I wanted to run like crazy when I was a freshman in college that was back in the days that when you went over to pick up the girl for the date at the her dormitory there was a house mother I don't know if their house mothers anymore not. But this one house mother and this before I was a Christian I was just an athlete and every time she would see me she said I think you would make a wonderful preacher and I thought I mean every time she saw me she would say that I said to myself this lady is nuts you know I've tried to figure out ways I could get to the girls dormitory without having to. See her but I guess Lord has a sense of humor as well but I wanted to run from the will of God you know and we often think that it's something to be dreaded that's not what the apostle Paul says he says we prove what the will of God is we prove it by being a living sacrifice not being conformed to the world but being transformed with a mind of Christ. And we prove that the will of God is good it is acceptable and it is perfect. God's will for our lives is that we do exactly what the apostle Paul says. So needed in our day and age you know this is not easy we always hear political correctness well how about exegetical correctness this is not necessarily exe easy exegetically correct but if you look at those last three words good acceptable and perfect the first letters of those three words warm another word gap I like to think of us as filling the gap. So if you say the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth looking for someone that will show themselves strong for Christ what are you willing to die for what are you willing to live for should be the same should be no difference whatsoever we are that living sacrifice we prove what the will of God is that which is good acceptable. And perfect may the Lord give us his grace sustain us as we do so shall we pray. Our Father we thank you for your great love for us and how you have so beautifully demonstrated that love that we were while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Help us Father as Christ has given his life as a sacrifice. Help us with those who claim to follow him to imitate him in doing the same being willing to count the cost to present light to a dark world to present life to a death culture to proclaim Jesus Christ as the way the truth and the truth. And the life and that no one comes to the father but through him father equip us we ask it in his name. Amen.