Temple Baptist Church - 1-27-2019
Romans 12:1-2
Introduction:
A. When people hear preaching on holiness or personal sanctification,most people automatically “tighten up.” This should never be the case with God’s people. God wants only the best for both His children and the world to whom we are sent. Someone once said that “A life lived is worth a thousand sermons preached.”
B. One problem lies in the pulpit. Men of God have preached on the subject from a negative stand point.
1. Holiness is something that you do or else.
2. Holiness will cost you the things that you like.
3. Holiness will cause you to lead a dull, boring life.
4. Therefore, holiness and personal sanctification becomes something to be shunned.
C. I do not want to deal with these men tonight. I believe that another problem with holiness and personal sanctification is:
1. Because people want a Salvation without a Cost. Salvation is supposed to cost us the world.
a. 1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
b. “The world behind me, the cross before me” is found in the little chorus “I Have Decided To Follow Jesus.” In today’s “Christianity,” it is “The cross behind me, the world before me.”
2. Because they want a Service without a Cross.
a. Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
b. Few men in our day are willing to sell out completely and follow Christ. They will follow Christ if they can tell Him where and how they will serve. God has never used such a man!
D. Holiness is not as much separation from the world as it is separation unto God. If you look closely at our text, we are to “present our bodies” unto God as a living sacrifice. Something holy and acceptable unto God.
E. Holiness is a very positive thing.
1. Holiness brings about the peace of God.
2. Holiness brings about safety and security.
3. Holiness is the best life to be lived.
1. The Plea of Holiness – 12:1 “I beseech you”
a. The word beseech denotes asking or praying with urgency.
b. Paul used it with:
1) Prayer – Romans 15:30 Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;
2) Sanctification – Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
3) Unity – 1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
4) Love – 2 Corinthians 2:8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
5) Reconciliation – 2 Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
6) Apostasy – 2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
c. Holiness has urgency.
2. The Perception of Holiness – 12:1 “by the mercies of God” - 11:33-36
a. 11:33 – God is wise.
b. 11:36 – God is good
1) It is His power that saved us. “of him”
2) It is His power that performs our salvation. – “through him”
3) It is His power that brings Him glory. – “to him”
3. The Presentation of Holiness – 12:1 “ye present your bodies”
a. A Personal Presentation – “ye present” This is something that every individual believer must do.
b. A Priceless Presentation – “bodies” The greatest gift that you will ever give to God is your body. God uses bodies, not spirits.
c. A Purposeful Presentation – “living sacrifice” Dead to self and living only for the glory of God.
d. A Pure Presentation – “holy, acceptable unto God” God’s will in our lives.
4. The Price of Holiness – “12:1 “reasonable service”
a. An Act of Debt – “reasonable”
b. An Act of Duty – “service”
5. The Proceeding of Holiness – 12:2 “be not conformed . . . transformed”
a. Sanctification – “be not conformed”
1) From worldly philosophies.
2) From worldly fashions
b. Transformation – “transformed”
1) TRANSFORM'ED, pp. Changed in form or external appearance; metamorphosed; transmuted; renewed.
2) Ephesians 2:1-3 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
6. The Power of Holiness – 12:2 – “renewing of your mind”
a. Our manner of thinking needs to be changed - 1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
b. Our thinking has been formed by the world and is being bombarded each day.
7. The Proving of Holiness – 12:2 “good, and acceptable, and perfect”
a. Malachi 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
b. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
1) God said that non-conformity and transformation was good.
2) God said that non-conformity and transformation was acceptable.
3) God said that non-conformity and transformation was perfect.
8. The Pleasing of Holiness – 12:2 “will of God”
a. 1 Thessalonians 4:1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
b. Hebrews 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
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