Men's Bible Study - Living on the Altar

[Music] well good morning you have joined our men's Bible study and wherever you are watching from you could be on the west coast and it's 5 o'clock in the morning you could be on the East Coast it's 8 o'clock you could be in Africa you could be in England Scotland and it's in the afternoon but wherever you are I'm thrilled that you've joined with us we're still quarantined here in Dallas Texas and I have my good friend Kent stayin back with me and we're coming from herbes house we normally have the room filled with men and which always adds an excitement for a preacher's heart to have people to speak to but we're just in this empty room right now but I know that you're watching and so many of you have texted me even yesterday and said that you're excited for this study I'm excited for this study Kent is convicted by this study but this is gonna be a great study he really really needs this study so I want to begin in a word of Prayer and we're gonna dive right into this this is a blockbuster text of Scripture so let's pray father as we now come to look into your word we asked that your grace would be upon each one of us and that you would work through me to be a mouthpiece for the teaching of your word I pray that you'd be meeting with everyone who's watching this right now that you're omnipresent Holy Spirit would be working both sides of the aisle and be at work and the minds and the hearts and the lives of everyone who's watching so may you extraordinarily bless them through this study this morning we pray this in Jesus name Amen well I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Romans Romans chapter 12 and we have just crossed the Continental Divide and we have stepped into the last may your section of the book of Romans now there's still five chapters to go so it's not as though we've come to the end of Romans in fact we've come to everything that the Apostle Paul has been building towards which is how to live your Christian life the title of this lesson this morning is living on the altar and that's where each and every one of us need to be living is on the altar and the problem with the living sacrifice as they crawl off of altars so we must stay on the altar as our life is presented to God as a living and Holy Sacrifice so I want to read the text Romans chapter 12 beginning in verse 1 I'm going to read verses 1 and 2 and to be honest I don't know if I can get to verse 2 we'll see how this plays out but some verses just beg for us to as Kent would say tap the brakes and just slow down a bit and give careful look at it so this is what it says this is how it reads 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 what we learn from these verses is that it truly matters to God how you and I live our Christian lives just because we're saved by grace does not give us a free pass to live however we want to live that's fool's talk no because of the grace of God in our conversion and salvation it is incumbent upon us that we live and manner that is pleasing to God it's not enough to God that we're saved God desires that we be sanctified and that we be conformed into the image of his son Jesus Christ so as we come to these verses Kent this is where faith gets real this is where the rubber meets the road this is shoe-leather Christianity this is getting it out of the ivory tower and into the marketplace and into the home and into the office and into relationships and into the daily flow of life and so these two verses verses 1 & 2 are two of the greatest verses in the entire Bible and it is well worth our careful attention so you have tuned in on a Bible study that could really be one of the greatest Bible studies you've ever been a part of not because I'm teaching that has nothing to do with it but because of what the Apostle Paul has written in these verses and how they need to be in our lives I want to repeat this this could be the most important Bible study that you'll ever be a part of so as we walk through this passage I have several headings upon which I want to hang our teaching as we walk through this passage and we're literally just going to go through this word by word phrase by phrase and of the headings number one the connection the connection the very first word in verse 1 therefore and I just have to pause and see what the therefore is therefore this is one of the most important words in the Bible is the word therefore in the word therefore really serves as a bridge that connects Romans 1 through 11 with Romans 12 through 16 this is the tiny bridge that connects two massive continents I used to live in Mobile Alabama and pastor there and as you would go from the city of mobile across the bay there there's just one tiny little tunnel that you go through and and massive traffic jams would stack up just to go through this tiny little tunnel well this word therefore it's a small relatively small word but the whole of Romans 1 through 11 is having to pass through this narrow passage of the word therefore that leads now to the other side of the bay that leads to the rest of the book of Romans and and here's what is is taking place here in Romans 1 through 11 we have instruction in verses 12 through 16 we have application and the first eleven chapters we have doctrine now we have duty and the two have to be married together in the first half it's all about the mind but now in the second half it's about the heart and the hands and the feet and the eyes and putting this into practice so our beliefs have to be married to our behavior and the word therefore is the golden pipe that this doctrine must flow through now into our lives and we begin to live it out to put it another way and the first eleven chapters we have the indicative now we move to the imperatives we go from knowing to doing we go from learning to living and so there this word therefore I'm not going to pause for every single word as we go through this but this word therefore it just literally leaps off the page age and grabs me by the lapels and and secures my attention and I wanted to do the same for you and so before we move on I I want to say this there must be a therefore in your Christian life that there must be a therefore that is a bridge that connects what you know of sound doctrine to how you live in daily Christian living and so as I said in the introduction we have just crossed over the Continental Divide and we're now have gone over the the summit and we're coming down the other side of the mountain down now that will lead us down into the valley where Christian life is lived on on a daily basis so number one the connection number two the motivation for Paul continues I urge you brethren by the mercies of God do you see the motivation the Apostle Paul doesn't just tell us he's going to persuade us he's going to motivate us he's going to light a match and strike a fire and put it beneath us to to to to ignite within us a motivation to live for the glory of God that's what he's saying I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God this word urge that's a strong word that this word urge means I implore you I I appeal to you I summons you I exhort you I entreat you I beseech you I I plead with you I compel you what Paul is saying here is I want to move you and I've underscored this with all of these sin so that we can feel something of the warm passion and zeal that is in the pen of the Apostle Paul as he now leads into this practical section it's not enough for Paul just to toss it out there as if to say to us how you can take this or leave this no Paul is after us and every preacher and every spirit-filled Bible teacher is always after the reader or the listener to move you in a particular direction it's not enough just that you be a didactic instructor with a professorial tossing out of a data dump where you give an encyclopedic lecture and as long as it's in your notebook that's all that I care about and that you can answer the exam that's not where Paul is now after 11 chapters of strong doctrine Kent condemnation justification sanctification glorification election predestination he has stacked it up he's now coming after us and he is saying I urge you brethren by the mercies of God and I want you to know that if we had a Greek New Testament here and we opened it up these three words I urge you our front-loaded at the beginning of the sentence the Apostle Paul writes we call that in the emphatic position that if you want to stress something in the original language when you write a sentence you lift it up and you you move it to the beginning of the sentence so that it's like taking a yellow highlighter and highlighting it and then getting a pen and underlining it drawing a circle and then out in the margin you draw an arrow to it and then maybe add an aster I urge you is the emphasis that Paul is making here as he is aggressively seeking to persuade and I know some Christians even when I stand up to preach they have hanging around their neck I do not disturb sign they think if they just show up to church or just show up to the conference or to the Bible study that that that's enough Paul is ripping that Do Not Disturb sign from the neck of the reader from me from you and saying I want to move you I want to win you over to living the truth you may say wow that sounds manipulative no it's not manipulative it is God working through the teacher and preacher of his word to move you it is God seeking to to really to urge you and to plead with you so that is the motivation I urge you therefore brethren and and and really here's the some of the of the motivation motivation he says by the mercies of God and the mercies of God is a condensed summary of Romans 1 through 11 it is the saving sovereign grace of God that Paul has just laid out in the first eleven chapters in what is the greatest presentation of the mercies of God found anywhere in the entire Bible mercies is in the plural it represents all of the saving mercies of God and it it includes giving careful thought to where you once were before you came to know the Lord Jesus Christ the pit in which you lived a pit of sin and darkness these mercies refer to what God did to intervene into the affairs of your perishing life by sending his son into this world on a mission of redemption - to save your soul it speaks of the sending of the Holy Spirit by God to awaken you out of your spiritual stupor and to bring you to faith in Jesus Christ that's a part of the mercies of God it's also the fact that you were crucified with Christ you've been buried with Christ Romans 6 you you've been raised with Christ your life is dramatically and radically changed and transformed by the power of His grace this is the mercies of God and how now his he's put his Holy Spirit in you and me and he is now leading us every moment of every day into a totally new life and the fact that we can never fall away from this grace that those whom he foreknew he predestined whom he predestined he called he justified he glorified we're eternally secure in this grace nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus and that out of this common lump of clay of humanity God the Potter has chosen some vessels some some to be vessels of mercy who were predestined and foreordained for glory all of that is bound up in these in these five words by the mercies of God there could not be a more compelling motivation that the Apostle Paul could bring to bear upon your heart and my heart than to play that card to play by the mercies of God and if you have truly given careful consideration to the mercies of God in your life it will so motivate you and ignite a passion within your soul to want to live in a radically distinctly different way so that's the motivation and I pray that God will pour gasoline on that fire in my heart I pray he'll do the same in your heart that will not be stoic saints and just sitting around staring at our navel and just glad that we have a notebook full of stuff but that the word of Christ will richly dwell within us and that we will wake up every morning putting two feet on the floor in in the go position ready to live for the glory of God that's the motivation now third the presentation the next four words let me start at the beginning therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God now the next four words to present your bodies a living and Holy Sacrifice that's more than four words to God so when he says now to present your bodies this is God's will for your life that you be presenting your bodies a living and Holy Sacrifice to God this is drawing upon Old Testament priestly sacrificial language what an Old Testament priest would do is he would take a sacrifice an animal sacrifice and he would slay the sacrifice and the sacrifice would be dead and he would come to the altar and he would lay the sacrifice on the altar as has been prescribed by God he would bring the very sacrifice that God required and presented in the manner with which God has required because any other kind of sacrifice would be unacceptable to God and would be displeasing to God and would be rejected by God and so the priest could not have a self-made religion and come up with his own kind of sacrifice in the manner in which he wanted to present it and so he would come and present it and place it on the altar and then take hands off and it would be totally given to God totally yielded to God and what Paul is saying is that God requires that you and I present not an animal sacrifice on to the altar but to take your own life and to place it on the altar and for it to be totally given to God and for it to be hands off for God now to use your life however God desires to use you as long as you are on planet Earth he says present your bodies the word bodies here really represents the entirety of your being it's it's metaphorical language it represents every inch and every ounce of who you are and what you are if you could picture this from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet the entirety of your being your mind your emotions your your will is to be completely yielded to God that you hold no part back for yourself that it's 100% placed on the altar before God it begins with your mind that your mind is given to God what you believe what you think how how you understand that you are going to believe what God says in his word that you're gonna think God's thoughts that you're going to understand with divine wisdom that you are not going to allow the encroachment of the world's ideologies to shape your mind your mind is given to God your eyes are given to God what you look at what you see your world view what you gaze upon your ears are given to God what you what you listen to what you allow to come into your mind your mouth is given to God what you will say and what you will speak that it will all be governed by that which glorifies God your hands will be completely given to God what you lay your hands to do what you're engaged in what your work is and and your feet are given to God where you go and where you travel all of that is just breaking out presenting your bodies to God and as you do this he then adds a living and Holy Sacrifice now in the Old Testament it was a dead sacrifice a slain sacrifice that was presented to God but here it's a living sacrifice and that's a greater challenge because this means now 24 hours a day seven days a week that I am to live on the altar this is my address this is where I live constantly and continually I'm to be living as a sacrifice for God and then he also then adds and holy a living and Holy Sacrifice and the word holy here means to be set apart for a very special use to be set apart from just common mundane pedestrian living to be set apart from living for the cares of this world to living to be set apart from living for the temporal and to be living always for the eternal and for the heavenly and setting our mind on things above it means that we are to live a transcendent life that rises above the muck and the mire of this world to live with God purpose and to live with God direction and the word holy here also signifies purity and to be unstained by the contaminations and the pollutions of this world this is calling for the pursuit of holiness and godliness and this is calling for what Leviticus 11 44 and 45 said you shall be holy for I am holy and it is only this sacrifice that is acceptable to God notice the next three words acceptable to God so there is a Christian life that is acceptable to God and there is a Christian life that is unacceptable to God I'm not talking about your eternal standing you've been justified by faith but it is possible for someone who has been justified by faith let's say in a season of their life to be living in a way that is unacceptable to God so this says acceptable to God anything less than being a living and Holy Sacrifice is unacceptable to God now this word acceptable means literally out of the original language to be well pleasing to be well pleasing to God so as a believer who has been justified by faith the manner with which I live my life must be done in a way that is well pleasing to God and I want to give you some some cross references here just three cross references that I think would be very important for you to hear at this point because I know what some people will be thinking right now Steve that's legalism that that that's legalistic and I want to say to you if that is your response to this you wouldn't know legalism if it walked up and shook hands with you that this is Bible truth and you are arguing for what we call license antinomianism that you can just live your Christian life however you want to live and it doesn't matter God's just pleased with me however I live and you have bought into a lie my friend now I want to give you three cross references and these are very important and I I want the weight of these verses to weigh strongly upon us 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 9 the Apostle Paul writes we have as our ambition now you need to have an ambition I need to have it ambition it needs to be God's ambition for our lives we have as our ambition whether at home meaning living in this world are absent meaning going to heaven to be pleasing to him that must be our ambition and the mere fact that he says this implies that it is possible for you to be living in a way that is not pleasing to him Ananias and Sapphira were not pleasing to the and God took them home there were Corinthians who were not they were coming to the lord's table in an unworthy manner and they were not pleasing to the lord and some of them were dying when moses struck the rock it was unpleased to God and God said go to the mountain and die so we must be living pleasing to the Lord and that necessitates that we be rightly motivated not by guilt but by grace by the mercies of God and that we present our bodies a living and Holy Sacrifice to God let me give you another verse Ephesians 5 verse 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord you and I must be trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord that's the way husbands are with their wives is it not it takes a lifetime for us to learn what is pleasing to our to our wives and vice versa they towards us and the same is in our spiritual walk with the Lord we have to be learning what is pleasing to the Lord one more verse Romans 14 verse 18 says he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God so there is a manner with which we serve Christ that is acceptable to God therefore that clearly implies there is also a manner in which we would serve Christ that is not acceptable to God so the motivation here is to live our life in a way that is acceptable and pleasing well pleasing to God which is that we present our bodies a living and Holy Sacrifice to God I I can only pray that this very moment the Holy Spirit of God is at work in your mind and in your heart bringing the true of this text and into the very epicenter of your soul now this leads to number four the calculation he says we he says at the end of verse one which is your spiritual service of worship the word spiritual here requires some help it's a it's a Greek word I'm going to pronounce it only because you're gonna hear an English word you're here several English words in it it's a Greek word lager costs and you can hear logic logical logarithms that is referring to that which is rational that which is intelligent when it says that which is your spiritual service of worship it really I think it's best translated and commentaries would bear this up that which is your reasonable and rational service of worship now what Paul is saying to the Romans and to us is I want you to do the math because it would be totally irrational for you not to present your bodies as a living and Holy Sacrifice to the Lord the only reasonable way for you to live your Christian life is to present it on the altar to God so Paul is saying and when we get the the mathematical aspect of this logic cos when when we do this and it up add up all of the all of the liabilities that you had to give up and then add up all of the assets that you gained so so what all liabilities did you give up we're just wiped off the books can't you're a businessman you know how to look at these squares better than I do so what was taken off of the books and is no longer a liability in your life guilt sin condemnation hell judgment that's quite a list of liabilities that's just been wiped out taken off the books forgiven so one has been added now to the asset sorry what assets did you acquire in your conversion forgiveness righteousness the indwelling spirit a new heart a new mind a new path a new direction a new destiny all of this and and more is what you have acquired so what Paul is saying when he says which is your spiritual service of worship he's really saying which is your reasonable rational intelligent decision to make in your life think of what you've given up and think of what you've gained how could you possibly live for yourself how could you possibly live for this sin soaked world how could you do anything other than living for the glory of God that that's that's where he is driving this and then he adds of worship which is your spiritual service of worship now we normally think can't of worship as being Sunday morning from 9:45 to 11 or 10:30 to 12:00 whenever your church meets and when the Bible uses the word worship it opens up the lens and gives us the big picture it has in mind the macro not the micro now come into church on Lord's Day is vitally important to every believers life and I think even a necessity but coming to church on Sunday morning is only to prepare us to be worshipers the entire rest of the week I mean it's like a gas station we just come to get filled up so that we've got gas in her tank too to live the rest of the week and what this is talking about here is a lifestyle of worship that your entire your entire life is a worship service that that's what this is saying which is your spiritual service of worship that your your entire existence to put it this way 24 hours a day seven days a week you're never out of the sanctuary you're always in a posture of on your knees eyes lifted up to heaven mouth open giving praises to God and we glorify God in every aspect of our life it's certainly when we're in the word and in prayer throughout the week but it's also as you go to work it's also as you go to school it's also as you're walking with friends it's also as you're in forms of recreation wherever you go you are to be living on the altar and your life is to be a worship service given to God so let's step into verse two because we do have some time now that to keep to keep going well you know what can't we need to do some questions and I just realized that so I don't want to press all the way do it have we had any questions oh we got a lot of questions okay well we're just going to stop right here and next Thursday morning because verse two is an incredible verse and I don't want to just hydroplane over verse two so let's just hit the pause button and we'll pick it back up we need to but I hate for you stop I keep thinking I've heard your best message but I think this is your best assets this is unbelievable incredible this is where the rubber meets the road I don't want to stop but we have a lot of questions and I guess we'll just have to say tune in next week yeah tune in next week I mean if you want me to keep going I can hit in the number 10 - yeah this is a it's just it's a fabulous you you brought up the word antinomianism can you explain what that is for a lot yeah sure the Greek word No Mas means law mm-hmm anti Greek word means against and for example Antichrist means against Christ or in place of Christ antinomianism is the Christian and many times a supposed Christian who wants to live their Christian life without any law yeah they think well I'm all under grace okay so there's no law laws bad grace is good and that there is a modicum of truth I understand the law came through Moses and grace and truth through Christ however the Ten Commandments the moral law of God are still binding upon our life and I think the fourth commandment has some modification to it the Sabbath has become the Lord's Day but every imperative in the New Testament seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness that's that's an imperative command and so therefore it becomes a part of the Christian law humble yourself beneath the mighty hand of God that's that's an imperative that that is is binding upon our lives and there are Christians who want to have only indicative and by that I mean sentences in the Bible that simply are statement of fact that do not are not binding with moral accountability but there are also imperative verbs an imperative verb as a command that commands us to do something and antinomian is someone who only wants the teaching but they do not want the binding effect of this upon my life and so they want to live without any law or without any imperatives and and and unfortunately can't there are teachers preachers who who teach this and I would say nonsense it's far worse than nonsense it's it's it's gross error and it's affecting and I want to say it's affecting especially Millennials today mm-hm who have grown up under this kind of bad teaching mmm-hmm you and I are another generation and we grew up under the imperatives because we had the full counsel of God brought to bear upon our Christian lives so that's in a nutshell what's so paradis is there is there an Israelite I know I mean is there a confusion when people say law and then the moral the moral aspects and the moral law of what God still intends and who he is is there some confusion there and say we're no longer under the law yeah when we say we're no under under the law we mean several things number one we're no longer under the ceremonial law okay with a with actually a priest and a tabernacle and a temple and animal sacrifices and we're no longer under the ceremonial law and we're no longer under the civil law in that I mean we're not stoning to death rebellious children just one example that would wipe out an entire generation in America right now seemingly there are parts of them zag law that were fulfilled in the cross certainly the ceremonial law or that were unique to Israel as they occupied their promised land however there is the laws divided into three sections moral law ceremonial law civil law the ceremonial laws fulfilled the moral law is still on the books in fact is reinforced and we're in the book which is what you're talking about here yeah that's what we're talking about and just for example in the book of Romans Romans 13 and verse 9 I mean paul's quoting the moral law of god to make his point in in the book of romans he is saying do not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal you shall not covet you shall love your neighbor as yourself he's quoting from the Old Testament to show that's still on the books for a New Testament Christian living so in antinomian is someone who just when they come to Romans 13 they just ripped that page out of their Bible and pretend like it never happened so there's an overemphasis then on grate once saved always saved you don't need to worry about it and they you know the balances is what you're saying is there's not a yeah they make statements like God can't love you anymore he can't love you any less therefore it doesn't matter how you live time out that is true God can't love you anymore and he can't love you any less and you can never lose your salvation you can never lose your salvation but those who you love the most you want you expect the most from them and you they can they can hurt you the most those who love you the most by the way that they live there that their lives and you mentioned license earlier yeah license is another word for antinomianism license just means I mean you you you've got a car but no brakes and yeah and basically no steering wheel and you just got a gas pedal and you can just live however you want to live your Christian life I know this sounds bizarre to a lot of you who are who are listening to this and you're saying surely this is a straw man argument it's not a strong straw man argument unfortunately what about we have so many questions I'm not sure if I can even get in there long so let me look one here what about this shorten it up what about a believer who gets into sin for a season of their life yeah well they need to repent and and if they are a believer they will come out of this season of sin God will bring them out one way or the other now if they don't come out that would be cause for serious self-examination whether you be in the faith but if you are a believer and caught up in a season of sin and yes a believer does sin I mean look at David yeah I mean look at Peter look at me yeah but we are convicted buyers about our sin and we confess our sin and when we repent of our sin and we want to turn away from our sin it grieves our heart because it has grieved the heart of God mm-hmm so that's what we would say about a believer who's caught up in a season of sin so as you as you opened up you said that first 11 chapters were doctrine yeah and the next starting in verse 12 or application yeah and it's not either/or yeah you're exactly right it's both an and just use an illustration and it's only an illustration and airplanes got two wings okay you want to fly on an airplane you and I have flown together we don't want to fly on an airplane has just one wing yeah that's that's gonna be a nosedive in fact they won't even get off the ground yeah it takes both in order to fly and it takes both instruction and application both doctrine and duty in order to live the Christian life otherwise you're going nowhere right here's here's a question I'll just read it how do I grow in my love for Christ how do I have a heart that longs to be with him more intensely a heart that can say heaven would not be heaven if Christ were not there wow that's that's a great question I'm glad I stopped early so we could take questions like that ken first of all I think of Hebrews 12 verse 2 looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame we have to look to Christ gaze upon Christ learn more and more of Christ commune with Christ and as we do it causes us to look away from other things that would capture our attention and that verb looking unto Jesus is literally it's a compound word it means looking away from unto Jesus so we got to have both eyes on Jesus and be looking away from the temporal vanities of this world now it doesn't mean we don't live in this world and we don't see stop signs and go to work and you you have to make a living but that can't be what's driving us what's driving us is Christ and living for Christ and honoring Christ so to be to say heaven is is for me to be with Christ is right now to be so walking in fellowship with Christ yeah that you're just one step away from being in his presence this is a similar question and it really is the quite the person writing in writes the presumptuous sins the by setting sins I think Hebrews talks about the same thing the sins we think about the sins that we're in bondage to before conversion and we catch ourselves and we still in an end up committing these sins afterwards feeling unworthy and disappointed and I guess you're saying the same question is how do I get a better self control over these sins that are really deep yeah inner sins that seemed to really be waiting weighing me down yeah the answer is that there's no secret answer to this it's just kind of like blocking just tackling so it's the same thing it's you got to be in the word yeah the words got to be in you yeah you've got to be in prayer mmm you've got to be walking and fellowship with the Lord you've got to be with other believers who are strong in the Lord you've got to be under the preaching of the word of God you've got to be in fellowship with other believers you've got to be serving mm-hmm the Lord you can't just be a spiritual couch potato and just sitting there on a sofa you you got to you've got to be serving the Lord and and being a witness for him I mean all of these things play a part in displacing but setting sins in in our life I mean it takes place in a in an environment in a culture in which there's passivity in the Christian life and in which that's good there's not the Word of God so we've always got to have our chin strap well snapped we've got to have our pads on and every time there's never a time that we can relax that we're always in the in is that a sign of a Christian that we're always in a battle yeah we're always in the battle and it's a fight for holiness and it's a fight for godliness and and there's no cruising into heaven and it will be this way to the end of our Christian life look at Romans 7 that's Paul as a mature Christian yeah well Ken I'm looking at the clock here and I know we've got more questions but we're gonna have to wind this down because in just a few minutes we're going to transition to steadfast hope and we're going to be looking at Philippians 4 verse 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me so I can't think of a more encouraging verse for my Christian life than Philippians 4:13 so where I would invite you to join us at eight o'clock central time here in Dallas Texas you can go to one passion ministries org and watch we're playing a doubleheader today so you can watch our next Bible study and I look forward to seeing you in just a few minutes so god bless you live on the altar put your life on the altar as a living and Holy Sacrifice unto God god bless you [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music]

[Music] well good morning you have joined our men&#39;s Bible study and wherever you are watching from you could be on the west coast and it&#39;s 5 o&#39;clock in the morning you could be on the East Coast it&#39;s 8 o&#39;clock you could be in Africa you could be in England Scotland and it&#39;s in the afternoon but wherever you are I&#39;m thrilled that you&#39;ve joined with us we&#39;re still quarantined here in Dallas Texas and I have my good friend Kent stayin back with me and we&#39;re coming from herbes house we normally have the room filled with men and which always adds an excitement for a preacher&#39;s heart to have people to speak to but we&#39;re just in this empty room right now but I know that you&#39;re watching and so many of you have texted me even yesterday and said that you&#39;re excited for this study I&#39;m excited for this study Kent is convicted by this study but this is gonna be a great study he really really needs this study so I want to begin in a word of Prayer and we&#39;re gonna dive right into this this is a blockbuster text of Scripture so let&#39;s pray father as we now come to look into your word we asked that your grace would be upon each one of us and that you would work through me to be a mouthpiece for the teaching of your word I pray that you&#39;d be meeting with everyone who&#39;s watching this right now that you&#39;re omnipresent Holy Spirit would be working both sides of the aisle and be at work and the minds and the hearts and the lives of everyone who&#39;s watching so may you extraordinarily bless them through this study this morning we pray this in Jesus name Amen well I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Romans Romans chapter 12 and we have just crossed the Continental Divide and we have stepped into the last may your section of the book of Romans now there&#39;s still five chapters to go so it&#39;s not as though we&#39;ve come to the end of Romans in fact we&#39;ve come to everything that the Apostle Paul has been building towards which is how to live your Christian life the title of this lesson this morning is living on the altar and that&#39;s where each and every one of us need to be living is on the altar and the problem with the living sacrifice as they crawl off of altars so we must stay on the altar as our life is presented to God as a living and Holy Sacrifice so I want to read the text Romans chapter 12 beginning in verse 1 I&#39;m going to read verses 1 and 2 and to be honest I don&#39;t know if I can get to verse 2 we&#39;ll see how this plays out but some verses just beg for us to as Kent would say tap the brakes and just slow down a bit and give careful look at it so this is what it says this is how it reads 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 what we learn from these verses is that it truly matters to God how you and I live our Christian lives just because we&#39;re saved by grace does not give us a free pass to live however we want to live that&#39;s fool&#39;s talk no because of the grace of God in our conversion and salvation it is incumbent upon us that we live and manner that is pleasing to God it&#39;s not enough to God that we&#39;re saved God desires that we be sanctified and that we be conformed into the image of his son Jesus Christ so as we come to these verses Kent this is where faith gets real this is where the rubber meets the road this is shoe-leather Christianity this is getting it out of the ivory tower and into the marketplace and into the home and into the office and into relationships and into the daily flow of life and so these two verses verses 1 &amp; 2 are two of the greatest verses in the entire Bible and it is well worth our careful attention so you have tuned in on a Bible study that could really be one of the greatest Bible studies you&#39;ve ever been a part of not because I&#39;m teaching that has nothing to do with it but because of what the Apostle Paul has written in these verses and how they need to be in our lives I want to repeat this this could be the most important Bible study that you&#39;ll ever be a part of so as we walk through this passage I have several headings upon which I want to hang our teaching as we walk through this passage and we&#39;re literally just going to go through this word by word phrase by phrase and of the headings number one the connection the connection the very first word in verse 1 therefore and I just have to pause and see what the therefore is therefore this is one of the most important words in the Bible is the word therefore in the word therefore really serves as a bridge that connects Romans 1 through 11 with Romans 12 through 16 this is the tiny bridge that connects two massive continents I used to live in Mobile Alabama and pastor there and as you would go from the city of mobile across the bay there there&#39;s just one tiny little tunnel that you go through and and massive traffic jams would stack up just to go through this tiny little tunnel well this word therefore it&#39;s a small relatively small word but the whole of Romans 1 through 11 is having to pass through this narrow passage of the word therefore that leads now to the other side of the bay that leads to the rest of the book of Romans and and here&#39;s what is is taking place here in Romans 1 through 11 we have instruction in verses 12 through 16 we have application and the first eleven chapters we have doctrine now we have duty and the two have to be married together in the first half it&#39;s all about the mind but now in the second half it&#39;s about the heart and the hands and the feet and the eyes and putting this into practice so our beliefs have to be married to our behavior and the word therefore is the golden pipe that this doctrine must flow through now into our lives and we begin to live it out to put it another way and the first eleven chapters we have the indicative now we move to the imperatives we go from knowing to doing we go from learning to living and so there this word therefore I&#39;m not going to pause for every single word as we go through this but this word therefore it just literally leaps off the page age and grabs me by the lapels and and secures my attention and I wanted to do the same for you and so before we move on I I want to say this there must be a therefore in your Christian life that there must be a therefore that is a bridge that connects what you know of sound doctrine to how you live in daily Christian living and so as I said in the introduction we have just crossed over the Continental Divide and we&#39;re now have gone over the the summit and we&#39;re coming down the other side of the mountain down now that will lead us down into the valley where Christian life is lived on on a daily basis so number one the connection number two the motivation for Paul continues I urge you brethren by the mercies of God do you see the motivation the Apostle Paul doesn&#39;t just tell us he&#39;s going to persuade us he&#39;s going to motivate us he&#39;s going to light a match and strike a fire and put it beneath us to to to to ignite within us a motivation to live for the glory of God that&#39;s what he&#39;s saying I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God this word urge that&#39;s a strong word that this word urge means I implore you I I appeal to you I summons you I exhort you I entreat you I beseech you I I plead with you I compel you what Paul is saying here is I want to move you and I&#39;ve underscored this with all of these sin so that we can feel something of the warm passion and zeal that is in the pen of the Apostle Paul as he now leads into this practical section it&#39;s not enough for Paul just to toss it out there as if to say to us how you can take this or leave this no Paul is after us and every preacher and every spirit-filled Bible teacher is always after the reader or the listener to move you in a particular direction it&#39;s not enough just that you be a didactic instructor with a professorial tossing out of a data dump where you give an encyclopedic lecture and as long as it&#39;s in your notebook that&#39;s all that I care about and that you can answer the exam that&#39;s not where Paul is now after 11 chapters of strong doctrine Kent condemnation justification sanctification glorification election predestination he has stacked it up he&#39;s now coming after us and he is saying I urge you brethren by the mercies of God and I want you to know that if we had a Greek New Testament here and we opened it up these three words I urge you our front-loaded at the beginning of the sentence the Apostle Paul writes we call that in the emphatic position that if you want to stress something in the original language when you write a sentence you lift it up and you you move it to the beginning of the sentence so that it&#39;s like taking a yellow highlighter and highlighting it and then getting a pen and underlining it drawing a circle and then out in the margin you draw an arrow to it and then maybe add an aster I urge you is the emphasis that Paul is making here as he is aggressively seeking to persuade and I know some Christians even when I stand up to preach they have hanging around their neck I do not disturb sign they think if they just show up to church or just show up to the conference or to the Bible study that that that&#39;s enough Paul is ripping that Do Not Disturb sign from the neck of the reader from me from you and saying I want to move you I want to win you over to living the truth you may say wow that sounds manipulative no it&#39;s not manipulative it is God working through the teacher and preacher of his word to move you it is God seeking to to really to urge you and to plead with you so that is the motivation I urge you therefore brethren and and and really here&#39;s the some of the of the motivation motivation he says by the mercies of God and the mercies of God is a condensed summary of Romans 1 through 11 it is the saving sovereign grace of God that Paul has just laid out in the first eleven chapters in what is the greatest presentation of the mercies of God found anywhere in the entire Bible mercies is in the plural it represents all of the saving mercies of God and it it includes giving careful thought to where you once were before you came to know the Lord Jesus Christ the pit in which you lived a pit of sin and darkness these mercies refer to what God did to intervene into the affairs of your perishing life by sending his son into this world on a mission of redemption - to save your soul it speaks of the sending of the Holy Spirit by God to awaken you out of your spiritual stupor and to bring you to faith in Jesus Christ that&#39;s a part of the mercies of God it&#39;s also the fact that you were crucified with Christ you&#39;ve been buried with Christ Romans 6 you you&#39;ve been raised with Christ your life is dramatically and radically changed and transformed by the power of His grace this is the mercies of God and how now his he&#39;s put his Holy Spirit in you and me and he is now leading us every moment of every day into a totally new life and the fact that we can never fall away from this grace that those whom he foreknew he predestined whom he predestined he called he justified he glorified we&#39;re eternally secure in this grace nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus and that out of this common lump of clay of humanity God the Potter has chosen some vessels some some to be vessels of mercy who were predestined and foreordained for glory all of that is bound up in these in these five words by the mercies of God there could not be a more compelling motivation that the Apostle Paul could bring to bear upon your heart and my heart than to play that card to play by the mercies of God and if you have truly given careful consideration to the mercies of God in your life it will so motivate you and ignite a passion within your soul to want to live in a radically distinctly different way so that&#39;s the motivation and I pray that God will pour gasoline on that fire in my heart I pray he&#39;ll do the same in your heart that will not be stoic saints and just sitting around staring at our navel and just glad that we have a notebook full of stuff but that the word of Christ will richly dwell within us and that we will wake up every morning putting two feet on the floor in in the go position ready to live for the glory of God that&#39;s the motivation now third the presentation the next four words let me start at the beginning therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God now the next four words to present your bodies a living and Holy Sacrifice that&#39;s more than four words to God so when he says now to present your bodies this is God&#39;s will for your life that you be presenting your bodies a living and Holy Sacrifice to God this is drawing upon Old Testament priestly sacrificial language what an Old Testament priest would do is he would take a sacrifice an animal sacrifice and he would slay the sacrifice and the sacrifice would be dead and he would come to the altar and he would lay the sacrifice on the altar as has been prescribed by God he would bring the very sacrifice that God required and presented in the manner with which God has required because any other kind of sacrifice would be unacceptable to God and would be displeasing to God and would be rejected by God and so the priest could not have a self-made religion and come up with his own kind of sacrifice in the manner in which he wanted to present it and so he would come and present it and place it on the altar and then take hands off and it would be totally given to God totally yielded to God and what Paul is saying is that God requires that you and I present not an animal sacrifice on to the altar but to take your own life and to place it on the altar and for it to be totally given to God and for it to be hands off for God now to use your life however God desires to use you as long as you are on planet Earth he says present your bodies the word bodies here really represents the entirety of your being it&#39;s it&#39;s metaphorical language it represents every inch and every ounce of who you are and what you are if you could picture this from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet the entirety of your being your mind your emotions your your will is to be completely yielded to God that you hold no part back for yourself that it&#39;s 100% placed on the altar before God it begins with your mind that your mind is given to God what you believe what you think how how you understand that you are going to believe what God says in his word that you&#39;re gonna think God&#39;s thoughts that you&#39;re going to understand with divine wisdom that you are not going to allow the encroachment of the world&#39;s ideologies to shape your mind your mind is given to God your eyes are given to God what you look at what you see your world view what you gaze upon your ears are given to God what you what you listen to what you allow to come into your mind your mouth is given to God what you will say and what you will speak that it will all be governed by that which glorifies God your hands will be completely given to God what you lay your hands to do what you&#39;re engaged in what your work is and and your feet are given to God where you go and where you travel all of that is just breaking out presenting your bodies to God and as you do this he then adds a living and Holy Sacrifice now in the Old Testament it was a dead sacrifice a slain sacrifice that was presented to God but here it&#39;s a living sacrifice and that&#39;s a greater challenge because this means now 24 hours a day seven days a week that I am to live on the altar this is my address this is where I live constantly and continually I&#39;m to be living as a sacrifice for God and then he also then adds and holy a living and Holy Sacrifice and the word holy here means to be set apart for a very special use to be set apart from just common mundane pedestrian living to be set apart from living for the cares of this world to living to be set apart from living for the temporal and to be living always for the eternal and for the heavenly and setting our mind on things above it means that we are to live a transcendent life that rises above the muck and the mire of this world to live with God purpose and to live with God direction and the word holy here also signifies purity and to be unstained by the contaminations and the pollutions of this world this is calling for the pursuit of holiness and godliness and this is calling for what Leviticus 11 44 and 45 said you shall be holy for I am holy and it is only this sacrifice that is acceptable to God notice the next three words acceptable to God so there is a Christian life that is acceptable to God and there is a Christian life that is unacceptable to God I&#39;m not talking about your eternal standing you&#39;ve been justified by faith but it is possible for someone who has been justified by faith let&#39;s say in a season of their life to be living in a way that is unacceptable to God so this says acceptable to God anything less than being a living and Holy Sacrifice is unacceptable to God now this word acceptable means literally out of the original language to be well pleasing to be well pleasing to God so as a believer who has been justified by faith the manner with which I live my life must be done in a way that is well pleasing to God and I want to give you some some cross references here just three cross references that I think would be very important for you to hear at this point because I know what some people will be thinking right now Steve that&#39;s legalism that that that&#39;s legalistic and I want to say to you if that is your response to this you wouldn&#39;t know legalism if it walked up and shook hands with you that this is Bible truth and you are arguing for what we call license antinomianism that you can just live your Christian life however you want to live and it doesn&#39;t matter God&#39;s just pleased with me however I live and you have bought into a lie my friend now I want to give you three cross references and these are very important and I I want the weight of these verses to weigh strongly upon us 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 9 the Apostle Paul writes we have as our ambition now you need to have an ambition I need to have it ambition it needs to be God&#39;s ambition for our lives we have as our ambition whether at home meaning living in this world are absent meaning going to heaven to be pleasing to him that must be our ambition and the mere fact that he says this implies that it is possible for you to be living in a way that is not pleasing to him Ananias and Sapphira were not pleasing to the and God took them home there were Corinthians who were not they were coming to the lord&#39;s table in an unworthy manner and they were not pleasing to the lord and some of them were dying when moses struck the rock it was unpleased to God and God said go to the mountain and die so we must be living pleasing to the Lord and that necessitates that we be rightly motivated not by guilt but by grace by the mercies of God and that we present our bodies a living and Holy Sacrifice to God let me give you another verse Ephesians 5 verse 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord you and I must be trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord that&#39;s the way husbands are with their wives is it not it takes a lifetime for us to learn what is pleasing to our to our wives and vice versa they towards us and the same is in our spiritual walk with the Lord we have to be learning what is pleasing to the Lord one more verse Romans 14 verse 18 says he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God so there is a manner with which we serve Christ that is acceptable to God therefore that clearly implies there is also a manner in which we would serve Christ that is not acceptable to God so the motivation here is to live our life in a way that is acceptable and pleasing well pleasing to God which is that we present our bodies a living and Holy Sacrifice to God I I can only pray that this very moment the Holy Spirit of God is at work in your mind and in your heart bringing the true of this text and into the very epicenter of your soul now this leads to number four the calculation he says we he says at the end of verse one which is your spiritual service of worship the word spiritual here requires some help it&#39;s a it&#39;s a Greek word I&#39;m going to pronounce it only because you&#39;re gonna hear an English word you&#39;re here several English words in it it&#39;s a Greek word lager costs and you can hear logic logical logarithms that is referring to that which is rational that which is intelligent when it says that which is your spiritual service of worship it really I think it&#39;s best translated and commentaries would bear this up that which is your reasonable and rational service of worship now what Paul is saying to the Romans and to us is I want you to do the math because it would be totally irrational for you not to present your bodies as a living and Holy Sacrifice to the Lord the only reasonable way for you to live your Christian life is to present it on the altar to God so Paul is saying and when we get the the mathematical aspect of this logic cos when when we do this and it up add up all of the all of the liabilities that you had to give up and then add up all of the assets that you gained so so what all liabilities did you give up we&#39;re just wiped off the books can&#39;t you&#39;re a businessman you know how to look at these squares better than I do so what was taken off of the books and is no longer a liability in your life guilt sin condemnation hell judgment that&#39;s quite a list of liabilities that&#39;s just been wiped out taken off the books forgiven so one has been added now to the asset sorry what assets did you acquire in your conversion forgiveness righteousness the indwelling spirit a new heart a new mind a new path a new direction a new destiny all of this and and more is what you have acquired so what Paul is saying when he says which is your spiritual service of worship he&#39;s really saying which is your reasonable rational intelligent decision to make in your life think of what you&#39;ve given up and think of what you&#39;ve gained how could you possibly live for yourself how could you possibly live for this sin soaked world how could you do anything other than living for the glory of God that that&#39;s that&#39;s where he is driving this and then he adds of worship which is your spiritual service of worship now we normally think can&#39;t of worship as being Sunday morning from 9:45 to 11 or 10:30 to 12:00 whenever your church meets and when the Bible uses the word worship it opens up the lens and gives us the big picture it has in mind the macro not the micro now come into church on Lord&#39;s Day is vitally important to every believers life and I think even a necessity but coming to church on Sunday morning is only to prepare us to be worshipers the entire rest of the week I mean it&#39;s like a gas station we just come to get filled up so that we&#39;ve got gas in her tank too to live the rest of the week and what this is talking about here is a lifestyle of worship that your entire your entire life is a worship service that that&#39;s what this is saying which is your spiritual service of worship that your your entire existence to put it this way 24 hours a day seven days a week you&#39;re never out of the sanctuary you&#39;re always in a posture of on your knees eyes lifted up to heaven mouth open giving praises to God and we glorify God in every aspect of our life it&#39;s certainly when we&#39;re in the word and in prayer throughout the week but it&#39;s also as you go to work it&#39;s also as you go to school it&#39;s also as you&#39;re walking with friends it&#39;s also as you&#39;re in forms of recreation wherever you go you are to be living on the altar and your life is to be a worship service given to God so let&#39;s step into verse two because we do have some time now that to keep to keep going well you know what can&#39;t we need to do some questions and I just realized that so I don&#39;t want to press all the way do it have we had any questions oh we got a lot of questions okay well we&#39;re just going to stop right here and next Thursday morning because verse two is an incredible verse and I don&#39;t want to just hydroplane over verse two so let&#39;s just hit the pause button and we&#39;ll pick it back up we need to but I hate for you stop I keep thinking I&#39;ve heard your best message but I think this is your best assets this is unbelievable incredible this is where the rubber meets the road I don&#39;t want to stop but we have a lot of questions and I guess we&#39;ll just have to say tune in next week yeah tune in next week I mean if you want me to keep going I can hit in the number 10 - yeah this is a it&#39;s just it&#39;s a fabulous you you brought up the word antinomianism can you explain what that is for a lot yeah sure the Greek word No Mas means law mm-hmm anti Greek word means against and for example Antichrist means against Christ or in place of Christ antinomianism is the Christian and many times a supposed Christian who wants to live their Christian life without any law yeah they think well I&#39;m all under grace okay so there&#39;s no law laws bad grace is good and that there is a modicum of truth I understand the law came through Moses and grace and truth through Christ however the Ten Commandments the moral law of God are still binding upon our life and I think the fourth commandment has some modification to it the Sabbath has become the Lord&#39;s Day but every imperative in the New Testament seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness that&#39;s that&#39;s an imperative command and so therefore it becomes a part of the Christian law humble yourself beneath the mighty hand of God that&#39;s that&#39;s an imperative that that is is binding upon our lives and there are Christians who want to have only indicative and by that I mean sentences in the Bible that simply are statement of fact that do not are not binding with moral accountability but there are also imperative verbs an imperative verb as a command that commands us to do something and antinomian is someone who only wants the teaching but they do not want the binding effect of this upon my life and so they want to live without any law or without any imperatives and and and unfortunately can&#39;t there are teachers preachers who who teach this and I would say nonsense it&#39;s far worse than nonsense it&#39;s it&#39;s it&#39;s gross error and it&#39;s affecting and I want to say it&#39;s affecting especially Millennials today mm-hm who have grown up under this kind of bad teaching mmm-hmm you and I are another generation and we grew up under the imperatives because we had the full counsel of God brought to bear upon our Christian lives so that&#39;s in a nutshell what&#39;s so paradis is there is there an Israelite I know I mean is there a confusion when people say law and then the moral the moral aspects and the moral law of what God still intends and who he is is there some confusion there and say we&#39;re no longer under the law yeah when we say we&#39;re no under under the law we mean several things number one we&#39;re no longer under the ceremonial law okay with a with actually a priest and a tabernacle and a temple and animal sacrifices and we&#39;re no longer under the ceremonial law and we&#39;re no longer under the civil law in that I mean we&#39;re not stoning to death rebellious children just one example that would wipe out an entire generation in America right now seemingly there are parts of them zag law that were fulfilled in the cross certainly the ceremonial law or that were unique to Israel as they occupied their promised land however there is the laws divided into three sections moral law ceremonial law civil law the ceremonial laws fulfilled the moral law is still on the books in fact is reinforced and we&#39;re in the book which is what you&#39;re talking about here yeah that&#39;s what we&#39;re talking about and just for example in the book of Romans Romans 13 and verse 9 I mean paul&#39;s quoting the moral law of god to make his point in in the book of romans he is saying do not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal you shall not covet you shall love your neighbor as yourself he&#39;s quoting from the Old Testament to show that&#39;s still on the books for a New Testament Christian living so in antinomian is someone who just when they come to Romans 13 they just ripped that page out of their Bible and pretend like it never happened so there&#39;s an overemphasis then on grate once saved always saved you don&#39;t need to worry about it and they you know the balances is what you&#39;re saying is there&#39;s not a yeah they make statements like God can&#39;t love you anymore he can&#39;t love you any less therefore it doesn&#39;t matter how you live time out that is true God can&#39;t love you anymore and he can&#39;t love you any less and you can never lose your salvation you can never lose your salvation but those who you love the most you want you expect the most from them and you they can they can hurt you the most those who love you the most by the way that they live there that their lives and you mentioned license earlier yeah license is another word for antinomianism license just means I mean you you you&#39;ve got a car but no brakes and yeah and basically no steering wheel and you just got a gas pedal and you can just live however you want to live your Christian life I know this sounds bizarre to a lot of you who are who are listening to this and you&#39;re saying surely this is a straw man argument it&#39;s not a strong straw man argument unfortunately what about we have so many questions I&#39;m not sure if I can even get in there long so let me look one here what about this shorten it up what about a believer who gets into sin for a season of their life yeah well they need to repent and and if they are a believer they will come out of this season of sin God will bring them out one way or the other now if they don&#39;t come out that would be cause for serious self-examination whether you be in the faith but if you are a believer and caught up in a season of sin and yes a believer does sin I mean look at David yeah I mean look at Peter look at me yeah but we are convicted buyers about our sin and we confess our sin and when we repent of our sin and we want to turn away from our sin it grieves our heart because it has grieved the heart of God mm-hmm so that&#39;s what we would say about a believer who&#39;s caught up in a season of sin so as you as you opened up you said that first 11 chapters were doctrine yeah and the next starting in verse 12 or application yeah and it&#39;s not either/or yeah you&#39;re exactly right it&#39;s both an and just use an illustration and it&#39;s only an illustration and airplanes got two wings okay you want to fly on an airplane you and I have flown together we don&#39;t want to fly on an airplane has just one wing yeah that&#39;s that&#39;s gonna be a nosedive in fact they won&#39;t even get off the ground yeah it takes both in order to fly and it takes both instruction and application both doctrine and duty in order to live the Christian life otherwise you&#39;re going nowhere right here&#39;s here&#39;s a question I&#39;ll just read it how do I grow in my love for Christ how do I have a heart that longs to be with him more intensely a heart that can say heaven would not be heaven if Christ were not there wow that&#39;s that&#39;s a great question I&#39;m glad I stopped early so we could take questions like that ken first of all I think of Hebrews 12 verse 2 looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame we have to look to Christ gaze upon Christ learn more and more of Christ commune with Christ and as we do it causes us to look away from other things that would capture our attention and that verb looking unto Jesus is literally it&#39;s a compound word it means looking away from unto Jesus so we got to have both eyes on Jesus and be looking away from the temporal vanities of this world now it doesn&#39;t mean we don&#39;t live in this world and we don&#39;t see stop signs and go to work and you you have to make a living but that can&#39;t be what&#39;s driving us what&#39;s driving us is Christ and living for Christ and honoring Christ so to be to say heaven is is for me to be with Christ is right now to be so walking in fellowship with Christ yeah that you&#39;re just one step away from being in his presence this is a similar question and it really is the quite the person writing in writes the presumptuous sins the by setting sins I think Hebrews talks about the same thing the sins we think about the sins that we&#39;re in bondage to before conversion and we catch ourselves and we still in an end up committing these sins afterwards feeling unworthy and disappointed and I guess you&#39;re saying the same question is how do I get a better self control over these sins that are really deep yeah inner sins that seemed to really be waiting weighing me down yeah the answer is that there&#39;s no secret answer to this it&#39;s just kind of like blocking just tackling so it&#39;s the same thing it&#39;s you got to be in the word yeah the words got to be in you yeah you&#39;ve got to be in prayer mmm you&#39;ve got to be walking and fellowship with the Lord you&#39;ve got to be with other believers who are strong in the Lord you&#39;ve got to be under the preaching of the word of God you&#39;ve got to be in fellowship with other believers you&#39;ve got to be serving mm-hmm the Lord you can&#39;t just be a spiritual couch potato and just sitting there on a sofa you you got to you&#39;ve got to be serving the Lord and and being a witness for him I mean all of these things play a part in displacing but setting sins in in our life I mean it takes place in a in an environment in a culture in which there&#39;s passivity in the Christian life and in which that&#39;s good there&#39;s not the Word of God so we&#39;ve always got to have our chin strap well snapped we&#39;ve got to have our pads on and every time there&#39;s never a time that we can relax that we&#39;re always in the in is that a sign of a Christian that we&#39;re always in a battle yeah we&#39;re always in the battle and it&#39;s a fight for holiness and it&#39;s a fight for godliness and and there&#39;s no cruising into heaven and it will be this way to the end of our Christian life look at Romans 7 that&#39;s Paul as a mature Christian yeah well Ken I&#39;m looking at the clock here and I know we&#39;ve got more questions but we&#39;re gonna have to wind this down because in just a few minutes we&#39;re going to transition to steadfast hope and we&#39;re going to be looking at Philippians 4 verse 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me so I can&#39;t think of a more encouraging verse for my Christian life than Philippians 4:13 so where I would invite you to join us at eight o&#39;clock central time here in Dallas Texas you can go to one passion ministries org and watch we&#39;re playing a doubleheader today so you can watch our next Bible study and I look forward to seeing you in just a few minutes so god bless you live on the altar put your life on the altar as a living and Holy Sacrifice unto God god bless you [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music]

Transcript for:Men's Bible Study - Living on the Altar

Transcript for:
Men's Bible Study - Living on the Altar