Proverbs 29:18

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.”

We have clearly established the need for us to surround ourselves with the proper teaching of the Word of God. When there is clear, correct and regular teaching of the Word of God, society at large is restrained form doing evil. Sin is always there; we are sinners, all of us. But it is not as publicly flaunted as we see today. Sins that used to be done in the shadows, done in private and with some degree of shame are now flaunted as rights, and sin is paraded as normal; and all who oppose such liberties (rights) are intolerant. In Isaiah 5:20, the prophet laments the openness of sin in his day and comes to this conclusion:

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

No better statement describes us right now as a society; good is being portrayed as evil, and evil as good. The shame once attached to sin is now being lifted, and that sin is being promoted as good. If one took the time to research the rise of pedophilia in our time, we will see that this is the last straw of human sexuality. There are still taboos associated with this sexual practice, but once society accepts that pedophiles are born this way, just as they say homosexuals are according to the law, then pedophilia will become acceptable as well. Go for yourself and research how many women, especially teachers, have been arrested for sexual interactions with their students, and you will see that pedophilia is just as prevalent among women as men.

Folks, we are in the last days. In Genesis 6:5, we see this assessment of mankind on the earth from God:

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

I fear that God would make the same assessment of us today. We are an evil people; and sadly, we are proud of it. We have no intention of repentance, no feelings of shame and no remorse. God is old- fashioned and narrow-minded, and we simply refuse to submit to Him. Jesus told us that as it was in the days of Noah, so it would be in the last days, and here we are. Matthew 24:37-39,

“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so, shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

The world thinks they have overpowered God; they mistake His gracious patience with either apathy or evidence that He does not exist. Well, like it was in the days of Noah, soon the first raindrops will fall; and it will be too late for billions of people. When those raindrops fall, for us it will be the Rapture; this will signal the beginning of God’s judgments here on earth for a 7-year period as He prepares a people for the Millennial Kingdom. But while God is pouring out His wrath on the earth, we, the saved, will be facing our own judgment. We are told this by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:8-10,

“We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we aspire to please Him, whether we are here in this body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.”

We “must all appear,” we are told, before the judgement seat of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 3:11-13, Paul writes this,

“For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.”

Here we have it; the foundation is Jesus. He is our salvation. In Him we have eternal life. If you are at this judgment, the issue here is not heaven or hell. But what did you do with the wonderful foundation that Jesus laid in His life, body and blood for you? Verse 15 tells us that if a man’s work is burned up by the judgment of fire, he, himself is saved. But there is a loss of rewards.

This brings us to what we have been discussing over the past few weeks, the fact that – as the Lord’s people, seeing where we are in history and with full understanding that we are in the last days – we should be living in such a way that shows we are prepared or at least preparing to be judged. Sadly, a lot of churches do not teach about the end times. A full 25% of the scriptures deal with the end, the return of Jesus is prophesied by the OT prophets, it is reiterated by the NT writers, and we should take these warnings seriously.

1. A Recap

We have explored the verse from Proverbs 29:18 about the proper teaching of the Scriptures being a restraining power in the lives of a society and especially in the lives of the children of God. We also looked at 2 Timothy 3:16-17, verses that tell us the Bible is given by God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof and correction and then to equip us to do good works. These are the works that will NOT burn up when we are judged. See 1 Corinthians 3:11-13 again.

In addition to the above verses, we also looked at Romans 12:1-2. These verses give us the process of how we are transformed from doing evil works to good works as we grow in the Lord. Let us establish that normal people can do what appears to be good works on the outside. They can love their wives, love their children, serve their community and help their fellowman, and all looks good. But the problem is that they have not been reborn in Jesus (John 3:3). The inner man has not been changed, so all these good works account for nothing. However, once a person is saved, redeemed by Jesus and washed in His blood, these same actions now have the potential to become good works.

The process begins, as we discussed, with us surrendering ourselves to the Lord. Luke lays this out for us in 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.”

Yes, you read that right; deny yourself. Once saved, we must begin the process of surrendering control of our bodies and lives with our dreams and hopes to Jesus. As we daily do this, the Holy Spirit takes the Bible and begins to show us ‘reproof and correction,’ helping us to stop being conformed to the mindset and actions of the world system. He, the Holy Spirit, begins to call us out on things with the intent on changing the way we think. This bring us to the final stage of transformation to aid us in doing ‘good works.’

2. Transformation – Romans 12:1-2

The word for transformation in Greek is the root word from which we get our English word metamorphosis. In 2 Corinthians 5:17-18, Paul writes this,

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

This is the whole idea of metamorphosis. We know the process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly; the caterpillar is cocooned, turns to liquid, and over a process of time transforms into the beautiful butterfly. One cannot have butterflies without caterpillars. Well, you and I are being transformed by the Holy Spirit in us, who changes us from the inside out just like the caterpillar, and makes us beautiful in Jesus. This is a process that affects every aspect of our lives, beginning with the way we think. Paul calls it the “renewing of our minds.”

Let me give you one of the ways that we can be transformed, and I want to stress that this is a lifelong journey. Just read the Gospels and see how frustrated Jesus got with the lack of insight with the men who would become the apostles. But Matthew offers us this lesson in transformation from Matthew 6: 25-34,

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Learning to stop worrying is a ‘good work’; the idea of total and confident dependence on the Lord for everything is part of our transformation. Jesus will supply. He must; He promised to. We stop gauging our lives by the measures of the world: how big your house is, what car you drive, what clothes you wear and how big your bank account is. Rather, you seek to invest in the Kingdom of God first, no matter the cost, and learn to be contented with what you have here. Notice that this good work includes not doing something. This is part of the transformation that we are to experience. Not just that we do some things, but that we STOP doing seemingly insignificant things. How about this that we find in Romans 12:10-11,

“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Putting others first, thinking of how our lives and our actions will affect our weaker brothers and sisters in the Lord.”

Paul writes this way about taking liberties. Galatians 5:13,

“For you, brothers, were called to freedom. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity to gratify your flesh, but through love make it your habit to serve one another.”

In the garden of Gethsemane that fateful night before Jesus was crucified, He was there not for His own sin but ours; not for His redemption but ours; and not for His failures but ours. He tells Peter that in His freedom He could ask God the Father for 12 legions of angels, and they would show up and make an end of the Roman arrest that was going on. But Jesus considered our needs, He considered the Father’s will, and He endured the cross. We are not in danger yet of being called to die for the cause of Christ, but we can begin by denying ourselves some of our liberties so as not to be a stumbling block to our fellow saved family. This is part of the transformation that takes place; I become second to the Lord and others. Me gets demoted to second, maybe third, maybe 100^th, whatever it takes to build up a brother or sister. Good works always come from the heart of a servant to Jesus.

One day, maybe sooner than you and I think, we will be called to stand at the judgment and give an account of how we lived our lives once we found the solid rock of Jesus as our Saviour. Let us begin to be ready for this and give our bodies, our minds and our lives over to Jesus to be transformed into His image. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18,

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

 

Proverbs 29:18

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.”

By now, I hope that we have established that the above verse is about the proper teaching and preaching of God’s Holy Word. Even just reading the scriptures is so important, that the Devil will tempt you not to read because you don’t understand.

I had a conversation with a lady from the church I pastor this morning. She was talking about reading in the book of Luke. As she was about to read, the devil comes along and tells her, ‘you don’t understand this anyway; don’t read it.’ But she perseveres; and lo and behold, the Holy Spirit teaches her about producing fruit from a parable of Jesus’ in Luke 13:6-9. She, by the power of the Holy Spirit, was challenged to work at producing more fruit in her Christian life.

This is why it is important to read the Bible and to allow God’s Holy Spirit that lives in us to show us the truth of the scriptures. The Holy Spirit always leads us into truth, to obedience and to change. He ever lives to guide us into a deeper and more open relationship with the Lord.

We have shown and the scripture teaches that when the Word of God is read, preached and made available to the masses, it acts as a restraint against the progress of evil in a society. This is not just about Christians per se, but all peoples are restrained by the proper teaching and ready access to the Bible. This why there is such a push to remove the Bible from the public forum.

Here in the Toronto area, we have a situation where a member of the Toronto city council is trying to make it either very difficult or impossible for a church group to rent a city facility to host a church service. The push to remove the truth from the public is very, very real. You see, it is impossible to lie to people who know the truth. It is like knowing authentic currency and then coming across counterfeit currency and being able to identify it. When we have the truth of God’s word openly taught, openly and readily available to the public for consumption, then when lies come along, one is able to spot them and avoid them.

Let us take a look at a phenomenon that is happening right now; we see it in the malls, in the stores, we see it in classrooms and in very public places.

Exodus 20: 12, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”

I was taught this as a child. I am commanded from the Ten Commandments to ‘honor’ my parents. To respect them, to carry their names well and to listen to them.

In the New Testament, we see Ephesians 6: 1-3, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.”

This adds fuel to the fire by further explaining the idea of honoring your parents. We are called to obey our parents in the Lord. I am to do what I am told. This implies submission and humility. But today we have a society that encourages kids to disobey their parents. The government has gone behind parents’ backs and provided to their children things that the parents have not consented to. Children can get contraceptives and vaccinations that the parents forbid by going around their parent’s authority through the schools. It happened to my wife and I as parents; we found out that our kids could and did get stuff at the school that we had forbidden.

There is a deliberate plan to subvert the parental authority. Many of the child protection agencies, both in the US and in Canada, have the position that the children belong to the state, not the parents. Thus, the state can subvert the parent’s authority. They can only do this because the idea that children must obey their parents and the fact that the children belong to the parents has been removed out of the public sphere. Children used to be taught, even in public schools, that they should obey their parents. I was. Now they are told that they can threaten their parents if they do something that they, the child, does not like.

The entire chain of authority has been overturned. Now, we have a society of unruly, undisciplined kids that have been unleashed on our teachers, our police forces and our society. The children have ‘cast off restraint’ since there is no revelation of the truth.

Further, we discussed some verses from Timothy, verses of instruction and clarity to the young preacher about the power of the Holy Word of God. In 2 Timothy 3: 16-17, we see these verses:

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

The Word of God is profitable. This is very important. The world system says that the Word of God is outdated, no longer relevant; but God says it is profitable.

We talked in the previous lessons about doctrine and reproof, and we have begun to talk about good works; and we will get there today as well. But if you do not think that the Word of God is profitable, then there is no desire to read it, to study it and to obey it. So, our very mind frame must be in line with the mind frame of God. Just like the lady I mentioned from this morning, she had the mindset that the Word of God is profitable; thus, when tempted not to read, she was able to resist the temptation, and God made the reading of the Book profitable to her.

I am amazed at how many of God’s people do not make even the reading of God’s Word a priority. I am not perfect, far from it, but if I go a day or so without reading the scriptures, and sadly it can happen, I get the Holy Spirit in me calling me out on it; and then I repent and read it. The Bible is profitable and valuable; it is God’s message to us, to mature us and mold us into the image of Jesus.

How do you view the Holy Word of God?

Since the resurrection of the nation of Israel in May 1948, we have been in the last days. We have seen the rise of the New World Order as a system that is subverting the sovereignty of nations, infiltrating religion and exposing compromise, trying to silence or squash true Godly churches and trying to unify the world under global strategies. Soon, either by death or by the Rapture, we are going to be giving an account of the fruit that we have produced in the life we lived after we were saved.

Last week we began to look at Romans 12:1-2 in conjunction with Proverbs 29:18 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17. We talked about giving ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord, and we examined verses like this in Matthew 6:33:

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Or this one from the Gospel of Luke, 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.”

These are powerful and profitable verses that remind us that God wants us to surrender our lives. There are many who think that they would die for Jesus. But most are not living for Him. If you are not willing to be a living sacrifice, you will not be a dead one. All the people who died for the cause of Jesus Christ, first lived for Him.

Today we will explore the second part of Romans 12:1-2. Let us be reminded of the verses at hand:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Once we have made the decision to present our bodies to Jesus for His use, we are then instructed to ‘not be conformed to this world.’

Have any of you ever made frozen lollies? You make a juice of some kind, then you pour the liquid into the molds, place a stick in them and let them freeze. The juice takes on the shape of whatever mold you put it in. The idea of being conformed is the same thing. But this is not really a physical thing; it is the mind that we are to work on. Notice that, in the next phrase, the transformation take place by the ‘renewing of the mind.’ In 1 Peter 1:15-16 we see this:

“But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.'”

As well, see 2 Corinthians 6:16-17:

“What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.'”

When we think of being holy, there is an idea of being pious. Most often, that is seen in a negative connotation. But God is Holy; the word really means separated. God is separated from us; He is perfect, first of all, and this separates us, so we need to be saved through Jesus. And when we are covered in Jesus’ holiness, we can fellowship with God; He is no longer separated from us. But in a practical sense, God’s wants our way of thinking and subsequently acting to be separated from the world; we are called to be Holy. Our thoughts, our opinions and our very framework for life should be solely based on the Word of God.

Many Christians want to transform the way they act, but actions are a symptom, not a cause. First, we must change the way we think. We must stop conforming to the thought processes of the world. Let me give an example:

The world teaches that a man and woman can live together without going through a marriage process; it is all the same. But it is not; God expects there to be a marriage ceremony of some kind. Whether big or small, civil or religious, there must be a ceremony of some kind and the legal acknowledgement that they are now one person. So, a saved person who is in a relationship must reject the mindset of the world and accept God’s mindset. A young person who is being taught at school that they do not have to submit and obey Mom and Dad, must suppress these ideas with the truth of God’s word and not conform to the world philosophy.

Once we have decided to surrender our bodies, the next step is to work on not conforming to the world system. This takes self-examination; you and I need to ask questions? What does God say about this topic? What does the Bible teach about this situation? How would God have me handle this? From time management, money management, how we exist in our marriages, raise our children, what friends we have, the church we attend, and on and on we go. What must I do to stop conforming to the world? Once you make the move, the Holy Spirit will step in and assist you. He is here to guide us into all truth, thus helping us to conform to God’s holiness and not the world system. See John 16: 13-14:

“However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.”

Notice it says “He will guide you into all truth.”

You and I must be willing to follow. Now we have surrendered our bodies; and as we are no longer conforming to the world, but conforming to the Word of God, we can begin the process of doing good works in our service to the Lord and be ready to face the judgment that for sure is coming our way.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca