A Stephen Hawking–sized brain can trace every divine breadcrumb in creation and still refuse the Baker. Paul says the mind itself must be made new — and shows us how God does it.
Why can the world’s most brilliant minds study God’s creation every day and never find Him? In this sermon on Romans 12:1–2, Dr. Toby Holt begins where Paul himself begins — with the futility of the unrenewed mind. Drawing on Romans 1, he shows that the unbeliever’s problem is not a lack of evidence: every telescope Stephen Hawking ever looked through showed him the fingerprints of God. The unregenerate mind can spot the divine breadcrumbs all day long and never trace them back to the divine Baker, because sin ensures that even the sharpest intellect is habitually wrong about the God behind the things it studies.
From there Dr. Holt turns to the great hinge of Romans. After eleven chapters of doctrine, Paul says “therefore” — and the first duty he draws from all that grace is worship: present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. Dr. Holt unpacks what sacrifice meant to a Pharisee trained in a worship system centered on the altar, how every slaughtered lamb pointed forward to Jesus Christ, and why the offering God now asks for is not an animal but the ordinary choices of the body — what we watch, hear, say, and spend our limited hours and energy on.
Finally the sermon presses into verse 2. The world, Dr. Holt argues, is a giant conformance factory, pressing believers into its mold on every subject from the classroom to the culture. God’s alternative is transformation — a metamorphosis, caterpillar to butterfly, that begins with the renewing of the mind through a repeated, direct encounter with the Word of God.
Listeners will come away knowing why the mind matters so much to the Christian life, how regeneration changes the way we see everything God has made, and where to begin renewing the mind this week: take ownership of your faith, open the book of Proverbs, and grow one verse at a time.
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Paul’s word for “transformed” is the root of our word metamorphosis — the caterpillar-to-butterfly change of nature, not a cosmetic adjustment. In Romans 12:2 he commands believers to stop being pressed into the world’s mold and instead to be changed from within, and he locates the starting point in the mind. As Dr. Holt puts it in this sermon, there is a one-to-one relationship between a transformed life and a transformed mind: if you want to live differently tomorrow, you must think differently today, and the mind is renewed through a repeated, direct encounter with the Word of God, which reshapes how we perceive God, ourselves, and everything He has made.
Because Romans 12:1 is the hinge of the entire letter. For eleven chapters Paul teaches doctrine — sin, justification, grace, election, the mercies of God. At chapter 12 he moves from the indicative (what God has done) to the imperative (how we must live), and “therefore” signals that every command that follows is a conclusion drawn from the gospel already proclaimed. Paul beseeches believers by the mercies of God, not toward them: obedience is the reasonable response to redemption, never its price. Reading Romans in this order guards the gospel itself — duty flows from grace, and a Christianity that begins with commands has the book backwards.
It is the believer’s whole embodied life offered to God in worship. Paul, trained as a Pharisee in a sacrifice-centered worship system, deliberately keeps the language of the altar: sacrifices have not ended, but their nature has changed. No lamb ever saved anyone — every Old Testament offering pointed forward to Christ — and now those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit are themselves the offering. Dr. Holt applies it concretely: what you watch, listen to, say, and type, and how you spend your hours and energy, is the sacrifice you present. It is not primarily about money or tithing; it is the consecration of the body as the temple of God, which Paul calls our reasonable service.
It means to stop letting the world press you into its mold of thinking and living. Dr. Holt describes the modern world as a giant conformance factory — academia, media, and culture all discipling us into worldviews that run contrary to God’s, whether on gender, family, sexuality, or anything else. This is not new; Paul warned first-century Rome of the same pressure. The command falls on churches as well as individuals: a church that latches onto the world’s precepts out of zeal to be relevant has forgotten who it is. Believers are ambassadors of God, called to be holy — the world should adjust to us, not the other way around.
Romans 1:21 says of fallen humanity, “although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Futility means exercise without achievement, effort without success. An unregenerate mind can process mathematics, science, and philosophy at breakneck speed, yet because every thought runs through the filter of sin, its conclusions about God are habitually wrong. The futile mind is not stupid; it is misdirected at the deepest level — able to study creation endlessly while refusing to glorify the Creator that creation plainly reveals.
Yes. Dr. Holt points to Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan — minds that could describe the physics of a sunset with scientific precision while stripping the explanation of any glory to the God who made it. Hawking’s problem was never that he had not found God; every telescope and microscope he looked through showed him God’s fingerprints, for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen. His problem was that he rejected the God he found — spotting the divine breadcrumbs but refusing to trace them back to the divine Baker. Scripture’s verdict is sobering: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). Apart from grace, that fool would be all of us.
No. Dr. Holt is emphatic that being born again is not a function of a decision you made but of a decision God made — the Spirit indwelling you, turning a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). The Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q. 31) describes this effectual calling as the work of God’s Spirit, who convinces us of our sin, enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ, renews our wills, and persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered in the gospel. Regeneration is God’s sovereign act; our believing is its fruit, not its cause.
In his commentary The Epistle to the Romans, the Reformed theologian John Murray argues that Paul’s whole appeal rests on the mercies of God — the gospel doctrines of chapters 1–11 — so that Christian ethics are always a response to grace, never a means of earning it. Murray likewise stresses that believers must not be patterned after this present age, because they belong to the age to come; transformation is a progressive renewal wrought by the Holy Spirit, taking effect first in the mind so that believers can discern and approve the will of God. Dr. Holt’s sermon moves along the same lines: doctrine before duty, God’s sovereign work before ours, and the mind as the place where transformation begins.
Take ownership of your faith. It does not matter how much Grandpa read the Bible, or how much time your spouse or parents spend in prayer — the question is how much time you spend in God’s Word. Then guard your inputs: garbage in, garbage out, so pay attention to which voices you allow to affect your thoughts, and all the more the voices shaping your children. Finally, be consistent. Dr. Holt suggests beginning with the book of Proverbs, which teaches wisdom one verse at a time — and whether you read one verse or one chapter a day, consistency matters more than volume. Nothing is more important in religious practice than good habits; start this week if need be.
Directly. The Westminster Shorter Catechism opens by teaching that man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, and Romans 12:1 shows what that looks like in practice: presenting your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Dr. Holt reminds his hearers that everything in the created realm — flowers, trees, forests, and human beings — exists first for the glory of the One who made it. You are not your own; you were purchased at the greatest price anything has ever been purchased. Whole-life worship — watching what your eyes attend to, how you speak, and how you spend your energy — is simply the chief end of man lived out day by day.
1. Sin Renders Even the Most Brilliant Mind Futile
Dr. Holt opens with Paul’s diagnosis in Romans 1: “although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21). Futility, he explains, is exercise without achievement — a mind that races through mathematics, physics, and chemistry at breakneck speed while remaining habitually wrong about the source and object of the very things it studies. The size of the brain does not matter. A Stephen Hawking or a Carl Sagan could describe the physics of a sunset with precision and still strip the explanation of every ounce of glory belonging to the God who made it. This is what Reformed theology calls the noetic effect of sin: the fall corrupts not only the will and the affections but the intellect itself. The unbeliever’s problem is never that he has not found God — creation shows His fingerprints everywhere — but that he rejects the God he has found. Apart from regeneration, Dr. Holt observes, every one of us would remain such a fool.
2. The Great “Therefore”: Doctrine Before Duty
Romans 12:1 is the hinge of the whole letter. For eleven chapters Paul teaches doctrine — the indicative, what God has done in the gospel. At chapter 12 he turns to the imperative, how we must live in response, and the word “therefore” binds the two together. Dr. Holt insists this order is essential to the gospel itself: Paul does not command sacrifice so that believers may earn God’s mercies; he beseeches them by the mercies of God already received. Obedience is the reasonable response of the redeemed, never the price of redemption. This is the classic Reformed shape of sanctification — grace produces gratitude, and gratitude produces obedience. If God saved you by sending what was most precious to Himself, His own Son, to die for you, then the most reasonable thing you can possibly do is live accordingly. Any Christianity that begins with duty rather than mercy has read Romans backwards, and Paul’s pleading tone — I beseech you, I beg you — shows how much hangs on our response.
3. The Living Sacrifice: Whole-Life Worship After the Cross
When Paul — a Pharisee of the Pharisees, raised in a worship structure centered on sacrifice — uses the word “sacrifice,” it is no throwaway term. For centuries lambs and goats were slaughtered, and though no animal’s death ever saved anyone, every offering pointed forward to the death of the One who could: Jesus Christ. In the New Testament economy the altar is gone, but sacrifice remains — its nature has changed. Believers, indwelt by the Holy Spirit and made the temple of God, are now themselves the offering. Dr. Holt presses the point into daily life: what your eyes are attentive to, what you listen to, what you type and say, how you spend your finite hours and energy — all of it is worship offered to the glory of the One who made you. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism begins, man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. A Christian walk bereft of any real sacrifice — of time in the Word, in prayer, in gathered worship — is not holding up its end of Romans 12:1.
4. Transformation Is God’s Work, Wrought Through God’s Word
Being born again, Dr. Holt is careful to say, is not a function of a decision you made but of a decision God made — the Spirit indwelling you and turning a heart of stone to a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Echoing the Westminster Standards’ teaching on effectual calling, he reminds the congregation that after regeneration we are persuaded and enabled to embrace the Christ we had previously rejected; as Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). Yet sovereign grace creates real responsibility. Those whom God has made new must stop being conformed to this world and be transformed by the renewing of the mind — a metamorphosis like caterpillar to butterfly, wrought as the Word of God reshapes how we think. There is a one-to-one relationship between a transformed life and a transformed mind, and the mind is renewed by consistent, repeated, direct encounter with Scripture — not by the voices of a world at enmity with God.
About The Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt serves as the third President of New Geneva Theological Seminary (Colorado Springs, CO), founded 1993. An expository preacher with over 1.9 million sermon downloads on SermonAudio.com, Dr. Holt brings over 17 years of pastoral experience to his verse-by-verse Bible teaching. New Geneva offers fully online, Westminster Confessional theological education — M.Div., Th.M., D.Min., and other degrees.
Summary. Preaching from Romans 12:1–2, Dr. Toby Holt traces the futility of the unregenerate mind from Romans 1 — brilliant intellects like Stephen Hawking could describe a sunset scientifically yet refuse to glorify the God it revealed. At the great "therefore" of Romans, Paul turns from eleven chapters of doctrine to duty, and the first duty is worship: presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Dr. Holt shows that sacrifice did not end with the Old Testament altar; the believer's whole embodied life — what we watch, hear, say, and spend our energy on — is now the offering. He then contrasts the world's conformance factory with God's transformation, a metamorphosis that begins with the renewing of the mind through repeated, direct encounter with Scripture. The sermon closes with a practical charge: take ownership of your faith and grow one verse at a time, beginning even in Proverbs.
As a man thinks, so he is. The thoughts you think and the subject you focus upon, not what you meditate upon, is important. And there needs to be some attention given to that which you allow to affect your mind and your thoughts. The human mind is capable of many great things. It's far more amazing than any computer. However, our minds are also riddled by sin. Because of that, they need to be renewed, which is the exact word that the Apostle Paul uses in today's sermon from Romans 12.
You know, Christianity is a mind-altering, perception-bending reality. If God has entered your heart, if God has come in, then He has simultaneously entered your mind, because they're really one and the same. If God has entered your heart, then He has entered your mind in a way that has changed your perception, not only of him but of everything that he has made if the creator has entered into your heart if you are indwelt by the Spirit then by virtue of the creator being within you now have eyes by which to see his creation now they're different than before you're regenerated before you were made anew this is a change we've talked about it's called regeneration by which we're spiritually flatlining at one point we no longer are God has started to work he will finish it and that work has affected the way we see reality, the way we see everything around us. Now, it wasn't always that way. Some of us can remember a time when we weren't believers. Some of us can remember a time perhaps even which we shook our fists at the heavens. Some of us can remember these times in which we were opposed to God, opposed to his ways. There was a time when we were meandering, mindless dopes, and Romans 1 uses even stronger language to convey that. Romans 1 says our condition was this says since the creation of the world God's invisible attributes have been clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so they're without excuse because although they knew God they did not glorify him as God nor were they thankful but they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened Romans 1 Paul suggests earlier in the very same book that we're studying today we're in Romans 12 today this is Romans 1 and in Romans 1, Paul said, look, the unsaved man, the unsaved heart, the unsaved mind is futile in what it perceives.
It can think thoughts all day long. It can think all manner of things, and yet there's a futility that is inherent to it because it is apart from God. Futility. It suggests exercise without achievement. It suggests effort without success.
And it's hard to imagine how our thought life can become futile, but let's try for a moment. Let's say, let's say that you have an unregenerate mind. Let's say there's an individual who is not saved, doesn't believe, spiritually flatlining within. Let's say this is a smart individual, intellectually sharp, and yet spiritually dead. Now, imagine the thoughts that run around such a mind. They move throughout the synapses of the brain at breakneck speed.
And yet, every one of those ideas, every one of those thoughts is simultaneously run through the filter of what we call sin. And that sin ensures that the conclusions of the thoughts that the brain thinks, particularly about God, are habitually wrong. This is futility. The size of the brain doesn't matter. You know, at different eras, you have different guys you look to and say, that guy's the genius of our age. I don't know, the past 20 years, Stephen Hawking probably comes to mind for many of us, one of the smartest guys around.
You take a Stephen Hawking-sized brain, as long as that brain, however big and mighty and impressive it is, as long as it is impeded by sin, as long as it is unenlightened by the Spirit, then while, yes, it can process math and science and physics and chemistry and all these things in amazing and oppressive ways, at the same time, it will be habitually wrong about the source and object of the very things it's studying.
This is futility. Stephen Hawking, years ago, some of you remember Carl Sagan? Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, they could look out and describe the properties of a sunset scientifically, explain what's happening as the light is being refracted throughout the atmosphere and light. They could explain it, and they'd be right. They could explain the scientific properties of that. However, as they explained it, because of their worldview that was apart from God, they would strip that explanation of any glory given to the God who created the sunset in the first place.
They would give you a static, clinical definition that robbed God of all the glory in creating all the colors that we see and all the things that tug at the heartstrings when we look at it. Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, the like, any who are dead in their hearts and minds, who are not enlightened by the Holy Spirit, there is a futility. They can look around all day long and spot the divine breadcrumbs of a creator and yet never trace those breadcrumbs back to the divine baker, never trace those things back to God.
Stephen Hawking took pride in this. He once said, there is no God. He said, no one created the universe, no one directs our fate. I regard the brain as a computer. It stops working when its components fail. There's no heaven, there's no afterlife for broken down computers. It's a fairy story for people afraid of the dark. What was Stephen Hawking's problem? Well, his problem wasn't that he hadn't found God. Let me make that clear.
His problem was not that he hadn't found God. Every telescope or microscope that he looked through, every telescope or microscope that Stephen Hawking ever looked through in his life showed him the fingerprints, the fingerprints of God. For since the creation of the world, God's attributes are clearly seen. Hawking's problem wasn't that he hadn't found God. His problem was that he rejected the God that he found. He refused to trace the breadcrumbs back to the divine baker.
Well, God's word says this, a fool has said in his heart there is no God. And apart from the regeneration and subsequent renewal of our minds, we would all be such fools. All right, with that established, let's look now. Romans chapter 12, I'm going to read verse 1 and then we'll move verse 2. It's only two verses long. I'm going to look at verse 1, we'll talk about it, and then we'll look at verse 2 together.
Okay, verse 1 again says this. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, Holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. All right, so this is chapter 12.
Now, those of you who are familiar with the book of Romans know it works something like this. If you were to open up the book of Romans, which is a wonderful, systematic presentation of the Gospel, you ever want to get a real clear explanation for what the Gospel is from one end to the other, a real systematic, clear, concise presentation, you can look to the book of Romans. For the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans, Paul is giving all this wonderful theology and doctrine.
The first 11 chapters are doctrine after doctrine after doctrine. He's teaching. He's teaching what you sometimes call the indicative. He's educating those who are reading it. But then at this verse, at this very verse, at the start of chapter 12, for the rest of the letter, He moves from the indicative to the imperative. He moves from just educating on what theology is to telling you and I what we should do about it.
So if you ever want to see Paul's thoughts on how we ought to live out the Christian life, you can look to the last five chapters of the book of Romans. Well, today's reading is the transition points, the very moment which he switches from one to the other. And you see that in the word, therefore. He goes 11 chapters, and the start of chapter 12, he says, therefore. That's a sign and a hint to us that he's drawing conclusions from that which he had previously stated.
He's trying to take the knowledge that he's imparted and tell you and I what we're supposed to do with that knowledge. And the very first thing he says, the very first thing he says, after unpacking doctrine after doctrine after doctrine, the very first thing he says is this. He says, you and I, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Now, let's stop there for a moment. This is not a throwaway phrase.
Who wrote this passage? Paul the Apostle Paul wrote this passage now Paul had grown up in Israel Paul was a jew of the Jews He was a hebrew of the hebrews he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees Paul knew something about the culture in which he grew up in and so when Paul this robust educated jew uses the word sacrifice it is not a throwaway word it is a word that is filled with the historical meaning and context of growing up in a system a worship structure in which sacrifices were centered when Paul talks about sacrifices, he's coming out of a culture in which sacrifices were routinely done in order to satisfy the wrath of God. People for years and centuries had been sacrificing goats and sheep. Now, because a goat died on a hill somewhere far, far away, does that save any of us? No, it didn't save anyone then. But when a lamb was slaughtered, even centuries before Christ's time, when a lamb was slaughtered, it looked forward to Christ.
When a lamb was slaughtered, that sacrifice in and of itself couldn't save anybody, but it pointed forward to the death of one who could every animal ever sacrificed ultimately pointed forward to Jesus Christ with that said in the New Testament economy we no longer have to slaughter animals we no longer have this kind of sacrifices however that doesn't mean that the concept of sacrifice has gone away the concept of sacrifice remains and we see this in the very first verse and chapter 12. Sacrifices are still part of a believer's worship to God. They no longer involve lambs and goats and bulls and sheep and doves and pigeons and the like, but they still exist. We are still called to sacrifice. And we see that in verse 1. We see, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Sacrifices are still part of our worship. That has not changed in the least. But what has changed is the nature of the sacrifice. And that's what Paul draws our attention to. He says, you and I are now the sacrifice. Now, in what way? Well, he specifically says here, we represent our bodies as a living sacrifice. Now, what does that mean? Well, we're all accustomed to aspects of sacrifice that are done when we give to God. We take that which is precious to us, we give it to God, and we feel as if we sacrifice something of ourselves to God and is the kingdom. So we're accustomed to giving or tithing or what have you and saying there is a sacrifice. That's not what this verse is talking about. It's good and important to do that and to give to God and so forth. That's not the sacrifice that's being referred to here. What's being referred to is a living sacrifice. What does that mean? What that means is that you and I as believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who are now the temple of God, we're supposed to act accordingly. If the Spirit of God dwells within us, don't you think that should affect everything that our bodies are engaged in if our body is the temple of God. The things you write, the things
you type, the things you look at, the things you hear, the things you say, all this is a manifestation of the body, of working out the faith that has been worked within you. And all this is to be done regularly and consistently with God's glory and view. You are not your own. I hope that's not a shock to anyone here. We were made for the glory of someone greater than ourselves. Someone tell me, what is the chief end of man? To glorify God and join forever. The chief end of man, this is the very first in the Catechism. Number one, you exist, I exist, we exist for the glory of the one who made us. Created beings, creation, flowers, trees, forests, all this stuff, everything that has been made in the created realm exists for one primary purpose, the glory of the one that created them.
This is the same for you and I. Because of this, a sacrifice we give to God is we watch what our eyes are attentive to. We watch what we listen to. We think about the things we say. We think about the effort we exert. You only have so many hours in a day and so much energy to use. Use it well. Use it in ways that glorify God and aid others. And you have choices to make along these lines. You can dedicate your body to all manner of things that are foul. Don't. Paul says one of the most reasonable things you can possibly do, if God saved you by sending that which was most precious to himself, his own son, to die for you, then one of the most reasonable responses you could ever have is to live accordingly.
To give back. To say, God, you purchased me at the greatest price anything could ever be purchased. And because of that, it's reasonable for me to make some attempt to be holy, to be godly. Some attempt not to listen to the things I've been listening to, to watch the things I've been watching, to say the things I've been saying, to dial back the profanity which I may have used in times past, to watch the things that I engage in.
Why? Because I love the God who has redeemed me. Now, when the angels, when they gather around the water cooler in heaven, I don't know how this works, but theoretically, when the angels gather around and when they talk about you, because you and I are in the purview of the angels, when they do, what do they say? What do they see? What kind of sacrifices are we making? What kind of ways are we attempting, not only to give to God through tithes and offerings and the like, but attempting to give them our self and our resources and our energy and attempting to make ourselves more holy.
What would someone outside of ourselves, external to our situations, looking at our choices say if they could see the whole lot of them? Are we living sacrificially? I'll tell you this much. If your Christian walk is bereft of any real sacrifice, and again, I'm not just talking about finances here. If your Christian walk is bereft of any real sacrifice, and you withhold from him time to spend in the Word, time to come attend worship or do Wednesday nights or community groups or whatever, devotional time.
If your Christian walk is bereft or you're willing to even sacrifice your time to hang out with God and his people or to spend time in devotions and prayer and the like, you're probably not holding up your end of the deal in Romans chapter 12, verse 1. If you're being introspective, are you and I, are we living sacrificially? Well, Paul knew that that was a problem for many in the early church.
He knew it was a problem for people in any church. See, the easiest part of the faith is just nodding your head to it, saying, do you believe in Jesus? Oh, I believe in Jesus. Okay. That's the easy part. The profession, the things we say are comparatively straightforward and simple. What's hard is living as such. What's hard is living as such. So Paul says in verse one, he says, look, I beseech you. That's like high King James sort of language to say, look, I'm begging you, Dear heavens, I've taught you for 11 chapters how much God loves you. And now I'm going to ask you, beseech you, beg of you, plead to you, please respond to this. Please, for the love of all that's good and right and holy in
the universe, respond to this. I beseech you, he says. I plead with you in verse 1. By the mercies of God, do this. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable God. This is your reasonable service. All right, let's move on to verse 2 of today's reading. Verse 2. And, so this is related there's a relationship between part two and part one verse two and verse one and do not be conformed to this world do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what's good and acceptable and the perfect will of God all right when we started out this morning we lingered for a bit on the inabilities and the futility of the unsaved mind. We said that those who are not indwelt by the Spirit cannot of their own volition comprehend all the things of God. They might think they can, but they cannot. They cannot comprehend all the things of God. They are consigned instead to futile and darkened thoughts. This is the state of the unregenerate individual. But what about us? What about you and I who are believers, who are Christians? What advantages do we have in our intellect because of being Christian, because of changed. What advantage do we have as those who've been born again? Being born again is not just you nodding your head and saying, oh, I believe, and I'm going to write my name on the back of the Bible and declare I'm born again as if it was a decision I made. Being born again is not a function of a decision that you made. Being born again is a function of a decision that God made and solidified through sending a Spirit to indwell you, to change your heart, to turn your heart of stone to a heart of flesh and after that happened which we call regeneration after he made you alive who was once dead after he gave you a spiritual pulse who was previously flat lying after that happens Westminster confession says after that occurs we are enabled and persuaded to embrace Christ that we had previously rejected this is regeneration this is orthodox teaching with regards to what being born again is now this act as we've said in the past is an act of God's volition why does he do it for who does he do it that's up to him that's above our pay grade but we know that he doesn't you know that it's his choice his will his action no one can come to me unless my father draws him with that said once we've been drawn once our hearts are different and changed and we're enabled and persuaded to see and love and apprehend a God that we previously didn't or couldn't or wouldn't in verse 2 Paul says all right if that's you today if you're one of those that are regenerate son daughter of God if that's you then you now have a responsibility you actually have several, but here's one of them, he says in verse 2.
He says, if you are different, if you have been set apart by God through his own volition, called out of the world, if you've been given this new nature that's different than the nature in which you came into the world, if you are now holy and different and righteous in the eyes of God, then verse 2 says stop, stop being conformed to the world. You can't have both. So many of even us think that we can, or at least we act as if we can.
We can have the things of the world and have the things of God. We can love God and yet not offend anybody in the world around us. Well, verse 2 says it doesn't work that way. It says you've just got to stop. Stop being conformed and remade in the image of that which is at enmity with your God. If the world is at enmity with God, then the more you become like the world, what does that say about your relationship with God himself?
In verse 2, Paul says stop. Just stop. Stop being conformed to this world, but instead, he offers a substitute. He says, stop being more worldly. Stop latching on to the precepts, the ideas, and the concepts of the world around you and making them your own. And when churches do that, oh my goodness, that's bad. We are not called to conform to the wills and wants of the world around us. Out of a zeal, even out of a great zeal to be relevant to this world.
Dear heavens, we dare not, dare not forget who we are. We are the ambassadors of God called to be holy and righteous in the eyes of the world.
Let them adjust to us. Not the other way around. Well, here it says, not be conformed to this world, but rather be transformed, transformed. And you know how? You know how we're transformed? Well, he gives us the answer. He says, it starts with the renewing of our minds. It starts with the renewing of our minds. You know, back in college, I say that as one who can't believe it's been that long, but back in college, I was remembering, you know, freshman orientation. I don't know. You probably remember going through something similar. You go off to college and there's freshman orientation, freshman mix or whatever it is. Well, I remember they rolled out some professors to tell you things that you weren't paying too much attention to. Well, there was one thing I did pay attention to.
There was one thing that I remember hearing that resonated with me at that time. It was a professor who said, look, you students who are gathered here today, know this. Know this about the institution in which you have come. You have come here to learn how to think and not necessarily what to think. You have come here to learn the tools for how to perceive the world around you, how to apprehend reality. You are here at college, as is the case even in all forms of secondary and education-like. You're here to learn how to think. Now, what to think is relevant somewhere down the line, but colleges are primarily geared to teach you, to give you the tools and the intellect to apprehend reality, not necessarily to indoctrinate you by telling you what that reality is. I love that the professor, at least 20 some odd years ago, thought that this is the way that it would work, that the institution would tell us how to think and not necessarily what to think. It's a good sentiment. It's not necessarily the way it is. It's not the way it is now, and it probably has never been. Now, what's the difference, again, between being taught how to think and what to think? Well, being taught how to think suggests developing academic skills. It suggests that this learning institution exists to equip and exercise the students' minds. However, being taught what to think suggests indoctrination, suggests we're not here so much to teach you how to process reality, we're just here to tell you what that reality is, and we expect you to act accordingly.
Now, the whole world is bent, especially in our age and especially in recent years. The whole world around us seems bent on either indoctrinating or conforming us to wills and wants and whims that may or may not be godly, that may or may not be right. You know, whether it's the academia or the media or the guy down the street, everybody's a disciple of some sort of worldview. Everyone's a disciples some sort of worldview, and generally speaking, those individuals want to compel or enforce that worldview upon you. Our whole world right now, and certainly the culture, is a giant conformance factory. You doubt that, try going to the public square and saying something that does not conform to the world's views on gender, or family, or sexuality, or what have you. Now, none of this is new. I'm not going to make this a topical sermon because I don't have to. None of this is new. It's not necessarily something that just came along here in the past few years. It's always been the case. Apostle Paul, his warning to the people in first century Rome was basically the same. He says the world has, will have, will always have views that run contrary to those of God. No matter what they are, what the subject is, the topic is, the world will always have views that are different from that of God. This is not new. Now, when those views should be introduced to you, when those views should be even compelled upon you at the point of persecution, don't accept them. Don't believe them. Don't believe that which is manifestly antithetically in contrast with that which the Word of God says. Trust instead in that which is infallible and inerrant and comes from the very hand of God. This is what Paul's saying. He says, don't be conformed to the world around you, but be transformed by renewing your mind, by going to an inerrant source, by going to a source that is without fault, by going to a source that is honest and true and righteous and virtuous in all these things and lingering in your thoughts and minds on what it says. Transformation is different than confirmation. Confirmation, to be conformed, is to basically become more like the culture in which you've been placed. But transformation speaks to becoming something altogether new and different, much like regeneration. You know, those of you who have teenagers, who wants their teenager to conform to the view of other teenagers? I know I don't.
That's not my desire. Confirmation is, generally speaking, a bad thing, particularly when you consider all the things that people are conforming to. On the other hand, transformation here in verse two, it's generally a positive thing. The picture that's most obvious to all of us is that of the butterfly. You know, the butterfly at one point is not a butterfly. It's a caterpillar, something less than pleasant, can't fly at all. But in time, its nature is changed into something far more beautiful and something that's capable of ascending to heights that it never could before reach.
This is what Paul says that the Word of God can do in our hearts and minds. It can change us from that which was wicked and sinful and sodded, from that which is of no particular use to God, to something that is good and righteous and virtuous. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable, the perfect will of God. Renewing your mind. This is the obligation he gives us at the very start of chapter 12. Renewing your mind. As a man thinks, so he is. The thoughts you think and the subject you focus upon and that which you meditate upon is important. And there needs to be some attention given to that which you allow to affect your mind and your thoughts.
Good golly, if you're constantly reading or watching or listening to those voices that are not especially good or righteous or holy, what do you think is going to be the impact upon you? You know, we said this, I think, a few sermons ago. We made this point. If you're sitting in a group, you know, it's an evening at a dinner party or something, and someone yawns, what is the effect? The effect is, before you know it, you yawn, someone else yawns.
There's an effect that even someone yawning can have. Dear heavens, if you and I can be affected by merely someone yawning in our presence, what do you think will happen if they're constantly saying things that are anti-God in our presence? It can't help but have some level of effect upon us. So, it's incumbent upon you and I to be careful about what voices we listen to, or at least what sources we allow to affect and inform us.
And all the more for our kids, all the more for our children, because we are the caretakers. And we are responsible for the voices that affect and inform the thoughts that go through the minds of our own, our loved ones, our children. Whatever the case, we are supposed to be introspective about being transformed. This morning, as I look to wrap up here, two questions for you. The first question is this. Transformation sounds pretty good.
I'd rather be the butterfly than the caterpillar. That sounds pretty nice. I assume that you think so as well. Well, if that's true, then my question is, if you really want to lead a transformed life, what do you need? Well, verse 2 says you need to have a transformed mind. If you want to lead a transformed life, if you would rather be the butterfly than the caterpillar in the time yet to come, if you want to leave a life that puts behind the sins that you previously engaged in, the things that you knew you shouldn't do and you don't want to do in the future, if you want to be better tomorrow than you are today, you want to be transformed in your life, then you need to have a transformed mind.
There is a one-to-one relationship between the two. You have got to work on transforming your mind. That primarily involves asking what sources affect it. Garbage in, garbage out. You expect something good and holy and righteous to come out of your actions and your choices and your life in the years yet to come, then there has to be good, holy, righteous inputs instructing you, compelling you to live accordingly. So I guess my real question, or my second question, is this.
How? How are you going to go about it? Not just how is some other Christian going to go about it, or how does Paul say you should go about it, how are you going to go about it? If that's something you actually want, if you want to be different tomorrow than you were today, you want to be this transformed individual, you want to be holy and righteous and wise and all these things, how are you going to do it?
Well, again, the first thing you have to do is take ownership. Take ownership of your faith. I tell you, it doesn't matter how much Grandpa read the Bible. It matters how much you read the Bible. It doesn't matter how much your spouse, how much time your spouse spends in prayer or
the Word. I mean, these are good things. I hope they do. But the issue for you is how much time you spend in these things. Children, teenagers. The question is not how holy your parents are, how much time they spend in Scripture. The question is how much time are you going to spend in it? How much time are you going to linger in God's word? You have to take ownership of this. Take ownership of this. Young people, Old people, we all need to renew our minds and it won't come from things of the world. It's not going to come from Oprah or Blippi or any number of other things. It comes from a repeated, a repeated direct encounter with God's own word. Now, just as again, as a final thought here, if you're not accustomed to that, if this sounds good, but you just really don't know where to start, this is a big and formidable book. You really just don't know where to go. You've tried it before and it was difficult. Let me suggest this to you. If you've been kind of on the outside looking in and you do want to be transformed, you do want to renew your mind, you hear this word, you feel compelled to do something about it, let me encourage you, open up the book, find one of the easiest books in all of Scripture, the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs teaches wisdom one verse at a time. Start there. One verse at a time. But here's the thing, whether it's one verse to one chapter from Proverbs or Romans or anywhere, you've got to be consistent. Whether it's one verse every day, whether it's one chapter or more, there has got to be consistency. Nothing is more important in religious practice than having good habits. This morning, again, I hope you're responsive to Paul's admonition to live, to live as sacrifices. And the first thing you can sacrifice is some of your time to renew your minds in Scripture. Paul and your elders here in the church would beseech you to do this. Pick up the book of Proverbs, Romans, Genesis, what have you.
Grow in your faith one verse at a time. Whatever you do, be consistent. Keep at it. Start this week if need be. Let's pray.
Continue the verse-by-verse series.
