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Romans 12:1-2, 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. 2 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.
On their way to the Celestial City, Christian and Faithful passed through a town called Vanity that had a year-long fair called Vanity Fair. There was every kind of trinket and temptation you can imagine. Every pilgrim to the Celestial City goes through it. These two pilgrims raised the suspicions of the local citizens with their strange dress and heavenly language. When asked to buy something, they put their fingers in their ears and cried, “Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity,” and looked upward. One merchant asked, “What will you buy?” They looked gravely on him and answered, “We buy the truth.” Well, to make a long story short, Belzebub, the ruler of the fair, stirred up all the citizens and had these two arrested for stirring up trouble. They were brought before Judge Hate-Good and a jury found them guilty of being enemies of the Fair, disturbers of the trade, and guilty of spreading their dangerous opinions. Faithful was condemned to die so they scourged him, sliced him with knives, stoned and stabbed him, and burnt him to ashes at the stake. What these wicked men did not see was a chariot and team of horses waiting for Faithful. As soon as he died, he was carried up through the clouds with the sound of trumpets and taken the nearest way to the Celestial City! Thus wrote John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress, which many of you have read or should read.
We are all living in Vanity Fair, a description of this present world. And Paul has good counsel for us in Romans 12:2, “Don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what God’s will is, that which is good, and acceptable and perfect.” We are going to dig into this verse over the next several weeks. I don’t know of a more condensed verse that teaches progressive sanctification from three aspects.
First, the world – don’t conform to it. This world is no friend of grace and God says don’t let this world push you into its mold. The NLT says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world.” J. B. Phillips paraphrased it, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.” James Boice translated it, “Don’t let the age in which we live force you into its scheme of thinking and behaving.”
Second, your mind – transform it. You need to marinate your mind and heart in the transforming power of God’s Word. Your heart is where the roots of your life are. If you expect godly fruit in your life, you’ll have to feed and fertilize those roots with the Word. That’s renewing your mind, and we need to be renewed every day.
Third, God’s will – discern it. The result of refusing to be conformed to this world and of renewing your mind daily with God’s Word will be growth in proving or discerning what God wants you to do. His will is good for you, pleases Him, and will bring you closer to His goal for your life, to be like His Son.
This morning we’re going to open that first part about the world and refusing to be conformed to it.
WHAT IS THE WORLD SYSTEM?
The word “world” has at least three different definitions in the Bible. First, world or “cosmos” is speaking of the created, physical world, the earth. John 1:10 says, “The world was made by Him.” There’s nothing wrong with this physical world. Calvin called it “a dazzling theater of God’s glory.” There are sparks of His glory everywhere. Look into the faces of newborn babies, little image bearers, and you’ll see sparks of God’s glory. The second definition is in John 3:16, speaking of the world of people, “God so loved the world.” So, we delight in God’s created kosmos and we are to love people. Romans 12:2 “world” does not refer to these two definitions.
The third definition of “world” is used here in our verse and refers to what we call the present evil world system that began in the garden of Eden and will continue until Christ returns. This is what Paul warns us about. We swim in it like fish swim in water. Or like an odorless gas that seeps into our lives undetected, and we need God’s Word to help sniff it out. The more we grasp the nature of this evil world system, the more we will be equipped to resist it and keep it from squeezing us into its mold.
David Wells in his book God In the Wasteland describes the world as “the collective expression of every society’s refusal to bow before God, to receive His truth, to obey his commandments, or to believe in His Christ.” He describes worldliness as “what makes sin look normal in any age and righteousness seem odd.”
Sometimes the Bible uses kosmos, sometimes aion, meaning this present age. Here are several references.
- 2 Corinthians 4:4 says Satan is the god of this present age or aion. Satan and the world system are a lethal brew, wreaking spiritual havoc and destruction everywhere.
- Ephesians 2:2-3 uses both age and kosmos. We all walked according to the course (aion) of this world (kosmos), according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Satan uses the world system to keep men blind and deceived.
- 1 John 5:19 says the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one. Satan has great power in this present world system. You see this in Christ’s temptation when Satan said, “Bow down and worship me and I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the world.”
- Galatians 1:4 says Christ gave Himself for our sins so He might rescue us from this present evil age (aion). “He rescued us from the seduction of a fallen world,” (Dave Harvey).
DESCRIPTION OF THIS PRESENT EVIL AGE.
We can think about the world on five levels.
- It began with Satan in the garden when he deceived Eve and Adam bit on that forbidden fruit.
- The world is the collective godless thinking spun out of depraved, corrupt hearts with Satan behind the scenes.
- The world is man’s ever changing godless philosophies, ideologies, and religions. We see these so clearly today. The Enlightenment said we don’t need the Bible – we have our own reason. Darwin said we don’t need a creator – just say it all came over millions of years by natural selection. Rousseau and Freud and many others said man’s purpose is not to glorify God, but to glorify his own pleasures. Secularism, humanism, materialism, economic Marxism, and cultural Marxism are all promoting godlessness and working overtime to destroy everything God says is good, true, and right. This world system attacks marriage, family, gender, the Bible, calling evil good and good evil. Moral relativism says there is no absolute truth, and no one has the right to force his morality on anyone else. All this is the world, the mind molders at war with God and His truth. Young people need to be aware of the world’s attack on God and truth, especially in the schools and universities under the mask of social justice, racism, environmentalism, climate change, and much more. (See Erwin Lutzer, We Will Not be Silent, p. 21)
- The present evil age comes at us in pop culture in the form of entertainment, music, movies, the internet with all its feed your greed and click-bait, not to mention pornography. This evil age comes in the drive for self-promotion, self-pleasure, self-fulfillment, be your own person, my body my choice, love yourself, homosexuality and same-sex marriages, the whole LGBTQ and choose your own gender revolution, abortion, public assault on God and the Bible, profanity, immorality, violence on every hand. All these things are aspects of this present evil age, with Satan stoking the fires behind it.
- The mindset of the masses – the world as you meet it every day. There are nice people out there; I meet them in the grocery store. And then there are some really nasty God-haters.
Second Timothy 3:1-5 gives us a great description of the godlessness of this present evil world.
2 Timothy 3:1-5, But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
THE DANGERS OF CONFORMING TO THIS WORLD SYSTEM.
Being conformed to this world is allowing the culture to mold you and form your way of thinking. If Christ is not the center of your life, this world’s values and standards will mold your thinking. God’s call to believers is not to blend, but to be utterly different from the inside out – your motives, your thinking, your actions and choices. Spurgeon wrote, “The more the Church is distinct from the world in her acts and in her maxims, the truer is her testimony for Christ, and the more potent is her witness against sin.” Sadly, the world is sweeping into churches. When a popular pastor announces acceptance of “gay Christians,” you know the world is a clear and present danger.
As a believer you are not part of this age anymore. You’ve been regenerated. You’re in Christ. You’ve presented your body a living sacrifice to God. And the greatest tragedy is to look back at the world like Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom and turned into a pillar of salt. Or like Demas, who forsook God’s people, loving this present aion, this present age. He let his heart be seduced by the evil one. God is jealous for your love, and He doesn’t want any competition. To love this present evil world is to be an enemy of God according to James 4:4. First John 2:15-17 gives immediate dangers of the world system.
1 John 2:15-17, Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
Here’s a strong command: “Do not love the world.” World lovers are not God lovers. A man characterized by love for the world doesn’t have that new heart that loves God. The world lures you with three powerful baits. The lust of the flesh is what your flesh wants, what you find pleasurable in spite of God’s standards. The flesh is controlled by feelings and impulses. Be and do what you feel.
The lust of the eyes is that craving for stuff, that constant desire to get things. Call it greed, covetousness, or as Ed Welch put it, “I want; I want more.” In a book on worldliness Dave Harvey (author of When Sinners Say I Do) wrote the chapter “God, My Heart, and Stuff.” He writes, “Coveting is ‘desiring stuff too much or desiring too much stuff.’” Ephesians 5:5 identifies coveting as idolatry. You’ll recall that impertinent fellow who called out to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance.” (Luke 12:13). Jesus warned him, “Beware of every form of greed” and launched into the story about the greedy farmer who built bigger barns to hold all his stuff. Remember what happened to him? “This very night your soul is required of you.”
Tolstoy wrote a great short story entitled, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” Wanting land or a house or car is okay unless you want them too much. In Tolstoy’s story, Pahom heard he could get lots of land cheaply from the Bashkirs, so he traveled to their country. The cost of the land was always the same, 1000 rubles for as much land as you could go around in one day, from sunrise to sunset. Such a deal! Pahom got up early before sunrise and went to the starting point at the top of the hill. Then Chief Bashkir laid his fox-fur cap down and Pahom poured his 1000 rubles on top of it. He took a shovel to mark his territory as he walked. At sunrise off he went walking briskly and shoveling holes to mark his borders. He wanted as much land as he could get. To make a short story shorter, his greed drove him to go so far from the hill that suddenly he realized the sun was almost setting and he was too far from that fox-fur cap. He finished the circuit, running hard to get there before the sun set. As the sun sunk into the horizon, he collapsed with his stretched-out hand touching the fox-fur cap. “Ah, what a fine fellow,” cried the Bashkir chief, “He has gained much land.” Pahom’s servant tried to help him up, but then realized he was dead. He dug a grave for Pahom. Six feet from his head to his heels was all the land he needed. Beware of the lust of the eyes – it can kill you.
And then love of the world includes the pride of life. The need to impress others leads to believing the opinion of others is more important than what God thinks. Remember those Pharisees who wanted the front seats at the banquets and respectful greetings in public. People pleasers. Be all you can be. Do it your way. You don’t need God telling you what to do. You’re a self-made man. Be proud of yourself. We even have pride parades!
Notice the warning in 1 John 2:17. It’s all fading, passing, temporary, like bubbles popping – poof and it’s gone. If you invest your life in this world, you will be sadly disappointed. But if you live for God and His will, you’ll be wonderfully blessed! How do we avoid conforming to this world system?
YOUR DEFENSES AGAINST THIS WORLD SYSTEM.
Tozer has an article entitled, “The World: Playground or Battleground.” Is the world an amusement park for you where you chase thrills and chills, or is it a battleground where you are fighting the good fight of faith? Your defenses to the lure and call of this world are all found in Christ’s sufficiency in His grace, His Word, His Spirit. Paul put it like this.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
Stop letting all the unbiblical values, habits, practices, and thoughts hijack your way of thinking. Stay on guard. When everyone else is bowing down to a dominant worldly attitude, fight the good fight of faith and refuse to bow. Remember those three Hebrew youths? When everyone else bowed down, they stood up. Psalm 1 gives a perfect example of a man who refused to let the world push him into its mold.
Psalm 1:1-2, How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
What did he do? Or not do? He refused to listen to the world’s counsel. He refused to hang out with lost people who would make him feel right at home and not judge him for his unbiblical views and practices. And he refused to sit down and make himself at home with people who have no love for God or the Bible. What did he do positively? The antidote for compromising with the world is in verse 2. Delight and meditate on the Word of God every day. That’s exactly what Paul is going to tell us in Romans 12:2 – be transformed from the inside, in your heart by renewing your mind through meditation on the Word of God.
SO WHAT?
Don’t conform. Take your stand. Set up a heart guard. Keep your fences tall and strong. Ask yourself, “Is what I’m hearing biblical? Is this practice pleasing God?” The world may say it’s fine, in fact, normal. Remember David Wells’ description of worldliness? “Making sin look normal and righteousness weird or even evil.” The world is always changing its values with a bent toward evil being okay. We’re being told stuff today we wouldn’t have dreamed of a few years ago, and people buy into it. God never changes. What God said was sin 2000 years ago is still sin. What God said was right then is right now. There will never be a time when same sex marriage is okay. There will never be a time when changing your God-given gender is okay. We are in a war with a world system careening way out of bounds.
So, keep God’s Word fresh in your mind. Love Christ with all your heart. Paul said, “God forbid that I should ever boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” John Owen wrote this, “When someone sets his affections upon the cross and the love of Christ…the baits of sin lose their attraction and disappear.”