Knowing and Growing – Being conformed – not conformed to this world

As we look at this, this is conformed and transformed. So what we've been doing is for the last four weeks, this being the fourth, we've been talking about being conformed. And the base passage on that is Romans 8, 28 and 29. And we said that God works all things together for good to the end that we're being conformed to the image of who His Son, Christ, right? And so we have said that that being conformed is God working through physical circumstances. Now think of physical circumstances. What gets included in the physical circumstances that God works all things together? Everything. Everything, yeah? Okay, how about things that seem fairly distant and far away. Can God use all things together for good, including what was on at the White House?

Yeah, that's kind of distant and far away. And then you might have things closer. We just had Just take a hypothetical instance, but something real. We just had something that impacted our weather, and maybe it was some wild crazy weather and it disrupted our schedule and that kind of thing.

It may be something closer to home, something going on in our house, maybe even in our bodies. maybe in interactions between people. God also works all things together for good on the spiritual realm. So God's working all those things together. Now, does it mean everything is good?

No. As a matter of fact, we are free to recognize things for what they are, and even in some cases say, that's really awful. I had a long, long time friend of mine Nancy and I knew him from over 40 years ago. He told somebody else in a circumstance, you know, that unfortunately evil has prevailed. And he's free to say that.

That does not go against God working all things together for good. So what's the good that all things work together for? We're being conformed to the image of the Son. That's the good And one thing that is an important distinction, we're going to talk about transformed and conformed. Both of those processes are in the direction of our being made into the image of Christ. Only one of them is predestined. Interesting. You're predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son. I have a question. Does this conform to the image of the sun? I think the question that you get sometimes is, where does the individual personality come out in this being conformed to the image of the sun? Does that make sense? Yes, it does.

So let's ask, because that's a very important question and one that not all Christians get straight. So, guess what? When we go to be with the Lord, we will see him as he is, right? This is 1 John, and we will be like him. Does that mean that we erase our individual identity?

No. It doesn't. So this is very important. He chose us in him when? Before noontime? Absolutely. Yes. Way before that. Way before that. Okay, so she's on to something. Way before that, when? Before the foundations of the world, and basically what that says, before God said let there be light, okay? First verses in Genesis chapter 1, before God said let there be light, He chose us in Him. You have an essential identity God said, let's get all this straight here. You have an essential identity before He said, let there be light? Where is that identity? Is that identity anywhere in this world yet? No. That essential identity was way back then in God's understanding and God's choosing of you. And did He choose you because you're so choosable? How did He choose you? He chose us in him.

So is the confirmation is that Christ said I can do nothing without the Father and is that kind of the confirmation is to that? So when he says I can do nothing without the Father, that's dependence upon the Father, right? And so in that Christ volunteered to have that kind of a dependence. Why? So that we would learn from that. So he followed the Father in order to be an example for us. That's one reason for it.

But being conformed does not erase our essential identity on into eternity future you personally and individually will matter to God. So we have our own, he gives us our own name, right? Yeah, here's what we see in Revelation is, it says, you and I will have a name and we'll be the only ones who know it. Isn't that amazing? It's really, really personal. It's very personal. I think that's something Christians can get the wrong concept.

Boy, God's really busy. He's got all these things to try to manage, and He's handling this hurricane over here, and this earthquake over there, and He's got to make sure that Vern has this and that problem. He's awfully busy. He's having individual time for you. He's got all the time in the world because He's infinite.

One of the points we've been making goes along with this. You have God's undivided attention. God is not distracted. He doesn't come to you and say, look, make it quick. I've got two seconds, then I've got to run on to the next guy. You as a believer have his undivided attention.

He chose you personally and individually before the foundation of the world. And you will have a personal, individual relationship with Him on into eternity future. You won't be, you know, hey God, can I have some time with you? You won't have to, you know, talk to Him about it. He'll kind of get on your schedule. He always, always has plenty of time for you. So that's a key thing.

When we talk about being conformed, it doesn't mean an erasure of who we are as a person and an individual. But when we say that we will be like him, it's very important for us to get what does that mean. It does not mean the erasure of our individual personalities and our individual identities but we will have qualities like His, right? So, you know, the things, for example, that Vern does that's just tremendously irritating, right, and just aggravating in the extreme, don't worry, God's going to take care of that.

So, I will have qualities, you and I will have qualities Eternal qualities, like Christ, that's the conforming, and as we'll soon see, the transforming process. In the end, we will be like Him in those qualities, not erasing our identities. We won't be, there's the clone, right? There's an army of clones. No. We will have qualities like His, and here's God who does things amazingly, qualities like his, we will be like him even bodily, we will be like him, but that will not erase our personal identity, it will not erase our personality.

Here's a for instance, in the coming millennial kingdom, Jesus talked about being at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That will be in a resurrected body, in the coming millennial kingdom. They still are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the individuals. Just Jacob is not quite so conniving, right?

So you ask a very important question. It's one that a lot of Christians kind of get off track on. Just to remember that God has this process that he can describe in all of us who believe are involved in this process. At the same time, it is not an erasure of our identity, it is not a matter of God saying, well I'll just treat you all the same and divvy out my time and attention between you, but that God still has a personal and individual relationship with each one of us that even now, God has all the time that's ever needed to spend time with us.

We have his undivided attention. That's extremely important for Christians to realize. We don't have to say, I sure wish God wasn't so busy. We don't have to say that. Instead, we can realize that we have his undivided attention, that this conforming process is a good thing. It doesn't erase who I am, it doesn't get rid of individual personality, but in terms of qualities, and in terms of my new body, I will be like Christ.

You might talk about this later on, but I guess, you know, being the first, you know, conformed to the image of his son, so he would be the first born among many brethren. And is that, does that kind of describe what the confirmation is, being conformed? I mean, at least, you know, brothers? Yeah, in other words, are you identical to your brother? No. You're not, okay? Is he your brother? Right? You have two brothers, I know. Right?

And so, I look at, you know, I've got Four siblings, the Lord's taken one home. So I've got two other brothers remaining, and a sister, and we're not identical. Even identical twins, if you get to know them, are not identical. You'll oftentimes find significant differences, especially in personality, even if you can't tell them apart at first try. So, yeah, it says among many brethren, that's a good way to look at it, because you understand, okay, there's brethren, there's a family resemblance, and yet that doesn't mean, well, gee, they're all the same, I can't tell the difference. Yeah, from first blush, you know, we can think all of it to you, we're all clones.

Well, no, not exactly. The Lord has an amazing combination of individuality right alongside being made into the image of Christ. So does that answer your question? Yeah, just really, just over the years that has really differentiated the relationship with Christ.

We can think of it this way, and this is an analogy. We can recognize, for example, this is a begonia. Does that mean every single plant is absolutely identical? No. We can recognize it generally. Yeah, that's a begonia. But this plant's a little different from that one, and this one has this.

So there is a difference as well as a similarity. And the similarity will be the character of Christ, and in fact a body like His. So that will be similar. It will not erase the individuality, even to the point, not just to say that we will be different, but Christ will have an individual and personal relationship with us that is unique, even to the point of us having a name that only He and I know.

This is amazing stuff, and in one sense it's almost kind of mind-boggling. Wow, how do I wrap my mind around this? But here we are to be made like Him, We're made, we're designed, God chose us to be made like him. And at the same time, for each of us to be individuals, for each of us to have our own individual identity, each of us to have our own individual personal relationship with infinite capacity with the God of the universe. This is just amazing stuff. Just amazing. If it isn't amazing, we don't understand grace yet. And by the way, none of us do. OK, let's look at the passages that are relevant here. Romans 8, 28 through 30.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. similarity, but not cookie-cutter identical. And these whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified. And these whom he justified, he also glorified.

One more thing in that, and that is that Nancy and I are grandparents with 11 grandkids now. And it's great. I mean, I really love it. But God has no grandchildren. Isn't that something? God has no grandchildren. We each have a, as a child of God, relationship with the Lord directly. There is no long, linear family tree with all sorts of complicated connections You know, if you do a genealogical study, it's amazingly rather simple, right? Okay, so here's Romans 12, 1 and 2.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, see that word? 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 and that which is good and acceptable and perfect." So we saw before God has a conforming process, right? And we saw that God has God's part and there is our part in it which is responding to his love. Here we see that there's a caution.

Don't be conformed to this world. So let's ask this question. Do you have a choice as to whether or not to be conformed to this world? Do you have a choice? Yeah, and that's exactly why he puts that there. We do have a choice. The world's conforming you to whatever the world has in mind.

A few things to note about it, that appears to be quite contrary to what God has in mind. Secondly, if there's a statement, you know, do not be conformed, that's an imperative. It means that that's an appeal to the will, which means I have a choice. And it means that's a choice I should not make.

And by default, if Christians don't recognize this, what's going to happen? There will be a conforming that the world carries out. Let's ask this question. If the world carries out its conforming process, will that ultimately thwart God's conforming process? No. And so this is for our situation comforting, that if somehow we get distracted by things and get ourselves out of whack, we won't ultimately thwart what God will do. It will, however, along the way be an inhibition, a conflict between what the world has in mind for conforming and what God is doing. See that?

And, yes, we do have a choice. We're not just being crunched into the world's machine. But recognizing that the world's got a conforming process, God's got a conforming process. And then here's the other part of it. Which is going to last longer? God's. And so that's something to think about, is the world's conforming process can be awfully intense at times.

Yeah? I think it's sort of a case of silence gives consent. If you don't do anything, you're stuck already. That's right. In other words, if we don't recognize this, if we don't say, okay, God's got a conforming process going on, We don't recognize it, and we don't recognize the world coming along and carrying out this conforming process. You're right, there's a matter of ignorance of those things. The default action will be to be conformed to this world. Because we're in it. The default action, unless we're aware of it.

So one is to know the spiritual facts. And then secondly, to have faith in those spiritual facts, both recognizing what God's doing and recognizing what the world is trying to do. So what's the alternate to being conformed to this world? There is not only, as we saw earlier in the book, a conformed by God to the image of the Son, but what's the alternate there? transformed by the renewing of your mind. So this is an introduction to being transformed that we'll take a look at over the next four weeks. So then when we go, so that you may prove what the will of God is, and that is proved by test, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Now 2 Corinthians 3.17 and 18 which is, by the way, a small chiasm. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

But we all with unveiled faith, by the way, the context, what does an unveiled faith mean? What was the veil about earlier in this passage? It's not printed here, but what was the veil about earlier in 2 Corinthians 3? Remember he's talking about Moses? in the law, right? And Moses at first put this veil on in order that people wouldn't see that his glory was fading, because that's the law. That's the way the law is. There's a glory to the law, but it's fading. And the veil shifted from Moses' face to where? This is a veil over their heart. whenever the law is read.

So we all with unveiled face means we've all got the Law of Moses done pat. We all with unveiled face means we're really trying hard to keep the Ten Commandments. We all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed How is that different from conformed? So one is conformed is God is working all things together for good in the circumstances both physically and spiritually. to the end that we're being made into the image of Christ. As we'll see, transform, and we're going to work on defining that a little bit better. So this is a handoff, a transition passage that we're looking at here. But we all with unveiled face, not veiled by the law, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and by this I see it as the Lord Jesus Christ, are being transformed, the Holy Spirit is carrying out this transformation, as we're soon going to see, into the same image, the image of Christ, from glory to glory.

Now, glory is the radiant essence of who God is. Paul repeatedly uses an expression, and this is one of them, glory to glory, right? life-to-life, death-to-death, those kinds of statements, that means increasing, glory-to-glory is increasing glory, it's growth in that glory. It's a figure of speech. Paul uses it repeatedly.

So we could paraphrase it in our modern vernacular, transformed into the image of Christ growing in the glory of God. the radiant essence of who he is. Just as from the Lord, and when I say the Lord, who is that? The Spirit. The Holy Spirit. I say it's a chiasm because the chiasm reflects in the middle, and notice that it started off with, now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is.

Okay, so the words conformed and transformed in the Greek New Testament are used rather rarely. So that way, that's good in one respect, in that when it is used, it's used on purpose and not casually. The two words are not used as synonyms. They're never used as synonyms. But rather in contrast to one another, as in Romans 12, 1 and 2.

So for the next four Sundays, starting next Sunday, we'll begin to focus on the word transform. And so, similar to what we did with the word conform, we'll say being transformed, we'll say what is that process? We'll look at being transformed, what is God doing? And then, being transformed, what is the believer's part? And fourthly, looking at being transformed, not conformed to this world, I kind of return to that.

So the Bible, particularly the New Testament, uses the word world as a satanically dominated and governed world system. Now, let's think about what is that world system? What does that include when we say the world system that is satanically dominated? What is that? Can you describe, maybe it's one of those things like the elephant, what are some aspects of it? Of the world system? It's dominated by sin? Yeah, one is it's dominated by sin. Probably a good focal point place for describing all that is Ephesians 2, 1-3, right?

And we, he includes himself, right? And we are dead in our trespasses and sins. By the way, here's the Apostle Paul. He is trying to live by the law. This is before his Damascus Road experience. Does he categorize himself as being dead in his trespasses and sins? He wouldn't call himself then, but did once he was a believer, did he say that he was dead in his trespasses and sins? And we, we were. Here's the Apostle Paul who, looking back, his best efforts under the law is that was dead in trespasses and sins.

Isn't that something? Yeah. We. So, we have this world system and it has both individual elements as well as, you know, kind of group dynamics. Group dynamics. We can meet here together and talk about the Bible. Can you think of some circumstances where that wouldn't be very well received? In a nightclub. In a nightclub, yeah. What are you doing here? Oh, I'm just handing out Bibles and reading them to people who will listen. Get out of here.

In fact, would they go for it at the entrance to Walmart? Might not. I mean, you can sell them inside, but they probably wouldn't go along with your doing a lot of significant, you know, evangelistic work and hand out Bibles and all that. There might be some negative reaction from that.

It comes out even in our elections. And even Christians get real confused, you know. Oh, this guy's good and this person's not and all that. The reality is that there's no hope in any of them. And I may favor or disfavor some candidate or some political position or some legislation, and that would be fine. But the reality is there's ultimately no hope in them. Things aren't going to be great here on planet earth until Jesus comes. And by the way, before now and now it's going to get a lot worse. It's going to get a lot worse.

How many of you vote for the Antichrist? Probably not, right? Guess what? That's happening. It would be an election where we would say, boy, I sure wouldn't want to be a part of that. Well, guess what? If you're a believer, you don't have to be. And you won't be. Alright, so we have the world system. Ephesians 2, 1-3 gives a good picture on that. Yes. Can you go back to Romans 12, verse 1 there?

It says, present your bodies a living, holy sacrifice, which is your spiritual service of worship. Spiritual service of worship. Now, so let's think about this. Present your what? Present your Bible study time as your spiritual service of worship. We're going to get together here this morning gather, and most of us are going to sit in the pews, and we're going to sing together, and be taught, and all those things.

Is that a spiritual service of worship? Yeah. However, a lot of times it kind of escapes us to present your bodies to the Lord. That's a spiritual service of worship too. And by the way, do we have to do it corporately, or is it done individually? Essentially the starting point is individually, with the intent that all of us together do it.

What's strange here is it talks about presenting your bodies, which is physical, why? something spiritual. Yes, isn't that interesting? It's one of the reasons why we have this diagram on page 3 that shows here's the physical side and here's the spiritual side. And what's interesting is, say, the Gnostic idea, and this was a lot of Greeks ended up orienting themselves this way, where what you did in the body and what was true spiritually were two totally divorced things. They had no relationship to one another. But what he's saying is, no, what happens in your body, and even presenting your body, is a spiritual thing. So what is that spiritual service of worship?

Is that something you do? Yeah, in other words, what we do is, if you look at the bulletin, it says we get together here at 10.15 on Sunday mornings, you know, unless it's snowing so crazy that you can't even get here. So, we'll have it on the schedule, right? Is this presenting in Romans 12, 1 and 2 something you put on the schedule? Present your bodies at 10.15 on Sunday morning? What's the time frame? Or is it tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock?

I think it's all the time. Yeah, and that's the thing. It is all the time continually presenting your bodies. is what's intended there. So it's not like, OK, I do it at 10.15, and then we walk out of here, and then we're done. That's not what God has in mind. So here I am, and I'm at home, and it's 9.36 in the morning on a Tuesday. And is that the time that he meets? and all the other times. So there isn't, in this sense, there's no time when you're off the clock. Right? That's because it becomes part of your core. Yes, and... Well, it's not a part over here of your core. Right. It envelops the whole thing. Yeah.

There is a tendency among some Christians to kind of, okay, Sunday mornings for you know, church stuff, and then I know it's a mentality that's a problem in, say, the Bible Belt of our country, where people will go to church on Sunday morning, and then, you know, and once they get out of church, they just, it's, you're a Christian? You're kidding me, you know? And so it's a cultural thing, as opposed to, no, this is before the Lord all the time. before the Lord all the time.

So let's look at the bullets at the bottom of page 2. So God has predestined us who believe to be conformed to the image of his Son, that ultimate conformity to the images of his Son will not be thwarted. Secondly, there is an alternate conforming in the near term that is not to the image of his son, but to the world. The world has a form to which it is powerfully prone to conform us.

You see, the world, in some respects, are kind of social norms and things like that. They're okay, you know. There are different articles of clothing that I might wear that people say, well, boy, Vernon's got some funny stuff on, right? Some of those are okay, they're kind of neutral, but there are other respects in which the world allows and expects and anticipates certain, you know, mindsets and behaviors and things like that. And it's just, you know, the way the world works.

Third bullet, though God has predestined that we be conformed to the image of his Son in the ultimate, in the near term whether we are conformed to this world or conformed to the image of God's Son is based on a decision that we are urged to make moment by moment.

By the way, does God just say, just make a decision? Just make an act of will. He likes that. Is that what we're asked to do? I urge that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, not just, hey guys, you can do this or this, just make a choice. God's happy. Either way. God is not urging us to simply make a decision. There's a fork in the road ahead, pick one. I don't feel like stainless steel. So, no, that's not what he's up to.

But rather, the sin nature dependence and abiding is consistent with conformity to the satanic world system. Is the sin nature concerned with whether or not to be conformed to the world system? No, the sin nature is entirely in alliance with being conformed to the world system. Next one, similar to being dead to sin but alive to God, we are not just called to simply resist being conformed to this world.

And that's a very important thing for Christians to understand, that when scripture has not this but this, he means both, not this but this. What if I said, but reckon yourselves dead to the sin nature, and then stop there, period. Have I done what's biblically called for? Reckon yourselves to be dead to the sin nature. Is that biblical? It is biblical halfway, but it's not complete. But be, what does it say? Alive to God.

This is Romans 6.11. So it is here, don't be conformed to this world, so I'm going to go around just resisting the world's conformity. Is that what I'm supposed to do? No. So he calls us instead to not sit there and just fight the world and fight the sin nature.

But there are Christians that can get really wrapped up, I'm going to battle Satan, I'm going to battle the sin nature, I'm going to battle the world, and Christians get all wrapped up in that, and they forget the other half of all those things that's even more important.

In fact, if you ask the question, does God intend that we battle the sin nature? No. Do you know that's not a Christian behavior? To battle the sin nature? Yeah. That's not what God has in mind. Does God want you to go around and the top priority is to battle Satan? No. It's not Christian. Isn't that amazing, right?

And yet there are Christians who get all caught up in that. Boy, they're looking around for Satan. They're looking at him under the blankets. They're looking at him, you know, showing up anywhere and everywhere. Open the front door, there's Satan right there, just waiting for me. Right? No. All they're doing is they're looking for Satan.

Instead of looking at, that's this next part, beholding the Lord. Beholding the Lord through His Word. And the Lord has dealt with all these other things, and we have a place for dealing with those things, but those aren't to be our focus. But we all with open face beholding, without any veil, and so what is most of Christendom focused on? The law, which means the veil. Most of Christendom is all hung up with, here's the rules, and here's the law, and Paul says, we all with open face, you know, beholding, no veil. And yet most of Christendom is all hung up on the veil. That's really what we're about, is the veil.

And we're arguing over, you know, which ones do you follow. Now, let's ask this question. If you try really, really, really hard to keep the law, are you going to be transformed, as 2 Corinthians 3.18 says? No. The best efforts to keep the law, the focus upon the law, will make sure that you take a left turn at the transformed intersection and don't keep going right through the light.

Isn't that amazing? Most of Christendom is caught up with what absolutely will not transform you. Really astounding. We're talking millions and maybe billions of people who are all caught up You know, what percentage of the world is Christian? Probably the vast majority of that statistic, right? They're all focused on keeping that veil on. Trying really hard to keep that veil on. Go to the Christian bookstore, you know, how to keep your veil on, right? Really astounding.

So then, by examining the spiritual entities involved in the conformity to this world, the world, the flesh, and the devil, we have three enemies, right? The world, the flesh, and the devil, right? We find that believers, through their identification with Christ, have been spiritually separated from the world, that's Galatians 6.14, Colossians 2.20, which is the domain of Satan, and separated from the flesh, that's the sin nature as it operates through the body, So God didn't make the world go away.

He didn't make you immune from all these things. He didn't make the sin nature go away. He dealt with them, however. And now, here you have, I said, see also Hebrews 12, 14, where he made the devil powerless. And what did the devil have power of? Fear of death.

Hebrews 2.14.

So we have a distinct permanent advantage over the world, the flesh, and the devil. So am I going to go around chasing them as if that's going to do anything? No! We all with open face, not trying to obey the law, not trying to keep it, right? We all with open face beholding. Beholding who? Christ. Beholding Him. Then there's a bunch of Christians who get all focused, I've got to focus on the Holy Spirit. Guess what? I'm beholding Christ and the Holy Spirit will do His job, which will be what? What's at the end of the verse? We will be transformed as a work of the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit does His work, not by us focusing on the Holy Spirit. So you go to some churches, and boy, they're all about the Holy Spirit. They'll even pray like in Psalms, take not your Holy Spirit from me.

And they want the Holy Spirit to come back, which meant that they think the Holy Spirit left, which never happened. So there they are. They're back in the Old Testament, worried about the Holy Spirit leaving. And how do they gauge whether or not they have the Holy Spirit? Yeah, in other words, what do I feel or what experience do I go through that tells me that the Holy Spirit is here? And so they'll start the service by inviting the Holy Spirit back, which means they lost it since the last time. Whereas Paul writes, if you don't have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, you're not his.

So that's why my brother would have a gal in his church who went to a charismatic church and did all the tongues and all the other phenomenon and all that, then she came to my brother's church and became a believer. How about that? Then she was saved, after doing all that Holy Spirit stuff. Isn't that amazing?

And it's because the focus needs to be upon Christ, and then the Holy Spirit can do his work. Focusing upon Christ, not ignorant of the Holy Spirit, and especially not expecting the Holy Spirit to do and not do what the Holy Spirit doesn't do, but in fact with understanding, knowing how the Lord works. Alright, so on to page 3. transformed by the renewing of your mind. It's indeed curious that Paul does not write, you do not be conformed to this world, but be conformed to the image of the Son. Isn't that interesting? Why, if you're in the same book, from a human standpoint, wouldn't you say, don't be conformed to this world, but be conformed to the image of the Son? Wouldn't you expect that? That's not what he did.

As a matter of fact, a good thing to say, you know, is this something God's doing versus something that's a human thought, is that we wouldn't do that. We would say, get back to that conforming process, because he already talked about that. So, instead Paul prescribed a different means for avoiding conforming to this world, which is God's intended alternate, to be transformed. So that's why we want to spend four weeks on what being transformed is, how God does it, and what God does, and what is our part in it.

So, and we've been using this diagram, it's on page 3 here, we've got the physical realm, we've got the spiritual realm. In the physical realm we have a body and then we have within that body a brain. Sometimes I think I do. So anyway, within that body a brain, right, and then in the spiritual realm we have a spirit created by God. Within that is a soul which is spiritual. both in the brain and in the soul, we have, as this diagram shows, mind, emotions, and will.

Let's think about that for a minute. Is there a part of the mind that is simply a matter of how the brain functions? Yeah. We can have brain things going on, that are physical side things. And we can also have things going on that are spiritual side things that are part of the mind as well in the spiritual realm. Next, emotions. We can have emotions, is it possible to have emotions that are purely physically driven? Yes. Yeah, that can happen. Things that are purely physically driven. Ever go a day without food? How do you feel emotionally? Most people are like, I'm out of gas, right?

So that can be part of the problem. So that's on the physical side, but we also can have emotions that are spiritually founded. Ever go through an experience, even as a Christian, where you don't have your eyes on the Lord and you kind of feel hopeless? And it has to do with our spiritual perspective on things, and that's key. Next is an act of will. Yeah, there's some wiring, so to speak, to use a figure of speech, there's some wiring in the brain that has to do with decision making that's involved, but it also indicates that there's a spiritual side to that as well. spiritual side to making an act of will, having a choice, choosing. So there are both of those, so he says, rather than being conformed to this world, so this world is this satanically shaped and controlled system, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Where's the mind in this diagram? It's the soul. Your mind is a part of the soul. Originating, by the way, which mind is he talking about? The brain aspect of it? Or the spiritual aspect of it? He's ultimately focusing on the spiritual aspect. Could there be a brain component? Sure. But this is ultimately spiritually focused, isn't it?

And that's one of the reasons I say this is a tremendously helpful diagram for understanding. There are things on the physical side here. We have a whole medical system and all sorts of therapies to help deal with things on that physical side. But there's an aspect of it where there's no medical person that can address what's going on on the spiritual side. But guess what?

See that Hebrews 4.12 on the physical side? Here we have, in most of our pew racks, here we have some Bibles of different form, and that's in the physical realm, isn't it? It's sitting there in your pew rack.

But that has an impact, though it's in the physical realm, it has an impact that impacts spiritually in a way that nothing else will. And there's nothing the doctor can do, there's no specialist he can send us to, there's nothing that he can prescribe that will impact you on the spiritual side like us would. So we're looking at the deepest possible impact coming from essentially an ancient book that's sitting in your pew racks, and we're going to keep on studying it here this morning, and that it's designed to have a deep and unique impact, and it's not simply spiritual information. It's not simply spiritual information.

So who inspired God's work? The Holy Spirit inspired God's Word, and the Holy Spirit is going to use God's Word in your heart deeply, there on that spiritual side, deeply, in a way nothing else could. And God is going to do something that will have both in-process, in-time impact, that looks toward eternity. This is astounding stuff. Amazing stuff. So anyway, that's what we'll be looking at here for these next four weeks is what is this being transformed? How does God do it? What is our part in being transformed? And by the way, none of it has to do with keeping the law. Absolutely none.

That will get in the way. Suppose I go out to my car and dump a bucket of sand in the oil chamber in my car. What's that going to do to my car? Kill it. It's going to kill it. I probably won't make it home, right? And that'll be the end of that engine, right? It'll completely grind it up. And that's all I've got to do is dump some sand in there, right? And the engine is just completely ground up by the time we get home.

Hopefully an overhaul might fix it, but you might have to even start over because it would be so badly gouged up. That's what the law does. That's what trying to keep the law does for the believer in Christ. It's sand in the oil chamber. Instead of a new quart of oil, you put in a quart of sand. See what that does. Not so good. That's what the law does. Even if you only try to keep 10. As a matter of fact, Romans 7. Just try to keep one. That's all it takes.

And you really gum up the words. That's great news. It's good to know. Let's pray. Thank you Lord for your word and what you make clear. Boy, what you have in mind for us is really amazing and astounding. In fact, when we look at it here, it is quite clear. And we thank you for that clarity. You put it there and inspired it that we would behold you and be impacted moment by moment with a view to eternity. That's a marvelous and amazing thing. We thank you for your word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.