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Final session on our study of the Epistle to the Romans by reading the opening words of chapter twelve. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not fashioned according to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but so to think, as to think soberly, according as God has dealt to each man a measure of faith. Now we won this one last session left to deal with the final movement of the Epistle to the Romans. And in one sense, it is very easy to see what that final movement is going to be about. It is now going to press upon us our practical duties as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and tell us how we ought to behave. Nothing, of course, should be allowed to distract us from seeing that this is indeed the purpose of these words that are now written. And our grasp of what God has been telling us in the earlier movements, the first three movements, will be tested indeed, in some part by how well we apply ourselves now as redeemed men and women to the carrying out of these duties that are placed before us. But, um, I'm sure, out of your Christian generosity, you will not begrudge me a favor which I have asked during this session. You'll see, I've been as anxious as you to profit from these sessions. And, uh, I have had questions that I wanted to ask of this passage coming to this conference, a little bit like that blind man of whom we read in the Gospels. They brought him to the Lord Jesus because he was blind. The Lord Jesus, uh, went to heal him. Well, it did some good to start with, but he saw men, but saw them, they looked like trees to him walking. So then our Lord dealt with him again, and he saw all things clearly. And there is a sense in which it is peculiarly true in my understanding of the final movement of this epistle. I don't think I see it altogether in focus. The question I've been asking myself is, these, what you might call ethical duties that are now placed before us, do they relate to what has gone before? Or is it simply, look, you've been saved, my good man. Now get on with living as you should. Like as if, you know, accidentally I had fallen into the Irish Sea, was in danger of drowning, and some stalwart man came alongside, dived in and brought me up, stood me on the key and said, now, old boy, you've been saved. Now go and do your duty. Whereas the duty in itself and in its particulars would have nothing, eh, very much to do with my condition in the sea. It's simply that I've been saved and given the chance now to behave. Is that how it is? That the first three movements have told me of the great salvation I have in Christ, now I'm saved, but now, well, it's just a matter now of getting on with doing your duty, old chap. Or is there in these duties, nestling at their heart, being the principles that guide them, some connection between these duties and the great matters of my salvation that has been talked of in movements one, um two, and three. And I have tried without a great deal of success. Oh, I have noticed one or two things. I noticed that as we start chapter twelve, it begins by talking of our bodies and our minds. And yesterday morning we were noticing what a vivid contrast is now put before us between the Christian's use of his body and mind and the use of both body and mind that is described for us in chapter one of Romans. The use that the ungodly man puts his body to. The use that the ungodly man puts his mind to. Until, in extreme cases, the body is dishonored and perverted, and the mind becomes a reprobate mind. Why? Because they do not like to retain God in their knowledge. Oh, see what salvation will do for a man or a woman, both as to their body and to their mind. And we are, I see, to yield our bodies, uh, a living sacrifice, and let the use of them be directed by a renewed mind, no longer conformed to this world's way of thinking, but renewed. That much I see. And I have wondered how much more there is, or may be, of connection. Now, I happen to know of two gentlemen who've been doing an enormous amount of work on this book, and in particular on this last section, and I, uh, uh, take that liberty, if you don't mind. You won't grudge it to me, will you? I want to pick their brains and have the benefit of the work they have been doing along this particular line, as they have been working on the, um, relationships there might be in thought between this last movement and the earlier movements. Sometimes in Belfast, the telephone has rung at various times of day and night, and your great organizer, to whom we owe much thanks for organizing, uh, this whole weekend, uh, uh, Roddy Matthews himself has come on to share with me the benefits of his studies. And some nights when you have been, I don't know where, swimming, I think, or snoring, certain JC Lennox has come to my bedroom and expounded to me what the Lord has been showing him and the work he's been doing in the conference. I wouldn't be telling too many secrets to say that while I've been talking sometimes, he hasn't been listening. He's been saying, oh, I know what that chap is talking about. Of course I do. Let me get onto something interesting. And he's been sitting up the back there on purpose, uh, studying, and in particular, uh, this last section. And I believe they too have put their heads together. For, so for the first part of our session, uh, I'm going to ask them to share with us what the Lord may have been showing them, and I look forward to hearing and us being helped to get a little bit more into focus, uh, this final section. When they've told us what they're going to tell us, then we'll conclude with the, uh, uh, few remarks at the end to gather it all. There's not only a story of a blind man in the Gospels, there are several stories about dumb men. And I... I've always found David to be much better at seeing men as trees walking than than I've been able to see, but I've been decided upon, as C. S. Lewis said, and um, I'll try and do my best. It's very partial, just um, notions that I've been thinking about and have got me sufficiently excited to sleep a little bit less, and I'm very indebted to Roddy for showing me what he's been doing. He really should be standing up here instead of me, but if you don't understand what I say, you can ask him to put it right, um, at the end. What I've done is just write up s- some of the things that we know already, and I want to just pick out a number of of things as quickly as I can to ask a series of questions which will be answered when I sit down. Um, the thing that very much struck me yesterday was that coming into this fourth section, it is a question of our reasonable service for God. In reaction to his mercies, which have been expounded and which got Fergus and all the rest of us so excited, um, earlier today, Paul says to them, please, I beseech you by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And thinking about that, I noticed that this particular word for service is actually used over here, where Israel's unique role in history was to have been given the service of God. And what struck me was that at the center point of that service in Israel's history was a thing that marked them off from all the other nations. It was that continual burnt offering. They stood in the world, and day and night there was an offering made, a sacrifice that symbolized their complete devotion to God. When David was reminding us earlier about the fact that they had an imageless temple, and the whole cult and the whole ritual was geared to serving God in that unique way in the world. And we've seen, as he's described to us earlier, the immense historical problem created by the fact that that service of God appears to have gone wrong. So if then in three we've got the service of God and the roles of Jew and Gentile historically, then in four we may have the service of God and the role now of Jew and Gentile together in the one body, called upon, each individually, to present their bodies as a living sacrifice. The second thing that struck me was, on this matter of body and mind, is that in the development in the first section, the mind went wrong first and led to a degeneration in the body. Whereas in the fourth one, we are asked in the reversing of these things to present our bodies a living sacrifice and then to be transformed by the renewing of our thinking. And as was pointed out earlier, these things do seem to match. This is where it all went wrong. Salvation is putting us right with God, and now in practical everyday life, it's going to be seen in these two areas. But the particular thing that that caught my attention was this, that the reason for it is that we should prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is surely an echo of something we find in chapter one. Verse twenty eight says, and even as they disapproved, having God in their knowledge, literally, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, and the word reprobate means disapproved. So the movement of the letter, where it all went wrong with the mind not being pleasing to God and not being prepared to approve the perfect will of God, we now at the end begin to retrace our steps, and salvation is leading us to prove what is the good and acceptable will of God. So that may be something to think about. Here, so to speak, the mind closes down and defiles the body. Here the mind's going to open up and enable us to fulfill the role that we're given, um, with, uh, in the world for God in his service. And then the next thing that struck me i- in the sequence of thought in chapter twelve is this, that, um, the first use of the mind, after telling us to present our bodies and be transformed by the renewing of our mind, he comes to the first use of the mind. And I ask myself constantly, why does he say this here? For I say through the grace that was given me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but so to think as to think soberly, according as God has dealt to each man a measure of faith. So it's a question of how we think about ourselves. And we're not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. But it strikes me, and it's just something to again to think about, because these are only suggestions being thrown around. But in Paul's analysis at the beginning, the supreme problem with the human mind has been precisely that. And you see it at different levels, don't you? Thinking more highly of self than we ought to think led, of course, to men holding down the truth. And we see that they were boastful, which is a word which, as we've already learned this weekend, is used a lot here. But in the moral judgments of chapter two, condemning others, thinking more highly of ourselves and looking down. When you condemn other people, you're looking down on them. And when he talks about the religious Jew, notice the exact expressions that are used in chapter two seventeen. If you bear the name of a Jew and rest upon the law and glory in God and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, two of the words coming from twelve one— being structured out of the law and are confident that you yourself, um, are a guide of the blind, a light of them that are in their darkness, and all the rest of it. It is a tremendous expression of almost the exact opposite of what Romans twelve um, one and two are talking about. The man who reckoned he'd worked the, the, the will of God out, but his problem was he thought too highly of himself, and his presentation of his body was not in line with the, um, with the things that he claimed to know. And again, this business of high and low, they thought too highly. The diagnosis of sin ends up with the conclusion that they actually come short. So Paul tells us as Christians that the way in which we think about ourselves is one of the most important uses of our mind. I used to think that it was a sin to think about oneself, but apparently it's a very important thing to think about oneself soberly, and it's an extremely difficult thing to do. So salvation is in that sense undoing, and our service is going to be seen in this. All right, then to the second big thing. Those are a series of questions just as to precisely how those relate. Now we come to this concept of the body of Christ, and ourselves as members of it, in this second from verse three, uh, from verse, um, four on, body of Christ with all the members given different gifts, having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us. So this body that we've had contrasted before by Dr. Gooding earlier, Israel's unique role in history, the tabernacle, the dwelling of God on earth among his people, shining forth the glory of God. And now here's the bigger thing. We're members of one body which is called the Christ, and in that body we've been given different gifts. Just as here, Israel's unique privilege consisted in things that it was given. The giving of the law, says Paul, the giving of the service of God. They were given a role in history, and one might like to think about the difference between those things. What is the difference between being given a role in history and the difference between being given a role within the body of Christ. God has given it, and we have then to give ourselves to it and, um, perform these different things as we're told. I just note, and there may be, it may be just idle noting, that many of the characteristics that come up in here, love being without hypocrisy and all this kind of thing, beautifully illustrated in the story of the boys that stand here at the other side. But that's the thing that I wouldn't write too large. But let me just point out a little thing which may be completely innocent. This question of evil and good, if you go through Romans underlining the use of the word evil, it comes up far more times than I would ever have believed possible. But it is interesting, isn't it? When God was choosing a role within history, the important emphasis here is that the children hadn't done good or evil. It's quite independent of that. But it would be a rather serious deduction for me to make from it that, uh, when it comes to fulfilling our role within the church, of course, it doesn't matter what attitude we hold to good and evil. What is the difference? The very fact that it raises the two things, good and evil, together in a clause, um, at least makes one think about that. Um, ah, another little thing. We talked this morning about Pharaoh, a figure I always find fascinating. He was, of course, literally in the ancient world, one of the powers that were, wasn't he? Ordained of God, as Paul tells us right here. And the thing that is raised in the story of Pharaoh is, well, if Pharaoh was, uh, hardened, well then who withstands God's will? We're told in chapter twelve that the powers that be are ordained of God, and if you withstand the powers that be, then, um, you're going to be judged for. What's the difference in the relationship with these, between those two concepts? And as I thought about that, I recalled Paul is writing to people probably who, whose power that was, was Nero. And if we project ourselves into that historical dimension, this kind of thinking must have gone through many Israelite heads in the ancient world, as to what was the status of Pharaoh? How could Po- God possibly allow a Pharaoh? Well, how could he allow a Nero? And what is to be one's attitude to the powers, and what is the relationship to God, and so on? And it is interesting that Paul uses exactly the same, um, word here as he does here to deal with withstanding. Not only that, Pharaoh was to be a vessel of wrath, apparently. But over here, um, an avenger of wrath is the government, and we ought to listen to it. So those are, again, things to think about. They are repetitions of ideas that, because they cluster, at least in my mind, having been taught by a good teacher, they, uh, appear that they they might well be significant to think about. Then we get, um, an exhortation to owe no man everything, save to love one another, for he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, and he goes through them. It's summed up, love your neighbor as yourself. In the letter hitherto, we've heard a lot about the love of God. But now we read that love of the neighbor is the fulfillment of the law. Now, we've read so much about the law. It doesn't justify, and it doesn't sanctify either. And Israel sought it by the law and didn't get there. And now we find all the Ten Commandments except one repeated for Christians. So what are we going to do with that? What is the relationship of the Christian to the law? If it doesn't justify him, if it doesn't sanctify him, why is it standing here? Clearly, that is a question. Why not? The next consideration that Paul brings to bear is he talks about our salvation being nearer than when we believed, and I presume that he's talking there about the second coming. And here again, just a little thing that struck me, but I did enjoyed it, enjoy it in my own heart. Over here, preaching the gospel, why isn't Israel saved? Is it that salvation is distant? Oh no, it's near you. The word is in your mouth. All you have to do is believe in your heart, and so on. The nearness of it, when it comes to preaching, they've no excuse because it's near. And that's a consideration in that sense for unbelievers. The nearness of salvation is no excuse, but once we're believers, salvation is near. What salvation? Well, not salvation in the sense of our justification. But there's another sense in which we're not there yet. We're waiting for the fulfillment of our salvation, presumably this bit here, the redemption of our body, and that moving nearer to it is to be part of, um, our Christian consideration. And then we come to this lengthy bit, which seems to be the major bit. How is our thinking to operate and the presentation of our body? And here in this longest section, it's the issue of the strong and the weak. Him that is weak in faith receive, but not too doubtful disputations. Now, we've seen a lot about weakness in Romans, and seen it as a central concept. We saw the love of God for weak people here. We thought about the weakness of the flesh here, the Holy Spirit helping our weakness. And now we come to the concept of weakness in faith. And someone who's weak in the faith, you're not to receive to doubtful disputations. The thing that immediately strikes one here is to ask oneself, well, now, what does he mean? Someone weak in faith, does that mean someone who can't quite see justification by faith, you mustn't upset him too much by insisting on it, and if he prefers to be saved by works, you leave him go in case you stumble him. Is that what it means? Well, you're to receive him. It's not weak in the faith, it's weak in faith. Over what matter? Not over the doctrine of justification by faith, nor over the doctrine of sanctification by faith. The issue is... on matters of conscience which are indifferent, whether he should eat pork or not eat pork, whether he should drink wine or not, or something like this. And so we come to the weaknesses that, are they in a completely different area from here? It's not the same weakness that we're talking about, is it? Up here, for example, and down here. So the strong and the weak. And the considerations that we, uh, go through there, the thing that struck me just, just this evening, is the thing that brings everything into focus, dealing with this particular kind of weakness on both sides, is the lordship of Christ. And we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So the concept of the lordship or the dominion of Christ is the thing that can begin to get our thinking straight here. I did notice that in the context of the weakness of the flesh here, it's the breaking of these dominions, the three of them that Dr. Gooding's been describing to us, that's of crucial importance. Dominion, it is the same word as lordship. The lordship of Christ. And in this whole constellation of ideas, we notice the similarity between this and this. I mean, this is an example of people accusing one another and condemning one another and judging one another. But the area is not the moral area of sin which deserves the wrath of God. Surely it's a different area. It's the area of a matter of conscience. One man has faith to eat all things, another is very worried if he'd eat, uh, an unclean animal, say, and what are we to do about it? So that there are two distinct areas where, if we're not careful, we could cause people to stumble. And in fact, in order to, uh, ram it home, that we're not to destroy with our meat someone for whom Christ died, the, the Paul cites the example of the Lord Jesus who didn't please himself. And I was intrigued to discover that the thing he quoted, even Christ pleased not himself, comes from Psalm sixty nine, which you might like to look up just for a second. Psalm sixty nine. Where it says in verse nine, second half, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. And Paul quotes that here as an example of the Lord, so to speak, taking the reproach. And it's an example, however, it's an example that we might have to think about, but an example of the strong bearing the weak. What struck me very forcibly is he quotes the same Psalm here. Now, if I were just to reformulate the words in this story, don't stumble your brother. Don't cause the food to be a stumbling block to him. Don't let his table become a snare. But there is a verse in the Psalm that says exactly that, but it's the opposite of that, isn't it? If you look at the Psalm again, verse twenty two, it says, let their table before them become a snare, and when they are in peace, let it be a trap. So the very same Psalm is quoted here of Israel, that their table is to become a snare, and there's all this business about stumbling, isn't there? I might as well write it down. There's all this business of stumbling. Let their table become a snare. And yet over here, if I might put it in different words, don't let their table become a snare. What's the difference? What are these different kinds of stumbling that, uh, are so, uh, concentrated on here? So the same Psalm, Psalm sixty nine, is quoted there. And incidentally, it it just apropos of that, it really spoke to my heart this little bit in that Psalm, where the attitude of the Lord is presumably in view. In verse six it says, let not them that wait on thee be ashamed through me, O Lord God of hosts. And it struck me that that is a brilliant comment on this last whole bit. The name of God blasphemed among the Gentiles because of what the Jews did. Let not them that wait on me be ashamed because of me. And it really spoke to my heart that here in the presentation of our body and mind, Psalm sixty nine has got it in that verse. Don't let people who wait on God, like the brother who's weak here, be ashamed through me and what I do. Okay. And there's a something else, isn't there? Here's our weakness, the love of God for the weak. And the Holy Spirit helping our weakness. How should I present my body and mind in response to that? Well, perhaps I should be prepared to help somebody else's weakness. We that are strong ought to bear the weaknesses. Why? Well, if you don't, you walk no longer in love, says Paul. So it's a response, isn't it, very clearly within the, within the, um, within the total message of the book, that we have responsibility to bear the weak, and that can be very, very difficult and complicated responsibility to work out. But over what issue? Well, of course, it's leading to reconciliation, isn't it, where people differ. And what lovely examples, different kinds of reconciliation we get here. Enemies were reconciled. Who is against us? God's for us. He spared not his own son. Here, Israel, it says, were enemies for the gospel's sake, but beloved because of the fathers. And down here, we now have a very big responsibility to, um, bear the weak and to make one where there's danger of two. And so he leads up to the Gentiles, masses of Old Testament quotations. I wish I knew what they were all about. I'm sufficiently fired up to spend a lot of time on them when I go back home. What are all these Old Testament quotations from Isaiah particular which occur here and which occur over here? But one thing that comes through the lot of them is that the Gentiles end up praising God. It's almost as if here you've got the Jews to the fore and issues to do with them, their restoration. But here the balance is rede- redressed by getting the Gentiles praising God with his people in Romans chapter fifteen. And Paul then, um, and I rush to a conclusion because I said far too much. Um, Paul then, um, after talking about the Gentiles, talks about his desire to go to Jerusalem with a gift for the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem who are poor, and he says in verse twenty seven, yes, it has been their good pleasure, and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to minister unto them in carnal things. Notice again the terminology comes straight out of here, doesn't it? The Gentiles being made partaker of the tree. Fantastic spiritual wealth that's come to the Gentiles, the riches of the world. Well, then Paul says, perhaps we could take a little collection. Aren't we indebted to them? To go back and help them with some kind of a gift. And then he says, I beseech you, brethren, using the same expression as in twelve one, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit. The love of God, God loving Israel, the love of God, the love of the Spirit here. Holy Spirit in control of our attitudes within the body of Christ. I beseech you by the love of, uh, by the love of the Spirit that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from them that are disobedient in Judea, and that my ministration which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. And just in my mind, and again, there may be nothing in it, but I couldn't help thinking of this. The Holy Spirit helping our weakness. We don't know what to pray for. The Lord Jesus interceding for us at the right hand of God. But now, says Paul, you please, you pray for me. Us working together with Paul to pray that he might be delivered from the disobedient, because there were plenty disobedient, as this has told you here at the end. And that my ministration which I have for Jerusalem might be found acceptable. Finally, this lovely expression, God will bruise Satan under your feet. I looked up the where that comes from in Genesis. The verse before it, or two verses before it, say this: I will put enmity between my seed and your seed. And here is, in the end, the bruising of Satan and the eventual destruction of that enmity and that concept of being an enemy, how frequently it comes. God, love shown for weak people while we were enemies. Who is against us? God's love for enemies. Israel historically, alas, enemies. God still loves them. What a tremendous thing it will be when God uses the church, obeying him, presenting body and mind, to trample on the head of the en- enmity. And so it goes right back to the very beginning, where man went wrong because he couldn't be thankful, dependent on God, and introduced, and here particularly, sin into the world, and now Satan is bruised under the feet of the Christians. One final little question again. There's not a lot of Old Testament quoted here, but at the very end, Paul does quote one verse from Psalm forty four, for your sake we are killed all the day long. That seems to be a very interesting Psalm, because the question it raises is, you've cast us off. And I just wonder if that bore any relation to the issues that are raised at the end here, but I said too much, so I'll sit down. Thank you for your patience.