1829. The Transformation of the Believer, Part 1

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything, so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform. Today's sermon will be preached by evangelist Dr. Steve Pettit. Turn with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 12, tonight. Tonight I'd like us to talk about what Paul is speaking about here in Romans chapter 12, and he has been writing, if you've read the book of Romans, and I'm sure many of you have, it's the peak, if you could say it this way, of the doctrine of salvation from beginning to end. And Paul has been writing about that in the first eight chapters, and then he comes in verses in chapters 9, 10, and 11, and he deals with the issue of the Jewish people and where do they fit in God's plan.

And we come to chapter 12, and this is really the challenging point. It's, it's moving from doctrine to action. That is acting out what you believe, and that's the way the Christian life is lived. You believe and then you live that out. It's not just trying to live it out without believing, and it's not just believing without acting it out.

They both go together. So it's both your creeds and your deeds. It's understanding who God is, what God has done, but you have to live it out.

It's the practical part of life. And so in Romans 12, and beginning in verses 1 and 2, he basically lays a foundation of what this looks like. And in verse 1 he tells us these words. He says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that is based on everything that God has done and shown us mercy, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And what he's saying here is that every believer needs to come to a place in his life where he completely dedicates his whole life to God. I became a Christian at the age of 19 years old, and immediately God began to work in my life, and I, I really struggled back and forth with so many different areas of my life, but what it really came down to was a surrender. Would I give God everything or not? And it was probably over the process of about a year that I came to the place where I really said to God, God, you can have everything in my life. But that's not enough.

That's just the starting point. And in verse 2, he tells us these words, and be not conformed to this world. Literally, you are living in a world that is hostile to God, and that world puts constant pressure on you. And of course, I don't really need to expound on that tonight because you live in the world and you're constantly pressured by the world you're living in.

And of course, we have that greater sense because we have greater access to the world through technology. And it's the pressure the world wants to squeeze you into its mold. So there's a dedication of your life to God, then there's a commitment to be set apart from the world. And then we come to the last phrase here in verse, in verse 2, and that's what I want us to look at tonight because each one of these points is a full sermon. And I really want us to take the time to develop what Paul is telling us to do here when he says in verse 2, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. The Bible here tells us that we are to be transformed.

That's what I want to talk about tonight because what we're going to do is take the idea and we'll just, just like you do on your phone, you'll zoom into a picture. I want us to zoom into a much closer look and take the time, if I could say it this way, to go deeper, to understand, by the way, that's rain. Welcome to South Carolina. It's like baby's diapers.

The weather's always changing, so that's the way it is here, so get used to it. But Paul is here telling us that we are to be transformed. That's really what the Christian life is. It's a transformation. It's a metamorphosis.

It's like a caterpillar that goes into a cocoon and two weeks later it breaks out, transform into a stunningly beautiful butterfly. That's what's to happen in our life. We used to be this, but now we're this. We were an old man, now we're a new man.

We were in darkness, but now we're in the light. It's like the transfiguration of Jesus if you know the story that he went up on a high mountain. Peter, James, and John were there, and suddenly Jesus changed. His face began to shine like the sun. His clothes began to radiate.

His brilliant, bright, white light. And the Bible says that Jesus was transfigured or he was transformed. That's the Christian life. And Paul says that we are to be transformed. Be ye transformed.

But with that command there's also a dilemma. Would you look at what he says here in verse two? He says be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now, the subject here is the Christian, you. You be transformed.

The verb is in the present tense. It's something that I'm supposed to be experiencing right now. In other words, every day, throughout the course of the day, I'm to be going through a process of being transformed. So I want to start by asking you, are you being transformed right now? Now maybe you're sitting there going okay, I'm not so sure. I can understand that, but it is what's to be happening in your life. You're to be being transformed right now. And that the mood here is what we call the imperative. It's a command.

So it's not an option. It's an obligation. All of us here, how many of you are Christians? Raise your hand. You're a believer?

Okay. So you are commanded by God to be being transformed right now. So it's right for me to ask you, are you being transformed? But with this command is a huge dilemma.

And why is that? Because the voice of the command and if you, if you never take in Greek, you don't really think of it this, you really don't think in this way, but it's the way it's written. The voice is in the passive tense. Do you know what a passive tense is? Well, you know what the active tense is. If your parents say, pick up your clothes, that's called active tense.

You're supposed to do that. But the passive is different because it's the idea that something is happening to you. You are receiving or you're having an action being acted upon you. So here's the dilemma. It means that you're commanded to do something that someone else is to do to you. How can God command you to do something and someone else do it?

That is the dilemma. And yet those of us who are believers understand it because we understand that in the Christian life without Jesus, I can do nothing. It is God that works in you both the will and to do of his good pleasure. God works in and we are to work it out. So he says, be ye transformed, but God's got to do the work. And then we find in the phrase, he actually gives it even greater clarification when he tells us how this takes place. Notice what he says, be ye transformed. Well, how does this work?

And what does he say? By the renewing of your mind. Now, when you would normally study it, the word by there is what we call a preposition. It would mean through the means of. So how are you transformed through the means of, this is the way, through the means of renewing your mind. And the word renewing there would typically be a verb or participle.

It's an action. So how am I transformed? I'm transformed through the means of being renewed in my mind. But when you look at it in the original language, it's not written that way at all.

The way it's written is there are two nouns. So it says this, be ye transformed. And then it says the renewal and the mind. And it is right there that God is showing us how this process takes place. For the renewal is the divine side of the way that you're transformed.

It's like an inner city renewal. It refers to something new or something different or something superior or something higher. It's like when Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana. The master of the ceremony, the wedding coordinator said that the wine was better than anything he had drank previously.

It was a better quality. It was transformed. When the Bible says you're to be transformed, the renewal is something that God does. He is the transformer. He is the renewer. You can't do it.

He must do it. But then it says the mind, that's the human side. That is this transformation takes place in the sphere or the realm of your thinking.

And the word mind there literally means a way of thinking, okay? It's like the demon-possessed maniac of Gadara. Do you remember him in the Bible? Who was delivered from a legion of devils by Jesus. And afterwards, the local people came to see Jesus. And of course, you know the story of the fact that He was demon-possessed and He had a legion of demons inside of Him.

Of course, the legion was 6,000 soldiers. We don't know how many exactly, it was a whole bunch. But we know that the demons went out of Him and what did they do? What happened to them? They went into the body of pigs and what did the pigs do?

They ran down the embankment into the Sea of Galilee and they were all drowned. This was a wild man. This was a crazy man. And when the local people came and discovered Him, what was He doing? The Bible says that He was sitting at the feet of Jesus.

He was clothed and He was what? In His right what? His right way of thinking. And we see in that what transformation is. It is a whole new way of thinking. Let me say this, that the Christian life is a transformation of the way somebody thinks.

I remember years ago driving down from Asheville, North Carolina, Hendersonville, North Carolina late one Sunday evening coming into Greenville. And I was listening to the radio station. On the radio station it had the sermons of the founder of Bob Jones University named Dr. Bob Jones Sr. And he was preaching a sermon about changing. And he talked about the mind and he was talking about the fact that most of the problems in the life of a believer after he's saved is in the way that he thinks. And he hasn't changed his mind. He hasn't changed his thinking. And in essence, this is what Paul is saying.

So how does this transformation actually work? Well, it's one thing to know this, but it's another thing to experience this. Our living level is generally much lower than our knowing level.

You're going to be sitting in college and getting a lot of knowledge, but that doesn't mean that your living level has caught up to your knowledge level. We are too much in the way that we think, in our habits, in our actions. We're more like reflecting the habits of the maniac than we are the master. We're often too much like those who've run out of the good wine at the wedding feast of Cana of Galilee and the wine representing the joy of the Christian life than we are more like, we're more like the wine of the lower level, the lesser level. In other words, we know the Lord, but the level of our life doesn't really express the joy of the Lord. So the question is, how does this transformation actually work in our lives?

And that's what I want us to look at tonight. Because I want us to take the apostle Paul, who wrote this verse, and I want to show you two specific ways in which God transformed his life. And I think through that transformation, we will see how it is that God is going to constantly transform our life so that we can obey the command be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Take your Bibles and turn to 2nd Corinthians 12, if you will. 2nd Corinthians 12. And here Paul is describing two transformative experiences that he went through in his life. The first transformation or transformative experience that he went through was an experience of exaltation.

Let me read it to you beginning in chapter 12 and verse 1. Paul says, it is not expedient for me, doubtless to glory. In other words, he says, I must go on boasting.

The word glory there means to boast. He said, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago.

Now, if you read it on, you'll it becomes very clear. Paul here is speaking about himself. He says, so 14 years ago, I knew a man whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body. I cannot tell God knows such as one that was called up to the third heaven. What is the third heaven?

Well, there's the atmosphere of the earth. Then there's the heavens as we look up in the sky and the third heaven is beyond that which is impossible to see. And that is the presence of God. He says, I was called up into the third heaven and I knew such a man whether in the body or out of the body. I cannot tell God knows how that he was called up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for a man to utter of such a one. Will I glory of both yet of myself? I will not boast of glory but in my infirmities.

So let's just stop there. The Bible here is explaining an experience that the Apostle Paul had that you and I have never ever had. And that is he had an experience and he didn't know if it was out of the body or in the body. By the way, most of you have had out of body experiences. That's called sitting in class.

And suddenly you go somewhere else and then you come back when the class is over, when the class is finished. All right, you understand that. But he had an out of body experience or in the body.

He doesn't know. But the scripture says here he was called up into heaven and he saw things and things were revealed to him that in essence nobody else had ever experienced. Now when did this take place? Well, Paul says it was about 14 years before he wrote 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians was written about 55 to 56 AD. So it was right around 41 AD. So where would Paul have been in 41 AD?

Well, you can back up in a timeline. Jesus was crucified and resurrected about 30 AD. The Apostle Paul was saved about 33 AD. For three years he was in the Arabian desert taught by the Lord and in 36 AD he went to the city of Jerusalem for two weeks where he met with Peter and James, the brother of the Lord. And then from there he went back to his home in Tarsus in the area known as Cilicia. And he was there from about 36 AD to 46 AD when a fellow named Barnabas came and brought him back or brought him to the city of Antioch. And that's where we see Paul beginning his ministry as he goes out on his missionary journeys.

So between 36 and 46 AD were the silent years of his life. He was in the city of Tarsus and this was written right in the middle of that time or this experience took place right in the middle of that time, the silent years. And the experience that he had was very unique. He was called up to the third heaven.

But let me say that the experience was not without precedence. In other words, certain chosen men in the Bible had visions and they had dreams. Men like Abraham, Jacob, Joseph.

Joseph had dreams. Moses, Gideon, Solomon, the prophets Isaiah. He saw the Lord high and lifted up. Ezekiel saw the wheel. Daniel, the whole book of Daniel, you read about the visions and the revelations that Daniel had.

Amos, Zachariah. We come to the New Testament. We know Peter had a vision.

A sheep came down from heaven with unclean animals on it while he was praying. We know John wrote the book of the revelation. It was a vision. And of course, Paul himself had a number of visions. He was in the city of Troas and he saw a man of Macedonia calling him to come over and to preach. He was in the city of Corinth and had a night vision where the Lord encouraged him that God had many people in the city. So when you go back in the Bible, there were lots of people who had dreams and visions. And the point I'd like to make is this, that certain special and godly men who sought God in prayer throughout the Bible were given the special privileges of seeing God.

Now, is that something that you can experience? Well, the Bible says that the pure in heart shall what? See God. Now, regarding a vision or a dream like the Old Testament prophets had who were in the process of writing the scripture and in the New Testament apostles had who were in the process of writing the scriptures, we are not given dreams and visions because the scriptures have been closed. We read that in the book of the revelation and God says don't add to what has been written or curse will come upon you.

So on the one hand, we're not going to see dreams and revelations like they did in these particular times. But the Bible does say the pure in heart shall see God. And how can you, may I say it this way, have this experience of exaltation? And the Bible actually teaches how we as believers can experience that. Turn to second Corinthians chapter three and verse 18 and I want you to notice what the scripture says. Paul is writing and he says but we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. When he says are changed there, it's the same word in Romans 12 to when it says be transformed. He is telling us how you and I can go through an experience of transformation.

And if I could say it this way almost an experience of exaltation because it is in this experience that you experience the glory of God. And what is he talking about when he says we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed. Would you back up in chapter three and look at what he says in verse 15 or verse 14. He says but their minds were blinded for until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day when Moses is read the veil is upon their heart.

What's he talking about? He's talking about Jews in the synagogue who are reading the Old Testament and they don't realize that what they're really reading about in the Old Testament is about Jesus. But when that veil is taken away, when is it taken away when you receive Jesus as your Savior? What does he tell us? He tells us our eyes are opened.

We begin to see what you've never seen before. I remember when I got saved at 19 years old. I had gone to church all my life. I grew up going to church but when I got saved I started seeing things in the Bible I'd never seen before. The author of the Holy Spirit, the author of the Bible, the Holy Spirit lives in my heart.

And I would read the Bible and all of a sudden it's like the words were jumping off the page. I was seeing God in the reading of the Scriptures. Where do you and I behold the glory of God? It is in the mirror.

What is the mirror? It is the Word of God that reflects the glory of God. When I open this book and I read this book, I'm not just reading words on pages but I'm reading the Word of God and the author of this book lives in the heart of every believer.

What is the transformative experience that really changes your life? It is when you see the Lord. And where do you see the Lord? You see the Lord in the pages of the Scripture. How is it that we go through a transformative experience? How is it that we experience the glory of the Lord?

It is in the reading of the Word of God. Folks, you can be a Christian for years and rarely grow until you begin to see the glory of God in the reading of the Bible. I remember very clearly my sophomore year of college. I mentioned it the other night that that was the most transformative year of my life in the beginning of my Christian life because it was that year I started reading the Bible.

I was in a secular, a secular college. I was surrounded by unbelievers but every morning I would get up and I would start reading my Bible at 7 o'clock and I would spend about an hour in Bible reading and prayer before I would go to class. And it was in those wee morning of the hours as I would read the Scripture, God would speak to me. I would see the Lord in the Scripture and the Lord began to work in my life. You see, that's the way transformation works. We're commanded to be transformed but He has to do the work.

How do I do that? I do that by seeing the glory of God. Just like Moses saw the glory of God on the Mount of Sinai and He came down and His face was glowing from being in the presence of the Lord. When you and I spend time in the Bible, there is this experience of exaltation. I'm in the presence of the Lord. You don't have to go to the third heaven to experience the glory of God.

All you have to do is go to the Bible. That by the way, that's where you're supposed to say amen. Amen.

You can say amen, okay? How do you change? You have to read your Bible. Now let me tell you something. You can know you're supposed to change. You can know you're supposed to be transformed but if you don't read your Bible, you're not going to change. You come to Bob Jones University, you want to change? You want to change? You want to change?

Will somebody say yes? Amen. Then read your Bible and if you will seek the Lord, you will see the Lord in the pages of the scripture and as you read the word of God, what do you do? You see your God and so if I could say it this way, like Paul had an experience of exaltation, so you and I by spending time in the word of God can literally have our lives transformed. Unfortunately, that's where we'll have to end this sermon preached by Dr. Steve Pettit. Join us again tomorrow when we'll hear the conclusion of this sermon here on The Daily Platform.