Transformation Part 1: From Glory Unto Glory

If you will go back and read the book of Romans, you will find it follows a very definite pattern. You see, Paul was in Corinth at the time he wrote to the brothers and sisters in Rome, and though there were many brothers and sisters there, he knew he was primarily addressing it to people he had never met and who had just recently found the Lord, and the approach that Paul makes in the book of Romans has been one of the most powerful and prevailing things throughout all of church history. Some historians got together once and tried to list ten pieces of literature that have affected human history the most, and instead of coming up with the Bible, they came up with the book of Romans. I think you’re all familiar with the fact that St. Augustine was greatly affected by the Book of Romans. Luther was converted through reading St. Augustine’s commentaries on Romans. John Wesley was converted in reading Luther’s commentary on Romans, and there has been a trail like that throughout history.

Now then, here is the Book of Romans. Romans 1,2, and 3 present the condition of man before he is saved. Romans 4 presents, along with Romans 3, God’s breaking into history and bringing man up, redeeming him. Romans 5 introduces man to not only redemption, but also goes a little further and says that we are saved by his life. That verse would read, if we could express it thusly, we are continually being saved by his life, this active life within us, this higher life form.

Now then, Romans 6, 7, and 8 begin to move into our experience as Christians. Romans 6 gives us a real presentation of our problems in the flesh. Romans 7 gives us a real presentation of our problems in the soul. And then the incomparable Romans 8, when we are really introduced to how to live by Christ as Life, by setting the mind on the Spirit and not setting the mind on the flesh, and we learn just a little bit about how to sense this life within us, because it is a life that has as its attribute the sense of peace. We follow the peace. And we’ve been looking at some of the things that brothers and sisters need to know about how to really exercise our spirit and be in the spirit.

Now then, you all have heard, I’m sure, at some time or other, that Romans 9,10, and 11 are parentheses. How many of you have never heard that Romans 9,10, and 11 are a parenthesis? Well, it isn’t a parenthesis. If you will read the book of Romans this way, it will be beautifully clear. Read Romans 1,2,3,4, and 5, and then read 9,10,11, then read 6,7, and 8. Because Romans 5 ends with the situation with the unconverted Jew, and that’s all that 9,10, and 11 are about is Israel and its relationship to God as an unconverted people. Then, when you read it this way, you see the continuing saga: man’s lost condition, man’s finding redemption, the situation with Israel, then man having redemption and the fight with the flesh, then the soul learning to be in subjection to – this is Romans 7 – the way, the condition of man is he tries to live for God without living in the Spirit. Then Romans 8, so beautifully explaining to us how to be in the Spirit, and even Romans 8 ends by giving us the real secret of praying in the Spirit, by the groaning, and by praying with the Holy Spirit as He prays within us. Groaning always goes with what is going to follow.

It’s very interesting that there are two passages in the Scripture that deal with this really clearly, and both of them mention groaning. But anyway, as we read the Scripture, we come from Romans 8 into Romans 12, with 9, 10, and 11, going with another topic. Now then, brothers and sisters, this is really interesting, and this is where we’ve come. We have to know that we have a life in us. We have experienced what it’s like to live in the flesh. We have experienced what it’s like to try to live for the Lord in the soul. That’s Romans 7, a chapter of utter defeat. Then Romans 8 is a chapter that tells us all about living in the Spirit. Then, after we learn to live in the Spirit, brothers, we have been moving little by little upward. For most of you, about a year or two or three ago, you were lost, you were in Romans 1,2, and 3, then you got saved, and you came up to Romans 5. You then entered into some of the experience of Romans 6, and a lot of the experience of Romans 7. Now we are just beginning to open up into the beautiful experience of Romans 8, and then after 8 always comes Romans 12, with 9, 10, and 11 belonging somewhere else.

Alright, after the introduction to Christ, His life, and walking in the Spirit, which is walking by that life, we come then, just like this, after we’ve reached this point, brothers, in the order of God, we come to Romans 12:1-2, but actually, we come to more, but I’m going to keep it a secret for a minute. Romans 12 now says you have the life, you’re learning to walk in the Spirit, you’re learning to groan, you’re learning to pray with the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit prays within you. You are learning to live by the life, and then, just like this, the call. I now beseech you brothers, looking back at Romans 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8, all the mercies, in sin, down to hell, now saved by the precious blood, going into the flesh, learning the wilderness of the soul, now finding the joy in the Holy Spirit, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you do the only thing you can do, that you present yourselves utterly, wholly, totally, what? Completely, forever…your body…a living sacrifice, that you might prove what is the good and the acceptable and the perfect will of God.

Brothers and sisters, there are three wills of God. There is the good will, there is the acceptable will, and there is the perfect will, and we have to go past the good and past the acceptable, into the perfect. The Lord calls us to a moment of consecration. When we say, Lord, alright, up until now, it is what you have done for me; from now on, Lord, it will be what you will do in me. Not what you will do for me, for you have saved me, but from this moment on, what you will do in me.

It was at this point in the disciples’ lives that some turned back. And the Lord said, Will you also go? And Peter, that precious Peter, one time he really came through. Oh, Lord, to whom should we go? But look at Peter’s life afterward; there’s so much there. You could almost ask Peter, “Peter, we’re the ones who turned back, better off?” The Lord calls us at this point.

Now, brothers, what is the perfect will of God? What? You know, brothers, this verse of scripture has been so perverted. When I was a kid, many years ago, I don’t know what they do nowadays, in the conferences, in the conferences, we would have seminars on how to know the will of God, and we would all come in, and everybody would read that verse, and then they’d take off into the ectoplasm. Oh, what is the will of God, and how do you find the will of God? Brothers and sisters, there is a way to know and have the perfect will of God, but you have to have Romans 12:1 first, then Romans 12:2, and then, brothers, you move on.

Brothers, this is where we’re going to count tonight, at Romans 12:1 and 2. This is where we are, and this is where we’ve got to go from. Do you see now where we are? Do you get where it is? Have you followed me? We have to come to the consecration, and then we have to come to the transformation, and then we can know the perfect will of God. Brothers, according to this passage of Scripture, according to this passage of Scripture, what is the perfect will of God? Do you know? According to Romans chapter 12.

Last week, the last time I was here, I told you what the perfect will of God is. Brothers and sisters, if you will go home tonight and open the book of Romans and see it as Paul wrote it, from the chapter of Romans 12 to the end of it, it is so very clear that the perfect will of God is the church. Will you read verse 5? So, we being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members of one another, and from this point on, from Romans 12:1 on, the Lord is dealing with the church.

Now, brothers, if you get in the church, if you give yourself to the Lord, if you live by his life, and if you are members with one another, then, brother, you know the perfect will of God. And you know it all the time. I want to tell you something, even the good will and the acceptable will of God…this matter of, ‘do I go here, or do I stay here’, brothers, in the body, this is so dangerous. There is nothing quite as distressing for the Christian as to always be wandering around wanting to know what the Lord’s temporal will is for this particular planet.