MOTIVATIONS FOR THE DISCIPLINED LIFE
   
Thank you, and once again, good morning to students and teachers of 
the word of God.  Our lesson this week is called, "Motivation for the 
Disciplined Life," and concerns mainly the passage in Romans chapter 
12, with supplementary readings in Philippians chapter 4 and Hebrews 
chapter 12.
   
For the sake of brevity and conciseness, we'll deal primarily with 
Romans chapter 12 this morning, going as far as we can down into the 
chapter, which is a chapter of 21 verses.  In Romans chapter 12, in 
the 21 verses, we find here the material dealing with motivation for 
the disciplined life.  We have the way to the disciplined life (verses 
1 and 2), the gifts for the disciplined life (verse 3 to verse 8), the 
rules for the disciplined life (verse 9 to verse 18), and the attitude 
of the disciplined life (verse 19 to 21).  A four-part outline 
consisting of the first two verses in the chapter, then verse 3 to 
verse 8, then verse 9 to verse 18, then verse 19 to verse 21.
   
The way.
   
The gifts.
   
The rules.
   
And, the attitude.
   
All right, now, beginning in Romans.  First of all here, we have the 
way to the disciplined life.  The way is as follows:  "I beseech you 
therefore." To beseech is to beg somebody and implore them, kindly--
not command.  "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 
God." The motive for service and discipline is the fact that God has 
been merciful to you.
   
Now, if you're a born again, blood-bought child of God, you understand 
that phrase.  If you're not, it might be a little foggy.  But if 
you've been saved from hell, if you've been saved from the lake of 
fire, you know why he said what he said.
   
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." The 
unsaved man can't understand that, because to him the mercies of God 
have nothing to do with anything except food and clothing and safety 
in this life.  You people who have been saved have more sense.  You 
get the eternal view.
   
"By the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies." Not your life.  
Your bodies.  Now this is a fine point, but a very necessary point.  
The Bible nowhere tells you to commit your life to Christ.  The Bible 
nowhere says to let Christ come into your life.  Now these cliches are 
what we call "extra-canonical inspirations." Satan has a way of 
getting the Christian to say something that misguides somebody and 
gets them off doctrinally and gets them living a lie while professing 
the truth.
   
One of the greatest non-Christian, non-Biblical sayings in America 
today is, "Let Christ come into your life." Correction!  Jesus Christ 
is in the life of Satan, and has been since Genesis 1:1!  The Lord God 
Almighty is omnipotent and omnipresent; He's in everybody's life.  He 
doesn't have the body of the unsaved, and the body of the saved man is 
the temple of the Holy Ghost.
   
Now, when you say this, there's a man who'll say, "Well, that's what 
we mean." Yes, but when you're dealing with something as important as 
salvation, you better talk plain!  Christ can have your life without 
having your body.  Your life is what you do and how you do it.  Your 
body is what you are, and what you're in.
   
Well, let's put it this way.  If God has your body, He's bound to have 
your life.  But He can have your life without having your body.  If He 
doesn't have your body, you're not even saved.  That Bible says of the 
saved man, "What?  Know ye not that your body is the temple of the 
Holy Ghost, which ye have of God, and you're not your own?  You're 
bought with a price.  Therefore, glorify God in your body, and your 
spirit, which are God's." They belong to the Lord.  That's 1 
Corinthians chapter 6, verses 19 and 20.
   
The Bible nowhere ever tells anybody to let Christ come into their 
life.  In the first place, the word "Christ" is the Jewish designation 
of the anointed Messiah, and in the second place, since He's in 
everybody's life anyway, there wouldn't be any point in doing it.
   
It isn't a matter of letting Christ into your life; it's a matter of 
you giving your body to God.  There's many a Christian who lets Christ 
into his life, but keeps his body for himself.
   
"I beseech you...that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice." 
Living, because the body's alive.  A sacrifice, because the body is 
given to the Lord.  Then the body is, for all practical purposes, 
useless in this world, because it's set apart for God's use.  It's a 
sacrifice.  A sacrifice is giving up something you love.  "Holy, 
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."
   
Paul appeals to two things.  First of all, he says you ought to give 
your body to God because, after all, He gave His body for you--"the 
mercies of God." It's reasonable.  Secondly, it's reasonable because, 
in view of what God has done for you, what is more reasonable than 
that you should do something for Him?
   
"And be not conformed to this world." Now notice that the "beseeching" 
ends in verse 1.  Verse 2 is mandatory.  Verse 2 is a commandment.  
Nowhere does Paul say, "I beseech you, be not conformed." It's in the 
imperative--be not conformed!  That's a commandment.
   
Are you conformed to this world?  This world corrects the Bible--do 
you?  Do this world believes in more than one authority, so they can 
be their own authority--do you?  This world uses high promotional 
methods and high-power methods of advertising--do you?  This world 
worships money and education--do you?  "Be not conformed to this 
world."
   
The teaching that confirmation to this world is circumscribed by such 
basic rules as, "Get your hair cut," and, "Have your dress down to 
your knee," is the work of a Pharisee.  Worldliness consists not 
merely in looking like the world and dressing like the world, but--and 
more to the point--thinking and feeling and believing like the world.  
The Bible says if any man love the world, the love of the Father is 
not in him.  The Bible says, "All that is in the world, the lust of 
the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of 
the Father, but of the world, and the world with the lust thereof 
passeth away, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." 
That'll be 1 John chapter 2, verses 15-17.
   
The commandment, then, is "Be not conformed to this world." There is 
no way to live the disciplined life and be conformed to the world 
system in which you live.
   
A famous Christian wrote a very interesting book one time, called 
"Between Heaven and Earth." It has in it one of the most profound 
statements I've ever read from the pen of a mortal man.  It says this:  
"It is the duty of every Christian to find out what the specific 
peculiar spirit is of the age in which he lives, and live contrary to 
that spirit." That's one of the most profound statements ever penned.
   
That fellow said, "It is the duty of every Christian in Pensacola to 
find out what is the main thing that characterizes the age in which 
you live." The main attitude, thrust, or movement, or drift, of the 
age in which you live--and to turn around and go contrary to that 
drift.  "Be not conformed to this world!"
   
That'll be the organized world system--the cosmos.  When Paul says, 
"Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world," he's 
talking about that present world system that Demas fell in love with.  
We don't know what there was about that world system that attracted 
Demas.  It doesn't say that he went off with somebody's wife, or he 
gave himself up to a life of fornication and sex perversion.  It just 
says he loved this present world.
   
Maybe he was attracted by the high standards of art and culture at 
Rome.  Maybe it was the books and the library at Alexandria or Athens 
that attracted him.  Maybe it was some peculiar pleasure in the 
Coliseum, or some sports event--we don't know what it was.  But Demas 
fell in love with the present world system against the explicit 
commandment of God, speaking by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of 
the prophet and apostle to the Gentiles, "Be not conformed to this 
world!" That's a commandment.
   
If most of the people in Pensacola think Pete Ruckman is a fine 
fellow, then Pete Ruckman is living like the devil against the 
commandments of God.  If I'm not making at least five good enemies 
every time I open my mouth, there's something wrong with my preaching!  
And I mean that!  There is no way under God's earth for a Bible 
teacher--now some of you teachers better understand, lest you get your 
feelings hurt!--there's no way a Bible teacher or a Bible preacher can 
deliver the whole counsel of God--what Paul calls "all the counsel of 
God," Acts chapter 20--without making an enemy every time he opens his 
mouth.  And if some of you are doing it, some of you are opening your 
mouth and not making any enemies, you better check what's coming out 
of your mouth!  There couldn't be very much Bible in it!
   
The Bible says, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye 
transformed"--verse 2.
   
"Be ye transformed." You understand what a "transformer" is, in 
converting electrical energy.  "Be transformed." You have a generator 
that starts it and a transformer that changes it.  "Be ye transformed 
by the renewing of your mind." You're going to have to start thinking 
differently.  He didn't say, "Be transformed by the way you cut your 
hair or the way you wear your clothes." He didn't say, "Be transformed 
by putting up a barbed wire fence and retiring to a nunnery or a 
convent." He said the trouble's inside!  It's your thinking processes.
   
The trouble with the worldly Christian is he thinks like an unsaved 
man thinks.  How does an unsaved man think?  Well, he thinks, "I want 
to get along with people." "I want to be friendly." "I want to be 
sociable." "I want to make the world a better place to live in." "I 
want to make enough money to pay my bills and live comfortably." "I 
want to be able to help folks out, so it'll make me feel good." "And I 
want to get credit for this work, because it's a great work." That's 
the carnal mind of a lost man!
   
Isn't it amazing how backslidden some Christians can get and not even 
know it?
   
"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what 
is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
   
Now, three will of God are delineated in the passage.  What is 
"good"--that God will not accept; what is "good" that God will accept 
that isn't perfect; and the "perfect" will of God.
   
We'll illustrate:  You can do good things that are right and good, but 
God won't accept them, because that isn't what He wanted you to do.  A 
man can make a living as a businessman, and that's a good thing.  And 
we need good Christian businessmen.  But if God has called that man to 
preach, that service is not acceptable at the judgment seat of Christ.
   
Again, a man may answer the call to preach--and that's good, and 
acceptable.  And God will accept the man because he's doing God's will 
for his life.  But if that preacher compromises and cuts corners to 
get along with people, and preaches positively, so as not to offend 
rich people, influential people--when a man cuts that message to 
impress influential people, that may be good.  He's doing good with 
his mouth.  Acceptable--he's in the ministry where God called him.  
But it's not the perfect will of God.
   
Therefore, there are three wills of God for every Christian.  First of 
all, there's the good life that he can live, doing good things, that 
are good--but God won't accept them because he's not doing what God 
told him to do.  Then there's the Christian who does what God tells 
him to do, and God accepts it.  But he doesn't do it with the right 
motive or the right manner or the right way--and that isn't perfect.
   
Now Paul prays that the child of God may stand complete in all the 
will of God.  You'll find that over in Colossians, chapter 1, verse 9.  
And other prayers for the Christian are found in Colossians chapter 1, 
and Colossians chapter 2, and Ephesians chapter 2.  And these prayers 
are for the Christian to stand to complete in all the will of God.  
Not merely good, not merely acceptable, but that perfect will of God.
   
Verse 3:  "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man 
that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought 
to think:  but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every 
man the measure of faith." Notice that Christians differ in the amount 
of faith they have.  "Hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." 
God measures out more to some than to others.
   
Christians not only differ in faith; they also differ in the amount of 
grace that some of them have.  And the Christian should think abouit 
these things "soberly," and seriously, when praying, and when talking 
about his gifts, and this and that.  There are some Christians who 
differ in grace, and some Christians differ in faith.
   
To be right frank with you, I've never been very strong in faith.  My 
mind is of such a nature that, when I figure out the unseen 
possibilities that lie in the future, I tend to try to figure.  And, 
seeing a thousand possibilities that go into an intricate mesh or 
network of a thousand others, it's very hard for me just to take a 
step with a clear conscience.  There's a great advantage in being very 
simple-minded, and very stupid, as a Christian.  It has a great 
advantage, and it's a blessing.  The simple-minded child of God, when 
faced with a decision, can nearly always make a step in faith, because 
he doesn't see all the unforeseen possibilities.  The more you see, 
the less faith you have.
   
"Dealt to every man the measure of faith." "To every man that is among 
you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think." Why, 
do you realize that you have Christians in this town who think so much 
of themselves, they think they're able to correct the greatest Book 
the world's ever seen?  Did you know that?  Now, you wouldn't believe 
that.  But I have in my hand a Book here, that has been translated 
into 800 languages.  And it's gone into 820 million copies.  More than 
eight times as many copies as all other translations of the Bible 
combined.  If you took the total sales of every Bible translated since 
1901, this Book I have in my hand would outdo them eight-to-one--
combined.  And yet you have Christians in Pensacola who think they're 
smart enough to correct that Book.
   
You know what the Bible calls that?  The Bible calls that "heady" and 
"high-minded." And the Bible says about that class of Christian in 
Romans 12:16, "Be of the same mind one toward another.  Mind not high 
things, but condescend to men of low estate.  Be not wise in your own 
conceits."
   
Verse 4:  "For as we have many members in one body, and all members 
have not the same office:  So we, being many, are one body in Christ, 
and every one members one of another." When Paul writes Romans, then, 
of course he's perfectly familiar with the body mystery, the mystery 
of the one body.  And Paul writes Romans long before Acts 28 is over.  
To say the body doesn't begin until after Acts 28, because of the 
revelation written in Ephesians 3, is nonsense.  Paul writes Romans 
before Acts chapter 23.  And when he writes, he says, "One body in 
Christ, and we being many, are one body, with many members"--exactly 
as he wrote it 1 Corinthians.
   
Now, you have many members in one body--eyes, nose, ears, hands, feet.  
They don't have the same office.  That is, they don't all do the same 
work.  "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one 
members one of another." If a man is saved, he is part, spiritually, 
of every other Christian.  Every saved person in this town--if you're 
saved--is in Jesus Christ.  And, if you're in Jesus Christ, you are 
members of a body that contains every other saved person in this town.  
One body.
   
Now the modern ecumenical movement is not a movement to get the 
members of the one body together on final authority--the Bible.  The 
modern interdenominational, ecumenical movement is to get all the 
denominations together under eighteen different Bibles.  You see the 
difference?
   
In the Bible, every Christian is a member of one body, under one 
authority--the word of God.  In the modern ecumenical movement, 
they're trying to get an organic getting-together of denominations, 
under a flexible shifting of authority, where the eventual authority 
will be a political or economic authority.
   
To do this is very simple.  You simply give the Christian two to ten 
conflicting authorities, and that way you have anarchy.
   
Now, is there anybody reading these words who doesn't understand that?
   
You know what you have in a home where the father's the final say-so, 
and the mother's the final say-so, and each one of the three children 
is the final say-so?  Why, you have anarchy!  That's clear.  Anybody 
reading these words have any trouble with that?
   
Wherever you have two conflicting authorities, you must call on a 
third authority to interpret the conflict.  Anybody have any trouble 
with that?
   
I mean, when the prosecuting attorney doesn't agree with the attorney 
for the defense, and they both think they're right, do you know who 
decides it?  Well, that's simple.  A judge!  You know who the final 
authority is in a court of law, where there are two conflicting 
authorities?  The third authority!
   
You'd think a fellow could get that, wouldn't you?
   
When two people think they're right, and both of them think their 
authority is final, the third authority must be called in to decide.  
So the modern get-together movement for the body of Christ has nothing 
to do with the Scripture movement, where every Christian in Christ is 
under the single authority of the word of God.  It has to do with 
getting denominations together under conflicting authorities--about 
eighteen different versions of the Bible--so a final authority can be 
called in to interpret the conflict set itself up as the final 
authority!
   
You'd think a man could get that, wouldn't you?
   
Now, mark what I'm saying, if you're a Bible teacher.  (And these 
articles are mainly for teachers.) If you're a teacher, beware of any 
religious group that recommends two authorities.  Because, as sure as 
you live and breathe, some place they'll conflict.  And, when they do, 
the third authority will have to play God.
   
Now, I'm going to say it one more time.  Every religious group--I'm 
not being partial, I'm not picking at anybody.  Nobody's attacking 
anybody's faith.  Every religious that recommends more than one final 
authority has to call on the third authority to interpret those two 
authorities, where they conflict.  The third authority, then, plays 
God.  It plays the final authority.
   
In Genesis 3, the devil questioned, "Yea, hath God said?" And then, 
when Eve was listening, he said, "God said--"one thing, one authority.  
"But I'm saying something else"--the second authority.  And, since the 
two authorities conflicted, Eve decided herself to decide which one 
was right.  So she acted as God.  She became the final authority!  And 
the choice she made, she made after knowing what God said--one 
authority--and what the devil said--the other authority.  That's how 
man became his own god, and set himself up as the final authority.
   
You might say, she preferred her own translation.  She preferred the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  She set herself up as god.
   
All right, then, verse 6:  "Having then gifts differing according to 
the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy 
according to the proportion of faith." That is, don't try to tell the 
future beyond what you have faith to believe.  "Or ministry, let us 
wait on our ministering"--like waiting on a table.  Give time to it, 
attend to it.  "Or he that teacheth, on teaching." Wait on teaching, 
attend to it--like you'd wait on a table.
   
"Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation." Back in the old days, the 
Methodists had preachers, then they had exhorters.  And the exhorter, 
of course, was a man who got up and exhorted the people after the 
preacher was through.  That was called exhortation.
   
Or right, then, he says, "He that giveth, let him do it with 
simplicity." That is, don't try to figure all the angles, just give.  
I mean, "God loveth a cheerful giver." "He that ruleth, with 
diligence." That rule is spoken of as a spiritual rule in Hebrews 
chapter 13 and 1 Timothy 3.
   
"He that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness." It's very easy to show 
mercy sometimes, if you show it with kind of a grudge, begrudgingly.  
Sometimes it's easier to show mercy if you do it with kind of a, "I 
can afford to," attitude.  But it's better to do it cheerfully.  I 
mean, "I forgive you, and I'm glad to forgive you, and I'm happy for 
the opportunity to forgive you.  And I'm happy about it." That is what 
is known as showing mercy with cheerfulness."
   
Now, our space is about used up, and we won't have space to go through 
this long list of rules that have to do with rules for the disciplined 
life.  But they're very instructive, and very rich in content.  Verse 
9 down through verse 21, if you have time to teach them in Sunday 
school, teach as many as you possibly can.  These are not the Ten 
Commandments of the New Testament.  In the first place, the New 
Testament Christian is under grace, not under law.  And in the second 
place, there are more than ten of them.  But if there are any 
guidelines--we'll put it that way--if there are any guidelines for 
Christian conduct, or what the modern press calls "life style," the 
life style of the Christian is Romans 12, verses 9 through 21.
   
And if your life style matches Romans 12, verses 9 through 21, you're 
living like a child of God should live, who has presented his body to 
the Lord for the Lord's use.
   
If your so-called life style does not match Romans 12, verses 9 
through 21, there is some part of your body that has not been given to 
the Lord as a fit vessel, sanctified for the Master's use.  And the 
exhortation I would leave you with at the close of this article is the 
exhortation of our original scripture at the beginning of the lesson:  
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye 
present your bodies a living sacrifice." Let God have your hands, your 
eyes, your mouth, your ears, your feet, your legs, your heart, your 
brain.  Give what you have to God.  And may God use it for the honor 
and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
   
May the Lord bless you, and good day.
   

   

   
