Untitled Sermon (58)

Last week we covered what transformation is , and the week before that we looked at conformity. I introduced what the transformation looks like but we have to unpack it in further detail and then conclude verse 2.

Some of you already know this about me, but I enjoy western movies. And as I was watching some westerns this week i told Brittany that it had to been terrible to be a preacher in the Wild West.

Now the Wild West is considered between the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. And more of the famous events of the Wild West take place in the later 1800s. Roughly 1870s to the 1890s.

the Wild West is considered places that settlers and pioneers set out to find during the 1800’s. So even though where we live now is considered Central America, it is also called the Midwest and the reason why it is called the Midwest is because the Wild West history takes place here as well.

Now why would it be so terrible to be a preacher in the Wild West? Because typically these were areas of no laws. And the reason why they were areas of no laws is because they were not incorporated places. So the settlers of Sioux Falls were not considered town folk creating a town , it was considered a camp until it was incorporated.

Now when I say incorporated that means they were not joined to the federal union so they were not yet a land joined in the federal government. And so when you have a place of no laws, with railroad workers, Prospector's and pioneers, you can imagine the type of debauchery that takes place.

And so these movies about the Wild West always had a small town, but technically it would have been called a camp. Even though they had their own banks, newspapers, brothels, and so on, they were still considered a camp until they joined the federal union then they became an incorporated town.

Now a western movie is entertainment, it is not a history lesson. So the chances of them being accurate in the legal language is very slim. And so there was a point in time where Sioux Falls, led Ville Colorado, Denver, Cheyenne, and the Black Hills we're all places of no laws which is why it was called the Wild West.

In each of these areas there would usually be a preacher and in each of these camps to avoid the government from forcing them to join into the union , the people would establish their own functioning government where they actually had a Sheriff and a mayor.

And these people took their jobs seriously. Because they too were invested in some way into the camp. You see, to these people when the federal government was not involved, everybody was making tons of money. Not just because of tax purposes, but because of all the crimes they were doing making this money.

And so, to be a preacher in the midst of a camp where the peoples very livelihood is breaking the law, it would be difficult to be a preacher during that time. So I had a thought, a curious thought about all that.

We have an amazing amount of famous preachers and theologians in the 1600s and these guys were typically the Puritans. The same is true of the 1700s and these guys were carrying on the piraten movement but it's becoming more political. But something happens in the 1800s where we do not have as nearly as much of the famous preachers. strange?

The famous preachers of the 1800s are men like Charles Spurgeon, Dwight Moody, JC ryle, And Billy Sunday. And do you want to know what all of those guys have in common? Not one of them was anywhere in the Wild West. I have discovered preachers who were active in the Wild West or typically liberal.

Now to be fair, I think these guys were forced into it. When you begin to think about the intense work these pioneers did, the intense hunger they must have felt from time to time, the intense burden of building a new place to live, I imagine the temptation to conform to the world was intense.

When you think about the Wild West the one thing you do not think of are preachers around during that time. But the preachers who were actually around had to be tough, but also they were motivated more by liberalism then say what the Puritans had with their theology.

Now why are we talking about this? Because this is the birth of the land you live in. The land you live in did not start on solid theological ground. Not at all, if it did it went down in history as blank. And folks, pioneers of the faith do not go down in history as nobody's or nothing's.

Not all of 'em that close to this side of history. we have more writings, theological journals, sermons , and documentation about the Puritans in the 1600s than we do about Christianity altogether and Catholicism In addition to that of the Wild West in the 1800s.

This is American history, and it's the history of the land you live in and were raised in and it's the history of the land where I lived and was raised.

Now ironically enough, The E had all kinds of great theologians. And the reason for that was because prestigious colleges such as Yale, Sanford, Brown University and over in England Oxford University , all of them started as seminaries not secular education.

And they were incredible seminaries in their history. And each one of those seminaries were influenced by the Puritans. And so the East side had great theologians but liberalism crept in and the church conformed.

but now the amount of liberal theology that exists on the E today is insane. If we were to pinpoint a time in history where the theology was amazing and the church was strong we have to point to the Puritans and the church shortly after the puritan movement.

These guys we're really onto something as far as how a society functions and how a godly culture should be. And they were motivated by the very verses that we're looking at now. How did the puritan movement fall?

There are many speculations but some say it had to do with a type of conformity , others say because the Puritans really did not get along with each other as well as they should have and that kept them from truly being United and so it never really gained the strength that it had the potential to gain.

And of course the puritan movement became synonymous with the Salem witch trials where an entire community fell under religious hysteria. I think that probably speaks more about who was pastoring the church during those times than anything.

And so one community went infamous and a whole lot of rich history went with it. The idea of purity began to lose its steam and do 2 the expansion of this land, talking about explorers and The Pioneers, you had circuit writers preaching.

And so there was really no accountability for these preachers, there was really no way of knowing what was actually being preached and you lossed the puritan movement.

And to think that the dawn of the Reformation, into the Reformation which led into the puritan movement, there was so much progress made in the world through the church and then it just kind of slowly fell apart.

And now today it seems there is more conformity then there is transformation. It is hard to say for certain, because we do not know the intentions of people.

But when the church abandons its theology 2 proceed some type of socialism and by that I mean social issues, social communities, where the actions engage the culture without the proper theological foundation. This is what we seen in the 1800s, in the Wild West this is what we are seeing today.

As for the Puritans, they had their entire lives devoted to scripture. They had their entire lives devoted to holy living. It wasn't just words with them they practiced what they preached and they worked on what they preached.

And so when you look at the writings of the Puritans it will blow you away when somebody in the 1600s has to say. An when they began to preach they had so much scripture on their mind that they knew exactly where to go whenever they needed to. And this was not just the preachers but it was the congregations that were just as devoted as well.

and so, we look to the Puritans on what these verses look like in real life in real time. And we take a lesson from them as they have left a footprint in history that many Christians still look up to till this day.

That is a testimony to their faith. where we do not see the same testimony in the history of the current land we live in. Not at its foundation anyway. And so reflecting on these 2 verses together we now draw some conclusions on what's transformation looks like in real time.

So the 1st lesson is one that we introduced it last week and we will continue to unpack that is that we must be grounded in the word of God. We need a biblical worldview and in order to have a biblical worldview you must be in the Bible.

This was true of the Puritans their complete outlook in way of living was determined by the word of God. They loved the scriptures they lived the scriptures they breathe the scriptures they regarded The Bible as the 66 books of the only holy library given to us by the Holy Spirit.

And because they had that outlook it was not just another book but they viewed the scriptures as a God speaking to them. They not only read the scriptures and listen to them be preached, they also sang the scriptures. They would only sing the psalms in the Bible. There are still denominations that do that till this day.

the puritan preacher John cotton encouraged his congregation to feed upon the word of God. The Geneva Bible which was the first English Bible to come to America that was made before the King James version, had an introduction that said, the light to our paths the key of the kingdoms of heaven, our Comfort Inn affliction, or shield and sword against Satan, the school of all wisdom, the glass wherein we behold God's face, the testimony of his favor and the only food and nourishment of our souls.

Puritan preachers were well grounded in the historical teachings. Something that has really gotten away from us in our current culture. But not for them, they stayed well grounded in the historical teachings. Joel beake wrote if you were ever prone to be proud of your biblical knowledge just open a volume written by John Owen Thomas Goodwin or Thomas Brooks and you will quickly learn how little you actually know.

This means, folks, that our efforts to live a holy life, to live a transformed life must be grounded in the Bible. We must search the scriptures frequently and more fervently. The issue today is that we have encouraged a mindless Christianity.

And I don't mean anyone particular in here I just mean our current age. We have encouraged a mindless Christianity and the mindless Christianity is a Christianity that is not grounded in the scriptures. And because of this many denominations have departed from the historical faith.

Which is why you are beginning to see ministeries give in 2 sin. They not only give in to sin but they encourage the practice of sin because they believe it is loving. The word of God is not our final authority it is how we feel.

I feel that God would not be upset with me if i did XY or Z. Well you realize the scriptures tell us. And so we have churches that justify their shameful , sinful practices. this is due to the departure of God's word.

The second lesson we learn from them is personal holiness. For someone like William Ames who was a puritan theologian, theology an holiness went together. You cannot separate the two. to separate the two displayed that you do not have saving faith.

He taught that theology was the encounter between gods will and mans will wear man's will submits to God's will in all things. And so the Puritans would practice holy living before the people of God, in the church and in their homes. It was not just something they did on a Sunday it was something they did every day.

What a wonderful thought, that theology is where God's will and mans will begin to align with one another through the power of God's Holy Spirit. And so the Puritans used a number of means to search out this holiness and to help establish their own personal holiness.

This included encouraging word focus doctrine and theologically rich preaching. They would meditate on biblical truths and duties, they would engage frequently in prayer, they would have gatherings With each other often and they would work tirelessly to make sure that their preacher sermons were published.

Now we today have the luxury to record sermons but Can you imagine if you were trying to write down word-for-word everything i said just to publish it. Personal holiness was not something that was shunned it was something that was encouraged. And why was it not shunned and something that was encouraged?

Because do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

The 3rd lesson we have is a desire for church life. The Puritans taught that the church is the invisible company of the redeemed. And Christ is the head. They did not call the building a church .

They called them meeting houses because to them the church is a spiritual reality rather than an institution or physical structure. And so the church would go to the meeting houses for the physical place of worship. The Puritans encouraged and practice voluntary church membership.

This is something that we practice till this day. the idea was that the state did not determine whether you were a member of the church or not. When you were born you weren't immediately a member into the church by the state. but that you become a member on your own free accord with no monarchy telling you what you are going to be a part of.

Something that is kind of foreign to us today, as far as the state telling people whether or not they were going to be members of a church and when that was going to happen. We do not know what it's like to be under that kind of oppression.

I do think we're heading that direction though. And I have said for the last few years that if you want to make a testimony to the state , to the elected officials then you need to begin flooding our churches once again.

Not just saying that you are a Christian and abandoning the assembly of the Saints but joining together in the spiritual reality of being one redeemed people as a testimony to the state or to the elected officials and as one we are an image that says we will not be pushed we will not be bullied we will not be torn down, we will not be persuaded by you in any way, we are one body who stand on the authority of the word of God.

If somebody is professing a faith in Christ and cannot be devoted to the Church of Christ you are not being brave, you are not being Noble, you're not doing anything new , you were being a coward and you are conforming to the world. Conforming to the world abandons the church, transformation clings to a biblical believing church.

By the way, that is the only definition of a church. I realized that there are many denominations out there with many different theological positions but if you abandon the fundamentals of the faith and start to embrace sin as something good then you have forfeited your right to be called a church . You are nothing more than a social club.

And so when I say church I am not talking about those who have abandoned the faith yet still calling themselves Christians. They are not a part of the church. They have abandoned sound doctrine they have embraced sin they had conformed to the world they are nothing but a social club.

The last lesson that we learned from them is warfare. The Puritans we're engaged in daily warfare. And you should be too. We have talked about this in the past and this is something that Paul describes in this letter in Chapter 7.

The Puritans realized that they were not perfect, that they were not actually pure but that there was still the sinful nature within them. and so there is a warfare that is taking place with inside of all of us.

For the Puritans this was no minor thing, this was real warfare and they would declare war on themselves. They would out loud openly condemn thoughts and declare war on them. They not only realized that there was this warfare going on within them. But they realized that their old self was an agent to Satan and his Demons.

Or to say it another way, Satan and his demons will recruit your old nature to fight their battles against you. And so the Puritans would declare war on themselves. Continual repentance in their life. Continual repentance encouraged in each others lives. It was something that was not treated lightly.

One thing the Puritans realize is that in this life the best you will ever have it is as a Christian. Because only as a Christian do you have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon your soul to help you engage in battle against this warfare. An this warfare is the conformity to this world. It is the lust of the flesh.

But they also recognized that their best life was to come. Their best life was not now , contrary to what Joel osteen has to say, their best life was to come. An their duty was to be faithful Christian soldiers in the mist of this warfare until they're called into the heavenly Kingdom.

Now we can say more about the Puritans an I can give you more examples that they lived by but I think we have made the point enough for today. The question then becomes, why do they work so hard at this? And the answer are in the verses that we have been covering these last few weeks.

Romans 12:2 NASB95

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, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Now again we have a section of scripture that just kind of looks a little funny in the English compared to what is trying to be said in the Greek. And the word that I have in my translation that may throw some people off is the word prove.

It is kind of an odd word and some translations use the word test. so that we may test the will of God. and that word does mean those things but it also means to trust or to rely upon. To rely on the will of God.

And so there are many different ways to translate this word but the context is what is going to determine how do you understand this word. now the idea that the context determines the translation is not that far from our own language. We do have English examples of this. for example, live or live.

spelled exactly the same way so the context tells us how we should pronounce that word. I went to a live concert. The fact that somebody went do this concert informs you that you pronounced it as live and not to live.

I have read the book or I have read the book? The past tense and the present tense are spelled exactly the same way but the context of what you are saying determines how we pronounce it.

Well the context of this helps us understand how it should be translated. So, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed in the renewing of your mind so that you may trust or rely upon or better yet practice the will of God that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Christianity is not a list of rules that we follow by without questioning but it is a transformed life, it is a new life. And the transformation that is taking place within us is transforming our will to God's will.

As Christians, we should not be boasting about our own personal freewill. We should be boasting at our wills being transformed to God's will and that we are in line with him.

Makes sense, doesn't it? But the reason why this is of most importance is because The Bible does not tell us everything of everything. For example, pastor I am considering on buying a new house but I don't know if it is God's will that I buy this house, can you give me a scripture on whether or not I should buy this house.

I can give you a scripture but there will be no scripture that will be in that specific context for your specific situation. And we have many examples like this.

now the word of God is sufficient to guide us through situations like that but to have a direct answer on what I should do in that situation is not going to be revealed to us in scripture.

And so the idea behind this trusting in the will of God is that we be so inlined in the will of God that even those things that we don't really have a scripture to turn to come from a place of holiness.

It is so that we are in the will of God in all things. What schools should I send my kids to? When and where should I retire?

And perhaps maybe you have questions on your mind or can remember of a time in your life where you did where there was not a specific text to turn to that told you verbatim what you are supposed to do.

And so you go to God in prayer and you ask God to lead you in that situation because you want to be in his will not your will. And sometimes you find out that your will is not God's will and you get a little upset.

But the idea behind not conforming to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we will be in the will of God in all things no matter what.

So even though we may not have an answer to what should I do with my children, how should I speak to that person, Should I buy this house, should I invest in this, should I take this job? You are so close to God that God will lead you in those areas and you will be OK with that and you will glory in God for that.

and so now that we have completed these 2 verses , these opening 2 verses that we have spent so much time in. I leave you with this thought. 1st is to not make the same mistake as the preachers of the Old West. But consider yourselves as pioneers still.

The one thing that the Puritans had on their minds all the time was that we were just pilgrims traveling through. They had this on their mind so much that one of those Puritans wrote a book called the pilgrims progress.

We are the pilgrims traveling through. We are the foreigners to this world. The aliens have crash landed they are called Christians. We are aliens among these people.

And so we are still pioneers. And even though the history of the land we live in is filled with much bloodshed, much corruption, so much debauchery that even the preachers could not be or would not be the men that they were called to be, doesn't mean we carry on with that tradition.

We leave a new foundation, here and now. We look beyond ourselves. Let's stop being so selfish, life continues beyond you and you can leave a mark whether you know it or not. You can leave a footprint in history like the Puritans did simply by laying the foundation of Orthodox biblical Christianity.

And all of this begins right in your homes. That is how simple it truly is. In words. It begins with you, then look past yourself and know that there will be a generation after you.

God willing there will be generations after all of us in this ministry. You will never know the full impact you leave on a person, it is not up to you to know. But know that you can.

And it is my personal belief that God rewards the faithfulness of his people and preserves them in history not only as examples but a testimony of his goodness and how he is still so active in his church.

That's what I see when I read church history, that's what I see when I read the Puritans. A living an active God among his people in times were people didn't always feel a living in active God.

I can go back in history and say yes God you were working there, look what you did there, look how you used that person. Look how you preserved the actions of your faithful.

And i'm not sure if these people are aware that their actions have been preserved. But you 2 can leave a mark, not with the dedication of leaving a mark , but for glorifying God in all things and God preserving your faithfulness for all time. Let's pray