Signs of the times - Josh Buice

it's a privilege to be with you to be back with you um i don't know if you're excited to be back here in indoors rather than outdoors it was a privilege to join you last last year i'm going to ask you to take your copy of god's word and open to romans 12. romans chapter 12 as we look to god's word and as you're turning there i want to sort of set things up and frame where i'm about to go and what i'm about to preach to you i hope will actually leave an indelible mark upon your soul but as i do so i want to mention just a little bit about myself and to just sort of let you know how i've come to this place in my life um so my story is real interesting in many ways in the sense that i grew up in a very troubled home and my earliest memories of life were that of parents fighting and there was a lot of confusion for me as a four and five-year-old boy so the very earliest memory that i can call from my memory is that of parents literally at war with one another and the the one really stable influence is from a christian perspective in my life during those days was my grandfather and he would take me to church on sunday mornings my parents were unconverted and so here i am in this context of a war in the home and i'm confused and at about age six i walked to the front of a church a pastor said you know if if any of the people in the room or any children want to become a christian i saw other children going to the front i thought well you know that's what i need to do so i went down to the front and i repeated the exact words that that pastor told me to repeat after him and he told me that i was a christian and so i went on to uh life would have a lot of different turns for me and in the strange providence of god i would be there in my local church my father would gain custody of my sister and i there's a very abusive situation with my stepfather that i don't have time to really go go into but needless to say as things started to become more stable as i'm in this church and i'm going to all of the youth events and as i'm going through the the life of a church just like many of you have i remember being under heavy conviction at times i remember trying to live the life of a christian and really it was out of the flesh i was so miserable for so long from age six when i asked jesus into my heart until i was 25 years of age when the lord actually converted me i did not become a christian until i was 25 i had graduated from the university i was working a job in atlanta i was listening to a sermon on the internet as i was working at my desk and the lord saved me i was converted i would go back into my church talk to my pastor talk to my family i would be baptized as a follower of jesus and that's where things started to really change for me that's where i started to see the difference between trying to perform in the flesh trying to live the christian life in the flesh versus living the life of a christian by the power of the spirit of god from a changed heart and so what i'm about to preach to you is something that you will not be able to do or perform in the flesh and so i want you to pay close attention to this text of scripture that we're about to read and if you're in this room today and you're like i was when i was at the university i called myself a christian i went to the christian things that were there on the secular university campus i was at church i was engaged but i wasn't a christian and i looked back at that time in my life and i was so miserable because i was trying to do it in the flesh and it was impossible so read with me from romans chapter 12 beginning in verse 1. this is the word of god and it reads as follows i appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of god to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to god which is your spiritual worship do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of god what is good and acceptable and perfect join me in prayer father we love you we praise you again for the privilege to be here on this occasion to have this opportunity to to really engage in a time of worship through the word and we pray that you would give us eyes to see in hearts to hear and allow us to understand exactly what it is that you would teach us through this passage of scripture i pray that you would leave an indelible mark upon the hearts of the students here at this university a university that i love and i stand with i'm so grateful for the faculty of this institution and i pray for this student body that you would encourage them in the gospel of king jesus now we ask this in christ's name amen i want to take you back to a time in just a moment all right there we go thank you want to take you back to a time period uh in church history to 1555. there was a man named john rogers and he was a friend of a man named william tyndale if you're holding a copy of the english bible in your hands today we stand on the shoulders of william tyndale and so as we uh know the story of tyndale we don't have time to go back and unpack it all but he was used by god in a marvelous way to bring to us the translation of the english bible from the original languages and he was unable to finish his old testament translation because he was hunted down and he was burned at the stake by the roman catholic church and his friend was john rogers and when john rogers found out about what was happening then he rushed to the home and grabbed all of the manuscripts and all the work that tyndale had already started and took it away and then gave himself to working out the translation of the old testament from hebrew and so when john rogers finished his translation of the bible it was eventually authorized and he worked under a false name named thomas matthew and if you if you go back and you you look at the history of of how god in his providence orchestrated all of that it was the first bible that was authorized for the church in english from the original languages now some time would pass and john rogers would be arrested and he would be imprisoned for about a year and it was during this time that he was going to be executed for his doctrinal beliefs it was not for his translation work it was namely for his rejection of the roman catholic church's doctrine of trans substantiation so this idea of of the actual body and blood being present there in the mass during the catholic mass after the catholic priest offers his blessing and so as he's imprisoned there he's preparing himself for what lies ahead they march him out onto the streets and they take him down to the very place in england smithfield and they take him to a place where he would be executed he would pass by a crowd of people who were there to cheer on the execution and yet he would also pass his wife and his children and he would see all of them for the final time in fact he saw his youngest child for the very first time as he was making his way to the stake to be burned and he would say his final goodbyes to his wife along the road to his children along the road and he would make his way to the stake as they were taking him and and tying him up and attaching him to the stake they offered him one last chance to recant and so when the sheriff offered him that opportunity he speaks up and fox's book of martyrs records the following he said in response that which i have preached i will seal with my blood and so they lit the flames and he washed his hands in the in the flames and then lifted his hands in the air and breathed his last breath as his body was being consumed by the flames it was at that very moment that he was the first martyr under bloody mary and she was actually i've been to the very site and there's an old building and they tell us that it's quite possible that bloody mary wanted to see her first martyr and so she was there in the upper chambers looking out this window as john rogers was being burned at the stake j.c rile records the the scene he says quote the enthusiasm of the crowds knew no bounds they rent the air with thunders of applause ryle went on to say this for up to that day men could not tell how english reformers would behave in the face of death and they could hardly believe that some would give their bodies to be burned for their religion end quote what i want to really stress and i want to impress upon you for the next few minutes is this before john rogers ever gave his body to be burned at the stake in 1555 he had long before that offered up himself in totality as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to god for the glory of god and that is the calling of a christian life that is the calling of your life and you can't do this in the flesh we need the power of the spirit we need the gospel of jesus christ to change us and to enable us to live a life that would look just like that that would look just like what paul says here in romans chapter number 12. the gospel the gospel empowers us you see in the first 11 chapters of romans if you know anything about the book of romans the first 11 chapters is this paul is saying this is what the gospel is justification by faith alone in christ alone for the remission of sins he sets a a massive foundation on what the gospel is and then there's a hinge at chapter 12. and then he turns to practical application where he says this is how you live the gospel this is how you live the gospel the word gospel you angelion and the greek actually is found in the new testament some you know 91 times paul uses it 55 times in his writings in the new testament outside of romans and in in romans he uses it 11 times in this very book and every time that he uses the gospel he's putting the definite article there to stress the gospel the gospel the gospel the gospel so what is the gospel the gospel is not being a church member the gospel is not doing good deeds for other people the gospel is not engaging in community service or social activities or social justice that's not the gospel the gospel is the message of hope that god saves wicked sinners through his son jesus christ who took upon himself human flesh lived a perfect sinless spotless life and was brutally executed on a roman cross and completely paid for the sins of every one of his people so that in eternity all of us in this room who call upon the name of the lord and have our faith in jesus christ will be with him you see this is the message of the gospel jesus christ was brutally crucified and yet on the third day was raised from the dead and so that proves for us that jesus christ is the exclusive means of hope that we have with god and this is the only way that you're going to be empowered to live this life that is a living sacrifice i want you to see these these two points here first of all i want you to see that it is through the power of the gospel that you and i are actually empowered to be a living sacrifice you can't do it in the flesh i appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of god to present your bodies as a living sacrifice a living sacrifice do you ever stop to think if you're reading this in your devotion time how strange that phrase is a living sacrifice you know paul is actually pulling from the old testament he's pulling as an example from the old testament sacrificial system and he's bringing that into this letter to the church in the city of rome as an example and he's saying you are actually called to be a living sacrifice for god but sacrifices were never living were they you see when you were go into the if you go back to exodus and you see the tabernacle this walled structure with you have the the the tabernacle itself this tint structure and inside the first veil in the holy place and then beyond that into the second veil into the most holy place where the ark of the covenant was and this was the meeting place of god with his people and yet to enter the tabernacle there was one specific entrance and when you would enter there the first thing that you would see before your eyes could actually gaze upon the tabernacle was an altar and this altar would been large and bronze in color and and full of fire where they offered up sacrifices to god and you see as animals would be there that that again is this idea of the animal is led there as a living animal but when it's offered up to god it is slain in fact the actual word altar in the hebrew language has in mind the idea of slaughter so when paul says you need to be a living sacrifice he's communicating something that everything that we are mind body soul the totality of who you are needs to be completely devoted to god you need to die to self and you need to be alive to god for the glory of god so your life should be offered up in totality as a living sacrifice when you think of worship what do you think about you think of chapel service and then you think about the lord's day and that's your component part of worship that's worship no that's not what's being communicated here yes that's also what is being communicated here but there's far more than that you see the idea of being a living sacrifice is that the totality of your life needs to be a life of worship it needs to be a life of worship so everything you do whether you eat or whether you drink or whether you sleep or whether you send emails or whether you take an exam this afternoon or whether you hang out with your friends or whether you go to a ball game or whether you try out for the baseball team or whatever it might be is that it is offered up to god the totality of who you are is a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to god before john rogers or any of the martyrs any of them could ever offer up themselves to a stake to be burned there they had to first do this they had to be a living sacrifice a living sacrifice you see the the idea of sacrifice is all throughout the old testament and it finds its culmination in jesus the once for all sacrifice and yet we're called to be a living sacrifice dying to self heart soul mind and strength all offered up for the glory of god you see john calvin writes the following quote by bodies he means not only our skin and bones but the totality of which we are composed he adopted this word that we might more fully designate all that we are for the members of the body our instruments he says by which we carry out our purposes so our purposes all that you are all that you think all that you do how you act how you engage in relationships all of it as calvin is saying this is why he uses this idea of a body because god wants more than your mind he wants everything we have to be completely sold out completely submissive to god he says here acceptable to god which is holy holy see if you go back to malachi if you've been reading through the old testament maybe in your devotional time and you come to malachi and you're reading about the profane sacrifices that they were offering up to god they would hold back their best they would take the perverted lame sick animals and offered up to god and they were rebuked for that because it was offering up to god something that wasn't pure it wasn't set apart as holy and yet we're called to have a life that is set apart from the world and to be holy for the glory of god to be acceptable that's the idea what is acceptable what is the standard where is the line in the sand i don't know if um if you really enjoy the end of the semester and getting your your report on your grades and where you stand and maybe getting a phone call from your parents on what that looks like but i can tell you that that my son judson my youngest he has some special needs and we have him there in a school where they're addressing some of that with uh regard to his speech apraxia which is what he has and he he has this thing where when he comes home every day there's a there's a chart that tells how he was that day and so when he comes in or if we pick him up from school the very first thing that he's trying to do is get to his backpack to pull out his folder to show us what color he got and if it's green that means good pink is absolute best it's perfection and if it's yellow or red that's not good at all and so he's so happy when he can pull out that folder and show us that he got green or that he got pink and so he just makes a mad dash and grabs us and hugs us and tries to show that he's so excited he wants to see our approval the interesting thing about my son is that he's not doing that on the sidewalk when we pull the car up to the school he's not showing his teachers and his friends he's not showing the principal of the school mr duffy he's not showing anyone else he he wants to show us because he knows that what really matters is what we think and you see there's so many of you sitting here today as i'm preaching this and you're so worried about what everyone else thinks about you you're more worried about what your friends think what people on social media that you don't really even know very well think of you you're worried about what other people think about you more than you're worried about what god actually thinks about you we need to spend far more time worried about what god thinks about us rather than what our friends our peers or others on social media think about us offer up yourself to god understand that god is watching you might not think that god is following you on social media but he is following you he is paying attention to your life he is paying attention to your text messages he's paying attention to what you're looking at on your phone he's paying attention to how you live how you worship all of it matters and we're to offer this up to god as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to god which is our spiritual worship which is our spiritual worship this idea of spiritual is is a greek word from where we derive the english word logical from so it's reasonable it's thoughtful we're we're putting intentionality into how we live how we engage in relationships how we worship god how we sing were you singing a moment ago or were you just kind of standing there just gazing off into to nothingness because it matters you see everything that we do matters all of these decisions they they mean something and so then you see this idea of worship and this is this is a specific word that that has in in mind an idea of service it has the idea of priestly service so that of think liturgy if that resonates with you if you can think that way that's what's being communicated here so your life all of it is to be that of a a worshipful life and so we must take this seriously this is the calling this is the calling of the christian j.c reil quoted him earlier he says this quote there is a common worldly kind of christianity in this day which many have and think that they have enough a cheap christianity which offends nobody and requires no sacrifice which costs nothing and is worth nothing in quote is that your christianity a christianity that's just sort of superficial shallow it's not real has no real substance to it it's just check box i went to chapel today i made sure that i scanned my card so that everyone knows i'm in chapel i go to church on sunday that's you know my little check box don't approach life that way see your whole existence the reason that god gives you the very next breath if you take another breath is a gift from god and see it that way and live your life that way it's such a freeing thing when you think about it to be a christian and to live that way the second thing we see is not only does the gospel a changed heart which i was unable to do when i was your age because i was miserable because i was told that i was a christian because i prayed this little prayer and i wasn't truly converted until i was 25 the gospel empowers us through a changed life applied by the holy spirit to be a living sacrifice and then second of all the gospel empowers us to a life of sanctification sanctification this progressive holiness you're growing more into the image of god's son than you are the image of this world or are you that would be a good question for you self-examination today look at your life and say am i today more like christ or am i today more like this world this world you see orthodoxy must never be separated from orthopraxy what does that mean you say well what we believe should never be separated from how we live should never be notice this what he says in verse 2 do not be conformed to this world do not be conformed to this world is that does that sound like a suggestion to you do not be conformed to this world no it's not a suggestion it's an authoritative statement that provides for us a real boundary you see we live in a world you actually live in a world that hates boundaries we don't like boundaries we don't like rules we don't like authority that's the that's the world that we live in and if we're not careful then that will influence how we live life and if if we're not careful it will it will cause us to live a life that does not look like that we are being more conformed to the image of christ it looks like we're being more conformed to the image of this sinful depraved god-hating world you see i can remember a few years ago we went to my family and i we visited the grand canyon and i remember getting out on the edge of the rock and getting a nice picture and and all that watching other people climb over fences and stand out on the edge of these massive drops and stand there to get a selfie or whatever and then after we got off of the the pathway made our way back to the store my my stepmom she went into the gift shop and she came out with a book and so for the next several hours she's reading us the stories because the the book was about people real life stories who made their journey to visit the grand canyon for the first time only to fall over the edge and plunge to their death at the bottom so for the next several hours it's like we're we're driving on a family vacation what a wonderful encouragement she's reading us these stories of these heartbreaking stories children running to the edge from their van that they have just been you know spent the last 15 hours in with their family looking forward to the grand canyon run over to the edge of the fence and then flip straight over and die in just a few seconds you see boundaries are helpful and god has guard rails for us and where do you find these guard rails and boundaries we find them in the word chapter and verse it's not legalism you find it in chapter and verse don't read between the lines of scripture read scripture you see do not be conformed to this world this idea of being conformed is the idea of being stamped out after the mold of something don't allow the world to stamp you out after a mold that looks like the world that's what paul is saying to the church in the city of rome we should not look that way we should be different from the world and we should have this renewed mind notice what he says here he says do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind you see this by the renewal of your mind in other words your mind matters not just your body he wants your mind he wants everything that's what god expects from us to live a life that's a living sacrifice a living sacrifice and so when we think about our mind how do we use our mind how do we use our mind for worship how do we use our mind for worship during a worship service that matters how do you use your mind when you're outside of a worship service how do you use your mind through entertainment how do you use your mind through sports or how do you use your mind through reading and what you read matters it actually changes you it impacts you you think about screen time presently the stats tell us that the average age for children to get their first smartphone is about 10 years of age eight to twelve year olds spend about six hours per day online and teenagers spend somewhere about nine hours per day online and some of you in this room fit into that very category hyper connectivity the idea of always being online being engaged looking at social media knowing what's going on keeping up with people that you follow reading different things and various different apps tick tock and all these other things and you spend a lot of your time there but how much time are you actually spending in god's word the mirror of god's word so you can see your reflection there you can see who you actually are and then you pray and ask god by the power of the spirit of god to apply the text of scripture so that you can be changed to be transformed this idea of of of a literal transformation this idea of a metamorphosis that's what's being communicated here and so if we're not careful we'll allow things in this world to shape us like social justice and virtue signals and progressive politics and so on and so forth we have to be very cautious of that i have to be very cautious this is what jonathan edwards wrote in his resolutions resolution number 28 resolve to study the scriptures so steadily constantly and frequently that i may find and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same this was the idea of this 18 year old jonathan edwards one of the greatest preachers in in church history but one of the greatest preachers certainly in american history at 18 years of age wrote that saying i want to give myself so fully to the word of god that i am shaped by the scriptures this should be our desire resolve to faithful obedience notice do not be conformed to this world verse 2 but be transformed this metamorphosis by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of god what is good and acceptable and perfect that you may discern that you may draw a conclusion that you may come to the ability to prove to see to understand what is good what is acceptable and what is perfect so that your whole life all that you offer up to god is a life of service a life of worship a life that is a life of glory to god let me tell you the rest of of my life so 25 years of age graduated from college working a job in atlanta the lord saves me and then immediately there's this hunger for god's word in a way that it had never been before i was reading my bible and trying to keep up the you know checkbox thing before but now there's a hunger that was there i wanted to see god i wanted to read and see who god is as revealed in the pages of scripture and so i would spend time in the word before long i'm having this insatiable desire to go and preach the gospel in jail settings nursing homes and various other places and soon after talking with my wife it was like we i just need to quit my job and let's just move and go to seminary and so that's exactly what happened and so i ended up pastoring very soon after moving to the seminary campus and have been now pastoring since then all the way to this very moment so i serve now just west of atlanta georgia and i actually have been called in god's providence to go back home i was pastoring out of state during seminary as i was doing my mdiv and then my doctoral work and then i received a call one day from my home church where my wife and i actually met as children i was seven and she was three would you come home and pastor your home church now we didn't my wife and i just to be clear don't remember meeting when we were that age we certainly uh did not start dating until sometime later but the challenge was this will you come home and pastor your home church and i'm thinking of the the organist and pianist who's been playing the organ in the church for 50 years will she be able to follow my leadership my father-in-law is a deacon there i'm thinking of my parents i'm thinking of other people and so now i've finished 11 years of pastoral ministry on the west side of atlanta and i could never have done this in the flesh in the flesh and every day i'm trying to to raise the bar and to become more holy and acceptable to god for the glory of god striving to not perfection in a legalistic sense but trying to have the totality of who i am offered up to god in a way that pleases god because at the end of the day the followers on social media instagram all of that don't matter what really matters is this what does god think of my life of worship and not just my worship in the sense of preaching on the lord's day but when i'm driving down the road when i'm hanging out with my family when i'm at a football game on thursday night when my son plays all of this matters so i want to challenge you today to think differently and i want to challenge you today to live a life that is a living sacrifice hear me well as i say this the christian life is not easy anyone that tells you that the christian life is easy is not telling you the truth i take you to afghanistan to a little small church just a few days ago that i got information from that i'm connected to this circled up with their children in the center of the adults the taliban on the outside of the building and they prayed and they started singing hymns and they sent their final text messages of goodbye to their family back here in the states and then their phones are silent and no more communication and to this very moment the best record that we have is if they're all gone a living sacrifice a living sacrifice here and at a football game and when you're holding your phone at 11 30 at night and when you're looking at something on the web on a website on a blog site or whatever it might be over coffee in the morning and the totality of your life needs to be one step after the next after the next as a living sacrifice so that god can prepare you for what he's calling you to in the future i was preaching the gospel here recently on the lord's day evening there's a family that came in been visiting the church and they were there for the sermon and so excited to be there they had shared with me their testimony and they're looking to join the church and danny the the husband is about 70 years of age he's sitting over here to my right as i'm preaching and when i finish preaching at the end of the sermon it was almost like he ran to me as i went to sit on the front pew and he says i'm trying to figure out what's going on and he says i i need to be saved and i'm thinking we just had a conversation for three hours in my office just a few days ago where you're telling me your whole life story and everything and and you're telling me you need to be safe so i said let's spend some time and talk after church and so we did and we got together and talked and basically here's what it boils down to is that danny had been living a life to conform to what his wife wanted to do for so long and he was serving in the church but he was empty he was miserable and right there under the preaching of the gospel he was converted he was converted and so this is how he prayed i don't remember everything that he prayed when i said you just need to call upon the lord confess and ask the lord to save you and here's what i do remember he prayed this dear god please save me my life has been wasted please help me not to waste the rest of my life the next time i saw danny was the next week and he has this big smile i said how was your week danny he said you wouldn't believe it i said oh yeah i would believe it i would because i've been there i've lived that life i know what it looks like i know what it feels like he said such freedom i said i know every time i see danny he smiles he's so happy in god and he wants to offer up his life as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to god and that is what i pray would happen in your life as well if you're not a christian today i urge you right now to confess call upon the lord who is good and ask the lord to save you cast yourself upon the mercy of god and those of you that are christians i urge you to walk in such a way to live in such a way that looks like a real genuine sacrifice to god therefore my brothers and sisters and the lord be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the lord knowing that in the lord your labor is not in vain may god bless you

Channel: The Master's University

Views: 6,555

Keywords: California

Id: y63aFyPTwmM

Length: 39min 5sec (2345 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 21 2021