If we are to choose a text this
morning, it will be in the second verse
of the twelfth chapter of the Epistle of
St. Paul to the Romans.
Be not conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind.
We are thinking this morning about being not
conformed to the world.
During these Sunday mornings of this month, we
are studying the all-important question of the
relationship of the Church to the world.
Last Sunday morning, we noted some of the
most distinctive emphases of our Lord's teaching.
We saw then that our Lord taught there
is an irreconcilable hostility between the Church and
the world.
He taught also that there is no prospect
or possibility of this hostility being removed by
the conversion of the world to the Christian
faith.
The tares and the wheat will grow together
until the harvest, and evil men will wax
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
The story of history, according to our Lord's
teaching, will be one of ever-increasing conflict
between good and evil.
His own life on earth would be prophetic
of the history of the Church, and the
greatest manifestation of hostility to the Church, as
to the Church's Lord, would be at the
end.
Then will the Church go down into her
Gethsemane.
Then will be the hour and the power
of darkness.
We noted further in our Lord's teaching that
one supreme peril the Church would face would
be the peril of herself becoming embraced with
the spirit of the world around her.
And we saw also that the only hope
of escape from such calamity would lie in
ceaseless watchfulness and prayer.
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, he said,
that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things, and to stand before the
Son of Man.
Now it must be recognized that the early
Church took this teaching to its heart.
The atmosphere of the entire New Testament is
one of expectation.
In it we are continually reminded that this
world is a transient thing.
The world part of the way, and the
lusts thereof.
The Christian is to await the appearance of
a new world, a different world, one with
interests and values and institutions and orders after
God's own heart.
The New Testament Christian felt himself to be
an alien in this world.
He was like those citizens of the Greek
city-states, metics as they were called, who
settled in Athens, but being citizens of their
own city, they never became citizens of Athens,
however long they resided there.
So was the Christian.
He had found his salvation in Christ, and
having found his salvation in Christ, he became
and he remained a citizen of heaven.
So far as this world was concerned, he
was stateless.
A profound and revolutionary transference of loyalty and
affection took place when Christ entered his heart,
and the world henceforth became for him only
a temporary, halting place.
He was but a stranger here.
He was but a pilgrim on his way
to the holy city.
He was one who looked for a city
which had foundations whose builder and maker is
God.
He desired a better country that is unheavenly,
and therefore God was not ashamed to call
such men his brethren.
And in doing so, the New Testament Christian
was revealing the truest quality of Christian discipleship,
because this world had become divested of any
quality of absoluteness or self-sufficiency, and therefore
he loved not the world, neither the things
that were in the world, for he well
knew that the world passeth away, and the
lusts thereof, and only he that doeth the
will of God abideth forever.
And it's this same truth, this very truth
that St. Paul is stressing, as he comes
to the twelfth chapter of his letter to
the Romans and writes, be not conformed to
this world.
Be not conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your minds.
Don't let your life become patterned after the
pattern of the world, he says.
Don't let the scheme of things all around
you become your scheme of things.
Don't become schematized, his very word, to the
ways of the world.
When Paul writes to the Ephesians, he reminds
them that prior to their salvation, and I
quote here from the J.B. Phillips translation,
they drifted along in the stream of this
world's ideas of living, and here he is
urging the church in Rome never to relapse
back into that kind of drift upon that
kind of stream.
Be not conformed to this world, he says.
Don't let yourselves drift along in the stream
of this world's ideas of living.
Don't let the philosophies and the ideologies of
this contemporary civilization so possess your mind and
heart that you'll become one with them.
Be not conformed, for you are called to
higher things.
You belong to another world, another world order.
You serve another Lord, even Jesus Christ.
See to it, therefore, that you be not
conformed to this world, but be renewed and
transformed in the spirit of your mind.
And so will you prove that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God.
This then is our subject for this morning,
being not conformed to this world.
And essentially it is the same emphasis that
John makes and which we shared last week.
Let me remind you again of John's words,
love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him.
For 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 is of the
world.
And the world passeth away, and the lusts
thereof, but he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever.
Forever.
It's the same emphasis that Paul is making
here when he says, be not conformed to
this world.
But in making this emphasis, he's also indicating
the way in which love for the world
is usually shown.
It is shown in being conformed.
It is shown in a special type of
conformity to the spirit of the age in
which we live.
But the servants of the Lord must not
be conformed to this world, for they belong
to another company, and their walk and their
conversation and their character must be distinctive of
their heavenly birth.
Be not conformed to this world.
Let's then consider this word of St. Paul's
this morning, and let's do it in three
particulars.
First of all, let's ask, what is signified
by this term, the world?
Let's get our definitions right.
And then let's ask, in what ways may
we be conformed to the world?
Then lastly, we will ask, where may victory
be found in our battle against such conformity?
First of all, let's define the world.
Now, the world in the New Testament has,
of course, various significances.
God so loved the world, we are told.
Christ died for the whole world, John tells
us.
And again, the Father sent his Son to
be the Savior of the world.
At other times, the world is used to
denote the whole of created nature, comprehending the
heavens and the earth and the sea and
the elements and angels and men and animals.
In short, all created being is in this
sense that we are told that the world
was made by him, by our Lord, for
without him was not anything made, but was
made.
The worlds were made, says the writer to
the Hebrews, the worlds were made by the
word of God, and by faith we know
this.
At the same time, however, there is another
sense in which the world is used.
It's used to indicate so often the men
of this world who are said to lie
in wickedness.
Paul speaks of this present evil world.
And this is the sense that is characteristic
of all these passages in which the disciples
of the Lord are called to be not
conformed to the world.
It's in this sense, the world is not
only used of the world of men, but
of the world of sinful men.
In this sense, the world is not so
much a sphere as an atmosphere.
The world includes everything which is sinful or
is likely to be so.
It's in this sense that we interpret such
a passage as John 1, 10.
He was in the world, and the world
was made by him, and the world knew
him not.
When our Lord came to his own, we
are told that his own received him not.
The world that his hands had fashioned, he
came to that world of men unto his
own, and his own received him not.
There was one final answer given to our
Lord by the world, and it was the
answer of Calvary.
We will not have this man to rule
over us.
The world has been defined as everything with
God left of it.
And I can think of no more specific
definition than that.
The world is the totality of everything, but
was the Lord of everything cast out, excluded,
crucified.
The world is therefore a sinful world, a
world that wants to survive without any divine
intervention, a world of human self-sufficiency, a
world of pride, a world of self-glory,
a world which John epitomizes in three most
pregnant phrases, the lust of the flesh and
the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life.
It's a world of self-enclosure, a world
of self-interest, and yet a world of
self-expansion and self-aggrandizement.
In short, it's a world where man is,
where God should be.
And Christian friends, it's in a world like
this that you and I live.
This is the pattern of the age, this
is the complexion of our contemporary society, and
it's against the spirit of such a world
that we are called to wage war, called
to be not conformed to this world.
Very well then, having established that, let's go
on to consider our next fundamental question.
What does St. Paul mean when he speaks
of our not being conformed to this world?
I want to say some things which I
personally consider to be extremely important.
First of all, Paul would emphatically affirm, I'm
sure, that being not conformed to the world
means being not conformed to the wisdom of
the world.
Of this he writes spaciously and searchingly to
the Corinthian church, and the whole of the
first chapter of his epistle to the Corinthians
is full of this.
Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of
man, he says?
And he goes on.
For after that in the wisdom of God,
the world by its wisdom knew not God.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching,
to save them that believe.
And he goes on.
The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks
seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto
the Greeks foolishness.
And he still goes on.
Ye see your calling, brethren.
Not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty are called, but God hath chosen
the foolish things of this world to confound
the wise.
And in all this he is pointing out
that the wisdom of the world must not
be followed by the child of God.
Because the child of God is the possessor
of another kind of wisdom, the true wisdom
which is from above, and which is found
only in Jesus Christ.
This is our calling.
Be not conformed to the wisdom of this
world, because therein lies only emptiness and loss.
But what does the wisdom of this world
imply?
What are its characteristics?
What are its emphases?
Well, for one thing, it implies the sovereignty
and the centrality of man.
Swinburne in the late nineteenth century epitomized this
in his poetry, and came to the crux
of it all when he cried, Glory to
man in the highest, for man is the
measure of things.
The sovereignty and the centrality of man.
Everything revolves around man.
That's the wisdom of the world.
Man is central and focal.
Just because of that, the wisdom of this
world of necessity denies the radical character of
human sin.
Imperfection, of course, he admits, and must.
But this kind of imperfection is essentially something
that's a kind of survival from primitive times,
something that will eventually pass.
If we're only patient, let's work out the
beast and let the ape and tiger die.
And soon, perhaps later, sometimes it may seem,
but soon, eventually, we will come to our
utopia, and this view, sin is merely the
backwash of our lowly origins, and not a
basic deadly disease from which divine deliverance is
necessary and divine power can alone save.
But there's a third emphasis in the wisdom
of this world.
The wisdom of this world asserts that man
is forging ahead.
He is evolving into a higher kingdom.
And on this kind of view, the eternal
kingdom is transposed into a purely historic, terrestrial
process.
The kingdom of God is going to come
in time, and we are part of it.
We ourselves are sharing in its creation.
And therefore—and this is another fundamental element in
this whole field of thought—therefore, God is unnecessary.
The thoughts of God are just created within
the limbo of man's own imagination.
Man's own need creates the sense of a
superpower to which he would try and strive
to come, but actually that is just childhood's
imaginings, and these pass.
Salvation is of man.
The kingdom will be man's creation.
And that is, of course, as modern as
tomorrow, because this is the way that the
wisdom of this world speaks, as surely today,
the 8th of January, 1961, as in the
year 61.
We need no haunting Christ.
We need no saving, no suffering God.
We need no cross.
We need no shedding of divine blood.
We need no pardon for our sins.
And this is the wisdom of this world,
placing man where God ought to be.
Paul, as he writes to the church in
Rome, says, be not conformed to this world.
Somehow or another you must get your whole
thought processes into alignment with God's thoughts.
Begin to think God's thoughts after Him, and
let the glory of the divine revelation break
upon you.
Let that day spring from on high, visit
you again and again and again, and in
God's light you'll see light.
But be not conformed to the wisdom of
this world.
In that wisdom there is nothing of meekness.
In that wisdom there is nothing of poverty
of spirit.
In that wisdom there is nothing of the
Beatitudes.
But you are of another mind.
You have the mind of Jesus Christ.
Let His mind, therefore, be in you.
And be not conformed to the wisdom of
this world.
Elsewhere, Paul writes, you will recall, the natural
man conceiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, because they are foolishness unto him.
That's the natural man.
That's the natural world in which we live.
He thinks of the things of God in
this immortal form.
They are foolishness unto him.
But they that are out of the Spirit
do mind the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but
to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Be not conformed to this world.
Turn from the carnality of the world's way
of thinking.
Turn to the Spirit in inspired and in
breathed and constantly renewed life.
Think God's thoughts.
That's the first thing he means, I'm sure,
when he says, be not conformed to this
world.
You've got another wisdom.
In that light, see light.
Then I'm certain that there is another element.
When Paul says, be not conformed to this
world, I'm sure that he means, be not
conformed to the cares of this world.
Do you remember the parable of the sower
in Matthew 13?
Where the good seed is sown and it
falls in different places.
One of the places in which it fell
was amongst the thorns.
The thorns sprung up and choked it.
And then, of the Lord's mercy, we have
his own wonderful exposition of this parable.
What are the thorns that spring up and
choke it?
Our Lord says, either they or the seed
falls in the thorns.
The cares of this world and the deceitfulness
of riches entering in choke the word and
it becometh unfruitful.
Be not conformed to the cares of this
world.
What are these cares?
They are the gold that men set before
them.
They are the goals that will gratify personal
desire and crown personal ambition.
But Paul says, be not conformed.
For the will of God is your goal.
And such cares and such desires and such
goals must not be yours.
Be not conformed to the cares of this
world.
And our Lord becomes still more specific.
Because when the seed fell amongst the thorns
and the thorns sprung up and choked it,
our Lord says that the cares of this
world, and then he defines these cares, even
the deceitfulness of riches.
Now nowhere in the New Testament is money
in itself counted to be wrong.
Nowhere.
But everywhere in the New Testament is the
love of money counted wrong.
And when money reaches the place where God
ought to be and where money has become
a man's God, then is the hour of
absolute desolation.
And somehow or another the Christian must become
absolutely delivered from this.
The love of money is the root of
all evil.
Money must not become our God.
We mustn't let ourselves become concerned about that.
If in the way of business the Lord
prospers us, then for his glory, so be
it.
It's all his.
It's going to be his only for him.
If of his mercy he withholds it from
us, then it's of his mercy.
Because he knows that somehow or another it
would entwine itself about our hearts and take
us from him.
If we are walking in the light as
he is in the light, the Lord will
keep us.
But we must not become conformed to the
course of this world, to its spirit and
to its cares.
Now you and I live in a generation
that requires continually to be reminded of this.
Part of the philosophy of the great American
civilization, we are told, is this.
Anything for a fast buck.
Anything.
And that's the course of this world, and
that's the care of this world, and that's
the spirit of this world.
And somehow or another, our Lord says, if
that gets in, it's going to choke the
world.
You're going to become unfruitful.
You're becoming conformed to the spirit of this
age.
Be not conformed.
One thing else I'm sure the apostle means.
Be not conformed to the wisdom of this
world.
Be not conformed to the cares of this
world.
And then, as I've been hinting, be not
conformed to the course, the stream, of this
world.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 2, he reminds
them, and here we quote from the Authorized
Version.
In time past you walked according to the
course of this world, but now, no more.
What is the course of this world?
The course of this world, the practices of
men and women around you, their ways of
life, their ways of entertainment, their ways of
dress, their ways of bringing up their children,
their ways of keeping or of not keeping
the Sabbath day, their ways, the course of
this world.
Oh, says the apostle as he writes to
the Rome, Roman church, that church in Rome,
surrounded by the word in every manifestation, finding
themselves pressurized continually to go according to the
course of the age.
He cries to them, be not conformed.
You must recognize that you're essentially different.
You must recognize that you're meant not to
belong.
You must recognize that if you find yourself
too much at home in this world, you're
out of touch with God, for the love
of this world is enmity of God.
You share the life of God, writes the
apostle.
And therefore your talk will be different, and
your spirit will be different.
And you will not conform.
Do you remember when the pilgrims came to
Vanity Fair?
And Vanity Fair lay right athwart the road
that they were going.
And everyone making for the holy city had
to go right through that city.
Yea, the king himself, on his journey, passed
through that fair, and there on a fair
day too.
When the pilgrims came, when the pilgrims came,
the men of the city looked at them
and they found that their raiment was different,
and they found that their speech was different,
and they found that they held very lightly
by the wares of their fair.
And in that John Bunyan seems to be
the perfect interpreter of the New Testament, and
of St. Paul, and St. John, and St.
Peter, and the apostles, and our Lord.
But all that Paul implies, and asserts, and
advises, and urges, and demands of the Christian,
be not conformed.
And of course this is the hardest thing
on earth to do, because you and I,
as I say, live in the world, surrounded
on every side, and it's not easy to
be different.
You see, part of the dismay that faces
true Christian fellowship today is to look out
upon the world and see so little difference
between the church and the world.
Be not conformed.
What are we to do?
Where is the place of victory?
Not by separation from the world, in the
sense of isolation.
There was a man in my last parish
in Glasgow who proudly boasted that from the
day that he had received Christ as his
Savior, twenty years ago, no non-Christian had
stepped across his threshold.
And he called that separation.
For myself, I would consider that insulation, isolation.
The Christian is called to be in the
world, and yet not of it.
How are we to be delivered from such
conformity?
Well, Paul gives to us so clearly the
answer.
Be not conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind.
In other words, there will be given to
those who seek it a new mind, a
new understanding, a completely new mind, God's mind.
They that are after the flesh do mind
the things of the flesh, but they that
are after the Spirit do mind the things
of the Spirit.
And so Paul here is saying that the
answer to conformity to the world is to
have the mind of Christ, is to have
the mind of Christ singing his thoughts in
us, is to have the mind of Christ
expressing his desires through us, is to have
the mind of Christ and Christ only ever
more directing our steps.
And you see, that's what happens to a
man who is prepared to follow Jesus Christ.
You will be renewed in the spirit of
your mind.
Somehow or another there will be given to
you a completely different mind.
It will be the mind of God, it
will be the mind of the Holy Spirit,
it will be the Lord's mind in you.
And as that mind is in you, you
will be renewed.
You will not become schematized according to the
scheme of things of the world around, but
you will be transformed.
You will be, and this is the original
word, you will be metamorphosed, absolutely transfigured.
Now that's a divine work.
That's a divine operation.
That's a divine act.
It's a divine gift.
But it's what happens.
And we're just to put the Lord to
the test and ask him to do it,
to renew us in the spirit of our
mind, that we may become transformed.
And this, of course, is the work of
the Holy Spirit.
And this is only known when Jesus Christ
is Lord.
And so Paul has just said this.
And here is the end of the matter.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that you present your bodies, a
sacrifice of life unto God, and be not
conformed to this world.
When we ourselves, our bodies, our minds, our
spirits, are altogether Christ's, then in us he
is able to think his thoughts, and we
truly live as a colony of heaven.
We are surrounded by the world on every
side, but our lines of communication are unbroken
and intact.
Twitch the throne, and we are sustained by
heavenly life, and we are upheld by heavenly
ministries, and we are graced and we are
transformed by heavenly Jews.
God himself living in us, and Jesus Christ
being glorified in us, and thus we live
in non-conformity with the world, and yet
at the same time a blessing to the
world, saving it, sanctifying it, the salt of
the earth, the light of the world.
We escape the corruption which is in the
world through lust, but we become truly the
very light, the life of God himself to
our generation.
And of his mercy, we will serve our
generation in the fear of God, and in
God's good time and appointment, we'll fall asleep
in him.
Dear Christian friends, let us hear the word
of the apostle this morning.
Be not conformed to this world.
O Lord, to thee we cry.
Our hope is in thee.
Save us, Lord, and bless us.
Thank thee for thy wonderful provision.
A new mind will be given unto us,
a new heart, new thoughts.
Think then thy thoughts in us, we pray.
Today, O Lord, to thee I cry.
Thou art my rock and truss.
O be not silent, lest I die and
slumber in the dust.
O hear my earnest cry, thy favor I
entreat.
Hear while I lift imploring hands before thy
mercy seat.
For thy love's sake.