In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the concept of repentance and the importance of walking in the will of God. He begins by referencing Romans 12:2, which emphasizes the need to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The preacher highlights the idea that if we do not walk in the will of God, we will remain unchanged or even worse off than before. He uses a personal anecdote about driving in the dark without headlights to illustrate the disorientation and danger of not having the light of God's truth guiding our lives.

And tonight I feel rather like that preacher of whom I heard some years ago, when he was asked his procedure, well he said, first I tells him what I'm going to tell him, and then I tells him, and then I tells him what I told him. And that's about what I'm prepared to do tonight. I'd like to tell you what I told you, so that you understand it and you see it. Now we've been speaking from the Old Testament. Tonight I'd like to ask you to turn to Romans chapter 12 and verse 2. I'd like to give you the definition of what we've been defining. How will that be, the definition of our definitions? So in 12, Romans 12 chapter 12 and verse 2, you'll find what we have, the New Testament summary of what we've been saying from Genesis right now into the book of Numbers. I'm going to read the first two verses in order that there might be continuity. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We've been speaking of repentance. We began back in Genesis 6 on a Wednesday night a month ago, when we presented to you this truth that it repented God that he had made man. We defined repentance as a change of mind, a change of will, a change of intention, and a change of purpose resulting in a change of action. Since that time, we've been seeking to enforce this truth in one aspect or another in the various parts of the word of God. The question that would first be asked is this, to whom would such truth apply? And the answer has to be to everyone. For the Lord Jesus Christ said, Accept, you repent, you will all likewise perish. Repentance, therefore, is universal in its application. There is none from whom it can be excluded. All are included. When he said, Accept, you repent, he established, fixed, once and forever, an inalterable requirement to escape from perishing. Absolute necessity of a total, complete, and reserved change of direction, will, action, purpose. It was necessary for him to say it, that we might have that truth, which has been as eternal as he is, brought again to focus here in the New Testament. And so we find our Lord Jesus said it, and we find Paul is saying it. He's saying it throughout his ministry. God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. When he takes leave of the Ephesian elders, I was with you night and day from house to house, teaching repentance toward God. And that is the defense before Agrippa. I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but delivered to them of Damascus and Jerusalem, Jews and Gentiles, so that they must repent. It was the ministry of Paul, and it was the ministry to the unsaved, ministry to all sinners everywhere, universal in its application. Inescapable requirement that sinners should discover that sin is a crime to which they've consented, and in which they have willfully engaged. That there is no possibility of pardon until they recognize that this crime is refusing to let God be God, refusing to allow him to rule, refusing to allow him to have his place. The place for which man was intended, the place that he demands, namely that of sovereign on the throne of the heart. Sin, turning to our own way, willing our own will, choosing our own course. Repentance, turning back to God's way, willing God's will, choosing God's course. This you must understand, and it has to precede forgiveness. With this we must see, we must understand that there can be no pardon until there's been a change of intention about the pursuit of sin. Now, we might as well face it. Accept to repent, you will perish. Put repentance in front of escaping from perishing. But now, having said that, is this all that could be said? Is repentance simply something that one does at a point of his approach to God? Having done it, he can happily say, this is finished. A change of mind to be genuine and real has to be continued. And the evidence of the genuineness of one's repentance is the fact that he doesn't change his mind back again. Now, back here at the threshold of pardon, the sinner said, thy will be done as a matter of principle. Thy will be done as a matter of government. Thy will be done as a matter of recognition of the person of Jesus Christ as the rightful sovereign. But obviously, he couldn't have fulfilled that will at that place. He could not have done all of God's will at that point where he said, thy will be done. All it could be, would be a change of direction, not a pursuit of the course. He has changed, he's been headed north now, he's headed south. But he hasn't gone south yet. But until God sees that he's reversed his direction, there's no pardon. But at the moment of his reversal of direction, he's prepared for pardon. But he hasn't pursued this direction. Until we find that repentance to be real must be continued, must be permanent. I used an illustration some weeks ago that I want to use again tonight because I think it's appropriate. The other day, I had the privilege of speaking to a group of people in Pennsylvania. I finished the ministry and started home. It wasn't hard to do. I left with the intention of getting back as quickly as I could to the Knights Rites. But you know, there were a great many decisions that had to be made after I made that original decision. There had to be an implementation of that decision. I was sometimes getting under the turnpike. I had to go through several small Pennsylvania towns, there was a lot of traffic. And so there was stopping at red lights and stopping at through stopped streets. There was avoiding ruts, holes in the road, meeting traffic, passing slow cars or stopped cars. There were innumerable decisions that had to be made after I made that original decision to go back home. But every decision that I made after I made that original decision was in keeping with it. And if you had seen me turning right out into Pennsylvania, Dutch country, you would have said, where is he going? You might not have known unless you'd been behind the wheel. Then you would have known that I was going back home as fast as I legally could. So there wasn't any question about it in my mind. To you, as an observer in the field on a front porch seeing a cargo visor, where's he going? I knew where I was going because I made a decision to go home. And every subsequent decision was but an extension of it. Now this is what we understand repentance to be. A decision that you make at the very threshold of the Christian life. Jesus Christ is going to rule my life. No longer am I going to usurp a throne that was intended for the Son of God. I have recognized that this is a crime, a crime of treason. For which I justly deserve capital punishment. I have renounced the crime, no longer intend to pursue it. And I have now changed to turn the vehicle of my life in the direction of the will of God. And this means that every subsequent decision must be made in the light of that change of direction. Now I have been speaking to people, that are for the most part Christians, that have repented. And what am I saying to them when I say, people of all known sin? I am saying this, if you genuinely repented in the past, when you've been brought onto a dead end street or to a detour, you're going to give evidence of the genuineness of your purpose to please God by backing out of that dead end street and turning around in that detour and getting back on the main road. So when we've been saying at the invitation to people, are you prepared to deal with sin? Are you prepared to confess all known sin? Are you prepared to forsake all known sin? What we are essentially saying, did you really mean it when you told Jesus Christ that you repented of your sin? Did you really intend to do it? If so, then evidence it by dealing with that which he chose you not to be contrary to his will. Get back on the main road. You've been in a ditch, back out of it. You've been in a, shut it off into the side, back out of it. You've been on a dead end street, you've been on a detour, back out of it. Turn around, get back on the road of obedience. I get the back on the road, but now when you're back on the road, when you've broken before the Lord, many bodies turn, for all past sin is forgiven, then what do you do? You reaffirm that which was the intention that you made way back there at the threshold of your forgiveness when you said, I'm going to please God, I'm going to do what he wants me to do. And you reaffirm it by dealing with that which happens, and on the day after, if you've been in a ditch, and the day after you're out of a ditch, then you come to a chuckle in the road of temptation, or to a detour called sin, or to a low side, soft side of awfulness, you're not going to see, you're going to avoid it. Every decision you make is going to be in the light of this main decision to please God. Just as when you're driving, you set your mind to go home, and there's a bad place, they've dug a trench to put in a gas main, and if you are foolish, you hit that trench even at the speed that they allow. It will hurt your car, you'll never be the same. You'd better slow down. So they see you slowing down, are you going to stop? Is this what you're doing, stopping before you get home? No. Not stopping. I'm trying to protect the vehicle from the trench. There's a red light. Are you going to stop? The car's dead still. Is he quitting? No. Every decision that he makes, he makes in the light of his purpose. And there's innumerable corrections and innumerable decisions that you have to make after you've made this main decision to please God. And this is the extension of repentance. Now I said I wanted you to see it from Romans 12 too. Notice here he has said, I beseech you that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. This is very interesting. It is the present tense, present now, that I beseech you now rather that you present now your bodies a living sacrifice. You've got a combination here of the present and the era tense, which literally make it, I beseech you that at this very moment, once and for all, never needing to do it again, you present your bodies a living sacrifice, only acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And having done this, this is the deeper aspect of repentance. You see back there, he said, Lord, you're going to rule in my life until you quit sin, quit lying, you quit stealing, you quit drunkenness, you just quit all that was contrary to God's will and planned purpose. This was the top level of repentance. Then the second level of repentance was that you saw at the cross that Jesus Christ not only died for you, but he died as you. It wasn't only what you've done, it was what you were. So you changed your mind about your ability to live the Christian life. Now you've come to this other aspect where he says, present your bodies a living sacrifice. You can't live it, but he can through you. Then notice what it says. Even after you've presented your body a living sacrifice, even after you've known the fullness of the Holy Spirit, how are you transformed? How are you changed? You're being transformed by the renewing of you. Now what is this? It means bringing your mind, your attitude, always to conform to the attitude and mind of Jesus Christ. This is simply what it means. How are you transformed? Well, look what's happened to you. Back here at the threshold of the Christian life, you said, from now on, Jesus Christ is going to be the God of my life, the King or the Sovereign of my life. Along the way you said, well, I see that it isn't enough for me to purposefully do the will of God. I discover that in me there's another law, a law of my own nature and traits that fights against the law of God. And I see that I was so bad that Christ not only died for me, but he died asking if I can live the Christian life. Here's another change of mind. You see, when you began, you said, if God will just forgive me for how I am, you meant it, so did I. But you know what happened? We didn't. Because there was another law in our practice, a law called the law of sin, of habit, of trait, of dispossession. So here with our minds and our whole beings, in a sense, we've committed ourselves to please God. But now we discover that there's this frustration and this conflict. So in Romans 6 we discover that we can't live the Christian life. And that God's intention was that Jesus Christ live it through us. But before he can live it through us, we've got to present our bodies to him. And this brings us right up to the place of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. So what I want you to see is that even after you're filled with the Spirit, repentance is still the rule. That's the point of what I'm saying tonight. Even after you've known identification with Christ, even after you've known the fullness of the Spirit, you are still transformed by the renewing of your mind. When you discover that your mind, your thought, your will, your plan, is not in accord with his mind, his thought, his will, his plan, you change your mind, your will, your thought, your plan to coincide with his. You see? And because of this, you change, you transform. Do you follow? It's a continuous process. This is the process aspect of our transformation. So what you've heard me say, some of you at least, that the germ, the seed of all holiness, all righteousness, is in repentance. But what is it? Out here, still under a mountain of guilt, you said, from now on, Jesus Christ is going to be the ruler of my life as well as the savior of my soul. That's the principle. That's the heart of it. That's the seed of it. So right there in that change, you changed and you said, I'm going to go home. I'm going to go to heaven. Well, that's one way of putting it. I'm going to please Jesus Christ. I'm going to obey him. That's another way, better way of putting it. And so, as you came, what was the first thing that he asked you to do when you decided to please him? To realize that he died for you and receive him as lord and savior. So if you truly repented, then you, instead of rejecting Christ, saying we won't have this man to rule over us, you received him as the one who died for you. That was the first step. Were you through then? Because you were part of it? The next step was, you couldn't live the Christian life. Perhaps you failed. Let's put the next step in. You failed the lord. You told him you were going to obey him and you failed him. And so your heart was plunged into grief because you'd sinned, even after you'd been forgiven. So what did he prescribe? He said, I'm going to obey him back here. And so you've sinned. Now what are you going to do? Well, you're going to have to break. You're going to have to bend. You're going to have to bow because that's what he said. The broken and contrite spirit he'll not despise. Confess your sins and he's faithful and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you for all unrighteousness. So after you received him as lord and savior, and then you failed him. Well, what is he prescribed? Brokenness, confession, cleansing and restoration. But is this to be the pattern just to break, bend, bow and grief because you've sinned? To go back after being forgiven to go through the same process again? Isn't there something more? As you come on, you say, yes, he died for me, but he also died as me. And now I've got to change my mind. I can't live this life in my own energy. Jesus Christ wants to live his life through me by his Holy Spirit. So you're transformed by the renewing of your mind from what you thought when you were forgiven. I'm going to live for you, Lord. And you met it until you discover that you just don't have what it takes. Do you see? So now that you've discovered you don't have what it takes, you don't sit down and say, well, I can't live the Christian life. It's useless to try. And nobody's perfect. So you then you go on and settle in sin. No, this isn't what you do. This is what hypocrites do. Counterfeit believers do. But Christians don't. Those that have truly repented because even though they find this road is blocked, they've got to go through and find a road that isn't because they've committed themselves to go home. That's where they're going. They've made up their mind. So this may be, now they can't get through on this road of doing it in their own strength. But they say, Lord, do you have a road? Then they looked at the map. And he says, yes, turn right at the cross. And as you come to the cross, you see that not only he died for you, but you were there. So now you've been transformed by the renewing of your mind, bringing your mind in accord with his mind to release you from the tyranny of your nature and your disposition and your traits. So every step of the way, you're transformed by the bringing of your mind in accord with his, your idea in accord with his, your understanding in accord with his. Then you come to the place where, well, Lord, I'm crucified with you, and I don't have to do these things that once seemed so compulsive. And thank you for victory. But isn't there something more? And he says, oh, yes. Present your body, a living sacrifice. I'm asking you to give me your brain and your eyes and ears, hands, heart, lips. I want you to have your body given to me the same way that Mary gave me a body so that I could walk. I want you to give me your body so that I can fill you and walk in you and walk through you. Oh, now you're transformed by the bringing of your mind in accord with his mind. That his mind wasn't for you to pull yourself up by the bootstraps of your determination and say, I'm going to. No, you couldn't. His mind was for you to realize that he didn't. No, you wouldn't. You couldn't. But he knew that he could and would. And the only thing that would stand in the way of your obeying him was the fact that you wouldn't bring your mind into accord with his mind, your idea in accord with his idea. But now, if you will just change your mind about this so that it agrees with his mind, then you release him to transform your life. You release him, you see, to transform your life. But you're transformed by the renewing of your mind, by bringing your idea into accord with his idea. Now, what's the preacher's task in all preaching? The whole of preaching is to find out what the mind of God is from his word and communicate that to the people. To do it and then to communicate it. But what's your task? When you've found out the mind of God, the will of God, to walk in it. Because you can know it, but if you don't walk in it, you won't be transformed. You'll be the same old you, but you know you'll even be worse than that because the light you had will become darkness and you'll be worse off than you were. It's like being on the road with no headlights and you're in the ditch. I was driving through the country one night and I slid up in the seat to reach something and my knee bumped the button, the little plug, that pulled down the lights in that car. And I wasn't going fast, only what the law allowed, about 35, I suppose, maybe a little between 35 and 40. But when you're on a country road and a dark night going 35 miles an hour and the lights go out, I have news for you. You feel that you've just taken off from a launching pad and you're on your way into outer space. It seems awfully fast because you just lose all orientation in the sudden darkness. And friend, when we have the mind of God and the will of God and the truth of God and we don't walk in it, it's just like putting the lights out. We're wandering. Now if we'd have walked in the light, we'd have been transformed. There'd have been change. But we didn't. And so all of a sudden it gets muddy. It's confusion. We've given place to the enemy and instead of being transformed by the renewing of our minds, we've been confused by the unwillingness to bring our minds into accord with his. What I am therefore trying to show you through the word of God is this, that there's an eternal principle that God has introduced into his dealings with men which requires us to begin at a point where we say, Thy will be done and live the rest of our life and the outworking of that principle of obedience to the will of God. At every step, every issue, every crisis, that we can continue in this attitude of submission to the will of God that the moment that we know the mind of God, we're already committed to do it. No battle need to be fought any longer. There ought to come a time when some battles are over. There ought to come a time when we finish fighting with God. There ought to come a time when we simply come to the place where we said, Thy will be done, we meant it. Now when we find out the will of God, we walk in it. Find out what God's desire is, we do it. Our only concern is what is thy will, not, oh Lord, be patient with me while I make up my mind whether or not I want to do your will. This is too costly. What I am seeking, therefore, to do by all of this emphasis is to teach you that the principle is one of constant reference to the will of God as that will is unfolded to you. Now if any of you are expecting to have God unfold his will to you in the same way that the AAA, I haven't been a member for many years, but when I traveled a great deal by car I was, and I'd go in Chattanooga, Tennessee and tell what my itinerary was. And they had the last word on road repairs and washed out bridges and so on. And I could call up and give the girl at the desk my itinerary and tell her where I wanted to go. Then I'd come in and pick it up. And she'd smile and hit it on the counter and say, here's your trip. Well, I suppose it was. There were stripped maps she used and then she had a felt pen and translucent ink and she'd draw over it and quite easy to follow, save some mistakes. You'd unfold this and there would be the southeastern map of the United States and this yellow line all the way around, starting there, coming back. Now, if you think God's going to give you that kind of an unveiling of his will for your life, you're mistaken. No, no, no, that isn't what he's going to do. But he doesn't need to. Are you convinced that God is who he says he is? That he has all wisdom? That he has all love? That he has all power? Well, then, if that's the case, you know three things about his will. It's good and it's acceptable and perfect. Good, because God is good. Acceptable, because you couldn't do better if you did it. My friend, you couldn't make a more loving plan for your life than God already has. Because he put all of his love into it. You couldn't make a wiser plan for your life than God already has. Because he put all of his wisdom into it. And you couldn't make a more fulfilled, acceptable plan than God's made. Because he put all of his power into it. So all of God's wisdom and his love and his power has gone into his will for your life. He doesn't need to confer with you. You don't need to have a conference with God and say, Now, Lord, I think you made the wrong corner there. You know, really, I think in the light of my more mature experience, Lord, I wouldn't have sent me to that school. I wouldn't have had me do this. Such insolence. Such irreverence. You don't need to know God's plan. All you need to know is God. If you know him, you're content to take his plan. Whatever it is. You see, you don't need to know where he's sending you. You just know him. Do you understand this? It's good and acceptable and perfect. But right now, when God says to you, No, you can't have this relationship any longer. Oh, Lord, we fight. It's a corner. But you remember what you said back there at the threshold? I will be done. Now God says turn right. Yes, Lord. You see, if you don't turn right, the whole plan is off. You're wandering around in failure. The whole thing is off. You've got to follow the plan. And so God's plan is to make you like Jesus Christ. Make you like his son. And that means that you're going to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. At every corner and every turn. And if you don't turn when God says turn, you're on your own. It's like a railroad, you know. It gets off the track. It can spin its wheels, but it won't get very far. And my dear Christian friends, some of us know what it is to spin our wheels. We sit there with the piston rods going, wheels going, and smoke pouring out of the stack. Whistle blowing. Come back four years, wheels just spinning in the mud. We've never even realized we're off the track. We haven't moved. If you want to move on into the will of God, you've got to be willing to be transformed by the renewing, making new, your mind. Now this is what I'm talking about. A principle that begins at the threshold and continues through every step of the way. A principle that at the very heart says, I will do the will of God. As the main course and at each step of the way, when there's an issue, makes the decision in the light of the will of God. Coming back Labor Day weekend, getting onto the turnpike. Well, on Labor Day evening, excuse me, the radio saying 430, 440, 450 deaths. I want you to know I was driving as though I was walking on a basket of eggs. I wasn't like the man who was out someplace on Memorial Day and got later and later and later. Someone said, why? Well, he said, I heard there are going to be 500 deaths today and I'm not going to start home till the quotas fall. Well, I just didn't have that attitude at all. I felt that at every turn there was danger, there was difficulty. And every turn I made, I made realizing that that man coming up behind me and those people in front of me may be too tired or sleepy or have imbibed too freely of intoxicating beverage or be talking or be doing, spanking the children. You don't know what's going on in the other car. You have to drive for everybody. Dear friend, if you understand that you've got enemies on every hand, your own nature within, people without, Satan below, you've got to drive for everybody. And when the word of God is unveiled, you've got to move into it because you're going to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Listen, you've walked with the Lord 30 years, have you? Good. Well, let me tell you something. It's just as important to mind God tonight as it was 30 years ago. This is what we mean by the perseverance of the saints, that they persevere in the will of God. It means the continuous repentance that whenever my attitude, my mind, my disposition, my interests conflict with God's, God's one. And I don't have to argue with him anymore. He won. He won back there when I said, thy will be done. Jesus your Lord. Now, 30 years later, he says, this isn't right. Thank you, Lord. We won't have that anymore. And it's just as important 30 years after you were converted to bend to the will of God as it was the day you began. If you're to keep out of the ditch, and out of grief, and out of discipline, and out of failure, and out of heartache, what I'm trying to get you to see is that it's a principle to which you commit yourself. That principle is obedience to the will of God, and at any point that your attitude or plan or purpose or interest conflicts with his, the issue's already settled. How's that, your attitude? This is what I'm trying to convey. This is what I want you to see and to embrace. It'll become an operating principle through every day, every twist, every turn of the way, and it'll see you safely into the arms of the Lord Jesus where there'll be a crown of rejoicing, something you can lay at his feet because you fought a good fight, you've kept the faith, and here it is, you've finished the course. You made every turn in accord with your decision to please God. Let's pray. Let's go to prayer. Just ask the Lord to give us hearts like this, wills like this, minds like this. Let's just ask God to give us a church, people whose one desire is to please God. They're committed to it, and today, in their recreation, in their business, in their families, in their romance, in their career, in every part of their life, there's just a sweet, simple governing principle. Thy will be done. I delight to do thy will, O God. This is the hymn of the repentant heart. Let's ask God to give us that kind of heart and people with that kind of heart and joy, great joy, as a church in doing the will of God.