Knowing His Perfect Will - Part 1

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed.

Let not my enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

Show me thy ways, O Lord. Teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation.

And on thee do I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses, for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions, but according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord.

Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will he teach sinners in the way. The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way.

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

His soul shall dwell at ease, and his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. O bring thou me out of my distresses.

Look upon mine affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Consider mine enemies, for they are many, and they hate me with cruel hatred. O keep my soul and deliver me.

Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in thee. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I will wait on thee. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

Let's pray. Lord, with David we do pray, show us thy ways, O Lord, and lead us in your paths. It is our desire, Lord, to walk according to your will.

Whatever it is that you have purposed for our lives, lead us, Lord, in the right path. Blessed we pray now, Lord, as we study the word and as we look for the means whereby we might live according to your good and acceptable and perfect will. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. As we continue our journey through the Bible this week, we're in Romans, chapter 12.

A very fascinating chapter, and we encourage you to be with us tonight as we'll study the entire 12th chapter of Romans. This morning we want to look at the first two verses of chapter 12, where Paul does declare, I beseech ye, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds that you might prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God for your life.

I think that that is the desire of all of us today to really know what God's perfect will and plan is for our lives. I believe that this is the desire of every true child of God. And I do believe that Paul here gives to us the means or the ways by which we can discover God's perfect and acceptable will for our lives.

Notice he makes this appeal. I beg you, brothers, by the mercies of God, making a desperate appeal. It isn't something passive like, you know, I think it would be a good idea if, or have you ever thought of perhaps giving this a try? But he's very positive.

I beg you, by the mercies of God, the appeal, of course, is made on the basis of God's mercies toward us. As he talks about therefore, brethren, the therefore is one of those words that always leads you back. As Dr. McGee says, whenever you read of therefore, you must ask wherefore is therefore therefore.

And so Paul is referring back to the earlier part of the book of Romans. And in the earlier part of the book of Romans, he shows that all of us have sinned. We've all of us come short of the glory of God.

There is none righteous, no, not one. He shows us that we cannot be righteous by our works. We cannot atone for our own sins.

That we are all of us guilty before God and thus condemned because of our sins. But then he shows that God has made provisions for us through Jesus Christ. And by faith in Jesus Christ, we can receive the remission of our sins.

And so because God has provided this salvation for us and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we who were condemned to death and destined for death have been rescued through the work of Jesus Christ. I beg you by the mercies of God.

These mercies of God have resulted from his great love toward us. The appeal itself is to present your body as a living sacrifice unto God. The Jews were very familiar with presenting sacrifices to God.

They would bring their animal to the priest and in turn the priest would kill the animal and pour the blood upon the altar to make an atonement for their sins. And thus the sacrifices that they made were associated with death. The death of the animal.

But Paul is saying I want you to present yourself as a living sacrifice unto God. It's interesting that God desires to accomplish his work through men and women. He has chosen to do his work through human instruments.

He wants to speak his word through our mouths. He wants us to reach out with our hands.