Pastor Marty Monday, June 23, 2025 at 11:09AM Galatians 5:16-26. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 22, 2025.
Here is the audio. We will have the article up later.
Pastor Marty Tuesday, June 17, 2025 at 9:30PM Hebrews 1:1-3. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Father's Day Sunday, June 15, 2025.
The relationship between father and son is a powerful one. Every father was once a son, in the sense of being a child, but are generally still an “adult” son while raising their own son. The child is destined to grow up and generally become a father too. This cycle is not just powerful when a father is present and good. It is powerful when a father is present, but uncaring for the child. And, it is powerful when the father is absent.
It is not the kind of power that makes immediate and miraculous changes. It is a powerful influence that builds up on itself over time. That influence even carries a certain momentum to it when a kid becomes an adult and moves away.
An adult child goes through a transitional time. They have been used to seeing their father through the immature eyes of a toddler, child, and then teenager. As a adult, we gain an adult perspective of our father.
Let me say this to parents. If you approach parenting with the goal of raising the perfect child, and you are willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen, then may God help your child. Nothing in our parenting and their child-life is going to be perfect. However, God does His perfect work through our imperfection. Of course, I am not saying it doesn’t matter what you do. No, the biggest thing a child needs is God’s love expressed through their parents.
With that in mind, I would challenge us not to only think of this cycle as a process of physical and emotional maturation. I believe that we are intended to see it as a shadow of God’s heart for humanity.
Let’s talk about one more thing before we look at our text. In the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15), we can see different types that sons often fall into. There is the Golden Son who takes on responsibility at a young age and works closely with their father. We also see the Prodigal Son, or Black Sheep. This is the troubled son who turns from responsibility and is lost no matter where he goes. Yet, as the story progresses, we can recognize that neither of these sons were perfect sons. In fact, they were both prodigals in different ways. The elder son was close to his father, but his heart was not like his fathers. For all of his appearance, he had so far wasted the opportunity to take on his father’s heart, to become like his father internally as well as externally.
Of course, no sons are perfect. This is because only Jesus is the perfect son. However, in Jesus, imperfect sons and imperfect fathers can become adult children of God who are perfected before Him.
Let’s look at our passage.
Many powerful things are packed into these three verses, but the overall point is the comparison of Jesus to all those prophets who came before him. When it comes to knowing God, He must reveal Himself if it is going to happen. Yet, the Bible is proof that God is a revealing God. Francis Schaeffer made the great points that “God is here, and He is not silent.” He may not be revealing new doctrines, but He is still helping us to understand what has been written down in Scripture.
Up until Jesus, God had spoken through prophets who were imperfect men, though they were loyal to God and sought to live righteously. Still, they were all imperfect in imaging Father God to their people. Before we turn to Jesus, we should recognize that God has always used imperfect people to impact the life of other imperfect people for His perfect purpose in their lives. This is true whether we are talking about the prophets of the past, or about human fathers trying to raise a son. We are given the job of imaging God’s love to our kids, to our world, and none of us do this perfectly.
This brings us to Jesus. This passage has two aspects to it. We will look first at just who Jesus was, is. Essentially, he is the perfect revelation (imager) of God the Father. There is no discrepancy between what we see in Jesus and the heart of God the Father.
In fact, by sending imperfect imagers and then a perfect one, God has hemmed us in. We can’t complain that the prophets were not a good enough image, nor can we complain that Jesus was too perfect. “I just can’t relate with his perfection.” Thus, Jesus is the perfect image of the heart of the Father, both how He feels and what He desires (of us and for us).
This reiterates what I was saying earlier. The prophets did not have to be perfect to affect God’s perfect work in the world, and neither do parents. Still, we don’t use that as an excuse. This is a serious task for God, and it has eternal consequences.
So, Jesus is God’s perfect word to humanity. What else is he? Jesus is the Son. This is not a statement about how he came into being, but about his status among humanity. It is a title that is found in the Old Testament, particularly in the prophecies to David about one of his descendants (2 Samuel 7), and in the prophecies of Isaiah. It became equivalent to the Anointed One of God (Messiah or Christ).
Jesus is the perfect son of David who was a Son of God. All the sons of David had failed and the monarchy had been broken for over 5 centuries. When Jesus came forth, there was an expectation that he would restore the monarchy and deliver Israel from the Romans. However, he came to save them from their sins (and us from ours). Our moral failings had separated us from God, but through Jesus, we can be brought close to Him.
In fact, we are told in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Yet, we can be justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Jesus is also the Heir of all things. We see this in verse 2. In Scripture, Jesus is the only One who perfectly stood against the lies of the devil and lived out loyal love towards God the Father. The failure of Adam and Eve had brought the dominion of humans over the earth in jeopardy. Through our sins, the devil was able to exercise his dominion over the earth. The Garden of Eden was a test of loyalty more than it was a test of knowledge. Humans were not created with omniscience- neither were the angels by the way. Jesus came forth as the Worthy One who can take up the dominion over the earth. He inherits it. Of course, he could keep it all to himself, but in his mercy, he shares it with those who come into a loving loyal relationship with him.
Of course, our enemy tries to get in our heads and use our unworthiness to sidetrack us, or derail us. Yet, Jesus didn’t come to take the prize away from us. He came to save us from our lost and plundered state. This world belongs to Jesus just as much as your life belongs to him.
The writer goes on to mention that God made the world through Jesus. He is the creative agent of creation. In case this verse isn’t clear enough for you, the Apostle John makes is abundantly clear in his Gospel, chapter 1 verse 3. “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” This shuts down the idea that Jesus is also a created being. Of course, the body he used in the first century was created within time. However, he has existed from eternity past as the Word of God. Thus, John is interpreting Genesis chapter 1 in John chapter 1. He is showing us that God the Father spoke, “Let there be light,” and the Word of god (the eternal Son of God) went forth and brought it into being. Everything that is in the class of created things was made through the Word of God (who would later be called Jesus in his incarnation). Thus, it is illogical to say that he is also a part of the created class.
Some people are confused by the phrase in Colossians 1:15 that calls Jesus the “Firstborn over all creation.” Just like the term “Son,” the term “Firstborn” was often used of kings to refer to a status. It was common in the ancient near east for emperors to refer to kings that had sworn fealty to them (often after being defeated in battle) as “sons.” Similarly, the emperors would refer to a particular king as their firstborn. This wasn’t a reference of their biology and birth order. It was a reference to their status within the Kingdom. They were the one who would inherit it all, and had a double-portion over all the others.
Think of it. Everything that we see on this planet and throughout the cosmos is the perfect work of a perfect Son doing the will of a perfect Father. Any imperfections have come about by the activity of other agents, whether fallen angels or fallen humans.
This is who hung on the cross for us. God’s wasn’t suffering only in Jesus, and only while he was on the cross. First, we see Jesus suffering through many things leading up to the cross, both physical pain and the emotional pain of rejection and persecution. Yet, Jesus is only revealing to us that the heart of the Father has been suffering all along.
Of course, we can pretend like it was easy for him because he was God. We can think that it is no big deal for God to suffer because He can handle it. Perhaps, you are thinking about it backwards. It is most likely that God’s suffering is far more acute because of being God. Nothing is hidden from Him. Whereas, we humans are limited creatures, and therefore, our suffering is limited. Just as we cannot handle the full glory of God without being undone, we cannot handle the full suffering of God. It would destroy us.
Verse three gives us two phrases that point to Jesus as the perfect imager of God the Father. This is another way to see the failure of Adam and Even in the Garden. They failed to image God even though He had made them in His image and likeness. As descendants of Adam and Eve, we all fail in our imaging of God. However, in Christ, we are being redeemed back to a perfect image of God.
Of course, you are not perfect yet. Only Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory. A good picture of what this means is the sun. It glory projects forth in an electromagnetic sea of wavelengths and particles. Jesus isn’t just mimicking God. He comes forth from God very nature. Just as Jesus healed people, taught people, and loved people, so he is showing us that God is a healer, a teacher, and the One who loves us.
At the cross, Jesus isn’t just revealing what God would do. No, the Father already had a crucified heart back at Creation. He had counted the cost, and He had agreed to pay the price. It is the very nature of God to suffer with our sin for long periods of time. He is slow to anger and willing to take our pain upon Himself in order to redeem us. When Jesus says, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing,” he is revealing the very desire and purpose of God. It is exactly what He wanted to do, and the cross was the mechanism for rectifying, justifying, that very act!
The second way that this is pointed out is in the phrase “exact representation of God’s nature.” To see Jesus is to see the very nature of God.
Next, we are told in verse three that Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power. Everything would fall without him. This is similar to the phrase in Colossians 1:17. There it says that in Him all things hold together. He holds it up and holds it together. He is the very power that holds the universe in a unified system doing the will of God.
Think about that when he is hanging on the cross, being kissed by a betrayer, and having a high priest cry out, “Blasphemy!” while tearing his robe. He held the world together that day just so we could spit in his face.
Welcome to fatherhood. You are called to be the adult. But even better, you are called to be the reflection of our heavenly Father, to take on suffering for the good of those who will die if you don’t do it, to do it because you love them!
Jesus is also the one who made purification for sins. He was not just showing us God’s heart for us in the sense of only giving us an example. He truly was making a way for our sins to be covered and the guilt of it to be removed from us (purified). This is the foundation of the Father’s ability to allow those who have sinned to become Children of god, dwelling with Him forever, and inheriting that for which we are disqualified. Jesus paid the price for our redemption. He lays his perfect life down so that we can no longer be disqualified from our inheritance.
Finally, Jesus is the one who sits at the right hand of the Father. This too speaks to status. He is in a position to exercise the authority and power of the Father. He is there in order to give humanity time to respond to the Gospel of peace. Through us, God is offering terms of peace to His enemies. Of course, this puts the ball in their (our) court. What will we do? How will we choose?
So far, we have focused on who Jesus is, but the whole point of these verses is that God has spoken to us through Jesus. The message of Jesus is the message of the Father. This is what Jesus was talking about in John 7:16-17 and 12:29. He was not teaching his own things. He was teaching what the Father had sent him to teach. The same is true of the deeds and miracles that he did.
So, what was Jesus saying, and therefore, what was the Father saying?
First, He is telling us, “I haven’t abandoned you.” Israel’s problem was never that God was taking too long. It was always that they were tone deaf to the message He was giving them. The problem wasn’t Gentile powers, Serpents in the Garden, or giants. The problem was always their inability to trust God, and the sin that resulted from it. Sin always leads to separation from God and the good that He intends for us. The separation is not just God turning from us because it starts with us turning from Him.
Yet, God does not and has not abandoned us. It can feel like it. Adam and Even were kicked out of the Garden. Yet, they were also given a promise. God was saying to them, “Will you trust Me now?” When the people at the Tower of Babel were disowned by God and handed over to the Spirit-beings that they were seeking, it could feel like God had abandoned them. Yet, His call of Abraham was all about blessing the nations. God gives a promise through Abraham that would impact the whole world.
In Christ, a remnant of Israel was raised up, filled with the Spirit of God, and sent out to the nations with a message of peace.
In the midst of a world that is full of the pain of sin, both our own sin and that of others, it is easy to think that God has abandoned us. We want God to keep the pain from ever touching us, but sin is pain. Instead, God joins us in the pain and suffering and gives that suffering meaning and purpose. Our suffering can be redeemed and become a trophy of God’s saving power. But, it can also be a strengthening in a person’s life. They can become a warrior to help and to fight for the souls of others who are suffering.
A second part of what God is saying is this. “I have paid the price to redeem you.” The love of God is not just about good feelings and warm thoughts toward us. It is about dealing with the unsolvable predicament that we have created with our own sin. No amount of good works can make up for past sin. Yet, in Jesus, God has stepped in and paid the price for your spiritual and physical freedom.
Lastly, God is saying, “If you trust Me, I will help you overcome all that stands in your way so that you can sit with Me on My throne!”
In Jesus, it doesn’t matter what has happened to us. No matter how painful, or how much failure we have done, He will help us to overcome it!
There have always been horrible things in this world since the Fall. Yet, instead of them destroying you, God will destroy its destroying effects through your faith in Jesus. What the devil, the world, or any individual, intends for evil in our life, God will turn it to the good if we will only trust Him.
The cross speaks a powerful word about the faithfulness of God in the face of “losing it all.” If we listen to Him, though it leads to a cross, He will raise us up to sit with Him and inherit all things.
This is what Paul means when he talks about us being seated with Jesus in the heavenly places. We are not physically there now, but it becomes our status when we put our faith in him. He will help us to overcome all that stands in our way.
We may be frustrated today as imperfect dads pointing imperfect kids to a perfect Son who images a perfect Father. Yet, this is God’s perfect work in us! He is not removing us from the problem, but rather, He is spotting us through the heavy lifting and bringing us into a glorious future.
Email Article | Print Article | Share Article | tagged Authority, Creator, Forsaken, Image of God, Inheritance, Jesus, Power, Purification, Redemption, Sin, Son of God, Word of God Pastor Marty Monday, June 9, 2025 at 7:22PM John 14:16-18, 25-27. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 8, 2025.
We have been talking about the mental battle that Christians face. This battle would be too much for us alone. However, God gives us help through the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, God has helped us all along the way. He has assisted humanity by acting within time to reveal His plan. He sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins and lead us into an inheritance that none of us deserve. He also restrains the full extent of what the devil would do if he could.
Today on Pentecost Sunday, we are going to focus on the help that we receive through the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. Let’s look at the many different ways that the Holy Spirit helps us.
At its core, the message of Jesus here is that he is going to send the Holy Spirit after he leaves. This happened 50 days after his death on the Feast of Pentecost (also called the Feast of Weeks).
The Holy Spirit is not taking the place of Jesus in an absolute sense. He only does so in the sense of expanding the ability of the man Jesus to teach and lead every believing heart at once.
When Jesus told his disciples that he would not leave them nor forsake them, we can in a snarky manner that he did leave them. Yes, Jesus physically left, but through the Spirit of God, he is spiritually with every believer in a very real way. He works through the Holy Spirit.
In verse 16, a word is used of the Holy Spirit that is translated in various ways. The NASB translate it as “Helper.” Other versions choose “Comforter,” “Advocate,” and “Counselor.” All of these can be good translations depending on the context. In this context, I think that some of them are too narrow.
The Greek Word is technically called the Paraclete in English, and has the idea of One who is called alongside of another for assistance. There are a multitude of contexts from dire to anxious that would color just what assistance is needed. In this passage, the emphasis is on the Holy Spirit helping us in the ways that Jesus had been doing. I think that Helper is the best translation here because it leaves room for all the many ways we can need help. Whatever we need, the Holy Spirit comes alongside of believers to be God’s help for us, whether comforter, counselor, advocate, even teacher, rebuker, conviction, and the one who disciplines us. Of course, God can use people in our lives, and He does. However, there are some things that only God can help us with.
Let me focus on the idea that the Holy Spirit will be a helper like Jesus (i.e., another helper). Imagine how these disciples would feel. Israel had waited 15 centuries and before that the patriarchs too. God was not sending Messiah to do a 3 ½ year work and then just leave. Yes, Jesus is trying to explain that he is going away. Yet, at the same time, he wants them to know that the Holy Spirit will be given to them. The assistance that Jesus had given in those days would continue through the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would cut through the religious deception and the nationalistic patriotism, to the core of a right relationship with God.
Jesus would continue to work on the heart of his disciples through the Holy Spirit, which is called the Spirit of Christ in Romans 8:9. In fact, it has actually increased his ability to speak and work in the lives of his disciples world-wide, all at once.
The wisdom of God is in this reality. It allows for a time of teaching and training mortal believers. It is good for us to learn to wrestle with our flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit. We become more like Jesus in this. It also gives opportunity for people to turn from rebellion against God and switch allegiance to Jesus before he comes to reign on this earth. This is the mercy of God. Lastly, as I’ve already pointed out, Jesus is enabled to work beyond an earthly body at one point on the earth. He can do much more in preparing this earth for the kingdom of God.
Now, God has always been a helper to those who trust Him. Psalm 46:1-3 says,
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.”
When we look at this passage, we can envision God being a great help in the time of natural disasters, and of course, He is that! However, these things are also metaphors. Mountains are often used to picture the great powers that rule on the earth. The bigger the mountain the bigger the kingdom. The sea and waters is often used as a picture of the peoples of the earth. It is also a place where the chaos dragon (satan) swims and lurks.
Of course, Noah had both the literal and the metaphorical all at once! Yet, God was His help. Such things cause us to fear, but we can trust in God, His power over all things, especially death, and refuse to let the fear control us.
Verse 17 of John 14 refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit was the one who moved upon men to write down the truth that God was revealing to them. He is a truthful Spirit, but He also comes to reveal the Truth, point to the Truth. Jesus is the ultimate Truth!
Notice that it says, “whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him.” This is talking about the world system that has conformed to the spirit of the devil, antichrist, error, non-Truth. That unholy spirit that works in this world is not at all like the Holy Spirit.
Of course, the world can conform to things of Christ in the same way that Judas did. It can do things in an attempt to look like a follower of Jesus, but in the end, it will never truly embrace the transformational power of Jesus that comes through the Holy Spirit.
This world and worldly Christians are tuned into a different spirit. They receive and chase after a false-help that only harms those who rely upon it.
Though the world does not know the Spirit of Truth, the disciples of Jesus will know Him because He will be with them and in them. In relation to the world, we are pressured to conform to a system and an image that is antichrist and anti-Holy-Spirit. However, when we turn from the world and put our faith in Jesus, we can receive the Holy Spirit, the help of God.
Back in verse 1 of this chapter, Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me!” All of this is done in order to encourage his disciples, us, that we are not being left alone in this world as he goes away. He is shoring up their minds for the things ahead so that they do not collapse under the weight of the enemy’s attacks. Their minds are set on reigning with Jesus any day now. But, that was not to be. Yet, the Holy Spirit would help them to navigate the reality that they would instead be persecuted and abused.
We are going to look at some particular ways that the Holy Spirit helps us in these two verses. Then, we will look at some other ways from various passages in a rapid-fire fashion.
Jesus had spent a lot of time with these men and had taught them many things in the last three years. Yet, their heads were full of notions of ruling Israel and kicking out the Romans. In other words, they weren’t paying attention at the level they should have. Who can blame them? Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit would help these men to remember all that he had taught them. This is one reason we know that we have an accurate record of what Jesus taught. He promised that the Holy Spirit would help to make this happen.
You and I have not had the same experience as these men. We need to read the Gospels and the letters of the Apostles in order to know what Jesus taught. However, the Holy Spirit will then help us to remember the words of Christ, that we have read or heard, when we need them. At the due season, the Holy Spirit brings things strategically to our remembrance.
Jesus also told his disciples that the Holy Spirit would teach them all things. It is clearly understood that it would be all the things that God would want them to know and that would be helpful to them. This is not a guarantee that the apostles would become omniscient and know everything. We can become fascinated with figuring out things that are only a diversion at best. This promise is not about that.
In John 16:12-13, Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth." Just as Jesus had counseled them in the moment, so the Holy Spirit would help the early Church to establish a clear record of what Christ taught, and led them to believe through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is still leading the Church of Jesus, but we need to exercise caution in this area. We must walk in humility. All saints wrestle with the Truth of God’s word and their own shortcomings. The Holy Spirit is here to help us, but we need to listen humbly. The Pharisees and the Sadducees laid claim to this, but they had abandoned the Word of God for the sake of their own traditions. They had become antichrist all while claiming to be waiting for the Christ. Yes, the Holy Spirit will lead us into all Truth, but sometimes that will be despite the contrary efforts of authority figures in the Church.
The Holy Spirit would also help them with peace. Verse 27 focuses on the peace that Christ would leave with them. Contextually, the peace is both what he is telling them, and specifically, the peace-giving effect of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Here are a couple of verses that emphasize the peace that we are given by God.
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3, also
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Romans 8:5-6.
When the Holy Spirit resides with in us, there will be liberty, joy and peace.
Looking at some other passages, we can add other aspects of the help of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy spirit makes us fruitful in the virtues of God. Virtues are those moral qualities that are quite selfish without the Holy spirit. Many of them are listed in Galatians 5:22-23. Using a fruit metaphor, Paul describes what happens in the life of a person who truly has the Holy Spirit within them. They will evidence these things (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). However, they will be as God defines and not as the culture around us defines them.
The Holy Spirit will work within you to teach you how to love, have joy and peace, how to be patient and kind, how to be good to others, how to be faithful to God first and also to the people around us, how to be gentle and control ourselves.
All fruit trees require pruning. Some branches are cut off because they are dead and have no life in them. These represent the works of the flesh that are contrary to the fruit listed above. However, other branches are cut off to make room for fruit in our lives. This can be things that are perfectly good, but get in the way of what God is doing in our life. In fact, when it comes to pruning, there are some things in our life that God will prune Himself, without asking us. Yet, other things He will not prune for us. Instead, the Holy Spirit points them out to us and shows us how to cut them off. Of course, we need to be humble and trust the Spirit of God. How fruitful do you want to be?
We can even recognize that some things change rather quickly, whereas, other things only change over long periods of time. Jesus doesn’t say that you will never fail. But he does promise that the Holy Spirit will be there to help you. You may fail, but He will not fail to keep teaching you the better way to live and follow Jesus.
The Holy Spirit also testifies to us that we are the children of God. This is one of the areas that people struggle with when they first put their faith in Jesus. Am I really a child of God? Did I really receive the Holy Spirit? These are valid questions. Paul emphasizes the help of the Holy Spirit in this area in Romans 8:15-16.
This inner testimony of the Holy Spirit may be subjective from the perspective of other people, but for you, it is very real. When people ask me the questions above, I remind them of that first time they knew they needed to turn away from their old life and embrace Jesus. No one just does that on their own. I mean no one does that in a real way. Sure, there are many pretenders, but pretenders always know that they are only posers. Just as the Holy Spirit first touched your heart and mind in a way that you knew what to do, so He continues that same work. Yes, there is a mystery to it, but you know it when it happens. It is He who testifies to you (from time to time) that you really are a child of God.
God did not make us to be slaves to our flesh and useful idiots for the devil. This world system and the devil do not want you to follow the Holy Spirit. But, the Holy Spirit testifies to us that we can turn our back on the world and the devil and learn to image our Father in heaven by becoming like Jesus.
The Holy Spirit also helps us pray. Again, in Romans 8:26-27, Paul speaks to this. You see, the Holy Spirit not only helps us know what to pray about, but He also fills in the gap when we don’t know what to say. Perhaps grief has hit you or your heart is overwhelmed by something else. You may be perplexed and cry out to God in tears. Like Israel in Egypt, their cries were heard by the Lord. I don’t think all of them were praying prayers, though some surely were. Yet, the Spirit interprets the anguish of our heart before the Father.
The picture of verse 27 is that God’s Holy Spirit plumbs the depths of our hearts and relays what is discovered there back to God. Yet, all of this is done according to the will of God, that is, for our good, to build us up and not to tear us down.
Lastly, the Holy Spirit fills us with power for life and service for Jesus. God intends for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We see this in Acts 1:7-8. Jesus wants his people to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that they can have power for living the Christian life, which involves a battle against our flesh, the world, and the devil. He also gives us power for serving our fellow believers through giftings that are not from a natural source or talent. It is a gifting directly from the Holy Spirit. He also empowers us to share the Gospel with those who do not know Jesus. In fact, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would empower them so much that they would take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and people from every nation, tribe, and tongue would become followers of Jesus. This is exactly what we have seen over the last 20 centuries. Are you taking your place among this people of power who are enabled to share the Gospel with the lost?
In all of these things, we are being helped by the Spirit of God. The best way that we can thank Jesus for this gift of his Spirit is by embracing the help of the Holy Spirit in your life today!
Email Article | Print Article | Share Article | tagged Children of God, Fruit of the Spirit, Help, Holy Spirit, Indwelling, Mind, Peace, Power, Prayer, Spirit Baptism, Truth Pastor Marty Monday, June 2, 2025 at 11:18PM Romans 12:1-2. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 1, 2025.
The most important battlefield of all time is in the minds of people. By the time we become aware of it, we can be highly compromised by our enemy, the devil.
A number of weeks ago, we talked about our three enemies: the devil, the world, and our flesh. We might think of the flesh as the place where the battle is internal, but we should recognize that the attacks of the other two (the devil and the world) are generally upon how we think.
The real cultural battle is not so much at Cal Anderson Park, the site of a recent attack of antifa agents upon Christians worshipping God. The real battle front is in the minds of people, whether at Cal Anderson Park or not, and whether on the antifa side or as a Christian.
The devil loves to use the tools of seduction, manipulation, fear, mental harassment, and many others. The incessant attack upon the minds of humanity wears the best of men down until they become: collaborators with him, useful idiots to him, or simply despairing and hopeless before him.
If we only looked at this problem, we could easily give up. Yet, God tells us in His Word that He does love us. He did not make us to be enslaved by the devil and his world system. Through Jesus (and in Jesus), He offers us a better way
Of course, there are some Christians that believe you will never have a bad day if you are right with Jesus. They may moderate this by emphasizing that you will never have a bad mental and spiritual day. However, this is not the testimony of the Scriptures and the godly through history. Elijah is shown struggling with the desire to quit. Jesus experiences the full brunt of the mental battle on the night of his betrayal.
We are going to have times when we do not feel like God is with us. However, what does our Lord Jesus say? “I will never leave you nor forsake you!” He doesn’t guarantee that we will feel it, but rather, he guarantees the fact and reality of it.
Let’s look at our passage.
I want to focus on verse 2 first. Paul is challenging the Christians in Rome to live in a way that is not like the world that surrounded them. It is a negative imperative: Don’t be conformed to this world!
The Roman system was very powerful and had conquered the Mediterranean Region and beyond. It was the worst of the beastly empires that Daniel foresaw and the Apostle John was shown in the book of The Revelation.
This beastly power dominated that area for a hundred years and would go on to dominate for many more centuries. Such power is seductive to those who have the possibility to harness it. This was precious few in the Roman system. The vast majority of people who lived under the Roman system found it cruel and heartless. Yes, Israel had to deal with the heavy Roman boot in their face, but so did the Gentiles and most Romans themselves.
The flip-side of not being conformed is the reality that the world is trying to conform you. If we let it happen, we will be conformed into a proper cog in its system. It is designed to conform you to be a good Roman, or a good American, Chinese person, a good Russian, etc.
However, there is a level of this pressure to conform that is deeper than self-serving governments, religions and social leaders.
The word behind “world” in verse 2 is literally the word “age.” It is not so much about the globe and the natural things on it (political borders, powers, and such), as it is about the system of how things are set up and relate to each other.
From the standpoint of God’s redemptive work, this is an age of grace, an age of salvation, even the age of the Church (God’s calling out of a people). However, Paul is looking at the world from the standpoint of the devil’s work. He has deep-captured the world and built up systems of governance, religion, and operations that are all about continuing a rebellion against God and His Anointed, Jesus Christ. This age, this world system, is really a continuation of what the devil began in the garden with Adam and Eve. Particularly today, he works at odds to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So, when we talk about the world and its systems, we are talking about more than what we see. We are especially talking about the spiritual impetus that lies behind those natural things and weaves them into a coherent system that conforms people to the desires of the devil. It is a spiritual battlefield.
On one hand, all nations have their own systems that work at odds to one another, or together for the sake of mutual benefit. Yet, on the other hand, they are all spiritually united and joined at the hip. They are all generally living and thinking in rebellion to God.
This can even be while they are looking religious, or Christian. The devil doesn’t care what your rebellion looks like, so long as you are antichrist. You can be Caesar worshipping yourself, Herod doing the same, or a Greek worshipping Zeus, Caiaphas saying that he is worshipping Yahweh, or Judas following Jesus. The devil doesn’t care. He loves diversity as long as it is a diversity of rebellion against God and His Christ. But, more on this later.
Second Corinthians 4:4 says, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Even before Christ came, the devil was working to keep the world blind to the promise of God to send Messiah, a deliverer of humanity and its redeemer.
Now, the devil is not a true god. But, he has deep-captured the world through temptation and sin. The political, religious, and political systems that developed were ways of blinding humanity to the good plan of God that was revealed to Adam and Eve and to later generations.
Thus, a child who is born into the world doesn’t understand this. There mind is not fully formed and is trying to make sense of everything. Yet, the culture conforms them to a particular way of seeing things. This blinding effect catches us all while we are young and unaware of it. Being raised in a Christian home that teaches the Word can help mitigate this pressure to conform.
In the midst of all of this, God has not left us at the mercy of this system. He has worked through Jesus to give truth to the world. Christians are supposed to be an antidote to this blinding work of the devil. We are to shine the light of the truth of Jesus to the world around us.
This helps us to understand why we need our minds renewed. The world around us blinds our mind’s ability to perceive the truth. Alongside of this, there is another reason in Romans 1:28. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.”
This blind culture did not happen over night. In the beginning, the first family had a clear understanding of the truth of God and the lies of the devil. Yet, this verse points to the tendency of people not to retain the knowledge of God. Little by little, one compromise after another, one generation after another, humans began to be deceived and drawn away from truth to more and more lies. It is not by accident that the ancient false religions focus on things that satisfy the flesh, like sexual immorality. As a judgment, God eventually lets us have our way, the fruit of our choices. This is called a debased mind.
The word for debased comes from the area of coinage. When a government is short on gold and silver, and have troops to pay, it was tempting and common to debase the silver coins by mixing in cheap, base metals. The troops would think they were getting paid a full silver coin, but it had been debased, corrupted. It was not really what it purported to be. Eventually people would figure it out and the value of the currency would drop in relation to what it pretended to be.
When we think about a debased mind, we need to recognize that the value of a mind is its ability to recognize the truth. God gave us a mind for a reason. Yet, the conforming influence of this world can weaken the ability of our minds to see through its lies. This is the natural condition of humanity without God.
In fact if you think about it, not to retain God is the same as not retaining the very basis, foundation, of all reality. God is the absolute fundamental reality that all other things are dependent upon. To reject the most basic aspect of reality makes it impossible to reason properly. If we push aside reality and persist in living by fantastic perceptions, we will find ourselves causing great pain and trouble. It would be like going to the bathroom in the middle of the night when you have kids. You can refuse to recognize the reality that your kids probably left some things on the floor, and the reality that there are things in the way on which you do not want to stub your toe. If you just push those things from your mind and traipse through the house, imagining that the way is clear, reality will rear its ugly head and you will feel pain.
We need God’s help, and He gives it through Jesus, the Word of God, through Christians sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The light of the world came and did a spiritual work that can change everything for us. In Romans 12, Paul is writing to people who used to be trapped in the blindness of this world. However, they have believed in Jesus and heard the truth. They are no longer blind.
To believe in Jesus is to follow the teachings of Jesus. This is the unpardonable sin of this world. The devil doesn’t care what particular form your life takes as long as it isn’t following God’s Anointed, Jesus.
Ephesians 2:2 says, “You once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.” The devil loves diversity so long as it is contrary to the truth of God. The one diverse thing the world will never tolerate is that of truly following Jesus. If you wonder why people attack Christians so viciously, take some time to ponder this.
This past week, there was a group of Christians who met at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle to worship God and stand for protecting kids from the sexually immoral agendas threatening them today. They were attacked by a bunch of antifa people. When someone attacks you, it is easy to see them as the enemy. However, the enemy is the devil and his world system. Those doing the attacking are simply those who have been taken captive by the devil. The battle in their mind has been lost, and they are doing the bidding of their master. Yet, in verse one of Romans 12, Paul is calling the Corinthians to be a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice is a person who dies to what their flesh and the world desire and choose to live for Christ come what may. This brings us to the second point.
Conforming to the world is what we are not supposed to do. Whereas, what we are to do is to be transformed. Though he doesn’t say “to the image of Christ” here, the sacrifice of Jesus is the backdrop to what he is talking about. Instead of being conformed to the world and the devil, we are to be transformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a difference between conforming to something and being transformed. Conforming has to do with superficial changes. Paul doesn’t say we are to conform to Jesus. Judas conformed to being a disciple of Jesus, but something real was missing in his heart and mind. He did not have faith in Jesus in the end. He never allowed himself to be transformed by the Spirit of God that was working through Jesus. The other disciples were not perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus, but they cooperated with the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
We can change superficially, but the real change that we need is one that is in the heart and mind. It is no wonder that there is a craze today to try and “change” one’s gender through surgery. This is typically based upon feeling that they are trapped in the body of the wrong gender. This, of course, is not reality. Feelings are real enough, but they are not reality. They are simply how we feel about reality in the moment. They change based upon stimuli, life experience and the pressure of a society that is willing to conform you into anything but Jesus.
Conforming is like a chameleon taking on the markings of the environment around them, but transformation involves deep challenges of trust in Christ. Transformation involves dying to the desires of the flesh and being helped to obey Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Transformation involves repentance of going our own way instead of God and forgiving those who have harmed us. Transformation is a deep spiritual change that changes how we live our life. Conforming (Judas) will not persevere to the end, but transformation (Saul of Tarsus to the Apostle Paul) deeply affects a person to the core of their being, which leads to visible changes in their life.
Paul sees a critical part of this transformational process as a renewal of our mind. When we hear or read the Word of God, and when the Holy Spirit touches our heart and mind, we can change from corrupt thinking to renewed thinking. Just as repentance involves a change of mind about God and Jesus in particular, that change of mind draws us back from being debased and blind.
This spiritual change is in response to the Holy Spirit, versus a superficial change of style that is driven by self desire. When we read the word of God, pray, and listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit, our mind will begin to see the many ways that this world is antichrist, anti-God, and not good. It portrays a superficial good that is defined by the mind of man, rather than the mind of God.
It is good for us to have our minds renewed, but this does not immunize us to the battle for our mind.
The devil still bombards the minds of Christians through the culture in order to draw them back under his power. He uses temptation, seduction, fear, anger, and any other leverage that he can use. Of course, our victory is not that our flesh never responds to his tactics. Our victory is in taking control of our flesh and saying “no” to it, and “yes” to Jesus. Even when we fail, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin and draws us back to repentance. Thus, the renewed mind is not yet perfected, but it has been transformed by the Perfect One who is perfecting us.
Being a “living sacrifice” will prove the will of God to be good, pleasing and perfect. Yes, you may fail from time to time, but your persistence in following Jesus and continual transformation will itself testify to the perfect love of God in Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who is doing his perfect work in us imperfect creatures. Yet, one day, we shall stand perfected before our Lord and before the rest of creation!
Email Article | Print Article | Share Article | tagged Conform, Devil, Heart, Mind, Renewal, Sacrifice, The World, Transformation