THE DEMANDS OF COMMITMENT—Part II 

          We did the first part of this message last week and began it by looking at Luke 14:25-33.  There we paid special attention to verses 26-27 where Jesus declares that the person who would be his disciple must be willing to pay the ultimate price, which is, all that he is and all that he has.   Christ says in that passage that the person who comes to him and is not willing to disregard his family and show them no preference over him, that man cannot be his disciple.  All, even family and self are to be put behind Christ and His mission.   Thus Christ explains that one should count the cost of being a disciple before making the commitment.  Many come to Christ without ever really considering the cost and because they have not truly considered the cost they have difficulty maintaining the required level of commitment.

          Leaving Luke we went to Romans 12:1-2

ROMANS 12:1-2

Paul says “I implore you, I urge you, and I beg you brethern to devote yourselves to God. Paul is strongly urging, and I would go as far as to say he was begging believers to show total commitment to God.  In that total commitment he gives three things that believers must do.   We said on last week if we, then are going to count the cost of discipleship we must understand these 3 demands of commitment.  So today in part 2 of the message titled The Demands of Commitment we want to talk about the second thing that Paul urges us to do.   Now the first demand of commitment was:

1.  The believer is to present his body as a living         sacrifice to God.

The believer is to offer his life as a freewill offering to God.  We said that a living sacrifice means a constant, continuous sacrifice, not just an occasional dedication of one's body.  A living sacrifice means that the body sacrifices its own desires and lives for God.  A living sacrifice means that the body lives for God by serving God. Everything that we do is to be done only with glorifying God in our focus.   Finally we said that when can totally surrender ourselves to God then we will find ourselves considering anything that we lose for Christ, any of our desires that go unmet, or our goals that remain incomplete, we will consider them unimportant or valueless to us.  Nothing will have more value to us than knowing Christ, being changed into his image and one day being resurrected with him and by him to live and fellowship with God forever. 

      The second demand of commitment is found in Romans 12:2.

2.  The believer is not to be conformed to this world.

      The word "conformed" comes from the root word schema which means fashion, the outward form, the appearance of a man.  The word "world" aiōn  in the simplest of terms means the world itself and everything in it, for it is all corruptible. The world including the heavens and earth and all therein, is aging, deteriorating and dying. The world is not perfect: not in being, order, morality, or justice.  But the world gives the appearance that it is permanent, unending and everlasting.  The world also gives the appearance that it offers the very best of everything: pleasure, enjoyment, happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction.   However, the fashion and appearance of the world is a lie, a mask, a masquerade.  The world is corrupt and dying because in every form it is tainted with sin and sin brings death.

The believer is not to conform, that is, fashion himself after the world.  What is Paul saying here when he says do not be conformed to the world?

a.  We are not to follow the fellowship of the world.

2 CORINTHIANS 6:17-18 

Here we are told to separate ourselves from the world.  We are to come out from among unbelievers and be separate. What does this mean? Of course, it does not mean that believers are to leave the cities, communities, and work places of the world. Believers are not to isolate themselves from unbelievers. It does not mean that believers have nothing to do with unbelievers—never talking, sharing, or associating with them. What God means by this is given in verses 14-16.

·  Believers are not to be "unequally yoked" with unbelievers. They are not to be yoked, be intimately involved in a relationship with unbelievers.

·  Believers are not to share and participate in the worldly life,  functions and events of unbelievers, (vs. 14 what fellowship).

·  Believers are not to be in "communion" with unbelievers. They are not to be closely bound in partnership with unbelievers. They are not to be so united with unbelievers that there has to be open and mutual sharing of person and possessions.

·  Believers are not to be attached nor in covenant with unbelievers. Believers must not follow the worthless leader, Belial (Satan), of the unbelievers.

·  Believers are not to move about in the sphere, the realm, the life and position of the infidel, the person who has rejected Jesus Christ.

·  Believers are not to worship with unbelievers.  They are welcome to come in with us but we are not to go in among them.  Why would you take God into the Devils house to worship?  If you are raising your hands in the devil’s house those who are around you will assume you are in agreement with them.

          God means what He says in this verse: believers are not to touch the unclean thing.   The believer, in today’s world must go to God to determine what is unclean.  There was a time when our society mimicked a lot of what the Bible said to set societal norms.  Now our society has gone to the other extreme.  Now if the Bible says or even implies that it should not be done, the world says it is the thing to do.  Just because society says something is right does not make it clean.  But when God says something is wrong that does make it unclean. Believers are no longer to live as the sinners of the world. We are not to participate in the sins of unbelievers.

JAMES 4:4

He calls the people adulteresses and adulterers.

Being an adulteress and adulterer means that a person is guilty of spiritual adultery. Jesus Christ holds His relationship with us in the highest regards. Our relationship with Him is to be so close that it can be described only by the closeness and intimacy of marriage. In fact, our relationship with Christ can even be closer and more meaningful than marriage. We are to know, believe, and understand Christ just as we are to know, believe, and understand our husbands and wives. But with Christ there is far more of a bond and relationship than what we can have with each other as men and women of earth. Jesus Christ actually lives within our bodies in the person of the Holy Spirit. We are to live, move, and have our being in Christ and He in us. This is the reason believers are called the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:1-2; Eph. 5:24-28; Rev. 19:7;  Rev. 19:21). The point is this: our bond with Christ is so close that when we turn away from Him and turn to the world, it is like committing spiritual adultery because we break our commitment to God and give ourselves to other things.   We follow after the things of the world instead of following after God; things such as riches, recognition, possessions, power, position, and fame.

The picture of spiritual adultery shows us just how meaningful God counts our relationship with Christ: it is a relationship of love, a bond of love that can be the closest bond in all the world.

HEBREWS 6:4-6

 If we turn away from Christ to the world, it cuts His heart with the deepest of pain—a pain beyond description—for He is God and He feels with perfect feelings. We must never forget that our Lord gave His life and died for us. He has done everything He can to save us and to create a relationship with us. And it cost Him unbelievable pain—the pain of the cross—the pain of bearing all the sins of the whole world—the pain of bearing the wrath of God against those sins—the pain of God the Father forsaking and rejecting Him when He bore our sins—such pain that it defies description—and it was all for us. 

When we choose the world over Christ we are telling him that all that he has done for us was not good enough.  It was not enough for him to suffer such great pain and agony for me.  We are saying that what the world offers is of greater value to us than the love Christ has already prove that he has for us.  After all the pain he has already suffered on our behalf how dare we hurt Him anymore. We must not crucify Christ anymore. We must not forsake Him for the world. We must not commit spiritual adultery against Him by turning to the world.  If you choose to be a friend of the world you also choose to be an enemy of God.

b. Believers are not to follow the lusts of the world.

 I PETER 1:14

          As believers we are not to shape, fashion or conform our actions, beliefs, character, etc based the lustful lifestyles we lived when we were ignorant of the life God desired for us.  We can not love the world and God.  Thus we are told in I John 2:15-15, “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”.  So we are not to shape ourselves after our former lust when we were still trapped in the world’s way of thinking and doing.  They way we did things before we came to Christ is not they way we do them now.

c.  Believers are not to follow the course of this world.

 EPHESIANS 2:2-5

          Before we came to know Christ we handled our affairs and lived a lifestyle that was directed by the devil.  We did not want to believe we were following him but the truth of the matter is, that we were being led straight to hell by him.  But now that we are committed to Christ we can no longer address life using the world’s standards. We must be committed to not being deceived into following after satan and his ways.  He may be the god of this world, but he is no longer our god and as such we must be commited to not letting him have rule of any area of our lives. 

 d.  Believers can not follow the false security of       the world.

 MATTHEW 24:38-39

 Noah preached for 100 years while he was building the ark.  But because the people could not see the coming judgment they were lulled into thinking that judgment was not coming.  Just because God has not returned yet does not mean that he is not coming.  2 Peter 3:9 says “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  We must not get caught thinking that we have plenty of time.  We cannot get secure in the way that we think about this earth because remember this earth is passing away.  Judgment will one day come.

·  Believers cannot to follow after the deceitful riches of this world.

 Yes we must work but we can not allow but one of the things that Matt. 13:22 says will choke the word out of us is the deceitfulness of riches.  People can get so caught up in money and getting more of it that they allow the word of God to become of no affect in their lives.  Often times they are chasing money so that they will not have to live by faith. 

I Timothy 6:17

          Paul tells Timothy to instruct those who have worldly riches not to put their trust in uncertain riches.  Why?  Because Proverbs 23:5 says, “for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”   Money will not hang around long.  It goes more easily than it comes.  Thus to put your trust in riches is like trusting a rock that is sitting in quicksand; as soon as you attempt to support yourself on it, it begins to sink and so do you.

·  Believer’s are not to live for the pleasure of this earth.

 JAMES 5:4-6

          James accuses these people of holding back the wages of those who had worked for them and then using those wages to live in pleasure.  They are accused of following after their sensual, sexual appetites, nourishing their hearts or living in luxury and pride, or reveling, joining in the banqueting and feasting associated with religious sacrificing.  This would be like refusing to go to a wedding because you were against the marriage, but then agreeing to come to the reception because of the food and music.  Why miss a great party, attitude?  Just because it will be fun does not mean that you are suppose to be their.  We must not let the pleasures of this world be used to draw us into sin, or into lifestyles that are not pleasing to God.

·  Believer’s are not to follow the crowd of the world.

    God said to the children of Israel in Exodus 23:2, “you shall not follow a multitude to do evil.”  As Christians we can not always follow the crowd.  When we know that they crowd is headed in the wrong direction, headed in a direction contrary to the will of God then we must not follow.  We must be strong enough to say I will not follow.  We must be willing to face being ostricized and hated by the crowds of this world as we represent Christ. 

          There are so many ways that the enemy can us to try to hold us attached to the world and the worlds way of thinking and he is committed to using each and every trick that he has.  As believers we must be committed to following as the Spirit of God leads and to seeking out any ungodly attitudes, behaviors, actions, thoughts, etc. that are left over from our former lifestyle and putting and end to them.  The second demand of commitment is that we not in any way conform or fashion ourselves after the world.  We must seek out and understand in what ways we are acting like the world and then we must commit to changing those ways.  For we are not to be conformed or fashioned after the world.