For our Scripture reading this morning, we turn together to Romans 8, reading together verses 28 through 39. Romans 8, 28 to 39. The text this morning being Romans 12, verse 1. Romans 8, beginning at verse 28, as we now hear the Word of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called. Those He called, He also justified. Those He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is He that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died, more than that who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Turning over to Romans chapter 12, again verse 1 is our text. We read together the first two verses. Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Dear people of God, that beautiful verse of Scripture, Romans 8, verse 1, says, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Indeed, a most wonderful truth for God's people as there in those words we are given the certainty, the assurance of eternal life. And then as well, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says in John 6, verse 37, All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the One who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. Again, what blessed comfort for the child of God to have from the Savior's very own lips that guarantee of eternal life. And now as Christians, what do we do with that guarantee? What are we to do with that blessed assurance? Is it life as usual for the child of God who is brought to a sure knowledge and a certain conviction of the truth of His salvation by grace through faith? Is it life as usual? No, it's not. It's not life as usual. It's not life as before. Because the grace of God is to be a life-changing experience. The direction of life, the direction of all of life is changed, first of all, toward God. With Romans 12, Paul begins to apply all that he had been teaching in chapters 1 through 11. We can say that the first 11 chapters, there we find exposition, that which we need to know. And then beginning in chapter 12 through the end of the book, we find exhortation from Paul, that which we need to do with what we have learned. And in view of all that he has said before, what is the Christian life to be like? In this text, he speaks about that life in relation to God. He sets forth the goal of the Christian life with encouragement to reach that goal. And then in verse 2, which we hope to consider next week, the Lord willing, Paul describes the character of that life he calls for here in verse 1. And therefore, I preached to you this morning this word of God. God's salvation calls for an offering of gratitude. We notice, first of all, the basis for demonstrating gratitude. Secondly, the way of demonstrating gratitude. And then finally, the principle of demonstrating gratitude. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, To offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship. Now, you recall that in the Old Testament, sacrifices were a necessary part of life. Of course, there were different kinds of sacrifices. There were sin offerings as well as thank offerings. And in the Christian life, there is no longer any need for a sin offering because Christ, our sin offering, has been slain for us. He was the one and only final sacrifice for atonement. But now the sacrifice that Paul calls for from believers here in this text is a sacrifice of acknowledgement and thanksgiving. Acknowledging the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on our behalf and giving thanksgiving to Him for His work. And at the very beginning of this text, he explains the basis for demonstrating gratitude. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy. Now notice, Paul doesn't give a command here as he often does in his writings. He is speaking to believers, to the church, and he is urging or beseeching or exhorting believers to do that which is now to come naturally for the child of God. To do that which is inherently a part of that new life. They are called to a life of gratitude which is consistent with the new life they now enjoy. But the basis or the motivation for demonstrating gratitude is the mercy of God. What is the mercy of God that Paul is talking about? Well, all that he had been explaining throughout the first 11 chapters of Romans. If you know the book of Romans in connection with the format of the Heidelberg Catechism, you know that Romans 1, verse 18 through chapter 3, verse 20 lays forth man's sin and misery. And then chapter 3, verse 21 through chapter 11 presents the way of deliverance or salvation. And then chapters 12 through 16 deals with the response of gratitude required of God's people. You're familiar with the threefold division of the catechism. Guilt, grace, gratitude. Why? It's patterned after the book of Romans. Guilt, grace, and gratitude. And what is Paul taught up to this point? He is taught that all of mankind is under the judgment of God. He says, there is none righteous, no not one. Now boys and girls, you have heard me say from the pulpit before that where mercy is necessary, misery already exists. It's already in place. And here this describes the miserable condition of mankind. There is none righteous, no not one. And we often speak of mercy as being that of not getting what we deserve. We deserve punishment for our sins. In His mercy, God does not give that to us. Instead, we speak of God's grace, which we can define as getting that which we do not deserve. We don't receive the punishment we deserve. Instead, we receive forgiveness, which we do not deserve. And all of this can be considered under the one term, mercy at times. The grace of God, by the grace of God there is escape from the universal condemnation through faith in Christ. Paul says, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So that, as Paul says in another place, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And those who are graciously elect from before the foundation of the world are raised from the depths of sin and shame and misery and eternal doom and raised to the blessed status of children and heirs of God and are now more than conquerors, inseparable from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see, Paul has laid before believers the miraculous truth that God's mercy has brought His people from a pitiful, miserable state to a blessed, exalted state and they are now justified by grace through faith only for the sake of the substitutionary self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Boys and girls, Jesus Christ substituted Himself for you and me as believers. It's as if He pushed us out of the way and He stepped in our place. He is our substitute who took the punishment that we deserve. In chapter 11, verse 33, Paul gives his own expression to God's mercy. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out. And now in the text he is saying that the mercy of God is to find a response in God's people. Those who have been given new life in Christ Jesus are called to recognize that new life as a result of the mercy of God. And then from that new life, voluntarily flows forth gratitude to God. It's automatic. It must be automatic. Beloved, if you truly understand the mercy of God in your life, the mercy of God as delivered to you in the fullness of salvation, If you truly understand that, you cannot remain unmoved. It's absolutely impossible. If you truly understand the death you were trapped in, and the life that is now yours for eternity in Christ Jesus, then a life of unthankfulness to God is a contradiction in terms. Boys and girls, it doesn't go together. Christian and unthankfulness, they do not go together. If you are a believer, do you understand that you were going to hell? That's where you were headed. Not just for an hour or a day or even a year, but forever. That was your only destination because of your sin, but on account of the mercy of God, not because of your choice or my choice or your doing or my doing, but because of God's grace, Jesus Christ suffered an eternity's worth of hell. and now you're saved. And therefore, hell is not in your eternal future, but the glory of heaven is. Beloved, from believers, this calls for a response. And that response is to be an offering of gratitude. In the text, Paul also describes in the second place the way of demonstrating gratitude. In essence, he says, on account of God's mercy, Because of God's mercy, in gratitude, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. First of all, your bodies, our bodies, are to be sacrificed to God. Now this isn't talking about just the physical body, the shell. It includes that, of course, but we must understand this to include our whole being, our thoughts and desires and words as they are expressed through the body. You see, beloved, a body without a soul is just a corpse. The life of a person, the personality of a person, is not first of all in the body, in the shell, but it's in his soul. And the body is the vehicle which God gives the soul in order for life to be expressed. The old life of sin is expressed through the body. Of course, there may be sinful thoughts that stay in one's mind which only God sees, but there are sins of the flesh like lust or gluttony or drunkenness. But envy and hate and greed are also revealed through the body, through the look in one's eye or by the look on one's face, through the language that his mouth speaks, by the gestures of his hand. We could talk about gossip and slander and laziness as well, but the point is the body gives expression to that which lives in the heart. And the same is true then of the new life, of the redeemed life. Through our bodies, we express our love for God and His people. Through our looks and our words and our actions. Through our bodies, we work on behalf of God's kingdom. Through our mouths, we sing God's praises. With our eyes, we read His Word and we behold His grace in the life of His church. Beloved, the believer's offering of gratitude for God's salvation is that His body, including every faculty of His life, is to be given, to be sacrificed in service to God at home, at work, at play, every moment of every day. And Paul lists a few qualifiers here. He says, Offer your bodies as living sacrifices. Now, there we must understand that there is a death presumed along with this life of gratitude. Boys and girls, a death must have taken place. And in chapter 6, Paul talks about being dead to sin and alive to God, and this is to be demonstrated through the body. Verses 11 through 14 of chapter 6. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master because you are not under law, but under grace. Sin with the body or against the body is to be avoided and instead the body is to be the servant of new life in Christ in service to God. The body is to be a living sacrifice as an instrument of righteousness and therefore the life that proceeds from that body. is to be a life of righteousness. Now in contrast, in difference to the Old Testament sacrifices, which were dead with the shedding of blood, our sacrifice is to be living. The psalmist says the dead do not praise the Lord. But in connection, in comparison with the Old Testament sacrifices, which were holy and completely given every part, our entire life is to be sacrificed to God. Nothing is to be withheld from His service. And that means, beloved, that out there in the world, we do not live by a different set of rules than we do in here in the church or in our homes. Because out there as well, we are still under the Father's watchful eye. And we are called to operate according to His standard. When we present our bodies as living sacrifices to God, we present to Him that which He already has a claim to. Confessing His right to, His title of, and His ownership of our lives. And that's because, as Paul says in Galatians 2, verse 20, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. That new life in Jesus Christ, given to you and me by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, is to be lived in service to God in and through this earthly body. But it is also to be a living and holy sacrifice. When it came to sacrifices, anything that was set apart for service to God was considered to be holy. The same thing was true, for example, with the furnishings of the temple, the utensils, and so forth. They were set apart. They were considered to be holy. But with regard to our lives, there is to be a real holiness. A holiness of heart and soul. Our bodies are holy sacrifices by the power of the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit. And they are to be holy in that they are set apart completely and devoted to God with lives conducted in a holy manner. You see, only that which is holy is then acceptable or pleasing to God. What is pleasing to God? That which is done in obedience to His will, in accordance with His holy law, His law which reflects His own holiness. You recall, I trust, that God indeed demanded animal sacrifices without blemish in the Old Testament. In Leviticus chapter 22, 19 to 22, We read of this, on the altar as an offering made to the Lord by fire. God required the best because He had the right to the best because of who He is and what He has done. And Jesus Christ offered the perfect sacrifice for our sins. And God accepted that sacrifice which He demonstrated when Jesus rose from the dead. And now, congregations, to show our gratitude for such a great salvation, we are called to give our best to God. And that which is best is that which is done in righteousness for the glory of God. Now, of course, we must confess that we often fail in this, yet our comfort is that Christ's sacrifice was sufficient to cover even our sin-stained sacrifices. But let's consider this for a moment. Someone once said, For only when men render the best they have can their service be called a sacrifice. And sometimes we hear, give until it hurts. Sometimes we clean out our houses and we clean out our junk, the stuff that is junk for us. And we don't want to throw it away because it's got a little bit of use. Somebody might be able to get some use out of it. So we give it to the goodwill store and we even receive a receipt and therefore we can claim it as a deduction on our taxes. We feel good about that. But that's not giving until it hurts. A sacrifice means giving something up. Depriving oneself of something. And we are called to give our best to the Lord. The best of our time. The best of our resources. The best of our money. In the Old Testament, that included giving to God the first fruits of the produce. The best of the whole crop. Now, practically speaking, in your life and in my life, When is your mind the freshest and the most alert? Is it first thing in the morning as it is for many people? Well, then that's when you should spend time with God's Word and spend time with God in prayer, even if you have to get up a few minutes earlier in order to do that and still make it to work on time. Don't wait until the end of the day when you can barely keep your eyes open. When you get your paycheck, where does the first portion go? Does it go to the Lord or does He have to wait until you see what's left over before you help someone? Do you have to first consider how this might benefit you? Or do you help them simply for the benefit to them? When you make life decisions, what do you base your decisions on? Do you measure your desires and your decisions according to God's Word? Or do you decide things according to your own standard, and then hope that God will accommodate your desire and that He will bless your decision. For example, if you were offered a job in another part of the country, a job with excellent pay, wonderful benefits, and a great opportunity to climb the corporate ladder, what would it be to you to help you make that decision? Would it be those things? Or would it be something else, like, is there a solid Reformed church there? Is there a good Christian school for my children that I need, that we need spiritually? The point is that our lives as Christians are no longer to be lived according to selfishness, but according to selflessness for others and for God. And it's hard sometimes to admit that although God claims our best, He often gets our worst. We like to spend the best part of our energy on ourselves, therefore giving only leftover time and leftover money and leftover energy to Him. I'll serve in the church in some way if I can fit it into my schedule. But Paul says, that's not natural. That's not normal for the recipient of the salvation of our God. It doesn't fit. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Finally, the principle of demonstrating gratitude is, as we just read, that presenting your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, is your spiritual act of worship. When the believer offers his body in sacrifice to the Lord, it is service or worship to the Lord. It's not corporate worship as we enjoy right now. But all of the believer's life is to be lived in response to our covenant God, to what He has said, what He has done for us. It is to be worshipful every moment of it. Now the word translated spiritual is translated by some as reasonable. Your reasonable act of worship. In John 4, Jesus calls for worship of God in spirit and in truth. God's people are to worship Him according to the truth of His Word. That truth is applied to the hearts and lives of believers by the power of the Holy Spirit. And since God is spirit, we worship Him spiritually from our hearts, filled with His truth. Those hearts are new hearts, transformed hearts, with a new way of thinking, a new way of feeling, and a new way of willing. The believer's new heart governs and directs his new life, which is lived again through the body. And therefore, a wholehearted devotion to God through mind and will and words and deeds that is through the whole of life as it is expressed through the body, wholehearted devotion to God that way is the only reasonable worship of God. God gives us new life and therefore this new life, this spiritual life is to be sacrificed to Him through that vehicle for expressing life, which is the body, in light of God's mercy. Wholehearted sacrifice to God through the body, but from the heart and soul, is the reasonable spiritual act of worship of the redeemed. Beloved, do you have the comfort of God's saving grace only for the sake of Christ's atoning blood? If you have that, what a precious gift! Love Him. Love Him, congregation, because of His love for you. His eternal, everlasting love. A love that would not allow His chosen ones to be left wallowing in our sin and misery, left to face eternal condemnation and hell. but a love so powerful but to rescue you and me from the horrible pit and place our feet on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. What a precious gift. How do you demonstrate gratitude to God for that gift? Do these words which we sometimes sing characterize your life of gratitude? What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me? By God's grace, the believer enjoys a life-changing experience from selfishness to sacrifice. And whatever situation of life in which God places you and whatever occupation of life He calls you to, it must be faced and carried out in a spirit of sacrifice to Him. Those who have not died to self but instead reject God will die forever on the altar of His rejection in hell. But those who turn to Him in repentance and faith by the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, which is the only way to turn to Him, they will live forever. Offering to God, living praise both now and forever in response to His love lavished upon you and me. The only way to show gratitude to the one who sacrificed His life for us is to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice to Him. And therefore, beloved, may we not selfishly hold back even one part of our life from the One who gave His all for us. And may our daily prayer be, boys and girls, you too. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Amen. Shall we pray? Dear Heavenly Father, from Lord's Day to Lord's Day and every day in between you, allow us to and call us to consider the precious gift of salvation which you have given to your people. A life-changing gift, even for this life. And Father, we pray that we would indeed be moved by your Spirit to respond to you in a way that is pleasing and fitting for you. that indeed our hearts might be altars of sacrifice and praise to you, that indeed you would work in us more and more every day, that we might be of greater, more faithful service to you, that every moment of our lives would be a living sacrifice of praise to you, holy and pleasing in your sight. Heavenly Father, we praise you again for your precious gift, which is ours for eternity. May we not spurn that gift. May we not take it for granted. But may we live in the joy of that gift. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray these things. Amen.