Well, I invite you to turn tonight to Romans chapter 12. We begin tonight the gratitude section of Romans, and we come to chapter 12. We really will focus on the first two verses tonight. I would like to read through verse 8, actually verse 9, but our text will be verses one and two, so found on page 11 26 Let's give our attention tonight to the holy word of the Lord.
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be genuine; abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good."
There will end the reading of God's word.
Beloved in the Lord, tonight is a almost perfect follow-up, I think, to this morning's message. If I were to ask me if you were to ask me well what what would you preach to actually help us to know how to live the sacrificial life that you described this morning from John or Matthew chapter 20?" I might choose Romans 12, and lo and behold, voila Here we are in Romans 12 tonight.
Think of the great truth that came out of Matthew chapter 20 this morning: "But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
And I challenged us this morning that the more we see Jesus, the more we consider and understand and know him and the greatness of that sacrifice for us, the credible, incredible depths of that sacrificial love that was made for us in the cross, the more that will begin to drive our path of becoming like him, of becoming servants. That is exactly the paradigm Paul is working with tonight.
Paul presents to us in Romans what the sacrificial life of the Christian looks like. He's helping us to understand this tonight, and he is finally we might say applying everything that we have learned throughout our work through the book of Romans. He is seriously exhorting us to a certain kind of mindset, to a certain kind of life. And you could say that the message of the Christian gospel, the message of Christ and him crucified, the great truth that we've been studying in Romans of justification by grace through faith alone, the fruit of that, the consequence of that, is a certain kind of life that follows. And it's as if Paul says, "Let me show you tonight what that looks like. I'm going to help you with that tonight." That's the intention of this.
So much so this is such a great passage, an important passage i thought we would just begin it tonight in Romans chapter 12, since it is a major shift in the book. You'll notice that in verse one: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
What a beautiful statement! I'm sure one that we've read many times as believers. He has finally come to the basic application of all that he has said in the book. He's given hints of application; he's made some along the way, but now it's very much focused on the believer's sanctification. And you know how important this is because this seems to be in our day what people are incessantly concerned about. They want to talk about how to live the Christian life, how to do the Christian life, and what do I do with all this wonderful truth that I'm given.
And you'll notice tonight that really is an important drive of the apostle to help us with that. He says, "I appeal to you." The word is is a functioning as a call. I like what some of the older translations use: "I exhort because we really haven't had this so far in the book of Romans. "I exhort you, I exhort you now to something." There's a great call! In light of all of this, I have a basis now to lay the joys of this exhortation of what your pursuit should be as a believer and how you should be living as Christians. And that's very important, isn't it?
There's one word here that motivates this. You can't miss it, and it is the "therefore." "I exhort you, I appeal to you, I exhort you therefore." That is such an important, important word because it really is capturing in light of everything that I've been explaining to you throughout the book this is important throughout Romans.
It's interesting that Paul in Romans did not begin with the exhortation and how to live the Christian life. For 11 long chapters, he's been doing something very important. In these chapters, uh in those early chapters we studied sin and the just judgment of God and people under that just judgment. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." And he explain the consequences of sin and the just judgment of God and what the human heart is like and how sin has ruined the good design and what are. the consequences of that but then of course we move to from the guilt section of that to the grad to the grace section of the book, where in Romans 3 21 there is a resounding "but now."
"But now the righteousness of God is revealed apart from the law, even the righteousness of God that comes by faith to all and all who believe. This righteousness is provided for us." And he explained the wonderful doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. And then he, explaining that, began to speak of the consequences of that for how the how we relate to God himself. That, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. And he explained how sin no longer has dominion over us; its dominion has been shattered, and we are now servants by grace, no longer under the law for condemnation but under grace. And that gave us the great, wonderful truth of Romans 8: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
After he worked through, and I'm jet touring this, explaining that nothing can separate you from his love, he then explained the challenge of the nation of Israel and explained the doctrine of election, encouraging us that "all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, Jew and Gentile alike," that "if you confess with your mouths and believe in your hearts the Lord Jesus and the god raised him from the dead, you will be saved." And then for these last chapters, we have looked at how marvelous the grace of God has been in this master plan of bringing in the Gentiles and through the Gentile belief provoking the Jews, so that the fullness of God, the fullness of the Israel of God, would be saved.
This has been wonderful to go through Romans, ending with a glorious doxology at the end of chapter 11: "Oh, the depth and wisdom of the knowledge of God! For of him and to him or through him are all things." That's wonderful. That that has been such a study and refreshment for me to go through Romans with you and to think about all of these things.
And now, now, Paul turns, and he wants to challenge us and motivate us to proper response to all of that. The mind has to be renewed in all of this. And this is where I think often Christianity sort of goes wrong because we tend to address morality apart from Christ. And you'll notice here that morality apart from Christ is not true Christianity.
Paul is rooting morality in the glorious grace of God that is given to us in Christ Jesus as a consequence of the gospel. From the fountain where the believer is washed and cleansed by the blood of Christ, you might say, the law takes a new position in the life of the believer. The law is not thrown out, and we're indeed not antinomians. The law takes a new position in the life of the believer not one of condemning us or being under its condemning power, but now one of being grateful, being thankful. and
So Paul now tells us how to live. He is motivating us, and I want you to think about this tonight because this is a confusing point for many Christians: that you will never have to, by faith alone in Christ, having been justified by faith, hear me clearly, you will never have to face the just judgment of God. You are free from the law of sin and death. Period! It's a wonderful truth in Romans 8 1 Some of the translations wanted to add to and they got wrong. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Period. Period.
Dear believer, you're you're not in prison anymore prison to sin. You are set free. Paul wants to motivate you not as a condemned criminal. Paul wants you as sons and daughters to live as free children of the King, under his steadfast covenant love.
Remember the Psalm: "Who does the Lord take to light in? Those who know his steadfast love, those who believe that steadfast love." He's the surety as your mediator of the covenant of grace. That was Hebrews, if you remember. The promises are yes and amen. God says to us, "No payments needed back. It's done. It's done."
But what I want from you is to not go back to the pigsty of sin, because that's not good for you as my children. That's not my will for you as my children. You can thank me by not going back to those ways to which you're now ashamed romans 6.
See how he's motivating us? What we do is the contrary: we fall into sin, and we put ourselves back under the covenant works or under the law as as the condemning power of the law, and we think God is angry with us and God is ready to strike us. That is not the way he desires the Christian to live. He's very aware of your weakness. He's very aware of your ongoing sin. And that's why he calls us constantly back. And that's why reading the law and confessing sins is so important every Sunday.
It is indeed the gospel that drives us. The condemning power of the law does not drive the new life. The threats of the law do not drive the new life. It is the love of God in Christ that drives the new life. That will be the only way anyone actually wants to do it.
You know that if I, as a pastor, at times come down hard, and I'm thankful for Dr. Clark and some of his influences over the years, but one of the things that I really appreciate from Dr. Clark has been when the benediction is given at the end, and I try to do this, he reminds me. He says, "You know, as a father, our connection to our children, if we're hard and austere and unforgiving, that's what they'll think of God. The benediction at the end is a smiling benediction. And the pastor should communicate that."
"It's a smiling benediction upon his people. The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, and lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."
Do you think he's frowning?
Now, all that what does that do for us? Well, Paul says, "I exhort you, brethren, therefore." What is the "therefore"? "Therefore," all that. As brothers in Christ, by the mercies of God, since all of this is not in question, I want you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
What does that look like? I think it's helpful to first say what it's not. In the Old Testament, you know, when someone brought a sacrifice, there were all those regulations that governed it, and it required the shedding of blood. And it required um all the animal sacrifices. I mean, the whole Old Testament is given to explain this for us. And and this is one of the reasons I think the Psalms should be sung because when we see them i think we saw that this morning with Psalm 116 is the prayers of Christ himself and the cries of Christ himself, christ Psalms become our Psalms. But in Psalm 51, after David celebrates the forgiveness of sin, he says this: "Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole offerings. Then bowls will be offered on your altar."
Well, we explain that, don't we? Pastor Gordon is not asking you to bring a bowl, is he? That doesn't mean that we are going back to the old. We still bring sacrifices. We still very much bring sacrifices. In light of the forgiveness and fulfillment, and what do those sacrifices look like? What are those sacrifices?
And the very clear answer is: us. Us. The response is to be so believing and trusting that you present your whole bodies as a living sacrifice. All of who you are, all your affections, all your desires, your heart the center of you that the mind. Your life has been bought with a price. You are a purchased possession. Your body is a temple of the spirit. And therefore, since you are in union with Jesus and since you belong to him, all of your life is his.
So he says, "Think this way in great gratitude. Present yourselves this way as a living sacrifice, spiritual worship." That word I think it means service and i don't i think the confusion with that is often we we sort of make this dichotomy and we lose the importance of sabbath worship," uh when we hear that so we hear the common axiom or phrase is all of life. is worship and We can indeed worship god in all of life we can praise god he's not speaking of formal worship here he he indeed is speaking of as our our old confessions or Catechism understood in the heidelberg guilt, grace, and gratitude; sin, salvation, and service. he He's thinking about your service.
What does that look like? Remember when um when Jesus washed the disciples feet? And of course, theme again: they're arguing about greatness, and no one could get up to get the towel and stoop down to wash the filthy feet of the disciples. But Jesus rises up. He looked at this last last Sunday, and he takes this towel and he girds himself. And all of that was a sort of parabolic presentation, if you will, of the incarnation of him leaving his seed in glory and coming and making himself nothing and going all the way to the cross and sacrificial love, taking on our humanity. That was all pictured there to wash us, to cleanse us.
And then Jesus said something I didn't develop last week: "Do you understand what I've done for you? You call me teacher and lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I, then your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them."
He, that blessing, is a pronouncement. In a sense, the one is truly blessed in this life who knows and does these. Now, that's an important connection for the apostle Paul. He understood this strongly throughout all of his epistles.
That when he presented the great truth of Christ in the the christological truth of the the great focus they call it a hymn but the great christological hymn of Philippians 2: "Have this mind among yourselves which was yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count a quality of God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross paul is thinking of the same thing in Romans 12 1 But then he began to describe in Philippians right after that what it looks like. And it helps us with Romans 12:1. He says this: "Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all, for the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me."
That had everything to do, in his mind, with a Levitical priest who would take an animal and sacrifice it on the altar, but on top of that sacrifice would then be poured out what we know of as a drink offering of wine, a libation. And they would pour out the libation all over the sacrifice when the sacrifice was made. The altar was so hot if you've ever been to a Chinese restaurant and you see them do this where it all goes up in a puff of steam. It's really an amazing thing. The altar was so hot; immediately the drink offering would disappear in a great puff of steam. And it would have been a powerful thing to hear and to see.
Paul's thinking about this. And then he explains it: "I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, and I'm glad and rejoice with you all."
He said, "I'm being poured out. I am being poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith. My life is like a puff of steam. It's poured out with the intention of helping people in their faith."
That's the kind of living sacrifice I think we could grab onto. At least we have, from Scripture, comparing Scripture. We have been given so great a salvation. Whose life was poured out? Whose life was given in death so that we would live? And Paul's thinking, "That's the living response I'm after."
You don't have to sacrifice your, you're not sacrificing through blood. And so what Paul's really saying here is, "I have received such good news in the gospel. You have received such good news in the gospel. Christ came. Christ laid down his life and death for me. And now our lives are poured out in sacrifice for our brethren."
It's very simple. That's the aim. Then for the person next to you, this is what the Lord loves. He came thinking of us, and this is what he wants us to think about in his church, in his community.
This is why gifts follow. Gifts are following next week. Have you ever thought of what something like hospitality accomplishes? You know, I was a young college student and had not seen much of this. And I remember in uh it's the OPC in Eureka, and uh there was a family there that essentially took me in. They fed me all the time. And I saw that family gather around the table, and they read the scriptures, and he was such a godly influence on me early on.
So think of the sacrifice that was exhibited to help me understand the faith more, but understand the fellowship of the saints. I learned the love of the body of Christ that way. Our concern is the person next to us. Their conversion, if you know someone, you think of who needs to be converted. Their walk, the help that they need. Their deliverance is a far greater thing than my life, because I've been delivered.
This is the thinking he wants us to have, the love that he wants us to show. "Let your love be sincere," he'll say in verse 9.
The goal of the life now as a follower of Christ is to give our bodies as living sacrifices to the end that your very life would become like that drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your brothers and sisters' faith.
I think this is such an important way to think, isn't it? He calls this reasonable service, spiritual worship. It's something the Lord loves. It's wholehearted commitment to your neighbor.
And I think in verse 2, he explains briefly how it's achieved, one of the detriments to it, and how we can be active in it. And he says, "Here's how it starts. Here's how you start to achieve this kind of thinking in this kind of sacrificial, thankful life."
How do we do it? How do we do it? This is the how-to.
Remember what I said this morning? There are two eyes that the Lord gave us that are meant to look outside of us. Where do we look? Where do we look? And what impedes that pursuit?
Well, you can look inward, and if you take the Bible's three sworn enemies, the world, the devil, and our own flesh, you can look inward and You can find an enemy. you could serve that enemy. Then you could look outward, and you could embrace another enemy. And who's that? The world. Did you notice what verse 2 says? "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is the good and acceptable and perfect."
How do you become a living sacrifice? There's a connection. You start down the path of becoming a servant. It's really plain. The first thing that you have to be an avoidance of. And he says so plainly. I remember Highwell Jones was preaching years ago, and he said, "Do you want to live a thankful Christian life? Do you want to love the Lord? Do you want to show you're grateful?" And he stopped in that Welsh accent I can't do it and i won't try but he said, "Don't love the world. Don't love the world."
It's amazing what a simple Bible verse that I've read a hundred times, to hear it like that. I can't get it out of my head: "Don't be fashioned by the world. Don't be conformed to it. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father but is of the world. Antithetical in every way are the world's principles and the things that it offers us. You can't love the world and be a living sacrifice to your neighbor. You see?
You know what worldly pursuits do? They consume you. If your heart is on the world, it won't be on serving others. If your heart is on the world, it won't be on the church. If your heart is on the world and the things in the world, you will not think sacrificially about helping your neighbor.
Paul's saying the Christian life is not for ourselves. And the way it begins is to stop allowing yourselves to be fashioned and patterning of your thinking on this evil present age. That's the great detriment and threat to being a sacrifice, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
And so these are the things we worry about: clothing, riches, money, future, obsession with the body, worldly friends. To live for those things is to live for something that doesn't endure. When you're worldly, your mind is not that of a servant. It's a self-absorbing path. It's tied to its values and its system. Worldly living gratifies the self.
And I think what he wants us to think about here is the love of Christ should control us. It's a love for the Father that what we do aims to glorify him, but that the way we show that we're thankful is to live on the sacrifice in service of each other's faith. Let your eyes be there. That's what he's saying, right? Let your eyes be there. So not here, not there, but here. That love is what he's calling us to.
And he gives us a positive way forward in this, which will be unpacked in the rest of the chapter: but "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may test and discern what is the will of God, what is the perfect and acceptable will."
Instead of loving the world, let yourselves present tense here be continuously transformed by the renewals of a renewing of your mind. This is what the Lord desires of us. What he's saying is, is when the mind is governed and the mind is continuously transformed with the gospel i think that's the great emphasis here. You are refreshed and you're growing in such a way that your minds are continually transformed. And then we're off ourselves. Now, isn't that the the sort of tie to everything this morning of Christ's sacrificial love for us?
How do we get our eyes off of ourselves or the world? Look at the sacrificial love of Christ for you constantly. It is absolutely true you have to preach the gospel to yourself every day. It is absolutely true you have to hear that gospel every week and on Sunday. It is absolutely true that you have to hear of the incredible love of God in Christ Jesus your Lord as the antidote to serving yourself.
It's a call to let the Word fill the mind, to renew the mind in his wisdom, to then, as we take that Word that we will be motivated to practice what is the good and acceptable will of God. And that will is captured right here: it's it's not a mystery that we can't figure out. The will is exactly right here in the sacrifice and service of each other's faith.
It's a very simple Christian life. I think that's what I love about it. We're always trying to figure it out, but it's very simple: to love your brethren. That's why the next verses give such attention to thinking about how you use your very gifts that God has given you to do this.
And when you see, beloved, how wonderful the grace of God has been to you steady faithful, again, not under condemnation is he saying these things to you? He's saying these things to you as children loved, forgiven, and set free by the blood of Christ. It becomes a sweet thing, a happy thing, a most fulfilling thing. Stop looking inward and over there, but to serve your brethren.
You know, this doing these kind of works that serve one another is a fulfilling blessing that the Lord gives us. You are a content and happy person in doing these things. You know that um when we finally have eyes off us and we're caring for our neighbor, there's great blessing. And it's not like we're doing it for that, but there's great blessing in it because it's the most fulfilling action. For this is what God has set you apart now to pursue.
I said this morning, that's greatness. See how it all ties together? Greatness. When we look at our Lord and think about his sacrifice and constantly set it before it before us and see his greatness, that "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many," now I get to go out and present my very body as a living sacrifice.
I close with this thought: B.B. Warfield, in the great Philippians 2 passage, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who made himself nothing. He titled a sermon on that "Imitating the Incarnation." That would make people nervous today. Imitate the incarnation. This is how we live thankfully for all that the Lord has said and done for us.
And may you be blessed in loving your brethren this way.
Let's pray.
Gracious Lord, thank you for your word to us and encouragement tonight. We are so grateful to be called to this noble path, but we are so weak. We love the world. We look inwardly and serve ourselves. So many things distract us, and we need your help. By your Spirit, to be discerning, to have our minds renewed, that we might think more and more about our own lives being poured out on the sacrifice and service of each other's faith. Help us to do so as your children, and thank you for the redeeming love we have heard about in Christ Jesus our Lord this day. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.