Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from Romans, the
book of Romans, chapter 12. beginning with the first few
verses here, and the title of the message is The Mercies of
God. The Mercies of God, Romans chapter
12. You know the book of Romans is sort of like an annotated
Bible. It was not, if we study the history
of the writings of the Bible, the New Testament, Romans, Paul's
letter to the church at Rome, was not the very first letter
written, but it's the very first letter that appears in the New
Testament right after the book of Acts. It's the first epistle.
And these epistles were letters to the churches dealing with
issues that Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to deal with. But
the reason I believe the Lord providentially, and this is something,
you know, a lot of people, they criticize the Bible because of
the way that it was brought together. Some letters were rejected, others
were. Now, I'm a firm believer that
the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the inspired, inerrant Word
of God. Every word of it. And I know
there are issues of translation, in the Old Testament from the
Hebrew to the English, and the New Testament from the Greek
to the English, and sometimes in other passages from the Aramaic
to the English. I know there are issues there.
And that's why the Bible has to be studied. And when you study
it, you pray that the Lord will reveal its contents to you, the
truth of it. But I know when people study
the history of how our English Bible, in its present form, came
together, it causes some doubt. Because, you know, actually there
were unbelieving, unregenerate people sometimes who brought
it together. You know, we talk about the King
James Bible. King James himself was not a
believer. But God used him, and this is what I'm trying to say. Bringing together the Bible is
a providential work of God, using all kinds of different people
to bring it together. But it's God's word, and God
brought it together. And I believe the reason that
the Lord providentially made the book of Romans the first
epistle is because the book of Romans is sort of like an annotated
Bible in itself. In other words, all the truths
of the Bible are included in this one book of Romans. And
in the other epistles, you see certain aspects emphasized, but
in Romans, you see it all. And so one of the things that
I want to bring forth here is in chapter 12, verse 1, Paul
is encouraging, and you see the word beseech there. He says,
I beseech you therefore brethren. That word beseech is actually
a plea. It's kind of like Paul said,
I'm begging you. And what he's going to do is in this passage,
he's going to encourage God's people, true believers, sinners
saved by grace, to seek to obey the Lord, and to honor Christ
in their lives, their character, their conduct, their attitude,
their relationships. It's a book of obedience, words
of obedience, and he has laid down the basis and the ground
and the motivation for obedience in the first 11 chapters of Romans
in which we have some of the most clear, distinct, and detailed
language to show us what salvation by the free and the sovereign
grace of God in the glorious person in the finished work of
Christ really is and what it's all about. That's what the therefore
is there for. Somebody said one time, if you
see a therefore in the Bible, find out what it's there for.
So he says in verse one of chapter 12, I beseech you, I beg you,
I plead with you, therefore. Well, that therefore includes
everything that Paul had said up to this point as he was inspired
by the Holy Spirit to write these things down about how God saves
sinners in His sovereignty, in His grace, in His mercy, in His
justice, all based upon the merits, not of the sinner. but of the
glorious person of Christ. And what is his person? He is
God manifest in the flesh. Paul started out the book of
Romans that way. It was the gospel of God in Christ
who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. That's
his sinless humanity, but declared to be the son of God with power
in his resurrection from the dead. That's his deity. So who
is Jesus Christ? He's God manifest in the flesh.
And the merit of His work, His obedience, His death on the cross
as the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of God's chosen
people given to Christ before the foundation of the world,
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit acting together in unison
in the everlasting covenant of grace. And that merit of that
work is summarized in the phrase, the righteousness of God. And
that's what Paul wrote in Romans 1, 16 and 17 when he said, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, It, the gospel, the good
news, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. It's not the power of God unto
salvation to everyone because everyone doesn't believe it.
But who is going to believe it? Those whom God chose from the
beginning for whom Christ died on the cross and whom the Holy
Spirit brings in the new birth to have life from the dead and
gives them faith to believe and brings them to repentance of
dead works. So he said to everyone that believe
it, the Jew first, the Greek also, the Gentile, for therein,
verse 17 of Romans 1, for therein, in that gospel, The good news
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, the justified shall live by faith. And that's a summation
of salvation. It's justification. That's the
forgiveness of all my sins based upon the blood of Christ and
being declared righteous in the sight of God based upon Christ's
righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to me. as my surety,
substitute and redeemer. That's why Paul wrote in Romans
chapter four and verse six, of the blessedness of the man to
whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. And he made it
clear, salvation is not by works. It's not by, listen, salvation
is not by the works of men or the wills of men, it's of God.
And it's of grace. And he said in Romans 11 right
before this, he said, if it's by grace, it's no more of works.
And if it's of works, it's no more of grace. You can't have
both. So I've heard people talk about how some preachers mix
grace and works. You can't do that. If you're
preaching both what you think is grace and works, you're just
preaching works. That's what the Bible teaches.
Well, when Paul says here in Romans 12 and verse 1, he says,
I beseech you, he's speaking to a specific people here, and
who's he talking to? He says, I beseech you therefore,
because of the grace of God in salvation, and he says brethren. Now he's talking to believers
here. I heard a man say one time that
the Bible's not written to unbelievers, it's written to believers. Well,
essentially speaking, you could say that's true, but God sometimes,
He will bring His elect who are yet in unbelief to the Scriptures,
and He will reveal it to them by the power of the Spirit through
the preaching of the gospel. And He says, I beseech you therefore
brethren, brethren in Christ, fellow sinners saved by the grace
of God, and he says, by the mercies of God. Now, that's the key to
what I'm preaching today. The mercies of God. Well, what
are the mercies of God? You know, the Bible speaks of
God's mercy. We talk about His mercy, His
love, His grace. What is His mercy? Well, it's
His compassion towards His people, whom he chose and gave to Christ
before the foundation of the world. And that compassion is
seen in the coming and the doing and the dying and the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ as the savior of his people, his sheep,
his church, his brethren. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. And God has mercy. Someone said
one time that grace is God giving his people what we don't deserve,
and that's true. And mercy is God holding back
from his people what we do deserve, which is the wrath of God against
our sins. God is merciful. The Bible says
so many times, in the book of Psalms especially, but in other
places, that God delights to show mercy. But now his mercy
is sovereign mercy. He doesn't show mercy to everyone.
Look back at Romans chapter 9. And this is important now. Don't
let this go by you. He's talking about two men, Jacob
and Esau. In verse 13, as it is written,
he said, Jacob have I loved. Well, that's God's unconditional
love towards a sinner like Jacob. And that's the way God's love
is towards His people. His love is in Christ, 1 John
4, 10, here in His love. Not that we loved Him, but that
He loved us, His people, and gave His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. I did a series on propitiation.
I have three messages. You need to listen to them and
understand that word. That's a sin-bearing sacrifice
who brings satisfaction to the law and justice of God. And God
expresses his mercy towards his people, his elect, Christ's sheep,
by sending Christ into the world to obey the law unto death for
them and secure their salvation. So he says, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. And I know people don't like
to think of God hating anybody, but God does hate those who are
workers of iniquity. The Bible says that in Psalm
5 and verse 5, he hateth all workers of iniquity. What is a worker of iniquity?
A worker of iniquity refers to someone who falls short of the
righteous standard of God's law. We are all sinners. And there
is a sense in which you could say that we all commit iniquity
because what we do in trying to obey God always falls short. Romans 3.23, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. But when God saves His people
in Christ, He reveals that they have been made righteous in His
sight They meet up to the standard in His sight, not by their works,
but by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, charged to them. I stand before God in a righteousness
that equals the demands of His law and justice, but I didn't
have anything to do with producing that righteousness. It's all
Christ. Jeremiah twice said that Christ
is the Lord our righteousness, and He is for His people. And
that's what the Scripture says. The righteousness, which is the
entire merit of Christ's obedience unto death, is totally His work
as my surety, my sins laid to His charge, His righteousness
laid to my charge. As my substitute, He paid the
debt, He paid the price of my sins. My sin debt, He paid it
in full. And as my Redeemer, having paid
it all, he bought me lock, stock, and barrel. And he owns me. And in time, if all that happened
for me in time, he will send the Spirit to give me life. Now that's who Paul's talking
about here. This is those to whom God has been merciful. But
he says back in Romans 9, Esau have I hated. He gave Esau what
Esau deserved, and that's the wrath of God. And so people hear
that, and I know a lot of preachers will tell you, well, that means
he loved Esau less than he loved, no, it does not. Don't twist
the scriptures like that. Read them and believe them. God
is sovereign, and he does what he will. He's the potter, we're
the clay. And it says in verse 14 of Romans
9, what shall we say then when you hear verses like this? Jacob
have I loved. Jacob didn't deserve it. Esau
have I hated. God chose to bring his wrath
down on Esau before the foundation. And he says right up in there
before they've done any good or evil. This is sovereign God. And he says, what shall we say
then? Now what are you going to say to that? Is there unrighteousness
with God? Is God unjust? Is he not fair? And Paul writes, by the Holy
Spirit, he says, God forbid. God forbid that you would say
that. Verse 15, now here's the key. For he saith to Moses, now
he's quoting from Exodus 33 where Moses is standing before God
or kneeling before God. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. God is the one who chooses to
have mercy on some and not on others. And you say, well, I
don't like that because that's not fair. Well, God forbid. Who are you to argue with God?
And you say, well, it doesn't matter what I do. If God chose
not to have mercy, listen to me. You're not God, and I'm not
God. The Bible says in Deuteronomy,
I think it's 29, 29, it says the secret things belong to God. The revealed things belong to
us. And what's revealed? All whom
God chose will hear and believe the gospel. Now you seek the
Lord. You hear the gospel. You're commanded
the revealed will of God, not the secret will. A secret will
is something He hasn't revealed to us. He hasn't revealed all
the objects of His love and all the objects of His wrath, but
He's revealed to us that he that believeth not shall be damned,
and he that believeth shall be saved. But if you believe, it's
not because of your own free will or goodness, it's a gift
from God. And that's what He says here.
Why is it so important that this point even be made? And he says,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion,
or I'll be gracious on whom I will be gracious, because that's the
glory of God. That's what he told Moses. You
know, he said this in answer to the question that Moses posed
when he said, God, please show me your glory. And God said,
here it is, Moses, I'll be merciful to whom I will be merciful, and
I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. Now, why is that
important as it applies to us? Well, look at verse 16 of Romans
9. Verse 16, so then, it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. This is sovereign mercy. That's
why we talk about sovereign grace. It's God's choice. And if He's
shown mercy to you or to me, how do we know that? If He loves
you or me, how do we know that? If He's been gracious to you
or me, how do we know that? We believe the gospel. in the
power of the Holy Spirit, and we lay hold of Christ, and we
rest in Him, and we plead His blood for the forgiveness of
all of our sins, and His righteousness alone for our salvation. So that
when we go to passages like Romans 12, where Paul says, I beseech
you, verse one, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God. Now whatever he's going to plead
with them, or beg them, or encourage them to do, It is not to earn
salvation. It is not to earn the blessings
of God. It is because they have already
been given freely by God's grace, all of salvation and all the
blessings of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. Back over
in Ephesians chapter one and verse three, he speaks of that.
When he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2 verse 8, For by grace
are you saved through faith, but that's not even of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And in verse 10, he says, For
we are his workmanship. A sinner saved by grace is not,
you didn't get there by your own will, by your choice. You got there by God's choice
and by God's will, for we are His workmanship created in Christ
Jesus. It was on the basis of Christ,
His glorious person, His finished work. And he says, unto good
works, not because of good works or not based on good works, but
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them. It's a free gift. and it didn't
come to you because Christ made you savable. You know, preachers
tell people, well, God loves you and Christ died for you,
now the rest is up to you. Oh, no. God says, it's not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, mean worketh, but
of God that showeth mercy. If you choose to come to Christ,
it's because God, through the preaching of the gospel, in the
power of the Spirit, has birthed you again, you must be born again,
and given you eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart and
mind to understand. He's made you willing in the
day of his power. And so here's what Paul writes.
Romans 12 verse one, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the
mercies of God. In other words, this is not something
you're trying to achieve by your merits or your works, but he
says that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy, that
means set apart by God, and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. Now this whole construction is
saying this, that because God has been merciful to you by His
grace in Christ, freely giving you all the blessings and all
the benefits of salvation, not based upon your choosing Him,
not based upon your doing anything, but all based upon the merits
of Christ, and because God chose you and gave you to Christ and
sent Christ to die for you, it's because of His grace, then you
present your whole person, your bodies, your mind, your affection,
your will, your arms, your legs, as a living sacrifice. Now, what
that means is one who is sacrificing his own desires, selfish desires,
for the glory of God. In other words, live for the
glory of God. Live in the light of His love
and grace and mercy. And because you are holy, you've
been separated out by God in Christ. Acceptable unto God. How am I acceptable to God? Only
in Christ Jesus. Not in myself. There's no merit
in my works. We read that in Ephesians 2.10.
It's unto good works, not because of. Good works are the fruit
of God's power and grace and love in Christ, not the cause.
And he says, which is your reasonable service. It's only right and
reasonable for a sinner saved by grace who has been given so
much freely, unconditionally, to be an obedient servant of
God, motivated not by law, not by fear of punishment, not by
mercenary promise of earned rewards, but motivated by grace, by love,
and by gratitude. This is the faith that Paul wrote
of in Galatians chapter five, that worketh by love. In other words, serving God,
worshiping God, following Christ, embracing Christ, submitting
to Christ, not because of what you can get out of Him if you
do, or not because of fear of being harmed by Him if you don't,
but because you love Him. And because, basically because
He loves you. That's the kind of obedience
that God requires of His people. It's not to earn. And he says
in verse two of Romans 12, be not conformed to this world.
Now the world in the scripture here, in this context, the world
can sometimes mean the created universe. It sometimes means
the world of God's elect. God has a chosen people out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. That's John 3.16.
The world there doesn't mean every individual without exception.
It means those who are brought to faith in Christ, that everyone
who believeth might have eternal life, everlasting life. And then
sometimes the world means the cursed, unbelieving, ungodly
world. And that's what it means here.
Don't be conformed to this cursed, ungodly, unbelieving world. And
let me say this. When he talks about the world,
when people read about the world, the ungodly world, they always
think of the immoral faction of the world, or what men and
women see as immoral, the drunks, the drug pushers, the whoremongers,
all of that. And certainly, believers are
not to be conformed, united, and to be like that kind of behavior. But he's talking about the religious
world here. Religion without Christ. Religion without grace. Religion without truth. Look
at the Pharisees. Don't be like the Pharisees,
he's saying. Don't be like the self-righteous
religionist who thinks he's holier than everybody else. Don't be
like those who are trying to work their way into God's favor. Don't be conformed to that, verse
2, but be ye transformed, changed, by the renewing of your mind.
Think about these things. It comes through the mind. That
doesn't mean you have to be an intellectual or a doctrinal Pharisee,
but God teaches His people. The Bible says that His people
are disciples, that's learners. And so he says, by the renewing
of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. I want to do the revealed will
of God. That's what he's talking about.
Motivated by grace, love, and gratitude. I beseech you by the
mercies of God. Be ye not conformed to the world,
be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Look to Christ,
follow Christ, love Him and His people. And I hope you'll join
us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7, contact us
by phone at 2-2-9-4-3-2-6-9-6-9, or email us through our website
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today, and may the Lord be with you.