Let us turn to God's Word in
Romans chapter 12. The 12th chapter in Paul's epistle
to the Romans. And that text is found in the
opening two verses. Romans 12, 1 and 2. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I want us to consider then this
subject of the believers reasonable service Paul says that she presents
your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which
is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world
that transforms by the renewing of your mind and so forth considering
then the believers reasonable service. And, of course, a significant
word here in the opening verse is that word, therefore. The Apostle begins now at chapter
12 to draw certain conclusions from what he has said in the
previous 11 chapters. The opening chapters are very
much taken up with Christian doctrine, the great verities
of the faith, the great truths of the gospel. And we might say
more especially in this epistle Paul sets before us that great
doctrine of justification by faith. Remember what he says
at the beginning there in chapter one, Verse 16, I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. A justified sinner then lives
by the faith of the Son of God. looks to Christ and his work
for all his righteousness before a holy God and so in the following
chapters we see how Paul is continually unfolding this great doctrine
of justification in chapter 3 and verse 21 he says now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the Lord and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe. For there
is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Paul then, in the opening
part, from the first chapter right through into chapter 11
he's setting forth doctrines not just the doctrine of justification
but other great truths and then when we come to this twelfth
chapter he begins now to make application of those particular
truths the chapters 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16. These last chapters he
is really setting before us the practical part of Christianity. And so here he speaks of this
as that it is the reasonable service of those who are true
believers in the Lord Jesus. I beseech you therefore brethren
In the light of all that he's been saying previously, by the
mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice
wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And
be not conformed to this will, but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. The reasonable service then
that he is speaking of involves three very solemn things. He
speaks here really of sin, and of mercy, and of holiness. And these are the three things
that I want to consider from these verses for a while this
evening. First of all, the mortifying
of sin. Secondly, the motivation of God's
mercy, and then thirdly, the consequence of holiness of life. Just following that simple threefold
division as we look at this particular text. Firstly, the mortifying
of sin. What is the believer's calling? Well, we're told, aren't we,
in the middle of the verse, the opening verse, that ye present
your bodies a living sacrifice. That's the calling of those who
are believing and living by those doctrines that he's been speaking
of in the previous part of the epistle. That ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice. How so? Well, there is to be
the mortifying of the deeds of the body. To mortify literally
means, of course, to put to death, to kill. And it's under that
mortifying ministry, those sovereign operations of the Spirit of God
in the soul, that a Christian is a living sacrifice. His life
is a living sacrifice to the Lord his God. As we read, or
as we did read there in that portion in chapter 8, verse 13,
If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live, presenting your bodies in a living sacrifice. And why so? Because of course
there is that old nature. There's not only that that he's
born of the Spirit, there's still that that he's born of the flesh.
Remember the words of the Lord Jesus in John 3 where he speaks
of the necessity of the new birth, the needs, the great need of
that truth of regeneration to be born again, born from above
and Christ says that that he is born of the flesh is flesh,
that that he is born of the spirit is spirit and here is the believer,
he still has his old nature but he has a new nature now and now
the flesh lost against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh
as Paul says to the Galatians and he cannot do the thing that
he would And so there is that need to be mortifying, putting
to death the deeds of the body, the old nature. And Paul certainly
speaks of that in some detail in the language of chapter 7.
Verse 18, he says, I know that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good
that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that
I do. Verse 23 says, I see another
law in my members, warring against the Lord of my mind, and bringing
me into captivity to the Lord of sin, which is in my members,
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God. through Jesus Christ
our Lord. And we is brought to feel the
need, continual need of the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see there is then that need
to be putting to death the deeds of the body. They that are Christ
have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts, says
Paul. That's the Christian's calling.
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. This is the reasonable service then of
those who are the Lord's people that they present their bodies
a living sacrifice that is involved in this dreadful conflict. If
ye live after the flesh ye shall die, but if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live. The Christian's
calling then is not to attain a state of sinless perfection
in this world, but rather to live a life in which he is constantly
dependent upon the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost is that One
who comes as the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, and ministers continually
of the things of Christ. Remember how in the Old Testament
the children of Israel are atypical people. We read of ethnic Israel,
those who were the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Jacob who became Israel, but they are a type of God's spiritual
Israel, the true children of God. And as the nation is a type,
so God's dealings historically with the children of Israel are
typical dealings. And when the Lord God brings
them into the land of promise, that land is a type. We often
think of the the land of promise as a type of heaven. In some
ways, that's not incorrect, but it's not strictly correct. Because,
of course, they knew nothing but conflict in that land when
they entered into it. The Canaanites were still in
the land. And in heaven, of course, there
is no conflict. There's perfect rest. That's
that rest that remaineth for the people of God, really, Canaan
is more a type of the life of the child of God. When that person
has been born again of the Spirit of God, and is now seeking to
live that life of faith, there are those principles that we
can find by considering something of Israel's history as they come
into the land. What does God say to them in
Deuteronomy 7.22? The Lord will put out those nations
before thee by little and little. And that's simply a repetition
of what God had said previously in Exodus 23, 13. It would be
by little, by little. They wouldn't overcome those
nations all at once. There would be conflict. And
what's the purpose of that? Well, the psalmist says, Slay
them not, lest my people forget. They had to learn all the time
their dependence upon the Lord if they would overcome those
seven nations that were mightier and greater than they were. They
couldn't do it in their own strength and so the believer is engaged
in this constant conflict with sin and with Satan and with the
world. We're going to sing just now
the hymn 782, and it has that verse, corruptions, make the
mourner shun presumptions dangerous snare, force us to trust to Christ
alone and fly to God by prayer. That's what is involved in this
mortifying of the deeds of the body, we have to fly to the Lord,
we have to pray to the Lord. We cannot overcome Satan in our
own strength. We cannot even overcome our old
nature in our own strength. We have to live that life of
complete and utter dependence. But call always to that. Mortify. Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
and covetousness, which is idolatry. Present your bodies as such a
living sacrifice. Or think of the language that
we have at the end of that 15th chapter in 1st Corinthians where
Paul addresses his beloved brethren to be steadfast unmovable always
abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know
that your labour is not in vain in the Lord Some of these exhortations
we maybe won't sometimes to come to them and we can so easily
treat them in a legal way as if we're being called to do something
of ourselves in our own strength. No, there we're reminded, are
we not, that we should look at them in an evangelical way and
an experimental way. We're involved in a conflict
and in that conflict we're dependent upon the Holy Spirit And we learn
increasingly the need of the Lord Jesus. We have to grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Paul says to the Colossians,
you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. And how
is it hid? Because it's there and there
alone that we find the strength and the enabling to mortify. It's by the Spirit of the Lord
Jesus that we mortify the deeds of the body. But there's not
only the mortifying of sin that is spoken of here, presenting
bodies as living sacrifices. This is gospel. And so, we see
that there's a motivation. And what is the motivation? It's
by the mercies of God. It's by the mercies of God. I
beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye
present your bodies, a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service. Look at the context. And the
context, of course, takes us back to the end of the previous
chapter as he comes to the conclusion of the more doctrinal part of
the epistle I've spoken of the epistle as being in two parts
as it were doctrinal and then practical but we mustn't be rigid
in that interpretation there are practical parts in the opening
11 chapters as there are doctrinal parts in the closing chapters
from verse 12 through 16. So we're not to be rigid, but
we must always take everything in its proper context and see
every verse and every chapter in the context of the whole.
Well here, in the end of chapter 11, what does he say? He speaks of God's in a remarkable
way in the very last verse of chapter 11. For of him and through
him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. All then is to be to the
glory of God's. His grace, His mercy, is that
that is to be magnified. And so too in the lives of the
people of God. As they live this life of complete
and utter dependence, is it not a life that is magnifying God
and magnifying the grace and the mercy of God? It's in His
mercy, of course, that God is pleased to save sinners. There's
a lovely passage there in the epistle of Paul to Titus, one
of those pastoral epistles. Look at the words that we have
in chapter 3 at verse 5. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being
justified by His grace we should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life." It's a great statement that the Apostle is
making, not by works of righteousness, but according to His mercy. It's
according to His mercy. And here, it's by the mercies
of God. that he presents your bodies
as a living sacrifice. It's not some legal duty that
is being set before us then. No, we know from what Paul has
said previously here that the believer is one who is very much
dead to that law of God. Doesn't he say it there in chapter
7? Verse 6, Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that
ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when
we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law
did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now
we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were
held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in
the oldness of the letter." What does the believer do as he lives
this life? It's a life of faith. It's a
life in which he is truly living on Christ, and he's living by
Christ, and he's living of Christ. It's a life in which Every aspect
of that life is bound up with the person and work of Christ. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which
I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son
of God. Oh, it's that mercy that God
has demonstrated in the gift of His only begotten Son. It
is of the Lord's mercies. that we're not consumed because
His compassions they fail not. They're new every morning, and
great is His faithfulness. For we live of all that God is
as He has revealed Himself in the person and work of His only
begotten Son. It's all the fruit, really, of
justification that we see here. Again, those words in chapter
3 at verse 24. What does he say? "...being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins that are past through the forbearance of God." And
so he goes on. Where is he quoting then? It
is excluded by what law of works, nay, but by the law of faith. Or the motivation. The motivation
is all that God is, all that God has done in and through Christ. And then thirdly here we have
the consequences. The consequence of this mortification. And what is it? It's holiness.
It's holiness. He goes on, doesn't he, in the
second verse, Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Holiness. Now, three areas of holiness,
as we have them set before us here. First of all, there is
to be the separation from the world. Be not conformed to this
world. There we have the negative and
then the positive. But be you transformed by the
renewing of your mind. All there is to be, the separation,
not following the forms and the fashions of the world. The world
lies in wickedness. The world lies very much in the,
in the wicked one. 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, says John, but of the worlds. And
so they are called to be separate from this world. As Paul says,
writing to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 6, the end of that chapter, verse
17, he says, Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate,
saith the Lord, touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive
you and will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons
and daughters saith the Lord Almighty what promises God gives
to be a father having therefore these promises dearly beloved
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and
spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God all that life
of separation And that renewing, that renewing
of your mind, that's an interesting expression. The new man, we're
told by Paul, is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him. When Adam fell, of course, that
image in which he was created, the image and the likeness of
God, that was marred, disfigured. He was dead in trespasses and
in sins. He is in ignorance, alienated
from God. But where the grace of God comes,
when God visits the sinner in his mercy, and there is that
great work of regeneration, there is a renewing of that image.
The new man is renewed in knowledge after God's image. Oh, it's knowing
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's life eternal, says Christ,
to know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent. And it's having that mind of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't Paul say that to the
Colossians? You have the mind of Christ. To the Philippians,
let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. You
know the passage there in Philippians 2. And of course that fifth verse
introduces us to that tremendous portion in which he speaks of
the person and work of Christ. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. And so forth. It's that humbleness
of mind. that lowliness of mind, that's
what Paul is speaking of and this is the Christians calling,
not just a separation from the world, not just a negative thing
but also the positive side of that transformed by the renewing
of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God and what is God's will for his people
well that they live lives that conform to God's image as God has revealed
himself he's the holy one of Israel and when we come to the
gospel we don't only have those promises exceeding right and
precious as they are we also have precepts and he that loves
God is to love his brother also these people are called to live
such a life of love and kindness as we have opportunity for says
let us do good to all men especially to them who are of the household
of faith when you think about that what is it to love the brethren
to minister to the brethren well it's part and parcel really of
presenting your bodies as living sacrifices The language that
Paul uses when he commends the Philippians, there in the closing
chapter of that epistle how he speaks of their many kindnesses
to him and the sacrificial way in which they sought to support
him. I have all and abound, he says, I am full. having received
of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour
of a sweet smell, a sacrifice, acceptable, well-pleasing to
God." Or what they did, you see, in ministering to the Apostle
and ministering to God's people in general, their kindness, their
love of the brethren. It was a sacrifice, an odour
of a sweet smell, And when Paul writes to the Ephesians, he speaks
of the Lord's own sacrifice in similar language. An offering
and a sacrifice to God, he says, for a sweet-smelling savour.
What Christ did, you see. There to be Christ's life. As
Christ sacrificed himself, made the great propitiatory sacrifice,
bearing in his own person all the wrath of God, so his people
are to live lives of sacrifice. Not in that sense. But they are
to present their bodies living sacrifices as they seek to serve
one another. Their separation from the world,
There's love and kindness to believers. They're doing good
to all men, really. Especially them who are of the
household of faith. And then also there's that desire
to worship God. To worship God. Their living
is really an act of worship. We come together, of course,
in this fashion. Not just for a prayer meeting,
we come together to worship God. When we gather on the Lord's
Day, they are worship services, primarily. It's the people of
God gathering together. It's an act of corporate worship.
And doesn't the apostle, there at the end of the Hebrew Epistle,
make it clear that worship is really a sacrifice? A tremendous passage in Hebrews
13 at verse 10 following. He says, We have an altar, whereof
they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the
bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary
by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate. let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp bearing his reproach for here we have
no continuing city but we seek one to come by him therefore
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that
is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name we are a kingdom
of priests and so we bring a priestly sacrifice We offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually, the fruit of our lips, giving
thanks to His name. O God, grant that we might know
then something of the consequence of these things, the mortifying
of the deeds of the body, that dependence upon the mercy of
God, motivated by all that God is as He has revealed Himself
and ministers to us in the Gospel. and these blessed results this
holiness of living I beseech you therefore brethren by the
mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice
holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and
be not conformed to this world but be you transformed by the
renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God Amen.