Eight verses here together. Paul
says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and
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 you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. For I say through the grace given
unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according
as God had dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as
we have many members in one body, and all members have not the
same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and everyone
members one of another. Having then gifts differing according
to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us
prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us
wait on ministry or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth
on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity,
he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Now, the Apostle Paul, having
finished his discourse on the sound doctrine of God's salvation,
that salvation is completely and absolutely of the Lord. He says in that last verse again,
for of him and through him and to him are all things, especially
the salvation. Salvation is of him. He purposed,
he planned, he predestinated our salvation. Through Him, He
is the source and power of all our salvation, and to Him salvation
is for His glory. So the summation of all this
doctrine from chapters 1 all the way through chapter 11 is
this, salvation is of the Lord. That is sound doctrine. Anything other than that is not
sound doctrine. And this doctrine, every believer
knows that this by the grace and power in the new birth, this
gospel, every child of God believes and loves to hear. We love this
gospel. We know this to be true. This
is not only written, it is written on our hearts, it is experienced.
He said, you are my witnesses. Now we are his witnesses to these
things. These are not just words. These are our own experience
of grace. For by grace you are saved through
faith, that not of yourselves. Yet faith is a gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, And
here it is, unto good works. Not because of good works, but
rather unto good works. God ordained that we should be
a peculiar people, zealous for what? Good works. Good works. Now, the apostle shows that salvation
is of the grace of God through faith, that we are new creatures,
but these new creatures are obedient creatures. And even so in this chapter,
Paul here turns now from the doctrine of salvation by grace
to the duty and privilege of everyone who is born again of
the Spirit. The duty and the privilege, these
things are an honor to serve, an honor to serve our God. And listen, all believers will
serve. You make no mistake about that. Every true believer will
serve his God. He will serve Christ. Therefore,
he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, listen, because of
the mercies of God, because you were chosen, because you were
redeemed of Christ, because you were called of the Holy Spirit,
this is the motivation, because the mercies of God. What should
we do, Paul? Because of the mercies of God,
you should present your bodies a living sacrifice, not a one-time
offering as heathens do to their false gods, but a continual,
perpetual, daily offering of yourself, body, soul, and spirit,
the whole man unto God. It is a complete and absolute
surrender to Him. That's what faith is, isn't it?
It's an absolute surrender to Christ. It is the surrender of the whole
man, the heart, the mind, the will, the body, the soul, and
the spirit. It's what Jesus said, and if
any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross
and follow me. Follow me, whosoever shall save
his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall give his life, that person
shall find it. And this is what believers do.
We offer ourselves, the whole man, and listen, he says, this
is just reasonable. He said, that's your reasonable
service. And we who believe say, yes,
it is more than reasonable. You consider what we receive
and consider what we have to offer. Nothing. What are we offering? What are we actually giving unto
God that was not first given to us? We are only offering to God what
is His. And so this is nothing, really,
it's just reasonable for you to give to God what belongs to
God, and we who have been bought with the price know we belong
to God, I am His, and He is mine. That's a good trade. Is that
not the best trade? Yes, it is, it's reasonable. I remember this story, a missionary
was going to a mission field and these people were known for
violence and killing. They didn't like outsiders and
anybody come in there, they just know you'd kill him. This man
felt as though he should go and was called to the mission field
to this place and they called him a fool. They said, you go
to this place, you're a fool. You'll lose your life and you'll
die. And this always rung in my mind
what he said. He said this, He said, a man
is not a fool to lose what he cannot keep. And he is not a fool to gain
that which he cannot lose. Isn't that right? We lose this life, what have
we lost? Matter of fact, what have we gained? We gained something
that we cannot lose. to give up what we're going to
lose anyway. It's reasonable. It's our reasonable service,
believers. And now in verse 2, Paul is going
to show the manifestation of offering ourselves. He's going
to show it by both this idea of not conforming and being transformed. And as one is transformed, we
have certain gifts Given to us of the Spirit of God and it is
by giving These gifts by using the gifts that God has given
us as a church This is what it is to offer our bodies a living
sacrifice To not be conformed but transformed That's offering
your bodies a living sacrifice. And also it is to use the gifts
for the good of the saints and the furtherance of the gospel. This is what it is we are to
give our lives to, exercising the gifts of God's grace that
he has given to us. And so then he says this, look
at verse two, be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed. Listen, the new birth requires
this, transformation. Transformation, you must, if
you're born again, you must be transformed. That's just the
way it is. Believers are not to fashion
themselves after this world. That word conform means to fashion. to mold oneself, to conform oneself
to this world, its religion, its wisdom, its philosophies. It is evident that we are not
to incorporate the wisdom of men, the philosophy of men, or
the religion of men in our life or service to God. That's a danger,
isn't it? We are all tempted to these things.
We are children of this world. We are by nature children of
this world. And we still have that old nature
in us that is attracted to the things of the world, to the wisdom
of the world. So then Paul is saying, you must
offer it, you must kill it, you must put it aside. Be not conformed to this world. This time, many of the Gentiles,
but this is not, especially not just the outside. I mean, believers,
we know this. We're not to live in fornication
or adultery. We're not to lie or to steal
or to try to get ahead in this world using the wisdom of men.
We are to rely solely on Christ and his promises. We are to obey
Christ. according to the measure of faith
that he has given us. We are to obey him in everything. But this especially is talking
about religion. These Roman believers were tempted
by the Jewish religion. It was, its pageantry was awesome. I imagine a spectacle to watch.
The high priest in his robes going up to offer those sacrifices,
the beauty, the magic. But look at our religion today.
Is it still not tempting? I mean, it's spectacular. Man,
they have all of the music and the lights and the show. It is
beautiful. What he's saying, look, don't
be fooled. Don't be fooled by their pageantry.
Don't be fooled by their religion. We must not be taken in by the
glitter and wisdom of the false church. We must not give place
to this world or its wisdom or its religion. And I know this,
you have many religious family members, religious friends that
invite you to their services. They invite you to those places.
And I'm telling you, the music, it sounds pretty, all of it. But do you realize that when
we present our bodies to those places, all we are doing is giving
affirmation to them that they are equal? That their gospel
is on the same level as ours? That their gospel is the same,
that we are consenting to their worship? We must be careful. And listen, what's gonna happen
to you when you deny that? Don't you suppose you'll have
to sacrifice? Don't you suppose that your friends and your family
will feel offended when you don't give consent to their false doctrines,
to their false church? You bet they're going to ostracize
you. They're going to put you out. I beseech you, therefore, by
the mercies of God, that you present your bodies in living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God." That's just reasonable
for you to do that. Was Christ not cast out? How
many of the disciples escaped suffering and being cast out? None of them. And listen, neither
will we escape. We must offer ourselves. in service to Christ alone. Cast
these things off. Don't be conformed to this world.
Believers, we do not consent or excuse this world of their
sin nor of their false religion. We once did walk according to
the course of this world, we were, and did mind earthly things,
but now, listen, we have been transformed. Be you not conformed,
but transformed. The word here is metamorphosis.
You know what that is? You take that caterpillar, that
ugly little thing, little worm looking thing, and he cocoons,
and he metamorphosizes into the beautiful butterfly. Look, this
is what happened in grace. Don't you see what's happened
to you? You've been transformed. You've
been transformed by the power of God, by the work of God's
grace. We have been metamorphosized.
We have been changed. Is that not right? Who among
us that are believers in Christ have not been changed? We've
been changed. We've been changed. This denotes
an entire change has taken place. If any man be in Christ, he is
what? A new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. The scriptures are not vague
about this. If a believer in Jesus Christ,
though the old man of sin still persist and remains, Yet this
old nature does no longer rule us as it once did. Isn't that
right? Is that not why you're here this
morning? If you were given into your old nature, where would
you be? You would not be here. You would not be here. You see,
why are you here? Because you have power God has
given you to be here. You've had strength. Strength
to put off the old man, to serve the living God. That's a change,
friend. Faith is not a mere decision. Oh, friends, faith is evidence
of something much greater is taking place in you. What a transformation,
a new creation has taken place in us. How many have we seen? who have
come with tears, made some profession, and yet there was no change in
them. As the dog returneth to their vomit, so they return to
their sin. How many? We've seen many people
make those professions. And where are they? Why? Because there was no change in
their hearts. Now, they presented their bodies for a while, didn't
they? They made a show of religion. It's sad to watch. I see some
men, and I don't see this as often because I don't really
want to see it, I guess, but I watch men grit their teeth
coming here. Man, they just struggle, and
they try, and they won't. They just try to put on that
show of religion, and it just don't last. Why? There's no transformation. They profess with their lips
but their bodies. They can only exercise this religion
for so long because there's no real substance in it. But we
who are transformed, listen, have you stopped being transformed? No, this is, friends, we grow
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We grow
in these things. We have made, there's been a
change, but this change continues in us, constantly increasing
in the graces of God. Faith, has your faith not grown? Love, has your love not grown?
Joy, meekness, temperance, all the fruits of the Spirit. This
thing God does daily in us through trials and difficulties and troubles,
he causes us to grow in these graces. to be like our Lord Jesus Christ. Our heart and mind is constantly
being reminded and renewed of these things. How often have
you been in such a great dilemma, great difficulty and sadness
and the Word of God come in and your mind is renewed. He said
do this, this transformation comes by the renewing of your
mind. The turning constantly from the things of the world,
constantly renewing and remembering the things of God, the promises
of God. That you may prove what is that
good and perfect and acceptable will of God. How often have we
proved that this will of God is good? That the will of God
is good. How many times have we seen the
things of this world and we think, how in the world could this be
good? And yet, when we think of God's mercy and grace, we
know this. If He has given us His Son, how
should we not with Him freely give us all things? Did not God
say that I intend only for your good? Consider the will of God was
from eternity to give you life and faith to save you. It is
the will of God that you should be sanctified, that you should
be made holy. It is the will of God that you
should do good. Is that not right? That you should
give thanks. That's the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you, the apostle said. Now, considering what we
have been given, considering what sacrifices we must make
of the whole man, let me ask you this, what then is the greatest
hindrance from this? Offer your bodies a living sacrifice
unto God, holy and acceptable. Be not conformed to this world,
be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Which to prove
what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God. Now
what is the one thing, the one thing that would constrain us
from giving everything to God? Pride. Why don't you want to give something?
Why don't you want to give it away? Because it's yours. You think it's yours. It's mine.
I don't want to give it. I don't want to sacrifice. What
is that pride? And so the apostle knowing our
pride, what does he tell us? He said, how can this be done?
He says this in verse three, where I say, through the grace
given unto me, to every man which is among you, not to think of
himself more highly than he ought to think. You know why we will not sacrifice
we think too highly of ourselves? Why will we not give what rightfully
belongs to God willingly? Because we really think it belongs
to us. But to think, how are we to think?
Think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure
of faith. May God even now quench our pride. We say, why me? Why not you?
Why not me? Consider who we are. How low. How mean and how small we are. Yet God thinks on us. And not
only just His thoughts, but His love, His Son, His blood, His
righteousness, heaven is given to worms. Isn't that wonderful? We should not think of ourselves
as highly. Who should we think highly of?
Him. Him. In man's religion, that's all
they think about is thinking highly of you. Promoting your
self-esteem. You know what promotes my self-esteem
thinking of him. I Feel good about myself thinking
about him. I Don't feel good thinking about
myself. I just don't feel good about myself thinking about myself
That's counterproductive If you want joy, you need to think about
how you are in him That's joy I think you have our union with
him, humility. And listen to this, even consider
that he has given us gifts, gifts of his grace and uses us for
the furtherance of his gospel. Isn't that wonderful? He uses
us, gives us gifts by which we further the gospel and edify
one another and comfort his church, the gifts. Paul said, through
the gift of God's grace given unto me. Let us not think highly of ourselves.
Whatever we have, we have of grace. Even our faith, that's
what Paul says. Look, even the measure of your
faith is given to you by God. Remember, faith is a work of
God, isn't it? Faith is a gift of God, not of works. Faith. And this faith ought to be used
considering who we are, to humble ourselves, considering what Christ
has done to exalt Him, and also to rightly discern our gifts. Our gifts. That's what I want to spend the
remainder of the time on here now, is these gifts. Paul, taking
into account the pride of man and regarding the gifts and talents,
exhorts us to humility by showing us that we are not unto ourselves,
that these gifts are not just for us, but rather for the church. These gifts are rather for the
glory of Christ and the furtherance of the gospel. We as believers
in Jesus Christ are part of one spiritual body. Look at that,
what he says. Four, this is why you should be humble. This is
why you should sacrifice yourself and offer yourself as a living
sacrifice. Four, we have many members in
one body and all members are not the same office. So we, being
many, are one body in Christ and every one members one of
another. Have you considered that, that
we are all one body? Every one of us in this room,
every one of the believers in Christ, we are all as one body. Christ is the head, and we are
the body of Christ. That's the union that we all
share. We are all part of this one body. There is a place where spirits
blend, where friends hold fellowship with friend, and sunder far by
faith they meet around where one common mercy seat. Christ
is our head and we are his body. We're all members of this body,
though we should humbly understand this, that not every part of
the body has the same office, has the same purpose. Remember when our Lord was talking
to his disciples and they said, which one of us is going to be
the greatest? You remember that they said that Jesus said why
you are what's this that you're arguing about? Hey, they say
well, we ought to know which one of us gonna be the greatest
and he said this the person that gives all and Serves all is the
greatest now, who's that who gave all and serves all only
Christ So who's the greatest among us none of us but Christ
Christ is the greatest among us and we are all His body We
he is our head We should never dispute who is the greatest,
Christ is the greatest. So then let us not offend by
putting ourselves above another, but rather set Christ above us
all. If we have any attribute of pride,
attitude of pride or self-service, that we should offend our brother,
we should cut that off. We should sacrifice that, whatever's
offending our brother. If it has nothing to do with
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace, we should cut
that off, whatever it is. If it offends us, it should be
cut off. Whatever it is, if it's not essential.
Paul said, you know, if the man over there, he really thinks
that meat offered to idols is something, I need to give up
meat. And listen, if you don't say,
well, you know, he needs to change his mind. What does that mean,
pride? No, she ain't no meat. You should humble yourself under
the weaker brethren, so as not to offend. Because that meat
means what? Nothing. Does it mean anything? No, not at all. In other words, believer, every
one of us has a place in this church. In this body, every one
of us has a place. And we must discern by the grace
and power of God what our gifts are, because every one of you,
every one of us have gifts, differing gifts, but gifts. And may God
the Holy Spirit teach us our place. I have an illustration
of just a husband and a wife. That's an illustration. You have
a man, and the man is to be the leader of the home, the provider
of the home. He's to love his wife as Christ loved the church.
That's his place. That's a man's place. And he
should take that place. It's not proud to say those things. That's what the world, oh, you're
just proud to say. No, that's just what God ordered. It's how
God placed it. Here's the woman's part. The
woman is to be subject to her husband as unto the Lord, the
keeper of the home. That's her role, that's her place.
Now is one more important than the other? No. They both have
their place and they should both take their place. In order for
that marriage to work, so it is with the church. How much
more with the church? Every one of us take our place as God has
given us and these gifts. I know I don't have time, but
these gifts, there are seven here mentioned. I want to go
through them if the Lord gives me grace to show them to you. First of all, he says this, In
verse six, having gifts differing according to grace is given us,
whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of
faith. This prophecy is not just tell
us in the future, that's what people assume, but a prophet
was a mouth of God. That's what a prophet was. He
didn't receive anything of himself, but rather he took the word that
God gave him and then gave it to the people. He didn't make
it up. It didn't come from him. It wasn't
of him. It was of God that gave it. Now,
sometimes it was future, sometimes it was present, and sometimes
it was past. Whatever God gave him to preach,
that's what he was to do. Many claim to have prophecy of
telling the future, but listen, that's not important. What's
important is what is his gospel. You know, a man tells me something's
gonna happen, and this is, don't misjudge this, because I'm sure
that there may be some of those, even demons, who are able to
predict things that may come to pass. So I don't determine
if a man is telling the truth concerning if he can tell the
future. What is his gospel? What is his doctrine? What is
his word concerning Christ? That's what the important thing
is. And so then we that preach, we
that prophesy, what do we prophesy? The word of God. If God has given
us the gift of preaching, then what are we to do? Preach, preach. And the question is, how shall
we know whether a man is speaking the word of God or not? Well,
if what he preaches doesn't come to pass, then he's not of the
Lord. Whatever he preaches. You see,
I speak of things that have come to pass. I speak of things that
are coming to pass, and I speak of things that will come to pass.
And if what I say is not true, then I am a false prophet. False prophets tell men today
that Christ died for all men. How do we know that's false?
The Word of God says so. The Word of God says so. Because it didn't come to pass
according to the scriptures. The scriptures are clear that
thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. That's how I know that's false.
It's according to the Word of God. Believer, don't be afraid of
false religion. Don't be afraid of them. They
have no part in this kingdom. They have no part. Everything
that they do has nothing to do with the gospel of God's grace. So prophesying is not just telling
the future, it's preaching the gospel of Christ. And so then
this is talking of the office of a pastor, the office that
God has by grace called men to perform. And listen, he calls
us, not though we were greater than any other believer, this
is just the office and gift that we have been given. Now this office is worthy of
honor. It's worthy of honor. The scripture
says, let the elders that rule be counted worthy of double honor,
especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. I know this and I testify of
this congregation, you have given me double honor. You have. And that is a testimony to you
of your faith and love for Christ. your reverence for his gospel. But we know this, that anyone
in this office, like Paul said, we are not sufficient of ourselves
to think anything of ourselves. See, this is my office, but really
there's nothing about it of any merit in me. This is a gift of God, and it
should be used for the glory of God. This is my office, it's
a high office, yet if rightly viewed, it is a most humbling
office. I am not sufficient to do this
in myself. I have no sufficiency in myself
to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,
who has made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of
the law, not of the letter that killeth, but of the spirit that
giveth life. And I and every other gospel
preacher must always keep this in view. We must always humble
ourselves and recognize that what we have is a gift of God
and we are to preach only Christ. We preach not ourselves, but
Jesus Christ and ourselves your servants for Christ's sake. The
sum of this, when he says, those who have the gift of prophecy,
let them prophesy. What are we to prophesy? Christ
and Him crucified. Christ and Him crucified. The
second is ministry. He said, or ministry, let us
wait on our ministry. Now the words here in italics
are not there, but the idea is that we are called to minister
or to serve in the church. Whoever is called to serve in
this church, who is that? Everyone. Everyone is called
to minister or to serve in the church. Now, some have offices
in the church to serve. Other than the pastor, there
is the office of a deacon. A deacon is a very privileged
place. You remember this was done in
Acts chapter six when they were, the widows of the Gentiles were
being neglected. And God said to, through the
apostles, he said, look, y'all choose out men to do this business. Why? Because the man prophesying
is to give himself to what? Preaching. He said, we're not
here to serve tables, but to give ourselves to prayer and
to study. That's what the preacher is to
give himself, occupy himself with. And what is the office
of the deacon is to take those responsibilities, those daily
things that would draw the pastor away, and he is to serve in those
aspects. He is to serve and minister to
the needs of the congregation. Deacons are sent to spend their time handling
matters of lesser consequence so that we do not neglect the
Word of God. What a wonderful thing that is.
For as a pastor, I know. I know it is a wonderful thing
to have this. But there are other things besides
the office of a deacon that need to be done in this church. Isn't
that right? There was a man in, when I was
going to Lincolnwood, there was a man that, he mowed the grass. Now, I'll tell you what, he wasn't
a deacon, he didn't have an office in the church, but I'll tell
you this, he provided a service for my pastor that no one else
could provide. He provided that service so that
the pastor should not have to deal with that daily thing. And what a blessing it was to
him. But think about this. Is there any need in the church?
Anybody have physical needs or emotional needs or someone to
come alongside them? Do you have that gift that God
has put on your heart to do? Then do it. Occupy yourself with
it. It's good. It's good. Necessary. Teaching is another thing. Teaching. Now pastors truly are teachers.
There's no doubt about that. You must be a teacher in order
to be a pastor. Pastor teachers, that's what
that says in Ephesians. He said he gave some pastor teachers. All pastors are teachers, but
not all teachers are pastors. And I'll give the example, you
remember Apollos, when he went around preaching, that man, he
had some gifts. He had some excellent gifts of
speech, oratory skills, to expound the word of God. But you know
what? He was very limited in his understanding. And there
was Priscilla and Aquila, they heard him and they said, well,
you know what? There's much more to that than you, than your preaching. I mean, come along, come to us,
we'll teach you. And they taught him. And consider the humility of
this man now, who was a great orator. You know what? The best
teachers are the best learners. He was willing to be taught.
And so if God opens up any opportunity to teach others, teach, teach
by all means. I know a man came to me and he
said, He was out at the abortion clinics and he was preaching
or teaching out there, doing something out there. And he said,
does that offend you? And I said, if God called you
to it, no. Go do it. Go do it. If God's given you that gift,
then do whatsoever the Lord lays on your heart. If you want to
teach, then if God gives that ability to you, then fine, teach
others. Isn't this the whole commission
of the church? Go you into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature, every creature. And if you can't teach, you can
give a message, can't you? If God has put that in your heart. Now then, the other thing is
exhortation. Oh, what a wonderful gift is it. Who does not like
to be exhorted to the things of God? Who does not like to
be lifted up by others? To be exhorted to good things,
encouraged and strengthened to exhort. He said, he that exhorteth
on exhortation. I want you to know you are faithful.
You exhort me. You know that? You encourage
me. And all you do is just sit there. Your sitting there encourages
me, strengthens me in the things of God. Is that not something
that you just show up and you encourage? What a gift. What a gift. I hopefully encourage
you through the preaching of the gospel. I exhort you to these
good things. Here's some exhortations. Exhort
sinners to repent. Now, is that not a good exhortation
that we should all be about? Exhort sinners to repent and
believe. Let us exhort believers to faithful
service. You find some believers that
are lacking in faithfulness, exhort them, encourage them,
strengthen them, come alongside them. Is that your gift? Do it. Oh, do it under the service of
God. for the glory of Christ. Exhort
believers to take heart. You find any believers fearful,
afraid, weeping, sorrowful, come alongside them. Encourage them,
strengthen them, love them. Be there for them. I often think
of Job's friends. You know, we do give them a bad
rap. They did, man, they just, they tried to tear that poor
man apart. But you realize what they did? They sat there silent
for days. Have you ever done that with
a friend weeping? Just sat there? I know we like to say things.
Sometimes the best thing is not to say anything at all. Just
be there. Can we do that? Is that within our power? Yes. Is this a gift? Yes, it is. What about someone who needs
to be restored? Oh, broken sinners. We're just
broken sinners. Paul said this, if any man be
overtaken with a fault, you that are spiritual, restore such in
one. Tenderly, graciously, lovingly,
kindly, restore them. And this fifth one is giving.
He said, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. Giving
is a gift, friends. It is a gift of the grace of
God to be a giving believer. I found this in my experience
that the most giving people are usually the poorest. Rich people have a lot of things
they need to be taken care of and the church is not one of
them. The church is just... I venture to say that most people
spend more on their cell phone bills than they spend giving
to the church. That's just so. I found this
to be that most people, but you, this is, you remember our Lord
when He, that woman came into Simon's house and Simon was ridiculing
her, said, if Lord knew, if He was a prophet, He'd know who
this woman was. That woman had broken that alabaster box and
she was weeping at His feet. You remember what Jesus said,
He that loveth much He's forgiven much,
loveth much. The more we come to understand
the grace of God and the salvation of Christ, who we are and how
far He came to save us, you bet this, we'll give more. Give more. More not just of money, what
about time? What about effort? What about
strength? Give ourselves. How should we
do this? Freely. With simplicity. Simplicity. Liberality. Give and give more. How much should I give? As much
as the Lord puts on your heart. Where a man's treasure is, there
will his heart be also. Where's your treasure? Is it
in the bank or is it in Christ? It's in Christ. And this gift
that God gives of giving is a wonderful gift. How much do we give? Can you out give God? Have you? You ever given more than you've
been given? Never, never. It's a gift. And ruling, ruling. This is talking about, he says,
he that ruleth with diligence. ruleth with diligence. This is
talking about surely pastors, those who have authority in the
church, how are we to rule with diligence, with haste and purpose? That's what that means, haste
and purpose. Is this matter not necessarily
of great haste? Sinners are dying. Men are dying without the Word
of God. We should be diligent about this,
fervent with purpose. What is the purpose? That God
should save His elect. And the last one is this, mercy.
Mercy. Now, is mercy by necessity of
merit or not? No. Do you show mercy to someone
who deserves it? No. If God has given you the gift
of mercy, display it. Show mercy at every opportunity. At every opportunity, show mercy. Even as Christ showed mercy to
us. How much mercy is that? And listen, all of these gifts,
as we exercise these gifts, let me ask you, is this going to
cost you something? You bet it is. It's going to cost you everything.
To exercise these gifts is going to cost the flesh everything,
especially pride. To do any of these things, pride
has to be put away. Christ has to be exalted and
He has to be everything. And so what is the summation
of this? Matthew Henry said, We're to do all the good that
we can one to another for the common benefit of the church,
for the furtherance of the gospel. This is what these gifts are
for. May God give us grace then to use them. What's the motivation? Mercies of God. Mercies of God
present your bodies a living sacrifice. May God give us grace
to do this. Grace. Now I know this, every
time I do this and say these things to myself I feel, oh what
worthless, how worthless am I, I've not done any of these things.
Yes you have. Now you should rightly discern
yourself. Remember you who are nothing
can consider what you are in Christ. And you that have these
gifts, I know that you don't do them as you want to Does that
give us any excuse not to do them? No. Do them. They're acceptable gifts unto
God. That should be encouraging. Should
be acceptable gifts. May God help us in these things.