The message is the mercy of God and the sacrifice of the saints. Mercy of God and the sacrifice
of the saints. The apostle here says, 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. You'll see here as we go through
this very clearly, Paul is beseeching who? Brethren. Brethren, believers
in Christ. And what is the motivation by
which He is going to ask of us these duties? It is by the mercies
of God, because of the mercies of God. What is our duty then?
Present your body a living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God. And what's this reason? It's
reasonable. You should do it because it's
reasonable. It's just your reasonable service. And God, by the Holy Spirit,
instruct us in this. This is very important. Very
important. So, Paul having now reached the
summits. Now this comes right after Paul
had reached the pinnacle of all doctrine. The pinnacle of all
doctrine. The summation and conclusion
of every doctrine of Scripture. Here it is, salvation is of the
Lord. That's the pinnacle. If you want
to sum up all doctrine, it is this. Salvation is of the Lord. Look at that last verse. He says,
for, as Paul, he begins to praise it in verse 33, all the depths
and the ridges of both the wisdom and knowledge of God. How in
search of our judgments and His ways past finding out. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor,
who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto
him again." Listen, for of him, the source of all things are
of him. Salvation is of him. It is purposed by him. Listen, and through Him, that
is the execution of the plan, the accomplishment of all that
God purposed, is done by God, through the power of God, through
the work of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
It's of Him, it's through Him, and listen, all things are to
Him. for the glory of God. Everything will redound for the
glory of God. I can't see that. At times, you
can't see it. Don't worry, you don't need to
see it. Everything is to Him. To Him, to the praise of the
glory of His grace. How many times that's mentioned
in Ephesians? Ephesians 1, election is what? To the praise of the
glory of His grace. Redemption is what? To the praise of His
glory. What is our calling and keeping
and glorification in heaven? To the praise of the glory of
His grace. That's all Paul says. So everything
is of Him, through Him and to Him. Salvations of the Lord.
This is the pinnacle. He's come to the end now of all
doctrine. And what he does now is, as Paul's
manner is, goes from the doctrinal to the very practical. He now
takes what we've known, what we've learned, what we can know
of God and Christ and our salvation, and he shows us how this is to
be used, how it is to be applied and exercised in every believer. Practical things. So Paul begins this, I beseech
you therefore. You know, I've said this many
times, when you see the word therefore, you need to know what
it's there for. It's just simple. You need to know what it's there
for. You should always see this. Now then, because that salvation
is of the Lord, he begins now giving us the practical. I beseech
you therefore who? Brethren. This is who he's talking
to. Not talking to everybody. This is a mistake of religion
is that they give out these practical things to the lost. These things
are not for them. This makes it very confusing
when people who are not saved, who are not called by the Holy
Spirit, not born again of the Spirit of God, and then you go
give them these practical things to do. What does that do for
them? Nothing. It will ruin him. And then what
Jesus said about those Pharisees, He said, you search land and
sea and you make one proselyte and you make him twofold more
a child of heaven. That's what religion does. But
this is not for them, this is for those of us who are believers
in Christ, born again of the Spirit of God, made perfect by
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. These exhortations to the holy
life, to a holy life, not given to the lost, but given to us. They can only, if they're given
these things, they can only pretend to do them. They can't really
do them. These are only for those who
are believers. And he calls them brethren because
we have believed on the Son of God and received the word of
His gospel. And so Paul says, therefore,
to you, to not, to me, Brethren, this is His begging of us, I
beseech you. Isn't that something that we
need to be begged to do this? But truly we do. He understands
our old nature because He had one Himself. He said, I beseech
you brethren, do this. It's good for you to do this.
It's reasonable for you to do this. And so Paul says, therefore,
I beseech you, brethren, and listen, he gives the motivation,
the motivation for these exercises of religious duties. Now if you
want to know the motivation that should be behind every religious
duty, it is this, the mercy of God. I beseech you by the mercies
of God. by the mercies of God. And that's
the first thing we want to see is the mercy of God. I want us
to see this. Before we get into these practical
things, and we'll delve into many of these things together,
but this is always the root motivation. The love, the mercy, and the
grace of God is always our motive for everything we do in the service
of God. And the second thing is I want
us to see the duty. The duty that He is exhorting
us to is a sacrifice. A sacrifice. Present your bodies. A living sacrifice. So let's look at this, the first,
the mercies of God. Mercies of God. In order to see
the mercies of God, we must first think of our original state. We cannot know the mercies of
God except we always keep in view our nature. From which the pit,
from which we were digged. If you do not understand this,
you cannot see the mercies of God. We were lost. That's as plain
as you can make it. By nature we were lost, dead
in sins. Our souls, to our souls, it was
only reasonable to reject the law of God. It was only reasonable
then for us to hate the things of God. We would not and could
not obey His law. We were all running from the
truth. We're trying to shelter ourselves in the refuge of our
lies, and we have been the vilest of religious men. We have been
the best of men, but you know what the best of men is? Altogether
vanity. Altogether vanity. We were lost
and under the wrath of God. The scripture says, He that believeth
not the sun shall not see light, I've known this to be true. Many
have seen this. There have been some people who
think they've been saved all their life. You ever seen that? Somebody said, well, yeah, I've
been saved all my life. That's too long. That's too long. We all had our conversation in
time past, haven't we? Walking according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience
once worked in us. We were dead in trespasses and
sins, incapable and unwilling to come to Christ, the only hope. Some believe that to believe
on Christ is nothing more than mental assent to his person and
work. But we know that's not true.
We who have found the mercy of God understand that faith in
Christ is a lifelong experience. To believe in Christ is not something
that we've done once, but it is something that we must continually,
forever do. Why? Because by nature we have
no power, no strength in ourselves. No goodness, no merit in ourselves. Faith in Christ alone is our
pride. He is not just a part of our
life, is He? He is our life. Why? Because we had no life.
We had none. We did not believe and we would
not believe. See how men today are holding
on to another gospel? A gospel where faith is nothing
more than a mere act of will? That man is not all dead, man
is not all depraved, man has some spark of life left in him
so as to grab hold of God and save himself. That man's will is supreme. We
know this is a lie and it should never be heard by God's children.
And all who hold to such a false gospel do not know Christ They
believe another Christ and another gospel. But listen, I know this,
I too was one of them. You and I believed our own gospel. And when we were lost and undone
without God or His Son, we too believed our works, our merit
would supply us refuge before God. We believed the same lies. What did we believe in? We believed
in our belief in Calvinism. We believed in our understanding,
our knowledge, our wisdom to save us. Salvation. Salvation, we understand
this, is not by our works. Not by our merit. but only by
the grace of God. That's what the revelation of
our depravity shows us. It's that salvation cannot be
by anything that we can or would ever do. Salvation must be, then,
by grace. That's what Paul said in the
previous chapter. He says in chapter 11, verse
5, Even so, then, at this present time, there is also a remnant
according to the election of grace. And if by grace it is
no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be
of works, there's no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. Dear believer, let us always
remember Let us look and be humbled once
again. It is good for us to know that
the state of man by nature, that it was our nature to strive to
please God by our works. It was our nature to strive to be God. Isn't this the problem with man
is that he wants to be God? He will not bow to God. This is our nature. Man will
strive to be sovereign. And that's exactly what we did
before God came and saved us. And if it were not for the mercies
of God, we would still be there. If it were not for mercy, We
would still be in our sin and the shame of our religion. We
still would be under the sound of another gospel and accursed
with the rest. Why did God open your eyes? Why do you see and others don't? Mercy. One word. Mercy. It is the mercy of God that we
know and believe. I beseech you, therefore, by
the mercies of God. What is mercy? What is mercy? By necessity, it's freedom. By
necessity, it's freedom. If it's merited in any shape
or form, it is not mercy. Mercy! It is tenderness and kindness
shown without merit. The word mercy comes from two
root words. It comes from motherly compassion.
That's one of the root words. Motherly compassion. See a mother
with her child in her hands. And it also comes with this word
concerning faithfulness and steadfastness. God's mercy is as a woman holding
her infant in her arms, protecting it with all she has. And not
only is that, she is faithful. And that's God. That's the mercy of God. He holds
us, and He's faithful to hold us. Faithful to keep us. So therefore,
His mercy is, as Scripture says, tender mercies. Tender mercies. These are not mercies. You know,
a lot of our mercies are begrudging mercies. When you see somebody
in need, you see a man on the street and you give him a dollar
and you say, oh, he doesn't deserve my dollar. Of course not. But
God's never like that. Not when He shows mercy. His
mercy is free. It's full. Go to Jeremiah chapter
31. I want to give you by the poor
instance here of His mercy. Jeremiah 31. And look at verse 20. The Scripture says, Is Ephraim
my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since
I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore,
my bowels are troubled for him. I will surely have mercy upon
him, saith the Lord." Believer in Jesus Christ, let us remember
at this moment, let us remember the great mercies of our loving
God. We should at this moment, this
Ephraim is you. Is Ephraim my son? You bet he
is. You bet he is. Is he a pleasant child? Yes,
he is. He's my pleasant child. And since
I spake against him, he spake against us, I do earnestly remember
him still. His bowels are moving. The Father
is tender to his Son. The word of mercy here in Jeremiah,
it means to touch, fondle as you would caress your
child's head. That's what it means. It means
that as you see your child and you just have this overwhelming
love for them and you want to embrace them and just stroke
their hair and love on them. That's what this word mercy is. I shall surely have tender mercy
upon him. There are times that we want
to do this but God always does it. He always has tender mercies. And just as He chastened Ephraim
and caused him to repent and turn from his sins, so God in
mercy breaks our hearts and causes us to bow to Christ. Isn't that
what depravity did when God revealed our depravity? Did that not break
our hearts? It broke our hearts and caused us to turn. And look
at verse 18. This is the words of Ephraim
when he's brought down by his God. He said, I have surely heard
Ephraim bemoaning himself thus. Thou hast chastened me, and I
was chastened as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn thou me, and
I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after
I was turned, I repented. After that was instructed, I
smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, gay, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach in my youth." We too have bemoaned our sins.
And even now do we not bemoan our sins? Even now do we not
cry when we are chastened of our God? By His tender mercies
He chastened us. For what purpose? that we should
turn to Him? That we should turn to Him? We were rebels unaccustomed to
the yoke of God and in mercy He put His yoke upon us and He
turned us. Isn't that what He said? He said,
surely I was turned, I repented. As soon as I was turned, I repented. Do you get that? What happened
first? Who did the first work? God did. God turned us and then what? We repented. The work is of God. He turns
us and then we repent. After I was instructed, then
I smote on my thigh. Then I began to be broken hearted
of my sin. After He had taught me. After
He had instructed me. We are instructed by the Holy
Spirit, then we are filled with shame of our sins. from our youth,
that we are all together born in sin. We, by mercy, have seen
in our flesh that there dwells no good thing. But remember now
the mercies of God. You are my Son. You are my Son. Believer, you are adopted from
eternity. You were purchased by the blood
of the Son God, and now in grace God has sent His Spirit into
you, causing you to turn, causing you to repent, causing you to
believe, and all of this is rooted where? In the mercy of God. In
the mercy of God. Luke 1 verse 78 says, Though
through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from
on high visited us, to give light unto them that sit in darkness,
in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace."
What is the evidence of mercy? What is the greatest display
of God's mercy? It was Christ. Will God have mercy? Did God
send His Son? Will He forgive sin? Did Christ
die for sin? Yes! He will forgive sin. He will have mercy. How do you
know? He sent His Son. He sent His
Son. This is the mercy of God. This
is the root cause of every good work that is to be performed.
Salvation is of the Lord by the tender mercies of God. The second
thing we want to see is the duty or the sacrifice that must be
offered. Now, believer, because of the
mercies of God in Jesus Christ, He's given us life and faith.
We were once dead and unbelieving, but now we are living. Is that
not right? You who are in Christ, you are
no longer dead in trespasses and sins. You are alive unto
God. You have been given a new nature,
a holy nature by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it is by this that we are to offer our bodies
a living sacrifice unto God. So the first thing is the necessity
of this offering. The sacrifice that we are to
offer to God in light of His mercies, because of the mercies of God,
we should offer this sacrifice. When we think of the mercies
of God in offering Jesus Christ, He is the sacrifice, isn't He? He is the sacrifice for what?
Sin. He is the sacrifice for sin.
There is no other sacrifice for sin. So this sacrifice of our
bodies is not for sin. That is vitally important for
us to understand. We will not, by any measure of
offering ourselves and service to God, ever atone for one sin. Never. The highest gift has already
been given by God. And because of His sacrifice,
then we should ask this question, is there anything we should withhold
from Him? Seeing He has displayed all His
mercy in sending His Son to die in our stead, is there anything
that we should withhold? No. He has given the best. He has given the most valued
gift. And to us who believe, is He
not precious? Is He precious to you? He is
if you know Him. If you believe Him, He is precious. Peter said, unto you therefore
that who believe which believe, He is precious. But to them which
are disobedient, the stone which a builder is disallowed, the
same is made the head of the corner. I'm sure that the unbelieving
world can find things that are better than Christ. There are other things that men
would rather give themselves in Christ. I'm sure this religious
world thinks that their offerings are good enough to rival the
offering of Christ or even somehow be co-mingled with the offering
of Christ. Somehow that by their work or
by their sacrifice they can contribute. But true believers in Christ,
we know He's precious because He has accomplished that He has purged our sins by
Himself with His own blood. And because of that, He is to
us precious. If there is anything that God
would require of us, should we not freely give it? See here, God then does require
something from us. What? A sacrifice. A sacrifice
to Heaven. Not one to take away sins, but
rather because of His sacrifice, we are to offer to Him sacrifices. You know that Christ sacrificed
Himself once for all. He said this man, having offered
Himself once, one sacrifice for sin, sat down for heaven. Now
there's no more sacrifices for sin. We know the Mass and the
Catholic Church's abomination because they're continually offering
a sacrifice. Continually. And so it works
in free will religion, that's blasphemy. There's no sacrifice
to take away sin, but He is. But our sacrifice is this, that
we should give thanks. Our sacrifice is that of thanksgiving. In Revelation it tells us this,
that Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten
of the dead, listen, He's the Prince of Kings. He's the prince
of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and, listen,
priests. You know, only people who offer
sacrifice are priests. Priests. He has made us kings
and priests unto God. And His Father, to Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Christ being the Prince of Kings
and the Great High Priest, yet He has made us kings and priests
to offer sacrifices. And in Hebrews 13, we offer the
sacrifice of praise unto our God. How often? Continually. Continually. Is it not just reasonable for
us to offer Thanksgiving to God? It's just reasonable. Considering what great mercy
He has shown upon us. considering what sacrifice that
He has made for us. It is reasonable for us to offer
gifts and sacrifices unto Him. But the sacrifice that Paul is
talking about here is not the sacrifice of our lips. No, this
one is much more, this one cuts deeper. It requires a lot more
than just lip service. Thank the Lord! How easy is that? Oh, just praise him. Praise his
name. How many people say that and
have no meaning in their heart for it? The sacrifice of praise
is not just one given with the lips. This duty mentioned by
the Apostle Paul is not regarding the minds and hearts. Now we
know this, that the grace of God has given us a new heart
by which we love and believe and confess. He's given us a
new mind by which we are fixed on Christ and His Gospel and
understand it. But the Apostle is not talking
even about our minds and hearts. He's talking about your body. Present your body in living sacrifice. your body. Now, we know over
the years many people have taken this literally, false religions
have. Many people have cut themselves and people have mutilated their
bodies and we know that's not what he's talking about. People
have killed themselves saying that they're trying to resist.
That's not what he's talking about. Though it is a figurative
sacrifice, it is nonetheless real. It is a real sacrifice. And we know this, that others
take it to the opposite, and they say, well, you know, as
long as I worship God in my heart, as long as I give praise to Him
in my mind, I can continue living in uncleanness and sin. I don't have to give my body
to God. I don't have to give my time, my effort, this mortal
life to Him. God forbid any believer should
think like that. Believer, because of the tender
mercies of God, because of His great love and grace, we should
give not only our hearts, our minds, and our souls, but also
our very bodies. Let us who believe never forget
that our outward actions and deeds done in this body, though
they do not merit our salvation, yet these outward good works
are of great importance to the service of God. There's a reason that they spend
half of the book on these practical things because they are of great
importance to the furtherance of the gospel. Therefore the apostle exhorts
us as priests of God to offer our own bodies Not just as a
token offering, but a real, perpetual, continual, daily sacrifice unto
God. Now, the heathen used to throw
themselves into the fiery pits for their gods. Today, the Muslim,
he'll blow himself up for his false deity. That's not the kind
of sacrifice. It's not a one-time thing. It
is a daily offering. A living sacrifice, so that as
long as we believers live upon the earth, Paul says, I beseech
you because of God's mercy for you, that you present this body,
your life, a living offering daily unto your God. of your strength, of everything you own, for the service of God. Our Lord didn't, wasn't,
isn't He very clear in His words? Listen to His words. Jesus said
to His disciples, if any man will come after Me, let him deny
himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. He said, If any man come unto
me, and hate not father, and mother, and wife, and children,
and brothers, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. Can you get any clearer than
that? The sacrifice that is required
of us is not a one-time thing, but a lifelong, daily sacrifice
we should give to God. Now, there have been some men
who have martyred themselves for the cause of Christ. But we know this, that their
death did not atone for one of their sins. But I often thought, how much
harder would it be to make that one sacrifice or
to live 80 years of sacrifice? You are a martyr for the cause
of Christ. The Scripture says He gave Himself
for us to redeem us from all our iniquity and purify unto
Himself a peculiar people. And what is the characteristic
of these peculiar people? They are zealous for good works. Zealous for good works. Therefore,
let us who believe We who have seen the great pit from which
we were dug and the rock upon which we are put into union and
founded and give thanks unto our God daily, seeking to live
in this body for Him, wholly devoted in every aspect of our
life to God. How often do you even see some
believers who compartmentalize their life with God and their
life in the world? Here they are on Sunday, lie
for God. In their prayer closet, lie for
God. And yet as soon as they get out,
they live for themselves. This is exactly what he's talking
about. We must consecrate everything
we do for the service of God. When you sweep your floor, it
should be unto the Lord. When you do your chores, or go
to your work, or whatever it is you do, whatsoever your hands
find to do, do with all your might as unto the Lord. Yet we know this, in our flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Isn't this a seeming contradiction
to offer your lives unto God in service and yet you feel so
useless when you do it? This is why he said, offer your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. Do you get that? Whatever we do in the service
of God, it is holy and acceptable. Why? Christ made you holy and
acceptable. Therefore, every good work done
in faith and love to God is holy and acceptable. I'm going to
give you one illustration. Of course, this whole chapter
is full of illustrations. I'm just going to give you one
I know very personally. Preach it. Preach it. I never feel as though I've done
a good job at this at any time. That's okay. If it is a work
done in faith and love to God, it is holy and acceptable. Listen
to what Paul said about preaching. He said, Now thanks be to God,
which always causes us to triumph in Christ. And make manifest
the savor of His knowledge in every place. For we are unto
God as a sweet saver of Christ, and to them that are saved, and
to them that perish, to them To the one we are saver of death
unto death, to the other we are saver of life unto life. And
Paul says, but who is sufficient for such things? Now whatsoever
God gave you to do, you should do it with confidence that it
would be acceptable. Whatever gift God has given you,
remember we're all one body and we each have different gifts
that God gives us in a church. In this church, Every one of
us is given gifts. A measure of faith is given to
every one of us. And we should exercise that in
confidence, not in self, but as a sacrifice unto God, knowing
it is acceptable. And God will use it for His glory. That should comfort you. That
should give you enough to just say, Lord, I'm yours. I'm yours. Why? Because of your tender mercies.
By your tender mercies, most definitely I present everything
I have and everything I am as a sacrifice unto you. Holy and
acceptable. Now why should you do this? Just
reason. Just reason. Under the law they had to offer
those sacrifices that were just unreasonable. Blood of bulls
and goats could have never taken away sin. That's just unreasonable.
Yet the law demanded it, and they did it by faith, looking
to the One who should come. But now we have seen the One
who has come, and He has saved us by His mercies. He has given us heaven, eternal
life, forgiveness of sins, a holy life, and the ability and will
to do good. Why then would we not do it?
It's just reasonable. It's reasonable. It's your reasonable
what service? Service. May God the Holy Spirit
move us to give everything for the service
of Jesus Christ. You and me. How long? As long as we live
in this world. May God bless you. Let's stand
and be dismissed.