I'm going to actually start reading
in verse 33 of chapter 11. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his 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. For of him, and through him,
and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. 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 you may prove what is that
good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. I want to use verse 1 mostly,
talking about being living sacrifices. If the gospel saves us and God
gives us grace. The grace of God works in us
and changes us. It does a dramatic work in us.
It's a very... I remember Henry saying years
ago, beware of a gospel that doesn't affect your life. Beware
of a gospel that doesn't make you a new creature. And the gospel
It changes our hearts, it changes our minds, it changes our life,
and it affects our whole lives from then on. It affects our
relationships, it affects our thinking, it affects our relationships
with one another, with our families, with the world. And the apostle
says that the just shall live by faith. He opened up, you remember,
he says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And that's how we become just.
The gospel comes to us in power. It comes to us and regenerates
us. It comes to us in word. It comes
to us in this great Holy Ghost power. And it regenerates us. And it justifies us and brings
us before God righteous, complete, perfect, and accepted. And then,
after that, we live by faith. Only the just live by faith.
And we become just, but now living, living out this life of being
a believer, living out this life of justification, living out
this life of the gospel. We have some things that God
has taught us. And I know this, that our attitude
and our responsibilities and our privileges, I don't like
to talk about duties, I like to talk about our privileges.
Our attitude and our privileges towards God, toward the church,
toward one another, can be summed up in one word, and you know
what it is? Love. Love. Our attitude, our responsibilities,
our privileges towards God, towards the church, and to all men can
be summed up in this one word, love. He loved us and gave His
only begotten Son for us. God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. When we were yet without strength
and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And we love Him. We love Him. Why? Because He
first loved us. And we love one another. By this
shall all men know you're my disciples, because you'll have
love one toward another. And we do love one. He that's
born of God loveth. And if we don't have this, and
don't have the love of God, and don't have this love, and don't
understand it, and what we do is not motivated by love, we
fail before we ever begin. Ain't that right? So I want to
look at this thing called living sacrifices. Paul said here in
verse 1, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. When he says
therefore, he means everything that happened up to that time.
Since everything I've told you. I've told you about our justification.
I've told you about our sanctification. I've told you about our redemption.
I've told you that there's no condemnation to them that are
in Christ. I've told you that nothing can
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. I've
told you how that God chose us in Christ before the world began.
I've told you how that he predestinated us because he foreknew us. I've
told you these things. So since I've told you all these
things, And I've told you that the judgments of God are past
finding out. He said, I want you to know,
and this is what I want you to do. Therefore, since you've had
all of these wonderful things, and all of this relationship,
and you know this relationship with God, I beseech you. And
that word beseech means I ask you gently, tenderly, graciously. Now Moses made commandments.
And God gives commandments. But here the apostle says, I
beseech you. No commandment here. Paul nowhere
makes a commandment upon the children of God. He said in one
place, I don't want to have dominion over your faith. And why did
he say I beseech you? Why did he say that? And why
did he say therefore? Why? Because of the mercies of
God. The mercies of God. This is what
He teaches. This is what He always taught.
It's the mercies of God. What we have is by the mercies
of God. He's the Father of mercies. He
said, I don't beseech you or appeal to you by my power, my
authority as an apostle. I beseech you by the mercies
of God. The mercies that God gave us
before the world began. The mercies that God gave us
in Christ. The mercies that God gives us
every day. You read over there in Jeremiah's
lamentations yourself. How he says that God's mercies,
his compassions fail not. And his mercies are new every
morning and they fail not. Every day we get up and God has
new mercies for us. And he says, so I beseech you
God by God's mercy. Not by anything that you've done.
Not by any merit that you've had. Not by any work you've accomplished. Not by any other reason than
the mercies of God. I beseech you that you present
your bodies and all blessings. He doesn't use threats. He doesn't use fear. He doesn't
use bargaining to motivate God's people to live to God's glory. Look over here in 2 Corinthians
chapter 1 with me just a minute. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. We've
looked at this so many times, but it'll pay to look at it again. God's mercies. Thank God for
His mercies. Lord, be merciful to me. That
publican said, be merciful to me, the sinner. Barnabas cried out, have mercy
on me, O Jesus, thou Son of David. And I, Lord Jesus Christ, said
I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. I'll show you mercy. I don't
want anything you got. I'll show mercy. Everything you
get from me, it'll be by grace and it'll be because of mercy. I'm not telling you and I'm not
threatening you that God's going to do something against you if
you don't do this. And I'm not threatening you and
I'm not putting you in fear. I'm not putting you in bondage.
That's what Paul said. I beseech you therefore by God's
blessed mercies. And look what he said here in
2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3. Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this. The Father of
mercies. Every time I read that, that
blesses my heart to know it. The Father of mercies. He begats these mercies. He's
the Father of mercies. And then He goes on to say, the
God of all comfort. The fact that He's the Father
of mercies, that ought to give us great comfort in the back.
He could have just as well said, the God that's going to punish
you if you don't live a certain way and act a certain way and
do a certain way and dress a certain way. He doesn't do that. When I was down in Florida, I
could not tell you how many Mennonites and Amish came out on them beaches
every day. They came out there, 12, 14,
10, 12, 14, together at a time. They'd go, a bunch go over this
way, and a bunch, and they would go out there in their long dresses
and their little bonnets on their heads. And they'd let some of
their children, you know, put on bathing suits and let them
wear shorts and things like that. But they went out there and they
wanted everybody to see how religious they are. And everybody see how
dedicated they are. And how committed they are. But the difference between them
and the believer is that we're not, what can we show? We're
going to put bonnets on to show that we've got something going
on in our lives? Are we men going to grow beards? To make ourselves seem more holy
and more dedicated? No, Paul said, I don't beseech
you because you wear long dresses. I don't beseech you because you
have prayed and got up at 4 o'clock this morning and prayed. I don't
beseech you because you have been a dedicated, consecrated,
sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost believer. He said, I beseech
you by the mercies of God. Look at the character of this. He said, I beseech you that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. Now the character of this living
sacrifice. Let me tell you something, it's
voluntary. Look here in Romans 12, it is voluntary. I beseech
you that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Now he says
that you do it. You present, you yield, you do
it. I can't do it for you, you can't
do it for me. It's a voluntary thing. The Scriptures tells us
in Leviticus chapter 1 verse 3 when they brought those men
would bring their sacrifices before the priest and have a
sacrifice offered. They put their hands on the head
of the sacrifice. If they were going to of their
own voluntary will bring a sacrifice. They said they lay their hands
on it and you do this. If you do this, your own voluntary
sacrifice that you will to break, you identify with it. And that's
what he says here. You do what you do. You present
your bodies. Nobody's going to make you do
it. You present your bodies voluntarily. It's you do it. You do it. You
present it. And then not only is it voluntary,
but it's complete. He said present your bodies.
bodies and that your bodies is yourself. Now what I mean, what
does he mean by this? He means our spirit, our soul,
our body. Our body represents us and all
that we are. If you present your body, that
means you give everything you got. You can't give your body
unless you give your mind and your heart and your soul and
your love and everything that makes you you. Our Lord Jesus
Christ gave himself It was his body that was hung on a tree.
And he's talking about all of our human faculties. He's talking
about our bodies, our tongues, our emotions. He's talking about
everything about us that makes us men and women. And He says,
you present your bodies, everything that makes you, you. You just
give yourself away. And you make yourself, He says,
you just yield yourself, give yourself up as a living sacrifice
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you, it's our body,
it's through our body that life reveals itself. You know it's
through our bodies that we receive impressions, and we possess tendency,
and we exercise and express our powers through our bodies. And
we're united by our Lord Jesus Christ by faith, and our wills,
listen to me, our wills are already God's. And since our wills are
God's, So, necessarily we present our
bodies as living sacrifices. If He has our wills, then He'll
have us. And I tell you, this body, when
He's talking about a body, He's talking about us. Talking about
us. What we are. Who we are. What
makes us us. And not only that, beloved, is
it complete and it's voluntary, but it's sacrificial. He says
a living sacrifice. And look what He calls it. A
holy sacrifice. Acceptable unto God. Now let
me tell you something. You know what? This living sacrifice is holy. You can't make yourself holy.
You don't get holy to make yourself a living sacrifice. When you
make yourself, when you become a living sacrifice, it's you're
already holy. That's why you do it. Let me
tell you something. I've told you this before. How
can we be holy? Do you feel holy? And how many of you act holy? I don't even know what it means
to act holy, do you? I really don't. You hear people
talk about holiness all the time, and live in a holy life, and
live in a consecrated life, and live in a dedicated life, but
I don't know how to live a holy life. I don't know what that
means. I know how to get up in the morning. I know how to say,
Lord, this is your day. You give me this day as it seems
good in your sight. It belongs to you. So you give
it to me as it seems good in your sight. I know how to do that. I know
how to pick up a Bible and read. I know how to pray. I know how
to wash dishes. I know how to do a lot of things. But I don't know how it is that
you live a holy. What makes a person to be holy? Is it how they live? Is it how
they think? Is it how they react to things
in this world? If a man is holy, there's only
one place he can be holy at, and that's in Christ. He read it tonight. God made
Christ unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
And when they, people, I used to hear people preach this and
they'd say, boy, you better have a holy, you better be holy if
you're going to have a slivin' sacrifice. You, listen. Oh, my goodness. Holy. They know you can't get, God
won't accept anything but what's holy. Can he? And oh, He said, you make this
living sacrifice. It's sacrificial. Now, under
the Old Testament, sacrifices were classified or consisted
of two different classes. There were the sin offerings.
And when they offered the sin offerings, those sin offerings
were peace offerings. When they offered a sin offering,
that made peace with God. I'm going to break my sin offering,
so my sin will be atoned for. And then God will be pacified
toward me. And then the second one after
that was the burnt offering, the meal offering, and that was
the offering of consecration, that I'm going to consecrate
myself to you. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He was the one and only sin offering who actually put sin away. And He made peace for us between
us and God. He actually, the only sin offering
that's ever been made that ever put away sin, was Jesus Christ's
sin offering. No other offering ever put away
sin. All the blood of every animal that was ever shed did not put
away one sin. Did it? But He, at the end of
the world, put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And then,
beloved, when He was on that cross, not only was he our sin
offering but he was also that burnt offering as the wrath of
God was poured out on him and burned him on that cross and
the wrath of God burned with hot anger towards our Lord Jesus
Christ he consecrated himself to God he says not my will but
thine be done if it be possible oh take it away but not my will
not my will And oh beloved, and I tell you after the Passover
then the meal offering and Christ our Passover was sacrificed for
and since he was sacrificed for us and we've come here tonight
to remember his broken body and remember his shed blood and partake
of this supper this evening. I tell you what, just because
of who He is and what He did for us, it ought not bother us
and our minds for us to give ourselves away to Him as a living
sacrifice. All the Old Testament sacrifices,
they were offered after they were dead. After the life was gone out of
them, after the blood was shed. And here He says, You come as
a living sacrifice, huh? Living, living, live every day. And then it's a practical thing. He said, I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your, your bodies. And it's your service that he
says. Your service. It's just a reasonable
thing. And then look what he says, I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God. And he says, that's just your
reasonable service. It's reasonable. Does it sound reasonable to do
this? Does the love of Christ constrain us? Is it not reasonable that Christ
did everything for us? Everything we've got, I looked
up that old hymn, the old rugged cross, while we were singing
that. Do you remember that? The first time Henry Mahan came
to our services. Y'all remember what he said about
the old rugged cross? Remember what he said about it? They started
singing the old rugged cross and he said, that old rugged
cross never done nothing for anybody. That's the first thing
he said. He said, it's the Christ on the
cross. And he said, I'll tell you something else. You ain't
got no trophies to lay down. You ain't got no trophies. Where'd
you get any trophies? How you got any trophies? You
ain't got nothing. And man, I'm telling you, watch,
you talk about tearing some playhouses down. He said, it's not the old
rugged cross we cling to, it's Christ who is on the cross. And you don't glory in the cross,
you glory in Christ. Then he says, trophies, trophies,
trophies, where's your trophies at? And everybody in that place,
most of them was thinking, well, if you'd give me a chance, I'd
take it. You know, there's a lot of them,
you know, and I would have done it. But oh, that's what I'm telling
you about. But now Paul's talking here about
it. You ain't got no trophies. Everything God done for you,
He done by grace. He done it freely. He done it
by His mercies. It was He that justified you.
It was He that redeemed you. It was He that shed His blood.
It was He that chose you. It was He that elected you. It
was He that keeps you. Everything that happens in your
life, all you got to do is look back to what He did. And He says,
now isn't it a reasonable thing for you Rational thing for you,
a logical thing to you, because your righteousness is of Christ,
because you're justified by Christ, and it's just a reasonable thing
for you to just give yourself to Him? Be a living sacrifice
to Him? It seems like that's what Paul
said, ain't that reasonable? And then he tells us how to present
ourselves. There's a right way and a wrong
way. Let's look at the wrong way first.
He says, and be not conformed to this world. When we talk about
the world, what are we talking about? I go to movies, go lay
on the beach. I enjoy living, enjoy music, enjoy
dancing. Enjoy a lot of things in this
world. Enjoy a lot of things. And he
says, be not conformed to this world. So when he says the world,
what does he mean? He's talking about the age in
which we live. The age in which we live. Now
the age in which we live, what he means is the nature, the character,
the opinions, the goals, and attitude of unregenerate people.
That's what he means. Whatever the nature, whatever
the character, whatever their opinions, whatever their goals,
whatever their attitudes, their opinions of unregenerate people,
he says, don't you be conformed to them. Do y'all ever, any of y'all ever
watch that there Gold Rush thing? I got the biggest
kick out of this Sunday. They was, didn't get enough gold
to suit them. So they, they said, dad said,
would you pray for us? They was going to go start getting
gold someplace else. They said, dad, would you pray
for us? No. They all got together. They said, Lord, oh father, We
thank you. But would you be pleased to let
us find lots of gold, let lots of gold go through this sluice
here. Since we find lots of gold and
have lots of sluice going through, we thank you in Jesus' name.
Now that's the world. I'm not going to pray for any
gold. Are you? Now that's what he said. Don't
you be conformed to that. That's the thinking of it. That's
their attitude. That's their nature. The worldling,
he seeks the praise of men. The believer wants the praise
of God. The worldling thinks only of
himself. The believers considers others. Huh? The worldling cares for
the body. The believers interested in the
soul. The worldling, he only looks
upon that which he can see. The believer is living by the
things that are unseen. The world cares what he's going
to eat, what he's going to drink, and what he's going to wear.
The believer seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. When they told Daniel, when they
brought Daniel down there into Babylon, and Daniel, they laid
all this food out in front of him, the best that the king had
to offer. Old Daniel said, oh no, no, no,
no, no, no. We don't want to eat that king's
food. Don't want to eat what the king
provides for us in this world. He said, you just give us this,
give us this, and give us this. And Daniel, by what God ordered
for him to eat, he ended up being a heapside veteran there by the
king's meal. So for God to feed us, God to give us His food,
God to provide for us, we've got a heap side more than the
world ever had. Let them eat at the world's king's
table. Not us, not us. And then here's
the positive side of it. Be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Oh my, be transformed. That's regeneration. transformed,
renewing of your mind. And only God can renew a man's
mind. And you know, we have heard,
we have believed, and not only have we been transformed from
what we were, but we are continually being transformed, being changed,
constantly growing, constantly learning, constantly doing things. I've run across things from 25,
30 years ago that I don't even remember. And then I said, well,
boy, I said, man, how was that like that? But to be transformed,
we're just being changed all the time. The Gospel's changing
us, working on us, renewing our mind, renewing our spirit, renewing
our desire for Christ. The Gospel does something for
us that nothing else will. And the renewing of mind was
that God renews our mind that was so affected by sin and self
Look in Titus. I read this back in the study.
Look in Titus. That little book right before
the book of Hebrews. Oh God renews our minds. And the man must be transformed
and it's by regeneration. He's translated from darkness
to light. And oh, listen, it's the renewing
of the mind that was so affected by sin and self. But look what
he said here in Titus 3 and verse 5. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. There's that mercy again. by
according to his mercy he saved us and now watch it by the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost renews us transforms
us change us and he shed abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our
Savior and because of this we're justified by his grace and made
us heirs according to eternal life so back over here then see
so you see beloved Be not transformed, be not conformed, but be transformed.
And God only transforms. God's the only one that can transform
a man. Nobody else can do that. You can get people on altars
all you want. You can talk people into things. And it's easy for people to do
it. Easy for people to do it. And that's why the scripture
says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And when God
changes a man's heart, He's a different man. And that man just constantly
growing, constantly learning, constantly moving. He's not static. He's never static, is he, Brad?
May get cold sometimes, but he's never static. He just never,
never, he's always, always, there's always life going on, something
going on. He's not even going back. He may get cold in that,
but even when that's on, He's crying out to God, help me, be
merciful to me, warm my heart, save me from this coldness. Because
He is always going forward. I know that, I know that, I know
that's so. I know that's so. And then look
at the results here of presenting your body as a living sacrifice.
Of presenting ourselves as living sacrifices. He says that you
may prove What is that good, acceptable, and perfect will
of God? Now, I remember years ago that men would preach from
this and they would make three different wills out of that right
there. They said, there's that good will of God. Now, you folks
that ain't living this right said, you know, you can get by
with just being in the good will of God. And then, you know, you
folks are just a little bit more dedicated and committed, you
get that acceptable will of God. God will accept what you do.
And then he said, but oh boy, if you really, really, really,
really, really, really get committed, you're in that perfect will of
God. But it's all the same will. Does
God have three different wills? That's ridiculous. Oh, God's will is always good.
And it's good for us. It's not our will towards Him.
His will is always good. His will is acceptable. Whatever
His will is, that's acceptable to me, ain't you? And it's good. And it's perfect. There's nothing
ever wrong with the will of God. And that word prove means you
can prove it, you can test it. Just test the will of God. Test
what He's doing. And you present your bodies and
you test the will of God. And see if it ain't good. See
if it ain't acceptable. See if it ain't perfect. And
I tell you, it's that the will of God's enjoyed. And I also
know this, that the will of God is done in my life and your life. When we ain't got a clue what's
going on in our life, God's will's being done. And you know what
every one of us do? We say, Lord, thy will be done. Huh? I love that, don't you? I love the will of God. I love
it. I love that God works in us to
will and to do. Lord, come and make your will
known among us. Come and work your will in our
lives. And we're not going to get mad
at God. We're not going to get upset with God. We're not going
to grumble with God. We're not going to back off from
God no matter what God does and what will He works in our lives.
It's His will and it's good and it's acceptable and it's perfect.
And you know the glorious, most blessed thing that God ever done
in His will? was to give his son. I came down from heaven not to
do my will, but the will of him that sent me. And to finish the
work that he gave me. And Father, I finish the work.
Glorify me now with the world you gave me before the world
was. He said, I come into this world. They come and said, Lord,
we want you something to eat. He said, I don't need nothing
to eat. I got meat to eat that you know not of. What is it?
My meat is to do the will of him that sent me. And the greatest
act that the will of God ever did in this world was to give
us His Son. And the greatest will that our
Lord Jesus Christ ever exercised in this world was for Him to
give Hisself. And He done it willingly. So,
oh, listen. If God help us, we're going to
say, Lord, here I am. I'm Yours. I'm Yours. You do with me what you will. Just do with me what you will. What else can we do? What else
can we do? And you know what? He'll take
us. And he'll do with us what we
will. And we'll say that's good. Amen. Amen. Oh, our Savior. Oh, our blessed,
blessed Savior. Oh, Lord, who is like unto Thee? Who is like unto Thee? Wondrous
in mercy, full of grace, full of pity. Oh, Lord Jesus. Tonight, as we've
gathered here, meet with us. Oh, meet with us when we take
this bread and this wine. Oh, fill our hearts with joy,
fill our hearts with love, fill our hearts with the peace of
God. And Lord, thank you, thank you,
thank you. Blessed be your name for your
will. Oh, to live in your will to be done. Oh, what comfort,
what assurance. And Lord, we just lay here submissive. Submissive. Just lay as a submissive
child. Yield it up to you. Work in us. Work in us. Work your will in
us. Work your will through us. As
we give ourselves to you again while we live in this world.
In Christ's name I pray. Amen. Amen. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its word. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I Jesus Because he first
loved me Well