In this lesson, I decided to
just deal with the first two verses of Romans 12 because they're
so pivotal. They serve as like a hinge or
a transition between what a lot of so-called scholars, they call
it the doctrinal section of Romans, Romans 1 through 11. And what
they call the practical section, Romans 12 through 16, I don't
like to divide it like that because I don't think there's anything
more practical than what we've been studying in Romans 1 through
11, the doctrine of Christ. And so I don't divide it into
doctrinal and practical. There's nothing impractical about
doctrine. But I do divide it this way.
You might call it the doctrinal and the ethical. One old writer,
and I can't remember who it was, said that when it comes to true
Christianity, our doctrine is sovereign grace, and our ethic
is gratitude. And I think that's a good way
to put it. And that's what I believe the apostle, as he was inspired
by the Holy Spirit, is doing in these first two verses. And
then he goes on to the exhortations seeking to instruct and inspire,
motivate true believers in the obedience of grace and faith.
And one thing that you see here, just look at the first words
of verse one, I beseech you, I beg you. And I believe there's
an urgency in Paul's message here to show that true believers
are to be an obedient people. And that this matter of Christian
service, this matter of true obedience is not an option. It's
not just take it or leave it, you know, that it comes with
the territory. That where grace is understood
by the power of God as he reveals himself to us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as he sets our doctrine,
the teachings of Christ, who Christ is and what he accomplished,
why he did it, where he is now, the gospel, as he seals that
in our minds, he's also showing that grace is a power. It's the
power of God unto salvation. and it's a dynamic. In other
words, it's not just something you believe and then as people
say, you go out and live like the devil. A lot of people, when
we talk about salvation by grace, the word therefore, look at verse
one, I beseech you therefore, that's a big therefore. And what
is it therefore? He's showing that what I'm going
to be talking to you about from now on here in this book, is
based upon the foundation of what already has been taught
concerning how God saves sinners. And think about it. You know
what Paul has said here? He has stated that all of salvation,
and here's why we have to look at it now, every facet of salvation,
when we talk about election, when we talk about justification,
when we talk about sanctification, When we talk about adoption,
when we talk about redemption, when we talk about regeneration,
conversion, every blessing of salvation is totally by the free,
sovereign, unmerited, unearned grace of God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's not one facet of salvation
that God leads up to his people as far as what people call a
free will choice. Now we make choices every day,
I know that. But we have to understand that
it is Christ, it is God who works in us to do that which serves
his good pleasure. And it's by the power and the
goodness of God. It's not our own goodness. Again,
all blessings of salvation are totally 100% of free sovereign
grace. None of it is conditioned on
our works. It's not attained by our works.
It's not maintained by our works. It's all the grace of God. Now
when people hear that, a lot of times you'll see the objection
come back. Well, does that mean we don't
have to do anything? That we don't serve God? Does
that mean that we can sin the more or sin as much as we want?
No, it doesn't mean that at all. And those who see grace as that
way, What they're revealing is this, they don't have any right
motive for obedience. In other words, the only thing
that's gonna motivate them is legalism or a mercenary spirit. Well, what is legalism? Well,
legalism is obedience motivated by fear of punishment or promise
of mercenary earned rewards. And see, we're not legalists.
We're not under the law, we're under grace, scripture says. And grace reigns through righteousness,
but it's not anything that we do. It reigns through righteousness
and through eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And we're not
mercenaries. We're not serving God just because
for what we can get out of him, or what we can earn from him.
You say, we serve God because of his intrinsic value in the
revelation of his glory in Christ and in gratitude. I've often
said that the motives that is implanted in the minds and the
hearts of true believers is the motive of grace, love, and gratitude. Our service, our worship, our
praise, Everything we do, it's a way of saying, thank you, Lord,
for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and so free. And oftentimes we'll
use the illustration. If somebody that you didn't know
just up and gave you a million dollars, let's put it this way,
somebody who you considered your enemy, gave you a million dollars,
how would you react to that? Now, if you react like the world,
they'll either say, well, I'm not gonna take that, that would
reduce my pride. I've got to earn it. I always
use the illustration of, when I had, there was a fella up in
Ashland who was a member of the church there, and he worked on
musical instruments, and he was good at it. And I let him have
my guitar one time to work on my guitar and to do some work
on it. And I had an old shabby, this
is a real expensive guitar, and it was in an old shabby case.
Well, when he fixed my guitar and returned it to me, it was
in a brand new hard shell case. And if you know anything about
those things, those things are not cheap. That's why I didn't
have one. And his name was Ted, and I said,
Ted, where'd you get that case at? He said, I'm giving that
to you. I said, Ted, you don't need to give that to me. Let
me pay you for it. Which I didn't have the money
to pay him for it, but you know, pride. He said, no. He said,
it's a gift. And I said, Ted, let me pay you
for it. And he looked at me, he said, do you know what a gift
is? And I thought about that. I preached on this last week
at 13th Street, and I think it was Wednesday night. That's the
problem with man by nature. He doesn't really know what a
gift is. Because he thinks he has to do something, whether
it's one degree or 99 and 4400 percent of a degree, to earn
it, deserve it, or to gain it. But a really, a free gift, you
know, that's what Paul was writing there in 1 Corinthians 1, he
said, when he says, we have received the spirit of the world, which
is him, we've received the spirit of God, whereby we can know the
things that are freely given. And this is what we know when
God teaches us the gospel. That's what that therefore is
there for. Understand that if you're saved, if you're blessed
of God, There's not one blessing that you earned or deserved. Now that establishes the ground
or the motivation for obedience. Why obey God then? I heard a
preacher who claimed to be a sovereign grace preacher. He was talking
about rewards in heaven. Now, y'all know how I believe
about that, you know. In fact, the Bible doesn't even
use the word rewards plural when it talks about our reward in
heaven. It's reward singular. And it's not what we earn, it's
the reward we receive because Christ earned it. And that's
what it's talking about. And I was talking to this preacher
about that and he said, well that, he told me, he said, well
that's the only reason he preaches, because he wants more rewards.
And I said, well, you're a mercenary. You're not a bondservant. But
that's what this therefore is there for. It points back to
the whole teaching that Paul has given here by inspiration
of the Spirit from Romans 1 to Romans 11, and it's all of grace. And we can't emphasize that too
much. Think about it. Think about And I often think
about this and it overwhelms me. I mean, why would the Lord
reveal his son to me and not to somebody else who I would
naturally see as more deserving? But that's not the way God operates,
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1. Not many mighty, not many noble.
That's the way it is, you know. I see a lot of people who I think
would be more deserving than me if that's the way the Lord
doled out his blessings. But the thing about none of us
deserve it. It's all based upon the righteousness of our Savior
imputed to us. That's the value of it, and think
about it. So Paul says, I urge you, I beg
of you, that therefore, based upon the mercy of God, look at
verse one, he says, by the mercies of God. There it is, there's
your motivation. That's the sure mercies of David.
The mercy that God has had upon me. Totally undeserved, totally
unearned. And that's the issue. And who's
he talking to here? Brethren. I beseech you therefore
brethren. This is for believers. This is
not for unbelievers. Now the gospel is, we preach
the gospel to anybody who will listen. And pray that God will
work in a powerful way to bring them to the saving knowledge
of Christ. This is an exhortation to brethren
because it's brethren talking about believers, men and women,
believers, sinners saved by grace. Those who aren't brethren, they
don't have this motive. Their motive, again, is legalism
or mercenary thinking. That's the only thing, you know,
that's why when somebody comes back and says, well, now, if
that's the case, then I don't have to do anything. What they're
actually saying is that that gospel that you preach that speaks
of salvation totally by grace, it removes my motive for obedience. But you see, that's not the way
God operates. He does remove that legal mercenary spirit.
Now, it's still in us, I mean, that's the flesh. I'll show you
that in just a moment. That's the flesh. But we fight
against it. He replaces it with a new motive,
a holy motive. That's what Paul was writing
about in Romans 7 when he talked about serve God, bring forth
fruit unto God in the newness of the spirit, not in the oldness
of the letter. Talking about when the Jews under
the law, they serve God with that mercenary spirit, that legalist. The gospel gives us a new motive,
a motive that glorifies God, a motive that exalts Christ,
a motive that puts us in the dust where we belong, humbles
us. And so that's what he's talking
about. So this is for brethren. Who are the brethren? Sinners
saved by the grace of God, justified before God, Forgiven of their
sins by the blood of Christ, made right with God based on
his righteousness imputed. Sinners who have been adopted
into God's family by his grace. Our position in the family of
God, it's undeserved, it's unearned. But we've been adopted into his
family. And sinners who've been regenerated
and converted, they've been born again and they're looking to
Christ for their whole salvation. That's the brethren. And so they
have that motive that God has put within their hearts, showing
them that everything we have is mercy, mercy from God. So I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, based on the mercies of God,
not a legalistic, it's not give or burn. You see what I'm saying? You ever been in a meeting where
they preached on tithing and they said, you either give it
or God's gonna take it out of the back of the church in a coffin,
that kind of thing? It'll scare people. That's not,
I beseech you by the mercies of God. Now what does he say
here? By the mercies of God. that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice. That word present
means to yield to one's disposal. In other words, it means to be
submitted to God's will and God's way. Lord, use me as you would. Make me a trophy and a testimony
of your glory, your goodness, your grace in Christ. I often think about Matthew 5.16
because for years I didn't understand that verse before I heard the
gospel. You know, that's where he says, let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven. And of course, most people take
that well. They'll see your good life and your good practices. And therefore, you get this kind
of motivation. Somebody says, I'd rather see
a sermon than hear one. You've heard that. You're the
only Bible that some people read, that kind of thing. You know,
that's pitiful. I hope that my life doesn't get
in the way of my testimony. But I fear sometimes it does.
Because why? Because I'm only a sinner saved
by grace. This is my story. We sing that
song, well that's what, I really mean that, don't you? That's
my story. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. But nobody's gonna be converted
by looking at me. Faith cometh by what? and hearing
by the word of God. So when he says present your
bodies, he means your whole person, and that concludes our physical
bodies. Let's use our hands, for example, to glorify God and
further his kingdom, our eyes, our ears, our feet. But he's
talking about the whole person here. And what he's saying here
is a living sacrifice. Now that may seem a little contradictory
because when you think of sacrifice, you think of death. And here
he's talking about living sacrifices. Well, the Bible says that when
God saves us, we are to die to self, but live unto the Lord. And that life doesn't come from
our goodness or our power, it comes from God. The life that
I live, Paul wrote in Galatians 2.20, I've got that quoted here.
Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ, that's our legal death
in Christ, having our sins imputed to him, he died for us as our
surety, our substitute and redeemer. Nevertheless, I live, that spiritual
life that comes from Christ. Righteousness demands life. Yet
not I, I'm not the source of it, I'm not the power of it.
But Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the
flesh, that is in the physical body, I live by the faith or
the faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. So it's not even my faith that
keeps me going, I do have faith because that's the gift of God.
That's one of the blessings of grace. That's one of the, the
power of God unto salvation. For by grace are you saved, through
faith, that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. All of
it. Not of works lest any man should
but. So I do have faith, but it's not my faith that keeps
me going. You know whose faith it is? It's
his faith, his faithfulness to keep me going. I know whom I
have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. Over there in Hebrews chapter
10, he talks about holding fast, verse 23 of Hebrews 10. He says,
let's hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.
How are we gonna do that? Without wavering. For he is faithful
that promised. There you are. You know why we
don't leave Christ, why we don't fall away? Because he won't let
us. No man plucked them out of my
hand. And so that's what he's talking
about here. He says, present yourself a living
sacrifice. Look at 1 Peter chapter two. This is kind of like a parallel
verse here. Peter, you know, he talks about,
in 1 Peter 2 and verse 1, he talks about believers, and he's
exhorting believers to fight sin. Don't give in to it. You're in a warfare, see? When
God saves a sinner, that sinner is brought in, he's drafted,
you might say, as a soldier, to do what? To stand against
the world and the flesh and the devil. And he says, you fight
sin. Now, why do we have to fight
it? Because it's still with us. These people who say that I no
longer sin or have sin, they're just lying to themselves. Paul
described it in Romans 7, 14 through 25. There's things I
want to do, but I can't do them. I want to be like Christ. I want
to follow him perfectly. But the flesh is still with me,
and the flesh there is talking about the sinfulness that we
still have to deal with, and he's in a warfare. So Peter writes
here in 1 Peter 2, he says, lay aside malice and guile and hypocrisies,
envies, evil speakings. As newborn babes desire the sin
serum milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if so be you've
tasted that the Lord is gracious. Since you've tasted the Lord
is gracious. If God's been gracious to you, In salvation, this is
the thought, the way of life that he has put within you by
the knowledge of Christ. And well, down in verse five,
we'll read verse four. He says, to whom coming as unto
a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and
precious. Now look at verse five, you also as living stones. are built up a spiritual house
and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Now Paul's talking about living
sacrifices in Romans 12. Peter talks about spiritual sacrifices. What are these sacrifices? Oh,
he's talking about our way of life. He's talking about our
praise, our prayer, our worship. We're here to worship God today. And I'll tell you what, it's
tough, isn't it? Sometimes we have distractions within ourselves,
outside, sometimes we get things on our mind that hinder our worship. How's that gonna be acceptable
to God? God doesn't accept sin, does he? There's only one way,
by the blood of Jesus Christ, that's it. And that's what he's
talking about. Acceptable to God. Holy, Paul
says in Romans 12. That means separated for the
glory of God. Acceptable to God. To do that
which is pleasing to God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. What does that mean? It means
without looking to Christ and resting on him for all salvation,
for all righteousness, it's impossible to please God. And he says, Acceptable
unto God in Christ. Accepted in the beloved. And
then he says in Romans 12, he said, which is your reasonable
service. That's only reasonable. To live
unto ourselves, just to please ourselves, rather than living
unto God for his glory in Christ. If you're a sinner saved by grace,
you need to see that's totally unreasonable. That word reason there is used
one other time in the scriptures where Peter says here in verse
2 of 1 Peter 2, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the
word. That's the same word that's translated
reasonable service here, that you may grow thereby. And what
it is, it pertains to reason or logic, but not sinful reasoning
or sinful logic of man, but it always is grounded on the word
of God. Why should I as a believer obey
God? Because he said so. That's right. Because he's given
me everything I have. Every good gift, every perfect
gift comes down from the Father of Lights in whom there's no
shadow of turning. He says, I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And I've said
it a thousand times and I hope by God's grace I'll say it a
thousand more if he allows me to live. If God were to judge
me right now, based upon my best efforts to serve him, where would
I be? I'd be damned forever. But you see, I don't stand in
my own righteousness. I'm washed in the blood. I'm
clothed in the righteousness of his son. Therefore, it's only
reasonable. This is not the same word in
the Old Testament as you see here in Romans 12, one. But the call of the gospel is
come let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. So reasonable service is the
service of a sinner saved by grace, coming by God-given faith
to Christ in true repentance, and a heart established with
grace. Reasonable service. It's only
reasonable for us to thank God. Isn't that right? It's only reasonable
for us to serve him. Well, you remember I mentioned
that in Matthew 5, 16, and how I used to think about that, you
know. Let your light so shine before men that they may see
your good works. Now, I used to think that the
good works there was my light. It's not so. The light is Christ. He's the light of the word. He's
the light of the world. He's the light of his people.
Let your light so shine before men. Now, how do I know the difference
between what we call good works and evil deeds? It's the light
that shines on them. Look at John 3. Let your light so shine. In other
words, now here's a person, now think about it this way. Here's
a person who gives money to help the poor. And here's another person who
gives the same amount of money to help the poor. For one, it's
an evil deed. For another, it's service unto
God. It's a good work. How do you
know the difference? Let your light so shine before
men. What light is that? He says in
John chapter three verse 19, this is the condemnation that
light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. The light of Christ,
the light of the gospel, the light of God's grace shines on
the deeds of men and exposes them to be evil when they're
done without faith. He says, for everyone that doeth
evil hateth the light. You mean all that I've done in
my life by trying to serve the Lord? You mean it's evil deeds?
If you don't know Christ, it is. Isn't that right? And it's
not evil because it's immoral in the sight of men or even insincere. It's evil because it doesn't
glorify God. It's evil because it doesn't
exalt Christ. It's evil because it's done in
unbelief. Now what does Matthew 5, 16 say? Let your light so
shine before men that they may see your good works and do what?
glorify your father, which is in it. In other words, it's not
to draw attention to you so that I'm the only Bible that some
people read. It's to draw attention to the God of all grace. When
people, if they did see us do something charitable or notable,
and they came to you and said, I know you're a Christian because
I saw you give that money to the poor. What's the first thing
you want to tell them? That's not why I'm a Christian.
I'm a Christian because I'm a sinner saved by grace and my giving
money to the poor didn't save me or contribute to my salvation. We want our light to shine, see?
We want to talk about Christ. We want him to turn to the God
of all grace. We want to glorify him, not ourselves. You understand that? We'll go
back to Romans 12. Look at verse two. He says, be
not conformed to the world. Now we have to understand. Turn
to Colossians chapter two. I'm going a little longer today,
but I'll... Look at Colossians two. When
he says, be not conformed to the world, what we need to understand
is certainly that applies to the immoral, criminal world. We're not to be thieves and robbers
and whoremongers and drug dealers and all, we're not to do that.
Certainly that kind of operations through the world were to avoid
and not be conformed to it, were to stay away from that which
is immoral. But it also means don't be conformed
to the false religion of this world. Isn't that right? Look at Colossians chapter two.
Look at verse 18. Let no man beguile you in your
reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding
into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by
his fleshly mind. I'm not going to go into all
the details of this because I don't have time, but he says, verse
19, not holding the head from which all the body by joints
and bands, having nourishment ministered and knit together,
increaseth with the increase of God. Wherefore, if you be
dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though
living in the world, are you subject to ordinances? Touch
not, taste not, handle not. You know who he's describing
there, don't you? Somebody who's doing their best to be righteous,
to be holy by their works. And he calls it worldliness.
Why are you living like the world? The Jews, the unbelieving Jews,
they'd look at the Gentile world in their immorality, now not
all Gentiles, but that's how they characterized it, and talked
about how bad they were. But what did Paul say in Romans
chapter two about the Jews? You're no better off. Even with
the law, even with your supposed obedience to the law, you fall
short too. And in Romans 3, he says the
scripture has concluded all under sin. Jew and Gentile, moral and
immoral as far as the world goes. Religious, whatever. So when
Paul says back here in Romans 12, be not conformed to the world,
understand that includes the false religion, even false Christianity. Don't be conformed, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind, and how are our minds renewed?
By the word of God, continually being taught, continually being
together in this, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. What that means is that you may
be living examples of that good, acceptable, and complete will
of God. And that's what we wanna be.
We don't want to be those who are a walking contradiction.
I used to sing a song about a fellow that said he's a walking contradiction,
partly truth and partly fiction. Well, we don't want to be that
way. We want to be living, breathing examples of sinners saved by
the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, following
him, motivated by grace, love, and gratitude. All right.