This morning, my message is going
to be from Romans 12, beginning at verse 1. And the title is
Our Reasonable Service. Our Reasonable Service. And as I start out this morning,
I want to kind of say up front that I know I do, and all the
other believers, Believe that we should do everything that
we can, as we look at God's revealed will by way of command, to do
everything we can to obey it. This is our reasonable service. If we look at the God that's
had mercy on us and saved us by his grace, we should avoid
anything that has the appearance of evil. We should avoid it. We should do everything we can
to keep our bodies under subjection
as best we can. We know we're not perfect and
we're not going to do it perfectly, but that's our desire is to be
perfect like Christ. And I especially believe that
we as believers should avoid all things. that would in any
way cast shame or reproach on Christ, our Savior, and His church. The Apostle Paul, having finished
the doctrinal part of this epistle, the book of Romans, he begins
here in chapter 12, speaking of the service of a believer,
not to gain or not to maintain the salvation, but because we're
convinced by God that he's already saved us by his grace based on
the righteousness of Christ alone. Paul in the next few chapters
of the book of Romans points out the different duties of religion. Not to encourage the believer
to do these things in order to be saved, nor is he stating these
things in order to in any way cause the believer to look inward. inward in order to see if he
or she is saved, or to cause him to doubt his salvation in
any way. He's doing it, all of these things,
upon the principles that he's already laid out in the previous
chapters. Mainly, the main principle, is
that we're justified before God. God has justified us, not based
on what we do or what we don't do, but based on Christ and his
righteousness alone. That's where our justification
before God is. We're righteous because God has
so seen fit to not charge us with our sin, but charge our
sins to Christ. And he went to the cross and
he paid that debt in full. in our place as our substitute
and our surety. Throughout the message this morning,
I hope to point out that in order to stand without blame before
this holy God that we worship, we must have a righteousness
that meets all of the demands of God's holy law and his justice. And the only place this righteousness
that we must have can be found is in that perfect Lamb of God,
without spot of blemish, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is
God's standard of judgment, according to Acts 17. Christ's righteousness
is the righteousness that we must have to stand before God
at judgment. And the only way it can be obtained
is that it must be imputed, charged, legally charged to your account.
Now with verse 1 of Romans 12 here, Paul begins here, he 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. The word, therefore,
shows that the following exhortations or encouragement that Paul's
about to give believers are the conclusions and the consequences
that should be concluded from what he'd said in chapter 11,
previous chapter. Paul had said in Romans 11, 32,
for God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have
mercy upon all. God has made clear that all men
by nature, both Jews and Gentiles, doesn't matter what nationality
you belong to, that we're all born in unbelief as we come into
this world. This is done to show us that
it doesn't matter where you come from or who your parents were,
we all need God's mercy and grace. We're all born in unbelief. Now,
one sinner is in no way more deserving of God's mercy than
another sinner. Chapter 11 gives evidence that
since all things are of God, and by Him and to Him, then the
saints, those that God shows mercy to, ought to present their
bodies to Him, and to know and approve, and to do His will,
not out of fear of punishment, but out of love and out of gratitude,
seeing how God has saved us by His grace. And since believers
have nothing but what they receive from God, which is mercy, They
ought not to think too highly of themselves or the glory and
their accomplishments or their achievements. We'll see that
a little later on in this chapter 12. The question here in these
next few chapters here is how does a Christian serve God? What
motivates a Christian to serve God? What kind of service do
we owe unto God? And what sets the service of
a Christian, a believer, apart from the religious acts and duties
of this world? And we know that there's religious
institutions all over this country today that are worshiping the
God that they know, God of their imagination. And so there's all
kind of duties, all kind of religious acts being performed today. And
most people would look on those acts and think mighty highly
of them. We did at one time. So these
are some of the questions that we're going to be looking at.
These questions are answered by Paul in the last section of
the book of Romans here that we're going to be dealing with.
What we're talking about is the believer's service in salvation.
The service of those that God saved. As Christians, we do not
serve to be saved. We serve because we've been saved
by God's grace in Christ. Paul makes this clear in the
opening verses. He says, I beseech thee, here
in verse one, I urge you and I beg you. The urgency of Paul's
appeal proves that Christian service and obedience is not
an option for a believer. Those who use God's grace as
an excuse to sin, they really don't see the reality or know
the power of His grace. Any profession of faith in Christ
not evidenced by godly obedience of faith is an empty profession.
It's only a head knowledge, a mental agreement to the doctrine that
we believe. So many non-believers want to
go to the book of James chapter 2 in order to promote a work
salvation. But that's not what James is
talking about. It is clear that James is not speaking of true
faith when he says that faith without works is dead. There's
no such thing as true faith being dead faith. There's just no such
thing. True faith always is accompanied
by works in a believer. True faith is not without works.
True faith is a fruit and the effect of grace in the heart
of every believer. which works by kindness and love,
both to Christ and to our fellow brethren. A profession of faith,
on the other hand, a mere historical faith, by which man at most gives
minimal assent to the truth of the gospel, of which James says
that even the devils do that, that kind of faith is dead, or
worthless faith. But that's not what James is
speaking of. here when he talks about faith without works is
dead, not true faith. For a believer serving God is
essential not to be saved, as I said, but because he's already
saved by the grace of God in Christ. Our service is neither
the grant of our salvation nor is it any part of the righteousness
we plead for our justification before God. Our service is the
fruit, the result, and evidence of the power of Christ in our
redemption and in our regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Look at Romans
7, beginning at verse 4. It says, Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that
ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when
we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law
did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death, works
that deserve death. This fruit unto death is all
those deeds of law that were performed by us before regeneration
and conversion. They're called dead works because
they were performed by us while we were worshiping an idol. a
God of our imagination. These works are called fruit
unto death because they are performed by self-righteous sinners who
are ignorant of God's righteousness, the only righteousness God will
accept. They're going about to establish a righteousness of
their own, which ultimately leads to eternal death. On the other
hand, this fruit unto God are all those works performed by
a believer, a sinner who's been convinced of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment, a sinner who has fled to Christ alone for
salvation. A believer's works are accepted
by God because they are performed not out of fear of punishment,
but out of a spirit of love and gratitude, because the believer
sees what God has done for him in the person of his dear son.
He's not attempting to establish the righteousness of his own,
He's looking to a righteousness completely outside of himself.
A righteousness that abides in another, the Lord Jesus Christ. A righteousness that's even seated
at the right hand of God, even now. This is our righteousness. Now, Ephesians 2, beginning at
verse 8, says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourself, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast, for we are his worksmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. So the Apostle Paul encourages
these believers in their Christian service by saying, I beseech
you, I beg you. Then he says, in the next part,
therefore, The therefore here points back to the whole of Paul's
teaching up to this point, which concerns the sinner's justification
before God based solely on the marriage of Christ's obedience
and death. Salvation is neither something
we deserve nor something we earn before or after our new birth. It is all of God and it's in
Christ. Christian service is founded
upon God's word in Christ. not upon the religious traditions
and self-righteousness of men. We are to be guided by God's
word of grace and mercy in Christ in these good works. Now, the
next thing he says, he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren.
Then he says, brethren, here, this word is so important in
the context of Paul's letter here because Christian service
is for believers only. Unbelievers can perform religious
and charitable deeds, but it's not Christian service. The deeds
of an unbeliever are only fruit unto death. Christian service
is the privilege of true children of God brought into the family
by grace in Christ. given the spirit of liberty and
love by which we as children serve God with gladness and love,
love to Christ and love to our brethren, those that believe
the same gospel we believe, worship the same God that we believe,
look to the same Christ we believe. And then he says, brethren, by
the mercies of God, This particular phrase tells us that the only
godly motive for Christian service is God's mercy in Christ. True
Christian service is not legalism or the service of a mercenary
seeking to earn salvation and blessings from God. As true believers,
we ought to be ever aware that our whole salvation is owing
to God, is free, is unmerited, and is undeserved mercy. We are
what we are and we have what we have by the grace of God. And this establishes our motive
of obedience, grace, love, and gratitude to God for saving us
by his grace. Then Paul says here that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice. This particular phrase
here, The present here means to yield to one's disposal. We
are to yield our bodies, our whole persons, including our
physical members, to living sacrifices, to be living sacrifices. Living
sacrifice here may seem to be contradictory. It's how can one
be a sacrifice without dying, and how can one who is dead be
living? Think of it the same way that
Paul wrote back in Galatians 2 verse 20, where Paul says,
I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And alive which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. In presenting our whole persons
unto the service of God, we sacrifice our own sinful and selfish desires
to the cause of God's glory and grace. The main thing that we
sacrifice are all those things in our former religion that we
once thought were gain to us. We repent of all those works
that were performed while in this false religion, those dead
works, which are all those works done by us as we thought they
recommended us to God. But now we see them as worthless
and it has not having any merit towards saving us or keeping
us safe. We now side with God and his testimony against us. We side with God against ourselves
in this matter of who God is and how he saved the sinner and
who we are by nature. Let's now look at a testimony
of the Apostle Paul. Was he looking inward for his
confidence, as we look at all of the things that Paul says
about himself? Look at Philippians 3, beginning
at verse 4. Paul says, though I might also
have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that
he hath whereof, he might trust in the flesh. circumcised, and then he goes
forward talking about the different things that he did in his previous
religion. Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. Hebrew of Hebrews
is touching the law, Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church. Touching the righteousness which
is of the law, blameless. But what things were gained to
me, those I count at loss for Christ. Yeah, doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done, completely worthless,
that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine
own righteousness, not having mine own righteousness, which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness which is of God
by faith. I believe this testimony here
by the Apostle Paul is a good picture and an example of what
it means to present your body a living sacrifice. Paul counted
all those things that were done by him while a religious Pharisee. He counted them all lost and
good for nothing. completely worthless. All of
his religious deeds were only fruit unto death. Paul didn't
look to any of his works to recommend himself to God. He looked to
Christ and his righteousness alone for all of his salvation.
The next ray says holy and acceptable unto God. It says that you present
your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.
To be holy here, is to be separated by God for a specific use and
purpose. And what is that use? Well, it's
to glorify God. That's what we're here for. It's
to give God the honor and glory that he deserves. Not ourselves,
not other men. Our goal is to live for his glory
and good for others. To be acceptable unto God is
to seek to do that which is pleasing to God. It is not that we're
seeking to be accepted of God by our works and service. We are only accepted of God in
Christ. Look at Ephesians 1 verse 6. Paul says, to the praise of the
glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved, in Christ. The only way we can be accepted
of God is that we be found in Christ. We're accepted in the
beloved. Now we do desire that our works
be accepted of God, but we must always remember that there are
only good works as they are works of Christ by the power of the
Holy Spirit within us, and as they are covered by the blood
of Christ. Concerning the works of a believer, look at John 3.21.
It says, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his
deeds may be manifest, that they are wrought in God. Those who
have been so blessed to have been given ears to hear this
gospel, eyes to see, they doeth truth, they cometh to the light. And they realized that this work
of regeneration and conversion, the new birth, is not of themselves,
but of God. It's the fruit and the effect
of what Christ accomplished at the cross. What does this mean,
that it's the fruit and the effect of what Christ accomplished at
the cross? It means that what Christ accomplished by his perfect
obedience, his perfect obedience to God's law and justice, That
alone merited for us all those blessings, all those blessings
that we received from the new birth to final glorification
in heaven. We're still talking about the
believers presenting his body a living sacrifice. Look at what
the scripture says of the works of righteous Abel. Look at Hebrews
11, beginning at verse 4. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being
dead yet speaketh. Now let's go back in scripture
a little bit in order to see what the book of Hebrews is speaking
of concerning the faith of Abel. What are these good and acceptable
works that the believers should walk in? What is it to do well
before the Lord? Well, the scripture gives us
a good example here in the book of Genesis. Genesis 4, begin
at verse 1. All of you are familiar with
this, these verses here, but let's go ahead and read them.
It says, And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare
Cain, and said, I've gotten a man from the Lord. And she again
bare his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of sheep, But Cain
was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it
came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an
offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the
firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord
had respect unto Abel and to his offerings, but unto Cain
and to his offerings he had not respect. And Cain was very wrought. And his countenance fell. And
the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thy
countenance fallen? If thou do us well, shall thou
not be accepted? And if thou do us not well, sin
lie at the door. As we read these verses here,
we must first consider what is it, what is it meant here when
it says do us well or to do right? And it's clear from the context
that it has to do with a sinner approaching God, like Abel, as
a convicted sinner, bringing before God the blood of the Lamb,
which was a clear picture of Christ atoning sacrifice to conquer
sin. Abel came before God pleading
the merits of Christ's righteousness imputed alone. He looking forward
to the coming Messiah. the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb
of God, as to the ground of his salvation and acceptance with
God. To do anything more for your
acceptance or to do anything less for your acceptance is to
not do well. And then on the other hand, Cain
brought his works before God. He had no remedy for sin. Cain
looked to the works of his own hand. It says Cain brought the
fruit of the ground in offering them to the Lord. Cain, like
all men by nature, including us, thought he could approach
God by his works rather than looking to Christ, who is pictured
and typified by the offering that Abel brought, which was
the slain lamb. He looked to Christ, the coming
Messiah. You see, what Abel did in the
form of his works toward God were the fruit and the effect
of faith in Christ. It was to the praise of the glory
of God's grace in Christ. Abel was holy and he was acceptable
unto God, not based on his works, but based on what his works pictured
and typified, which was Christ, the Lamb of God. And then the
last part of verse 1 here says, which is your reasonable service. The word reasonable is used only
one other time in the New Testament. It pertains to reason or logic.
But not the sinful reasoning and logic of fallen men who seek
to know God by intellectual skill. We know where that logic comes
from. We all had that logic by nature. It is reasoning and logic based
on God's word. That's what this reason is. And
it begins with God's word. of grace in Christ in the gospel. Look back at Isaiah 118. Isaiah
said, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Reasonable
service is the service of grace that comes from faith in Christ.
True repentance and a heart established with grace. Reasonable service
is obedience guided not by ritual or legal compulsion of any way,
but by God's Word. God's Word heard, understood,
and believed in the power of the Holy Spirit. The last verse
that we'll look at here, verse 2, this morning, it says, And
be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good, that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Paul speaks of the
world as it stands in opposition to Christ, his truth, and his
church. Christ says in John 15, 18, if
the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated
you. And in John 16, 3, and these things will they do unto you
because they've not known the Father nor me. We who are saved
by the grace of God in Christ, who are brethren in Christ, are
not of the world, but we are in the world. We are not to follow
or imitate the world's beliefs in a moral religious world. Our
goal is to be conformed to Christ, not the lost unbelieving world,
whether it be in their immorality or whether it be in their religious
acts and duties. Then it says in the next part
of verse two, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
We've already been transformed by the Holy Spirit when we're
born again, brought from unbelief to faith in Christ. We don't
follow this religious world in all of its self-righteousness
and religious pride. We have repented of all of our
former religion. We're speaking of believers here.
We have been brought from death to life, from darkness to light,
from idolatry to true worship, and from hatred toward the true
God to the love of Him in Christ. From this we are to be continually
transformed by the Holy Spirit in our minds as we grow in grace
and in knowledge of Christ. The mind here does not reduce
this transformation to a mere intellectualism. But it is a
continual transformation in the way we think within our hearts,
our minds, our affections, and our will, so as to walk in the
grace of God and according to His will. Look again at the last part of
Romans 2, 12 verse 2, that says that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. This continual transformation
of our minds is the proof and evidence of the power of grace
of God in our lives. In closing, let me remind all
believers of all those men of faith that have gone on before
us. Hebrews chapter 11 gives us many
men of faith, like Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and many
others. These are examples of how we
should walk by faith as we look to Christ, the author and the
finisher of our faith. All of these had one thing in
common. They didn't look inward. They
didn't look inward to see how they were progressing and how
they were improving in their lives. They looked by faith to
the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what
we do. We look back. to the Lord Jesus
Christ and that work He did on our behalf. They looked to the
Lamb of God without spot or blemish. They looked to the One that would
come in time and pay their sin debt and redeem them back unto
God. Look with me at Hebrews 12, beginning
at verse 1. It says, Wherefore, seeing we
also are compassed, surrounded about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be
wearied and fain in your minds. These men of faith, as well as
all believers, are in this world. But we're not of the world. We're
not of this world. Our walk here on this earth is
a walk of faith, looking to Jesus. We look to Christ. If God chooses
to make us this way or to make us that way, he's the potter,
we're just the clay. God will mold us as he will. And for that is for his glory
and for his honor as he works in us what he'd have us to be.
So one thing we shouldn't do is ever Look around and be what
you call fruit inspectors, always looking at somebody else and
how much growth they have and lack and compare them among ourselves. God says that's not wise. So
what we're here to do is to glorify God and honor Him in everything
that we do. Amen. That's our reasonable service.