Let's open our Bibles again to
Romans chapter 12. I titled the message this morning,
A Living Sacrifice. I've gone back and forth this
week with the title between A Living Sacrifice and Your Reasonable
Service. I've ultimately settled on A
Living Sacrifice. Now in chapter 11 of the book
of Romans, Paul ends what we call the doctrinal portion of
this epistle. And the sum of the doctrinal
teaching that we've been given here is this, that justification
is by faith in Christ, without any of our works being added
to it. Redemption, the redemption of our soul is entirely in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's by his person, by his work,
by his blood, by his death, his resurrection. It's all in Christ. And our works do not enter into
salvation ever at any point. That's the doctrinal teaching
of the book of Romans. And I love that doctrinal preaching. I love it. I love just hammering
away and laying that foundation, the doctrinal truths that we
must hear, we must believe. But now Paul turns to the results
of redemption in Christ. And this preaching is just as
important. Once we have the foundation,
you must build upon it. Now Paul builds upon this foundation. He builds upon this solid, true
doctrine. to put this doctrine into practice
in the life of a believer. Now, justification is by faith,
not by our works, not by what we do, not by what we don't do.
Justification is through faith in Christ, what Christ has done.
But don't ever mistake that into thinking, well, my conduct is
not important. It doesn't matter what I do because
my salvation is in Christ. Anyone who believes Christ will
strive has a strong desire to live a life of godliness. Now,
people under the law, they desire to live a life of holiness and
godliness too, don't they? But here's the difference. The
difference between law and grace is this. People who live under
the law are trying to achieve holiness and righteousness by
the law. They're obeying the law because
they have to. They're obeying the law because they're afraid
of the punishment that the law gives if they don't obey it.
They're trying to earn something from the law. They're trying
to earn something from God. But people who live under grace
don't have that motivation. People who live under God's grace,
they obey Christ. They follow Christ out of a motive
of love, out of a motive of thanksgiving. No one who's saved by grace thinks,
well, it doesn't matter how much I sin. My sins all forgiven under
the blood of Christ. It doesn't matter how much I
sin. No. Nobody who believes and loves
Christ thinks that. People who are saved by grace,
they desire to live a holy life. Be ye holy as your Father which
is in heaven is holy. They desire that life of obedience
because the Savior showed such amazing love and grace and pity
to save a wretch like me. How could I not be obedient?
How can I not be thankful? How can I not follow him and
want to serve him in love? And the best example of this
attitude in the heart being put into practice in the life, the
best example of that I can think of is marriage. 30 years ago,
I took some vows. I took some vows before the preacher.
I took some vows before God and all the assembled witnesses.
And I married Janet Connolly. She became Janet Tate. Somewhere,
I don't know, you might know, somewhere, we've got a legal
document that says we're married. Under the law, we're married.
And through those years, I've claimed to love her. I claim
that. I publicly claim to love her. I publicly claim to want to be
a good husband to her. I always desire to find a way
to be a better husband to her. That's what I tell you is in
my heart. Well, is there some evidence of that really being
true in my heart? Of course there is. Of course
there is. If I live a life showing that I love her, I live a life
of sacrificing to give her, I live a life trying to do things to
please her, make her life better, then you know that claim is true.
But you're never going to believe I love Janet if my actions just
show a callous disregard for her. If my actions show I don't
care about her feelings, I don't care about her needs, they're
not important. I'm the boss. I'm the big important
guy. If I live my life like that, then you're going to think, Frank
ain't telling the truth. If I don't act like I cherish
her, you'll never believe that I do. See that? Well, the evidence
of faith in Christ is the exact same way. The evidence of true
faith in the heart, faith in Christ, it's in the heart. The
evidence of that is a life that's lived for Christ. Not for me,
not seeking my best or my glory. It's a life lived seeking the
glory of Christ. And that's what Paul tells us
here in verse one. He says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice. Now, he says here, present your
body a living sacrifice. He means exactly what you think
he means. Present your bodies, present your whole self to God
to use as he will. That's what it means. Look, 1
Corinthians chapter 6. That's what we ought to do, present
our bodies a living sacrifice to God. For Him to use us, He
will, however He's pleased. Because our bodies belong to
Him, He should use them anyway. It's His right to use them anyway
He wants, isn't it? 1 Corinthians 6 verse 13. Paul talking here about things
of the life. Meat for the belly and belly for the meats. But
God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body's not for
fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And
God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by
his own power. Know ye not that your bodies
are members of Christ? Now shall I take the members
of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. God forbid that I do that. What? Know ye not that he which is
joined to an harlot is one body? For to say the Lord should be
one flesh, but he that is joined unto the Lord, is one spirit. Our bodies belong to him. Our bodies are joined to Christ
our Savior. They belong to him. It's only
right he use them as he will and we willingly give our bodies
to him to do that. Now this is a living sacrifice.
This is not the dead animal sacrifices that were required by the law.
This is a living sacrifice. This is not something that's
required by the law. It's a thank all It's a love offering. It's a freewill offering of our
whole self to the Lord. You know, we give our offerings. Y'all come and there's offering
box back. You put your offering in that box back there. Well,
what are you doing when you do that? Well, you're just returning
to the Lord a portion of what he has in it. He gave it to you.
You're just returning back to him a portion of what he gave
you. Whenever we give all the only thing we can give is what
the Lord's given us. Well, the same thing is true
of this living sacrifice. We're not our own. We're bought
with the price. We belong to the Lord. He's given
us life. He's given us a body. It's only
right that we give ourselves to him. And when we do, what
are we doing? We're just returning a portion of what's already his
back to him. That's what it is. A living sacrifice. It's all encompassing. We give
all of our human faculties, all of our human abilities. We give
them to God to serve him, not to serve our flesh, but to serve
him. We give our minds to think on
him. We give our hearts to love him. God gives a new heart. We love
him first. We love him first above all else. We give our tongue. to speak
of Him, to speak of His praise. We give our tongue to thank Him,
to speak of His glory, to tell people about Him. We give our
hands, we hold our hands out open, open to give generously,
our hands open to help our brethren in need. We hold out our arms
to embrace our brethren, to hold them up when they need it, to
give them a hug. Sometimes somebody's just in
it, And there's not one thing in this world you can do to make
them feel better. But hugs kind of always welcome.
You hold out your arms to embrace your brethren. We use our feet
and our legs to take us to the house of the Lord, to go where
he sends us. That's giving our whole self
to the Lord. And I say this, these things
need to be done. Use our bodies to serve the body
of Christ. The body of Christ is other believers.
Use yourself to serve the body of Christ. And when you see a
need, don't wait till somebody else does it. Don't wait. You
do it. If you see a need, just go do
it. I don't care how young you are. I don't care how old you
are. I don't care who you are. If you see a need, go fill it. and
giving this living sacrifice is this, Lord, hear my, send
me. Use me in your service. If you'll
bless me, I'll be used in your service. Now, I understand. If you truly say, Lord, hear
my, send me, let me use my body in your service, that's gonna
mean that you're not gonna have some time to do some other things.
I mean, there is a finite amount of time in a day, isn't there?
But that's okay, isn't it? because you belong to the Lord.
It's just our, we'll get to this in a minute. It's our reasonable
service. We belong to the Lord. It's just reasonable. We'd be
used in his service. Look at second Corinthians chapter
five. To present ourselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice
means that we deny self and we surrender everything, everything
we are and everything that we have to the service of Christ.
Second Corinthians 5 verse 15. And that he died for all that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but they
should live unto him which died for them and rose again. We live unto Christ. That means that in all things,
in every decision and every interaction and all things, the Lord comes
first. Where do I come in? Second, third,
fourth, fifth, sixth. down the list somewhere. If I
make this living sacrifice to the Lord, I sacrifice my wants.
I sacrifice my needs for the good of the cause of Christ and
the good of his people. That's just reasonable. He died
for me. He died for me. It's just reasonable
that I serve him. A living sacrifice means that
we're to sacrifice our time. We're to make sacrifices to be
in the public worship service. I know that means you got less
time for the things of this world. You could have slept in this
morning, but you know, these are this. This is a living sacrifice. We make this sacrifice to come
to the worship service. But let me ask you this. Why
wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you want to worship
the Lord? You've all many of you've heard the story of the
family, the father and the family didn't. He didn't like the term
go to church, so they didn't tell the children We're going
to church. They say we're going to worship
the Lord. And one Sunday morning, the little guy said, I don't
want to go worship the Lord. I mean, just being honest, I
mean, that's the nature of the flesh, isn't it? Oh, but Christ
died for you. He rose again for you, for your
justification. He's revealed Himself to you.
He's given you a new heart. He shed abroad His love in your
heart. That's His mercy and grace. Why would we ever not want to
worship Why would we ever not want to take the time to praise
the Lord? You need to be here to worship
him. But I'll tell you something else. This is a body. We're going to start looking
at that next week, but this is a body. You're needed here. Others need you here as an encouragement
to example of faithfulness. And they need you here to help
one another out and show your love. You need to be here, but
others need you to be here. This is your reasonable service. If we make this living sacrifice
to the Lord, it's everything we are and everything we have
is His. When it comes to giving, we're
to make a sacrifice to give our money to the Lord. We give to
the Lord first and then whatever's left over we use to take care
of our needs. Now the Lord has given you the
unspeakable gift of His Son. His Son, the Son of God. How
can you not want to give generously? Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
8. Here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. 2 Corinthians
8 verse 1. Moreover, brethren, we do you
to win the grace of God bestowed upon the churches of Macedonia.
How then in great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and
their deep poverty abounded under the riches of their liberality.
For to their power, to their ability, I bear record, yea,
and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves, praying
us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take
upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And
this they did, not as we hoped, but they gave more than we ever
hoped. When we're taking up this offering to help, they did more
than we hoped. Here's why. They first gave their
own selves to the Lord. and then unto us by the will
of God. Someone says, but I'm in, I'm
in poverty. Imagine these churches in Macedonia.
Someone says, well, I'm in poverty, under great affliction, under
great trial. You know, how can I give? If
I give, I'm not going to be able to pay my bills and do things
that I want to do. Now, what kind of attitude is
that? Do you really think you can out give the Lord? Now, the
Lord knows what you have need of before you ask. The cattle
on a thousand hills are his. David said, I've been young and
I'm old. And this is why I can tell you, I've never seen the
righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread. Now we give ourselves
to the Lord and trust him to provide. Do you think that you
can outgive the Lord? He already saved you, didn't
he? Well, he's going to take care of the rest of you too.
See, faith in the heart produces obedience and obedient walk.
Look at Luke chapter six. To make a living sacrifice to
the Lord is to sacrifice our comforts for the good of others.
It's to sacrifice for the cause of Christ. In Luke chapter six, verse 27. But I say unto you, which hear,
love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. Bless them
that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
And unto him that smiteth thee on one cheek, offer also the
other. And him that taketh away thy
cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man
that asketh of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask
them not again. And as you would that men should
do to you, do ye also likewise. See, we're to give, aren't we?
We're to give not just of our money, but of our whole selves. Just whatever it is we have,
somebody else needs it, we give it. Now, I know what the flesh
is going to think about this. The flesh is going to say, if
I do that, if somebody wants my coat, I give them my cloak
also. People are going to take advantage of me. They're going
to walk all over me. I do the right thing and other people
never do the right thing. And I always end up losing. Now. Is that any way, let me ask you
this. Think about it. Is that any way to serve the
Lord? Is that any way to sacrifice
to the Lord and never expect it to cost you anything? Huh? You sacrifice yourself to
the Lord. He'll take care of you. You know,
and this thing about do unto others is you should have them
do unto you. Give them, if they want your
coat, give them your cloak also. Somebody wants something, you
give it to them. Don't ever ask for it, you know, back again. And you
think, well, people are going to take advantage of me. I'm,
you know, they never do the right thing. I love, I love, love,
love, love, love. A brother Nyberg says about this.
He says the Bible never tells anybody else how to treat you.
The Bible tells you how to treat others. That's what that's saying. You just sacrifice yourself to
the Lord. He'll take care of you. It's just, it's just our
reasonable service, isn't it? Sacrifice yourself to the Lord. He just might use you in his
kingdom. He just might. Every time I was ever in the
home with Brother Cody Groover, he always ended his prayers asking
the Lord, Lord, use us in your service. He just might. You know he just might? Being
a living sacrifice means we're to sacrifice our rights for the
good of the church. You know, someone thinks, well,
I've got a right to be heard. I've got a right, you know, my
opinion counts. I've got a right to do this or a right. Well,
that might be true. But I tell you what, here, in
this body, there's one that's got the right to be heard. It's
Christ our Savior. Then let's just keep our mouth
shut that He might be heard, that He might be praised and
glorified. Someone thinks, well, you know,
I've got a right to be in charge of this. I should get to do this
and do this the way I want to. Tell you what our Lord said about
that. You might have that right, but
you take the lowest seat and give somebody else Moses' Just
use humility to promote the gospel, to promote peace. Someone says,
well, I've got a right to do what I want. I mean, as long
as it does not violate the law of God, I've got a right to do
whatever I want. It doesn't matter what anybody
else thinks. Well, you've got a right to do those things. The
example of scripture is eating meat off of idols, eating pork.
You've got the right to do that. In our day, it's drinking alcohol.
You've got the right to do that. Do you really have a right to
do it if it's going to offend your brother? Look at Romans
chapter 14. Romans 14, verse 14. I know and am persuaded by the
Lord Jesus that there's nothing unclean of itself. Nothing in
and of itself is sinful, but to him that esteemeth anything
to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved
with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. You're not walking
in love for him. Destroy not him with thy meat,
for whom Christ died. Let not your good, yeah, you
have a right to do that, but don't let your good be evil spoken
of. For listen, the kingdom of God
is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God, and he's approved of men. Let
us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and
things wherewith one may edify another. See, don't just seek
what's good for you, what you want. Seek to edify somebody
else. Seek to the peace and the unity,
the good of the church. And again, I know what the flesh
thinks, you know, I've got to give this up and this was really,
I would enjoy this. Well, just remember this, your
brother's more important. He just moved on. And someone
else thinks, well, why should I have to put up with all this
foolishness that my brother, I recognize they're my brethren,
but you know, they're weak in these areas. And why should I
have to put up with that? Why should I have to suffer for
that? Romans 15 verse one. We then that are strong ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his
neighbor. for His good to edification.
Ooh, verse three, for even Christ pleased not Himself, but as it
is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell
on me. Ooh, that puts things in a whole
different light, doesn't it? Oh, in the light of Him, in the
light of the Savior. That puts things in a totally
different perspective. This thing is serving Christ
and following Him who sacrificed all for me. That's really the
whole point of my message this morning. Present your bodies
a living sacrifice. Live to serve the Lord. Live for Him. Don't live trying
to make yourself happy. If you would be happy, let me
tell you how to do it. It's very simple. If you would be happy,
seek to make somebody else happy. you would be happy, seek the
edification of somebody else. That's the only way you can be
happy in this life. Now, I have, that's my point. I got four motivations for a
believer. Four motivations to present our
bodies a living sacrifice. I understand that this crosses,
this is totally contrary to human nature, you know. But sacrificing
self and my wants and my needs and my desires, what's the believer's
motivation for doing that. Why on earth would somebody want
to do that? Well, I've got four motivations. They don't really
come from the earth. They're spiritual. They come from God.
The first one, Paul says here, I beseech you, brethren, by the
mercies of God. God's mercy is the strongest
motivation that there is for belief. God did not punish me for my
sins. because he punished my sin in
the person of Christ, my substitute. How could I want to sin more
after Christ's suffering died for me? Why would I want to live
selfishly? Why would I want to live for
myself after Christ died for me so that God could show me
such mercy? See, in order for God to be merciful
to his people, God's justice still had to be satisfied, didn't
it? In order for God to show mercy to his people, Christ still
had to suffer everything sin of his people deserved. And what
did Christ sacrifice for his people? Himself. Body and soul, didn't he? He
sacrificed his body, gave his body willingly to be sacrificed,
and he made a soul an offering for sin. He sacrificed himself,
his whole self. Then how can I not sacrifice
my whole self in his service? who did such wonderful works
of grace and mercy for me. Christ gave up everything to
save His people from their sin. He gave up His glory. He gave
up all the comforts of heaven. And He came to this earth and
endured such shame and humiliation. Now you think of that. Might
that make you want to give up something of yourself in His
service to serve Him out of thanksgiving? An object of mercy. An object
of God's mercy. How do you show you're so thankful
for God's mercy to you? By being merciful to others,
by being kind to others. Just take every opportunity to
show some kindness to somebody. Your motivation is God's mercy,
is mercy to you. Now, listen, I'm not preaching
where I'm going to make this crystal clear. I'm not preaching works
here, not preaching works in order to be saved, not preaching
works in order to keep your salvation. I'm not preaching works in order
to prove you're standing with God or to make other people think
you're so good. No, I'm not preaching that. Cause that, that would, you all
be so depressed all the time. That's where we try to lay on
people because our goods never good enough. I don't care what
it is. We do our preaching, our giving, our love, our faithfulness,
our kindness, our desire to help one another. No matter what we
do, it's never good enough. Nothing we could ever sacrifice
is worthy of Christ our Savior. When it's all said and done,
what do we have to say about ourselves? Our Lord said, all became saints.
We're still on profitable surface, but that's not going to stop
me from giving everything I got to him. Isn't you all says here,
the sacrifice of faith, sacrifice motive motivated by thanksgiving
for the mercies of God is acceptable to God. They're except look at
first Peter chapter two. Peter tells us the same thing.
The believer is acceptable to God, accepted in the Lord Jesus
Christ. First Peter 2 verse 5. Ye also as lively stones are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. You mean to
tell me that my weak surface that's so filled with sin and
self and so weak, you mean to tell me that's acceptable to
God? That the Father sees my surface, my sacrifice, my worship,
my praise, that He sees that in Christ and accepts it? That's
exactly what Peter's saying. That's exactly what Paul says.
That's exactly what the Word of God says. Well, that motivates
me to want to serve the Lord even more, don't you? because
of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. All right, second, we're
motivated to present our bodies a living sacrifice because we're
the family of God. Family. Paul says, I beseech
you, therefore, brethren. He's talking to his brethren.
Now, he's talking to saved people. He's not talking to everybody
in the whole wide world. He's talking to brethren. This is
family talk. God's people are his children. You're not God's
servant. You're not a slave. You're His
children. Families have a responsibility
to each other. We're responsible to have the
back of those we love. When my sons-in-law asked for
my blessing to propose to my daughters, I told them both,
your family, we got your back. That's what families are to do
for each other. We got each other's back. When one's in need, who
comes to help? The family comes to help. You
can tell who loves you when you're in need, the family's going to
come running. And it doesn't matter what it costs us. Oh,
man, I'm tired. No, you don't think that. He's
not Evie. He's my brother. Love instinctively
acts. This is talking to the family,
and it's no bother to them whatsoever. Family loves one another and
shows it. We're the family of God now.
But there's some responsibilities that go along with that. Children
of God, bear the name of Christ. Christians, you bear his name.
So much so, God said, this is the name wherewith she shall
be called Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. You
bear his name. Now you take care of that name.
Don't let the gospel be evil spoken of. Don't let the name
of Christ be evil spoken of by your bad attitude and your bad
conduct. Don't do that now. Sacrifice
what you got to. to take care of that name. When
my girls were growing up, I told them, you take care of the name
I've given you. You take care of it. You go to
school. You got there to work. Whatever it is you're doing,
you bear my name. And what you're doing reflects
on me. And I've worked hard to get whatever
reputation I've got with my name. And when they got married, I
told them this, that the name Hardin and the name Grub means
something. It means something good in the
communities where they were raised. You take care of that name. You
take care of it. That is exactly what applies
to the children of God. Let's take care of that name.
Let's promote that name. It's the only name that's worthy
of mentioning, isn't it? And we're the children of God. That
brings some responsibilities. Children have a responsibility
to obey your parents. You little ones, you listen to
me for a minute. I'm going to give you some good advice to
those that I love dearly. You have a responsibility to
be obedient to your parents. When your parents tell you to
do something, you do it. You say, yes, ma'am, yes, sir,
and you do it. If they tell you don't do something,
you say, yes, sir, and yes, ma'am, don't you do it. Now, your parents, sorry, mom and dad, but they
might make a mistake someday. Your mom and dad might make a
mistake someday. But you listen to me. You listen to me. has
got your best interest at heart, like your mama and daddy. So
you be obedient to them. You be obedient. You're a child
of God, take that to heart. And our father, that's something
we don't understand. You be obedient. You say, yes, sir.
Yes, sir. Yes, Lord. Be obedient to your
father, even when we don't understand him. And we've got a responsibility
as children to each other. love one another, to care for
one another. When something happens here,
somebody's in need, there's a funeral, there's a problem, there's a
hurt, there's a need. I'll quote the famous, famous
words of Jackie Simpson, we take care of our own. We'll take care
of you. It's not just our responsibility,
it's our delight. Because we give our bodies a
living sacrifice unto the Lord. Let me say something else to
you young people, you children and you young adults. Let me
tell you this. You watch for an opportunity to do just that. Don't wait for these older ones
that have done it forever and ever and ever. If you do it,
you do it. It's your reasonable service.
This is your responsibility to each other. Right? Thirdly, we're motivated to present
our bodies a living sacrifice to the Lord because it's the
only reasonable thing to do. The end of verse one, he says
that you present your body as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service. That word reasonable
means logical. I love logic. Janet says I got
too much of Mr. Spock in me. I love logic. I
do. Something that's logical just
makes sense to me. I like that. Well, this is just logical. It's
the only logical conclusion that you can draw to God's mercy to
you. It's the only logical conclusion there is. That you present your
bodies. That you present everything you are and everything you have
to God and tell Him, use me as you will. I have a body. The Lord gave it to me. It's
only right that I present it to Him and say, use it as you
will. I have a spiritual body. It's only right that I present
it to God and say, use it as you will. Because I wouldn't
have it unless He gave it to me. The Lord Jesus Christ The
son of God died for me. Every believer in this room can
say that. You can say he died for me as if I was the only one. He died. He gave up the ghost. Then it's only reasonable that
I live for him and not live for myself. Doesn't that make sense?
Almighty God revealed the gospel to me and he gave me a heart
that loves it. that it's only reasonable that
I use that heart, that new man, to spread the gospel, to promote
the gospel in any way I can. I might not preach, but I can
give. I can be faithful to attend the
service. Oh, I can pray. You know, if you all, through
your week, you ever wonder, wonder what I could do to help the ministry
here? I'll tell you what you can do.
You can pray. Every time Frank Tate crosses
your mind in a week, I beg of you that you pray for him. He
needs the Lord. He needs some guidance. He needs
the Lord to open his eyes, to give something, to preach to
his people. It's only reasonable that we
do that. It's just a logical conclusion. Right? Fourthly, we present our bodies
a living sacrifice because we don't want to be like this world.
Verse two, Paul says, and be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Paul,
when he says don't be conformed to this world, what he means
is don't be conformed to the way of this world. Don't be conformed
to the way this world thinks. Don't be conformed to the way
the world does things. And that's a good warning to us because
right now we're here with family, aren't we? What happens tomorrow
morning? You gotta go back out to the
world. And it's easy to be influenced. You've got a flesh that's just
like them. Your flesh is easily influenced by those things. Well,
Paul says, don't allow yourself to be conformed to that. The
way of this world is to be selfish. Will you be generous? The way
of this world is to think of numero uno, take care of number
one first. Will you think of others first?
The way of this world is pride, isn't it? Well, don't be conformed
to that. You be humble. The way of this
world is to seek the praise of men, the applause of men, to
get men to love you. Don't be conformed to that. You
seek the praise of God. The way of this world is to seek
happiness by giving. I told you already, if you would
be happy, you seek happiness by giving. The way of this world
looks at the things that are seen, looks at the physical.
Well, you look at the things that are not seen, the things
which are eternal. The way of this world is to seek what one
might eat, What am I going to wear? What am I going to drink?
You seek first the Lord Jesus Christ. You seek God and His
righteousness, and those things will be added to you. Let me
remind you, don't do these things in order to be saved. I'm not
preaching words. You do these things, don't be conformed to
this world because God has saved you out of this world. Because
He has put a new man in you. That's why you live this way.
When Paul says, be ye transformed, That word transformed is the
exact same word that's translated transfigured. When our Lord,
the man of transfiguration, was transfigured before His disciples,
His glory shone forth as this bright, brilliant light, it's
the exact same word. When our Lord was transfigured,
He was transformed before their eyes, you know what He did? He
revealed to His disciples who He really is. He pulled back
that veil of flesh and let them see who He really is. on the
inside. He's a son of God in all of his
glory. You who believe, you know why?
The only reason you believe is you've been born again. God's
caused a new man to be born in you that can't do anything but
believe God. Now you let that new man be seen
by the world, by your faith and by your love for Christ. That's
what James talked about in James chapter two that we read to open
the surface. You do these things so that Christ
gets the glory and not you. And be careful, don't be doing
this to seek glory for yourself. Other people say what a good
Christian person you are. You do these things so that Christ
gets the glory. That's God's good and perfect
will for you. Be obedient children. If you
would show that you love your heavenly father, then don't be
conformed to this world and be obedient to him. If you would
show the world that God has had mercy and grace upon you, he's
caused you to be born again Then let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, and humble yourself and promote him
and his people first. Again, I'm not preaching works,
but this is true. No believers inactive in this
thing. You don't just sit there and wait for it to happen, you
know. No, no believers inactive in this. We're to seek it. We're
to strive for it. Well, how do I get this thing? Paul says, by the renewing of
your mind. You don't have to be regenerated
again. You don't have to be born again, again. You don't have
to be born again over and over and over again. But the new man
does need to be renewed, doesn't he? It means to be strengthened. How is he renewed? How is a new
man renewed? It's when he's strengthened. And we can understand that by
looking at our physical body. Have you ever gone through a
long day and at night you are so tired you cannot Keep your
eyes open. You're just miserable. You feel
just so bad. It's like all you can do to get
into the bed. But in the morning you wake up
and you say, oh, I feel like a new man. I feel like a new
woman. My mind is sharp. My got energy. Well, what happened? Your body was renewed through
rest, wasn't it? Well, you want to know how the new man is renewed?
By resting in Christ. By relying upon Him. Have you
ever been just famished? You get like a little shaky because
your blood sugar is low or whatever. And then you sit down and you
eat a good, healthy, well-balanced meal. And you say, oh, I feel
as good as new. I'm ready to go out and tackle
the world again. What happened? Your body was renewed, refueled
with good food. Want me to tell you how the new
man is renewed? How is a new man strengthened to constantly,
every day, present His body a living sacrifice to the Lord. How is
He strengthened to do that? By feeding on Christ. By feeding
on the Word preached. You make a sacrifice to be here
when the Word is preached. You'd be amazed. Just be amazed
what a difference it makes to have that new man renewed. And
to present our bodies, to live, to live our life presenting our
bodies a living sacrifice to the Lord. Amen. Let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. We thank you for this instruction. Father, I pray that you give
us a heart of faith, that you give us a heart of obedience,
a heart of love, that we would present our bodies a living sacrifice
to the Lord. What can we ever give you? How
can we ever serve you enough? How can we ever thank you enough
for all the mercy and grace that you've bestowed upon us in Christ
Jesus? Father, I pray you'd give us
a heart of true faith, a heart of true love that lives our life
for the glory of Christ our Savior and not for ourselves. It is
in his glorious matchless name that we pray and give thanks.