Let's turn again tonight to Romans
chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 in verse one. 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. This verse begins what is called
the practical part of the letter of Romans. We know this is typical
of New Testament letters, especially those written by the apostle
Paul. First, we have the doctrine,
the teaching, and then the conduct or the practice of those who
believe. I think that we can see this
and that word therefore in this text. I beseech you, therefore,
because of what he had taught in the first 11 chapters, therefore. His teaching on depravity, first
of all, the guiltiness of all men. His teaching on the grace
of God in justification, sanctification, and glorification, and God's
sovereignty. I beseech you, therefore. He begins with what we call Christian
conduct or practice. Notice that he writes to brethren.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, brethren, those who being born
again and trusting in Christ as their Lord and Savior are
part of the household of God, part of the family of God, brethren. The apostle, again, writing in
Ephesians to Gentile believers, he said, now therefore you are
no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God, the family of God. Now Paul was an apostle and we
know there were signs of an apostle. One of the signs was he had the
gift of healing. Another sign was he had the gift
of exercising command. For instance, the church at Corinth,
they were allowing a person who was guilty of living in incest
to be in fellowship in that congregation, and he commanded them as to what
they should do. But notice he doesn't command
here. It's not a command, but rather
he beseeches brethren, and that by the mercies of God. Now, mercy
is something about which God's children know. All of God's children,
we know something about mercy. We've all received mercy if we
are his children. We all need mercy. And his mercies
are new every morning. The psalmist said, in one place,
let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy,
and with him, plenteous redemption. With the Lord there is mercy,
and there is plenteous redemption. Remember one of the Beatitudes,
one of the characteristics of God's children, blessed are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Paul doesn't say mercy
either, does he? He says mercies. I beseech you,
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. God's mercies don't come
just one, but his mercies come unto us. Thomas Boston, in his
book on the covenant of grace, He made this statement, he said,
from the time that Adam fell, from the time that Adam fell,
our first parents, the first mercy, the first mercy we know
anything about in this world was promising mercy. The seed of the woman shall bruise
or crush the head of the serpent. So first there was promising
mercy, but then there was quickening mercy, for our parents to believe,
to live and believe the promise. And then followed pardoning mercy,
and then sanctifying mercy, and then glorifying mercy. And I'm sure there was a whole
lot other mercies in that chain. But the mercies of God. Augustus
Toplady, he is best known for his hymn writing for Rock of
Ages, but he wrote a hymn with these words. A debtor to mercy
alone, of covenant mercy I sing, nor fear with thy righteousness
on my person and offerings to bring. The terrors of the law
and of God with me can have nothing to do. My Savior's obedience
and blood hide all my transgressions from view. A debtor to mercy
alone. God's people, all of us, all
of the household of faith, the family of God, we know something. We know a lot, really, about
mercy. Now last Sunday, when we looked
at this verse, I took the mention of the word sacrifice in this
text to remind us that all believers, if you are a child of God tonight,
you are a priest. That all of God's children are
priests unto God. And we looked at that passage
in 1 Peter chapter 2, where the apostle tells us that we are
We're not only part of a holy priesthood, but we are part of
a royal priesthood. And usually those two go together. He hath loved us and washed us
from our sins in his own blood and hath made us unto God priests
and kings. Made us priests and kings unto
God. So not only are we priests, but
we are in the kingdom of God. the kingdom of God. And every
kingdom has a king, doesn't it? It wouldn't be a kingdom without
a king. And the Lord Jesus Christ, He is our king. Now the sacrifices, I said we
are priests, and priests offer sacrifices, but we know that
we have nothing to do as far as offering a sacrifice for sin. That one offering that the Lord
Jesus Christ offered for our sins, he sacrificed himself for
our sins. We don't offer sacrifices of
blood and sacrifices for our sins, but the sacrifices that
we are to offer are sacrifices of praise and well-doing unto
the Lord. Tonight, I want us to look at
three more things in this verse. about believers and about believers
presenting this sacrifice. 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. Three points. First, present
yourself, your bodies. This is the apostle's way of
saying, when he says, I beseech you by the mercies of God that
you present your bodies, this is his way of saying what we
would say, body, soul, and spirit. In other words, present all of
you unto God. As he wrote to the believers
in the church at Corinth, for you are bought with a price,
therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which
are God's. Present yourself, that is all
of you. We are to present ourselves,
body, soul, and spirit. Now, John Gill understood this
first verse to especially be an appeal to believers to be
faithful in public worship. That's the way he understood
this verse, that it's speaking to believers to be faithful,
to be faithful in public worship services. He said, and I quote,
not barely that part of them commonly so-called, that is body,
presents your body. He said that not barely that
part of them commonly so-called, For this is not to be understood
of a mere presentation of the body in public worship, for though
this ought to be, yet not without the heart, not without the heart
engaged therein. And we do see as we read the
New Testament that this seems to have been a problem from the
very beginning, that some believers are slack in attending public
worship. They're slack, as we would say,
in worshiping God with the church of God. I say this because in
Hebrews 10, we read, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves
together as the manner of some is. So we see from the very beginning
in the early days of the church that this was a problem and there
is an appeal. And John Gill thought this verse
especially applied to an appeal to believers to attend public
worship. Present your bodies, but not
just your bodies, but your whole self, body and soul. I thought about this, and I thought
about Thomas. You know, Thomas has a special
nickname, doesn't he? Doubting Thomas. Doubting Thomas. And you know how he got that
nickname. You know, don't you? He got that nickname because
the first day the Lord arose from the grave, the first day,
He was not with the eleven. Now, we don't know why. He may
have been justified 100% in not being with them, but we do know
he was not with them, but he was not justified in not believing
them. But I thought about the fact
that he missed the blessing, right? For seven days, he missed
the blessing. All the other disciples, because
they were present, because they were gathered together, They saw the Lord Jesus Christ. On that very first day, he appeared
unto them. But Thomas, he missed that blessing. Now, a week later, he was present,
wasn't he? And he believed. And he approached
the Lord Jesus Christ and he said, my Lord and my God. He recognized Jesus as God. He is God. We recognize him as
God. If he's not God, he's not a savior,
not our savior. But he is God, thank the Lord.
The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. But it's good to be in the house
of God. It's good to be faithful in the
worship services. And I encourage all of us, all
of those who are part of this congregation, to be faithful.
to be in your place to worship God when we have worship services. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the
Lord were to come down in this service here tonight in a special
way and just bless us like we've never been blessed maybe before
and then those who are not with us tonight, they'd miss that
blessing. They'd miss that blessing. So
I encourage all of us. I think it was Charles Spurgeon
that I saw a booklet by him one time. It was only a prayer meeting. It was only a prayer meeting.
It was only a prayer meeting, but revival broke out in the
prayer meeting. It was only a prayer meeting.
Yes, it was only a prayer meeting, but we don't know what the Lord
may or may not do. But we know this, he's promised
to be with us, hasn't he? Where two or three gather in
my name, there am I in their midst. So that's the first thing,
present yourself, all of you, present yourself, body, soul,
and spirit. Now second, present yourself
a living and holy sacrifice. A living sacrifice. As usual,
when you read the commentators, they all point out that this
is probably in opposition to the bodies of those animals that
were sacrificed. They were dead bodies which were
sacrificed. They were flayed. and offered
up and burned up on the altar under that old covenant. We are
to present our bodies, ourselves, as living sacrifices. Now I'm sure that's true, that
we should see that and see the difference between us presenting
our bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.
Difference between those dead animals that were presented under
the old covenant. But let me remind us of this,
when he says present yourself as a living sacrifice, one time
we were dead. At one time we were dead. If
we are alive tonight, at one time we were dead in trespasses
and sins. And the Holy Spirit has quickened
us and made us alive in Christ. And now we are living. We have
everlasting life. We have spiritual life. We've
been born of the Spirit of God. The Lord Jesus said in John 5,
verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life. We have it now. You know,
sometimes people get the idea, well, everlasting life, that's
going to begin when we die and leave this world. No, no. Everlasting
life begins when Christ saves you and gives you everlasting
life. You have it now. Present your
bodies as a living sacrifice. We are alive unto God. He's made
us alive unto God. He told his disciples the night
before he was crucified, because I live, you shall live also. He is our life. When Christ,
Paul said in Colossians, when Christ who is our life shall
appear, he is our life, he's alive. Now the opposite of living
is death. That's the opposite of living,
death. Did you know there are two verses
of scripture at least in the letters to believers in the practical
part of the letter where the writer addresses believers as
though we were dead. Look with me in Romans, one verse,
Romans chapter 13, not far. Romans chapter 13 and verse 11. He addresses believers as asleep. Now, when you go to sleep, that's
like death in the sense that you're not conscious of anything
around you. And the apostle addresses believers
here as being asleep. He said, And that, knowing the
time, that now it is high time to wake out of sleep. For now
is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Present your
body a living sacrifice. And also, if you will, in Ephesians
chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. And verse 14, Wherefore he saith, Awake thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead. Who's he talking to? He's talking to believers. That's
who he's speaking to. It's in this part of the letter
that is dealing with conduct. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light. We, you and I, those of us who
are saved tonight, as believers, we may get into a sleepy, slothful
frame. And we know this is so because
our Lord gave the parable of the ten virgins. Five of them were saved. Five
of them had oil in their lamps, but they went to sleep just like
the five foolish. They too went to sleep. I had
a man call me this morning, early this morning, and I'll just relate
what he said to me. He said, Pastor Pledger, he asked
me if I remembered him, and at first I didn't. He said, I've
lost everything. He said, I've lost everything.
I've lost my wife and I've lost my child. He said, I don't know
what happened to me. He said, I used to attend church
regularly. He said, my grandfather was a
pastor. He said, I quit going to church.
I quit reading my Bible, and I quit praying. And he said,
I've lost everything. I said, well, it can only be
one of two things. Either you were never saved, you never knew the Lord, or you
might be in what people refer to as a backslidden condition. I don't know. But I know this,
there's only one solution. There's only one answer. You've got to look to Christ.
You've got to turn to Christ. And I said, I told him, I said,
you've got to win your wife back. He said, I don't believe I can
do that. I said, well, I don't know. I know God can do anything,
everything. But I said, the first thing you
need to do, you need to get yourself right with the Lord. Maybe the Lord will restore.
But what the point I'm making here as believers presents your
body as a living sacrifice. Yes, even believers. can get
into a sleepy, slothful state. And we must stir up the gift
that is within us. It is God who worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Yes, therefore,
work out. We have a responsibility. The second thing we see here
is this sacrifice, which is all of ourself, a living sacrifice,
but it must also be a holy sacrifice. How do you understand the word
holy? If someone asked you tonight,
would you tell me what holy means? Would you define holiness to
me. Well, I want to tell you, too
many people define holy and holiness only with negatives. I don't go to the movies. I don't
smoke. I don't drink. Well, I'm not
advocating for any of those things. But I want to say this. If that's
what being holy is, then there's a lot of holy people in cults. There's a lot of holy people
in cults that deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
deny the necessity of the new birth, who deny everything that
we hold dear from the word of God. But they don't go to the
movies, they don't smoke, and they don't drink. And we could
go on, you know the list. If that's what holiness is, what
I'm saying here tonight is that there's a lot of holy people
who have nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ, who have no
understanding whatsoever with the gospel. What then does holy mean? Now
I know you can get a great lexicon and you can study the word, but
I'm not asking for a definition of the word. I'm asking tonight,
what does it mean to be holy? If you had to tell somebody tonight
what it means to be holy, now think, put on your thinking cap,
what would you say? How would you answer if someone
came up to you and said, listen, what does it mean to be holy? How would you answer? Well, let me just say this in
trying to give us some help on this. We know that the Lord Jesus
Christ was holy. Don't we? The scripture says
he was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, such an
high priest. We know that he was holy in nature.
But not only was he holy in nature, he was holy. He was holy, my
friends. And what marked his life? If we would try to define what
it means to be holy, couldn't we just look at Christ? Couldn't
we just study his life? We know he was holy. and find
out something about holiness. I believe we can. And I believe
what marked his life, his life was selfless. Selfless. He said, for I came down from
heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent
me. He came to do the Father's will. Even the words which he spoke
were those words which were given to him. If we would learn something
about holiness, we should look at Christ and we should see this
about him. He was selfless. He didn't come
to be served, but he came to serve and give his life a ransom
for many. Look in Philippians chapter two,
very familiar passage of scripture, but we see this here in Philippians
chapter two, when Paul writes to the believers in verse
five, he said, let this mind be in you. Who's mind? Well, the preacher's mind. The
deacon's mind. The Sunday school teachers, this
is the mind, whoever, this is the mind, oh no! Let this mind
be in you. Whose mind? Which was also in Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He didn't feel
like he had to grasp. He is God, and he knew. He was always aware that he was
God. Now think about that scripture
in John 13, the beginning of that chapter when he washed his
disciples' feet. Do you remember it says he knew Let me go there. Keep your place
there. Let me run over here to John
13 real quick, because I don't want to quote that verse wrong.
Verse 3 of 13, it says, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given
all things into his hand, and that he was come from God and
went to God, he knew who he was, he knew why he was here, And
he knew where he was going, and therefore he could take a towel
and a basin of water and go around to each one of his disciples
and wash their feet. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself. He made himself. That was a deliberate
thing that he did. He made himself of no reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant. He was made in the likeness of
man. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. even when the Lord Jesus Christ
was facing the cross. And he knew all that that entailed. He knew all that that entailed.
And you read about it in the gospels of what took place when
he was hanging there upon the tree. But you remember before
in the garden, he prayed, oh my father, if it be possible,
if it be possible, Let this cup pass from me, nevertheless."
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou will. What I'm saying,
if we want to learn something about What holiness means, we
couldn't do any better than just study the life of Christ because
we know he was holy and what we see, he was selfless. It was always his father's will. And didn't he say as much when
he said this, if any man, if any man will come after me, let
him deny himself. Number one. Any of us want to follow Christ?
Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. As we go through this chapter,
if you turn back to chapter 12, as we go through this chapter,
God willing, we will see the need of this, this need of this
selflessness. Look down in verse 14. Bless them that persecute you. Somebody's persecuting you. What
do you do? Take revenge, get revenge, get
back at him. Oh no, bless him. Bless him. And curse, bless and curse not.
All right, there's one last thing. So present yourself, all of you,
body and soul and spirit, a living sacrifice and a holy sacrifice. And third, present yourself. Paul says, this is your reasonable
service. It's your reasonable service.
It has to be reasonable that those who have received God's
rich mercy and grace like we have, that we present our bodies,
all of us, we present ourselves as a living holy sacrifice unto
God. I thought about how I might illustrate
this. And I thought about that demoniac
of Gadara. He's living out there among the
tombs. He's naked. He's wild. They try to chain him. He's so
strong, he breaks the chains. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
on shore and cast those 1,000, a legion, right, a legion of
demons out of that land. And then we read this. This man,
after he was clothed, sitting at the feet of Jesus. The people from the town, remember,
they came out and asked the Lord to leave. They didn't want anything
to do with him. And so he accommodated them.
He got in the boat. And here's this demoniac of Gadara. He prayed the Lord that he might
be with him. Now, if someone said, well, that's
unreasonable. That's unreasonable that he would
pray the Lord to be with him. Oh, no. I don't think anyone
would think it was unreasonable that he wanted to be with the
man, the one that delivered him from those demons. And the same
is true of you and I, those of us who've been saved by the grace
of God. It's just our reasonable service
that we present our bodies, all of ourselves, a living, holy
sacrifice to God. Remember the words of Isaac.
once in that hymn, when I surveyed the cross, he said, were the
whole realm of nature mine that were present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands
my soul, my life, my all. 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. May God give us the grace to
do so. May he give me the grace to do
so. Okay, let's sing a hymn.