I Am Not Ashamed: Our Reasonable Spiritual Worship

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Romans 12:1, NASB95).

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a great British preacher of the last century, while preaching through the Book of Romans, preached ten consecutive weeks on verses 1–2. You’re going to get just two (PTL).

The question before us this morning is this: If you believe the Scriptures, what does it mean to live the Christian life in light of their truth? Here in this verses the Apostle gives us the essence of the Christian life — we must be a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God. That’s it. That’s the foundation of our Christian experience. Everything flows from that.

So here’s the fundamental truth of Romans 12:1 — and it’s a hard one — You’re not living the Christian life unless you put to death the idea that you have a right to live as you choose. It’s a hard truth because, at the present time, there probably has never been a culture in the history of the world more averse to the very essence of what it means to live a Christian life. We live in an era of radical self-autonomy — a libertarianism on steroids — where all restraint, especially sexual restraint, is considered unhealthy, and repressive. The most important attributes in our culture have become autonomy, self-esteem, and self actualization. This is the antithesis of what the Apostle encourage of his readers. In an age of radical self-autonomy, the apostle call for radical self-sacrifice.

I. THE GREATEST APPEAL IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies ... “

1. we live in an era of urgent appeals

ILLUS. In 2016, if you were like me, you received a steady barrage of urgent appeals from various political candidates or political action committees asking for donations. Most of them were in the negative ... if you don’t give to us the “other guy” is going to win, and the result is doom and gloom.

ILLUS. I steadily get urgent appeals from Publisher’s Clearing House ... “Don’t ignore this mailing. You’ll forfeit you chance of $5,000 a week for life if you don’t enter.”

ILLUS. Weekly, our church receives urgent appeals from various ministries announcing that their ministry may soon end if we don’t support them.

2. we live in an era of urgent appeals, mot of which are not really urgent at all

a. the Apostle begins this new section of his letter with his own urgent appeal to the believers in the Church at Rome

b. it is ...

A. AN APPEAL TO THE SURRENDERED LIFE

1. the Apostle writes, “I urge you, therefore... “ — it’s literally the word beseech; “I beseech you” — and represents an urging that comes from the depth of his being

a. the Apostle cannot rest until he makes his case for the consecrated life

b. the Apostle is earnestly contending, pleading, appealing in the strongest way possible that these believers join with him as brethren in Christ in presenting themselves to God fully surrendered

2. the call to the surrendered life is a noble call

a. due to the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, due to His unsearchable judgment, due to His grace for which no man can repay him, Paul issues a summons and an encouragement to personal consecration — the presentation of our bodies — to God, and to the things of God

3. the call to the surrendered life is a personal call

a. in the Greek the emphasis falls on the personal pronoun "you"

1) the surrendered life begins with yourself, and not the other guy

ILLUS. It’s tempting, is it not, to gauge our spirituality by looking at some other Christian’s life. The problem is that we always look at the fellow Christian whom we believe to be spiritually inferior to ourselves. We never look at the 80 year-old deacon who is living a deeply sanctified life, and think to ourselves, “I’d like to be more like him.” We look at the inactive reprobate, and tell ourselves, “Well, at least I go to church, or cheat on my spouse.”

b. it is always be easy to find those in the church less dedicated to the cause of Christ than you

ILLUS. There is an illuminating incident in the last chapter of John's gospel. Jesus meets his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. There we have that intriguing encounter between Jesus and Peter where our Lord asks the apostle three times. "Peter, do you love me?" It's a story of restoration after Peter's denial. You'd think that Peter is on the road to spiritual recovery, but what do we see happening next? “Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” 22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” (John 21:20–22, NIV84)

b. Peter should have been concerned with God's will for Peter and not God's will for John

4. the call to the surrendered life is a self-sacrificing call

a. the world present or offer in vs. 1 was the technical term for a Jewish priest placing an offering on the altar

b. Paul call on Christians to perform what is essentially a priestly act of worship — with themself as the sacrifice

5. Paul’s Appeal is to the Surrendered Life, But It Is Also ...

B. AN APPEAL TO THE SURRENDERED LIFE BASED ON THE MERCIES OF GOD

" ... therefore, brethern, by the mercies of God ... "

1. the greatest appeal in the Christian life is based on the greatest motivation in the Christian life: the mercies of God

2. therefore is a transitional word

a. it reaches back to include the whole story of God's unfolding mercy to sinful men as told by Paul in the first 11 chapters of his letter to the Christians at Rome

1) God’s mercies are seen in His patience with sinners

2) God’s mercies are seen through our salvation in Christ

3) God’s mercies are seen in our justification by faith

4) God’s mercies are seen in our sanctification through the Word

5) God’s mercies are seen through the gift of the Holy Spirit

6) God’s mercies are seen through our adoption as sons

7) God’s mercies are seen through the remembrance of His people

8) God’s mercies are seen in His wisdom and knowledge and, His unsearchable ways

b. Paul is not beseeching these Christians at Rome based on his own apostolic authority, but Paul — from the depth of his heart — is beseeching them (and us) by the mercies of God

1) do this for God’s sake, become a living, and holy sacrifice for the sake of God who loved you and sent His Son to die for sin in your place

3. Paul wants the Christians at Rome, as well as you and I, to remember God's graciousness in our lives in order that we might be motivated to make a firm and total commitment to the Christian life

a. the Christian faith was never meant to be a "have too" religion, but a "want to" faith based on a relationship with the living God

b. far to often our Christian walk and service is motivated, not by love and humble service, but by guilt or secret agendas

4. gratitude and love for what God has done in our lives ought to be the compelling reason which motivates us in Christian service

5. Paul’s Appeal is to the Surrendered Life, Based On The Mercies of God, But It Is Also ...

C. AN APPEAL TO THE SURRENDERED LIFE BASED ON THE MERCIES OF GOD TO A SURRENDERED LIFE

" ... that you present you bodies ... "

1. the verb present is in a tense that demands continuous action

a. Christians are to yield continually or to continually offer up themselves to God

1) yes, there was a point-in-time when you first came to Christ and willingly offered you life to him

a) the problem with being a living sacrifice is that we’re frequently tempted to crawl down off of the altar

2) but the Christian is to keep on coming to Christ, to keep on becoming a holy and living sacrifice each day

“Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23, NIV84)

ILLUS. David Livingstone, the renowned missionary to Africa, wrote in his journal about the surrendered life. “People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of the great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Away with such an idea, such a view, and such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege.”

2. Therefore I Urge You, Brethren, by the Mercies of God, to Present Your Bodies is the Greatest Appeal in the Christian Life

II. THE GREATEST RESPONSE IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

“ ... present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

1. for those who have been saved, for those who have had the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, for those who have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, then it behooves us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices under God

a. the apostle is concerned that Christians look like Christians

2. after urging the Christians at Rome to consider all the things God has done for them — all His mercies — the Apostle writes that their only reasonable response is to be a living sacrifice

3. the imagery is that of ritual Old Testament sacrifice

a. in the strictest definition of the word, sacrifice is a religious act of worship in which offering is made to God of some material object belonging to the worshiper in order to maintain or celebrate friendly relations with the deity

b. this passage is very clear—God wants the worshipper, and not necessarily the things of the worshiper!

4. God asks that each and every day—of our own volition—his followers crawl upon the alter of self-sacrifice and surrender our lives to Him

A. PRESENT YOUR BODY AS A LIVING SACRIFICE

1. Paul is encouraging his readers to give the totality of their personhood over to God—Soul, Spirit and Body

a. this is one of the great oxymoronic statements in the New Testament — the Apostle beseeches us to be living sacrifices

1) an oxymoron is a figure of speech that juxtaposes words that appear to be contradictory

ILLUS. Examples include an open secret, jumbo shrimp, seriously funny, deafening silence.

2) anyone who knows anything about the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, knows that at the end of the sacrificial ritual the animal was not better off for the encounter — the animal was dead

3) in fact the word sacrifice here in Rom. 21:1 is the Greek word for killing

4) Paul is saying, Make your life a living killing, a living death (Christians really are the Walking Dead)!

ILLUS. Everybody reading this, the Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews, would all know about animal sacrifices that happened in temples all around the world and happened, of course, in the Jewish Temple. They would understand the idea of animal sacrifices being killed and offered up as sacrifices to God, but to call it a living sacrifice is deliberately paradoxical. It’s Paul’s way of saying the Christian life is both like and unlike those old sacrifices.

b. only in the logic of the gospel is it logical that Christians can be living sacrifices

c. note the qualities of this sacrifice

2. 1st, we are to be a living sacrifice

a. the sacrificial system in the Old Testament taught that sin is serious, and requires a sacrifice of atonement

1) however, every one of those Old Testament sacrifices was incomplete

a) none of those sacrifices lead to eternal life

b) none of those sacrifices washed away sin completely and forever

b. in these sacrifices God's wrath and judgment was only momentarily propitiated

1) the author of the New Testament book of Hebrews speaks of this when he writes:

"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship." (Hebrews 10:1, NIV84)

a) in the Old Testament sacrificial system the animal died

b) its blood was shed

c) the carcass was removed, the altar cleansed, and more sacrifices continued

d) it's life was taken as a picture of the costliness of redemption

c. but on Calvary's Mount there was one final sacrifice

1) it's a story the Christian must come back to again and again and again

2) on that cross, Jesus Christ, the eternal incarnate son of God shed his blood willingly for the remission of our sin

d. his atonement is why we are here as God's redeemed people

1) without the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ we are still dead in our trespasses and sins

"When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" (Hebrews 9:11-14, NIV84)

e. it's on the basis of this propitiation that we are to be Living Sacrifices

1) being a living sacrifice means that we are dead to self but alive in Christ

3. 2nd, we are to be a holy sacrifice

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” (Romans 6:12–13, NIV84)

4. 3rd, we are to be an acceptable sacrifice

a. that phrase goes back to the Old Testament, and reminds us that God alone declared which sacrifice was acceptable unto himself

1) it is to be a life without blemish

ILLUS. The prophet Malachi rips into the priests of his day because they had gotten into the practice of offering "polluted" animals as a sacrifice to God. In other words, they were offering God second best. They were keeping the best animals for themselves and offering God the crippled and the blind animals.

b. now, if you’re like me, there are times — more times than not — where I look at my life and think I am unacceptable to God

1) I look at the pollution of my life, and seriously wonder how can God (as the hymn intones) ... love me, A sinner, condemned, unclean

2) and then the Spirit of God reminds me, “Yes, I am a sinner, but I am no longer condemned, and I am no longer unclean, because I’ve been washed by the blood of the Lamb.

3) I can confess with Paul ... “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20, NIV84)

c. a follower of Jesus Christ, redeemed by the blood of the lamb, is acceptable to God

1) we are not acceptable for who we are, but we are acceptable because of what Christ is done for us and in us

B. PRESENTING YOUR BODY AS A LIVING SACRIFICE IS REASONABLE WORSHIP

1. now think of what the Apostle has just said there ... Worship is our spiritual service unto the living God, and is a reasonable response to His mercies

2. there has been considerable debate by New Testament translators over how to render the last two words of Romans 12:1

a. the Apostle encourages us to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your lŏgikŏs latĕria ...

1) Latĕria is not hard — it’s the word from which we get our English word liturgy, and means divine service

a) it is a communal response to, and participation in, “the sacred” through the activities of praise, thanksgiving, supplication, and repentance

2) Lŏgikŏs is a little harder to translate

a) it’s root gives us the word logic, and several translations, such as the KJV, render the word as reasonable

b) however, it’s an adjective whose meaning is determined by its context, and the only other place in the New Testament where the word is used is in 1 Peter 2:2 where it clearly means spiritual, and so most modern translations render the ending of Romans 12:1 as spiritual worship, or spiritual service.

b. in the context of this passage, the Apostle tells the Christians living in Rome that it is right and proper—hence logical, reasonable—that those who have been saved, those who have been born from above, those who have had the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, should offer themselves to God wholeheartedly, as sacrifices, living, holy, and well-pleasing to him as an act of worship

3. we are a purchased people who owe the Father our private devotionals and regular corporate worship as a reasonable response to God

a. worship is not an over and above response to God

b. do you understand how deeply theological this is?

1) do you understand that is a contradiction to the modern concept of what worship is all about?

There is a conceit in the church today that worship is all about us. In much of the modern church we have reversed what worship is all about, and that conceit is frequently revealed when we ask our spouse, “Did you get anything out of worship this morning?” That question assumes that worship is some kind of “event” to which we come as consumers and we will decide whether or not the product was worth our time and effort. The late Charles Coleson referred to it as the McChurch mentality. It’s all about having it your way! PLAY DRIVE THROUGH CHURCH. Unfortunately, some members view church as they would any other commodity. They want choice. They want variety. They want service. They want change back from their dollar.

It is in this passage that the apostle reminds us you're not living the Christian life unless you put to death the idea that you have a right to live as you choose. What it means to live a Christian life is that you put to death the right to live life as you choose. You put to death the idea that you belong to yourself. You put to death the idea that you know best what should happen in your life. You put that to death, and you give it to God.

Related Media

Related Sermons