Welcome. If you have a Bible with you, I'd like to invite you to turn to Romans chapter 11. If you don't have a Bible, I think we're going to try to get the words up on the screen. I am reading from the ESV, and I'm reading in Romans chapter 11, and I'm going to start at verse 29.
Romans 11 and verse 29. It says, for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. King James Version says, without repentance.
In other words, God doesn't change his mind. That statement right there gives us incredible eternal security. And then he says in verse 30, for just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience. So they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy.
For God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on them all. O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid. For from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever.
Amen. I want to read a number of things today, and I want to share with you Romans chapter 12. But just to set this up, I really have only one slide today, and on my slide it has three questions. I want to speak to you today about mercy and sacrifice from Romans chapter 12.
Mercy and sacrifice. I have three questions that I would like to address today. What? Siri can't help me with that.
Siri actually cannot help me with that. What are the mercies of God? What are they? We're going to describe them today.
And then secondly, how can my life be a living sacrifice? This is a very, very practical question. How can my life as a Christian, as a believer, become a living sacrifice? And then what is my spiritual worship?
So as I think of these questions, I want to read the first couple of verses in chapter 12. So Romans chapter 12 and verse 11, it says, I appeal to you therefore brothers. By the mercies of God. Now three times in chapter 11, we read of the mercy of God.
It's directly tied into this verse, and I'm going to explain that in a second. He says, because of the mercies of God, I appeal to you, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual worship. The King James Version says, reasonable service. Here it says, spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not have all the same function. So we, though many members are one body in Christ and individuals, members, one of another, having gifts that differ, according to the grace that is given unto us, let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, and the one who leads with zeal, and the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
Let love be genuine, abhorrent, abhorrent, abhora, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor, do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly, never be wise in your own sight, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all, and if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord, and so on. I want to share with you today what it means to experience the mercy of God. You know, when we get to this portion of the book of Romans, and as you know, I've been kind of going through the whole book, when you get to this portion of the book of Romans, it is the height, the theological height, and he looks back through everything that he's already taught from chapter 1 to chapter 11, and the subject is mercy that has been bestowed upon you and how you ought to, in turn, yield your body a complete living sacrifice because of all that God has given to you. I loved the thoughts that we shared this morning from our brother Clyde.
What shall I render unto the Lord? What shall I give to God for all these incredible, extravagant blessings that God has poured out on me? What shall I render to God? It was directly related to my message this morning.
So thank you, Clyde, for that. I believe you were in the spirit. That was beautiful. Mercy.
In chapter 11, he says, you have received mercy. You have received mercy. So I want to define what mercy is. Here's the definition of mercy.
It is compassion that withholds from us the retribution that we deserve. Compassion that withholds from us the retribution that we deserve. So when Paul is writing here in chapter 12 and he gets to this theological height and he says, what is Christian living? It is pouring out to God your whole body as a living sacrifice.
Why? Why should we do that? Because of the mercies of God. I want to quickly summarize for you the book of Romans.
Do you think I could do that in a short period of time? I want to summarize for you the book of Romans. What has the book of Romans taught us in the first 11 chapters? Well, here's what it's taught us.
The righteousness of God has been revealed. No one can meet that standard. We are all born with a sinful nature and we practice sin because it's natural for us. Every single one of us have a sinful nature that causes us to practice sin.
As a result, we are all under the condemnation of God's wrath. And because of that, there is coming judgment. And then he goes into chapter 2 and he makes this incredible point. There's no difference.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It doesn't matter if you are a Jew. It doesn't matter if you are a Gentile, if you are religious or if you are heathen. There is no difference.
We all fall short. We all miss the mark of God's standard. We are incapable. Worse than that, we are without excuse.
We are all guilty. And the judgment of God has already been passed. That every mouth may be stopped. And all the world become guilty.
And there's a sentence because of that sin that killed that we have. What is the sentence? The wages of sin is death. He goes further.
And he says, now, in spite of all that, God offers you grace and God shows you mercy. God offers you what you don't deserve. It's undeserved kindness. And God shows you mercy.
He withholds what is rightfully due to you because of your sin. What an amazing God. You know, when we read this morning in Psalm 103, one verse stood out to me and it is this. As high as the heavens are above the earth.
Can you measure that? No. It's immeasurable. As high as the heavens are above the earth.
So great is your mercy to those who fear you. That's how great the mercy of God is. If you could measure the distance from planet earth as high as the heavens are above the earth, that's an example of God's great mercy to us. He shows us mercy.
He shows us grace. The book of Romans teaches that God makes a way for us to become righteous in his sight. And he teaches two fundamental truths that I have tried to hammer on in the last number of years. Number one, it is not by works.
Number two, it is not of anything that we can do. We cannot be made righteous before God by our good works. We cannot be made righteous before God for anything that is in us. We are guilty.
We are incapable. We are without excuse. And God shows us mercy. Do you know what his mercy is?
It is Jesus. God's one and only son through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, God can show us mercy. His cross is an example of the mercy of God. His love, His word in Greek is agape.
It is God's love, genuine love, almost love toward the unlovable. Not for anything that I have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. His blood, his love, his righteousness. The book of Romans teaches deep fundamental doctrine about redemption, just by pain and price, reconciliation made right with God in my relationship, justified, which is given a righteous standing in the sight of God, declared righteous all on the basis of the cross.
And then Romans tells us there is an ongoing work in my life. It is the work of sanctification. That God is actually removing the dross from my heart, from my life. And he is making me more conformed into the image of his son.
What an incredible work that God is doing in our lives. Chapters eight, nine, ten, and eleven introduced for us the doctrine of saving grace. His sovereignty in election, his gracious conviction of sin. If you're sitting here today and you're not saved and you have a conscience about your sin, thank God for it.
Because apart from the grace and mercy of God, he would never even show you your sin. That is a work of God in the hearts of those that he's calling, his adoption to sonship. This is God bringing me, you, into his family adopting us. Amazing.
He clears us of our guilt, that heavy burden that sometimes we carry on our back, on our shoulders. It's buried at the foot of the cross. He removes that burden of guilt from us. He gives us a standing in righteousness in Jesus Christ.
Then we read that we are justified when we believe in God. He washes away our sin. He gives us the gift of God, which is eternal life. He places us in the righteous standing of his son, Jesus Christ.
We are blameless. Then he goes further. He says, if that's not enough mercy to those who are in Christ, Jesus, there's no condemnation. Nothing can ever be held against the one whom God has elected.
Who shall lay any charge to God's elect? No one can, because it is God who justifies. He has literally given us our life back. I mean that literally, because we were dead in our sins, in our trespasses.
We had a sentence of death hovering over our head, and he's given us our life back. Then he says, as the summary statement of all that, all the depth of the riches and the wisdom of God, how unsearchable are his ways. Who has known the mind of God? Who can even explain it?
God has brought us into this amazing position of righteousness. He's shown us his mercy. Therefore, that's what that word means. As a result of all of this, therefore, I appeal to you.
What should the mercy of God do for you in your life? It should make you want to love God. What did we read this morning in Psalm 116? I love the Lord.
If you've experienced the mercy of God in your life, do you love God? If you don't love God, there's something wrong. After all this extravagant grace and mercy that God has poured out in our lives, if you and I don't love God, there's something wrong. He says, therefore, I appeal to you.
This word appeal is the same word as encouragement, or sometimes it's used as, I exhort you, or I counsel you. This is an appropriate response because of the mercies of God, that you present yourselves your whole body as a living sacrifice unto God, which is your reasonable service or your spiritual worship. Do you know that we don't love God out of duty, but we love God out of devotion? We love God because he first loved us.
We love God because he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. We love God because he has poured out on us his grace. That's why we love God. Why does God love you?
Because God is love. Thank you. There's nothing in love. Listen, if you guys really knew me, you wouldn't love me.
And honestly, no disrespect if I really knew you, I might not love you either. But the one who knows me best loves me most. That's incredible. The God who knew all my sin, all the wicked, evil, and sinful ways of my heart and in my life, he shows me mercy.
He shows me grace. He gives me what I don't deserve and he holds back what I do deserve. Our only acceptable worship is to believe in him and to surrender our entire lives to him in full control out of deep devotion. So what happens?
Why don't we do that as Christians? This is a very practical part of the book of Romans. So now we're kind of built all of this doctrine and this deep rich theological truth. Now we're into the practice of our lives.
Can I ask you practically speaking, is your life your whole body a living sacrifice to God? Can I be very transparent? Mine's not. To be totally, totally honest with you.
I see witnesses and failures and inconsistency in my own life. Do you see it in yours? Our reasonable service, our spiritual worship, because God has given us our life back, purchased us, cleansed us, shown us mercy. The only reasonable response that any single one of us should have is that we should pour our lives out on the altar for God.
Why don't we do it? Well, first of all, we get distracted. Second of all, our life is interrupted by sin. Third, we are focused on many, many, many material things.
And fourth, we're just not in that headspace because we're not walking with God. It doesn't mean you're not saved, but you're occupied with other things. Sorry, am I messing this up? We're okay.
We're occupied with other things. And our exhortation from this passage is, because of everything that God's done for us, we ought to pour out our lives for him. Then he says this, this is a really tough one. This one here hits me pretty hard.
Do not be conformed to this world. Do not be conformed to this world, this age. What does that mean? The system of the world, the values, the practices of the world, and all of its glamour and lust and immorality.
Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Do you know what he's saying in this passage? He's saying, don't be pressed into the world's mold. I don't know about you, but I feel pressed into the world's mold.
It happens at about 730 every morning. And you got this phone, and you have emails, and you have social media, and you're running a business, and you have headaches and problems and challenges. It is so hard in this world to walk with God, breathe the air of heaven, give your life a living sacrifice, and not be conformed to this age. It is so hard.
Do you know what it says about Enoch? He walked with God, and he had this testimony that he pleased God. Is that you? Is it me?
That's a challenge. Right here in this passage is a heart that is fully consecrated to God. It is poured out, and I want to share with you what that actually means. Be not conformed, but be transformed.
The word in Greek is menmorphousus. That's exactly what the word is, and it literally means to change. So what are you changing into every day? Are you changing to be more like the world, or are you changing to be more like Christ?
Because you're changing. One way or another, we're all changing. So this passage is teaching us that a literal change can take place as I walk with God, as I enjoy his presence. You know this word, in order to give you a visual, it's the same word in Matthew 17 and 1, or 2, when Jesus went up the mountain and his appearance was changed.
It was transfigured. It was transformed. You know what happens when we get with God? We get changed.
We get transformed. When we see the word of God, and we feel the power of God and the presence of God, it's like looking into a glass, a mirror, and we're changed from glory into glory. What happened to Moses when he went up the mountain and spent 40 days with God? When he came down, his image, his face was changed.
The light of the glory of God was shining in his face. Do you get with God? I'm preaching to myself because I don't like I should, like I want to. Are you disciplined enough in your life to lay all these responsibilities aside and spend an hour uninterrupted every day with God?
Can I throw what I challenged you? If you do that, you will be changed. You will be changed. Spend an hour with God every day.
Pour out your heart. Read your Bible. Confess your sins. Abhor your sinful nature.
More because of sin. Rejoice in all the mercies of God. And pour out your life. A living sacrifice.
I'm preaching what I believe the word of God teaches. I can't stand up here and tell you that I have done this. I wish I have. This is a challenge that hits us in everyday practical living.
Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. What does your mind focus on? What do you read? What do you listen to?
What do you watch? What do you see? Whatever your mind focuses on, it changes you. For good or evil.
This is a very practical passage. How? How can I pour out my life in a living sacrifice? How can I be not conformed to the world?
It's by the Holy Spirit that lives inside of each and every one of you that are saved and myself. It is the Holy Spirit combined with the word of God by consistent study and meditation on the scriptures. You will become changed. You know why?
Because you will start to adopt God's values rather than the values that you see on Instagram, Facebook, social media, Netflix, all of these things. When you get your heart wrapped around God's values and God's vision, it will change everything for you. You will see and you will start to think like God sees and like God thinks. When we come to verse three, it's a little humbling, isn't it?
Here's what he says. He says, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Do you do that? I think it's really easy to do that.
Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. But you should think with sober judgment. And then he goes a little bit further. And he says, in the body, we are members one of another.
Can I ask you a question? How do you think we're doing as a church? How do you think we're doing as a body of believers? I asked myself that as I read this passage today and I thought about it.
You know, no one here is more important than anyone else. We all have different gifts and we all have different functions and we all need to walk and live and move and function in subjection to Christ. That is God's model for a church. Are we using our gifts in this church?
We all have different gifts. Are we really functioning the way we could to really be a blessing to each other? Using your spiritual gifts is an opportunity to serve God. Using your spiritual gifts is your spiritual worship.
Is pouring out yourself as a living sacrifice. So what are the gifts? Well, he listens to them here. The gift of prophecy.
What is that? I'm going to refer to one writer because I think this is good. What's the gift of prophecy? It literally means speaking forth the truth of God.
This is not some kind of a crazy notion that I have for you to do this or do that, that God has revealed to me in a dream that I go to you and I tell you this and I tell you that. This is directly related to the mind and will of God and we get that in the Scripture. So in the early church, when they didn't have the full canon of Scripture, God literally revealed his mind and will through holy men and women that spoke to them and spoke into their life and told them and gave them direct specific guidance. We get all kinds of examples of that in the book of the Acts.
When the Scripture is complete, the entire mind and will of God in general sense for our purposes and our principle for Christian living is in the word of God. And so I think that today the gift of prophecy is someone that is able to unfold the word of God and to speak forth the mind and will of God from the Scripture. Do you guys agree with that? So then how about the gift of ministry?
What's the gift of ministry? It's the gift of serving. It's the word that is used of a deacon. It is someone who comes along and serves the church.
We have a number of those right now that are that are part of the leadership team here. But you can also serve even if you're not officially a deacon. There's many ways people that come up here and play music. They're serving.
Right? That's ministering to the church. How about teaching? The ability to interpret, clarify and systematically explain God's truth clearly.
That's what I'm trying to do right now. I am trying to look at the Scriptures and teach what it is specifically saying. How about the gift of exhortation? That's when I stir you up.
That's when somebody challenges somebody in a positive way to go pour out their life for God. Maybe you need an encouragement or an exhortation today to come out with us and get on the street and start sharing your faith. And maybe there's someone here and God's giving you that desire. But you haven't acted on it yet.
This is not everyone's gift. I realize that. And I don't expect everyone in the church to go out there and do it. But if God's laying that on your heart, come, come out with us.
Come with us. We will do you good. You will see what it's like to actually get involved. And we've got a video on Facebook preaching Christ and Halifax that I think is going to be posted later on today.
A little experience walking down the street. And there's actually engaging conversations that are in there. And you'll see it if you look at it. How about the gift of giving?
What does it mean to really give? It really is the pouring out or sharing of some of the resources that God has given us in a way that will bless other people. That's a wonderful thing. How about the gift of leadership?
Those in the church or those in the body that actually stand in front and go ahead and have a will to serve. Leadership is all about servitude. It's about serving the church. And it's about leading the church in the right way and being an example and being a role model and connecting with people and shepherding them.
That's the gift of leadership. How about the gift of showing mercy? What God has shown us? Compassion.
Those are great gifts. And we as a church all need to use these gifts that God has given us to bless each other with. When you get to verse 9 to 21, there's some real practical teaching of what it means to live as a Christian. Look at these verses with me.
What does it mean to be a Christian? You know, I challenge myself about this. I'm going to say something here that I hope isn't going to offend anyone. We have nine Mexicans that work for us.
These gentlemen right here. Do you know what I want to say this? These men are an incredible example in the workplace. I get messages from customers all the time that say, these guys are singing.
These guys are happy. These guys do amazing work. They show up on time. They complete the work.
It's a pleasure to have these guys in our home. They get accolades and cards and gifts, gift certificates. You know, like, that's a great testimony. That is a phenomenal testimony.
You know what people are saying? What's different about these guys? And I say, they know Jesus and they love Jesus. That's what's different about them.
So I look at my own life. And I think of the day-to-day interactions. I think about the guy who cut me off yesterday. And I was extremely upset at him.
And then I came to find out I was in the wrong lane. You know what I think about? What's my attitude like? How do I interact in a practical way in everyday life?
Do I live like a Christian? And if I don't, I should. Well, here's an example of what a Christian should live like. Let your love be genuine.
Is your love fake? That's fake news. Or is your love genuine? Let your love be genuine.
If you're living as a Christian, you will hate evil. You will hate evil. You will abhor what is evil. Just like God.
If you're a Christian and you're living the way you should, you will love one another. You don't necessarily like all the traits and attributes of every human being. But because God has so loved you, you need to love one another. By this, shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love, one for another.
How do you live like a Christian? You need to be honest in business and you shouldn't be lazy. Be honest and not slothful. That's how a Christian lives.
Fervant in spirit means that you are energetic in doing the right thing. Constant in prayer. Do you pray constantly? Even in an attitude of heart, walking with God.
He knows your mind, your thoughts. Share your resources. Do you have resources today that can benefit other people? Share them.
That's how a Christian lives. They share their resources. I got a letter yesterday that absolutely broke my heart. I started to weep when I read it.
I couldn't hold back my emotion. There's a dear brother in Zambia called David Hobei. I went to various churches with him. He was my interpreter when I spoke.
This dear man lives in poverty and a meal in his house with his wife and family. If you saw the way the man lives, he has served 65 churches for over 20 years and he's never had a vehicle. Their public transport, I don't even have to describe it, is just crazy. The way that people get around and the frustrations, this man has never owned a laptop.
We, this church, shared our resources with him. He wrote a letter of appreciation to what he called the church in Canada of sharing their resources. He says, I will never forget. It will never be forgotten the kindness and goodness that you have given.
This guy now owns a Toyota Land Cruiser. Amen. And this man, we were able to get 70 Bibles to churches all over Zambia that have never had a Bible in their own language. And they quote scripture and memorize it because nobody owns a Bible.
Just by sharing with these, that's what Christians do. They share their resources. They feed the saints of God. They minister to them.
And we as a church, we need to do that as this body and we need to reach out to others. That's what it means to live a life that's a living sacrifice poured out to God. They show hospitality. God has given us a home and food on our table and many resources.
Christians show hospitality. There's somebody that's coming, they need a place to stay, Christian show hospitality. There's a neighbor that's suffering, Christian show hospitality. They show hospitality.
Here's another thing that's really practical. They live in harmony with one another. They live in harmony with one another. They live peaceably as much as they can with all men.
That's how Christians live. You know, you could take every one of these attributes and you could look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and you could see everything exemplified in him. Brother and sisters, do you know why God saved you? God saved you so that you and I would be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
Whom he did for know. Then he also did predestinate and whom he did predestinate. Them he also called and whom he called. He justified and whom he justified.
He glorified all for this purpose that they may be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. I beseech you. I appeal to you. Therefore, because of all the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service, our spiritual worship.
I trust that all of us today have been exhorted in a positive way and I speak to myself first. Let's pray. Father, we thank you today for all your mercies. Lord, we can't even number them.
They are so great. We deserved nothing and you have given us everything. We thank you, Lord, that when we were ungodly without strength in due time, Christ died for us. And we thank you that you have brought us into the family of God.
You have given us a standing of righteousness. You have washed us from our sins and given us a perfect robe of the righteousness of your Son. We thank you, Lord, for all your mercies. Help us as we leave this place in our lives, in our work, at home, in our community to be living sacrifices, to live our lives showing, emulating the life and work and person of your Son, the Lord Jesus, that ultimately we might be conformed to His image and be like Him.
We love you, Lord. We thank you for all your blessings. We pray that you would bless this church and help us to grow. Help us to use our gifts all for your glory and bless us as we separate today.
We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.