What Does It Mean to Present Your Body as a Living Sacrifice?

Lecture 12 The Resurrection and the Coming of Jesus Christ All the programs are available on videotape, for sake of cost we've put 12 programs on one 6 hour video, and we can send that out postage paid for $30, and of course if you're aware we can hand them to you or we can save you a bunch, and usually I think sell them for $25 then don't we honey. And then every one of the tapes have been transcribed now into print, and that's the little books that you see on the screen, and each one of those little books is a word for word transcription of the 6 hour video. They are not dressed up, they're not footnoted, they're just word for word as it comes off the television program, but the little books are really affecting a lot of hearts and lives, and folks are really enjoying them. So if you can use them you drop us a line or call us on the 800 number and we'll get them to you. Ok, now let's get right back to what this program is all about, Bible study. As I've said so often, we're just an informal study. We have no axe to grind with any particular group. We do not try to criticize anyone, but we just simply teach the Book and hopefully let the chips fall where they may, but we trust that the Holy Spirit will enhance your understanding as you read and as you study, because this Book is the most exciting Book on earth. Now there's just no doubt about it. Now we're ready to go into Romans chapter 12. You remember for the last month or two or more we've been in the intervening chapters of 9, 10, and 11, which when we started studying I reminded you that they were parenthetical. And just like the structure of an English sentence, you can have a complete sentence, you can then open it up and put in a parenthetical statement, and you can take that statement back out and still have your complete sentence. Now that's the whole idea of parenthesis, and that's the way it is with these three chapters here in Romans. You come into the end of chapter 8, and then all of a sudden there's this parenthetical thinking of 9, 10, and 11 where the Apostle Paul, by inspiration of course, deals with the nation of Israel with regard to the Gentiles. And then when those three chapters have ended, he comes now back to chapter 12, verse 1, so what I always like to emphasize is that when he starts out this verse, I beseech you therefore, or as usually in all the other places, he would start out with the word, therefore. And what have I told you? When you see therefore, or wherefore, what do you do? You go back and see what he's referring to. Now you remember in chapter 8, verse 1 he says, "...therefore there is now no condemnation." Well I didn't tell you to go all the way back to chapter 1 on that therefore, but on that one we went back to chapter 5, but mostly back to chapter 7, and then he came to that therefore in chapter 8. So now with this therefore, way over here beyond the three intervening chapters of 9, 10, and 11, you have to first thing ask yourself, well now where does he want me to go back to? Well I think on this therefore, he doesn't want us to go back to 9, 10, and 11, that's for sure. He doesn't want us to go back just to chapter 8, but he wants us to go all the way back to everything that he has covered now in these first 8 chapters, and as we come on into chapter 12. So I beseech you therefore, on the basis of everything that he has written or taught in those first 8 chapters, he says, "...I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." Now listen, it's not empty talk. When you go back and reflect on everything that was written in those first 8 chapters, what is really exploding throughout those 8 chapters of Romans? The mercy of God. He is not some ogre up there that's just waiting to zap people when they've done something wrong. Neither is He a Santa Claus, waiting to be manipulated. But He is a God of mercy. Now just to reflect, I'm not going to take you all the way back Scripture by Scripture, because we're not going to have time for that today. But you remember as we came into chapter 1, 2, and 3, God by the pen of the Apostle Paul built His case against the whole human race. Remember that? First was the immoral person, no doubt that he stood in need, but then He went from that immoral person to a good moral person, and then He went from the immoral to the moral to the religious Jew. Because after all, the Jews were the only real religion of Paul's day. And so when you come into chapter 3, what was the conclusion? Whether they were immoral, or whether they were moral, or whether they were religious Jew, they were all enemies of God. There is none that seeketh after God. There is none righteous, no not one. Then the capstone of it all is Romans 3 verse 23, where he says, Romans 3 verse 23, "...all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." The immoral, the moral, the religious, everyone has come short of the glory of God. And then what's the very next verse in chapter 3? Romans 3 verse 23, "...being justified freely by His grace, which we have in the redemption in Christ Jesus." And then it goes on into the next verse, "...that we are justified by faith in His shed blood, and that Christ is just, He's fair, He's honest, in being the justifier of them that believe." Oh, not all the things that a lot of people think they have to do, join the church, get baptized, do this and do that, but He's the justifier of them that believe. And that gets so simple, it just throws a curve at people, and they just go into orbit. But that's what the Book says, that He is the justifier of them that believe. And then you go into chapter 4, and He uses Abraham as that epitome of faith. The man who when he was 100 years old, when God said, "...you're going to have a son, and from your 90 year old wife, and from that child I'm going to build a nation of people." Romans 4 says, "...he staggered not in unbelief," but what did he do? He believed God, who was rich in mercy, even to the man Abraham. And then you come into chapter 5, and what's the first verse of chapter 5? Oh, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. And then you come into chapter 6, and He goes through this whole idea of being identified with Christ, death, burial, and resurrection, that just as surely as Christ was crucified on that Roman cross, you and I have been crucified. And of course Paul brings that to the light in Galatians 2, verse 20, "...I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet the life I now live, I live by the faith, or the faithfulness, of him who loved me, and gave himself for me." Now all of this is what Paul is making reference to. Remember we came into chapter 7, and he came into this dilemma that every one of us are faced with. Oh, the things that we know we should do, we don�t. And the things that we know we shouldn�t do, we do. And Paul went through that same dilemma. And then he ended up chapter 7 by saying, Oh wretched man that I am, who can deliver me? And then chapter 8, verse 1, remember I just shared it with Louise again, that�s the chapter I said we�re studying. If every American would read Romans chapter 8 once a day, we�d see a change in this country just from that one chapter. And what does chapter 8, verse 1 say? Okay, then now I want you to turn back with me to chapter 8, and I want you to see those closing verses from which we�re going to jump right around 9, 10, and 11, and go to Romans chapter 8, that tremendous chapter of our great salvation, not based on what we have done, but what Christ has done on our behalf. And then you come down to verse 35 -39, and we have to read them. These are just so beyond human comprehension that we have to read it, and read it, and read it, and believe it, and believe it, and believe it. And here it is. Romans 8. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we�re accounted as sheep for the slaughter. That�s the world�s attitude toward the believer, and has been ever since the beginning of time, even back in the Old Testament economy. Why did the pagan people around Israel so hate the Jew? Because of their relationship with their Creator God, and it hasn�t changed. It�s still the same way. Then verse 37 of Romans 8. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. And then verse 38. The apostles� words should be our words. verse, we should be able to say exactly the same thing, "...for I am persuaded..." Now the word persuaded in the Greek is much stronger than what we normally think of finally consenting to something. It is a word that denotes absolute certainty without a doubt, and look what it says, "...for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor even things to come, nor heights, nor depths, nor any other creature, nothing in all of God's creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, and that love is shown where? In Christ Jesus our Lord." Now then, with that as a background, everything that we've reviewed in these first 8 chapters now flip over to Romans 12, and my, what this verse says, "...I beseech you therefore..." Now what does the word beseech really mean? It's a begging, see? I plead with you. In other words, is Paul by inspiration laying down a command that you will or else? See this is the difference, and we're going to see it now in another word in a little bit. This is the difference between grace and law. Law said, pick up sticks on the Sabbath day, and what's the result? Death by stoning. Now we're not under that. If we sin, if we fail, we're not going to be utterly chastised or cast out, but God is going to deal with us in love. We know He's going to discipline when we fail if we don't respond, and He'll move on from one level of discipline to another. But it's still the whole idea, it's up to us as a believer. We have such intense liberty that very few people in Christendom understand. In fact, turn with me to Galatians, and we'll see the word, and how He uses it. Galatians chapter 5, verse 1. Remember Galatians is written because these believers were being hammered by the Jewish believers to come back under the law, to practice circumcision and Judaism to the fullest extent. Paul had to write this little letter to refute all that. We're not under the law. We're not under any demands of those commandments, and so instead he says in verse 1 of chapter 5, "...stand fast therefore." That means just exactly what it says, "...the immovable, wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Which is legalism. So when you enter into that salvation that we talked about back in Romans chapter 1, verse 16, and all the ramifications of it, justification, sanctification, forgiveness, baptized into the body, the Holy Spirit indwelling and on and on we could go. Oh, what did all that imply? That we're in Christ, but we've also been set free. A liberty like nothing else on this planet. Now if you come back to Romans 12, verse 1, with this whole concept that as a believer, as a child of God who has the promises that nothing can separate us from the love of God, we have the promise that now being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Now he goes on to say, "...therefore by the mercies of God, present..." That means just exactly what it says, present it. You just simply say, "...Lord, here am I." Like Isaiah of old, what did he say? Send me. And that's all we have to do. We don't have to cross raging rivers. We don't have to run from this place to another. We don't have to go out and try to get an education that God can use. We just simply say, "...Lord, here am I. Use me." And that's presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. And that throws a curve at us, because ordinarily what do we think of as a sacrifice? Well, the animals that were killed that gave up their life as Christ. The sacrifice that was killed. He was put to death on the cross. But you see, the death that we now die is a substitutionary death in the person of Christ. That's what Paul meant in Galatians. I've been crucified, but is he dead? No, he's living. He's writing the very book of Galatians when he said it. And the same way with us as a believer. Yes, we've died. We have been put to death in the mind of God on the cross of Calvary. We died when Christ died. But oh, we're alive, and now it's our duty, not a command, but it's our duty that in light of everything that God has done on our behalf, and we did nothing. I'm going to use the statement merely for shock. Spiritually we had to stand before God stark naked. That's the best way I can put it. With no hope of anywhere getting any help. Because a naked person, when he's caught in a predicament, he's not going to go out and look for a set of clothes. He's going to hope for the best, isn't he? Now that's exactly where we were spiritually. We were naked before God. We had nothing we could do. We didn't even have fig leaves, and so we just had to stand there at His mercy. And mercy was poured out, and He came in and He did everything that needs to be done if we'll just simply believe it. Now what is then a living sacrifice? I'm going to take you back to Hebrews. Hebrews of course is the book written to the Hebrews, and it was in light of all the Old Testament sacrifices, and ritual, and what have you. But back here in Hebrews chapter 13, I'm going to take you off the hook. I'm going to give you the idea of presenting your body a living sacrifice from the time you get up in the morning until you lay your head back on the pillow at night. And it's so easy. It's so easy, especially for those of us living in blessed America. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 15, and I hope you'll take this verse with you from this day forward, whether you're here in the studio or whether you're with me out in television. Because this is all God's looking for. This is that living sacrifice that He is asking. Now He's not demanding it, He's not commanding it, but He is asking for it. That's what the word beseech means. I'm asking you, I'm begging of you, by Him, that is the Crucified Christ up there in verse 12-13, by Him, by virtue of His death, burial, and resurrection on our behalf, by Him therefore let us offer the what? Sacrifice, not of an animal, not of our own blood, but the sacrifice of the praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips. What do you do with your lips? You speak. And this is the living sacrifice that God is looking for, first and foremost. He wants to hear our lips speak praise and thanksgiving to Him all day, every day. And that's the easiest way to fulfill Romans chapter 12. Now I'll guarantee that you have a believer who is going to be offering lips of praise to God 7 days a week. You're going to have a believer that's going to start accomplishing things for God as well. I mean it's just going to work hand in glove, it's that automatic. So offering then the praise to God, the fruit of our lips, and giving thanks to His name. Now if you'll come back to Romans chapter 12, and again in verse 1. This living sacrifice, don't let it stop with the lips of praise, like I said it's always going to move on into other areas of your life, but in this living sacrifice holy. Now that scares people. It used to me, I didn't want to be thought of as holy, because then you're just sort of out of everything, you're some sort of a kook, and you're some kind of an oddball. Listen, Christianity is never that, and I'm going to show you that I was right years and years ago in a nomenclature that I used, and I just saw it in the Greek last week for the first time, but I'm going to hold that for a minute. Here we are, holy. What does it mean? Just simply set apart, that's all. Now when the vessels in the Temple were declared holy, what did that mean? Well they were set apart for Temple use, nothing else. In other words, the high priest's wife couldn't come down to the Temple and say, Oh honey, I have to use one of those ladles, mine disappeared. No she couldn't do that, because those instruments were set apart for Temple use, and nothing else. That's what we're for. We are a set apart people. Now that doesn't put us out in oddball, doesn't put us out in left field, but it does in God's mind designate us as people of the Book, as people who are living to please Him first. Now I've tried to tell my kids over the years, that comes down to the word priority. You have to set your priorities. What is most important in your life? Well the Scriptures teach even all the way back to Christ's earthly ministry. Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven, and then all these other things can be added unto you. But priority says, God first, and then these other things can come into their rightful place. Now here's where I want to show you a little Greek that I've never even known before, which is your reasonable service. Now for almost 20 years since I've been teaching the Book of Romans off and on, I have told people from day one, these last 4 chapters of Romans are just simply practical Christian living. What do I mean by practical? It's common, it's ordinary. There isn't anything in these 5 chapters that would take you out of the mainstream of your community, that would take you out and make you like I said earlier, a kook or some kind of an oddball. Everything in these 5 chapters is just as ordinary, as practical as anything you can get. And there again, if you could live in a community where people 99.9% lived out Romans 12-16, you'd be in the closest place to heaven on earth. But we won't do it, none of us do. But oh, it's so practical. Now where did I say the Greek all of a sudden, and realize that I was right all along? Well here this word reasonable service, as Paul uses it, are the two Greek words logike, and then the next word is latria, which means rituals or service. Now turn with me a minute so that you'll see what I'm driving at. Back to Hebrews again, because this is the only way we can learn, is by comparing Scripture with Scripture. Hebrews chapter 9. As I said a moment ago, this book is rehearsing all of the Old Testament rituals of Judaism, explaining the Day of Atonement and all the rest. Now in chapter 9, verse 1. Hebrews 9. Then verily the first covenant, that is of law, had also ordinances of divine service. The same Greek word latria as we have back in Romans, but the word divine comes from a different Greek word that implied the established or the prescribed ritual according to the Law. That was prescribed. I mean people when they came to the Temple, they knew exactly what they were to do, and how, and when. I've accompanied Catholic friends to one of their services, and I say this with no ridicule, but it's just a fact of life. If you that are not Catholic, and you were to attend a Roman Mass or something like that with a Catholic friend, and you know they'll get up, and they'll kneel, and then they'll stand, and they'll kneel. Well the visitor about 5 minutes into it, what does he become? Totally confused, because about the time you're kneeling, they're standing. Now the Jew was the same way. When they went into their synagogue service, they knew exactly when to sit, when to stand, when to respond. There was no confusion, because it was an established ritual. It was a religious service. Now come back to Romans chapter 12, and we have the same service word, latria, but instead of divine or ritualistic or religious, our word is in the Greek logike, and our translators for the most part have translated it, intelligent. Now read it that way. Romans 12, verse 12 says, "...present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your intelligent form of service," or logical service, or practical. Isn't that beautiful? We're We�re no longer under the demands of a certain ritual, �You�ll do it this way, and this way, and this way.� No, we�re set free. We�re not under any particular commanding type of ritual. We are an individual accountable to God and God alone, and that is our logical, practical service. I like that. I don�t know whether you�re catching it, but when I saw this last week as I was getting ready for this, that�s exactly what I�ve been telling people, but I didn�t have the Greek to prove it. But now I do. For the Jew or for a person who is in a religion, they have to follow the ritual. But you and I as set free believers, we don�t have a prescribed ritual that we follow, but we are just simply in tune with God, and we do that, which of course He leads us to do. Now in the moment or two that we have left, we�ve got to go into verse 2, and here I told the class I was hoping I could finish the book of Romans today. I�d like to keep all these chapters on one tape if possible, so I�m going to still work to that end. Romans 2, and he says, �Be not conformed to this world.� Now the word �world� in Scripture is usually used in two Greek words, �cosmos� from which we get the word �cosmopolitan�, or it�s �ion� which means age. In other words, we are not to be molded by the God of this age or the God of this world. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldman.