We live in a day of conspiracy theories. More and more I hear people tell me what's really going on behind the scenes with our government, and how they are coming for our families. They're doing it through the schools. If you've been hearing more conspiracy theories these days… I haven't heard this conspiracy theory that really bothered me, that they're putting less cream in our Oreo cookies. Have you heard about this? Apparently, a double stuff today was just a single Oreo cookie some time ago. So, I hear about a lot as a pastor; I talk to a lot of people, and I hear about a lot of conspiracy theories. But there is one conspiracy theory I would like to hear about, but I don't hear about. And it's what happened to the church in America. I'd like to talk about that now. I mean when people bash on pastors or churches, or other Christians, I hear plenty of that. What I want to know is when did we dumb down what it means to have faith in Jesus in the United States of America? When did we start settling for the lowest common denominator of commitment as a church? When did it become that as long as you believed as much as the demons believe will baptize you and call you a Christian? As long as you feel bad about sin, well, that's proof that you must have faith, when feeling bad about sin is not proof that you're a Christian, it's proof that you are a human who has sin and faces the consequences. And so, I want to ask you to consider with me if what you believe is really what we're supposed to believe. Because I'm concerned that we have changed the definition of what it means to be a Christian. For example, I grew up right here in Southern California, going to church; I've been to a Christian High School, Christian College. I've been to multiple seminaries. And what I have heard is that animal sacrifices, the kinds of sacrifices they did in the old covenant in Leviticus 1, those kinds of sacrifices. Yeah, well, those sacrifices are over. We know that sacrifices don't matter anymore. And the reason is, because we don't live by the law. Jesus fulfilled the law. Jesus is the sacrifice for us. That's it. That's all. Jesus paid it all. I've heard that, you've heard that. But if that's true, then why are you and I here to discuss a verse, Romans chapter 12, verse 1 that says, you and I should present our bodies as living sacrifices? If we're all done with the sacrifices, then what is this verse all about? I want to invite you to open the Bible and turn to the source with me in Romans 12:1; and I want you to really give this verse your full and undivided attention. We're just going to go through this one verse together this evening, and we're going to try to understand what does it really mean to be a Christian? What is our response to the good news that Jesus paid it all when he died on the cross for our sins and rose again. And out of respect for God's Word for this one verse, I do invite everyone here to stand for the public reading of Scripture. And I invite you to really not just pay attention to this verse as we preach it tonight, but go home and try to memorize this verse. And make sure that this verse is a verse that defines you and your life. This is Romans chapter 12, verse 1.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
That's the reading of God's word. Please go ahead and have your seat. I have been studying this verse for days to prepare for this I would just weeks have it going on in my mind. I've been looking at every word in the original language that Romans was written in, written in the Greek language. And the words here are meant to make you think of someone offering a sacrifice to God. Even though these are words written by Paul to a church in Rome, Paul with the words that he uses in this verse, is clearly evoking images in our mind, of the tabernacle, of the altar, of going back to Leviticus when someone would come and they would bring a sacrifice of an animal, and this animal had to be holy; it had to be a male without blemish, and you were going to offer it as a sacrifice in a way that would be acceptable to God. So, these words “sacrifice,” “wholly unacceptable.” And then that is your worship. It says there at the end, your worship, or your service, that gets back to the idea of what they would do, what the priests would do in the tabernacle later the temple. What were the priests supposed to do in their service in their worship of the Lord? So, he's using language that we would call today of the Old Covenant, but he's trying to get that picture in our mind. And so Leviticus chapter 1, it describes this scene of what would happen when someone would come to bring a sacrifice, whether it was like a bull from the herd, or a sheep, or a goat from the flock, or maybe it was just a couple of birds, you would bring your sacrifice, and you would put your hand on the animal, because this animal is going to have to die. And why is the animal going to have to die? Because of your sin. It's going to atone for your sin. And so, you put your hand on the animal, like you're identifying that your sin is what this animal's going to be killed for, and then you would kill the animal, and then the priests would be right there. And they would take the blood from the animal, and they would throw it against the altar, and then they would come and they would get the animal ready. And they would put pieces from the animal on to the altar, where there is a fire going all the time, a fire that does not stop and the animal, the body of that animal would be burned up and the smoke would rise, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
That's what Paul is telling you to do. He's saying you’ve got to offer yourself, you’ve got to present your body as a sacrifice, holy, without blemish, acceptable, with pleasing aroma. This is your service, this is your worship. How are you going to respond to God? That's the idea here no. Hebrews chapter 10 makes it very clear that Jesus fulfilled this sacrifice. That's why we don't do these kinds of sacrifices anymore. Hebrews chapter 10. It says that we don't need to do these kinds of animal sacrifices because the body of Jesus was offered once and for all. This is Hebrews 10:10-14. In fact, the Old Covenant priests, they did this kind of service, they did this kind of worship daily at their service, offering repeatedly the ancient sacrifices that, by the way, could never really take away sins. But Christ, he offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, and by his single sacrifice, he has perfected once for all those who are being sanctified. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? Okay, so it's true, that we don't do the animal sacrifices anymore, because they have been fulfilled by Jesus, who is the sacrifice, who actually did atone for our sins with his body and his blood. But this verse is saying, don't be one of those people who just throws the idea of sacrifice behind, you know. Go and be the sacrifice. That's what it says here. Take that same picture now, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you have been declared what? Have we learned in the book of Romans that everyone who puts their faith in Jesus is justified, you are declared righteous by God because of the blood of the Lamb. Your sins have been taken away, and you can now go and you don't need to put your hand on an animal. No, because of the blood of Jesus, you can now go and present your body as a sacrifice, and you will be seen by God as holy, set apart, you will be acceptable. This is now your service. This is now your worship, to go and be the sacrifice. Jesus paid it all. What? All to him I owe. Is that your response? Have you put yourself, so to speak, on the altar? Are you all in?
I can remember when I kind of first began to realize that there was a conspiracy that was taking place in the church. And it was when I was still a kid, I can remember this one conversation that I overheard. See, when you're a child, and you're sitting at the kids table, and you're over here, I was the oldest of the kids who were playing and I was getting kind of bored with these toys over here. And I heard my dad talking to one of his buddies over in the other room, and I was going to go be dropping some leaves over here and seeing what the adults are talking about. And I remember so clearly, that this guy raised his voice, and I was surprised to hear him raise his voice in a way it took me aback because I knew this guy was my dad's friend, and we were here visiting him and his family. And the guy said, in a louder voice, what does it really mean to be a Christian? And I'll never forget what my dad said to that guy in that moment, because it wasn't just something my dad said. It was a quote from Mark 8:34. And what he said in that moment was what Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” And you know what my dad's friend said, after he quoted that scripture from Jesus, I can still hear it ringing in my ears. He said, Yeah, but who really does that? And that's when I began to hear this idea that Jesus is going to have to settle for less, because all we're willing to give is less than our all. We're not willing to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and follow Jesus. And I don't know who they are, this secret evil society that's out there dumbing down what it means to be a Christian in America. That was the first time I heard them loud and clear that I could remember in my life, that they wanted to alter the altar, that they wanted to make it like you don't have to give your all. You don't have to go all in, you don't have to present who you are now. Look what God did. He loved you so much. Look at how he gave his one and only Son for you. Look at what Jesus did. He laid down his life. Jesus is the sacrifice. Look at the body. Look at the blood. See him hanging there on the tree? Look what Jesus did. See, the response is supposed to be Yeah, Jesus paid at all. And I want to give my all to Jesus because he's worthy of it. I want to give my all to Jesus, because I gladly lose everything this world affords today, as long as I can have the eternal life of my Lord Jesus, as long as I can know him. Yeah, I'll say no to myself. Yeah, I'll do whatever I have to do, even if it kills me, just give me Jesus.
Point number one, let's get it down like this: “Don't alter the altar… be all in.” Be all in. There is only one proper response to the sacrifice of Jesus. And it is for you, to offer yourself, your body as a sacrifice in return. That is what we have been building up. We have come here to Romans chapter 12, verse 1, this is the pivotal verse of this book. This is the turning point. This began, this study, that some of us have been on together; it began two years ago on Palm Sunday, when we got the new kids playground. And we began the book of Romans together in 2022, Palm Sunday weekend, we started studying through this book. And it has come to this very moment, if you've been here for the last two years, all of our study all of our learning from the book of Romans, it builds to this climax, it builds to this: “Therefore I appeal to you, brothers.” Have you heard everything that has been said? Have you heard that you are a sinner, and that God has wrath for all unrighteousness. And God would be just to judge you. But guess what God is also just to justify, and God will declare righteous anyone who believes in his Son, Jesus. There's nothing that you can do. The works of the law will save no one, they will justify no one, but everyone who puts their faith in Jesus, they will be declared righteous. And I've got good news that God, he loved you while we were still sinners, that's when Christ died for us. And this love of God that He has for you and Jesus, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that could ever happen to you. Once you put your faith in Jesus. There is nothing in the spiritual realm, nothing in space and time, nothing that you will experience today, tomorrow or for all of eternity that can separate you from the love that God has for you in Christ Jesus. You want to know why? Because God chose you from before the foundation of the world. And God decided he wasn't going to judge you for all your sin, but he was going to give you mercy instead. You had a debt you could never repay, you had done the crime, but you will never do the time and all you will know is mercy. Why? Because God decided that for you. And he decided that for his people, the Jews, he decided that for many Gentiles who have now been grafted in. Everybody's ended up disobedient so that God can have mercy on all; therefore, let's talk about now what you should Do. Let's now look at your response.
We've been talking for 11 chapters about God and Jesus and what they have done. And it doesn't end when it says, Amen at the end of chapter 11, verse 36; the book is not over yet. For many Christians, their book of Romans ends in chapter 11. Hey, we don't have to do the sacrifices anymore, because Jesus is the sacrifice for us, not the full story, dumbed down version of Christianity. That's a conspiracy, don't get caught up in it know, based on the sacrifice of Jesus, you should offer everything you have to the Lord Jesus Christ, you should lay down like you were putting your body on the altar itself. There you are without blemish, there you are pleasing before God as one of his justified ones, as one of his saved ones. There you are, this is now your worship, this is now your service. See, this idea that you need some kind of priest to get between you and God, this idea of a human, see Jesus did away with all of that. Jesus is the priest, Jesus went to the right hand of the Father, Jesus will usher you in to God's presence, and you can now go where only the priests could have gone before. You can now go and present yourself to worship God. That's what he says we should be doing. He doesn't act like the book is over. He's got plenty more to say. So, I want you to really think about what it means. Look what he says here in Romans 11:1. Think about what this means. How would I rightly define what Paul is saying here? He says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies.” So, the appeal there is like, I want to really encourage you right now. I want to I see he hasn't said this yet. In the book, go back to chapter one. This is what he said he wanted to do way back in Romans 1:12, if you can remember all the way back to two years ago, when we started this book, he said that his goal was to go to Rome, because if he saw the believers in Rome, there would be this mutual encouragement, not that he wanted to encourage them, but he also wanted to be encouraged by them. And so, he said, remember this? Romans 1:12, that is that that “we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.” So, I wanted to go see you guys in Rome, I can't get there. That's why I'm writing this letter. But if I could get there, I know what would happen. I would encourage you and then seeing I would encourage you in your faith, and then seeing your faith respond, that would encourage me; it would be mutual encouragement. Well, look what he says now in chapter 12, verse 1, and he says, he's given them all this theology, all of this awesome teaching about God, the just and the justifier. He's given this to all of them, this doctrine of the justification by faith, believing Jesus, God declares you righteous. All of this description of the love of God, all of this description of how God has mercy for the Jew and the Gentile. And now he says in response, therefore, I encourage you to give your all to God. That's what he says. Now, I've got something to say to you. I've been telling you all about God and Jesus, and what they've done for you. But now I want to encourage you. Now I want to talk to you. See, this is a turning point in the book. And this is a classic way that Paul would write and if you're going to be a part of Compass Bible Church in Huntington Beach, this is something we need you to know.
Go to Ephesians chapter 4. Everybody, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4. This is something that we think is so important at this church. We want to teach this to everybody we possibly can that when you read these letters, they often have a section of theology, they often have a section of, oh, this is what Christ has done for us. And therefore, this is your new identity now that you've been saved in Christ. And then there's a section where it's like, therefore, here's now what you should go and do. Here's the new life that you can now live, not because of you, but because of Jesus saving you. Here's what you should now go and do. And so, this is how Paul writes. We saw this in the summer of 2018. We got to Ephesians 4:1, and in this was the turning point. In that letter, after three epic chapters of theology and doctrine and good news of our salvation. There was another therefore in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1. I, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” It's not enough to just say, yay, look at all God has done for me. It comes down to what are you going to do? That's always been the message. Maybe not in… see, Paul never came to America in one of his missionary journeys. So, nobody ever gave him our dumbed down version of Christianity, where you can just believe this easy thing and pray this quick thing and just say Yay, I'm going to ask Jesus into my heart. Look what he did to me, oh man, I wonder what Paul would have done if he heard that. He's like, we're just getting started. Sit down and we’ve got more chapters to write. Therefore, what are you going to do? And is what you're going to do, is what you're thinking about doing, is what you're doing in your life right now even close to being worthy of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? And how dare you profane his name, calling yourself a Christian, if you're not willing to walk worthy of the calling to which you have been called. That's what Paul wants to say. He wants to say, I’ve got something to say now, to you, I want to call alongside of your life, I want to encourage you to consider yourself based on what you know about Jesus. Does your life match the gospel?
Let's get that down for our first dash under point number one: You need to “match your life to the gospel.” Match your life to the gospel. Yeah, you don't have to live up to the law. It's not about your works. We're not telling anybody, go be better. Go try harder. That's not the message. It's not going to live up to a standard that you can't live up to. The good news is Jesus lived up to the standard of perfect righteousness. And the good news is Jesus died to pay for all of your sins. And now based on the good news of Jesus, you should respond by walking out what Jesus has done for you. Look at that good news. Look at how he died to pay for your sin. Look at how he rose to give you a new life. Okay, well, then let's turn away from that sin we used to live in. And let's go now and walk in newness of life. Let's respond to the good news of Jesus. And, this is what it looks like, if you're really looking at the language. In a book like Ephesians, or a book like Romans, the language will even change. I want to throw this up here on the screen. There are indicatives and there are imperatives. Okay? So, these are two kinds of verbs that we see. If you go into the original Greek language, you parse all the verbs, and you look at the form that the verb is in, to see who it's talking to, and what the action the verb is calling for. And then book like Romans, and with the first 11 chapters, you get a lot of indicative verbs, this is who you are in Christ, because of God's love, because of the death of Christ on the cross. This is now you, let me tell you what he has done for you. You are justified, you are loved, you are chosen, you have received mercy. This is all who you are. And it just indicates who you already are in Christ – very encouraging, very uplifting. This is your new identity. And then at some point, the language of the book begins to change to imperative. Imperatives or commands, imperatives or action orders, imperatives are now here's what you should go and do because of Christ. Not like it's back up to you. No, we've already left works behind. We've already said, we can't do it based on our own works. We have to put our faith in Jesus. Well, if you've put your faith in Jesus, that means you believe what Jesus has done for you. And if he paid for all of your sin, and if he rose to give you a whole new life, well, then now what is Jesus telling you to do? In this new life, that the Lord has made a way for, that he's freely given to you. If you know that Jesus is the truth, well, the truth will set you what? Free. Jesus did not come down here and die for you and rise again, so you could still be living in your sin. If you claim Jesus, and you still live in sin, you are a part of the great conspiracy that is happening in the church in America where people think they can be saved, without really offering themselves, without really responding with worship and service.
And so, he's saying make sure that you walk in a manner worthy to which you have been called. Now, when I start talking, even like, hey, you’ve got to go do something. This is what really bothers me about church these days. Okay. I'm going to do a wedding tomorrow afternoon. Oh, hopefully, it's not another rain disaster like the bunny run today, right? Hopefully, the wind dies down, the clouds part, the sun shines, and there's the groom and there's the bride, and they're going to look deeply into each other's eyes. And what are they going to say at the wedding, everybody? What are the two words that people say when they make a vow, when they make a commitment? “I do.” Here's what's crazy to me. If somebody at a wedding says” I do, we're all going to go home and say, Oh, they're in love. And if somebody at church says I do,” we're all going to go home and say what a legalist way. I can't believe they're making it about what they do. That's where America is that you can't say you do anything for Jesus anymore without having to qualify when Jesus said,” If you love me, you will” what? You'll do what I tell you to do? Have you said “I do” to Jesus? Have you said it in a way where like, because of what you did Jesus, not me trying to do what you did? I see clearly, I could never do what you did. And I see clearly, only you could do it. And because I want to respond to you, because you've now changed me, I'm ready to do what you tell me to do Jesus, and I'll give it everything I've got. I'll give it one hundred percent, just like you did for me. I see you crying out in the garden of Gethsemane, I see how hard it was for you. And I understand it's going to be hard. And it might even kill me. But guess what, Jesus? I'm following you. Because I love you, Jesus. Does your life match the gospel? Can you look and say, here's what Jesus did for me? And that then changes the way that I live for him. Now go back to Romans 11. Because we’ve got to just make it very clear. Romans chapter 11. The reason I said 11 is because it talked so much about mercy in Romans chapter 11. It mentioned mercy to the Gentiles who have been saved, mercy to the Jews in the future. And then it mentioned, hey, everybody disobeyed, guess what? God can now give mercy to whoever he wants to give mercy to. In fact, it said that back in Romans 9:15, look back at Romans, chapter 9, verse 15, where he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Here's God saying, I can do whatever I want. And what I want to do is I want to choose, not to judge you. And to never give you what you deserve for your sin. I'm going to actually judge my son instead of you for your sin. Okay, so you had a debt, you were not going to pay off, you had a crime that you were guilty of, that you deserved to do the time for, and your debt was completely paid, and you were released from any kind of punishment. What do you want to do now in response? See, that's the motivation in Romans 12:1. It's not saying go and do a bunch of works like a legalist. It's saying, go and do something now, by the mercies of God. “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, based on how much God has loved you.” Why don't you go and love God back? That's what it's saying. Go and do something, because that's what love looks like. Love. Well, let us not love in word or in tongue, but let us love in deed, love always leads to action. And if you claim to love Jesus, but don't act like you love Jesus, your claim to love Jesus is a lie. It's a false claim. And that's what the world is telling us. That's what our culture is telling us. All you have to do is claim to love Jesus. And it's true. It's not what Romans chapter 12 Verse 1 is saying to us. It's saying, therefore, let me now really encourage you. I asked everybody here at this church two weeks ago, go make a list of your sins. Go make a disobedience list. Go spend an unpleasant moment where you have to think about things that you said, things that you thought, things that you actually did, and then try to speculate because we may not be able to fully understand but try to even speculate. What would it actually look like for you to get punished for that thought that you dwelt on? For that word that you said, and you said it to destroy that other person, that you said it to think about that thing that you did, that you would be embarrassed to bring up in front of other people. You will never get judged for those things. If you believe in Jesus, you will never pay off a debt for that. You will never do the punishment that fits the crime for that. All you will ever know for that is mercy. What kind of a response? Did God love you much to forgive you for all that sin? Well, then, should you go and love God much, and love means you go and do what God wants you to do. That's what love looks like. You cannot tell your spouse I love you and then ignore them and not listen to them and not do what they ask of you. But you think you can do that with Jesus and the mercies of God are supposed to be a motivation for you in your action because of God's love. That's why we obe.
Let's get this down for our second dash: “Make mercy your motivation. Make mercy your motivation. No, it's not about you doing works to get saved. This is about your response to Jesus loving you to save you. And so, mercy becomes the reason love is now the fuel. I'm now living to love God and to love other people as I would love myself. I'm now living free from that, that slavery to sin. I'm now living free from the lies that I used to believe. I'm now living in a way that I can love because I have been loved. Go with me to Psalm 116. Psalm 116 gets in this idea of how should you respond to God because of his mercy. And this would be a great song for you to just go sit somewhere this week and read this song and just sit there till the tears start to flow, just sit there so you can really think it through what does it look like to love Jesus back? What does it look like to really see mercy, and respond to it? And Psalm 116. It says,”” I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for” what does it say there everybody? Man, did anybody else here cry out to God, I don't want to go to hell? I'm too young to die. Please don't judge me for what I've done. Please forgive me for my sin. I'm so sorry, Lord, Was anybody else lifting up like a cry like tears? Like you were calling out, oh, Lord, please don't give me what I deserve. Give me mercy. Well, this guy says, “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: ‘O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!’ Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.” Would anyone like to join the psalmist and say, Amen here tonigh?. Wow, I should be dead. That's the wages of my sin is death. I deserve to die because of what I have done and I deserve to go to a place of death. And I'm never going to go there. Because you heard my cry. And then it says, Psalm 116:6, “The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” You know what that means? Right there in verse 9. This changes everything about me. This changes my whole walk, my whole direction, the whole trajectory of my life has now been altered because I got mercy. “I believed, even when I spoke: ‘I am greatly afflicted’; I said in my alarm, ‘All mankind are liars.’ What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?” Well, how do I respond? What do I give back? Wow, look what God's done for me. What should I do in response? What would I render to him? “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!”
Oh, wow. I know what I can do. Like he has a breakthrough, like he gets a moment of clarity. I know what I could do. What is Jesus always saying in the gospels, when they're like, well, we do these sacrifices. We go through the motions we do these right things. And Jesus is like, well, did Isaiah prophesy of you? You acknowledge me with your lips but your hearts are far from me and Jesus, he's got this line he loves to say to the hypocrites of his day. To obey is better than what? To See if you've received mercy. And your sin has been atoned for, and Jesus did it once. And he did it for all, then you are now holy before God, you are now justified, you are now declared righteous, you are actually acceptable to God. And so, you don't have to keep going back. So many Christians today act like the pre-civil that they dismissed, where they keep going back and saying, I'm sorry for the same things over and over and over again. And what this psalm realizes is that because of God's mercy, he doesn't have to go back to the same old sins over and over again. He can offer a new sacrifice, not a sacrifice of atonement, not a need to be washing and a need to be cleansed, though he can go offer a new sacrifice, a sacrifice, of saying thank you. A sacrifice of paying his vows to the Lord, a sacrifice in front of everybody, in front of all Jerusalem in front of all the people as they gather. I will now go and I will offer who I am to God, not somebody who needs to be cleaned up, but somebody who has received mercy. And now can say, here I am. Now I'm the person you want me to be, the person you made me to be, I don't want to keep offering up a sacrifice for sins, I want to offer up a sacrifice of thanksgiving. And I want to offer myself back not because I have to anymore. But because I want to with all of my heart. I want to say thank you for not giving me what I deserve. Thank you for giving me Jesus instead of what I deserve. And now I want to thank you by walking in a way that pleases you. That's acceptable to you. That's what this guy realizes.
I can offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. When mercy is my motivation, when I'm so thankful that God didn't give me what I deserved. But he forgave me for my sins, then out of that thanksgiving, out of that attitude of gratitude, out of that heart of worship, I can now go obey God in a way that actually gives God glory in a way that's actually pleasing to him, I don't have to keep going back to the same old I'm sorry. He's in the same old sacrifices. I can go and do what Jesus says is better than sacrifice, I can offer myself to him, wholly unacceptable. Go back to Romans chapter 12, verse 1, because this is not the first time Paul has told us to do this in the book of Romans. And maybe some of you will remember this, because this was like a year ago or a little over a year ago. And notice that there's a word here, that's kind of the key verb of the passage of the verse, it's to present your bodies, to set yourself before, to lay yourself on the altar, so to speak, as a living sacrifice. So that presentation when you bring your sacrifice to the tent of meeting, and you put your hand on the sacrifice, that's this idea of going to present your body now as the sacrifice. But go back to Romans chapter 6 and look what it said here back in chapter 6, because this idea of presenting yourself was already presented to us earlier in the book of Romans. Maybe you can remember that when we talked about the fact that we are now dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. And hey, just as Jesus died and rose again, we’ve got good news that you've been baptized into Christ, you've been placed into Christ Jesus, and you've died with him, and just as Christ rose from the dead to the glory of the Father, so you can go and walk in a new life. And so, when it says present yourself in chapter 12, verse 1 that should bring us up in our minds what he said in Romans chapter 6. Start with me in Romans 6:12-14. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” Does anybody here remember the sanctification to step, does anybody here remember that anytime I am presented with an opportunity to sin, I can take a step away from that sin and I can put it away and I can take a step to put on the new life that I have in Jesus Christ. I don't have to present myself to sin anymore, I can now obey God, I've been set free to do so. This idea now, how are you going to present yourself? Because before you were just a slave to it, you had to give into the lusts of your flesh. I mean, this is really the dividing line of who is a Christian or not. Does a Christian continue to live in sin? What is the answer to that everybody? By no means, okay? This is really the dividing line of what it means. So, if you're somebody here tonight, and you are a captive to sin, you are a slave. When it calls, you have to answer it. That's the life before somebody meets Jesus. But now, now that you're in Christ, you can present yourself over here, you can present your members to righteousness, you can present yourself to obedience. You don't have to keep living the same way anymore. Because he goes on to say, here in Romans 6:15, “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” A good thing Paul never made it to America, he would have heard yeah, there's always grace for your sin. Paul, don't worry about it, bro. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey either of sin which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you, who were once slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. And having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now, present your members present your bodies as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.
Let's get this down for our third dash: “Move forward with the sanctification two-step.” Move forward with the sanctification two-step. We’ve got a hint of it in Romans 6, it is back in Romans chapter 12, verse 1. You can now go and present, not just even the members of your body, you can give all that you are, all you are in your soul, all you are in your body, all that you are as someone created by God, and now made a new creation in Christ, you can go and set yourself before God, you can put yourself up on that altar, and you can say, God, you saved me. Now you can use me, you made me holy, set me apart for your purpose, you made me acceptable, I'm righteous. Let me walk in this righteousness, sanctify me, take me from who I used to be. Make me who you are creating me to be in Christ. I don't have to keep going. And presenting myself over here. I'm presenting myself before God. That's the idea that he's getting back to go back to chapter 12 verse 1, because now, he's saying it back then he was saying present your members back, then he was like, there are two options. You don't have to do the old option. Here's your new option. It was a two-step back there in chapter 6, when we first learned it, but this year in chapter 12, verse 1, therefore, I want to encourage you, based on all God has done for you, in his mercy, you should come and you should take all that you are your entire body, and you should present yourself as a wholly unacceptable living sacrifice. You should present yourself to God. Give him all that you are. Which is, it says here, there's this very interesting phrase at the end of the verse. Maybe you've heard this before, I want to really make sure we think about this Romans chapter 12, verse 1, “holy and acceptable to God,” which is your spiritual worship. Now you might have a footnote there that says “rational service.” And when you see a footnote like that, sometimes that means they had a hard time translating this, and they didn't really know exactly how to say it. So, they gave you one up here, but check the footnote too, because it's a tough thing to translate this concept here. Okay, now this word, I'll throw it up here on the screen. This is the Greek word and it's a word Logikos. And that might sound like oh, that's kind of get the idea of that word, just how it sounds. Okay. But it's the idea here, and it's only used one other time in the Greek New Testament, which is 1 Peter 2:2, where it talks about babies longing for the pure milk, but what kind of milk is it that the babies are longing for? They're in that verse? It's the milk what sometimes translated spiritual milk because they're trying to help you realize it's not the physical milk that we're talking about the babies want and babies do want that most definitely. But that's not what we're talking about. Right now. We're talking about one way you could really translate logikos is of the Word. What comes of the word, what makes sense, what comes to your mind from the Word so what are the babies want? They want the milk of the Word so I don't understand why they decided to translate it “spiritual” because we have a whole Greek word Pneuma for spirit, maybe you know that the study of the Spirit of God is often referred to as Pneumatology. So, if Paul wanted to say spiritual, he could have used the idea that goes along with that word pneuma. But he wanted to say, logikos, he wanted to say here that this is what comes from the Word, this is what would actually make sense. Like, there's a lot of uses of this word that we can find in Koine Greek, in the language and the culture of the time. And it was like, it's reasonable. It's rational, it's logical. It just makes a lot of sense. What did Jesus do for you? Oh, it's like the greatest thing ever. He laid down his life as a sacrifice. We're going to celebrate it next week. He actually shed his blood to pay for my sin. And then he rose on the third day. It's awesome. It's amazing. Okay, awesome. What should you do then for Jesus? Why just believe a few things and then go to church every once in a while? That's not reasonable. That's not rational. That's not logical. No, what did Jesus do for you? Jesus paid it. Okay, so then what does it make sense you would do then in response? See, we have lost our minds in the American church, we don't even do what's rational anymore. We don't even say that's the standard, that's the goal anymore. We have some kind of diet gospel that's one hundred percent repentance-free these days. But you can still be you. And you can know Jesus, you are the whole reason he came, my friend. You are the fundamental problem. And if you're still you, you're not new and Christ.
If he gave his all, what kind of word is this here for worship? It's the word that it comes goes back to the tabernacle. It's the word of like, sometimes it's translated service. Sometimes it's translated worship. And we have made those two words mean two completely different things, like service is what you did in the parking lot before the service. Worship is now what you go and do in the service. And then you go home and do who knows what. See, that's not what this means here. This means like, the service, the worship, this is like, when you're going to go before God, what should you do? How do you serve God? How do you go into the presence? We're talking about literal priests going into the holy presence, where if you offer strange fire before the Lord, you might end up dead. That's the idea here in this service, or worship. Like, hey, let's think about this. God gave his one and only Son, let's think about this. Jesus gave his all, okay, rationally, reasonably, logically, now, it's your chance to go before God. You're going to go with a few hours of your week, you're going to go with your leftover money. You're going to go with a percentage that still gives you freedom to do whatever you want to do? Or do you give him your whole? Do you lay it down on the altar, and say, everything I've got you gave me. And the only thing that it makes sense for me to do is to give it all back to you. Because if I just spend it on me, I might just ruin it like I was before. So, does it make sense to you to go all in for Jesus? Does it make sense for you to give your life away? Jesus made this very clear in Mark Chapter 8. Whoever wants to save his life will what, everybody? But whoever loses his life, for my sake, Jesus says, for me, and for the sake of the Gospel, if you lose your life, it will be saved.
So, I'm here to ask you. What have you lost for Jesus? What have you given away for Jesus? What have you set before him? And sometimes it's hard to give this to Jesus. Sometimes you want to get off the altar, and you want to go take it back for yourself. But no, I'm here to encourage you tonight. If you've set your body as a living sacrifice, don't take yourself back off the altar. It makes sense even in a culture where everybody else is half in for Jesus, it makes sense for you to go all in for Jesus because look at what Jesus did for you.
Let's get this down for our fourth dash: “Make up your mind a living sacrifice makes sense.” Make up your mind a living sacrifice makes sense? Yeah, I can see people are dumbing it down. I can start to see the conspiracy that's taking place. I can see how people want to make it all about what Jesus did for us. And they don't know what that therefore is. Therefore, they're not ready to say I do. They're not ready to lose, they're not ready to give, they're just on the take at church, they just want to always receive grace, and never give away that cost them sacrifice. I can see that. See, I heard it when I was a little kid. I've heard it from so many Christians that go to my church. I've heard it as a pastor at this church, do you realize the number of people I've heard in 10 years tell me that it is fine for them to keep on sitting? There is no way you can hear that and not be affected by it. There's no way you can hear that, and you start to think, yeah, maybe I don't have to go all in. Maybe I don't have to lay here on this altar, where the fire burns day in and day out. Maybe I can just go kind of do what I want. Maybe I can take a look at that. Maybe it's okay if I get angry at so and so; look at how they were treating me. It's so deceptive. It's so evil. You’ve got to make up your mind, no one else can make this decision for you in your mind. You have to be able to say I'm setting myself all the way on the altar. And it makes sense to me to do that. Because I know Jesus, and I know what he did for me. See, you have to answer the question that my dad's friend asked him that I heard when I was a child. Yeah. But who does that? There's only one answer to that question. You have to stand up, and you have to look him in the face. And you have to say, I do. I do that. And I will do it all the way to the end. I will do it if it kills me, I will do it. If no one goes with me because of what Jesus has done for me, I will deny myself, I will tell myself, no, when I want to get off the altar, and I want to go do something else. I will stop myself. And I will take up my cross. And I will follow Jesus to the bloody end that he died for me. Who does that? I'm one of those people. And I don't know who the conspiracy theorists are. I don't know who they are. I don't know who the secret evil society is that decided to dumb down faith in America. But I know one thing, it stops right here with me. I will not join the conspiracy. I will not settle for a Christianity where I can sin and get down from the altar whenever I want to. Because then I can just offer the same sacrifice. And it'll all be fine. No, I'm going to put myself before the Lord. Because Jesus died for me because he gave me mercy. And I'm going to say, here it all is. And if I want to get off from here, when the fire burns when the refining fire burns and the fire of trials comes my way, and it doesn't seem exciting or pleasant to be on this altar, when I want to get down because it's getting too hard, where I might start wanting to do something else. No, I present myself before you as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, because it makes sense to me to do that, even if it kills me. Because I know Jesus. And I know what Jesus did for me. I know how much Jesus loves me. And I'm saying I do to Jesus, not because I'm a legalist. But because I love him. And I'm going to do what Jesus tells me to do. That's what it means to be a Christian. And so, I just want to throw that verse there up on the screen. There's no other definition of being a Christian than what Jesus said in Mark 8:34. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” So, if you only believe what the demons believe, then you don't really believe faith without works is what, everybody? Dead. Faith leads to action. There's no change in your life, you don't have faith. And if you feel bad about your sin, well, it's great. Your conscience is uncalloused. That's great, you're not completely numb to what is right and wrong. That's great. You have some sense that your sin is offensive to a holy God and an insult to his character. But just feeling bad about sin is worldly sorrow and worldly sorrow leads to death. But there is a godly sorrow that leads people to repentance. Without regret, where they actually don't just keep going and offering the same sacrifice over and over, trampling on the blood of Jesus, but they actually turn from sin. And they turned to a way of obedience and a new life. When do you have to tell yourself no to stay on the altar? When does it get so hot and so hard for you to be on the altar that you feel like you're going to die, you feel like it's killing you, you feel like you're carrying your cross, hey, let me just tell you when you have to tell yourself no, and it feels really hard, that's when you're following Jesus. That's when you're ready to start sweating as if great drops of blood. That's when you're starting to know what it's like to give your life as a sacrifice. Which is the only thing that makes sense because Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice for you. You can't say I'm a living sacrifice without feeling the pain of being a sacrifice. So don't alter the altar. Be all in.
Father, I just pray that we could really hear this today. There are so many lies in our ears. There are so many times where your Scripture says do not be deceived. Because they come in, and they're trying to deceive us. Some of them might even be here tonight. So, I don't know who they are, that started this conspiracy that you could be a Christian and live for Jesus and keep on sinning. For Father, I pray that it will stop right here with us as we hear your Word. As we hear that therefore, as we hear that by your mercies, we are here to present ourselves right now. And to say, Father, if there's anything that's in my life that you're not pleased with, if there's anything that's in my life, that's not holy, that's not acceptable, remove it. I confess it, I turned from it. It's not okay that I keep going back to it. Father, I'm here to present myself, all of me, soul, body, mind, everything that makes me who I am. And I put myself on the altar, as the sacrifice. And I'm here to offer from my heart, a sacrifice of thanksgiving, where I'm going to obey you. This is my service. This is what makes sense for me to do. This Father, I pray for myself. And I pray for my brothers and sisters that are here tonight that we were born for such a time as this, this is the time that you created us. This is the time that you saved us, a time where American Christianity is dumbed down. And you can somehow be a Christian without presenting yourself as a sacrifice. Father, I pray that we would see that for the lie that it is and that it would make sense to us. Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe. Father, I pray that if there's anybody here tonight, maybe they call themself a Christian when they came here tonight, but they know as they hear this sermon, they're still doing that same sin. They're still that same person they used to be. Father, I pray that tonight they could hear Jesus tell them very clearly, you can't come after me with your sin. You can't come after me saying yes to yourself. No, if anyone comes after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. And father, we're just here tonight to say that Jesus is worth following. Jesus is worth losing everything else, Jesus is worth giving it all the way, Jesus is worth it, even if it kills us. Let the name of the Lord Jesus be praised. Jesus is the only one that could give us a hope of life after death. Jesus is the only friend who could see us through to the other side. And Jesus, who is the only one who could pay that debt that I owed. And who could say I didn't have to do that punishment for all of my crimes? Father, let us see that Jesus is more worthy than what the church is saying, he is worthy of today. And let it make sense to us to give our all to Jesus Christ. Let those who are not giving them all, let them repent. Let them put their faith in Jesus. Let them talk to somebody here and let today be the day that we stop being a part of the conspiracy. and we become the church, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we give ourselves to him. We pray this in his name, amen.