The Normal Christian Life!
Romans 12:1
June 23, 2024
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church of Ballincollig
I. Introduction
A. We now come to Chapter 12 in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome
B. We have just seen the riches / wealth of the wisdom and judgments of God as He has explained through 11 chapters His marvellous plan to redeem and save a world that does not know Him, or want Him, and never could deserve Him.
Chapter 1 describes THE GOSPEL. It is needed because of The Righteousness of God, and The Sins of Mankind
2 - The sin of self-righteousness – the sin we are most blind to
3 - There is no difference (Jew and Gentile). All Are Sinners and Under the Dominion of Sin
4,5 – Paul proves that we are justified by faith, by studying Abraham’s Faith
6 - Made Free from Sin’s Dominion, and under a New Master
7 - Problems With The Old Man. The Death of the Old Man, and yet the War I am still in
8 – Safe And Secure. There is now No Condemnation to anyone in Christ!
9 - The Position of Israel
10 - The Need of Israel
11 – The Future of Israel. Israel will be saved, no matter how many nations are against them!
C. We now come to Chapter 12
D. It is about SPIRITUAL GIFTS
1. Some gifts that we GET, and one that WE give!
2. God has gifted every believer with an ability to serve Him
3. But before Paul teaches us about all the gifts God has given us
4. He begs every Christian to be a Living Sacrifice as a gift to God!
5. I want to show you how to be a living sacrifice for Him!
II. Background (Romans 12:1,2)
A. Romans 12:1,2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
B. So, how are we supposed to respond to the grace and mercies of God?
C. Paul is Begging Us…
1. Paul starts this chapter BEGGING the reader… “I beseech you”
2. He is not just inviting us… he is begging every one of us…
3. To give our lives back to God as something amazing… as “living sacrifices”
D. To BE “Living Sacrifices”
E. It means To Give the Gift of Yourself - of Your Life - Back to God
1. If you are born again:
a. God gave your life to you, even before your first breath – you are marvellously made
b. Sin ruined your life – all of us have sinned
c. Christ died to save your soul and make you whole and alive again – out of compassion
d. And now He deserves us willingly, freely, GLADLY giving every day of our life back to God – we cannot live like we want to anymore!
2. Sounds strange?
3. That’s because our generation is so spoiled. So self-centred. So forgetful of the pit we were saved out of
4. We don’t think we owe God anything anymore
5. But we do!
III. Message
A. Paul starts off… Because of the Mercies of God… (Romans 12:1)
1. Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…
2. For the past 11 chapters, Paul has proven that God has been VERY merciful and kind to unworthy Israel throughout their history (2,000 years)
a. Towards Jacob - Genesis 32:10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.
b. Towards young Joseph - Genesis 39:21 But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
c. Towards ISRAEL - Deuteronomy 4:31 (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.
d. Towards David - Psalms 51:1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
e. A constant flow of compassion for a nation that did NOT deserve it!
3. And God has been very merciful towards us Gentiles
a. Romans 15:8,9 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision [THE JEWS] for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: And that the Gentiles [THAT IS US] might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.
b. Remember… there are none that are righteous in the sight of God – no not one!
c. Yet God is able to Justify the ungodly – making sinful people righteous by faith!
d. He can Save the sinful – no matter how sinful
e. He personally paid for every sin of every sinner, in full – on the cross!
f. If you ever had a day and a time where you knew you were a sinner, and cried out from your heart for God to save a wretch like you, then He did!
1) He made you holy – justified – righteous, as if you had never sinned
2) Think about it… God miraculously made a way for sinful people to be saved
3) He saved you from hell – you are never going to go there now!
4) He cleansed you from sin’s stain – the deepest, darkest stain
5) He broke sin’s grip on your life and your future
6) He blotted out sin’s record
7) God is both just AND the justifier of all who believe! That means He made a way to both be right and holy and yet able to change sinners into Saints!
8) He brought you into His family, and made you a child of God
9) A joint-heir with Jesus Christ!
g. God offers all of that as a priceless gift to every sinful person – the gift of eternal life (Rom 6:23) For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
h. You want money? You want popularity? You want health? You want happiness?
i. What gave us on cross is far better, and eternal, and worth more than the whole world
j. Received by faith – accepting it all as a gift at Christ’s expense!
k. All because of His mercy! His Compassion... WOOHOO! AMEN!
B. Live as a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1)
1. Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice…
2. It us now time for YOU to respond - To live YOUR Life as a Living Sacrifice
3. The purpose of a sacrifice is to worship
a. No one ever approached God Almighty without first giving a sacrifice
1) No one can approach to the God of this universe without a sacrifice!
2) Sometimes a lamb, or a ram; a dove; a basket of wheat – but usually a lamb
3) Leviticus 1:1,2 And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.
4) Leviticus 1:3 If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.
5) Leviticus 1:4 And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
6) Leviticus 1:5-7 And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And he shall flay [FILLET] the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces. And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire.
b. Sacrifices partially paid for our sins – remember, we are sinful people trying to approach to al all holy and perfectly righteous God
1) We need something to be our payment for the breaking of God’s laws
2) Under the Old Covenant, it was a lamb, constantly slain because we constantly sin
3) Sacrifices allowed people to worship and draw close to a God so high, so holy, separate from sinners!
c. But under the New Covenant, Jesus is enough!
d. When I approach God, I come through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ once for all time
e. And any sacrifice I may give now is so that I can show and prove my love for Him as I worship Him
f. Real love cannot be just words, but actions – sacrificial acts
4. The cost of a sacrifice
a. Think about that word, “sacrifice”
b. Illustration of the Chicken talking to the pig one morning… “We both have a part in the farmer’s breakfast. Yep. Only yours is an offering, MINE is a sacrifice!” Eggs versus sausage!
c. It costs us something, usually a lot, to give it
d. Not left-overs, or things we didn’t want. But our best things - No flaws
e. Every lamb in the Old Testament lost its life as a sacrifice for man’s sins
f. What did Jesus sacrifice? HIS LIFE for OURS!
5. So, What is “a Living Sacrifice?”
a. It is not ME as a dying Christian, or a suffering Christian, or a miserable Christian
b. It is ME living “as a sacrifice” – as a life of worship!
1) I do not have to pay for my sins now – Jesus already did that
2) I don’t have to die either, to worship God and live for Him
3) What Paul is begging us to do is… TO LIVE FOR JESUS!
4) Live as a living sacrifice to God - No matter how hard it may be
5) Not for personal wealth, or pleasure
6) But FOR Someone who is altogether worthy of losing my entire life into His will!
7) Simply because He first loved me!
8) Jesus in Matthew 16:25, For whosoever will save his life [HOLD ONTO IT] shall lose it: and whosoever will lose [LET GO OF] his life for my sake shall find it.
c. “A Living Sacrifice” is me living the NEW life that was given to me when I was born again (2Corinthians 5:17) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [A NEW LIFE]: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
d. He gave me a new way of living – I think I should LIVE IT!
1) Yielding to God’s will for your life, daily – you know, He has a design for you!
2) Doing the will of God every day instead of your own will – not an easy thing to do
3) Staying holy and clean – not allowing your heart and life to be dirtied up anymore
4) Guarding your tongue, your thoughts, your clothes style, your heart’s lusts
5) Living your life to please God - Seeking to please Him most of all
6) Presenting your entire life to God, as a gift, instead of only as a TAKER!
7) What a great way to live your life! (Psalm 19:14) Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
8) All because God has given so much to you and me
6. What does “a living sacrifice” look like?
a. It will be very much alive – active, excited, passionate, real
1) Not dead. Not trapped, Not dragging its feet, Not depressed
2) But willingly yielded into the hands of a loving God
3) Just as when Isaac, as a 12 year old boy climbed up on top of a stone altar and waited to die at the hands of his loving father, Abraham, and then was allowed to climb back off when a substitute was found!
b. It is a gift that WE believers GIVE to God - released, lost into the hands of someone else’s – it becomes theirs – no co-ownership
1) Come under the hand of someone else – yields as they take over your life
2) Your boss does it every time you show up for work – they tell you what to do, when to do it, for how long
3) So… Yield to God – daily, willingly, purposefully
a) The best gifts as those given freely – not forced
b) So, It is up to you if you live as a gift to God
c) Let Him lead, like Israel had to in the wilderness – they did not know the way
d) You won’t be doing what you want so much
c. It will be a sacrifice - The death of:
1) Of pride and reputation
2) Of self (Galatians 2:20) I am crucified [DEAD] with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
3) The death of your own will and plans – this is not just for us Missionaries, pastors
4) This is not a one-time decision – you will have to constantly make this choice
5) But it does get easier to make over time
6) But God doesn't want you dead. Just your old nature!
7) He saved you to live, be full of His Holy Spirit, Representing him as a light in a very dark place
8) Philippians 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, [LIVING] in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
d. A living sacrificial life will be different than it was before - the life which I NOW live
1) You will lose reputation – no reputation
2) Jesus will become big, and you will become small as you willingly live as a sacrifice to His will
3) NO WONDER SO FEW LIVE THIS WAY
e. It will be hard to do
1) Servants usually are last in things, are abused by those they serve
2) So Put up with hardness, hurts, troubles, losses – let me repeat that!
7. This is the only response to all that God has done
a. If God has done all that He has done to save a sinful person like you and like me…
b. To do anything less than be a living sacrifice would be “the worst”, the lowest thing
c. It means you see what God is asking as nothing important – treating Jesus with contempt, absolute disrespect!
d. Can you imagine going into the hospital with failing kidneys, and someone you don’t know willingly giving one of their kidneys to save your life? What would you think about the person who risked THEIR life to save yours? What would you say to them?
e. How would you live with THEIR kidney keeping you alive now?
f. The same way, or better?
g. To eat and live like you always have, and to neglect to be grateful and humbled by that person’s kindnesses and compassion, would be wicked!
h. And so, most Christians are absolutely wicked in their disrespect of the life Jesus calls us to live – as living sacrifices
C. Present Your BODIES as a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12:1)
1. Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice…
2. Whatever your life is… whatever it is like being you right now…
a. Are you Single? Married? Divorced?
b. Unemployed? Student? Working?
c. Sick and weak? Strong and healthy?
3. Whatever it is, Give your life AS IS, to God!
a. I know we need to give our best, but…
1) The QUALITY of your life does not matter to God
2) Only the AMOUNT of your life that you give to God is what matters!
b. Remember and believe that little is much in God’s hand
1) Moses only needed a rod
2) Jonah only needed two feet and a mouth
3) Andrew only needed five loaves and two fish
c. Every one of situations would have been empty and vain unless given to God
d. Your entire life, from the moment you wake up each day, until the last thought at night needs to be handed over to God
e. That includes even your BODY
4. Yield your BODIES to his will
a. Yield your mind, hands, feet - everything that used to be used for evil, now needs to be used for good
b. What should I be thinking about right now – politics? What is it yielded to?
1) New conspiracy revelations?
2) The next girlfriend or boy friend?
3) Think about all the time you spent serving the devil, and feeding your lusts, and worrying, and hating, and panicking, and scheming...
4) All of that needs to be totally replaced and filled with a life of service for God
c. No longer fornicating but preparing for marriage (Hebrews 13:4) Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
d. No longer stealing, but working so that you may give to those who have needs
e. Who needs prayer? Who can I give a tract to? What needs done so Jesus gets glory?
f. Every morning use your LIPS to be thankful for the mercies of God towards you
g. Use your FEET to take a Gospel tract to someone
h. Use your HANDS to help and encourage someone who needs it
i. Every day, Glorify and honour your Saviour and King
j. Every morning decide to endure what God allows into your life – knowing that GOD allowed it in there for a good purpose!
k. You are not your own any more, because you were bought with a price
1) 1Corinthians 6:18-20 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
2) That purchase freed you
a) From the dominion of sin and the devil
b) And it also brought you under the lordship of Jesus Christ
c) HE is who we yield to – no one else! It is HIS orders we follow now!
3) Your life should now be:
a) Holy
b) And acceptable to God
c) Always – not just on occasion!
5. What Paul is describing is the NORMAL Christian life
a. A new and different life than the one you were living before you were born again
b. A yielded life to the will of God as hard as it may sometimes seem
c. A life of serving, and sometimes suffering
1) We know about civil “servants” and public servants
2) We know about “military service” - I try and go up to anyone in uniform and tell them thank you for your... “Service”
3) We know about the work of nursing and know that they serve people at the lowest level of both life and death – great respect!
d. I can’t help BUT do God’s will now
e. I can’t NOT worry whether my life is offensive to God and others!
f. What happened to Christian service?
g. Where are lives saved by grace, LIVING as worship, serving one another?
h. Where are the churches FULL of servants, fighting to serve and give of their lives so others may know Jesus Christ?
D. It is not unreasonable to live a life of service to God instead of for your self
1. Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2. Give something back
a. People talk about how rich people need to give back to society some of their wealth
b. Well, if you've been given such a great gift as salvation in justification, shouldn't you give something back
c. And God is not interested in your money.
d. He's interested in you. The one thing you can give of value… is YOU!
e. God is not asking for perfection – just your best
f. What matters is whether I have done my best for Jesus
3. Do not try to replace what you should do with your money, or with your excuses
a. Can you imagine God calling a young man to be a missionary and yet instead he gives some money to send a missionary. What is wrong with that? I'll tell you what's wrong... When God asked for his life he only gave his money. Yes a missionary went to the foreign country the man who is called did not do God's will. And that is wrong!
b. Can you imagine God Putting someone on your heart to go and witness to and personally tell them your testimony how you got saved and give them a gospel tract, and you instead to say a quick prayer hoping that God will save them. What's wrong with that? I'll tell you what's wrong with that... God asked you to do that. And when you replace what you are supposed to do with anything else, you have done wrong.
c. Can you imagine an employer instructing you to work an assembly station at the company, and you instead send someone else from off the street to do your job? Yes the job is getting done, but the year employer told you to do it.
IV.Conclusion
A. You can't just walk away from this
1. Do not ignore what God did for you and neglect so great salvation
2. Mercy has been extended to everyone, but mercy must be received or it disappears
3. Luke 18:9-14 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
4. God had mercy TOWARDS BOTH but only one wanted it and received it
5. Jesus had mercy towards both criminals on the crosses next to him, but only one wanted it and received it
B. Every Christian must respond to what we heard today
C. Paul is begging, and so am I
D. Become a Life that is a living sacrifice in the hands and will of God
E. Living a life of Worship and service to the King of kings