Romans chapter 11 and verse 27.
For this is my covenant unto them, when
I shall take away their sins.
As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for
your sakes.
And as touching the election, they are beloved
for the Father's sake.
For the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance.
For as ye in times past have not
believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through
their unbelief, even so have these also now
not believed that through your mercy they also
may obtain mercy.
It's a favorite phrase of Paul's, I obtain
mercy.
It goes running right through his writings.
For God hath concluded them all in unbelief
that he might have mercy upon all.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of
the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgment and his ways
past finding comfort.
For who hath known the mind of the
Lord?
Or who hath been his counselor?
Or who hath first given to him?
And it shall be recompensed again unto him
again.
For of him and through him and to
him are all things to whom be glory
forever.
Amen.
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.
Just so far, may God bless his word
to our hearts.
Let's have a word, a moment of prayer.
Our Father, we thank thee for thy precious
word.
Thou dost speak it to our hearts.
Thou dost say.
Thou dost lift it from the page and
place it within our innermost beings.
And we pray that this morning might be
no exception to that, that we might know
and hear and sense the felt presence of
the Almighty here in our midst.
Come and speak to us.
We open our hearts wide to the inflow
of grace.
We pray thee that thou wouldst have mercy
upon us and come to us in our
need.
We need thee.
And we pray that we might sense thee
as thou dost speak thy word to us
even now, for Jesus' sake.
Amen.
Romans is the greatest theological treatise in the
New Testament.
Paul outlines the gospel message in the book
of Romans.
The first 11 chapters are dealing with the
doctrines of salvation and then he applies those
first 11 chapters, the doctrines, to their hearts
and to their lives.
So that it is first of all the
principles, the first 11 chapters of the Christian
faith, and then the practice of the Christian
life in the last five chapters.
The two major divisions correspond to the distinction
between teaching and application, instruction, putting into practice.
Now that is, Paul does that with a
number of his books, not all, but some,
like Ephesians particularly, and Colossians also and others.
But here it is dramatic, it is marked.
There is an application from chapter 12, verse
1, to the end of the book.
And I want to speak to you on
that first verse of chapter 12 this morning.
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.
I want to speak on the subject of
absolute surrender, something we all need, I think.
Notice the preeminence of consecration here.
Notice the people to whom he appeals.
He says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, he
could be speaking as a Jew to Jews,
but because the Bible, the book of Romans,
is spoken not only to the Jews, but
also to the Gentiles, he is obviously speaking
as a Christian to Christian brethren.
He is speaking to those who have the
life of Christ, and who are dwelling in
Rome.
So spiritually they are brethren, geographically they are
in Nero's wicked regime in Rome.
Very few periods in history have surpassed this
period in its absolute immorality and debauchery.
Augustus began with his long reign of over
40 years from the 27 BC, and then
came Tiberius, and then came the mad Caligula,
and then Claudius, and then Nero.
This was the time that Paul writes.
Nero was one who began his reign well,
but ended very badly.
In fact, he murdered his mother, and he
committed suicide at the end of the day.
And in this period where there is absolute
immorality, there was just dreadful immorality, or right
through that period, and particularly at Rome.
Paul is writing to the Christians of Rome,
and he is saying to them, if you
are going to maintain a Christian witness, brethren,
you who are Christians, you who are born
again children of God, you have got to
be utterly consecrated to God.
There is no other way in which you
will stand in the midst of all that
tragic immorality.
So that the people to whom he appeals,
then notice the passion with which he appeals.
I beseech you, beseech you, therefore brethren.
Here is a word, and a very astonishing
word to come from the heart of God.
We have sinned against him, we have been
under his judgment, and he has saved us,
and now he appeals to those whom he
has saved.
He says, I beseech you, I beseech you.
So here is an amazing exposure of God's
heart anguish.
He is dealing with his own children, and
he is saying, I beseech you, brethren, to
present your bodies a living sacrifice.
So God is desirous of total consecration.
Those whom he has redeemed ought to be,
ought utterly and completely in his hands.
It's an astonishing word.
I have a number of Bibles on my
shelf, and I noticed that in five, the
word says, I appeal to, and another three,
I entreat.
Another five, I beg.
Weymouth says, I plead with.
So here is Paul pleading with the Romans,
but it is God speaking, this is God's
word.
God is appealing to these Christians in Rome,
and with such a strong word, I plead
with you, I beg of you, I appeal
to you, I invoke, I call on, I
beseech, I entreat.
It's an amazing thing that God has to
say that to his own children.
It's an appealing word.
And then, it's an arresting word.
The Greek word here is parakalo.
Para, beside, kalo, call, I'm calling you to
be beside me, to look at the mercies
of God.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God.
So he says, come alongside of me, and
look down at the mercies of God.
The reason why you should give yourselves to
him.
I beseech you, by the mercies of God,
that he present your bodies a living sacrifice.
So here is the preeminence of consecration.
Paul is emphasising this thing to his own
brethren, the Christian people.
Then, not only the preeminence of consecration, notice
in the second place, the plea for consecration.
And the basis of the plea here is
the mercies, or the compassions, in the Greek
of compassion, the mercies of God.
Now, where are the mercies of God?
And to find that, we have to go
down the Roman road that Paul has brought
us along.
Here in chapter one of Romans, we find
that Paul says, I am separated unto the
gospel of God, in the first verse.
Separated unto the gospel.
Undeserved in grace, unparalleled in glory.
Amen.
And then, verse nine, he says, I serve
with my spirit.
God, I'm serving with my spirit in the
gospel of his son.
So he's serving God in the gospel.
And he says in the 16th verse, it
is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth, and he was surely believing,
so he was experiencing the power of the
gospel.
And then he says also in the 16th
verse, I am not ashamed of the gospel.
And he says in the 15th verse, I
am ready to preach the gospel.
So here we have Paul, separated unto the
gospel, serving God in the gospel, experiencing the
power of the gospel, not ashamed of the
gospel, ready to preach the gospel.
His relationship to the good news.
That's what gospel means.
Glad tidings, good news.
I'm going to tell you all about the
glad tidings.
And he says it there in the 17th
verse, the just shall live by faith.
And that's the text for the whole of
the book of Romans.
The just shall live by faith.
Then he begins.
The good news.
Notice how he begins.
Verse 18.
For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who hold down the truth in unrighteousness.
Wrath he's speaking about.
And then he goes on into that first
chapter.
Notice what he says.
They have known God, but they have glorified
him not as God.
And they changed the glory of the incorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible
man.
God, verse 24, gave them up to uncleanness.
Verse 26.
For this cause God gave them up to
vile affections.
Verse 28.
And even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them
over to a reprobate mind to do those
things which are not convenient, being filled with
all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full
of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters,
haters of God, so on.
Here is a dreadful list of sins.
My, there's a list of sin in Matthew
chapter 15.
And there's a list of sin in Mark
chapter 7.
And there's a list of sin in Galatians
chapter 5.
But it's nothing approaching this.
This is an exposure of the heart of
man.
And he says, All this sin, all this
sin is in the mankind, for they have
fallen from grace, and the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness.
So, this man here whom he describes in
the first chapter, the reckless man of chapter
1, is under the wrath of God.
And then he goes on to chapter 2.
Notice he says, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O
man, whosoever thou art that judges.
For when thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.
Without a judge doest thou the same things.
He says, don't think that because you're not
living an immoral, open, blatantly wicked life as
the man in chapter 1, don't think that
because you're self-righteous in your actions and
you're living a good life, don't think that
you will escape the condemnation of God.
Look, he says, verse 2 of chapter 2.
You are sure that judgment of God is
according to truth.
You are pointing a finger at them, those
who are living like this, but you have
got these things in your heart.
These things are in your heart.
You're living an outwardly respectable life and a
good life to all the people around about
who would say, my word, those are good
living people, they're decent people, but the things
are in your heart.
He says, look, the judgment of God is
according to truth.
And he says in verse 6, it's according
to accumulated guilt who will render to every
man according to his deeds.
Verse 2 is accumulated guilt.
Verse 6 is according to his deeds, it's
judgment according to works.
And he says in verse 11, there is
no respect of persons with God.
So you're going to have to be judged
irrespective of who you are.
It may be that you're the greatest person
in the whole community here.
Or it may be that you're the lowest
person in the whole community.
It makes no difference for God, we will
stand before Him in judgment.
And then he says in verse 15, the
law is written in their conscience.
So in the 15th verse, it's an exhaustive,
it's complete, it's inward, God sees.
And verse 16, He sees in the day
when God shall judge the secrets of men
by Jesus Christ, He sees the secrets of
the heart.
And He says it's according to these things
that you are being judged.
Don't think that because you're not outwardly wicked
that you can escape the judgment of God.
You too are under the wrath of God.
For the wrath of God is revealed against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness.
So we have the wicked man, the reckless
man of chapter 1, and we have the
righteous man of chapter 2, and we have
the religious man of chapter 3.
See?
He says what advantage then has the Jew?
What profit is there in circumcision?
Much every way.
Chiefly because that unto them were committed the
oracles of God.
They've got the word of God.
Wonderful.
Wonderful that the Jews have got this privilege.
But they, that didn't help them because look,
God says to them they are all under
sin, Jews and Gentiles.
Verse 9 and verse 10, As it is
written, There is none righteous, no not one,
there is none that understandeth, there is none
that seeketh after God, they are all gone
out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no
not one.
Verse 19, halfway down verse 19, listen, That
every mouth may be stopped and all the
world become guilty before God.
My!
So the religious man of chapter 3, his
religion didn't even save him.
And my dear friends, religion won't save us.
We can put as much religion on as
possible but that's not going to save us.
And here we stand, the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness.
It is royal wrath.
It is the wrath of retribution.
It is revealed wrath.
God's wrath remains upon all those who are
wicked and outside of God, outside of Christ.
There in the first chapter, the reckless man,
the religious man, the righteous man.
They are all under condemnation and they are
all under the wrath of God.
There is no hope.
There is no life in the dungeon.
They are all under the damnation and condemnation
of God.
They are doomed and they are damned and
for them it is wrath, wrath, wrath.
What a terrible, terrible thing.
What a terrible state.
Poor?
Good news?
Huh?
Good news?
Where is the good news?
This is not good news.
This is terrible news.
I thought you were going to tell us
about the gospel.
The gospel which you are proclaiming.
And now you are telling us that we
are judged.
That there is no way out.
Every mouth is stopped and all the world
becomes guilty before God.
We are condemned, every one of us.
My dear friend, if you are outside of
Christ this very morning, that is your state.
You are under the condemnation and wrath of
God now.
What a terrible state to be in.
Good news?
Let's go on from verse 19.
Verse 21.
Look at what he says.
But now the righteousness of God without the
law is manifest.
Yes sir.
But.
The pivotal word in scripture.
But.
But and now.
When?
When you realize that there is no hope
whatsoever.
You are doomed and damned.
There is no way out.
And then you can cry Lord save me
I perish.
Ha ha.
At last we have got to this thing.
You see my friends.
Today we have in modern evangelism a very
strange kind of a gospel that is being
preached.
Come to Jesus.
Don't you want joy and happiness?
Come to Jesus.
Don't you want peace?
Don't you want rest of heart?
Come to Jesus.
Come on.
Don't you want it?
Of course you want it.
Come along.
So they come.
Chewing their chewing gum.
Coming walking down the aisles.
Coming to do the almighty a favor.
We are going to accept Jesus.
And they kneel down and they say yes
Lord we accept it.
They are expecting joy and happiness.
And they are as saint as the man
in the moon.
They don't get anywhere near to God because
they haven't realized that they are sinners before
the Holy God.
They are condemned.
There is no way out of this thing.
You have got to repent of your sin.
You have got to turn to God from
that.
There is a conversion which must take place.
May God get us right through to that.
The right kind of foundation.
Paul lays the right foundation you see.
When he is preaching the gospel he is
going to tell the gospel in a moment.
But he is laying the foundation.
Now he says Now the righteousness without the
law is manifest.
After wrath of God was revealed now when
you see how bad it all is the
righteousness of God is revealed.
Hallelujah.
Listen to verse 24.
And look at verse 23 and 24.
Look at these ten mighty words he begins
with.
Verse 23 For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus whom God has set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in
His blood to declare His righteousness for the
remission of sins that have passed through the
forbearance of God.
My word.
What an accumulation of tremendous theological force.
Here he is saying You see Now the
righteousness of God is being revealed being justified
freely by His grace.
We don't deserve it.
We cannot earn it.
We cannot work for it.
It's given.
Here is the spring of justification.
Grace.
Grace flowing like a mighty river.
We were standing at the Niagara Falls the
other day.
And I recall the time when a man
stood there with his little son for the
first time he'd gone to see the place.
And his little they were awed by this
mighty spectacle.
By the way I've seen Victoria Falls in
Africa.
I wouldn't want to make any comparison but
I must say Victoria Falls is a mighty,
mighty, mighty stream of water one mile wide
going over.
Now it's a little bit bigger than Niagara
but nevertheless we'll leave it at that.
I'm in America I'd better talk carefully.
Niagara.
He stood there with his little boy and
they stood in awe at this marvellous sight.
And the little boy tugged at his coat
and he looked down and he said, Yes
son.
He said, Daddy.
Yes son.
Daddy.
Does it flow all night too?
Yes son.
It flows all day when you can see
it.
And it flows in the night when you
can't see it.
It just keeps flowing.
Yes.
The grace of God flows like a mighty
Amazon.
It just keeps flowing.
The spring of justification.
Grace.
Now we're into something wonderful.
He goes on to chapter 4 and he
gives the description of Abraham.
Who is the illustration of the one who
believed God and was counted for righteousness?
Abraham, the great father of the faithful.
He says, Do you remember?
We came from Romans chapter 12 verse 1.
Do you remember?
Come stand alongside of me, Parakello.
And look at the grace of God.
Look at the mercies of God.
You see where you were?
You were under the judgement, under the condemnation,
under the damnation of God because of your
sin.
But now, but now, but now there is
justification.
God has redeemed you in Christ.
Ah, what a wonderful thing.
The mercies of God.
I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies
of God.
See the mercies of God?
They're beginning to appear now.
See now he goes on to chapter 4
and tells about Abraham and David.
And then he goes on to chapter 5.
Notice, notice chapter 5 he starts, Therefore being
justified by faith.
Notice, Here are the blessings of justification.
Now we come to the positive effects.
Yes, I remember one day we were sitting
in church at the back and a man
was preaching and he said, The gospel is
only positive.
There's nothing negative about the gospel.
I jabbed my wife in the ribs.
I said, No!
I suppose you shouldn't do that sort of
thing in church.
But he was making a very dreadful error.
I mean it is negative.
There is judgment.
But now we come to the positive.
Now when we have come to the place
of justification he says, Being justified by faith
we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Here we have the peace now.
And we have access by faith into this
grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope.
Here is the joy.
Here is the access.
And not only so but we glory in
tribulations knowing that tribulations work as patience.
Patience, experience, experience, hope.
Hope make us not ashamed because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost given unto us.
Love shed abroad in our hearts.
Peace, joy, access, faith.
My!
We have been brought into the fellowship of
the Son of God.
We have been by His death and by
His life we have been drawn together to
have fellowship with the Lord who condemned us
but now who welcomes us because the condemnation
has come upon the one in verse 6
who died for the ungodly.
See?
And now verse 9 looks much more than
being now justified by His blood.
We shall be what?
Saved from wrath through Him.
So chapter 5 verse 9 is the answer
to chapter 1 verse 18 where the wrath
of God is revealed.
Now chapter 5 verse 9 we are saved
from what?
How?
By being justified by His blood.
There is the ground of justification.
And chapter 5 verse 1 being justified by
faith there is the principle of justification.
Oh!
We are into rich territory friends.
See?
We are justified by grace alone.
We are justified by blood alone.
We are justified by faith alone.
We are justified by Christ alone.
Hallelujah!
God lifts us from the dungeon where we
were condemned and under the terrible judgment of
God.
He has brought us out because someone took
the judgment for us.
Took the punishment and now He offers us
life.
Oh!
To you who are under the condemnation of
God this morning let me say, come!
Jesus' arms are open.
He would invite you.
Come and be justified by grace, by blood,
by faith, by Christ.
And you can leave this church today a
child of the living God having trusted in
the One who took the punishment and released
us and released you from the dungeon.
Amen?
Praise the Lord.
And then He goes on in chapter 6,
you see.
He speaks there about deliverance from sin.
I don't know whether...
I would love to speak this week on
chapter 6.
I don't know whether we'll get there.
But chapter 6, wonderful, wonderful chapter of emancipation
from sin.
One of the great chapters of the Bible.
Knowing this that our old man is crucified
with Him.
By the way, chapter 5, verse 5, verse
8.
Christ died for us.
Chapter 5, substitution.
Chapter 6, our old man is crucified with
Him.
Identification.
Taking us deeper now.
And then He's speaking about verse 14.
Sin shall not have dominion over you.
My, here is release from the power of
sin in chapter 6.
And then in chapter 7 He's speaking about
liberation from the law.
From the old husband.
From the law to which we were bound
before.
Christ has liberated us.
And then in chapter 8 He's speaking about
being in union and in communion with God.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus.
Who walk not after the flesh but after
the Spirit.
So here we have the chapter beginning with
no condemnation.
And ending with no separation.
Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ?
Verse 35.
See, this wonderful chapter where the Spirit takes
control in chapter 8.
And the Spirit guides us.
And the Spirit leads us.
And the Spirit witnesses in our spirit.
Here we have the union and the communion
in chapter 8.
The mercies of God, brethren.
See, we're looking down at the mercies of
God.
We were in the dungeon.
But now God has justified us, chapter 5.
God has liberated us from sin, chapter 6.
God has liberated us from the law, chapter
7.
God has brought us into communion with Himself,
chapter 8.
Chapters 9 to 11.
Chapters in parenthesis.
God in government, jurisdiction.
God in control of the nations.
The Jews had the message.
But the Gentiles were grafted into the vine.
He is in control of all things.
And then He comes to the end of
chapter 11.
And He says, Oh, the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God.
You see all this road that I've been
taking you along, He says.
How unsearchable are His judgments.
And His ways past finding out.
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Who has been His counselor?
He is speaking wonderful, wonderful things.
And He's been telling them of the mercies
of God.
We didn't deserve this.
But we've been brought into His fellowship.
Why?
You see, gratitude now becomes the irrepressible fountain
of consecration and service.
We can do nothing else but give ourselves
to God.
We cannot stand aside.
You see, there's that little word, therefore.
I beseech you, therefore.
And whenever you see a word, therefore, in
scripture.
You must always ask, what is therefore?
So you find out, why does He say
therefore?
Because of the mercies of God.
He's brought us all the way along.
Delivering us from the power of sin, from
the law.
Bringing us into communion with Christ.
Realizing that He is in control of all
things.
We worship Him.
Now, look.
Paracano.
I beseech you, by the mercies of God.
Come stand by me.
Look at it.
See it well.
Now, I beseech you.
I implore you.
I entreat you.
I beg of you.
Come.
Give yourselves to God.
That's the only logical response that we can
have.
Isn't it?
The plea for consecration.
And then the principles of consecration.
Not finished yet.
The principles of consecration.
Here we have it.
Notice He says here.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God.
That you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Holy.
The word is H-O-L-Y.
Acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable sin.
So it's a living sacrifice.
It's a sacrifice that is alive.
Now, how do you understand that?
Because all the sacrifices in the Bible died.
The sacrifices were brought to the altar.
They were killed and they were placed on
the altar.
They were given to God.
It was a sacrifice.
When Jesus came, He was the great Lamb
of God.
Who came to die.
And what did His death accomplish?
His death accomplished life everywhere in the world.
I've sat in the huts in Africa, around
a pot, putting my hand in, together with
all the other Africans, around the pot in
the steaming, smoking hut, your eyes stinging with
the smoke, putting your hand into the pot
and eating together with it.
But the fellowship around that pot was wonderful.
And I've sat in other places of sophistication
and riches and the fellowship there is wonderful.
God has His people everywhere.
This is a worldwide scene.
Here we have everywhere God has moved us
into every area.
The body of Christ is everywhere.
Now this is the body.
Jesus Christ, when He came, He came to
die.
To bring salvation to all the world.
We are the body of Christ.
And we are the living sacrifice.
And the only way that salvation is going
to be brought to others is that we
follow the pattern which was laid down for
us by our Master.
He died that others might live.
And the only way that they're going to
live is that we die.
The corn of wheat must fall into the
ground and die.
If it doesn't, it abides alone.
One little corn of wheat.
All its life, one little corn of wheat.
But if it's buried, it dies and there's
a harvest.
A harvest, a harvest, a large harvest.
And so it is necessary for us to
die to our selfishness.
To die to the things which we want
to do selfishly, sometimes opposed to the will
of God.
Sometimes just in a lackadaisical, lethargical, apathetical way
which doesn't involve us too much in the
work of God.
But when we die to ourselves, then others
live.
Paul said, I die daily.
He says, I have been crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live.
It's not I but Christ living.
I have been crucified.
The cross of Christ has worked deeply in
me.
And because I'm dying, I die daily.
I go out onto the road.
I've been in prison.
I've been in shipwrecks.
I've been in all kinds of difficulties.
But I am dying.
I could have taken on a huge, big
position there in Jury, in Jerusalem.
Yes, I could have been a big shot.
But now I'm dying.
But what has happened?
Because you die in the prisons, everywhere, others
live.
Death worketh in us, he says, but life
in me.
This is the underlying principle of the Christian
religion.
The king's highway of service is paved with
self-sacrifice.
I die, let others live.
Now this became very clear to me when
I saw the consecration of the priests in
the Old Testament.
The priest came and was consecrated to the
serpent.
They slew an animal and they put blood
on the thumb of the right thumb, and
the great toe of the right foot, and
the ear, the right ear.
Signifying that death had come to the old
things.
The things I used to be, I do
them no more.
Do you remember that little song?
The places where I used to go, I
don't go anymore.
My faculties, I'm dead to the other things.
I am now, I am now alive unto
God.
For the oil was poured, and the priest
had the oil poured upon him.
So it was a new life.
He died to the old, he lived to
the new in the service of God.
That is a living sacrifice.
I die.
I am identified with the cross of Christ.
But I live, and I live a thousand
times more.
Effectively, because I have died.
Because Jesus lives in me, and he lives
through me.
The cross is the secret of service.
Now, it's a sacrifice that is alive.
And then it's a sacrifice that is an
act.
Sorry, sorry, it's a sacrifice that is holy.
He said, I beseech you therefore, present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy.
In Exodus we read, The altar shall be
holy.
And in Matthew 23 we read, So I
come to the altar, and I identify with
the sacrifice that is there.
The sacrifice of Jesus.
And he came to die, so that he
could put away sin.
I identify with that offering.
I give myself to him.
And I say, Lord, I identify with thee,
I die with thee.
And the purpose of thy death might be
worked out in me.
That sin is dealt with in my life.
So here you see, it's a reaffirmation of
what he has just said.
A living sacrifice of death.
It's holy.
How can I be holy?
By identifying with Jesus, who died to make
me that way.
I trust him to take my sin away.
I trust him now, this very morning.
Lord, I want to give myself to thee.
In a new way altogether.
Deal with me.
I want to be alive unto thee.
Dead unto other things, but alive unto thee.
I want to be holy, because of the
blood of Jesus Christ touching me.
I am identified now.
It's a holy sacrifice.
It's a sacrifice that is acceptable.
This is the acceptable sacrifice.
I bring myself utterly, completely.
I'm willing to die to things which would
hinder, the things that would hinder the workings
of God, in my life and in other
lives.
Lord, I die now with thee.
I come to thee now.
It's an acceptable sacrifice.
And then it's a sacrifice which is complete.
He says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies.
Notice the body.
Ye are not your own anymore.
Brethren, look at the mercies of God, see
where you've come from.
You've been redeemed.
You're not your own anymore.
The body is the instrument by which all
human service is rendered to God.
The Christian's body, says C.H. Dodd, is
his individual personality as an acting, concrete whole.
And C.K. Barrett says in his epistle
to Romans, a commentary, by body, for means
the whole person.
Karl Barth says, to present their bodies, the
whole person.
John Wesley says, your bodies, that is yourself.
My body.
Every part that is of me.
My will with its choices.
My mind with its thoughts.
My heart with its affection.
My body with its instinct.
My personality and its prejudices.
My life and its relationships.
My imagination and its fancy.
My soul and its feelings.
I with every bit that is of me.
Here I give myself away, it is all
that I can do.
And tomorrow you will say, high heaven that
heard, that solemn vow, that vow renewed, shall
daily hear.
Till in life's latest hour I bow, and
bless in death a bond so deep.
I give myself all together.
A sacrifice that is alive.
A sacrifice that is holy.
A sacrifice that is acceptable.
A sacrifice that is complete.
A sacrifice that is an act.
It's an interesting word, this present.
The Greek word is peraspesai.
And it is written in a tense which
doesn't exist in English.
It's called the ericit tense in Greek.
And it means an instantaneous happening.
There are various aspects of this ericit, but
one of them is instantaneity.
The door is shut in that moment.
You can say it in another tense.
Say it in the perfect tense for instance,
and you can say the door is shut
and it remains shut until this moment.
That's what it says in the perfect tense
if you want it.
But if you say it in the ericit
tense it emphasises the moment of the shutting
of the door.
Christ died, ericit tense.
The house burned down, ericit tense.
My sins are forgiven, ericit tense.
In a moment.
And he uses that tense here.
I beseech you therefore brethren that you present
peraspesai.
It's a thing which I do in a
moment.
And as a matter of fact this is
the word used when the priest takes the
Hebrew worshippers sacrifice and places it on the
altar.
Josephus uses it in some of his writings.
Where he tells us the Hebrew worshipper brings
the offering, the priest slays the lamb, and
he takes the lamb and places it on
the altar.
Peraspesai.
One thing that Hebrew worshipper knows is this,
that he will never get that lamb back
again.
It's gone forever.
He's given it to God.
Peraspesai.
Gone.
Oh the joy of utter surrender.
Utter, complete, abandonment to him.
I give myself away.
Peraspesai, take me.
Now, this moment.
Oh who will do that even this very
morning.
Perhaps you're not saved this morning.
Perhaps you're still under the wrath of God.
Come, he will receive it.
Come, he will take that offering.
Perhaps we've been holding back, holding back, holding
back.
No more.
Every bit that is of me, Lord, take
it now.
Peraspesai.
You can have it.
And finally it's a sacrifice that is an
attitude.
It's a reasonable service.
It's your reasonable service.
It's a difficult word to translate, logikon.
Paul is a great logician.
It's reasonable.
The Revised Standard Version says, your spiritual worship.
Karl Barth says, your logical worship.
And F.F. Bruce says, the service of
obedience as the only reasonable or logical response
to the grace of God.
You know, Abram and Isaac were going up
the hill.
Do you remember?
And Isaac said, Father, that's all.
And he said, as they trudged on, heavy
step, yes, my son?
He said, Father, here's the wood, and here's
the fire.
Where is the offering?
He said, God will bring, God will provide
himself a land for an offering, my son.
But Abram had said to the men, you
carry here the service.
Carry here.
I and the lad will go, and we
will worship, and we will return.
Worship?
He wasn't going to sing choruses.
He was going to lift the knife and
plunge it into the heart of his beloved
son.
Worship.
Your spiritual worship.
Death to anything that can hold you against
the will of God.
I place it on the altar.
I worship.
That's true worship.
That's true service.
That's where service begins.
That's why some people go out into the
mission field and come back.
Sometimes they come back fully in the will
of God, I don't want to say anything
about that, but sometimes they come back failing,
failing, failing.
Because they never got to this place before
they went.
God wants a spiritual change before he requires
a geographical change.
And this is the change that is needed.
Where I yield myself utterly to him and
he possesses me completely.
Long ago there was a man who was
an organist of a large cathedral.
He was sitting practicing one day up there
in his organ loft and a young man
came along and sat beside him and said,
could I play a little on your organ?
He said, no, I'm afraid not.
I am the organist here and no one
is to play this organ but me.
So the young man played with him and
eventually he said, all right, I'll go down
and listen to what my organ sounds like
because I don't know what it sounds like
because I'm up here all the time but
what it sounds like down there you can
play.
And so he went down and sat there
and suddenly that church was filled with music
that it had never heard in its entire
existence.
The chords, the harmonies, the marvellous runs, the
whole concert was being used, the feet, the
hands, on every aspect.
The music, music came forth, streamed into that
church, marvellous music.
And the old man sat and wept at
the music, the beauty of it.
And just as suddenly as it had begun,
it stopped.
And the old man looked up to see
where the young man was and he was
passing him on the way to the door.
He turned, he said, Sir, who are you?
Who are you?
And back came one word, Mendelssohn.
And he put his face in his hands
once again and he wept and he said,
and to think I nearly didn't let him
play.
My dear friends, the master staff.
He was to put his hands, able hands,
in that light of yours and bring forth
such beautiful melodies, such harmonies that you have
never dreamt of.
They can do it.
Don't hold him away from the concert of
your life.
Let him put his hands there and handle
it.
And you'll be amazed at the beauty of
it.
Alan Redpath once told of how he was
coming back from one of his preaching trips
and as he walked into the house, his
two little children, two little girls upstairs, they
suddenly heard that Daddy had come home.
Daddy's home.
And they bounded down the steps.
One outran the other and she ran towards
Daddy and she grabbed him around the legs,
held him tight.
And she turned and looked at the other
little one coming down the steps and she
said, I've got all there is of Daddy.
Rather daunting to a little girl and she
stopped and she didn't know that Daddy's been
claimed.
What does that all mean?
I've got all there is of Daddy.
And Alan said, I beg him to come.
And as she ran towards me, I picked
her up and held her in my arms.
And she looked down at the other one
and she said, Daddy's got all there is
of me.
My dear friends, has he, your heavenly father,
got all there is of you?
Wouldn't you like to come even now this
morning and say, Lord Jesus, I am here.
I'm giving myself away.
I look at the mercies of God.
Look where I was.
In the dungeon of despair.
In the slough of despond.
But your grace has lifted me.
I've come a long way through all these
journeys of life and you've been with me.
Oh, I give myself utterly, completely, irrevocably, eternally
to you, the lover of my soul.
Look what you've done for me.
The mercies of God.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I can't do anything else.
I give.
Parastasize.
It's mine, it's yours forever.
Who will do that this morning?
Who will say, I'm coming now, Lord Jesus.
I come now.
Let's bow in prayer.
Oh, our father, we thank thee for the
great invitation of God.
The great sacrifice of Christ.
The call to our hearts.
Come to us, Father, and speak on this
morning.
Speak on over the dinner tables.
Speak on as we leave this place.
Speak on this afternoon.
Bring us back again to hear more of
the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And come to us, blessed Savior.
Accomplish thy purposes in us.
Lord, we are here not to play games.
We're here specifically, right here for this revival
weekend and this week.
And we cry to thee that thou wouldst
have dealings with us, Lord.
That we might not just escape the hands
of God.
Handle us, we pray thee.
Come to us.
Call thy power to come upon us and
cause us to yield utterly and completely to
thee, the Savior of all.
Oh, Lord Jesus, thou art worthy.
Thou art the bright and morning star.
Thou dost ravish our hearts.
Thou art the fairest of 10,000 to
our souls.
Come and reveal thyself again and again to
us during this week that we might know
the power of God and that we might
see the face of Jesus and that we
might know the will of the Savior.
Lord Jesus, come, we pray thee, and call
thy hand to rest upon us in great
power.
Come now, even now, blessed Lord, as we
wait before thee.
I wonder, friends, if there are those right
here this morning who want to say, I'm
coming now.
I give all to Him.
I didn't realize all the greatness of this
great salvation.
I'm coming now.
I'm giving myself now to Him.
Parasteisai.
Away, I'm giving myself away now.
Are there those who would like to do
that?
Perhaps it would help you to come to
the front.
Are there some kneeling here already?
Maybe?
Others would like to come?
Would you like to come?
Say, Lord, I'm coming now.
Every bit that is of me, take me
this day.
Lord, you know our hearts.
You see us as we are, and we
pray that you might know the wonderful, glorious
revelation of God to our souls during these
days.
Come to us, blessed Savior, and accomplish thy
purposes in grace in all our lives.
For Christ's sake.
Amen.
Thank you, God.