An Appeal to Personal Holiness

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If you would like to learn more about us, please visit us at our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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Please enjoy the following sermon. Let's just read starting in verse 30.

Just breaking into Romans chapter 11, verse 30. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.

For God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?

For from him and through him and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever.

Amen. And now Romans chapter 12. 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.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Oh, let's just come to the Lord in prayer before. Lord, we have sung it, how worthy you are, the king and all his beauty.

I pray that we would now in this time together see just something more of that beauty and that glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

To that end, Lord, I pray again. We have we have sung it already too. Come thou incarnate word, gird on thy mighty sword.

Our prayer attend and draw near to us.

Come and your people bless. Now give your word success, spirit of holiness on us descend.

Amen. The word of God is full of both doctrine and practice.

The doctrine has to do with the facts, the declarations, the promises and the warnings of God.

And the practice has to do with how you are to live in this world. If you are a truly born again child of God, you will care very much about the doctrine and you will care very much about the practice.

The doctrine matters and the practice matters. In this letter of Romans from which we have our text, the apostle starts with doctrine.

The first 11 chapters of this letter largely contain the great facts, declarations and promises and warnings concerning God, man, sin and salvation.

And the current of powerful gospel truths in this letter appear to reach a climax in Romans chapter 11 when it is declared that God has shut in both

Jew and Gentile to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all.

At this point, the apostle breaks out in Romans chapter 11 verse 33 with a holy stream of praise.

And we have read it. Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, how unfathomable his ways.

For who has fully known the mind of the Lord, who has been his counselor, who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be glory forever. Amen. Amen indeed.

For all true doctrine rightly believed should bring us here to this place where the apostle has brought us, where we are humbled, where God is exalted, where you worship him.

And this cannot be properly done without the doctrines coming home to your heart in the power of the

Holy Spirit. Praise God for the doctrine then, the facts and declarations, the promises, the warnings pertaining to God and his salvation.

Where would you be without them? Still all darkness and no light.

But the apostle cannot close the letter at the end of chapter 11. He must go on.

He has declared Christian doctrine, but he has not done until he declares Christian practice.

And so we come to chapter 11, or chapter 12 rather, and our text. The apostle has in the first 11 chapters of the letter scaled the mountains of truth and doctrine that comprise the

Christian faith. His heart is full of the great truths regarding the glorious gospel of God and his

Christ. But he does not stop there. He cannot stop there. The Holy Spirit presses him right on.

The doctrine is good for it is the truth of God for the salvation of man. But now go on.

Keep all the doctrine still. Forget none of it. But now add a word. Therefore, and tell the flock of God how they are to live in this world.

And so thus saith the Lord through the apostle. Therefore, brothers and sisters,

I appeal to you by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Well, we have in these words an appeal. And notice first the subject or the content of the appeal.

You are to present your body. The word body signifies that physical part of you.

It is something separate from our soul and spirit. As long as you are alive on this earth, your soul and spirit reside in and animate your body.

But your body is something different from your invisible soul and spirit. Your body therefore includes your eyes, your feet, your hands and fingers, your ears, your sex organs, your brain and your thoughts.

And it is all of these, along with the rest of your physical members, that you are called to present to God.

You are called to present your body to God. In other words, you are called to bring your body before God into his presence at all times and in all places you are to do this.

For you, Christian, were once without God in this world, once you were far from him, but now in Christ Jesus you have been brought near.

Now you are joined unto him who has promised never to leave you and never to forsake you. And the appeal in the holy scriptures is to bring your whole body with all its members and powers before the face of God.

Do not think of doing this only in what you consider to be sacred times, such as when the church meets or times of prayer.

All of life is sacred for you, Christian. The earth is the

Lord's and the fullness thereof, and you are his bought with the precious blood of Christ.

Bring your body then before him, present your body, present your body to God, a living sacrifice.

Christian, your entire body is to be offered to God, dedicated to God, consecrated to God, not as a sacrifice to be killed and offered to God for your sins.

There is one and only one sacrifice that is sufficient to put your sins away, and your poor, sin -stained, perishing body is not it.

It is Christ who has loved us. It is Christ who has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God.

It is Christ who now, once and forever, has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And because of his sacrifice, you are to bring your body to God, a living sacrifice, always offering, dedicating, consecrating, yet always alive, alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Once you could not offer to God in this way, you were dead in sins, and the dead have nothing to offer but the stench of their death.

But now you have been made alive in Christ. He that has the Son has life.

Now the text employs three phrases to more fully describe what it means to truly present your body, a living sacrifice to God.

Such sacrificial living is a matter of holiness, of separation from sin, and consecration to God.

This is your calling in Christ Jesus. This is why he came to save and bring sinners to himself.

God's saving purpose is that you, being delivered by him from the hand of your enemies, might serve him in holiness and in righteousness all your days.

In other words, all your days you are called to serve your God in holiness, not in sinless perfection.

That is not possible this side of heaven, but in an intentional ongoing life of repenting and believing and consecrating and serving.

Secondly, the text declares that presenting your body, a living sacrifice to God, is acceptable to him.

Do you want to know what pleases God, Christian? It is this, bringing your body, a living sacrifice to God.

Not that such service to God justifies you, but you who are in Christ have received the righteousness of God for all your justification.

And clothed in his righteousness, you are now called to serve him in all righteous works.

It is true that the best of your service is contaminated with corrupt desires and sins, but it is also true that your service is now offered to God in union with Christ Jesus.

You are joined to him, and presenting your body, a living sacrifice to God, is acceptable to him, not because it is a sinless service.

It is not. It is acceptable to him because you are united to his son, and your presenting your body, a living sacrifice to God, proves the reality of that union.

Now, thirdly, we see in the text that presenting your body, a living sacrifice to God, is your spiritual worship.

Although it is an act of your body, your soul and spirit are very much engaged and involved in it.

Now, the margin in the ESV translation says that such sacrifice is your rational service.

The King James translation says it is your reasonable service. There is no conflict here between any of these terms.

Your rational and your reasonable service to God is your spiritual worship. If you do not offer spiritual worship to God out of a new spirit and a born -again soul, then your service is irrational and unreasonable.

Such service will not be accepted with God. All true worshipers of God worship him in spirit and in truth.

God's salvation is a spiritual salvation. You who are saved by God have been born again by the

Spirit of God. So that birth is a spiritual birth. You now see him with spiritual eyes, whom the scriptures declare that no man has ever seen at any time in his body.

You have received the Spirit of God that you might know the things that are freely given to you of God.

And this spiritual birth and life cannot fail to animate and move your body.

And so the bringing your body before God as a living sacrifice is your spiritual worship.

This is the appeal in the first verse, but it does not end there. We continue in verse two, where it says, be not conformed to the world.

Here the term world signifies this age or period of time that we are now living in before the coming again of our

Lord Jesus Christ. And more specifically, it respects the spiritual and the moral condition of this age left to itself apart from the saving and restraining influences of God.

Now the spiritual and the moral condition of this age is one of open -faced hostility to God and his

Christ. It is one of self -seeking, self -pleasure and self -love.

The spirit of this age is one of sensuality and of impurity, of slavery to a host of immoral affections and pleasures, of deceitful desires.

The spirit of this age is hell -bent on pursuing the passions and lusts of the corrupt mind.

And under such a idols which its followers bow down to.

There are idols of food and drink and health, a luxury, ease, career, sex, clothes, vehicles, homes, family, sports, pets, bank balances, appearances.

I could go on. All the while the true worship of God and his Christ are neglected, they are rejected, they are hated.

Now this is the spirit of this age whether you want to admit it or not. The apostle calls this the world.

God's appeal to you Christian is to not be conformed to the world.

It is an evil world and God sent his son to deliver you from it. Satan the

God of this perverse age once had his vice grip on you when once you were a child of disobedient and of wrath.

But now you have been made alive in Christ Jesus and the appeal is for you to not be drawn into that selfish perverse age from which you have been delivered.

But instead be transformed. Upon your initial believing in Christ Jesus Christian you were transformed from darkness to light.

It was then that you were given a new heart and a new spirit. It was then that the seeds of all saving graces were implanted in you.

It was then that you were transformed into a new creation in Christ. And yet there remains a part of you that has not been transformed yet.

It is that part of your human nature that remains unrenewed, weak, carnal, corrupt.

This is what the scriptures often call the flesh or the body of sin. And therefore while you have been transformed you must undergo far greater transformation yet.

What does this look like? It looks like all that is opposed to the spirit of this age.

It looks like selflessness, righteousness, holiness,

God -likeness. In a word it looks like Christ. It will not be a perfect transformation this side of glory.

But do not leave off your ongoing transformation. You have not yet arrived to the celestial city.

Your race is not yet complete. There remains in you indwelling sin to mortify.

Are you all holiness? Do you know and love God even as you are known and loved of God?

Do you fully and fervently love your neighbor or your enemy? Be transformed.

Let the cry of your heart be that of godly Robert Murray McShane who cried out,

Lord make me as holy as it is possible for a pardoned sinner to be and be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

God has ordained that all real transformation begins with this. Not just by thinking so -called good thoughts or thoughts that you think are good.

Renewal of your mind is never achieved by if you believe it you can achieve it or whatever you dream you can become.

That thinking does not renew the mind but it horribly stunts and perverts it. This renewal of the mind is an appeal to adjust your mind to the mind of God.

It is an appeal to study and to meditate on the holy scriptures and the truth of who

God is and what he has said. And already you know something about this christian in measure.

First Corinthians chapter 2 says we have the mind of Christ. This appeal before us is an appeal to grow in the knowledge and understanding and wisdom of God and that is done by beholding

Christ by faith, by seeking him, by waiting on him, by remembering him, and in this way you are increasingly changed into his image.

You are transformed. Second Corinthians 318 and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the

Lord are transformed into his same image. So says the

Old Testament prophet David in Psalm 34. Those who look to the

Lord are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. So this then is the appeal.

It is God's appeal to you Christian. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.

Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

I come now secondly to the urgency of this appeal. This is apparent in the word itself.

It is an appeal. It is not a request. It's not a suggestion. It's a call not only to the church's office bearers or to those who have above average desires for holiness.

It is the call of God to each and every born again Christian and the appeal is born out of urgency.

It is born out of urgency for two reasons. First it is an urgent appeal because you who have been made holy in Christ Jesus must advance in holiness not only for your good though it no doubt is for your good for the glory of God for the cause of Christ for increasingly displaying the beauties and the glories of him who has washed you in his blood and is renewing you by his spirit.

The world is dark but the light of God and his Christ shines in the darkness and it shines in the darkness through his people through you it is to shine in the church and in your family in your neighborhood and in your work in this city this province this nation do you shine

Christian if Christ is in you then you do and you must shine for his glory reflecting his glorious image but for his name's sake you must shine brighter yet.

Now the second reason that the appeal is an urgent one is because though you must advance in holiness you are not naturally inclined to it you believe or have a new nature in Christ yet this world your own flesh and Satan all take their turns to daily entice you back to the city of destruction and if your enemies can't openly visibly destroy you they will be content to see you at ease in your

Christian profession turn aside from the good fight of faith and a holy life the appeal then is an urgent one the one thing needful is a daily holy sacrificial walking with and before God for his glory and the eternal good of this groaning world but that one thing is exactly what your enemies attempt to daily they attempt to prevent you from doing so God urges you bring your body before him and there in his presence continually offer yourself to him a living sacrifice well lastly we come to the consideration set forth in this text that greatly strengthen and secure obedience to the appeal as urgent as the appeal is it does not stand alone rather the spirit of God has in this text provided two considerations that greatly strengthen the appeal and these two considerations when mixed with faith in the here secure obedience to the appeal the first consideration is found in verse two there is a precious promise given here it is given to you believer the promise is that you being transformed by the renewing of your mind will enable you to test and to discern the good the acceptable and the perfect will of God the psalmist in psalm 25 cried out show me your ways oh lord teach me your paths and here in this new testament letter we have a promise from God he promises that he will show his ways and teach his paths to whoever is being transformed by the renewing of their mind you who pray thy will be done and long to be walking in that blessed will take heart from this promise be transformed by the renewal of your mind and you will prove the faithfulness of God and secure this promise for yourself and in securing the promise you will increasingly come to test and understand and love the will of God now the second consideration is found in the word therefore and the phrase by the mercies of God in verse one the therefore brings us back to the first 11 chapters of the letter the term by the mercies of God refers us to the mercies of God that have been set forth throughout these 11 chapters in particular in Romans 11 the apostle declares that the the

Jewish nation had rejected God and God had rejected the Jewish nation and these things occurred in God's almighty purposes the gentile sinners may come and receive mercy from God but then the apostle goes on to declare that such mercy is for the

Jewish nation too for every natural descendant of Abraham may now come and freely obtain that same mercy and so the apostle concludes that both gentile and Jew have been shut into disobedience that God may have mercy upon all the human race now it is these mercies of God that cause the apostle to break out in rapturous praise to the close of chapter 11 and these mercies constrain him to make his appeal by or in remembrance of the mercies of God why because a fresh consideration of the mercies of God greatly strengthens the appeal and beholding those same mercies of God by faith is a sure way to secure the obedience that the appeal demands this then is my proposition which

I take from the text remembering the mercies of God greatly strengthens and by faith secures obedience to the appeal but it is not enough for only your head to admit the truth of this how easy that's as far as it goes for us this appeal from God must come home to your heart you must experience the truth of this so that you're moved to true real obedience to that end

I urge you to consider something more of the mercies of God and this is a glorious subject the mercies of God are all the mighty works of God that flow from his love of pity and compassion to sinners they assume great need in the sinner and ability and willingness in God to meet that need everywhere in the scriptures we they declare the mercies of God over 200 times in the old testament alone the term is used psalm 103 declares the

Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love he does not deal with us according to our iniquities he does not repay us according to our sins psalm 136 has every one of its 26 verses expressing the same singular thought his mercy endures forever now it may be asked how

God can show any mercy to sinners for he is righteous and holy and just he therefore hates sin with a holy pure hatred wherever and in whomever he finds it

God does not he cannot relax his justice to make room for mercy so there remains a day of wrath and righteous judgment of God when

God will render to everyone according to their works and to them who do not obey that the truth that day and every day after that for eternity will be a day of wrath of tribulation of anguish how then can

God show mercy to sinners the answer the only answer is found in the man

Christ Jesus for this man was and is and is forevermore the son of God and the savior of the world he gave himself up to be a real and personal substitute in the place of sinners and as the substitute of sinners their sins were counted to him and his righteousness was counted to them and with their sins counted to him he was obligated to bear the punishment which those sins deserved he therefore justly suffered on behalf of sinners oh how he suffered he bore the curse of God and the wrath of God for all the sins which he bore he suffered even unto death on a cross until the justice of God was completely satisfied for sins and when divine justice could demand no more he rose from the dead the third day he is risen and his resurrection is a certain proof that he has accomplished what he came to do he came to conquer death hell and the grave by purchasing salvation for his people with his own blood and he has done it he now stands forever the king of kings and lord of lords and by his obedience unto death on behalf of sinners the floodgates of God's mercy are wide open this is how

God shows mercy to sinners this is how sinners obtain mercy from God through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone behold then the mercies of God Christian in Christ is your saving help

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son while yet an unregenerate sinner an enemy to God Christ died for you he is your substitute your representative he is your wisdom and righteousness sanctification and redemption he is your light he is your daily bread what did you ever do to merit such mercy you who were dead in trespasses and in sins without hope without God in this world all your self -righteousness was as filthy rags in God's sight you deserve what the miserable rich man got in Luke chapter 16 in the torments of hell he cried out for mercy and he received none you don't deserve such love and favor from the one from whom and through whom and to whom are all things you have never had any right to demand that God purpose and provide such a wonderful savior yet Christian you have received mercy from God through Jesus Christ think of it while yet a sinner without strength

Christ died for you and now you are alive in him but see how you have rewarded his love still you sin every day against him still you fail to give him the glory due his name and yet dear child of God still the mercies of God in Christ are new every morning still great is his faithfulness still you have an advocate and an intercessor

Jesus Christ the righteous still a full fountain of God's mercy is reserved for you in Christ still you are one with your savior in his righteousness still you are all together accepted in the beloved and you cannot die though your physical body is wasting away yet there is coming a day when your soul and glorified physical body will be united again forever with the one who loved you and gave himself for you

I've tried to speak well of the mercies of God it is by those same mercies that God makes his appeal to you today brothers and sisters present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God well unbeliever there is something here for you in this text you have heard that the believer's obedience to God though imperfect and sin -stained is acceptable to God it is acceptable to God because all who believe on Jesus Christ freely receive the gift of God's righteousness it is that righteousness the righteousness of God that is counted to the believer for all their acceptance with God and the spirit of God now works powerfully in them to will and to do according to his good pleasure you however do not have the spirit of God but the spirit of the world you have no righteousness for your acceptance with God and regardless how hard you try as long as you are without Christ your attempted to obedient your attempted obedience to God will never be accepted with him so I do not urge you to bring your body into the presence of God a living sacrifice

I don't appeal to you to come out of the world and be transformed by the renewing of your mind oh you must do all this but you cannot do any of it in your present state of sin and misery no there is one thing for you to do receive mercy receive the mercies of God by trusting in Christ Jesus for all your salvation consider the account in Luke chapter 18 you can turn there if you like chapter 18 verse 35

Luke chapter 18 verse 35 as Jesus drew near to Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging and hearing a crowd going by he inquired what this meant they told him

Jesus of Nazareth is passing by and he cried out Jesus son of David have mercy on me those who were in front rebuked him telling him to be silent but he cried out all the more son of David have mercy on me and Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him when he came near he asked him what do you want me to do for you he said

Lord let me recover my sight and Jesus said to him recover your sight your faith has made you well and immediately he recovered his sight and followed him glorifying

God and all the people when they saw it gave praise to God you are as poor and blind spiritually as this beggar was physically he cried out to the

Lord Jesus for mercy he received it and immediately he followed

Jesus glorifying God go and do the same receive mercy the saving mercy of God in Christ Jesus for all your pardon for all your acceptance with God and then follow him wherever he leads you presenting your body a living sacrifice for whoever has a son has life but whoever does not have the son does not have life thank you for listening to another sermon from grace fellowship church if you would like to keep up with us you can find us at facebook at grace fellowship church or our instagram at grace church y -e -g all one word finally you can visit us at our website graceedmonton .ca