Untitled Sermon (55)

Last week we looked at living in light of the mercies of God. That is a theme that will continue as we progress through the rest of this letter. It is the mercy of God you must have on your mind when we are looking at living in light and in the life of Jesus.

As a matter of fact, you cannot proclaimed to be a Christian and deny the mercies of God. The very fact that you are a Christian is an act of mercy by God. That is the key to the Christian life. That is the key to getting through this world is focusing our eyes and our spiritual eyes on the truth of God's mercy.

If you depart from that your mind will be filled with not only negative thoughts but it will begin to wander in destructive directions. And so it is important too reflect on the mercies of God as our feeble an finite minds are so prone to narrow in on the negative, we don't see how good we actually have it.

And so the mercies of God has to be on our minds every day of our life because it is the moving force for us to do what we will be talking about today.

To help us understand the current state of the American church it would benefit us to do a brief walkthrough in history.

Let's begin with the second great awakening. Most Christians are familiar with the first great awakening that was influence and driven by reformed theology as defined by the Puritans. Reformed theology began before Luther, most historians associated with agustine an athanasius because Luther and Calvin were pretty much repeating those guys.

Augustine and athanasius were alive during the 3rd and 4th century. But Luther and Calvin brought it back to light after it was hidden for so long but they really didn't refine it. They too are a victim of their culture as we all are. We are all in a sense, victims of our own time and this reflects in the writings of people like Martin Luther and John Calvin.

And so the Puritans of the 17th and 18th century had more time to refine it and that was the pushing factor of the first great awakening that led many people to Salvation and was a huge foundation for our country when we declared our independence from England. In the middle of the 1800s we had what they called the second great awakening.

Some people argue that there are third an 4th great awakenings an I think there are even some Pentecostals who are claiming we are now in the 5th great awakening but no real accredited historian agrees with the 3rd and 4th great awakening.

The second great awakening though, was not inspired by reformed theology rather it was inspired by what is called romanticism. This is where it is highly emotional and all about experience. And the second great awakening was driven by the Methodist and the Baptist.

This is where tent revivals were beginning to come on the scene and there was a focus on the music and a focus on the experience you have rather than the content of the message. Now one thing historians agree on the second great awakening was nowhere near as impactful or influential as the first great awakening.

But this is kind of the birth of the emotionalism that wound up dominating Christian culture. Shortly after you began to see Colts rise up such as Jehovah's witness an Mormonism. Theology was changing and it was more about the experience rather than truth.

As a matter of fact so much truth was denied or contradicted for the sake of experience and it got to the point where people were saying I know you think that is true but I know what I have felt or I know what I have experienced.

Sound familiar? But the 1800s was a huge pivotal point in human history. Darwinism was on the rise, we were at the dawn of the age of science and people thought that science was going to prove all things including what they claim the nonexistent nature of God or prove that God does not exist.

Something they are still working on and are creeping up on 200 years of still working on it. And so because of this modern age, this science age liberal theology was beginning to come in at the turn of the 20th century. beginning in the late 1800s into the early 1900s.

And you had certain movements take place in order to defend Christianity one of those movements was the fundamentalist movement where are we now have the term fundamentalist Christian. Different when it first started compared to what it is today the fundamentalist movement simply meant that we hold to the fundamentals of the faith.

such as the Trinity, The Virgin conception, the two nature's of Jesus, the death burial and resurrection of Jesus , and the imminent return of Jesus just to name a few. And so the fundamentalist movement defined what is Orthodox biblical Christianity and then agreed apon if anyone departed from this Orthodox view than they were not in fact Christian.

Overtime the fundamentalist movement began to transform into something that broke outside of the lines of orthodoxy. So if a female wore jeans they would be upset about it and it just grew into that Leagalist type of atmosphere.

So fundamentalism in the classical sense is good but you should know that nobody uses that word fundamental Christian in the classical sense anymore. We kind of loste the history behind the movement and the importance behind the movement and so instead of saying fundamentalism or the fundamentals of the faith and I will say that from time to time, I say biblical orthodoxy.

Orthodox meaning the traditionally held and established view. Because we as Christians should want to be at the heart of Christianity not letting it evolve as the world tells us to evolve it but to hold still the truth that we have heard and have been entrusted to.

Fundamentalism though in early 1900s did have a great impact an preserved biblical truth in this country. But it did turn into this rigid stern type of Christianity that people really didn't care for back then. I think people kinda miss it today, back then they were getting tired of it so by the 1960s Christianity began to change as America was beginning to change.

America was no longer the whole sum 1950s and early 1960s it once used to be. There was a hippie revolution taking place an because Christianity hops on every single trend the church hopped on that trend. And so you have what was called the Jesus freak movement of the 1960s and the 1970s.

And again, this was all about experience. It was all about experience Jesus in a new way that our parents and grandparents were ignorant of. All they were really doing was repeating drug induced hippie language and incorporating it into Christianity and thus you have a new liberal movement creeping on through.

And so you have the mid 1800s where emotionalism is on the rise . But then it kind of dies down but then comes back up almost 100 years later this time it sticks around. And then you begin to see the rise of televangelist an miracle crusades and so your seed of money so that you will be blessed.

And nobody was really expecting that. Nobody was really expecting an entire Christian network dedicated to warship and then it wound up being financially successful and no one was ready for the type of teaching that was going to come from televangelism.

What we call the name it and claim it gospel, the health wealth and prosperity gospel. And so a lot of people believed it and did not question it . And I mean a lot of people. We're talking back in the 1970s. The ones who were speaking out against it were a very small voice in our country.

And this grew And was booming in the 1980s. Meanwhile churches were designing there are many stories to look like those that were successful. By the early 1990s you had several Christian stations and several regular stations that were airing church services on Sunday on television.

From there The Internet age came into being an now we live in a time where everybody including us has an online presence , where they can either listen to sermons or watch sermons.

Were pastors all across this country do podcast which is Internet radio. And so now there is a very common attitude that the church is dead and we can do all of our relationships through an electronic device.

I do not need to go to church on Sundays because I can just watch it on television or find something online. Today's sermon is going to argue against that. So lets continue on in this verse we have not yet completed

Romans 12:1 NASB95

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

We now focus on the statement present your Bodies a living an holy sacrifice. There is a common mistake when this versus red and sometimes that mistake yet is encouraged by preachers. And the mistake is not completing the picture. They only give half the picture and it's not the correct half.

I will explain, typically what happens when people read this verse and typically what happens when preachers preach on this verse they treated in the negative sense. Now I do not mean negative as in negative vibes. What I mean by negatives is they make it a list of no’s or a list of don'ts.

you shall not do this you shall not do that that is what I mean by negative. And So how this verse is typically understood by the average reader an by many preachers is you shall not be a fornicator. You shall not abuse substances. You shall not lust and you shall not steal or murder.

And we all nod our head and say Yep that's right we will not do such things. Such things are not practiced by those who are in Jesus. And all of that is true. And all of that should be on your mind when you are looking to present your bodies to God.

But the language is positive not negative and so we should not be focusing on what we shall not do alone but what shall we do. That's the positive side of that. Now we have to apply context. This verse is rarely looked at in context.

We cannot forget that word therefore, if you remember last week i said that word therefore ties it all together. This verse is not meant to be alone, this verse is associated with the first eleven chapters.

And so presenting your bodies a living sacrifice requires the first eleven chapters of this letter. You must comprehend the essential doctrines of the scripture to be able to present your body.

You do not have to be an expert in all of its but we have to know who we are as sinners, who Jesus is what his work on the cross accomplished and who we are as a new creation.

But Paul's argument is not one must know the first eleven chapters of his specific letter. That is just the layout of it all. The first eleven chapters are the teachings of the Christian message an Paul takes it all the way back to Adam and here in chapter 12 he's bringing it to the church in Rome.

So the context of chapter 12 is that we have to be immersed in the scriptures. So the 1st positive side of presenting yourselves or presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice is to be immersed in the scriptures.

And that is what that word therefore reveals to us in light of being immersed in the scriptures we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice. That's just the beginning point though. Presenting your bodies in the positive sense means you actually do something with your body.

And the Greek word means just that your actual structure , your actual physical structure Paul is instructing believers that they have to take their physical bodies and present it. Which is why it is in the positive sense.

Which is also why it would be incomplete for us to look at it in the negative sense. So Paul says you must do this with your structure and our minds say I will not do these things so I can be presenting my body.

That's a part of it but the idea is to have an active life for God. What does that look like? well that brings our minds back to reflecting on the mercies of God. And if you remember from last week when you reflect on the mercies of God you must reflect on who you are before God and you must reflect on God's holiness.

Why must we reflect on those things? First of all because Paul's the one that introduced the mercies of God before he instructs or pleads with believers to present their bodies as a living sacrifice.

And so when we focus on the mercies of God which again put a mirror in front of us to see us for who we really are and to exalt God an His Holiness the only conclusion that we can make about coming before God is that we come before him in reverence.

When we come before God we should be coming before him in reverence with honor, not dishonor or being careless because that would not be presenting your bodies. You see Paul is not instructing the believer to strictly withhold himself from certain things but he's instructing the believer to understand that God wants all of them.

God wants all of you, he doesn't want a part of you, he doesn't want to be some afterthought in your life, he wants all of you. And when we progress forward in this chapter you will see that not only do we present our bodies but we present our minds. We present our souls and this first verse is an introduction to all of that.

so Paul is saying bring all of you. I don't want your mind on Sunday and then monday through Saturday it's somewhere else. I don't want your devotion on Wednesday night I want it every night of the week. That is what is being said here.

Present all of you a living sacrifice. This is a reflection on the Old Testament sacrifice but Paul makes a distinction. The Old Testament sacrifice they slained the animal but Paul says you are a living sacrifice. That means you present your bodies and you are living, you are active you, you are involved.

And so it's not just going to the scriptures is not just meeting God in prayer an it's not just coming to church Ann it's not just refraining from giving in to certain sins. But it is about actively having a zeal for God and his people.

An folks, this is what we lossed. When we allowed emotionalism to dominate this is what we have lossed we have lost our zeal for God and his people. Well we have turned it into is a zeal for our cells. For our own convenience for our own luxuries.

I tell you one thing we witnessed when we lived in the cities of Colorado and I'm sure that this is true of Sioux Falls and other places as well I have no doubt about it as a matter of fact. But we always saw church attendance drop during football season, always.

And I'm standing here telling you as somebody who used to be guilty of doing the same thing, i had a greater zeal for watching sports and being surrounded by my family that i did for God. I turned sports an my family into an idle, yes your family could become an Idol.

don't believe me? Look at how many young parents think their children are Angels. And we have the nerve to ask ourselves what's going on in the world today? we have the nerve to say things are getting bad and I don't know why.

Or we have the nerve to say things are getting bad because people won't turn back to God and this is being said by people who have 0 zeal for God and his people.

Now I have done this in the past and it is something that I will always be reminding US of because our sinful minds are always inclining to sin. Whether you like it or not your mind it does incline to sin.

May not be what we deem heinous sins all the time but everybody in here knows that their brain is capable of going somewhere that you don't want it to go.

And so it is easy for fallen man to get caught up in the snare of the world. And so I want to remind you of what the church is. The first thing that you must be aware of is that the church is called the bride , the bride to Jesus.

And the Bible paints the bride up as somebody who is not yet ready for that big marriage day, she's not all prettied up yet but one day she will be. Now think about that. You are not all that pretty yet but one day you will be.

Now we must begin with the church being called the bride because that reveals to us that the church is a living temple, that it is a breathing body, and the church is most precious and dear to our Lord Jesus.

What the church is not is yuan cousin Harold getting together one Sunday to go fishing. Because there's more to the church as being the bride the church is an organized body of believers.

That is how the scriptures paint the church up, it is an organized body of believers. That has an actual leadership that was divinely designed for your benefit.

And so you have church elders that the body is to be submiting to an the elders have their requirements as well. And going through the requirements of an elder and the leadership within the church is a whole other sermon series in and of itself.

We don't stop there either, the church is not only the body of believers but it is the gathered body of believers who come together to hear the word of God proclaimed and for the sacraments to be administered that is baptism and the Lord's supper.

That is the biblical definition of the church. A body or gathering or if you want to use the word assembly because that's what the church means in assembly of believers together to hear the word of God preached and to have the sacraments administered. Where we share each others burdens lift each other up in prayer hold each other accountable and encourage one another in the faith.

Pastor, I'm pretty sure that the church is me and my spouse enjoying our Sunday at the park instead of with the assembly. I'm pretty sure that's what God intended for people to do on Sundays. Things start to sound a little silly when we release am out loud don't they?

Can you honestly say that presenting yourself as a living sacrifice means neglecting the assembly of the Saints to go fishing, to go antiquing, to watch sports, to you fill in the blank.

Now I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way, I understand life happens and sometimes you can't gather with the assembly. I get it and that is not what I am preaching against. What I'm talking about is a complete lack of reverence an an absolute habitual neglect.

And so Paul is saying here is this great doctrine. That we were all once in Adam and we were all once dead in our sins. And that based upon the law of God no one we will have everlasting life. Because all have fallen short of the glory of God and that there is not one who seeks after God.

And so God an absolute grace an mercy condescended to us and sought after us. He went seeking after those who were never seeking him. And this is displayed in the great and mighty righteous work of Jesus Christ.

So then Paul makes the argument you can remain in everlasting death with Adam, when you are in the covenant relationship with Adam death is all you get because he violated the covenant of God period or you can be in the new covenant in Christ Anne have everlasting life because he fulfilled the covenant of God an now we have righteousness because of his works.

And only one of those 2 positions you will be in you will either be an Atom or you will be in Christ. For those of us who are in Christ we are a new creation. We were once enslaved to sin but because we have been executed with Jesus we were buried with Jesus an we were resurrected with Jesus we have a new outlook, we are a new creation.

We are no longer enslaved to sin. We still feel the effects of it but we are no longer servants to sin. Sin is no longer our master Jesus has become our master. He rescued us from our enslavement.

And this enslavement was far worse than what Israel faced by the Egyptians. And they too had the same master, The Jewish people were also fallen people who have felt the sting of sin.

And so the great revelation of Jesus Christ is that he is the real Redeemer he is leading us on this real exodus an we will one day go into the real promise land. What happened with Moses and Israel and Egypt was a forshadow of the reality that we did not know was existing.

And so we have been rescued an we are this new creation in new life and now we have life in the spirits and we have this great comfort that those who are in the father's hand will never be snatched from the father's hand. We have this great comfort that God has promised us in him he will complete what he has began in US.

And our best response to that great mercy to that great grace is that God we will define what true zeal is? We will tell you well we are going to do on the day you've designed for us to worship you. We're going to tell you what is appropriate.

We will tell you what our reasonable Spiritual service of worship. We have allowed this emotionalism to take so much control that we think we are the sovereign ones. We think we run the show. We think we put the law into effect. We think we can tell God what to do. We think we establish the relationship. We call the shots.

If you want to practice the art of holiness and experience the spiritual life in its truest and richest form. You must crucify yourself, recognize that it is no longer that you who lives but Christ in you.

And present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Bring all of yourself to God as he has defined it's not as how you define it. Though we don't admit it I think our culture has the belief that we are Masters of our own fate and the church is a reflection of that belief.

The modern day church that is. And I also think for that reason when tragedy strikes or hardship comes we're confused because we have it in our heads that we deserve more.

Presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice Is our form of spiritual worship it is the only reasonable response to everything that Paul has taught us so far . It is the only reasonable response when we think about what God has done for us.

What Paul is describing here is where the Christian will find their joy. But as long as we keep thinking we know better , and we have to be honest with ourselves that though that is not the deliberate thought the actions of us whether it be within this church or within our culture testify that that is true to some degree.

And you shouldn't put up this wall and say not me , but say yes even me too. Because if you can't image your own failures recognize your own faults you can't be presenting your body as a living sacrifice. But as long as we keep thinking we know better we Rob ourselves of a great joy of a heavenly mindedness that God intended for us to have.

Paul told us in another letter to set your mind on the things above. But the common sang in churches today are you are so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good. Ramsey I want to encourage you all to be so heavenly minded that it will be for earthly good.

That to be heavenly minded will be for earthly good for yourselves, for your family, and for the culture around you. So present your bodies all of you to the Lord and tell God I submit all of myself to you And I want your will to be done.

But what must come to an end is the lukewarm movement that is so active today. Because there are far too many people who claim Christianity and they actually worship a false Idol because they've taken the idea of Jesus, they've taken the idea of of God they have taken the idea of the holy spirits and they've created their own Idol. And they call it Christianity nonetheless.

We will guard ourselves so we do not make the same mistake. And we do this by presenting all of ourselves as a living sacrifice . Let's pray