All righty, this evening we're looking at chapter 3 on the subject of sacrifice, wholehearted commitment to God's kingdom. And if you would, open your Bibles with me to start tonight looking at a passage that we will refer to a little bit later in the chapter, but Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. this evening as we think about sacrifice and commitment to the kingdom. This evening, usually when people think about sacrifice for the kingdom, as Alistair Begg notes here, we only think about those who would leave the country and go serve overseas. And no doubt that is a great sacrifice, a great commitment, We should pray, and it should be our desire that we would even see, in God's grace, that the Lord would raise up and equip somebody one day to go from this church overseas. That should be something we pray about. I'm not saying that I want that to be me. I'm content here, but the Lord is sovereign over all things. But that should be a prayer. How often, though, do we think that's the only thing that's really a sacrifice? And I thought about this chapter of having the opportunity to talk to somebody one time about a year or so ago, and he didn't see his role as a husband and father, and being faithful in that calling is as significant as somebody who was a missionary who went overseas. And tragically, that mindset is probably prevalent with a lot of people. that we think that those things are small, and to do something like that is great. But everything that we do in the kingdom is sacrificial and requires commitment. Paul lays it out here in Romans chapter 12, and we know that really the first 11 chapters of Romans is theology and doctrine that's being unpacked in relationship to the gospel. And he says in verse one of 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 service or spiritual worship. It can also be rational or reasonable service. 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." So, sacrifice, wholehearted commitment to God's kingdom. He begins with this quotation from C.T. Studd. If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him. In the Old Testament, there's a warning that says, woe to those who are at ease in Zion. It's very easy for us to get into a routine. and get complacent. Especially, I would say, in ministry, for example, it's very easy to get to a place where you just kind of coast. You just go through the general thing week after week, and if you're not careful, you're forgetting about just how dependent and reliant you are upon the work of the Spirit and the grace of God. And so we need to be stirred in that statement. What did Christ do for us And should that not motivate us then to see the sacrifices and commitments we should make? Is there anything really too great that we could do for the kingdom? Is there too great of a sacrifice that I just can't make? It's too much. And when we consider what Christ has done for us. So he then gives us a very interesting story from his own background in ministry of this service that they held. as a group of Bible college students that they were there and of course there was physical food that was provided as well and they began this service. They led some hymns and he got up here to to preach and he said on page 58 that he started off by Giving a weak joke, it's always a bad thing. That's why I don't ever start off with jokes. Most of the time when people laugh at me, it's not because I've said anything funny, or they're laughing at me. So, learned a long time ago, I don't do jokes and tell jokes, and that's the safe thing to do, I would say, for, well, all preachers should follow that counsel. It's not good. At least when I'm critiquing somebody, the first thing a guy does is stand up there and tell a joke. It usually gives me an insight. It's going to be a bumpy ride listening to this sermon. So he begins with that. He said they kind of, you know, were seized by his accent for a little bit, but then quickly they went right back into normal. I've never had this one happen to me, but somebody came out with their newspaper and just unfolded and started to read while he was there up there. So I'm sure that was very discouraging. Then he had another friend come up, and he was from Liverpool, so he talks about the Beatles and their heyday and so forth. And, well, that didn't go over too well either because he seems to have been long-winded. And so, so long-winded, and everybody was hungry and ready to eat, that somebody decided to bring out an alarm clock. and set the bells off. So, no ideas, please. I don't ever wanna see anybody, you know, bring out an alarm clock while I'm up here preaching. And so that kind of brought the service to an end, he told us. But before that, they had this song from this lady named Mary. And that she came and he said that she had a crystal clear voice and it was beautiful. He called it sacrificial. And then he begins to share with us that she had been in training to go to Zimbabwe to teach the children there of Christ. And she graduated, and he shares then this anecdote from 1978. It was a very bloody time in that country. And that, page 60, that she was one of those who had been killed. And he makes this statement here, he said, within 24 hours, we were to learn that Mary Fisher had paid the ultimate sacrifice. When they gathered up her belongings, I am told that they found in her possession a cassette of her leading some children in song in their native language. When it was translated, it was discovered that the chorus she and the children were singing went as follows. For me to live as Christ, to die is gain. To hold his hand and walk his narrow way. There is no peace, no joy, no thrill, like walking in his will. For me to live as Christ, to die is gain. And that is the Christian life. Because there really is no peace and no joy, really, for us as those who are in Christ apart from doing the will of God that he's called us to. It may not be comfortable, but there's no joy or peace that matches it. And so with that in mind, he shares then about the sacrifice of foreign missions. He talks about when he thought about missions, a missionary conference, all the things that had come back from Africa, the spears, the pottery, the beads, the carpets, and so forth, all of these things. But then he talked about it in his own family on page 62, about that he had an aunt who had went to India. She'd not been there very long, and he said towards the bottom of page 62, facing the prospect of death so soon after her arrival and recognizing the impact this must have been having on her family back in Scotland, she wrote to my grandmother, do not view this as a defeat, but as a glorious victory. Although she died of obscurity in 1951 from Port Stewart, Northern Ireland, to Melbourne, Australia, I have had people ask me, you're not by any chance related to Bertha Begg, are you? And answering yes, I have then been treated to testimonies of the impact my aunt had upon their lives. It makes me think of the words of Jesus in John 12, 24, and 25. Very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. And sometimes I think it's very easy for us to miss just how much God uses the faithfulness of his people to impact others in ways that we cannot comprehend. I think that's one of the most interesting things in recent readings about the Puritans that struck me, is that they really understood that they may not see a lot of progress in their generation. They understood that many of them would die as martyrs and would be in jail and would have to do a lot of things in secret. It would not be very comfortable. And they might not see a lot of fruit from that, but they believed they were preparing the next generation. And the next generation might be the ones that saw the fruit. So they ministered and lived with a long-term vision in mind. And that's counter to everything really about us, kind of naturally. And also right now, just as always, what do we see right now? And this dear sister, she didn't stay very long before she died. And what she had gone to do, she really didn't get to do in that sense, but her faithfulness in that calling God uses. Alistair Begg says people all the time were asking him, are you related? She had an impact far beyond what she even probably knew. And so he says on page 63 about the statement, the lure of the comfortable life. He said that's the stuff of missionary biography, but is it the pulse of contemporary Christianity? He said it is both dangerous and wrong to substitute personal preference for biblical principle to place pleasing self above pleasing God. But it is inevitable that we will make this switch if we're going to make self-esteem and a sense of fulfillment the measure of our lives. We're going to do things that run totally contrary to logic and wisdom. Martin Lloyd Jones left a very successful medical practice to go pastor and preach to poor people in Wales. That didn't make sense, logically. It didn't. William Carey left everything he knew to go set sail for a place he'd never been to. He'd never been to India. He had no idea, really, everything that awaited him. And yet, that's exactly what God called him to do. And so that's what this is, and yet, we have to be careful not just to think of this type of sacrificial living as for the person who's in ministry or the missionary, but that all of us are called to this. And so he says, we must rediscover the spirit of sacrifice. And he brings us to where we read it a moment ago, Romans 12. Paul is not talking about something casual, trivial, or optional. So page 64, he gives us this passage here of Romans 12, 1 through 2. And basically, that statement from Paul, when he says, present yourselves as a living sacrifice. A sacrifice means in some way of dying. Something dies. A dream, a comfort, whatever it might be, but something dies in order to give ourselves fully to God. Now as he says here in the bottom of page 12, I think the bottom page 64 from chapter 12, This is not, notice he said, these opening verses are not a call for some Christians to embrace an optional more advanced level of Christian living. but a summons to all Christians to fulfill this basic obligation. This sacrifice is not two separate transactions and trusting your life to Christ and then offering your body as a living sacrifice, but one. Not everyone is called to four missions, but all are called to sacrifice. What else does it mean for Jesus to say, Luke 9, 23, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Now, there's a lot of people in, I would say, the average churchgoer who thinks these statements really are optional. This is like the higher plane of spirituality. If you really want to get close to the Lord, you become a disciple. And in such a mindset, it totally downplays what the gospel calls us to. The gospel does call us to dine ourselves. You can't love Christ and also love self at the same time. It just doesn't work that way. Something dies. And so Paul is saying here that we are called to be sacrifices. Page 65, second part of that first paragraph, he says, from deep in his heart comes his passionate longing, implores his readers to discover all the blessings of a life lived in consecration to God. The ground of his appeal is the mercies of God. He does not employ the contemporary approach, what it will do for us, but rather focuses on what God has done for us. So it's not a call to be a sacrifice in order that we get things, we get blessings, we get favor or whatever else, but we do these things because of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The salvation of grace that we know, the love of God that has been shown to us, is now to make us, motivate us. How can we live a life of sacrifice? And it gives us a beautiful example here of what two different types of sacrifice in the Old Testament. A perpetuatory sacrifice, that was for the putting away of sin, and a dedicatory sacrifice, which was the response of thanksgiving for the forgiveness provided. Now, Jesus is what? Well, the scriptures make it clear over and over, he is our propitiation. Only he could satisfy God's righteous, just, and holy demands. So there's nothing in this that we do that satisfies God's demands in that sense and covers our sin and procures forgiveness. That's what Christ has done. So what do we do? We offer ourselves in thanksgiving as a sacrifice of dedication. You know, the life I now live, I no longer live in myself but for Christ. This is now. Paul says we've been bought with a price. We don't belong to ourselves anymore. And so how do we live? And he gives us the three L's because Alistair Begg is a good Baptist here. He's got the alliteration working. So he's got living, lasting, and logical. So what does it mean that we're to be a living sacrifice? Page 66. This is all such good things that we need to hear. I'm going to read most all this whole page. Whether we spend our days in a bank, or a laboratory, our theme song should be evident in our lifestyle. We should be yielded completely to Jesus every step of the way. We need to make a wholehearted, no-holds-barred, unequivocal, irrevocable commitment to Christ and his kingdom. Next paragraph, couple sentences in. We dare not create the impression that to be a living sacrifice, one has to become a member of the clergy. or join the ranks of the pioneer missionaries. Many may indeed be called to such service, but for the church to impact our generation for Christ, we need to have a sense of mission. in the routine activities of our lives, in parking cars, writing term papers, pumping gas, folding laundry, selling buns, playing sports, and whatever we are doing, we are to be living sacrifices. Now, everybody in here has a different routine you go about every day. And there's different aspects of that day that you and I would say are very mundane, very normal, and very ordinary. And yet, how often do we maybe fail to realize and seize that they are ways in which we praise our king, that we testify to who he is and what he has done. So, I know that we've got people in college writing and doing all those types of things. You know, that brings honor and glory to God. We have people at the shipyard. We have people at home. Lots of things. All those things that you do every day, whether it be what we would say are very, very ordinary, do it as a living sacrifice. And it really changes how we think about life, doesn't it? And I don't want, I don't ever want anybody to think that because I'm the preacher, I'm the one that really has the sacrificial life up here. Every one of us as believers are making sacrifices for the praise and honor of our King, and we should see that and see it as a joy in a way that we testify to him, to one another, and to those outside of him, what it means that our life is now hidden in Christ. So here he says at the bottom, we can never forget the cross is central in our union with him. Galatians 6.14, Paul said, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Now, he does quote two guys here in this chapter that I would just add a caution on reading too much of their stuff. All right, Bonhoeffer here and then Eugene Peterson. So they're good quotes here, but I would just, they're not on the same level as I would put Spurgeon or Calvin. I'll just put it that way. So, but Bonhoeffer said, the cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. Now, I will say that is not the typical proclamation of the gospel. made in many places, because that doesn't feel good to us naturally. Come die? But that's exactly what the gospel is about. This old person, this life in Adam, must die. And a new life is given to us in Christ, but it's a life of the cross. It's not just at the beginning in conversion, but all of our days. Jesus says, take up your cross daily and follow me. And no, the annoying people in your life are not the cross that you bear. We sometimes may think that. That's not what that is. It is the life that we've been called to, a life of sacrifice. So it's living. So I want you to remember that tonight, brothers and sisters. Everything we do, see every part of your life, no matter how routine or how small you may think it is, that it is a way in which you live as a living sacrifice for Christ. That it's a lasting sacrifice. It's not just a single emotional experience or crisis. It's not just walk down the aisle, take the preacher's hand and boom, we're all done with this. It's an ongoing process. Peterson says a long obedience in the same direction. He then gives us this statement towards the bottom. He talks about mission work. And what would the local believers want the most? And they wanted missionaries to come and stay. They were clear about the negative impact of foreign missionaries who arrive unexpectedly and leave prematurely. Long-term commitment is what they were looking for. And I do think that's one of the most fascinating things when you do read about, for example, men like William Carey and Adoniram Judson. They were in their places for years without conversions. And one of the reasons they stayed, looking back, is that they had no choice, really. There was no airplane that gets to go hop on and go fly back to England. To go back required you to get on a boat and sail for months. And that was dangerous. So we stayed put. For Carriot, it was seven years. Seven years. Now, by most standards, he would have been a failure. I don't know how exactly it works, but the IMB probably would have called him back home after two or three years and said, this ain't working. We've got to put somebody else over there. And so that requires that sometimes we're there sowing the seed and working the ground for a long time. before we may see some growth and fruit. But we last, we keep doing it. And that's what he said. This is difficult for a generation that's not been renowned for finishing things. And he wrote this originally 25 years ago. I mean, this was pre, I mean, cell phones then, I remember, were the size of, you know, a brick. We have come a long ways from then. And I would say it's probably even more so now. He said some of us can be diverted from the path of faith. We encounter only slight difficulty. Let that be said of us tonight. In contrast, look at Moses. At the age of 40, his great refusal. He decided not to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He was not going to go forth as a pioneer revolutionary. That's not how he saw himself, but as a pilgrim. Page 68, identified with the people of God. He gives this statement. He chose social deprivation over social honor, material loss over material gain, physical desolation over physical satisfaction, the unseen over the seen, and the eternal over the immediate. Once he had focused on the treasure of heaven, that determined his options on earth. It is as a lasting sacrifice that we display a concern for God's glory as opposed to our pleasure. I think one thing that happens, not to get on a soapbox up here tonight, because I do believe in being a good citizen of our country, but I think it's sometimes the reason that so many people in the church are so consumed with politics and having the right people for us is because that gives us this sense that if we get the right people that think like us and like us, they'll take care of us. Because we don't really want any kind of notion that all that we have would be upset. One day it is. Now one day it is. There's never been a nation or a period in Christian history that there's been some place where they forever had full liberty. That's not happening. So what would happen? What would happen? And I would say there would be very much a separation between the wheat and the chaff. You know, if it's easy to come to church, we'll do that. But if it becomes really hard to follow Christ, I don't have any part with that. Well, that's the separation, isn't it? Scriptures make about those who really are in Him and who are not. And who are we to be entitled to anything? Majority of the church through its history, even right now, is being persecuted. And so we see that from Moses. That's what it means to be a follower of Christ. We really do see him as more beautiful and more worthy than anything else, including our own lives. And then he also said it's a logical sacrifice. Now, and he gives us the translation here, said earlier in the ESV, it uses the phrase your spiritual worship. Of course, in the King James translation, your reasonable service, footnote in the ESV has rational service, logical service. It's not saying that it's mechanical or automatic. But he said at the bottom of page 68, the worship the Apostle Paul describes, enlist our mind, reason, and intellect. This living, lasting, and logical sacrifice is nothing other than the presentation of our bodies to God is intensely practical. Top of page 69, Romans 6.13, do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. What did God do when he saved us? Did he save us partly? Did he save us halfway? Or did he save us wholly, completely? Well, if he has saved us completely, then we should give ourselves completely to him. That's what Paul is saying. We give our total selves to God because we've been brought from death to life. We don't say, well, this part is still for me. There's a lot of people who live that way. Sunday is the day for God, and the rest of the week is just still for me. Oh, that's not Christianity. That's not what it means to be a follower of Christ. Tuesday should be just as much for the Lord as Sunday. Yes, I know there's differences. The Lord's Day is Sunday. I get that part. But how we live our lives each day is to be seen in the light of His kingdom. So, verse 13. I mean, how much do we hear today? It's my body. Mine, mine, mine, mine. That's our nature in it. It belongs to me. Well, that's the way the world thinks, all right? As believers, that's not the mindset anymore. It's not supposed to be. It says, powered to page 69, that first paragraph quotes The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. When we are grasped by this truth, John Stott says, our feet will walk in his paths, our lips will speak the truth and spread the gospel, our tongues will bring healing, our hands will lift up those who have fallen, and perform many mundane tasks as well, like cooking and cleaning, typing and mending, our arms will embrace the lonely and the unloved, our ears will listen to the cries of distress, and our eyes will look humbly and patiently towards God. That's what it means to give ourselves. Just to sometimes be there to listen to somebody and weep with them. Sometimes we want to give the answer. Sometimes we just need to sit and listen. Sometimes it's doing the most simplest things of bringing somebody a meal. That sounds very simple, does it? Yet, done for the service of God and love for one another, it's a beautiful thing. It's just as beautiful in the sight of God as somebody who leaves their home and goes for a foreign country to serve. And that's the point here tonight, is that sacrifice is something that each of us are called to do, and each of us do do in ways many times we may not even fully understand. And we may not even know this impact it will have. And so if you haven't figured out by now in this chapter, Alistair Begg loves Chariots of Fire and Eric Lidell. Because we've been in here three chapters in the introduction, I think he's been mentioned in some way in every one but one. But it is a good story here. Notice this statement here. So good that we've got the movie now to watch sometime. All of life can be a sacrifice to God. Think about this. The ways in which we listen in class, treat our colleagues at work, respect our employers, and serve our spouses. Unless we have learned to see the sacrifice to God applied in the humdrum routine of life, we will be unlikely martyrs. Those who are called to make the ultimate sacrifice have usually been well prepared. You know, we read something like Fox's Book of Martyrs, we read about church history, we read about people who gave their lives for Christ, and his point here is they didn't just wake up one morning and boom, they had that mindset. There'd been lots of things. over their lives that have prepared them for that. And this evening, I want you to see that all of those different ways and so many more, we are testifying about what's different because in the world's mind, what's the big use about, why does it matter how we listen in class or treat others? Why does that matter? We just get whatever we want to out of the situation and that's how it works. But Christianity is different because we understand the gospel impacts everything, everything in our lives. And so he gives us here the story of Lydell and, of course, why he would not run the 100 meter and sit there in the 400 in the Sabbath and so forth. But then he talks about how he had won the race that he had not originally been set to compete in. His parents had been missionaries in China. And he married, took a assignment to go back. And of course, when he went, as you read the story, continue, that's when the Japanese had invaded China. It was a very brutal time, the life of the Chinese, when the Japanese had captured and Liddell ended up in a camp and died of a brain tumor. And so when the news reached the west, all of Scotland mourned. Last paragraph on page 71, when Lidell left for China, he did not know what lay before him, but his life was already marked by a spirit of sacrifice. So think for a minute, he had no doubt, great hopes, great anticipations of ministering for a long time. He died of a brain tumor. Now in one aspect, that would seem like, well, it didn't pan out the way that would have really made an impact. And yet, God used that to impact others. And so he began his journey to China at Waverly Station, the center of Edinburgh. From open windows on the train, he announced to the crowd that had gathered to see him off, let our motto be, Christ for the world, for the world needs Christ. Then he led them in singing two verses of Jesus shall reign where'er the sun. May his example stir us to renewed commitment. So brothers and sisters tonight, may we all think about this evening, how is God calling us? to be sacrificial in our commitment to the kingdom. And may we not always be on the lookout for what we might deem as big or great. May we see in the small, in the normal, in the ordinary, how we testify of what it says there. We do these things because of the mercies of God. Let's pray. Our Father tonight, May we always remember the great sacrifice of Christ, work that was done at Calvary for us, who we have been made because of Jesus, and may our lives be indeed living, lasting, logical sacrifices in the work of the kingdom. Strengthen my brothers and sisters here tonight. Maybe some of us are discouraged, weary this evening. A few days already this week have been hard, maybe with family, job, whatever the situation. May this give us renewed strength to go forth through the week. And by your grace, may you bring us back together safely this Lord's Day. For Christ's sake, amen.