This morning will be Romans 12. And throughout the book of Romans, Paul has made it very clear that we were chosen to salvation. He's made that very, very clear. We were chosen to salvation. We did not earn it. We did not earn it. That's a shocking declaration. But it's a very clear declaration. We did not earn it. We were elected to it. In Romans 11, he said it was an election of grace. We were chosen to salvation by grace. Totally by grace. We weren't chosen to salvation by our works. The Lord did not look down through time to see who would believe Him and do good and come to Him and that's who He chose. We weren't chosen by our works. We weren't chosen because of any good quality or any good deed found in us. It was not by our works at all. Not before, not after. Not by our works at all. It was totally by God's free grace. Salvation is of the Lord. Of Him, through Him, to Him. Salvation is of the Lord. Now I wanted you to turn to Galatians 5 because there's one verse of Scripture that perfectly summarizes what Paul is going to say and exhort throughout the rest of the book of Romans. All right, it's verse 13, Galatians 5, verse 13. He said, for brethren, you have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. He said, you've been called to liberty. That's something God did for you. You were called to liberty. God did that for you. He set you free, free from bondage, free from the law. Men and women put themselves under so much bondage. Oh, I see what it says. I see what it says. And I'm just not so much bondage. He set you free. from bondage, free from the law, you've been called to liberty. Now, does that mean that we can and we should just continue in sin? With no conscience toward it, no care one way or the other, just because we've already been called to liberty? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. God forbid. He said right here, let's not use our liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but rather because of that liberty, let's grow in the grace that we've been given. Let's strive to put on that new man. There's a new creation that God has made in each one of his people. And He said, by love, for love's sake, let's serve one another. As Christ served, because of Christ's service to us and for us, for His goodness sake, for His mercy's sake, may we respond to that with the same thing. As He has done to us, may we do the same thing in return. Now that's what Paul is going to say in Romans 12. That's our text. Turn with me over there now to Romans chapter 12. Romans 12 verse 1 says, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. I beseech you because of the mercies of God. He said, I'm beseeching you because He had mercy on us. Because of His mercy, I beseech you that you present yourselves. That's what He said. Present means be present. That's what it means. This is now present. I've presented it. It means bring. It means provide. It means show your bodies. Your whole person, mind, body, soul, everything you are, everything you have, everything you do. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living, breathing, vibrant, active sacrifice. Sacrifice means offering. And he said, I beseech you that it would be holy, that means pure, and acceptable unto God, that means well-pleasing unto Him. Paul said, I beseech that of you because that is your reasonable service. Now, if God has revealed to us something of the absolute ruin of our flesh, If He has not, that'll make total sense. But if God has revealed to us something of the absolute ruin of our flesh, something of the total depravity of our sin, total depraved, total depravity, if God has opened our eyes to what we are and the only thing that we're capable of before Him, If He has, then when we read something like that, the first response that we have and the only response that we can have is, I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't present my body. He's talking about our bodies. I can't present my body, a living sacrifice to God. I could never in my flesh, in this flesh, be holy and acceptable unto Him. Not in my flesh. In my flesh dwells no good thing. The same man who wrote chapter 12 verse 1, the Apostle Paul, that's the same man who in chapter 7 said, in my flesh dwells no good thing. In my flesh, in my body, I could never do that. Here's the response. I know, I know. Not perfectly, not purely, not in a way that would be acceptable to God. If it was based on what we did in our body, it would never be acceptable to God. We would be delusional to think that in this flesh we could produce something that would be acceptable to Him. In our dead, rotten, decaying, stinking, wrong, sinful, wicked flesh. But here's the thing about it. Christ could and He did. Now this is the gospel of substitution. This is the only gospel that there is. This is the only gospel that there is. The gospel, the actual gospel, is all about substitution and satisfaction. That's the gospel. Substitution and satisfaction. Christ came and did for us. That's what was commanded of us. Christ came and did for us what we could not do for ourselves. He presented His body, His actual body, a living sacrifice. And it was holy. And it was acceptable unto God. He did that for us. That's the whole reason He did it. He did that for us. The Apostle Paul is not changing his tune right here on how sinners are saved. He spent 11 chapters. We could go back to chapter 1 and see how he spent 11 chapters laying the foundation that it's not by our works. It's not by our deeds of the flesh. It's not by our sacrifice. It's by Christ's sacrifice. It's not by our work. It's by Christ's work. He didn't say right here, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your salvation. He didn't say that. He said, it's your reasonable service. It's your reasonable service. Christ secured our salvation. He secured it. What he's saying is because Christ perfectly accomplished that for our salvation, as a loving and a thankful response to that, we ought to strive for something. We ought to. He's saying, I beseech you, brethren, that the grace that has been shown to you be seen in you. He said that's our reasonable service. Turn with me to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John 4 verse 9, it says, In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That's love. That's perfect love. He loved us and gave Himself for us. He died for us. Greater love had no man than this. No man's love could rival the love of Christ for His people. No man's love. So, verse 11 says, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. You say, yeah, but our love is imperfect. It's just so tainted by this sinful flesh. Yes, it is. It most certainly is. But even though we cannot love as perfectly as Christ loved, for his love's sake, we ought to love with all the ability that he gives us to. It's our reasonable service. Just because we can't do it perfectly, that's no excuse to not try with all the ability He gives us. Verse 19 right here says, we love Him because He first loved us. Is our love for Him as perfect as His love for us? No, but we still love Him. We do, because He loved us, He's given us some ability to truly love Him. And verse 21 right here says, not only has He given us the ability to respond to His love and His work in us, He gives us a commandment too. Verse 21 says, this commandment have we received from Him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also. All who receive grace, ought to. All who receive grace, it's our reasonable service to. We're commanded to. We're commanded to respond to His grace. And all who have received grace will respond to His grace. They all will. If God starts a work, then He'll perform the work in all of His people. A man made the statement one time, He said, the book of Romans is all about grace. But he said, starting with Romans chapter 12, we see the difference in believing grace and having grace. He said, some say they believe grace, but they don't have grace. And he said, that can't be so. All who truly believe grace will have grace. If God has performed a work of grace, grace will be there. It will be. I want grace to be here. I do. I want to have grace. I want grace to be inside of me. I want grace to be inside this congregation. I want grace to be here. Grace. I want us to not just believe grace, I want us to have grace. I pray the Lord will give it to us. All right, now go with me back to Romans 12. Let's read the first two verses here. Romans 12, verse 1 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly 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 you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Paul said, for mercy's sake, this is our reasonable service. We need to present our bodies We need to be living sacrifices. We need to be holy. That means pure and sincere in what we do. Sincere about it. And we need to strive for those things that are acceptable to God. The things that he says are good and right concerning his people. We need to not be conformed to this world. This flesh wants nothing more than to conform to this world. But God says we need to not conform to this world, but instead of that, we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove God's good and acceptable and perfect will. Now let's see if we can enter into what Paul is beseeching of us. First, he said, present your bodies. Bring your bodies, show your bodies. The title of this Bible study is Our Reasonable Service. Our Reasonable Service. Now this has really struck me. I am excited to pass this along to you because this has really struck me. I feel like I've gotten a hold of something that I've never seen before, never gotten a hold of before. The first thing that he mentions is, present yourselves in all of this. Everything he mentions. But he starts it by saying, present your bodies. The scripture speaks of everything presenting itself to God. Everything. The book of Job begins with everything presenting itself to God. All the sons of men, even the adversary had to. Everything presents itself to God. All through the Scripture, everything and everyone, especially God's people, are commanded to present themselves before the Lord. We are told to kneel before Him, bow before Him. How many times does the Scripture say, oh, worship the Lord? That's not just a positive suggestion, that's a command. That's a command to God's people. God's saints are commanded to present themselves before the Lord. God's saints are commanded to assemble together in the congregation. Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 says, let us consider one another. to provoke one another. Let's consider each other, to provoke each other unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching. That means we're running out of time. Every day that goes by is one less day. As you see each other, exhort each other, and provoke each other to the one thing needful, everything else is going to get burned up. Everything else is going to be gone. So much more as you see this day approaching. Provoke, exhort. Now, why do we continually present ourselves before the Lord? Why do we keep presenting our bodies time and time again? Why do we keep coming? I think about God's people who have been coming to hear the same message. Tonight, Lord willing, will be this same message in a moment, same message, Wednesday night, same message. Decades, decades, people keep coming back and they keep coming back. Why do we keep coming? After we have it, you know, the things in kindergarten, I still remember a lot of those things. I don't need to go back to kindergarten now. I got it. Why do we keep coming? Why do we keep assembling? Why do we keep worshiping? Here we are at Sunday morning. Why would we come back tonight? Why would we come back Wednesday night? What's the ultimate reason? We could say it's because we need it so desperately. We've said that before. We need it so desperately. We need to be fed. We need for our faith to increase. Faith comes by hearing. We need to grow. We need to be comforted. All that's true, but that's not the ultimate reason. That's all true, but it's not the ultimate reason. We could say, well, I come for my brethren. I want to support them. I want to be there for them. I want to encourage them as they worship. Every time a brother or a sister walks through that door, the whole congregation is encouraged. Every time. When we're all gathered together, it's so encouraging, so supportive. And that is a wonderful reason, but that's not the ultimate reason. What's the ultimate reason for our assembling together every time the saints meet? to present our bodies, living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God. Why do we faithfully assemble together in worship? Here's the reason why. It's because Christ deserves it. That's the reason why. Christ deserves it. Christ is owed it. Why is this our number one priority in life? And for God's people, it is. This is life. This is it. This is number one. Our worship does not revolve around our life, does it? Our life revolves around our worship. We don't just sneak it in every now and then. Our life totally revolves around our worship. Why is assembling together before Him, presenting our bodies to Him, why does everything else pale to that? Why does everything else in life take second place to that? It's because He deserves it. He is owed it. We could list tons of reasons why we're here. Tons of reasons. Tons of good reasons. All of them pale to this one right here. He's owed it. He deserves it. After everything that He has done for us, after the unspeakable sacrifice that He made for us in order to make us holy and acceptable to God, When we appear before Him living sacrifices, holy and acceptable before God, we're not holy in our flesh and acceptable in ourselves, we're holy in Christ. We're acceptable in His blood. After everything He did, He deserves it. It has just hit me. It's our reasonable service. It's our reasonable service. May everything be unto Him. May Psalm 115, verse 1, which says, Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Him. May that not just be a mantra that we quote. May that be the reality of our life. May everything be sacrificed. That's unto me. If in order for me to have it, it means it has to come between me and Him. May everything be sacrificed. May everything that I am and everything that I have be an offering unto Him. Paul said, I beseech you, present your bodies as living sacrifices to Him. May everything that your body is and everything your body does be a living sacrifice to Him, a living offering to Him. May it be for His service. May it be for His cause. May it be for His ministry. May it be for His gospel. It's His anyway. We're His anyway. Everything we have and everything we are, it's His anyway. He's just loaning it to us anyway. What do we have that we have not received? May God truly teach us what it is to be a living sacrifice unto Him. Why? So we can secure our salvation. We've already been down that path. We're not going to cover that again. It's because He deserves it. It's our reasonable service. Now let me close with this comment on verse 2. Verse 2 says, Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Be not conformed. Conformed means patterned after. Don't pattern yourself after the world. But be transformed from it. Transformed means changed from something into something else. And he said to do it by the renewing of your mind. Renewing means renovating, just like you renovate a house. Out with the old, in with the new. What's the old? Works. What's the new? Grace. What's the old? Me. What's the new? Him. He said that we may prove the perfect will of God. For mercy's sake, for mercy's sake, here is our reasonable service. Be a living sacrifice, living alive to God and dead to this world. And I think the best way to explain that is through an article that Brother Henry Mahan wrote many years ago. Let me read this to you. It's called Dead to the World. He said a young student asked his Bible teacher this question. And this is good. How is the believer dead to the world when he lives in the world? Works a regular job. People have to work. You gotta go to work. If you don't work and support your family, you're worse than an infidel. So how is the believer dead to the world when he lives in the world? works a regular job, raises a family, and owns property in the world. The teacher sent him out to the gravesite of a friend with instructions to criticize the dead friend, harass him, and find fault, and then praise him with glowing terms and brag on him to excess. Upon his return, the teacher asked, what did your friend say when you criticized him? Nothing. How did he react when you praised him? It made no difference to him. He's dead. That is what it means to be dead to this world, said the teacher. Its applause means nothing and its hatred means nothing. We neither admire the people of this world nor do we fear them. The riches of this world are but the fancy of fools, and the honors of this world mean little or nothing. For to be a child of God is the highest calling. The religious traditions and ceremonies of the world have no attraction nor meaning when Christ is all. That which was once important to us, we now consider loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ our Lord. That's what the Apostle Paul said. Everything that I used to think was so important to me, it's all done. And I counted all loss that I may win Christ and be found in him. One more here. This is, I don't know who wrote this, but this is good. A man said, overcoming the world is, to have no interest in the wisdom or philosophy of this world. It's to have no interest in the approval or recognition of this world. It's to have no anxious care about the materialism and prosperity of this world. It's to have no interest in the glory or fame of this world. It's to be conscious of the fact that every relationship in this world will end It's to have no interest in but only disdain for the religions of the world. It's to believe God's Word only and to believe Christ only in spite of all that is in the world. That's what it is. I pray God will teach us something of our reasonable service. After teaching us what salvation truly is, I pray He'll teach us something of our reasonable service. And I pray it won't just be our reasonable service. I pray it'll be our desire. May the Lord cause us to have a heart for these things. All right, you're dismissed.