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WEEKLY
Volume 1 Number 35
28 January 2007
Reasonable Service
(Message delivered by Pr
Hien Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, Jan 21, 2007)
Text:
Romans 12:1-2
We can see many “Christians”
go to church to worship the Lord on Sunday, but on weekdays, they live
and conduct as unbelievers do. It seems that if they do not profess
their faith in Christ, we are not sure if they are Christians, while our
Lord Jesus Christ expects His followers to be “the light of the
world” and “the salt of the earth”! Then, is their worship or
service reasonable?
We have learned that God is
seeking the true worshippers who worship Him in spirit and in truth.
They are those who are born again and worship the Father in the Name of
the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (Christ-centred worship), according to
God’s Word (Word-centred worship), and through the help and guidance of
the Holy Spirit. Today we are learning about our “reasonable service”
based on Romans 12:1-2. May God graciously help us not only understand
but also have our reasonable service to the Lord.
Voluntary Service
The apostle Paul wrote, “I
beseech you…by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies…”
The verb “beseech” here means “appeal to, urge, exhort, encourage.”
Although we have been bought with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and we are not our own (1 Cor 6:19-20, 7:23; 1 Peter 1:18-19),
God does not force us to offer our bodies a living sacrifice. We are to
do it voluntarily, prompted by God’s mercies and love.
The people of Israel
repeatedly provoked God to anger by their sins, transgressions and
idolatry. God had to chastise them and discipline them, but in their
trouble, they cried unto the Lord, and He heard them from heaven and
delivered them according to His “manifold mercies” (Neh
9:19, 27, 28). We also have sinned against God many times and only
deserved condemnation to Hell, but according to God’s mercy He saved us,
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us, by the washing
of regeneration, and renewing
of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ
our Saviour” (Titus
3:5-6). Truly, “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not
consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every
morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lam 3:22-23). We are to humbly
say to the Lord like Jacob, “I am not worthy of the least of all
the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto
thy servant” (Gen 32:10) and “give thanks unto the LORD;
for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever” (Ps 136).
Paul said, “For the love
of Christ constraineth us” (2 Cor 5:14). Then shall we not be
constrained by God’s mercies and love to offer our lives to Him?
Reasonable Service
Paul wrote his letter to the
Romans with systematic doctrines of God’s salvation to the Gentiles and
to the Jews. Paul did not beseech the readers to present their bodies a
living sacrifice until chapter 12, after introducing the gospel of
Christ and telling about the sins of both Jews and the Gentiles for “all
have sinned,” about God’s righteous judgement, God’s salvation in Christ
by grace through faith alone (chapters 1-5), the union with Christ in
His death, burial and resurrection (ch 6), the conflict between the
sinful nature and the new nature in Christ and the deliverance and
victory in Christ (ch 7), the Holy Spirit’s ministry to God’s children
for their sanctification (ch 8), and God’s sovereignty in fulfilling His
covenant to His chosen people Israel (chs 9-11). “Therefore,” as a
result of God’s salvation in Christ by grace through faith alone, now
Paul exhorted “brethren,” both Jewish and Gentile believers, to
“present” or “offer” their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is their “reasonable” or rational, spiritual
“service” or worship.
A Living Sacrifice
God wants us to offer our
bodies a living sacrifice, not a dead sacrifice. It means to offer
ourselves or our lives a sacrifice to God as long as we are still alive
and it must be our new life in Christ, “yield (the same
term as “present, offer”) yourselves unto God, as those
that are alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom 6:13). A person who
is not born again can never be a living sacrifice
acceptable/well-pleasing to the Lord “for to be carnally minded is
death…the carnal mind is enmity against God…not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot
please God” (Rom 8:6-7).
A Holy Sacrifice Acceptable
unto God
God is holy and He commands
us, “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (Lev 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16).
Then what does “our bodies” a “holy” sacrifice acceptable unto the Lord
mean? It means all the members of our bodies are separated from sin,
dedicated to God, reserved for God and His service. My dear friends, are
all the members of our bodies dedicated to the Lord for His own use and
glory? “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in
your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor 6:20).
God’s Word challenges us, “who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who
shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and
worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart”
(Ps 15:1-2). “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?
who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh
righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth
the gain of
oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that
stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes
from seeing evil”
(Isa 33:14-15). May God help us shut our eyes from looking at or
watching tempting and ungodly sights or products of the world, from
reading unbiblical books or materials (except for defending and
contending for God’s truth), and may God use our eyes to see as He sees,
to see opportunities to glorify and serve God and help the needy
according to His will, to read and study His Word to minister to our
souls and others’, etc. Unbelievers usually like listening to rumours,
gossips, flattering words, immoral or sexual stories, worldly music or
movie comments. We are to stop our ears from hearing of such things and
wisely dedicate our ears for God’s use and glory, listening to the sound
preaching of God’s Word for the nourishment of our souls, to traditional
hymns and music for our comfort, to the needs of others to minister to
them. Our tongues must be separated from telling lies, flattering
others, cursing others, gossiping about others, but be dedicated to the
Lord as an instrument for His truth, His Word and His glory, to sing
praise to Him, to pray to Him for His kingdom, for ourselves and others,
to share His Word to others, to say the words of comfort, encouragement
and edification or godly warning and admonition to others. Then our
hands and feet are also dedicated to the Lord to write, work, or walk
according to His will and all for His glory to serve Him and minister to
others, and so forth. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, so we
have to keep it pure from sexual immorality and from anything harmful to
it like drugs, tobacco, alcohol, etc. My dear friends, is what we see,
hear, say, speak, write, or do a living and holy sacrifice acceptable
unto the Lord wherever we are, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
The Good, Acceptable,
and Perfect Will of God
God is perfect (Matt 5:48), so
His will is perfect (Rom 12:2), His law (Word) is perfect (Ps 19:7), His
way is perfect (Ps 18:30) and His work is perfect (Deut 32:4) whether we
accept that truth or not. God is holy and in order to have fellowship
with Him in His light we have to separate ourselves from sins,
selfishness, worldliness, unbiblical doctrines, unbelievers, disobedient
brethren (1 Cor 5:11-13; 2 Cor 6:14-18; Col 3:5-9; 2 Thess 3:6,14-15).
Those who love the world and want to compromise will ignore the doctrine
of Biblical separation, but true followers of Christ will see it good
and acceptable, and the more closely they walk with God, the more they
see it perfect. Therefore, to see the good, acceptable and perfect will
of God, we are to keep these two commandments: “be not conformed to
this world”, and “be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind.”
Be Not Conformed to this World:
“Be conformed to” means “be formed like, be moulded after, be guided
by.” This verb is in present, passive, imperative, and with a negative
particle, it means “Stop being conformed to, moulded after, guided by”
the fashions, customs, courses, mindsets, values, worldly lusts, pride
of life or philosophies of this world. Our Lord Jesus says, “because
ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19). My dear
friends, do you and I stop being conformed to this world and say like
Paul, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto
the world” (Gal 6:14)? We are not
isolated but “be ye separate” (2 Cor 14:17). This is the
first step to spiritual discernment of God’s good, acceptable and
perfect will. If we love this world, “the love of the Father” is
not in us (1 John 2:15) and we become the enemy of God because
“whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God”
(James 4:4). Then how can we discern God’s good, acceptable and perfect
will?
Be Ye Transformed by the
Renewing of Your Mind:
The verb “transformed” is also in present, passive, imperative, which
means “Let yourselves be continuously transformed/changed.” We cannot
transform our lives by ourselves. It is the work of the Holy Spirit,
“by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost”
(Titus 3:5). Not only our mind, our way of thinking, our attitude but
also our new being in Christ is to be renewed by the Holy Spirit and
God’s Word day by day although our body is getting older and weaker,
“For which cause we fain not; but though our outward man perish, yet
the inward man is renewed day by
day”
(2 Cor 4:16) and “to be conformed to the image of his Son”
(Rom 8:29) “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). Shall we not be wise to
submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit and God’s Word so that we may be
transformed and renewed day by day? The more we are mature in Christ,
the more we are able to discern God’s good, acceptable and perfect will.
Conclusion
My dear friends, God expects you and me, constrained
by His love and mercies, to voluntarily offer our bodies a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him so that He may transform us and
conform us to the image of His dear Son Jesus Christ and use our lives
for His glory and service. The more closely we walk with God in
separation, dedication and sanctification, the more mature we are to
discern His good, acceptable and perfect will. It is our reasonable
service when our lives are a living and holy sacrifice wherever we are
at the moment and until He comes. Amen.
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