Romans 12, 1 and 2, this is God's word. 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. Father in heaven, as we come to consider your word this morning, we pray that you would open our hearts and minds, you would prepare our hearts to participate in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and that we would see Jesus in his name we pray. In his name we pray. So Paul begins with saying, by a cause of the mercies of God, I urge you to implore, to entreat, to beg almost. I want you to imagine that there's a fire, and you are telling people there's a fire. How would you do it? Would you do it casually? Hey, by the way, there's a fire here. You wouldn't do that. You would urge, you would implore, you would beg, you would warn, which is what Paul's doing. Those of you who are married, when you asked the men, when you asked your bride to marry you, did you say, hey, what are you doing next Saturday? We'll get hitched. You probably didn't. Maybe you did. If you did, you shouldn't have. But hopefully you did so with some urgency, with some imploring, with some expression of how important it was. And that's what Paul is saying. He's saying, I urge you by the mercies of God. What are the mercies he's referring to? It's really the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans. In chapter one, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for in it is the power of God, but to the Jew and to the Greek. And then from the second part of Romans one through the middle of Romans three, he explains that everybody has fallen short of the glory of God and is sinful. But then four, five, and six, he begins to explain that salvation is through Christ and that in him, we have the righteousness of God. Chapter seven, he says that we will still sin. Chapter eight says, but there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then nothing will be able to separate us from God's salvation. Romans nine and 10 and 11, he deals with Israel and his sovereignty and salvation. And then chapter 12, he says, in light of those mercies, because of those mercies, I urge you to do something. What does he say? He says to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. Now our bodies are more than just our physical bodies, but it's not less than that. In Romans six, he says, therefore, verse 12, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust. And do not go on presenting the members of your body to instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. See, before you become a Christian, you really don't have any choice in terms of whether you sin or not. You're going to sin. You're going to let sin reign in your mortal bodies. And you're going to obey its lust. Paul says as much in Ephesians two, one and two. But then once you become a Christian, once you receive the Holy Spirit, once you are saved by the mercies of God, you don't go on presenting the members of your body as instruments of unrighteousness, but rather you change and present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead. He also explains that it's a living and holy sacrifice. What does he mean by living? Well, culturally, throughout the history of the world up until that time, and in some places still, there was living sacrifices where sometimes human sacrifices. In the Old Testament, there were living sacrifices in that an animal would be killed and sacrificed. But in some pagan cultures, people would be sacrificed. But this is not that, this is a living sacrifice. And it's not only living, but it's holy. And holy, the word there can mean a couple of different things. Here it means to be set apart as unto the Lord. But what is it a sacrifice for? Paul is using Old Testament terminology. In most offerings, there was a sacrifice for sin, for instance, Passover. You remember when God was rescuing Israel from Egypt, he said you were to kill a lamb and that you were to apply the blood on the doorposts of your home, of your dwelling. And then when the angel of death came by through Egypt and killed the firstborn, you would be passed over. That's what Passover means. And following that, Israel celebrated the Passover with a Passover lamb. Now this is not an unpopular idea for those who profess Christ. Not that we would have a Passover lamb, but many people who profess faith in Christ believe that they can add to his sacrifice with some of their own payment. Here are some examples. If I sin, I can feel bad for a certain length of time. And then I'm acceptable again. It's as if you're doing penance. If I give up all my bad habits, the Lord will approve of me. If I give more money, I will find favor with God. Or maybe if I refrain from enjoying Christian fellowship for a while. I talk to people like that. They're feeling ill-tempered and they say I'm not in the right frame of mind to go to church. Let me tell you, that's exactly when you should. You should go to church when you're ill-tempered. You should go to church when you're feeling sinful because that's what you need. You need to be in the presence of God with his people worshiping him. Some people think that they have to make themselves feel miserable in order to earn their way back into God's good favor. The Galatians were a group of people who began their Christian life by faith and then seemed to go astray, believing they could contribute to Christ's sacrifice with their own good works. Listen to what Paul says to them in Galatians chapter three. You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Listen to the words, you foolish Galatians. See, they thought that they had to adhere to the laws of Moses in order to remain in God's good graces. And he's telling them you're being foolish. Then he says, this one thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law by hearing with faith? Again, he says it, are you so foolish? Paul is not happy with the Galatians. Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain? So then, does he who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you do it by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Even so, Abram believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Paul is so exercised by the thought of the Galatians adding to the gospel, it is impossible to believe that he's telling the Romans to make an additional sacrifice for their sin. The writer to Hebrews says that Jesus Christ made the sacrifice for sin once for all and sat down at the right hand of God. Although it's not a sacrifice for sin, what kind of sacrifice is it then? Well, in the Old Testament, there was something called a sacrifice of thanksgiving, which so, as you can see, the title of the sermon is the life of gratitude and that's where we're going. So what, for what reason would the people in Israel offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving? Well, there were three things that had to be true. One, you had to be in some sort of trouble. Either there could be a famine, there could be a drought, the crops have failed, could be an enemy was approaching. There had to be some reason that you were in trouble. That's the first thing. The second thing then is that you would call upon the Lord to get you out of the trouble. You wouldn't try to work your way out of it, you'd call upon the Lord. And the third thing is that he delivered. And if those three things were true, you were in trouble, you called upon the Lord and he delivered, then you would offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. So we go back to Psalms 116, which we read, and we can see in verse three, the writer says, the cords of death encompass me and the terrors of Sheol came upon me. I found distress and sorrow. It sounds like he's in trouble. Then verse four, then I called upon the name of the Lord. Oh Lord, I beseech you, save my life. So he's in trouble and he calls on the name of the Lord. And then verse seven and eight, return to your rest, oh my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you, for you have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling. So those are the three things. He's in trouble. The cords of death encompass me, that sounds like trouble. Then I called on the name of the Lord. You have rescued my soul from death. So then what does it say in verse 17, to you I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord, I shall pay my vows to the Lord, or may it be in the presence of all his people. So, do those three things apply here? Well first of all, all mankind is sinful, Romans 3.23. For all of sin and fall short of the glory of God. So what is the sentence, what is the judgment for all of us because of our sin? The judgment is that we will stand before God someday, and because of our sin, the right sentence is to send us to hell for all of eternity. This isn't something to take lightly. I know it's sort of, it's sometimes become a cultural comical thing. You know the devil with the horns and the pitchfork tail. But think about it, you're sinful and everybody who's sinful deserves hell. I don't think you can get in more trouble than that. But if you call on the name of the Lord, Romans 10 says he will save you. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So those are the three things. You were in trouble because you were sinful and separated from God. You were going to go to hell. But you called on the name of the Lord and he saved you because of the mercies of Christ. So therefore, all of my life is to be lived as a sacrifice of thanksgiving, as an offering of gratitude. All of life then is a gratitude to God for what he's done. And it says acceptable to God. And the version that we read says which is your spiritual service of worship. That's not right. In this case, the King James Version has it right. Doesn't always have it right, but it does here. They translate it, which is your reasonable service. And the reason they do is because the word in the original language, Greek, is logikos. Now, it doesn't take a Greek scholar to understand that the word logikos is where we get the word logical or reasonable. Paul sounds like I don't know how many of you are Star Trek fans and know who Mr. Spock is, but he'd say it's only logical. That's what Paul's saying. It's logical then, in light of everything that Christ has done for us, that we would in turn live our lives out of gratitude as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. I want you to imagine that you are in a position to buy a new car. In our family, we don't buy new cars, but let's say you are in a position to buy a new car. You go to the dealer, you sit down, you pick out the car, you haggle the price, you order certain accoutrements for your car, and he promises delivery in six weeks. And you give him a pretty large sum of money as a down payment. Well, in six weeks, the car's not there. And you go and they say, well, you know, it's backordered, we had problems. It'll be here in a month. You go back in a month, it's not there. And this goes on for six months. Now the car is out of date. And so at some point you say, look, either give me my car or give me my money back. That would be reasonable. How many people think that would be reasonable? Not everybody's raising their hand. Maybe not everybody's paying attention. But that would be reasonable. Okay, listen to this in 1 Corinthians 6, I sort of trapped you here. Verse 19, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own, for you've been bought with a price. You have been bought with a price. Ephesians 1 tells us that the Holy Spirit is the down payment. Therefore, glorify God in your body. The price that was paid for you was the sacrifice of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, in his life of perfection, in the death you deserve to die, and his resurrection. You've been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. 1 Peter 1, you have not been redeemed with perishable things like gold or silver from your futile way of life, inherited from your forefathers, but with a precious blood as a lamb unblemished and spilt. You have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. You have been bought with perishable things like gold or silver from your forefathers, but with a precious blood as a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. Now, if God were as reasonable as we all said that we would be, well, as most of us said that we would be, he would ask for his purchase price back because none of us have delivered. To live our lives always as a sacrifice of thanksgiving, as a life of gratitude, none of us. And because we've not delivered that for which he's paid the highest price, he could rightfully say, I want my money back. But the mercy of God is so great and so wide, and his love is so deep, that he permits us to offer to him as an act of worship the thing that he has rightfully purchased. Do you see it? He has the right to demand it, but he allows us to give it to him as worship. Which brings us to gospel transformation. Do not be conformed. Now, in the original language, that's something called the passive voice. That means that it happens all by itself. You don't have to do anything to be conformed. It's akin to getting on a down escalator. You stand in the first step of the down escalator, you don't have to do anything. You don't have to walk, although some people do, they're in a hurry. You don't have to walk, but you will end up at the bottom. You will end up at the bottom. And that's our culture sometimes. Most conforming is harmless. Dress in some language. We have euphemistic terms that we use. It's harmless. I think I shared this with you before, but when I was in university, it was popular, and I went along with it, to wear big bell bottom pants. The bottom of the pants was like this, they covered up my shoes, which were platform shoes, by the way, like this, two toned. The belt was about like that, too. And the shirts were nylon, they had five buttons on the cuffs, patterns, clouds, birds, whatever. My girlfriend would help me shop, and she would buy these things, and I got them because I wanted her to like it. Big old collars, hair down to here. I was conforming. And I didn't look a lot different than most of the people around. You can see it still. You look around here, don't right now, but if you did, most of us are dressed very much alike. And that part is harmless. But there is a kind of conforming that isn't harmless, that's dangerous to our souls, especially how we think about God. What comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. That's why Paul urges us not to be conformed, but rather be transformed. You look at our culture that we live in, it's become a culture of death. Abortion is rampant, medical assistance is dying. And if we don't resist this, we will conform. Maybe not completely, we'll always say it's wrong, but it doesn't even cause us to raise our eyebrows or to be heartsick when we hear about it. Because we're on the down escalator. But we are called by God to be transformed, to see every life as a gift from God, to see every person as made in the image of God, to see everyone from the time they're conceived to be precious in the sight of the Lord. When we are conformed to the culture, we tend to care about the things that the culture cares about. But we're called to be different than a secular culture. In verse 21 of this same chapter, Paul writes, Do not be conformed by evil, overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. To illustrate the difference, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. It says, Behold a lawyer, sit up and put him to the test. Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said, what's written in the law? How do you read it? He answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and you your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, You have answered correctly, do this and you will live. But desiring to justify himself, he said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, A man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among robbers, stripped and beat him, and departed, leaving him for dead. Now by chance the priest was going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite. When he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. Remember this is a parable so the characters are chosen on purpose. Jesus chose a Levite and a priest on purpose. Because the priest is looking for a loophole to avoid helping his neighbor. Then it says, But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was. Now why a Samaritan? Because Jews hated Samaritans. And when he saw him, he had compassion. He went and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine. Then he sent him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him and whatever more you spend I will repay when I come back. Then Jesus says, Which of these three do you think proved to be the neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? Then he said, The one who showed mercy. And Jesus said, You go and do likewise. You go and do likewise. You go and do likewise. And since we're not to be conformed but be transformed, how does this happen? Paul says, By the renewal of your mind, we're called to think and to think biblically. We're called to be logical. I saw a cartoon. Recently it was a mother was in the principal's office with her child who was in tears. The principal was standing up and he was pointing his finger and he said, Your child used logic against another student's core beliefs. And that was seen as wrong. And when you are logical, when you apply the gospel, when you do what's reasonable in light of the mercies of God, you will be accused. To think biblically about the things in our culture and agree where we can agree and disagree where they contradict God's word. A popular way of thinking in our culture is to say that love is love. As long as two people love each other, who am I to say it's wrong? But the scripture is clear about sexual relationships that they belong between a man and a woman who are committed to each other in marriage. We are all sinners in need of grace. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. Part of what it means to be a Christian is submit your opinions, your will to God. Not my will but yours be done. Thy will be done, we pray in the Lord's Prayer. To be transformed instead of conformed means that you and I submit ourselves to God's word. This means you have to read it, you have to meditate on it, you have to apply it to our time and place. Romans 12, 9, Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. How does this happen? There is a sermon written centuries ago by a man named Thomas Chalmers. It's called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. I encourage all of you to find it. You can Google it, find it. He says, There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love for the world, either by a demonstration of the world's vanity, so that the heart shall be prevailed upon to withdraw its regard from an object that is not worthy of it, by setting forth on another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment. So that the heart will be prevailed upon not to resign an old affection, which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one. From the constitution of our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent and ineffectual. He's saying just giving something up doesn't work. And the latter method alone, replacing something that you love with something that you love more, in this case your sin with Christ, the latter method will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it. Romans 5 says, For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. One will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. God shows his love toward us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He's delivered us from the domain of darkness, transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. And then we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We've been delivered, translated, beloved, redeemed and forgiven. Prepare your hearts for the Lord's Supper.