I receive you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye 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 ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. for I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly accordingly, according as God has felt to every man the measure of faith, that as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ and every one member one of another. Having then gift differing, according to the grace that is given to us with a prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth let him doeth with simplicity, he that ruleeth with diligence, he that filleth mercy with cheerfulness. There are seven things in that verse. We may be speaking on that tonight. Let love be without assimilation, or without false intent, deception or hypocrisy.Upon that which is evil, decrees to that which is good, be kindly of Texan one to another with brotherly love and honor, pursuing one another, not thoughtful in business, a fervent and strict serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of things given to hot fatality. Bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of lowest faith. Be not wise in your own conceit. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore let's thine enemy hung with peter misty, first give him drink. For in so doing thou shalt he pose a fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil. with good. This chapter can be divided into four sections. First of all, in verses one and two, you have our responsibility to God. Then in the next few verses, in verses three to eight, you have our responsibility to the church collectively. And also from verses nine to sixteen, also our responsibility to the church, but individually our response and our reactions and our actions to individuals in the church. And then the final verses, verse seventeen to twenty-one, our responsibility to the world. And next Lord's day it may be, on Sunday night we'll be speaking on chapter fifteen, that shows our responsibility to the law and the powers that be. But this morning we want to speak on verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that he presents your body the living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Those of you who have been attending all these services on Romans will remember that we divided up the epistles under four headings, and these four headings begin with the word therefore. You have the therefore of condemnation in the first three chapters of Romans. and you have the therefore of justification in chapters four and five, then you have the therefore of sanctification in chapters six to eight, and then we have the therefore of responsibility or obligation in the last four chapters, chapters twelve to sixteen. That was the fifteen, and chapter sixteen is a chapter of conclusion. and the word, therefore, is mentioned at the head of each of these sections. We try to point out what the meaning of the word, therefore, is. And as we mentioned when we started these studies, when you read the word, therefore in your Bible, you should ask the question, what is it therefore? It's therefore a person, and God intends that we investigate as to why that word is there. Therefore, it's synonym, wherefore, or accordingly, because of, since such is the case, for that reason, on that ground, or on that account, bearing out of that fact, expressing a direct conclusion of a chain of reasoning, They are synonyms of the word, therefore, thrown us back to things that have been discussed and taken up, and on the basis of those things, therefore we should go at. Now the last three chapters we were speaking on, chapters nine, ten, and eleven were prophetic, giving us Israel, the nation of the Jews, in the past. and the nation of the Jews in the present, and the nation of the Jews in the future. Chapter nine has to do with Israel's rejection in the past. Chapter ten, how God is dealing with that nation in the present. Chapter eleven, having to do with what God is going to do with that nation in the future. And we turned it out last Lord's day. The last two Lord's days, in fact, we spoke on this. how near we are to the end of this age of date, simply because taking the nation of Israel as an indicator. And if you want proof of the Bible's inspiration, veracity, that the Bible is true, all you have to do is look at the Bible and study the history of the Jewish nation. And the very fact that that nation has gone back to its homeland is recognized as a nation among the family of nations, and is in the present predicament that it is, and the lineup of the various nations in the world that are encroaching upon that piece of property, that little piece down at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, seeking to destroy the nation of two and a half billion people, always brings up up to the fact that these are the final days because if you want to see where we are in God's program and where we are on God's calendar, look at the Jews. And that's the teaching of those chapters, chapters nine, ten, and eleven. And when we realize how near we are to the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ and the end of this day of Jacob, you can understand the Apostle using this land. Therefore, because of these threats in the light of these things, he says, present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Taking this book, or especially these final chapters, chapters twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen, you may say you have a lesson in a cow. I was thinking on this, the Greek. Now a cow gives milk, but also a cow gives milk. gives praise, and a cow provides meat, and also a cow provides leather for shoes. Now in the Bible you have notes, simple things, and you have that in the opening chapters of Romans, the way of salvation. Very simple. As newborn babies desire the sincere note of the word, he is a person who finds Christ. and he starts out on his system's pathway with simple things. But then again he thinks of trees. There are rich things. Tree is rich. And there are plenty of rich things in the book of Romans. We noticed that when we went into chapter six and chapter eight. Things that are really tree. But then again you think of a cow and their fleets. because we have meat to eat, and there are some meaty things. Meat suggests that which is mature. Excuse me. The Apostle Paul, inviting both to the Corinthians and also to the Hebrews, he complains about them not being able to take meat. In other words, they had not developed. You don't give meat to a child. A baby couldn't digest meat. And so when one is able to eat meat, That is spiritual meat. As soon as he's becoming a dog, an adult, he's developing, he's flowing into adulthood. And there you have the deep things in the Bible. And certainly there are some of those things in the book of Romans. We've been taking up some meat in connection with the prophetic section chapters nine, ten, eleven. But finally, a cow produces leather. The tide is taken and treated and oftentimes turns out to be in shoes. And that's where these final chapters of Romans comes in. Death has to do with the Christian's walk. The Christian's walk. Our classical walk as a child of God. How we walk in life. The path that we tread as pilgrims and as saints. You know, like the old Chinaman, when the missionary approached them and talked to him about Christianity and said of the religion that he had been brought up on, and this old Chinaman had been watching some people who said they were Christians. And he said to this missionary, referring to these people who protested the Christians but were not living it, he said they are cocky-talky, but no walky-talky. In other words, the thing is, Christians should walk in a way that becomes their confession of faith in Jesus Christ. Christ living himself in and through a Christian. Christ in you, the whole of God. And so we have these four aspects in room. Now we're getting into the leather part, the shoe leather, or the rock of the Christian in these final chapters. Going back to the word, therefore. You remember when we took up chapter one and two and three, it was the therefore of condemnation. Therefore, thou art inexcusable, all men. That's the first mention of that word, therefore. Thou art inexcusable, all men. Here you have the human race brought into court, and God is the judge. And remember, this judgment is in this world, if not in the world that comes. God has a courtroom today, and he is a judge. The human race is brought before God, and here in God's word are the charges brought against the human race today in the opening chapters of the Book of Romans. And he divides the human race into three classes. First of all, there are the healers. Then you have the civilized world that in that day was the Romans and the Greeks and so on, and then takes up the subject of the Jews, which were the religious representatives of the world, the Jewish religious religion. And all three of these classes are brought into the courtroom in the opening chapters of the Book of Rome. The world, in other words, is on trial. You don't have to wait till Judgment Day to know whether you're a sinner or not, or to know whether you're guilty or not. You find that out right here in this light, in the light of this blessed book. And the conclusion of that court case is, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You remember we mentioned the fact that the heathen presents the ungodly, deceit sinners. And as we read those open chapters, especially chapter one, you almost think of what goes on today in some of these camps known as hippie communes, and how disgusting, disgusting things are that are carried on there, unthinkable people as they have nice and less not to speak of data. And the things you read about the heathen in Romans one are absolutely revoked. And there's that going on today which is resorting to anyone that has any sense of this conscience. And so you have the heathen brought in and there are judged before God on the basis of original creation. The heavens declare the glory of God in the firm and show of his handiwork. And God is going to judge the heathen on the basis of creation, because creation is of its beauty and design, points to a creator, points to an architect, points to someone who is super, someone who has supernatural knowledge, intelligence, and power. The symmetry and harmony of God's marvelous creation certainly cannot be attributed to an idol of home or wood. And so God is going to judge the heathens on the basis of creation, and also original revelation. Because Adam and Eve knew that the way of a coach to God, God made it plain. The way through a coach God was on the basis of blood, for God slew animals and clothed Adam and Eve. That was passed on to Abel and here coached God in the same way. And so God's way of salvation, God's way of redemption, God's way of a coach to him, was given to the human race, and it was passed on from generation to generation, and so God is going to judge the world on the basis of original revelation. But man departed from that original revelation, and he conceived his own ideas of how we should oppose God, and how in the world man, the human race, with such a beginning, departed so far from God, is hard to understand. But here is God going to judge the heathen on the basis of creation and the original revelation of the God's way of salvation. And then we notice how the civilized world was brought into court and judged on the basis of conscience for the moral sinner. And the moral so-called civilized man, he looked down upon the heathen. and he wouldn't associate with the heathen. God says, all right, I'll judge you on the basis of your conscience. You claim to be enlightened. You look upon the heathen as barbarian, and you wouldn't associate with that. But you have a conscience. You know what's right, but you don't do it. You know what's wrong, and you don't abstain from it. And God is going to judge the civilized world on the basis of conscience. They haven't followed their conscience, let alone followed the word of God. And then the Jew is brought into court, the religious man. And God is going to judge the Jew on the basis of the law and the plot. They were given the law. They were given the plot. But they didn't obey it. and they became guilty of the most heinous crimes that a human being could commit, and the human race could be charged with, that of the crucifixion of God's beloved Son. And so we read in verse nineteen of chapter three, under the heading of the first therefore, that the law of which is that every mouth may be stopped, Even civilized and religious, every mouth may be stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God. Since Jesus Christ was crucified, there are additional charges brought against the human race. Not only will God judge man in the light of creation, that is men today, not only in the light of creation, Anna Amichel... revelation of himself, original revelation, not only will he judge them on the basis of conscience, not only will he judge them on the basis of the law and the prophecy, he'll judge them now on the basis of the prophecy. For the gospel has been given to the world, God's simple, unencumbered plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. And God has added to the revelation of the Old Testament by giving us the New Testament. And adding to that, God has sent His Holy Spirit into this world. He's still here to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of justice. And so you see that the charges pile up. And today man is more responsible to pardon than any generation. since the beginning of the human race. Because we find all kinds of evidences turning up to substantiate the truth and teachings of God's word. Theologist's faith has turned up, changed the truths of Scripture. And today those who are trying into faith scientists instead of scientists trying to say there's no God, the more they study science, the more they are convinced there is a God. And there are more scientists changing their mind than ever before since the beginning of science. They're being convinced by what they're discovering in God's vast universe. But today the reason for the growth and threat of infidelity in atheism is because of a lot of these sick-minded professors in our students. Their minds are sick, and they're trying to teach themselves that things are living. God, that God is dead, his word is unreliable. They're teaching liberalism, and thus you have the mess that we're in today on our campuses and in our colleges, coming not from scientists, but coming from sick, liberal teachers, so-called. But nevertheless, God is going to judge the world. He's already judged the world, and the world is guilty before Him. And if you're not a born-again Christian, it just means that you are guilty before God. You don't have to wait the judgment day. You're guilty now. He that believeth not is condemned already. That present condemnation, in the light of all these things, If you haven't come to Jesus Christ and accepted him as your Savior, God says you're guilty. You're already condemned. It's just a matter of you meeting God and getting the sentence, which is departing, cursed, and everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angel. And so man today stands convinced. And after all this, You have justification. That's the second section. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Being justified by faith, we have peace, not evoked peace. We have it now. Being justified by faith, therefore, there's that word in that second section. Chapter five and verse one. Therefore be justified by faith he had been with God the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he comes at chapter eight. And in chapter eight he tells us there there is therefore now no condemnation as the third mentioned in the third section. There is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment, no separation for ten who are in Christ Jesus. and what a rich chapter that is. There is therefore now no condemnation. Why? Because Jesus Christ bore my condemnation on the cross. He was judged for my sin in my place. He was my substitute. There is therefore no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. You're either in your sin or you're in Christ. And if you're in Christ, you're like Noah and his family, you're in the ark. The ark shall perform, not Noah and his family. If you're in Christ, it means Christ adores the judgment of God of Calvary, and who is safe and secure. And that chapter concludes, there is therefore no separation. Who shall separate us than the love of God? No one. Now we come to this chapter, chapter twelve. If you leave out chapters nine, ten, and eleven, the prophetic section, chapter twelve, links right on with the conclusion of chapter eight, and we see now the practical light of the picture. He says, therefore, in the light of the fact that you've been justified, in the light of the fact that you are no longer condemned, in the light of the fact that Jesus Christ is coming through, in the light of the fact that you have the Holy Spirit of God within you, and he's for you, he'll help you to live the Christian life, in the light of all these things, he says, I besiege you. That's what he says in our text. I besiege you, therefore. He doesn't say, I command you. He doesn't say, I command you by the power and the authority of God. He said, I beseech you. I plead with you in the light of all that we've been mentioning, in the light of all that God has done to you. I plead with you. I beseech you to present your body as a living sacrifice. In other words, it's voluntary. It's voluntary. God's not going to put the pressure on you. He's not going to demand that you present your God. Even though if you're saved or not your own, you've been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your bodies, in your spirit, which are his, God wants this sacrifice to be voluntary. He wants it to be willingness to offer. I beseech Therefore, heaven, by the mercies of God, that is urgent, by the mercies of God. In the light of what God's done to you, all the mercies of God, who can conjure, who can tabulate all the mercies of God toward his own, as I reflect upon my years since I was saved at age of my age. I couldn't tabulate all the mercies of God to me. And after a person is saved, the very moment it dawns on him and he's born again. His sins are forgiven. He has peace with God. He has everlasting life. He'll never perish. The fruit of God is atonement. And someday he'll be different like Christ forever. And in the meantime, God will take care of him. He'll watch over. these are the mercies of God. And Paul says, I am using you, sir. What God has done to you? I beseech you, gentlemen, by the mercies of God that you present your body a little certain. I wonder if it will get through to you and through to me. I beseech you, therefore, gentlemen, by the mercies of God that you present your body a living sacrifice wholly unacceptable unto God, which is your reasonable or your intelligent service. Remember Daniel, he presented his body, and I would think that Daniel was a very handsome young man in his late teens, and a very well-trained boy, very courteous, very intelligent, so intelligent were those young Jews in those days because of their training? that Nebuchadnezzar wanted some of them to train them in his kingdom that they might hold positions of responsibility. And he selected Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But the time came when Daniel had to make a choice. Daniel was seen making a petition or praying to his God. Instead of praying to the God that the king wanted him to pray for you. And you remember what the Edict was that anyone who was found trained to any other God, but the God of the monarch of that day, he would be tapped into the den of life. Now Daniel might have said, well, that's it, you'll see. My body, my, I'm six foot tall, I weigh a hundred and ninety pounds, I'm the perfect health, I'm young, and I have great potential in this world. as a great possibility, and the victim's body is going to be chewed up by a bunch of ions, lions. He had to choose between a pure, clean conscience for his body. He says, well, whom I swore it to the lion. A clear, pure conscience before God comes forth. I wonder if our young people today trip that, or does it trip them? Does it trip those of us who are older? That your bodies are not your old. They are the temple of the Holy Spirit. They belong to God. They belong to Christ. Peter, I beseech you, the presenter of God. The same thing was true with the three Hebrew children, when they too were young men in their late teens. They were told to bow down when the officer began playing and the trumpet sounded. They had to bow down and worship the image that the king had set up, or they would be cast into a furnace of fire. These three young Hebrews refused to bow. As every one of that vast audience, with that great image standing before them, they bowed down and lifted the ground. They worship the golden image. Three young men stood erect. The king couldn't believe that young men would be so defiant that young men would take so much of their lives that they would refuse to obey his order. And so he made the proclamation a second time. The king couldn't believe that three young men be willing to sacrifice their bodies to be there. And so the second time the trumpet sounded, the second time the orchestra prayed, and the proclamation was made, and three young men chilled to the rain. While everybody fell on their feet with them and worshipped them, the three young men were taken and cast into the furnace of fire. They too might have said, and at least I know there were healthy young men, because they wouldn't eat the king's meat, as we read in chapter one, and God willing on our return in the fall, we want to take up the book of Daniel. They wouldn't eat the meat of the king's table. They rather would take Paul, a diet that was in keeping with their Jewish training, and they were prayer and more handsome and healthier than all the other young men of Nebuchadnezzar's realm, showing they were healthy, attractive, personal, young men with good personnel, with intelligent, great capability. And yet here we find Daniel and three others. Shay Jack meets that in a dengue book. They had to choose between their conscience and their body. And the three young men were taken and cast into the fiery furnace, and the water, and the hair of their head shins, because the king couldn't sleep when he awoke, when he went, when he looked, lo and behold, there appeared a fall, one night unto the son of man, walking. with those three young men in that burning of fire. They had a clean conscience and their bodies were preserved. In other words, today, it's a case of me either giving God what is his, presenting to Christ what Christ has purchased by his own blood. He said, Lord, here I am. I belong to you, this precious Or I withhold that offering and go around with a filthy conscience. I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your body the living sacrifice, wholly and acceptable unto God to give your reasonable, your intelligent grace. If the most intelligent, the most reasonable, the most enjoyable sacrifice for a Christian, the current himself over to the Lord, the commitment there. That word, commit, can be used here. Instead of the word, present, either teach you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present, or you commit your body, a living sacrifice, wholly unacceptable unto God, which is your reasonable purpose. All you say that would take all the story out of life. With it, I was faced with this decision at the age of nineteen when I accepted tragedy. And as I told you many times, had a future in the field of athletics. Not only as a boxer but a hockey player, playing at that age at the Ontario Hockey Association. I got saved. I knew what traveling with the hockey team living in the hotel meant. I knew that it blew the light through the glitz, the filthy language, the dirty smutty skull, the whiskey bottle and the dinner. It would meet the scene at the station in those days. I saw it. And I wouldn't take glitz that I didn't win for those things, although I was in the rain for it. I wasn't afraid. But when I got saved, I knew I had to make a decision. And many called me a fool. They gave up my potential in the field of athletics from the money that I submitted, and I wanted it to be a company. I had to make my choice. I knew I couldn't get into those things and serve the Lord. Somebody says, well, why don't you still play and witness to those other hockey players and so on. How long would I play hockey? If I would use these other fellows and try to condemn them or tell them this was wrong and that was wrong, I'd just be a wet blanket. I just couldn't tolerate the atmosphere as a trick without having a guilty conscience. And so I gave it up. I'm not sure. thousands times more, but those boys most of whom have played on that team didn't live to pass thirty years of age. They died because of the dissipation that went along. Yes, it is. High Moraine died the age of thirty-one, the greatest hockey player of the first half of this century in the Hall of Fame that monuments stands in Toronto, Canada. He led down the street from me in favor of saying that he died of thirty-one. Look. Our bodies. I that speak to you, therefore, brethren. And when he's talking about your bodies, he's talking about your talents. He's talking about the members of your body. And I wouldn't exchange places with any of those fellows that I've talked about. I don't know whether they're He died at sixty. They thought I was a fool, but I'll tell you they turned out to be a fool. And here's a decision that young people have got to make. And even as adults, if you want to be happy, recognize the claims of Christ and present what you've done. Your time, your talent, your faculty, to the Lord, and you'll never regret it. We've only started on this text. We'll have to continue with your willingness someday. But for those of you who are not Christians, we urge you to acknowledge right here and now that you are guilty before God. There are several counts against you. Your mouth is shut. You have no logical heartache. The law was given that every mouth might be stopped and all the world becomes guilty before God. But Jesus Christ died upon that cross. He shed his precious blood to put all your sins away. And if you accept him simply and humbly by faith, on the authority of the word of God, thou shalt be saved. And therefore being justified by faith, you will have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, not through your clean life. not through being baptized or any other ordinance, not through being affiliated with any church, but through our Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us upon this cross, this is the only way we can be justified by God, justified before God, fits and ready for His presence at every church. Will you this morning except Christ as your personal Savior. I defeat you so to do, and then after your Savior, say, Lord, I'm no longer mine. I haven't a time, the time's up. But you know what the calm is, young calm is. One is amazed at these young radicals. These young calm, and what they're willing to give up, the sacrifice of their prepared for me, to overthrow the establishment. And as they think to establish something they know not what, yet they're willing to give up any and every run-wrench of being put in jail, they're willing to do it because they've got a purpose in their mind, an unfounded purpose, far stripped of it. And if they'll do it, vanish it, and harmony. There's something that bound the faith. If they'll make such a sacrifice, willing to face hardships and persecutions, jail, sometimes death, will they not put up with shame or sympathy? Who's got something to really live and die for? Christ is going to come. He's going to establish his kingdom. And we cannot say, It's impossible to lose. God's purpose will be carried up. And yet here is something when we cannot lose. We've got to be winning. For Christ is ahead of us. His prophecies are going to be fulfilled. It's going to be carried up. He's got to succeed. He will get it. And yet for a successful call, he took it. He took it until the election to say, Count me in. I'll stand up and be counted. I'll lift it again. No, sir. Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, be commenced with thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy words. May it please be, our Father, to use thy words, to stir the hearts of those of us who are saved. and also to leak the consciences of those who are lost. Be thankful for the gospel of thy saving grace, which is that we, whoever will, may come. We ask for Christ's sake. Amen. Let us sing two hundred and forty-two. Two hundred and forty-two. Out of my bondage, sorrow, and like Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come. Into thy freedom, gladness, and like Jesus, I come to be. Out of my sickness, into thy health, out of my want, and into thy dream, out of my sin, and into thy step, Jesus. I come, you see, chapter of earth. First, or any two, verse one, place that.