Romans 12:1-2 • By Mercy
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Now, let me ask that you would look in your Bibles at Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12 as we look at verses 1 and 2 in preparation for today's communion. Verses 1 and 2 of Romans 12 have been absolutely pivotal in my life as the Lord was bringing me into an understanding of grace, being not only that which we have faith in for our salvation, but is actually the freedom from sin and shame so that it fuels the Christian life. No passage has been more critical for my understanding the nature of grace in the Christian life than Romans 12 verses 1 and 2. Let me ask that you would stand as I would read God's Word and we would honor His Word, and then we'll look at what He has to say to us. Paul the Apostle writes, "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." Let's pray together. Father, would you reveal to us even this day as we study Your Word, what Your will is for our lives, what is good and acceptable and perfect, not because we are able to achieve it or are worthy of it, but because of a mercy that You have provided that makes us right with You and makes us motivated to follow You all the more. Grant that as we prepare this day for this meal of Christ's provision, that we would remember what mercy motivated it, that we might praise You, love You, and serve Christ because of what He has done. Grant Your Spirit to help us, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. Have you ever used a carpenter's plane? I know some of you have. When I was young, my father taught me how to use a carpenter's plane. At times, it's almost like magic. You take this tool with its razor-sharp edge and you begin to pass it over a rough, even a curved board, and those little curly-hued ribbons of wood start coming off the plane. And before you know it, if you do it right, the wood smooths out. It can even straighten out. I mean, it's wonderful. And I couldn't help reminiscing a bit a few years ago when a carpenter came to my office to fix a door that had gotten warped and was sticking. And I watched him take out his carpenter's plane and begin to plane off the edge of the door. And as those little curly-hued ribbons of wood started coming off the plane, I said to him, "Isn't that the funnest thing in the world?" And then he looked at me like I was crazy. And he growled back, "Not when you've been doing it every day for 20 years." And, of course, then I felt a little foolish, but also a little sorry for the man who took so little joy in his work. It showed. After he left, the door still stuck. Because when your heart is not in your work, it's hard to do it well. Now there is so much work to which we are being called for the sake of the gospel in Romans chapter 12. We are to test and discern what God's will is, His good, acceptable and perfect will. And if you would begin to unfold the next couple of chapters in Romans, you would see that in this 12th chapter, the apostle begins to talk about first our corporate responsibilities, then our individual responsibilities. If you move into the 13th chapter, he talks about our civil responsibilities, then our moral responsibilities. I mean, there is so much to be done. But before we would do any of it, the apostle Paul is providing our motivation, making sure that our heart is in our work. How does he do that? It's right there in the opening words, right? He says, "Make mercy your motivation. Before you do anything, let's make sure why are you doing what you're doing?" Are you doing it in response to the mercy of God toward you in loving service and gratitude for one who has been so merciful to you? You know the opening words here. Verse 1, Paul says, "I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God." Some of your translations will say, "I beseech you, therefore, brothers." Or "I urge you, therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice." But the message is all the same. It's the sense of you need to be motivated by the right thing. Classic statement that all of us know, the right things for the wrong reasons are wrong. So even if we do those things that are according to the will of God, but our motivations are misplaced or wrong, then we think we're pleasing God and we're not doing it all. So the Lord says, "Make mercy the reason that you're doing what you are doing." Now as Paul begins to talk about that motivation of mercy, we begin to talk, "Well, what mercy is he talking about?" If I'm going to appeal to you, if I'm saying this foundation of mercy is behind everything that you're supposed to, what mercy are we talking about? Well, Romans chapter 12, particularly verses 1 and 2 are the pivot point of the whole book of Romans. As Paul is saying, "Up till now, I've told you all the things that God has done in your behalf, so now you see what your responses are to the mercy he has shown." The mercy that has begun started way back in chapter 1, where the apostle begins to say that God has made visible to all his eternal power and Godhead by the things that have been made, so that creation itself is witnessing to the glory and the goodness of God. The invisible has been made known by the visible, that the power of God is in evidence in creation itself. As I was with some of you in Canada this past week fishing, there was a time that we were on a highway kind of driving through a mountainous region of Canada, and did you put on your gospel glasses as you went on your vacations? I had to remind, I had to put on my gospel glasses as we're going through the mountains here. And one time I was just looking at this huge boulder that was beside the road. I mean, if you just kind of measured, I don't know what it was, maybe like as big as 20 semis, as I looked at that boulder I thought, "I wonder how big a crane we would need to lift that boulder." I mean, it'd be immense. And then to look around and say, "You know, that's just one of scores and scores of boulders that I can see in these mountains." And these mountains are just one of thousands of mountains in this world who are all witnessing to the power of a creator's hand. It's not just that his power is on display in the love of a man for a woman, in the love of a mother for a child, in the way that we learn to take care of one another, even in the church. We are learning something about our being in the world, our enjoying it, it's not just about survival of the fittest. It's not just taking care of me. There is something about love and compassion and heart that's being displayed as well. And God is saying, "I'm showing you my nature in creation." And that's part of His great mercy to us, revealing His love and His power at the same time. But the sadness is that Paul goes on to say in the book of Romans that humans exchange the glory of the creator for the creation. They begin to worship idols of, yes, wood, stone, but maybe even more than that. They begin to worship the idols of their own satisfaction, money, sex, power. Pursuit of this is what's going to make me happy. If I just get enough of this, I'll be happy. If I just get satisfied by this that I can provide for myself, then I will be okay. And because of that, we are told that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That there's not a person who has given their whole lives to God's glory. There's a separation from the holiness of God that He requires. And so Paul says in the sixth chapter of Romans, "The wages of sin is death." That the consequence of our pursuing creation rather than the creator, of honoring the creation rather than the creator is that we're separating ourselves from the goodness that He intends, that there's a spiritual death that occurs because we're not pursuing life with Him. And that death is something we cannot correct. How will we be made right? What's the ultimate mercy? The tenth chapter of Romans? If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God is raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Not just lip service, that you're saying that Jesus is Lord, but you actually believe it in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, that He died for your sin, that God so conquered the sin that the consequence of death was defeated in Jesus Christ, that He is risen, and that He is your Lord now, and that by faith, not by your works, not by your accomplishment, not by your feeling bad or longer about stuff you've done, but by faith in Christ alone, that you are made right with God. And that is a mercy of great mercies. So much so that the apostle almost cannot contain himself when he is trying to say, "I want this mercy to motivate you. I want the greatness of the glory of the mercy of God to be your motivation." He tries to gather it all at the end of chapter 11, and he does it in a way that's a little strange to us in our modern culture, because he begins to talk about the plan of God that was evolving since the very beginning of creation. It's referenced in chapter 11 and verse 25. He says, "lest you be wise in your own sight." Now, he's writing to the church at Rome, and he's saying, "I don't want you to be depending on your wisdom, but on the wisdom that's from God." He says, "lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, something amazing that God has done." What has he done? "Brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel." Now, what does that mean? It means God, in order to make known his mercy, made a covenant with the people of Israel. Why? Well, he says, "because they were the dinkiest and the awfulest people." Right? A stiff-necked people in a small nation. And God said, "if I can take care of a people like Israel, it's going to show the whole world how great is my mercy." But now he says there's been a hardening of Israel, that the people of God, when Christ came, turned away from him, did not trust him as a redeemer. And the consequence, he now begins to say, what happened? A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. That as there was this constriction of the mercy of God upon Israel, that now as they have begun to turn away from God, there's an expansiveness of God's mercy saying, "listen, I'm not just going to focus on Israel. I'm actually going to expand my mercy to touch the nations." And verse 30 begins to express it, "for just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of the Jews' disobedience, so they now too have been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on them all." Now I know it's awkward language, but can you imagine this? Here is this stream of mercy that God has designed from the fall of humanity forward. He said, "I'm going to provide a redeemer. I'm going to provide a way for people to know me." And as God makes that promise, he first says, "I'm going to save a nation. I'm going to show the world what it means to have mercy." But when that nation turned away, God said, "Now I'm going to spread out the stream." He kind of goes around the boulder of Israel and he says, "I'm going to spread the mercy upon the nations." But as he does so, he says, "Now Israel itself is going to want the mercy again because the call of God is irrevocable." And so he says, "Through the mercy that's now being shown to the Gentiles, Israel is going to be jealous for the mercy of God again." And so what's ultimately going to happen is God is going to have representatives of his mercy, his mercy, churching every tribe and language and people and nation beyond ethnicities, beyond nationalities, beyond demographics. The mercy of God is just spreading everywhere. So much so that by verse 33 of chapter 11, the apostle says, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, how inscrutable his ways." Verse 36, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." And then he says, "In light of this mercy, serve Christ." It's not just you saying, "I'm going to do it on my own." It's saying, "There has been a mercy from the dawn of creation that was after you. And it was arranged through eons and nations and nationalities and steel that's coming toward you. And the reason you must hear that is we get so discouraged by our own sin, we're so caught up in our own accomplishments that we can forget the mercy." Alexander White, Scottish pastor of years ago, talked about a pastor's meeting in his home. And after the pastor's meeting was over, there was an older minister who lingered after everyone else had left. It didn't make much sense. There wasn't a reason for him to stay. And then it became clear, after the conversation became awkward, the older minister said to Alexander White, "Oh, Dr. White, now what word of comfort do you have for an old sinner like me?" Alexander wrote, "It took my breath away. He was an old saint, and yet he had lost his claim upon the mercy of God. He was evaluating whether God would love him based upon his actions or whether he'd made sufficient penance for his sin." And so Alexander White simply quoted from the book of Micah. "Dear sir, whatever is troubling you, remember, we have to deal with the one who delights in showing mercy." That's what this meal is all about. We have to deal with the one who delights in showing mercy. It's not one who is taking mercy out of his penny person and, you know, just not wanting to give much of it. There is this stream, this fountain, this flowing, this ocean of mercy flowing through creation that we might claim it and know it if we will but remember it. And it's so easy to forget, not just for ministers, for us as families, for us as individuals, our sin, our failures, our difficulties. You know, we're at the stage of life, Kathie, and me, that we're raising, watching kids, raise grandkids. And while there's great joy in that, you know, every now and then we look at our children and we say, "You know, they're actually more devoted to their kids than we were. They seem to be better with," and suddenly the guilt starts heaping on us. All the things we could have done better, all the things that we're ashamed of thinking back. And Kathie said to me sometime recently, she said, "You know what? My temptation by Satan is to kind of start going through the file cabinet of my past and reassessing all the bad things, the wrong things, the mistakes, the neglects." She said, "I've learned I'm not going to open that file cabinet unless I take out the key called mercy to get in. And that's what you and I need to do. I appeal to you by the mercy of God. If you're going to go through the bad stuff, if you're going to rehearse it, remember who is provided a way to you by God's great mercy to know how good and wondrous is God." And when that mercy claims you, when you have said, "It's mercy that's motivating me, it's not trying to be good enough," then something changes. And it's really the essence of what the apostle is talking about. When he says, "Listen, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice." And then verse 2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." And you think, what is that all about? That this mercy is not just our motivation, ultimately becomes our transformation. That is changing us in some way. One of my friends is a mission leader named Paul Koistra. And Paul talks about a time earlier in his life when he was a teacher in a school system. And he remembers when there was a remedial reading program that was suffering from what a lot of remedial reading programs suffer with. And that is when children go into the remedial reading program, we're supposed to get them back up on par with other children. Too often it becomes an academic whirlpool. It just sucks you in. You go in, you never get out of the remedial reading program. And it was just that way in that school district. Except for one young woman whose name was Edie. And because she was good at track, they called her Speedy Edie. Speedy Edie got out. She went into the reading program, got out. Now all the administrators are looking at Speedy Edie and asking her, "What did you do different from her? How did she get out of the remedial reading program? Did you use a different curriculum?" "Well, no, didn't use a different curriculum." "Well, did you use a different methodology?" "No, I didn't use a different method." "Well, you must have done something different," said the teacher. "Well, you know Edie is good at track." "Yes, we know about Speedy Edie," said the teacher. "Sometimes I went to her track meets and I cheered for her." And that was the key. To recognize that someone is behind you, supporting you. The language Kevin was singing earlier, all around you, supporting you up, lifting you up, knows the worst about you, and still says, "My mercy is for you. I'm supporting you. Get up, go again." Because the mercy of God is behind you, and knowing that mercy actually becomes not just motivation, it becomes power, it becomes fuel, it becomes the very energy we need to do what God is calling us to do. If you don't get that, you won't get that. If you read this verse the way I did much of my own adult life, even as a pastor. Now let me read to you again verse 1 and read the actual words that it says, "But ask you to think about how you might have heard it." Verse 12, chapter 12 and verse 1 says, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable God, which is your spiritual worship." Now that's what it says. Let me tell you what I heard much even of my adult life. I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, and then you'll be holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Is that what it says? That is not what it says, but isn't it what you've often heard? You be a good living sacrifice, and then you'll be acceptable to God. Listen, the word "holy" should have been a "q." Nothing that we are doing, where even our best works are filthy rags to God, is going to make us holy before Him. God is not saying by "holy and acceptable" what you will become. This is not a statement of what you will become. This is a declaration of what you are. A living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. How could I be holy? How could I be holy and acceptable to God? I know my sin, I know my weaknesses, I know my failures. How could I be holy and acceptable to God? By the mercy. He has sent that healing stream from heaven through earth's eons across history to the cross and through the resurrection to be the reason that you and I have hope. So that we say, He has done this amazing thing. As I have put my faith in Him, He has cleansed me of my sin. And for that reason, I am holy and acceptable to God. And now I live a transformed life because I love the one who so loved me. I live for the one who died for me. I'm called to this life of spiritual worship, and it's transforming because I'm not depending on me anymore. In fact, I'm living in gratitude and love and thanksgiving and joy for what Jesus has done for me. God is not some frowning bystander on the sidelines of my life waiting to throw a penalty flag because I get out of line. No, He's saying, "I am for you. I am your Father. I sent Jesus for you. Remember. Remember what I am providing in your behalf." And if we will remember, it will transform our lives and everything in them. That's why we do this in remembrance of Him. If we only remember, things will change. I had to remember one night several years ago when one of our younger children began to struggle in a worship service like you're in now. Again coughing, then we began to recognize a temperature, a fever was rising very quickly. Took the child home, and by evening there was real struggle going on. And as I began to try to comfort our son Colin by patting him on the back, I felt him do something with his shoulders that I recognized. And even though we had not seen the doctor yet, I knew that there was a label that was going to be put on one of our children that we never wanted to hear applied to any of our children. The label is asthma. I grew up with asthma. I know what it is to have the endless medications and tests, to be preparing for an athletic event only the night before after you prepared for months, to be robbed of breath and the ability to participate. I recognized how debilitating and hurtful even how body changing it can be to be seriously afflicted with asthma. And yet here was my son. And as he was sitting there, what I felt him do is I patted him, I felt him roll his shoulders. When an asthmatic automatically does to take pressure off your rib cage so you can get just a little more air. And when Colin rolled his shoulders, what went into my brain was this phrase, "Oh my son, how I wish I could spare you what I went through." And it was then that I thought of the mercy of another son who rolled his shoulders against the wood of a cross and gasped for air all so that he could say, "Oh my child, this I do so that you will not go through what I do for you." Behold what manner of love he has lavished upon us that we should be called the children of God and that is what you are. And we celebrated in this meal saying, "Lord, remind me again of the mercy because when I remember how great it is, it will become my motivation more than that. It will become transformation. I will see life differently, live life differently, living for the one who loved me and reminds me in what I do in remembrance of him." Father, would you bless us now as we partake of this meal? Help us to remember how great is the mercy toward us. You provided a son that we might live for him and with him forever. Teach us of a mercy greater than all our sin, that even as we participate in this meal, whatever is in us that's not right, that's not wholly acceptable, that we would confess it to you and confessing it to you would rise with that transforming power to live for Christ in the joy that is our strength. So grant us this remembrance we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.