Tony Woodward examines Paul's Manifesto in the books of The Bible. What does offering our bodies as a living sacrifice pleasing to God mean? Tony Woodward contrasts the Old and New Testaments to find out.
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00:00We're going to start by looking at Psalm 146.
00:16Now if we were the wee frees, we would sing it.
00:21I'm sure Martin as a Scot would play it, but I'm not sure that we would manage it.
00:29So I then thought, well let's read it together.
00:33But then I realised we don't all have the same version, so that wouldn't be a good idea.
00:39So let me read it as a beginning to our time tonight.
00:44So let's begin with reading Psalm 146.
00:52The psalmist says, praise the Lord.
00:56Praise the Lord, O my soul.
00:59I will praise the Lord, O my life.
01:02I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
01:08Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men who cannot save.
01:15When their spirit departs, they return to the ground.
01:20On the very day, their plans come to nothing.
01:24Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the maker
01:33of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them, the Lord who remains faithful forever.
01:43He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
01:49The Lord sets prisoners free.
01:51The Lord gives sight to the blind.
01:53The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.
01:57The Lord loves the righteous.
02:00The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates
02:07the ways of the wicked.
02:10The Lord reigns forever.
02:13Our God, O Zion, for all generations, praise the Lord.
02:19Two short, not too long readings.
02:24First one is in the book of Colossians, chapter 3, and we read just the first 17 verses.
02:38Since then you have been raised with Christ.
02:43Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
02:51Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now
03:00hidden with Christ in God.
03:04When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
03:13Put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity,
03:22lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
03:28Because of these the wrath of God is coming.
03:32You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must rid yourselves
03:40of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your
03:47lips.
03:48Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have
03:55put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of the creation.
04:07Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave
04:18or free, but Christ is all and is in all.
04:26Therefore as Christ's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion,
04:33kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
04:38Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.
04:45Live as the Lord forgave you, and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them
04:53all together in perfect unity.
04:58Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you will call
05:04to peace, and be thankful.
05:08Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with
05:14all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your
05:22hearts to God.
05:24And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
05:32thanks to God the Father through him.
05:41Romans chapter 12 and just two verses, which I want to take as our text for tonight.
05:55And I think you will find, if you think about it and read it again carefully, that those
06:02verses which we have been reading in Colossians are probably the best possible exposition
06:10of these verses in Romans.
06:13Perhaps we should have read Romans first.
06:18Paul says this in chapter 12.
06:21Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living
06:29sacrifices holy and pleasing to God.
06:34This is your spiritual act of worship.
06:38Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing
06:46of your mind.
06:48Then you will be able to attest and approve what God's perfect will is, his good, pleasing
06:58and perfect will.
07:00How would you describe this year so far?
07:07If you were asked to just give a brief clip of what you thought was the highlight of the
07:15year, what would you say?
07:20Would you say, well, it's been a year of war.
07:24We have not got over the problems that they have in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle
07:32East seems to go by the day from worse to worse.
07:39Or would you say, well, I remember it.
07:42It was the year of the Olympics and we did so well with our medals both in the Olympics
07:49and in the Paralympics.
07:52Or do you think you might describe it as the year of elections?
07:58Ah, 19, 19, 2024, there were 97 countries who held elections.
08:12Nearly half the global population, including some of the largest nations in the world.
08:21Brazil, India, Russia, USA are about to hold theirs, France and not least the United Kingdom.
08:33Great swathes of the world went to vote.
08:39Now five weeks before we had our election here in the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister
08:48whose prerogative it was, announced the date.
08:53And in those weeks prior to the election, we had what we call the hustings, where the
09:00potential candidates went about their patch, went about their constituency to explain how
09:13their political party was going to transform our country and how it was going to bring
09:21about change.
09:24Each of the main political parties wrote a manifesto, a publication which I didn't get
09:31a copy of and couldn't find one from any of them, but I am told that they existed, were
09:39to contain the policies of what the party stands for and in particular the changes which
09:49they wished to implement.
09:53Now manifestos, as I don't need to remind you, are full of aspirations.
10:01They give the big picture but they're short on detail.
10:05They explain what they would like to do rather than how they're going to do it.
10:11The Book of Romans has been described as a manifesto for the salvation of the world,
10:20not just for the UK or Europe, but for the whole world.
10:26And Martin Luther once said that Romans is the chief part of the New Testament and that
10:33we can never read it or ponder it too much.
10:38Calvin on the other hand said that the understanding Romans opens a pathway to understanding the
10:45Bible, whereas those of you who are familiar with John Piper, the American evangelical
10:54leader, says that Romans is the most important theological Christian work ever written.
11:05Years ago when I was a student and lived in Manchester we had a city-wide campaign.
11:12Barry will be interested to hear that it was led by Peter Brandon and Ivor Powell who worked
11:19in the very town of Chesham in Pond Park many years ago.
11:25But Peter and Ivor came to Manchester for about three weeks and it was a multi-church
11:33gathering every night during the week and there were many, many who came to know Christ
11:42as Saviour and Lord.
11:45And so the question arose afterwards, having had such blessing in the city, what we were
11:54to do with those who had come to faith, some of them from families who had no background
12:01in Christian things at all, who knew nothing of the Gospel until they'd actually been
12:06sitting there hearing of God's grace.
12:09So how were they to be followed up?
12:12What were they to be taught?
12:13Well of course this invoked discussion.
12:16Were we to begin and have a series of meetings starting in Genesis 1?
12:22Well maybe, but perhaps we'd be better looking at the New Testament.
12:28What about Matthew?
12:30Well Matthew begins with a great genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
12:35Ah, someone will say, well it would be much more appropriate if we looked at John, John's
12:41Gospel.
12:43Well you know where I'm coming to, don't you?
12:46We began with Romans, because Romans is a clear declaration of the Gospel of our Lord
12:56Jesus Christ.
12:58Paul dictated his letter through his companion, Tertullus, to the Christians at Rome, possibly
13:07round about AD 58.
13:09We don't need to worry ourselves precisely about dates, in order to set out the fundamentals
13:18of the Gospel.
13:20However, unlike political manifestos, it wasn't just to set out what the Gospel was, but it
13:30was equally important how it was to change lives.
13:37Our present government are claiming that what is needed is change.
13:44How true it is.
13:46But it is change in the hearts and lives of people that this country needs.
13:54Romans deals with the great themes of the Gospel, with sin of humanity, Jews and Gentiles
14:01alike, rich and poor, slave and free, and that all can know the righteousness and forgiveness
14:11of sin from a holy God.
14:15Romans is a book in two halves.
14:18In chapters 1 to 11, the Apostle Paul sets out the fundamental doctrines of righteousness,
14:26sin, God's mercy, forgiveness for all, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free.
14:34We might say that from chapters 12 to 16, he moves from doctrine to duty, from belief
14:44to behaviour, from theory to practice.
14:49But if there is to be a change in the world, it needs to be more than theory or doctrine.
14:58Just as political manifestos, whilst giving us the big picture, often lack the detail
15:05how change is to be achieved.
15:08So with the Gospel, we need more than doctrine.
15:12We need to know how and what practical steps to take to implement it in our lives day by day.
15:24We need to know the how as well as the what.
15:29So often I feel, and I don't speak of our church here at Charterage, but in general,
15:36we fail to deal with the application of the Gospel in the lives of believers.
15:47What the world needs today is to see how the Gospel changes people's lives.
15:56Jan Gwanski, you'll say whoever is Jan Gwanski, was a former chief of the Cherokee Indians
16:07in North America and he once said,
16:11Well, the Bible seems to be a good book.
16:15Strange that the white people are not better after having had it so long.
16:22What then are the guiding principles of change that Paul sets out in this letter which he writes
16:32to the believers at Rome?
16:36And let's just stop for a moment and put this book, this letter which Paul wrote in its context.
16:44Nero was the emperor.
16:47He'd been there as emperor for just a few years.
16:53And the horrors of life ahead under Nero were yet to come.
17:01He begins in chapter 12 verse 1 with therefore.
17:07And you've heard it said many times that we should ask what the word therefore is there for.
17:14Well, in this case, it is to see how the Gospel which he has explained over the previous
17:23eleven chapters can transform lives, families, whole communities and nations.
17:34He's now moving from belief to behaviour, from doctrine to duty.
17:40So let's unwrap these two short verses with three thoughts.
17:46First of all, the urgency of the Apostle's appeal, the urgency of the Apostle's appeal.
17:56Then he says something about the basis for his appeal.
18:00Why is he making an appeal to the Christians in Rome?
18:06And finally, he gives us some thought on the relevance of his appeal.
18:13Urgency of appeal, the basis of appeal and the relevance of his appeal.
18:20Paul begins in verse 1 in chapter 12 by saying, I urge you.
18:28The New Living Translation says, I plead with you.
18:34The ESV says, I appeal to you.
18:38And the word used for urge is translated elsewhere as beseech, entreat, or I beg you.
18:47There's an urgency, there's an earnestness in Paul's plea.
18:54This is no casual, wouldn't it be a good idea if we did this?
19:01Or I suggest or recommend.
19:06He says, I urge you and we can't overemphasise that.
19:11He was anxious to impress on the believers that the seriousness of the need for a radical
19:20change in lifestyle.
19:23We read those verses in Colossians deliberately because that was exactly the same message
19:30that the apostle was passing on to the church in Colossae, giving some examples of the need
19:39for change.
19:43Change was to be radical.
19:46But wasn't that, after all, how Christ lived, a radical life?
19:55No longer were they continue a life of sin and immorality conforming to the life of this
20:02world.
20:03On the other hand, they were not to hide themselves as monasticism or asceticism.
20:11They were in the world.
20:15But they were not to adopt the standards.
20:19There was to be a distinction and there was an urgency in Paul's message.
20:27Now he says, who am I urging?
20:32He says, therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy.
20:40Now I thought, what are we going to do about this?
20:43If it says brothers, then we can forget the sisters.
20:46Aha, not a bit.
20:50Because I looked it up and I found that if you, and I'm not a Greek scholar so this is
20:56not trying to impress you, but I found that the word that is used here literally means
21:06those from the same womb.
21:10Now I have a sister.
21:13I have a brother as well.
21:15We have a joint mother.
21:17The point is that the word here is not just for male at all, but we need to look at the
21:24context and what has gone before in these chapters.
21:30What Paul is urgently asking of the believers in Rome is for everyone.
21:38And he says in verse 17 and 18 of chapter 1, for in the gospel a righteousness from
21:47God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith.
21:51The gospel is appropriated by faith, not by works.
21:57Not as he explains, by following the law of Moses.
22:02In chapter 3 verse 9 he says, is God the God of the Jews only?
22:10Is he not the God of the Gentiles?
22:13So when he speaks of brothers he's referring to all who have stepped out in faith, not
22:22those clinging to the good works and the traditions of the rabbis.
22:29Now all believers, whatever their religious or ethnic background, are now in Christ, one
22:39in Christ Jesus.
22:42What was the basis of his appeal?
22:44Well we have the answer to that too.
22:48Therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy.
22:53That was the basis of his appeal, God's mercy.
22:59I don't know how many of you will remember, in 1965 the country of Zimbabwe was then known
23:13as Southern Rhodesia.
23:16And in 1965 the then Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia was a man called Ian Smith.
23:29And he and his government declared what became known as UDI.
23:40It was a unilateral declaration of independence.
23:46Southern Rhodesia had been a British territory since 1923.
23:52But the then government decided that they were an independent sovereign state and that
24:00it didn't matter what the British government thought or decided, the decision was made
24:07that they were going to unilaterally be independent of Britain.
24:14Now that caused a big political furore at the time and eventually of course they did
24:20become independent and we now have the nation of Zimbabwe.
24:26I mention that because here we are told by the Apostle in view of God's mercy.
24:34And God's mercy to us is unilateral.
24:38It doesn't depend on who we are, Jew or Gentile as the Apostle has said, male or female, slave
24:47or free, not anything we may think or do can earn us God's mercy.
24:55For 11 chapters Paul has been unfolding God's sovereignty and his unilateral mercy.
25:04And he says in chapter 9 verses 14 to 16,
25:09What shall we say? Is God unjust?
25:13Not at all, Paul says.
25:15I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
25:27It does not depend on man's efforts but on a sovereign God and his abounding mercy.
25:37Rhodesia unilaterally declared itself a sovereign state.
25:43And Paul makes this appeal as he reminds them that there is no greater incentive to holy living
25:53and demonstrating our salvation than the mercy of a righteous God.
26:02So Paul's appeal was not just an urgent appeal.
26:07It was not just the basis of appeal was mercy.
26:13But there was a relevance to it.
26:17How in practice are we to demonstrate our salvation and show God's salvation is for all
26:27now and for eternity?
26:29His appeal is twofold.
26:32It concerns our whole person, both our bodies and our minds.
26:41Ha ha, you say.
26:43I knew we would finally have to do something to gain God's salvation.
26:49Not a bit of it.
26:51Not a bit of it.
26:53Not so.
26:55Paul has been at great pains to show that salvation is by faith, not by works or anything that we do.
27:06And he says when writing to the Christians at the church at Ephesus, he says,
27:12For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves.
27:20It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.
27:26His appeal is to our bodies so that we can demonstrate a changed life.
27:33What then are we to make of verse 1?
27:36Where it says we are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
27:45Well, this immediately reminds us of the sacrifices of the Old Testament.
27:51Now, now is not the time to talk in detail about the many and varied sacrifices that we have in the Old Testament.
28:03But there were two types of sacrifices that the nation of Israel were reminded of.
28:10There were those that were obligatory for the offering of sin,
28:17and there were those that were voluntary, which were an expression of their worship.
28:24Let me remind you again of that.
28:26There were those that were obligatory because of sin,
28:30and there were those that were voluntary because of worship.
28:36So it is with us.
28:39Our obligatory sacrifice has been made.
28:44Paul, writing to Corinthians, he says Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.
28:54It is what God had promised throughout the Old Testament,
28:58a promise kept when Christ gave his life as a sin offering.
29:07It was an obligatory offering made by Christ.
29:14God has done his part, and now the Apostle says we are to do ours.
29:21If there was to be an obligatory sacrifice, there was the opportunity to have a voluntary sacrifice.
29:33And our act of worship is when we offer our bodies, our whole beings to God,
29:41whereas in the Old Testament times the sacrifices with animals
29:47were brought to the offer and offered up by the priest.
29:52We, in contrast, are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices.
30:01But then, what does it mean to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice?
30:09Well, the revised English version is perhaps a little bit helpful.
30:14It says, therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
30:20to present your bodies as a sacrifice living, holy and pleasing to God,
30:25not dissimilar to what it is in the NIV.
30:30Weymouth, who has a less literal translation, says to present your faculties to him
30:41as a living and holy sacrifice.
30:45In other words, God requires our all.
30:54My father-in-law had the joy of leading one of his colleagues to Christ.
31:03Eventually, that colleague became a full-time Christian minister of the Gospel
31:11and was the minister of Moody Bible Church in Chicago.
31:15Although he was an Englishman from Northumberland,
31:20he eventually ended up as leader of the church in Chicago.
31:25Alan Redpath was his name.
31:28And Alan Redpath tells the story.
31:32He was away travelling and ministering the Gospel
31:37and he arrived home one end of a week and he had two little girls.
31:45And as he arrived home and he dropped his cases,
31:48he went into his study and I'm sure his wife brought him a cup of tea
31:52and he sat down and at that point the girls rushed towards him.
31:58Now, think of the doubting Thomas.
32:04What was doubting Thomas' response?
32:08When he saw the Lord, he said,
32:10My Lord and my God.
32:16Alan Redpath was sitting there.
32:19His young girls rushed in and jumped on his knee
32:24and one of them said,
32:26Daddy, you're mine.
32:29And the other said,
32:30Daddy, I'm yours.
32:35That's the meaning of presenting our bodies as a levering sacrifice.
32:42We say, Daddy, I'm yours.
32:46God requires our all.
32:53The tragedy of our age is that in the West,
32:58we no longer are 100% for the Lord.
33:01But why not?
33:04Well, I think the answer to the question lies before us
33:09in the Scriptures.
33:11I urge you, brothers and sisters,
33:14in the view of the Lord's mercy,
33:16to offer your bodies a living sacrifice,
33:20holy and pleasing.
33:21That's your act of worship.
33:25Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
33:29but be transformed in the renewing of your mind
33:35that you will be able to test and approve
33:38what is God's perfect will.
33:44The answer to the question why we're not 100% for Christ,
33:48surely, Paul says that the Roman Christians
33:53were to do three things.
33:55They were not only to present their whole bodies
33:58or their whole selves, their whole personalities to God,
34:03but they were not to conform to the pattern,
34:08bracket, standards of this world.
34:13But they were to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
34:18One negative and two positives.
34:21They were not to follow the world,
34:24but they were to give themselves wholeheartedly to God.
34:30Wonderful, you say.
34:31But again, how can we renew our minds?
34:35How can our minds be transformed?
34:39Paul writes to the church at Philippi, doesn't he?
34:43He says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
34:50And here, Paul gives an answer which is loud and clear.
34:54Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world.
35:01William Barclay, the Scottish theologian,
35:04said of this verse, don't be a chameleon
35:08which takes on the colour of its surroundings.
35:14Or J.B. Phillips.
35:16I like Phillips's paraphrase.
35:20Don't let the world squeeze you into its mould,
35:25but let God remould your minds from within.
35:33So it's clear we are not to conform to the patterns of this world,
35:38to current culture.
35:41We are to be distinctive.
35:43We are not to take our standards from Facebook,
35:47Twitter, Instagram, or even the BBC, our daily paper.
35:56We are to take our standards from the Word of God.
36:02And we must, of course, live in this world,
36:05in society at large, but not by its standards.
36:12Paul, when writing his letter to the church at Corinth,
36:17the second of his letters, he says,
36:19the God of this world has blinded the minds
36:24of them which believe not,
36:25lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
36:30who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
36:35If ever there was a time in history
36:39when God has blinded the minds of humanity,
36:44surely it's today.
36:47It is inconceivable, isn't it,
36:51that a child which is born as a boy, brought up as a boy,
36:56is suddenly deemed to be a girl.
36:59It is sheer intellectual nonsense.
37:05But the God of this world has blinded the minds.
37:11This is why Paul urges the believers in Rome
37:14to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
37:20We've become used to the word fake news.
37:25Well, the greatest fake news in this world
37:32is that Satan wants us to believe
37:36that he does not exist.
37:41Not just a little red goblin with a fork.
37:45Brothers and sisters, the devil is real,
37:50and the battle for our minds and the minds of our families,
37:54and especially our grandchildren and our children,
38:00is as real today as it has ever been.
38:05John Stott says in his commentary on these verses,
38:09he says, here we have two value systems,
38:14this world and God's will.
38:17They are incompatible with one another.
38:21They diverge so completely that compromise is not possible.
38:28So what are we to do about it?
38:33Paul says we are to be transformed by the renewing of mama.
38:39How are we to do it?
38:42What do we watch?
38:45What do we read?
38:48Where do we go?
38:50With whom do we spend our time?
38:55The word for transform is the word metamorphosis.
39:01And what's metamorphosis?
39:03It's the process, isn't it, whereby an insect,
39:08such as a butterfly, is immature as a larva
39:12and forms and becomes an adult.
39:17God wants us to abandon the immaturity of this present world
39:24and to be mature in the likeness of Christ.
39:30This, he reminds us in chapter 8,
39:33is the very purpose of the gospel,
39:35that we might be conformed to the likeness of Christ.
39:41When Moses died,
39:43God chose Joshua, one of two faithful spies,
39:48to take over the leadership of the Israelites.
39:52And at the end of his life,
39:54Joshua offered a challenge to Israel.
39:57Israel could follow the ways of the surrounding nations
40:02where they were living,
40:04or they could follow the ways of Jehovah.
40:08And in his final appeal,
40:09in Joshua chapter 24 and verse 15,
40:16Joshua says this,
40:18but as for me and my household,
40:22we will serve the Lord.
40:26As Paul has moved on in this great epistle,
40:29this great letter to the believers of Rome,
40:32from doctrine to duty,
40:35from belief to behaviour,
40:38he makes a serious, urgent appeal,
40:40an appeal that is based on God's abounding mercy.
40:46They were to offer them very selves,
40:49their minds, their whole to God,
40:53as their spiritual worship.
40:56Paul was urgent in his appeal.
40:59He showed how it was based on the mercy of God,
41:04and how its nature is to be shown in the way we live.
41:10It was just about 2,000 years
41:13before Paul made his appeal to the Romans.
41:18Joshua made a similar appeal to the people of Israel.
41:24They were to be challenged where their hearts lay,
41:30and Paul's appeal is as relevant to us today
41:35as it was in Joshua's time.
41:41The choice is yours.