Ford. Wonderful morning—cool and refreshing.
I want you to turn this morning to Romans 13. Romans 13.
I believe that it is the Lord’s mind for us this week, as far as my part is concerned, to speak about dedication. Through the years, I have occasionally used this theme, but never for a whole week. I do not know whether we will spend a whole week on it, but we are going to start with that intention.
I think it is very interesting when you see that everything in God’s universe is built with an orderly arrangement. Dedication is the picture of everything that He does—nothing by chance, but everything with sharp focus and direction.
I am convinced that what we need is some very clear basic conceptions—some simple conceptions. I may be laborious these days, but I want every one of us to be very clear on some of the basics. Why spend time on the deeper things if we are not clear on the basics?
So this week we are going to consider dedication, and probably this morning we will use this title:
In Romans 13, here is a very interesting portion that we will use to begin. Beginning with verse 1:
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
For there is no power but of God:
the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God:
and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?
Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
for he is the minister of God to thee for good.
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid;
for he beareth not the sword in vain:
for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.
One little phrase that I want to draw your attention to immediately is this: “the minister of God.” Did you know that you are the minister of God, no matter what your calling or position might be this morning?
God has, in His order in the universe, delegated to every one of us a unique and special place to fulfill. Each one of us has a calling, a place to fulfill. In that unique, distinct calling, we are called the minister of God.
About a year ago, we had some friends from Missouri visit us in Indiana. It is about a fourteen-hour trip, and as they were traveling along, they decided to stop in Illinois. The brother whom I had known for years wanted to stretch his legs. He was about six foot seven, and you can understand why he needed to stretch.
As they were walking down the street in the little city where they stopped, he saw a policeman standing on the corner. You would have to know my friend’s sense of humor. He walked up to this big, tall fellow and said, “Did you know that you are the minister of God?”
Then he got a surprise. The fellow turned to him and said, “Oh yes, sir, I do. Romans 13:4.”
He found out that he was a real believer. He loved the Lord, and they had a few minutes of real fellowship on the corner.
Here was a policeman on the corner who had been delegated a place, a position. Brother Dan, you are a husband, the head of the house. That delegates you a place: the minister of God. Georgia, you have been delegated a place. Every one of us, in God’s economy, has been delegated a place to fulfill.
This is why I say that God has established, in this picture of dedication, everything in its place, fulfilling its purpose.
Before we get through this week, you will see that some of our problem is that, when we get dedicated, we have the conflict of dedication. How many have ever run into somebody who was dedicated? The only trouble was that your dedication was not the same as theirs. It creates lots of difficulties.
Let me say, first of all, that all authority and all order is resident in God. In other words, the source of authority and power resides in Him.
What God has done is to delegate certain portions of authority. According to the place or position that has been delegated to us, we are to become His representatives.
In order for something to function, the one to whom God delegates must be willing to accept the delegation—accept the position. One of the tragedies is that we are slow to see the place God has given us, and slow to accept what has been delegated to us.
No one can be established. No one can reach fullness, or the fulfillment of what God wants in a life, until they recognize the delegation, accept it, and begin to represent in the full way.
When you take a position and begin to represent, you will be challenged. But there is no establishing except through being challenged. This is the way God begins to establish us.
When God began everything, He delegated authority and power to His lovely Son. Jesus said, “All power, authority, is given unto Me.”
Everything God is doing is not only for His lovely Son, but it is by and through Him. How wonderful to see that God’s total way of doing things is wrapped up in the Son, in the Lord Jesus.
He is the perfect example of One who has accepted what was delegated. He continually said, “I do not speak of Myself. I do not speak anything except the words that My Father has given Me. I do not do anything of Myself.”
Everything He did, according to the Father’s delegation, was to represent the One who sent Him. And, of course, we see how He was established.
God has given other spheres in the universe. He has the angelic host, and I believe He gave various archangels positions that they were to fulfill in representing Him.
One of these bright, anointed cherubs was Lucifer, a very beautiful created being. I think the Hebrew term “coverer” pictures that he was given this earth’s sphere as the place in which he was to rule as a delegate and represent God.
The difficulty was this: one day he looked in the mirror. That is dangerous—especially if you are beautiful.
The Scripture tells us in Ezekiel that he beheld his beauty. He saw the glory of his creation. His heart was lifted up, and pride began to come in.
Instead of accepting the place delegated to him, he chose to be as God Himself. He set himself up as God.
Remember the fivefold statement in Isaiah:
I will be like the Most High.
I will ascend into the sides of the north.
I will, I will, I will.
He sums it up by saying, “I will be as God.”
If you have ever studied the enemy’s kingdom, you know that it is a counterfeit kingdom. There are principalities, powers, and dominions. He sees the necessity of order even in his own realm.
Here we have a counterfeit kingdom, set up contrary to God’s will and purpose, trying to represent itself instead of God and establish itself as the ruling one.
When God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, what did He have in mind? He delegated to Adam a certain sphere. Adam was to be king and lord over the garden, using it for God’s glory and man’s good.
Adam was to accept what was delegated, represent God, and in due time be established. But Adam had to be established through crisis and conflict.
There are some things that God, so to speak, cannot do by the very nature of things. He cannot develop character and strength except that He allow a wind to come and blow the tree.
God was going to use this earth sphere as a place where He would demonstrate Himself and His glory. He was going to prove that, if He revealed Himself to man, man would worship, honor, and say, “God, I am interested in Your program. You are worthy.”
Then the enemy slipped into the garden and whispered to Eve, “If you would just eat of this tree, you could be as God.”
Ladies, listen for a moment; men, you can tune out. Eve had one responsibility when the enemy came to the door. She should have said, “Go see my husband.”
Adam had a delegation and was to represent the house. In a similar way, Eve had a place, a sphere in which she needed to represent and be established.
What Adam and Eve were doing was assuming, “Maybe we can be as God. We can have knowledge in ourselves. We can know good and evil in ourselves.”
But there is a law in the universe: only God can control and keep everything in its order and arrangement. Everything sooner or later comes to an end and falls to pieces unless it is under His direct government.
When Adam and Eve listened to the lie of the enemy, they did not merely move into neutral ground. Basically, they sold themselves out to another. They became slaves under the enemy’s government.
What is the first thing God does to recover and bring things back to His purpose? This brings us to God’s redeeming work according to His mercy.
God finds man sold out to slavery, missing the dedication, a victim of the enemy and his lies. According to His mercy, God redeems. He brings man back.
Titus 3:5 tells us:
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.
Ephesians 2:4 says:
But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us,
even when we were dead in trespasses and sins.
Mercy can only be demonstrated toward guilty people. When one is brought into court, the judge asks, “What is your plea—guilty or not guilty?”
If you plead not guilty, you ask for justice. But when you plead guilty, you ask for mercy. Mercy can only be extended to guilty people.
God finds man in this wretched, fallen condition—hopeless and helpless as far as getting out of it by himself is concerned. It is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy.
There are three little words that describe how God shows His mercy.
First, He steps into the marketplace, into the auction, where the slaves are. The first word pictures this: He buys us. He pays the price to buy the slave.
The second word is exagorazo. He not only buys us, but He buys us out. He takes us out, never to be exposed again to slavery and that former condition.
The third word is lutroo, and it means that He looses us. He buys us, buys us out, and then looses us.
He buys, He buys us out, and then He looses. Do you see the significance? God redeems us not merely to possess us, but to set us free.
He buys us, buys us out, in order that He might loose us. Why does He loose us? So that the mercy of God might lead us to dedication.
Dedication needs to be clearly understood. I have met too many folks who know they have been bought and bought out, but they never realize that God also looses us.
The little bird can fly back into His hands and say, “I do not like to be loose. It is a cruel old world out here. I do not have any place to go. Lord, I want to give myself to You.”
Turn back to Romans 12. Verse 1 says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
By the mercies of God. It is mercy that gets us. When mercy lays hold of us, we say, “Praise the Lord, I have been bought, bought out, and set free.”
Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve. Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. Mercy is the negative side; grace is His unmerited favor, giving us what we do not deserve.
When God extends mercy, He brings us back, so to speak, and waits for mercy to grip us until the one who is loose comes and says, “Oh God, I want to give myself.”
This is the basis of Romans 12:1. Dedication is not God standing with a club, trying to make us dedicate. God’s wonderful way is to open our eyes and help us see what He has done.
It is much easier to do it through a broken heart than through a club. God’s way is to demonstrate His heart and His mercy.
The presenting of ourselves is the seeing of what He has done. In the response of our hearts, we begin to say, “Oh God, I want to give myself. I present myself to You as a living sacrifice.”
I use this illustration all the time because it demonstrates this as well as I know how. In the days before the Civil War, there was an auction block where slaves were sold.
An eighteen-year-old girl was on the block, being auctioned. A stranger at the edge of the crowd kept bidding more and more, and people wondered why he would pay such a price.
Finally, the auctioneer said, “Sold.” The stranger came to receive the one he had purchased. He wrote something on a piece of paper, handed it to her, and said, “I bought you to set you free.”
She could scarcely understand it. He said, “You will not need to go home with me. You can go home to your mother and father. This paper is your freedom.”
Finally, it got through to her. She stood looking into his kindly eyes, amazed that someone could pay so much to set her free.
Then she fell from the auction block, wrapped her arms around him, and said, “Sir, your eyes tell me You would be wonderful to have as a master. Please, do I have to go free? Would You let me go home with You? Here, take my freedom back.”
Love had conquered her. Love had won her heart. She chose to present herself as a living sacrifice—a love slave to him.
This is the full scope of God’s working: mercy takes us out, and grace is imparted into our hearts, giving us strength to do the things we ought to do in dedication.
Dedication is taking the freedom God has given us and, by glad-heart choice, presenting ourselves to Him. We come under new control—under new government.
The simplest way I know to explain dedication is this: redemption, according to His mercy; dedication, the presentation.
Dedication is an initial act. It is a crisis, decisive presentation. It is, if I understand the picture, a once-for-all situation.
The Greek aorist infinitive in Romans 12:1 carries the sense of a completed act. There is something final about it.
When the mercy of God lays hold of you and you come to present yourself, you are in His hands. From that moment on, there is finality. You are stuck.
I find so many people going through rededication, rededication, year after year. Some say, “Well, I did it for the thirteenth time.”
I want us to see that it is first of all a crisis giving of ourselves to Him—once and for all. Then it is followed by a commitment that continually reckons upon that act.
To me, it is like driving a stake down right here. The stake is a crisis giving and presenting of myself. When I come into a new situation, I do not have to redo the whole thing. I reckon back and say, “Thank You, Lord. I drove down the stake.”
If it gets wobbly, I tap it a little deeper. But I always reckon back to something that had in it a crisis.
Dedication follows mercy. Once we have come under new ownership and we are His, the first component is presentation.
The next thing that begins to take place is a separating work:
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.
The more God renews my mind, the more I begin to say, “That is good. Praise the Lord.” Then I say, “That is not only good; that is really acceptable, Lord.” Finally, there comes a day when I say, “Lord, this is perfect.”
Dedication is not something from the neck down. We have tried to put people in straitjackets and narrow interpretations. But dedication begins from the head up. If He gets that, He gets the whole man.
There is first the crisis of presentation. Then there is separation because of renewal. Then there is transformation. Separation is more outward; transformation, as the mind is renewed, is more inward.
Turn to Deuteronomy 15. In the Old Testament, a Hebrew servant could serve for six years, but in the seventh year he was to go free.
When the master sent him out free, he was not to let him go empty. He was to furnish him liberally from his flock, his floor, and his winepress.
But suppose the servant loved his master. Suppose he said, “I could be free to go, but I do not want to go.” Then the master would take that servant to the doorpost and put an awl through his ear.
That indicated that from that time on he was a bondservant—a bondslave—one who by glad-heart choice said, “Master, I am yours, not for six years, but forever.”
Deuteronomy 15:16 says:
And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee;
because he loveth thee and thine house,
because he is well with thee;
then thou shalt take an awl,
and thrust it through his ear unto the door,
and he shall be thy servant for ever.
Does that sound like a club? He is free to go. No club is involved. “Because he loveth thee.” This is the response of love to mercy.
All the mercy of God has redeemed me, and I come, as it were, to be free. But at that moment I say, “Lord, put the awl through my ear. It is a sign that forever I am Yours.”
Turn to Leviticus 14. This is the picture of those whom God places in His service.
Leviticus 14:14 says:
And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering,
and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed,
and upon the thumb of his right hand,
and upon the great toe of his right foot.
When we come under God’s rule and government, He begins by applying the blood. The blood applied is a means of separating us unto God.
He starts with the ear—the right ear—then the right thumb and the right toe. If He gets my ear, He can control my hands and my feet.
Dedication is first and always to a person. It is always to a person.
So often we dedicate ourselves to a cause, a project, a place, or a work. Somebody gets us enthused with a project, and we dedicate ourselves to it. But all dedication is unto a person. It is not first to a place. It is unto the Lord.
“Lord, I will go to Africa.” The issue may be a willingness to go, but the real issue is not a place. Dedication is to a Person.
Once He gets our ear, He gets our hands and our feet. But it starts with the ear.
The blood is applied first to the ear, then to the thumb, then to the toe. Then the oil is applied over the blood. We will come back to that later.
Turn to Psalm 40. Psalm 40:6:
Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire;
mine ears hast Thou opened:
burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required.
I have been told that the word “opened” here is the same word for “pierced,” like having a hole through the ear. “Mine ears hast Thou opened.”
What does it signify? “Lord, You are the One who has opened my ear, that I might learn to be attentive.”
It is not religious performance. People can go through the outward formality of bringing sacrifices every day, but God says, “I do not want sacrifice and offering. I want your ear.”
I remember, at least eighteen years ago, being in a series of meetings. A very wealthy farmer came down the aisle and handed me a one-hundred-dollar check. He said, “Here, I want to give this.”
In that moment, it was as though the Lord said, “Do not take it. He is sacrificing.”
I handed it back and said, “Sir, God does not want your money. You are sacrificing. God wants your ear.”
When people come into a crucial moment and God begins to speak, they tend to say, “Lord, I am going to give You more time. I have been too busy.” But God does not want your time as a sacrifice. He wants your ear.
A few days later, that man came back and said, “God got through to me.” Then the Lord had everything.
Read it again:
Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire;
mine ears hast Thou opened;
burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required.
Then said I, Lo, I come:
in the volume of the book it is written of me,
I delight to do Thy will, O my God:
yea, Thy law is within my heart.
You know who this is speaking of. Jesus picked it up and put it in New Testament framework. He was the One who could say, “I delight to do Thy will.”
Our accepting what has been delegated, becoming the one who represents, becoming the one who is established—all of it hinges on understanding dedication.
Thank God, there is no taking back. It is for keeps.
Praise the Lord. Have you ever seen this mercy? Let us bow and pray in a new way.
Lord, if You show us Your mercy, that will take care of everything else. Really show us Your mercy.
Lord, we do not want just some more knowledge this morning, but we want reality. I believe I sense it in my brothers and sisters—the deep cry within us: “Oh Lord, let us sense in a whole new way the mercy of God.”
How You lifted us out of the pit, lifted us from the slavery that we were in, bought us and bought us out, and set us free, that with a glad-heart choice we may come to say, “I delight to serve the Lord.”
For the weeks ahead, dear Lord, we pray that there will be such a clear, settled fact that Thy mercy has led us to the presenting of ourselves utterly, wholly unto Thee.
Help us to get our ears opened—our ears pierced. Then we will be able to delight Thy heart and make Thee glad. We will learn what it really means to be a love slave, waiting with attentive ears to know what You want next.
For all of this, we give You the praise, the honor, and all the glory. We ask it in Jesus’ lovely, lovely name.