Will you please turn to the book of Romans, chapter 12?
This morning, we will read the whole chapter, and we will read it very slowly. I hope that every word will really sink into your heart.
Because the Word of God is pure. It is refined, and every word of God is power. So may we hear what the Lord is saying to us this morning.
Romans 12:1:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service.
And be not fashioned according to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
For I say, through the grace that was given me,
to every man that is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think;
but so to think as to think soberly,
according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith.
For even as we have many members in one body,
and all the members have not the same office:
so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
and severally members one of another.
And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us,
whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith;
or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry;
or he that teacheth, to his teaching;
or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting:
he that giveth, let him do it with liberality;
he that ruleth, with diligence;
he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.
Let love be without hypocrisy.
Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another;
in honor preferring one another;
in diligence not slothful;
fervent in spirit;
serving the Lord;
rejoicing in hope;
patient in tribulation;
continuing stedfastly in prayer;
communicating to the necessities of the saints;
given to hospitality.
Bless them that persecute you;
bless, and curse not.
Rejoice with them that rejoice;
weep with them that weep.
Be of the same mind one toward another.
Set not your mind on high things,
but condescend to things that are lowly.
Be not wise in your own conceits.
Render to no man evil for evil.
Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men.
If it be possible, as much as in you lieth,
be at peace with all men.
Avenge not yourselves, beloved,
but give place unto wrath:
for it is written,
Vengeance belongeth unto Me;
I will recompense, saith the Lord.
But if thine enemy hunger, feed him;
if he thirst, give him drink:
for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.
Be not overcome of evil,
but overcome evil with good.
Dear Heavenly Father, we come together this morning to praise and worship You. We thank You for so loving us as to give Your only begotten Son to us.
It is because of Your beloved Son that we are here this morning. We thank You because of His blood, and for the new and living way that He has opened for us.
We can enter into Your very presence and hear what You have to say to us. Speak, Lord, for Your servants are hearing. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
As we have mentioned before, our time together is to concentrate on one thing: the matter of consecration.
After we have received all the mercies of God, God calls us to present our bodies a living sacrifice. This is the only thing that we can do, and this is the only thing that God asks from us.
He gave us everything, even His only beloved Son. And all that He asks of us is just one thing: to present our bodies a living sacrifice.
Now, brothers and sisters, through the years we have received all the mercies of God. But have you presented your body a living sacrifice to Him?
Even though, by the right of redemption, you are His, yet He will not deal with you by rights. Rather, He will persuade you. He will persuade you by His love, that you may be constrained by the love of Christ and cannot but present your body a living sacrifice.
This is your spiritual service.
I do hope, brothers and sisters, that every one of you here this morning will say, “I have presented my body a living sacrifice.”
And this is not just to be done once in your life. It is to be renewed again and again.
In the Bible, consecration is typified by the burnt offering of the Old Testament. You remember that in the Old Testament, it was a daily offering.
Every morning, a lamb would be put on the altar, and it would be slowly consumed by the fire until it became ashes.
Then, in the evening, the ashes were taken away, and another lamb was put on the altar to be burned by the fire slowly through the night.
The following morning, the same thing would be repeated. So the burnt offering was a continual, daily offering.
Our consecration is like a burnt offering. We need to renew it day by day.
Every morning, we put ourselves on the altar and say:
Lord, this day is Yours.
I am Yours.
Do whatever You like with me.
I will not live for myself,
but I will live for You and for Your will.
Every day, we renew our consecration. Then we can live a consecrated life, brothers and sisters.
After we have consecrated ourselves to the Lord, we find the second verse of Romans 12: there will be the renewing of our mind.
The Holy Spirit will renew our mind and enable us to see things very differently from people in the world. What we once considered as loss, we now regard as gain.
In other words, our mind is so renewed that we are no longer conformed to this age, but we are able to prove and approve the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
We no longer live for ourselves; we live for God. We no longer love the world, but we love our Lord Jesus Christ.
When we are doing that, you will find that the eyes of our heart are opened. As our bodies are presented to the Lord, the Lord opens our eyes to see another body: the body of Christ.
We see that we are many members in one body. Brothers and sisters, we are not alone. We have many brothers and sisters, and we are all members one of another.
We begin to see the body of Christ, and we begin to live in that body, because this is the will of God.
God wants to give a body to His beloved Son. When this body is perfected, when this body is fully mature, then there will be a wedding. The Lord Jesus will return, receive us to Himself, and we will be joined to Him eternally.
Dear brothers and sisters, I think this is the vision of consecration. I do hope that every brother and sister here will catch this vision and be caught by that vision.
Then you will find that our life on earth is very worthwhile. It gives purpose and meaning to our life.
This morning, we would like to continue with consecration. There is not only the call of consecration, and hopefully we have all responded. There is also the vision of consecration, and hopefully our minds are renewed and we begin to see God’s purpose of having a body for His beloved Son.
Now we will see the life of consecration. After we have consecrated our life to the Lord, how are we going to live that life? What are the evidences that we are living a consecrated life?
Remember, consecration is not just an act. You may have consecrated yourself to the Lord once, perhaps five years ago, but today you may not be living a consecrated life.
Consecration is for a lifetime. So we must live a consecrated life. What are the evidences that we are truly living such a life?
A consecrated life is a life in the Spirit.
We know that the life of Christ is in us. The Bible says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Every believer has Christ in him or in her. This is eternal life; this is divine life. And this life in you is meant to be lived out.
But how is Christ to be lived out through you? How can you live by the life of Christ and not by your old life?
We know that it is by the work of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
The Holy Spirit, who dwells in your spirit, makes it His responsibility to see that the life of Christ is lived out in you.
Without the Holy Spirit, even though Christ is in you, His life cannot be released. His life cannot be lived out through you. But thank God, the Holy Spirit is within you.
He is the Spirit of life. He will make Christ real and living to you.
So we need to know the Holy Spirit. We need to know this divine Person who is in us. The Triune God dwells in each one of us.
In every one of us, there is not only life; there is the Spirit of life. It is by this divine Person, the Spirit, that He will make the life of Christ your daily experience.
Unfortunately, today we find that many Christians do not know the Holy Spirit as a divine Person. They may seek the power of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but they do not know the Holy Spirit as a divine Person.
Brothers and sisters, only by knowing the Holy Spirit as a divine Person in you are you able to live a consecrated life. You are able to live as a Christian.
By ourselves, we cannot even live as Christians. What is a Christian? A Christian is to be like Christ. “For to me to live is Christ.” “It is no longer I, but Christ who liveth in me.” That is the life of a Christian.
It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to live out Christ. He will form Christ in us, and He will manifest Christ through us.
The Bible says that He is another Comforter. You remember, when our Lord Jesus was on earth, He was the Comforter to His disciples.
During His last discourse with His disciples, He was about to leave them, and they were very sorrowful. But the Lord said, “Do not be sorrowful, for I will send you another Comforter.”
“Another” means another of the same kind—One just like Me. As a matter of fact, it is Me. I am going, but I am coming back to you. He is to be your Comforter.
Now, the word comforter in English is an old English word. When the Bible was first translated from Greek to English, the word comfort meant something very different from what we know today.
At that time, the word comfort meant “strengthen.” So He is the Strengthener.
The best way to translate the word paraclete is an old English word: barrister. Today we use the word lawyer, but a barrister in the old days was very different from a lawyer today.
What are the works of a barrister?
Brothers and sisters, that is the Holy Spirit in you. But whom does He represent? Whose cause does He defend? Whose name does He defend? Whose property does He manage?
The client of this Barrister is not you. The client of the Barrister is the Lord Jesus.
The Holy Spirit in you represents our Lord Jesus. He is there to represent Him, not you. He is there to defend His cause, not you. He is there to protect His name, not you.
And He is in you to manage His affairs, not yours. It is His life in you.
Our Lord Jesus in heaven today is our Barrister. He is representing us before His Father. But the Holy Spirit in you represents our Lord Jesus.
He is in you to see that the name of the Lord Jesus is honored. He will plead the cause of Christ in you. And you, as a redeemed one of the Lord, are His property. The Holy Spirit is managing you for the Lord Himself.
Our Lord Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes, “He shall glorify Me. He shall teach you all things, that you may know Me.” Brothers and sisters, is that not what the Holy Spirit is doing in you and me?
He is the One in you to see that the life of Christ is really lived in you. Of course, it is not your own life living. Whenever your old life comes up, the Holy Spirit in you will immediately tell you, “This is your own life. It should be put aside, but Christ should be your life.”
You find that the Holy Spirit applies the cross in your life. How does the Holy Spirit bring forth the life of Christ in you, that you may live a consecrated life?
Inwardly, He will teach you in all things. He is the anointing within you.
In 1 John 2, we are told that the anointing is within you, and He will teach you in all things. Whatever He teaches is true and is not false. If we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, we abide in Christ.
The Holy Spirit will remind us of the Word of God. He will open up the Word of God to us, and the Word of God is living and operative.
It will penetrate and divide even soul and spirit, and it will expose everything that is in your heart.
Our heart is deceitful above all things. Who can know it? Even you yourself are deceived by your heart. Only God knows the heart. He searches our heart and knows our ways.
The Holy Spirit will use the Word of God as a sharp, two-edged sword. He will penetrate and divide your soul and spirit.
What is the life in the Spirit? What is the life in the soul?
He will reveal Christ to you. You will find that the Holy Spirit is doing this revealing and teaching work. He teaches you in everything whether it is Christ or whether it is you—your ideas, your opinions, your likes and dislikes, your desires, and your feelings.
He will show you whether these things are of the soul or of the Spirit, whether they are Christ or yourself. By doing this, He will bring forth Christ in your life.
When we follow the Holy Spirit, Christ is lived out.
You remember Romans 8. We are told that those who mind the things of the Spirit have life and peace. This is what the Holy Spirit will do inwardly.
At the same time, the Holy Spirit will do something outwardly. He will arrange your everyday life—what will happen to you today and what you will meet today.
With us believers, there is no such thing as a chance happening. The Bible says that even the hairs of your head are numbered.
Do you know how many hairs you have? Nobody has counted them. But our Lord not only knows how many hairs you have; He numbers every hair of your head.
This morning, when you were combing your hair, perhaps a few hairs dropped off. Maybe number 111, or perhaps number 1,500. God numbers your hairs.
No sparrow will fall to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. How much more precious are you to Him than sparrows?
So there is nothing with Christians that is by accident. The Holy Spirit is in control of your life. He will arrange whatever happens to you.
By all the things that happen to you, He is child-training you. We do not like to hear the word discipline, because the word discipline really means child-training.
Inwardly, the Holy Spirit reveals; outwardly, He disciplines. Through the working of the external and the internal, He enables Christ to live out through us.
Brothers and sisters, what is consecration? We have mentioned again and again that consecration is to live for Christ.
But let us remember: you cannot live for Christ unless you live by Christ. If you say, “I live for God,” and you still live by yourself, your word is vain.
The only way we can live for God is to live by the life of God in us. If it is not Christ who lives in you, then you are not living for Christ.
Is it clear, brothers and sisters? If we are measured by this standard, how often do we really live for Christ? How much do we really live for God?
We will discover that many times we just live for ourselves. It is no longer Christ; it is I who live.
But the Apostle Paul tells us:
I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I that live,
but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh
I live in faith,
the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me,
and gave Himself up for me.
The only way to live a consecrated life, that the life of Christ may live in you, is by cooperating with the Holy Spirit.
We listen to the still, small voice. The noises in the world are so tremendous. Not only around us are there many voices and noises, but even in our mind, within us, there are many thoughts.
Because of this, we cannot hear the still, small voice of the Spirit of God. He is speaking to us—not to be heard by your outward ear, but to be heard inwardly.
Do you hear His voice? Sometimes you feel there is like an ointment put upon you. You have a wound, and you need to put some ointment on it. When you put it on, it is very soothing.
That is the work of the Holy Spirit. Quietly and soothingly, He is anointing you.
Suppose you are going to do something. You find there is an inward check. He is checking you.
Do you have such an experience? It is the Holy Spirit who is teaching you, delivering you from your self-life, and allowing the life of Christ to live out through you.
Sometimes He restrains you. You cannot tell why, and you cannot explain it. You may try to reason with Him, but He has His reasons. He will restrain you.
Sometimes He will constrain you. Are you following? Do you obey the Holy Spirit?
It is only by that we can live out Christ. Remember this: a consecrated life is a life in the Spirit. Your spirit and the Holy Spirit work together, and then the life of Christ is able to flow out from you.
You remember how the Lord Jesus said:
He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said,
from within him shall flow rivers of living water.
This He spoke concerning the Spirit.
Knowing this principle, we are able to read on from Romans 12:6-21. These verses tell us what kind of life is a consecrated life.
Life is composed of two things: living and working. We live daily, and we work daily. This is what life is.
Therefore, from Romans 12:6-8, we have working; and from Romans 12:9-21, we have living. That is what life is composed of.
Do you notice that there are only a few verses on working, but many verses on living? Why? Because to God, living is more important than doing.
To the world, we think working is more important than being. It does not matter how you live, so long as you can do the work. But with God, it is very different.
He emphasizes your being more than your doing. Your living is more important to Him than your service.
Of course, you serve. But if you are not the right person and you do not have the right character, then your service is not acceptable to Him.
Let us talk about living first. Let us begin with Romans 12:9: “Let love be without hypocrisy.”
We will quickly go over this, because we cannot go over it in detail or I will keep you beyond your lunchtime.
Romans 12:9-21 describes Christian living. This is a consecrated life—living as a consecrated person.
Remember, these are not demands upon you. If you hear, “Let love be without hypocrisy,” and then try to love with a true love in your own strength, you put yourself under law again.
Brothers and sisters, we are not under law; we are under grace. What is described here is the type of life that a consecrated person will live.
It is not something that you try to do. It is something that the grace of God will perform in you. As we have already mentioned, it is the Holy Spirit who tries to bring forth the life of Christ.
These verses are simply describing that if you allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life, He will form the character of Christ in you and release the life of Christ through you.
To put it another way, this is the way that Christ lived when He was on earth. Today, Christ will live again in you and me.
Remember, these are not your works. These are the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
There is a great difference between works and fruit. Work is something to which you put your effort. But fruit is the natural result of the abundance of life.
Have you ever heard an apple tree agonizing to bring forth an apple? No. The life in that apple tree simply goes into the fruit.
It is very quiet, and it is effortless. That is fruit.
The Lord said, “I am the true vine, and ye are the branches.” It is not a branch agonizing to bear fruit. It is the life of the vine that produces the fruit.
When I read this section of the Word of God, it reminds me of Galatians 5:22-23.
In these two verses, we are told of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The word fruit there is singular, but there are nine things listed.
The fruit of the Spirit is:
Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, meekness, self-control.
These nine characteristics are the ingredients of that fruit. They are the character of our Lord Jesus.
Thank God, the Holy Spirit will bring out the character of our Lord Jesus in you. That is what you find in Romans 12:9-21.
Let me illustrate with one point: love. God is love, and here Paul says, “Let love be without hypocrisy.”
The word love here is agape, which means divine love. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God.
This is the kind of love that you and I did not have before. It is the Holy Spirit who puts that love in you.
Brothers and sisters, we think we love. But do we really have that love?
Peter thought he loved the Lord Jesus. He told the Lord, “If all the disciples fall away, I will remain with You. I am willing to die for You.”
But the Lord said, “Before the cock crow twice, you will deny Me three times.” Peter said, “Never, never, never. This will never happen to me.” But it did happen.
Brothers and sisters, if we want to know this love in us, first of all we need to know that we do not have this love naturally.
The love that we naturally have is selfish. We love ourselves more than anything else. We do not have this divine love in ourselves.
Only when we acknowledge that we do not have that kind of love will we look to the Lord for His love.
“Let love be without hypocrisy” means that it should be sincere. This is the love of God in the heart. This is what God desires of us.
We should love Him above all things. We should love Him with the love of Christ in us.
Then, following this, Paul says, “In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another.”
Not only do we love God; we also love our brothers and sisters. The word for brotherly love means kindly affectioned toward one another. We have a good feeling toward one another.
Now, brothers and sisters, what is your feeling toward your brothers and sisters? Maybe you have a good feeling toward a few, but do you have that feeling toward many?
Remember, this brotherly love is not selective. You love because he is a brother or she is a sister.
Let us love one another warmly and affectionately. This means that we are concerned with one another. We encourage one another. We help one another. We care for one another.
This is consecrated living: loving God and loving one another without any ulterior motive. We love Him because He first loved us.
Consecrated living is brotherly love. We are kindly affectioned toward one another. In other words, it is Christ who is living out.
Finally, let us go back to Romans 12:6-8. How do we serve as consecrated persons?
Here you find that in serving God, every member has a service. Can you imagine that in your body there are members that have no service or function?
Every member of your body is active and functioning. Then you have a healthy body. If some part of your body is paralyzed and no longer functions, then you are sick, because only part of the members of the body are supporting the whole body.
Do you know this is a problem with the church today? Most believers are spectators. Most believers are hearers, and because of that, they are critics.
Only a few in the body of Christ are really functioning, carrying the whole weight of the body. It shows you how unhealthy that body is. The body is sick.
Brothers and sisters, you are a member of the body of Christ. God put you in that body for a reason. He wants you to serve. He wants you to serve Him by serving the body.
The Lord said that when you do something for one of His little brethren, you are doing it to Him.
How do we serve? We live by the life of Christ. But we serve by the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to each one of us.
Every member of the body of Christ is given at least one gift. It is not your natural talent, something with which you were born. It is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
Every member of the body of Christ has a gift. But every gift is different, and every person is different.
Broadly speaking, we serve God with His given gifts in two ways:
God gives some as prophets, and they should prophesy according to the proportion of their faith. If God gives you the gift of teaching, then teach. If God gives you the gift of exhortation, then exhort.
Prophecy is more related to revelation. God reveals His mind to you, and you are able to tell the people of God what the mind of God is.
Teaching is more the understanding of the written Word, so that you are able to explain and expand it.
Exhortation is more related to experience. You have gone through certain experiences, so you are able to exhort people.
Then there is another area: ministering with deeds.
“Let us give ourselves to our ministry; he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.”
These things are related to ministering with deeds. You are doing something. If you are giving, give with simplicity. There should be no selfish motive behind it.
If you are leading, lead the brothers and sisters with diligence. If you show mercy, show it with cheerfulness.
Some people are given the gift of sympathy. They care for people. If God gives you such a gift, show mercy with cheerfulness.
In this service of deeds, there are so many innumerable opportunities. Every brother and sister is to be involved in serving the Lord.
By serving, you live a consecrated life.
These are the evidences of a consecrated life: you live by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and you serve through the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to you.
That should be our daily service and living.
Dear Lord Jesus, we pray that the Holy Spirit will quicken Your Word to us.