We have already this morning been considering the love of Christ, and I was first introduced to this hymn at a wedding. I have just thanked the Lord for this wonderful testimony. It is a glad confession, as it says there, that I am the Lord’s.
As we have gathered and been very thankful to Him this morning, it is a precious testimony: I am the Lord’s. This morning, as we are together as those redeemed of the Lord, there is a matter I would like us to consider as we begin this month of December—our topic for the month in the Foundation Series. It is the matter of consecration.
Even as we say that word, consecration, there is probably not a person in this room who has not heard a message on consecration. So, we have the great hindrance and barrier before us—the challenge of familiarity with this whole matter. We have heard much about it. Some things we have heard are true; some things may be a little askew.
During our time together this morning, and throughout this month as we individually search the Scriptures and search them together on Friday nights, we want the Lord in a fresh way to touch our hearts and make this matter of consecration very real to us. Within our Christian life, this is one of the most vital areas—one of the most vital transactions we will have with the Lord in the matter of walking with Him.
So we pray that the Holy Spirit would enable us this morning, in a fresh way, to consider this matter. As was announced, we have questions available here and out in the bookroom for our personal times of study and fellowship, and for our two Friday-night times together during this month.
May we all, together this month, learn of the Lord’s heart in this matter of consecration. May it not be just a topic or merely a thing, but may it become life.
I think it was so appropriate throughout our worship this morning that we touched so much on the love of Christ, because the real heart, essence, and motivation of this whole matter of consecration is His great love for us and our response to that love.
Let us begin with a couple of Scriptures. Please turn to 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. This is Paul’s testimony of what controlled his life.
For the love of Christ controls us;
having concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died;
and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves,
but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
The love of Christ controls us. Some translations say that the love of Christ constrains us. Having concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
Now turn to Romans 12:1-5. Again, these are familiar verses dealing with this whole matter of consecration.
I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service of worship.
And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you
not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think;
but to think so as to have sound judgment,
as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
For just as we have many members in one body,
and all the members do not have the same function,
so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
and individually members one of another.
Lord, we thank You for the great privilege we have to return, in the simplicity of our life, and say, “Thank You.” Simple words, yet so profound and so all-encompassing. We bless You for that, Lord.
Lord, as we come to Your Word, we would begin with thanksgiving that You have not left us helpless. You have given us Your Word, You have given us Your life, and You have given us the Holy Spirit. Lord, we want to really lay hold of that which You have desired within Your heart to present to us during this time.
We know there are many things that would contend against this time, and we say no to all of that and yes to the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, we can enter into all the fullness of the riches that are in Him.
Lord, we thank You for Your riches, for the blessing, and for the provision for this time. By faith, we lay hold of it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
As we come to this matter of consecration this morning, I would like us to consider it through four points:
The meaning concerns what consecration is. The motivation concerns why we consider it. The manner concerns how we consecrate ourselves. The mark concerns the fruit or evidence of consecration within our lives.
When we come to the meaning of consecration, what is it? There are many different definitions. I think this is something the Lord will have to touch upon in our hearts. Perhaps, as we search the Scriptures, the Lord will give each of us a personal testimony: What is this issue of consecration to you and to me?
For me, a simple definition of consecration is settling the issue once and for all within my life of who is in charge—settling the issue of who is Lord of my life. Is Max still in charge, or is the Lord in charge? Who am I going to put in that place of authority over my life?
It is interesting that, in the Old Testament, the word used for consecration has the meaning of having your hands full. We see in Leviticus 8 and Exodus 29 how the priests, when they were consecrated, had their hands full of several different things that were precious to the Lord. Each one spoke of an aspect of Christ as we look back, and they offered it to the Lord in this whole matter of consecration.
If we think of what we have our hands full with today, the Lord’s desire is that we would have our hands full of the Lord Jesus. If our hands are full of Christ, there is no room for other things.
But what we notice in our lives so often is that most of us have a place in our hands for Christ. That is not the issue in many of our lives. We have a place in our hands for Him, but we also have room in our hands for some other stuff.
I am not necessarily talking about sin. I am talking about other things—the good being the enemy of the better. Our Lord wants us to be so occupied with Him that, as we seek first the kingdom of God, all the other things will be added to us. It is a matter of having Him in His rightful place within our lives.
We said earlier that this matter of consecration is one of the most vital and critical things in our whole Christian walk. We can actually say that most, if not all, of the problems we have in life are related to consecration. We give the enemy far too much credit.
Most of the problems that you and I encounter in daily life, as we go through the motions and walk of this life, can be traced back to this matter of consecration: not allowing Him to be Lord in certain areas of our lives; thinking that we can handle certain things; getting a little overconfident; and thinking that even our experience with the Lord can be substituted for His very present help in times of trouble.
There is a present help available to us as we consider this matter of consecration—One who is ever there, every moment, leading us on to show us more and more of Himself.
Quite often, when we think of consecration, we think it means giving ourselves to the Lord in order to do something for Him. We are told, “Look at all God has done for you. Look at this table. Look at everything Jesus has done for you. Now you do something for Him.” Is this consecration?
Oh, brothers and sisters, because of all He has done for us, we yield the rights within our lives to Him so that He can live in us. Consecration is giving ourselves to Him for Him to use us and for Him to live through us as He desires—not merely doing something for Him.
So often, we have this built-in drive within us to do something for God, to prove to Him how much we love Him. But He is not interested in that. He is interested in us yielding our lives to Him, allowing Him to express and live out His life through us in every circumstance of life.
Paul’s testimony was:
For me to live is Christ.
That is another definition of consecration. Our testimony is, “For me to live is Christ”—Christ living within us, being expressed and manifested, not merely knowing about Him but allowing His life to be lived out. That was Paul’s testimony of consecration: “For me to live is Christ.” Oh, how precious. Is not the Lord yearning for that?
Oftentimes, when we speak of consecration, we use the phrase “surrendering our life to Him.” Even the hymn we just sang spoke of surrendering, and I appreciate that thought. I have always used that thought myself.
Recently I was reading Madame Guyon. Though she appreciated the thought of surrender, she said that, in one sense, when we really think of the love of Christ, surrender is a term of war. It is like being defeated and beaten, and therefore finally giving in.
Now, I know that sometimes in my life I have been so stubborn that the Lord has had to bring me to a place where I finally gave in and surrendered. Praise God, He loves for us to surrender.
But Madame Guyon used another word. She said that, out of love for Christ, we abandon our lives to Him. Abandonment rather than surrender. I have abandoned all my rights. I have abandoned control of my life. I see His great love and His mercies, and I have abandoned myself totally. I have let go of it and allowed myself to come under His control.
We do not need to get caught up in the semantics between surrender and abandonment. Both words contain truth. Yet as we consider them, they can give us a fuller understanding of what we are looking at in this whole matter.
One thing we need to understand about consecration is this: Who is consecration for? So often, we can fall into the trap of thinking, “I am just an ordinary believer. Consecration is for those who are going out to serve the Lord. They are the special people. They are the ones who really need to consecrate themselves.”
In many religious circles, the term consecrated ones is so misused that it gives a false impression. It is good for us to stop and consider who is called in this matter of consecration.
Brothers and sisters, in one aspect, consecration is only for the servants of God. It is only for priests unto God. But then we have to ask the question: How many servants of God do we have in this room? You can raise your hand. Everybody’s hand is supposed to be raised right now. I will give you the answer.
Consecration is only for the servants of God, but each and every one of us is a servant of God. Consecration is only for priests unto God. How many priests are in this room? We are learning—we are quick learners.
Yes, consecration is for each and every one of us as we go about this Christian life. In one sense, it is for a special group, because we are all special. We have a Father who looks upon all of us and says, “Behold, My children.” Each one is special. Each one of us is so special that He died for us.
He died for each and every one of us. Yes, consecration is for a very special group: the children of God, each and every one of us. Let us not fall into the trap of thinking that it is for somebody else.
Simply put, this matter of consecration is for each of us today, not merely for certain ones. It is not related to age. It does not matter how young or old we are. It is something we are called to enter into.
The second area we want to consider is the motivation for consecration. This is one of the critical things we need to understand: What is the motivation?
In Romans 12:1, Paul says, “I urge you therefore, brethren,” or, “I beseech you,” or, “I entreat you.” There is a pleading in Paul’s heart that we would respond to the mercies of God. It is not a command.
Paul is not saying, “I command you.” Our Lord, who has purchased and redeemed us, has the right, in one aspect, to command us to consecrate ourselves. But in His great love, He does not command us. He does not pressure us. He does not force us. He does not give us a guilt trip.
He does not say, “You have to consecrate yourself. You have to do this. You have to do that on demand if you want to go on in the Christian life. I demand you, I command you, and I am going to force you finally to yield to this whole matter of consecration.” Is that what Paul is saying?
Paul says, “I beseech you. I am begging you. You want to go on in the Lord? There is a great secret. There is something for you to enter into. I am crying unto you with a heart of love that, by the mercies of God, you present yourselves as a living sacrifice.”
Brothers and sisters, do we know the mercies of God? That is the motivation for consecration. The motivation is not obligation. It is not duty. It is not the “thou shalt” of the Old Testament. It is because of the mercies of God.
Paul, as he writes Romans 12, looks back through everything that has gone before in Romans 1-11. Ah, the great mercies of God. Look at His great love. Throughout the worship this morning, many verses came from this book of Romans.
Do we stop and consider the mercies of God? Such a great salvation. The gospel of God, of which we are encouraged not to be ashamed. The whole matter of His justifying us, sanctifying us, and bringing us into glorification in Him. The beautiful riches of this glorious gospel have been presented to us.
We see in Romans 5:8 His great love: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In Romans 8, He testifies that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Because of that, there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ.
Oh, brothers and sisters, do we know the mercies of God? Consecration is simply a response to the mercies of God. It is a response to His great love. It is seeing, however dimly, all that He has done and His great love for us. Because of that, we freely offer ourselves to Him.
We sing, as we testified in that hymn, “I am the Lord’s.” I am the Lord’s is our testimony of consecration. He is going to live out within us as we willingly respond to Him.
Would our Lord really expect us to yield our lives to Him if we did not know Him? Would you turn over anything to somebody you did not know or trust? The Lord shows forth His great love, His great mercies, and the tenderness of how, while we were yet sinners, He died for us.
He not only died for us, but we have died with Him. Oh, the precious identification we have been considering recently in the matter of baptism—how we have been crucified with Christ and now have a new life to live. Oh, these mercies of God. Do we know the mercies of God?
Have we simply been going on because we feel it is our duty or our obligation, or because somebody told us, “You have to do this”? Brothers and sisters, we need to stop. We need to go back and reflect upon the mercies of God.
Allow, as that beautiful hymn says:
Jesus, Lord, I’m captured by Your beauty;
all to Thee, my heart I open wide.
Now set free from all religious duty,
only let me in Thyself abide.
That is a hymn of consecration: a response to the love of Christ touching one’s heart. It is the response to the love and mercies of God—one who has seen these great mercies and then says, “Lord, I am Yours.”
As we consider this whole matter of motivation, I pray in a very fresh way that the mercies of God—His great love for us—would touch us in freshness and newness, so that we could really enter into what He has said.
If we do not know the mercies of God, then we need simply to stop. He is there, very present, and He so desires to show us His mercy. We thank the Lord that we can take the table every week. It is a reminder of the mercies of God and of the love of Christ. Is it fresh to us?
If we do not know the mercies of God, we thank the Lord that daily He gives us an opportunity to freshly consider His great love. May that be the motivation of our response to Him in this whole matter of consecration.
As we are touched by the motivation—the why—of consecration, what is the manner of consecration? How do we enter into this?
Romans 12 says, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice.” You are putting yourselves at His disposal. A sacrifice is something you give up; it is no longer yours. Throughout the Old Testament, you had a lamb that was yours, but then you offered it up. It was completely gone. It was no longer yours.
This is what we are doing: presenting ourselves to God. We are presenting our bodies. But what are we consecrating to the Lord? We need to be clear about this. The body here speaks of our whole being. Our whole being is being given to Him.
Are we giving God our talents? Are we giving Him all our abilities and zeal for Him to take? How often do we say, “If so-and-so could get saved, how God could use them. This brother has such natural eloquence; if God could save him, he could be a great preacher. This brother is such a good administrator; if God could save him, he could really help put things in order. That one is such a good musician; if God could save him, look how he could lead worship.”
Is God interested in our natural talents? Are we giving our natural talents to Him? What does Scripture say we present to Him? Let us look back at Romans 6.
Romans 6:13 speaks of presenting the members of our body:
Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin
as instruments of unrighteousness;
but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
What we used to do, consciously or unconsciously, was present our bodies to sin. But thank the Lord, by His great mercy and salvation, we can now present ourselves to God as alive from the dead and our members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Again, Romans 6:19 says:
For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness,
resulting in further lawlessness,
so now present your members as slaves to righteousness,
resulting in sanctification.
Brothers and sisters, we are presenting ourselves as alive from the dead. We are not presenting our old man. We are not presenting our flesh to Him and saying, “Lord, fix this up and improve it.” That is dead. That is buried.
This is one of the problems we have today with much teaching within Christianity. It takes whatever your old man was, tries to make it pretty, and says, “Go serve God.” Brothers and sisters, that old man has been crucified.
We have a choice now: Do we want a dead person in charge of our life, or do we want the Living One in charge of our life? Too often, we put the dead person in charge of our life, and it only leads to further death. Then we say, “What happened?”
No, we are presenting ourselves as alive from the dead. The Lord has saved us. He has made us alive in Christ. We say, “Lord, now that I am alive in Christ, I want to yield to You so that this life within me—the very Holy Spirit dwelling within me—would have free reign to express that life.”
What does the Lord desire within each one of us? He simply desires His life to be expressed and lived out. When we are born again, a life is put within us. We heard last week about the zeal of the Lord. There is a life of zeal within us, desiring to burst forth, but so often we quench it.
The Lord desires for that life to come forth through His guidance and His headship—to express Christ. He desires that His life would be manifested among the people of God.
That is the wonderful testimony in Acts. When people looked at those believers in Antioch, they did not know what to call them, but they knew what they saw. They saw Christ, and they said, “These are Christ-like. These are Christians.”
How the Lord desires that same testimony to come forth from us today. As we consecrate ourselves to Him and yield to Him, we give Him the reign. We allow Him truly to have His life come forth. We are those alive from the dead, and we are alive from the dead with purpose: that we may present our members to Him for Him to use and direct as He desires.
In this matter of the manner of consecration, we have another question: Is consecration a one-time event? The answer is yes and no.
Yes, there is a point in time in our Christian life when we settle the issue once and for all: “I am yielding. I am responding to the mercies of God. From now on, I desire that Your life would have control of me and that I would be Your bondservant, Your love-slave.” There is a point in time.
But, brothers and sisters, just as our salvation is only the beginning of entering into so great a salvation, so that point in time of consecration is only the beginning. This whole matter of consecration is continual and progressive.
The more we go on with the Lord, the more He continues to call to us and show us His great mercies, and the more we respond. This is one reason many of us trip up in our Christian life. We think, “I consecrated myself to the Lord. I gave myself to the Lord. Yet I still act like this, or do this, or do that.”
We may say, “When did we consecrate ourselves?” “Well, it was three years ago.” But Romans 12 speaks of a living sacrifice. This is the same picture we see in the temple and tabernacle: daily there is an offering to the Lord, a sweet aroma to Him.
Yes, there is a one-time offering of ourselves to Him, a presenting of our bodies to Him. But each morning when we get up—excuse me for putting in a plug for morning watch—as we prepare to live the day, we present ourselves to Him.
We say, “Lord, I desire that You would live Your life out through me this day. Through this whole matter of consecration, I am giving You permission to orchestrate my life in such a way that the things You need to touch within my life, You would deal with.”
The Lord, in His great mercy, does not do His complete work instantaneously. There is a progression. We are always going on. There is a continual progression and a deeper and deeper work.
It is the same with the nation of Israel. We have the beautiful Old Testament picture of the Lord telling them, before they entered the promised land, “I am not going to drive out the enemy all at once. I will send My hornets. I will drive out the enemy, but it will not be instantaneous. It will be little by little, day by day.”
The Lord is going to be doing a work. Through that daily, little-by-little work, He drove out the enemy and they were able to possess the land. It is tragic that they did not completely drive out the enemy and suffered the consequences. But that is what He is doing within us every day.
He desires to live a little more of His life out within us, and He will touch different things. Sometimes I think the Christian life is like an onion. He takes one layer off, and it looks so shiny. Then He says, “I am going to take another layer off.” He keeps peeling it back and peeling it back until He gets to the very heart.
There is a progression in the Christian life. There is a daily work He desires to do as we continually offer ourselves to Him. Yes, every day is a day of consecration.
As we consecrate ourselves every day, we give Him permission to do that peeling-away work, that we may decrease and He may increase within us.
There are two aspects to consecration. There is a general consecration of giving our whole being to Him, but it is also very specific. There is a general giving and yielding to Him, but He also desires to take every aspect of our life.
There is the wonderful old story that has often been shared about F. B. Meyer. He realized he was having troubles within his life, though he was a dear servant of the Lord and was being used greatly.
In the Reader’s Digest version, the Lord convicted him that of all the keys within his life, there was one he was holding back. The Lord said, “You need to yield up all the keys of your life. You need to yield up every aspect of your life.”
After the Lord touched F. B. Meyer in that way and he yielded up that key, he entered into a new experience of the wonderful faithfulness of the Lord.
As the Lord touches areas within our lives, do we respond? It is often like our physical bodies. There are certain areas where, if there is a cut, bruise, or weakness, we say, “Do not touch there.” You get something in your eye: “Do not touch my eye.” You cut yourself: “Do not touch that.” Everything becomes sensitive.
When the Holy Spirit is working within us, this should be a red flag. If the Lord wants to touch a certain area and we say, “Do not touch that. I am not ready,” perhaps that is the day He wants to set us free from it.
Are there areas in our lives where we say, “Lord, do not touch that. Deal with all of this. Lord, help me over here. Help me deal with the way I dress. I do not want to be so worldly, but I do not want to be so out of fashion. Help me in music. Help me in serving You. But, Lord, there is this area here.”
Perhaps for some of us it is sports: “Do not touch my sports. Everything else, Lord, You are free to touch.” But one of the beautiful things about our Lord, and one of the great contrasts between the Lord and the enemy, is that the enemy will accept a small percentage, but the Lord is satisfied only with one hundred percent.
He knows that the small percentage we hold back will end up being our downfall.
It is like owning a piece of land that you are going to sell. In the middle of that land is your favorite little fishing hole. We are going to get a fishing story in here.
You sell the land, but tell the new owner, “As long as I am alive, I want the right to go in and fish in that little pond.” The new owner agrees. That is called an easement. As long as you are alive, you retain the right to go into that little fishing pond.
The former owner has the right to access that little fishing pond even though it is under the title of a new owner. Brothers and sisters, in our spiritual life, the ownership of our lives has been transferred. We are under a new Owner.
But are we still giving our former owner an easement into an area of our life that we are not willing to yield completely to our new Owner?
Do you not think our new Owner, our Lord Jesus, knows how much we love fishing? He will take care of that. He knows us. He knows what is best for us.
Yet there are areas in our lives where we still do not know the mercies of God and His great love. If there is something we are unwilling to let go of within our hands, it indicates that we do not know the love of Christ and the mercies of God in that particular area. The problem is on our side, not His.
As we stop and consider those areas, would the Lord and the Holy Spirit have freedom to touch them within our lives? Would we be able to see and know all of His mercies for us?
There may be areas in our lives that He will deal with a year from now, if He delays His return. All He is looking for today is this: “Mac, I am dealing with you in this area. Do not worry about the other areas in your life. I am dealing with you in this one right now. What are you doing? Are you yielding to Me in this, allowing Me to work in it?”
The Holy Spirit will orchestrate our walk and our way of being set free as we yield to Him.
It is interesting how this presenting of our bodies is described: “your spiritual service of worship.” Do we think of consecration as worship—as yielding to Him?
Many translations, instead of “spiritual service,” say “rational service,” “reasonable service,” or “intelligent service.” It is a conscious effort. It is a conscious response to the love of Christ.
As we respond to Him, our Lord sees our response as that sweet aroma of worship unto Him. When God is in His rightful place and we are in our rightful place, that is worship—acknowledging who He is and acknowledging who we are.
Too often our worship is backwards because we are taking a higher place than Him. But when we come down at His feet, that is the highest place. That is what He is calling us to in this hour.
Having considered the meaning, motivation, and manner of consecration, what is the mark? What is the fruit? What is the evidence of consecration?
It can be summarized in one word: Christ.
When Christ is seen within us, that is the evidence, the mark, and the fruit of consecration: Christ’s life being manifested within us; Christ lived out; Christ’s life expressed in a beautiful way in our lives together.
Romans 12:2 says:
Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
The mark of consecration is a mind being renewed. It is the mind of Christ dwelling within us. Again, that is a process: His mind, His desire, and His heart controlling our lives—not our own thoughts, and not the way we used to do things controlling us, but His Holy Spirit leading and guiding us.
Consecration is giving the Holy Spirit permission to do this great work of transformation. Our Lord Jesus never forces Himself upon us. There will not be an automatic transformation.
But as we yield, we give permission to the Holy Spirit: “Lord, I am giving You the right to do this transforming work. I am tired of my mind being so conformed to this world and to the spirit of this age. It is bondage. I want to be set free from that. I want the mind of Christ to richly dwell within me.”
We are giving the Holy Spirit permission to begin that great work. The wonderful transformation that the Lord does begins from within and works outward.
Conformity to this world is something put on outwardly. We try to make everything look pretty. We try to act outwardly like a Christian. Another word used in some translations of Romans 12:2 is fashioned according to this age. We can become so caught up in the fashion and spirit of the age.
A. B. Simpson spoke about being conformed to the world, being of the fashion of this age, and being transformed. He said we have a great challenge because so much within Christianity today has no separation between the world and the people of God. It is all mixed together, and we have merged into one.
The Lord desires to do this transforming work in a people who truly would be pilgrims and strangers—a precious treasure and testimony to the world and to the age in which we are living.
Again, this is not merely about changing outward dress. It is about allowing His life to work within us so that we are not drawn, driven, and pulled by the age in which we live. Rather, we would be constrained by the love of Christ, controlled by the love of Christ, as Paul testified.
As we look at this wonderful book of Romans, Romans 1-8 could stand as a complete book. It is a complete book for the individual to walk this life.
But there is another mark of consecration: an awareness of the body of Christ.
In Romans 1-8, we have hints of the corporate work the Lord is doing. But in essence, those chapters deal with our individual lives. Romans 9-11 show the Lord’s great call, purpose, and faithfulness to an unfaithful people, Israel, and how that encourages us.
But when we come to Romans 12, a transaction occurs in the first five verses that changes the whole nature and character of the book.
After we pass through these first verses in Romans 12, in one sense the individual is out of sight. What is seen is the body of Christ—the corporate life together being lived out.
Look at Romans 12-16. It is life together: loving one another, accepting one another, not offending one another, not putting stumbling blocks before one another, and learning to live together even when one person is convicted of one thing and another person is not. It is relationship. It is learning to live together.
Even in Romans 16, we see the expression of love to many believers. There is a total change.
When we began today, we read Romans 12:1-5. Quite often, when we speak on consecration, we look only at Romans 12:1-2. Verses 3-5 can almost seem strange. Why are they there? What is the missing link between the first part of Romans, verses 1 and 2 of chapter 12, and the rest of the book?
The mark of consecration is that we would prove the will of God—that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. The will of God: the singular will of God, His heart and purpose.
As our minds are renewed and we give ourselves to Him, our eyes are opened to see this great will of God: that He desires an eternal companion for His beloved Son. Our eyes are opened so that we are no longer occupied with our own business but with our Father’s business.
The zeal for the house of God would consume us, as we heard last week. When we see and enter into knowing what this singular will of God is, there is an opening of our eyes.
There are many individual expressions of God’s will—within our work and our families—but they all come out of the will of God. As we give ourselves to Him and are no longer occupied with ourselves, as our minds are renewed, we begin to see that there is more to this life than just me.
Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and I am now saved. Praise God that while I was yet a sinner, He saved me. But then we begin to see why He did that: because we have been brought into a relationship.
Romans 12 uses the example of the body. At other times Scripture speaks of the house of God or the bride. Here it is the body. We, as the body of Christ, have been brought together.
It is wonderful to see that Romans 12:1 says, “Present your bodies,” in the plural. But when we come to Romans 12:4-5, it is one body. The focus is no longer upon the individual bodies.
By the renewing of our minds and entering into His will, we see: “Ah, one body. I am just a part of this one body.”
But look at Romans 12:5. We are not merely part of one body. As we all present ourselves to the Lord and are brought into this reality:
So we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
and individually members one of another.
Individually, we are members—whether hands, feet, toes, ears, or whatever the description may be—and we have been brought into a relationship.
This is the mark of consecration: seeing God’s heart and purpose for the body of Christ and for the house of God.
Brothers and sisters, if we have not entered into this, we need to go back to considering the mercies of God, considering His great call, and allowing Him to work in such a wonderful way that we may enter into all that is upon His heart.
We are thankful for everything that occurs in Romans 1-8, but I am thankful that the book does not end there. If it ended there, in one way it would be perfect. We would have been saved, justified, sanctified, and assured that nothing could separate us from the love of Christ. What a place.
But God has more—more that He wants us to enter into. He continues and says, “Therefore, by those mercies, there is a reason and a purpose to which I have called you.”
That purpose is that we may enter into knowing the reality of being part of this body of Christ. Would the Lord open our eyes? Would we see this as the mark and evidence of consecration?
Do we look upon our brothers and sisters as individually members one of another? Are there ones we think we can do without? Are there ones we wish were without? Oh, would the Lord convict us, so that we might see Christ in one another and the great work He is doing.
If we desire to live in these days, brothers and sisters, the battle is only intensifying. It is not going to get any easier.
The Lord has given us a key. If we are going to walk with Him triumphantly in this battle, He simply desires that each day we would present ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice, so that He may do that great transforming work of conforming us to the image of His Son.
Then we may be about our Father’s business. This is the call He has upon us.
It is so great a salvation. I have such a desire in my own heart because I know that I am my own worst enemy. I have been blessed so much. I have been given so much. There are riches that have been given to me.
Yet I look at where I am. But praise God, I do not have to stop by looking at where I am. There is One to whom we look, and we behold the mercies of God. He leads us on and encourages His own.
Just as much as Christ was for us two thousand years ago, He is for us today. Do we know how much Christ is for us? Do we know His great mercies within our lives, desiring that His life would be manifested within us?
This is the way we make it through to the end.
Revelation speaks of those who are overcomers. Those overcomers are not super-Christians. They are normal Christians living in abnormal times.
They overcame by the word of their testimony. They had a word testifying that Jesus Christ was Lord—speaking of consecration. They loved not their lives unto death. They yielded to Him.
And what was the third element? The blood of the Lamb. How can you forget that? Yet you see why we need to remember every week: we can quickly leave aside the blood of the Lamb.
Thank the Lord every day. Brothers and sisters, as we go on in this life, the blood of the Lamb becomes far more precious to us every day. We experience His great love for us as He forgives us of all our sins.
As we consider this matter of consecration throughout this month, we simply desire that, in a very fresh way, we could see that consecration is a transaction of love.
He has loved us, and because of that great love, we respond to Him in love.
Brothers and sisters, what will keep us through to the end is His love for us.
I will close with one final story. Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, would interview candidates who desired to go to China. He would always ask them, “Why do you want to go?”
Often they would say, “The Lord says, ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.’” They were going out of obedience to a command. He would say, “That is good.”
Others would say, “We have such a burden for the lost.” He would say, “That is good too.”
Others would say, “I love the Lord so much. I just want to serve Him.” He would say, “That is good too.”
But he said, “There is one thing that will hold you all the way through.” It is those verses we read at the beginning in 2 Corinthians 5: being controlled by the love of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, our love for Him will not get us through to the end. But His love for us will carry us through, not only to the end of this age but into an age of eternity.
Would we know His love constraining us? Would we respond to that love, so that we could enter into seeing more and more?
This matter of consecration is so critical in this hour because this is why so many of our individual lives are weak: there are areas we are still holding on to.
Sad to say, that is why our corporate life is so weak as well. There is a lack of consecration within our lives.
I pray that the love of Christ would touch us in such a way that, in the freshness of that love, daily we could go on in Him.
We have wasted many opportunities. There is a verse that has been a great comfort to me recently from the Minor Prophets. It speaks of all that the locusts have eaten up and all the damage the locust has done.
The prophet had a prayer: “Lord, restore what the locust has eaten.” The story does not end with the locust devouring. The story ends with, “Restore what the locusts have eaten.”
Brothers and sisters, where we have wasted many days, many times, and many opportunities, we thank the Lord that in His great love we can pray that He would restore what has been devoured, and that we could go on triumphantly in Him because of His love that has drawn us.
As we close, let us have silent prayer. This matter of consecration is an individual transaction for each one of us.
If we have never really seen the mercies of God, if we do not know the mercies of God, would we pray that the Lord would show us afresh the mercies of God?
If there was a point in time when we consecrated our lives but we have not renewed that day by day, would we come to that place of offering ourselves afresh this day?
If there are areas in our life that the Lord is desiring to touch—areas where we are still holding the keys, our favorite little fishing pond—would we allow the Lord to make us willing this day to give those up?
Let us have silent prayer, each one of us transacting with the Lord quietly. Then, in a few minutes, we will close by singing the hymn that we sang at the beginning.