PRINCIPLES OF CONSECRATION

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: ROMANS 12:1, 2




INTRODUCTION:


  1. It has been noted that in Romans 12:1, the apostle says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren..." He does not say, "I command you therefore, brethren..."
  2. In II Corinthians 10:1, Paul says, "Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ..."
  3. In Ephesians 4:1, Paul says, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called."
  4. In I Thessalonians 4:1, Paul says, "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren..."
  5. Paul wrote to Philemon, "Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee... I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds" (Philemon 9, 10).
  6. "Beseech" means "to ask, entreat, beg."
  7. One preacher said, "Moses commands; the Apostle exhorts" (Bengel).
  8. Our text deals with the principles of consecration. Paul could not demand that Christians be consecrated, and neither can we.
  9. So we beseech.

  1. THE GROUND OF CONSECRATION
  2. THE CHARACTER OF CONSECRATION
  3. THE EFFECT OF CONSECRATION

 

I. THE GROUND OF CONSECRATION

  1. The word "therefore" (12:1) connects these verses with all that has gone before. Therefore, because we have been justified, we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice...
  2. Therefore, because we have been sanctified, we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice...
  3. There is the "therefore of justification" in Romans 5:1. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
  4. Have you been justified by faith?
  5. Then there is the "therefore of sanctification" in Romans 8:1. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
  6. Are you "in Christ Jesus"?
  7. Are you walking in the Spirit?
  8. If you can answer these questions in the affirmative, then, "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" (12:1).
  9. This is the ground or the basis of consecration.
  10. Just as Paul uses the word "beseech" rather than "demand," he uses the words "mercies of God" rather than "authority of God" (12:1).
  11. The Bible often refers to God's "tender mercies" (Psalm 25:6; 40:11; etc.) and "the multitude" of God's tender mercies (Psalm 51:1; 69:16).
  12. Ephesians 2:4 says God "is rich in mercy."
  13. Titus 3:5 says, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost."
  14. God's grace and mercy is the ground of all Christian consecration and morality. It is because we are already recipients of the mercies of God that we must, and can live the Christian life.
  15. Romans 1:16 says the gospel of Christ "is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
  16. This "power" enables us to present our bodies a living sacrifice (12:1).
  17. Walter Wilson was born in 1881, and worked in the tent making business while attending the University of Kansas and earning his medical degree. After graduating, he opened his own medical practice, and in 1904 married the tentmaker’s daughter.
  18. However, due to his father-in-law’s failing health, he was compelled to work full time at the tent making business as well his medical practice.
  19. This continued for 25 years. During World War I, he made camouflaging and waterproofing tents for the United States Army.
  20. Another customer was the legendary Buffalo Bill.
  21. In his medical work, Dr. Wilson noticed that people did not need physical help as much as they needed spiritual help, so he became a witnessing doctor. However, he was frustrated that his efforts were often ineffective.
  22. Then one night, on January 14, 1914, Dr. Wilson went to hear Dr. James Gray preach. Dr. Gray was a pastor who would soon become the president of the Moody Bible Institute and one of the editors of the Scofield Study Bible.
  23. That night, Dr. Gray preached a sermon from Romans 12:1 and 2.
  24. Dr. Gray asked: “Have you noticed that this verse does not tell us to whom we should give our bodies? It is not the Lord Jesus; He has His own body. It is not God the Father; He remains upon His throne. Another has come to earth without a body. God has given you the privilege and the indescribable honor of presenting your bodies to the Holy Spirit, to be His dwelling place on earth.”
  25. This message had a tremendous impact on Dr. Walter Wilson. He went home and prayed, “Lord, I give You this body from my head to my feet. I give you my hands, my limbs, my eyes and lips, my brain. You may send this body to Africa, or lay it on a bed with cancer. It is your body from this moment on. Thank You, my Lord, I believe You have accepted it, for in Romans twelve, You said, “acceptable unto God.”

 

II. THE CHARACTER OF CONSECRATION

  1. The word "present" (12:1) is used in different ways in Scripture. For example, we read in Luke 2:22 that Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem, "to present him to the Lord."
  2. And just as Joseph and Mary presented the baby Jesus to the Lord, we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service (12:1).
  3. When we present our bodies to the Lord, we are presenting everything to the Lord -- soul, body and spirit (cf. I Thess. 5:23).
  4. The word translated "present" in Romans 12:1 means "yield," and that is how the word is translated in Romans 6:13 -- "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God..."
  5. W.H. Griffith Thomas said, "Christ is the Saviour of the whole man, and redemption necessarily includes spirit, soul, and body" (Romans).
  6. The sincere Christian wants God's will for his or her life. We want to "prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (12:2).
  7. Therefore, we present our bodies to God for the purpose of carrying out that will.
  8. This consecration is voluntary ("I beseech you" -- 12:1); it is complete -- body, soul, and spirit; and it is sacrificial -- "a living sacrifice" (12:1).
  9. The Old Testament sacrifices were offerings of dead animals, but today the Christian's sacrifice is "living" (12:1).
  10. This sacrifice is holy and acceptable unto God, and it is our reasonable service.
  11. This consecration is voluntary, complete -- body, soul, and spirit, sacrificial, and reasonable. It is reasonable to be devoted to God. It is unreasonable to live for self and the things of this world.
  12. You are either consecrated or worldly. To be "conformed to this world" (12:2) is to foolish. Galatians 1:4 says Christ died for our sins, "that he might deliver us from this present evil world."
  13. James 4:4 says worldliness is spiritual adultery. "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
  14. Second Corinthians 4:4 says Satan is "the god of this world," and he "hath blinded the minds of them which believe not."
  15. Ephesians 2:2 says, "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air..."
  16. The spirit of the world is absolute selfishness. Its object is the gratification of self rather than doing the will of God.
  17. We must be very careful not to allow ourselves be influenced by the world. It is sad but true -- the majority of churches here in America are being influenced by the world (its philosophy, its music, etc.).
  18. The doctrine of separation has disappeared in most churches, but it is still in the Bible -- "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Ephesians 5:11).

 

III. THE EFFECT OF CONSECRATION

  1. This brings us to my third point -- the effect of consecration. We are to be "transformed" (12:2). When a person is born again a great change takes place. And the process of sanctification continues till we get to heaven.
  2. We often talk of spiritual growth, but here we see spiritual transformation.

I have a Christ Who satisfies
Since I have been redeemed,
To do His will my highest prize,
Since I have been redeemed
. --Edwin O. Excell

  1. Growth suggests progress, but transformation indicates change.
  2. The Greek word translated "transformed" is translated "changed" in II Corinthians 3:18 -- "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
  3. Second Corinthians 3:18 says this transformation is by the Holy Spirit. Romans 12:2 says, "transformed by the renewing of your mind."
  4. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to transform our thinking.
  5. The mind of Christ takes the place of the mind of self.
  6. Why is there so much confusion and disorder in this wicked, mixed-up world? It is because people have left God out.
  7. This is the essence of worldliness -- it is life without God. It could be the world of education, or philosophy, or art, or politics, or religion, etc. But if God is left out there will be trouble.
  8. We have to be sensitive to the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is to be allowed continually to work in our "mind" (12:2).
  9. The "mind" in Scripture is much more than mere intellect. There is a moral aspect as well.
  10. Romans 1:28 says, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient."
  11. Do you have a renewed mind or a reprobate mind?
  12. Colossians 2:18 refers to the sinner who is "vainly puffed up by his fleshly (sensuous, carnal) mind."
  13. Sin has darkened people's minds. That is why they are stubborn, stiff-necked, sensual, selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed, self-obsessed, self-seeking, and self-serving.
  14. Only the Holy Spirit can renew the mind, and control the mind, and transform the mind.
  15. This inward transformation inevitably leads to spiritual discernment -- we can "prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (12:2).
  16. In their commentary on the epistle to the Romans, William Sanday and Arthur Headlam said this: "The result of this purification is to make the intellect, which is the seat of moral judgment, true and exact in judging on spiritual and moral questions."
  17. The will of God can be known, and can be proved, and can be done, and can be enjoyed. As we yield ourselves to God, and allow Him to transform us, He deepens our capacity for greater blessing.

 

CONCLUSION:


  1. J. M. W. Turner was a 19th century English painter, known for his beautiful landscape paintings.
  2. W.H. Griffith Thomas said this: "If a man stands before one of the great masterpieces of Turner, and is told to reproduce it on a canvas provided for him, he will soon realize his utter helplessness to accomplish the task. The ideal is too high; the genius of the great painter is infinitely above him. But if by some possibility Turner could become incarnated in the man, could see through his eyes, think through his brain, and work through his hand, it would be possible to reproduce the picture because it would be no longer by him, but by Turner dwelling in him. In the same way in morals, the prior question is always as to the power to do what is required. The example of Christ, the will of God, the ideal life; these things are far above our powers, and it is only when Christ dwells in us by the Holy Spirit that they become practical possibilities."


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