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Your Day in Romans - 15:14-21

Started by Al Moak, January 03, 2005, 09:47:50 AM

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Al Moak

The Twenty-First Sermon
Romans 15:14-21
Your Acceptable Offering


What would you like to offer to God?  Would you like to give Him something that pleases Him?  Of course, when we're answering a question like that we always need to remember that we don't really have anything at all of our own to offer Him.  In fact, all that we can ever offer to God is what He Himself has done in and through us.  But if God is indeed working in us by His Spirit, then - thanks be to Him - He actually does work in us that which is pleasing to Himself.  So what would you like to offer?  Paul had an answer, at least for himself.  Hopefully we can see it in the passage before us.

Let's begin with an illustration.  Consider a football coach, a coach who is very much like a beloved father to each member of his team.  Of course he wants to win games, but even more he wants each team member to win in the game of life.  They all know from personal experience that he feels this way about them, so they play exceptionally hard for him.  It's as if each game is dedicated to him, so that there's a deep desire to win for his sake.  Each game is, in fact, an offering to him.

That's the way it was for Paul.  He wanted very, very much to be used of God, to be empowered by the Spirit, and to be specially blessed in his preaching and evangelism, all so that he would be able to present the fruits of all his labor to his beloved Lord as an offering.  That's what he meant when he said here, " . . . that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit."  He wanted an offering that would please his Lord.

This strong desire of his shapes the entire Roman letter.  His innermost heart is revealed when he tells them that his deepest-felt  prayer was that God would soon allow him to visit them.  It was his hope that, "I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established - that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me." (1:11) He greatly desired that their mutual faith might be a pleasing offering to God.

Since being awakened by Christ on the road to Damascus his great concern in life was the perfection in Christlikeness of all to whom his beloved Lord sent him.  He was more than willing, as he told the Philippians, that he himself be "poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of" the faith of God's people.  (Phil. 2:17)  Paul was totally dedicated in heart and life.

Such dedication should not be limited to apostles.  Every one of us, too, if we've come to love our Lord Jesus Christ, should be filled with the desire to bring offerings to Him.   Remember what the apostle said in the twelfth chapter.  He said, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God - which is your reasonable service."  He's saying that total dedication is only reasonable considering the mercies of God toward us in His Son.  It's really quite reasonable that we offer Him all we are and have.

What we're seeing here is Paul's underlying motive in writing to the Roman church.  God gave him a ministry to the Gentiles, so he wanted to perfect them as an offering for his beloved Savior.  He's doing it, he says, by "reminding" them concerning various points of the Gospel, even though he's convinced that they're already "filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another."

We all need that kind of reminding. We all need to be filled with Gospel knowledge, and every one of us needs to apply it to our own lives and to admonish and encourage one another regarding its application as well. 

So there are two important things for us here: 1) We need to be fully persuaded that real Gospel knowledge can and will produce an offering for God, and, 2) that it's necessary not only to be filled with such knowledge, but to be applying it.

We in the modern Church, then, need to be fully aware, firstly, that the "Gospel" he's talking about is much more than the simple evangelistic message that some consider adequate.  Secondly, we need to be aware that such a fuller Gospel message has important applications to our daily lives. 

The apostle, when writing about the Gospel message here, is actually referring to all the doctrines he's dealt with in the Roman letter, a letter that many believe contains almost all the doctrines of the Christian faith.  Our conclusion should be that such doctrines as salvation by grace alone, sanctification by means of the Word and Spirit, and election and predestination - are intended to be understood and applied to our daily lives!

Please notice also that the apostle rejoices that these Roman Christians are themselves able to admonish (lovingly confront) one another relative to the practical applications of the theology of this letter.  I hope it's obvious that they would need to be very well versed in it to thus admonish one another.  Oh that our Lord would be able to rejoice over us as the apostle did over these Romans!  God grant that we may quickly become well versed in the doctrines of Scripture and concerned enough about them to lovingly, gently, but definitely exhort one another!  Oh that He would grant that we ourselves, along with our brothers and sisters in Christ might in that way become an offering "acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit!"

Of course, even if we do become such an offering, we must, even then, give all the glory to God.  It is, as Paul says here, entirely a work of the Spirit of God.  Not only so, but as he also says, "I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient."  He's just saying that he doesn't dare to boast about anything he himself has done, as though he could accomplish anything apart from Christ by His Spirit.  Salvation, from first to last, is God's work, not man's work.

Summing up, we need to ask ourselves some really soul-searching questions.  First of all, are we so moved by God's mercies that we are totally dedicated to making ourselves - and others - an offering to God?  Are you dedicated to making yourself - and me - an offering acceptable to God?  And look at the people around you in your church just now.  Are you deeply concerned that they also should be an acceptable, pleasing offering to Him? In fact, do you want everything you do in life to be an offering to your beloved God?  Do you love Him that much?

I pray that we will so study His Word, that we will become so acquainted with His mercies to us, that we will become so taken up with Him - that we shall devote more and more of our lives as an offering that pleases Him.


Chris & Margit Saunders