In this sermon, Dr. Josh Buice will explain why we as Christians must remain good stewards of our physical health so that we might persevere in enjoying and glorifying God in this life. At every turn, we’re bombarded with ads for services and products to help us evade the aging process. As Christians, we must avoid the two common ditches of idolatry and neglect. Our goal must not be vanity, but to be faithful servants of our bodies so we can more effectively worship, enjoy, and glorify our great God. 

Greetings. It is a privilege to be with you this evening as we open up God's Word and as we continue to worship. If you would open your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 will be our focus this evening and once again a privilege to be friends here again with Scott Brown and of course Church and Family Life, the ministry that this conference is here for this evening and this ministry that blesses so many homes and churches. It is a privilege to partner with you all in gospel ministry.

This evening my focus will be the topic, the assignment is glorifying and enjoying God in your body. I think in that little testimony that Scott was referencing a moment ago was maybe some conversations we've had about marathon running and some other things. And so he thought that's the guy that needs to preach this sermon. So if that's the case, it is a privilege indeed to open up God's Word and to unpack this text. The text is Romans 12 verses 1 and 2.

Read with me as I read aloud. This is God's Word and it reads as follows. I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect if you would now join me in prayer Heavenly Father we do thank you again for the privilege to be here this evening. We ask now that as we now continue to worship in your Word once again this evening, what a wonderful thrill it has been to be a part of this conference, to be able to sing the gospel, to be able to hear the Word preached and applied to us regarding the chief end of man. I pray this evening that you would encourage all of us to take seriously this life of worship.

May you be honored, O God, not only in this sermon and in this conference, but in the fruit of these sermons and in the fruit of this conference as we go back home and as we continue to engage in family life and church life and may it all be done for your praise honor and glory now we ask this in Jesus name Amen The author of this very letter that we know as Romans is the Apostle Paul. He writes to a church that's in the city of Rome. And really for the first 11 chapters, what we find is we find that the Apostle Paul is laboring to teach this church and to remind these people of the grand truths of salvation. What we find is 11 chapters that are focusing on the grand theology that he seeks to put on vivid display. And what we see at the forefront, really at the core of these 11 chapters is the subject of justification by faith alone in Christ alone for the remission of sin.

And then we find here at chapter 12 there's a bit of a hinge. There's a transition that takes place. So if you've studied Romans you know this. Eleven chapters on heavy doctrine, the doctrine of salvation, And then there's a hinge, a transition that will go from chapters 12 to 16 where the Apostle Paul will teach the church on what it means now to live out this doctrine that he has been teaching and unpacking for 11 chapters. You might say it like this.

The Apostle Paul transitions from knowing God to obeying God, from what to know to how a person should live. Paul connects orthodoxy with orthopraxy. He really moves from a focus of justification to a life of sanctification. And so in this text, we see something of great importance. We see some really important terms here in verses one and two of chapter 12 as he starts the last half, if you will, of what he intends to teach this church.

And really what we see here is really important because he speaks about the body and he speaks about worship. And so as we give attention to this language, we need to ask ourselves the question, is this body important? Is your body important? And as we think about this world in which we live, we see all sorts of pervasive, horrific ideologies and agendas that are plaguing this nation. We see the LGBTQA plus agenda and transgenderism that's impacting this nation.

Even right now in Washington State there is a bill that would strip parents their rights to intervene on their children's medical care. In certain circumstances, it has now passed the House, and it's clearing its pathway to being signed by the governor. In other words, those children that are being influenced by the culture could then choose to engage in transition care. Transition care being that of the mutilation of the human body without parental consent. What a tragedy.

Even post Roe v. Wade in America we see the continual butchering of little babies. For those of you in this room that celebrated the fall of Roe v. Wade, mind you this evening that babies are still being butchered in this nation. More than 50% of all abortions in our nation are performed by pills that are mailed to the homes of those individuals that go through an abortion.

Across the U.S. There is a hyper focus on the way the body looks to the point of idolatry. The weight loss industry is a billion dollar industry. There's a gymnasium on every corner. There's all sorts of pills that are marketed to you on social media that will teach you if you'll just take this pill, You don't have to run long distances.

You don't have to lift weights. You can just lose weight that way. And then the health food industry. But then we can go to the obesity statistics. According to stats, 41.9% of the US population is considered to be obese.

And so then we should ask ourselves an honest question. How do we glorify and enjoy God in this body, this human flesh. And for the next 32 minutes and seven seconds, I would like to press upon you this truth that we find here in Romans 12, one and two, that we could learn how God would have us to steward this body, this human flesh. We need to ask ourselves an honest question. Should we exercise or not?

Should we eat that third barbecue sandwich at the barbecue restaurant or not? Should we eat three pieces of cake or not? Does it even matter? We should ask ourselves an honest question about cremation. Should Christians engage in the burning of the body post-life after death?

Is that the pattern, if you will, of the Church of Jesus Christ historically? We need to ask ourselves those questions. In fact, we should ask very important questions in light of the text of scripture and ask ourselves the question, when it comes to the body and all this language that we find all throughout the New Testament, what would God have us to do with this body? And children, you need to ask yourself this question, why is it that mom and dad would place vegetables on your plate and say, you should not eat this that's full of sugar and it's bad for your body all the time, and this is why you have to eat things that are green, that might be good for you, and that you might complain to mom and dad about. So why is it that we should do these things?

Does it even matter at all, you might ask. So Let us examine this text and seek to apply this evening before we leave regarding how we should glorify God in this body of flesh. The first thing we see in verse one is a holy appeal for a holy life. If you give attention to God's word, it says, I appeal to you, therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. This holy appeal, I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God.

In other words, everything that the apostle Paul has been teaching and unpacking on the subject of justification by faith alone in Christ alone for eleven chapters on the basis of all this truth. I want to appeal to you, brothers, On the basis of these mercies, on the basis that God has been good to you, He has saved you, He has rescued you through the blood of His Son, I want to call you to a life, a holy ambition, a life of worship, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. Presenting your bodies. John Calvin observes that by bodies he means not only our skin and bones but the totality of which we are composed. In other words, all that we are For the members of the body are the instruments by which we carry out our purposes.

In other words, God gave you a body for a reason. Now in the Greek culture, Historically, and in the culture that Paul would have certainly been engaging, they believed in the depreciation of the human body and put emphasis on the spiritual. And so there was this depreciation, this devaluing, if you will, of the human body of the flesh and putting maximum attention upon the spiritual realm. So then, of course, you have to ask yourself, then does the body even matter? And of course, the church in this day would have had to deal with those very issues.

And so that's why you find the very language that you see before you end this letter and in other places where Paul writes to other churches because he would make a correction to that way of thinking. Christians should think differently about their bodies. So what value is there to your body? Well, if you look at Paul's writing here, you see he references the body. In other places, like in 1 Corinthians 6, in verses 12 through 20, which is an entire paragraph dealing with sexual perversion and this idea that was prevalent in Corinth where the people of the culture would go to the temple to worship Aphrodite and they would engage in temple prostitution, and he would correct the sexual promiscuity and sexual sin for an entire chapter, or this entire paragraph in this chapter in 1 Corinthians 6, and then he would come down to the very end of that paragraph, and he would say this, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price so here it is glorify God in your body elsewhere in second Corinthians chapter six verse 16 he would say this what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said. I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. You hear that temple language referencing the body. And so it is.

You even go to Romans chapter six in this letter, and in verse 13 it says, do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. In other words, every single instrument of your human body matters. In fact, every single part of your body matters. Just a couple of years ago, I was playing football out with a group of guys behind our church, my son and other guys coming together. In fact, there's a Presbyterian church down the road, and the day after Thanksgiving every year they like to come and play us, the guys that want to join in a game of football.

One of the last plays of the game, I went to catch a pass, and it hit just the end of this pinky finger. And immediately, I dropped the ball. I thought, OK, just an incomplete pass. Went back to the line, get ready for the next play. And I felt that there was this surge of pressure on my hand.

I looked down and it felt really warm and I started to try to bend my hand like this and there was no bending that finger. I knew instantly it was broken. And so I went and wrapped it up and a few weeks later took it out of the little wrap and the splint and it's now forever crooked. And it doesn't work as well as my other one. But every single part of your body actually matters.

There's not one part of your body that God gave you that doesn't matter. It's not wasted. In other words, God gave it to you for a reason. And here in this text, this holy appeal for a holy life, there's a calling and it says, by the mercies of God, this is the basis for this appeal. You are to present your bodies, notice this, as a living sacrifice.

And you would have expected him to say a dead sacrifice. Or you would have expected him to say a sacrifice which would have implied death. Because to say a dead sacrifice is actually logical. To say a sacrifice that implies death is actually logical. But to say something like this, to say to the church at Rome, Paul, in this letter, to say, offering up your bodies as a living sacrifice is abnormal.

That's strange. That's very odd. Because you see the sacrificial system, as we think back to the Old Testament and the Old Covenant, we think about Moses meeting with God and God giving instructions for how the people were to worship God. And there was, of course, this reference to an altar that was to be raised up. This altar was to be erected.

It was for burnt offerings to be offered up to God, where they would offer peace offerings, they would offer sheep and oxen, and it would be all for the purpose of worshiping God. A.W. Pink describing this altar, This altar where burnt offerings would be offered up to God says, there it stood ever smoking, ever bloodstained, ever open to any guilty Hebrew that might wish to approach it. The sinner having forfeited his life by sin and other life, an innocent life must be given in his stead. Go back and study the Old Testament you find that Gideon offered burnt offerings in Judges 6 when the Ark of the Covenant was returned to the people of God from the Philistines, you find that burnt offerings were offered up to God in 1 Samuel 6.

David offered burnt offerings as a result of his sin, 2 Samuel 24. King Solomon offered 1, 000 burnt offerings at the dedication of the temple. And you see this in 1 Kings chapter number 3. And of course, you can see this burnt offering that is connected to the Passover. According to 2 Chronicles 35, when King Josiah celebrated the Passover, he slaughtered more than 37, 000 sheep.

So the idea there is death. In other words, when an animal was brought to the altar, it was dead. It was slain. In fact, the Hebrew root for altar actually means to slay. It actually means slaughter.

So to make a statement like a living sacrifice would be very, very odd. It's like an oxymoron. An oxymoron, you know what that is, right? Icy hot, jumbo shrimp, awfully good, bittersweet. You get the point, right?

But notice what he says in verse one. He says, you are to offer up your bodies as a living sacrifice, which is holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. It is to be a holy offering. Holy means this idea that's reserved, set apart for. Is that what your life looks like?

Is that what your life looks like? Is it a holy life? Robert Haldane observes this word holy. He writes, and as the sacrifices were holy devoted to God, so believers ought to be wholly consecrated to his service, preserving their bodies pure as temples of the Holy Ghost." It goes further And he talks about it being an acceptable offering, which means well pleasing, well pleasing. And this offering, this offering of our bodies is to be offered up to God and it's to be an offering that is well pleasing And it's to be holy and it is to be what?

It is to be spiritual worship. This word spiritual has in mind thoughtful or logical. It has in mind this idea of reasonable. Some translations in this passage will talk about a reasonable service to God. John Murray observes the service here in view as worshipful service.

And the apostle characterizes it as rational because it is worship that derives its character as acceptable to God from the fact that it enlists our mind and our reason and our intellect. So what is worship? This acceptable offering that is holy, that is a spiritual, using the mind, logical, reasonable worship. Seventy-three times in the New Testament we see the word worship. About 22 times in the New Testament we see the word serve or service.

Proskuneo is the word that we oftentimes see from Greek translated worship in the New Testament, And it's this idea of humbly bowing before the king or a dignitary. And then there's this idea of latria, this idea of serve. And that's the word that Paul chooses to use here in this text. It's focused on this service, this worship, this action, this attitude as we come before God and as we worship Him, as we serve Him. That's the idea.

So what's the point? The point is this. The totality of your life from everyday life to corporate worship on the Lord's Day is to be offered up to God as a life of worship. So In other words, it's not focusing here in this text when he talks about worship, he's not just focusing on what happens on the Lord's Day or the Lord's Day evening or in a Christian conference like this. He's talking about the totality of your body and the totality of your calendar, every aspect of your life and every moment of your life to be offered up to God as a holy and acceptable offering for the glory of God.

So that you would glorify God in your body, so that you would enjoy God in your body, from corporate worship to personal worship. In other words, it's not just 11 a.m. To noon on the Lord's Day that we're talking about here. We're talking about what happens in the break room. We're talking about what happens in your car.

We're talking about what happens in traffic. We're talking about what happens in the morning when you first open your eyes. We're talking about everything, every part of your life is to be for the glory of God. The aim is a life of worship. And how do we get there?

Look at verse two. We see here in verse two a negative prohibition followed by a positive command. In verse number two, it says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. In other words, we live in an age that hates boundaries. We live in an age that hates authority.

You see it all around you, do you not? You see it in all of the spheres of life. You see it in the sphere of the culture. People hate rules and they hate boundaries, but boundaries can be very good for us. Think about a curvy mountain road and there's a guardrail.

It can be a really, really good thing. So when you see something, when you're reading the Bible and you see something like, do not be conformed to this world, don't think, oh, That's just restricting me so much. Think of the wonder and the beauty of such a guardrail, such a prohibition, if you will, that comes from God. This prohibition, This idea of conformity is the idea of being formed after the pattern or the mold, to be stamped out of a mold. In other words, Paul is saying to the Christians in the church of Rome, this church in the city of Rome, was that the church was to be in Rome, but Rome was not to be in the church.

That's what he's saying. Do not be conformed to this present evil age. That's what he's saying, but he follows it up. He follows it up with a positive command, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that, here's the purpose, by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.'" So hear me well. Listen.

Children, listen to this. Parents listen to this. This idea that so many, so many Christians, so many families fall into this trap. It's such a tragedy that they boil the Christian life down to this idea of don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew, don't hang out with people that do, and that's what Christianity is. It's just a whole bunch of lists of don't do this, don't do this, don't By the way, if you want to raise up a legalist, do that.

I would encourage you not to do that. If you want to raise up someone that hates the church because they don't see any beauty in God, they don't see any value in this life. Immediately, this pagan heart, all this pagan heart knows is growing up in a home that says, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. I'm against this. You should be against this.

You should be against that. Don't do this. Don't do And they never hear anything that's positive that says this is what you should do. This is how you should live. This is what God does look like.

This is the beauty and the wonder of the Christian life spent for the glory of God. If you raise a pagan like that, oftentimes they will run as fast as they can when they're 18 years old from your home. I would pray that that would not be what happens in this room. You would teach this life that is the life of transformation, this life of transformation that happens by the grace of God for the glory of God, justification by faith alone and Christ alone, the sovereign grace that comes as a gift from God, not of work so that we can't boast, is a life of ongoing transformation. Be transformed by the renewal of your mind this word in the Greek Literally is where we derive the English word metamorphosis from You children have you ever studied what metamorphosis is?

This little caterpillar that crawls around and then suddenly it goes through this very strange process. Then there's a cocoon and then suddenly bursting from this cocoon is this beautiful butterfly. What happened was a metamorphosis, a transformation. What Paul says to the church here at Rome is that the Christian life is this ongoing metamorphosis, this transformation that happens how? By the renewal of your mind.

And how does this happen? The Christian life is a life of change because the Word of God impacts us and changes us. Like if you sit in this conference for three days and hear sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon, and it has no change, no fruit in your life. And there's a problem. The idea here is that we should be changed.

But the interesting thing is that this word, to be transformed, is a passive imperative, which means it's affected by God, but we cooperate in the process. We are submitting ourselves to God. We are bowing before Him. We are offering up ourselves. We are engaged actively in this process, but yet it's a passive imperative.

So we are to be trusting God for the fruit, but yet submitting ourselves holy before God. This is the Christian life every single day, right? Christianity is the pursuit of God. J.I. Packer in his excellent book, Knowing God, asked that question, what were we made for?

And then how does he answer it? Knowing God. He says, what aim should we set ourselves in life to know God? So the Word of God should have impact upon us. So we should ask ourselves honest questions like, well how much time do we spend listening to secular music that does not have this transformative effect of God's grace in our hearts and lives.

We should ask ourselves honest questions, children. How much time do we spend on our phones disconnected from a pursuit of God? How much time do we spend playing video games and watching television and listening to music? And hear me well, I'm not one of those people that thinks that technology is a bad thing. I think technology can be harnessed in a wonderful way for the glory of God.

But there needs to be this idea, this eye upon this aim of worship. How do we use technology? How do we use anything for that matter for the glory of God? When John Bunyan was in prison for preaching the gospel for 12 years, he thought about God and he meditated upon God and he meditated upon God's Word, and God's Word had a massive effect upon him. He wrote the Pilgrim's progress when he was in jail during those 12 years and it was said of John Bunyan that if you were to prick him he would literally bleed the Bible because the Bible was in him and it was bringing about an effect in his life.

So what's the end result of this life, this pursuit of God? What's the end result of this do not and then to be transformed, this negative prohibition, this positive command, do you see what it says here? That by testing you may discern what is the will of God. How many times have you asked yourself, what is the will of God for my marriage? What is the will of God for my occupation?

What is the will of God for school and education? What is the will of God for my home situation? Should I buy or should I rent? Should I apply for that college or that school? Should our children be homeschooled or should they go to a Christian school?

How many questions do you ask? And then how do you approach those answers? That by testing to make a critical examination, to draw a conclusion on the basis of testing, that we may prove or approve something on the basis of what? The mercies of God. For what purpose?

For the glory of God. So that verse one, so that we can present the totality of our lives and the totality of our families so that we can present ourselves bodily for the glory of God. There is one thing, listen, to know the Word of God, it is a completely different thing to do the will of God. It's one thing to know Bible verses. It's another thing to actually live out your life in light of what those Bible verses actually teach.

So now, how do we apply this text here? As we see this, that we would know the will of God, discern the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect that we can offer up our bodies And that we can enjoy God in our bodies. How do we apply this? Well, hear me well. It is easy to glorify God in your body at 11.15 on a Sunday morning.

Singing Amazing Grace, church family there gathered, praising God. But it might be a little bit more difficult for you to glorify God in your body at 8.15 on a Monday morning when your boss is breathing down your neck, blaming you for something that you did not do. A little bit of a different scenario. But in your body at 11 15 on Sunday morning and in your body at 8.15 on a Monday morning, the calling is still the same. To glorify and to enjoy God in your body.

So in your car, on your way to work, on a Monday morning, in your class, on a Tuesday morning, children, in how you respond to your parents when your parents say, take out the trash, Sweep the kitchen floor, pick up your toys, and then how you respond to that, children, is either a posture of rebellion or a posture of worship to God. You just have to ask yourself that honest question. What you eat or how much you eat and how you work and how you labor in your job is to be offered up in a spirit of worship to God. Are you always late to work? You're one of those people that you say, I'm just always late.

Everywhere I go, I'm just late. You're one of those people that walk in like two songs in on Sunday mornings. You do realize that a worship service starts with the call to worship at the beginning, and it ends with a benediction from God's word at the end, and that entire service is actually the worship service. And how we approach that matters. Being late to a worship service is not the end of the world and the unpardonable sin.

That's not what I'm saying, but what I'm saying is if that's you on an every single Lord's Day frequent pattern, then you just need to fix it. What you consume, how you cut your grass, do you cut your grass, do you trim the shrubs around your home? Why do you do that? How do you use your hands? How do you use your feet?

What do you read? Say, I don't like to read. You spend four hours or five hours a day on social media, you say you don't like to read books? You can read social media. You like to read.

It's just about what you like to read, what you are reading. How do you use your eyes? How do you use your brain? How do you use your body? Are you glorifying God in your body?

From the classroom to the bedroom, from the church auditorium, All of it for the glory of God. This is God's calling. God is calling you to approach this life with an aim of worship. So if you run a marathon, you run a marathon for the glory of God. If you lift weights, you lift weights for the glory of God.

If you work with tools, then you work with those tools for the glory of God. If you type papers on your computer, you do it for the glory of God. If you come to a Christian conference, you do it for the glory of God. But how you use your body actually does matter. And so what does this look like?

A couple of moments. I want to just roll through marriage and family. Genesis 1, from the beginning we see this idea of being fruitful and multiply. In Ephesians chapter 6, children are to obey parents and the Lord, honoring father and mother. Fathers are not to provoke their children to anger, but to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

This is how you glorify God in your body, in your marriage, and in your family life. What about eating and drinking? First Corinthians 10, 31, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, you do all to the glory of God. So you glorify God in your body as you eat and as you drink, but you avoid excess, you avoid gluttony, and you avoid drunkenness, but you eat and you drink for the glory of God." 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 8, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. In other words, bodily exercise and bodily training actually does profit some.

Some. It could become an idol. Lifting weights could become an idol. Running marathons could become an idol. But you can also steward your health for the glory of God.

You want to avoid two ditches here. You avoid the ditch of worshiping your body, which is idolatry. You avoid the ditch on this side, which is neglecting your body, which is hypocrisy. Some people in the Christian life that shout the loudest when we preach the Bible and we warn about the sin of the mutilation of the human body and the transgender movement, some of those individuals who shout the loudest amens there have little to no care of how they are neglecting their own health and what they eat and what they drink and the lack of exercise. You just have to balance your life out.

Avoid idolatry. Avoid neglect. What about suffering and persecution? This body may be called upon to suffer for the sake of Christ. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, according to 2 Timothy 3.12.

According to statistics, 360 million Christians, one in seven believers around the world, suffered significantly for their faith in the past couple of years. Right now, as I'm preaching this sermon, an estimated 50 to 70, 000 Christians are currently in prison in North Korea's prison camp. You just need to understand that the wonderful blessings that we enjoy as Christians in America is a strange thing. But what we must understand is we must be willing to suffer in this body for the glory of God. Jesus said in Luke 9 23, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Taking up a cross is a difficult thing in your body. You may be called upon to suffer. Matthew was martyred in Ethiopia in A.D. 60, stabbed with a spear. Peter crucified upside down for preaching the gospel.

James, the brother of Jesus, was literally thrown down from the pinnacle of the temple about 100 feet, and it did not kill him, so they dragged him out of the city gates and clubbed him to death. We see that James the Zealot, according to Foxe's Book of Martyrs, was crucified in 8074. Andrew was crucified on a cross in Greece. Matthias was stoned and beheaded for following Christ. Paul was beheaded in the streets of Rome for preaching the gospel.

This is why Luther would say, let goods and kindred go. This mortal life also, the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still. So glorify God in your body that suffers. Glorify God in your body that works and labors, as we heard in this last sermon just a moment ago. What about dying?

The last time that you're gonna be able to glorify God in your present body is when you are called upon in a divine appointment to die. Charles Wesley wrote thousands of hymns. The final hymn that he wrote was on his deathbed. He just wanted to write one more song and this is what he wrote. In age and feebleness extreme, who shall a helpless worm redeem?

Jesus, my only hope thou art, strength of my failing flesh and heart oh could I catch one smile from thee and drop into eternity John Bunyan who wrote the pilgrims progress said a lot of things on his deathbed. You can find in his works, if you have the works of John Bunyan, you can find his dying sayings. Listen to one of the things he said upon his deathbed, quote, sin turns all God's grace into wantonness. It is the dare of his justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of his patience, the slight of his power, and the contempt of his love." I mean, that's how I want to die. I want to talk like that when I'm dying.

Instead of woe is me, instead of thinking about my pain, instead of being gripped by the fear of death, die like that. Glorify God in your body as you die. Calvin in his dying moments, his friends were trying to plead with John Calvin just to refrain from his labor and his work, and he responded and said, what? Would you have the Lord find me idle when he comes? Even in his dying, he was thinking about the Lord's return.

So we could glorify God in our body, Even in our dying moments. So let that be our aim and purpose to offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. So dear friend, your body matters. Serve God faithfully in your body.

Remember that one of these days the King of Glory is going to return. This same King who came to earth and clothed in a human body. He lived a sinless and a spotless and a perfect life in his body. Christ Jesus upheld the law in his body. Jesus was rejected and suffered reproach in his body.

The son of the living God was brutally murdered on a Roman cross in his body. He suffered the wrath of God in his body. Philippians 2, 8 says that Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Hebrews 12, 2 tells us that Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame. And after being nailed to that Roman cross in his body, Jesus Christ, the son of the living God was buried.

And on the third day, death could not hold him and the grave could not keep him. And as the Bible says, he was raised from the dead. He was not raised spiritually. He was raised bodily. And he appeared to people in his resurrected body.

And he preached for 40 days in his body. And then he ascended to the right hand of the Father and sat down upon the majestic, sovereign throne of heaven in his body, something that no human being has ever done before, something that would shock the angelic coast of heaven, and something that no human being will ever attempt to do in eternity future. Sat down in a body that was raised from the dead. One of these days, this king is going to return, and he's going to return to this earth in his resurrected body. And he's going to cause the just and the unjust to be raised from the dead, and they will receive a new body.

And the just will be welcomed into the kingdom of God and their new body, those who are in Christ. And the unjust will be sent off into eternal judgment in their new body. They will be under the wrath of God for all of time and for all of eternity. So I just want to come to the end of this sermon and plead with you this evening that if you're here this evening under the hearing of the gospel preached this entire conference and you are outside of Christ, that you would repent of your sin and Cast yourself upon the mercy of God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe that Christ died for sinners.

Believe that Christ died personally for you and that he suffered for you in his body and that he atoned for every last one of your sins. Cast yourself upon his mercy for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Always remember this, to press on in this present body, serving, worshiping, living, laughing, marrying, discipling children, eating, drinking, working, and even dying. And all throughout your life in this body that God has given you, that you would glorify God, that you would enjoy God in your body. What is the chief end of man? It is to glorify God, and it is to enjoy Him forever.

And my prayer is that you would glorify God in your body, that you would enjoy God in your body with an aim and an eye on eternity, remembering that one of these days we're going to have a new body and we're going to serve and worship God for all of eternity. So therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain. May God bless you.