A Living Sacrifice

Sermons of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 603 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In matters of Christian conduct, does one appeal to the mind or to the heart? These are often pitted against one another, but Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones does not believe the Christian should approach the Christian life by making an appeal to merely the intellect or simply the emotions. Instead, he says, one begins with doctrine –– who they are in Christ –– and then the proper conduct is deduced from the doctrinal truth. True doctrine always appeals to the emotions. In this sermon on presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice from Romans 12:1–2 titled “A Living Sacrifice,” Dr. Lloyd-Jones reminds that there is no such thing as dry-as-dust theology. Humanism and legalism stand in opposition to the true teaching of Scripture. Humanism can only appeal to the intellect, whereas legalism appeals directly to the will of the person. The great motive of the gospel, which is God’s great mercy in Christ Jesus, lifts the whole problem of conduct to a spiritual level. He then works out the implications of the apostle Paul’s appeal to the mind and the heart in Christian conduct. He labors to demonstrate that Paul is presenting the entire physical body as a sacrifice to God who by His great mercy makes Christians participants in this glorious and wonderful salvation.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	We are considering at the moment, as most of you will recall, the first two verses in the 12th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans.
0:07.0	I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that he present you of bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable and to God, which is your reasonable service.
0:20.4	And be not conformed to this world, but be
0:23.6	transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable
0:30.3	and perfect will of God.
0:33.1	Now here we have suggested we have a summary of the whole of the Christian teaching with regard
0:38.5	to our conduct, practice and behavior as Christian people.
0:42.8	It's a most important subject this, as I suggested last Friday night, it is of exceptional
0:49.4	importance because of the popularity of what may be called humanism, this whole theory that people can
0:58.5	live the Christian life in their own power, in their own steam, as the result of the exercise
1:05.4	of their own will.
1:07.7	Now, this is, I think, in many ways, the great challenge to the Christian faith at the
1:13.4	present time. It's happened, of course, many times before in the long history of the church,
1:19.2	but it is in particular the attack at this present moment. But it's not only an attack,
1:25.5	I feel that it is a very exceptional opportunity for us also,
1:29.3	because humanism is bound to fail. Humanism is failing.
1:35.3	And herein lies our opportunity to show that there is nothing,
1:40.3	but the power that is given by this gospel that can ever enable men truly to live a decent life,
1:48.0	quite apart from a Christian life.
1:50.0	Now, all this, therefore, is not something theoretical or academic, neither is it something purely personal.
1:57.0	It is something that has the greatest possible consequences in the life of this nation
2:03.4	as a whole to which we belong, and indeed in the life of all the nations of the world.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Martyn Lloyd-Jones and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.