In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of having a clear understanding of the basics of dedication to God. He explains that when God extends mercy to us, it is like bringing us halfway back to Him, and it is up to us to fully embrace that mercy and present ourselves as living sacrifices to God. The speaker uses the example of a slave who, after serving faithfully for six years, chooses to remain with his master out of love and dedication. This act of dedication is symbolized by the slave's ear being pierced against the doorpost, signifying his commitment to be a bondservant for life. The sermon encourages listeners to reflect on their own dedication to God and to fully surrender themselves to Him.

Lord, wonderful morning, cool and refreshing. I want you to turn this morning to the book of Romans, chapter 13. Romans 13. I believe that it is the Lord's mind for us this week, as far as my part with you is concerned, to speak about dedication. I have, through the years, occasionally used this theme, but never for a whole week. I don't know if we'll spend a whole week, but we're going to start with that intention. I think that it's very interesting when you see that everything in God's universe is built with an orderly arrangement. And that dedication is the picture of everything that he does. Nothing by chance, but everything has sharp focus and direction to it. And I'm convinced that what we need is to have some very clear, basic conceptions, some simple conceptions. And I'm going to maybe be laborious these days, but I do want every one of us to be very clear on some of the basics. Why spend time on the deeper things if we're not clear on the basics? So you bear with me if we seem to be overly simple. I feel the need in my own life to once again go over some of these things. So this week we're going to consider dedication, and probably this morning we'll use this for a title. What is dedication? What is dedication? In chapter 13 of Romans, there's a very interesting portion we'll use to begin, beginning with verse 1, Romans 13. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, or authority, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resists of the power, resists of the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Will thou then not be afraid of the power, or the authority? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must need be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. Well, I believe that's enough for right now. There's one little phrase that I want to draw your attention to immediately, and that's this little phrase, the minister of God, the minister of God. Did you know that you are the minister of God, no matter what your calling or position might be this morning? If I understand this scripture, God has in his array, in his order in the universe, he has delegated to every one of us a unique and special place to fulfill. Each one of us have a calling, a place to fulfill. And in that unique and that distinct calling that we have, we are called the minister of God. About a year ago, we had some friends from back in Missouri drive into Indiana to visit with us. And it's about a fourteen-hour trip, and as they were traveling along, they decided to stop in Illinois, and the brother whom I've known for years wanted to stretch his legs. He's about six foot seven, and you can understand why he needed to stretch. And as he was walking down the street corner, the little city where they stopped, he chanced to see a policeman standing on the corner. You'd have to know my friend, Spence. He walked up to him, he looked at him, big, tall, overpowering fellow, and he said, Did you know that you're the minister of God? And then he got the surprise. The fellow turned to him and he said, Oh, yes, sir, I do. Roman 13.4. He found out he was a real believer, he loved the Lord, and they had a few minutes of real fellowship on the corner. Now, I only mention this to establish the fact that here is a policeman on the corner who has been delegated a place, a position. Brother Dan, you're a husband. You're the head of the house. That delegates you a place, the minister of God. Georgia, you've been delegated a place. Every one of us, then, in God's economy have been dedicated a place to fulfill. And in this sense, we are the minister of God to fulfill that unique calling in that place. This is why I say that God has established in this picture of dedication everything in its place, fulfilling its purpose. Now, before we get through this week, you'll see that some of our problem is that when we get dedicated, we have the conflict of dedication. How many have ever run into somebody who is dedicated? The only trouble was, your dedication wasn't the same as theirs. And it creates lots of difficulties. Well, we need a little background this morning. Now, in line with the verses we've just been reading, let me say this, first of all, that all authority and all order is resident in God. In other words, the source of authority and the power resides in Him. And what God has done is to delegate certain portions of authority. Brings us to the next term, He delegates. He delegates authority, and according to the place or the position that we have delegated, we are then to become His representative. We call this the resident authorities in God. He delegates. In order for something to really function, the one He delegates to has to be willing to accept the delegation, accept the position. I'm ahead of myself when I say this. We'll see it a little later. One of the tragedies is that we are slow to see the place that God has given to us, slow to accept what has been delegated to us. But just as surely as something has been delegated and we have accepted it, then we can begin to represent Him, represent the place. And this leads us then, finally, to the fact that no one can ever be established. No one can be established. No one can reach fullness or the fulfillment of what God wants in a life until they recognize the delegation, they recognize, accept, and they begin to represent in the full way. How many of you know when you take a position, you begin to represent, you'll be challenged? The challenge comes, but there is no establishing except through being challenged. And this is the way you'll see in the Scripture later on that God begins to establish. Now, when He began everything in the very beginning, God has delegated to His lovely Son authority and power. Jesus said, All power and authority is given unto me. Everything that God is doing is not only for His lovely Son, but it is by and through Him. Oh, how wonderful to see that God's total way of doing things is just wrapped up in the Son, in the Lord Jesus. And so He is the perfect example then who is one who has accepted what's been delegated. And when He comes, oh, I never used to appreciate this so much, but how He was saying continually, I don't speak out of myself. I don't speak anything except the words that my Father has given me. I don't do anything for myself or of myself. He is the perfect example of one who has accepted a delegation. Everything He's doing, according to the Father's dedication then, is to represent the One who has sent Him. And, of course, we see how He was established. Now, He not only has established His Son, but He has given other spheres. It's very wonderful to recognize that in the universe, God has the angelic hosts. I believe that He has given to the various archangels positions that they are to fulfill in representing for Him. This is all a part of the great dedication of God in the universe. And one of these bright anointed chariots, one of these was called the Coverer in the Hebrew. He delegated to Lucifer, who was a very beautiful created being, a certain sphere. I think the Hebrew picture, by the very term Coverer, that He was given this earth sphere as the place that He was to rule, to delegate, as a delegate, and to represent God. It's why He is called the Prince of the Power of the Air. And as the Coverer, the Hebrew word seems to picture, He is the One who rules in the swaddling band, the atmosphere, immediately around this earth. The difficulty was this. One day He looked in the mirror. That's dangerous, especially if you're beautiful. The Scripture tells us in Ezekiel that He beheld His beauty. He saw the glory of His creation. His heart was lifted up and pride began to come in. The whole tragedy in this is that instead of really accepting the place that had been delegated to Him, He chooses to be as God Himself. And so what we see taking place, instead of God's lovely order of dedication, He, so to speak, moves over and He sets Himself up as God. Remember He says in the fivefold statement in Isaiah, I will be like the Most High God. I will ascend into the sides of the north. I will, I will, I will, and He sums it up by saying, I will be as God. Now, we know this, and it's very familiar to us, so I just give us the background quickly. When He begins to set Himself up as God, He knows the necessity of order once again. If you ever had any study into the enemy's whole kingdom, a counterfeit kingdom that He has set up, you know that He has likewise delegated. There are principalities, there are powers, there are dominions. I believe it's a well-organized thing. He didn't want organization, so far as He was concerned, but He sees the necessity, even in His own realm. And so while it is true that all authority and power in the basic dedication of the universe resides in God, this One who sets Himself up as God begins to establish or begins to set up the same kind of order and arrangement. This is why there are, in His own order, principalities, powers, might, dominion, we don't want to go into it, all the way down to each evil spirit that rules. Now, really what happens then is, here we have a counterfeit kingdom, one set up contrary to God's will and purpose, trying to accept what has been delegated to it, represent Himself instead of God, and establish Himself as the ruling one. Now, it's interesting, this all that took place in the very beginning. The question is, if this anarchy, if this rebellion has taken place in the universe, when God one day, in the Garden of Eden, places the first man, Adam and Eve, there, what did He have in mind for Adam and Eve? What was God's plan? What was He working towards in this lovely garden where He shapes and forms the first man, Adam, and his wife, breathes into the breath of life, and He delegates to Adam a certain sphere. He was to be the king and lord over the garden, over this little place, to use it for God's glory, man's good. You see the delegation once again? He's delegated, wants you to multiply, to increase, to subdue the earth. Adam was to represent, but Adam had to be established. Oh, I've thought so many times, wouldn't it be wonderful if God could establish me without any crisis or any kind of conflict? So many times people come and they say, why didn't God make Adam more than He wanted him? He did. Why did He make him subject to vanity? Why did He make him subject to conflict? Wait. Hear me now. There's something God can't do. That's dangerous to say, isn't it? There are some things that God, so to speak, cannot do by the very nature of things, and one of them is He cannot develop character, He cannot develop within us strength, except that He allow a wind to come and blow the trees. Just an impossibility. And so we get a little glimpse of the fact that when God created Adam, it was in His design that Adam should accept what was delegated, Adam was to represent, and in due time Adam would have been established in the garden. I think God had something else in view because He also had this counterfeit kingdom here that was in rebellion against Him, and I believe He is going to use Adam as a way by which He's going to put all of this at knots. That staggers my imagination. To think that God is going to use this earth sphere down here as a place where He's going to really demonstrate Himself and His glory and all that's involved, and it boils down to this, that God is going to, through man, prove that all He has to do is reveal, unveil Himself to man, and man will so love and honor and worship, will find God so utterly worthy. He'll say, God, I'm interested in Your program. I'm interested in Your dedication. In spite of everything else, You are worthy. And so when God puts Adam in the garden, he needs to be established. Adam needed to understand and to understand what it meant to represent God. And you know the story. One day, this enemy, who saw this choice beginning, slips into the garden, whispers into Eve's ear and says, if you would just eat of this tree, you could be as God. You could be as God if you just eat of this tree. Oh, I'd like to... Ladies, you listen for a moment. Men, you can tune out. I'd like to say that Eve just had one responsibility that day when the enemy came to the door. You know what she should have said? She should have said to the enemy, go see my husband. That's the only legitimate cop-out that I know. Go see my husband. I don't know why she went to the door, but since she did, that was the proper way she should have spoken. Go see my husband. He does the talking and... Well, I won't say that, but anyway. This was what she should have done. You see, not only did Adam have a delegation and he was to represent the house, but in a similar way, Eve had a dedication, and she had her sphere, and she needed to be represented to represent and to be established in the right place. So, to simplify it anyway, without going into any details, I think really what Eve and Adam were doing was to assume that, well, maybe, we can be as God. That is, we. We can have knowledge. We can know things in ourselves. If you eat of this tree, you can be as God, knowing good and evil, knowing in yourself. We've said so often that this was the developing of their soul life, without knowing that continual dependence in their spirit, alive to the spirit of God. I don't believe that Adam and Eve had any other desire than to just be as God in themselves. They had no plan to move clear over here. But there's a law in the universe, and the law of God's working is that only the, that he alone can control and keep everything in its order and in its arrangement when it is under his control. Everything, sooner or later, comes to end. It falls to pieces. It never fulfills its ultimate goal and purpose, except that it be under the umbrella, under the direct government of God. Now, we commonly assume that between Genesis 1-1 and Genesis 1-2, you see in the beginning, God created. And I believe that the universe and everything was beautiful as it came from the creative hand of God. But when you read Genesis 2, it says the earth became void. Darkness was upon the deep. Things came into a mess. And I believe that really what took place here between verse 1 and 2 is that the enemy decided to rule and to control this by himself, and it has fallen into decay and ruin. So this is the pattern, and I have to establish it this morning, that dedication in God's universe requires everything in its order, fulfilling its place and its lovely position. Thank God. It'll only work in one way, and that's what universe means. Unite one verse will, one will, one order. How wonderful. Now I know, and I hadn't planned to get into this particular aspect so soon, I know that when we think of this, we almost always cringe because we think of some dictator, someone who stands to represent an authority that's other than God. I'm afraid of every other authority. I'm afraid of every other attempt at order and arrangement that does not find its lovely order and its dedication in God. But as we know then, Adam and Eve, so to speak, were wanting to be as God in their own right. The scripture says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned to, everyone to his own way. And what really happened was that when Adam and Eve listened to the lie of the enemy, they were not just moving halfway into middle ground to be as God, but basically they sold themselves out to another. And they are way over here before it's over with. They accepted the lie, believed the lie, were begotten of the lie, so to speak. And we find them over here in this fallen condition, deathless, wretched, fallen condition, slaves to the enemy under his government. Now the question then this morning, in a very simple way, what is the first thing that God does to recover and bring things back in his first step of recovering and bringing to the purpose and the fulfillment of God? This brings us to what we call God's redeeming work according to his mercy. He finds man over here sold out to slavery, missing the dedication, a victim of the enemy and his lies and all that is involved. And God, according to his mercy, according to his mercy, God redeems. He brings man back. I've been interested through the years in the many, many places this little word, mercy, slips in and it has become more and more meaningful to me. I'll just give you a few verses if you'd like to copy the references down. Titus 3, 5 tells us, not according to our work, but according to his mercy, he saved us. According to his mercy, he saved us. We read again in Ephesians 2, 4, But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, you see, according to his mercy. All right? We read over in the Gospels. You remember the poor fellow who looked upon the other religious man and then he could only come to the conclusion, God be merciful to me. Of what? I have had to stop often and remind us that mercy, mercy really can only be demonstrated to guilty people. Some of you have heard me say this before, but it deserves repeating. When one is brought into court, the arresting officer makes the charge and you stand before the judge. He says, What is your plea? Guilty or not guilty? Now, if you plead not guilty, what do you ask for? Careful now. When you plead not guilty, you say, Your Honor, I want justice. But when you plead guilty, what do you ask for? Wouldn't it be silly to say, Your Honor, I'm not guilty. I want mercy. There are a lot of people who reason that way. According to the laws of jurisprudence, mercy can only be extended to guilty people. Don't plead for mercy if you're not guilty. So, it's very wonderful now that God finds man in this wretched, fallen condition. He's hopeless. He's helpless so far as his own getting out of it. It's not by works of righteousness as we have done, but according to his mercy. I have to be very honest. I kind of wait when I'm dealing with a lie to hear that guilty plea. It comes in different ways. Oh, God. Oh, God. You can just sense the groaning of the heart. Oh, God. I'm not worthy. I don't deserve. Be merciful to me. It's very difficult to help someone until God has exposed and uncovered the heart and the real need. And I'm sure that it'll take all eternity to discover just how hopeless and helpless we are, but at least we'll have a little idea. Oh, God. I'm a slave. Have you been a slave? Hopeless? Helpless? According to his mercy. All right. There are three little words, then, that describe this aspect by which God shows mercy. And I'm not interested in the Greek, except that it does have just a lovely little picture of how God really shows his mercy. And I think it would be helpful for us to see it. The first thing that God demonstrates in the showing of his mercy is that he steps into the auction. He steps into the marketplace. And here are all the slaves, so to speak. Here we are, those who are in slavery to the enemy and the kingdom of darkness. And the first little word that pictures what happens, according to his mercy, is that he buys us. He buys us. He pays the price to buy the slaves. The second little word, it's almost the same, except that there's a prefix to it. It's exaggerato. He not only buys us, but he buys us out. Not only does he pay the price, but he buys us and takes us out. Lovely picture. Aggerato, exaggerato. The little prefix means he takes us out. Never to be exposed again to the slavery and to the condition. And the third word that pictures what really takes place, having bought us and bought us out, could you guess what he does next? The little word, yeah, well, the little word that pictures the third thing is lutro in the Greek, and it means he loses us. Now, you have to see the significance of this. He buys, he buys us out, and then he loses. I remember years ago reading a little account of Dr. Gray, who used to be head of Moody Bible Institute. One day he was walking down the street in this part of Chicago. There were a lot of slums, and a couple little urchin boys on the street were playing. And as he walked by, he noticed a mischievous look in one of the fellas' hands, in one of his eyes, and he got to talking to the little fella, and he said, what do you have in your hand? The little fella said, wouldn't you like to know? And the other little fella chirped in, and he said, we just caught a sparrow. Dr. Gray said, well, what are you going to do with the sparrow? And the little fella who held it said, I'm going to crush it and squeeze it to death. And then they're talking. He said, oh, but you wouldn't do that. Would you let me buy, would you let me buy the sparrow? And they both giggled and said, who would want to buy a sparrow? Why, sparrows buy the thousands. And the other fella said, ask for a quarter. Dr. Gray said, yes, I'll give you a quarter. And he picked the quarter out of his pocket, and he handed it to the little fella, and they transferred the little bird. He looked at the little bird, he had it in his hand, and he said, he was talking to the boy, wouldn't you like to know what I'm going to do with this little bird? Now they were interested. He'd bought the bird, and he'd bought it out, right? It was in his possession. He'd bought, and he'd bought out. And in a moment, he looked at the little boys, and he said, I bought this bird to let him loose. And he flew off into the heavens. I don't know of any other way to explain in a more lovely way exactly what God has done. He bought you. He bought you out in order that he might what? Lose you. That's God's mercy in redeeming us. Now notice where we are. His mercy extended. He bought it, bought it out, that he might lose us. Do you know why he loses us? So that the mercy of God will lead us to dedication. I just have to express to us this morning that dedication needs to be clearly understood. I meet too many folks who know they've been bought, and they've been bought out, but they never realize that God also what? Loses us. So the little bird can fly back into his hands and say, I don't like to be loosed. It's a cruel old world out here. I don't have any place to go. Lord, I want, I want to give myself to you. You see, it's the lovely way in which God works that according to his mercy, he does this. Now, this makes more meaningful to us what we mean in dedication. You can turn back in Romans 12 now, just a chapter back. You wouldn't need to because I think you could all quote it, but verse 1 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. By the what? The mercies of God that ye present yourselves a living sacrifice. All will never be the same if the mercy of God really gets us. We've never appreciated, you see, that the mercy, once it really lays hold of us and really gets us, and we say, praise the Lord. I've been bought out and set free. But can I add just a sorrowful note for a moment? There are too many birds on the loose this morning. The mercy of God never really gets them. Never really dawned on them. And this is my burden for at least this morning to help us realize, you see, the wonderful richness and the treasure that's in God's gracious mercy extended toward us. I don't know how far this really fits in the Scripture, but someone told me years ago that mercy is God not giving us what we deserve. Not allowing us to have what we deserve. And grace is giving us something we don't deserve. Do you follow? I'm not sure how theologically correct, but I like it for the moment. Mercy is God not giving us, not allowing us to have what we really deserve. That's the negative side. Oh, thank you, Lord. I've been a slave and I really deserved it. I just put your goodness and your mercy. And then grace comes along, and in his unmerited favor, he gives me something. He gives me something I don't deserve. So we move from mercy now, in a sense, to grace. Now, can you see, I didn't get it quite where I should have, but can you see that there are a lot of folks, Adam, when he made his move away from God, sort of went halfway here, neutral ground. But he ended up where? Under the kingdom of the enemy, a slave in bondage. And the thing that's very wonderful is when God extends mercy, he, so to speak, brings us back halfway. And then he waits for mercy to really lay hold of us, to really grip us, until the one who is loose comes and says, Oh God, I want to give, I want to present. Now it's on this basis that we have Romans 12. So you see, God's concern then is that once we have come, as it were, to be bought out and set free, it's by glad heart choice that we present. Now I know we've heard it illustrated. Sometimes we've even heard the testimony of people who meant well. And it sounded as though God was holding a big club and said, Will you preach? Will you go to the mission field? Will you surrender? Well, I guess I did it too. I said that earlier today simply because I didn't understand mercy. But now that I understand the mercy of God, I realize it is not God standing with a club trying to get me to dedicate. The wonderful way of God is to open our eyes and help us see what he's done. It's so much easier to do it through a broken heart than through a club. Aren't you glad? Oh, hear me this morning, beloved. God's way, sometimes people present it as though he's the club. But God's way is just to open up, demonstrate his heart and his movement. Now he does have a club. We'll get into that later. But it works so differently. It works so differently than you'd think. And so, the presenting of ourselves is the seeing of what he has done. And the words in the center of his heart will begin to say, Oh God, I want to give myself. How long I present myself to you as a living sacrifice. I use this illustration all the time. I just want to get it over with here because it demonstrates the best I know how. And I know I'm in the South, the heart of the Confederacy. But it's still a good illustration back from the days when I used to live in Missouri, just below the Mason-Dixon line. My uncle had some slave cabins when we first moved there years ago and still some college folks living in some of the homes below him. The story goes from the area nearby that they used to have an old auction block that had lots of remembrance dated way back to the days just before the Civil War. And the whole community was gathered around one afternoon and they were auctioning off slaves. A little 18-year-old lassie was on the block being auctioned. And suddenly the crowd noticed that a stranger out at the edge of the crowd kept bidding more and more and more and more. And they wondered why he would pay such a price. Finally the auctioner said sold. And they watched the stranger as he made his way in to receive the piece of property that he'd just bought. There was sort of a stillness and a bated breath all over. They saw the gracious gentleman that he was reach into his pocket and take a piece of paper and he began to write on it and he handed the little lassie the paper and he said, lassie, I bought you to set you free. But she never thought of being free. You can see how difficult it would be for it to register in the little heart. Bought her to set her free. And so he tried over again when she didn't understand. He said, you won't need to go home with me. You can go home, you mammy and pappy. This paper is your freedom. You can go back home. Finally he got through to her. And there she stood looking into his kindly eyes amazed that someone would pay so much to set her free. And then the crowd saw something that afternoon. They never got over it. The little lassie literally fell off of that auction block and she wrapped her arms around the stranger. Looking up she said, sir, your eyes tell me you'd be wonderful to be a master. Please, do I have to go free? Would you let me go home with you? Here, take my freedom back. Love had conquered her. Love had won her heart. And she chose to become as it were to present herself as a living sacrifice, a love slave to him. This is what I understand to be the full scope of God's working. Not only mercy that takes us out, but grace that is imparted to our heart to give us the strength to do the things we ought to do in dedication. I have to be very honest. Most of us would like to take the piece of paper and run. Free! Free! Thank God. But oh, let me say to you this morning, when the mercy that's been extended in not giving us what we deserve and then the impartation of God's own grace helps us, as it were, to present ourselves, we move then beyond middle place here, so to speak. We move over and we come under, under his reign, his government. Dedication then is taking the freedom, taking what has been given to me and by glad heart's choice it is presenting myself to him. I'm under new control. Under new government. The white flag goes up. Hallelujah. New government in this house from now on. The most simple way I know of explaining dedication is just simply to say it picks up at midway where mercy stops. According to his mercy, the dedication is the presentation. Now, just so that we can have it clear for the days that follow this week, there are some aspects of dedication that I think we do well to remember. First of all, dedication is an initial act. It's a decisive crisis presentation. It's an initial act. It's a crisis decisive presentation. If I understand the picture, it's a once-for-all situation. You'll see why that's true as we go into it. It's a once-for-all situation. And I do have the Greek to back it up because the Greek aorist infinitive that's used here in Romans 12.1 has in it this sense of a completed act that's final, not something presently going on. And you have the same thing verified over in Romans 6.13 in Part B where instead of it just being the aorist infinitive over there it's the Greek imperative. Now, I don't want you to get involved in all that except to say that the Greek language leads man without doubt. Oh, I've taught English, and it's a good language, but it lacks. Thank God when he gave us this scripture he used something that men through the years could understand. There's something of the finality of it. So cheer up. This morning when the mercy of God lays hold of you and you come to present yourself, you're in his hands, and from that moment on there's finality. You're stuck. It's for keeps. I say this because I find so many people going through rededication, rededication, and the invitation is so often given year after year until I meet folk who said, Well, I did it for the thirteenth time. Well, we mean well. We've all been victims of situations. But I'd like for us to see this morning it is first of all, then, a Christ's giving of myself to him. A very crucial thing once and for all. And then it is followed, you see, by a commitment that continually reckons on this. I've been telling folk for years, and now folk keep coming back, and they say it's helpful. So I remind us of this. To me, it's like driving a stake down right here. And the stake is a crisis, giving, presenting of myself, and then as I move on and I come into any new situation that I may not have known before, I don't have to redo the thing. I just reckon back and I say, Thank you, Lord. I've drilled down a stake. And in case it got wobbly, I just tap it a little deeper. But I'm always reckoning back to something that had in it a crisis. Can you see how this helps establish? If you've got a dozen stakes along the way, you don't know which one to go back to. And people are all the time saying, Well, maybe I didn't mean it this time. This time I do mean it. And a year later, Maybe I didn't mean it that time, but this time I do mean it. You'll never know your heart. It's deceitful. It's desperately wicked. Oh, I love to have folks drive a stake of dedication and say with finality, Lord, I don't know all that's involved, but you know and I'm in good hands. And I drive a stake and from now on I keep reckoning back. Every time a new part comes up or something new unfolds, just go back and say, Thank you, Lord. The stake's solid. How many of you know after you've given it about 25 taps, you're getting established? Huh? Well, we'll get on to that later. So, let me see. My watch. The thing then that we get a glimpse of is that dedication then follows mercy. And once we have come under new ownership and we're His, we read in Romans 12 then the first aspect, the first component of it is the presentation. And the next thing that begins to take place is that there is a separating work. He says, And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed. I'm so glad that God does the separating according to the changing of our understanding. Let me read the verse. Chapter 12 and verse 2. He says, And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Here's the place now where God's will operates. I move over and the more God can renew my mind, I begin to say, That's good. Praise the Lord. What's happening? The blinders are falling. And I go a little further and I say, That's not only good, that's really acceptable, Lord. I accept that. And guess what happens? There comes a day when you think, Lord, this is perfect. If it doesn't happen the first day, it ought to soon. You say, Not only good and acceptable, but the perfect will. And it's all been taking place because of the renewing of our mind. So often we've thought a dedication is something from the neck down. And we've conformed, we've tried to bring people into straight jackets and our little narrow interpretations. But I say to you this morning, dedication's from the head up first. But if he gets that, guess what else he gets? He gets the whole mass. Oh, thank you, Lord, for the renewing process, the renewing of our mind. You see, that's a transformation. So there's the crisis of presentation first. There's the separating that takes place because of the renewing. The third, then, is the transformation. Separation's more or less of an outward thing. But transformation, as the mind is being renewed, is more of an inward thing. Well, we just have a few minutes. Let's sum it up now. Turn to Deuteronomy. I'd like to just establish this before us. Deuteronomy chapter 15. If we can see this lovely picture in the Old Testament, it'll be more meaningful as we go along. Deuteronomy 15. You remember, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew husbandmen oftentimes had plagues. And, as we're going to read, he could keep a slave for six years. And when the seventh year came, it was the Sabbath, and he was to allow this slave, having served him six years, to go free. But when he sent him out free, he was to give him out of the fruit of the increase, either from his flock or from the vineyard or from the fields of the increase. He was not to go out without being given something because he had served faithfully. But suppose this one who had served six years loved his master. Suppose he turned to his master and he said, look, I could be free to go, but I don't want to go. Then what does the master do? He takes this slave who by glad heart choice has said, I don't want to go free. He takes him to the doorpost and then all is put through his ears, indicating from this time on he is now to be a bondsman, a bondslave, one who by choice, by glad heart choice, has said, Lord, Master, I'm yours. Not for six years, but for how long? Oh, I tell you, six years spent might not be bad, but this was for Keith. Well, let's read it. Deuteronomy 15, beginning with verse 12. And if my brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty. Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock and out of thy floor and out of thy winepress, of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, that thou shalt give that, thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee. Therefore have I commanded thee this thing to do. Oh, if we've ever really seen God's mercy in redeeming us out, how can we be less than merciful to others? We'll see this a little later in the week. Mercy grows out of an unveiling the mercy that's been extended toward us. You want to be merciful? Oh, if there's anything needed today, it's to be merciful. God doesn't want sacrifice. He says, I want mercy. Well, read with me now. Verse 16, And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee, because he loveth thee. Does this sound like a club over him? Did you hear me? Does this sound like a club? You're free to go. There's no club here. No. He loveth thee and thine house because he is well with thee. Then thou shalt take an all entrusted through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for six more years. Are you reading with me? For what? Forever. You see why I nail it down this morning. Oh, the mercy of God that has gripped me. And I come, as it were, to be free, but at this moment I say, Lord, put the all through my ear. It's a sign that forever I am your prophet, and also unto thy maidservants thou shalt do likewise. So, when we come over here, it's with a hole in our ear. I wonder what that says to you. Let me take you to another portion. Turn to Leviticus, chapter 14. Leviticus, chapter 14, and beginning with verse 14. Leviticus 14, 14. This is the picture now of those whom God is placing in his service. It's speaking of priests who are to serve the Lord. The moment we come by mercy and by dedication to come into the place that God has positioned, wherever he places an individual and delegates, something very wonderful is happening. And so we read here what the priest does. Verse 14. And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. Now I love this, because the moment we move over and we come under God's rule and God's government, he starts out first of all by saying, and blood that's applied is always a way of separating us unto something for God. The blood poured out is one thing, but the blood applied is a separating thing. The blood sprinkled is separated under God. And so he starts with our foot, he starts with our ear, the right ear, and the right thumb, and the right toe. This seems to say to me that God first of all starts with getting my ear. How many of you know if he gets my ear, he can control my hands and my feet. That's right. Let me say to you this morning then, dedication is first and always to a person first. It's always to a person. So often we get our dedication to a cause. Somebody comes along with a project. Somebody gets us all enthused with a work. Good. Something needs to be done. And we wrestle and we dedicate ourselves to a project so that we siphon off from it some satisfaction or something. All dedication is unto a person. It's not to a place. Lord, I'll go to Africa. Now, I can conceive of the fact that the issue or the battleground could be the willingness to go. But the real issue is not a place. It's a dedication unto a person. It's to the Lord. It's not necessarily the dedication of what I have, though it could center in my billfold to begin with. You see, God gets very practical when dedication's involved. But it's really, yes, Lord, I heard you. It's under here. Oh, thank God. Thank God. Once he gets our ear, he gets our hand, and he gets our feet. But it starts with the ear. And so, we'll come back to this later in the week. The first thing that's applied here to the ear is blood, then to the thumb, and then to the toe. I think I see in Scripture that anything that's on the right is positioned in a special place where it's been delegated and it's to represent. Where is the Lord Jesus sitting this morning? The right hand. How did he get there? Oh, he became a bondsman. And God has positioned him at the right hand. There's something about fiddling. There's something about being at the right hand. You ladies know that when you seek your guests, but we used to do it anyway. The right hand, you see. It's a special place of fiddling. God the Father's given this to his son. And when he gets your ear, he says, from now on it's mine, and your thumb, your hand. Lord, I can't just do anything I want to do then. I can't just go anyplace. My dedication is, first of all, to a person. You see, before we get through this week, I think we will realize then that all the conflict of dedication is because we've been hearing other voices. We've been dedicating ourselves to projects and to causes. And there's nothing worse than the religious collision of dedication. Oh, the heartache. Oh, the struggle that goes on. And folks, I have my biggest problem with dedicated people. Enough said for now. But while we're here, just peek with me for a moment. Notice what it says in verse 17. Well, let's see. Take verse 16. Well, verse 15. And the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the, what? Right ear of him that is to be cleansed and upon the thumb of his right hand and upon the great toe of his right foot upon the blood of the trespass offering. So first he puts the blood, separating it, redeemed, separating it under God, and over the blood he puts the what? Well, remember that because we'll come back to it. Lord, I'm so glad you haven't hidden things from us. But here they are. We don't need to go astray. Just in closing now, turn to Psalm 40. Psalm 40, verse 6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. I've been told, I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but I've been told that this word opened here is the same word for pierced, like having a hole right here. Mine ear has thou pierced. What does it really signify? Lord, you're the one who has opened my ear that I might learn to be attentive unto thee. He says here, it isn't the religious performance. How many of you can see that folk were going through bringing sacrifices every day, sacrifice brought, going through the outward formality of things? This is not meaningful until you realize he's saying, look, I don't want sacrifice and offering. That isn't what I want. Mine ear has thou opened. I remember at least 18 years ago, first time God began to show this to me, I was in a series of meetings, the clothes of a servant, a very well-to-do farmer, walked down the aisle, known by everybody in the community as the wealthiest man around. I don't remember whether the preacher had pointed him out to me previously or not, but anyway, when he walked up to the pulpit, he handed me a $100 check. He said, here, I want to give this. And in that moment, it was just as the Lord's saying, don't take it. He's sacrificing. Don't take it. He's making a sacrifice. And I handed it back and I said, sir, God doesn't want your money. You're sacrificing. God wants your ear. How many of you know when people get into a crucial moment when God begins to speak, the tendency to say, Lord, I'm going to give you more time. I've been too busy. God doesn't want your time. Lord, I think I ought to put some more in the church. God doesn't want a sacrifice. I've been asking the Lord these days that we're together that it would not be the voice of a man or men ministering and speaking, but somehow God would hold us to the truth. Really hold us to the truth. And I believe that the most difficult thing is for us to really get our ears pierced and open to the Lord. I know what I've done. I've always translated it into some more sacrifice or offering. And he says, look, I want a pierced ear. He says, when I get your pierced ear, I'll have everything else. Well, that dear man left that night. He pouted a little bit. I don't know what he said under his breath, but he walked away. Then my own heart said, foolish, not every day do you have $100 check handed to you, but I can report to you about three, four days later that man came back and he said, God got through to me. And then the Lord had everything. This is what he wants. You see, this is just our little piecemeal dedicating something to God. So he says, read it again, sacrifice and offering. Thou didst not desire. Mine ear hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. You know who this is speaking? Well, Jesus picked it up and put it in New Testament framework. He was the one who could say, I delight to do thy will. And our accepting what's been delegated, becoming, as it were, the one who represents, the one who's established, I believe it hinges just this morning in a simple way on understanding what dedication is. We're out for keeps, folks. Thank God. No Indian giving, no taking, giving back. Just for keeps. Praise the Lord. Have you ever seen his mercy? Let's bow and pray in a new way. Lord, if you show us your mercy, that'll take care of everything else. Really show us your mercy. Lord, we don't want just some more knowledge this morning, but we want some reality. And I believe I sense it in my brothers and sisters that the deep cry within us, Oh, Lord, let us sense in a whole new way the mercy of God. How you lifted us out of the pit, lifted us from the slavery that we were in, bought us and bought us out and set us free, as it were, that with a glad heart choice we may come to say, I delight to serve you, Lord. Oh, this is the cry we want from everyone this morning. For the week over, dear Lord, we pray that there will be such a clear, settled fact that thy mercy has led us to the presenting of ourselves utterly, wholly unto thee. Lord, I believe you this morning to seal it right now. Help us to get our ears open, our ears pierced. Lord, then we will be able to delight thy heart and make thee glad. And we'll learn what it really means to be a love slave, waiting with a teddy bear to know what you want next. For all of this we give you the praise, the honor and all the glory. And we ask it in Jesus' lovely, lovely name.