It is a sobering thought to know
that each of us shall indeed be launched into worlds unseen. When you breathe your last, and
those who stand at your deathbed or pick pieces of your body out
of wreckage say so-and-so is dead, you will have launched
into realms unseen, to be held forever in unspeakable bliss
or indescribable torment. It's a serious, sober thing to
be possessed of an immortal, never-dying existence as a creature
of God. May God help us not to trifle
with ourselves. Let's pray. Our Father We are sobered, the
thought that you have stamped us with a never-dying existence, and our bodies and souls shall
forever be in your presence resplendent with your glory, or in the hideous,
horrible place of outer darkness, with weeping and wailing, gnashing
of teeth. O God, help me as I preach to
feel the weight of that basic reality. Help those who are gathered
here, saint and sinner alike, not to trifle with you, the living
God, nor barter away their never-dying existence for trinkets. Come
to us and meet with us. Use your word to prepare our
hearts to come with the appropriate disposition of heart to this
table of remembrance, we plead in Jesus' name. Amen. As Pastor Smith indicated, we
are grateful that we have visitors among us, and for your sake especially,
I should just explain that In the ministry of the Word, prior
to the Lord's Supper, those of us who are asked to preach are
expected to bring a communion meditation, which means it should
be something focused upon the central issues of the cross,
the significance of the table, some aspect of the truth of the
cross as it touches our lives, and so that we are not excessively
wearied or rushed when we come to the table. to limit our meditation
to 30-35 minutes, and I will make every effort to do that
tonight as I always do when I'm asked to bring the communion
meditation, though at times I don't come down exactly on the 35 minutes
but may extend it to 40, but so that there is no question
in your own mind as to why the people sit and take an hour plus
exposition in the morning and just get what would be considered
by morning standards a mini-sermon that you'll understand that we
do want to have time to thoughtfully reflect upon our Lord Jesus and
his work for us when we come to the table. Anyone acquainted
with his Bible would agree with me when I say that the religion
of the Bible is essentially and fundamentally a religion which
centers in the cross of Christ. All of the doctrines of the Christian
faith flow into the cross as the rivers flow into the sea,
and all of the duties of the Christian faith flow out from
and are illuminated and colored by the cross even as the sun
pours out its light upon the whole earth. And I want us to
turn in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians and consider
a brief portion of chapter six in which the truth of the centrality
of the cross is seen as the cross is planted right down in the
midst of the apostles' treatment of the subject of fornication
there in the church at Corinth, and as the Apostle is seeking
to load the consciences of the people of God with reasons as
to why they should flee fornication, among the many concerns central
to them all is the concern that is set before us in the portion
of this passage that we will consider together as our communion
meditation. A few months ago, I sought to
give you a more detailed exposition of the entire passage. As I brought
that brief, I think it was six-message series on God's antidote to sexual
impurity. But tonight we come back to the
last part of verse 19 and verse 20 as the framework for our communion
meditation. Here the Apostle says, And you
are not your own, For you were bought with a price. Glorify
God, therefore, in your body. You are not your own. For you
were bought with a price. Glorify God, therefore, in your
body. As I've already intimated in
its immediate context, the emphasis is clear that the Apostle Paul
is here underscoring how the believer should regard his body
in the light of the temptation to sexual impurity. But as is
so often true, when the implications of the cross are brought to bear
upon a specific issue, the teaching of the impact of the cross upon
life extends far beyond its immediate context. For example, in Ephesians
5, When Paul is laying out the duty of husbands to love their
wives, he states the truth that Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it, and gives us some of the richest teaching
on the doctrine of Christ's death that extends far beyond the immediate
context and focus of the apostles' concern. And so it is here that
no matter where a Christian is, no matter what his circumstances,
no matter what the particular relationships he may be presently
sustaining to others, it is always true of him at all times, in
all places, in all relationships, and in all circumstances that
he has been bought with a price, he is not his own, and is under
solemn obligation to glorify God in his body. And I want us to consider the
truth of these verses under three heads. First of all, what is
in our day nothing short of a radical affirmation. A radical affirmation. Here the apostle says to these
Corinthian believers, and you are not your own. In a day of crass self-expression
and I am my own personism, In a day when the rationale to justify
the slaying of one and a half million unborn children every
year in our country is, it is my body, I am free to do what
I will with my body. In a day in which people speak
of their preferences being the only rule and law to which they
are obligated, I say this is a radical affirmation. to say
to a group of people that they are to regard themselves in no
sense as their own possession. You are not your own. Now notice, it does not say your
mind is not your own to think your own thoughts. Your soul
is not your own to feel its own feelings. Your heart is not your
own to love its own chosen objects. But it says you are not your
own. Everything that constitutes you,
you, if you're a Christian, is not your own. Your mind, your
affections, your soul, your heart, your body, the totality of what
makes you, you, is not your own. Now, that's not rhetorical hyperbole. That's reality. If you are a
Christian, you are in no sense your own possession. You are
not your own. In no part of your humanity,
in no set of circumstances, in no relationships, you and I are
not our own. The radical affirmation. But
now notice, secondly, the logical explanation. Why is this so? For... Here comes the logical
explanation. You are not your own for... You
were bought with a price. The reason why none of us who
is a true believer is his own is quite simple and logical.
It is not because we are God's creatures, though that is true.
Psalm 100 in verse 3 says that the Lord has made us. We are
his. He has made us and not we ourselves. We are his by right of creation.
But the emphasis of this text is not upon God's rights in us
and over us in virtue of creation. But the text says you are not
your own for you were bought with a price. And the language
of the text is the commercial language of that day. A bonafide
commercial transaction has passed over us and has made us genuinely,
truly, rightfully, legally the property of another. You are
not your own, for you were bought with a price. And what was the
price that was paid to purchase us? Revelation 5 and verse 9
and 14 and verse 4 are the answer of the Word of God to that question.
Revelation 5 and verse 9. They sing a new song saying,
Worthy are you to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for you were slain and did purchase unto God with your blood men
of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and made them
to be unto our God a kingdom and priests, and they reign upon
the earth. You did purchase unto God with
your blood. In Revelation 14 and verse 4,
similar language. These are they that were not
defiled with women, for they are virgins, here using this
as imagery of their purity. These are they that follow the
Lamb whithersoever He goes. These were purchased from among
men to be the firstfruits unto God and unto the Lamb. These were purchased from among
men Purchased by whom? Purchased with what? Purchased
by the Lamb of God at the price of His own life's blood. Now, when the Apostle used this
language to the Corinthians, they would have understood the
commercial overtones of the language used, and it may well be, and
some of the commentators point this out, that Paul may be referring
to an act that is called an act of manumission, in which a slave
was set free by a price paid to the master in the name of
a deity. And in the name of a pagan deity,
a slave would be purchased and become the property of another. And it may be that against that
background in a society that was riddled with the institution
of slavery that Paul uses the language. But whether that's
there or not, this much is clear, that when the apostle gives a
logical explanation for his radical affirmation, that explanation
is simple and clear. You are not your own, for you
were bought with a price. Every time a sinner, in the consciousness
that he can do nothing to pardon his own sin, he can do nothing
to release himself from his legal obligations to the law of God,
cast himself upon Christ and the virtue of his sacrificial
bloodletting, in that transaction of repentance and faith, he becomes
totally, irreversibly, eternally, the purchased property of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Not just positionally and federally,
going back to the act of purchase when our Lord died in space-time
history, but our Lord enters into the fruit of His purchase,
and we become His possession, bought by the price of His own
precious blood. Radical affirmation, you are
not your own. The logical explanation, for
you were bought with a price. Now we come to the crunch line,
the universal implication. What's the implication then of
all this? Look at the text. You are not
your own, but for you were bought with a price. Here's the implication
of therefore stating, glorify God therefore in your body. Now a number of you have the
New King James Version which says, and in your spirit which
are his, and we come back again to a textual matter. That particular
translation is based on a textual tradition that lays, in my judgment,
too much weight upon certain manuscripts And the manuscript
evidence for that additional part is very weak and apparently
was added by certain scribes because this seems so crassly
fleshy. It needed to be elevated into
a little higher level of spirituality to be told that the universal
implication of being purchased by the blood of Christ is that
God be glorified in our bodies, with no mention of the Spirit,
seems crassly carnal and focused upon what is touchable and feelable. But remember the context. The
context is people who could gather in their charismatic free-for-alls
on the Lord's Day. And men and women, prophets,
standing up, thus saith the Lord, and giving their words from God,
and people speaking in tongues with no interpreters. And they
were having a charismatic free-for-all, really in the Spirit. And they
go out on Monday and consort with harlots and engage in fornication. And the apostle is seeking to
demonstrate that the redemption of Jesus Christ does not terminate
upon the soul, but the whole man. You were bought with a price,
not your soul. You were bought with a price.
You notice in my opening remarks, based on the words of the hymn,
I didn't say it's a sober thing to know you have a never dying
soul. You notice I didn't say a never die. You have a never
dying existence, body and soul. You're going to exist somewhere
forever. Death is just a temporary rending
of the soul and the body. That's all, just temporary. And
the Apostle is concerned that these people who, through pagan
influences in philosophy and in morality, felt that they could
be very spiritual inwardly, and it made no real difference what
they did with the fleshy part of who and what they were, is
careful to terminate The emphasis here, or focus the emphasis upon
glorifying God, therefore, in your body. The duty mandated
in this universal implication, what is it? It is to glorify
God. To bring honor and praise to
God. That when people interact with
you, they will know something of what God is like, especially
God revealed in Jesus Christ. For he that saith he abideth
in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked. Whom he did
foreknow, then he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
And the duty mandated in the light of that radical affirmation,
you're not your own, based on that logical explanation, we
were bought with a price, is this. I am now under solemn obligation
in every place, at all times, and in all relationships, to
be passionately concerned that what I do, what I say, where
I go, and how I interact with others, what I think when I'm
alone, all that I am, that I bring honor and praise to the God who
has purchased me at the price of the blood of His own dear
Son. glorify God. Christ's free redemption brings
us back to the place where we begin to live for the very purpose
for which we were made. What is man's chief end? Man's
chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. He made
man in his image, after the image of God created he him. Male and
female created he them. And what is the most critical
element of our sin? All have sinned and fall short
of what? You can quote it. Fall short
of what? The glory of God. The very purpose
for which we were made. that you and I might be living,
walking, breathing representatives of God. And the sin of our sin
is that we fall short at the very purpose of our existence.
And God, in His great redemptive love and mercy, at great cost
to Himself, has bought a people with His own blood. And when
they come by faith to embrace his graciously provided salvation,
they are from henceforth no longer to regard themselves as their
own, but his purchased possession, now consciously and deliberately
to live for the very purpose for which we were created. Glorify
God, therefore, That's the duty mandated, but look at the sphere
specified. Glorify God, therefore, in your
body, in the realm and sphere of your bodily existence. In the context, again I acknowledge,
the primary emphasis would be, glorify God in your body, that
is, in the expression of your sexual capacity and appetites. Flee fornication. Arm yourself
with all the motives in the passage. I fully acknowledge that. But
this is not the only passage that speaks of glorifying God
in the realm or sphere of our bodily existence. I beseech you,
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
hearts, no, Present your souls? No. What does Romans 12, 1 say?
That you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable, rational service. You don't go
out and get an animal and slit its throat and present it unto
God as an expression of gratitude for his free salvation and his
mercy in Christ. You present yourself in the concreteness
of your bodily existence. That body that God has given
you, in that body you are to glorify Him. When that body is
at work, when that body is at play, when that body is alone
in secret and its eyes look at what it chooses to look at, when
the hands touch what they choose to touch, When that body is placed
in proximity to other bodies and relates to those bodies in
the totality of your redeemed humanity, you and I are to be
committed to glorify God in the sphere of our bodily existence. Now, do you see the tremendous
relevance of this as we look in two directions? As we come
to the table, it's my turn to assist at the table tonight along
with Pastor Carlson, or Pastor Smith. I think it's Pastor Smith,
yes. And I will uncover that loaf
of bread and break it, and we'll read the words from 1 Corinthians
11. And then the symbol of the fruit
of the vine, the little cups filled with the fruit of the
vine. And what we're saying is this, that the Lord Jesus Christ,
present by His Spirit, is in these two emblems reminding us
that the price that was paid to redeem us from everlasting
torment unto all of the privileges of everlasting glory and the
presence of God and of the Lamb and all of His redeemed in the
new heavens and earth was that Jesus Christ died for us. But now bring this text to bear
upon the table. That very purchased price that
redeemed us out of the clutches of the devil and out of the condemnation
of God's righteous law. That blood shed for us, bought
us so that we are henceforth not our own. If you take the
bread in the cup saying, I have salvation from the broken body
and the poured out blood of Christ, you know what you're saying in
the next breath? Therefore, I gladly acknowledge I am not my own. A whole Christ was given to purchase
a whole salvation that will secure the whole allegiance of all who
embrace it. It wasn't a half Christ to purchase
half of you. It was a whole Christ given to
purchase the whole you. And if you're a true believer,
you are not your own. You've been bought with a price.
And the wonder of God's grace is you're glad that it's so.
You know, you ain't lost nothing but hell and bondage and the
wretched tyranny of your body being the playground of your
lusts. There's a beautiful concreteness
in the biblical doctrine of sanctification. When Paul opens up the truth
from a differing perspective in Romans 6 of our union with
Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, when he died,
we died with him to sin. When he rose, we have risen with
him to newness of life. After all of that, he says, reckon
yourselves therefore to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God in Christ Jesus. And then he gives the practical
outworking of that, and he says, look, Don't present your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but present yourselves
unto God and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. For sin shall no longer exercise
lordship over you, for you are not under the law, but under
grace. Grace encompasses the totality
of the humanity of all to whom it comes in saving power. And we say, Lord, I'm not my
own. My eyes are not my own to look
at whatever they would look at. But Lord Jesus, they are yours
to look upon the things that please you. My ears are not my
own to hear what they would natively desire to hear, but what will
please you. My tongue is not my own to speak
its own words. My hands, my feet, all of the
members of my body not my own, bought with a price. And by your
grace, O Lord Jesus, I am committed to glorify you in my body." Now
that's the avenue from the text to the table. And now I want
to speak very pastorally. Summer is upon us. And with summer come backyard
pools and neighborhood pools. and community pools and park
lakes. And I want to lay a solemn challenge
before every blood-bought child of God in Trinity Baptist Church.
And I know some of you will go home and mumble. Some of you
will get in little groups and try to refute what I've said.
I've counted the cost, and I've been bought to be Christ's free
man. First Corinthians 723, you were bought with a price, be
not the slaves of men. And I will not be a slave to
your potential frowns or criticism. But I want to lay out this challenge
on behalf of my Savior, whose body and blood will be remembered
here tonight. Every woman, every girl in this
place, your body is his purchased possession. And if it's his possession
and under his control, It will not willfully or carelessly be
exposed to become the object of the wanton, lustful glances
of men and boys who know not Christ or the occasion of stumbling
into lustful glances from your brothers in Christ. You hear
me? You hear what I'm saying? If
you consciously say when you get up the morning you're planning
to go to PV Park, to the community pool, to your backyard, I don't
care where it is, can you put on your bathing garment, whatever
it is, and say, Lord Jesus, I glorify You in the bearing of this much
of my body to anyone who wants to look upon it. Oh yes, it may elicit a leering,
lustful look, and I may feed the wickedness of the hearts
of men, but Lord Jesus, I glorify you as I do it. Can you gather with your brothers
in Christ? When you know what Christ said,
who so looks to lust upon a woman half committed adultery already
in his heart and bear as much of your body as in any other
circumstance would be considered shameful except to your husband
behind the bedroom door. But because American culture
has said you can have bared thighs up to here as long as it's a
one piece. And you can wear the equivalent
of bra and panties, which if you walk down the street, you'd
be arrested. Because it's by sand and surf
in the community pool, it's acceptable. What in God's name has happened
to our consciences? What has happened to them? Glorify God in your body. In your body, Christian woman.
Ah, yes, but. Yeah, I know, ah, yes, but. I was reared on Long Island Sound.
Five minutes walk from the beach. I grew up on the beach. I loved
the beach. But when God saved me, this is
not a cultural thing with me. God got hold of my conscience. An indiscriminate mixed bathing
has never been a part of my life. And it isn't culturally conditioned. It's in my Bible. Am I saying anyone who has a
backyard pool, who swims, I'm not saying you're sinning. What
I'm saying is this. Can you look in the mirror with
whatever you've taken off and whatever you're exposing and
say, Lord Jesus, you died to purchase this body and I glorify
you by exposing this much to the gaze of people other than
my husband and in some circumstances to my children. That's all I'm
asking you. Don't get in a huff and distort
what I've said. If you are not your own and you've
been bought with a price, surely you want to glorify God in your
body, do you not? And what about the text where
Jesus said it is necessary that offenses come in a wicked world,
men are going to sin, but woe unto him through whom the offense
comes. It were better that a millstone
were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the sea. My
friends, that's strong language. And some of you women would say,
oh, men are going to lust. They'll lust if you wear a gunny
sack. Ah, yes. But if you go out down Main Street
in a gunny sack and a man lusts after you, your conscience is
clear that you have not unnecessarily occasioned his lust. You'll never
be charged with being the occasion of his sin. He'll answer for
his burning lust that lusts through a gunny sack. Don't get off the
hook by rationalization, my dear sisters or my dear brothers.
It was a time when it was thought that looking at bodies and body
watching and seeing if someone was buff and ripped was only
men with women. It's the other way around now.
There's as much pornography in the mall. I hadn't been in in
years. You walk through it and there in pennies and sears go
into the men's section. The men's underwear packages
are pornographic. And women and girls are body
conscious now in a way they weren't 20 to 30 years ago. You men,
you have an obligation. You're bought with a price. Glorify
God in your body. What you put on it, what you
take off it. What you put in it, and what
you don't put in it. Whether therefore, here's another
text that underscores it, whether therefore you what? Eat? What
you eat? How much you eat? How much of
what you eat gives necessary energy? How much continually
gets stored in excessive fat cells, puts a strain upon the
heart, unnecessarily prejudices your health and well-being and
service of Christ? and holding the conscience of
your children and your brothers and sisters, whether therefore
you eat what you eat, how much, how little, if you don't eat
enough, to burn up the energy you're using, to fuel the energy,
and you feed off your own body, that doesn't glorify God. That
doesn't glorify God. Whether you eat or drink what
you drink, how much you drink, The effect of the drink, be not
drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do
all to what? Let's say it. Do all to what?
Oh, we're right back here, aren't we? You were bought with a price.
You're not your own. Glorify God. Eating, drinking,
Whatever you do, this is just one specific focus of it. Whatever
we do, that's the great end. Christ died to have a people
whose passion is that they will glorify God in whatsoever they
do. This passage that we've meditated
upon says, you're not your own. You've been bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God. in your body. It's a serious
thing to look in the mirror and say, this temple of clay that
is decaying day by day, that month by month, for some of us,
sprouts a new arthritic joint and some other sign that the
outward man is decaying, to look in the mirror and say, man, you're
looking at purchased property. It's stamped with the cross.
And it's marked for eternal glory. But right now, with whatever
I've got, I've got to do the best I can to make sure that
Jesus gets the fruit of his death in this body. That's why some
of us submit ourselves to a regimen of exercise from which we get
no highs, which is unpleasant to our flesh. It's the conviction
that it's only in this body that we can serve God. until he stops
the ticker and it lies in the grave and waits the resurrection.
We've got to think that way. It's in your body that you will
be the mother and the wife and the husband and the father and
the friend and the workman. God have mercy on us. If like
the Corinthians, we can be spiritual in an unbodily way. What the
body is, what the body does is irrelevant. No, it isn't irrelevant.
It's been bought with a price, bought with a price. I close
with a touching passage out of The Three Marys. If you haven't
obtained that book, The Three Marys, it's Moody Stewart's beautiful,
edifying, fascinating at times, and all kinds of adjectives I
could use. Meditation on Mary Magdalene
and Mary the Mother of Our Lord. My wife and I have read those
two. We're just finishing up on Mary Magdalene. And he has
this beautiful section we read several nights ago when the Lord
reveals himself to Mary when she's weeping by the tomb. And
he says to her, Mary, and she turns and says, Rabboni. He shows that that expression
Rabboni meant my master, my teacher, my lord. And as he's opening
up the concept of Rabboni, my master, he says it demands humility. And secondly, It implies singleness
in the eye of the servant. And here's the passage I want
to read to you. The service can never be reconciled
without first reconciling the masters. But the prince of this
world has nothing in Christ. And what fellowship has Christ
with Belial? Yet the attempted double service,
the attempt to serve two masters, Christ and some other. The attempted
double service is deeply injuring thousands of true believers.
Now notice this careful wording. The attempt to serve two masters
is ruining and hindering thousands of real believers. A real believer
can only attempt to serve two masters because in reality no
man can serve two masters. Then he says this, and tens of
thousands of professing Christians are continually perishing in
the vain endeavor to please two masters. Half master and half
Lord is all they really call Jesus. Master of my soul, Lord
of my spirit, but not master of my body, my tongue, my ears,
my eyes, my feet and hands, Lord of my devotions, but not of my
affections, my heart, my intellect, my time, my farm, my merchandise,
my all, master of my future, my old age, my weakness, my sickness,
my sorrow, my death, and my eternity, but not master of my present,
my health, my life, my pleasure. Half Savior for the best of men
would leave them wholly lost forever. And our complete Redeemer
is likewise our absolute Lord. Jesus is meek and lowly in heart,
but he will not be mocked by any man, and to every half-servant
he will sternly say, No servant can serve two masters. Depart
from me, you workers of iniquity. But on the other hand, the my
Rabboni of Mary, strikes a kindred chord in the heart of every humble
and single-eyed follower of Jesus. My unconverted friends sitting
here tonight, I am so glad in the light of our first hymn that
I can say to you in the language of Matthew 12, all manner of
sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto man, except blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit, All manner of sin in blasphemy shall be forgiven,
the sons of men. For the blood of Jesus, God's
Son, cleanses from all sin. Come now, let us reason together.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow,
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as woe. Christ's
blood has power to cleanse and forgive the vilest of sins in
any combination and in any amount. That's the gospel. Go to Christ,
and the virtue of his blood will render you clean as the new fallen
snow. But if you go, know that the
blood by which you are cleansed has purchased you, all of the
whole of you without exception. If you want to know the sweet
kiss of his pardoning grace, throw yourself upon him and with
Mary say, Rabboni, my master, my master. If any professing
Christian comes to this table willfully, knowingly, clinging
to anything that is a contradiction of Christ's purchase of you. You are trifling with sacred
things and partaking of those emblems of His body and His blood
in an unworthy manner and provoking God to severely chastise you
if you are a true Christian. Coming to the table is not only
coming with joy and gratitude and fresh expressions of devotion
to the Lord Jesus, who died that we might be forgiven, but with
fresh and honest searchings of heart to ask, does he have in
me what he died to get from me? You're not your own, for you
were bought with a price. Glorify God therefore in your
body, let us pray. Our Father, how we plead with
You that You would take Your Word and bring it home to our
hearts with power. We acknowledge with shame that
so often we rob our Lord Jesus of the fruit of His suffering,
when with hand and foot and eye and tongue and other bodily members
we do that which does not glorify You. Forgive us, our God, we
pray. Wash us afresh in the blood of
your Son, and draw from us sincere and earnest fresh consecration
of all that we are to you, that we may be to the praise of the
glory of your grace through the remainder of our earthly pilgrimage,
and then, in a better place and in a fuller and more glorious
way, to glorify you perfectly. and that forever. Continue with
us, we plead. In Jesus' name, amen.