This is a fact here, an indisputable
fact. No man can put up an argument
against this fact that the Lord reigneth. And that's the reason why he
says, let the earth rejoice. If there was some force without personality that reigned, we would have no reason to rejoice. But the Lord reigned. God reigned. That is, He rules, and there's
no limit to His right to rule. It says, Our Lord Jesus said
to His small following, those eleven disciples,
He said, All power in heaven and earth is given unto me. All power. Not only in heaven,
but in earth. He reigns. Power. Infinite power. Power. Let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of the islands
be glad thereof. Cloud and darkness are round
about him. Righteousness and judgment are
the habitation of his throne, the establishment of his throne. A fire goeth before him, and
burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened
the world, and the earth saw and trembled. The hills melt like wax at the
presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of
the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness,
and all the people see His glory. Confounded be all they that serve
graven images that boast themselves of idols. Worship Him, all ye gods. Zion
heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of
thy judgment, O Lord. For thou, Lord, art high above
all the earth. Thou art exalted far above all
gods. that are called gods, graven
images and idols that are called gods. Ye that love the Lord hate
evil. He preserveth the soul of his
saints. That's what we was talking about
this morning, wasn't it? He preserveth the soul of his saints. He delivereth them out of the
hand of the wicked. Light is sown for righteousness,
for thee righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice
in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance
of His holiness, at the remembrance of who He is. Holy, holy, holy
art thou, Lord God Almighty. Holy, holy, holy. Holy God and a holy people. Holiness begets
holiness. We ought to be holy. Holy in
word, holy in thought, and holy indeed. Holy, holy. Turn with me for a few minutes
here this evening to chapter 6 of the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. All in this 6th chapter, begins it by admonishing the saints of God at Corinth,
the brethren, those who comprise the body of the Lord Jesus. He's the head, there's the body. And he tells them here But first
off, he reminds them, he said, Dare any of you, that
is, does any of you have the audacity, having a matter against
one another, go to the law before the unjust and not before the
saints? Although the apostle certainly
was a man who believed strongly in giving allegiance to those
that have the rule over us, yet he recognized the infallibility
or the fallibility of righteous judgment in courts of law. He said, Go to law before the
unjust and not before the saints. Know ye not that the saints shall
judge the world? That's an overwhelming fact,
isn't it? The saints shall judge the world. I don't know all there is to
know about that. I just know it's so. I wouldn't
be here if it wasn't so. Saints going to judge the world.
Some areas, some aspects. More ignorant people like you
and I have been redeemed by His blood. We are going to have that worthy, high
honor, setting in on judgment of somebody. The saints shall
judge the world. And if the world shall be judged
by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? things that are insignificant
to that which is deemed important. Know ye not that we shall judge
angels? Judge angels, judge the world.
How much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have
judgments of things pertaining to this life, If you've got problems that need
to be—things that need to be exposed, things that need to
be aired out, things that need to be settled, things pertaining
to this life, set them to judge who are least
esteemed in the Church. Let them do the ruling. solution to the problem. I speak
to your shame. Is it so that there is not a
wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able
to judge between his brother. But brother goeth to the law
with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now, this chapter is devoted
mostly to the sins of the flesh, primarily fornication and adultery. But this must be a sin here,
too, to go before the courts of law, the unjust, and
not before the saints to settle a problem. Now, therefore, there
is utterly a fault among you, because you go to law one with
another. Why don't you just take the heat? Why do you not just
rather take wrong? Why don't you just suffer yourself
to be defrauded? Nay, you do wrong and defraud,
and that's your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God, be not deceived, Neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers. Now, that which, you know, is
a common thing practiced in our day, in our society. You know,
there's no sacredness in regard to the marriage vows. Move in. Just move in. Just say you're married and you're
married. Join yourself to whatever you want to do. But he says here,
don't be deceived now. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves as mankind, thieves,
or covetousness, drunkards, revilers, or extortioners, shall inherit
the kingdom of God. And such were some of you." Some of you folks out there in
the church of Corinth, he said, such were some of you. But he
said, you're washed. You're washed, washed in the
blood of the crucified one. It must be awful precious blood.
I mean, the blood must be awfully precious. inestimable value to wash poor sinners and make
them clean. Such were some of you, but you
are washed and you are sanctified, but you are justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Now, as I said in this chapter,
the apostle Paul here is dealing with the sins of the flesh primarily,
fornication and adultery. And if you will notice, in the
words of Paul, under the direction of the Spirit, that he takes
the strictest care to keep the language guarded. These are not things that you
talk about in every public meeting, fornication and adultery. So he takes, under the direction
of the Spirit of God, the strictest consideration and care to keep
the language guarded, so that while denouncing these detestable
evils, fornication and adultery. While he's doing that, he does not give any indication
or lean in the direction that he would put his brand of approval
upon it. He doesn't promote it in any
way. He denounces it. and at the same time doesn't
give any indication of promotion, fornication, and adultery. He
tells us what filthy things these are. He tells us up here in the middle part of this chapter,
the last part of this chapter, he says in verse 14, and God
hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by
his own power. Know ye not that your bodies
are the members of Christ, members of his body, fitly framed, joined
together? members of the body of Christ. Know ye not that your bodies
are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members
of Christ and make them members of an harlot?" And that is what takes place
if that happens. Paul says, God forbid, do anything
like that. What? Know ye not that he which
is joined to an harlot is one body? A man that joins himself
to a harlot is one body. For two, saith he, shall be one
flesh. They are one. But he that is
joined unto the Lord is of one spirit. flee fornication. Ever sin that a man doeth is
without the body, but he that committeth fornication
sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? which ye have
of God, and ye are not your own. Ye are not your own, for ye are
bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's." Now, when he is dealing
with the sins of the flesh in this chapter, he is urging the
hearers to holiness. And here lies the motive that
he uses to urge the people unto holiness. He says, and ye are
not your own. Remember, you don't belong to
yourself. You're not your own. If you're
a believer in Christ Jesus, then he presupposes that these that
he's writing to, for the most part, are believers in the Lord
Jesus. were some of you, but you are
washed, and you are sanctified, and you are justified, so you
are not your own, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore, in light of the fact
that you are not your own, and you are bought with a price,
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God. That's the exhortation and the
motive for the exhortation to urge us to give ourselves over
to him, body, soul, and spirit. He tells us here that the body
is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the temple of the Holy Spirit
ought not to be profaned, and it will be profaned if, like
he says, Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?
Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them a member
of a harlot? God forbid! Know ye not that
he which is joined to a harlot is one body? For to saith he
shall be one flesh." It tells us what filthy things, the sin
of fornication, adultery. Paul, above all other writers
in the New Testament, speaks more positive about salvation
by grace alone than the others do. More positive, more emphatic, says more about
it than the rest of the writers. I believe anyhow, that's my thinking. And he makes it very clear that
salvation is not by works, lest any man should boast. But at
the same time, he urgently admonishes and exhorts men and women unto
holiness, unto doing what's right. Just do what's right. One says,
well, what should I do? Obey God. Just obey God. There's no other way. Just obey
God. Listen. He denounces those who
would emphasize the theme, let us do evil, that good might come. No. He says ye are bought with
a price. And the best rendering of that
expression is this, ye were bought with a price. Ye were, such were
some of you, ye were bought with a price. This is a common expression
to signify that to purchase, was expensive. Ye are not your own, for ye are
bought with a price. That the purchase was expensive. Ye were bought implies a price. But the words that's added to
that, ye are bought ye were bought," the words added to it says, "...with
a price." And it's added to show that it was not for nothing that
ye were purchased. What did purchase us? Over here in the book of 1 Peter, is a commentary on what is it
that purchases a man's soul. What is it? This is the commentary. Peter tells us the answer to
the question. Anyone who wants to know anything
about the purchase price, does not need to talk to me. All he
has to do is turn to 1 Peter 1, verse 18. He says, Forasmuch
as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers. Your conversation indicates your
ignorance to this that you received and got by tradition. Listen,
verse 19, But with the precious blood of Christ, precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. What is this purchase, Christ?
You are not your own. You don't belong to yourself.
You are bought. You were bought with a price. What was that price? Precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish, without spot. who verily was foreordained. Foreordained. I remember they
asked me a question one time about ordination. They said,
If we rescind your ordination, what
will you do? Well, I said, It depends on who ordained me.
If your ordination is of you, it makes no difference. But if
the ordination comes from God, then you can't do nothing about
it. Is that right? Ordained. Foreordained. Before the foundation of the
world. but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him
do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave
him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God." That is
the commentary you are bought with a price. That price is the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the blood of Christ was
shed to purchase, to buy our souls from death and hell is
a," and I don't know whether this is a word or not, Barbara, that the blood of Christ was
shed, and I've read and said it was, the precious blood of
Christ, was shed to purchase, to buy our souls from death and
hell. That is a wonderment, that's
the word, a wonderment of compassion which fills even the angels with
awe and amazement. The blood of Christ. And we can talk about it with
dry eyes, can't we? We can talk about it without
emotion, and it ought not to be. Our eyes ought to be wet, and our emotions ought to be
high when we talk about this. The purchase price was His precious
blood. It delivered us from death and
hell. flames of hell. That's so. What meant this purchasing us
with blood? What's involved there? Most of
you know. It signifies pain. Pain. Have any of you And I know you
have, maybe all of you. Have you ever suffered acutely,
extensively? Have you ever really suffered
pain? If you have really suffered pain
acutely and extensively, then you know, as you suffered at
that time, You know to some degree what he's talking about when
it says he must suffer. The shedding of his blood signifies
pain, suffering, suffering, suffering. Some of us can't get over a headache. We're weeping more. We can't go to work. We can't
do this, we can't do that, I've got a headache. I'm talking about
PAI and pain. Pain, pain, pain. What was the price which he paid? Pain. His bodily pains were great,
there's no doubt about that. He hung on a tree. They whipped
him, scourged him. Whipped him like a dog. Back
was lacerated. Blood matted on his back. Thorns pierced his brow. Crowned thorns put it on his
head. Mocked him. Laughed at him. If you be the Son of God, come
down. You saved others. See if he can
save himself. He hung right there, didn't he? Aren't you glad he didn't come
down? Aren't you glad he didn't save himself? Listen, his bodily pains were
great. His hands and his feet were pierced
with iron spikes, nails. And these nails have bound to
go through the tenderest of nerves, what pain that is. I had a pain
in the back one time, in my neck. And the doctor, I went to several
chiropractors, doctors. They just thought that, ah, settle
down, take an aspirin, you'll be all right. I've tried all
that. And I said, I've got no rest
day or night. I can't sleep. It hurts. I said, I have to raise my hand
up and take the pressure off of wherever that is in order
to get a little comfort. And that soon passes away. And
I finally went up to a hundred, I believe it was, to a chiropractor.
And he told me, he said, you've got a pinched nerve. And he put
his finger on my back. in a certain place in my back,
and he started going up my back like that. And I could feel the
nerve. Now, whether you believe this
or not, buddy, it's so. You know, I wouldn't lie to you,
and I wouldn't exaggerate. When he put his finger on that
nerve, it just kept jumping like that all the way up my back,
that nerve. I know it was a nerve. Something
mattered with the nerve there, and it pained me. But it wouldn't be nothing to
have a nail driven through your hands or your feet and hit the
tenderest nerves of your body. That's acute pain. That's agony. That's suffering. Now, he had
great pain in his bodily suffering, his hands and his feet, his nails,
but his soul pains were far greater. than his bodily pains, because
his heart, the Bible says in one of the Psalms, it says his
heart melted like wax. Think of the pain he suffered.
The pain that he suffered was equivalent to or for the pain
that we ought to have suffered. What I'm saying is, redeemed
by the blood, purchased by the blood. It has to do with pain,
insurmountable pain. He suffered this pain, and what
we must have suffered had we endured the punishment for the
guilt and shame that belonged to us in the flames of hell. He endured that for me and for
you, if you're a believer. But listen to this. Pain alone
cannot redeem us from the penalty due us. Oh, no. He must die. He must die. The corn of wheat must fall into
the ground. He must die, he must suffer,
he must bleed, and he must die. Pain alone could not redeem us. It was by death that the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, paid the ransom. Death is a word of horror. It's a word that scares. ungodly
men, unregenerate men, unbelieving men and women and boys and girls.
They don't want someone to look them in the eye and talk about
death. It's scarce. Ah, listen. But as His death
was the substitute for the death of the ungodly, He who knew no
sin was made a curse for us. And even while he was making
atonement on our behalf, even God denied him his presence. God, the Father, who loved him,
oh, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. anything in his life, word, thought,
or deed that wasn't in perfect harmony and unity with the will
and purpose of the Father in heaven. But God the Father spoke
no words of comfort to the son of his bosom, to the son of his
love. Oh, he's paying the price. He's paying the price of our
redemption. He must suffer and he must die. And that he did. And his death
was attended by an unusual darkness. There was a darkness that came
all over the land. And the earth began to shake
and the mountains, the rocks of the mountains began to move. Unusual time there. Just think, the only begotten
of the Father, the Son of His love, the darling of His bosom.
Oh, they said over there in the Book of Psalms, described Him,
described Him, He has eyes like a dove, peaceful, sweet dove. His eyes are like a dove. He's like a dove. and goes on
and on and describes Him. And you know how he sums it up
at the end of his description of the blessed Son of God? He
says this, and this is all that a man can say when he finds all
the adjectives, puts them together. This is what he says, He is altogether
lovely. Now you think of Him who is altogether
lovely. He bowed His head in agony and gave up the glory. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Bought with a price. Bought with
a price. Oh, what a stupendous and infinite
price that was paid. His life laid down. the shedding
of His blood, that we might be redeemed. This is Paul's plea to us here
to urge us on to be like Him, to seek His face, to do right,
act right, talk right, think right, be right, to glorify Him. That's not asking too much. in light of the price that was
paid, is it? Huh? They're asking too much. Give yourself to Him unreservedly,
wholeheartedly, by that soul, mind, and spirit unto Him. Glorify God. God urges people
to do that who are bought with a price. Huh? This fact, and it's a fact, ye
are not your own, ye were bought with a price. That's a fact.
This fact is the most important one in all your history, that you were redeemed and the price was His blood. That's the most important thing
in all your history. Someone was to write your history.
They'd probably say, Jim Wilson, well, he was a book salesman, and he was a schoolteacher, and
he was a sanitarian in the county of Marion. He was the husband of one wife. And he had two boys and one daughter. And he is a loving father. And
all these things. But they probably wouldn't say
the most important fact about Jim Wilson is that he was redeemed
by the blood of Christ. See, that's the most important
thing about you, Jim. That's the most important thing
about me. Redeemed, redeemed with a price, a purchased price. Who did it? God Himself who become
a man. God who become a man as a man
suffered and shed His blood, suffered pain and agony for me. Bought with a price. Your connection
with Calvary is the most important thing about you. Ain't nothing
else. carries more weight than that
with God. Huh? Bought with a price will
be the most important fact in your future existence. Bought
with a price. Bought with a price. What do they sing in heaven?
Do you know what they sing in heaven? They selected the most noble
topic as they went through their memories,
these angels, and they come up with this theme. The theme of
heaven is redemption by blood. Listen, in the whole range of
their memories, They found this thing, and this is what they
sing about. They said, Thou wast slain and
hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood. That's what they sing
about. Most important thing in heaven,
redemption by blood. Most important thing in your
biography. Most important thing in your history. Most important
thing in the future of your existence. Nothing else will count. When
you and I reach the upper realms, when that time comes when we
depart from this body, and it will come, when that time comes
when we reach the outer realms of glory,
stand down. Our most important memory will
not be that I was rich or that I was poor in this life or the
fact that I was very sick and died, but the most important
fact will be you're bought with a price. You're bought, you're
not thrown, bought with a price. Now, you either were or you were
not. Now, speaking to all of us, you
either bought with the price or you're not bought. What will
it be? If you're bought with the price
of all's well. If you're not bought, then whatever the opposite of
all's well is yours, whatever that is. Oh, listen. If you're bought with a price, if so, let the truth of it operate,
dominate your body, your mind, your soul, and your spirit. Let this truth of who redeems
you and how you is redeemed, let that govern your body. I'll
guarantee you, if that governs your body, you'll never be joined
to a harlot. You won't be, if that governs
your body. You're not your own. You don't
belong to yourself. Satisfy your own lust. Let it
be said of you, when you die, that you, a man or woman, that
you was filled with love for Him who bought you with a price. Your heart was filled with adoration, and the outflow of your love
was seen among your neighbors and your family and your friends.
Love for Him who bought you with a price. If you're bought, then you're
not your own. If you fought, then every limb
on your frame belongs to Him. Every limb, every finger, every
toe, every hair on your head belongs to Him. You don't belong
to Him. You don't belong to yourself.
You've got no right to satisfy your own passions, delights,
and desires. You've got no right to it. You
don't belong to yourself. You belong to Him. Give ourselves to Him. that when
we come to die, we may feel like, at least I've
lived for something. Wouldn't that be something? At
least I've lived in this life for something. And that something
is somebody. It's that man who left the glory
of heaven and became poor. He was rich. but he became poor
for my sake. Redeem me with his precious blood. Amen. All of us have to think
on these things. This stand will be dismissed. It's not just the order. It's
not just the fact that you do it. It has to fall into the direction that
you want it to fall into, the direction you want it to fall into. Oh no.