Okay, let's turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Now let's begin reading in the middle
part of the verse, in verse 13. Now the body is not for fornication, but for
the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 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? Shall I then take the members
of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What, know ye not that he which
is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall
be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the
Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every 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 you have
of God, and you 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." This is a very special
occasion today because we have three of our brethren that are
going to confess the Lord in Believer's Baptism. And in Believer's
Baptism, we're confessing that whenever Christ was crucified,
we were crucified with Him. And we're confessing that when
Christ was buried, our old man, our old sinful corrupt body of
death was buried with Him. And whenever Christ was raised
from the dead to newness of life, we were raised to newness of
life with Him. I remember when I was baptized,
I can remember being so overjoyed by the Spirit of the Lord that
what He had shown me, what He had taught me about my salvation
being complete in Christ, and I was so thrilled. And I can remember when I was
baptized, I can remember after going through this painful time
of seeing my sin and my corruption and just thinking there was no
hope for me. And then the Lord just coming
in such power, making Himself known and what He had done for
me. I remember feeling like I have a totally clean slate. And that's
true. In Christ we're complete and
the sins are gone. By what He's done, by His blood,
sins are washed away. And I can tell you this, by painful
experience, that I learned very quickly how
much sin is ever present with us, how much temptation we face
daily, constantly, continually. I remind you from the Scriptures
that as soon as the Lord came up out of the water, immediately
He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil. And so I want this morning to preach to you about
this newness of life, this newness of life. Believers, brothers
and sisters in Christ, have a most blessed privilege above all other
privileges and above all others in this world. We have the privilege
of being God's holy people, of being sanctified by God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, out of darkness into
light, made fit to be partakers of the inheritance by the grace
of God. That's a great privilege. And
because we believe that we're complete in Christ, that our
salvation is accomplished by the finished work of Christ Jesus,
because we believe that our salvation is not in any way by our works,
We do not say, as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm
that we say, let us do evil, that good may come. The believer
just doesn't have that thought. We don't have that attitude.
Our desire is to adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things. That's our desire. That's our
inward desire. Where faith abides in the heart,
There is a love for all things that are pure. There's a love
for truth. There's a love for righteousness.
There's a love for holiness, wherever faith abides. And that
love grows. It does grow by God's grace. And our motive in this walking
in newness of life, that which we're daily constrained by, is
found here in verse 20. And it's this, you're bought
with a price. You're bought with a price. Therefore,
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. I want for you to know the motive
for glorifying God. The motive for glorifying God.
I want you to leave here today and you come up out of these
baptismal waters and are taken into the wilderness, I want you
to have this motive burning in your heart, this desire to glorify
God burning in your heart. And if God will enable me and
continue to bless me to preach the gospel to you, keep feeding
upon this word and I'll keep preaching this word to you. And
if God will bless us both, He'll keep this motive alive in our
hearts. He'll keep this motive burning in our hearts. Like when
Isaiah had that live coal brought to him from off the altar and
touched his lip, He'll continue to touch us and make us to see
that He's our all and keep us following after Him. The redemption
price that was paid by our Lord Jesus Christ Our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself and that glorious redemption price He paid, that is our motive,
to glorify God in our body and our spirit. I want to look here
first at this, and I'm going to look at this in three different
ways. You could divide this into a
lot of different points, but just for sake of time, I'm going
to look at three things here particularly. And this is just
different aspects of this motive that Paul bears out right here.
The first aspect of this motive for glorifying God in our body
and our spirit is because the body was made for the Lord. Look at verse 12. Now the body
is not for fornication. This is the sin that Paul is
dealing with here, is fornication. And he particularly is speaking
of the body here, because fornication is that which requires our body. It's sin against our own body. In fact, that verse that says
a man sins against his own body, it's really meaning against Christ's
body, because our body is one. But this applies to all sin.
It applies to every sin there is. The body is not made for
sin. Our body wasn't made for any
other sin any more than it was made for fornication. But look
at this next word. The body is for the Lord and
the Lord for the body. Have you ever wondered why God
made the body? I know that we can go straight
to the end here and say, well, that's telling us that our body's
been bought by the Lord. And it does. It does mean that.
But I want to go back before that. Go back before that. Why
did God make the human body? You ever thought about that?
You ever just sit and thought, why did He make the human body? It tells us plainly here, He
made it for the Lord. The human body was made for the
Lord. In eternity, whenever God the Father chose His Son to come
forth into the world in a human body, to make God known to His
people, to accomplish the work of redemption, of justifying
His people from our sins, whenever God chose a people and gave them
to His Son and purposed for Christ to come forth into this world
in human flesh, When he did that, right then and there, in the
mind and purpose of God, God made a body. He fashioned a body
in His mind and purpose, just as it would be fashioned in time
and literally made as our Lord would come forth in. Hebrews
10.5 tells us, Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he
said, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast
thou prepared me. So the pattern, what I'm saying
to you is Christ has preeminence even in the purpose and the pattern
in which our human body was made. Whenever God created Adam's body
in the garden, When He created Adam's body in the garden, He
didn't just make that body for Adam. He didn't just make that
body for you and me. He made that body for His Son. And He fashioned that body that
He made of Adam after that body He purposed to make for His Son.
Christ is preeminent. Christ has all preeminence in
everything. Everything. Look at Colossians
chapter 1 and verse 16. Colossians chapter 1 and verse
16. It's speaking of Christ who's the
image of the invisible God. Verse 15 says He's the firstborn
of every creature. He is the One, the very One who
came forth in that body. He's the firstborn of every creature. For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created by Him and for Him. Everything that
was a throne, everything that had dominion, everything that
had principality was made after the pattern of Christ our King.
Christ the One who has dominion over this whole earth, to whom
God gave it in the covenant council of grace before the world began.
And it says here, and all things were created by Him and for Him. How many things are contained
in all things? All things, even the body. All
things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all
things. And by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body. That body, mystical body, His
church, which is elect that God gave Him. Who is the beginning? That's who He is. The beginning.
The firstborn from the dead. That in all things He might have
the preeminence. So this first aspect of this
motive. I want you to get at this point.
The body, your body, believe it, you who have been born of
the Spirit of God, your body was made for the Lord. It wasn't
made for sin. It wasn't made for sinful purposes.
It wasn't made for us to to treat it as if that's all that matters. It's the pleasure of this life
right here. I have no doubt that some don't
even realize or have any idea or even even thought about what
in the world was this human body even made for? Why was my body
made? Why was your body made? We go through this life like
ox. We go through this life like
just dumb donkeys, not even knowing or contemplating, or even thinking
about, why do I even exist? What is my purpose? And go through
this life trying to heap up treasures upon this flesh, and pampering
this flesh, and acting as if we're the end all, be all of
everything that exists in the world. And the body was made
for the Lord. The body was made for the Lord.
He gets the glory in that. Some will hear this word, it'll
go in one ear, and it'll go out the other ear. You'll leave here
and you'll go back to wherever you came from, and it may stay
with you for a little while, but then it'll gradually just
fade away and fade away and fade away. You know why that is? You
don't really have a need. don't really have a need. Those
who saw their need of Christ, when our Lord walked this earth,
those who saw their need of Christ came to Him and begged mercy
of Him. They came to Him. Whenever that
leper came running to Him, when He came down after preaching
that Sermon on the Mount, that leper came running to Him and
fell down at His feet. A man who wasn't even supposed
to come near anybody, a man who wasn't even supposed to be near
anybody, a man who was supposed to be declaring himself unclean
and steering clear of everybody comes running to the Lord and
was able to run to Him because Christ took our sins in His own
body on the tree. He turned His face from us when
He put the darkness out. He fulfilled the very law that
that leper was breaking and coming to Him. But that leper came to
him because he knew Christ was the great physician who could
heal him. And he saw his need and he couldn't be healed by
anybody else. Blind Bartimaeus heard him coming,
heard that he was passing through. Blind Bartimaeus had a need.
He knew he couldn't see. He knew he couldn't be cured.
That's a picture of our blindness, of our need for mercy from Christ.
And he cried out. And they tried to silence him.
They tried to hush him. People told him to shut up, Blind
Bartimaeus. And he cried the louder. Because
he had a need. God's people can't be hushed
when they have a need. That woman with the issue of
blood came through that crowd and she too, she wasn't supposed
to be touching anybody. She wasn't supposed to be touching
anybody. But that one who she's coming to is the end of the law.
And she's coming to Him for healing from all of her law breaking
and all of her issue of corruption and defilement that she had within
her. And she's coming to Him and she had the faith of knowing
because He had touched her. We saw that last week. He had
touched her already. You don't know your need until
He's touched you already. And she came to Him saying, if
I can just touch Him, the hem of His garment, I'll be made
whole. When God's touched you, when
He's made you know your need, you know your need. And you come
to Him and this thing doesn't just go in one ear and out the
other like some fancy little tale that you've been told. It
goes down into the heart and it draws you by His grace to
His feet. The body wasn't made for sin.
The body wasn't made to just go through this life, kicking
up our heels. This week, it's the Olympics.
Next, in a few weeks, it'll be football season. In a few weeks,
it'll be whatever pleasure. And it's just one pleasure after
another, one pleasure after another, as if that's what this body was
made for. This body was made for the Lord
and the Lord for the body. Look at the next verse in verse
13. It says it was the Lord for the body. The body was made for
the Lord for the glory of Christ Jesus to come forth and make
Himself one with our flesh. God whose Spirit, God who cannot
be seen, come forth in a body and to make Himself known to
us in the redemption and justification of His people by His finished
work. so that He calls us into His
fold and calls us in and makes us one with Him, so that now
we go about serving Him and glorifying Him in our body. That's why the
body was made. And look at this word, verse
14, And God hath raised Him up, God hath raised Him up, has raised
up the Lord, and will also raise up us by His own power. And it
wasn't just power that raised Him. It wasn't only power. It's
His power of His glory. It's that power and glory that
finished work demanded, that justice of God, that holy, righteous
glory and power of God's glory demanded Christ Jesus be raised. because He's finished the work.
And so it is that because He finished the work of redemption,
that same power, that same glory demands that all His children
be raised in Him. We were raised in Him when He
was raised, and we're going to be raised, regenerated with Him,
and to be with Him forever. Verse 15 says, Know ye not that
your bodies are the members of Christ? You think about that. Know ye not that your bodies
are the members of Christ. Here's my members. I've got my
fingers, my hands, my arms, my legs, my feet, my toes, everything. These are my members. Members
of my body. That little finger right there
means as much to me as that thumb means to me. As the eye means
to me. As the toe means to me. Every part of it is a part of
my body and it means something to me. Without it, I'm not complete. If one part of it is cut off,
I'm not complete. You, believer who have been born
of the Spirit of God, are a member of Christ's body. As real as
There's not one part of that body, not one member of that
body less important to Christ Jesus our Lord than any other
member of that body. The most unbecoming member is
cherished as much as the most becoming member. The member who's
glorifying Him the least in this earth is as desirable and as
loved and as cherished by Christ our Lord as that member that's
glorifying Him the most. Members of His body. Members
of His body. And if one of those members is
lost, his body's not complete. And our Lord Jesus Christ will,
in the day of glory, when we all gather at His throne of grace,
He will have a complete body. There will be no blemish in it.
There will be no defect in it. Every single elect child of God
given to Him before this world began shall be called to faith
in Him and shall pass from this world and be with Him forever
in glory. And not one will be lost. Not one. Now, seeing as how He's
already raised and knowing that our bodies are members of His
body and that we're raised with Him right now, That's what you're
going to be confessing in just a moment. That you believe. You
believe His Word. You believe His Gospel. That
you're raised with Him into newness of life. Therefore, shall we
desecrate the body? Shall we do anything in our body
to use it for purposes that it wasn't intended for? Shall we
join members of our body to a harlot? Shall we Go through this life
drunk. Go through this life stealing
and robbing. Go through this life just living
for this flesh. Shall we do that? We're members
of His body. We've been joined to Him, believer.
Therefore, we're buried with Him by baptism into death, that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father. Even so, we also should walk
in newness of life. That's the first motive, the
aspect of this motive. It's really just one motive.
But there's just, I'm looking at some different shades of it.
That's one shade of it. Our body is for Him. It's for
Him. That's why it was made, for Him.
All right? Secondly, now he's been speaking
here about the body, and he talks here about Verse 16, he says,
What know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one
body? For two saith he shall be one
flesh. That union that we have with
Christ, he's showing here how it's dishonored when we take
these bodies and join them with a harlot. Well, that body, This
body. We're joined with Christ like
as a husband and a wife is joined together in the marriage union.
But notice the word in verse 14 how it starts. But. But. Verse 16 ended, For two
saith he shall be one flesh. That's where we're united with
Christ that way. But. But. It's greater than that
picture of that marriage union between a husband and a wife.
It's more of a more oneness than that. But he that is joined unto
the Lord is one spirit. One spirit. It's greater. There's a oneness there that's
even greater than that that's pictured by the union of a husband
and a wife. He is our husband. Christ our
husband. And His elect children are His
bride. His church is His bride. This oneness between you individually
and Christ Jesus, it's a oneness in spirit. He that is joined
to the Lord is one spirit. He that is joined unto the Lord
I like that. He that is joined unto the Lord. That's what we're confessing
today. That's what you're saying. I'm joined unto the Lord. He that is joined unto the Lord
is one. One spirit. One spirit. The whole person of a child of
God is united to Christ. The whole person, body, soul,
and spirit. But right now, our spirit has been quickened. It
was dead. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. But the Lord, as He promised, came forth and He said, I'll
put a new spirit within you. And by His Holy Spirit, He has
put a new spirit in us. That spirit is the Lord, Scott
just read. And where the spirit of the Lord
is, there's liberty. liberty from death, liberty from
bondage, liberty from sin, liberty from its dominion, liberty from
its curse, liberty from its guilt. Where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there's liberty. There's liberty from the dominion
of sin. If it were not so, you'd never
believe on the Lord. If He hadn't freed you from that
dominion before He makes this oneness with us, we can't believe
Him. It's not only that we cannot, we will not. We don't want to
see Him. We don't want to hear Him. We
don't want to submit to Him. We don't want to bow to Him.
When we hear the word of the truth, we'll say, no, because
I will not have that man reign over me. But when He takes the
reign, when He comes in spirit and the King of glory, the King
of kings and Lord of lords sets up His throne in our heart, brethren,
He takes dominion. And when He does, He draws forth
that faith that He's given to where we call upon Him in this
living union we have with Him. It's because He's come and He's
made us alive by this resurrection and even now our whole man It's
His. It's ours. It's His. Everything
about us is His. We're members of Christ's body,
of His flesh and of His bone. He that is joined to the Lord
is one spirit. Now the proof of this is, as
soon as we die, the second we die, the second our physical
body dies, our spirit is going to go to be with the Lord immediately. With the spirits of just men
made perfect. Immediately. No amendment to
be done, nothing else to be done to make it more than what it
is right now. Because God created it, and what
God creates by the incorruptible seed, He creates in righteousness
and true holiness, so that it is accepted with God, one with
Him, able to be brought into His presence immediately. And
after that, in the resurrection, when He raises us, we're going
to be raised. Our bodies are going to come
out of the grave and go and be with His body, incorruptible,
immortal. And we're going to be joined
to Him completely and perfectly united with Him. We're going
to serve the Lord. We're going to walk with the
Lord in a body. We're going to walk with the
Lord in a body. We're not going to be spirits
floating around on clouds somewhere with little gold halos around
our heads and playing on harps and all that. We're going to
be, it's going to be like this right here. We're going to be
in a perfect earth with a perfect heavens
and a perfect earth with a perfect Redeemer and be perfect with
Him and walk with Him. And even now, He's telling us
right now, this is the motive of our hearts brethren, the motive
of that Spirit He's put within us. Right now, we're that joined
to Him. We're that united to Him. One. One. He prayed, let me read this
to you. He prayed over in John 17. That they all may be one. How
one? John 17, 21. As thou, Father,
art in me, and I in thee. That's oneness. That's oneness. As one as the Father and the
Son. As one as the Father and the God-man are one. That they
also may be one in us. that the world may believe that
thou hast sent me. That's oneness, brethren. So,
look down at verse 19 there, back in our text. 1 Corinthians
6, verse 19. Your body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God. That body, this
body right now, it's the temple of the Holy Ghost. A temple is
a holy thing. You know, whenever the Shekinah Glory, when He came
into that temple, wherever the presence of the Lord was, that
was a holy place. It was a holy place, sanctified
by His presence. And everybody that entered into
that place had to be holy. They had to be holy. To touch
Him, they had to be holy. To touch the things that picture
Christ, they had to be holy. That's why we saw last week that
this work of making us holy is done before we can ever touch
Him in faith. Because we've got to be made holy to even touch
the holy things. Those that touch these holy things
shall be holy. They're not made holy by touching
them. They've got to be holy to touch them. And that's what
He's done for us by the Spirit of God indwelling us. He sanctified
us. He's made us holy to be accepted
of the Lord. so that we can enter into His
presence. And everything that we are right
now, everything we are right now by His grace is His creation. It's His creation. Everything
we have is of God. It's what you have of God. We
weren't seeking Him. We weren't looking for Him. We
didn't care about Him. We had no desire for the true
and living God. Maybe we did for the God of our
imagination, but we didn't have a desire for the true and living
God. But He sent forth His Spirit into our hearts. because we were
sons, because we were children, because He had made us so, by
His sovereign electing grace, He made us so. And because He
had redeemed us from all iniquity, He sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into our hearts, whereby we cry, Father, Father, Father,
Father. Not again receiving a spirit
of bondage again to fear. When we were under the elements
of this world and sin and death, all we did was serve them that
are no gods. But now, brought out of that
bondage, and not given a spirit again of bondage to fear, but
a spirit where we can come to His throne of grace anytime and
be honest with God. One of the worst feelings in
the world is to go through life trying to hide and suppress and
cover up and deny the cold facts. But when God gives you a new
heart, a heart that's made one with Him to where you can come
to God and confess what you are, tell Him all the truth, And he
receives you as a father to his little child, that's heart's
been broken and contrite and melted over his hand. He receives
us. And so He's telling us now, don't
take this oneness for granted. Don't take this oneness that
we've been given with Him and go and join with a harlot or
go be yoked with idolaters and unbelievers and them that don't
care about the glory of God. But to be joined with Him and
with His people and to be gathered at His foot and to hear His words
drip from His mouth and come down to us and to cure us of
everything that every heartache and every pain and every error
and every way we need to be corrected. That's what He's doing for us,
brethren, as He teaches us through His Word. You think of it. Just think about it. Inseparable
union. You love that woman. Married
to her, she loves you. Join to her. One with her. It's going to be broken. It's
going to be broken. You're going to die or she's
going to die. And for a time, that union's going to be severed.
Not this union. Not this union ever. Ever. Death is the door just opening
up. to be with him like we've never
known before. Inseparable union, everlasting
union, unchangeable union. Nothing can break this union.
If that's not a motivator to glorify him in our body and our
spirit, we got none. We got none. If that don't do
it, nothing else will. Nothing else will. All right,
here's the third thing, the third aspect of this motive, and this
is the strongest. This is the strongest of everything
we've looked at right now. Verse 19, you are not your own,
for you are bought with a price. What did it take to make this
union? What did it take to join God with His child, Christ with
His bride? What did it take to make this
union? What did it take? We were slaves under sin. Slaves under sin, bound under
the just curse of the law. A debt we could not pay. Just
bankrupt, bound sinners. And the Son of God, Christ our
kinsman redeemer, came to where we are and He took our place. He took our place. When He walked
this earth, He took our place. made under the law, he walked
this earth, taking our place, fulfilling all righteousness. You needed somebody to go into
those baptismal waters that we're going to go into and do it in
perfect righteousness and holiness of heart. Because when you do
it, it's going to be sin mixed with it, and it's not going to
be perfect. If that's what you're counting on to make you righteous
and holy with God, it'd be too much sin in it to even send you
right to hell. We needed somebody to do that
perfectly for us and be the righteousness and holiness of it. Christ went
and said, John, I need to be baptized of you. For thus it
behooves us in fulfilling all righteousness. You needed somebody
to be a perfect believer for you. to perfectly believe God,
to perfectly serve God, to perfectly honor God, to perfectly magnify
God's law, to perfectly never forget this inseparable union. You needed somebody, I can sit
here and tell you this, in the spirit of God, come bless it
to your heart, but we're still gonna have sin mixed with all
we do. We needed somebody to believe, be a perfect believer,
a perfect servant of God for us, under the law in perfect
righteousness, and Christ is that one. I stand here before
you as your pastor. I needed somebody to be the perfect
pastor, to be the perfect shepherd, to be the perfect bishop that
walked this earth, to do it under the law perfectly so that all
my sins and my errors and everything that I do as a pastor could be
looked upon by God Almighty as perfectly righteous and holy. Christ is that one. and then
having fulfilled everything required of us, having been our representative
and walked perfectly before God, He took all of those sins. He
took the sins that we're going to commit when we're baptizing
these believers out there in that pool. He took the sins I've
committed since I've been standing right here preaching the gospel
to you. He took the sins you've committed in your heart since
you've been sitting here hearing this gospel right now. not to
mention all those that we boasted of as being good works, not to
mention those, but all those evil secret things that nobody
but you and God know. He took them. He took them. He
took those sins. This is a price that was paid
to purchase his children that we just can't even comprehend
as we ought to. This was a price you were not
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. That holy, sinless Savior who
did no sin, who hated sin with a righteous indignation, the
lamb that was without blemish and without spot, that was proven
through and through. By God Almighty, honor that law
to be the perfect spotless lamb of God. That one willingly, open
not his mouth, but willingly was made sin for us that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. the sin he hated,
the sin he hated, the thing he hated. And though he despised
that shame, though he hated the shame of that, our Savior willingly
submitted that he might pay the price that we owe. I wish we
could knew what a despising thing sin really is, what a hated thing
sin really is by the perfect God that we serve. Then we might
could enter into how what a despised thing it was
for him. It would fill our hearts with love and it'd fill our hearts
with sorrow over our sin. And this price included the suffering
that he endured, the crushing blow which fell upon him was
that blow that we deserve. This purchasing included bodily
pain, bodily pain that's just unimaginable. I believe Christine
was telling me, I don't see John, but Christine was telling me
John's got ear trouble. And it's just painful to him,
painful to him. When's the last time you had
a severe bodily pain? Every time we have a bodily pain,
we ought to think about the bodily pain that Christ suffered for
us. But this purchase included soul agony. Soul agony that's
too great for us to enter into. It's described to us as his soul
being exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. It's described as
his heart melting like wax within him. It's described as his heart
being broken with reproach. It was the soul pain of the fiery wrath which divine
justice demanded for those, toward those for whom he suffered. It
was that pain, soul pain of knowing that God was going to turn his
back on him on that cross. But the price paid was more than
pain and it was even more than soul agony. The price paid was
death. It was death. The presence of
God was taken from him. separation from the God he loved. That death which the elect of God will never
suffer. Will never suffer. Because Christ's
death is the death of death for his people. Look at Romans 8
chapter 3. Romans 8 chapter 3. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. When Christ said, I came not
to destroy the law, I came to fulfill it, that glass is not full. It can
be filled more. When it's filled up to where
there cannot possibly be anything else added to it, it'll be full. Christ Jesus came to feel the
righteousness of the law full. That's what he did. That's exactly
what he did in order that the righteousness of that law might
be fulfilled in us. Does that mean that I'm going
to go out now and I'm going to live so as to add to that full
field righteousness that he filled full? No. It means when the Spirit
enters in and I behold this glorious Redeemer and what He's purchased
for me, I fall at His feet with the love that He's created in
the heart, in the faith that He's given, and I rest in Him. And by faith, that law, the whole
righteousness of that law is filled full. It's feel-full. It's established, as established
as it can be. And whoever does not do this
and does not teach others to do this, but turns them to the
law, making a sinner out to think he can do something to feel full
what only Christ has felt full, he's not only not doing the law,
he's teaching others not to do it either. The only way, the
only way that you can have this righteousness is to lay hold
of Christ and lay hold of Him and rest in Him. Rest in Him. Rest knowing that everything,
all the righteousness of the law, there He is. There He is. When you read the Ten Commandments,
you find out right there, when you read the Ten Commandments,
you see what you are not. You and I never have had one
God. We prove it by every other thing
we serve and bow down to and let come between us and the worship
of God every single day. You know that, and I know that.
And you just go down the whole list, and everything there, we've
never fulfilled it. But our Redeemer has. He perfectly
fulfilled it. And He is the very righteousness
that that law demands. He is. And God will receive nothing
less. God will receive nothing less
than Jesus Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. So then death,
where's your sting? Grave, where's your victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, He has given us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. We have it, brethren. We have
the victory. So then you, who He's quickened
and called, you see that you're not your own. You're bought with
a price. Believer, we belong to him. We
belong to him who bought us. John, I'm gonna use you for an
illustration again. John wrecked Scott's car not too long ago.
We all know that. Wrecked his car. And John, you
felt terrible about that. You felt horrible because you
wrecked your father's car. Felt bad about it because it
caused you personal bodily injury to wreck that car. And that's
what sin does. Sin causes every believer personal,
bodily, and spiritual injury. It does, us personally. It caused
the one that was with you pain. And you felt horrible about that.
And sin causes those around us great pain. Great pain. But the greatest sorrow, the
greatest sorrow John felt was this. He totally demolished something
that was his father's purchased possession. It was the father
he loved. It belonged to him. He purchased
it. He bought it. And that hurt more. Those those that little scratch
in the head stitches could stitch that up. But this was a pain
in the heart. Pain in the heart. That's what
causes the believer sorrow over sin. Our spirit and our body
is the purchased possession of our God, Christ our Savior. Nothing else in life is important
but this fact right here. We are not our own. Well, I feel
like I'm going to go this place or that place today. You're not
your own. Well, I'm my own man. You'll
face God as your own man. You'll go to hell as your own
man, and you'll have nobody to blame but yourself for being
your own man. God's people are not our own.
We're bought with a price. It's not about what I want. It's
not about what my flesh craves, and my lust craves, and my desires
are. It's about I'm his. I'm bought
with a price. He purchased me, and I belong
to him. Keep that as the foremost thought
in everything we say and we do. Keep that as the foremost thought,
the preeminent influence and motivator in everything we do. No matter what you become in
this life, no matter what honors you get, no matter how high you
climb, You'll never ever have anything as great as this right
here. We are not our own. We are God's
own purchased possession. That's the greatest gift, the
greatest privilege a sinner can have right there. That's the
mortifier by which the Spirit of God mortifies the deeds of
this flesh, is to keep us ever knowing I'm not my own. I'm bought
with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Now I want to show you
the conclusion of the whole matter, verse 20. Therefore, glorify
God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. What
all does that apply to? Every single thing in our life.
Every aspect of our life. Before God called us, we didn't
have any responsibility to this. We were the servants of sin and
that's all it was. But after God's called us, we're responsible
to live in this world as the children of God for the glory
of Christ. This is true. Whatever we do
in this world, whatever we do in this life, will not change
the fact that we are complete in Christ Jesus. It'll never
disrupt this inseparable union we have with God. But what Christ
has done for us and what He's taught us in our heart will continually,
more and more, change everything that we do in this world. Everything. It says, glorify God in your
spirit, in the heart. Unfamed faith. That means not
faith that's saying, well, I'm going to give this, but I hope
somebody notices it. or I'm going to give this but
I'm going to secretly keep back this bigger portion because I
know that's going to, I'm dependent on that. Unfeigned faith. Unfeigned faith. Godliness with
contentment is knowing God is able to make all grace abound
towards you so that you have full supply for every good work.
Unfeigned faith. knowing that I'm not going to
lay hold of Christ with this hand, but now really I'm sort
of hoping that something I've done here is going to count. That's not unfeigned faith. Unfeigned
faith has forsaken all that's behind. Everything that's in
the past is in the past. Everything else that I've ever
done from this moment forward is over with. Unfeigned faith
is reaching forth to Christ and laying hold of Him and saying,
this is all my hope. He's all my salvation. And true
love, sincere love. Sincere love is love that does
because of this union we have with Christ. It's a true love.
It's not a love that's doing it because I have a personal
agenda I'm trying to really finagle and get accomplished. It's not
love that's doing what I'm doing because really I'm wanting glory
for men, I'm wanting to be exalted, I'm wanting to be honored. It's
sincere love. Sincere love that's willing to
not be noticed, willing to not have the forefront, willing not
to be seen, willing not to be praised, willing for none of
that, willing to just Honor the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep your
eyes fixed on Christ so that this fleshly mind won't be fed
and this fleshly spirit won't be defiled, or this godly spirit
won't be defiled. Keep your ear tuned to the gospel
and don't even give ear to falsehood. People think, well, the more
I listen to falsehood, the more I'll recognize it. The more you'll
be led astray by it. Glorify God in your body. With every sinful thought, run
to Gethsemane. With every sinful thought, run
to the cross. With every sinful thought, hear him crying out,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Anytime sin appears
to be a light thing, hear those words, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And no, it's never a light thing,
never. I tried to think of an illustration
to illustrate this point, and this is the best I could come
up with, so forgive me. Elvis's airplane. I went to Graceland
one time, And when you go to Graceland, some of you may have
been there, but you go to Graceland, they take you a tour through
Elvis's airplane. I really could care less about
seeing Elvis's airplane, this airplane. It was an old airplane.
It was nothing compared to airplanes we have now. It was nothing nice
about it, really. But it was Elvis's airplane.
So I wanted to see it, because Elvis rode in this airplane.
When folks hear that you belong to the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords, they're going to look at you to find faults
with you. Not to find good things about
you, to find faults with you. That's why I walked through that
airplane thinking, this airplane ain't so hot. About the best thing about that
airplane was the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, nanner
sandwiches he got when he got to where he was going. Nothing
about it, but they're going to look at you to find fault. A
city set on a hill can't be hid. In all things, show thyself a
pattern of good works, and doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity,
sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned. That he
that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil
thing to say of you. He will say evil of you. He will
say evil of you. The devil's going to accuse and
accuse and accuse, and the seed of the serpent's going to constantly
accuse you. But God says, you've got no evil thing to say of him.
Who is he that charges my elect? Who is he that lays charge to
him? I've justified him. We have no good works in which
to glory. This is one thing that we do know. If you have opportunity
to teach somebody the gospel, when that gospel starts convicting
them, They're going to do just what men did when Christ walked
this earth. They looked for some fault in
Him to justify not bowing to the gospel He declared. And that's
what men will do. They'll look for some sin in
you when they're convicted and say, well, look at that in you. because they won't hear the instruction.
So live to try not to give them that. Don't give them the ammunition.
Let's end by reading Ephesians 4.17. Ephesians 4.17. The Lord has bought us entirely
from head to foot. So that every power, every passion,
every faculty, all our time, all our goods, everything we
call our own, all that makes up ourselves is altogether God's. Verse 17 says, This I say therefore,
and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who,
being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness,
to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not
so learned, Christ, Christ had taught us that, if so be that
you've heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is
in Jesus, that you put off concerning the former manner of life, the
old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his
neighbor. for we're members one of another.
Be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole
steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands
the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that
needeth. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. and grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor
and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and
be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore
followers of God as dear children. and walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor." I do have one more scripture.
One more scripture. Philippians 1. I think this is
important. Philippians 1. And as I endeavor to study each
week and get a message from God for you, this is my prayer. This is my prayer continually.
And what I'm praying God will do through the Word and continue
to do in you. Philippians 1-9, In this I pray,
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all judgment, that you may approve things that are excellent. that you may be sincere and without
offense to the day of Christ being filled with the fruits
of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and
praise of God. Amen.