may it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word let us turn to the
first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians in chapter 6 and
we'll read verses 19 and 20 the last two verses in the sixth
chapter of the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians and
he asks the question 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, for ye are brought for the price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. I knew a man who is now in glory
who told me that when the Lord converted him this truth which
we read was his desire and he felt it was by God and he was
able to live it out throughout his life and that was very simply
this and you are not your own for you are bought with a price therefore God enabled him to
live his life unto the Lord and as God gave him grace he put
the things of God first and naturally the Lord greatly blessed him
and spiritually the Lord blessed him so we have wonderful encouragement
to recognise that What the Word of God says is true and the Lord
graciously honours those who honour Him. So may we realise
the wonderful truths contained in the Word of God. What a mercy
it is for us to realise that the Lord graciously comes and
directs and speaks to us. Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? And I suppose,
if we were honest, how little we really recognise that this
is a great, solemn and real truth. What it really means is very
simply this. A temple is a place where God
dwells. Mercy therefore, if God in his
great glory dwells in us. It's a very humbling thought,
isn't it? It should be a very real thought. It should be a
very sobering thought. It should be a very influencing
thought in our lives day by day. So recognise that this word is
true. that our body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost means the Holy Spirit of God dwells within us
really difficult to understand isn't it? difficult to appreciate
and yet you know it's very very true and the third chapter in
this same epistle in the 16th verse tells us really the same
truth it says, know ye not again a question, know ye not that
ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you so it's not just a remark in one place which doesn't have
any significance clearly the Apostle recognised the importance
of it and the truth of it what a wonder therefore if we recognise
it because I'm sure if we really do it must influence us, mustn't
it? The problem is so often we don't
realise it and we just carry on in our little life and yet
here we have this solemn statement to realise and if we are indeed
in that temple where the Holy Spirit dwells within us the Apostle
again dwells on this when he wrote his second epistle to the
Corinthians, and he says, And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God has said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Perhaps sometimes we're willing
to understand and realize the wonder that God is our God, and
that he will be with us, which is wonderfully Encouraging, but
it's of course a much more searching recognition to know that God
in actual fact dwells within us. Indeed, Christ in you, the
hope of glory. These are great truths, aren't
they? They're very solemn truths, and how we want to recognize
the importance of them. Because as you and I walk on
this earth, It is therefore to show forth the praise of our
God. It is really to show forth his
sovereign work of grace in our souls. And that work of grace therefore
shines forth. It's not something which is hidden,
not something I hope that we're ashamed of, you see, by nature
we're ashamed of the things of God we don't want to be aligned
with the things of God and the reason it is that the path of
a Christian, a true Christian is costly we only have to follow
the lives of those people in the Word of God who were true
followers of the Lord and they had opposition, didn't they?
they had a difficulty, they had many difficulties The Apostle
Paul had many, many difficulties. It didn't stop him. It didn't
stop him in his work. It didn't stop him in the example
he set. It didn't stop him in being a
good follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though he was imprisoned
umpteen times, even though he was lashed umpteen times, even
though he was stoned and suffered many other things, he still pursued
the narrow way he still had the wonderful evidence that God was
within him and that's why by the grace of God he was able
to write such great truths with regard to this temple of God
and then we mentioned this morning in Ephesians a wonderful verse,
a wonderful encouraging statement in the 2nd chapter there's many
encouraging words in the 2nd chapter as probably you remember
it starts off and you have to be quickened who were dead in
trespasses and in sins well what a mercy if you and I can say
tonight yes by the grace of God that's true
of me you don't have to hide under a false humility you see
the apostle never hid under a false humility he was a humble man
but he was an honest man and he acknowledged what God had
done for him and it's so important in day and age in which we live
that we're honest people and we don't hide and pretend that
we don't know the truth of God. See if God has wonderfully and
gloriously revealed himself to us and shown to us that we are
the temple of God we should not Pretend we don't know these things,
but we should bless God for the privilege it is. And so the Apostle
said in that second chapter in verse 21, In whom all the building
fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. As we mentioned this morning,
there is a growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. one of the evidences of the work
of God in our soul, a spiritual growth, not to stagnate, not
to stay where we are, but by the grace of God to progress
in the things of God, to be blessed with the greater knowledge of
our great and glorious Saviour. What a mercy that is, therefore,
that we may be blessed with this growth unto a holy temple in
the Lord, and it goes on in whom you also are builded together
for inhabitation of God through the understanding of the greatness
of God we have some little understanding of the greatness and the work
of the Holy Spirit how wonderful it is and how complete it is
and how wide it is and how glorious it is to think that that Spirit
dwells within us should have an amazing effect upon us as we bow down before Almighty
God humbled, greatly humbled as we realise that God has looked
upon us that God hasn't cast us off that God's been merciful
to us and then the Apostle speaks about not living unto ourselves
how important that is you see as he says which you have of
God and you are not your own you're not your own what does
that very simply means that you and I are not to please ourselves
we may have an agenda which we want to pursue which is pleasing
to ourselves we have to examine whether it's pleasing to God
and whether therefore we are living unto ourselves or whether
we are living unto God it bears sometimes a very close examination
and I say that because the heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked and you and I are often taken in by the
devil and fall under his snare. He's on the lookout at all times
to turn us away from being in this place that we are living
unto the Lord and not unto ourselves. Well, again the Apostle instructs
us in this and gives us words to encourage us How wonderful
it is, surely, to realise that the Bible gives us so many words
of instruction. We don't have to think things
up for ourselves. No, it gives us direct words. And in the Romans,
a great and glorious book, that is indeed, of instruction, the
twelfth chapter, the first verse, the apostle says, I beseech you
therefore, brethren. You see, he has some urgency
with these words. I beseech you, brethren. Therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies,
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. We may perhaps think it's unreasonable,
but it's not. It's very reasonable, because
if God has indeed blessed us, if God's called us, add the darkness
of nature into the glorious light of the Gospel, it's not unreasonable
at all. We are to present our bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. That means to live
our life in accordance with the will of God, not living unto
ourselves. We only have to consider our
great and glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, don't we?
Did He live unto Himself? Not at all. What did He do? He
did His Father's will. Didn't matter how costly that
was. And it was costly. Because the
Lord Jesus Christ gave His life and He knew how difficult that
would be when He prayed unto His Father being in agony Just
think of that, in agony, of the thought before him. Being in
agony, he sweat as it were, great drops of blood. That was our
Saviour. And then he came and he said,
he asked, he prayed, if it be possible, let this cup pass from
me, nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. There we have
a wonderful example of true prayer. with a desire, but submitting
himself to the will of God. It's not therefore wrong to pray
for things that we desire, but the overriding factor is to submit
ourselves to the will of God. And of course, in the great and
glorious life of the Saviour, it was not possible that he should
not suffer. It was the divine plan and purpose
of Almighty God that he should give his body, indeed, a sacrifice
for our sins. He had to die that sin-atoning
death upon the cross at Calvary. Well, probably we won't be called
to suffer like that, although of course we don't know what
the future holds. especially you who are children
and young people we don't know what the future will hold as
I mentioned in prayer there is a great onslaught to try and
destroy the Christian religion headed up by that evil man Soros
who has given 16 million to an evil charity, billion rather
to a sinful charity to pursue this with all their effort So
we don't know what the future holds for us. But the great blessing
is to remain willing in the day of God's power to suffer for
His sake and to be a true follower of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. We should therefore never think
that truly following the Saviour is an easy path. Some people
seem to think it is. You think, well, this is a wonderful
life. Well, it is a wonderful life,
but it's not an easy life. And as we read the words of the
Saviour, after he had preached that glorious sermon to his disciples
in that upper room, he came and he told them, it is through much
tribulation that we must enter the kingdom, but be of good joy
I have overcome the world. That's our comfort, that's our
confidence to realise that because of that we unworthy sinners are
more than conquerors through Him. So let's bless God for such
a great truth and let's go on our way concerned that you and
I may not live our life unto ourselves But live our life as
unto our God. And then, again in Romans 14,
verses 7 and 8, he says, For none of us liveth to himself,
and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live
unto the Lord. And whether we die, we die unto
the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's. That's a great statement, isn't
it? It's a great word to ponder and to think upon as you and
I journey on through life. To be able to say, with the Apostle,
none of us liveth to himself. He could say it. As I've said
already, the Apostle Paul was an honest man. It wasn't mock
humility. He was able to testify, as he
did in the I think it was the 12th chapter of the 2nd of Corinthians
testifies of what he had to pass through in this life but you
see he didn't live unto himself and he was willing not to die
to himself and as we know all the apostles apart from of course
Judas Iscariot I believe history teaches us they were all martyrs
they all gave their life they all have their life taken we
have therefore examples there for our strength and our encouragement
and then coming back to the wonderful example of the Lord Jesus Christ
the Apostle directs us to that when he wrote to Titus it's good
to have these encouraging words isn't it these words from Titus
who gave himself for us and it's the second chapters, only a little
book of course, Titus, the 14th verse, who gave himself for us
that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify himself
a peculiar people zealous of good works. That has a number
of important points really, doesn't it? He says he gave himself for
us so valuable, so necessary by the mercies of God. And then
that we might indeed be a true follower for us, that he might
redeem us. But whether we live, we live
unto the Lord, not unto ourselves. We live unto the Lord. Easy to read, isn't it? Not quite
so easy. to walk it out and how we need
to urgently pray that it might be so. Whether we die, we die
unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or
die, we are the Lord's. Well, I'm sure all of us hope
and pray that we are the Lord's. But there is a walking it out
in this dark world in which we live. What a mercy therefore
to realise that we have a God who is with us. You see, God the Father did not
forget and did not leave His Son, although He hid His face
from Him, for those three hours upon the cross. He was not totally
forsaken. And my friends today, the Church
of God are not forsaken. God knows what you and I are
called to endure. And we're not called to endure
for our sake. We're called to endure for His
name's sake, because it brings honour and glory to Him. He gives
grace to endure the opposition. The Apostle knew the blessed
gift of this grace and what a mercy it is that we have such details
of this. May we therefore be thankful.
So we have this verse, 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. And
then he comes on to tell us. For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit. which are God's. So therefore,
if we are bought with a price, and that price is the greatest
price that could ever be paid, it was the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That was the price that was paid
for our salvation. That was the price that was paid
to cleanse us from all our sins. It was indeed the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Bought with a price, an enormous
price, when we think that that was not only the Saviour, but
it was the Second Person of the Trinity. In His human form He
paid this price. to redeem our souls. Without
that price being paid, there would be no redemption for us.
There would be no glory for us. There would be no eternal life
for us. We would be eternally condemned because of our sins. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. We would be under the curse and
that would never be removed. But the Blessed Saviour paid
that price to redeem us, to take away the curse. He bore the punishment
instead. And therefore, because of that, the Lord has said, through the
Apostle, therefore glorify God in your body. and in your spirit
which are God's. That very simply means that you
and I should walk according to God's will. We should do that
which he sets before us in order to glorify his name. What a mercy then if God gives
us that grace and enables us to follow a despised and a crucified
man when the Acts of the Apostle were written and Luke of course
wrote that in the 20th chapter, 28th verse the Apostle says take
heed therefore unto yourselves it's good isn't it to take heed
to ourselves, it's easy to ignore ourselves and carry on as we
want to. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseer."
Well he's addressing there of course the servants of God and
it's very vital for those of us who are servants of God to
follow this pattern. To feed the church of God which
he has purchased with his own blood. You see all the flock
or the Church of Christ have been purchased with His blood. We can have some little view
then, can't we, of that couplet in our hymns where the hymn writer
says, invaluable blood. That means that the blood of
Christ's value is so high we cannot put a value on it. It is invaluable. how good it is to know it is
invaluable. And we get some little view of
why it's invaluable. Because it grants to us, if we
are under the blood, the wonderful and glorious gift of eternal
life. And that has no time in it. And
it goes on forever and ever and ever. That's why you see it is
so indeed valuable, invaluable blood, to know that you and I
have been purchased with Christ's blood. So hard for us to understand,
isn't it? So difficult for us to enter
into, but yet a grand and glorious truth. It's a good subject to
think upon It's a good subject to meditate upon because it will
bring health and strength to our souls and it will also glorify
the name of our God. And so what a mercy it is to
realise that this blessed Saviour has given His life as a ransom
price to redeem us. There was a price placed upon
our head, a price that you and I could never possibly repay. But the Lord Jesus Christ willingly
paid that ransom price. There was no quibble. He did
pray that He might be delivered from it. And yet the Lord went
through that which the Father had ordained that he should.
Indeed, the glorious Trinity, in eternity past, had agreed
upon the wonderful plan of salvation. It wasn't something haphazard. It was part of that grand plan
of salvation, to redeem each of our souls. It had to be carried
out for each one of us, all of us. Each one of us caused the
Lord of life and glory to suffer upon that cross at Calvary. None
of us are exempt. Surely we have to come and say
tonight, what a Saviour. A Saviour who should look upon
such an unworthy sinner which we are. A Saviour who should
be so willing to go to such lengths in order to save our soul, to
totally satisfy the high demands of the law of God in that great
and blessed redemption that we have received. And the Apostle
wrote to the Galatians, he just outlined this a little bit in
some detail with regard to the curse and in the third chapter
and thirteenth verse We are told Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed it is every one that hangeth on a tree. That needs a bit of
thought, doesn't it? I think that the great Saviour
of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God, Second Person of the
Trinity, in that human form, was so willing to bear the curse
for us. He hung upon that tree, he bore
the curse and he succeeded in redeeming our souls. And so tonight, do we rejoice
in this great work? You know, we perhaps should explain
the way of rejoicing It really is to rejoice with trembling. Trembling to think of the magnitude
of our sin. Trembling to think of the weight
of that sin which was on the Saviour. Trembling to think of
all that the Saviour endured to redeem us. Oh, do we bless
God tonight. I hope we do. I hope we come. blessing and praising our God
for His great mercy. And because of this wonderful
blessing, you see, we tonight are amongst those who are just. By nature, we are unjust. We're not just at all. We're
sinners of the earth. But what did the Lord do? Through
His glorious sacrifice, He justified us freely. There was no cost
to us. The only cost to us was to follow
a despised and crucified man. So being justified freely by
His grace, a free unmerited favour, the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, seeing how everything fits together, how the great
and glorious doctrines of God come together. We can therefore
rejoice in the justification of God and to realise through
what Christ has done we stand just. When we come before that
judgment seat we shall be justified. we shan't be condemned, we shall
be just through what Christ has done. Let us thank God and praise
God for these great and glorious favours and mercies. Ephesians
also records an encouraging word to us that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. You see, this
revelation in the knowledge of God is revealed to the Church
of God. And those of us who are blessed
to receive the glorious light of the Gospel look back and are
amazed that we never understood, we never saw the light until
God graciously and gloriously shone into our hearts and therefore
tonight we can come and we can praise God who has given us the
wonder of this light that has shone into our hearts so that
we are blessed with the revelation of the knowledge of Him. You
see the Gospel then becomes precious, becomes a reality. It's something
we never tire of. We're like the apostles, or rather
the people that listened to Paul. They wanted him to tell them
the same things the next Lord's Day. They didn't say, we've heard
that before, we don't want to hear it again. It was good news
to their souls. The Church of God loved to be
reminded to hear it again and again. The good news of the Gospel,
the wonderful work of the Saviour, the shedding of His precious
blood on their behalf. It's good news. It's glorious
news. Well, may we bless God indeed
for it. Yes, and recognize that we are,
therefore, bought with a price. Therefore, may we glorify God
in our body and in our spirit, which are God's. It's God's work. It's not our work. It's God's
work. We have great reason then to
praise and to bless God and then to perhaps think finally of those
words of the Apostle Paul, Peter rather, who knew so well the
preciousness of the blood of Christ. And you may be able to
say in the first epistle, in the first chapter, for as much
as you know You were not redeemed with corruptible
things, the silver and gold, from your vain conversation,
received by tradition from your fathers, but, and here is the
glorious truth, but with the precious blood of Christ, as
a lamb, without blemish and without spot. It's no wonder, is it? John the Baptist said, to the
people, behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the
world. So tonight, as we ponder these
words and realise the glory of them, to be able to think upon
the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world, and the
Lamb of God who has taken away our sin, washed in the blood
of the Lamb. Yes, what a wonderful truth it
is. What an important truth it is. May we rejoice together in this
great salvation tonight and not forget what has been said but
to go home like Ruth did, with that corn that she gleaned and
beat it out to receive the true blessing. Well, may God give
us that grace so that we may therefore truly rejoice in the
grand plan of salvation and rejoice in the glorious work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.