all these verses tonight. 1 Corinthians
6, 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you, But
ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. All things
are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things
are lawful for me, but I will not be brought unto the power
of any. Meats for the belly, and the
belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them. 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 us up 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 an 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 ye have
of God, and 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." You know, Paul mentioned here
three times, ìNo, youíre not.î And he asked a question to start
out with, ìWhat? What? Donít you know these things?î
But to catch us up to where we are, since we didnít have a service
last Wednesday, in the chapters and verses up to this time weíve
dealt with so far, Paul has addressed in chapter 5, he addressed incest,
open sin in the church. And instead of dealing with it,
they gloried in it. And he warned about keeping company with fornicators,
those who profess, he says, they call themselves a brother, who
profess a relationship with Christ, yet are fornicators, covetous,
idolaters, drunkards, extortioners. He said not to company with them
if they're called brothers. And then, you know, he told us
here in chapter six, he started talking about how he rebuked
and just stood in astonishment that one brother would take another
brother. to court and that before unbelievers, before the world,
that they would go and try their faults and their injustices in
a court of law and not among themselves and deal with them
among themselves. And he was astonished at that. And now he
contends and shows us here that sin, such behavior, not repentant
of, fornication, mistreating brothers, Reveals that they're
destitute, but people continue to say they're destitute of the
grace of God. Destitute of it. And they're unfit for the kingdom
of God. Regardless of their profession.
Look what he says there in verse 8. Nay, you do wrong. And you defraud, or you lie,
or you mistreat, or you expose a brother. And that's your brother. Now at first he says, no, you
do wrong. You do wrong. Now, there's not very much that's
considered wrong today. Everything's relative. Nothing's
black and white. Things are gray. And the scriptures,
he said, Paul just said, right flat out, you're wrong. When
that man with incense said, put him away from you. And for us
to go to court with one another is wrong. And he goes on to say
this. And he says, now, I'm going to tell you about these things.
And he picked up right back where he did over there in Ephesians,
in chapter 5, and he says, no, you're not. Don't you know this? You know these things. And he
says, this time, he says, you know you're not. He says it three
times. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now, I'll tell you what, the only righteousness that makes
a man unrighteous is not to have the righteousness of Christ.
He's not talking about a Pharisee here. You know, our Lord said,
except your righteousness, receive the righteous of the scribes
and Pharisees, you ain't going to inherit the kingdom of God.
And you know, their righteousness was strictly an outward righteousness. He says, you know, you appear
indeed righteously, outwardly appear righteous unto men, but
within, within, you're really unrighteous. You're full of wickedness
and uncleanness and dead men's bones. So when he talks about
being unrighteousness, being without the righteousness of
Christ, and not having that, there's no entrance into the
presence of God. And Christ is our righteousness,
Christ is our sanctification. And then he goes on to say here
now, the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And
I'm telling you, you got to know that you have the righteousness
of Christ. You're not going into God's presence, not going into
God's kingdom, you're not going to know God. And without the
righteousness of Christ, you couldn't possibly be accepted
of God. God won't hear us now or receive
us now without his righteousness. And then he goes on to say this,
and be not deceived. Be not deceived. Don't be deceived
that you are saved and will be saved. I don't want to be deceived.
How many times do we say, and that's what Paul said, don't
you be deceived about some things. Don't you dare be deceived and
think that you're saved and going to be saved and are saved right
now if you're like this. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers,
effeminate, Abusers of these selfless mankind. Now listen,
what he says here, don't you be deceived. If you're a fornicator,
if you're a fornicator, if you're having marriage, if you're having
sex without marriage, and you're a fornicator, he says, you're
not going into the kingdom of God. You're not in the kingdom
of God. If this is your life, and he
said, if you're an idolater, and I tell you, idols, you don't
have to have an idol, a physical idol to be an idolater. You know
you can have an idol in your mind. You can make an idol out
of your own pride. You can make an idol out of your
own self. You can make an idol out of your will. People make
idols out of free will. People make idols out of alters.
People make idols out of decisions. People make idols out of the
Bible. You can make an idol out of a lot of things. And he says,
Oh, idolaters not going in. And that Paul told them over
there, and I think it's Chapter 12, and he says, you know you
were as Gentiles carried away under dumb idols. An idol can't
do anything for you. And then he goes on to say, nor
adulterers. That's what you do in the marriage
bed. You have an adulterer in the
marriage bed. Or effeminate. An effeminate means you're a
mollifier, a soothsayer, a mollifier, somebody that just goes along
to get along. Tries to mollify everybody, and get, you know,
these talk show hosts, that's the way they are. They want to
mollify everybody, get along with that body. And that's what
he said an effeminate person is, is a mollifier. And then he goes on to say here,
nor abuses themselves with mankind. And that is a man with a man
or a woman with a woman. Don't you do that. He says, you're
not in the kingdom of God and won't inherit the kingdom of
God. I don't care what the church says. I don't care what the Pope
says. I don't care what any preacher says. They're not going to inherit
the kingdom of God. And he goes on to say, here are
Northeaves. Northeaves. You know, God asked this question,
will you rob God? Will you rob God? And I tell you, to rob God of
His glory, to rob the scriptures of their meanings, these things, that's what a thievery
that is. The worst kind of thievery you
can do is steal God's glory, steal Christ's glory, to put
your righteousness in face of Him. And thieves. And you know
what? And also a thief is somebody
that takes something that doesn't belong to him. Covetousness. Oh my. Paul said that covetousness was
idolatry. And what covetousness is, and
you know, and here's another thing. When we think about covetousness,
we think about coveting an object. But covetousness can desire recognition. Covet recognition. Coveting a
certain position. Coveting a certain height. Coveting something, an ambition
that just absolutely consumes you. And covetousness is, if
you set that up as an idol, I got to have that, I won't have no
rest till I get it. Won't have no rest till I get
it. And then he goes on, nor drunkards. That speaks for itself. Nor revilers. And a reviler is
somebody who rails on people. and abuses people with their
voice, abuses people with their language, mean to people with
their words, revilers, and or extortioners. That means taking
more than what you are due shall inherit the kingdom of God. And
oh, beloved, listen. Let me show you something over
here in Ephesians 5. I want you to see this. Paul has dealt with
this thing. You know, there was a lot of
people, evidently, You're talking about Corinth. It's one of the
most ungodly cities there ever was. And you know, the idolaters and the
people in those days, I mean, their sins were open and gross.
You take the leaders of those days in Greece and in Rome, it
was not uncommon for them to have, the senators, to have their
boys, their men, And it wasn't uncommon for them to have temples
that people meet in, and the whole purpose of the temple was
for fornication and for sex acts and things like that. That was
just common, and they was open about it. And so, Paul, these
are the kind of people that's getting converted. These are
the kind of people that's being brought from this. These are
the kind of people that offer sacrifices, and these sacrifices
often die. And they had idols setting up
all over the place. And they coveted certain things.
They coveted positions in those places. So this is what's going
on. This is the kind of people he's dealing with. But look what
he said here in Ephesians 5.3. But fornication, let's start
at verse 1. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved
us and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness
or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become
the saints." Neither filthiness, nor foolish
talking, nor jesting. They're not convenient. They're
not convenient for you or anybody else. But rather, let it be a
giving of thanks. For this you know. that no whoremonger,
nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no
man deceive you with vain words, and tell you that you are. For
because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the children
of unbelief. And be not ye therefore partakers
with them. Oh my, I don't want to be deceived.
I don't want to be deceived. I don't want to be an idolater.
I don't want to be covetous. I don't want to be an extortionist.
I don't want to be a thief. I don't want to be any of those
things. And we can be all of those things. And nobody ever
knows that we're an extortionist. Nobody ever knows we're covetous.
But only God can know that. And then I love what it says
here in verse 11. Thank God for this. And such
were some of you. Oh, such were some of you back
over at 1 Corinthians 6.11, yes. And such were some of you. What
happened to you? Free grace saved you. God's grace
came to you and saved you from these things. And here's the
thing, and we all know this. We know this ourselves. If we
haven't committed all these sins, we've often thought of doing
them, And if we haven't done it, we've thought of doing it.
It's in our mind, it's in our imagination, and I tell you,
all of us have been guilty of a lot of these sins. And that's
why he says, such were some of you. And the continuing of them
and going on in them shows you have not the righteousness of
Christ. You see, faith works by love. And that's why Paul
said over there in Ephesians, he says, walk in love as dear
children of God, knowing that Christ was offered for you. And
that's what he said, Christ offered for us. saved us by His free
grace from these sins, these gross sins of the flesh, and
even these sins of the spirit. We don't even want to even think
about these things, much less do. And when they cross our lives,
we cringe at these things. And he goes on to say here this,
and such were some of you. And that's why he says, walk
in the light as he is in the light. And if any man be in Christ,
what is he? He's a new creation. Such were
some of you, but watch this, but you're washed. You're washed. What are you washed in? Washed in the blood. There is
a fountain filled with blood drawn from the Emmanuel stains.
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. And oh, beloved, I tell you,
and I, you know, And then not only by the blood of Christ,
but you know, when our Lord told Nicodemus, except a man be born
of water in the spirit, what water is he talking about there?
He's not talking about water baptism. He's not talking about
water in a glass. He's talking about the Word.
You're not only washed in the blood, but Paul says that Christ
has saved us, and with the washing of water by the Word. The Word
of God cleanses us, and sanctifies us, and instructs us, and reproves
us, and teaches us the things that we ought to separate ourselves
from. And all by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. And then he says you're sanctified.
Not only have you been washed, but you've been sanctified. Now
what does sanctified here mean in this particular place? It
means not only that you've been set apart, but you've been given
a new nature. See, justification and sanctification
always go together. And sanctification, Christ is
our sanctification. And we're set apart. We have
a new life. We have a new heart. We have
a new nature. We have a life that we never
had before. That's what we were before. We're
not that anymore. We walked according to the flesh,
but now we don't walk according to the flesh. We walked according
to the course of this earth, and now we walk according to
the Spirit of God. We walked according to our own
will. Now we want to walk according to the will of God and the Word
of God. And then he goes on to say, then
not only are you sanctified, but you're justified. Oh my, justified where? Before
God. before the law. No sin. God's justification means God
says you have no sin. I declare you, I declare you
righteous. I declare you without sin. I
declare you acceptable in my sight. And it's something that's
done outside of us. And I tell you, justified we
have no sin before the all-seeing eye of infinite holiness and
righteousness of God Himself. When God looks at us, He not
only sees us as holy, and with this new nature that He gave
us, but sees us without sin. And this is how it's done, and
I love this right here. In the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. You're washed, sanctified, justified,
In the name, and that word name, of course, stands for the person,
the authority of Christ. In the name of the Lord Jesus,
His power, His authority. You see, that's the name that
we've called on. That's the name we've called on right now. That's
the name we confess. That's the name, beloved, before
God we confess. That's the name we confess to
our conscience. That's the name we confess to
our one another. That's the name that we confess
right now that my only hope, my only plea, my only righteousness,
I confess. If we confess with our mouth
that Jesus Christ is Lord, that God is raising from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. And I confess it. And that's
what he says, you confess this name. This is the name that my
holiness stands in. This is the name that my justification
stands in. This is the name that I've been
worked in. This is the name that makes me
acceptable to God. That's what Paul said. And that's
why we're not what we once were. And oh, beloved. And then he
says, by the Spirit of our God. You see, he's the one who did
the work. He's the one who sent the sign. He's the one who did
the work. He's the one who made us know him. And he's the one,
believe me now, he's going to continue the work. He's going
to continue. And then look what Paul goes
on to say here now. He goes on to say about all these
things here, he says, All things are lawful for me, unto me, but
all things are not expedient. Now what does he mean by all
things are lawful here? He just got through naming off
all these things. And he says sin isn't lawful, drunkenness
isn't lawful, covetousness isn't lawful. None of these things
are lawful. He just told us it isn't. And
he says, you know, here he says, all things are lawful for me,
but all things are not expedient. He's talking here now about things
indifferent. About what you eat and what you
drink and what you wear. And that's what was going on
here. These people thought none of these things were immoral
because that was just a way of life to them. And Paul says,
now listen, all things are lawful for me, but this sin isn't. This
thing like this isn't. And you know, some even thought
that fornication was a lawful thing, but it wasn't even immoral.
And ain't that the way it is in America today? How many people
do you know that's living in fornication? Ain't even married
and don't ever intend to get married. Forty percent of the
young people today say that there's no reason to get married. Why
would you want to get married? But Paul isn't talking about
these things. He's talking about things in
different, about food and drink and days and months and years.
And he said, all things are lawful for me. But look what he says
here. All things are not expedient. That word expedient means all
things are not profitable for me. And what he means to say
is, all things, it is because I can do them and have the right
to do them. That's no reason why I should
do them. That's no reason why I should do them. And that's
why he goes on to say, I'll not be brought under the power of
any. He says, there's lots of things that I could do. You know,
he's talking about sin is, you know, sins is things we like
to catalog. And Paul cataloged a bunch of them here. But here's
the thing about it. You know, the Scripture said
if a man's given to gluttony, lay a knife to your throat. If you have this habit that you've
got a gluttonous appetite, Paul said, it's lawful to eat anything
you want to, but don't gourd yourself, don't cheer yourself.
They said it's lawful to drink anything, but don't get drunk.
And that's what he's talking about. And he said we should
not injure ourselves. Look over here in Romans 14 with
me just a moment. And when he says I'll not be
bought under the power of any, Romans 14, 15. You want to understand here,
we should not injure ourselves and others with what we're allowed
to do. Just because it's lawful for me to eat, I shouldn't be
a slave to my appetite. Because it's lawful for me to
drink, I shouldn't be a slave to my appetite in drinking. A
believer should not become a slave to any habit that there is. We
should not be slaves to any habit. Just because nobody would condemn
you for it and you're not condemned for it, that doesn't mean it
ought to have power over you. And that's why Paul said, I'll
not let anything in this world, what I eat, what I drink, where
I go, what I'm allowed to do, I'll not become a slave to that
particular thing. And look what he says here in
Romans 14 and verse 15. But if, verse 14, I know and
am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean
of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him
it is unclean. Now watch this, but if thy brother
be grieved with thy meat, with what you eat, with what you set
down to eat, what you are legally allowed to do, now don't you
walk charitably, don't you walk in love? You would destroy him
with thy meat for whom Christ died. Now, you're not going to
destroy his soul. You're not going to destroy his
relationship with Christ. But what you're going to do is
you're going to offend him, you're going to hurt him, and you're
going to destroy what confidence he may have in you and influence
he may have in you. And that's what he goes on to
say then, let not then your good be evil spoken of. It's good
for you to do it. But he turned around and said, you know, that
fellow right there, he done this, that and the other. And I'll
tell you what, that really offended me. And I had no confidence in
him because he shouldn't have done that. Because it's sinful
to me. But that's not what he said.
Now watch this. He said, for the kingdom of God
is not in me or drink. But it's in righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. So why in the world would I,
if what I would do would offend somebody? If I drank something
or ate something that offends somebody, does something that
would offend or cause a young believer to lose all other confidence
in me? When the kingdom of God is not
in eating and drinking anyway, but righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things served
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. So let us follow
after the things which make for peace. Let's not just do something
because we can do it. And things wherewith we may have
built one another up. Now watch this, for me, it will
not destroy the work of God. What you eat and what you drink,
it ain't gonna destroy God's work. And what he means by that,
if it's lawful for you, it ain't gonna destroy what God did for
somebody else. It'll just hurt you in their
eyes. And all things indeed are pure,
but it is evil for that man who eats with an offense." It's an
evil thing for a man to do it just because he says, well, you
need to grow up. You need to mature. You need
to quit such a baby. And I'm going to go ahead and
do this thing. I don't care what you think about it. I don't care
how you feel about it. There's no love for Christ, no
love for the brother. There's no love for the Scripture
when you're that way. So it is good neither to eat
flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother
stumbleth, is offended, or is made weak." He said, if you've
got faith, have it to yourself before God. Happy is he that
condemneth him not himself in that thing which he allows. If
you're allowed to do it and you're not condemned to do it, you do
it. If you've got faith, do it before God. And he that doubteth...
Now listen, if he that takes something, And he's not sure
if it's lawful, if it's right, if he should do it. He that doubteth
is damned or condemned if he eats, because he eats not of
faith, and whatsoever is not of faith is a sin. And if we
cannot, and that's what Paul's saying over here. There's nothing
that I could do that's not lawful for me. But I'm not going to
do it just because I can. And then let's go back over here
in verse 13. 1 Corinthians 6, 13. And he says, not only will I
not be brought under the power of any of them, but he says,
and here's why he goes on to say, and he's still using this
same argument, meat is for the belly and the belly for meat.
God made this body to eat, made this belly to eat, and this belly,
food is for the belly. But he says, watch this, but
God shall destroy both it and them. He's going to destroy the
body, and He's going to destroy the belly. He's going to destroy
the meat, and He's going to destroy the body. Now watch this. That's
why what you eat and drink is not going to affect your eternal
inheritance and your relationship with Christ. That's not what
he's saying here. That's what he said. The body and the food, it's just
temporary things. God's going to destroy the body
and the belly and the meat that goes with it. They have no effect
on our eternal destiny. But look what he says, but the
body, now the body is not for fornication. God made this body
not for fornication. And that's what these people
were thinking, you know, it was nothing for them. God did not
make the body for fornication, but he made it for the Lord.
He made this body for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And
He's talking about the union that we have with Christ here.
So why would you have this fornication? Why would you do these sins?
When you're joined to Christ, Christ made this body for Him,
and He made Himself for our body, to be joined to us, to be unioned,
joined to Him, and our union with Him. Showing this intimate
relationship between the Lord and His men. The Lord, you know,
He redeemed our body. We wait for with the redemption
of our body. This body right here is going
to go to glory. It's going to be changed, but
it's going to glory. He bought this body. And then He goes on
and says, And God hath both raised up the Lord. He done raised up
Christ from the dead. And watch this, and He'll also
raise us up by His own power. When this body's changed, He's
going to raise us up too. He's going to raise us up too.
This body's a temporary thing. Don't let the body control you.
Don't let your appetite control you. Our relation to what we eat is
temporary, but our relation to Christ is eternal and it's permanent. And then he goes on to say here,
and he's talking about this again, talking about, remember over
there in 1 Corinthians 15, he said, don't company with that
brother that professes to be a believer that's a fornicator,
idolater, covetous, don't do it. And he says here, no you're
not. That your bodies are the members
of Christ. These bodies that we have right
here, we're joined to Christ with these bodies. And he says,
you know, every one of us are members in particular of the
body of Christ. And he says, and he goes on to
say, shall I take them, the members of Christ, the parts of the body
of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? Would I take Christ's
body and join it to a harlot? And he goes on to show us this,
and he says, and know ye not that that which is joined to
a harlot is one body, for two said he is one flesh? So this
body is not our own. And it's made for the Lord. It's
made to honor God, made to glorify God, not made to abuse and use
it for everything under the sun but for the glory of God. And
we can't be partaker with Christ and partakers with the devil
or Belial. That's why the Lord says, you know, you're bone of
my bone and flesh of my flesh. And I tell you, what he's saying
is, and this is the same thing, would you think nothing if your
husband or your wife went off and joined themselves to somebody
else and then came back to you? And that's what he's saying,
you know, that if you take, we're members of the body of Christ.
And would you take this member of the body of Christ and would
you go out and join it to a harlot? Because then you cease to be
one body. You become two bodies. You become
one. The minute you join yourself
to somebody else, you're one. That's what he said. Two. That's
why a man and a woman leave their father and mother to be clean
under one another, because two become one. And you know, he
says, and you call yourself the body of Christ. You say you're
a professor of faith in Christ. You say you know Christ. and
then you commit these sins, you live in this sin, and you continue
in this sin, would you take the body of Christ and take it and
join it to a harlot? No. Of course you wouldn't. And that's what he says for Two-Seph,
he shall be one flesh. Oh, this business of being a
believer is a heapsight more than just twiddling our thumbs
and saying hallelujah. You know, we have some great
responsibility here. And look what it says here, but
he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit joined to Christ.
Joined to Christ. And what does that mean? You
know, the spirit that God gave to Christ while He was on this
earth as a man. And by one Spirit are we all
baptized into Christ. When we're joined to Christ,
we're one person, we're one Spirit. And the same life, the same principle
of life is in us that was in Christ, the Holy Spirit. And
Christ is our life. We're joined to Him. We're united
to Him. We need Him. Do you feel your
union with Christ? There's nothing closer. Nothing
taught clearer in the Scriptures than our union with Christ, our
oneness with Christ. Our Lord prayed even in John
17, Father, I will that they be one with us, even as I am
one with you, that they may be made perfect and one as I am
in you. One, one. And that's what he
goes on to say here, that if you join to Christ, you're just
one spirit. Bent to your body. Watch this.
Flee fornication. Flee fornication. Flee it. If you've got a son or a daughter
or somebody you know that's doing that, flee it. Tell them to stop
it. Quit it. But you know what they'll
say? Mind your own business. It's
my life. I'll do what I want. that flee it. Flee it. Oh my, you imagine somebody taking
their body, and they profess to be a believer, me, you, or
anybody, after all these years, and go out here and commit adultery,
commit fornication, and then come back in taking this body of ours, this
body that God gave us, this body that Christ dwells in, and us
in Christ, and abusing them. Can you imagine anything worse?
I tell you, the marriage vows to me, the marriage to me is
so important. And so, our Lord made it so plain,
there's only two reasons, two reasons, that a person, should
ever, ever have anybody other than their first husband or first
wife. First of all, if they die. If they die. Secondly, if the other person,
if you're a believer, and your husband or wife is not pleased
to dwell with you, and they leave you, and they say, I don't want
your God, I don't want your Christ, I don't want your faith, I don't
want your relationship, it's either Christ or me, and you
choose Christ, and they leave you, then you're not under bondage
in any such case to get married. And that's why, beloved, this
business of being joined to Christ, We're warned in Christ. And evidently it was so common
for these people to live in fornication, and he says, flee it. And he
says here, every sin that a man does is without the body. Now
what does he mean by that? Drinking is without the body.
Lying is without the body. Thieving is without the body. Covetousness is without the body,
but when you commit fornication, you're taking this body and you're
joining it to somebody else. If a man or a woman, and this
is what it is, if you take your body that belongs to your husband
and your wife, and you take that body and you join it to somebody
else besides your husband and your wife, then you sinned against
not only your body, but her body. And that's what he's saying here,
you sin against the body of Christ, and that's why it's such a horrible
thing. I mean, he's talking about an
awful thing. I can't stress this enough. And this is not telling us here,
you know, and he says that's what he said, he that commit
fornication sins against his own body. Now, this doesn't teach
us that fornication is any greater than any other sin. But it teaches
us the effect it has upon the body because we're made for Christ.
And would you sin against your own body? And then he goes on
to say this, what? What? Know you not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which
you have of God, and you're not your own? And he goes back here
to your body. What? Know that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost. Two things here. First of all,
a temple is a dwelling place for God. He says the Holy Ghost
dwells in me. And you know, we're the building
of God, and a temple is a dwelling place for God. Our Lord Jesus
called His body and said, Destroy this temple, and I'll raise it
up in three days. And they spake of His body, which
is the temple. And first of all, it's a dwelling
place for God. And you can't profane it without
any consequences. You profane the body, and you
can't do it without any consequences. You just can't do it. And secondly,
the ownership of the temple is not you. It belongs to God. This temple is of God. And that's
what he says, that with the Holy Ghost which is in you, which
you have of God. You don't possess the temple.
The temple possesses you. And He lives in you. And we're the temple of God because
of the Holy Ghost. And you're not your own. You're
not your own. We're not our own. And then he goes on to say this,
and he closes, and he says it all right here. This is the long
and short of it. For you're bought with a price.
You're bought with a price. What price are you bought with?
with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, delivered from sin, delivered
from bondage, delivered from the law, and the highest price
that could be set for the soul of a man, the soul of a man. Bruce and I were talking about
this yesterday. He said, oh, if we had any idea how precious
the soul was, how precious the soul was, for the soul to come
to Christ. God tells us how precious a soul
was, how high prices set for a soul. He says the price was
the life, the death, the blood, the suffering, the humiliation
of His own Son to save us from our sins, to buy this body, to
buy us lock, stock, and barrel, to buy us body, soul, mind, and
spirit. Oh, you're bought with a price.
Paul says, you know, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, in that He was made a curse for us. You were not
redeemed with such corruptible things as silver and gold, but
with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb slain without spot,
without blemish. And He was ordained before the
world for us. And that's what it says, since
you bought with this price, since this body is the Lord's, since
this body is the Holy Ghost temple, since this body is Christ in
you and you in Christ. Don't let it, don't let your
body rule you under no circumstances. You're not in the flesh, but
in the spirit. Therefore, glorify God in the first place in your
body, in this body. Keep it under control. Don't
let it run wild with you. It's joined to Christ. This body
is just a temporary dwelling place. This body is getting old,
getting decrepit, frail, dust. And it's a temporary thing. And
Christ said Himself, this tent, this earthly tabernacle will
be dissolved. So why do you want to let a body rule you and have
mastery over you? It's a temporary thing. And then
glorify Him in your spirit. And your spirit is your character.
I think this is your character, your attitude, how you treat
others in your spirit. In your spirit. In your very
heart that God sees and knows. Glorify Him in there. And glorify
Him by how you treat others. And he says, you're bought with
a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and your spirit.
Because they're both. They're both gods. And he said,
don't you dare fear Him to destroy your body. But fear Him who can
destroy both soul and body. And let me give you one verse
of Scripture. Colossians 3, and I'm done. Colossians 3.17, and
I'm through. He says this, Colossians 3.17, and whatsoever
you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.