Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians
6. 1 Corinthians 6. I want us to read one verse. and consider the reality, the ramifications, the blessings
of this verse. I've entitled this message, Bought,
Owned, and Used. And it is that 20th verse in
1 Corinthians chapter 6 where Paul says to the Corinthians,
and to all the Lord's people in every age, for ye are bought
with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. Now, the first thing that I want
us to notice in this is quite a marvelous thing. He says, ye are bought with a
price. Every believer confesses themselves
to be bought or redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And I've told you this before.
We, we preachers sometimes speak of Christ purchasing all these
blessings for us. When the truth is, according
to the scriptures, they are all freely given unto us. The thing that has to be redeemed,
that has to be bought, is we ourselves. When you look at that
word redemption, Just like here, he says, for ye are bought with
a price. It is personal, and it has to
do with people and individuals. And many do not seem to care
for the idea of what they would call a mercantile redemption,
the idea of the paying of a price for us. But that is exactly what
we find everywhere in the scripture, words like redemption and ransom. And that was what was pictured
in the Old Testament because there was a set price, a set
coinage that was to be given regarding every person and considered
as the price of redemption. When Boaz went to redeem Ruth,
Boaz the kinsman redeemer, He redeemed Ruth and he redeemed
all that pertained to Eliminate. But he mainly redeemed Ruth to
have for his bride. Another picture that we see in
the Old Testament is Hosea. When he went down to the market,
and he redeemed Gomer who had sold herself into slavery, he
redeemed her by the paying of a price. When you hear Joseph
speaking in Genesis 47, It says, then Joseph said unto
the people, behold, I have bought you this day and your land for
Pharaoh. He's a type of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and he redeemed them, he paid for them, and he also
opened the storehouses of grace to them. And when we hear Paul
talking to the church of Ephesus, to the brethren at Ephesus in
Acts chapter 20, he says, take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers. to feed the church of God which
he hath purchased with his own blood." He says, you are bought
with a price. And by virtue of that, he speaks
often of my sheep. He tells us we are a purchased
possession. And so, in light of what he says
here, there are some things that we need to consider and we need
to remember. Paul says that in the Lord Jesus
Christ, he says it this way, he says, in whom we have redemption. Now we ought to ask ourselves
the question, do we have redemption or do we not? In whom we have
redemption? And we are in Christ by so many
various things and ways, but the way that we consider it is
this. Are we in Christ by faith? Do we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Are we trusting the Lord Jesus
Christ? If we are trusting him, then
we have redemption. We were bought with a price. And sometimes it does us good
to remember where we were and how we were when he bought us. I believe the best picture of
us is the picture that Gomer herself provides because we were
not on the actual slave market, but we were on the market of
sin, the slave market of sin. We were captives by the devil
and we were cursed under the law. That's where we were and
how we were. when he bought us. And the awful alternative to
this is, if we're not bought, if we're not redeemed, if we've
not been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, the awful alternative
is that we're still the slave to sin. We're still under the
curse of the law. We're still the captive of Satan. That's the only way it can be. And we need to consider something
else. We need to consider not only
where we've been redeemed from and what we've been redeemed
from and who redeemed us, but how he redeemed us. Now you could, in a sense, redeem
me by maybe paying two cents if you paid fair value. But the price and the value and
the cost of redemption, Peter says, is like this. For as much
as you know that you were not redeemed by corruptible things
as silver and gold, all the silver, and all the gold
that's ever been in this world would not redeem one soul. From your vain conversation,
received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ, Why is it precious? One of a kind. Divine blood. Sinless blood. But with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. You see, we value things by the
price paid for them. Paul says in Galatians, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us, for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on
a tree. Then, not only the payment of
it, but the extent of it, he sets forth also in the book of
Hebrews. If he's the writer of that book,
he says, neither by the blood of goats and calves. You know
that Hebrews is that great book that in a way compares Christ
to those things of the Old Testament, but it also greatly contrasts
the superiority of Christ. He says, neither by the blood
of goats and calves, But by His own blood, He entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." I like that. Eternal redemption
for us. That means that we'll never have
to be redeemed again. That means He has redeemed us
forever, that He has redeemed us from our sins, redeemed us
from the curse of the law, redeemed us from everything that was against
us, and we'll never have to be redeemed again. And then it do us good to ponder
just a bit on the wonder of it. When Paul writes about redemption
in Romans chapter 3, he says something like this, being justified
freely. What in the world does that word
freely mean? Well, it's translated in the
book of John, the same word here, by three words. And those three words have to
do when he's talking about how Christ was hated. And it says, he was hated without
a cause. There was no cause in the Lord
Jesus Christ for them to hate Him. And that same word is translated
in Romans 3 as freely being justified without a cause in us by His grace, by unmerited favor. through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. There is no salvation, there
is no mercy, there is no grace, there is no blessing from God
apart from redemption, and to be redeemed is to be bought. And that's the first thing he
says here. Whether we like to consider ourselves
property or not, he says, we have been bought. All right? That brings us to
the second thing that I want us to notice. The second thing is the fact. that he says in the last part,
which are God's, and which he says in verse 19, you are not
your own. There's a result of this transaction. And it's one that without the
Spirit of God enlightening us and showing us what it means
that we as natural sinners could very easily rebel against such
a notion that we are not our own. You're not your own. Have I said that enough? You're
not your own. I am not my own. Well, somebody says, here in
the home of the brave and the land of the free, with all my
rights and my freedoms and, oh, and especially my so-called free
will, I'm my own man. I'm my own woman. No. No. You are not your own. That's the consequences of being
bought. Which means, ultimately, that,
first of all, you're not your own provider. He said, my sheep. Who provides for sheep? The shepherd. That means that all the responsibility,
all the burden, all the weight of ultimately and being the first
cause of all that we need is His. You're not your own shepherd. You're His sheep. And not only that, but we're
not only our own guide. He not only is the shepherd who
provides, He's the shepherd that leads. That's why the Bible tells
us, lean not on your understanding. This is a day in which everybody
is full of such as, I think, I believe, and I'll do this,
and I'll do that. My opinion is, but you're not at your own guy.
I'll go where I want to. As a matter of fact, as a child
of God, you may think you're going where you want to, but
you're always going where he wants you to. And sometimes it's into trouble.
Sometimes it's to show you your way, your path, where it leads. And you're not your own to follow
your own natural prejudices, and your own natural ideas, and
your own natural depraved desires, and your own pleasures, and your
own way of service. That's a bad blow to self, isn't
it? I believe I want to preach. I
believe I want to sing. I believe I want to be a missionary.
It isn't what you believe you want to be. It's what God inevitably
has determined for you to be, equipped you to be, and placed
you to be. I've seen so many people decide they'd go into the ministry. I often have them ask me that,
when did you decide to go into the ministry? I say, Lord knows
I didn't ever decide to go into it. I didn't decide. The decision
was the Lord's and it was inevitable. You see, this is the end of I
and me and my, if we're all not our own. People think they have a lot
of decisions in life to make. They're not nearly so many as
you think. Everywhere in this book that
you look, you will find instruction in everything that pertains to
you and what you have a hard time doing is deciding to do
what God's already told you to do. That's where the problem
comes in. That's always where it's at. You don't have to decide how
to treat people, decide how to live, decide where to go, decide
all these decisions. They're already made. And we're not our own to waste. Waste on idleness. Waste on self-abuse of a dozen
different ways. Waste on amusements of no benefit. Waste on the pleasures of this
life. We're not our own to waste. We're not our own at all. You
are bought with a price. And you're not your own. We are the Lord's. And if we would just see, think
about a little bit The positive aspect of that, of being his
possession, of being his property, of being his sheep, or his people,
his children. And to think about God saying
to the rest of the world, private property, keep off. Leave them alone. They're my
sheep, the sheep of my pasture. They're my children. They're
my people. They're my possession. They're
mine forever. The price is paid. They're his
for keeps, and they're not for sale. You think of every one of God's
children that the devil tried to get a hold of, God says, you
can only go so far because they're mine. That's a serious consequence,
but it's also a blessed reality. We belong to the Lord. Could you belong to anything
better? How does belonging to yourself
compare with belonging to the Lord? You see, that's what the devil
is always trying to make us think that we know better and can do
better and can plan better and decide better, always better
than the Lord. But it ain't happening. He's
infinite wisdom. He's infinite good and grace
and mercy and love and kindness. He watches over his children
and they're the apple of his eye. I look at just the natural realm. When somebody loves you, My mom and daddy loved me, and
they called me their child. And that was a wonderful thing. My wife, she was certainly more
than my equal, but I called her my wife. But only my wife would have known
what I'd have done for her, what I'd have give for her. Even to
the point, if I could have shifted and put myself in that bed in
Chapel Hill and died in her place, I would have gladly done it. Then here's the third thing. You bought with a price, you're
not your own. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. Everyone that is bought, everyone that is owned, is used
for the glory of God. To glorify God. Those old catechists, some of
them, they would begin almost with the first one or two questions,
what is the chief end of man? To glorify Him, to glorify God,
and enjoy Him forever. But you can't have the grace
of God without coming under the government of God. And this is
a two-fold thing. Glorify God with your body and
with your spirit. An old writer had this to say
about this verse. I'm sure I can't equal his comments. But he said, God who is glorified,
when all the perfections of the divine nature are ascribed to
him, my body, my mind, all the perfections,
all of divinity, all of Godhead, ascribed to Jehovah God. When the whole of salvation is
attributed to Him, I often think we talk about glorifying God,
but we don't know much about glorifying God when it's really
so simple. when the whole of salvation is
attributed to Him. God save me, period. Christ is my Savior, period,
plus nothing. When he is looked unto, and received,
and trusted in, and depended on as a Savior, and praise and
thanks are given unto him on that account, when we look to
Christ alone, trust him, rely on him, speak of him, And when his gospel is embraced
and professed and walk worthy of, and his ordinances submitted
to, and his commandments kept in love to him, and he is to
be glorified both in body and spirit, in body by an outward
attendance to his worship, and a becoming external conversation
by confessing and speaking well of him, by acting for him, laying
out and using time, strength, and substance for his honor and
interest, and by patient suffering for his namesake. in spirit, which is done when
the heart or spirit is given up to him and is engaged in his
service when his glory lies near unto it. His cause, His worship, and His
service, attributing all the glory to Him, looking unto Him,
believing on Him, and waiting for His coming. Because Romans
8.23 says that He's redeemed the body also. And all of creation waits, groans,
to see that change, that transformation of the body of all the redeemed
to be like Christ. Three little things, bought,
owned. Used. Where he is. Where he is. Our father, we thank you tonight
for your word for these. Blessed truth so poorly presented,
but nevertheless your words. Their spirit and their life to
your people. Help us to live in this reality, in the knowledge and remembrance
of these things, to your glory. We thank you for all things we
have in our Savior. We pray once again for these
people we've mentioned and many more, your people, Throughout
this world, your servants, wherever they may be, that preach the
gospel, help us, for we are yours. And we pray in thy son's name,
amen.