One of the most frustrating things
that I deal with, with myself and I suspect it's true of you,
is a terrible tendency to presume upon goodness. Terrible tendency
to neglect appreciation, real appreciation for great blessings. A man married to a woman who
loves him and dotes over him as I am and he tends to take
it for granted. A woman married to a man who
cherishes her and she tends to take it for granted. Children
raised in a delightful home and know nothing at all about things
most children go through at home. They take those things for granted.
But those things are insignificant compared to this. With regard to our God, worship,
commitment, devotion to our Redeemer, we need constant renewal. And without the constant renewal
of His Spirit, without the constant renewal of His grace, love that
burns hot in our hearts, one moment is cold, languishing the
next. Devotion that seizes our very
lives one moment is gone the next. I've come here tonight to call
you and myself to the most ennobling, the most honorable, The most
honoring of all things. Both you who have walked with
God for many years and you who've never known our God. I'm here
tonight recruiting slaves. Recruiting slaves. I've chosen
my words deliberately. I'm calling upon you and myself. to put ourselves voluntarily
into absolute slavery, taking Christ as our Lord, begging God
to make us willing, devoted slaves to the Son of God. The master
says, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. And he says to you who come,
take my yoke upon you. Take my yoke upon you. You have a picture of a team
of oxen under a yoke. Under the yoke, they're totally
under the rule of the master. Take voluntarily, willingly,
take my yoke upon you. and learn of me. For I am meek
and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy. This is the easiest way to live
in this world. This is the easiest way to live
in this world. My yoke is easy and my burden,
the weight of my yoke, it's light. Let's go once more to Leviticus
25. Since the Lord God has redeemed
us, since he has saved us by his grace, God Almighty, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, claims us as his slaves. Look at verse
42. For they are my servants, my
servants. The word would really be better
translated slaves, my bond slaves. They are my slaves, which I brought
forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold for bondmen. And look at the last verse of
the chapter, verse 55. For unto me, the children of
Israel are servants. They are my servants, whom I
brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your
God. Now this portion of Scripture
is used sometimes by men, foolishly, to say the Bible teaches or condones
slavery. That is not the purpose of this
portion of Scripture. God frequently in Scripture uses
things that are customs of the day as examples of proper behavior
for his people. For example, in first Corinthians
chapter 11, the apostle Paul speaks of a woman's covering
and says that a woman ought not to pray uncovered. So lots of
people teach that when a woman comes to church, you ought to
always keep her a little dolly and laid on top of her head and
look sanctified when she comes to church. And, uh, I don't doubt
the sincerity of folks who do such things. I have many friends
who practice it. That's not what Paul is teaching.
He is using a custom of the day. Women did not appear in public
with their heads uncovered unless they were women without reputation. The apostle uses this and speaks
of a woman showing her voluntary subjection by a covering. And he uses it as an example
to teach the proper subjection of a woman to her husband. And
here the apostle uses the customary practice of slavery. Sadly, it
has been a practice throughout human history, a practice that
men have engaged in. But he uses this to teach us
something about the most blessed thing in this world, and that
is the privilege of being God's slaves. God's slaves. People sometimes
accuse us we teach God's sovereignty, election, predestination. They
say, well, you teach men are robots. And I sometimes respond,
I would to God I were a robot. But that's not really accurate.
I prefer being a slave. The robot mechanically does what
it's trained, taught, and programmed to do. Those who are voluntary
slaves to God, Voluntarily bow to Him. Voluntarily do His will. Voluntarily seek His glory. Voluntarily walk in His ways. Read this chapter carefully and
you will see that the Lord God claimed this rule over the children
of Israel. Dictating to them, dictating
to you and me what we are to be and what we are to do in all
things. He claims the rule over our property,
our families, our time, our money, our abilities, our affections,
and even our attitude toward one another. He claims the rule
over all these things is you are my slaves. I bought you,
you're mine. You have no right to claim anything
of your own. You have no right to think on
your own. You have no right to act on your
own. You have no right to love on
your own. These things belong to me, you're
mine. Oh God, make me such willingly,
make me such willingly. And it's only reasonable that
this be the case. It is only reasonable, only reasonable
that you and I who are bought with the precious blood of Christ,
that you and I who are the heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
It is only reasonable that you and I who have experienced God's
wondrous grace perpetually all the days of our lives and knowingly
since the day he called us by his grace. It is only reasonable
that we present our bodies a living sacrifice. Merle Hart, you're
getting to be an old man now. That's all right, isn't it? It's
only reasonable that now in your old age, You present your body
every day, every moment, every hour, a living sacrifice to God. Holy, acceptable unto the Lord. This is your reasonable service.
And the Holy Spirit doesn't leave us to guess what he means by
this. Turn to first Corinthians chapter six, first Corinthians
chapter six. Verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? And just in case you
don't know what that means, be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind. Those things are ungodly. It doesn't matter what the teacher
says at school. Doesn't matter what the Congress or Senate dictates
by law. Doesn't matter what your neighbor
does or says. Those things are ungodly. They are vile. They are reprehensible. They are debasing. They are beneath
manhood. They are degrading to humanity.
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners. Again, these things are ungodly,
ungodly, debasing to humanity. These shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. And that's just what you are
by nature. That's just what you were when God saved you by his
grace. And such were some of you. But ye are washed, washed
in the blood of Christ. But ye are sanctified. Sanctified by the grace of God. But ye are justified. Justified
by the free gift of God's grace making us righteous in Jesus
Christ through his sin atoning blood. In the name of the Lord
Jesus and by the spirit of our God. Now what does that mean? Look at verse 19. What? Know
ye not that your body, this physical frame in which you live, is the
temple of God, the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you. God Almighty, Tom Rice, has taken
up permanent residence in you. This is the place where God lives
in the contrite broken heart. This is the place where God resides. This is the place where God is
served. This is the place where God is
honored. This is the place where God is
worshiped. Your body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God. Now watch this. And ye are not
your own. For you're bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which
are God's. Now, let me give you three, maybe
four things this evening. Number one, here's a blessed
fact. Ye are bought with the price. Modern, brilliant theologians
and religious teachers and leaders don't say much about redemption
and blood atonement and they think about our notions as they
call them, our teaching of the scripture, that which the word
of God clearly teaches about redemption as being mercantile,
too much like business or a penal aspect or penal understanding
of substitution and redemption, as though those things are to
be despised. The teaching of scripture is
a mercantile redemption. The teaching of scripture is
a penal substitutionary redemption. Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, suffered
all the wrath of God, making a full satisfaction to divine
justice, paying God's law for the release of his captives justly. And He bought us. Bought us out
from under the curse of God's holy law by a just and legal
transaction called redemption. By the shedding of His blood,
Christ bought us. He bought us out from under the
curse of the law. Bought us out from among the
nations of the world. Bought us out of mankind. And
He sought us out by His grace. Sought out everyone that was
bought. He has sought them out, He is seeking them out, and He
shall seek them out effectually by His grace. And He brings us
out to Himself. He graciously, at the appointed
time of love, calls His own to Himself and makes us willing
servants in the day of His power. Now watch this, with the price. You're bought with the price. How great the cost. How great
the sacrifice. The father gave his son for us. Here in his love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. God so loved the world of his
elect that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God the
Father gave his Son, and God the Son gave himself. All that he is, all that he was,
he gave. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ? How that though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be made rich. The Lord Jesus gave himself. the totality of his being he
sacrificed. And having given himself, he
shed his blood as our sin atoning substitute at Calvary that he
might redeem us. For as much as you know that
you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ. Precious blood causes
his blood. Precious blood blood of one who
is God Almighty and man perfect holy and upright With the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot
who verily? Was for ordained before the foundation
of the world but was manifest in these last times for you How
can we measure? the price of redemption How can we measure the price
that he paid? A price of infinite value, for
he is the infinite God. A price of infinite worth, for
it is the blood of one who is the Lamb of God, the Son of God.
How do we measure the price? Go to Gethsemane and listen and watch. As the Son of God anticipates
being made sin for us, lay his heart broke within him, and his
sweat great drops of blood falling to the ground, and he cries,
oh, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Watch
him as Judas betrays him with a kiss. Brother Larry read the
39th Psalm to us this evening. of the 109th Psalm, speaking
of this betrayal of our Savior. For by love they hated me, he
said. Our Lord Jesus was betrayed by
one who was his own familiar friend. Say, yeah, but he was
a devil, and the Lord knew that. I know. I know. I'm aware of a few things. I
know that. I'm fully aware of that. What most folks seem to
miss when they try to read the word of God and get everything
fitting in their little box so they can say this is what God's
like, they fail to understand the Lord Jesus felt Judas's betrayal
more keenly, Bobby, than I would feel yours. That man loves me. I love him. And if you betrayed me, That
would be nothing compared to this. He would betray. Betrayest thou the Son of God
with a kiss? Brother Don, how do you explain
that? Would God we quit trying to have everything explained
to suit our minds and just bow down and worship our Redeemer?
He was betrayed and he felt it. Our Lord Jesus went to the judgment
hall and he felt all the shame that any other honorable man
would feel made such a spectacle in such a place. There he stands
naked, beaten, humiliated, spit upon, mocked, derided, falsely
accused, and then he's nailed to the cursed tree. And there
he hangs in his nakedness before men. as a naked sinner before
God, having our sins made his so that he suffers all the horrid
wrath of God as our substitute. Now measure, if you think you
might, what he paid for us. Our Lord Jesus made sin is forsaken
by his father, deserted by his disciples. Paul says this, the Spirit of
God says this, teaching us that our body and our spirit are both
bought with the Savior's precious blood. Now this is either fact
or it's fiction. Ye are bought. Either Christ purchased me or
he didn't. Either he redeemed me or he didn't. Either I am his property or I'm
not. If this is a fact, it is a fact
of life. Oh, wonder of wonders. And it
will remain the most wonderful fact of life throughout eternity. Ye are bought. I'm redeemed. With blood divine,
glory, glory, Christ is mine. All to Him I now resign. I have been redeemed. This fact,
the fact that we're redeemed by Christ's precious blood, ought
to be the most relentless, effectual, powerful influence on our lives
all the time. I'm a married man, have a great
wife, delightful family. The most powerful, most relentless,
most effectual influence on my life must never be that woman
or that family, never, never, but Christ the Redeemer. Somebody
must come before her. And if she is God's, somebody
must come before me in her mind and in her heart, and that somebody
is our redeemer. Someone must take precedence
over my passions, my desires, my wants, my ambitions, and that
someone is the son of God. Now, Here's the second thing. A blessed, blessed loss. You are not your own. You're not your own provider.
Sheep are fed by the shepherd. You're not your own guide. Ships
are guided by the pilot. You're not your own father. Children
are loved for, cared for, protected for, protected and provided for
by the parents. You are not our own to waste
in idleness, amusement, or anything else. We are not our own to use. We are not our own to rule. Turn
back to Deuteronomy 26. I've been working earlier today
on this passage of scripture, Deuteronomy 26. Getting at verse 19, number 16. The Lord God says, in verse 17,
thou hast about the Lord this day to be thy God. And in verse
18, it says, and the Lord hath about thee this day to be his
peculiar people. What a wonder. How honored we are to a vouch
that the triune Jehovah is our God, declaring by our baptism
and our confessed faith in Christ that we're His, chosen, redeemed,
and called, and devoted to Him by faith. But how indescribably
blessed it is to have the triune Jehovah, a vouch that we are
His and He is ours. God says, I am yours. I am yours. Look at how it speaks
to this. We are his property. So we can say with the church
in the song of Solomon, my beloved is mine and I am his. Look at
verse 16. This day, the Lord thy God hath
commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments. Do all these things
as my servants. that thou shalt therefore keep
and do them with all thine heart and with all thy soul. Thou hast
avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his
ways and to keep his statutes and his commandments and his
judgments and to hearken to his voice. Like Jephthah of old,
I've lifted my hand to God and I can't go back. I said, to men
everywhere and to God publicly, I'm God's. When I confess my
Lord in baptism, I'm God's. I belong to him. I can't go back. I'm his to do his bidding, his
statutes, his judgments, his will all the time. Thou hast avouched the Lord this
day to be thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes
and his commandments and his judgments and hearken to his
voice. And the Lord hath avouched thee
this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and
that thou shouldest keep all his commandments. and to make
thee high above all nations which he hath made in praise, in name,
and in honor." God said, your mind, my peculiar people, and
I'm yours, and I have made you mine, and I have made myself
yours so that I can make you higher than all the peoples of
the earth in name, honor and in praise that thou mayest be
and Holy people under the Lord thy God as he has spoken now
Go back to first Corinthians 6 Here's a blessed slavery You're not your own you're bought
with a price therefore glorify God in your body and and in your
spirit which are God's. You're God's property by creation. That means he can do with his
own what he will. Like it or not, you belong to God. He made
you. You're his. And he's going to do with you
what he will. You're his. But we who are God's chosen are
God's property by sovereign predestination. by eternal electing love, by
special blood atonement, by the irresistible grace of his spirit,
and he is by a voluntary surrender to him. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. God's grace is such that he sweetly
forces the objects of his love to love him. He sweetly forces men who by
nature hate him, women who by nature despise him. He sweetly
forces us to love him, making us new creatures in Christ, giving
us a heart of faith and love for the Redeemer so that we voluntarily
surrender to him. Your body and spirit belong to
God. That means that you and I, who
are gods, are all together he is. Everything having to do with
physical life, everything having to do with spiritual life, everything
having to do with tangible things, everything having to do with
emotion, everything having to do with the body, with the intellect,
with the will, with the affections, body and spirit. You belong to
God. You belong to God. The whole
man is God's, always God's. The price was once paid and we
are forever his. Now, here's a blessed responsibility glorify God in your body and
in your spirit which are God's glorify God in your body and
in your spirit which are God's Sherry's looking very intently
at me. You've got a husband and all these children and these
grandchildren. What responsibilities? See that you glorify God in it
all. What? What? Teach your children for God's
glory? Raise your children for God's glory? Nurture your children
for God's glory? Discipline your children for
God's glory. Love your husband for God's glory. Love your wife
for God's glory. Glorify God in your body and
in your spirit, which are God's, in the totality of your life. The apostle says, whether therefore
you eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of
God. Turn to Colossians Chapter 3.
Colossians Chapter 3. Paul tells us that in Christ
circumcision, uncircumcision, male and female, bond and free,
black and white, learned and unlearned, those things don't
matter. Those things don't, not in Christ. I know that Sociologists
try their best to fix it so that everybody gets along and we have
this multicultural influence in our education system, political
system. Everybody, we don't see black
and white and red and yellow and rich and poor and all that
nonsense. That just ain't so. That just ain't so. Everywhere
else in the world, those things matter. Not in Christ. Not in Christ. Not in the Church
of Christ. Not in the body of Christ. No,
sir. No, sir. In Christ, they don't
matter. They don't they don't count for
anything. They don't count for anything. It says Christ is all
and in all. Now, here what Paul concludes
from that as he continues to write by divine inspiration.
Put on, therefore. Put on, therefore, since Christ
is all and in you all. That means Christ is all to you
all, and Christ, who is all to you all, is in you all. He's in every one of you. He's
in every one of you. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies. Find me a modern translation
that translates that better than that. So nobody knows what that
is. You're exactly right. Mercy,
that just comes gushing up from within. Kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving
one another. You mean, Brother Don, we're
supposed to be Merciful and kind and humble and meek and long-suffering
and forbearing and forgiving with one another all the time
Well, why shouldn't we be? That's the way God deals with
you, isn't it? That's what God deals with me
Well, I just I can't let that go not say anything. We'll bite
your tongue off then It's about you turn off Don't Don't let
any evil communication proceed out of your mouth. I'd rather
hear you cuss like a drunken sailor than hear you talk bad
about each other. Bite your tongue off. Just bite your tongue off.
Don, bite it off. Speak no evil of God's people. That's Christ you're speaking
evil of. That's Christ you're speaking evil of. We don't. If
any man have a quarrel against any, Well, Larry Brown, man,
he got, oh, I'm so mad at him. Well, forget it. Forget it. Forget it. Well, you don't know
what he did. No, but I know what you did. And I know what I did. And I know what Christ has done. Now, you tell me you can't forget
it? Forget it. Any man have a quarrel against
any? Even as Christ forgave you, so do you. I was talking to a
friend of mine years ago, a man who had been a great influence
in my life. I was just a young man. He was
sitting in my living room. And I said to him, you can't
worship God and harbor this evil. It can't be done. You're going
to have to forgive and forget. He said, well, if he'd come to
me and confess his sin, I'd forgive him. I said, aren't you glad
God didn't wait for you to come to him and confess your sin before
he forgave you? It's the forgiveness that causes the confession. Forgive
him. God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. Verse 14, above all these things put on charity. Put on charity. Get up in the
morning and put on charity when you put your coat on. Put on
charity. Charity is the far better translation
of the Greek word than love. Charity is a free bounty expecting
nothing from its object. Put on charity. Put on charity. Watch it now. Which is the bond
of perfectness. This is what gives strength to
perfection. And let the peace of God rule
in your hearts to the which also you're called in one body and
be you thankful. Let the word of christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your
hearts to the lord And whatsoever you do in word or in deed Whatever
you do do all in the name of the lord jesus Giving thanks
to god and the father by him Let us daily seek grace from
God to honor Him. Seek grace from God to restrain
the evil that's in us, to keep us from our evil passions, to
bridle our tongues, to mark our steps and order them, to direct
our steps according to His will, so that we may, by the sweet
Irresistible constraint of his spirit, continually live in this
world having a perfect balance and a just weight, a perfect
and a just measure. That's what he requires in his
law. He said, don't carry dual weights in your bag, just have
a perfect measure, perfect balance, perfect weight. What's he talking
about? Alan, he says, deal with everybody uprightly. Deal with
everybody like you ought to. God's people and God and even
your enemies. Deal with everybody uprightly,
uprightly. In all our dealings with men
and with God in this world, uprightly. Well, can you give us an example,
Brother Dodd? Yes, I'll give you one example,
and I'll wrap it up. Lo, I come, and the volume of
the book is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. And he never took it back. In Exodus 21, God gave a law
concerning The bondservant serves and serves his time up in the
seventh year, he's to go out free. But in those seven years,
he's come to love his master. And in those six years, he's
gotten a wife, and she's given him sons and daughters. And if
he goes out, he's got to go out alone. But if he wants to, if
he wants to, only if he wants to, only if he wants to, he can
stay. have his ear bored through with
an awe publicly and say to the elders of the city, I love my
master and I love my wife and I love my children and I will
not go out free. Aren't you thankful he would
not go out free? Aren't you thankful? having opened
his ear as God's servant. Our Redeemer stayed to it to
death and stays to it to this day. Jehovah's servant, God's
slave. The Son of God became a voluntary
slave to the triune God so that he might redeem us with his blood
and bring us with him into glory. How little it is then for you
and I to voluntarily surrender ourselves tonight and tomorrow
when you arise and as you go through your day and you meet
with some obstacle and you just want to explode Ask God for grace
to govern you, because you can't govern yourself. Ask God for
grace to order your steps, to control your thoughts, to bridle
your tongue, and make you a faithful servant to him, so that whatever
you do, in word or deed, do all to the glory of God. Now, turn
to Romans chapter 11. Here's the basis of my appeal
to you. Volunteer to be God's slave forever. Volunteer to be God's slave forever. My God, take me if you will. I would be yours, lock, stock,
and barrel with every breath of my body and every fiber of
my being. I would serve you." How come? What inspiration is there for
that? Romans 11, 33. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath known
the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor? Or who
hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto
him again? for of him and through him and to him are all things
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now, what do you
say to that? I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed
by the renewing, the continual renewing of your mind that you
may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God. Amen.