We invite you to turn back in
your Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter
6. I'd like to read verse 19 and
20, the last two verses of the chapter. Verse 19 and 20. 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." There are times that those who
preach the gospel of God's free grace in Christ They are accused
of antinomianism, that is, that they are accused of not living
under the law. They are accused of being lawless.
They are accused of being loose living people. They are accused
of using the grace of God, if you please, for a cloak for their
maliciousness. Well, I'd like this morning,
if I could, to bring a message to you that the Lord has impressed
upon my heart that I hope will be helpful to each one of you
to understand the true position of a child of God in this world
and understand how that this fits in with what we preach when
we preach the free grace of God. I'm very interested that we have
a balanced ministry here and that each one of you are enabled
to receive the message of the Word of God in such a manner
that you'll be able to grow thereby. And this particular text of scripture
is one that has challenged my heart, and I believe this morning
is that which the Lord would have me to present to you, bring
before you. This is a text of scripture that
maybe you're familiar with, or maybe you're not familiar with,
but there's a tremendous message contained here in these two verses. And the apostle begins by saying,
what? Know you not that your body,
your body that is the body of the child of God, that is this
flesh body that we live in, this tent, this abernacle that we
are now in, he says, know you not that this body is the very
temple of the Holy Ghost? This body of ours is that in
which the Spirit of God dwells if we're God's children. if we
belong to the Lord. That is, if we have been washed
in the blood of the Lamb, if we've been regenerated by God's
Spirit, and if we've been converted, if we're saved people, then the
Spirit of God dwells in this body, has taken up residence
in this body. And it says, which is in you.
The Spirit of God is in the child of God. If any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, He is none of His. And so we have the Spirit
of Christ dwelling in us. We have the Holy Ghost of God
dwelling in our bodies. And he says, which ye have of
God. This is God's gift unto us. We didn't get it anywhere
else. We got it from God. The Spirit of God is from God. And God gives it unto His people
as a gift. And Paul says, and you're not
your own. And you're not your own. By virtue
of the fact that you've been converted, by virtue of the fact
that you're saved, that you've been brought into faith in Christ,
and that the Spirit of God has come to tabernacle in you, he
says, you're not your own. You're not your own. And then
in verse 20, he says, for you're bought with a price. You've been
bought by somebody else. Somebody else has bought and
paid for you. Somebody else has paid the price
of your redemption. Somebody else has bought you
back from the slave market of sin. Somebody else has purchased
you and you no longer own yourself, but you're owned by another.
Therefore, because you're bought with a price, Because you're
not your own, therefore glorify God in your body and in your
spirit, which are God's. Because you've been bought with
a price, you're to glorify God in your body and in your spirit,
which Our gods they belong to God and so you're to honor and
glorify God with this body and in your spirit now I'd like this
morning if I can to speak to you on on these verses here primarily
the last part of verse 19 and verse 20 I'm interested in what
we're doing with our bodies and and our spirits, which are God's. I'm interested in that. Now,
beloved, we belong to God. It is true that all people, that
all souls belong to God. God said, all souls are mine. It is true that all men belong
to God as creatures to their creator, as property to their
owners, as subject to their rulers. All things and all people were
made by God and for God and all are ruled over by the sovereign
God of the Bible and they're ruled by the sovereign will of
God. Now this is God's right as the
absolute sovereign of all his creatures that he would rule
over them. He owns them by virtue of the
fact that he created them, but we who believe On the Lord Jesus
Christ, we belong to God as a child belongs to his father, as a wife
belongs to her husband, and as a willing bond slave belongs
to his master. Now did you get me? Ours is an
intimate, it's a loving relationship, it's a family relationship with
the eternal God. We belong to God. We belong to
God. Now, let me emphasize this. We
belong to God as a child belongs to his father, as a wife belongs
to her husband, and as a bond slave would belong to his master. We belong to God in an intimate,
loving, family relationship. Now, we belong to God, number
one, and I just want to point these things out, and I want
to emphasize them to you. We've been bought with a price.
Now for the Apostle Paul to come on the scene and say, and you're
not your own, and to say that you've been bought with a price,
this deserves some explanation and we want to enforce this this
morning on your mind and to your mind that you might be able to
appreciate what this claim is that God has on those who believe. Now, he has told us here that
the results of what he's done puts us in a position where that
we're to glorify him in our body and spirit, which belongs to
him, and therefore we must understand this relationship and how we
got into it. How did we get into this relationship? Well, number one, we belong to
God by the sovereign purpose of his grace. Yes, the Lord said
in old eternity, He said, I will be their God and they shall be
my people. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. Were it not, listen to me, for
God's electing grace no one would ever be saved. If it was not
for God's sovereign purpose of grace, there would no one come
into a relationship with God. No one would belong to God savingly
like a believer belongs to God. Indeed, if it were not for God's
election and His determination to save, the world would have
never been created. Now, I think sometimes that we
just simply lose sight of what all this is about. The world
was created because God determined to save a people that would be
just like his son. God determined to make a race.
An elective race that would be just like His own lovely Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. One without sin. One who was
spotless. One who was absolutely perfect
in all things. One who worshipped the Father.
One whose will was given over habitually unto the Father. And this is the very purpose
of the creation. Let the scientists say what they
will, but this world stands today because the sovereign God elected
and decreed that there would be a people that would live in
this world, and that they would be redeemed out of the world,
and that they would be regenerated by His Spirit, and that they
would be conformed to the very image of His own Son. That's
why there's such a thing as this world, as the creation. And we
need to remember that as we live in this world. We belong to God
because He chose us as His own. 2 Thessalonians 2 and 13 says,
but we're bound to give thanks unto God, brethren, beloved,
for you, because God has, from the beginning, chosen you to
salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and the belief
of the truth. And so we belong to God because
God chose us out of from among the mankind and determined that
we would be his and so he came to us and he saved us and put
his spirit within us. Number two, let me say that we're
the Lord's by the special purchase, by the price that was laid down
by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You're bought with a price, Paul
said, and yes, that price That price was paid, beloved, on that
gory tree outside the city of Jerusalem. That price was paid
on Mount Calvary. That price was paid when the
Lord Jesus Christ, out of the five bleeding wounds, He poured
out His life's blood in agony and sweat. The Lord Jesus Christ
was made to be sin for us, and He paid the price of our redemption. He bought us back. And so, should
not He own us? Now, beloved, it's not expected
that the ungodly and the unbelieving should seek the honor of Christ. That's not expected. They were
not redeemed by Him. They were not lost. As you and
I, they were not justified, they were not sanctified, they're
still in their sin. And it's not expected that they
should honor Christ, that they should want to glorify Christ,
that they would want to sing anthems and spiritual songs unto
the God who loved us out of our sin. It's not expected that they
should and that they would. But those who have been redeemed,
my friend, they are redeemed to the Lord and they ought to
say so. And it is most reasonable that we should willingly give
ourselves to the service of our Savior's glory because He laid
down His life for us. And in that that he laid down
his life, this should be our reasonable service, that we give
up ourselves unto his will. He brought us out from under
the curse of the law. Galatians 3 and 13 says, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. Beloved, you know this morning
we do not reflect as we ought upon that which our Redeemer
has done for us. It does not have the effect upon
us that it ought to have. We get used to it. We get used
to hearing people talk about it. We get used to singing about
it. And it doesn't touch us as it
ought. Last night I received a phone
call from a brother out in South Carolina, Brother Wayne Walker,
who used to be down in Livingston, and we had a good talk on the
phone, as you can, you know, sometimes have. And as we fellowshiped
a little bit on the phone, I told him that the older that I got
in the flesh, the more difficult it was to continue to feel everything
like I used to feel it. And that I just absolutely was
not comfortable to preach or comfortable to talk about the
things of God unless I felt them in my soul. And, beloved, that's
one thing that we don't want to ever get to the place where
that we don't feel is that that the Lord Jesus Christ has done
for us in that that he laid down his life in our room instead,
that he suffered our judgment and suffered our hell for us.
We don't want to ever get to the place where that just is
something that, you know, like rain off a duck's back, that
it just runs off of us. We've got to remember that there
was a price paid, that we were bought. about the Lord Jesus
Christ and that we were redeemed from the curse of the law that
came upon us through our disobedience. Then again, I want to say this
because I believe it's true for everyone that has been chosen
of God and in time visited by the hand of God, by the Spirit
of God, and regenerated by God's Spirit, is that we belong to
God by the profession, by the profession of our faith. in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe
that we have willingly come to that place where that we have
made a solemn profession of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I know that you may say,
well, I don't know when I made that profession. Well now, if
you're a child of God here this morning and you have followed
the Lord in believer's baptism, if you have submitted yourself
to a New Testament church and have been scripturally baptized,
then you have made that solemn profession by which you have
identified yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers
following their Lord in baptism, they publicly declare to all
the world their faith in and their heart allegiance to the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're buried with him in baptism.
We're raised together to walk in newness of life and we're
his and we belong to him and we've identified ourselves with
him in water baptism. Baptism is the believer's obedient
public confession of their faith in and their relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that every one of us here
have identified ourselves, that is, if we've been baptized and
if we know the Lord Jesus Christ and we've followed Him in baptism,
we have identified ourselves with Him and told the world we
belong to Him And from now on we walk, we walk in him and we
walk in newness of life having been washed from our sins in
his blood. Now since we belong to God, it
is reasonable that we should glorify God then in our bodies
and in our spirit which are God's. Now then, Remember this as a
child of God, that you're not your own. I'm not here this morning
asking you to give up something to God that He doesn't own. I'm not asking you this morning
to give up something and to be something, you know, that is
beyond your reasonable service. I'm asking you this morning to
believe what the Word of God says and to glorify God in your
body and your spirit, which are His. Believers, since God chose
you, redeemed you, and saved you, then you belong to Him. And by your own profession of
faith, you have willingly and voluntarily given yourself up
to the claims of Christ. You belong to Him. You belong
to Him. Now, and because you belong to
Christ, There are some things that necessarily follow, and
I want you to listen to me. You belong to Him now. Do you
see that by what we've already said? Now listen to me. Now because
you belong to Him, I'd like to say first of all that you have
nothing to fear and everything to give you comfort in this world. Now just listen carefully to
what I'm saying. You have nothing to fear if you
belong to Christ, And you have everything to comfort you in
this world. You're a child of God. You're
an heir of God and a joint heir with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you're in a position this morning that in that that you're in Christ
and in that that you're owned by him where there's some things
that follow. A, you're not your own provider.
You say, well, I got to look out for myself in this world,
or ain't anybody else going to. Listen, it's a father's responsibility
to provide for his children, and your Heavenly Father does
provide for His own. I'd like for you to turn to Matthew
chapter 6. I'm telling you that you're not
your own provider. You've got nothing to fear and
everything to be comforted by in that that you belong to another
and that you're not your own. Matthew chapter 6 this morning,
and I'd like to begin reading here with verse 31. Therefore,
take no thought Saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink
Matthew chapter 6 31? What shall we eat or what shall
we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed for after all these
things do the Gentiles seek that that is the heathen those that
know not God and For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need
of all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And so, beloved, the Lord is
the provider for his people. It is the responsibility of the
Father to provide for His own. And if you belong to Him, you
can rest in this. God will provide. One of the
names of God suggests that He will provide, and He will. He will be faithful Unto his
people now then another thing is this that you're not your
own guide If he owns you and if you belong to him, then you're
not your own guide in this world Now isn't that a marvelous thing?
It is a responsibility of the shepherd to guide his sheep through
this world and Psalm 37 and 23 says the steps of a good man
are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. The steps
of a good man are ordered by the Lord and so the shepherd
will guide the sheep. And He guides us with His eye,
and He'll be our guide, David says, unto death. The Lord will
guide His people through this world. The Lord knows the way
through the wilderness, and all we got to do is follow Him. And
so I'm telling you here that there is a blessing from knowing
that you belong to Him. Number one, He's your provider.
Number two, He's your guide. And number three, He's your protector. Isn't it marvelous that we're
living in this world where All kinds of things are happening
all around us, and they somehow or other were just amazed that
they seem to always happen to somebody else besides us. Have
you ever been amazed at the fact that there just seems like so
much happening, so much going on, that things just seem to
happen so much to other people and not to you? Well, you know,
listen to me. We're to give credit unto the
Lord if we're kept. If there has been no plague,
come nigh our dwelling. I mean, if those diseases that
linger round to hurry men off to an eternal home, if they've
not come into our household, I mean, if we somehow or other
have been missed by the so-called calamities of the universe, I
mean, if we have been we ought to give the glory to God, because
we know that they that keep the house labor in vain, except the
Lord keep the house. And so we give praise unto Him
that He is our protector. It is the King's responsibility
to protect His people, the husband's responsibility to protect his
wife, and Christ, who is your husband and King, protects His
own with Sovereign power and listen to what Isaiah chapter
43 says Isaiah chapter 43 and I begin with well, let me just
look here at the second verse He says when thou passeth through
the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers They shall
not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not
be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee and For I am
the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior, and I
gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia, he says, and Sheba for thee.
Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable,
and I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for
thee, and people for thy life. That's what God said concerning
his ancient people Israel. He said, I'll protect you. It's
wonderful to reflect upon the fact that you're not your own,
and that the Lord is your protector, your guide, and he's your provider,
and so you can rest yourself in him. Now note, because you
have willingly given yourself to Christ as a voluntary bond
slave, you're to be completely under his dominion. Now, I want
you to think with me a little bit. Because we have willingly
Like a woman comes before a congregation of people and in the presence
of God and in the presence of a company says, I will be this
man's wife. I will be. I will. I will. And a man says, I will. We have voluntarily said, I will
to Christ. We said, I will because He chose
us and because He worked in us and made us willing in the day
of His power. But there was a time when we
said, I do, I do, I'm willing to take the Lord Jesus Christ
as my Redeemer. And now I want you to turn to
the book of Luke with me, chapter 14, and I want you to listen
a little bit to what the Word of God says here. If we have
willingly given ourselves to Christ as a voluntary bond slave,
you are to be completely under His dominion. You're not your
own. You're bought with a price. Verse 25 of Luke 14. And there went great multitudes
with him, and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to
me, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children
and brethren and sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. and whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Now in verse
33, so likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not
all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. I'm telling you
that those who have identified themselves with the Lord Jesus
Christ, that they're to be completely under His dominion. Being the
bond slave of Christ, you must not follow your own will, serve
your own interests, or what we might say, lend our service to
another. Our service is to be unto Him.
A bond slave in Old Testament times had no property. A bond slave in Old Testament
times had no rights. They had no time of their own.
And he should have had no will of his own because he was the
bond slave of another. Now, if you and I are the bond
slaves of Jesus Christ, and I know that there's many who have voluntarily,
at least they thought, had given themselves up to be the bond
slaves of Jesus Christ. But beloved, there may come a
time in your life when the Lord will place His finger upon you
and say, I have taken you on as my slave, as my bond slave. You may have felt that you had
given yourself up, but there will come a time when the Lord
might lay His finger upon you and say, I have taken you as
my bond slave. I do own you. At such a time,
God will become exceedingly jealous over you and God will take your
life and in a special way, he'll fashion it and use it for his
own glory and his own honor. But now, brother and sister,
because you belong to God, In this world, because you have
volunteered, because you have said in response to what the
Word of God says, you're not your own, you have said, I will,
I do, I belong to the Lord, and you've identified yourself, I'm
talking to you that have identified yourself in water baptism and
made this public profession, you have in this world no legitimate
concern but to glorify Him in your body and in your spirit. Now that's your business in this
world as a child of God. Your heart's only desire should
be, Father, glorify thy name, as Jesus said in John 12 and
28. Father, glorify your name through me, whatever way you
can, however you can. In what way you purpose, glorify
your name. Now then, everything you are,
everything you own, everything you control, and every relationship
of your life must be made subservient to this. to the glory of God. Whether I eat or whether I drink
or whatsoever I do, it's to be to the glory of God. Our flesh
rebels against this complete subjection unto God. Now you know what I'm talking
about. The trials that we have as a child of God in this world
The temptations that come to us as children of God as we attempt
to walk in faith in this world are to attack us right here and
that is in this submission and in this being absolutely given
over to the control of our Lord Jesus Christ, bowing our knee
in all things to the Lordship of Christ. There is this cry
in our flesh, we do not want this man to rule over us. We
want to have some freedom. We want to do as we please. And
we want to live our own life. We want to go in the direction
that we please. But you see, you're not your
own. You belong to another and your legitimate concern in this
world is to glorify God. And the best way to do that is
to live in full submission and surrender to the Lordship of
Jesus Christ. But this is what we must strive
after in this world. Now we cannot and we never can
give the kind of allegiance to God that we desire to in this
world. We never can do it. We want to
give more allegiance. We don't want the struggle that
we have and we're sometimes or other, you know, different times,
we're ashamed of what goes on on the inside of us. I mean,
this ought to be a clear issue with us, oughtn't it? And we
oughtn't to still be having to fight this battle every day of
our lives. Who's going to be Lord in us?
But we still have to fight the battle every day, it seems. There's
always this struggle within. We just somehow or other, old
flesh, don't want to give in to the ways of God. We don't
want to live so as to honor and glorify His name as we ought. And so we cannot give the kind
of allegiance to God that we desire to give, but this is what
we must strive after, commitment and complete consecration of
our beings to the glory of our God. This is what we must strive
for, to glorify and honor God. Now in Titus 2 and 10, it says
here we're told that we're to adorn the doctrine of God our
Savior in all things. Now that is to the children of
God. We're told that we're to adorn the doctrines of God our
Savior in all things. We're to adorn the teachings
of God. We're to adorn ourselves with these teachings and with
the truth of God in all things. And we proclaim as a preacher
I have, I've tried to be faithful to Him, And we have proclaimed
with tenacity here in this place the believers' absolute freedom
from the law and we're not children of bondage. We've tried to make
that clear and we refuse as children of God because God requires us
to refuse to be brought into bondage to any religious custom,
tradition, or rule that is invented by the legalist and by the religionist. We refuse to be brought into
submission to any of that. Now listen to me. In Christ we're
free. We are the Lord's free men in
that we've been delivered from bondage and we're free in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty. Paul says in Galatians 5 and
13. Now this is glorious. It's glorious. But the time has come because
there are many around that would spy out our liberty in the Lord
Jesus Christ. There are many around that would
watch us closely to find out whether or not we have become
lawless and whether or not we're using the grace of God that we
preach for a cloak for maliciousness. And so I think the time has come
for us to give attention to the rest of Galatians 5, 13, where
it says, Brethren, you've been called into liberty only. Use
not this liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve
one another. Only use not this liberty as
an occasion to the flesh. You've been called into liberty.
But don't use this liberty as an occasion to the flesh. Brethren, sister, there are some
things more important than the exercise of our liberty. Now you listen to me carefully.
I don't want anyone to ever accuse you and be able to pin the charge
on you and make it stick that you are an antinomian, that you're
lost. I want you to understand what
the Word of God teaches about this. There are some things that
are more important than the exercise of our liberties. We've got certain
liberties as Christians, certain things that we can do, and may
be innocent or whatever, but Paul said, I'll not be brought
under the power of any, I'll not be brought to be the slave
of any, to where I have to do it, irregardless of how it affects
the people around me. Now hear me out. The glory of
Christ is more important than my indulgence in any liberty
that He has given me. The uppermost thing in mind is
am I glorifying Christ? Am I living for His honor? The
needs and the opinions of my brethren, especially my weak
brethren, are more important than my freedoms and my liberty. How it affects my brethren. How
it affects those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died. To say, to do, or use anything,
be it ever so innocent or indifferent, Beloved, it is not the right
thing to do if it violates the conscience of my weaker brethren
and if it in any way detracts from the glory of Him who loved
us and gave Himself for us. The salvation of sinners is more
important than the exercise of my personal liberties. How will what I'm doing affect
those who are going to listen to the message of the gospel
that we preach? As a church, how will our life and how we
live and how we walk as a church, how will it affect those who
will listen to the message that we proclaim? And the honor of
the gospel is more important than the indulgence of any freedom
that I may have to use this world without abusing it. The honor
of the gospel. Brother, sister, How much, I
mean, how do we value this great treasure that God has committed
unto us? The gospel of redeeming grace.
The honor of the gospel. What would we do for the honor
of the gospel? How far would we go to deprive
ourselves of some of the things in life that we would be justified
in doing in honor of the gospel? in order that the gospel would
not be hindered, in order that the gospel would not in any way,
that its beauty would be in some way or another marred. I mean,
how far would we go? Well, as a child of God, we're
to go all the way. Now listen, may God, my brethren,
give us grace to govern our actions, our speech, and our attitudes
by these things. Neither say nor do anything before
man that might ill serve the cause of Christ's glory and offend
his people, keep sinners from hearing the gospel, or mar the
beauty of the gospel in the eyes of others. Do nothing. Say nothing
that would hinder the gospel of God's grace. Live to the glory
and honor of Christ. Let us take great care that in
all matters of outward appearance that we adorn the doctrine of
God our Savior before men, that we put it on, that we wear the
teachings of the Master, that we wear the teachings of the
Word of God. We must take care that we do not give the enemies
of God an occasion to blaspheme or offend. We are not to give
an occasion of offense to any. for whom Christ died. Now, we're
not to place a stumbling block before any sinner. As much as
possible, we're to be all things to all men. We're to accommodate
ourselves to the weaknesses of others and seek the good of others,
and we're to use not our liberty, not if it offends, not if it
dishonors the gospel, not if it blinds the eyes of those to
whom we're trying to be a witness. Use your liberty, but do not
abuse your liberty in the Lord. Well, now what are we seeking
for here anyway? Are we seeking the approval of
men? Or are we seeking the approval of God? Well, my brother and
my sister this morning, we seek only the greater glory of God. when I'm preaching to you to
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
I'm not asking you to go out and seek the approval of the
people around you. No, I'm not asking you to do
that. I'm asking you to seek the greater glory of God Almighty. Most of the people in the religious
world today, they just want to impress men with their religious
zeal and devotion and most of their deeds of religion and service,
their dress codes and their restrictions of life are designed to impress
men. most of the people in the religious
world now listen to me, they want the approval of men and
they think that if they can win the approval of men that they
will have the approval of God it's not so and I'm not telling
you to start on that end don't try to just impress people with
your religion and that's not what I'm driving at I'm talking
about glorifying God from within I'm talking about in your spirit
and in your very body which belongs to the Lord Have his greater
glory in mind. Don't start from the outside
trying to impress people thinking that you're going to have the
approval of God in so doing. Not so. Those who seek the approval
of men by their religious behavior, they're likely to they're likely
to attain the praise of man and Jesus said you have your reward
you got all's coming to you you got your reward but the Bible
says that that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination
in the sight of God and there's many who with their outward code
of religion they've impressed many But the Lord's not impressed
with it at all. It's got to be from this foundation
that we've laid here this morning. You're not your own. You're bought
with a price and it stems from that. And now it's not really
too hard to impress men. Now, I say unto you, they have
the reward. Don't forget that. Those who
try to impress men will probably attain it. And Jesus said they
got the reward. Do not misunderstand me. Don't
misunderstand me. I want you to fully understand
what I'm saying. It is important for believers
to be blameless in their behavior before men. Jesus said, let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5 and 16.
So it is important, but we must not be motivated. by a desire
to impress men. Our motivation is to glorify
God in our body and in our spirit, which are His. We don't want
our motivation to be to win the approval of people around us.
We want to glorify God. Neither can we allow the customs
and traditions of self-righteous religionists to govern our lives
and bring us into their bondage. Galatians 5.1 says, Stand fast
therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and
be not entangled again with that yoke of bondage. But I want in
my redeemed soul, I want if I can in my blood-bought soul to honor
God in my life. I want to honor Him in thought,
in word, and in deed continually. That's what I want. as a child
of God. And I believe that every child
of God has that desire, that want to. I want to do this. I want to faithfully represent
God Almighty and the Savior in this world. I want to do that
above all things. I do not want to be found lying
on God. And I don't want in any way to
misrepresent God. I want to live, if I can, to
His glory, to His honor, and to His praise. And I have no
desire to do anything but that. I want to live in a manner that
will adorn the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the way to do this
The way to do this, beloved, I'm convinced, is to walk before
God. Walk before God in love and honesty
and integrity and faithfulness in all things, both earthly and
spiritual. Walk before God. Remember that
God's eye is upon you. And remember that all things
are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Augustine wrote this, concerning
the omnipresence of God, concerning the fact that God sees all. He wrote these words, and I want
you to listen to this. He says, God is an infinite circle
whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. Now listen to me, the thing I'm
saying is that we must walk before God. Now hear me out. Perhaps
the most serious sobering thing my mind has ever contemplated,
he said, is the fact that I am always in the presence of God. Now listen to me, God cannot
be shut out anywhere, even in the most secret recesses of my
mind and the deepest, most secluded imaginations of my heart, God
is there. God is there. Everything I think,
everything I say and do is done in the immediate presence of
God. Now what do you think of that?
Now whenever it comes And listen to me, the hypocrite, the hypocrite,
fear is struck into their hearts when they realize that everything
that we do is in the presence of God. Somebody will cuss sometimes
when you're around, or when I'm around, they say, oh, well, I'm
sorry, I didn't mean to. It don't make any difference
about me being there. Everything that men do, they do in the immediate
presence of Almighty God. You do it in God's face. You
do it in the face of God. And so remember that. Now listen
to me. If you're going to bring glory to God, you've got to keep
that in mind. That you walk before God. And
as you walk before God, then the outward effects of that walk
will not be damaging, it will not be offensive, it will not
be contrary to the doctrines of your God. If you walk in the
presence of God, if you walk knowing that everything you do
and say and think that it's in, that God is in His immediate
presence, the fact should cause us to be filled with reverence
toward God should, I think it should cause godly fear to be
in our hearts. Everything we do is in His immediate
presence. Now God is present everywhere
then and we are to walk as we know his eyes upon us and to
be concerned about that and if we are the rest of it will take
care of itself. Don't you think so? Don't you
think so? I've always said the best protection that a wife has
in regards to her husband is if her husband is right with
God and if he walks with God and if he's doing what he ought
to do And if he's faithful to God, then she don't have any
concern. And the same is true with the
husband in regards to the wife. If they're walking before God,
it'll be alright. There may be some struggles,
there may be some problems, but it'll be alright if we're walking
in the immediate presence of God. If we're conscious of it,
and if we regard it as we ought to, and if we're living for the
greater glory of God in our body and spirit, it'll be Alright,
but now let me close this morning by saying that I'm not nearly
so interested in men and women seeing Jesus in me as I am in
knowing that Almighty God sees me in Jesus. You hear what I'm
saying? I'm not nearly so interested
that men and women see Jesus in me as I am in Almighty God
seeing me in Jesus. I want Him to see me there. That's
where I want to be. To be found in Him. Now listen
to me. I think there's something here that we should touch on
before we close. My heart's concerned. It's not
that I may win man's approval, but rather that I may have God's
approval, and God's approval is won only by faith in God. It's only won by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. God approves of His Son and approves
of all who are in His Son. Are you in His Son? Paul said
in Philippians 3, he said, to be found in Him. Not having a
righteousness of my own according to the law, but that righteousness
which is of the faith of Jesus Christ. That's where I want to
be found. I want to make sure that God
sees me in Christ. And I want to glorify the God
of the Bible because I'm not my own. I'm bought with a price.
I belong to Him, and I'm to glorify Him. Now I realize that we covered
a lot of ground this morning, and I realize that some of these
things might be kind of cloudy to some of you. Some of the issues
might be a little cloudy, but if you're here this morning,
and you're a child of God, and if you've experienced regeneration,
and you know you belong to the Lord, then these things surely,
surely have enforced the claim which He has upon your life.
And they've made you more conscious of your legitimate concern in
this world. And that is the greater glory
of your God. Glorify God in your body and
your spirit, which are His. And the way to do that is to
remember that everything you do is in His view. Now I want
to read a poem by Samuel Melody, and I will close. You listen
to the words here of this poem. Ye souls redeemed with blood
and called by grace divine, walk worthy of your God and let your
conduct shine. Keep Christ, your living head
in view in all you say, in all you do. Has Jesus made you free? Then you're free indeed, ye sons
of liberty, ye chosen royal seed. Walk worthy of your Lord and
view your glorious head in all you do. Shall sons of heavenly
birth their dignity debase? Unite with sons of earth and
take a servant's place? The slaves to sin and Satan too
forget to keep their Lord in view. Forbid it, mighty God,
preserve us in Thy fear. Uphold with staff and rod, and
guard from every snare. Teach us to walk with Christ
in view, and honor Him in all we do. Increase our faith and
love, and make us watch and pray. Oh, fix our souls above, nor
let us ever stray. Dear Lord, do Thou our strength
renew, and lead us on with Christ. May the Lord add his blessing
this morning to the message. Father, own the word and own
the message and may it be that it shall have been said when
this life is over that we've lived to thy greater glory. Help
us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.