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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Can you turn your Bibles, please, at First Corinthians
chapter #6 We're going to finish by God's grace tonight.
First Corinthians chapter #6 in a message that I have entitled
this What's the matter with you? That's a great way to start,
right? What's the matter with you?
Many of you know that there was about a 2 1/2 year period while
I was here at Liberty or I have been here at Liberty that I was
driving for Uber. We had church support that
started to go down and the church support went far down far
faster than anything that Liberty would be able to help
with. And so it was not unusual for me
2-3 nights a week, sometimes even more, to be able to go out
when I was done with church work and to go out for several hours
and to be able to do the things that I needed to do to provide
for the family. But, you know, it's interesting
that people will ask me what was it safe?
Did you have any problems? Was was there anything that was
really out of sorts, You know, for 2 1/2 years, but probably
over 1000 rides that I gave people.
I never really had a problem except for one major problem.
And that was something that took place less than a mile from
where we're standing right now. Well, I'm standing here sitting
and that was over at a local watering hole just right up the
road from here. And so I got the call to go to
this place. I got into the car.
I remember it was raining, but it was also kind of warm.
It was just a very seasonably unusual night the way that it
was. And I went to pick up this
gentleman and it was obvious that he had had a little too
much to drink. And by a little too much, I
mean, he had a lot too much to drink.
And he got into the car and listen, I, I kind of struggled
with this sometimes. And my thought process was,
well, I'm glad that I'm taking him home compared to him driving
himself home. And so I was thankful to be able
to be doing that. And so I was starting to take
him down the road and he was just, he was in another world,
let's just put it that way, than where I was.
And as I'm driving, I'm trying to take him to his home.
It was probably less than 10 minutes from where I picked him
up because of the unusual weather, because of the way that
was the windshield that I was fogging up a little bit on the
inside. And so I was trying to be able
to fix what was going on, change, you know, put the
defrost on, you know, do do all these different things.
And he starts to grab the wheel. Let me just make sure we're all
awake tonight. He was grabbing the wheel.
All right. He did not think that I was
paying enough attention because I had my hand on the knob of the
AC. So he decided to grab the wheel.
And I said, hey, get your hands off the wheel.
And we start arguing about him holding the wheel or I'm holding
the wheel. And next thing I know he yells
stop sign. And I went right through the
stops. I didn't even know the stop sign
was there because we were fighting over the wheel.
And I finally kind of did one of these to him, got his hands
back, and I kept driving and it was silent the rest of the time.
We said nothing, I said nothing. He said several things.
I didn't want to say anything because I was afraid if I did
say something, it would be very unkind and very uncharitable.
So I thought the most charitable thing to do was to say nothing.
But I remember when he opened the door, I don't know if I said
the words exactly like this, but it's certainly was very close to
this. As he opened the door to get
out, I just asked him what's the matter with you?
What's the matter with you? Now let's understand, when I
asked someone the question, what's the matter with you?
I knew what was the matter with him.
I understood exactly what was the matter with him.
It was all of those drinks that he had consumed before he had
got into the vehicle. It really wasn't the issue of
what was the matter with you. It was the idea of of don't you
know you can't do that? That's what I'm saying.
I'm not saying what's the matter with you.
You explained to me exactly what's the matter with you.
It was my way of saying, don't you know you, you can't do that.
You can't act that way in the car.
Now, Paul is going to ask a rhetorical question in our text
tonight. In fact, he's going to ask it
three different times as we read it.
He's going to say this, no, ye not.
He's going to say, basically, don't you know that this is the
way the Christian life is? And then don't you know that
this is the way the Christian life is?
And don't you know that this is the way the Christian life is?
And he's going to present this three different times in our
text tonight. And really it all comes down to
this issue of Christian Liberty. Remember, we talked about that
last week, The idea of just because we are free in Christ
does not mean we're free to no longer serve Christ.
In fact, it makes us Christian Liberty, makes us free to serve
Christ. That's really what it is all
about. And so he's going to continue to
really pound into the people of Corinth the fact of what
Christian liberty is about. And basically he's saying to
them over and over again, what's the matter with you, Corinth?
What's the matter with you? And it's not that he doesn't
know what's the matter. He knows the issue is sin.
He's just trying to help them understand.
You know, you can't act like this.
You know you can't do this. You know, this isn't what you
were supposed to be doing as a Christian.
And it's going to lead us to the last two verses of this text,
which are really some of the most well known verses of the
New Testament that I think you will be aware of and really have
even more context and really more power when we understand
the verses that have come before it.
So we're going to start at verse #15 and we're going to read the
end of the chapter. And here's the first of those
three questions. Noting not that your bodies are
the members of Christ. So I then take the members of
Christ and make them the members of it.
Harlot, God forbid what Know ye not that he which is joined to
and harlot is 1 body? For two saith he shall be 1
flesh, but he that is joined unto the Lord is 1.
Spirit flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth his
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 you 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 gods. I dare say you're probably very
familiar with verse #19 and 20, even if you aren't with the rest
of the text. But I do believe that as we look
through these questions, what know ye not three different
times? It'll help us to truly
understand exactly what is being said in verse 19 and 20 and why
it's still applicable to us today.
You know, this phrase know ye not is an interesting one
because again, we would probably put it this way.
Don't you know we wouldn't say no ye not.
I wouldn't imagine going up to someone saying no ye not.
They'd probably say why are you speaking like that?
But we would ask the question, don't you know, isn't this
something you understand? Now the phrase know ye not as
Paul says it is one that Paul uses in eight times in this book
alone. And it's interesting because he
just keeps coming up to the Corinth, the people of Corinth,
and he's just saying this. What's the matter with you?
Don't you get it? Don't you know, have, haven't
you processed this? In fact, Paul only uses this
phrase four other times in all of his other epistles.
It seems like he saves it quite a bit for the people of Corinth.
And it seems like he saved a lot for this particular text right
here because he's trying to get to the bottom of people who are
not living the way they're supposed to live as believers.
And he's saying, don't you know this isn't wise?
Don't you know this isn't right? Don't you know that this isn't
what Christian liberty is all about?
In essence, What's the matter with you?
And so I want us to look at all three of these Know ye nots here
tonight. Look at all of them and see what
the connection is and how it will help us to understand how
we're supposed to live as believers tonight.
So the first one is this. Know ye not that your bodies are
members of Christ? That comes from verse #15 read
it again. 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. Now this first question.
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?
This speaks of connection. This speaks of connection.
And really this is an extension of the last phrase that we read
before in verse #13 where it says, but for the Lord the body
is not for fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the
body. We have to remind ourselves as
tonight, that we are not our own, that our body is not ours.
Remember, we were bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify your. The Lord in your body and in
your spirit, which are gods. And so we see that this says
right here for us. Don't you know that your bodies
are the members of Christ once you're saved?
Listen, you can't. You aren't just casually
involved with Christ. You are intimately connected
with Christ. There's there's an intimate
connection that we have once we know Jesus Christ is our Savior.
John 15 verse 4 Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine.
No more can ye except ye abide in the vine.
John 17 verse 21 That they all may be one, as thou, Father art
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the
world may believe that thou has sent me.
That when we are saved, there is a real connection that takes
place. This is not just a casual
commitment that we have with Jesus Christ.
No, when we're saved, it makes clear here that our bodies are
members of Christ. And then it asks the question,
shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members
of a harlot? Paul's saying if you are that
intimately connected with the Lord, then why on earth would
you want to connect yourself to that which is opposed to Him?
You are now connected to Jesus Christ.
You have an intimate connection. I'm not trying to be weird about
this tonight, but there's an intimacy, A closeness that we
have that really the unbelievers can't understand.
They can't even fathom. We couldn't understand before we
got saved, but we have that connection now that we are
saved. And so basically Paul's saying
why would you take that connection and try to instead
connect with that which has nothing to do with Jesus Christ?
Talking of the harlot. Now listen, the harlot here in
its primary application is talking about sexual immorality.
There's no way around that because we have seen that
mentioned before in our text. You go back up previously in
First Corinthians chapter 6, there's been talk of sexual
immorality before. We don't have to go very far to
go First Corinthians 5 and know that it was spoken of all in
that chapter as well. And as we continue, you can see
in verse #18 well, it's pretty clearly fornication.
So when it's talking about a harlot here, I believe it's
literally talking about a sexual immorality And saying this, if
you are a believer, if you know Jesus Christ your Savior, don't
try to take that intimate connection that you have and
then try to connect yourself to something that God said.
Don't connect yourself with. But I can also say this, and I
think I could say this with all authority, that we can more
broadly apply this to all sin without abusing the text, not
just fornication, because that is part of sin.
That certainly is sin and of itself, but it's not the only
sin. And really the broader
application here is this. Why would you reattach yourself
to something that Jesus Christ saved you from?
Why would you go back to those things and reattach yourself
when Jesus saved you from it in the first place?
No, no, that doesn't make sense. Just as much as someone who is
an intimate marital relationship should not then turn around and
then go into another relationship.
No, no, why would you take the relationship that you have with
the Lord and then go back to that which He saved you from?
But here's the problem. We do it all the time.
We do it a lot more than we want to really recognize within
ourselves. Charles Spurgeon talks about
this when he says this principle applies to more than our sexual
conduct. If our bodies belong to Jesus,
we also have no right to be idle with or wasteful of what belongs
to Him. Our bodies should be put to use
glorifying God. Therefore, glorify God in your
body. Your body was a willing horse
when it was in the service of the devil.
Let it not be a sluggish hack, now that it draws the chariot of
Christ. I like that.
But how do we know That also is an application.
Go back up to verse #9 It says this.
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, mankind, nor
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God.
And such were some of you meaning this, that now you, you
belong to Jesus Christ. So don't go back to those things
of which you were before, because there's a connection
that takes place. And there's a very real
connection that it's not just, well, I'm going to dabble and
sin for a little while. And I don't know that God cares.
And I don't know if anyone else knows if it's a really big deal.
As long as my spouse doesn't know, as long as my family
doesn't know, as long as the church doesn't know, it's not a
big deal. Here's the thing, God knows, and
that intimate connection that we have with Him has now been
strained as we reattach ourselves.
And we'll look more at this in a moment as we reattach ourselves
to that which God saved us from. And I couldn't help in my mind
going back. You don't have to turn there,
but to Colossians chapter #3 We've been there the last few
weeks in our series Christ is All.
But I couldn't help going back to some verses that we had read
there. Colossians chapter #3.
And it says this in verse #8 But now you also put off all these
things, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication.
Out of your mouth lie not one to another, seeing that you have
put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new
man, which is renewed and knowledge after the image of him
that created him. Those things that we had before,
put them off. These other things, put them on.
This is what God wants from us. Don't take your members, your
body, your ears, your eyes, your mouth, your nose, your feet,
your hands, whatever they are, don't just take them and attach
them back to those things of which you were rescued from.
Don't go back to those things. This is about the connection.
And he's saying, don't you know this?
What's the matter with you? Don't you understand it?
But here's the thing, We know it, but we forget it a lot.
And we think that what we look at, it's really not a big deal
as long as no one else knows. It's really just between me and
the Lord and the things that I think in my mind, listen, as
long as they don't come out of my mouth, it's not like it
really makes a big difference. But the Bible says out of the
abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
And even if it doesn't come out of your mouth, He knows sin that
Christ died for. And it really just takes that
intimate connection we have with the Lord, and it kind of gets us
to reattach with the things that we ought not to.
Which goes to the second question, the second part, which
goes hand in hand with the 1st. And that's this.
Know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is 1 body?
Now read verses 16 and 18, and the question says, What?
Know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is 1 body?
For two saith he shall be 1 flesh, but he that is joined
unto the Lord is 1 Spirit Flee fornication.
Every man, every sin, rather than a man doeth, is without the
body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his
own body. So in verse #16 he begins by
speaking specifically about sexual immorality.
And really, what is being said here is this.
When it comes down to it, there is no such thing as casual sex,
no matter what the world would say.
They try to make the point here that the world does rather that
well, you know it. Listen, it's my body.
I'll do whatever I want. Or, you know, it's just a little
bit of a fling or really we just kind of got together, we hooked
up. These are the things that the
world tries to do to to say that it's dismissive, but the Bible
makes it clear that's not the way God looks at it at all.
By the way, mankind understand that's not true, no matter how
much mankind wants to make it frivolous or tries to make it as
just, well, it's just a natural function of the body, you know,
meats for the belly and belly for meats.
That's what the world will try to say.
But in the end the world understands that no, there is a
real intimacy, there's a real connection that takes place that
you can't just write off. And so he says though you not
that he which is joined in the harl is 1 body for two sayeth he
shall become one flesh. So why would you confuse
yourself in comparison to go back to those sinful things?
Don't you realize what confusion it will cause within your own
spirit? The Bible tells us in the book
of James that the double minded man is unstable in all of his
ways. You know someone who is unsaved
is not unstable in their sin because they're all in for their
sin. Someone who is saved but wants
to go back to their sin is probably the most unstable
person of all. Why?
Because the Holy Spirit inside is saying don't do that.
And they're trying to go do that which their flesh wants to do.
And it caused a great instability within.
Why? Because you have this intimate
connection. And could we maybe put it this
way, You're cheating on your Savior.
And because of that, you're not going to be stable.
It's not going to feel right. That's why people say we'll just
follow your heart and do whatever you want to do, do what
makes you happy. What we're going to see in just
a moment, what great folly that is, to even be able to suggest
such a thing, to join yourself with someone else brings
intimacy. Intimacy which leads to
confusion. This is why sexual immorality is
so damaging. It's a sin that goes right to
the soul of man. It says in verse #17 He that is
joined unto the Lord is 1 Spirit.
When we are saved, we have that union with Christ. 2nd
Corinthians 11 verse 2 For I am jealous over you with a godly
jealousy, For I have espoused you to one husband, that I'm a
present you as chaste, A chaste virgin to Christ.
To willingly reattach yourself to that which you were saved
from is confusion. Now here's where people will
start to shout Christian liberty.
I could just do whatever I want. Now that I'm saved, there's no
ramifications. There's no repercussions.
I can do whatever I want. And sure, you can do whatever
you want, but don't pretend there's no repercussions.
Don't pretend that there's going to be no issues.
I've married my wife in 2003. I'm just kidding, all right?
In 2003, Diane and I got married.
So we've been married now 22 years.
Hey, I don't have to stay with her.
I can do whatever I want. Well, who is she to tell me when
I come home at night? Who?
Who is she to tell me where, who I can be around and who is she?
I can do whatever I want. Well, is that technically true?
Technically. But that remind you, one, what
the Bible says and two, she's a redhead.
And either one of those is enough to say no, no, you know
what it comes down to. I could, but but you know what
it causes? Pain, heartache, confusion.
How many marriages destroyed, children harmed go right down
the list. Oh sure, you can do it.
But if you think there's no consequences, you're a fool.
And we think that once we have entered a union with our Savior
that we can just turn around and under the guise of Christian
liberty. Do whatever we want and there's
no repercussions, friend. That's just foolhardy.
What don't you know? He was joined to an harlot, his
one body. You're becoming one that that
there's nothing casual about this, that that there's
something that is deep and that there's intimate.
When you go back to that, it don't go back to those things
and don't say that it's just because of Christian liberty.
And that's why in verse #18 it says this flea fornication.
And maybe the best advice that I can give you tonight is not my
own advice. It's just the word of God where
it says this, these two words, flea fornication.
Let me remind you that word fornication there, the word
pornea, which covers the gamut of sexual immorality.
It does not say try to be brave and resist.
It says flee from it. There's a lot of men who think,
well, I mean, I can handle it. I can handle looking at these
things. It's not a big deal.
I can handle flirting a little bit with that woman that's over
the next cubicle. I mean, I won't go too far.
I just, I can handle it. It's not what it says.
It says flee from it. Only there was someone in the
Bible who exemplified that in the workplace.
Oh wait, Joseph when Potiphar's wife in a situation where nobody
would have known, nobody would have said anything.
Of course we know the folly of that, but yet maybe on the
surface it would seem that nobody, humanly speaking, would
know. He says this.
I can't sin against. Didn't say Potiphar can't sin
against the Lord. He can't do this.
He fled and he literally fled fornication.
He was the literal embodiment of fleeing fornication.
God gave sex as a precious gift to mankind and the powerful bond
between a husband and wife in a true one flesh relationship.
Remember, the Bible says in Hebrews 13 verse four that the
marriage bed is undefiled, that this is God's blessing.
But yet at the same time, when it is taken in the way that man
wants to, it causes nothing but difficulty and pain and hardship
and whatever little bit of pleasure there might be for the
short term boy, what comes on the other side of it is never,
ever, ever worth it. Flea fornication.
That's why when men tell me, well, well, I should be able to,
I should be able to handle what's on my cell phone.
I mean, having a blocker on my phone or a filter on my
computer, that's only for weak men.
I would disagree. It says flee from it, get away
from it. You know, I don't want to be a
couple clicks away from porn on my computer.
I'd like to have a barrier to help me.
I don't want to be a couple clicks away from porn on my
phone. I want to flee from it.
It's not well, I I know I can handle it.
Well, there may be maybe you can and maybe you can't.
And again, I understand that God tempts people differently.
Some people are are more tempted in areas than other areas.
But I just say this, listen, don't be to the place where you
think I can be brave and resist, says Fleet.
Every sin that man doeth is without the body, but he
committed fornication sinneth against his own body.
Fornication is a sin against your own body.
And Paul isn't saying that sexual immorality is worse than
any other sin, but he does teach that it has a unique effect on
the body and and who can argue with that?
Who could argue with the fact that that would be the case?
The effect is physical, but it's also moral and it's also
spiritual. So don't cause confusion by
attaching yourself to that which will harm yourself.
Abide in the vine. Which brings us to where I
really want to spend the most time here this evening in these
final 2 verses. Which is this?
It speaks of a verse #3 There it is.
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
This is a again some of the more well known verses of the New
Testament, particularly the Epistles.
What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,
which is in you, which you 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 gods.
And this speaks of consecration. This speaks of consecration.
You say, what is that word consecration about?
Well, according to the 1820 dictionary, it's the act or
ceremony of separating from a common to a sacred use, or of
devoting and dedicating a person or a thing to the service and
worship of God. It is taking something that is
common and it is giving it a devotion and a purpose to God.
Now I'm going to give you an example, one that is not
actually a godly example, but one I think that you can
understand, at least as you know, I was growing up, I was in
the Lutheran Church and in the Lutheran Church they have the
teaching of consubstantiation. Now the Catholic Church teaches
transubstantiation. That means that when the host,
the wine and the bread are given, that the wine and the
bread are no longer present and it literally becomes only the
body and the blood of Christ once the consecration is given.
Now the Lutheran Church teaches something different, which is
transubstantiation or consubstantiation rather, and
that is that the body, that the bread and the wine are still
there, but it also at the same time becomes the body and blood
of Christ. Now we believe what the Bible
says when it says this due in remembrance of me, that it does
not actually become the literal body and blood of Christ for a
host of different reasons. And we'll use that for a
different time when we're actually preaching on that.
But I do remember that the pastor would always consecrate
the host, the bread and the wine right before it was the Lord's
Supper. And I know that because I was
part or at least party to it, because as an acolyte or an
altar boy, I would be standing nearby while the pastor was
doing that, and I had to help them with the different linens
and different things like that. Well, after church, there would
be leftover wine from what was at the Lord's Supper because
they would prepare a common cup that was filled to a certain
amount, and only a certain amount of people would drink it.
And there would be wine that would be leftover.
Well, once that wine was consecrated in Lutheran thought
process and Lutheran theology, you couldn't just dump that out.
Why? Because it's still the blood of
Christ. So what do they have to do?
You had to have an elder that would come back after church.
And as the ladies, my mom was one of them that would clean up
after the Lord's Supper and clean up after their version of
the Lord's Supper. Not a biblical version of it,
but they would be cleaning up and the elder would say, is
there any consecrated wine that is left?
And if there was, then he had to drink the wine.
And it seems like the elders really love coming back after
church. Had to be able to check on if
there was anything you leftover, but you could not pour it in the
sewer or the sink because the sink went to the sewer.
At best, the church, when we move churches, there was a sink
that had what they call an earth sink.
And the drain just went right outside and into the ground.
And they thought, well, if you have to dump it out, it would be
better to just dump the blood of Christ out into the ground than
to put it into the sewer. There's so many problems with
that. I can't even begin to explain
that to you right now. It's not the point of the
message. But I will say this, that the
consecration that they were serious about was this.
We have set this apart and it's only for this use.
I think even we can understand that, even if we understand the
theology is wrong, Amen. We know the theology is not
right, but you understand you have been set apart for a
certain use and this is the only use.
Any other use as an abuse, this is the use, and any other uses
and abuse, that's what consecration is.
Now Paul lays out his argument here why they should be
consecrated and in essence why we should be as well.
And he gives 5 truths in rapid succession in verse #19 and the
beginning of verse #20 he says this.
Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
Now I want you to understand some of this evening, a lot of
times people have issue with their body and how they don't
like who they are or they want to change this or change that.
May I help you with something this evening?
When it comes to those things, your body is precious.
One, because you're a creation of the Lord.
But two, you're, you're, you're also body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost. No matter what you think of
yourself, if you are saved, you are precious because one, you're
created by a holy God, but also because the Holy Spirit dwells
within you. You are the temple of the Holy
Ghost. No, no, I'm not calling you God.
I'm saying God resides within you.
And there's something uniquely special about that fact.
I think of the Tabernacle that was out in the wilderness.
What was it? It was curtains.
Now, the temple was grand. Solomon's temple certainly was,
and there was many ways that the Tabernacle itself was also grand
in its construction. But yet at the same time you
break it down, it's curtains and metals and rocks and different
things like that that are made together.
What made that Tabernacle so great?
Was it because of the special curtains or the gold that was
overlaid or anything like that? No, it was the dwelling place of
God. God chose to dwell there.
That that that was what made it special Is what makes you
special. Your fabulous looks.
Is it anything on the outside that manifests itself?
No, It's the fact that the Holy Spirit lives inside of you.
If you're saved, No, Awesome. And I use that word awesome in
its actual term. Not like wow that meal was
awesome, inspiring all the fact that you and I could be the
temple of the Holy Ghost. Know ye not that your body is a
temple? The Holy Ghost first truth which
is in you and this goes along with the 1st that the Holy Ghost
lives inside of you. You are the temple, but the Holy
Ghost lives inside of you. Ephesians 114 which is the
earnest of our inheritance under the redemption of the purchased
possession under the praise of his glory that the down payment
of heaven lives inside of you, the Holy Spirit that the fact
that you know that you're saved because the Holy Spirit lives
inside of you talking before church.
Yet your Spirit, the Spirit testifies to your spirit book of
Romans that we are the children of God.
That's the second truth. The Holy Ghost is in you and you
have him of God. Let's not confuse ourselves that
we achieved having the Holy Ghost's presence within us
because of anything good within us because we are unholy, but
Ephesians 2 verse 22 says in whom ye also are builded
together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
So your body is the temple, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost is in
you. You have him of God, the 4th
truth. You are not your own.
You're not your own. This is really the rub.
And we got to this last week about our eminent selfishness
that we have, which is why we enjoy Christian liberty.
We enjoy abusing Christian liberty rather because we want
to sometimes use it as a cloak to be able to do what we want,
but we're not our own. I read this quote.
Any honest person will take better care of something that
doesn't belong to them. Our bodies belong to God because
He bought them. We don't have the right to
pollute and abuse God's property.
You know, when I rent a car, when I borrow a car, I feel like
I drive it a little bit differently when I drive my own.
Now that may not seem right. You say well you should drive
your car well. Well, I feel like I drive my car
well. I'm not saying I go around
saying you know, I'm going to speed and take chances while I'm
out. That's not what I'm saying that
I do, but there's just that extra little something when I'm
out in someone else's car. Hopefully that makes you feel
good, Dave, but there's that little something extra.
Why is that? It's not my car.
You know what, I if I borrow Dave's car, I don't want to say,
hey Dave, thanks for the car. By the way, the back half
smashed in. You want to get back to the
rental car place. I don't want to say hey, thanks
for the last few days, but wished I bought the insurance.
You know, I don't want to do that.
I'm going to probably drive it better than my own.
They don't belong to me. But if our body is not our own,
doesn't that really change the way we should think about
Christian living? Instead of seeing how little we
can do for the Lord and still get away with being holy,
Shouldn't we say, if this isn't my own from head to toe,
everything I have, boy, I want to give it to him because it all
belongs to him. And then the last goes part and
parcel with that. Look at the beginning of verse
#20 you're bought with a price. What was the price?
The precious blood of Christ first Peter 118 and 19.
For as much as you knew that you were not redeemed with
corruptible things as silver and gold for your vain conversation
received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot. If someone bought me something
of great value, you would think it would change the way that you
handle that artifact or that item because you knew the amount
of money or time that somebody put in to that which was made or
given to you. And if we were bought with a
price, that price being the greatest price that's ever been
paid, the blood of Christ, then shouldn't that affect the way
that we live? Shouldn't that affect the way
that we handle ourselves? And so we asked this question,
maybe not that your body is a temple, the Holy Ghost, and he
gives, that is one of the reasons and four other reasons
of what to do. But the beginning of verse #19
the beginning verse #20 basically says, because of this.
And then the word therefore is there.
And as I was taught in Bible college, when you see the word,
therefore you want to go back and see what it's there for.
So meaning those five things I just taught you are real.
Paul is saying, therefore, because of the fact that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, because of the fact that
the Holy Ghost is within you, because of the fact that you
have him of God, because of the fact you're not your own,
because of the fact you're bought with the Christ.
Therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are
gods because of all those things.
What do I do with it? Glorify Him.
See, what does that mean? Glorify is one of those nice
Christian words that we use sometimes that we talk about it,
but we don't even know what it means.
Want to glorify the Lord? What really a word that goes
along with glorify is magnify. In fact, if you look at the term
or the definition rather, for glorify means to praise, to
magnify and honor and worship, to ascribe honor to in thought
or words. Well, if I'm trying to magnify
God, then we have to ask ourselves these, this question,
when it comes to that which I do in my life, is it making it
easier for people to see Jesus or harder?
Because all because of all those things, I have to magnify God in
my body and in my spirit. I have to make sure that
everything I do makes Jesus easier to see for the world and
not harder. We'll ask the question that Paul
asked here first. If a Christian is involved in
fornication, does it make their Christian testimony easier for
people to see Christ or harder? It's an easy question to answer.
It's harder. It's hard to be able to witness
to somebody about Jesus, to truly witness to them when you
were involved in fornication. And so that's not magnifying
God. In fact, it's making it harder
to see God through your testimony.
But remember, it's not just that.
Does a Christian using foul language, does it make it easier
or harder for people to see Christ?
That magnifying Christ when a Christian is lazy Christian is
not the hardest worker at the job site or at the school?
Does that make it easier for people to see Christ or harder?
When a Christian doesn't show the joy of the Lord, does that
make it easier for people to see Christ or harder?
So this is really where the rubber meets the road, isn't it?
Well, why should I? Why should I magnify?
Why should I magnify God? Well, there were five really
good reasons, and any one of them would have been enough.
But He gave us five in a very short space.
And so because of that, He is asking us to glorify Him in His
body, His Spirit. Why?
So that other people can see Christ in US, the hope of glory.
And maybe you've wondered, why can't people?
Why don't I lead people to Christ?
Why why don't I seem to be able to be around people?
Now listen, I understand you can't force anyone to get saved.
You can't. You can't force a fish to jump
on the hook. I get that.
But I do have to wonder that you would ask yourself at some
point, is there something within me that is not magnifying God to
the people around me that they can't see Christ in me?
I'm not making an accusation, I'm just saying it's something
to ponder and to pray about in your life as I have to.
Because it's not just about the big things, it's about the small
things too. Am I able to hands attract to
someone at the store if I've been a jerk while I was at the
store? Probably not.
Am I able to witness to my neighbor if I've not been kind
to my neighbor before? Probably not.
So why do we do this? Because we glorify God in our
body, in our spirit, and in the end, they belong to him.
We're not our own. It's the last part, which are
gods. Your body is God's, your spirit
is God's. So give it to him.
You know, there's a point I mentioned this last week that
popular Christianity that most of the stuff that that goes
under the broad umbrella of Christianity has a hard time
with preaching like this because they say, look, once you're
saved, listen, you're going to heaven.
Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal.
Hey pastor, chill out, find a hobby, just calm down, man.
What are you? What are you?
What are you preaching about? Just just just enjoy life for
all it is. But there's something
fundamentally wrong about that thought process.
Consider what Paul was talking about with the people at
Corinth. They were living however they
wanted before they got saved. How is that working for them?
Not very well, right about that, sister.
It was not working well at all. They trusted Christ, but then
once they got saved after a while, guess what happened?
They went back to those things that they were doing before.
Let me ask you this. How'd that work out for him?
It worked out as well for him as it did the first time.
Not very well, they're not. They didn't lose their salvation
now they were saved, but yet they were just as miserable and
double minded. Now they're saved and they're
not living for Christ because they haven't joined themselves
to a harlot, both physically and metaphorically speaking.
So it wasn't working out before and they tried it again.
And it still didn't work out. So Paul is just stating the
obvious. A Christian should live like a
Christian, not because we're better than everyone else, but
because your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, because the
Holy Ghost is in you, because you have him of God, because you
are not your own and you're bought with a price.
Who are you to tell me, pastor? Who are you to make me feel
guilty on? Listen, I'm not the priest of
your home. I'm not going to go through your
house and go through your history list, go through your
cell phone, go through your CDs. Anybody have CDs anymore?
All right, go through your TV, go through your reading
materials, going to go through those things I have.
I have no desire to do that. I'm not the priest of your home,
but I will tell you this, that there is One who does know and
sees and understands and loves you so much.
No, no, He loves you so much. He's told you these things are
going to harm you. They harmed you before.
They'll harm you again if you go back to Him.
And in His love, He's telling you stay away from Him because
there's a connection that you have with the Savior and it
causes confusion when you go back to the world.
It doesn't come without a cost. Just like marital infidelity
comes with great cost, infidelity spiritually comes
with great cost as well. There's a lot of believers who
would say, I wandered for many years and it cost me a lot of
things. There's a lot of believers who
would say that. But when we understand this,
when we understand that we are to act as believers, that we
don't use our Christian liberty as an excuse to drift away from
God, when we understand that we're to use it as a reason to
draw closer to him, you know, change the way we live our life.
Corinthians were a mess. If they just got a handle on the
fact that they belong to God, it would solve a lot of problems.
By the way, I believe it did solve a lot of problems by the
time you get to 2nd Corinthians, but it would help us tonight.
Do not just use the cloak of Christian liberty just to be
able to excuse ourselves. Do whatever we want and it's OK.
I can get forgiveness eventually you can.
You can get forgiveness. Thank the Lord you can get
forgiveness, but don't think it comes without consequences or
cost whatsoever. Man soweth that Shelly also reap
and you can't join yourself to that which was before casually
and think that it won't harm your life, your testimony, or
your ability to glorify God to the lost.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.