[0:00] We just sang, I like when this happens, you didn't catch it, but you will now. We just sang this treasure I have in a temple of clay.
[0:11] And that's going to fall right in tune with where we're going here this morning. That word temple, it's something we're going to talk about this morning. The Bible, we read about different tabernacles all over the course of the history of the Bible, as well as the future of mankind.
[0:29] The human race, there's been a literal and a physical place on this earth where God would dwell among his people. Now that wasn't the original creation set up in the Garden of Eden.
[0:42] The Lord would come and the Bible describes him walking with man, walking in the cool of the day, and he fellowshiped with man until sin came.
[0:52] And that separated Adam and Eve and all of mankind from them, separated them from God and from his presence and dwelling with them. But God still spoke to man, and he still at times ministered to man and revealed things through visions.
[1:08] And the Bible describes in the dark visions of the night, God would come to a man and reveal some things to him. And that was definitely, that was his way of doing it, but not a common thing.
[1:19] Everybody had these visions every night or dreams, and God spoke to them or came, that wasn't the way it was. But eventually, God calls out a people. He makes a nation from Abraham and from his sons, and he calls out that people.
[1:34] And in Moses' day, he has them construct something. You read it in the book of Exodus, and it's chapter after chapter. You can get bogged down in this, in the details of it.
[1:46] But in the book of Exodus, I mean, I know if you've read it, you've thought, man. Because he goes through, just describes by giving the word to Moses, this is what you're going to do.
[1:57] And then it describes them doing it. Almost in the same, like it's the repeat of what he just said. And again, and the same, all the elements of this construction and the materials to be used in this tabernacle.
[2:09] It's a place where God dwelt amongst his people, where the literal, the physical, actual presence of God, I say physical, God is a spirit, but he dwelt among men.
[2:22] And it wasn't the fullness of his glory. He was veiled in that tabernacle and in a very small place called the holy place, the most holy place. And God was unapproachable in that place.
[2:34] There was very, very strict guidelines he gave to that priesthood of how and when they could approach him. So we know of a place in Moses' day, that tabernacle.
[2:45] It was also called a tent. And it wasn't much more than that, not a big thing at all. It was something that was, they could set up and tear down and travel with and then set up at a different place, wherever God saw fit.
[2:57] It was a temporary thing, not a permanent dwelling. But it was a sacred place. It was a place that was not to be defiled. It was not to be profaned. It was God's dwelling place.
[3:08] As a matter of fact, he said, if you come near to me, I'll kill you. That's how we're going to do this. And if I'm going to be, if I'm going to bring my presence down onto this earth and to be amongst a people that are unclean and dwell with them, then you're going to do it on my terms and I'm going to conceal myself way back in this little corner.
[3:27] And if you come close, I'm telling you, I'm warning you, you're going to drop dead. You can't come to me. You can't do it. So he brought, had this sanctified tribe of Levi.
[3:38] And among that tribe, the high priest could come in with offerings with the blood of animals to sacrifice for their own sins and for the sins of the people to draw nigh to God. And it was a very special thing.
[3:50] It was a serious thing. It was a holy place where God dwelt. So Moses had a tabernacle and as the people came into the land, they carried all that with them. They set it up in Shiloh. And maybe you're familiar with the first book of 1 Samuel and the priest Eli there in Shiloh and all the way up into that time past the judges of Samuel there.
[4:10] And then later, King David is anointed the king. And they get into some battles and the Ark of the Covenant is taken away by the Philistines. And if you're familiar with that stuff going down in 1 Samuel, David brings it back into the land and he brings it to Jerusalem.
[4:28] Now all this time, God said, there's going to be a place in that land that I'm going to put my name there. And he foretold of Jerusalem and of what he was going to do in the future with that kingdom.
[4:39] And David finally, as king, was able to bring that Ark back. And it describes in 2 Samuel 6 that David built a tabernacle there in Jerusalem for the Ark and for the Lord.
[4:52] And so that was the second tabernacle. Then his son, David sits there actually and he says, man, look at this. I dwell in a house of cedar and God dwells in a tent, in curtains.
[5:06] That's not right. And he's like, I got this thing, this desire in my heart to build something for God that just shows what I think of him, what I think he should have on this earth.
[5:17] And the Lord's like, hey, I didn't tell you. I never told man to build me something pretty. I never, I said to build the tent. But you know what? I like what you're thinking, David.
[5:27] You're not going to do it. Your son will do it. And so Solomon, and we can read about all the gold and all the just ridiculousness of that construction of that temple.
[5:38] Solomon's temple, a phenomenal site, phenomenal. That was the first physical permanent temple structure that was to house God, the dwelling place of God.
[5:51] It would be the third tabernacle. Well, that one got destroyed. Israel sinned, and they were taken into captivity, and the Assyrians, Nebuchadnezzar, and they came in, and they just, they took the whole thing down, burned the thing with fire.
[6:04] The gold, no doubt, melted down through. They took, history says, they removed every single stone. And they did that, and probably confiscated all that gold off of that temple, and the thing was completely destroyed.
[6:17] And as we read past that time of the kings, we get into the book of Ezra, reading in your Bible. This is history. The Lord allowed some people to come back into his land, and the first thing they did was build a temple.
[6:31] They built a temple, which would be the fourth place. They built a, it wasn't Solomon's. It was tiny. It was nothing like Solomon's. But they built another temple, and God dwelled among his people in that temple.
[6:43] Okay, that one lasted and came all the way up into the time of Christ. And as we recently studied in Sunday school, and I commented on it, that they say at the time of the Herod at that time, that they were building these great structures around it, and the buildings of it.
[6:56] And in Matthew 24, they're sitting there looking at the buildings. They see all this stuff. And then Christ said, this is all going to be taken down, all of it. And so in about 70 A.D., Titus came in and destroyed Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, and down it went again.
[7:10] But that's okay, because Christ had already told them in Matthew 23 that your house is left unto you desolate. And I'm not going to be in here anymore. God's presence is gone from this people.
[7:22] You've rejected him. And when Christ was crucified on the cross of Calvary, the veil of that temple separating the presence of God from his people just was rent from top to bottom.
[7:34] And in doing so, it made the priest's job completely obsolete. It nullified the ministry of the temple. And then we read into the future. While that temple then was destroyed, we read of a future temple that's built up, and we don't know exactly when.
[7:49] They've been talking about it for years, the third temple, like the third permanent one. You go just Google temple, and you'll see all of that talk. It's been going on forever, and everybody's just waiting for this to happen, and waiting for prophecy to be fulfilled.
[8:04] And it'll happen, because the Bible says that a wicked man, the man of sin, the son of perdition, devil incarnate, is going to go into a temple, and he's going to be standing in the holy place.
[8:17] Christ said that in Matthew 24. But Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2 that he's going to be sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. And so that's coming.
[8:27] There's another temple coming. That'll be the sixth one. But that's not the one that Christ is going to establish or take, I don't believe. I don't know how that's all going to go down. But when he comes back, we read in Ezekiel, toward the end of Ezekiel, the last several chapters, of a millennial temple, of a temple that's set up and established in the kingdom.
[8:47] And so there's the seventh. And then, moving on past the millennial kingdom, moving on out into eternity, we read in Revelation 21 about a city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.
[8:59] And the Bible says that the tabernacle of God is with men. And I will dwell with them, and I'll be their God, and they'll be my people. And we read that in that city there's no temple there, because the Lamb is the temple.
[9:14] His presence will be with men. Now, this is a brief summary of God's dwelling on earth, just a real fast-forwarded 30,000-foot view of this thing.
[9:26] What about today? In the meantime, after Christ died on the cross, and the temple's left to them desolate, it won't be fulfilled by God, or won't be housed, or dwelt with God until they say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
[9:41] That is when Jesus Christ comes back. So that temple's empty. And it's going to stay empty with God's presence. It's not going to be there. So where does God dwell today? Well, come into your Bible, and let's take a look at it in 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
[9:54] Let's find 1 Corinthians chapter 6 in the Word of God. Because here's a mystery that has been revealed now.
[10:05] A mystery, something that was unknown to all the Jewish people, to all the apostles and prophets. Something that God just didn't discuss with them, didn't unveil to them.
[10:15] Of something he was fixing to do, there it is again, in the future. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. This is new. And it's very different.
[10:27] And Paul makes this comment. I'll just read verses 19 and 20 for sake of time. He asks the question, 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?
[10:43] Don't you know that? For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. The teaching now for every born again believer, those who have received Christ by faith and that are trusting him for their eternal salvation.
[11:00] The Bible describes that the Holy Ghost of God takes up residence inside of their body. It says that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you.
[11:14] So we sing the song in our hymnal, Christ liveth in me. And I'm not going to take you through the scripture, but it's all over this. Paul teaches that Christ is in you. We'll show you a few, or a spot or two, but it's a New Testament doctrine for us today that God dwells on the inside of the bodies of believers.
[11:36] The bodies of believers. I want to preach to you this morning a message I'm calling Your Body His Temple. Your Body His Temple. Father, please bless the preaching of your word.
[11:48] Lord, as this is doctrinal truth, help us to make practical application. Help each one to understand the seriousness and, Lord, what you expect from us. I pray, Lord, that you'll be glorified in it all, just like you ask.
[12:01] You want to be glorified in our bodies and in our spirits. And, Lord, that's my end goal with this. I pray that you'll receive it. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Your Body His Temple.
[12:14] The Holy Ghost is God. I don't have to take you through the scripture too much. He's called the Holy Ghost, which ye have of God. Therefore, glorify God. The Holy Ghost is God.
[12:25] He's deity. God is a spirit. And the Holy Ghost is just another term for the Holy Spirit of God. Elsewhere, you could look at Acts chapter 5, where Peter has some people come to him and they lie to him.
[12:36] Peter says, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? He's lying to the Holy Ghost when they came up and said, we bought this land for this, we sold it for this much money. He said, you're lying to the Holy Ghost.
[12:47] And then he says after that, you didn't lie unto men, you lied unto God. The Holy Ghost is God. He's one of those persons of the Trinity. And these three are one. And so I want you to understand that God is in you.
[13:01] First of all, that's the first thing I want to say. And just consider so simple, but it's profound and it's a doctrine that we need to grasp, understand and believe and receive. That God is in you.
[13:13] He's in you. Now, he chose this. He had this constructed curtains and badger skins and the loops and the knocks and the boards of the tabernacle.
[13:28] And they carried it on carts and they maneuvered it through the wilderness. And they set it back up in just layers and layers so that it was complete darkness inside. And he set that up.
[13:40] And then this thing all the way up into Solomon's temple and the gold and the grandeur of it all, the majesty. I mean, glorious sight that would have been. All of that was something God did. And now he chose your body.
[13:56] Your body. Now, let that sink in. You know this. You know the verse. You can quote it. But let it sink in for a second. That Almighty God chose your body to dwell in.
[14:11] He's not dwelling in the big building. It's not the... We drove past this week to the Mormon temple of Los Angeles. It's huge. Got the big golden angel of Moroni on top there and with his trumpet or whatever.
[14:24] It's a magnificent facility. God's not anywhere near that. He's not in that building. You know where he's at? He's in your body. Let it sink in for a second.
[14:35] We're going to go somewhere with that. But isn't that wild to think? Like... In this body? This body's... It's nothing.
[14:46] It's weak. It's frail. It hurts. It's... But he's in there? Is that what it says? Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you.
[14:58] God is in you. There's no tribe of sanctified men that carry you around everywhere you go. There's no tribe of sanctified families and men that surround you everywhere you go like the tabernacle was.
[15:15] You don't realize they had to set that up and the Levites surrounded it. The Levites kind of... They were the barrier from the common man to God. And you'd have to get through them to get to the temple.
[15:30] Protecting... Nobody's protecting the unclean from approaching to your body, right? Nobody's dancing before you like David did when they were transporting the Ark of the Covenant back and putting it in his place.
[15:43] Sacrificing every six paces. Nobody sees you coming and says, Whoa! God's inside of you. God's inside... That's the temple of God and we've got to start...
[15:53] Nobody pilgrimages across the nation, across the world to come to see you. To spend seven days and feast. There's no holy day associated with you.
[16:05] Do you see how much different this is? How peculiar? How this truly is a mystery? How very different this is in all of history, in all of God's design and plan for how he would dwell with man that he dwells inside your body.
[16:21] This is so different. It's so rare. It's so rare. You didn't adorn your body with gold like Solomon's temple that cannot be numbered.
[16:34] Your body, it's no immaculate sight to behold. Even if you think it is, it's not. It's not one of the wonders of the world. And if it is a little bit nice now, just give it some time.
[16:45] It'll fail. No royalty is coming and traveling to behold you. No one's pilgrimaging. No one's celebrating you. No one's worshiping you.
[16:56] But God chose your body to dwell in. God lives in you. Now keep your place, but turn over to Colossians chapter 1. A few pages to your right. Colossians chapter 1.
[17:09] And while this is trying to get this and let it sink in, God dwells in me. Don't just let the words hit you and say, yeah, I heard that. It's in the Bible. Get it in you.
[17:20] If you're Christ, if he's yours and you're his, he's in you. You could be 5 years old. You could be 95 years old. He is in you. And if you're in here and you're saved, then he's in a lot of us.
[17:32] He should be in all of us, God willing. Colossians chapter 1, verse 27. I'll back up to 26. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.
[17:49] What's that mystery? To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you. The hope of glory. This is a mystery.
[18:00] Before this, God dwelt with Jews. And he dwelt in tents. And he dwelt in the most holy place, unapproachable. That's all that's normal. That's all anybody would ever expect or know.
[18:12] And now God is dwelling in Gentiles, in their bodies. You see, the just can't comprehend. It can't connect the one to the other. It's a mystery.
[18:25] It doesn't make sense. And when this, take a look at chapter 2 of Colossians. When God comes in by his spirit inside a body, no power, no boost of energy takes place.
[18:41] You don't start doing miraculous things because God shows up. There's something that takes place, though, in chapter 2. Notice in verse number 10.
[18:54] Ye are complete in him. That is, in Jesus Christ. Ye are complete. Amen. Which is the head of all principality and power. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.
[19:07] What in the world is going on here? Circumcision is a cutting away of flesh. A cutting away. But this circumcision is called an operation in the next verse that is done without hands.
[19:18] It's spiritual. Something takes place spiritually when you trust Jesus Christ and are born again. What's that? It's called a cutting away. A circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
[19:38] He's the doctor. He's the surgeon. And he cuts away not some foreskin of the flesh like the male children in the Hebrews and the law.
[19:49] But no, he's cutting away the body of the sins of the flesh. From what? Verse 12. He says, Buried with him in baptism spiritually.
[20:00] Wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.
[20:15] Now the teaching here is, and we won't have too much time to run around at all, is that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away.
[20:26] All things have become new. And in Christ there's a new man. And that new man now is formed inside of your body. Because God comes in and completes an operation, a spiritual operation where he cuts away your soul and gives eternal life into your soul and cuts it away from this thing.
[20:49] The body of the sins of the flesh. Thus creating a new man, a new creature in Christ Jesus. And now he tells us as believers, walk in the new man.
[21:00] Walk in the Lord Jesus. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. And Romans chapter 8, it describes Christ in you. Just like it does in Colossians chapter 1. So the flesh doesn't feel something and get some sense because it's not this flesh that he's empowering.
[21:18] But what he's doing is moving in you, as the passage says, Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you. He's in you, but specifically speaking from the doctrine of Paul, he's in the new man.
[21:30] In a new creature that he created and separated and cut aside and apart, circumcised from the body of the sins of the flesh. So now you're told to walk in the new man.
[21:44] Come back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. God is in you. He placed inside of you his spirit.
[22:02] In Ephesians chapter 4, I'll just read this verse to you. It says, Put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
[22:12] You've been cut apart from that sinful flesh. Alright, now, God is in you. That's wild. That's wild to comprehend.
[22:24] But we believe it. Because this book says so. And as we believe it and exercise faith in the Bible, we begin to get the understanding. We begin to sense exactly what it is that he's doing in us.
[22:35] We begin to feel him, in a sense, feel him nudging us or steering us a direction away from something that's ungodly and unrighteousness. Because he created us in holiness.
[22:47] And so we begin to sense him leading us in our life. But at first, if you get saved and you know you're a sinner on your way to hell and you don't want to go there. And you realize Christ died for your sins.
[22:58] And you exercise faith in what the scripture says. You take him as your savior and believe on him. And somebody says, hey, now you have the Holy Ghost in you. You're going to be like, what are you talking about?
[23:10] You wouldn't, I don't feel that. I don't know what you're talking about. You're talking about those people rolling on the floor barking when we sing constantly abiding? No. They wouldn't know what that is.
[23:21] They wouldn't even know what you're talking about. Because they don't feel it like that. But as you begin to read the scripture and you begin to walk in the new man, it starts to come to light.
[23:32] Alright, come back to verse number 19 again. He says, Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God. And notice this last phrase, ye are not your own.
[23:43] For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God's. Ye are not your own. Your body and your spirit are God's now.
[23:54] So secondly, I want us to know and consider, you belong to God. He's in you, but now you've been bought with a price. You belong to Him.
[24:05] You belong to Him now. You're His property. Why? Because He bought you. Because you've been redeemed. That's what that means. You've been redeemed.
[24:16] Peter said, you were redeemed with silver and gold. It wasn't those kind of elements. Those are corruptible things. You were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
[24:29] Ye are not your own. Not anymore. Not if you've received the gift of eternal life. Not if you've received the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Christ Jesus. Your body and your spirit are God's.
[24:43] That's what the Bible says. You belong to Him. Now, we'll get to this fight that's going on in a minute. Why it doesn't feel like it sometimes.
[24:54] We'll get to that. But let's just let the scripture speak first and believe it. Your body and your spirit are God's. When I was a teenager, I saved up my money and I bought a car.
[25:07] I bought a Saturn SL2 back in the 90s. I bought a Saturn. It was used.
[25:18] I got it at an auction. And I was just happy. It was a good looking car for a teenage guy. That was all he could do was save up his fast food money and get a car that he could drive around.
[25:32] And I got myself a car. It was mine. It wasn't my mom and dad's. I bought it. It was in my name. It had my name on it. The title, the whole thing was my car.
[25:44] And I could do with that car whatever I wanted to. Now, I didn't. Initially, I didn't do some things that I felt, you know, I still lived at home. But then I got out of the house and got on my own.
[25:55] And, you know, I thought, you know what? I want my windows tinted. I don't want them to get jet black 5% tint light through. You know, I don't want that because I'm afraid I get pulled over. It's illegal in Pennsylvania.
[26:05] So I'll go 20. And I put 20% tint around and I did 35 on the front. And I thought, oh, yeah. That's pretty cool. You know, you can see through the front so that I won't get in trouble, you know.
[26:17] I was just stretching it as much as I could. And I liked it. I liked having tinted windows. That was cool for me. I liked it. So I tinted my windows. And then I thought, you know what?
[26:30] I'm going to put a black light in my car. And so I took the light out in the middle and I took the bulb out and I wired it up and rigged it up with a black light. And had it attached there and mounted.
[26:41] And so every time you open the door, just this purple glow inside the car. I thought that was cool. I loved it. That was my car. I'm making it mine. That was me back in the 90s.
[26:54] Then later on, I wish I'd never did this, but I put speakers in the trunk and had the thing rattling like a punk.
[27:05] But that was something I did. It was my car. And so I wired it up the way I want to do it. And I'll do what I want to do. And I was doing what I wanted because it was mine. I even, I had a cell phone, which was unheard of back then pretty much.
[27:17] And the flip phones, they were just coming out with these Nokia things that were, I don't even remember what they were anymore. But there was no mounting your cell phone on your dash or in your vents.
[27:32] That was nothing. There was never such a thing. The majority of cell phones were either these tiny pocket flip phones or the big ones that were like mounted inside of there with the cords.
[27:43] You've probably seen them. Some of you have seen them. So I got that cell phone and I thought, I really hated having stuff in my pockets. And I'm like, I'm going to Velcro this. Put a little strip of Velcro on the back and put a Velcro strip on my dash.
[27:56] And I put my cell phone up there right there on the dash. I'm like, look at that. Got my black light. Got my system. Got my tin. Got my cell phone. My celly. I was loving it. I was something.
[28:07] I loved my little car. I had a little button there you could push to put it in sport mode. And I told people that, I was lying, but I told them just joking. Like it's, the nitrous is hooked up to that button and it's in the trunk.
[28:18] And I just pushed that. Boom. Smoke them. But that wasn't true at all. But the sport button was there, but it didn't do much to that little four cylinder. So that was my car.
[28:29] It was all mine. I did what I wanted to with it. But what if I sold that car to somebody else? What if I, you know, for sake of illustration, what if I sold it to my dad?
[28:41] Just said, dad, I'm getting another car. Here, this one's yours. You can sell it. And he said, okay, I'll buy that car from you. And we came to an agreement and he bought my car. What if I decided I've got this new truck now and I'm good.
[28:53] I don't need that car. But you know what? I just thought of another idea I could do with that car. Something that I think would be cool. Would I have the right or the permission to just go do what I want with that car anymore?
[29:04] Of course not. It's not mine. My dad looked at that car and he said, you know what? That tin's illegal. That's against the law. I'm taking that off.
[29:16] And so he strips it. Dad, what are you doing? That tin's cool. It cost me money. I love that stuff. He's like, no. It doesn't belong on this car. I'm taking it off. You know what? That booming system in the back there, that's not doing any good for me.
[29:30] The music that I listen to, that's not feeding the music that I want to hear. It's not feeding the new man. That's got to go. But dad, that costs so much money. Leave it in there. No, no, son.
[29:41] No. It's got to go. There's things in that car that my father decided that they need to go. This doesn't help you and it's not good for me and this is not how I want to live in this car.
[29:54] Matter of fact, I'm not really crazy about the black light. So I'm going to get rid of that. I want to see. I want light to shine when I get into this car, when it's dark around me.
[30:04] I want to see what's going on in here. Sounds like a dad, doesn't it? So he removes all those things that I put in there. Well, I can't do anything about it because it's not mine.
[30:16] I just have to say, okay. So do you understand the thought here, though, that God purchased you? You belong to him? And he has the right to tell you what to do and what he likes and what he expects because you're his.
[30:35] You say, no, but the world says you only live once and it's about me and I get to do what I want. Make my choices for my body. It's mine. Is it? Is it?
[30:46] Is that what it says? It's yours? What it says is it's his. It says you are not your own. Not anymore. If you've received the gift of eternal life and his spirit within you, you've taken of something eternal.
[31:01] You've said, I want that. He said, okay, I'll give it to you for free. It's a gift. You're mine now. If you want my salvation and you want me to forgive you of your sins and you want a home in heaven with me and you want to know me and get this thing restored and be reconciled to me by the death of my son, he paid an awful price for you.
[31:27] You're mine now. You say, I want you. I want that. I don't want to go to hell. I want you. You belong to him. It's time to start thinking like that. God is inside of you and you belong to God.
[31:43] Sadly though, sometimes you definitely have a tendency to take possession of something that doesn't belong to you. Make choices and decisions with your body and spirit, with your life and never consulted him if it was what he wants.
[32:00] Never asked dad if it's okay with him. You're not your own. You're not your own anymore. We never asked permission of the rightful owner.
[32:11] We say this, it's my life. We say, it's my body, it's my choice. Not if you belong to God. Not anymore. Picture here the thought can be of a servant and a master.
[32:24] Or we, in today's life, an employee and an employer. And I mentioned my fast food job that I raked in all that money on at $4.25 an hour. Worked real hard for six months and got that 15 or 10 cent raise or whatever that was.
[32:38] What a joke. Anyway. You know what I got? I worked at Hardee's back in the day there. Worked at Hardee's, which is Carl Jr. out here. And Hardee's is better because they have hot ham and cheese sandwiches and Carl's Jr. just doesn't have it.
[32:53] And so I worked at Hardee's and it was not a, I tell my kids, my son especially, don't ever work at fast food. Now you do what you want. But I just, that was my worldly advice to him and to all of my kids.
[33:06] Don't do it. Burn your hands all day. You stink all the time. It's a horrible job. But out here you make 15 bucks an hour to do it.
[33:17] Maybe you should. Maybe I changed my mind on that. $4.25. So I worked at the Hardee's. And you know what they did? They gave me blue pants and a, I call a polo shirt, a knit, a short sleeve knit top that had the logo on it.
[33:34] And a name tag and a hat. And I got a visor from one of the supermarkets. So I wore my visor. And I had to wear nonstick black shoes. And when I came to work and I punched in on the clock, I had to wear blue pants, work shirt, hat, name tag, black non-slip shoes.
[33:56] And now I know why you had to wear the non-slip ones. Praise the Lord. It sure is. If I came to work and I'm like, yeah, no, I got these new Jordans yesterday.
[34:07] Look at them things. This is, I don't want to wear those dumb black shoes. Not when I got these. The boss says, go change your shoes or you're going to get written up.
[34:18] Where's your name tag? Where's your belt? You're going to get written up. I had to conform to the boss because I was theirs. If they're paying me, I belong to them at that time.
[34:28] They have the right. I don't have the right to tell them what I want to do. I didn't get to decide. As a matter of fact, what I was and why they put their rules up, I was a representative for their corporation.
[34:39] I was going to dress the way they told me to dress. I was going to speak with the words that they told me to say in the drive-thru window or wherever I would be at greeting customers in the lobby.
[34:50] I had to be that guy, the representative of the corporation. And I was expected to conform because I was theirs.
[35:00] Now, Christian, you've been bought with the precious blood of Christ and you belong to God. It's true. You belong to Him. He deserves to have a say in your life and how you live your life.
[35:12] Do you think God cares about your appearance? You think He cares? Do you? I mean, do you think He cares? He's inside of you. He owns you.
[35:23] Do you think He cares about how you represent yourself? I think He does. I know He does. You bet He does. You think He cares about, and you can just make a list of everything.
[35:36] I don't even want to get on individual things. Or you're going to say, who are you talking about me? You think He cares about all these things that you could do to yourself or to your body or to portray what's in your heart to the world?
[35:49] I think He cares about all of it. You think He cares about what you put in your body? Oh, wait. You think I'm talking about drugs and alcohol and cigarettes? You think He cares about what comes in these ears and what comes in these eyes?
[36:03] You think He cares? Because do you think He cares about what this tongue is used for? You think so? He says, you're not your own.
[36:15] You belong to me. That tongue's mine now. Give it to me. Those eyes are mine now. My book gives you some instruction about that. Let no wicked thing come before your eyes.
[36:27] My book gives you all the instructions of what I expect, how you live your life. It belongs to me. He cares. And He deserves to have a say over what He's paid for.
[36:40] Now come back to our text here again and look at verse 20. He says, for you are bought with a price, therefore. Notice that word, therefore. Therefore, because in view of the fact that Jesus Christ shed His blood for you, that He left heaven and went to hell to pay for your sins, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
[37:08] So if we consider the magnitude of the cost, the price that it took to pay for our body and spirit to redeem our soul from our iniquities.
[37:19] Thirdly, I just want to say this plainly. Possess your body so that God is glorified. Your body is called a vessel. Paul tells Timothy that he's to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.
[37:38] Now, notice, when you trust Jesus Christ, the first two things that we looked at already said are settled. God is in you. When you trust Christ gets saved, God's in you.
[37:49] And you belong to Him. That's settled. But this third one now, this is where it becomes your choice and the matter. This is where you choose whether to glorify God or yourself, your flesh, or the world, or the devil.
[38:04] And you think, oh, I'm not glorifying the devil. If you choose not to glorify God in your body and in your spirit, you're making somebody happy. That's for sure. Now look at verse 20 again.
[38:15] You are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit. Now look at the end. Which are God's.
[38:25] Hold on. It's your body and it's your spirit, but it's God's? How is that? That doesn't make sense. How is that possible? The thought being that he bought and he owns your body and spirit.
[38:39] He holds the rights, maybe you could say, to your vessel. But he's given you possession of them in this life. You have the power to choose. He's the owner, but you're the manager.
[38:51] You decide day to day how you're going to live and act and speak and think in this body. You have the power to choose. And then you have the opportunity to please him.
[39:05] And I'd say it's more of a responsibility to please him than it is just an opportunity. And to use your body and your spirit for his glory. Now come to a place in Romans with me. And this will be the last place we turn.
[39:16] Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6.
[39:27] Romans chapter 6. This is old stuff to some of you. It might be new stuff to some of you. It's true stuff to all of you. Romans chapter 6.
[39:41] I want to read a good bit of this chapter. And considering what we've studied, let's read together. I'm going to start in verse 12 and go all the way to the end. And make some comments and we'll be finished.
[39:53] Romans 6 and verse number 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.
[40:05] But yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead. And your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. That's the choice, right? Unto God.
[40:16] Not unto sin. Verse 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you. For ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace?
[40:27] God forbid. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.
[40:40] But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin. But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
[40:52] I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
[41:06] For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. Notice the question. Verse 21. What fruit had ye then? And those things were of ye are now ashamed.
[41:17] For the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin by that circumcision made without hands. And become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness.
[41:30] And the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[41:40] Because God is in you, you can display in your body and in your spirit His nature.
[41:51] It can come out of you. His nature. And that's really the goal. That's what God wants to use you for. That's why He decided to make your body His temple so that He could take control of it and change you and renew your mind and allow you to bring forth fruit unto holiness.
[42:08] Good works. He wants to see something come out of you. He'll do the work inside of you. You, instead of being a servant to sin, can be a servant to righteousness. Your life, instead of producing the lust of the flesh and so forth, you can now bring forth fruit, as He says, unto holiness.
[42:25] That wasn't possible before. But now that God's in you and you belong to Him and you can yield yourself to Him, what can come out is something completely different, something completely worthy of Him.
[42:37] They say in this life, they say, take care of your temple, meaning eat right, exercise, you'll live longer, you'll be healthier. But I say from the Bible, take care of His temple.
[42:50] And I'm not talking about exercising and your diet. Take care of His temple. Realize that everywhere you go, everything you say, every action, every thought, He's there living inside of you.
[43:03] And consider constantly that God indwells you because He chose to dwell in our bodies. And He desires to have it sacred.
[43:14] And just as set apart as those tabernacles in the Old Testament, He wants this new temple to be set apart from sin, completely surrendered and turned over to Him. When God comes in, He doesn't strip you of your personality.
[43:28] He doesn't erase your memory. He doesn't change you into some robot. You're just who you were. But now with Him inside of you. And now you start to make choices.
[43:39] Follow Him or keep on my own. It's your choice. When you buy a home, there's things that you look for, right?
[43:51] You go in that home, you inspect it, or you at least get an inspector to inspect it. You want to know what you're dealing with. You want to know what you're buying. Because there could be things that are inside that home that you'll never perceive until you buy it, until your name's down, and then it goes, then it shows, then the crack, then this and that.
[44:10] You know what God got when He bought you? He got a real fixer-upper. A real fixer-upper. And He didn't shy away from it at all.
[44:23] He looked at it and said, I'll take it. I'll take that. I can do something with that. No problem. But you know what a shame is? Is when we take God in our bodies and in our spirits and put Him in the corner, put Him in the closet, and say, there's your dwelling place.
[44:40] Maybe Sunday morning. Maybe a little here and there during the week. Well, I'll show up and talk to you. But for the most part, I've got this. I'll do what I want with this.
[44:51] And there's things in this house I really don't want you to see. You wouldn't be comfortable living the way I'm living. God wants to fix that thing up. Let me close by asking you this question.
[45:04] Is your body a happy home? Is God comfortable living in you? Did He fix it up?
[45:17] Is it finished? No, it's not finished. There's still trouble. There's still going to be problems. There's always, just like these houses, there's always going to be a leak. Always going to be a crack. It's always going to show up somewhere.
[45:30] But when you let it go, you know the story. If you don't fix it, it gets worse. It doesn't go away. God lives inside of you, Christian. And more importantly than just that, He owns you.
[45:44] You're His. You're not your own anymore. So therefore, He deserves you to submit to Him. He deserves for you to glorify Him in your body and in your spirit.
[45:57] Are you allowing God to fix that home up or are you letting it fall apart? Does it shine forth? In the future, it describes that we're going to be given a body that's going to shine.
[46:11] It's going to be His glory shining. For now, we're just stuck with this clay. This temple of clay, like we say. But it's a place He chose.
[46:22] And He's happy to do it for now. So my admonition to you is to possess your body so that God is glorified. Let's pray together. Lord, it really is a hard thing to understand that you dwell with men, that you dwell inside our bodies.
[46:45] And Lord, it's kind of something that just eludes us to really put it into words. Number one, why you do it. But then that you choose to do that.
[46:58] And that we can then glorify you. Lord, I pray that you'll use these thoughts to draw us back to such a simple truth and doctrine of the Bible.
[47:10] But to make that practical application. That you're with us everywhere we go. That you see everything we look at. And it's not just that you're there. But it's that if we're not doing this for you, we're doing it for us.
[47:24] And we're not glorifying you. Lord, convict us where we look at things that are ungodly and unrighteous. Things that are detrimental to our walk with you.
[47:38] Things that, the times we put you in a closet so we can go do what we want to do. Lord, reveal to us our sin. Help us to yield our members as instruments of righteousness.
[47:50] That our fruit would be unto holiness for Jesus' sake. You bought us. You own us. You deserve us. God, now it's our job to submit. We pray you'd help us with that.
[48:00] God, we need your help. We need your strength. We need your spirit to convict us. We need your words. You're preaching of your word to keep it in front of us. Lord, I pray that somebody in here would get some victory.
[48:13] There's something in their life. There's something that they've been allowing. Or there's just something about them that you're not pleased with. And they didn't ask you if it was okay. So, Lord, I pray you humble us.
[48:24] Draw us to that place. We just start to seek you to make those decisions. To glorify you. Not to, like, fall in love with the fashions of this world. To look at you and say, are you okay with this?
[48:36] Does this glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? Lord, from our speech to our dress, from head to toe, change us, ever change us, into the image of your dear Son.
[48:50] Before we stand together and just keep your heads bowed for a minute, your eyes closed, and just ponder this, ponder the thoughts this morning that God's in you. That's what the Bible says.
[49:01] You're going to have to take that and believe it. By faith, He's in you. But He owns you. You're not your own anymore if you're His child. Answer that question then.
[49:14] Is He happy living in me? When I look in the mirror, is He happy with what He sees? When I'm at work, is He happy with what comes out of my mouth or what I look at or speak?
[49:29] Is He being glorified in your body and in your spirit? Our goal in this life is to please Him.
[49:45] That's it. When we get to heaven, it's too late. When He calls us home, it's over. You're going to have to choose now that you want to live for Him. It's going to be all good then.
[49:56] That's something He's calling you to decide. Let's stand together and find number 163 as we sing this hymn. I invite you to do some business with the Lord if you need to.
[50:09] And, don't worry, let's go. And, don't worry. I invite you to do some business with asking this vers 북 ofículos Zero Star Sheep. Do you want to write anything and as much as you don't know what they will do?
[50:19] it's not to leave. Well, Let's do that because you're up here. These two voices. Now are as many a Можно? Let them know in theображators. And, um plagues with John. Maybe sign up with little famille. What do I see with him when we prevent a travel?
[50:29] Am there with little olduğu sprang you?