I Belong To God

Preached the evening of January 22, 2017 at Riverview, 798 Santa Fe Pike, Columbia, TN

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (KJV) 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? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

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A dear friend told me a cute little poem I’d like you to hear. It goes like this:

A mouse gnawed on the pantry door,

He gnawed, I guess, for a month or more.

When he got in the pantry, he found not a bit,

Life is tedious, isn’t it?

I thought that was cute – but also so appropriate. That little mouse worked hard to get to what he thought would make him happy. Slaving away, driven by his appetite, he finally got where he thought the bnlessings were, only to find there was no blessing there at all.

Life is tedious, isn’t it?

A man was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. He was asked by his Christian friend “do you know Jesus”? The man replied “I try to stay away from all faiths and religions. It seems like they all want something from me”.

What does God demand of us? We know that salvation is a free gift. The Scripture tells us that:

Romans 6:23 (KJV) For the wages of sin is death; but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Salvation is a GIFT. It is a GIFT you can neither earn nor deserve. But in order to receive this gift, you MUST give God Something. What does God want you to give to Him?

Yourself

Just prior to Romans 6:23 and the discussion of the GIFT of God you read (and context is important):

Romans 6:18-22 (KJV) Being then made free from sin, YE BECAME THE SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. …. yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But NOW BEING MADE FREE FROM SIN, AND BECOME SERVANTS TO GOD, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

A person is saved by giving themselves to God. This is what God requires of any to be saved. You give Him YOU, for He gave us HIMSELF. When you give Him YOU, then HE comes inside us and, through His Spirit, begins to change us into His image.

A Christian is very much a servant of God. That’s what Paul is telling us in our text today.

You Are NOT YOUR OWN – And Never Have Been

IF you have been saved from eternal damnation then you got saved by turning yourself over to God unconditionally. God demands YOU. God wants YOU. You say,

But how can salvation be a free GIFT if God demands all of me?
Isn’t that a cost?

No, not at all. You see, we all belong to God anyway. God says:

Ezekiel 18:4 (ESV) Behold, ALL SOULS ARE MINE; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.

Everyone belongs to God. God made the earth, the birds, the bees, the flowers and the trees. He made Eden and made man and woman. God owns what He has made.

Psalm 24:1-2 (NKJV) The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, THE WORLD AND THOSE WHO DWELL THEREIN. 2 For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters.

God made us. He owns us. He owns the righteous, and owns the unrighteous. Man rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden and has been rebelling ever since. The Bible tells us that …

Romans 3:23 (KJV) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

We are all wrong. We are all born the first time rejecting God.
But this doesn’t mean God doesn’t own us.
He owns the blasphemer, the whore monger, the murderer and the moral.

Psalm 89:11 (ESV) The heavens are Yours {O God}; the earth also is Yours; the world and ALL THAT IS IN IT, You have founded them.

1 Corinthians 10:26 (ESV) For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

Being saved means understanding that God owns us all, and that we revolted against Him. Being saved is coming to God and saying, “I know I am a sinner, and know that You are God. I give myself to You, believing that Jesus gave Himself for me.”

There was a time when we all – every person in this place – were children of wrath. The Bible says that we were

Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV)… dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

There was a time when every Christian walked apart from God. We were hijacked by the Devil and this world. We followed the evil, not the Good Lord Who made us. We served sin and Satan, self and selfishness. That’s the bad news. But the Good News is that …

Jesus Bought Us With His Blood

Ephesians 2:4-9 (ESV) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

God didn’t have to buy us back. He didn’t have to die for us to cover our sins. We were His to destroy if He so desired. But God in love purchased us with the Blood of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (KJV) … ye are NOT YOUR OWN? 20 For YE ARE BOUGHT with a price:

You were, dear Christian, bought by the Blood of God.

A faith that can live in hell or like a child of hell cannot be from Heaven!

2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV) For {God the Father} hath made {God the Son} to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that WE MIGHT BE MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.

You were bought with a price. What price was paid for you? Blood. What type of Blood? It was the Blood of the Son of God. God shed His Blood for you. He made payment for you. On the day that you were saved the Lord offered to pay for you, and you willingly accepted that payment. You no longer belong to yourself. You belong to God. His Great Love purchases the believer.

If You Belong To God You Will Love Others That Belong To God

1 Corinthians 6:1-2 (KJV) Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? 2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

The Corinthians were suing one another in the local courts. We don’t know what they were suing over, but their actions were harming the witness of the Church. The Apostle told them:

1 Corinthians 6:5-8 (KJV) I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? 6 But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. 7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? WHY DO YE NOT RATHER SUFFER YOURSELVES TO BE DEFRAUDED? 8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

Jesus taught us as His disciples to turn the other cheek. He said:

Matthew 5:39-40 (ESV) But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

I belong to God if I am a Christian.
I was purchased by enduring Love.
My love is not made in China, but made by God.

If you are a Christian you belong to God. Rather than bring a black eye to the Church the Apostle said it would be better to be defrauded than to harm your brothers in Christ. One day you and I will inherit the glories of Heaven TOGETHER. We are therefore to be TOGETHER now.

Those Who Are Driven By Unrighteousness Will Not INHERIT God’s Kingdom

In 1 Corinthians 5:11 the Apostle said there were six different types of sinners that we were not to keep company with if they claimed to be Christ followers but did these things. In this chapter the Apostle tells us that there are ten behaviors in people that will keep them from inheriting the Kingdom of God. In other words those who habitually practice one of these ten things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. We read:

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (KJV) 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 with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul said “Be not deceived”. Those who shall not inherit the Kingdom of God are:

Fornicators πόρνος pornos – male prostitutes, those who sell themselves to illicit sexual activity
Idolators εἰδωλολάτρης eidōlolatrēs – worshipper of false gods or goddesses, image worshipers
Adulterers μοιχός moichos – adulterer or adulteresses, those who violate the wedding bed
Effeminate μαλακός malakos – a catamite (boy kept for homosexual practices), a male who who submits his body to unnatural lewdness
Abusers of Themselves With Mankind ἀρσενοκοίτης arsenokoitēs – one who lies with a male as with a female, sodomite, homosexual
Thieves κλέπτης kleptēs – embezzeler, stealers, thief
Covetous πλεονέκτης pleonektēs – one greedy of gain
Drunkards μέθυσος methysos – intoxicated with alcohol
Revilers λοίδορος loidoros – those who are abusive, troublemakers, blackguards
Extortioners ἅρπαξ harpax – robbers, extortioner, to take by force like a wolf

Those who habitually follow these patterns of life will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God! Do not be deceived. Do not dumb this down. This is God’s Word. But the Apostle doesn’t stop here. He goes on to say:

1 Corinthians 6:11 (KJV) And such were some of you …

Do not ever say “that person can’t go to Heaven”. How horrible a thought that is. Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world. He died for every sin, no matter how we minimalize it, no matter how monstrous. The Bible tells us that:

1 John 2:1-2 (NKJV) My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

Jesus is the propitiation, the means of appeasing God (ἱλασμός hilasmos), the expiator, the covering for sin. Jesus died on the Cross for those ten types of sinners that were so common in the city of Corinth. Every type of debauchery was practiced in Corinth, which was like:

San Francisco, California
Portland, Oregon
Austin, Texas
Providence, Rhode Island
Baltimore, Maryland
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Which are rated the top six cities for sexual immorality in the United States. Those who made up the Church at Corinth had once engaged in those types of forbidden activities. The Apostle said:

1 Corinthians 6:11 (KJV) And such were some of you: BUT ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

BUT you are WASHED. Not with our hand, but by God’s. The person who recognizes their sin comes to Him Who saves and is WASHED, CLEANSED from sin.

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow,
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

This is all my hope and peace,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
This is all my righteousness,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Glory! Glory! This I sing
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
All my praise for this I bring
Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow,
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

You may have been “born that way” or you may have been “led that way” by other sinners. You must be born again. You must come to Christ. He will wash you white as snow. The threefold blessing of salvation is that

You are WASHED – cleansed from sin
You are SANCTIFIED – set apart from the world, a Child of God
You are JUSTIFIED – now considered right by the Righteous Father

This is brought about by the Spirit of OUR GOD. The Christian is not to live in the pigpen of this world, but to live in a higher world. You are not lost, but found. You are not slaves of satan, but servants of righteousness. This is why the Apostle said:

1 Corinthians 6:20 (KJV) For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

We are to live to glorify our God. Our God reigns. Our God is able. Our God saved us. Our God adopted us. Our God leads us. We are to glorify Him. We are to live our lives as to bring glory to Him in all that we do. The world watches. Is our God a little God, or a big God? Is our God a Savior or a charlatan? Jesus said to His disciples:

John 13:35 (NKJV) By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

We are to love God and love one another. We are to glorify God. We are to magnify Christ. He is our Savior, our King, our Lord, our Everything.

The late Dr. S. M. Lockeridge, a pastor from San Diego, California said these words in a sermon in Detroit in 1976:

“My King was born King. The Bible says He’s a Seven Way King. He’s the King of the Jews – that’s an Ethnic King. He’s the King of Israel – that’s a National King. He’s the King of righteousness. He’s the King of the ages. He’s the King of Heaven. He’s the King of glory. He’s the King of kings and He is the Lord of lords. Now that’s my King. … I’m coming to tell you this, that the heavens of heavens can’t contain Him, let alone some man explain Him. You can’t get Him out of your mind. You can’t get Him off of your hands. You can’t outlive Him and you can’t live without Him. The Pharisees couldn’t stand Him, but they found out they couldn’t stop Him. Pilate couldn’t find any fault in Him. The witnesses couldn’t get their testimonies to agree about Him. Herod couldn’t kill Him. Death couldn’t handle Him and the grave couldn’t hold Him. That’s my King. … Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Well, all the power belongs to my King. We’re around here talking about black power and white power and green power, but in the end all that matters is God’s power. Thine is the power. Yeah. And the glory. We try to get prestige and honor and glory for ourselves, but the glory is all His. Yes. Thine is the Kingdom and the power and glory, forever and ever and ever and ever. How long is that? Forever and ever and ever and ever. . . And when you get through with all of the ever’s, then . . .Amen!”

May God touch your hearts and lead you to Christ through His Word!