1 Corinthians chapter 6, look please if you
would, one of the most familiar portions of
Scripture in all of the Bible, verse number
19.
1 Corinthians chapter number 6, please, and verse
number 19.
The Bible says what?
Will you not that your body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which you have of God, and you
are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price, therefore
glorify God in your body and in your
spirit with your God.
And this morning as we begin our series
of meetings, I preach the simple sermon, Who
Does God Think He Is Anyhow?
Thank you very much.
You may be seated.
Let's bow our heads and hearts and pray.
And let's ask the Lord to bless our
time together this morning.
Who Does God Think He Is Anyhow?
Now, my father, once again, I pray to
your Lord that you would empty me of
myself and that you would fill me with
the Holy Spirit of God.
Father, I pray for these my friends, this
congregation, that you would help them as they
listen to the Bible and truly that there
be one who has come to this service
but has never come to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
I pray today, Lord, that you would convict
them and you would speak to their hearts.
Then for God's people, Lord, I pray that
you would also stir up, change us and
convict us using the precious pages of the
word of God.
Lord, I just plead the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ upon this service.
We know that the devil does not like
singing, but we know that he cannot stand
and he thoroughly hates the preaching of the
word of God.
And so, Lord, we claim the victory that
we already have in the word of God.
So help these as they listen to the
word of God.
Father, in private, I've done my best to
pray myself full.
And now in public, I pray you'd help
me to preach myself empty.
Fill me with the Spirit of God like
never before, I pray in Jesus name.
Amen.
I'm sure from those pews in this pulpit,
you're no stranger to 1st and 2nd Corinthians.
It doesn't take a brain surgeon and rocket
scientist to figure out that when you get
to 1st and 2nd Corinthians, you have the
most spiritually immature, carnally minded group of people
and all of the New Testament.
Now, the apostle Paul fixed a couple of
problems at the church at Philippi.
He fixed a few throughout Thessalonica and some
over in Ephesians and the Galatian church had
a few problems that needed to be fixed.
But there was not another church under the
sound of the apostle Paul's voice on the
face of God's earth throughout the New Testament
that had more struggles, that had more temptations,
that had more problems and had more immaturity
and carnality than the church that was at
Corinth.
As a matter of fact, the first book
was 16 chapters long and the apostle Paul,
through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was
not able to even fix all the problems
in 16 chapters.
And so he had book number two.
He had the second edition, if you will,
that was 13 chapters.
And after all of those chapters, those people
still had problem after problem after problem.
Paul told them about seven different times in
the first few chapters of the first book
that their problem was carnality, that their problem
was spiritual immaturity.
Now, I didn't make this up.
It's in the Word of God.
They had problems in the church with fornication,
ladies and gentlemen.
I mean, they had problems with adultery.
I mean, they had problems with all kind
of gross immorality and ungodliness.
They had problems with one man would take
this man to court and God's people were
suing one another.
And God's people were bickering and fighting.
And I mean, bitterness had set in.
And these people on this side of the
church wouldn't speak to these people on this
side.
And I mean, there was bitterness and strife
and contention.
And Paul said, Are ye not carnal?
But I believe in First Corinthians, chapter number
six, to be followed up with Second Corinthians,
chapter number five, I believe we find out
what the real problem at Corinth was.
You see, the Bible gives us the real
signs for why these people were so immature,
why they were full of immorality and fornication
and adultery, and why they were lovers of
pleasure more than lovers of God, why they
knew nothing about the great significant fundamental doctrines
of a faith.
That's why you have First Corinthians, chapter 15.
These people did not even know the significance
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And the Apostle Paul spent 58 verses explaining
to them the importance thereof.
But then in chapter number 16, they didn't
know anything about giving to the local church.
They knew nothing about tithing.
They knew nothing about offering.
They knew nothing about grace giving.
And so the Apostle Paul in chapter nine
and in chapter 16 had to tell them
the importance of giving to the local church.
And I'm telling you problem after problem, after
problem, after problem.
But do you know why they have the
problem?
It's real simple.
Because in First Corinthians, chapter number six, and
in Second Corinthians, chapter number five, two portions
of Scripture that parallel one another, the Apostle
Paul basically told them, he just took everything
and boiled it down in a great big
pot and said, you know what your problem
is, Corinth?
He said, you have the idea that once
you get saved, you think you can live
any way you want to.
He says, you think once you get saved,
because you've got your fire insurance and your
little back door out of hell, he said,
you think you can do anything you want
to with anybody that you want to.
And you think because you've got grace, it
gives you a license to sin.
And the Apostle Paul pulled out the gospel
gun.
He begins to pull the trigger 90 miles
to nothing and said, you people need to
understand that you belong to God.
And the Apostle Paul was doing his best
to drive it deep within their heads and
deep within their hearts that they had no
right to live any way that they wanted
to, for they did not belong to themselves,
if you will, they belong to God.
And many times, ladies and gentlemen, in Baptist
churches, many teenagers, middle-aged people, older people,
single people, married people, they have the idea,
who does God think he is to tell
me how to live my life?
Who does God think he is to tell
me how to be at Sunday school and
Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night
and to come to a revival meeting or
a missions conference?
Who does God think he is to tell
me how to dress and what I ought
to watch on television and what I ought
to listen to in the privacy of my
own vehicle?
Who in the wild world does God think
he is?
That's a wonderful question.
I'm glad you brought it up because the
Apostle Paul answers it in verse number 19.
Look in your Bibles please, 1 Corinthians chapter
6 and verse number 19.
Paul said, what?
And you'll notice the question mark, but it's
more of an emphatic question.
He wasn't asking out of ignorance.
He was asking because he could not believe
that these people did not understand this simple
principle of the Bible.
He said, know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which
is in you, which you have of God,
notice the emphasis, and ye are not your
own.
Why not?
For you are bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body and in
your spirit which are God's.
As we start our meeting this morning, I
want to give you two simple reasons why
God owns you and everything that you have.
According to the Bible, Genesis chapter 2 and
verse number 7, God owns your breath.
And the Lord God formed a man out
of the dust of the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and
man became a living soul.
According to the Bible, he owns your body.
Right here, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 19
and 20.
But like or not, ladies and gentlemen, contrary
to popular belief, God owns your bank account.
He owns your house.
He owns your car.
He owns every single thing that we say
belongs to us.
In all actuality, according to the Bible, it
belongs to God.
And so I'm going to give you two
undeniable, irrefutable reasons that nobody on the face
of God's earth can argue with.
Two simple reasons why God can tell you
what he wants you to do, when he
wants you to do it, with no questions
asked whatsoever, complete and utter obedience to the
will of God.
Two simple reasons why the apostle Paul tells
us, why Jesus tells us, why all the
writers of the Old and New Testament tell
us, God owns us and he can do
with his people as he pleases.
Simple outline, get it down.
Number one, first and foremost, God owns me
by right of creation.
By the very simple scriptural fact that God
created me for his glory, not for mine,
God owns my body and everything that I
have.
Genesis chapter one in verse number one, in
the beginning, God created the heaven and earth
and the earth was void and darkness was
upon the face of the deep.
And God said, let there be light.
And guess what?
There was light.
The verse I quoted just a moment ago,
Genesis chapter two and verse number seven.
Why is it that God looked at God,
if you will, the Trinity?
Why is it that they said, let us
make man in our image?
They already had the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea.
There was already the grass and there was
already the atmosphere and the stars and the
planets and the rocks and the God had
already raised the mountains and lowered the valleys
and put everything in its proper order and
its proper place.
And if you study the first few chapters
of the book of Genesis, you will find
out that God was pleased with his perfect
creation.
He said, man, that is good.
And that is good.
But yet there was still something that was
missing.
It was the crowning work of God's creation
and it was creating a man in the
very image of God.
And so the Bible says that God took
some dirt and we are a glorified mud
ball from the hand of God.
He took some dirt.
He breathed into the nostrils, the breath of
life.
And the Bible says that man became a
living soul.
And when both man and just a few
verses later, his wife, Eve, the mother of
all women living, when they were then there
as the two first people in the Bible,
God did not say that's good.
God said, that is very good.
That is the only work of creation whereby
God was overwhelmingly pleased with what he had
created.
You think the sky and the trees and
the rocks and the rails and the sea,
all of that was created by God.
And he enjoyed that and received pleasure from
that.
But there was something that he wanted that
was more.
He created a man.
He created a woman.
They had a perfect, perfect union together, perfect
fellowship, relationship, and union with God.
And God said, that is what I like.
Now, if we were to have a show
of hands for time's sake, we will not.
We could ask the question.
I wonder why is it according to the
word of God, God even bothered creating man.
Now, you know, if you read your Bible,
you'll find out Jesus Christ was the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world.
The fall of man did not take God
by surprise.
God knew what was going to happen in
the Garden of Eden.
God knew exactly what was going to happen
in Isaiah chapter 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28.
When the devil was kicked out of heaven,
he knew what would take place.
So why then in our human minds, we
would ask, why did he even bother?
Why did he even waste his very valuable,
precious, sovereign time on you and me?
Little bitty insignificant, nothing, just little bitty, tiny
peons.
Why is it that God would waste his
time?
Why did God create man?
Well, I've had a number of answers to
that particular question, especially when you preach to
young people at camp.
You ask young people, you know, teenagers, you
should know what the Bible answer is, but
you get around some junior age kids.
Hey, why is it that God created man?
And I'll say, you'll come up with a
whole boatload of reasons.
You ask 60 kids, you'll get 49 and
a half answers.
And I mean, they'll come up with all
kinds of nice little things.
Some of them say most of them would
get together and say, well, you know, the
reason God created man is because God was
lonely.
You know, God was up in heaven and
just got a little tired of little fluttering
angels fluttering around his throne.
And so he needed somebody to fellowship with
on an intimate basis.
He needed somebody to fellowship with and to
talk with, and he was lonely.
So he created man for fellowship.
Yes and no, because God does want your
fellowship.
James four, four, draw nine to God.
He'll draw nine to you.
God desires the fellowship of his people, but
he did not create you so he could
fellowship with you.
Fellowship with God is a byproduct of our
relationship, but it's not the main reason we
were created.
As a matter of fact, the Bible tells
us in the book of revelation, why we
were created in verse number 11, it was
for the honor and for the pleasure of
him that created us.
You see, I wasn't created so God could
fellowship with me.
I was created to live a life that
would bring honor, glory, and pleasure to almighty
God.
The Bible says in Philippians chapter two, verses
five to 11, let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who
being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but
made himself of no reputation and took upon
in the form of a servant was made
in the likeness of men being found in
fashion as a man.
He humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross.
Wherefore, God also had highly exalted him and
given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow, things in heaven and things
in earth and things under the earth, and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the
Father.
What is the pervading, permeating message of scripture?
It is me and my life to submit
to the lordship of Jesus Christ so that
I in my flesh, who is incapable, by
the way, of pleasing God with my flesh
and with my pride, but submitting myself to
the lordship of Christ to bring honor and
glory to the one that saved me.
That is the reason you're sitting in this
building this morning, not for you, but for.
Somebody says, well, I'll raise my kids the
way I want to because they're my kids.
You'll raise your kids according to the nurse
and admiration of the Lord, because God just
let you borrow them just for a little
while.
They belong to him.
And ladies and gentlemen, everything that we have
is from God.
And he owns up, number one, by right
of creation.
That is why the apostle Paul said in
1 Corinthians 10, 31, whether therefore he eat
or drink.
Now, those are daily necessities of life.
Some people consider it a little more necessary
than others, and that's obvious.
But nonetheless, the Bible says, whether therefore he
eat or drink or whatsoever, that's a big
word, whatsoever you do, get it, do all
to the glory of God.
Now, let me ask you a question.
If, in fact, God is going to ask
us to do something, doesn't it logically stand
to reason that God's going to explain to
us how to do it?
Just if I get up there and say,
okay, church, let's talk about this, church, glorify
God.
If my eyes closed, let's go to the
house.
I didn't do you a real good job,
did I?
You see, if I just said you glorify
God, glorify God, glorify God, you walk out
of here and you think to yourself, okay,
that's what I want.
I want to glorify God.
I want to honor God.
But what does it mean to bring glory
to God?
Does it mean that everywhere that I go,
that I'm always talking about the Lord?
Does it mean that everywhere that I go,
that I've got great big thick coke bottle
glasses, and I've got great big old bell
-bottom pants built up all the way to
my waist, you know?
And I walk around with a jacket that
don't even match my socks, or a pair
of socks that don't even match the tie.
And I wear a big old Family King
James Bible about that big under my arm.
And I walk around and say, glory to
God, peace on earth, goodwill toward men.
No, he said be different and glorify Him,
not be stupid and not glorify Him.
And there's a fine line between the two.
What does it mean to bring honor to
God?
What does it mean when Paul said, when
you eat, glorify God?
When you drink, glorify God?
When you drive, glorify God?
What does it mean to bring glory to
God in everything that you do?
Well, you know what the word glory means?
The word glory is the same word that
we derive our English word, opinion.
So in essence, Paul says, in your eating,
in your drinking, in every area and aspect
of your life, you are a person that
should bring a proper opinion of who your
God is.
And you know why America's going to hell
in a handbasket?
Because most Baptists that I know give a
pretty sorry opinion of who their God is,
and you know what to do to prove
it.
Ladies and gentlemen, our lives should be lives
that are lived for the honor and glory
of God, not to bring a reproach to
the cause of Christ, but to move on
the cause of Christ, and to bring honor
and glory and adoration to the Lord Jesus
Christ simply means that I live a life
that shows other or gives other the opinion
that my God is a big God, that
He's a holy God, that He's a righteous
God.
And that is exactly from cover to cover
of this book the reason that you and
I were created.
Now, I know what the liberals say, and
I know what the modernists say, and I
know what some of the new evangelicals say.
They say, well, you know, we need to
give a little bit on this issue of
evolution.
You know, perhaps millions of years ago, there
was a little pollywog that turned into a
monkey.
Perhaps millions of years ago, you know, as
Dr. P.
R.
Lakin used to eloquently say, as poetic as
he was, once there was a tadpole small
and thin, and then there was a froggy
with my tail tucked in, and then there
was a monkey in a coconut tree, and
now I'm a doctor with a PhD.
Now, if you believe that this morning, please
don't shake my hand after the service because
I'm not meant to eat it all morning
and I don't want to mess up my
batting average.
Now, I'm going to tell you something, friend.
If you believe that you're from a monkey,
there's something bad wrong with the Wheaties you've
been eating for breakfast.
If you believe that you're from a zebra,
or you're from an amoeba, or you're from
a rock, you have not been reading the
Bible.
You have been reading the newspaper, that is
for sure.
Now, I've got a bunch of kinfolk.
I mean a bunch of them that years
ago probably swung by their neck, but I
never met a one that swung by their
tail, that's for sure.
Because I'm from the hand of God.
I'm from the sovereign, providential, creative hand of
God.
It was His idea to create me.
It was His initiative that created me.
Why did He do that?
So that I can bring glory and honor
to Him.
Now, look back at verse 19, would you?
1 Corinthians 6, Paul says, What know ye
not?
It almost has the idea you should know
this, but since you're acting like you don't,
I'll tell you anyhow.
He says, What know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,
which is in you, talking to Christians.
Not talking to reprobate, talking to Christians, which
is in you, which you have of God,
and ye are not your own.
You remember the Old Testament, I'm sure, there
was a man by the name of the
High Priest.
Now, the High Priest was not your average
go-blow, word-of-the-meal type of
priest.
He was higher than the others as far
as his responsibilities in the temple were concerned.
Now, there were many priests that wore the
priestly garments.
They had the priestly robe.
They went through the priestly religiosity, if you
will.
They did all of that because in the
Old Testament, they lived, if you will, in
fear of God.
They knew that that sin had to be
atoned for once a year.
And so they had the tabernacle.
They'd set it up and they'd have the
laver and the table of showbread to the
right there.
They'd have the, you know, the candlesticks with
the seven candlesticks on it and this, that,
and the other.
They would have all of the religion and
all the routine and all the things that
they would have to go through.
Now, most people could go in to the
outer court, the temple, the temple of the
tabernacle.
They could go and they could do certain
things, many people for the sins of their
family or just maybe for the sins of
themselves.
They could go to the outside brazen altar
and they could make a sacrifice.
But only one man, one time a year,
not four times or six times, but one
time, could walk up those steps, walk to
the back of that tabernacle and could pull
back the little sash and walk into what
the Bible refers to many times as the
Holy of Holies.
Now, the Holy of Holies, ladies and gentlemen,
cannot be described by a mere man who
is preaching in a pulpit in a revival
meeting.
The Holy of Holies was something that was
magnificent.
It is not where Moses and Aaron sat
down for a nice little political preacher talk
in a cup of coffee.
It was not where there was any president
or any great pontiff of the land.
It was not where some great person was.
But in the Holy of Holies was the
ark of a covenant with the two golden
cherubim facing themselves with the wings covering their
face.
A sign of humility.
And between the two golden cherubims on the
mercy seat was the very, did you hear
me?
The very glory of God.
The very presence of the Christ, Holy God.
That man with trembling hands would take that
basin of blood after they had slit that
animal's throat from ear to ear.
Every drop of blood was put inside of
that little basin.
He would walk in and he would go
up the steps and I'm sure in the
back of his mind he's thinking to himself,
I hope every sin is confessed.
I hope the people are praying.
I hope I've done a thorough job of
getting my heart right.
Well, God.
He would walk and pull back that little
silk sash and walk into the back into
the very presence of Almighty God.
And he would make an atonement for the
people's sins for one year.
What a way to live.
I'm glad Jesus Christ made an atonement and
sacrificed his life for all of eternity.
But he would go back there.
He would lay it.
But did you know that the Bible in
history records for us that this man on
his garment would have a robe tied around
his waist.
He was probably, I guess, supposed maybe about
20 or 25, 30 feet long.
Because on the bottom of that man's robe
there was bells and pomegranates.
Bible says a bell and a pomegranate, bell
and a pomegranate all the way around.
You see, as that man would walk, he
would jingle and jangle and they would hear
the bells ringing as he was in the
very presence of God.
But when the bells stopped ringing, they knew
that this man had sin in his heart
that was not dealt with and he would
perish in the very holiness of God.
And there wasn't a Jew on the face
of God's earth that would be foolish enough
to walk in there and drag his dead
carcass out.
Rather, they would take that rope and they
would pull that dead high priest out from
the very presence of God because they could
not go in because they themselves would perish
in the holiness of God.
And that was a place called the Holy
of Holies.
It was sacred.
It was a place that they looked to
and they said, that is where God.
So the apostle Paul, preaching obviously to these
people, knew that they were going to know
their Old Testament Bible very well.
So he uses a word that they would
all identify with.
He says, your body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost.
Look at where temple is in 1 Corinthians
6, verse number 19.
Study it sometime.
It is literally translated the Holy of Holies.
Do you know what that means?
That means 1 Corinthians 4, Paul is exactly
right when he says, God does not dwell
with tents and tabernacles made with man's hands,
but in our very earthly bodies.
Now, I don't understand that.
My little finite mind cannot compute something that
is so big, that is so honorable, that
is so great, that is so magnificent that
God lives in my very body right this
very moment.
And no longer does God dwell in a
building, if you will.
No longer is the Holy of Holies in
the back of a tabernacle between the mercy
seats.
But my body has now become the Holy
of Holies because God resides.
Mr. Webster, in 1828, just before he wrote
his dictionary, it came to him and he
said, Mr. Webster, you're the most brilliant man
we believe the world has ever known.
Not only did he write a dictionary, but
you study Mr. Webster's dictionary just a little
bit and you read some little deals he
had in there about repentance and justification.
And definitions about inspiration.
I'm telling you, this man, do God.
I've also read his autobiography.
Here's a man who was saved out of
a wicked, wicked life.
But God used him.
He was a brilliant man.
Wrote that dictionary there in 1828 and he
had a professor.
The man come to him one day and
began to talk to him and wanted to
interview him about a particular job and some
things.
And he said, Mr. Webster, just a simple
question I'd like to ask you.
He said, what is it that is the
greatest thought that has ever coursed its way
through your brain?
What is the deepest thought you have ever
had?
They said, we commend you and we look
at you as one of the most brilliant
men in all the world.
What is the most magnificent, stunning thought that
you've ever laid in bed at night and
thought about just before you close your eyes
and sleep?
And without a moment's hesitation, he said, the
greatest thought I've ever had in all of
my life is simply God lives in my
life.
And he owns me, number one, and can
tell me what to do, number one, by
right of creation.
He lives within me so that I may
bring honor and glory to him.
By the way, that's why you ought not
mess up your body.
That's why in everything that you do in
your eating, in your drinking, in every area
of your life, you bring honor and glory
to God.
Because sorry, friend, it's not your body.
It's God's body.
You say, well, I do with my body
what I want to.
That's fine, but you'll meet God for what
you did with his holy of holy tabernacle
that is your body.
You smoke on your body.
That's your problem.
You'll meet God for that.
You drink in your body.
That's your problem.
You'll meet God for that.
You use your body to do things you
ought not do.
That's your problem.
You will meet God for that because your
body belongs to God, not to you.
So how do you know that?
Because God created you for him, not for
me and not for you.
So Paul says, okay, folks, your body is
a temple of the Holy Ghost.
God owns you, number one, by right of
creation, but simply God owns you, number two,
by right of salvation.
By the very right that he redeems you
out of the slave market, out of the
cesspool of iniquity.
Look at verse 20.
What's that?
First Corinthians chapter six in verse 20.
He says, for ye are bought with a
price.
Therefore, here it is again.
Glorify God in your body and in your
spirit.
Notice which are yours.
Let him say that.
It says, which are God's.
And so Paul says, listen here, folks, God
can tell you what to do, when he
wants to, why he wants to, because he
created you.
He lives within your very body at the
point of salvation.
He said, but more than that, you are
bought with a price.
First Peter chapter number one, verses 18 and
19.
For you are not redeemed with corruptible things,
such as silver and gold, from your vain
conversation received by tradition of your father, but
with the blood.
The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as
of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Hebrews chapter nine in verse number 22.
And almost all things are purged by the
law with blood and without the shedding of
blood, there is no remission.
Ephesians chapter one and verse number seven repeated
in Colossians chapter one in verse number seven.
The Bible says in whom we have redemption,
it needs to be purchased out of a
slave market of sin and whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace.
And ladies and gentlemen, I'm not redeemed with
Bill Gates, millions and billions and gigalillions.
I'm not redeemed with a Baptist offering.
I'm not redeemed with money.
I'm not redeemed with corruptible things that will
fade away, such as silver and gold.
But I've been redeemed with the precious red
royal crimson full of Calvary, the blood of
Jesus Christ, the only thing that can take
a wicked sin infested sinner.
And according to Isaiah chapter one in verse
number 18, makes him as pure as the
driven snow.
God said, come now, let us reason together.
Know your sins be as solid.
They shall be as snow, so they be
red like crimson.
They shall be as wool.
You know, we teach little kids sometimes about
how black sin is.
And it's a good picture because middle of
darkness rather than light.
But according to your Bible, sin's not black.
According to your Bible, ladies and gentlemen, sin
is crimson red.
The brightest, most outlandish color of red that
you can muster up in your mind.
God says when he sees a sinner, he
sees them as a crimson red sinner.
Now, how does that work?
If I am crimson red in the sight
of God, I mean light bulb, shiny red
in God's eyes.
If I'm red in the eyes of God,
but if I am to be washed in
the precious red royal blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, am I or am I not
seen by God through the blood?
Yes, I am.
That's what the Bible says.
Therefore, now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit.
Why?
Much more being justified by his blood.
We have peace with God.
OK, so here I am as a sinner,
light bulb, tacky red in the eyes of
God.
Then I am washed April the 17th of
1992, 830 at night, washed in the precious
red royal blood of Calvary because by faith
and faith alone, I turn from my way
and turn to God's way.
So let me ask you a question.
How can a red sinner be covered in
red blood and according to God be seen
as white as snow?
I'll tell you, I remember when I was
a kid, I used to like Cracker Jacks.
I'm careful about saying sometimes what I like
in the pulpit.
OK, that's not a point for Walton.
Next week, we're going to be at Valley
Drive Baptist Church in Fielddale, Virginia.
Last year we were there.
I said, I like red velvet cake.
We got seven of them things.
OK, so when I was a kid, I
liked Cracker Jacks.
I'm not a big fan of them now,
but I'll eat them, I suppose, if I
was in a desert and I started them
and I had to.
But the Cracker Jack pops always enjoyed the
toy.
And if you'll be honest with you, when
you ate Cracker Jacks and when you ate
cereals as a kid, you could have cared
less if you were starving to death.
You didn't want the Cracker Jacks and you
didn't want the Cheerios.
You wanted the toy on the inside.
And I remember I'd reach inside there and
I'd pull out all that little stuff you
could stick all over you and stick all
over the house.
And Mama loved that.
But they always had them little big coasters.
Remember those?
They had those little deals you'd put out.
And here were these, these sinuses.
I mean, mumbo jumbo.
I mean, you couldn't understand a word it
said.
I mean, it was all messed up and
all, you know, it had to be field
filled out is what they called it.
So what they had are these red words
everywhere.
Then they had these little blank spots all
over the place.
And they had all these little red decoders
in there.
Remember that little cellophane red deal?
And so you'd get that little red cellophane
magnifier, whatever it was, and you'd take that
red cellophane and you'd put it over the
top of that red word.
And you remember what color it would be?
You could see like this.
But you could get a regular old cellophane
and look through it and it'd still be
red.
You put your glasses off, put your glasses
on, you'd look through a paper towel if
you wanted to, it'd still be red.
It was only when you put the red
decoder on top of the red words that
you could look at it and see it
white.
You know what, ladies and gentlemen, I'm light
blue, tacky red in the eyes of God.
But when the blood has been applied from
my heart, when I was redeemed, God looks
through the blood and he sees me as
white as it is.
And the Bible says I have been created
for his glory and saved for his glory.
Somebody says, well, I live my life the
way I want to because I'm going to
heaven when I die.
And the only reason you got saved wasn't
to go to heaven.
If the only reason you got saved was
to go to heaven, God had put you
there the day you got saved.
He left you there for a purpose.
That's to honor and bring glory to the
Lord Jesus Christ, the one that resides in
your very body.
And Paul said, you are bought with a
price.
That price is the blood of Jesus Christ.
You've heard it a million and one times,
but let it be reiterated.
Salvation is free, but it is not cheap.
It costs heaven's best.
The Lord Jesus Christ robed himself in human
glory and came down here and took upon
him the form of a man and was
spit upon.
The beard was plucked out by his very
roots.
And ladies and gentlemen, he shed every single
drop of blood for you and for me
so that we may be redeemed out of
the slave market of iniquity.
And don't you tell me you can live
your life any way that you want to
because you cannot, because he created you for
his glory and saved you for his glory.
Paul said, the very Chicana glory of the
Holy God resides in your very...
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn
from Immanuel's veins.
And sin is purged beneath that flood, loose
all their guilty stains.
Dying, he rejoiced to see that fountain in
his day, and there may I, through how
I see, wash all my sins away.
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus, not your
church membership, not your baptismal certificate, not being
a Baptist, a Catholic, a dog walker, a
tongue speaker, an Episcopalian, anything like that, ladies
and gentlemen.
There is one thing that'll wash your sins
away in the sight of God, and that
is the blood of Jesus Christ.
And that is the only thing that'll wash
your sins away in the sight of Almighty
God.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, here's the truth
of the Bible.
Everybody in this room, everybody, from the front
to the back, from the left to the
right, come up here.
Your pastor could take a great big 50
-gallon drum.
He'd take more than that, by the way,
if everybody in the front.
He'd take a big 50-gallon drum, let
it all come up here and just shed
blood like wild animals in that 50-gallon
drum.
Just fill it up to the top.
Let all the people there, put it up
here on the community table.
The preacher get his Bible and start reading
some verses about the blood.
He says, God, you see all these people
in here?
This is their blood.
We got 50 gallons of it.
We want you to know that this is
our offering, our sacrifice to you so that
we can enter the pearly gates and we
can walk the streets of gold.
And I want you to know everybody in
this room would go straight to hell.
Because God didn't accept your blood.
He accepted Christ's blood and that's it.
He said that we have been not with
corruptible things, but the silver and gold from
your vain lifestyle, vain conversation received by the
tradition.
And all these silly traditions and ideas, they
cared more about the traditions of man than
they did the doctrines of the word of
God.
Paul said there's only one thing that'll save
your never dying soul and wash you clean,
wash you white and give you merit in
the eyes of God.
It's not your works.
It's not any of those things.
He said it's the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And by the way, for saved people, not
only is it the blood that saves us,
but the blood secures us.
It sanctifies us.
It sets us free.
And by the way, it gives us safety
because the Bible says in Revelation chapter 12
and verse 11, and they overcame him.
That's the devil by the blood of the
lamb or the devil starts in about the
blood and he'll run a long, long ways
from that church building because there's no power
through the devil.
Whenever we start talking about and preaching about
and singing about and playing about.
That's why sometimes when I pray, I say,
Lord, give us the victory we already have.
And I plead the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ because they overcame him by the
blood of the lamb, by the word of
their testimony.
And they love not their lives under the
death.
What am I saying this morning?
I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, the blood
is important for several reasons.
But one of the biggest reasons it's important
is because it redeems your soul.
And that's why you have no right to
live in the way that you want to.
That's why this week you can't sit around
at about 6.45 and 7 o'clock
and 7.15 and say, well, you know
what?
I don't think it's a real big deal
that I go to church this week.
I suppose I'll just watch TV.
Is that right?
According to the word of God, ladies and
gentlemen, you're not commanded to come to this
church to hear me preach.
You're not commanded to come to this church
to hear these people sing.
You're commanded to be faithful to the house
of God because you've been redeemed so you
can bring honor and glory to God.
And if you think you can sit home
or the house of God is being filled
and the man of God is preaching and
people are singing, and if you think you
can bring more honor to God watching a
ball game, I wonder about your spirit's condition.
Ladies and gentlemen, we've been created and we've
been redeemed for him.
We all know we belong to him.
I preached this message about a week, a
week and a half ago whenever it was
in Ghana, West Africa.
And as I was preaching this sermon, I
came to this illustration and I'm about to
give you and the light bulb came on.
I'm obviously preaching to an interpreter.
And yes, I slow down when I preach
to an interpreter.
But this guy being on the mission field,
this was the best interpreter.
He's 21 years old.
He's the best interpreter I've ever had.
You hit the pulpit, he hit the pulpit.
You lifted the Bible, he lifted the Bible.
You put out your sweat rag, he put
out his sweat rag.
I mean, buddy, he could just stay right
with you.
And I didn't have to slow down a
whole lot.
I mean, this guy could give it all.
I don't know if you understand what I'm
saying, but God broke anyhow.
But I mean, this guy, he's just moving.
And I was preaching this sermon and I
gave an invitation.
And this was on Sunday night.
We started a crusade in a little village
called Abra on Monday night through Thursday night.
And we had services every morning at 10,
services every night at 7.
Time means nothing over there.
You start at 10, that means you start
at 12.
If you start at 7, that means you
start at 1030 at night.
But nonetheless, on Sunday night, we actually started
on time.
And he had about, I don't know, about
8,500 people in his church, something like
that.
And there was a lot of teenagers.
And he has just a bunch of young
people that he works with.
And I'm telling you, I preach this message
about God's ownership and about God owning you.
And I'm telling you, when I gave the
invitation, I mean, it was like a battlefield.
I mean, them adults and them kids, I
mean, little kids.
I mean, they sprawled out on that old
concrete, dirt-infested roach crawling forward.
And I mean, they lay on the ground.
And I'm telling you, we didn't have one
of them 35-second, you come now, we're
closing the service pipe of deals.
I'm telling you, they fell on their face
and they wept and they sprawled.
And them teenagers had their hands up in
the air saying, God, forgive me.
And I mean, some of them could speak
English, but I mean, in their own little
native tongue, I mean, them people getting right
to God.
I mean, big old watermelons here screaming down
their face.
And I'm telling you, those people were overcome
after I had preached with a sense that
I belong to God.
Buddy, when they get in Africa, they get
it.
They're not some of these ones, they get
saved.
You better baptize them right then because they
won't be back for six more years.
No, but if they get it, they're in.
I mean, those people are in.
And I'll tell you more about the meeting
as the week progresses.
But I'll be honest with you, folks.
I don't believe I've ever seen people pray
and get ahold of God when they found
that man's got on.
I'm telling you, those people prayed and slaughtered
a bunch of babies.
They stayed for probably 20 minutes.
No music, no singing, nothing like that.
You don't have pianos in a little school
room over in Africa.
You ain't got that.
They don't have anything, any amenities like we
got.
I mean, I took a leather Bible over
there and told them I was going to
give away Bibles on Thursday night or Wednesday
night and on Friday night to the people
who brought the most visitors.
I had some leather Bibles.
I think I paid like $18, $25, something
like that.
It's about the same size as the one
I preached.
So the missionary got one of them and
he took it up and he said, he
said, it's a little leather Bible, genuine leather.
You say, big deal.
That's a real big deal to them.
They don't have it over there.
I'm telling you, they'll take a Bible.
I mean, they'll beat the door down to
have a Bible.
So he said, I should have to get
a crowd.
He said, watch this.
He said, come on.
I he said, we're going to give away
a black, genuine leather Bible.
Then he said this.
He said, it's all the way from America.
Well, they think that's something.
I had three check marks in my box
when I got off the airplane.
I was white.
I was from the USA and I was
a preacher.
I'll be honest with you.
Those people would treat you like a God.
They wouldn't let me carry anything.
I mean, it started to make me feel
a little bit insecure.
I mean, I'd be walking out.
They'd take something out of my hand.
They'd take something out.
They wouldn't let me carry a thing.
But man, when he got up and said,
we got a black, genuine leather Bible from
America.
He said, it's just like the one, the
evangelist preachers did.
And the light bulb went on.
And the next night, you can hire a
taxi over there all day long.
I mean, $12.59. You can hire a
taxi and earn money for two bucks all
day long.
You've got to go to Nashville or somewhere
like that.
You've got to do that up in Lynchburg.
You've got to do that for him.
It costs you a lot of money.
And for them, seven days or seven dollars
a week is a big paying job.
They pay their church secretary 12 bucks a
week.
But if you think he's a Bill Gates
millionaire, that's for sure.
Seven bucks a week.
And this guy, when he found out he
could get a leather Bible, you know what
he did?
He paid for the taxis of, which probably
took about, I don't know, eight or 10
because they pack them in like circus clowns
over there.
I mean, they just pile them in.
He paid for the taxis of and brought
on Wednesday night 50 people to the revival.
That means he probably invited he brought 50
people to the revival meeting so he could
win a Bible.
I'm telling you, when those people get their
hearts right with God over there, they have
a sense of, they know they owe God
something big.
And it's the right.
That's why Paul said, it's not your unreasonable,
but it's your reasonable church.
I give you this to work through.
Those young men I read about, my wife
talks about him sometimes in her children's meetings.
His name was Johnny Turnbull.
Johnny Turnbull was like any little eight, nine,
10 year old kid.
He had a creative mind.
Mr. Johnny Turnbull, one day went downstairs on
a Saturday afternoon and asked his father if
he could mess around with some of his
tools.
He said, yes, you can.
Just the hand tools, not really in the
power tools, anything like that.
Don't cut your fingers off.
And so he went down there and he
got the hammering.
He got the painting.
He got the sawing.
He got the chipping.
He got to doing everything he could.
And finally, after several hours, he made himself
a little makeshift toy boat, a little sailboat.
He put a little stick on that thing
and put a little white sail on it.
He got his mama's purple fingernail polish and
put J period, T period right there in
big letters standing for Johnny Turnbull.
Got himself a little Pepsi cola and pop
the lid off, drunk it down real good.
He put that little tab there on the
side and nailed it down.
And he took a kite string and tied
it to that little thing.
And he said, mama, he said, I'm going
to go out down here to the little
city park and I'm going to put that
thing in the lake and I'm going to
let it go out like a kite.
I'm going to watch it kind of flip
around.
He got him a little bit of tape,
you know, some sticky tack stuff like that.
And he got his little G.I. Gobi
and stuck them all around there like there
was a bunch of sailors, you know.
And so he went down there, but he
was all happy.
He had him a patriotic boat, red, white
and blue, all different colors.
Man, he was just so happy he couldn't
stand it.
He went down and put that little boat
in the water and that little thing got
to sailing out over the sea.
I mean, it was going out there in
the lake and he got that thing going
out to the back of the auditorium, you
know, all the way back a little bit
farther about out where the parking lot was.
And then he just having himself a time.
He got out in that water just a
little bit, but he got up to his
ankles and then he just watching that little
boat.
He'd bring it in a little bit and
the wind would catch it.
And all of a sudden, the waves got
up a little bit and the wind got
up a little bit and hit that thing
right out of his hand.
And so that thing started going down the
little side of the beach there.
But he was running down through that water
ankle deep and it started getting out more
and more.
He reached over and grabbed the whole that
thing and picked it up.
And when he did, he put a little
bit too much tension on that string and
click it broke.
And there goes.
Oh, man, I'm telling you, you talk about
discouragement, despair and distress filled his heart.
Anxiety overwhelmed him.
And he thought he was going to tear
down the spot.
But he tried to be a good little
boy and he went home, told his mom
all about it.
Sunday came, went to church.
Monday came, went to school.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Finally, about the end of the week or
so, Thursday or Friday there that week, he
began to come back home from school.
It was only several blocks from his home.
He was walking, riding his bike as if
it was.
And he went by Mr. Smith's toy shop
and he looked over the window and guess
what he saw?
It was a surprise and amazement.
You guessed it.
There it was.
Day period, tea period, white sail, little piece
of string coming off.
And sitting under a cellophane wrapper was a
red, white and blue toy sailboat.
And it was obvious that it had been
made by God.
Oh man, he busted through that door and
he went over there.
Mr. Smith was dealing with a customer, but
he didn't care.
He walked over and pulled on his apron
strings and Mr. Smith, that boat is mine.
He said, that boat belongs to me.
If there's ever been a boat that belongs
to me.
He said, I've spent all my time and
wealth working on that thing for several hours.
And he said, I lost it, gave him
the whole story.
And he said, Johnny, you know what?
You've never had reason to lie to me
before.
And I believe you, son.
He said, but a little girl came in
here the other day and sold me that
boat for five.
He said, if you want that boat, you're
going to have to learn a little bit
about responsibility and you're going to have to
buy that boat for five dollars or so.
He said, now, Mr. Smith, let me ask
you a question, pal.
He said, I'm just a little kid.
He said, I don't know why, where am
I supposed to amass a fortune of five
dollars?
And he said, I don't know, but I'll
tell you what, I'll make a deal with
you.
You promise me that you will buy this
boat and I promise you, I'll keep it
until you get the five dollars, no matter
how long it takes.
He said, you got yourself a deal, buddy.
He ran out of there.
He went down to the church and asked
the preacher for everything he could do.
He painted the fences.
He scrubbed toilets.
He scrubbed the ground out of the bathroom
floor.
I mean, he did everything.
I mean, he washed cars.
He did everything.
Mowed the lawn.
He clipped the weeds.
I mean, he works and works and works.
And about two weeks went by and finally,
buddy, he cashed in on the product.
He broke the head right off that piggy
bank and all them pennies and nickels and
dimes and quarters came out of there and
all the little trash that comes out with
it that he had in his pocket.
I mean, maybe there's a dollar bill or
two.
And I mean, he started to pull it
together.
He put in a Ziploc sandwich bag and
he had about 57 cents more than what
he needed.
And then he threw that stuff in there,
jumped on his bicycle and he got down
to that toy store so quickly he couldn't
understand.
He got there at eight forty five on
a Saturday morning.
The store didn't open till nine o'clock
and for 15 minutes he beat on the
door for Mr. Smith to open the storeroom
door.
And finally, at nine o'clock, right on
the dot, Mr. Smith comes over there.
The bells is jingling, jangling.
He opens up the door and that boy
makes a beeline right to the cash register.
He runs over there.
He opens up that Ziploc sandwich bag.
He pours out that five dollars and fifty
seven cents.
I mean, pennies and nickels and dimes going
all over the place.
And Mr. Smith said, slow down.
And so he goes over there and he
picks it up.
He counts it all out.
He says, that's the pack.
He says, you can have the extra.
He said, all I want is my little
boat.
Mr. Smith said, well, you kept your end
of the bargain so I suppose it'd be
good for anything.
Mr. Smith walked over and picked up that
little red, white and blue boat, J period,
T period, all the little incidentals that he
put in it several weeks before.
He pulled out a little cellophane wrapper off
and blew the dust off that he accumulated
there in the storefront window.
And he gave it to little Johnny Turnbuckle.
So Johnny Turnbuckle grabbed that thing and put
it in his arms and held it like
a puppy doll.
He started stroking that little cell.
He started making sure the letters were all
in the right place.
And he started looking at all them colors.
And he looked at the bottom of that
thing and the back of that thing and
the front of that thing.
I mean, he flipped it 360 degrees.
He looked in every direction he could look.
I mean, every nook and every cranny.
The GI Joe man wasn't on there but
he just happened to have the boat back.
But you're twice as just born as you're
saved by the grace of God because first
he made you and then he bought you.
And how dare you ask the question, who
does God think he is anyhow?
I think he is.
He's your Lord.
He's your savior.
He's your master.
And he can tell you to do anything
he wants to without you asking one single
because he owns it this morning.