Your Words, Your Heart and the Day of Judgment

Introduction: The Solemnity of Existence and the Lord's Supper

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, June 4th, 2000, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. It is a sobering thought to know that each of us shall indeed be launched into worlds unseen.

0:23 When you breathe your last, and those who stand at your deathbed or pick pieces of your body out of wreckage say, so-and-so is dead, you will have launched into realms unseen, to be held forever in unspeakable bliss or indescribable torment. It's a serious, sober thing to be possessed of an immortal, never-dying existence as a creature of God. May God help us not to trifle with our souls. Let's pray.

1:05 Our Father, we are sober. The thought that you have stamped us with a never-dying existence, and our bodies and souls shall forever be in your presence, resplendent with your glory, or in the hideous, horrible place of outer darkness, with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. O God, help me as I preach to feel the weight of that. Help those who are gathered here, saint and sinner alike, not to trifle with you, the living God, nor barter away their never-dying existence for trinkets. Come to us and meet with us. Use your word to prepare our hearts to come with the appropriate disposition of heart to this table of remembrance. We plead in Jesus' name.

2:22 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

The Nature of Christian Meditation and the Centrality of the Cross

2:25 Amen. As Pastor Smith indicated, we are grateful that we have visitors among us, and for your sake especially, I should just explain that in the ministry of the Word, prior to the Lord's Supper, those of us who are asked to preach are expected to bring a communion meditation, which means it should be something focused upon the central issues of the cross, the significance of the table, some aspect of the truth of the cross. As it touches our lives, and so that we are not excessively wearied or rushed when we come to the table to limit our meditation to 30, 35 minutes. And I will make every effort to do that tonight, as I always do when I'm asked to bring the communion meditation, though at times I don't come down exactly on the 35 minutes, but may extend it to 40, but so that there is no question in your own mind. Amen. As to why the people sit and take an hour plus exposition in the morning and just get what would be considered by morning standards a mini-sermon, that you'll understand that we do want to have time to thoughtfully reflect upon our Lord Jesus and his work for us when we come to the table.

3:48 Anyone acquainted with his Bible would agree with me when I say that the religion of the Bible is essentially and fundamentally a religion. It is the religion of the Holy Spirit. It is the religion of the Holy Spirit. It is the religion of the Holy Spirit.

4:00 It is the religion of the Holy Spirit. All of the doctrines of the Christian faith flow into the cross as the rivers flow into the sea. And all of the duties of the Christian faith flow out from and are illuminated and colored by the cross, even as the sun pours out its light upon the whole earth. And I want us to turn in Paul's.

Contextualizing 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

4:29 first letter to the corinthians and consider a brief portion of chapter six in which the truth of the centrality of the cross is seen as the cross is planted right down in the midst of the apostles treatment of the subject of fornication there in the church at corinth and as the apostle is seeking to load the consciences of the people of god with reasons as to why they should flee fornication among the many concerns central to them all is the concern that is set before us in the portion of this passage that we will consider together as our communion meditation a few months ago i sought to give you a more detailed exposition of the entire passage as i brought that brief i think it was you on god's antidote to sexual impurity but tonight we come back to the last part of verse 19 and verse 20 as the framework for our communion meditation here the apostle says and you are

5:43 not your own for you were bought with a price glorify god therefore in your body you are not your own for you were bought with a price glorify god therefore in your body you are not your own for you were bought with a price glorify god therefore in your body as i've already intimated in its immediate context the emphasis is clear that the apostle paul is here underscoring how the believer should regard his body in the light of the temptation to sexual impurity but as is so often true when we are in the midst of sexual impurity we are not our own for you are not your When the implications of the cross are brought to bear upon a specific issue, the teaching of the impact of the cross upon life extends far beyond its immediate context. For example, in Ephesians 5, when Paul is laying out the duty of husbands to love their wives, he states the truth that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it and gives us some of the richest teaching on the doctrine of Christ's death that extends far beyond the immediate context and focus of the apostles' concern. And so it is here that no matter where a Christian is, no matter what his circumstances,

The Radical Affirmation: 'You are not your own'

7:10 no matter what the particular relationships he may be presently sustaining to others, it is always true of him at all times, in all places, in all relationships, and in all circumstances, that he has been bought with a price. He is not his own and is under solemn obligation to glorify God in his body. And I want us to consider the truth of these verses under three heads. First of all, what is in our day nothing short of a radical affirmation.

7:47 A radical affirmation. Here the apostle says to these Corinthians, And you are not your own. In a day of crass self-expression and I am my own person-ism, in a day when the rationale to justify the slaying of one and a half million unborn children every year in our country is, it is my body, I am free to do what I will with my body, in a day in which people speak of their preferences being the only rule and law to which they are obligated, I say this is a radical affirmation. To say to a group of people that they are to regard themselves in no sense as their own possession. You are not your own. Now notice it does not say your mind is not your own to think your own thoughts.

8:49 Your soul is not your own to feel its own. Your heart is not your own to love its own chosen objects. But it says you are not your own. Everything that constitutes you, you, if you are a Christian, is not your own.

9:12 Your mind, your affections, your soul, your heart, your body, the totality of what makes you you is not your own. Now that's not rhetorical hyperbole. That's reality. If you are a Christian, you are in no sense your own possession.

The Logical Explanation: 'You were bought with a price'

9:34 You are not your own. In no part of your humanity, in no set of circumstances, in no relationships, you and I are not our own. The radical affirmation. But now notice, secondly, the logical explanation.

9:56 Why is this so? For, here comes the logical explanation. You are not your own for you were bought with a price. The reason why none of us who is a true believer is his own is quite simple and logical.

10:16 It is not because we are God's creatures, though that is true. Psalm 100 in verse 3 says that the Lord has made us. We are his. He has made us and not we ourselves.

10:31 We are his by right of creation. But the emphasis of this text is not upon God's rights in us and over us in virtue of creation. But the text says you are not your own for you were bought with a price. And the language of the text is the commercialization.

10:49 The text is the commercial language of that day. A bonified commercial transaction has passed over us and has made us genuinely, truly, rightfully, legally the property of another. You are not your own for you were bought with a price. And what was the price that was paid to purchase us?

11:18 Revelation 5 in verse 9. And 14 in verse 4 are the answer of the word of God to that question. Revelation 5 and verse 9. They sing a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for you were slain and did purchase unto God with your blood men of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and made them to be unto our God, a kingdom and priests, and they reign upon the earth.

11:53 You did purchase unto God with your blood. And Revelation 14 and verse 4. Similar language. These are they that were not defiled with women for they are virgins.

12:10 Here using this as imagery of their purity. These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes. These were purchased from among men to be the first fruits unto God and unto the Lamb. These were purchased from among men.

12:31 Purchased by whom? Purchased with what? Purchased by the Lamb of God at the price of his own life's blood. Now when the apostle used this language to the Corinthians, they would have understood the commercial overtones of the language used.

12:52 And it may well be, and some of the commentators point this out, that Paul may be referring to an act that is called an act of manumission in which a slave was set free by a price paid to the master in the name of a deity. And in the name of a pagan deity, a slave would be purchased and become the property of another. And it may be that against that background in a society that was riddled with the institution of slavery that Paul uses the language. But whether that's there or not, this much is clear.

13:32 That when the apostle gives a logical explanation for his radical affirmation, that explanation is simple and clear. You are not your own for you were bought with a price. Every time a sinner, in the consciousness that he can do nothing to pardon his own sin, he can do nothing to release himself from his legal obligations to the law of God, cast himself upon Christ and the virtue of his sacrificial bloodletting, in that transaction of repentance and faith, he becomes totally, irreversibly, eternally, the purchased property of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just positionally and federally going back to the act of purchase when our Lord died in space-time history, but our Lord enters into the fruit of his purchase and we become his possession bought by the price of his own precious blood. The radical affirmation, you are not your own. The logical explanation, for you were bought with a price.

The Universal Implication: 'Glorify God therefore in your body'

14:57 Now we come to the crunch line. The universal implication. What's the implication then of all this? Look at the text.

15:07 You are not your own for you were bought with a price. Here's the implication of therefore statement. Glorify God therefore in your body. Now a number of you have the New King James Version which says, and in your spirit which are his.

15:30 And we come back again to a textual matter. That particular translation is based on a textual tradition that lays in my judgment too much weight upon certain manuscripts and the manuscript evidence for that additional part is, is very weak and apparently was added by certain scribes because this seems so crassly fleshy. It needed to be elevated into a little higher level of spirituality to be told that the universal implication of being purchased by the blood of Christ is that God be glorified in our bodies with no mention of the spirit seems crassly, crassly carnal and, and focused upon what is touchable and feelable. But remember the context. The context is people who could gather in their charismatic free-for-alls on the Lord's day and men and women prophets standing up, thus saith the Lord, and giving their words from God and people speaking in tongues with no interpreters and they were having a charismatic free-for-all, really in the spirit. And they go out on Monday and consort with harlots and engage in fornication.

16:53 And the apostle is seeking to demonstrate that the redemption of Jesus Christ does not terminate upon the soul but the whole man. You were bought with a price. Not your soul. You were bought with a price.

17:09 You notice in my opening remarks based on the words of the hymn I didn't say it's a sober thing to know you have a never dying soul you notice I didn't say a never dying you have a never dying existence body and soul you're going to exist somewhere forever. Death is just a temporary rending of the soul and the body. That's all. Just temporary.

17:33 And the apostle is concerned that these people who through pagan influences in philosophy and in morality felt that they could be very spiritual inwardly and it made no real difference what they did the fleshy part of who and what they were is careful to terminate the emphasis here or focus the emphasis upon glorifying God therefore in your body. The duty mandated in this universal implication what is it? It is to glorify God. To bring honor and praise to God.

18:10 That when people interact with you they will know something of what God is like actually God revealed in Jesus Christ. For he that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked whom he did foreknow them he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And the duty mandated in the light of that radical affirmation you're not your own based on that logical explanation we were bought with a price is this I am now under solemn obligation in every place at all times and in all relationships to be passionately concerned that what I do what I say where I go and how I interact with others what I think when I'm alone all that I am that I bring honor and praise to the God who has purchased me at the price of the blood of his own dear Son. Glorify God Christ's free redemption brings us back to the place where we begin to live for the very purpose for which we were made. What is man's chief end?

19:35 Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. He made man in his image after the image of God created he him male and female created he them. And what is the most critical element of our sin? All have sinned and fall short of what?

20:00 You can quote it fall short of what? The glory of God the very purpose for which we were made that you and I might be living walking, breathing representatives of God. And the sin of our sin is that we fall short at the very purpose of our existence. And God in his great redemptive love and mercy at great cost to himself has bought a people with his own blood and when they come by faith to embrace his graciously provided salvation they are from henceforth no longer to regard themselves as their own. But his purchased possession now consciously and deliberately to live for the very purpose for which we were created. Glorify God therefore. That's the duty mandated but look at the sphere specified.

21:05 Glorify God therefore in your body in the realm and sphere of your bodily existence. In the context again I acknowledge the primary emphasis would be glorify God in your body that is in the expression of your sexual capacity and appetites. Flee fornication arm yourself with all the motives in the passage. I fully acknowledge that.

21:39 But this is not the only passage that speaks of glorifying God in the realm or sphere of our bodily existence. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your hearts no present your souls no what does Romans 12 once say? That you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable rational service. You don't go out and get an animal and slit its throat and present it unto God as an expression of gratitude for his free salvation and his mercy in Christ.

The Sphere Specified: Glorifying God in Bodily Existence

22:19 You present yourself in the concreteness of your bodily existence. That body that God has given you in that body you are to glorify him. When that body is at work when that body is at play when that body is alone in secret and its eyes look at what it chooses to look at when the hands touch what they choose to look at when that body is placed in proximity to other bodies and relates to those bodies in the totality of your redeemed humanity you and I are to be committed to glorify God in the sphere of our bodily existence. Now, do you see the tremendous relevance of this as we look in two directions? As we come to the table it's my turn to assist at the table tonight along with Pastor Carlson or Pastor Smith I think it's Pastor Smith, yes. And I will uncover that loaf of bread and break it and we'll read the words from 1 Corinthians 11 and then the symbol of the fruit of the vine the little cups filled with the fruit of the vine and what we're saying is this that the Lord Jesus Christ present by his spirit

23:48 is in these two emblems reminding us that the price that was paid to redeem us from everlasting torment unto all of the privileges of everlasting glory and the presence of God and of the Lamb and all of his redeemed in the new heavens and earth was that Jesus Christ died for us. But now, bring this text to bear upon the table that very purchased price that redeemed us out of the clutches of the devil and out of the condemnation of God's righteous law that blood shed for us bought us so that we are henceforth not our own. If you take the bread in the cup saying I have salvation from the broken body and the poured out blood of Christ you know what you're saying in the next breath? Therefore, I gladly acknowledge I am not my own. A whole Christ was given to purchase a whole salvation that will secure the whole allegiance of all who embrace it.

24:59 It wasn't a half Christ to purchase half of you. It was a whole Christ given to purchase the whole you. And if you're a true believer you are not your own. You've been bought with a price.

25:15 And the wonder of God's grace is you're glad that it's so. You know you ain't lost nothing but hell and bondage and the wretched tyranny of your body being the playground of your lusts. And there's a beautiful concreteness in the biblical doctrine of sanctification. When Paul opens up the truth from a differing perspective in Romans 6 of our union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection when He died we died with Him to sin when He rose we have risen with Him to newness of life.

25:51 After all of that he says reckon yourselves therefore to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. And then he gives the practical outworking of that and he says look don't present your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but present yourselves unto God and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God for sin shall no longer exercise lordship over you for you are not under the law but under grace. Grace encompasses the totality of the humanity of all to whom it comes in saving power. And we say Lord I'm not my own.

26:36 My eyes are not my own to look at whatever they would look at but Lord Jesus they are yours to look upon the things that please you. My ears are not my own to hear what they would natively desire to hear but what will please you. My tongue is not my own to speak its own words. My hands, my feet, all of the members of my body not my own bought with a price.

Connecting the Text to the Lord's Table

27:05 And by your grace oh Lord Jesus I am committed to glorify you in my body. Now that's the avenue from the text to the table. And now I want to speak very pastorally. Summer is upon us and with summer come back yard post and neighborhood pools and community pools and park lakes.

Pastoral Application: Modesty and Summer Activities

27:35 And I want to lay a solemn challenge before every blood-bought child of God in Trinity Baptist Church. And I know some of you will go home and mumble. Some of you will get in little groups and try to refute what I've said. I've counted the cost and I've been bought to be Christ's free man.

28:01 1 Corinthians 7.23 You were bought with a price. Be not the slaves of men. And I will not be a slave to your potential frowns or criticism.

28:10 But I want to lay out this challenge on behalf of my Savior whose body and blood will be remembered here tonight. Every woman, every girl in this place your body is his purchased possession. And if it's his possession and under his control it will not willfully or carelessly be exposed to become the object of the wanton lustful glances of men and boys who know not Christ or the occasion of stumbling into lustful glances from your brothers in Christ. Do you hear me?

28:49 Do you hear what I'm saying? If you consciously say when you get up the morning you're planning to go to PV Park to the community pool to your backyard I don't care where it is can you put on your bathing gown your garment whatever it is and say Lord Jesus I glorify you in the bearing of this much of my body to anyone who wants to look upon me. Oh yes it may elicit a leering and I may feed the wickedness of the hearts of men but Lord Jesus I glorify you as I do it. Can you gather with your brothers in Christ when you know what Christ said? Whoso looks to lust upon a woman hath committed adultery already in his heart and bear as much of your body as in any other circumstance would be considered shameful except to your husband behind the bedroom door. But because American culture has said you can have bared thighs up to here

30:14 as long as it's a one piece suit and you can wear the equivalent of bra and panties which if you walk down the street you'd be arrested because it's by sand and surf in the community pool it's acceptable. What in God's name has happened to our consciences? What has happened to them? Glorify God in your body in your body Christian woman.

Addressing Objections and the Broader Application to Men

30:49 Oh yes but yeah I know oh yes but I was reared on Long Island Sound five minutes walk from the beach I grew up on the beach I loved the beach but when God saved me this is not a cultural thing with me God got hold of my conscience and indiscriminate mixed bathing has never been a part of my life and it isn't culturally conditioned it's in my Bible. Am I saying anyone who has a backyard pool who swims I'm not saying you're sinning what I'm saying is this can you look in the mirror with whatever you've taken off and whatever you're exposing and say Lord Jesus you and I purchased this body and I glorify you by exposing this much to the gaze of people other than my husband and in some circumstances to my children that's all I'm asking you don't get in a huff and distort what I've said if you are not your own and you've been bought with a price

32:18 surely you want to glorify God in your body do you not? and what about the text where Jesus said it is necessary that offenses come in a wicked world men are going to sin but woe unto him through whom the offense comes it were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the sea my friends that's strong language and some of you women may say oh man you're going to lie to me you must have lust if you wear a gunny sack ah yes but if you go out down main street in a gunny sack and a man lusts after you your conscience is clear that you have not unnecessarily occasioned his lust you'll never be charged with being the occasion of his sin he'll answer for his burning lust that lusts through a gunny sack don't get off the hook by rationalization my dear sisters or my dear brothers there was a time when it was thought that looking at bodies and body watching and seeing if someone was buff and ripped was only men with women it's the other way around now there's as much pornography in the mall I hadn't been in in years and you walk through it and there in pennies and seers go into the men's section the men's underwear packages are pornographic and women and girls

33:45 are body conscious now in a way they weren't twenty to thirty years ago you men you have an obligation you're bought with a price glorify God what you put on it what you take off it what you put in it and what you don't put in it whether therefore here's another text that underscores it whether therefore you what eat what you eat how much you eat how much of what you eat gives necessary energy how much continually gets stored in excessive fat cells puts a strain upon the heart unnecessarily prejudices your health and well-being and service of Christ and holding the conscience of your children and your brothers and sisters whether therefore you eat what you eat how much how little you don't eat enough to burn up the energy you're using to fuel the energy and you feed off your own body that doesn't glorify God that doesn't glorify God whether you eat or drink what you drink how much you drink the effect of the drink be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit whether therefore you eat or drink

The Grand End: Glorifying God in All Things

35:12 or whatsoever you do do all to what let's say it do all to what oh we're right back here aren't we you were bought with a price you're not your own glorify God eating drinking whatever you do this is just one specific thing one specific focus of it whatever we do that's the great end Christ died to have a people whose passion is that they will glorify God in whatsoever they do and this passage that we've meditated upon says you're not your own you've been bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body it's a serious thing to look in the mirror and say this temple of clay that is decaying day by day that month by month for some of us sprouts a new arthritic joint and some other sign that the outward man is decaying to look in the mirror and say man you're looking at purchased property stamped with the cross and it's marked for eternal glory but right now with whatever I've got

36:39 I've got to do the best I can to make sure that Jesus gets the fruit of his death in this body that's why some of us submit ourselves to a regimen of exercise from which we get no highs which is unpleasant to our flesh it's the conviction that it's only in this body that we can serve God until he stops the ticker and it lies in the grave and waits the resurrection we've got to think that way it's in your body that you will be the mother and the wife and the husband and the father and the friend and the workman and the mercy on us if like the Corinthians we can be spiritual in an unbodily way what the body is what the body does is irrelevant no it isn't irrelevant it's been bought with a price bought with a price I close with a touching passage out of the three Marys if you haven't obtained that book the three Marys it's Moody Stewart's beautiful edifying fascinating at times and all kinds of adjectives I could use meditation on Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of our Lord my wife and I have read those too we're just finishing up on Mary Magdalene and he has this beautiful section we read several nights ago when the Lord reveals himself to Mary

The Danger of Double Service

38:07 when she's weeping by the tomb and he says to her Mary and she turns and says Rabboni he shows that that expression Rabboni meant my master my teacher my Lord my Lord and as he's opening up the concept of Rabboni my master he says it demands humility and secondly it implies singleness in the eye of the servant and here's the passage I want to read to you the service can never be reconciled without first reconciling the masters but the prince of this world has nothing in Christ and what fellowship has Christ with Belial yet the attempted double service the attempt to serve two masters Christ and some other the attempted double service is deeply injuring thousands of true believers now notice his careful wording the attempt to serve two masters is ruining and hindering thousands of real believers a real believer can only attempt to serve two masters because in reality no man can serve two masters then he says this and tens of thousands of professing Christians are continually perishing in the vain endeavor to please two masters half master and half Lord is all they really call Jesus master of my soul Lord of my spirit

39:36 but not master of my body my tongue my ears my eyes my feet and hands Lord of my devotions but not of my affections my heart my intellect my time my farm my merchandise my soul master of my future my old age my weakness my sickness my sorrow my death and my eternity but not master of my present my health my life my pleasure half savior for the best of men would leave them wholly lost forever and our complete redeemer is likewise our absolute Lord Jesus is meek and lowly in heart but he will not be mocked by any man and to every half servant he will sternly say no servant can serve two masters depart from me you workers of iniquity but on the other hand the my rabboni of Mary strikes a kindred chord in the heart of every humble and single-eyed follower of Jesus my unconverted friend sitting here tonight I'm so glad in the light of our first hymn that I can say to you in the language of Matthew 12 all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit

The Gospel Invitation and Worthy Communion

41:01 all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven the sons of men for the blood of Jesus God's Son cleanses from all sin come now let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool Christ's blood has power to cleanse and forgive the vilest of sins in any combination and in any amount that's the gospel go to Christ and the virtue of his blood will render you clean as the new falling snow but if you go know that the blood by which you're cleansed has purchased you all of you the whole of you without exception if you want to know the sweet kiss of his pardoning grace throw yourself upon him and with Mary say Rabboni my master my master if any professing Christian comes to this table willfully knowingly clinging to anything that is a contradiction of Christ's purchase of you you're trifling with sacred things and partaking of those emblems of his body and his blood in an unworthy manner

42:30 and provoking God to severely chastise you if you're a true Christian coming to the table is not only coming with joy and gratitude and fresh expressions of devotion to the Lord Jesus who died that we might be forgiven but with fresh and honest searchings of heart to ask does he have in me what he died to get from me you're not your own for you were bought with a price glorify God therefore in your body let us pray our Father how we plead with you that you would take your word and bring it home to our hearts with power we acknowledge with shame that so often we rob our Lord Jesus of the fruit of his suffering when with hand and foot and eye and tongue and other bodily members we do that which does not glorify you forgive us our God we pray wash us afresh in the blood of your Son and draw from us sincere and earnest

Concluding Prayer for Consecration

43:55 fresh consecration of all that we are to you that we may be to the praise of the glory of your grace through the remainder of our earthly pilgrimage and then in a better place and in a fuller and more glorious way to glorify you perfectly and that forever continue with us we plead in Jesus name Amen