What's the Matter with You? | January 28, 2026

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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Can you turn your Bibles, please, at First Corinthians

chapter #6 We're going to finish by God's grace tonight.

First Corinthians chapter #6 in a message that I have entitled

this What's the matter with you? That's a great way to start,

right? What's the matter with you?

Many of you know that there was about a 2 1/2 year period while

I was here at Liberty or I have been here at Liberty that I was

driving for Uber. We had church support that

started to go down and the church support went far down far

faster than anything that Liberty would be able to help

with. And so it was not unusual for me

2-3 nights a week, sometimes even more, to be able to go out

when I was done with church work and to go out for several hours

and to be able to do the things that I needed to do to provide

for the family. But, you know, it's interesting

that people will ask me what was it safe?

Did you have any problems? Was was there anything that was

really out of sorts, You know, for 2 1/2 years, but probably

over 1000 rides that I gave people.

I never really had a problem except for one major problem.

And that was something that took place less than a mile from

where we're standing right now. Well, I'm standing here sitting

and that was over at a local watering hole just right up the

road from here. And so I got the call to go to

this place. I got into the car.

I remember it was raining, but it was also kind of warm.

It was just a very seasonably unusual night the way that it

was. And I went to pick up this

gentleman and it was obvious that he had had a little too

much to drink. And by a little too much, I

mean, he had a lot too much to drink.

And he got into the car and listen, I, I kind of struggled

with this sometimes. And my thought process was,

well, I'm glad that I'm taking him home compared to him driving

himself home. And so I was thankful to be able

to be doing that. And so I was starting to take

him down the road and he was just, he was in another world,

let's just put it that way, than where I was.

And as I'm driving, I'm trying to take him to his home.

It was probably less than 10 minutes from where I picked him

up because of the unusual weather, because of the way that

was the windshield that I was fogging up a little bit on the

inside. And so I was trying to be able

to fix what was going on, change, you know, put the

defrost on, you know, do do all these different things.

And he starts to grab the wheel. Let me just make sure we're all

awake tonight. He was grabbing the wheel.

All right. He did not think that I was

paying enough attention because I had my hand on the knob of the

AC. So he decided to grab the wheel.

And I said, hey, get your hands off the wheel.

And we start arguing about him holding the wheel or I'm holding

the wheel. And next thing I know he yells

stop sign. And I went right through the

stops. I didn't even know the stop sign

was there because we were fighting over the wheel.

And I finally kind of did one of these to him, got his hands

back, and I kept driving and it was silent the rest of the time.

We said nothing, I said nothing. He said several things.

I didn't want to say anything because I was afraid if I did

say something, it would be very unkind and very uncharitable.

So I thought the most charitable thing to do was to say nothing.

But I remember when he opened the door, I don't know if I said

the words exactly like this, but it's certainly was very close to

this. As he opened the door to get

out, I just asked him what's the matter with you?

What's the matter with you? Now let's understand, when I

asked someone the question, what's the matter with you?

I knew what was the matter with him.

I understood exactly what was the matter with him.

It was all of those drinks that he had consumed before he had

got into the vehicle. It really wasn't the issue of

what was the matter with you. It was the idea of of don't you

know you can't do that? That's what I'm saying.

I'm not saying what's the matter with you.

You explained to me exactly what's the matter with you.

It was my way of saying, don't you know you, you can't do that.

You can't act that way in the car.

Now, Paul is going to ask a rhetorical question in our text

tonight. In fact, he's going to ask it

three different times as we read it.

He's going to say this, no, ye not.

He's going to say, basically, don't you know that this is the

way the Christian life is? And then don't you know that

this is the way the Christian life is?

And don't you know that this is the way the Christian life is?

And he's going to present this three different times in our

text tonight. And really it all comes down to

this issue of Christian Liberty. Remember, we talked about that

last week, The idea of just because we are free in Christ

does not mean we're free to no longer serve Christ.

In fact, it makes us Christian Liberty, makes us free to serve

Christ. That's really what it is all

about. And so he's going to continue to

really pound into the people of Corinth the fact of what

Christian liberty is about. And basically he's saying to

them over and over again, what's the matter with you, Corinth?

What's the matter with you? And it's not that he doesn't

know what's the matter. He knows the issue is sin.

He's just trying to help them understand.

You know, you can't act like this.

You know you can't do this. You know, this isn't what you

were supposed to be doing as a Christian.

And it's going to lead us to the last two verses of this text,

which are really some of the most well known verses of the

New Testament that I think you will be aware of and really have

even more context and really more power when we understand

the verses that have come before it.

So we're going to start at verse #15 and we're going to read the

end of the chapter. And here's the first of those

three questions. Noting not that your bodies are

the members of Christ. So I then take the members of

Christ and make them the members of it.

Harlot, God forbid what Know ye not that he which is joined to

and harlot is 1 body? For two saith he shall be 1

flesh, but he that is joined unto the Lord is 1.

Spirit flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth his

without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth

against his own body. What know ye not that your body

is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have

of God, and ye are not your own, For ye are bought with a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which

are gods. I dare say you're probably very

familiar with verse #19 and 20, even if you aren't with the rest

of the text. But I do believe that as we look

through these questions, what know ye not three different

times? It'll help us to truly

understand exactly what is being said in verse 19 and 20 and why

it's still applicable to us today.

You know, this phrase know ye not is an interesting one

because again, we would probably put it this way.

Don't you know we wouldn't say no ye not.

I wouldn't imagine going up to someone saying no ye not.

They'd probably say why are you speaking like that?

But we would ask the question, don't you know, isn't this

something you understand? Now the phrase know ye not as

Paul says it is one that Paul uses in eight times in this book

alone. And it's interesting because he

just keeps coming up to the Corinth, the people of Corinth,

and he's just saying this. What's the matter with you?

Don't you get it? Don't you know, have, haven't

you processed this? In fact, Paul only uses this

phrase four other times in all of his other epistles.

It seems like he saves it quite a bit for the people of Corinth.

And it seems like he saved a lot for this particular text right

here because he's trying to get to the bottom of people who are

not living the way they're supposed to live as believers.

And he's saying, don't you know this isn't wise?

Don't you know this isn't right? Don't you know that this isn't

what Christian liberty is all about?

In essence, What's the matter with you?

And so I want us to look at all three of these Know ye nots here

tonight. Look at all of them and see what

the connection is and how it will help us to understand how

we're supposed to live as believers tonight.

So the first one is this. Know ye not that your bodies are

members of Christ? That comes from verse #15 read

it again. Know ye not that your bodies are

the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of

Christ and make them the members of an harlot?

God forbid. Now this first question.

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?

This speaks of connection. This speaks of connection.

And really this is an extension of the last phrase that we read

before in verse #13 where it says, but for the Lord the body

is not for fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the

body. We have to remind ourselves as

tonight, that we are not our own, that our body is not ours.

Remember, we were bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify your. The Lord in your body and in

your spirit, which are gods. And so we see that this says

right here for us. Don't you know that your bodies

are the members of Christ once you're saved?

Listen, you can't. You aren't just casually

involved with Christ. You are intimately connected

with Christ. There's there's an intimate

connection that we have once we know Jesus Christ is our Savior.

John 15 verse 4 Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot

John 15:4

bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine.

No more can ye except ye abide in the vine.

John 17 verse 21 That they all may be one, as thou, Father art

John 17:21

in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the

world may believe that thou has sent me.

That when we are saved, there is a real connection that takes

place. This is not just a casual

commitment that we have with Jesus Christ.

No, when we're saved, it makes clear here that our bodies are

members of Christ. And then it asks the question,

shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members

of a harlot? Paul's saying if you are that

intimately connected with the Lord, then why on earth would

you want to connect yourself to that which is opposed to Him?

You are now connected to Jesus Christ.

You have an intimate connection. I'm not trying to be weird about

this tonight, but there's an intimacy, A closeness that we

have that really the unbelievers can't understand.

They can't even fathom. We couldn't understand before we

got saved, but we have that connection now that we are

saved. And so basically Paul's saying

why would you take that connection and try to instead

connect with that which has nothing to do with Jesus Christ?

Talking of the harlot. Now listen, the harlot here in

its primary application is talking about sexual immorality.

There's no way around that because we have seen that

mentioned before in our text. You go back up previously in

First Corinthians chapter 6, there's been talk of sexual

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

immorality before. We don't have to go very far to

go First Corinthians 5 and know that it was spoken of all in

that chapter as well. And as we continue, you can see

in verse #18 well, it's pretty clearly fornication.

So when it's talking about a harlot here, I believe it's

literally talking about a sexual immorality And saying this, if

you are a believer, if you know Jesus Christ your Savior, don't

try to take that intimate connection that you have and

then try to connect yourself to something that God said.

Don't connect yourself with. But I can also say this, and I

think I could say this with all authority, that we can more

broadly apply this to all sin without abusing the text, not

just fornication, because that is part of sin.

That certainly is sin and of itself, but it's not the only

sin. And really the broader

application here is this. Why would you reattach yourself

to something that Jesus Christ saved you from?

Why would you go back to those things and reattach yourself

when Jesus saved you from it in the first place?

No, no, that doesn't make sense. Just as much as someone who is

an intimate marital relationship should not then turn around and

then go into another relationship.

No, no, why would you take the relationship that you have with

the Lord and then go back to that which He saved you from?

But here's the problem. We do it all the time.

We do it a lot more than we want to really recognize within

ourselves. Charles Spurgeon talks about

this when he says this principle applies to more than our sexual

conduct. If our bodies belong to Jesus,

we also have no right to be idle with or wasteful of what belongs

to Him. Our bodies should be put to use

glorifying God. Therefore, glorify God in your

body. Your body was a willing horse

when it was in the service of the devil.

Let it not be a sluggish hack, now that it draws the chariot of

Christ. I like that.

But how do we know That also is an application.

Go back up to verse #9 It says this.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of

God? Be not deceived.

Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor

effeminate, nor abusers of themselves, mankind, nor

thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor

extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God.

And such were some of you meaning this, that now you, you

belong to Jesus Christ. So don't go back to those things

of which you were before, because there's a connection

that takes place. And there's a very real

connection that it's not just, well, I'm going to dabble and

sin for a little while. And I don't know that God cares.

And I don't know if anyone else knows if it's a really big deal.

As long as my spouse doesn't know, as long as my family

doesn't know, as long as the church doesn't know, it's not a

big deal. Here's the thing, God knows, and

that intimate connection that we have with Him has now been

strained as we reattach ourselves.

And we'll look more at this in a moment as we reattach ourselves

to that which God saved us from. And I couldn't help in my mind

going back. You don't have to turn there,

but to Colossians chapter #3 We've been there the last few

weeks in our series Christ is All.

But I couldn't help going back to some verses that we had read

there. Colossians chapter #3.

And it says this in verse #8 But now you also put off all these

things, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication.

Out of your mouth lie not one to another, seeing that you have

put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new

man, which is renewed and knowledge after the image of him

that created him. Those things that we had before,

put them off. These other things, put them on.

This is what God wants from us. Don't take your members, your

body, your ears, your eyes, your mouth, your nose, your feet,

your hands, whatever they are, don't just take them and attach

them back to those things of which you were rescued from.

Don't go back to those things. This is about the connection.

And he's saying, don't you know this?

What's the matter with you? Don't you understand it?

But here's the thing, We know it, but we forget it a lot.

And we think that what we look at, it's really not a big deal

as long as no one else knows. It's really just between me and

the Lord and the things that I think in my mind, listen, as

long as they don't come out of my mouth, it's not like it

really makes a big difference. But the Bible says out of the

abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.

And even if it doesn't come out of your mouth, He knows sin that

Christ died for. And it really just takes that

intimate connection we have with the Lord, and it kind of gets us

to reattach with the things that we ought not to.

Which goes to the second question, the second part, which

goes hand in hand with the 1st. And that's this.

Know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is 1 body?

Know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is 1 body?

Now read verses 16 and 18, and the question says, What?

Know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is 1 body?

For two saith he shall be 1 flesh, but he that is joined

unto the Lord is 1 Spirit Flee fornication.

Every man, every sin, rather than a man doeth, is without the

body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his

own body. So in verse #16 he begins by

speaking specifically about sexual immorality.

And really, what is being said here is this.

When it comes down to it, there is no such thing as casual sex,

no matter what the world would say.

They try to make the point here that the world does rather that

well, you know it. Listen, it's my body.

I'll do whatever I want. Or, you know, it's just a little

bit of a fling or really we just kind of got together, we hooked

up. These are the things that the

world tries to do to to say that it's dismissive, but the Bible

makes it clear that's not the way God looks at it at all.

By the way, mankind understand that's not true, no matter how

much mankind wants to make it frivolous or tries to make it as

just, well, it's just a natural function of the body, you know,

meats for the belly and belly for meats.

That's what the world will try to say.

But in the end the world understands that no, there is a

real intimacy, there's a real connection that takes place that

you can't just write off. And so he says though you not

that he which is joined in the harl is 1 body for two sayeth he

shall become one flesh. So why would you confuse

yourself in comparison to go back to those sinful things?

Don't you realize what confusion it will cause within your own

spirit? The Bible tells us in the book

of James that the double minded man is unstable in all of his

ways. You know someone who is unsaved

is not unstable in their sin because they're all in for their

sin. Someone who is saved but wants

to go back to their sin is probably the most unstable

person of all. Why?

Because the Holy Spirit inside is saying don't do that.

And they're trying to go do that which their flesh wants to do.

And it caused a great instability within.

Why? Because you have this intimate

connection. And could we maybe put it this

way, You're cheating on your Savior.

And because of that, you're not going to be stable.

It's not going to feel right. That's why people say we'll just

follow your heart and do whatever you want to do, do what

makes you happy. What we're going to see in just

a moment, what great folly that is, to even be able to suggest

such a thing, to join yourself with someone else brings

intimacy. Intimacy which leads to

confusion. This is why sexual immorality is

so damaging. It's a sin that goes right to

the soul of man. It says in verse #17 He that is

joined unto the Lord is 1 Spirit.

When we are saved, we have that union with Christ. 2nd

Corinthians 11 verse 2 For I am jealous over you with a godly

jealousy, For I have espoused you to one husband, that I'm a

present you as chaste, A chaste virgin to Christ.

To willingly reattach yourself to that which you were saved

from is confusion. Now here's where people will

start to shout Christian liberty.

I could just do whatever I want. Now that I'm saved, there's no

ramifications. There's no repercussions.

I can do whatever I want. And sure, you can do whatever

you want, but don't pretend there's no repercussions.

Don't pretend that there's going to be no issues.

I've married my wife in 2003. I'm just kidding, all right?

In 2003, Diane and I got married.

So we've been married now 22 years.

Hey, I don't have to stay with her.

I can do whatever I want. Well, who is she to tell me when

I come home at night? Who?

Who is she to tell me where, who I can be around and who is she?

I can do whatever I want. Well, is that technically true?

Technically. But that remind you, one, what

the Bible says and two, she's a redhead.

And either one of those is enough to say no, no, you know

what it comes down to. I could, but but you know what

it causes? Pain, heartache, confusion.

How many marriages destroyed, children harmed go right down

the list. Oh sure, you can do it.

But if you think there's no consequences, you're a fool.

And we think that once we have entered a union with our Savior

that we can just turn around and under the guise of Christian

liberty. Do whatever we want and there's

no repercussions, friend. That's just foolhardy.

What don't you know? He was joined to an harlot, his

one body. You're becoming one that that

there's nothing casual about this, that that there's

something that is deep and that there's intimate.

When you go back to that, it don't go back to those things

and don't say that it's just because of Christian liberty.

And that's why in verse #18 it says this flea fornication.

And maybe the best advice that I can give you tonight is not my

own advice. It's just the word of God where

it says this, these two words, flea fornication.

Let me remind you that word fornication there, the word

pornea, which covers the gamut of sexual immorality.

It does not say try to be brave and resist.

It says flee from it. There's a lot of men who think,

well, I mean, I can handle it. I can handle looking at these

things. It's not a big deal.

I can handle flirting a little bit with that woman that's over

the next cubicle. I mean, I won't go too far.

I just, I can handle it. It's not what it says.

It says flee from it. Only there was someone in the

Bible who exemplified that in the workplace.

Oh wait, Joseph when Potiphar's wife in a situation where nobody

would have known, nobody would have said anything.

Of course we know the folly of that, but yet maybe on the

surface it would seem that nobody, humanly speaking, would

know. He says this.

I can't sin against. Didn't say Potiphar can't sin

against the Lord. He can't do this.

He fled and he literally fled fornication.

He was the literal embodiment of fleeing fornication.

God gave sex as a precious gift to mankind and the powerful bond

between a husband and wife in a true one flesh relationship.

Remember, the Bible says in Hebrews 13 verse four that the

marriage bed is undefiled, that this is God's blessing.

But yet at the same time, when it is taken in the way that man

wants to, it causes nothing but difficulty and pain and hardship

and whatever little bit of pleasure there might be for the

short term boy, what comes on the other side of it is never,

ever, ever worth it. Flea fornication.

That's why when men tell me, well, well, I should be able to,

I should be able to handle what's on my cell phone.

I mean, having a blocker on my phone or a filter on my

computer, that's only for weak men.

I would disagree. It says flee from it, get away

from it. You know, I don't want to be a

couple clicks away from porn on my computer.

I'd like to have a barrier to help me.

I don't want to be a couple clicks away from porn on my

phone. I want to flee from it.

It's not well, I I know I can handle it.

Well, there may be maybe you can and maybe you can't.

And again, I understand that God tempts people differently.

Some people are are more tempted in areas than other areas.

But I just say this, listen, don't be to the place where you

think I can be brave and resist, says Fleet.

Every sin that man doeth is without the body, but he

committed fornication sinneth against his own body.

Fornication is a sin against your own body.

And Paul isn't saying that sexual immorality is worse than

any other sin, but he does teach that it has a unique effect on

the body and and who can argue with that?

Who could argue with the fact that that would be the case?

The effect is physical, but it's also moral and it's also

spiritual. So don't cause confusion by

attaching yourself to that which will harm yourself.

Abide in the vine. Which brings us to where I

really want to spend the most time here this evening in these

final 2 verses. Which is this?

It speaks of a verse #3 There it is.

Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.

This is a again some of the more well known verses of the New

Testament, particularly the Epistles.

What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,

which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own,

For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your

body and in your spirit, which are gods.

And this speaks of consecration. This speaks of consecration.

You say, what is that word consecration about?

Well, according to the 1820 dictionary, it's the act or

ceremony of separating from a common to a sacred use, or of

devoting and dedicating a person or a thing to the service and

worship of God. It is taking something that is

common and it is giving it a devotion and a purpose to God.

Now I'm going to give you an example, one that is not

actually a godly example, but one I think that you can

understand, at least as you know, I was growing up, I was in

the Lutheran Church and in the Lutheran Church they have the

teaching of consubstantiation. Now the Catholic Church teaches

transubstantiation. That means that when the host,

the wine and the bread are given, that the wine and the

bread are no longer present and it literally becomes only the

body and the blood of Christ once the consecration is given.

Now the Lutheran Church teaches something different, which is

transubstantiation or consubstantiation rather, and

that is that the body, that the bread and the wine are still

there, but it also at the same time becomes the body and blood

of Christ. Now we believe what the Bible

says when it says this due in remembrance of me, that it does

not actually become the literal body and blood of Christ for a

host of different reasons. And we'll use that for a

different time when we're actually preaching on that.

But I do remember that the pastor would always consecrate

the host, the bread and the wine right before it was the Lord's

Supper. And I know that because I was

part or at least party to it, because as an acolyte or an

altar boy, I would be standing nearby while the pastor was

doing that, and I had to help them with the different linens

and different things like that. Well, after church, there would

be leftover wine from what was at the Lord's Supper because

they would prepare a common cup that was filled to a certain

amount, and only a certain amount of people would drink it.

And there would be wine that would be leftover.

Well, once that wine was consecrated in Lutheran thought

process and Lutheran theology, you couldn't just dump that out.

Why? Because it's still the blood of

Christ. So what do they have to do?

You had to have an elder that would come back after church.

And as the ladies, my mom was one of them that would clean up

after the Lord's Supper and clean up after their version of

the Lord's Supper. Not a biblical version of it,

but they would be cleaning up and the elder would say, is

there any consecrated wine that is left?

And if there was, then he had to drink the wine.

And it seems like the elders really love coming back after

church. Had to be able to check on if

there was anything you leftover, but you could not pour it in the

sewer or the sink because the sink went to the sewer.

At best, the church, when we move churches, there was a sink

that had what they call an earth sink.

And the drain just went right outside and into the ground.

And they thought, well, if you have to dump it out, it would be

better to just dump the blood of Christ out into the ground than

to put it into the sewer. There's so many problems with

that. I can't even begin to explain

that to you right now. It's not the point of the

message. But I will say this, that the

consecration that they were serious about was this.

We have set this apart and it's only for this use.

I think even we can understand that, even if we understand the

theology is wrong, Amen. We know the theology is not

right, but you understand you have been set apart for a

certain use and this is the only use.

Any other use as an abuse, this is the use, and any other uses

and abuse, that's what consecration is.

Now Paul lays out his argument here why they should be

consecrated and in essence why we should be as well.

And he gives 5 truths in rapid succession in verse #19 and the

beginning of verse #20 he says this.

Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.

Now I want you to understand some of this evening, a lot of

times people have issue with their body and how they don't

like who they are or they want to change this or change that.

May I help you with something this evening?

When it comes to those things, your body is precious.

One, because you're a creation of the Lord.

But two, you're, you're, you're also body is the temple of the

Holy Ghost. No matter what you think of

yourself, if you are saved, you are precious because one, you're

created by a holy God, but also because the Holy Spirit dwells

within you. You are the temple of the Holy

Ghost. No, no, I'm not calling you God.

I'm saying God resides within you.

And there's something uniquely special about that fact.

I think of the Tabernacle that was out in the wilderness.

What was it? It was curtains.

Now, the temple was grand. Solomon's temple certainly was,

and there was many ways that the Tabernacle itself was also grand

in its construction. But yet at the same time you

break it down, it's curtains and metals and rocks and different

things like that that are made together.

What made that Tabernacle so great?

Was it because of the special curtains or the gold that was

overlaid or anything like that? No, it was the dwelling place of

God. God chose to dwell there.

That that that was what made it special Is what makes you

special. Your fabulous looks.

Is it anything on the outside that manifests itself?

No, It's the fact that the Holy Spirit lives inside of you.

If you're saved, No, Awesome. And I use that word awesome in

its actual term. Not like wow that meal was

awesome, inspiring all the fact that you and I could be the

temple of the Holy Ghost. Know ye not that your body is a

temple? The Holy Ghost first truth which

is in you and this goes along with the 1st that the Holy Ghost

lives inside of you. You are the temple, but the Holy

Ghost lives inside of you. Ephesians 114 which is the

earnest of our inheritance under the redemption of the purchased

possession under the praise of his glory that the down payment

of heaven lives inside of you, the Holy Spirit that the fact

that you know that you're saved because the Holy Spirit lives

inside of you talking before church.

Yet your Spirit, the Spirit testifies to your spirit book of

Romans that we are the children of God.

That's the second truth. The Holy Ghost is in you and you

have him of God. Let's not confuse ourselves that

we achieved having the Holy Ghost's presence within us

because of anything good within us because we are unholy, but

Ephesians 2 verse 22 says in whom ye also are builded

Ephesians 2:22

together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

So your body is the temple, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost is in

you. You have him of God, the 4th

truth. You are not your own.

You're not your own. This is really the rub.

And we got to this last week about our eminent selfishness

that we have, which is why we enjoy Christian liberty.

We enjoy abusing Christian liberty rather because we want

to sometimes use it as a cloak to be able to do what we want,

but we're not our own. I read this quote.

Any honest person will take better care of something that

doesn't belong to them. Our bodies belong to God because

He bought them. We don't have the right to

pollute and abuse God's property.

You know, when I rent a car, when I borrow a car, I feel like

I drive it a little bit differently when I drive my own.

Now that may not seem right. You say well you should drive

your car well. Well, I feel like I drive my car

well. I'm not saying I go around

saying you know, I'm going to speed and take chances while I'm

out. That's not what I'm saying that

I do, but there's just that extra little something when I'm

out in someone else's car. Hopefully that makes you feel

good, Dave, but there's that little something extra.

Why is that? It's not my car.

You know what, I if I borrow Dave's car, I don't want to say,

hey Dave, thanks for the car. By the way, the back half

smashed in. You want to get back to the

rental car place. I don't want to say hey, thanks

for the last few days, but wished I bought the insurance.

You know, I don't want to do that.

I'm going to probably drive it better than my own.

They don't belong to me. But if our body is not our own,

doesn't that really change the way we should think about

Christian living? Instead of seeing how little we

can do for the Lord and still get away with being holy,

Shouldn't we say, if this isn't my own from head to toe,

everything I have, boy, I want to give it to him because it all

belongs to him. And then the last goes part and

parcel with that. Look at the beginning of verse

#20 you're bought with a price. What was the price?

The precious blood of Christ first Peter 118 and 19.

For as much as you knew that you were not redeemed with

corruptible things as silver and gold for your vain conversation

received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious

blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without

spot. If someone bought me something

of great value, you would think it would change the way that you

handle that artifact or that item because you knew the amount

of money or time that somebody put in to that which was made or

given to you. And if we were bought with a

price, that price being the greatest price that's ever been

paid, the blood of Christ, then shouldn't that affect the way

that we live? Shouldn't that affect the way

that we handle ourselves? And so we asked this question,

maybe not that your body is a temple, the Holy Ghost, and he

gives, that is one of the reasons and four other reasons

of what to do. But the beginning of verse #19

the beginning verse #20 basically says, because of this.

And then the word therefore is there.

And as I was taught in Bible college, when you see the word,

therefore you want to go back and see what it's there for.

So meaning those five things I just taught you are real.

Paul is saying, therefore, because of the fact that your

body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, because of the fact that

the Holy Ghost is within you, because of the fact that you

have him of God, because of the fact you're not your own,

because of the fact you're bought with the Christ.

Therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are

gods because of all those things.

What do I do with it? Glorify Him.

See, what does that mean? Glorify is one of those nice

Christian words that we use sometimes that we talk about it,

but we don't even know what it means.

Want to glorify the Lord? What really a word that goes

along with glorify is magnify. In fact, if you look at the term

or the definition rather, for glorify means to praise, to

magnify and honor and worship, to ascribe honor to in thought

or words. Well, if I'm trying to magnify

God, then we have to ask ourselves these, this question,

when it comes to that which I do in my life, is it making it

easier for people to see Jesus or harder?

Because all because of all those things, I have to magnify God in

my body and in my spirit. I have to make sure that

everything I do makes Jesus easier to see for the world and

not harder. We'll ask the question that Paul

asked here first. If a Christian is involved in

fornication, does it make their Christian testimony easier for

people to see Christ or harder? It's an easy question to answer.

It's harder. It's hard to be able to witness

to somebody about Jesus, to truly witness to them when you

were involved in fornication. And so that's not magnifying

God. In fact, it's making it harder

to see God through your testimony.

But remember, it's not just that.

Does a Christian using foul language, does it make it easier

or harder for people to see Christ?

That magnifying Christ when a Christian is lazy Christian is

not the hardest worker at the job site or at the school?

Does that make it easier for people to see Christ or harder?

When a Christian doesn't show the joy of the Lord, does that

make it easier for people to see Christ or harder?

So this is really where the rubber meets the road, isn't it?

Well, why should I? Why should I magnify?

Why should I magnify God? Well, there were five really

good reasons, and any one of them would have been enough.

But He gave us five in a very short space.

And so because of that, He is asking us to glorify Him in His

body, His Spirit. Why?

So that other people can see Christ in US, the hope of glory.

And maybe you've wondered, why can't people?

Why don't I lead people to Christ?

Why why don't I seem to be able to be around people?

Now listen, I understand you can't force anyone to get saved.

You can't. You can't force a fish to jump

on the hook. I get that.

But I do have to wonder that you would ask yourself at some

point, is there something within me that is not magnifying God to

the people around me that they can't see Christ in me?

I'm not making an accusation, I'm just saying it's something

to ponder and to pray about in your life as I have to.

Because it's not just about the big things, it's about the small

things too. Am I able to hands attract to

someone at the store if I've been a jerk while I was at the

store? Probably not.

Am I able to witness to my neighbor if I've not been kind

to my neighbor before? Probably not.

So why do we do this? Because we glorify God in our

body, in our spirit, and in the end, they belong to him.

We're not our own. It's the last part, which are

gods. Your body is God's, your spirit

is God's. So give it to him.

You know, there's a point I mentioned this last week that

popular Christianity that most of the stuff that that goes

under the broad umbrella of Christianity has a hard time

with preaching like this because they say, look, once you're

saved, listen, you're going to heaven.

Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal.

Hey pastor, chill out, find a hobby, just calm down, man.

What are you? What are you?

What are you preaching about? Just just just enjoy life for

all it is. But there's something

fundamentally wrong about that thought process.

Consider what Paul was talking about with the people at

Corinth. They were living however they

wanted before they got saved. How is that working for them?

Not very well, right about that, sister.

It was not working well at all. They trusted Christ, but then

once they got saved after a while, guess what happened?

They went back to those things that they were doing before.

Let me ask you this. How'd that work out for him?

It worked out as well for him as it did the first time.

Not very well, they're not. They didn't lose their salvation

now they were saved, but yet they were just as miserable and

double minded. Now they're saved and they're

not living for Christ because they haven't joined themselves

to a harlot, both physically and metaphorically speaking.

So it wasn't working out before and they tried it again.

And it still didn't work out. So Paul is just stating the

obvious. A Christian should live like a

Christian, not because we're better than everyone else, but

because your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, because the

Holy Ghost is in you, because you have him of God, because you

are not your own and you're bought with a price.

Who are you to tell me, pastor? Who are you to make me feel

guilty on? Listen, I'm not the priest of

your home. I'm not going to go through your

house and go through your history list, go through your

cell phone, go through your CDs. Anybody have CDs anymore?

All right, go through your TV, go through your reading

materials, going to go through those things I have.

I have no desire to do that. I'm not the priest of your home,

but I will tell you this, that there is One who does know and

sees and understands and loves you so much.

No, no, He loves you so much. He's told you these things are

going to harm you. They harmed you before.

They'll harm you again if you go back to Him.

And in His love, He's telling you stay away from Him because

there's a connection that you have with the Savior and it

causes confusion when you go back to the world.

It doesn't come without a cost. Just like marital infidelity

comes with great cost, infidelity spiritually comes

with great cost as well. There's a lot of believers who

would say, I wandered for many years and it cost me a lot of

things. There's a lot of believers who

would say that. But when we understand this,

when we understand that we are to act as believers, that we

don't use our Christian liberty as an excuse to drift away from

God, when we understand that we're to use it as a reason to

draw closer to him, you know, change the way we live our life.

Corinthians were a mess. If they just got a handle on the

fact that they belong to God, it would solve a lot of problems.

By the way, I believe it did solve a lot of problems by the

time you get to 2nd Corinthians, but it would help us tonight.

Do not just use the cloak of Christian liberty just to be

able to excuse ourselves. Do whatever we want and it's OK.

I can get forgiveness eventually you can.

You can get forgiveness. Thank the Lord you can get

forgiveness, but don't think it comes without consequences or

cost whatsoever. Man soweth that Shelly also reap

and you can't join yourself to that which was before casually

and think that it won't harm your life, your testimony, or

your ability to glorify God to the lost.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.