Bought with a Price

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Well, we come now for the time for the word and I am thankful again to have been given an opportunity to take a week to be with our family as many of you know my wife gave birth to our fifth child this past week are actually two weeks ago now and brother Andy has been Graciously filling the pulpit and giving me an opportunity to be out At least out of the study for the week as I help with the new baby So brother Andy is going to come and preach for us again this morning As we begin I'm going to ask if we would just read one verse To focus our thoughts and First Corinthians chapter 6 and the 20th verse first Corinthians chapter 6 verse 20 For you were bought at a price therefore glorify God in your body and In your spirit, which are God's Let us again Ask God's blessing Upon his word and upon the thoughts that come out of his word Father now again, we come to that time in our corporate worship where we desire to hear from you We pray Oh God that you would help us that you would do what only you can do and that is to take your word Holy Spirit To make it real effectual And cause it to change us in our minds and our hearts and in our lives That we would be the light on the hill not merely by our words, but by our lives By what we do and what we do not do by what we say and we do not say so come now Lord Jesus teach us out of your Holy Word and make the words of our mouth and The meditations of our heart again be acceptable in your sight for you are our God Iraq and our Redeemer We ask it in your name Lord Jesus.
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Amen For you were bought at a price.
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Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's So often People will ask you as you prepare a message What's the title? What would be the title to the message? and I'm not that good with titles but nevertheless, I Try to give a title to when I'm asked.
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So as I thought of a title for this morning, I thought of These words that we were bought and paid for bought and paid for And then I began to think I've got to think well what would happen if someone came into our worship this morning who? Knew nothing about Christianity or what they knew they knew very little and as they walk in and they were handed a bulletin and Opened it up and they saw That title for the message bought and paid for I wonder if some people would begin to wonder what goes on here bought and paid for And they might begin to think well, you know what as much as I know about Christianity I thought Christianity was about about love and Goodness and gentleness and and things of that nature and and yet a title for a message of bought and paid for Are we going to talk about slavery? We're going to talk about being the subjection That's a pretty dark subject.
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So I might think I would even suggest that some that make a claim to be in relationship to Christ if they were Given that title of what paper that they also would begin to think.
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Oh This guy was up here last week and he started saying some things that we didn't like last week and here he goes again with bought and paid for I Want to say this as clearly as I can and I ask you to consider it I would say that that truth of being bought and Claimed is at the very heart of the gospel That it is not a sad subject.
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It is not a dark subject as a matter of fact I suggest to you that what we talk about this morning is probably the most glorious truth that you and I could ever know And it's laid out for us so clearly by the Apostle in this verse where he says you were bought At a price Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit Which are God's? You see friends a Christian indeed is someone who has been purchased Someone who has been bought someone who has been bought and as We shall see What a marvelous truth it is to be bought with a price Christian I I hope to to impress upon our minds by the Spirit of God a Christian is indeed one who has become a slave a Servant Purchased by a master and and the glory of it all friends is the nature in the person of the master Who purchased us? Well, you see there is a very dark and ugly side to slavery and subjection and we're all too familiar with it and And it's still discussed by many today but the reality of the child of God being a Servant or a slave is the most glorious truth to consider Because of the nature of the master who bought us We see there is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ there is no other master as glorious as Majestic as kind as compassionate as caring As the one who purchased us on Galatians cross And as we look and consider what Paul is seeking I believe to impress upon the Church of Corinth and hope to make that application for us that you and I will be here of Of this part of being bought and paid for in order to thrill us In order to cause us to rise up in worship Many years ago I tried and I say tried not like brother Keaton seems to have the Greek Just right on his tongue many many years ago.
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I tried to become acquainted with the New Testament Greek Not an easy task and one of the first words that I studied was the word I would pronounce it doulas and The word doulas in the Greek really means a slave or a bond servant And I began to consider that and I will say I've gotten myself in a lot of trouble I can get in trouble very quickly brothers and sisters I've gotten in trouble with my wife many times because I've called her my doulas.
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I Even have said it in public.
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This is my doulas Now I do not suggest that You do something like this.
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Hi doulas.
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What are you cooking for dinner? Won't go over well Okay, but you see the thought was that that in essence that she was mine and I was hers and Then in that way she is a bond servant to me and I am a bond servant Because you see under the inspiration of the Spirit of God as you read this Paul, although he doesn't specifically use that word doulas or bond servant It is so truly Implied in these words for you were bought with a price Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's So so this part of this word of being a bond servant or a slave In essence what it really means is is that someone is devoted Someone is in in relationship to another in such a way that the the master And his desires and his will and if you would his needs or his wants become supreme over the will of the slave So that the slave in that sense yields everything to the master because the good of the master exceeds the good of the slave and As Paul is if you read the first portion of chapter 6 Paul is urging the church at Corinth.
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He's urging the children of God.
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He's urging those who make claim of Christ he's urging them to live a certain kind of life and It's it's a life of holiness It's a life of which the the one who has been purchased as we will Continually look at that.
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They would show forth The nature the character as well as the will and desire of the master was purchased Well, that's an injunction given to us in the Word of God in so many ways The Word of God teaches us that we are to pursue peace with all men and to follow after holiness Without which no man shall see the Lord And so as you read through First Corinthians chapter 6 you begin to see how Paul is seeking to press upon the church That their lives are in many ways to reflect life of a slave a servant a bondman one devoted to the good of the master It says it you are not your own and he also reveals to them that they were not just bought for nothing I hope to get to that shortly, but look what he says.
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He says you were bought with a price You were bought with a price.
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You know brothers and sisters we really need The work of God the Holy Spirit to impress upon us that truth in our lives That we are no longer our own That we no longer live just to live for self that someone And not just any master Someone the Lord of glory the eternal Son of God The one who created us the one who sustains us the one who cast us in a way that no other Could ever care that he has bought us Made us his own.
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I suggest to you this is the most enjoyable topic.
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I suggest to you that there is nothing greater to consider Than this thought of slavery and this thought of being in subjection Think of the Lord Jesus Christ himself in many of his teachings to the disciples He continually set this truth out of being slaves and servants And The reality my friends is this Not only did he teach that to the disciples he taught it to the Pharisees although they resisted it He taught it to the multitudes as they came before him and in Very clear terms if you remember at one place in the Gospels.
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He said that no man can serve two masses Well, he says that either he will love the one and hate the other or he will be loyal to one and despise the other Here's a reality friends that you and I continually need to keep in our mind No one is their own God Say it again.
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I think we can say that no one is their own God.
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No one is their own master No one created themselves no one sustains themselves No one has the freeness To be such a master overall the only free Eternal being is Almighty God That's why he is the master overall If that were not true, then what the Apostle Paul says in verse 20 to me would make no sense at all He says you were bought with a price It would really make no sense to me or would be nonsense To speak about slavery and subjection and being bought and paid for if there wasn't this truth of ownership If there wasn't this truth of of a master and a serve a servant relationship And you see my friends with Paul is laying out here when he's he's seeking to use Listen, just think about this.
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We talked about many times how we ought to live our life And and we also talk many times that people want to make suggestions Well, this is the way you should do this and this is the way you should do that.
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And if you follow this Process or procedure or this manual or you read this book? It'll help you to walk closer to God I will say to you that the greatest and Most direct way to walk before the living God is to walk before him as he is the living God And then you and I are are devoted To to his desire his requests in our life Because you see my friends if there is slavery If there is bought and paid for then there is some sort of transaction that has taken place You were bought at a price the very thought of of being purchased reveals in itself the reality of a transaction taking place as surely as you and I would go somewhere perhaps and make a purchase and when once we made that purchase and once we paid That price we would then say it's mine It was yours.
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I purchased it.
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I paid the price Therefore it now belongs to me.
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I am the sole owner of it Unless of course you have a mortgage Remember what the Proverbs say Says the servant is slave to the lender But a transaction has taken place And in that transaction my friends is the cross That transaction is what took place on Calvary's hill.
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I want you to think for a moment about What Paul who Paul is speaking to look what it says He says to the church And when he says it to the church, I believe that Paul has in mind.
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He's talking to believers Granted there are weak and tear in this local church, but I don't believe that Paul is addressing them in that sense He's speaking to those who are claiming to be Christ and he says you There are many times in the scriptures when Paul speaks to men in general there are many times when Paul speaks as if he's speaking to all men and Teaching all men something but as you come here and you begin to see this he says to them you were bought with price very specific Group in mind.
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It's a very select you see my friends as We read in the opening The reason I asked us to read in Isaiah 43 was in many ways what it said at the very first verse where God says You are mine and then it goes on if you remember what we read it says you were mine and because you were mine I ransomed everything else to make you mine very select people Matter of fact, it's a very particular people It's the people who are not only Willing But are able because of the very nature of their own hearts to sing I am his I am his and he is mine Think for a minute friends how God considers us in his word in his truth He calls us a chosen generation Just as surely as if you were a master and suppose it was still the time of slavery and you went to the slave market and You saw the slaves that were if you will presented for purchase That the master would say I will take that one.
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I want this one God says we are A chosen generation a royal priesthood.
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We call a special nation a particular people a peculiar people His people his sheep His saints his adopted children God speaks of us and he says that we are as the apple of his eye God says I've I've written your names on the palms of my hands So I shall never forget you Is that not the gospel my friends is not that the good news Did God in in his own eternal purpose in God according to his his own? Will which you and I shall never fully comprehend that he sent his only eternal begotten Son into this world To enter into this world as a man to enter into this world To come and to live among us From the very cradle if you will to the grave From the manger to the time when they took him by wicked hand and that he experienced it all That you and I could ever experience all that enters into our life Entered into his life.
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He was tempted in all points like we are yet as without you see God has indeed purchased us God has made us his own and God has Brought that transaction to pass because of the price that his son the same And I often wonder I'm often wonder how people might begin to think especially when when people are in in Fellowship and in churches book for extended periods of times that we would come upon a subject like this and someone say Well, we already know that That's that's basic Christianity 101 Can't you give us something that will will throw us teach us some Great truth that we don't know something that will expand our minds Friends there is no greater truth There's nothing greater to speak about than being a child of God but it's only Glorious to those who realize how they were born where they were when they were born the price that was paid and what that that Transaction brings to them friends.
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If you ever get tired of the cross, there's something wrong with you You know people say to me How long you been a Christian because you seem like you get all excited and and all wrapped up my friends God opened my eyes 40 years ago.
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And if he let me here for another 400 years, I'd get just as excited.
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I Don't want to hear anything else That doesn't mean I don't study that doesn't mean I don't want to know about other things But ultimately my friends if we don't understand this whole concept of being bought by the blood of Christ It's not worth it to go anywhere else You know what So many people in that sense can't see the forest for the trees Concerning this and I believe for two reasons first some don't realize That they have not only been saved from something but they've been saved to something Many do not realize the very position they were in Before they were bought and purchased and sealed And many people will say oh I gotta go to hell to be many other people there with and they miss the fact that you haven't just been saved from eternal Punishment, but you've been saved to eternal glory Some people only focus on where they were And some people only focus on where they're going Consider where they were saved from.
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Well, here's a little personal testimony.
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I was saved from sin And I'm not going to describe to you what manner of life I live but it was a sinner's life Don't get all high on your horse because if you're a child of God you were a sinner too The price had to be shed to take you to the kingdom of darkness and translate you Into the kingdom of your son.
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You were bought at a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit There was so much to consider about this reality truth revelation of Being a slave to sin Friends there's so many people that are lost What a good people Listen some of them are fantastic people some of them do great things and then they're great Humanitarians and they give their money away and they help people and in some ways they they cause us to look like We don't care and they do wonderful things But my friends the reality is they're still slaves to sin and if they're slaves to sin and they have never been saved From that position they shall never enter into his presence Let me add this Grandchildren and we love them And we desire that that their lives would go good and that things would go well But my friends what we ought to desire listen above it all Is that they would be bought from the slave block of sin That they would be taken from the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of his son And sometimes all we do is see what's on the outside Christ didn't die for what was on the outside in many ways my friends.
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He died.
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What was on the inside? What was on the inside of the rebellion? And even to the point of despising the truth of God so many things to impress upon us concerning that but let me move on as we start to Close it down Paul says again You were bought at a price You know why the gospel is free friends Do we really know why the gospel is free? When people come and they say well, how could this be? This thing you're talking back.
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How could it be so free? It's free because it costs God so much That's why it's free it's free because Jesus paid it all God did not send angels God did not send Principalities of powers God sent his only begotten son Would I be wrong if I said to you that God could not? Do it any other way That once he sent it out that once God Bulked this world into existence and once sin entered in God Had no other way for this transaction to cross to take place Save that he himself in the person of his son To take that debt on himself People say is that all you folks do is talk about Jesus? What else? Who else is worth talking about? I don't believe we speak enough about him.
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I Ask you a question.
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You don't answer it out loud, but answer it in your own heart What was the last time your heart was broken to tears? Did God save you? Oh But you don't understand For decades, I've been in the church since I was that's not what I'm asking you What I'm asking you is when was the reality of your sinful state being remedied by the cross of Christ? When was the last time it dropped you to your knees? You see that shall be the song of eternity isn't the good things that you did Song of eternity will be Thou are worthy Thou are worthy O Lord to receive honor and glory and power and dominion Because Jesus paid it all and all to him I owe sin had left a crimson stain He washed it by the snow people in this world people in this world love To set the price of things People that are in power or position and and places are they like to establish prices As a matter of fact, there are some people not me, but there are some people that would actually be insulted Unless they paid some some outrageous price for something.
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That's not even worth an outrageous price Listen if I can have a steak for two bucks serve them up a Slump some seriously.
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Some people would feel insulted unless they paid a hundred dollars for a steak Because we'd love to set prices because then there there are other things that are into it enter into it like power How people of this world love to set their own price to be right with God Let me ask us and I know we're a church I know we many of us have been in churches for many years.
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Are you right with God this morning? and If you are why are you right with God this morning? Is it because you established the price for that transaction for the slave to be bought and and owned by another master Jesus said I am the good shepherd.
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The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep My father passed away Two years ago three years ago And I remember the last words I said to my dad I Had some time alone with him he was he was aging he had dementia and all time as he had a lot of things going on And I had a few minutes with him alone.
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And I remember I whispered in his ear and I and I said to him I Said pop you ready to meet Jesus And then the last thing I said to him was I'll see on the other side Jesus paid the price so that you and I can say something like that Jesus paid it all so you and I can say when the roll Is full of yonder I'll be there You could tell I sing a lot of the old hymns that one came the one who came to redeem us from another master The evil one The father a murderer this one came into the world to save us from that master And to be a master over us to be taken from the meaningless life To a glorious life to be taken I think it was Matthew Henry When someone asked him to define hell His answer was I remember right his answer was that hell was God's wrath Poured out without time or measure Saved redeemed Washed bought purchased sealed The only thing left is for the the final Curtain to be lifted.
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We will never be tired of eternity brothers and sisters of worship For there is a height and a depth and a breath and a length of the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus Which will amaze us forever and ever and ever We Will never get tired of Worshipping him for his his person and his majesty and his person and his work on our behalf And so I would say to you in closing today If you love him this morning Love him more never be satisfied with where you are in relation to him And Never say as long as I as I can remember some verses and as long as I don't do anything That's really bad.
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And and as long as I stay in this Walk I'm good my friends In the Old Testament if a slave was to be set free There were times that was set up and established to set slaves free And there's there was a a law set up that when it came time if someone was to be set free and If that slave then said my master My master has been someone who has taken care of me My master has been someone who has watched over me.
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My master is someone who is so loving and so kind I do not desire to be set free from him They were taken all and they would pierce his ear and Once they pierced his ear with that all he became a slave of that master forever He could have gone free But the love the master and the kindness of the master and the goodness of the master Caused that slave to say no, I want to be his duos And that the greatest word for sinners come Come as you are Come and buy and eat Without money and without price because the price was paid Judas's price was 30 shekels Of silver 30 shekels of silver versus the precious blood of the lamb.
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Let me read this to you in closing.
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You don't even have to turn to it Let's listen to what the Apostle Peter says.
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He says this He says that if you call on the Father Who without partiality judges according to each one's work Conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear knowing That you were not redeemed You were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct Received by traditions from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ As of a lamb without blemish Without spot.
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He indeed was poor ordained before the foundation of the world But was manifest in these last times for you Who through him believe in God? Raised them from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope You see my friends whether they like it or not.
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We're all slaves this morning the great difference Is in who is the master? May God help us.
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May Friends may we trip over God's grace Brother Keith told me this morning.
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I said to him as we're walking out home.
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I said, you know, I know I get excited I don't plan it Again, he said to me exactly what I know to be true.