Sanctification And Possession

Temple Baptist Church - 10-4-2015

1 Thessalonians 4:4-5

Introduction: 

A.  Last week, I dealt with Sanctification and Fornication.  The verses of chapter 4, which precede the Rapture of the Church in verses 13-18, show the personal responsibility of God’s children to live is such a manner as to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.  In our day, people live the way that they want to live and expect the Lord to be OK with it.

B.  For us who name the name of Christ, it does matter how we live!  Here are two good reasons:

1.  Your ownership has changed!  1 Corinthians 6:19-20  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  (20)  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

2.  We are ambassadors of Christ in a lost world!  2 Corinthians 3:2-3  Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:  (3)  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

C.  There are three states of man:

1.  The Natural Man – man in his unregenerate state – lost without God - 1 Corinthians 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

2.  The Carnal Man – man that is regenerated but living his life under the power of his old sin nature - 1 Corinthians 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

3.  The Spiritual Man – man that is regenerated and living in the power of the Holy Spirit. He discerns the difference between the things of God and man - Galatians 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Our spiritual state has to do with our physical body:

1.  The Spiritual Man Realizes That His Body Belongs To The Lord.  (Therefore, it needs to be presented to the Owner)

            a.  We Need To Realize That We Are His

1)  A transaction was made - 1 Corinthians 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

2)  A choice is given - Romans 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Galatians 1:10  For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

Romans 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Romans 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

1 Corinthians 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

b.  We Need To Present Our Bodies - Romans 12:1-2  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 

Your Body Brings Either Honor Or Reproach To The Lord - 1 Corinthians 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.  (It is a place of consecration and testimony)

The body is for the Lord! - 1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  

2 Corinthians 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Galatians 6:17  From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

The Lord is for the body! - 1 Corinthians 6:13  Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.  (He is not trying to hurt us but is trying to help us!)

Romans 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

2 Peter 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

2.  The Spiritual Man Realizes That His Body Is The Temple Of The Holy Ghost - 1 Corinthians 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  (It is a place of worship, therefore, it needs to be dedicated)

a.  The Temple Was A Place Of Dedication - 2 Chronicles 7:5  And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep: so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

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

b.  The Temple Was A Place Of Sacrifice - 2 Chronicles 7:12  And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.

Romans 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

c.  The Temple Was A Place Of Praise - Jeremiah 17:26  And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.

Romans 15:11  And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.

d.  The Temple Was Is A Place Of Prayer - Isaiah 56:7  Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.

Ephesians 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

e.  The Temple Was A Place Of Service - 2 Chronicles 35:3  And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel,

Romans 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.