THE PRICE IS RIGHT
08/28/05 AM
The title of this message might be a little humorous this morning if it were not such a serious topic.
1 Peter 1:18-19
18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1. Could we possibly understand the great price that was paid to purchase us.
Down through the ages of time millions of people have been sold on slave blocks to serve those who demanded to be called master.
Col 4:1
Do you know “that ye also have a Master in heaven.”
Do you know that;
1 Cor 6:19-20
ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price:
Heb 2:6
What is man, that thou (God is) mindful of him?
What did God see in you and I that He was willing to send His only Son to suffer shame, torture, and murder so that we wouldn’t have to go to hell, but spend eternity in heaven with Him.
So, in giving His Son, He thought the price was right.
Does that give you a sense of worth this morning?
It cost His life to save you, but it also will cost you your life to be saved.
Col 3:3
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Matt 16:25
25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life (be crucified with Christ, mortify yourself, be buried with Him by baptism unto death) for me will find it.
NIV
2. The price of your salvation was high but the cost of holy living is also high. But the price is right.
Heb 12:14
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Heb 9:28
unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin (holy living) unto salvation.
Are you willing to;
forfeit your rights and;
Rom 6:13
yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God
forfeit worldly pleasures.
1 Tim 5:6
6 But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.
The lower nature feeds on sensual pleasures (what brings pleasure to the senses) and fights hard against self control and leads to destruction. I used to love sin but it was killing me.
forfeit relationships, sometimes even family.
Mark 6:4
4 But Jesus said unto them, A prophet (Christian) is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house .
face opposition, mockery, and ridicule.
sacrifice your time, money and;
Heb 10:34
the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
Paul was an example of the Christian paying the price.
2 Cor 11:24-28
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
But at the end of his life he said;
2 Tim 4:7-8
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
God considers that the price is right.
Paul, when apprended in Rome, talking to the cheif captian about Roman citizenship. This man wanted to be a Roman so bad that he said
Acts 22:28
With a great sum obtained I this freedom.
How much are you willing to pay to be Christlike (Christian).
The price to be holy is high but;
3. The price of sin is higher.
It always cost more than you are willing to pay.
Achan-material things, Sampson-lust, Ananias and Sapphira-money.
Mark 8:36
36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
All of these people were church folks that who are paying a price that far exceeds what they wanted to.
But God considers that the price is right.
Rom 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Everything comes with a price tag.
How much are you willing to pay for your salvation?
Capital murder recieves capital punishment, so we must die, not in sin, but to sin.
How much are you willing to pay to be holy?
How much are you willing to pay for sin?
Some of you are paying for sins past. For what we sow we reap.
How much are you willing to pay to go to heaven?
Isa 1:18-20
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
