[0:00] 1 Corinthians 6, 12-20. And the Lord for the body.
[0:32] And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?
[0:50] Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two will become one flesh.
[1:03] But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexual immoral person sins against his own body.
[1:18] Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
[1:35] Indeed, the Lord has been molding us and shaping us in 1 Corinthians in the last several weeks. Paul, in this portion of his letter, has been very practical.
[1:47] He has been addressing matters that relate very directly to life in the church. Matters concerning discipline. Matters concerning disputes between believers.
[2:02] And now, matters concerning how we treat our bodies. So Paul begins this section, not with his words, not with an exhortation, but with the Corinthians' words.
[2:16] What the Corinthians were saying, all things are lawful for me. This was likely a slogan that the Corinthians were saying, kind of a catchphrase of sorts.
[2:28] It's why the translators of our Bibles put these words in quotes. These weren't things that Paul was saying. These were things the Corinthians were saying. And Paul was not condoning this slogan.
[2:41] In fact, we see that he's pushing back against it. You say, Corinthians, all things are lawful for me. But I say, says Paul, not all things are helpful.
[2:54] You say, all things are lawful for me. But I say, I will not be dominated by anything. Now, this slogan is really going to kind of filter through the coming chapters of 1 Corinthians.
[3:10] Paul is going to use this slogan again. He's going to bring it up again in chapter 10. And these other places where we see it in chapter 10 helps us to understand that the slogan was likely rooted in the Corinthians' views of food.
[3:28] We see that in verse 13, another slogan that they were saying. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food. Later in chapter 10, when the slogan is used again, there a famous line that Paul gives of, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
[3:44] Speaking of eating or drinking as well. So here we see this slogan, all things are lawful for me. So it's probably rooted in Gentile practices that were taking place.
[3:58] They were probably thinking of food that had been offered in pagan temples to idols. As they're saying this phrase, all things are lawful for me.
[4:10] Now, Paul is going to address, what do we do with this food that had previously been offered to idols now that we're looking to eat it? Can we eat it?
[4:20] Can we not eat it? Paul's going to address that later in chapter 7, or I mean chapter 8. He's going to address it yet again in chapter 10. And what we need to see here for our purposes is, it was lawful for believers then and today to eat food that had previously been offered to idols.
[4:43] Take into account the conscience of other believers, but if I was to be given food that had been previously offered in a pagan temple, I can eat that food. That's food that can be enjoyed.
[4:55] That's what they were thinking of. All things are lawful for me. The problem is, here in chapter 6, they were applying it not just to food and the appetites of the body in that respect, but also to sexual immorality.
[5:10] And they were saying, well, we have this permission to enjoy food that our body desires, so let's expand that permission to other desires of the body as well.
[5:22] They were equating, all bodily appetites are alike. Food, sexual relations, it's all got the green light. That's what this slogan was communicating.
[5:34] And even in those two areas, food and sexual relations, pagan temples were at the center of both. We see in our text there, Paul speaks of prostitutes.
[5:47] These were temple prostitutes that the Corinthians were going to, and they were dishonoring their bodies with them. They were saying, isn't the principle the same? I can put food in my body that was once offered in pagan temples.
[6:00] Can't I also join my body to prostitutes in pagan temples? They were just assuming that this was all under the same umbrella of Christian freedom.
[6:12] But here we see, now this is an abuse of Christian freedom. They were thinking, well, it's a natural way to satisfy a physical need, like eating food.
[6:23] All things are lawful for me. Isn't that right? One commentator describes the Corinthian slogan this way, it's used to justify an indiscriminate exercise of their rights.
[6:39] It was a first century way of saying another slogan, a wicked slogan that is very popular today, my body, my choice. No one can tell me what to do with my body.
[6:52] I have supreme autonomy from the food that I eat to the intimacy I enjoy to the way I treat a baby in my womb. Nobody can tell me what to do with my body.
[7:06] That kind of thinking persists today in the world, even in the church. Christians can think, well, I can do what I'd like with my body because in Christ, I'm free, right?
[7:19] This is my Christian freedom. All things are lawful for me. All things are permissible for me. All things I have the freedom to do. So Paul here in chapter 6 is saying, no, everything is not lawful.
[7:36] Everything is not permissible. When it comes to sexual relations, what we do with our bodies, that is not permissible in every instance.
[7:49] You cannot do whatever you'd like with whomever you like. That is a blanket no. So in any and every situation involving this temple prostitution, in any and every situation involving sexual immorality, the answer is always no.
[8:07] Or take the words straight from the text. Verse 18. Flee from sexual immorality. Run from it. Take no chances.
[8:19] Eliminate any opportunity to fall into this sin. Paul doesn't say just to abstain from it. Paul doesn't say just keep yourself from it.
[8:30] If you see it, well, don't get too close. No, he says flee. Run from it. Go the other way. It's interesting.
[8:42] In Proverbs 7. Turn with me to Proverbs 7. In Proverbs 7, the adulterous woman, this personification of sexual immorality, we see that the adulterous woman actively goes after the simple, those who are not on guard.
[9:07] Sexual immorality is not passively waiting to be engaged with. As we read these verses, listen to how the adulterous woman goes after the simple. She seeks them out.
[9:19] Chapter 7, beginning in verse 6. For at the window of my house, I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.
[9:41] And behold, the woman meets him dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward. Her feet do not stay at home. Now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner, she lies in wait.
[9:56] She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face, she says to him, I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows. So now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
[10:13] Sexual sin is not waiting to be found. It will find you. You shouldn't go looking for it, but sadly you don't need to go looking for it to encounter it.
[10:27] It is celebrated everywhere without any sense of shame in our world. It is drawing, it is enticing, it is loud and wayward, lying in wait, seizing those who pass by.
[10:43] So you can't just half-heartedly try to abstain from it. That's not taking it seriously enough. So Paul gives us that urgent, strong command, flee from it.
[10:57] Give it no opportunity to arrest your heart. So what are we free to do? Well, Paul is saying, we're free to flee from sexual immorality.
[11:10] Make no concessions for it. Make no excuses to justify it. Don't deceive yourself with slogans like the ones that the Corinthians were saying.
[11:21] All things are lawful for me. Well, that's not true when it comes to sexual sin. So what follows in our passage are three reasons why.
[11:33] Three reasons why for us as Christians, when it comes to our bodies, all things are not lawful. Or to say it another way, three reasons why we must honor the triune God with our bodies.
[11:51] An emphasis there on triune God. Because we see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in this passage all actively participating in our sanctification.
[12:07] We see all three at work in our lives. We see the past work of the Son. We see the present work of the Spirit.
[12:17] And we also see the future work of the Father. So we're to honor the Father with our bodies. We're to honor the Son. We're to honor the Holy Spirit as well. Well, let's see the first reason.
[12:29] We must honor the triune God with our bodies because our bodies will be raised by the Father. Look at verse 13 into 14.
[12:41] Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food. And God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.
[12:57] And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. So here's that slogan that the Corinthians were saying.
[13:07] Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food. Imagine someone sitting down to a meal. They're rubbing their hands together. They're stuffing their napkin into their shirt.
[13:19] They've gripped their utensils and they're saying, food meant for the stomach and the stomach meant for food. Let's eat. That's what they're saying. And then what follows is Paul's response.
[13:33] Now I actually think that his quote here maybe should be expanded a little more. Some translations actually include more of these words in the quote, attributing it to the Corinthians, where we read, and God will destroy both one and the other.
[13:51] I think that actually fits best in the mouths of the Corinthians. and it makes the most sense. They're almost saying kind of flippantly, you know, food is meant for the stomach, the stomach is meant for food, God's going to destroy them both, so let's eat.
[14:07] We can enjoy food. Maybe even abuse it a little bit because, well, God's going to destroy both anyways, food and the stomach. The stomach, of course, representing the body.
[14:18] So they had this twisted, this distorted theology that downplayed the physical and that emphasized the spiritual. Anything physical, like food or our stomachs, which, of course, is a part of our bodies, well, we can do what we'd like.
[14:36] There's no moral consequences for how we treat our bodies. We don't need to worry about whether we're sinning or not because we're talking about the physical world. So they were taking way too far the permission that they had to eat food previously offered to idols.
[14:53] They were taking it to an extreme by concluding, we can do whatever we'd like with our bodies. God is going to destroy our bodies anyways.
[15:06] Well, that's bad theology. And how often does bad theology, then, lead to sinful lifestyles? They had their understanding of God and His Word wrong and they were now living in disobedience.
[15:20] They were dishonoring their bodies. They were dishonoring God with their bodies. So Paul is correcting their bad theology. He's helping them to see, no, there is not this dichotomy between the physical and the spiritual as though our physical bodies are disposable because, well, it's our spirits that are eternal and therefore our spirits only have lasting value.
[15:48] Paul is saying, no, your bodies do too. You can't treat your body however you'd like. Sure, there is no food that you can't eat, but you can't cross over into sinful behavior and say, if we can put whatever food we'd like into our bodies, then can't we engage in whatever sexual activity we'd like with our bodies as well?
[16:13] After all, reason the Corinthians, these kinds of things are meant for the physical body. Physical food, physical intimacy, transient, passing experiences that will not survive death.
[16:27] So, we have freedom to enjoy them however we'd like now. Paul says that's bad theology. We can't treat our physical bodies however we'd like.
[16:39] That is not the kind of freedom that has been granted to us. Even if we have a right to do something like eat food previously offered to idols, we can't exercise that right however we'd like.
[16:51] We're going to see more of that. But here in chapter 6, we have no right to do anything that would be sexually immoral. We always, always dishonor God if we do sinful behavior with our bodies.
[17:07] because our bodies aren't just these disposable shells. Kids, have you ever come across a snail shell without the snail?
[17:20] You just find the shell by itself, no snail inside of the shell. I learned something this week. I learned that slugs and snails are not the same creatures.
[17:33] I thought when I was your age, I thought I see a snail shell with no snail, that snail just wandered off. The snail is somewhere else enjoying its life without its shell.
[17:44] I discovered this week snails need their shells. Snails and slugs are different creatures. God made them very differently with very specific purposes. So if you find a snail shell without a snail, I am sorry to say that snail met its demise.
[18:02] It probably got eaten by something else. those snails need their shells to live. The shell is actually a part of its body. Without the shell, the snail can't survive.
[18:16] So the snail shell, I have come to learn this week, is not disposable. Snails need their shells. In the same ways, our bodies are not disposable.
[18:28] We have purpose for our bodies. God values our bodies. He says they have significance. Or as Paul says it in verse 13, they are meant for the Lord and the Lord is meant for them.
[18:46] So if God values our physical bodies, well, it stands to reason, so should we. And if we value something, what do we do with it? We care for it. We treat it with respect.
[18:58] So we can't treat our bodies however we like. We can't indulge in sin with our bodies because they are meant for the Lord and the Lord for them.
[19:10] They aren't meant for sin. They aren't meant for sexual immorality. They're meant for the Lord. They belong to Him. Our bodies belong to God just as much as our souls do.
[19:24] He cares about all of who we are. Our spirits and our bodies. So God's Word doesn't present us with some kind of dualistic way of thinking as though what is physical about us is of less value than what is spiritual about us.
[19:41] As though what is physical about us will be destroyed and what is spiritual about us will live on into eternity. How do we know that? Because Paul says God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.
[19:59] Raise what? The physical body of the Lord Jesus Christ. That He has done by His power. God has raised Christ from the dead and He's done it bodily.
[20:14] And He will do the same with us. We who are in Christ. Our physical bodies as well. God will raise them up. Now, they won't be exactly as they were when they went into the grave.
[20:27] Thank the Lord. They will not be weak and fragile. They won't be susceptible to sickness and disease and death. No, when we are raised, we will be raised anew.
[20:40] Glorified. Changed. Transformed in a moment. But still, our physical bodies nonetheless. So, we can't devalue our bodies, even as they are in this present life.
[20:55] Because the work of redemption on the last day, it's going to involve the whole person. Body and soul. Paul teaches this in another letter that he wrote.
[21:08] Romans 8, verse 23, Paul says, we eagerly await, that we wait eagerly for adoption as sons. The redemption of our bodies.
[21:21] So, God is not going to destroy our bodies. As the Corinthians were saying in their little slogan, food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other.
[21:33] Well, that's not true. God is not going to destroy the body. He's going to raise the body, glorified from the grave. And while it's a glorified body, free from all of the effects of sin and death, it's still a physical body.
[21:50] And it's our physical bodies that he is raising. The body that goes into the grave is the body raised from the grave. It's not replaced. Though it is made anew, it's transformed to be like the glorious body of our Lord Jesus.
[22:09] So, we can see here the clear, present implications. We can't treat our physical bodies now however we'd like, engaging in sinful sexual behavior because our bodies are not destined for destruction like trash to be taken to the landfill.
[22:28] They are destined for glory with the Lord. They belong to Him. When we live with Him in the new heavens and the new earth, our bodies will be with us.
[22:39] So then, we must not dishonor them in this present life by engaging in sinful behavior. God the Father has plans for them.
[22:52] He has a future agenda related to our bodies. So, He Himself will be glorified even as He raises our glorified bodies.
[23:04] So, that's the first reason that we honor the triune God with our bodies because our bodies will be raised by God the Father. Now, let's consider the second reason because our bodies have been joined to God the Son.
[23:20] Beginning in verse 15. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?
[23:33] Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two will become one flesh.
[23:44] But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
[24:02] So, we are going from the work of the Father to now the work of the Son. And we're going from considering what is a future work to a past completed work.
[24:14] We have been joined to the Son. And of course, that joining to the Son, that becoming members of Christ, that occurred when by grace through faith, we trusted in Him and in His finished work on the cross.
[24:33] And related to this reason of being joined to Christ, we need to see down in verse 20 how costly the cross was. What a price that Jesus paid to join us to Himself.
[24:48] It cost Him in the death that He died. It cost Him in the suffering that He endured. God's wrath was poured out upon Him.
[25:01] What a price that He paid to join us to Himself. As 1 Peter 2.24 says, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.
[25:16] we honor God with our bodies because Jesus' body hung upon the cross for our sins so that we might then by faith be joined to Him.
[25:29] Or we could say another way that we might be united with Him. Paul is describing for us here in 1 Corinthians 6 this special saving relationship that we have with Jesus our union with Christ.
[25:48] Now the Bible uses different illustrations to help us to understand this relationship. He uses a couple here in 1 Corinthians. First the illustration of the physical body.
[26:00] We each individually are members of Christ. That's what Paul is saying in verse 15 with that initial question. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
[26:12] Not members like we've been joined to a country club but members like parts of a body. Arms, legs, hands, these kinds of members.
[26:23] We are appendages. And of course as we know from other places in Scripture like Colossians 1 and 2 Christ is the head. We are members of Christ with Christ holding that place of greatest importance of greatest authority authority so we are joined to him who is the head.
[26:45] Later in 1 Corinthians there are lots of implications that we'll have to consider for what that means as we relate to each other. If we are members of the body what does that mean for the life of the body?
[26:57] Here in 1 Corinthians 6 though Paul is much more concerned with how that relates to Christ. Individually how we relate to him with our personal bodies.
[27:08] So we are joined to him like appendages joined to a physical body. That's the first illustration that Paul uses. And then he moves to a second and it's really building on the first.
[27:20] They're very much tied together and it's that of marriage. We aren't just joined to Christ like members of a body organically joined to the head.
[27:32] We are joined to Christ like a bride is lovingly joined to her husband. What we see here in these intermingling of illustrations in 1 Corinthians 6 is that we have quite the head and we have quite the husband.
[27:52] We see that same truth in Ephesians chapter 5. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5. We see these two illustrations intermingling again in Ephesians chapter 5.
[28:04] Christ is the head of his body and Christ as the husband of his bride. Ephesians 5 beginning in verse 22 well-known passage of verses speaking to wives and then to husbands.
[28:26] Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church his body and is himself its savior.
[28:38] So there we see the head and the husband. Verse 24 now as the church submits to Christ so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.
[29:10] In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body.
[29:30] There it is again the intermingling husband and head the bride and the body. Verse 31 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh which is also quoted yet again in 1 Corinthians 6.
[29:50] So do we see here how Christ our head lovingly cares for us as our husband. He showed it in the greatest of ways by going to the cross and dying for us and he continues to look after us.
[30:09] He continues to meet our needs as Paul says he nourishes us and he cherishes us. He is preparing us to be beautifully adorned when he returns for his bride.
[30:24] He will present us to himself. He is going to present us to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that we might be holy and without blemish.
[30:38] We will be pure. We will be undefiled like a virgin bride for her husband. That's the kind of picture that Paul is painting for us of what it means to be joined to Christ in this sweet intimate relationship with him like a husband and wife who become one flesh so too are we with Christ becoming one spirit.
[31:06] That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6. You can turn back there now to 1 Corinthians 6. So if this is true if it's true that we've been joined to Christ if Christ has loved us so and demonstrated that love by giving himself up for us and sanctifying us and cleansing us if he has joined us to himself in this marvelous way made us to be one with him in spirit as Paul says in verse 16 if all of that is true and it is how could we ever consider joining ourselves to anyone else?
[31:46] we are defiling ourselves if we do we are dirtying ourselves with sin and it's spiritual adultery against our husband now the Corinthians were doing this as they engaged in this pagan temple worship with prostitutes but it's not just prostitutes that we can commit this sin with it's with any person other than our spouse whether it's in the bedroom or whether it's on a screen whether it's engaging in this sin with someone or doing it alone with the lust of our hearts whether it's in person or in print in all of these ways that we could commit the sin of sexual immorality we're doing the same thing in our hearts we are joining ourselves to someone who is not our savior becoming one with them when we have been made one with
[32:48] Christ cleaving like the corinthians to a prostitute instead of cleaving to Christ in marriage we have a remarkable picture a wonderful picture of what it looks like to be joined to Christ and in sexual immorality we ruin that picture to our shame here's this marvelous picture this piece of art that's worthy of being admired and adored and enjoyed by all who see it and it's like we're taking tomato soup and throwing it on that artwork sexual sin mars this marvelous picture and I think that's why Paul highlights this sin as being particularly unique look again at verse 18 Paul commands us to flee from sexual immorality and then he says every other sin a person commits is outside the body but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body this is not an easy verse to understand exactly what Paul means there's definitely some ambiguity here especially when we think about what does
[34:01] Paul mean by that phrase against his own body I think we could list many sins that we would say doesn't this involve sinning against our own bodies over indulging in food not exercising self control of our bodies that certainly is a sin against our own bodies drunkenness that's another that I think we would say is that sin against our own bodies so what does Paul mean by what he says here in verse 18 because he says every other sin a person commits is outside the body every other sin which is to say that sexual immorality is unique in being the sin that we commit against our own bodies well I think that what Paul is saying here ties in with this whole point that he's been making of our being uniquely joined to Christ with our being one spirit with him as one commentator says sexual sin is against the body because it is uniquely body joining and uniquely body defiling so if we think positively there is something wonderfully special about
[35:18] God's design for intimacy between husband and wife it's why then negatively adultery cuts so deep it's why it's such a grievous personal painful offense against one's spouse it's defiling the marriage bed this place that should be shared with no one else sexual immorality is unique in its joining of bodies and also unique in its defiling of bodies we get that on a human level if it's true on a human level for husband and wife how much more so for the Christian and the Christian's savior being joined to him how defiling is it to our bodies which have been joined to Jesus when we engage in sexual immorality of any kind that's what's so unique about this sin it strikes at our union with
[36:27] Christ in violating our physical bodies and our bodies belong to Christ in such a personal intimate way like a husband and wife become one flesh well then we are violating our union we've become one spirit with Christ do we feel the gravity of that do we consider how we ought to then honor the triune God with our bodies because we've been joined!
[36:53] to God the Son and now the third and the final reason we honor the triune God with our bodies because our bodies are presently indwelt by the spirit verse 19 or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God you are not your own for you were bought with a price so glorify God in your body in some ways these verses here are bringing us full circle back to the very beginning of our passage where Paul made that point at the beginning of saying the body is for the Lord meaning that it belongs to him we see that idea now fleshed out here we are not our own and here's the evidence of that God has put his Holy Spirit within us the Holy Spirit is living in us those who have been purchased by the
[37:55] Son those whose bodies will be raised by the Father we are now indwelt by the Spirit so no our bodies are not our own they don't belong to us to do with as we'd like they're God's possession and the proof of it is in the fact that he now lives in us he has taken up residence in us God's presence is found in our bodies just as his presence was once found in the temple that special place where his presence was found in a special way there in that room that was curtained off and it was only accessible to the high priest and even for him only accessible once a year on the day of atonement that room the holy of holies the most holy place and it was there on the cover of the ark that
[38:56] God said that's my footstool that's where I'm going to sit that's where I'm going to put my feet as I sit on my throne in heaven there between those tips of those golden cherubim there you will find my presence so his presence in that special way was located on mount zion in the city of david jerusalem in that physical temple the physical building of the temple when we know if we know our old testaments that God's presence is no longer in that temple the prophet ezekiel he witnessed in a vision God's very presence leaving the temple even before the temple was destroyed his presence was leaving the temple his glory was departing in ezekiel chapter 10 long gone from there and he's now taken up residence in a different place in us your body christian is a temple of the holy spirit so we have all the more reason to honor
[40:03] God with our bodies because they are a sacred space throughout the old testament we see that wherever God had his presence to dwell that space was to be undefiled that space was to be kept clean and there were very very specific rituals that the priests were to perform to maintain the purity of the space where God's presence was found we see it in Leviticus 16 turn with me to Leviticus 16 because we don't read Leviticus enough Leviticus 16 this chapter describes the most important day of the year for the nation of Israel when it comes to the ceremonial laws this is the day of atonement the day on which the sins for the whole nation would be atoned for the blood of bulls and goats was to be shed to cover the sins of the people one day that they would set aside to specifically do this and part of what
[41:12] God commanded them to do involved the most holy place the place where God's presence was to be found like everything else on that day it was to be purified it was to be made ceremonially clean and so God gives detailed instructions about what the high priest was to do even with the holy place Leviticus 16 beginning in verse 15 then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat thus he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions all their sins and so he shall do for the tent of meeting which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses too often we read about ceremonial laws and cleansing rituals in the
[42:19] Old Testament and we just find it all together a dry reading we need to see that God goes into such great detail because he is supremely concerned with his own holiness he is supremely concerned with the holiness of the place where he dwells he is supremely concerned with the holiness of his people and now we see here in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 God's presence has come to dwell in us his very people so God will not stand for the tabernacle in the wilderness or the temple in Jerusalem being trashed he will not stand for it being desecrated because of the people's sins and he won't stand for his temple today being treated in that way either your body is that temple today it is to be a holy place because
[43:20] God the Holy Spirit lives in you God has given us so many good needed reasons to flee from sexual immorality he could have simply said it he could have simply given us the command just verse 18 flee from sexual immorality but in his kindness to us he gives us these all important motivations helping us to see how seriously we are to take our holiness so when you are tempted towards sexual sin when you're tempted to think it's no big deal what I do with my body is of little value to
[44:22] God here's the truths that we need to remember our bodies will be raised by the father our bodies have been joined to the son and our bodies are right now indwelt by the holy spirit so let's take seriously god's command to flee from sexual immorality let's pray together heavenly father we thank you for your word we thank you that you teach us from your word that you give us so many ways in which to understand and to grow and to be taught from your word even tonight the hard truths that you give us to flee from sin especially from sexual sin we thank you father that you give us these good motivating reasons that we see how we are to honor you the triune god with our bodies so father keep us from temptation we pray give us strength that we need father forgive us for the ways in which we have failed and father we pray that you would continue to show your mercy towards us so grant us even this week renewed!
[45:37] strength to flee from sexual immorality to we thank you for our advocate Jesus Christ we thank you for forgiveness that is found in him we thank you that in being joined to him we now have a merciful savior one who pleads before the throne not our righteous works but his and so father we pray as we go into this week that you would go with us that you would give us strength that we live lives that are pleasing to you we pray all of this in Christ's name amen