Honoring God With Our Bodies

You have your Bible's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

We'll be finishing out this chapter this morning.

Sometimes it's hard to navigate how to handle the things of this world.

The Bible tells us not to love the world nor to love the scenes in the world, but we all like ice cream a lot.

We all like a good steak.

I know some of you really like steak.

I know I like a good meal.

I crave food, certain food at times.

Once a week I can eat Mexican.

I crave it if I don't have Mexican at least once a week.

But is that wrong?

Should I feel bad that I like food when the Bible tells me not to love the world nor the things in the world?

I have things that I enjoy.

I have a beautiful red Jeep.

I've always wanted one since I was a kid and now I have one.

I love it.

I don't even put the top on.

It stays tucked into the garage in the wintertime.

But any beautiful day I just love pulling it out.

Am I wrong for loving my Jeep or liking my Jeep, enjoying my Jeep?

How do I as a Christian to handle such things?

How do we to handle the physical world around us?

How do we to even view our physical bodies?

Are we not to put our minds on spiritual things and put our minds on things above and lay up our treasures in heaven and just be spiritually minded constantly and consistently and entirely and bobbly bopficate the physical rattlemen and somewhat reject and shun all the earthly pleasures of this world.

Is that what we're called to do?

Obviously, many people live for this world.

They have idols.

They've made this world their love.

God forbids that.

Anything that we love more or abuse in any way, a fear more than we fear God is an idol.

Often the world is the focus of our affections and our love.

And that's obviously not healthy or good.

In fact, it's sinful.

But sometimes we don't know exactly how to handle the physical ram.

And I think there's two extremes that we're typically falling into.

One is the stream of legalism where we just say no to everything.

And the other one is antinomianism.

That's where we say yes to everything.

And it seems like the Corinthians, in fact, it doesn't seem as evident that the the Corinthians in the first century was tilted towards antinomianism.

They were tilted in.

Just enjoying the flesh, enjoying the physical ram.

To a sinful degree.

And they went beyond just enjoying ice cream or their food.

They were so.

Given to the physical pleasures of this world, they were making excuses for sexual immorality.

And how in the world did they get to a place where a Christian church could ever tolerate the physical pleasure of the world?

Could they ever tolerate its membership participating in sexual immorality?

Even some members apparently were going to prostitutes and no one was doing anything about it.

In fact, it was tolerated and considered OK.

Maybe it wasn't something good, but they weren't condemning it.

How does a church ever get to such a place like that?

How did the Corinthians get to a place that they were tolerating such events?

It appears to me that the Corinthians were influenced by three things.

One, it appears to me that they were influenced by some form of proto Gnosticism that was coming out of Athens about 50 miles away.

And Gnosticism basically said that the real realm that is important is the realm that Plato would describe as that realm of the ideas.

That's the spiritual Ram.

That's where your soul is involved in.

That's God. He's not physical. He's not tangible.

He's spiritual. All that is eternal and valuable and good is invisible and spiritual.

That's what's important.

To a special degree, that that which is physical is less good or not important at all.

Therefore, the physical body is something that we need to get rid of or not worry about.

And this led to also two forms of application of this Gnosticism led to two forms of application.

So the legalistic form of asceticism, there were some who would beat their bodies because the body is evil.

I can't indulge in the flesh. I can't do anything that the body wants.

I got to tell it no in every way and all times have no pleasures in this world at all.

And they would do that.

But others such as the Corinthians use this form of Gnosticism to say, well, if it doesn't matter what we do in the body, then let's go ahead and eat, drink and marry.

For tomorrow we're going to die. We might as well enjoy this body because it really doesn't equate to any eternal value.

Let's just go ahead and have fun. And that's what the Corinthians were doing.

Even to the point that we see in Chapter 15, some of them were denying the resurrection of the body.

They didn't be the body with God's not worried about the body.

And that seems to be impacting and influencing their tolerance towards sexual immorality in the church.

They also were using this statement that's true, this statement from Paul, one of the teachings of Paul, where he taught all things are lawful.

He was teaching against legalism. All things are lawful, not saying things that the Bible forbids, the Ten Commandments.

He's not undoing the law and saying there's no law. He's saying beyond what the law says, if the Bible doesn't condemn it, then it's lawful.

All things are lawful. And they were using that as a license to say, well, my forication is lawful.

They were using the teachings of Paul against him. They were taking portion of his teaching out of context and applying it wrongly.

It might be they were even misapplying the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ taught when he was reputed for eating with unclean hands.

They were going to a field one day and they were saples of picking grain from the field.

And lo and behold, they hadn't had any water to clean their hands or their hands.

They were eating and then the Pharisees, the scribes saw them eating with unwhorched hands.

They go, why do you break through traditions of our fathers? Why are you doing this?

And Jesus was very upset about that. And he says, it's not what goes in the body that defiles a person.

And even his oldest apples is, what are you talking about? He goes, listen, it's not your you put food in.

It's going to go in. It's going to be expelled. And that doesn't determine the nature of the heart and your attitude.

It's not what goes in. It's going to follow you. And we learn that it's by so doing that he pronounced all things, all meat, even pork clean.

That's not going to defile you by eating catfish. Thank the Lord.

So he declares that's not what goes in you that defiles you.

Now, maybe the Corinthians were aware of that teaching and said, well, if that's the case, if if I can eat what I want to eat, if it's I have the freedom to eat meats offered to idols and so forth.

And it's my consciousness clean to eat these things.

Therefore, if I have bodily appetites, if I have cravings and it doesn't matter, the belly is going to be destroyed.

The body is going to be destroyed. The meat is going to be destroyed. The food is going to be destroyed.

If it doesn't really matter, then I'm just going to go ahead and indulge myself and enjoy life.

For today we might as well eat, live and be merry because tomorrow we're going to die.

And they applied that wrongly to fornication. If you have hunger pains, then satisfy them. If you have sexual desires, might as well satisfy them.

You see how their logic allowed them to take biblical principles and turn them into evil to justify sin.

And I think we're all prone to do that. In fact, any time you see somebody committing growth sins, they have a way of minimizing the sinfulness of the sin.

They have all the strings of logic to be able to take good teaching and apply it falsely to themselves so that they're not accountable for clear and gross sins against God.

Regardless, they're making light of God's commands by using some, probably some false philosophical teaching, Gnosticism, but with maybe some good teaching from Paul and Christ.

And in this text, Paul gives us six reasons why we're not to commit sexual immorality.

Now, we'll cover those six reasons as we go forward, but what I'm going to do, seeing that was the context and that's the purpose of this text, and that's the particular application to how we, even us who may not be struggling, and hopefully most of us are not struggling with sexual immorality.

I don't presume that most of us are. I don't even presume any of you are.

And since this might not be in that particular application that we need today, even though all, especially as young people and single people, we need to take heed to this very seriously.

For all of us, I think we can glean from this text seven ways we can glorify God with our bodies.

So I want us to focus on the truth of this passage and say, how can I view the physical world and the things of the world and the things I enjoy, that all the things that are lawful for me to enjoy, the things that are permissible.

It's permissible for me to have a vehicle and to enjoy Mexican food and enjoy the earthly possessions that God has given me.

I have liberties to enjoy this world and enjoy the appetites of the body.

I have freedom to do that, but how am I to make sure that I view my body correctly and use my body in the physical world for the glory of God?

That's what we're going to learn seven ways to glorify God with our bodies.

Let's read our text starting in verse 12.

"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.""Food is meant for the stomach and stomach for the food, and God will destroy both one and the other." Now, I think that's what they were saying among themselves.

"The body, however," Paul says, "is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise up by His power.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? She'll then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never.

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? Or as written, the two will become one flesh?

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 sexual immoral person sins against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You're not your own.

For you're bought with a price. And here's the thesis. Here's the main point of the passage.

So glorify God in your body. Now, that's what we want to take away.

I want to glorify God, not just with my soul, not with just my emotions, not with just my mind, not with just my intelligence.

I want to glorify God in my physical body, let my body and all that I put in my body and all that my body enjoy, let everything that is connected to my physical body bring glory and honor to the Lord.

May that be our harsh desire. And if you're sure harsh desire that you're bringing glory to God in your physical body and all the physical things that you enjoy, here are seven things to help you with.

First, this is a good one. Enjoy earthly blessings. Enjoy earthly blessings.

Now, they were misapplying the teaching of Paul when he says, apparently, I believe he was teaching this when he was there.

He said, "Well, the things are lawful." No doubt they were talking about meats and different sacrifices.

And he's teaching them because this is a common question that they had in that day. Go ahead and eat your meat.

He gives qualifications of how to do that later in the epistle, but you're free to eat it.

And you're not just set there to eat it and go, oh, I've got to eat this to sustain myself.

But for a reason so that you can enjoy your food. And if you don't enjoy food, you're not bringing God glory in the way you're eating your food.

The Bible told us to instruct rich people to be careful.

But in so being careful with the riches, it says that all things that was given to the rich people and to all of us, all too richly, not poorly to enjoy, but too richly in joy.

And bind yourself of that. There's no glory in eating things that are bland and spineless. Praise God.

I mean, God wants us to enjoy blessings, to enjoy our food, to enjoy the things that He has given us.

You know, you know what, you and I, we all want this for our kids.

When we give them gifts for birthday or Christmas, really what we want to see. I mean, this is really what we want to see.

Oh, man, man, like that.

Well, you want to see your kids open up a gift and go, whoa, and just run outside with it to play with it.

Watching them play with it is the way they honor you for the gift.

Now, God has given you so much.

You know, we're not to make idols of these things. We're talking about that in a minute. We'll try to cover that later.

But for now, sometimes we're prone to be aesthetic. We're prone to just to go.

I don't I don't I'm not can't enjoy anything. If I enjoy it means I'm worldly.

If I enjoy something, it means I'm a dollar.

No, there is nothing godly in simply turning your nose down on things that God has given you.

Now, you could run after these things and you can make a pursuit of these things and you can live for these things.

That is so sinful.

But there's nothing godly and just living a life of monastic asceticism.

I mean, this took place in the early church.

Where people want to outdo one another and godliness and holiness.

And so they begin to deny themselves of creature conference.

If it was comfortable, they wouldn't do it.

If it was a bad, a nice, soft, comfortable mattress, they would say no to it.

They'd sleep on the floor.

Many of them begin to live in caves and isolate themselves from communities and get outside of the cities and punish themselves.

If you would thinking that this is godliness.

There was one man in the fifth century and the name Simeon who when he was a young man, he was like a 16 or 17 year old.

He devoted himself to celibacy.

You know, this is where celibacy developed out of this monastic self-discipline asceticism.

He says, I'll be celibate. I won't get married.

I'll just be celibate my whole life.

He began to eat bread and water and not anything more than that.

And then he oscillated himself in this little tent for a year and a half.

He was in a tent for a year and a half.

I think it was around the 16 or 17.

He stayed in the tent and everybody began to praise him and he says, I can outdo that.

Then he found a little platform on a pole and he lived on a pole.

No joke. He lived on a pole with a little platform for a couple of years.

And then he began to be a tourist attraction.

People would come, you know, and he would, you know, give them counsel and, and he was a righteous man on a pole.

And then he elevated the pole to 50 foot and lived on a 50 foot pole.

No joke for 42 years.

Until he died.

He did all of life's business up on that pole.

Imagine that.

And that's supposed to be godly.

But this is what Paul says about such thinking.

Colossians 2 20th with Christ, you died to the illiminate, troubled spirits of the world.

Why, as you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?

Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.

Referring to the things that all perished as they are used according to human precepts and teachings.

These are the things that are used in the world.

According to human precepts and teachings, these have indeed an appearance of wisdom.

I don't do this. I don't do that.

They have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body.

But they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

This is a wrong way of sanctification.

Yes, you got to control the flesh and not indulge the flesh.

You have to say no to the simple desire.

You have to live in the spirit.

But asceticism is not the answer.

It's faith in Christ.

It's walking in the spirit.

So you've got to be careful that we don't make manmade regulations and fence ourselves around.

Some people fence themselves around with so many regulations and all these issues of conscience that they can't even move.

And they can't even have fellowship with anyone.

They're so fenced in by their traditions that they have made for themselves.

Again, this may have the appearance of wisdom, but it doesn't have any power to godliness.

You see, we're called to enjoy pleasures of this world.

Now, the Bible tells us God has given us all things richly to enjoy in Deuteronomy 17.

Therefore, you shall eat before the Lord your God and you shall rejoice in all that your hand has put to you and your households with whom the Lord your God has blessed you with.

Some have little, some have more, some have much, some have little, but it doesn't matter if you have little or much.

You can be content with what you have by enjoying what you have.

Enjoy it.

Thank the Lord for it.

All things are lawful.

So let's first of all, not make commands that God doesn't make.

Let's just keep the commands to the ones that God has issued.

Let's not have new traditions that we invent.

That's the first rule to help us. Second rule, however, to bid a balance, all things in balance, don't be selfish in our enjoyments of this world or in our liberties, in our freedoms.

We see that all things are lawful, but Paul says in verse 12, but not all things are helpful.

Again, we have to use wisdom and discernment when we enjoy the things of this world because it could be lawful, but we've got to wonder, is it actually helpful or beneficial?

He picks us up in chapter 10 and verse 23.

Paul says, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.

All things are lawful, but not all things will build up.

Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.

Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

For the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof.

If one of the unbelievers invite you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

But if someone says to you, "Hey, this has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you, for the sake of the Lord.

For the sake of conscience or his conscience.

I do not mean your conscience, but his.

For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience?

Good question.

If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that which I give thanks?

So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.

That is.

In summary, if you're going to that day where most of the meats in the market were sacrificed and offered as a given purification ceremony to the local deities.

And so therefore, media, the Christian says, I can't partake of that meat because that would be partaking and interacting into some touching of demonic worship or idolatry.

So their conscience convicted them.

So I can't eat that meat.

But Paul is basically say, hey, these idols are nothing.

The meat's still good.

Don't be superstitious.

You're free to eat it.

But that's your conscious says is there's no idols.

You can eat that.

But if you go to someone's house and they have a weak conscious and they still are caught up in this because of their past or their traditions or some of the things they have thinking.

Don't go and eat it in front of them.

That could lead them to, as we'll see in Romans 14, that could lead them to violate their own conscience.

So for the sake of their conscience, restrain because it's not helpful or building them up.

It's not beneficial for you to if you would celebrate your liberties or flaunt your liberties before those who have a weaker conscience.

So you have to enjoy this world, but you got to be using the enjoyments of this world with the heart.

Is this actually yes, I can do it to the glory of God.

Can I do this in the way that it builds up my brothers and sister?

And if it doesn't build them up, I'm not going to do it because I'm not going to be selfish in my freedoms.

I'm not going to be selfish in my indulgences.

I'm not going to be selfish in the way that I partake of this world because my love is not this world.

I don't have to have this world.

I can have it or I can not have it.

The goal is what brings glory to God.

And so we have to have wisdom with the use of the things of this world.

Paul demonstrates this in how he handled Timothy and Titus.

Timothy and Titus were both Paul's disciples and they both have Greeks as their fathers.

So they weren't fully Jews.

Timothy, when he met Timothy, he was raised by his grandmother's teaching and he was raised up as a believer in the Lord.

And when Paul began to disciple Timothy, he had Timothy circumcised.

And he tells us he had Timothy circumcised because he didn't want to be offensive to the Jewish believers.

So for the sake of the conscience of the Jews and for more ministry opportunities, he says, Timothy, I think is best for you to be circumcised.

So he submitted basically his Christian liberty to what was better for the community.

That's wise. That's humble.

But there was another case of Titus where Titus also was uncircumcised.

But he says, Titus, here in the book of Galatians, we have these Judaizers that were forcing their conscience, and of course, legalism, manmade rules upon the church, and this is wrong.

And we're not going to subject ourselves to traditions of man.

So therefore, Titus, I think you don't need to get circumcised to stand up for your liberty.

You're not going to submit yourself to the legalist commands.

So why did he make that choice?

Because he was thinking of selfish pride, not because, hey, I'm going to do what I want to do.

I don't care what people think. No, it's because it was better for the Judaizers to see that circumcision is not needed to be saved.

He was thinking what was in the best interest of the Judaizers.

So that's a guiding principle of how we're to use our liberties and our freedoms.

We're not to say, what's best for me or what do I want?

What's best for God and what builds up the church?

And it takes wisdom and discernment to know when to stand firm on something and when to forgo something.

You see, the Bible talks about there being laws that are non-negotiable.

Thou shall not have premarital sex, non-negotiable.

Sex is for the marriage bed. That's clear. Clear as day.

Some things are not about conscience issues, but there's other things that are difficult.

It takes wisdom and discernment.

What does the Bible say here? What does the Bible say there?

This is how my conscience is led. This is how I'm going to rule my life and try to guide my family.

But I recognize that some of these conclusions I have are a little difficult to make, and force my convictions, which may be good.

My convictions on all kinds of things.

What I watch or don't watch, what I listen to or what I don't listen to, what I eat or what I drink or what I don't eat or what I don't drink.

Where I attend or don't attend or what I participate in or don't participate in.

All these things, it comes down to wisdom issues.

And Paul gives us some principles in Romans 14 of how to guide these things and how for us to handle these things.

And I'll go through them real quickly.

One, we see in Romans 14 verse 1 that we don't argue about these things.

Romans 14:1

It says, "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to curl over opinions." Down to these conscious issues of how we regulate our personal life.

These are personal opinions. They may be good opinions. They may be valid.

They may be invalid. But the point is, don't argue about those. Don't make that the focus.

Don't let us be a church based upon secondary issues. Let us be known for the gospel.

Let us focus on the things that we do know is true.

We know the Ten Commandments. We know things that are right and wrong.

We'll hold to those. But the conscious issues, matters of wisdom and opinions, let us not fight over it.

Here's a little rule. The Bible says, don't quarrel about your issues of conscience.

So don't allow something that you want to obey God with.

I'm not going to eat this. I'm not going to eat meat offered to Adel.

Or I'm not going to drink that. I'm not going to do it.

Well, don't come to the church and argue about that because then you're violating a clear command over an unclear opinion.

Amen.

This, you know how many problems we would solve if we would just go, oh, that's a good principle.

I'm not going to violate a clear command over an unclear opinion.

Boy, that would be helpful.

Let's not feud over.

Fight or curl over homeschooling or this or that. That's not that's what we're not. We need to be known for.

Second thing, do not despise those who have different convictions.

I don't know. I will pass through some of the reading of this, but verses two through four verse 14, a chapter 14 of Romans.

One person believes this. Another person believes that.

Don't look down. You know, you have liberties. Don't look down upon those who have stronger convictions.

You may be tilted towards.

Antinomianism, you don't realize it. Don't look down.

And you who have stricter commands and stricter restrictions on yourself. Don't look down upon those who have more freedom.

Third, don't force your convictions on others. Verse five says each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

That is, I don't mean this is your opinion. You can't force your opinion on someone else.

Your conscious dance before God and conscious. I believe this with all my heart.

Your conscious is submitted and is to be not to your husband.

Not to your pastors. Thank you. Some of you don't want the Lord.

Your conscious is not submitted to any other authority than the word of God.

Only God rules your conscience.

And sometimes the problem is with cult leaders is they want to rule consciousness.

Where to instruct and lead and hopefully develop someone's conscious through the teaching, but they have to come to it through their own convictions.

And if you don't see it in the word of God, then you can't be forced to to legalistically change your behavior just to fit in.

And that happens, I think, sadly.

We see fourthly, we're not to judge others in regards to wisdom issues. We see that for verse 10 all the way to verse 12 in Romans.

It only the Lord is their judge. You're not the judge. Fifth, we're not to tempt others with our liberties.

Verse 13 through 21.

You can look that up and six. We are to hold our liberties with discretion.

Happy.

So here we see that we can enjoy all things that is within the permissible realm of all things are lawful.

But we need to keep in mind that not all things are helpful.

And that helpful thing is the wisdom of discernment of knowing when to use something when not to do something when to enjoy that our conscience.

But those are guided by these biblical principles of not being a fence or tempting others to sin against their conscience and making sure that we do all for the glory of God and for the good.

Of others. That's the second principle to guide us with our physical bodies. Third principle.

Don't be enslaved to anything.

Look at verse 12. All things are lawful. He repeats that.

Not just not all things are helpful. He goes on to say, but I will not be dominated or controlled by anything.

You see, God's given us all things to richly enjoy, but is not given us anything to be dominated by.

That's God's role. That's God's position. That's idolatry to be controlled by anything other than God is worth the abuse of this world comes that the use of this world becomes sinful.

We're not to be controlled.

Now, this is going to step on some of your toes because it steps on my toes. Obviously, we know about intoxication, drunkenness. We all go. Okay, that's clear sense.

We're allowing the substance to control us.

And that's sinful. Do not be drunk. The Bible tells us do not be intoxicated with wine. It's sinful.

But this includes all forms of addiction.

And so some of us use like, oh, I don't drink and I don't definitely don't get drunk. Well, it also forbids gluttony.

Right?

I mean, that's the Baptist.

I mean, that's the one the Baptist look over. I mean, like the Corinthians look over sexual morality. The Baptist look over gluttony.

But we shouldn't.

And let's let's make application.

And I don't know. I'm not going to tell you where that line is because I don't know. It's my I don't believe my opinion. I don't want my opinion to be a wall to you.

But I know I'm convicted over social media.

Those things are made to be addicting.

You know, your phones in your pocket.

Are you controlled by it?

That's something you have to ask yourself and talk with the Lord about. Am I controlled by this device in my pocket?

Am I constantly looking at it? Can I not? Can I put it down? Can I fast from it?

That's why fasting is good. Can I live without it?

If you can't live without it, it's got it's got a hold of you. It's gripped your life.

Don't be dominated or controlled.

Paul says all things are lawful, but don't be controlled by any of these things.

Paul says I keep my body in bringing into subjection. I I don't actually fight out where I said I can't just allow my body to crave.

You know, I said I know it was because of the sermon.

Thanks a lot, Wesley. I I I said no to the donuts this morning.

And I told my wife, I said, it's because I'm preaching on the self discipline.

But.

But it's OK to enjoy sweets, right? Is our sweets good for you? Well.

If that's a few reasons.

I don't just all things are lawful, Wesley. All things are lawful.

But don't be controlled by it, right?

Um. That brings me to the fourth thing.

Don't live for this world or the things of this world. Look at verse 13.

And this is where the Corinthians were taking this this this teaching in misapplying it to simple activities.

But there's truth still to it. Food is meant for the stomach and stomach for food.

God will destroy both one and the other. When Paul condemns and cautions three statuses.

Let me says, hey, food in the body, the belly and all that's going to perish.

You see, the physical world is temporal.

That means don't live for it. Don't lay up your treasures on Earth.

You know, it's OK to enjoy things. It's OK to have a nice vehicle.

I like this. I enjoy this. I appreciate this. But don't live for it.

In fact, I think the only way you can enjoy this world is not living for it is when you make an idol out of it.

Then the things of this world disappoint you. It brings discontentment and misery. It sours it.

It's only when God is your God and you love God with all your heart and mind that are you content with what you have?

And when you're content with what you have, you can have a baloney sandwich and I have much money in your bank account.

But you go, man, I'm richly blessed. Man, I've got this. I can enjoy my food.

I can be thankful for and you can be poor dirt, but you don't sense that you're poor because you're content and you can enjoy.

I mean, poor people can enjoy their things better sometimes than rich people, right?

But you can enjoy this world if you don't live for it. If you're not grabbing hold of it, you're not coveting your own possessions.

These things will perish. Recognize that.

The Bible tells us that the kingdom of God is not in eating and drinking. This is not how the kingdom of God is advanced.

It's not if I get to eat or drink and enjoy this pleasure or that pleasure. That's not the purpose of life.

It's a token of life that can be appreciated in its proper place. But please don't live for it. That's the principle.

The fifth principle, don't take this teaching on conscience issues, liberty issues and apply it to clear violations of the law.

That is, don't use your bodies for sexual immorality. We need to know the difference between self-imposed rules and God's rules.

Sex outside of marriage is sinful and destructive.

Let me just go over four of the reasons. First of all, in verse 13, your body was not designed for sexual immorality.

Look at verse 13, the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.

I know often we first think that our body was designed for our spouse.

We have a physical body so that we could be married or we have a physical body for some earthly reasons.

But you've got to understand your physical body wasn't principally made for some physical purpose.

Your physical body was made in design in the image of God and not saying God has a body.

But he designed your body to be able to see and to be able to work and be able to move and be able to function and interact.

He's made that because God is able to see and work and function.

So he's made us in his image. Even our body is somewhat reflective of the invisible image of God in some ways.

And he's made our bodies not just so us to enjoy the physical world and apples and oranges and all these things.

He's made our bodies so that we could be in communion with him.

We're the temple. We're designed to be the temple of the living God.

We're designed to be the house God within.

That was the that's one of the I would say that's a purpose that is the main purpose of your physical body.

And that should change the way you look at your bodies.

And therefore it wasn't designed. It was made for sexual immorality. That's not the purpose of it.

And whenever you use something for what it was not intended for, there's going to be frustration.

And there's going to be difficulties in your life.

I gave an illustration this morning about using toilet tissue to clean my fish tank when I was in college.

And the point I was making in using that is that toilet tissues designed to dissolve in water quickly, relatively quickly.

And when you use something for its unintended purpose, it causes frustration. My fish tank was more messy.

After I thought to clean it than when I before I thought I saw to clean it.

Your bodies are not made for sexual immorality.

You say, well, this is a little fun. It's going to be a little pleasure, but this is going to destroy.

It's going to destroy your life. You're going to undermine your own bodies.

You're going to undermine even one day marriage.

You see how it's going to work. You see, you're made to be united with your spouse.

You become one flesh. And when you have sexual immorality, you become one flesh with a harlot or with a prostitute.

And that that is breaking the one flesh with your spouse.

It's destroying the one flesh. It's like you can't you're not designed to be made one with multiple flesh.

So we're not designed for that. No doubt it destroys marriages and homes and societies.

I think in large part, our society is in the state it is in because of sexual immorality.

Second reason we're not to have sexual immorality is because God will raise the dead.

Look at verse 14 and God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

He's talking about our body. Yes, our body is going to perish. The stomach is going to perish.

And that's one way of looking at it. This is not eternal. Our bodies are not eternal.

But yet Paul tells us God has redeemed the body and he's going to raise this body from the dead.

There are eternal blessings and realities of the human body.

Third sexual immorality is a sin against Christ. Look at verse 15.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Shaw then take the members of Christ and make the members of a prostitute?

Never. Or do you not know that he was joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her for his written the two shall become one flesh.

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

So you're made to be one with Jesus Christ through the spirit.

But when you're united to a prostitute, you're uniting. This is the great sin.

You're uniting Jesus Christ. She's born with you. You're uniting Christ unwillingly to that prostitute.

And that is a sin against Christ.

There's also we see verse 18 a sin against your own body plea from sexual immorality.

Every other sin a person commits this outside the body.

But the sexual and more person sins against his own body.

And many miles will be stabbing your own body. You might as well be hurting your own body.

It's self destructive.

You see, we should see the sixth principle is found in verse 19 that your body, because it's going to be resurrected because it's housing that the Holy Spirit within you should see the sacredness of your body.

You know, this is the problem with the Corinthians. I said the body is going to be dropped off. It's no important. It's the spirit that matters.

We're going to get to heaven. I don't even know if there's going to be the resurrection of the dead. Paul says, yes, there will be a resurrection.

The body is important. It is sacred. You should honor your body. You should honor the Lord in your body.

And this should influence how we dress and what we eat or what we drink and how we view our bodies.

Our last principle, we're almost to an end.

Is we're to submit our bodies to Christ.

It gives us two reasons.

One, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 19, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God?

The second reason is you don't belong to yourself.

You're not your own, for you were bought with a price.

So here's two reasons we're to not just glorify God with our thoughts and minds and our motivations and intents of our hearts, but seek to glorify God in our physical flesh, our bodies.

Is because one, your bodies are the house of the Lord.

It's God's house.

Now, think about that. And this should change the way we think.

If the Lord Jesus was living among us and had a dwelling in Conway, say he lived among us, and he says, I'm going to be gone on vacation.

Will you watch my house when I'm gone?

I mean, you know, it's God's house. How would you take care of that house?

How would you handle that house? Would you clean it?

Would you make sure the messes are picked up before he came home, that it was in the position it was when it was handed to you?

Would you make sure it was hopefully even cleaner when he came back than when he left?

So this is the Lord's house, but we don't treat our own bodies in the same way, do we?

We don't view our bodies as the temple of the Lord.

Maybe a little exercise would be helpful. Maybe a little restraint to the dinner plate would be helpful.

Maybe I do need to be concerned about my body, even how I adorn and dress and present my bodies.

This is not my body because it leads to the second reason. This body doesn't. It's not even mine.

You know, it's like my body, my choice for Christians. No, it's not my body. It's not my choice.

I've been bought with a price. He didn't just buy my soul. He bought my body. Thank the Lord.

My body is not my own anymore. So how can I use my body in my hands and my eyes and all the instruments of my body?

How can I use my bodies as instruments to serve and to please the Lord?

So whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, that we do all for the glory of God.

Psalm 317, whatever you do, word or deed, do it all in the name of Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father through Him.

This is why it closes, I think, with the main thesis of the passage, so glorify God in your body.

Now, in conclusion, try to sum up this. There's two extremes. One, totally reject the physical.

Physical is evil. Seticism, deny yourself of all creature comforts. Don't do this. Don't taste that. Don't enjoy this.

No, no, no, no. That's spiritual. No, that's not good. The world's to be enjoyed, but not abused.

The world's to be enjoyed, but not something that dominates us and controls us. It's not to be an idol.

It's to be a blessing that points us to the blesser. It's to be utilized for the glory of God.

Let all that I have let the money in my pocket, let the possessions of my that God has given me be used to enrich others and bless others.

Let me be mindful of other others and not covet my own stuff and live for my stuff and live for these things.

I want more and more and more. No, this is that this could be idolatry. This could be simple use.

Let us not fall into sexual immorality and sin and use our bodies to disgrace God in his temple.

Our bodies do belong to the Lord. Let us enjoy this world.

But in a way that pleases God and is beneficial to his church. Hopefully this has been helpful to us. Amen.

Amen.

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