The Lord's Temple (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

Alright, like I said, we are in 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

We're gonna be reading verses 12 through 20.

So will you please stand for the reading of God's word?

Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial.

Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will do away with both of them.

However, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

Don't you know that your bodies are a part of Christ's body?

So should I take a part of Christ's body and make it part of a prostitute?

Absolutely not.

Don't you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her?

For Scripture says the two will become one flesh.

But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

Flee sexual immorality.

Every other sin a person commits is outside of the body.

But the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.

Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God.

You are not your own, for you were bought at a price.

So glorify God with your body.

Let's pray.

Lord, as we just sing, we want to give you every part of who we are.

Lord, our hands, our feet, our mind, our will, our strength, every part of our being.

We want to use that for your glory.

And Lord, it's a struggle against our flesh and blood, but I pray that you would show us how to do that.

I pray that we would approach this passage with open hearts, with open minds, and just asking, God, what do you want to correct in me?

And what ways do you want to encourage me?

What do you want me to get out of this so that I can become more like Jesus?

I pray that we would all have that attitude as we approach this scripture here this morning.

Pray that your will would be done and that your spirit would speak to our hearts.

Pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

May be seated.

So I mentioned, if you remember last week, that we're going to be talking a lot about sex today.

And I gave kind of a bit of a parental warning with that.

And if you're in the school of thought that we shouldn't be talking about this kind of stuff in church, I want you to know why we're going to be talking about it so candidly here today.

You know, every day the world is discipling us regarding sex.

Through shows, through movies, billboards, and even if you don't watch those things, you can't get through the grocery line without being bombarded by sex scandals and somebody posing in a bikini.

You know, it comes down to the style of clothes that are popular, bathing suits that are prevalent today.

It's all about sex appeal.

Music, even, is filled with sexual innuendo, and you know, so many, regardless of what kind in secular music, it's talking about hooking up and just all of those kinds of things.

And whether we like it or not, we're daily being discipled by the world in all things sex.

You know, our culture is sex crazed.

It drives so much of the advertising that we see because people know that sex sells.

So if the world is going to disciple us daily, we're not gonna shy away from what God has to say about sex in Scripture.

We're going to be discipled by Scripture in this.

And it's really to counteract what the world is trying to convince us of on a daily basis.

So, over these next two sections in 1 Corinthians, we're just gonna talk openly and candidly about what God has to say about this subject.

Now, if you remember last week, we went over how to handle disputes within a church.

And it ended with Paul telling the church to stop acting like the unrighteous.

And he listed a bunch of examples of what the unrighteous do.

If you remember that list that we went through last week.

And starting in verse 12, he continues on with how to not act like the unrighteous.

And specifically today regarding sexual immorality.

And he bridges kind of those two sections of what we went through last week and what we're going through today with verse 12.

So look at verse 12 of me.

Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial.

Now, that can be a confusing verse for us, you know, at first glance, but some scholars believe that this everything is permissible phrase that we see right here might have been a saying in Corinth at the time that Paul's trying to weave into his message.

Or that maybe the Corinthian church took Paul's teaching on grace and his teaching on no longer being under the law and distorted it into a saying to justify their sin.

Well, you know, Paul said there's no more law and we're under grace, so all things are permissible, you know.

Like maybe that was the thought of what Paul is trying to counteract here.

So Paul's gonna address this saying wherever it came from, direct on.

You know, the main thing that we need to understand, I think, is what Paul is not saying here.

He is not saying anything you want to do is permissible.

We shouldn't read that when we read this phrase here.

Remember, we're reading somebody else's mail.

This is a letter that Paul was writing to the Corinthian church.

So there's things in here that they have in common that they understand that we kind of have to guess at a little bit of trying to figure out exactly what they're talking about.

And this is one of those things.

So we should read it as of all the freedoms and of all the liberties that we have in Christ, not all are beneficial.

You know, just because you can do it and it may not be sin doesn't mean it's the best thing to do or that it's the best thing for you.

An example, you know, I can go to the mid-state fair and I can eat a fried Twinkie and not sin.

They really have those.

I really don't think I would eat them.

But but would it be beneficial if I went and ate five of those every day?

I really don't think so.

That would not be good for me in any way.

So look at the second half of verse 12.

Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

So there's this story, whether it's true or not, I don't know.

But Charles Spurgeon, you know, they call him the Prince of Preachers.

He was known for his preaching and his Bible study.

He was also known for smoking a lot of cigars.

And there's this story that somebody approached him one day and said, Do you think smoking cigars is a sin?

And he says, No, I don't think smoking cigars is a sin.

He said, I think smoking cigars in excess is a sin, but I don't think that smoking cigars is a sin.

And of course the person asked, Well, then what does smoking cigars in excess look like?

And he said, Well, I guess if I had two in my mouth at once.

So he was known for smoking a lot of cigars.

But he said on various occasions that if he ever felt like he was addicted, and if he ever felt like he was dependent upon them, that he would stop immediately.

Because he did not want cigars to master his life.

You know, another example would be drinking a glass of wine.

That might be permissible.

But if we have an addictive behavior, if we struggle with alcoholism, it will master us.

And if we struggle with those things, then we need to stay away from those things.

Because it is not beneficial for us to place ourselves in the grips of temptation and then hope that we don't sin while we're in the grips of those temptations.

That's what Paul's saying here.

Everything is permissible for me, but I refuse to be mastered by anything that is not God.

Stay away from anything that has power over you.

That when you're in its grips, you're found powerless and enslaved to whatever it might be that you are in the grips of.

You know, I think of things like alcohol, I think of substance abuse, I think of lust, pornography, overeating, an inappropriate relationship, maybe even social media.

Maybe it's binging on TV or other entertainment.

You know, watching a show is not a sin, but watching 12 hours of a show in a row probably isn't what's going to be the most beneficial for us.

Anything that enslaves us when we're under its influence is not beneficial in any way to us.

Paul says, I will not let those things be my master, and I will not let those things get in the way of or take the place of God in my life.

Look at verse 13 with me.

Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will do away with both of them.

However, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

So just like God made our stomachs for food, and just like he made food for our stomachs, God made our bodies for himself.

Our bodies were not made for sex.

To participate in it, in the confines of marriage, yes, absolutely.

But that's not why he created us.

They were made for God's glory, and they were made for his service.

You know, I think sometimes we tend as Christians to downplay the importance of our current bodies, you know, the flesh and blood that we're currently in.

Thinking like, oh, this body's temporary, it's just this flesh that I pack around with me day to day.

You know, I really don't care what happens to it.

I'm gonna do what I want, eat what I want, smoke what I want, participate in whatever I want.

But that's not what Paul's saying here.

He's saying, your body is for the Lord, both right now and forever.

You see, the body doesn't disappear, and then we get a whole new one when Jesus returns.

Our bodies, like Christ's body, will be resurrected.

They don't get swapped out, they get resurrected, just like we see with the story of Jesus.

The tomb was empty.

It wasn't that a new body came out and the old body was still in there.

Jesus' body was resurrected.

You know, Paul actually says in chapter 15, so we're kind of jumping ahead here a little bit, of 1 Corinthians, he calls our body a seed.

And I want to read you 1 Corinthians chapter 15, uh, verses 35 through 38, so we can kind of get a reference of what Paul's talking about.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

He says, But someone will ask, How are the dead raised?

What kind of body will they have when they come?

You fool, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

And as for what you sow, you're not sowing the body that will be, but only a seed, perhaps of wheat or another grain.

But God gives it a body as he wants, and to each of the seeds its own body.

So the body we have now, it's just a seed of what is to come.

But it's God's seed to do with as he pleases.

And yes, we will be raised up into an eternal body by the same power that resurrected Jesus from the grave.

But this earthly body right now is for the Lord and for his glory, not just for eternity, but right now.

So don't use it as if it was yours to do with as you please.

This is the seed.

And if you know anything about plants, you know the proper care and treatment of a seed is very, very important.

And we have that responsibility right now of the seed that we have of our eternal body.

So, with all that said, let's go back to verse 13.

And our body's not being for sexual immorality, as Paul said.

Now, when we see that word sexual immorality, we need to understand that what Paul is referring to.

And that's anything outside of the confines of marriage.

Because anything outside of marriage is outside of God's purpose for sex.

Anything outside of marriage is not for God's glory, but for our own selfish gratification.

And God created sex to be a beautiful thing between a husband and a wife.

You know, not only a symbol of oneness, but an actual becoming of one flesh with one another.

Mark 10, verses 8 through 9, Jesus says, and the two will become one flesh.

Mark 10:8–9

So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.

You see, God created sex for oneness with one person.

Therefore, sexual immorality is gonna be poison to any relationship that we're in right now, and maybe any future relationship that we might be in.

Now, I want to pause here for a second because if you have a checkered sexual past, I don't want you to hear the rest of this sermon and condemn yourself and start beating yourself up and feel like, you know, I've screwed up, it's too late, I've become one with all of these other partners, there's no hope for me.

Please don't forget that if you're in Christ, you are a new creation.

All the old junk has passed away and you have been made new.

Please remember that.

You are a new creation.

That's what happens when we come to believe in Jesus Christ.

So, as we talk about this, don't let the enemy accuse you of things that God has already forgiven you of.

Don't let the enemy accuse you of things that God is already choosing not to remember in your life.

And if God's not remembering it, there's no point in us remembering it.

And if he's already forgiven us, then there's no benefit in still feeling guilty and beating ourselves up.

So just remember that as we go on.

You are a new creation in Christ.

Now, the point of all of this is that our bodies were created to glorify God.

And the only way to glorify God through sex is with your spouse.

And this is what we need to apply moving forward, which leads us to verse 15.

Read that with me.

Don't you know that your bodies are a part of Christ's body?

So the body of Christ is the church, and Christ is the head of that body.

And we all are different parts of that body that serve different functions.

Our bodies, our physical bodies, are a part of the body of Christ.

So what Paul's saying here is we shouldn't be doing things just because we have the freedom to do things.

We should be intentional in what we participate in, and we should be intentional in what we abstain from because we are members.

We are a part of the body of Christ.

Look at the second half of verse 15.

He goes on.

So, should I take a part of Christ's body and make it a part of a prostitute?

Absolutely not.

Don't you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her?

For scripture says the two will become one flesh.

Remember, prostitution was a big deal in Corinth.

And it was a part of their temple worship that they were used to.

You know, when we did the intro to 1 Corinthians, we talked a lot about how it's estimated that there's like a thousand temple prostitutes at the temple of Aphrodite.

And those prostitutes would descend on the city of Corinth at night, offering sacred sex in Corinth.

And this was considered an act of worship to Aphrodite.

And it wasn't free, of course, they had to pay, but the proceeds went to that temple of Aphrodite.

And the prostitutes, as we talked about, were predominantly women, but they were also men and even children that were involved in this prostitution, in this act of worship, as they would call it.

So this is something that the Corinthians were very familiar with and was very prevalent within their culture.

These church members probably had experience taking part in these prostitutes.

And if Paul's addressing it here, it probably means that they're probably still struggling with this even after coming to Christ.

Because rarely does addiction or temptation of a sexual nature just go away when we start following Christ.

So Paul reminds them if we are a part of the body of Christ, we have no business being a part of another body.

You know, I think it might help us at this point because sometimes we can start thinking about these things and it gets super spiritual and we kind of push them far away.

But think of this in physical terms.

Think of the temple that was in Jerusalem at this time.

Completely set apart for the worship of God, the God of Israel.

You know, for a Christian, participating in any sex outside of marriage would be just like bringing in an idol from a pagan nation, setting it up in the sanctuary in Jerusalem, and then sacrificing to it.

And saying, you know, I can worship God and this idol.

You know, they can be one in a temple together.

They can both be worshipped at the same time.

That's what happens when we're one with the Lord and then try to be one with anything else.

As he's about to say right here in verse 17.

But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

We've talked a lot about this.

The Holy Spirit lives inside of us.

I mean, how can we be more one with God than that?

You know, in marriage, the goal is becoming one.

It's becoming more like your spouse as we become more like Christ.

The thing is, the difference with our relationship with Jesus is Jesus is already perfect.

So it's not about him becoming more like us, it's all about us becoming more like him as we become more one with him.

John 17, verses 20 through 23, these are the words of Jesus.

John 17:20–23

I don't want to read them to you.

John 17, 20 through 23.

I pray not only for these, so he's speaking about his disciples, but also for those who believe in me through the disciples' word.

That's us, right here sitting today.

May they all be one as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you.

May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.

I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one.

I am in them, and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me.

Our oneness with Christ does not have room for a third party.

Because as Paul says in verse 15, that brings Jesus into oneness with a prostitute.

Think about that.

That's why he says in verse 18 to flee sexual immorality.

And I wonder when Paul was writing this, if the Holy Spirit gave Paul that image of Joseph fleeing from Potiphar's wife, who was trying to seduce him.

You know, he fled to such an extent that he left his garment in her hand.

He didn't stay and he didn't reason with her and try and convince her like this probably isn't a good idea.

He didn't leave a forwarding address to her.

He fled.

And that is what Paul is reiterating here.

Flee.

Give no provision to your flesh.

And Jesus said, if you even lust in your heart, it's the same as committing adultery.

So this isn't just fleeing from somebody trying to seduce you.

This is fleeing from all sexual immorality.

Look at the second half of verse 18.

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body.

But the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.

You know, like we talked about, it's like bringing in an idol to the temple and saying, I could be one with God and sexually immoral with whoever I want to.

Because if you do this, you're actually sinning against your own temple, which is the temple of God.

You're sinning against your oneness with the Lord when there's sexual immorality brought into that relationship.

Look at verse 19.

Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?

You know, Paul said something similar to this in chapter 3, but he was talking to the whole church as the body of Christ.

He said, Don't you yourselves know that you are God's temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

But here, he's specifically talking to individuals when he says, Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?

Who is in you?

You, whom you have from God.

You see, when Jesus died on the cross, the veil that separated the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies from the rest of the sanctuary, from the holy place, it was torn in two from top to bottom.

And the presence of God went from living behind that veil on earth to dwelling in our hearts if we follow Christ.

He dwells in us.

That's why it says we're a temple.

It's because that's where the glory of God dwells.

And there's only room for one God.

And that is God in that temple that we call our bodies.

Look at the second half of verse 19, very end of verse 19.

He says, You are not your own, for you were bought at a price.

So glorify God with your body.

If we're brought, if we're bought with the blood of Christ, then we're no longer our own.

Not just our spirit, which I think our minds usually go to in this verse, but our physical body was bought by Christ.

And when you buy something, it's yours to do with as you please.

So giving yourself over to sexual immorality, what it comes down to is just pride on our part.

In essence, it's saying, I have not been bought.

I am my own, and I'm gonna do whatever I want with this body that I have.

It's saying, I'll set up an idol in God's sanctuary, and I'm gonna pretend like they can coexist in the same place together.

I'll be one with the Lord and anything else that I want.

We cannot bring an idol into our relationship with God, because that directly affects our own body, our own temple.

It affects the oneness that we have with Him.

In Exodus 10, verses 3 through 5, I want to read it to you.

Exodus 10:3–5

It says, Do not have other gods beside me.

Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth.

Do not bow and worship to them and do not serve them.

For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

God is jealous for us.

Not of us.

He's jealous for us.

Just like a husband should get jealous if his wife starts flirting with another man.

God gets jealous when we flirt with idols, when we flirt with sin, when we flirt with sexual immorality.

Although the Old Testament, yeah, all through I should say, the Old Testament, God equates worship and sex.

He calls Israel's worship of idols adultery, fornication, unfaithfulness.

He calls it harlotry, prostitution, and promiscuity.

That's all based on idol worship.

That's how God sees it within our relationship.

Hosea 5.4 actually says this in the speaking of Israel.

He says, their actions do not allow them to return to their God, for a spirit of promiscuity is among them, and they do not know the Lord.

You see, we're the bride of Christ.

And if we engage in any sexual sin or any idolatry, it's no different than a spouse cheating on their husband or their wife.

And that's when God gets jealous.

Our affection and worship is rightfully his.

He bought it with the blood of Jesus Christ.

And he wants that relationship to be solely between us and him alone.

He doesn't want us flirting with or engaging in any kind of sexual sin.

And when we do, as it says right here, we actually pollute the temple of God with idol worship.

You know, a lot of people see these verses, and that's so they ask, you know, does this mean that sexual sin is the worst sin?

You know, I don't think we can really classify sin in that way.

But I do think it's safe to say that it's the most damaging sin to ourselves.

Every sin has consequences, and some sins have bigger consequences.

Even though we're forgiven, the consequences don't go away.

And sexual sin has major consequences on us.

And it also has major consequences on our current spouse, and if you're not married, on your future spouse as well.

So I think the question is okay, we come to the end of this section.

What do we do with this?

You know, something that I tell people when I'm doing premarital counseling, and then I'll also usually bring it up during the wedding ceremony as a reminder as well, is I tell them that if the grass starts to look greener on the other side of the fence, that just means it's time to water your own lawn.

And it's very true.

If becoming one with anything that is not God is a problem in our life, whether pornography or relationship outside of marriage or coveting your neighbor's wife, whatever it might be, it means it's time to water your own lawn.

It's time to invest in your relationship with God.

You know, I've never had a married couple come to me and say, you know, our marriage was so good.

We invested in it all the time.

It had never been better.

And then my husband had an affair.

I've never once heard that.

It doesn't happen.

So are we investing in our relationship with God?

Are we spending time with him in prayer?

In the word, studying God's word to us.

All during the day, are we keeping our thoughts on him, keeping him at the forefront of our mind?

Are we seeing our lives as an act of worship to him?

You know, if the grass looks greener on the other sin side of the fence, it's usually because of a deficit in our relationship with God.

So we start looking for our fulfillment outside of that relationship and start looking over the fence.

So my encouragement today is let's water our own lawns.

Let's invest in our relationship with God and pray that we find our true fulfillment in Him.

Because that's the only place we're going to find it.

Because no matter how much we try to find fulfillment on the other side of that fence, we're going to find ourselves less fulfilled than when we started.

True fulfillment is only found in oneness with Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Will you pray with me?

Lord, we love you so much.

And we fail daily.

Lord, we struggle with sin and our flesh and sexual sin and idolatry.

And it sneaks in and starts to take hold in areas sometimes that we don't even see.

But God, you are so faithful to forgive.

You are so faithful to give us a new beginning each time that we fail.

And we thank you so much for that love that you've shown us in so many different ways, especially through the love of Jesus.

Lord, his willingness to die on that cross and to be raised three days later so that we can have this direct relationship with you, so that we can have the Holy Spirit living inside of us.

Lord, help us to be one with you and you alone.

Whatever sins might be tugging on our heart, whatever sins we might find ourselves failing in daily.

We know that your grace is sufficient, but I pray that we would invest in you, that we would realize that we can only find our fulfillment in you, and that we would stop giving our time and attention to things that affect our oneness with you.

Lord, so I pray that you would strengthen us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We cannot do this without you.

That we would depend on you in every moment, and that we would allow you to make us more and more like Jesus daily.

Because that's how we become one with Him.

Lord, becoming one is a process.

So I pray daily that we would become more like Jesus, become more one with Him.

Lord, we lift all of this up to you and pray for help in all of it.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.