WWUTT 1508 The Lord Will Raise the Body (1 Corinthians 6:14)

The Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through his power.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of 1 Corinthians 6 today, and once again reiterating that we are dealing with the subject of sexual immorality in this section.

I'm going to begin by reading in verse 12 through verse 20 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them.

Yet the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the

Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the

Lord, but will also raise us up through his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her?

For he says the two shall become one flesh, but the one who joins himself to the

Lord is one spirit with him. Flee sexual immorality!

Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral man sins against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

For you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.

Now the verse I'm looking at today very much goes with exactly what we read yesterday. Verse 14, it says,

Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through his power.

And that goes right along with the statement that the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the

Lord, and the Lord is for the body. So as I said yesterday, we need to stop looking for ways that we can entertain our sins as long as we don't cross that line.

Because if that's what we're going after, then we're focusing on the sin and we're not focusing on Christ. Don't use the liberty that you have as permission to go do whatever it is that you want.

That seems to be what the Corinthians were asking of Paul, but Paul is saying for them, your first desire should be for Christ, not for what sins can

I get away with? Because then you're just trying to find ways to do the sin. You're still thinking about sin.

You're still desiring things that are in the passions of your flesh that are worldly and are not of Christ.

Don't go after those things. You're now dead to those things. You're alive in Christ.

The body is not for immorality. It's not for sinful passions, not even what you in your fallen natural self want to go for.

Just because you have that desire doesn't make it good. So not all things are lawful for you in the sense that you can apply it to absolutely anything that you want to do.

The body is not for sexual immorality. God did create sex, but he created it for a particular purpose and only within the confines of marriage.

A husband and a wife together enjoying that intimacy that God certainly created their bodies for.

You don't have to be a biologist to look at a man's body and a woman's body and see the compatibility between the two, that they're designed for a certain intimacy, a certain oneness that can only be enjoyed between a man and a woman that cannot be enjoyed between a man and a man.

We inherently know and understand from nature that sexual relations between a man and a man are unnatural.

They go against what we can just clearly observe.

Nothing good results from the sexual encounter between a man and a man or a sexual encounter between a woman and a woman.

It is only between a man and a woman that something productive occurs, something reproductive.

Naturally, they are able to produce children. And so when a person believes that a homosexual encounter is natural, they are suppressing the truth that is revealed to us by nature.

And that's stated in Romans 1. By their unrighteousness, they suppress the truth.

They don't want to believe the truth. They don't want to believe what is plain and obvious to anybody who can just observe from nature that a man and a woman are sexually compatible with one another, but a man and a man are not and a man and a woman are not.

We can even observe from nature that a man is meant to be committed to a woman and a woman to a man, and they're not supposed to be sexually promiscuous with other people because the act of sex itself is reproductive.

Again, there's that oneness that happens there. There's a one -flesh aspect where a man becomes committed to a woman, families are produced, and then we can even observe through just natural observation that children thrive in a family where there is a mother and a father, and they languish.

Something destructive happens even within that family and the community and society itself when children grow up in a family that do not have a stable or that is not a stable two -parent home.

So even the whole aspect of family can be observed from nature. Now we know from what the law of God says that a man is to be committed to his wife and he's to have no other.

And any kind of sex outside that union that God has created of a husband and a wife, any other kind is sexually immoral.

And we see from Scripture that the wrath of God is burning against these things like sexual immorality.

God is coming against sexual immorality. The wrath of God will be poured out on the sexually immoral and adulterous, as it says in Hebrews chapter 13.

So we must keep the marriage bed undefiled is the instruction there. And we do that in submission to Christ our

King. This comes back to understanding that the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body.

God has not only raised the Lord but he will also raise us up through his power because our bodies belong to God.

So he raises us up from the dead. If we know that our bodies belong to God then we must submit our members fully unto the

Lord and not to whatever it is we want to do. Stop looking for ways that you can do what you want to do in your flesh.

Look for ways instead that you can do unto Christ for his glory and for his greatness as a proclamation to his name.

In Romans 12 .1 we are told in view of God's mercies submit your bodies unto the

Lord as a living sacrifice. So because of the mercy that God has shown to us what do we deserve for our sin?

We deserve to be destroyed. Right? Because we rebelled against God because we went our own way.

We took the body and the mind that God gave us and by the way made in the image of God.

So this body and mind that God gave to us was meant to glorify him but instead of glorifying him we glorified ourselves instead.

We desecrated this image with our sin. We went after our own way instead of God's way.

God breathed life into us. When you read the creation story in Genesis 2 when he creates man with his own hand out of the dust of the earth he breathes his own breath into the man and he became a living being.

So the breath that we breathe came from God and we as sinful creatures took that breath blasphemed

God with it. Instead of declaring God's glory we declared our own. What do we deserve for that?

We deserve to die. We were created in God's image and instead of taking those things that God gave us and glorifying him with this because he alone is worthy of worship and praise instead of glorifying him we glorified ourselves.

We said I can be good without God. I can do my own thing and what I want is better than what

God wants for me. We've made ourselves God. We put ourselves in the place of God and think that we know better than he does.

And God being so holy and good and righteous is not going to allow his name to be blasphemed without there being some sort of repercussion for that.

And it is the wrath of God that is burning against all the injustice and unrighteousness of men as it says in Romans chapter 1 verse 18.

God's wrath will be poured out on this sinful and wicked world. The only way that we can be saved is by faith in Jesus Christ.

For as it says in Colossians 1 20 God is reconciling all things to himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ making peace by the blood of his cross.

He makes peace in that by faith in Jesus Christ we now have peace with God.

Previously we were enemies of God. We were at enmity with God and he would have destroyed us.

Like we can make ourselves enemies of God but we're not going to win that battle. He would destroy us for our sin but instead we have our sins atoned for through Christ's death on the cross and by faith in Jesus peace has been made.

Atonement has been made. We have been reconciled to God through the person and work of Jesus Christ making peace by the blood of his cross.

God makes peace another way as well. He makes peace by destroying his enemies. So those whom he has reconciled to himself by faith in Jesus Christ we have peace with God.

But then there are others who are going to be destroyed when Christ returns to destroy his enemies placing all of his enemies under his feet throwing them in the pit of fire with the devil and his angels who did unrighteousness as Satan did.

They will be destroyed along with Satan on that day by the breath of his mouth as it's said in 1

Thessalonians 4. Satan will be such an easy enemy to defeat for Christ that he will defeat him just by breathing a word and he will be vanquished.

As all things were created by a word so God is going to bring all things to destruction by a word unless we are in Christ.

Those who are in Christ will be delivered and we will live with him forever in glory.

Our very bodies will even be resurrected from their graves just as Christ's body was resurrected from his grave.

He is the firstborn from the dead as it says in Colossians 1 and in Romans chapter 8 so that all of us who are in Christ Jesus likewise we will be raised from the dead.

The life that I now live in the body Paul says in Galatians 2 .20 I live by faith unto the

Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So going back to Romans 12 .1

I didn't actually finish that in view of God's mercies for us because he did not destroy us and he was merciful toward us we must live our lives as a holy sacrifice unto the

Lord. Submit your bodies Paul says there as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God this is your spiritual act of worship.

It is worship to live lives of holiness unto God not giving the members of our body over to things like sexual immorality but living unto

God as one who has been brought from death to life so we don't live in those ways that bring about death and what is it that brought death?

Sin brought death, right? Romans 6 .23 For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our

Lord. So we cannot be submitting ourselves unto things that bring death. You cannot do sin.

You cannot find a way to permit yourself to do sin that will be okay with God because all things are lawful for me, right?

No, if it's against the law of God then it's not lawful for you. So don't do those things that bring death.

You're now dead to sin and alive in Christ. Previously you were dead to God.

You could not worship God because of the deadness that was in your body. The sin that you were living in.

Again in Romans 8 .6 which I read yesterday the mind that is set on the flesh is death but the mind that is set on the spirit is life and peace.

Because the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God it does not submit itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so.

And those who are in the flesh are not able to please God. See, this is who we were before we came to Christ.

But if we are in Christ we are a new creation. The old is passed away and the new has come.

That's a word that Paul gives to the Corinthians in the next letter. 2 Corinthians 5 .17 If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.

As Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3 you must be born again.

That's what it means to be a new creation. We were dead in our sin we've been made alive in Christ.

So if you're in Christ you're a new creation. The old is passed away behold the new has come.

All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

That's the next verses after that. So what I just read to you there was 2 Corinthians 5 .17 -19

So we're not to continue in the sinful way anymore. We're not even to desire that life anymore.

To desire that life is to be like Lot's wife who looked back at Sodom as it was burning and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

She did not want the salvation that God gave to them. She wanted the ways of Sodom so that even she was destroyed along with Sodom just because she looked back and she wanted it.

She wanted the ways of Sodom. So don't look back at your sin life thinking that that was the better way because then you become as Lot's wife.

We need to be looking unto the kingdom of God. Where are our eyes supposed to be fixed?

They're supposed to be fixed upon Christ. As it says in Hebrews 12 turning our eyes toward Jesus the author and the perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

If we likewise are in Christ we are fellow heirs of that kingdom. And as kingdom people of God we are to live lives of holiness not desiring the things that stain this garment, this flesh that we live in now.

For as Jude said in Jude 23 we are to hate even the tunic polluted by the flesh the garment polluted by the flesh so that we would live lives of holiness unto

God. If we are followers of Jesus Christ we've been clothed in his righteousness. As he said to the church in Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3

I charge you to buy from me garments that have been washed in white. And these garments represent the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us by faith in him.

So walk in righteousness. Show yourself as a child of righteousness who desires to do as Jesus did and not as the world does.

God has not only raised the Lord but he will raise us up through his power.

So if we know this by the mercy of God as it says in Romans 12 1 present yourselves as living sacrifices.

Your bodies as a living sacrifice unto the Lord. This is your spiritual act of worship.

Romans 12 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and then you will see

God's will for you his good and his pleasing and his perfect will.

We have been born again in Christ Jesus not to live lives of sinfulness we've been born again to live lives of holiness unto the

Lord. So do not submit the members of your body to unrighteousness. Paul says in Romans 6 but submit your bodies as members of Christ as slaves of righteousness to do righteousness.

So as Paul will go on here in 1 Corinthians 6 we just read verse 14 God has not only raised the

Lord but he will raise us up through his power. So by his power we've been raised from the dead. Verse 15

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Same thing he says in Romans 6 he says here to the

Corinthians your bodies are members of Christ. Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

May it never be. Paul is of course confronting sexual immorality here but what we also take away from this is that we should not unite our bodies to the world.

Don't unite your body to that place that is coming to destruction that will be destroyed by the wrath of God when

Christ returns in the end because then you make yourself part of a kingdom that is coming into judgment.

You don't want to be part of that kingdom you've been rescued out of that kingdom so stop flirting with that kingdom. Stop being in fellowship with that kingdom.

James said that to be a friend of the world is to be an enmity with God and he said such a person is an adulterer.

If you are fellowshipping with the world in such a way that you unite with the world you love what the world has you want what the world has you want to go after the world's passions instead of being for Christ.

Well if that's where you are in your spirit you're going to be judged right along with the world. You've made yourself an enemy of God and you're aligned with the world.

You're an adulterer. You're supposed to be united with Christ instead you're united with the world.

Don't be that person. Your body is meant for the Lord. The body is not for sexual immorality but for the

Lord and the Lord for the body. As God has raised the Lord he's also going to raise us up through his power.

So be born again and live as a citizen of the kingdom that is coming into eternity not the kingdom that is coming to destruction.

Show yourself as a citizen of the kingdom of Christ not a citizen of the kingdom of Satan.

Let's finish with prayer. Heavenly Father I pray that you teach us through the scriptures that we've read today what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

How we live as one who has been raised up from death to life in Christ.

And that we know we're not uniting the members of our bodies to the ways of this world. We don't even long for that stuff.

We don't want that stuff. We want Christ. We want to live in such a way that is pleasing to God.

We want to unite the members of our body with Christ and not with this world.

Prostituting ourselves out with the stuff that the world wants us to do. That is a way of death.

May it never be for us. May we be on the path of life the road that leads to heaven that we may dwell with Christ here and forever.

Forgive us our sins and lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake as it says in Psalm 23.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

Then on Thursday we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday we take questions from the listeners and viewers.