WWUTT 1512 The One Who Joins Himself to the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:16-17)

The Bible says that God did not create the body for sexual immorality, but for the

Lord. Therefore we are to honor God with our bodies and remain pure sexually when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and I want to preface this again by saying we're talking about sexual immorality as we've been going through this chapter.

We will finish this up this week. Some of these things that I talk about are going to be adult in nature.

I want to present this in a reverent way, but in case these are things you've not yet talked about with your kids, you'll want to listen to this first before your kids hear it.

I'm going to begin by reading verses 15 through 20 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

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. Yesterday, I looked primarily at verse 15.

Today, we're going to focus on verses 16 and 17, and then tomorrow finishing this up with verses 18, 19, and 20.

Let me come back to verse 15 again, though. As we read it yesterday, Paul's saying, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Now, understand this regarding context, is that we're talking to Christians here.

Paul is addressing the church in Corinth. He's not talking to every single person. Not everyone is united to Christ.

As it says in Romans chapter 8, those who do not have the spirit of God do not belong to him.

So we belong to God when we have his spirit that has been poured into our hearts.

But if you do not have the spirit of Christ, then you do not belong to God. You are not members of Christ if you are not followers of Christ, if the

Holy Spirit has not been given you. So regarding do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ, we're talking to Christians here.

Those who are worldly, those who are living in the world, have not been bought with a price.

Remember, that's how we conclude when we get to verse 20. You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.

Well, they're incapable of glorifying God with their bodies because they do not have the spirit of God.

Before you came to Christ, you could not honor God. Isaiah 64, 6, even our best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy

God. And again, we also read in Romans chapter 8 that those who are in the flesh cannot please

God. We have the contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit in Galatians chapter 5.

So those who are still of the flesh are incapable of spiritual things. Paul had said this earlier as well in chapter 2.

So this isn't a concept foreign to his letter to the Corinthians either. If we are of the flesh, we can't please

God. Only those who are in Christ can please God. But we can also displease

God if you take the members of your body, which belongs to Christ, and unite them with members of a prostitute.

So as we read here, your bodies are members of Christ. We're talking to Christians. Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

May it never be. In Greek, this is mygenoita. It's the strongest phrase of refusal, of disapproval that Paul could make in Greek.

As I've heard Steve Lawson translate this in English, he said the English equivalent would be no, no, a thousand times no, right?

Shall I unite my body, which belongs to Christ, shall

I unite it with a prostitute? No, mygenoita, a thousand times no.

May it never be. Verse 16, 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. Now, it says here, he says the two shall become one flesh.

And if you're reading it in the NASB or in the Legacy Standard Bible, the word he, the pronoun he is capitalized.

Capital H -E. God says the two shall become one flesh.

Well, when you go to this actual reference in Genesis 2, 24, no one is speaking there.

It's narrative. So it's explaining that Adam and Eve were created. The man was fashioned out of the dust of the ground.

God breathed life into him, and he became a living being. From Adam, God took a rib, caused him to fall into a deep sleep, took a rib from Adam's side, fashioned the rib into a woman.

Adam awakens. The woman is brought to the man. And then Adam says, this is

Genesis 2, 23, this is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. That's what woman means out of man.

And then that's the conclusion of Adam's statement. Verse 24 is narrative.

God is not speaking. Moses is writing this. And when I say God is not speaking,

I mean it's not attributing it to his voice speaking in the context of Genesis 2.

Does that make sense? Of course, all scripture is God -breathed. But I'm just saying in terms of the narrative here that we have in Genesis 2, it's not a quote.

It's a quote. So Genesis 2, 24 is, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. So Moses is writing this under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit. He is pinning what God is telling him to pin. So what he's writing down here is just as Paul says in 2

Timothy 3, 16, it is God -breathed. It is given by God. So, therefore, we know all scripture, even if it's a quote that comes from the

Apostle Paul, it comes from God because it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. So, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh is a word that comes from God.

So as Paul says it here in 1 Corinthians 6, 16, he states it this way, for he says the two shall become one flesh.

But I'm going to get even more specific than that. I don't think that Paul was actually quoting Genesis 2, 24.

I believe that Paul was quoting Christ as he stated this in the

Gospels. We have it in Matthew chapter 19, which was the section that I read to you yesterday.

It's also in Mark 10. Let me read this to you. Mark 10, beginning in verse 2.

The Pharisees came up and in order to test him, asked, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

And Jesus answered them, what did Moses command you? And they said, Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.

And Jesus replies, because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, this is

Mark 10, 6, Jesus quotes Genesis. God made them male and female.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

That's the end of the quote from Genesis. And then Jesus says, so they are no longer two, but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. And then as it goes on in Mark 10, verse 10, it says, and in the house, the disciples asked him again about this matter.

And he said to them, whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.

And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. So this is the command that has come from Christ, who again is quoting from Genesis.

He is rooting this command in the Old Testament, in Scripture, written down by Moses, given by God, Genesis 2, 24, in the narrative that is given there regarding the creation of man and woman, whom

God created to be husband and wife, the two shall become one flesh. They consummate their union to each other.

And then that consummate union is also fruitful. It produces offspring.

So you have not only the creation of the first man and woman, you have the creation of the first marriage. You have the creation of the first family.

The two are one. He says the two shall become one flesh.

So Paul states it here in 1 Corinthians 6, 16, for he says, and again, this is in the context of Christ.

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?

No. Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her?

For he says, Christ says, because that is who Paul was talking about. So the reference here, yes, it definitely comes from Genesis 2, but I think it was

Jesus quoting Genesis 2 in the instruction or the rebuke that he gave to the Pharisees in Matthew 19 or in Mark 10.

That is what Paul is quoting. So he is quoting what Jesus said. And Jesus defines marriage because Jesus is the one who created marriage.

Do you realize that? Jesus Christ created marriage. Let's go to the

Gospels again. John 1, 1, which says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God.

And the word, you know, this was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him. And apart from him, nothing came into being.

That has come into being. Once again, in the beginning was the word. Who is the word?

We know that the word is Jesus Christ. Verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.

Glory as of the only begotten from the father, full of grace and truth. So the word that we're reading about here is

Christ. In the beginning was the word. He was in the beginning with God. He was

God. And all things came into being through him. Everything came into existence by Christ who made it.

And apart from him, nothing came into being. That has come into being. So when we read in Genesis 1, in the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth. It's very specifically the son, the second person of the

Trinity who created all things. And when we read that he said, let there be light and there was light.

It's specifically Christ who spoke into existence all things.

For everything that has been made was made by Christ. This is also stated in Colossians 1 and in Hebrews 1, in addition to John 1.

So Jesus is the creator of all things. Jesus is the one who created marriage.

And he's not only explaining what the scriptures and the Old Testament say.

But he is explaining what he himself made. This is marriage as I created it.

It is to be a man and a woman. Male and female as God created them.

A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. And the two shall become one flesh.

So they are no longer two, Jesus says. That doesn't come from the Old Testament. That's his word. They are no longer two but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together. What he has created. Let not man separate or redefine or call it something else or make it his own thing.

God has created it. He gets to define it. Jesus is the one who made it himself.

So he's the one who says what it is. And anything other than how Jesus defined marriage in Matthew 19 and Mark 10 is an abomination.

And what we're seeing happen in our world today in this rebellion against what God has created.

You have the redefinition of marriage as a man and a man or a woman and a woman. You have men believing that they can become women.

Or women believing that they can become men. And this being imposed even upon our children.

That if a child begins to question whether he is really a he. That a little boy can become a little girl.

Laws are even being passed. That a parent cannot deny a child their desire to want to become something else.

And so governments are even instituting this new morality. That if a boy wants to become a girl he can and the parent can't say anything or do anything about it.

All of this is happening in our world. It is a rebellion against not just God. Certainly it is a rebellion against God.

But it is a rebellion against what God has made. Family. God created family.

This is a rebellion against family. All of this in the LGBTQ movement. That whole spectrum of letters there.

LGBTQ is some kind of declaration against what God created to be the family.

Because none of those letters can create a family. It's all in rebellion against that.

This is a rebellion against natural law as God has established it.

So certainly it's a rebellion against God. But we see the specifics of this rebellion with regards to sexual immorality.

It is to go a sexually immoral way. To be in rebellion against that which

God created and called good according to the Genesis narrative. So instead of recognizing that God made marriage and understanding the definition of marriage as he defined it.

And specifically as Jesus said it was. They rebel against that.

Everyone who commits sexual immorality rebels against what

God created sex to be. To be procreative. To be consummate.

To be between a husband and his wife. The two shall become one flesh.

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 then understand this in verse 17. The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him.

So there is here in this definition of sexuality as God created sex.

A definition of marriage. As God created man and woman to be united to one another for life.

The two shall become one flesh until death parts them. As we say in our vows. As God has created this.

He gave us this to be an example of something else.

An example of something even greater than this. And that is the spiritual union that we have with God.

The unity that a husband has with his wife. This is the most precious, most intimate, earthly relationship that we can enjoy.

And even this that God has given to us to be enjoyed for his glory. Even this is supposed to be a picture for something greater.

The relationship that you have with Christ is even greater than a relationship that a husband has with his wife.

Our spiritual union with God even greater than whatever union that we can experience in our bodies.

God gave us marriage ultimately to show us the relationship that Christ has with his church.

So this is not the only place where Paul makes a reference to marriage to being a picture of something even greater than marriage.

Consider Ephesians chapter 5. Beginning in verse 22. Wives be subject to your own husbands as to the

Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church.

He himself being the savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

Wives, I'm not just reading this as an example. Hear this as instruction and follow it. Husbands, your turn.

Verse 25. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.

So that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.

That he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.

So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.

Just as Christ also does the church. Because we are members of his body.

Similar to what Paul is saying here to the Corinthians. Verse 31. We have this quotation from Genesis 2 again.

For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

Listen to what Paul says here in verse 32. This mystery is great. Or as it says in the

English Standard Version, is profound. But I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself.

And the wife must see to it that she respects her husband. Paul is saying here that even this instruction regarding marriage points to Christ and the church.

This mystery is great. But I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

And so as we understand that God has given us sex and he has given us marriage to be a picture of even something greater than this.

And that is the union, the spiritual union that Christ has with his church.

That union must be pure, right? That union is purified by Christ.

Let no worldly thing come into it. For as James says in James chapter 4, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

So if we unite ourselves to the world and think that we can still have a relationship with God, we stain that relationship.

We become adulterers, spiritual adulterers in that sense. So we cannot cheat on God.

The church cannot cheat on Christ and try to then become a cathedral of the world.

Christ died for the purity of this relationship that we might be pure and therefore in the eyes of God received as righteous because we have the righteousness of Christ.

So also we must be righteous in our bodies. This spiritual relationship is pure.

Our bodies must be pure. 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. Going back to verse 13, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the

Lord. And the Lord is for the body. And as I've come back to several times as we've been going through this, but I want to repeat it with you again, my friends.

Romans 12 one in view of God's mercies, present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto

God. This is your spiritual act of worship.

We worship God when we live in purity in our bodies.

So understanding once again, sexual purity is abstaining from sex unless you're married and then enjoying the gift of sex between a husband and a wife.

That's what God created it for. You honor what God has created. Even even if you are not married, you honor sex and the marriage bed by abstaining from it because you're not married.

And you know that God has created sex for a marriage. So you honor

God by being abstinent. That term that that gets used so often and shared with young adults that they would remain abstinent until marriage.

The purity culture movement has received a lot of flack, and there are some things about purity culture that do need to be critiqued.

But nonetheless, the scriptures instruct us to be pure and be pure in our bodies and be pure sexually and to recognize that sex has been created by God for marriage.

I come back once again to Hebrews 13 for marriage is to be held in honor among all.

Even the unmarried need to hold marriage in honor. You recognize that this couple is married.

This husband is joined to this wife, and you honor that marriage by not trying to infringe upon that marriage, but not trying to break it apart.

But even when you see a marriage that is in trouble, you want to help to keep that marriage holy and lift this brother and sister up in the

Lord that they may honor Christ with their marriage. You honor that marriage by recognizing what

God created marriage to be. It's to be held in honor among all the married and the unmarried.

And the marriage bed is to be undefiled. It goes on to say there in verse four, for the sexually immoral and adulterers,

God will judge. Sex outside of marriage is immoral. God will judge.

His wrath is coming against this impurity, this unrighteousness that our culture revels in, have nothing to do with it.

Be called out from the world and in Christ Jesus be unified.

Be pure. For he has died for you.

You were bought with a price. You belong to him and praise

God for that, that you might spend eternity with God. So honor

God in your body. Heavenly Father, as we consider this word again here today, I pray that it stirs in us a desire for purity, even in our bodies, that we live as sacrifices, living sacrifices unto the

Lord. And this is our spiritual act of worship. Receive our offering today, conforming our heart and mind, our bodies to Christ Jesus.

In his name we pray. Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt