Sunday School: Flee from Sexual Immorality (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. We are in 1

Corinthians chapter 6 today. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, hopefully finishing this up today and then next week

I'll get to something a little bit more Christmas oriented. So we're going to be in 1 Corinthians 6 verses 12 to 20.

I'm back in the English Standard Version this week. I'm going to go ahead and read our text and we'll say a short prayer and then get to our lesson today.

1 Corinthians chapter 6 beginning 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 food.

And God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the

Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the

Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?

For as it is written, the two shall 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 sexually 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 are not your own. For you were bought with a price. So glorify

God in your body. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to our text today, we thank you and we praise you for the goodness of your word.

We thank you for giving us difficult truths, hard things for us to hear sometimes, that they may convict our spirits and that we would desire to live lives of holiness before you.

And so as we consider these things here today, especially a recognition that our body belongs to the

Lord, may we understand the command that's given in Romans 12 .1. In view of God's mercy, we are to present our bodies unto

Christ as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him. This is our spiritual act of worship.

Receive our worship today and teach us from your word. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

So last week it was kind of providential that I ended up with the Legacy Standard Version.

As I said to you when I was reading from that translation, that's the translation that Tom and I preach from.

Most of the Sunday school lessons that I write though are written from the English Standard Version. So it was a mistake on my part anyway that I came in with the

LSV instead of the ESV. However, it was good because what we read last week in verses 9 -11, there are specific ways that's translated in the

LSV that I think are more accurate than we get from the English Standard Version. And I kind of walked you through a little bit of that last week.

This week I'm back to the English Standard Version. And here at the very beginning of this section, I think the

English Standard Version actually does a little bit better with the translation than the Legacy or the

New American Standard Bible does. And what do I mean by that? Look at your text again if you have your

Bible open or if you're using the app on your phone or however you are looking at it. If you have the

English Standard Version, then you're going to recognize with me what we see here. So in verse 12, Paul says, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

That statement, all things are lawful for me, how does that appear in your translation? Say it again?

Permissible. Okay, you have a different wording there, all things are permissible for me. But how is it presented, like in the grammar?

With quotes, right. Why would it be in quotes like that, do you think? And someone else said it.

Yeah, it was probably something that the church in Corinth said. They probably had this saying among themselves, all things are lawful for me.

Now as we look at this particular section, we actually, when I'm talking about the whole thing, verses 12 through 20, we have this divided up into,

I think, three distinct parts. So we have this, where Paul is addressing those things that the

Corinthians are probably saying among themselves. That's how we start off here, all things are lawful for me, food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will destroy them both.

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. That's how he comes back into this section of addressing sexual immorality again, which he had been addressing in chapter five.

He had the confrontation of believers taking other believers to law in the courts, that which we looked at in verses one through 11.

And now we're back to addressing the sexual immorality issue again. So then Paul picks up in part two, verses 14 to 17, talking about how whatever one unites himself to, that's what he's joined with.

Shall Christ be united with a prostitute? And then he gets finally to the exhortation, verse 18, flee from sexual immorality.

You were bought with a price, so glorify God with your body. So you're tracking with me there, you can kind of see the three parts that we have this section laid out in.

So at the start here, as he's quoting the very things that the Corinthians would have been saying amongst themselves, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

And he repeats it again. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.

How do you think the Corinthians were using that expression? All things were lawful for me based on the way that Paul responds here.

How are they using that expression? I can do whatever I want. Now on what justification, on what basis were they saying

I can do whatever I want? Say again. Not breaking the law,

I'm not doing anything bad, I'm not harming anybody, right? It's just me. What else?

What else might have been their justification for saying all things are lawful for me? I can eat anything

I want. Yeah, we have the mention of food coming up here in a moment, what were you going to say? That seems to be the case, yeah.

Because God's grace covers me. So I can do whatever I want. I can enjoy whatever

I want, I can go after whatever I want. Now before when I was doing it, it was sin, yeah, but now

God forgives me for it, so now I can go do it and I don't have to go to hell for it, because God's just going to forgive me for whatever it is

I do. We didn't have the

Hail Marys that we had to do yet, all right. That would be about three, four hundred years away,

I think, yeah, something like that. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful,

Paul says. All things are lawful, but I will not be dominated by anything.

Jesus said that whatever masters a person, to that he is enslaved.

A person who is constantly giving in to sin is enslaved by that sin. And so that very thing that Jesus said,

Paul hops on and expounds upon in Romans chapter 6, where he talks about how

I will not enslave myself, make myself a slave to sin, a slave to unrighteousness, but rather we are to be slaves of Christ.

I'm going to take you there here in just a moment. Keep that in your mind though, Romans chapter 6. So here in 1

Corinthians 6, all things are lawful for me, but Paul says not all things are helpful. There are a lot of things that you certainly can do, and you certainly in the liberty of Christ can be able to say that it's all right for you to do them, but are they helpful for you to do them?

Is it really beneficial? Is it okay? Let me use a recent example that Pastor Tom had cited in the sermon when we were going through Ephesians chapter 5.

So we have the instruction there in Ephesians chapter 5, do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but rather be filled with the spirit.

You remember that? We were in Ephesians 5. Now as Pastor Tom was talking about that, he said, drinking alcohol is nowhere in the

New Testament forbidden. It's not forbidden anywhere in the Bible. In fact, there's nothing that says that you cannot enjoy a glass of wine or even some sort of liquor or bourbon or something like that.

I've never had any liquor that hard before, but I understand it kind of keeps you warm or something.

I'm not sure. Whatever reason you have for drinking it between you and the

Lord. But Pastor Tom said as he was going through that in Ephesians 5, he said, but what would be better for us to do?

What is the easiest way to stave off any kind of temptation toward drunkenness? Just don't do it at all.

Don't drink any alcohol at all. Now we're not going to bind anybody's conscience. We're not going to say it would be sin for you to drink alcohol because we would be imposing something legalistically upon you that the

Bible doesn't say. But to prevent yourself from falling into that temptation or giving into drunkenness, it would probably be better for you to just avoid alcohol altogether.

So using that same example and applying that here in verse 12, all things are lawful for me. Yeah, sure.

You can drink. And in fact, on the podcast just this past Friday, I read from Ruth chapter three, where it said that Boaz drank until his heart was merry.

Doesn't mean he got drunk, but it meant that he was glad and filled with the abundance of provision that God had given to his people.

And wine was a sign of that abundant provision. And so even Boaz enjoyed wine until his heart was merry.

Didn't say that he did anything sinful or wicked there. But you get real close to intoxication if you drink too much.

Everything is to be done in moderation. Even when it comes to eating food, which Paul gets to here in just a moment as he uses that as an example, even when it comes to food, you can overindulge on food until it just becomes gluttony, right?

So all things are lawful, but we need to be careful with those things. All things in moderation so that we don't get enslaved by them.

All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful, Paul says. All things are lawful, but I won't be dominated by anything.

And he doesn't speak specifically or explicitly about sexual immorality here.

He's speaking in very general terms, but of course he's setting things up for that. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.

Again, if we give ourselves over to too much of one thing, we could be dominated by that one thing.

And it controls us instead of us being self -controlled. Yes, sir. The way

I read that is, everything's lawful for the law of man, the way that he's talking here.

That's not the Lord's law. That's a great point too, yeah. So man may permit all kinds of things, but what does the

Lord require of us according to his word? That's a great way to consider that as well. I will not be dominated by anything.

And then verse 13, food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food. Would everybody still have that in quotation marks?

And God will destroy both one and the other. I mean, it's almost like if Paul were right there with them and they were raising the argument, hey, food is meant for the stomach, the stomach is meant for the food,

Paul would immediately respond back to that, God will destroy them both. So are you going to be mastered by your food?

Are you going to be mastered by your stomach? Or are you going to be mastered by Christ?

And then he concludes this section by saying the body is meant not for sexual immorality, but for the

Lord and the Lord for the body. Because that's the point that he's getting to, that's where he's going next.

So why do I say that I think that the English Standard Version translates this a little bit better than the

Legacy Standard? In the Legacy Standard, and I believe the New American Standard comes out the same way, there's no quotation marks there.

So it's actually difficult to recognize that this was something that was being said by the

Corinthians or some sort of saying that the Corinthians were latching onto, all things are lawful for me.

And then Paul is responding to that basically with the Word of God, understanding what

God's Word says, not what your practical, pithy, proverbial sayings might be, but what does the

Lord direct us to in His Word? Not to be mastered by sin, but we need to instead be mastered by the

Master Himself. Submitting ourselves not as slaves to unrighteousness, but as slaves to righteousness.

Let's look at something else Paul said very similar to this together. Turn with me over to Romans. You're going back one book to the left,

Romans chapter 6. And today, when you get home, you will be able to say that you've read through an entire chapter of the

Bible in church today, because we're going to look at all of Romans 6. Read along with me if you will. I'm going to start in verse 1.

What shall we say then, Paul says, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Where have we seen a similar question to that in 1 Corinthians? In chapters 5 and 6, does

Paul not say over and over again, do you not know? He says a similar thing here to the

Romans. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

So we've talked about this as we've been going through 1 Corinthians 5 and 6. Do you understand that you've been buried with Christ in your sins and risen again to new life?

And so as you're risen to new life, when you see baptisms happen here at First Baptist Church, whoever is leading the baptism, myself,

Andrew, Pastor Tom, whoever it might happen to be, when they come up out of the water, what do we say? Raised to walk, raised to walk in newness of life.

So we've been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so that we too might walk in new life, not in the former sins and passions of our flesh, but a new life in Christ.

Look at verse 5, for if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.

We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be what?

Enslaved to what? To sin. We would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Verse 7, for one who has died has been set free from what?

From sin. Is that not good news? If we have died with Christ, we've been set free from sin.

Now Paul is taking like an ultimate thing here and applying it to the present, ultimately when we die, like when we die in our bodies and we go be with the

Lord, what are we free from? Sin. You will no longer have to wrestle with temptation ever, ever, ever again.

Is that not wonderful? Praise the Lord. I remember John MacArthur saying one time, he said, you know what

I'm looking forward to when I get into heaven? I will not have to deal with sin anymore.

And praise God for that. We won't have to deal with the effects of sin. We won't have to deal with the corruption on our own flesh.

There's no more temptation. All of that is gone. So Paul is taking something that's ultimate.

When we die, we're free from sin and he's applying it even to the present in a very practical sense understanding that if we've died with Christ and we're risen again, then even now in this sanctification that we're walking in, even now we should be dead to sin.

And so we are alive with him. We've been set free from sin. Verse eight.

Now if we've died with Christ, here's the application. If we've died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him.

For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to whom?

To God. So if Christ lives to God and we are alive with Christ, shouldn't we also live unto the

Lord? Keep that in mind because Paul brings that right back up again when we get back to 1

Corinthians 6. So verse 11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.

And your members to God as instruments for what? Righteousness.

Verse 14. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but you are under grace.

Amen. Continuing on, let's go to verse 15. What then?

Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?

Anybody know what the Greek response to this is? Mygenoita. The strongest statement of opposition that Paul could possibly have given in the

Greek. The Greek was the language this was originally written in. So he said it back at the start of chapter 6.

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? No. As Steve Lawson, I've heard him translate

Mygenoita this way. No, no, a thousand times no. Shall we continue in sin so that we can show, hey, look at God's grace.

Look how sinful I can be so you can see how gracious God can be. Is that how we should go about this?

No, Paul says, absolutely not. So then in verse 15, are we to sin because we're not under the law but under grace?

No. Verse 16, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey?

Either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.

You know, this is in fulfillment of something that was prophetically stated through Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36, where the

Lord says, I will take out your heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will sprinkle clean water on you and cleanse you from all your uncleannesses and I will cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey

My rules. To whom are we enslaved?

Are we enslaved to the passions of our flesh? To carry out the desires of the body and the mind, as Paul puts it in Ephesians 2?

Or are we enslaved to Christ, to carry out the will of God and His desire for our body and our mind?

So thanks be to God you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, verse 18, and having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.

I am speaking in human terms, Paul says, because of your natural limitations.

For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification, growing in holiness.

If you are walking in sin, are you growing in holiness? No, you're actually kind of going backwards, right?

But if we walk in righteousness, we grow in holiness. And even in those moments when we do sin, it causes us to come before God and ask for His grace,

His forgiveness upon us. And you know what 1 John 1 says, right? God is faithful.

That if we ask forgiveness for our sins, He is faithful and what else?

Just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How is God just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness?

Because of grace, because Christ, Christ took it,

Christ paid it for you. So He's just to forgive us because the penalty's been paid by Christ by His death on the cross.

He is just to forgive us of all our unrighteousness and cleanse us from our unrighteousness.

Now I love the way that Paul puts this in verse 19, right at the start of that verse where he says, I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.

Everything that we've been exploring here over the course of these 19 verses, there is way more that could be said about this than is even covered in Romans chapter 6.

I mean, when you stop and think about this on a spiritual level, how are we mastered by our own minds and our own hearts?

I mean, it's like it's ourselves. It's us anyway. So how do you master, how are you mastered by something that is of yourself?

Yeah, we're told to die to self, right? Die to yourself and live unto Christ. But then what happens on a spiritual level that actually becomes this transformation of our heart and mind?

You know, going back to Ezekiel again, I'll sprinkle clean water on you. I'll cleanse you from all your uncleannesses.

How does that happen? Like what's going on in the heavenly places that leads to this transformation that happens in us, that we go from being this person that was committed to sin and the passions of our flesh and doing whatever it is that we wanted to do and justifying it the same way the

Corinthians did. Now, all things are lawful for me. And we went from that to now being a person that was broken over that.

We're broken over the way that we were before. I don't know about you, but I hate the passions of my flesh.

I was just thinking about, I think about this actually every Sunday that we come together at communion.

For whatever reason, temptation seems to be the strongest with me on Saturday night before communion

Sunday. My flesh really trying to get me to do things and Satan then accusing me and saying, you're not even qualified to come to this table today.

Look at you. Look at these passions in your flesh, these things that well up in your mind on a Saturday night before you come to the

Lord's table. It's been that way my whole life. I don't know why that is, but I know from the promises that we have in God's word that he has cleansed me.

And as it says in first John chapter three, when our hearts accuse us,

God is greater than our heart for he knows everything. Everything. And so we trust in the

Lord in those moments and we come back to the word and understand I'm forgiven because of what is said here.

And I am not enslaved to the passions of my flesh. The Holy Spirit that is within me actually gives me the power to resist the passions of my flesh.

So that I may live in a way now that is unto the Lord and not to men and not to myself dying to self, just like you mentioned and living to Christ.

So yeah, something that happens on a certain spiritual level, like I don't, I, it's, it's all very mysterious.

I was in a debate earlier this year where I appealed to mystery and the person that I was debating, uh, tried to try to use that as like a victory point.

Like like, see, he can't even give an answer. He just appeals to mystery. I don't know how God does all these things on a spiritual level.

And he claimed that as like, see, he doesn't know. I said to him, you don't know either.

And even Paul here says, I speak, I speak in these human terms because of your natural limitations.

In human terms, we understand a concept of being enslaved to something or being enslaved to another person.

You have to do whatever that person tells you to do. So Paul uses that illustration because how can we comprehend these things on a spiritual level?

For example, Jesus said to Nicodemus, if I speak to you in earthly ways and you don't understand the earthly ways, then how can

I speak to you in heavenly ways and you understand the heavenly ways? But we come to understand how, however this works out on a spiritual level that we cannot even comprehend.

We still yet come to understand that we've been transformed in Christ. And so in Christ, we're not to live to ourselves any longer.

We're to die to ourselves and live unto the Lord. Now let's finish this out, verses 20 to 23, and we'll go back to 1

Corinthians. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

That's actually not good news. If you were a slave to sin, you were free to righteousness.

You could not do the righteous thing even if you wanted to. Paul comes back to that again in chapter 8 where he says that the person that does not have the

Spirit of God does not belong to him and cannot please God. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

Verse 22, but now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

Lord. You know that verse. Say it with me. Romans 6, 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 6 now. So Paul, in another manner of words, is encouraging the

Corinthians toward the same thing. Do not be enslaved to your flesh. Be slaves instead to righteousness.

Flee from those things that are sinful. The point that he makes in verse 18.

So picking up in verse 14 here in this next section, God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

Remember reading that in Romans 6? Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

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

Never. My genoita. No, no, a thousand times no.

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?

For as it is written, the two will become one flesh. So just as that was said about man and wife, so it is with anyone who unites themselves to one who is not their spouse.

Even if they're not married, the two become one flesh through that sexual union.

Verse 17, but he who is joined to the Lord becomes what? One spirit with him.

So we're seeing things here on the physical, on the natural sense again, and we're seeing things from the spiritual sense as they are being exposed to us.

He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. So if you're joined to the Lord and one spirit with the

Lord, what should you do? Go after the passions of your flesh? Or go after the desires of God?

If we're one with the Lord, we should be of one mind with Christ. Now remember, Paul has come back to this over and over again over the course of 1

Corinthians. Something that he has said very regularly is he's talked about wisdom and he's talked about knowledge.

So even with this question that he asked, do you not know? We have the word know in there, K -N -O -W, the root word of knowledge.

So we have knowledge, we have wisdom. Knowledge are those things that we come to learn. It's what we know.

And then wisdom is taking that knowledge, knowing how to apply it, knowing how to live it out in a right way.

So we've seen wisdom and knowledge come up over and over again in 1 Corinthians. Remember that the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God.

The Corinthians were looking for new knowledge because they have that Greek mindset. But for Paul, he's saying, if you possess the knowledge of God that we need to have, that we need to understand and know for salvation, it's going to be foolishness to those who are worldly.

So the kind of knowledge and the kind of wisdom that we're talking about are those things which come from God. It is only by His Spirit that we can know these things, that we can discern these things.

That was back in chapter 2, and that we can live according to these things. So therefore, if you are joined to the

Lord and one spirit with Him, the knowledge that you have should be godly and the wisdom that you have also from the

Lord so that you may know what He requires of you and how to carry it out, how to live it.

And my friends, we are not powerless to do that on our own. When you became a

Christian, it was not just a matter of, well there, you're converted, God did all the power of conversion in you, now you're a

Christian, and now the rest of it is up to you. The rest of it is your responsibility.

Walking in sanctification and holiness, that's all on you. God did the work of conversion, now you've got to do the work of sanctification.

Is that what the Bible says? You are justified in Christ, and guess what?

You're also sanctified in Christ. Go back with me to 1

Corinthians 6 .11. Let's be remembered of this again, 1 Corinthians 6 .11, such were some of you, remember that list of 10 sins that we had there, such were some of you, you were just like this, walking in these sins, in these passions of your flesh, but you were what?

Washed. You were what? Sanctified. You were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. So guess what? Justification is not just the work of God, sanctification is as well.

Philippians 1 .6, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

The justification was the work of God, and the sanctification in you is also the work of God.

So you're not meant to do the holiness walk on your own, and I can tell you from personal experience,

I'm really bad at it, if I try to do it on my own. I need the

Lord's help every day. And so every day, beginning our day, in whatever way that you do this, it doesn't have to be a formal, get on your knees, fold your hands by your bed, or sitting at your dining room, or you know, the breakfast table after you've finished eating breakfast and you've read your

Bible and then you pray this prayer in a proper way, it doesn't have to be that. You're awake, your feet are swinging out of the bed, onto the floor, and your mind is already in a place where you're going,

God, help me today. Because I can't live today in the way that I'm supposed to live without you.

Remember that Jesus said to his disciples, I am the vine, you are the branches.

So that you would bear what? Fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.

You know it. You've heard the word of Christ. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing.

So even when it comes to walking in holiness, even when it comes to living today in a way that we know honors the

Lord, even that we need help from God. So every day asking of the

Lord, God, give me what I need to have today, to live in a way that is righteous before you.

You need his help to be kind to others. Have you noticed that? Have you tried to be kind to others just on your own and that doesn't seem to be going very well?

You're on your way to work and you're mad at that person that's in front of you driving too slow. I was actually praising the

Lord this morning on my way to church because I got out a few minutes later than I meant to. I try to get here at 730 in time for prayer.

Some of the pastors and the deacons, we pray together on Sunday morning before everything gets started. And if I was continuing on my present trajectory and things went as they usually go when

I'm trying to get out of hideaway to the church, I was going to have somebody in front of me that was driving really, really slow.

I didn't want that attitude in my heart, but I was praising God that there wasn't anybody slow in front of me today.

It was open road. I got here on time. It was wonderful. Still obeying the law, following the speed limit. But anyway, all that to say, all that just to give the example,

I need the Lord's help to be kind to others. If we just have it in our minds to have a happy day,

I just want to be happy today. And that's my goal. And that's my destination. That's cheap.

And it takes just a simple thing to come along and rob you of that, just like that. Happiness is cheap and it could easily be snatched from you.

But if the joy of the Lord is our strength, well, that's something that cannot be compromised.

No one can take that from you. Because you can have joy in Christ even when you're mourning, even when you're grieved by whatever is going on in your life or in this world.

You can still have joy in Christ, knowing that in him your sins are forgiven and we are given everlasting life.

So all these things that we endure in this world and all we go through now, these things are transient. And we're looking forward to the eternity that we have in Christ.

And those things are our hope and our sustainment even in these present moments. So we're constantly looking for the

Lord, constantly looking to the Lord, especially when you consider the fruit of the Spirit that we should all be producing, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

Against such things there is no law, it says in Galatians 5. As it comes to producing that fruit, it's the

Spirit's fruit. It's the fruit of the Spirit. So what do we need to produce it? The Spirit.

The Holy Spirit of God in our hearts, God dwelling within us, that we may live in a way that is obedient unto the

Lord. And so Paul gets to that very point here, even as we continue on.

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

Now there's no, that's not an example to tie to anything else. Paul is explicitly talking about sexual immorality there.

There is something unique about sexual sins that are different than any other sin. Are we all sinners?

Yes, we're all sinners. Does everybody sin? Yes. Is, in the eyes of God, is no one sin greater than the other?

Sure. Because as James says, if you've broken one law, you're guilty of breaking all of it.

But nonetheless, there is something unique about sexual sin that's different than any other sin.

Let's continue on here. Verse 18, flee from sexual immorality.

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

See the uniqueness of it there? Every other sin is where? Outside the body.

Sexual immorality is a sin against what? Your own body. You even sin against yourself when you commit yourself to sexual immorality.

Now let me, let me be clear again, as we've talked about this, we were in chapter five and when we were in chapter six, verses nine through 11, what is sexual immorality?

What is that? Any sex outside of marriage. God created sex for what?

Marriage. And what is marriage? Yeah, a covenant between a man and a woman.

Our law in the United States of America believes they just redefined marriage last week.

No they did not. Marriage is still as God defined marriage to be, between a man and a woman.

And that's where sex belongs. And it's a wonderful gift. It's a wonderful thing, a wonderful gift of intimacy that God has given for a husband and his wife to enjoy.

We shouldn't be thinking of it as something scandalous, embarrassing, we can't talk about it. No, you can talk about it in the right manner, in the way in which

God intended for it to be. Anything outside of that is immoral, it's sin.

And it's sin even against your own body. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Now let me come back to that point, flee sexual immorality, before we finish up the rest of this section, before we get through verses 19 and 20.

Flee from sexual immorality. I'm going to share something, a little bit of a personal testimony here. So when

I was raised in a Christian home, I was taught purity. I was taught to keep yourself pure until marriage.

Many of you who grew up in Christian homes were probably taught the same way. And so I understood sex was for marriage.

I understood that from a very young age, as a matter of fact. So I'm saving myself for my wife.

And I'm here to tell you that as far as intercourse goes, I did. I saved myself for my wife.

But as far as purity goes, I did not succeed at that. Because I had a wrong understanding in my mind of what purity meant.

I had a very legalistic understanding of it. See, I thought that sexual immorality was a line in the sand.

And as long as I don't cross that line, then I'm pure, then

I'm fine, right? So what did I do when I got into college and in my young 20s? No longer under the care and guidance of my parents,

I'm now out on my own and listening to the passions and the desires of my flesh. I decided to see how close

I could get to that line without actually crossing it. Is my relationship with the

Lord? My relationship's with my sin. My focus, that's my orientation.

So like if, again, going back to like natural understanding of these things, putting these things in human terms.

I'm facing this direction with a line in the sand. I'm looking at the sin and seeing how close

I can get to the fire without getting burned. Where am I not looking?

I'm not looking to Christ. I'm completely the other way. I'm going after things that are opposed to Christ.

I'm trying to unite myself with things that are not of God. And praise the

Lord before I got to a place where I could have been facing consequences and still be facing those consequences today had

I gotten the things that my flesh wanted. Praise the Lord that I didn't ever go quite that far.

He always kept me from going too far. But still in that conviction in my heart in those moments,

I recognize that I am not looking to Christ. I'm looking to myself. I'm looking to the passions of my flesh and not to the

Lord. And so as I began to come out of that, repenting of my sin and desiring to walk in holiness,

I'm coming to understand what it means to flee from sexual immorality. Don't go anywhere near it.

Don't ever even put yourself in a position that you think you could be tempted by it.

Even if you think, it's okay if I watch this show with these inappropriate scenes in it because I've got enough control over my faculties and of my mind that that's not going to bother me.

Folks, you're being entertained by people who are sinning. Is that okay? Can we commit our minds and our hearts in such a way and that still be holy before God?

Don't even put yourself in a position to be tempted by those things. Flee from it. Get as far away from the line as possible so that you don't even have to put yourself in that place of going, am

I sinning or am I not as long as I'm not crossing this line? How do you get as far away from the flames and from that line as you possibly can?

Get to Christ. Cling to Christ. James says in James chapter 4, he says, draw near to God and God will draw near to you.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. So if you're near God, you're far away from Satan, Satan will flee.

Flee from the sexual immorality and Satan will flee from you. Is that not great?

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Flee from these sins.

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

Verse 19, do you not know that your body is a temple of the

Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? Now we've seen that before, right?

That question was asked earlier in 1 Corinthians. It was in chapter 3, but what was the context there where Paul said that you are a temple of the

Holy Spirit? What was the context there in chapter 3? Do you remember? Oh, here it's singular.

Yeah, here it's singular. So what was it in chapter 3? Yeah, in chapter 3 it was the whole church.

Like it's the whole congregation, it's the gathered body. The body of the church is the temple of the

Holy Spirit. Do you believe that when we gather together for church on Sunday morning, the Holy Spirit is with us?

Yeah, and it doesn't matter if we're in this room or if it was two years ago when First Baptist Church of Lyndale was gathering in the parking lot.

Was the Holy Spirit still with you out in the parking lot? Absolutely. He doesn't need walls to fill this place.

He is within each and every believer. And so you, as the body of Christ, as the church of Christ, are a temple of the

Holy Spirit. But here Paul gets individual. He wants you to make sure that you individually are a temple of the

Holy Spirit. Verse 19, do you not know that your body is a temple of the

Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? The Holy Spirit that was given to you from God.

Now is this verse, verse 19, is this about dieting?

No. Dieting. Dieting. D -I -E -T -I -N -G.

Is it about working out? You ever seen this verse applied in that way? Like I need to be healthy,

I need to take good care of my body because my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You know there might be some application in that, definitely, especially again coming back to Ephesians 5 where we're not supposed to be filled with wine for that is dissipation but be filled with the

Holy Spirit. Certainly if there are things we're applying ourselves to that turn into sin and gluttony and all this other kind of thing, well then we're not being filled with the

Spirit. But very specifically here, the statement is with regards to sexual immorality.

Seems to be easier to talk about your body being a temple of the Holy Spirit when we're talking about dieting or working out or dressing right or having a neat house.

It's easier to talk about it in those applications. We really don't want to have to say that this is specifically applying to sexual immorality.

Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God. You are not your own.

Verse 20, for you were bought with a price. So glorify

God in your body. You know the old

Sunday school song, be careful little eyes what you see. Be careful little hands what you do.

Be careful little feet where you go. Be careful little ears what you hear.

Yes, the Lord works in us to do His good will. Philippians 2 .12.

But it is also said there that we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. So you do have a responsibility to hear the things that have been said today in God's Word and do them.

But do them not under your own power. For who do we have within us as is just said here?

The Holy Spirit from God. To walk in holiness and in a way that is pleasing unto the

Lord is not something that we can do under our own power. It is because of the

Holy Spirit that dwells within us. Now we get to this point, we get to this statement here at the end of chapter 6 and we're actually at a turning point in 1

Corinthians. We're going to go from here into a whole matter of other things, especially pertaining to issues that the

Corinthians themselves have asked about from Paul. Look at verse 7. Let's kind of tease the next part.

Look at chapter 7 verse 1 where Paul says, Now concerning the matters about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.

That's in quotations as well because apparently that was something else that the Corinthians were saying. But look at verse 2.

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.

For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a limited time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, but then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self -control.

So Paul continues to talk about these things as we even go into chapter 7 and we're going to talk about marriage. But he's gone from addressing those things that he's heard has been going on in the church in Corinth to now addressing the questions that they are asking specifically.

And we come back to our study of 1 Corinthians when we'll join together again January 8th.

We've got one more Sunday school class that we're going to have and that's next week. I'm going to do something a little bit more Christmas oriented.

December 25th and January 1st we will not meet. Sunday school will resume again on January the 8th and when we come back we'll be there in chapter 7.

But I still wanted to add that in to what we had just read here so you understand the concept of Paul's not saying sex is bad, he's saying sexual immorality is bad.

And your body belongs not to you, it belongs to the Lord. If you're married, your body belongs to somebody else.

Belongs to your spouse. And so live in a way that is honoring of God in your bodies.

Let me repeat to you again a verse that I had prayed at the very beginning, Romans 12 1.

In view of God's mercies, in view of his mercy and his grace toward you, all tying right back into you were bought with a price.

The precious blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross for our sins. In view of God's mercies, present your bodies as a living sacrifice unto the

Lord, holy and acceptable to him. This is your spiritual act of worship.

Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, I thank you for again the hard truths that you give to us in your word

May we understand this call to be holy, to turn away from sexual immorality, even being entertained by these things, but to draw near to Christ.

We're careful with what we look at with our eyes, what we touch with our hands, where we go even in our own minds.

May our thoughts be governed by the Lord so that we may submit our whole selves unto you and live in righteousness before you today.

If anyone in here is guilty of sins that we have talked about here, I pray their hearts would be convicted and they confess those things before God and if needing to even coming to a pastor and talking with a pastor about some of those things.

Lord may we continue to walk in righteousness and hold fast to that truth that is given to us in Philippians 1 .6.

You began this work in us. You will be faithful to complete it on the day of Christ. Give us your strength and your power to live for you today.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray and all God's people said, Amen. God bless you.