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I read the statement by Garrett this week and thought it was important. The Bible does not hide from or obscure the power of the temptation to elicit sex.
In language that is refreshingly clear and direct, without itself indulging in titillation, the text warns the reader of the debacle that awaits him should he succumb in this area.
And, at the same time, promises profound sexual joy to those whose hearts are chaste and loving.
If the Church is to do its duty, it must be no less clear in its teachings. To assume that nice Christian young people do not struggle in this area, or to speak only in whispers and innuendo on the grounds that they are inappropriate for the
Christian pulpit, is no less than gross neglect. I thought that's right.
You know what I love about verse -by -verse teaching? You can't hide from what's in the next passage.
What's next week? Well, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 12 through 20, that's what's next week.
And what's week after that? 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 1 to 5. And so I love it that if you teach your kids at home, you have a
Sunday school class, or you preach in the morning, we just teach the Bible verse -by -verse because we know it's right for God to teach us that.
It's good, it's appropriate, and very needed. Don't you say that's true? I look back in my life, and it was
April 4th, 1997, was my first day in this pulpit. Snowed about 30 inches a few days earlier.
I was in Los Angeles, and Kim and I should have known, taking that as a sign, 30 inches of snow on April 1st, 1997.
And 14 years later, we're still here, and you know, it's an amazing thing. This is not the same place that it was when
I got here. And you know, it has absolutely nothing to do with me. It has absolutely nothing to do with me.
I think I'm probably wiser than I used to be, maybe smarter, my hair's shorter.
A lot of you have shorter hair, too, especially those who sported mullets when I got here. You know who you are.
But everything about the church has changed. The culture's changed, the theology's changed, the methodology has changed, everything has changed.
Why? Because the Word of God performs its work in those who believe. And if you'd like to change a person, and change a congregation, you do it through the ministry of the
Word. It changes the way you think, it changes everything about you. And so today I say to myself, as we're working through the
Bible in 1 Corinthians, and we come to this passage about sexual ethics in the Gospel, I'm glad this passage is here, because I know
I need to be instructed, and if I need to be instructed, so do you. Young people and old.
And this is not the time where we say, you know, it's best to dismiss the kids. No, this is best for everyone to hear, what does
God the Creator say about sex? About sexual immorality? And sexual morality?
About running from sexual sin, and running to the enjoyment that God has created for men and women in marriage when it comes to sex?
And so I just was very, very pleased this week to think, lots of you people aren't the same as when
I met you. You're maturing, you're mature, you have ministries, you don't need to be goaded along, you think properly about God, about salvation, about depravity, about election, about the sufficiency of Scripture.
Why? As some of those of you who know me really well, I'm a very simple guy.
I'm not a complex guy, I'm just one of those guys that have been told by God, you feed my sheep, you preach my word, you preach verse by verse to these people and it will change their lives.
And so I say, yes sir. In New England? Yes sir. Okay, I'll go. And so how great is it that the
Word of God transforms everything about us? So why don't you take your Bibles and open up the first Corinthians as we work through part two, sexual ethics in the
Gospel, or maybe I could call it how to overcome sexual temptation. And we have to be very focused and very careful about sexual morality.
Not just the way we talk about it, although that's true, but the way we think through it, because carelessness when it comes to this is going to be a disaster.
And you don't have to look very far to see how the world is a disaster when it comes to its version of sexual ethics.
Like somehow throwing out abstinence and condoms and all kinds of other things, that solves the problem? Calvin said, where vices run riot with impunity, people take custom for law.
Did you get that? Where vices run riot with impunity, people take custom for law.
And if the law of the land is, if it feels good, do it. We Christians have to make sure we think clearly about this issue.
And what's so great as a pastor? I'm just going to hide behind Scripture. The Bible's not
Victorian prudish, but it's also not sleazy.
It's just appropriate for every age group, don't you think so? I think very much so. And so today in a sex -saturated age, in the pandemic of sexual sin, can
God help us? Can God instruct us? Can we see this great gift from God that He invented properly?
I think the answer is yes. And so Paul's writing to this church at Corinth.
And remember, there are about 500 ,000 people there. There's a port on this side. There's a port on this side.
Port cities were known very widely for their sexual sin. You've got the isthmus games who would come in, and like the
Olympics, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that when the Olympics are in town, there's all kinds of craziness that goes on.
And this was just like a crock pot brewing over time for just all kinds of gross immoralities going on.
So Paul writes to this church, and he gives them instruction. And I think this is very good for us as well, because this is something that old people in this church struggle with, and young people, men and women.
Everyone, short of those who are too young, or short of those who are given the gift of singleness, needs to deal with this issue.
So we saw last time, if you'd like to overcome sexual temptation and avoid sexual immorality, therefore enjoy sexual morality, number one, rehearse the gospel.
Look back at chapter one, if you would. This is just in review. Rehearse the gospel. Now, as we would maybe want to parachute into chapter six to deal with the issue, we cannot forget about who we are in Christ and what
God has done for us. Because the sexual ethic for the Christian is not just don't outside of marriage.
It's not just do inside of marriage. It's remember who you are in Christ. And what does Paul do? Verse two, chapter one, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called by the sovereign, distinguishing grace of God to be saints, together with those who are in every place, call upon the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Listen to what
Charles Spurgeon said, and I think it's going to be helpful because I've saved this on my desktop because I want to rehearse this quote because it reminds me about the gospel.
When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin. But when I found out
God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion,
I smote upon my breast to think that I could ever have rebelled against one who loved me so and sought my good.
That's exactly right. Can you imagine the amount of sins that have been forgiven that have been earned by you?
Guilt that would never go away. Eternity in hell would still never remove the guilt of one sin, let alone many, except Jesus stands in your place, stands in your stead, stands and accepts the wrath of God that was due you.
And you think about how good is God? How kind is God? How loving is God? And in light of this good and loving
God, aren't you motivated to obey? I think about it with my kids. When my kids were little and they were in kind of that hitting stage.
Now, sometimes kids hit each other, everybody who smiles. Maybe you're the hitter. Maybe you've been hit.
I don't know. You could say to kids, don't hit. Appropriate? Yes.
You could also say this. You know, dad loves you. Dad's provided for you.
Everything you own, I've given you. I pray for you. I love you. I was going to say you're my son.
Luke wasn't the hitter. You're my daughter. No, it wasn't Luke's problem.
We had a different hitter in our house. It wasn't Kim either. I so loved you.
How do you think you should respond to your sister? By loving her.
It wasn't don't. It wasn't full of all kinds of imperatives and commands. It was, let me rehearse to you what
I am to you and who I am to you and what I've done for you. And in light of my goodness and my compassion and my generosity and my grace, how will you then respond?
By obedience. And so before we get into this flee from sexual immorality, and you should, you should also remember the one who's given you such a command.
And if you're a Christian, how good God has been to you. How gracious, how generous, how good he was to give you the perfect high priest who was the ransom for your sin, the great
God. So the first thing you do is you say, I'm struggling with sexual sin. A, if you're not a
Christian, you will struggle and you'll always struggle. And that's a good way for us to see that you're not a
Christian is because you have no power. You have no ability to do anything except sin. But for the
Christian, now there is a struggle because we no longer have to pay the penalty for eternal judgment because of one solitary sexual sin that has been placed on Christ.
And eventually the presence of sin will be gone too, won't it? Heaven, can you imagine no presence of sin? But now the power of sin has been broken and we can say yes to righteousness and we can say no to ungodliness.
So if you're struggling with this area, the first thing you do is not, well, I need to have an accountability group.
I need to be in sexual addicts anonymous. I need to get this pornography stop on my screen.
The first thing is to relish and rehearse the gospel. Number two, we looked at last week, don't rationalize sexual sin.
If you'd like to overcome sin, sexually or any sin, just admit it, confess, forsake and get mercy.
Look at chapter six, verse 12 and 13. Every culture has their own rationalizations. Some are, we're in love today.
Some are, hey, we're engaged anyway and we'll soon be married. They have all kinds of rationalizations and the
Christians in Corinth were no different. At least they called themselves Christians and they rationalized sexual sin.
And you see that found in chapter six, verse 12. Taking a slogan, maybe a bit of information from Paul and then making it walk on all fours.
All things are lawful for me. That was their slogan. ESV has it in quotes, which is right.
All things are lawful. But certainly Paul didn't mean drunkenness was lawful. He'd already condemned that in chapter five and he said something about it in chapter six.
Certainly homosexuality isn't lawful. Fornication isn't lawful. Adultery isn't lawful. But they're using that slogan, we've got liberty.
Paul says, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me. But I will not be enslaved by anything.
Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food. And God will destroy both one and the other.
Sex sin enslaves and sex sin is short -sighted because it doesn't realize that the body goes on forever.
You will have bodies in heaven, but the stomach's not going to be needed in heaven. So Paul says, don't rationalize sin, especially sex sin.
And number three, we looked at last week, just in review. Oh, by the way, I thought of another slogan that people may use.
Maybe they use it even in this church. I'm only human. God made me a sexual creature, somehow meaning that therefore you can go have illicit sex.
Or how about this one? My wife doesn't meet my needs. That's why I look at pornography.
That's why I cheat on my wife. She doesn't meet my needs. Friends, that's the wrong way to think about it in any era.
Number three, saturate your mind with the Word. You don't have to turn there to Proverbs 2, 5, 6, and 7.
But I did want to remind you that last week we looked at Solomon and he basically said this.
Don't listen to the words of the temptress. Don't listen to the words of the adulteress. Don't listen to the smooth words of the woman trying to seduce you or the man trying to seduce you.
Listen to my words, Scripture words, Bible words. And so we say, you're struggling with sexual sin, read the
Bible. That could be a cop -out by the counselor. But there's a lot of truth to the fact that when you read the
Bible and think the way God does, it helps you work through the issues. Because is my word like a fire?
The answer is yes. Does the Word of God call itself living and powerful? The answer is yes.
By the way, that's why it's such a fallacy to say, and I'm going to commend you now, maybe in a backdoor channel.
Do you know what? I want really watered down stuff from the pulpit. I just want to feel good. I want to be fed, but I want my flesh to be fed.
That's what I'm really after. And you know what? I just not getting my flesh fed. Friends, there is a war going on around you and inside of you.
And in many of you, when it comes to sexual temptation, and you think little ditties thrown out with a few videos shown up here are going to be good for you.
And you think you're really going to say, I'm going to withstand the pressure of sexual temptation with a few ditties and some watered down preaching.
That is not the way you go about it. You're going to be so tempted. Don't you need to have a foundation built with theology, biblical theology, systematic theology, verse -by -verse teaching, a high view of Christ.
You need that. You say, you know what? I struggle with sexual sin. Then pick an ology and start studying that ology.
Let's start with Christology, the study of Christ, and work through his temptation, work through his ministry, work through his death, burial and resurrection.
You struggle with sexual sin, you need theology. And that's exactly what Paul is giving here in 1
Corinthians. It's so much easier, though, to say, just give me a list of what not to do.
My son, be attentive to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge, for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil.
And now we come to some new information found in chapter 6, verses 12 and 20. And that is, if you would like to overcome sexual temptation biblically, you need to view the body properly.
You need to view your body properly. Who came up with that? I'm really hurting,
I'm struggling, you might say. And I've got to have the right view of the body, body -ology, corpse -ology.
I need to study the body properly. Who would come up with that? God would come up with that. It's very, very fascinating.
It almost sounds funny. In an evolutionary world where evolution trumps the gospel and creationism, you need to study the body.
You need to think properly about your own body. Let me read verses 12 through 20 and see how many times you see the word body there.
It's all about the body. To overcome sexual sin, you've got to think properly about the body.
If your eyes wander and they ought not to, you need a good view of the body. If you turn on the computer late at night, you need to, and look at things you ought not to, you need to have the right view of the body.
If you're flirting around with other ladies or men at work, you need a good view of the body. It goes without saying, if you've fallen in sexual sin, of course there's forgiveness found in the gospel.
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 enslaved by anything.
Food is meant for the stomach, and the 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. God raised the Lord, He also raised us up.
By the way, the body is going to be raised 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 will become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body is the 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.
Would it be fair to say that the key to that paragraph, that pericope, that section of Scripture is body?
I think it would be. So let me give you six reasons in light of this section that you have to think properly about your body so that you can remain pure.
How do you stop a sex -crazed society? How do you stop church members from falling prey to that?
You're not going to see legalism. You're not going to see a how -to list. You're going to see thinking properly, biblically.
Haring said we are probably witnessing here the first attempt in the history of moral thought to refute libertinism in some way other than arguments by aesthetic, legalistic, or utilitarian type.
In other words, we're going to show you that theology is going to change you, not if you struggle with sexual sin, go to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, or some monastery someplace.
You have to become a nun. I have to deny myself. Reason number one in light of the cross that you should comprehend this to be pure and to stay pure, number one, your body is for the
Lord. Look at verse 13b. Your body is for the Lord. You don't own you. Your body, context, your sexual body, your body that is made by God, that way,
God made the hormones, God made body types. Your body is not meant for sexual immorality, verse 13, but for the
Lord and the Lord for the body. God gave you a body so you could properly worship
Him and revere Him and serve others. He didn't give you a body so you could use it in a sexually immoral, filthy way.
It's very, very important that the instrument that God gives you, your body, to worship
Him is to be clean and to be pure and to be holy. I always remember Robert Murray McShane at 29 years old.
He said, if the pastor is pure and clean, he talked about a pastor being a awful weapon in the hands of God, a clean weapon, a pure weapon.
It's no different for you. Your body is not yours. And so therefore, you can't say to yourself, do you know what?
I'm just going to be ruled by my hormones. Hodge had a way to do it, and only in Princetonian fashion could he a couple hundred years ago.
Listen to what he said. You'll get it. The body was never designed for promiscuous concubinage.
And such a use is inconsistent with the design of its creation and with its future destiny.
Your body's not for immorality. It's for the Lord. Secondly, look down at verse 14.
Your body will be raised up one day. You struggle with pornography? You need a good dose of the resurrection.
That's exactly what Paul says. The body that could possibly be used for filthy, illicit sex, which is all sex outside of marriage, marriage, sex in marriage is always good, pure, clean, and holy.
And God raised the Lord will also raise us up by his power, verse 14. So don't defile your body.
God's going to make that body be raised from the dead, and you don't want it to be the body that you use for gross sexual sin now, do you?
Oh, yes, it'll be a changed body, be a glorified body. But Paul uses this, the Lord, God raised the
Lord and will also raise us up by his power. This is the antidote for sexual immorality.
Thinking that my body is going to last forever, so why would I use my body for some kind of slutty thing?
We're not just an animal or a dog or a cat who says, you know what, once you bury that cat or that dog or that animal, it's over.
When Jesus returns in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 or 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the dead dogs in Christ will not rise first.
The dead cats certainly won't, but that's another sermon. We needed just a laugh there for a second, didn't we?
It's got to go, okay. The dignity of the body. And again, the context is the sexual body.
The resurrection shows that. No wonder the resurrection was such a dominant thought in New Testament times.
If it's going to be raised, it's not going to be destroyed like the stomach. Earlier in chapter 6,
Peter Naylor said, fornication is as short -sighted as it is evil. God designed your body not for sensual, selfish gratification.
If my body is going to be raised from the ground, then it's important the way
I live now, the way I behave in my body. Paul goes on. The third reason he gives to think about this properly is your body is a member of Christ, verses 15 through 17.
Paul goes for shock. He shocked him earlier, is Christ divided? Do we cut Christ down the middle with a meat cleaver?
He goes for another shock right here. Be ready. 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 whore? Never. Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?
For it is written that two will become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
Can't you just hear Paul? Do you not know? Do you not know? Do you not know? Do you not know?
Yes, you know. Yes, you know. Yes, you know. I've told you so. Well, hey, there you go.
Just made that up on the fly. You can feel kind of the impatience of Paul, holy impatience, kind of rising because don't you know?
Don't you know? I've been there 18 months. I've told you these things. And even though those thousand prostitutes would descend upon the city every day for worship, this is not the right thing to do.
Even though you Corinthians who are rich could buy a slave. And if you're a man, you could buy a slave woman. And she would have to do whatever you wanted as often as you wanted.
This is not the right thing to do. Now, Paul is going to work through this issue here.
And he says to even make it more horrible. You see what
Paul says? He makes a first person comment there. Shall I then?
Shall I, Paul, take the members of Christ and make the members of a prostitute? Never. Shall I do that?
He's been saying, I don't want you to do that. But now imagine now, Paul, the apostle Paul, pick your favorite preacher.
I don't care who your favorite preacher is. Shall John MacArthur do that? And you'd say, no, that's a repulsive. Sometimes we're thinking things happen around the building here.
Sometimes I'll drive up to the back and I'll see things that people are trying to do in there.
They're hiding themselves from people. I guess a good place to go is behind the church or something to do stupid things.
They'll throw horrible pornography magazines in the church garbage bin. Do all kinds of other things.
What if somebody said, you know what? We hate God. We hate Jesus. And here's what we're going to do. We're going to break into Bethlehem Bible Church.
We're going to hire a prostitute. And we're going to bring that prostitute into Bethlehem Bible Church. And right here, be with that prostitute to defile this building.
What would you think? Well, my comment would be this. Paul is saying here in verses 15 to 17, that if you sleep with somebody that's not your spouse and you commit fornication or adultery or go hire a prostitute, it's the exact same thing, but 1000 times worse.
Because there's nothing sacred to this building. This is just a building. It would be gross. It would be defiling. It would be horrible.
But it's just a building. How about having a person redeemed by Christ to then go sleep with a prostitute?
You say, well, I'd never do that because, you know, I wouldn't want to ever pay for that. That's below me. And Paul is saying this.
You think it's below you? Then what do you do when you rationalize, I'm sleeping with my boyfriend and sleeping with my girlfriend, sleeping with another guy, playing around with pornography.
It is no different at all. No difference at all. You can see, wow,
Paul, you've got my attention. This prostitute stuff makes me kind of uneasy.
Kim and I and the kids a few years ago in Germany in sabbatical driving down south from Munich into the Czech Republic when there still was border crossing.
We crossed the border. We gave them our passports and all that. We crossed the border. I'm driving a van, a Volkswagen van with Kim in the front, four kids in the back.
And we pull around this corner and there are these outdoor kind of bus stops. I thought they were bus stops.
There were places where prostitutes were. And we pull up to stop signs in the city because prostitution was legal there.
And so the Germans would drive down there to engage in the prostitutes who were in the Czech Republic. And we pull up to the stop sign, the stoplight.
And my kids have big eyes. My kids have the big eyes like you've got big eyes right now. You've had all sermon.
They had the really big eyes because the ladies in the trench coats would show themselves a little bit and then they would look at me with my wife sitting there and my four kids and go like this.
I thought this is going to be a life lesson for my son Luke. The red light district we weren't even in.
Of course, sex and marriage is good and pure and holy. God designed it that you would enjoy yourself.
That's the Song of Solomon. That's Proverbs 5. But when you say, you know what,
I'll rule myself. I'll do what I want. I have all my excuses for doing this. Strike me down dead now.
He hasn't done it yet. There's no difference sleeping with your girlfriend or sleeping with a prostitute in the
Czech Republic because it's defiling. Paul said he'd never do it.
Never, no way. I'm never going to do that. Look at verse 16.
Do you not know? Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute, same is going to be true, joined to somebody.
For those of you who are engaged or want to get married, you say, you know what, I'm already married. We're going to get married. We're going to just try it out.
There's no difference. Joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her and instead of a blessing, instead of a wonderful doxology that God gives between a man and a woman, the two shall become one flesh in a wonderful way.
Here, it's not a blessing, but a curse. You want to sleep with somebody who's not your wife? You want to sleep with somebody who's not your husband?
There's this joining. For it is written, the two will become one flesh.
Paul says you know that. It's trite, but it's true. There's no safe sex outside of marriage.
Garland said no prophylactic exists that can protect this unlawful notion from extending its defiling tendrils into every part of a person's being.
Sexual sin is not a victimless crime in which no one gets hurt. This sin contaminates and breaches the union with Christ.
When I hear stories on the news about some guy wants to sell a book and shock everybody by saying
Jesus slept with a prostitute, I want to pray God get them.
I feel the anger coming up from within. I feel like I want to pray imprecatory songs.
I feel I want to say, God, I want you to damn them. Because that is gross.
Those are the things that I think through. And here's what Paul is saying. You sleep with somebody who's not your spouse.
It's like you think in your mind Jesus thinks it's fine if he himself sleeps with the prostitute.
Paul said never. Never, because the two become one flesh. They're wedded together, joined together, cursed together.
No such thing as casual sex, because if you call yourself a Christian, and if in fact you are, and you sleep with somebody who's not your spouse, you're bringing
Christ right in. The way I used to think about it when I was younger is to say, okay, am
I willing to just say, whatever sin it might be, God, even though I can't transport myself up into the third heaven, it's as if whatever sin
I'm going to do right now, it's if I go up into the third heaven before your throne room and say, I could care less what you say, think, or do.
I want to do this. And our all -seeing God sees all that. Look at verse 17, but he who is joined to the
Lord becomes one spirit with him. It'd be such a good thing. It'd be such a wonderful thing.
What does all sin do? It torques, it twists, it dislocates, it perverts. And here, you don't want to join yourself to a harlot or some boy lying to you saying he loves you.
If you love me, you'll do this. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. So since you're joined to the
Lord, don't bring the Lord into the bed of filth, is what Paul is trying to say.
You're joined to the Lord. Don't do that. Number four, found in verse 18, your own body is hurt when it's involved in sexual sin.
How do I think rightly about the body? Because I struggle with sexual sin. That may be your question. One, the body's for the
Lord. Two, your body's going to be raised. Three, your body's a member of Christ. Four, your body's going to be hurt.
You don't want to hurt yourself. I've seen people before in psych wards, and they just hit themselves. Ever seen anybody that just hits themselves over and over and over?
Walks up, I see this in cops sometimes, and they get arrested, thrown in the back of the police car, and the guy just takes his head and is smashing his head into the side of the shatterproof glass.
That's pretty smart. Let's see what
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6 .18 about how it even hurts your own body.
And again, I said it last week, in case you weren't here last week, I want to say it now. If you've committed sexual sin, can it be forgiven?
Can it be restored? Remember what he said in 1 Corinthians 6? You've been what? Washed. You've been sanctified.
You've been justified. Christ has paid for all those sexual sins, and He sees you in the righteous robe of His Son.
Doesn't He? That's how the Father sees you. And there's forgiveness. But with forgiveness comes the admonition, stop, forsake, flee.
This is a bad idea all around. 1
Corinthians 6 .18, it kind of summarizes this. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commences outside the body.
But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. So in this verse, he says, run.
Then he tells you why. Let's look at the run part. Present imperative, flee.
And we get the word fugitive from that Greek word. Fugitives do what? They flee.
Run. And when you think of somebody running from sexual sin, who do you think of? The exact same
Greek word here is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament of this young man fugitivizing.
How do you say that? Running. Who ran from sexual temptation? Sexual sin. Joseph. This is just Joseph right here.
Flee. Barnes said, escape from it. Yes, he should not reason about it, to debate the matter, or even to contend with his propensities.
Listen to this. And especially if you're younger here today, you're a teenager, you're pure.
I want you to stay pure. Just listen. How many a young man would be saved from poverty, want, disease, curses, tears, and hell?
Could these two words be made to blaze before him like the writing before the astonished eyes of Belshazzar, and could then terrify him from every momentary contemplation of the sexual crime?
Run. And it's present tense. It means always run.
Make it a habit of running. Run for your lives. Run for your lives. That's the idea. Why?
The sexual sinner thinks that he or she has sex because they like the feeling. But here
God says they sin against their own body. They sin against their own body.
As God has made sex as a unique mode of self -disclosure and self -commitment in marriage, here it turns what
God designed as something for good into a horrible, filthy thing that leaves stains forever. Forgiven, yes, but stains forever.
Blomberg said, The effects of gluttony are usually reversible by an increase in sweat and a decrease in calories.
Some effects of illicit sex can never be undone, although they can be forgiven. Memories, emotions, and attachments stay with us for life.
This intimate entangling together cannot be reversed. Forgiven, but not forgotten. Are others think this?
And it may be both. MacArthur, for instance, says that this is probably an allusion to venereal disease.
But one thing's for sure, sexual sin is not harmless, it's harmful. And that's what
Paul says. To say I'm going to give myself, my entire self, with a whole commitment to the other person, outside of marriage, is wrong.
It's always wrong. I want to give myself to you because basically
I want to have my lust gratified. Number five, the fifth reason why you should forgive.
Think about the body properly to overcome sexual temptation as your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Verse 19.
Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. See, it's all body, body, body. Think rightly about your body. Or do you not know?
There it is again. Do you not know? They know this. Paul taught them that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God.
Two words for temple in the New Testament. First word for temple is the temple precinct. The big area there.
Outside. Then there's another one that's kind of used for the holy of holies. Not kind of. It is used for the holy of holies.
The place where God would specially manifest himself. I wonder which word he uses here.
Temple precincts are holy of holies. Any guesses? That's exactly right.
Your body is a temple. Now singular language. Your body is a sacred place where God dwells in a special, unique way.
It's like a shrine, if you will. You have stewardship involved.
It's what Paul says. And then lastly, verse 20, number 6.
Your body was bought with a tremendous price. Your body was bought with a tremendous price. Look at verse 19 and 20.
You are not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Context of sexual body again.
You are not your own. And if God has bought you, if he has purchased you, does he in fact own you?
Well, yes. The answer is yes. This is a place in Corinth where, guess what they did all the time?
They bought and sold slaves. You buy a slave. You do what you want with a slave.
Including back at Corinth all the time. And I'm sure it happened all over, wherever slaves were. You buy a slave so you can have sex with the slave.
They work during the day. You have sex with them at night. So you buy a slave. You own them, as sad as it might be.
That was the culture then. Now Paul kind of switches it around and he says, but God bought you.
God bought you and therefore he tells you what to do. He tells you where the arena is for sexual enjoyment.
And it is marriage between, and now I have to say it in Massachusetts sadly, between a man and a woman. And then it's the pleasure of God.
God's saying, yes, enjoy. And we'll see in the next section, it's going to be not
God says no. That's not the Christian sex ethic. It's here's where it's going to be helpful to you and glorifying to me.
Here's where it's going to be damaging to you and dishonoring and blasphemous to me.
And you were at an auction one day and you were auctioned off at the highest price ever.
Jesus bought you with his blood, right? He was the ransom price.
It was a costly atonement. Just like back at the very beginning. If it was a costly atonement out of gratitude, don't you want to serve that master and that king?
The answer is yes. I don't want to push it too far, but it is the text.
It's almost like Paul is saying this. Speaking of prostitutes, you pay prostitutes.
Speaking of paying prostitutes, let's talk about what was really paid. And what was really paid has nothing to do with gross, immoral, prostitute whoredom.
It has everything to do with the God of the universe, the immutably holy and just God of the universe who pays to redeem you.
You've been bought with a price. Couldn't be more antithetical to the whole prostitute thing.
And when God bought you, he didn't just buy your soul. He just didn't buy your personality.
He bought you with your body. You've got to read MacArthur's book, Slave, because you're either a slave to sin, slave to your own passions, slave to Satan, slave to the world, or you're a slave to Christ Jesus.
The redemption price is the blood of Christ Jesus. Free to us, costly to God.
Cost a lot. And if God bought you, he owns you. That's the idea. You have not been redeemed with gold and silver, but with the precious blood of a lamb without blemish, 1
Peter 1. He paid the price to set us free from sins, and so use your body to honor him.
And then what does he say at the end? What does he say at the end of verse 20? So glorify God in your body. How do you do that?
How do you glorify God if he's given you a sexual body? And the answer is, all outside of six, no, no, no, no.
How do you glorify God with your body? You take a pen and you take a little arrow and you take from the end of the period of verse 20, and then you take a little arrow and you move it right down to verse 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 of chapter 7.
How do you glorify God with your body sexually? You enjoy your wife. That's Paul's answer.
Do you glorify God or do you gorge yourself sinfully? Do you adore
God or do you commit adultery? Do you praise the Lord or do you watch porn?
Do you venerate the Lord or do you get venereal disease? Extol Christ or have extramarital sex?
Fall on your face with reverence or fornicate with a prostitute? See, it just doesn't make sense.
Don't you find it odd? Paul doesn't say teenage pregnancy is costly.
Teenage pregnancy could ruin your life. You could get AIDS. What does he say?
What's the main motivation to not have illicit sex? Whether you eat or whether you drink or whether you have sex, you do all for what?
See, the motivation is not, I have to be careful, I might get pregnant.
No, it's to glorify God. That's why you were born. That's why you live.
Chapter 7, verses 1 to 5, we're going to see next week, is the next helpful way
God tells us to overcome sexual temptation, and that is to engage in sexual morality with your wife regularly and often, and with your husband regularly and often.
I would never talk about these things if they weren't in the Bible. But I'll tell you what right now, I'm sweating like mad.
And I've got kids from 9 to 18, and they need to hear every single word of it. And the 4 -year -olds just hear a word, and they're just like, okay, whatever, they have no idea what we're talking about.
But especially you dads, as we talked about last week. As weird as it is for kids to think my mother and dad are sexual creatures, and it's kind of a weird thing for them to get their mind wrapped around, fathers and mothers especially, don't you ever forget, and don't you hide behind this, well, it's just hard for me to imagine my kids are going to be either now, or they're going to grow up to be sexual creatures made by God that way, and we want to help them.
If you've had a horrible past sexually, don't you want to help your kids? Don't you want to walk your kids down the aisle?
I just can't wait to walk my kids down the aisle, and I hope it's the grace of God that it has happened. I walk my daughters down the aisle, and then
I quick stand up over here, who gives this woman to be married to this man? I do.
Back over here. It's going to be great.
To look at them, look at each other. And I think, you know, on their honeymoon that night,
God just says, join yourself. Have fun.
I designed this for you. When people say to me in premarital counseling, we're both virgins,
I'll give it a cry because of how sweet it is, and how tender are to get up and say, hallelujah,
God, you've protected them. It's a sweet thing. That's what I want for our kids here.
It's also wonderful to think, with all that people have done and said with their bodies and with their minds, that when
Christ forgives you for your sins, including sexual sins, he sees you like a chaste virgin, never sinning.
Because that's exactly who Jesus was. Can you imagine the pressure Jesus had with all the temptation?
For us, once we give it a temptation, that temptation is no longer around again for a while.
But for Jesus, just building and building and building women, his eyes, everything else.
I think to myself, you know what? I might have a dirty, rotten, filthy mind, but I have been covered by the blood and perfect righteousness of one who is completely pure.
Never looked at a woman ever the wrong way, except with a look of, I want what's best for her.
And I think for those who've committed sexual sin, we can stand in Christ forgiven.
Because down at the cross, Christ paid for every sin, including these.
And a God who does that doesn't make you now want to live for him. Let's pray. Thank you,
Father, for giving us the risen son, Christ Jesus. I thank you for these passages. I thank you,
Lord, that we need to be taught about sex from your perspective. I pray for the fathers here, mothers, maybe single dads or single moms, that you just give them great grace as they train up the next generation, pure generation.
And Father, we're very, very thankful we can have forgiveness of sins, sexual sins too.
I pray for those today that struggle with pornography, that today would be the day of repentance, forsaking, and they would just be utterly repulsed by that.
You would grant them forgiveness. And you would grant them the ability to never go back.
I pray for those who are engaged, those who have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, that you would keep them pure.
Pray for husbands and wives, as we'll see next week, that they would just mirror Christ loving the church, committed relationship, that you blessed.
Thank you for forgiveness. Thank you for guidance. Thank you that your word transforms those in whom you have chosen.