I'm so thankful once again, for your willingness to submit yourselves to the preaching and the teaching of the word of God. And we find ourselves in First Corinthians, chapter six, as we make our way through this epistle; we're going to be looking at verses 12 through 20, and I've entitled my discourse to you "Glorifying God in your Body." So will you follow along as I read First Corinthians six, beginning in verse 12,

"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

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

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!

Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, 'THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.'

But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

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

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

For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body."

This is a very instructive and frankly encouraging passage of scripture. It's one that will speak to each one of us, and what we see here is the love of the apostle Paul for the Corinthian saints. He, once again, like a father, is confronting them on some issues that are not pleasing to the Lord, that are forfeiting blessing in their life.

You may recall that already, thus far, he has confronted them on their worldliness, on their being fleshly, being babes in Christ. They're proud, they're jealous. They've been factious and divisive. They've tolerated immorality in the church, and some are even suing their brother and taking them to small claims court. And so the people at Corinth were heavily influenced by their culture, a wicked culture in which they live, and this is reflected in this section of Scripture before us concerning sexual immorality.

Now there's a couple of things you need to be reminded of as we approach this text. Let me give you two things that were going on culturally that are very important for us to realize. First of all, the Corinthians were an exceedingly immoral people, as I detailed in our introduction to this letter back in April. You may recall that the most prominent edifice in Corinth on the Acropolis was the temple of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty, love and procreation. And there were all manner of ritual prostitution and things you don't even want to discuss that went on there. Imagine having a huge church here in Nashville, and part of the worship was prostitution. And then on top of that, they had other forms of religious sexual involvement that was just part of their so-called worship. In fact, the immorality was so pervasive, it was so vile, that even the pagans blushed at it, so much so that they adopted the phrase to "corinthianize," to behave like a Corinthian, to express the grossest kind of sexual immorality and drunken decadence that you can imagine.

So imagine living in that kind of a culture, coming to Christ, and now you're in the church, all right - naturally, you're going to bring all of that filth with you, maybe not even realizing it. But secondly, they were heavily influenced by Plato's philosophical dualism. Remember, matter is evil, but spirit is good, so the human body, and in fact all matter, is inferior. It's bad, it's evil. In fact, he taught the superiority of the spiritual over the material. Even Socrates taught that the body is the tomb of the soul. So what this translates into is whatever you do with your body is no big deal. Don't even worry about it. It's okay to indulge the appetites of the body. And in verse 13, Paul is going to reflect on one of their slogans, "Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food." That was their way of saying that sex is no different from eating. The stomach is made for food, and the body is made for sex. That's how they thought.

But then there's a third issue that influenced their thinking and heavily influences now what the Spirit of God is going to communicate through his servant, Paul. And this is a theological rather than a cultural issue, because sexual immorality was so appealing to the flesh, they needed to defend their lusts and their behaviors theologically, right? And what do many Christians do to justify worldliness? They appeal to Christian liberty. And we see this in verse 12, "All things are lawful for me," probably another slogan, and so there was this idea that, well, hey, you know, grace covers it all. So what's the big deal? And Paul, of course, had to deal with this, with the Romans as well in their church. Remember Romans 6:1, "What shall we say? Then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be? How shall we who died to sin still live in it?"

So these are the key cultural and theological factors that Paul is going to address, and he does so under the inspiration of the Spirit, in a way that is just very instructive, very encouraging to each one of us. And he's not simply going to tell them stop doing this. He's going to explain to them how to stop doing this and why you should stop doing this. Now I know that some of you are struggling with sexual immorality in various forms. We all know that all of our children are confronted with it, I should say, bombarded with it nonstop. There's sex out of marriage, which is fornication, adultery, pornography. Some may be struggling with homosexuality, and Satan knows that this will bring enormous devastation to your life, and so he provides a myriad of ways to entice us, to seduce us. He knows that sexual sin will bring misery, it will bring disease, it will bring death like no other sin. And many of you in this congregation will attest to these very things because of what you have endured in your life. So this is a very important subject.

And I might just say as a footnote, parents, please discuss these matters with your children. You don't want them to hear about these things from their friends or people at school or whatever, they need to have a biblical perspective. You need to explain these things to them, and I might just add, to shield your child and not deal with these issues is frankly, one of the most serious forms of child neglect in the church today. I cannot tell you how many young adults I have dealt with over the years that are absolutely clueless about how they should view their body, how they should conduct themselves sexually in a way that glorifies God. We're told in Ephesians 6:4 that we are to bring up our children in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. And I might say that the text before us is some of that instruction. So listen carefully and use this to teach your children so that they can conduct themselves in a way with their body that will bring glory to God. In fact, that's the very last thing that Paul says here in verse 20. "Therefore, glorify God in your body."

So given their immoral culture, given this absurd philosophical dualism that hey were accustomed to and their really bad theology, right, Paul is going to explain how the gospel should inform them concerning their body, which will then influence their mind and their will concerning their sexuality. By the way, young people, I hope that you especially will hear what your pastor is telling you today from the word, this is very important. That is my earnest prayer.

Now let me ask all of you, have you ever thought biblically about your body? Have you ever thought about your body from a theological perspective? How does God really view this body, and therefore, how should I conduct myself? Have you ever thought about how the gospel impacts your view of your body? If you're like most people, the answer is, I can't say that. I've ever thought about that very much. Well, you're going to think about it a lot here today. Paul wants us to see our bodies from God's perspective, from a redeemed perspective, and I would submit to you that from this text, he wants us to see four things about our body. Number one, our body will be raised up through his power. Number two, our body is a member of Christ. Thirdly, our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. And finally, our body has been bought with a price.

Now, first of all, notice Paul's introduction, where he deals with the issue of Christian liberty, which they were abusing. Verse 12, "All things are lawful for me..." The verb there means it is allowed, it is permissible for me to do anything, or you could say there's no law against anything that I want to do, a slogan that they were using. Now, obviously all things do not include matters like those that he condemned in chapter five and the first 11 verses of chapter six, or other things that God clearly forbids. That's not what Paul is referring to here, when he echoes their slogan. He's referring to non-moral issues, things not wrong per se, behaviors that would fall within the range of of Christian liberty. So in that sense, he agreed with their slogan. And we know that as believers, we are not bound to long lists of rules regulating how we are to live our Christian life, for example, how we eat, drink and touch, like Colossians 2:20, and so forth speaks about. Those things have no bearing on our salvation, we understand that. Romans 61:4, "You are not under law, but under grace. Romans 7:6 "But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the spirit and not in oldness of the letter." And so we can celebrate these things. We can celebrate the reality that we are free from the condemnation of the law no matter what we do, that no sin will bring about a legal penalty. Christ has paid that debt in full. We celebrate that. That's the gospel. Romans eight verse 33, "Who will bring a charge against God's elect. God is the one who justifies." Galatians, five verse one, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery, for you were called to freedom. Brethren only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another."

Now the problem with the Corinthians is that some of them were turning their freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, and not through love serving one another, but instead, they were serving their own fleshly appetites, so the gospel they celebrated was not operating in their life. And that's true with many Christians, the gospel is not operating in your life. They were more in love with the culture than with Christ. They were ruled by their flesh, not by the Spirit.

"All things are lawful for me," he says, "but not all things are profitable." Profitable, it could be translated, beneficial. In other words, you're not going to lose your salvation by committing some sexual sin, but you will certainly forfeit blessing in your life. You will grieve the Spirit. You will quench the Spirit. Beloved, there is nothing more destructive - please hear this - there is nothing more destructive in our human existence than the effects of sexual immorality. Think of the single parents and what they endure because of this. Children raised without fathers. Think of the divorce. Think of the violence. You realize police officers are more afraid of domestic disputes than anything else. People lose their minds. Think of the bitterness, the slander, the heartache, alcohol, drug addictions that come out of this disease and so on. You know, when anyone calls me that is in desperate need, I can tell, typically, very quickly if their problem is related to some kind of sexual immorality. Dear friends, I've seen grown men sob on multiple occasions for an hour before they can speak a word, and I've seen the same thing with women. Husbands and wives suddenly ripped apart by sexual sin. I know what it's like to speak with parents with a young daughter who's just found out she's pregnant. I know what it's like to inform someone that they have AIDS, folks, it's absolutely heart wrenching. That's why this is so important.

Men, let me address something...I want to move away from the text just for a moment. I don't normally do this, but I felt burdened to do this. Let me move away from the text for a moment and address you. In Proverbs two God speaks through his servant, Solomon, to warn us about the adulterous, the seductive woman, the prostitute, any woman trying to seduce you into immorality, and he gives wisdom, beginning in verse 16. Let me just read some of this. He gives wisdom, "To deliver you from the strange woman, from the adulteress who flatters with her words..." young men listen to this now, "...that leaves the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house sinks down to death and her tracks lead to the dead." Proverbs five, beginning in verse one,

"My son, give attention to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding;

that you may observe discretion and your lips may reserve knowledge.

For the lips of an adulterous drip honey and smoother than oil is her speech;

but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold of Sheol.

​

She does not ponder the path of life; her ways are unstable, she does not know it.

Now then, my sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house,

or you will give your vigor to others and your years to the cruel one;

and strangers will be filled with your strength and your hard earned goods. Will go to the house of an alien;

and you groan at your final end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,

and you say 'How I have hated instruction! and my heart spurned reproof!

I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to my instructors!

I will I was almost in utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation."'"

He finally says,

"Drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well..."

dropping down to verse 18,

"Let your fountain be blessed in you and rejoice in the wife of your youth."

For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all his paths."

Young men, have nothing to do with a young woman who dresses seductively. Have nothing to do with a woman that flaunts her sexuality, because I'm telling you, the more a woman shows on the outside, the less she has to offer on the inside, and she will bring you to misery. Young women have nothing to do with a young man who makes sexual advances towards you, or a young man that's involved in pornography who has no desire to see you grow in Christ, He will use you up and he will dump you and leave you all alone.

Folks, sexual sin is devastating. Remember David sinned with Bathsheba. We read in Second Samuel 11, verse 27, "But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD." And because of his sin, the word goes on to say, "the sword shall never depart from your house...I will raise up evil..." people, "...against you from your own household." And certainly, if you study his family, I mean, his family was an absolute train wreck. Can you spell Absalom? Wicked kids. And he goes on to say, and, "...the child also that is born to you, shall surely die." And we read about David's testimony, in light of all this later on, Psalm 32 verse three, for example, he says, "When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away, as with the fever heat of summer. But I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity, I did not hide; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD'; and You forgave the guilt of my sin." That's what we have to do.

Folks, internet and television pornography addiction has now reached epidemic proportions. It's estimated that 64% of US, men, including Christian men, view porn at least monthly. Three out of 10 men between the ages of 18 and 30 are daily viewers, and 3% of women. In fact, in one of the studies I read, one out of six Christian women say they struggle with pornography. You see, sin is never satisfied. It will always want more. And whatever you sow, you are going to reap far more. And if I can just say parenthetically, if this is you, please, won't you confess it? And won't you come to me or one of the elders, I'd love to sit down with you and help you. Psalm 103, beginning in verse eight, "The LORD is compassionate and gracious." Isn't that wonderful to know? He is, "compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness," but, "He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever." Folks, it is such a wonderful thing to come to a place of true repentance, confessing your sin and experiencing the joy of forgiveness, being cleansed. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and he is just, to what?  to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But dear friends, that begins with humble confession, and I stand ready day and night to help you, if this is you.

Proverbs, 28, verse 13, "He who conceals his transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion. How blessed is the man," literally, how happy is the man, "who fears always, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity." Dear Christians, God has called us to be separate from the world, to stay away from these things, to be holy as he is holy. Titus tells us that the grace of God has appeared. It instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly and righteously in this present age. So I would just plead with you to heed the Lord's instruction, and I fear that what has been lost in much of gospel preaching today is God's purpose in saving sinners. It tends to stop at forgiveness, and it tends to ignore, even scorn, holiness. It diminishes the miracle of regeneration by ignoring that God implants a new life principle in every believer. This new creature is not still born. True holiness is not a forced, learned habit that doesn't do anything, unless you, so to speak, work on it. It's a new life principle. No sooner is this principle implanted than the true child of God will seek to live for the glory of God. And the more he grows, and the more light he is given to see by, the more he will see the world and sin and its true colors. And the seed of the Spirit that is sown in the soul does not lie dormant. It will very quickly sprout forth and show signs that it is alive by the fruit that it bears. And the fruit that it bears is Christ like holiness when we're mastered by Christ alone. In Romans, 8:13, if we're living in the spirit we are, Paul says, putting to death the deeds of the body.

You know, one of the things you have to do with cancer is stop feeding it. Never feed a cancer cell. The same thing with sin. Don't feed it. Got to starve it. You got to kill it. Paul testified how he had to buffet his body and make it his slave, lest possibly after he had preached to others, he himself should be disqualified. And folks, if you're not committed to personal holiness, God simply cannot use you for His service, and you will forfeit blessing in your life.

Now back to this issue of Christian liberty. Sorry for the digression there, but it will all fit together, I believe. He says, again, "Not all things are profitable," and then, "All things are lawful for me," he says at the end of verse 12, "but I will not be mastered by anything." You know, all things are lawful, I mean, let's think about it for a second. Anything biblically wrong with playing video games or entertainment or spending time watching your favorite sports teams or fishing or hunting or shooting or those types of things? No, all those things are okay unless they gain mastery over you and you give them more of your time and treasure than you do to Christ, and they become an idol. Frankly, folks, anything we can't give up jeopardizes our freedom in Christ, it becomes an idol that controls us. And I know many people that are absolutely mastered by all sorts of non-moral things that fall within the range of Christian liberty, like cigarettes, like food, television, career, family, music, exercise.

You know, as a footnote, again, when it comes to things that are permissible within the realm of Christian liberty, there's kind of a list of questions that I like to ask myself. Maybe I can share this with you. I want to ask. First of all, is it profitable? Is it beneficial in my life to make me more effective in serving Christ and others, and loving Christ? Secondly, will it benefit my walk with Christ? Thirdly, is it something that may begin, or maybe it's already begun, to gain mastery over me rather than Christ? I also want to ask, will it harm my health and hinder my effectiveness in serving Christ? I want to ask, will this harm my witness for Christ? I want to ask, will it be a stumbling block to a weaker brother? And this is the type of attitude that we need to have when it comes to these matters.

So again, "All things are lawful for me," he says, "but I will not be mastered by anything." And folks, there is nothing more enslaving than sexual sin and how thankful we can be that we are no longer slaves to sin. But that doesn't mean we are free to sin. We are now free not to sin. That's the idea, Romans 6:14, "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace." A wonderful truth.

And again, verse 13, he says, they're saying here, "Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food." Again, this was their Corinthian proverb that they were using to justify their immorality. But he says, "God will do away with both of them." In other words, your stomach and food are temporal. God's going to do away with all of the biological processes someday, right? So your thinking is short sighted, it's unscriptural, it's unspiritual. You might say yourthinking is horizontal, it's not vertical. Then he says, "Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body." In other words, your body is for the Lord who created it, who sustains it, who has redeemed it, and who will one day glorify it. Think biblically about your body.

So you need to understand that your body belongs to him. It belongs not to you. It's for his purposes, not yours. It's really foreign in our way of thinking, and it's fascinating what Paul does here. I hope I can explain it to you. Paul only deals with sexual immorality as kind of a secondary issue now, and what he does is he focuses more on the primary issue, which is how to think biblically about your body. So number one, he wants them to understand that our body will be raised up through his power.

Notice verse 14. "Now God has not only raised the Lord but will also raise us up through His power." In other words, he's saying to them, folks, you need to realize the profound importance of your body. You need to treat it with respect and thus honor the Lord who created you and who will raise you up some day. I was thinking about this, and I was meditating on the passage, and my mind immediately went to Psalm 139. You want you want to see God's perspective of your body? Let me read you a few passages there, beginning in verse 13,

"For You formed my inward parts," the psalmist says, "You wove me in my mother's womb.

I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth" referring to his mother's womb.

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when, as yet there was not one of them.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me? O God! How vast is the sum of them!"

So indeed, the Lord cares for the body. He's going to raise it up by his power someday. You know, your body will die and decay in this life, but one day it's going to be resurrected, it's going to be glorified, and it's going to forever house our perfected spirit. Philippians, 3:20 you're familiar with the passage, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will," what? "Transform the body..." Boy is that good news or what? "Transform the body of our humble state." I think we could add really, really, really humble state, right?  "...into conformity with the body of His glory by the exertion of the power that He has, even to subject all things to Himself." Now in the present age, death temporarily separates the body and spirit, but with God's resurrection program, all believers, and frankly, all unbelievers, will possess a body suited for eternal life, either for eternal life on the new earth, or for eternal separation from God in the lake of fire. We know that Christ, according to First Corinthians 15, was the "first fruits" of the resurrection to life eternal. And that guarantees that we will be raised as well. Christ, right now, sits at the right hand of the Father. He looks like a human in a glorified body. We're going to have similar bodies. We're not going to be ghost like spirits floating around through the galaxies. Our spirits are going to be housed in a glorified body.

So the point that Paul is trying to make is stop minimizing the profound importance of your body, that longs for redemption from corruption, as Romans 8:23, tells us. So, not only will our body be raised up through its power, but secondly, our body is a member of Christ. But folks, this gets even better. Verse 15. "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" Members could be translated limbs and organs. You realize that? Romans 12, five, "...we, who are many, are one body in Christ." You know, one of the great metaphors in Scripture given to illustrate our union with Christ is the union between the head and the body. Remember, in Ephesians five, Paul says, "Christ is the head of the church His body." Ephesians 5:23. And because of the intimacy of this union between the head and the body, he goes on to say that the one who nourishes and cherishes his own body loves himself. Now, as believers, our bodies are members of Christ's own body. So the point is, what happens to the head happens to the body, and likewise, what happens to the body happens to the head.

So in light of that, he asks this question, "Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make the members of a prostitute? May it never be!" Or, as we would say in our vernacular, "are you kidding me?" We would never do that. Verse 16. "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.'" You see, the physical union of sexual relations is only permitted in the bonds of marriage between one man and one woman. And when that happens, according to Genesis 2:24, they become "one flesh." One flesh speaks of complete unity of parts making a whole. It implies sexual completeness, one man and one woman constituting the pair that can now reproduce. Child of God, please understand this, for a believer, sexual relations always involve the Lord, because we are members of his body. And so the point is, are you going to join Christ with a prostitute or somebody other than your wife? It's inconceivable.

He goes on to verse 17, "But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him." He moves away from the body to alk about the Spirit now; and we know that it is an essential reality that when we are born again, Christ dwells within us. It's a wondrous, mystical union, so that his Spirit and our spirit become one. John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Second Peter one four, "We have become partakers of the divine nature." So we suddenly become one spirit with him in this mystical union that we are going to mutually enjoy forever. Now we have the mind of Christ, we are given a new nature, we begin to think like he thinks.

Now, when a man joins himself sexually to an unbeliever, the two of them can become one body and one flesh, but they can only consummate a physical union. They can never consummate a spiritual union. It's for this reason that Christians are never to marry an unbeliever. We'll get to this more when we get to Second Corinthians, but Second Corinthians 6:14, "Do not be bound together with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship is light with darkness." You see a believer is united to Christ in a one-spirit dimension, and when you marry an unbeliever, you can become one flesh with him or her in a in the physical realm, but you will never become one spirit with them in the spiritual realm. And as a result, your marriage will always be one dimensional, and frankly, it will always be dysfunctional, and I would even add it will always be unfulfilling.

So Paul's point here is it is unthinkable that we would ever involve the infinitely holy body and spirit of Christ in a physical union that he deems reprehensible. May that never be. A sinful union that resulted in unimaginable suffering and pain when he bore our sins in his body on the tree. And no wonder he says, "Flee immorality." Greek grammar is of a present imperative. It means run from it and don't stop running. No doubt Paul had Joseph and Potiphar's wife in mind here. Remember that, that story in what Genesis 39 and we know that Paul even reminded young Timothy, pastor Timothy, of this, Second Timothy 2:22, "Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart." Now, let me make this real practical, men and women, when he says, "Flee immorality," it means don't dabble in it. Don't think about it. Don't entertain it in your imagination. Station guards around your heart and around your mind. Guard your eyes, as Proverbs says in 4:23, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life." It does not mean let go and let God. It does not mean pray for some mystical experience. It does not mean to go somebody and help them exercise the demon of lust or immorality or pornography. It does not mean bind Satan and rebuke Satan and all that stuff. It means kill your lusts flee from it. Romans 8:13, "For if you're living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit, you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live." I like the old King James, "mortify." That word "mortify." When I was a young boy, I had no idea what that word meant, but I liked it. Later on, I learned what it meant. You know how you do that? I really like that word. I still do. You see, this is our Spirit empowered duty to put to death or literally, to mortify the flesh. The Greek term literally means to kill or to put to death. In this case, the lust of the flesh still remaining in the body - the corruption and depravity of our nature - and to mortify is, frankly a metaphorical expression borrowed from the idea of putting to death something that is living, and when we kill something, what do we do? Well, we deprive it of its strength, we deprive it of its energy. We deprive it of its power to exert itself. Folks, immorality, if you don't kill it, you can liken it to a pet cobra in your house. One of these days, it's going to bite you and you're going to regret it. Immorality is poison. It is deadly.

Flee immorality. What does that mean, practically? Well, you need to examine this for yourself, but ladies, I might just give you a little hint. Some of you need to discard some of your seductive clothing. Well, what do you consider seductive? If you don't know, you wouldn't understand it if I told you. And frankly, if you ask that question, it already betrays your heart. Man, you need to get rid of some of your movie channels. You need to put blocks on your computer. You need to have accountability with your computers. Parents, you've got to watch your kids. You got to put to death the deeds of the body. You never feed it. Another way of thinking about it, you've got to go to war against this. If I've got a cobra in my house, guess what the plan is? He is going to die before I get bit or somebody else. That's the idea. We need to establish non-negotiable rules and how we interact with the opposite sex. You absolutely never flirt. Stay away from flattery, Proverbs seven and verse five, verse 25, "Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths." In other words, you see that kind of a woman you walk the other way. "For many are the victims she has cast down, and numerous are all her slain. Her house is the way to Sheol descending to the chambers of death." Married men never, ever be alone with another woman, especially if you find her attractive. Period. No private text, no offline conversations. Come on, Pastor, aren't you being a little extreme? No, I'm not. I know where this stuff leads.

When I was thinking about this, I was reminded of that silly commercial. I think it's Farmers Insurance. We know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. You know where I'm going with that. But what's far more important than my own personal experience, that's been heart wrenching, is the word of God. Proverbs five verse eight, "Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house." Proverbs six, verse 23, and following, "For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light and reproofs for discipline, are the way of life to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her,” now catch this, "capture you with her eyelids." Absolutely no eye contact with a flirtatious, seductive woman. "For on account of a harlot, one is reduced to a loaf of bread and an adulterous hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So is the one who goes into his neighbor's wife, whoever touches her will not go unpunished."

Back to the text, "Flee immorality." And he says, "Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body." This is really fascinating, I hope I can explain this. Then he says, "but the immoral man sins against his own body." Now, to be sure, unlike other sins, sexual sin is unique in that it arises from within the body as a powerful lust that's seeking gratification. It's never satisfied. And worse yet, it corrupts. It wounds at the very deepest level of a person's being. It produces untold guilt and shame and misery and depression, divorce, abortion, disease, you name it. But I'm not convinced that that's what Paul is referring to here, I believe he's saying that, unlike other sins that a man commits outside the body, sexual sins attack the very nature of our body that belongs to the Lord by uniting it to another person in a forbidden union.

Let me explain this some more. This is an act which is totally inconsistent with the truth about the nature of our body that belongs to Christ, as a part of his members, organs and limbs of Christ. The  point is, it's far too valuable to treat in such a way. So in that way, the immoral man sins against his own body. You see friends, sexual sin co mingles a man's life with a harlot, and it gives to her what rightfully belongs to a man's own body, or a woman's own body, which belongs to Christ. So what a profound indignity that is to the body. You sin against the body when you do that; this body that we possess by God's grace, this body that houses the living Christ. We must say to ourselves, and we have immoral thoughts, you know, I realize that God has set his love upon me in eternity past, and even though this is very tempting, I've got to remember your love for Me, Lord, that You created me, that you bore my sins in your body, that you redeemed me by your blood, that I've been bought with the price that you inhabit me, that in you, I live and move and exist, as Paul said in Acts 17. I realize that my body is the limbs and the organs of Christ. My body is not my own. I realize that my body is going to be raised up through your power. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So given all of this, how can I possibly sin against my body through some act of immorality? This goes against the very core of the new nature, doesn't it? It's a sin that is not wrought from outside the body. It's from within itself, and for this reason, Christians experience far greater devastation as a result of sexual sin, the guilt and the shame is far greater than with a non-believer. Oh dear Christian, flee from immorality.

And as I move quickly here, thirdly, he reminds us that our body is also a temple of the Holy Spirit. And here he uses sarcasm. "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?" Don't you know that? "Whom you have from God, and that you are not your own." Paul says the same thing in Second Corinthians six and verse 16, "For we are a temple of the living God." And the point is, okay, now let me get this straight. This Holy Spirit dwells within you, and you're going to bring a harlot or an adulteress, or some other person into the sacred sanctuary of God to commit an act of sexual immorality? That's inconceivable, that is incomprehensible.

See, we know at salvation when we enter the kingdom of God, the Triune God himself takes up residence within us. Jesus said this in John 14:23, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him." Oh Child of God, don't miss this. Our body is the dwelling place of the Triune Godhead. It is not a brothel. So not only is our body going to be raised up through his power, it's a member of Christ's body, a temple of the Holy Spirit, but finally, our body has been bought with a price.

Notice the end of verse 19. Don't you see, he's saying, "...you are not your own.... for you have been bought with a price..." and you're going to treat what God has purchased by his very blood with such disregard. Have you lost all sense of decency? Have you forgotten that you were a debtor to his grace? Have you forgotten what Peter said in First Peter one, beginning in verse 18, that, "you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life, inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." Can you not see that your body has been redeemed to bring glory to the very God who has created you and saved you by his grace?

Therefore, notice what he says at the very end. "Therefore," read it with me, "glorify God in your body." Let me close with two quick words of encouragement. Number one, let me reiterate what I said earlier. If you're struggling in this area, please seek help. I'm praying for you, and I know that a number of you are; because whenever there's confession and true repentance, there is forgiveness, there is cleansing, there is restoration, there is fellowship, there is blessing, there is joy, and that's what the Lord wants for all of us. Remember what David said in Psalm 32 after he had confessed his sin, he said, "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven." Blessed means happy. How happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered? "How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit." In Verse five, he says, "I acknowledged my sin to You and my iniquity, I did not hide. I said, 'I will confess my transgression to the Lord,' and you forgave the guilt of my sin." Therefore, verse six, "let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when you may be found; surely in a flood of great waters, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with songs of deliverance." Folks, that's what I want for you. That's what the Lord wants for you.

And then finally, let's leave here today, celebrating our body, right? Celebrating what God has done. I mean, it's amazing. By the way, I'm not talking about worshiping your body, like many do in our culture. My goodness, we paint it up and tat it up and work it up and, or work it out, I guess, right? We dress it up and stick things through it and do all of these things trying to make it more attractive and the older you get, the more you realize that's a losing proposition. But celebrate these four astounding realities that emerge from this text that will prevent us from immorality. Our body is going to be raised up through his power. It's a member of Christ. It's a temple of the Holy Spirit. We have been bought with the price. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these truths that speak so directly to each one of us. Father, our flesh is so weak, but we thank you that by the power of your indwelling Spirit and the great truths of your word, we are not slaves to sin, but we are slaves to Christ. May we live consistently with that reality in every area of our life. I ask in Jesus' name, amen.