All right, we have got quite a journey to go
on together this morning. Let me start with this
question. If I were to say to you, you are free
in Christ, would you understand what I'm referring
to? Would you be able to define what it means
to be free in Christ? Could you explain it to
somebody else? In our world today, in the West,
we usually speak of freedom in terms like this.
Having nobody that we have to answer to. Being
able to choose whatever we want. Being able to
go in any direction or take any path that suits
us. Freedom for us means being able to define
who we are and to follow after whatever desires
well up within us. Now, with that definition
of freedom, we hold up what the Bible says about
freedom and we see that Christian freedom is
not that. It's completely different from that,
right? Because we do answer to a higher power.
Our choices are not just about us, but about
pleasing our Savior. Our path in life is not
to be our will, but to be His will. It's Him,
the Lord Himself, who defines who we are. And
clearly, we're told that we shouldn't just run
after every feeling that comes up within us.
But nevertheless, we are free in Christ. The
scripture tells us that. It bears that out. We
are free in Christ. In fact, it's one of the
most startling and beautiful aspects of the gospel
that God sent his son to come to earth, to take
on flesh, to die in our place, not just to improve
us, not just to make our lives more comfortable,
but to liberate us from slavery, to make us free.
He paid the ransom penalty for our sin. He broke
the power of sin over us. He reconciled us to
the Father and then he gave us his spirit to
guide us and sanctify us through life. So being
free in Christ and first and foremost is freedom
from the penalty of sin, freedom from the power
of sin over us and freedom from the perpetual
anxiety that comes from not knowing whether you've
done enough. to secure God's love and favor.
And we have that freedom. And again, this is
what that freedom of Christ is not. It is not
a wide open permission slip to live for ourselves.
And that's what too many people going to churches
this morning think. It just means we can do what
we want and still claim to know Christ. But that's
not what it is. It's not a blank check for self
-indulgence. To see everything that our flesh
appears to want and then just run after it. It's
actually the opposite of that. Through Christ,
we are delivered from the tyranny of ourselves.
Think about that. We're freed from the tyranny
of ourselves. We're given a whole new inclination
now to live for the glory of God. We're given
new affections. We're given new wisdom for decision
-making. We're given a whole new worldview. And
we're given a whole new reason for living. We're
now free to delight in God's law. Think about
that, in our inner man. Even something that tells
us what we shouldn't do, we're now free to delight
in those things. Free to delight in striving
to observe the commands that Christ has given
to us. And it's not forced drudgery. It's what
we want now. Because God has changed our hearts.
He's brought us alive. He's given us these new
affections. And get this, we are free now to
deny ourselves and to live for others. Does that
sound like an oxymoron? We're free to deny ourselves
and to live to serve others. Everything for us
has changed. When we put our trust in Christ,
we are now free indeed. Now, how that gets fleshed
out is where the struggle comes in, right? How
it practically works its way out in the daily
struggles of life because we're not yet perfected
in our freedom, right? We don't use it as we
should. We're not as practically mature as we
ought to be in our faith. So now as we walk through
life, we are faced with all kinds of choices
and decisions every day. Should I go left or
should I go right? What is wise? What is foolish?
If I'm faced with five things, how do I prioritize
them? In what order? I know I'm free to do this
or that, but should I? Paul has a few things
to say about this in our passage for today. So
grab your Bibles. We are going to go to 1 Corinthians
6. 1 Corinthians 6. And guys, this message really
is, I know I've done this before, part one of
two. So like when we were in chapter five, remember
I made you raise your right hand and promise
to come back next Sunday? I'm doing, I'm kind
of doing, I know it didn't work, but it's okay.
I'm kind of doing that again this morning because
these two messages are going to overlap. We're
covering basically the same passage and they're
going to overlap in the details of each message.
I can't fit them into one. The details of each
message are going to, are going to help you if
you want the full picture of what Paul is saying
in these verses, verses 12 to 20. What I'm going
to try to do today, next week will be as a family
service, so our kiddos will be with us. I'm going
to try to get through as many of the mature themes
in this passage as I can today, while just you
adults are with us. Amen? And spare the kiddos
some of that language for next week. It's not
been easy this week to do this, but I think I've
got it figured out, so we'll see. Now, there's
three words or phrases that dominate this section
of Paul's letter. The first is the Greek word
porneia. And we've seen this many times already
in this letter. It is the Greek word for sexual
immorality. We're going to see it three more
times in our verses for today. Then there's the
word soma in the Greek, which means body. We're
going to see this, what is it, eight times, eight
times in these nine verses. And finally, we're
going to hear Paul say multiple times, do you
not know? As if he's saying to the Corinthians,
why? Haven't you heard me correctly on this issue?
Do you not know this? So let's read the whole
thing as one, verses 12 to 20, and then we'll
start breaking it down. So here's what it says,
beginning in verse 12. Paul says, 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. If you're one of those
people who likes to highlight or underline your
Bible, underline, highlight profitable and mastered.
Those are key words. Verse 13. 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, God says, the two
shall become one flesh. But the one who joins
himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. Therefore,
in verse 18, flee immorality. Every other sin
that a man commits is outside the body, but the
immoral man sins against his own body. And again,
that's a reference. to porneia, sexual immorality?
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've been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify
God in your body. Okay. This could be a whole
sermon series, right? There's so much here, but
let's go back up to verse 12. I wanna look at
what I call the law of spiritual benefit and
the law of spiritual freedom. These are two principles
that are a huge help in how we're to walk through
this life as Christ followers. They're gonna
give us a ton of direction. So let's look at
verse 12. All things are lawful for me, but not
all things are profitable. The law of spiritual
benefit. Now, the first thing we have to determine
with this passage is who is speaking when it
says all things are possible or all things are
lawful. It could mean all things are permissible.
Who is speaking in that? Is that a statement
that is true for Christians? Everything is permissible?
Is that true for us? Of course not. Of course
not. In the verses right before this statement,
Paul gave us a whole list of things that used
to mark our lives, such were some of us. But
now we're not to return to those things. So no,
fornication is not permissible, right, for a
Christian. Idolatry, adultery, homosexuality,
thievery, coveting, drunkenness, that whole list,
that is not okay for those of us who've been
transformed by God's grace to go back to. So
no, not all things are permissible, right? So
why would Paul write this then? All things are
awful. Well, raise your hand if the Bible that
you're looking at right now has quotation marks
around that statement. Anybody? Okay, good. So
you might have an ESV or a CSB or an NIV. And
so you're going to see there quotation marks
around that statement. What does that mean? That
means that the translation committee is not convinced
that that is a Pauline statement. They're convinced
that Paul didn't say it like that statement lays
it out. So it's something of an interpretive
statement that's being made by the translation
committee, which means what's going on is one
of two things. Either that is a false idea that
developed there among the believers in Corinth,
the members of the church basically saying, we
can live as we please. Because we are saved by
grace, we're forgiven of our sins, so our conduct
no longer matters. This is called antinomianism.
Look, I've got my fire insurance. I've trusted
in Christ, so therefore now I can go out and
live as I please because it's all forgiven. Antinomianism,
fancy theological word, just two Greek words,
anti and namas, against the law. And we do see
this attitude in the first century churches in
several different places. People had fallen into
this wrong idea. For example, Paul writes to
the church in Rome. He says, shall we sin because
we're not under law but under grace? May it never
be. We're not to just keep sinning because we've
been given God's grace. Antinomianism. So we
have to get the balance here of law and grace.
We're not justified by keeping the law. We can't
be justified by keeping the law. You know why?
Because we can't keep it. So we're not justified
by law keeping, but being justified by God's
grace through faith does not eliminate our need
to repent of sin and to pursue holiness. So we've
got to get that balance right. So this statement
in verse 12 could be pure antinomianism or, and
I think this is more likely, The Corinthian believers
had taken Paul's correct teaching on freedom
in Christ and twisted it into a self -gratifying
principle. I think this is more likely. It's
like they look around at their culture, and we
understand the culture of Corinth, and they say,
well, it all looks pretty enticing. And you know
what? Paul did say we're free in Christ. So they
begin to twist the meaning of his teaching. And
listen, it's true that you can find statements,
if you isolate passages in the New Testament,
you'll find Pauline's statements that could cause
you to get the wrong impression. If you're looking
to twist his words, and we know people that do
this, right? They want something, they see the
end goal, so they take the scriptures and they
twist it. We just looked at it last week, right?
With homosexuality. They twist it to meet their
agenda. So, for example, in Colossians 2, listen
to the freedom in this passage. Paul says, nobody
is to act as your judge in regard to food or
drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon
or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow
of what's to come. Okay? You have the freedom
to do those things. Nobody should judge you for
it. If you've died with Christ to the elementary
or basic principles of the world, why, as if
you were living in the world, do you submit to
yourself to its decrees such as don't handle,
don't taste, don't touch? Why do you submit to
those things? So again, if you isolate that,
you could go, wow, look, we can handle, touch,
taste everything. And we could twist Paul's meaning
in the freedom of Christ. So it's possible the
Corinthians had just come to the wrong conclusion
about their freedom. Or again, they were looking
for a reason to misunderstand Paul's teaching
and justify their sinful choices. So what Paul's
doing here, I think, is he's bringing the correction.
He says, look, you seem to believe that all things
are permissible, but I'm telling you this, not
all things are profitable. So understand that.
It might be permissible, but is it? Now that
word profitable, some pharaoh in the Greek, can
be translated in a whole number of ways, but
it's all the same idea. Not everything that you
can do or could do is beneficial for you. Not
everything you could do is to your advantage.
Not everything you're allowed to do is good for
you. And we better be self -aware so that we
can answer those questions. I can do it, but
should I do it? That's what Paul's getting at
here. When it comes to things that are good,
profitable, or beneficial, there is a higher
standard for us as Christ followers. It's not,
well, I want to do it, and I can do it, therefore
I will do it. It's much more thoughtful than
that. We have to take into consideration who
we are, who we belong to, and what are my responsibilities
to the people I love before we just dive into
things, right? We have to ask questions. Is this
thing I could do? Is it good for my soul? Is
it good for my body? Does it hinder my walk with
Christ? Does it potentially bring harm to others?
Okay, so look, we're not driven by natural instinct.
We are new creations. We are born again. We're
not animals that just respond instinctively and
say, I can do it, here I go. We stop and we think
biblically. Make sense? So hold those thoughts
for now. Let's look at the second principle,
what I call the law of spiritual freedom. Paul
now, at the second half of verse 12, repeats
the twisted phrase, all things are lawful for
me, and then he brings a second correction. He
says, but I will not be mastered by anything.
I'm not to be mastered, dominated, or enslaved
by anything. Although I'm free to do this thing,
I have to ask the question, if I engage in it,
is it going to take me down a dangerous road
to where I might become enslaved by it? This
is a serious warning, you guys, that we cannot
ignore. If we exercise our freedom in Christ
without wisdom, without caution, it's so easy
for us to start dabbling in stuff that eventually
and subtly and quietly and surprisingly just
grabs hold of us and makes us its slave. Jesus
warned us in Matthew 6, you cannot serve two
masters. So if you profess the Lord is your master,
all other masters have to be set aside. All of
them. In Ephesians 5, Paul gives us this incredibly
sound advice in regard to making choices. He
says, be careful how you walk. In your daily
life. And think about it, as soon as you wake
up, your feet hit the floor, or as soon as your
feet cross the threshold of wherever you live,
stop and think, I need to be careful today about
how I walk. I need to be careful. Notice he doesn't
say, and as you go, avoid the world entirely,
or as you go, say no to everything. Okay, we're
free in Christ. He doesn't say no to, he says
in your freedom. Just be careful how you walk.
Walk with wisdom as a wise man, not an unwise
man. And in other words, and I'm gonna say this
as an older man who often is counseling younger
folks in this church, some of that is just, you
ready? Slow down. Just slow down for a second.
I know y 'all wanna just run off and just don't
be impulsive. Don't just rush into things. Don't
just respond based on your feelings and emotions
and desires. Slow it down. Be careful how you
walk. Think biblically. Be prayerful. Walk in
wisdom. And then Paul goes on. He says, do not
be foolish, but understand what the will of the
Lord is. To do the will of God is always wise.
Always. And always the choice that's going to
bring you true peace and joy and contentment.
We think otherwise in our flesh, right? If I
choose what I want, that's going to bring those
things. No. Choosing God's will is what brings
you peace, joy, and contentment. You've got to
trust the word on that. Now, to choose otherwise
could bring you temporary pleasure. We all understand
this. To choose sin, to choose your own path,
can bring temporary pleasure. But what happens
in the long run? It all has consequences. And
there's a cost to it. Not just to you, but to
others around you when we choose sin. And there's
that long -term threat that it's going to master
you. And so Paul then finishes with this thought
in Ephesians 5. He says, and do not get drunk
with wine, which leads to reckless living, but
be filled with the Spirit. And I know that's
a very specific example, but think bigger. It's
not the wine itself. that is the sin, right?
We know that Jesus and his disciples drank wine.
It's when you allow the wine to do what? To master
you, to control you, to enslave you. And what
does this verse tell you that we should be controlled
by? By the Holy Spirit. When you're filled with
the Spirit and you're walking in the Spirit,
he's going to empower you to resist the things
of the world that want to enslave you. What's
controlling you? When you walk out the door tomorrow
morning, what is controlling you? Who is your
master? Being filled and controlled by the Spirit
of God is the prime example of what it means
to walk carefully in wisdom. Because he's going
to give you the power to do that well. And let
me just say this clearly. Because I know sometimes
we have a reputation in Bible teaching churches
that We're just all about prohibitions. Just
say no to everything and do it with a scowl on
your face. Right? That's sort of our reputation.
But that is not the picture the Bible gives us.
Not only can you enjoy the good gifts that God
gives us, you should enjoy them because they're
from his hand. James speaks of good things and
perfect things that come down to us from the
Father. We should receive those with gratitude
and enjoy them. Ignore the modern -day Pharisees
who try to put you back under a set of moral
guidelines that are really their preferences
but not biblical commands. Those folks are common,
aren't they? They're like, well, this is our
conviction. Now we're going to lay it on you.
No, we're looking at Scripture. What does Scripture
say about prohibitions? There are prohibitions,
right? But we've got to be careful to discern
the difference between a preference and a biblical
command. Only false teachers seek to prohibit
Christians from freely enjoying God's good gifts.
Paul talks about these very people. They were
present back in the first century. 1 Timothy
4 says the Spirit expressly says that in later
times, some will depart from the faith by devoting
themselves, get this now, to deceitful spirits
and teachings of demons. Through the insincerity
of liars whose consciences are seared, who do
what? Forbid marriage. and require abstinence
from foods that God created to be received with
thanksgiving by those who believe and know the
truth. Go back again to the verse I quoted earlier
from Colossians 2. Nobody's to act as your judge
in regard to food or drink or in respect to a
festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things
which are a mere shadow of what's to come. If
you have died with Christ to the elementary principles
of this world, why do you do this? As if you
were living in the world, why do you submit yourself
to these fleshly decrees that tell you you're
not allowed to handle that? You're not allowed
to touch that or taste that. And it's interesting,
two verses later, Paul gives us the diagnosis
of this thing. He says, look, he says, these
are matters which have to be sure the appearance
of wisdom. Boy, it looks like you're being so
godly when you say no to everything. It's the
appearance of wisdom in self -made religion.
I've created this list of rules based on my preferences.
You should live by it. It's self -made religion
and self -abasement and severe treatment of the
body. But look at this. They're of no value against
fleshly indulgences. In other words, that brand
of asceticism, right? This idea that we just
say no to everything. It's sort of a misplaced
desire. I have to punish myself. punish myself,
and in doing so, thinking that I'm pleasing God
and I'm impressing other people. But what does
he say? The opposite of this is true. When you
do that, you fail to receive and thank God for
his good gifts. And in the process, all you've
really done is alter your external behavior.
You haven't changed the inner man. It's just
external works. Be careful with asceticism. There's
a place for asceticism in the Christian life
where we say no to things that might harm us,
but be careful that we don't do it for this reason,
right? These moral guidelines that we think impress
God, think please God, but they're just external
things and they don't change the inner man. So
the lesson here is enjoy your freedom in Christ,
enjoy his good gifts. But also heed the warnings,
right? Enjoy these things, but be warned. Things
can happen. Be careful how you walk with your
freedom. Be wise about it. Understand what the
will of the Lord is. Don't engage in things that
you know are going to grab hold of you and make
you a slave. Christ freed you from slavery to
sin, not so that you could go over and become
a slave of something new. Right? Okay. So can
we get really practical now? Ooh, grip your seats.
What are some areas of normal everyday life in
21st century America where we have to apply this?
Where we might engage in something that's permissible
according to our freedom in Christ, but has the
potential to either be unprofitable or enslave
us. What are some things? This week I read a
really great analogy. I forgot who wrote this,
but a really great analogy would be about this
principle. Think about a mighty river in your
mind. Say, I don't know, the Mississippi River,
okay? Is the Mississippi River a good thing?
Yeah, it's a powerful and useful tool. It's a
source of enjoyment as long as it stays within
its banks. Because when it floods, when it goes
outside of its natural boundaries, What happens?
All kinds of chaos and damage. It's a great example.
That's true of our freedom in Christ. Wise and
careful choices, right? They lead us into the
fruit of the Spirit. But choices that go outside
the boundaries that God has laid out for us,
that's where we cause damage, both to ourselves
and to those around us. So just think about that
as we walk through these things. So let's talk
about a few things. How about entertainment?
How many choices of entertainment do we have
today? All right, I'm going to do the old guy
thing. When I was a kid, we had like, I don't
know, six television stations. Dink, dink, dink,
right? That's it. That's it. So many choices
today. And some of it's great, right? Some of
it is wonderful. We can thank God for it. But
there's a lot of it that can lead us down a really
depraved path if we're not walking wisely into
immorality, right? Into just being so overwhelmed
with choices that we can't even focus anymore.
Just drawing us in, enslaving us. So be careful
with your entertainment choices, right? Permissible,
but could be harmful. Amen? Endless social media
scrolling, doom scrolling, or just your phone.
Tanya and I were talking on the way into church
this morning. Try this experiment. Go to a place
where you have to sit and wait for just a short
period of time. Doctor's office, a Starbucks,
you're waiting for your drink. Look around the
room and see if anybody's not on their phone.
And then keep it in your pocket. Just to stretch
yourself. Don't look at it. Again, it's permissible,
but be wise, right? Everybody's looking at their
phone. Have you ever seen the old videos of people
in the 1980s? And nobody had phones? See how
happy people are? You see how they're talking
to each other? They're laughing. It was a great
time. Social media scrolling, how much of it
is truly beneficial? It can make you laugh, sure.
I mean, right? The memes and all that, I get
it. It can give you a respite from the cares
of the world. But man, how many times have we
looked up and said, man, 30 minutes just went
by. And I've wasted so much time. Clearly, social
media can fuel all kinds of things. Our lust,
it can make us envious. It certainly dulls our
spiritual focus. So be careful with that little
computer in your hand. Drinking. In excess or
drinking too often. Now, is alcohol prohibited
in scripture? No, it's permissible. It's permissible.
But is it controlling you? Do you have to have
it? I can't tell you how many times I've heard
people go, well, my work's really stressful.
I get home and that glass of wine takes the edge
off of it. Be careful. Be really careful. It
can harm our health. It can weaken our self -control.
Being drunk, drinking too much leads to all kinds
of terrible outcomes, and it often hurts the
people around us. Be careful. By the way, I'm
not going to detail on any of these things. These
could all be a sermon unto themselves. I'm going
to keep moving quickly. How about this? Becoming
overcommitted to hobbies. Our hobbies are, for
the most part, permissible, right? Most are not
impure in and of themselves, but our hobbies
have the potential to dominate our schedules.
right? They can throw off our right priorities.
They can become obsessive. We can end up taking
precious time away from family and friends and
even life in the church. Guard your hobbies carefully.
Luxury spending, racking up debt. Yeah, but I
saw this in a magazine. I saw it on my phone.
I just, I knew I had to have it. I know I really
can't afford it. It's not really in my budget,
but man, it was discounted. I'll never get this
price again, right? And so we stretch and we
rack up debt, right? It has the potential to
promote greed in us and to cause anxiety in us.
You know, you're like, oh man, I have this, but
I don't have that. And pretty soon it's controlling
our thinking. And it can reduce our generosity.
We're like, ah, I spent so much money over here.
Now I can't be generous. Be careful. Immersing
ourselves in political news and commentary. Is
it permissible? Of course. Is it a good thing
to be informed? Yes. Is it good to be able to,
look, I need to know how to respond to the world
around me. That's all good. But can it be obsessive?
Yes, it can. Yes, it can. Just go on Twitter.
No, don't go on Twitter someday. It can become
an obsession. Politics, pretty soon everything,
everything in life gets funneled through the
lens of politics. And it just takes over our
lives. It leads to anxiety. It leads to worry.
It creates anger in us. Be really careful with
politics. Contentious online engagement. Talk
about a waste of time. I know we'd like to change
people's minds about things. I know we'd like
to win hearts. The goal can be noble. It's not
going to happen online, in case you hadn't noticed.
Look at a comment section. It's not going to
happen. It is a waste of your time. Precious
time, right? That you could be doing much more
productive things. Loving your family. Serving
somebody in the body of Christ. This stuff is
just a waste. I wish it weren't true, but it's
true. It's unproductive. Next one. Just taking
on extra work or extra projects. And I get it.
Life in Santa Clarita is expensive. And we're
all looking for ways to try to bring in additional
income. Be careful with your time. Be careful
that you don't bite off more than you should
chew. Taking on more has the potential to enslave
you to income generation. And again, to take
away precious time. You're so now having to focus
on this new project or thing you took on that
you begin to neglect other things. It might be
what you need to do to survive. Just be careful.
Walk wisely with such things. Oh boy, shopping.
Shopping and spending. This is a tough balance
to find, right? Picking up a deal can be good
for the family. It can be fun, it can be challenging,
but is it wise? Is that purchase necessary? Being
able to discern those two things, what's necessary
and what I want is an important part of decision
-making in the Christian life. We can find ourselves
coveting everything that we see, growing more
greedy, putting ourselves into unnecessary debt
because I just had to have that. Be careful with
your shopping. Only three more. And this is just
a partial list. I could do this. Yeah, we could
do this all day. Working out. Permissible? Yeah,
good. Yeah, steward your body. We're going to
look at that more next week. Steward your body.
Take care of this gift that God has given you
in your physical body. But it obviously has the
potential to feed an obsession about how we look.
Vanity, right? How we look. Everything now is
funneled through that lens. Am I losing weight?
You know, am I losing hair, right? I mean, there's
a, yeah, this is real, right? Be careful, right?
And you know what? It can lead to two very opposite
results. Either as I'm working out and I'm feeling
really good about myself, pride and arrogance,
and again, vanity, or my diet's not working and
now I'm into self -loathing. And I'm upset at
myself because I don't look as good as everybody
promised I would look once I did this thing.
It's complex, isn't it? Be careful. Be wise.
Process well. Gaming. Gaming. Man, I'm glad I
didn't grow up in the gaming generation. I kind
of did. It was Pac -Man. Like, you know, it was
Galaga. Tom, yeah, you get it. And look, I get
it. We need rest in life. We need relaxation
at times. Gaming can be a good outlet. What are
the boundaries? What are the boundaries? It has
the potential to cause you to put off your responsibilities,
get engaged in this thing. And man, I forget
everything because I'm so immersed in this little
world on the screen. My responsibilities go out
the window. I waste time. I even destroy relationships
out of neglect because I'm so focused on this
game. Be careful. Last one. This one hits home.
Sports loyalties. Yeah. I could tell you stories.
When Tanya and I first got married, I'm a UCLA
grad. Her family were USC people. It was a recipe
for disaster. We had to work out an agreement.
It did not help my spirit. Let's put it that
way. Okay, so it's okay to have a team. It's
okay to root for them and want them to win, but
it can become an obsession. Trust me. It can
get you worked up. It can get you angry. There
were Saturdays when UCLA would lose in a football
game. I became a different person. Seriously.
And this stuff can really affect you if you're
not careful. Be wise. Be careful. That's just
a partial list, right? Hopefully you see the
pattern. Enjoy good things, permissible things
from the Lord, but be wise and careful. Not all
things that you are free to do are going to end
up being profitable. So we grow in self -awareness
as we process in prayer with the Spirit of God.
Show me more of my heart. Help me to understand
why I react to things the way I do. Help me to
establish good boundaries so that I don't go
outside of what's permissible and end up being...
mastered by something. Okay, we have more to
look at. Look at verse 13. Look at verse 13.
Again, if you have an ESV or a CSB or an NIV,
again, you're gonna see quotation marks around
the first. Again, the translators are telling
you that what we're about to read had become
a common slogan among the church members in Corinth,
and this is likely what it would have looked
like. Look at the screen for a second. It's likely
that this is the way the Corinthian church members
were processing the bodily functions and the
bodily desires that they had. Food is for the
stomach, and the stomach is for food, and likewise,
sex is for the body. and the body is for sex.
Okay? That's what they were thinking. So here
comes Paul again. I need another correction.
First of all, he addresses the food stomach part,
and this isn't wrong. Food is for the stomach,
and God designed your stomach to process the
food that you eat. But then Paul says in the
second phrase, look at this now, but God's gonna
do away with both of them. That's important.
Food. Remember, it's not food that defiles a
man. Under the new covenant, all foods have been
declared clean, but still that doesn't mean that
we should just eat anything that we want or any
amount that we want. Even food can become a stumbling
block, right? Even with food, we should ask the
questions, is this good for me? Is this amount
of food good for me? Could this food or the amount
of it become an issue of slavery in my life?
That's important. But Paul's greater point, if
you look at that statement, is the analogy that
the Corinthians were drawing between food and
sex is not a valid one. It's what we call a category
error that they're making with that statement.
Food belongs to a category of necessary functions
that purely sustain life. If we don't eat, we're
not going to live very long. So eating is part
of an ordinary cycle of life. It is a morally
neutral response. to physical hunger, morally
neutral. That is not the same category as sex,
which we'll get to in just a second. But understand,
Paul's saying, you guys are drawing this analogy.
It's invalid. It's not the same thing. And here
in verse 13, Paul then adds this distinction.
He says, by the way, understand food and your
stomach, they're temporary anyway. There's something
different about sex. But the food is going to
go away. Food and the stomach are part of the
present order that's going to pass away. In the
short term, it's going to pass away because we
die. In the long term, it'll forever pass away
once the eternal state is ushered in. It has
no function in eternity. The necessity of eating,
the digestive processes of the stomach, all of
that is going away. God will do away with it.
But that's not true about your body and sex.
So let's look at verse 13 and let's figure out
how this works. So let me see if I can summarize
this again. So Paul writes, food is for the stomach
and the stomach is for food, but the body is
not for porneia, for immorality. The body is
for the Lord and the Lord is for the body, he
says. He's making the distinction between food
and your body. And the Corinthians would say,
look, I don't understand this, Paul. My body
wants food, so I eat. My body wants sex, so I
go to a prostitute. What's the problem? That's
literally the way they thought in Corinth. And
again, they lived in a culture that just promoted
that. It's a common way of life. And you can
almost picture them justifying, hey, look, Paul,
we live in this city and it's really hard. When
I look out and see all this stuff, it's hard
to resist. And by the way, God made me a sexual
being, so I'm just meeting that physical need.
It's like, I can blame God. He made me this way,
so I just get to go out and meet the physical
need. And then tacking on this perspective, well,
look, my body's going to wear out at some point,
right? Turn to dust. So at the end of the day,
what difference does it make what I do with my
body? After all, you ready for this? It's just
sex. How many times have we heard that in our
culture? That's all it is. It's biology. It's
just sex. And if we're interpreting this context
right, by the way, this helps us to understand.
Remember back in chapter five when Paul said,
hey, hey, you've got a guy in your church family
who is engaged in a sexual relationship with
his mother -in -law and you haven't done anything
about it. Well, here's why. What's the big deal?
Just biology. just meeting physical needs, or
we're going to find out when we get to chapter
11, you've got members of the church showing
up to communion drunk. You're like, how does
that happen? Well, to them, what you do in the
body just doesn't matter that much. It just doesn't
matter. It's just sex. It's just alcohol. They
don't think of the body as being all that important.
You're hungry, you eat. Sexual craving comes
upon you, you go to a prostitute. You're struggling
in life with something. You just hit the bottle
and go to communion. I mean, that shocks our
senses, doesn't it? But if you don't understand
the importance of the body or the gift of the
body that God has given to you, if you don't
steward your body, don't see that it matters,
you might end up in antinomian. Just reacting
naturally and biologically. So the reason why
the Corinthian slogan comparing food to sex is
so off base is the body doesn't seem to have
more relevance to this group of people. But that's
not how God sees it. The sexual capacity of our
bodies transcends biology. Let me say that again.
The sexual capacity that God has given us in
our bodies transcends biology. in the way God
sees things, is not just a physical action. It's
far more than that. In God's good design, sex
between a man and a woman creates a spiritual
union. Right? A spiritual union. The Bible calls
it one fleshness. That's why it's precious. That's
why we put up these sharp guardrails and say,
only within covenant marriage. Because when you
sleep with somebody, you're creating a spiritual
union. Whether you know it or not, you're becoming
one flesh. So it's never just sex from God's
perspective. The world thinks that, but we don't.
Our bodies weren't given to us just so that we
could serve ourselves, so that we could just
get our needs met, to satisfy our personal desires
in an indiscriminate way. The Corinthians came
at it from this worldly perspective. Well, it's
my body. How many times have we heard that? It's
my body. I can do what I want. It's my body.
But that is not true for the believer, is it?
Is your body just your own? If you read on, look
at 1 Corinthians 6 in verse 15 to 17. Paul says,
no, it's not just your body. Do you not know?
Do you not know? Haven't you heard this? Don't
you know this is, Basic Christian teaching that
your bodies are what? Members of Christ. Your
bodies are members of Christ. It's not just your
body. If you're in union with Christ, then your
body belongs to him. Paul goes on, he says, so
then should I take the members of Christ and
make them members of a prostitute? Are you kidding?
May it never be. He says, don't you know that
the one who joins himself to a prostitute is
one body with her? Because the two become one
flesh. Can you imagine sitting, imagine sitting
next to Jesus. He's sitting there next to you
on the couch and you say, hey Lord, I'm gonna
go off now and engage in adultery or pornography
or just plain fornication and I want you to come
with me. Can you imagine? May it never be. Your
bodies are not meant for sexual immorality, Paul
says. They're meant to serve God and bring him
glory. Your sexual capacities were given to you
with a holy function in mind. That's God's design.
And when we wield those capacities correctly,
as God intends, within the boundary of covenant
marriage, it is beautiful, right? It is beautiful
and it is holy. And yes, it's designed for our
pleasure and enjoyment within the boundaries
of the raging river, right? This is one of Paul's
points here in verse 13. Your body is one of
God's most precious gifts to you. I know we all
like, I'm not sure I feel about my body right
now, right? We all have our little hangups. It
is a precious gift to you. You've been fearfully
and wonderfully made, right? You've been designed
by the great artist of creation. You've been
knit together in your mother's womb. And so Paul
says the Lord is for your body. He's pro -body.
He thinks it's really important. And therefore
we ought to steward it well because it's precious
to him. He fashioned it uniquely for you. He's
counted the number of hairs on your head. Your
body is valuable and important to him. The fact
that God the Son took on a human body tells us
that the body matters, right? God the Son took
on a human body. He still has it forevermore.
So the body matters. But look at what Paul says
in verse 14. He references the resurrection.
The greatest proof of all that the body matters
to God and should matter to us is that someday
I'm going to resurrect your body. Your body.
It's not a temporal commodity. Ultimately, these
bodies are not destined just to rot in a grave
somewhere. If you're found in Christ, your body
is someday going to be reconstituted by God and
raised to life. Then it's going to be changed
and glorified, sinless, perfected. It's going
to be transformed into a condition fit for heaven,
but it's still your body. It's still you. So
it matters. And in the meantime, as we await
that glorification, today we realize that God
has given you your unique body as an instrument
of worship. Try to get your mind wrapped around
that. Your body is an instrument of worship.
That's what he means in verse 13 when he says,
your body is for the Lord. It's given to you
for worship. That means we have to be intentional
about devoting our bodies to him, presenting
them to him as what? A sacrifice. This is really
high level stuff, right? And man, it doesn't
fit with what the culture says at all. So understand
these things. It's important. So in order to
be intentional about devoting our bodies to him,
we have to do both of these things. Heed the
warnings in scripture and take practical steps
to guard our bodies. To guard them in multiple
ways. Listen, do not underestimate how dominating
and controlling sexual sin can be. If you underestimate
it, you are signing up to be enslaved. Do you
know how many people today, men and women, by
the way, who are enslaved to sexual sin, pornography
in particular? And beware, it starts very subtly
and slowly. And then it progresses really quickly,
right? You flirt with it, you play around the
edges, and pretty soon your mind gives you permission
to dive all the way in, and boom, you're captured.
Guard your heart. How accurate is James in the
first century? He says this, each person is tempted
when he's drawn away and enticed by his own lust,
by his own desires. Then after lust is conceived,
it gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully
grown, it gives birth to death. Now, why death?
Listen, friends, the persistent engagement in
sexual sin over time will sear your heart. It
will harden your conscience to the point where
you will continue to engage in it, yet no longer
feel the conviction over it. You'll no longer
feel a conviction over something that has actually
mastered you. as its slave. You just harden yourself
against it. Soon your vigilance falls away, your
self -control disappears, and you end up justifying
your sin just like the Corinthians, who we laugh
at and mock, right? But we can become that exact
same thing. If you think you're immune to this,
if you think you're strong enough, are you stronger
than Samson? Samson was physically strong, but
he was not in control of his mind and his body.
He was a slave to his desires, and it came with
a heavy cost. David could tell you a few things
about this, couldn't he? How he failed to discipline
his eyes and his mind and his body and his heart.
And because of his sin, he and his family suffered
so greatly. In Proverbs 7, we come across maybe
the most blunt language about the enticing power
of sexual sin. You have this picture of a naive
young man who wanders through the streets, wanders
near the house of the adulteress. He's just flirting
on the edges. Oh, I'm just walking through the
street. What's gonna happen? Right? And Solomon,
of all people, who knew something about this
subject matter. writes this about the end of
things. He writes this. He follows her, the adulteress,
because she appears to him and comes to him.
He follows her like an ox going to the slaughter.
Like a deer bounding towards a trap, he does
not know it will cost him his life. Warning,
warning. And the chapter ends with this. Here's
the big warning. Now, my sons, listen to me and
pay attention to my words. Do not let your heart
turn aside to her ways, sexual sin. Do not stray
onto her paths, for she has brought many down
to death. Her victims are countless. Her house
is the road to the grave, Sheol, descending to
the chambers of death. Oh, this isn't a big deal.
Look at the language here. So we have to understand
how to control our passions, how to become masters
over our flesh rather than letting our flesh
master us. We're gonna pick up on this next week
for sure. Paul will say in 1 Corinthians 9, I
discipline my body. I make it my slave, not the
other way around. I discipline my body and make
my body my slave. We have to steward our bodies
in ways. that can then be used to glorify God.
We present them to him as living and holy sacrifices.
Consider our call to worship passage from earlier
in the service, from 1 Thessalonians 4. Look
at this. This is the will of God, friends. Your
sanctification, your growing in maturity, your
moving towards control of your body. Your sanctification,
that you abstain from sexual immorality, that
each one of you know how to control his own body
in holiness and honor, not in the passion of
lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. This
will be a big part of next Sunday's message.
How do we do this well? How many of you guys
know who John Owen is? Okay, great Puritan thinker.
He's written some of the best stuff on this subject
of mortifying sin, putting sin to death. Here's
what he writes in one of his most famous statements.
Put to death your sin. Make it your daily work.
Your daily work. Be always at it while you live.
Cease not one day from this work, he says. And
then comes his famous statement. Be killing sin
or it will be killing you. Nothing could be more
true. So this is heavy stuff, isn't it? It really
is. So I'm going to close with good news. As
we saw last Sunday, such were some of you, but
no longer. Sexual sin is not unforgivable. Sexual
sin is not unforgivable. God has the power to
rescue us out of a life of fornication, a life
of adultery, a life of homosexuality, a life
of slavery to things like pornography. But we
have to be intentional about cooperating with
the work of the Spirit in our inner man. That
means we always have to be in the battle. That's
my number one question. Especially young guys,
they'll come to me and go, man, I have this pornography
problem. My first question is, are you in the
battle? Have you given up? Are you in the battle?
You've got to be in the battle. Maybe to your
very last breath, but you've got to be in the
battle. You've got to persevere to the end. walking
by the Spirit and abiding with your Savior. And
he promises to give you the power to overcome
and to get the victory. And I can't tell you
how many times I've fallen myself. I've given
in to sin and I've come back so many times to
1 John 1, 9. Memorize it, put it on your mirror,
whatever you have to do. John says, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive
us our sins. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
What we can't do is hide from it, right? And
not take it to the Lord because we have the promise.
And if you believe that promise, apply it in
your life. Don't stop trusting in the promise
of cleansing from all unrighteousness. Don't
let the enemy tell you that that sin is unforgivable.
Keep coming back to your Savior. God is for you.
God is for your body. Take him up on it. Amen?
Let's bow our heads. Lord, thank you for your
presence here today. Thank you for just the truth
that you know all of our hearts, our passions,
our desires, our sins, our victories, and that
we can come and we can be honest before you and
lay these things on your throne. What a blessing
it is that we don't have to hide from you. And
so I pray that in the short time that we've had
together today, that this won't be the end of
the matter, but you will continue to draw us
to yourself all throughout this next week as
we bring more of our sin before you, as we bring
more of our requests before you, as we seek to
be in the battle over this issue. Father, I'm
so grateful that you know exactly how to minister
to each one of us. Help us to cooperate with
the work your spirit wants to do in us and bring
us back to your word over and over again. Bring
us back to these promises that you've given us
and help us to trust them more and more. Thank
you for our time together this morning. May we
now respond well in our singing that your name
would be lifted up. In Christ's name we pray,
amen.