I invite you to turn with me tonight to 1 Corinthians 6, as we read together verses 9-20. We consider this portion in connection with Lord's Day 41. We know that Paul had many things about which to admonish the Corinthian believers to bring to their attention, not the least of which was sexual immorality. We consider this tonight as we make our way through the Catechism, and especially God's Ten Commandments, the Seventh Commandment, you shall not commit adultery. Tonight we'll read Scripture first, and then we will give expression to Lord's Day 41. Beginning at verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 6, hear now the Word of God. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. By His power, God raised the Lord from the dead and He will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, the two will become one flesh. But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. flee from sexual immorality all other sins a man commits are outside his body but he who sins sexually sins against his own body do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have received from God you are not your own you were bought at a price therefore honor God with your body may God add his blessing to the reading preaching and hearing of His Word tonight. I would ask that you turn to page 54 in the back of the Psalter, hymnal, Lord's Day 41. Two questions and answers with this Lord's Day. We will give expression together using the answers. Question 108. What is God's will for us in the Seventh Commandment? God condemns all unchastity. We should therefore thoroughly detest it and married or single, live decent and chaste lives. Does God in this commandment forbid only such scandalous sins as adultery? We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul, and God wants both to be kept clean and holy. This is why He forbids everything which incites unchastity, whether it be actions, looks, Talk, thoughts, or desires. Well, beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we hear this seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery, and we know what it means, especially as it is clearly explained in the catechism. And then taking these things and thinking about this life, thinking about the society in which we live, it becomes clear to us, I trust, that everything that God forbids in this commandment, is promoted in the society in which we live. As we have said before on occasion, we as God's people, sadly, are not shocked anymore. We are not shocked about a variety of things, but especially, we are not shocked anymore by the violation of this commandment. Our sensitivities have been worn down. The violation of this commandment, you see, is promoted everywhere. Wherever you and I look, it seems, it is before our eyes on TV, in the magazines, on billboards. You can find it on the Internet. Whether it be the promoting of the human body through Victoria's Secret commercials or the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition or simply on the beach. Or whether it be exalting homosexuality and living together outside of marriage. Whatever it might be, We are not shocked anymore. Sad, but true. And you know, the Apostle Paul wouldn't be shocked either by what he would see in our day. Yes, it's more accessible. It's more blatant, I suspect. But it's not new. But what is shocking to the world, what is shocking to the world is purity before marriage. Faithfulness in marriage. Our disagreement with and offense at homosexuality and gay marriage and living together outside of marriage. All of those things are shocking to the world. How in the world can you take those positions the world would say? It's shocking to them because after all, it's my body, it's my life to do with what I want. To fill it with holes through piercing or to cover it with pictures and designs through tattooing or whatever I desire for self-gratification. It's up to me. You see, our positions are shocking to the world. And the late Edmund Clowney somewhat addresses that when he talks about the contrast. He wrote in his book on the Ten Commandments, perhaps in no other area, and I believe he's right, perhaps in no other area is the contrast of Christian living more plainly seen than in the unusual purity that a Christian keeps in his or her sexual life remaining a virgin before marriage and remaining faithful to one wife or one husband until death parts that union. Because of what shocks the world and sadly what doesn't shock us anymore, I believe is correct. That contrast is no more clearly seen than in these things. Now, we know that as Jesus taught, adultery is about much more than simply the physical act, but it's about what's in the heart. It's about desires not kept in check. It's about, as the Catechism says, everything that incites. And that word incites, boys and girls, has the idea of moving toward action. Everything that incites unchastity. And I suspect the truth is we all struggle, or at least have struggled, with adultery. If we're honest. In some way, shape, or form. Maybe subtly, maybe ignorantly, maybe publicly, maybe privately. When it comes to murder, as we considered last week, we might be willing to admit murder from the heart. Yes, I must confess, I have hated someone. I have been angry with someone. But we don't like to admit the sin of adultery. At the very least, it's embarrassing. But beloved, even as Satan is busy and active through this wicked world trying to draw our attention away from physical purity, and because the temptation for adultery is so pervasive and so invasive, we too, as God's people, we need to be brought back to reality. We need to be reminded of God's call through the seventh commandment to be glorifying God in our body. As Paul says in verse 20, honoring God with your body. Peter in 1 Peter 3 verse 15 says, But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. In your hearts. But we know by implication that that extends to the body. Also in your body set apart Christ as Lord. because as someone has rightly said, the physical body is man's means of concrete service for God. This shell which we call the body, that which receives the animating life of the Holy Spirit, is that means by which we live. That instrument through which we are called to live and to live for God, to glorify God with or in our body, first of all, because it belongs to Him. That's what Paul is teaching the Corinthian believers here. The believers in Corinth lived in the middle of a culture as well as many other cities of that day. They lived in the culture of cultic prostitution. It is believed that the cultic temple, the temple to the heathen god in Corinth housed around a thousand temple prostitutes. And union, in that false religious way of thinking, union with a temple prostitute met communion with false gods. It was part of their worship. Now, of course, the believers in Corinth had been delivered from worship the false gods. They no longer believed what they used to believe. They believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, but apparently there were some who were treating getting together with a temple prostitute under the umbrella of Christian liberty. like food offered to idols. Well, I don't really believe, you see, that it means communion with the false god, and therefore, participating in these things really can't be so bad. That's acceptable, right? It's part of Christian liberty. Paul says, absolutely not. Food is meant for the body. The body is meant to take in food, and therefore, that food which is offered to idols, as he makes clear in another place, because idols are idols of gods that don't really exist, that food does not harm the believer's body. But the body and the use of it is a different story. To engage in adulterous practices violates the structure that God established for the body from the very beginning. That structure of marriage with one spouse of the opposite sex which is to all be for the glory of God. Here, Paul reminds the Corinthian believers that our bodies belong to God because our bodies were purchased by Jesus Christ. Indeed, our bodies belong to God by virtue of creation. He made us. But Paul reminds the Corinthian believers of their redemption that we were also reminded of beautifully this morning. That which we have in Christ Jesus and that freedom from slavery to sin even through our bodies. Our body was purchased by Christ through His crucifixion. Paul says they are members of Christ. They are a part of Him. He says they are one with Him in spirit through faith and believers in joy. The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. They are members of Christ, one with Him in spirit. And the reason, Paul says, is you were bought at a price. Our Lord made the ultimate purchase. The idea of bought there is talking about the slave market where slaves were sold and purchased. And Paul tells us what that means for us in Romans 6. We were redeemed, purchased from slavery to sin and are now servants of righteousness. Purchased by Christ through His crucifixion at a premium. That word price really is an interesting word. Because it does not mean that Jesus got His people for nothing. Indeed, He paid a price. But it also does not mean that He even got the best deal possible. That He bargained. that he wheeled and dealed to get the price down. But the very opposite. The word price means he paid a premium. It was a dear, a costly rate. As Peter says, you were purchased not with gold or silver. Boys and girls, the most precious metals that are still known to man, that gold, but not with that, Peter says, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, which is more valuable than all the gold and silver and precious jewels combined in the world. It is precious and costly. His life, His very perfection was needed and it was given to purchase our pardon, resulting in our confession that my only comfort is that I am not my own, but I belong body and soul in life and in death unto my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. I am not my own. I belong to Him. As the Lord says in Isaiah chapter 43, I have redeemed you. You are mine. No more comforting words are there than to hear our God say to us as His people, You are mine. Purchased by Christ. And proof of His ownership of my soul and my body is that it is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, Paul says. In verse 19, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. And again, there are two words for temple that are used, and he does not use the word for temple here that has to do with the outer court. But he uses the word for temple referring to the inner sanctuary, the holy place where God dwelt among his people, where nothing that could defile was to enter in. In verse 11 he says, But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Now, Paul uses the word sanctified there as being set apart as holy to the Lord. We are set apart for Him and the Holy Spirit. We are His possession and He is the owner-occupant. He's not the owner who rents us out and gives us out to do with what we want. He is the owner-occupant. And the Holy Spirit cannot and will not dwell in that which is profane. And therefore, one's body cannot serve two purposes or two masters. It cannot serve a prostitute, whether in thought or in action, and God at the same time. It's impossible. It belongs to Jesus Christ who purchased us, who lives in us by His Spirit, and who promises that that body will also be raised for eternity. Even as we confess in the Apostles' Creed, Paul says in verse 14, but by His power God raised the Lord from the dead and He will raise us also. Because Jesus Christ redeemed His people, body and soul, that body which houses our soul, that body through which we express our life, that body one day, as Paul says in Philippians 3, will be transformed so that they, our bodies, will be like His glorious body. That's God's plan. That's what Jesus has secured for you and me and therefore, we are not to do with what we want. It belongs to Him. We are to love and care for our body as God does and to use it for adultery in any way, shape, or form is a demonstration of hatred and disrespect for our bodies as well as for the Lord to whom our bodies belong. Dear people of God, we ought need no other motivation whatsoever for obedience to the seventh commandment than this. Because our body belongs to Him through redemption, purchased by Him, dwelt in by Him, and will be raised by Him. And that glorious truth alone ought to secure our grateful obedience and it ought to restrain us from treating it as our own and foolishly giving it away. It is ours, in a sense, on loan, we might say, to glorify God with it in the second place by using it for Him. Using it as He intended, which includes using it as He intended with regard to the gift of sexual intimacy. There is the attitude among so many among our society that sexual intimacy is like food and drink and therefore it is a basic human need that may be fulfilled in whatever manner we like, in whatever way is available to you and me. But that simply is not true. Sexuality and sexual intimacy is a basic human need created by God. It is a gift of God given to His people to be used as He has ordained it for His glory. in marriage between one man and one woman. Marriage, in that way, was instituted by God in the beginning. And it is the context in which the husband and the wife might fulfill their desires for one another and by God's grace produce children. Produce godly seed by whom God built His church. But we know it's all been distorted by sin. this good gift has been tarnished. It's been corrupted by sin. And this need with which God had created in man has become an evil, selfish desire. And the sad truth is that by nature, by our sinful nature, our direction is the adulterous way. That is our desire in sin. This corruption results in adultery. It results in the corruption of sexual purity that pleases God and instead is condemned, or as the older version of the catechism says, is cursed by God. And that points to the danger of idolatry. We are called to glorify God with our body by using it for Him, on the one hand, understanding the danger of idolatry. Using it for Him because of the danger of idolatry. And that danger is seen in its definition. The catechism speaks of unchastity, which very simply is a lack of purity. and that's the heart of adultery unchastity means being guilty of unlawful sexual intimacy again adultery either in the narrow sense of unfaithfulness to one's spouse or in the broader sense of all that's included from the heart of Jesus and the catechism makes clear now boys and girls to adulterate something means to mix what does not belong together and we might say what does not yet belong together because it belongs together in the marriage relationship, but not before. But to adulterate means to mix what does not yet belong together. And therefore, unadulterated means that there are no impurities mixed in. Like unadulterated water means it's pure water. There are no chemicals mixed in with it. And with regard to the Seventh Commandment, the idea there then, we can think of it this way, It has to do with mixing a third party into a union reserved for man and wife. It means mixing an unnatural partner into what is reserved for male and female. It means mixing into relationships that sexual intimacy that is reserved only for the marriage state. It means mixing filthy thoughts and ideas and desires into hearts and minds that are called to desire righteousness. It is to take God's good gift of the body and physical attraction and mix in one's heart and in one's thoughts and mind through the eyes to mix the violation and the abuse of the body and physical attraction through many, many means to distort them, even as our society teaches, the sky is the limit. If it feels right, do it because it must be right. How can it be wrong if it feels so right? The danger of adultery is seen in its definition, but it's also recognized in its practice and in that very mixing. Adultery is a heathen activity. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4, beginning in verse 3, It is God's will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God. It's a heathen activity. And in Ephesians 5, Paul teaches that it is nothing less than filthiness. The practice of adultery violates the glory of God. which was His intention for you and me. It attacks our relationship with Christ, that relationship of faith and love. It violates that dwelling which is set aside for the Holy Spirit. It denies the redeeming work of Christ on the cross. He redeemed our bodies. Our bodies belong to Him. It denies that and it then rejects the renewing work of the Holy Spirit who indeed enables and motivates God's people to be obedient to the law of God. But the practice of idolatry rejects that renewing work of the Holy Spirit. Rejects those new desires. That practice destroys that body which Christ died to save and has promised to raise and glorify. It is sin, as Paul says, against one's own body. Verse 18, flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. That may be hard to understand. We might think about what about drunkenness or drugs or suicide or other things that harm the body. And Paul is not saying those are not sin in some way. But you see, sexual sin is a peculiar sin against the body. It rots the body. It fills the mind with rottenness. And it also is sin against the object of adultery. The adulterer sees the object of adultery not as an image bearer of God. not at that moment, but sees the object as the object of lust and self-fulfillment. You see, no other sin engages the body and distorts, like sexual sin, no other sin engages the body and distorts our faculties of reason and desire and conscience and emotions and simply one's life spirit which is expressed in and through the body. and drives one further into sinful desires. It mixes one's body, which belongs to the Lord, with sin. It belongs to Him. It is to take it from Him and to give it to another. Adultery exposes one so that that one, the adulterer, never ever remains only and exclusively the possession of Christ or of their God-approved spouse. it robs one's spouse. Not only our spouse here in this life, but our bridegroom in glory. It robs Jesus Christ. It is adultery against Him as well. And the danger of adultery then is also revealed in its punishment. Paul makes clear, along with idolaters and male prostitutes and homosexual offenders and thieves and drunkards and all the others, that adulterers, as well he says in Ephesians 5, will not inherit the kingdom of God. Powerful words. Scary words. And we need to understand that Paul is talking there about unbridled, unrepentant sin. Unbridled, unrepentant adultery and homosexuality and idolatry. But you know, these very words, to say that they will not inherit the kingdom of God, this is anathema to the world. How could you say this, the world says? I mean, those people are just living the way that God made them. They're living the way they believe that they ought to be. But see, that points to the danger of these sins. It blinds. It deceives. So that one is presumptuous and careless in life, thinking that they can actually have that pure relationship with Jesus Christ in their heart and yet live like they want. And God says, no, absolutely not. Adultery and homosexuality mean more love for the idol of self than God. We are called to glorify God with our body by using it for Him because of the danger of adultery, but also then using it for Him by promoting purity. Promotion of purity. Look again at Lord's Day 41. Listen, what is God's will for us in the seventh commandment? God condemns all unchastity. We should therefore thoroughly detest it and married or single, live decent and chaste lives. Does God in this commandment forbid only such scandalous sins as adultery? We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul, And God wants both to be kept clean and holy. That is why He forbids everything which incites unchastity, whether it be actions, looks, talk, thoughts, or desires. Promoting purity. Indeed, to use our body to be obedient to God in all things by the grace of God. But in the context of the seventh commandment, promoting purity. Because those who are in Christ, Those who are in Christ by the grace of God who enjoy that salvation, with it the renewal of the Holy Spirit, they no longer give free reign. I say that carefully. They no longer give free reign to evil desires. No longer living out passions like the heathen, but instead, they are those in whom holiness, the holiness, not the perversion, but they are those in whom the holiness of God's gift of sexuality is recognized and practiced once again. Sadly, not perfectly we know. Because the desires of the old man of sin continue to raise its ugly head. There is that war in our members, as Paul says. It's not easy. And that's why we are called to seek the strength of the Holy Spirit who's dwelling in us. He's right there. And empowered by the Holy Spirit, as the catechism says, to thoroughly detest adultery from the heart. Thoroughly, completely hate that which gives sinful pleasure. Seems like a contradiction sort of does in hating pleasure. But it's not. Hating that which gives sinful pleasure. And again, the temptation is so strong. But empowered by the Holy Spirit, as the catechism says, to live chaste lives, Therefore, not mixing that which does not belong together. Catechism says live decent, or as the older version says, disciplined. Decent or disciplined and chaste lives. And that word disciplined then or decent has the idea to train ourselves. Again, the Holy Spirit, that gift of new life, He enables and He motivates God's people. And we are to be active in that, to train ourselves to leave things where God has put them. Not to where we want them. But to leave things where God has put them. For example, to leave sexual intimacy only within marriage between one man and one woman. Those are God's terms. The Catechism says married or single. Within marriage too. As husbands and wives. It's a reminder to you and I that when it comes to this, we are not to be selfish. It's not to be selfishness that guides our marriage relationships, but selflessness for the benefit of our spouse. But also single. Outside of marriage. For those who are single, young people. Sexual intimacy and intercourse is simply, it is clearly forbidden. You may not. Does that mean that we may never show affection to one another? No, that's not what it means. But young people, you are to only show affection in permissible, God-glorifying ways. But on the other hand, when it comes to these things that we have been talking about, to avoid whatever increases those desires, to avoid whatever leads to uncontrollable situations, to be consciously avoiding whatever might cause you to let your guard down or lose your self-control. Like the passion of the moment. Stay away from it. Or alcohol. Alcohol dulls one's senses. It causes one to let their guard down, to lose their self-control. This demands much self-control. Paul says flee. Run away, turn and run away as fast as you can, is the idea. Flee as if it's the most dangerous predator on your tail. Flee from sexual immorality. It's easy to stay away from something we don't like, isn't it? There are certain foods that I have no trouble staying away from. I just don't like them. They're not tempting to me. It's easy to stay away from something we don't like. But again, we struggle with that old man of sin. Flee, Paul says, and the idea there is continually, all the time, never letting up, and habitually, to be a habit of life, 24-7. We are to always be thinking, always have our eyes open, always be aware of our surroundings. Beloved, we know there is so much pornography out there. Even what is called soft porn. There's much soft porn that some wouldn't even consider to be pornography. But it's out there. Again, consider certain clothing styles or lingerie commercials. And it's accessible. Especially on the pop-ups on the internet. Pornography warps our minds. It fans our passions. Remember, it truly does only take a spark to get a fire going. It didn't take much to get the station fire up above L.A. going, and it burned thousands of acres. And it's true here, too. It only takes a spark to get those fires going. And pornography fans that passion. It leads to unchastity. Flee. All that incites, again, moves to unchastity. Flee it. And we could talk for hours about what those things might be. but I think for our purposes too as God's people, I think this means that we need to keep from the world's styles. I won't be popular for saying this among some of you young ladies I know and young men. But we need to keep from the world's styles that are meant to accent the body. That are meant to draw attention to the body and certain portions of the body. There's nothing wrong with looking our best, but revealing clothing that reveals things and brings up thoughts that belong only to your spouse or to your future spouse, we are called to flee from it. Even here with the seventh commandment, we are to promote our neighbor's good, to help to keep them pure, to do whatever we can. Young ladies, young men, if anyone ever says to you, you look sexy, you might not want to take that as a compliment. But maybe you ought to take that as a warning. Other things that move toward unchastity. Flirting or suggestive talk that tempts, that leads one on, down the path of possibilities toward sin. Flee from it. Beloved, we are to be active, fleeing, being prepared to close our eyes or turn our heads, which will happen often, to remove ourselves from tempting situations, whatever they might be. Flee. But praise God, there is hope. Because we know ourselves so well, it seems hopeless. There is much failure, but there is also much forgiveness. The Bible teaches that adultery deserves death. Moses taught that over and over again in his application of the law throughout the Pentateuch. But in Christ, there is hope. In Jesus Christ, because of His perfection, because of His purity, he has taken that death that we have deserved for all of our sins even this sin he has redeemed us he transforms us entirely we are his never to be lost are we still struggle? we still struggle yet the Holy Spirit draws us back he helps us as Edmund Clowney also says put into practice a flickering candle of purity in our sexual lives and in our steadfast love of our Savior. And may our prayer be that God would fan that flickering candle and make it a hearty flame of purity for Him. And beloved, because we know that we have forgiveness in Christ, that is not to make us comfortable in the sin of adultery. It is not to make us lazy in fighting it, thinking as some actually do, well, I'll just ask for forgiveness in the morning. You see, beloved, that is contrary to what we were taught this morning, that is contrary to the knowledge of His will and bearing fruit in every good work, as Colossians 1 says. But instead, at all times, we are to remember that adultery seeks to steal us, our body and our life, from our Savior. And those who know the forgiving grace of God, they know that Christianity is not only a system of doctrine to be believed, as some of the Corinthians were treating it as, and as many do today still. But I can do what I want with the rest of my life and my body. It's not only a system of doctrine to be believed, but it is a rule of life demonstrated as we live out our lives in gratitude to God through these bodies that He has given to us. Praise God for His preserving hand. And may He, by His Holy Spirit, strengthen and help us more and more to recognize and to glory in our union with Jesus Christ. And may He remove our eyes and minds more and more from all enticement to sin. Amen. Let's pray together. Our great God and Heavenly Father, we are humbled as You have reminded us in such a powerful and vivid way of the truth of ourselves. Something we don't like to admit when it comes to this commandment of Yours. Yet we know we have weaknesses, Father. But yet, even more, by Your grace, we know that You alone are strong to save, to restore, to renew. and Father may it ever be our desire that we would live always only for our King and equip us more and more by your Spirit to do that we thank you for the blessed hope that is ours in Christ we belong body and soul and life and in death unto him that nothing can snatch us away and help us to live in a way that understands that and shows forth our praise for the purity of our Lord Jesus Christ offered for us. Hear us, we ask, O Lord, for Jesus' sake and in His name. Amen.