Tonight, I'd invite you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. And this morning I said in the sermon, one correction I suppose I have to make, I said no one would ever run around saying that their favorite passage in the Bible was Genesis 38 with Judah and Tamar. And I had numerous of you encourage me after the service this morning and say it's now your favorite passage. tonight's uh message is a wonderful uh compliment to that and as we're reading this in first corinthians chapter six i want you to think about that incident that is so fresh in your mind and think about how the apostle has those events of judah and joseph in his mind when he's commenting on some of these things you'll notice here he mentions a harlot a practice is common in Corinth, prostitution. And the application that we'll see he is using has a lot to do with Judah and Joseph. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. This is 1 Corinthians 6, beginning at verse 12. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, the two will become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. We live in a sexualized culture that is driven by every kind of sexual immorality known to man under the sun. Christians have a difficult time living in this kind of environment, the kind of environment that we live in. I mean, you just don't have to go very far and even look at a billboard and you'll see something you shouldn't look at. In fact, there are men and women here tonight who deeply struggle with sexual sin. There are some who feel that they can't get out. There are others whose consciences are so wounded that because of these particular sins, they have been so destructive upon them. And so guilt-driven and feeling the wounds of it all, they see no hope to get out, so they give up. There are others who harden their hearts in it. There are others who harden their hearts in it and have learned to justify the behavior and continue in it without repentance. What really grieves me in this whole thing, what really grieves me is that the church in so many ways has failed to address in helping men and women think through God's direction on this particular subject and on this particular issue. As I said this morning, we're so over pious when it comes to this. We're scared, you know. We're scared. We're scared when it comes to this issue. We're afraid of the issue. But it's somewhat hypocritical. It's somewhat hypocritical because we compartmentalize, if you will, and shield off any kind of discussion about this in the church. And yet what we see, what we watch, what comes into our living room just from the evening news, what we'll tolerate, what we'll allow into our homes, what we talk about, what comes into our living rooms every night, into our ears through an iPod, we accept. We accept. It's hypocritical. Pornography is a way of life for many. People are stuck in it. Adultery happens all the time. If not physical, well then I could hit every single man here with it spiritually and hit every single man here with just the lust of the heart. You live in Southern California. And we come here and we cover it up. We cover it up with a proper attitude. The fact is, the Bible is not embarrassed about this. I just have to pause and say, I remember a young father coming up to me after I addressed this in a sermon up north, and he said, well, pastor, my son came up and asked what this means, and I said, okay, time to head upstairs and have the talk. If the son or daughter is willing to ask these questions, then we as parents have to lead them. And I don't want my children instructed about this from Johnny on the playground. I want God telling my children about this. I want God instructing my children about this. And that's essentially what he is doing tonight. He's instructing the church. He's helping the church. As one pastor said correctly, we are sexual beings and sexual sins are part and parcel of life. Such matters, he says, ought to be discussed frankly and openly as the apostle does. And tonight we have a passage that does that very thing. Speaks about this. As I was studying this, I think it's the most important passage in the New Testament to help us understand the dangers of sexual immorality and also to provide a way out of it. It really is practical. It really is immensely helpful tonight. If you're struggling with these things, you've come to a passage tonight that directly addresses it and directly helps your mind in how to think about this and provide a path forward out. God gave us a path to fight. Gave us a path and a way to fight it. And tonight, we have to consider somewhat as the Apostle does first how damaging this particular sin is to your life. Here's where I stand amazed again. This morning, he took a passage that showed us the conscious choice of a man in Judah who chose sexual immorality and what God did to bring him out. But do you remember, I didn't emphasize it this morning, but did you catch how that passage ended? Then Judah identified them and said, she is more righteous than I since I did not give her to my son, Shayla. And he did not know her again. It stopped. I think that was meant to be an encouragement. He did not know her again. Tonight, Paul gets into, if you will, the psychology of this. In other words, he takes us into deeper spiritual realities of this particular kind of sin to help us see what's happening behind it, what's really going on with it. And Paul is helping instruct an entire church in how to deal with this particular problem. If you remember, since we're going through this book, what we've studied in Corinth, the overarching problem in Corinth was that this church had no concept or no idea of what it meant that God had separated them out from the world. And because of that, remember, they were buying into all the pagan philosophies of doing ministry. And we see here that worldliness had infected the church. All of that had been brought into the church. And one of the most painful ways that this manifested in which it showed itself was particularly in the sins of sexual immorality. And Paul tonight has a great goal with this text under the inspiration of the Spirit. Paul has a great goal with this. He's helping the Corinthians, if you're taking notes, he's helping the Corinthians understand, number one, how dangerous this is. Second, what it does to the mind and how we are to respond to it. He wants to help them build conviction about the seriousness or the sinfulness of this particular sin and to see that there is grace to turn from it, that there is. You'll see how beautiful it is tonight, then, that the Lord spreads a table in front of you that symbolizes a different kind of union. As we come to verse 12, we notice here a transition from the previous section that addressed Christians suing one another. But the continuing thread here is understood, again, that they had not separated out from the world. And now he comes to address in chapter 6 and 7 this great issue that we have already introduced. I want you to notice how he begins in verse 12 to address this particular problem. In verse 12, he starts by saying this, All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any, or the dominion, you'll notice, that our translation says. I will not be brought under. I will not be dominated by anything. Now, what is he saying? It's helpful to have a little bit of cultural background here in decorum. This is a statement on Christian liberty, isn't it? It's a basic statement on Christian liberty to begin. And it essentially goes, we're free. We understand this. We've looked at this in Romans 14 and 15. We're free. We've been set free. And when it comes to our right standing before God, You're no longer under law. You're under grace, he said in chapter 6 of Romans. But that's not what the Corinthians were saying. The Corinthians were saying this little phrase had become somewhat axiomatic among them. What does that mean? It means that this little phrase, they were running around saying to justify whatever they wanted to do. All things are lawful for me. I can do whatever I want. And Paul, I think somewhat sarcastically, adds to their little phrase. All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. What's on his mind? It's the issue of sexual immorality. You know what Corinth was like? Sexual promiscuity in Corinth was a way of life. It was a sex-crazed culture. You know, fornication was a thing indifferent in Corinth. A thing indifferent. There was nothing wrong with it in the culture. Relationships between students and teachers that we somehow sometimes hear on the news here and it breaks out and everyone discusses, this was a common way of life in Corinth. Corinth boasted of prostitutes everywhere. It was a port city and there were numerous sailors that would come in. You had swells of sailors and merchants coming into the port of Corinth. Drinking, prostitution went on. It was an acceptable way of life. In fact, the worship of the cult, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, boasted of 2,000 prostitutes in Corinth. This was Sin City. We were driving back from vacation from Montana and I looked out and I saw Sin City. It is an impressive city. It's called Las Vegas, isn't it? When you looked at Corinth, you had that same kind of effect. This is an amazing, booming place. Remember, to Corinthianize was synonymous with fornicating. Plato said a Corinthian girl was synonymous with a prostitute. I want you to get a sense of this. Demosthenes. We keep mistresses for our pleasure, concubines for the day-to-day needs of the body, but we have wives in order to produce children legitimately and have trustworthy guardians of our homes. Seneca, another writer. Roman women were to be married to be divorced and were divorced to be married. Innocence is not rare. It's non-existent. Is there any shame at all for adultery? Chastity is simply proof of ugliness. That's the culture. Homosexuality, very much practiced. Nero went into a marriage procession with a boy down the streets of Rome. The first Roman emperor, and I quote, to have married a man was Nero, as one writer says, who was reported to have married two other men on different occasions. First, one with his freed man, to whom Nero took the role of the bride. And later as a groom, Nero married a young boy to replace his young teenage concubine whom he had killed. This is your leader who was in power when Paul said, remember in Romans 13, submit to governing authorities. Sexual license was the norm. It was the rule. And then you had this problem. You had their issue with the body. What did they believe about the body? Well, what they believed is, you've probably heard this, If you've ever heard anyone describe Gnostic thought, you've had it described that the soul is what really matters. The body is the prison house. It's the body that's the real problem. That's where the sinful urges come from. But what really matters is your soul. And that's what really matters. So whatever you do in the body is indifferent. It doesn't affect your spiritual condition. If you've got a natural craving, gratify it. Here's where you see what Paul's doing. One author writes, the main cause of prostitution is the Greek view of life, which regards the sexual intercourse as just as natural and necessary and justifiable as eating and drinking. There it is. This is why I believe he raises the issue next of foods. Foods for the stomach and stomach for the foods in verse 13. Foods for the stomach and stomach for the foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Why does he raise that? Here's what was being said. All things are lawful. Here's how I believe it went. Hunger pains are natural. Come on. And when they tell you, these hunger pains come, they tell you it's time to eat. Whatever you eat, however you want to indulge in, that's fine. Go for it. Those are natural cravings. It really doesn't affect your spiritual life. Same is true with alcohol. Hey, you want to do it? Go ahead and do it. Drunkenness doesn't matter at all. It's a bodily issue. Food is eliminated in the body. Body doesn't matter. Spiritual life is what really matters. And lo and behold, it came to this next issue. What did they say with regard to the body? Sexual appetites are natural. We have bodies designed for that. It shouldn't be denied. It should be fulfilled. It really doesn't affect your spirit. So, go for it. Now, you say, come on, this is a little extreme. Kind of goofy, isn't it? You live just as much in this culture. I could go through the stats tonight. 60% of married men, 40% of married women, they say will have an affair during the course of their marriage. What's the mentality of our culture? Not so far off. Do what feels good. We're taught to follow what we consider is the natural desire of our bodies. It's our own personal choice and therefore you don't have any right to tell me differently. This is common thought in our culture. We have an entire view of doing things casually that we say are not tied to any consequences in the culture. You know, they say, and this is just the going stat, 3% of Americans wait until marriage today to be sexually involved with their spouse. Three. That means 97 aren't percent. And everything's spinning out of control. Men are gripped in pornography. Where do people think they're going to go when they die? Well, the number's pretty high. 85% think they're going to heaven. You know what that means. Translate. What people do in the body, They don't think will affect their eternal destiny. Where they're going. We're in first century Corinth. We're in this. And Paul is confronting their view of the body. This is what he's doing tonight. Notice there's Paul saying, no, no, no, no, no. There is a unity of body and soul, and the body matters. The body matters a lot to our Lord. Notice verse 13. Now the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. In other words, you guys are all wrong about your bodies. Later on, Paul's going to say, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is done in, notice the emphasis, now you understand why the emphasis, in the body, whether good or bad. And that's why the redeemed life, the Christian life in Romans 8 says, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So Paul is saying here tonight, to help us begin and to think about this properly, Paul's saying the body was never designed for you to go fulfill whatever kind of lust you want to fulfill or whatever kind of appetite you have. It was never designed for that. God never made it with that in mind. Sure, we have this kind of desire and that's why God ordained the marriage relationship and ordained something that is proper and that satisfies that need, that glorifies Him in reflecting something else. And I'll get there in a moment. But to fulfill the lust of the body outside of His design is to destroy and attack God's intention for your body. What is that? what's the intention? He says, your body was crafted and designed by God for Christ. Wow. Your body was designed and crafted by God for Christ. I can't get over that. For the Christian, your bodies are members of him. He did something so wonderful, didn't he? He did something so wonderful. The Father took you through the death of His Son and united you to that body. That's what union with Christ is. You've been joined to Him. You've been made one with Him. And since His glorious body is raised in heaven and seated, your body too is going there. Your body, grab it. And in verse 14, he says, God raised up the body of Jesus, and since you've joined to him, that's what's happening to yours. Your bodies are part of Christ's glorious body. That union is so wonderful. It's so mysterious to us, mystical, yes, that we're joined to him. He says, and he says this so plainly there, don't you know your bodies are members of him? If we thought like that. Now, what Paul has done at this point is raise how serious the problem of sexual immorality is. And he says something in verse 2 that now drives this. All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. And notice, I'm sorry, in verse 12. All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. I will not be brought under the mastery of anything other than Christ. My body's for Him. Now, I believe tonight, as I said, that pastor said to me, this was the driving passage that kept him driven to be sexually pure during his college years. This is a passage I had never spent any time in. It overwhelmed me this week. I believe this is the key to sanctification, if I can say that. There are many things that we in the body can do that bring us under mastery. And one of the things that Romans 6 taught us very clearly is that sin no longer has dominion over us. One of the benefits of Christ is that He shattered dominion so that you no longer are mastered in principle by any sin but are brought to be now a slave of Him, no longer under those kinds of mastery. And so now as those slaves of Christ, we never want to bring ourselves back into mastery under something else. So the Christian's been set free. Mastery can happen with things like eating and coveting and hating. I mean, we could have mastery with those sort of things and we're all to be on guard against that. But here's what I believe Paul's saying tonight. There is a sin that is far more destructive than those kinds of sins committed outside of your body. Now that doesn't mean that it's less important or that sin is not in the sense equal of deserving of judgment. That's not what I'm saying. What Paul is saying is this. There are particular kinds of sins and he wants the church to grasp this. He wants the church in Corinth to understand this. There are sins that belong to sexual immorality that are far more destructive and much more far-reaching in their consequences that we need to understand. But there's a power here that we are to stay away from and not be brought under. And so what he does at this point is help them think through the consequences of this. What are the consequences of this? And this is where this will be the most motivating drive for you to stay away from this. There's three things you need to count the cost over when it comes to these sins because there are costs. And here they go. What's the first? Verse 15. your bodies are members of Christ, shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. What Paul just said is, sexual immorality has the particular perverse consequence of making another union. And here's what it amounts to. Since your body is Christ's, since it's His, here's what you're doing. Since you're in union, you're taking the body of Christ when you do sexual immorality and you're joining it to a harlot. Now in Corinth, that was really true. That's what was going on. That's the context here. But the whole problem of sexual immorality applies because we know the problem of spiritual adultery was big in Israel. You're taking the body of Jesus and you're joining that body because you're one to something that profanes him through your body, by the means of your body. I'm taking that body that died for me, that was raised for me, and I'm joining it to disgusting, perverse filth. He wants you to feel this. That's a powerful incentive to stop. I don't know what else is a powerful incentive to stop, but that's a powerful incentive to stop. This is what he says in verse 16. Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two will become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. So in other words, you are sinning against the body of Christ and he takes it to Genesis. Remember in Genesis when Adam and Eve were joined together and notice there that it was always designed that the two would become one flesh and then we learn as Christians that that whole union is designed ultimately to reflect the union that Christ has with you, his bride, the church. Think about how awful it is then, start here. Think about how awful it is to join into that union another party outside of the two becoming one flesh. And now think about how awful it is then when somebody does that to join another party outside that union between you and Christ. There's more than just fulfillment going on here. That's the mystery of this. There's more than just gratification going on when that happens. There's nothing casual about that outside of God's design. Here's what he's saying. You are united to that person beyond merely physical contact. You are united to that person beyond mere physical contact. You now have union with that person. If every time I thought that the Christ who loved me and died for me and gave His life for me and promises to take my body to heaven, my spiritual husband, every time I'm tempted to give my body to any other satisfaction other than Him in whatever form it comes, I'm taking what belongs to Him, what He went to the cross for. I'm taking what belongs to Him and you know what essentially I'm doing. I'm joining it to the world. Do you see how offensive that is? This was the problem in Corinth. Second consequence, verse 18. Every other sin. Notice what he says here. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. I struggled with that. I get that we sin against Christ's body. How is this a sin against my own body unlike other sins? Which is what he's saying. Well, I think anyone who struggles with guilt over sexual sin knows this. It's against your own person. You know it by its effects. Sexual sins are severely damaging to you. To your mind. To your thought process. To your behavior. To your conscience. To your life. What does sexual sin do to people? Does it make them happy? It brings awful guilt. You feel utterly ashamed if you're a believer. And even non-believers struggle with a wrong kind of guilt and destruction of their life. We know that. earthly consequences mount up you go through struggles even with health psychologically stress and depression are often tied to sexually immoral sins in people's lives i think kim riddlebarger is absolutely right when he says it's no not uncommon for sexual sin to be connected with apostasy isn't that true every false teacher you've ever seen up on tbn who ever got caught what was he involved in he says depression guilt self-destructive behavior and what does it do to your relationship with the lord it alienates you doesn't it you want to stay away from him because of the pollution of the whole thing and it has the sad effect of driving many away from the church many don't come to church why for what reason because they're doing this they're doing this and men struggling with this and women go through incredible guilt. And they ask the question, how do I get out? I love his answer here. How do we respond to what is a very real problem in our society today? There's a glaring statement that stands out in verse 18, isn't there? Flee it. I like to note, as others have noted, that he doesn't say resist it. I had a few of you walk up to me this morning when Joseph fled and said, 17 years old? I don't know what man could do that. Resist it. Flee it. You run as far as you can the other way. That's how strong this one is. It's taken down mighty men. Read Proverbs 7. Oh, they've all fallen. They've been stung in the liver with the arrow on this one. It's taken down the mighty ones. David and Bathsheba and Samson. You run. You bolt. You get as far, don't tell me you have the strength. You put it in front of you, you'll go. You get out of the circumstance as fast as you possibly can. And after a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph, and I think this is directly in Paul's mind, and said, lie with me. But he refused and said to his master's wife, behold, because of me, my master has no concern about anything in the house. And he's put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her to lie beside her or to be with her. But one day when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house were there in the house, she caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. He bolted. You say, what man has the power of that? You've got the Spirit. That's the first thing. Second, really encouraging. Verse 19. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You're not your own for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. the greatest antidote God doesn't come to you and say you stop or else you stop or else God comes to you and says I've already made you a temple of my spirit you don't own your bodies this is not yours it's Christ's and he put his spirit there and you know you've already been remember verse 11 before he said any of this isn't this so wonderful that he already said you've already been washed and sanctified and justified what an incentive i've loved you you're free so stop it's not your body you don't own your body anymore boy doesn't that just fly in the face of the abortionists who are running around telling us the woman's body is hers you don't even own these he purchased me now he's telling you to have a holy zeal and righteous anger against this sin it's offensive and so get angry that someone would want to step in between your union with Christ the great way to beat this is to hate it and not love it and look at your body as an avenue by which you can take these members and glorify Him. Finally, I want to say one last thing. There's something He's put in place to spiritually strengthen your union with Christ. In other words, you may feel defiled. You have in the past assaulted your union with Jesus maybe by these sins. Do you know what the Lord's Supper is? You know Paul's about ready to present the Lord's Supper in Corinthians and say there's something else happening in the supper. Listen to this. In chapter 10, flee idolatry. Flee sexual morality. Flee idolatry. Antidote, here it is. The cup of blessing which we bless. Is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? Are you not tonight? This is not just remembrance. If you think that, you're wrong. You are participating in your union tonight with Christ. However mysterious that is to us, it is a communion with what does he say? The blood of Christ. The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? When you do this in faith, you are participating spiritually. His body and blood. Tasting and receiving what He's done for you. And He wants you to know tonight when you come believing, this strength that He gives us is a promise to help you in the fight until He comes again. And that you need to be satisfied with your spiritual husband. That's why He gives this to you. He is able to strengthen you. He's able to help you. And so let us come then tonight to His table with hearts joined to Him by faith and satisfied in His body and blood. Amen.