Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
6. Chapter 6. We will Lord willing
finish up this chapter this morning. The title of the lesson this morning. You
have been bought with a price. Now, it's obvious if you have
been bought with a price, you belong to someone else, the one
who bought you, owned you. And that is the idea that Paul
is gonna stress in the remainder of this chapter. Now in these
verses before us in chapter six, Paul tells the Corinthians, And
he's going to make this evident that if they persist in such
behavior as he's going to mention, then it's evident they've not
tasted of the grace of God. Remember in the scriptures, it
is written that the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness. And I want you to notice something
else here. If you'll remember, we left off verse eight. Let
me read verse seven and eight here. Now, therefore, there is
utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with another.
You take each other to court to settle your little differences. Why do you not rather take wrong?
Why do you not rather suffer yourself to be defrauded? Nay,
you do wrong and you are the one doing wrong and defraud and
that to your brethren. And the one thing I want you
to notice here, Paul is putting the brother who takes his brother
or his brethren to law, he puts them in the same category as
the unrighteous. He puts them in the same category
as the unrighteous who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, Paul is not saying at that
particular time that the ones who are doing this are lost What
he is saying, if they persist in doing this, if they persist
in this manner of life, this kind of conduct, it's evident
they're lost. So we'll pick up from here. And
so Paul picks up in verse 9, he says, No you not, that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. You know
by the teaching of the gospel that the unrighteous will perish,
that no unrighteousness will enter into the kingdom of God.
You know that. Therefore, be not deceived. Don't let someone lead you to
believe that we can sin more that grace may abound. Paul touched
on that in Romans. Grace does not give us a license
to sin, it enables us not to. It teaches us not to. Actually,
the grace of God gives us the ability to overcome sin. By His
Spirit, through His grace, we can overcome indwelling sin.
Sin is not our master anymore. Jesus Christ is our master. He's
our master. And so what Paul does here now,
he gives a list of the sins of this flesh. And I thought of
this when I was reading this list. Let us be careful not to
make less of these sins than the Bible makes of them. And
we'll read them and you'll see what I mean. He says here, now
in verse 9, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit
the kingdom of God, be not deceived, neither fornicators, sexual immorality,
that is the premarital sex. In our day, just as in that day,
it's nothing, isn't it? It's made nothing of. Well, the
Bible does. The Bible does. Listen, the best
sex education that we can get, and for our children, is the
Bible, not secular education. Secular education makes everything
okay. If you're not hurting anybody,
it's okay. No, that's not what the Word of God said. The Word
of God is the place where we get our education in all areas
of our life. Is that right? That's right.
He says, neither fornicators nor idolaters. People who worship
idols, people can worship whatever they want. Well, let them go
ahead, they'll go to hell too. In Hebrews it said, let all the
angels of God worship Him. There's one person that we are
to worship, and that person is Jesus Christ. Any worship of
anything or anyone outside of Christ is idolatry. Nor adulterers. We don't think much of that in
our day, do we? But the Bible does. You know, there was a time
that they would stone an adulterer to death. The Bible makes much out of it.
"...nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind."
That's the practice of homosexuality. In our day, what's happened?
It's nothing. In our grade schools, they teach
that it's okay, it's fine. Nothing ever takes place of God's
Word. What God's Word says on a matter,
that's the way it is all the way to the end of the world.
It never changes. Never changes. Nor thieves. Notice how they put all this
in one category. Nor covetous. You know, you want
to throw rocks at the homosexual people. They want to just throw
rocks at them. But what about those who can't be content with
such things as they have? They're in the same category.
You notice how he puts all these people in the same category?
He's not saying, this is worse than this one and this is worse
than that. No, he puts them all in the same category. The unrighteous
will not inherit the kingdom of God. Nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit
the kingdom of God. And I know And I know, and you
don't. When you read that list, you're
gonna think, I know I'm guilty of that. And we're guilty of
a lot of it spiritually, even though we may not have done it
outward, actually. Here's what Paul's saying, that
there is no one in the kingdom of God without righteousness. And that righteousness is the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that righteousness is imputed
to us when we believe. But here's something that he's
also teaching here. There is not only a righteousness
imputed to us, there is a righteousness imparted to us. There is a righteous
nature that is imparted to us in the new birth. It says in
2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature, he is a new creation. You're not the same anymore.
If God has saved me, I am not the same anymore. There is literally,
actually a new creation that is created, the Scripture says,
in righteousness and true holiness. There is righteousness imputed
and there is righteousness imparted. Therefore, he's saying, be not
deceived. Anyone who lives in such a manner
has never been born of God. They've never been born of God.
And I know that those Corinthians, when they read this, they thought,
I mean, fornication was just a way of life there. At that
time, it was definitely just a way of life. They didn't have
the gospel. They had nothing other than the
law written on the heart. But it didn't take long to put
that to silence. But then Paul gives this verse
in verse 11. He gives this comfort. And such
were some of you Such were some of you. This list right here,
every person in this room can point to something in here and
you know you're guilty of it. You know you're guilty of it. And such were some of you, but
you're washed. God has washed you. You're sanctified. You are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. You're not
the same anymore. See what Paul's saying? You're
not the same anymore. He's going to say, you're not
the same anymore. And at the end of it, he's going to say,
you're not your own anymore. You're not your own. Yes, such were some of you. Every
child of God knows they are guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
This is the way, he says, such, now notice, were. Were, some
of you, you don't live like this anymore. God's not gonna let
you live like this anymore. The Spirit of God in you and
the new creation of a new man in you is not gonna, is not gonna
give in to that old flesh. Every now and then it'll rise
its head up, and we sin, and we seek God's mercy. But I tell
you what, the old nature never dominates that new nature. That
new nature dominates. And God allows that old nature
from time to time to raise its ugly head and remind us who we
are and our need of Him, our need of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you are washed in the blood of the Lamb. You are clean. You are sanctified. And this
here is more than just being set apart. You have been made
holy. You're actually holy. That new
man created in Christ Jesus is really, truly holy. It's not just by imputation,
it's by a new creation. Look over in Romans chapter 7.
I'll show you the warfare of this
flesh. In verse 22, Paul says, I delight in the law of God,
after the inward man. I delight in the Word of God. I delight in the commandments
of God. Do you find God's commandments to be grievous? No, you don't. You don't. You delight in God's
word and God's commands. You delight in them because they
come from your father, whom you love and they're holy. But I
see another law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members. Oh, wretched man that I am. Every
one of us cry that. Not one of us cry, oh, wretched
man that I was. Paul didn't say, oh, wretched
man that I was, that I am. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death, this body of death? And then he gives us the answer.
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind,
that is that new mind, that new man, that new nature, I myself
serve the law of God. I serve God in his word, in his
commands. I serve him with my heart. I
serve him, I love him. But with the flesh, the law of
sin. So there's two natures that go
on in there. You're sanctified, you're made
holy by a new creation, and you are justified in the name of
the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. You're cleared of
all these charges. And such were some of you. You're
cleared. You're justified. That's not
on the books. The best way to put it, it's
not on the books. It's not on the books that you were a fornicator,
that you were an idolater, that you were an adulterer, that you
were homosexual, that you were a thief, that you were a covetous
or drunkard or reviler. None of that's against you. None
of it. You're justified. And you're
justified in the name of Jesus Christ. You're not justified
because you quit doing it. No, you're justified because
of Him. He put away your sins. He died
on Calvary's tree in your place and put away your sins. And they
don't exist anymore. The law of God has nothing against
me. The law of God sees me as holy
and righteous as God's own dear Son. That's the way I stand before
God. As Don Fuller said, the way God
sees it is the way it is. It is, that's the way it is. Then he says here in verse 12,
but now, then he says, now all things are lawful to me. But
all things are not convenient, expedient, necessary, that I
should do them. All things are lawful for me,
but I will not be brought under the power of any. I will not
be brought under the power of anyone or anything. Nothing is
going to dominate me but the Spirit of God." That's what Paul
is saying. I am determined that nothing is going to dominate
me or anyone or anything. Now Paul's not saying here that
the sins of the flesh that he just mentioned are lawful for
him. You know that. These are never lawful. But the
things that are lawful as food and drink and those things that
are lawful, Paul says, I'm not going to be brought under the
power or dominion of my appetites. And you're going to see this
as we go on. That's why he said, I'm not going to be brought under
the power of my appetites. You know, that's what addiction
arises from. It arises from your appetite,
wanting it, and you can't quit it. And Paul said, I'm not going
to be dominated by any addiction. That's another way to put it. Here's an example. He said in
one place, and that's here in Corinthians, if eating meat offends
my brother, then I'm not going to eat it. That's usually not
the attitude I hear from most people. It's like, he just got
to get over it. I'm going to eat it anyway. I'm going to get
over it. I'm going to eat it. Now, if you love your brother, if
you really truly love your brother and you know it offends him,
you, you, uh, You don't do it. I have a younger brother. You'd have to put him in a straitjacket
if he took a drink of alcohol. You'd have to put him in a straitjacket.
So if he comes to my house, I am not gonna drink anything in front
of him. I'm just not gonna do it. But I don't need to offend
him. It's not a reason to offend him.
To me, it would be, Detrimental to being able to
witness to him because it's just, it's like throwing a wall up.
You just throw a wall up. I'm not going to, and Paul's
saying here, we don't flaunt, for a better way to put it, our
liberty to the weaker brother or even to like someone that
may believe another gospel and it bothers them. If they're around
me, I'm just not going to do it. He's not going to do it,
for the opportunity to witness to them. And if it's a weaker
brother, I don't want him to sin against his own conscience,
because whatsoever is not of faith is sin. And so if he's
doing that, it bothers him. But if he does it because he
sees me do it, it's not him doing it. By faith, he's doing it because
I did it, and he's sinning against his own conscience. So if I love
my brother, then I'll not do it. I'll protect him. I'll protect his conscience.
I'll protect his spirit. And I'll protect the witness
I have of the Lord Jesus Christ to him. And Paul, then he goes
on to say here, now, meats for the belly and the belly for meats.
You know, that's what they're for. God made food for the body,
and He made the stomach, the belly, for the digestive system
to carry the nourishment to the body. That's what He's saying.
Meats for the belly, the belly for meats, but God shall destroy
both it and them. Now the body... is not for fornication,
but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God has both
raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by His own power. Food is intended for the body
and the body for food, but one day God's going to destroy both
this sinful body and its appetites. He's going to lay it in the grave.
But I'm going to read you now what Henry wrote on this. He
said, This cannot be said of sexual immorality. which some
of the Corinthians and the Gentiles took to be as indifferent as
food and drink. We must satisfy the craving of
the body for food and drink, whatever food is available. But
sexual desires are to be met in a state of marriage and not
promiscuity." He said, "...our bodies are intended to serve
and glorify Him in righteousness and holiness, at the last to
be raised by Him and made like His glorious body." My whole
person is for the glory of Jesus Christ. That's why he's telling
these Corinthians. Like I said last week, they were
an infant church and they were being, false preachers came in
and then they had their own family saying, are you serious? You're
not doing this no more. You're not going with us here
no more. You're not gonna do this no more. A friend of mine said
when I went to high school with him, he said, I wish you hadn't
got saved. but I quit running around doing
the things that he and I used to run around doing together. But Paul tells them here that
when God saved you, He saved all of you, body, soul, and spirit. Look over here in chapter 7.
We'll deal a little more with this. It gets a little more in-depth
now with marriage in chapter 7. But he says here, now concerning
the things whereof you wrote me. See, they wrote him about
this. They were struggling with this. It's good for a man not
to touch a woman or not to have sexual relationships with a woman
outside of marriage. That's what he's saying. Nevertheless,
to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and let
every woman have her own husband. And then Paul deals with this
in chapter 7. But here he's dealing with the
fact that that their body and their soul
and their spirit are one, and they are to be used in glorifying
Jesus Christ. They are His. They are His. Know you not, verse 15 and 17,
know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ, Shall
I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of
a harlot? God forbid. He said, not just
your spirit and your soul are members of Christ, but your body,
that physical body that you live in, that we live in, it's also
a member of Christ. Your whole person is a member
of Christ. What, know you not that he which
is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall
be one flesh? It's the same thing as if you
go out there and you marry a harlot. But he that is joined unto the
Lord is one spirit. You were chosen in Christ, you
were given to Christ, you were redeemed by Christ, and the Lord
Jesus Christ bought you body, soul, and spirit. You are His. And shall I take the members
of my Lord of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord, take my body
and make them the members, join them to a harlot?" He said, God
forbid. Don't you know that whoever you
join yourself to, you have become one with that person? You can imagine, this is the
first time, this is the first time this church had ever heard
anything like this. I mean, this is totally 180 degrees
different than the way they were raised. They were raised at so
much of what Paul read of the sins of this flesh that it was
fine, as long as you didn't hurt somebody. He who is united with Christ
by grace and faith is one spirit with Him. You're joined to the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is a real union, it's a
spiritual union. But now listen, two unions can't
go on at the same time. Two unions can't go on. You cannot have a spiritual union
with Christ and then an ungodly union with the world. He said
it doesn't work that way. That's why he's telling me it
does not work that way. We cannot be one with Christ
and one with the harlot. He says in verse 18, flee fornication,
run. Run, that's what flee means,
run, get out of there. Run from sexual impurity, immoral
behavior. He said, run from it. Flee from
it like you would flee from a fire. Because if not, you're going
to get burned. You're going to get burned. And listen, every
sin that a man does is without the body. He that commits fornication
sins against his own body. Most sins that a man commits
are committed by the abuse of other things, and they don't
really bring any hurt or reproach on the body. But sexual immorality,
he says, does. Paul said it does. It defiles
the body. It dishonors the body and it
brings disgrace and it brings diseases on the body. That other things we do have
no effect on the body. He said it'll bring diseases
on the body. It'll bring diseases on the mind. He said this is
one sin that affects your whole body that you live in. What? Know you not that your
body is the, here's another reason for purity, to glorify the Lord
Jesus Christ in your bodies. Know you not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost, that your body is the, listen,
your body is the sanctuary in which the Holy Ghost lives and
dwells. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit. You know, that's something I
don't think we give enough thought to. The Holy Spirit is God. God the
Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, God the Holy Spirit.
And He dwells, He lives, and you are the sanctuary He lives
in, in this world. And He's saying here that He
lives in your body. This body right here, He lives
in this body. The Spirit of God is in you.
Christ in you. He's in your body. As well as
you are in your body. You're in your body, aren't you?
You're in your body and because you are in your body, you use
the body, you animate the body. My hands don't move without my
mind telling it to move. I use this body. And he's saying here that your
body is the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, which you have of
God. You are sealed with the Holy
Spirit. You are not your own. You're not your own. We belong
to Him. We are not our own masters to
live, to satisfy our lust, nor abuse these temples. We are to
take care of these bodies. Then we're not to worship these
bodies. You're not gonna stand in front
of a mirror all day. But we are to really, we're really
to take care of the body. We are to eat well. We're to take care of it, exercise. The houses you live in, you take
care of them. You clean the house, you clean
the front yard, you clean the backyard, you keep it clean,
you keep it up. You know, it's interesting when
you vacate a house and it just sits there. Isn't it interesting
how that house starts to just decay and go down? There's no
life in it. But when you live in it, there's
life in it. You realize what a fascinating thing the
body is. I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. All the things that man has made,
all the mechanics he has made, not one thing even comes close
to the body God has given us and made us. And we take care of it. We take
care of it. And this is what we are also
to do spiritually. The Holy Spirit lives in this
body. and we use this body to glorify
the Lord Jesus Christ, not to gratify the lust of the flesh. For you are bought with a price,
therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, and
they go together, which are God's. We were redeemed by the blood
of Christ. He owns us, and we are to glorify
Him in all things, embody soul and spirit. The whole man is
to live for the glory of Jesus Christ.