We're looking over here in I
Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 12. And of course, we've looked at
these verses, some of them, and I want to look at them some more.
In I Corinthians 6, verse 12, it says, All things are lawful
unto me. That is, there is nothing that
can bring me into condemnation. That is essentially what he is
saying. There is all things. That is pretty comprehensive.
Now, a lot of people read that and then they say, but he didn't
really mean all things, but we said all things. I believe that's exactly what
he had in mind, and especially when we look at the subject matter
that he is dealing with. Because some of these instances
that he is dealing with here are very plainly, as what we
understand the law to be, would certainly be unlawful. But what
he is pointing out, is not that there has been a change of the
law, but that there has been a fulfillment of the law, and
there has been a change of the relationship which God's people
have to that law, and that law has to them on the basis of what
Jesus Christ has done in their behalf. And that's very important. that we understand exactly what
it is that Christ came to do and what He did. Now some people
think that He came to do something and He didn't do it. He came
to do something and He did the best He could and He left it
all up to men to find out in the end what would be, you know,
and so that He just did something and He hoped for the best. And
some people seem to have some kind of comfort in that. But
if you stop and think about it, there's no comfort at all in
that. Because that wouldn't help anybody at all. Because if it
was all going to be left up to men, then why not just leave
it all up to them in the first place? I mean, there wouldn't
be any difference if the Lord just said, well, save yourself,
if He was going to make it a matter of what men did. He could just
say, well, keep the law. But see, that was already beyond
help. So when Paul is coming here and
he is saying these things, we have to understand why he is
saying this. I mean, is he saying this because
he wants to stir up in these people that he is writing to
a desire to go out and just live in all kinds of manner of wickedness
and disobedience to what God has set forth? Now some would
say that because we preach grace and we preach the fact that there
is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, that what
we are doing is giving men a license to sin. Now when you read what
Paul says there, does he say, all things are lawful for me?
Therefore I'm going to do it, all things." Is that what he
said? No, he said, all things are lawful
to me. There's nothing that can bring
me into condemnation. There's no law that Christ has
not fulfilled. He set his people free, absolutely
and completely. Nothing can change that. He said,
all things are lawful unto me. Now this is very important, I
believe, for God's people to understand. It's necessary that
you see what he's saying here in order to recognize the freedom
and the liberty and the joy that we have as God's people in the
sense that there is nothing that can separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus. And that's what he's saying right
here. All things are lawful unto me. You see, whereas when the
Lord said to Adam, all things were not lawful to Adam, were
they? I mean, the Lord said, Now you can eat anything you
want to, but do not eat of this tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, because when you eat it, you shall surely
die. He didn't say if you eat it.
He said in the day when you eat it. That's a whole other subject,
but I'm telling you, you know, anybody that doesn't believe
that the Lord is the first cause of all events, he's never read
the Scriptures. The Lord said when you eat this,
you're going to die. And man did eat it, and he did
die. Because that's all that the law
can do. See, the law can't do anything but condemn you. The
law cannot make your life better. Now, it could make your life
better if you were of a mind to keep it, but the law is weak.
And the weakness of the law is in the ability of men to keep
it. Therefore, it is necessary that
we have a Law Keeper. And we do have one, and His name
is Jesus Christ the Righteous, and His righteousness is ours.
And so it is that He says here, All things are lawful unto Me. There is a big but, but He said,
All things are not expedient. They are lawful. But they're
not expedient. They're not useful. They're not
beneficial. They don't bring glory to God
as they're played out. They are not those things which
are becoming to a child of God. Now we, as this political season,
we don't seem like we can escape all of these things, but there
are many things in the lives and ways of all of these candidates
that are not very becoming to someone who is seeking such a
high position. I mean, what can you say about
it? They're just not becoming unto them. You know, they're
not. What you would say, well, man, that's just the finest example. But keep in mind, of course,
before we get too high on our horse, what the Lord taught Nicodemus. He said that he would set over
the kingdoms of the earth the basest of men. And we can see
that played out right before our very eyes. Because it doesn't
make any difference Which one gets in there, you can know for
a surety that they are made base, they are base before God. And
they're just made, the example of it's been shown to us. Now,
I'll leave it up to each one to determine which one's the
worst. That's kind of where we're at.
I mean, just figuring out which one, well, I mean, I don't think
it's, it's not hard for me to figure out which one, but But
nonetheless, all things are not expedient.
They are not useful. They are not beneficial. They
do not bring glory to God in that which He has taught us to
do. And so while He says all things are lawful to Me, and
He reiterates that, He says, I will not be brought under the
power of any. That is, I will not relinquish
myself unto those things that I know are not expedient. He says, I will not gladly go
down those pathways. I will not be brought under the
power of meats for the belly and the belly for meats. The
Lord made the things that we eat and the appetites that we
have. He gave them to us. He made our bodies to desire
these things, and He made these things available to us. That's
just the way that it is. That's the way people are. He made us natural men. That's
what He intended for us to be. If He would have wanted us to
have been spiritual beings like the angels, He would have made
us like that. The idea that men become angels,
you know when a little baby dies, such a sad thing, any time that
would occur. It's meant to be sad. That's just the purpose of that. That is a sad thing. It breaks
our heart to consider it. But a lot of times people talk
about, well, they're now a little angel, you know, they're floating
around. No, they're never an angel. They're
not going to be an angel, never have been an angel, never will
be an angel. They're exactly what God made
them to be. And so, meats for the belly, the belly for meats.
God made the earth and He put man in it. And He put man in
it for a purpose. There's nothing wrong with that.
That's just what God made. The meat's for the belly and
the belly for meat. But God shall destroy both it
and them. Why? Because they belong to Him.
And He made them just like He wanted them to be. And lest a
man get lifted up with pride and think, well, I'm going to
do something that God didn't expect. See, Adam kind of... You know, isn't it amazing how
that the human mind works. And we talked about this last
week, but you can tell a child, don't do something. Now the child
never thought about doing it. He might not have ever done it.
But you tell him not to do it and what does he start thinking
about? Day and night. I mean you can say, don't you
go in that closet. Now he's been by the closet a
hundred times, and he's been playing with stuff, you know,
all over the place, and he never thought one time about going
in that closet. But you said, don't go in the
closet, and what does he start thinking about day and night?
Hmm. I wonder what's in the closet.
You know, I need to find out what's in the closet. And sometimes
when nobody's around, I will find out what's in the closet
because that's just the way that we are. But know this, that God
will destroy all of those things because they're of no lasting
use. They're just temporary things.
And so he says this, now the body is not for fornication. It's not for fornication, not
for sexual impurity. We talked about that. This word
fornication is porneo. And it's not speaking just specifically
about the sin of sexual relationships outside the bonds of marriage.
It's not talking specifically about that, although this word
is often used specifically to describe that situation. But
it's talking about all forms of sexual impurity. It doesn't
make any difference. It doesn't matter if it's homosexuality. It doesn't make any difference
if it's pornography. It doesn't make any difference
if it's a dirty joke. It doesn't make any difference
now. Men want to make all these different gradations and say,
well, you can do this, but you can't do that, you know. You know, it's kind of... I mean, it's just the way people
think. But that's not the way God thinks. That's not the way
God says in His Word. What God says is what He means. Now, there is nobody that has
ever lived up to purity as God demands purity, except for Jesus
Christ. who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth." There was no inclination in the part of
the Lord Jesus to go contrary to the way of God. But there
is in the mind and the heart of natural man the inclination
to go contrary to it because he desires to fulfill those things
that he believes the body is for. Meats for the belly and
the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it, that is,
the meat and the body. Now, the body is not for fornication,
but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. I mean, what he
is speaking about is the ideal situation. Now, he is not saying
God made a mistake. He made it for this and then
it turned out to be something else. No, it turned out just
exactly like God intended for it to be. But what he's saying
is the ideal situation, if we understood what it was that the
body is inclined towards, you see, for all is sin and comes
short of the glory of God. That's the nature of man, and
we need to grasp and understand that. And when we understand
that, then we can understand some of what he's speaking about
here. But the body is not for fornication. That's not why God made us. He didn't make us specifically
so we would be sexually impure, but we are sexually impure. That
is the way that we are. But it's not expedient. It's
not useful. It's not purposeful insofar as
the benefit of the body is concerned. But for the Lord, and the Lord
for the body, And God has both raised up the Lord and will also
raise us by His own power. Now, it's kind of funny, isn't
it, that he put that in there kind of in the midst of talking
about all this, speaking about the resurrection of Christ. Well,
because all of these things point to and have to do with the work
that Christ has done in the behalf of His people. And even as He
says God will destroy the body, He said even as He raised up
Christ, so also will He raise you up. Because you see, the
Lord will destroy these bodies. The graveyard attests to that.
I mean, you can go and snatch open one of those graves where
somebody's been in there for 50 years and they won't look
like they did when they put them in there. The Lord will destroy the body.
I mean, He's designed death to destroy the body, and it will
destroy the body. Diseases will destroy the body.
That is what God is saying. But God hath both raised up the
Lord, and He will raise us up by His own power, because our
confidence is not in the flesh. Now, what can a dead man in the
graveyard do about his situation? What can he do? I mean, you can
go there and you can pour water on him and you can put, you can
get the best team of doctors that's ever been and you can
put on, they can work on him from night to day and what's
going to happen? Nothing. Nothing. But you see, the Scripture indicates
that the Lord is going to raise that body in the final day when
there's not even anything left in there. I don't understand
how it can be. I don't know. Don't try to get
me to explain it, but the Scripture says that the bodies shall come
out of the graves where they were. The sea is going to give
up its dead. That's what's going to happen
because that's in the power of God. And you see, that is what
it is that God's people have hope and expectation is, is not
in this flesh. And so it is necessary that we
understand what the flesh is in order to grasp what it is
that Paul is saying here, that all things are not expedient,
and I will not be brought under the power of them. For the Lord
will raise us up by His own power. He says, Know ye not that your
bodies are the members of Christ? Now, isn't that what He's taught
us, that we're members one of another as members of the body
of Christ? But we are members of the body
of Christ. We are the feet, the limbs of
Christ. In that sense, we're flesh of
His flesh and bone of His bone. We belong to Him, in other words. We can't be separated from Him.
I mean, is He going to cut His finger off? Is he going to throw
it away? Why? Would you do that to your
body? I mean, would you just decide
one day, well, I don't like my fingers, I'm going to cut it
off? No. You see, we are members of Christ, members of His body. Know you not that your bodies
are the members of Christ? Don't you know that? Take the members of Christ and
make them members of a harlot. Now this is pretty graphic language
here actually. For he said, For two saith he
shall be one flesh. Now what he is alluding to, of
course, is the relationship of a man and a woman coming together
in a sexual union. And he is speaking about that
as two becoming one flesh. Now men want to say, well, you
know, I can have a casual relationship with somebody but not be married
to them. Now what does this say? Now the
Lord said that let a man leave his father and his mother, and
cleave to his wife, for they too shall be one flesh." Now
what did he mean? He meant they would come together
in that fashion. And when they came together in
that fashion, they would be one flesh. Now he says if a man is
joined to a harlot, what has he done? He's become one flesh,
which is the exact same thing as if he was married to her.
Now what is marriage? Marriage is the picture of the
relationship that Christ has with His church. And so we are
united to Christ. Now would it not be an adulterous
relationship for one who is joined in the flesh to one be joined
in the flesh to another? Of course it is, according to
what the Scripture says. Know ye not that he which is
joined to an harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one
flesh. But he that is joined unto the
Lord is one spirit. See, we are united to Christ. He said, I will come and dwell
with you. I will come to you, and I will
be your comforter. And I'll be your helper. And
I'll be with you. And then I will take you to be
with me. He that is joined to the Lord
is one spirit. It's not two. It's not three
or four. We're all joined together in
Christ as one. So he says, flee fornication.
Now he's talking about fleeing sexual impurity. Why? Because we're joined to Christ.
And it is spiritual adultery when we would be joined to anyone
else. How can it be, he says. He that
is joined to the Lord's one Spirit, flee fornication. Every sin that
a man doeth is without the body. But he that committeth fornication
sinneth against his own body. Every other sin, he said, if
you go rob a bank, you just rob the bank. You put the money in
your pocket. But he said when you are involved
in sexual impurity, whether it be in the mind or in the flesh,
it doesn't matter. He says you have committed a
sin against your own body. Because you are personally involved
in that. It's not just something external.
It's not something you took off the shelf. It's you. It's your mind. It's your person. He said flee from it. Flee from
it. Why? Don't you know that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? Now, He's not talking to the
world, is He? I mean, the body of every person in the world
is not the temple of the Holy Ghost. But whose bodies are the
temple of the Holy Ghost? Those who are born again by the
Spirit of God, for He comes and He takes up residence there.
And He said, Don't you know this? Don't you know that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost? Don't you know that He's living
in you? And whatever you take and do
in your body is a sin against Him. You have brought Him into
your sin. It's a sin against your body.
And He dwells in you. What? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God? And ye are not your own. Now this is what he's getting
to. Paul said, all things are lawful to me, but all things
are not expedient because I don't belong to myself. Now that's far from what man
wants to be. I can do whatever I want to.
It's me. I'll do what I want to do. Well,
that's okay for a man in the flesh, but you see, if a man
is born again by the Spirit of God, he can't any longer say
that, because we are not our own. We are bought with the price.
And our body and our spirit belong to Him. Now, we know that the
bodies and the spirits of all men belong to the Lord in the
general sense of the word, but he's talking about specifically
here the relationship that God's people who were born of the Spirit
have to Him. Ye are not your own, for ye are
bought with a price. He paid for you. He laid down
His own life for you. Now dear brethren, this I believe
when the Spirit of God is pleased to take this principle and apply
it to our hearts and teach us the full import of it, there
is no greater power existent in the universe to keep a man
from sin than this one. You can't persuade a man through
rewards. Well, you know, if you'll follow
the Lord, one day you'll go to heaven. You'll be a good boy. You know, it's like when they
used to tell us about Santa Claus when we were little kids. And
they'd say, now, if you'll be good, Santa Claus will bring
you some gifts. You know, for about 15 minutes,
that was pretty good. And you thought about, you know,
all the different good things you was going to do. But after
a while, you just kind of went back to doing the same old stuff
that you did. And if Santa Claus wasn't a big
liar, he wouldn't have bought you nothing. But you knew he
was a liar, didn't you? Because you knew you was going
to get something anyway. And you knew you wasn't going
to get a bag of switches and all that kind of stuff. It didn't
matter what you did. It didn't do anything, did it? So you can't shame somebody into
doing the right thing. You can't pay them into doing
the right thing. It can't be done because this
old flesh is just corrupt from beginning to end. But the children
of God are exhorted and encouraged and admonished and rebuked by
the Spirit of the Lord in the preaching of His Word to listen to what He is saying
here. Does He not tell us, ye are not
your own? You do not belong to yourself
anymore. And yes, you can do anything
and you will not face condemnation as a result of it. It's a true
thing. But you see, that's not the motivating
factor for why God's people are to do the things they do. The
motivating factor for doing the things that we do is this. We
don't belong to ourselves. We belong to Him. May the Lord
impress this on our minds and teach us. I can't teach that
to you. I can tell you that the Scripture
says that, no uncertain terms, but only the Lord can take that
and apply it to your heart and burn it into your soul. May He do so with you and me
and all God's people. Remind us continually we are
not our own, but we are bought with a price, the precious blood
of Christ. who gave Himself a ransom for
us, who loves us with an everlasting love, who will never forsake
us. He will never cast us away because
He loves us. And He desires our benefit in
all things. And He causes all things to work
together for our good. How much more ought it to be
as we contemplate these things that we desire to walk according
to the good pleasure of His will? As He set forth. You know, God's
people know. He teaches us what the right
things are, does He not? I mean, we're not perfect in
our understanding and knowledge, but the Lord leads us along the
way and He guides us. And there doesn't a day go by
that we don't know more about what we should do than what we
do. More about what things we ought
to avoid than what things we do avoid. I mean, that's just
the way that it is. Now, thanks be unto God that
our relationship to Christ is not built on what we do and what
we don't do, but it is on what Christ has done for us. And it
is that upon which our thought and our mind is to be continually
set, considering what Christ did. And that's what Paul means
when he says all things are not expedient. Why? Because all things
don't bring glory to God. And if it doesn't bring glory
to God, then what business do I have doing it? I mean, what
am I doing walking through this world seeking to fulfill the
lusts of my flesh? and not ignore it.