Last week we discussed the principle of Christian liberty and in that principle of liberty we talked about boundaries and how the Word of God has boundaries even with our liberty. People in Corinth, you remember, were living according to maxims or mottos, and those mottos were leading them to sin against Christian liberty and to sin against Christ as they did that. You remember the saying, all things are lawful. That would be what you would hear frequently in Corinth. All things are lawful. And it's a statement in and of itself, without boundaries. And today, the Apostle Paul continues with this idea of boundless liberty, and he presents a cure. So last week we looked at the principle, and he gave qualifiers to that principle. All things are lawful, that's a good statement in and of itself, but and let me remind you of this, and let me remind you of this, and let me remind you of this." And we put the boundaries in, and we look to Christ as we live out our Christian life. And today, he gives an example of what was going on in Corinth. And the example that he gives is one that, maybe to you or maybe to me, one that seems rather extreme. The example that he gives is that there are those in the church of Corinth that are visiting prostitutes. That is the example that he gives. It's sort of an extreme example in our minds. But you know that the city of Corinth was a temple city. Because it was an ancient temple city, one of the jobs of those who worked the temple, the jobs for many young women, was temple prostitution. And part of the religious life of the ancient world is that men would go and they would visit temple prostitutes and all of that would be done in the name of religious expression and worship and being faithful. So this is something that the city was known for. And you can imagine that as there are those in Corinth that are being converted to Christ, and there's this temple within the city, and there's this culture of temple prostitution, that there are men who, as they're converted to Christ, and as they're learning to live a new life in Christ, are still maintaining some of the practices from their life before they were Christians. And this is something that a new church in a city that knew nothing of Christianity until it was planted a few years previously, they're having to struggle and wrestle through what this means to live as a Christian. What does it mean to live as a Christian? in Corinth, and there are those that are questioning or saying, ought we to be going to the temple prostitutes anymore, now that we're Christians? And you can see that there are those that are living with this maxim or this motto, and they're coming along, and they're saying, who are you to judge? Christian liberty, all things are lawful for me. And there's men in the church that are living this way. Now, you can be harder than men, but maybe there's temple prostitutes that have been converted as well, and they're going to the church. They're saying, this is what I do for a living. Does becoming a Christian mean I can't make a living anymore? What do I do with this? And you see, for Corinth, they're having to wrestle through these ideas. What does this mean? to live as a Christian in this world. And again, maybe as you hear this, maybe mentally, you've already checked out a sermon about prostitution. Not a problem I'm wrestling with this week. And I don't need to really think through this sermon with Pastor Nathan. But what I want you to do, and what I want to do for you and with you, is to bring forth the principles that the Apostle Paul gives here for those that And I want you to apply those principles to your life. You're struggling with sin. You're struggling with some aspect of what it means to be a Christian, and you're trying to live in that balance of being in the world and yet not of the world. And you're needing to walk as a Christian in this life as well. So if you've mentally checked out and said, sermons on prostitution aren't really anything that I need to wrestle through, take the principles that are put forward and apply them to what you're wrestling through. Apply those principles to how you're struggling to live out the Christian life. And that's what Paul does. He gives us three principles for fighting sexual sin. And in these three principles, although specifically applied to sexual sin in the life of Corinth this morning, I want you to consider all of these things and apply them to your life. I want you praying and asking that the Spirit of God would apply them to you. So this morning, we're looking at this theme, Not Your Own. Our text is 1 Corinthians 6, verses 12 through 20. So verses 12 through 20. And in that, we are told that you, as a Christian, are to flee sexual sin. And the reason that you are to flee sexual sin is because you are not your own. You do not belong to yourself if you are a Christian. You are in Jesus and belong to Jesus. And because of this, if this truth applies to you, that you are to live and walk in a certain way as a Christian, Now, I'm suggesting that you consider your own sin life and apply it to your sin life. The direct context is sexual sin. And maybe even jokingly have said, well, that's not going to apply to us. Nobody in this congregation has ever called me and said, Pastor Nathan, I'm struggling with prostitutes. But let me give you some statistics even related to sexual sin. 55% of married men admit to watching pornography at least monthly. This is research connected to the Church, not the world. 55%. 76% of men between the ages of 18 and 24 admit to using pornography at least monthly. 67% of Christians polled said that sex before marriage is acceptable behavior. 47% say it's acceptable on first date. So 47% of those that claim to be Christians hold, the question is, is it appropriate to have this relationship on the first date? And almost half of those that claim to be Christians said, of course that's acceptable behavior. 54% of those hold said homosexual relationships were acceptable, and only 4% that they were unsure. This is a problem in American culture. This is a problem in the Church of Jesus Christ. We talk about Corin having prostitution issues. If the American Church was being written to by the Apostle Paul, he would only have to tweak endings of the words, because pornos is the root word. This is something that the American Church is struggling with. And this sin, even under the name of Christian liberty, is a serious problem in the life of the church. We, in a sense, are courted. So how do we fight sin? How do we fight any sin? Again, I don't want you to check out, I want you to apply this. And there are three great truths that Paul puts forth that he wants you to put in the arsenal of your mind and heart that you may go into whatever situation it is where you need to fight sin. And he wants you to bring these out, bring these out as truths as you wrestle through sin. And the first one is verses 12-14, and we are told that we have an eternal body. An eternal body. Verses 12-14 says, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Food for the stomach, stomach for the food, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not 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. So what we do is we begin with this idea that here's the body, here's the body in which we live, and we serve God with this body that He has given us. And many Christians, fall into an ancient philosophical heresy concerning the body that says that the soul is the only thing that's important. The soul is what we care about. And we even talk that way in the church. Jesus came to save souls. But how often would it come to our ears in a strange way if we said, Jesus came to save bodies? You'd think, oh, that doesn't sound right. Well, why doesn't that sound right? It doesn't sound right because we're not thinking right. Jesus came to save soul and body. God cares about your body and how you use it. So there's this misunderstanding in Corinth concerning impulse and the relationships of the human body to the impulses or the drives that we have. Again, Corinth loves their mottos, their mottos of Christian liberty, and they use these mottos to justify sin, sin against themselves, sin against their wives, sin against Jesus Christ. So all things are lawful. That's what they've told us. But how about this one in verse 13? Food for the stomach. and the stomach for food. So what does that mean? It means that there are those that understand the impulses of the human body and saying that responding to those impulses is human and has nothing to do with who we are as Christians. If you're hungry, what do you do? You eat. And they're taking that principle and they're applying it to other impulses of the human body. They're saying, if you want this, because your body says you want it, you fulfill it. You fulfill that desire. Food and hunger go together. If you're hungry, you eat. And then other areas of that being applied, and again, it's a misunderstanding of the human body. Our bodies are not temporal. They're not temporary. They're not something only for this life, but we're told, and we'll go back to this, or we'll come forward to this as we continue in 1 Corinthians, There will be a day when your bodies that are dead and long dead will be raised unto newness of life. Your body will be raised, and your body will spend eternity reunited with your soul in the presence of God. That is Christian teaching. I watched a show recently, a documentary, and they were talking about Paris, and some of you have been to Paris, and the catacombs of Paris, all filled with human bones. They said it's about four million persons' worth of dead bodies under Paris, all stacked in bones. And that problem happened as Paris filled with dead bodies. When the Gauls was the French before the Franks came and conquered them, the Gauls converted to Christianity. And then as people were dying, they stopped burning their bodies. They started burying the bodies. Well, why is that? It's because they're thinking change on the human body. And as they begin burying the bodies, of course, parents being in Walt City, you know, you can only have so many dead bodies until you need to figure out what you're going to do with them. So they're like, let's stack them, let's make artwork and do things like that. So we have an eternal body that will be raised on the last day. It is something that has been redeemed if we are Christians. In 13 and 14, tells us that God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. So Paul's saying you do have these impulses. You do have these things that you need to consider, but you need to know that these things will be destroyed. They will go to the grave, and then he's gonna tell us that they will be raised up, verse 14. God will raise up the Lord, and will also raise us up by His power. So those impulses of the body go to the grave, and then it will be raised in newness of life. So how does this relate to prostitutes? How does this relate to sexual sin? How does this relate to whatever sin you are struggling through? Paul says, Think about this fact that your body is eternal, and what you do in that body has consequences. There are effects of the way we live our lives that result in certain things. Paul says, I want you to think through that. I want you to think about your body and the fact that your body, number one, belongs to the Lord. It's His. He is the one that determines how it is to be used. And secondly, that it is something that is forever. It is something that God will raise up on the last day and renew. And God cares for what you do in your body. Now apply that to your sin. Apply that to your Christian life. Apply that to your sin against your body. You belong to the Lord. If you are a Christian, you belong to the Lord. That is to be the mantra that overtakes the motto of what porn is doing as you're living out their sin lives. Your body belongs to the Lord. sin knowing that you have an eternal body and you are not your own. You are not your own. But we see another principle for fighting sin in the text. Secondly, we see an established union. 15-17 Do not know that your bodies are members of Christ. Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. but he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. So we see that principle, your bodies are eternal, they'll die and then be raised up unto newness of life, therefore flee sin. Second principle, you are in union with Christ. If you are a Christian, you are in union with Christ, therefore flee sin, you are not your own. There is this established union between you that has believed the gospel and Jesus Christ, the one that you are in union with. And he asks that question, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? You are in union with Jesus. And that union, that who you are in Christ, are to drive all that you are, and all that you do, and all the ways that you think, and how you respond to certain things in this life, including impulse and temptation. All of that should be seen through the lens that says, I am in union with Jesus Christ. What is this union? or this membership, or this marriage, due for you. You see, we take that union, and it's not just a theological thing. It's not just, well, when the pastor preaches about justification, he's required to keep his Reformed bona fides, he's required to mention union with Christ. It's not just something that is out there It's something that is applicable and has application for who you are as a Christian. We know that you ought to both be cohabitating or living with Christ and bearing fruit from that union in Christ. I've spent a couple of weeks sort of plugging Puritan paperbacks In the one that we just finished, our men's group finished, the Bogdeman's picture, the last chapter is on union with Christ. And there, Thomas Watson says, concerning the union that we have with Christ, he says, this is one purpose of marriage, to live together, that Christ may dwell in your hearts. It is not enough to pay Christ a few visits in His ordinances. Hypocrites may do that, but there must be a mutual associating. We dwell upon the thoughts of Christ He provides in God. Married people should not live apart, and we bear fruit, that you may be married to one another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. The spouse bears the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness. See, if we're in union with Christ, we need to consider that that union or that marriage is something that has application for you, directly for you. And here we're given two. We live with Christ. Married people generally live together. So we live with Christ and we're in communion with Christ and in that relationship with Christ. And then secondly, we bear fruit. There is fruit of marriage. that is clearly seen. This year we have, last year we had a bunch of wedding showers as a congregation. The ladies went to wedding showers. And what are you all going to this year? You're going to baby showers. That is the fruit of union. That is the way that we are to live our lives as Christians. We bear fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, long suffering. God's righteousness on you results in Christ's image in you being renewed. This great union that comes from justification and trusting in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, it results in us living with Christ in communion, and it results in us bearing fruit. So consider this great truth. And ask yourself, and if you're in that category of those wrestling with sexual sin, and it sounds, it's such a big amount of American Christians that are wrestling here, ask yourself this question that Paul next asks, of one in that union with Christ, share in union with a prostitute? And again, your initial reaction, like, Pastor Nathan, you know, who's struggling in that way? Well, then, who brought it? Are you to be in union with one, not your wife? Are you to be in union with one on the screen of your phone? Are you to be in union with a friend for casual hookup? Are you to be in union with anyone that's not your spouse? See this sexual union outside of marriage. Ask yourself, is this consistent with one who is in union with Christ? If your union is here in Jesus, ought you also to be living in union with this sin that I promise will destroy you. Read the book of Proverbs. It will destroy you. And Paul says, no, it's not consistent. And friends, even the Corinthians knew this. They knew that this was inconsistent living. What Paul does in discussing this established union is that he demonstrates that unions do something. How many of you have had friends that have gotten married, and you've said, you know, that person's changed. They're different since they got married. Union changes people. And when you're in union with Jesus Christ, it ought to change you. And when you're in union with a spouse, when you get married, that changes you. And Paul says, ask yourself about this other union. Sexual sin. one in union with another outside of marriage, or when one is engaged in a sin. There is a union that this affects. It doesn't just affect the wife who is sinned against. It doesn't just affect self, as he says it's a sin against self. Sexual sin has consequences. physical consequences and spiritual consequences and moral consequences and emotional consequences. For example, if you wait to have sex until you're married, your chances of getting divorced drop by 70% statistically. 70%! 90% of people that have sex before they're married, in a relationship before marriage, 90% of them don't ever get married to that person. So the effects on your person for the sin are well documented. You can read mental health journals. And you can find even psychologists that hate God telling you of the effects of human sexuality on the mind, and the soul, and the body, and the way these things affect you. I read some of these this week. And I have a VPN on my phone, so my wife earlier in the week said, what is your sermon about Sunday? All these things being flagged throughout the week. But we see there's emotional issues and depression. Depression skyrockets with the sin. There's this sense of guilt that people carry around. You can think of the relationship with the Lord. Go to the David story. David and Bathsheba. David was so far spiritually removed from being in communion with God that when Nathan confronts him, it was as if he did not even know there was a problem. And then he breaks. It is against you, it is against you alone that I have sinned. And again, Joseph, as we mentioned, Joseph, as Joseph is being called into that union with Potiphar's wife, lie with me, lie with me, lie with me. Joseph kept reminding her, this union belongs to your husband, and my business union is what I have with your husband. And he ends up fleeing, doesn't he? He's godly and he's fleeing. You are not your own. You are Christ's. This is the union from which you are to live your life. You are not your own. You are Christ's. You belong to Christ if you are in union with Him. Paul even says, your spirit is joined to his spirit. You are not your own. Two of the heaviest commentators on 1 Corinthians, John Calvin and Charles Hodge, both of them, as they reflect on this idea of your spirit, being connected to his spirit, his union, both of them are like, we can't really fully explain this. Calvin's commentary is this 22 volumes, it's a shelf list that he gets to this, he's like, mystical, can't explain it all. Charles Hodge talking about this says, this does not mean He has the same disposition or state of mind, but He has the same principle of life as Christ. The Spirit is given without measure unto Christ, and from Him is communicated to all His people, brought into a common life with them. This being the case, it imposes the highest conceivable obligation not to act inconsistently with this relationship. So Christ has full access to the Spirit of God, you're converted, you're brought into union with Christ, and the Spirit of God is given out in full support and full abundance of your Christian life, that you may live in that way. This union with Christ here is contrasted with these dangerous and false unions that damage even the soul The Apostle reminds you again. Flee sin. Flee sin. Some sins were called to fight. Other sins were called to flee. Flee sin. So you imagine there's the sin and the effects of the sin and this union are emotional and physical and psychological and spiritual. And you can go, you can talk to people that struggle with these sins. And maybe even yourself, you can tick off the boxes, emotional problems and physical problems and psychological burdens and spiritual problems with my relationship with Christ. And this sin, because of this union, results in this. And then we have union with Christ in our union with Christ resolves in our justification and in our sanctification and eventually in our glorification. And in that relationship, there is a pouring out of the spirit unto you that you too may live in a certain way. joy and peace and long-suffering and gentleness, etc. All of these fruit of living out the Christian life. Paul says, think of that union. Live out that union. And thirdly, I want to draw your attention to verses 18-20. Paul gives plea, sexual immorality, from 12 to 20 is centered there. Every sin that a man does that's outside of his body, that he commits sexual immorality, sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? whom ye have from God, and ye are not your own. For ye were bought with the price, therefore glorified God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." So thirdly, we see an embodied temple. An embodied temple. Notice Paul gives this command right in the middle. He says, flee sexual immorality. He doesn't say fight, as they said. He says flee. Get away from it. Remove it. Get it out of your life. Run from this sin. Jesus talks about plucking out your eye. Paul has been telling us the way to flee this and giving imperatives as we are Christians. Now, thirdly, he wants us to see that you are an embodied temple. When one sins in this manner, he's sinning against his own body. But the idea of your body, which he's already talked about, your body will be put in the grave, and then it will be raised. Your body belongs to Christ. But he says you're sitting against your own body. And again, physical, emotional, psychological damage in all of these ways. But he wants us to think about another body as well. There is a bigger body, called the body of Christ, that you are a part of. all of us. That's a principle of the Word of God. We are connected as the body of Christ. But we're not only connected as the body of Christ here. We, collectively, are a temple You are not your own. Some of you have traveled. Some of you have been to great cathedrals in Europe, maybe lesser cathedrals, St. Augustine. Some of you have been to Asia, and Ruth, you're not awake today, but I'm going to point it at them, so pretend they're here with us. temples all through Japan and parts of Asia. And you go in these places, whether you're being religiously observant or not, I'm assuming you're not, but as you go into a great European cathedral or as you're in Asia, you go into, say, a great Buddhist temple. There is a sense of awe that overwhelms you, isn't there? When you look up and you're reminded that the world is bigger than you and history goes beyond your birthday and there is something that is eternal and there are such things as sacred things. Temples And cathedrals have a way of doing that. And again, I'm not, you know, don't bring charges against me, saying Nathan said to go worship in a Buddhist temple. I'm saying you walk in, you get this sense of awe. You get this sense of eternity. Paul says your body is a temple. We collectively are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And because we are a temple, because your body is a temple, there are certain things that you ought to be meditating on. The first is that your body and us as the body, we are a sacred place. We are a sacred place and therefore ought not to be profaned. Who determines how a cathedral is used? Who determines how a great Asian temple is used? I don't. Nobody ever asked me that. And it's almost like when you walk into those places, even as like good blue banner waving Protestants, you walk into those places and you want to follow the rules. Mostly. A temple is a sacred space where God determines how it is to be used. as well as the liturgies and the sacred movements that belong to that temple. That is true of your body as well. You don't determine how your body is to be used. God does. And God has given us a book. And God says, this is how you're called to live, and this is how you're called to walk, and this is how you're called to be, and this is how you're called to all of these things if you're in Christ. This is God's intention for the human race. But the other principle is not only that God determines how it is to be used, you do not. There is a question as to who owns the temple. I remember a few years ago when Notre Dame was burning, and the pundits are watching this fire for hours, and because they need something to talk about, because it's like they're not going to win this fire, They're on Google just pulling up all of these random facts. And one of the random facts that made many people pause was that Notre Dame is not owned by the Roman Catholic Church. It's owned by the French government. It's one of the few cathedrals that's not owned by the church. And that's because French Revolution, bloody anti-Christian, godless, all that stuff that shocked and amazed many people. Why does France own this building? And as Americans, why do we care? But the truth is, is that we see that and we say, that shouldn't belong to a nation. Because there's something within us that is pulled to what are called sacred spaces. So in a temple, who owns that? Who owns a temple? Like if Solomon, when he's giving foolishly, giving the tour of the temple, he's like, here's where all my gold is, and look at all this gold, and there's all this fine stuff here, and these are made out of badger skin, so that when you attack us, make sure to take those too. When Solomon's giving that tour, Whose name is on the deed of the temple? It belongs to God. Friends, that is true of you. Your body belongs to God. Because you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, you are not your own. You see how valuable this is as we think about fighting sin. You are not your own. Who determines the ethic of how you live if you are not your own? Somebody else. the one who owns you. As children, you say, it's my toy, I'll do what I want with it. You are not your own. God owns you. You were bought with a price. through the death of Jesus Christ, through the death of Christ's precious body, through the scourging and the beating of Jesus Christ being made dead for you, you were purchased. You were ransomed from death and hell as Christ went through death and hell for you. You are not your own. Flee sin and look at the therefore verse 20 therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit. Don't separate these glorify God in your body and your spirit which are gods. God has made both body and soul, and they are both to be used for His glory. Colossians 1.20, To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. See, through Christ, you are able to glorify God as the Spirit of God indwells you. There's Trinitarian theology worked out practically. What's the practical application to the doctrine of the Trinity? It's always asking theology. Here's one of them. We fight sin in a Trinitarian way. We flee sin. We flee sexual sin because you are not your own. You have an eternal body. You are not your own. Fight sin. You have an established union. You are not your own. Fight sin. You are part of an embodied temple. You are not your own. fight sin, look to Jesus by faith, and live unto His glory, and may Jesus Christ be glorified in both your body and your spirit. Amen. Father, we thank you for the Word of God. We thank you for the encouragements and the challenges that the Word of God brings to us. And we pray, O Lord, that we would seek you