You can, of course, keep your Bibles open to 1 Corinthians 6. We continue our series this morning in 1 Corinthians on how the message of the cross confronts selfishness and worldliness in the church. The Corinthian church was struggling profoundly with selfishness and worldliness in the congregation. They seemed to have completely forgotten the message of the cross. The message of the cross, of course, is the message of Christ's death and resurrection, and the idea that we are united to Christ by faith in both His death and His resurrection. The message of the cross, as we've said, as we've talked about weeks prior, is a glorious tension. It's a tension between two extremes. It's a tension between both Christ's death and Christ's resurrection. This means that the message of the cross is a message of self-sacrificing crucifixion on one hand, and resurrection life and power on the other hand. The cross really is a message of how our future hope for resurrection from the dead with Jesus Christ, because we're united to Him by faith, is lived out in the present life. Resurrection hope applied to life today, especially resurrection hope as it enables us and empowers us to a life of self-denying, self-sacrificing service for one another. This is the glorious tension, death and resurrection. The resurrection of Christ living within us, the power of Christ living within us, enabling us to live a life that imitates His death. We're being conformed to the likeness of His sufferings. We're giving ourselves over to self-denial. We're making ourselves sacrifices to Him for the sake of His church. There's a tension between death and resurrection. Paul has been making a transition over the last couple of chapters. I don't know if you have noticed them, if you've been with us every week, week after week. He's been making a transition from chapter 1 to chapter 6, subtly shifting from a focus or an emphasis on Christ's death, or that is the message of the cross, or this message of self-sacrifice, to the message of resurrection. Now, He's dealing with death and resurrection in every chapter, but there's a shift in His emphasis. He begins with the cross in chapter 1. He shifts over to resurrection by the time that we get to chapter 6. Maybe you've noticed this. In chapter 1, it was all about the cross. It was about the weakness of God, the foolishness of God, the humility of God, and the glorious change that that has affected in us. Chapter 2 was about the spirit of the cross. By the time that we get to chapter 3 and 4, we start to detect this interesting transition. In chapter 3, in Jesus Christ, because of His cross, we've been given all things. Even the world has been given to us. Christ has been given to us. He belongs to us. We belong to Him. Chapter 4, however, although we've been given all things, we are the scum of the earth. And Paul has been making this shift from cross to glory. By the time we get to chapter 5, we are the saints of God seated in the assembly in matters of church discipline, bringing to bear judgment day realities to sin in the church. And here in chapter 6 Paul is going to talk to us all about how we have been united to Christ by faith, united to His glorious resurrection. And because of that we have a hope, we have a hope of future resurrection with Jesus Christ. And he's going to be focusing his attention on how our hope for future resurrection applies to our life today in some practical matters. He's going to touch on three things that we're going to be looking at here in just a moment. What I want to press upon you as we get started this morning, brothers, is that It is not just the cross that applies to you today. Yes, you have been called by Jesus Christ to a life of self-denial, but it is also the glory of His resurrection, and it has real practical implications in your life and in the life of the church today. And so look at how Paul puts this. He begins in chapter, I'm going to start, I'm going to show you the argument that Paul is making. So we're going to be hopping all over the chapter, but I want you to see his logic here. So we're going to start in chapter six, verse 14. If you'll just look there really quickly, Paul reminds us of our union with Christ and the hope of glory that that brings with us. Chapter six, verse 14, God raised the Lord. He raised him from the dead. and will also raise us up by His power." What Paul is assuming there is that we're united to Christ. And because Christ has been resurrected from the dead, we will be resurrected from the dead. And we can be certain of that. Now this key verse that's really the center of his argument in chapter 6 is surrounded by three don't-you-know statements that form Paul's main line of thinking here. Verse 1 is in verse 2. Look at verse 2. Because we are united with Christ and therefore destined to be raised from the dead, v. 2, don't you know that the saints will judge the world? Don't you know that you've been destined by God to judge the earth? He will say later in v. 3, even the angels, even heaven itself. And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Future Hope, judges of the world, present day practical application, you are competent to try trivial cases among your membership. Verse 9, number 2, second statement He makes, don't you know you've been raised, you are destined to be raised from the dead, you've been united to Christ, you will share in His resurrection. Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Therefore do not be deceived, verse 11, in Jesus Christ you have been washed, and you have been sanctified, and you have been justified in Him from your sin. Which is another way of Paul saying, don't you know that you are destined to inherit the kingdom of righteousness, that you are destined to a life of sinless existence? You've been united to Christ, you'll be raised with him. Don't you know that you have liberty from sin? 12-20 Paul uses three more closely related don't you know statements, they're all making basically the same point, you've been united to Christ, your bodies belong to Him now and forever. He says, don't you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Don't you know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you? So glorify God in your body. future hope, present application. So we can break this text into three parts. We wanna look at each one of these three ideas one at a time as the main structure of our sermon today. Because you're united to Christ and you're destined to be raised with him, you are number one, destined to be judges of the world. Number two, inheritors of the kingdom of righteousness. You're destined for sinless existence. And number three, you are destined to live forever. Bodies dedicated to Jesus Christ now and always. let's look at these three things. I hope this is very encouraging to you today. Now Paul is still somewhat scolding the Corinthians but I think for us today there is going to be a lot of encouragement here. Number one brothers you are destined to become judges of the world because you are united to Christ and you have the hope of the resurrection of the dead. We are destined to be judges of the world and that means that today we are competent to try trivial cases pertaining to this life. Before we get too far into this point we want to talk about what Paul means by trivial cases. We can sort of see this in verse 1, he calls them grievances. He says in verse 1, when one of you has a grievance against another does he dare go to the law, that is to the civil court system, of the nation that they live in, in the case of Corinth, that's Greece. When one has a grievance against another, does he dare go to the law before the unrighteous, unrighteous judges, unrighteous juries instead of the saints? Why are you not taking your trivial cases to the church is what he's asking. What Paul means by grievances are petty claims. We think of petty claims, petty civil court cases, maybe frivolous lawsuits. Maybe you think of an illustration of this if you've ever seen an ambulance chaser, someone who likes to use loopholes in the law to gain an advantage when they have no real claim. Petty disputes, that's what he means here by grievances. It's important that we recognize what Paul is not doing here is tearing down the criminal justice system. He's not undermining the authority of the government or of our court system or of our prison system or anything like that. He's talking about petty cases. It's really important that you understand that. He says we're judges of the world. We should be able to settle our own cases. He's not talking about cases of serious criminal abuse. If a crime has been committed against you, you must and you should, and the Bible teaches you to go to the law. You need to report that to the police. It needs to go to court if the system will allow it and so on. And you need to follow through with due process. God himself has ordained our governments. They are very good. They are in place to execute justice for us. That's why they're there. However, that's not what Paul is talking about here. He's not talking about criminal cases, serious claims. He's talking about these grievances, these petty claims, these ways that the Corinthians have been defrauding one another and mistreating one another and disputing with one another and then unable to resolve their conflicts within the church and therefore taking it to the world and making an embarrassment of Christ and of the church and of everything that God stands for. So what he's talking about here are these grievances or these petty cases, these petty claims. And in this passage, Paul teaches the Corinthians, and the Spirit teaches us today, that such cases are to be brought before the Church. And the reason is because believers are destined to judge the world, and to judge even the angels, and are therefore confident, and ought to be confident, that they are competent and qualified to judge such cases. Again, verse 2, do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try these trivial cases? Of course, the answer being no, of course not. You're absolutely qualified. Verse 3, do you not know that we are to judge angels? We will even rule heaven? How much more then matters pertaining to this life? Paul uses this term judge he doesn't just simply mean resolving the dispute, the word judge carries the idea of ruling and reigning. Don't you know that you are going to rule the world? Don't you know that you are going to rule over angels? This is an amazing doctrine but brothers it is tied in with our union with Christ and therefore the hope that we have for future resurrection. We will be raised with Christ so we will reign with Christ. But I want you to notice a couple of things here as we look at this, as we think through what this means to rule and reign with Christ, to be judges of the world and judges of angels. We can look at this idea, we can break it open by answering three questions. Who will you judge? Will be our first question. Our second question will be how will you judge? And our third question will be why will you judge? So, who will you judge? Well He says the world and angels. If you remember what Jesus says in Matthew 12, 41 He teaches that the saints will judge the world. Matthew 12, verse 41 is the passage where Jesus is talking about the way that the Ninevites, you remember in the Old Testament the prophet Jonah went to Nineveh and the Gentile city Nineveh and he preached the Gospel to them and they repented and they believed. And Jesus is preaching now in the Gospels to Jerusalem and He is telling them and warning them that there is going to be a day of judgment. There is going to be a day when those old Ninevites who believed the Gospel so long ago are going to rise again and they are going to rise to judgment and they are going to bear witness against this generation and they are going to condemn it because they have not believed in Christ. But then the point that Jesus is making is that those who rise again rise to judgment. The Ninevites are going to rise to judge the world. They're going to judge the generation that Jesus was preaching in. And if it's true for the Ninevites brothers, it's true for every saint. If it's true for Old Testament Gentile Nineveh, it's true for every believer in Christ. You will rise and you will judge this generation. bear witness against this generation." So, the Bible teaches this very plainly. We will rise again, we will rule over, and we will share with Christ in the judgment of the world. Who else will we judge? We will judge angels, Hebrews chapter 2 makes this plain. You remember how Hebrews chapter 2 ties Psalm chapter 8 into who Jesus Christ is. Psalm chapter 8 says, who is man or what is man God that you should be mindful of Him. You've made Him a little lower than the angels. And then the author of Hebrews goes on to remind us that God has brought Jesus Christ into the world to take upon our flesh. And He has been for a little while made lower than the angels, and Jesus Christ conquered sin and death, and now He has been raised from the dead, and He is exalted even over the angels. And Jesus took upon our flesh then so that He might conquer sin and death for us, and He has exalted our nature, and because we're united to Him, our natures are exalted in Him, and we will be exalted with Him by faith, and we will rule the angels with Him. We will judge the world. We will judge angels. This is your destiny. Every one of you in this room who believe in Jesus Christ, everyone in this room who will believe in Jesus Christ, you are destined to judge men and angels, to rule and reign with the Lord Jesus. You're destined to rise again with Him. great example of this it doesn't prove the point but it illustrates this point is the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 4 illustrates this very well. You remember that beautiful scene that we have painted for us in Revelation chapter 4 where God is seated upon His throne and get that marvelous description of Him so mysterious and wonderful. And there's the rainbow halo above His head upon the throne. And you remember the way the description unfolds in Revelation chapter 5. There's four living creatures. There's four angelic beings. There's four seraphim at the corners, the four corners of God's throne all around. And And then outside of those four creatures are hosts innumerable of all of the angels standing before God in heaven. Just as far as the eye can see, and this is how John is describing this scene. And then interestingly, what's so beautiful about Revelation chapter four is that in front of God's throne, at the very foot of God's throne, not outside the circle of the four living creatures, but inside the circle of the four living creatures are 24 thrones. little thrones in front of God's thrones. And upon those 24 thrones are 24 elders. And those 24 elders represent to us the believers. They represent the church of God. They represent the people of God. And it just simply illustrates the point that there's an authority hierarchy or structure. God is on his throne. In front of his throne is the church. Outside of the church then are those four living creatures and then all the angelic hosts. It's a picture of ruling and reigning. Paul makes it so plain to us here. You will judge the world. You will judge angels. You will rule and reign with Christ over the world and over heaven itself. This is due to your union with Christ. This is the hope that you have in Him. How will you judge? We've already said from Matthew 12, verse 41, that you'll do so by witnessing. You will rise again and you will condemn this generation. You will witness against them of their evil for not believing in Christ Jesus. And you will condemn them. You will judge the world by witnessing against them. You will judge the world by approving of Christ's judgments. Psalm 58 verse 10 reminds us that the righteous will rejoice when they see the vengeance. that is they will offer their Amen to the vengeance of Jesus Christ. They will offer their thumbs up. They will offer their vote of approval when Jesus condemns the world. You will witness against this world and you will approve of Christ's judgment against this world. We see this also in Revelation 19. Verse 1 through 2, you'll remember the picture there in the book of Revelation that Babylon the Great has been judged. It's a picture of the wickedness of this world coming to an end. And the smoke of her rises up forever and ever because God's judgment has fallen upon her, final and at last. And what is the response of the saints? Approval of the condemnation, approval of the judgment. There's a huge shout, a great hallelujah, a great praise the Lord, a great amen, that the prophet John tells us shakes even heaven and earth itself, like peals of thunder. a great amen to the judgment of Christ. We will rise to witness against the world, we will approve of the vengeance of the condemnation, and we will be involved in the execution of the vengeance. Again, Psalm 149, probably a psalm that you are somewhat familiar with. Psalm 149, verse four, the saints will be equipped with two-edged swords in their hands to execute the vengeance against the nations. Psalm 58 verse 10 again, the righteous will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked. We are destined in Jesus Christ because of our union with Him to rule the world with Him and to share with Him in judgment, witnessing and approving and even executing His vengeance upon this world. Well, why will we judge? Well, it's because we're saints. Because we're united to Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ we have been washed, and we have been sanctified, and we have been justified. That is to say we've been qualified for this judgment. We've been set free from sin. We've been clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We've been raised with Him. We are made holy in Him. That's who the saint is. He's the one who's sanctified. He's called into fellowship with Christ. He calls upon Jesus Christ. A saint is somebody who has been humbled by his sin. He has received mercy, the free gift of grace. He has renounced his own works. He's renounced his own righteousness, and he clings to Jesus Christ alone, and this eminently qualifies him to judge the world. In the Holy Spirit, he has been gifted, illuminated, and he understands the revelation of the free gift of the gospel. He has the mind of Jesus Christ. the mind of self-sacrifice, and service, and self-denial, and he has been justified. He has been given the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a free gift, which means that the saint knows what real righteousness is all about. And even more than this, he has been forgiven of his sins. He knows what mercy and forgiveness are, how important they are, how precious they are. Well, this qualifies the saint then to judge the one who has rejected mercy, who has clung to their own righteousness, who has clung to their own worth and their own value and their own sense of right and wrong, who has refused the offer of mercy and grace, who has remained hardened in their sin and arrogant and proud and refused to acknowledge their great need for a savior. Brothers, you are destined to judge the world. to judge even angels. You are qualified for this because you are saints in Christ Jesus. And so Paul's point here in many ways is to have confidence. You are competent to try trivial cases when they come to you. You are qualified by the grace of Christ to judge and to settle disputes and matters pertaining to this life. This ties into what Paul's been saying in 1 Corinthians because one of the big issues in 1 Corinthians is that the people are sort of pitted against one another. they're in great disunity and disagreement with one another. And Paul is saying, look Christ is going to rise again, you're going to rise with Him, you're going to rule the world, you are competent and qualified to settle these disputes. It's a very encouraging word really. Well Paul reaches the necessary conclusion that If these things are so, the Corinthians should be ashamed for bringing their cases, their disputes before unbelievers, before the civil court system. Look at what he says in verse four. So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? Why are you going to unbelievers? I say this to your shame. Again, that's not to degrade them or to embarrass them. It's to press upon them the seriousness of what he's saying. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between brothers? But brother goes to law against brother and that before unbelievers. It's appalling. The power of the resurrected Christ lives within you, Paul is saying. You are destined for awesome glory. You will rule the world. You ought not to be taking your petty claims and your disputes to the world. You ought to be taking it to the Church. Well, they should be ashamed of this for two reasons. First, it's a dishonor to the power that Christ has given to them as a free gift as priest kings. it's a shame to the Church, to the Apostolic Bride and her glory and what she will become. In addition to this it gives unbelievers the opportunity to persecute the Church. This is something that the Corinthians were not realizing and Paul is rebuking them for this reason. But brothers, we ought to be wise with this. Not all of us have equal capacities or gifts in the Gospel. Verse 4 says that we should be taking this to those who have standing in the Church. So we don't want to turn this into an individualistic thing. We want to make sure that we keep this a corporate thing. And so that's what Paul is getting at here. He says, look, there are those who have standing in the church. There are those who have gifts. There are those who are mature in the faith. If you have a petty dispute, take it through due process in the church, talk to your pastors, find out somebody who can help resolve these issues. They're eminently qualified. They're your brothers. They're united to Christ. They're destined for glory just as you are. But what a glorious message then that Paul is teaching us here. We are united to Christ. We are destined to rise again and we are therefore destined to rule the world. Let us then resolve our disputes. Secondly, because we're united to Christ and the hope of resurrection lives within us, we are destined to be inheritors of the kingdom of righteousness. Every one of you who believe in Jesus Christ, every one of us who believes we are destined to inherit sinless righteousness. That means today that we are free from the power of sin and we have been empowered to a life of self-denying righteousness. The point that Paul is making is that we shouldn't be taking our disputes to the court system. We shouldn't be having disputes in the first place. But look, here's where he starts with this verse 12. Let me interject something really quickly here. The divisions in our modern translations, I'm not going to be dogmatic about this. I don't think that they're ideal. They're based on modern scholarship. If you're noticing what my outline is, if you care about this kind of thing. If you don't just give me a second for the technical nerds in the congregation for just a minute. We're breaking this passage up verse 1-6. The paragraph should end at verse 6, it should start at verse 7. The second paragraph should end at the end of verse 12. The third paragraph should begin at verse 13. Where am I getting that from? Well almost every modern scholar that you read is going to break it down like you see it here in the ESV or similarly in the New King James Version. But I'm looking at the older guys. We're going way back to the medievals and the patristics. And they had a better grasp of this passage than the moderns do. And I'm just, I'm following their pattern. That's my footnote for my sermon today, just to let you know, if you're interested in that kind of thing, that's why we're breaking this up the way that we are. So verse 12 is Paul's main point here in this second paragraph. He's changing his attention. He has already spoken about the fact that we're going to be raised to be judges of the world. Now he's talking about our liberty in Christ. And v. 12 is his thesis statement, essentially. Look at what he says in v. 12. This is his main point. 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. Paul here is assuming that you understand the idea or the doctrine of Christian liberty. Christian liberty means that in Jesus Christ, you have been set free from every master except Jesus Christ who is your ultimate King, who is your Master. He has set you free to serve Him and to serve Him alone, and in serving Him, to serve God. So we no longer serve those old masters that we were in bondage to. Jesus Christ has gloriously, with great power, set us free from them all. We no longer serve the world. We no longer serve the flesh. We no longer serve the devil. We no longer serve the Old Testament civil and ceremonial law. We no longer serve fear. We no longer serve death. And most importantly, we no longer serve sin. Christ has liberated us. He has set us free. Praise the Lord. The implication of Christian liberty is that we freely enjoy all things in Jesus Christ as gifts. However, as you know, the tendency and the temptation that we have with Christian liberty is to twist it and to turn Christian liberty into an excuse for our own self-indulgence. And Paul's assuming all of this in this passage in verse 12. This was certainly what was going on in the Corinthians, in their case, in the Corinthian church. And Paul corrects this in verse 12, there's two governing principles, there's two boundaries to Christian liberty that he brings out and he underlines here. The exercise of Christian liberty must build up the body, that's the first boundary. If it doesn't, it's not real Christian liberty. And number two, it must not hold dominion over you. Your exercise of Christian liberty must not hold dominion over you. You do not have the right to selfishly indulge your liberties at the expense of the church. You do not have the right to selfishly indulge your liberty. if it brings you back under bondage to the thing that you think that you're free in. Let me just really quickly give you an example. We often think of the drinking of wine as an example of this. If your enjoyment of wine comes to a point that it ceases to edify the body, then you must put away your wine. Or if you enjoy wine as an indulgence of Christian liberty, something that Christ purchased for you for sure, and it becomes a lord in your life, and you're under its dominion, and you can't say no to it, then you have violated your Christian liberty. That's basically the idea here. Christian liberty then at its best, and the whole point and intention of Christian liberty, and this is what Paul's getting at, and he'll elaborate on this again in chapters eight through 10. Christian liberty at its best is the freedom to sacrifice. That's what Christ is, in this life, that's what Christ has enabled us to do. to sacrifice. He's enabled us to self-denial. He's enabled us to self-denial for the building up of the body. Christian liberty at its best is the freedom to say no even to lawful things so that we don't come back under dominion of anything. And in the case that Christian liberty doesn't violate these two boundaries, as long as it's edifying to the church and as long as you're not in dominion under it, then you have liberty to enjoy everything that Christ has given you to its fullest. But at its heart, the real application of Christian liberty is that it set us free to sacrifice for one another and to say no to lawful things. So here you have the Corinthians then violating this principle all over the place in our context. In the name of Christian liberty, they're taking advantage of their petty claims court system to rob one another. They're using the loopholes of the law to rob their brother. This is the opposite of what Christ has liberated us to do. The Corinthians were thinking something like this. I can make a claim against my brother. I can go and I can sue him for his coat. because the Corinthian court system allows me to. And I have liberty in Christ, don't I? What's wrong with me making use of the law to get the thing that I deserve? Again, it's like ambulance chasing. This is how ambulance chasers think. I can get $150,000 because my neck is kind of sore from the wreck, so why wouldn't I do it? This is an illustration. On the other hand, the Corinthians were insisting that they had the right to defend themselves in such cases. If someone brought a case against them, isn't it my right in Christ to stand up for myself and to stand up for my rights and to insist on justice that it be served to me? And the result for the Corinthians was that they were prioritizing their selfish desires over the peace, the unity, and the well-being and prosperity of the church. They were not thinking about what would build up, what would be encouraging to the body. And they were dominated by their lusts. They were dominated by their lust for their brother's coat, or whatever it might be that they were having to dispute over. or dominated for their lust for personal justice. And Paul calls this a decisive defeat. It undermines the truth of their union with Christ and their hope of future resurrection. Look at verse seven, look how he puts this, he puts it so strongly. To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. You're denying your profession. Why not rather suffer wrong? Isn't that what Christ has liberated you to do? Isn't that what the Sermon on the Mount's all about? If your brother sues you for your coat, give him your cloak also. If he hits you on your right cheek, give him your left. If he inconveniences you for one mile, give him two or three. That's what the Gospel enables us to do. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded for the sake of the peace of the church? For the sake of the name of Jesus Christ, so you don't drag this whole thing before a civil court system and a bunch of unbelievers. This is a defeat for you, Paul says. You're denying who you are in Christ. You're denying your liberty. It was a defeat because in Jesus Christ they had the freedom to deny themselves and they're not using it. He calls this a gross sin. It's the kind of sin that the world is condemned for. He's really just addressing again their selfishness and their worldliness, but look how he puts it in verse eight, but you yourselves wrong and defraud. You're dragging each other before the court system. You're trying to get the coat of your brother that you know that you don't deserve. You're using this loophole system. You're acting like swindlers. You yourselves wrong and defraud, even your own brothers. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" Paul's point here is that don't you know that this kind of sin is the kind of sin that lands people straight in hell? That's his point. Don't you know that this kind of behavior is against your profession? It's against everything that you stand for as a Christian. It's against everything that Christ accomplished and stands for as the King that God has appointed. You yourselves wrong and defraud even your brothers. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived." Right? That's our temptation. Petty courts, petty claims, these little petty disputes. This isn't so big. I can get what I want. Don't be deceived. Now listen to what he does here. What he's doing is he's making a rhetorical argument. He's using rhetoric to drive home a point. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, who are ultimately blasphemers, people who use abusive language against even God. But these are rough sins. These are the sins of all sins. These are gross, disgusting sins. But he's trying to underline what he says last. Because what he says last is, neither are swindlers. Neither swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Do you not know that this kind of behavior, Paul says, is condemnable? Even this kind of swindling that you're involving yourself in, it's in the same list with adultery and homosexuality and thievery and all these other things. This kind of behavior is not to be taken lightly. It condemns the unrighteous. But his point, then, to the Corinthians, verse 11, is that they are not the unrighteous. When they behave like this, they're behaving contrary to their union with Christ. That's his real point. They have been completely set free from these sins by the power of God in Christ by the Holy Spirit. Verse 11, and such were some of you. Paul's saying this way you're behaving is like the old you. Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. You've been united to the Lord Jesus. You've been clothed in His obedience. You've been given His Spirit as a gift to live within you. You've been washed and cleansed from your former sins. You've turned away from those things. You've received the forgiveness of God. You are destined for eternal life. You are inheritors of the kingdom of sinless righteousness. You are inheritors of the kingdom of edification and service and self-denial. He's encouraging them, live according to your profession. Don't treat one another like this. This is a defeat for you. All things are lawful for you. Why are you acting this way? Because of Jesus Christ, you are possessors of the kingdom of God. Therefore, you are free to share and to go without, and if necessary, to be defrauded, to give your cloak and to go the extra mile, if it will edify your brother. So exercise your liberty in Christ. So Paul's overall point here is that he's reminding the Corinthians they're united to Christ and therefore they have the hope of the resurrection from the dead. They will someday rule and reign with Jesus Christ. And today what that means is that they have liberty in Jesus Christ to say no to sin. They've been set free from the dominion and the power of sin. They've been enabled to a life of righteousness for the sake of the church, for the glory of Christ. Well, finally, his last point is, is that because they're united to Christ and they'll be raised with him, they're destined to live forever. Due to their union with Christ and the hope of the resurrection, they are destined to belong to Jesus Christ in both body and soul, both now and forever. This means that today, what the Corinthians do in the body matters. Their bodies belong to Jesus Christ. They will belong to Jesus Christ forever and ever. This is especially true. Therefore, what they do in the body matters. This is especially true when it comes to sexual sin. There were some in the Corinthian church that believed that there would be no resurrection. Some believe that the body would simply cease. They thought that heaven was a place of disembodied spirits. They didn't think of it as a physical or as a physical place or having any physical component. And you and I both know brothers and sisters, that's contrary to Christian doctrine. There is a resurrection of the dead and we are looking forward to a new heavens and a new earth. spiritual and a physical realm renewed and made perfect and sinless forever. Well the Corinthians had a different idea on some of these things and therefore they were indulging in gross sexual sin. And so Paul rebukes this very plainly to them. His main point here in verse 13 to the end of the chapter is that our bodies are destined to be raised with Christ and to belong to Him therefore forever and ever. But look where he begins with this in verse 13. He's making an assertion in verse 13, He's making a doctrinal statement. His statement is this, with an implication that God has designed the world a specific way, but in this life, in this world, God has designed the world with a specific design, a specific structure, a specific order. It's coming to an end in order to usher in a greater destiny, a new world. His point here is that the body endures. That's his point. His point is that the body, the way that it is now, many aspects of it are coming to an end, but the body itself endures. Look at how he puts this. He says, food is meant for the stomach, and stomach for the food, and God will destroy both one and the other. This is Paul's way of saying there's a certain design to the world today. You have to eat food to be sustained. He's reminding the Corinthians there's a day coming when you will not need food for the body to be sustained. You will be given imperishable, incorruptible bodies. They won't grow tired. They won't go weary. They won't grow hungry. He's simply reminding them of this. Here's what else he's, here's what he's transitioning into. What's true about food is true about sex. Sex is a peculiarity of this world. There's a day coming when the body will not be given over to any kind of sexual desires or sexual acts. Gender is a this world thing, is what Paul is saying. God created man, male and female. to multiply and fill the earth. And that's a very good thing that God made. Sex is a good thing. That's why I'm so bold to preach it to you. But it's restricted for this life and within the boundaries of God's Law. Do you remember what Jesus says in the Resurrection? No one will be given in marriage. Do you remember what Paul says in the New Testament? There's neither male nor female in Christ. These things are passing away. The form of this world is coming to an end, but we ourselves and our bodies will endure forever. That's where he's going with it. If you can see that I'm fumbling a little bit with the text, it's because chapter six is notoriously difficult to interpret. So give me a little credit here, or a little bit of leeway if you would. But I'm doing my best to explain it to you. Food is meant for the stomach, stomach for the food. God will destroy both one and the other. The present form of this world is passing away so that God might remake it. This means that things like food and like sex are coming to an end, but there's a greater destiny for the body. The body does not exist, therefore, for food. The body does not exist, therefore, for sex. What does it exist for? It exists for union with Jesus Christ. That's the point that Paul's making here. Verse 13, food is meant for the stomach. and the stomach for food, 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. The greater purpose that God has for us in creation is our union with Jesus Christ and his incarnation. The union of our body and soul with Jesus Christ. And that's why he goes into verse 14 and says, the thing then that we're looking forward to is a resurrection from the dead. That's the end. That's the ultimate purpose for which you were created. It's not food. It's not sex. It's not any of these things that we think of as fundamental to our identity as human beings. It's for a union with Jesus Christ. And if we're united with Christ, we'll be raised with Christ. Verse 14. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Verse 15, therefore, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Your body has been given to you by God for service to Jesus Christ. Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Shall I give my body over to sexual immorality? Never. He continues to develop this argument in verse 16 through 18. What Paul is really getting at here is that there is something wonderful and mysterious that occurs between a man and a woman in sex. something beyond any person's ability to control or to fully fathom or understand, and therefore the seriousness and the consequence of sexual sin cannot be understated. It is beyond a human being's ability to reckon. There is a wonderful, glorious, mysterious union that takes place in both body and soul between a man and a woman in a sex act. It's analogous to the union that we have with Jesus Christ by faith in body and soul. Look at how he puts this in verse 16. Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? Now remember in the scriptures, body doesn't refer to just flesh and bones. In the modern world, we think of body, we think of a cadaver. We think of CSI, we think of a cadaver. We just think of like the material component of our existence. When Paul says body, he means body and soul. He means your earthly life. He means your this earth life. That's what he means by body. When you go into a prostitute, you become one life with her. There is a serious union that takes place between you and her in both body and soul. Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two shall become one flesh." And again, in the Bible, that term flesh is the same as the term body. It means body and soul. It means your life in this earth, in this world, in this age. The two shall become one flesh. There is a profound psychological and physical union that is forged in the sex act. Paul says in Ephesians 5, verse 32, quoting this same verse, the two shall become one flesh, talking about this idea of the union that occurs in sex, he says, this mystery is profound. And let me underline to you, it refers to Jesus Christ and His church. Here's another way to simply put what Paul is trying to say in these verses. If you wanna boil it all down to something practical, if that will help you. What Paul is saying in these verses is there is no such thing as casual sex. The consequences are real and they are profound. They touch the essence and the foundation of who you are as a human being. So this is why he says in verse 17, however, that our union with Christ is like this. This is analogous to our union with Christ. He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Now, when the Bible says spirit, again, it means body and soul, life in the next age, heavenly life. There's an analogy between the union between a man and a woman and between a believer's union with Christ by faith. Of course, there's a lot of differences, but there's an analogy here. What Paul, again, is getting at is that this kind of union is fundamental to who we are. When you're united to someone like this, it's like rewriting your DNA. both psychologically and physically, both materially and immaterially. There's a union of life that occurs. And so Paul is underlining how consequential and serious this can be. And first he teaches us to flee from sexual sin. Look at how he puts this in verse 18. I mean, the conclusion here is that if this is the case, if there's no such thing as casual sex, if this is the kind of profundity that occurs in such an act, flee from it. You cannot control this, you cannot fathom it, you cannot possess this. You're not gonna be able to get away with this without the consequences. Flee it. Put sexual immorality away from you. The old guys like to say, don't wrestle with it, don't struggle with it, flee from it. Put it out of your mind. If you can't get it out of your mind, put it at the feet of Christ. flee from this sin, the consequences are dire. But he goes on in verse 18 to give a deeper reason for this. And again, I'm going to try my best to interpret a passage that's very difficult to interpret. Here's what I think Paul is saying. The person who sins in this way brings profound and immeasurable harm upon themselves, as I've already illustrated to you. Human beings, you brothers, every one of you in this room, were created a sexual being. That's how God made you in this life. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He made man. He made male and female. He made them. You are fundamentally sexual. It is holistic. It is principle to what and who you are in this life. It reaches the depths of who you are as an individual. The only illustration I can think of is it's like your very DNA. the DNA of your identity. When you commit sexual sin, you're using your very identity as a tool and as an instrument of sin. And its consequences must therefore be severe, dire, and lasting. Here's how he puts this in verse 18. Every other sin that a person commits is outside of the body. but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Again, he's just underlining how severe and consequential this is. Here's what he's saying. Ok, I'm going to use an illustration. I hope I don't get in trouble for using this illustration. I think it will help you. Here's the illustration. A lot of people wonder what Paul exactly means here. Every other sin is outside the body. Is he saying that there is a difference between sexual sin and other sins? No, he's not. He's not undermining the importance of sin in general. But he's making an analogy here. Again, he's underlining the consequence, the seriousness of this sin. So here's an analogy. If you go out, so remember the context here. Paul is talking about a one time act. You go into a prostitute, that's one time. So here's my analogy then using that premise. If you go out and you get drunk once, you go out and you have a wild weekend and you get drunk, what Paul is saying is that sin is outside of your body. What he means is that the consequences are going to be serious, of course the spiritual consequences are very serious, And we know what that means, to sin against the Lord, and it can be condemnable if you don't repent of it. But Paul's thinking here of this one-time sin act. If you go out and commit a sin, like drunkenness, well, you're going to face consequences. You're going to have a rough weekend. You're going to get up, you're going to have the headache and everything else. By the end of the weekend, it's going to be gone, you repent, blah, blah, blah. I'm not meaning to reduce the importance of sin, and neither is Paul. But this is his point. But when you go into the prostitute, You have made a union that will not separate until the two of you die. It's like the union that you have with Christ, or it's as close as you can get to it. The consequences of sexual sin are great. They are grave. They are serious. They are harmful. What we do in our body, it matters. Now, let me say here at this point, what Paul is not doing is robbing us of our hope. What he's not doing here is saying that the gospel, he's not undermining the power of the gospel or the grace or the mercy that's available to us in the gospel. Brothers, in Jesus Christ and in the gospel, there is healing. There is the hope of restoration. There is the hope of forgiveness of sins. There is the hope of the blessings of repentance in the gospel, in Jesus Christ. But Paul is underlining to us the significance of this sin. In Christ, our bodies belong to Jesus. And what we do with our bodies is important. And it matters. And because of the way that God has set up this world and designed it, it is serious in this life. So here's what Paul's point is. What you do in the body has profound spiritual consequences which affect your union with Jesus. this sin is repented of." And in the Gospel brothers repentance of this sin offers hope, and healing, and restoration. Unless it's repented of those consequences will reach even into eternity, flee sexual sin. So Paul finally he appeals to Corinthians on this same point he appeals to the sanctity of the body. Again he is making his argument from the same position, we are united with Christ, we are destined to be raised with Him. Our bodies are dedicated to Christ and to God, we are temples of the Lord. Verse 19, do you not know that your body is a temple? 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. You were bought with the blood of Jesus. So glorify God in your body. Again, he's really, he's encouraging the Corinthians here. Your body belongs to Jesus. Treat it like it does. Glorify God in your body. Your body will rise again and be dedicated to God forever. It's already dedicated to Him in Jesus Christ. He owns it. Whatever you do in the body, especially in the area of sex, do it for the glory of God, by the mercy of God, by the grace of God, by the healing that we find in the gospel in Christ Jesus. Use your body as an instrument for righteousness is another way to put what Paul is saying in this section. We've looked at three things. Brothers, you are destined in Christ Jesus to judge the world. inherit a kingdom of sinless righteousness, and for your bodies to live forever and to belong to the Lord Jesus. These are glorious things. You've been united to Jesus Christ, his glory, his resurrection glory lives within you. You are destined for glory under the gospel. The power of heaven is already at work within you today, and so by the grace of Christ, start living like it as judges of the world. Settle your disputes as inheritors of righteousness. Live free of sin. As living in bodies dedicated to Christ, God in your body. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our dear Heavenly Father we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for our time together with Your Word. We pray that You would by Your Holy Spirit make this Word useful and profitable to Your people. pray dear Father that Your people would be built up and strengthened by it. Encouraged by it. Lord where we've been convicted we ask that You would forgive us of our sins. And we ask this with great confidence in Jesus Christ and the power of the Gospel to save, and to heal, and to restore, and to bind up our wounds. And Lord we pray that You would do so. And we ask Lord then again as we ask so often to As we think about your resurrection glory, as we think of you as ascended at the Father's right hand, as we think of sharing in all of this with you, we pray that you would come quickly and bring us home to yourself. Make us judges of the world, as you have destined us to. Make us inheritors of righteousness, as you have destined us to. And by your grace, help us to glorify you in our bodies. And we pray these things in Christ's name, amen.