The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Mendon, Nevada. Let's take our Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I'm going to read the whole section, although it will probably take us maybe two or three weeks to go through it. Starting at verse 12, 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 12. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be. Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For he says the two shall become one flesh. but the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price? Therefore, glorify God in your body. As we come to 6-12-20, we actually come to, in a sense, a new section, but the connection between 12-20 and the previous section is actually somewhat uncertain. Normally, for Paul, the connections are pretty apparent. Here, the only connection that at least I'm able to see is the fact that in Paul's list of vices in verses 9 and 10, that immorality, of course, gets top billing, if you will, and Paul has already dealt with a specific form of immorality in chapter 5, and now, in a sense, he sort of revisits it. The other thing that is that's somewhat clear in this section is that Paul may well be dealing with very, very specific cases of immorality or porneia. In fact, in verses 15 through 17, he talks about being joined to a prostitute, and Gordon Fee is probably right when he says, apparently, some men within the Christian community were going to prostitutes and arguing for the right to do so. being people of the spirit, they imply, has moved them to a higher plane, the realm of spirit, where they are unaffected by behavior that has merely to do with the body. So Paul proceeds from the prior concluding affirmation, verse 11, such were some of you, to a frontal attack on this theological justification of theirs. So, in other words, it's very, very possible that Paul's dealing with situation here that is actually sounds shocking to us. but that maybe some in the Corinthian assembly were actually justifying going to prostitutes. And the justification basically went like this, well we are so spiritual, we are so much on a level of spiritual maturity and live in a realm of the spirit that what we do with the body is actually irrelevant for us. I think that that's probably true because of the way that Paul makes his argument in 12 through 20. The other thing to notice by way of introduction is that what Paul's doing in this section is not just simply taking on an ethical issue. Certainly there's this ethical issue of immorality, of porneia that he's dealing with, but this is not just for Paul, and so for us too, at least in theory, This issue of sexual immorality is not simply an ethical issue. It is an ethical issue, but it's more than an ethical issue. It is a profoundly theological issue. It's profoundly a gospel issue. It's not just, don't do that because you could get an STD. Don't do that because for Paul, there is something much, much bigger at stake when it comes to this issue of sexual immorality. And in fact, this section, 12 through 20, gives us a Christian theology of the body, right? This is a message, by the way, that we need to hear today. We live in what has been called a hookup society, a hookup culture. People just having recreational sex with each other, just hooking up whenever they have the desire. In fact, I posted not that long ago, I think I sent it out through the Google group, an article that came out in the Gospel Coalition, and it was called the Millennials' Respectable Sin. The Millennials, of course, referring to, I think, 20s and 30s, something. And the absolute laxity that they have towards the issue of sexual immorality. I'm talking about among evangelicals. And in fact, if you saw the article, the numbers are staggering so that there's hardly any difference, there's hardly any noticeable difference between those professing Christ within that age group and the world. The statistics are almost the same. And so we live in this sensually charged culture, and it's not that previous generations didn't commit fornication, but they knew it was wrong. premarital sex was wrong, hooking up with people was wrong. Yeah, people did it, but there was a consensus, especially among Christians, that it was wrong, it was outside of God's will. Now, it's just sort of par for the course. And it should shock us. It should awaken us. so that we see that we are not using our physical bodies as God intended. We also, by the way, live very clearly in a my body, my choice culture too, right? And Paul actually gives us a Christian theology of the body that will remind us of the dignity of the body, the place of the body in God's redemptive purposes, and the way in which we are to worship God through our bodies. I was gonna say I'm not overly worried about the older people here, and I really want the attention of the younger people. That's true, but guess what? Nobody's too old to sin against the body, right? Cornelius Van Til, who was a famous theologian and apologist that taught for many, many, many years at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, used to have the young men over to his home, even in his retirement, and he would mentor them, pray with them. And one time in his old age, one of the students said, Dr. Van Til, now that you're past that age of those kinds of temptations, what is that like? And Van Til looked at the guy and said, young man, The sins of my old age are the sins of my youth. It's not like you got to grow it. And so Paul gives us a theology of the body and hence a theology of sexual morality that we need to make sure we give heed to. Now the section itself is sort of difficult to outline, and one of the reasons is because Paul is engaging in argument, and his argument isn't just a straight line. In fact, he's gonna be correcting their false theology, right? Now, you know what's funny is that I say their false theology and you go, what are you talking about false theology? These people were going to prostitutes, it's bigger than false theology. No, actually false theology is the reason they were going to prostitutes. So Paul's engaging, he's making an argument, and three times, three times, verse 15, 16, and 19, he will say, do you not know? This little section of 12 to 20 has the most concentrated use of that little rhetorical device, do you not know, than anywhere else in 1 Corinthians. And so Paul's giving these arguments to combat their faulty thinking, their bad theology, and before he ever even gives them a command, which doesn't even come until verse 18, he's dealing with the way that they were looking at the situation. I think that, and I wouldn't really know exactly, let's say, how to give, good headings to these sections, but you have 12 to 14, which is somewhat of a unit, 15 to 17, which is another unit, and then finally 18 to 20. 18 to 20 is obviously a discernible unit, but he still is, in a sense, sort of cyclically going through this argument with the Corinthians. All right, so let's take a look at verse 12. Now, if you have basically anything other than a New American Standard, you'll notice something about this expression, all things are lawful for me. Anybody notice anything peculiar? If you don't have a New American Standard, let's say ESV, or even if you wanna confess to having an NIV, I think the New King James doesn't have this either. Anybody notice anything about that first line in verse 12? Come on now. Mary. It's in quotes, exactly. It is in quotes. In fact, you could In fact, if you want to do this, if you have an NAS, NAS doesn't do it and I don't know why. I think it should be in quotes, all things are lawful for me or all things are permissible for me. I mean, here's an interesting fact. I don't know this because I've read all of them, but I read somebody who has read all of them. Almost every commentary with only a couple of exceptions written in the last 50 years has recognized that all things are profitable for or all things are lawful for me. is a Corinthian slogan. Paul's dealing with something the Corinthians were claiming. In fact, this is why almost all of our Bible translations put the expression in quote marks. This is not Paul saying, all things are lawful for me. This is the Corinthians with their little bumper sticker theology, right? Or their chariot sticker theology, if you prefer. And it is the way in which they have these little slogans. They were great sloganeers, as we're gonna see later. And so, This almost certainly, 99%, is a Corinthian slogan. Now the source of the slogan, all things are lawful for me or all things are permissible for me, the source of this is somewhat uncertain. There are slogans or mottos sayings among Stoic philosophers that are similar to this but not exactly the same. I think that actually what the Corinthians have done is they probably took some of Paul's teaching, for instance Romans 14, although he writes Romans from Corinth, he would have said these things throughout the course of his teaching And that is that nothing in itself is sinful, right? Whatever is not of faith is of sin. Of course, Paul was not by any means speaking in absolute universal terms, but you could well imagine the Corinthians kind of latching on. I have a theory about the Corinthians, and that is they were awful sermon listeners, just terrible. They were the ultimate cherry-picking sermon listeners, I think. They would sit there and listen, and they would latch on to little phrases or things that they liked, kind of dismiss the stuff that they didn't like, and the Corinthians would have been served well by the three rules of Bible interpretation, which, of course, you know what they are. Context. context, and then the context, right? And so let's say that the Corinthians kind of latch on to some of the things that Paul had said, especially regarding Christian liberty, and you could imagine them getting all excited, everything's lawful for us. Is there a way in which that's true? And Gordon Fee points out that this kind of statement, especially coming from Paul, would only apply to non-essential matters of conscience, to the gray areas. This is not a statement that somehow gives us this broad perspective of Christian ethics, and yet it seems that this is exactly what the Corinthians had done, is taken it as an absolute statement. Everything is permissible for me. But then notice what Paul says, and this is Paul's reply, but, there's the contrast, but not all things are profitable. So here's his first rebuttal to their slogan, all things are permissible for me. He says, but not all things are profitable. And the idea there is not all things are advantageous, not all things actually benefit you. Not all things are actually useful. And in the, NAS it says not all things are profitable and then it just stops and that's probably the best idea to repeat for me is probably not the idea because Paul is is saying that our conduct does not simply depend on whether we have the right to do something or not. Rather, our conduct as Christians should actually be beneficial to those around us and to ourselves. And so the Corinthians were waving the banner that everything's permissible for me, and Paul turns around and he says, but not everything's beneficial for you, nor beneficial for those around you. In other words, stop. There are bigger concerns and considerations than your own sense of what your rights are. Paul then reiterates, the slogan about liberty, all things are lawful for me. But then Paul turns around and he gives the second rebuttal, but I will not be mastered by anything. Now one of the interesting things about this in the text is that there is probably a very intentional play on words that doesn't come into English. All things are lawful and then I will not be mastered. Actually, the words sound very similar to each other, and so Paul's probably making a play on words here, but notice his second rebuttal is, but I'm not going to be mastered by anything. You may think that everything is absolutely permissible, but I will tell you I have a different ethical principle, and that is I'm not gonna be mastered by anything. I'm not going to allow anything to take control over my life. Paul is actually getting to something that's actually very, very crucial here, and that is oftentimes people who, under the guise of liberty, will start to indulge in things which end up enslaving them. I can do this, I can do that, and Paul says, you know, I don't do anything that enslaves me. I don't do anything that actually exercises mastery over me. Do we ever actually stop and think about that as an ethical principle? I'm not gonna do something if it exercises mastery or control over me. Years and years and years ago, we were in the old building on Industrial Way, and some of you know my friend Steve Tung from Portland. And Steve would send me these big boxes of video games. And they were the kind that you'd stick in your computer. They were on disks, which of course seems ancient to some of you. In fact, some of you don't even know what I'm talking about. And I would just stick these boxes over in the corner and not even pay attention. And so one day, I think it was Zach, is digging through the box and then he goes, dad, Mr. Tongue sent you Delta Force. I'm like, so? And he said, Delta Force is so cool. And so we loaded it and started playing it. And it was great. And you got to shoot terrorists and Russians and I mean all kinds of stuff. It was just a ton of fun. Except when you got shot. But I would play it and then I'd notice that during lunch I'd play it for a while. Then I'd play it before I left for home. And then pretty soon I started playing it earlier earlier and Ariel calls me one night and says hey are you on your way home and I'm like yeah what are you doing playing Delta Force and all of a sudden I started to realize that this had just incrementally started to get more and more control, and I felt like I was no longer the one that was the man. I'm not saying that it's inherently wrong to play delta force, but I am saying that there's an ethical principle that Paul's appealing to here that says that whatever we do, whatever we believe we have the liberty to do, you only do it if you maintain the liberty and don't become enslaved. And this goes for a lot of things, right? It goes for a lot of things. And so, Gordon Fee loved this. He says, there's a kind of self-deception that inflated spirituality promotes, which suggests to oneself that one is acting with freedom and authority, but which is in fact an enslavement of the worst kind to the very freedom someone thinks they have. In other words, it is this inflated spirituality that creates this self-deception that says, my liberty, or what I'm enslaved to, is my liberty. And that is self-deception. So the Corinthians had absolutized a statement that gave them total liberty in their minds to do just whatever they wanted. And in fact, Paul points out that for believers we don't think like that. You don't look at, and we can do it in all different sort of subtle ways. Here, the Corinthians were big on liberty. You know, I've got the freedom to do whatever I want. You know, there are other people in church history who have taken, you know, let us sin so that grace may abound. They've taken that tact. But whatever the case, there's always some sort of excuse for sinning. And Paul says, Christians don't think like that. Listen, Corinthians, we don't think like that. We actually have standards. We actually ask ourselves in terms of matters of real liberty, not the way they saw it, but in real liberty, is it profitable and is it enslaving? Then notice verse 13. You see quotation marks again. Another Corinthian slogan. This one seems harmless. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food. I mean, isn't that sort of just common sense, right? And so you know what the implication is? When you're hungry, what do you do? Huh? You eat. Yeah, this isn't hard. You eat. When you're hungry, you eat. When you have appetite, you eat. When you have a desire for food, you eat. There was this idea. So God made these bellies to be full, to be happy, to be fat and happy is just the way that God made us. This could, this, slogan could have come from maybe the irrelevance of food laws or the abdication of dietary restrictions or whatever, but there's something that's very basic about it. Regardless of where the source is, the idea is that natural desire or appetite is to be satisfied. You know what the Corinthian implication is, don't you? You know the way that they move from food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food. By way of implication, the Corinthians would be making a much larger statement than just eating. In fact, we know this because of what Paul says in the next couple of verses, but we could say, here's the heart of the Corinthian slogan. Sex is for the body and the body is for sex. So, just as sure as being hungry and then filling your belly is just a natural thing to do, you have an appetite, you satisfy the appetite, what difference does it make whether it's food or sex? Notice the next phrase, probably also a part of the quotation. I didn't check, but I'm pretty sure the ESV probably has this as part of the quotation too, is that right? God will destroy both, okay? So this is probably part of the slogan as well, and the idea behind it goes something like this. Well, I mean, what's the big deal? I mean, can you imagine somebody arguing like this? And the answer is, I can. What's the big deal? I mean, after all, it's just sex. What's the big deal? I mean, you don't think God made these bodies for us to walk around as monks? And the answer is, well, of course he didn't. But to extrapolate, everything is permissible for me. and the food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for the food, God's gonna do away with both, so what's the big deal? Then ends up being extrapolated into a theology of the body and sex, which actually ends up being in a false theology. And remember, ideas have consequences. Bad theology has consequences. You know, we're going to talk about this at men's breakfast as we start our Reformation 500 theme, 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we live in a time where, my goodness, to actually care deeply about truth and to care deeply about theological assertions and to believe firmly in doctrinal convictions is just seen to be just something that's just you know, just passe. And so, you know, why in the world get upset about bad theology, or why nitpick people who have a different theology? In fact, you know what we don't even do is, at least among evangelicals, we don't talk in terms of bad theology, because that's making a value judgment. It's not about that which is different. Different theology. I mean, this is not a big deal of an example for you guys, but you wanna get Christians all riled up, just post something on Facebook saying, I don't believe P.D. Jakes is a Christian because he denies the Trinity. Who are you to judge him? I mean, this is the culture that we live in, all right? I mean, this seems ridiculous to me, but a number of years ago, I was watching Glenn Beck, and he had David Barton on with wall builders, and Beck, of course, is Mormon. And right there, he denies to David Barton that Jesus Christ is God. And Barton actually totally wimps out and just says, well, that's just basically a difference between evangelicals and Mormons. It's a difference, right? And I had the audacity to say, people think Glenn Beck's a Christian, and he's not. But people get upset about it, right? Well, guess what? If we'd have been living in the medieval times, Glenn Beck would have been cooked, right? Now, am I glad we don't burn people at the stake anymore? Most of the time. Usually. I'll tell you what. TBN ratings would go down if we just did one or two. You know, we live in a culture where you don't question anybody. Because sincerity is the ultimate virtue, not truth. And it's not true. What Paul's dealing with here, is he's dealing with people who are committed to a certain kind of conduct and then are looking for ideas to help support their conduct. It is a behavior in search of a supporting theory. And Paul says it doesn't work like that. It doesn't work like that. You cannot argue this conduct into rightness. You can't make this right no matter what slogans you throw over it. You know, I mean, if you want to know, if you want to see a sort of a contemporary analogy, it would be like the guy living with his girlfriend saying, and the pastor comes and says, hey, what are you doing? He says, hey, it's okay, Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. Paul would say, And your point? And so here are the Corinthians, and Paul is not going to let them get away with their false thinking. Look in the middle of verse three, Paul's response to this great food is for the stomach, stomach for food, God will do away with both of them, so really, what difference does it make? Paul says, yet, It's a contrast. Yet, the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. In other words, here's Paul's corrective to their erroneous theological thinking, and that is by saying, first of all, the body is not for porneia. The body is not for immorality. You might wave your little banner about the body is for sex and sex is for the body, but the fact is God didn't make your body for immorality. God didn't make your body for fornication. God didn't make your body for adultery. God didn't make your body for sexual sin. And then he turns around and he says, but this is interesting, right? But your body's for the Lord and the Lord It's for the body. Now on the face of it, this isn't abundantly clear, but I think that once we start thinking about it, Paul's gonna, I think, explain this more as he goes through this section. But let me just say, as far as the first part, but for the Lord, the body is for the Lord. The idea is is that when God saves us, he requires all of us. When God saves us, not only is our mind now for the Lord and our heart You could imagine, right, the Corinthians. The Corinthians would have been such excellent American evangelicals. But my heart's for the Lord. And Paul would say, your body has to be for the Lord. The totality of your being has to be for the Lord. What you are, your eyes, your hands, that's why we sang the hymn tonight. Your eyes, your hands, your feet, your members, your heart, everything about you, the totality of your being is for his service and for his worship and is to be used in the way that he says is okay, not the way you just think is okay. Body's for the Lord. And I love this, and the Lord is for the body. This one's a little more ambiguous than the first one. I think that it goes probably something like this, that just as sure as now our body is, remember the language of Romans 12, it's what? It's a living... So what are you supposed to present to the Lord as a living sacrifice? Your dog? I'm happy to offer my dog as a whole burnt offering, all right? Anyway, if you want her, just let me know after church. My body, the totality of me, is a living and holy sacrifice presented to God. I remember one time years ago, how many of you remember Pastor Ashiel Blaze preaching for us? Yeah, yeah, yeah, if you can't remember, yeah, if you can't remember Pastor Blaze, then, and remember praying with him one morning. It was before service, before he's gonna preach. And with that magnificent Caribbean British accent, Say, Lord, I offer you my eyes. I offer you my tongue, my lips. I offer you my mind. I offer you my hands. I mean, and just went through, and it was moving, it was magnificent. It was a prayer in which you could say, Lord, I am totally yours. That's what it means. The second part, the Lord is for the body, is I think the idea is that the Lord, and by the way, when Paul uses the term Lord, he almost always is referring to the Lord Jesus, not the Father. When the Lord, through his death and resurrection, died, he died not just for our souls, he died for all of us. Do you realize that his death actually provides not only the salvation of your soul, but the ultimate salvation of your body? This is a full-orbed redemption. So Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8 and verse 23 that we are awaiting our adoption as sons. And you know what he says? What that ultimate adoption is? The glorification, the resurrection of your body. So the fullness of your redemption and mine doesn't happen until these bodies are redeemed. Now, I don't know certain questions that people always, you know, am I gonna be fat with the resurrected body? Am I gonna be bald? Do I get hair? I mean, I can see why some of you would be interested in that question, but I mean, in a sense, what difference does any of that make, right? Full and final redemption is the redemption of our bodies. And so, these bodies are now for the Lord, but the Lord is for the body. He has actually come to redeem not just soul, not just spirit, not just heart, not just mind, but actually all of us. And then Paul says, and notice this, he says, now, verse 14, God has not only raised the Lord, the Lord Jesus, but will also raise us up through his power. That's what he means, the Lord is for the body. So just as the father raised up the son, he's gonna raise us up through his power. By the way, Paul makes this point in 1 Thessalonians 4.13, he makes this point in 1 Corinthians 15, and that is that just as sure as Jesus died for us and was raised up, we too will be raised up with him. Resurrection of the body, right? What that means, of course, is that Jesus' physical resurrection from the dead is the guarantee of our future resurrection. This might be new to you, but God's not gonna destroy this body. He's gonna raise it up, which means, in Paul's argument, that this body is not irrelevant. It matters what you do with it. This body is not irrelevant, why? Because God has made it and God will redeem it. And so in this passage, let me just point out just three things real quickly here as we close. First of all, the body is important, God made it. The Bible just flatly rejects a pagan dualism that only values the soul and discounts the body. That is a pagan dualism. When you hear somebody say, well, so-and-so's finally free from the cage of their body, their soul is free from the cage of their body or the jail of their body or something like that, that's just old-fashioned paganism. God made these bodies. Sometimes we kind of think, well, you know, they're not gonna last forever. Actually, actually, Your body and mind, unless we happen to be alive when the Lord returns, those people are sort of like an exception. But for most of us who will die, and our bodies we put in the ground, our great hope is that one of these days at the last trumpet, this perishable will put on imperishable. and this mortal will put on immortality and we shall be changed, right? That's what happens. And I take Philippians 3, 20 and 21 to actually be making a parallel statement, an analogy that these lowly bodies are gonna be raised in the likeness of our Lord Jesus. And what happened with Jesus? The same body that went into the grave was the same body that came out on the third day. These bodies, and God, and I've told you this before, but this is not some big molecular mystery to God on how to put the body back together. You'd have worms eat your body. You could be blown up. You could be eaten by a shark. buried underneath an apple tree. Horses eat the apple, apples, which has your molecules in it. And the horse goes out and poops somewhere and there you are. And God is not like, oh, how am I gonna do this? He's gonna put it back together. The one who said, let there be light, and there was light. This is not a problem for him. And so these bodies of ours are important and they have dignity because God actually made them. The body was created good at creation. The body after the fall, of course, suffers the effects of sin, which culminates in death. But the body in redemption will experience resurrection. Number two, the body is an essential part of our sanctification. Think about this. If you have this pagan dualism between body and soul, this won't make sense, but this is just Pauline. Where does your sanctification take place? in your body, which is why we're not to present the members of our body as instruments of sin or unrighteousness, but we are to present the members of our bodies as instruments of righteousness unto God. This is, so take my eyes, take my hands, take my heart, take my, you know, take my life, let it be. This is where sanctification is played out. It's a faulty notion to think that sanctification just takes place somewhere in the secret place that nobody can see but God. No, it takes place in your body. Your body's not a playground for your lusts or the playground for the devil. Your body is actually the workmanship of the sanctifying spirit. The Corinthians had bought into this notion that fleshly existence, this stuff, you know, Bad at least it's irrelevant What's good? Well the spirits good and so bodily appetites don't make any difference It's just a big lie Holiness is not just in the spirit your spirit holiness is in the body Well, we'll go ahead and end there There's gonna be more implications by the time Paul's done. Like, you're not your own. You've been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body, right? These bodies were given to us by God. through which we are to serve him. Try serving God without your body. You know what you'll be doing? Just thinking good thoughts. You serve God through your body, sanctified through your body. They're gifts. Young people, you need to listen. That body that God gave you, he expects you to use it for his worship and for his service, not just to do whatever you want with it, it belongs to him. And so let's pray. Father, thank you. Lord, thank you for these bodies that you've given us. Lord, even though they're broken and falling apart and sometimes sick and you know, We look forward to one of these days when we'll be free from all the ravages of sin in a fallen world. Lord, until then, we pray that we would present our bodies to you as living sacrifices. We pray that you would make us suspicious of our own little theologies that justify our sins. We pray, Father, that we would indeed be completely yours. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. We hope that you were edified by this message. For additional sermons as well as information on giving to the ministry of Grace Community Church, please visit us online at gracenevada.com. That's gracenevada.com.