Well, this morning we were looking at the middle section of chapter six in first Corinthians, and we were reminded of our identity in Christ. And I mentioned that that's something that we need to maintain before us as we labor to walk before God faithfully. And we saw there the absolutely amazing truth that's expressed Really throughout scripture but I think in passages like Romans 5 verse 8 where we read but God shows his love for us in this that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. That remarkable situation that God would take us while we're rebelling against him and rescue us to change our hearts and to set us on a new path. Some of us were sexually immoral idolaters adulterers others were homosexuals thieves greedy drunkards. We were all. sinners. And that's my point this morning is that we were all sinners and yet God intervened to rescue us from our self-destruction and give us a life as his sons and his daughters. Remarkable gift of God. He washed us. He sanctified us and he declares us righteous through his son Jesus Christ and by the working of his Holy Spirit. And we said this morning one of the things that we dwell on by God's grace is the unity that we have in Christ and particularly not only as our spirit but as our bodies as well. Well what applications are we to make from that and really that's where we're looking at for the application today in this portion of the message. If this is what we were once were if we were like that and now we are united to Christ what are the ramifications of that if we fully understand where we came from and what God has done. What does that call for us to do? What are we to respond? And let's read the latter half of our passage again with that question in mind and see again what we see from God's word. So this is first Corinthians beginning chapter six verse twelve. Let's begin reading there. Everything is permissible permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me. But I will not be mastered by anything. Food for the stomach and the stomach for food. But God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself. Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute. Never. Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body for it is said. The two will become one flesh but he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you've received from God. You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. There beginning in verse 12 Paul addresses the specific application that these truths that we've been talking about these realities of our identity in spirit and in body before the Lord have have to those living in the culture like a culture in Corinth. Talk a good deal about the situation in that city of Corinth and how much the philosophies have then been played out in in actual life styles that come out later on. And we've seen before that this city particularly there were many cultural norms which revelation revealed to not only be false in their thinking but indeed false or destructive and sinful in the practice. And the idea that the body and the spirit were virtually independent of one another that there was this separation between what went on in your spirit and what went on in your physical body and that you could somehow function independently of one another was simply false. The idea that one could do with one's body whatever one wanted without impacting your spiritual side of you or the spiritual health was something that had to be corrected. And so Paul beginning here in this passage and really continuing throughout the letter he points out several facts concerning the physical body in relationship to God. What is the body's place? I have to admit to you that up until just recently I'm not sure I had much way of making sense with what Paul says there in these verses of chapter 6 verses 12 and 13. You have him saying on the one hand everything is permissible for me and then he turns right around and said but not everything is profitable or beneficial. I think I always thought that maybe Paul was speaking out of both sides of his mouth there a little bit that somehow he'd say all things are permissible and then he'd turn around say but not all things are helpful. I wondered how he could say all things are permissible and then turn right around and say as long as you aren't enslaved by any of them. What I've come to believe recently is that Paul is entering into what appears to be a dialogue with the beliefs of the culture and so what he's giving you is the statement of the culture that would be believed first and then he responds with a biblical perspective on that. The ESV translation as well as some of the NIV and others certain ones of them put actually the quotes of the first things of the culture in quotes so As if to say, it is said in your culture, all things are permissible or all things are lawful for you. You can almost hear the Corinthian culture saying that. Can you not? That all things are permissible. There's nothing that really, as long as you want to believe in your mind that there's spiritual things going on, you can do whatever you want. So all things are permissible in that sense. And Paul then gives his answer to that statement. He gives a response to that. He points out the fallacies of some of their thinking so the point then becomes whereas you may believe that there's nothing that is unlawful to you. You must also know that there are some things that are not only counterproductive in that thinking but actually demonstrate bondage a bondage to your flesh. You may say that all things are permissible to you but you must realize that that's bondage to your flesh and that is certainly not beneficial. So the Corinthians certainly were guilty of believing that everything was OK that there was nothing that was in a sense lawless. Particularly in the realm of the physical body and they showed that in two ways particularly there was the area with responding to the body of sexuality. That was a major category for them because they had really no moral limits with regard to sexuality and then secondly was the physical body in terms of what they ate their eating behaviors and so on. Well indulgence is the word that comes to mind. If you have that sort of mentality that nothing can go on that really impacts you spiritually then indulgence would go on. It really describes their approach in both areas, this area of sexuality and then of eating. And whatever the body wants, the body should have. You just give it whatever the appetites ask for. So these are, they would think again, the no spiritual ramifications to that. Well, that is dangerous mentality, is it not? To have one, to have and one that what's being adopted, I think more and more in the American culture. Think about that and see if that in your own mind is not what you think is going on right now, that really There are no ramifications spiritually to what you do with your body. Now it's true that in our day many people do recognize that certain kinds of indulgence both sexually and eating have consequences physically. They will acknowledge that a person can get AIDS or they can get all sorts of sexually transmitted diseases for certain kinds of behavior sexually or they recognize that you can get high blood pressure you can get all sorts of heart disease from eating incorrectly you can get overweight and so on. So they would recognize that there are physical consequences but I'd be very surprised if you ever hear anyone talk about the spiritual consequences about those kinds of behaviors and that's where we've really lost that kind of perspective. To this inverse 13 Paul answers the body is not meant for sexual immorality. The body is meant for the Lord and remarkably the Lord is meant for the body. This whole spirituality that's going on with God coming into your heart by the Holy Spirit is for your body. That's good for you. Well indeed he's he's the lord of your body as well as your spirit. And what's more he's saying do you not know that your bodies your physical bodies are members of Christ. We could go in again to all these remarkable mysteries that God gives to us but he gives us insight into some of those. And Paul's later going to write to a passage probably it's a little more familiar to you in Rome when he writes to the church in Roman chapter 12 and he says to them I urge you brothers and notice this phrase in view of God's mercy which is almost like saying now that we've talked about where you've come from and where you're going in view of God's mercies to do what to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God. So it's in view of God's mercy that we spoke of in verses 9 through 11 here of Chapter 6. that you are to see your physical body as something to be offered to God as an act of service to him. So the ramifications of this begin to fall into place. We must flee from the form of any form of sexual immorality. That's a statement made very clearly. Verse 18 flee from sexual immorality. Very clear application. We have to flee from any form of it. But for those of you who particularly don't struggle that much sexually. Perhaps you don't struggle in immoral thoughts or those kinds of things. Maybe there's you can't really sort of say well this passage doesn't really address me because it does the ramifications the implications go far beyond just sexual issues. Obviously another ramification that's what we take is that we must take the very best care of our physical bodies. That's where I get uncomfortable talking to you about it because I'm not very good at taking care of my physical body. So listen to what I say and I'll apply by God's grace his word to this and I'll work at it with you. OK. But this impacts what we eat. It impacts what we do with exercise. It impacts how we we view ourselves physically. We have to keep the body in good condition. But you say those really aren't moral issues to which I say to you you're sounding very Corinthian. You really are turning into a Corinthian if you begin to speak that way making a division between the body and the spirit as if they had no implications of one another. But how we take care of the physical body impacts our spiritual well-being and our health. Verse 19 is that famous verse you probably memorized whether you remember the verse reference or not. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God. You are not your own for you were bought with a price. Well, here's the point. It's not your body. We like to live as if we were independent of God and we can offer him portions of what we think are leftover in our life that we're free to give, you know, we can spare to give him some of our mind, some of our soul and some of our body. But we do this with a lack of understanding of the reality. In truth, the truth of it is that we do we are, in fact, duty bound to yield Everything we have and everything we are to our Redeemer. He's the one who created it. Our physical body. He's the one who gave us a soul. He's the one who breathes life into us. And then he's the one who redeemed us. So everything we have and everything we are is his. That includes my physical body. And then he has chosen to send his spirit by his grace into my physical body by his mercies. He has decided to dwell in this temple and because he is doing so and it's his body. For me to misuse that body for me to treat it poorly to stuff Cheetos and I mean I'll change the subject there to stuff things into it which are in fact not good or not healthy or simply something that he's are not going to be honoring to him. So we have to do these things we yield up our bodies physically to him as a response of his great mercies to us in view of God's mercies. This is what you're to do. You do this because in truth you are not your own you were bought with a price. If you think about the price, if you think about the price, there was never a price for anything that was offered that was more expensive than this one. There is nothing that costs more than your redemption, and so your body is not your own. You were bought with a price, and that price was the Lord Jesus Christ giving his life, and so we have to keep that in mind. Well, have you found your application? It's not hard, is it? whether it's a matter of sexual morality in your life and you can you can be immoral. I want to say not just physically you can you can add to your mind things which are immoral. And again there's another way to be careful what we allow to go in the eyes your use of alcohol your use of any kind of drug any kind of medication that's misused or any kind of cigarettes or whatever your exercise. How are you doing with exercise or your lack thereof. What about your eating habits. I'll stop because I think you already know where it is that you struggle. But these are these are applications that are before you. The ones that call for more than simply a mental affirmation. Yep. My body is the Lord's. It calls for action on these things. We have to take these things and say OK I have to be careful now with what I do with this temple that my the Lord's spirit dwells in. It calls for action. But Paul ends the chapter with these words, and these are from the Holy Spirit who dwells in your temple. It's kind of interesting to hear the Holy Spirit say these words, but he says, therefore, honor God with your body. The application is there, and we need to run with it. So by God's grace, as we remember what he's done for us in taking us from what we once were to being washed, to being sanctified, to being justified, Then we say, what must I do, Lord? What would you have me do? And he says, take care of your body. Glorify the Lord with your body, because that body is a member with Christ. Let's pray.