WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.280 If you can open your Bibles again to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, just a reminder, it's page 954 00:00:06.280 --> 00:00:08.080 ! If you're following in a black church Bible. 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:18.160 I doubt you'll have missed over the last few years that there is something of a rift, 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:25.039 something of a feud in the British royal family. It's being played out for all to see. Prince Harry 00:00:25.039 --> 00:00:29.600 has had something of a public falling out with both his older brother and his father, 00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:35.359 the king. That much is clear. Relationships within the family seem to have broken down if the press 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:40.160 are to be believed. Certainly when I was talking to Prince William the other day, he told me that was 00:00:40.160 --> 00:00:47.920 the case. Slurs and allegations, it seems, have gone in all directions. It's not a good look for the 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:53.680 family. They're making headlines pretty consistently with the fact that they're not getting on. 00:00:53.680 --> 00:00:59.280 Part of the reason that this fascinates the media so much, I think, is because this is not how royals 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:06.159 should behave. That somewhat apocryphal tale told that the queen and her sister were running out 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:08.719 to the car at one point when they were little and their mother said, 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:15.520 royal children, royal manners. Probably didn't happen, probably apocryphal, but the sentiment is 00:01:15.520 --> 00:01:20.960 actually pretty consistent. If you're a royal, you're supposed to behave in a particular way. 00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:26.719 So, one of the things that would be pretty clear is you don't air your grievances in public. 00:01:27.679 --> 00:01:35.199 You don't involve people who don't understand the hows and the whys of royalty in the family business. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:43.199 It damages our reputation. It cheapens the family. You don't behave like this because, as a royal, 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:49.359 it's not just about you. If you're born into royalty, it's not just about you. It's about something much 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:55.920 bigger than you, the great institution. Well, there's something of that spirit, I think, 00:01:55.920 --> 00:02:02.879 in Paul's tone with the Corinthians when we get to chapter 6. Verse 1, when one of you has a grievance 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:10.879 against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? And verse 19, 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:15.519 down at the end of our section, you're not your own. You are bought with a price. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:24.240 The apostles continuing to address these problems in the church, the church at Corinth. Last week, 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:29.599 the issue we saw was unrepentant sin. Someone in the congregation, chapter 5, is sinning in a very 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:35.919 public way, but they're not repenting, and nobody's calling them to repentance. And so, Paul addresses 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:41.839 that with the church. This week, he confronts the church on two related issues. The first is their 00:02:41.839 --> 00:02:47.599 unchecked pride—that's what's going on in verses 1 to 11—and their uncontrolled passions—that's 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:54.879 verses 12 to 20. And in both cases, the influence and the values of those outside the church, this 00:02:54.879 --> 00:03:01.599 category of people that the apostle Paul calls the unrighteous, they're setting the pace. And that's not 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:09.919 how it should be, the apostle says. It's not fitting for brothers in the church, verse 6. Those who have 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:16.879 been set apart for God, verse 11. Those who are, verse 17, joined to the Lord, who are filled with 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:24.959 the Holy Spirit, verse 19, and so who belong to God. It is not fitting for people who have received all of 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:34.000 that to behave in the way that they're behaving. And at the heart of Paul's rebuke is the damage that 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:41.760 this does, both to them as a community, but also to their public reputation. So let's have a look. 00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:48.080 It starts, first of all, point number one, their unchecked pride. That's, I think, the issue at the 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:52.640 heart of things at the beginning of chapter 6. Some church members are taking other church members 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:58.959 to secular courts, verse 1, before the unrighteous. Verse 6, brother goes to law against brother, 00:03:58.959 --> 00:04:05.599 and that before unbelievers. The disagreements relate to civil matters, not criminal ones, 00:04:05.599 --> 00:04:10.719 probably defrauding of some kind. That's the language in verses 7 and 8. Business partnerships, 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:16.159 perhaps, where one party has ripped the other one off in some way. Perhaps someone providing a service, 00:04:16.159 --> 00:04:22.000 and bills aren't being paid. Somebody doing some work, one member of the church doing some work, 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:25.680 they're a tradesman, perhaps, they're doing some work for another member of the church, 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:31.120 and bills aren't being paid. And what do they do? Well, they do what everyone in the wider culture 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:39.279 does. They go legal. The Spirit is a proud sense of, I am going to get what I'm owed, no matter what. 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:44.480 I don't care about them. I'm going to get what I'm owed. Or perhaps the sense, 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:52.560 how dare someone treat me in that way? See underneath both of those, there is this sense 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:58.800 that there's superiority in their tone. And this is a mistake. It's a mistake for three reasons, 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:03.120 partly because the church has a competence to judge in these matters. This is a matter for the church. 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:08.879 Do you see verse 2? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:14.719 judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Now, he's not using the word judge here. 00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:19.839 The saints won't judge the world in the sense of the last judgment. He's using it the way the word 00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:26.560 is used in the book of Judges. Believers will be given authority to rule the new earth. Even angels, 00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:30.399 verse 3, will be under the oversight of the redeemed. It's a remarkable thing to think about, 00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:35.839 but that is part of our design as the people of God. That is where we're headed. That is our future. 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:40.959 And because that's our future, the apostle says, we should be practicing now with these smaller 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:48.560 matters that arise within the covenant community. Now, in reality, it won't feel like a small matter, 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:54.079 will it? If you're the one who's been wronged, it never feels like a small matter. And nor probably 00:05:54.079 --> 00:05:59.039 will it feel small to the church as we adjudicate the matter. But what Paul is saying here is, 00:05:59.039 --> 00:06:03.279 in light of the cosmic rule that we will fulfill as a people of God in glory, 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:08.399 your money and your reputation in the here and now, those are small things. Verse 2, 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:15.919 do you see the word he uses? They are trivial, trivial matters. And God has imbued the church, 00:06:15.919 --> 00:06:21.119 the local church, and then at presbytery level with the competence and authority to resolve them. 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:29.439 First mistake is because God has given us the competence to deal with it. Second mistake is 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:35.279 because of who they are asking to do the judging. Verse 9, he repeats this emphasis, 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:39.839 do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:47.040 Why would you let someone who doesn't think and act in line with God's kingdom adjudicate on these 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:54.000 matters? It's like the royal family saying, why are we involving people out there that don't understand 00:06:54.000 --> 00:07:03.439 the hows and whys of royalty in our business? And verses 10 and 11, Paul lists the vices that belong 00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:07.520 to the kingdom of this world, a kingdom that the Corinthians were once a part of, and he says, 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:14.479 but that's not you anymore. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of 00:07:14.479 --> 00:07:20.479 the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. He's saying, you have been set apart by God. 00:07:21.039 --> 00:07:25.759 You've been counted righteous. You've been given a spirit. So don't seek out the wisdom of the old 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:31.039 world, the old you, the old values, the old way of doing things in order to adjudicate these matters. 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:38.480 Now remember, these aren't criminal cases. You take criminal cases to the police. But if you're in 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:43.600 the church and you're in dispute with another believer, you bring it to the leaders. If you're 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:47.920 here and you're a member of this church and you're in dispute with someone else in this church, you 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:53.280 bring it to the session. If you've been wronged, you trust it to the church. If you're the wrongdoer, 00:07:53.280 --> 00:08:00.720 you submit to the church's judgment. That is God's design. And we trust his Spirit to guide any process. 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:06.080 Yes, we follow. So first of all, he's saying it's a mistake because of 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:12.400 the fact that God has given you competence in the church to adjudicate these matters. It's a mistake 00:08:12.400 --> 00:08:18.720 because the people you're going to don't understand the values of the kingdom of God. But it is also a 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:24.480 mistake. And this is primarily, I think, where Paul is pushing. It is also a mistake because of what is 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:30.000 lost. That is really why Paul says, going to secular court, look at verse 5, I say this to your 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:37.519 shame. It is shameful, he's saying, to do this because of what is lost. Let's play this out. Think 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:46.720 about it. There is a loss of virtue, a loss of goodness. Verse 8, if you insist on going to court 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:53.600 in this way, what you're doing, you're allowing yourself to sink to the same level as the one who 00:08:53.600 --> 00:09:01.040 defrauds you. There's a sense in which you're repaying their evil with evil. If you go against 00:09:01.040 --> 00:09:04.560 what Paul is saying here, you're going against Scripture, going against God's design for the 00:09:04.560 --> 00:09:09.519 resolution of these things, he's saying there is a loss of virtue because you're being dragged down 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:16.560 to their level. You are meeting their sin with sin of your own. Secondly, there's a loss of love. 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:27.199 The idea that you get locked into the mindset of, I'm going to make them pay, that attitude is one 00:09:27.199 --> 00:09:35.119 that is putting you ahead of others. One commentator says this, their litigious spirit betrays a moral 00:09:35.119 --> 00:09:42.879 deficiency and reveals the triumph of selfishness over love. If you are saying, I am going to get what I'm 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:47.679 owed, I'm going to destroy them if I have to because of what they've done to me, that is us putting 00:09:47.679 --> 00:09:54.399 ourselves in a position of superiority, a position of selfishness over love. To stand on your rights in 00:09:54.399 --> 00:10:01.919 these kind of matters is a denial of the gospel of grace. It's the parable of the unforgiving servant, 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:10.320 isn't it? You know the story of this man that he is forgiven an absolutely ruinous debt, but he insists 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:17.600 that someone who owes him a much smaller amount must pay. Before God, if you are in Christ, before God, 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:23.840 you have been forgiven. The greatest debt imaginable, it is an unpayable debt, and you've been forgiven it 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:32.800 all. The debt of your sin has been paid. It's far greater debt than any debt that you would be owed by 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:42.399 someone else. Now, yes, where someone has defrauded you, they should pay. They should put that right. 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:48.799 That is right. But if they can't or if they won't, you should be willing to forgive the debt, 00:10:49.359 --> 00:10:54.159 and your willingness to do this, your willingness in this case to be wronged, 00:10:54.159 --> 00:11:00.639 is evidence that you know what it means to be forgiven. When you take them to court, you lose. 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:10.000 It's a loss of love. And by the way, that is also true when the amount is significant. I think all of 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:15.839 us think, well, that's realistic if, you know, it's a couple hundred quid, or, you know, maybe a bit more 00:11:15.839 --> 00:11:21.439 than that, or depending on what we're worth, we think, you know, there's a level there that we're okay 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:28.320 with. This principle applies no matter how big, because you see it in light of the great debt 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:35.360 that you have been forgiven by Christ. You say, that's not realistic. I say, I'm just telling you 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:44.080 what Paul says. A loss of love. Thirdly, it also means there's a loss of unity. You break fellowship 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:50.400 with the person who you take to court. But in doing this, you can't avoid also creating factions across 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:57.919 the church. These things, it very quickly becomes a test of loyalty. Are you with me? Are you with him? 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:02.879 And some will go with me, others with him, and then there are the poor people who were friends 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:09.919 with both parties stuck in the middle. Everyone loses. When we draw lines in that way in the life 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:15.519 of the church, everyone loses, because there is a complete lack of unity. What invariably happens is 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:20.960 there is division in the church, which is a denial, again, of the unity that Christ has won for us. 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:30.000 Next, there's a loss of reputation. So, a loss of virtue, a loss of love, a loss of unity, 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.960 a loss of reputation. The corporate thing that ends up happening is, one of Paul's big concerns 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:38.079 here is how the witness of the church is damaged by these bitter disputes. 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:47.759 No one outside the church, nobody that is looking on at the people of God in the church and sees them 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:53.280 fighting and bickering and behaving just the way their other unbelieving friends behave, nobody looks 00:12:53.280 --> 00:12:58.400 at that and says, you know what, that Christianity is really compelling. I really want a part of a 00:12:58.400 --> 00:13:04.720 community that's as divided and as broken and has so little virtue as that. It really injures the 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:11.840 reputation of the church, loss of reputation. And then there's one final area of loss that Paul 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:19.279 highlights and it's perhaps the most shocking of all. Look at verse 9. It is a loss of eternal reward. 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:24.960 See, when Paul says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:31.120 he isn't just saying, why go to them in a dispute, but he, quote one commentator says this, quote, 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:36.879 he insinuates that this greedy grasping for advantage in this life may cause the person 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:42.960 to lose an eternal inheritance. You can see why that's the case, can't you? See, if your behavior 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:48.000 is so lacking in love and you don't care about the effect this has on the unity of Christ's body 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:53.120 or the reputation of Christ's name, it is no surprise that God will take a dim view of such things. 00:13:53.120 --> 00:14:00.159 It is completely antithetical to what God loves and what God values. And that is why verse 7, 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:06.560 Paul will say, why not rather suffer wrong? When you look at all of this loss, everything that is 00:14:06.560 --> 00:14:12.320 lost, if you go down this route, he says, why not rather suffer wrong? Why not be defrauded? 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:20.960 What's the worst that could happen? You take your case to the church and it's decided the wrong way. 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:28.240 Why not? You suffer loss. You come out the wrong side and it's unjust. Well, Paul is clear. 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:35.680 More is lost by going to court outside the church than anything that you have lost to that person. 00:14:37.680 --> 00:14:41.920 It is better, he says, to check your pride and lose out to someone within the church 00:14:41.920 --> 00:14:49.519 than to pursue them in public and win. It is better to check your pride and to lose 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:56.079 in the dispute in the life of the church than to take them out to court in public and win. Winning 00:14:56.079 --> 00:15:02.159 in a civil court or even in the court of public opinion is to lose in the church and it is to lose 00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:09.519 in the courts of heaven. It's serious. You can see why Paul is making this an issue that he's going to 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:13.679 write to them about and rebuke them on. Their unchecked pride is that destructive. 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:20.719 That's where he starts unchecked pride. Then he turns to the Corinthians, uncontrolled passions. 00:15:20.719 --> 00:15:32.239 Point number two, their uncontrolled passions. Now he frames this by starting with their freedom in 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:39.840 Christ. When Christians have put their faith in Jesus, verse 11, saying to the Corinthians, 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:48.000 you're washed, sanctified, justified. That is, through the Lord Jesus and the power of the Spirit, 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:54.080 the Corinthians have had their sin washed away and they're set apart for God. This is the heart 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:59.919 of the gospel, the heart of the good news of the Christian faith, and it comes to us as a gift. 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:07.599 All of those things happened to the Corinthians. You see, they were passive. You were washed. 00:16:08.079 --> 00:16:13.120 You were sanctified. It was done to them. They didn't achieve it themselves. It is all a gift. 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:18.639 We do not do anything to achieve any of this. None of it is given on the basis of performance. 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:24.399 It is simply a gift. It's still the case in our day that if you speak to unbelievers, 00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:29.519 there is a sense in which many of them think, I've got to be a good boy and a good girl for God to accept 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:35.120 me. Come along to church. We'd love to have you for the Why Easter events. Come and hear the good 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:40.399 news about Jesus. Oh no, I couldn't do that. I'm not the church-going kind of person. Why not? Well, 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:46.240 I'm too bad. I've got to get myself sorted out before I can do that. That's completely the wrong 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:50.639 way around. And if you invite someone and they say that to you, say, that's exactly why you need to come. 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:55.199 Because there is liberty for you if you will come and hear the truth of the Christian faith, 00:16:55.200 --> 00:17:00.080 which is that you could never get yourself cleaned up enough for God and He has done it for you in 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:07.200 His Son. That is the heart of the good news. We have been set free, not because of what we have done, 00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:12.000 not because we checked our pride beforehand, not because we controlled our passions beforehand, 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:18.799 but because He has been gracious to us. And that freedom is the freedom that we enjoy as Christians. 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:23.920 We are free from the penalty and the irresistible power of sin. We are free from guilt. We are free from 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:34.320 shame. When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. But, Paul says, we then have to use this 00:17:34.320 --> 00:17:41.600 freedom in the right way. Verse 12, Christian freedom does not allow someone to follow their passions 00:17:41.600 --> 00:17:46.960 wherever they lead. We think that freedom, our culture has defined freedom as the ability to do 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:53.519 whatever we want whenever we want. That's not true freedom. That's slavery. True freedom is being 00:17:53.519 --> 00:18:00.480 set free from something for something. Set free from the slavery to sin that we experience apart from 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:09.920 Christ for obedience to the One who truly sets us free. And it is possible for something to be lawful 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:16.960 before God, but for it to have the power to bring you under its authority in a sinful way. That's what 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:24.400 Paul is saying here. You have been set free, so go and live in that freedom. But remember that there are 00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:30.000 certain things that although lawful before God have the power to bring you under their authority. Think 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:38.480 about it. Food. Jesus declared all foods clean. All foods, every single one of them. Gluten, dairy, 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:45.680 processed meat, high fructose corn syrup. All of them, absolutely clean. All lawful before God. And 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:53.519 anybody tells you otherwise, tell them they're wrong. But they're not all helpful. And when you get 00:18:53.519 --> 00:19:00.960 addicted, they're no longer lawful. Same with alcohol. Lawful, not always helpful. And if you can't do 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:06.240 without it, it has ceased to be a freedom. It has enslaved you. It is no longer lawful. You see how it works. 00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:15.039 And the issue for Paul here predominantly is sex. Sex is a gift from God that can be used in the right 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:20.960 way within the marriage covenant, with the necessary guardrails that that relationship affords. 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:28.240 Or it can be used in a way that is not lawful, not pleasing to God. And that's what's going on among 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:33.759 the Corinthians. That is what he is writing to address. Sexual immorality, he calls it. Verse 13, 00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:41.359 verse 18, the word is pornea, where we get pornography, et cetera, from. Sexual immorality, 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:48.319 13 and 18, and prostitutes, verse 15 specifically. And it's interesting, he doesn't single out an 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:53.119 individual. He did that last time in chapter 5. It would seem that these uncontrolled passions are 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:59.759 a widespread problem in the church, and they're ongoing. And Paul says, you need to stop. 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:07.359 This is not how Christians behave. And again, he gives us three reasons why. The first is what it 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:12.539 does to Christ, verse 15. It's a really interesting argument the way he brings this together. 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:18.920 What it does to Christ. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the 00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:24.859 members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. And verse 17, but he who is joined in the Lord 00:20:24.859 --> 00:20:31.859 becomes one spirit with him. When you put your faith in the Lord Jesus, you are united to him in a 00:20:31.859 --> 00:20:39.579 spiritual union such that the Bible speaks of you as a member of Christ. And what that means, to put it 00:20:39.579 --> 00:20:45.559 most bluntly, is wherever you go, Christ goes with you. When you get into bed with someone, there's a sense 00:20:45.559 --> 00:20:53.359 in which Christ is with you. For the most part, sexual sin happens in secret. But if you're a Christian, 00:20:53.480 --> 00:20:59.379 that's not the case. If you're a Christian, you take Christ with you. And Paul says, don't do it. When you think 00:20:59.379 --> 00:21:07.659 about it like that, of course, never. The Christian has been set apart to honor Christ, not to demean him in this 00:21:07.659 --> 00:21:15.419 way. Christ has no place in the company of prostitutes. No place in illicit sexual situations. And because you're 00:21:15.420 --> 00:21:24.279 united to him, neither do you. That's Paul's argument. If the first problem then is what it does to Christ, and it's 00:21:24.279 --> 00:21:33.140 jarring when we think about it in the way he's describing it here, the second is what it does to you. Verse 18, flee from 00:21:33.140 --> 00:21:41.560 sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own 00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:49.220 body. All sin, there's a sense in which all sin is the same in as much as it cuts us off from God, 00:21:49.539 --> 00:21:53.740 and insofar as the cross and resurrection of Jesus are sufficient to deal with it. 00:21:54.899 --> 00:22:01.700 So there is no sin that God overlooks, and there is no sin, if confessed, cannot be covered by Christ's 00:22:01.700 --> 00:22:07.899 blood. Do you hear that? We can't downplay sin in any way, and we can't ever think that there is a sin 00:22:07.900 --> 00:22:13.940 that if we confess it that it's too big for God to deal with. However, Paul clearly demonstrates here 00:22:13.940 --> 00:22:23.800 that sexual sin is uniquely serious. So do you see he has every other sin in one category, and then 00:22:23.800 --> 00:22:30.600 sexual sin in another. And that is because he says it is a sin against the body. 00:22:30.599 --> 00:22:40.919 Your body matters to God. It is your body that is united to Christ and destined for resurrection, 00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:47.240 verse 14. You see, he talks about us being raised. And the reason sexual sin is so serious is because 00:22:47.240 --> 00:22:53.319 of the depth and power that God has bestowed on the sexual union. Paul goes back to the beginning, 00:22:53.459 --> 00:22:58.500 verse 16. He quotes from Genesis 2, where God's design for sex is explained, two will become one 00:22:58.500 --> 00:23:04.019 flesh. A man and a woman come together, and they become one, not just physically in the act, but in 00:23:04.019 --> 00:23:13.259 some mysterious, deeper, whole person kind of way. You say, okay, but surely drunkenness, greed, those kinds 00:23:13.259 --> 00:23:18.099 of sins that are mentioned in 9 and 10, they're sins against the body as well. They're not good for you 00:23:18.099 --> 00:23:24.460 physically. But those sins, in God's design, do not have the capacity to make you one flesh with the food 00:23:24.460 --> 00:23:32.500 or the alcohol. The one flesh union only applies when two people have sex. That's God's design. 00:23:33.180 --> 00:23:38.819 And it's unavoidably God's design. No matter how transactional someone tells you it is for them, 00:23:39.100 --> 00:23:45.259 it isn't. There is no such thing as just sex because of the weight and significance that God 00:23:45.259 --> 00:23:50.779 has invested in this union. And whatever you believe this morning, can I say you cannot avoid this. 00:23:50.779 --> 00:23:57.940 This is not simply a Christian thing. It is a human thing. Sex is serious. It is weighty. It changes 00:23:57.940 --> 00:24:03.099 you. And so when you take it outside the parameters that God has put in place, it damages you. 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:12.319 Often hear the analogy of fire. It is like fire. Inside the hearth, fire is a beautiful thing. It is warm. 00:24:12.500 --> 00:24:19.039 It is productive. It is good. Outside the hearth, it destroys everything that it touches. And that, 00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:29.000 verse 18, is why Paul says flee. It's a sense of urgency. Can I say that? If you're caught in some 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:35.159 kind of sexual sin this morning, can I say one word? Flee. Get out. Get the fire brigade out and stay out. 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:41.319 Not just because it's personally destructive, but look at verse 19. 00:24:41.319 --> 00:24:49.379 Because of how out of step it is with who you are. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy 00:24:49.379 --> 00:24:54.579 Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify 00:24:54.579 --> 00:25:03.399 God with your body. When God saves you, He stamps you with His Holy Spirit. He stamps your body with His 00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:11.920 Spirit. Think about it. Where does the Spirit dwell in God's people? In our bodies. Think about it. 00:25:12.840 --> 00:25:20.840 We know that God's Spirit lives in us. Where? In our soul? Yes. In our heart? Yes. But our hearts and 00:25:20.840 --> 00:25:27.080 our souls are enfleshed. They're not separate from our bodies. We are physical embodied beings, 00:25:27.079 --> 00:25:32.939 and it is in those bodies that God's Spirit dwells. God is present in your body because that is where 00:25:32.939 --> 00:25:39.319 you are. Your mind can be in a million different places. Your body is only ever in one place, 00:25:39.500 --> 00:25:45.740 and God's Spirit is there. And what that means is your bodies are sacred. You were sanctified, 00:25:45.879 --> 00:25:53.419 remember. You were set apart for God. And sexual sin, Paul says, defiles this temple. It is an offense 00:25:53.420 --> 00:25:58.600 against the Holy Spirit within you. To put it in the simplest terms, if you profess to follow Jesus, 00:25:59.140 --> 00:26:05.400 your body belongs to God, and you should not defile the temple with sexual sin. It is out of step with 00:26:05.400 --> 00:26:14.580 who you've been made to be. When someone lets you use something that belongs to them, and they lend you 00:26:14.580 --> 00:26:22.019 something, you take extra care with it because it's not yours. You don't want to damage it because it 00:26:22.019 --> 00:26:28.940 belongs to someone else. And we should think this way about our bodies. Our bodies do not ultimately 00:26:28.940 --> 00:26:35.759 belong to us, so we should treat them with the kind of care that the owner would want. We use them how he 00:26:35.759 --> 00:26:41.879 would want, and we make the kind of decisions that he would approve of. In short, we should glorify him 00:26:41.879 --> 00:26:49.680 in our bodies. Let me just say two things as we close. The first is this. I want to remind you who it is 00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:55.240 that Paul is addressing. He is speaking to a church that has allowed the unchecked pride and uncontrolled 00:26:55.240 --> 00:27:02.039 passions of their former lives to come with them into Christ. Now, that comes naturally to us. 00:27:03.799 --> 00:27:08.740 We're ingrained in patterns of thought and in patterns of living, and when we come to Christ, 00:27:08.920 --> 00:27:12.660 we don't just stop. Those temptations still exist. 00:27:12.660 --> 00:27:19.960 But however naturally it comes to us, it's not okay. And if that's you, I hope you can hear this 00:27:19.960 --> 00:27:26.700 rebuke and repent. And I say that to you because there is grace for you. There is grace for you, 00:27:26.779 --> 00:27:30.740 but you need to turn from these things because they don't belong with who you now are in Christ. 00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:37.880 And here's the second thing I want to say. I know how hard the things that Paul is discussing here can be 00:27:37.880 --> 00:27:47.820 for us to hear. The shame and the guilt of past sin and its consequences can hang around for a long time. 00:27:49.600 --> 00:27:53.860 So let me take you back to verse 11. Here is where I want us to land this morning. 00:27:55.160 --> 00:28:02.020 I want to remind us of what comes to us in Christ. Paul describes categories of every kind of sin, 00:28:02.019 --> 00:28:10.639 and then he says, such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified. 00:28:11.779 --> 00:28:16.559 You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 00:28:18.539 --> 00:28:23.400 Here's what I want you to hear above everything else this morning. Christ has mercy for sinners of 00:28:23.400 --> 00:28:31.420 every kind. When you come to Him, you are cleansed. The sin that you committed, 00:28:32.019 --> 00:28:38.079 the sin that was committed against you has been washed away. And that means that you are clean. 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:45.599 As far as God is concerned, you are clean. You're sanctified. You're set apart under His love. 00:28:46.980 --> 00:28:54.539 His verdict over you is that He loves you in Christ. And you're justified. You're counted righteous 00:28:54.539 --> 00:29:00.940 before Him. Every single one of your sins has been taken on Christ and thrown to the bottom of the ocean. 00:29:02.019 --> 00:29:10.460 So however this lands with you this morning, I want you to live in the freedom and the joy of that. 00:29:11.139 --> 00:29:17.039 The freedom and the joy of the forgiveness and the cleansing and the renewal and the love 00:29:17.039 --> 00:29:24.339 that we have in Christ. And in the power of the Holy Spirit to go from here and to glorify God 00:29:24.339 --> 00:29:26.980 with all that you are. Let's pray.