Transcription
[Music] 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Jump right into verse one. After, uh, remembering that the book of First Corinthians sort of corrects a misunderstanding that many people have, uh, when it comes to the early church. We sometimes tend to think that the early church was just a little slice of heaven on earth. And because, uh, uh, there is so much carnality and so much compromise and so much just false doctrine in the church today, it's easy for us to look back to the days of the early church and say, "Well, wow, just everything was perfect then." But, you know, it wasn't perfect. And the Corinthian church was a church that had a lot of problems. And Paul is going to deal with one of the problems right here in verse one.
Notice how he begins it. "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?" I mean, just look at the first few words of that verse. Paul is saying, "How dare you?" This is strong wording. Paul simply can't believe what these Corinthian Christians are doing. Sometimes you think it's almost glad that Paul is doing this through a letter and not face to face. You almost get the feeling like he'd grab them by the lapels and shake them around. "How dare you do this?" Whatever it was that the Corinthian Christians were doing, it really got under Paul's skin. And not a matter of being fleshly mad. He was mad for the sake of the Lord and for the Lord's glory.
Now, notice here, this is what they were doing wrong. Verse one again: "Dare any of you, having a matter against another?" You see, apparently one Christian in the Corinthian church believed they had been wronged by another Christian in the Corinthian church, and they were seeking justice in the local courts. As it says, verse one, "You go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints." Now, I know that this is just a problem that happened, uh, thousands of years ago in the Corinthian church. Excuse me. But believe it or not, sometimes today there's disputes among Christians today. I mean, sometimes Christians have problems amongst one another in the church. I don't know if it sounds strange to you. Maybe you're thinking, "Well, that's just never happened." Maybe you've never experienced it. But take my word for it, it's true.
And sometimes those problems have to do with a business dealing. I mean, let's just say that, uh, there's a contractor of some type in the church, and he contracts to do some kind of business, some kind of construction for somebody else. And as it is not unusual in a case like that, there's some dispute. "Well, you should have built it this way. You should have done it this way." "No, you're charging me too much." "No, this or that." Whatever it was, there was some kind of dispute. And one Christian said to another in the Corinthian church, "Dude, I'm taking you to court. You're not going to mess with me this way. We're going to get this thing set right, and I'm taking you to court."
Now, the local judges sat in what was called the bema seat of the civil magistrate in the ancient world. And typically, this would be located in the heart of the marketplace. In a Jewish city, the courts of law were always held at the gates of the city. But this was not a Jewish city. This was the city of Corinth. And in the city of Corinth, they would have the court at what they called the Agora, the marketplace. And that's where the civil courts would be held. And because it was in a public place at the marketplace, and, and because Greek culture, just like our own, found a good legal battle entertaining, if one Christian took another Christian to court, it would become gossip all over the city. Ladies and gentlemen, they had the ancient equivalent of Court TV in the ancient world because everybody was interested in everybody else's legal business.
And Paul's saying, "Listen, this is what you're doing. You want to take one to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints." Now, I don't know exactly what it has in your version. I'm teaching from the New King James version, and it says, "You go to law before the unrighteous." Literally, in the Greek, that word "unrighteous" is "unjust." And the literal meaning of that term is "not justified before God." In other words, basically what he's saying is, "You're going to law before the unsaved." It's not like Paul's saying, "Oh, the Corinthian courts are all corrupt. You can't get justice there. Don't go to the Corinthian courts." Everybody knows that the judges are, are being paid off and they're unrighteous. That's not the idea. The idea is not that these judges in and of themselves are particularly unrighteous, but that they are unsaved. And what Paul's saying is, "Why are you trying to find justice from those who are not justified before God?" Paul's using the term "unrighteous" in a religious sense, not in a moral sense.
So, "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?" Now, why should they take the matter to the saints? Paul says, "I'm glad you asked that question," because he's going to tell us, beginning at verse two. He says, "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?" Paul says, "Listen, Corinthian Christians, let me tell you something. Anybody in your church is fully qualified, or at least should be fully qualified, to be the arbiter, to be the judge between you guys. And you shouldn't have to go to a pagan court. Why? Because the saints will judge the world."
Now, let me ask you a simple question here. Who are the saints? I know who they are. They are an elite group of Christians, right? I mean, I look out among the people gathered here tonight, here at the Bible study, and I see a group of people. And I don't know, maybe 10, 15% of you are saints. The rest of you, well, you're just run-of-the-mill Christians, right? No, no, no. That's not the way the Bible uses the term at all. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you've had your life touched by him, if you're born again by the Spirit of God, you're a saint.
So, friends, when he says, "Take it before the saints," and "that the saints will judge the world," do you know what he's saying? He's saying that you are going to judge the world. Now, friends, if Christians are going to judge the world, shouldn't we be able to judge matters that arise among us? Of course, we should.
And then he goes on. He goes even deeper here in verse three. This is mind-blowing. Verse three: "Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?" Now, friends, the Bible tells us that when Jesus Christ comes again, he's going to rule and reign with his saints, and that they're going to sit on, sit with him on thrones judging the world. And I don't know exactly in what sense we will accompany Jesus in the judging of the world. But what's even more mind-blowing to me is that you and I are going to have some kind of role in judging angels.
Now, what does this mean? Let me begin by telling you what it does not mean. It does not mean that on that day when you're going to sit and judge angels, that you'll be able to look up your guardian angel and say, "Hey, remember that day when I fell off my bike and scraped my knee in the third grade? Where were you, guardian angel?" You know, "Go, uh, you've got 15 demerits," or you've got to write, "I will not slip up again on the blackboard 500 million times." You've got all eternity to do it. No, that, that's not what it means. Friends, we are going to have a part in judging evil angels.
Now, remember, demonic beings are angelic beings. They are rebellious angelic beings. But their substance, their being, is the same as the angels who are alive to God. You can say the word "angel" and mean either a godly angelic being or a demonic angelic being. When they say, "We will judge angels," we will have some kind of role in judging angels. And to me, it's only right. God is a just God, isn't he? And God is a fair God. And ladies and gentlemen, those demonic beings, those rebellious angels who have been at war with God and at war against mankind, they're going to get punished. You better believe they're going to get punished. And the ones who have been worse offenders will receive worse judgment. And somehow or another, you and I are going to have a hand in laying down that judgment.
Now, can I just back off for a minute and say, does this blow your mind that you are going to sit in judgment of angels? How great is God's destiny for redeemed men and redeemed women? The destiny of redeemed men and redeemed women is to one day be higher than the angels and to sit in judgment of them. Now, I think this is an amazing thing. And to me, it has implications for something that I can't exactly prove biblically, chapter and verse. And so you don't have to leave here saying, "Well, I know that this is what the Bible says." You're free to regard this as Pastor David's opinion. But I believe that at one time or another, there was one of these evil angels, or maybe it was before, probably before he even turned rebellious and evil, and he caught wind of a plan that God had. He understood that God had a plan to create these beings. And these beings would be strange beings because, on the one hand, these beings would have bodies similar to the bodies of animals, but they would have eternal spirits within them too. As the angels have a weird sort of amphibian kind of being that can live both in the spiritual world but also in the natural world. And these strange beings would be lower than the angels as they inhabited this Earth. But even though these strange beings would be lower than the angels, it would be the job of angelic beings to serve them. The Bible says that "He sends forth his angels as ministering servants to those who will inherit salvation." God has ordained that angels, even though they are higher beings than us presently, they are our servants. And I, I think that got under the skin of a particular angel. Said, "I don't want to serve these inferior beings." And then he heard of what the destiny of those inferior beings would be. He learned that those inferior beings would one day have a destiny to be greater than the angels and to even sit in judgment over the angels. And when that angelic being, whose name was Lucifer, heard that plan of God, he says, "Forget it. I don't want to have any part of it. I've got a better plan." And he exalted his will against the will of the Eternal God. And God cast him out of heaven.
Friends, I believe that that is probably instrumental, instrumental in the part of the reason why Satan fell. You see, he has rebelled against God and he has determined to keep as much of humanity as possible from ever sitting in judgment of himself. Ladies and gentlemen, you will be qualified to sit in judgment over Satan himself. And every soul that Satan entices to hell is another soul that will never sit in judgment over him. You wonder what payoff there is for him. That's a pretty lame payoff, but it's the best he can do. You can even imagine the perverse, proud pleasure that Satan and every soul that goes to hell, they won't sit in judgment over me. I don't have to serve them. Now they serve me. Friends, that's our destiny: to sit in judgment over angels.
And though it's a very interesting thought, I want to bring the thought right back here to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Paul's saying, "If our destiny is to judge angels one day, certainly we're qualified to clear up a little business dispute among Christians right now." In fact, he goes on in verse four. He says, "If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge?" In other words, the secular judges are least in the eyes of the church. That the people in the church, no, they have no eternal salvation. They don't have the wisdom of God. Why should they be qualified to sit in judgment over Christians? Yet that's who the Christians were taking their legal cases to.
And so he goes on in verse five, and he says, "I say this to your shame. Is it so that there's not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers." Now, I think this is interesting because as you go through the whole book of First Corinthians, you find that the Corinthians were in love with what they felt was wisdom. They wanted the deep things. "Oh, give me the deep things. I want the deep, the mysterious things." And, you know, kind of the further it drifts away from the plain teaching of the Bible, the better. You know, these deep, dark, mysterious secrets, the hidden knowledge. And they felt that they were so keyed into this great wisdom. And Paul says, "Uh, listen, pardon me. Is there not one wise man among you who can judge between these two brothers? Instead, you're taking it to the law court. Instead, brother goes to law against brother."
Now, friends, I need to clarify something very important. In the mind and in the ministry of Paul the Apostle, by his actions, Paul showed that he was not against all legal action. Paul did not, was not one to say, I should say, Paul was never the one to say that it was never in the place of a life of a Christian to seek justice before a human court. In Acts 22:2 and in Acts 25:10 and 11, Paul appealed to Roman courts for his rights. But that was before people who were persecuting him. It was not in a dispute against another Christian brother. Paul knew that it was wrong when brother goes to law against brother. But Paul was never one to say that a Christian should never have any kind of dealing with the civil courts.
Now, friends, it is important for Christians to settle disputes among themselves according to God's principles. This can be done through the church or through what's known in today's world as Christian arbitration. Where you go to a separate Christian arbiter, and people agree, "Okay, here's a believer. We're going to take, and I'm going to tell my side, and you're going to tell your side, and the arbiter will ask for all the facts, and then he'll make a decision, and we agreed to stick by it." It keeps it out of the legal system. But you see, today, even as in Paul's day, there is no reason for Christians to sue one another. That's a strong statement, isn't it? Friends, there is no reason for Christians to sue one another. It just shouldn't happen. If there's a lawsuit, if somebody, and if another brother puts a lawsuit on you, then you should go to that brother and say, "Look, I don't want this to go to court. Let's go to our pastor. Let's go to this elder. Let's go to this Christian arbiter, and we'll let him make up the mind, because we should be able to decide this amongst ourselves. We're brothers in Christ. Brother should not sue brother in the secular law courts."
Now, does this mean that it is permissible for Christians to sue non-believers who wrong them? I know some Christians say, "Well, listen, you know, I don't, not going to sue a brother, but that non-believer wronged me, and I'll sue the pants off of him." Now, I think this is a very important issue. In our age where people are so ready to sue, I've heard some good Christian men talk on either side of this issue. Some have made a case, uh, very strongly, that a Christian has no business suing a non-Christian for the sake of their testimony. Other ones saying, "Listen, Paul doesn't address the issue of a Christian suing a non-Christian here. You can't take that passage to mean that, well, I must say that Paul certainly does not bring up this specific issue." And I want, I want you to notice something else here. Paul does not say that this matter between the Christians should go unresolved. Do you understand what I'm saying? He's not saying, "Well, just forget about it. Leave the situation unresolved." No. Paul says, "Resolve it, but just don't go to the secular courts."
And I would say that if you're in any kind of legal dealing with an unbeliever, though I cannot tell you biblically that you are prohibited from going to a secular court, I can tell you that the, that the counsel of God's word would be, if there's any other way for you to settle it, settle it some other way. It's fine to get a resolution. God wants the matter resolved justly, fairly. So if you can do that out of the law courts, do it. You know, sometimes, often times, people will come up and ask me to pray for them in a situation they're going through, and it's a legal situation, and they're in some kind of court battle, maybe over a business deal, maybe over a custody thing, maybe over this or that or the other thing. I don't know. And they want me to pray that they will prevail in court. Well, can I be very honest with you? A lot of times, I don't know if that's fair. I don't know if it's right. So, you know what I always pray? I put my arms on that brother and I say, "Lord, we pray that you would work your perfect justice in this situation." Now, I don't ever remember hearing somebody cringe when I prayed that, you know, feeling them tense up. Maybe they were doing it on the inside, but that's what we want as believers, right? Listen, I don't want you to have an unfair advantage over a believer or unbeliever. As believers, we're just supposed to want what's fair. And that's how I pray for people. And I don't know the situation. I just pray that the Lord's justice would be done.
Now, there's another point that needs to be made here. Paul is basically saying that in disputes among Christians, that it shouldn't go to the secular courts, right? It's very clear in saying that. But Paul is not saying that Christians should have their own court system to handle criminal law. In Romans chapter 13, verses three and four, Paul says that it is appropriate for the state to handle criminal cases. In other words, if a Christian, uh, steals from somebody and is arrested, the pastor shouldn't go to the, to the courts and say, "Release the man. We'll try him in our church." That's not the issue at all. The state does have the legitimate right before God to oversee criminal law. But civil cases among Christians should be settled among themselves.
So Paul is now going to speak to the two parties involved in this dispute. In verse seven, he speaks to the man who felt he had been wronged. Look at it in verse seven: "Now, therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be defrauded?" Now, in my view, Paul here is speaking to the man who felt he had been wronged. Maybe he's speaking to both men, because maybe they had both felt that they had been wronged. But he's addressing the heart of a person who feels that they are in the wrong. And the Corinthians were just like modern Americans. They were addicted to their own rights. Oh, my heavens. You know, one of the most entertaining things you can do is just spend an evening talking about ridiculous court cases and ridiculous judgments that have been approved by judges and juries having to do in lawsuits because people are so enamored with their rights in America. I remember one case, and it was several years ago, and you, I'll just relate it to you. Uh, this guy bought a lawn mower, and he wanted to trim his hedge with it. You know, and his hedge was about, oh, four feet high. And so he goes to his neighbor and he says, "Okay, I tell you what, we'll start the lawn mower, and then we'll pick it up and hold it, and we'll carry it over the hedge and chop off the top of the hedge with the lawn mower." And can you guess what happened when they did that? Somebody's fingers got cut off. And so, you know what? They sued the lawnmower manufacturer because they did not put a warning on the lawnmower that it shouldn't be used for that purpose. Now, I don't know what right they were protecting. The right to be a complete, I think. But the judge and the jury approved it, and the guy won an award.
Well, again, the Corinthian culture was just like that. And notice this, what he says in verse seven. By clinging to their right so fiercely, they had already shown, what does he say in verse seven? "Utter failure." He says, "It is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another." Just by going to court against your, your brother, in the eyes of God, you've already lost. Now, I don't know if you've ever been involved in a court's case. I've been involved in one that I can remember. A fellow sued me in small claims court, uh, claiming that I had done something deceptive in selling him a car, and I hadn't. So, I mean, I was happy to go to court, and the judge ruled in my favor. But when you go to court and something like that, oh, baby, you want to win, don't you? You, oh, man, I want to win. I want to win. And that's your mindset. You're going to, "I want to win." You want it bad. You know what Paul says to this guy? "Because you already lost." You step into that courtroom, and in the eyes of God, you've lost. It's utter failure. He says, "It would be better for you," verse seven, "to accept wrong." "Why do you not rather accept wrong?" It would be better for you to be cheated. Look at verse seven. "Why not rather let yourselves be defrauded?" It would be better to let yourself be cheated than to defend your so-called rights at the expense of God's glory and at the expense of the higher good of His kingdom.
My friends, Paul was calling this man to do something that's hard for us to do. Oh, it's very easy for us to sit around and talk about it in theory. I love talking about this in theory, but when it comes down to practice, it's very difficult. He was calling this man to give up what he deserved for the higher good of God and His kingdom. And friends, I'm not talking to you tonight about giving up sin for the higher cause of God's good and His glory, right? I mean, everybody knows you should give up your sin, right? You know what Paul's saying? He says, "Give up something good. Give up your rights. Give up something you deserve." The man who was wronged should not think that Paul was asking him to take a loss. However, Paul was saying, "If you accept this wrong for the sake of God's glory, you'll come out a winner. You'll be a gainer."
Now, notice this. Ideally, Paul says that the church should have settled the dispute. Paul does not say that the attitude of a Christian who's wronged in such a matter should just be, "Oh, who cares?" No. He says, "Ideally, you go to the church and get it settled." But Paul says that if the church fails to judge properly in the dispute, it would be better for you to forget about it and to trust God to vindicate you than to refer it over to the secular courts. Now, please notice, Paul is not saying, "Why not suffer wrong instead of confronting the problem?" Sometimes we're like that, right? Some of us have sort of ingrained fear of confrontation, and we'd rather suffer just about anything than actually go up to somebody and say, "I think you wronged me." Paul isn't saying that. He's saying, "Confront the man, but confront him among believers. Don't confront him in the secular court." He's saying, "Why not suffer wrong instead of bringing your dispute before unbelievers?"
Now, Paul has spoken to the man who felt he was wronged. Now Paul's going to speak to the man who had done the wrong. Verse eight: "No, you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and you do these things to your brethren." He goes, "You do wrong and you do fraud or cheat." Friends, can I tell you something right now? There is no place for dishonest dealing by Christians. Are you in business? You better deal honestly. There is no place for cheating. There's no place for a Christian businessman to cheat other people, to not pay your bills, to string people along, to do wrong and to cheat other people. There's no place for dishonest dealing by Christians. How much less place is there for dishonest dealing among Christians? Do you know that there are people who, when they're looking for somebody to serve them, to hire, to do some kind of job, if they see a fish, they won't hire that person because they've been burned by Christians before. They say, "I'd rather deal with somebody who's not, not a believer, because the Christians I've dealt with have burned me." How many people have rejected the things of God and the fellowship of the saints because of dishonesty and cheating among Christians? May it never be named among us.
Now, do you want to know how heavy this is? Look at where Paul goes in the next verse. "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" And friends, I'm going to read these verses, and maybe you're familiar with them, but I want you to catch the context. Let me read it again: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." Man, that's heavy, isn't it? But do you realize the context that Paul is dealing with this in? With people who are cheating one another in the body of Christ. Wow, that's a wakeup call, isn't it? I mean, I, I think you most of the time when we quote those verses there, we somehow think they're in isolation, and Paul is somehow thinking of the great depravity of the world out there, and, oh, he must be going on and on about how all these sinners are going to hell. No, he's talking about corrupt dealings in the church.
And then he says, "The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God." Friends, Paul is speaking strongly to the brother who did the wrong. He's saying, "Don't you realize how serious your sin is? The only thing you may gain from your cheating is eternity with the unrighteous." Now, Paul was not, at least in a final sense, denying the man's salvation. Matter of fact, he puts him among the brethren. Look at verse eight again. He says, "You do these things to your brethren." Paul isn't saying, "You're not saved because you've cheated." But what he's saying is, "Listen, don't give me your religious faith that isn't coupled with honest actions." If a Christian can cheat and defraud his brothers without conscience, then you and I can fairly ask whether or not that man or woman is a Christian at all. The man who had wronged his brother is putting himself in pretty bad company, isn't he? You see that in verses nine and ten: "fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners," and people who rip off one another in the body of Christ. Wow, that's some company to put yourself in.
And friends, none of those who live lives characterized by these sins will inherit the kingdom of God. You see, I don't have any doubt that the man who is cheating his brother figured, "Sure, what I'm doing to my brother isn't good, but it's not that bad." You know what Paul's telling him? It's that bad. Take it seriously.
Now, what does Paul mean when he talks about the unrighteous not inheriting the kingdom of God, and then he says, "fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetousness"? We shouldn't think that a Christian who has committed an act of fornication or an act of homosexuality or any of the other sins listed here is automatically excluded from the kingdom of God. Now, think about that. I suppose there's some people, and at times in church history, these verses have been taken exactly that way, as if Paul is saying, "Okay, you're a Christian, you go out and you commit adultery or commit fornication, that's it. You're going to hell. It's done." Instead, when Paul, Paul describes these people by their sins, he means those who have their lives dominated and characterized by these sins. When he talks about fornicators, he's talking about someone whose life is characterized and dominated by the sin of fornication. Well, maybe some of you tonight are saying, "Oh, that's good, because I'm just an occasional fornicator. That means I'm safe." Friends, you're not safe. Let me tell you why you're not safe. For two reasons. First of all, even your occasional act of sin, in those terms, goes against everything that you were created to be in Jesus Christ. And don't you ever forget that. You're a new creation. Get up out of the mud, Christian. Live like the new creature God's made you to be. Secondly, a lifestyle of sin always begins with single acts of sin. If you never commit fornication, you will never be someone whose life is dominated by fornication. If you never are drunk, you will never be someone whose life is dominated by drunkenness. Do you see what I'm saying? So, while Paul is talking about people whose lives are dominated and characterized by these sins, we're not to say, "Oh, well, an occasional act of these things is okay." Not at all. You see, the man who cheated his brother had to see that if his life was characterized and dominated by this sin, just as much as any of the other people that Paul described, he should be just as concerned for his salvation as any of these other people.
Now, we could go through this list point by point and talk about each one, but I don't think there's much point in that because it's pretty much self-explanatory. But let me just point out two words here that bear notice. He says here in verse nine, "nor homosexuals, nor sodomites." Now, friends, this is a very clear condemnation of homosexuality. And because it is such a clear condemnation of homosexuality, those who would like to justify the practice of homosexuality say that Paul is speaking of homosexual prostitution here. I'm telling you about people who twist this scripture to excuse their own sin. They say, "Oh, no, Paul isn't talking about a loving, caring homosexual relationship. He's talking about homosexual prostitution." But friends, you need to know that that's just not cutting the text squarely, fairly, in context. There is no doubt that Paul is speaking of homosexual acts of all kinds. Because the first word he uses, the Greek word "malakoi," literally means "homosexuals," which refers to male prostitutes. But the second word he uses, which is translated in the New King James "sodomites," is a Greek word that is a generic term for all homosexual practice.
And friends, please understand this, that Paul was not writing in or of a homophobic culture. Homosexuality was rampant in Paul's culture. 14 out of the first 15 Roman emperors were bisexual or homosexual. At the very time Paul was writing, Nero Caesar Nero was the emperor, and he had taken a boy named Sporus and had him castrated and then was married to this boy in a full ceremony, and he was brought to the palace with a great procession. And later on in his life, Nero lived with another man and lived with him as his wife. Now, friends, this is the kind of culture that Paul lived in. Yet he did not approve of it. He told us that the Bible clearly speaks against it.
But I want you to notice something else, and please listen to me on this, friends. In this list of sin, homosexuality is described, but it is described right along with other sins. Friends, so many of those who strongly denounce homosexuality are guilty of the other sins on this list. Are you an adulterer? Are you a fornicator? Are you covetous, or drunkard, or reviler? Then you have no place to condemn the homosexual, because God holds you just as guilty as they do. Friends, Christians err when they excuse homosexuality and deny that it is sin. But they also err just as badly when they single out homosexuality as some unique sin that God is uniquely angry with. It's sin, no better, no worse than any other sin. And God calls every sinner to forsake the practice of their sin, though they may struggle with the desire to sin. My friends, we all desire to sin. Anybody here in this room never desire to sin? We all desire to sin. But God calls us to avoid the practice of that sin.
Now, I want you to see verse eleven, because isn't this glorious? Taken in context, you list all these gnarly sins: fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetousness, drunkards, revilers, extortioners. None of them are going to inherit the kingdom of God. And then Paul looks at them, and he looks at us today, at verse eleven, and he says, "And such were some of you." Yeah, I know you. You look all clean and well-scrubbed here and everything. You look great. But I know you. I know me. I know the past we came from. And God has saved us. Though these sins characterize those who will not inherit the kingdom of God, my friends, Christians can never be unloving or uncaring towards people who are caught up in these sins, because they're just right where we used to be. Christians should not and must not say that those sins in the lives of those who don't know Jesus are of no concern. They are. God wants the homosexual to stop his sin. God wants the drunkard to stop his sin. God wants the reviler to stop his sin. But he wants him to come to Jesus so that he can save his people from their sin. At the same time, the point is plain for the Christian, Christian Christians, and for us. He says, "And such were some of you." Paul clearly puts it in the past tense. Friends, you're a Christian now, right? That's not you anymore. Don't you go out and live like that. That's not you. These things are never to mark the life of a Christian. And if they do, they must be immediately repented of and forsaken.
Friends, honestly now, if this list, if any of the things on this list characterize you, and you say you're a believer in Jesus Christ, leave it here tonight and walk out of here a new man by the power of Jesus Christ. Repent of it. Forsake it. It's not you. "Such were some of you." Going on, verse eleven: "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." Praise the Lord. This is the great work for us in Jesus Christ, described in three terms. We were washed. Friends, we're washed clean by the mercy of God. We can have our sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord. It doesn't matter how filthy your soul is before God tonight. You can be washed and made clean. And then you're sanctified. You know what that means? It's a real holy-sounding word, but it just means to be set apart. To be set apart away from the world and to be set apart unto God by the work of Jesus Christ in your life. And then he says, "You were justified." Do you know what that means? Oh, friends, it's a glorious word. You see, when you stand before God's court, and when you come to him in the name of Jesus, and because of what Jesus has done on the cross, God doesn't just pound his gavel and say, "Not guilty." Friends, "not guilty" just means that you're maybe okay. It doesn't mean that you're good. God says, "Not guilty." As a matter of fact, he has the righteousness of my Son. He is justified. We are declared just before the court of God. Not merely not guilty, but declared to be just before him. And we're justified by God's grace through the work of Jesus on the cross and by faith, and not by our own deeds. Friends, God can take the kind of people described in 1 Corinthians chapters, uh, verses nine and ten, and he can make them into the kind of people described in 1 Corinthians 6:1. That's a great work of God.
Then notice this at the end of the verse. He says, "in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." You know what I love about that? You know, Paul isn't trying to set out in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 to establish some elaborate doctrine of the Trinity. He's saying, "Okay, let me teach you about the Trinity." It just bubbles up in everything that he does, right? Did you notice it there in verse eleven? "The name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of our God." God the Father, it's there. You know, the New Testament doesn't have an elaborate outworking of the doctrine of the Trinity. It just bubbles up in everything that's there because it's the truth about God.
All right, now verse twelve. Has it been tough enough? We're just beginning, folks. Wow. Verse twelve: "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." Now, in the rest of this chapter, Paul is going to instruct the Corinthians and us about an issue that might be of some interest to Christians today. It's the issue of sexual purity. Friends, that's of great interest, isn't it? Because every Christian is challenged by this. I hope you're not saying, "Oh, well, that's fine. You know, I'm married. I'm happily married." Friends, you're still confronted with the issue of sexual purity. And you should be confronted with that issue. Thank you. Because it's a vital issue for us all to consider. And Paul is going to lay a groundwork here for the Christian understanding of sexual purity. And he begins it in verse twelve by laying down a principle. And this is the principle: What is permitted is not our only guide for our behavior. You see, friends, in both 1 Corinthians chapter 5, that's where Paul was dealing with the sexual immorality of a particular member in the Corinthian church, and in 1 Corinthians six, where certain sinners are described, Paul has brought up the issue of the sexual conduct of Christians. Now, he's going to address some of the questions. Apparently, some of the Christians in Corinth sent Paul some questions. They said, "But we have some questions for you about sexual morality and purity from a Christian perspective. Uh, can you answer some questions for us?" And so Paul lays down a principle to begin with. And he says, "All things are lawful for me." Now, I want you to understand that I believe that this was probably a phrase that Paul used in his teaching of the Corinthians. Remember, he spent a few years there in the city of Corinth. And I think when Paul was there, he was teaching the Corinthians and he said, "Listen, brothers, we're free in Jesus Christ. All things are, are lawful for me." And Paul was thinking about what we eat, what we drink, what day of the week we worship the Lord on. Because there were always people coming in saying, "You can't eat that. It's not kosher. You have to worship on the Sabbath. That's God's holy day." And in the face of these legalists, Paul says, "Listen, you don't have to keep kosher. You don't have to worship on Saturday. You can worship on Sunday. All things are lawful for me. I'm at liberty. I shouldn't let anybody put me under bondage, as legalists are prone to do." I think that's what Paul was saying. But I think that the Corinthians were taking that little line from Paul, "All things are lawful," and twisting it, putting it in applications that he never intended it to be put. So Paul has to clarify. He says, "You bet all things are lawful for me, but, but all things are not helpful."
Friends, the Corinthian Christians were taking the idea, "All things are lawful," and applying it to areas that Paul or the Lord never intended. They were using their liberty as a license to sin. Now, I need to get ahead of ourselves just a little bit. In verse fifteen, Paul brings up the issue of a harlot, a prostitute. And I know it might sound crazy to you, but apparently there were Christians in the Corinthian church who thought it was okay, because we're free in Christ, right? To go take advantage of the services of prostitutes in the city of Corinth. They thought it was okay. "I'm free in Jesus, aren't I? All things are lawful for me." That's what Paul said, didn't Paul say that? Now, you and I look at that today and say, "It, how could any Christian say that it could be acceptable, lawful for a Christian to go out and, and, and buy a prostitute?" But you need to understand something. Prostitution was so ingrained in the Corinthian culture, and the Corinthian prostitutes were religious. It was the pagan religions. But you see, the Corinthians didn't think religion, prostitution, that the two were different. You could be very religious and still purchase the services of a prostitute all the time. And that's the way the Corinthians were thinking. And so some of them were actually going around saying, "Hey, Paul, we're free, aren't we? I mean, all things are lawful. It's okay if we purchase the services of a prostitute, isn't it?" And Paul says, "No, all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any."
Now, in this phrase, Paul uses a verb that he only uses here and in the next chapter, 1 Corinthians 7:4, in the context of a husband and wife having authority over each other's body. I think Paul is saying here in verse twelve, "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of anybody." In other words, "I'm not going to be brought under the power of a prostitute." I really believe that's what he's saying here, based on the specific word that he uses.
Now, notice how the Corinthians were rationalizing this. In verse thirteen: "Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power." Now, what he's doing here is he's giving a principle for sexual purity among Christians. I think that the Corinthian Christians were going around saying, "Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods," and basically, "the parts of my body that were meant for sex are meant for sex. I'll go out and have sex." I think that's what they were saying. "Look, just as my belly was made to take food, so other parts of my body were intended to have sex with. So why not use my body for what God made it for?" That's what they're thinking. You see, they were using this to justify giving their bodies whatever their bodies wanted. "Hey, my body wants food, so I eat. My body wants sex, so I hire a prostitute. What's the problem?" Paul's not going to let him take that slogan, because that slogan may be fine when you apply it to whether or not you're going to eat a kosher diet, right? Who cares? Look, "stomach's made for food." Eat it. You want a ham sandwich? Eat it. Paul would say, "Food for the stomach and the stomach for foods." But Paul says that does not translate over to sexual morality, because "the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body."
Friends, let's talk very honestly about our lustful sexual appetites. Because of our lustful sexual appetites, it may seem to us that God did make our bodies for sexual immorality. A man can look at his heart and see how ingrained the lustful sexual appetites are and say, "This is just the way God made me. He made me this way. I may as well fulfill the purpose that he made me for." But friends, can I tell you something? God did not make your body that way. Sinful Adam made made your body that way. That's your body as a result of the fall. We see the wisdom in God's design for the body and for sexual purity when we look at the problems of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. These are the price one pays in the body for using the body in a way that the Lord never intended, because the body is not for sexual immorality.
Now, notice this. He goes on in verse fifteen, and he says, "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members..."
Of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
Friends, he's saying, "Do you not know?" Apparently, many of the Christian Corinthians did not know, and they thought their sexual conduct with prostitutes was not connected with their relationship with Jesus. But he says, "Listen, when you go to bed with that prostitute, you're taking Jesus into that bed." And friends, anybody who has any kind of conscience to Jesus Christ at all will recognize that that has no place in the life of a believer.
But the Corinthians were saying, "Well, you know, I have this area of my life. It's, it's the sexual area of my life, and all this. Well, this life over here, this is lived for God, but I just have this one." He says, "No, no, no. You can't separate your life like that." Friend, when you go to bed with a prostitute, you're taking Jesus into that bed with you.
Notice what else he says. He says, verse 16, "Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? Is one flesh," he says, at the end of the verse. Now, friends, in the sexual relationship between a husband and wife, they become one flesh in a way that is under God's blessing. But in sex outside of marriage, the partners become one flesh in a way that is under God's curse. A person desiring a casual sexual encounter may not want to become one flesh with their partner, but in some spiritual sense, they do. Part of their being is given to that person, and it means that there is less to give to the Lord and less to give to the partner that God intends for them.
In the biblical understanding of sex, there is no such thing as casual sex. And since we belong to Jesus, since we belong to him, body, soul, and spirit, we have no right to give any part of ourselves away to an unauthorized person. By being joined to a prostitute, you're giving part of yourself away to that person, or to anybody else in sexual immorality, you're giving part of yourself away to that person that Jesus Christ purchased.
Friends, Warren Weby put it this way. He said, "Sex outside of marriage is like a man robbing a bank. He gets something, but it is not his, and one day he will pay for it. Sex within marriage is like a person putting money into a bank. There's safety, security, and he will collect dividends." A big difference.
And I want you to notice this in verse 17. This is sobering. He says, "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him." Friends, in the heat of lustful passion, spiritual things seem very far away. Yet, at the root of most lustful desire is a real passion for love and acceptance and adventure. And can I tell you that your desire for love and acceptance and adventure is far more completely met in a one spirit relationship with Jesus Christ than it can ever be met by hopping from bed to bed? That's where God intended you to fulfill your need. He says, right there in verse 17, "He's joined to the Lord as one spirit with him." You're trying to join with other people to find something that you'll never find. God meant that need to be fulfilled in an intimate relationship that you have with Jesus Christ.
So he puts it right down on the line in verse 18, "Flee sexual immorality." Every sin that a man commits is outside the body, or a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. You notice Paul says, "Flee." He doesn't say, "Be brave and resist the lustful passion of sexual immorality," but he says, "Flee from its very presence." Many people have fallen because they've underestimated the power of sexual passion, or they thought that they would test themselves and see how much they could take. Instead, we should follow the example of Joseph, who fled from sexual immorality.
And then he says, "Flee sexual immorality." Friends, can I tell you something very plainly here? Paul does not say that Christians should flee sex, but that they should flee sexual immorality. God gave sex as a precious gift to mankind and uses it, and God uses it powerfully to bond together husband and wife in a true one flesh relationship. So, as Hebrews 13:4 says, "The marriage bed is undefiled." The sexual relationship between husband and wife is pure and holy and good before God. But friends, sexual immorality works against God's good purpose for sex. It works against a true, godly, one flesh relationship. Sex outside of marriage can be exciting, but it can never be enriching.
Now, I want you to notice also that Paul says, "Flee sexual immorality." May I remind you that he's using the Greek word *porneia* there? It's a word that refers to a broad range of sexual sin. To flee sexual immorality means more than to not have sexual intercourse with someone that we're not married to. It means to flee sexual gratification apart from or short of sexual intercourse with someone that we're not married to. It also means to flee sexual gratification or thrills that someone might find from pornographic videos or movies or magazines or books or internet materials. Flee it. It's sexual immorality.
Concluding here with verses 19 and 20, it says, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."
Friends, our call is to glorify God in our body. Why? Because this body that he's given, given you, is old and broken down and rumpled as it might be, that body is beautiful because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit of God. A temple is a place sacred to God and pure from immorality. If it is true that we're filled with the Spirit of God, then that must influence our sexual behavior. And if we commit sexual immorality as Christians, we are polluting God's temple.
Friends, because our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, our bodies belong to God and not ourselves. Did you read that in verse 19? "And you are not your own, for you were bought at a price." Now, any honest person is going to take better care of something that doesn't belong to them. There's a blessed brother here this evening who, who I lent a surfboard to him, and I know he took good care of that because he's an honest Christian brother. And just like any honest Christian brother, he's going to take better care of something because it doesn't belong to him, it belongs to somebody else.
Now, friends, you don't belong. Your body does not belong to you. It belongs to Jesus Christ. It's only on loan to you. You better take care of it. It's owned by Jesus. You don't have the right to pollute and abuse God's property. Use it right.
Now notice this also, that if our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, it means that we have God himself living within us. That means that even though you might not feel like it tonight, you have the power within you to resist sexual temptation because the Holy Spirit of God lives within you. And I think the Holy Spirit can resist sexual temptation, don't you? He lives within you. You have the power within, not because it's in you, but because it's in God, but God lives in you.
Now let me make another note on this, which I think is important to make. There are some Christians who have taught and said that the devil cannot possess a Christian soul or the devil cannot possess a Christian spirit, which I agree with completely. But they say that the devil can possess a Christian's body, but not his soul, but not a spirit. Friends, our bodies belong to Jesus Christ just as much as our souls are our spirit. He bought and paid for the whole package. He is the owner of my body. And let me tell you something, he's not subletting to demons. He owns it, and it's his temple. It's his body.
Friends, do you realize that you can glorify God with your body? You can, not just with your spirit. You can glorify God with your body. As a matter of fact, Henry Ironide said, "Glorify God in your body, and the spiritual side will take care of itself." I agree with that a lot. And may God help us to walk purely and rightly before him to do just that. Let's pray.
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