In his sermon, David Green discusses 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, emphasizing the concept of the believer's body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. He explains the Apostle Paul's teaching that while all things may be lawful, not all are beneficial, highlighting the dangers of abusing Christian freedom and grace. Paul warns against being controlled by sinful behavior, particularly sexual immorality, and stresses the importance of honoring God with our bodies. The sermon addresses the historical context of Corinth, where legal but immoral practices posed a challenge to the church. Green underscores that the resurrection of the body underpins the believer's duty to glorify God physically and spiritually, urging believers to live lives that reflect their sanctification and the transformative power of God's grace.

1 Corinthians chapter 6. Beginning of verse 12. That's where we left off last week. We'll take verses 12 through 20 as our text. The title of my message today is on the subject of the believer's body, temple.

The believer's body a temple. Begin verse 12. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly, and belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them.

Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid.

What? Know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication.

Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that comitteth fornication sinneth against his own body. Want, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God and ye are not your own for you are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. So we take this portion of scripture and begin to really unpack it. He starts out this section, Paul does, writing to the Church of Corinth. He says, all things are lawful for me, but, or unto me, but all things are not expedient.

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." As you kind of hear that or read that, it's kind of easy to kind of get caught up with the wording here. Really what he's saying, kind of like how it's translated there in the LSB, he says, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. Not all things are profitable. It may be lawful to do something, but not everything's profitable. It may not be against the law to do something, but it's not profitable.

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. A good rule of thumb is, whether you were a Christian living in Corinth in the first century, or a Christian living in America, is this. Even though something may be legal, it doesn't mean it's right or beneficial. We live in a society in which there are lots of things that are legal. And this saying that he's using, I mean, it may have been a Corinthian slogan.

I don't know. But the reality is that freedom is a wonderful thing, but there are prices to abusing freedom. You've got to have some standards. Taking this text in its context, Before we bring it out into some application here, in Cornets there were temple prostitutes and everything else that were going on within the city. Within the city.

Greece was a mess. And things that were legal had a high cost. Obviously in the context this is what he's talking about. But though Corinth, the city as Paul would have known it, is just nowadays a lot of archaeological remnants. It's not what it once was.

And then those things may be different. We don't have what they had in the sense that there may not be temple prostitutes and that sort of thing. In our country, Brunswick and so on and so forth. There's not anything going on that I'm aware of legally to that extent The fact is that there are things that are legal in our country that are happening, of which America says, yeah, you can go ahead and do that. But There are dire consequences.

Now understand something before I get too far into this. Thank God for the freedom that we have in Christ. Praise the Lord for the grace of Almighty God. Were it not for grace, were it not for grace, then you and I would all be in trouble. We're all sinners.

We've all come short of the glory of God. There's none righteous. No, not one. Not a Jew, not a Gentile. None of us.

And so Thank God for the grace of God, unmerited favor, and praise the Lord for freedom that we have in Christ. Otherwise, the Church of Cornith would need to have a big bunch of rules and regulations in order to run. You and I would have to have a whole bunch of rules and regulations in order to run. We'd be a legalistic kind of a church, in other words. While we have God's grace and while we have Christian freedom, we must understand that there is a high cost for abusing grace and there is a high cost for abusing the freedom that we have in Christ.

Sin has a terrible power and it is a terrible master. In the context of this he is talking about sexual sin. The Church of Corinth had a problem. There was one among them who was a fornicator. They had done nothing of it.

They turned a blind eye of it. Not only that, but in the chapter, in chapter 5, in verse 1, it says, it is reported commonly there is fornication among you, and such fornication as it is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. And you're puffed up, have not rather mourned, that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you." So you've got these people who were members people who were members of this church who were either involved in sexual sin or were excusing, turning a blind eye to it, not seeing it in the light that it should have been seen in, not understanding the seriousness of it, and so on and so forth. Were they a church? Yes.

They were a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Were they saved? Yes. He called them saints. This serves as a great warning for us.

You and I, we are saved by God's grace. We are saved. Jesus Christ has died for us. But understand something, we're not saved to live any old way we want. Jesus is not simply a fire escape, so that way we can go through life with sex, drugs, and whatever else living like the world without understanding the consequences, even for the child of God.

Even for the child of God, sin has consequence. It's not just Adam's sin that got us into trouble, it's our own sin. And we had, we continue to live in this life with that own nature we've got to understand the problems of it. Drugs, alcohol, pornography, adultery, fornication, all of these things, they can drain you of the joy, the peace, and the usefulness of you that you should have as a Christian. This is not something that he warned only the Church of Corinth about.

Remember, he's writing under the inspiration of the Spirit. These are, this is God's Word, but notice what he wrote to the church at Thessalonica, and by extension these things are written to us in 1st Thessalonians verses 3 through 5. For this is the will of God, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 3 through 5. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concus even as the Gentiles which know not God." You see, Paul understood that sin was a danger not only to the lives of those that he ministered to, Corinth, Thessalonica, all over the Roman Empire, it was a terrible thing.

Yeah, we look back on history sometimes with rosy eyed glasses, rosy glasses, you know, that's the phrase. We say, oh, things were so much better back then. You know, we look at our day and we see the streets, the internet, We see all this filth and trash that's coming into our homes, like an open sewer. And it is bad. It is bad.

Coming through the television, trying to find a TV show that doesn't have adultery or fornication or some sort of soft porn quote unquote in it and you can't find it. Bad language. Of course just a click of the button on the internet and you're... There you go. And we think, well things were so much better back then.

In the first century, things were also like an open sewer. No, they didn't have the internet, they didn't have the TV, they didn't have all those things, but I'm telling you that it was terrible back in those days. Openly, things were happening in the streets, and some of it, just like it does in our day, crept into the church. The church. And as Paul addresses this, He not only understood that it was a danger for the people that he ministered to, he also understood that he needed to keep his own life in line.

That it was a problem for himself. Because Paul, you know, he journeyed all over the place too. He saw what was going on. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, look what he wrote. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 27, But I keep under my body, bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway.

In the context of this, and we'll get to chapter 9 Lord willing eventually, but in the context of it he's talking about running a race. And it's good to start well, but beloved we've got to end well. When I was young I used to think that as I got older that things would get easier they don't. In fact if anything it's harder And that makes sense because when you're running it's easy to get started But that last little bit is the hardest you're tired worn out and all that and that's when the enemy really hit you He said I keep under my body I've got to keep it in subjection, lest that by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. Time and time again Paul was warning and sounding the alarm.

Freedom in Christ is what is needed, but freedom does not give license to sin. Thank God for the grace of God, but no brothers and sisters, it does not give us license to live however way we want. We are different than the barbarians. We're different than the world, the Greeks and the Romans. And as he writes to the church at Corinth and in this section where we're at, why does he need to address this?

Wasn't it enough that he tells them to put out this one who has openly committed fornication? Well, it wasn't enough for him to tell them that they needed to exclude this one. Why? Because their problem, the root of their problem, as we begin to unpack this letter, we know we've been hammering this and going over it quite a bit in the first few chapters, they were a divided church. Now we get to chapter 5 and we find out that there's one who's among them who's got this problem, this sin problem, this open sin problem, that he's having fornication with his father's wife.

The church isn't doing anything about it. As we go on, and we begin to see things that are uncovered, how is this all coming to light? It's coming to light through Paul's epistle. Wait a minute, what is Paul's epistle? It's the Word of God.

And the Word of God, when it's preached, when it's opened up, when it is brought forward, this is what uncovers problems. This is why the unconverted and the backslidden and people who are not right with God. That's why they don't like the preaching of God's Word. There's churches across this across this this area. They got the bouncy houses and all that sort of thing.

They're drawing crowds this morning. They don't want to hear the word of God. This is hard preaching. What? Wait a minute.

I mean maybe, maybe they'll hear something about open, open fornication but don't talk about pornography. Relegate this to a church back in the first century but don't bring application to us because church discipline that's for then not for now. You see. But in order for people's lives to be changed, they've got to come face to face with their sin. And Paul brings this stuff out.

And when we look at this, what was the root of the problem? Well, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 1 through 3, Paul tells them, And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat. For hitherto you were not able to bear it neither yet, and now are you able for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envy and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?

The root of the problem at Corinth was that they were carnal. They were worldly. Paul should have never had to write them a letter about these things. They should have taken care of this themselves, but they didn't. And so, you know, while it's a sad testimony to Corinth that they didn't take care of them.

I'm thankful. Thankful in a way that they didn't because this letter has been written and recorded for us. Because how often does our flesh rise up? How often do we have problems in our lives, in our churches? By the way, We look at the Church of Corinth and we say, that's a Church with problems.

We look in churches across our country and we say, that's a Church with problems. That's a Church with problems. You know, it can be discouraging. If you're listening to this, we have visitors from time to time that come and then they go and that's for a thing, but if you're looking for a church without problems, you're not going to find it, not in this world. There are churches with problems.

I think it was Spurgeon that said, if you find a church without problems, don't join it, because as soon as you do, there's going to be problems. And so, you know, That's what the New Testament gives us, are these remedies for these things. But also, you know, when we think about the grace of God, you know, this is for encouragement because God's grace is amazing. We see that here. It's not a license to sin, but praise God.

By His grace, these people were still were still Christians. They were still saved people. This was still a church even though it's messed up. Paul continues on in chapter 6 in verse 13. Same.

Meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but yon shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. Mint for the belly. The belly for mints. That's a...

That's kind of an old way of putting it. He's not just talking about meat. He's Talking about food. Food for the stomach. The stomach is for food.

Perhaps this may have been another Corinthian or Roman proverb meant to celebrate this idea that sex was purely biological. This idea that it was no different than eating. I've not really addressed Gnosticism from the pulpit too much, but this may have been an early form of Gnosticism, or some sort of dualism, which made out that the body is only evil, and so what the body does is biological and temporal. What we have to worry about is the spiritual. You know there were some gnostic Christians out there which were no Christians at all, but that began to develop through the early churches.

Through the early churches. John and Paul both addressed some of that in their writings. But as these things began to develop, they were using these things to justify sexual sins. And so, Paul, writing under Holy Spirit inspiration, rejects this idea. Very clearly, he writes, the body is not for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.

In fact, in verse 14 he says, God has both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a chief doctrine of Christianity. He was raised up bodily. He was raised up bodily. And at the same time, very much connected with that is the destination of our body.

It's not just going to be left out there in the cemetery to rot. Indeed, the world does not understand this. And there's this idea that gets floated around that says that the body is just here and then it's thrown in the grave and and that's all there is. Some people say that's the end, the end of story, that's it, but then there's other people who say well that's not it, but the body is thrown there and then then we're we go someplace else, but they deny the resurrection of the body. That's not what is going to happen.

There's going to be a resurrection of the body in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and verse 11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken or make alive your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh." So there's coming a resurrection of the bodies. If you die before the Rapture, guess what?

You will be resurrected. Your body will be resurrected. Now don't misunderstand. There is great hope in this. Don't fear this or dread it.

If you die of cancer or severe arthritis, there's a terrible war and your head is chopped off or whatever, you're not going to be raised like that. You're not going to be raised with cancer. You're not going to be raised with severe arthritis. You're not going to spend your eternity without your head. If you lose your head in this life, and that's how you die.

1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I love this passage. You know, if you want to think about how terribly messed up the Church of Corinth was, Verse 12 says, Now if Christ be preached, that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? So there were some within the Church of Corinth that were saying there's no resurrection of the dead.

But, you know, praise God, again. I mean, it's terrible for the Church of Corinth that that was going on, but praise God that it was, because Paul wrote this under inspiration of spirit, And guess what? We have one of the greatest texts here in the whole of the Bible about the certainty of Christ's resurrection, which along with that is the certainty of our resurrection. Certainty of our resurrection. He goes on in verse 14, verse 13, but if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen.

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. There had to be a resurrection. In fact, he goes on so far as to say in verse 16, for if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep, then they also which are dead in Christ are perished.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. So there is a resurrection coming. Your friend, your grandma, your mother, your spouse, whoever it is, and even you yourself, you die, all hope is not lost. But understand, he says in verse 51, behold, I Verse 51, Behold, I show you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, we shall not all die, physically, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible is put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is fallen up in victory. And then he goes on even to personify it. Oh death, oh death, where is thy sting, oh grave? Where is your victory?

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is of all. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the word of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." Man, I'm getting excited just thinking about preaching chapter 15. Sadly, most of it gets preached as the last few verses, and that's at a funeral. We ought to rejoice in this chapter and think about the coming resurrection all the time.

All the time. We have a hope beyond the grave. And all these ailments, these troubles, these trials, all that stuff, it'll all be gone. Of, it'll all be gone. God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his own power.

Up by his own power. Why is he bringing all this up now in this early in this epistle? Well, because apparently Church of Corinth was kind of doing something that people in our day still kind of struggle with either openly or subconsciously. If it's in the body, it ain't too bad. But if it's what's out of the body, that's what matters.

So they had an idea that spiritual things matter, the physical things, well that's just, it is what it is. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 16, Paul is correcting this idea that it comes about there. I come about there. Verses 15 and 16 there. Know ye not?

Do you not know? Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. What?

Know you not that the he which is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh. The reality is, while in their minds, in their doctrine, which was wrong, they were trying to separate these things. Separate the spiritual from the physical. Paul says, hold on a minute, you can't do that.

He says, he says our bodies in Christ are joined together. What an argument against carnality. If, think about this, If Jesus were with you in the flesh, to put it in today's English, what if he were hanging out at your house? Oh, how different would we act in our homes, in our car, in our life. Do you know he's with us everywhere?

Paul says here in chapter six, in verse 16, which we just read, he says, after saying what he did about what? No, you're not. Or, no, you're not. Your bodies are the members of Christ. You know, and that's a shock statement when he said in verse 15, shall I take the members of Christ to make them the members of harlot?

He's speaking very bluntly to these people because they were taking sin in a way that they they weren't taking it very seriously. He said, God forbid. No you're not, that he which is joined to a harlot is one body, For two saith he, shall be one flesh. As he says that shock statement, about taking the bodies, the members of Christ, and taking them and making them members of a heartland. He said, God forbid.

God forbid. That's actually not the phrase that he used there. That's why when you read other translations, you'll see the New King James says, certainly not. The English Standard Version says, never. The LSB says, may it never be.

This is what's interesting to me about translation. What Paul is saying here is, this should be the furthest thing from your mind. Certainly not never. May it never be. God forbid.

They all accurately bring about what Paul is saying. When the King James translators came to that phrase, they said, well, what's the, that's strong language in the Greek. What's the strongest way we know to say this and so they put God forbid you know absolutely not if there's a translation out there that says absolutely not that would be a good way of putting it. You know, there was a line drawn in the sand, so to speak. No way.

No way. Why? Why? Well, this goes all the way back to Genesis, Genesis chapter 2, verse 24. In verse 24, when Adam and Eve were created, Adam was put into a deep sleep and opened his eyes.

He saw the woman. In verse 24, The scripture here says, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, they shall cleave unto his wife, they shall be one flesh. They shall be one flesh. When a person, when a man is joined to his wife, they become one flesh. What Paul is talking about to the Church of Corinth is that there's an unnatural.

What we read in Genesis is the natural order of things. A man and his wife. When there's a joining to a harlot that is unnatural. When a Christian, When a Christian is joined to a harlot, It's not just something you can compartmentalize and say, well, I know I'm a Christian, but that's on Sunday morning. It's Saturday night.

I know that I'm a Christian, but that's spiritual. This is physical. Paul says no. The Holy Spirit says no. In this passage here, we see the seriousness of this when he says, says, Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot?

God forbid. What know you not that he which is joined into a harlot is one body? For two saith he, shall be one flesh. Verse 17, but he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit we have a union, those of us who are saved, we have a union that far outweighs any other union that there is. And your connection, your connection with Christ is closer than even that of husband and wife.

Your connection is, goes even deeper than anything in this world. And so he says, for you to join with the harlot is not something that is right or proper. It is a sin. You've been joined unto the Lord and you're one spirit. Flee fornication, verse 18.

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that cometh fornication sinneth against his own body. Sinneth against his own body. Sexual sin is so intimate, so entangling, so corrupting on so many levels that it's one of those sins that has the potential of ruining your body in more ways than one. He says flee from it.

Flee fornication. Communication. Much damage can be done if you don't Run from it, flee from it. And then in verses 19 and 20, again he says, what? Know you not?

Do you not know? These are questions that really draw the reader's attention. These are things that he expects them to know. We're expected to know as well. What?

No, you not? That your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own? For you are bought with the price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are gods." Christian, child of God, saint, Your body belongs to the Lord. This is the argument. Verse 13.

The body is not for fornication but for the Lord. This is the argument. Verse 13. Your body belongs to the Lord. Is a member of Christ.

Verse 15. Do you not know your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of the harlot? And then in verse 19, the temple of the Holy Spirit. The temple of the Holy Spirit.

Paul is laying out in this text the seriousness of sin. Every act of fornication, adultery, any other similar sin is committed by the believer in the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, where God dwells. When you go back to the Old Testament you see the seriousness of this and when you read through the Old Testament and you get to the New Testament you see these connections. The connection is not to make us fall back under the Old Testament law, but rather to make us understand how holy God is. What a great God we serve and how serious we should really take all of these things.

We've been set apart or as he put it here, you're bought with a price. If we were to go back up to verse 11, he said, you're washed, you're sanctified, you're justified. The temple of the Old Testament was set apart for special use. You and I have been set apart for special use as well. We've been bought with the price.

What is that price? Oh, We've been bought with the price. What is that price? Oh, we've been bought with the price. Over in 1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18. For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. We've been bought with the price, What is that price? The precious blood of Jesus Christ. Of a lamb without blood mission, without spawn.

He says, Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. On later in this chapter, or in this book, this letter, chapter 10 and verse 31, he says, Whether therefore you eat or drink, Whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. To glorify God is our chief purpose, not just spiritually, but also physically as well. When we think about this, Paul said it this way as we bring this to a close over in Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 and Verses 1 and 2.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Yes, we're to present our bodies a living sacrifice.

He didn't he didn't say to present your spirits. I mean he could have. He could have said, present your heart. So why did he say bodies, especially when he was so busy a lot of times fighting against legalism? The reality is a holy heart, a changed life, will never be hidden by an unholy life.

You see, a holy heart is never going to be hidden by an unholy life. He says, present your bodies of living sacrifice. The hypocrite that the pretend Christian, if you will, wants to live a certain way and yet claim Christianity. That's what was happening in Corinth. That's what happens in America a lot of times.

The Bible says no. The Bible says you've got to be different. Preserve your body as a living sacrifice. Your body as a temple. The Holy Spirit.

Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God. So does that mean I need to go to Bible conferences all the time? I need to go to church. Yeah, you should be in church. Bible conferences are encouraging, but you know what?

You can eat a cheeseburger to the glory of God. You can be a painter to the glory of God. You can work at the hardware store. You can be a pressure washer. You can do all of those things.

Cut grass to the glory of God. Be a wash dishes to the glory of God. Watch TV to the glory of God. May God help us as we think about these things and consider not only what was going on in Cornynth, but consider how these things are applicable to our own lives.