The Beauty of the Body

Transcript

good morning family we keep making you sit down only to stand up again we got to work that out if you have your Bibles please turn with me to first Corinthians chapter 6 we’ll be looking at verses 12 through 20 if you don’t have a Bible there should be one in front of you and you could find our portion of scripture on page 897 and as you’re making your way there would you please stand as we hear the Lord and his word

first Corinthians chapter 6 verse 12 all things are lawful for me but not all things are helpful all things are lawful for me but I will not be dominated by anything food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food and God will destroy both one and the other the body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body and God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power 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 prostitute never or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one with her for as it is written the two will become one flesh but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him flee from sexual immorality every other sin a

person commits is outside the body but sexually immoral person sins against his own body or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God you are not your own for you were bought with a price so glorify God in your body this family is the word of the Lord thanks be to God let’s pray our father in our God we thank you for your word we recognize that every portion of scripture is for our benefit for our instruction to help us grow in godliness and so we pray this morning father that as we submit ourselves under the authority of your word that you would change us that you would convict us if necessary and that you would make us more like Jesus father we beg for the help of the Holy Spirit to illuminate

your truth to us this morning which are Holy Spirit please guide my speech help me to speak what your word means to say to us help to govern what you would have me say this morning we are completely dependent upon you and so we pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus our Savior and King amen you may be seated

Cultural Context and Challenge

two of the most defining characteristics of first-century Corinth were sex and paganism these two features predominantly fed the ethos of Corinthian culture I mentioned this in the introduction sermon of our series that city of Corinth had this temple of Aphrodite who is the goddess of love beauty and sexuality and this influence of Aphrodite in the first century was so pervasive in Corinth that it created a context where sexual immorality was both religiously and socially endorsed in fact it was in that temple where these temple prostitutes would engage in these pagan religious practices and this practice was considered completely normal so you can only imagine how incredibly difficult it would have been for a new Christian to live in this culture where sex and paganism was so front-forward it would be a lot like living in 21st century Portland Oregon a culture completely immersed and obsessed with

sex and paganism and as we’ve been discussing throughout each chapter in Corinthians the biggest problem with the Christians in Corinth was that they were allowing the culture of Corinth to influence their Christian walk both in terms of their sexual expressions and in terms of their pagan philosophy so much so that Christians didn’t think twice about engaging in the same practices as non-christians in Corinth and you see it was the Corinthian Christians trend towards pagan philosophy that gave them license to express themselves in sexual immorality so for example the pagan philosophy of the day in Corinth held to this idea that the body was insignificant and that it was unimportant and that the most important thing about a person was their soul or what you might call the inner self this was Plato’s philosophy Plato like the Corinthians held to this idea that because the body was material and

temporal it was at best unimportant or at worst bad soul of a person which they understood to be non-material and immortal well that was good so the logical conclusion was that since there was nothing permanent about the body it was nothing sacred about it you could pretty much do whatever you wanted with it and this sounds crazy that Christians would think and behave that way because it seems so contrary to the basic Christian theology but that’s where they were and so Paul being the godly and wise man he was realized he needed to take them back to the basics so that they would understand that the prevailing pagan philosophy of the body was not a biblical understanding of the body in other words Paul wanted them to know that the body was important both the spiritual and physical parts of a person are mutually significant when God saves

sinners lost in sin and darkness he saves them completely both soul and body one of the things I really love about Paul’s posture here is that he doesn’t simply tell them to stop doing what they’re doing in the form of chastisement because they should know better though he thinks they should know better instead Paul in this very loving and honest way seeks to correct their confusion concerning the culture’s view of the body by giving them this kind of Christian anthropology or a theology of the body in fact in our text this morning Paul gives them and us the basic but important theological principles that help guide all Christians into a biblical understanding concerning the beauty of the body and so to help us along I’ve broken Paul’s theology of the body into five main points Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit will reveal that our bodies are significant that our bodies are transcendent that

Bodies Are Significant

our bodies are united our bodies are sacred and our bodies were purchased so let’s begin in verse 12 and 13 by looking at how our bodies are significant Paul writes all things are lawful for me but not all things are helpful all things are lawful for me but I will not be dominated by anything food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food and God will destroy both one and the other the body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body okay so at first glance this verse can seem a bit confusing what is Paul talking about here I want to help us to better understand the main thrust of what Paul is getting at here with first thing you need to understand is that Paul here is critiquing the Corinthian Christians misguided philosophy concerning the physical body he begins by picking apart

these kind of cultural catchphrases that the people have poorly put together so I want you to notice the question the quotation marks around all things are lawful for me that actually is in quotations twice and then look at the quotations around food is meant for the stomach in the stomach for food so these things in quotations are short but pithy statements that frame the ideas that the Corinthians had adapted or adopted to justify certain behaviors okay and this isn’t uncommon every culture has these kinds of catchphrases our culture for example uses catchphrases like it is what it is a catchphrase connected to the idea that we need to accept a situation as it stands without trying to change it you might hear the cultural catchphrase live your truth or you do you both catchphrases encourage people to be authentic and true to themselves no matter what the cost and perhaps one of the most popular catchphrases in the

Pacific Northwest love is love which emphasizes that love in all forms should be accepted and respected by all regardless of gender or sexual orientation this catchphrase completely defines the undercurrent of the LGBTQ community the statements Paul critiques are more than just empty statements or first-century hashtags they have real-time implications on how Christians in their culture think feel and believe so Paul quotes a few cultural catchphrases and then critiques and corrects them according to Scripture and family just a side note this is a good example of how we as Christians should engage with the ideas in our culture take them critique them according to Scripture and see if they hold up against the wisdom of God’s Word and if they don’t then reject them completely and find alignment with Scripture rather than culture so the first catchphrase all things are lawful for me which he repeats it’s likely something that Christians may be adapted

from Paul when he was teaching about Christian liberties however it seems they’ve lost or misunderstood or completely reinterpreted it to mean something else Paul’s message in Scripture has always been in Christ we are free from the law but these Corinthians probably took they probably took it to mean that they were free to do whatever they wanted therefore all things are lawful so Paul he clarifies just because we’re free doesn’t mean we’re literally free to do anything he tells them living like all things are lawful is not helpful for you and then he repeats it again all things are lawful but he adds I will not be dominated by anything in other words we have been freed in Christ Jesus from the things that once mastered and dominated us and this is a bit of wordplay that Paul uses here when you translate it properly essentially Paul means all things are in my power but I

shall not be overpowered by anything Paul makes this clear Romans 8 2 for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death brothers and sisters we have been freed from the very sin that once controlled us so don’t let your freedom or liberties in Christ cause you to lose that which you were freed from in Christ just to illustrate this I’m gonna offer you a hypothetical but very possible or probable scenario Bill was a person who was completely enslaved to alcohol it ruled him and it ruined his life Bill could only think about drinking at first it was casual and social but then quickly became a way for a bill to escape reality maybe the pressures from work or the pressure from home drinking quickly became a dangerous addiction that not only hurt himself but everyone around him Bill was a mess when he would

drink and no matter how hard Bill tried to control his addiction it always seemed to control him but then Bill became a Christian praise be to God he was set free in Christ no longer in bondage to alcohol no longer ruled or controlled by it and he flourished as a Christian in his newfound freedom but then after a few years of being in a reformed church with people who would overemphasize that drinking is a Christian liberty that all Christians should enjoy and to abstain would be moralistic he was even told all things are lawful for you and so Bill at the advice of his Christian peers used his Christian liberty to enjoy drinking again but enjoyment became dependence quickly became a relapse into addiction and a downward spiral back into enslavement family is a hypothetical scenario but this is a very real issue that happens all the time I have

personally seen this happen it’s a very sad reality the very things we were freed from in Christ can become the very thing that enslaves us again because of our freedoms so you’re free in Christ you have Christian liberties but don’t be mastered by your freedoms 1st Peter 2 16 says live as people who are free not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil but living as servants of God so Paul corrects their catchphrase it’s not that all things are lawful is that some things are lawful but those some things might not be good things for you to indulge in especially if they hurt you spiritually then Paul critiques a catchphrase that likely didn’t originate from him he says food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food and just a side note I actually think the quotations should also include and God will destroy both one and the other and

I think that will make sense as we move through our text so the Corinthian logic with this catchphrase is that just as we get hungry and feed the stomach with what it needs to satisfy it the same goes for our sexual appetites and desires but you see this kind of thinking reduces sex to a mere biological function just like eating and since according to the Corinthians both the stomach and our bodies will eventually be destroyed by God this was remember the prevailing philosophy of the culture why withhold the body from what it needs to be satisfied it’s just my body it’s eventually gonna decompose so really doesn’t matter what we do with it my body and the things I do with it do not define who I am and listen family this is exactly how our culture thinks today you have a whole massive amount of people saying you only live once live

this life for all there is you might as well enjoy it while you have the opportunity I mean it’s only sex and since sex is simply a physical act that you do with your body and since my body’s not tethered to me why not engage in hookup culture as often as you feel the urge then you have this whole other category of people massive amount of people who say my body is not me and just because my body has certain biological realities it’s not what defines me it’s who I am on the inside that makes me therefore my gender has nothing to do with my body my body doesn’t even matter and listen that way of thinking can be devastating as Christians we should have great compassion for people who wrestle with this kind of gender dysphoria shouldn’t endorse it as if it’s not harmful for them but there’s a way to have

compassion without endorsing their behavior this is exceedingly harmful for them even if they don’t think it is but to be clear it is gender dysphoria it is gender confusion it’s an attempt to pull apart the inner person from their material bodies and family that has radical philosophical and psychological implications it is devastating for people and you see Paul was addressing this in the first century so this bifurcation between the inner person and the physical person existed long before the transgender revolution God’s word remains true so Paul in a very clear and helpful way offers a corrective by saying the body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body Paul paints a better picture of the body than what our culture stitches together or what they often try to pull apart he is saying your body was not made to be used like it doesn’t matter your body is not an

insignificant thing to be separate from you to be misused or abused or cut away the body and soul are one your body is you we see this in Genesis 1 27 so God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them family God created us with physical bodies and not only that he also made us distinct from each other male and female this means that our bodies are God designed and God assigned God could have made us you know nothing but spiritual beings I just kind of floated around without any physical distinctions but he didn’t he made us with physical bodies and male and female because of his good design and his good purposes this is why family after he creates both male and female distinct from each other in material bodies he says it is very good the only thing he says about creation he calls everything

else good but here he says it’s very good and his purpose for making us with physical bodies is for our good and for his glory what Paul is saying here is exactly what’s implicit in the Genesis account that we were created physical beings by creative design therefore both our soul and body belong to our Creator you know those questions that we been going through with our kids every single Sunday in the New City Catechism well guess what surprise they’re not just for kids they’re for you too the very first question in the New City Catechism asks what is our only hope in life and death the answer that we are not our own but belong to God body and soul both in life and death we belong to our God and our Savior Jesus Christ that Catechism question and Paul is reminding us that

our body is not something to be disregarded as if it were something external to the real us again your body is you God made you both soul and body and we were made for him so our bodies matter not only do they matter family our bodies are good and I know that when I say that some of us who struggle with body issues or physical broken bodies might say yeah well whatever I don’t feel like my body is good but the God who created you the one you belong to says dear child your body is beautiful the Bible says in Psalm 139 that we are fearfully and wonderfully made meaning our bodies were made with respect and beauty and significance God is perfect and all he does and he delights in all that he has made but sin has a way of distorting the way we

Bodies Are Transcendent

actually see ourselves and the way we compare ourselves to other people and it hurts us and it affects all of us everyone to some degree wrestles with body image but our view of our bodies because of sin doesn’t mean that our bodies are bad and that they don’t matter according to God who made you they do matter and they are good and listen not only do our bodies matter and not only are they beautiful but beautifully made but they were made to last forever you see what Paul is getting at in verse 14 that our bodies are transcendent verse 14 and God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power family do you know that your physical body will be resurrected the body doesn’t just go away if we are in Christ then our bodies will be raised just like Christ Jesus the Son of God took on a body to live a sinless life to

die in our place to pay for the sins that we commit in our bodies and that sin affects the way we see our bodies but on the third day he was raised bodily it wasn’t just his spirit that came up from the grave it was also his body did you know that Jesus still has a physical body did you know that Jesus still has a physical body he didn’t just do away with it after he completed his mission on the cross and was resurrected he still has a physical body and when he appeared to his disciples he was recognizable because of his physical body I mean listen to what the disciple Thomas said before he saw the resurrected Jesus in John 20 24 through 27 now Thomas one of the twelve called the twin was not with them when Jesus came so the other disciples told him we

have seen the Lord so side note how do they know it was the Lord because of his body but he said to them unless I see his hands in his hands the mark of his nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side I will never believe well eight days later his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them although the doors were locked Jesus came and stood among them and said peace be with you then he said to Thomas put your finger here and see my hands and he put out his hand and he placed it in my side and placed it in my side do not but disbelieve but believe you see what this shows us Jesus though resurrected was able to do some things beyond human limitation like walk through doors that were locked but he still had a physical

body now his body was perfected but it was still a body in this family is our future reality perfected glorified physical bodies so despite what the Corinthians thought or despite what people in the Pacific Northwest think our bodies are not simply for the here and now our bodies have a future reality this is why Paul in first Corinthians chapter 15 elaborates so heavily on what happens to our bodies after we are raised we’ll deal with this later but Paul emphasizes we will not be disembodied spirits floating around doing nothing that sounds like a very boring eternity we will do all kinds of things with our bodies when our bodies are perfected we will work did you know that we will work we will eat we will laugh we will create most importantly we will glorify God with our bodies perfectly and I think what’s underneath

this whole portion of Scripture here is that if this is our future reality perfected and glorified raised bodies we might as well start living our lives now though we are living with unglorified bodies imperfect and unraised I know our bodies are broken because of sin we age some of you have gray hair like me we grow increasingly more limited with our bodies our bodies begin to break down but when we are raised we will have perfected bodies and all the limitations of this fallen world will cease to hold us down think about this brothers and sisters No more cancer

Jill no more wheelchair no more cast no more chronic pain all the things that sin did to us will be done away with because sin will be done away with and we will be perfected without sin and without sins effects on our body and this should be one of the things that cause for you to long for the Lord’s return this should fuel your expectation of our soon-incoming King Romans 8 22 and 23 says for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now and not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption of sons the redemption of our bodies family our bodies will be redeemed this should be your guiding hope we need to be reminded of this reality in fact one of the

reasons why we recite the Apostles Creed is because it reminds us of this do you remember the very last sentence of the creed that we recite almost every single week you should we believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting our bodies are transcendent meaning they will transcend this life which means that what we do with our bodies in the here and now have massive implications Paul goes on to say that not only will our bodies be eternal just like Christ but our bodies are united to Christ we see that in verses 15 and 17 do you not know that our bodies are members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute never or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her for as it is

written the two will become one flesh but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him here Paul really gets to the point of the main problem going on with their bodies but again the way he helps them with their problem is by giving them theology here Paul explains that Christians are united with Christ with theologians called the mystic union which seeks to help us understand the profound and intimate union Christians have with Christ himself is described in mystical terms because it transcends our human understanding it involves this deep spiritual connection that goes beyond what we can understand physically or intellectually we don’t know what’s going on with that but it’s true try to make it as simple as possible when we were saved we were brought into such an intimate relationship with Christ we are so tethered to Christ in salvation that we actually represent Christ with the

things that we do with our bodies Jesus in John 15 4 and 5 likens himself to a vine and refers to us Christians as branches that’s union in Galatians 2 20 it says that we are so tethered to Christ in salvation that we have been crucified with him that we no longer live but that Christ lives in us that’s union and then in Ephesians 5 30 through 32 Paul speaks of the relationship between Christ and the church as a profound mystery something akin to the intimate union that is shared between a husband and a wife think about how intimate that is and that’s just a picture of the union between Christ and his church this is deep union and listen that’s not merely metaphorical but spiritual and physical this is why Paul gives them this strong warning by saying it is never ever okay to take the member of Christ and make

that a member with a prostitute and the language he uses here is very explicit when you join yourself sexually with a prostitute or participate in sexual immorality you take the body of Jesus with you into those immoral acts don’t do that don’t do that in the same way a husband and wife are joined together in marriage through physical intimacy if you step outside the covenant bonds of marriage and have sex with someone else you take your spouse who you are one with and make them one with another person Paul says in a similar way when you were saved you became one with Christ and to explore sex outside of God’s covenant design is to take Christ with you in that act that’s how serious the situation is brothers and sisters sex for Christians is never casual Paul says emphatically never let that happen God forbid is the language he’s

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Bodies Are Sacred

using God forbid you do something like that and the reason why Paul is so clear here is because despite what our world thinks our bodies are sacred we see that in verse 19 or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God you are not your own Paul again is using wordplay here when he says your body is a temple to help you see that this in context essentially Paul is saying don’t go to that temple where there are temple prostitutes in where you go to do ungodly things with your bodies because you already know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit therefore give yourself to him in godliness instead of the prostitutes in ungodliness you see when you come to faith in Jesus Christ you become a regenerate Christian where

the Holy Spirit indwells you he takes up residency in your life the Holy Spirit makes your body his home where he resides therefore your body is now a sacred space to be used for sacred things and this has direct implications for what you do with your body if the body is sacred then that means what you do with your bodies in sex is also sacred and listen everybody knows this everybody knows this don’t let the world fool you the world non-christians understand that sex is a very sacred thing even if they paraded as casual or liberated or without boundaries they’re lying to themselves they are suppressing the truth and unrighteousness and I know this sounds crazy because we live in such a hookup culture with casual sex where people just kind of swipe right or swipe left and they give their bodies away to whomever they want for a

momentary pleasure and that is the predominant ethos of the culture it seems like they don’t view it as sacred but listen they know it instinctively even if they suppress it I mentioned this a couple years ago but it’s too helpful to not repeat this morning glenn scrivener the English evangelist and storyteller addresses the sacredness of sex in a casual sex culture by asking this question he asked this is this is incredible is your body more like a playground or a temple to the casual sex people who might say a playground his response is has the me to movement not taught you anything because the entire me to movement is screaming out to you that our bodies are far more like temples than they are like playgrounds because when things go wrong in the area of sex it doesn’t feel like a grazed knee on the playground it feels like

desecration it feels like an invasion of a holy space and glenn is absolutely right because sex is meant to be sacred by design sex is a spiritual unifier the very act itself is spiritual and physical and it binds the two and makes the two one this is why God has designed sex to be between one man and one woman in the covenant bond of marriage because it brings both the spirit and body together into one which means it’s devastating when it’s done outside of marriage devastating Tim Keller said this sex outside of marriage is a way of receiving fulfillment and pleasure but not actually giving of oneself sex is addictive and like all addictions the more you do it the less payoff there will be sex then becomes less powerful and therefore less pleasurable however sex within marriage becomes sweeter and more powerful because it is more about

giving than receiving in this context sex within marriage is a powerful statement of exclusive commitment and faithfulness to the other person that’s something that casual sex culture doesn’t understand they won’t get it you see brothers and sisters just because sex is sacred doesn’t mean that sex was not made to be enjoyable God created the idea of pleasure because he is good family sex is a good gift from God and husbands and wives within the sacred bond of marriage are made to experience incredible delight and pleasure from sex and that’s by God’s design and listen the biblical view of sex is far more significant than the culture’s view of sex because the culture thinks it’s only about physical pleasure but sex among Christians is designed to be an expression of intimacy and self-commitment that includes the whole of a person both the soul and the body it’s something unique to Christians so

to be clear sex is not simply a utility for procreation by God’s design it’s also for recreation within marriage but most importantly sex is declaration it speaks to the goodness and glory of God and his unbreakable intimate union with us so enjoy to the glory of God within the sacred bounds of marriage Paul tells us that you are not your own meaning your body is not your own you belong to Christ and the Holy Spirit lives inside you so you can’t just do whatever you want with your body for the Christian it’s never my body my choice it’s never do whatever makes you feel good remember the New City Catechism we are not our own but belong to God and why are we not our own how is it that we were once autonomous but now belong to God completely because our bodies were purchased you see that in verse 20 for you were bought with a price so glorify

God in your body family we were slaves to sin we were slaves to our evil desires we were on a crash course of eternal damnation because of our bodily autonomy because we rejected the Creator and did whatever we wanted to do but Christ paid for us and what was the cost what was the cost for your sin the Bible tells us the wages of sin is death so if you were to pay for the debt that you owe for your sin it will cost you eternal death and separation from God and here’s the thing you would have totally deserved it not just because of what you did but because of who you did it against the Creator of everyone and everything the perfect and holy God who exercises perfect judgment for sin this perfect God in love condescended took on human flesh he took on a physical body

to pay the cost for your sin the payment dear brother and sister for your sin and my sin was death Christ died for you he paid the debt you could never pay this is God’s magnificent and mysterious love that he would lay down his life for sinners who completely rebelled against him who did whatever they wanted to with the bodies that he created he bought us with his own blood the shed blood of Jesus whose body was crushed for your sake satisfy the legal demands of all the sins we’ve committed we commit and will commit with our bodies his blood bought our righteousness Alex preach this last week in first Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9 and 11 or do you not know that the unrighteous will inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves nor

the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God and such were some of you he’s reading our mail but you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God his blood bought you in every possible way and dear friend my conscience will not let me move on without asking this question do you belong to him do you know him have you trusted in the blood of Jesus to wash away your sins dear friend if you don’t belong to him then you are standing on very dangerous ground you need your sins paid for you’re never going to be good enough no amount of karma will fix it the only one who can pay for your sins is Jesus Christ and you can know him this morning the Bible

says that all who trust in him for the forgiveness of sins will be saved from what saved from the perfect judgment for sin and if that’s you this morning and you want to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins we want to help you know what it means to follow Jesus ask anyone in this room if they’re a Christian if they say yes they will help you For those of us who are followers of Jesus, you were bought with a price a massive price so glorify God with your body in other words since you are not your own use your body for worship live in a way that glorifies God with your body and what does that look Romans 12 1 I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God

Flee and Find Forgiveness

which is your spiritual worship to glorify God with your body is to give the entirety of your body to God in worship and listen worship is just another word for love what Jesus is asking us to do is to realign our love to move our love of sexual sin and autonomy over to Jesus to redirect our worship of self and self gratification to worshiping the Lord this is what it means to be a living sacrifice to live a holy life this is what your body was made for physical worship so in this text Paul gives us deep and practical theology concerning the body but it’s not enough to know theology and not let it affect you to not let it shape your life or lead to practice or action and this is why Paul doesn’t just leave us with theology alone he gives us an

action item and we see that in verse 18 flee from sexual immorality every other sin a person commits is outside the body but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body so having given us a proper framework for how we are to think about our bodies and think about sex Paul gives us this strong call to action flee from sexual immorality the word flee brothers and sisters doesn’t simply mean resist it doesn’t mean resist it means run you know the difference between resisting and running resisting stays close to something tries to exercise restraint while maintaining proximity to it running means moving as far away as possible as fast as humanly possible listen you find yourself in a situation that’s leading you on a path of sexual immorality don’t just lean on your own strength sit around doing nothing to overcome the temptation by sheer willpower brothers and sisters you are not strong enough I’m not

strong enough that never works out well this is why Paul says run away from it in fact the word flee is the same word used in Genesis 39 when Joseph fled from Potiphar’s wife you know that story you have Joseph in a situation where the wife of Potiphar who was this captain of the guard of Pharaoh’s army she was trying to seduce Joseph trying to get Joseph to sleep with her just a side note this was definitely you know some kinds of power dynamics a player this is a me too movement for sure but Joseph seeing the situation for what it was he ran from her notice he didn’t stick around and try to reason with her or continue to kind of stick around and push off her sexual advances he wasn’t playing around he just dipped that’s why Paul is telling that’s what he’s telling

us to do run and the reason we run brothers and sisters is because sexual sin is a sin against a person’s own body now what does that mean because it seems like all sin is sin against someone’s own body I think the point Paul is making here is that sexual sin is such a devastating and self-destructive sin that it’s often hard to recover from there are physical psychological and emotional damages that impact us when we share the most sacred parts of us in sexual acts outside of the marriage covenant it causes shame and grief it messes with our self-worth it creates future struggles and hardships in marriage it makes things extremely complicated and listen though this is not universally the case it’s very often the case that sexual sin among professing Christians often leads to deconstruction and deconversion now again this is not always the case but it’s often the case I’ve seen this over

and over again for whatever reason this particular sin is often at the center of people deconstructing their faith and walking away from the Lord and I think it’s because sex is so powerful by design it’s very powerful it’s so tethering that it becomes ultimate sex becomes their God and so they leave the God who created sex to serve the lesser God that is sex itself so the only thing they can do is deconstruct and deconvert because it’s such a powerful God that’s how dangerous the sin is in other words Paul is saying this sin is so serious and the sin has such serious consequences you better run from it now to be clear all sin is serious all sin is damnable but not all sins are equal in terms of their consequences and sexual sin hurts you and hurts others it hurts marriages so Paul says run as fast as you can from it now listen I know for

sure that there are many in this room who have gone way beyond the bounds of God’s design for sex and have used their bodies in ways that were not what God intended for them to be used for who instead of running away from sin ran right into it to varying degrees so I know this conversation can be painful for some of you to hear some of you at the mere mention of sexual sin it brings up all kinds of baggage shame and guilt there are even people in this room who have been violated and abused because of sexual sin and for that brother or sister you need to know that’s not what Paul is addressing here in this text what was done to you was incredibly evil and wicked and God will pour out his judgment on those people that’s not the thrust of this text he’s talking about

people who freely run into it but I know it brings about all kinds of baggage and shame and guilt for some anger and sadness but hear me sex outside of marriage is not an unforgivable sin you hear me it’s not an unforgivable sin if you’ve stepped beyond the bounds of God’s design for physical intimacy there is forgiveness for you. You’re not damaged goods you’ve not lost your value or your dignity or your worthiness to be in a pure and sacred marriage the God who created you is the God who heals and restores broken people like you and definitely like me no matter what we’ve done in the past God is gracious he is a forgiving God and when we turn from our design of physical intimacy and begin to follow his template there is an endless ocean of forgiveness and freedom and spiritual renewal family your body is significant your body is beautiful and

sex is a wonderful and sacred gift from God and God designed it to be explored and enjoyed and prioritized within the boundaries of one man and one woman within the sacred bond of marriage amen Garrett Kell in his book and I’ll leave you with this he has a book called pure in heart sexual sin and the promises of God it’s a book that I highly recommend he says this no matter what form your sexual brokenness takes Jesus came to save you from it no matter where you have been what you have done or what has been done to you the grace of God can wash you clean consecrate you at his child as his child and restore what sin has stolen what a very helpful reminder for us as we close this morning amen let’s pray