The Church in a Messy World
Flee or Flirt, it’s Your Choice (Part One)
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
June 18, 2017
Introduction:
A couple months ago, Jean and I went to lunch at an outdoor restaurant with Kim, Ben and our 3-year-old grandson Asher and one-year-old granddaughter, Nora. I think they’re both cute kids and so did some high school girls waiting for a table some 20 feet away. The girls took one look at Asher and immediately started to flirt with him…winking their eyes, waving, blowing kisses, etc. I mean it was overboard! And to my shock Asher started flirting back!
I looked at Ben and Kim and said, “You’re in trouble. Pray hard for the boy. You better start walking him through the opening chapters of Proverbs early.”
Right now Asher tells everyone that Jean is his girl, but a day is coming when he’ll trade her in for another.
This morning we’re going to dig into the latter half of 1st Corinthians 6 where we’ll see members of the church flirting with and fulfilling illicit sexual desires. You see there’s good sex and there is bad sex. By this I don’t mean the quality of a sexual experience.
Let me put it another way: There is saintly sex and sinful sex. Even this lacks because some think of saintly sex as prudish sex. If that’s true of you please read the Song of Solomon. God is bullish when it comes to sexual enjoyment in a marriage relationship between a man and a woman.
For this sermon I am going to use the terms good sex and bad sex. By that I mean moral and immoral sexual activity. The Corinthian believers went after bad sex not realizing that it was costing them dearly.
Follow along as I read starting at verse 9. Our focus will be verses 12 thru 20 but it’s helpful to read beginning at verse 9 and end at chapter 7, verse 9 since it’s one unit of thought.
READ 6:9 thru 7:9
Again our attention will be focused on Chapter 6 verses 12 thru 20. These verses have 2017 written all over them! Over the next two weeks we are going to take a look at The Problem, The Purpose and The Plan for our sexuality. It’s well worth our effort to dig deeply into this passage since there is so much confusion and misinformation in this area.
First…
The Problem: 1 Corinthians 6:12-13, 16
Really there was a 4-fold problem their church faced related to sex. Let’s re-read verses 12 and 13 up on the screen.
“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…”
1 Corinthians 6:12-13a
At first glance what we see here may seem a bit confusing. Let me fill you in on what is taking place. Beginning in chapter 7 Paul begins to answer questions they must have sent to him in an earlier letter. I think he had these questions in mind in chapter 6. We don’t have a copy of their questions, but we do have the answers. Their first question must have been in relation to sex and freedom of expression. How far can I go? I am under grace so isn’t everything permissible?
Freedom in Christ was a truth that Paul repeated over and over again.
Flip over to Galatians 5:1. It’s right after 2nd Corinthians.
Verse one says…
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Galatians 5:1
Now look at the beginning of verse 13…
“For you were called to freedom, brothers…”
13a
To the church in Rome Paul said…
“…you are not under law but grace.”
Romans 6:14b
In these verses Paul emphasizes that good work’s and the following the law, meaning the laws given through Moses, cannot save. So Grace frees us attempting to find salvation through keeping the rules. Salvation is a gift of God’s grace and it God’s grace that keeps us saved. As stated last week…
“And such were some of you. 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.”
1 Corinthians 6:11
IL: This past week I heard of someone who said they really needed Christ so they were going to clean up their life so they could get Him. The person they said this to responded something like this: “You don’t need to clean up to come to Christ. He takes you dirty and washes you up.” Tears began to stream down their face because they caught a glimpse of God’s grace.
If you have never put your trust in Christ and in Christ alone, come to Him. Ask Him to forgive your sins. Put your trust in Him to save you and give yourself to Him as Lord and see what He does. God washed, sanctified and justified the Corinthians in this church. They were under grace but they were using their freedom in Christ as an excuse to sin. They were abusing grace.
Go back to Galatians 5:13 which we read a few moments ago. I only read the first part…
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.”
Galatians 5:13a-b
The NIV is a bit clearer…
“You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature.”
Galatians 5:13a-b NIV
By “sinful nature” God means the old you that tried to make life work apart from God. Your old sinful nature died, meaning it lost its power to make you do what it wants you to do, when you came to faith in Christ.
IL: Picture your old nature like a demanding landlord. When you came to Christ, God booted out your old landlord and became your new landlord and what a wonderful landlord He is! But your old landlord is still hanging around…acting like you owe him and must do what He demands. He insists that God is not really your landlord. That’s what the Old You (sinful nature) is like. Again, it lost its ownership and power over you but tries to fool you into thinking you haven’t changed and that you should go back to your old ways of living and thinking. Ultimately we will be totally free of it, but not until we see Jesus.
In Romans 7 Paul calls the old sin nature,
“…but [the power of] sin that dwells within me.”
Romans 7:17
and
“…the law of sin that dwells in my members [body].”
Romans 7:23
So, even though your old natural inclination to sin has lost its ability to make you do what it wants, it still resides somewhere in your yet-to-be fully redeemed body, demanding its way.
APP: LOOK right now at your body. Somewhere within it is the old landlord the Bible calls “the power of sin.” It has no rights to you, but it’s hanging around hoping it can convince you that it does. It’s not your friend.
I hope this makes sense.
AND your sin nature works overtime attempting to fool you into thinking that your new freedom in Christ means you are free to do whatever you want.
That’s why Paul says in 6:12…
“All things are lawful for me”, but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me” but I will not be enslaved by anything.”
1 Corinthians 6:12
Do you see the quotation marks around the phrase “All things are lawful for me”?
Paul is repeating back what they probably wrote him as an excuse to sin. The statement, “all things are lawful” may have been a common Corinthian saying in their “liberated” society. This same excuse is alive and well in 2017.
Paul borrows it, and playing off it says, “It is for me to. Yes, I can do whatever I want and still be covered by grace, but no sin is worthwhile or “helpful.” Some of your Bibles read “profitable” which is a good word.
So yes your sin is covered by God’s grace but it is highly unprofitable. Sin is always stupid. It never brings a profit, it always brings loss. You may think that you can sin and not lose anything, and that you might gain something, but you always lose.
Paul states that it actually enslaves us.
“...but I will not be enslaved by anything.”
1 Corinthians 6:12b
The more you give yourself to a particular sinful practice the more it owns you.
You’ve experienced that, right? And Paul wasn’t just talking about sin either. He said, “I won’t allow myself to be mastered by any habit, custom or sin since I am mastered by Christ.” Some habits or customs aren’t helpful. Some religious habits can enslave us. We end up more in love with the “habit” than we do with Christ.
So with this said let state that their first two problems were…
Problem #1: They abused grace to excuse sin.
Problem #2: They thought they could successfully manage their sins.
There was a third problem…
Problem #3: They reasoned that the need for food and sex are pure physiological needs.
We must admit that two of our body’s strongest drives are food and sex. Unless something goes wrong with our hormones, etc. these drives are relentless. They’re good drives, given to us by God.
The people in the church of Corinth reasoned that since the body alerts us when we’re hungry and since it responds just as well to bad food as it does good the same is true with sex. Obey your body’s cravings.
Look at verse 13 on the screen.
“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality…”
1 Corinthians 6:13a-b
Again, please note that Paul puts the opening phrase in quotes just like he did in verse 12. The Greek text literally reads, “The foods the belly, the belly the foods.” This too may have been a popular saying in Corinth. Their argument was “Sex, any sex is no different than eating: The stomach was made for food, and the body was made for sex. If your body is hungry or frisky, matters not what kind of food or sex you give it, obey it.” And “If your body wants a particular kind of sex then that must be your identity! Give it what it wants.” And boy did they! As seen last week verses 9 and 10 indicate that they were into all kinds of bad sex before marriage, adultery and even homosexuality.
But to this God says…
“So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.”
1 Corinthians 10:31
Excellent Analogy
At first glance their reasoning seems sound. It’s the same reasoning we see in our culture today. “We don’t deny our stomachs, so why should we deny our sex organs? I must give them what they want.”
Today people have gone to the extent of defining who they are by what their fallen bodies and minds crave.
Without Christ this kind of thinking makes perfect sense.
By-the-way…
If you struggle with a strong desire to eat junk food, understand that the appeal for junk sex is similar. And if you struggle with the temptation toward junk sex, but not junk food, understand the appeal for junk food is similar. There are many corollaries…too many to get into right now. But realize that both present themselves in the same fashion. Knowing this should help you have compassion for each other.
And your old nature / old landlord knows this and will do what he can to get you to destroy your body by using our God-given physiological needs to go after that which is destructive.
And since we live in yet-to-be fully redeemed bodies they also fight us. I think we should liken our yet-to-be redeemed bodies to a rebellious two-year-old toddler.
This side of heaven our yet-to-be redeemed bodies are more a foe than a friend.
They are a friend in that they can tell you’re getting sick or are overworking. They are a foe in that they can act like a rebellious toddler, kicking and screaming to get its selfish way.
IL: Ever see a toddler at a grocery store check-out counter? He’s hungry, sees the candy and whines, kicks and screams to get his way! You love your toddler but they can be a challenge.
Now what are you supposed to do when your body screams at you like a two-year-old? Give in? NO! You say, “I am not going to obey its unreasonable, unbiblical demands. I won’t obey it. I will make my body obey me…the spiritual man or woman that is under the control of the Holy Spirit.”
Paul said,
“I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
1 Corinthians 9:27
Here’s how the NIV puts it.
“I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
1 Corinthians 9:27 NIV
Paul saw both his body and old nature as an opponent that had to constantly be beaten into submission. He made it a slave. He owned his body rather than it owning him. This doesn’t mean we are to make our bodies black and blue (beat with the fist), but that we need to talk back at them and refuse to bend.
And please note this verse is written in the present tense, meaning it’s an ongoing battle. The battle with your body isn’t “once and done” but one that’s fought every day of the week.
Now by saying this, I don’t mean that Paul saw his body as evil. It is not evil. As you will see next week, God loves your body. He will one day resurrect it and has chosen to take up residence in it. We should never look at our bodies as the Gnostics did. But understand that right now it’s very easy for your body to act as a willing accomplice to your old sin nature. So in that sense it is a foe.
And why did Paul make it submit?
He did this because there was a “greater prize.” He didn’t want to be disqualified as being useful to God. In the very next chapter he states that sexual immorality is one of those things that can disqualify us.
The point is this: Don’t expect your body to grow up this side of heaven. It will keep fighting you like a rebellious toddler. Don’t reason with it.
ME: As I was studying this passage it hit me that I have been obeying my body and not talking back at it, especially in the area of food. So, I made a decision to not pay heed to its tantrums. I actually made a post it for my car that says, “Don’t obey my body. Make it obey me.” Let me tell you, it’s screaming at me right now, but as I studied this passage it dawned on me that this is normal, which has given me the courage to fight.
I hear people say, “I just love to exercise!” and I think “What planet are you from?” I have a walk-behind mower which I use to cut an acre of grass built on a hill. It takes me over an hour each week. Every time I do it, my old nature talks to my yet-to-be redeemed body for a quick meeting. They then insist I swing in the hammock instead, buy a riding mower or tell Jean that I’m not feeling well and that she needs to do it!
But when it comes to bad food and bad sex the two of them say, “Let’s get a move on. A concrete mixer is waiting for you at Culvers!”
That’s the battle. Make your body obey you. Understand it’s a battle and that the battle is between your inner spiritual person, under the control of the Holy Spirit, and the tag team duo of your old nature working through yet-to-be redeemed body.
There is a fourth problem, which is critically important we understand in order to embrace good sex…
Problem #4: They didn’t realize that sex is metaphysical. (16)
Sex is more than a meeting physical need. It is metaphysical.
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute [someone he is not married to] becomes one body with her? For as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”
1 Corinthians 6:16
We are going to get into this more next week as we move from the problem to the purpose and then the plan, but let me say just a couple things at this point.
I’ve been around the block a few times. I was a youth pastor for 17 years, a family pastor for 12 years and now a senior pastor. I’ve talked to many men and women over the years that thought they were just meeting a physiological need for sex, like we meet the need for hunger by eating, only to find out that something much deeper took place that can never really be erased.
That’s why I often tell people who want to get out of an affair they must quit their job and move their family at least 100 miles away. And that it will take a good year for feelings to subside. That’s a hard-cold reality of breaking off an affair.
At my last church, I asked a guy how he and his wife met. He told me that the two of them started out as “friends with benefits.” They weren’t Christians and thought that sex was just sex. Each had a need the other could help with but to their surprise they found something greater happened. Sex was metaphysical. When they came to Christ their eyes were opened.
We will talk about this more next week but Paul goes so far as to say that sex involves a spiritual connection and that hooking up with a non-believer makes a strange, unnatural but spiritual bond.
PAUSE
I want to wrap up this morning with a video clip that I think you will find encouraging. I got this from the Gospel Coalition. Our culture says that our sexual desires determine our identity…that we must obey what our bodies and minds crave.
There is another way to look at this. As I’ve stated many times this morning, our bodies often crave that which is destructive and if we gave into its various impulses we’d be in a mess. Just think of the many things you craved over the years. What would you’re life be like if you gave into your sexual and physical desires? You’d be a sorry mess.
I want you to watch this clip. The speaker is Sam Allberry. He is an editor for the Gospel Coalition, a global speaker for Ravi Zacharias Ministries, pastor of Saint Mary’s Church in Maidenhead, England and part of the Anglican Church. He knows and loves Christ. He works tirelessly with those who struggle with same-sex attraction because he too wrestles with these desires, but is obedient to the Word.
I think you will find his words to his fellow Anglican Synod Pastor’s enlightening.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/two-minute-clip-homosexuality-every-christian-should-watch
Play Clip with Sam Allberry (2.25 minutes)
I love it. You are not the sum total of your physiological, even emotional desires. Your identity is found in a different place. It’s found in Christ.
I also love Sam’s words because he eloquently states what you have heard this morning: Our yet-to-be redeemed bodies and old nature are not going to lay down quietly in any area of our life, especially as it relates to our sexuality. Don’t obey your body. Make it obey you and Christ.
Conclusion:
Flirt with fire or flee, it’s your choice, one you must make every day when it comes to good sex and bad sex, even good and bad food. Don’t expect your body to submit willingly and for sure don’t expect your old nature to respect your wishes.
Bad sex begins by flirting with you, like those girls flirted with Asher. It seems innocent and so inviting. It ends by owning you. Don’t flirt.
Fight the good fight of faith. We will look at how to do this next week. I think you might be surprised by what you hear.
A word to Father’s
This is Father’s Day. Dad’s please take the lead in protecting the purity of your home. Walk your sons through God’s sex manual for boys…the first 7 chapters of Proverbs. Be proactive. And Mom’s please, please work with your daughters.
Good Godly sex is like walking a tightrope wire. Truth is the wire. To the right is puritanical, legalism. Maybe you received messages growing up that sex is dirty. As a result you struggle with having any desire or sexual appetite. That’s sexual anorexia. Not good. To the left is libertine thinking. We are free in Christ to do whatever we want. That too is deadly. Step off the wire to either side and you are in trouble. The enemy cares little which way you go as long as you step off the wire. The trick is to stay on the wire of truth. To embrace what God says about our sexuality. The good news is we have God’s Spirit.
Next week we will look at God’s purpose and God’s plan for our sexuality. I hope you will join us.
Let’s pray
