The Bible is the Word of God and it is eternal, infallible, and life-changing. The Bible is our instructions manual for life.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 states, All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So please open your instructions manual to 1 Corinthians Chapter 6. Read along with me verses 9-11………….
After Jesus Christ, there are only 2 types of people on earth:
v9 – the wicked who will not inherit heaven, and
v11 – Christians, who are washed, sanctified, and justified.
If you Jesus Christ returned to earth today, which one would He say you are?
Jesus knows your heart. You can only be washed, sanctified, and justified if you have humbled yourself before God and received Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.
Do you accept the fact that you are a sinner and that God has all the right to judge you? Do you believe this?
Do you accept the fact that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, rose from the grave, and many witnessed His resurrection? Do you believe this?
Because there are 2 types of people in this world, there are 2 types of places for eternity, either joyous heaven or tormenting hell. Your belief in Jesus Christ determines who you are and where you will be headed for eternity. Please take a moment now and bow your heads in quiet prayer and tell God your beliefs……………
Perhaps some of you prayed a sinner’s prayer for the very first time. If you did, you have been born again by the Spirit of God and you are now a true Christian. But true Christianity is not private. God tells us in Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” If you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord today, please tell someone.
Now, whether you are a new Christian or have been a Christian for a while now, you are to live the Christian life while here on earth. There are consequences to pay if the Christian does not live the right way. Let us learn from the last part of 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
Pray with me our commitment to God’s Word……….
Now, read along with me 1 Corinthians 6:12-20…………….
There is freedom in Christ! For those who believe in Jesus Christ, all their sins, past, present, and future, have been forgiven. But this freedom in Christ is not a license to sin!
The Corinthian Christians believed in Jesus Christ but they were living in sin. Many of them were sexually immoral! And so, God through the apostle Paul instructed the Corinthians.
Remember that these instructions are for all Christians also.
Look again at the first part of v12……….
Christians are not like robots programmed by God. Christians still have a free will to make decisions. The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is the Christian has the Holy Spirit to help him/her do the right things. And so you see, a Christian is capable of either doing the right things or the wrong things.
When a Christian does the wrong thing, he/she sins against God and there are consequences to sins. We talked about this before. What are the consequences of sin for a Christian???
- causes a barrier to prayer
- breaks fellowship with God
- grieves the Holy Spirit
- brings injury (both physical and emotional) to the sinner and to those around the sinner
- poor testimony for Christ
Christians are forgiven but there are always consequences to sin. Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial.
Now, we read in v12b..…….
In other words, everything is permissible for a Christian but Christians must have only one Master. A Christian must not have idols or addictions. A Christian has only one Master, one Lord, one King, who is Jesus Christ. Everything the Christian thinks and does must honor Christ.
And we note from v13 & 17, like food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, the body of a Christian is for Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is for the body of a Christian. When one professes to be a Christian, their entire being is united with Jesus Christ. Are you a Christian? Then you are IN CHRIST and Christ is in you.
Now look again at v14-15…………….. v19-20……………..
Jesus’ body died and was resurrected for Christians. The body of a Christian has been redeemed for God. The body of a Christian is a temple, a home, for God! God who is Holy lives in the body of a Christian. The Christian body must not be united with anything ungodly.
And so God told the Corinthians, “If you are a Christian, honor God with your body which Jesus died for!” repeat
So how do we apply these truths to our Christian lives today?
We must always remember that as Christians, we are called to be holy. There are always consequences to sin.
1. Christian must avoid sin. How do we do this? We need to note that Christians sin because they are either ignorant of God’s instructions or they are simply disobeying.
And so,
A. Christians must learn God’s instructions daily. What did Jesus say in Matthew 4:4? “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Read and learn your Bible daily!
And we sin when we disobey.
B. Disobedience is a lack of trust in God. How does that saying go? Let go, let God! Memorize Matt. 11:28; Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
To be happy, in Jesus, is to learn, trust, and obey
2. Do not go against God who lives in you!
One of the things I learned from Campus Crusade for Christ is regularly doing a “throne check”. Your heart is the control room of your life and in that control room there is a throne. For a Christian, who should be sitting on that throne????
Do a daily “throne check” of your heart. Jesus must sit on the throne of our hearts, not ourselves, not anyone or anything else! Christians must not be mastered by anything! Are you really yielding to the Lordship of Jesus Christ?
Do not go against God who lives in you.
3. Honor God with your body!
If you’re a Christian, wherever your body goes, whatever your body does, you are taking God along with you! Picture Jesus beside you wherever you go!
Let us note, “What many people call addiction, to a Christian it is a sin.”
When a Christian is “addicted” to something or to someone, he or she is not honoring God and it is a sin. And there are consequences to sin; injury to self and to those close to the sinner. But more importantly, when Christians dishonor God with their bodies, they dishonor Christ in public.
One of the “spiritual cancers” in our society today is pornography and the devil is trapping many men and women! The television is bad enough with pornographic commercials. But many Christians today purposely open Internet sites that are pornographic. The body of a Christian, which includes the eyes and the mind, is for God! Did you know, every time you click on a pornographic website someone on the other side is taking note. More importantly, God knows and it grieves Him.
Are we allowing the devil to defeat us when Jesus Christ already won at the cross?
Resist the devil and he will flee from you!
Live for Jesus Christ everyday!
Regularly do a “throne check” of your heart!
Picture Jesus beside you wherever you go!
