Flee From Sexual Immorality

Amen. I love hearing you guys sing using the instrument that God created, your voice, to praise Him and adore Him for what He's done.

! As I mentioned earlier, we're embarking on a series on dating and relationships. Tonight, we're going to start that series by talking about sexual purity.

Our title tonight is Flee from Sexual Immorality. And I want to start there because that is the foundation, that's the baseline for pursuing godly dating relationships and pursuing a godly marriage.

And so I'm going to say a line that I've heard Michael say before that's going to shock you, but stick with me. You do not have to be sexually pure until your wedding day.

Your goal for sexual purity goes far beyond your wedding day. Your goal is to be sexually pure for the rest of your life on earth. And so I think in our minds sometimes we can set marriage as like the finish line of having to pursue sexual purity.

It's like the time where we no longer have to worry about being sexually impure any longer. But friends, we need to pursue this now. You need to pursue this at your phase of life because that is God's will for you for the rest of your life.

This is always an important topic for us to think about and for us to return to. Scripture speaks of it very frequently. And especially with summer being on the horizon, we need to think about genuinely and earnestly pursuing purity.

It's also important to talk about because many of you in this room are losing this battle. Many of you in this room are enslaved to your sexual desires.

Some of you in this room maybe not have physically committed sexual sin, but your thought life is consumed by this kind of sin and this kind of desire.

Some of you want help. Some of you want freedom. But I'm greatly afraid that some of you are stuck in this sin and you don't desire to get out of it.

You recognize that this sin marks your life and you don't desire to be free from it. You are content to live in it. And so this topic of sexual purity and fleeing from sexual immorality pertains to you if you are dating.

It pertains to you if you are single. It pertains to the married people in the room or as I like to call them, successful daters. Like we did it, y'all. We made it. This pertains to everyone in this room this evening.

And perhaps some of you have fallen into sexual sin and you want to get out of it or tonight you'll recognize that you want to get out of it and I hope this message this evening will be an encouragement to you to fight this sin.

And maybe there's some of you in this room who this is not a struggle for you and I hope to be an encouragement to you to continue on that path of purity to continue pursuing the Lord. Regardless of what topic or what section you find yourself in I hope that this topic will be helpful for you this evening.

Something you'll hear a lot in Christian circles is our country is so bad today. And you'll hear statements like how available pornography is how sexualized our entire culture is how corrupt even some of our children's movies are and that's all true.

But then you'll hear something utterly ridiculous. You'll sometimes hear people say this is as wicked and sinful as our world has ever been.

Alright Boomer. That's not true. That's not true. I can recognize some of the things they're saying that this may be the worst it's been in our country but when you look across the history of the world sexual immorality has always marked this world since the fall.

Since Adam and Eve rebelled in the garden sexual immorality has been a common theme that has marked us as humanity. And I want to show you that because the Bible talks about it.

The Bible encourages us to pursue sexual purity. And so let me take you back to an ancient city the city of Corinth which was like the ancient world's version of Las Vegas Sin City.

But this place is worse than Las Vegas. This place celebrated all kinds of sin all kinds of sexual sin and not only tolerated it but celebrated it as an act of worship to the gods there.

In Corinth there was the temple of Aphrodite. In this temple as an act of worship you could go and spend some alone time with a female or male temple servant.

This was acceptable and even celebrated in this wicked city. Not only were their deeds wicked as public acts of worship but in the privacy of their homes even in their streets their artwork was incredibly sexualized and so they had what we would now call a form of pornography.

Everyone in Corinth would have accepted sexual immorality as a normal part of life. This marked their culture.

Sexual sin in our culture is very bad. I think Corinth was actually a worse place to live. But then something dramatic happened in the history of the city of Corinth.

A former Jewish rabbi turned Christian preacher showed up in Corinth by the name of Paul and preached the gospel there. He preached that there's a man named Christ that God has appointed to judge the world through his death and resurrection and that through that death and resurrection you can be saved.

You can be forgiven of your sins. And people believed his message. The Lord opened their hearts to receive that message of the gospel and their lives were radically changed.

No longer did their old habits mark them like they used to. And Paul's counsel wasn't to quit their jobs and leave that part of the city for a part that was safer and more pure and easier to live in.

His instruction to them was to stay there and to glorify God with every area of their life even their sexuality. But as they were coming to Christ and believing in him many of them struggled to fully break free from the shackles of sexual sin.

They had memories of their life before Christ that this culture was incredibly sexualized. It was all around them. Can you relate? They struggled to break free. They struggled to overcome their desires for that which the Lord now forbidden them from participating in.

But the problem was that not all of them had that same internal struggle. Some of them after coming to Christ still felt the pull of sexual sin and were indulging in it and were defending themselves in it saying Christ has set us free.

He's forgiven us our sins. How we live in this body doesn't matter. Sexual immorality is natural. It's normal.

It's okay. It's not a problem. And we hear stuff like this all the time in our own world. We can imagine the Corinthians saying if God didn't want me to do this why did he create me with these desires?

As we think about sexual sin I don't think there's a single sin that has caused more issues in the lives of individuals and in the lives of our nation and our world as a whole.

It has broken marriages it has shattered homes it has corrupted and ruined children's lives. Sexual temptation is incredibly powerful and alluring and it never delivers what it promises.

It promises joy it promises fulfillment and it never delivers on those promises. All it gives is brokenness and disappointment.

And I want to be clear at the outset as I'm exhorting you as we'll see from scripture to flee from sexual immorality that God is not opposed to sex.

He's the one who created it. It is a gift given by him to humanity but what he is against is the abuse of this gift. He is for it in the confines and context of marriage.

What God is against is not sex in itself but the perversion of it. And throughout this passage tonight what Paul is urging us to consider is that our bodies are incredibly important gifts from the Lord and how we use them can be an act of worship to God or an act of rebellion against him.

But our bodies are not temporal things. Our bodies are not insignificant things. Why do you have a body? Why do you have a face? Why do you have hands?

Why do you have lungs? Why aren't you just a spirit? Because the Lord has created you as an image bearer of himself and you are to use your embodiment for his glory.

You have a body to glorify God with. But the Corinthians had bought the lie that our bodies really don't matter. What we do with them is insignificant.

What goes on in our soul is more important than what we do with our bodies. And Paul is writing to confront them in that error. So turn with me if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

We'll be in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 12 through 20 this evening. Paul gives just two simple commands in these nine verses.

He says to flee from sexual immorality and glorify God in your body or glorify God with your body. Those are the two commands he gives in this section of scripture we're looking at tonight.

And he says three main things about sexual immorality in this passage. The first one is that sexual immorality is not helpful. Sexual immorality is not helpful.

This is in the first part of verse 12. And much of this letter Paul is writing in response to things that the Corinthians have written to him. So they wrote him a letter asking him questions telling them what's going on and Paul is going to respond to those things.

If you look at chapter 7 verse 1 you can see a good example of this. He says now concerning the matters about which you wrote and he gives a quote that they were writing to him asking him for help on.

And so when we see this quote in verse 12 he says all things are lawful for me. This is likely something that the Corinthians themselves were saying. They were boasting in.

They said all things are lawful for me meaning I'm free. I'm set free from my sin. I am forgiven of everything in Christ. I can do whatever I want.

And so Paul says all things are lawful for me but not all things are helpful. Not all things are helpful. And so it seems like the Corinthians were using theology as an excuse for their sin.

Jesus has forgiven us. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Therefore we're free which means we can do whatever we want. We can worship the Lord Jesus Christ and visit Aphrodite's temple if we want.

We can serve the Lord and participate in regular sexual immorality. Paul says but not all things are helpful. Not all things are profitable.

Paul's saying yes you have freedom. You have freedom in Christ but not every way you use that freedom is helpful. Not every way you could use that freedom is beneficial or good.

In fact there are ways to use your freedom in Christ for very bad ways that are harmful to yourself and to others. Paul's point here is sexual immorality is one of those things. We do have freedom in Christ but that freedom is to serve him and not ourselves.

That freedom is to do what's right not what we want. That freedom is to obey him and not to pursue our own sinful desires. All things are lawful for me but not everything is helpful.

And so a small example of that is it lawful for you to play video games all day. I mean yeah you're not violating any law.

Is that good for you? No it's not. If that's news for you I'm sorry but you're welcome. And Paul's point is that yes we have freedom in Christ but you guys are abusing that.

That freedom is not to sin. That freedom is to be used to serve Christ. And so sexual immorality is unhelpful. The second thing he says about sexual immorality number two sexual immorality is dominant.

We see this in the second part of verse 12. Sexual immorality is dominant. So he repeats that quote again. All things are lawful for me but I will not be dominated by anything.

They're saying we're free to do what we want. We're free to participate in this if we would like. And Paul is saying sexual sin enslaves you. They're saying we've got power to do whatever we want.

And Paul is saying sexual immorality has overpowered you. It has overtaken your life. And I think I would argue that there is no sin that is more enslaving than sexual sin.

And if you've struggled with this, if you fought against that, you know exactly what I mean. Maybe you've tried to escape it. Maybe you've tried to get rid of it and you can't.

That flame of sexual desire is very easily lit but very difficult to extinguish once it started. And so in the Song of Solomon, which is a book about marriage and about intimacy, one of the repeated lines in that book is, do not awaken love until it pleases.

This is a fire that is intended to bond couples together for a lifetime. And if that fire is started too early, it will not be put out until it's done great damage to the landscape of your life.

It may not seem that way to you now. It may not seem that way to you ever, but we never fully see the consequences of sin until it's too late.

If you think of Adam and Eve in the garden when the serpent was tempting them, did the serpent tell them all the consequences that their sin would have. No.

He kept that from them. That's how he operates. And I think it's a temptation to think, I can indulge in this now while I'm single, I can indulge in this now while I'm dating, and then once I'm married, I'll stop.

But if you think that marriage is this magical thing that cures you of your sexual immorality, you're wrong. this is a very enslaving sin, a very difficult sin to get rid of in your life.

And so sexual immorality is dominating. Thirdly, sexual immorality is unnatural. It's unnatural. Verses 13-20, Paul makes this point.

Verse 13, here's another quote, food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food. And God will destroy both one and the other.

And so I think the first part of verse 13 is what the Corinthians have written to Paul. They're like, hey, this is natural. Sexual immorality is as natural as eating lunch. I get hungry, I go to Chick-fil-A.

That's just a very natural thing to do. That's what they were arguing sexual immorality is like. My body has these desires, I gratify them. Just like when I'm hungry, I eat food.

They're natural. It's fitting. If God didn't want us to act on these desires, why do we have them?

But Paul speaks very plainly. He says the body is not meant for sexual immorality. This is unnatural.

This is not what your body was created for. Paul will not allow them to make this comparison between being hungry and eating food and having sexual desires and fulfilling them in immoral ways.

The reason their bodies were created was not for sin. Sexual morality is not natural. It's not why we were created.

And so if you've bought into the lie, because our world will tell you this, if you've bought into the lie that this is okay, I pray, I have prayed for you that the Holy Spirit will use his words through Paul tonight to kind of shock you back to life and recognize what the Bible teaches about this.

This is not why we were created. And this pertains to what we do with our bodies, which involves even what we think about and what we look at.

So what is the purpose of our bodies? Our bodies were not made for sexual morality, look at what he says in verse 13, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.

Paul's argument is that the Lord and the body go together. Your body was made for the Lord, not for sexual sin. And what is the proof of this? How do we know this? Because Jesus had a body and he still does.

Verse 14, and God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. The resurrection shows us a lot of things.

It shows us that Jesus is who he said he was, that he conquered sin, that he set his people free. One thing it also means for us is that the human body has value even after death.

One day, everyone in this room will be raised in a body that will last forever. forever. Some bodies will be raised to experience glory in heaven for all eternity.

Some bodies will be raised to endure God's wrath in hell for all eternity. But everyone in this room will have a body forever. The body is not an insignificant thing.

The body has value. God knew what he was doing when he created us with bodies. And maybe you don't like the way you look.

Maybe you're ashamed of your body. We need to recognize that this is a gift from God. Your body is a gift from God. And it's okay to try to make it more healthy or more functional, more useful, but don't ever think that your body itself is a bad thing.

It is a good gift from God used to glorify him. And Paul's going to unpack what he means by sexual morality is unnatural.

And he's going to ask this question three times. He's going to say, do you not know? So look with me at verse 15. He says, do you not know? Then look at verse 16.

Or do you not know? And look with me at verse 19. Or do you not know? And so he's going to teach us three things about our bodies here in this passage by asking this question three times.

So one of the things he teaches us is that our bodies are united to Christ. In verse 15. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Our bodies as believers belong to Jesus. They're meant to be used to serve him. And Paul asks the question, shall I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

Never. Never. Should I take the body of Christ and join it with a prostitute in the temple?

May that never be. Paul says do not do that and if you're doing it, stop doing it forever. forever. Your body was not intended for that but it was made for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The second thing he teaches us about our bodies is that sexual union is meant to be permanent. Sexual union is meant to be permanent.

We see this in verses 16 through 18. He asks that question again in verse 16, 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. He quotes there Genesis 2 verse 24 and if you remember in that text Moses speaks, God speaks through Moses and says for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, cling to his wife.

That's the same word that's used as joined here in the ESV. Do you not know that he who is holding fast or clinging to a prostitute becomes one body with her?

Paul's argument here is that sex bonds people. It's intended to be the bond between a husband and a wife. It's intended to be like super glue for them.

And it's intended to bond them together for a lifetime. That's how God designed it to work. And that's what Paul is appealing to here. He says for as it is written the two will become one flesh.

A husband and wife will be joined together and are never to be separated by God's design. The sexual union ties a man and his wife together.

And what Paul's saying here is that that's what sex does. Even outside the confines of marriage it binds you to that person.

And so this is one of the reasons why sexual immorality in a dating relationship is so damaging. That is intended to create a bond that lasts a lifetime but it's happening in the context of a relationship that likely won't last a lifetime.

Likely won't last to the end of this year statistically. No offense to you. Likely won't last to the end of this year. And this is why divorce is so painful and damaging.

This is a relationship that's intended by God to last a lifetime and it's ripped apart. And sometimes that's necessary. Jesus gives us situations where divorce is an allowable option.

it's necessary sometimes for the safety of people but it's always painful. It's always difficult and challenging because this is what God's design is.

It's for this to bond a man and his wife together for their life. Paul's saying this activity has a bonding effect. Verse 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

And so as we believe in Christ we are incorporated into his family. We're incorporated into his body and so we are unified with him. And so these Corinthians thought I can worship Christ and go visit this temple to a false goddess.

I can worship Christ and participate in sexual immorality. And Paul is saying you need to make a choice. You need to decide. You can choose to pursue a life of sexual immorality or you can choose to follow Christ but you can't serve both things.

And so he says verse 18 his only command so far in this section flee from sexual immorality. Flee from it. Run away from it.

With other sins we're commanded to fight. We're commanded to put these sins to death. When it comes to sexual immorality we're told to run away. This battle is won by running and fleeing.

And if you remember the story of Joseph in Genesis 39 Potiphar thinks Joseph is a good looking guy and she tries to get him to join her and he resists her temptation.

He resists her offers day after day after day. and one day she attempts to force it on him and it says he fled from her.

He ran away from her. Paul is intending that to be one example of how to deal with temptations to sexual immorality.

He says flee from it. this is the advice that the Bible offers us on fighting this sin on dealing with this sin is to run away and stay away.

And so practically for us we need to remove ourselves from tempting situations. Don't put yourself in tempting situations with another person. Don't do things that will tempt you toward this sin.

Run away from it. Stay away from situations that are tempting to you. This is a battle that's actually won by running away. And why is this so severe?

Paul is going to go on and talk about this for nine verses. He doesn't talk about gossip like this. He doesn't talk about lying like this. Why does sexual immorality get this kind of treatment?

Look at verse 18 with me. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

What Paul is saying here is that sexual morality is in a category of its own when it comes to sin. When we commit sexual morality, our body itself becomes the instrument of sin and it is damaged by the sin.

And so Paul is saying this is a unique sin among all sins. Every other sin is outside the body in some sense but sexual morality is against our body. It's committed with our body and it's actually committed against our body.

In a very real sense, sexual sin has some of the most earthly consequences that any sin has. The damage it does to relationships, the damage it does to our body is sometimes incalculable.

It has a way of internally and physically destroying someone like no other sin can. It damages our bodies.

It's a sin against ourselves. And I think it's comparable to steroids. If you see those body builders that get jacked, they look pretty muscly like Bodhi back there.

He's not on steroids, he's natural. But steroids have some temporary benefits and at the same time they're damaging to the body of the person taking them.

And that's kind of what Paul is saying. He's like, you might think that this is temporarily satisfying. You might think that this is bringing you some benefits in the short term here and now, but as you're living in this way, you are damaging your body as you live in it.

And so some people will say, well, it's okay to commit this sin as long as it doesn't hurt someone else, or as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. This sin is always hurtful to us at the very least.

The third thing he says about our body here is that the body is a dwelling place of God. The body is the dwelling place of God in verse 19 and verse 20. He asks his question again 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?

And so these Corinthians were thinking the sins they commit in their bodies are separate from the issues of their soul. What they do with their body doesn't have an impact on their spiritual life.

They're like, we'll party on Saturday and go to church on Sunday. No big deal. No problem. It has no negative effects on our spiritual life. Paul's saying, your body itself, if you're a Christian, is the dwelling place of God.

The Holy Spirit indwells you and is living inside you. In Corinth, they viewed sexual immorality as a way to commune with the gods, to worship the gods.

God is saying, Christian, God dwells inside of you. You have fellowship with God by belonging to Christ, by the Holy Spirit living inside of you and guiding you.

Don't corrupt his temple with sin. Don't join him to this sinful act. Christ. He says, you are not your own.

You are not the captain of your life. You belong to Christ. And so we shouldn't make decisions based on what will make us most happy or what will bring us the most ease or pleasure, but we should make decisions based on what God's will for our lives is and for his glory.

If you'll turn with me to the right to 1 Thessalonians just real quick, save your spot there in 1 Corinthians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

That can be a tricky book to find because it's a little short, so if you need to use the front of your Bible, that's fine. 1 Corinthians 4, starting in verse 3. This is the will of God.

That phrase is not used very often in the Bible, and so we need to pay attention. What is the will of God for our lives? Your sanctification. God's will for your life is that you would be more holy, and the specific example Paul brings to mind here is that you abstain from sexual immorality or flee from it.

That each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned!

you, for God has not called us for impurity but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Go back to 1 Corinthians with me. Whatever you do with your body is done in the presence of God. He sees you, he knows you, he knows what you're thinking, and he knows what's in your heart.

Paul says you are not your own. Why are we not our own? Verse 20. For you are bought with a price.

What is the price? The price is the blood of his son. The price is the death of the Holy One Jesus Christ. The reason why sexual sin is an offense to God from Christians is because it's not why we were created with bodies in the beginning and it's not why we've been recreated in Christ.

He purchased us. He redeemed us to live for and there's a catechism which is just a book of questions and answers from the ancient world and it's called the Heidelberg Catechism.

The first question is what is your only comfort in life and in death? This was intended for kids to teach them theology and the answer is that I am not my own but I belong body and soul in life and death to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.

Your hope as a Christian is that you are not your own but you belong to Christ because he purchased you with his blood and we need to think that way as we approach sexual immorality because our bodies are not our own to do with what we please our thought life is not just our own to consume with whatever we want we belong to Christ and must I think Paul's point here is that if we just boldly continue in sexual sin we are committing sins that put our savior on the cross we're saying with our mouth I worship Christ I follow him I believe in him while we're living a life that ultimately caused him to be crucified we're enjoying the things that he died for we're living in the things that he died to set us free from and here's good news

Jesus did not die for people who are sexually pure Jesus did not die for people who had already escaped from sin Jesus did not die for people who had already escaped the shackles of sexual sin Jesus died for sinners Jesus only died for sinners Jesus died for people who struggle with sexual sins he shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us and if you look at 1 Corinthians 6 back up in verse 9 Paul goes through a list of sins of people who will not see the kingdom of God says do you not know that the unrighteous will not neither the sexually immoral it's first thing on the list 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 look at verse 11 and such were some of you but you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the!

Jesus Christ and by the spirit of Christ only died for sinful people I am a sinful person I'm thankful that Christ didn't die for the righteous I'm thankful that Christ didn't die for people who get their lives in order before they come to him he only died for sinners and it buys us with a price for those who have had faith in him it purchases us out of slavery to sin and puts us into his service we submit to him now Jesus loves you enough to forgive you of your sins and Jesus loves you enough to help you get rid of sin in your life Jesus Jesus loves you enough to help you in this fight against sin do you want to be free from this sin that's what Jesus wants to and belief in him and faith in him is the only path to freedom in this area it is not through our own strength you've probably tried that it is only through the grace of

Christ that we have strength to flee from sexual immorality and Paul concludes with this so glorify God in your body glorify God in your body the two commands he gives flee sexual immorality and glorify God in your body the way we use our bodies to glorify God in part is to flee from sexual immorality sexual immorality is unhelpful it's dominant it's unnatural so flee from it and glorify God with your body how will you live your life you have two options from this passage you can continue on this path of sexual immorality and say things like I'm grateful I'm forgiven I'm grateful I'm free all things are lawful for me or you can go through your life saying I am not my own I have been bought with a price and so I want to glorify God with my body and with that first way of pursuing sin will bring you a lot of temporary pleasure and enjoyment but it will bring with it the horrors of hell who are already reaching back into this life in the form of pain and discomfort and agony and those are just a mere foreshadowing of what the future is if you pursue your sin the second way to live to strive to glorify

Christ in your body requires self denial sacrifice self control but it will end in a glory that surpasses any earthly pleasure you could ever experience in the presence of our Savior Jesus Christ which way will you choose to live and if you have perfect theology if you know the Bible so well if you can argue what the New Testament teaches about different doctrines and you're right and you give your life to pursue sexual sin that is a red flag of spiritual immaturity it is good to know the Bible it is good to know theology I want to encourage you to do that but how will you live your life how will you live your life this is kind of the baseline or the foundation of relationships that glorify the

Lord in dating! in marriage so whether you're single or dating or engaged or married or divorced or widowed everyone is called to be sexually pure in our church everyone is called to be sexually pure in this room this is the foundation of a dating relationship that pleases God this is the foundation of a marriage that will be pleasing to God someday for you and that's where we'll pick up next week when we discuss dating!

Let's pray! Our Father we thank you so much for the grace you've shown us in Christ none of us here is righteous none of us here is pure but the good news of the gospel is that you sent your son to die for sinners like us for impure sinners just like us and so Father I pray that our desire would match your desire for our lives that we pursue sanctification that we pursue sexual purity in our thought life and what we allow ourselves to look at and what we participate in with our bodies I pray that we all would recognize as Christians we're bought with a price and so we need to glorify you with the bodies that you've given us and for those here if they're not saved and they are enslaved in sexual sin I pray they would feel their need this evening I pray that they would see the hope that the gospel holds out to them and the love that

Christ has shown to us as sinners to forgive us and also not to leave us there but to continue to make us more like him in holiness I pray all this in Jesus name Amen