Christian Liberty and Sexual Freedom

The Corinthians had rationalized their sexual activity just like people today do. And of course, the city of Corinth was synonymous with sex. In fact, the verb to Corinthianize meant to have sex with a prostitute. So here are the Corinthians carrying another one of the cruddy things of their former life into the church. Paul is going to hit another one of them.

Here it is. It's going to hit the sin of immorality. He's going to take apart their rationalization. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. What is marriage? That question has been debated in classrooms, in the political arena, even in churches. Thankfully, you can know exactly why marriage exists and for whom it was created. The God who designed marriage has made it clear, as John MacArthur will show you in the series he launches today called Restoring Marriage. So here we are in the month of February. This is the month when the world gives a fair amount of attention to love and relationships.

Valentine's Day is coming, just a week away now. And in the series we're starting today on Grace to You, we're going to be looking at relationships, but from a little broader perspective than the greeting card level. And of course, John, most important, we're going to look at it from a biblical perspective. Well, we want to do everything from a biblical perspective. And of course, there is a biblical perspective on all relationships.

So we're going to tackle a multi-week look at how believers can strengthen all their relationships. To begin with, we're going to start where we probably need to start, and that is in the marriage relationship. We're going to do a series called Restoring Marriage, Getting Back to God's Design.

Obviously, because this is the most intense relationship in human life, this is the relationship that can go so wrong so often. So today we're going to begin to look at restoring marriage. And of course, by custom and by law, the world has altered the definition of marriage, hopelessly altered the definition of marriage, destructively altered the definition of marriage. But the fact is, there's nothing that politicians and lawmakers can do to change God's view of marriage, and God is the one who designed marriage. So you need to know why God created marriage, and what God expects marriage to be, and how to make a marriage consistently conform to God's design.

It's possible. It's not only possible, it's the only acceptable way to live as a Christian. So we're going to start in just a few moments a series on restoring marriage. And also keep in mind over the next several weeks, we're going to bring God's truth to bear on other critical relationships. We're going to talk about relationships in the church, the home, and really everywhere, and how to strengthen your relationship with God himself. We're going to do a series on enjoying God. Great days ahead between now and mid-March. It all starts today with a look at what the Bible says about restoring marriage.

Stay with us. Yes, because this series will show you not only how your marriage can flourish, but also how it can be a testimony for Christ. And these practical lessons start right now with a look at what Scripture says about Christian liberty and sexual sin.

So here's John MacArthur launching his study titled, Restoring Marriage. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning at verse 12. I've entitled this section, Christian Liberty and Sex, because that really is what it talks about, and you'll see that as we begin. And in this passage he presents the Christian's perspective on morality. Unless you really know the Lord Jesus Christ, unless you're a Christian, unless you understand what it is to live for God, this kind of a morality is going to seem a little bit in the left field. But this is what the Bible teaches.

You see the Corinthians had rationalized their sexual activity just like people today do. There are plenty of people who in the name of religion say, ah, you know, everything's taken care of. We're free in religion.

Christianity's made us free, so we live it up. There are plenty of other people, don't you hear this all the time, say, what's the big deal about sex? It's only biology, right? I mean, we're only animals. You don't get upset when dogs do it. Why do you get upset when we do it? You hear this all the time. Man, it's just a biological thing.

It's there. You go, you do it. You don't get all uptight about it. It's amoral. Now the Corinthians had done the same thing, and of course they had a problem too because they lived in the city of Corinth, and Corinth was synonymous with sex. In fact, the verb to Corinthianize meant to have sex with a prostitute. That's how attached Corinth was to that kind of life.

So they were saying, hey, our environment is overwhelming, and man, we figured out theologically it's all right, and philosophically it's just a biological act, and no big deal, so we're doing it. So here are the Corinthians, carrying another one of the cruddy things of their former life into the church. And this is the problem with every single difficulty the Corinthian church had.

In the first four chapters, what problem did Paul deal with? Division in the church. You know why they were divided in the church?

They were divided over human leaders and human philosophy. Both of those were carryovers from their former life. In chapter five, the evil in the church was the evil of failing to discipline sin, a carryover from their former lives when they were tolerant of sin. In chapter six was the sin of suing one another, and you remember the Corinthian society loved to have lawsuits, and they just carried that over into their Christian lives. And here they were immoral before they were Christians. They just carried that over into their Christian experience. So all of the evils there were just dragged in from their former life, and Paul's going to hit another one of them.

Here it is. He's going to hit the sin of immorality, and he's going to take apart their rationalization. Sexual sin harms, controls, and perverts the body. That's Paul's three-fold argument. Point number one, it harms. Verse 12, all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient.

Stop right there. Now he says, all things are possible within the area of grace, but all things are not expedient. That word comes from a Greek word, sumfero, which means to profit, P-R-O-F-I-T. God will forgive, but man, the price is high. Immorality is one of those things that God forgives. If you as a Christian do that, some of you undoubtedly have committed adultery or fornication as Christians.

If you have done that, God has forgiven totally and completely by the blood of Jesus Christ in His grace. But there's a price to pay. There's a high price because there's harm built into that sin. I want to show you that by taking to Proverbs chapter 5. There is no other sin that a man or a woman commits that has built into it the deep-rooted damage that the sin of sexual immorality has.

It has destroyed more people than drugs or booze ever together could have destroyed. And I want to show you Proverbs chapter 5. This is really interesting.

It's very, very practical. Proverbs 5 verse 3. We'll start here. We'll stay in Proverbs a while, so join us there if you have your Bible. Proverbs 5 verse 3. For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb in her mouth is smoother than oil. Oh, listen.

That stuff is very enticing. Honeycomb lips and smooth, you know. And the opposite comes in verse 4. Her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death.

Her steps take hold on Sheol. You see, what you see is not what you get. Now, he gives a little advice because of this. Lest thou shouldst ponder the path of her life, her ways are unstable, that thou canst not know them. Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Now listen.

You can't figure this out. She's subtle. She's sneaky.

Now listen to me. Remove thy way far from her and come not near the door of her house. You know, you're not going to have a problem committing adultery with somebody if you don't go where they are.

Take a lot of brains to figure that out. Lest thou give thine honor unto others and thy years unto the cruel. You know what happens when a person gets into that problem? They lose their honor. They lose their respect. Instead of being with honored people, they wind up with the cruel people.

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth. A person could actually come to the place where he loses his fortune. Many a man has destroyed his life over women. Many a man today is saddled with paying so much alimony he can hardly live himself.

And all of his money is going out. Even strangers are filled with your wealth and your labors be in the hands of an alien or the house of an alien. People have lost their life and their livelihood through immorality. And thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed.

When you get old and you can't function anymore physically or sexually and you have absolutely nothing but the pain, the agony, and the remorse. And then you will say, verse 12, how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. What a fool that I did what I did. Look at verse 18. Now God isn't against sex. Oh no, he invented it.

He is for it. Verse 18, let thy fountain be blessed. And that's talking literally about a man's ability to procreate. And rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Live it up.

God's designed that. Sex is a fabulous thing, a beautiful thing. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant rose.

Speaking of deer-like animals. Let her breast satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love. I mean this is great, you know.

Live it up. Enjoy, see. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he ponders all his going. Why would you go off and commit adultery when you know that the Lord is what? Watching.

He's watching. Well look at chapter 6. Interesting section, verse 24.

Now this is practical. Listen to this. Verse 23, you better start. For the commandment is a lamp and the law is a light and reproofs of instruction are the way of light. Now he says God's law is going to give you the right path and the right light and you're going to see the truth. Here it comes. To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a foreign woman.

Foreign simply means other than your own. Now watch. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids. Oh, you got to watch those eyes. Always the sex symbol, you know, with the half-opened eyes. Oh, that sneaky thing. Let her take thee with her eyelids. See, nothing new, folks.

You know, Maybelline hasn't changed anything. Now you see what happens when this occurs in verse 26. For by means of an unchaste woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread.

Something as elevated and high and lofty as a man, designed in the image of God, is brought down as if he were nothing but a piece of bread. And the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? You think you're going to commit sex in and get away?

You're wrong. You can't take fire in your bosom without burning your clothes. That's pretty clear.

Can one go on hot coals and his feet not be burned? Verse 28. Verse 29, so he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whosoever touches her shall not be innocent. Verse 32, whoso commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding. You know, it is stupid to commit adultery. Why? Because he that doeth it destroyeth his own what?

Soul. God may forgive it, but that doesn't make it right and that doesn't make it smart. Second thing, sin of adultery not only harms, it controls.

Look at 6, 12 again. All things are lawful for me, middle of the verse, but I will not be brought under the power of any. The Greek verb to be brought under the power means to come under the domination of or the power of something. And it really means to enslave. I will not be enslaved and there is no more enslaving thing than sexual evil.

This thing wants to subject and it does. Here are the Corinthian Christians in the name of liberty losing their freedom and becoming slaves. In the name of Christian freedom they had become slaves to their own desires. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4, this is the will of God concerning you that you be sanctified. Even your sanctification that you stay away from sexual sin. The next verse says that every one of you know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.

And the word vessel means body. Every one of you know how to possess his body. That you know how to possess your body. If you're going to stay away from sex sin, 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 says, then verse 4 says you have to control your body. You have to get control of your flesh. In Romans 8, 13, Paul put it this way.

He said, kill the flesh, mortify the flesh, master the flesh, gain control. And you know, you can get in a situation where you're not in control at all. You've lost control.

You get to the place where you're victimized by your drive. Keep it in control, Paul says. Possess your vessel.

Control your body. But you don't become a slave. Paul says, yes, all things are lawful. But you do that and it will enslave you.

You'll become a slave. And I have never seen anything so enslaving in the lives of individuals as that particular area of sin. A third thing, and this is the major part of the passage, and believe it or not, we'll run through it quickly. Sin not only harms enslaved sex sin, but it perverts. Verse 13, quickly we'll look at it. And he gives three distinct purposes and designs for our bodies that are perverted by sexual sin. Foods for the body, verse 13, and the body for foods, that was their little statement. He says, wait a minute, but God shall destroy both it and them. You can't say, well, look, the body's for food and food's for the body and sex is for the body and the body's for sex.

That's all there is to it. It's just biological. You can't say that. Because God is going to destroy food and God is going to destroy stomachs. That's the real word here, stomach. God is going to wipe that out, but the body is not for sexual sin. It's for the Lord and the Lord is for the body and I'll prove it to you because God has both raised up the Lord and will also what?

Raise up us by his power. You know why your body is different? Because your body someday is going to be what?

Raised up. Your body isn't just a temporal commodity. You know, there's coming a time in this world where we're going to be raised, the rapture, we're just going to go from the grave. The bodies are going to be brought out of the grave. You say, what if there's nothing left? That's no problem for God.

He just makes them all come together again. We're going to be in heaven in bodies, literal bodies. And so he's saying, look, food that is eating, the necessity for eating, the digestive processes of the stomach, that will all cease. God will wipe that all out. But the body, you, the total man incorporated in that flesh, that is going to be glorified and transformed into heaven. So don't think that the biology of eating is equal to what you do with your body.

In terms of its union, there's a big difference. Now he gives three distinct purposes. First of all, he says, your body is for the Lord.

Verse 13, it is for the Lord. Eating is a natural function, but sex is far more than a natural function, people. Sex, listen to this, is a spiritual union. It transcends the biological.

C.S. Lewis says in Screwtape letters, every time a man and a woman enter into a sexual relationship, a spiritual bond is established between them which must be eternally enjoyed or eternally endured. God says, I'm going to destroy stomachs and I'm going to destroy food. But bodies, no. The Bible never says God's going to destroy eternally the body. That body is going to be glorified. The body of a Christian is going to spend its eternity with Jesus Christ in a glorified state. Our bodies are not just biological commodities.

They have biological aspects and biological functions, but they are far beyond that. Between food and the stomach, there is a horizontal line. Between my body, my person, and the Lord, there is a vertical relationship and it must not be defiled because God wants me presented to Jesus Christ a chaste virgin, right?

Spiritually. Your stomach was made for food, but your body wasn't made for sex. It was made for God and within God's will, sex is included in marriage.

Outside of that, you violate it. And the proof of it is in verse 14. God's going to raise your body out of the grave. Don't defile that thing which was designed to spend eternity with him. You can't say sex is for the body and the body for sex. The body is for the Lord.

Second thing. He says, not only is your body for the Lord, but it is one with Christ. Look at verses 15 to 18. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?

Mele, the normal word for the member of a physical body. Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a prostitute? Me genetah.

God forbid may it never happen. He says, look, you are one with Christ. You are the members of Christ. When you were saved, you were joined to Christ. Every one of us is a member of his body.

Isn't that right? Ephesians 1 22 and 23, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Romans chapter 12 verse 5. We are all made one with Christ in his body. And if we are committing acts of sin, we are joining Christ to that prostitute. God forbid. Sex sin is sickening. It is unthinkable that I would use Jesus Christ in a sex relationship. Could you imagine if Christ was on earth going to him and saying, Lord, I am going over here to commit adultery. Would you please come and partake with me? You say, Cartha, that's blasphemous.

You better believe it. But it's no more blasphemous than a Christian committing adultery because he's dragging Christ into it, right? You're a member of Christ. Sex is a union of two becoming one.

Thus in a Christian's immorality, there is the most gross profaning of making Christ one with that sin. Sex is not just biological. No, it is spiritual. It is two becoming one.

That's the way God designed it. It unites two people. That's why the Old Testament says when there are two single people, if a man lies with a woman, then he marries her.

Why? Because they've consummated a spiritual union. And that's why the Bible says that when adultery is committed, that's grounds for divorce.

Why? Because they have consummated a union outside the marriage. Two becoming one is not just biological as the integrating of two people in the deepest parts of their being.

And that's why C.S. Lewis says what you have is an eternal spiritual bond, either to be eternally enjoyed or eternally endured. The Corinthians or any Christian who commits an act of sexual sin drags Jesus Christ into it. Well, look what he says in verse 16. What? No, you not that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body.

Yes, that's right. For two shall be one flesh. When you unite with a prostitute, you become one flesh with that prostitute. In the deepest sense of communion of your beings, the sex act is not just biological. It is the uniting of two persons in the deepest, most intimate sense. And when you do that with a prostitute, you've drawn a union with that prostitute.

When you do it with somebody outside your marriage, you've drawn a union with that person. And if you're joined to Jesus Christ, you dragged him right into it. Verse 17, he that is joined to the Lord is what? One spirit.

One spirit. You're one with him. How could you ever drag him into that?

To be one with him. The result, he says in verse 18, flee sexual sin. Get out of there. You know the smartest way to handle sexual sin? Just get out of there.

I said you can't have a problem if you're not around. You know, Joseph was a smart guy. He got in there and Potiphar's wife started laying it on him. Joseph, you big hunk of men, you know all this. And oh, Joseph just realized only one way out of this. He took off like a shot. She grabbed his coat and that's all she got.

He was gone. You say, no, I'm going to face it and gain the victory. That's ridiculous. Get out of there.

Well, I must know how the world lives. I've got to be aware of these things and show my strength. Just get out of there.

Second Timothy 2 22, it says, flee youthful lust. Get out of there. Don't sit there and take it in. Get out. If you're looking at something that isn't good, get out of there. If you're reading something that isn't good, junk it. If you're in a situation that's going the direction of compromising, sorry. Boom. Go. You say, well, they won't understand. Well, who cares? Whether they understand, just get out of there.

Some simple solutions, aren't there? Everything isn't complicated. Verse 18 further, every sin that a man does is outside the body. But he that commits fornication or sex sins, sins against his own body.

Now, that's very difficult to understand what Paul meant, because he doesn't really elucidate on it. But what I think he means is this, that while sexual immorality is not necessarily the worst sin, it is the most unique in its consequences. It has a way of internally destroying a man and a woman that no other sin has.

Why? Because of all sins, it is the one sin that is the spiritual union of two persons. You can commit other sins, and those other sins may be superficial.

They may affect you at some level, but the sin of a sexual intimacy with somebody else is the deepest uniting of two persons. Therefore, it has the unique kind of sin that destroys a man at the very roots of his being. You know, it is far more destructive than alcohol. It is far more destructive than drugs.

It is far more destructive than crime. It is the deepest penetrating sin that a man can commit because it unites him to another person in the vileness of that sin. I'll never forget seeing a girl who came to me at 16 years old and said she wanted to kill herself. She didn't want to live another day. She hadn't looked in a mirror in months because she couldn't stand her own face.

I said, why? She said, because I'm so rotten from so many acts of sexual sin. She was destroyed. She looked like she was 40 years old, just destroyed. And I'll never forget the joy that was mine in leading her to Jesus Christ, and the first thing she said to me was, for the first time in years I feel clean. Oh, that's grace.

Thank God. All sin blackens. All sin devastates. But this sin destroys a person at the roots of his being. It harms him. It devastates him. It enslaves him. And it just diametrically opposes everything God intended for the body of a Christian. It's for the Lord, and it's one with Christ. Third, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, verse 19.

What? Know ye not, that's the sixth time he's used that formula in this chapter, common knowledge. Isn't it common knowledge to you that your body is the shrine or the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have of God. You didn't induce the Holy Spirit. You didn't earn the Holy Spirit.

You didn't seek the Holy Spirit. He was given as a gift. And you aren't even your own. You're his temple.

You say, how come I'm his? Because, verse 20 says, he bought you with a price. And what was the price? 1 Peter 1 18 and 19, for you were not redeemed with gold and silver, precious stones, none of those things. But you were redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of a lamb without spot, without blemish. What was the price he paid?

His blood. Listen, he bought you. You're the shrine of the Holy Spirit. You're the temple of the living God, he says in 2 Corinthians 6 16. You're the temple of the living God. God dwells in you. How can you drag the Holy Spirit into this? You are the temple of God. The living God dwells in you. You are the sacred shrine.

Don't you know that? How could you desecrate? How could you mutilate? How could you defile the temple of the Spirit of God?

That's who you are. Sacred shrine of the Holy Spirit. Listen, are you defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit? Are you dragging your union with Christ?

Are you dragging Jesus Christ into a sinful situation? Are you making him one with a prostitute? You say, well, what's a prostitute?

Anybody who prostitutes the right meaning and use of sex. Are you using your body for biological expression? Forget it. Your body is for the Lord. You see, it's just incongruous. And what is the result of all of this? Verse 20, he says this. Therefore, glorify God in your what? Body.

The rest of the verse doesn't appear in the best manuscripts. Glorify God in your body. That's it. What should you do with your body? Glorify God with it. Praise God with it.

Make it a shrine where somebody can worship. How could you defile yourself? God will forgive you. That's right. He'll forgive you.

He always does. But it will harm you. You'll pay a tremendous price. And it'll control you.

And it'll pervert the design God has for you. And so I say to you what Paul said of the Ephesians. Sex sin, let it not once be named among you. You're listening to Grace to You with the verse-by-verse teaching of John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's lesson is from his series titled Restoring Marriage. And keep in mind, you can download all four messages of John's series, Restoring Marriage, from our website, gty.org. An ideal resource for studying with a small group or a Bible study, to get your copy of John's study titled Restoring Marriage, contact us today.

This study can help equip you for the conversations you're likely to encounter as society debates marriage. And it's especially helpful as a resource if you are married to an unbeliever. Again, you can download all four messages from Restoring Marriage, free of charge in MP3 or transcript format, from gty.org.

Or if you'd like to give this series to a friend, you can purchase it in a four-CD album. To place your order, call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. And when you get in touch, thanks for letting us know how John's verse-by-verse teaching is strengthening your faith. Your feedback is more important than you may think. And also, if you could make sure to mention this station's call letters, that would be a big help to us. Send your email to letters at gty.org, or send your letter to Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, inviting you back tomorrow when John continues his look at the principles that lead to a strong, healthy, and joyous marriage. Don't miss the next half hour of Unleashing God's Truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.