Learning to Flee Sexual Sin ... According to the Gospel

Hi, this is the Humory Proclaim podcast, season seven. No doubt you've heard lots of tips and tricks and suggestions on living a sexually pure life, and sadly so many of those messages still fall short. According to John Fawnville, they fall short because they don't go for the heart of the matter, which is our understanding of the gospel. Have you looked into John's new book that goes along with this series? It's available now and entitled Hope and Holiness: How the Gospel Enables and Empowers Sexual Purity.

I've put all the information in the show notes, so please check it out soon. Again, it's called Hope and Holiness: How the Gospel Enables and Empowers Sexual Purity. It's a great new resource for your Spiritual Growth Library. Here's John with learning to flee sexual sin according to the gospel. But 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 through 20, we're looking at verses 18 to 20.

Let me just quickly review for some of you. As you have learned throughout this series, Paul is asking and confronting us with four questions. And these four questions are this, do you not know? Do you not know, and each one of those questions is intended really to function as a rebuke to us? as it was a rebuke to the Corinthian church.

The problem with the Corinthian church was that they didn't know the gospel. And they had not seriously considered the implications of the gospel for their life in regard to. The seventh commandment. which is sexual purity. And so, in response to their unrestrained license and abuse.

of the seventh commandment Paul reintroduces the Corinthians to the gospel and its implications for their life, which alone has the power to motivate a believer to actually keep what God requires in his law.

So he's directing these believers back to the centrality of the gospel so that as he says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3, the gospel can become of first importance to them, paramount. Central. In verses 9 through 11, what he does is he first introduces into the theme of the kingdom of God. And he asked me, he says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? He says, But you're not unrighteous because you have been washed, sanctified, justified, and adopted.

And so you need to be who you are. And he spends the rest of this chapter telling them who they are. is washed. Sanctified, justified believers. In Christ.

And he shows them that their whole body and soul, all of who they are, they belong to God. And so in verses 12 to 14, he says he points them to the doctrine of resurrection as that which leads to sexual purity. And he says, do you not know that your bodies belong to Christ because they are destined for resurrection? The resurrection validates the moral importance of the physical body, and it confirms that the believer's body belongs to the Lord. And then thirdly, Paul appeals in verses 15 to 17 to the believer's union with Christ.

He says, Do you not know that your bodies belong to Christ because they are in union with him? And we saw how all forms of sexual immorality in a believer's life create an unholy bond with Jesus Himself. Paul says literally that you desecrate the body of Christ himself because you are joining his members, which in the word members is body, physical body. You are joining the members of Christ to that which is impure and undefiled, and that is an unthinkable act. It's a powerful motivation.

For obedience.

Now fourth, we come to verses 18 to 20. And here Paul is reminding the Corinthians that they are God's rightful possession. He says, Do you not know that your bodies belong to God, verses 18 and 20, because they are his rightful possession? They are God's lawful possession. As we learned last week in verse 18, Paul is confronting and correcting one more theological slogan that was false.

That the Corinthian church was using to justify engaging in rather than fleeing from, as he commands, sexual immorality. And the two truths that Paul points us to to show us that our body belongs to God by a double right. Is this? It is first. Our bodies are the habitation of God.

They are the temple of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and we looked at that last week. And second, as we're going to see this week, our bodies not only belong to God because of habitation, but also because of redemption. Redemption. The work of Christ on the cross. And so In response to these Corinthians who are using these theological slogans to justify their freedom or their right to do whatever they thought they wanted to do.

With human sexuality, Paul says, no, time out. You don't understand the gospel, and you have not seriously understood the implications of the gospel, because if you had, you would realize that the fruit of the gospel, which is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, that means that you belong to God. And he also says, if you understood the gospel and if you had seriously considered the implications of the gospel, you would realize that you are the purchased possession. God has the title deed to the property of your body. Your body belongs to Christ because he has purchased it.

But you don't understand redemption. You don't understand habitation, the fruit of the gospel.

So Paul is reminding them of the centrality of the gospel and its fruit for their life.

Now, as we look at verse 19. Let's go back really quick. It should not surprise us that as Paul begins to bring his argument of chapter 6 to an end to confront the believer's sexual immoral behavior. It should not surprise us that he finishes by directing us back to the work of Christ, the gospel. Because he begins this whole argument with the resurrection and he ends it with redemption.

The book ends of the gospel. And all throughout the whole argument, he's given us gospel. and fruit of the gospel, union with Christ, indwelling of the Holy Spirit, resurrection, adoption, sanctification, justification, regeneration, washing by the Spirit.

So it should not surprise us that as he is concluding his argument, He brings the believers and brings us all the way back to square one that points us directly listen to the heart of the gospel. Which is the work of Christ on the cross? The cross of Christ is the heart. of the gospel. And that's exactly where Paul's going to leave us with.

And so what he does is he's saying, look. Your bodies belong to Jesus by a double right, habitation, indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which means because the presence of God now has taken up residence with inside of you, the implication is that you are not your own. That's what he says right here. He says, You are not your own. Look at verse 19.

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. Your bodies, in other words, are not your own to do with whatever you desire in the matter of sexual immorality. Every sin that the believer commits is not outside the body. It is in the body, and you're not your own.

And the reason you're not your own is not only because you're the habitation of God, but listen, your body is a habitation of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit. But also it is because of redemption. The work of Christ on the cross. And so Paul is going to drive this point home. One more time, you're not your own.

You are a temple of the Holy Spirit that has been purchased by Christ on the cross. Therefore, you belong to God, and belonging to God entails powerful responsibility as a new master. And that's what we're going to see here.

So, the gospel is what the Holy Spirit uses to bring us into conformity to what is required in His law. The Holy Spirit does not use imperatives to bring us into conformity to the law. The Holy Spirit does not use the law of God to sanctify us in terms of making us do what is required. The Holy Spirit, 2 Corinthians 3, verse 8, takes the ministry of the gospel. The gospel is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and He uses that.

To bring us into conformity to what is required in all the imperatives of the New Testament. And so, what Paul is showing to us is that we don't move on from the milk of the gospel to the meat of something else. What Paul is showing us is that we move from the milk of the gospel to the meat of the gospel. He's showing us that to grow in our sanctification We are to move on in deeper, ever increasing reintroductions to the meat of the gospel. We never move from the gospel.

That's what Paul's teaching. That's why he begins this whole section with the gospel. That's why he concludes this whole section with the heart of the gospel. The capstone of the gospel is the resurrection. He's already directed us to that.

And now he's directing us to the heart of the gospel: the redemption, the atonement of Christ. And so the gospel Self-consciously being aware of the centrality of the gospel, Paul says, assures us and motivates us towards sexual purity. Listen, if your life is not consciously self-aware of the gospel and its implications, you will not be advancing in sexual purity. I don't care how many practical steps you're given. I don't care how much protection you try to put around your life, you will find a way to get around it.

Covenant Eyes is a wonderful thing. We promote it in our church. I have it on one of my kids' computers. We protect our home, but let me just tell you this. If you really want to get around it, you're going to get around it.

But you know what happens when the gospel remains just self- Central focus paramount in your life. I don't want to get around anything. Because I belong to God.

Now listen. Paul is arguing here that Christ's redemptive death on the cross goes all the way back to verse 13. Look at verse 13. In verse 13, Paul says that the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord. The body is meant for the Lord.

And the Lord is all for the body. God's not against, listen, sex. He's not. He's for it, and he's for the body. But in his context and in his way.

Now, listen, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and Christ's redemption on the cross affirms that God is for the body and that the body is for the Lord. Paul is just expounding here on verse 13. You got to keep all this in context. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. And so our bodies.

Belong to God by right of habitation and by right of redemption.

So let's look at redemption this morning. Look at verses 19 and 20. Paul says, you are not your own. For you're a bot. With a price.

No question. What was the purpose for Jesus dying on the cross? Why did he die on the cross? What was its purpose? The answer to this question is multifaceted.

Christ's atoning death was one great divine act. Which has many different facets. It's like a diamond, and every time you turn that diamond, there's a different little shape to it, there's a different side, there's a different cut to it. And Paul says that each aspect of Christ's atonement gives meaning and significance to what he achieved. By dying on the cross.

So, what is Paul saying that in verse 20 here? What is the facet, what is the aspect of the diamond of the atonement that we're looking at? Why did Christ die on the cross, according to Paul, in verse 20? And what does it have to do with sexual purity? It has everything to do with it.

And listen very closely. As I said, he is directing us to the heart of the gospel, the cross of Christ. And he says that the reason, the purpose Jesus died on the cross for us as the one and only substitutionary sacrifice for sin. is because he bought us At a price. This is called the doctrine of redemption.

And theology class 101 is the milk of the gospel. As a Christian, you should know what redemption is because this is the heart of why you're a believer. This is the heart of the Christian faith, and it has everything to do with your daily pursuit of sexual purity. And if you don't know it, you can't pursue sexual purity. You can't obey the seventh commandment.

You can't live out Christ's kingdom ethic of Matthew 5. And so look, Paul directs us. To the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ for our sins because he says Jesus bought us. He bought us.

Now, if you look back at verse 19, he picked up the temple imagery. We looked at the temple imagery last week: tabernacle, temple, garden of Eden. We went through the whole thing, how it was fulfilled in Christ. And now, because we're in union with Christ, we're now a temple.

Okay, now look, he moves from the temple imagery to the slave market imagery in verses 19 and 20. The temple imagery, just like the slave market imagery, both of these images would have been immediately meaningful to the Corinthians, and here's why. Because when he uses the word bought, It immediately puts us squarely in the slave market, rights, Gordon Fee. It immediately listened this word bot. immediately grabbed the Corinthians' attention.

and directed them to the slave auction in Corinth. Because in Corinth, Corinth in Paul's day was a major center for slave trafficking. And apparently, if you look over in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 21 through 24, there were bondservants in the Corinthian congregation.

Now, don't think of bondservants as like the evil slave trade. That was used to be in America and England back in the 1700s, 1800s. That's not the picture here. That's evil. And that's not the picture about the slave trade that Paul is talking about here.

These are bond servants. These are people who purchased their freedom, but because they were owned by their master, they purchased their freedom, they freely came back out of, listen, gratitude. to serve him. They were free. But because they had been given freedom, they came back out of gratitude to serve.

Sound familiar?

Now listen, in Paul's day A price would be paid in the market to purchase a slave. And Paul takes this word from the slave market and he says, Look what he says. You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. The word bought was used in Paul's day as an ordinary word that spoke of the transfer of ownership. The transfer of ownership.

Paul is simply giving a mental picture of a slave being sold from one master to be owned by another master.

Now, Paul's imagery raises some important questions. For example, to whom was Christ's payment paid? Paul doesn't tell us. Who is Christ? purchasing us from.

Who is he paying the ransom to to redeem us from the slave market? First of all, if you look back in the Middle Ages, there was a mistaken interpretation that was widespread, and sometimes it appears even today, and name it climate TV preachers. And it was this: that Jesus was actually paying the price to the devil. That's not what Paul is saying here. It cannot be true that Jesus was paying a price to the devil because there would be a sense, if that's true, that Satan was victorious over Christ.

And Satan was utterly defeated, as we've sung this morning in the first opening song, which I love. Jesus is king and Satan is defeated, right? That doesn't make you sing. I don't think we can do anything else to make you sing at Paramount Church. Listen.

We must not think also of Christ's payment in the literal wooden sense of a financial payment. Jesus was not exchanging money to Satan, otherwise, as Jerry Bridges says, Satan would be laughing all the way to the bank. That's not who Jesus was paying the price to.

So who was Jesus paying the price to?

Well, if you look back in the context of 1 Corinthians 6, look back at verses 9 and 10. Paul reminds the Corinthians that prior to their conversion, they were in bondage to sin. Such were some of you, right? And he goes through this whole list of things that they were in bondage to, separated from the kingdom of God. They were not members of the kingdom of God, they were separated, they were in bondage.

And these sins were their master. They were enslaved to it. One writer says that they were slaves to themselves. There were slaves to their self-centered desires. They were slaves to their self-indulgence.

They were slaves to their bodily passions. And Paul says that by Jesus dying on the cross, Jesus paid the necessary price to set these Corinthians free from their former manner of life. Jesus paid the price necessary to set you and I free from our bondage to sin. From our bondage to sin.

Now, listen, another author says their bodies were no longer like chunks of flesh. up for sale to the highest bidder in the slave market. or available to a cult prostitute for a fee. They had now been bought with a price and they belonged to a new master.

Now, elsewhere in Scripture, the Bible reveals that the ransom price that Christ paid when he bought us, guess who it was paid to? It was paid to God the Father who was acting as judge. The price was paid to God the Father acting as judge. We saw this from Galatians chapter 3, verse 14, and Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5, where it says that God the Father sent the Son into the world to redeem us. And what was he redeeming us from?

The curse of the law. God's just requirements for sinners. Those who have broken the law. And so Jesus, when he died on the cross, he satisfied the requirements of God's just requirements in his law. He paid the price that God's law required for justice to be satisfied.

He paid the payment to his father. And while Christ's redemption certainly issues in the believer's freedom, And freedom from the curse of the law, freedom from your former manner of life, that's not the context here in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20. Paul is not so much emphasizing freedom from your former manner of life, although that is true. He's not so much emphasizing freedom from the curse and judgment of God, and that is certainly true. This is what he's emphasizing.

ownership. Ownership. Paul is emphasizing in this context that Christ bought us for the purpose not merely of freedom, but listen, belonging. And with belonging now as God's property. It implies responsibility.

You're not free to do whatever you think you want to do in regard to sexual immorality. You have a new master who has a new will and purpose for your life called His law, and you have to obey it because He has freed you, He's bought you to belong to Himself so that you can. Listen to Ed Clowney in preaching Christ in all of scripture. He says, possession marks the covenant relation. Listen, I'm going to show you this from all of scripture in here in just a second, but just listen, here's the point.

Possession marks the covenant relation. God redeems his people so that he may possess them. That's what Paul's teaching us here. Figuratively speaking, Paul says that the purpose of Christ's death. Was to purchase his people from enslavement to the law and enslavement to their former manner of life.

By paying the price to the Father To satisfy God's justice so that God's people can once again belong to Him, be possessed by Him. It's a beautiful picture. It's a beautiful thing. After, listen, after the resurrection, Jesus told his disciples: wait for the promise of the Father, that is, the coming of the Holy Spirit. And by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God's presence is once again dwelling amongst his people, as we saw last week.

You are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. God is present among his people. And in the Spirit, Jesus comes and He's present, and the Holy Spirit unites believers to Christ both corporately, 1 Corinthians 3, and individually here in 1 Corinthians 6. And because we are united to Christ, that means we belong to Christ. We're his purchased possession.

God has the title deed to our bodies. And he owns it. You're not your own. Your body is not your own to do with whatever you think you want to do. Because it doesn't belong to you.

It is God's purchased possession. And when you begin to awaken to the centrality of redemption, And the doctrine of redemption, which is the heart of the gospel, you would never give your body to that which dishonors God, but that which glorifies God. Because that is the purpose of Christ's redemption. That's why Paul says in verse 20, he says, So glorify God in your body. What other logical result is there?

What other logical implication is there if God owns it? Everything that God owns is to be used to his honor and glory, not to his dishonor and desecration. By virtue of Jesus' redemption by buying us, this author says, quote, Jesus has full property rights over his people. Christ's death purchased them. They have been transferred, listen, from Satan's household to serve in Christ's household.

And this brings, listen, improved status, adoption, inheritance. Back in chapter 6, verse 11, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, you will inherit because you're adopted. Status in Christ's household. A new status that is beyond your imagination.

This redemption brings new status. It brings new duties. Flee sexual immorality. Glorify God in your body. Listen to Ed Clowney in preaching Christ in all of scripture.

He says, possession marks the covenant relation. Listen, I'm going to show you this from all of scripture in here in just a second, but just listen, here's the point. Possession marks. The covenant relation. God redeems his people so that he may possess them.

That's what Paul's teaching us here. Figuratively speaking, Paul says that the purpose of Christ's death. Was to purchase his people from enslavement to the law and enslavement to their former manner of life. By paying the price to the Father To satisfy God's justice so that God's people can once again belong to Him, be possessed by Him. It's a beautiful picture.

It's a beautiful thing. After, listen, after the resurrection, Jesus told his disciples, wait for the promise of the Father, that is, the coming of the Holy Spirit. And by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God's presence is once again dwelling amongst his people, as we saw last week. You are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. God is present among his people.

And in the Spirit, Jesus comes and he's present, and the Holy Spirit unites believers to Christ both corporately, 1 Corinthians 3, and individually here in 1 Corinthians 6. And because we are united to Christ, that means we belong to Christ. We're his purchased possession. God has the title deed to our bodies. And he owns it.

You're not your own. Your body is not your own to do with whatever you think you want to do. Because it doesn't belong to you. It is God's purchased possession. And when you begin to awaken to the centrality of redemption, And the doctrine of redemption, which is the heart of the gospel, you would never give your body to that which dishonors God, but that which glorifies God, because that is the purpose of Christ's redemption.

That's why Paul says in verse 20, he says, So glorify God in your body. What other logical result is there? What other logical implication is there if God owns it? Everything that God owns is to be used to his honor and glory, not to his dishonor and desecration. By virtue of Jesus' redemption by buying us, this author says, quote, Jesus has full property rights over his people.

Christ's death purchased them. They have been transferred, listen, from Satan's household to serve in Christ's household. And this brings, listen, improved status, adoption, inheritance. Back in chapter 6, verse 11, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, you will inherit because you're adopted.

status in Christ's household. A new status that is beyond your imagination. This redemption brings new status. It brings new duties. Flee sexual immorality.

Glorify God in your body. Chapter 6, verses 9 and 10. Heed the warning of God's law. New duties and increased accountability. Belonging, as we're going to see it in Titus in the weeks ahead, belonging to God's people implies accountability to Christ through God's ordained offices in the church.

There is accountability to being God's people. And so belonging to God implies responsibility, Paul says, not license. Not freedom to do whatever you think you want to do just because you feel like doing it. You belong to God, and you have a new master, you have a new owner, and you have to obey Him. But the good thing about this new master and owners is not that, like, just get down there and row your boat.

Do your duty. No, listen. This new master has washed you. has set you apart, sanctified you, has justified you. Has destined you for resurrection, united you to Jesus, so that all that Jesus is and all that Jesus has done is counted as if you are and you have done.

This new master, listen, has come to indwell you and he graciously leads you through love, not fear. He doesn't whip you with the chains and terrors of the law to get you to obey and improve your life through moral improvement because it doesn't work. He inwardly compels you and conforms you by his Holy Spirit to be just like Jesus and he does it through grace. What a wonderful owner. I would love to be in that kind of household, wouldn't you?

If that owner says, John, sweep the floor, oh, praise God, I get to sweep the floor. Really? I can do something. Because look at my former life. Look what I've been brought from.

Verses 9 and 10 of chapter 6. What a privilege. What a joy. And so the implication Is this, is that believers are no longer to live by their self-centered desires, self-indulgence, bodily passions, using these theological justifications to justify Ungodly living. You don't just, if when the gospel is central and paramount in your life, you don't use theology to justify immorality.

You use your theology, the gospel Christ has bought me, to use it to be compelled to live to the glory of God. This is what Paul says.

So glorify God. in your body. In a different context, in Romans chapter 14, verses 7 through 8. Paul says, none of us lives to himself. And none of us dies to himself, for if we live, we live to the Lord.

And if we die, we die to the Lord.

So then, whether we live or whether we die, guess what? We are the Lord's. We are the Lord's. We are God's purchased possession. We are His people.

And a self-consciously centered gospel in your life will compel you to live for the Lord and not yourself. You see this. Do you begin to see now why, if you don't understand doctrine, i.e., gospel? There is no sanctification. It's impossible.

Because there's nothing, there's no reality by which the Holy Spirit has to work in your life to lead you to obey. The Holy Spirit does not work in a vacuum, and He does not work through moralistic lectures. He works to the gospel.

Now the temple imagery was not only rich to the Corinthians, but it was exceedingly rich to the Apostle Paul. The slavery image was also not just rich to the Corinthians, but the slavery image was exceedingly rich to the Apostle Paul, who was Jewish. The Corinthians. Gentiles? Paul, expert in the law, Pharisee of Pharisees, Jew, he got the Old Testament.

He knew what it was about. And Paul's understanding of Christ's work of redemption, just as the temple imagery, now the redemption imagery is rooted in the Old Testament. And very quickly, like I did last week, the notes will be up tomorrow, so quit taking notes and just listen. I want you to see how Christ fulfills this imagery. Because Christ is on every page, right?

Luke 24. He's on every page. Let me show you how he's on every page through redemption. It's been suggested that Paul may have an allusion to Hosea chapter 3 here when he's talking about being bought. And if you go back in Hosea chapter 3, in Hosea chapter 3, Hosea uses a Hebrew word which is translated bought.

And Hosea is buying his wife Gomer out of slavery. And Hosea's wife Gomer was living as an adulteress. in a life of sexual immorality. And God tells the prophet Hosea, go buy your wife out of slavery. Go purchase her out from her sexually immoral lifestyle so that she can belong to you in a lifelong, loving, monogamous relationship called marriage.

And Hosea's marriage is a depiction of Israel's relationship with the Lord. The Lord pursues Israel, the adulteress. And the Lord is using Hosea to call Israel back because Israel was to be his purchased possession. And so Hosea is called to retrieve his adulterous wife so that Israel can have a living picture that God still loves his people and wants them back so he can possess them for himself. Beautiful.

gospel picture in the book of Hosea.

Sometime we'll go through the book of Hosea. But in the same way, Paul is using this redemption imagery from the Old Testament, and he's saying that the Corinthians are bought out of bondage to their sexually licentious lifestyle in order to belong to God and to live a life that glorifies God rather than dishonors God. And that's where this imagery is coming from. Second, we also see this redemption imagery fulfilled. and Christ saving, and God's great saving acts called the Exodus.

Anytime you see New Testament authors referring to Christ redeeming, Christ ransoming, Christ buying, think Exodus. Because that's where it comes from. By his redemption, Christ in Ezekiel 36:28, by his redemption on the cross, Christ is fulfilling God's covenant promise that he made to Abraham and to all the ones after because he made first a promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15, You shall be my people, and I will be your God. You'll belong to me, and I'll belong to you, I'll possess you. And Christ's saving act of redemption on the cross recalls the Exodus, God's great act of redeeming his people out of slavery in Egypt.

Listen to Christopher Wright in his book, The Mission of God. He says this: He says, If you had asked a devout Israelite in the Old Testament period, are you redeemed? The answer would have been a most definite yes. And if you ask, how do you know? You would have been taken aside to sit down somewhere while your friend recounted a long and exciting story.

And the story would be of the Exodus. For indeed, it is the Exodus that proved the primary model of God's idea of redemption. Buying back. Not just in the Old Testament, but even in the New, where it is used of one of the keys to understanding the meaning of the cross of Christ. Do you hear that?

Paul is pointing us here in 1 Corinthians 6 to the heart of the gospel. He's pointing us to one of the keys to understanding the meaning of the cross of Christ.

So that when Paul and the other New Testament writers referred to Jesus as our redemption, the Old Testament story they had in mind was the Exodus. God, through saving action, coming to his people because he has steadfast love, which is covenant faithfulness. To redeem his people from slavery and bondage so that they can belong to him. Let me just give you a couple of examples from the Old Testament to show you where this comes from. In Exodus chapter 6, Verse five.

God through Moses is speaking to the people and he says in verse 5, I have remembered my covenant with Abraham. When God makes a promise, he never forgets it. He always performs it. He's the promise keeping and performing God. Steadfast love equals covenant faithfulness.

And when you see steadfast love in the Old Testament, think covenant faithfulness, God made a promise, He'll keep it, He'll perform it. That's grace, that's the gospel in the Old Testament. And so God remembers his covenant to Abraham, verse 5. Therefore, listen to what he instructs Moses. I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, with great acts of judgment.

And listen to verse seven. I will take you to be my. People. I'll possess you. And I will be your God.

And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore covenantal faithfulness to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession. Because I am the Lord. That's powerful. Clearly, possession marks the covenant relation.

God's people are redeemed in order to belong to God in God's dwelling place, the promised land where God has promised to dwell with his people. In Exodus chapter 15, Moses and the people of Israel are singing a song of praise that spontaneously erupted in their hearts in response to God's great deliverance from Pharaoh's army. And the theology that drives their heart of response in their song is deeply profound. Which shows you if the gospel is not in your heart, there's nothing profoundly responsive to give back to God.

So, if you find yourself in church not singing, you might want to ask yourself this first question: how much gospel is filling my heart? Because you read Exodus 15 and you see loads of gospel filling God's people's hearts for his great act of redemption. Listen to what they sing in verse 13. You have led in your steadfast love, your chesed, your covenant faithfulness. The people whom you have redeemed.

You have guided them by your strength to your holy abode, by your strength. They didn't do it. To your holy abode, to the place where you dwell. Listen, God's redemption was based on his steadfast love, his promise to Abraham. And the reason he made a promise to Abraham is because he first made a promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15.

He's a God of promise and performance. That is his grace. That is his strength. That is his steadfastness. And listen, in redemption, God always takes the initiative because of his steadfast love.

He didn't redeem Israel because they deserved it. He redeemed Israel because he was faithful to his promise.

Now listen, secondly note in this passage that the purpose for his redemption was to guide his people to his holy abode. To his holy abode. Listen to this. God's dwelling place is his holy abode. What is that?

It was either Canaan, the promised land, or listen, the hill of Jerusalem where the temple would be built. And we saw that last week. Where is God's dwelling place? Garden of Eden, the tabernacle, the promised land, the temple. And where does all of this come to a fruition in, as we saw last week?

Well, we saw that God acts to possess His people. In Exodus 19, 4, God speaks to Moses, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings, listen, and brought you to myself. God acts to redeem in order to possess his people. All of these acts of redemption, of salvation, point forward to the coming of Christ, who Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1.20 is the fulfillment of all of God's saving action, where it says, all the promises of God find their yes in him. Just as God redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt to belong to him, to bring them to himself.

So, Jesus has died on the cross to purchase us, to buy us, to redeem us, to belong to him, and now he owns us. We are his purchased possession. Listen to this in the New Testament: how the New Testament writers pick up on this coveted language from the Old Testament and apply it all to Jesus to the church. Matthew chapter 1, Matthew opens up with this startling announcement to a Jewish audience, and he says, Jesus, which means Yahweh says, which is a covenantal name of God in the Old Testament. Applied to Jesus.

He is present with his people to Matthew 1.21 to save his people from their sins. The great deliverer of Exodus, the great pursuer of Hosea is Jesus, Yahweh says, and he's come to save their people, his people, from their sins. Matthew 1:21. Astounding. Matthew says that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, present in saving action among his people.

Just as you read the book of Exodus, over and over and over in the book of Exodus, God's presence is always seen in saving action, the pillar of fire, the cloud. Everywhere he goes, his presence is with the people, saving them. Rescuing them. And Matthew says, Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, present in saving action among his people. Listen to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, in the book that we're studying.

Paul says that Christ has become to us wisdom from God. Christ is the wise man. He fulfills the office of wise man from the Old Testament. If you've ever wondered where is the gospel in the book of Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, all the wisdom literature, it's right here, Jesus. He's the only one who has ever lived a perfectly wise life, which is moral conformity.

To the will of God, the law of God. That's wisdom. Wisdom is not this practical advice. Read a proverb every day, you'll be more successful in your job. It's not what the book of Proverbs is about in Scripture.

Jesus has become to us wisdom from God. He fulfills the office of the wise man of the Old Testament. It's all about him. Jesus has become to us righteousness and sanctification, and listen, redemption. There it is.

It's right there. Listen to Titus 2, verse 14, which we'll come to shortly. Jesus gave Himself to redeem us.

Sound familiar?

To redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession. Why?

So that they'll be zealous, passionate to do good works, responsibility. There it is. Here's the fulfillment. Listen to 1 Peter 2, verse 9. But this is all from the Old Testament.

You're a chosen race.

Well, I thought Israel was.

Well, you're Israel. You're a chosen race.

You're a royal priesthood.

Well, I thought the Levites, no, you. are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation, the church. You are a people for his own possession. God owns you because Jesus purchased you.

Why are we purchased and owned by God? Listen, so that you might proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness, that's redemptive. into his marvelous light. That's the promised land. That's the place of God's dwelling.

That's the presence of God amongst his people. Clearly, the purpose of God's acts of redemption is to possess his people and for his people to be in submission to the one who has redeemed him, not out of duty, but listen, out of pure gratitude. Pure gratitude. Possession implies responsibility and not license. And Paul's point, and here in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20, is to tell us that because Christ has bought us, we have become his rightful possession.

And so here's how we can paraphrase it. By virtue of his death, Christ purchased you for God, which means that your bodies are included in this purchase. And so you're not your own. Your bodies are now God's possession by right of divine purchase. Therefore, the implication is you are not free to engage in unrestrained sexual license.

God owns you. Because you belong to him, body and soul. And because you have this privileged status of a heavenly father now who's Serve you in grace. Your body is a sacred temple of the Holy Spirit, and you're to be zealous to carry out your Father's will. and purpose for your life which is flee Avoid, keep away from all sexual immorality.

and glorify God in your body. That's what Paul's arguing here.

So, your body is God's lawful possession by a double right: habitation and redemption. And so the only logical conclusion is this. You stay away from everything that is impure and you use your body to do everything that honors him. Glorifies him. Let me ask you a couple questions as we finish.

Do you know that you are God's temple? Do you know this? Do you know that the Holy Spirit indwells you, and you are God's habitation? That the presence of God is in you, practicing, learning to practice. We'll come back to this next week: learning to practice the presence of God.

comes through a self-conscious acknowledgement of the gospel and its implications for your life. Do you know that your body is not your own? You don't own your body. You don't have the freedom to do whatever you want to. You're possessed by God.

God has the title deed to your body. You don't have that. Jesus has paid the ultimate price in satisfying the judgment and justice of God and the law's requirements. And because of this, your body is God's purchased property, and you can't do whatever you desire anymore. You have to live.

and submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Do you live with this self-conscious acknowledgement that God owns you? Do you wake up every single morning saying, I am the... dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. I'm a sacred temple.

Purchased by divine right through the redemption of Jesus Christ, who is my only one in sacrifice for my sin. I want to do everything today to honor him with my body and my spirit. Is that how you think? Paul's saying, if you want to pursue sexual purity, that is exactly how you begin to live your life as a Christian, to keep the gospel paramount, gospel-driven sanctification. Thanks again for listening to the Him We Proclaim podcast.

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