Your Body is Sacred, Part 2

Hi, this is the Hume Proclaim podcast, season 7. What would we do every day without some reminders on our calendar or phone, right?

Sometimes reminders are exciting, and sometimes reminders are, well, a little bit of a burden and have a way of making us feel inadequate because we need to change some habits or don't have time, capacity, or resources.

Well, our hope today is that this message will fall into the former category for you and be a fresh gospel reminder: our bodies are sacred. We are in a close relationship with Christ, and we need to be reminded to flee sexual immorality. 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 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. All right, here's message number seven called Your Body is Sacred, Part Two.

Okay, go ahead and take your Bible. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. We're going to start looking at verses 18 to 20. We'll finish verses 18 to 20 next week.

Let me just set the context for you. You know what the Apostle Paul is teaching us here? In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 through 20, Paul is asking the Corinthians four questions. And each of these four questions begins with this phrase he says to them: Do you not know?

Now, each of those questions, do you not know, is actually functioning as a rebuke. And what you're seeing is the exasperation. of the Apostle Paul with the immoral behavior of the Corinthian church. He's utterly exasperated. And literally, you can hear Paul going, It's like my son says all the time when I tell him to do something and I have to punish him for it because it's very disrespectful.

But he's learning. All kids learn. Go take out the trash when it's raining. Seriously? Yes, and then go to your room, and I'll deal with that later.

You can almost hear the Apostle Paul looking at these immoral Corinthians, going, seriously? Don't you know? Do you not know? What is it that they don't know? And what is it that the Apostle Paul is utterly exasperated about, trying to get them to come to know?

This is what it is. The problem with the Corinthians in regard to their sexually immoral behavior with temple prostitution. Was that they didn't listen, they did not know the gospel. And they did not know the implications of the gospel for their lives in regard to sexual immorality. keeping the seventh commandment.

Following and fulfilling the sexual ethic of the kingdom of God, which Jesus lays out. Clearly, in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 through 7, which Paul hints at back in chapter 6, verses 9-11. And so, what Paul is doing is, he is responding to the Corinthians' unrestrained license. And he's seeking to reintroduce these Corinthians to the gospel. And to the implication of the gospel, which alone has the power to motivate a believer, look at verse 18, to flee sexual immorality in verse 20 to glorify God with their body.

Very quickly, in verses 9 through 11, what Paul does first is what we've seen, he takes up the theme of the kingdom of God. And he applies the kingdom of God to the kingdom of God. To the problem of sexual immorality in the church. And he says to the Corinthians, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? And then he says, But you are righteous and will inherit it, and here's why.

Because you have been regenerated, washed. That's how you enter the kingdom of God. He says, you have been sanctified. That's definitive sanctification, the doctrine of election. God has chosen you and set you apart for himself to belong to him, which is the essence of the covenant relationship with God, is to belong to him, which Paul is now teaching us in verses 12 to 20.

And then he says, and you've been justified. No man can enter the kingdom of God unless they are perfectly righteous. And through justification, we are declared not only listen as forgiven and no longer not guilty, but also. Through the imputed righteousness of Christ, reckoned by God the Father because of Christ as a perfect lawkeeper. That's justification.

And then he says, you have this inheritance in the kingdom of God, and then inheritance, guess what that implies? Paul is referring and directing the church to the doctrine of adoption, the highest privilege of the gospel, to be a son and daughter of the living God, adopted in his kingdom. He says you belong to the kingdom, but your problem is you don't know this, and you don't know who you are, and you don't know the implications of all of that gospel truth. Therefore, let me warn you. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And the consummation of God's kingdom when Jesus returns and the resurrection, they won't be there. Second, he says in verses 12 to 14, Do you not know that your bodies belong to Christ because you are destined for resurrection? The Corinthian church is more influenced by Greek dualism. Then there were the gospel and its implications for their life. And so they were saying, well, the body doesn't matter.

Food's for the stomach, stomach for the food. Sexual organs are for sex, sex for sexual organs, doesn't matter. God's going to destroy both one day because the body doesn't matter. What matters is the immaterial part of man. We can do whatever we want on restrained license.

And Paul says, no, you don't know the gospel. If you understood the crowning good news of the gospel, which is in 1 Corinthians 15, which he directs them to later in this letter. Devotes a whole chapter to the doctrine of resurrection. He says, If you understood the crowning good news of the gospel, which is the hinge by which the whole gospel turns, resurrection, you would never say the body is not important. Because Christ's resurrection and your resurrection, because you're united to Christ, validates the moral importance of the body.

And by implication, the body definitely matters. And so he teaches the whole doctrine of resurrection to motivate the pursuit of sexual purity. And then in verses 15 to 17, he comes and he says this. He says, do you not know that your bodies belong to Christ because they are in union with Jesus? He appeals to the doctrine of union with Christ, which is the core doctrine of the Christian faith.

Union with Christ, verses 15 to 17, Paul says that there's this sacred bond between Jesus and the believer. And he says this bond in verses 15 to 17 is so close.

So closely are you united to Jesus himself by the power of the Holy Spirit that every act you do as a Christian involves Jesus in that act. And when you apply that to sexual immorality, Paul's saying, would you join Christ? and his body to that which is impure, undefiled, and unholy. And in the context, Paul is saying to the Corinthian men, some of them in the church, would you join Christ to a prostitute's body in a temple? And Paul says: every time a believer commits any type of act of sexual immorality, you are dishonoring.

The body of Jesus Himself, because you're so united to Him. That's just incredibly powerful, isn't it? I mean, and Paul's point is when it comes, if you're living, listen, if you are living in a self- Conscious reality that you are so united to Jesus in a sacred bond that whatever you do in your body, you make Jesus do. You would never. Commit.

any form of sexual immorality. You would never do that to Jesus. And this brings us to the fourth question in verses 18 to 20, which is really Paul's third rebuttal or his third argument against the Corinthian slogans. We're going to come back to that in a minute. But in verses 15 to 17, Paul shows that we're not only legally united to Jesus.

But we're also vitally united to Jesus. And this vital union he talks about in verses 18 to 20. And here's the point. Let me give you the point. We'll read the text, and we're just going to jump into it and go as far as we can today.

Paul says basically in verses 18 to 20, he's saying to the Corinthians, Do you not know? that your bodies belong to God because they are God's rightful possession. Your bodies belong to God because they're destined for resurrection. Your bodies belong to God because they are united to Christ. And now your bodies belong to God because they are God's rightful possession.

And so look what Paul says. He says this: look at verse 18: flee sexual immorality. That's the imperative, that's the law. Every sin a person commits is outside of the body. But The sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

And here's why. Or 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. Why? For you were bought, redeemed from the slave market.

This is redemption term. With a price.

So what is the conclusion?

So glorify God. in your body.

Now throughout verses 12 to 20, Paul has been confronting and correcting the Corinthians' erroneous theological slogans that they were throwing around in the church to justify engaging in rather than fleeing from sexual immorality. Those slogans we've looked at are in verses 12-13, and the last slogan is here in verse 18. And Paul is confronting this last slogan that the Corinthians were using to justify sexual immorality, which in this context is visiting temple prostitutes. And let me just help you understand how his dialogue with the Corinthians is unfolding in verses 18 to 20, and this will help you understand what the argument is that he's making.

So here's how it goes. Paul's command is this: flee sexual immorality. The Corinthian slogan, which was used as a theological objection to Paul. to engage in rather than flee sexual immorality comes after his command. And they were saying, but why, Paul?

Why flee sexual immorality? The body doesn't matter. Because every sin a person commits is outside of the body.

So Paul replies But The sexually immoral person sins against his own body. And then Paul gives proof of this. By directing the Corinthians to the gospel, and to the fruit of the gospel, which is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. And he says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you? That's the vital union.

That is the fruit of the gospel. That is what happens because of the work of Christ for us. The work of Christ is now in us by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, vital union. He says, you don't know this. You've received this from God.

It is a gift. It is not earned, merited. It is a precious gift. He says, but you don't know that you're not your own. Why?

And then he refers to the gospel itself, to the doctrine of redemption, substitutionary atonement, which accomplished redemption, which was the buying out of slaves in his day from the slave market. And Paul says, you were a slave under sin, in bondage to sin, under the law of God, guilty, and Jesus through the cross has redeemed you out of that. You're not your own. You've been purchased at a high price. And so he says, so here's the conclusion, Corinthians.

Your body matters, and what you do with your body matters.

So glorify God in your body. And that's the argument that Paul is giving here.

So we're just going to take the next two weeks and just unpack this whole argument because it is utterly breathtaking. I've sat there this week and looked at this first point about the Holy Spirit as a habitation making us into temples, and it's utterly astounding. And I can't wait to share it with you this morning.

So here we go. Paul says in verses 15 to 17 that when the believer commits sexual immorality, he sins against Christ's body. He dishonored and defiles Christ's body. In verses 18 to 20, Paul says that when the believer commits sexual sin, he sins against his or her own body. Great damage is done not only against Christ's body, but also the believer's body individually and the body of Christ corporately.

That's 1 Corinthians chapter 5. And so Paul gives proof of how tragic such damage is in verses 19 and 20 by showing that the believer's body belongs to God as God's rightful possession. Listen. By a double right. First, by habitation, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and second, by redemption, the work of Christ on the cross to redeem sinners to belong to himself.

And so Paul issues this moral imperative that believers must follow. You have no choice in this. This is not a suggestion. This is what is a divine apostolic imperative. You have to do this.

The question is how? The command flee sexual immorality, it means to avoid something that has potential danger. And Paul's already shown in verse 12 that there is great damage and danger from this type of sin. And it's also in the present tense, which means keep on daily, day after day after day in your life. Staying away, shunning, avoiding is how you could translate it.

Keep away from all forms of sexual immorality. The question is, how do you do that in a sex-obsessed culture where daily you are bombarded with continual sexual temptations, just like in ancient Corinth? How is that possible? It is possible. And Paul's going to show us how it's possible.

For Paul, the law flee sexual immorality is not the final word. God's final word in Scripture is not just do, do, do, do, do. He gives the gospel, which then enables you to do what the law requires. And so, what does Paul do? To motivate the believer to obey, flee from sexual immorality, which is simply.

When he says flee sexual immorality, you know what he's doing? He's teaching you how to keep the seventh commandment. He's referring to the seventh commandment. He's referring to Jesus' exposition of the seventh commandment in the Sermon on the Mount, the sexual ethic of the kingdom of God. Because he's already told you in verses 9 through 11 that all of his arguments is all about kingdom living.

How do you motivate a believer to keep the law, to obey, to pursue sexual purity? It's not rocket science. He sets forth one more gospel-centered argument. Are you surprised? There's nothing else that's going to motivate you to keep the law.

Nothing. Nothing to motivate, nothing less than to empower you to keep what God requires.

Now listen. He points you to the habitation of the Spirit and the redemption of Christ.

So let's look at the habitation of the Holy Spirit. You are temples of the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 19. He says, Corinthians, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? whom you have from God.

It is clear from the Corinthians' immoral behavior that they had not only forgotten the work of Christ for us, which is his redemption, which he'll come to at the end of verse 20. They had not only forgotten the gospel, Christ of work, for us, but they had forgotten the implication of the gospel, the fruit of the gospel, which is because of regeneration. They have now been made by virtue of regeneration temples of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the gospel, the Holy Spirit in us. working what Christ did for us now in us.

So this is Paul's point. If the Corinthians were self-consciously aware, listen. Of the cardinal implication of the gospel, which is this. The believer's body belongs to the Lord because it is now a sacred temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul says if you had that self-consciously Plastered on the front of your mind, if it was, listen, and I mean this, paramount.

If it was paramount in your mind, you would not give in to sexual immorality. It would move you and motivate you to flee sexual immorality, to keep God's law.

Now, the temple imagery would have been immediately meaningful to the Corinthians who were Gentiles, who lived in a city that was full of shrines and temples. Ancient Corinth had temples everywhere, they had shrines everywhere, the surrounding area was just filled with these temples and shrines. Let me give you an example. There was the Temple of Aphrodite, which is probably in the back of Paul's mind in this context. We'll come back to that.

There was the Temple of Poseidon. The Temple of Poseidon was the ruler of the sea in which Claire's entire commercial life depended. Praying to Poseidon to keep up their economy. There was the temple of Apollo, there was a temple of Hermes, there was a temple of Venus Fortuna, there was a temple of Isis, and if they missed any god, there was the Panthenon, which was a temple dedicated to all the gods. And there's many more we could mention.

I just wanted to give you a flavor because the Corinthians would immediately understand what Paul was talking about in their context. Listen to what William Barclay writes about the Temple of Aphrodite. He says, Above the isthmus towered the hill of the Acropolis. and on it stood the great temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. To that temple, there were attached priestesses who were sacred prostitutes, temple prostitutes.

And in the evenings these temple prostitutes descended from the Acropolis and they plied their trade upon the streets of Corinth until it became a Greek proverb. It is not every man who can afford a journey to Corinth. Prior to their conversion, many of the Corinthian men in the Corinthian church that Paul is addressing were accustomed to frequenting these temple prostitutes. And in Paul's day, to frequent a temple prostitute at the temple of Aphrodite was considered an act of consecration with the gods. And Paul's saying, that's not who you are.

That's not who you are. You're not consecration. You're not committing an act of consecration. You're committing an act of desecration. The problem that Paul is addressing is that these men, some of the Corinthian men in the church, We're continuing to argue for their right, unrestrained sexual license, verses 12 and 13: food for the stomach, stomach for the food, God's going to destroy the body.

Every sin the believer commits is outside the body all these Corinthian slogans to justify their moral behavior. He is addressing, they were arguing their right to continue participating in what was just a widespread socially acceptable immoral practice. It's perfectly socially acceptable to do this in Paul's day in Corinth. And you see, the gospel had not become paramount in some of these believers' hearts and peeled away the layers of their cultural sins and proclivities. And because of that, Paul says, do you not know?

Don't you know the gospel? Do you not understand the implications and the fruit of the gospel and your sacred holy temple of the Lord? You can see, and I wrote down a conversation that you might be able to think about, and Paul was. possibly speaking in the Corinthian church, and he's pointing to the direction of the Temple of Aphrodite, and maybe his sermon sounded like this to them. Do you not know that the temple of Aphrodite right over here is not where the presence of the living God dwells?

Temple prostitution would never dwell in the presence of the living God who is holy. Do you not know this, Corinth? Corinth, do you not know that there are not many gods as a pantheon suggests? It's right over here. You don't understand that?

Do you not understand that there is only one God, and He by His Holy Spirit dwells in you as a gift that you've received from the Father because of the work of the Son? Do you not know this? Do you not understand that the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit marks you off as God's people in Corinth? You are the only temple. And Clorinth.

God has one temple in Corinth, and Corinthians, you're it. And instead of consecrating the temple in Corinth, you are desecrating it. What are you doing? Do you not know? Are you beginning to see the apostles' exasperation with the Corinthians' immoral behavior?

This is his argument. He's already said back in chapter 3, verses 26 and 27, that the whole church corporately is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And you know what he's saying there? He's saying that when the whole church is gathered corporately like us, this morning. When we gather in Jesus' name corporately as a body of believers, Paul says in chapter 3 verses 26 and 27 that Jesus by the Holy Spirit is in the midst of his people.

This is the dwelling temple. This is the dwelling place of God. the living God corporately. And he issues this stern warning. He says, any person who would destroy God's temple, God would destroy him.

You don't think the living God takes his holy presence seriously among his people? You try to tag God's church and it will cost you your life. In chapter 5, Paul says the exact same thing when he confronts a sinning man in Corinth who was guilty of sexual incest. And he says, Jesus in chapter 5 is among you in power witnessing this. And he gives confirmation and validation to the church to remove this sinning member who is unrepentant from his midst because God's temple is holy and he will not admit desecration to his temple.

He says the same thing in Matthew chapter 18. Where two or three are gathered into my name, there are even the midst of them. And that whole context is church discipline. It is not a prayer meeting. It is Jesus standing as the judge of the universe giving affirmation to his body, if you are unrepentant in my church, I affirm what my church does by disciplining unrepentant sinning members of the church.

And Jesus puts his stamp of approval on that. The Corinthians became God's temple in Corinth when, at regeneration, chapter 6, verse 11, they were washed. But they had not self-consciously contemplated the implications of this truth, and instead, Paul says in chapter 5, they were arrogantly tolerating and living an unrestrained sexual license. You don't know the gospel, Corinth, and you do not understand its implications, or else you would not be arrogant and you would not tolerate such immoral behavior amongst yourselves.

Now, the temple imagery was not just familiar to the Corinthians as a Jew. Horrible. The temple imagery for Paul was exceedingly rich. It was rooted in the Old Testament scriptures and had deep, profound meaning and significance. And this is what I'm going to take you through for the rest of our time.

In a Jewish context, in Paul's mind. When you talked about temple imagery, A Jew would have immediately thought God in our midst. The dwelling place of God amongst his people.

So what I want to do is I'm going to go with you all the way back from Genesis chapter 2 and take you on a jet tour through the whole Bible all the way back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Because I want to show you what the Apostle Paul was thinking when he said, You are the temple of the Holy Spirit in Corinth. Or listen, you. Paramount Church are the temple of the Holy Spirit in Jacksonville, Florida. Why?

Let me show you why. And you're going to see it right here. In Genesis chapter 2, the Garden of Eden was the first dwelling place of God with his people. The Garden of Eden was adorned with the beauty as the Temple of God. It was the first true holy land and it anticipated Israel's tabernacle and later its temple as the place where God would dwell with his people.

But having broken God's covenant, Adam and Eve were banished from God's presence and sent out into bondage east of Eden. But God, who is a promise keeping and performing God, immediately promises, makes a covenant, the covenant keeping and promising God. He speaks a word of grace and gospel. In Genesis 3, 15, and he promises to once again dwell in the midst of his people through sending a Savior. Later, in partial fulfillment in the history of Israel, this initial promise that God makes in Genesis 3:15.

is partially fulfilled when God redeems his people from slavery into Egypt. And after redeeming his people from Egypt, he reveals his instructions to Moses in Exodus 25 through chapter 31, verse 11, to build a tabernacle. And then he leads Moses to write an inspired account of its detailed construction from Exodus 35 all the way to Exodus 40 verse 38. Here's why. Because the tabernacle was to serve as the Lord's temporary, listen, temporary dwelling place, as a copy and shadow of greater things to come.

It was a temporary dwelling place for God during Israel's 40-year wilderness journey and their first 300-plus years in the land of Canaan. But after the tabernacle error, The temple replaces the tabernacle. And incidentally, the tabernacle was referred to by several different names. It was called the sanctuary, and the sanctuary simply meant this, the place of the holy presence of God, Exodus 25, verse 8. It was also called the tent of meeting, Exodus 27:21, because this was the place where the Lord met with his people.

But following the tabernacle, the temple replaced the tabernacle. And in 2 Samuel chapter 7, David expresses a desire to build a house for God. But listen, God responds by telling David, you're not going to build a house for me, I'm going to build a house for you. Yeah. And this is the Davidic covenant.

This is the grace. This is the gospel in the Old Testament. Why would God do this? Why would God build a house for David? Why would David not build a house for the Lord, but listen, rather receive a house from the Lord?

Why? Because in Deuteronomy chapter 12, God says six times... He would choose the place where his name would dwell. And so God chose both the place and the builder, not David. And God makes this promise, the Davidic covenant.

He says in 2 Samuel 7 over and over and over: I will, I will, I will. Not you will, but I will. And he says, You will have a son, which is Solomon.

Solomon will build a temple, and on his throne it will be established forever. Endeavor.

Now Here we see this lesson of grace driven home in a powerful way about God's dwelling amongst his people. What is that? Listen very carefully. God's dwelling place amongst his people, his presence in the midst of his people, is a gift that God gives. It is not merit by which you work to build.

God's dwelling place will be a gift granted by grace that you receive. And this is what he's teaching David in the Davidic covenant and promises for the future people of God to come. And so the temple is to reside as the centerpiece within the promised land. And among other things, in 1 Kings 8, verses 41 to 43. The temple was to serve as a witness to Israel and all the nations that God dwells in the midst of his people.

So, when the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolized the presence of the Lord with his people, was brought into Jerusalem and into the temple. As soon as it was brought into the temple, 1 Kings chapter 8 says, The whole glory of the Lord filled the temple. Confirming God is in this place. But following the high point of Israel's history with the Davidic and the Solomonic temple era, the first temple. The nation plummets to destruction and they go into exile just as God had warned in the Mosaic covenant in Deuteronomy 28, 36 and following.

And so if you look in Ezekiel chapter 10 verse 18, Ezekiel the prophet tells us that God executes the worst of all the covenant curses promised in the Mosaic covenant, which was this. Listen carefully, Ezekiel 10 verse 18, that the glory and presence of the Lord will go out of the temple. There's nothing worse than losing the presence of the Lord. And so Ezekiel says that God's presence in Ezekiel 10 goes, listen, goes out the eastern gate of the temple. And you know why it says that?

Because it's typologically recalling back how Adam and Eve were banished out of the garden east. of Eden. Away from the presence of the Lord. And so 1 Samuel chapter 4, which refers to Ezekiel, it says that the temple was left Ichabod without glory.

Now, when God's people returned from captivity, they once again rebuilt the temple. You can see this in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, all the post-exilic prophets. Just read it in the Old Testament. And yet, when they rebuild this second temple, we see in these prophetic writings of the Old Testament that the second temple pales in resemblance to the former glory of the first temple. And not only that.

But along with the tabernacle and the first temple, the Old Testament is pointing us forward. To show us that all of this was simply a faint copy and shadow of the true temple that is to come.

So, after four hundred years of silence. God's presence totally gone. A remarkable thing happens, which nobody saw coming, and nobody would have ever said, Look, there's power, it's really happening, God's presence is here. Jesus. became a man and was born.

And in John chapter 1, verse 14, Jesus breaks. There is incarnation, 400 years of silence, and John says, listen carefully, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Do you know what the word dwelt in the Greek means that John uses here?

Because John uses a very intentional word here. Do you know what it means? It means that he, it literally means to pitch a tent. Jesus in the incarnation pitched his tent.

Well, where does that come from? Jewish mindset, Old Testament scriptures. Jesus tabernacled among us. John is unequivocally stating that Jesus is the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the temple. He will be God's presence in glory amongst the midst of his people.

In times past, God dwelled in temporary copies and shadows in the tabernacle and temple, which were only mere copies. It was never the reality, never to be brought back, because Jesus comes. God comes to dwell among us in the incarnate word, Jesus. And just as God's glory filled the temple when the ark was brought in, now when Jesus comes, John says, We have seen his glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And if you're wondering, well, where did I get this hermeneutic from? You're just making this up. Hebrews chapter 8, verse 5, and Hebrews 10, verse 1 says that the coming of Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament shadows for God's dwelling with his people both in the tabernacle. and later in the temple. This is how you read scripture.

Jesus on every page. And so all of this, listen. Thousands of years of redemptive history finds its fulfillment and culmination in the person and work of Jesus. And Paul now brings us to 1 Corinthians 6, and he says, Corinthians. Do you not know?

Do you not know Jesus? Jesus is the temple. And that he promised to send the Holy Spirit after he departs and after his ascension, where he was coronated as King and Lord of the universe, sitting at the right hand of the Father as both Lord and servant over his people. He disseminates the spoils of his victory through the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and he dwells with his people again, and he's in their midst. And now Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6: Because you are vitally and legally united to the temple, all that he is, and all that he has done, you now are.

You are the temple of God. And he dwells in your midst, in your body, and you. Belong to him, and so you cannot give yourself to temple prostitutes. You can't give yourself to pornography on the computer, you can't give yourself to just banal conversation at work about women who you work with because you are the living, dwelling presence of God amongst the world. God inhabits you, you are his temple.

Do you see this argument? Paul is just driving home this powerful, powerful point. Paramount church, Corinthian church, you are God's temple. You are the holy dwelling place of God. You cannot give yourself to this, so flee it.

Shun it. Avoid it. Do you see how you obey the law now? Dwell on it. Listen, as we close, listen, here's the point.

As we reflect on Paul's teaching that every believer is now a temple of the Holy Spirit by virtue of their union with Jesus and by virtue of the habitation of the gift of the Holy Spirit. What is the path to sexual purity? The path to sexual purity is paved. Listen. by self-consciously contemplating the implications of being the dwelling place of a holy God.

I promise you. You go home. and of self-consciously aware you are. That you are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. You will never look at pornography ever again.

Never. You would never ever entertain.

Well, maybe that adulterous affair will help me. Never will you cheat on your spouse again. Robert Murray-McShane says that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the greatest of all the privileges of a Christian. The Holy Spirit, God's empowering and purifying presence among his people. It is the source of gospel holiness.

Dwell on it. Chew on it. Let it be paramount in your mind. Let the Holy Spirit lead you to this reality. that the Holy Spirit, because you are indwelled by Him, you are a holy habitation of the eternal living God.

And when sexual and moral passion burns in your heart, The Holy Spirit, through a river of gospel love, will come flooding into your soul and quench every burning fire that you want to give into. Your body is a sacred shrine indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

So, what is our response? It's very simple. Seek. Uh you want a practical tip? Here it is.

So simple. Live with the self-conscious awareness that I am a sacred shrine. of the living God. And when you do that, Your life will clean up so quick. Your life would be a shining example of avoiding sexual immorality and glorifying God with your body.

You don't need anything else. And you say, well, I'm not like that. Then constantly pray for the grace of the Holy Spirit as we pray every week in this church for the grace of the Holy Spirit to increase the fruit of righteousness within me so that I can live a life pleasing. To God. And finally, I would just say this.

I know there's some of you here this morning that probably for the first time, this is the first time you've ever heard about a gospel-driven message that applies to sexual purity. And some of you are living in guilt for your failure. I mean, you know what's going to motivate you? Love. Not fear.

Let me just tell you this. If you want to live a holy life, Pray that the Holy Spirit From Romans chapter 5, verse 5. Will flood your heart with the love of God in Jesus Christ, and that you can meditate on His empowering presence in your life. And that will lead you to the greatest purity you could have ever imagined. Thanks again for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast.

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