Sermon Tone Analysis

I CORINTHIANS 6:12-20  

"What To Do With Your Body."

           I.

The Elevation Of The Body

              A.

The Limits Of The Elevation Of The Body

              B.

The Logic Of The Elevation Of The Body

 

          II.

The Desecration Of The Body

 

         III.

The Consecration Of The Body

              A.

By God The Father In Resurrection

              B.

By God The Son In Redemption

              C.

By God The Holy Spirit In Residence

 

             Every aspect of your life is touched upon by the salvation experience.

Now when we think about salvation as it relates to the body I am aware of the fact that there is a great deal of misunderstanding and really failure to know that this is indeed true.

A lot of people think they're saved, that means their soul is going to heaven when they die, and it really doesn't matter how they live and what they do with their body.

Now there's a little background that Paul is dealing with here in the verses we're going to study tonight.

In Greek society, to whom Paul was writing in Corinth, the Greeks looked upon the body as a worthless thing.

They believed that the soul had value but they placed no value whatsoever upon the human body.

So because the Greeks looked upon the body as of little worth there were two extremes to which Greek culture would go.

Some would go to the extreme of estheticism and they would deny the body, and they would afflict the body, and they would starve the body.

There were others who would go to the extreme of license; they would say because the body was of no value and because it was insignificant that it really didn't matter what you did in the body, that that wasn't really you, that your soul is what counted and therefore what you did with your body was really inconsequential.

Now because of this then sexual immorality was rationalized and excused.

They did not look upon sexual immorality as a sin at all, it was something that was engaged in with the body, it was something that had to do with the physical nature of man and therefore had no moral import at all.

Now evidently Paul is dealing with Corinthian believers who have been saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and yet they are still caught up in the Greek philosophy concerning the human body, they have bought the culture of their times, they have bought the philosophy of the time, and therefore, though they know Christ as their Savior, they minimize the importance of their body and they rationalize sexual sin.

I believe we are in the same atmosphere in the 20th Century.

I believe that there are many people who have received Jesus as their personal Savior but they do not understand that the salvation experience touches upon the use of the human body.

Now we're living in a day when the human body is quite much in the news.

We see the misuse of the human body on every hand.

On television the human body is indecently displayed, pornography has become a billion-dollar business misusing the human body, all around us we are in a society where the human body is looked upon merely as something that has a physical dimension and there is no understanding whatsoever of the spiritual importance of the human body.

So what I want us to do tonight is to just see how the salvation experience touches upon what you do with your body.

I'm not going to ask you to turn but I want to just read for you a couple of verses of scripture that will put our minds in the direction I want to go tonight.

The apostle Paul, in the book of Romans, writes about the purpose of the human body and its salvation experience and here is what he says in Romans chapter 6, verses 12 and 13; he says...

     12.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Now listen to this...

     13.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Now in that passage of scripture he's just simply saying that before a person is saved the members of his human body are instruments of sin; now that a person is saved then the members of the human body are to be instruments of righteousness serving God.

I think this is what Paul meant in Philippians chapter 1, verse 20, where Paul says that Christ might be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death.

You see, I am to use my body as an instrument, I am to use my body as a vehicle to bring glory and honor and praise and adoration to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm going to deal tonight with the human body as it relates to the salvation experience and I will touch on some very delicate areas in the matter of sex.

There are some in the service tonight who may snicker, there are others who may be a little bit embarrassed, I'm going to try to handle the subject very delicately.

I don't know about you but personally there's just been a little too much said about sex in our society anyhow.

I think we're almost becoming satiated with the subject in our society and I do not believe that the pulpit is the place to sensationalize the subject, but when we come to the teachings of the scripture it's my responsibility to share with you, from the scriptures, what God has to say about sex and about the human body as it relates to the salvation experience.

I have several things I want to lay on your heart tonight.

First of all I want to talk a little bit about the elevation of the body, because what Paul does in these verses is elevate the human body and show us the wonder and the splendor and the glory of the human body.

You see, Jesus suffered for our sins in His body, at salvation our body is joined to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, the moment you're saved the Bible says that your body becomes a member of Christ, you are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ.

What a glorious elevation is this of our body.

These bodies of ours are elevated from dust to deity, we are now identified with the Lord Jesus Christ.

But now we must of course understand the limitations of this elevation.

Look at verse 12.

In verse 12 it begins by saying all things are lawful unto me.

I think if you'll take that statement right there and put it in quotations you'll understand it a little better.

Evidently what is taking place is this: Paul had made this statement when he was preaching there and when he was teaching the people.

He had probably taught them about their liberty in Jesus; the fact that in Christ they had a brand new liberty.

So evidently he had made the statement all things are lawful unto me but, as sometimes people do, they had misused that statement of Paul, they had taken that statement and they had abused it, they had gone to lengths to which Paul was not intending for it to go.

So he quotes himself and then he gives an answer.

All things are lawful unto me, yes, he says, but all things are not expedient.

That is, all things are not profitable, all things are not helpful.

You see, there are limits to our liberty in Jesus.

The liberty you and I have in Christ is not license to disobey the will of God, there are limits upon our liberty.

I am free in Christ not to do what I want but to do what Jesus wants.

I am free in Christ not to do as I want but to do as I ought.

So that's why Paul says in the book of Galatians use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh.

All things are lawful, he says, but all things are not profitable unto me.

And then the second time in verse 12, all things are lawful unto me, yet he says, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

And what he's simply saying there is I must never allow the liberty I have in Christ to cause me to be a slave to any physical, bodily appetite.

In other words I must not allow any habit to have dominion over my life.

You see, as a believer now I have freedom in Christ but I am not to allow that freedom to cause me to be shackled by some habit.

You see, that's the danger of things in your life that can get a hold of you.

Sometimes people get addicted to tobacco and that becomes a slave in their life.

I don't think a person will go to hell for using tobacco, I don't believe it'll send a person to hell, it'll just make you smell like you've been there.

But, you see, you ought not have any habit that takes control of your life.

So what he's saying is there are limits to this elevation of the body.

I will not be brought under the power of any.

So a believer needs to conduct a constant investigation of his life to see if there is anything that is getting a hold in him and getting habit-forming in his experience.

The limits of our liberty, the limits of this elevation.

But then I want you to notice the logic of the elevation of the body.

And I believe in verse 13 if you'll put that first statement in quotes you'll get it clearer too.

Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats.

I think if you'll put that in quotes you will have one of the arguments that was being used in that day to excuse sexual immorality.

Meats for the belly, the belly for meats.

Let's put it in our terms today: food for the stomach, the stomach for the food.

I believe Paul is just simply repeating one of the arguments that was used in that day to justify sexual immorality.

The argument went like this, here's the way they would argue: they would say didn't God make food?

And the answer is yes.

Well, didn't God make the stomach with a desire to eat?

And the answer is yes.

Therefore if God made food and if God made the desire to eat it is only natural to satisfy that desire to eat.

But, you see, they didn't stop there, they also then went into the area of sex and they would say, did not God make sex?

And the answer is yes.

Well did God not give man the desire for sex?

And the answer is yes.

Therefore, they would say, it is only natural for a person to fulfill the desire for sex.

Now, friend, that is about as current and up-to-date as anything you will find in the Bible.