Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20070408.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Corinthians: Discipling Believers With Very Sinful Backgrounds
III. Overcoming Moral Disorders In The Local Church
E. Subjecting All Life's Direction To Our Union With Our Risen Lord
(1 Corinthians 6:13-20)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

On this Easter Sunday morning, it is important that this sermon focus on Christ's resurrection, a cornerstone belief in our Christian faith. To achieve that goal, I often must prepare an "Interlude Sermon" that departs from our regular series of Sunday messages, so early last week, I began to peruse my Strong's Concordance regarding words like "resurrection", "raise", "raised" and "rise" to see what passage on Christ's resurrection God would have me use to address our needs.

Now, the spiritual needs we face are as great as they are varied:

(1) Several parents of different family units told me of their concerns over the direction in life that their children are taking. In fact, one parent was so bothered about what was happening to several of the children that I had to schedule a counseling session with the parent.

(2) I heard a guest last Thursday on the "Talk of Connecticut" radio show named Richard Land, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. He told how his new book, The Divided States of America shows the secular media has stirred up a "shouting match" between the religious right and the secular left, a furor that must settle down for our country to progress!

(4) Most of us recently received a flyer in the mail advertising the start of a "seeker friendly" church in Torrington, one patterned after Rick Warren's model that tries to appeal to non Christians by way of contemporary music and generically feel-good sermons!

Now, this kind of ministry is becoming more controversial even among evangelicals! In fact, a believer in our last Wednesday evening Prayer service was concerned enough about this work to pray that God would the work from doing unnecessary discipling damage in our area!



Well, as I perused my Strong's concordance for a direction from God on the passage to use in view of these and other related needs, I noticed that in the very NEXT passage we are set to study in our REGULAR trek through 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6:13-20, Paul supplies the correct FOCUS of the whole Christian LIFE that ADDRESSES these needs BASED on Christ's death and BODILY RESURRECTION!

So, we view that passage today . . .



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "What DIRECTION does Christ's resurrection offer for MY life with its MANY, GREAT needs THIS Easter Sunday?!"
  1. In correcting the view some Corinthians Christians had that they were free in Christ to commit fornication, Paul supported his stand by referring to the resurrection of Christ and believers, 6:13-14:
    1. Some Corinthian believers used the saying, "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats" to reason that just as God had made food to be eaten by a hungry body, so a believer could gratify his sexual drive by committing fornication, 1 Cor. 6:13a; Bib. Know. Com., N. T., p. 516.
    2. Yet, Paul quickly countered this idea and supported it with a reference to the raising of Christ and the believer from the dead, 6:13b-14.
  2. Paul then explained that a believer's UNION with CHRIST in His DEATH and RESURRECTION calls him to SUBMIT ALL of his CURRENT LIFE'S DIRECTION to GOD'S AGENDA FOR HIM:
    1. Paul disclosed that his stand against sexual immorality arose out of viewing the believer as being fully identified with Christ in His death and bodily resurrection from the dead, 1 Cor. 6:14; Romans 6:3-4.
    2. Because of this truth, the believer's spirit (1 Cor. 6:17) and body (6:14-15) are owned by God by way of the cross, 1 Cor. 6:20a, 19c.
    3. Hence, God has put the Holy Spirit in the believer's body and beside his spirit, making his body a temple of God for God's glory, 6:19.
    4. The believer is thus obligated to heed God's righteous will in ALL of his earthly physical conduct performed in his body , 1 Cor. 6:20b:
      1. Since the believer's body is owned and indwelt by God due to the believer's union with Christ in His death and resurrection, he is obligated not to indulge his lusts in food or immoral conduct, 6:13.
      2. Paul applied his point especially to the issue of immorality, 6:15ff:
        1. A believer's body is a member of "Christ", 6:15a, and the Greek term is Christos, meaning "Messiah," U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966 ed., p. 590; Arndt & Ging., A Grk.-Engl. Lex. of N. T., p. 895.
        2. As Paul was of a devout orthodox Hebrew Pharisee background (Philippians 3:5), taking what belonged to the holy Messiah and joining it to a prostitute was so awful to Paul that, stating the very idea led him to state an emphatic negation, cf. 1 Cor. 6:15!
        3. Paul recalled the Genesis 2:24 revelation that sexual union constituted a permanent relationship in God's eyes, making the joining of a member of the Messiah with a harlot in fornication a permanently appalling act, cf. 1 Corinthians 6:15, 16.
        4. Thus, Paul reacted to this terrible idea, stating a believer's spirit is permanently joined to Christ in contrast to such a sin, 6:17!
        5. Paul then urged the Corinthian believers to flee immorality as it is a unique sin against the body itself, 1 Corinthians 6:18!
        6. So emotionally caught up in his desire that his readers return to holiness in their sexual conduct, Paul, the past devout orthodox Hebrew Pharisee used the Greek particle, day rendered "indeed" with "glorify" in 1 Cor. 6:20 to write: "For ye are bought with a price [of Messiah's blood]: therefore, indeed glorify God in your body (and in your spirit) which is (are) God's." (Ibid., U. B. S. Greek N. T., p. 591 [the better Greek manuscripts do not include "and in your spirit" here (Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Com. on the Grk. N. T., p. 553), but 1 Cor. 6:17 indicates the believer's human spirit is joined to the Lord, so the application of Paul's call fits the spirit also); Ibid., Arndt & Ging., p. 177)
      3. Finally, Paul gave a wide, comprehensive application: a believer MUST heed God's will in ALL his life's DIRECTION, 6:19-20:
        1. The believer's spirit and body were purchased by God in the death and resurrection of Christ, 1 Cor. 6:20a, 14; Rom. 6:3-4.
        2. As the result, the believer is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, and he is thus God's temple for the purpose of glorifying God, 6:19.
        3. Thus, EVERY believer is OBLIGATED to glorify God in his BODY, or in ALL his life's acts and DIRECTION, 6:20b, 17.
  3. Of course, we believers ACCOMPLISH this glorification of God in EVERY area of living and in its DIRECTION by relying upon the indwelling Holy Spirit's power, cf. Rom. 8:11-12, 13; Gal . 5:16.
Application: (1) To receive eternal life, may we believe Christ died for our sins and rose again, 1 Cor. 11:1-11; John 3:16. (2) Since Jesus' death and resurrection led to God's OWNERSHIP of the believer's spirit and body, may we believers rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to SUBJECT all of life's ACTS and DIRECTION to the glory of God ALONE and NOT try to fulfill our OWN "agenda"!

Lesson: The believer's spirit and body are so identified by God with Christ in His death and resurrection that he is obliged to glorify Christ as God's property -- spirit and body -- all of his earthly life! In particular, he must avoid the UNBIBLICAL MISUSE of foods and sex in sexual immorality!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

God is applying this message rather pointedly (as follows):

(1) On His will for my own life, the Lord spoke loud and clear:

(a) On April 2, 2007, I read Tom Krattenmaker's article, "A passion for moderation" in USA TODAY that lamented, among other groups, the "excesses of destructive fundamentalism" and their atheistic foes. He praised "moderates", or "Mainstream Episcopalians, Methodists, Catholics and the like" for their "compassionate and constructive form of faith that has much to offer our fractured world."

By the author's words, he revealed the "fundamentalists" he critiqued hold to errant legalism and Calvinist reconstructionism in trying to "reclaim America for Christ'" (Opposite this, 1 Peter 2:13-17 calls us to submit to civil rule, not to dominate it as in a theocracy!).

Yet, in seeking a solution, though he "specializes in religion in public life" as "a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors", the author sabotages his own effort: the "moderates" he praises extol "inclusiveness, reasonable tones and subtlety of the ecumenical middle" whom he concedes "don't put stock in the Bible", the biggest objection "fundamentalists" of "moderates"! Then, further harming the author's effort for a solution is a complaint by atheists that he cites, the complaint that "moderates enable . . . fundamentalism . . . [in] not taking Scripture all that seriously'"! So, by promoting "moderates", the author hopelessly paints himself into a theological corner!

The deep spiritual darkness in our world that is so evident from this article led me to see anew the crying need for Bible exposition that ACCURATELY corrects "Fundamentalists" so that "moderates" and atheists might see God's truth that leads to salvation and peace!

(b) After last Sunday's service, a believer told me he valued the sermon's expose of the errant ways legalistic believers hurt the discipling process! I again saw the need to expound Scripture well!

(c) Then, all last week, I was bombarded with radio talk shows or discussions with believers about errant religious thinking!

So, in view of these things, I yield ANEW to God's call that I KEEP expounding Scripture at Nepaug to voice BIBLE truth!

(2) Now, how about YOU?! After all, GOD OWNS ALL of us believers via the CROSS, and Jesus AROSE and the Holy Spirit INDWELLS us so that we NOT "do our own thing" with our lives, but glorify GOD in doing HIS will! Will YOU yield to God's will?!