1 Corinthians 6: 12-20

12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members o f a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 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, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Introduction
What do we think about sex? The world that we live in is very confused in this area. Corinth was the number 1 sex city of the world in the first century; perhaps it's Bangkok for South East Asia, San Francisco in America, Amsterdam in Europe, or Sydney in Australia. We do live in sex-mad city, in a sex-mad world, where you could have sex of any kind, with anyone, for any price. Wherever we go, sexual temptation is all around us. Will we as Christians influence the world, or the world influenced the church? And so in 1 Corinthians, quite obviously, the world was still influencing the church. For example, in 1 Corinthians Chapter 5, Paul wrote about a man who had his father's wife, which means in sex, but the church was saying and doing nothing about this terrible sin in their fellowship in their church. Quite obviously, the world was influencing the church.

Why we should be sexually pure?
Paul as Jesus Spoke-person, wrote on God's behalf, has given us 4 reasons why we should be sexually pure and should live a holy life.

1) The redemption reason
1 Corinthians 6: 13 and 19 repeatedly said "you were bought at a price" because Christ died for our body! How do you know how much something is worth? We know how much something is worth by how much we are willing to pay for it. We people do not know the value of something; we only know the value of something by what God is willing to pay for it. Paul tells us that God paid the price of His son. Therefore, we have no right to use, misuse and abuse our body in anyway we like.

2) The resurrection reason
1 Corinthians 6: 14 said “Christ rose for the body”. What do you think will last on earth and will go on forever? Paul tells us the only thing that will go on forever is God, Father Son Holy Spirit, and the heavenly being that He has created, who are holy before him. And we, Christians, church, believers, who have been washed by the blood of Jesus, will be resurrected with new body when He returns.

3) The creation reason
1 Corinthians 6: 15 said “God made this body”. There is a link between the creation and the new creation that Jesus has come so lovingly, so sacrificially to purchase for us by His death on the cross.

4) The sanctification reason
1 Corinthians 6: 19 part 2 said “the Spirit live in this body”. Our body mysteriously but truly is a temple of God, temple of the Holy Spirit of God.

Thus, these are the 4 reasons why we should live our body in a pure way, and why we shouldn't misuse and abuse our body.

Applications
What is Paul's saying in conclusion? We should glorify God with our body! What does it mean in terms of sexual purity? He actually said it earlier in Chapter 6: 18, that is "Flee Sexual immorality". When it comes to our temptation to sexual immorality, we must flee! This is the same language God gives to Israelite. The New Testament church, like the Old Testament church must never deli dely with sexual sin. We must NOT DELAY in dealing things. So, are you dragging your feet? Or, are you fondling sexual sin in some shape and form?

By taking Jesus and the Gospel seriously, we must flee from every form and all forms of sexual immorality. By believing in Jesus, we have no more right, and no more time to use our body any way we want. For the world, they believe that we have equal right to use our body in anyway we want to. With Jesus who came to the world, God has put us on notice that we have no more right and no more time to misuse, to abuse our body especially in terms of sexual impurity, immorality anyway we want.

Self Reflection
So, are you dragging your feet to pornography? How many times have you turned on to website and looked at things your eyes shouldn't have looked at? Long for person your heart has no right to have, no right to long for and feel things that you and I have no right to feel? The Lord Jesus says to us: we now rightly belong to Him. He died for the body; He rose for the body; He poured His Spirit out for this body! May we listen to Him and be so empowered to live sexually pure life for our good, for His glory. Amen!