[0:00] Hebrews and chapter 10, if you'd like to turn there for a moment, Hebrews and chapter 10, it's page 1208, it's part of this wonderful way in which the writer of Hebrews is speaking about the perfection of Jesus' sacrifice, comparing it to that of the Old Testament priests and the Old Testament sacrifices, showing that Jesus' sacrifice was the only one that brings real forgiveness and the only one that really counts, and he compares it from verse 11, so Hebrews 10 and verse 11, we'll read from there and then we get to his conclusion which is really what we're about this evening. So he breaks in verse 11, day after day every priest, that's the Old Testament priest, stands and performs his religious duties, again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins, but when this priest, speaking of Jesus the great high priest, when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, in other words to be brought under his complete authority, for by one sacrifice he, Jesus, has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
[1:18] The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says, this is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I'll put my laws in their hearts, I will write them on their minds. Then he adds, their sins and lawless acts I'll remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. Therefore, okay, so this is because Jesus has died for our sins sins and removed them from us. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way open for us through the curtain that is his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God. With a sincere heart, with a full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, having our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. So the end result of knowing that Christ has taken our sins is this, that we come to God with confidence, assurance, and with unswerving faith.
[2:41] Let us draw near and farther Abba, farther Christ. Let's do that in prayer. We'll do what we've done from time to time. I'll lead in prayer and then two or three others please lead us in prayer as we draw near to God, particularly with our minds focused upon the things we've sung and we've read from God's Father. Let us pray together.
[3:06] Oh almighty and all gracious God in heaven, we thank you that we can come this evening as those who know the joy of sins forgiven.
[3:17] We thank you that we can come into the very presence of the living and holy God. Yes, with a sense of awe and wonder, but not with fear, not with trembling, not with that shadow hanging over us which is the law, not with that sense of anxiety that you might turn us away.
[3:38] But we thank you that we have been encouraged and exhorted in your word and in song to come and draw near to you as your children. And Lord, we ask that we might do that now.
[3:49] We might bring our praise on prayer and worship to you now. that we might bring to you again the outpouring of our hearts, hearts which have received of your love, hearts which are born anew of your spirit, hearts, oh Lord, which have felt the cleansing blood of Christ.
[4:05] So Lord, be with us, draw near to us, and grant us the grace to draw near to you. For we ask these things in the name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
[4:16] Amen. Let's get to the name of your Son, in the name of your Son, in the name of your Son, in the name of your Son, in the name of your Son, where we left off last Sunday night, making our way through this letter of the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth.
[4:38] The church which we've seen is just like our church, full of problem people, sinners who get it wrong, but those who, we read, have been saved, and washed, and sanctified.
[4:56] Verse 11 there of chapter 6, but we'll read from verse 9, anyway, we'll read from verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 6, and go through to the end of the chapter, particularly be looking at verses 12 to 20, this evening, with the Lord's help.
[5:10] Or do you not know, verse 9, that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
[5:35] And that is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.
[5:49] I have the right to do anything, you say, but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but I will not be mastered by anything.
[6:02] You say, food for the stomach, and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both. The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
[6:19] By his power, God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?
[6:31] Shall I then take the members of Christ, and unite them with a prostitute? Never. Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute, is one with her in body?
[6:43] For it is said, the two will become one flesh. But whoever is united with the Lord, is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality.
[6:54] All other sins a person commits, are outside the body. But whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
[7:12] You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God, with your bodies. May the Lord help us to heed and to obey his word.
[7:31] So please turn back then to 1 Corinthians and to chapter 6 and that second half of the passage that we read just a few moments ago.
[7:44] I don't know if you've got any eccentric members of your family, but I wanted you to imagine for a moment that you have an eccentric, rich member of the family.
[7:59] They're the best ones, aren't they, really? If we had any of them, they would be great. But I wanted you to imagine that you go to visit this relative of yours, this eccentric, rich member of the family, and as you approach their mansion, their house, whatever, you see that they're loading sacks of coal on the back seat of their Rolls Royce.
[8:19] This is a bit strange. And then they invite you into the house and it's a bit of a chilly day so they light the fire and they've used to light the fire rolled up bunches of 50 pound notes to get the fire started.
[8:35] And you begin to think this is a little bit odder than usual. and then they invite you to have a game with them or frisbee and they take the 17th century porcelain Queen Mary or Queen Anne crockery off the top of the shelf and they start throwing it to you to catch.
[8:59] And after that they say, well let's have a cup of tea and coffee and they take down from the wall the Monet and the Rembrandt paintings that they have and they put them on the table and invite you to use them as coasters for your mugs of tea and coffee.
[9:12] Now, what would you say to that sort of behaviour? They might say of course, well these things all belong to me. They're mine. I can do with them whatever I like.
[9:24] Nobody can tell me otherwise. But possibly you might be able to say to them, well, something like this. Everything is permissible for you, but not everything is beneficial.
[9:40] These items are far too valuable to be used like this because you're destroying them. Precious, valuable items.
[9:53] In this passage that we have before us, we find Paul using that sort of language to describe how we use or abuse our physical bodies.
[10:05] See, your body is a matter of real value. It is something which is irreplaceable. It is something that God has given to you on loan for you to care for and to be looked after.
[10:20] Your body is not something to be damaged through misuse. Instead, it is to be put to the purpose for which it was created. And Paul picks this up halfway through.
[10:33] The body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body. Verse 13. This is how Paul begins to address another issue in the church in Corinth.
[10:48] They had, as we've seen already, very mixed up, eccentric, strange views of church unity, of church leaders, of their rights, as it were, to take one another to court.
[11:08] And here Paul begins a section which has a lot to say about the physical aspects of how we live and the practical use of our bodies, particularly in relation to sexual practices.
[11:27] Now, in our day and age, of course, there's an obsession about the body, isn't there? The physical body. We live in a day where almost the unforgivable sin is not to eat healthily.
[11:40] You can do whatever else you like, but if you have three spoons of sugar in your coffee, you're an awful, terrible person. Or in fact, though I don't like smoking, smoking has become the worst sin in the world to be explained in public.
[11:59] We live in a world where body, health, outward appearance, these are the things which are the religion of our day.
[12:11] There's a song from the musical 42nd Street which goes like this, some of you will know, keep young and beautiful. It's your duty to be beautiful. Keep young and beautiful if you want to be loved.
[12:23] That's almost the mantra, isn't it, of our generation in the 21st century. Keep young, beautiful. From those anti-aging creams that you ladies are bombarded with and we are as well now, aren't we?
[12:34] Do you see that, men? We have actually anti-aging creams for men. I think I've given up on that a long time ago. From plastic surgery to nips and tucks and largements reductions from healthy eating, yes, and the obsession with almost everything that we eat and put into our mouths to zumba classes.
[12:52] There's a zeal about worshipping the body. And yet, how strange it is that in our present society there's an ever-increasing misuse of the body and abuse of the body.
[13:07] And particularly, as Paul points out here, the misuse of the body in sexual sin. All sexual activity, sorry, all sinful activity is dangerous and damaging to the body and soul.
[13:22] But sexual immorality, the misuse of the gift that God gives to a husband and wife is particularly damaging. Look what he says in verse 18, flee from sexual immorality.
[13:34] All other sins a person commits outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body. Now, when Paul brings this rebuke to them as he speaks to them, as he has done here already, they have a sort of a little rhyme, we can put it that way.
[13:52] There's a saying, the popular phrase of the day, the acceptable phrase of the day amongst them is this, I have the right to do anything. I have the right to do anything.
[14:02] Well, how up-to-date is that? We thought even this morning with the use of the word love. Because we love one another, I have the right to do anything. We see, of course, again, that this shows us that the Bible is up-to-date.
[14:18] It shows us that the essential problem with men and women is unchangeably the problem of sin. It's the same problem, isn't it? If we were to say that to people in the street today, you shouldn't be doing that, they'll say the very same thing, I have the right to do anything I want, and you can't stop me.
[14:34] It's my right to do whatever I like with my body. As long as I don't hurt anybody else, there's nothing wrong with me drinking too much. Nothing wrong with me sleeping around with any sexual partner I want.
[14:48] Nothing wrong with me covering my body into twos. So on, and so on, and so on. They had another saying as well, didn't they, which we have in verse 13.
[14:59] You say food for the stomach and the stomach for food and God will destroy them both. What's that mean? It means I can't help the way I'm made. It's natural for me to feel this way and in the end anyway, my body's going to die.
[15:14] It's only here for a while. So, if I'm hungry, if my stomach tells me I'm hungry, I eat. So if I feel the need for sex with someone, whatever their gender, then it's just natural.
[15:27] If I want to dress up in this way, well, it's just natural. It's the way I'm made. If I have a lust for danger, it's in my nature, I can't help it or whatever it may be.
[15:38] What's your problem with me doing that? That was the mindset of the people in Corinth and it had become the mindset of the people in the church in Corinth as well.
[15:49] We've seen that, haven't we, again and again, how Paul has to rebuke them and say, look, you're acting just like the world. They do something, you do it. You're just following and mimicking them.
[15:59] You're following their trends. You're following their attitudes. And one by one, Paul has been dealing with these unchristian attitudes and giving clear instruction to the church that it is to live a life which honors Christ, live a life which is different, live a life which stands out and marks them as the disciples of Jesus.
[16:24] But what does Paul have to say to us? I think that just at the beginning of this passage there are two very helpful, simple guidelines for us.
[16:38] You know, often you speak to people and they'll say, oh well, of course there's nothing in the Bible about smoking and there's nothing in the Bible about watching TV and there's nothing in the Bible and they say all these silly things, don't they?
[16:49] When you tell them, well, that's really not what you should be doing as a Christian. You see, there are simple guidelines that Paul gives here that I believe are very, very helpful for you and I as we seek to find God's will and seek God's will for how we live, how we use our bodies, how we live practically and physically in this world, what we do whether it be in our work life, in our home life, in our leisure time and so on.
[17:13] And if we use these two guidelines prayerfully, I believe that the Lord will help us and keep us from falling into all sorts of dangerous sins.
[17:25] The first one is this, it's there in verse 12, they say, I have the right to do anything and Paul's response is, but not everything is beneficial. So the first question, the first guideline for us is, in all that we do in our lives, as I say, in work, in home, in leisure and so on, is this, is this beneficial?
[17:47] Is this beneficial? Now notice Paul does not say or does not reject them saying, I have the right to do anything.
[17:58] He doesn't say, no, no, no, no, no, you don't have the right to do anything. He doesn't reject them, he doesn't put that down. Because in one sense, it is true that the Christian believer can do anything he or she wants.
[18:17] How is that? How can that be so? Can that be right? Well, because as we know, the New Testament teaches us particularly and Paul teaches us particularly that we are not under law but under grace.
[18:30] In other words, we did nothing to earn God's forgiveness or salvation. There was nothing we could contribute, nothing we could do to make ourselves right with God. There was no good actions, no giving to charity, no righteousness.
[18:45] And in the same way, there's nothing that you and I can do to unsave ourselves. That's probably not an English word but that's the word I'm going to use. There's nothing that you and I can do.
[18:56] There's no sin that we can commit if we are born again believers, if we are children of the living God. There's no sin that we can commit which will remove the forgiveness, the love, the grace of God from us.
[19:11] All our salvation is down to Christ's righteousness, Christ's obedience, Christ's keeping of God's law on our behalf, Christ's making atonement for our sins. It's all down to him.
[19:23] So in one sense, a Christian can do anything that he or she wants to do and not lose their salvation. But, some people have taken grace, the truth about grace, being saved by grace and they have taken it and they have wrongly concluded that grace means that we are free to live as we want, do what we want, use our bodies as we want.
[19:53] When Jude, the apostle, writes to the church in his little letter right at the end, he tells us about these people who have done just that.
[20:04] They are ungodly people, he says in verse 4, who pervert the grace of God, in other words, twist and distort the grace of God into a license for immorality. That's often what people will say.
[20:18] In one sense, and this isn't, that's something that I grew up with, I can put it that way, as a young boy growing up as a Roman Catholic. The idea was that on a Saturday you would go to the confessional and confess your sins, your sins were forgiven, you went off and lived your life the rest of the week, you came back and you confessed your sins and you were forgiven and you went back and sinned again and you confessed your sins.
[20:40] But grace does not mean that. If we are people who are born again of the Holy Spirit, we will want to do what is beneficial. We will want to do what pleases God.
[20:53] We will want to do what is good for others. We will want to do what honors Jesus. So the Christian attitude to the whole of life is simply this. Is this beneficial?
[21:07] Is this book that I'm reading building me up or is it actually dragging me down? Is this television program I'm watching strengthening my faith or undermining my faith?
[21:25] Is this relationship that I have with this person, whether it be a friendship or a courtship or whatever, is this relationship going to make me love Christ or love him less?
[21:38] Will this activity that I'm engaged in be a good example to my Christian brothers and sisters? Do my actions honor him? You see, again and again, there is the question, is it beneficial to me in my walk with Christ?
[21:53] Is it beneficial to God's people and those around about me? And is it beneficial in the way that it honors Christ? It's quite a simple test, isn't it? The trouble is, of course, as we know ourselves, that when we ask that question, we have to act upon the answer.
[22:13] And if the answer is no, it's not beneficial, then we have to turn off that television program, which perhaps we've been watching for many years, but actually we realize it's not been helpful. The second question that Paul brings here, the second guideline, is not only is it beneficial, this thing that I do or not, but he says also, so I have the right to do anything, he says, you say rather, but everything is beneficial.
[22:40] I have the right to do anything, here's Paul's response, but I will not be mastered by anything. In other words, I will not be enslaved by it. I will not let it rule my life.
[22:52] Everything is permissible, but Paul says, I'm not going to let it be number one. Now I'm sure over the summer, like myself, you watch many of the Olympic events, the Paralympic events, thrilled by the incredible feats of skill and endurance and so on and so forth.
[23:11] And often there, after somebody had won a medal, one of the British team had won a medal, there'd often be an interview very briefly at the track side or whatever about them breaking a record and so on. And they'd say something along the lines of this, wouldn't they?
[23:22] I've been training for four years for this moment and it may only have been less than ten seconds in running the hundred meters. I've been training for four years for this moment. Or something like, I've been thinking and working towards this day all of my life.
[23:37] And we recognize, don't we, such accomplishment requires commitment. Such accomplishment to win a medal means long and arduous preparation and training which consumes almost all of their time.
[23:58] Now, these sportsmen and women, they're at liberty to do whatever they want. They can live for whatever they want but they've chosen to live for one goal. They've literally enslaved themselves to the sport that nothing else matters.
[24:16] And so when Paul says, I will not be mastered by anything, the question is this. Does this activity I'm engaged with master me or do I master it?
[24:31] Does this sport, this hobby, this job, this relationship become so all-consuming that it rules my life? That when I wake up in the morning it's the one thing I think of.
[24:43] When I go to bed at night it's the one thing I dream of. When I'm active in the day, in the workplace it's one thing I'm looking forward to. You see, that shouldn't be the case.
[24:53] That mustn't be the case. We've been set free by Christ to live for Him. We've been saved for Him. Notice what we read again. The body for the Lord and the Lord for the body.
[25:06] Both soul and body are for the Lord that He might work through us through our bodies to bring glory to His name.
[25:19] So yeah, we're free to use our time in whatever way we please. We're free to play sport. There's nothing wrong with that. We're free to watch TV. We're free to meet our friends and so on. But we've got to keep a check on these things.
[25:32] Again, almost asking does the time I spend in this particular activity mean that I do not spend enough time in prayer with the Lord?
[25:42] I haven't got time to pray. Too busy to pray. I'm not sure if it was Martin Luther or somebody else other Christians have said something like this. Too busy not to pray.
[25:53] Is it harming my fellowship? Am I unable to be in fellowship with God's people twice on a Sunday because of this thing that is so more important or in the midweek?
[26:06] is the Lord Jesus taking second place to this thing this activity?
[26:18] Is it taking up so much time that I haven't time to serve the Lord or his people? Those are two guidelines. Those are two I think very simple guidelines which again the challenge is not that we don't ask them the challenge is that we don't want to ask them because we have to act upon them because when we ask them and we realise that actually these things have become more than they should be then we know that we need to do something about it.
[26:46] So the body. How do we use our body? Here's the question. Here's the problem. The problem here as we see with the Corinthian believers is that they were using their bodies improperly using their bodies as we shall see in a bit in immorality sexual immorality particularly in the involvement of temple prostitutes.
[27:12] The religion of the people of Corinth was one in which men and women would go to worship their gods and in the act of worshipping their god they would engage in sexual relationship with these temple prostitutes both male and female.
[27:27] It was part of an offering up to their god. It was perverse. And yet in some way in some measure God's people were engaging still in that while professing to be Christians.
[27:40] Now we may not be engaged in that sort of thing. We may not be engaged in sexual immorality. But the question again comes about how we use our bodies.
[27:51] How we are engaged and using our bodies. And Paul makes some clear teaching about how vital this is how important this is and the reasons why we should be very careful not to give our bodies over to sinful practices to sinful activity.
[28:09] And so the first reason he gives is verse 14 by his power God raised the Lord from the dead and he will raise us also. He's talking about the final resurrection.
[28:20] Yes the truth is as he says just before that the food for the stomach and the stomach for the food and God will destroy them both. Yes our bodies our physical bodies here are all headed towards death but that's not the end.
[28:37] It's a bit like that saying isn't it? Eat drink for tomorrow we die. But actually we don't. This body that we inhabit is not purely going to end up in the grave or in the crematorium it's going to be raised again to everlasting and eternal life.
[28:58] That's going to come up very strongly at the end isn't it? Of Paul's letter here where he has a great deal to say about the resurrection and that our view of it affects how we live now.
[29:09] This is what he says about the body to come in Corinthians 15 verse 42. So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable it is raised imperishable it is sown in dishonor it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body.
[29:33] Our bodies are not just disposable items. Something which is valuable is something which we keep for a long time don't we? We look after. So there's a big difference between a plastic cup that we get our takeaway cup of tea with and an antique Chinese urn.
[29:51] You don't just chuck them away when you've used them once you do with a plastic cup. And yes though our bodies our physical bodies will be transformed and changed and we shall have a new resurrection body ultimately there is some link some connection between this physical body and the one we shall possess.
[30:09] And because we know that's going to happen because we know that we should be raised physically we can't just treat our bodies as if they're just a bit of an old tat as if they're just disposable items.
[30:20] But then he takes the argument further the reason why we're going to be raised up on the last days because we're united to Christ. The Lord raised Jesus from the dead we who are one with Christ will also be raised with him.
[30:36] Verse 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? We read it though we didn't touch upon it so much this morning where Jesus speaks about the believer being a branch connected to the vine.
[30:50] The vine is not simply the trunk is it? The main part the branch is as much a part of the plant as the vine is. We are members of Christ we are united with Christ we are connected with him.
[31:02] When you become a Christian you are cemented you are concreted you are spiritually super glued to Christ in a living union which is never ever broken. It's not simply that when we come to church we meet with Christ and are joined with him or when we pray we come and meet with Christ we are united with him and that is 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year from the moment we are born again to the moment that we physically die and in fact beyond that into eternity.
[31:32] So you can't play fast or loose you can't say well in one sense I'm going to leave Jesus at home when I go out and do this with my body. Because everything that we do he's involved with.
[31:45] He's not absent for us where we go he goes. When I was first a Christian I'm sure you said it to other Christians when they were young people you say would you be willing to take Jesus there to the nightclub the pub or whatever it may be.
[32:01] Do you think Jesus would be happy to be in that place or in that company or in that conversation? Well he is that's the reality if we're Christians he is. So how can we possibly think of involving Jesus in some sinful wicked activity such as particularly sexual immorality?
[32:22] See today people think that sex with somebody it's again just like having a meal it's just fulfilling a lust a desire it's of no importance it's a nothingness but here Paul makes a very strong case for the fact that actual sexual relationship between two people is the uniting of those people he takes the very words of God speaking about marriage and says it is said the two will become one flesh don't fully understand that but we know that something happens in that relationship which is much more than simply the fulfilling of a lust or an urge it's the uniting of one person to themselves in a most intimate way it's making a physical unity that's why that applies to the husband and the wife we talk about consummating the marriage we talk about the fact that the gift of sex between a husband and wife is a wonderful blessing to confirm the love between two people who are committed to one another our bodies aren't made to be misused in that way not made that's why we have in the UK one of the highest levels of sexually transmitted diseases amongst young people in the whole of Europe that's why young girls are being given injections so that if they become sexually active young they won't develop cervical cancer that's why though AIDS is off the radar in lots and lots of ways we see it we know we know scientifically the reason why AIDS came about is from immorality our bodies aren't made for that once you start to fiddle with once you start to misuse the things that God has given us in our bodies then they will begin to break down and destroy themselves and that's exactly what Paul is saying here he who sins sexually immorally sins against their own body thirdly the apostle
[34:32] Paul says we're to use our bodies with great care for the Lord because actually your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit verse 19 do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you've received from God the body your physical body is God's chosen vessel to dwell in on the earth isn't that amazing that's what a temple is the Old Testament temple in Jerusalem was the place and the tabernacle before it was the place in which God dwelt in all the earth though in one sense he's omnipresent God chose to particularly uniquely dwell in the tabernacle in the temple that's why when you read about the consecration of the temple in Solomon's day this is incredible thing that takes place the glory of God fills the temple so much so that the priests can't actually do anything the presence of God keeps them out there's a physical visible sense now Paul has already said earlier on in chapter 3 that the church the local church as well as the universal church is the temple of God's spirit verse 16 of chapter 3 1 Corinthians don't you know you yourselves are God's temple and that God's spirit lives among you goes on for God's temple is sacred and you together are that temple so the church is the temple but also as individuals we are the temple as well that makes your body and mine sacred if I can put it that way makes your body and mine holy means that your body is set apart by God uniquely from the rest of humanity
[36:24] God does not dwell in sinful humanity he dwells in his people and that has a very very real effect upon how we treat our bodies and how we relate to others here's Paul in his second letter to Corinthians making a very similar statement but notice the conclusion he comes to practically it's 2 Corinthians 6 you can read it later verse 16 what agreement is there between the temple of God and idols for we are the temple of the living God as God has said I will live with them and walk among them I will be their God and they will be my people therefore here's the practical application come out from them and be separate says the Lord touch no unclean thing you see what he's saying as the temple of God there is a separation there is to be a distinction between you and those who are not God's people that's why when Paul speaks there there is that that warning do not be yoked with unbelievers he's talking about particularly in that context about relationships between believers and unbelievers between marriage between an unbeliever and believer it should not be because it's harmful it's dangerous it's putting together those things which are not the same it's putting a square peg in a round hole come apart from them be separate from them so how can we use our bodies how can we engage our bodies in those things which clearly are not holy are not pleasing to
[38:02] God one final thing lastly and finally the last part of verse 19 you are not your own you were bought at a price here's the clincher the clincher is this your body belongs to God it doesn't belong to you it's not yours sorry it's not no matter how much the world protests about the rights of the person the individual human rights and so on in the end that body does not belong to you it belongs to God and more so for the Christian it belongs to God because the non-Christian has been created by God therefore he owns that but for the believer especially it belongs to God because he has purchased us with a price imagine that you've just bought yourself a new car exciting and but somebody steals your new car and smashes it up and writes it off around the lamppost you wouldn't be well chuffed would you wouldn't be very pleased that's not their car it's mine your body has been purchased at great expense by God it belongs to him it is not for you to drive recklessly smash up and destroy or use for your own desires the price that God paid to have your body and mine is the very precious blood of
[39:32] Jesus he suffered and died in our place to purchase us for God we belong to him body and soul dear friends I have no right no right to use my body and to live my life in however I want my purpose must always be Lord what do you want therefore here's the final thing the conclusion therefore honour God with your bodies this is how we should live our lives live our lives being the people that we are so that in everything we do everything we do we bring honour to our Lord Jesus Christ for all life long that's the incredible privilege and responsibility of the Christian responsibility is my life is to be lived for God to honour him the privilege is that in this world as God indwelt that glorious temple of Solomon he indwells you for his glory when people look at you they see
[40:48] God glorified in his grace in his power in his love so on so forth dear friends never ever think that some reason your life is unimportant never ever think that your body is not something that God delights to use for his glory do not think that in the mundane things of life the trivial things of life the shopping things of life that these do not matter in the great purpose of God for they do for here's what Paul writes himself in 1 Corinthians and 10 and we'll close with this whatever you do whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do it all for the glory of God amen to earth
[42:03] YUFTAf Your unbound and law of the heart Visit us with thy salvation Enter every trembling heart Come, Almighty, to deliver Let us all thy graces see
[43:03] Suddenly return and ever Never more thy temples be He we would be always blessing Certainly as thy most alone Pray and praise thee without ceasing Glory in thy permanent heart Finish then thy new creation Thou and stout us let us be Let us sing thy great salvation
[44:03] Earth and thee restore in thee Change from glory into glory Till in heaven we take our place Till we count our crowns in glory God's in love and love and praise Now may the God of peace Who through the blood of the eternal covenant Brought back from the dead Our Lord Jesus That great shepherd of the sheep May he equip you With everything good for doing his will And may he work in us What is pleasing to him Through Jesus Christ To whom be glory
[45:04] Forever and ever Amen Amen