Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20001210.htm

1 CORINTHIANS: MINISTERING TO BELIEVERS WITH DEEP PAGAN BACKGROUNDS
Part XI: Drawing The Line On Immorality
(1 Corinthians 6:14-20)
  1. Introduction
    1. Though as a Church be teach that sexual involvement outside of formal marriage is sin, and that even immoral thoughts are sin in Matthew 5:28, our society can affect those we know to think otherwise.
    2. Some pressing objections to our view are: (1) "If my partner and I love each other, and we are going to get married in six months anyway, why can't we make love now?" (2) "How can I show my love for my partner so that he will believe me when I say I love him if I don't fully consent to his lovemaking advances?" (3) "How can one prepare himself for marital lovemaking if he doesn't have any experience beforehand so as to minimize problems once he gets married?"
    3. The Apostle Paul reveals why extramarital sexual union is unacceptable to God in 1 Corinthians 6:14-20, and we will also briefly look at the Song of Solomon for the positive reason for premarital abstinence.
  2. Drawing The Line On Immorality, 1 Corinthians 6:14-20.
    1. Sexual union with a harlot is sin, 1 Cor. 6:15b. Using Hebrews 13:4 to apply this to premarital union and to adultery, and 1 Cor. 6:6 with Romans 1:26-28 for other forms of aberrant union, we may conclude that sexual union outside of a permanent, heterosexual, monogamous union is sin.
    2. The Apostle Paul then revealed five arguments as to why this is so in 1 Corinthians 6:15a, 16-20:
      1. Argument One - The believer's physical body is a member of Christ as Christ will yet raise and glorify that body that has been redeemed in His atonement, 1 Cor. 6:15a, 14. To have illicit sexual union with the body is to take what belongs to Christ and make it sexually sin -- a horrible idea!
      2. Argument Two - Sexual union makes one joined in one body with the partner in God's view, 1 Cor. 6:16 (citing Genesis 2:24 with Christ's words in Matt. 19:5-6). As it is wrong for a believer to seek to be one with a godless partner since his spirit is joined to Christ, it is wrong to have illicit sexual union with unbelievers. [Note: The exception is when a believer is already wed to the unsaved, 1 Cor. 7:13)
      3. Argument Three - Immorality is a uniquely evil sin as it alone is a sin against one's own body, 1 Cor. 6:18b. It should not be tolerated by anyone not wanting to desecrate his own body.
      4. Argument Four - The believer's body is the dwelling of God the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 6:19a. To have illicit sexual union is like defiling the Jerusalem Temple when the Spirit of God indwelt the Holiest Place -- an awful thing to God's people! Only the coming Man of Sin and Antiochus Epiphanes who typified him are recorded to have done such things in Scripture (Dan. 9:27; 11:31). For a believer to be immoral is for him to desecrate God's dwelling as did Antiochus Epiphanes and the future Man of Sin!
      5. Argument Five - The believer's body does not belong to the believer, but to God: the body was bought at the price of the blood of the Lamb of God, 1 Cor. 6:19b-20. Since God desires believers to abstain from immorality, they must do so or suffer God's discipline for abusing God's property, 1 Cor. 5:3-5.
    3. On the positive side, sexual abstinence outside of a Biblical marriage has advantages for abstainers that bless them during their coming together within a Biblical marriage, Song of Solomon 8:8-10:
      1. The Song of Solomon is a love poem where Solomon carefully and discreetly described proper lovemaking for a newlywed couple (cf. my notes on the introduction to the Song of Solomon).
      2. At chapter 8, verses 8-9, Solomon noted the capacity of a bride to respond to her groom's advances in proportion to the degree she avoided premarital foreplay and sexual union. Whether it is primary (8:9) or advanced foreplay (8:10), premarital abstinence puts up no conscience blocks for a new bride.
      3. Thus, the more one avoids of foreplay and copulation before marriage, the better the experience of these both will be within marriage to follow as there will be no guilt inhibitions in marriage.
Lesson: Sexual abstinence outside of a permanent, heterosexual, monagamous union is necessary for the believer to live in fellowship with a holy God. It is also a path leading to happiness within marriage.

Application: (1) We must communicate with new believers or our children who face the world's ideas of aberrant sexual orientations and activities that they would benefit in their walk with God and in their own happiness to adhere to God's Biblical moral standards. (2) We should couple this teaching with the teaching of the Holy Spirit's enabling for such upright living, Galatians 5:16-23.