Honor God with your Body!
Rev. Mark F. Bartels
Old Testament Lesson; 1 Samuel 3:1-10
Gospel Lesson; John 1:43-51
Sermon Text; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
There is a Bible passage that says,
"I will praise you, because
I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
Our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made, by God! We confess, in the explanation to the first article: God has given me my body and soul, my eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still preserves them." What a wonderful gift from God! God has given to us our hands, eyes, ears, feet, heart, lungs and every part of our bodies. We are fearfully and wonderfully made!
God has, with His wisdom, fearfully and wonderfully made man’s and woman’s bodies different from one another. And, God has done that for a reason. Already in the book of Genesis, God tells us that He intends man and woman, through marriage, to unite with one another in a physical oneness, because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. That physical oneness God grants a husband and a wife in marriage, is a total giving of one’s self to the other person. The Bible tells us that it is the very picture of Jesus, with His Church. It is the picture of Jesus, who gives Himself wholly and completely to His people, the church. The church, the believers of Jesus, should give themselves totally and completely to God. We praise God, because we are fearfully and wonderfully made!
God loves us so much He has given to us the 6th Commandment. The 6th Commandment is intended by God to protect that wonderful institution of marriage that He has given to us. It is also intended to protect the use of the wonderful bodies that God has given to us. The 6th Commandment says,
"You shall not commit adultery.
What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we lead a chase and decent life in word and deed. And, husband and wife each love and honor the other."
We praise God,
because we are
fearfully and wonderfully made!
We praise God, because He has given us our bodies to be used in a way that brings glory and honor to Him. However, we all understand that to misuse our body is a sin against this body, which God has given to us. The Bible says, "The body is not meant for sexual immorality." God did not intend our bodies to be used that way. Scripture very clearly teaches us that it is a misuse of the wonderful body God has given to me, if I sin against this body, by sins of thought, word or deed. We believe our body is not meant for sexual immorality, by sins of thought, word or deed. Jesus tells us, "I tell you the truth, you have heard it said, you shall not commit adultery, but I tell you that, anyone who looks at a woman lustfully, has already committed adultery with her in his heart." There, Jesus tells us that it is a sin against the bodies that God has given us, even if we only commit the sins in our minds. So, if we have fantasizing thoughts about someone other than our husband or wife, or we look at pornography, it would certainly be a sin against these wonderful bodies that God has given us.
God, in His Word, tells us that those sins are not small matters, but are worthy of condemnation. The Bible says, "The sexually immoral cannot inherit the Kingdom of God."
We also know that sins of words can be sins against the body that God has given to us. The Bible says that we should not even mention,
we should not even mention
the things that the world talks about. Think about what is mentioned on T.V., in the movies, or in popular songs, in regards to the 6th Commandment. Think about what is mentioned in the work place.
It is a sin, when we join in singing those songs, or enjoy watching those things on T.V. or movies, or join in with conversations of coarse, filthy talk, or get involved in telling dirty jokes. Those are sins, against the wonderful and fearfully made bodies that God has given to us. And, they are worthy of condemnation, according to God.
We also understand from scripture that any use, any taking of the privileges, the wonderful privileges that God has given to husband and wife, any taking of those privileges, outside the bounds of marriage, certainly is a sin against the body God has given to us. Again, our scripture text says, "The body is not meant for sexual immorality." And again, scripture says, "The sexually immoral cannot inherit the Kingdom of God."
Those are troubling words, aren’t they? They are very troubling words. So what do we do, what do we do, when our heart troubles us? When our heart troubles us, as we look at the 6th Commandment and everything that God says about it, we can be comforted by one of the most beautiful places in scripture, regarding the 6th Commandment. When your conscious troubles you and bothers you, because you understand what you deserve from God, then go to His Word.
The Bible tells us about an early morning, at dawn, when Jesus had gone into the temple and sat down to teach. As He sat down to teach, in came a group of men, who were Pharisees. These men had with them a woman who had been captured in the act of adultery. They brought this woman with them and walked her right up to Jesus. They forced her, right up to Jesus. And then they said to Jesus, (to test Him), "Teacher, we caught this woman in the act of adultery. You know that it says in the book of Moses that she should be stoned to death. What do you say?"
Imagine that woman’s heart. We believe that she was certainly troubled over what had happened. Now, she realized the consequences of sin, because she had gone against God. And now, she was facing the punishment that comes with that sin. Certainly she must have been wishing that she had never fallen into the sin of adultery, never committed that sin, and was repentant of it in her heart, as she stood before Christ.
The Bible says that Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground. And it says that the Pharisees pressed Him for an answer. It says that finally He stood up straight and looked at them, as He said, "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone." And, then He bent down and began to draw again on the ground.
The Bible says that the Pharisees began to leave, one by one. First the older ones left, and then the younger ones, until after awhile, no one was left except for Jesus and the woman.
Jesus was still there!
You see, He is the only one who could have picked up the stone and taken her life. He never did sin. He is the perfect God. He could have condemned her for all eternity. But, instead, He looked at the woman and said, "Where have they all gone? Is there no one left to condemn you?"
She said, "No."
Then Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you."
That is an awesome message in scripture. The one person who could have rightfully condemned her to all eternity, looked her straight in the eye and said,
"Neither do I condemn you."
And with that, she was free of all her guilt and all her shame! He declared her not guilty, because He would die on the cross for her, to take away her sins.
"Neither do I condemn you." Those are the words that God speaks to us, when we are troubled over our sins! Those are the comforting words of the gospel, "Neither do I condemn you."
Now some people may say, "Well if that’s the case, if Christians are freely forgiven and that is all there is to it, then what’s to keep us from going out and committing sexual immorality, and then coming back, knowing that God is going to forgive us anyway?"
Do you know what Jesus said to that woman, after He said those comforting words of forgiveness? He looked at her and said,
"Now, go and sin no more."
You see, a forgiven Christian is someone who knows the great price that Jesus has paid on the cross to take away all of our guilt, without which we should stand condemned before God. Jesus has paid the price! That has caused a change in our hearts. And, out of thanksgiving to God, we want to go forward, and with His help, sin no more. We now want to serve our savior.
Think about another woman in the Bible, who had been forgiven by Jesus, her savior. The Bible doesn’t tell us what sin she had committed, but it does say that she was "a woman of bad reputation". So, we would assume that she was a prostitute. She came into the house where Jesus was and began to wash His feet with her tears and dry His feet with her hair. One of the Pharisees, who were there, pointed to the woman and said, "If He knew what kind of woman she was, He wouldn’t even let her touch Him." Jesus responded, "She loves much, because she has been forgiven much."
She understood the grace of God’s forgiveness. It caused her to love her savior and want to serve her savior.
We
have been forgiven
much.
That should cause
us
to love our Savior
much!
I want you to see how St. Paul, under divine inspiration, motivates Christians to use their bodies in service to God. He doesn’t do it through fear. He doesn’t do it by saying, "You might get caught. You might break up your marriage. You might end up with some disease." He doesn’t do it that way. That doesn’t motivate us on the inside, does it? He motivates us with the gospel. He motivates us with the Good News of what Jesus has done for us.
Consider these four things. Number one he says, "By His power, God raised the Lord from the dead and He will raise us also." Think about that for a second. Often, when we think about salvation, we only think about how Jesus saved our souls. But that is only half of it. Jesus saved our bodies too. Our bodies have been redeemed. When Jesus died on the cross, He died with His body. His hands were nailed to the cross, for the wicked things that my hands have done. His feet were nailed to the cross, for the wrong places my feet have led me. His body suffered great torments, for the pleasures of sin that we have fallen into. And, the body of Jesus died, to redeem our bodies from sin, death and hell.
The Bible says, "By His power, God raised the body of our Lord." My Lord’s body, which paid for my sins, got up out of the grave, as proof that my sins have been defeated! Jesus has been resurrected. Our scripture passage goes on and says, "He will raise us also." That is an awesome thought for a Christian to realize that this body, that has been misused, and has sinned against God, has been redeemed and forgiven. And one day, by Christ’s power, this body is going to be raised from the dead. It is going to be changed to be like Christ’s glorious body, without sin! Because of this, I want to use this body, which is one day going to be resurrected by my Savior, to serve Him. What awesome motivation that is from our scripture!
Number two, St. Paul goes on and says, "Your bodies are members of Christ, Himself." Again, what an awesome gospel motivation! Because God has brought me to faith in Jesus, this body of mine is literally a member of Christ’s body! I am a member of Christ’s body! By grace, I am united with Jesus Christ! You are united with Jesus Christ! Together, we are members of Christ’s body! Because I know what Jesus did for me, and I have the privilege to be a part of His body, I want to use the body He gave me in a way that honors Him and also honors the other members of Christ’s body. That is awesome motivation from scripture.
Number three, St. Paul goes on and says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?" Again, what an awesome motivation. The Holy Spirit is called The Comforter. The Holy Spirit has given me comfort that no one else can give to me. He has given to me the comfort of knowing, through Jesus’ Word, that my sins will not be counted against me. He lives in me, by faith. That is great comfort to me. My body is His temple. He lives here, in me.
As you can imagine, I would never take a trashcan and dump it out over the pews of this church, because I honor this church too much. And, I would never want to take my body, which is the temple of The Comforter who lives in me, and use it in a way that would dishonor Him. All of the comfort He gives to me, is awesome motivation!
Number four, St. Paul says, "You are not your own; you were bought at a price." Think of the price that Jesus paid to purchase your body. It was not gold or silver, but His holy precious blood and His innocent sufferings and death, in order that I might be His own. My body doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to the One who redeemed me. It is His possession. What awesome motivation to use this body in a way that will serve and honor God, my savior!
"Therefore, honor God with your body."
We understand the 6th Commandment, which says,
"You shall not commit adultery.
What does this mean? We should fear and love God, so that we lead a chase and decent life, in word and deed, and husband and wife each love and honor the other."
And so, in marriage, God tells us that He intends man and woman, through marriage, to unite with one another in a physical oneness, because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. What a wonderful opportunity for husband and wife to use the bodies God has given to us, to express that unity between man and woman!
God has given to us our bodies, which are fearfully and wonderfully made! Go out and have good, Christian fun! Go out and have good, clean, Christian fun! And use your bodies in a good, clean, Christian way, because God has given to us our bodies, which are fearfully and wonderfully made!
"Therefore, honor God, with your body."
Amen.
Top of Page
|| Church Sermons || Return to Home Page