(#029) 1 Corinthians 6 - What's Wrong with Visiting a Prostitute Now and Then?Disunity is not the only thing that spreads in the darkness of evil.
Welcome To BARAH MINISTRIES a Christian Church
Rory Clark Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…an intimate, local Christian Church with worldwide impact. My name is Pastor Rory Clark. At Barah Ministries we know this truth…that Jesus Christ is God. As the Lord He is 100% Deity… He is God the Son. He is also 100% human just like you and me and His name is Jesus Christ. The Lord…God the Son…became flesh…Jesus Christ...and lived among us. He is the uniquely born One, the God-Man…He is the Sovereign God of the Universe…He is the Savior of the whole world…and He is the Jewish Messiah.
Those who make Barah Ministries their spiritual home are Christians…we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and we have a deep, intimate, and personal relationship with the Lord because Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. And the Lord Jesus Christ is a Person. He is not a thing and He is not a concept. Just as we do with anyone whom we love, we spend time getting to know the Lord through the study of His Word. You can’t get to know the Lord without knowing His mind, and the Bible is His exact thinking.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON What's Wrong with Visiting a Prostitute Now and Then?
According to God? Everything. According to man? Not much. Prostitution is sex for hire. The believers in the church at Corinth did what believers in Christ do today…they engaged in sexual immorality and then told themselves that sinning is okay. They excused their sins. Like us, the Corinthian believers were free thinkers. They were the flower children of their day. Like their 1968 “make love not war” counterparts, the Corinthian believers were some of the original partakers of the “it’s all good” approach to life.
The Bible points out the error of this thinking in Romans, Chapter 5, Verses 20 and 21 continuing as if there is no chapter break...Romans, Chapter 6, Verses 1 and 2…
ROMANS 5:20 The Mosaic Law came in (alongside of sin) with the result that the transgression (Lawbreaking) increases (as always happens when the law comes in)…but where sin (Lawbreaking) increased (that is, abounded)…God’s grace abounded (in an overflow) all the more…
ROMANS 5:21 …so that, just as “In Adam” sin reigned in spiritual death, even so, grace would reign through imputed righteousness to offer eternal life through union with Jesus Christ our Lord (“In Christ”).
ROMANS 6:1 What shall we believers in Christ say then? Are we to continue sinning so God’s grace may increase?
ROMANS 6:2 May it never be! How shall we believers in Christ (such ones as we…the children of a King), who died to sin (as an established fact at the moment of our salvation), still live in sin any longer (as if sin is still our master)?
In today’s lesson, we’ll learn God’s viewpoint concerning EXACTLY what's wrong with visiting a prostitute now and then.
SONG INTRODUCTION
Let’s hear some music! How do people treat you when you are at your worst…when you are down…when you make mistakes? These are the times that reflect the character of others. When we were spiritually dead…living in the consequences of our trespasses and sins…God the Father treated us like royalty…Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verses 4 to 7…
EPHESIANS 2:4 God the Father, being rich in mercy, because of His great and unconditional love with which He loved us…
EPHESIANS 2:5 …even when we were spiritually dead in our transgressions…made us spiritually alive together with Christ (by God’s grace you have been saved)…
EPHESIANS 2:6 …and God the Father raised us believers in Christ up (in the resurrection from the dead) with Christ, and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places…in fact, He placed us in union with Christ Jesus…
EPHESIANS 2:7 …so that in the ages to come God the Father might demonstrate the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward those of us who are in union with Christ Jesus.
Lauren Dagle puts this sentiment to music in her song YOU SAY.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
YOU SAY Lauren Daigle
OPENING PRAYER Let us pray...
We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
Father, as we get to know You more through the study of the Word, You become more and more amazing to us…it becomes more and more apparent how deeply You love us…how patient You are toward us…how attentive You are to us in developing a people for Your own possession…thank you for not holding anything against us…thank you for sending Your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ…to rescue us from the domain of darkness to transfer us to Your kingdom of light…
Father, You’ve placed us in the kingdom of Your enemy for our own benefit…help us to navigate the rough waters of tribulation caused by our inhabitance here, and lead us through Your Holy Spirit to the destiny You planned for us in eternity past, one day at a time…
…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...Amen.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON What's Wrong with Visiting a Prostitute Now and Then?
According to God? Everything. According to man? Not much. As the apostle Paul closes out First Corinthians, Chapter 6, he is transitioning from the problems among believers in the church at Corinth to solution recommendation he will outline in First Corinthians, Chapters 7 to 16.
As he talks about sex for hire in this part of the fourth passage of this letter, a passage we are studying verse-by-verse, he is not citing specific examples or specific people who engage in sex for hire as he did with incest in First Corinthians, Chapter 5. Rather, Paul is discussing an issue that is RAMPANT in the church at Corinth, just as much as it is rampant in the world in this year of our Lord 2020…lasciviousness (lust)…licentiousness (without restraint)… sex for hire…a sin against our physical bodies.
What's wrong with visiting a prostitute now and then? What's wrong with hiring a gigolo (a man who is paid for sexual attention by a woman)? Just for the record, women get off the hook for sexual immorality a lot of times. If you think of visiting a prostitute, do you think only of men? Actually, in heterosexual sex for hire, women are involved as well, yet we don’t hear much about the women. What wrong with pre-marital sex? What’s wrong with adultery? According to God? Everything. According to man? Not much.
Prostitution is sex for hire (the Greek word PORNEIA). Let’s see what the apostle Paul has to say about sex for hire in First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verses 12 to 20… FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but the body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:14 Now God the Father has not only raised the Lord from the dead, but He will also raise us up from the dead through His divine power.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:15 DO YOU NOT KNOW that your bodies are members of Christ (because we are in union with Him)? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For the Lord says, “The two shall become one flesh.”
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:18 Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:19 Or DO YOU NOT KNOW that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is indwelling you, whom you have from God the Father, and that you are not your own?
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:20 For you have been bought with a price…therefore, glorify God in your body.
Six times in First Corinthians, Chapter 6 Paul asks, “Do you not know?” A group that is well taught has wandered “off the reservation” just as we have today. Let’s take a look at this passage verse-by-verse. First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 12…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:12 All things are permissible for me (Paul), but not all things are beneficial. All things are permissible for me, but I will not be (over)mastered by anything.
In God’s eyes, and those are the eyes through which we view the world here at Barah Ministries, sexual immorality, specifically sex for hire, is a VERY SERIOUS sin. The world sees this sin as harmless.
There aren’t any harmless sins. Sins are ALWAYS harmful, even if their effect on us is not immediately available to our awareness. How do we justify indulging in sex for hire and sexual immorality? We justify it the same way the believers in the Corinthian church justified it…with sound-byte theology…with short cliché phrases that make what we are doing seem okay.
“Anything in moderation!” The implication that it’s okay, every once in a while, to stray from biblical principles that work.
“I’m a free thinker!” This infers that sin is okay.
"Make love, not war." Remember the flowing dresses, the underarm hair, Woodstock, pot, Volkswagen buses, The Flower Children, and Patchouli? If you do, you're old! The breakdown of the Baby Boom generation's character began in the 1960s and has continued unabated to this day. Yet this breakdown started in eternity past when Satan, the enemy of God, instigated a rebellion that has lasted to this day.
“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” The insinuation is that if the important people in your life don’t know what you’re doing because you are being sneaky, then whatever you’re doing is okay. Is it?
When kids leave the house for the first time, they start singing the song, “Yeah I’m free!” … but they forget the second part of the refrain…“free FALLING!” Nothing good happens to believers in Christ who take off the yoke that God’s standards use to protect us. It’s the equivalent of playing in traffic.
There are brothels in Gilbert, AZ disguised as legitimate businesses. In Phoenix, cooking classes are hook-up spots for swingers…married couples with a sexually immoral “sharing of sexual partners” lifestyle frequent cooking classes to have “a little innocent fun” in their “open” marriages. If both of us agree that is evil is good then it is!
In First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 12, Paul is saying that just because we CAN do something doesn't mean that it is profitable for us to do it. God doesn't want His believers to be mastered by anything or anyone, but Him.
Yet we have free will…we have the ability to choose and we can choose things that are not God’s will for us. God doesn’t want us to use our free will in this way. Like a parent who wants the best for His kids, the Lord doesn’t want sex for hire or sexual immorality for us. Lewd, lascivious, and licentious conduct is for unbelievers! By the way, God doesn’t want that conduct for unbelievers either, for as we learned last week, that conduct becomes a lifestyle that can gravitate the unbeliever away from being saved.
First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 13…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food…and one day God the Father will do away with both the stomach and food. Your body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body (and one day God will do away with your body). Yet the body is not for sex for hire.
Are we to assume that since the body and the stomach and food are going to be destroyed one day that we can treat them with a lascivious attitude? Shall we engage in lustful indulgence because we know we are spending eternity in heaven? Paul would say, “May it never be!”
Yet the Corinthians argued, in error, that eating and sex are simply “natural body functions.” They’d argue that stomachs are to be used for food, and sex organs are to be used for sex. No big deal. They argued that abusing their bodies with food and sex is of no consequence since the body is going into the ground at physical death anyway. God doesn’t have the same viewpoint. In Romans, Chapter 6, Verses 12 to 14, the Lord talks through the apostle Paul to His believers in Christ…
ROMANS 6:12 Therefore (all of the above things being true), do not keep on letting sin reign as if it were king of your mortal body so that you obey its lusts…
ROMANS 6:13 …and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness…instead, present yourselves to God the Father as those spiritually alive from among the dead ones would present themselves, and present the members of your body as instruments of righteousness to God the Father.
ROMANS 6:14 For sin shall not be master (a sovereign lord) over you…for you believers in Christ are not under law…but you are under grace.
Our bodies ARE significant to the Lord. They are a manifestation of the indwelling Trinity and they are especially a manifestation of the risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Defacing and degrading our bodies defaces and degrades Christ. Paul would argue that what is permissible for believers are those things that reflect the character of the Lord. If what you are doing with your body in secret were published on the front page of the New York Times, would you be proud of what you have accomplished?
If what you are doing reflects God’s control of your life, it is permissible. If what you are doing reflects Satan’s control of your life, you may want to rethink it. Exodus, Chapter 20, Verse 5…
EXODUS 20:5a You shall not worship or serve idols…for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…
Oh no you DIN’T go back to the Old Testament boyfriend! O yes…I did! Paul wants us to be the slave of the one who owns us…Christ! He doesn’t want us to be slaves of unrighteousness. When we return from our five-minute break, we’ll take your offering, and then we’ll continue in First Corinthians, Chapter 6, at Verse 14…where Paul reminds the believers at Corinth of their eternal destiny.
FIVE MINUTE BREAK NOBODY Casting Crowns
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON What's Wrong with Visiting a Prostitute Now and Then?
Second Corinthians, Chapter 8, Verse 9 says…
SECOND CORINTHIANS 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…that though He was rich (as the Lord…God the Son…Deity)…yet for your sake He became poor (talking on human form as Jesus Christ)…so that through His poverty (shedding His blood and dying on the Cross) you might become rich (being reconciled to God the Father and being offered a “so great” salvation).
Giving is an act of worship. When you get your stimulus checks, remember that Barah Ministries can use a little stimulus, too…and you’re the one who can provide it.
Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with the offering message.
THE OFFERING Deacon Denny Goodall
OFFERING VERSE
JEREMIAH 17:5 Thus says the Lord, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart (simultaneously) turns away from the Lord.”
OFFERING VERSE
JEREMIAH 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust IS the Lord.”
OFFERING SONG THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU David Bauer, Instrumental
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON What's Wrong with Visiting a Prostitute Now and Then?
First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 14…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:14 Now God the Father has not only raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, but He will also raise us believers in Christ up from the dead through His divine power (omnipotence).
Our resurrection as believers is tied to the Lord’s resurrection. It is supernatural, not natural. It is accomplished by God, and not by us. Therefore, our bodily experience needs to be supernatural, not natural, as well. Believers are not to hand their bodies over to the enemy for desecration.
Based on our union with Christ, we are a new creation with a new spiritual relationship with God. It follows that the Lord expects us to have a new bodily relationship with others and with ourselves. For example, this new bodily relationship would not include fornication, adultery, pederasty, pornography, prostitution, “swinging,” bestiality, orgies, homosexuality, changing gender, or any of the other perversions Satan and his kingdom of death and darkness sponsor. First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 15…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:15 DO YOU NOT (ouk) KNOW that your bodies are members of Christ (in union with Him)? Shall I then take away the members of Christ (from His possession) and make them members of a prostitute (letting them become one flesh with EVIL)? May it never be (this is unimaginable)!
God does not want us to consort with evil, and evil is depicted in Verse 15 as a prostitute. As Ruler of the universe and Ruler of our lives, God wants to determine how our body is used. It is for us to use our free will to let Him rule. Psalm 109, Verse 105…
PSALM 119:105 Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
Darkness and light are not, and cannot be partners. When dark is here, light is not. When light is here, dark is not. What dark seeks to do is to eradicate the light…to make it darkness. When we sin we make our light darkness. We extinguish our reflection of the indwelling Christ.
Symbiosis…a relationship between two organisms where damage to one does damage to both. That is our relationship with Christ. It is symbiotic. Since no one can damage the Lord, it must be understood that consorting with the prostitute called evil does damage to the believer in Christ.
Sex for hire defiles every part of a human being. It does not merely defile the body. Using a prostitute is not a victimless crime. It defiles the union with the Lord…it is physical and spiritual adultery.
First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 16…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:16 Or DO YOU NOT KNOW that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "The two shall become one flesh (fused).”
Consorting with a prostitute is a marriage ceremony where no wedding vows are exchanged. Each party is deceived into thinking it is a casual fling, but when the two are apart from each other they continue to be in each other’s thoughts. Relations with prostitutes constitute an entanglement…a web of defilement that is nearly impossible to shake. Engaging in sex for hire is the ultimate violation of our relationship with Christ. Matthew, Chapter 7, Verses 6 says…
MATTHEW 7:6 “Do not give what is holy (sacred things like your body) to dogs (those who are unholy)…and do not throw your pearls (a sacred thing) before swine (pigs were hated and filthy animals to the Jews)…or the pigs will trample the pearls under their feet…and the dog will turn and tear you to pieces.”
First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 17…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:17 (In contrast)…the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
We are to cleave exclusively to Christ. The only response to sex for hire? RUN! First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 18…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:18 Flee immorality! Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, except for the sex for hire a man commits that sins against his own body.
Sex for hire leaves a filthy stain on the body. Sex for hire ruins the chance for intimacy. It robs a person of love and commitment. It is dehumanizing. The sex for hire sin is a sin against the self. First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 19…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:19 Or DO YOU NOT KNOW that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is indwelling you (believers in Christ)…whom you have from God the Father…and that you are not your own?
Slavery and slave trafficking were huge in Corinth. People were the possessions of the wealthy. The Lord has property rights over His believers. Our entire being belongs to Christ. We are His possession. First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 20…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 6:20 For you believers in Christ have been bought with a price…therefore, glorify God in your body.
What's wrong with visiting a prostitute now and then? EVERYTHING. Anything you do to prostitute yourself to evil constitutes sex for hire. God encourages us to run from evil. We need to listen!
GOD WANTS YOU! Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life
The closing moments of our study are for the benefit of anyone who does not have a personal relationship with the Sovereign God of the Universe, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We want you to know that GOD WANTS YOU.
What do you believe about God?
Many people have beliefs about God. A belief is an opinion or a conviction or confidence in the existence of something that does not seem provable. Everything with God is provable! There is no need for blind faith with God! He reveals Himself in ways that make sense to human beings. If He didn’t, what kind of God would He be? What would make Him worthy of our worship?
Satan, the enemy of God, prefers we have beliefs because he knows there is a big difference between beliefs and truth. Only when your beliefs and the truth are the same are your beliefs significant. Satan hates the truth. Why? He can’t handle the truth!
What many people believe is that they can impress God so much that He will let them into heaven because of their good deeds and religious practices. So, they give money to beggars… they give food to the homeless…they are actively involved in community projects…they generously donate their time, talent, and treasure to charitable organizations…they "give back." You've heard the term "give back" used countless times. People who “give back” usually are convinced they are good people, impressive to God because they “give back.” Many think they are so good, that after they die God will reward them by letting them into heaven for their good deeds.
The bible tells a completely different story. Titus, Chapter 3, Verse 5…
TITUS 3:5 The Lord Jesus Christ saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in self-righteousness, but according to His mercy…by the washing of regeneration and through renewing by God the Holy Spirit…
Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verses 8 and 9…
EPHESIANS 2:8 For by God’s grace you have been saved through faith (in Christ for salvation) … and that grace and that faith and that salvation are not from the source of yourselves…it is the gift of God….
EPHESIANS 2:9 …so being saved is not as a result of your works (deeds you have done in self-righteousness) … so that no one may boast (about saving himself).
One thing you would never want is to put the burden of your salvation on your own back. So, if you can’t get into heaven from doing good deeds, what is the truth about how to get God to let you into heaven? The ONE way to get into heaven…the ONLY way to get to heaven is through the Lord Jesus Christ… John, Chapter 14, Verse 6…
JOHN 14:6 Jesus said to the doubting apostle, Thomas, “I am the way (to salvation), and I am the truth (through the Word of God), and I am the resurrection life…and no one comes to God the Father (in heaven) but through believing in Me.”
The apostle Paul describes this amazing Messiah…the Christ…in First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 3 and 4…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:3 For I (Paul) delivered to you as of first importance the gospel message I also received…that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:4 …and that He was buried…and that He was raised from the dead on the third day…according to the Scriptures…
It's wise to let God save you because once God does something, it can't be undone…and God never changes His mind. So, heed the warning in John, Chapter 3, Verse 36…
JOHN 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has the resurrection life right at that moment… but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life…instead the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.”
When we choose to believe that Jesus Christ is God, it is much more than a belief…it is the absolute truth! When we choose to believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, it’s more than a belief…it’s the absolute truth! So how can you get to heaven when you close your eyes in this life? Romans, Chapter 10, Verses 9 and 10…
ROMANS 10:9 …if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord (that He is God) … and if you believe in your heart that God the Father raised Him from the dead… you will be saved…
ROMANS 10:10 …for with the heart a person believes…resulting in the imputation of absolute righteousness by God (your admission ticket to heaven) … and with the mouth, a person confesses (admitting faith in Christ alone) resulting in salvation.
Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 31…
ACTS 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”
John, Chapter 3, Verse 17…
JOHN 3:17 For God the Father did not send God the Son (the Lord…who took on human form as Jesus Christ) into the world to judge the world…but God the Father sent God the Son into the world that the world might be saved through Him.
Take the free gift of eternal life right now! There’s no time to waste! God wants you. Why bother working for your salvation with good deeds when it’s a free gift. Let the Lord Jesus Christ’s work at the Cross “give back” to you!
SONG INTRODUCTION
Let’s close with music! One thing we know about the Lord is that He is not prejudiced. During Christ’s time on earth, members of The Jewish Race wanted nothing to do with Samaritans. In addition, the normal prejudices of the day prohibited public conversation between men and women…and especially between Jewish men and Samaritan women. Jesus had no regard for these conventions. On a day when His disciples had gone into town to purchase food, Jesus had a conversation near a well with a Samaritan woman, recorded by John in his letter, Chapter 4. Here's an excerpt from the conversation…John, Chapter 4, Verses 25 to 29…
JOHN 4:25 The Samaritan woman said to Jesus, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called The Christ) … and when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”
JOHN 4:26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He (The Jewish Messiah).”
JOHN 4:27 At this point His disciples came (back from shopping), and they were stunned that He had been speaking with a Samaritan woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or “Why do You speak with her?”
JOHN 4:28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men of the Samaritan region…
JOHN 4:29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have ever done…this is not The Christ (The Messiah), is it?”
CLOSING SONG COME SEE A MAN June Murphy
CLOSING PRAYER Let us pray...
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