 All right, well this session is called One Flesh and it is from 1 Corinthians chapter 6. We'll look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 beginning in verse 12 through the first part of chapter 7 down to about verse 5 and we're going to speak of One Flesh and so I'll read the text and then we'll get into discussing that together. So in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 beginning in verse 12 Here the Bible says all things are lawful for me But all things are not helpful All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them Now the body is not for sexual immorality But for the Lord and the Lord for the body and God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot certainly not Or do you not know that he who has joined to a harlot is one body with her for the two? He says shall become one flesh But he who has joined the Lord is one spirit with him flee sexual immorality Every sin that a man does is outside the body But he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God? And you are not your own For you were bought at a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are gods Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me. It is good for a man not to touch a woman Nevertheless because of sexual immorality let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband The husband let the husband render to his wife the affection do her and likewise also the wife to her husband The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does and likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and Come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control a spray a Father in heaven. Thank you again for your word We acknowledge that we are under the authority of your word and God we rejoice to submit to it And thank you for the power of the spirit within us God to enable us and power us to submit to it and to obey it And here again where we come upon a subject in marriage Extremely important and what we want to obey you in this because you mean all things together for our good And we acknowledge that and thank you for it So help us as we listen I pray the word that we would be convicted of sin That we would be conformed into the image of Christ that you would equip us and inform us God enable us by your spirit to live A godly Christian marriage to your glory God in Jesus name. Amen. All right One flesh here one flesh one flesh involves the guarding of your marriage the guarding of your marriage from sexual immorality sexual immorality ravages marriages it ravages an individual's life if you're not married you're single a sexual immorality is particularly enslaving and Particularly destructive it is extremely harmful. It'll kill you kill you it seeks to devour you It also kill your marriage and there are many ways in marriage that you can be sexually immoral We'll see several from this passage, but you entail when you get married You look at your spouse and you want to build if you're a genuine Christian you want to build a God Glorifying marriage marriage that honors Christ, right? And so you're you're out to build this beautiful marriage, but you have Wonderful and biblical ideals for all that that entails what it looks like to have a godly marriage You love one another you sacrifice for one another you're gonna study together and you're gonna pray together and Never again be hijacked by sexual immorality because you're married. Is that the way it works? No, no, you think I'm gonna be married and so I'll never have a problem with sexual immorality ever again It's not the way it works even in your marriage. There is a black fungus That sits in the corner in a dark corner of your marriage dark corner of your world and pretty soon that black fungus Begins growing Begins spreading Begins taking over every aspect of your little corner of the world your little marriage your little room that you're in And begin to begin to fight But it takes over The closet space and you fight and it begins to take over the left side of the room and you fight and it takes Over the lampstand and you fight and it takes over the bed and you fight and it spreads itself down the hallway Pretty soon you have black fungus all over your house all over your marriage all over you You fight and fight, but it's taking over everything you begin to battle it But you feel like you're fighting with cotton balls and toothpicks You just can't get anywhere in the battle against it and pretty soon. You are completely preoccupied in your marriage preoccupied in your life preoccupied in your spiritual life by this looming black fungus It is disgusting It plagues your thoughts It loads you down with guilt You want to get rid of it all together, but you feel almost powerless to do anything about it The difficulty is only intensified considering the fact That black fungus fertilizer is everywhere It's like people actually want to grow this stuff black fungus fertilizer is being sold everywhere you look It's on billboards. It's on tv shows. It's in the movies It's all over the magazines in the grocery store. Check out line It's being sold with everything the black fungus is everywhere you look from soft drinks to refrigerators To cars to motor oil to drain cleaner Pretty much no matter what is being sold. What is being advertiser? There's the black fungus fertilizer right there with it You think we were starved for black fungus when we're actually completely saturated with it It influences how people dress The back fungus influences how people act how they think how they work how they live how they raise their children How they spend their money and yes, how they treat their spouse Looking at this circumstance from a from an outsider's perspective You might imagine that in our world there is nothing more important to anyone anywhere than the black fungus People will fight for the black fungus. They'll change laws for it They'll sneak around to get it They'll steal cheat and lie for it They go against nature for it They risk their marriages for it. They kill their babies for it This sexual bombardment has taken its toll and sexual immorality is a serious serious problem And it is a serious problem among professing christians and a serious problem in professing christian marriages The city of corinth was a society very much like ours. They had a problem with the black fungus too A corinth was situated between two seas the adriatic and the agian sea And it was a port city and much of the trade that went through that part of the world went through corinth It was the sin city of its day A prostitution riotous living debauched lifestyles were overly common So much so that a greek word at the time corinthian corinthian adzami Meant to commit fornication You actually use the word for the city of corinth in a word that meant to commit fornication A corinthian feast was the term coined for a debauched orgy orgy A corinthian drinker was a chronic alcoholic The adjective corinthian was used for debauched behavior. That was a society that lived in it was everywhere And corinth had a serious problem with it just like we do today And paul in that environment Just like he does today commands in that environment for men and women to flee sexual immorality gives the command So he calls christians a sexual purity even while living in such a wicked environment So in other words, there is no excuse Our world is over consumed with the black fungus and that gives you no excuse For sexual sin The pledge today To maintain sexual purity in your marriage is to fight the black fungus You must be in order to fight the black fungus in your marriage. You must be one flesh If you're single that gives you no excuse. There is no excuse. I'm not married. It's more difficult for me There's no excuse for sin The lord is sovereign over that the lord empowers you the lord gives you commands and scriptures that you In the lord under the power of the holy spirit can fight And in marriage those tools are a little different But you are to fight whether you're single or you're to fight whether you're married you're to be sexually pure now There were professing believers in corinth professing believers who were attempting To deal with this problem of sexual immorality and they dealt with it in one of two ways All right, there were those believers or professed believers who were trying to Justify their sexual morality with licentiousness They argued that everything was permissible for the christian and they considered bodily appetites like eating and sex To be nothing more than biology and they fulfilled those appetites like eating food It was just a matter of indifference to them right food is for the body sex is for the body It was just a matter of biology to them and they were licentious Others in corinth at the time were legalistic or they were ascetic They had What they thought based on scripture Was an extreme commitment to abstinence or to celibacy so much so that they would argue that sex wasn't permissible under any Circumstances whether you were married or not married. You just weren't to do that It was anything dealing with the body was bad or was sinful And so here in our text today in 1 Corinthians 6 Paul deals with the licentiousness in chapter 6 and then he gets into the legalistic or the ascetic in chapter 7 And in discussing this it all hinges or pivots on verse 18 in chapter 6 where paul commands Flee sexual immorality We're going to look at ways to do that today and doing so he offers Much help for us today In your christian life, you're going to battle constantly between two ditches Either a mindset or an understanding of scripture that leads you to licentiousness Or a mindset or an understanding of scripture that leads you to legalism You've got to battle between those two ditches and flee sexual immorality So now let's look at four points from our text four points We're looking chapter 6 beginning in verse 12 and we're going to get right thinking right thinking on this issue You must know what you're fighting And why this is not mere biology Sexual purity in your marriage. There's something spiritual going on there far more than just physical far more than just biology There is a spiritual aspect of this Secondly From verses 15 to 17. We're going to get right theology It's going to introduce the thinking and then he's going to talk about the theology that leads to that thinking This battle is not about you It's not about you. Paul says it's a great mystery, but he speaks concerning christ and the church There's rich theology that can help us in the battle Point three. We're going to see part one of a right response Part one of a right response. You're to flee If you're married, you're to flee together You're married. You are one flesh and you're to fight this war together as a married couple And then point four, we're going to see part two of a right response You're to fight together One right response is to flee together. The second correct response in a marriage is to fight together Remember this if you're married, you are in this together. The two have become one flesh. All right isolation Isolation in your marriage is a relationship killer You cannot be isolated from one another in the battle in the fight. You have to do this together Nothing drives two people apart By sinning but sinning together like sinning together nothing drives two people apart like sinning together One thing you don't want to do is sin together by being apart You're going to fight this together and you must leave and cleave and become one in this error in this effort All right, let's take a look at right thinking right thinking is going to come to us from chapter six beginning in verse 12 Paul says here all things are lawful for me But all things are not helpful All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any Foods for the stomach stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them Another body is not for sexual immorality But for the Lord and the Lord for the body and God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power So let's take that first phrase in verse 12 all things are lawful for me But all things are not helpful the first part of this was thought to be a slogan in Corinth They began to believe that because I'm a Christian well, the law doesn't apply to me I'm no longer under the law. Does it sound familiar? Is it not like today? We find the same stuff today, right? I'm no longer under the law. I'm under grace. And so all things are lawful for me The the bible speaks of freedom that we have in christ glacians 5 talks about that We have liberty in christ and so this group of licentious libertines in corinth We're taking that to mean they could do anything they wanted to they wanted to run off up the hill to the pagan temple and sleep with pagan prostitute You know temple worshipers they could If they wanted to engage in sexual immorality, they could of course is just biology is just the body and they had it wrong Galatians 5 1 says this stand fast therefore in the liberty by which christ has made us free And do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage people then Just like people today twist passages like this to give them an excuse for sin But in the very same chapter paul says in glacians 5 beginning in verse 16 Paul says I say then walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh For the flesh lust against the spirit the spirit against the flesh And these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you want There are going to be things that you want to do But if you have the spirit of god in you the spirit of god wrestles fights Against the as paul says in roman 7 the law that is in your members Because the two are contrary to one another and you're not going to be able to do the things that you want to do He says in verse 18 if you are led by the spirit You are not under the law Now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery fornication Uncleanness lewdness all for those words dealing with sexual immorality Idolatry sexual immorality is idolatry Sorcery hatred contentions jealousies outbursts of wrath Selfish ambitions dissensions heresies envy murders drunkenness revelries and the like Of which I tell you beforehand just as I also told you in time pass That those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of god When the bible speaks of the Freedom that we have in christ, it's always the freedom from trying to earn salvation by works of the law And it's freedom from the enslavement of sin to live for christ and not sin So freedom is not a freedom to do anything you want because you're not under law But under grace it's a freedom to not sin It's a freedom that we are under grace. We don't have to work our way to heaven And in it in essence Galatians 5 when it's talking about how if you are led by the spirit You're not going to be constrained or pulled or enslaved by the flesh It's basically saying welcome to the war The christian life the christian marriage is a battle It is a battle when christ or when paul says and when you come to christ The spirit and the flesh are contrary to one another so that you cannot do the things that you what Want or wish it's a battle You're not going to be able to do the things that you want to do paul qualifies a statement in verse 12 when he says But all things are not helpful all things are lawful for me But all things are not helpful And there is a principle in our members that wars against the principle in our mind And that law that principle in our members that Fleshly tug pull towards sexual immorality wants to enslave you It wants to enslave you bring you into captivity Sin is never helpful It is always destructive whether it's public sin Or your own pet private sin you believe it to be private. It is devastating. It is destructive It is particularly destructive when it's sexual sin God's grace is free But the cost of sin is impossibly high It is destructive think about david and his lust If you read your bible and you know that story you see sin upon consequence upon consequence upon consequence upon consequence sin breeding sin breeding sin breeding sin, right Think about the the lust of israel In committing sexual immorality, and I think it's first granteans 10 that talks about how there were 23 000 that were killed in one day Because of israel's lust israel's sexual immorality Think about the marriages the families the churches that have all been destroyed By sexual sin and sexual sin will destroy your marriage as well if you Have that Attitude like we had before that divorce is not an option Then it's going to destroy the joy and marital bliss that is possible in your marriage and you'll be miserable It'll destroy your marriage The paul completes verse 12 by stating that all things are lawful for me, but he makes this statement He says i'll not be brought under the power of any Sexual sin again is particularly Enslaving bringing you under its power the more that you have your foot on that slippery slope And the more that you slide down the slope the more enslaved to it you become The more you indulge your flesh with it The more it controls you Sexual sin sits at the door and its desire is to have you and you'll feel this pull Towards sexual temptation throughout your marriage And some of you here this morning now are enslaved You've been controlled by it You are under the power of enslaving impulses You're not a master of your own desires. You're enslaved to them and today needs to be your independence day Today needs to be your independence day. You need to free by the power of the spirit Free yourself from these enslaving temptations Free your marriage from your own fleshly impulses This needs to be your independence day a paul wraps up this thought process here In verses 13 and 14 This is not simply biology that we're dealing with here It's it's not like our appetite for food Food was made for the stomach and god is going to do away with Both of them that whole process is going away But there were those that were using this physical temporary process to justify their sexual sin This is not The case with the body the body is to be a vessel for god's use Verse 12 13 and 14 And the body is to be a vessel for god's glory And the body is designed not only to be used in this life, but in the next Your body will be used in the life to come. Let's support these points Now these are the main points that he's making for right thinking in verses 12 through 14 Let's support these now with right theology from verses 15 to 17 and verse 15 The bible says this do you not know That your bodies are members of christ Shall I then take the members of christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot Is one body with her For the two he says shall become one flesh But he was joined to the lord as one spirit with him Again, something more than just biology is going on. This is a spiritual union. You're fighting a Spiritual war when you're fighting against sexual immorality And you're fighting more than biology more than just impulses You need to understand them that upfront. This is not a just not just about self-control It's not just about self-discipline Gritting it out in your own power in your own energy This is a spiritual war that you're fighting and there are there are two unions mentioned here There's a union between the christian and christ And then there's the union alluded to here between a man and a woman in a sexual relationship and their marriage the two shall become One flesh Now the first union follows logically from verse 13 that the body Belongs to the lord. You're when you become a christian You are entered into union with christ. You're baptized into christ You become one with christ and one with christ body And here we are all members of christ if you're in christ We know this from romans 12, right when we are though many we are one body We know that from romans 12 from first corinthians 12 And he follows in verse 17 With this glorious truth that we are one spirit With him so again something more than just physical here. This is a spiritual battle you're facing um, so then to take a member of christ's body And to make them members of a harlot Is especially grievous to god This is not just physical There's something spiritual going on here. This is extremely grievous to god for a christian To engage in sexual immorality Engages the lord It profanes the name of the lord again not in a way that Personally corrupts christ with your sin again back to that old that analogy that No more than a sunbeam that shines on a garbage dump is corrupted by it But his name is profane. He's blasphemed because of the association In that sense it is a horrifying notion to paul that you would take your members Connect them to a harlot and he responds never May it never be Right the second union here beginning in verse 15 involves the union between a man and a woman in marriage The most obvious understanding of this union is physical The bible says in genesis 224 it describes that they will become one flesh However, there's more than just the physical in mind here again more than just biology paul says in ephesians chapter 5 That christ nourishes and cherishes his body the church Because we are of his flesh And of his bones You're not only to leave your father and mother cleave to your wife and become one flesh with her But when you leave this wicked world leave your own sin behind to follow christ by faith You become of his flesh and of his bones. You become one with christ And this mystery When christ says that this mystery has everything to do with christ and his bride the church A mystery usually refers to something that was hidden in the old testament Now revealed not mysterious any longer in the new testament And here it is that marriage Is god designed And is god designed as a reflection of the glorious union between christ and his church So this one fleshness you've got to see goes more beyond just the physical This is referring to the connection between husband and wife This is the flesh and bones cementing of husband and wife This is the god authored love and commitment To one another as husband and wife This is the cherishing and nourishing attachment of husband and wife together There is a permanence here to their unity This is referring to the peace the comfort the security of our union with our husband or wife And this is the purifying and sanctifying love that we're to show each other in our union together And this is the in the carrying out of god ordained roles marriage Is to be a sacred and beautiful picture of the union that christ has with his body the church It's to be a visual expression of that a visual demonstration of the love that christ has for his church You are not your own so you're to glorify god in your body I think about that we mentioned this already in the in the first session You think about it then marriage again is not about you It's about the glory of god It has aspects of help for you, but ultimately it's about the glory of god. It is a living Breathing organic display of the gospel of the relationship between christ and the church It's to be a glorious monument a testimony A sacred tribute if you will the bible begins with a marriage and ends with a marriage marriage is transcendent All right for that reason We need to understand our marriages. This is something that satan particularly hates Particularly hates because they hate the gospel they hate everything that the gospel represents And so they're gonna hate your marriage and they're gonna hate the union that you have with your husband or wife in marriage So behind all of this you've got Satan and his minions attacking They watch they see what turns your head They see what interests you and what you look at They sit behind the scenes seeking to make you fall Waiting for opportunity. They're in control of the world system and so they Very intentionally and very practically put things in place to make you trip to make you stumble They sit behind the scenes and they want to have that happen They want to destroy your marriage because your marriage is a picture of christ and the church They hate that so to fight Our corrupt understanding of all this the struggle. This is exactly what the serpent offered adam and even the garden He offered them in knowledge of good and evil offered them this struggle It's not just about you. It's not just about biology and it's not just about physical impulses Ephesians 6 verse 12 says this We do not wrestle against flesh and blood But against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age Against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places So you ever wonder where the battle for marriage in our country fits into the spiritual picture into the spiritual perspective Tie christ to a harlot Tie him to everything which is unnatural That's why sodomy is not just like every other sin It's unnatural and it ties supposedly christ to something that is unnatural. Remember our black fungus Satan has invested a tremendous amount of energy Into spreading the killer and spreading the fertilizer and it's really that difficult In our society, is it really that difficult to identify a main front in that battle? Main front really is sexual immorality often in our society. It is everywhere and it's constant They infiltrate your environment more and more invasive ways They infiltrate your marriage more and more invasive ways God creates something good like technology and then satan twists it and corrupts it to invade your christian life to invade your marriage with temptation They use every means that is available to them That's why right now Because you sit together and think about this issue of sexual immorality that you have to learn to fight together That you have to fight you have to flee you have to fight and you have to fight and flee together Russell Moore said this he said that um, you must understand that marriage takes place on a spiritual battlefield Far more than it does on a romantic balcony It's not a romantic balcony. This is a spiritual battlefield. This is not a sappy sentimentalized love story This is not the sentimentalized tv Or movie love affair makes everything look good Right makes everything look promising gives you promise of everything you think you don't have in your marriage and entices you to gulp down the hook It's not the high school butterflies with no responsibility. No accountability It's not even about how good-looking you are how fat or skinny tall or short You think to yourself. I look at myself in the mirror every day. Nobody is interested And then satan comes along with a deception Invading your marriage the battlefield that you're fighting on is littered with casualties Littered with casualties think about all those the carnage of all those that have fallen And satan seeks to tear to shreds everything that you stand for in christ tear it to shreds A faithful husband a faithful wife are people Who are fighting together To put to death the deeds of the body Not only as individuals but as a couple You Men are a warrior prince Your wife is a warrior princess Both fighting for christ and your marriage So how do you fight point three? Versus 18 to 20 Paul says in verse 18 flee sexual Immorality every sin that a man does is outside the body But he commit who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit who is in you Whom you have from god and you are not your own For you were bought at a price therefore glorify god in your body and in your spirit, which are gods Filled with exhortation and then here too theological explanation First thing you have to do is you have to know how to fight. You have to know how to fight First Thessalonians chapter four verse three says this This is the will of god your sanctification that you should abstain from sexual immorality That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor You should know how to possess your own vessel Not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know god That no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this manner Because the lord is the avenger of all such as we also forewarned you and testified God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but god who has also given us his holy spirit Paul says in first Corinthians 9 that he buffets his body. He disciplines his body and brings it into subjection So the first battle strategy we see in verse 18 is to flee Is to flee the word there for flee the verb is a Continuous way of life a continuous fleeing a constant fleeing you keep fleeing until the danger is passed And when is the danger passed? Never never you just keep fleeing you keep fleeing You never as soon as you think there's the moment of temptation is gone There's another deadly trap laid right you keep fleeing your body is the temple of the holy spirit Therefore committing sexual immorality is like doing the act in church Your body is the temple of the holy spirit God wants dwelt in the garden Then he dwelt in the tabernacle then he dwelt in the temple and he dwells in you Your body is a temple of the holy spirit The Corinthians think about this for a moment the Corinthians had been running off to the to the pagan temple after temple prostitutes And here much worse the professing christian performs the act in the temple of the holy spirit his own body Or which is worse The the Corinthian running off to the pagan temple We no longer as Christians belong to ourselves first Peter chapter one says this knowing that you are not redeemed with Corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers But with the precious blood of christ as of a land without blemish and without spot therefore again glorify your glorify god in your body and in your spirit and flee Sexual immorality one you've got to flee every single instance of it swim upstream Know yourself know yourself Sit down and understand how to possess your own vessel where your weaknesses are where your vulnerabilities are Go all the way upstream and find out where all of that begins Get to the source and that's where you need to start fleeing If it is a simple glance at the magazine then start the battle there You don't give into that temptation if it's the billboard that you pass every day going to work Take another direction to work If it's the computer do what you have to do to fight the digital harlot at every single point along the way Find out where that begins and start fleeing there You've got to swim all the way upstream and know yourself and your vulnerabilities This is not a sappy love story. I love this not original And where I heard this but this is not a sappy love movie. This is not a chick flick This is a werewolf movie A werewolf movie. What do they do with werewolves? Listen, I know the full moon is coming And before this happens to me as soon as there is any indication whatsoever There is a full moon rising. We know it's coming And so chain me in the basement and don't let me out until the full moon is passed Right. This is a werewolf movie not a sappy love story Find out where your vulnerabilities are you fight and flee together with your spouse. Listen You need to tell your wife where your vulnerabilities are Men don't get threatened by this. You need to understand your wife also struggles Lives you need to tell your husbands where your vulnerabilities are and fight and flee together Chain yourself in the basement if necessary until you can turn back into a reasonably thinking christian man or woman Instead of the werewolf that you've become This is exactly what it means to deny yourself, right? Take up your cross. You deny yourself Once you compromise even a little Once you compromise even a little Then the world the flesh and the devil will make sure you get exactly what you want They will set out for you to have exactly what you want and down you go Devastating your conscience all the way down Making wreckage of your life wreckage of your marriage Flee every single instance every little Detail know Yourself possess your own vessel to flee with your wife or with your husband flee together wives Wage war as a warrior princess wage war with demons here And fight with your husband for christ and for your marriage You being the warrior princess need to understand and not be offended Not be threatened by the fact that your husband struggles in this area You're fighting a war and you either husbands. Don't be threatened that your wife has these difficulties your husband women Your husband will have Attractions toward other women If he says anything different he is a liar And go back to mark's sermon on communication and don't lie to one another in this Wives don't be threatened. It doesn't mean that he doesn't love you. It doesn't mean that you are inferior Poor contempt on your ego and help him fight When he comes and he says to you that he is weak Or he feels vulnerable in this area feels vulnerable to sexual temptation What are you saying is that he loves you? He wants you and he wants his marriage to be great. Please help me fight in this area. That's what he's communicating to you Sin and temptation here in the marriage cannot remain hidden. That's one of satan's devices is to keep it secret that you don't communicate with your spouse and so Satan wants you to keep it secret because in keeping it secret keeping your sin hidden You're more and more vulnerable to that sin more and more vulnerable temptation to temptation. You've got to fight together Secrecy keeps you enslaved Proverbs says that it is the bread that is eaten in secret that is sweet It is particularly enslaving So get it out of the open It's the forbidden love thing right Get it out of the open You and your wife you and your husband need to leave here at some point today And go home and talk openly about this subject Get it on the table confess your sin Confess where you are vulnerable and weak Talk openly about temptation It cannot remain hidden. It's got to come out of the dark You've got to break the silence and break the secrecy You need to pray about it together talk about it openly together Help one another openly with it together and there must be openness about this in order to effectively handle it The longer that you think you can deceive yourself by keeping it hidden and fight this thing on your own Is the longer that you will remain in battle and enslaved over it You've got to talk openly about it isolation Is a subtle killer Of your marriage Don't keep Trying to do this in isolation from your husband in isolation from your wife Flee every instance flee with your spouse next flee to christ Let the word of christ dwell in you richly Flee to the promises of god the strength of god the enablement of god Remember this is not a battle with flesh and blood If you were battling only with flesh and blood then it would only entail weapons of flesh and blood And you could battle with flesh and blood weapons But you need spiritual weapons mighty in god for pulling down strongholds. There's a really good book I want to recommend to you. It's finally free by heath lambart. It specifically deals with the sin of pornography But it gives principles that broadly apply to sexual immorality and the table of contents in that book reads like this grace As a foundation in the fight using sorrow To fight using accountability to fight all biblically explained using confession to fight Using your spouse or your singleness to fight Using humility to fight using gratitude to fight all spiritual biblically grounded Weapons of your warfare to fight sexual immorality You can't fight the black fungus with a spork You need weapons mighty in god for pulling down strongholds You need holiness producing desire transforming heart changing hope cultivating spirit enabling god glorifying weapons of sin destruction Thanks, brother You can't fight the black fungus with a spork. It's even better when you have all of those weapons In both hands in the hands of your wife and in the hands of the husband Both fighting that way All right, flee every instance flee with your spouse flee to christ. Next. Let's look at right response part two beginning in chapter seven right response part two Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me paul says it is good for a man not to touch a woman Nevertheless because of sexual immorality let each man have his own wife Let each woman have her own husband Let the husband render to his wife the affection do her and likewise also the wife to her husband The wife does not have authority over her own body But the husband does and likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time that you may give yourselves Excuse me to fasting and prayer And come together again so that satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self control Here in response now paul is going to take on the Legalists or the aesthetics those that think you should avoid sexual intimacy All together in verse one and two paul's saying that celibacy inside of marriage is not good Celibacy inside of marriage is not good if you've been abstaining from sexual intimacy intimacy. It's not good It's not good if someone has been given the gift of singleness That's one thing but that is simply not the case if you are married If you are married That's not the case and celibacy or abstinence in your marriage is not good Not to be practiced if you are married in verses two and three here You are not to deprive your spouse Intimacy in marriage is obligatory It's a duty that you are to render it is a Service due a payment due in all the good ways that lordin sends that And it's for the purpose in verse five That you do not deprive one another you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer come together again For the reason that satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self control So paul gives a command in verse five Do not deprive one another in your marriage of sexual intimacy Now this is god's wisdom not your wisdom This is god's wisdom not your worldly reasoning And so if you think i'm fine the way things are and if we only have intimacy once every Eight months that's perfectly okay with me That is your reasoning not god's reasoning God's reasoning says that celibacy is not good in your marriage. You are not to deprive one another you are to come together Because satan will tempt you because of your lack of self control There's all kinds of difficulty all kinds of temptation that arise in a marriage when Husband and wife are celibate with each other When you're not regularly rendering to your spouse that which is do her um simply not the case if you're marriage if you're married you must View intimacy as something that you're owed that you owe your spouse don't deprive one another Marriage in light of that now marriage cannot be reduced To nothing more than being an escape valve for your sexual impulses And your wife cannot feel as though that that's all it is to you men However, it is an outlet and a protection and Among the many reasons that god provides for marriage don't deprive your your spouse All this cannot be an excuse for sexual sin Men you can't your wife use your wife in that way to gratify sinful sexual impulses Acting out pornographic images or acting out Scenes from your past or memories You are for each other in this And it seems somewhat in uh verse four In verse four chapter seven verse four You have what some have called an elegant paradox The wife does not have authority over her own body But the husband does and likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body But the wife does the at issue here in this verse is the word power authority The authority that's being spoken about You have in marriage the custom if you will Of the father giving away the daughter to Her new husband and is giving away. She is giving the daughter to her bridegroom to be his Here in verse four this giving this authority when it comes to sexual intimacy is twofold is mutual Everything here is given mutually each one has authority Wife has authority over the husband's body husband has authority over the wife's body And in the context of this letter it would mean this men As the Corinthians you don't have the right To traipse off to the idol temple and sleep with temple prostitutes Whether that's a digital prostitute a mental prostitute Or merely a physical self selfish indulgence you have an obligation To your wife None of that is allowable Because you don't have authority over your own body to do with your own body as you wish your wife does So you can't use your body in that way your wife is to It belongs to the lord verse 13 in chapter 6 and to your wife Specifically again in chapter 7 ladies You don't have the right to be celibate in marriage or ascetics Anger is not an excuse selfishness is not an excuse You're not to use sex as a bargaining chip Or withhold it as a weapon you have an obligation to your husband Your body is not your own to do with as you please it belongs to the lord and belongs to your husband Husbands you don't have the right to abuse your wives or to force her Anything in any relate relationship to that to make her do things. She doesn't want to Because your body is not your own And you cannot use it as you will without her consent You begin to see the paradox here many times I've heard this taught as man You can do whatever you want to because that's your her body See that chair there you have the right to sit in it and it's explained that way That's not what this text is saying man You don't have a right to your own sexual immorality because your body doesn't belong to you It belongs to the lord and to your wife women You don't have a right to sexual immorality because your body doesn't belong to you It belongs to the lord and to your husband Men the paradox here you can't do whatever you want to do with your wife because Without her consent because your body doesn't belong to you in that sense You don't have authority to use your body as you want to because your wife does Likewise with women There is such here a mutual authority There's a mutual love a mutual respect in line with what we know the scripture teaches the scripture clearly teaches Look out for each other and esteem her esteem him more than yourself esteem others more highly than yourself And one way it's been suggested Is that the wife does not have exclusive rights over her body The husband does not have exclusive rights over his body either way that you look at it follow this guideline for verse four here The equality in authority here Results from a person Limiting their freedom for their partner Not the partner exercising a right Over the spouse does that make sense? You're limiting their your freedom on behalf of your partner It's not the partner exercising a right over the spouse the notion of rights really in scripture is sort of foreign To all that we see in scripture you are undeserving of any grace You're undeserving of anything that you have And so it's always rights or freedoms or liberties that are limited For the benefit of another rather than enforced for the benefit of yourself For that reason wife Limit your rights limit your so-called liberties and render to your husband what is due Husbands that's that's given as a responsibility to the wife Not to the husband to enforce that you understand the difference Husbands you limit your right you limit your right over your own body You limit the freedoms that you have with your own body Really don't have any freedoms in christ to do whatever you want to your body is the lords and your wife You limit your own freedoms for the benefit esteem of your wife. You are for Your wife you're not there to gratify your own selfish indulgences You're not there to gratify your own sinful impulses You're for your wife in that sense intimacy Become something that you do for the benefit of your spouse Women need to take that responsibility and to do that for your husband in helping him fight sexual immorality Men you must render that which is due to your wife to help your wife Fight the battle against sexual immorality in the marriage It's for the benefit of your spouse I've heard it just explained many times. I don't want to correct that that this is Something that men force on wives Because they struggle Sexual intimacy is for the other person You are to give that which is due to your husband give that which is due to your wife You're not to force that on your wife force that on your husband It is a give you see the difference between the two One is grace and graciousness and love and tender loving care and kindness and the other isn't And this helps us to battle And it's in accord with chapter seven Where you're to render To one another the affection do one another. It's a god glorifying rendering, right? All of that to say you have to fight with your spouse and doing that Say what you want to say and think what you want to think Again, it's worldly reasoning and your own imagination your own thought process That you succumb to That fools you into thinking that you can have a sexually pure marriage And be celibate or be separate from one another You have to fight with one another You have to flee with one another one of the weapons that is strong and mighty in god for pulling down strongholds is to Render to one another what is due? These are things that god commands in a marriage to to help you. Um, it's interesting to me, you know, you you council couples or talk to people and um Much of it to mark's point comes to communication. There's a big tremendous part of counseling in a marriage that Is about this um There's just no affection there. There's just no Tender love physical affection physical love and so you can almost ask the question. Well, then how long have you been involved in pornography? Because the two things almost always go together If you're having intimacy issues or you're having temptation issues in a marriage Well, then how long has it been since you and your wife were faithfully involved in intimacy together in the marriage And you can find out in a matter of seconds Exactly where the problem is And it's often you know frustrating because you you've got these weapons these tools at your disposal That are graces from god and we don't avail ourselves of them because we're too prideful. We don't talk about it with one another um, you don't Work together to make sure that these things happen And so right now in your home page you write those things down If that's the case with you and your spouse, then you've got to fix that because listen you cannot presume to believe that everything is okay If you're not following god's program here god's design then there is a problem And that problem will cause difficulty cause sin In your marriage and it'll cause sexually immoral sin Cause sin with sexual immorality So to wrap this up It requires each spouse to understand the other's needs the other's needs and to humble themselves to help Each spouse has got to do that. This is not an individual sin issue Married or not. It doesn't involve only you. This is not just a relationship issue. This is a spiritual warfare issue Many here today that need to begin this warfare in earnest And the way to begin that in earnest is to bring it out of the dark Uh to come out of hiding Satan in this world would love for you to continue hiding your sin And they know that if you keep it hidden they can win Confess between one another the challenges that you have And your sin talk to your spouse today about these things and resolve to wage war together today often We have the misconception that because a sin is past That it's over And it's not the case Many people carry this sin in their marriage for a very long sustained amount of time And you wonder why your marriage feels dead Why there's no Mutual interest in your relationship for one another Where all the difficulty and the strife and the contention come from very well mean mean that you are harboring sin Unrepentant of over a long period of time You think that it's okay because it's long past and it's still wreaking havoc in your marriage You need to confess to your husband confess to your wife confess to the lord Turn from sin and wage war together today. It may be old memories It may be old fantasies. It may be your preoccupation right now with pornography Any number of ways that you can sin sexually against god and against your spouse gotta deal with that and repent today A satan really only has two weapons that he can use against you one If you're a christian if you're a christian one, we've to subtly shift Just move your eyesight either to the left or the right away from that Which god made for your good intends for your good and created for his glory And just to get you to corrupt or to twist that which god intended for good The other is to assault or accuse the brethren Romans 12 just to simply assault or accuse you You sin in this way and you're right back in the bushes with adam and eve Hiding from god hiding from your spouse sinning in secret You need to get out of the bushes Take the warfare out of the bushes Confess it openly fight openly work on it openly You must come out of hiding on this and use the weapons that the lord has given you amen This will wreak havoc in your marriage Sexual immorality sexual sin if you're single wreak havoc on your single life This has to be dealt with and if you're single Confess to a brother get an accountability partner get help Um submit yourself to the word of god in all of these things and wage war Um got a wage war in our marriages. So again, don't be deceived by worldly or faulty reasonings of what marriages to look like in this respect You know, it's the old excuse the older you get the less important that becomes There's worldly reasoning This is serious business and there it will reap consequences if you're not obeying the lord in this, okay? Let's pray A father in heaven God, I pray just in taking a look at this passage that we would recognize You are infinitely wise And that you know what is best Your word is true And that we just need to humble ourselves and obey you in these things Um, what do we need to humble ourselves to our spouse? So that we can fight these battles together Need to humble ourselves to you and repent of sin Turn to you in faith and trust you that you've given us the weapons that are mighty in god for pulling down strongholds God and to confess to one another And god to have marriages in this sense Following your commands here that are glorifying to you So lord, we acknowledge that your word is true and right That you are good and gracious and that we Although underserving god have your word you lord that we can trust in and depend on And having marriages that are healthy that are god glorifying in this. There's just so much Attemptation to sexual immorality So many ways that sexual immorality Devastates our day-to-day lives devastates our marriages. It's not unlike it was in Corinth and uh paul's time Lord, we recognize that we need even more today to to fight and to fend off this gross Black fungus that seeks to devour and to follow you in faith and just to obey you in these things for your glory god and for the The right testimony and a christian marriage and for cultivating all those joys and Blissful realities of what it means to be married in christ. So thank you lord in jesus name. Amen