WHAT ABOUT THE BODY?

1 Cor. 6:12-20                                                    

Pastor Rick Jackson

You are not your body. You have a body. For the Christian, absent from the body will be present with the Lord. Curtis Hutson said it this way, “You are not a body with a soul. You are a soul with a body.” You are currently limited by your body and the Word of God has much to say about it. A little bit of that we will look at in this message.

I. Trapped in a Body That is:

1. Weak [Romans 6:19] 23 verses mention this word

I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

2. Sinful [Romans 7:5, 18, 25; 8:3]

For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

3. Temporal [2 Corinthians 5:1]

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

1 Cor. 15 describes this body as terrestrial, corruption, dishonour, weakness, natural, earthy, flesh and blood, corruptible, mortal. This is the body we are trapped in. But praise God, while we are trapped, we have been “tapped” by God for some wonderful things.

II. Christian’s Bodies have been Tapped for:

1. Salvation [Rm. 5:6-8, 6:23, 10:9-13]

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

2. Separation [2 Cor. 6:14-17]

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

3. Service [Rm. 12:1-2]

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

III. The Christian’s Body is to be Taken and:

1. Brought Under Control [1 Cor. 9:24-27]

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means , when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

2. Crucify the Flesh [Gal. 5: 16-24]

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

3. Cared For Appropriately [1 Timothy 4:8, 1 Cor. 9:27]

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.