Your Body Is the Lord’s

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

I Corinthians 6:19-20

Introduction:

Let us learn as much spiritual and practical wisdom as possible from the Bible doctrine of the physical body.
We must begin with the most comprehensive passage about the importance of our body (I Cor 6:12-20).
There are two false extremes regarding the body that we must avoid at all costs to be holy unto the LORD.
Roman asceticism is false humility shown by celibacy, fasts, vows of poverty, convents, monasteries, etc.
Epicureanism is a profane heresy of worshipping bodily pleasure as the Greeks and our body-cult society.
Today’s sermons will be successful, if you are instructed and convicted to glorify God more in your body.
Do not be so distracted by the interesting and exciting applications near the end to miss this important point.
Here we have holiness taught by the created, spiritual, and redeemed purposes of the bodies of saints.
Read Psalm 49 and see the folly of the wicked and their carnal lives and the sure hope of the upright.

THE LORD CREATED IT

He designed it in the beginning male and female, and you should glory in every aspect of it.
1. God formed Adam’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him (Gen 2:7).
2. God formed Eve’s body from a rib, which He took from sleeping Adam (Gen 2:20-23).
3. There is nothing shameful about the body; sin brought guilt and clothes (Gen 2:25; 3:7,21).
4. God makes differences in bodies according to His will (Gen 29:17; 39:6; 41:1-4; Dan 1:4).
5. You should appreciate every human feature, sexual feature, and individual feature of you.
6. Every snowflake is different, and not by accident, fate, or parental control (Isaiah 45:10).
He gave you DNA, which is the code contained in your cells describing your every feature.
1. This year is the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA coding for each human cell.
2. You cannot change your body very much positively, only negatively (Matthew 5:36; 6:27).
3. The nucleus of each cell contains over 30,000 multi-tasking genes, which are the genetic code for the formation of your entire physical structure, with all of its unique features.
4. Your DNA is God’s code for your individual features, characteristics, and tendencies.
5. David described God’s fantastic creation and providence in his formation (Ps 139:13-16).
Evolution is entirely an hallucination, which only faithless, man-fearing God-haters believe.
1. A child knows life, design, order, beauty, and reproduction came from a higher Cause.
2. It requires far more “faith” to believe in a big bang than to believe in an intelligent Creator.
3. The reason creation is rejected is because the world marches to the beat of a liar – Satan.
4. God has given us faith, and all we need is Genesis 1:1 and Hebrews 11:3 to have evidence.
5. We know all about man’s origin, sexes, diet, civilizations, curses, tendencies, death, etc.!
6. If evolution is true, there is no God or accountability, and the Bible is a human invention.
7. If creation is true, there is a glorious God to Whom we owe our every breath and thought, and all the ranting and raving of educated men are so much profane blither and blather.
Man is a three-part being, with a body, spirit, and soul. And he will always have all three.
1. Paul prayed that the Thessalonians would be kept spirit, soul, and body (I Thess 5:23).
2. The spirit may be our inner, self-conscious, conscientious, choosing, and loving part.
3. The body may be the house of the spirit, is actuated by the spirit, and affects the spirit.
4. The soul may be the life force combining the two into a coordinated, functioning person.
5. We are careful dividing these parts, for Scripture is not plain and Jesus does it (Heb 4:12).
6. Death is not extinction; it is simply the departure of the spirit/soul elsewhere (James 2:26).
7. The body may be our house, but it is also called by our name; it is not just a body of clay.
8. When the spirit comes back into a dead body, it revives (I Kings 17:21-22; II Chr 13:21).
9. The spirit of Jesus went to heaven at death (Luke 23:43,46), but came again into His body.
10. When Paul went to heaven, he didn’t know if he was in or out of the body (II Cor 12:2-3).
11. There is a powerful connection between the spirit and body, with both affecting each other.
  1. Psychosomatic illnesses are bodily maladies from spirit or psychological ills (Pr 17:22).
  2. The spirit can be depressed by bodily tiredness and stress (Judges 15:19; I Sam 30:12).
He also gave our bodies certain properties, or appetites, lusts, needs, responses, and functions.
1. But as the Creator, He has the right to dictate how we use those bodily properties in life.
2. He gave instructions for man to be a vegetarian; He told him to eat meat (Gen 1:29; 9:3).
3. Eating and sleeping are bodily needs, but He condemns their abuse (Luke 21:34; Pr 20:13).
4. Wine and sex are bodily pleasures, but He strictly regulates their use (Ep 5:18; I Thes 4:3).
Since He is the Creator, and we are the creatures, we must use and protect all bodies rightly.
1. Taking life from a body, murder, was condemned from the beginning (Gen 4:9-12; 9:6).
2. Taking or denying sexual pleasure are both regulated (Heb 13:4; Ex 21:10; I Cor 7:1-5).

THE LORD PRESERVES IT

He allows or rejects devilish spirits of infirmity that afflict the body (Luke 13:11; Mark 9:17).
He upholds all things by His power, and He causes all things to consist (Heb 1:3; Col 1:17).
He can put a strict limit on Satanic harm to the body, as He did in Job’s case (Job 2:4-8).
He can bring premature death, and He can extend life (I Samuel 25:38; Isaiah 38:5).
He sent Elijah in the strength of some supernatural food on a forty-day hike (I Kings 19:8).
He protected Paul’s body from a horrible shipwreck and from a viper (Acts 27:40-44; 28:3-5).
The LORD preserves both man and beast by His mighty power (Nehemiah 9:6; Psalm 36:6).

THE LORD BOUGHT IT

Sin has infected our bodies; they decay with age; and they will die, by the choice of our Father.
1. Adam could have lived forever, but he ate the fruit and died bodily in 930 years (Gen 5:5).
2. Death is not an absolute necessity, as Enoch and Elijah prove; and some saints will not die.
3. It is our Father’s choice to perfect us through faith, suffering, and death unto His kingdom.
4. Death has many good effects in a saint’s life, as it keeps us humble, sober, and believing.
5. Jesus has destroyed the power of death, which is sin; He perfects us by the event of death.
Jesus Christ died for your complete being – all three parts, or there would be no resurrection.
1. We were bought with a price, even our bodies, by the blood of Christ (I Cor 6:13,15,20).
2. He has paid the full penalty for sin, so that you will eternally be glorified in three parts.
3. He indwells your body by the Presence of His Spirit, which unites with our spirit.
4. Satan wants to indwell our bodies, but greater is He that is in you that He in the world.
5. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was sufficient to redeem all three parts of the elect.

THE LORD WILL REDEEM IT

We are still waiting for the final phase of salvation – our bodily resurrection and glorification.
1. We are waiting for the redemption and adoption of our bodies into heaven (Rom 8:23).
2. The whole creation is under the enormous weight of sin for the final day (Rom 8:16-25).
3. We are patiently and confidently waiting for this great event by faith and hope in Christ.
As Adam was the Source of our death, even so Jesus Christ is the Source of our future life.
1. Paul gloriously compares the two men, Adam and Jesus, in their roles (Romans 5:12-19).
2. And he provides further teaching on the point of representation (I Cor 15:20-23,45-50).
Paul thoroughly proves and explains the resurrection of the dead to Corinth (I Cor 15:1-58).
1. Our bodies will be changed from this corruptible, mortal state into immortal incorruption.
2. The glorified body will never die nor need physical sustenance, as we experience now.
The time is coming in which all bodies in the grave will live again (John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15).
1. The certainty of the resurrection is so sure that dying saints are just sleeping (Acts 7:60).
2. Their spirit/souls are alive and well in heaven; and their bodies will soon revive for heaven.
3. The wicked dead will be resurrected as well, so they can take their bodies with them to hell.
The soul sleep of the Russellites and Adventists, cult cousins, is a heresy of their fear of hell.
1. We know the thief was with Jesus in Paradise the day of the crucifixion (Luke 23:43).
2. We know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (II Cor 5:6-8).
3. If Jesus is Who the Bible says He is, then these blasphemers are right in fearing hell!
This is the great hope of the believer – the changing of his body unto Christ’s (Phil 3:20-21).
1. We show our faith in the resurrection of the body at baptism (Rom 6:3-5; I Cor 15:29).
2. “The dead in Christ shall rise.” But I thought they were in heaven. They need their bodies!

GLORIFY HIM WITH IT

Paul taught much about the body in a wonderfully concise lesson to Corinth (I Cor 6:12-20).
1. Saints rule all appetites, lusts, and passions for the glory of God, even allowable ones (12).
2. Saints do not allow bodily desires or needs to become binding, controlling, or ruling (12).
3. There are things indifferent, matters of liberty, such as food, yet they are also ruled (12).
4. The present relationship of food and our body will end, for God will destroy both (13).
5. But fornication is not a thing indifferent, for it is not something the body must have (13).
6. But fornication is not a thing indifferent, for it is condemned as a work of the flesh (13).
7. Fornication is forbidden, as our bodies are for the Lord, and He has saved our bodies (13).
8. The Lord is for our body: He created, preserves, redeemed, inhabits, and resurrects it (13).
9. God is not through with our bodies, as He will raise them up again by His own power (14).
10. Know ye not? Basic knowledge follows – Jesus Christ has purchased your bodies (15).
11. Know ye not? Basic knowledge follows – bodies are part of Christ’s mystical body (15).
12. It is a heinous thing to take a member of Christ and join it to a wicked, profane harlot (15).
13. Know ye not? Basic knowledge follows – sexual intercourse makes two people one (16).
14. But our spiritual union is with Jesus Christ by His Spirit and with your spirit (17).
15. Flee fornication. Some temptations you can fight; this one is only defeated by flight (18).
16. Fornication is unique in that involves a sin involving the actual body, unlike others (18).
17. If this distinction of sins is obscure to you, it was plain enough for God to inspire it (18).
18. Know ye not? Basic knowledge follows – God lives in His saints’ bodies by His Spirit (19).
19. God sent the Holy Spirit to live inside your body, so your body is not simply yours (19).
20. You do not have right or reason to use your body in any way you think; it is God’s (19).
21. Your body is not yours by lawful purchase; Jesus Christ bought it with His blood (20).
22. Therefore, we are duty bound to glorify God in both body and spirit, as they are His (20).
23. So our bodies are doubly His, for He has created us and purchased us for Himself.
Let us consider a few other places that teach us to honor and glorify God with bodies and lives.
1. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s, for He is Lord of living and dead (Rom 14:7-9).
2. Paul said he kept his body under his rule to avoid being a disgrace to God (I Cor 9:24-27).
3. God’s promises to His children are realized by those who have holy bodies (II Cor 7:1).
Abortion is child murder, one of the most horrible and atrocious crimes possible against others.
1. The moment of conception creates a three-part person, totally unique from his/her mother.
2. Moses’ law greatly protected both the pregnant women and her unborn baby (Ex 21:22-25).
3. David speaks of existing in his mother’s womb under God’s care (Ps 139:13-16; 51:5).
4. Women do not own their own bodies, let alone the independent bodies of their children.
5. Women do not have the right to do what they wish with their bodies, or their children’s.
6. Strictly, Scripturally, and practically speaking, the children belong to the father anyway.
7. See the sermon outline entitled, “Abortion: The Blood of the Innocent,” on our website.
Appearance of the body is a low priority and governed by nakedness, modesty, and humility.
1. Girls must be warned against the vanity in their nature, which is promoted by our society.
2. They should be taught to cultivate the inner beauty of a meek and quiet spirit (I Pet 3:3-4).
Baptism has great meaning, for it is a picture of our Lord’s and our own bodily resurrections.
1. Of course, Catholics and their daughters have no clue about the significance of baptism.
2. It is inseparably connected to resurrection (Rom 6:3-5; I Cor 15:29; Col 2:12; I Pet 3:21).
Burial becomes important, for we are laying the body to sleep in the ground for the resurrection and planting it in the ground for the new life that will spring from it resurrection morning.
Castration for the purpose of purifying your soul for any spiritual gain is both pagan and folly.
Circumcision is entirely a matter of liberty for New Testament saints that fathers decide.
Cleanliness may not be next to godliness, as some say; but it is still quite important to saints.
1. When Jacob worshipped the Lord, he commanded his family to wash for it (Gen 35:1-3).
2. It is interesting that the cleanest people in the world are generally the Christian nations.
Clothing should be chosen and worn to cover the body modestly for God’s greater glory.
1. A set of clean clothes for worshipping God had its precedent early (Gen 35:1-3; Ex 19:10).
2. This is totally contrary to the “casual worship” of our profane and irreverent generation.
3. We would do this with care for any earthly dignitary, how much more the King of kings.
4. Modest clothing applies both to their sex appeal and their emphasis on a flashy appearance.
5. Nakedness has been wrong since Adam and Eve sinned, which conscience begins around 5.
Communion has great meaning, for it is a memorial of the breaking of our Lord’s own body.
Cosmetic surgery is no more sinful than braces for your teeth or legs, if it enhances your body.
1. Here again, we are limited by other principles of holiness, humility, modesty, and health.
2. The Song of Solomon indicates they desired such options even in their day (S.S. 8:8-10).
Cremation is pagan honor to the devil, as the body for which Jesus Christ died is desecrated.
1. Cremation is obviously and clearly contrary to the doctrine of the body already taught here.
2. It cannot be separated from pagans historically; it is Satanic, he is Apollyon and Abaddon.
3. It is typical of our profane nation to not even consider the Scriptural view of cremation, as the pagan practices of dark nations drown our people. It should be nauseating to Christians.
4. Many practices allowed and encouraged by Christians today are pagan and devilish, as Halloween, Christmas, Easter, horoscopes, celibacy, ouija boards, the Mass, rock music, instruments in assemblies, Lent, steeples, crosses, Masons, Mormons, etc., etc.
5. Jesus Christ, the only true God, will raise all dead bodies some day. The doctrine of the resurrection is one of the very chief tenets of Christianity, which is profaned by cremation.
6. When will we get rid of the seven-day, Bible week? What do Hindus offer? Buddhists?
7. The body is the Lord’s before and after death; He died for it; He is coming back to raise it.
8. God blessed and commanded Abraham with a burial, not burning, in old age (Gen 15:15).
9. Abraham took pains to bury Sarah; Joseph chose burial in Canaan (Gen 23:1-20; 50:25).
10. God buried Moses; if He wanted to hide the body, He could have cremated (Deut 34:5-6).
11. Saul’s decapitated and defiled body was still buried properly (I Sam 31:8-13; II Sam 2:5-6), for even criminals who had been put to death were to be buried (Deuteronomy 21:22-23).
12. Women anointed Jesus’ body with costly spices, before and after He died (John 12:1-8).
13. Hindus are ultimate pagans – rejecters of the true God – and they burn their dead. They think the human body no more important than the grasshopper body they will live in next.
14. We are not to learn the way of the heathen (Lev 18:1-5; Deut 12:1-4; 12:29-32; Jer 10:1-2).
15. A vile heathen practices has been burning of people (Deut 12:29-32; Lev 18:21; Amos 2:1).
16. Burning was severe judgment (Le 20:14; 21:9; Nu 11:1; Josh 7:15,25-26; II Kgs 23:15-17).
17. Everyone else was buried, and the examples are many, as in Genesis 35:8 and Acts 5:10.
18. What about “buried with him in baptism” (Rom 6:5; Col 2:12)? Should we burn converts?
19. It doesn’t matter to God once it is done, for He is able to resurrect a burned body as well as one from the Titanic, or one eaten by an animal, or one dissolved by acid.
20. Americans did not cremate until 1876 in Washington, PA. There were 28 in 1876-1884.
21. It became popular in the last 25 years, while the nation was rushing after the Beatles (African beat and Hindu influence) and the rest of the pagan excesses of secular humanism.
22. Today Americans cremate 26%; Canada cremates 45%; England and Japan cremate 90%.
23. It was less than 10% for America in 1980 and only 3% in 1963. Rome approved it in 1961.
24. They abort the body with soul at the beginning of life; and they cremate it at the end of life.
25. It was the profane Satanists of pagan and papal Rome who burned the martyrs at the stake.
Dangerous activities that take extreme risks with your body are tempting the Lord (Matt 4:7).
1. Foolish risks like extreme mountain climbing and racing motorcycles are highly suspect.
2. In combat or other extreme activities necessary to a nation or job, the issue is different.
Drunkenness is a sinful excess of wine, which puts the temple of God in horrible straits.
1. By depressing your body’s central nervous system, you interrupt holy decision-making.
2. The Holy Spirit, Who indwells our bodies, should be the moving influence (Eph 5:18).
3. The Creator distinguishes between drinking wine, given to much wine, and given to wine.
Faith can cause you to have stricter rules than Scripture, but you cannot justify looser rules.
Fasting is to prove our sincerity in prayer; it is not to punish our bodies to earn favor with God.
Fornication, a unique sin with and against the body, is strictly condemned (I Cor 6:12-20).
1. Fornication involves a unique coupling of the body with another person (Genesis 2:24).
2. Since our bodies are members of Christ, fornication couples him with a whore (I Cor 6:15).
Funerals become less traditional and more spiritual, as we mourn the dead and see resurrection.
1. Resenting them shows a pagan and profane disposition and attitude toward the body.
2. There is nothing wrong with an open casket, as we remember the dead and their works.
3. Abraham had a funeral for his wife and mourned her passing with weeping (Gen 23:1-4).
4. The widows in Joppa had a funeral for Dorcas, who was full of good works (Acts 9:36-43).
5. David wept sore for Saul and Jonathan, one his enemy and one his friend (II Sam 1:17-27).
Holiness is the greatest resistance to the devil, who wants place in your life and in your body.
Glory of God is the supreme purpose for our existence, including how we view and use bodies.
1. Our text tells us that this includes our physical bodies (I Cor 6:12-20; 9:24-27; II Cor 7:1).
2. This applies to the most mundane and common acts of our bodies (I Cor 10:31; Col 3:17).
Gluttony is excessive eating, which is a sin. Eating for strength is commanded. See the outline.
Greek worship of the human body, anatomy, and form – the modern body cult – is dark heresy.
1. The invention and proliferation of mass marketing shows exceptional beauty as a standard.
2. The money spent on gyms, clothes, diets, makeup, nails, hair, surgery, etc. is staggering.
3. Athletes and actors make far more money than normal people with productive employment.
4. The level of frustration among young girls and aging women is a symptom of this excess.
Marriage is honorable in all noble, natural, and mutually pleasing, holy forms of lovemaking.
1. Hebrews 13:4 cannot be pressed to include any and every act any more than I Cor 6:12.
2. This is not a matter of individual taste, but a matter of natural taste of all normal humans.
3. There are acts promoted today in marriage that are contrary to nature considered any way.
4. Some women are poorly trained by prudish mothers, so they must be taught after marriage.
5. Jehovah limits sex to marriage; but He also requires it frequently (I Cor 7:1-5; Ex 21:10).
Makeup on the face is not sin, as long as it is used to create a sober and godly image to see.
1. If the Bible is silent, we do not create manmade rules to govern others in Christ’s name.
2. The Bible is not silent about women being modest in facial appearance (I Tim 2:9-10).
3. The examples in the Bible of painting the face are not impressive (II Kgs 9:30; Is 3:16-24).
Murder, taking of life from the body, is horrible sin and judged severely by God (Genesis 9:6).
1. The first murder occurred quickly in history, but God judged Cain severely (Gen 4:9-12).
2. Capital punishment is the most sane, rational, obvious, appropriate punishment possible.
3. Rejecting capital punishment indicates a profane disrespect for life, not an honor of life.
4. God requires capital punishment in nations (Gen 9:6; Ex 21:12; Lev 24:17; Rom 13:4).
5. The God of the Bible had no use for “humane” methods of death; He taught public stoning.
Neglect of the body unnecessarily is condemned by Paul as false humility and contrary to God.
1. Touch not, taste not, handle not religion is a religion of will-worship (Colossians 2:20-23).
2. God gave us richly all things to enjoy, and merciful men use them (Pr 11:17; I Tim 6:17).
3. Abstaining from marriage and meat is a lying doctrine of the devil (I Timothy 4:1-3).
4. This monastic idea of hating the body and sensual pleasure is a lie from hell and the devil.
5. Nurturing and cherishing your body is an instinct of the body approved by God (Eph 5:29).
6. Jesus ate and drank, in contrast to John, but they called Him a winebibber and glutton.
7. Rome is the mother of religious abominations; here is another example of her character.
Punishing our bodies to earn favor with God is purely pagan, Roman, wrong, and utterly futile.
1. There is no precept or precedent in the Bible to suggest earning favor with God by pain.
2. There is only one spirit that operates on the principle of pain, and that is the devil himself.
3. Cross-carrying, body-cutting, and other rites are from Baal, the Indians, and Satanists.
Sleep is something you should get some of, but not too much (Ps 127:2; Prov 6:6-11; 20:13).
Suicide is self-murder, which is taking the life of the body God gave you, which is not yours.
1. You are not your own; you have a Creator; if you are a child of God, you have a Saviour.
2. Do not fall for profane reasoning that if a person wants to die they should be able to do so.
3. You were not asked if you wanted life; you do not have the prerogative or right to end it.
4. You will meet God as a murder, and we know that no murder has eternal life (I John 3:15).
5. Only the profane and insane consider suicide, for sane men nourish and cherish (Eph 5:29).
Tattoos and other mutilations of the body are important matters, and condemned, if religious.
1. A modest, non-offensive tattoo cannot be condemned with a Bible; it is a matter of liberty.
2. Marks or cutting the flesh for religious rites are condemned (Lev 19:28; 21:5; Deut 14:1).
3. The body piercing of our generation is a sign of rebellion, not beauty or social custom.
4. Ear piercing is a modest social custom; it is no more or less an issue of liberty than tattoos.
Tobacco is a matter of liberty, unless it has power over you and becomes tempting to health.
1. There is little more evidence against tobacco than against sugar and refined carbohydrates.
2. It is highly hypocritical for 300lb gluttons to condemn 150lb smokers, but they do it often.
3. Tobacco is addictive: remember I Cor 6:12b; tobacco is offensive: remember I Cor 6:12a.
Virginity is a bodily gift from God to girls and their husbands, and it should be well preserved.
1. Every girl should be taught they are special, and they should be taught to esteem this gift.
2. Every father is responsible to preserve the virginity of his daughters (Deut 22:13-21).
Weight is something you control to show your moderation and to be as expedient as possible.
1. While bodily appearance is not a priority, moderation in eating and weight is important.
2. Spouses appreciate it; you are more efficient and energetic; and you are a better testimony.
3. Thin spouses should be merciful; fat ones should be sensitive; all should seek God’s glory.

Conclusion:

Your body is the Lord’s; Jesus created it and died for it; the Spirit inhabits it; your body is not your own.
Therefore, we are to glorify God in our bodies, and everything we do with them. Holiness in body is our goal.
We are also the Lord’s body, which is the figure the Holy Spirit chose for our full completion of Jesus Christ.

For further study:

Sermon outline: Abortion: The Blood of the Innocent
Sermon outline: Gluttony
Sermon outline: The Death of the Righteous
Sermon outline: The Resurrection Chapter